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SADSBURY — That “heavenly” smell of Danish, pastries and fresh bread is back. 232 Baker’s Basket, 232 Octorara Road, near Parkesburg, received a new lease on life after Sadsbury Township briefly closed the bakery located in a converted garage. Partners Peter Fotis and Jan Propora first opened the bakery during April 2023 at their home. After initially securing permission to open for business, the couple received a cease-and-desist order after the township received a complaint about customers parking on the road in front of the home bakery. “We didn’t even know what cease and desist meant,” Porpora said in the intimate garage. “What is the problem?” Although the bakery situation wasn’t listed on a meeting agenda, fresh bread lovers turned out in droves at a township meeting. A petition was circulated. Extra chairs were brought into the township meeting room, and still, some in the overflow crowd stood. “It was standing room only after they brought in every chair they could find,” Porpora said. “Our customers were very upset that they shut us down,” she said. “Our customers were saying, ‘we’re here for you.’ ” Parkesburg Mayor John Hagan said the process was dramatic. “It really stirred up people’s emotions,” he said. “It’s nice to see something less controversial that’s about the simple pleasures of life.” After a couple of meetings, with a variance granted, the township allowed the bakery to reopen. Porpora and Fotis are thankful. The couple has been cooking and baking for almost three decades, mostly in Orange County, N.Y. Fotis attended the renowned Culinary Institute of America, near Hyde Park. “Our customers mean the world to us,” Porpora said. “And we have never seen a community like this. “These people are becoming our friends. That’s what’s so unique. We get to talk with our customers and try to accommodate their requests. Some customers have become my friends, like family.” Debbie Desmond traveled form Christiana to buy some goodies. “They are always so friendly,” she said about the couple. “The prices are wonderful and the smell is heavenly.” Porpora said that customers often say they would like to take home a candle with that bakery smell. Fotis starts baking at 1 a.m. and keeps at it all day long. He is the sole baker. “You can’t get any fresher than that,” Porpora said. “It’s still hot. It’s always fresh.” Fotis, of Greek descent, comes up with the Greek/Italian recipes himself. Everything is made from scratch. Even the nuts are hand chopped. Fotis makes his own cookie doughs, muffin mixes and cheese cakes. 232 Baker’s Market sells pepperoni, cheese, Italian and Challah breads. Danish, pastries and cookies are also available. What’s on the shelves is rotated and periodically change. A specialty is cheese bread, with mozzarella, provolone, fresh parsley, garlic and olive oil. Greek syrup and orange are regular ingredients. “I love work,” Fotis said. “Everybody is so courteous to each other, and says, ‘I’ll wait until you get what you want.’ ” Porpora and Hagan credit social media and Kathi Rendall for getting the word out. “Thanks to her, everybody knows we are here,” Porpora said. “She put us on the map.” The bakery is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. For more information, call 484-703-8492, or go to the Facebook page “232 Bakers Basket.”
I'm a sleep expert - here's how you can get your children to doze off quickly on Christmas Eve Dave Gibson has teamed up with Viabiotics to share strategies to help kids sleep READ MORE: Kylie Minogue to take on CBeebies Bedtime Stories this Christmas By JOWENA RILEY Published: 18:03, 23 December 2024 | Updated: 18:11, 23 December 2024 e-mail View comments Christmas Eve is perhaps the most exciting night of a young child's year - which makes getting them to sleep as they await Santa's arrival a little challenging. According to experts at Viabiotics, the excitement of Christmas triggers the release of neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine and adrenaline, which can make children feel more alert. Sleep expert Dave Gibson has shared his in-depth strategies to help parents get their children to drop off on the magical night. His eight tips include setting a later bedtime in the days leading up at Christmas, sticking to regular routines and advice for managing anxiety and excitement. Gibson says: 'For parents with young children, Christmas Eve is possibly the most difficult night of the year for getting a good night’s sleep. 'The excitement of Santa's impending arrival overstimulates children, making it harder for them to fall asleep. 'Add the broken sleep patterns, early waking to open gifts, and the fear of missing out on the festive fun downstairs, and you have a challenging combination.' Here, he shares his complete guide to help both children and parents get a restful night's sleep this Christmas Eve. Renowned sleep expert, Dave Gibson, has teamed up with Viabiotics to share his in-depth strategies to help parents get their children to sleep on Christmas Eve (stock image) Stick to your regular routine Consistency is especially important in a child's sleep routine during the festive season, Gibson says. A consistent sleep routine amidst the chaos and excitement of Christmas helps to anchor children's brains into feeling calm. He shared: 'With routine, our brains anticipate what follows and then prepare for and expect this to happen. 'Whether it's the regular bedtime story or the usual winding-down activities, your child will automatically expect to sleep by sticking to their normal bedtime routine, even during the excitement of preparing for Santa.' Make bedtimes later The days leading up to Christmas require slight adjustments to a child's sleep routine. Gibson advises making gradual changes to accommodate this - whether it's late-night visits or trips away. According to the expert, if parents are planning to allow their children to stay up later than usual on Christmas Eve - in the hopes they will wake later in the morning - it is recommended to stagger the change during the nights leading up to the big day. Gibson said: 'Stagger the change during the nights before with smaller steps so their body clock naturally adjusts to this time. Then, gradually undo the stagger from Boxing Day afterwards. 'Vice Versa, if the plan is to wake up earlier than usual on Christmas Day to open presents together, you are best setting this up by waking up earlier on Christmas Eve, too. 'For example, if your child’s usual wake time is 7.30 am for school and you are going to allow them to wake at 6.30 am on Christmas morning, you could set an alarm for 7 am on Christmas Eve.' Managing anxiety and excitement To help combat anxiety and excitement in young children, Gibson recommends a bath, gentle music, reading or selecting bedtime stories that are calming rather than exciting (stock image) Read More What NOT to say to your woke kids at Christmas To help combat anxiety and excitement in young children, Gibson recommends a bath, gentle music, reading or selecting bedtime stories that are calming rather than exciting. He added: 'Acknowledging the excitement and reminding children that a good night’s sleep will help them have the best Christmas possible encourages them to embrace getting to sleep.' For older children, Gibson advises parents to encourage mindfulness techniques, including breathing exercises and visualisation of calm places before they sleep. For some children, the excitement of Christmas can trigger anxiety, but this can be alleviated with creating an open space for discussion. Gibson said: 'If they are anxious at bedtime, writing a note on a piece of paper about what they are worried about and putting it away in a "worry box" overnight can often help children with specific worries. 'Their worry is safe in the box overnight and can be taken out in the morning to talk more about after a good night’s sleep. Often, we don’t need to do this as everything always feels better in the morning, having slept on the problem overnight.' The bedtime snack secret Studies have shown poor sleep quality is significantly related to higher added sugar intake - but combining carbs and dairy can help improve a child's ability to fall - and stay - asleep. Although there's no scientific evidence to support the idea that sugar speeds children up and causes hyperactivity, Gibson recommends reducing sugar intake across the day, especially as bedtime approaches. He advises giving children an evening snack consisting of fruit, dairy, protein or fat about an hour before sleep, with protein and fat taking longer to digest, which is likely to fill them up more. Bananas are also effective in getting kids to sleep as they contain magnesium, which helps regulate to neurotransmitters and melatonin. Gibson added: 'Oatmeal with Greek yoghurt or cheese and crackers are excellent snacks to try. 'Combining carbohydrates and dairy is a great way to release an amino acid called tryptophan. 'Tryptophan aids sleep as it is a building block of melatonin, our sleep hormone. Warm milk with honey is the perfect soothing bedtime drink, as the honey helps release tryptophan from the milk.' Set expectations to avoid late bedtime negotiations To ensure a smooth Christmas Eve sleep experience for all members of the family, managing expectations in young children is crucial. Gibson recommends discussing bedtime expectations, holiday plans and potential changes in sleeping arrangements with children well in advance of Christmas Eve. He added: 'This proactive approach will help garner cooperation, especially with older children who may want to negotiate an extension of their usual bedtime!' How to tackle waking up in the night Sleep expert Dave Gibson (pictured) has shared his tips for getting children to sleep on Christmas Eve If your child wakes up in the middle of the night during Christmas Eve, it's important to remain calm and centered so that your little one can be reassured that what is on their mind will be sorted in the morning. Gibson advises to keep an interaction simple and straightforward to avoid stimulating their mind. He also recommends dimming the lights during the night, as bright lights can prevent children from getting back to sleep. It's equally crucial to keep technology and other electronics switched off they will stimulate children's brains - even if blue light filers are used. Gibson said: 'Have a relaxation technique or two that you can use, which involves slow breathing and calming visualisations which can help them settle again. 'The Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique can work well in these instances. Start by contracting each muscle group from the feet to the head. Your child breathes in during the contraction and then out in the relaxation phase.' The ‘first night away’ effect According to Gibson, the 'first night away' effect refers to the challenge of getting a restful night's sleep in an unfamiliar setting. To alleviate this, the expert recommends 'making things as familiar as possible.' He recommends sticking to the usual bedtime routine, as well as 'incorporating familiar elements, such as their bedding, pillow, and cuddly toy, to help your child feel more secure'. How to structure Christmas Eve Gibson recommends planning Christmas Eve activities in advance so the day gradually calms towards bedtime. Morning Gibson advocates for a structured approach to activities, and suggests beginning the morning with outdoor activities, which allow children to 'expel energy and benefit from natural tiredness at night.' Getting sunlight first thing is also an important component for strengthening our body clock, which in turn helps us get to sleep more easily at night. Afternoon Gibson said: 'After lunch is a good time for screen time and boisterous indoor activity. Ideally, you want to stop screen time two hours before bedtime. 'Having family time with a digital detox, where everyone in the family is off tech, including mobile phones, is a great way of setting this up.' Evening Gibson suggests embracing quieter activities for a soothing wind-down as the evening approaches. 'Playing cards, engaging in a family board game, or participating in a gentle craft like drawing can help make things more relaxing as part of a wind-down period and try to avoid stimulating activities like party games.' Christmas Share or comment on this article: I'm a sleep expert - here's how you can get your children to doze off quickly on Christmas Eve e-mail Add commentThrowback - When Manmohan Singh Quoted Victor Hugo And Allama Iqbal In Budget Speeches2024 was the year when Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain chip company, finally moved from theory into reality, announcing its first successful medical implants in patients. This on its own is a remarkable achievement and not one to be taken lightly though, with Musk in his cheerleading role, the promises of what comes next may make a few of us non-augmented folk roll their eyes. The promise-happy billionaire has not only declared that Neuralink is going to be full steam ahead, but that patients will be outperforming pro gamers within two years : And that's not even his wildest claim. Musk reckons Neuralink is going to have to speed up human brains so that AI doesn't get "bored." Musk says our "low data rate" is too slow, you see, and this is a barrier to positive human-AI convergence. "Our slow output rate would diminish the link between humans and computers," says Musk, adding a helpful comparison to plants: "Let's say you look at this plant or whatever, and hey, I’d really like to make that plant happy, but it’s not saying a lot." To be clear: The human brain is a computer that no Silicon Valley firm is even close to outperforming. But that's not going to stop our boy, who reckons Neuralink can increase our brain's output rate (how fast our brain is sending signals to the chip) by "three, maybe six, maybe more orders of magnitude." Some of these scenarios sound like hell. "Let's say you can upload your memories, so you wouldn't lose memories," says Musk, adding that this would fundamentally change the experience of being human: "yeah we would be something different. Some sort of futuristic cyborg... it's not super far away, but 10-15 years, that kind of thing." The above was Musk in August this year, but it's a drum he keeps beating. A recent tweet by tech investor Apoorv Agrawal called Neuralink the "most important company of the decade", an assertion Musk leaped upon to make further claims: "Bit rate and patient number will increase hyperexponentially over the next 5+ years. My guess is combined I/O bit rate >1Mbs and augmented humans >1M by 2030." The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. So over a million augmented humans in five years' time. But even that prediction looks positively tame next to Musk's previous notion that hundreds of millions will have Neuralinks within "the next couple of decades." Add to which Musk’s comments about the Input/Output rate of over one million bits per second, basically the speed of thought, and we are leaving "normal" brain function far behind for something that we don't really have a name for yet. Master? I jest of course, and we'll get to why Neuralink is unquestionably A Good Thing and will almost certainly improve the quality of life for some individuals (it has already done this on a small scale). But there's a real distinction between the reality of Neuralink and the medical goals versus Musk's rhetoric, which essentially starts at predicting millions of people having the devices implanted and ends up with creating a race of supermen. Some would call this visionary, the very reason that much is such a heralded individual for some. Others might point out just how far this thing is from non-medical applications as it stands, and the speed of that five year timeframe for getting a million people chipped. To be clear: I'm not pretending to have any special knowledge of this. But what is abundantly clear is that, if Musk's wilder claims are even approximately close to reality, this would mark a social-technological revolution the likes of which we've never seen, and overnight create a two-tier species where a small percentage of the population is thinking six times faster than the rest. That seems a long way from a utopian prospect, and something that at the very least requires the kind of ethical and regulatory scrutiny that Musk recoils from (indeed, the SEC is sniffing around and not before time ). The thing is, of course, this feels unlikely to come to pass on Musk's timeframe. It is well to remember that, as well as the man's many outstanding achievements, there are a whole lot of unfulfilled promises, many of which are nowhere near as pie-in-the-sky as brain chips in hundreds of millions of people. Remember the network of one-car tubes? Musk has been promising that Tesla will have self-driving cars "next year" since 2014: Next year has yet to arrive. In 2019 he said there would be a million Tesla robo-taxis on the road by 2020: In 2024, they're still not here. As Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by the WHO, Musk declared there was nothing to worry about and predicted no new cases in the US: Tens of thousands would die. There's the Tesla bots, which he reckons will soon be bigger business for the company than its cars, except... when they were rolled out to do some bartending, it turned out that us fleshbags were still in control . And then perhaps my favourite claim of all: Musk says we won't just get to Mars by 2050, but on that date there will be a million people on the red planet. Neuralink itself has been the subject of other claims. The first trial was supposed to start four years before it did, and some of Musk's wilder claims about the technology include that it will somehow be able to "cure" autism and schizophrenia, which are not diseases, as well as give you super-sharp "eagle eyes." In this context it's hard to parse the visionary, which Musk undoubtedly is in some ways, from the vaudeville hype-man. It is undeniable that advances are being made in brain-computer interfaces, and not just by Neuralink, that would have been unimaginable even a decade ago: And that we live in an age of breakneck technological progress such that no one has any real idea what things will look like in 2030, never mind 2050. What can and should be acknowledged is that Neuralink has successfully implanted devices in human patients, and those patients are able to interface with computers in a way that would have previously been impossible. Neuralink's first patient, Noland Arbaugh, likened the device to using the Force (as in Star Wars) and can now control a computer, play videogames, and talk to friends without any physical input. This is the tech story that has the biggest chance of either changing the world, or sputtering down all sorts of half-realised alleyways. Because it is a story about the human race, our capabilities and evolution and what might be next, as much as it is about silicon. If we live in a world with a million Neuralink-enabled humans, is that going to amplify the empathetic and social side of humans: Or one of the many others? Neuralink is one part of what could be the biggest shift in human society since the Industrial Revolution. "We're not just aiming to give people the communication data rate equivalent to normal humans," says Musk. "We're aiming to give people who [are] quadriplegic, or maybe have complete loss of the connection to the brain and body, a communication data rate that exceeds normal humans. While we're in there, why not? Let's give people superpowers." Elon Musk is a busy man. Aside from Neuralink there's the AI wars, in which he's currently embroiled in a huge legal spat with OpenAI, as well as SpaceX, Starlink, the Tesla bots and cabs, and of course his obsession with trolling on X. This is the technology that has the potential to truly reshape things. Whether it does remains to be seen: But I'm making a note to check back in five years, and see whether a million of us really are rocking brain chips.
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand made up a two-shot deficit with two holes to play Sunday with an eagle-birdie finish for a 7-under 65, giving her a one-shot victory over Angel Yin and the $4 million prize — the richest in women's golf — at the CME Group Tour Championship. Yin had a two-shot lead walking to the 17th tee only to wind up settling for the $1 million check as runner-up after closing with a 66. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.