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I never did get around to reading English novelist George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel (frequently shortened to the minimalist 1984) but my parents decided we would see a movie based on that book decades ago when I was a teenager. It was playing at the old Boulevard Drive-In Theater in Miami.

I was a bit too young back then to fully appreciate what the production was trying to portray with its depiction of a totalitarian society, but I do remember thinking the film was interesting but thoroughly unbelievable with its Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Peace, Newspeak, Doublethink, Room 101, Thought Police, Big Brother and other plot devices dreamed up by Orwell. The film was aimed at American audiences, while a later version with Richard Burton released in October 1984 targeted United Kingdom audiences. The one we saw was the 1956 version with Edmund OBrien in the starring role.

I re-watched the entire film a few days ago, and no longer found it so thoroughly unbelievable as I had all those decades ago.

COVID VACCINE: I received a note fromLynn Miller,who wrote: We signed up for the Marion County Board of Health site in late December. We got numerous emails and finally Wednesday, a call for one of us to get a shot at Paddock Mall.

Last week I signed us up for the statewide list to ensure we were on all lists. The Publix one is a 1 hour 45 minute wait and when the window opens up, if you are lucky, you get an option to get a shot in DeLand or St. Augustine. You have to have your Medicare number for Publix but not for the Board of Health. The BOH only requires proof of residency. We used our drivers licenses but you can use a photo ID if you live in a 55 plus community.

My husband asked the fine lady who called from the Board of Healthif I was on the list, and I was. Later at 7:30 p.m., I got a call from them asking if I still wanted the shot. Of course I said yes. It is the Pfizer vaccine.

We got our first dose last Thursday night with staff from AdventHealth and some great folks from the EMTs of Marion County at the Paddock Mall. My left arm is still sore, though at the time of the shot I felt nothing. They had a great group of people and were very organized.

However, though we have had cancer and bypasses, other pals and neighbors have not gotten the call yet. Some have who are much older than we are.

I believe it is because there are not a lot of doses.Some neighbors have gotten shots previously from the Marion Department Of Health and one from Publix. We just have to sit tight, I suppose.

PLEASED CLIENT: I have written several times aboutRobert Hughesof B&H Tree Services. Hes a crackerjack handyman who can take care of most chores around your home, including land clearing, painting and many other tasks.Teresa Kerznerwrote: I would like to thank you for the recommendation of B&H Tree Services. He came the same day I called to give me an estimate, and showed up with a crew the next day. Theydid an excellent job in a very tight space. The wrangling they had to do to avoid damaging fence, landscaping, and non-replaceable lighting was amazing to watch. They were done in one day and left my yard cleaner than they found it. Thanks!

Yes, Teresa, Bob and his crew do a great job. Other readers who may want to use his services can contact him at 572-9911 and tell him Emory (and Teresa) sent you!

Please send your comments toslyguy73@gmail.comand include your FULL name, town and telephone number. This column appears eachThursday and Saturday on the Local & State page and atocala.com

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Emory Schley: Reflecting on the meaning of '1984' - Ocala

When considering sustainable building materials, timber is an obvious option. As a renewable resource we can replace the timber we cut down and grow more. Other building materials are finite, with raw materials being depleted rapidly.

However, this is only one consideration of the sustainability of materials. Other factors, using the Declare label criteria, are: what is it made of, what is the life expectancy, where is it made, what is the embodied energy and where does it go at the end of its life.

Briefly addressing the first two points, timber is a natural material which can be very durable if properly maintained. Glue and varnish/paint used for fixing and finishing can have high VOCs so their use should be carefully considered.

The timber industry in Australia is well regulated and relies on plantation timbers and harvesting of natural forests. Land clearing iis a major contributer to carbon emissions and increases biodiversity loss, but according to the ABC, the primary reason for land clearing in Australia is agriculture, not the timber industry.

The use of Plantation timber from USA, Canada and Europe is acceptable, provided it is certified. There are certification programs for timber sourced elsewhere overseas, but the validity and transparency of logging and manufacturing are harder to verify.

Although timber is carbon neutral and renewable, it has to be correctly sourced. There are great opportunities for saving carbon emissions by using timber as a structural material rather than concrete or steel. Using locally sourced plantation timber reduces transportation related emissions. The most sustainable option is recycled timber. (A conversation for another time).

Timber lends itself beautifully to prefabrication, being easy to dismantle and reuse and perfect for frameworks such as Buildings As Material Banks (BAMB), where circular economy principles drive the design process. It means that buildings are designed to be dismantled, and the components can be reused in other buildings, rather than using new materials and creating waste. Fixing methods are critical, as mechanical fixings make deconstruction and reconstruction easier.

Overall, considering timber through the above criteria, it is a sustainable option, provided it is correctly sourced and certified. By understanding how to work with timber as a structural element while maintaining fire and acoustic performance, we can unlock the potential for economic and environmental sustainability benefits. There are benefits for using prefabricated timber structures for reduced construction time and waste. There are also possibilities for modular construction that can be deconstructed for reuse. The agility and flexibility of timber make it ideal for adaptive construction systems while reducing the carbon footprint of construction.

Yaara Plaves is the head of the National Sustainability Forum (NSF)

*Hames Sharley has established the National Design Forum (NSF), tasked with promoting and educating ourselves and our clients about sustainability.

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Yaara Plaves: ' Is building with timber really sustainable?' - Architecture and Design

SOLOK, Indonesia Clipped onto a rope, climbing high up in a tree swaying in gusts of wind, Topher White finally reaches the roof of the rainforest and opens a laptop to run checks on a machine he built to transmit 24-hour live sound from the surrounding forest.

The machine is one of 27 so-called Guardian sensors eavesdropping on forests in Indonesias West Sumatra province, to listen for chainsaws as a way to tackle illegal logging in the region.

Over the next five or six years, White hopes to install tens of thousands of these audio sensors in forests around the world.

Were basically building a nervous system for the natural world, he said.

White, 39, got the idea to use sound in environmental protection 10 years ago, while volunteering at a conservation project for gibbons in Borneo.

You couldnt really monitor (the forest reservation) with people walking around, but sound seemed like a good way to capture really anything, he said.

With a background in engineering, White spent nearly a year building an audio detection sensor using an old mobile phone, solar panels and a microphone, then returned to Indonesia to test the system.

Today, Whites nonprofit, Rainforest Connection, is recording sounds to protect nature in a dozen countries with funding from some of the worlds largest technology companies, including Google and Huawei.

Incoming audio streams, from the Amazon to the Philippines, are analyzed by artificial intelligence trained to pick out desired information, from the sounds of logging to bird calls.

If the system hears a chainsaw, it sends an alert via an app to community patrols, who can check on the ground for logging.

Since it was installed more than a year ago, local monitors say the system has made their jobs easier as they help with Indonesias crackdown on forest encroachment, which includes tougher law enforcement.

(Logging) has totally stopped people are afraid of coming to this area, said patroller Jasrialdi, who goes by one name like many Indonesians.

The canopy sensor White was checking in West Sumatras Solok regency is less than an hours walk through the forest from the road leading to Sirukam, a village sustained mainly by farming.

Until recently, about 200 of Sirukams 6,000 residents opted instead for better-paid work illegally extracting timber from the forest, according to Medison, who heads the LPHM, a local forestry agency.

While cutting down some trees for community use such as building a house is often tolerated in Indonesia, logging timber to sell is illegal, he explained.

There used to be no protection of the forest, said Romi Febriandi, the elected head of the village government.

Arief Wijaya, senior manager of climate, forests and oceans at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Indonesia, said most deforestation in the country occurs due to land clearing for extractive industries.

But addressing the issue of improper community logging is also crucial, he said in an online interview.

According to Global Forest Watch, a satellite monitoring service run by WRI, Indonesias humid old-growth forest seen as vital for storing carbon dioxide and helping curb climate change shrank 10% from 2002 to 2019, but the rate of tree loss decreased in the last few years.

WRI data show production from Indonesias logging concessions declined between 2013 and 2018, but timber harvested by communities from forests like Sirukam increased by more than 50% during the same period.

In Sirukam, a tougher approach to enforcing rules against cutting down forest trees has squeezed timber trading in the area, according to former loggers and the local government.

The crackdown led Afriadi, not his real name, to ditch logging for rice farming in 2018.

The middle-aged man, dressed in a cap and batik shirt, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity, had taken up logging nearly two decades ago.

There were no other jobs, he said.

Using chainsaws and ropes, Afriadi hauled trees out of challenging terrain hazardous work that saw one of his team die in an accident for which he earned up to 1.5 million rupiah ($107) per month.

Today, he makes a fraction of that as a casual laborer while barely feeding his family with what he grows on the farm.

He still fears arrest for his past as a logger. Its better to work on the farm because of that risk, he said.

As well as tracking forest sounds, Whites technology is also listening out for whales wandering into Vancouvers shipping lanes and gunshots in a Greek national park to stop hunting.

The AI has gone through six updates, deepening its understanding of the natural world with each iteration.

White said he can tell just by glancing at a spectrogram if the system is hearing a bird or a primate.

And with engineers training the AI to identify more than 100 species with precision, he hopes Rainforest Connections systems could prove a goldmine for researchers.

We would have to be doing something very wrong not to make some major ecological discoveries over the next few years, he added.

The sensors stream audio to the cloud over a mobile phone network, which has so far limited their application to areas with viable phone reception.

To tackle that problem, the group is planning to install 32 new satellite sensors in Brazil in March, and a cheaper offline model which stores the audio recording for someone to pick up later is being manufactured for about $100.

Yozarwardi Usama Putra, head of West Sumatras forestry department, said he would like to expand the projects early-warning system beyond the 27 sensors currently installed around the province.

Besides cracking down on logging, Indonesia is also working to encourage non-timber forest enterprises, he noted, adding the West Sumatra government is helping communities access equipment to cultivate and process goods from oyster mushrooms to coffee.

This year, Rainforest Connection plans to finish collecting data for peer review from Indonesia, Peru and Romania to prove the system does help curb logging, which White hopes will prompt governments to consider using the technology at a larger scale.

But some ex-loggers say protecting Indonesias forests comes at the cost of their livelihoods and their voices have yet to be heard.

Afriadis small rice field produces just enough for his family to eat. His work as a laborer brings in 70,000 rupiah per day, but he only earns that on a handful of days each month.

Without the income from tree-cutting, he fears he may not be able to provide for his children.

I am very worried, he said.

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Treetop sensors help Indonesia eavesdrop on forests to curb illegal logging - The Japan Times

By Paul Pedro February 14, 2021 6:00am

The Ministry of Environment has ordered a landowner in Thamesville to stop cutting down trees on a property that may have multiple plant and animal species at risk after receiving several complaints.

Local environmentalists, including CK Woodlot Preservation said the tree clearing on Spence Line is hurting tree cover in the area, which they added is already very low compared to other municipalities across Ontario. They said there is species at risk in that woodlot and the land clearing is killing their habitat.

A ministry spokesperson said environmental enforcement officers visited the site and issued a verbal stop order under the Endangered Species Act to allow the ministry time to determine if any laws were broken.

The land is owned by Luiken and Hilary Huisman but Hilary said she had no time for a comment when contacted by Blackburn News.

CK Woodlot Preservation said Chatham-Kent has the lowest tree coverage in all of Southern Ontario at 3.5 per cent and dropping. The World Health Organization recommends a tree coverage of 10 per cent for a healthy community. The woodlot conservation group is contemplating a lawsuit against elected municipal officials, citing negligence regarding the issue of deforestation. They calculate approximately 200 acres of forest has been lost between 2009 and 2016 in a small part of Eastern Chatham-Kent, North of the 401.

How could any counselor say in good faith that more study is needed? We can see with our own eyes that the Natural Heritage Implementation Strategy (NHIS) has not conserved a single acre of forest. Forests are not replaced by tree plantations! posted CK Woodlot Preservation on its Facebook page.

Chatham-Kent does not currently have a forest conservation bylaw. Chatham-Kent General Manager of Community Development Bruce McAllister said that the municipality is one of the few remaining municipalities that does not currently have a regulatory tree management bylaw or site alteration bylaw of some type. However, he added collaboration continues with the the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority (LTVCA) and willing landowners to increase forest, wetland and native prairie cover in Chatham-Kent.

The LTVCA said it doesnt regulate woodlands and the woodlot in question is out of its jurisdiction.

The LTVCA has no legal authority or means to prevent or stop the clearing of this woodlot, said Jason Wintermute of the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority. It is not occurring in a regulated area, so no permit is required from us. The Conservation Authorities Act legislation doesnt apply to this type of activity.

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Mass tree cutting in Thamesville draws outrage - BlackburnNews.com

Aberdeenshire Council Roads Service along with partner contractors and farmers have been continuing throughout Tuesday working to reopen and widen paths on roads affected by drifting at the weekend.

This work will continue over the next few days on a prioritised basis and road users are again being asked to be patient while work is ongoing on the network of over 3300 miles of roads and more than 800 miles of footway.

A spokesman for the council said: "Clearing 3300 miles of road is the equivalent of driving from John OGroats to Lands End and back then doing it all again for a second time.

"That demonstrates the scale of the task we have been facing this week getting the road network fully operational again.

"Many of the roads were affected by snow drifts up to 14 feet deep and some roads had extremely deep drifts extending over miles of road including the A93 at Glenshee and the A920 Dufftown to Huntly Corsemaul Road, which we managed to get open again with our neighbours in Moray."

The list of roads which still remain closed due to drifting include: A93 Glenshee (at snow gates), A939 Lecht (at snow gates), A939 Gairnshiel - Colnabaichin, A941 Cabrach, B974 Cairn OMount (at snow gates) and the B976 Crathie to Gairnshiel, but work is continuing on these roads at present.

Many minor roads will still be closed, impassable, or only passable with extreme care.

Further information on our winter service operations can be found at:

In light of the extreme cold weather road surfaces will be severely affected by pot-holing in places.

Council staff are now working through a programme of repairs on a prioritised basis and road users are therefore asked to continue driving with appropriate caution.

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Roads crews, partner contractors and farmers continue with snowdrift clearing in Aberdeenshire - Grampian Online

Jesse Keenan, an associate professor of real estate at Tulane Universitys School of Architecture,told the New York Times in a widely read article in 2019 that Duluth, Minnesota, could experience a real estate boom from climate migrants moving north. But the Rhodium Group also identified the Ohio River basin, New England, and parts of the mid-Atlantic as equally attractive.

Will climate change really reverse decades of slow or negative population growth in Michigan and the Upper Midwest? Every year since 2000 the annual United Van Lines national moving study identified Michigan and its neighbors as the top region for outmigration to other states.

Still, some of the preparation for projected growth has already started, the result unanticipated until now of innumerable projects that respond to rising carbon levels in the atmosphere. Heres a sampling:

Great Lakes forests are the foundation of a $100 billion annual recreation, manufacturing, and real estate economy that employs hundreds of thousands of workers. The forests absorb and store carbon, reduce flooding and erosion, keep streams clean, and provide habitat for plants and animals. The Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, a research unit of the U.S. Forest Service, is one of the leading groups that has dispatched teams of forest specialists to build partnerships with businesses and communities, conduct public education workshops, and assist land managers across the eight Great Lakes states in adapting practices that enhance the capacity of forests to thrive in changing conditions.

In response to rain and snowmelt inundating water treatment plants and polluting rivers, Detroit is a leader among American metropolitan areas. Reacting to a lawsuit brought by the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the Rouge River, Detroit and 47 other cities in three southeast Michigan counties spent $500 million from 1994 to 2000 to end the combined sewer overflows that poured untreated filth into the river during storms. Since then, Detroit has spent $528 million more to build eight retention basins and treatment plants for storing and disinfecting 131 million gallons of stormwater that otherwise would drain into the Rouge and Detroit rivers during heavy rains and snows.

Three years ago, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department increased drainage fees to raise $150 million to pay for its state-of-the-art stormwater system. The fees were based on a monthly $750-per-acre charge on impermeable surfaces for Detroit properties. Up to 80 percent discounts were offered, in particular for parking lot owners and manufacturers who reduce or eliminate storm water flowing off their property.

Those offers spurred myriad innovations in the city. For instance, Chip Letts, chief executive of Letts Industries, a Detroit-based auto parts manufacturer, installed a $1 million green roof and ground level rain garden at the companys 70,000 square-foot building on Bellevue Street. Letts received a $50,000 grant from the city to help pay for the roof and garden.

He receives an 80 percent discount on drainage fees for the 104-year-old building that hes renovating into spaces for offices and workshops. The green roof and rain garden, viewed as attractive amenities, have raised the occupancy rate of Letts new Beltline Center to over 70 percent. Its all working well, he said in an interview. Im happy.

In September, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order that called for cutting emissions 28 percent by 2025, compared with 1990 levels, and set 2050 as the deadline for the state to reach carbon neutrality. Michigans conservative legislature could be an impediment to achieving those goals, but the state is clearly moving in that direction.

Almost a fifth of Michigans electrical generating capacity comes from renewable sources, according to the Michigan Public Service Commission; a decade ago it was under four percent.

Similarly, Michigans big electric utilities, for decades the largest carbon producers and water users, are steadily making the transition to reduce both. As recently as 2010, 27 coal-fired power stations operated in Michigan; now there are 12.

Consumers Energy, Michigans largest utility, announced three years ago that it would close its coal-fired plants by 2040. DTE Energy, the second largest utility, announced it will be carbon neutral by 2050, a target that could be met earlier, said Greg Ryan, the companys manager of environmental sustainability and climate change.

Carbon reduction is a primary goal, he said. Were getting there as fast as we can.

Whether they are big or small, climate-related responses are complex, expensive and take years to complete. The Detroit stormwater drainage network started in 1977 with a federal order, took four decades to build, and cost over $1 billion. This massive project also did nothing to improve the D+ grade that The American Society of Civil Engineers awarded Michigan in 2018 for the condition of its infrastructure.

Smaller projects are hardly easier.

High water levels and less ice on Lake Superior, for example, produced huge winter waves that steadily turned 1-mile-long Lakeshore Boulevard in Marquette to rubble. Fixing the damage involved moving the road 300 feet inland and converting more than 30 acres of city-owned property into a natural buffer zone and public park to absorb the lakes energy.

Sounds like a readily achievable solution. In concept it was. In practice it was not, according to Tyler Penrod of Superior Watershed Partnership, a Marquette-based conservation group that helped lead the project. The new road was built last year. Next summer the shoreline buffer and park will be planted in native species of grass and trees. The $12-million project took 12 years of public discussion, community meeting, engineering, design, fundraising and construction to complete.

The Marquette project is a distillation of the need to unsnarl the process for updates required to respond to climate change in the Great Lakes states. Beth Gibbons and her ASAP colleagues have set out to use climate science to help answer another riddle about human migration to the region.

Mother Earth is not waiting. She is pushing back hard with heat, fires, hurricanes, droughts, floods, tornados, earthquakes and plagues. If anything is true about the hotter, harder, illogical and alarming era that weve entered, its this: Climate disruption will force the Great Lakes states to scrub clean the rusted parts, and add innumerable new ones to the regional workbench of governance and management.

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Water could make the Great Lakes a climate refuge. Are we prepared? - Bridge Michigan

Radiation under a Staten Island park from a 1940s landfill and a fight over who should clean it up has again halted progress on the East Shore Seawall, a key climate resiliency project.

The radiation in the planned 5.3-mile seawalls path comes from Great Kills Park, where radium-226 was first found during an anti-terror aerial survey conducted by the NYPD in 2005. The vast majority of the park has been shut since 2009.

The seawall originally was supposed to be completed this year. But now more than eight years after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the borough and about six years after the project was announced, construction remains stalled as the feds, city and state differ on whos responsible for getting rid of the radiation.

Now it could be 2026 before the work gets done, officials say.

The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) told its state and city partners in August that it couldnt undertake the planned removal of hazardous materials on the land without a policy waiver from the assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, according to various city and federal officials.

But the Army Corps would first have to recommend the policy waiver, which it hasnt done.

Given there is very little precedent for [radioactive waste] remediation work to be undertaken by USACE as part of a civil works project, there is no guarantee a waiver would be approved, Jennifer Gunn, a spokesperson for the Army Corps, told THE CITY last week.

Citing federal environmental protection laws, Gunn asserted that the contamination is ultimately not her agencys responsibility.

USACE is not a potentially responsible party for the contamination located within the project site, said Gunn.

Remediation [is] the responsibility of the non-federal sponsor, New York State. USACE has every expectation the non-federal sponsor will comply with the terms of the agreements they sign, said Gunn in a statement Friday.

The Army Corps, city and the state signed an agreement in 2019 that assigned clean-up duties to the state, Gunn noted. The Army Corps has also suggested that either Albany or City Hall could take on the hazmat effort, since it is on land owned by the city, officials told THE CITY.

First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan told the Army in a January letter that making the city find a contractor to do the work would delay construction, currently set to end in 2025, by at least 12 months.

But Fuleihan affirmed that, as outlined in its 2019 agreement with the Army Corps, the city would pay for the entire cost of the Army Corps or state removing the radioactive waste.

Staten Islanders were devastated by Hurricane Sandy and must be protected from future storms without delay, Jainey Bavishi, director of the Mayors Office of Resiliency told THE CITY in a statement. The city, state, and both of New Yorks senators are united in urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to undertake the radioactive waste remediation work that will allow this project to move forward.

The state Department of Environmental Conservations commissioner, however, didnt acknowledge any responsibility to clean the site and implored the Army Corps to take on the task in a Jan. 8 letter seeking to clarify New Yorks position regarding waste cleanup.

It was the understanding of New York State that USACE would manage any radioactive material that might be excavated during the construction of the levee/floodwall, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos wrote, citing a project agreement.

A DEC spokesperson, Maureen Wren, pointed THE CITY to the letter when asked about the states responsibility to carry out the remediation.

Gunn said the Army Corps can provide technical oversight for clean-up sites, but it would still likely also need to contract out the work.

The urgency of the 5.3 mile seawall, which would stretch from the foot of the Verrazzano Bridge at Fort Wadsworth to Oakwood Beach, near Great Kills Park, is twofold for Staten Islanders.

The marine structure is intended to protect thousands of residents from potential rising waters, but it will also trigger immediate decreases in flood insurance premiums for East Shore homeowners once the project is half built.

Construction hasnt even started, according to Gunn. The original completion date for the project was 2021, but its been plagued by delays since its inception in 2015.

A formal contract among governmental partners wasnt signed until four years after the seawall project which includes a new boardwalk, drainage improvements, road elevation and tide gates was announced.

Staten Island Borough President James Oddo told THE CITY that this latest obstacle is especially frustrating because the city, state and federal agencies all knew about the issue of radiation when they entered into an official agreement in February 2019 to jointly execute the $615 million project.

The issue of the radiological material and the need for a clean up was not necessarily new news, said Oddo, who said that all parties were aware of this as far back as 2015.

Oddo said the key to forward momentum may lie with now U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who also implored the Army Corps to take on the clean-up in a December letter with fellow Democratic New York Senator Kristen Gillibrand

An inability of the Army Corps to move forward with remediation threatens to significantly delay completion of the seawall estimated to be at least two years, the senators and then-Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island, Brooklyn) wrote.

The stalemate likely means that the clean-up contract likely wont be awarded anytime soon, but the state and Army Corps will initiate construction at other segments, to expedite coastal storm risk reduction for this long-suffering, low-lying community.

New York City dumped about 15 million cubic yards of waste fill from 1944 to 1948 into the parks low lying wetlands. The National Park Service took over jurisdiction in 1972.

Chemical contaminants, including incinerator residue, sewage sludge and coal ash from a city-run incinerator used at the site are also present in the park, according to a 2017 report from NPS.

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Staten Island Seawall Delayed Over Radiation Cleanup Fight, Years After Sandy - THE CITY

The tradition of off-road racing in Parker continues with the Tensor Tire Parker 250 this weekend, Feb. 19 and 20. There will be two major races during this event. The first will be on Saturday morning, Feb. 20 and will feature motorcycles and quads. The second will be that afternoon, and it will feature utility terrain vehicles (UTVs).

In addition, there will be youth UTV races, and contingency and technical inspection will be in downtown Parker. They will be held during a street fair, the Downtown Experience.

Off-road racing in Parker dates back to the early 1970s, the early years of the sport. They were run for many years by Short Course Off-Road Enthusiasts (SCORE) International. They are now run by Las Vegas-based Best in the Desert Racing Association.

Perhaps the most notable development in recent years for this race has been the rapid growth of UTV racing. Ten to 15 years ago, when UTVs were first being introduced, there were only a handful of UTVs participating. In 2020, more UTVs participated than quads and motorcycles combined. They also posted times comparable to the best of the motorcycles and quads.

Please be aware there are some notable changes for this years race from races in years past. Due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, lands held by the Colorado River Indian Tribes have been closed to racing. This means the starting line, main pit area, and Parker Python, which are located on Tribal land behind Avi Suquilla Airport, will not be used.

The starting line and main pit area have been moved to a location off Shea Road outside of Parker on land held by the Bureau of Land Management. This is close to where the Parker off-road races started in the old days when SCORE ran the races.

In previous years, contingency and technical inspection were held at the BlueWater Resort & Casino. However, the coronavirus pandemic has put the BlueWater, a Tribal enterprise, on a limited opening. All special events have been cancelled until further notice. As a result, contingency and technical inspection will be held in downtown Parker on Feb. 19.

Contingency and technical inspection will be held at the same time as the Downtown Experience, a street fair sponsored by the Parker Regional Chamber of Commerce & Tourism. It runs from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 19. There will be vendors selling food, merchandise and racing gear.

The big races themselves will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20, with the starting line at the previously mentioned location off Shea Road. The motorcycles and quads will begin staging at 7 a.m. and set out at 7:30 a.m. The UTVs will begin staging at 12:15 p.m. and set out at 1 p.m.

Youth UTV races have also been scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19. The first will feature the 170 Stock, 170 Limited Stock, and 250 Modified classes. Staging will be at 12 noon with the race starting at 1 p.m. The race will run 35 minutes.

The second Youth UTV race will be for the 570 Stock, 570 Modified, 800 Modified and 1000/RS1 Stock classes. Staging will begin at 2 p.m. and the race will start at 3 p.m. Again, it will run for 35 minutes.

The youth races have become popular for a couple of reasons. First, they feature the next generation of the sport of off-road racing. They are also popular because they are on a short course with continuous action and no long periods of no vehicles passing by.

The youth races will start and finish at the same location of the start and finish for the Saturday races off Shea Road. The course will be about 1 to 3 miles long.

While on BLM land, all individuals involved with the race, including racers, pit crews, officials and spectators, will be required to follow the BLMs rules and guidelines regarding the coronavirus pandemic. They will be required to wear face masks at all times, and they must follow social distancing guidelines. Those who fail to follow these rules and guidelines will be asked to leave.

Best in the Desert reminds everyone to follow all posted rules if they want the races in Parker to continue. They are also reminded to clean up their campsites if they are camping, and to take out their trash when they leave.

With the BLM, La Paz County, Town of Parker and the State of Arizona watching us closely, it is very important you follow all rules and not be that person who makes it difficult for the rest of us to continue racing in Parker, BITDs Jeff Phillips said on their website. Keep in mind, Best in the Desert does not care what your name is, who your sponsor is or how much money you have! Our goals are simple: be fair to all entrants, offer a safe race, and most importantly, do our best to make this a fun weekend.

Schedule of Events for Parker 250

Friday, Feb. 19

Downtown Experience, Technical Inspection and Contingency

8 a.m. to 6 p.m. in downtown Parker

Driver Registration, Parker Community/Senior Center, 12th Street and Laguna Avenue

8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Youth UTV

10 a.m. to 1 p.m., UTV Turbo/UTV Production

1 p.m. to 3 p.m., UTV Unlimited, UTV Sportsman

3 p.m. to 5 p.m., All Motorcycles and Quads

5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., Late entries

Youth races

First race: 170 Stock, 170 Limited Stock, and 250 modified

12 Noon, Staging at starting line

12:30 p.m., Parade Lap

1 p.m., Youth race starts, 35 minutes plus one lap

Second race: 570 Stock, 570 Modified, 800 Modified, 1000/RS1 Stock

2 p.m., Staging at starting line

2:30 p.m., Parade Lap

3 p.m., Youth race starts, 35 minutes plus one lap

Saturday, Feb. 20

First race: Motorcycles and Quads

7 a.m., Motorcycle/Quad Staging at Start Line

7:30 a.m., Motorcycle/Quad Race starts

Second race: UTVs

12:15 p.m., UTV staging at starting line

1 p.m., UTV race starts

Due to restrictions on public gatherings due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no awards ceremony. Plaques and other awards will be mailed to the winners.

Spectator rules for the Parker 250.

There is (1) spectator area for the race and it is located on the designated side of Shea Road. The following are prohibited:

1. Camping in any area outside the designated spectator areas.

2. Parking, stopping, or standing any vehicle outside of the designated spectator areas.

3. Failure to keep your site free of trash and litter during the period of occupancy or failing to remove all personal equipment, trash, and litter upon departure.

For your safety and to protect the desert environment persons MUST NOT:

1. Cut or collect firewood of any kind, including dead and down wood or other vegetative material.

2. Possess, discharge, or use firearms, other weapons, or fireworks on Friday & Saturday Feb 19& 20.

3. Sell, give, or otherwise provide any alcoholic beverage to a person that has not reached the age of 21 years.

4. Be in possession of any alcoholic beverage unless that person has reached the age of 21 years.

5. Violate quiet hours by causing an unreasonable noise as determined by the authorized officer between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Arizona time.

6. Allow any pet or other animal in their care to be unrestrained at any time.

7. Operate any vehicle, including an off-highway vehicle, which is not legally registered for street and highway operation, including operation of such a vehicle in spectator viewing areas, along the racecourse, and in designated pit areas.

8. Park any vehicle in violation of posted restrictions, or in such a manner as to obstruct or impede normal or emergency traffic movement or the parking of other vehicles, create a safety hazard, or endanger any person, property or feature. Vehicles so parked are subject to removal and impoundment at the owners expense.

9. NO ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles and/or UTVs are allowed to be ridden in any spectator area

10. Spectators will be required to wear a face mask at all times during the duration for the event.

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Parker 250 this weekend, Feb. 19 and 20. | News | parkerpioneer.net - Parker Pioneer

Runs arent the only way to get a good cardio workout. In fact, they arent the best way to built lung-busting fitness, unless youre crushing hills or putting in speed on the track. Great cardio workouts are all about getting your heart rate up and keeping it up. The result should be obvious: Youre panting for breath and burning serious calories all the while. Yes, you can rearrange some furniture and take on such a workout at home. You dont need much space or much time (about 20 minutes), but you will need determination. Here we go.

Minutes 0-1: Warm Up/Front Lunges

How to: Clear the perimeter of your living room and walk the edges via deep lunges. Start by stepping far forward with your right leg, bending your right knee until its over your right toes, and keeping your back (left) leg straight. Push through the ball of your left foot and swing left leg far forward, landing in a low lunge on your left side. Continue alternating low lunges for 60 seconds.

Minutes 1-3: Warm Up/Side Lunges

How to: Step widely to the right with your right leg, landing in a deep lunge (right knee bent over toes, left leg straight). Push off the side of your left foot to bring feet back together and come to standing. Step right again and repeat side lunges for 60 seconds. Switch to left side lunges (lead with the left side step, push off back to standing with the right side) for 60 seconds.

Minutes 3-5: Box Steps

How to: Find a step stool or low chair and step up with your right leg, then transfer weight to your left leg, then step down again with your right, then down with your left. Do 10 box steps on your right as fast as you can; switch to do 10 on the left. Thats one set; do as many sets as you can, as fast as you can, for two minutes.

Minutes 5-9: High Knees/Butt Kickers

How to: Start by running fast in place, hiking your knees as high as they will go (aim for knees to chest) with every step for 30 seconds. Immediately shift to butt kickersrunning in place while kicking backwards (trying to hit your butt with your heel on every step). Do this for 30 seconds then switch to thigh knees again. Repeat this front/back sequence four times.

Minutes 9-11: Hop the Bench

How to: Stand facing that step stool or low chair you just used for box steps. This time, rather then step up on it, youre going to crouch low, swing your arms, spring off the floor, and jump over it. (If the stool is too high for you to clear, a stack of books or your kids toy chest will do.) Once you clear the bench, turn around and jump back to the start. Do 10 jumps without stopping; take a 20-second breather, then do 10 more.

Minutes 11-13: Ladder Drills

How to: Place a broomstick, mop, fireplace poker, duster handle, and anything else that lies flat in a straight line in a row on the floor in front of you. Space these objects10 totalabout a foot apart in a straight line. Stand at the head of the line and proceed to single-leg hop on your right leg from one space to the next, clearing the item on the floor each time and never letting your left foot touch the ground. When you get to the end of the line, turn around and hop back on your left leg. Next, turn sideways, place your feet tightly together, bend your knees and begin to side jump over the handles, never letting your feet separate. When you get to the end of the line, come back leading with your opposite side. On your third out-and-back, hopscotch the linestarting on two feet, spaced wide apart, then jumping onto a single foot, then back to both feet, wide apart, as you clear each bar until you reach the end of the line. Turn around and repeat coming back tot the start.

Minutes 13-16: Squat Jumps/Wall Pushups

How to: Start this full-body move with your feet hip-width apart, facing a wall about three feet away. Sink your butt toward the floor and bend your knees until they are over your toes. Push through your heels and jump vertically in the air. Land with soft knees, then immediately lean your weight forward, stretching your arms in front of you until they come in contact with the wall. Bend elbows and do a wall push-up. As you straighten your arms, push off the wall and back to standing upright. Get ready for another squat.

Minutes 16-18: Traveling Pushups

How to: Sneak a little full-body strength training into the mix with this high-energy sequence. Go back to your ladder of broomsticks and mop handles. Starting on the far left end, get down on all fours. Position yourself so that your body is between the two lines. Stretch your legs behind you and extend your arms so that your body forms a long line. Do a pushup. As you return to the extended plank position, step your right hand over the divider and into the next space; move your right leg to the side to follow. Bring your left hand and leg over closer to the right. Do another pushup. Repeat sequence, stepping over the handles each time until you reach the end of the line. Repeat coming back in the other direction, leading with your left side. Continue for two minutes.

Minutes 18-20: Jumping Jacks

How to: You know this one: Jump legs apart, jump legs together. But instead of the arms up/arms down traditional style, youre going to keep your arms raised in the air the whole time (which increases your heart rate). Repeat for two minutes. (To make it harder, either jump faster or grab lightweight objects in each hand for extra resistance.)

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This 20-Minute Living Room Cardio Workout Will Leave You Panting - Fatherly

It's only the second week of Destiny 2's Season of the Chosen, and already there's a new Exotic weapon for players to chase in a hidden Exotic quest. Here's what you need to find the Presage quest and get started earning Dead Man's Tale, a new Exotic scout rifle.

Your journey starts with this week's Nightfall: The Ordeal Strike, The Arms Dealer. You'll need to load into the mission in order to find the path to start Presage, so you'll want to grind your Power level up to at least 1230 to make things easier on yourself. The mission you're looking to unlock, Presage, also has a recommended Power level of 1230, so keep that in mind before you get started.

You'll need to start The Arms Dealer, this week's Nightfall: The Ordeal Strike, but the good news is that you neither have to finish the Strike nor play it at a high difficulty to find what you're looking for.

Start the mission and enter the first room, a Cabal facility where you'll fight a handful of enemies. Usually, you'd then use Ghost to hack a console and open the door at the far end of the room, which leads outside. Instead, look for another, newly opened door, near the table with the big hologram on it. This leads you to another large hallway deeper into the facility, and the path is littered with turrets.

Blast your way through the hallway to its end and you'll exit outside, but this time, onto a pair of landing pads. A Major Cabal Phalanx called Than'grot, Loyal to Caiatl, blocks the path here, as do some more turrets. Shoot through them all to open the path out onto the landing pads.

You'll see a few more turrets as you push away to the facility. Jump out to the furthest landing pad and look for a big gray crate. Interact with it to receive a Cabal Distress Signal datapad in your inventory. You can check it out for a little bit of backstory.

At this point, you're done with The Arms Dealer and you can finish the Strike as normal or just depart for orbit. Head back to the Tower and talk to Zavala. After getting a rundown of the situation, you'll unlock a new mission on the Director's Tangled Shore map. Look toward the top of the screen for the Presage mission.

When you load into Presage, you'll find yourself in the loading bay entrance of the Cabal ship called the Glykon. There's actually no way through these sealed bay doors. To find the entrance, head back down the ramp and, facing toward your ship and out into space, turn right and jump to the red pipes there. You can follow the pipes and scaffolding around the outside of the ship to find an entrance that'll let you get in.

It's better to experience Presage yourself, rather than follow a guide--the mission is heavy on puzzles and asks you to find your way through, and it's a lot of fun to figure out on your own. If you want to go it alone, stop reading now. We'll leave a few more key tips below.

If you get stuck in any given room, you probably need to shoot your way out. As in other Cabal-based missions, there are a lot of pathways that are hidden by ventilation covers that you can shoot through. If you get stuck, look for a vent you can blast open. You'll also open a lot of paths by throwing big switches (similar to those found on the Leviathan), and you'll often hear a beeping alarm that marks their locations when you get nearby.

Finally, you'll sometimes open doors or blow off vent covers to reveal a power conduit. You can shoot these to disable electrical fields or open doors, although they sometimes recharge, forcing you to destroy them and then quickly run through the path they clear. Watch for what these conduits effect, because it's not always obvious.

There's one other major mechanic throughout the Glykon. You'll often run up against glowing white barriers that burn you if you touch them. To get through, you'll need to find and shoot small round glowing balls that release spores. Stand close to the orbs when you shoot them to get a buff called Eregore Link, allowing you to pass through the white barriers. The spores only work for a short time, so you'll usually need to identify your path from the spore orbs to the barrier so you can make it before the timer runs out.

The mission culminates in a boss fight with a big Scorn enemy reminiscent of The Hangman from the Forsaken expansion. He has a giant maul he slams on the ground, sending flames shooting across the floor toward you. The room where you fight him fills with other Scorn enemies as you battle him, so keep moving as best you can so you don't get bogged down. After you do a little damage to the Locus, he'll drop down to the lower level of the room, where the floor is alight from the ship's boiler. You'll need to activate three control panels on the top level of the room in order to cool it down enough that you can continue fighting him.

When you've cleared out the smaller enemies (Ticuu's Divination does well in the standard version of the mission), look for control panels at either end of the room. Behind the panels, you'll see a wide hole in the floor where you can drop down. Don't do so until you've activated all three coolant panels, however. The third is in the small room in the middle of the upper floor, but note that when the boiler is active, this room will also inflict burning on you. The best way to deal with it is to activate the other two panels first so that when you activate the panel in the burning room, it'll turn off the flames and save you from burn damage.

After the coolant panels are active, drop down and fight the Locus of Communion on the lower floor. The battle is pretty much the same as above, except there's nowhere to hide. If you get into trouble, jump up to the top floor again so you can avoid the Locus's burning maul attack. You can give him the slip pretty easily by running to one of the other two holes in the floor to drop down and get behind him.

Knock off a third of the Locus's health and the boiler will re-activate, forcing you back up to the upper floor. Clear out the enemies and repeat the process. After you deactivate the boiler twice more, you'll be clear to kill the Locus and complete the mission.

Once you kill the Locus of Communion, you'll find Dead Man's Tale in another room. The Exotic builds up bonus damage as you stack precision hits, while also gaining faster reload speed, so land as many headshots as you can with it for maximum power. Like Hawkmoon, you can re-roll Dead Man's Tale to get different perks on the gun.

Once you've finished Presage once, you'll have access to the mission on the Director. Re-running the mission gets you a Pinnacle drop. From what we can tell, having run the mission several times now, you can get one new Dead Man's Tale roll per account per week. Presage will give you three Pinnacle drops per week, one per character, but only your first run of the mission per week will give you a new Dead Man's Tale. Running the mission on alternate characters gives you random Pinnacle-level loot.

After you clear Presage for the first time and earn the Dead Man's Tale Exotic, returning to the mission allows you to unlock additional secrets within the mission. Several of them have additional Triumphs tied to finding them. Here's what we've found so far.

To unlock more information about the story of the Glykon and its crew's demise, you can find and scan several objects hidden throughout the ship. There are five scannable objects in total; find them all and finish the mission to unlock the Figments of an Answer Triumph.

Object 1: The Cabal Bodies

Progress through the ship until you make it to the switch that opens the door to the loading ramp where you first spawned in on the Glykon. Throwing the switch unlocks the door that leads into the ship proper. As soon as you go through, you'll be confronted with some weird plantlife. In the center of the room, you'll see several Cabal bodies have been grabbed by the vines and suspended in the air. Scan them for your first hint at what's going on in this place.

Object 2: Scorn Helmets

Continue forward until you hit a room with a pair of big electrical barriers splitting it apart. You'll start on one side of this room and enter a narrower hallway in order to reach a switch. To get to the other side, you'll need to jump a gap, then use spores to run through a sealed Darkness doorway. Before you do that, however, jump across and check to the right of the sealed door to find two Scorn helmets lying on the floor beside the path forward.

Object 3: The Guardian's Jump Ship

After you complete the section with the trash compactor, you'll drop into a fight with some Scorn enemies and see the Locus of Communion for the first time. Keep moving until you enter the ship's hangar for a big fight with two Abomination Majors. Clear the room and head toward the back left corner, where you'll exit out the big hangar opening and go back out into space. Before you do, scan the ship right next to the exit. It belongs to the Guardian you're searching for, and it's outfitted with some Season of Opulence gear.

Object 4: Dark Ether Canisters

Before much longer, you'll hit another room with an electrical barrier, but this one will be above you. You'll unlock a door exposing a power conduit that lets you interrupt the barrier briefly so you can pass through it. On the other side, turn left to find a side room with a switch clearing the path back to the far side of the barrier. To the right of the switch are some canisters with a light blue liquid inside, your fourth piece of evidence.

Object 5: Calus's Message

The fifth and final scannable object appears after your boss fight with the Locus of Communion. Defeat it and leave the boiler room through the newly opened door. Continue until you can blow open a hole in the floor and drop down into a ventilation shaft lit in red. Instead of continuing down the clear path, turn the other way and hop over the low pile of junk to get to an open space on the other side, where you'll find a little hologram of Calus's face. Scan it for one last tidbit of info about what happened aboard the Glykon.

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