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cp67official · 1 year

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SEVEN THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING OFFICE SPACE

As an employee or the CEO or the brand manager or if you are a part of the corporate world in any way, you tend to spend most of your time at your office; and if that space does not contribute to you being productive and efficient, then what’s the point of having one? Your work space really influences your performance when you not only want to be productive but also creative. And who does not want to create an impeccable first impression in front of their clients or employees even? The environment that you work in plays a significant role in creating your company’s image and your work identity too. Your employees too need to focus, collaborate, learn and socialize and the environment they work in affects them all. They cannot flexibly work at a place where they are not comfortable and the work space does not go with the quality of their work.

In order to avoid the simplest mistakes while looking for a work space, here are few things you need to keep in my mind before you began your search because you know, every little thing matters.

1. The Site

The location of your office should be prioritized at the first place because this one factor influences the others in a noteworthy way. If suppose the locality of your office is in some remote areas of a city, it will be problematic to both your employees and those who wish to collaborate with your company. So, it should be easily accessible to your employees and your clients too. Make sure the amenities like café or restaurants are located nearby to your office where you, your staff or your clients can go for official get-togethers or even a lunch.

2. The Size

The size of your company also matters because you do not want to cram your staff in a tiny space with no room to breathe and also do not want to scatter your people around and spend extra on rent and accommodation. The meeting room should be separate and there must also be a rest room. Going further according to your budget should be important but if you plan the interior properly and with professional help, your work space can look well decorated and appropriate. Different cabins, number of desks, canteen area, meeting area, everything should be kept in mind before you choose a place.

3. Infrastructure

When looking for a space where you have to be most productive, you need to make sure that your employees are provided with all the facilities they look for. Uninterrupted Wi-Fi connections, poor network or leaky pipes may lead to wastage of time which was intended for work. Lack of resources can be one of the reasons why your company is lagging behind and is the manifestation of disinterest of the employees. Consider all the factors like which phone’s network works best in your area and also ensure the other modes of communication are active.

4. Additional Costs

Apart from the rent of the office, there are other hidden costs that you need to take care of. Wi-Fi costs, expenditure on furniture, seats, computers, printers and other relocation costs (which might occur in future) should be done according to a fixed budget. The last thing you would want for your company is downsizing and cutting off on basic necessities and amenities for your working staff. It’s better to ask for all type of expenditure in the beginning so you don’t have to suffer later.

5. Parking Area

Sufficient place for parking vehicles is a must have for you and your employees. Since everybody prefers their own vehicle for conveyance, the least they should be provided with is a sufficient place for parking. It will also create a pleasant impression on your clients when they would visit your office. For instance, an office space for rent in Mohali provides enough parking space which avoid hassles faced by the employees at the very beginning of their day at work.

6. The Layout

Of course, the size of the office shouldn’t be too small or too big to accommodate all the staff but the layout of the office should be such that, that is provides maximum productivity and one ongoing work process doesn’t affect the other. A well-planned task-oriented work place can be very helpful in achieving the targeted goals. Employees need distinct areas so that they can create boundaries and expectations within that space. The more conducive a space is to multiple use, the more efficient your employees tend to be.

7. Analyse and Take Your Time

Every company has its own way of working and running the tasks through. You should keep in the mind the basic work function on which your company runs. If the work you produce needs more interaction within the employees, the sitting arrangement should be set in that particular way that it makes easier to work. However, at times, employees and the staff might need different areas to work on different things which should not be compromised upon. Similarly, there would be other things that will be most influenced by the work space you choose. For instance, cp67 which is a commercial property, provides well designed space for offices and are quite flexible with all the amenities and facilities.

Conclusion Choosing your ideal office space is not an easy task, with so many things to take care of, it can be sometimes daunting too. But with above mentioned steps, one can easily look forward to finding what they actually want. The work space that you choose and eventually design should encourage your employees to look forward to come to office on a daily basis and stay cheerful throughout the day. Your organization should flourish and succeed in each and every way; and the first step to achieve that is choosing a suitable and ideal work space that benefits your present as well the coming future.

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qpccraftspot · 2 years

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How Should You Choose Pest Control In Dubai?

Life in Dubai is as vibrant as it seems in the photos that you see over the internet. It is a thriving city that gives endless opportunities and amuses with its man-made marvels. It is a true wonder that bemuses you with rich infrastructure and exuberance.

But even in the most developed cities, you find pests that make your living difficult. And that is why you need to find the most reliable pest control Dubai. Quality Pest Control has been making pest control services more fruitful and long-lasting for the people here.

We give you all-engulfing solutions that help you get rid of cockroaches, mosquitoes, bed bugs, rodents, termites, and more. Moreover, all our services have all the merits you look for:-

Municipality Approved

Non-Corrosive Products

Odorless

Eco-Friendly

Integrated Pest Management

Guaranteed Results

And besides usual, we also take our innovation ahead and make our services more adaptable. Our experts always try to develop new preventive solutions and we get our supplies of pesticides from the most reliable providers. While eliminating the insects from your house, we make sure that it remains nurturing for you and your family.

Why should you choose us for pest control in Dubai?

We avoid the massive use of chemicals

There are many pest control services in the town that use excessive amounts of chemicals and expose you to great perils. At QPC, we prioritize our customers’ health and therefore, take only the required amount of chemicals ensuring that the solution remains effective for good. With us, you ensure that your family’s health is in good hands.

We’re always ahead on the innovation front

Our experts are always keen on giving you the best that the technology has to offer. We consistently try to keep our customers ahead and give them the best thing. From the equipment to the method of sprinkling solutions, we keep innovating on every front. Our efforts yield the best outcomes in the field and enable our customers to be savvy and salubrious.

We give you overarching solutions

Our services include residential pest control, commercial pest control, disinfection, sanitation, fumigation, anti-termite solutions, cockroach control, rodent control, ant control, fly control, and bed bug control. So no matter what problem you face, you the solution from us. We give you effective protection from all types of bugs we can come across in your home.

We provide cost-effective services

While bringing the best of technology, we also focus on giving you affordable services. We make certain every single family and business in Dubai could go pest-free. We make our services accessible to the ex-pat community as well and ensure a safe living for everyone.

With QPC, pest control Dubai becomes fulfilling, potent and healthy for everyone. We give you the most effective solutions that keep the bugs at bay for a very long time. With us, you are able to embrace the most effective solutions that make your living better and healthier. We make it possible with innovation and the pursuit of excellence.

#Pest Control Services #Pest Control in Sharjah #Pest Control Sharjah Price

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felassan · 3 years

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DA4 Lead Producer Scylla Costa’s BIG Festival talk, “Challenges of Dragon Age production during the pandemic”, can currently be rewatched on YouTube here starting roughly at timestamp 8:57:02 after a lil presenter blurb/intro. It’s 1 hour long. When it was streamed live, there was an English translation ‘voiceover’. There isn’t in this vid, however I want to post the link for Portuguese speakers, and also it’s neat for everyone to be able to see all the slides he presented with for themselves in context.

I don’t know if an English-language version will get put up so I’m sharing the notes I took during the talk below, in case anyone’s interested and because I might as well since I wrote them. The rest of this post is under a cut due to length.

Edit: Found a place to re-watch the English version of the talk

(Quick note: I didn’t note down everything, mostly things that caught my interest, so this isn’t exhaustive, and when I was watching I was real tired, so pls bear that in mind and don’t take these notes as bullet-proof 100% accurate gospel or direct quotes. If you watched it and think I’ve written down something wrong/misunderstood, let me know and I’ll fix. Also if you’re a Portuguese speaker and I’ve gotten something incorrect or missed something important etc, again just let me know.) **

** Edit: I’ve now gone through my notes while watching the talk again. I’ve filled in some of the gaps (although they still don’t cover everything said) and so forth, and now I’m no longer worried about there being possible errors in this post.

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For some context, this slide contained the breakdown of the talk’s structure. Bear in mind there are other slides present in the talk than the ones I’ve posted here, I didn’t include caps of all of them, just ones which were of note to me.

In the talk, chief Producer Scylla goes over challenges of DA4 production during the pandemic. He discusses the adaptations - necessary skills and learning from remote work - and he ponders on the future of teamwork.

After the launch of ME3 he became a producer, all his MMO and other experience helped a lot. He was on DAI for 3 years and MEA for 9 months, then Anthem. Today, on DA4, Scylla and another Lead Producer were the heads of the whole project, and there is his boss is the Executive Producer Christian Dailey.

^ the usual AAA game development cycle (brief introduction)

AAA games are games that are launched for several platforms simultaneously.

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase of the game development cycle can have from 5 - 30 people, and up to almost 60 people when they’re just about to go through the gate to production.

In the pre-production phase, they go through the game’s concepts and prototypes and start developing systems. They seek the game’s concept and focus, and its key features. They do lots of market research. In the case of BioWare, all their games are strong in narrative, so they have lots of tools related to game narratives and supporting the development of a narrative (cinematic design, dialogue system etc) that get focused on in this phase. Other parts of the team such as writers and cinematic design need these systems to do their own roles.

In BioWare’s case, the pre-production phase through to launch can take 4 - 6 years, but it does depend on the size of the team during development.

With regards to Dragon Age 4, they were coming close to the time when they would shift from pre-production to the production stage when the pandemic hit.

During the production phase is when the development of content and features takes place, with the systems mostly already existing from the pre-production phase. A few new systems may be developed in this phase. In the production phase is when things start escalating, and the team really starts growing, to like 2- or 3-fold the prior pre-production phase size.

(DA4 is currently in the production phase.)

In the alpha phase, features have to be fully implemented and systems all have to be running / working. All the game features should already be in the game by now. They test from pre-production onwards, but this phase is when they run heavy technical tests with lots of players trying to play at the same time. In the beta phase, the idea is that you should now have full content and that now you’re balancing it and running more and lots of different tests with players before launch. There are final tweaks and then the final launch, when in the weeks prior to launch, all the different business units and areas e.g. marketing team, technology team, publishing team, get together once a day and all of the game’s issues are reported and brought to the table to be prioritized. Then they decide the next steps re: these issues (this is known as ‘the war room’).

After the launch there are usually patches like day zero patches and other patches, this being standard industry practise. The last stage is the new content stage where there are DLCs and a game with more content.

On March 12th 2020, the team gathered to review the DA4 story in the new office. Everyone was very excited. (They had spent over 10 years in their last building and had noticed that with the team growing they needed more space. In August 2019 they found the new studio in the city center.)

Anyway that evening, they got an email from the CEO which contained instructions and said that due to the pandemic, they should from now all start working remotely. They had known that this happening was a possibility so they had been planning on how to have all the devs working from home, but initially less than 50% of the devs were able to work from home successfully/efficiently due to various issues e.g. you need a VPN to be able to log in remotely to do your job normally, varying home office setups. The day after this, the office was basically deserted, except for Scylla, the IT infrastructure people and one or two odd devs.

Scylla was part of the team that was working on allowing the devs to work from home. They first started looking at the short-term changes they needed to make to allow this.

“First, take care of our developers”.

When the pandemic first hit, their and Scylla’s [as Lead Producer] first priority was to look after the devs. Many of them are parents (schools and day-cares were shut, children were studying from home), others have relatives living with them, others have other personal circumstances which of course need to be taken into account when it comes to assessing what needs to be taken into consideration for this new scenario. So, they looked at each dev on a case-by-case basis in order to evaluate, speaking to each one and asking them what they could do to support them.

One of the first changes/adaptations they could implement was flexible working hours and flexibility around deadlines. Generally speaking the devs got a lot of support, EA was really good and really supported the devs especially in the first months of the pandemic (and they are still supporting them). Initially not all devs had suitable office spaces at home, some were working from the living room from laptops or at the kitchen table. The whole covid situation basically just happened over night and nobody was really ready to deal with that change. So their first step was to enable their devs to work remotely. As a producer, Scylla’s main task is to communicate with the team such as via a number of daily meetings. He doesn’t depend so much on powerful hardware.

“Enable developers to work remotely”.

This slide shows some of a BioWare audio team. Different teams have varying and specific needs in order to do their jobs and therefore in order to do them remotely. For example, the audio team need good-quality speakers and amplifiers, while the lighting and art teams need other specific equipment such as tablets and large screens. So there was a lot of work they had to do to go through each dev to understand their individual needs and what needed to be done for them. ‘Could they download the builds? Did they have the right performance [tech-wise]? Could they submit their changelists, their codes to the server?’

Some devs needed a more powerful internet connection as it would take 6-8 hours to download a build (some devs live rurally). Some needed a lot of cable, as they were working far away from their routers (sometimes up to 50m). As time went by things got better and better.

The chair devs work from is also important; a kitchen able chair etc is not suitable to sit in for long-term desk work, possibly leading to health issues like back ache and blood circulation problems in the legs.

Every 3 months they had money given to help devs buy new mice, keyboards, monitors - anything they needed really in order for their office setting at home to be improved. For a while, because lots of people [generally, in society] were needing and buying them, it was quite hard to buy things like webcams and microphones.

On mid- and long-term changes:

In terms of DA, we have to look at this from 2 perspectives, the change in the personal and the professional environments.

As a consequence of working from home, people tend to be less active during the day (even in an office, you go between meeting rooms, up and down stairs etc). Physical activity supports life quality and therefore work quality. Scylla noticed that he began to feel listless and such, and found that he needed to change his routine that he had initially developed when he started working from home, for example; having a normal start time (as in, have a semblance of structure in your day as if you were still working in the office site), get dressed at the normal time, not having meetings over lunch etc. This wasn’t just him, lots of other devs encountered this and had this experience too. Devs which adapted faster had better productivity and became more productive faster.

Scylla bought a stand-up desk which he can raise up and down, and at meetings he would be delivering a talk while standing or even while walking on a treadmill. Other devs also got stand-up desks. He tracked his body’s data on a Fitbit. These sorts of things helped improve physical and mental wellbeing. Other devs did similar things, like starting going out for jogs or began practising yoga. Essentially, everyone needed to make changes to their daily routine in comparison to what they had been doing prior to the pandemic.

The pandemic has been a thing for over a year now. In their location, every couple of weeks a new restriction is put into place or a rule is changed, and every two weeks there’s a new thing that you can and can’t do. Scylla also started moving around his property. He worked on his desk, fixed it up and painted - taking up a new hobby. Other devs picked up new hobbies too. These are good ways to be active and also to be somewhere else, i.e. to break up the working day and not be spending it all in one home office-type location. Scylla found that when he made these sorts of changes to his routine to improve his lifestyle, the data output by his Fitbit as indicators of his health/wellbeing etc improved, e.g. number of steps taken in a day, heartbeats per minute while at rest. As stated many of the other devs went through a similar process.

On the professional side of things:

They had to improve remote delivery of builds. Accessing things from home as a dev requires a VPN. They need to download a build every day and then upload it to the server after making their changes to the game. They had to work with infrastructure and research other tech, such as streaming tech to allow remote console access, in order to better facilitate this process. For remote access, they also had to work on adapting communications channels.

“Adapting channels of communication.”

In this slide, the team are working on the storyboards. Before you can implement motion capture & performance capture, you have to ‘run the storyboards’ like this. These are small illustrating drawings which reflect the drafts and are meant to quickly reflect the intention of the scenes that are to be built. Before the pandemic, the team would go to meeting rooms like this, sit down, talk and interact in person. After the pandemic, the question became ‘How do you do this over Zoom?’ You can, but it’s not quite the same; it’s harder to see peoples’ expressions, some people are embarrassed speaking over Zoom etc. Therefore they had to adapt their communications systems, and unlearn the ways in which they developed before in order to relearn and learn new ways of communicating.

Slack was a tool that they adopted on this front. Communications channels can be confusing on Slack, so there was a need to develop structure. For example, how quickly should someone reply (as a recommended convention for the purposes of work)? They had to define the process/procedures for the channels so it was clear for the team as a whole how it would all flow (this is important especially if you have a team with say 30 people or as a whole hundreds of people). Before the pandemic, they had stand-up meetings where they’d go around in a circle every morning and talk about their activities - what they’re going to be working on, any roadblocks they had encountered etc. The question arose ‘How do you replace these?’ They ended up doing Slack messages at a certain time of day and updating their statuses with some details on what they’re working on and color-coding (green - fine, yellow - need help, red - busy/blocked out).

Another issue that they faced was unforeseen - the number of meetings that devs were having really shot through the roof. When there wasn’t a good structure of communications channels, any conversation would become a meeting. Everybody began scheduling meetings left and right, and at the end of the day they would have little time left in which to actually work on their to-do lists. Hence, they had to work with the team to really analyze and be very pragmatic. ‘Which meetings needed to happen? Which didn’t? Is a specific meeting really necessary? Which meetings should be recurring? What can be done over Slack?’ This guideline had to be given to the team to help, and it improved things a lot. The number of meetings decreased a lot and they got more effective. For example, by making sure to set an agenda for meetings beforehand, and by having meeting notes (then a dev who didn’t really need to be at a meeting could skip attending and just quickly review the notes output after instead). They also decreased the standard length of meeting times from the default Outlook blocks of 1 hour and 30 mins to 55 mins and 25 mins respectively. This 5 minute change gave devs time for things like bio breaks (also 4 hours in a row at a computer in a home office with one meeting after another just isn’t good for a person).

“Adapting p-cap and mocap”.

On content:

From a content point of view, the most difficult thing in terms of the pandemic was adapting p-cap and mocap (performance capture and motion capture). They hire actors and it’s a large studio. The pandemic meant big limits to what they could and couldn’t do. The actors had to be masked and 5 meters apart in distance (although it doesn’t look like it in some of these shots due to angles). Also there could be no other person around in the studio - only the actors. The directors instead would ‘patch’ in remotely on big screens (you can see this in the second photo in the top right).

Before the pandemic, they felt that they wouldn’t be able to do p-cap or mocap properly remotely, as the directors would usually stand right next to actors giving guidance on their performance. The techs would also usually be near. But they adapted! The keyword is adapting, changing process. It’s harder and it’s different, but it is possible, and people start rethinking what is possible. What was said to be impossible before now is possible.

P-cap differs to mocap in that it also captures voice and facial expressions.

On the future of work after covid:

There will probably be more working from home and more flexibility for workers e.g. being able to work say 3 out of 5 days from home. It does depend on what a dev’s specific job is however. For example, the audio engineers require lots of specialist equipment and said equipment is of higher quality and quantity in the office. So, depending on role, devs might be working more often or less often from home.

Another development is that lots of devs are moving house. In lockdown etc people started reassessing what’s most important in life. Some are moving further away from the studio to get a cheaper rent or for example couples who both needed an office space to work from home from but their current place only had one area. Others are moving closer to nature for a better quality of life, and still others have other different reasons for doing so. Over 10 devs that he knows in fact have recently moved, including Scylla himself.

The pandemic changed certain skills being used by people on a daily basis. Scylla used as an example of this one of his soft skills, being able to tell from looking/interacting in-person with someone if they are stressed out. Obviously it’s less easy to tell if someone is stressed out when you’re remote, so you adapt different ways of checking in with people in the new situation. To continue carrying out his role as Lead Producer, he began checking in with his team pro-actively on the new comms channels and asking how they were doing.

Also, now that companies are more open to working remotely, there is going to be increased competition for hiring devs. They saw both sides of this coin at BioWare. They were able to hire devs from many places that they couldn’t hire from before e.g. Montreal, Vancouver, the US, as there’s less need for devs to relocate to Edmonton or Austin. This opens up opportunities to hire really intelligent and skilled people that they would not have had access to before.

Question and answer segment:

The pre-production phase has been concluded. They’re in the production phase.

They are not giving out a lot of details yet but Scylla is really excited as a big fan of the whole series. He thinks that with DA4, they will have the opportunity/possibility to launch the best story out of all DA games. He feels that the characters they’re making are amazing. He’s dying to say more but can’t.

When you work from home you need to keep your team as productive as possible. During the pandemic, when people started working from home, they noticed that some people became more productive and some people became less productive. They were analyzing it on a case-by-case basis so as not to make assumptions. They were interested in seeing what they could do to help. At the beginning of the pandemic, they were looking at the devs as people and seeing what they needed.

Production of DA4 still needed to continue during the pandemic because they want to be able to launch the game.

This slide shows a writer. Writing is an example of a role which is more able to work from home easily.

Their productivity did go down in the first month of the pandemic. After adaptations, some people then became more productive than they were before (this was role and personal situation-dependent, examples of this being artists and coders who were able to art and code at home without being interrupted, thereby being able to produce more). Covid has affected productivity in general, but this is part of our new reality. They have adapted and adjusted some deadlines. They have enough data (Scylla LOVES data) now to understand how long it will take them/how long they’ll need to launch the game. They have always had historical data for this purpose, but they’re doing more of this sort of thing now to ensure that they are doing things at the right time.

Remote hiring opens up the door to more talent joining, so if someone has talent geography will hold them back less. Some companies though may choose not to hire people from other countries due to labor issues, cumbersome legal aspects, time zones. But even in such cases there are activities for example that can be carried out while the rest of the team is asleep such as testing or working on the build, or there are cases where those companies still will want to hire a specifically/highly talented person even in spite of the potential legal aspects and so on.

On mental health: People were affected. There is the mental, physical and social impacts of the pandemic situation on people. EA supported them during the pandemic in terms of their mental wellbeing, there are specific companies (services offered, speaking to a therapist) that they can contact if they need something or help. EA had always been good at supporting them with this sort of thing but this has improved further during the pandemic. Another change was that they could/can take a couple of days off if they needed/need to because of the pandemic e.g. to take care of children, who were obviously not at school at the time. As a producer he had to be very mindful of all of this. How much they were monitoring peoples’ wellbeing really went up during the pandemic.

A question that was asked - in terms of DA4′s storybeats, is there anything in there that they decided to change due to the pandemic as it wouldn’t be sensitive or appropriate to include anymore, for example a plague plotline or something? Scylla’s answer is that DA and ME are games in which they try to have narratives that are relatable, which include things which people will identify with, so that players understand what characters are going through etc. Nothing in DA4′s plotline/storybeats has been changed (in the frame of this question, relating to the pandemic), as it didn’t have anything in it that could be specifically or a directly connected to a pandemic-type situation or anything. Of course the DA story has Blights and the Taint, but these are different & fantastical things and existed long before the pandemic situation. So this wasn’t the case with DA4 and there was no need to change anything, but this has happened to other games where they decided to change a storyline due to a strong correlation with something in the real world.

There were then concluding/closing remarks. The message he wants to send is that a crisis will always spark opportunities. Look at a crisis and try to see how you can grow.

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[☕ found this post interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]

#dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #covid mention #long post #longpost #wanted to write these up properly and post them yesterday but wasn't able to #mass effect #anthem

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tinyshe · 3 years

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Chinese Leader Xi Jinping Lays Out Plan to Control the Global Internet: Leaked Documents

By Nicole Hao and Cathy He

May 2, 2021 Updated: May 3, 2021

Chinese leader Xi Jinping personally directed the communist regime to focus its efforts to control the global internet, displacing the influential role of the United States, according to internal government documents recently obtained by The Epoch Times.

In a January 2017 speech, Xi said the “power to control the internet” had become the “new focal point of [China’s] national strategic contest,” and singled out the United States as a “rival force” standing in the way of the regime’s ambitions.

The ultimate goal was for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to control all content on the global internet, so the regime could wield what Xi described as “discourse power” over communications and discussions on the world stage.

Xi articulated a vision of “using technology to rule the internet” to achieve total control over every part of the online ecosystem—over applications, content, quality, capital, and manpower.

His remarks were made at the fourth leadership meeting of the regime’s top internet regulator, the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission, in Beijing on Jan. 4, 2017, and detailed in internal documents issued by the Liaoning Provincial Government in China’s northeast.

The statements confirm efforts made by Beijing in the past few years to promote its own authoritarian version of the internet as a model for the world.

In another speech given in April 2016, detailed in an internal document by the Anshan City Government in Liaoning Province, Xi confidently proclaimed that in the “struggle” to control the internet, the CCP has transformed from playing “passive defense” to playing both “attack and defense” at the same time.

Having successfully built the world’s most sprawling and sophisticated online censorship and surveillance apparatus, known as the Great Firewall, the CCP under Xi is turning outwards, championing a Chinese internet whose values run counter to the open model advocated by the West. Rather than prioritizing the free flow of information, the CCP’s system centers on giving the state the ability to censor, spy on, and control internet data.

Countering the US

The Chinese leader acknowledged the regime lagged behind its rival the United States—the dominant player in this field—in key areas such as technology, investments, and talent.

To realize its ambitions, Xi emphasized the need to “manage internet relations with the United States,” while “making preparations for fighting a hard war” with the country in this area.

American companies should be used by the regime to reach its goal, Xi said, without elaborating on how this would be done.

He also directed the regime to increase its cooperation with Europe, developing countries, and member states of Beijing’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” to form a “strategic counterbalance” against the United States.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a massive infrastructure investment project launched by Beijing to connect Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East through a network of rail, sea, and road linkages. The plan has been criticized by the United States and other Western countries as a conduit for Beijing to increase its political and commercial interests in member states while saddling developing countries with heavy debt burdens.

The BRI has also pushed countries to sign up to “digital silk road” projects—those involving information and communications technology infrastructure. At least 16 countries have signed memoranda of understanding with the regime to work in this area.

Three-pronged Strategy

Xi ordered the regime to focus on three “critical” areas in its pursuit of controlling the global internet.

First, Beijing needs to be able to “set the rules” governing the international system. Second, it should install CCP surrogates in important positions in global internet organizations. Third, the regime should gain control over the infrastructure that underlies the internet, such as root servers, Xi said.

Domain Name System (DNS) root servers are key to internet communications around the world. It directs users to websites they intend to visit. There are more than 1,300 root servers in the world, about 20 of which are located in China while the United States has about 10 times that, according to the website root-servers.org.

If the Chinese regime were to gain control over more root servers, they could then redirect traffic to wherever they want, Gary Miliefsky, cybersecurity expert and publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine, told The Epoch Times. For example, if a user wants to go to a news article about a topic deemed sensitive by Beijing, then the regime’s DNS server could route the user to a fake page saying the article is no longer online.

“The minute you control the root, you can spoof or fake anything,” he said. “You can control what people see, what people don’t see.”

In recent years, the regime has made headway in advancing Xi’s strategy.

In 2019, Chinese telecom giant Huawei first proposed the idea for an entirely new internet, called New IP (internet protocol), to replace the half-century-old infrastructure underpinning the web. New IP is touted to be faster, more efficient, flexible, and secure than the current internet, and will be built by the Chinese.

While New IP may indeed bring about an improved global network, Miliefsky said, “the price for that is freedom.”

“There’s going to be no free speech. And there’s going to be eavesdropping in real-time, all the time, on everyone,” he said. “Everyone who joins it is going to be eavesdropped by a single government.”

The proposal was made at a September 2019 meeting held at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), a U.N. agency responsible for setting standards for computing and communications issues that is currently headed by Chinese national Zhao Houlin. New IP is set to be formally debated at the ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly to be held in March 2022.

Miliefsky said the plan is unlikely to gain widespread support among countries, but may be adopted by like-minded authoritarian states such as North Korea, and later by countries that signed onto BRI and are struggling to repay its loans to China.

This would accelerate a bifurcation of the internet, what analysts such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt have dubbed the “splinternet,” Miliefsky said. “The communist net and the rest of the world.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Huawei for comment.

Importing Talent

According to the document, Xi ordered the CCP regime to set up “three ecosystems”—technology, industry, and policy—to develop core internet technologies.

Having skilled workers was key to this plan, with Xi directing that talent should be hired from around the globe. This would be done through Chinese companies, Xi prescribed.

He told Chinese firms to “proactively” invite foreign “high-end talents,” and to set up research centers overseas and hire leading ethnic Chinese and foreign specialists to work for them.

Meanwhile, Xi asked the regime to set up a professional training system in China, which can systematically develop a highly skilled workforce in the long run.

He also directed officials in each level of government to guide Chinese companies to develop their business plans to align with the regime’s strategic goals, and encourage capable enterprises to take the lead in developing innovations in core technologies.

Enterprises were to be educated in having “national awareness and safeguarding national interests,” Xi said. Only then should the regime support and encourage their expansion.

Because talent and critical technology are concentrated overseas, the Chinese leader also ordered authorities to support the development of a group of multinational internet companies that can have global influence.

Turning the Internet Red

Xi, in his 2016 speech, described all online content as falling into three categories: “red zone, black zone, and gray zone.”

“Red zone” content refers to discourse aligned with the CCP’s propaganda requirements, while “black zone” material falls foul of these rules. “Gray zone” content lies in the middle.

“We must consolidate and expand the red zone and expand its influence in society,” Xi said in a leaked speech in August 2013. “We must bravely enter into the black zone [and fight hard] to gradually get it to change its color. We must launch large-scale actions targeting the gray zone to accelerate its conversion to the red zone and prevent it from turning into the black zone.”

Inside China, the CCP has a stranglehold on online content and discussion through the Great Firewall, a massive internet censorship apparatus that blockades foreign websites and censors content deemed unacceptable to the party. It also hires a massive online troll army, dubbed the “50-cent army,” to manipulate online discussion. A recent report found that the CCP engages 2 million paid internet commentators and draws on a network of 20 million part-time volunteers to carry out online trolling.

Freedom House, in its 2020 annual internet freedom report, labeled China as the world’s worst abuser of online freedom for the sixth straight year. Chinese citizens have been arrested for using software to circumvent the Great Firewall and punished for posting comments online unfavorable to the Chinese regime. In a now-notorious incident during the early stages of the pandemic, whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang was reprimanded by police for “rumor-mongering” after warning colleagues in a social media chat group about a SARS-like virus in Wuhan City.

In the 2017 remarks, Xi told the regime to develop a larger group of “red” online influencers to shape users’ perceptions of the CCP. He also called for an expansion of the 50 cent army to operate both inside and outside of China’s internet.

Since the pandemic, the CCP has sharply escalated its efforts to influence online opinion overseas. Using large networks of troll accounts on Twitter and Facebook, the regime has been able to propagate and amplify propaganda and disinformation on topics such as the pandemic, racial tensions in the United States, and the regime’s oppression of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Follow Cathy on Twitter:

@CathyHe_ET

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kaserabazar · 3 years

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Things You Should Consider When Choosing a Best CBSE School for Your Child

There is a long list of points that you need to consider before choosing the best CBSE School for your child. It takes the right amount of research and study about an institute before you finalize it as a 2nd home for your child for more than a coming decade. Since there is a long list of CBSE Schools in Indore, it becomes crucial to evaluate every one of them on every single point before you conclude.

Here, we will not only help you to understand the points which you should consider in the school evaluation process, but we will also tell you about how to find admission to the best CBSE School in Indore. Let’s go through the list of the important points and learn a thing or two about the great educational institute of Indore.

1. Fee Structure:

There is a misconception that the best CBSE schools in Indore have the most expensive fee structure. Parents believe ‘higher the fees, higher the facilities’. This is why people have started to measure the quality of education in an institute, based on the amount of fee being charged by students. As a result, due to lack of knowledge and research, many people fall for the con and end up paying a higher fee than required for educating their children in a CBSE School.

Kasera Bazaar on the other end provides a pocket-friendly fee structure to parents so that every child gets the quality education that they deserve. So, if you are looking for a good CBSE school in Indore with low fees, Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan should be the first choice.

2. Infrastructure & facilities:

Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan is recognized as the best CBSE school in Indore in the Gumasta Nagar region. It has the richest infrastructural facilities and everything that one can look for in a good CBSE School. The building has its own Chemistry Lab, Biology Lab, Physics Lab, Computer Lab, and much more. To meet the needs of the modern education system, many classrooms have even been converted into Smart classes using top-quality digital screens, projectors, and sound systems.

There is a large playground, a well-equipped book library, art & craft room, music room, and much more, where students spend the non-studious time, trying to explore their interests and talents. The school even provides a balanced diet in form of lunch. For that, KBVN has a large, clean, and hygienic mess too.

3. Curriculum:

It’s difficult to find a CBSE School in Indore which considers the intellectual, social, emotional, and motor skill development of students as important. In an ever-changing, dynamic world, it is important to adapt to newer methods and techniques.

Being a Top CBSE School in Indore, Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan follows the exact curriculum as suggested by the NCERT. Their academic program focuses on practical learning through implementation and execution. While the syllabus is pre-defined by the NCERT, the school tries to bring things alive in the minds of the students through activity-based-learning. Their teaching methods are oriented towards building intellectual, social, emotional, and motor skills in children by using the latest teaching technologies, methods, and contemporary tools.

4. Extra-curricular:

The best CBSE School in Indore would be the one where education is not the only focus. It’s important to understand that in this world of versatile opportunities, any art, any sport or any interest can be pursued professionally. Hence, a great CBSE school would be the one where comprehensive and holistic development is the focus.

As discussed earlier, Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan has a great sports area, a well-equipped art & craft room, music room, and other activity areas too. The daily classroom schedule in the school has specific time slots, where students get time to cherish their interests in one or more of the interests such as outdoor sports, musical instruments, painting, sketching, dancing, singing, etc. This also allows them to interact with their classmates in a different manner which helps them explore each other’s hidden talents as well.

5. Teacher to Student Ratio:

A significant aspect that differs the Top CBSE schools in Indore from the others is that the formers maintain a lower Teacher-to-student ratio. It is a trend in many schools to stuff classrooms with a higher number of students and bag more fees while trying to save the teaching expenses. As cheap and unrealistic it may sound, it is the story of many schools in the Indore.

On the other hand, Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan maintains a lower teacher-to-student ratio of 1:25 for Nursery to 3rd Standard Classes and 1:35 for classes of 4th to 12th standard. At KBVN, they believe in the philosophy that a teacher is a student’s 2nd parent. The lower teacher-to-student ratio helps in executing individually-focused teaching techniques. This enables in development of a better understanding between the teacher and student. As a result, a teacher becomes a great guide for their children in every aspect of life.

6. The proximity of Premises:

As less-significant as it may sound, the proximity of the premises from the residence of the students becomes a significant factor to consider overtime. The students get tired when it comes to traveling to and from school premises. They feel tired and exhausted during the commuting process. And you sincerely do not want that to happen because this eventually results in a loss of interest in school.

But you will be cheered to know that this is not at all a problem for Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan. The school offers safe, sanitized, and comfortable bus-service to the students. The bus routes cover the major areas of Indore. The students just have to find a stop to the nearest location and they will be picked from and dropped at the same spot every day. This way, KBVN ensures the utmost commuting comfort of every student.

7. Safety, Sanitization, Hygiene:

Frankly speaking, post COVID-19 scenario, the best School in Indore would be the one that puts safety, sanitization, and hygiene on top. After a whole year of struggling and trying to hide from the deadly virus contamination, everyone has now become highly conscious about following the significant precautions which would reduce the chances of getting infected.

At Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan, sanitization, security, and hygiene are always prioritized. Not only post COVID-19, but the school has been ensuring an extremely hygienic and safe environment on the premises for years. From classrooms to mess areas, from laboratories to toilets, everything is cleaned with the best quality disinfectants. The WHO suggested COVID-19 precautions are also bound to be followed in the premises including wearing masks, maintain social distancing, and sanitizing hands from time to time.

8. History of the institute:

History is only created by legends. If the institute you are looking forward to, has recently begun its operations, then its authenticity may be questionable. The founders may have zero experience of running a school, the teaching staff may be less experienced, and much more. A well-renowned school is the one which has a reputation and a history behind it.

Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan has a legacy of more than 35 years in Indore. The institute is being run successfully under the guidance of renowned personalities of the city. These legends tend to pave the path of success for the forth-coming generation. The school’s alumni have created their individual history by making Indore’s name shine in the national and international skies as well. With such a strong background and a famishing history, KBVN is one of the finest choices of thousands of families as a 2nd home for their child.

9. Parent-Teacher Relationship:

As discussed earlier, Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan, the Best CBSE School in Indore pursues the philosophy that a teacher is a student’s 2nd parent. The reason being, a student spends a significant amount of time in school, under the supervision of their teachers. Similarly, the way they are taken care of by their parents at home. However, the two observe the child in a different scenario.

Since, both the aspects, domestic as well as school behavior is important in the development of a child, KBVN makes sure an effective, two-way communication between the teacher and the parents. This is to make sure that both of them share their observations and perceptions about the child with each other and help in a more streamlined enhancement of his or her skillset.

10. Core values:

The way a teacher is a 2nd parent, a school is a child’s 2nd home. The overall character of a young one is majorly based on the environment they are raised in, the values they are taught and the morals they are incarnated with. Kasera Bazar has always based its education system on ethical grounds.

The school staff makes sure to maintain an environment where the students learn to respect each other’s values and learn from each other in the best possible manner. They make the student's society ready by inculcating them with such wisdom that drives them to become a person of their principles. This is why, at KBVN, the list of game-changing alumni is longer than usual.

We think your search for the best CBSE School in Indore should end here and now you know, which the future 2nd home of your child is. So, if you want to pay a visit to the premises of the school, this is the address:

Kasera Bazar Vidya Niketan CBSE School

Sector C, Scheme No. 71, Gumasta Nagar,

Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Although, you can also book an appointment or enquire about your queries by contacting the school through the below details:

Phone: 0731-2480109 | 0731-4247460 | 0731-2481157

Email: [email protected]

Also, you can visit their website by clicking here and have an overview of their facilities and curriculum.

Website: https://kaserabazarschool.in

#best cbse #best cbse school #best cbse school in indore

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adposto1 · 4 years

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Gulberg Greens

ABOUT GULBERG GREENS

Gulberg Islamabad is by far the best community.It has been planned to maintain a balance between quality life and latest development.And therefore its infrastructure and the landscape is designed with a focus on the comfort and luxury as a priorit Booking From 20% Starting price 1,200,000 Size: 6 Marla, 8 Marla, 10 Marla, 1 Kanal Type:Residential,Commercial, farm houses Services

Gulberg Islamabad has planned as a complete new inner city within the capital to meet the future needs Gulberg greens is a project of IBECHS, hence a tradition of trust. Amidst numerous residential societies in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, Gulberg greens brings you the true essence of the capital city. Located in Islamabad, near airport road and the grand trunk road (G.T road).Gulberg greens is an alluring and a lavish society with profuse greenery where dreams come home. Currently various schools, universities, colleges,5 star hotels, and shopping malls are being constructed in Gulberg greens Educational institutes Mosques Health Care Security

Ideal Location

100 to 200% increase in value within a year The project is located at Lahore-Islamabad Motorway at distance of 9.2 km from M-2 Toll Plaza near Thalian interchange, falling on the eastern route of CPEC.Only 5-6 mins away from the new Islamabad airport. Its neighboring housing societies include Al Mairaj housing scheme Eighteen Islamabad and Blue World City. Underground Electricity 24/7 Water, gas & electricity Smart apps i.e traffic, weather, electricity, internetPlot for sale in Gulberg Greens Islamabad

NOC, permissions & Area

Registered from concerned Authorities NOC of Capital Smart City is being approved by the RDA and is one of the legal housing projects in that area. Capital Smart City covers a total land of 55,000 kanals. It will be one of the closest housing society to the new Islamabad International Airport. Smart and modern Housing plan World Class infrastructure Overseas block 18-Hole Golf Course Designated interchange from M-2

Investment in Gulberg Greens Islamabad

I want some investments in gulberg greens in apartments. Please suggest? Any idea please? Thanks in advance. Islamabad, Islamabad Capital Territory, PakistanThis section of the site has some good tips on how to use the community and interact with your fellow Local Guides. Search the community before posting as others may have asked your question (and received an answer) already. Use a descriptive title for your post to make it easier for people to know whether they should open it. Use the Location field to geotag your post to a specific place, but make sure its important to the content of the post. Don't share personal information on the forums, check out the private messaging option instead. This area has helpful information about the Local Guides program in case you have more questions.Your topic is irrelevant to the community. Let me explain about the community . Connect is a place where you can ask questions about map problems, share story, give feedback to Google etc. Google moderators/ Connect moderators are to help you in correct direction & solve your problem other local guides can help you too. Have a look on the tips for using community. Try searching before you post a new topic in the community.(search bar at the top right corner of connect.) Be kind when ask or reply to someone. Respect others Never share your personal information on connect. Never promote anything here like website or business. Give kudos for good contents. "Mark as solution" when someone solve your problem on connect.House for sale and rent in Gulberg Greens Islamabad. PTCL signs MoU with Gulberg Greens

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gulberg Greens Islamabad for provision of Information Communication Technology (ICT) services and infrastructure in society. The signatories included Muhammad Shehzad Yousuf, Chief Business Operations Officer, PTCL and Shujaat Ullah Qureshi, Secretary, Intelligence Bureau Employees Cooperative Housing Society (IBECHS) Islamabad.Apartment for sale and rent in Gulberg Greens Islamabad.PTCL and IBECHS endeavour to transform Gulberg Greens into a smart city base, where the residents will be able to enjoy hi-speed, unlimited internet & bandwidth, crystal clear voice and Smart TV services with quality content. On the occasion, Shehzad Yousuf, Chief Business Operations Officer, PTCL, said that “PTCL is committed to contribute towards the society by providing a robust ICT infrastructure and seamless services to the citizens in line with Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital Pakistan.” Shujaat Ullah Qureshi, Secretary, IBECHS, said, “We feel privileged to partner with PTCL that will enable us to bridge the connectivity gap, provide uninterrupted services and move forward collectively to deliver better internet experience to residents of Gulberg Greens Islamabad.” PTCL strives to provide communities with the necessary facilities and services that are pertinent for growth and endless possibilities.

#gulberg #gulberg islamabad #gulberg greens #gulberg residencia #adposto

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maddieweikel-blog · 4 years

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Blog Post 1

3 February 2020

Maddie Weikel

Park Over Plastic Capstone Seminar

Spring 2020

Diaz

Response to “Wasted Potential: The consequences of New York City’s recycling failure”

I was surprised at how frequently this piece connected New York City’s waste failures to climate change because the typical narrative that I personally hear in the media is that waste is an issue of aesthetics and cleanliness. Goldberg and Muoio emphasized both macro and microscale impacts of irresponsible waste disposal by mentioning landfill methane emissions multiple times and by zooming in on severely affected communities in Rensselaer and Newark. The piece identified New York City, more specifically the city’s mayo and former mayor, as the party most responsible for these failures, which is also unlike the mainstream narrative around waste, which is that individual consumers should reduce their own footprints. This method of framing waste and recycling as infrastructural failures rather than consumer responsibility is crucial to finding and implementing solutions, and highlighting the injustice that results from shipping waste elsewhere and incinerating trash is imperative to creating solutions that improve the quality of life for all communities.

The piece identifies several specific causes for New York City’s low recycling rate, but the primary focus of the article is on De Blasio’s and Bloomberg’s general inaction, leaving me curious to learn more about the more specific kinks in the system. Primary branches of failure are that public housing mixes all its trash and recycling together, there is no widespread compost program, consumers are unwilling to buy less and recycle more, and there are loopholes to bypass construction debris disposal protocols. The piece highlights Seattle and San Francisco as recycling exemplars and gives an overview of De Blasio’s plan to reduce waste by 90% by 2030, which suggests that a better system is possible, if it is prioritized. De Blasio’s sanitation commissioner admitted that New York is “running out of time” to implement better practices, and residents in Rensselaer and Newark demonstrate that every action under the current system is already oppressive to entire communities.

Moving forward, I think the most important work to be done is showing people in power at all levels, from De Blasio to wealthy consumers to corporations who produce the products we throw away, that waste must be a priority. Trash is an issue of social justice, climate change, and public health, and every month of stagnant progress compounds the issue. I believe that the primary actors that need to prioritize waste reduction are the corporations that make the products that so quickly end up in landfills or incinerators, but while that struggle continues, city leadership, especially in a city with as large as a footprint and capacity for change as New York City, need to do what they can to resolve end-of-life failures.

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berniesrevolution · 6 years

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This plan is called a Green New Deal.

So far, a comprehensive progressive vision of a Green New Deal has not been presented. This report articulates a vision for a broad set policy goals and investments that aim to achieve environmental sustainability and economic stability in ways that are just and equitable.

This proposal recognizes:

A Green New Deal is necessary to meet the scale and urgency of environmental challenges facing the United States, based on the best available research.

A Green New Deal can bring job growth and economic opportunity, with particular focus on historically disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.

A Green New Deal is popular among American voters and can mobilize them in 2018.

A Green New Deal can be executed in a way that is environmentally just and distributes benefits equitably.

A Green New Deal is financially feasible and necessary

A Green New Deal is a broad and ambitious package of new policies and investments in communities, infrastructure, and technology to help the United States achieve environmental sustainability and economic stability.

The original New Deal was a series of financial reforms, farmer relief programs, public works projects, and other social programs enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930’s. The New Deal was an economic and job stimulus to meet the needs of the time, designed to put Americans back to work, restore dignity, and bring stability during the Great Depression. Even with its mixed effectiveness, the New Deal was not perfect and displayed an exclusionary racial bias whose effects are still felt today.

America faces different challenges today that are unsustainable and existential.

Despite the achievements in environment regulation over the past 50 years, incremental policy changes and small shifts in market trends are no longer sufficient to meet the scale and urgency of the problems facing Americans and the world today. American lives and livelihoods rely upon clean air and water; healthy forests, farms, and fisheries; and communities resilient to the worst effects of climate change—such as extreme weather, drought, and sea-level rise. The effects of pollution and exposure to toxins persist, and climate change worsens. On top of it all, these all affect low-income communities and communities of color disproportionately.

We need to shift to a new sustainable environment and economy.

Sustainability is about utilizing and preserving resources in ways that meet the needs of today’s generation without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

A Green New Deal recognizes that economic stability is not independent of environmental sustainability.

The trade-off between the environment or the economy is a false one. The goal of a Green New Deal is to build the 21st century economy, which by design will mitigate the causes of climate change while building resilience to its effects, restore the American landscape, and improve access to clean air and water—all in ways that prioritize justice and equity, and grow the economy and jobs.

Environmental regulation and climate action often receive less attention because they are perceived to compete with other local priorities--such as crime, schools, jobs, and potholes. A Green New Deal is not a distraction from local priorities but works to solve many of them.

We agree on the problems, now we need to agree on the solutions.

A Green New Deal is more than just renewable energy or job programs. It is a transition to the 21st century economy. It is a holistic combination of solutions at every level—federal, state, and local—and addresses many problems simultaneously. It does this because it must.

It must meet the scale and urgency of the problems facing America and Americans. It must also meet the level of progressive ambition looking to transform the economy and the environment in ways that achieve sustainability, equity, justice, freedom, and happiness.

This section summarizes specific progressive goals. For complete policy details, download the full report.

TRANSFORM TO A LOW-CARBON ECONOMY

The United States needs to reduce its annual greenhouse emissions from 2016 by 16 percent to achieve our 2025 reduction target communicated through the Paris Agreement[1], and 77 percent to reach our 2050 target.[2] To strive for the global goal of a 1.5-degree future, the U.S. should aim for zero net emissions by mid-century. This requires massive economic and technological transformation in how we create and consume energy, build structures, and transport people and goods. This transformation must accelerate now.

CLEAN & RENEWABLE ENERGY

✔ 100% Clean and Renewable Electricity by 2035

All electricity consumed in America must be generated by renewable sources, including solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, sustainable biomass, and renewable natural gas, as well as clean sources such as nuclear and remaining fossil fuel with carbon capture.

✔ Zero Net Emissions from Energy by 2050

We must end all emissions from fossil fuels. The full U.S. economy can and must run on a mix of energy that is either zero-emission or 100 percent carbon capture by mid-century.[3] This includes residential, commercial, and industrial electricity; thermal energy; and transportation.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

✔ 100% Net-Zero Building Energy Standards by 2030

Buildings can stand and operate for over 100 years, and current building standards are not in line with goals for deep decarbonization. Yet buildings also have the highest potential for low-cost emission reductions of all sectors. We must start constructing and retrofitting to the highest performance standards now to avoid locking in outdated technology and to reach these goals by mid-century. New technological innovation every year will push the potential of building and industrial efficiency, helping American citizens and businesses lower energy costs and be more competitive.

TRANSPORTATION

✔ 100% Zero Emission Passenger Vehicles by 2030

The technologies already exist; we only need to scale-up charging infrastructure and consumer incentives to transition 100 percent of sales to zero emission passenger and light duty vehicles by 2030, followed with a swift phase out of internal combustion engines.

✔ 100% Fossil-Free Transportation by 2050

To reach decarbonization goals, we must transition away quickly from the use of fossil fuels in aviation, heavy duty vehicles, and rail. Not everything can be electrified, meaning we must innovate and scale up the next generation of biofuels and carbon-neutral fuels.

CLEAN AIR AND CLEAN WATER NEED TO BE A RIGHT

While air and water quality have dramatically improved in the U.S. since the passage of landmark environmental regulations in the 1950s and 1970s, progress has slowed.[4] Too many Americans live without access to consistent clean air and clean water. Air pollution from vehicles and smokestacks cause 200,000 early deaths each year and led to negative health effects such as asthma and lung disease.[5] America’s drinking water and waterways are threatened by aging infrastructure and pollution from fossil fuel production. We cannot guarantee clean air and clean water without cutting emissions and fossil fuel extraction.

CLEAN AIR

✔ National Clean Air Attainment

Forty-two percent of the U.S. population--over 130 million Americans--live in areas that still have not attained national Ambient Air Quality Standards as ozone and particulate matter pollution are still too high.[6] While the EPA continually eases air quality regulations, 22 states do not meet ozone standards.[7] Ground-level ozone, or smog, has worsened significantly in recent years as higher average temperatures and more days of extreme heat intensifies smog.[8] Reductions in fossil fuel combustion and certain industrial activities will reduce ozone and particulate pollution across the country, especially in urban areas where air quality tends to be worse.

✔ Cut Methane Leakage 50% by 2025

Methane, a greenhouse gas 28-36 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is the second-largest industrial source of climate pollution from the oil and gas industry. Methane leaks from oil and gas production and distribution cost the U.S. economy approximately $2 billion annually.[9] These leaks are enough to power 6.5 million homes a year. Much of the pollution can be curbed with existing low-cost technologies that can improve air quality and reduce emissions.[10]

CLEAN WATER

✔ National Lead Pipe Replacement & Infrastructure Upgrades

America’s problems with lead in drinking water extend well beyond Flint, Michigan. In 2015, 18 million people were served by water systems with lead violations.[13] We need to remove lead service lines and fix other water problems with a prioritization of underserved communities. This requires meaningful investments in water treatment infrastructure upgrades across the nation. And yet, federal investment in local water infrastructure has declined from covering 63 percent of costs in 1977 to just 9 percent today.[14] By investing in clean water infrastructure, it will stimulate the development of economically-critical projects that will create jobs and increase American economic competitiveness.[15]

✔ Guarantee Access to Affordable Drinking Water

To keep up with the mounting costs of water infrastructure needs, many utilities across the country have been increasing water rates. In some cities, the average monthly cost of water for a family of four has increased 30 percent since 2011.[16] In 2015, 1 in 9 households in Detroit had their water shut off because of prohibitively high water bills. The EPA needs to establish more consistent and comprehensive standards on water affordability, protecting low-income residents from extreme price increases.

✔ Protect Two Million New Miles of Waterways

The quality of our water supply also depends on the restoration, conservation, and sustainable land management of forests and wetlands. The 2015 Clean Water Rule, if fully enforced, would extend protections to two million new miles of streams and tributaries, and 20 million acres of wetlands. Protecting our watersheds and waterways, particularly upstream, benefits our natural environment, human health, and food supplies, as well as enhances the resiliency of our built infrastructure. Waterways and their related forests and wetlands constitute a natural infrastructure that saves money and produces additional benefits such as reduced emissions, jobs, and habitat protection.[17]

RESTORE THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE

It is hard to envision America without picturing its glorious landscape—whether it is the rolling plains and hills, wide rivers, snow-capped mountains, sandy coastlines, great lakes, or rich forests. The American landscape is not only our heritage but also a vital resource. Our lives and livelihoods rely upon the landscape for food, fiber, minerals, homesteads, protection, wildlife, and recreation. Clean air and clean water are not possible without healthy, robust lands. This landscape is our largest natural emissions sinks, literally absorbing millions of tons of greenhouse gases out of the air annually. We must tend to it.

FORESTS

✔ Reforest 40 Million Acres of Public and Private Land by 2035

America’s forests are 25 percent smaller than they were when settlements began around 1630, and only a fraction of what remains is old-growth forest, while the rest is regrowth of deforestation.[20] Forested lands continue to come back slowly, but it is well below the pace needed. To reach a net-zero emission economy by mid-century, we must reforest land—in other words, the remaining emissions our economy still creates are canceled out by the emissions absorbed by land. Similarly, many forests are badly in need of restoration, threatened by drought, wildfire, and invasive species, which are only exacerbated by climate change.

Expanding forests by 40-50 million acres by 2035 could achieve reductions of 600 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2050. With forests as part of a holistic plan, the full land carbon sink could offset up to 45 percent of economy-wide emissions annually by 2050. [21]

WETLANDS

✔ Restore 5 Million Acres of Wetlands by 2040

Wetlands—including swamps, marshes, and peatlands—are vital ecosystems for all types of wildlife and biodiversity. They support seafood, recreation, and tourism industries; protect American shorelines from storm surge; filter water; and absorb carbon. America has lost over half of its original wetlands.[22] The rate of loss is increasing, and a third of what remains is in poor condition.[23],[24],[25]

SUSTAINABLE FARMING & SOIL

✔ Expand Sustainable Farming and Soil Practices to 30% of Agricultural Land by 2030 and 70% by 2050

A thriving agricultural sector relies upon healthy soil. Healthy soil also supports carbon sequestration, flood protection, reduced erosion, and pest and plant disease control. Beyond the field, the excess use of pesticides and fertilizers affect soil and water quality, leading to such effects as deadly hypoxia and algal blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and the Chesapeake Bay. It also diminishes property values and recreational uses of nearby waters, costing the U.S. at least $2.2 billion annually.[26] Sustainable farming and soil practices are not only practical but also economically beneficial to farmers.

Increasing uptake of key soil carbon-beneficial conservation practices to 70 percent of U.S. cropland could result in an increased soil carbon sink of over 270 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equiv. per year by 2050—this represents half of current agricultural emissions. [27]

BROWNFIELDS & HAZARDOUS SITES

✔ Cleanup Brownfields and All Hazardous Sites

A brownfield is a previously occupied property of which its redevelopment or reuse is complicated due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. There are an estimated 450,000 brownfield sites in the United States[28] and 1,343 sites listed on the Superfund National Priority List, which are locations with significant hazardous material contamination.[29]

Neighborhoods adjacent to brownfields are more likely to be low-income and minority neighborhoods.[30] Cleaning up and redeveloping these sites is not only important for human health and the environment, but it can increase local tax revenues, grow jobs, lift property values, and ease development pressure off undeveloped lands.[31],[32]

[READ FULL REPORT HERE]

#politics #the left #Data for Progress #green new deal #progressive #progressive movement #ecosocialism #democratic socialism #socialism

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bikethevote · 5 years

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Bike The Vote L.A. Endorsement - Loraine Lundquist for City Council District 12

Bike The Vote L.A. Endorsement: Loraine Lundquist for City Council

Voters in the August 13 runoff special election for L.A.’s City Council District 12 have a chance to break a decades-long run of conservative representation and send a scientist, environmentalist, grassroots activist, and bike-friendly candidate to City Hall. With her smart, progressive platform on safe streets and record of advocacy in the community, Loraine Lundquist is poised to provide the bold leadership the 12th District needs.

Located in the northwest San Fernando Valley, CD12 has long been plagued by dangerous speeding and deadly crashes. The District is the unfortunate home to an epidemic of street racing and ever-increasing speed limits on dangerous streets. The 40,000 students enrolled at Cal State Northridge have few efficient transit options for commuting to campus and face hostile streets for walking and biking. The area is projected to suffer more extreme heat days in the coming decades as climate change continues to impact residents’ health and quality of life. In light of these daunting challenges, the northwest Valley deserves an unapologetically progressive leader to set the district on a more sustainable course.

In the June 4 primary, voters awarded the two runoff spots to Loraine Lundquist, a faculty member in the Institute for Sustainability at Cal State Northridge, and John Lee, a chief of staff to the former councilmember, who is seeking to continue a dubious tradition of political inheritance: the previous two councilmembers elected from CD12 also served as chief of staff to their predecessors.

Lundquist, on the other hand, brings a fresh perspective as a community advocate, having served on the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and fought against natural gas extraction in the Porter Ranch area, both before and after the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout. She’s also served as the neighborhood council’s homelessness liaison and argued for addressing L.A.’s homelessness crisis humanely. Clearly determined to walk the walk on sustainability, Lundquist is a daily bike commuter and primarily utilizes transit when traveling further afield with her family.

In response to Bike The Vote L.A.’s questionnaire ahead of the primary election, the two candidates articulated contrasting visions and approaches to transportation policy, with Lundquist offering specific commitments to putting safety first. Lee’s response unfortunately did not offer clarity as to what kinds of changes—in infrastructure, policy, funding, etc.—he’s willing to actually champion. He emphasized the need to engage community stakeholders and keep a range of options open. While we are disappointed not to see a stronger commitment from Lee to prioritizing safety on city streets, we’re hopeful that, should he be elected, Lee would use this focus on community input to give safe streets advocates the consideration they deserve.

Lundquist’s response to Bike The Vote L.A. was much more impressive, including detailed policy prescriptions addressing infrastructure, carpooling, land use, tree canopy, ADA accessibility, and more. She’s showed she’s willing to prioritize safety for people walking and biking, pledging to use data to target the district’s most dangerous intersections and implement needed changes. Lundquist’s uncommon expertise on transportation clearly draws from her own daily bike commute to campus and her family’s reliance on transit.

Lundquist has an outstanding transportation policy platform, an exceptional knowledge of urban sustainability, and a long record of community leadership. If elected, she’ll be a strong ally of the safe streets movement and an effective advocate for her community in City Hall. Bike The Vote L.A. proudly endorses Loraine Lundquist for L.A. City Council District 12.

If you’d like to assist Lundquist’s campaign with donations or volunteer time, you can find opportunities on her website, loraineforla.com. Bike The Vote L.A. will be organizing volunteer events between now and the August 13 runoff election, so watch out for announcements from us.

You may also want to check out some of the other grassroots progressive organizations supporting Lundquist, including Ground Game LA and Sunrise Movement LA.

Read Loraine Lundquist’s full response to Bike The Vote L.A.

#bikethevote #CD12 #LACD12

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weareyour4 · 5 years

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What You Eat Affects How We Live: Climate Change and Animal Farming by Valentina H

My name is Valentina and I am a university student and an activist looking for ways to inspire positive social change through various media - one of them being this blog post extracted from my Bachelor’s dissertation which I’d written with a focus on the link between climate change, animal agriculture and human behaviour. I will introduce the main facts and figures on climate change and relevant philosophies related to human and non-human animals.

Introduction

With the current state of world affairs and apparent global issues, it is hardly news that a number of changes need to occur to help the planet and the people. The environmental issues are well known yet little is done to stop them. Eight million tonnes of plastic – bottles, packaging and other waste – are dumped into the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain (Reuters, 2017). As our diets become more meat- and dairy-rich, the hidden climate cost of our food mounts up (Dave Reay for France-Presse, 2017). PETA believes that animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or used for our entertainment or abuse in any other way, yet many people have never even considered the impact that their clothes, food, cosmetics or entertainment may have on the lives of animals (2018). Vegans advocate that rearing animals for food is bad for the environment and inefficient; they suggest that world food shortages could be solved by farming crops rather than animals (politics.co.uk, 2018). To sum up the main concern of this article swiftly:

“We are the first generation to fully understand climate change and the last generation to be able to do something about it.” (Taalas for McGrath, 2018)

Climate change & Agriculture

We find ourselves in a time where climate change is finally understood for what it is, even with big name politicians (ahem) fooling us into believing it’s a myth. Every fraction of a degree of global warming makes a difference to human health, access to food and fresh water, extinction of animals and plants, survival of coral reefs and marine life, difference to economic productivity, food security, and to the resilience of our infrastructure and cities; it makes a difference to the speed of glacier melt and water supplies, and the future of low-lying islands and coastal communities (Elena Manaenkova for McGrath, 2018). Global warming is also linked with extreme weather events, disease outbreaks, population displacement and armed conflict as well as inevitable shifts in agriculture (Geggel, 2018).

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has stated that fundamental agriculture reforms are needed for the UK to reach carbon neutrality (George, 2018) This means the number of cattle and sheep in the UK should be reduced by between a fifth and a half to help combat climate change, because beef and lamb produce most farm greenhouse gases (Harrabin, 2018). To free up land from agriculture, we need to decrease our demand for meat and dairy products. The recent NHS Eatwell guide proposes a reduction in consumption of 89% for beef and 63% for lamb, and a 20% decline in dairy products (Harrabin, 2018).

Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than the combined exhaust from all transportation; methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than CO2, is produced from human activity in almost equal measure from gas leaks during the production and transport of coal, oil and natural gas; and from the flatulence of ruminants such as cattle and sheep, as well as the decay of organic waste, notably in landfills (France-Presse, 2017).

“Cows belching less methane may not be as eye-catching as wind turbines and solar panels, but they are just as vital for addressing climate change” says prof. Dave Reay for France-Presse (2017).

Joseph Poore at the University of Oxford says that avoiding the consumption of animal products altogether delivers far better environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy (Carrington, 2018).

Anthropocentrism

Anthropocentrism is a philosophy which regards human beings as the central or most significant entities in the world, separate from and superior to nature which is a resource that may justifiably be exploited for the benefit of humankind (Boslaugh, 2018). Many ethicists find its roots in the Creation story told in the book of Genesis in the Judeo-Christian Bible, in which humans are created in the image of God and are instructed to ‘subdue’ Earth and to ‘have dominion’ over all other living creatures, condoning an instrumental view of nature, where the natural world has value only as it benefits humankind (Boslaugh, 2018).

Burchett (2014) says that ‘our species’ most extensive ecological degradations since the industrial revolution have been inordinately influenced by consumers in societies whose intellectual founders took humans to be the measure of all things, many environmentalists have taken it for granted that ecological degradation is an inevitable side effect of anthropocentrism.

The anthropocentrism that I stand against is that of human-centeredness which fails to value humanity as such and that fails to acknowledge humanity’s dependence and influence upon nature. Burchett (2014) also notes that humanity’s ecological predicament is not the result of overvaluing humanity, but of “permitting institutionalized forms of ethical egoism to underlie policies that narrowly focus on the short-term, frivolous interests of current individuals at the expense of the vital interests of future generations.” But why would we ever permit policies and legislations that are foreseeably detrimental to the long-term satisfaction of basic and vital human interests and contrastingly oppose sustainable development?

Speciesism

Broglio (2011) outlines our relationship to non-human animals by stating we traditionally view them as having limited faculties and we differentiate ourselves from them by measuring them against our considered superiority, and this flattening of animals’ worlds has legitimated any number of cruel acts against animals. The problem of Speciesism involves assigning different values or rights to beings on the basis of the species to which they belong. The concept claims that animals should not be treated as an object or property in the light of their sentient qualities. And yet we assign different values to different animal species – dogs and cats are wrong to hurt and kill but not the same applies to chickens, pigs or cows. This moral hypocrisy is obvious when most of us would protest to the dog-meat trade found in various countries, because we culturally consider it wrong to hurt and eat dogs, but most wouldn’t consider the same attitude towards the so-called ‘meat-bearing animals’. Adams (2014) outlines our desire to separate meat eating and the animals in that we append the word ‘meat’ only when that form is not consumed in our culture [dog-meat, horse-meat] and rename the animal flesh either by dropping the reference to meat (chicken, not chicken-meat), or in the instance of cows by the location from which the portion of flesh comes from.

An influential vegan activist Ed Winters (2018) says that if you put an idea into society long enough, it becomes a societal norm, and if you keep fuelling it, over time it forms part of the society’s culture, then passed from generation to generation it becomes tradition, but “we need only look across the world right now to see that culture and tradition are not good benchmarks of morality.”

Conclusion

Through this post I wanted to build a contextual background of theory to inspire others towards positive social change. I have focused on the pressing issue of climate change and through my research into human-caused environmental issues, a strong link emerged between consumer habits and the damaging effects of animal agriculture on climate change.

Because I am also an activist for animal rights, I have decided to focus on both the ethical issue of animal farming and the scientific findings which suggest rapid change needs to be made in decreasing consumer demand for animal products. I also briefly introduced the topics of anthropocentrism and speciesism.

This project was an eye-opening journey for me, towards sustainability through rejection of conventional consumerism, which includes and prioritizes a vegan diet, or a diet with a minimal presence of animal produce. This finding comes as a result of numerous official sources commenting on the need for decreased global consumption of especially meat, milk, and dairy products in order to effectively combat climate change. This research shifted my lifestyle as well as my outlook on life, the society and my future career prospects as I aim to continue my activist escapades. To conclude, without any further ado, now is the most appropriate time to focus everyone’s attention on reducing our impact on climate change.

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rumblrrr · 3 years

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Five Reasons Why We Need to Expand Metro Manila’s Protected Bike Lanes

Cycling is one of the great inventions of humanity as it is highly reliable, low maintenance, and low cost. It’s role in our society has been greatly highlighted due to the COVID-19 pandemic -- bicycle manufacturers ran out of supply quickly due to lockdowns and scarcity of raw materials. My country, the Philippines, capitalized on this phenomenon by slowly creating a bicycle highway that connects multiple cities in the capital metropolis. Although this “highway” is far from being perfect or even good, the effort is definitely commendable. In my opinion, one of the reasons why Metro Manila’s bike lanes aren’t good enough as of now is due to the fact that most of them aren’t protected. A huge stretch of these lanes are just lines painted on the ground that motorists often disrespect. Protected bike lanes are the lanes that have concrete barriers or fixed bollards that protect cars or even motorcycles from getting in and out of the bike lane. Here are five reasons why we highly need it in major thoroughfares.

Cycling is a viable form of transportation.

The perfect example to state the case of cycling transportation is none other than the Netherlands. The Dutch have perfected their road design to not only include bike lanes but to prioritize them. I am an avid fan of this YouTube channel called Not Just Bikes which tackles bike lanes, commuting, pedestrian rights, and urban design.

This YouTube channel explained in great detail how and why it is important to prioritize pedestrian-friendly urban design and cycle paths. One of the notable videos I saw from them was “I am not a "Cyclist" (and most Dutch people aren't either)” which calls attention to cycling for transport. The importance that I got from it is that most Dutch people aren’t people dressed in lycra nor watch the Tour de France or Giro d’Italia fanatically -- they just use bikes to go from point A to point B. In these videos, you’ll see different kinds of people and from all walks of life ride a bike in the cycle path to go to their destination.

Metro Manila’s cities could be bikeable especially if we get our major thoroughfares such as EDSA, Commonwealth Ave., Aurora Blvd, Shaw Boulevard, etc. to have protected bike lanes. This single lane shall only cater bikes, e-scooters, and other forms of active mobility. One good example is my daily commute to work before the pandemic. My route is from Cubao, Quezon City to Ayala Ave., Makati City, total time to get there inclusive of traffic and walking-to and from bus stations/jeepney stops, is about an hour and half to a couple of hours. I’ve tried to cycle to the same destination without bike lanes in EDSA and I was able to get there in about 30 minutes with the only stops being traffic lights. A mere 14 kilometer commute shortened greatly with the health benefits of exercise (I am not considering the pollution though).

Cycling as a form of exercise.

The recent pandemic gave remote work a huge boost in relevance. A lot of desk or office jobs got relocated to the employee’s homes, Zoom meetings became relevant, and the sedentary lifestyle became more pertinent. Myself being one of those who was fortunate to be working from home in these trying times, I became less physically active. Apart from doing household chores and the occasional grocery shopping for supplies once a week, I am stuck in the house and just sitting almost throughout the whole day. Until one day, I found my love for cycling back and I believe it is one of the safest things to do while in quarantine as you don’t really need physical interaction to do it and it is a great workout.

The Philippines saw a huge boom in cycling for fitness. Pre-pandemic, the people who cycled in SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City were amateur and pro-level athletes that were doing laps for training. Nowadays, almost everyone that has a bike has onced cycled within that area to either admire the Manila bay sunrise/sunset or just plain hang out with friends.

Having protected bike lanes to access these kinds of destinations should be prioritized for everyone’s safety. These famous cyclist destinations are only accessed by major highways and a lot of cycling beginners are naturally curious on how to get to these places.

Impact of cycling in battling climate change.

Global warming and climate change is getting worse every year as carbon emissions get harder and harder to decrease. Let’s face it though, gasoline or petrol as the prime energy source won’t go away in the near future. Cycling can help battle climate change because bikes are powered by humans. Not batteries (although some are), not fuel, not nuclear energy -- just plain human strength. I understand that cycling may not be for everyone due to physical fitness, disability or other reasons. But the majority of us can opt to cycle to work, school, or to just do chores.

Choosing to cycle means choosing a better environment, not only for today but also for a better tomorrow. In the case of my residence, Metro Manila is stiflingly hot. Just today, 5th of May, the heat index reached about 36 degrees celsius. If we can only plant more trees or plants along protected bike lanes, our bike commuters can feel comfort amidst the heat of the dry season.

This effort should also be a catalyst for better urban design policies and projects from our decision makers.

Bike lanes as a tool to help our streets become safer.

Road accidents are pretty much commonplace in the Philippines, just go to a busy street and you will notice that a lot of motorists are speeding, motorcycles splitting lanes, jeepneys driving like a madman, yet pedestrians are squeezed into small spaces they call “sidewalks”.

Decades of bad urban design is one the causes of this as infrastructure efforts were focused on easing traffic congestion such as road widening, practically removing sidewalks from roads. Construction of protected bike lanes can be a way to bring back these sidewalks. This doesn’t mean that pedestrians should walk on these lanes, what I am insinuating is that we can use this project to construct these sidewalks again. If we take one whole lane from motorists, we can definitely slow them down making safer streets.

To lessen traffic congestion.

Metro Manila’s traffic congestion has gotten worse throughout the years. Too many infrastructure projects focusing on new expressways and road widenings inducing demand for cars, in addition to easier ways to obtain a car and a lack of regulation on car ownership. The roads felt like a can of sardines in the rush hours of the day. The lack of focus on public transportation had also been a factor into the middle class opting to use a car or choose car-hailing apps such as Grab and Uber back then.

Solutions presented in social media often include decongesting Metro Manila by developing new mega cities such as Clark, Pampanga, though not easy as it seems to be, and that effort, in my opinion should come organically and not forced. To ease congestion, we must focus on getting car owners to give up car usage on the weekdays by presenting viable transportation options. This includes, but not limited to, a better public transportation system such as an efficient train system that arrives on time, a rapid bus transit system where the lines are very minimal and buses also arrive on time, as well as active mobility options such as bikes, e-scooters, walking, etc.

This presents the idea of creating a protected bike lane. Taking one lane from motorists and creating a designated lane for bikes should be a priority in order to promote this form of mobility. This effort could also convince car owners, especially the ones who can use bikes to make the switch. Over time, traffic congestion will ease.

To conclude, protected bike lanes are definitely a must for every mega city like Metro Manila as the benefits really outweigh the disadvantages. Not only is it safe, it is also focused on a better community building with more pedestrian activity and also promotes a healthier lifestyle.

05/18/2021

#urban design #cycling #bike commuting #safer streets #pedestrian safety

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