{ "cells": [ { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "# RSS Article Batch Download Examples\n", "\n", "This notebook demonstrates how to batch download RSS articles from S3." ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 1, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ "import os\n", "import pandas as pd\n", "from time import time\n" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 2, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "name": "stdout", "output_type": "stream", "text": [ "/home/ceg98/IngestRSS\n" ] } ], "source": [ "# Root imports\n", "os.chdir('..')\n", "print(os.getcwd())\n", "\n", "from src.search.batch import S3BatchDownloader\n", "from dotenv import load_dotenv\n", "\n", "load_dotenv(override=True)\n", "\n", "downloader = S3BatchDownloader()\n", "\n", "os.chdir('example-notebooks')\n" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "## Initialize the Downloader" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 3, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "name": "stdout", "output_type": "stream", "text": [ "List permission: Allowed\n" ] } ], "source": [ "import boto3\n", "from botocore.exceptions import ClientError\n", "\n", "s3 = boto3.client('s3')\n", "\n", "# Test ListObjects\n", "try:\n", " response = s3.list_objects_v2(Bucket=os.getenv(\"S3_BUCKET_NAME\"))\n", " print(\"List permission: Allowed\")\n", "except ClientError as e:\n", " print(\"List permission: Denied\")\n" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 4, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "name": "stderr", "output_type": "stream", "text": [ "Error downloading 2024/11/17/d16bca904a.json: Read timeout on endpoint URL: \"None\"\n" ] }, { "name": "stdout", "output_type": "stream", "text": [ "Downloaded data to consolidated_data.csv in 303.85 seconds\n" ] } ], "source": [ "start = time()\n", "output_path = \"consolidated_data.csv\" # or \"consolidated_data.json\"\n", "\n", "# Define date range\n", "start_date = \"2024-11-17\"\n", "end_date = \"2024-11-20\"\n", "\n", "# Start downloading\n", "downloader.download_to_file(\n", " output_path=output_path,\n", " file_format=\"csv\", # or \"json\"\n", " start_date=start_date,\n", " end_date=end_date\n", ")\n", "\n", "print(f\"Downloaded data to {output_path} in {time() - start:.2f} seconds\")" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 5, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ "df = pd.read_csv(output_path)" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 6, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "data": { "text/html": [ "
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Kathy Hochul announ... 1731883625 f1fc2a503e \n", "4 http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.... 1731883665 c00d35bf2d \n", "\n", " article_id llm_summary embedding unixtime \n", "0 00c36e16ef NaN NaN 1731883653 \n", "1 0174d34236 NaN NaN 1731884630 \n", "2 006fa48e38 NaN NaN 1731883716 \n", "3 00c2ede5ae NaN NaN 1731883625 \n", "4 01cce6dac3 NaN NaN 1731883665 " ] }, "execution_count": 6, "metadata": {}, "output_type": "execute_result" } ], "source": [ "df.head()" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [ "# Cleaning Data - EDA ( Delete Later ) " ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 9, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [ "df = df.dropna(subset=['content'])" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 7, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "data": { "text/plain": [ "(32781, 10)" ] }, "execution_count": 7, "metadata": {}, "output_type": "execute_result" } ], "source": [ "df.shape" ] }, { "cell_type": "markdown", "metadata": {}, "source": [] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": 20, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [ { "data": { "text/plain": [ "array([\"Lisa Francois\\n\\nSince the fall of Roe, Americans have consistently supported reproductive freedom at the polls. Knowing this, ACLU advocates across the country have worked to ensure the people have a say on reproductive freedom. On Election Day, voters will decide on ten ballot initiatives that will protect and increase abortion access at the state level.\\n\\nWhile 13 states currently have total abortion bans in effect, Missouri was the first state to enforce its ban, taking action mere minutes after the fall of Roe. Alongside local partners, the ACLU of Missouri has spent years fighting to secure access to reproductive health care. Today, Missourians will decide on Amendment 3, which would enshrine the right to reproductive freedom in their state constitution.\\n\\nIn Arizona, lawmakers have likewise aggressively restricted abortion access for decades, imposing a 15-week ban on abortion after Roe was overturned and trying to reinstate an 1864 total abortion ban. The ACLU of Arizona was one of the leading organizations supporting Proposition 139, the Arizona Abortion Access Act, which would establish a fundamental right to abortion in the state’s constitution.\\n\\nAhead of Election Day, we spoke with Tori Schafer, the director for Policy and Campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri, about what Amendment 3 means for the future of reproductive health access in her state. We also spoke to Victoria López, the director of program and strategy at the ACLU of Arizona, about the impact of Proposition 139.\\n\\nThis conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.\\n\\nACLU: Tell us about the history of reproductive rights in your state?\\n\\nSchafer: In 2019, despite a majority of Missourians supporting reproductive rights, the state legislature passed one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. Immediately, the ACLU of Missouri began organizing with partners to reject the law’s enactment [at the ballot]. The secretary of state stalled these efforts and, after lengthy litigation, we prevailed, but without enough time to collect the required signatures to initiate the referendum process. Frustrated with constantly playing defense, we began exploring the idea of bringing full constitutional protections for reproductive freedom directly to the people.\\n\\nLopez: Arizona has a long history of passing restrictive laws that prevent people from getting the abortion care they need. The ACLU of Arizona has consistently been involved in litigation and advocacy to challenge abortion restrictions, including a fetal personhood law [and] 15 and 20-week bans.\\n\\nWhen I started at the ACLU of Arizona, one of the first cases I learned about was a challenge to a policy requiring women in jail to pay for their own transportation to medical appointments for abortion care. That case was my first on-the-ground experience fighting to ensure abortion access for all people in our state.\\n\\nACLU: How would the ballot measures in your state help residents?\\n\\nSchafer: This ballot measure, “The Right to Reproductive Freedom,” is a constitutional amendment that would end the state’s abortion ban and give Missourians the right to make their own health care decisions — free from political interference. It also protects other forms of reproductive healthcare, including prenatal care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.\\n\\nLopez: Proposition 139, the Arizona Abortion Access Act, is a people-powered initiative that establishes a fundamental right to abortion in our state’s constitution.\\n\\nProp 139 is based on that very-Arizona idea that politicians should not interfere in private medical decisions. As a “battleground” state with an abortion initiative on our ballot, we also see the direct connection between defending democracy against extremist threats so our communities can achieve the rights and dignity they deserve, including abortion access.\\n\\nACLU: Getting measures on the ballot is often challenging. What has the fight for this ballot measure been like?\\n\\nSchafer: After many conversations with reproductive health care experts, community leaders, and lawyers, the committee filed the ballot measure in March 2023. However, the secretary of state refused to certify the measure. It was the first time a secretary tried to undermine the process in this way. That’s when we went to the Missouri Supreme Court for the first time – and won. After two more lawsuits to block misleading ballot summary questions and exaggerated claims about the measure's fiscal impact, the committee began collecting signatures in January 2024 and gathered more than double the required amount.\\n\\nAn incredible amount of work from volunteers and organizers across the state, a total of five legal challenges, and boundless hope have led to voters having Amendment 3 on their ballot.\\n\\nLopez: Following the Dobbs decision, Arizonans faced a complicated and shifting landscape around their right to abortion. We quickly saw efforts to reinstate a Civil War-era abortion ban from a time before Arizona was even a state that would have banned abortion in almost every case.\\n\\nWe worked with partners to successfully advocate at the legislature and through litigation to ensure this ban would never take effect. While the Arizona Supreme Court ultimately decided to reinstate the 1864 ban on abortion, subsequent legislative advocacy resulted in the repeal of that law. Fortunately, we never saw that antiquated law go into effect. However, the legislature left a 15-week ban in effect that has denied countless Arizonans access to needed care. In response to these attacks on their rights, communities across the state took action, collecting over 820,000 signatures, more than any ballot measure in the state's history, to qualify for the ballot.\\n\\nACLU: How does your state fit into the nationwide fight for our rights?\\n\\nSchafer: Missouri was the first state to enforce a total abortion ban after Dobbs. When we pass Amendment 3, we’ll be the first state to end a total abortion ban [in effect]. I hope people see victories in states like mine and think, “If you can win in Missouri, we can win everywhere!” In the end, this vote isn’t about pushing one’s beliefs on others. It’s about respecting the personal freedoms we deeply value here in Missouri — the freedom to make decisions for ourselves, our families, and our future. We know the vast majority of Americans agree with this principle.\\n\\nLopez: In this historic election, where Arizona is a deciding factor, my daughter is voting for the first time. I am so proud to have been a part of this campaign and that she has been able to witness the nationwide support for, and success of, this campaign since the very beginning. We know this fight in Arizona is only part of a nationwide movement to ensure every person, in every state, can access the care they need and deserve.\\n\\nPaid for by American Civil Liberties Union, Inc. Anthony Romero, Executive Director, 125 Broad Street New York, NY 10004, and authorized by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom and in coordination with Arizona for Abortion Access.\",\n", " '\"Unity\", Unity logos, and other Unity trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unity Technologies or its affiliates in the U.S. and elsewhere (more info here). Other names or brands are trademarks of their respective owners.',\n", " \"Traders and analysts chart the movements of stock prices over time to pinpoint the support levels and resistance levels that indicate optimal times to buy and sell.\\n\\nSupport and resistance are two foundational concepts in technical analysis. Understanding what they are and how they work is essential to correctly reading a price chart.\\n\\nTechnical analysis acknowledges that all stocks rise and fall in price constantly in response to supply and demand. By zeroing in on movements within a timeframe, they seek to identify patterns. A stock's price may maintain a support level, below which its price won't drop. It may also show a resistance level, at which buyers back off.\\n\\nLike many concepts in technical analysis, the explanation and rationale are relatively easy, but mastering their application can take years of practice.\\n\\nKey Takeaways Technical analysts use support and resistance levels to identify price points on a chart where the probabilities favor a pause or reversal of a prevailing trend.\\n\\nSupport occurs at the point where a downtrend is expected to pause due to a concentration of demand.\\n\\nResistance occurs at the point where an uptrend is expected to pause due to a concentration of supply.\\n\\nSupport and resistance areas can be identified on charts using trendlines and moving averages.\\n\\nFacundo Diaz Montes / Getty Images\\n\\nWhat Is Support?\\n\\nIn a downtrend, prices fall because there is an excess of supply over demand. The lower prices go, the more attractive they become to those waiting on the sidelines to buy the shares.\\n\\nAt some level, demand that would have been slowly increasing will rise to the level where it matches supply. At this point, prices will stop falling. This is support.\\n\\nSupport can be a single price level on the chart or a price zone. In any event, support is an area on a price chart that shows buyers’ willingness to buy.\\n\\nIt is at this level that demand will usually overwhelm supply, causing the price decline to halt and reverse.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat Is Resistance?\\n\\nResistance is the opposite of support. Prices move up because there is more demand than supply. As the prices move higher, there will come a point when selling will overwhelm buying.\\n\\nThis happens for a variety of reasons. It could be that traders have determined that the prices are too high or have met their targets. It could be the reluctance of buyers to initiate new positions at such rich valuations.\\n\\nIt could be for any other number of reasons. But a technician can clearly see on a price chart a level at which supply begins to overwhelm demand. This is resistance. Like support, it can be a level or a zone.\\n\\nOnce an area or zone of support or resistance has been identified, those price levels can serve as potential entry or exit points because, as the price reaches a point of previous support or resistance, it will do one of two things: bounce back away from the support or resistance level, or violate the price level and continue in its prior direction—until it hits the next support or resistance level.\\n\\nThe timing of some trades is based on the belief that support and resistance zones will not be broken. Whether the price is halted by or breaks through the support or resistance level, traders can bet on the direction of the price and quickly determine if they are correct.\\n\\nIf the price moves in the wrong direction (breaks through prior support or resistance levels), the position can be closed at a small loss. If the price moves in the right direction (respects prior support or resistance levels), the move may be substantial.\\n\\nThe Basics\\n\\nSupport and resistance can be found in all charting time periods; daily, weekly, and monthly. Traders also find support and resistance in smaller time frames like one-minute and five-minute charts. But the longer the time period, the more significant the support or resistance.\\n\\nTo identify support or resistance, you have to look back at the chart to find a significant pause in a price decline or rise. Then look forward to see whether a price halts or reverses as it approaches that level.\\n\\nMany experienced traders will pay attention to past support or resistance levels and place trades in anticipation of a future similar reaction at these levels.\\n\\nWhy It Works (Or Doesn't)\\n\\nTechnical analysis is not an exact science, and sometimes the price will dip below support levels or reverse before it gets to the prior support level. The same is true for resistance: The price may reverse before it gets to the prior resistance level or break above it.\\n\\nIn any case, flexibility is required in interpreting these chart patterns. This is why support and resistance levels are sometimes zones rather than precise numbers.\\n\\nThere is nothing magical about these price levels. It is simply that many market participants are acting off the same information and placing trades at similar levels.\\n\\nMost experienced traders can share stories about how the price of an asset tends to halt when it gets to a certain level.\\n\\nFor example, assume that Jim was holding a position in a stock from March to November and that he was expecting the value of the shares to increase.\\n\\nLet’s imagine that Jim notices that the price fails to get above $39 several times over several months. Traders would call the price level near $39 a level of resistance.\\n\\nAs you can see from the chart below, resistance levels are also regarded as a ceiling because these price levels represent areas where a rally runs out of gas.\\n\\nImage by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020\\n\\nSupport levels are the flip side of the coin. Support refers to the price level on a chart at which equilibrium is reached.\\n\\nDemand has increased to match supply. This causes the decline in the price of the asset to halt. The price has reached a floor.\\n\\nAs you can see from the chart below, the horizontal line below the price represents the price floor. You can see by the blue arrows underneath the vertical line that the price has touched this level four times in the past. This is the level where demand comes in, preventing further declines. This is support.\\n\\nImage by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020\\n\\nTrendlines\\n\\nThe examples above show that a constant level prevents an asset’s price from moving higher or lower. This static barrier is one of the most popular forms of support/resistance.\\n\\nBut the prices of financial assets generally trend upward or downward, so it is not uncommon to see these price barriers change over time. This is why the concepts of trending and trendlines are important when learning about support and resistance.\\n\\nWhen the market is trending to the upside, resistance levels are formed as the price action slows and starts to move back toward the trendline. When the price is moving against the prevailing trend, it is called a reaction.\\n\\nReactions can occur for a large variety of reasons, including profit-taking or near-term uncertainty for a particular issue or sector. The resulting price action undergoes a plateau effect, or a slight drop-off in stock price, creating a short-term top.\\n\\nMany traders will pay close attention to the price of a security as it falls toward the broader support of the trendline because, historically, this has been an area that has prevented the price of the asset from moving substantially lower.\\n\\nFor example, as you can see from the Newmont Corp. (NEM) chart below, a trendline can provide support for an asset for several years. In this case, notice how the trendline propped up the price of Newmont’s shares for an extended time.\\n\\nImage by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020\\n\\nOn the other hand, when the market is trending to the downside, traders will watch for a series of declining peaks and will attempt to connect these peaks together with a trendline. When the price approaches the trendline, most traders will watch for the asset to encounter selling pressure and may consider entering a short position because this is an area that has pushed the price downward in the past.\\n\\nTo be a valid trendline, the price needs to touch the trendlines at least three times. Sometimes with stronger trendlines, the price will touch the trendline several times over longer time periods.\\n\\nUptrends and Downtrends\\n\\nIn an uptrend, the trendline is drawn below the price, while in a downtrend, the trendline is drawn above the price.\\n\\nThe support/resistance of an identified level, whether discovered with a trendline or through any other method, is deemed to be stronger the more times that the price has historically been unable to move beyond it.\\n\\nMany technical traders will use their identified support and resistance levels to choose strategic entry/exit points because these areas often represent the prices that are the most influential to an asset’s direction.\\n\\nMost traders are confident at these levels in the underlying value of the asset, so the volume generally increases more than usual, making it much more difficult for traders to continue driving the price higher or lower.\\n\\nUnlike the rational economic actors portrayed by financial models, real human traders and investors are emotional, make cognitive errors, and fall back on heuristics or shortcuts. If people were rational, then support and resistance levels wouldn’t work in practice!\\n\\nRound Numbers\\n\\nAnother common characteristic of support/resistance is that an asset’s price may have a difficult time moving beyond a round number, such as $50 or $100 per share. Because people have an easier time visualizing round numbers, many inexperienced traders tend to buy or sell assets when the price is at a round number.\\n\\nAlso, many target prices or stop orders set by either retail investors or large investment banks are placed at round price levels. Because so many orders are placed at the same level, these round numbers tend to act as strong price barriers.\\n\\nFor example, if all the clients of an investment bank put in sell orders at a suggested target of $55, it would take a large number of purchases to absorb these sales and create a new level of resistance.\\n\\nMoving Averages\\n\\nMost technical traders incorporate the power of various technical indicators, such as moving averages, to aid in predicting future short-term momentum. In fact, people who find it difficult to draw trendlines often will substitute them for moving averages.\\n\\nAs you can see from the chart below, a moving average is a constantly changing line that smooths out past price data, allowing for easier identification of support and resistance. Notice how the price of the asset in the chart below finds support at the moving average when the trend is up, and how it acts as resistance when the trend is down.\\n\\nImage by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020\\n\\nTraders can use moving averages in a variety of ways, such as to anticipate moves to the upside when price lines cross above a key moving average, or to exit trades when the price drops below a moving average.\\n\\nRegardless of how the moving average is used, it often creates automatic support and resistance levels. Most traders will experiment with different time periods in their moving averages so that they can find the one that works best for their trading time frame.\\n\\nOther Indicators\\n\\nIn technical analysis, many indicators have been developed and are still being developed to identify barriers to future price action. Some indicators are plotted on price charts, while others are plotted above or below the price.\\n\\nIt takes practice and experience to learn to use them effectively. But regardless of how complex an indicator appears, its use and interpretation are often no different from that of indicators created through simpler methods like calculating moving averages and drawing trendlines.\\n\\n1.62 The “golden ratio” used in the Fibonacci sequence, is also observed repeatedly in nature and social structure.\\n\\nFor example, the Fibonacci retracement is a favorite tool among many short-term traders because it clearly identifies levels of potential support/resistance. Notice in the chart below how the identified levels (dotted lines) are barriers to the short-term direction of the price.\\n\\nImage by Sabrina Jiang © Investopedia 2020\\n\\nTrading Ranges\\n\\nSupport and resistance levels can often be relatively close. The stock price bounces between the two levels, sometimes for a long time, without ever showing a long-term direction.\\n\\nSome traders focus on exploiting these sideways trends. One strategy is to place short trades as the price touches the upper trendline and long trades as the price reverses to touch the lower trendline.\\n\\nThis strategy is extremely risky. It is much better to wait to see in which direction the price will break out of the range and then place your trades in that direction.\\n\\nSupport and Resistance Reversals\\n\\nA previous support level will sometimes become a resistance level when the price attempts to move back up. A resistance level can become a support level as the price temporarily falls back.\\n\\nPrice charts allow traders and investors to visually identify areas of support and resistance, and they give clues regarding the significance of these price levels. More specifically, they look at:\\n\\nNumber of Touches\\n\\nThe more times that the price tests a support or resistance area, the more significant the level becomes. When prices keep bouncing off a support or resistance level, more buyers and sellers notice and will base trading decisions on these levels.\\n\\nPreceding Price Move\\n\\nSupport and resistance zones are likely to be more significant when they are preceded by steep advances or declines.\\n\\nFor example, a fast, steep advance or uptrend will be met with more competition and enthusiasm and may be halted by a more significant resistance level than a slow, steady advance. A slow advance may not attract as much attention. This is a good example of how market psychology drives technical indicators.\\n\\nVolume at Certain Price Levels\\n\\nThe more buying and selling that has occurred at a particular price level, the stronger the support or resistance level is likely to be. This is because traders and investors remember these price levels and are apt to use them again.\\n\\nWhen strong activity occurs on high volume and the price drops, a lot of selling will likely occur when the price returns to that level, since people are far more comfortable closing out a trade at the breakeven point than at a loss.\\n\\nTime\\n\\nSupport and resistance zones seen in longer time frame charts such as weekly or monthly charts are often more significant than those seen in shorter time frame charts such as the one-minute or five-minute chart.\\n\\nSome investors dismiss support and resistance levels entirely because they say that the levels are based on past price moves, offering no real information about what will happen in the future. They're correct: All technical analysis is based on using past price action to anticipate future price moves.\\n\\nHow Can Identifying Support and Resistance Levels Help Traders? Identifying support and resistance levels adds discipline to a trading strategy. It establishes reasonable prices at which to buy and reasonable prices at which to sell. Otherwise, the trader may jump into a stock because it looks cheap or hold onto it in hopes it goes higher. That, of course, is the argument of a trader who uses technical analysis. Other traders rely on fundamental analysis, which identifies stocks that represent good value based on the company's financials, its competitors, and the prevailing economic trends.\\n\\nHow Can Market Psychology Influence Support and Resistance Levels? Market psychology and behavioral finance can influence where support and resistance levels occur. Anchoring, for instance, is the human tendency to assign meaning or significance to arbitrary numbers. A previously established level of support or resistance may therefore become an anchor at which points future resistance or support will be observed even if these points do not reflect any fundamentals. Likewise, round numbers such as $1,000 or $25,000 may serve as support or resistance levels merely because they are symbolically meaningful as psychological anchors. As these levels are breached, traders may adjust their anchors accordingly.\\n\\nWhat Happens if a Price Breaks Through its Support or Reistance? A breakout from a support or reversal can indicate a trend reversal. If support is broken, that will likely become the new level of resistance. Alternatively, if resistance is broken to the upside, it can form the basis for support in the short term.\\n\\nThe Bottom Line\\n\\nSupport and resistance levels are key concepts that form the basis of a wide variety of technical analysis tools. The basics of support and resistance consist of a support level, which can be thought of as the floor under price, and a resistance level, which can be thought of as the ceiling above price. Prices fall and test the support level, which will either hold, and the price will reverse to the upside, or be violated, and the price will drop through the support and likely continue lower to the next support level.\",\n", " 'She dabbled in the Office Siren look earlier this year, and now Bella Hadid just unveiled her “Sexy Librarian Bangs.” But instead of pairing her new fringe with something bookish down below, she’s opted for something classically Bella: some keenly selected vintage.\\n\\nBella attended the launch party of Chopard’s new “Ice Cube” collection in Dubai earlier this week. The supermodel looked like fashion royalty in an ornate couture gown from Elie Saab’s spring 2004 runway show. Bella’s vintage find was lit up with silver sequins and strips of whimsical chiffon cascading down her shoulders. The model accented her dress’s plunging neckline and steep leg slit with Chopard jewels, naturally.\\n\\n@chopard\\n\\nVictor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images\\n\\nOf course, Bella and her stylist Molly Dickson didn’t just settle on one pre-loved outfit to wear during the model’s stay in Dubai. For a second Chopard appearance, Bella slipped into a sleek and chic Thierry Mugler look that dated back to the 1980s. The model buttoned her shirt dress up to the top and even nodded to her recent embrace of Western style by cinching her waist with a thick statement belt.\\n\\n@chopard\\n\\nIt appears as though Hadid chopped some fringe into her hair after making a quick trip to New York City this past weekend. In the Big Apple, Hadid was spotted rocking vintage Chloé pants, a Valentino tote bag, and tousled model off-duty hair—sans bangs, that is.\\n\\nChops like Bella’s wispy fringe, which she achieved with some help from the hair stylist Syd Hayes, are all this rage fall. Look no further than Sabrina Carpenter’s bottle blonde bangs, Daisy Edgar-Jones’s messy fringe, or even Jennifer Lopez’s new ’70s hair. They’re partly derivative of the ’70s and ’80s when stars like Jane Birkin and Cher were all rocking messy, face-framing layers. Perhaps, that’s why Bella decided to unveil her nostalgia-inspired cut with some nostalgia-inspired fashion.',\n", " 'In focus this week is Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP / BIPC), one of the largest owners and operators of critical global infrastructure networks. BIP assets facilitate the movement and storage of energy, water, freight, passengers, and data. It’s part of the Brookfield family of companies.\\n\\nThe company’s stated objectives are to: 1) generate a long-term return of 12 -15% on equity, and 2) provide sustainable distributions for unitholders while targeting annual distribution growth of 5-9%. Brookfield Corporation (BN) owns 27% of Brookfield Infrastructure.\\n\\nInvest with conviction. No more doubts or paralysis. Register for our upcoming May 30th webinar, or watch the replay!\\n\\nBrookfield infrastructure (BIP / BIPC) business\\n\\nBIP has built an impressive infrastructure portfolio through four business segments: Utilities contribute about 26% of its funds from operations (FFO), Transport 41%, Midstream 23%, and Data Infrastructure 9%.\\n\\nUtilities\\n\\n1M electricity and gas connections.\\n\\n4,200 km of natural gas pipelines.\\n\\n2,900km of electricity transmission lines.\\n\\n7M residential energy customers.\\n\\nTransport\\n\\n37,300 km of rail operations.\\n\\n3,300 km of toll roads.\\n\\n7M twenty-foot equivalent unit intermodal containers.\\n\\n10 terminals and 2 export facilities.\\n\\nMidstream\\n\\n15,000 km of transmission pipeline.\\n\\n570 billion cubic feet (bcf) of natural gas storage.\\n\\n10,600km of natural gas gathering pipelines.\\n\\n17 natural gas liquids processing plants.\\n\\nData Infrastructure\\n\\n228,000 multipurpose towers and active rooftop sites.\\n\\n54,000km of fiber optic cable. 2 semiconductor manufacturing foundries.\\n\\n1,000,000 fiber-to-the-premise connections.\\n\\n135 data centers.\\n\\nThe company is well diversified geographically with operations in the Americas (69% of assets), Asia Pacific (14%), and Europe (17%).\\n\\nBIP provided extra information on its debt structure in its Q4 2023 presentation in February 2024. BIP has a credit rating of S&P 500 BBB+ with an average debt term maturity of 7 years. The company has $2.8B in liquidity and only 5% of Brookfield Infrastructure’s debt is up for renewal over the next 12 months.\\n\\nBIP is currently actively investing in its data infrastructure (35% of its CAPEX) and transport business (46%).\\n\\nLearn how to create a recession-proof portfolio. Download our free workbook now!\\n\\nBIP investing narrative\\n\\nA disadvantage most utilities have is a lack of diversification. Many of them excel at a specific type of service (electric transmission, natural gas, etc.) and show a limited geographic footprint. BIP breaks both patterns; it operates in multiple business segments and manages assets across the world. We also like its ability to be proactive with massive investments in data infrastructure.\\n\\nBrookfield has ample liquidity and no significant debt maturities in the next 5 years; it is also backed by Brookfield Corporation (BN). The company offers a stable business model based on predictable cash flows with inflation-indexed contracts. This is how BIP can report stable growth, even in challenging times.\\n\\nIn 2023, BIP announced the acquisition of Triton International for $13.3B. Triton is the world’s largest owner and lessor of intermodal containers and a critical provider of transportation logistics infrastructure supporting global supply chains.\\n\\nBrookfield infrastructure (BIP / BIPC) dividend triangle\\n\\nBelow is a graph showing BIP’s stock price over the last five years and the evolution of its revenue, Funds from Operations (FFO) per share, and dividend payments.\\n\\nWe show the FFO per share rather than earnings per share (EPS) because BIP has massive capital expenditures (CAPEX) and large assets. This means that its financial statements are always affected by large non-cash charges such as amortization and fair value modifications (up or down). Non-cash charges affect earnings per share, but not the company’s cash flow. Funds from operations (FFO) calculations add these non-charges back, giving a more accurate picture of the company’s cash situation. That’s the case with many other companies, including Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP).\\n\\nSeeing BIP with negative EPS while it’s raising its dividend is confusing, to say the least; why would a company increase its dividends when it is losing money? Because BIP generates constant cash flow from its assets; this is visible in the funds from operations, but not in EPS which has all non-cash charges subtracted.\\n\\nThe cash flow from the assets is well protected against inflation. In Q1’24, BIP confirmed 11% FFO growth, of which 7% was organic growth and an 8.3% increase in its FFO per share. Growth was driven by the Transport segment, with contributions from the Triton acquisition, inflationary tariff increases, and higher volumes.\\n\\nSecure your retirement. Download our Recession-Proof Portfolio Workbook.\\n\\nPotential risks\\n\\nBIP continues to show interest in new projects that require billions. It is taking on a lot of debt to finance them. The company now has a total long-term debt of $43B USD, up from $10B in 2018. Total long-term debt remained stable in 2022 but increased again since mid-2023. This could become a problem with current high interest rates not likely to go down a lot any time soon.\\n\\nAnother source of concern is its diversification. Diversification is often positive, but BIP is managing a wide range of varied business types; there are few similarities between data centers and railroads. Could BIP lose itself in this maze of disparate ventures?\\n\\nBIP’s financial structure makes it difficult to analyze. There are blind spots as we can’t review each business operated by BIP. We must trust management in thief FFO calculation since it’s not a GAAP measure.\\n\\nPartner, trusts, and corporate shares?\\n\\nIn 2020, Brookfield created new types of shares in BIP. Historically, it was trading under a Trust in Canada or a Limited Partnership (LP) in the U.S. We’ll skip the tax implications here because a) I hate taxes and b) I leave this field of knowledge to accountants and tax experts.\\n\\nIn short, Trust and LP distributions are taxed differently in a taxable account than corporate shares. Therefore, they are usually less popular among retail investors, ETFs, and mutual funds due to their tax complexity. To ensure more flexibility and liquidity, and appeal to U.S. investors, Brookfield created corporate This created much confusion at first because Brookfield Infrastructure now has 3-4 different tickers per company:\\n\\nShare Type Ticker Symbol Limited Partnership (LP) BIP Corp. (U.S.) BIPC Trust (CDN) BIP.UN.TO Corp. (CDN) BIPC.TO\\n\\nAll entities are economically equivalent. However, there was an important difference between the performance of the new “C” shares vs the old tickers following their inception. The difference is explained by the unexpected level of interest in the corporate shares, particularly from institutional investors who usually don’t buy limited partners or trust units for tax purposes. As demand increased for the corporate shares, C shares appreciated faster than the trust and LP units. Now that the initial hype is gone, both tickers (which pay the same dividend) seem to move similarly. However, chances are if there is another influx of funds to buy BIPC shares, the corporate class may get more of that influx.\\n\\nIn closing\\n\\nBIP is a mixed bag of various utility businesses; it’s almost a utility ETF! It can count on projects across the world, with rock-solid contracts that perpetuate their growth.\\n\\nBrookfield Infrastructure has a strong dividend history over the past decade. I appreciate their FFO payout ratio target of 60-70%, leaving lots of room for business growth on top of dividend growth. Combine this with management’s confidence in being able to maintain a 5%-9% distribution increase policy for years, this is clearly a “go-to” stock if an investor is looking for income.',\n", " 'It’s a special occasion when it comes to celebrating your dad’s birthday. Whether you want to show your appreciation or just give him something special, the perfect gift is sure to make his day even more memorable. With so many choices out there, finding the best birthday gifts for Dad can be overwhelming. Luckily, we’ve got you covered with our guide on what to look for in the perfect present and some unique ideas that are sure to please any father figure in your life. So, grab a cup of coffee and get ready to find the ultimate gift for your dad’s birthday!\\n\\nWhat to Look for in a Gift for Dad\\n\\nWhen you’re shopping for a birthday gift for your dad, it’s important to think about what he likes, his interests, and his hobbies. Does he love spending time in the kitchen? Does he have a favorite sport or pastime? Is he an avid reader? Knowing these things can help you narrow down your choices and find the perfect gift. Additionally, don’t forget to consider quality and durability when shopping for Dad; look for items that are made of good materials and are well-crafted so they will last. Lastly, if you have a tight budget, there are plenty of thoughtful gifts that don’t break the bank. A heartfelt card or photo collage filled with special memories is sure to bring joy to any father figure in your life.\\n\\nA gift that comes from the heart is the best kind of present, and with a little bit of thought and planning, you can find the perfect birthday gift for your dad. You’ll be sure to make his day extra special! Ready to start shopping? Read on to learn about different types of gifts for Dad.\\n\\nDifferent Types of Gifts for Dad\\n\\nWhen it comes to buying a birthday gift for Dad, there are many options. Whether you’re looking for something funny, sentimental, practical, or luxurious, there is sure to be a perfect option out there. Gift cards are always a great way to go as they give Dad the flexibility to buy whatever he wants. Amazon credit and Shop Men’s Health gift cards make excellent gifts. For the tech-savvy dad, an Amazon Echo device or Kindle Paperwhite will surely bring a smile to his face. You could also opt for something that speaks of your relationship with him; personalized items such as mugs and photo frames make great gifts for a daughter or son. If your dad loves spicy food or cooking in general, consider giving him a box set of spices from Touch of Spice or top-of-the-line cookware from Williams Sonoma. Last but not least, if you’re feeling generous this year, why not splurge on something special such as 75th birthday gifts? There are so many possibilities; just remember to pick something that fits your dad’s personality and interests!\\n\\nUnique Birthday Gifts for Dad\\n\\nFinding the perfect birthday gift for Dad can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Whether you’re looking for something funny, thoughtful, or sentimental, there are plenty of unique gift ideas that you can purchase for your dad this year. If your dad loves gadgets and tech, consider giving him an Amazon Echo device or Kindle Paperwhite. Other thoughtful gifts include personalized mugs or photo frames, a box set of spices from Touch of Spice, top-of-the-line cookware from Williams Sonoma, or a subscription to his favorite magazine. For the more luxurious dad in your life, consider gifting him with a Digits gift basket filled with all his favorite goodies. No matter what kind of gift you decide on for your dad this year, make sure it comes from the heart and will bring a smile to his face!\\n\\nNo matter what kind of birthday gift you choose for Dad this year, make sure it’s something that comes from the heart and will be something he’ll cherish for years to come. And if you want to show him how much you care, why not give him a personalized gift? Stay tuned to find out more about the best-personalized gifts for Dad!\\n\\nPersonalized Gifts\\n\\nPersonalized gifts are a great way to show your dad he is special and that you care about him. The gift of a personalized item can make any occasion feel unique and memorable. You can give your dad a personalized mug, wall clock, or photo frame. For the more practical dad, consider gifting him an engraved pocket knife or a wallet with his initials embossed on it. If your dad loves technology, you could get him an Amazon Echo device with his name engraved on it or give him an Amazon credit in his name. If you are looking for something really special, why not design a custom-made picture of your father and add some meaningful words to make it even more special? Whatever you decide to get your dad this year, make sure that it is something he will keep for years to come and remind him of how much you care about him!\\n\\nOutdoor Activity Gifts\\n\\nOutdoor activity gifts are the perfect way to show your dad that you care and appreciate him. Whether your dad is an avid outdoorsman or just likes to spend time outdoors, there’s something for everyone. From camping gear such as tents and sleeping bags to fishing and hunting supplies, to hiking boots and apparel, there are endless possibilities when it comes to finding the perfect gift for dad. For the more adventurous dads, consider gifting a new set of binoculars or a drone with camera capabilities. If your dad loves taking pictures then why not give him a waterproof camera? And if he loves spending time on his boat then consider getting him a new kayak or paddleboard. Whatever you choose for your dad this year, make sure it is something that will bring him joy and encourage him to get out into nature!\\n\\nGadget Gifts\\n\\nGadget gifts are the perfect way to show Dad how much you care and appreciate his love of technology. Whether your dad is a tech enthusiast or just likes playing with the latest device, there’s something for everyone. From the latest smartphones and tablets to virtual reality headsets, gaming consoles, and smart home devices, there’s an endless selection of gadget gifts available for all budgets. Consider gifting your dad a new laptop or tablet that he can use for work or play games on. For dads who love music, why not give them a wireless speaker system or a surround sound system? If your dad loves taking pictures then consider getting him a high-resolution digital camera or an action camcorder so he can capture all his adventures in style. Whatever you choose for your dad this year, make sure it is something that will bring him joy and excitement every time he uses it!\\n\\nBoot Jack\\n\\nA Boot Jack is a great gift for any dad who loves to work in the yard, garden, or garage. This handy tool makes it easy to remove muddy or dirty boots without having to bend down and struggle to pull them off. The boot jack has two long handles that can be placed under the heel of the shoe and then pulled up to lift it off. It’s a simple but effective solution for making sure your dad’s shoes come off easily and quickly. Not only is this an excellent gift idea, but it can also help save your dad time and energy during those tough outdoor jobs. The best boot jack will last him many years of use and will provide a convenient way to keep his boots clean and tidy.\\n\\nTraditional Birthday Gifts for Dad\\n\\nWhen it comes to traditional birthday gifts for dad, you can never go wrong with a classic. Whether it’s an engraved watch or a personalized flask, dads love receiving and displaying items that remind them of their special day. If you’re looking for something unique, consider giving him a monogrammed tie clip or cuff link. These pieces of jewelry add an extra touch of class to any outfit and will be sure to put a smile on his face every time he wears them. For the health-conscious dad, a fitness tracker or smartwatch could be just the right gift – not only will it help keep track of his vitals, but they also come with handy features such as weather alerts and reminders to stay active. Finally, if your dad is the type who loves gadgets and gizmos, why not give him something fun like a drone or virtual reality headset? These high-tech toys are sure to keep him occupied and entertained for hours on end!\\n\\nNo matter what type of gift you decide to get for your dad this year, it’s sure to show him just how much you care and appreciates him. From classic watches to cutting-edge technology, there are plenty of great gifts that will make his birthday one to remember! And with so many stylish clothing and accessories options available too, you’re sure to find something he’ll love.\\n\\nClothing or Accessories\\n\\nClothing and accessories make great gifts for any special occasion, especially birthdays. Whether it’s a dress for your mom or a new tie for your dad, giving them something stylish to wear will show them just how much you care. For the fashion-forward dad, consider investing in a quality suit or blazer from one of the top menswear brands. If he’s more into casual wear, consider getting him a statement t-shirt or some stylish sneakers. Accessories are also a great way to top off any look – watches, cufflinks, and ties are always appreciated by the well-dressed man. And don’t forget about hats – they’re not just for winter! A classic fedora or trilby can be worn all year round to add an extra touch of style to any outfit. So whatever his taste may be, there’s sure to be something that suits his style perfectly – making it the perfect birthday gift from you!\\n\\nGrooming and Personal Care Items\\n\\nGrooming and personal care items make thoughtful gifts for the special man in your life. From skincare kits to beard trimmers, there are plenty of options to choose from that will show him how much you care. For the dapper dad, consider gifting him a shaving set complete with a razor, shaving brush, and aftershave balm. Or if he’s more into facial hair, check out some high-quality beard grooming products such as oils, combs, and scissors. There’s also a range of colognes and fragrances available, so you can find something that suits his style perfectly. And don’t forget about personal grooming tools like electric shavers and toothbrushes – they’ll come in handy for all those special occasions! So no matter what type of grooming or personal care item you’re looking for, you’re sure to find something that will make an excellent birthday present for your dad.\\n\\nMusic and Movies\\n\\nMusic and movies are great ways to show your dad that you care. From classic films to modern soundtracks, there are plenty of options available for the film lover in your life. For those who appreciate the classics, consider gifting them a retro movie collection or a vinyl record player with some classic albums. For the contemporary music lover, check out streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music where they can access millions of songs at their fingertips. If Dad loves concerts, why not buy him tickets to his favorite artist’s next show? Or if he’s more of an audiophile, why not give him a pair of noise-canceling headphones or speakers so he can enjoy his music without any distractions? No matter what type of music and film fan your dad is, there’s something out there that will make an excellent birthday gift.\\n\\nBooks and Magazines\\n\\nBooks and magazines make great gifts for the avid reader in your life. Whether they’re into novels, biographies, or nonfiction, you can find something to suit their interests. Consider gifting them a hardcover edition of their favorite novel, or a collection of short stories from an up-and-coming author. For those who enjoy nonfiction works, why not give them a subscription to an industry magazine such as Forbes or Money? If your dad is more of a comic book fan, there are plenty of new releases from both Marvel and DC that will satisfy his tastes. You can also find some great gift card options for Amazon Kindle books so Dad can pick out what he wants to read. Books and magazines make thoughtful and thoughtful birthday gifts for any reader in your life.\\n\\nConclusion\\n\\nBirthday gifts for Dad can be difficult to buy, but the key is to remember that it doesn’t have to be expensive. Think of practical gifts that will make his life easier or something that he’ll truly appreciate and use. If your budget allows, you can also choose a luxury item like a watch or a bottle of premium whiskey. No matter what option you choose, make sure it’s thoughtful and shows your appreciation for everything Dad does for you. And don’t forget to include a heartfelt card with your gift – no gift is complete without one!',\n", " 'F rom consumer gadgets to cars, China has shown a knack for producing cutting-edge technology. Yet the semiconductors that power the digital economy have proved trickier to master. That has been the source of much anxiety among its political and business elites in recent years. America’s decision in 2022 to halt exports to the country of its whizziest chips and chipmaking tools brought into stark relief the chokehold of China’s geopolitical rivals over the industry. In December last year China’s imports of the lithography machines used to imprint circuits onto silicon wafers surged by 450%, year on year, as local chipmakers raced to buy advanced kit from ASML , the Dutch market leader, before export restrictions by the Netherlands came into effect in January. It has also been hoovering up semiconductor equipment from Japan (see next article).',\n", " 'Obsidian knew what it was in for as it was developing Fallout: New Vegas, but that didn\\'t stop it from sticking with its guns.\\n\\nDespite how long games take to make these days, Fallout: New Vegas was on the opposite end of the spectrum, taking only 18 months to develop, which was way too quick even then. The end result had plenty of bugs, which is something that Obsidian knew it would have to accept, but also reused assets from Fallout 3 - and in a recent interview with Edge (via GamesRadar), director Josh Sawyer knew that that had to be the case if it was going to ship at all, particularly considering this might be his last chance to helm a Fallout game.\\n\\nTo see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings\\n\\n\"I knew that people would say \\'Hey, this basically looks like Fallout 3.\\' And there were a lot of complaints about bugs,\" Sawyer said. \"It was very frustrating because we weren\\'t unaware, but you always have to prioritise things.\" That doesn\\'t mean any of this stopped Obsidian from doing exactly what it set out to, as a big thing the developer wanted to achieve is making the game highly replayable. \"All of our work had gone into the intricate and the freedom of the quests and the critical path, and the faction alliances.\\n\\n\"Those are things that, if you just do one playthrough, you are going to be like \\'yeah, whatever, who cares?\\' So it did take time for people [to] go \\'oh, wow, actually you can beeline straight to the strip.\\'\" Freedom was particularly important for Sawyer, as he noted that \"you don\\'t even have to do the critical path. You can kill anybody in the game and the game accounts for it. We really heavily focused on freedom to play the game the way you wanted, and I think that\\'s what stood out over time.\"\\n\\nSince then, Fallout: New Vegas has obviously gone on to become a beloved entry in the series, with plenty hoping that Obsidian would make a new Fallout after being acquired by Microsoft (though I think it\\'s probably a bit busy making Avowed and The Outer Worlds these days).',\n", " 'The Dodgers are poised to become the latest club to meet with superstar free agent Juan Soto, per a report from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand earlier this evening. The meeting between the sides is scheduled for tomorrow. The Dodgers will join the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Blue Jays in having met with Soto already, although Feinsand also reports that an undisclosed team in addition to that group has already met with Soto as well. The Giants, Phillies, and Rays are among the teams known to have interest in Soto that have not yet had a publicly reported meeting with the star outfielder.\\n\\nThat Soto and the Dodgers have a meeting set up is an interesting development given the somewhat mixed reports regarding the club’s plans regarding the superstar. Previous reports have indicated while L.A. intends to be somewhat involved in Soto’s free agency, those reports have also cautioned the club may not be as aggressive as other suitors. That relatively cautious approach to Soto on the Dodgers’ part could be at least partially due to questions regarding whether or not Soto, who hails from the Dominican Republic and Fort Lauderdale in Florida, prefers to play on the east coast. Notably, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports this evening that sources close to Soto have “downplayed” that rumored geographic presence, suggesting that Soto previously enjoyed living on the west coast while he played for the Padres.\\n\\nIt’s impossible to know where Soto’s geographic preferences lie, but Soto has emphasized in comments to reporters that winning is a priority for him, to the point of reportedly asking the Red Sox during his meeting with club officials about the organization’s commitment to winning. If winning is a priority for Soto, it’s hard to argue against the Dodgers. The reigning World Series champions have made the postseason in twelve consecutive seasons, and since 2017 have averaged more than 102 wins per year (excluding the 60-game 2020 season where they went 43-17 and won the World Series) while collecting two additional NL pennants in addition to their World Series championships. Last winter, the club added likely Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tyler Glasnow to an impressive core of talent that already included Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Los Angeles figures to remain a juggernaut in the NL for years to come, and the addition of Soto to their already vaunted lineup would only reinforce that.\\n\\nGiven his elite talent, any club would be able to find a place for Soto in their lineup. With that being said, it’s particularly easy to see how Soto would fit into the Dodgers’ plans. With Mookie Betts expected to move back into the infield for the 2025 season, the club could look to make multiple additions to an outfield mix that presently includes only utility man Tommy Edman and youngster Andy Pages as potential everyday options. Even if the club wanted to reunite with free agent slugger Teoscar Hernandez as has been previously rumored, it’s easy to imagine the pair manning the corner outfield spots for the Dodgers with Edman as the primary center fielder while Pages backs up the starting trio and fills in for Edman on days he moves to the infield.\\n\\nFinancially, as mind-boggling as it may be to imagine the Dodgers inking Soto to a contract worth more than half a billion dollars just one year after committing more than a billion to Ohtani and Yamamoto amid last winter’s spending spree, the deferred structure of Ohtani’s contract could make such an expenditure more reasonable. The club’s payroll for 2025 is currently projected at $276MM, according to RosterResource. That clocks in $50MM below the club’s 2024 payroll, opening a clear pathway to adding Soto even at a record-setting average annual value. That wouldn’t leave much room for much-needed rotation upgrades or further offensive additions such as a reunion with Hernandez, but ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez notes that the value of Ohtani’s first season in L.A. “blew away” the club’s financial projections. Given that reality, it’s certainly not impossible to imagine the club having even more payroll space at their disposal than returning to the level that left them with the second-highest payroll in baseball last year.\\n\\nRegardless of what club Soto ultimately ends up with, Feinsand goes on to report a belief around the league that a decision could be made in the near future. Specifically, Feinsand suggests that while Soto isn’t expected to sign prior to Thanksgiving, the “feeling around the league” is that the 26-year-old could land somewhere prior to the Winter Meetings with one executive suggesting to him that it would be a surprise if he hasn’t signed before the end of the Meetings on December 12. With the Winter Meetings just a month away and no team reported to have so much as made a formal offer to Soto yet, it’s possible that the winter’s top free agent could see his market begin to move quickly after the coming holiday.',\n", " \"Gmail is a fantastic email client, and I highly recommend it for podcasters. I'll show you how to use Gmail without giving a gmail.com address.\\n\\nWhy not myawesomepodcast@gmail.com?\\n\\nMany podcasters are shooting their professionalism and branding in the foot by giving an @gmail.com email address. This is like B&H telling all of their customers to buy from their Amazon.com store instead of directly from them.\\n\\nIf you already have a Gmail account, checking your podcast email account (or multiple accounts) can be annoying, time-consuming, and also introduce a delay in your receiving important feedback. You can get around this issue by forwarding the new Gmail account's messages to your old account, but that still has the branding problem.\\n\\nInstead, I highly recommend having a unique, understandable, and branded email address for your podcast, like feedback@myawesomepodcast.com. This is easy to setup once you follow some basic instructions.\\n\\n1. Own your own domain (optional hosting)\\n\\nNo matter where you host your website, you should have your own domain for your podcast. Make your unambiguous, easy to remember, and short. You should use this domain everywhere, so make sure its easy to say, spell, and type.\\n\\nIf you don't already have a domain, I can register domains for $15 per year.\\n\\n2. Create an email forwarder\\n\\nWith some domain registrars and all good web hosts (like BlueHost, HostGator, or Site5), you can create email forwarders that look like regular email addresses but only serve to forward any email to a different address. This would simply be called an email forwarded. There's no mailbox with this account, simply a pointer.\\n\\nChoose a name for the email account that makes sense and is easy to say, spell and type. I like “feedback,” because it's common, understandable, and unambiguous.\\n\\nI've heard other names that I don't think work well.\\n\\n“podcast”—This seems redundant to me to say “podcast@myawesomepodcast.com.”\\n\\n“suggestionbox”—This is much harder to say and spell, and sounds limited to only suggestions.\\n\\n“me” or “us”—It's short, sweet, and personal; but what if you switch from being solo to cohost, or vice versa? This also doesn't sound as professional.\\n\\nSet this email address to forward to your Gmail account.\\n\\nImmediately, you can now receive email to this account. But the email will come from your personal Gmail account, so continue with these steps to be able to send from your new account.\\n\\nPodcast network address or separate addresses?\\n\\nI used to give the email address “feedback@noodle.mx” in all of my podcasts. This certainly worked fine, but it was neither helping nor really hurting my branding. But it did mean that I had to read every email just to know which podcast it was for. This made it inconvenient for me, and probably caused too much thinking on my listeners part: “Why am I emailing noodle.mx when I want to email The Audacity to Podcast?”\\n\\nNow, I have separate email addresses for each podcast. This maintains consistent branding within those podcasts, and means I can setup a filter in Gmail to automatically sort my incoming email into folders for each podcast (see below).\\n\\n3. Add a “Send mail as” in Gmail\\n\\nLogin to your Gmail account (whichever one(s) you want to receive your Gmail). Go to your Accounts and Imports: click on the gear icon and choose “Settings,” then go to the “Accounts and Imports” tab. Look under “Send mail as” and click “Add another email address you own.”\\n\\nEnter your name as you want it to appear when you send email: I recommend either your own name, your podcast name, or combining both. Enter the email forwarder address you created. Read about “Treat as an alias” and decide which option is right for you. Probably deselect if multiple people have access to the email address.\\n\\nProbably select if you're the only one with access to the email address. Now comes a technical decision about sending through a server. For now, let's just use the first option. Send through Gmail if you don't mind your personal Gmail account being in the technical stuff of your email in the form of “sent on behalf of youremailadddress@gmail.com.” This option is no longer available, so you must use your own SMTP server.\\n\\nSend through _____ SMTP servers if you want this account to appear completely detached from your personal account. See #5 below for more details about this. Send the verification email, which you should receive to the same Gmail inbox. Either click its verification link or enter the confirmation code.\\n\\n4. Create filters to automatically label/sort email\\n\\nNow you're ready to send and receive email with your new podcast email address! Let's make a filter in Gmail to do some stuff automatically for you.\\n\\nGo to your Filters: click the gear icon and choose “Settings,” then go to the “Filters” tab. Click “Create a new filter.” Enter your new email address under the “To” field.\\n\\nClick “Create filter with this search »” and Gmail will show you the results of the search. Select what you want Gmail to do when you receive email to your podcast address. I recommend “Apply the label” and create a new label or use an existing one for your podcast.\\n\\nChoose to star it if you want it to stand out among other messages when it arrives.\\n\\nSelect your appropriate importance setting. (I make all podcast email unimportant—not because you're not important, just because I get so much they easily crowd out my business emails, which are what helps me buy food.) Optionally select to apply this filter to any emails you've already received. Click “Create Filter.”\\n\\nAfter this, all email coming into that email address will be label and appropriately sorted based on your selections.\\n\\n5. Hide your personal Gmail address with your own SMTP server\\n\\nIf you chose to send email through Gmail's servers, then your personal Gmail address will be exposed in the technical headers of every email you send. It will look like “sent on behalf of youremailadddress@gmail.com.” If you don't want this, then you'll need to follow some more technical steps to use your own outgoing email server (called an SMTP server).\\n\\nGmail now requires that any outgoing email with a different address use a third-party SMTP server. You can use your web hosting information, or get an SMTP server for literally pennies per month from Amazon AWS (I pay under 10¢ per month for this).\\n\\nGo back to your domain registrar or web hosting control panel and create a regular email address. It really doesn't matter what it's called, and you'll only have to create one. I recommend “smtp@myawesomepodcast.com.” You'll need several important things: Mail server username The password you set (please don't write your passwords in a document! Use LastPass instead!) SMTP/outgoing mail server (SSL if you want a secure connection, which I recommend) SMTP/outgoing mail port Any special notes like “server requires authentication” Incoming mail server (used for later) Go back to Gmail's Accounts and Imports settings. Click “edit info” for the email account you need to modify. Click Next until you get to “Send mail through your SMTP server?” Switch to send from your own SMTP servers. Enter the information from when you setup the email account in the order of these fields (especially choose the port before you select SSL or TLS).\\n\\nClick “Save Changes,” which will verify your information and close the window if there aren't problems.\\n\\nSome web hosting companies or domain registrars will not allow you to send through your SMTP server unless you're also regularly checking it for receiving email. Just assume this is the case and follow these steps.\\n\\nGo back to Gmail's Accounts and Imports settings. Under “Check mail from other accounts (using POP3),” click “Add a POP3 mail account you own.” Enter the information and select any other options you want. They don't really matter because you won't care about this email address.\\n\\nSave your settings.\\n\\nGmail will then check this email account, which verifies that you're using it to the hosting company or domain registrar.\\n\\nCheck out Podcasters' Roundtable!\\n\\nRay Ortega from The Podcasters Studio has started a fun new project including Dave Jackson from School of Podcasting, me, and frequent guests to talk about podcasting.\\n\\nCheck out Podcasters' Roundtable and send us controversial topic suggestions for things you want to see us debate!\\n\\nPlease retweet this!\\n\\nNeed personalized podcasting help?\\n\\nI no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.\\n\\nAsk your questions or share your feedback\\n\\nComment on the shownotes\\n\\nLeave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221\\n\\nEmail feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)\\n\\nConnect with me\\n\\nDisclosure\\n\\nThis post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.\",\n", " 'Staff Picks: A sweet immigrant comedy and an hour of noir Our recommendations include a Prime Video comedy and a Peter Lorre noir.\\n\\nIn this week’s Staff Picks, TV Writer Saloni Gajjar and Film Editor Jacob Oller offer a little light and dark, with recommendations for a new streaming comedy and a chance to participate in Noirvember.\\n\\nThe Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh (Prime Video)\\n\\nThere’s a chance the trailer for Prime Video’s The Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh will make you cringe like I did. Despite my excitement at seeing Lost’s Naveen Andrews and British stand-up star Sindhu Vee in a comedy, the footage is laden with clichés as the central Indian family arrives in the U.S. decked in traditional garb and with heavy accents.\\n\\nAt first glance, a comedy about Asian immigrants trying to fit in while standing out feels like a blend of Kim’s Convenience, Fresh Off The Boat, and Never Have I Ever. And it’s partly true. Series creator Vijal Patel relies on certain stereotypes to frame his lens. So, yes, Mahesh Pradeep (Andrews), his wife Sudha (Vee), and their three children are initially one-note, giving the impression that their banter, attire, and philosophy are designed to appease the white gaze. Thankfully, Patel has other tricks up his sleeve.\\n\\nThe Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh balances its flaws with a sufficiently sweet, engaging, and easy-to-digest narrative. It digs into the hardships of assimilation through a lighthearted, if not exaggerated tone. There’s always an underlying warmth, especially in Mahesh and Sudha’s relationship. Achieving this is possible only because Patel culls loosely from his real experiences, lending a specific honesty to the conventional characters. Don’t be fooled by appearances or possibly that trailer because this show has its heart in the right place.\\n\\nI’m especially glad that Andrews revels in this distinctly non-Sayid (or even non-The Dropout) role. He plays the sanguine Mahesh, who earns a SpaceX contract and hastily relocates his family. His no-nonsense wife is forced to give up a successful medical career and his children have to start over at a new school in a new country, but Mahesh is certain everyone will land on their feet. He doesn’t expect their new neighbor will leave five dead rabbits on their doorstep on day one. (A plot point straight out of Patel’s life). This kicks off an infrequent rivalry between the Pradeeps and the Mills that becomes the basis of the series.\\n\\nThe eight episodes are structured as a USCIS interrogation, with two officers (played by Pete Holmes and Romy Rosemont) questioning the Pradeeps about the Mills’ home burning down. This whodunit angle is fine, but it allows each family member to reflect on how they’ve evolved since the move. A formulaic approach notwithstanding (or the fact that it should’ve been set in the ‘90s), The Pradeeps Of Pittsburgh is breezy and nostalgic. Just be ready for some drama because, as Sudha says in the premiere, “In India when you tell a story, you always add a little masala.” Trust me, she’s right.\\n\\nThe Face Behind The Mask (Criterion/YouTube)\\n\\nFrom October forward, I like to theme my movie months, going from horror to film noir to Christmas (which helps to balance out the end-of-year awards season deluge). Right now, I’m in the heart of Noirvember, the monthly celebration of all things shadowy, droll, and hardboiled, kicked off by critic Marya E. Gates. While there are plenty of classics in the German Expressionist spotlight this month, I tend to follow a basic formula for finding my next watch: What’s the shortest movie on offer that I haven’t heard of? That’s where I found Robert Florey’s The Face Behind The Mask, a Peter Lorre crime tragedy clocking in at a glorious 68 minutes.\\n\\nBoth available on The Criterion Channel and on YouTube (if you don’t mind a bit of grain with your noir), The Face Behind The Mask comes from the filmmaker who made the Bela Lugosi Murders In The Rue Morgue that Robert Eggers just put in a 24 Hours Of Horror marathon, and it’s filled with the same kind of stylish strangeness. Lorre, set up in a rare good-hearted hero role, plays a fresh-off-the-boat Hungarian whose first day in New York ends in a literally face-melting hotel fire. This, of course, ruins the sweet little guy’s hopes and dreams (because Americans are shallow monsters) and sets him on a path of crime.\\n\\nIt’s Lorre, so his eventual turn towards brooding creepiness is never surprising, but the film’s power lies in how he gets there. Poverty and desperation, hunger and sickness—these are as nasty and inescapable as Lorre’s harrowing burn makeup. The atmosphere isn’t just mean, like so many noirs, but hungry and shoved to the fringe of society. Folks are sleeping in junkyard cars. People are named things like Dinky. It allows Lorre—often covered in smooth, uncanny makeup mimicking a latex mask of his own face—to tap into a vulnerability and sadness that comes as naturally as his often-caricatured sliminess. It probably helps that the script was specifically written for him, also a Hungarian immigrant.\\n\\nThis preoccupation with otherness gives the Columbia film a bit of that Universal monster flavor, where the tragic creature only ever wants love. There’s also a blind love interest (Evelyn Keyes) who echoes Bride Of Frankenstein’s tolerant, accepting hermit. Alas, just like those monsters, things end badly for Lorre’s gangster, his lover, and pretty much everyone else. The Face Behind The Mask ends with a few nasty bangs, as vicious a noir ending as any, and zipping along with uncommon efficiency. Not a bad way to spend an hour on a chilly autumn evening. [Jacob Oller]',\n", " 'I’ll make this brief: y’all are great.\\n\\nYesterday, in the third day of our charity drive to support Personal Counseling Services of Southern Indiana, the numbers understandably slowed for much of the day, after a blazing start on Monday and Tuesday.\\n\\nAnd then came the bombs.\\n\\nA couple BIG evening donations, capped late by a $666 donation with only the comment “Run up the score three times as much as Heisman on Cumberland”.\\n\\nI can only infer that our new champion — current leader for the Garlic Butter Cup and champion for this glorious hat — is a Georgia Tech fan (identify yourself, please, unless you wish to remain anonymous), based on this reference to Georgia Tech’s 222-0 win over Cumberland in 1916.\\n\\nSadly, we don’t have video of that game. But, our crack digital team has worked up a computer simulation of what the Jackets winning by 666 might look like:\\n\\nWe currently stand at a tidy $6,666, already at 11% of the total season’s fundraising campaign just due to the efforts of the EDSBS community, which is incredible. You all are amazing, we appreciate you, and I can’t thank you enough.\\n\\n(Oh, and now that we’ve broken the $5,000 threshold, I’ll have a Hollydog-roasts-me post soon.)\\n\\nWe’re almost to the end of the week, and the donation link’s still live, let’s keep it going if we can.\\n\\nDONATE',\n", " 'Those of you hoping that we\\'d get a Predator film with the alien as the main character will be very happy to hear that Badlands is doing just that.\\n\\nPredator is having a bit of a renaissance right now, with Dan Trachtenberg\\'s Prey being very well received when it came out in 2022. Shooting for the next Predator film kicked off back in August (actually, the next two films, in a neat surprise from Trachtenberg), and in a new interview with Empire, the director shared that the upcoming Badlands will do things a little differently by making the hunting expert alien the protagonist for a change. \"The creature is front and centre, leading the charge,\" Trachtenberg said in the interview.\\n\\nTo see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings\\n\\n\"He’s still badass, but there’s something there that touches you emotionally, too. Creating a character you connect with, but are also super-intimidated by, has been challenging. But exciting.\" Trachtenberg went on to explain that this idea came from wanting to “find another essential piece of cinema that does what Prey did spiritually - pushing the franchise’s boundaries, letting us root for a hero we rarely get to root for - but in a different way. And that transformed into this big idea of rooting for the Predator.\"\\n\\nIt won\\'t be all aliens, all the time though in the sequel - Elle Fanning, who you can also expect to see in Death Stranding 2 next year, is set to star in it, and apparently as more than one character too. \"She faced intense challenges on this movie - dramatically, physically, logistically,\" Trachtenberg said of Fanning, which sounds like lots of fun.\\n\\nThat secret Predators movie still has a lot of secrecy surrounding it, though Trachtenberg did previously share that it\\'s due out before Badlands. With Badlands currently set to be released November 7 next year, that means you can expect the secret one by November 6 at the latest, but I\\'m sure they\\'ll give it a bit more headroom than that.',\n", " 'Follow my dividend growth investing and my way to the financial independence',\n", " 'Charlestown, Saint Kitts and Nevis, November 18th, 2024, Chainwire\\n\\nWeFi, the next-generation financial platform dedicated to reimagining access to global financial tools, successfully holded the highly anticipated Token Generation Event for its native $WFI token on Friday, November 15th. Following the TGE, $WFI debuted on Bitmart on November 18th, opening up new avenues for participation and interaction within the WeFi ecosystem.\\n\\nThe $WFI token is the lifeblood of WeFi’s ecosystem, which seeks to empower users with a seamless blend of DeFi and traditional financial tools. Initially launched on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), $WFI will soon migrate to WeFi’s own WeChain blockchain, where it will power everything from liquidity pools and transaction fees to staking and advanced dApps. With a fixed supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, $WFI was engineered to foster a unique ecosystem that values community participation and sustainable growth over quick gains.\\n\\nThe TGE for $WFI embodies WeFi’s commitment to a Fair Launch model, ensuring that all participants have equal access to the token from the outset, without the advantage of pre-sale allocations or VIP access. This Fair Launch approach aligns with WeFi’s mission to create a Financial ecosystem rooted in transparency and inclusivity, making $WFI accessible to a broad community of users.\\n\\nA key feature that sets WeFi apart is its non-custodial account system, which seamlessly bridges Web3 and traditional banking. Users maintain full control of their digital assets while enjoying everyday banking convenience: their Web3 wallet connects directly to a non-custodial bank account linked to a credit card, enabling automatic spending from their crypto holdings without manual top-ups. This means users can spend their digital assets as easily as traditional currency while retaining complete custody of their funds.\\n\\nThis non-custodial design is expected to be a defining feature for WeFi, empowering users with secure, self-managed access to $WFI and positioning WeFi as a forward-thinking platform in the DeFi space.\\n\\nA central pillar of WeFi’s approach is the Initial Technology Offering, or ITO platform, which facilitates community-driven token distribution through ITO nodes. These nodes allow early adopters to mine $WFI while also granting access to exclusive WeFi services, early listings, and additional rewards – creating a multi-faceted engagement model. Since its inception, the ITO platform has seen remarkable activity, with over 35 million $WFI tokens already minted, reflecting robust community support and interest in WeFi’s vision. Through ITO nodes, WeFi doesn’t just focus on mining but builds a network of committed users actively participating in the platform’s growth and evolution.\\n\\nMaksym Sakharov, Co-Founder and Group CEO of WeFi shared his enthusiasm about the TGE and the ecosystem’s trajectory: “Our vision is rooted in the belief that access to the global economy is a fundamental right. We see a future where everyone, regardless of location or wealth, can claim their financial freedom through a secure, accessible, compliant, and fair financial system. We’re building a financial infrastructure that respects user autonomy and fosters inclusivity on a global scale. $WFI is the heartbeat of our platform; it facilitates everything from day-to-day transactions to secure staking, and it’s tailored for real use within our evolving ecosystem”.\\n\\nSakharov added: “The TGE is a milestone that brings us closer to our vision of a new banking system where users truly own and benefit from the system they support. We’re thrilled to see $WFI go live on a major exchange, for more users to engage with WeFi and take control of their financial future.”\\n\\nThe $WFI listing on Bitmart at 11 AM UTC on November 18 kickstarted the journey. The deposits were opened on November 16 at 11:00 AM UTC, and withdrawals will be available starting November 19 at 11:00 AM UTC. This initial launch will boost liquidity and create new entry points for users globally, amplifying the reach of WeFi’s ecosystem.\\n\\nAs WeFi advances, the platform’s development roadmap includes further integration with the WeChain blockchain and the continued rollout of Neobank services. This TGE marks a significant chapter in WeFi’s journey to create a community-driven ecosystem that combines financial freedom with robust utility, thus signaling a new era of possibilities for decentralized finance.\\n\\nAbout WeFi\\n\\nWeFi is a pioneering global blockchain ecosystem and intelligent data platform dedicated to transforming finance through the integration of AI and blockchain technology. Focused on building a more inclusive and accessible financial system, WeFi leverages AI-driven nodes to analyze transactional patterns, proactively prevent financial crime, and deliver transparency, interoperability, and real-time insights to the global finance and fintech sectors. Through its Initial Technology Offering (ITO), WeFi invites early adopters to participate in the ecosystem, earning rewards while contributing to its mission of democratizing finance and setting new regulatory standards worldwide.\\n\\nFor more information, users can visit WeFi’s ITO website at wechain.ai or follow us on X for updates on $WFI and the WeFi ecosystem.\\n\\nContact\\n\\nWeFi\\n\\n[email protected]',\n", " '“S hop like a billionaire.” With that enticing slogan Temu touted itself to Americans watching the Super Bowl on February 11th. Football fans had been treated to a similar advert from the e-commerce company at last year’s event. But this time the message was hammered home. In all, Temu’s ad played five times. That won’t have been cheap. A 30-second slot during this year’s Super Bowl cost around $7m. JPMorgan Chase, a bank, reckons the company will spend $3bn on marketing this year, up from $1.7bn in 2023.',\n", " 'The hidden world behind your new \"banking\" app\\n\\nYou might have seen ads for online banking services that seem to offer a lot of great stuff — accounts you can open in minutes and without a minimum balance or monthly fees. The ads seem to say: \"These aren\\'t your parents\\' boring old banks.\" But the truth is: Even though they might resemble banks, they aren\\'t.\\n\\nThese \"bank-like\" companies are a type of \"fintech\" or financial technology company. And this is a story about the potential risks of putting your money into these apps.\\n\\nBanks go through a whole regulatory gauntlet in order to exist. But, in the past several years, there has been a rise in fintechs that skirt regulations. And many of these pose a real threat to even the most savvy of depositors.\\n\\nSponsor Message\\n\\nWhen a little known tech company filed for bankruptcy a few months ago, thousands of people couldn\\'t access the millions of dollars they saved. On today\\'s show, we meet some of the people affected and learn what the fintech industry reveals about banking regulation.\\n\\nToday\\'s show was hosted by Erika Beras and Sally Helm. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Sofia Shchukina with help from James Sneed. It was edited by Jess Jiang and fact-checked by Kevin Volkl. It was engineered by Valentina Rodríguez Sánchez with help from James Willetts. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.\\n\\nHelp support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.\\n\\nAlways free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts.\\n\\nFind more Planet Money: Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter.\\n\\nMusic: Universal Production Music - \"Universal Feel,\" \"Home of the Brave,\" and \"Bass Gamer\"',\n", " 'Brian Houck: Hello, I’m Brian Houck, head of Grounds and Gardens at the J. Paul Getty Trust. Welcome to Art and Ideas. I’m your host for a three-episode series with artful gardeners in southern California.\\n\\nLucinda McDade: Whenever I take people in there, I say—and it’s not a very large room—I say, “You’re now in the presence of millions and millions and millions of living beings. Fortunately, most of them are very small, and most of them are very dormant.”\\n\\nHouk: In this episode, I speak with Lucinda McDade, executive director of the California Botanic Garden\\n\\nIn California, there are roughly 6,500 native plants. Many are found only in California. These plants are incredibly diverse, adapted to the wide range of climates and habitats, from the High Sierra to Death Valley, from the foggy forests in the north to chapparal and desert in the south. And conserving these diverse plants is increasingly important as we see the damaging impact of human encroachment and climate threats to the environment.\\n\\nThe California Botanic Garden in Claremont was ahead of its time in conserving native plants. Founded by the visionary Susanna Bixby Bryant in the 1920s, the garden now serves as a critical home to rare plants from across the state as well as a seed bank. Lucinda McDade oversees the garden. I recently got the chance to walk through it with her and nerd out about our favorite California native species.\\n\\nLucinda, it’s good to be here with you today.\\n\\nMcDade: It’s very good to have you hear. Always love to host people at our garden.\\n\\nHouck: Your title is Executive Director of the California Botanic Garden. How long have you been in that role?\\n\\nMcDade: Very close to ten years. And I started as Interim Executive Director and then became Executive Director. As I joke, the trustees asked me to lose the interim part of the title about six months after I became Interim Executive Director. But I have been at the garden since 2006. I came as Director of Research.\\n\\nHouck: We just walked through the front entrance of the California Botanic Garden. Can you tell us a little bit about what we walked into?\\n\\nMcDade: We call this the California Welcome Garden. And we redid it just a very short time ago. Interestingly enough, when we were summoning our courage to reopen, after being closed completely for—what—two months, owing to COVID, we realized that this part of our garden was the narrowest part, and it’s the part that everybody walks through.\\n\\nHouck: Sure.\\n\\nMcDade: We have an eighty-six-acre, big, funnel-shaped area, right? And then this little, skinny neck that we were putting everybody through. And so we widened it and we improved it and we replanted it. It had been planted to desert. There were a lotta spiky things right up by the trail, and we didn’t think it was all— the world’s most friendly welcoming.\\n\\nSo you’re in the California Welcome Garden. You are coming in. We love this because you have a beautiful view of the San Gabriel Mountains, snow-covered in the winter. Just spectacular. And then this leads to what we call our Southern California Gardens Areas, which are strung like jewels on a bead, out to a new area that we just finished, called the Forest Pavilion.\\n\\nHouck: Alright. Well, let’s keep going. Alright, I’m gonna stop right here, ’cause we just passed this mahonia.\\n\\nMcDade: Uh-huh. Berberis now; they’re all berberis.\\n\\nHouck: Oh, this shows my age. I don’t usually see a clump this large. This looks fantastic.\\n\\nMcDade: They do look good, don’t they? They are growing actively and they look very, very happy, yeah\\n\\nHouck: But when I think of mahonia, I think of the Pacific Northwest.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: I don’t think of Southern California.\\n\\nMcDade: Oh, we have lots of native berberis. Lots. In fact, one of the most spectacular is this one right here.\\n\\nHouck: We passed it without noticing it?\\n\\nMcDade: This is a berberis.\\n\\nHouck: Really?\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. Yeah, you’ll convince yourself that it is when you touch a leaf.\\n\\nHouck: It’s— Yes, it’s…\\n\\nMcDade: Pokey.\\n\\nHouck: …sufficiently pokey and prickly and—\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, yeah, pokey, yeah. This is berberis navinii, which is actually an endangered species. And there’s hardly any in the wild. We had a project; one of our staff crawled all over Southern California looking for individuals of this thing that were reported to exist. And found quite a few of them, but not really very many.\\n\\nHere in our garden, it plants itself. Or rather, birds plant it, ’cause they’re bird-dispersed. It’s interesting.\\n\\nHouck: I know this plant, but I’ve never seen one this large.\\n\\nMcDade: They’re huge. They are kind of obscenely large here. It’s a little frightening.\\n\\nThe California flora is absolutely amazing because there’s just a number of genera, like berberis, that absolutely go crazy here and make bazillions— dozens and dozens of species. Manzanitas, there’s—what—sixty or seventies species of manzanita in California. I don’t know how many berberis there are, but there’s quite a few.\\n\\nOn the other hand, that plant right behind you, right there with that interpretive sign in front of it, that’s red shanks…\\n\\nHouck: Yes.\\n\\nMcDade: …which is related to our chamise. The genus of that is adenostoma, and there’s only two.\\n\\nHouck: Right.\\n\\nMcDade: Two. In the whole state. Why didn’t that thing go crazy?\\n\\nHouck: We have a lot of this in the Santa Monica Mountains, by the Getty Center.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: And it’s amazing.\\n\\nMcDade: They’re a beautiful plant.\\n\\nHouck: The shaggy red bark is fantastic. And they have lasted through our fires.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. They’re fire-adapted, yeah.\\n\\nHouck: Just went right over it and then stumps sprouted right through it.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, they’re fire-adapted. There’s two approaches to surviving fires, when you’re a plant like that. One is to stump sprout. Basically, the above-ground parts get burned, but then it comes right back great, ’cause it’s got a mature root system that’s already in touch with all that it needs from the ground. Or you— by seeds. So some disperse their seeds in association with fires, and grow back from that.\\n\\nHouck: You said a technical word a little earlier, genera.\\n\\nMcDade: Uh-oh. Genera.\\n\\nHouck: Alright. So for those folks who may be listening and not clue into that, we have genus and species to make the scientific name. So genera is—?\\n\\nMcDade: Plural from genus.\\n\\nHouck: Okay.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. Don’t say genuses. That causes the ears of scientists to be very painful.\\n\\nHouck: I think I’ve done that, at one point.\\n\\nMcDade: Genera. It sounds so elegant. Oh, it’s a bunny. We have a lotta bunnies.\\n\\nHouck: I’m also gonna back up to say if I was gonna start learning about Southern California plants, most people might be aware of the USDA zones. I know we don’t always use that in Southern California. In my understanding, the most popular sort of go to are the Sunset zones. But what would you recommend to somebody if they were trying to learn about California zones?\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. So in California—and this is even up to the Bay Area—it’s not so much how far north you are, but how far inland you are. We’re only—what—fifty miles inland from the coast here, and still, our winters are much colder and our summers are much hotter than right by the coast. And that’s the same if you go up to San Francisco and go fifty miles inland; the winters are much colder and the summers are much hotter. But San Francisco has a very moderate climate, right?\\n\\nAnd also elevation, of course, because we have a wonderful state that’s full of mountains.\\n\\nYou know, the tool that we are recommending more and more to people for what they should plant in their area is called Calscape. It’s a digital tool that is made available to us by the California Native Plant Society. You can put in your zip code and it will sort of generate a list of suggested plants for you. And a little bit more information, and you can refine the list quite well. So.\\n\\nHouck: Thank you for that.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, you bet.\\n\\nHouck: Your name used to be the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: And you’ve changed your name to the California Botanic Garden. Can you tell me how that happened and why that happened?\\n\\nMcDade: Absolutely. So we were called Rancho Santa Ana, because we were founded on the ranch of Susanna Bixby Bryant’s family, which was in Orange County, but not in Santa Ana. It was near Yorba Linda.\\n\\nWe were there in Orange County, near Yorba Linda, until the late forties. In the— in the forties, a couple of terrible things happened. One is that there was a horrible Santa Ana-driven fire that burned a huge part of the garden and killed a lot of the plants. So that must’ve been devastating to deal with.\\n\\nHouck: Sure.\\n\\nMcDade: And then Susanna died unexpectedly in, I think, 1947. She wasn’t that old. She wasn’t understood to be in poor health. She had taken a trip up to Santa Barbara and she never went home. And so all of a sudden, the founding sort of central organizing principle for the garden was gone.\\n\\nShe had just, though, hired a person named Philip Munz, who had been at Pomona College, and who had gone back east to Cornell. She had hired him from Cornell, to come out and be her first Scientific Director. She had basically been functioning more or less as Scientific Director, as Director, for the twenty-five years to that date.\\n\\nHouck: Munz is a famous name…\\n\\nMcDade: Absolutely.\\n\\nHouck: …in the world of horticulture.\\n\\nMcDade: So Munz had been at Pomona. He knew about the Claremont area, he knew that there was a consortium of academic institutions developing here, and Munz was convinced that the garden would be better off here.\\n\\nI started with that part of the fire. To me, I can’t imagine anything more daunting than moving this garden anywhere, you know?\\n\\nHouck: I know.\\n\\nMcDade: So how did they get the courage to do it? And I actually think that fire, given that they’d been through already that devastating fire and had to deal with that much of a recovery, you know, maybe it made them feel like, “Well, we did that, so we can probably do this\\n\\nAnd so then for the next— Until 2020—so for seventy years—we were Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, in Claremont.\\n\\nYou all are Southern Californians. You are well aware that Santa Ana is a place. It’s a real place. We are not there. We actually never were there. Also, how many Rancho Santa Somethings are there in Southern California? We would get called Rancho Santa Anita, Rancho Santa Fe, Rancho San Antonio. You know, just on and on and on, all kinds’a things.\\n\\nThe other aspect of it is that it didn’t tell people anything about who we are and what we do.\\n\\nWe also had people who thought they were coming to a ranch, little kids saying, “Grandma, where’s the horses? Isn’t this a ranch?”\\n\\nHouck: It sounds like Susanna Bixby Bryant was ahead of her time.\\n\\nMcDade: Absolutely. The woman was prescient. How did somebody realize, in the late twenties, that the native plants of California were under duress? You know, how did she know that? She was amazing.\\n\\nHouck: We need a few more of her still in today’s world.\\n\\nMcDade: We need a few more of her, yeah. And in 1934, she directed us to conserve the rarest and replenish their stock. It’s really a remarkably prescient statement, I think.\\n\\nShe was a amazingly determined woman. She was part of founding our herbarium. A herbarium is a scientific collection of plant specimens for study and advancing knowledge. She was right out there with other people in the garden, collecting plants and bringing them and starting the herbarium. We can easily pull Susanna Bixby Bryant specimens for you to see. It means a lot to various of her family members, for example, to see those specimens that she was part of collecting.\\n\\nShe was also absolutely clear that she wanted a botanical library of research quality.\\n\\nHouck: I didn’t realize we owed her such a debt of gratitude.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, I have a—\\n\\nHouck: For all of the work she has done.\\n\\nMcDade: I have her picture right above my desk. She stares at me every day, so—She’s checking on me.\\n\\nHouck: So you had mentioned that Susanna Bixby Bryant was prescient in sort of her California landscape preservation focus. And I don’t know that I’m saying that exactly right, but could you maybe tell us what was going on in her mind?\\n\\nMcDade: I’m not sure I can tell you what was going on in Susanna’s mind, but I can tell you that when she had this idea to found a garden that would be devoted uniquely and only to California native plants, she consulted a huge number of people all across North America. She consulted people at Berkeley, she consulted people at Harvard. She consulted with Jepson, who’s, like, the father of the California flora and as I understand it, they unanimously told her that it couldn’t be done. That what she wanted to do couldn’t, shouldn’t be done; it wouldn’t work; she couldn’t pull together plants from across the state in one place.\\n\\nFurthermore, she had the very, I think at that time, very novel idea that part of the garden should be planted to be plant communities, the plants with which…\\n\\nHouck: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.\\n\\nMcDade: …the plants occur in nature. And you know, you’ve been to European gardens where they have the roses, and then they have the crassulaceae, and then they have the— They’re kind of organized taxonomically.\\n\\nHouck: Correct. Which is how the scientific naming sort of came through.\\n\\nMcDade: That’s right, yeah.\\n\\nHouck: So that was a natural extension of what was done before.\\n\\nMcDade: That’s how Linnaeus’s garden is organized. And so they sort of wanted her to do something like that. And she’s like, “No. Not doing that.” And so we have this great quote from her that— She must’ve written or said this sometime in the mid-twenties, just as she was really getting going. She said, “And now, having listened to all of this very sage advice, in the traditional female manner, I am going to do exactly what I intended to do from the beginning.”\\n\\nHouck: It’s brilliant.\\n\\nMcDade: It’s just— It’s absolutely terrific, yeah. So yeah, she went ahead and basically did it.\\n\\nHouck: Well, it’s such common sense.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: I mean, it’s so surprising now, that that seems novel or revolutionary, because that is such the right approach that we’re doing now.\\n\\nMcDade: Exactly.\\n\\nHouck: It makes such sense.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. Exactly, yeah.\\n\\nAs I said, we’re the largest garden in the world devoted to California native plants. We have the entire state as our purview. Susanna directed us to grow as many plants of the State of California as we could on our site in Southern California, and that’s obviously a work in progress, to understand which those are. We also are still exploring our site here. We actually have kind of a complicated and interesting site related to that, which is Indian Hill.\\n\\nThat’s actually Indian Hill Mesa. It’s a giant clay lens, stranded lens from the San Gabriels. So this used to be connected to the San Gabriels, and everything else washed away but that giant chunk of clay.\\n\\nHouck: I didn’t know that’s where the name came from.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. That’s where the name came from.\\n\\nHouck: So we have a north-south-running giant chunk of clay, which is a different soil type.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. It’s a different soil type, greater water-holding capacity than under here, which is cobble, basically.\\n\\nHouck: So that gives you the opportunity for microclimates that other people don’t have.\\n\\nMcDade: Exactly. You get it right away.\\n\\nHouck: That’s wonderful. I feel like a lightbulb just went off.\\n\\nMcDade: Right. That way’s east; that way’s west. So if you’re here on a hot summer afternoon, where do you wanna be? You wanna be right here, as the shade comes over and this area gets into the shade first. And we also get cold air drainage off of Indian Hill, which is a bizarre phenomenon, but it absolutely happens, even in the summer. If you walk down one of our ramps, you can feel your feet getting cooler as you come down in the late afternoon.\\n\\nHouck: So it just retains that much moisture…\\n\\nMcDade: Some— Yeah, exactly.\\n\\nHouck: …and it’s that evaporative cooling possibly happens.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, yeah. Of course in the winter, it’s freezing when you get to the bottom and you wish you’d brought your hat and gloves, but—\\n\\nYeah, so it’s a very interesting site to work with. We don’t know why, but actually, a not-so-well-kept secret is that our predecessors planted it wrong. We run to the north, basically south to north. And they decided, “Well, we’ll put Southern California in the south and Northern California in the north.” But the nicest part of our garden for people and plants is this southern part, east of Indian Hill Mesa. So they put the desert here, which doesn’t belong here.\\n\\nHouck: Got it.\\n\\nMcDade: And eventually, we’ll get that fixed, but it will take a while.\\n\\nHouck: I know I really appreciate you claiming the state. I mean, that is your mission. That is what you’re doing. So how do you do that? So how do you preserve the plants of the state, conserve them—I see the plants here in the garden, but you have other ways to do that.\\n\\nMcDade: Yes. We absolutely do. So first of all, I want to make sure you’re aware that you’re in a garden that also happens to be a living collection. So each one of these plants—except the weeds, as I say—was collected in the wild. We know where it came from and we have a very detailed database that tracks it. And if we walk up to some of them and I get in the right corner of a shrub, we can find the tag.\\n\\nThey’re all mapped. They are all part of a database, and we have really detailed knowledge of where— This one right here, this one that we lost in the windstorm, the seeds were collected at Torrey Pines, and it was planted in 1950.\\n\\nHouck: This was a torrey pine?\\n\\nMcDade: This was a torrey pine. Yeah. The other thing that’s interesting is that the torrey pines that we plant here grow tall and straight and magnificent, and look nothing like the torrey pines at Torrey Pines State Park, where of course, they’re in the howling wind and sea spray and all of that.\\n\\nSo we preserve them by growing them from wild-collected seeds or cuttings here in the garden. But we are the California seedbank. So there’s a little building right over there that has 80% of the seeds of California native plants that are in seedbanks anywhere. And they’re right over there.\\n\\nHouck: So the seeds are held to have a storage of them. And I’m assuming they’re refrigerated somehow.\\n\\nMcDade: They’re frozen.\\n\\nHouck: They’re frozen.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: Just from my laymen’s perspective, you could unfreeze them and start them wherever you needed to in the future, in a hospitable place.\\n\\nMcDade: Exactly. That’s right. Yeah.\\n\\nWhen you make a seedbank that’s for— a collection that’s for conservation purposes, you don’t just walk up to that tree and grab fifty seeds off of it. Instead, my joke or my metaphor to explain it to you is if we’re gonna preserve humans, you know, which of us do you want? And obviously, you don’t want just one of us; you want a sample of humans, ’cause you want our genetic diversity and our adaptability to different climates and et cetera to be represented in your little capsule of humans that you’re gonna save. Same with plants.\\n\\nWe have every reason to think that plants in nature are genetically diverse. The one that’s over there is different genetically from the one that’s over there. And so you wanna capture that genetic diversity.\\n\\nSo we have teams. Probably have a team out in the field right this minute, making a conservation seed collection of something probably over in the desert, because you know they have had such wonderful monsoonal rains this year that the deserts are working out great for us, for late summer seedbanking.\\n\\nAnd what they do is they survey an area. They say, “Okay, it looks like we’re in this area, and it’s maybe, you know, a hundred meters, 300 feet by, you know, whatever. And the plants are pretty dense. And so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna walk through it and stop every, you know, ten paces and collect seeds off of that plant.”\\n\\nAnd then you keep those seeds separate from the seeds of the next one that you collect. So it’s extremely painstaking. We call it collecting along maternal lines, ’cause the plant that made those seeds is the mother of those seeds. So that’s maternal line one; your next one that you stop at is maternal line two, et cetera.\\n\\nSo then you get back and you have to clean those seeds very carefully. Seeds, in general, have very strong dormancy mechanisms, and they will freeze wonderfully, and then emerge from the freezer and grow just fine. But if you put them in there with junk around them, like pulpy fruit or something, that stuff rots. And when it rots, it takes the seed with it. So it kills the seed. So you’ve gotta clean. And so our people spend hours meticulously pulling the stuff away from the seeds.\\n\\nHouck: I’m imagining an army of volunteers doing this.\\n\\nMcDade: We have quite a few volunteers. We also have interns. We have seasonal people, ’cause it doesn’t necessarily happen all year round.\\n\\nHouck: Sure.\\n\\nMcDade: The seedbank is wonderful. Whenever I take people in there, I say—and it’s not a very large room—I say, “You’re now in the presence of millions and millions and millions of living beings. Fortunately, most of them are very small, and most of them are very dormant.” So they’re just in their envelopes or their little plastic jars or whatever, in their— in their giant freezers. And they’re just giant domestic freezers, minus twenty.\\n\\nHouck: I’m gonna have to, like, reserve that image for moments of reflection, ’cause that’s a little overpowering.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. It is, yeah. But I can, you know, take out one seed container, and you look in there and see how many there are, you’ll know that I’m right. Millions and millions.\\n\\nHouck: Well, and they were all cleaned to put in there…\\n\\nMcDade: And all cleaned, yeah.\\n\\nHouck: …so that’s a— that’s a huge undertaking.\\n\\nMcDade: It’s a huge amount’a work. And by the way, after you get ’em all cleaned, one of the things that you need to do is to do a germination trial, ’cause you don’t want— if they’re dead, you wanna know sooner rather than later, right? So you do a germination trial, and then you know what proportion were viable when you put it storage.\\n\\nHouck: But also, some technical work is involved with that because if the freezing is what breaks the dormancy, then you have to break the dormancy ahead of time to do your viability trial.\\n\\nMcDade: That’s right, you have to do— Yeah, exactly, yeah. And you wouldn’t believe the implements that the seedbank has for breaking dormancy.\\n\\nHouck: Well, you’re burning things—\\n\\nMcDade: Toe clippers, liquid smoke. We got a message the other day from the nursery guy saying that “We’re going to be smoking some romneya coulteri, seeds, ’cause they need a smoke exposure. And so if you smell smoke, don’t worry.”\\n\\nHouck: Right, we have to do the same thing.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: Like, you know, “We’re doing a fire extinguisher test, so when you see black smoke, please don’t call 911 today.”\\n\\nMcDade: Don’t— Please don’t call 911. I let the field station over next to us that’s associated with the colleges know, as well, ’cause I don’t want them calling 911 either, so—\\n\\nHouck: Right. So for those people who don’t know romneya coulteri, that’s the matilija poppy, the—\\n\\nMcDade: The matilija poppy, which is our logo.\\n\\nHouck: Right, the fried-egg plant, the big, white—\\n\\nMcDade: Fried-egg plant, yeah. Largest flower in California.\\n\\nHouck: Which is fantastic. And we have it on our slopes at Getty Center, and I wouldn’t mind having more of it.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. It’s a great plant. Especially when it’s in flower. We can’t keep it in the nursery; everybody wants one.\\n\\nWell, you know, they spread terrifically…\\n\\nHouck: Yes, yes.\\n\\nMcDade: …and so you have to be— You know, it’s like getting a Great Dane puppy. You know, you have to be aware that it’s going to get to be a very large creature. And so your romneya, your matilija poppy— Which, by the way, is a Chumash word…\\n\\nHouck: Oh, matilija is?\\n\\nMcDade: …not a— not a Spanish word.\\n\\nHouck: Am I saying it correctly?\\n\\nMcDade: Matilija, yeah.\\n\\nHouck: Lucinda, what is this here on our right?\\n\\nMcDade: This is an example of one of our garden areas that we’ve renovated very recently. And this water feature— I joke we used to grow a lotta water here. This used to be kind of a fake waterfall that came down, and leaked like mad. And we don’t think that’s really appropriate, for us to model that kind of water feature in Southern California anymore. So this is completely recirculating. It sits on a big sort of pan, where there’s a reservoir of water.\\n\\nHouck: Sure.\\n\\nMcDade: And it has the sort of like a toilet float in it, so that if it evaporates and needs more water it comes on and runs a little more water into it. But it’s basically recirculating.\\n\\nEverybody loves these. We had red-tailed hawks that nested up at the top of the hill, in a— in an oak tree. And they controlled this thing while they were— while they were learning to fly and getting big and ornery. And they would just sit on top of that, drinking water and shrieking and scaring everybody else away, but—\\n\\nHouck: Well, okay. So we have birds sort of getting some water.\\n\\nMcDade: Oh, there we go.\\n\\nHouck: And we have sort of some bees going around. So as the water’s skimming over the rock, it’s just the right sort of film size of water that the bee can drink out of it.\\n\\nMcDade: Yep.\\n\\nHouck: I know this from experience at Getty, because we have a sculpture that, when it has water in it, has the same kind of water sheeting over it.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah.\\n\\nHouck: And the bees say, ‘Thank you very much.’\\n\\nMcDade: The bees love that.\\n\\nHouck: [inaudible] prefer to stay in that area.\\n\\nMcDade: Mm-hm. And then hummingbirds come. And what they do is they just— they hover, and then they stick their bill right into the sheeting water and get a drink, and back up and process that and stick their bill back in, then back up and process that.\\n\\nAll three species of squirrels that we have will come to it. Often at the end of the day, if you sit on a bench here towards the end of the day, you get to see that.\\n\\nHouck: So this is the watering hole.\\n\\nMcDade: This is a watering hole, yes. Yeah, yeah.\\n\\nAren’t these things spectacular? These washingtonias, our native fan palm here in California.\\n\\nHouck: So you’ve left the skirt all the way to the bottom, which you don’t often see.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, we let them do what they wanna do, the palms. And they do periodically lose a trunk of their skirt. Something breaks loose up in there and disrupts the balance, and then they [makes a noise].\\n\\nHouck: Sort of tumble down.\\n\\nMcDade: A bunch come down, yeah.\\n\\nHouck: There’s twenty-plus in this sort of grove of them, and they’re all sort of spaced apart. So this looks to me like sort of a classic oasis.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, that’s what it’s designed to do, yeah.\\n\\nAnd we have owls that nest in there. Many days, if you look in just the right place, you can see an owl nesting in there. Or you can find an owl pellet.\\n\\nHouck: You touched on something about how you let the washingtonia fan palms do what they’re supposed to do.\\n\\nThe philosophy of pruning in this garden, what would that be? I mean, I think there’s value in letting plants grow as they would naturally, so we see their natural form. But I’m imagining you’re not always allowed to do that, and you probably have very specific rules on when and how you prune.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, we do, really. We try not to let them block the paths. And then there’s seasonality to it. Basically, when you prune, you cut a plant, you’re telling the rest of the plant that stays there that now is the time to grow. Because you’re what’s called releasing the lower buds on the plant by getting rid of the upper buds. And you don’t wanna do that at some times of the year.\\n\\nThe last thing you wanna do to a plant that’s trying to go dormant because it’s July and it’s not gonna rain or do anything for three or four more months is tell it to grow, ’cause growing requires water and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So you just don’t wanna do that. So we time things pretty carefully, when you’re going to prune.\\n\\nBut also, you know, part of our mission, really, is to encourage people to take California native plants home. That’s why we run a grow-native nursery, which is seasonal, but is operating for about eight months of the year. And so we need to demonstrate, you know, that certain plants can be made to look, as opposed to unruly, ruly, if you will. They can be encouraged to look like they are in a well-kept garden, as opposed to a wild and crazy place.\\n\\nHouck: Yeah, I mean, there is a different sort of design parameter around using some of these native plant materials than sort of a traditional landscape, where the ornamental hedge is in place or you’re expecting a green lawn. And you kinda have to take that aesthetic and throw it out the window and understand how big these plants are gonna get.\\n\\nMcDade: Yes.\\n\\nHouck: And the sizing—\\n\\nMcDade: That’s— We always say, “Read the label.” It says it’s gonna be six feet tall and six feet wide. It is. Believe it. Don’t plant it right next to something else that’s going to get six feet tall and six feet wide. I’m very guilty of overplanting. It’s called overplanting, planting too densely. You want instant gratification, right? So you just put ’em too close together.\\n\\nHouck: I’m a gardener; I do that, too.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah. The thing that convinced me to try to stop doing that is that what you end up generating is a lot of green waste. Which means you generate a lot for the trucks to cart off. I’m not happy contributing to that. I’d rather believe it, that it’s gonna be six feet by six feet.\\n\\nHouck: But you do have to live with it for a while, where it may not be the size or the aesthetic you were expecting.\\n\\nMcDade: Yeah, you do. But you can plant some other things that will give you more instant gratification, like annuals. You know, we’re gonna be selling California poppies in little four-inch pots, I think, and you can plant a bunch of those. And by the time they’re going to seed and kind of going away, your bigger plant’s gonna be established nicely.\\n\\nHouck: Okay.\\n\\nMcDade: So that’s what we recommend is think of it as waves of time.\\n\\nHouck: Yeah. So if I want poppies in my yard, when do I put my seeds out?\\n\\nMcDade: Now would be fine, actually.\\n\\nHouck: Okay.\\n\\nMcDade: Before or as it’s raining. The only thing you don’t wanna do is put ’em out too late, after they’ve already missed the rain. Like, I wouldn’t do it any later than December.\\n\\nHouck: Oh, okay.\\n\\nMcDade: ’Cause you want ’em to have a good chance to get wet and stay wet. And also, when the photoperiod is very short and the sun is low angle, any rain that does fall really benefits the plants, versus drying up immediately.\\n\\nHouck: See, I thought I asked you what was a simple question, and I clearly got the scientist answer for that. Lucinda, to me, the unspoken part of your garden sort of is the educational and research aspect of it.\\n\\nMcDade: Exactly. It’s kind of what goes on behind the scenes in the big, white building on the hill up there, where we have the tenth largest herbarium in North America. Herbarium is a collection of specimens of plants preserved for study and documentation and teaching. And where we have our graduate program. We do offer both master’s degrees and PhD degrees. Our students are out there right this minute, advancing knowledge of California native plants.\\n\\nAnd we have a lovely research library that’s a gem, a total jewel. But we also do a lot of community education. We do a lot of public education, informal sorts of things, both onsite and offsite. And we also do really fun things, like we’re doing yoga in the garden.\\n\\nHouck: Lucinda, thank you so much for your time today. It’s been a true pleasure to learn more about the garden and to walk around with you today.\\n\\nMcDade: You are very welcome. The pleasure has been all mine.\\n\\nHouck: This episode was produced by Zoe Goldman, with audio production by Gideon Brower and mixing by Myke Dodge Weiskopf.\\n\\nOur theme music comes from the “The Dharma at Big Sur” composed by John Adams, for the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2003 and is licensed with permission from Hendon Music.\\n\\nFor new episodes of Art and Ideas, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms. For photos, transcripts, and other resources, visit getty.edu/podcasts and if you have a question, or an idea for an upcoming episode, write to us at podcasts@getty.edu.\\n\\nThanks for listening.',\n", " 'Listen to this article\\n\\nCAPTRON has announced its official UR+ partnership with Universal Robots A/S. The global sensor provider said its TCP Calibration Sensors, now available on the Universal Robots marketplace, deliver high precision and are integrated with UR collaborative robot arms.\\n\\n“Our UR+ certified products are designed to deliver maximum precision and reliability to support our customers’ automation goals,” stated Sean Walters, general manager at CAPTRON North America LP. “This partnership with Universal Robots reinforces our commitment to delivering high-performance solutions that are easy to integrate, boosting productivity across the board.”\\n\\nDesigned for applications like dispensing and welding, these sensors can maximize accuracy, reduce scrap, and enhance production quality, said CAPTRON. The company claimed that its URCap software enables manufacturers to achieve plug-and-play integration, speeding up deployment and improving efficiency.\\n\\nApply to speak.\\n\\nCAPTRON sensors offer ease of use, precision\\n\\nThe TCP Laser Calibration Sensors are available in 40 mm (1.5 in.) and 70 mm (0.2 in.) sizes. They offer precise tool tip calibration with a reproducibility of 0.01 mm (0.0003 in.), said the company, which has locations in the U.S., Germany, China, and Poland.\\n\\nCAPTRON listed the following features and benefits for its URCap-compatible TCP Calibration Sensors:\\n\\nEase of use : CAPTRON said its URCap software simplifies sensor setup, drastically cutting integration time.\\n\\n: CAPTRON said its URCap software simplifies sensor setup, drastically cutting integration time. Reliability : The sensors promise precise and repeatable accuracy, minimizing tool deviations and errors.\\n\\n: The sensors promise precise and repeatable accuracy, minimizing tool deviations and errors. Flexibility: With user-friendly software interfaces, manufacturers can switch between tasks quickly and easily, said CAPTRON, making its systems highly adaptable across various applications.\\n\\nCustomer says TCP Calibration Sensor a ‘game changer’\\n\\nPopular tool center point applications include checking the welder gun wire tip after cleaning and calibrating the glue-dispensing tip before each process to ensure precision.\\n\\nOne of CAPTRON’s newest customers recently implemented the TCP Calibration Sensor and described it as a “game changer.” The customer said it has seen dramatic improvements in tool precision, significantly reducing errors and downtime.\\n\\nCAPTRON said the use case highlights how its technology can enhance accuracy and efficiency in automated industrial processes.\\n\\n“Universal Robots is thrilled to partner with CAPTRON to drive the next wave of innovation in collaborative robotics,” said Michael DeGrace, ecosystem success manager for the Americas at Universal Robots. “By combining CAPTRON’s cutting-edge sensor technology with our flexible, user-friendly robotic arms, we are opening up new possibilities for industries worldwide to enhance automation, improve precision, and achieve greater efficiency in their operations.”\\n\\nCAPTRON’s TCP Calibration Sensors and URCap Software are now available through the Universal Robots Marketplace. For more information, visit CAPTRON UR Products.',\n", " 'UK-India trade talks to re-launch in the new year\\n\\nHowever, the UK has been locked in more than a dozen rounds of negotiations since 2022, with key sticking points around relaxing visa rules and lowering fees for Indian students and professionals going to the UK.\\n\\nA post-Brexit deal could unlock valuable markets for British cars, Scottish whisky, and financial services worth billions of pounds, with India on course to become the third largest economy in the world by 2050.\\n\\nThe news comes after Sir Keir Starmer met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Brazil.\\n\\nFree trade talks between India and the UK will be relaunched in the new year, Downing Street has announced.\\n\\nUK exports to India are worth £16.6 billion and the trading relationship with India was worth £42 billion in the 12 months before June 2024.\\n\\nSir Keir has been meeting world leaders over the two-day summit of the 20 biggest global economies, and is expected to unveil new trade and industrial strategies in the coming weeks.\\n\\nHe said the latest round of talks with India will focus on security, education, technology, and climate change.\\n\\n\"Boosting economic growth is key to improving living standards for working people,\" he said.\\n\\n\"A new trade deal with India will support jobs and prosperity in the UK – and represent a step forward in our mission to deliver growth and opportunity across our country.\"\\n\\nBusiness and trade secretary Jonathan Reynolds described India as a \"vital trading partner\" and said he believed there is \"a good deal to be done here\" for both sides.\\n\\n\"Whether it\\'s lowering Indian tariffs to help British firms export to this dynamic market or boosting investment which already supports over 600,000 jobs across both countries, striking a deal is important to deliver this Government\\'s core mission of driving economic growth,\" he said.\\n\\nThe Labour government has been negotiating with Switzerland, South Korea and the Gulf Cooperation Council since their election victory in July.\\n\\nThe UK will also join trade talks for the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in mid-December.'],\n", " dtype=object)" ] }, "execution_count": 20, "metadata": {}, "output_type": "execute_result" } ], "source": [ "df.sample(20)[\"content\"].values" ] }, { "cell_type": "code", "execution_count": null, "metadata": {}, "outputs": [], "source": [] } ], "metadata": { "kernelspec": { "display_name": "base", "language": "python", "name": "python3" }, "language_info": { "codemirror_mode": { "name": "ipython", "version": 3 }, "file_extension": ".py", "mimetype": "text/x-python", "name": "python", "nbconvert_exporter": "python", "pygments_lexer": "ipython3", "version": "3.10.9" } }, "nbformat": 4, "nbformat_minor": 2 }