National Housing Policy in Sight
Mr. Samuel Thompson, Managing Director of the Liberia National Housing Authority (NHA), has disclosed that with the help of consultants, for the first time in Liberia’s history, the NHA has among other things, produced a new draft National Housing Policy to guide projections for providing 512,000 housing units in Liberia by 2030, the target year for Liberia to have achieved middle-income status. That means, delivery of these dwellings would require a build rate of 30,000 new dwellings every year – for the next 17 years – if Liberia is to become a middle income country.“Clearly, the old approach of the NHA actually engaging in the direct provision of homes has not worked and cannot be expected to bridge the glaring deficit in decent and affordable housing,” an NHA statement signed by managing director, Samuel W. Thomason explained.Based on those ongoing development plans, the NHA says a two-day National Stakeholder’s Colloquium is scheduled for April 17-18, 2014 and is expected to bring together a wide range of participants from across Liberia to deliberate on the draft policy. Mr. Thompson says the policy draft would then be presented to the donor community, the cabinet and the Legislature for further review and input before being finalized for formal launching. The new National Housing Policy should provide a rational and holistic framework for passing new legislation, reforming existing organizations and creating new institutions to effectively address the significant housing needs of the country. Hopefully, Mr. Thompson said, the exercise will also erase the misconception among both policy makers and the general public that the housing sector simply provides a social good. Housing, he said, is known worldwide as a powerful engine for economic growth, job creation, and poverty reduction for large numbers of people, economic justice and expansion of the tax base. Also, progress in the provision of decent, affordable housing also has a direct bearing on national security, “because it gives a larger number of families a reason to maintain peace and stability.” The NHA was established by an Act of the National Legislature to, among other things, join the overall growth and development of the Liberian economy by serving as an engine of economic growth, economic justice and individual upliftment of the citizens.However, a recent media report branded the Housing Autority a “failure”, an assertion which the NHA leadership says is unfounded. Mr. Thompson disclosed that his administration remains resolute toward meeting the country’s National Vision 2030 development framework and Agenda for Transformation that mandates the NHA to expand access to affordable housing for low income households in all counties. Based on that, in June 2012, the NHA in collaboration with the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Planning developed a plan called “Program for the Construction of 5,000 Housing Units and Home Ownership for Low to Middle Income Earners,” which are yet to become fruitful due to other challenges the entity is faced with.So far, however, a US$10 Million low-interest, 10-year fund has been provided by the CBL to LBDI to lend for housing construction and mortgage loans. Old and New Matadi residents are now tapping into these funds to purchase homes they were only occupying as tenants up to 2011. NASSCORP also provided an initial CSR funding of US$1 Million to acquire land and build the first 58 housing units and cover project management costs at the NHA Brewerville Housing Estate. However, the NHA is still awaiting approval from the Ministry of Finance’s (MOF) Debt Management Committee for a proposal submitted in September, 2013 to borrow US$2 Million from the CBL funds to build an additional 100 housing units at Brewerville, which has a purported waiting list of almost 300 applicants to purchase homes at the Estate.Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
Justin Klein, a junior from Catonsville, Md., who survived three gunshot wounds, issued a statement saying he is progressing physically and emotionally. He’s back on campus, with friends forming a buffer around his wheelchair, shielding him from reporters. “My place is here, with my friends,” Klein wrote. “The Hokie community is strong and resilient, we will persevere, we will go on and we will heal.” It will not be easy. As the weeks and months unfold, the wounded could experience depression, survivor’s guilt, thoughts of suicide, anger, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Physical injuries and painful follow-up surgeries could slow students’ academic progress and keep them feeling somewhat isolated, said Melissa Brymer, a clinical psychologist with the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. “Their scars can be reminders to themselves and to others, so this may impact their peer relationships. Their peers might not be able to cope with those reminders. They might distance themselves,” she said. There is no single way for victims of a tragedy to recover and adapt to what has happened, said Mark Lerner, a clinical psychologist and traumatic stress consultant. “For some people, getting back on the horse, getting back on the bicycle and exposing themselves to this difficult environment where this has occurred, being back on that campus will be a really good thing for them,” Lerner said. “For others, it may be more than can be expected, too much for them to handle.” Patrick Strollo, brother of wounded freshman Hilary Strollo, said there is no doubt she will return to campus after recovering at home in Gibsonia, Pa., from three gunshot wounds. “What are the other options? She’s not the only one who had something happen to her. Every single person who goes to that school has had something happen to them,” he said. “She has a ton of friends there and she needs to stick to the people she can relate with, and they’re going to get through this together.” Strollo faces a struggle similar to that of Sterne and Carney. Sterne was wounded in the leg, the image of him being carried out of the building captured in a now-famous photograph. Carney was hit in the hand during her German class, but helped fend off the gunman by barricading the door to stop him from getting back into the room. The bloodbath at Virginia Tech was singular in its horror. But in many ways, the path the wounded must follow is not so different from the one others have traveled. In January 2000, Alvaro Llanos was a freshman at New Jersey’s Seton Hall University when two students set fire to a dormitory. Three classmates died. The flames left the upper half of his body with painful and – for some time – obvious scars. He went through physical therapy and took a year off from school. When he returned, he found support – and scrutiny. “I figured I’d feel more comfortable being back at school. Especially when people know what happened, it would be easier than going to a different school and having to answer questions,” Llanos said. But after walking into a Spanish class the first day back, he quickly realized it wasn’t going to be that easy. “I felt like everyone was staring at me,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel like one of the regular students anymore.” Some of the Virginia Tech wounded may find it hard to summon patience, but eventually, they must push forward because so much awaits them, Llanos said. “You have to move on. You can’t be stuck because if you stay stuck you’re never going to be happy,” he said. “Be happy and fulfill your life.” 160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! “Your body forms a cocoon, so it will always be part of you, but it won’t hurt. That’s how I started thinking about this early on,” she said. “My biggest hope is that this is how my son will remember this. I hope he can form a cocoon around it and not let it be his defining moment.” The terror of those moments is nightmarish. After sneaking into a dorm and killing two students with two shots from a 9 mm handgun, Seung-Hui Cho took his time, heading to a post office to mail a package of video and writings expressing his anger. Then he chained the doors of Norris Hall, stormed several classrooms and unloaded more than 170 rounds over nine long minutes. Students – some wounded, some not – cowered, played dead and listened in horror as 30 of their classmates and teachers died. Cho then put a bullet through his head and dropped to the floor amid his victims. Most of the 25 people hurt in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history are healing in private, declining or ignoring interview requests. BLACKSBURG, Va. – Senior Kevin Sterne will see the scar on his thigh every time he pulls on his pants. Freshman Hilary Strollo will have to decide whether to bare her stomach in a swimsuit. And on the day someone slips a wedding band on her finger, junior Katelyn Carney will see the healed-up hole that a Virginia Tech gunman put in her left hand. Most of the dead from the April 16 massacre on campus are buried, their families learning to live with loss. Those who survived will have their own struggles, from physical scars to deep wounds of the psyche, trying to figure out how to stop the most dramatic event in their lives from overshadowing everything else that happens to them. Anne Lynam Goddard, whose son Colin was shot three times during the attack on his French class, sees his trauma the way doctors see the shrapnel embedded in the tissue of his wounded leg: trying to remove it would cause more pain and might make matters worse, so it’s best to leave it be. 
But what the heck was A-Rod’s glove doing here? Couldn’t be. Nah. So he went back to the sock rack, picked out a pair and headed toward the register. He made it about 5feet and stopped. He just had to know. So he went back, took the tan glove off the rack and saw two little words that made his jaw drop: “Pro Preferred.” It was real. Another glove caught his eye, a first baseman’s mitt with the name “Jason Giambi” stitched into it. Then he found a pitcher’s glove with the name “Steve Karsay” and a long, black infielder’s glove with “A-Rod” along the thumb. He looked around the store, feeling a little guilty even though he had done nothing wrong. As baseball collectibles go, this was the proverbial Picasso at a garage sale. Each glove cost about $100 to $150. Webb was no expert, but he guessed each glove would be worth at least triple that to a collector. “I said to the guy at the register: `You just sold a small fortune in gloves. You really should call the owner and let him know,”‘ Webb said. It turns out Webb was wrong. Each glove wasn’t worth triple what he paid for it. The tan “Alex Rodriguez” glove alone is up to $2,800 on eBay and could go as high as $5,000 to $7,000 by the end of the auction Friday. Gloves are gems “They’re definitely real,” said Dennis Esken, one of the nation’s leading glove authenticators, who examined photos of Webb’s gloves. “He definitely found himself some gems.” There are two ways of spotting a fraudulent A-Rod glove. The first is to look for a period after his name along the thumb. The retail model would have a period after his name; a real Rodriguez glove wouldn’t. The second is to look at the “g” in his name. A few years ago, Upper Deck and Rawlings gave away A-Rod gloves as prizes. Esken consulted on the project and suggested inverting the “g” to a “q” in the giveaway gloves so they couldn’t be passed off as originals later. Webb tracked down Esken and several other glove experts almost as soon as he got home with the gloves. He called the New York Yankees to see if anything had been stolen from their clubhouse, checked with Rawlings, the glove maker, to see if there was any way the gloves could be fakes, posted messages on baseball collectors’ forums for tips and to spread the word about his find in case the gloves had been stolen from a collector. He even tracked down Rodriguez’s personal merchandise dealer to see if the player had noticed some gloves missing. “I called Alex and his representatives about it after Mark called me, and they never gave me any indication the gloves had been stolen,” said Mario Monteleone, a Florida-based baseball memorabilia dealer who has worked with Rodriguez for about four years. “I don’t know how the gloves got out there, but Mark definitely found himself a small fortune. … I’m glad he’s the one who found them. He’s definitely taken the high road with them, trying to make sure they weren’t stolen, and being very professional about the whole thing.” Webb said his first priority is to make sure the gloves weren’t stolen. If they were, he said he would only ask for the $500 he paid to Play It Again Sports for the gloves back. So far, no one has come forward to say the gloves were stolen. Neither Esken nor Monteleone think they were because they would’ve heard about it. How they got there So now that the word is out, it has become almost as fun to speculate about how the gloves landed so far from their original home. The store employee who originally bought the gloves said a man in his mid-30s came into the store April13 with six gloves, the four Webb ended up purchasing about two weeks later and two catcher’s mitts. Any time a customer brings in high-end equipment like this, Play It Again Sports asks for identification and prefers they pay with a check so it can be traced later on if the goods end up being fraudulent. The man didn’t have his ID, the employee said, but went home and came back with it a few minutes later. The man left with a check for a couple of hundred dollars. “I could tell by the leather the gloves were really high-quality gloves, but it never even occurred to me they might be the real (major league gloves),” said the employee, who did not want to be identified. A couple of days later, someone bought the two catcher’s mitts. But the other four gloves stayed on the racks for about two weeks. “Who knows, maybe if I didn’t buy them, some dad would’ve bought them for his son and a little kid would be playing Little League with A-Rod’s glove right now,” Webb joked. After Webb bought the gloves, the employees contacted the store owner, Steve Zabarsky, to let him know. “It is what it is. Cie la vie,” Zabarsky said. “I don’t feel sick about it. I guess it was just his lucky day. I would’ve rather it been one of my employees’ lucky day, but that’s OK. He got lucky. Someone had to.” Esken and Monteleone think the whole thing is pretty funny. Each has theories about how the gloves got from the players to the used sporting goods store in Northridge. “A-Rod was going through a lot of gloves last year because he was struggling,” Monteleone said. “He was probably switching them in and out a lot, trying to find which one fit his hand the best so if ever there was a time a glove could go missing and someone not notice, it was last year.” Mystery in mitts Still, how does one explain the black glove and the Giambi and Karsay mitts? In August, Rodriguez switched to the longer black glove, a Robin Ventura model that was special-ordered to fit Rodriguez’s hand, because he had been making so many errors at third base. Esken thinks the gloves came from spring training, when they would have been easier to nab. There are three problems with that. One, Rodriguez didn’t wear the tan glove in spring training. Two, Karsay pitched for the Oakland A’s last season, then retired. And three, Giambi has used the same glove for 15 years, and it’s not missing. “The gloves are not property of the Yankees. The players own their own equipment, and they’re free to do what they want with it,” Yankees spokesman Ben Tuliebitz said. “As far as the Yankees are concerned, the equipment wasn’t stolen.” Still, tracing the providence makes for fun speculation. “Maybe someone took them or found them but then felt guilty or thought they’d get in trouble and wanted to get rid of them,” Esken said. “Either that, or it was some kid who had no idea what he had.” Monteleone thinks the person who sold them to Play It Again Sports probably got them from someone else and didn’t know how valuable they were. “If they were given to someone by Alex, they’d probably have a personal attachment to them. So why sell them for $25?” Monteleone said. “And, if it was stolen, whoever did it would know they are a lot more valuable than $25. So I don’t know. It could be anything. What I want to know is how the store didn’t realize what it had.” To be fair, Play It Again doesn’t deal in memorabilia, and the employees are not trained to recognize the difference between high-end equipment and collectors’ items. Zabarsky said he might have noticed, but he only saw the Karsay glove and didn’t think it was worth much anyway. “If I would’ve seen the A-Rods, I would’ve pulled them,” he said. “But what are you going to do? Some of the guys in the shop feel bad, like, `I could’ve paid for my tuition if I bought that glove,’ but that’s life. “That guy (Webb) scored. He got lucky. Good for him.” ramona.shelburne@dailynews.com (818) 713-3607160Want local news?Sign up for the Localist and stay informed Something went wrong. Please try again.subscribeCongratulations! You’re all set! Even now, Mark Webb has a hard time explaining how it all happened. He’s retraced his steps, gone over it a million times in his head, even sought spiritual counsel on whether there was a higher meaning to it all. But at the end of every thread, the same answer keeps popping up. Maybe he was just really, really lucky. Webb’s story starts off inauspiciously, like any good fish tale. Two Saturdays ago, the truck driver from Santa Clarita walked into Play It Again Sports, a sporting goods store in Northridge, to buy some socks. While he was looking around in the baseball equipment section of the store, a tan glove at the end of the used-glove rack caught his eye. He stared hard at it. The name had been stitched into the thumb in cursive letters: Alex Rodriguez. No, it couldn’t be. Could it? Webb had played a decade of minor league baseball, so he knew a professional player’s glove when he saw it. The leather is the best quality; it’s perfectly broken in with glove oil. Sometimes there’s extra padding in the pocket. And the player’s name is always perfectly stitched into the leather along one of the fingers. 
0Shares0000RUSADA director-general Yury Ganus doesn’t believe the agency will be reinstated after the WADA meeting later this month © AFP/File / Fabrice COFFRINIMOSCOW, Russian Federation, Sep 4 – The head of Russia’s anti-doping body on Tuesday was downcast about the prospects of the organisation being reinstated into the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).The governing body of world athletics has said it will uphold Russia’s ban from track and field events over mass doping until such a reinstatement takes place. “My forecast is negative,” RUSADA director-general Yury Ganus told a press conference in Moscow regarding the chances of readmission when the WADA executive committee meets on September 20.Ganus, who was appointed RUSADA chief last year, said WADA was under “huge pressure, including political pressure”.RUSADA was suspended from the world organisation in November 2015 following revelations of a vast doping scandal involving Moscow’s main drug-testing laboratory.WADA has set out a roadmap detailing the path the body must undertake to rejoin the ranks of recognised testing authorities.RUSADA has already seen staff changes and serious reforms aimed at restoring the agency’s reputation.The agency has been allowed to resume doping tests under the supervision of WADA-appointed monitors and the UK Anti-Doping Agency.However, it has failed to meet two WADA conditions.These are granting access to its Moscow laboratory and samples stored there, as well as fully accepting the findings of the bombshell McLaren report into Russian doping.Russia’s non-compliance has led to an athletics deadlock.Russian track and field athletes were barred from the 2016 Olympics and 2017 World Championships in London, with the exception of a handful of Russian athletes competing under a neutral banner.The country was also formally banned from taking part in this year’s Winter Olympics, but 168 athletes deemed “clean” were allowed to compete as neutrals.0Shares0000(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
Irish Daily Mail Sigerson Cup Semi-Final: DIT 1-11 DCU 0-9MICHAEL Murphy’s dream of landing another Sigerson Cup medal was shattered today, despite hitting a massive eight points for his DCUDIT progressed to their first Sigerson Cup final in four years with a surprise but richly deserved victory over champions DCU at the Athlone IT campus on Friday afternoon. The first semi-final of the Sigerson Cup final weekend finished with a five-point win for DIT, who led for almost the entire game, taking the lead for the first time in the 3rd minute and never relinquishing it thereafter.They led 0-8 to 0-4 at the break, but the crucial score came in the 51st minute when Offaly’s Bernard Allen broke through for the only goal of the game. Allen, who only came on as a substitute a few minutes earlier, finished smartly to the corner of the net when a chance fell to him close to goal.That score made it 1-10 to 0-7 with just 10 minutes to go, and although DCU got within four at one stage, DIT were fairly comfortable as they saw out the victory.Mayo’s Jason Doherty was DIT’s top scorer, finishing with 0-6, five of those scores coming from frees.Donegal captain Michael Murphy once again was DCU’s main attacking threat, although he didn’t register a score from play against a well organised DIT defence, with all of his eight points coming from frees. In fact, DCU only managed one point from play in the entire game, in what was a very disappointing display.Scorers for DIT: J Doherty 0-6 (5f), B Allen 1-0, D Givney 0-2, R Sheridan 0-1, D O’Sullivan 0-1, A Nestor 0-1.Scorers for DCU: M Murphy 0-8 (8f), D Rock 0-1 DDTV: HEARTBREAK AS MURPHY HITS EIGHT POINTS AND STILL LOSES SEMI-FINAL was last modified: February 22nd, 2013 by BrendaShare this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Tags:DCUDDTV: HEARTBREAK AS MURPHY HITS EIGHT POINTS AND STILL LOSES SEMI-FINALDITdonegal daily sportIrish Daily MailSigerson Cup
Embed from Getty ImagesQPR are continuing to look at Tottenham youngster Charlie Owens.The 19-year-old midfielder recently joined the R’s on trial and played for their development side last week.He made another appearance for them on Monday evening in a 1-0 win at Leeds, where Josh Bowler scored with a first-half penalty.Forward Aramide Oteh, who is currently on a work experience loan at QPR from Spurs, also played in the match at Elland Road. Ads by Revcontent Trending Articles Urologists: Men, Forget the Blue Pill! This “Destroys” ED x ‘Genius Pill’ Used By Rich Americans Now Available In Netherlands! x What She Did to Lose Weight Stuns Doctors: Do This Daily Before Bed! x One Cup of This (Before Bed) Burns Belly Fat Like Crazy! x Men, You Don’t Need the Blue Pill if You Do This x Do This Immediately if You Have Diabetes (Watch) x Follow West London Sport on TwitterFind us on Facebook
“The success of such a programme will guarantee successful diffusion and continued growth of the mobile technology and services on the African continent. Stakeholders such as network and service providers, regulatory authorities, research institutions and the business community have an important role to play.” Professor Etienne Barnard of North West University and the CSIR’s Dr Fisseha Mekuria, formerly of Uganda’s Makerere University, now join an elite group whose research efforts have been identified for support by Google’s programme to develop the best, most usable methods of information access. The CSIR said in a statement this week that both researchers plan to use a significant part of their awards for the support of students at these universities. Voice-based information access Human language technology applications, such as speech-driven, telephone-based information systems, rely on text-to-speech synthesis (TTS) to create spoken responses by computer, while automatic speech recognition (ASR) is a machine-driven technology by which natural speech is interpreted. According to Mekuria, the emergence of a local mobile content and service provider sector in Africa, supported by incubation schemes, is a crucial milestone for employment creation and economic development. “A research group, in collaboration with local universities, in mobile computing technology and services, will guarantee the sustainability and future development of the project,” he says. 23 April 2009 The challenges to be overcome in doing this, says Mekuria, revolve around affordable infrastructure, reliability and security features, and human resources to develop the necessary localised services and content. Mekuria’s Google project tackles the development of an African mobile content and service provider sector. Mobile computing Mekuria has lead a number of research projects on innovative mobile technology and secure mobile services for emerging African markets. During his time as a senior research scientist with the Ericsson Mobile Communications R&D Lab in Sweden, he developed 12 US and European patents in the areas of wireless and mobile communication platforms and systems.
“The mobile phone has become a powerful portable multimedia computer, and is an important link in the convergence of information and communications technologies and services for many people in the developing world,” says Mekuria. Search engine giant Google uses its research awards to promote interaction between itself and academia in areas such as machine learning, natural language processing, mobile computing, speech and human-computer interaction. Barnard aims to use a variety of mechanisms, including machine-learning techniques, cross-language induction and conventional manual transcription, to create such tone dictionaries for the Sotho languages (Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho and Setswana). Local mobile content Both high-quality TTS and large-vocabulary ASR for the Southern Bantu languages therefore require pronunciation dictionaries with additional tone information. Barnard’s award-winning project targets voice-based information access for Bantu languages, most of which are “tone languages”, using tone to distinguish words. His project will involve establishing a university curriculum and a research laboratory to support mobile service and content development in Africa. “However, to maintain mobile technology and services growth in Africa and migrate towards more relevant data services such as mobile health, mobile learning, mobile payment and so on, we need to complement voice and SMS services with mobile web services.” Two researchers from South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have won Google Research Awards, together worth R1.2-million, for their work in human language technologies and wireless and mobile communication systems. SAinfo reporterWould you like to use this article in your publication or on your website? See: Using SAinfo material
Share Facebook Twitter Google + LinkedIn Pinterest eFields is an Ohio State University program dedicated to advancing production agriculture through the use of field-scale research. Investigations are designed to answer questions that matter to farmers and insights from these studies are used to help farmers and their advisors understand how new practices and techniques can improve farm efficiency and profitability. Projects focus on precision nutrient management strategies and technologies to improve efficiency of fertilizer placement, enhance placement of pesticides and seed, automate machinery, and to develop analytical tools for digital agriculture.The 2017 eFields Research Report is now available. This report highlights 39 on-farm research projects that were conducted on over 3,000 acres across Ohio. In addition to the study design and yield results, each project report outlines the county where the research trial was located, general information about farm management practices at that location, and county-level weather information for the season. This information helps make it possible to identify research trials and results that align most closely with your operation.Some highlights of the 2017 report include high speed planting, soybean seeding rate trials, and the sidedressing of corn with manure using a drag hose. Excerpts from these three studies are provided as examples of what you can find within the eFields report.In order to better understand the capability of today’s high speed planters to accurately and precisely place seed, we tested a 16-row Case IH 2150 planter at five different speeds ranging from 5 to 17 mph. We measured and compared average singulation, average emergence, and yield. Check out the results on pages 20-21 of the report.With the need to find ways to apply manure more responsibly, OSU Extension has been evaluating methods to use liquid manures to side-dress corn. Trials conducted in Darke and Fulton counties are highlighted in the 2017 eFields Report. Liquid swine and dairy manure sidedress treatments were compared to commercial nitrogen sources. See if it worked on pages 44-47.Soybean seeding rate trials were planted at 13 on-farm locations across Ohio. Target seeding rates ranged from 60,000 – 240,000 seeds/acre. Information from these trials will be used to improve recommendations for variable-rate seeding prescriptions. Interested to see how your county compares to others? Check out the results on pages 76-89 of the report.You can download the full report at: go.osu.edu/eFields or request a printed copy by contacting: digitalag@osu.edu or your local Extension office.
Share Facebook Twitter Google + LinkedIn Pinterest Weather permitting; planters will start rolling across the Eastern Corn Belt in a few weeks. Soybeans, just like corn, will benefit from careful planning and attention to detail. Today’s soybean varieties have the potential to achieve yields of more than 70 bushels/acre when managed intensively. As growers head to the fields this spring, they should start planning management programs to harvest top-end yields this fall.Planting Date and Field ConditionsPlanting date is an important factor determining soybean yields. Purdue research demonstrates that optimum planting dates for soybeans are from late April to mid-May. Ohio State University planting date studies show a .6 bushel per day loss in yield potential when soybeans are planted after mid-May. Just like corn, delayed soybean planting can result in significant yield losses. Earlier planting will benefit soybean fields in several ways. In a recent C.O.R.N newsletter (link: https://agcrops.osu.edu/newsletter/corn-newsletter/2015-09/soybean-planting-date-seeding-rate-and-row-width ), Ohio State University’s Laura Lindsey wrote: “The greatest benefit of planting May 1 to mid-May is canopy closure which increases light interception, improves weed control by shading out weeds, and helps retain soil moisture.” Soybeans should be planted at a depth of 1-1.5 inches when soils are at least 50 degrees F and and dry enough to perform field work. Planting when soil is too wet, or “mudding-in” seed will cause more yield loss than delaying planting a few days to let soils dry out.Row Spacing and Seeding RateHigher soybean yields result from narrower row spacing (20in or less). According to an article published in Corn and Soybean Digest: “Just switching from 30-inch rows to spacing of 20 inches or less boosted soybean yields an average of 2.9 bushels per acre. That is greater than the 2.3-bushel yield bump that resulted from implementing a full program of fertilizer (both dry and foliar), inoculants, seed treatments and foliar fungicides on beans planted in 30-inch rows.” Appropriate seeding rates will vary based on planting date and row spacing. Planting populations will vary based on planting date, row width, and soil type. Using university recommendations for planting rates is a great place to start. While recent data suggests it is possible to lower planting rates and still achieve high yield potential, field conditions, timing, and row spacing should be considered when making adjustments to rates. Premium seed treatments are needed to insure a uniform stand.Weed ControlStarting with, and maintaining a weed-free field is essential to achieving high yields. With increases in herbicide-resistant weed populations, competition with soybean plants for nutrients is becoming a larger concern. A marestail fact sheet published by Purdue and Ohio State documents an 8 bushel/acre yield loss when spring burndown is effective but no residual herbicides are applied and as much as a 14 bushel/acre yield loss when spring burndown is not effective. This fact sheet recommends the following actions to control weeds: 1) fall and spring burndown treatments (or two spring treatments – early spring and at plant) to ensure that the field is free of marestail at the time of soybean planting, and 2) spring-applied residual (PRE) herbicides to control marestail for another 6 to 8 weeks after planting.”Because planting sets the stage for the entire growing season, it is a critical factor that determines yield potential. Taking the time to get soybean plants off to the best possible start will pay off in the end. Paying attention to details while intensively managing soybeans will allow growers to maximize productivity and reap the rewards of higher yields in the fall of 2018.
To recap here are Evan Abrams 5 preproduction/production steps:Create a script and find audioMake an A/V script with the audio on the left and video on the rightMake a storyboardCreate an animatic with the audio, script, and storyboardAnimateThis tutorial was created by Evan Abrams and can be found on his YouTube channel. Thanks for sharing Evan!Have any other tips for doing preproduction for animations?Share in the comments below. Make the most of your VFX and motion design projects with good preproduction.It can be all to easy for an aspiring motion designer to get so excited about the production phase of a project that they forget (or neglect) to dedicate time to preproduction. Just as live-action video/film requires preproduction, it’s equally as important with animation. Spending the time to ensure that your project is well thought out and setup can help you avoid disasters during production.In the following video tutorial by Premiumbeat blogger and motion designer Evan Abrams, you’ll get a good look at an effective preproduction process and find out the value of good storyboarding. This video tutorial covers:Scripting animationsA/V scriptsStoryboards vs animaticsCommon workflows