"New England nautical vintage cottage" is the soothing style we all need right now. READ MORE...

In a short preprint The super-Sasaki metric on the antitangent bundle, I explicitly show how to lift a Riemannian metric and an almost symplectic two-form on a manifold $latex M$ to a Riemannian metric on the antitangent bundle $latex Pi T M$, which is, of course, a supermanifold. This example was first given in Modular...

The short preprint The super-Sasaki metric on the antitangent bundle, has now been extensivly rewriten and improved. I wrote about the first draft here. One of the major improvments is that I now clearly link the construction to almost Hermitian manifolds, although the almost complex structure plays no direct role in the lifting the metric...

On 7 March, 2018, around 50 delegates joined Iriss for a day of discussion and talks. The theme of the day was to explore how co-production can equip social services with the cultural competency they need when working with Gypsy Traveller and Roma communities. It was a chance to identify the unique challenges facing these two distinct communities in Scotland and think about creative ways to overcome them.

At this event we heard from Geetha Marcus. Geetha is a sociologist, feminist and teacher activist whose research and teaching interests focus on social inequalities within public education systems. In 2012, she was awarded a jointly funded Scottish Government/ESRC doctoral research into the educational experiences of Gypsy/Traveller girls in Scotland.

tIn the course of this research, she conducted an extensive range of in-depth interviews with young Traveller women about their racialised and gendered experiences within public spaces of school and private spaces of home. This research attempts to address a gap in the literature where Gypsy/Traveller girls' experiences are mis-recognised and erased through non-recognition. The girls' stories are highlighted and juxtaposed alongside the general problems encountered by Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland to reveal a complex narrative. Geetha shared her experiences of working as a researcher on this project and insights from the girls she worked with. It was followed by a lively and interesting discussion.

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Music Credit: Something Elated by Broke For Free

At the Social Work Scotland AGM 2018, John Devaney, Centenary Chair of Social Work, spoke about social work in Scotland today.

He focused on three key themes:

The nature of modern social work and contribution of social workers to civil society The role of leadership in social work How to raise or sustain profile of what social work does and its value to wider society.

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Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

On 8 February 2019, Michelle from Iriss had a conversation with Kate Samuels from Generations Working Together about the work it does to promote and support intergenerational practice.

She also chatted to Keith Mitchell and Natalie Stewart from Glasgow's Golden Generation; and Charlotte Craig from Impact Arts about their intergenerational work.

Generations Working Together is holding its annual conference on 6 March in Glasgow. You can book a place on their website.

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Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes

The Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) annual conference was held on 19 and 20 June 2019 in Stirling, with the theme 'Youth Justice Through the Ages'.

Michelle from Iriss spoke to some of speakers on the first day of the conference. These included Fiona Dyer, Interim Director at CYCJ; Bruce Adamson, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People; the Right Hon. Lady Dorrian, Lord Justice Clerk; Dr Tim Bateman, University of Bedfordshire; Rosie Moore, Independent Care Review and Co-chair of conference; and James Frame, Co-Chair of the conference. 

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Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Get into Care is a recruitment campaign that supports less advantaged young people to work in the care sector. It is a partnership of Crossreach and the Prince's Trust Scotland.

Corrine Morrison-Gillies, Head of HR Operations and People Development at Crossreach spoke to Iriss about this award winning programme. Charlene, a young woman involved in the programme also shared the story of how she was supported into work by it.

Transcript of episode

Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Is use of language something you carefully consider as a social worker?

And is language important to social work practice?

Sara Hitchin, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Stirling certainly thinks so and has written an article about it for the Scottish Organisation for Practice Teaching or Scopt.

Michelle from Iriss went along to University of Stirling to have a conversation with her about the importance of language and its relationship to social work values.

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Music Credit: Make your dream a reality by Scott Holmes.

Creative Commons has joined forces with other legal experts and leading scientists to offer a simple way for universities, companies, and other holders of intellectual property rights to support the development of medicines, test kits, vaccines, and other scientific discoveries related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. The Open COVID Pledge grants the … Read More "Open COVID Pledge: Removing Obstacles to Sharing IP in the Fight Against COVID-19"

The post Open COVID Pledge: Removing Obstacles to Sharing IP in the Fight Against COVID-19 appeared first on Creative Commons.

Momentum continues to swell in support of the Open COVID Pledge, with the announcement today by Amazon, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, and Sandia National Laboratories, that they are pledging their patents to the public to freely use in support of solving the COVID-19 pandemic. Following in the footsteps of Intel, Fabricatorz Foundation, and … Read More "Tech Giants Join the CC-Supported Open COVID Pledge"

The post Tech Giants Join the CC-Supported Open COVID Pledge appeared first on Creative Commons.

On the occasion of both Earth Day and World Intellectual Property Day, which this year centers on the theme of Innovation for a Green Future, we’d like to underline the importance of cultural heritage preservation as a response to the threats posed by climate change. In this post, we’ll also share some insights on how … Read More "Using CC Licenses and Tools to Share and Preserve Cultural Heritage in the Face of Climate Change"

The post Using CC Licenses and Tools to Share and Preserve Cultural Heritage in the Face of Climate Change appeared first on Creative Commons.

On October 31st, 1918, as the First World War neared its end, celebrated war poet and officer of the Second Manchesters Wilfred Owen wrote home to his mother. Sadly, this would be his last letter. Four days later–exactly a century ago–Owen was shot dead as he led his company across the Sambre–Oise Canal. His mother

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 20-11 2011 20:11

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  These were the words of Captain Peter Berger of Hallandale Beach Fire Rescue as he spoke to a full house of fire service industry leaders — along with his partner Captain Greg Moulin of DFW Airport Fire Services — on the topic of

In the mid 2000s, everyone from Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson to President George W. Bush touted hydrogen fuel cells, or HFCs, which combine oxygen from the air with hydrogen to create electricity, as the future of motoring. All these years later,

This report describes the rationale, process and learning from a project led by IRISS which explored the topic of supervision with a group of six partners from across the social services sector. The purpose of this report is to share the learning gathered through the project to provide some evidence, inspiration, and pointers for those interested in improving supervision. Key points from the report can be used to prompt reflection and discussion with teams, to review current supervision practice and to help plan improvements.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and IRISS that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Elaine Monteith from ENABLE Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. What this research paper explores: All women are asked to go to the doctor every few years to get a check for cancer but women who have a learning disability don’t go for these checks as often as other women. The paper explore what barriers there are for women attending for checks and also looks at what could be done to encourage women them to attend.

Explores how the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) promotes the delivery of cost effective social services in Scotland that will support the achievement of positive outcomes for people accessing support. It identifies a number of principles that underpin the work of IRISS and suggests how these facilitate innovative evidence-informed practice. The approach to evidence-informed practice comprises four pillars of activity. The first pillar focuses on improving awareness and access to evidence and is exemplified by the Learning Exchange, the IRISS Insights series, and audio and video recording. The second pillar refers to strengthening the evidence base and is discussed in the context of work on self-directed support. Improving skills and confidence to use evidence forms the third pillar and is represented by work on data visualisation and peer support for self-evaluation. The final pillar is embedding evidence in organisations, through co-production, creating spaces to test and challenge evidence, and through the development of evidence-based products. Supporting people to share knowledge, learn from each other and to collectively produce new knowledge and solutions is an innovative approach but also one which should be cost-effective. Pre-print. Published in Evidence and Policy, 2014 (10)4 as Embedding research into practice through innovation and creativity: a case study from social services

Report 68 published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in November 2014. This report will help readers to understand the Learning Together methodology.

Evaluation report for the inter-authority learning exchange between Shetland Islands, Falkirk and Glasgow Councils throughcare and aftercare teams. In February 2014 a member of the Throughcare and Aftercare team from Shetland, spent two weeks in each host authority as a means of developing and sharing practice, experience and learning. The report describes the planning process, in-situ experience, and post-exchange learning of participants, it also report highlights the positive learning outcomes and benefits achieved for all participating local authorities. The report identifies ideas for future applications of such a learning and practice exchange model to improve practice for looked after young people and care leavers.

ARCH, the National Respite Network and Resource Center in the United States of America identified that evidence-based research on respite care has, to large extent, been lacking. Across ages, needs and settings, respite is based upon the premise that providing caregivers periodic relief from daily, ongoing caregiving responsibilities will directly benefit them in terms of their physical health, immediate and long-term psychological health, and social-emotional relationships with family members. These benefits are assumed to result in secondary benefits for care receivers and even larger societal benefits in the form of cost benefits or improved employee productivity. Some research studies point to the merits of these assumptions. However, evidence-based research supporting this premise - or going beyond it to demonstrate how to best provide respite care that results in maximum benefits - has not been available. This report presents the findings of an expert panel composed of academics, researchers, service providers, advocates, policymakers and administrators representing a range of age groups, disabilities and professional disciplines. Over a period of 18 months the panel explored the current status of respite research, proposed strategies to overcome barriers to research, and developed a plan to encourage rigorous research in key areas.

President Trump, pull it together, man. At the very least let's work to keep the condolences about the horrific, painful moments in history that are shootings, ACCURATE. Everything about this is a stomach-turning, comically absurd kind of FAIL. Yes, the President of the United States seemingly tweeted out his condolences about the Texas mass shooting, BUT forgot to change the name of the city to Corning, California where a mass shooting occurred at Rancho Tehama Elementary School. 

This is so much to process. If you need a break, these Trump memes are what you will most likely want for said break.

Donald Trump Jr. tried to sweet talk Twitter, and NOBODY was having it. Does the guy just want to be mocked by the masses on a continually often basis at this point, or what? 

Everyone needs to read this woman's insightful Facebook post amidst the whole college admission's scandal dominating our news feeds. 

Just when we thought we'd never get anything better than Donald Trump grasping that orb, we get this dark-humored, delightfully awkward pic that just oozes cringe. Naturally, people were ready to flood Twitter with some entertaining captions. 

Poor Mayor Pete just can't seem to catch a break on the internet. The presidential candidate from South Bend, Indiana tweeted a photo of himself walking down a hallway on Saturday with the caption, "On my way back to Iowa. It's phase 4. Let's do this." The tweet has been catching a fair amount of flack for appearing to be staged. 

Here are some of Twitter's most amusing reaction memes and tweets!

What started as Bernie Sanders writing an innocent thank you note to his field staff on a white board turned into memers filling it in with hotter takes and less savory messages. Seriously, people should know better at this point than to post images on the internet of people with white boards. It's just asking for bad news.

Meet the Shadow team in charge of developing an app meant to help tally the votes from the Iowa caucus on Monday night. The purpose of the app was to help the process run more smoothly, but in the end it proved to be a complete and utter disaster, as precinct chairs supposedly couldn't get the app to actually work, in turn causing a delay in reporting.

The delay was blamed on "inconsistencies" in reporting, but honestly, who really knows what the truth is.

The team is reportedly run by people who worked on Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. Additionally, 2020 candidate Pete Buttigieg's campaign paid the tech firm over $40,000 in 2019 leading many to suspect foul play.

But this is America, and we can't possibly have problems with corruption, right?

As of right now, we still don't have all the results from the caucus, so while you continue to anxiously refresh the New York Times page, have some hot Twitter takes on the people (rats) behind Shadow, Inc.

President Donald Trump was photographed on Friday returning to the White House from a trip to North Carolina and let's just say...he's looking a bit like a mandarin orange. People have been meme-ing and roasting the photo, which shows a very defined tan line of the orange variety on his face. Trump of course called the photo "fake news," and while we have to partially agree that the original was likely altered a bit, it's still amusing to see the reactions nonetheless!

You're probably already aware that Michael Bloomberg, cringey billionaire extraordinaire and 2020 presidential candidate, has been reaching out to various big-name meme accounts on Instagram asking them to post content that makes him look a little more...hip to the kids, shall we say? 

But apparently he's doing something right with his presidential campaign, as he's been soaring in the polls and we're seeing ads for him practically everywhere.

Normally we don't like to get too political, but it's clear that Bloomberg was not hugged enough as a child.

Poor ol' Joe Biden has been the subject of many memes in this election cycle. Whether you love him or hate him, you have to admit that they've been pretty amusing. This particular meme mocks a campaign avatar where one can insert their image next to text that says "I'm on team Joe!" It's moderately cringey to say the least, but cringey makes for the best meme material.

LeakyMug special! Andrew Sims of MuggleCast and Melissa Anelli of PotterCast just saw the special extended footage of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows films at San Diego Comic Con 2010, and interviewed Tom Felton about the entire experience, and meet here in this special recording to run down all the details for you.

Episode 223 — LeakyMug from Comic Con; Deathly Hallows Footage

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Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizard World.

PotterCast is back featuring the return of Deathly Hallows Bit By Bit with an engaging take on the Shell Cottage chapter of Deathly Hallows, as well as the Latest in Potter news and more DH movie speculation!

Episode 226 — The Secrets of Shell Cottage

Find the latest episode and explore PotterCast interviews, discussions and more at PotterCast.com

Visit the-leaky-cauldron.org for the latest and greatest from Harry Potter's Wizard World.

The PotterCast gang is back to talk about their plans for the midnight release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, getting PotterCast back on track, and a lot more!

#tigerkingnetflix         #tigerkingmemes   COVID-19 has flipped our world upside down. Whether you’re on the front lines of this global health crisis or doing your part by staying put, we are all coping with losses

The overused understatement of the decade is, “This is an unprecedented time.” While the coronavirus outbreak has turned our lives into something none of us likely ever imagined, one fundamental life safety truth remains: THERE IS NO

Last week, my teenage son came to me and said, “Yo, Mom. Can we get some baby ducks?” No joke. He really said “Yo, Mom.” (Cue the eye roll.) And he really asked for ducks. (Cue the eyebrow lift.) I quickly brushed off this request