Leigh Wood shocks Xu Can, takes WBA 'regular' featherweight title by TKO in 12th - ESPN

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  Nick Parkinson

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  •Reports on boxing for ESPN.co.uk, as well as several national newspapers
  •Has been reporting on British boxing for over 15 years
  •Appears on BoxNation's Boxing Matters show

Leigh Wood capitalized on a sluggish performance from Xu Can to pull off the upset and win the WBA "regular" featherweight title by TKO in the 12th round Saturday in Essex, England.

Brilliant from start to finish, Wood floored Can with a right hook in the 12th. After taking a count, Can never recovered and was stopped on his feet by referee Marcus McDonnell as Wood piled on punches.

Can (18-3, 3 KOs), who entered the fight as ESPN's No. 3-rated featherweight, was expected to overwhelm Wood with his volume of punches. But, according to CompuBox stats, Can threw just 75 punches per round after averaging 107 per round in his previous six fights.

The Chinese boxer seemed to suffer from ring rust coming off a 20-month layoff. Wood, meanwhile, was razor sharp and picked his punches perfectly in his first world title fight.

Leigh Wood, right, dropped Xu Can in the 12th before earning the stoppage victory at 2 minutes, 43 seconds of the round. Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

Wood, who turns 33 on Sunday, rose to the challenge despite fighting on six weeks' notice.

"I really want to test myself against other top fighters now," Wood said. "I'm 33 in an hour. It was about keeping my discipline and not getting carried away."

Can was making his third title defense and fought for the first time since November 2019, when he unanimously outpointed Manny Robles III.

Wood (25-2, 14 KOs), from Nottingham, England, continually picked holes in Can's guard, rocking back the Chinese boxer's head with uppercuts.

After being kept out of the ring for so long due to the coronavirus pandemic, Can started slowly and his head was jolted back by an uppercut in the second round.

Punch Stats

Punches	Can	Wood
Total landed	208	222
Total thrown	897	935
Percent	23%	24%
Jabs landed	72	32
Jabs thrown	377	458
Percent	19%	7%
Power landed	136	190
Power thrown	520	477
Percent	26%	40%
-- Courtesy of CompuBox

Can, 27, from Beijing but who trains in Miami, was busier from the third round when he began to outpunch Wood, but the English boxer continued to have success with single power shots on the counter.

Wood landed more uppercuts in the fourth and fifth rounds, as he continued to find holes in Can's defense.

Wood, who won the British title in his previous fight in February, outworked Can in the eighth and the Chinese boxer never settled into his usual high-tempo rhythm of volume punching.

Wood switched stances in the last two rounds, frustrating Can. When Wood landed a short right to the jaw in the last round, a weary Can dropped to the canvas. Wood followed up to force the stoppage at 2 minutes, 43 seconds of the 12th round.

Wood's win brings another surprising change to the featherweight landscape. Can was supposed to be fighting Wood's fellow English boxer Josh Warrington this year, but Warrington was stopped in a shocking defeat to Mexican Mauricio Lara earlier this year.

Warrington faces Lara in a rematch on Sept. 4. Kid Galahad and Jazza Dickens, both from England, will fight for the vacant IBF world featherweight title on Aug. 7.

• On the undercard, Anthony Fowler (15-1, 12 KOs) set up a big fight with rival Liverpool super welterweight Liam Smith on Oct. 9 with an eighth-round stoppage win over Germany's Rico Mueller.

The 33-year-old Smith (29-3-1, 16 KOs) made two defenses of the WBO world super welterweight title before he was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez, boxing's biggest star, in 2016. Smith failed in an attempt to win back the belt in 2018, when he was unanimously outpointed by Mexico's Jaime Munguia. In his last bout, he was unanimously outpointed by Russia's Magomed Kurbanov in May.

Fowler, 30, dominated Mueller, and it was the perfect confidence booster ahead of what will be the biggest fight of his career against Smith in Liverpool.

• Chris Billam-Smith captured the European and Commonwealth cruiserweight titles, as well as the vacant British crown, in a split-decision win over Tommy McCarthy.

The 30-year-old McCarthy (18-3, 9 KOs), from Belfast, was ranked No. 3 by the WBA and No. 4 by the IBF, but his world title hopes took a hit with this defeat.

"I will be surprised if he wants a rematch, but if he does I'm up for it," Billam-Smith said.

McCarthy looked dangerous from the start, and Billam-Smith (13-1, 10 KOs), from Bournemouth in England, did well to absorb a big right in the first round.

The early rounds were close, but Billam-Smith, 30, landed a succession of hooks in the fifth round. McCarthy took more punishment when he found himself trapped on the ropes and caught by a right cross in a round that belonged to Billam-Smith.

McCarthy finished the sixth better, but suffered a bad cut above the right eye from a clash of heads. It was a close, grueling fight, and both fighters appear to be a ways off from a world title shot.

• Turkish super middleweight Avni Yildirim has lost three straight after being unanimously outpointed by England's Jack Cullen (20-2-1, 9 KOs). Yildirim lasted three rounds with Alvarez in February, after dropping a technical decision to American Anthony Dirrell a year earlier.

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Cathie Wood Is Just a Start as Stock Pickers Storm the ETF World - Yahoo Finance

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(Bloomberg) -- Record inflows. Record fund launches. Record assets. If active money management is in decline, someone forgot to tell the ETF industry.

Amped up by a meme-crazed market and emboldened by the success of Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management, stock pickers are storming the $6.6 trillion U.S. exchange-traded fund universe like never before -- adding a new twist in the 50-year invasion from passive investing.

Passive funds still dominate the industry, but actively managed products have cut into that lead, scooping up three-times their share of the unprecedented $500 billion plowed into ETFs in 2021, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. New active funds are arriving at double the rate of passive rivals, and the cohort has boosted its market share by a third in a year.

“Historically, people have thought about ETFs as being indexed-based,” said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA Research. “Then Ark became a household name, and then investors came to realize that not only were those products worth looking at, but so were others.”

None of this is supposed to happen in an industry built on the magic of indexing. Yet a market roller coaster brought on by the pandemic is helping discretionary asset managers turn ETFs to their own advantage.

Equity conditions in general have become conducive to an active approach, leadership shifting in a stop-start economy, an unpredictable macro backdrop, and increased market breadth.

Read more: Active Funds Crushed Equity Benchmarks in May Like Never Before

At the same time, investors are showing an unusual willingness to make concentrated bets, from riding the meme-stock madness to following the kind of thematic vision laid out by Wood.

They’ve poured $62 billion into active ETFs year-to-date. That’s 12% of total flows going to a slice of the market with only 4% of assets. In the rush to tap the burgeoning demand, issuers have now launched 156 actively managed products in 2021, compared with 77 passive funds.

“At the end of day, the ETF is just a wrapper, it’s just a way to package and distribute an investment strategy,” said Ben Johnson, director of global ETF research at Morningstar. “More investors are getting hip to the fact that the notion of an actively-managed ETF is not an oxymoron.”

Fifty-Year Battle

The active surge is the latest development in a money-management battle that’s been raging since July 1971, when a team at Wells Fargo & Co. created the original index fund.

Today, the passive juggernaut is slashing industry costs, opening up investing to the masses and forcing discretionary traders to adapt or die. Active launches may be booming, but the bulk of cash flooding U.S. stocks is still destined for big, cheap funds that do nothing but track the market.

Read more: Wall Street Surrenders to the $500 Billion ETF Rush

“Active ETFs are doing better than they have in past, but passive is still king,” said James Seyffart, an ETF analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence. “A lot of that active flow in the big months from late 2020 to early 2021 is to Cathie’s funds.”

Wood has become the poster child for active management in ETFs. The flagship fund at Ark was one of the best-performing in America last year with a 149% return.

Inspired by this and her enticing thematic approach -- which focuses on trends like robotics or space travel rather than market segments -- investors have sunk $14.5 billion into Ark funds in 2021.

Passive Attack

The mini boom for active ETFs comes not a moment too soon for the stock-picking industry.

Passive funds -- mutual and exchange-traded -- now manage $11 trillion and are on course to hold 50% of all registered U.S. fund assets within five years, according to BI calculations.

Critics say the rapidly swelling index industry is blowing bubbles in stock markets, weakening corporate governance and more. And in some ways, it can also hit returns.

Take Tesla Inc.’s entry into the S&P 500 in December. While discretionary managers could buy Elon Musk’s firm in advance, index funds ended up adding it at an inflated valuation -- and were forced to offload billions of dollars in other stocks to make space in portfolios.

“Index funds systematically buy high and sell low,” wrote Rob Arnott of Research Affiliates and his colleagues in a June paper. They argued investors would have been better off holding the company pushed out of the index to make way for Tesla.

The main advantage stock pickers enjoy over their passive peers is more flexibility in deploying their cash. That’s something they’ve been able to bring to ETFs for years -- Wood’s first fund launched in 2014 -- but it was a rule change in 2019 that paved the way for the current jump in activity.

It made launching ETFs easier, and enabled new structures that could hide the strategy underpinning a fund. That helped lure multiple major Wall Street players to the industry after years of holding out, including the likes of Wells Fargo and T. Rowe Price.

Talk of discretionary management’s decline is still rampant, but the woes aren’t as bad as they may seem. Even as U.S. active funds -- mutual and ETF -- saw $209 billion exit last year, they closed 2020 with about $13.3 trillion under management. That was a 13% gain from 2019.

The increase was largely thanks to rising markets, but if the current trend continues, before long it could just as easily be down to ETF growth.

“We’re going to see the percentage of assets in actively-managed ETFs continue to climb higher,” said Rosenbluth at CFRA. “They’re going to continue to have the opportunity to punch above their weight.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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Can Xu vs. Leigh Wood live results, updates, highlights from full card - DAZN News US

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Fight Camp Week 1: Xu Can v Leigh Wood (Undercard and Main Card)

Christopher Walker

July 31, 20217:47 PM

Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

The featherweight world title is on the line as Can Xu defends his belt against Leigh Wood at Fight Camp.

With Conor Benn forced to withdraw from his fight against Adrian Granados at Fight Camp on Thursday due to a positive COVID test, organisers had no reason to worry about a replacement event. Can Xu's chief support position against Leigh Wood was immediately elevated to top spot and the featherweight pair are both promising to deliver fireworks.

Xu has built himself a repuation as a relentless warrior who throws a huge volume of punches in all of his fights. That style has placed him at the business end of the featherweight division and he fully intends on staying there. Nottingham's Wood brings power to the battle but will his lack of experience at the highest level be his downfall against the energetic Chinese fighter? We'll know all the answers soon enough.

For updates from tonight's huge Fight Camp event, please read below.

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NEW BLOG POSTS

Xu vs. Wood Round Seven

A quiter round from Wood, which allows Xu to edge it. Xu is a little busier but he needs more rounds like this one. 10-9 Xu.

Xu vs. Wood Round Six

Wood using a wide variety of shots in this round. Xu is walking forward but he's also walking into shots. We're only at the halfway mark but Wood can be satisfied so far. 10-9 Wood. 

Xu vs. Wood Round Five

Xu's best round. Wood finished well but Xu landed several decent shots in the middle stages. 10-9 Xu.

Xu vs. Wood Round Four

What do you prefer? The volume of Xu or the accuracy? It's the latter for me as Wood continues to land the better shots. 10-9 Wood. 

Xu vs. Wood Round Three

A better round from the champion as he finally manages to let his hands go. Wood still scores well with some eye-catching shots but Xu is the fighter who wins the round. 10-9 Xu.

Xu vs. Wood Round Two

Xu's famed relentlessness has been absent so far. Another good round from Wood. Not all his shots are landing but he's the fighter who's controlling the action. Wood, and his team, will be delighted with this start. 10-9 Wood.

Xu vs. Wood Round One

A solid start by Wood who scores well with his jab. Any work from Xu has been dealt with brilliantly from Wood. 10-9 Wood

Billam-Smith edge McCarthy in tough encounter

Chris Billam-Smith and Tommy McCarthy give their all in a gruelling fight and it was the former who got the nod via split decision. McCarthy started and ended the fight impressively but his low output inbetween cost him the decision. Both fighters received a scorecard of 115-114, but a 116-112 verdict for Billam-Smith was enough to crown him British, Commonwealth and European champion.

Hatton gets win number three against Laskowski

Campbell Hatton made it three wins from as may fights with an aggressive performance against Jakub Laskowski. Hatton is still learning and the rounds he's currently banking will benefit him more than early stoppages as he clearly needs experience. Hatton's industry gets him the nod as he takes a 40-36 verdict on the referee's scorecard. 

Fowler stops brave Mueller

Anthony Fowler was made to work hard for victory as he registered an eighth round stoppage over Rico Mueller. The German had plenty of ambition at the start of the fight but Fowler was always landing the heavy shots and the pressue finally told. Is it Liam Smith next for Fowler?

Cullen earns career best win as he dominates Yildrim

Avni Yildrim shared a ring with Canelo Alvarez earlier this year. He was well below that level tonight but he still couldn't find a way to win as he was outboxed, and outfought, by Jack Cullen. The man from Little Leaver was in control from the first bell as he used his long jab to set up further attacks. Yildrim was headhunting but he can have no complaints about the final scorecards that read 100-90, 98-92, and 97-93 in favour of Cullen. 

Sandy Ryan makes a winning start

Sandy Ryan's professional debut was a successful one as she outpointed a game Kirstie Bavington. Ryan, a former star amateur, was in control throughout and that was reflected on the scorecards as she emerged from the contest a 60-54 winner. 

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Cathie Wood Is Just a Start as Stock Pickers Storm the ETF World - Bloomberg

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Record inflows. Record fund launches. Record assets. If active money management is in decline, someone forgot to tell the ETF industry.

Amped up by a meme-crazed market and emboldened by the success of Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management, stock pickers are storming the $6.6 trillion U.S. exchange-traded fund universe like never before -- adding a new twist in the 50-year invasion from passive investing.

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Anti-Ark ETF to Bet Against Cathie Wood's Flagship Fund - Bloomberg

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Those who think Cathie Wood’s hot hand is cooling may soon be able to express that view via an exchange-traded fund.

The Short ARKK ETF would seek to track the inverse performance of the $23 billion Ark Innovation ETF (ticker ARKK) -- the largest fund in Ark Investment Management’s lineup -- through swaps contracts, according to a filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund would trade under the ticker SARK and charge a 0.75% operating expense, in line with ARKK’s fee.

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Wine Ink: Wine and Wood | AspenTimes.com - Aspen Times

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• The collection of wooden creations from the artists at Alpine Wine Design includes tables and stools made from old wine barrels and boxes.
  Courtesy photo

  

• The collection of wooden creations from the artists at Alpine Wine Design includes coffee tables made from old wine barrels and boxes.
  Courtesy photo

  

• The collection of wooden creations from the artists at Alpine Wine Design includes lazy Susan made from old wine barrels.
  Ignite Images courtesy photo

  

• The collection of wooden creations from the artists at Alpine Wine Design includes sinks made from old wine barrels.
  Ignite Images courtesy photo

  

• The collection of wooden creations from the artists at Alpine Wine Design includes lazy Susan made from old wine barrels and boxes.
  Ignite Images courtesy photo

  

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If you have been to the downtown Aspen Saturday Market over the past decade, you no doubt have seen the creative work of Alpine Wine Design. Under their white tents you’ll find beautiful hand-burnished and varnished wooden creations, like tables, chairs, racks and lazy Susans, with the names of the finest wineries in the world etched across them. Brad Evans, his wife, Heidi, and their team of artisan woodworkers produce hand-crafted, authentic wine-centric works, both decorative and utilitarian, out of the remains of actual wine barrels and wooden wine crates acquired from famed wineries.

“I’m kind of a hoarder,” Evans said with a self-deprecating laugh as he explains that, at any given time, he will have from 200 to 400 wine barrels behind his workshop that he has purchased from elite boutique wineries in the most sought-after wine regions on Earth. Want a lazy Susan from a wine crate that once held the wines of Chateau Montelena? He’s got it. How about a guitar rack from Nickle & Nickle? It’s there. Do you need a custom dining room table with the inlaid crests of the five First Growth Bordeaux wine estates? That may be tough to come by, but if anyone can produce it, it would be the woodworkers at Alpine Wine Estates.

“That’s really where the joy is … when someone comes in with a special request and we have the challenge of sourcing and designing a unique product that also has meaning for a client and then making it happen,” Evans said about the custom wine furnishings that they have produced for clients. Alpine Wine Design has made pieces for both mega-yachts and Gulfstream jets to meet the needs of those who just want to be surrounded by good wood.

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THE ROOTS

Working with wood and wine was not the career path that Evans originally imagined. But the roots of Alpine Wine Design run long and deep, and there’s also a distinct Aspen connection.

“When I was a kid in Middletown, Ohio, I had a guitar teacher, José Madrigal, who also made guitars. For some reason, I decided to build a classical guitar by hand. It was my first experience with woodworking,” Evans shared. Obviously, the experience resonated. “It was all handmade and it was fun.” He still has the original guitar under his bed.

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After college at Northwestern where he studied music, Evans moved to a log cabin in Old Snowmass. “I was acting in the community theater (he played the dentist in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’), and I met my wife, Heidi.” That would be Heidi Haberman, who grew up in Mountain Valley and attended Aspen High School. While in Aspen, he also spent time working at local restaurants, including the Little Nell, and performing for two seasons at the late, lamented Crystal Palace.

Brad Evans, his wife, Heidi Haberman, have jumped in with both feet in their business Alpine Wine Design.
Courtesy photo

“We made a move to Boston where I continued to sing and dance as Heidi went to Emerson College and I also built some theater sets,” he noted about getting back to work with his hands and some tools.

An acting stint in L.A. made both homesick for Colorado, and in 2006 they came back to Golden. “I had a garage, so I built a little home shop and one day I looked at a wooden wine box in the kindling for our fireplace and thought … that might make a nice tray. So, I built it.” It was the beginning of a business. “I bought a few barrels locally here in Colorado and made some trays and began going to local farmers markets, and people liked them.”

“I bought a few barrels locally here in Colorado and made some trays and began going to local Farmer’s markets and people liked them. I made my first sale at the Evergreen Farmer’s Market.” Meanwhile, Heidi had taken a position working for the city of Boulder. It was not long afterwards that Brad felt confident enough in the business prospects to place a call that would change both of their lives. “I was at the Dillon Farmers Market and was feeling pretty good about things, so I called Heidi and said, ‘You gotta quit your job!’ I just knew this was going to work.”

The relationship between wine and wood is as complex and confounding as it can be between people. The decisions that winemakers need to consider begin with whether to use French or American oak, or a combination of both, at different stages of a wine’s development. Today, the most popular wood for oak wine barrels comes from trees grown in forests in Europe, French or Hungarian oak, and trees that originate in Missouri and produce, appropriately, American oak. French oak, in a very general sense, is used to provide a subtler, spicy influence, whereas the American oak, as would be culturally expected, is more out front, infusing wines with a bit more vanilla, cola and, some say, tropical features.

The source of the original wood is not what is important to Alpine Wine Design; rather, it is the quality of the barrels and the names that appear on them. “We buy the barrels after the winemakers have no further use for them in aging wine,” Brad Evans explained. “As long as they are in good condition, we can take them back, break down the staves and use the heads for other products.” In a way they are in the recycling business, refurbishing the original wood and giving it a second use.

But it is the provenance of the barrel, or the crate, that helps make it special. “We do a ton of custom work and people always want something that resonates with their personal tastes. It might be a winery that they collect wines from or a bottle that they had when they first met,” Evans enthused. “That’s what makes it personal to them.”

Brad Evans works in the Alpine Wine Design shop.
Ignite Images courtesy photo

In the decade and a half since its founding, Alpine Wine Design has grown to include two Denver-area workshops, five full-time artisan woodworkers and a schedule that, at least until the pandemic struck, included weekly stops at up to 30 farmers markets and wine festivals. And there were Christmas gift markets in Houston, Dallas and Austin that were profitable, as well.

For the past decade before the pandemic, Alpine Wine Design had been a fixture at the both the Vail Farmers’ Market every Sunday and here at the Aspen Saturday Market.

“This year we had a little one, and the pandemic was still a consideration when we had to make the applications for Aspen, so we decided to take a year off,” Evans said. But Alpine Wine Design has been able to fill in and make a couple of “guest” appearances so far this summer at the Aspen Saturday Market. Evans is hoping that other opportunities arise to exhibit in Aspen this summer.

“I am really hoping we can get in for the Food & Wine weekend (Sept. 10-12) because those are our people,” he laughed about the Classic. Not only does he get to see friends from the wine industry there, but attendees love to take home the winery branded products. Alpine Wine Design also has products on display at Shae Singer’s Aspen Emporium on Main Street opposite the Hotel Jerome.

In addition to owning a successful business, the former actor and singer gets to indulge his passion for wine. “We do three or four trips every year to wine regions, and I’m just fascinated by wine,” Evans noted. “I will buy wine for my own collection just to get the boxes.”

There are many ways to build a career in wine, but Brad and Heidi literally carved out their own niche from the wood in wine barrels.

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Cathie Wood Sold Her Chinese Stocks. Should You? - Motley Fool

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Investing in China has always come with a special set of risks, but for most of modern history, investors have been able to ignore those as Chinese growth stocks have delivered.

Suddenly, those risks, which include investing in a country where American standards of rule of law and investor protections are non-existent, are back in focus. The Chinese Communist Party wiped out nearly all the value in the for-profit education sector in that country when it said that tutoring companies like New Oriental Education Group and TAL Education Group would be barred from making profits, and that they would have to register as non-profit enterprises.

As a result, a sector worth more than $100 billion earlier this year imploded, losing nearly all of its value, and Chinese stocks as a whole plunged. The iShares MSCI China ETF lost 12.6% in just three sessions as investors feared further crackdowns that could erase shareholder value overnight. 

Tensions had already been increasing after Beijing slapped a $2.8 billion fine on Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) earlier this year over anti-monopoly concerns, and blocked ridesharing giant Didi Global from listing its app on major app stores shortly after its IPO. Additionally, the U.S. has threatened to delist a number of high-profile Chinese stocks , including Alibaba, if they don't open their books to U.S. regulators.

Adding to the sell-off are reports that a number of large investors are bailing out of China. Among them is Cathie Wood, the head of ARK Invest, which runs a number of popular ETFs, including ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEMKT:ARKK), that were big winners during the pandemic. Because of that success, investors now watch Wood's moves closely, and ARK reports its trades each day. Some investors may be following her lead on China. 

Image source: Getty Images.

Cathie Wood's big moves

Wood had been a big believer in Chinese tech stocks, holding the likes of Alibaba, JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Tencent, but ARK Invest has been rapidly selling those stocks and closing out those positions entirely. On Friday, it sold off all its Tencent stock, and ARK dumped nearly 1 million shares each of Pinduoduo and JD.com on Tuesday, or about $150 million of the two combined.

Wood's thinking on the subject wasn't complicated. In a webinar with investors earlier in July, she said that there was a "valuation reset" in China and that valuations could stay down for a while. She said: "From a valuation point of view, these stocks have come down and again from a valuation point of view, probably will remain down."

Chinese stocks have long traded at a discount to their American counterparts, but the meddling from the Chinese government is leading valuations to shrink across the board as investors fear further harm to their holdings, especially as there is no real check on the Chinese government's ability to do what it wants.

Some investors even believe that the Variable Interest Entity (VIE) structure of many Chinese stocks means that the government could render them worthless, though that seems unlikely. Additionally, the U.S. has threatened to delist some Chinese stocks if they don't make their financial audits available to U.S. regulators, another source of geopolitical tensions.

Should you sell your Chinese stocks?

It's natural to think about selling your Chinese stocks at a time like this, and whether you should sell your Chinese stocks depends on a few simple questions. First, ask yourself what your risk tolerance and time horizon is. If you're a risk-averse investor or have a shorter time horizon, this may be a bad time to own Chinese stocks. The situation could certainly get worse before it gets better, and it's possible that other stocks could see nearly all of their value wiped out the way that Chinese tutoring stocks just did.

However, it's worth remembering that many of the stocks that Wood and other investors are selling are top-notch businesses. The stocks are falling not because the business fundamentals have changed, but because investor sentiment has, and that can change quickly.

Alibaba, for example, is the world's biggest e-commerce platform, with more than $1 trillion in annual gross merchandise volume and more than 800 million annual active customers. Investors also responded favorably when Alibaba received a $2.8 billion fine from the government, thinking that the regulatory risk was now finished.

In other words, if these stocks don't face any specific threat the way Chinese education stocks have and they continue to put up the kind of growth they historically have, investors could be rewarded over the long term for buying now. Alibaba, for example, is now trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of just 16 based on 2022 expected EPS, and analysts expect revenue growth above 20%. 

Alibaba and its big tech peers will have a chance to show off their results and make their case to investors. A strong performance could help make investors forget about the crackdown on the education sector.

While Chinese stocks will remain risky for the foreseeable future and the regulatory risk shouldn't be ignored, investors are clearly being compensated for that risk at current prices. If you can stomach the volatility and have a long time horizon, picking up a small position now could have a big payoff down the road.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. We’re motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

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Millard “Sal” Charles Wood - Iredell Free News

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This is the story of Millard “Sal” Charles Wood.

Millard was a wonderful man who was loved, is missed, and will always be cherished. Millard’s story starts on October 19, 1934, when he came into this world in Cicero, N.Y. He was born to two loving and hardworking parents, Clarence and Ella Wood. He grew up on Railroad Street, as he stated on the “other side of the tracks” in Brewerton, N.Y. (The armpit of the earth). He was the middle child with two siblings, Kenny was the oldest and Nancy the youngest. As a child and then teen, he loved spending his time with his siblings, especially Nancy whom he felt a need to always take care of and protect. He also enjoyed playing sports, swimming, driving fast cars and chasing even faster women. He attended State University of New York (SUNY) at Morrisville, where he obtained an Associate’s degree in Applied Science majoring in Automotive Technology

After graduation in 1954 he joined the Army, became a Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic and was shipped off to Sendai, Japan during the Korean War. He parted ways with the military in 1974, after 20 years of service and ranking up to sergeant in the Air National Guard and Reserve of the United States Air Force. He had a passion for patriotism and was a proud American for the rest of his days. In his late 20s he met Susan Gridley, a stunningly beautiful, funny and intelligent woman, and he knew that he had finally met his match when she slid up next to him that night in the car. They fell madly in love and never looked back. Within three years they started a family, complete with sons Michael Randolph Wood and followed two years later by Peter William Wood. As a family, they loved spending time camping at Southwick State Park, Selkirk State Park, Rainbow Shores and a lot of other places. He taught his two boys to swim and fish. Being a strong and hardworking father was of the utmost importance to Millard, and he certainly did not disappoint when it came to wholeheartedly loving his family. He also loved being a grandparent (Pap) to his beautiful grandchildren, telling them unforgettable stories, teaching them to fish and making them his amazing blueberry pancakes.

Millard is survived by his sons, Michael and wife Wanda, and Peter and wife Robin; grandchildren Ryan and wife Cheryle, Shannon, Christopher and wife Samantha, Alexandria and husband Skylar, Gabriel, Devin and wife Peighton, Kahlan and husband Carlos, Jaiden, Nathan and Ashley; great grand children Landon, Christopher, Claire, Cameron, Colton, Sawyer, Mateo and Price; sister Nancy and husband Neal Scott of Arizona; and many Nieces and Nephews.

He was preceded in passing by his loving wife Susan Carol Wood, brother Kenneth Wood and his parents Clarence and Ella.

The family is at peace knowing Millard is finally back where he’s missed every single day for the last 10 years — back in the arms of the love of his life, Susan, whom he had been married to for 49 years before her passing in 2011. He’s telling her all about each and every one of the kids, grandkids and great grandkids and he couldn’t wait to tell her all the stories she missed.

“It’s A Wood Thing.”

There are no funeral services in lieu there will be a celebration of life by family as per his wishes.

Cavin-Cook Funeral Home and Crematory, Mooresville, is serving the family.

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RECTANGLO.COM VILLA and CASA Furniture: We Offer a Domestic Alternative to Flimsy, Unsafe Global Commodity Furniture - El Paso Inc.

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Robinhood turns higher on day after weak debut; Cathie Wood's Ark buys 1.3 mln shares - Reuters

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The logo of Robinhood Markets, Inc. is seen at a pop-up event on Wall Street after the company's IPO in New York City, U.S., July 29, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

July 30 (Reuters) - Shares of Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O) shuffled between gains and losses on Friday, a day after star stock picker Cathie Wood picked up 1.3 million shares of the company for the ARK Invest fund during the online brokerage’s grim market debut.

Robinhood’s shares were up around 3.7% at $36.10 in afternoon trading, after losing more than 8% on Thursday and falling earlier in Friday's session. Market watchers attributed part of the shares’ weakness to a comparatively cold reception from retail investors who have fueled rallies in the shares of other so-called “meme stocks,” as well as Robinhood's decision to reserve as much as 35% of its shares for its users.

That performance has not dissuaded Wood, who gained fame on the strong performance of her funds in 2020. According to ARK's daily update for its actively managed ETFs on Thursday, it bought 1,297,615 shares of Robinhood in its ARK Innovation ETF . At Thursday’s closing price, that would have been worth around $45.2 million.

Other investors stayed on the sidelines, citing concerns over its valuation, the risk of regulation and lingering anger with the company's imposition of trading curbs during the meme stock trading frenzy in January. read more

“Calls itself Robinhood, steals from the people. Gotta love it,” said one user on Reddit’s popular WallStreetBets, where retail investors have gathered this year to coordinate buying that has helped drive big rallies in Gamestop (GME.N), AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC.N) and other names. read more

Retail investors bought a net $18.85 million of Robinhood stock on Thursday, according to Vanda Research, a relatively low amount compared with other initial public offerings, the firm said. Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Global Inc. saw retail investors buy $69 million on its debut, while Bitcoin exchange Coinbase took up more than $57 million earlier this year.

Data from Fidelity Investments showed customers on its brokerage platform placed 31,736 buy orders for Robinhood's stock and 7,451 sell orders on Thursday.

In an unusual move, Robinhood had said it would reserve between 20% and 35% of its shares for its users. IPOs can benefit from excluding retail investors, who end up fueling a first-day trading pop by snapping up shares in the open market. read more

Reporting by Megan Davies and Aaron Saldanha in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Ira Iosebashvili; Editing by Louise Heavens and Dan Grebler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Minors: Missions power up; James Wood makes pro debut in Arizona - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Days after losing their top power hitter in a trade, Double-A San Antonio hit three homers among their 16 hits in a 10-3 win on Thursday at Amarillo.

Michael Curry (.747 OPS) hit his fifth homer and Esteury Ruiz (.694 OPS) and Dwanya Williams-Sutton (.806 OPS) both their third homers.

Ruiz drove in three runs on two hits, which included his sixth double, while Curry drove in two runs on two hits.

Williams-Sutton’s blast was a two-run shot.

Eguy Rosario (.852 OPS) drove in two runs on three hits, including his 17^th double and Ben Ruta (.631 OPS), Kyle Overstreet (.672OPS) and Juan Fernandez (.666 OPS) all had two hits.

Jack Suwinski led the Missions with 15 homers before he was included in the Adam Frazier trade.

Left-hander Osvaldo Hernandez (4.37 ERA) allowed two runs on five hits and a walk in 5 2/3 innings in the start.

Right-hander Henry Henry (3-0, 3.27 ERA) earned the win with a strikeout over 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

The Missions are 36-38.

TRIPLE-A EL PASO (29-42)

• Sugar Land 4, Chihuahuas 3 (10): 3B Nick Tanielu (.709 OPS) hit his ninth homer and C Luis Campusano (.850 OPS) and CF Robbie Podorsky (.748 OPS) each collected two hits, including a double apiece. LHP Daniel Camarena (3.65 ERA) allowed a run in 2 2/3 innings in the start. RHP Parker Markel (5.35 ERA) allowed the ghost runner to score in the 10^th on a wild pitch.

HIGH SINGLE-A FORT WAYNE (35-40)

• Lansing 6, TinCaps 3: RHP Austin Smith (2-3, 6.03 ERA) allowed five runs – four earned – in 1 1/3 innings after RHP Moises Lugo (3.49 ERA) struck out five over five innings of one-run ball. 2B Ethan Skender (.682 OPS) went 3-for-4 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored.

LOW SINGLE-A LAKE ELSINORE (33-42)

• Fresno 3, Storm 2: DH Brandon Valenzuela (.817 OPS) went 2-for-4 with two doubles and LF Angel Solarte (.702 OPS) went 1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. RHP Jesus Lugo (0-3, 4.54 ERA) struck out six and allowed three runs – one earned – on seven hits and a walk in six innings in the loss.

ROOKIE ACL PADRES (7-13)

• Padres 3, Royals 1 (7): CF James Wood, who signed for $2.6 million as the Padres’ second-round draft pick, went 1-for-1 with an RBI and a walk in his professional debut. First-rounder Jackson Merrill (1.194 OPS) went 1-for-2 with a triple, an RBI, a walk and a run scored and fifth-rounder Max Ferguson (1.222 OPS) went 2-for-3 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored. RHP Justin Lange (4.60 ERA) struck out two and scattered three hits and three walks in four shutout innings in the start.

ROOKIE DSL PADRES (9-4)

• Blue Jays 11, Padres 1: RHP Elvis Saba (0-1, 3.18 ERA) allowed four runs – three earned – in 3 1/3 innings. CF Samuel Zavala (.748 OPS) went 1-for-4 with a double and a run scored. SS Victor Acosta (.828 OPS) swiped his fifth base, but went 0-for-3 with two throwing errors.

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Wooden Buildings Reach for the Sky - The New York Times

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VAXJO, Sweden — Stockholm and its suburbs are filled with construction cranes these days, reflecting a growing population combined with a housing shortage. But few of its developments are as extensive as Hagastaden, just to the north of central Stockholm where it meets the neighboring municipality of Solna.

Here, it looks as if an entirely new city is being built.

The 237-acre, or 96-hectare, development is a collection of housing, offices, institutions and public space projects conceived as a model of livability and sustainability, part of the Stockholm “Vision 2030” plan.

One section in particular is notable: two city blocks where a concrete foundation has been laid above a tangle of tunnels that funnel rail and road traffic to the north. It is an impressive feat of engineering, but the real significance is what is now rising from it, one of the largest apartment complexes built from timber in the world.

Cederhusen (or Cedar House) is the latest example of a growing practice of building big with what’s known as C.L.T., or cross-laminated timber.

It is a showcase for the industry of how far the technology has come.

Concrete is necessary for the foundation, but after that it is all wood, up to 13 stories at its highest point. The first block of two Cedar Houses is nearly complete and a second block is scheduled to start construction soon.

The tunnels below the development can only support so much weight. But because timber is about a fifth as heavy as concrete, the structure above the tunnels could be higher.

Using timber also has environmental benefits, the industry says.

“This is tech that we already have that can be used today, and it is a fast track to lowered emissions,” said Mathias Fridholm, the director of Svenskt Tra (“Swedish Wood”), an industry organization that promotes timber and wooden products. “But it’s not only the climate,’’ he added. ‘‘The whole building sector needs to be modernized and a good way of doing that is through a higher degree of industrialization.

“Wood is in many ways an excellent material for building in dense cities, because we can prefabricate all the elements in factories, instead of on-site.”

Mr. Fridholm said that prefabrication would speed construction and reduce disruptions such as constant truck traffic at the building site and road closures.

Because timber is lighter than concrete, floors can be added to existing buildings if there is a need for expansion, he said.

Timber accounts for roughly 20 percent of new multistory buildings in Sweden, but that figure is on the rise. That is happening in part because of companies like Folkhem, the real estate developer behind Cederhusen, which decided in 2012 to build exclusively in wood. The company is hoping projects like this, and around a dozen others in its portfolio, will help to tip the scales.

“This project is going to be really important because it’s a whole two blocks in inner Stockholm where you can choose to buy an apartment made out of timber,’’ said Anna Ervast Oberg, a project manager at Folkhem. ‘‘So it’s going to be a symbol of the possibilities and the techniques and industrial capability that we have.”

Over a plate of cinnamon buns in the small construction site offices at the Cederhusen site, Ms. Oberg said that just changing the structure of a building to wood from concrete would result in an immediate 50 percent reduction in emissions. She said that if you looked at the carbon emissions over the lifetime of a typical concrete building, roughly 70 percent would be just from the roughly two years that it is under construction.

“And then of course we can optimize the building further,” Ms. Oberg said. “We have other aspects like shorter construction time, less transport. Those make the numbers even better.’’

She added: ‘‘What we have to do now is to stop the emissions, very fast. This gives us a hint of where we should be focusing, where we can make the biggest difference.”

C.L.T.’s list of benefits is long. It is exceptionally strong and light. It is also breathable, meaning it holds heat but doesn’t need plastic layers to manage moisture, as concrete does. Concrete also requires sand, a finite resource that increasingly requires damaging procedures like drudging up the seabed, while managed forests can be replanted. As a bonus, a city built out of wood becomes an urban carbon storage facility.

Before 1995, this sort of thing wasn’t even allowed in Sweden, the result of rules established many years ago after fires ravaged primarily wooden cities across Europe. But adoption of European Union rules meant an end to the former two-story building limit.

The technology has been steadily developing since then, to the point that those in the industry say fire risk is on par with other materials. Recognizing that, building regulations are now function-based rather than material-based, which is to say that as long as developers can prove the building withstands critical threats, like fire, it doesn’t matter what it is made of.

As for height, the sky is theoretically the limit, according to Folkhem executives. But, they add, because timber is lighter, it needs added stabilization as it climbs. Above floors in the mid-teens buildings need added ballast, often in the form of concrete slabs.

As the technology progresses, that may change. The current record holder is an 18-story wooden building in Brumunddal, Norway. For scale, the building is just a little shorter than the Statue of Liberty.

All this works especially well in a place like Sweden which has well-managed forests, and plenty of them. Seventy percent of Sweden’s land is forest, double what it was 50 years ago.

One of the biggest apartment complex developments so far in Sweden, according to Folkhem, used around 211,000 cubic feet, or 5,975 cubic meters, of wood for the construction. That wood, the company said, was estimated to take around 20 minutes for the Swedish forests to regrow.

Building single family homes out of timber is, of course, nothing new. The majority of homes in Sweden are wooden, as in many places around the world. What is new is the push to build larger buildings, office structures or apartment blocks as well as infrastructure like bridges, using timber frames instead of concrete or steel. But although timber use is on the rise, concrete still dominates in the construction industry.

Tomas Nord, a senior lecturer at Linkoping University in Sweden, has spent years studying the timber industry. “It should be obvious that it’s superior to concrete,’’ he said of wood. ‘‘It’s efficient and fast. You can build exactly what the customer wants in the factory. It’s a renewable material. It’s strong, durable and light.”

A timber-frame pedestrian bridge over the train tracks in Vaxjo.Gabriel Leigh

Mr. Nord added: ‘‘The challenge is down to the industry structure, the value chains that we have built up over years. In any mature industry, you have an idea about how you have to operate to be profitable. Then if you say we have to change, there’s going to be resistance to that.”

Those in the timber industry say that they are optimistic. “We’ve gone from zero to 20 percent market share since 1994,’’ said Mr. Fridholm of Swedish Wood. ‘‘And it won’t take long to get to 30 percent.”

“The building industry is quite medieval,” Ms. Oberg said with a laugh. “But in the last few years it’s come to a tipping point. We see a lot of [timber] projects being built in Sweden. Other countries are doing the same.

‘‘It’s down to the climate change becoming so obvious,’’ she said. ‘‘But it also has been years lobbying, talking to politicians, working with their rules and regulations, building up competence among engineers and so on. And now we have a complete foundation, and we have reference projects, that show that it’s possible.”

Those projects range from simple seven-story apartment buildings to more striking examples. One company has plans to build timber windmills as tall as 500 feet, or 150 meters. A test version, standing at about 100 feet, was erected in 2020, and commercial production is expected to begin next year. The northern Swedish city of Skelleftea, another timber pioneer, has had an air traffic control tower built from wood since 2004.

The development isn’t happening only in Sweden, of course. New projects are going up around the world. Norway, in particular, has had a huge increase in wooden buildings.

The construction company Veidekke, based in Oslo, recently built two identical structures in Trondheim, Norway, one in timber and one in concrete. “What happened was they could make three more stories on the timber house and still save two million kroner [about $230,000] on the foundation work because it was easier to make,” Ms. Oberg said. “They also looked at the health of the construction workers and saw that the hours people were sick was much less in the timber project. Injuries were less, and construction time was shorter.”

The small city of Vaxjo, population 94,000, sits in the middle of the timberlands of Smaland Province, in southern Sweden. Among municipalities in Sweden, many see Vaxjo as the leader in timber construction, as wooden buildings have been at the center of the city’s strategy since the 1990s. The city government reached its target for at least 50 percent of all new buildings to be timber-framed as of last year, and the municipality says it is now working on new and more ambitious plans for building with wood.

When I visited Vaxjo last summer, Catharina Winberg offered to show me around the city. At the time Ms. Winberg was a local politician and chairwoman of the Vaxjo Kommun Foretag, which oversees much of the building as well as energy production in the city. (Earlier this year she left her position to to return to the private sector.)

What I saw was impressive. Whole sections of land outside of the city center have been designated as timber-only development areas. Around town were dozens of construction sites for timber apartment buildings, schools and more, many of them using energy-saving measures, in varying states of completion.

“We really believe in wood as a material — it’s circular, it’s renewable, and it’s healthy,’’ Ms. Winberg said. “And we have the resources close by, so we might as well take advantage of that.”

She added: “We started to work with this very early, and that has generated a lot of interest. People want to learn about our strategy and see what we’ve done. So we think it’s very important how we carry this on because there’s so many looking to us now.”

The latest flagship project in Vaxjo, now in the final stages of completion, is a glass-panelled timber structure at the center of town that houses the new main train station, City Hall and a small shopping center, with a hotel scheduled to be erected.

“I think people today are longing for things that are genuine,’’ Ms. Winberg said. ‘‘And this is a very genuine place to live, with genuine buildings. They’re made of the forest that we have around us.

‘‘We have a housing shortage in this country, but if we didn’t, you could just choose,’’ she said. ‘‘Do you want a concrete building or a wooden building. What do you choose? That’s quite easy I think. But we’re not quite there yet.”

The industry is getting closer as a new law in Sweden will require a comprehensive climate declaration for every new building starting in 2022. The calculation comprises the total impact from start to finish of construction, including materials and transportation. The thinking is that once everything is taken into account in a systematic way, the benefits of timber should become even more apparent.

And recent developments in the world may help the Swedish timber industry’s goals.

“One thing that I think people will start thinking more about now is you cannot take globalization for granted,” said Mr. Fridholm of the forest industry group.

“Today from Swedish sawmills, 70 percent is exported to other countries,’’ he said. ‘‘In the foreseeable future people will start thinking about what resources we have in Sweden that we maybe should use better than we do now. And the eyes will fall on the forest. What is the best way of utilizing that? We can build with wood and store the carbon there. We can support ourselves with that.”

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Robinhood Gets Cathie Wood's Backing Despite Miserable First Day - Bloomberg

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Robinhood Markets Inc. may have performed poorly after its initial public offering, but it got some high-profile support from Cathie Wood.

Wood’s flagship ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund (ticker ARKK) purchased almost 1.3 million shares of the company on Thursday, according to Ark Investment Management’s daily trading report. At Robinhood’s closing price of $34.82, that gives the ETF a more than $45 million stake.

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Poly-Wood plans $61M expansion for recycled plastic furniture in North Carolina - Plastics News

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Recycled plastic furniture maker Poly-Wood LLC is investing $61.6 million and adding 300 jobs at its factory in North Carolina, as the company continues a growth push.

In a July 27 announcement from Gov. Roy Cooper, the company said the jobs would be added over five years at its factory and distribution site in Roxboro, N.C., where it makes outdoor furniture like Adirondack chairs from recycled high density polyethylene milk jugs.

It's the second recent expansion for the firm. It said in late 2020 it would invest $42.8 million in a new manufacturing and recycling facility at its headquarters in Syracuse, Ind.

In North Carolina, an announcement from economic development officials in Person County, where the plant is located, said Poly-Wood will be adding 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space there.

That would roughly double a 430,000-square-foot facility it has now in Roxboro, and based on previous reports, would seem to double the jobs at the site.

In 2018, Poly-Wood first announced a $35 million investment to start up in Roxboro with a manufacturing and recycling plant. That came after a 2015 recapitalization from two investment firms.

The announcement did not include any information on production capacities or other manufacturing details, and company officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, CEO and founder Doug Rassi said the Indiana expansion would give it 1.6 million square feet of manufacturing space and over 1,000 employees in the two states.

The latest North Carolina investment comes with up to $3.0 million in grants for Poly-Wood from the state's job development investment program, based on potential new tax revenue generated from the project.

The state announcement said the new investment will pump $681 million into North Carolina's economy over 12 years and generate $14.8 million in direct tax revenue.

The government in Person County, where the plant is located, also approved a "performance-based incentive" valued at $1.89 million for the company, according to an announcement from local officials.

The Person County Economic Development Corp. said with the expansion, Poly-Wood would have the largest manufacturing footprint in the county.

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Old Campaign War Furniture Designs Trendy Today | Antiques & History | lancasterfarming.com - Lancaster Farming

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Cloquet's Wood City Music Festival is a-go - Pine Journal

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The Christian music festival, hosted by Kingdom Builders Ministries, has become an annual tradition for the Cloquet community since its start in 2014.

“The whole thing is faith," Kingdom Builders board member Lee Harris said.

Harris said he was first called to plan the festival during a group prayer session at the Cloquet House of Prayer in 2013.

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"I felt prompted ... to plan a music festival, and I didn't really want to, but that was kind of what started it all," he said.

After it was decided that there would be a festival, members of the house of prayer worked to determine exactly what type of festival it would be, according to the Wood City Music Festival website. After much thought and prayer, it was decided that there would be absolutely no corporate advertisement at the event — meaning it would be funded solely through donations and fundraisers.

The festival is free to the public and Harris said its budget typically ranges from $65,000 to $75,000. Each year, the financing aspect is a leap of faith, but Harris said they have yet to run into any major funding issues.

"God always finds a way," he said. "It’s not faith if it’s easy."

Planning for the event is done by the Kingdom Builders Ministry board and minsters, with the help of local churches who provide volunteers and donations. Typically, it consists of up to 13 bands playing on two stages, with vendors, a bouncy house and various activities for families.

This year, however, it will only have one stage and seven bands due to a short planning timeframe caused by the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Harris, planning could not start until June, so the board decided keeping things simple was the best course of action.

“It might seem a little less large," he said, adding that with the exception of fewer bands, everything else about the festival will remain the same as in past years.

Besides a time crunch, another major challenge with 2021's festival has been finding volunteers. Typically, the festival receives help from roughly 300 people, according to Harris. This year, he said he's only expecting about 150.

Harris said the lack of volunteers to the fear and isolation is due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Even the most extroverted people that I know … they’ve gotten used to being isolated," he said.

There are currently six artists lined up to perform at the festival, in addition to Kingdom Builders Worship Team. Harris is hoping to find one more in light of a last minute cancellation. He said it is not a matter of who they want to perform, but who God wants to perform.

For questions about how to volunteer for Wood City Music Festival, contact Shelly Donicht at 218-730-3000.

Wood City Music Festival 2021 Line Up:

• Matt Gilman with Influence Music

• Wonderstate

• Bethany Worship

• Presence Music

• The Melodious Mike & The Vibes

• Kingdom Builders Worship

• Duluth Gospel Tabernacle Worship

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Ark Cuts Roku Stock Exposure as Cathie Wood Touts as Hot Pick - Bloomberg

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Cathie Wood may have been touting Roku Inc. as one of her top picks just two weeks ago, but her firm has been trimming its holdings in the video-streaming company all month.

Ark Investment Management sold another 47,200 shares on Wednesday, bringing the total divestment since June 30 to about 520,000, according to Bloomberg calculations.

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AI carpenter can design recreations of furniture from a few photos - New Scientist

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By Krista Charles

The algorithm’s reconstruction of a wooden stool

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If you’ve ever seen a piece of wooden furniture that you wanted to recreate yourself, you’re in luck.

James Noeckel at the University of Washington and his colleagues have created an algorithm that turns photos of wooden objects into a 3D model that is detailed enough for a skilled carpenter to replicate.

A common problem with algorithms designed to reverse engineer a 3D object like a piece of furniture is that if there isn’t enough data, the software will produce a low-detail …

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Camille Eileen Wood | News, Sports, Jobs - SalemNews.net

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HANOVERTON – Camille Eileen Wood, 96, died Tuesday, July 27, 2021, at Blossom Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was born Nov. 2, 1924, in Butler Township, daughter of the late Joseph and Florence (Thompson) Ward.

Camille was a Salem High School graduate. She worked at Summitville Tile and retired from Grove Metals in Minerva in the finishing department. Camille was a member of the New Alexander Christian Church in East Rochester where she was the treasurer for the spaghetti dinner. She was also a member of the Butler Grange and volunteered at Concern Inc. in Sebring. Her hobby was making weaved rugs.

Survivors include a son, James Wood, and two grandchildren, Michele and Jeff.

Besides her parents, her husband, Wilbur Wood; two daughters, Jean Schwartz and Joanne Wood; and a sister, Twila Loudon, also preceded her in death.

A funeral service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Friday, July 30, 2021, at Stark Memorial with Pastor Dave Napier officiating. Burial will be at Highland Memorial Park in Beloit.

Friends and family will be received from 1 to 1:30 p.m. Friday at the funeral home.

If unable to attend you may show your support by joining our complimentary “Hugs from Home” program where your message will be attached to a balloon in the chapel to remind the family of your love and support at https://ift.tt/2MqRlW2.

To view Camille’s obituary, send flowers or condolences, visit www.starkmemorial.com.

7/29/21

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