Photo: Karwai Tang/WireImage

If eating an entire chocolate cake by yourself and being thrown over a fence by Emma Thompson sounds like a fun way to spend an evening, it sounds like Netflix has the perfect Matilda adaptation for you. According to Variety, the Cruella actress is strapping on her weightlifting belt to play the despotic principal of Crunchem Hall Elementary School, across from Darklands Alisha Weir as Matilda herself, in the streamers movie adaptation of the multi-Tony and Olivier-winning Broadway show.

Theyre joined in the film, directed by Matthew Warchus, by No Time to Die and Captain Marvel actress Lashana Lynch, who will reportedly portray the storys benevolent Miss Honey. Dennis Kelly is adapting the films screenplay from the Matilda stage show, which premiered on the West End in 2011 and Broadway in 2013, which is itself adapted from the 1988 childrens novel of the same name by Roald Dahl.

See more here:
Emma Thompson to Hurl You Over the Fence as Miss Trunchbull in Netflixs Musical Matilda - Vulture

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) The Mitten Fence in People's Park on Main Street in Buffalo typically gives out 400 items a year. This winter, things are flying off the fence faster than usual.

I come by about once a week, but I often come by and I see things I know I havent hung up. It really makes me feel like its a community effort, its a community park and its supposed to bring people together, said Mara Montante, People's Park Director.

Montante says it's often overlooked how many people in our area don't have the winter gear they need to stay warm. That's why People's Park started the Mitten Fence in 2018.

"And we thought this was a really nice way to help people in the community during winter," said Montante.

People's park is known for bringing people together in their garden, hosting reading groups and free libraries during the summer and now, putting up this Mitten Fence during the winter months.

"People can come and leave items. Some people knit things and leave them on the fence. Then people stop by and take what they need, its a give what you can and take what you need," said Montante.

Taylor Epps

She thinks the high need for winter items and the extra help from the community are both effects of the pandemic.

Im hoping this fills kind of a necessary thing people need during the winter," said Montante.

After this years positive response, theyre considering bringing a second peoples park and Mitten Fence to Niagara Falls in the future.

"Hopefully, more people can come and donate and if you need something you can stop by and get what you need," said Montante.

The fence will be up through March. If you want to donate, just bring your items in a plastic bag to keep them dry and hang them up.And if you need something to keep warm out here, just stop by and grab what you need.

Read more here:
Mitten fence helping hundreds in Buffalo stay warm this winter - WKBW-TV

The new fence, 7-feet-tall and considered "non-scalable," should eventually find a home in the Smithsonian. Pieces of it would be an appropriate remembrance of just how dangerous and frightening the Trump years have been. Massive protests are nothing new in Washington, of course. In the 1970s, when I was working in the White House, protests against the Vietnam War reached a crescendo. I remember walking through a courtyard at the Old Executive Office Building and finding military tanks secretly stationed there, ready to move if trouble got out of hand. But those protests were wholly legitimate citizens rising up to demand changes in government policy. In this past week, by contrast, we were watching as the leader of the executive branch of government incited mob violence in an attempted takeover of the legislative branch. Through all of our history, although there have been attacks on our Capitol, we have never seen American citizens try to bring down our central government. Attempted overthrows by civilians have been rare as well among major Western democracies.The closest parallel to the Trump years for many has been the Hitler years in Germany. But even there, mobs weren't marching on the Reichstag. Instead the similarity to today is really more about clever deployment of disinformation by both men. As World War I ended, Hitler and his followers invented "The Big Lie": Germany did not lose the war on the battlefields, they argued; rather, its democratically elected leaders undermined the war effort back home. They convinced the electorate that opponents of the war, especially Jews, had delivered a "stab in the back" to German soldiers. That was a huge lie, but its proponents rode it to power. Just as Trump has with his cynical narrative about Biden's election victory. Trump's greatest strength is perhaps his ability to convince large swaths of people that what is true is false and what is false is true. He has become a master of "The Big Lie" namely, that he won the election and Joe Biden lost. A majority of Americans don't believe him, but opinion polls show that roughly a third are still on his side, even after the bloody assault on Congress. It will be extremely difficult for Biden to govern as long as large portions of our electorate believe his presidency is illegitimate. It is disturbing but true that Trump has become even more threatening to our democracy in the past few weeks. With the FBI warning that insurrectionists may stage new marches across 50 state capitols and are personally targeting Biden, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, one would think that Trump would have the decency and good sense to tell his followers to back off, put down your guns, and stay home. How can he continue to be so blind to his own self-interest? Does he really want to leave office with more blood on his hands?Actually, the biggest test at the moment is not about Trump. It is whether the Republican Party will assume serious responsibility for keeping the peace in coming days. That third of the electorate still in Trump's corner won't listen to Biden or any other Democrat, but they might listen if a big chorus of conservative Republicans as well as business leaders now stand up and speak up just as Rep. Liz Cheney has done in the House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is signaling in the Senate.

As a people, we are staring into an abyss; things could well get worse before they get better. It is hugely important to the country now that we de-escalate and search for higher ground. If we can just get through the first hundred days of a Biden presidency with our democracy intact, perhaps we can all catch our breath, welcome in a little sunshine, and send pieces of that fence to the Smithsonian.

Read this article:
The perfect symbol of the Trump years - CNN

In the first Building a Fence: Keeping Washington Blue Chips Home, I looked at how good of a job UW was doing keeping their top players at home since 2000, counting all 4- and 5-star players in the 247 database as "blue chips." To sum up, it turns out the answer is pretty darn good, with 56.16% of all Washington state blue chips in those 22 classes playing for UW. The numbers drop some when you focus on the most elite players, with UW taking in 66.7% of all the "low 4-stars" (those with a decimal rating below the mean of all blue chips), dropping to 42% of high 4/5-star players and 36% of 5-stars alone.

The obvious follow-up question, though, is whether those percentages are actually good compared to other states and schools. I mean, getting more than half of ALL the blue chips in our state over a 22-year period certainly sounds pretty good, but how does it stack up to other schools and states, especially those that are in comparable situations to Washington. Let's take a look.

Note: While the UW-only deep dive in the previous post went back to 2000, for this comparison I'm only going back to 2010. In part this is so we can focus only on the recent and present moment without getting too deep into ancient history, but also to cut in half the amount of work! This study covers 12 recruiting classes, from 2010 to 2021 (JTT is the only as-yet-uncommitted player from this year's class from any of the states I studied; I'm willing to accept that outlier and move on).

WHAT IS WASHINGTON'S SITUATION?

The state of Washington ranks #13 in population among all states, estimated just under 7.7 million people in July 2020. The final census figures aren't in, but since all states are using the same estimates it's a fair point of comparison. The state also has two Power 5 universities in UW and WSU, one of has been historically much more successful than the other, but both have been to multiple bowl games in the last decade, so neither one is a total train wreck.

What other states have a similar situation?

Washington is the 13th-most populous state in the USA, so I looked first at the states right above and below them Virginia at #12 (with UVa & VA Tech) and Arizona at #14 (with AZ and ASU). Arizona is very close to WA in population, 7.4M to WAs 7.7M and a Western state to boot, so it's easily the best single point of comparison.

VIrginia is farther away population-wise, with 900K more people than WA, but it's the closest to WA on the upper end. Its two P5 schools aren't hugely different in terms of success; Virginia Tech has been better, but not light years better. Still, it's within shouting distance so it's on the list.

That population difference is substantial, though, so I looked for a state that was a similar amount smaller than WA. Massachusetts is about 800K smaller than WA but only has one Power 5 school (Boston College). At first I was going to leave it out but I decided to include it just for regional balance.

Tennessee is almost exactly the same population as Massachusetts, though, and has two P5 teams (Tenn and Vanderbilt), so that gave us another "southern" state to kind of balance VA. Neither has been great lately, but historically speaking UT has absolutely been the "big brother" school to Vandy. It works.

Indiana is almost exactly 900K smaller than WA (as much smaller than WA as Virginia is bigger, population-wise), so I ended up looking at them as well. They are a special case, since they technically have only two Power 5 schools (Indiana and Purdue), neither of which is usually very good, but of course they also have Notre Dame. ND recruits a lot nationally rather than close to home, though, so I figured Id count the ND/UI/Purdue troika as about the same as two typical Power 5s (one stronger than the other).

(FWIW, theres a batch of states in the 5.6-6.1M range that only have one P5 school Missouri, Maryland, Wisconsin, Colorado, Minnesota which might be an interesting comparison in a different way, to see whether having a smaller population base balanced out having only one local school, but they were just too far outside the range Im looking for in population and I wanted to keep the 2-P5-school apples-to-apples comparison.)

Lastly, I rolled in Oregon, which has a much lower population than WA (4.2M, ranked 27th among states), but is right next door and the most geographically and culturally similar to Washington. The Oregon/OSU dynamic is also very similar to the UW/WSU dynamic in terms of historical success.

Review of the Magnificent Seven

Counting Washington, Ill be looking at seven states. None of them are legendary talent hotbeds like CA/TX/FL (which are, frankly, the 3 states with the highest population anyway the only 3 states over 20M people this isnt rocket science as to why they produce the most CFB talent). Other than Oregon, their population is within 1M people of Washingtons, so in sheer potential talent based on how many people live there, they should be comparable (Indiana lowest at 6.8M, Virginia highest at 8.6M). They have fairly similar arrangements of P5 teams (exceptions noted above), and they're spread pretty well around the country.

Arizona (Southwest)Indiana (Midwest)Massachusetts (Northeast)Oregon (Northwest)Tennessee (Southeast)Virginia (Mid-Atlantic)Washington (Northwest)

That feels like a fairly representative slice of states around the country, so it should be a reasonable purposive sampling for comparing to how Washington is doing keeping the blue chips at home.

METHODOLOGY

I used the 247 recruiting database for the years 2010-2021. Scout, Rivals, and others may differ; these are the numbers I used because they were easy to access. I counted all 4- and 5-star players as "blue chip" players, which typically includes those with a decimal ranking of about 0.8900 or above, usually around the top 350-ish players in each class. I included the decimal rating and ordinal ranking of players along with their star rating, plus their year, position, and which school they signed with.

NOTE: These rankings ONLY consider how they were ranked coming out of high school.

How they did in college, whether they were an All-American, a good player who got hurt, a nondescript JAG (Just A Guy) who filled a roster spot with basic competence and not much more, or a total bust for any number of reasons does not matter for this review. This is only about getting the big fish into the boat and protecting your fishing waters from other people poaching.

A little statistic I've added for each state is BCPM (Blue Chips Per Million). It's exactly what it says on the tin: How many blue chip players did your state produce during this 12-year period per 1 million citizens. It just seemed like an amusing bit of trivia to normalize the data across states that are similar but certainly not identical.

Fair warning: There are going to be a lot of tables. Feel free to scroll past if you're not interested in the minutiae of how we got here. If you like the sausage-making, it's on display. Conclusions come toward the end. We'll take the states in alphabetical order.

ARIZONA (Arizona, Arizona State): Blue Chips 64 (5.33/year), BCPM 8.62, 5-stars 7, Top 10 3, Highest #4 Kelee Ringo), Average Rating 0.9363, Average Ranking 165

Table 1a: Arizona Blue Chips by Year

Table 1b: Where Did Arizona Blue Chips Sign?

INDIANA (Indiana, Notre Dame, Purdue): Blue Chips 49 (4.45/year), BCPM 7.25, 5-stars 4, Top 10 1, Highest #2 Jaylon Smith), Average Rating 0.9302, Average Ranking 180

Table 2a: Indiana Blue Chips by Year

Table 2b: Where Did Indiana Blue Chips Sign?

MASSACHUSETTS (Boston College): Blue Chips 15 (1.36/year), BCPM 2.18, 5-stars 0, Top 10 0, Highest #122 Armani Reeves), Average Rating 0.9155, Average Ranking 232

Table 3a: Massachusetts Blue Chips by Year

Table 3b: Where Did Massachusetts Blue Chips Sign?

OREGON (Oregon, Oregon State): Blue Chips 28 (2.33/year), BCPM 6.60, 5-stars 3, Top 10 0, Highest #17 Owamagbe Odighizuwa), Average Rating 0.9278, Average Ranking 196

Table 4a: Oregon Blue Chips by Year

Table 4b: Where Did Oregon Blue Chips Sign?

TENNESSEE (Tennessee, Vanderbilt): Blue Chips 101 (8.42/year), BCPM 14.67, 5-stars 6, Top 10 0, Highest #14 Trey Smith), Average Rating 0.9288, Average Ranking 189

Table 5a: Tennessee Blue Chips by Year

Table 5b: Where Did Tennessee Blue Chips Sign?

VIRGINIA (Virginia, Virginia Tech): Blue Chips 117 (9.75/year), BCPM 13.62, 5-stars 16, Top 10 4, Highest #5 Da'Shawn Hand), Average Rating 0.9348, Average Ranking 170

Table 6a: Virginia Blue Chips by Year

Table 6b: Where Did Virginia Blue Chips Sign?

And, of course, saving the best for last...

WASHINGTON (Washington, Washington State): Blue Chips 50 (4.17/year), BCPM 6.5, 5-stars 7, Top 10 4, Highest #3 J.T. Tuimolau), Average Rating 0.9334, Average Ranking 178

Table 7a: Washington Blue Chips by Year

Table 7b: Where did Washington Blue Chips Sign?

THAT WAS A LOT OF TABLES

Indeed it was. Feel free to go grab a snack. 🙂

A Quick Comparison of States

Looking at these 7 states shows a pretty wide spread of production of blue chips. They're pretty similar to one another in terms of population, but the number of top-level players they produce is definitely not uniform. Ideally, we'd compare Washington to other states that produce about the same number of players per capita, but really in any study where you've got different angles to examine, you just gotta pick one and go with it. In this case, we chose states with similar population and similar distribution of in-state universities. You could slice it other ways, but let's roll with what we've got! What did we learn?

Table 8: State-to-State Comparison

Virginia comes out on top in total blue chips, total 5 stars, and number of top 10 players. They have the highest population, so thats not surprising in and of itself, but they produced more blue chips and 5-stars than Arizona and Washington combined. They might not be the first place you think of as a talent-producing powerhouse, but they are knocking out twice as many BCPM (Blue Chips Per Million) as states like Washington and Oregon, while also maintaining quality, ranking #2 in average rating and ranking of prospects.

As an aside, the 2021 recruiting class from Washington, our best by a mile in at least the past 22 yearsif not everwould be just an average year in Virginia. The three 5-stars we have this year is unusual, but Virginia turned the trick twice (2013 and 2014) and has had produced at least one 5-star in every single class except one (2012).

Tennesssee is the leader in BCPM (Blue Chips Per Million), outpacing Virginia on that score, but interestingly its mostly because they are an absolute factory of low 4-stars. Despite doubling up Washington in terms of overall blue chips, they actually have had fewer 5-stars than Washington, leading to an average rating and ranking about level with Oregon.

Arizona is not too far from Washington in total numbers, though they are equal or ahead in all categories except top 10 players. They lead all 7 states in terms of average rating and ranking, with proportionally speaking a lot of high 4-stars (the Byron Murphys and NKeal Harrys of the world) bringing their average up.

Washington is middle of the pack across the board except for top 10 players, where they tied Virginia for the lead (plus Max Browne just missed at #11).

Indiana is the closest comp to Washington, a tiny shade ahead on BCPM and a bit behind on average ranking and rating, mostly due to Washingtons edge in 5-stars and top 10 players.

Oregon produces blue chips at a near-identical rate to Washington (adjusted for their much smaller population base), but the lack of true top-end talent drags down their average scores.

Massachusetts is just sad by comparison. A state with a population nearly identical to Tennessee had 5 seasons with zero blue chips. More than half of the blue chips they did produce came in just two classes, with four each in 2012 and 2020. The other 10 years of the study produced only 7 blue chips, and in 12 years they never had a player ranked higher than 122.

How do Schools Do at Keeping their In-State Blue Chips Home?

The original question to answer was how good of a job is Washington doing at keeping the top in-state blue chips home. Sure, they kept 54% of them home and that sounds good, but how does it compare to other schools and states with comparable situationssimilar population and (mostly) a similar pair of P5 schools with a "big brother/little brother" dynamicsampled from around the country. Turns out theyre doing great by comparison, and it's not particularly close.

Table 9: Retaining Blue Chips by School

This might feel like it biases a bit to situations where one school dominates, so what if we combine all of the in-state schools together as states and compare how well they do at keeping their recruits? Turns out Washington is still at the top and its still not close.

Table 10: Retaining Blue Chips by School and State

What Can We Say About the States?

Overall, this is great. When the state produces top talent, we are getting it more than half the time. That is an absolute win. Percentages can be deceiving, though, as we said in our previous fanpost about the current surge in high school talent in Washington. The past two recruiting classes have produced 16 blue chips and UW has signed 7 (heres hoping for 8 when JTT decides). Thats 3.5 per season, which is great, but it also means 8 (or probably 9) went somewhere else. There are only so many in-state blue chips you can take for a variety of reasons, and if your state produces more top talent than you can absorb theres a rational limit to how many youre going to get. In those cases, your percentages will look bad even if youre pulling in a nice haul of local talent. Virginia and Tennessee are producing far more blue chips than Washington is, and Arizona substantially more. Is that whats happening? Signs suggest the answer is no.

Table 11: Raw Numbers of Blue Chips per Year

Tennessee is the only school besides Washington that is bringing in more than 2 local blue chips per year, and even at that theyre barely ahead despite producing double the number of in-state stars as Washington state does. They have little in-state competition (Vanderbilt 5, Memphis 1 over 12 classes), but 14 different out-of-state colleges have pulled multiple star players out of TN; by comparison, only four out-of-state colleges have pulled more than one player out of WA in the last 12 years. Im leaving off schools that have gotten just one player because fluky commitments happen (10 for TN, 8 for WA), but a school pulling multiple blue chips out of your state means they have established significant recruiting inroads there.

Thats exactly whats happened in Virginia and Arizona. Penn State and Ohio State are plundering Virginia on a regular basis. Florida State (7) and Clemson (6) are not far behind. You could excuse Maryland getting 2 players with the whole "DMV" recruiting area, but an equivalent "solid but nothing special" North Carolina team shouldnt be pulling out five top players. In all, 16 out-of-state colleges have pulled multiple blue chips out of Virginia. True, with all the talent there was no way VA and VA Tech were going to keep all those players at home, but averaging fewer than 2 per year with all that available talent speaks to the pipelines out-of-state schools have built in Virginia.

Arizona, though, is by far the worst, as both of the in-state schools are getting out-recruited by Oregon in their own state. Oregon has pulled as many blue chips out of Arizona as Arizona State and Arizona combined. UCLA has matched ASU all by itself, and both USC and Texas have matched Arizona for AZ blue chips. It was frankly shocking to see how few homegrown stars have stayed in Arizona. It wasnt just 12 schools pulling multiple blue chips out of the state but that ASU and AZ had so little gravity. They were the only state whose biggest recruiter wasnt one of their in-state schools. Heck, Boston College kept more Massachusetts kids (out of only 15 total, remember) than Arizona got from its own state with more than 4x as many blue chips. Michigan brought in as many blue chips from Massachusetts as Arizona got from its home state. Florida State got more recruits from Virginia than Arizona State got from their own state as the "big brother" in terms of size and success.

Indiana was kind of an open-ended scrum of the entire Midwest, with 21 of 49 staying in state, 12 more heading to Ohio and Michigan, 9 heading to the South, and the rest scattering. No school really dominated local recruiting.

Oregon was obviously the lead dog in their own state on their own, though more Oregon blue chips went out of state to other Pac-12 schools (13) than stayed in state (12), plus a handful leaving the West. By comparison, only 12 Washington blue chips left the state to go elsewhere in the Pac-12 despite there being nearly twice as many of them.

Massachusetts? Not much to say with just 15 blue chips, other than that Michigan apparently has connections there, nearly matching Boston Colleges recruiting total (4 vs. 5).

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

It means that UW has been and continues to do a terrific job at keeping the top home state talent at home. Other states with similar populations and generally similar setups of two P5 teams dont do nearly as well as we do at that task. Some states produce much more top talent than we do, but they are losing a ton of that talent out of state at a rate that just does not happen here.

If the current talent surge in WA continues, its likely that more players (in absolute terms) will choose to go elsewhere. You cant keep them all. At the same time, you want to keep the exceptions that dont stay home just that: the exceptions. "Building the fence" doesnt mean other teams never get players to leave the state; it just means that other states dont establish permanent pipelines into the state like a dozen or more states have done in Arizona and Virginia (and to a lesser extent Tennessee), where the numbers they are pulling in are rivaling the in-state schools.

We also want to make sure that as we cast our net wider and wider in search of out-of-state talent (the biggest failing in the 2021 Huskies recruiting class, with zero out-of-state blue chips) that we dont take our eye of the ball at home. Oregon may be guilty of this to an extent, as it fires off hundreds of offers around the country while more of its homegrown stars are leaving the state (and usually playing for conference rivals) than are staying home.

The 2022 recruiting class looks strong for Washington, with 6 blue chips in the current 247 rankings and UW considered the odds-on favorite to land more than half of them. Lets keep the borders strong and the purple flame burning bright as we look forward to a great crop of new Huskies next year!

Go Dawgs!

See the rest here:
Building a Fence: Washington and the Magnificent Seven - UW Dawg Pound

PERTH (miningweekly.com) Mining major BHP plans to construct a wind fence at Finucane Island, as part of its Pilbara Air Quality Program.

The fence would be the first of its kind in Australia, and would be designed for the Pilbaras unique weather conditions, said BHP Port GM Nilson Davila.

We recognise we have a shared responsibility to address dust issues at Port Hedland. The wind fence will be constructed using global best practice dust management and air quality control technology.

This planned investment forms part of our Pilbara Air Quality Program and demonstrates our commitment to improve air quality in the area and contribute to the revitalisation of the West End.

Subject to government approvals, the 30 m high fence supports our intention to improve and build on our existing dust control measures as we continue to increase production towards 290 Mtpa in the medium term.

The fence will be located on the western side of BHPs Finucane Island port operations, and will include mesh panels designed to reduce wind speeds, shielding the stockyard and reducing the potential for dust lift-off.

The system has been designed to deal with the extreme wind conditions often experienced in Port Hedland. As the wind speed reaches a certain limit, the mesh curtain opens, to let the air flow through the fence.

We continue to work closely with government, industry and the local community to further improve air quality controls at our operations and for the communities in which we operate. We want to help improve local amenity while also continuing to provide jobs and economic opportunity for the region, said Davila.

The project is still subject to all necessary internal and state government approvals.

See the article here:
Mining Weekly BHP puts up wind fence in WA - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly

BEAVER Officials say a woman died Friday after she drove her car through a fence, up a hill and into traffic on I-15 in Beaver.

Two men in a different vehicle were also injured, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.

About 5:22 p.m., a California woman was driving a white Honda car west on 300 North at a high speed, officials wrote. She kept going when she came to a T-intersection east of the highway, busting through a security fence and climbing up a hill and into the northbound lanes.

She was struck by a northbound Ford van, causing fatal injuries.

The woman was identified as Falon Henriquez, 28, of Temple City.

Two Utah County men in their early 20s were in the van; they were transported to Beaver Valley Hospital with injuries that are not considered life-threatening.

Everyone involved was wearing a seat belt, officials said.

The wreck closed one lane of traffic for a time Friday. It is under investigation.

Read more here:
Woman dies after driving through fence onto I-15 in Beaver - KSL.com

Posted: Dec 19, 2020 / 11:13 PM PST / Updated: Dec 19, 2020 / 11:13 PM PST

Washington County Sheriffs Office said a Maserati driver was criminally cited in Aloha for reckless driving and license suspended. He and a passenger were not seriously injured after smashing through fences, a tree and a shed. December 19, 2020 (courtesy Washington County Sheriffs Office).

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Washington County Sheriffs Office said a Maserati driver was criminally cited in Aloha for reckless driving and had their license suspended.

The law enforcement agency said in a tweet Saturday evening that the driver and a passenger were not seriously injured after smashing through fences, a tree and a shed.

This car barely missed hitting a house after crashing through a fence at SW Farmington Rd. and SW 160th Av. in Aloha. Its going to be a wet weekend- please slow down and get there safely pic.twitter.com/QQRQa7hvvq

Around 8 p.m. Saturday, officials said the crash occurred at SW Farmington Rd. and SW 160th Av., barely missing a house and colliding through a fence.

Its going to be a wet weekend- please slow down and get there safely, police said.

Follow KOIN 6 for the latest news and weather

See the original post here:
Maserati driver smashes through fences, tree and shed - KOIN.com

by Sarah Borruto

Bright tulips, violets, rainbows, grazing deer, dragonflies, fairies and sunflowers.Those are just some of the images vividly painted along fences and sheds around Cedar Grove Avenue in Lake Grove.

GreaterSmithtown took notice, and tracked down the artist, Jennifer Okubo.

Okubo is a medical biller at Stony Brook, but when shes not in front of a computer, she can often be found holding a paint brush.

Shes all about community when it comes to her art, and her only compensation comes in the form of smiles.

Ive always drawn; Ive always painted, Okubo said. Not for monetary reasons, just to make people smile thats my motto.

Story continues after photo.

Spending more time at home due to the pandemic sparked Okubos fence mural project. It started with her painting her shutters sunflower yellow a home-improvement project during quarantine.

Her bright shutters received a lot of admiration from her neighbors, leading her to paint a yellow sunflower on her fence.

Soon enough, she was painting murals on fences and sheds all around her neighborhood.

Okubo painted a neighbors fence who had just lost her husband beautifying it with symbols of a red cardinal, dragonfly and sunflower in memory of her dear husband.

She painted another neighbors shed with portraits of the neighbors two dogs with a rainbow behind them, along with song lyrics.

For me it brought me out of my COVID isolation funk, said the neighbor, Lynn Hydo. Im a cancer survivor and at gigantic risk. Everyday I see the mural and I smile. Every time I see it my spirits are lifted.

Her yellow lab had died a month after the mural was painted.

It was become a memorial to her, she said.

Okubo also painted a mural for her Yoga instructor a personalized design of a fairy doing a dancers pose as a gift for the instructor offering clients free yoga classes over Zoom.

People would drive by and say, You know, I just came home from a bad day at work and I drive past your house on purpose because it makes me smile, Okubo said.

The vibrant murals became immediately appreciated and cherished in Okubos community. Neighbors and her mailman started leaving thank you notes in her mailbox, and children would come up to her and tell her how much they loved her murals.

This also inspired her to write her childrens book, Sunshine Warrior, which came out in October.

Story continues after photo.

The book depicts a young girl living in a time of darkness wanting to use her big heart and gift of art to bring light back to her community.

The young girl paints a garden on her fence with the mission to cheer up the neighborhood, but in turn, cheers up the entire world instead.

Okubo says a surgeon and his wife were so moved by her story that they bought 100 copies of the book and donated them to a childrens hospital in Buffalo.

That is a huge gift to me because thats why I wrote it, for the children, Okubo said. My heart is completely full.

Okubos murals and childrens book have given her opportunities to spread her message of love even further. The artist says a woman in New Hampshire, who is planning to open a wellness retreat center, contacted her to paint sunflower murals on the buildings there as well.

People in Maine and Massachusetts have also reached out for murals.

Hopefully the word will get out and well spread some more sunshine, Okubo said.

Scroll down for more photos of Okubos art in Lake Grove.

Top: Jennifer Okubo sitting outside her fence mural.

See the rest here:
The story behind the painted fences & sheds in one Lake Grove neighborhood - GreaterMoriches

Messages of hope, courage and compassion are now lining a portion of Amherst Street as Nashua high school students transformed their thoughts on this years pandemic into empowering artwork.

Paintings with messages such as Rise up, Choose love, Be the best version of yourself and The sun will come out tomorrow, are hanging on a chain-link fence outside Amherst Street Elementary School.

The public art project will be on display at 71 Amherst St. until Feb. 14, with about 80 paintings from city students and educators.

Student artwork with powerful messages hang on a chain-link fence outside of the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua, along a stretch where traffic is frequently stopped and drivers have time to take in the messages.

The collaborative effort, dubbed Brave New World: Resilience in the Time of COVID, was designed to provide teens with an artistic outlet to express their emotions with so much uncertainty surrounding them, according to organizers.

Kids have to bare their hearts and souls through their artwork, and they have to feel comfortable doing that, said Robin Peringer, a teacher at Nashua High School South. More than anything, this art project wasnt about making great works of art, but rather putting meaning into it and getting across their personal messages.

Choose Kindness hangs on a chain-link fence outside of the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua as part of a COVID collaborative public art project.

There is so much negativity in the world right now, said Peringer, who stressed the importance of allowing Nashua students to express their thoughts while also remembering that there is still so much positivity and light despite the pandemic darkness.

Some of these kids that dont discuss it as much, it really came out in their artwork. Some of these pieces are so powerful, and these students are expressing themselves from a deeper place within them, Peringer said.

About 80 art students from Nashua High School South, Nashua High School North and Brentwood Academy as well as some teachers participated in the project.

A grant from the Nashua Education Foundation was approved to help cover the cost of the art supplies. The exhibit is dedicated to the memory of Tyler Almeida, a former Nashua High School North senior.

Aside from helping city students who have been dealing with remote learning for so many months, the project also aims to inspire the public, according to Peringer, who said the Amherst Street corridor is a great location for artwork since traffic often lingers in that area, giving drivers an opportunity to enjoy the colorful paintings.

Be the best version of yourself hangs on a chain-link fence outside of the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua as part of COVID collaborative public art project.

Street art needs to be embraced as often as possible, said Peringer, who organized the project alongside teachers Rodney Coffin of Nashua High School North and Stephanie Sewuk-Thomas of Brentwood Academy.

This project opened my mind to ideas I would have never thought of, Jillian Daley, a student at South, said in a statement. I hope that after you look at our art, you look at the world and ideas around you in a different, more accepting way.

Natasha Kazmouz, a student member of the National Art Honor Society, said the exhibit touches on ethnicity, global warming, sexuality and more.

Works of art hanging on a chain-link fence outside of the Amherst Street Elementary School in Nashua are part of COVID collaborative public art project.

I think that now, during a global pandemic, its crucial to think about these things, not just for ourselves, but for others. Its important to learn about other people and their struggles, and to make ourselves aware of whats really going on around us, Kazmouz said in a release. These paintings will hopefully inspire others to do the same and spread knowledge and compassion.

Natalia Pineda, a student at Brentwood Academy, said she hopes the art project will have a positive impact on the community by changing someones day and making it bright during these difficult times.

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On the fence: Messages of hope on display in downtown Nashua - The Union Leader

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At some point recently, it seemed that India had no fight with the Chinese at all. One such instance was when US Senator Mark Warner said that India needed to get off the fence and join a coalition of the willing to confront Beijing. Warners comments matter. Re-elected from Virginia, he is the co-chair of the Senate India caucus, and vice-chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee. Other US officials have said the same thing, and its no secret that this issue dominates think tank discussions.

Most Indians would find these remarks strange. After all, the Indian Army is engaged in an eyeball to eyeball confrontation with the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh, and is spending billions of rupees that it cannot afford in shoring up defences. Thats hardly sitting on the fence. But apparently, thats not good enough for US officials. Deciphering what exactly they want is no easy task. But a look at the main planks of the China policy on both sides (US and India) could help assess the possibility of a league of democracies that will hopefully row together for the shore instead of oaring the other into the water.

Also read: Countering China is now a priority for both India and US. But only one needs the other

There is no doubt that under President Donald Trump, Washington has been forthright about the threat from China. True, he sometimes called President Xi Jinping his friend, but his top officials have been more than forthright. A recent instance was Secretary of State Mike Pompeos remarks at the Tokyo meeting of the Quad or Quadrilateral, which includes Japan, Australia and India. Pompeo lambasted the Chinese Communist Party for the cover up of the coronavirus outbreak. That was certainly taking the bull by the horns.

Indias stance has been very different, avoiding condemnation of China, with Prime Minister Narendra Modis remarks at the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) being just one example. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankars enunciations have been on the same lines. For instance, at a recent interaction with an Australian think tank, Jaishankar merely said that relations with China had been damaged significantly, also noting that mending of ties would be difficult.

On the talking front then, the US-India partnership is distinctly on a different track. But then, for India, its not just a difficult neighbour, but a difficult neighbourhood, where China is also invested heavily. Besides, talking big pays for little when your purse is small.

Also read: Why Joe Bidens choice for US defence secretary isnt just about China

The US undoubtedly has a raft of government papers like the National Security Strategy 2017, which first bookmarked China as a revisionist power; the key National Defence Strategy 2018, which prioritised China as a long term competitor; the Annual Report on the PLA; and most recently, the State Departments The Elements of the China Challenge, which is meant to fashion a sturdy policy that will be above election cycles and bureaucratic squabbles. These are only the major policy papers.

Beyond this is the legislative process that at least tries to go in the desired direction. One such legislation allowed the Department of Defense to fund startups and lead innovation, intended to give the US a lead in critical technologies like Artificial Intelligence where China has an edge.

Another instance is the imposition of sanctions on Chinese companies on different grounds. India moved to not only ban some 267 Chinese apps, but also stopped Chinese (and other) foreign investment from buying out distressed Indian companies. The government also amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to disallow participation of countries sharing land borders with India in government contracts.

India, however, has no tradition of long-term policy planning documents, which might have done much to prevent the surprise of Ladakh. Our policy, therefore, is short term, and subject to election cycles and bureaucratic stove piping. Thats simply not good enough. A long-term policy paper, with elements leaked out to the media, might be a thought. Most vitally, it will put the whole government on the same page.

Also read: Why has Indias China policy been such a failure? Question New Delhis assumptions first

The US alliance system created after World War II was directed primarily against the Soviets. Europe did participate in theatres like Afghanistan, but their hearts are simply not in it. The Indo-Pacific construct is an attempt to create a semi-alliance outside traditional treaty partners such as Australia and Japan using different platforms including the Quad. Here again, India has chosen to stress inclusivity, so that it is not seen as directed against China, although Delhi did tag the need for quality infrastructure based on sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity as well as transparency, economic viability and financial responsibility in a rare dig at the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative).

But that was as far as Delhi was willing to go. Meanwhile, it continued to attend forums like the SCO and the Russia-India-China trilateral. That puzzles US watchers as to what is actually the status of China-India relations. But the reality is that relations are never cut off, especially during a crisis, as the US should know from the Cuban missile crisis. Even during the peak of the Cold War, the two sides continued to engage. However, it might be useful to keep the US briefed about the intent and outcomes of these meetings on a case by case basis. Sometimes, transparency can speed up movement of files, and prevent nasty comments in Congress.

Also read: Hybrid war, Quad or sitting it out? The 5 options for India against China

The signing of all four foundational agreements with the US and the designation of Delhi as a Major Defense Partner does mean that bilateral relations have reached a new level, even though it falls well short of any treaty alliance. It is unlikely that India will agree to a full treaty relationship that binds it as a junior partner to the US, unless the Chinese threat increases to levels where even the nuclear deterrent is deemed effective. That is unlikely, since Beijing knows full well that any outright aggression will have serious consequences.

Short of that, however, its possible to broaden the relationship to include a strong intelligence partnership within the Quad, in a manner similar to theFive Eyes Alliance, which comprises the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. All four Quad members critically need to sit together to decide on the threat ten years down the line, and the specifics of capabilities needed against an agreed-upon threat. That, in turn, could be in part the basis for Indias own long-term defence planning.

Japan, Australia and India are already in talks for supply chain resilience to reduce dependence on China. Similar initiatives like cooperation for technology innovation could be considered. But the key here is Quad members sitting down to seriously consider the strategic threat, not just defence. That falls short of one for all and all for one defence commitment. But it does put all on a common path of fending off the multifarious threats from China, like cyber attacks, linked espionage and technology theft.

It is said that there is a tide in the affairs of men, including bureaucrats. Its time to evaluate that tide, one from the west and the other from the east, and then pull together across ministries to move in the desired direction. Coordination is key for all concerned, including the US whose tendency to lecture others on issues that it has little or no understanding of, tends to push the boat in the opposite direction. That could be called sitting on the fence too, one which would be mighty uncomfortable to accept.

The author is former director, National Security Council Secretariat. Views are personal.

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US wants India to get off the fence over China. But forgets Cuban crisis lesson - ThePrint