Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Its a ridiculous result of the restrictions of livestreamed theater that one of the best performances to emerge from the new medium is also one you might never get to see.

But having caught the Saturday evening performance for critics on closing day of a three-day run I have to tell you about it anyway. In the hourlong monologue Three Kings by Stephen Beresford, Zoomed from the Old Vic in theater-deprived London, the Irish actor Andrew Scott seems to squeeze all the roles for which hes become known, from a thin-skinned Hamlet to the so-called Hot Priest in Fleabag, into one soulful, awful, sorry excuse for a man.

Or boy, as we find him: an 8-year-old named Patrick, enthralled and sickened upon meeting his wastrel father for the first time. Dad is a charmer with several wives overboard and several more to come; hes the kind of man who, showboating for a child he abandoned at birth, thinks its good parenting to teach him a coin trick that is sure to make him a hit in pubs.

One can be touched and moved, one can be touched and not moved, one can be moved but not touched, he says, describing the three kings (that is, coins) of the title. The challenge is to reorder them in a specific way despite the daunting limitations. The prize if Patrick succeeds? His father will someday visit again.

But do not cry for the unloved boy, or not much; he eventually masters the trick too well.

Yes, the coin metaphor is heavy-handed: Patrick will spend his life seeking and avoiding contact and engagement. But Scott nevertheless makes the scene expressive, investing fully in the boys need to please and also, switching voice, stance and tone, in the fathers need to dominate. Even without listening you can tell which character is which, by the position of Scotts eyes and by the arc of his hands as they test or fondle the air.

Yet you want to listen; until it becomes heartbreaking, Beresfords script is nasty fun. As Patrick grows up, and his father grows more erratic, their few interactions become venomous and mutually pathetic. Even worse are their non-interactions, when Patrick discovers through others a fixer, a dumped wife, another guy named Patrick he meets in a pub just how little someone can care for his offspring.

This is a story about the corruption of souls: mens souls in particular as if toxic disregard were a spiritual birthright from the parent who could not give physical birth. The women in Patricks life, whom Scott sketches with equal finesse but no unwarranted sympathy, are mostly enablers and patsies. (One ex blames Patrick for ruining his fathers life.) If you were to judge humanity from this plays samples of it, you would flunk men flat out but not score women much higher. And you would avoid judging children only long enough to watch them become adults.

Patricks transition from lovesick boy to careworn man is central to the shock and strength of Scotts performance. In the brief pauses between scenes, as the director Matthew Warchus carefully adjusts his camera angles and sometimes splits the screen as if Patrick were coming apart, Scott fearlessly leaps from one stage of his fragmenting personality to another. The abused 8-year-old is suddenly the blas college student; the angry young man is soon the emotional dropout, nearly as bad as his father and halfway pickled in gin. When Scott shows us Patrick opening his heart, it is only long enough to permit a satisfying click as he snaps it shut again.

At the end of the road for Patrick lies perpetual alienation, and you feel sorry for him even though he offers no excuses. The push-pull is marvelous; as Warchus fades to black excruciatingly, leaving Scotts eyes to burn demonic pinpoint holes in the dark, you dont know whether to cry or run.

Or clap for now there is a loud ovation, well deserved but (like the audience hubbub preceding the top of the show) profoundly confusing. Three Kings was streamed live, as part of the Old Vics In Camera series, from the companys otherwise shut-down theater, with no customers in its red and gold auditorium. Who is applauding? For that matter, who is the announcer announcing to when she says, five minutes before the start, Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats? And why is the virtual audience limited to the 1,000 or so the Old Vic accommodates live? It could surely sell many more online tickets if it chose.

To me these strange details betray unnecessary uncertainty about whether In Camera productions really count as theater. (The name of the series, which began in June with Claire Foy and Matt Smith in Lungs, seems to underline that doubt.) Yes, Three Kings uses film techniques not just the split screens but cross-fades and edits to help tell the story, but the story itself is conceived as no film would be, with no scenery, minimal music and one man playing all the roles. Scotts performance is likewise scaled not to the cameras small eye but to the huge empty space hes actually in. The roar of pain he lets loose near the end would tear a movie screen off its wall.

So lets stop quibbling about or finessing the genre. Let plays be plays. But can we not take just one great thing from the movies: the chance to see them again? We are missing enough these days as it is.

Three KingsPerformed Sept. 3 through 5 via Zoom; oldvictheatre.com.

Read the rest here:
Review: In Three Kings, Hot Priest Sheds His Cassock - The New York Times

Reducing consumption by expanding the notion of the rental economy and giving people access to tools and equipment has been something of a startup holy grail for some time.

Its a model thats worked famously well for fashion and accessories (just ask investors in Rent the Runway), but has had not had the same resonance for white label goods.

The Shed, out of Richmond, Va., hopes to change that.

Launched byKaren Rodgers ONeil, a longtime marketing executive, and Daniel Perrone, a serial entrepreneur and technology executive whose previous company, BroadMap, was acquired by Apple; The Shed hopes to take the rental model that Home Depot has turned into a billion dollar business line and take it to the masses.

Unlike Home Depot, The Shed touts its presence in eight categories. Stanley Black & Decker is a marquee early partner and the companys executives said that others have come on board.

We dont buy product, said Perrone. We take delivery of all the products and rent them out in the local marketplaces where we do business.

The only thing the manufacturer provides is the products and some servicing starter kit so that The Shed and its employees can manage and maintain the product.

The Shed founders Karen Rodgers ONeil and Daniel Perrone. Image Credit: The Shed

Since its launch in April the company has expanded beyond its Richmond, Va. home base to Denver and will be looking to expand further into Portland, Austin, and San Jose, according to Perrone.

Among the features that the company intends to roll out as it expands is a dynamic pricing capability that will enable manufacturers to wring the most out of their goods when theyre in high demand.

Rodgers ONeil came up with the concept back in 2012 when she was working as a marketing executive for General Electric out of Boston. Perrone met Rodgers ONeil at a networking event in Boston and became convinced that her notion of offering more rental options to encourage a more circular economy and reduce consumption was something that could resonate with consumers.

To be sure, The Shed isnt the first company to attempt to bring the rental business to a broader array of consumer products in an effort to cut down on consumption. The Los Angeles-based startup Joymode was attempting to do much the same thing. That company sold to an early stage investment firm out of New York.

Joymodes chief executive, Joe Fernandez spoke about the difficulty of running the business. Part of the thesis was that by making things available for rental, people would want to do more stuff, said Fernandez, but what happened was that consumers needed additional reasons to use the companys service, and there werent enough events to drive demand.

By contrast, The Shed isnt owning any of the inventory, just acting as a broker and managing inventory between local retailers and manufacturers who want to take advantage of the companys service.

In addition to Stanley Black & Decker, companies like Primus camping equipment have placed their products on The Shed along with Mobility Plus, which added wheelchairs and mobility scooters; and Replacements, the largest china dealer in the country, which is offering a Party in a Box for dinner, cocktail or tea parties.

To date, the company has raised $1.75 million from investors and entrepreneurs from the Richmond, Va. area. Now, with 60 manufacturers on board and another 15 to 18 vendors signing up monthly, the company is looking to expand even further.

I joined with Karen because I saw that this would be a game changer in the rental space, said Perrone. There are a number of retailers in specific verticals that still dont transact online, so The Shed becomes their avenue to reach the market, he said.

Continued here:
The Shed is a startup out of Virginia trying to revive the rental-for-everything business - TechCrunch

The Wooden Sheds market report 2020-2026 provides in-depth study of market competitive situation, product scope, market overview, opportunities, driving force and market risks. Profile the Top Key Players of Wooden Sheds, with sales, revenue and global market share of Wooden Sheds are analyzed emphatically by landscape contrast and speak to info. Upstream raw materials and instrumentation and downstream demand analysis is additionally administrated. The Wooden Sheds market business development trends and selling channels square measure analyzed. From a global perspective, It also represents overall industry size by analyzing qualitative insights and historical data.

Key players operating in the global Wooden Sheds market includes : Forest Garden, Waltons, BillyOh, Rowlinson, Wickes, Mercia, Shire and among others.

Get Free Sample PDF (including COVID19 Impact Analysis, full TOC, Tables and Figures) of Wooden Sheds Market @https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid2445515

Key Target Audience of the Wooden Sheds market:

Scope of Wooden Sheds Market:

The global Wooden Sheds market is valued at million US$ in 2019 and will reach million US$ by the end of 2026, growing at a CAGR of during 2020-2026. The objectives of this study are to define, segment, and project the size of the Wooden Sheds market based on company, product type, application and key regions.

On the whole, the report proves to be an effective tool that players can use to gain a competitive edge over their competitors and ensure lasting success in the global Wooden Sheds market. All of the findings, data, and information provided in the report are validated and revalidated with the help of trustworthy sources. The analysts who have authored the report took a unique and industry-best research and analysis approach for an in-depth study of the global Wooden Sheds market.

The report offers an exhaustive geographical analysis of the global Wooden Sheds market, covering important regions, viz, North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Central & South America. It also covers key countries (regions), viz, U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, etc.

The end users/applications and product categories analysis:

On the basis on the end users/applications,this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate foreach application.

On the basis of product,this report displays the sales volume, revenue (Million USD), product price, market share and growth rate ofeach type.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Ask to Our Industry [emailprotected]https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=E&repid2445515

Wooden Sheds Market The Regional analysis covers:

Key Findings & All Data Available in Wooden Sheds Market Report:

And Many More.

Get Discount on Wooden Sheds Market Report :https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=D&repid2445515

Contact Us:

ResearchMozMr. Rohit Bhisey,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: [emailprotected]Follow us on LinkedIn @ http://bit.ly/2RtaFUo

Follow me on : https://marketnews-24.blogspot.com/

Continue reading here:
Wooden Sheds Market Research By Growth, Competitive Methods And Forecast To 2026 - The News Brok

Physical Plant plumbers Jay Maier, left, and Adam Kundert hoist a compositing wastewater sampler from a sewer opening near the lakeshore residence halls. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Wastewater surveillance also provides an opportunity to target campus testing (UWMadison is offering no-cost testing for all students and employees), isolation and quarantine, and limit disease spread. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Wastewater is removed from a sampler. The location is one of two COVID-19 wastewater surveillance sites being monitored on campus twice weekly for traces of SARS-CoV-2. Photo by: Jeff Miller

Its like searching for a needle in a haystack. Except the haystack is human excrement. The needle, a tiny fragment of the tiny genetic material of a tiny virus that has, since December 2019, had a massive impact on the world.

Scientists at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene, with collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, are sifting through raw sewage collected once or twice per week from nearly 100 wastewater treatment facilities statewide, and at the University of WisconsinMadison, in search of the genetic fingerprint of the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.

Detecting and measuring how much virus there is may provide an early warning signal that cases of COVID-19 may soon rise and provide a readout of how levels of virus change in a population over time. It could give hospitals time to prepare for an increase in patients.

At UWMadison, wastewater surveillance also provides an opportunity to target campus testing (UWMadison is offering no-cost testing for all students and employees), isolation and quarantine, and limit disease spread.

This is especially important since the virus can transmit from person-to-person before symptoms begin, and some people with the virus never develop symptoms at all.

We picked this up in late March and said this is really something we should be doing, says Martin Shafer, a scientist at the WSLH and the UWMadison College of Engineering. We put a proposal into the (Wisconsin) Department of Health Services, and it was funded Its the largest in terms of the number of wastewater facilities in the country.

That funding, a collaboration between WSLH, UWMilwaukee, DHS and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, amounts to $1.25 million. The WSLH group, which includes scientists Jocelyn Hemming, Dagmara Antkiewicz and Kayley Janssen, also received a boost thanks to $10,000 in UW/WARF COVID-19 Accelerator Challenge funding to improve wastewater surveillance methods for SARS-CoV-2.

Dagmara Antkiewicz (seated) and Kayley Janssen examine results of molecular PCR tests of wastewater samples. Photo courtesy Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene

For two decades, researchers around the world have applied the concept of wastewater-based epidemiology to address public health issues, such as rates and distribution of opioid use. Collecting wastewater for surveillance is not new.

For instance, Shafer explains that each day, the DNR requires wastewater treatment facilities to collect a sample representing 24-hours-worth of sewage that feeds into each plant. This allows the state to monitor concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen, which can cause outbreaks of toxic algae in Wisconsins freshwater.

You cant just stick a bottle into a wastewater stream and pull up a sample, says Shafer. Your sample varies with time and one has to capture that variability.

For COVID-19 surveillance, gathering samples of wastewater involves a piece of equipment that periodically pulls it into a large container throughout the day. Samples from these 24-hour composites of sewage are then transported back to the lab for analysis.

What arrives, Shafer says, is a relatively mixed solution of liquids and solids. There is no evidence that wastewater contains active, infectious virus, or that exposure to sewage can lead to transmission of COVID-19. What the scientists are looking for is essentially a fingerprint of the SARS-CoV-2 virus small pieces of its genetic material called RNA.

To search for it, scientists run the liquid-solid mixture through a filter designed to catch viral particles and fragments based on their electric charge, similar to collecting iron filings with a magnet. Then, they mash up the filter and whatever is stuck to it and collect the RNA.

From there, they run a test called quantitative PCR, which relies on chemicals called primers and probes to search for and bind to the RNA specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This provides a measure of how much of the virus is present in the wastewater samples and can provide a sense for how the viruss prevalence might be changing over time.

For example, concentrations of the virus have decreased in Madisons sewage since additional protective measures such as a mask mandate were implemented over the summer, Shafer says, but the team is poised to monitor for a resurgence should transmission pick up again.

The statewide wastewater SARS-CoV-2 monitoring program covers facilities in all but five of Wisconsins 72 counties, including four tribal facilities, representing 60 percent of the states population and offering statewide geographic coverage. The smallest facilities represent populations of at least 1,500 people. The largest facility, in Milwaukee, covers one million.

When the pandemic began to emerge early this year, many of us doing research in environmental microbiology saw an opportunity to contribute population level information by sampling sewage, says Sandra McLellan, UWMilwaukee professor of freshwater sciences. We began collecting samples in Milwaukee mid-March and shortly thereafter began receiving samples from Racine and Green Bay. That gives us a great record of how the pandemic unfolded in some of Wisconsins largest cities.

McLellan is leading a team to effectively translate wastewater SARS-CoV-2 data to public health entities and, with the WSLH, participates in an international effort evaluating wastewater surveillance as a strategy for understanding COVID-19. Shafer says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon announce the creation of a nationwide network and the Wisconsin teams will be among the founding members.

Since July, UWMadison began funding its own surveillance program in conjunction with the WSLH, managed by Facilities Planning and Management. Samples are drawn twice weekly from sewers on Elm Drive and on Easterday Lane, offering a broad survey of employees and students, including those in residence halls. Collecting the sewage involves pulling directly from the wastewater supply, rather than from what flows into a large treatment facility.

Samples on campus can be from within minutes of production so they are a bit messier, Shafer says, unafraid to get right down to it.

But, he says, we do it for the good of science and public health.

Follow this link:
Everybody poops, some shed the virus that causes COVID-19. Wisconsin's wastewater surveillance is looking for it. - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Fort Collins, Colorado The Global Wood Covered Sheds Market research report offers insightful information on the Global Wood Covered Sheds market for the base year 2019 and is forecast between 2020 and 2027. Market value, market share, market size, and sales have been estimated based on product types, application prospects, and regional industry segmentation. Important industry segments were analyzed for the global and regional markets.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have been observed across all sectors of all industries. The economic landscape has changed dynamically due to the crisis, and a change in requirements and trends has also been observed. The report studies the impact of COVID-19 on the market and analyzes key changes in trends and growth patterns. It also includes an estimate of the current and future impact of COVID-19 on overall industry growth.

Get a sample of the report @ https://reportsglobe.com/download-sample/?rid=75641

The report has a complete analysis of the Global Wood Covered Sheds Market on a global as well as regional level. The forecast has been presented in terms of value and price for the 8 year period from 2020 to 2027. The report provides an in-depth study of market drivers and restraints on a global level, and provides an impact analysis of these market drivers and restraints on the relationship of supply and demand for the Global Wood Covered Sheds Market throughout the forecast period.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of the major market players along with their business overview, expansion plans, and strategies. The main actors examined in the report are:

The Global Wood Covered Sheds Market Report offers a deeper understanding and a comprehensive overview of the Global Wood Covered Sheds division. Porters Five Forces Analysis and SWOT Analysis have been addressed in the report to provide insightful data on the competitive landscape. The study also covers the market analysis and provides an in-depth analysis of the application segment based on the market size, growth rate and trends.

Request a discount on the report @ https://reportsglobe.com/ask-for-discount/?rid=75641

The research report is an investigative study that provides a conclusive overview of the Global Wood Covered Sheds business division through in-depth market segmentation into key applications, types, and regions. These segments are analyzed based on current, emerging and future trends. Regional segmentation provides current and demand estimates for the Global Wood Covered Sheds industry in key regions in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.

Global Wood Covered Sheds Market Segmentation:

In market segmentation by types of Global Wood Covered Sheds, the report covers-

In market segmentation by applications of the Global Wood Covered Sheds, the report covers the following uses-

Request customization of the report @https://reportsglobe.com/need-customization/?rid=75641

Overview of the table of contents of the report:

To learn more about the report, visit @ https://reportsglobe.com/product/global-covid-19-impactwood-covered-sheds-sales-market/

Thank you for reading our report. To learn more about report details or for customization information, please contact us. Our team will ensure that the report is customized according to your requirements.

How Reports Globe is different than other Market Research Providers

The inception of Reports Globe has been backed by providing clients with a holistic view of market conditions and future possibilities/opportunities to reap maximum profits out of their businesses and assist in decision making. Our team of in-house analysts and consultants works tirelessly to understand your needs and suggest the best possible solutions to fulfill your research requirements.

Our team at Reports Globe follows a rigorous process of data validation, which allows us to publish reports from publishers with minimum or no deviations. Reports Globe collects, segregates, and publishes more than 500 reports annually that cater to products and services across numerous domains.

Contact us:

Mr. Mark Willams

Account Manager

US: +1-970-672-0390

Email:[emailprotected]

Web:reportsglobe.com

See the rest here:
(Covid-19 Impact)Wood Covered Sheds Market Size is Thriving Worldwide 2020 | Growth and Profit Analysis, Forecast by 2027 - The Daily Chronicle

Why are some Bay Area counties opening faster than others? Anew Stanford study is shedding light on how health officials make thosedecisions and when.

Theres a lot to consider when balancing public health andeconomic recovery.

After six months of COVID-19 restrictions people in the BayArea are out and about.

Researchers at Stanford University are using cell phonedata, medical records and labor information to re-create cities and putCOVID-19 to the test.

The key finding is that the different lockdown policies performed very differently in different locations, said Mohammad Akbarpour, Stanford graduate school of business professor.

Density is a key factor. In a city with a lot of people,stricter rules save lives.

In Chicago, people meet a lot of people, so you have to do more to bring reproduction down, said Akbarpour. In Sacramento you dont have to do as much.

Researchers say that limiting interactions stops the spreadof COVID-19.

In their models, working from home and staggered returns towork make a difference.

Cut down the number of people who use public transit who commute to work on a given day by, say, limiting half the group to go in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays," said Shoshana Vasserman, Stanford graduate school of business professor. "Have the other half of the group go in on Tuesdays, Thursdays and maybe Saturdays or Sundays or something like that. It has a similar impact as working from home.

While every city is different, experts do say that they haveone thing in common: masks make a difference.

The more caution you take, the more people wear masks, the less closure you need to have, said Vasserman.

The Stanford team is hoping health officers will use theirmodels to do custom analysis and zero in on the most effective policies.

More here:
New Stanford Study Sheds Light on Why Some Communities Can Open Sooner Than Others - NBC Bay Area

By KIRSTYN BRENDLEN

Sometimes it seems the official landmarks of New York City should not only include the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building, but also the infamous sidewalk shed.

Mistakenly called scaffolding from time to time, the city boasts more than 10,000 of the temporary structures, designed to protect pedestrians from being hit by anything from above. While most common at construction sites, more and more often, they are popping up around buildings in need of renovations.

Overall, sheds cover more than 2 million linear feet of sidewalks in the city or enough to stretch from New York City to West Virginia.

One of those sheds in particular has been a thorn in the side of some Waldo Avenue residents for years, covering just over 2,000 feet on the West 238th Street step street between Waldo and Irwin Avenue.

Its permit was granted to the managers of 3660 Waldo Ave., an apartment building just south of Gaelic Park and the entrance to Manhattan College, some five years ago, the same time the citys building department issues warnings about loose faade that could fall and hurt people below.

While the shed might help 3660 Waldo buy time to get necessary renovations done, for Joan Kaufman who lives nearby at 3800 Waldo Ave. its been a nightmare. Shes lodged complaint after complaint about the building, and especially about the long-standing sidewalk shed, for years.

This is ridiculous, she said. Theres vermin. Theres rats running all over the place. I can see them, (and) we cant live like this. Its filthy, theyre not cleaning it, they should take that down.

One of her in-building neighbors, Annette Douglas, had even gone so far as to post flyers around the neighborhood, she said. They warned of the rats that had shacked up under and around the step streets, encouraging neighbors to instead call Councilman Andrew Cohen and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz in the hopes of cleaning it up.

Complaints filed with the DOB date back at least five years. One, from September 2015, says the shed was constructed earlier that summer, but that construction didnt appear to be occurring above or around it. Other complaints say the shed blocks access to handrails, and that the lights under the shed were out.

Our neighbor has an issue, a DOB issue, with Local Law 11, said Steven Berisha, an agent and property manager for 3800 Waldo. Basically what happens is the city requires you to file your buildings as unsafe, or safe with repairs.

Local Law 11 is a successor to Local Law 10, enacted by Mayor Ed Koch in 1980 after a college student was killed by a piece of terra cotta that fell from a building. Now buildings of six stories or more which describe 12,000 such structures in New York City must be inspected every five years by a licensed architect or engineer. If the faade is found to be unsafe, building owners must put up scaffolding or sidewalk sheds to protect pedestrians from any potential falling masonry while construction or repairs are carried out.

Three inspection reports from 3600 Waldo found unsafe conditions including one from this past July, according to documents filed with the city. That report noted that while some previously discovered issues had been fixed, there were new unsafe conditions in need of repair.

Those included damaged and fractured stone and brick at the top of the building, which already had been repaired to some degree, but needed further repairs.

A 2019 analysis by the New York Post found that some buildings throughout the city were covered in scaffolding more than a decade old, as putting up scaffolding or sidewalk sheds after an inspection and just leaving them up is easier and cheaper than putting up the sheds, taking them down after repairs, and reconstructing them after another inspection.

The citys buildings department said permits for the shed were issued in 2015, and that the shed is required to stay up by law until repairs on the faade are completed. A spokesperson said they have issued multiple violations to the owner of the building for failing to maintain the faade and the shed.

The owner has hired a contractor and there are active permits for the repairs.

Kaufman and her neighbors have tried to make contact with the buildings managers, but getting through to the people in charge on the phone is a Sisyphean task.

Only assistant managers would speak to her or Berisha, Kaufman said, and hadnt been helpful when they called about issues with the shed.

We dont have the support, Kaufman said. We got the people fighting. We have a terrific building, we have a terrific agent, we have a terrific board, we have a terrific agent. Our shareholders, theyre supportive, but we cant get the support outside.

She has been in contact with Cohens office, but has been frustrated with a lack of concrete, tangible changes. Even representatives from Cohens office were struggling to get a concrete response on when construction would be over.

This was before the pandemic, Berisha said. When we started complaining, it was January, February, March. We hadnt really gotten into the pandemic just yet. The conversations that Pat and I had were prior to everything being locked down.

When reached by phone, a representative at the number listed online for 3660 Waldo told The Riverdale Press it was the wrong number that she was not the apartments on Waldo Avenue.

Kaufman and her neighbors want an effort to take the shed down and revamp the step-street, which was in rough shape even prior to the construction of the shed. A similar effort was carried out on a step street just blocks away, on West 232nd Street, she said, resulting in clean, new concrete steps connecting Irwin and Riverdale avenues. Such an effort, they said, would make walking through the neighborhood much safer and easier.

We want everybody in the building to be safe, Berisha said. Our safety for our building also reflects in the neighborhood. We want everyone in the neighborhood to be equally safe.

Continued here:
Neighbors call ol' sidewalk shed an eyesore - The Riverdale Press

The Gulf of Mexico receives many nutrients from the rivers that empty into it, especially the Mississippi River, causing the Gulfs northern shelf waters to become overly enriched and more susceptible to algae growth.

However, it remains largely obscure whether a significant portion of those nutrients ever leaves the Gulf to impact the chemistry of the North Atlantic Ocean potentially.

It is essential to track the nutrient input from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya River System to the Gulf as those nutrients contribute to harmful algal blooms on the Northern Gulf Shelf.

In a new study, scientists from Florida State University are shedding light on nutrient levels in the Gulf of Mexico. To conduct the study, the team collected and analyzed water samples taken during four different research cruises to the Gulf and the Florida Straits from 2011 to 2018.

This finding is valuable to know, as these ecosystems must harbor the nutrient burden.

Scientists did not found any evidence that nitrate from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River System is mixing across the Northern Gulf shelf into the Gulf of Mexicos open waters. The findings are consistent with recent modeling work by fellow scientists indicating that 90 percent of Mississippi River nutrients are retained in the near-shore ecosystem, which implies that nutrients from the Mississippi River do not leave the Gulf.

This is the first study that offers isotopic composition measurements of nitrate in the Gulf of Mexico and a new isotopic profile from the Florida Straits.

Scientists then compared water column profiles with prior measurements from the North and South Atlantic and with the magnitude of nitrogen inputs to the Gulf.

Associate Professor of Oceanography Angela Knapp said,The study looked for distinct geochemical signatures of nitrate from the Mississippi River and whether this nitrate made it off the Northern Gulf of Mexico shelf into the deep waters of the Gulf that mix with the Loop Current and left via the Florida Straits to enter the North Atlantic.

This work has important implications for understanding the fate of nutrients from the Mississippi Atchafalaya River System and how to manage human inputs to coastal ecosystems.

More here:
Study sheds light on nutrient levels in the Gulf of Mexico - Tech Explorist

What if all of the sudden, the right side of peoples faces on your TV appeared to be melting? What if the right side of your own face seemed like it was melting in the mirror? That is the surprising case of a 59-year-old Portuguese man. A study about him was recently published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

The international study was carried out by researchers from the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra, in collaboration with the Hospital of the University Center of Coimbra, Dartmouth College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The man, referred to by the fictitious name Augusto in the published study, has an extremely rare neuropsychological condition called hemi-prosopometamorphopsia only 25 cases are known worldwide. Augusto is unable to visualize faces in a normal way, something that causes him unimaginable suffering.

This condition is usually characterized by the perception of a distortion in the eyes, nose and/or mouth only on one side of the face. These features seem to be falling off, almost as if they were melting. Nothing more than images of faces causes these distortions, says Jorge Almeida, the studys principal investigator and director of the Proaction Lab.

A series of studies with this patient showed for the first time the existence of a step in the processing of faces in which these are rotated and resized to match a pattern. In the process of recognizing a face we are seeing, we compare that face with those we have in our memory. Thus, whenever we see a face, our brain creates a representation of it and aligns it with a model we have in memory, adds the researcher. This is, in fact, the way digital face recognition used by Facebook and Google platforms works.

In addition, with this study it was possible to demonstrate that these representations of faces are present in the two hemispheres of the brain and that the representations of the right and left halves of the faces are dissociable. Thus, this study not only increased knowledge about the functioning of the brain, but also supported with scientific evidence one of the most widely used facial recognition methodologies today.

Like many other patients with hemi-prosopometamorphopsia, distortions experienced by Augusto were caused by a lesion in white matter beams that connect the neuronal areas dedicated to faces present in the left and right cerebral hemispheres, preventing the flow of information between them.

One of the experiments carried out with Augusto was the presentation of images from different perspectives (left profile, front and right profile). Augusto indicated that the eyes, mouth and/or nose of the presented faces appeared to be drooping red areas in the image below. No other deformations were reported when any other non-face images were presented (cars, houses, etc.)

In a second experiment, the researchers presented images of faces in very different forms: the left and right halves of the faces separately, on both sides of the visual field (right and left) and rotated at 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

Regardless of how the faces were presented, Augusto continued to report that the distortions affected the same parts of the face. Even when the face was inverted (mouth upand eyes down), the patient saw the distortions on the left side. It was still the right eye that seemed to be melting, even though in the inverted face it is located on the left side.

When presenting faces at various angles of rotation, we found that only the right characteristics of the face were distorted, even when the face was presented inverted 180 degrees and those parts of the face were on the left side. The only way to explain this result is that when we process faces, we rotate them and create a model centered on the face and not the observer. In this way, the right eye in this face-centered model is always represented as the right eye, even if it is in our left visual field as when we see an inverted face. This model centered on the face is then compared with an existing model, concludes Almeida.

The study, Face-Specific Perceptual Distortions Reveal A View- and Orientation-Independent Face Template, was authored by Jorge Almeida, Andreia Freixo, Miguel Tbuas-Pereira, Sarah B. Herald, Daniela Valrio, Guilherme Schu, Diana Duro, Gil Cunha, Qasim Bukhari, Brad Duchaine, and Isabel Santana.

View original post here:
Unique study of man who sees melting faces sheds light on the brains visual system - PsyPost

The Shed pits teenagers against a vampire who has taken up residence in a shedStan and Roxy fight the sinister threat, but do they make it out alive?

Director Frank Sabatella's 2019 horror movie,The Shed, adapts a simple premise with an open ending that left audiences questioning the safety of the heroes: what happened to Stan and Roxy?

The Shedtakes standard-issue vampire movie tropes and tucks them behind a smart, character-driven feature film. Stan (Jay Jay Warren) is an orphan who thinks he's dealing with the normal high school woesbullies, unrequited crushes, and an overbearing grandfatheruntil he realizes that a vampire has taken up residence in the shed on his property. From there,The Shed descendsinto a nightmarish bloodbath when more and more people fall victim to the trapped creature and Stan's best friend, Dommer (Cody Kostro) starts to see Stan's problem as a solution to theirs.

Related: The Best Horror Movies On Shudder Right Now

By the film's climax, Stan and his crush Roxy (Sophia Happonen) are fighting to defend his home come nightfall, when the vampireand the new ones he's turnedare on the prowl. While most of the movie takes place during daytime hours, when the vampires are less of a threat, there's still a high body count, action, gore, and shocking moments that lead up to the movie's final shot, where Stan and Roxy's fate is essentially unknown. Here's what happened inThe Shed's ambiguous ending.

Vampire movies and television were a staple of the early and mid-2000s, and while there are many different approaches in dealing with these creatures,The Shed manages to bring something new to the table. The fact that the vampire is trapped in Stan's shed might seem like a no-brainer, but Sabatella's movie explores the very human conflicts that coincide with this unlikely scenario. Stan is unsure of what to do with the creature at first, and his fear keeps him from acting immediately and doing something logical, like burning the shed down. His dog and his grandfather are the vampire's earliest victims, but after he tries to ask his friend Dommer for helpespecially since there's a body on his propertyhe's surprised with Dommer's answer. In Dommer's mind, this terrifying situation is really to their benefit: they can sacrifice their high school bullies to the monster, or use it to threaten them.

This, of course, ends poorly. Dommer's lust for power and revenge gets him turned into a vampire, and the bullies come sniffing around Stan's property right at dusk, looking for their leader Marble (Chris Petrovski), who ended up summarily meeting his end in the shed. Ultimately, Stan and Roxy are the last two standing, and nurse their injuries in a car before Roxy mentions that it's soon to be nightfall again; they think they've seen the last of the vampires, but as the final shot pans out on the trunk of the car, it's apparent that they're not alone. They missed one. It's an unfortunate oversight, but a realistic one insomuch that a movie about a vampire trapped in a shed can be realistic.

Read more:
The Shed Ending Explained: What Happened To Stan & Roxy - Screen Rant