From a population of 30 to 60 million animals roaming across North America, bison reached a low of about 100 in the wild in the late 1800s. In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Bison Range in Montana to maintain a representative herd of bison under natural conditions. Today, approximately 400 bison live in the refuge, enjoying the rolling grasslands. Photo by Justin Schöen (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).
Susie Steiner’s fine 2016 novel Missing, Presumed introduced us to Detective Sergeant Manon Bradshaw and left us hoping for more. Even more of the same would have been welcome. But Steiner is too agile a writer to settle for repetition. In Persons Unknown, her second installment, she changes location and mood, opening with an apparent surrender. “Cold cases is where she’s ended up,” Steiner writes of Manon, “spending quite a few of her days following her Sat Nav inexpertly around the Fens — Turn around where possible — to interview people who couldn’t remember much about last week, never mind a decade ago.” Then coming home to “her nineties house, squat in its tray of mown turf . . . Her key in the plastic door with its fake leaded lights.” Few writers in any genre can equal Steiner when it comes to such details, and from the outset she immerses us not only in her characters’ lives but also in an England stratified by race and class. There’s the sleek London banker, for example, who “has left the Latvian sprat factory of his ancestors way behind” and the homeless winos on park benches “slumped, talking shite, seeping piss, and watching ladies in hijabs on the outdoor gym equipment.”
Manon has retreated from that London to suburban Cambridgeshire to raise her adopted son, Fly, and to await the birth of her first child. Five months pregnant by an anonymous donor (“For £850 she secured the sperm of a Dane, a nationality that seemed to carry a neutral air”), she lives with her sister, Ellie, and Ellie’s toddler, Solomon, to whom Fly is devoted. “Telling herself this is fine. This is what’s called Having It All . . . home by five, pick up some washing powder.” In the old days, a detective’s weakness was the bottle and the blonde. Now it can be pizza and babies. There is even something of Bridget Jones in Manon when she contemplates her expanding body or wheedles, “Ooh, who is it?” to a colleague rushing to a crime scene.
But she is also mean. Mean and effective: “Manon knows she can make people tense — that it is her specialist skill. She contains ruthlessness.” Particularly when a murder victim turns out to be intimately linked to her family and the evidence implicates twelve-year old Fly. “Tall black youth with his hood up?” Manon frets even before danger looms. “He might as well wear a sign saying ‘Arrest me now.’ ” But could Fly be guilty? Does loving someone mean that you can trust him? At every turn in Persons Unknown, the frailty of human connection — within families or murder units, out on the street or inside an affair — is delicately exposed. Yet never at the expense of Steiner’s lean yet textured plot.
On a December afternoon, in a prosperous neighborhood, a man staggers and falls, stabbed in the heart. Relegated to cold cases, Manon can only watch as her colleagues and friends, Harriet Harper and Davy Walker, begin to investigate the murder of a banker whose corrupt world, it turns out, oddly intersects with Manon’s own. All of this happens swiftly. The novel’s opening chapters are models of elegant compression, and Steiner’s use of alternating points of view — now Manon’s, now Davy’s — adds further tension to a drama that interlocks neatly but never mechanically. Early revelations seem inevitable rather than imposed; a passerby who cradled the body, for example, has something to hide. Manon’s sister, too, has a grimy secret. Then a voice breaks in: “I came out like anyone would — to see what all the tooting and commotion was about,” a woman tells her dictaphone machine, “a body on the ground, thrown there by a car, I shouldn’t wonder, but she was coming round . . . And people were beginning to shuffle away with their disappointment at her being alive.” Bernadette, known as Birdie, owner of the Payless Food & Wine store on seedy Kilburn High Street, might have stepped out of an Alan Bennett play. “In his heyday, my goodness!” she recalls of her hero Tony Blair. “All those years the Labour Party suffered with the bad comb-overs, the stumbling on the beach, and then Tony came along, our shiny straight-talking savior.” And now Birdie (“It’s not at all like me to help somebody”) is sheltering Angel, the injured pedestrian — whose name is not Angel and who is running from something.
Steiner expertly unspools these threads and then smoothly braids them together, using each twist — and there are just enough — to advance and deepen her plot. With similar economy, she alternates narratives (a skill that has prompted comparisons with Kate Atkinson), conjuring up mundane lives shot through with bleak humor. Manon visiting a hospital, for example, “passes the dressing-gowned smokers in wheelchairs and the slipper-shufflers trailing their catheters,” while a few miles away DS Davy Walker contemplates the “heavy lid of porridge-colored cloud” that passes for a winter sky. By the end of the story, her family has been tried intensely by fate, but its final scene finds Manon in nearly blissful retreat, newborn at her breast, new man by her side, but still, unmistakably, herself. “I’ll probably fuck it up, she thinks, as she sits up and rubs the baby’s back.”
The post Persons Unknown appeared first on The Barnes & Noble Review.
The Barnes & Noble Review http://ift.tt/2uZSI7k
This construction, finished in 2013, is located in Nara, the capital city of the Nara Prefecture, itself located in the Kansai region of Japan. The home was designed by the architectural firm ASSISTANT, by its architects Megumi Matsubara and Hiroi Ariyama, and covers a ground area of 73 square meters. It is a narrow structure that develops alongside the space and was built for a couple that decided, after 33..
The post Home in Japan Designed by ASSISTANT appeared first on HomeDSGN.
Who, when they were small, did not dream of going up to a tree house and hiding there, feeling safe? Well, you still have time to make that dream come true in this tree house designed by Cambridge graduates Andong Lu and Pingping Dou of IanD Studio. The home is a weekend getaway home hoisted high into the tree canopies of Mount Qiyun, a mountain and national park located in..
The post Tree House Designed by IanD Studio appeared first on HomeDSGN.
Building a business from the ground up is not easy. There’s a whole culture surrounding startups these days and you’ll often hear about the “lean startup” or how you only need to work 2 hours on your business and still make money. The reality is, you’re very likely going to be working a lot more than two hours a week for a very long time, and even then you aren’t guaranteed success.
One of the hardest lessons in life is that you can do everything right and still fail. Nowhere is this more evident than in the failure rates of small businesses in the United States. Approximately 20% will fail before their first year, more than a third will fail before two years, half will fail by year 5, and 70% will fail by year 10.
Sometimes the circumstances are truly out of your control, but there are still a lot of things you can do to fail-proof your business before you even get started.
Failing to plan is the same as planning to fail, as the old saying goes. And, apparently, it’s one of the most common reasons why businesses fail.
You shouldn’t just be picking out office furniture and paint colors during the planning phase. In fact, those things should come later.
Primarily, you need to plan what kind of business will do well, where it will thrive and who would be the best people to help you run it. Among the things you should consider carefully are the following points:
Location: Are you in a location where there is an abundance of talent, relatively low business taxes, enough infrastructure for your needs and room for business growth?
Competition: Can you withstand the competition or are you in a sector that is highly competitive when it comes to market share?
Team: Are you choosing the right people for the job or just taking anyone with a resume and a pulse?
Cash Flow Management: Can you deal with the ups and downs of cash flow when customers don’t pay you and you still have to pay rent?
Flexibility: Are you able to turn on a dime if you catch a hint of a shifting market?
The above is where most businesses fail and thinking about how to mitigate these problems at the outset is the first step in building a business that lasts.
See Also: How Awareness In Business Can Predict Your Future Success
Four of the top five worst places to start a business in the United States are in California, Stockton, Modesto, San Bernadino and Santa Rosa and it’s because of the high poverty rate and low education in the areas.
If you are in any one of these places, you have to carefully plan your business strategy.
Location is important, but so is industry. Healthcare is one of the most successful types of businesses to start while construction and transportation are some of the worst.
Does your town have good infrastructure? It’s going to be hard to start a tech business if you’re somewhere that still uses dial up. Shipping things out? Hope you have access to a major shipping company hub, like UPS Worldport in Louisville, Kentucky.
Having access to top talent is another concern when you are starting a business. If you are starting a business in a place that doesn’t have a university, you’re likely to starve for talent as your company grows. If you’re setting up shop in a place with high poverty, chances are the folks who need jobs the most aren’t going to have the education needed.
Take a look around as you are planning your business and determine what industry would fit your location. Don’t be afraid to move if you can’t get what you need in your current community.
See Also: 4 Key Ideas To Help Your Passion-fuelled Business Take Off Fast!
A little extra planning can go a long way when starting a business. Learn more about why businesses fail from this infographic and then do a serious audit of your business plan or current business.
Have you built something that can last or something that will barely survive the next major market shift? Is your team up to snuff? You owe it to your business to ask the hard questions.
The post How To Fail-Proof Your Business From The Beginning appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
This stunning architectural project was designed by Clàudia Raurell, Joan Astallé, and Marc Peiró of RÄS Studio in 2016. The home is located in Vila de Gràcia, a neighborhood in the Gràcia district of Barcelona, Spain, and covers a ground area of 136 square meters. The interior décor brings together elements of the rustic, the industrial, and the traditional Barcelonese styles, creating a unique ensemble that comes together beautifully. The..
The post Stunning Architectural Project Designed by RÄS Studio appeared first on HomeDSGN.
You’re reading Take Charge Of Your Emotions: 9 Ways To Never Let Your Emotions Run or Ruin You, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Human beings may experience a wide range of feelings within a day. Sometimes, the emotions we feel can get the best of us, causing us to say or do what we will later regret.
Most emotions can be reeled in by bringing awareness to what you are feeling and using practical strategies to overcome them.
Therefore, to be able to control your emotions, below are important sectors to focus on:
Your emotional experience is broken down into three elements; body language and behaviors, visceral reactions, and thoughts. Sometimes, you may clearly feel one emotion, while, at other times, you may experience a spectrum of emotions. Consider some common emotions with their three associated elements to determine how you are feeling right now.
If you are experiencing strong emotions, you need to figure out the stimulus that caused these feelings. This is especially true if you find yourself getting upset often. Think back over the last few hours or days, consider the people you have talked to and the topics of the conversations you have had.
Once you target which person/people or topic is stimulus, write down your feelings about this person or topic. Write out these emotions as ”I am disappointed because…” This exercise can give you some insight into what’s driving your emotions. You may not have even been aware of these factors before now.
Once you have written what’s driving your feelings down on paper, you can then check this statement for accuracy.
For example, if you wrote ”I am disappointed because Friend X did not buy me a birthday present,” you need to consider the variables that surrounded Friend X’s behavior and your own.
Did you explicitly tell Friend X that you didn’t want a gift this year?
Do you generally feel dissatisfied by the previous presents Friend X has brought you?
Is Friend X going through financial difficulties and couldn’t purchase a gift?
If you can find at least one shred of evidence that shows Friend X’s behavior was warranted, then you have proven that your response (i.e. disappointed) was illogical.
Understanding this will not only help you emotion-wise, it’ll help you a great deal career-wise in the sense that it’ll make you slow to conclusion, slow to give up, and it’ll make you understand that no business or career idea is the last of its kind — just as different theme platforms were developed on the basis of giving web platforms like WordPress a different, unique user interface.
After you have closely examined your thought patterns and behavior in your interactions with others, try to devise a plan to demonstrate healthier responses in the future.
Methods of Relieving Extreme Negative Emotions
Mindfulness practices such as meditation can be helpful in overcoming strong emotions such as sadness, fear, anger and even jealousy. As soon as you notice the physical cues of a strong emotion approaching (i.e. racing heart, clenched fists, etc), you can step aside and practice a few seconds or minutes of deep breathing to retain your sanity and peace.
It may be especially hard to motivate yourself to engage in physical activity when you are experiencing strong emotions, but the benefits are worthwhile. Just as regular exercise provides amazing benefit to your physical health, it can also benefit you mentally. Exercise reduces the level of body’s stress hormones, and increase the production of endorphins, which elevate your mood and act as natural pain killers.
If a strong emotional state causes you to feel tense in your body, take a few minutes to try this relaxation technique. Progressive muscle relaxation involves gradual contracting and releasing of different muscle groups in your body. It functions as a way of relieving stress and makes you more aware of tensions in your body.
There’re few circumstances when it’s best to postpone a discussion until later to avoid our emotions from getting out of control. If you are about to talk to someone when tempers are already flaring or extreme emotions are already involved, consider the acronym H.A.L.T. It represents hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness.
In conclusion, overcoming negative emotions, in some cases, is very difficult, but not impossible. Inculcate the above tips to your everyday life and you’ll gradually become fully in charge of your emotions in due time.
Joseph Chukwube is an experienced content writer, link builder and SEO specialist. He is the Founder and CEO of Dream Chase Achieve, a rapidly growing lifestyle and self-improvement blog.
Photo credit Harry Knight
You’ve read Take Charge Of Your Emotions: 9 Ways To Never Let Your Emotions Run or Ruin You, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’re reading Take Charge Of Your Emotions: 9 Ways To Never Let Your Emotions Run or Ruin You, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Human beings may experience a wide range of feelings within a day. Sometimes, the emotions we feel can get the best of us, causing us to say or do what we will later regret.
Most emotions can be reeled in by bringing awareness to what you are feeling and using practical strategies to overcome them.
Therefore, to be able to control your emotions, below are important sectors to focus on:
Your emotional experience is broken down into three elements; body language and behaviors, visceral reactions, and thoughts. Sometimes, you may clearly feel one emotion, while, at other times, you may experience a spectrum of emotions. Consider some common emotions with their three associated elements to determine how you are feeling right now.
If you are experiencing strong emotions, you need to figure out the stimulus that caused these feelings. This is especially true if you find yourself getting upset often. Think back over the last few hours or days, consider the people you have talked to and the topics of the conversations you have had.
Once you target which person/people or topic is stimulus, write down your feelings about this person or topic. Write out these emotions as ”I am disappointed because…” This exercise can give you some insight into what’s driving your emotions. You may not have even been aware of these factors before now.
Once you have written what’s driving your feelings down on paper, you can then check this statement for accuracy.
For example, if you wrote ”I am disappointed because Friend X did not buy me a birthday present,” you need to consider the variables that surrounded Friend X’s behavior and your own.
Did you explicitly tell Friend X that you didn’t want a gift this year?
Do you generally feel dissatisfied by the previous presents Friend X has brought you?
Is Friend X going through financial difficulties and couldn’t purchase a gift?
If you can find at least one shred of evidence that shows Friend X’s behavior was warranted, then you have proven that your response (i.e. disappointed) was illogical.
Understanding this will not only help you emotion-wise, it’ll help you a great deal career-wise in the sense that it’ll make you slow to conclusion, slow to give up, and it’ll make you understand that no business or career idea is the last of its kind — just as different theme platforms were developed on the basis of giving web platforms like WordPress a different, unique user interface.
After you have closely examined your thought patterns and behavior in your interactions with others, try to devise a plan to demonstrate healthier responses in the future.
Methods of Relieving Extreme Negative Emotions
Mindfulness practices such as meditation can be helpful in overcoming strong emotions such as sadness, fear, anger and even jealousy. As soon as you notice the physical cues of a strong emotion approaching (i.e. racing heart, clenched fists, etc), you can step aside and practice a few seconds or minutes of deep breathing to retain your sanity and peace.
It may be especially hard to motivate yourself to engage in physical activity when you are experiencing strong emotions, but the benefits are worthwhile. Just as regular exercise provides amazing benefit to your physical health, it can also benefit you mentally. Exercise reduces the level of body’s stress hormones, and increase the production of endorphins, which elevate your mood and act as natural pain killers.
If a strong emotional state causes you to feel tense in your body, take a few minutes to try this relaxation technique. Progressive muscle relaxation involves gradual contracting and releasing of different muscle groups in your body. It functions as a way of relieving stress and makes you more aware of tensions in your body.
There’re few circumstances when it’s best to postpone a discussion until later to avoid our emotions from getting out of control. If you are about to talk to someone when tempers are already flaring or extreme emotions are already involved, consider the acronym H.A.L.T. It represents hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness.
In conclusion, overcoming negative emotions, in some cases, is very difficult, but not impossible. Inculcate the above tips to your everyday life and you’ll gradually become fully in charge of your emotions in due time.
Joseph Chukwube is an experienced content writer, link builder and SEO specialist. He is the Founder and CEO of Dream Chase Achieve, a rapidly growing lifestyle and self-improvement blog.
Photo credit Harry Knight
You’ve read Take Charge Of Your Emotions: 9 Ways To Never Let Your Emotions Run or Ruin You, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska is 6 millions acres of wild lands with a single, 92-mile long road traveling through it. The places to go for adventure, solitude and recreation are nearly endless. Rainbow over Polychrome Overlook by Ken Conger, National Park Service.
Sig Nordal 