Colorado's two largest police departments have issued statements in the wake of Donald Trump's election to tell residents they will not enforce federal immigration laws. Reported by Denver Post 33 minutes ago.

ABC's first-ever "Longevity Awards" dominated by DVO

Chilton, WI (PRWEB) November 16, 2016

DVO digesters power 31 of the 34 biogas systems recognized last month as recipients of the American Biogas Council (ABC)’s first Longevity Awards. The ABC Longevity Awards were given to biogas systems that have been continuously operating for more than five years.
 
“All of us at DVO are incredibly proud to see that all of the American Biogas Council’s 10-year awards, and all but three of the five-year awards, were awarded to DVO projects,” said Steve Dvorak, President, DVO, Inc. “These awards speak volumes for the durability and performance quality of the digesters we design and install.”

Below is the complete list of DVO projects that won Longevity Awards.

Biogas systems that have been continuously operating for 10+ years:

Blue Spruce Farm - Bridport, VT
Bos Farm #4 - Fair Oaks, IN
Fair Oaks Dairy - Fair Oaks, IN
FPE Renewables - Lynden, WA
Gordondale Farms - Nelsonville, WI
Holsum Irish Dairy - Hilbert, WI
Hunter Haven Farms - Pearl City, IL

Biogas systems that have been continuously operating for 5+ years:

Aurora Ridge Dairy - Aurora, NY
Bach Digester LLC - Dorchester, WI
Boxler Dairy - Varysburg, NY
Bridgewater Dairy - Montpelier, OH
Central Sands Dairy - Nekoosa, WI
Berkshire Cow Power - Richford, VT
Bos Farm #1 & #2 - Fair Oaks, IN
Clover Hill Dairy - Campbellsport, WI
Herrema Dairy - Fair Oaks, IN
Hidden View Dairy - Rensselaer, IN
Holsum Elm Dairy - Chilton, WI
Neighborhood Energy - Newport, VT
Pagel’s Ponderosa - Kewaunee, WI
Qualco Energy Corp. - Monroe, WA
Statz Bros. - Sun Prairie, WI
Sunnyside Farms - Scipio Center, NY
Swiss Valley Farms - Warsaw, NY
DF-AP #1 - Gooding, ID
Dry Creek Dairy - Hansen, ID
George DeRuter & Sons Dairy - Outlook, WA
Gervais Family Farm - Enosburg, VT
Green Mountain Dairy - Sheldon, VT
Westminster Energy Group - Westminster, VT
Willow Point Dairy - Ionia, MI

 
About DVO:
 
Since 2001, DVO Inc. has been solving manure and food waste management challenges, transforming organic waste streams into power and other useful byproducts at the highest levels of efficiency and reliability in the anaerobic digester industry. DVO’s latest innovation, an automated Advanced Phosphorus Recovery System, provides for a more efficient and cost-effective nutrient management plan for municipalities, farmers and agribusinesses.
 
DVO is the undisputed U.S. market leader in anaerobic digestion. Nearly 100 of the company’s patented Two-Stage Mixed Plug Flow™ anaerobic digester systems are installed in 18 states, with total electrical generation capacity of more than 75 megawatts. DVO digesters are also operating internationally. For more information, visit http://www.dvoinc.com.

About the American Biogas Council:

The American Biogas Council is the only national trade association representing the biogas industry in the U.S. The ABC represents over 200 companies covering the entire biogas supply chain who are dedicated to maximizing the production and use of biogas from organic waste. Find us online at http://www.AmericanBiogasCouncil.org, Twitter @ambiogascouncil, LinkedIn in the American Biogas Council group and on our YouTube channel. Reported by PRWeb 17 hours ago.

 

Total E&P UK Ltd has extended the firm period for the PSV vessel Havila Aurora until May 2017 with 6 optional periods, each of one month.

Statoil has declared an option for the RRV vessel Havila Troll. The optional period is for one year from November 2016 until November 2017. Statoil has one optional period of two years until end of November 2019 left. 
Both extensions are in direct continuation of existing contracts.

Contacts:
CEO Njål Sævik, +47 909 35 722 
CFO Arne Johan Dale, +47 909 87 706

 
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. --------------------This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Havila Shipping ASA via GlobeNewswire

HUG#2057329 Reported by GlobeNewswire 15 hours ago.

Partnership with University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Children’s Hospital Colorado and UCHealth Provides Innovation Pathway to Validate and Commercialize Digital Health Startups

Aurora, CO (PRWEB) November 16, 2016

StartUp Health, which is organizing and supporting a global army of Health Transformers, announced today the inaugural Call for Innovations for StartUp Health Colorado. This Call for Innovations is a part of the unique collaboration between StartUp Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Children’s Hospital Colorado and UCHealth, to discover and support entrepreneurs and innovators seeking to transform health.

This initial Call for Innovation seeks to find the most innovative entrepreneurs and innovators addressing the Children’s Health Moonshots and Access to Care Moonshots, two of StartUp Health’s 10 Health Moonshots that will impact the health of everyone in the world. Entrepreneurs building companies addressing the following themes within these two Moonshots should apply:· Improving Outcomes & Performance: achieving best clinical outcomes by identifying and focusing on specific patient populations, increasing patient satisfaction via personalized evidence-based care, artificial intelligence and machine learning, medication adherence and compliance, follow-ups, and monitoring
· Creating a Seamless Patient Experience: best in class solutions that are connecting and providing a patient experience from beginning to end, filled with compassion for patients, families and care teams
· Improving Communication & Accessibility: rethinking traditional care delivery and transitioning to virtual and telehealth solutions, easy and rapid communications for patients, families, coordinators, and care teams

Entrepreneurs selected for StartUp Health Colorado will receive co-development, clinical validation and pilot opportunities for their companies with Children’s Hospital Colorado and/or UCHealth, both nationally-recognized, top-ranked hospital systems. Entrepreneurs will have direct access to the researchers, faculty, clinicians, and leadership from these world-class institutions as they implement their solutions at the point of care.

In addition to clinical validation and pilot opportunities, entrepreneurs accepted into StartUp Health Colorado companies will become a part of StartUp Health’s global Health Transformer community, receive lifetime access to the StartUp Health Academy to help grow their business and receive access to StartUp Health’s global network of over 30,000 industry leaders, investors, customers and world-class partners like AARP, GE, Janssen Research & Development, and others.

“Our vision at Children’s Colorado is to reimagine the way we can improve child health in our region and beyond,” said Gil Peri, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Children’s Hospital Colorado. “Innovators from around the world are working on solutions to transform the way we interact with children and families—from prevention and early detection, to the experience they have at the hospital and long after they are recovering at home.”

“By providing an opportunity to help develop and clinically validate impactful technologies designed to solve the toughest problems in health care today, we can revolutionize the way care is delivered to our patients,” said Dr. Richard Zane, UCHealth Chief Innovation Officer and Professor and Chair of Emergency Medicine at the CU School of Medicine. “Constantly improving outcomes and care delivery while driving virtual and telehealth solutions are keys to transforming the future of medicine.”

“StartUp Health Colorado is giving entrepreneurs a unique opportunity to commercialize alongside these world class institutions and improve the quality of their solutions and products.” said Kim Muller, Director of CU Innovations, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

“We’re looking forward to supporting entrepreneurs from the Rocky Mountain region and around the world and inviting them to be part of our global army of Health Transformers” said Polina Hanin, Director of StartUp Health Academy.

StartUp Health’s unique long-term platform for supporting entrepreneurs building digital health companies has resulted in the world’s largest digital health portfolio (more than 175 companies spanning 5 continents, 16 countries and 60+ cities), 10 acquisitions by companies including Intel, WebMD, Under Armour and Zimmer Biomet and its companies have raised over $620M of funding since 2012. StartUp Health’s diverse portfolio is currently comprised of 40% “doctorpreneurs”, 30% female founders and almost one-third serial entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs can apply online for this inaugural Call for Innovation until December 9, 2016 at StartUpHealth.com/Colorado. Entrepreneurs currently in StartUp Health Academy, or that have previously applied to StartUp Health, will also be considered if they submit an application by the deadline. Entrepreneurs selected for this program will be announced in spring 2017.

About StartUp Health
In 2011, StartUp Health introduced a new model for transforming health by organizing and supporting a global army of entrepreneurs called Health Transformers. StartUp Health is investing in 10 Health Moonshots with the long-term goal of improving the health and wellbeing of everyone in the world. With the world’s largest digital health portfolio (more than 175 companies spanning 5 continents, 16 countries and 60+ cities), StartUp Health’s long-term platform for entrepreneurs includes the StartUp Health Academy, StartUp Health Network, StartUp Health Media and StartUp Health Ventures. StartUp Health was founded by Steven Krein and Unity Stoakes and is chaired by former Time Warner CEO, Jerry Levin. StartUp Health’s notable strategic partners and investors include AARP, Aurora Health Care, California Health Care Foundation, Children’s Hospital Colorado, University of Colorado, UCHealth, Steve Case, Mark Cuban, Esther Dyson, Brad Feld, Genentech, GE Ventures, Janssen Research & Development, LLC., Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and SeventySix Capital. Learn more at http://www.startuphealth.com.

About Children's Hospital Colorado
Children’s Hospital Colorado (Children’s Colorado) has defined and delivered pediatric health care excellence for more than 100 years. Founded in 1908, Children’s Colorado is a leading pediatric network entirely devoted to the health and well-being of children. Continually acknowledged as one of the nation’s outstanding pediatric hospitals by U.S. News & World Report and ranked on its Best Children’s Hospitals 2016-17 Honor Roll, Children’s Colorado is known for both its nationally and internationally recognized medical, research, education and advocacy programs, as well as comprehensive everyday care for kids throughout Colorado and surrounding states. Children’s Colorado is the winner of the 2015 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize, and is a 2013-2016 Most Wired hospital according to Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Children’s Colorado also is recognized for excellence in nursing from the American Nurses Credentialing Centers and has been designated a Magnet® hospital since 2005. The hospital’s family-centered, collaborative approach combines the nation’s top pediatric doctors, nurses and researchers to pioneer new approaches to pediatric medicine. With urgent, emergency and specialty care locations throughout Metro Denver and Southern Colorado, including its campus on the Anschutz Medical Campus, Children’s Colorado provides a full spectrum of pediatric specialties. For more information, visit http://www.childrenscolorado.org and connect with Children’s Colorado on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Children’s Hospital Colorado complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.
ATENCIÓN: si habla español, tiene a su disposición servicios gratuitos de asistencia lingüística. Llame al 1-720-777-9800. CHÚ Ý: Nếu bạn nói Tiếng Việt, có các
dịch vụ hỗ trợ ngôn ngữ miễn phí dành cho bạn. Gọi số 1-720-777-9800 http://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/section-1557

About University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) is the largest academic health center in the Rocky Mountain region. The campus combines interdisciplinary teaching, research and clinical facilities to prepare the region’s future health care professionals, provide the best available health care at two nationally recognized hospitals and be a national leader in life sciences research. Annually, CU Anschutz medical professionals educate 4,000 degree-seeking future health professionals, provide 1.5 million patient visits, and are awarded approximately $400 million in research grants. For more information about CU Anschutz, and to access campus resources, go to http://www.ucdenver.edu/anschutz.

About UCHealth
UCHealth is a Front Range health system that delivers the highest quality patient care with the highest quality patient experience. UCHealth combines Memorial Hospital, Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies, Colorado Health Medical Group, and University of Colorado Hospital into an organization dedicated to health and providing unmatched patient care in the Rocky Mountain West. Separately, these institutions can continue providing superior care to patients and service to the communities they serve. Together, they push the boundaries of medicine, attracting more research funding, hosting more clinical trials and improving health through innovation. Reported by PRWeb 12 hours ago.

Government-backed Innovate UK has announced 15 female entrepreneurs who will receive £50,000 each.

The investment was for the inaugural Women in Innovation campaign, aiming to address the disproportionately low numbers of women entrepreneurs in the UK.

Innovate UK said the drive came about following analysis highlighting a disparity in the numbers of male and female applicants for funding. Only one in seven applications for its business funding had been from women.

Each woman will receive a £50,000 investment in their innovation or business as well as a tailored package of business support.

*Read more*: British startups enjoyed a five-year high in opportunities before Brexit

Dr Ruth McKernan CBE and chief executive of Innovate UK said: "It is very clear that harnessing the talent of women entrepreneurs could significantly enhance UK economic growth. I am delighted that we are taking action; supporting and funding female entrepreneurs to help them succeed and inspire other women to come forward, apply for funding and turn their ideas into successful business."

The winners included the creator of an automated robotic servicing platform and an entrepreneur behind a sustainable alternative to leather that uses pineapples.

*Read more*: Here come the girls: Millennial entrepreneurs mostly women

Research from the UK Intellectual Property Office out earlier this year found that only eight per cent of inventors named on British patent applications were women, although this has doubled since the 1980s.

Chemistry, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals were the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) industries with the highest proportion of female inventors seeking GB patents according to analysis based on the World Intellectual Property Organisation's international patent classification.

Innovate UK has also separately awarded £25m to a series of projects to help businesses develop new manufacturing methods and materials, and boost UK productivity. It was made to 170 partners in 64 projects. 

*The winners*

Natwilai Utoomprurkporn - Gettrik Ltd

Rebecca Sage - Interactive Scientific

Siobhan Gardiner - Herotech8

​Anne Rogues  -  Aurora Medical Ltd

Shakardokht Jafari - Truelnvivo Ltd

Emma L Sceats - CN Bio Innovations Ltd

Lorin Gresser - Dem Dx Ltd

Christine Boyle - Senergy Innovations

Rachel Gawley - AppAttic

​Anna Hill River - Cycleway Consortium Ltd

Kym Jarvis - Viridian Consultants Ltd

Elena Dieckmann - AEROPOWDER Limited

Pauline Dawes - SOMI Trailers Ltd  

Carmen Hijosa - Ananas Anam UK Limited

 

Fanzi Down - DPS Designs Ltd Reported by City A.M. 12 hours ago.

Prediction model developed by "research parasites" published today in Lancet Oncology offers a more accurate prognosis for a patient's metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer

AURORA, Colo. (PRWEB) November 16, 2016

Knowing the likely course of cancer can influence treatment decisions. Now a new prediction model published today in Lancet Oncology offers a more accurate prognosis for a patient's metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. The approach was as novel as the result – while researchers commonly work in small groups, intentionally isolating their data, the current study embraces the call in Joe Biden's "Cancer Moonshot" to open their question and their data, collecting previously published clinical trial data and calling for worldwide collaboration to evaluate its predictive power. That is, researchers crowdsourced the question of prostate cancer prognosis, eventually involving over 550 international researchers and resulting in 50 computational models from 50 different teams. The approach was intentionally controversial.

"Scientists like me who mine open data have been called 'research parasites'. While not the most flattering name, the idea of leveraging existing data to gain new insights is a very important part of modern biomedical research. This project shows the power of the parasites," says James Costello, PhD, senior author of the paper, investigator at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the CU School of Medicine, and director of Computational and Systems Biology Challenges within the Sage Bionetworks/DREAM organization.

The project was overseen as a collaborative effort between 16 institutions, led by academic research institutions including CU Cancer Center, open-data initiatives including Project Data Sphere, Sage Bionetworks, and the National Cancer Institute's DREAM Challenges, and industry and research partners including Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Challenge organizers made available the results from five completed clinical trials. Teams were challenged to connect a deep set of clinical measurements to overall patient survival, organizing their insights into novel computational models to better predict patient survival based on clinical data.

"The idea is that if a patient comes into the clinic and has these measurements and test results, can we put this data in a model to say if this patient will progress slowly or quickly. If we know the features of patients at the greatest risk, we can know who should receive standard treatment and who might benefit more from a clinical trial," Costello says.

The most successful of the 50 models was submitted by a team led by Tero Aittokallio, PhD, from the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland, FIMM, at University of Helsinki, and professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at University of Turku, Finland.

"My group has a long-term expertise in developing multivariate machine learning models for various biomedical applications, but this Challenge provided the unique opportunity to work on clinical trial data, with the eventual aim to help patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer," Aittokallio says.

Basically, the model depended on not only groups of single patient measurements to predict outcomes, but on exploring which interactions between measurements were most predictive – for example, data describing a patient's blood system composition and immune function were only weakly predictive of survival on their own, but when combined became an important part of the winning model. The model used a computational learning strategy technically referred to as an ensemble of penalized Cox regression models, hence the model's name ePCR. This model then competed with 49 other entries, submitted by other teams working independently around the world.

"Having 50 independent models allowed us to do two very important things. First when a single clinical feature known to be predictive of patient survival is picked out by 40 of the 50 teams, this greatly strengthens our overall confidence. Second, we were able to discover important clinical features we hadn't fully appreciated before," Costello says.

In this case, many models found that in addition to factors like prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) that have long been known to predict prostate cancer performance, blood levels of an enzyme called asparate aminotransferease (AST) is an important predictor of patient survival. This AST is an indirect measure of liver function and the fact that disturbed levels of AST are associated with poor patient performance implies that studies could evaluate the role of AST in prostate cancer.

"The benefits of a DREAM Challenge are the ability to attract talented individuals and teams from around the world, and a rigorous framework for the assessment of methods. These two ingredients came together for our Challenge, leading to a new benchmark in metastatic prostate cancer," says paper first author, Justin Guinney, PhD, director of Computational Oncology for Sage Bionetworks located at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

“A goal of the Project Data Sphere initiative is to spark innovation – to unlock the potential of valuable data by generating new insights and opening up a new world of research possibilities. Prostate Cancer DREAM Challenge did just that. To witness cancer clinical trial data from Project Data Sphere be used in research collaboration and ultimately help improve patient care in the future is extremely rewarding!” says Liz Zhou, MD, MS, director of Global Health Outcome Research at Sanofi.

The goal now is to make the ePCR model publicly accessible through an online tool with an eye towards clinical application. In fact, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has contracted the winning team to do exactly this. Soon, when patients face difficult decisions about the best treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, ePCR tool could be an important piece of the decision-making process.

##

Challenge winners and results can be found on the Prostate Cancer DREAM Challenge homepage. The clinical trial data can be found at Project Data Sphere. The research article describing this work can be found at The Lancet Oncology. Additional papers that describe individual team methods can be found in the DREAM Channel at F1000Research.

About University of Colorado Cancer Center
The University of Colorado Cancer Center, located at the Anschutz Medical Campus, is Colorado’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, a distinction recognizing its outstanding contributions to research, clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. CU Cancer Center’s clinical partner University of Colorado Hospital is ranked 15th by US News and World Report for Cancer and the CU Cancer Center is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network®, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers working to establish and deliver the gold standard in cancer clinical guidelines. CU Cancer Center is a consortium of more than 400 researchers and physicians at three state universities and three institutions, all working toward one goal: Translating science into life. For more information visit Coloradocancercenter.org and follow CU Cancer Center on Facebook and Twitter.

About the DREAM Challenges Initiative
Founded in 2006 by A. Califano (Columbia University) and Gustavo Stolovitzky (IBM Research) the Dialogue on Reverse Engineering Assessment and Methods (DREAM) Challenges Initiative poses fundamental questions about systems biology and translational medicine. Designed and run by a community of researchers from a variety of organizations, the DREAM challenges invite participants to propose solutions — fostering collaboration and building communities in the process. Expertise and institutional support are provided by Sage Bionetworks, along with the infrastructure to host challenges via their Synapse platform. Together, the leaders of the DREAM Challenges Initiative share a vision allowing individuals and groups to collaborate openly so that the “wisdom of the crowd” provides the greatest impact on science and human health. More information is available at: http://dreamchallenges.org/.

About the Project Data Sphere Initiative
Project Data Sphere, LLC, an independent, not-for-profit initiative of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer's Life Sciences Consortium (LSC), operates the Project Data Sphere® platform (http://www.ProjectDataSphere.org). Launched in April 2014, the Project Data Sphere platform provides one place where the cancer community can broadly share, integrate, analyze and discuss historical patient-level comparator arm data sets (historical patient-level cancer phase III) from multiple providers, with the goal of advancing research. With its broad-access approach, the initiative brings diverse minds and technology together to help unleash the full potential of existing clinical trial data and speed innovation by generating collective insights that may lead to improved trial design, disease modeling and beyond. The platform currently contains 27,600 patient lives of data; 9,400 of those are across a wide spectrum of prostate cancer populations. In order to ensure that researchers can realize the full potential of this data, PDS teamed with CEO Roundtable on Cancer Member, SAS Institute Inc. SAS, a leader in data and health analytics, developed and hosts the site and provides free state-of-the-art analytic tools to authorized users within the Project Data Sphere environment.

About Sage Bionetworks
Sage Bionetworks is a nonprofit biomedical research organization, founded in 2009, with a vision to promote innovations in personalized medicine by enabling a community-based approach to scientific inquiries and discoveries. Sage Bionetworks strives to activate patients and to incentivize scientists, funders and researchers to work in fundamentally new ways in order to shape research, accelerate access to knowledge and transform human health. It is located on the campus of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington and is supported through a portfolio of philanthropic donations, competitive research grants, and commercial partnerships. More information is available at http://www.sagebase.org. Reported by PRWeb 11 hours ago.

Sveen to guide Swift Capital’s move into next growth phase

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) November 16, 2016

Swift Capital has hired Paul E. Sveen as Chief Financial Officer. Sveen brings more than 30 years of financial expertise, and a deep background in building financial services businesses, to the position. Swift Capital is a leading provider of working capital for small businesses, providing nearly $1 billion in funding nationwide.

“Swift Capital provides fast and simple access to working capital for small businesses – a market that is underserved by today’s financial institutions. I’m thrilled to be part of an organization that’s solely focused on helping businesses seize control of their own destinies,” said Sveen. “Equally important, I’m joining one of the brightest and innovative teams in this industry. I look forward to helping guide the company through its next phase of growth.”

Previously, Sveen spent more than 19 years at Lehman Brothers and in his first 15 years lead several asset monetization and securitization businesses. During his last four years at Lehman, he held executive leadership positions at Aurora Loan Services, Lehman’s flagship mortgage origination and servicing platform, during its growth into the nation’s leading Alt-A loan originator and servicer. Paul started his career as a commercial lender for Irving Trust Company.

Most recently, Paul was founder/managing partner of Pantelan Real Estate Services, a pioneer in the development of the institutional single family rental business. Pantelan has worked with institutional investors directly acquiring, renovating, leasing and managing thousands of homes, and has advised some of the largest participants in the SFR market on operational efficiency and performance. Paul has also been a strategic advisor to a select group of private equity firms on new business ventures and improving operations at portfolio companies.

“Sveen is an accomplished leader with decades of experience in building businesses,” said Ed Harycki, chief executive officer at Swift Capital. “The combination of his deep experience with, and understanding of, finance and business operations provides him with a unique and practical strategic perspective on managing a high growth company. I’m excited to have him as part of our team.”

About Swift Capital
Swift Capital’s mission is to unleash the potential of small businesses by providing them with the working capital they need when traditional banks fall short. Swift’s platform rapidly assesses the health of a business, allowing businesses to get a decision within minutes, with funding in as little as one business day. Swift Capital combines its innovative data analytics with a relationship-focused customer experience to deliver a streamlined funding process and personalized approach. Swift Capital has provided nearly $1 billion in funding nationwide.

Swift Capital stands out on Inc. magazine’s prestigious Inc. 500 -- at the No. 368 spot overall, and coming in at No. 23 in Top Financial Services companies. It’s the third consecutive year the company has been included. Locally, Swift Capital was named the tenth fastest growing company in the region by the Philadelphia 100.

Swift is backed by Sutter Hill Ventures, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, and SV Angel. To learn more about Swift Capital’s business funding products and to get a free, no obligation instant quote call 1-888-923-0007 or visit https://www.swiftcapital.com/.

Contact Information:
Kelly Henry
Head of Corporate Communications
Swift Capital
302-356-4028 Reported by PRWeb 9 hours ago.

Aurora firefighters are battling a house fire Wednesday morning near 6th Avenue and Peoria Street. Reported by Denver Post 9 hours ago.

She was the first beluga to be born in a Canadian aquarium to mother Aurora. Reported by CBC.ca 5 hours ago.

*By The Canadian Press*

VANCOUVER — The first beluga whale to be born in captivity in Canada has died at the Vancouver Aquarium.

The facility says 21-year-old Qila's sudden death this morning has left her mother Aurora adjusting to the change.

An aquarium spokeswoman says a necropsy was expected to be done today.

Qila was Aurora's first offspring in 1995, before two other calves came along though both of them have died.

Qila became a mother herself in June 2008, when she gave birth to a... // Read Full Article Reported by CJME 3 hours ago.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2016) - The following issues have been halted by IIROC: Company: Aurora Cannabis Inc. TSX-V Symbol: ACB Reason: Single Stock Circuit Brea... Reported by FinanzNachrichten.de 5 hours ago.

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - November 16, 2016) - Trading resumes in: Company: Aurora Cannabis Inc. TSX-V Symbol: ACB Resumption Time (ET): 15:11 IIROC can make a decision to impo... Reported by FinanzNachrichten.de 4 hours ago.

A fire burning just east of Aurora on Wednesday afternoon has claimed at least one building and is consuming fields of brush. Reported by Denver Post 4 hours ago.

The RV Authority Spotlights Top Holiday Gift Ideas for RV Enthusiasts

Tampa, FL (PRWEB) November 22, 2016

As The RV Authority and world’s largest RV dealership, Lazydays has unique insights into the wants and wishes of RVers nationwide. After tracking the latest trends and consumer feedback, Lazydays RV Accessories & More has compiled a list of the most sought-after RV gifts this holiday season.

As temperatures begin to plummet in the northern regions, many of those RVers are planning their escape to warmer climates—making RV accessories an ideal gift in advance of winter travels.

“RVers appreciate useful tools, clever gadgets and new technology that enhances the fun and entertainment of their RV lifestyle,” explained Linda Stephens, Vice President and General Manager of Retail Accessories, Rental and Consumer Services at Lazydays. “To that end, our first annual holiday RV gift guide spotlights some of our customer’s favorite accessories across several price points and product categories.”

Following are a sampling of Lazydays’ top picks for RV gifts under $50 and under $100, as well as a few technological standouts that Stephens feels are worth the splurge:

RV Gifts Under $50

Scosche boomBOTTLE Mini – Scosche’s rechargeable wireless speaker allows RVers to enjoy their favorite music anytime and anywhere with up to 10 hours of continuous playback between charges. $49.95

American Outland Portable Bug Zapper – This dual-purpose bug zapper extends RVers’ outdoor fun by eliminating flying pests and providing emergency lighting on the go. $39.95

RV Gifts Under $100

YETI Rambler Lowball 4-Pack – Glassware doesn’t always hold up well to the rigors of RVing, so Lazydays recommends YETI Rambler stainless steel drinkware as a far more practical and durable solution. $79.99

Wusthof 7-Piece Traveler Set – Quality cutlery is a must for serious cooks, whether at home or on the road. Sale $89.95

RV Technology Gifts

TireMinder Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) – The TireMinder Smart TPMS app allows RVers to continuously monitor tire pressure and temperature while traveling without ever leaving the vehicle.
TPMS 4: $349.95
TPMS 6: $429.95

Winegard ConnecT Internet WiFi Extender –The Winegard ConnecT maximizes the speed and range of WiFi signals at RV parks, rest stops and other locations, offering users a simple and secure way to access reliable WiFi across multiple devices from the comfort of their RV. $549.95

Additional gift ideas can be found in the holiday RV gift guide available in any of Lazydays’ five retail outlets, including Tampa, home of Florida’s largest RV accessories store; Tucson, Arizona; and three Colorado locations: Longmont, Loveland and Aurora. The latter two recently celebrated a grand re-opening and offer an expanded product selection.

“RVers know that they can rely on Lazydays for the industry’s largest selection of RV accessories, whether in-store or online,” said Stephens. “Our RV experts are ready and eager to help customers find the right part, perfect accessory or ideal gift. And with more than 40,000 products available online, we can help travelers everywhere make the most of their RV lifestyle—no matter where they live or roam.”

To explore Lazydays’ expansive product selection and holiday gift options, visit Lazydays RV Accessories & More.

ABOUT LAZYDAYS
Lazydays®, founded in 1976, is the world’s largest RV dealership. Based on 126 acres outside Tampa, FL since 1996, Lazydays also has dealerships located in Tucson, AZ as well as three dealerships located in Loveland, Aurora and Longmont, CO.

Lazydays has the largest selection of RV brands in the nation featuring more than 2,500 new and pre-owned RVs, over 300 service bays and two on-site campgrounds with over 700 RV campsites. Lazydays RV Accessories & More offers more than 40,000 accessories online for your shopping convenience. Shop us online or visit one of our store locations in Florida, Arizona and Colorado. Lazydays also has RV Rental fleets in Colorado and Florida.

Lazydays has built its reputation on providing an outstanding customer experience with exceptional service and product expertise, and as a place to rest and recharge with other RVers. More than a half-million RVers and their families visit Lazydays every year, making it their “home away from home.” Lazydays has been recognized as a “Top 50 RV Dealer” by RV Business and as one of Tampa Bay’s “Top Work Places.” The Lazydays Employee Foundation, supported by payroll contributions from more than 65% of Lazydays’ employees, has contributed more than $1.5 million dollars to make many historic changes for at-risk children in the Tampa Bay and Tucson communities.

For most people, Lazydays isn't just the beginning of their journey; it's very much a part of their ride. To learn more, visit http://www.lazydays.com. Reported by PRWeb 1 week ago.

With fewer than three days until Black Friday, a number of developers are beginning to offer deals on their apps and software. Below, we have rounded up some of the notable discounts available for popular iOS and Mac apps and software. More deals will inevitably be announced, so keep an eye on our Black Friday roundup.-Final Fantasy Tactics-Square Enix has discounted both the iPhone and iPad versions of Final Fantasy Tactics to $3.99 for a limited time, marking the game's lowest price ever. The lowest previous sale was $6.99 for the iPhone version and $7.99 for the iPad version. Regular prices are $13.99 for iPhone and $15.99 for iPad.

TouchArcade gave the title a rather mediocre 3.5/5 stars rating back in 2011, but noted Square Enix has significantly updated the game since then. "The graphics got redrawn, iCloud support was added, making it a significantly better port than when it was first released," said editor-in-chief Eli Hodapp.
A gameplay overview from the 2011 review:

You'll be taking over a squad of characters and battling on grid-based maps in a turn-based system. As you play through, you'll be able to level up your characters, equip weapons and effects and change jobs. Since the iOS port is based on the PSP version, you'll also get an updated story, a better translation than the PS1 version and a few fancy cutscenes.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions is available on the App Store for iPhone [Direct Link] and iPad [Direct Link].
-Lumines Puzzle and Music-Mobcast's falling-block puzzle game Lumines Puzzle and Music is on sale for just 99 cents for a limited time. The app has normally cost $2.99 since it first launched in September. Lumines universally supports both iPhone and iPad.

A mobile rebuild of the classic PSP title, LUMINES PUZZLE & MUSIC is an action packed puzzle game synchronized to a musical beat, featuring newly-produced tracks and classics such as “Shinin’” by Mondo Grosso. Players swipe and tap their screen in portrait mode to properly align their Lumines blocks to clear blocks of four matching colors in rhythm to the beat.TouchArcade gave Lumines Puzzle and Music a favorable 4/5 stars rating, with editor Shaun Musgrave noting the game "nails the core gameplay" and has "exceptional aesthetics." Here's a bit more on gameplay:

In Lumines, 2 x 2 blocks composed of two different colors drop in the field and begin falling. You need to move them left or right, rotate them, and drop them at the bottom of the playfield. As opposed to making lines as in Tetris, here you are trying to make 4 x 4 squares of a single color. When you do that, they will be marked for clearing. As you play, a bar is constantly moving across the field in line with the tempo of the current song. That bar will removed any marked squares you've matched up, and the remaining blocks will settle into place.

Lumines Puzzle and Music is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad [Direct Link].
-Other Apps and Games-
Name: Talisman
Developer: Nomad Games
Sale Price: $1.99
Previous Price: $3.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
TouchArcade Review: 4.5/5 stars
Links: AppShopper | iTunes | YouTube Trailer

Description:

Talisman: Digital Edition is a classic fantasy adventure board game, where you embark on a dangerous quest, fighting dragons, battling serpents, and avoiding the deadly curse of the Hag. These are some of the many obstacles you will face. So choose your character wisely, Warrior, Assassin, Thief or Wizard? There are 14 available, unique in their strengths, weaknesses and special powers. To win the game race your opponents through a perilous realm, journeying to the heart of the land to find the crown of Command.

--------------------Name: Heroes of Loot 2
Developer: OrangePixel
Sale Price: 99 cents
Previous Price: $3.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
TouchArcade Review: 4/5 stars
Links: AppShopper | iTunes | YouTube Trailer

Description:

After their job, of keeping the dungeons in balance, was done, our heroes needed a new job. Roaming the lands they found a call for heroes, a castle in need, possible even a damsel in distress?

Pick two heroes to take into the adventure, controlling both heroes and using their special skills to navigate the dangerous castle hallways, rooms and floors. Switching between the two characters to solve quests, puzzles, and of course clear the dungeons of all evil.

Name: Space Grunts
Developer: OrangePixel
Sale Price: 99 cents
Previous Price: $3.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
TouchArcade Review: 4/5 stars
Links: AppShopper | iTunes | YouTube Trailer

Description:

Space Grunts combines fast paced arcade action with turn-based gameplay.

The year 2476, Earth's space-federation has been building moon-bases across the galaxy. One of those moon-bases has been sending a distress signal.

Space Grunts are a group of intergalactic "problem" solvers, sent to investigate..

You play one, out of a team, of Space Grunts, and your mission is simple: find your way into the moon-base, and figure out what has happened. You'll have to fight your way through aliens, robots, security drones and base-systems. Find the lower levels of the moon-base, and get to the core of the problems.

--------------------Name: Screens for iOS
Developer: Edovia
Sale Price: $9.99 (Late Thursday to Early Tuesday)
Previous Price: $19.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Leave your computer behind and travel light! Screens lets you connect back to your Mac, Windows or Linux PC and control it from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

Name: Screens for Mac
Developer: Edovia
Sale Price: $14.99 (Late Thursday to Early Tuesday)
Previous Price: $29.99
Compatibility: OS X 10.10 or later
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Access your computers from wherever you are! Screens is a beautiful, yet powerful Screen Sharing and VNC client that lets you connect back to your Mac, Windows or Linux PC from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

--------------------Name: Scanner Pro
Developer: Readdle
Sale Price: $1.99 (Wednesday to Friday)
Previous Price: $3.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Scanner Pro is the best app for quickly scanning and saving a digital version of a paper document. Scan any papers, ranging from a receipt to multi-page documents. Scanner Pro will automatically detect borders, correcting distortion and geometry. Share, email and upload your perfect scans. Use OCR to convert any scan into a text.

Name: PDF Expert
Developer: Readdle
Sale Price: $4.99 (Wednesday to Friday)
Previous Price: $9.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

PDF Expert 5 is a must-have app for anyone who reads, annotates or edits PDF documents on iPad or iPhone. It allows you to mark up documents with highlights and handwriting, insert text and stamps, sign and even merge PDFs. Moreover, PDF Expert 5 is the best choice for filling out PDF forms right on your iPad and iPhone.

Name: Printer Pro
Developer: Readdle
Sale Price: $3.99 (Wednesday to Friday)
Previous Price: $6.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Printer Pro lets you wirelessly print from the iPhone or iPad. It can print directly to many Wi-Fi printers or any printer attached to your Mac or PC via helper application installed on your computer.

Name: Calendars 5
Developer: Readdle
Sale Price: $3.99 (Wednesday to Friday)
Previous Price: $6.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Calendars 5 is complete re-imagining of what the best mobile calendar experience should be. Calendars 5 is smart, excels in both tasks and events and runs on any iOS device you might have. It's the calendar app you have been looking for.

Name: PDF Converter
Developer: Readdle
Sale Price: $1.99 (Wednesday to Friday)
Previous Price: $3.99
Compatibility: iPhone and iPad (Universal)
Links: AppShopper | iTunes

Description:

Make PDFs from any file that you have on your iPad or iPhone. Save Word, Excel, Powerpoint or iWork documents, web pages, photos and even clipboard content as professional quality PDFs. Everything from a multi-million contract to a web page you want to read later can be saved as a PDF in just a few taps.

--------------------Name: Luminar
Developer: Macphun
Sale Price: $59
Previous Price: $209
Compatibility: OS X 10.10.5 or later
Links: Macphun

Description:

Meet the world’s first photo editor that adapts to your style & skill level. Luminar is the supercharged photo software that makes complex editing easy & enjoyable. And it is as responsive and beautiful as your Mac.

Name: 2017 Aurora HDR
Developer: Macphun
Sale Price: $79
Previous Price: $89
Compatibility: OS X 10.10.5 or later
Links: Macphun

Description:

The world's most advanced HDR photo editor for Mac gains powerful new features and a new look which will amaze, inspire and help you to make incredible HDR photos.

-Parallels-
Parallels is offering a Black Friday bundle that includes seven free Mac apps with the purchase of Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac (available for $79). The bundle has been available since November 21.

Software includes:

• 1Password for families
• PDFpenPro 8
• Pocket Premium (1 year subscription)
• Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac (1 year subscription)
• TextExpander
• Hotspot Shield Elite (2 year subscription)
• Acronis Online Backup (500GB, 1 year subscription)
-VMware-
VMware will offer up to 55 percent off all of its software products, starting on November 23 and running through December 2. Deals are as follows:

*Fusion Pro & Workstation Pro Discounts*
• Nov 23 - 27: Save 40% on new licenses and upgrades
• Nov 28 - Dec 2: Save 35% on new licenses and upgrades

*Fusion & Workstation Player Discounts*
• Nov 23 - 27: Save 30% on new licenses and upgrades
• Nov 28 - Dec 2: Save 25% on new licenses and upgrades

*Fusion Pro/Workstation Pro Bundle Discount*
• Nov 23 - Dec 2: Save 50%

*Fusion vs Parallels Discount*
• Nov 23 - Dec 2: Save 55%

*VMware Certification & Training Discount*
• Nov 23 - Dec 2: Save 25%

Keep an eye on our Black Friday roundup for further software deals as they are announced. The roundup also tracks good deals on Apple products such as iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple TVs, accessories, and more from retailers such as Best Buy, Kohl's, Target, and Walmart.Related Roundup: Black Friday
Tag: App Store

Discuss this article in our forums Reported by MacRumours.com 1 week ago.

Looking back from a mountaintop of Elsa and Moana, it seems ridiculous that Ariel and Belle once struck Disney audiences as independent, tough, and feminist. But times can change quickly in children’s entertainment. Ariel and Belle were the stuff of my childhood. I was 10 by the time “Mulan” came out ― not too old to see and adore it, but old enough that it postdated my formative princess years. By the time films like “The Princess and the Frog,” “Tangled,” and “Brave” started to appear, I was long out of the target Disney demographic. When I was falling in love with “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast,” I wasn’t comparing them to “Mulan” and “Frozen,” obviously ― they didn’t exist yet. I was comparing them to “Sleeping Beauty” (blahsville), “Cinderella” (meh), and “Snow White” (nope).

It’s easy and, in many ways, valid to critique the feminism of films like “Beauty and the Beast” in hindsight. Twenty-five years after its debut (just to get that time stamp in there), young people are still watching the movie, soaking up messages of mixed value, while the social context has changed and plenty of movies with independent, baggage-free heroines are now available. Is the movie a feminist manifesto? That seems like a reach. Is it a poisonous bit of anti-woman propaganda? Unclear.

Then again, I’m biased. “Beauty and the Beast” is the only movie I recall personally owning as a kid, on a VHS tape in a squeaky plastic case. I loved it. My dad touted Ariel, the heroine of “The Little Mermaid” (which actually premiered in 1989, the year after I was born), while I scoffed: Who could prefer the willingly silent, boy-obsessed mermaid princess over the bookish, brainy, self-possessed peasant girl? My favorite place was the local public library and, as my grandma will happily tell you, I was a stubborn, outspoken child; prying me away from my latest storybook and telling me to keep my opinions to myself were both losing propositions. When Belle steps into the Beast’s gleaming, palatial library, lined with stories-high bookshelves full of more novels than she could read in a lifetime, my head would spin with the romantic visions of a girl who grew up to follow Instagram accounts with names like “bookshelfporn.”

In her recent book, In Defense of the Princess: How Plastic Tiaras and Fairytale Dreams Can Inspire Strong, Smart Women, Jerramy Fine recalled similar feelings. “[T]he thing in this movie that really makes me swoon?” she wrote. “That library. When the Beast shows Belle those towering walls of floor-to-ceiling books, my heart flutters just as much as hers. And although the people in Belle’s hometown mock her constant thirst for knowledge, I love that through it all she remains an unabashed bookworm.”

Some critics counter that Belle’s reading is rarely shown in the film ― and that, unlike the practical, studious heroine of the most circulated version of the fairy tale, written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756, the movie Belle’s literary interests tend toward frivolous fiction, fairy tales with princes.
*The Feminist Struggle To Make Belle More Than Just A Beauty*

Still, even this version of Belle, who spends more time teaching the Beast to eat porridge with a spoon than lounging in his dream library with a stack of books, only appeared through determined effort. At least, that’s the contention of Linda Woolverton, who took over the script of “Beauty and the Beast” in 1988 after a number of pitches and treatments by other writers, including Jim Cox (“Oliver and Company”) and Gen LeRoy (“Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color”).

One treatment, crafted by British animators Richard and Jill Purdum, was scratched in 1988 after executives viewed some rough early reels and deemed it too lugubrious and dark. Once installed by Jeffrey Katzenberg, then the head of Disney’s motion picture division, to overhaul the script, Woolverton helped mold the sedate French fairy tale into a lively musical with a headstrong, yellow-clad heroine. Belle, she’s since said, was based in part on Katharine Hepburn’s character in the 1933 film “Little Women.”

“Woolverton’s fight to shape Belle into a new kind of Disney heroine was just that — a fight, every step of the way,” wrote Time’s Eliza Berman in May 2016. Her scripts took almost jaw-droppingly retrogressive rewrites:

In one scene, for example, Woolverton wrote Belle sticking pins into a map of all the places she wished to travel. By the time it got to storyboarding, Belle had been rewritten into a kitchen, decorating a cake. Woolverton protested, and the compromise that was reached had Belle with her nose in a book, a pastime at first considered too passive to be compellingly animated, which is why she always walks as she reads.

Roger Allers, the film’s story supervisor, told The Huffington Post he didn’t recall the conflict over cake decorating. “If that did happen, it must have been in the few weeks before I came on board the film,” he wrote in an email. He saw another cause behind the undermining rewrites Woolverton recalled: “The tension that existed between Linda and the story crew I think was due to her previous experience as a lone writer versus working in a collaborative group situation as was the tradition at Disney. In Story there, the script, indeed all visual ideas, are all open to review and revision in search of the best, most compelling way to tell a story. Nothing is sacred.” Not even an idealistic desire to show a princess seeking fulfillment outside of the kitchen or laundry room.

Some feminist critiques of “Beauty and the Beast” have, rightly, pointed out that the relentlessly vapid girls in the town (the Gaston fan club) serve as foils for Belle’s beauty and smarts ― implying that she is the only worthwhile woman around. “A common theme among Disney princess movies is to have the main character be isolated from other women, the rose among weeds,” noted Mari Rogers, who runs a Tumblr called Feminist Disney, in an email to HuffPost. There’s some evidence that “Beauty and the Beast” actually moved slightly away from this framing, though. A frequent tactic in earlier Disney films, right up to “The Little Mermaid,” was setting the heroine in direct opposition to a loathsome, typically older, female villain: Ursula, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, the cruel queen of “Snow White” and the witch of “Sleeping Beauty.”

The Purdum adaptation of “Beauty and the Beast,” set in France in 1709, portrays such a character ― the sister of Maurice, who, as in the original fairy tale, is a poverty-stricken merchant. You can actually watch the choppily animated storyboards of the Purdum version’s first 20 minutes, with voiceovers, online:
In addition to a younger sister for Belle, the film featured their hateful aunt, who moves in with her brother Maurice, then a wealthy man, to help him care for his family ― and exploit him financially. When Maurice loses everything, his sister grows more and more shameless in her attempts to squeeze money out of her now-destitute brother and his family. In this write, Gaston is a wealthy and foppish suitor to whom Belle’s aunt schemes to marry her in order to open up a new pipeline of cash. 

Once the Purdum script was tossed, Woolverton pushed for a version in which Belle’s interests and personal qualities come through more strongly ― and, incidentally, a version without the standard-issue bogeywoman.

A beautiful girl twirling through town with a romance novel, blissfully unencumbered with female family or friends, hardly seems the stuff of feminist revolutions ― but to see it as a positive nudge of the needle, we need only compare Belle to the previous drafts written of her by Disney creators, not to mention earlier heroines who spend most of their films asleep, voiceless, or uncomplainingly devoted to domestic drudgery. Disney’s Belle wasn’t an explosion of princess archetypes, but slight progress is still progress.

Woolverton seems well aware of the power even small changes can exert. “If you depict girls and women in these roles that we’ve never seen before,” she told Time, “then it becomes an assumption for younger generations.” Could Disney have ever moved straight from Aurora, the mostly snoozing heroine of “Sleeping Beauty,” to adventurous Merida of “Brave,” or bold Elsa of “Frozen”? Or was the normalization of Ariel, Belle, and Mulan necessary, to make a more spunky and self-possessed heroine seem not just normal, but an assumption?
*The Beast Problem*

Perhaps the most troubling message of “Beauty and the Beast,” for many feminist critics, lies not with Belle herself but with the Beast and his brute-force seduction. In an email to Huff Post, writer Peggy Orenstein blasted “the idea that the right woman can ‘tame’ a beastly, abusive, troubled man and turn him into a prince.” Orenstein, the author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, pointed out that both Belle’s and Ariel’s love stories contain unsettling lessons for girls about how women find partners and structure their lives. Belle’s role as the Victorian-esque angel in the house for her abusive counterpart is, she wrote, “an insidious message to girls, almost as insidious as the idea, in Disney’s version of ‘The Little Mermaid,’ that a woman would want to ― wait for it ― give up her voice to get a man. Deeply disturbing symbolism on both counts.” Rogers pointed out that Disney actually amped up this dynamic for the animated film: “In the original tale, the entire point of the story is that the beast’s scary appearance does not match his demeanor, which is consistently gentle and kind.”

That’s strike one and two for the Renaissance Disney princess films, which breathed new life into the genre after a 30-year Disney fairy tale hiatus prompted by the poor reception of “Sleeping Beauty” in 1959. Does this potentially toxic message about romance erase the gains made in crafting more ambitious, independent princesses?

Rogers doesn’t mince words about the risks of the narrative. “The love story in this one is one of the most disturbing ones in the princess lineup and rather regressive,” she wrote. “[The Beast] was undeniably verbally abusive — and used his stature to intimidate her.” What’s more, she argued, “The imprisonment adds a double layer of WTF to the situation. It perpetuates that ‘nice guy’ concept that if you can keep yourself in a woman’s company long enough/show her enough of yourself for long enough, she’ll eventually love you.” 

Fine, conversely, resists the blanket condemnation of the films ― including the Belle/Beast relationship. Does the romance depict Stockholm Syndrome between a captor and his subdued victim, or an abusive relationship cycle? “I think it’s a stretch, and a tired one at that,” she told HuffPost in an email. “Because the true love story in this tale is about two marginalized people who find solace in each other.”

In the Beast, Fine sees a man who was never given a chance to love and accept himself: “Just as a child who is repeatedly told he is worthless will start believing it, the Beast has always been treated like a monster, and so after a while he started acting like one,” she wrote. “Belle is the first person in his life to see beyond this.” Meanwhile, she argues, Belle has more agency than simply a captive falling prey to distorted thinking. “Belle’s affection for him is not an irrational mental condition; rather it begins when she realises they are more alike than they are different (they’re both outsiders, they share the same values, the same love for books, etc.).” For what it’s worth, Woolverton also dismisses the argument that the relationship represents Stockholm Syndrome. “She was captured, but she transformed him,” she told IGN earlier this year. “She didn’t become, you know, an object.” Other critics, like Anna E. Altman and Gail de Vos, argue that, on the contrary, “there is nothing in the Beast for her to see until she puts it there.”  

Through Fine’s pro-tiara lens, empowering messages gleam through all of the princess narratives (even that darn “Sleeping Beauty”). “I believe all Disney princess movies, and the classic fairy tales they are based on, are empowering for women,” she explained, “if we stop viewing them with a misogynistic lens and see them for what they are: actual narratives of female power and heroism.”

Her take on Belle’s romance with the Beast is a reassuring angle for fans, and there’s a gut logic to it that is likely to appeal to women who grew up with the movie ― though, of course, there lies the insidiousness of the message. “We’re just two crazy weirdos and no one understands us or our love” is a delicious ideal to embrace for one’s own relationship, as most teenagers know; but it can also mask serious problems. (Why do your friends seem uncomfortable with your boyfriend? Maybe you’re two dreamers who have found understanding only in each other ― or maybe your friends have noticed that he treats you like shit.) This narrative can allow us to downplay abusive behavior in the name of celebrating a unique and special love story. The Beast’s initially shocking behavior toward Belle “shouldn’t [be] acceptable just because she ‘chose’ to stay (not that she had much of an option) or because she vocalized her displeasure with it (and then he changed),” argues Rogers.

Watching the kids in the demographic for “Beauty and the Beast” engage with these films, though, it’s hard to grasp whether damaging ideas about romance really penetrate. When I was a little Belle fan, the Beast barely figured into my princess fantasy ― it was the sun-dappled, three-story-high bookshelves, the pretty clothes, and watching a girl onscreen who seemed so much like me (just, you know, much older and with eyes the size of saucers). Does the arguably abusive dynamic between Belle and the Beast have a real impact on young fans?

Brittney Lee Hamilton, who has worked for Disney and now performs for the party company Bella Princess as heroines including Belle, told HuffPost during a phone conversation that she’s found little girls usually pay the most attention to dress and hair color, and are looking more to identify directly with the heroines than to follow the romance. “They do understand that [Belle and the Beast have] a romantic relationship,” Hamilton said, but in terms of whether they’re really taking in the details of the love story, she’s less certain. “Watching the movies now as a woman,” Hamilton said, “you do see the messages … that it’s about looks and [...] who you fall in love with, that’s what makes your life. We see that, but I don’t think kids see that.” She also acknowledged that she and her colleagues actively try to counter harmful messages kids might receive from princess movies, such as that girls should concern themselves primarily with clothing and makeup, or that meeting and marrying a prince is the ultimate point of life.

After all, the acceptance of a romance based on unhealthy behavior, not to mention the idealization of heterosexual love and marriage, could be infiltrating nonetheless, even if kids seem outwardly impervious or, at least, uninterested. It might mean Disney’s relational narratives don’t have as direct and clear an impact as, say, that of Twilight, which is geared toward adolescent girls just discovering their taste for romance. Readers of the vampire teen romance saga notoriously tend to gush over the unique appeal of a boyfriend like chilly, carnivorous Edward Cullen. Meanwhile, women who specifically reference the Beast as their ideal mate are, in my experience, rare ― but they may fall into the same category as Edward Cullen’s fans: one film preparing girls’ minds for a certain kind of partner long before they were old enough to care about romance, the other franchise capitalizing on this quietly sown predisposition to create a teen idol who is also an inhuman outsider with barely suppressed urges of violence towards his beloved.

OK, that’s pretty specific, but it’s worth questioning whether the idealized yet abusive relationships portrayed in entertainment for very young kids might prime them to embrace the same dynamics in their entertainment, and their real lives, as they grow older. One study, published this summer, suggested that Disney princess films did have an influence on little girls ― “The more the girls in the study engaged with princess culture, the more they behaved in stereotypically feminine ways,” according to researchers. As for positive effects on little girls from watching the films? The study didn’t identify any.
*Taking The Love Stories Out Of Fairy Tales*

If kids don’t even care much about the romantic arcs in their movies, and the values put forward in their entertainment are likely to influence their malleable young minds, that raises an obvious question: Why make love stories for children’s entertainment to begin with, aside from a not ill-intentioned desire to make the films appealing to parents and others outside the tyke demographic?  

Taking the romance out is a strategy Disney seems to have embraced with recent offerings ― even princessy ones ― as Slate’s Aisha Harris pointed out in a recent review of “Moana,” a new animated film that features a Polynesian girl on a mystical journey of self-discovery. “It was ‘Frozen’ in 2013 that marked a turning point for how Disney told its stories—and sold them,” writes Harris. The slightly earlier “Brave” (2012) abandoned the classic fairy tale format to tell the story of an adventurous young princess and her relationship with her mother; in “Frozen,” the romance-free twist went full Hans Christian Anderson, and the result was a smash hit. (Even if you think you know nothing about “Frozen,” you probably know half the words to “Let It Go,” the film’s most well-known and -karaoked song.) “The movie’s “Prince Charming–turned-villain and its explicit elevation of sisterhood over hetero romance felt revolutionary in the context of a Disney fairy tale,” writes Harris.

But that was in 2013, just as feminism was going celebrity mainstream. In the early ‘90s, the picture looked mighty different. “Beauty and the Beast” was just the second animated princess movie from Disney since the flop of “Sleeping Beauty,” a movie about a woman who is best described as “pretty” and “in a magically induced coma.” It’s hard to conceive, now, of a writer struggling to have a scene storyboarded of a female protagonist engaged in a hobby other than cake decorating; indeed, showing a heroine engaged in nothing but domestic tasks would seem hopelessly archaic. Merida was an archer; Mulan and Pocahontas, for all the failings of their respective films, were a warrior and an avid outdoorswoman. Tiana, of “The Princess and the Frog,” was likely to be found in the kitchen, but only because her dream is to open a restaurant. I asked Hamilton, who plays characters such as Ariel and Belle, who she performs as most often these days. “A lot of Elsa,” she said. “the ‘Frozen’ characters ― they dominate.”

Woolverton, who calls the earlier Disney princess movies “reflective of the culture” in an interview with EW, has emphasized that setting out to write a more feminist heroine in Belle proved to be “hard. You have to understand that the whole idea of the heroine-victim was baked into the cake, especially at Disney.” And even now, she said, she is satisfied with how the movie turned out. “I mean, you can only move the needle so much. Look at all the Disney princesses before her,” she pointed out. Belle “has an independent, open mind. She loves to read and to explore the outdoors. But even so, every day was a battle of making it happen,” she added. “Every single line of her dialogue was a battle.”

*Tiny Steps of Progress*

This sort of incrementalist approach, certain recent elections may have reminded us, can be infuriating to those who want change. Change over 25 years seems like an insufficient compromise ― why not fight for all that change, immediately? Or, hell, throw out the Disney princess brand machine altogether and build a feminist kids’ entertainment utopia elsewhere? Even when progress is inching forward, it can take the dreaded one-step-forward-two-steps-back route. More recent portrayals of Belle, argued Orenstein, have emphasized her beauty over her brains. In a 2012 redesign by Disney, she wrote, “Her appearance goes from forthright to flirty, from noble to hot.”  Looking at the last 25 years of Disney, though, a couple things are clear: One, a savvy media giant like Disney is too pervasive and persistent to blow up, especially if it’s willing to change to appeal to increasingly egalitarian and socially-aware young consumers. Two, investing in driving incremental change can be head-bangingly infuriating in the short term, yet produce impressive results years down the line.

Rogers expressed hope that a live-action movie would be able to improve upon the deeply problematic animated original. For one thing, she suggested, it would be great if Belle could be developed beyond an interest in travel and novels. “The fact that her father is an inventor (in a small provincial town ― what are the odds!) is intriguing,” she told HuffPost. “It would be interesting if Belle shared this interest.”

About that: Early in November, Emma Watson, who will play Belle in the upcoming live-action feature, offered a teaser about the character’s portrayal: “Yeah,” she told EW, “we made Belle an inventor.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 1 week ago.

The explosive trailer shows Pratt's Jim and Lawrence's Aurora who 'are stranded on a sinking ship' after they wake up ninety years too early during the 'greatest migration in human history.' Reported by AceShowbiz 1 week ago.

Dunlee, a division of Philips, will display new products and programs at the Radiological Society of North America's (RSNA) 102nd Scientific Meeting and Annual Assembly in Chicago (US) from November 27 through December 1, 2016. The company will display the DA200 P40 replacement CT tube for the replacement business, new OEM solutions, and Smit Röntgen products and parts.

Aurora, IL (PRWEB) November 25, 2016

Dunlee specializes in replacement CT tubes for GE scanners and has a full portfolio of products including tubes for the LightSpeed, BrightSpeed, HiSpeed and ProSpeed scanners. The newest addition to our portfolio, the DA200 P40 for the Optima CT660 scanner, will be presented to RSNA attendees. The Dunlee DA200 P40 is designed to be a more economical solution for customers seeking value both as a retrofit for the liquid bearing version and the original.

Dunlee personnel will also be presenting new Glassware Solutions programs that help facilities mitigate the risks of CT scanner downtime. The Glassware Solutions program offers programs for every risk profile. Standard monthly program premiums offer a range of benefits from unlimited CT tube replacement to proactive CT tube change outs. Dunlee personnel will be available to discuss AllParts Medical show specials that offer new replacement CT tubes with full warranty, installation, free preventative maintenance, and training credits.

Dunlee stocks CT tubes in major hubs throughout the United Sales and Europe to minimize costly downtime and patient impact. Tubes can be shipped same day or next day by calling our 24/7 customer service department 365 days a year. For more information please contact us at 1-800-238-3780, visit http://www.dunlee.com or stop by Booth 2707 during RSNA 2016 in the South Hall of McCormick Place.

Original equipment manufacturers attending RSNA will be interested to learn more about the Dunlee XS 80, which is a new Performance class X-Segment that offers a scalable x-ray power chain solution from 40kW to 80kW. The combination of a proven x-ray tube design with spiral groove bearing, small focal spot including x-deflection and an intelligent generator offers superior image quality and high patient throughput.

Attendees will have the opportunity to improve their product knowledge of the Smit Röntgen Antiscatter X-ray grids product line, which is comprised of standard, mammography and specialty grid applications. Dunlee offers Smit Röntgen 3D-printed tungsten parts that are fabricated using additive Powder Bed Laser Melting manufacturing techniques for greater precision and control. This novel and unique 3D printing technology offers great freedom of design and allows custom-made, highly complex shaped parts to be manufactured from pure tungsten.· LightSpeed, BrightSpeed, HiSpeed and Optima CT660 are trademarks of General Electric Co.

About Dunlee, a division of Philips:
Dunlee is a premier brand for manufacturing of OEM imaging components and CT tubes. Building on 120 years of experience, Dunlee’s people, products, programs and partnerships have shaped how images are made. Dunlee remains at the forefront of medical imaging as an international leader in research, design, and manufacturing of high-performance CT tubes. Dunlee markets and distributes products to OEMs, service providers, and end users all over the world. Reported by PRWeb 6 days ago.

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66 companies and 3 projects were named “Best of the United States” 2016 Honorees

(PRWEB) November 28, 2016

US Builders Review has released its annual “Best of the United States” 2016 special edition, featuring more than 60 of the nation's top construction companies.

Since 2013, US Builders Review, a leading construction trade journal, has recognized construction and building companies from across the country for their industry contributions, commitment to employees and forward thinking through the annual Best of the United States awards.

This year, 66 companies and three projects were selected from nearly 700 eligible businesses; stories about them appear in a special US Builders Review “Best of the United States” edition.

Due to the high number of honorees, the 2016 special edition is broken down into two volumes. Among the companies recognized are cover stories Bergeron Land Development Inc. and Idaho Pacific Lumber Company (IdaPac).

“IdaPac sells nationally and it’s important to get our name and our story out there in front of customers and suppliers– both established and new– and also to potential new employee-owners who may desire working and building something fun and profitable for the long haul,” says Scott Sunday, director of purchasing & sales at IdaPac. “‘The Best of the United States’ cover feature is a great vehicle for IdaPac to get the word out."

For more on these and other companies being recognized, view the special editions online. The full list of honorees is below.

“Best of the United States” 2016 (Vol I)·     Adache Group Architects
·     All-Tech Inc.
·     Arviso Construcion Company Inc.
·     Bergeron Land Development Inc.
·     BGO Architects
·     Birdair Inc.
·     Burdick Excavating Co. Inc.
·     Burns & Scalo Roofing Company Inc.
·     Childers Enterprises
·     Cornerstone Contracting Corporation
·     Davis Brody Bond LLP
·     Enterprise Construction Inc.
·     F.S. VanHoose & Company Inc.
·     Freyssinet USA
·     Gary Lee Partners
·     Glass Inc.
·     Gorick Construction Co. Inc.
·     Harmon Construction Inc.
·     Hi Tech Data Floors Inc.
·     HJ Foundation Co.
·     Lee's Welding Inc.
·     Milton J. Wood Company
·     Robert A. Aird Inc.
·     Rodenberg Diversified LLC
·     Russell Construction Company
·     Starkweather Roofing Inc.
·     The Bruce Company Inc.
·     The Collage Companies
·     Tschiggfrie Excavating Co.
·     Turnstone Corporation
·     Valley Unique Electric Inc.
·     Vause Mechanical Contracting Inc.
·     Wiginton Corporation

“Best of the United States” 2016 (Vol II)

·     Acme Erectors Inc.
·     Aero Mechanical Inc.
·     Aurora Electric
·     AYG Construction
·     Bill Lorrigan Construction
·     Burnham Insulation Sales Inc.
·     Chesapeake Sprinkler Company
·     FireTech LLC
·     G. W. Mitchell Construction
·     George Breslaw Plumbing LLC
·     Hi-Tide Boat Lifts
·     Idaho Pacific Lumber Company Inc.
·     Knez Building Materials Company
·     Leach Painting Company
·     Madsen Inc.
·     Mason Construction Ltd.
·     Meyer Najem
·     Red Red Wine Estates
·     Redwood Painting Co.
·     Robinson Green Beretta Architects
·     SAC Wireless
·     Sandvick Architects Inc.
·     Service Painting of Florida
·     Sports Turf Company Inc.
·     Steel Nation
·     Tex-Air Company Inc.
·     The University of Richmond Dining Services
·     Tutor Electrical Service Inc.
·     Weyer's Floor Service Inc.

To nominate a company for the “Best of the United States” 2017 special edition, contact Nick Randall at nrandall(at)usbuildersreview(dot)com.

About US Builders Review

US Builders Review is a digital trade journal striving to build strong connections within the many sectors of the U.S. construction industry. The industry leading trade journal connects with top executives representing general contractors, custom builders, specialty trades, architects, engineering firms, suppliers and more to draw out unique perspectives and insights to the advances and challenges of the country’s varied construction markets. US Builders Review is created and published by TrueLine Publishing. Reported by PRWeb 4 days ago.