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silvia7272 · 4 years

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ML Salt ~ The Cardigan Story

This is based on a true story.

Honestly, I always remembered this story because it constantly made my Sister and Mum laugh when I told them I outed a liar at school by wearing a cardigan, they were so proud of me because what I did wasn’t mean and I wasn’t even doing it out maliciousness so I thought, hey why not put it in the ML universe?

This isn’t canon to my main series so no Rosina since there isn’t any need for her, sorry sweetie.

And since I doubt Mlle Bustier would never out Lila, I’m changing the teacher to someone who actually has a backbone.

Word Count: 2303

Tags: @queenmj10, @fangirl39, @animegirlweeb, @northernbluetongue, @maribat-is-lifeblood, @raisuke06, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @luleck, @themotherofhogwarts, @more-or-less-human-i-guess, if you wish to be tagged all you have to do is say. Also, if you change your name please tell me, I don’t want to leave you out since you’ve asked to be tagged.

I know you may not wish to be tagged for one-shots, but I thought you might enjoy some salt I was able to come up with.

Also, I wrote this in one day so I’m extremely proud of myself.

***

If you told Marinette that Lila’s reign over the school would end over a cardigan, she would tell you you’re as crazy as she was about Adrien.

A lot.

But, she did just that.

She had to thank Adrien really, the ‘advice’ he gave her was what really pushed her.

She wouldn’t outright expose her, no, she had tried that before and look where that got her, near expulsion that’s what. And not one of her friends tried to stick up for her. She always remembered that glare Alix gave her, and since then she had been ignored, turned away by them.

Even after Lila came out with ‘the truth’ she was still seen as an overly jealous girl.

“Lila’s promised she hasn’t lied about anything else she’s said to us, it only acts up around people she doesn’t know as well, maybe next time, instead of being jealous you should give her a chance and stop being a baby. Girl this all could’ve easily been avoided if you weren’t so Adrien crazy”

Really? They actually believed that load of crap?

Whatever, Marinette was done, done with everyone.

If they wanted to show her how wrong she was then she’d let them wait until hell would frost over, because fat chance that would ever happen.

If Marinette was proud of one thing about her then it would have to be her stubbornness to get to the truth.

And she could be extremely patient.

***

It was just an average day at Collège Françoise Dupont. There weren’t any Akuma’s caused by anyone the previous day so Marinette was finally able to have a good night’s rest, something the exhausted teenager really missed.

She felt so re-energised she danced in the kitchen as she made breakfast without a care in the world.

Before she fell over that was.

“…Owww”

“Careful dear, you wouldn’t want to be hurt before school hours, now just sit tight and I’ll get you something to eat,” Her Maman said. Marinette felt grateful. After breakfast, she gave her Parents a kiss before leaving.

She had loving parents that supported her every beck and call.

…Well most of the time, but that didn’t matter, she would never let Lila manipulate them ever, her Parents were off-limits.

By the time she arrived at school she was one of the first ones there, Nathaniel in the back drawing his comics, texting Marc as well, it seemed like he was in his own ‘do not disturb’ bubble. Max was talking to Markov about some new type of game, and Rose and Juleka were just cuddling.

She made her way to the back feeling a positive emotion before exhaling.

Because it was about to be ruined.

Lila walked in with Alya, Nino and Adrien by her side.

She was telling a story about her ‘one of a kind cardigan-

Wait-

“My Grandmother made this cardigan especially for me carving her signature on as well, it’s the only one in existence because shortly after she made this, she ended up being in a terrible accident that left her bedridden.” They pandered to her of course. But for once she wasn’t focusing on the lie but the cardigan.

Oh, Lila’s only gone and done it now.

“I’ve always wanted to wear it, but I didn’t want it to end up ruined by someone” Her gaze casually went up to a lone bluenette, but she really wasn’t bothered.

“Don’t worry girl, I’ll keep a watchful eye on your cardigan for you. Ain't nothing gonna come between me and my besties property” They hugged before sitting down in their spaces.

‘Oh my god, I have a plan’ Marinette had that thought circled around her head until break. It was all she thought of.

Mind you, she wasn’t trying to expose everything she’d done, just that one lie. And that would be enough.

As soon as the bell rang, she was ready, she gathered her stuff and rushed home.

And thank god as well, Lila would not shut up about that cardigan, through Literature, Science and PE, it was constantly my Grandmother made it for me this, it’s the only one of its kind that.

Ugh, she wanted to rip her ears out at some point but had to endure it. No one else was bothered since they all believed her, even the teachers!

Yeah, you don’t really need any proof if it was handmade, some of Marinette’s earlier stuff didn’t have her signature on, but still, it was the principle of the matter!

And she could right that wrong.

In her room she was frantically searching for that item as Tikki dodged different articles of clothing, one hit her as she wasn’t looking, and she was down for the count.

“Marinette what are you looking for?” Marinette paused to look back at Tikki before continuing a bit calmer.

“Lila’s been lying about that cardigan and this time I can prove it.” Her eyes lit up as she lifted a cardigan up from her cupboard.

“One of Maman’s friends gave this to me a few years back, it was one of the reasons I got into fashion because of how soft it is and I wanted to replicate that. Don’t you think it looks familiar?” As Tikki looked over it her eyes widened, she knew Lila was lying anyway but she had no idea Marinette had definitive proof of it.

“That’s the same cardigan Lila has!” Marinette nodded before wearing it.

At least it still fit.

“But Marinette I thought we were gonna take the high ground?”

“Tikki it's tiring having to listen to them being lied too. I may not want them to be my friends anymore, but I just want the lying to stop. If I go and tell them that she’s lying with this as evidence they’ll clearly see she’s lying”

“But outing her like that won’t make it better!” Marinette wished she could respond with ‘are you sure’ but didn’t want to piss the mini-god off.

“Fine, what if I just wear it until someone notices, that way I’m not actively looking to publicly shame her? Better?” Tikki gave a reluctant nod, she knew her chosen wouldn’t let up about the situation, besides this whole thing was really just pettiness, nothing too serious. If no one noticed nothing bad would happen.

“Bye Maman, bye Papa” As she began walking back, she grew a bit nervous with her plan.

What if Lila made a whole other lie about her cardigan? What if she lied that Marinette had stolen it out of jealousy and everyone would try to take hers? She’d have to run away and live with a secret identity, all before getting caught and going to prison, and she’d never have her three kids and her hamster named-

“Ahem Marinette, is thou there?” A hand brought her out of her trance

“Ahhh!” She waved her arms before composing herself and seeing D’Argencourt in front of her.

“Ah, yes Monsieur?” How long had he been standing there? How long had she been rambling in her head?

“As I was saying, these new garments of yours, where did they originate from?” It took her a while before realising he was talking about her cardigan, she was so used to wearing her jacket it felt strange she had changed.

“Ohh this, well it was a present from Maman’s friend. They were on sale a few years back, so I thought I’d wear it again” He furrowed his brow before telling her to carry on with whatever she was doing.

“Well, that was weird. Do you think he liked the jacket?” Tikki ponded as her head ever so slightly popped out the small handbag.

“He’s always been weird Tikki. But whatever, let's just get back to the classroom.” All she had to do was wait.

***

‘How the hell hasn’t anyone noticed yet?’ Marinette was secretly fuming in her mind right now. None of her classmates noticed the change in her outfit.

Not one.

Bustier did however, the bluenette was sure because she’d see her teacher quickly glance from Marinette to Lila but never said a word. Probably thinking of that whole, ‘be the bigger person’ crap.

And not even the excuse of maybe Bustier didn’t know, bs. By the time break happened everyone in the school knew about that damn cardigan so don’t get her started.

‘Oh well, looks like that’s it. My petty revenge came flat… At least Lila didn’t pull a Marinette ruined my belongings stunt’ That would’ve been the last thing she needed.

Knock Knock Knock

The door opened before Bustier could reply, a teacher would reprimand a student for this type of rudeness, but it wasn’t a student.

It was a teacher.

And it was Monsieur D’Argencourt.

‘What the-’ Marinette didn’t remember this part of the plan.

“Excuse me Caline, but I need to interrupt the class for an announcement.” Bustier was about to deny but D’Argencourt the stubborn teacher as he was, walked straight on through ignoring whatever Bustier would’ve said.

“Lila Rossi, may you please step in front of the classroom?” Lila looking completely confused let go off Adrien, much to the relief of the boy, and walked in front of her desk.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” He didn’t need to repeat the command.

Yes, command not a request.

“Can I ask you where you got your cardigans from?”

“Armand, I don’t think this is appropriate-” He shot a glare back at the teacher.

“I can assure you this won’t take long if I’m not interrupted”

Lila looked over to Marinette and realised with a sinking feeling what was happening. But she would win this time. Just like all the others.

“My Grandmother made this specifically, you see-”

He held a hand up to silence her.

“Yes, that’s quite alright, and Marinette would you like to repeat what you said before?” As Marinette did just that Lila was seething, he cut her off. How dare that simpleton cut off Lila Rossi!

He would pay.

“Well, it appears one of you is lying, and I expect that person to own up to it now” The class gasped as they all looked expectedly at Marinette, they knew she was petty but to do this was so low.

Lila looked at her smugly, she had tried to play with fire but got burned in the process. How could she even think she’d get away with this?

“I was talking about you, Lila Rossi”

“Eh, what?” The class gasped as they tried to say of course Lila was innocent, Marinette was the one lying. Or that Marinette must’ve tricked him.

He shot a glare towards all the class members as they instantly shut up.

“I don’t remember this being a class discussion, if I want your opinion, I will ask for it. Understood?” They nodded before giving sympathetic glances towards the brunette, D’Argencourt almost had the urge to shout at their incompetence but alas they were kids.

“I can tell you why you are lying Lila, with a photo. But as I’m feeling generous, I will give you one more chance to reveal yourself.” The class was silent as they all looked on in anticipation.

But Lila stood her ground defiantly, as if he actually had proof-

Oh…

Oh no she’s doomed…

“Then I don’t suppose this looks familiar? Hmm?” On his phone was a picture. Lila immediately lowered her head, too ashamed to look him in the eye.

3 guesses of what it is?

No.

No one?

Too easy?

Ok, it was the cardigan.

And at a fairly cheap price. No wonder she had it in brand new condition.

“I first knew you were lying once I saw Marinette wear the exact same one, however, hers was clearly worn out, evidently she has worn it for several amount of years. You had already messed up when you said it was the only one made. So please…” Lila looked up to see D’Argencourt giving one of the most frightening glares of the century.

“Don’t ever lie about anything to my face or anyone ever again, you will be court out and I will be keeping an eye on you. Is that final?” She meekly nodded her head, trying to give a frightened appearance to make him have sympathy but he was immune.

“That will be all. I hope your class has learned a valuable lesson of not taking things at face value” And with that, he left. Leaving Marinette with a different impression of her PE teacher, it seemed he didn’t like liars all that much.

Marinette smiled, her plan worked, and she didn’t even out her herself. Tikki surely can’t be mad at her now.

Bustier tried to get the class to go back to normal but she couldn’t. The class erupted into a screaming fit, asking how Lila could lie about that sort of thing?

It wasn’t until someone unexpected said the next few words she wondered if this was a dream.

“Hey if Lila lied about this what else did she lie about? She even said herself she doesn’t lie to her friends but that was a lie” That made the class tick as they soon realised and soon torn into her about it.

Leaving Lila, a ‘sobbing mess’ on the floor. All before she stopped that fake display and arguing back.

But the one who said that…

Was Adrien.

He was able to slip by the crowd and stand next to Marinette.

No words were said, she knew what he would’ve said even without the noise.

‘I’m sorry’

It was a start, and maybe through time, she could start trusting again.

But for now, she just wanted to enjoy this chaos…

Before there was an Akuma alert.

***

I want more D’Argencourt I want more D’Argencourt I want more D’Argencourt. I probably screwed his speech but oh well this is salt, doesn’t have to be accurate.

Phew, hope you enjoyed it, sorry its shorter than the others but this happened when I was in Year 5 and I was 9/10 years old. Woo 10 years ago, god that makes me feel old. Also, not everything was exactly this way, the teacher did out the person in front of the whole class, but she admitted it and went back to her class, we had two classes for maths. Anyway, I actually have to give Lila credit compared to the liar we had at our school, this person actually knew I had that cardigan and actually complimented me on it like months earlier and still had the audacity to say that. I think that’s the reason why I think if I was in their world I wouldn’t believe Lila because I already had a Lila at my school who would always say they’ve done the exact same thing as we had (They even said they had the same Aunt as me living on the same street, crazy right). Mind you they never said anything to me, I think they were too embarrassed plus, I was a goody little two-shoes there.

Anyway I really hope you enjoy it and if you like real-life stories so much I can always try to ask my friends for more ideas, I did have like some slightly toxic friends there that I may be able to tell you about but I’ll try to think how later.

Cya next time.

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critical-thinking-is-mandatory · 3 years

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miraculous ladybug and smart characters.

there’s actually quite a few smart characters in miraculous ladybug, but the only one we’re really made to believe is smart is max.

this got very long so i’m putting it under a cut.

max kante. there’s no denying that he’s smart, but if you’re writing a smart character and you decide to make them like max well....you’ve misunderstood what makes a person smart.

what does max do to ‘prove’ that he’s smart?

well he:

lists percentages of probability

recalls obscure facts

made an AI robot friend

uses big words

i’ve probably missed something but this is how we’re shown that max is smart. and well it’s not wrong, you do need to be smart to make such a sophisticated AI as markov but...

spouting exact probabilities and facts doesn’t actually make you smart.

for starters, recalling facts is an aspect of memory not understanding, and understanding concepts is a better indicator of intelligence than memorising concepts.

my senior physics teacher really liked to make a point of this by letting us take our own formula sheets into exams. the kicker was that we only had to apply our understanding of the formulas, not whether or not we could remember them in the first place.

as for percentage probability, well, i’ve only touched on probability in my university career but modelling the probability of real life situations includes a lot more complexity and accounting for error than is really possible from just whacking a few numbers into a calculator.

and the big words, well. most often people who use big words during casual conversation are usually people pretending that they’re smarter than they actually are.

basically, max is your stereotypical Smart Character TM, and like most stereotypes, there’s a lot of wrong information floating around about said character type.

(just an FYI this is not to say that stereotypes about smart people are in anyway as harmful as stereotypes based on race, gender, sexuality, or neurodivergent people. this is just an examination of what people get wrong with smart characters.)

so, if that’s wrong, and smart people don’t all list facts and percentage probability, and use big words and make robot friends, how can we know a character is smart then?

well, ‘smart’ is a lot more complicated than media, especially kids media, likes to present it as. we’re always led to believe that a character (and thus real life people) are only smart if they excel in STEM subject areas. so smart characters speak in technobabble, are really good at programming and robotics and physics and chemistry, always get the best grades in school, and so on and so forth.

and that’s just not true.

there’s so much more to being smart than maths and ‘hard sciences’ and good grades.

for starters, the grading system used by schools and tertiary education systems is biased towards students who can recall facts aka people with good memories and people who have dozens of spare hours to spend studying.

now, there are tons of reasons for people to have difficulties recalling facts. the first is that memorising things is hard. this goes doubly so for people with memory problems associated with mental illness or neurodivergence or certain disabilities.

on the second point, you might notice that students at private schools (upper-middle to upper class students) tend to have better grades. going off of the ‘better grades = smarter people’ logic that means rich people are smarter than poor people. i shouldn’t have to explain how that’s bad.

(newsflash: it’s also not true. kids from wealthier families don’t have to spend their spare time at work and their parents can afford private tutors and teachers at private schools tend to be held to higher standards.)

as for being good at STEM subjects, i’m going to let you guys in on a little secret. it comes from practice. you don’t have to be naturally gifted in maths to excel at it. being as i call it, STEM brained versus humanities brained, may make some of the concepts easier to understand initially but it’s really not a make-or-break situation.

(the girl in my grade in high school who got the highest marks for advanced maths did so out of hard work alone. she’s very smart, but humanities oriented. my little sister got a state prize for her scores in physics, and let me tell you, maths does not come easy to her.)

so, if it’s not good grades, or being good at STEM, or having robot sidekicks, or speaking technobabble, what does make a character/person smart?

well it’s about the thought process.

questioning, weighing options, using logic to get the most reward with the least risk.

this site here (springhole.net) is an excellent resource for writing and roleplaying and also has a more in-depth walk-through of how smart people and characters work.

smart people and smart characters tend to, you guessed it, use their heads. they pay attention, and often notice details that other people miss.

all of these things are actually pretty subtle (and we all know the miraculous creators can’t do subtlety) so we’re actually seeing a lot more smart characters in miraculous than we’re being led to believe.

like i said before, most obvious is max. max’s intelligence is frequently shown to us with all the grace of a frying pan to the ear. less obvious but still obvious enough that every corner of the fandom has noticed are marinette and adrien.

i’ll get to marinette in a minute, but for now we’ll talk about adrien.

adrien is, as far as i can recall seeing in canon, stated to get good grades. correct me if i’m wrong of course, but that’s the only thing i can think of to prove adrien as smart. getting good grades is one of the main stereotypes about smart people so check one for adrien.

adrien is also obscenely wealthy and has a controlling father with high expectations so, as far as his grades go, i doubt it’s down to any natural gifts of superior intellect.

like i said before, people with money have access to all the best resources, the best teachers, the best tutors, and of course time. adrien’s days are scheduled by nathalie, and with gabriel’s expectations of perfection i very much doubt she’d be skimping on adrien’s study time.

so, adrien’s good grades: probably not actually an indicator of intelligence, but of practice.

marinette is also stated to get good grades but that alone isn’t the only proof we get of her being smart. marinette is constantly coming up with plans, making things, is clever enough to leave herself a clue in oblivio to get help, as well as figure out that she and adrien were actually superheroes, and she’s proven to have a high level of emotional intelligence (not necessarily an indicator of overall intelligence and more linked to empathy but the point still stands).

marinette’s good grades we’ve seen clearly come from practice, but there are so many other ways she proves herself to be smart.

alya is one character that certainly gets written off as being dumb by the fandom, when actually, i doubt she is.

canon hasn’t done alya or the rest of the characters any favours by doing things like having lila be a pretty average liar, and making alya think chloe was ladybug in lady wifi, but when she and other characters aren’t being dumbed down because that’s the only way the creators know how to make the plot work, she’s actually pretty clever.

alya knows how clumsy marinette can be so she made a copy of the important video of ladybug before showing it to marinette, the ladyblog is really popular so alya’s clearly got an understanding of how to make her writing appealing to an audience, and we see in the ladybug episode that alya takes a methodical approach to try and clear marinette’s name.

so it’s not obvious, and whoever is writing the show needs some serious help to not make everyone look stupid because their villain isn’t competent enough, but alya is smart. we’re just not being led along by the nose and having the fact shoved in our faces.

there are other characters too, nino, nathalie, nathaniel, i’d say juleka and luka too probably but i’m not going to go into them right now.

what i’m trying to say is: smart characters aren’t always obvious and smart people don’t usually look like the smart people in cartoons. there are a lot more smart characters in ml than you probably realise, just like in real life. good at STEM doesn’t equal smart! and if you have to make your usual characters dumb to make your villain/plot point work you’re not as good a writer as you think you are.

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davewakeman · 4 years

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Talking Tickets 12 June 2020--AFL! MLB! Revenue! And, More!

Hey There!

Thanks for being here again this week. If you are enjoying this newsletter, tell your friends and colleagues to sign up by visiting this link.

If you aren’t a member of the Slack community, join now. Folks in 12 different time zones get together there to talk tickets and learn from each other.

How is it mid-June? How’s everyone holding up?

I’m relatively fine. Only relatively because if you’ve never seen a string of those 90+ DC summer days, you don’t know what a heatwave is.

Check out a special session I’m doing with Eric Fuller’s Rescue Meet serieson Tuesday, 16 June at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST. I’m leading his session on sales and marketing and we will be doing a little talky thing, but the core of the event is a 30-45 minute break out of my workshop where we are going to focus on rethinking our strategies, coming up with a diagnosis of the real challenge to tackle, and create some action items to move us forward. It is FREE, but you have to get an invitation by visiting the Rescue Meet website.

Don’t forget Happy Hour with me and my buddy, Ken Troupe, this afternoon at 5 PM EDT.

To the tickets!

————————————————————————————————————

1. Reopening in many shapes and forms:

We continue to power forward with the reopening of sports, at least. With concerts and other performances still in a place that lacks a lot of certainty or clarity for when things will be safe to return to normal.

While there are no fans, we will see La Liga return this week and the Premier League restart next week, even if I am going to have to wait a few more days to see Dele Alli.

For many venues, making the most of a bad situation has meant adjusting their business model to allow their venues to become drive-ins and gathering places of a different sort.

The NBA and MLS are going to Orlando in July and Orlando is going to get a moment in the spotlight, though if you haven’t heard of Orlando and Disney…I’m not sure what planet you’ve been on.

What will be curious is whether or not folks actually change their habits after sports comes back and further after folks can attend games. As with everything, the first rule of marketing is to remember that you aren’t your market and that folks often say one thing and do another.

The thing that is obvious is that we need fans in the stands, the Bundesliga has shown that fans matter to the atmosphere, home-field advantage, and…revenue, of course.

Any signs of progress are welcome.

I still would say that I’m cautious because it seems that the science points to an uncertain timeline around a vaccine and cases still building in a lot of places.

I was chatting with my friends in Tokyo about 10 days ago and they were mentioning that the cases were low and I saw this piece about masks in Japan. I think what a lot of us are missing is a clear direction that says “wear the mask because it helps reduce transmission, lessens community spread, and reduces the likelihood of more disruptive actions.”

Of course, I’ve also never realized how filthy too many people are with not washing their hands, covering their mouths when they are coughing and sneezing, and other stuff…

Anyway, continue to keep an eye on the reopening activities like starting up games and events with no or few fans like the AFL’s match with 2,000 fans in attendance. The performances of theatre around the world. And, how the virus is impacting other countries as they move through the different phases of reopening.

And, what do you think about Garth Brooks’s idea?

2. Revenue! Revenue! Revenue!

Somewhere along the line, I should have shared a piece I saw about how brands were discovering that a lot of their partnerships weren’t paying off.

Part of this is because folks weren’t really making the business case for sponsorship and relying too heavily on emotions and fluff.

The reality is that sponsorships is just one part of the larger revenue puzzle that will need to be reimagined coming out of the pandemic.

We are going to have to put our heads together and rethink a lot of the things that we have taken for granted or just “always done that way” like:

* Sales * Marketing * Customer retention * Customer service * Merchandise * Food and beverage

I can go on.

To achieve our revenue goals in the future, we are going to need to think through how we use technology, what our business models and processes look like, and many other things.

In fact, I think to see the industry of sports, the arts, and other forms entertainment continue to grow, we are going to have to see a much higher level of comfort with innovation become the norm.

In the arts and theatre, the unwillingness to change has popped up in the need for many organizations to try and figure how to become digital and offer digital solutions now.

Where was the urgency before a pandemic set in?

The same goes for the sports organizations that still rely on ~40% or more of their revenue from fans coming to the venue?

Why hasn’t the reinvention of the in-game business model been the number one priority?

I’ll tell you three things when I look at this:

First, we can’t get stuck in the way things have always been done. Obviously, no one can plan for a depression and a pandemic…but we really should be doing more risk planning and stress testing of our organizations so that we can be a lot more flexible in how we generate revenue and more secure in our business practices.

Second, right now is a great opportunity to rethink how you are doing business. In too many instances, I sit on webinars and Zoom calls where the gist of the conversation is about how quickly we can ramp back to “normal” and when I look at how many challenges and points of weakness that the industry was facing before the pandemic…I want to go, “Get back to normal? Are you kidding? That’s the best we can do?”

Maybe I’m just grumpy today? Or, maybe I’m just tired of watching the same bad habits get run on repeat.

You tell me!

3. How do businesses fall apart? Slowly at first, and then all at once…or how MLB is determined to miss a great opportunity to have the spotlight:

MLB seems to continue to move down a path towards no season…and it leaves a lot of folks scratching their heads.

Last week, I shared the story about the Cubs claiming that 70% of their revenue comes from having fans at their games. And, I’ve been adamant about the need to rethink business models, pricing structures, and the underlying approach to having folks at games as a way to make sure that attendance isn’t sacrificed at the foot of revenue…which is what is happening all too frequently now.

We also saw MLB lose Coca-Cola as a sponsor this week as well, due to “budgetary concerns” which is code for they don’t see the value of a partnership with someone they’ve been associated with, in a major way for a long time.

What’s even crazier is that baseball seems to spend a lot of time on ideas that would hurt their TV monies as well.

MLB, “call me, please!”

If I were an academic and not a marketer, I would have a paper out that would talk about how the economics of the baseball standoff mirror a lot of the challenges we are dealing with in the American and global economies as a whole…but I’m not so instead I’ll offer up these ideas for how baseball can move forward to salvage this season, but the long-term potential of the game.

First, let’s get a season with somewhere between 70-80 games, expanded rosters, and some sort of pro-rated salary for the players.

To quote Gary Adler, “the owners seem to be jumping over dollars to pick up dimes.”

If the nuclear bomb of no baseball season at any level goes off, I don’t really know that MLB recovers because despite “record” revenues, real attendance is crap, interest in the game isn’t that high, and the already aging fan base is only getting older.

To be clear, if the money saved by not paying minor league players and squeezing a few million out of the players is going to make or break your business…the sport has a much bigger problem.

Second, lay on the marketing as much as possible.

Someone asked me about what is being aired on the MLB network and why they weren’t showing a greater variety of stuff.

I don’t have the answer. I know marketing and not television…but there are so many historical games and so much historical footage, it seems like a missed opportunity to not share these things and give the generation of fans that are still diehard baseball fans the chance to share some of the things they love with folks that might not have experienced baseball in this way before.

4. What will saving the theatre and the arts look like?

In general, I’m a fan of offering public support to the arts because I think the arts are so important for doing a few things like helping us understand other folks’ point of view, explaining complex ideas, and bringing us together. That funding the arts seems like a value in a lot of instances.

In the United States, there are a few industry-led efforts to lobby the government for help for the live entertainment industry. I’m not holding my breath on action anytime soon. But I do appreciate the effort…it is necessary.

In the UK an idea is being floated to allow folks to invest in theatres.

Last week, I shared some of the things that Australia and New Zealand are doing to support the arts. And, this week, the German government has stepped in with a $1.13 billion dollar package to help get their countries arts and entertainment venues back up and running. These are really great starts to helping the industry get back up and running.

As a general topic, I’m concerned about the future of the arts coming out of the pandemic because we’ve seen the funding for the arts be whittled away in so many places.

But the bigger challenge as I mentioned in the revenue section is the need to reinvent our businesses and to rethink how we are marketing and selling our experiences.

The idea that the London Symphony Orchestra is offering up is novel with a shortened production and two performances a night to help maintain social distancing.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a lot of folks share social distance mapping, even if I’ve felt like a lot of this was just ducking the hard work of thinking about how to actually create something that will bridge the gap between where we are now and where we need to get to in the future when we get the virus tamed and are able to have full capacity shows again.

I know we have to work to save the arts and theatre and here are a few suggestions:

First, we need to get some sort for the arts and artists at a government level. Full stop. These buildings are centers in our communities and the artists that make the arts are necessary for these investments to make art happen.

Second, saving the arts is a good time to rethink the relationship between the arts, the buildings, and the communities. We’ve become used to the idea that a stadium can revitalize a downtown area, whether or not that actually happens or not.

What about an opera house or an arts center?

If you’ve ever been to Sydney, you’ll know that the arts buildings are just as much gathering places as any stadium…maybe more so.

Right now is a great time to rethink the relationship between the buildings, the performances, and the community to allow them to take center stage as cultural homes and gathering spaces in the future.

I mean, look at the MoPop in Seattle.

You can experience that place inside and outside the building. Lincoln Center, the same. Insert your favorite here.

I don’t have a complete answer for how to use these buildings as indoor/outdoor community spaces going forward now, but I do think back to the concerts on the pier in Seattle during the summer. Or, the way that we’d have concerts for small groups in the Liquid Lounge at the EMP.

And, I recognize that it may be difficult to come up with a solution…there are opportunities.

More importantly, if we aren’t really pulling out all the stops…we may face a situation where many arts organizations do have such catastrophic losses that they can never recover.

Remember, this isn’t a fight that just the arts are fighting, nightlife, pubs, and other folks are all in similar positions and making sure folks fight for their industries is essential.

5. The AFL is in a good spot due to owning Marvel Stadium, but being creative with their revenue streams should be a priority:

File this one under, if you are nice to me, I love you…but I’m a fan of Marvel Stadium and the AFL.

As I’ve mentioned on many occasions, I look at the membership model that some of their clubs offer like Melbourne FC as something everyone around the world should be looking to emulate because it allows them to drive attendance and monetize their global market.

The article above talks about many of the leagues in Australia and how the AFL owning Marvel Stadium has allowed them to have a stronger position than other codes in Australia.

One of the frightening things for a lot of folks as they read through this piece is how the television broadcasters have used the pandemic and the shutdown period to drive down the prices of rights fees. At some point, I think that is a reckoning that a lot of folks are going to be dealing with and I’m certain that this is a scary idea because the expectation that Facebook or Amazon was just going to swoop in hasn’t materialized and I’m not sure if it will.

If you’ve been paying attention to the ongoing challenges Rugby Australia is dealing with, you’ll see that having assets that you can control and that can insulate you from the moment-to-moment ups and downs of business can be helpful in helping you avoid making short-term decisions that are potentially harmful in the long-run.

The truth is that the AFL is a window into the heart of what a lot of organizations in the arts, theatre, sports, concerts, and other live events are dealing with. And there are three things I think we can look to AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan as we head out into our week:

1. Recognize the human side of all of these struggles. Behind every decision are real people that have had their lives disrupted or worse.

2. Be creative. The AFL gained possession of Marvel Stadium when everything was great and this has enabled them to be more in control of their code as the pandemic has played out.

3. Make sure you focus on the right questions. The AFL recognizes that this season is a wipeout on profits and a lot of revenue, so instead of just trying to squeeze everything out of that…they are continuing to focus on recovery and growth. While it doesn’t take the short-term pain away, it does get the focus off of pain and panic and onto progress and positivity. —————————————————————————————————————-

What am I up to this week?

As I mentioned at the top of the program, I’m leading Eric Fuller’s Rescue Meet session on 16 June on sales and marketing. It is open to VPs and executives of organizations around the world and you can sign up for an invitation to the event on the Rescue Meet website.

I’m still at home…so I’m not visiting a city near you, yet. But if you want to chat about something or just need someone to chat to, let me know.

Get yourself some podcast episodes by going to my podcast landing page. I’m working on having some really great new guests around finance, marketing, and strategy…so something a little different than normal.

Check out my website and blog.

Please follow and like us:

Talking Tickets 12 June 2020–AFL! MLB! Revenue! And, More! was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

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formerdetective · 7 years

Note

So now that you're back (!!!), I really need your thoughts about when Blake and Gwen's actual anniversary is, like we've obviously passed it this summer, but do you have any new thoughts about when/how they got together since your last science posts? #thesignsthesignsthesigns

Ohhh I’m so excited for this ask!! I don’t have any NEW thoughts per se, but I feel like she/they reinforced my existing theory.

I have always said I think July 7 is their anniversary…the date when they had their unexpected, never in their wildest dreams (lol i think they dreamt about it plenty but anyway…), colorado hit & everything changed moment.

The reasons:

1. In Harper’s Bazaar (i think) the article quotes her as saying July 7, and says she’s talking about when she found out about Blake’s divorce. However, it doesn’t explicitly quote her saying “I found out about the divorce on July 7.” it just gives the date.

This answer has never made any sense. Filming took place June 29-30 & July 7-8. He filed for divorce on July 6. Blake’s version of the story says he told everyone before the season started, so that they wouldn’t make things awkward by mentioning ML. He knew well in advance that everything would be finalized by the time the season aired, there’s no reason for him to have waited until after he filed, when he was hoping to avoid weirdness.

In my opinion, it makes a lot more sense that she threw out July 7 because it was a date at the front of her mind, and the interviewer took it as an answer to ‘when did you learn about blake’s divorce?’…she has done this on other occasions like when she implied she wrote MMLY in January even though she wrote it in September. Sneaky bunny.

2. Also, the Timing. So they found out about each other’s situations in late June. Fast forward and Gwen was listening to the demo of Splash on her vacation in Montana, which ended on July 27. And she also wrote Obsessed in there at some point, before Splash.But keep in mind Blake didn’t live in LA so there were limited days he was there in person. Sooo to me it makes sense they had a week of super intense emails and phone calls, and then he got back from the 4th of july break and they hung out again in person and that was it. And that leaves the rest of that week for Obsessing and a couple more weeks of even more intense talking, this time with a more-than-friends vibe, to get her ready for Splash. That’s always been the calendar I’ve imagined.

Flash forward 2 years and we have July 7, 2017:

July 7, 2017 is the *first* time she ever posted a pic of Blake and one of the kids on a permanent SM site (rather than a snap/story that disappears in 24 hours).

The night before was when they took Todd & Jen with them to Blake’s show for like a double date.

And then also on July 7 she changed her icon to this cuteness

So this is obviously just a theory and could be coincidence, but the apollo pic really convinced me that this date is their anniversary. 💖

#this isn't what i was talking about on twitter but it is some science for y'all #justagx #xoxo anon #shefani science #the stefani sheltons

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eurekakinginc · 5 years

Photo

"[Discussion] The 6 types of data scientist:"- Detail: (Inspired by a bunch of recent blog posts I've come across with titles like: "The Next Generation Data Scientist" and "The 3rd Wave Data Scientist", etc...)Type I - the olympian deity: Works as part of the core ML or research team of a FAANG or for an academic team at a major university. Has multiple papers at NeurIPS or a similar status conference or publication. Wouldn't be able to recognize domain knowledge even if it punched her/him in the face. Envied by all others in the data science / machine learning community, but is actually miserable because she/he hasn't received the Turing award or gotten a theorem or class of neural networks named after them. Is this close to giving up and becoming a tenured lecturer for linear algebra 101 at a community college. Type II - the demigod: Works for an applied ML/product team at a FAANG or an up and coming very promising startup. Actually knows how to program in C++, understands dynamic polymorphism, and can solve Leetcode hard problems in their sleep. Also the envy of all others in the data science / machine learning community, but is actually miserable because they have to work 85 hours a week, and the awesome framework they contributed major chunks to 2 years ago is no longer fashionable and has been superseded by another framework. Also miserable because they could have worked for a startup and been billionaires at the age of 32, but instead are making a measly 250K a year in a city where a suburban one bedroom costs 1.5M. Type III - the grumpy old hand: In their late 40s/50s, was around during the previous Neural Networks hype cycle, and worked on them before the Tensorflow core dev team was even born. Has survived at least one A.I. Winter. Works for Boeing or Walmart or something like that. Doesn't know what StackOverflow is, and doesn't need it since she/he learned how to code back when people had those huge "The Java Bible" and "The Unix Bible" reference volumes on their desk, and therefore can actually figure stuff out from the documentation. Is almost as good a coder as the demigod, and almost as good a mathematician as the olympian, and beats them both in domain knowledge. But she/he has no idea what GitHub is, never had to spin up a docker pod or run something on a GPU, and haven't done an interview in 27 years. The last time they did, interviews were 45 minute affairs conducted over the phone. They are not really the envy of anyone in the data science / machine learning community, except for the fact that they have accrued 7 weeks of PTO by this point in their career. They are miserable because they know they are stuck in their current role, ageism is a definitely a thing, and they will likely be the first to go come the next economic downturn. Type IV - the hipster data scientist: young, very likely a millennial or even Gen Z, although might be a Gen Xer who is in very good shape and has tattoos. Recent college graduate or somehow managed to transition from a marketing or sales role into data science after completing a couple of classes on Udemy. Has a huge social media presence, and their LinkedIn profile picture is one of them at a podium with a mic or giving a TEDx talk. Has produced several blog posts and/or podcasts. Doesn't know any languages besides R. Doesn't know what a partial derivative is, and freaks out whenever they see an integral, but is still very good at explaining and simplifying concepts, hence always has the attention of the business stakeholders. Says things like "Cross-Validation is fun", "And I love boosting" with a straight face. Usually works for a small to mid-level company, but occasionally manages to land a role at a FAANG, after which they develop weapons grade levels of obnoxiousness. Not so much the envy of all others in the data science / machine learning community. More like the object of lust of all others in the data science / machine learning community. Is miserable because they are not Mark Zuckerberg. Type V - the overseas data scientist: As good as the olympian, the demigod, and the grumpy old hand combined, but nobody takes them seriously because of their skin color and very thick accent. Their career is additionally hampered by their cultural aversion to self-promotion and BS artistry which comes so naturally to many Westerners. Can do EDA, prototyping, production deployment, A/B testing, performance testing, and devOps all in one day, yet still somehow manages to be out of the office by 16:45 (they also don't show up until 9:45 in the morning). Is the reason why the hipster data scientist is able to get away with so little real work. Is the envy of all others in the data science / machine learning community, because they know that the overseas data scientist will be the last one to be let go in case of a $#!tst0rm, since they do the majority of the work on the team despite having the lowest salary. Is also the envy of everyone else, because at 35, they already own a home and have two teenage kids who are getting straight A+s in school. Is none the less miserable because their H1b might get revoked any day now. Type VI - the stealth data scientist: Very smart dev or TPM, who never actually used the title 'data scientist' or even 'machine learning engineer' (they might even sneer at those titles). A mix of the hipster, the demigod and the overseas data scientist in terms of personality and demographics, who works mainly on infrastructure or platform stuff, or maybe on the web portal team, but has also prototyped and deployed more than one regression or clustering model to production, without ever having taken a single machine learning or stats class. Has no idea who Andrew Ng is, and thinks A.I. is mainly about robotics and the Turing test. Masters Shell, Java, Scala, Kotlin, Node.js and PL/SQL, and can shift between on-prem and cloud systems at will. Thinks Python is a joke, and is floored every time somebody says they are a Python expert even though they don't know OOP. Is not so much envied, as they are feared by the rest of the data science and machine learning community, because the stealth is unphased by any of the Deep Learning hype, and once the AutoML frameworks finally mature, they know that the stealth will make the rest of them redundant. Is not miserable at all, because the stealth knows that they will be around long after the whole DS/ML hype died down, and don't really care because they will be Sr. Director or VP of Engineering by then anyway. . Caption by AlexSnakeKing. Posted By: www.eurekaking.com

#machine learning #data science #software #programming #engineering #saas #eCommerce #marketing

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years

Text

Why I Eat My Sunscreen to Protect Skin From the Inside Out

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/why-i-eat-my-sunscreen-to-protect-skin-from-the-inside-out/

Why I Eat My Sunscreen to Protect Skin From the Inside Out

As warmer weather approaches (yay!), it’s time to start thinking about digging out the kids’ clothes, bathing suits, and flip flops. This is also my cue to start getting my skin ready for the sun.

Why not wait until the first beach day? Because I now eat my sunscreen rather than just wear it.

I’ve long been fed up with the ingredients in sunscreen (more on that in this post) and believe it often does more harm than good. The more I researched the more I found that exposure to the sun isn’t a problem (it’s actually a benefit) if you feed your skin the right nutrients to get it ready for sun exposure.

The sun isn’t the problem, which is why I take a different approach. I get safe sun exposure and protect my skin from the inside out. (And of course, cover up or get out of the sun when my skin has had enough!)

Why the Sun Isn’t the Enemy

There seems to be an underlying idea that sun exposure = skin cancer and that sunscreen = protection from skin cancer. But the research doesn’t back this up. In fact, it may susggest the opposite. Think about this: Skin cancer rates are rising despite more sunscreen use and reduced sun exposure in recent decades.

Science backs up this approach. A 2016 review in the journal Dermato-Endocrinology concluded that while prevention of skin cancer is important, being afraid of the sun isn’t a good answer. From their findings:

This review considers the studies that have shown a wide range health benefits from sun/UV exposure. These benefits include among others various types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease/dementia, myopia and macular degeneration, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The message of sun avoidance must be changed to acceptance of non-burning sun exposure sufficient to achieve serum 25(OH)D concentration of 30 ng/mL or higher in the sunny season and the general benefits of UV exposure beyond those of vitamin D. (emphasis added)

This is the reason I don’t avoid the sun, but rather make a point to get sun exposure every day. I also avoid sunscreen for the most part, and just get out of the sun or cover up when I have had enough sun exposure for the day.

How I Stopped Burning

Here was my dilemma…

I’m partially Irish-Scottish (which is Latin for very fair skinned!) and had always burned. In fact, even moderate sun exposure would leave me with a pinkish glow rather than a tan … until several years ago.

The research showed the importance of sun exposure for adequate levels of vitamin D and many other aspects of health. Wearing sunscreen greatly reduces vitamin D production, so that wasn’t the answer. I decided to follow the research and start protecting my skin from the inside out. And it worked.

I started working in the garden for hours at a time during the heat of the day without burning. We also went to Florida for vacation and I was at the beach for 4 hours between 11-3 with no sunscreen and I didn’t burn… at all!

To those of you blessed with olive skin (like my husband), this may not seem like a big deal, but to me, this is huge! Finally I no longer look like the pale-stepchild among my Italian in-laws for the first time.

How I Eat My Sunscreen with Diet + Supplements

Just as a poor diet has a negative effect on skin and overall health, a real food diet may offer protection from various health problems, including sun-related ones. Fortunately, the diet and lifestyle factors that are good for the skin have great benefits for general health as well.

Note: This is what worked for me and is in no way medical or dermatological advice. Please do you own research, know your own skin, and find what works best for you.

Here’s how I start preparing my skin for safe sun exposure this summer:

1. Eat a Real Food Diet With Enough Good Fats

A large part of my natural sun protection is eating an anti-inflammatory diet. To make sure the body has the proper building blocks for healthy skin and to reduce inflammation, I consume enough healthy saturated, monounsaturated, and omega-3 fats while avoiding polyunsaturated fatty acids and high omega-6 vegetable oils.

I focus on making sure that my diet is high in micronutrients from vegetables, omega-3s, and fat-soluble vitamins from fish, and monounsaturated and saturated fats from plant and animal sources.

This type of diet will also be beneficial for many other health conditions, and if you’ve been a Wellness Mama reader for any length of time, you know the drill:

Avoid:

processed foods

vegetable oils (this is the most important for sun exposure)

grains

sugars

Consume:

healthy sources of saturated fats and monounsaturated fats

foods rich in omega-3s (fish, etc.)

lots of leafy greens

2+ tablespoons of tomato paste daily (I sometimes add this in for the lycopene and skin protection)

2. Eat Antioxidants

Just by avoiding grains and omega-6 oils as well as focusing on proteins, fats, and vegetables instead, your diet will be higher in antioxidants than the standard American diet. Even real food “treats” like berries and dark chocolate are packed with antioxidants.

Antioxidants help reduce inflammation and free radicals. Research has shown a strong protective effect of antioxidants against inflammation and skin damage.

3. Up the Vitamin D

I’ve noticed the biggest difference in how I feel from optimizing two things: omega-3 consumption and vitamin D levels. I talked about the importance of omega-3s above. Through blood testing, I found that my 25(OH)D level (one measure of vitamin D) was below 25 ng/mL. That was well below the recommendation for pregnant and nursing women and well below the 65 ng/mL recommended by some doctors for optimal health.

Through years of experimenting and continual testing, I found that in order to get my levels above 30 ng/mL I had to get sun exposure and take supplemental vitamin D. Now, with my levels in the 50-60 ng/mL range, my thyroid is doing great and I feel the best I’ve ever felt. I also don’t get sunburned any more!

Why it works: This is a logical if you think about it. Melanin, the dark pigment that we get when we tan, is produced to shield the skin from further UV exposure by providing a type of barrier. This is why those with darker skin need more sun that those with fairer skin to get the same amount of vitamin D.

When the body has enough vitamin D, it will start producing melanin to keep from getting too much. There is evidence that optimizing vitamin D levels through sun exposure and even through supplementation will help the body produce melanin faster and retain it longer. Of course, this is a genetic and very personalized issue that is best handled with testing and the help of a qualified practitioner.

4. Gradual Sun Exposure

Seems simple and logical, but moderate and safe sun exposure has the most benefits for vitamin D levels. Sunburn is never good! I always get less sun exposure than I think I need at first and work up really slowly to avoid burning.

5. Natural Sun Protection

With the recent research on the benefits of sun exposure and the potential harmful substances in many sunscreens, I choose natural ways to protect from the sun once I’ve gotten enough exposure at any time. My first (and best) option is just to cover up or get in the shade if possible. A hat and shirt are reusable, don’t contain harmful chemicals, and do a great job of protecting from excess sun exposure.

If I have to be outside in the bright sun for extended periods of time and can’t seek shade or cover up I’ll sometimes use a natural homemade sunscreen or an EWG-recommended sunscreen.

6. Supplement Support

This time of year, I also start taking a specific regimen of supplements to help reduce inflammation and improve sun tolerance. I’m not a doctor and don’t play one on the Internet, and I’m only sharing the supplements I personally take and why. Check with your doctor before making any health or supplement changes, especially if you have any medical conditions.

The supplements I take are:

Vitamin D3 Drops – I take about 2,000 IU/day with sun exposure to keep my levels up. Those drops are 2,000 IU per drop so a bottle lasts us a really long time. I also test my levels a few times a year and stop taking D3 if my levels are high enough.

Vitamin C – I take about 2,000 mg/day. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant and also has many other benefits to the body.

Omega-3s and Krill oil – I’ve experimented with several different brands over the years. I’m currently trying these capsules at the recommendation of Dr. Rhonda Patrick in a recent podcast episode, and I like them so far.

Astaxanthin – A highly potent antioxidant which research shows acts as an internal sunscreen. It’s also supposedly an anti-aging supplement. I don’t give this one to the kids though.

Sundots – These tasty gummies help boost skin’s ability to resist solar damage. They contain polypodium leucotomos extract, a fancy name for a fern long used in parts of the world for sun protection.

Get Some Rays the Right Way

Avoid sunburn from the inside out and the outside in with nutritional support and a hat + rash guard. Take these measures a month or two before beach season starts and condition your skin to love the sun. It’s good for your health anyway and saves money on sunscreen!

Do you eat your sunscreen? Still use the toxic stuff? Avoid the sun completely? Tell me below!

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/4621/eat-my-sunscreen/

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foursprouthealth-blog · 6 years

Text

Why I Eat My Sunscreen to Protect Skin From the Inside Out

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/health/why-i-eat-my-sunscreen-to-protect-skin-from-the-inside-out/

Why I Eat My Sunscreen to Protect Skin From the Inside Out

Why not wait until the first beach day? Because I now eat my sunscreen rather than just wear it.

Why the Sun Isn’t the Enemy

How I Stopped Burning

Here was my dilemma…

How I Eat My Sunscreen with Diet + Supplements

Note: This is what worked for me and is in no way medical or dermatological advice. Please do you own research, know your own skin and find what works best for you.

Here’s how I start preparing my skin for safe sun exposure this summer:

1. Eat a Real Food Diet With Enough Good Fats

I focus on making sure that my diet is high in micronutrients from vegetables, omega-3s, and fat-soluble vitamins from fish, and monounsaturated and saturated fats from plant and animal sources.

This type of diet will also be beneficial for many other health conditions, and if you’ve been a Wellness Mama reader for any length of time, you know the drill:

Avoid:

processed foods

vegetable oils (this is the most important for sun exposure)

grains

sugars

Consume:

healthy sources of saturated fats and monounsaturated fats

foods rich in omega-3s (fish, etc.)

lots of leafy greens

2+ tablespoons of tomato paste daily (I sometimes add this in for the lycopene and skin protection)

2. Eat Antioxidants

Antioxidants help reduce inflammation and free radicals. Research has shown a strong protective effect of antioxidants against inflammation and skin damage.

3. Up the Vitamin D

4. Gradual Sun Exposure

5. Natural Sun Protection

If I have to be outside in the bright sun for extended periods of time and can’t seek shade or cover up I’ll sometimes use a natural homemade sunscreen though I prefer to avoid it for the reasons listed above.

6. Supplement Support

The supplements I take are:

Vitamin C – I take about 2,000 mg/day. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant and also has many other benefits to the body.

Astaxanthin – A highly potent antioxidant which research shows acts as an internal sunscreen. It’s also supposedly an anti-aging supplement. I don’t give this one to the kids though.

Bottom Line

Do you eat your sunscreen? Still use the toxic stuff? Avoid the sun completely? Tell me below!

#Health

0 notes

cashcounts · 7 years

Text

Is this the beginning of the end for vaping in Canada?

Canadian vapers face an uncertain future, but not many seem alarmed about the anvil that could soon drop on their heads. A bill is close to passing the lower house of Parliament that is likely to create chaos in the vaping industry, giving the federal agency Health Canada the ability to pass additional restrictions as soon as the bill passes — and even more in the future.

Part of the problem is a vendor association that has discouraged vapers and vendors from taking an adversarial stance toward Parliament and Health Canada. Another issue is the lack of a powerful consumer group in Canada, like CASAA in the United States, or the British New Nicotine Alliance.

However, if vapers don’t speak out now — and in numbers — the government will soon pass a law that defines vaping as a health hazard, prevents truthful information from being presented by vendors, restricts honest descriptions and labeling of many flavors, and gives Health Canada carte blanche to ban tanks add other new rules as it sees fit.

Bill S-5: vaping is a health hazard

Looking for information about the bill, I spoke with John Haste, who along with his wife Charlene owns a vape shop and online business called VapeMate in Kenora, Ontario. John is a former director of the Electronic Cigarette Trade Association (ECTA), which is a well-run standards body for the industry in Canada. He and Charlene are among the most knowledgeable and capable people in the vaping industry.

“Canada is in a mess,” John said in an email. “Although Bill S-5 separates vaping products from tobacco by definition, it places vaping products in the Tobacco Act. The Tobacco Act is meant to restrict, limit and preferably eliminate products within that Act because they are bad for you.”

What does Bill S-5 do?

There is at least one vendor group in Canada that has defended Bill S-5 as reasonable, and suggested vapers not be concerned about it. That’s hard to understand, because the dangers of the bill are many, and the problems it could cause are huge.

According to a legal analysis commissioned by ECTA, “Bill S-5, as written, creates a significant risk and potential for complete and total ban based on individual perception and ideology, not science or the best interests of public health. Additionally, it presents a significant number constitutional conflicts.”

The bill’s purposes are stated clearly:

To protect young persons and non-users of tobacco products from inducements to use vaping products;

To protect the health of young persons and non-users of tobacco products from exposure to and dependence on nicotine that could result from the use of vaping products;

To protect the health of young persons by restricting access to vaping products;

To prevent the public from being deceived or misled with respect to the health hazards of using vaping products; and

To enhance public awareness of those hazards.

Get it? It’s all about the kids. When the government defines a product or practice first and foremost as hazardous — especially to kids — everything that follows will attempt to limit, prevent, and punish. And Bill S-5 delivers.

In an op-ed about Bill S-5, University of Ottawa law professor and tobacco control expert David Sweanor wrote, “When governments think the solution is to be exceedingly and irrationally risk averse about anything that could give smokers viable and dramatically less hazardous alternative products, they have just failed a ‘vision test’.”

What will Bill S-5 do?

Make it illegal for vape shops to truthfully tell customers that vaping is less harmful than combustible cigarettes

Allow Health Canada to regulate products in the future as it chooses — and this has already begun. The agency has announced that all vaping products that contain nicotine must have child-resistant caps, including tanks [see below]

Eliminate many popular flavors by preventing manufacturers from honestly describing them. It bans flavor descriptions that indicate candy, dessert, and soft drink flavors, for example — and Health Canada will be free to amend the list at any time

Probably lead to American tobacco companies moving in and taking over the bulk of the vaping market in Canada. Cigarette companies have the money, regulatory knowledge, and distribution power to overwhelm a small market (or a large one, for that matter!)

Violate constitutional rights. Bill S-5 has been criticized by legal experts like the Canadian Constitution Foundation for violating constitutional rights of Canadian citizens

Where is Bill S-5 now, and what can vapers do?

Bill S-5 began in the Senate, and is now working its way through the lower house in the Canadian Parliament, the House of Commons. After it is approved by Parliament, it receives royal assent and become law. It amends the existing Tobacco Act (and some other existing laws), and will be called the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA).

John Haste explained the process. The bill has already passed the Senate, where it was introduced. It received its first reading in the House of Commons in June. The next steps are:

Second reading — the current stage Committee stage Report stage Third reading Royal Assent

“Exactly when each of these stages will occur is unknown and depends on when they are able to schedule the readings,” John says. “Debates on the House floor may or may not be held at different points through the process.”

“After Second Reading, the House of Commons will determine whether or not the bill needs to go through the Committee State for additional review. More than likely, Bill S-5 will go to Committee and it will likely be assigned to the Standing Committee on Health (HESA). The HESA Committee may or may not take a public consultation period. If a public consultation is held, that is an opportunity to send feedback on the legislation.”

John also notes that if your MP is a HESA Committee member, it’s especially important to contact them and make your concerns known. If the law has to make it successfully through a committee, it could have a huge impact if one or more committee members know of the businesses and individuals in their riding that will be affected by the law.

It’s much easier for one or two members of a fairly small committee to hold up the bill than for the same number of MP’s to have an effect on a vote of the whole Parliament.

Meet, call, or write your MP…now!

However, all vapers and business owners should contact MP’s now. There is very little time to change the course of this legislation.

Meeting personally with the MP is best — and shop owners and manufacturers should definitely do that — but phone calls can be effective too. Emails will get attention as well.

Find your MP and their contact information here.

Sociologist and vaping advocate Amelia Howard created an excellent list of suggestions for business owners meeting with MP’s about Bill S-5. But the suggestions can be adapted for vapers to use in their communications too. Take the talking points and tips and apply them to your own situation.

Tell your story. Make it clear how vapers and smokers will be hurt by the arbitrary restrictions on truthful speech and flavors. Remind the legislators that they represent all Canadians, including adult vapers who want to keep the products that have helped them; and including smokers, who need accessible, affordable products to choose from when they decide to quit smoking cigarettes.

Let them know that you don’t appreciate vapers’ health being ignored in favor of misplaced concerns about youth nicotine use. There is no evidence of regular use by large numbers of non-smoking teens in Canada. But Bill S-5 amplifies unfounded fears about kids in order to deny adults widespread access to products that are illegal for kids to buy anyway.

Sign the official Parliamentary e-petition

According to John Haste, an official Federal Parliamentary e-petition is a serious tool. The e-petition, he says, is “maintained by the government, sponsored by and read by members of Parliament within the House of Commons once the minimum required signatures have been met.”

Such a petition has been initiated, asking that Bill S-5 be “halted and reviewed.”

“We, the undersigned, constituents, call upon the Government of Canada to halt and review Bill S-5 currently making its way through the House of Common. Create a fair and logical category for vape products apart from tobacco,” it states.

The petition, so far, has just 7,000 signatures, including fewer than 3,000 from Ontario. How many vapers visit vape shops in Ontario every week? Every vapers — and every vaper’s family and friends — should sign the e-petition.

Sign the e-petition now!

Health Canada: your comments due by Oct. 27

When Bill S-5 passes, it hands the specific regulation of all vaping products to Health Canada. The agency can then add or change any product standard or manufacturing requirement it chooses to.

And the regulation has already begun, with an announcement from the agency that as soon as Bill S-5 is passed, all vaping products that hold e-liquid must be in child-resistant containers. That means that all tanks would have to be child resistant.

If this ridiculous rule remains, virtually no currently available tanks could legally be sold in Canada. According to ECTA, the rule would be “potentially devastating for small businesses.”

The agency has also determined that nicotine solution with more than 66 mg/mL of nicotine will be banned. It’s unclear if that is only at the retail level, or if higher nic concentrations would also be prohibited for manufacturers. If that is the case, the cost of e-liquid could rise dramatically

Have your say! What are your thoughts on #ecigarettes regulations? #vaping #cdnpoli https://t.co/XxHZO07l5v

— Health Canada (@HealthCanada) August 25, 2017

Health Canada has an open call for public comments on its vaping products regulation. Every vaper in Canada should comment on these proposals, and the others included in the agency’s consultation document.

ECTA has provided a summary of the proposals, and an explanation of how to make comments on them. It is crucial that Canadian vapers and vendors take advantage of this open comment period to tell Health Canada what they think.

Vapers, no one is going to fix this for you

The tank and nicotine regulations are just the first examples of what could to come after Bill S-5 passes. Health Canada will be free to impose death by a thousand cuts on the small businesses that make up the heart of the Canadian vaping industry.

And if you think you’ll just order your gear and other prohibited products online from other countries, think again. “From the consumer’s perspective,” says John Haste, “they can order tanks online from the U.S. or U.K., or directly from China, if they’d like. But consider this: right now, CBSA {Canada Border Services Agency] is already stopping/inspecting/seizing shipments of e-liquid that are suspected to contain nicotine. This has been a fact for many years. Generally, hardware has had little problem getting through customs.

“But CBSA is charged to stop ALL products that do not comply with Canadian laws and regulations. What makes anyone think they won’t be engaged to stop tanks that do not have child-resistant tops?”

Vapers need to get educated, get active, and start making noise. There’s no one doing it for you.

Despite valiant efforts from the industry group ECTA, and the very small consumer-led Tobacco Harm Reduction Association (THRA), only a focused response from the actual citizens who’ll be most affected will make a difference. That means vapers themselves.

Canadian consumers, you’re going to have to take care of yourselves.

Meanwhile, there is at least one major vaping organization that seems to prefer vapers and small businesses stay out of the discussion, and leave it all up to them.

The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) has no information on its Facebook updates page advising vendors on how to address the legislation or the Health Canada consultation. They do have a link to a press release explaining how they are working with the government to create better regulations. The most recent updates on Bill S-5 are from April. On CVA’s website, the most recent information on its federal legislation page is from June, and no advice to vendors is provided.

“CVA and its counsel have had a number of meetings with Health Canada and also with the federal Minister of Health’s office to discuss the issue of e-cigarettes on the national level,” they write. “Progress has been made to ensure that Health Canada recognizes that the CVA is a national not for profit organization that represents retailers, manufacturers, advocates and consumers of the e-cigarette industry.”

That’s not the kind of progress that helps vapers or small businesses. Canadian consumers, you’re going to have to take care of yourselves.

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