Latest news with #andManagement
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Master Plan approved for Fishers Canyon Open Space
(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services (PRCS) said its Master and Management Plan for Fishers Canyon Open Space has been approved. According to PRCS, the open space, bordered by Pike National Forest to the west, Broadmoor Hotel holdings to the north, and Cheyenne Mountain State Park and the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station to the south, represents a significant addition to the city's natural spaces. The approved plan proposes a new trail system comprising about nine to 10 miles of enhancements in a 'wilderness-like' setting designed for a variety of users, including hikers, bikers, and equestrian riders. The Plan also includes designated zones for bouldering and rock climbing, along with a fully accessible, hiking-only trail loop complete with ADA-compliant trailhead parking. 'We would like to thank the entire community for their involvement in the planning process for Fishers Canyon Open Space,' said Britt Haley, Director of PRCS. 'This master plan will provide numerous benefits to our community, offering opportunities for outdoor recreation while also ensuring the preservation and conservation of its valuable resources and wildlife habitats. We are committed to protecting this unique landscape, allowing future generations to enjoy its beauty and ecological significance.' PRCS said one of the key highlights of the plan is its connection to the Chamberlain Trail, a 26-mile master-planned trail with the aim to connect multiple open spaces along the City's western edge including; Blodgett Open Space, Red Rock Canyon Open Space, Bear Creek Regional Park, Stratton Open Space, North Cheyenne Cañon Park, and Fishers Canyon Open Space. 227 acres or 66% of the open space is designated for wildlife and habitat protection, placing a strong emphasis on conservation, according to PRCS. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
IOL News
02-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Economic realities: workers and job seekers to consider entrepreneurship as the major economic driver
For the first time this year I shuddered at the approaching of Workers Day, a holiday we all so proudly celebrate, sometimes failing to remember the significance of it. Image: Pexels In a time where job security is no longer guaranteed and economic uncertainty is felt across industries, the need to rethink how we view employment has never been more urgent. While we continue to value traditional employment, it has become increasingly clear that the formal job market cannot absorb the majority of South Africans, a reality that calls for a stronger emphasis on entrepreneurship. A friend of mine was recently offered a salary cut, with discussions of possible retrenchment, as the multibillion-rand entity they are employed at, takes a major financial dip which has been brewing for years. This of course has rattled her, expressing her job insecurity with no other stream of income. For the first time this year I shuddered at the approaching of Workers Day, a holiday we all so proudly celebrate, sometimes failing to remember the significance of it. I realised that many South Africans cannot even relate to this day judging by the unchangeable unemployment rate. According to StatsSA the official unemployment rate was approximately 32.7% in Q4 of 2022, 32.1% for Q4 2023, and 31.9% in Q4 2024. There may be slight movement, however reaching a 10% unemployment rate anytime soon seems impossible. The reality of the matter is that the workplace in its entirety cannot absorb everyone and this awakening needs to be seen as an opportunity to stimulate and give rise to the birth of entrepreneurship in our country. Disappointingly, the youth still hold the highest stake in unemployment, therefore other solutions must be explored. It goes without saying that the original educational system was created to prepare pupils for the workplace, the mindset and foundation of the schooling system is that. Since 1997, multiply interventions attempting to incorporate entrepreneurship in the educational system had and has been put into place, including; accounting, economics, business studies and Economics and Management Sciences (EMS) and others in the pipeline, all aiming to expose learners to entrepreneurial concepts. The result of these attempts may be good, but more practical entrepreneurship learning is required. Perhaps the following additional needs can be adopted: Entrepreneurship integration needs to be a continuous and compulsory element in all curriculums and learning for primary schooling, secondary schooling and in higher education. The curriculum should not be like the current, it needs to depart from theoretical learning to a practical approach. Just as mentorship is used in business development programmes, the same concept should apply. Successful and growing entrepreneurs need to contribute to learning whether as teachers, mentors or contributors to the curriculum. Entrepreneurship should be taught, not merely as concept,but as a mental concept – one that can be applied throughout learning, pursued as a viable career path, and leveraged during periods of financial uncertainty, innovation or disruption. There needs to be more schools with an underlying focus on entrepreneurship as there are in schools focusing mainly on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). For employers and workers, the world is constantly evolving, and innovation is needed, more 'Intrapreneurs' in the workplace are needed to contribute into the sustainability of companies- innovation and new product development must be encouraged and rewarded to workers. An existing and rising trend in major entities is the utilisation of ESD budgets for the empowerment of released employees, a portion of this budget can be used to empower retrenched employees by placing them onto their supply chain accompanied by funding and business development support, this being a 'win-win' solution for the economy. Above all, SMMEs remain key players in job creation in our country, rectifying the entrapment of 'schooling and seeking employment' cycle. Entrepreneurship is a two-fold sword in job creation for our country, the job seeker turned into entrepreneur can fend for themselves and further be a job creator to many. As we reflect on the sacrifices of trade unions like the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) for Workers Day and slowly approach youth day, let us remember it as it's no coincidence that these two holidays shadow each other, one may presume that the universe anticipated that youth and unemployment would continue to coexist. As we continue to address the daunting youth employment rate and seek solutions for job leavers and seekers, entrepreneurship remains a practical solution and major driver of our economy. Londiwe Khuzwayo is Programme Manager at 22 On Sloane. Londiwe Khuzwayo, Programme Manager at 22 On Sloane Image: Supplied. BUSINESS REPORT
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Where does vanilla flavoring come from? Probably not beaver butts.
Are there beaver secretions in your vanilla ice cream? News articles or food influencers on social media might have you believe that castoreum, a yellow, syrupy substance from the castor sacs near a beaver's anus, is used as everyday vanilla flavoring, disguised as 'natural.' According to some of these sources, beaver castor is an ingredient in everything from vanilla ice cream to strawberry-flavored oatmeal. But experts say this couldn't be further from the truth. While people have used castoreum for medicinal purposes and, yes, to flavor perfumes and foods since ancient times, there's almost nothing in the grocery store today that contains castoreum. 'It turns out that the stuff is incredibly expensive, because it's rare; there's no way it's in your ice cream,' says Michelle Francl, a chemist at Bryn Mawr College who studies the science of food. According to Francl, in 2020 about 16 million pounds of vanilla extract —collected from vanilla orchids, a large group of flowering plants—was produced worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. That said, castoreum still exists in niche products such as bäversnaps, a Swedish liquor, according to the 2022 book Beavers: Ecology, Behaviour, Conservation, and Management by Frank Rosell and Róisín Campbell-Palmer. In total, the U.S. consumes less than 292 pounds a year of castoreum, castoreum extract, and castoreum liquid, according to the latest edition of Fenaroli's Handbook of Flavor Ingredients. To harvest castoreum, trappers kill beavers and remove their castor glands, which are dried and crushed. They then use alcohol to extract castoreum, similar to how vanilla is removed from the plant to make your vanilla ice cream, Francl says. Read more about the history of vanilla. For over 2,000 years, people have turned to castoreum to cure all sorts of maladies, including fevers, stomach issues, and mental illnesses. The secretions were also used in soaps and creams, and at one point was added to cigarettes to enhance the scent. Hippocrates even wrote about castoreum's healing properties in 500 B.C. 'By the Roman period, it was a stock part of people's pharmacopeia,' says Francl. Castoreum's popularity as medicine likely has something to do with its chemical makeup. According to the 2022 book, castoreum can contain more than 75 different chemical compounds—an unusually high diversity. The molasses-like material also contains salicylic acid, or aspirin, which can alleviate pain. Castoreum also has fatty acids like those in expensive skin creams. And some of its molecules are structurally similar to vanillin, the compound in vanilla orchids that's responsible for the trademark vanilla taste. Learn more about how vanilla is produced in São Tomé and Príncipe. Unfortunately, the demand for castoreum came at a cost. It was a byproduct of the centuries-long fur trade, which decimated North American and Eurasian beaver populations, nearly rendering both species extinct by the 16th century in Europe and the 19th century in North America. Castoreum plays a vital role in beavers' everyday lives. To mark their territory, both beaver species deposit mud piles on the ground and excrete castoreum on top. This serves the threefold purpose of elevating the odor, adding moisture to the scent to make it more potent, and protecting the smell from rising water levels, according to Dietland Müller-Schwarze in his 2011 book The Beaver: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer. While both males and females have castor sacs, adult males in a family are most likely to leave scent markings in strategic locations—like the pathways of other beavers—to send the message that this land is taken. Indeed, when Campbell Palmer smells castoreum in her research in Great Britain, she knows right away 'there's probably two families here, and they're telling each other, 'This is the line. This is my boundary,'' says Campbell-Palmer, head of restoration at Beaver Trust, a U.K.-based organization dedicated to increasing Eurasian beaver populations. Read how beavers are bouncing back in Sweden. 'It's a very distinctive smell, castoreum…it's kind of musky, but sweet,' says Campbell-Palmer. 'Even if you don't see beavers about, you know they're there.' Related beavers can also recognize their family members' individual castoreum scents, which is also a useful tool for Campbell-Palmer. When she wants to trap and relocate a family of beavers, she can extract one animal's castoreum and put it in a humane trap to attract its relatives. 'They're doing very well in Britain,' Campbell-Palmer adds. 'They're adapting readily.' The North American species is also rebounding, thanks to habitat preservation and hunting controls. If castoreum were ever to appear in something you ate, Francl says not to worry. 'When we're thinking about food, what really matters is the structures of the molecules,' says Francl. 'It doesn't matter whether it comes from bear or it comes from beaver, it's the same molecule—it does the same thing.' The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies castoreum as 'generally regarded as safe,' and a 2007 safety assessment published in the International Journal of Toxicology concluded that 'a long historical use of castoreum extract as a flavoring and fragrance ingredient has resulted in no reports of human adverse reactions.' 'I would try it,' Francl says. But 'probably not in ice cream.' This story was originally published on October 1, 2013. It has since been updated.
Hans India
30-04-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Lecture on future of AI in e-commerce organised
Rajamahendravaram: The Department of Commerce and Management at Government College (Autonomous) organised a one-day International Extension Lecture on 'The Future of AI in E-Commerce and the Digital Economy' on Tuesday, drawing an enthusiastic response from students and faculty. Samuel Galla, Senior Regional Director at LTI Mindtree Technology, Frankfurt, Germany, was the keynote speaker for the session. Sharing his global insights, Galla spoke on the transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence in redefining e-commerce, digital platforms, and economic models across the world. Principal Dr Ramachandra RK, who chaired the session, highlighted the increasing relevance of AI in modern business and academic spheres. Vice-Principal Dr Sri Rama Murthy underscored the vital role of e-commerce in reshaping consumer behaviour and global trade. The programme was coordinated by Dr PVV Satyanarayana, with IQAC Coordinator Dr AA Annapurna and Convenor Dr B Prathima contributing to the discussions. Faculty members including Dr P Sunanda, V Ramesh Krishna, B Sujatha, and DB Sankar Reddy were also present. Over 125 students participated in the event, engaging actively in the discussions and gaining valuable insights into the evolving digital landscape.
