There is a good reason why the word Roomba has become synonymous with robot vacuum cleaners. Although we continue to see that capable competitors come to market at ever lower prices, the Roomba line of iRobot remains the brand to be defeated.

We have reviewed dozens of Roomba models to find out which perform best: our current favorite is the Roomba S9 +, which is almost as perfect as perfect, but also pricey. If you are looking for something more affordable, we have included our favorite iRobot models in every price range. We have even added our favorite non-vacuum robots from iRobot!

The latest addition to the iRobot line-up, the Roomba S9 +, builds on the innovations introduced in the Roomba i7 + last year. The S9 + received an Editors Choice Award from Digital Trends. Just like the i7 +, the S9 series is available with or without iRobots cool Clean Base charging station and self-draining garbage can. There is also a new D-shaped housing and an improved brush design that promises better edge and corner cleaning, while the suction is increased 40 times compared to the Roomba 600 series. You also benefit from smart cards that allow you to select individual rooms for cleaning (as well as entire floors) and a unique anti-allergen system a scoop for robot vacuum cleaners, according to iRobot designed to collect dust and pollen.

The Roomba 960 model stands in the middle between the functions of Roomba and the prices of Roomba, so you can get an intelligent cleaning bone at medium prices (well, middle class for Roombas). The model includes iRobots three-stage suction and brush system, equipped with rubber brushes designed to clean both hard floors and low carpets. The brushes bend to ensure that they are always at ground level and the extraction system is five times more powerful than older Roomba models. In the meantime, the filter retains 99% dust and allergens (although it is smart to always have a number of replacement filters on hand if you use your Roomba regularly).

Although the Roomba includes many smart features to navigate, including automatic charging for the 75-minute battery, it also comes with a virtual wall barrier that you can set to partition specific spaces if there is somewhere where you dont want the bot to Go . The planning via the advanced Roomba app is excellent, but you can also choose to give your Roomba a voice command if you have an Echo device at home.

The Roomba i7 + of 2018 won an Editors Choice Award from Digital Trends and remains a wonderful choice, despite the introduction of this years Roomba S9 +. It was the first robotic vacuum cleaner with a self-draining dustbin in addition to smart space mapping, an advanced motor with improved suction, durable brushes and an improved processor. Choose the Clean Base charging station and you must add iRobots replaceable dust bags to your shopping list every few months. But the i7 + is a valuable investment for those who want to fully automate vacuuming.

If you like the idea that Roomba roams your house but doesnt like the price of the leading iRobot models, dont worry theres a robot vacuum cleaner for you! The Roomba 614 costs more than $ 300 and offers a solid suite of functions. Keep an eye on the deals and you might be able to collect it for less than $ 200. Of course there are some compromises. Two multi-surface brushes and sensor navigation help this cost-effective model to autonomously clean your home, but suction is considerably reduced, which means that this bone may not be the best choice for thicker carpets or rugs. The entry level vacuum also lacks app control and Alexa / Google Assistant integration.

The Roomba 980 is no longer available, but it is possible that you can still find the store in certain stores. It is a more advanced version of the 960 with improved functions. At the launch, the price was considerably higher, but has fallen since our assessment. The extra large battery in this model lasts up to 120 minutes, making it well suited for larger spaces, and the cleaning system has twice the power compared to the 960 ideal for cleaning up larger spilled liquids or messy pets. Otherwise, the model includes the first-line smart features that you can expect from a Roomba bot, including speech detection, detailed app control, and dirt detection technology that helps Roomba spend more time in high-traffic areas.

The Roomba e5 is a solid mid-range pick. It is particularly good at picking up pet hair, with a combination of powerful suction and double rubber brushes that can work equally well on carpet or hardwood floors. It is equipped with a selection of innovative Roomba functions, including automatic charging, a full set of sensors and compatibility with both Alexa and Google Assistant. This is all the more impressive when you consider that it is very reasonably priced for a Roomba model. The battery will last approximately 90 minutes on a hard surface. If you have pets and lots of hardwood that you want to keep clean and free of dust hair with animal hair this is a great and affordable model to use.

The Braava 380t and entry-level Braava Jet 240 were iRobots first trip to autonomous mop and were positive additions, despite the need for regular fillings with cleaning solution and a little extra work to set up the corresponding NorthStar navigation blocks.

The Braava Jet m6 solves a number of problems and inconveniences that stopped these first-generation lines. There is a new design, improved maps and navigation technology with individual room selection, plus improved edge and corner cleaning. The Braava Jet m6 also detects when the battery is empty, returns to the charger and then resumes mopping from the same point. App control and support for both Alexa and Google Assistant are also included in the update, and if you also have a Roomba i7 or S9, you can set your robot army to vacuum and mop in order. Although the new model supports both wet mopping and dry sweeping, you still need to invest regularly in iRobots disposable cleaning pads for the best performance.

Although this guide focuses primarily on floor cleaning robots, we found this iRobot robotic lawnmower worth mentioning. The Terra Mower is easy to install and operate, using wireless beacons and Imprint Smart Mapping to teach your garden and then mow your grass in an efficient back and forth pattern.

It can avoid obstacles and you can create a boundary system without cables. This means that you can tell the mower where to mow and where not, without digging up your yard to install wire or boundary line systems. The Terra Robot Mower was for sale in 2019 as part of a beta program in the US and Germany, but you should (hopefully) be able to buy the robotic lawnmower later this year.

Recommendations from the editors

Go here to read the rest:
The best Roomba Robovacs of 2020 - Mash Viral

It is a surreal experience to be writing a book on preaching about apocalyptic texts in the midst of what feels like a very apocalyptic time. Escalating military tensions with Iran. Australia burning with fires fueled by the climate crisis. Gun violence rampant in our homes and public spaces. Every day seems to bring another portent of the apocalypse reaching biblical proportions. Is the Rapture upon us?

As weve been plumbing the depths of scriptural passages that contain end-times imagery, were seeing a rise in apocalyptic language within the culture as well as from political and religious figures. We think mainline churches have allowed these passages to be highjacked by those who use them for fearmongering rather than to encourage and strengthen the church. Because preachers often struggle with how to understand and preach on these passages, our book intends to provide exegetical and homiletical guidance to enable ministers and others to preach from and teach about these texts.

As were completing this book, I have found two volumes to be helpful which I commend to preachers and lay readers alike. One is Barbara Rossings The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (2004). The second is Ronald J. Allens I Will Tell You the Mystery: A Commentary for Preaching from the Book of Revelation (2019). In this essay, Ill discuss how these books can be helpful for clergy and congregations as were facing cataclysmic events and unprecedented challenges.

For clergy, preaching apocalyptic texts is fraught with unease about the real fears alluded to in the book of Revelation and passages such as Daniel 7, Mark 13, Matthew 24, 1 Corinthians 15, and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5. Their warnings of impending cosmic upheaval ricochet sharply off contemporary headlines about war, natural disasters, and threats to the fabric of civilization. Add to this the disconcerting news about the effects of climate disruption and global environmental disasters, and the task of preaching good news in the face of seemingly immanent doom can feel overwhelming to pastor and congregation alike.

However, New Testament scholar Barbara Rossing notes that apocalyptic texts provide unique opportunities for preachers and are, in fact, essential because they empower radical witness. They give us a sacramental imagination, taking us on a journey into the heart of Gods vision for the world (141). The word apokalypsis in Greek literally means, pulling back the curtain. When biblical texts (and the sermons that utilize them) pull back this veil, it allows us to see a deeper reality that is not immediately visible. We receive a vision that reveals both the beauty of creation and also the pathologies of empire whether these empires originate in Assyria, Babylonia, Rome, or the United States of America.[2]

Equipped with this double vision, the preacher is able to name and critique the underlying oppressive assumptions of empire and how they manifest in society, the natural world, and the lived experiences of the hearers. But a third move is needed proclaiming the divine eschatological vision that has the power to transform our imaginations, renew hope, and empower collective action to live into this vision.

Eschatology comes from the Greek word eschaton, meaning end times. The visionary world of the apocalypses can help us see both the perils we face and the urgency of Gods promised future, says Rossing, turning the world for justice and healing, on Earth as in heaven. The preacher cultivates an apocalyptic imagination by helping people recognize Gods future breaking into the present, even in times of despair.

The problem with apocalyptic texts, says Rossing, is the way they have been used by Fundamentalist Christians to try to predict and manipulate world events. The story they tell is that the Bible predicts an event called The Rapture in which Christ comes to sweep up the faithful into heaven, leaving everyone else in a kind of hellish purgatory on earth. For millions of people, Christian apocalyptic books such as The Late, Great Planet Earth and the Left Behind series are akin to the Bible itself. An entire multimillion-dollar industry has been created around graphic Christian horror that grips the faithful in fear and fantasy.

Worse, Rapture-theology peddles a narrative that supports a political agenda of war-making in the Middle East, environmental degradation, patriarchal control over women and their bodies, and anti-Semitic and Islamophobic white nationalism. 80 million copies of the Left Behind books, along with numerous Rapture websites, movies, and spin-offs threaten to drown out the gospel of hope, renewal and love. The preacher on a Sunday morning has about 15-20 minutes to proclaim that Jesus return is about justice, transformation, and healing. So its important to make these sermons count for deconstructing harmful theology and reconstructing a theology of nonviolence and an ethic of care for those most vulnerable.

Understanding the recent history of the influence of Rapture theology on U.S. politics and civil discourse is important when preaching on Revelation or any apocalyptic text for that matter.

Today, the Trump administration is filled with evangelicals who attend weekly Bible studies led by Ralph Drollinger of the conservative right-wing Capitol Ministries. Trumps Vice President Mike Pence is a staunch conservative Christian, and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has unashamedly confessed that his evangelical Christian beliefs influence his diplomacy. Evangelicals see Trump as the Chosen One a triumphantly apocalyptic figure who, though morally flawed, initiates the Second Coming. Even now, evangelicals are cheering for Trumps attack on Iran, believing that a war with the enemy of Israel is key to setting up the conditions wherein the Rapture will begin.

Rossings book provides the historical context to help preachers and parishioners better understand apocalyptic texts as they were heard by the original Christians who were being persecuted under oppressive empires. She carefully explains the symbolism and metaphors as the writers intended them to be a vision of Gods healing for the world. Preachers will find her book to be an important resource for countering the destructive reading of scripture by fundamentalists and proclaiming Gods beloved community of nonviolence and peace.

Like Rossing, Ron Allen provides helpful exegesis to understand the world and times of John of Patmos, author of Revelation. However, whereas Rossings chapters are divided into themes and address a panorama of apocalyptic thought in scripture, Allen goes in depth verse-by-verse with Revelation. He meticulously explains the word pictures used by John and addresses issues and questions that arise in light of contemporary theology. Allens commitment to process theology is evident throughout the book in the way he interprets Revelation as Gods invitation to co-create a better world rather than to destroy it.

There are times, however, when Johns words do not support the values of love, peace, justice, mutuality, and abundance. Images of violence, misogyny, judgement, and damnation within Revelation are problematic. Allen clearly states his disagreement with Johns writings at these points and invites preachers to name and critique them as well.

There are only six pericopes from five chapters that are covered, and only 7 Sundays when passages from Revelation are included in the readings. However, because the symbols and imagery from Revelation have found their way into popular culture and political discourse, preachers may want to consider preaching on Revelation as part of a sermon series on this enigmatic book. Allens book is a useful resource for pastors wanting to help their parishioners understand Revelations complex imagery and make sense of it for our world today.

Like Rossing, Allen highlights the fact that Revelation actually counters the premillennialist theory of a rapture. Allen notes how the downward movement of God through the New Jerusalem in Chapter 21 embodies grace itself: God takes the initiative to bring the holy city down from heaven (200). Thus, hope for the new creation is neither a spiritualized wishful thinking nor an escape from the reality of our crucified world. There is both transcendence and immanence in Christs return and the new creation. They are not mutually exclusive, but instead inform each other in a dialectic exchange in which one points to the other and back again. The challenge for preachers, says Allen, is to help the congregation look for signs of [the holy citys] appearance (200).

Allen urges preachers not to neglect speaking concretely about Gods promises even while critiquing contemporary empires. Many people are more motivated for long-term commitment by promise and possibility than by fear, threat, and anger. While the critique is important, preaching is often especially empowering when it aims towards a vision of the positively possible and toward helping people imagine how to get from there to here (198).

Key to this vision-casting is not looking to the skies to see souls raptured up to heaven, but to notice how Gods holy city is coming down to Earth. To this end, Allen does not provide sample sermons, but throughout each chapter offers questions, observations, and suggestions for preachers to attune their listeners to Gods actions here and now. In this way, Allen provides the exegetical and homiletical tools for preachers to create the time and space for the seeds of apocalyptic vision to grow into the fruits of community-building for the sake of Gods Realm. Led by Jesus, the Lamb of God, both preacher and congregation are strengthened to live faithfully towards the coming of the new heaven and new earth (198).

As your congregation grapples with finding purpose and meaning in this apocalyptic time, may you be blessed with insight, courage, compassion, and a vision for participating in this Realm of God.

Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship atLexington Theological Seminaryin Kentucky. She is the author ofPreaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019),Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), andCreation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit(Chalice Press, 2015).

Twitter:@LeahSchade

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LeahDSchade/

Jesus, Apocalyptic Discourse, and the Climate Crisis: Ideas for Preaching Matthew 24:36-44

More here:
Rapture Me This: 2 Books for Progressive Preaching about the Apocalypse - Patheos

New York [Jan. 8, 2020] HGTV is set to take on an ambitious missionand it will be the most impressive and massive renovation evera takeover to makeover an ENTIRE town. Ever since Ben and Erin Napier of the hit series Home Town helped transform Laurel, Mississippi, fans from small towns across America have flooded HGTV with requests to take on the reno of their home town. Now they will get their shot at a life-changing, whole-town overhaul. Through Tuesday, Feb 4, anyone who loves their own home town can log on to HGTVHomeTownTakeover.com to show, tell sell the network on why their small town, with its historic architecture and classic main street, should be the one town featured in the upcoming event series Home Town Takeover. With Ben and Erin leading the charge, the selected town, with a population less than 40,000, will witness the rehab of multiple individual family homes and the revitalization of public spaces, such as parks, local diners and recreation centers. And, the town will be featured in Home Town Takeover (fka Home Town Rescue), a six-episode series slated to premiere on HGTV in 2021.

This is a big one, said Erin. HGTV has never, ever taken on a whole town renovation and restoration project and were so proud and excited to be leading the team that will get it done. Show us those photos and videos. Tell us what makes your town special and how youd like us to help make it better. You may see us in your town soon.

Visitors to HGTVHomeTownTakeover.com will find information on how to nominate their town for consideration. Submissions must include photos of the town, but video is preferred. Videos should spotlight a specific place that needs a makeover, such as a diner, coffee shop, home or playground. Submissions also should feature a tour of the town that highlights the places that need the most help as well as the people that love living there.

Renovating one house at a time is an awesome experience, but the chance to support an entire town, where we can help bring a community back to life and enhance the lives of the people who live and work there, is something weve always wanted to try, said Ben. You wont believe what a small town with a shared renovation vision and the power of HGTV, Erin and me behind them can do. Weve seen those changes in Laurel and we want to help another town do it too.

While they await the premiere of Home Town Takeover, fans of Ben and Erin can watch the duo in the 16-episode season of Home Town which will premiere on Monday, Jan. 20, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. They also can catch up on full episodes from previous seasons on HGTV GO. To learn more about the series, visit HGTV.com/HomeTown for exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes videos and photo galleries. Fans can interact on social media using #HGTVHomeTown.

ABOUT HGTV

HGTV delivers families with relatable stories, superstar real estate and renovation experts and amazing home transformations that inspire a passionate audience. For anyone seeking entertaining and aspirational home and lifestyle content, HGTV is the place to be. HGTV offers: a top 10 cable network that is distributed to more than 88 million U.S. households; a website, HGTV.com, that attracts an average of 9.7 million people each month; a social footprint of 16.8 million; HGTV Magazine, a monthly publication that reaches more than one million readers and exclusive collections of home-oriented products through the HGTV HOME consumer products line. Viewers can become fans of HGTV and interact with other home improvement enthusiasts through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. HGTV is owned by Discovery, Inc., a global leader in real life entertainment spanning 220 countries and territories, whose portfolio also includes Discovery Channel, Food Network, TLC, Investigation Discovery, and OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

Original post:
HGTV Launches Massive Nationwide Call to Find, Takeover and Makeover and Entire Town - Multichannel News

Is this Russian Hill home, circa 1908, the restoration deal of the century? You'll need $5M to find out.

Is this Russian Hill home, circa 1908, the restoration deal of the century? You'll need $5M to find out.

Is this Russian Hill home, circa 1908, the restoration deal of the century? You'll need $5M to find out.

Is this Russian Hill home, circa 1908, the restoration deal of the century? You'll need $5M to find out.

Is this $5M fixer the restoration opportunity of a lifetime?

Photos of the interior of 1020 Broadway are hard to come by, but the listing information promises six bedrooms and three and 1/2 bathrooms in a 3,500 square foot home.

What we can see looks to be fairly well preserved, with evidence of the home's original early 1900s bones. There are dark wood floors and wainscotting, a fireplace and built-ins, as well as stunning Russian Hill views from a living room that faces toward the bay.

The history

Property records indicate the home went into pre-foreclosure on a loan valued at $4.6 million sometime early last year, with a delinquent amount of $4,885,002.

ALSO: The craziest overbids of the decade all have one thing in common

Also in 2019, before it sold to its current owner/seller, the assessed property value for the home was $409,735 which meant a property tax of $4,935 for that tax year.

Today

Now the home is listed at $4.990 million in a clear foreclosure flip.

Historically, homes sold as fixers fetch a pretty penny over-asking in San Francisco. In fact, all of the most outrageously over-bid properties of the recently passed decade were listed as fixers.

So is 1020 Broadway the fixer opportunity of this decade? If you bought it, what would you do? How much would it cost you? Or, with views and woodwork like this house has, you could just live in it as is.

See the full listing here.

AnnaMarie Erwert writes from both the renter and new buyer perspective, having (finally) achieved both statuses. She focuses on national real estate trends, specializing in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest.FollowAnnaonTwitter: @AnnaMarieErwert.

Read more:
Is this $5M fixer the restoration opportunity of a lifetime? - SFGate

DAYTON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Dayton Power and Light Company (DP&L), a subsidiary of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), was presented today with the Edison Electric Institutes (EEIs) Emergency Recovery Award for its outstanding power restoration efforts after a series of tornados hit Ohio in May.

The Emergency Recovery Award is given to select EEI member companies to recognize their extraordinary efforts to restore power to customers after service disruptions caused by severe weather conditions or other natural events. The winners are chosen by a panel of judges following an international nomination process. DP&L received the award during EEIs Winter Board and Chief Executives Meeting in Tucson, Arizona.

Beginning late in the evening on Memorial Day, a series of 15 confirmed tornados hit DP&Ls service territory resulting in 101,748 outages. Due to their tireless work, crews restored service to 100 percent of customers within 10 days after the storm, dedicating 80,000 man-hours to the recovery efforts.

On behalf of all of our DP&L people, we are extremely honored to be recognized with EEIs Emergency Recovery Award for our restoration efforts following the Memorial Day Tornados, which ranks as one of the top three storms for DP&L in recent history, said Lisa Krueger, AES US SBU President. We take great pride in serving our customers and thank the crews for their extraordinary dedication during an unprecedented weather event that people will remember for years to come. The extensive damage from the tornados presented challenging conditions with crews working round the clock to safely restore electric service to our customers and neighbors.

DP&Ls work to restore service safely and quickly to customers, often in dangerous conditions, makes them deserving of this award, said EEI President Tom Kuhn. Their efforts exemplify the high standards our industry seeks to uphold, and I applaud their commitment to their customers.

About The Dayton Power and Light Company, and The AES Corporation

The Dayton Power and Light Company is the principal subsidiary of DPL Inc. (DPL), a regional energy provider and an AES company. DPLs primary subsidiaries include The Dayton Power and Light Company, AES Ohio Generation, LLC (AES Ohio Gen), and Miami Valley Insurance Company (MVIC).The Dayton Power and Light Company, a regulated electric utility, provides service to over 525,000 customers in West Central Ohio; AES Ohio Gen co-owns a merchant generation facility; and MVIC, a captive insurance company, provides insurance services to DPL and its subsidiaries. For more information about the company, please visit http://www.dplinc.com. Connect with DP&L at http://www.twitter.com/dpltoday, http://www.linkedin.com/company/dayton-power-and-light, and at http://www.facebook.com/DPLToday.

The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) is a Fortune 200 global power company. We provide affordable, sustainable energy to 14 countries through our diverse portfolio of distribution businesses as well as thermal and renewable generation facilities. Our workforce is committed to operational excellence and meeting the worlds changing power needs. Our 2018 revenues were $11 billion and we own and manage $33 billion in total assets. To learn more, please visit http://www.aes.com. Follow AES on Twitter @TheAESCorp.

About EEI

EEI is the association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies. Our members provide electricity for more than 220 million Americans, and operate in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As a whole, the electric power industry supports more than 7 million jobs in communities across the United States. In addition to our U.S. members, EEI has more than 65 international electric companies, with operations in more than 90 countries, as International Members, and hundreds of industry suppliers and related organizations as Associate Members.

The rest is here:
Dayton Power & Light Earns EEI Emergency Recovery Award for Efforts to Restore Service in Ohio After a Tornado Outbreak - Business Wire

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The global 3D cardiac mapping systems market is poised to grow by USD 412.6 million during 2019-2023, progressing at a CAGR of around 10% during the forecast period. Request free sample pages

Read the 120-page report with TOC on 3D Cardiac Mapping Systems Market Analysis Report by Product (Contact 3D cardiac mapping systems and Non-contact 3D cardiac mapping systems), Geography (Asia, Europe, North America, and ROW), and the Segment Forecasts, 2019-2023.

https://www.technavio.com/report/global-3d-cardiac-mapping-systems-market-industry-analysis

The market is driven by the increasing prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias and related risk factors. In addition, the emergence of non-invasive 3D cardiac mapping systems is anticipated to boost the growth of the 3D cardiac mapping systems market.

The prevalence of cardiac arrhythmias is growing across the world. This has increased the occurrence of other risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity, CVDs, and diabetes. The chances of developing cardiac arrhythmias increases with age. Improving life expectancies of people has significantly increased the geriatric population across the globe. These factors have increased the demand for early detection and treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, thereby driving the demand for 3D cardiac mapping systems.

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Major Five 3D Cardiac Mapping Systems Market Companies:

Abbott

Abbott operates the business through various segments such as cardiovascular and neuromodulation, diagnostics, nutritionals, established pharmaceuticals, and other. EnSite Precision cardiac mapping system is the key offering of the company. It helps in the mapping of most complex arrhythmia cases through a high level of automation, flexibility, and precision.

Boston Scientific Corporation

Boston Scientific Corporation operates the business across various segments such as MedSurg, Rhythm management, and Cardiovascular. RHYTHMIA HDx Mapping System is the key offering of the company. It offers density, resolution, and automation required for true HD mapping with the combination of a high-resolution mapping catheter, advanced noise-filtering hardware, and intelligent software.

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc.

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. operates the business through various segments such as pharmaceutical, medical devices, and consumer. CARTO 3 System is the key offering of the company. It offers high-quality data points and integrates multiple data sets and images into one resource for highly detailed, real-time information.

Medtronic

Medtronic operates the business through various segments such as cardiac and vascular group, minimally invasive therapies group, restorative therapies group, and diabetes group. CardioInsight Noninvasive 3D Mapping System is the key offering of the company. It is a non-invasive mapping system that collects chest ECG signals and combines them with CT scan data to produce and display simultaneous, bi-atrial and biventricular, 3D cardiac maps.

MicroPort Scientific Corporation

MicroPort Scientific Corporation operates the business through various segments such as orthopedics devices business, cardiovascular devices business, endovascular devices business, electrophysiology devices business, neurovascular devices business, surgical devices business, and diabetes and endocrinal devices. Columbus 3D EP Navigation System is the key offering of the company. It features real-time electromagnetic device tracking with cardiac motion compensation, accurate geometric reconstruction of intracardiac chambers, automatic 3D image segmentation of cardiac chambers with a single click, and accurate preoperative CT image registration and integration.

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3D Cardiac Mapping Systems Product Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2023)

3D Cardiac Mapping Systems Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2019 - 2023)

Technavios sample reports are free of charge and contain multiple sections of the report, such as the market size and forecast, drivers, challenges, trends, and more. Request a free sample report

Related Reports on Healthcare include:

Global Cardiac Restoration Systems Market Global cardiac restoration systems market by product (mitral valve restoration systems and left ventricular restoration systems), end-users (hospitals, ASCs, and others), and geography (Asia, Europe, North America, and ROW).

Global Cardiac POC Testing Devices Market Global cardiac POC testing devices market by end-users (hospitals and laboratories, diagnostic centers, and ambulatory centers and physicians' clinics) and geography (Asia, Europe, North America, and ROW).

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavios comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Global 3D Cardiac Mapping Systems Market 2019-2023 | Evolving Opportunities with Abbott and Boston Scientific Corporation | Technavio - Business Wire

The contracting firm is accused of cheating its own workers and NYCHA. Photo: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY

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A Brooklyn contracting firm thats pleaded guilty to wage-cheating workers on NYCHA jobs has received more than $140,000 in no-bid contracts from the Housing Authority, records show.

SAC Restoration and its husband-and-wife owners entered guilty pleas Dec. 31 in Manhattan Supreme Court, admitting that for years theyd falsely certified they were paying employees the required prevailing wages on multiple NYCHA jobs.

A review of public housing contract data by THE CITY reveals that in 2018 alone, SAC received 29 separate no-bid contracts totaling more than $141,000. Each contract was just below $5,000, the figure that would require NYCHA to put the job out for competitive bids.

At the Patterson Houses in the Bronx, for example, SAC got 13 separate contracts for work between March 30 and June 26, 2018, each for just under $5,000, records show. The total came to more than $63,000, an amount that would normally require competitive bidding.

As THE CITY revealed in October, the city Department of Investigation has warned NYCHA three times in the last three years about allowing mid-level bureaucrats to pick a select group of contractors for repair jobs without bidding the work out.

In a 2016 memo, DOI found that one-third of the no-bid contracts had been handed to an elite group of just 17 vendors. DOI stated that the overuse of no-bid contracts left NYCHA vulnerable to the potential for corruption, with the possibility that NYCHA staffers were taking bribes to steer contracts to favored firms.

A 2017 DOI probe found evidence that one Queens-based contractor, Matrixx Construction, had billed the Housing Authority for work actually performed by NYCHA staff.

Facing pressure to whittle down a persistent backlog of repair requests, NYCHA has increasingly relied on no-bid work. Spending on those contracts rose from $38.8 million in 2017 to $61.1 million in 2018, according to records obtained by THE CITY. With $41.6 million spent on no-bid jobs through August, NYCHA was on pace to go even higher in 2019.

SACs transactions with NYCHA appear to date back to 2013, when the company was accused in federal court of labor violations for allegedly failing to pay overtime to workers on several painting jobs. The jobs referenced in the lawsuit included work on a NYCHA development, Harrison Avenue Rehab, in The Bronx.

Responding to the suit, SAC claimed that the plaintiff did not work for them but for a subcontractor. The suit was later dropped after that person disappeared, court records show.

During their plea on New Years Eve, SACs owners, Avtar and Sima Chand, admitted that the wage cheating on NYCHA jobs dated to 2014.

The company and the Chands, both 32, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges related to filing false documents, admitting theyd billed NYCHA for work at the prevailing rate of $41.75 per hour yet hired laborers at a much lower wage.

In some cases, the Chands certified they were doing this work personally while they were on vacation in the Bahamas and India. The plea was first reported by the Daily News.

Under the plea which followed a probe by the city Department of Investigation and was prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. the firm and owners agreed to pay $154,000 in back wages. If the company meets all requirements under the agreement, the charges will be dismissed.

Mitchell Barnett, an attorney for SAC and the Chands, did not return calls seeking comment.

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Contractor Guilty of Wage Theft Was Also NYCHA No-Bid King - THE CITY

This is part 2 in a 3-part series on the renowned last samurai, Saigo Takamori.

Part 1: Saigo Takamori: the Making of a Legend

Around 250 miles south of the Japanese home islands, the isle of Amami Oshima lies amid turquoise waters. The main island of the Amami archipelago, the large landmass of limestone is fringed with palms, the waters of its offings abounding with coral. While these days Amami Oshima is part of Japans Kagoshima Prefecture (and is, in fact, Japans seventh-largest island), this was not always so.

For hundreds of years beforehand, Amami was the land of a Ryukyuan people, their language and culture distinct from that of the Japanese. The people of Amami held to their own religions, with their own social structure based around lords known as Aji and priestesses called Noro. Women tattoed their hands in elaborate fashion to signify the stages of their lives. For some time, the people of the Amami warred amongst themselves and with those on nearby islands, until in the 1440s they were conquered by their cultural cousins from Okinawa and officially became part of the Ryuku Kingdom.

Some 170 years onwards, the islands were beset yet again by foreign invaders. Samurai of the powerful Satsuma Domain of southern Kyushu had before attempted an invasion of the Amami Oshima, but the Ryukyuan army had repulsed them. This time, the lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Tadatsune, launched a much greater campaign. Despite fierce Ryukuan resistance, the kingdom fell to the foreign samurai. The Ryuku Kingdom became a mere semi-autonomous colony of Satsuma Domain. Amami Oshima fared worse than its southern neighbor it was outright annexed by the Shimazu family.

160 years ago, on this island so distant and culturally dissimilar from the Japanese mainland, there stood an exiled Satsuma samurai. Surrounded by people and landscapes that were fully unfamiliar, the physically imposing Saigo Takamori wondered if he would ever again return to the world from which he had been expelled a world which until recently he had exerted such a revolutionary effect upon.

The year was 1859. Only five years earlier, the now-famous Saigo Takamori had been a mere tax clerk. The path Saigo had taken from local obscurity to national figure and then to exile had already been a circuitous one.

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Saigo came of age in a changing Japan. The arrival of powerful foreign ships in Japan had given lie to the strength and prestige of the aging Tokugawa Shogunate, and powerful local lords (daimyo) had begun to assert their own power, attempting to influence the central government in Edo. Many had begun to realize that the Shogunal state was not powerful enough to deal with the demands of recently-arrived Western empires. It was during this time that Saigo had suddenly been chosen to become the aid and confidant of his lord, Shimazu Nariakira. Saigo was known in Satsuma for his loyalty and idealistic clarity; he would be the perfect samurai to serve a lord beset by treacherous local and national disturbances.

Nariakira and Saigo found they shared similar ideas regarding the correct direction for their country. Soon, their dynamic had transformed into what was for Saigo the ideal samurai-master relationship. Together, they strove to influence national politics within the Shogunal capital. Their goal was to assure that the young and potent Hitotsubashi Keiki be named as heir to the Shogun. To this end, Saigo was made Nariakiras man in Edo, surreptitiously running messages and converting important figures to their side. Saigos charisma and idealism made him many devoted friends, and soon his name was known far and wide.

Attracted to burgeoning schools of thought that placed primacy in the emperor, Saigo was soon off to the imperial capital of Kyoto. He and his compatriots tried to convince likely nobles (traditionally uninvolved in politics) to bring their influence to bear on the Shogunal succession. All was progressing well until the reactionary pro-Tokugawa daimyo Ii Naosuke seized power back in Edo. Ii became the shoguns tairo (Great Elder) and used his new position of power to initiate a purge of those who threatened the primacy of the Shogunate. The imperial court balked under newly invigorated Shogunal power.

All Saigos efforts had been for naught. But worse still, Saigo suffered a great personal tragedy. His lord, Nariakira, passed away suddenly, leaving his arch-rival Shimazu Hisamitsu in control of Satsuma Domain. Saigo had lost the most important person in a samurais life: his master. He had also been made bereft of political standing. As shogunal forces drew near, Saigo fled with the monk Gessho, the two hoping to find safety in Saigos native Satsuma. Alas, the new lord refused to protect the monk. Having failed in all their attempts, and with Shogunal spies all around, Saigo and Gessho decided to escape from their mortal plane. The two leaped from a boat into the freezing waters of Kagoshima Bay. Gessho succeeded in his suicide; Saigo, miraculously, survived. Even this, however, seemed to him to be a failure.

Saigo did not have long to recuperate from his near-miss with death. The Shogunate had put out a warrant for his arrest. Rather than risk Edos wrath by protecting Saigo or create strife in Satsuma by giving up a popular samurai, the Satsuma government claimed Saigo had succeeded in committing suicide. They then exiled the very much alive Saigo to the farthest ends of the Satsuma Domain.

Thus had Saigo Takamori found himself so very far from home or political power. Although not a criminal and still granted his stipend, Saigo was a virtual prisoner in what amounted to a foreign land. Until recently a major player in national politics, now he could only interact with ongoing tumultuous events via letters to his friends back on the mainland. History, it seemed, was leaving him behind. While his compatriots promised to push for a swift end to his exile, time began to creep by.

At first, life on Amami Oshima was terribly depressing. While the islands environs, then as now, are idyllic, the social structure of this Satsuma colony shocked Saigo. The Satsuma government had discovered that sugar cane grew easily in this subtropical climate, and had forced the Amami people into a sugar monoculture. Almost all arable land was put over to sugar production. This lead to famines in years of bad harvest and mass poverty for the peasants of the island. (Interestingly, this use of a colony for forced monoculture is very similar to what Western empires were doing with sugar at the time).

Saigo, for all his good qualities, was still a chauvinist mainlander. He was repulsed by aspects of Amami culture. He saw the people there as unrefined and dirty (and the womens tattoos particularly offended him). Saigo even referred to these indigenous people as Hairy Chinese. Still, he could not help but take pity on the situation his own Satsuma government had put them in. In one letter to friends on the mainland, Saigo wrote:

The daily life of the islanders seems honestly unendurable. It is worse than the treatment of the Ainu in Ezo. I am astonished by the bitterness of their lives: I did not think there could be such hardship.

At first, Saigo attempted to while away his time in meditation and farming. He drafted near-constant letters to his compatriots, who still relied on his advice. First and foremost on Saigos mind was escaping exile and returning to the fray. Yet time wended on, and soon his sense of purpose could not help but shift to his surroundings.

First came his students. Saigo, in some ways an academic at heart, was a natural teacher. When local children begged this distinguished mainland samurai to teach them, he found he could not say no. Then came involvement in local politics. Incensed by local conditions, Saigo strove to enact change. He befriended local Satsuma officials and Amami natives alike, making lifelong friends. Together, they attempted to create policies that would enhance life for the people of the island. Such was Saigos effect on the local population that he remains a popular hero on Amami Oshima to this day.

Perhaps incidentally, Saigo developed a personal life on Amami Oshima as well. Potentially the islands most eligible bachelor, the physically imposing and morally scrupulous samurai suddenly found himself with a wife. Little is known of Aigana, she of dark hair and detailed tattoos. While to a mainland samurai Aigana was but an island wife, and thus of little societal note, Saigo seems to have been happy with her. Soon the two had children. As the years passed by, Saigo became more and more inclined to island life. The world of Shogunal succession seemed increasingly distant. Saigo may even have been happy to remain a samurai of Amami Oshima.

Fate, of course, intervened.

As Saigo languished and subsequently flourished in Amami, major events were unfolding on the mainland. Saigos friends in Satsuma (chief among them the soon to be equally famous Okubo Toshimichi, ) had worked unfalteringly to convince the new daimyo to continue with Nariakiras efforts to influence the shogunal succession. The young daimyo, Shimazu Tadayoshi, was under the thumb of his father Hisamitsu. Although Hisamitsu and the late Nariakira had become mortal enemies, they had possessed similar ideas about the problems with the shogunate. Hisamitsu tacitly allowed Okubo and the others to continue their work against the Shogunate. As the young activists endeavored to strengthen ties with likely allies in Kumamoto, Mito (modern Ibaraki), and Fukui Domains, they also strove (in vain) to convince Hasamitsu to return Saigo from his exile.

March 24th, 1960, more than a year into Saigos exile, saw a major turning point. On that morning, Ii Naosuke, the most powerful man in Japan, was making his way to Edo castle. It was Iis vicious purge of the opposition that had pushed Saigo into exile and frustrated the anti-Shogunal forces plans. Ii alone had brought about a resurgence of Shogunal power when it had seemed at its weakest. Now, as his entourage of 60 guards rounded the turn into the Sakuradomon gate at the Edo Castle, his enemies caught up with him.

Seventeen Mito domain samurai and a lone warrior from Satsuma lept into action. The main force engaged the Tairos guards in bloody battle from the front. As they fought, one warrior closed in on Iis palanquin and fired a single bullet. Ii was shot through, and the Satsuma samurai, Arimura Jisaemon (), pulled him bodily from his litter. Before the guards could intervene, he had cut off Iis head and knelt to commit seppuku.

This assassination dealt a major blow to the Shogunate, who even tried to cover up Iis death. (Despite his head having been publically removed, the Shogunate claimed he was still alive for a month afterward.) Some of the Shogunates fight went out with Ii Naosuke. Many officials now feared for their lives. It was clear some sort of compromise would have to be made.

In the following years, Shimazu Hisamitsu continued to conspire to gain greater prominence for his domain in national politics. To do so, he balanced alliances with reformist moderates and radicals from the Sonno Joi (, Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) movement. It was at this point that Okubo Toshimichi reminded Hisamitsu of the one man most respected by both moderates and radicals: Saigo Takamori.

Despite the major blow to Shogunal power, it still took two years for Satsuma to recall Saigo from exile. In the early days of 1862, at long last, a letter of reprieve arrived at Saigos island home. For more than a year Saigo had dreamt of nothing but an end to his exile. Now, however, he had almost moved beyond such desires. He would later write to a friend from Amami that:

[I shall] never forget the kindness with which the islanders treated me and the warmth with which I was accepted.

So it was with some reluctance that Saigo left behind his new family and home to return to his place of prominence in national politics on the mainland.

Once back in Kagoshima, Saigo immediately met with Hisamitsu. Alas, the two would never share the close samurai-master bond Saigo has possessed with the late Nariakira. Still, Hisamitsu represented Satsuma, and Saigo was nothing if not loyal to his domain. After a short stop at a rural onsen to soak away his cares, Saigo was dispatched to Shimonoseki, the nearest point of Honshu to Saigos native island of Kyushu. There he was to wait for Hisamitsu arrival. Once the lord was present, the two would lead a heavily armed retinue to Kyoto; a show of force disguised as an embassy to the emperor.

Surely Saigo arrived in Shimonoseki willing to do as he had been told. Yet, as he waited for his lord, something unexpected happened. Various radical samurai approached Saigo, entreating him to join their cause against the weakened Shogunate. Saigo may have been unaware of the degree to which his fame had increased while he was in exile. His willingness to die with Gessho had proved especially inspiring to samurai across the country. Saigo could not help but be impressed by the passion of these men, nor their willingness to die for their cause. Perhaps enamored with their words of praise, or believing he could best guide these radicals actions directly, Saigo agreed to venture with them to Osaka. He neither asked permission from his lord nor sent an explanation for his actions. Saigo would come to regret such rashness.

When Shimazu Hisamitsu arrived first in Shimonoseki and then Kyoto and found no sign of Saigo, he grew concerned. When word reached him that his retainer was cavorting with extremist radicals, he became enraged. Why had he released this man from exile, if Saigo simply intended to flout his commands and undermine him? The call went out for Saigos arrest.

Saigo and Okubo Toshimichi, who had arranged his release from exile, were shaken to the core by the order. Okubo suggested they both commit seppuku together to escape their shame. Saigo, despite falling anew into depression, insisted Okubo could still best serve the world alive.

In June of 1862, Saigo was bound in chains and taken by boat first to Kagoshima, and then conveyed again out towards the Amami islands. The punishment for his insubordination would be exile. However, unlike before, he would find no freedom in his place of banishment. The boat sailed past Amami Oshima, past Saigos island home. He would have neither the comfort of his children nor of his wife, Aigana.

His destination was, at first, the small island of Tokunoshima. But he had been there no longer than a month before he was transferred to yet another island. His new home was to be Okinoerabujima (), Satsuma Domains place of starkest exile. For Satsuma, this was the ends of the Earth. Saigo was placed inside a narrow, constricting cage (made even more constricting by Saigos massive physique) and left in a state of near starvation. He would languish on the island until the early months of 1864.

While Saigo was acclimating to a life of meditation and privation, his domain was engaged in an international crisis.

It had all begun in the town of Namagumi, in modern Yokohama. Four British merchants, recently arrived in the country, were riding down the Tokaido Road to visit a temple in Kawasaki. Westerners were still a new sight in those early days of the relaxation of isolationism, and their presence was despised by a large subsection of samurai society. Still, the four headstrong young servants of the mighty British Empire could barely concern themselves with petty Japanese affairs. They intended to enjoy their cheery jaunt into the countryside of this strange land. With a bit more wisdom, they may have avoided creating an international incident.

As the four rode down the Tokaido, who should they approach but the armed retinue, 700 strong, of Shimazu Hisamitsu himself. Any Japanese of the lower classes would have known to dismount and bow when confronted with a daimyo procession. (Indeed, samurai had the right to cut down anyone of lower rank who showed them disrespect thanks to the law of kiri-sute gomen .) Yet these four, whether through ignorance or pridefulness, did not deign to follow such rules. After all, the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty (one of many unequal treaties the Tokugawa had been forced to sign) granted all British citizens extraterritoriality. What did they have to fear from feudal Japanese laws?

The Satsuma guards of the retinue signaled to them to dismount, but the four road on towards the center of the procession. As 28-year-old Charles Lennox Richardson approached the Satsuma regents palanquin, many of the guards unsheathed their blades and fell upon the mounted British merchants. Three of the four received sword wounds, and as they attempted to flee, Richardson mortally wounded fell from his horse. Hisamitsu gave the order of - and one of his soldiers offered Richardson the coup de grce.

The British legation and public were aghast. They demanded that justice be meted out for the slain Englishman. First came a heavy indemnity worth a third of the Shogunates annual revenue. This was paid under threat of a naval bombardment of Edo. Yet British honor could only be satisfied if Satsuma paid an additional sum to the slain Richardsons family and handed over his killers for execution.

Hisamitsu, himself involved with anti-foreigner plotting, could not very well be seen kowtowing to Western power. Satsuma Domain refused these demands. In retaliation, a British squadron made up of seven warships headed south, bound for Kagoshima.

Thus began the single day of the Anglo-Satsuma War (). The citizens of Kagoshima fled at the approach of the foreign boats, and the British ships took Satsuma junks anchored at port hostage. The Satsuma forces fired cannonballs in return. (In fact, one of the Satsuma cannons was manned that day by Togo Heihachiro, the future hero of the Russo-Japanese War and the Nelson of the East.) The British squadron responded by shelling Kagoshima, destroying up to 5% of the citys structures (including the Ryukyuan Embassy) before retreating for lack of supplies.

The Satsuma samurai had managed to kill the captain of the British flagship, and though militarily outmatched, had fought long enough that the British retreated. The result was a moral victory for Hisamitsu, who became the sole man in Japan capable of saying he had faced down a foreign assault and had won the day. This gave him enough clout to create his own unilateral relationship with the British, paying off their requested indemnity with money borrowed (but never repaid) from the Shogunate. Satsuma had fought a war with a foreign power and then struck up their own relationship with the same, completely bypassing the supposedly central power structure in Edo. Day by day, it became more clear that the Shogunate had lost control.

Saigo, upon hearing of the pending struggle with the British, had grown anxious to help his domain. He had even conspired with the man guarding his cell, Tsuchimochi Masateru who had gained an almost worshipful attachment to his captive to build a boat with which to escape the island so he might lend his strength to Satsumas defense. The war, of course, was over with much too quickly, and time continued to pass Saigo by. He eventually gained a sort of equanimity with his captivity. He wrote poetry, read the Confucian classics, and even taught classes from his cell (and later, better-outfitted room).

Like on Amami, Saigo seemed to find peace in exile. And like on Amami, it was not to last.

As Shogunate power faltered on the mainland, the possibility of civil war continued to rear its ugly head. Satsuma Domain continued to be at the center and Shimazu Hisamitsu realized that he needed the best possible men around him. Saigo was still one of the most respected men in Japan. No matter his past faults, Hisamitsu needed him.

So it was that on February 20th, 1864, a Satsuma steamboat made its way to distant Okinoerabujima. Onboard were three samurai entrusted with conveying Saigo back to the mainland and freedom. Saigo was shocked; he had expected no such reprieve. He bid farewell to the captors with whom he had made friends, and then set off from the island, never to return.

Before they could return to Kagoshima, Saigo instructed the ships captain to make two important detours. First, they made Amami Oshima, were Saigo rushed off to be with his family. Aigana was delighted to see him, and Saigo often taciturn when it came to familial matters was overjoyed as well.

I felt as though I were brought back from the dead.

After four days with his family and friends, Saigo again left Amami Oshima. This would be his last time on the island. Though he kept the people of Amami in his heart (and his children would later come to live with him on the mainland), he would never see his wife, Aigana, again. Next, the boat made a quick stop at Kikaishima, where Saigo unilaterally released his friend Murata Shinpachi from exile. Then they were off to Kyushu.

In Kagoshima, Saigo was briefly returned to his household. The very next day he made his way to his late master, Shimazu Nariakiras, grave. Within a week he set off with Murata for Kyoto to meet with his current master, Hisamitsu. How tense this meeting was, after years of exile, is not recorded. What is recorded is that Hisamitsu restored Saigo to his full stipend and made him commander of the Satsuma troops in Kyoto. Saigo Takamori had returned to prominence; a prominence he would never again lose, even in death.

Domestic politics had changed greatly during Saigos exile, though the situation remained as shakey as ever. Hisamitsus embassy to Kyoto had proved a great success, and the Shogunate had given in to many reformist demands. The primacy of the emperor had been re-affirmed, and a system of Shogunal-Daimyo power-sharing called Kobu Gattai (,Union of the Court and Shogunate) had been instated. The shogunate had even lessened the requirements of the onerous sankin kotai system. The daimyo were now more powerful than they had been in centuries, yet nothing seemed to be improving.

Ironically, parts of the cause of this structural impasse was of Satsuma Domains own making. Hitotsubashi Keiki, whom Saigo and others had tried so diligently to have named Shogunal successor, had been placed in the powerful station of guardian to the young Shogun, Iemochi. Keiki was every bit as suited to power as Saigos lord Nariakira had hoped; alas, he was also proving to be positively Machiavellian in his quest to secure that power. Hisamitsu and his allies distrusted Keiki, and often each other. This power-sharing government, made up of the Shogunate and individualistic daimyo ruling in the emperors name, seemed no better at centralized decision-making than the outmoded Shogunate had alone.

The continued weakness of the state and latent fury at the continued presence of foreign powers in Japan lead to a series of rebellions (the most serious being the Tengu Rebellion in Mito Domain) and assassination attempts by radical Sonno Joi adherents. Amongst all this, Satsuma was developing an intense rivalry with another major provincial power, Choshu Domain (, in modern Yamaguchi Prefecture). Both domains were proponents of major reform, but Choshu had come to be controlled by much more radical elements. Choshu had even gained the support of anti-foreigner aspects of the imperial court. Choshu influence helped goad Emperor Komei to issue his dramatic (but practically unenforceable) Order to Expel the Foreign Barbarians ().

Hisamitsu could not deign to allow Choshu to effectively cut Satsuma out of imperial politics. He decided to take action. Forming an alliance with conservative Aizu Domain (, in modern Fukushima Prefecture), Hisamitsu sent troops to the imperial palace, enacting a blatant coup. Choshu was shut out, and Satsuma reigned triumphant. Yet even as Hisamitsu bested Choshu, his rivalry with Hitotsubashi Keiki and the Shogunate intensified. Such infighting effectively scuttled Kobu Gattai as an effective system.

More than that, Choshu was now forming up troops to attack the imperial city and retake power. Saigo found himself leading the defensive vanguard against the oncoming Choshu forces. Warriors of Satsuma and Aizu took the brunt of the Choshu assault; Saigo and his younger brother, Kohei, both suffered wounds as the Choshu let loose their cannons. Yet Saigo still proved a formidable commander. His troops defeated the Choshu rebels while successfully defending the imperial palaces Inui Gate, and then moved to relieve embattled Aizu forces at the Hamaguri Gate.

The Choshu ranks broke formation, fleeing into the city to hide amongst the Choshu villas and in the homes of friendly nobles. As the Aizu forces gave chase, the rebels set their hiding places ablaze in an attempt to stall their pursuers. Though the battle had ended quickly, fires wracked Kyoto for the next day, destroying thousands of homes.

Saigo was now personally embittered against Choshu, who had dared point their cannons at the imperial palace. He even wished to lead a force on a punitive expedition against the wayward domain. In fact, Saigo was beaten to the punch by an alliance of four Western navies. On August 5th, 1864, a joint force made up of ships from the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, and France bombarded Shimonoseki. The shelling was recompense for previous Choshu attacks on foreign ships plying the straights between Honshu ad Kyushu. Choshu, once among the most powerful domains, was laid low by foreign might.

Despite Choshus defeat at the hand of the foreigners, the Shogunate still intended to send its own troops to further punish the domain for its affront towards the imperial palace. Saigo, now a proven military leader of some standing, was granted the position of chief of staff of this punitive expedition. It was during the course of such preparations that Saigo had an encounter that would further shift his perspective regarding the correct course for Japan.

The meeting was with one Katsu Kaishu (), an Edo samurai who had risen to the rank of commander of the nascent Shogunal navy. In 1860, Katsu had commanded the corvette Kanrin-maru on the first Japanese embassy to the United States. Upon arrival, he studied western naval science in San Francisco for two months. Katsu came away with an appreciation for modern, centralized militaries without hereditary postings. Despite being loyal to the Shogunate, he bemoaned the state of his country even insisting to Saigo that the Shogunate was simply too outmoded to survive in the modern world.

For Saigo, this idea came as a shock. Despite his criticisms, Saigo assumed the Shogunate would remain a fixture of the Japanese polity long into the future. Now, impressed by Katsus knowledge and prescience, he began to think otherwise. Perhaps the country really needed to do away with the Shogunate entirely.

Saigos thought process had now shifted from enacting revenge on Choshu to a more lenient stance. Envisioning a future in which powerful daimyo would have to dismantle the Shogunate, he preferred to keep even this enemy domain intact. To this aim he convinced the head of the expedition, Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, to avoid bringing it to a fight. Instead, Saigo approached Choshu with an appreciably fair offer: he would exchange Choshu captives from the battle in Kyoto for the heads of the domain elders who had spearheaded the attack, the execution of some battle commanders, and the expatriation of radical nobles who had been hiding in Choshu. The first two demands were quickly met. The third, however, was delayed by the breakout of civil war in Choshu.

Saigo, eager to quickly end this Shogunal conflict, risked life and limb to travel deep in rebel territory in Shimonoseki. There he negotiated with radical Sonno Joi leaders. Despite his position as an arch-enemy of Choshu, the radicals found they trusted Saigo. By January 1865 the Kyoto nobles in question were transferred to a jointly-run site outside of the battle zone. Saigos bravery in risking his life for a bloodless end to the conflict added to his fame and growing legend. The Shogunal expedition could now disband; meanwhile, Choshu fell deeper into civil strife.

Such was Saigos success that even Hisamitsu, ever wary of his stalwart retainer, congratulated him. Saigo received gifts and accolades in a private meeting with the daimyo regent; more significantly, he was raised to the fourth-highest governmental position in Satsuma Prefecture. A year later, in mid-1866, Satsuma Domain granted him an even greater honor: Saigo Takamori was made a member of the Satsuma Council of Elders. In hardly more than a decade, Saigo had risen from a tax office to be an elite local and national figure.

Despite working with the Shogunate, Satsuma was becoming increasingly hostile towards the erstwhile central government. Saigo was particularly disgusted by the dishonorable violence meted out against surrendered rebel troops at the end of the Mito Rebellion. For its part, Choshu Domain, now firmly in the grip of imperial loyalist radicals, wished for revenge against the Shogunate for the punitive expedition. While both domains were still enemies, it became clear that they had a mutual foe in Edo.

Into this situation stepped another samurai whose name has echoed through to modern-day: Sakamoto Ryoma (). Ryoma was a samurai of modest origins from Tosa Domain on Shikoku and an impassioned imperial loyalist and modernizer. (In fact, Ryoma, like Saigo, had come under the influence of modernizing ideas of Shogunal naval master Katsu Kaishu.) As a well-known figure from a neutral domain, Ryoma was in a unique position to mediate between Satsuma and Choshu. He and fellow Tosa samurai Nakaoka Shintaro negotiated a deal in which Satsuma would supply Choshu with much-needed modern armaments (via surreptitious dealing with Scottish merchant Thomas Glover). Choshu would then help supply the Satsuma compound in the imperial capital. The final exchange was signed by a samurai of Choshu named Ito Hirobumi the man who would go on to be Japans first modern prime minister.

The groundwork had been laid for the Satsuma-Choshu Alliance (, Satch dmei) the very force that would spearhead the fall of the Shogunate and usher in the modernization of Japan.

The Shogunate continued to commit political blunders amidst the establishment of this new alliance. The first came as an attempt to scuttle Saigos peaceful resolution of the Choshu Expedition. The Shogunate dispatched troops to collect the five imperial hostages under joint Satsuma-Choshu guard.

Saigo was enraged that the Shogun would undo his good work. He sent trusty Satsuma samurai (and future prime minister, conqueror of the Ezo Republic, and modernizer of Hokkaido) Kuroda Kiyotaka to repulse the shogunal force.

The Shogunate was further embarrassed by Satsuma one month later. In April of 1866, the central government commanded Satsuma to join in a second military expedition to Choshu. Satsuma refused. Soon enough, domains around the country found they could simply ignore orders from once-mighty Edo. Whats worse, the Shogunate suffered outright humiliation when Choshu defeated their invasion.

Fate was simply not on Edos side. While the course of the disastrous Second Choshu Expedition played out on the other side of the country, the Shogun himself, Tokugawa Iemochi, had quietly died in Edo. This paved the way for Hitotsubashi Keiki, once Satsumas greatest hope and now dogged foe, to finally be named Shogun. Such a prodigious title deserved a new name. Keiki took the mantle of Shogun under the name Tokugawa Yoshinobu (). He would be the 15th and final Shogun of Japan.

The newly-named Yoshinobu set about a final attempt to empower the central government. He initiated an impressive array of modernizations, contracting the French and Russian armies to help improve his military. Back in Satsuma, Saigo was doing likewise. The domain army was purchasing major modern armaments, and Saigo himself was meeting with British officers to obtain their assistance. The famed British diplomat Ernest Satow even personally pushed Saigo to act quickly against the Shogun. Something of a quiet arms race between the center and the periphery of Japan was underway.

While all this was going on, another major player unexpectedly passed away. Emperor Komei died suddenly in 1867 at the young age of 25. Although his likely cause of death was smallpox, the abruptness of his illness gave birth to rumors of assassination. Komei had been the source of much anti-foreign rhetoric, but domestically he and the new Shogun had become allies in moderation. Now his even younger son, Mutsuhito (who we now know as the Emperor Meiji) would reign.

In an attempt to diminish the Shogun and sway the new emperor in their direction, Saigo and Okubo convinced Hisamitsu and other powerful lords to convene an imperial conference in Kyoto. Their aim was to punish Yoshinobu over his attempts to open a treaty port for the British in Kobe. Alas, Yoshinobu was a skilled debater, and roundly bludgeoned the arguments of his interlopers in front of the emperor. The court sided with Yoshinobu, and the opposing daimyo came away with renewed hatred of the Shogunate.

Saigo again leaped into action. Via meetings with Choshu, Saigo reaffirmed their alliance and began actual preparations for war. Saigo and Ryoma also engineered an even more concrete alliance between Satsuma and Tosa directly calling for their defeat of the Shogunate (although its ratification was stalled at the last moment). Saigo then returned to Kyoto in October of 1870. There, he and Okubo petitioned leading nobles to support a direct attack on the Shogun.

Soon a falsified imperial edict was sent to Satsuma calling for the annihilation of Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The Shogun barely avoided the breakout of war by vaguely announcing his resignation. Though in fact still acting as Shogun, this de jure resignation was enough to placate the imperial court. Yoshinobu had briefly stalled the arrival of his day of reckoning.

Saigo and Okubo, however, refused to allow the Shogunate to again escape its fate. Saigo sent forth Satsuma samurai to cause unrest in Edo. Violence broke out on the streets of the Shogunal capital, as pro-imperial samurai attacked Edo officials and set fires. Meanwhile, Saigo engaged in a flurry of meetings, traveling throughout southeastern Japan to meet with likely daimyo. A military force was soon assembled. Saigo and Okubo convinced Hisamitsu that his son, the daimyo, should lead the Satsuma troops himself.

So it came to be that in November of 1867, Lord Shimazu Tadayoshi lead a force of 3000 samurai towards Kyoto, intent on toppling the longest-lasting ruling dynasty in Japanese history.

The Satsuma army surrounded Kyoto on November 23rd, 1867. There they joined thousands of other troops already assembled to place pressure on the court. Two weeks thence, on the 8th of December, the imperial court convened. The aristocracy, now firmly on the side of reform, pardoned many exiled court radicals. They also restored the standing of the daimyo of Choshu, Mori Takachika. The fate of the Tokugawa would have to wait for the next day.

On the 9th, the young Meiji emperor called forth the daimyo of the domains he now counted on to enact its will: Tosa, Fukui, Hiroshima, Owari, and of course Satsuma. While Saigo commanded the Satsuma troops guarding the gates to the palace, young Meiji read out an edict that effectively restructured the Japanese government. The Shogunate was officially abolished. In its place, Japan was to have a president, senators, and councilors (although all these positions were still to be filled by those of hereditary noble or samurai background).

The Shogun himself had fled to Osaka, whose castle was a Tokugawa stronghold. There, he attempted to find a way to counter the new imperial policy to his benefit. Saigo, back in Kyoto, rushed from meeting to meeting in an attempt to form an alliance to lead an attack. Yet before this could occur, things reached a head in Edo. Saigos Satsuma assailants had been carrying out consistent attacks for a week, including lighting a portion of Edo Castle ablaze. When definitive proof that these men were Satsuma ronin appeared, Edo soldiers were sent to destroy the local Shimazu Family villa, killing many Satsuma retainers in the process.

The Shogunate had finally had enough. Although Tokugawa Yoshinobu had been willing to make sacrifices to uphold some imperial edicts, the attacks in Edo now spurred him to go to war. His troops massed south of Kyoto, forming separate lines at the villages of Toba and Fushimi. The imperial loyalist forces rode out to meet them. The Shogunate had a decisive advantage in numbers: 2,500 troops at Toba (including many highly-trained warriors from Aizu) and upwards of 3000 at Fushimi. By contrast, Toba was to be defended by a mere 900 Satsuma men; Fushimi, a combined force of 1400 Satsuma, Choshu, and Tosa samurai. Saigo, heading to the front, was prepared for potential disaster and had helped plan an evacuation route for the Emperor in case Kyoto fell.

On January third, 1868, Satsuma cannons began to shell the Tokugawa troops at Toba. The Boshin War had begun.

The twinned battles of Toba-Fushimi () lasted a grand total of three days. It was a frenzied affair. Both Shogunal and imperial forces had cannons, howitzers, and rifles. In stark contrast, many samurai of Aizu Domain fought with swords and spears, and some Satsuma samurai did the same. At times, warriors who looked like they belonged to the battles of the warring states era would be mowed down by machine-gun fire; at others, Aizu samurai armed with spears and katana charged Satsuma and Choshu ranks as the latter fumbled at their rifles, setting them to flight before they could reload.

But despite their numerical majority, the battle went poorly for the Shogunate. Perhaps there was a problem with motivation soldiers fighting for a weakened central state against warriors who claimed the divine will of the emperor. Indeed, Saigo received a message from the emperor on the second day of the battle: the Shogunate were officially branded enemies of the imperial court. Saigos forces continued to push both Shogunal armies further backward. (Meanwhile, in the seas off Osaka, Enomoto Takeaki granted the Shogunate one of its few victories in the naval Battle of Awa the first time Japanese navies had faced each other using modern warships.)

On the third day, the Shogunate forces were in full retreat. They hoped to find succor from the allied lord of Yodo Castle only to find the gates barred to them. The daimyo, apprehending how the winds were blowing, had switched sides.

A further blow to the Tokugawa came when the daimyo of Tsu, a traditional Shogunal ally, suddenly began shelling Aizu forces during a major engagement. The news of the betrayals, carried as it was by the retreating troops streaming to Osaka Castle, was too much. Tokugawa Yoshinobu gathered up the loyal daimyo of Aizu and Kuwana and slipped out the castle. After finding refuge in an American warship for a time, the three boarded the Shogunal warship Kaiyo-maru and escaped towards Edo.

Saigo, despite being a senior commander who by all accounts should lead from the rear, had twice gone to the Fushimi front. Watching his soldiers do battle, Saigo was inspired by the bravery and skill with which the men of Satsuma fought. As it became clear that the imperial forces would win the day, his anxiety melted away, replaced with the flush of victory.

This swelling pride, however, was dimmed by his own increasingly ill health. Saigo was aging and had developed a number of chronic ailments that prevented physically joining in the fighting. Despite progressively important military positions including being named as one of the highest-ranking officers in the newly-minted imperial army he began to feel useless.

(Extant letters from Saigo about the failures of old age and the worthlessness of a weakening body echo similar statements by famed 20th-century author and controversial right-wing nationalist Mishima Yukio, who would write that a man should kill himself upon turning forty-five. Indeed, Mishima was a major fan of Saigos).

After taking Osaka, the imperial army split into three parts, progressing up the Tokaido Road towards Edo. Saigo was now the leading force of an army intent on invading the Shogunal capital. They engaged the Tokugawa twice more during this march, taking the fortress of Kofu (, modern Yamanashi Prefecture) and defeating a small contingent led by Kondo Isami, the famed leader of the Shinsengumi (, the elite Tokugawa bodyguards). Saigo then formed a headquarters in modern Shizuoka and prepared for a brutal siege of Edo Castle.

In the Shogunal capital itself, Tokugawa Yoshinobu had retired from public view. The actual running of Shogunal defenses and policy was left to the very man who had so set Saigo against the Shogunate: Katsu Kaishu. Katsu knew the war was a lost cause. Sending a messenger directly to Saigo, he entreated his opposite commander to grant Edo leniency. His words were couched in the mutual sense of honor and justice he knew they both shared. Saigo rode into Edo to meet with Katsu (again braving an enemy stronghold as he had in Shimonoseki), where the naval genius employed his considerable charisma and logic to convince Saigo to spare Edo from destruction. Katsu insisted that a show of leniency to the great house of Tokugawa would enhance the moral fiber of the entire realm.

Saigo was swayed. Despite intense passions, this tendency towards leniency over revenge or petty violence is part of what has made Saigo an enduring figure. So it came to be that Edo was surrendered without a climactic spilling of blood. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, no longer Shogun, voluntarily cloistered himself off in the Kanei-ji temple in Ueno. Saigo Takamori lead his armies into the city of Edo, unopposed.

The Tokugawa had surrendered; Edo lay in the hands of Saigo and the imperialists. The Boshin War, however, proved to be far from finished. In the streets of Edo itself, Tokugawa loyalists refused to accept the end of the structure which had dominated Japan for 260 years. Bands of former Tokugawa retainers harried Satsuma and Choshu troops in Edo and the surrounding regions. To the north, the majority of the domains of the Tohoku region allied themselves to Aizu, still loyal to the Shogunal system. Enomoto Takeaki had also absconded with the Shogunates greatest battleships. As the bulk of the Satsuma-Choshu forces were sent north to fight what would be some of the bloodiest battles of the war, Saigo remained in Edo. He and Katsu were entrusted with putting down rebellion within the city.

This final battle for the heart of Edo took place in the neighborhood of Ueno. There, Tokugawa loyalists converged on the hills around Kanei-ji temple where the ex-shogun was still hiding away. This time, Saigo was determined to lead his troops into battle. He marshaled his forces directly at the Kuromon Gate, encountering hail of bullets and fierce resistance from the Tokugawa samurai.

The loyalists outnumbered the imperialists, and the Satsuma took heavy losses. The fight only turned in Saigos favor as troops from Choshu belatedly attacked the loyalists from the rear. Blood caked the streets of Ueno, and fires raged across the neighborhood. But when the dust had cleared, Tokugawa resistance in Edo had ended.

Three months later, on September 3rd, 1868, Edo () was renamed to Tokyo (, Eastern Capital). Emperor Meiji made his new residence in what had been Edo Castle. The governing and reigning structures of Japan had been consolidated in a single city for the first time in a thousand years.

Yet Saigo was not content. He felt the need to be involved up until the last actions of the Boshin War. Saigos chronic illness stalled his arrival in the Northern front, but he still appeared in time to lead the siege of Shonai Castle in modern Yamagata Prefecture. Saigo treated the defeated defenders of Shonai with leniency. Again he gained the respect of those against whom he had been fighting. Nearly a year later, he would set sail to modern Hokkaido, barely missing the defeat of Enomoto Takeakis self-declared Ezo Republic, the so-called Samurai Democracy. As Saigo made shore in Hakodate Harbor in June of 1869, the Boshin War had come to an end and he had missed the very last moments of that battle.

The war against the Shogunate had ended. Saigo Takamori had accomplished all he had set out to do. He had returned from two periods of exile to enact his late lord Nariakiras will in the world of the living. He had proven the value of his continued and unlikely survival.

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Saigo Takamori: Hero of the Meiji Restoration - Unseen Japan

Fiber art magic brings Bolivian-inspired fantasy to life in Isabel Ibaez's debut novel, Woven in Moonlight.

Ximena has spent most of her life as a decoy for the Condesa, the rightful but deposed queen of Inkasisa. They live in exile with their fellow Illustrians, forced to flee when a usurper king used the magic of a dark relic to drive them out of their homes and make way for his own people, the Llascans. After years of pretending to be the Condesa and taking the brunt of her people's frustration and anger, Ximena hardly knows who she really is anymore. Her one solace is her magic her ability to weave moonlight into beautiful tapestries.

When the usurper king sends an order that the Condesa must marry him or else face the final destruction of her people, Ximena has no choice but to return to the home she fled and offer herself to the king in the Condesa's place, never letting on that the real Condesa is still safely hidden away. But getting close to the king has its benefits. It brings Ximena closer to the relic that allowed the king to defeat the Illustrians. If she can find it, perhaps she can use it to crush him and return the real Condesa to her rightful place.

But the longer Ximena spends among the Llascans, the more she begins to question the central truth upon which everything she believes is based: Illustrians are good and deserve to return to their place of power in Inkasisa and Llascans are bad and deserve to be crushed for their insolence. Is it as simple as right and wrong? What if the Llascans had very understandable reasons for rebelling? That would change everything.

Woven in Moonlight appropriately weaves a beautiful spell that takes culturally specific details and spins them into an engaging fantasy world. There is nothing generic about the land of Inkasisa. Everything from its clothing and fashions to its smells and foods to its plants and animals feels knowingly rendered. Especially the food. This is one of those fantasy novels that will make the reader hungry (I literally had to go buy a snack while I was reading it), but instead of that generic fantasy fare, stew and bread, Woven in Moonlight feasts upon Pasankalla, Marraqueta, and Salteas. My favourite touch may be the glossary of food terms at the end of the book, where each dish is lovingly described.

In general, the domestic holds power in this world. Two of the most powerful characters in the story use weaving as a means to practice magic, and little details like the colors of dyed wool end up having major consequences. Ximena knows how to fight and does it bravely, but her true strength lies in a gentler art and the way she uses it to close the gap between two cultures. And she's not the only one many characters in the story turn out to be more nuanced than they first seem, from princesses to masked bandits.

What beings as a clear-cut tale of a girl seeking revenge and restoration for a generation of wrongs soon blossoms into something much more quicksilver and subtle.

Speaking of masked bandits, we get a very charming addition to the pantheon in El Lobo, a rebel intent on harassing the Llascan court at every opportunity. While the eventual reveal of his true identity won't come as a shock, the bravado of his persona is charming enough to make up for the lack of credible subterfuge. The Llascan princess is also an intriguing character who connects with Ximena over their shared love of weaving. While she's pivotal to the story, she doesn't get a lot of scenes, and I wish that the book offered us a little more of her, especially given the role that she plays as Ximena's worldview begins to shift.

Nuance is something that Woven in Moonlight seems to care about very deeply. What beings as a clear-cut tale of a girl seeking revenge and restoration for a generation of wrongs soon blossoms into something much more quicksilver and subtle. Little moments make the reader stop and wonder if the narrative we've been given is reliable, even as Ximena begins to ask the same question. Bolivia, which is the inspiration for Inkasisa, has a complex history of conquest, colonization, oppression, rebellion, and corruption. That history, like all the charming cultural details, is fully and honestly represented in the tapestry that is Woven in Moonlight.

Caitlyn Paxson is a writer and performer. She is a regular reviewer for NPR Books and Quill & Quire.

The rest is here:
A Tale Of Revenge, Magic And Nuance, All 'Woven In Moonlight' - NPR

The funding is in addition to the $2 billion package announced by the federal government, which would focus on cash payments to individuals, small businesses and councils, Ms Berejiklian said.

Mr Perrottet said the $1 billion would come from capital reserves in areas across the government.

"We are less focused on the budget and we are completely focused on supporting communities right across the state," Mr Perrottet said.

"I've often said that we don't run budget surpluses here in NSW for the sake of it, but we run surpluses so we can invest in times like this.

"We don't just want to see these communities rebuild, we want them to thrive and prosper and that's why this is an unprecedented response to an unprecedented crisis."

In addition to the $1 billion, the government will also provide emergency housing help to people who lost their homes in the fires. This will include temporary accommodation, private rental bonds and advance rent payments.

Families and communities minister Gareth Ward said the Bushfire Housing Assistance Service would help those temporarily or permanently displaced as a result of the fires.

"This service will make it easier for residents impacted by these tragic bushfires to access support and secure a home or safe place to stay as soon as possible," Mr Ward said.

"The NSW government has also established a dedicated bushfire housing assistance response team to proactively support communities that have been devastated by fires in the Illawarra, Shoalhaven and southern NSW region."

The government's latest funding announcement tops-up the $231 million already announced this bushfire season, which includes $166 million more for the Rural Fire Service budget,$25 million to help clean-up insured and uninsured homes and grants for primary producers and small businesses.

On Thursday morning, the RFS confirmed almost 1000 homes across the state had been destroyed in the nine days of the year so far.

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An impact assessment published on Twitter said that of the 1870 homes destroyed across the state this horror fire season, 954 had been lost this year.

A further 196 facilities have been destroyed and 3774 outbuildings.

Twenty people have died so far this fire season in NSW, including RFS volunteers Andrew O'Dwyer, Geoffrey Keaton and Samuel McPaul.

Alexandra Smith is the State Political Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Sally Rawsthorne is a Crime Reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Berejiklian government to spend $1b rebuilding fire-ravaged NSW - Sydney Morning Herald