Category Archives: New Utopia

It is a 100 years this October since Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Party stormed the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg and overthrew the Russian Monarchy, an event which later became known as the Russian Revolution.Believing the violent change of government would bring about a more prosperous, equal country where the workers called the shots, few anticipated that 1917 was not the end of an old nightmare but the beginning of a new, more terrifying one. Lenin and his fellow revolutionaries were in many ways worse than the despots they usurped. The imperious leader of the Bolsheviks refused to give anyone else a hearing in his ugly new utopia, although even he was a small fish compared to his successor Joseph Stalin, the second greatest monster in human history (Hitler always gets the top spot).Saint Petersburg is inextricably associated with the events of that Red October. At one end is the railway station at which Lenin returned from exile to begin the revolution, while further west is the building in which he evicted the monarchy, just across the Neva river from where the deposed royals, later to be executed, were laid to rest in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul. The Winter Palace itself is now no longer a seat of government but one of the most incredible museums I have ever seen, housing works by Rembrandt, Michelangelo and others in its many elaborately decorated rooms.When Lenin died in 1924, the city saw another of its many name changes. It had been called Saint Petersburg after the Czar Peter the Great, but the name was changed to Petrograd during the First World War in order to sound less German. Soon after, it lost its status as the capital city to Moscow, but remained an important city - a key target for the Nazis during the 20th Century's second great conflict. It was during the legendary Siege of Leningrad that the city was cut off from the rest of the country, leading to horrendous food shortages, with Peterburgers reduced to eating animals and clothes (and allegedly each other) while Hitler selected the restaurant in which he wished to dine when the city inevitably fell into his hands. Arrogance was one of his many shortcomings.The Fhrer's rival for history's most odious man, Joseph Stalin, was in many ways the gravedigger of the Soviet Union. Many wannabe despots followed him after he bit the dust in 1953, but none were nearly as maniacal, and the regime began to crumble. Watching its death at the end of the 1980s was a young KGB officer posted at the East German border, Vladimir Putin, who stared morosely at his country's decline and promised himself, just as Hitler had done in 1918, that never again would the Motherland be humiliated in such a way. Putin's rise has ensured a new democratic Russia would not be allowed to flourish in the 21st Century, and that the bad old days of entrenched corruption and the silencing of critics would continue unabated.Vladimir Putin's wolfish face adorns many mugs and t-shirts sold in tourist stands around the city, along with the equally ugly visages of his predecessors Lenin and Stalin. I was almost tempted to buy one, as something of a sick joke, after visiting what was Saint Petersburg's most impressive building, a cathedral with the stirring name of Church of the Saviour on Blood. Built on the banks of the Griboedov Canal, it is, with its legendary onion dome roof, a building you could only find in Russia. Inside is even more impressive, with every surface papered with religious paintings in which the haunted faces of many a biblical figure stare down at the tourists from the roof. One of my friends on the trip mistakenly thought all buildings in Russia looked like the church, but in fact most of them are short and dingy, hanging together along vast roads such as the Nevinsky Prospect, along which I walked for hours but never reached the end. Travelling long distances is best achieved by metro, with its legendary deep and beautifully decorated stations. Not all of the city's treasures are kept above the surface.I too had many misconceptions about Russia. I thought it would be very intimidating, that there would be thuggish police officers on every street and that shops and buildings would be dark, depressing and frightening. Although many of the backstreets and suburbs are quite run down, and the locals and shop staff are very sullen, the country is too vibrant ever to be unsettling. The most immediately frightening aspect of Saint Petersburg was the way in which clumps of April snow fell of the many Soviet Era buildings, hitting in pavement in front of you like exploding watermelons.It seems that rather than living in fear most people here live in tedium, harbouring great frustration at the mediocrity of their living standards, but too dispirited and cynical to do anything about it: it's hard to picture another revolution kicking out the latest Czar a hundred years after the first.I have been lucky enough to see both New York City and Saint Petersburg, the two alternative capitals of the most powerful countries on earth, within the space of 12 months. Though this place is magnificent, I know without hesitation which city I prefer. The former Russian capital has the benefits of selling alcohol at an unbelievably cheap price (50p for beers, 5 for bottles of vodka), which you can buy off staff who will never bother to check your ID. I resent when this happens at home, believing it is wrong to be made to feel like a criminal when buying drinks for the weekend. Yet Russia has its own ways of making you feel intimidated.Our group arrived in the city on a ferry from Finland, and had to be funnelled through a passport control area immediately after disembarking the ship. Inside this humid waiting hall, men in frighteningly large hats marched around under signs warning of the penalties for those 'who do not comply with the authorities of the Russian Federation' - one of the most chilling phrases I have ever read. Even though we behaved well going through the checks, a few of us were held back on account of something they couldn't change: the colour of their skin. One girl from Ethiopia and one guy from France were detained in a security office for so long that they missed the first part of the tour. The rest of us had to carry on regardless, as complaining at the sheer blatancy of the racism would no doubt be a provocation of the authorities of the Russian Federation.Still, getting into Russia was easier than usual in one respect, in that I didn't need to apply for a visa. Our entry was organised by our tour guides at Scanbalt, who run tours throughout Scandinavia and the Baltic region for very decent prices. The visit to Saint Petersburg was the centrepiece of this particular tour, but was bookended by ferry stops at Helsinki and Tallinn, respectively. We had little time to visit either because of the gruelling ferry schedule, but they were both incredibly impressive.I would recommend visiting Saint Petersburg to anyone, providing you can live with the humiliating border patrols, as well as shit water and poor restaurant service. The hostel in which I stayed was just across a square from Moscow Station, where you can catch a train and travel deeper into a country so vast that it has borders with both Norway and China and (according to Sarah Palin) can be seen from the United States.A hundred years on from its most ominous hour, Russia remains a mysterious and charismatic country, and should be top of a to-see list for anyone for whom those qualities matter. People who, in other words, are looking for a bit of grit and piss along with their postcards and ice cream.

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St. Petersburg: Visiting the Red Planet - The National Student

ARTHUR WHELAN

Last updated05:00, May 6 2017

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Characters from Moa, Possum von Tempksy and Kiwi Pukupuku.

Need to find those stolen Lindauer paintings?

This sounds like a job for Possum von Tempsky and his mate Kiwi Pukupuku. Just say the word and the most unlikely buddy cops you'll ever meet will mount their moa and ride into the bush to pursue villains and right wrongs.

The Moa Rangers have come a long way in every sense since Taranaki teacher James Davidson knocked together an A5-sized, black and white comic book aimed at providing New Zealand children with an alternative to the likes of Thor and Asterix.

GRANT MATTHEW/FAIRFAX NZ

Taranaki comics artist James Davidson hopes New Zealand children will find 'Moa' entertaining and educational.

The latest milestone on their journey is Moa, a full colour edition by Earth's End Publishing, collating all five volumes of their swashbuckling adventures ranging from the lizard-egg rescue to an underground mission to save the jawbone of Maui's grandmother for the nation.

READ MORE: *Dylan Horrocks graphic novel a 'love letter' to Christchurch *Comic artists unite on climate change *Catty cartoonist alone in field

Davidson - acting deputy principal at Opunake High School when he's not working on these artistic adventures - describes the world of Moa as a a colourful blending of history and mythology, and autopian vision of what New Zealand could be like. The Prime Minister is Maori and anyone who tries to steal the nation's taonga has to reckon with Possum (inspired by 19th century bush ranger and renaissance man von Tempsky) and his mate Kiwi.

Behind the scenes, Davidson has had to hack his way through a lot of dense bush to get this far.

He has a degree in fine art but admits that his first attempt at comics were "pretty rubbish", a view confirmed at a comics convention by a professional artist, who shredded his superhero efforts in a constructive-criticism kind of way.

Davidson admits to feeling deflated by the experience. But he persisted, the characters evolved and after a few dead ends, his confidence grew that he was on to something as his dynamic duo started to take form in a loose, cartoony style.

And so the adventures began. He paid $500 to self-publish a 50-copy print run of the first issue, selling them to friends and family, and followed it up with a colour version.

He did the hard yards of networking at more conventions, which paid off when Pikitia Press noticed his work

And all this in between the day job and raising a family (three children, aged 9, 8 and 3).

How does he find the time?

The world of Moa comes to life in an Opunake house late at night when the kids are asleep. Davidson does the whole lot, from the pencilling and inking to the scanning, colouring and lettering (although his daughter helps out with proof-reading - "she's much better at it than me").

All this for something a kid can read in half an hour before demanding when the next one will appear. "But that's a comic artist's lot."

So no pressure, then, when Earth's End Publishing called last Easter to pitch the collated edition.

He had only just started the fifth episode, and had to hit the production afterburners while his wife took the kids on holiday for a week.

"It takes me about six months to finish one issue, I did that one in about two months."

A couple of weeks ago a copy arrived by courier. Six years of work, on nice paper but Davidson had all of 10 seconds to admire his magnum opus before his son swooped to get first read.

At least that proves he's doing something right, and he says the feedback from Maori has also been positive.

He has a ton of adventures and more characters to bring to life so that intermediate schoolkids can see something of the world around them in the comics they read.

Who knows, maybe this country might be that utopia one day, although it's safe to say you'll never see a possum riding a moa through the bush.

But in the meantime that New Zealand does exist, here, in 120 pages of vibrant colour.

Moa,James Davidson,Earth's End Publishing, RRP $32.99.

-Stuff

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Moa team are colourful characters in every sense - Stuff.co.nz

On "Stay Together," Noah Cyrus sings about being young and wild and free. She sings about cigarettes and bad DJs and broken iPhones. She sings about not giving a fuck, in the way that only a 17-year-old could.

The song is the second single from her as-yet-unreleased first album, which is literally called NC-17. The first was "Make Me Cry," a melancholy duet with a singer named Labrinth. Both songs showcase Noah's voice, which, like her big sister Miley's, is full of personality. And both songs are very good.

Today, The FADER is debuting the video for "Stay Together." It features Noah and some pals cruising around in what feels like some kind of teenage summer utopia, where the light is always just right. It's the type of clip you imagine was a blast to make. According to an email from Noah to The FADER, it was: "I had two of my real life friends featured in the video, and I got to make some new friends," she wrote. "My favorite part was spray painting the bathtub!

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Watch The Video For Stay Together, Noah Cyrus's Extremely Catchy New Single - The FADER

Cory Doctorow's "Walkaway" and a new artificial womb

Science fiction has always been a way to explore what our future might look like. As often as not, those imaginings are pretty dark - full of social and technological catastrophes. Hulu's new adaptation of A Handmaid's Tale has sparked renewed interest in Margaret Atwoods 1985 clasic, with some calling it relevant, even timely.

Brave New World

Just as that series was debuting, though, researchers announced a breakthrough that seemed to leap-frog A Handmaid's Tale and jump straight to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. A team at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia have created an artificial womb and successfully incubated several fetal lambs in it.

For many, it was a bit jarring to see a lamb in what looked like a giant ziplock bag. But George Annas, director of the Center for Health Law, Ethics, and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health, says that attitude could change.

"It was just kind of startling thing," said Annas. "But you could think about this as being beautiful in its own way. You have a living creature there in a liquid environment, and you can watch it develop. That's pretty astonishing."

An artificial womb could give premature babies more time to develop, avoiding the life-long complications and disabilities that preemies often experience. And the lead author of the study says human trials could be just a few years away.

But Annas sees both promise and peril in the advance. He says the technology could redefine the abortion debate, raising the possibility of unwanted or risky pregnancies not being terminated, but rather, transferred to an artificial womb. Whether that's a negative or positive development for women would depend on whether such a transfer is an available option or a legal mandate, and who has the right and responsibility of making decisions for the baby.

Default Reality or Walkaway

That kind of duality is a hallmark of most technological advances. Many prognosticators tend toward either optimism or doom-and-gloom, but both sides of the coin get a thorough treatment in Cory Doctorow's new novel, Walkaway.

The book opens in true dystopian fashion, set just a handful of decades into the future, in a world where climate change, consumerism, income inequality, and digital surveillance have been taken to extremes. Society is also suffering at the hands of something that sounds like a good thing, something Doctorow calls post-scarcity.

"It's a subject I've been pondering since my first novel, in 2003," said Doctorow, acknowledging he doesn't have a clear-cut explanation. "Scarcity is the intersection of what we want, what we can make, and how easy it is to get the things that we can make to the people that want it."

In a future where 3D printing is as omnipresent as inkjets are today, it should be possible to make whatever you want, wherever you want.

Doctorow imagines two responses to such a scenario. In default reality, the ultra-rich attempt to enforce scarcity and maintain the status quo. But a growing number of walkaways turn their back on all of it and set out to build a whole new society based on gift economy, where work and goods are in abundance and given freely.

Doctorow says, in his mind, the difference between dystopia and utopia boils down to one thing: believing that your neighbors are the problem, or that your neighbors are the solution.

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Utopia vs. Dystopia May Come Down Your Attitude Toward - WCAI

By Norman Knight

I think I first became aware of the word dystopian back in 2008 when I was still teaching seventh-grade language arts. My students were all mad about the novel The Hunger Games, which came out about then.

For most of that school year I would spot students alone or in groups quietly devouring the story of a dismal future world where a far-off government entity ruthlessly controls the lives of suffering regular citizens. As a teacher, especially an English teacher, it is always a distinct satisfaction when students are caught reading a book, even a dystopian one.

It was probably in some college lit class that I learned that the word utopia was coined from Greek words meaning no where or no place and referred to a ideal, perfect society. Using my English teacher superpowers, I determined a dystopia would be the opposite of an ideal, perfect society.

Stories about utopias and dystopias have been around for centuries. Plato was describing his ideas for a perfect Republic several hundreds of years before Sir Thomas More coined the word and then published Utopia in 1516.

I guess it is a natural inclination for some humans to try to plan out a perfect world. And it is probably just as natural that some humans would conjure up a dismal future society.

Recently, both my wife and I were caught reading dystopian novels. Becky is not one who usually tolerates fiction where the suspension of disbelief requires one to accept extremely unconventional characters and situations. But her daughter prevailed upon her to read The Giver, by Lois Lowery, a book my middle school students also enjoyed. Turns out she enjoyed it, too.

At about the same time she started The Giver, published in 1993, I settled in with a book that came out just this year: The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047. Both books are different takes on societies of the future.

In The Giver, we are presented with a society that is perfect. It is perfect because everyone is equal, and everyone is equal because everyone is exactly the same.

This is accomplished by eliminating emotions, memory, physical contact and any hint of individuality from the citizens of this perfect world. What seems to be a safe and well-ordered utopia is soon discovered to be a colorless (literally) dystopia.

As Becky was engrossed in her book, I was reading about the Mandibles, a well-to-do family that must find a way to survive after the worldwide collapse of the United States dollar. People learn very quickly the illusionary nature of money, especially money based upon the promises of a increasingly insatiable and ruthless government.

To survive in 2029 and the years after means abandoning nearly all of that thin layer of civility and agreed upon behavior that is a requirement for a normal society to function. It also means avoiding the prying technological eyes and ears of the government.

In the midst of our book reading, Becky and I leaned that another dystopian novel has been recently trending. The Handmaids Tale is a 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood that has just been made into a much anticipated TV series.

The story takes place in a future where the United States government has been replaced by a theocracy where women are considered second-class citizens useful only as breeders.

A common thread in dystopian fiction from 1984 and Brave New World and running through The Handmaids Tale, The Giver up to The Mandibles: A Family 2029-2047, seems to be that we should be cautious about allowing any government or large institution to have too much power over our lives.

Beware of looking for utopia, they seem to be saying. You might wind up with dystopia.

Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to letters@dailyjournal.net.

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It's not that far from utopia to dystopia - Daily Journal

By Diana Budds 05.02.17 | 9:00 am

Utopian architects tend to be irrationally confident that their work will make the world a better place; even if their designs never quite deliver in the real world, theyre damn convincing as images. Inflatable design, in particular, has been inextricable from architectural constructs of utopia for decadesthough its never fully taken off.The New Inflatable Moment, a new exhibition at BSA Space, home of the Boston Society of Architects, dives into why.

Inflatables are big, cheap, easy to make, and transform life into this magic bubble, Mary E. Hale, co-curator of the exhibition, with Katarzyna Balug, says. And now, theyre experiencing a renaissance, driven by cultural, political, and economic forces.

The inflatable experiments of the 1960s and 70s are seared into my memory as the embodiment of utopian architecture. Take Ant Farm, an experimental art collective active in the 1960s and 70s. Its enormous pillows, as it called its inflatable spaces, were made from tape and polyethylene (the most common type of plastic), and inflated by normal fans. They were the definition of counterculture architecture: Anyone could make them, they were inexpensive, and they could be constructed virtually anywhere. Their shifting, organic shapes were the opposite of Modernisms dictatorial emphasis on perfect forms and proportions. Naked hippies loved them. Rebellious architects, too.

You walk inside and its a complete subversion of Modernism, Hale says. Modern architecture is regimented and regular; its right-angles heaviness. Here youre in a bubble, these translucent environments where theres no structure. Its a membrane held aloft by a fan. Its so simple and subverts everything about Modernism.

But Hale and Balug trace designs fascination with blow-ups all the way back to 1783when Jean-Franois Piltre de Rozier and Franois Laurent dArlandes piloted the first manned, untethered hot air balloon flight over Paris.

The domain of the sky wasnt just for gods, it was also for man who could achieve flight through science, Balug says. Traditionally a utopia is an island that you go to through boats, sails, and wind. The idea of inflatables as utopia is that its a vehicle, its this hot air balloon taking you to there. In the 20th century, the bubble becomes a space enclosed from the world. You go in the bubble and escape.

Haus Rucker Co, Yellow-Heart/Gelbes Hertz. 1967-8. [Photo: courtesy of Gnter Zamp Kelp]Like Ant Farm, other utopian architects have used inflatables to create intense, transformative environments. In 1967, Haus Rucker, an experimental group from Vienna that eventually moved to New York, created Yellow Heart, an inflatable space that people experienced while wearing helmets that obscured their vision and produced pulsing sounds. Youre transformed telepathically to another realm, Balug describes. This mind-altering environment was recreating what Timothy Leary wanted to do with LSD.

In 1974, the British artist Graham Stevens began developing Desert Cloud, a pneumatic structure that functioned as a self-sufficient environment in the desert. Created at the peak of the OPEC oil crisis, the mylar structure was a passive system that naturally heated up air, causing it to levitate, while its shape created shade and collected condensed moisture. Stevens was a pioneer in studying how inflatables can make the world a better place by experimenting with physical principals, Hale says. Its this perfect architectural system that shows what would be possible if we use creativity to harness energy on the earth and free ourselves from fossil fuels.

Graham Stevens, Desert Cloud, 1972-2004. [Photo: courtesy of Graham Stevens and William McLean]So why havent any of these ambitious ideas taken off in the real world?

We mostly focus on the positive aspects of the bubble, Hale says. It seems that any actual utopian experiment thats been deployed has not been successful. The bubble, just like a balloon, it pops or loses gas. Its not meant to last. The medium comes and goes in artistic use and inflates and deflates the way a utopian ideal can.

Hale and Balug used Googles Ngram searchwhich chartsthe usage of keywords and phrases over timeto see how often inflatable architecture appeared in experimental-architecture writing over the last few decades. They discovered that an uptick began around 2005 and 2006. It madesense, since some of the social and political themes from the aughtseconomic inequality, war, resource scarcitymirrored those from the late 60s and 70s. The same forces that fostered the golden age of inflatables fueled its recent renaissance.

Were thinking it has to do with the political and ecological climate weve had since the great recession, Balug says. The systems were grappling with and are being underminedlike the financial system and environmentalismtheres nowhere to go without completely reimagining them. Theres a spirit of abandon, that nothing we know is working so were revisiting inflatables in a new way.

UtopieJean-Paul Jungmann, DyodonHabitation Pneumatique Exprimentale, 1967, Paris. [Photo: courtesy of Smiljan Radic, New York]Today, contemporary architects are channeling the visual culture associated with inflatables and appropriating its message, but the technology, and the expectation of what inflatables can achieve, is more nuanced. Its not just about escapism and abandoning cruel reality for an idyllic space. While some architects are still trying to propose a sweeping vision of utopia, many are attempting to have measurable impact. Maybe were searching for ideals in projects from the 60s, but were dealing with contemporary building technology and budgets, Hale says.

At the Hirshhorn museum, in Washington, D.C., Diller Scofidio + Renfro built an inflatable bubble to enclose the brutalist structures courtyard for special events. Toms Saraceno, an architect from Argentina, is experimenting with the idea ofself-sufficient pneumatic structures that levitate and create their own cities without being hemmed in by the construct of nationality. Plastique Fantastique, a Berlin-based studio, is using pneumatic structures to create pop-up community spaces.

Counterculture may have driven the inflatables of the 70s, but over the past decade, inflatable architecture has grown up, cut its hair, and moved from an artistic pie-in-the sky pursuit to something more practical and applied. For Foster + Partners, blow-up architecture serves a highly technical and specific purposeas a potential material for buildings on Mars. In Cornwall, U.K., Grimshaw used inflatables to construct biomes for the Eden Project, a permanent botanical garden.

That gets into another aspect of how were thinking about the future, Balug says. Were forecasting; were no longer imaging this perfect society. We run tests and analyses that predict, rather than imagine, the future.

Foster + Partners and European Space Agency, Lunar Base, 2012. [Photo: courtesy of Foster + Partners]Hale and Balug hope their exhibition rekindles architects experimental sideespecially for general practitioners who engage with these subjects in architecture school but dont in practiceand gets non-architects excited about this type of forward-thinking design.

I hope people come though the show with an altered perspective on whats possible in the world, Hale says. [Sometimes] its hard to remember what the essence of what we do is, which is create thoughtful, inspiring spaces for human habitation and life. Thats exemplified in these projects.

Diana Budds is a New Yorkbased writer covering design and the built environment.

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Today's Architects Are Obsessed With Inflatable DesignHere's Why - Co.Design (blog)

in Area News Featured by Harrison News Herald May 2, 2017 at 2:26 pm | 0 comments

(left to right): Roxilana, Tyberius, Trisha and Katana

JEWETT Even for one day its possible the world can seem trouble-less, pain free and without a care in the world. One would hope it would have that effect for someone like Trisha Ten, for she has terminal cancer. Her illness is called Leiomyosarcoma and there is no cure.

According to Trisha and Sarcomahelp.org, this cancer is a soft-tissue sarcoma and is described as aggressive. After having a five-pound tumor removed from her body the cancer still spread costing her, her gallbladder, a kidney and spreading to her pancreas and liver. She was also given no timetable, just that she should prepare for the end of life. There isnt anything as sudden as that.

For one day, though, Trisha and her three beautiful children, Roxilana, Katana and son Tyberius, Faith Ranch became their little Utopia last Friday, even if it was only for a day. They enjoyed lunch, rode horses compliments of One Day To Remember (ODTR), according to Executive Director, Rachel Antin.

Its basically a day of respite so the family can spend some time together, Antin explained. Later, the Ten family was treated to a dinner in Pittsburgh, the area where she grew up. She later moved to New Mexico where her three children were raised.

Exceptional Limousine Service out of Bridgeville provided the transportation but in the meantime, a sunny day of riding and enjoying the countryside is exactly what Trisha wanted and she was thrilled to be with family and enjoy the day.

Trisha was diagnosed back in July of 2014 where her doctor eventually suggested the ODTR people to her.

Were blessed, she said with joy. Im not going to waste my cancer, my kids have been amazing. Im a better person and a better parent now. What is remarkable is her openness about her cancer and said she and her family talk about everything.

Trisha moved back to Western Pennsylvania to receive a special chemotherapy called Yondelis, which is specifically geared towards soft tissue sarcoma, which she said was recently approved by the FDA. Her kids still live in New Mexico as she wants them to stay in school and be around their grandparents.

The cost of Yondelis? $45,000 for one day, she said. The good news is that since this new chemotherapy has been used, the cancer has not spread, though shes been told it also doesnt kill cancer cells, it only prevents the spread of them, or at least slows the spread of it down.

Trisha said that the cancer began in the blood vessels then spread to her abdomen where she said it could spread anywhere. Muscle and nerve pain are very difficult to deal with but spoke highly of the treatment shes been receiving at Hillman Cancer Center in Pittsburgh.

Its amazing how these intelligent young women are changing medicine, she said.

Another positive side of things was that her ex-husband has been brought back into the picture and into the their lives, though she didnt elaborate further. But she seemed very happy over that aspect.

Antin said the Ten family is the first to enjoy an outing by her group, which she said began back in August and is now officially a 501c3 organization since last December. Faith Ranch, though, has been around a while led by Director, Cindy Smith and Liz Boggs, program director and the many people who support the ranch in various departments, such as Tiffany Smith, Eric Eash, John Kaminsky, Dale Lackey, Reggie Conley, Linda Maxwell Renee Lackey, Jen, Macie and Makenna Eash; Tom Smith, Troy Lynn Boggs and volunteer, Dixie Hole.

Still, Trisha worries about her childrens future and what will become of them if and when shes not around before they grow to adulthood and graduate high school.

God has been amazing, she said concerning her childrens future and who will take care of them. She said her parents recently told her that they just cant do it I feel God is going to provide answers when needed.

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Cancer Patient Enjoys Utopia For A Day - Harrison News Herald

A New York man was charged with identity fraud and forging documents after police say he tried to open an account using fraudulent checks.

EASTON A New York man tried to open a bank account last week using several forged and fraudulent documents, police said.

Sgt. Leonard Coe and Officer Matthew Solov responded to the Bank of America, at 692 Depot St., about 1:24 p.m. on Friday, for a report of a man committing fraud.

The officers learned that Han Sol Lee was attempting to open a bank account, deposit and withdraw money using fraudulent checks, Deputy Police Chief Keith Boone said.

Lee was in possession of a forged Chinese passport as well as other false documents, Boone said. The investigation showed that Lee may be involved in similar fraud incidents throughout the country.

Lee, 28, of 3617 Utopia Parkway, Apt. 1, Flushing, New York, was arrested and charged with identity fraud, forgery of a document, uttering a false document and attempts to commit a crime.

He is being held on $25,000 bail and remains at a Bristol County house of correction.

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Police: Man tried to open bank account in Easton with forged passport - Enterprise News

Utopia Theatre Project breathes life into The Seagull, Chekhov's play about life, love, and art.

Join some of the Bay Area's finest actors in surprising roles, as this gender and ethnically diverse cast reveals all the longing, passion, and humor of Chekhov's original intent. Omni Commons, a gorgeous old Italian ballroom and event venue in Oakland, hosts this production. The unconventional theatre space allows for an intimate, immersive experience. Enter into the world of Chekhov's most beloved characters - a world of art, ideas, and love - in this intimately staged production.

Directed by Maryssa Wanlass. Adapted by Anne Yumi Kobori.

CAST:

TRIGORIN: Elizabeth Carter* ARKADINA: Christian Haines* SORIN: Mary Baird* CONSTANTINE: Mark Vashro NINA: Anne Yumi Kobori MASHA: Melissa Ortiz* PAULINA: J Jha ILYA: Anne Hallinan DORN: Dameion Brown MEDVEDENKO: Sean Garahan YAKOV: Lovell Bullock

*Member, Actors' Equity Association. An Equity-approved project.

Performances 8 p.m. May 6, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19 at Omni Commons Ballroom, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. Tickets $10 - $45. Visit http://www.utopiatheatreproject.com, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2911724, or email utopiatheatreproject@gmail.com for tickets and more information.

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Utopia Theatre Project Breathes New Life Into THE SEAGULL - Broadway World

Commentary: The CEO of Global Wireless Solutions warns that as smart city growth booms in the U.S., failure to manage complex systems carefully could undermine why they were launched in the first place.

While there has been a bright spotlight on thedeployment of smart city technologies in major urban centersaround the world such as London, New York and Singapore there is also an increasing pushamongstate governments in the U.S. to assist or encourage their metropolises to build similar infrastructure.

As populations age and urbanization continues, cities across the U.S. are seeing a growing strain on infrastructure and resources. However, by applying innovative technologies, these cities can improve the quality of life in their communities, provide improved and sustainable services, and safeguard their infrastructure for generations to come.But while much attention is focused on the end vision, an often-overlooked detail involves how all these new smart infrastructure projects and systems will be managed and held together.

These new networks will be made up of a myriad of devices, sensors, connectivity paths, network nodes and gateways. They involve the Internet of Things (IoT), which means the deployment of new and evolving technologies and applications.

Andbecause states and local governments will rely upon these technologies to deliver both non-critical and critical services to their communities, these new networks must be maintained at a level of robustnessthat ensures reliable and consistent communication.To guarantee network reliability and resilience, aspiring smart cities will need to invest in rigorous network benchmarking programs to monitor status, measure the impact of upgrades over time and ensure network performance and stability.

Routine network testing and monitoring should be a cornerstone of any smart citys master plan. These key activities enable the managing authority to catch faults before they impact critical city servicesand determine if those new network additions and enhancements are achieving their expected impact.

With awell-thought-out network benchmarking, measurement and monitoring strategy, cities can better understand the true value of how the smart city technology is impacting their critical areas of service, such as transit, energy, and environmental services. And this needs to be considered now as smart city projects are occurring at a rapid pace throughout the U.S.

In fact, AT&Ts Smart Cities business unit projects that the adoption of smart city technologies in theU.S. is going to hit a huge upswing this year, with cities and states across the country projected to move from the project planning phase to building out frameworks for technology implementation, with 2018 as a target year for project deployments. AT&T themselves are actively engaged with local authorities in the deployment of smart city technologies take for example their recent involvement withGwinnett County,Georgia,where they are helping to deploy a wireless network to better monitor and reduce the amount of drinking water lost when in route to customers.

Meanwhile, the population of smart cities is becoming mobile-first. As smartphone use continues to expand from basic communication needs to entertainment to management of private and homeIoT networks, the dependence on robust and reliable wireless connectivity will become a critical consideration in every walk of life.

The networks in a smart city are integrated and always communicating, underscoring the importance of reliable device connectivity. What good is deploying wireless sensors across a citys trains and buses if they fail to communicate delays or schedule changes because of network performance issues? Similarly, what good is an investment in measuring a citys traffic problems, if because of poor network performance it cannot report the traffic problem to authorities and citizens before thousands more get caught up in the congestion?

States, municipalities and local city governments are investing heavily in equipment and infrastructure by 2026, smart city investment is expected to reach $750 billion in North America. In fact,Cisco estimates thatwithin three years, a smart city of one million people will generate 200 million gigabytes of data each day. The ability to capitalize on these investments to manage complex, integrated smart city systems, and to deliver services to local communities will depend heavily on network reliability. Networks will needto connect and communicate on demand,move and deliver data at the speeds required.

For those planning and building smart cities, its important to factor how well the technology, the service, and the network should perform. Leaders mustensurethat a sound, rigorous monitoring process is in place to enable measurement, evaluation and therefore intelligent investment decisions in smart city technology deployments.

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Smart cities are walking a tightrope between utopia and chaos - StateScoop (registration)