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Here's How We'll Get to a World Filled With Driverless Cars
Driving is one of those tasks that is so tedious, dangerous, and demanding that it almost screams to be handled by robots. Recently, the technology has finally begun to The Transportation Of Tomorrow: Awesome Inventions That May Transform How We Commute The course of human civilization has always been shaped by transportation. The transportation of tomorrow may not solve all these problems, but it may solve some – and it's important to give the matter thought... Read More to catch up with common sense. The elevator pitch for self driving cars is a no-brainer.
1.2 million people die in car accidents every year, and 50,000 are maimed. We could save almost all of those lives. Millions of people waste billions of hours commuting . Now they can work, watch Netflix, or read a book. Robot cars would let us get rid of parking lots and traffic jams.
Blind people, the elderly, and people too young to drive would be able move around freely without a human driver. The savings in lives, dollars, and productivity is incalculable. Machines don't get drunk, tired, or distracted. They follow traffic laws exactly. These are things that everybody wants, with far-reach implications The Shocking Effects Of The Google Driverless Car [INFOGRAPHIC] The future is closer than you might think. Thanks to Google's top secret research department, Google X, driverless cars are now a reality and could be hitting the mainstream in the not too distant future.... Read More — the hundred billion-dollar question is, how long is it going to take us to get there?
A World of Driverless Cars
Google describes the project in a recent blog update like this:
"Ever since we started the Google self-driving car project, we've been working toward the goal of vehicles that can shoulder the entire burden of driving. Just imagine: You can take a trip downtown at lunchtime without a 20-minute buffer to find parking. Seniors can keep their freedom even if they can't keep their car keys. And drunk and distracted driving? History. […] they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that's an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people."
Autonomous cars have been something of a hot topic in recent years, with Google leading the charge. Google has driven its fleet of experimental robot cars more than 1.1 million kilometers without serious incident, and recently premiered a new low-speed electric prototype to fine-tune city driving – with no steering wheel or brakes whatsoever.
Outside Google, Toyota, Honda, and Ford all have their own self-driving car projects, although none of them are nearly as advanced as Google's. In fact, several automakers have dismissed the idea of fully autonomous cars out of hand as too challenging, focusing instead on driver assistance features.
Google, for its part, has outlined an aggressive timeline to commercialization, hoping to partner with automakers to release autonomous vehicles, running Google software and manufactured by third parties before the close of the decade. In fact, Google intends these vehicles to hit the market no later than 2018. So what's standing in the way of that goal?
Technological Challenges
Google's prototype is really, really good — but it isn't perfect. Here's how the car works now:
The primary sense organ of the robot is a spinning LIDAR turret on the roof of the car. The LIDAR turret paints the world around the car with an infrared laser beam at very high speed. By recording the position and intensity of laser light reflected back, a simple machine vision algorithm can quickly compute a three-dimensional map of the objects around the car many times a second, allowing it to identify objects like cars, pedestrians, sidewalks, and traffic cones.
The car, as a secondary sense, has a number of cameras that it uses to gather additional information about the world around it (identifying signals from cyclists and other cars, and reading the status of traffic lights and signs). Finally, the car has a GPS, which tells it, to within a few meters' accuracy, where it is located in space.
None of these senses are good enough, on their own, to direct the car, but by using clever software to fuse these data sources together, the car is able to make intelligent driving decisions. To make the task easier, Google has been using streetview cars with LIDAR turrets on them for years – cars that, along with providing you with weird journeys into the past Travel Back In Time With Google Street View Google Street View has been the best tool to travel around the world in eighty seconds. Now, a simple but fun update on Google Street View allows you to roll back time. Read More , have been systematically 3d mapping streets all over the world.
All of this data has been meticulously tagged to let the car's computer know the positions of traffic lights, and what the speed limits and lane designations are for each road.
The robot can fine-tune its GPS position by comparing its current LIDAR data to old 3d maps of the street it's on, to ensure that it doesn't drift out of its lane (this also allows it to navigate when GPS isn't an option, like when it's driving through a tunnel or a parking garage). Furthermore, the car can access the metadata for its local environment to tell it when the speed changes and to know where to look for traffic signals.
This combination of hardware and software can do a lot of remarkable things: it can see and predict the motions of cyclists and pedestrians. It can identify construction cones and roads blocked by detour signs, and deduce the intentions of traffic cops with signs.
It can handle four-way-stops, adjust its speed on the highway to keep up with traffic, and even adjust its driving to make the ride comfortable for its human payload. The software is also aware of its own blind spots, and behaves cautiously when there might be cross-traffic or a pedestrian hiding in them.
There are, unfortunately, also some things that the car can't do. The biggest issue is weather: Google's cars have mostly been tested in California. In a larger roll-out across the world, autonomous cars will need to cope gracefully with flash flooding, heavy fog, and deep snow. Which is a problem, because all of those seriously mess with the heavy lifter of the robot's senses: the LIDAR.
Snow and standing water scatter the laser beam, making it difficult to reliably collect data, and fog or heavy rain can dramatically cut the distance the LIDAR can see. Without a reliable LIDAR, the robot is literally dead in the water.
Fixing the weather problem is still an open area of research. If we're lucky, it may be possible to use clever noise-filtering algorithms to extract meaningful data even from weather-clouded LIDAR, or shift the burden to the cameras, allowing the robot to continue to maneuver, although probably at a reduced speed.
If not, it may be necessary to add a new suite of sensors (perhaps SONAR or RADAR) to give the robot 3d mapping capabilities even in the event of LIDAR failure. Either way, Google's working on it.
A deeper problem, though, is what's called the long tail. Think of it like this: the majority of driving that self-driving cars will be asked to do is on the freeway. For a robot, freeway driving is easy. The next use case would probably be low-speed city driving in good weather, which robots are also pretty good at.
Unfortunately, even though these represent probably 90% of all the driving situations the cars will ever face, they aren't the only two possibilities. What about parades? What about ambulances? Rock slides? Car accidents? Flat tires? Jaywalking dogs? Road construction? Tornadoes? Getting pulled over by the police?
The point is that as you go down the list of cases the car has to handle, sorted by probability, you find that there are an almost infinite number of them, each with a tiny slice of the probability pie. You can't hard code behavior for every possibility.
You have to accept that eventually your robot car will encounter something you didn't plan for, and will behave incorrectly. It might even get people killed. The best you can do is try to cover enough cases well enough that the robot is still safer to use than a human-directed car.
Right now, the Google car isn't quite far enough down that list yet, but it is starting to get close, and Google is working on developing safe fallback behavior to ensure that the car won't actively harm anyone, even in the case of software failure or unanticipated driving conditions.
Google's method of building up these cases is clever: the company has a policy that when the car makes an error, or a human is forced to take control, the incident is logged, and the software is revised until it can pass simulated versions of the same scenario. Any large-scale changes to the software is tested against this database of incidents to ensure that nothing has been inadvertently broken.
There are softer limitations as well – the LIDAR turrets used by the robots currently clock in at more than $30,000. The good news here is that this is largely because those LIDAR turrets are a specialty item used for only a few applications. Mass production will certainly bring those costs down.
Furthermore, if self-driving cars are adopted under the cab model (likely provided by Google's protege, Uber), the needed ratio of cars to car users will likely be low: people going to similar places can be carpooled together by centralized routing software in exchange for reduced fees, and cars can maintain more or less continuous usage. This reduces the cost per user dramatically, even if the cars themselves are very expensive.
Legal Challenges
Self driving cars sound pretty much like a grocery list of things that scare regulators: autonomous robots with lethal force, disruptive new technology, mechanized unemployment, and large corporations putting millions of cameras all over the world.
Robot cars will probably kill people (though at a rate much lower than human drivers), they'll displace millions of truck drivers and hundreds of thousands of cab drivers, and they'll provide Google with an enormous amount of personal data about their users. Needless to say, there's going to be some resistance to getting self-driving cars legalized, particularly since they require major overhauls to the regulatory infrastructure already in play.
In order for self driving cars to become a legal, mainstream part of our lives, we're going to have to give up on some very old legal precepts: including the idea that the human being in the driver's seat of a car is responsible for its actions.
The states that have issued preliminary regulation to allow for the testing of autonomous vehicles (including California and Nevada) have employed a variety of legal shortcuts to allow the research to take place.
In California, for example, the person who initiates the car's journey is legally the operator, even if they aren't actually in the car at the time. This is an obviously inadequate long-term answer, as this means that (for example) the operator could be charged with DUI, even if they were nowhere near the vehicle that they dispatched while drinking.
California hopes to release more permanent regulation for such consumer vehicles by early 2015, but Consumer Watchdog, an independent advocacy group, is lobbying for them to delay the regulation for eighteen months to allow more thorough safety testing.
Google hopes to encourage lawmakers to place liability for the car's actions with the manufacturers of the self-driving hardware, which they see as the fairest way to distribute blame: it seems silly for the law to hold a human operator responsible for behavior that they have no control over.
The regulators involved admit that legislating for autonomous vehicles is a difficult problem:
"We're really good at licensing drivers and regulating vehicles and the car sales industry, but we don't have a lot of expertise in developing those types of standards," Soublet said. "So as we start approaching things like that, we have to back off. We don't have the technical ability to do it. We have to come at this from a regulatory perspective of what we as a department are capable of."
They do, however, agree that the field is worth the effort.
"It's an issue that draws you in. It's our future. We find it very exciting to work on […] Brian [Soublet] and I, we can't believe that we're working on this. It's something that will change the way that we all live."
Federal regulation is on its way, but may not arrive for several years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a preliminary statement on the issue, in which it expressed some enthusiasm for the prospect of fully autonomous vehicles.
"America is at a historic turning point for automotive travel. Motor vehicles and drivers' relationships with them are likely to change significantly in the next ten to twenty years, perhaps more than they have changed in the last one hundred years."
However, the NHTSA also seems unprepared to issue any clear regulation in the forseeable future, and plans mostly to leave these regulatory issues in the hands of individual states, raising the possibility of poorly regulated states being 'dead zones' that autonomous cars on cross-country road trips must avoid. This is where the good news starts. The hopeful mother of these machines is Google, which also happens to be one of the largest lobby juggernauts in the United States (it ranks eighth, beating out Boeing and Lockheed Martin). Google is well prepared to guide regulation into a shape friendly to the future of autonomous vehicles.
The Road Ahead
If there's a simple message to take away from the situation right now, it's this: the challenges left to solve before autonomous vehicles can go mainstream are difficult, and substantial. The technology and legal infrastructure is not currently in place to allow these vehicles to truly fulfill their potential. However, these problems are also well defined, solvable, and being investigated by some of the smartest people on the planet.
There is a very good chance that the technology, at least, will be ready to be deployed in test markets like California and Nevada by Google's tentative 2018 date. There's an even better chance that, by ten years from now, the technology will have radically transformed the way that nearly everyone on Earth lives their lives.
These changes will range from car culture (the end of automobile ownership as an adult rite of passage), the way people work and socialize, and the way we design our cities. If these challenges can be met, it'll be the most significant change in transportation since the invention of the automobile.
Feature Image: "The Love Bug", by JD Hancock
Images: "Google self driving car at the Computer History Museum", by Don DeBold, "Google Self-Driving Car", by Roman Boed, "Toyota self-driving car", David Berkowitz, "Velodyne High-Def LIDAR", Steve Jurvetson
Related topics: Automotive Technology, Google.
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The real estate cash buyers are the best people to work with in case you want to sell your house fast.The property cash buyers are people who are in business of buying home quickly so that they invest, rent or flip or engage in any other profit generating way.These individual will buy your property in cash.Since the Baltimore cash homebuyers CR of Maryland are always buying homes on cash basis, then it will be quicker and easy for you to work with them.
In case you want to sell your property fast, then opting for the traditional means like approaching a real estate agent or even having to list the property in the market might take you some time before you get the buyer for a property.It is advisable for you to adopt for modern ways for house selling since the traditional ones will cost you more money.As you consider working with CR of Maryland cash home buyers, then consider the following points in the article.
It will be important for you as a house seller to know that the cash home buyers are investors in the real estate sector.These home purchasers do have cash in hand as they come to buy your house.They purchase homes for the purposes of investment and not to purposely live in them.Just like any other type of business, they will need to invest in new projects so that they can ensure that their projects continue running.There is a huge similarity between selling your home to another person or to a cash home buyer and the only difference will be that these cash home buyers will have the cash in their hands as they come to purchase your home.
The second tip to ensuring that you work well with a cash home buyer is ensuring that the house you are selling is marketable.The cash home buyers buy houses with the aim of investing but they will be reluctant in buying houses which need a lot of work for them to be in a good condition.For this reason, it will be important for you as a home seller to ensure that you make you property as marketable as possible even when you are dealing with a cash home buyer.In order for you to ensure that you are able to sell your house fast and quickly, then you will need to consider keeping it clean and attractive.
The procedure of selling your property to a cash home buyer is easy as well as quick.The cash home buyers, after contacting them, will make do an inspection to the property after which they will give you an offer in the property.Expect an offer from the cash homebuyers within a period of forty-eight hours.
Click here for more information: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/what-real-estate-companie_b_14414826.html.

subset: commoncrawl


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Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands: The Cheerleading Uniform Case
Short video featuring Sandra Aistars
|Intellectual Property Practice Group
Can the design features of a useful article be copyrighted? Sandra Aistars, Clinical Professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, explains the dispute between Star Athletica and Varsity Brands over the graphic design elements of cheerleading uniforms. The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on October 31, 2016.
As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.


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What a beautiful day in North Carolina.
77 degrees.
My husband went out to get me a Starbucks this morning and picked out a chocolate croissant while I called my mum to wish her a happy birthday. Oh my goodness, they taste delicious. If you've never tasted one, go treat yourself!
We went for a Sunday drive through the windy roads where we live, with the windows open listening to Brad Paisley...
...and it made my eyes tear up a bit. I love that song.
Anyways, we went to a store to look at paint supplies, stocked up and headed home to work some more on our master suite project. We found that the dollar store had much sturdier paint trays than some others we had collected, so we stocked up.
Then we went to Fuddruckers, which is a burger, soup and salad type of restaurant. I got a salad and strawberry milkshake but was unable to finish it all, the portion sizes are h-u-g-e. Almost as huge as Casa Rita's where we went last night for a Mexican food.
As you can probably tell by reading my blog...for the past week at least, we've been eating out while doing renovation projects.
Well, I better get back to painting. We're going to DVR the Oscars and some other shows. Will have to catch up one day.
Have a happy rest of your Sunday!


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At Farah & Farah, we understand your unfortunate situation, and we want to help.
If you or a loved one find yourself seriously injured due to an act of negligence in Daytona Beach, you may face tremendous stress, frustration, and hardship. Contact us today to discuss your case, and see how we can give you the support you need in order to make a full recovery.
Farah & Farah Can Help You With Your Personal Injury Claim
Navigating the court system is difficult without an attorney, and you likely will not have the time, resources, or energy to pursue a claim without assistance while recovering from your injury or helping your loved one recover. Instead of shouldering this burden alone, consider retaining the support of Farah & Farah's personal injury attorneys. We can take many of the most troublesome aspects of the legal process off your hands. This includes:
- Filing any paperwork that may be confusing or otherwise tedious.
- Fully investigating your case to ensure no vital evidence is missed.
- Determining the full value of your claim.
- Negotiating with insurance companies on your behalf to ensure you are treated with respect and courtesy.
Personal injury proceedings are often much more difficult on people than you think. Let us help you get through this tough time together.
Daytona Beach Personal Injury Practice Areas
No Risk With Our Services
Farah & Farah wants to make legal representation as accessible as possible to those who need it most. We never charge any up-front fees for our legal services and take every case with a contingency fee agreement. This ensures you only pay legal fees if we win your case, and any legal fees we collect will come out of your settlement. We will never bill you directly for any legal services.
How Your Attorney Will Assist You
Your Farah & Farah legal team can help take the uncertainty out of a personal injury situation. We understand how frustrating these cases can be for injured plaintiffs and will help make the process as easy and stress-free as possible. Your attorneys will manage correspondence with insurance carriers, gather evidence and witness statements. We will help you assess the full scope of your damages for the most complete recovery possible.
We Want to Help With Your Personal Injury Issues
A personal injury case may seem like a straightforward issue at first, but there are countless possible complicating factors that may arise in any personal injury case, interfering with your ability to recover. You may have difficulty proving liability for your damages or an at-fault party may attempt to deflect blame for your injury to you. You may also find it challenging to secure the documentation you need to pursue your claim while recovering from your injuries.
Farah & Farah can handle these concerns and more. We can coordinate with expert witnesses who can testify in support of your claim with professional insights. Our investigators will help you gather all the medical records, police reports, and other documentation you need for your claim. Ultimately, hiring Farah & Farah means you can rest assured knowing your personal injury claim is in capable hands.
Contact Us to Build Your Case
Florida allows a statute of limitations for personal injury claims. It can pass very quickly and any delays in pursuing your personal injury claim could jeopardize your ability to secure compensation for your damages. If you or a loved one suffered a personal injury due to the actions of a negligent party in the Daytona Beach area, we can help. Contact Farah & Farah today to schedule a free consultation with our attorneys and we can help you better understand your legal options for recovery.


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And at a time when Rangers dominated Scottish football in some style, he proved to be a sensation between the posts with great regularity.
Dawson was not tall but, like Andy Goram of the modern age, he had terrific reflexes and tremendous bravery.
He played 211 times for the club and won the league on no less than five occasions.
Dawson was also successful with the club in the Scottish Cup twice and earned 14 Scotland caps.


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OCTOPUS Tee MaroonHi My Name is Mark
The Classic Octopus Tee. A soft cotton tee with our logo octopus front and center.
- MAROON tee W/ BLACK print
- Limited edition design
- Made in the USA
- Water-based ink
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- 100% Cotton
- Prewashed
- Regular Fit


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When I think of Easter, I remember being a kid and getting a small egg from the Easter Bunny. I wasn't allowed to eat the egg that morning, because we had to quickly eat breakfast before heading down to my Nana and Pop's house.
Of course, I don't remember how huge the traffic was, nor how annoyed my parents were at having to sit in all the traffic all the way – or hear them complain about how they only had a bit of time off work and they had to spend it driving. Maybe they didn't – because that was how much we loved our family gatherings.
We would pull up outside Nana'a house, and there she would be with a massive smile and an egg basket, because the Easter Bunny had left the eggs for the hunt at her house. My brother, cousins and I would madly hunt for the eggs and try to sneak a few in before we had to sit down and share them out equally. Then we would go inside, talk, play and eat chocolate before having lunch in the cramped back room – but we didn't even care about that.
After lunch we had a traditional Uno competition. When Uno Attack came out, all bets were off! I remember the laughing, the full stomach, and the familiarity of it all.
About ten years ago, possibly more, my Mum and brother had a massive fight – of which I feel partially responsible for sometimes – and that was really the beginning of the end of our family gatherings. Slowly, as tensions seeped into each birthday or Christmas where my brother wasn't there and my Mum was silently blamed for not doing anything to fix it, we stopped wanting to spend as much time with each other.
It became a thing to turn up an hour before lunch and leave straight after. Uno was never brought out anymore.
I held on tight as much as I could, and when the day came that I realised that all our family gatherings were over, I was devastated.
Pop had died, and Nana moved so far away that no one could justify a drive for just a lunch. My Mum and her sister don't have the type of relationship where they could still organise something between themselves, and I didn't have a house big enough to accommodate everyone. And I didn't think anyone would come anyway.
Today, I'm sitting here thinking about the memories my children will have of Easter. My partner is overseas and will only get home the night before the Easter Bunny makes an appearance. We have no plans to see either of our parents on Easter Sunday, we aren't religious, my brother may stop by, a friend who doesn't have her children on Easter may pop in too.
They will have a very different memory to mine, and I feel like it's less because of the lack of family involvement. I can't change it because I've tried and failed at that before. All I can do is make the day special in our own way. We add chocolate to our breakfast, we get ready for a small gathering of whoever happens to arrive, and we have fun with the people that are here. We will all be happy to see my partner after a long week with him away, that will get wrapped up in the day too.
Family is a strange beast, and as I've gotten older I understand why there are so many family drama shows, movies and books made. There is no road map to how to deal with family, or how to behave when all of a sudden it doesn't work. Those shows, movies and books provide at least some type of comfort that all families seem to have drama associated to them.
I really cherish my memories of Easter, and I'm so sad that I won't be packing my children into a car Sunday morning to battle traffic. Because I would love to be taking them out to a big family gathering like the ones I remember.
Happy Easter, I guess.


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Ag Career Day not just for seniors; offers networking, internships
Ag Career Day not just for seniors; offers networking, internships
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Ag Career Day, hosted Oct. 11 at the Bryce Jordan Center by the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, was successful in helping students to polish their career skills, network and find internships with companies as early as their freshman year, according to organizers in the college's Office for Undergraduate Education.
This year's Ag Career Day attracted more than 130 company recruiters promoting job and internship opportunities in landscaping, environmental science, animal science, wildlife and natural resource management, food science and other fields. The goal of the event is for students to meet potential employers and find out what opportunities are available in their fields, even before they are ready to start their job searches.
"What we try to do for our students is to help them develop those skills and connections early on," said Richard Rateau, director of the college's Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services. "That way, when they're ready to start applying for jobs, they're reconnecting with people and companies they've met before, rather than just sending out stacks of resumes."
Rateau noted that not only does this approach make it more likely that students will get hired, but it's a much more comfortable experience for them. "The employers feel good about it, too, because they've had a chance to screen these applicants and get an idea of their qualifications," he said.
The Center for Experiential Learning and Career Services provides several workshops focused on professional skills such as resume and interview preparation, salary negotiation, and online presence and networking, as well as walk-in consultation services. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the center's resources and attend networking programs like Ag Career Day as early as their freshman year.
"Younger students may not realize that there are part-time jobs and internships in their fields available to them," said Rateau. "These are great ways to engage with companies you might want a career with and also find out whether the work is enjoyable for you."
The recruiters who attended Ag Career Day agreed. "I'm recruiting here at Penn State because I annually hire summer interns and students who do field research with me," explained Dean Collamer, a field sales agronomist from Growmark FS. "We are hiring for some full-time jobs, but that's not our primary emphasis today."
Eric Rotz, a human resources generalist with Turkey Hill Dairy, added, "What we do, as part of Career Day, is we actually have first-round interviews. Almost everybody we have taken over the last eight years for internships, we've gotten from Ag Career Day."
Students who acquire internships from Ag Career Day find that these opportunities are extremely valuable, not just to gain experience or flesh out a resume, but because these internships often blossom into rewarding careers. Many of the company representatives at this year's Ag Career Day were returning Penn State graduates who had met their employers through the event.
Kylie Kiess, a sales coordinator for T.A. Seeds, graduated from the College of Agricultural Sciences in 2013 with a degree in agricultural science and a minor in agribusiness management.
"I think as a student, Ag Career Day is valuable, to start coming when you're a freshman to gain an understanding of the process of being a professional and introducing yourself to companies," she said. "And then as you get older and as you get closer to graduation, it's helpful to make those key connections — whether you're getting that job or not — and to get your name out there and understand different businesses," she said.
McKenzie Shuler, a zookeeper at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, met her current employer at the event. "I started out as an intern as a junior and then landed a full-time job at the zoo," said Shuler, who majored in animal science with a business focus. "I think Ag Career Day opens a lot of opportunities for Penn State students to explore different career paths."
Careers with companies in agricultural industries aren't limited to students in the College of Agricultural Sciences. While several jobs require a background in the agricultural sciences or natural resource management, there are also opportunities in finance, education, human resources, sales and more.
Sam Kulp, who graduated from Penn State in 2015 with a degree in economics and a minor in agribusiness management, now works as a loan officer for Ag Choice Farm Credit.
"Even though I graduated through the College of Liberal Arts, I was able to find both an internship and a career through the College of Agricultural Sciences," he said. "Ag Career Day was extremely beneficial. I met with a number of different companies and was able to line up a number of interviews, which ended up turning into an internship that I had the summer after my junior year of college, and then full-time employment after I graduated. This was my ultimate career goal, to land exactly where I am right now."


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There are plenty types of Storage: so why is Self Storage the best way to store personal goods?
Convenience is the number one reason. When you use a Self Storage space, you are the only one with access to that space and the door is locked with a padlock and you are the only one with a key.
This is in contrast to other forms of Storage which includes storing with friends and family and removalist's and large repository style Storage. When you store your goods with friends it will not always be convenient for you to just call in and access your goods. Murphy's Law would suggest that when you need to get access to your gear and your friends will be out, making it impossible.
Repository style Storage at large removalist is not much better. This kind of Storage is designed for long-term no access and is usually priced accordingly. This means that if you want access to your goods that it may not be possible. Self Storage spaces in our facilities offer maximum convenience to Storers. With plenty of different sizes, you only pay for the space that you need and for the term needed. Even when you decide to move out, often the smaller space offers great value, to keep those smaller items very handy, especially if you are an unit and you don't have any Storage space handy. Skis, tents, camping equipment, garden equipment and more come to mind.
Security is very important in Self Storage as well your goods are well secured. You can only access facility with a pin number through our electric gate system.
CCTV surveillance ensures that we are keeping an eye on what is going on in our Self Storage facility. These are the reasons why you should not store with friends, or family. Whilst it might be cheaper alternative, if you lose your goods you also lose a friendship or family acquaintance and that's just not worth it.


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General Tony Thomas speaking at the Aspen Forum on July 21, 2017 reveals the New York Times ran a story from leaked intelligence that foiled the capture of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(Via Fox) In a wide-ranging interview moderated by Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Thomas, who leads the Special Operations Command, said his team was "particularly close" to Baghdadi after the 2015 raid that killed ISIS oil minister Abu Sayyaf. That raid also netted his wife, who provided a wealth of actionable information.
"That was a very good lead. Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead," Thomas said. "The challenge we have [is] in terms of where and how our tactics and procedures are discussed openly. There's a great need to inform the American public about what we're up to. There's also great need to recognize things that will absolutely undercut our ability to do our job." (read more) Watch Video:


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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'broken relationships' tag.
He HAD to go through Samaria (John 4:4). Well, geographically he didn't HAVE to go through Samaria. In fact, the more politically correct route for any self-respecting Jew would be to go on the east side of the Jordan River. It was a longer route but avoided Samaria all together. If you did choose to go through Samaria you certainly wouldn't stop for lunch, or talk to a woman.
But Jesus did.
He had to go through Samaria because someone was ready to hear his message. That someone was a woman that had gone through five divorces. Five. One is devastating enough. Two raises eyebrows. Five? There are words for women like this but none of them are appropriate for this space.
Take a moment to put yourself in the woman's place. Hopefully you will have a hard time with this, but imagine how rejected you would feel. Remember the first time you broke up? The first time you were dumped for better pasture? Multiply by five! And now, the guy she was 'with' didn't even respect her enough to marry her.
That's why she went to the well during the hottest part of the day. She no doubt suffered in silence and this was her coping mechanism.
But Jesus went out of his way to meet her in her comfort zone, on her terms to share the one thing she needed above all else…acceptance and true life.
He does the same today. You don't need to suffer in silence. He wants to hear from you. He wants us to see those who may be suffering and offer the fresh water of his grace. Silent sufferers never escape the notice of Jesus.
We live in a fast-paced world in which social media, the internet and rapidly changing cultural values are placed front row, and center in our lives. It seems like everything that those in my baby boomer generation counted as stable is falling away. Some of that, to be honest, is a good thing. I'm beginning to realize the 'simple life' I grew up in was often a cover-up for an undercurrent of things that never should have happened.
The trade off, however isn't always positive. With all the 'advancements' our society has made, one thing that seems to have been left behind is hope. HOPE. Such a simple word, yet so complex. Wars have been fought in the name of hope; lives have been destroyed in the search for hope.
Hope is elusive on the human plane. We seek it in relationships. We seek it through political and social action. We seek it, or at least try to escape it's evil twin– hopelessness — through chemicals. We may even try it through religion. But none of that really satisfies. People fail. Government fails. Gaining rights for one group rapes other groups of their 'rights'. Religion only offers surface comfort for the pain.
There is only one thing that offers total hope and that is Jesus. He's not about rules and religion. He has no expectations for you to measure up to who he is. When we place our focus on who he is, and what he has done; when we realize the hopelessness of this world is temporary and a better world awaits us; when we realize the pain we suffer now is nothing compared to the joy we have in him, we also find that elusive thing we've sought for: HOPE.
"If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. Matthew 18:15
Each of us have gone through those periods of time when relationships fail. Those relationships that are closest are the most painful to lose. Some translations leave out the phrase "against you". Others include it. In reality, as followers of Jesus it doesn't really matter if the wrong is committed against you (most painful) or against others. Either way, the offense is destined to hurt a brother or sister in Christ and others!
So what do we do? It's easy enough to say we need to pray. Sometimes prayer is a scapegoat and can be better paraphrased as "I don't want to get personally involved" or "I hate conflict" or "It's really none of my business, it's God's job to do the work."
There is some truth to each of these excuses. But, the reality is, Jesus never shied away from involving himself in the ugly part of ugly people's lives. Aren't we called to do the same?
Here are some suggestions for what may help. I'll say up front that I'm still working on these in my life and it's not easy. I have a long way to go! Praise Jesus for grace!
Pray: This is the obvious but be specific. Pray for your wisdom. Pray for the welfare of the one who wronged you or who is in danger of hurting themselves or others. Pray FOR them, not ABOUT them. Remember prayer is a two way conversation with the wisest, most loving being in the universe!
Reflect: This mixes in easily with prayer. As you are praying ask God to reveal anything YOU may have done to bring on this situation. Rather than focus on what the person did, try to ascertain why the person may have acted as he did. Most of the time, actions are a symptom, not the disease.
Ask: This is a tricky one and must be used with the utmost care and wisdom. If you have a close friend you can trust to make sure this goes no further, ask them for insight into the situation. Be careful not to turn this into a gossip session!!
Restore: Restoration demands action! To be done well, restoration is done with love. It can't be hurried. First attempts often fail. Compassion and patience are the two best tools to use. If at all possible, refrain from step four until steps 1-3 are firmly in place!
Rest: The Psalmist states that during the storm we rest in the arms of almighty God. Remember that once we have done all we can to lovingly, gracefully and compassionately strive for resolution, the Holy Spirit is the ultimate source of healing.
PRAYER: Father God. Right now, I pray for those with whom I am in conflict and those I'm concerned about because they are in danger of destroying themselves or others. Give me wisdom to know what I need to do to begin the healing process. Help me follow you. Amen.
Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord! Psalm 31:24 (AMP)
The amount of courage we have is dependent on what we put our hope in.
If I put my hope in my own ability to follow God I'll be frustrated. I'm weak. I follow my own desires far too often. Selfishness sneaks up on me at the least likely time. I'm full of lust. My past haunts me.
If I put my hope in relationships I'll be lonely. People fail us. The promise things, but fail to honor that promise. They all too often put demands on me that I can't fulfill, or if I do fulfill them to the best of my ability, expect more.
If I put my hope in finances I fall short. Too many times that I have way too much month at the end of the money and if I do have the finances to get what I want, it's often outdated by the end of the week.
Putting hope in religion is demoralizing. Religion puts far more expectations and demands on me than God would ever do. Churches seem to be ivory palaces full of dead man's bones. Pretty on the outside but full of politics, judgmental attitudes and hypocritical leaders on the inside.
If I put my hope in living healthy, you know, doing the diet thing, exercising, and all the rest, someone else always seems to be trimmer or enjoying life more than I. And I still get sick. Some of the 'healthiest people I know' have suffered from debilitating illnesses or accidents that have robbed them of life.
Maybe you have felt some of the feelings listed above. Your strength to go on seems to have left you. Increased effort has only brought increased frustration and feelings of failure. It doesn't have to be that way.
If we put our hope in God's hands our frustration turns to a realization that our success has never been dependent on our ability. God has never put much hope in our ability to follow his rules, that's why he offers me Jesus. That's why he offers me forgiveness and grace.
He's never measured our success by the amount of money in our bank account or the number of friends we have on social networking sites. He's never demanded anything that he doesn't first give us the ability to follow through on. He knows your heart. He knows your deepest fears. He knows your past and wants to walk with you into the future.
Losing hope? Frustrated? Worried? Tired of losing sleep. Have courage based on a loving forgiving God. Worship and praise him for fact that he has reached down to give you peace through his son Jesus Christ.
PRAYER: Father God, there are many things that scare me today. I have lots of worries; lots of fears; failure seems to follow me wherever I go. Thank you that I can find my hope and rest in you. Help me have courage through your son Jesus Christ. Amen.
Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil. Jeremiah 13:23 (NLT)
It really shouldn't surprise us, but it does. News reports come across every day of parents brutally abusing children; of domestic violence; of people we put in political office because of their integrity only to find out they lied to us.
Professional athletes fail as role models for our children while those who are out in left field attract them. Marriage is made a mockery and faith has become a 'personal thing' based on personal feelings and ideologies.
We ask, the question, 'When will this all stop?'
The answer is, sadly, never. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we as humans are doomed when it comes to making the world a better place by our own initiatives. All the protest rallies and government intervention and foreign aid won't solve the problem.
Scientific research may be able to pinpoint certain things to alleviate the symptoms of our disease. But the sad reality is, science has never been able to cure the wound of the human soul.
A brave preacher may on occasion stand before his people and preach a moving sermon against homosexuality, or divorce or pornography and be applauded for his call to repentance.
On the other hand, a preacher that stands before the congregation and speaks out against gluttony or critical spirits or intolerance will be roasted along with the beef at the dinner table.
We who are believers in Jesus Christ like to point fingers at those who don't believe as we do. We shake our heads at those who follow after a life of sin. We create entire denominations to take a stand against this sin or that sin. But we fail to remember that we are all the same; all humans; all victims of the same disease.
When Jeremiah speaks to God's people he reminds them that there is nothing good about them and there is nothing they can do to change. Nothing. They were evil from birth; they will be evil until the day they die.
Hopeless situation you may think? Not so. That's why Jesus came into the world. Galatians 3:13 reminds us that Jesus didn't take our sin away. He became our sin for us. There is nothing you can do to change your DNA. There is nothing you can do to change your past. There is nothing in your own power you can do to change your desires. Only Jesus Christ can do that when you accept his forgiveness.
Don't be surprised at the evil around you. Don't be surprised by the evil you fall into yourself. You are simply doing what humans do. But fear not. In Jesus Christ there is freedom in spite of yourself!
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I'm appalled at the evil that surrounds me. I'm equally appalled at the evil I do in word, thought or deed. I praise you for the fact that even though I can't change, you have changed me and taken my sin upon you. Praise you Lord, Amen.


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The dogs under the desk people, plus, Elastic, Cloudera/Hortonworks, and hotel loyalty programs and breakfast buffets
Episode 150 · October 11th, 2018 · 1 hr 16 mins
About this Episode
Changing the "culture" at a large company is impossibly hard, few get through it. And, it's little wonder, you're usually asking them to do completely irrational things. In the context of Google shutting down Google+ and a small write-up of Blockbuster failure fairy tales, we spend time discussion the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" problem of digital transformation. We then talk about Elastic search and their recent IPO, and follow-up with some better commentary on Cloudera and Hortonworks merging - better than we did last week. Hotel breakfast buffet strategies and the Chase Sapphire series of cards. Oh, and before that Matt and Coté spend a good 10 to 15 minutes talking about hotel breakfast buffet strategies.
Also, it's episode #150 - yay us! Our first episode was on May 27th, 2014, where Coté's lamp played a prominent role, and we did video.
Relevant to your interests
- Chase Sapphire Reserve, and others in the Sapphire line. AAdvantage Executive card.
- SpringOne Platform videos are all up.
- Coté went to Puppetizer 2018 Amsterdam. They're really into being "a portfolio company" now. Lots of stacks presented; much discussion on managing Puppet itself. A very well run event. See also Register coverage of their SF event.
- Google is shutting down Google+ following massive data exposure - "90 percent of Google+ user sessions last for less than five seconds."
- be like google prd mgmt desertion
- effect other enterprise props?
- legacy services
- OpenOffice watch - 'Back in 2015, Red Hat developer Christian Schaller called OpenOffice "all but dead."'
- Austin Ernest says make sure you don't cargo cult The SRE.
- The Demise of Blockbuster, and Other Failure Fairy Tales - Strategy is hard, execution at the middle-management later is harder. Put yet another way, company executives have a lot less power than you'd think. Related: WTF is "culture"?
- This week in IPOs: Elastic has a party, Solarwinds figuring one out.
- Elastic: "The stock closed at $70 per share, representing a 94.4 percent rise." Close of market on Oct. 10th: $62.50 per share.
- 451 on Elastic revenue, Scott Denne: "The developer of open source search software for IT log analysis, security analytics and other applications nearly doubled its top line in its fiscal year (ending April 30) to $160m, up from $88m a year earlier, while increasing the share of subscription revenue in its mix."
- More: "Judging by Elastic's offering, the [Q3] dry spell had little impact on investor appetites, setting up a favorable environment for Anaplan and SolarWinds as both look to price this month."
- 451 on Elastic's product, Nancy Gohring: "One of the most important messages that emerged from ElasticOn is that Elastic is positioning its software to serve as a platform for collecting and analyzing a wide array of machine data that can be used in a variety of use cases. With its recently announced APM UI and the forthcoming Infra UI, as well as the Canvas visualization capabilities, SQL-like querying and advancing machine-learning techniques, the Elastic Stack will be usable as a centralized platform for collecting and analyzing logs, events and metrics by constituents within a business including IT ops, security, executive leadership, product management and others."
- So, Elastic is…an OSS (presumably) cheaper Splunk, but for general search not just IT? Or, wait, it is just IT stuff?
- Solarwinds: Coté hasn't been able to parse out the Solarwinds deal. The big question is/will be, "so, did it make sense to go private, or could that have done whatever they're doing by staying public?"
- Serverless and FaaS, survey shows confusion: "Despite attempts to educate the market, we still believe the word "serverless" connotes many different things, especially for the 79 percent of organizations that plan to adopt serverless architecture but have not planned to use FaaS in the next 18 months."
- Coté's old saw that "serverless" has just come to mean "doing programming on-top of cloud shit." This is what Pivotal usually means when they say "cloud native," versus the container kids who mean just "kubernetes," at broadest, "containers."
- Cloudera/Hortonworks follow-up:
- TPM: "Cloudera has raked in $1.28 billion in revenues in the past six and a half years, while Hortonworks only brought in $808 million. Add in the venture capital of $1.31 billion in venture capital, plus $225 million that Cloudera raised in early 2017 for its IPO and the $100 million that Hortonworks raised in late 2014 from its IPO, and the total pile of cash that has come to the pair is $3.69 billion. Hortonworks still has $86 million of cash and Cloudera still has $440.1 million. But over that same time period, Cloudera has booked cumulative losses of $1.19 billion and Hortonworks has cumulative losses of $979 million, for a total of $2.16 billion. Both separately and together, these companies are burning the wood a lot faster than they can cut it."
- TPM's TAM summary, as suggested by the two companies: "The core market that Hadoop is chasing is comprised of three different segments, according to Cloudera-Hortonworks, and will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent between 2017 and 2022, from $12.7 billion to $32.3 billion. Within that, cognitive and artificial intelligence workloads represent a $14.3 billion opportunity in 2022, $4.9 billion for advanced and predictive analytics software, and $13.2 billion for dynamic data management systems (what we would call modern storage). In addition to that, the Hadoop platform is also chasing relational and non-relational database management systems and data warehouses, which is another $51 billion opportunity in 2022, for a total TAM of $83 billion. Even a small slice of this, which is what Hadoop currently gets today, could be billions of dollars by then."
- Forrester on TAM penetration, Noel Yuhanna: "We estimate that [just] 7% of organizations have completely migrated their traditional data warehouses to big data platforms. " That's 93% more left, assuming 20% capture for a leader, (shoddy percentage math follows)17 to 18%, I guess?
- Meanwhile, also from Forrester: "While 74% of global data and analytics decision makers tell us they will have invested in a big data lake by the end of 2017, we find that many of these are being kept on life support by the technology management shops that drove them."
- Also, Forrester on HARK (Hadoop & Spark), Noel Yuhanna & Mike Gualtieri: "Distributed computing software and services that are rooted in open source Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark to store, process, and analyze data to find and use insights to improve customer experiences, create timely business intelligence, optimize business processes, and make decision making smarter and faster." Like traditional analytics, but bigger and with more ML?
- 451 (Matt Aslett & James Curtis): "Although there are cross-selling opportunities and the two companies share an underlying open source foundation, there are also significant areas of product overlap and competing functionality, as well as a history of animosity to overcome."
- Tamped down TAM: "Another way of looking at this is that the Hadoop market hasn't expanded enough to support the growth targets of two independent publicly traded companies, especially with the cloud providers to contend with."
- Cloudera is the winner: "While the deal is being described by the companies as a merger, make no mistake that Cloudera is acquiring Hortonworks. After the transaction closes, Cloudera shareholders will own approximately 60% of the combined company, which will do business as Cloudera, with Hortonworks shareholders owning approximately 40%."
- Products, Hortnworks: "Its primary product is the Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP), which consists of core Hadoop and some 20+ open source projects. But in August 2015, the company purchased Onyara, which was based on the Apache NiFi technology, and designed to enable users to collect, process and distribute data."
- Products, Cloudera: "To date, Cloudera offers several products and while Hortonworks has adopted a pure 100% open source approach. Cloudera has a hybrid strategy, mixing open source with its proprietary tooling. The company's core offering is the Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub (CDH) – specifically targeted products are provided for data warehousing, operational database, and data science and engineering. Its cloud offering is Altus, a PaaS available on AWS and Azure."
- 451 in another report (Agatha Poon), on Cloudera, June 2018: "At present, data analytics tools and offerings are driving regional opportunities with enterprises slowly but clearly moving out from legacy data warehouse platform to a new generation of data analytics platform, which is highly distributed and open standards based, Cloudera says. For machine learning and advanced data analytics, the company believes that data scientists will be the main users and strategic partners to boost future uptake. While data scientists can make use of algorithms to train the model into production data clusters, it could be a time-consuming and complex endeavor. With that in mind, Cloudera has stepped up its game by acquiring applied machine learning research startup Fast Forward Labs in late 2017, deepening its expertise in applying machine learning to practical business problems. The bigger Cloudera says it is committed to researching new techniques to resolve real-world business problems, building codes as well as providing customers with machine learning advisory services leveraging Fast Forward Labs' domain expertise."
- Cloudera strategy: "Cloudera's proposition remains largely unchanged: lead machine learning in the enterprise, disrupt the data warehouse market for analytical and operational data workloads, capitalize on cloud adoption and drive innovation for simplification while mitigating data security risk. With cloud being an agent for digital transformation, the company has publicly announced its intent to lead with cloud innovation as part of the future growth strategy at the company level."
Conferences, et. al.
- Oct 16th - DevOpsDays Paris - Coté at a table. Pivotal will have a raffle!
- Oct 17th - JDriven Managers summit - near Amsterdam - Coté talking.
- Oct 22nd - Cloud Native tour in Milan, Italy. Coté and friends: a half day, a summit on Spring, DevOps, and cloud native programming. Free.
- Oct 31st - Coté speaking at New Relic's FutureStack Amsterdam.
- Nov 3rd to Nov 12th - SpringOne Tour - all over the earth! Coté will be MC'ing Beijing Nov 3rd, Seoul Nov 8th, Tokyo Nov 6th, and Singapore Nov 12th.
- Nov 14th to 16th - Devoxx Belgium, Antwerp. Coté's presenting on enterprise architecture.
- Dec 12th and 13th - SpringTour Toronto, Coté.
Listener Feedback
- Jermey is professor at a university in Chicago teaching cloud native and "devops" technologies to undergrads. "The Podcast has been a great benefit to the students. Could I get a few stickers to pass out to them?"
SDT news & hype
- Join us in Slack - new #upvoteplease channel for shameless (self) promotion.
- Subscribe to Software Defined Interviews Podcast - Cote on Tech Evangelism
- CashedOut.coffee podcast.
- Send your postal address to email@example.com and we will send you a sticker.
- Brandon built the Quick Concall iPhone App and he wants you to buy it for $0.99.
- Brandon: Dr. Foster on Neflix
- Matt: Slint documentary Breadcrumb Trail.
- Coté: micro.blog, where Coté now has cote.coffee hooked up with some Instagram and Pinboard IFTTT wingdings. Drafts 5 seems fine. Coté needs help figuring out WTF "culture" is from a practical angle.


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Amazon only allows people to rate the product but not the seller so I thought I'd share my list of sellers who I have had a bad experience with here.
I'll aim to maintain the list and if anyone has any suggestions please leave a comment.
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Director, Zone 2 — Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System
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Toge News Flash #1: A hello with some good news updates
Hi everyone! How are you folks doing? You might be surprised to see this out of nowhere update from us. To start, we would like to announce that we will be sending you updates on what we are doing, the events we are going, and of course the progress of the games we...
Relive your SNES gaming experience with MagiCat, first title from Toge Productions as indie game publisher
MagiCat is a side-scrolling platformer inspired by retro games from 16-bit era. The game features a cute magical cat conquering 63 level and bosses.
Announcing Toge Productions Indie Publishing!
Starting this year, Toge Productions is expanding itself from being an indie developer to become indie publisher, with the main focus of bringing Indonesian and South East Asian games to global market.


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Sometimes it's nice to check out new music outside the usual comfort zone, and it can be especially rewarding when looking for some of the local bands and finding something you like that maybe you wouldn't have paid much mind to in most other circumstances. Punk as a genre isn't something I've found myself following too heavily, but I do have quite an appreciation for the music and its' traditionally bold simplicity. There is quite a diverse range of stylistic choices under the umbrella term of "Punk", from fast, extremely aggressive styles, to more "pop" inspired approaches, and of course everything in between. However, it can be rather refreshing to listen to something sounding much more "traditional", taking inspiration from earlier examples of punk as a genre. This is certainly the approach I hear when listening Shit Tinnies' self-titled debut; a bare bones traditional punk-rock record. But there is a lot more than just "three chords" going on throughout the album, with some deviations from that traditional sound that keeps things fresh and interesting while still retaining the bold simplicity which characterises Punk genre.
Shit Tinnies, based in our very own Sydney, New South Wales, describe themselves as "A Kiwi, a Brit, a Serb and a Canadian sinking beers", and really at the core of this EP, that's what it sounds like. A bunch of mates getting together, jamming in a garage and having a good time, and the overall production across the EP really reflects this. It sounds like it's recorded in a full band setting with a "warts and all" approach to production, which is to say very little. But this doesn't detract from the character of the music at all; if anything, it adds its own charm. One wouldn't have to go to a small punk gig expecting precise technical perfection, in fact it would feel almost stale without some of those small imperfections. It's all about the context of musical style, and in this context the bare bones production makes sense. I even like the way that some recordings were left running at the end of some songs, with some communication between the band members afterwards, adding more to the "recorded in a garage" aesthetic. However, it would be warranted to criticise unwanted frequency spikes, even in this production context, and the bass does jump out a little more than would be considered reasonable, but that's really a minor nitpick, as it only happens sporadically throughout the album.
When it comes to musicianship, everything sounds tight, even with the "garage band" production style. The guitar tracking is tight and lock in with the drums well, and the vocal work is about what one would expect from a typical punk rock record. But a real highlight that I noticed in particular was the bass work throughout the EP. For instance, in the introduction to the track Guessing, the bass follows some interesting melodic lines that adds some nice colour to the otherwise simplistic instrumentation. This embellishment is heard in other tracks too, such as Control, Night and Pedal, often adding a little extra colour to the ends of choruses and other places where it would otherwise sound rather flat with just the guitars, rudimentary bass and drums. However, there is plenty of room for the other instrumentation as well. Whilst there isn't any "musical gymnastics" to note, there are some great instrumental choices that steer away from sticking too much to a formula. For instance, on the track Pedal, the main lead guitar plays a jumpy, catchy hook that whilst being rather simple, works well with the surrounding instrumentation, whilst still retaining a very traditional punk feel to the song. And on the track Night, the guitars follow a very jangly, trebly chordal pattern in a low to mid-tempo which is a great change to the overall tonal character of the EP. There are even a couple solos here and there, and there were enjoyable to hear without ever feeling encroaching or overpowering.
This album isn't a fast album, nor a particularly aggressive one. It's the sort of album that one would put on at a typical party with the boys and have a good time. It's not full of flashy instrumentation, but who listens to punk for flashy musicianship? The singing isn't really pitch perfect, but it's not meant to be. It's bold, simple music, but that's the whole charm of punk rock. Shit Tinnies has released a solid record for what it is, and I look forward to seeing where the band goes from here.


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Posted on May 13, 2015
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There are few things in life more damaging to the ego than unwanted hair loss. It is important to realize that help is available. By putting the tips and guidance in this article to work right away, you have the power to regain control over the situation and reclaim your self esteem.
Slow down hair loss by altering the routine you use after showering. When drying your hair, use the towel gently, instead of roughly. You also should not dry it with a hair dryer. If you have to use one, make sure you set it to low.
For those suffering from hair loss, you want to consider using topical treatments. Many of these products work by blocking out hair loss-causing hormones, while also providing growth stimulants. Be sure that you consult with your doctor before using this or any other medication so you know that it is safe for you.
If you're losing hair, make sure that you strive to use natural shampoos. A lot of today's shampoos, especially scented shampoos, are very harsh on the scalp and can accelerate hair loss. Gently wash your hair with products that are all-natural and gentle on your scalp to avoid further hair loss.
You may want to increase your Biotin intake if you want to both treat and prevent hair loss. This vitamin helps to promote more Keratin, the natural vitamin found in your hair. This vitamin helps to keep hair healthy and prevent it from falling out. Biotin is found in rice, milk, liver, and barley.
Shaving your beard might cause it to come back thicker and stronger, but it doesn't work the same with your hair. So do not make the mistake of shaving your head if you are losing your hair. You will actually lose more of your hair this way. Hair stays stronger at its root when your hair is longer and taken care of.
Natural herbal supplements to grow back your hair are the way to go for people who want to avoid the side effects associated with traditional medications. Some supplements will obviously work better than others, so you will need to test each one out individually to see what works best for you.
If you do manage to reverse hair loss and begin to re-grow your hair, remember to never take this for granted. Your hair needs to be treated with respect. For most people, once their hair is gone, it's gone forever. Count your blessings if you were able to grow more hair and remember to treat it with care.
Keeping your scalp as clean as possible can help you to prevent hair loss. Your scalp is just like your face in many ways. If you have clogged pores, you are more likely to have breakouts. If you have a dirty scalp, you are more likely to lose hair. Wash your scalp consistently with a mild cleansing product.
Having toxins in your body can help speed up the hair loss process, so you should aim to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily to help strengthen your hair. Drinking this amount of water helps to purge your body of the toxins that can damage hair follicles. Once these toxins are gone, your hair can grow strong.
Don't shampoo your hair too much. Wash your hair when you think you need to, but you should only wash it once a day to be safe. Every time you wash it, natural oils are stripped from the skin and your scalp. This can lead to early hair loss.
One way to avoid hair loss is to maintain positive mental health. Stress and anxiety can lead to early hair loss in men and women, so developing personal tools to ease these concerns will help you to keep your full head of hair as long as possible. Whether it be engaging in physical activities or seeking support from friends, keeping stress away is a huge step in avoiding hair loss.
Hair loss has the ability to decimate the self esteem of those suffering from it. The key, though, is to understand all of the potential remedies and solutions from which individuals can choose. Take these tips to heart, and you can overcome a dilemma you may have previously believed to be insurmountable.


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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Go Goofy
The completion of the aforementioned new Goofy cartoon is timely, for its addle-brained star is celebrating his 75th anniversary this year. To celebrate that silly-but-significant occasion the Walt Disney Classics Collection has created a smile-inducing sculpture inspired by Goofy's first solo starring cartoon, Goofy and Wilbur. Take a gander at this fun work of art (sculpted by Bruce Lau) and get Goofy! (FYI: This sculpture is scheduled for an October 2007 release.)
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Overbuff Recall - September 22, 2017
Junkertown Is Here
The Junkertown patch was released this week which included the new map, as well as Mercy's rework and changes for D.Va and Reinhardt. Mercy's old ultimate of being able to Resurrect players was removed and changed to a 30 second ability, and she was given a new ultimate, Valkyrie, that grants her flying, a chain heal/boost beam, infinite ammo on her blaster, and a shorter cooldown on Resurrect.
Reaction to the change has been mixed. Players tend to appreciate the loss of full team rezzes, but unless the enemy Mercy is killed first, she can now effectively "undo" a major pick off the enemy team every push. While it's extremely situational, remember that she cannot cast Resurrect through shields!
Also in the patch, D.Va can now shoot her Fusion Cannons while boosting, her Defensive Matrix's uptime was reduced in half, and her mech gained Micro Missiles to help her finish off runners. Reinhardt players are now able to move the camera for greater visibility while they hold out their shield. The Oni Genji and Winged Victory Mercy skins were also temporarily disabled due to issues with new ultimate voice lines on the heroes. As of this writing, this has been fixed on PC and the console fix is incoming soon.
Overbuff Discord
Overbuff has started a Discord server! Meet new players, discuss tournaments, and catch up with the latest Overwatch news as it happens. We've set up LFG channels, scrim channels, and a place to share your own community content. Check it out here!
Before you ask, we are looking into a Overbuff Bot for personal servers, but we have no timeline on this to give right now.
Cloud9 acquires Kongdoo Panthera roster
Cloud9 announced that they have acquired the Kongdoo Panthera roster! The new team will be known as Cloud9 Kongdoo and it's rumored that they will represent London in the Overwatch League, where at that time the team will be renamed again to fit with OWL naming guidelines.
Currently leading their group at 2-0, Cloud9 Kongdoo will complete APEX Season 4 before moving on. Panthera faced off against Lunatic-Hai in the Season 3 finals, bring tough competition as the series went to all seven maps, with Lunatic-Hai ultimately winning.
Overwatch League inaugural season date, final three teams, revealed
Last week we reported rumors about Philadelphia and Houston picked up as new franchises, and this week it was made official, along with Dallas, who will be represented by EnVyUs. As of yet, little is known about who will represent Philadelphia or Houston.
The preseason for the Overwatch League begins on December 6, 2017 at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, and the first season begins about a month later and runs from January 10, 2018 through June.
Notable News
The Free Weekend began on PC and consoles. Get your friends to download Overwatch and show them how to check their Overbuff profiles! Our guide to introducing Overwatch to your friends may be found below.
Blizzard is seeking broadcasters for future programming.
This Week on Overbuff
On Around the Watch, the guys were joined by Sideshow, ChrisTFer, and Dogman.
In this week's Hero Tier and Meta Report, CaptainPlanet discussed the Junkpocalypse.
Miko created a Free Weekend New Player Guide to ease new players into Overwatch, or to help you help your friends kick off with a smooth start.
Where to Watch
Contenders EU — Sat, Sep 23 and Sun, Sep 24 @ 17:00 GMT (12 pm US Central)— https://www.twitch.tv/overwatchcontenders
Contenders US — Sat, Sep 23 and Sun, Sep 24 @ 21:15 GMT (4:15 pm US Central) — https://www.twitch.tv/overwatchcontenders
APEX S4 — Tue, Sep 26 and Fri, Sep 29 @ 10:00 GMT (5:00 am US Central) — https://www.twitch.tv/ognglobal
Premier Series — Sat, Sep 23 @ 9:00 GMT (4:00 am US Central) & and Sun, Sep 24; Thu, Sep 28; and Fri, Sep 29 @ 19:00 GMT (2:00 pm US Central) — https://www.twitch.tv/playoverwatch
Pacific Championship — Sat, Sep 23; Sun, Sep 24; and Fri Sep 25 @ 8:00 GMT (3:00 am US Central) — https://www.twitch.tv/fullcircle


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It's unusual when we don't have the opportunity to meet the bride and groom before the wedding. But such was the case with Cindy and Mike, from California. When they decided to get married in Pawley's Island, South Carolina, Cindy and Mike started looking for photographers. Mike's sister, Honey, is one of the leading floral designers in eastern Pennsylvania, and because she does so many weddings, she knows a lot of photographers. Honey called her good friend, Laura Novak, and learned that Laura was booked. So Laura sifted through several photographers and helped Honey narrow down the list. After talking with Honey and then with Cindy and Mike, we were so excited to make the cut and be selected to photograph their wedding.
Cindy and Mike were amazing. Cindy was absolutely stunning and Mike was about as handsome as any groom could be. It was such a beautiful and personal ceremony at the Precious Blood of Christ Church. The reception was held at Litchfield Plantation, a beautiful setting rich in coastal South Carolina tradition.
Everything about the wedding day was perfect...great details, lots of emotion, plenty of laughter and so much love.
Thanks Cindy and Mike, for letting us be a part of your special day. May God bless you on this exciting journey.
And of course, a special thanks to our good friend Charles Bordner, from South Carolina, for coming along to shoot with us.
Beautiful flowers from Honey.
Cindy and Mike
Posted by Garrett Nudd Photography Blog at 6:51 PM
Labels: Photographers, Weddings
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Shri Krishna Bhajan I Kyu Karta Hai Chinta Pyre Jo Hoga Acha He Hoga by Ashok Johri
Bhajan Ganga
Shri Krishna Bhajan I Kyu Karta Hai Chinta Pyre Jo Hoga Acha He Hoga by Ashok Johri Singer : Ashok Johri If you like the video don't forget to share with others & also share your views. Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/bhaktisagartv Like : http://www.facebook.com/bhaktisagartv Follow : http://www.twitter.com/bhaktisagartv Lord Krishna is the Supreme Person.Krishna is the eightth incarnation of the supreme God Vishnu in Hinduism. Lord Krishna appeared over five thousand years ago in Mathura, India . The place of His birth is known as Sri Krishna Janmasthana or Birthplace of lord krishna. Mathura is the birth place of lord Krishna. It is situated on the bank of the river Yamuna. Mathura is also knows as Brij Bhoomi - The land where Shri Krishna was born and spent his youth. The main pilgrim center in Mathura is the Shri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple. According to the Bhagavatgita Purana , Krishna is termed as Svyam Bhagawan since he was the purna-avatara or full incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu.Krishna is often described and portrayed as an infant or young boy playing a flute as in the Bhagavata Purana,or as a youthful prince giving direction and guidance as in the Bhagawad Gita. ------------------------------- "bhaktisagar" "bhakti" "devotional" "Krishna" "Nand laal" "nandlal" "hari" "Vishnu" "Jai shyam hari" "govind" "Gopal" "Kanhaiyya" "Sri Krishan" "janmastami songs" "Nand laal" "nandlal" "hari" "Vishnu" "Sanwara" "bhajan" dhoon" "nikunj", "Lord Krishna Songs", "Lord Krishna Bhajans", "Lord Krishna Janmashtmi", "Vishnu Puran", "Hinduism", "religious songs", "hare Krishna", "Krishna Sudama"", "Krishna Hindi Sings", "Youtube" , "Krishna Movie", "Gods"


text: Need Help? Call Us! (800) 252-1578 CART MENU Open menu ICD University Store Toggle search bar What can we help you find? Submit search CART Webcasts Upcoming Webcasts On-Demand Webcasts Continuing Education AAPC AHIMA Books ICD-10 Coding CPT Coding Clinical Documentation Risk Adjustment AMA Coding References H3.Group Resource Library Optum360 Coding & Documentation Books Specials Talk Ten Tuesdays Coming up on Talk Ten Tuesdays Listen to Podcasts News Latest News Free eNews Sign Up Ten Ready Poll Subscriber Portal Nav Menu 2 Nav Menu 3 Nav Menu 4 Nav Menu 5 Nav Menu 6 Nav Menu 7 Nav Menu 8 Home > Webcasts > Keys to Capturing and Validating 2020 CC/MCCs ✓ Earn CEUs 1.0 AAPC 1.0 AHIMA Gain valuable insights into reporting a valid complication comorbid (CC) or major CC (MCC) condition, including the criteria that qualify a diagnosis to be considered an "additional" diagnosis. Download Order Form Price: $129.00 Product Code: AI111419 Webcast Format*: First, Select Webcast Format Quantity: Description Biography Continuing Education Are you appropriately reporting every valid complication comorbid (CC) and major CC (MCC) condition? Many coders and clinical documentation integrity (CDI) specialists — regardless of experience — struggle to identify the clinical indicators required to qualify a diagnosis as a CC or MCC. Adding to the confusion are ongoing changes to official coding and reporting guidelines and to the AHA's Coding Clinic for ICD-10-CM/PCS, as well as the codes and CC/MCC lists themselves. Missed or misreported CCs and MCCs pose significant threats to revenues and compliance. Some CC/MCCs, such as acute tubular necrosis, acute post-op respiratory insufficiency, and severe malnutrition, are particularly challenging. During this ICD10monitor webcast, Dr. William E. Haik will take an in-depth dive into targeted CC/MCC areas for 2020 and highlight opportunities for improvement. Why This is Relevant: Not knowing how to fully and compliantly report a CC or MCC increases risks at multiple levels, including: Missed revenue opportunities from unreported CC/MCCs Flawed risk adjustments for quality metrics, ultimately affecting value-based payments to hospitals and physicians Penalties imposed by external auditors looking for unsubstantiated clinical indications Learning Objectives: From this webcast, you will… Learn the "General Rule" criteria that qualify a diagnosis to be considered an "additional" diagnosis (CC or MCC) Acquire a clearer understanding of the role of compliant documentation in MS-DRG capture for CC/MCCs Be able to analyze the clinical indicators of selected diagnoses to improve physician queries Who Should Attend: This timely webcast will be most relevant to inpatient coders, CDI specialists, CDI managers and directors, and HIM managers and directors. About the Presenter William E. Haik, MD, FCCP, CDIP, AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer Dr. William E. Haik has been a Director at DRG Review, Inc. since 1988. Dr. Haik has practiced medicine in Fort Walton Beach, Florida since 1980. His past professional accomplishments include: Chief of Internal Medicine, Director of Respiratory Care Services, Board of Trustees at his local hospital, President of the Okaloosa County Medical Society and representative of the Government Liaison Committee for the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Haik's coding background has included AHA's Editorial Advisory Board and Expert Advisory Panel of Coding Clinic for ICD-9-CM as well as participation in the preparation of the original AHIMA CCS and CDIP examinations. He served on the original Board for the Association of Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist and aided in the preparation of the first certification examination. He serves as a final arbitrator for Medicare Part C MS-DRG modifications and as an expert consultant to the United States Department of Justice. Continuing Education This program has the prior approval of AAPC for 1.0 continuing education hours. Granting of prior approval in no way constitutes endorsement by AAPC of the program content or the program sponsor. This program has been approved for 1.0 continuing education units for use in fulfilling the continuing education requirements of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Granting prior approval from AHIMA does not constitute endorsement of the program content or its program sponsor. Please Note: All webcasts will offer a Certificate of Attendance (COA). If we do not offer the CEUs the attendee is looking for, attendees can take the COA and try to apply to the agency of their choice. Related Resources Ending the Sepsis Coding Confusion CPT® Modifiers – Professional and Surgical: Learn the Correct Modifier Usage 2020 IPPS Final Rule Webcast Series: Three Programs to Improve Your Performance Coding Red Flags and High Risks: A 2-Part Webcast Series Price: $129.00 Price: $129.00 Price: $427.00 Price: $232.00 2020 IPPS Final Rule Webcast 1: Master the ICD-10-CM Changes Spinal Procedures Part 1: ICD-10-PCS Coding 2019 ICD-10-CM/PCS Coding Clinic Update: Fourth Quarter 2021 IPPS Final Rule Webcast 1: Master the ICD-10-CM Changes Price: $159.00 Price: $129.00 Price: $99.00 Non-Member Price: $159.00


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Let's Share
Holy Trinity is a vibrant place to be with ministry and community activities happening every day of the week and nearly round the clock (or so it seems!) While we appreciate the availability and flexibility our building provides, sometimes it's helpful to be reminded that other groups or individuals share the same space for their activities. Please be courteous of others by leaving the building in the same (or better) condition than you found it and replace any furniture or other items that may have been moved from their original spots. Thanks in advance for your help!


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Community Organising
Change comes from the grassroots. Local activists building power in their communities is a crucial part of the political process.
Workplace organising
Local Momentum groups are heavily involved in supporting workplace organising and defending public services. In Lewisham, local Momentum activists successfully lobbied the council to withhold the cinema contract from Picturehouse in support of the Picturehouse Living Wage campaign.
Stockport Momentum has been heavily supporting the local rail campaign to end rip off train fares and bring it back into public ownership, while in Manchester Momentum activists have supported local bus strikes.
Community support
Momentum members across the country do great work in their communities. This ranges from:
- setting up community food clubs in Lancaster and Gateshead,
- organising events on stop and search in BAME communities in Kensington and Chelsea,
- members in Glasgow who have set up a 'toybank' to make sure children from low income families had toys for Christmas,
- a local group in the highlands of Scotland touring local hospitals giving NHS staff thank you cards for their hard work.
Arts and culture
Momentum groups are setting up arts, music, sports and social projects to bring people together and build communities. In Manchester, groups have organised walks, pub quizzes, bingo nights, disco nights and gigs, while in Plymouth activists are hoping to work with Arts Council England on developing community-led, bottom-up arts programmes to bridge the creative and the political.
Barnsley Momentum have held film screenings, while groups across the North East have been involved in delivering 'pint and politics' political education sessions across the country.
Find your local group here. And if there's one missing in your local area, why not be involved with setting one up?Contact [email protected] to find out more.
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Brand - Phive Rivers
Small yet spacious, this genuine leather handbag by Phive Rivers is a perfect carry to work, outings and dates. Crafted from natural milled Nappa, decked with contrast edge color and galvanized, rust proof Zipper, the bag has three specious zipped compartments. While the signature logo embedded on the front adds shine to the bag, the structured silhouette and flat base ensure the style won't slouch over when you set it down. Comes with comfortable rolled up handles and our signature oval metal branding. This is a Genuine Leather product made responsibly with no chemical dyes, using veg tanning process only The bag is 12'' wide, 8'' high and 4.5'' thick. Weight is 2.2 Lbs approximate & Handle Drop is 6''. Metal trims and Locks are Galvanized, Scratch Resistant & Rust proof. Compartments - 3 main zipped compartments. Interior : 1 Cell Phone pocket, 1 Multi use & 1 zip side pocket with RFID Lining. Spacious with branded lining and dust bag. Lifetime warranty with easy returns and 'No Questions asked.
Inventory Last Updated: Jul 10, 2020


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Following numerous crashes involving Tesla's Autopilot self-driving car technology, the company recently announced that it's been quietly developing improvements to the hardware behind the tech.
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When a Bare Possibility of Access Is Not Enough
Column Editor: Bruce Strauch (The Citadel) <email@example.com>
Leonard Jones & James White v. Mary J. Blige; Universal-MCA Music Publishing et al, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 4451.
In the year 2000, Rap artist-wannabe Tim Acker a/k/a Benevolence wrote the lyrics to the unknown, except to litigants, "Party Ain't Crunk." His manager James White registered it with the U.S. Copyright Office listing himself as one of the authors.
The Urban Dictionary defines crunk as crazy, wild, stoned, delirious. A crunk-daddy is a party animal. And while your ace legal interpreter lacks the lyrics, presumably, party ain't crunk, is a criticism of the absence of crazy and wild behavior.
Leonard Jones collaborated in some fashion and has a financial stake in the song, hence he's in the caption. Acker was still involved, however, when a Dannie Longmire created beat tracks and a melody over which Acker recorded his lyrics. This with other songs was what was registered for copyright as "Benevolent Vol. 1."
White then hooked up with Abdul Fakir, formerly of "The Four Tops," who put him in touch with Universal Music Enterprises a division of MCA Music Publishing. But the Enterprises division does not do new music but rather re-issues greatest hits albums of oldies.
In May of 2001, White hand-delivered a sealed package with the demo CD, cover letter and photo of Benevolence looking street-wise and hip. White followed up with a phone call and was told by a secretary that the demo was on the desk of a top dog and he is "going to take a listen to it."
Then White received the demo back in a fresh envelope with that dreaded letter "MCA is not accepting any unsolicited material at this time. Sorry."
White was likewise unsuccessful at other record companies. Then — dum-da-dum-dum — he heard Mary J. Blige's song "Family Affair" on the radio and was instantly convinced it infringed "Party Ain't Crunk."
And if you're curious, a quick trip to You-Tube will inform you that "Family Affair" actually does have a melody to it. "Party Ain't Crunk," alas, cannot be found.
So Who Is This Blige Exactly?
Mary J. Blige's album No More Drama was released in 2001 to sell two million copies. "Family Affair" is the second song. The music was created by producer/performer Andre Young known to the public as "Dr. Dre."
And for crossword puzzle addicts, Dr. Dre is always the answer to the rap music question.
Young — or Dr. Dre if you will — does music tracks which he provides for artists to lay vocals over. The first version of "Family Affair" was evidenced by a studio log as being done on September 13, 2000.
And doing some minor detective work, you're noting the "Party Ain't Crunk" demo was handed to MCA in May of 2001!!! Doesn't seem like much of a case.
But Not Seeing Things That way, White Sued
But got bounced on summary judgment on the theory that no reasonable jury could find the lyrics of the two songs to be substantially similar; MCA did not have access to the lyrics; and evidence showed "Family Affair" was independently created.
So let's go to the Sixth Circuit (OH, KY, TENN).
Review de novo blah blah. Was there any genuine issue of material fact for a jury? And more blah blah.
They do, however, note that summary judgment should be used sparingly in these type cases as substantial similarity can be such a close question of fact. But "a court may compare the two works and render a judgment for the defendant on the ground that as a matter of law a trier of fact would not be permitted to find substantial similarity." Kohus v. Mariol, 328 F.3d 848, 853 (6th Cir. 2003) (quoting Wickham v. Knoxville Int'l Energy Expo, Inc., 739 F.2d 1094, 1097 (6th Cir. 1984).
Which is a round-about way of saying the district court is entitled to make the decision itself.
Infringement Elements
Plaintiff has to show ownership of copyright and proof of copying. Lacking proof, he may establish an inference by showing access and a substantial similarity between the two works. Ellis v. Diffie, 177 F.3d 503, 506 (6th Cir. 1999).
"Access is essentially hearing or having a reasonable opportunity to hear the plaintiff['s] work and thus having the opportunity to copy." Id. at 506. But — big BUT — although both White and Blige were concurrently dealing with MCA, "access may not be inferred through mere speculation or conjecture." Murray Hill Publ'ns, Inc. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., 361 F.3d 312, 316 (6th Cir. 2004) (quoting Ellis, 177 F.3d at 506).
"'Nor is a 'bare possiblity' of access sufficient …[; a] plaintiff must establish that defendant(s) had a 'reasonable possibility' to view plaintiff's work.'" Id. (quoting Glanzmann v. King, 8 U.S.P.Q.2d (BNA) 1594, 1595 (E.D. Mich. 1988).
White's "probative" evidence consisted of him having delivered the CD to MCA, someone opened it and told him a Senior VP would listen to it. And Blige is published by MCA so she must have heard it.
So there.
But not so fast. Blige presented uncontroverted evidence that she and others created "Family Affair" and had no access to "Party Ain't Crunk." The MCA secretary in question testified she never listened to it nor passed it to a Senior VP. She opened it and sent it back with the kiss-off letter. And the VP in question said he had no contact whatsoever with Blige et al. His gig was golden oldies.
Corporate Receipt Doctrine White argued that receipt of a work by one employee of a company implies possession by another. See 4 Melville B. Nimmer & David Nimmer, Nimmer on Copyright § 13.02[A](2008).
The Sixth Circuit had not taken a published stance on this, but had affirmed a district court's refusal to make the inference from a bare showing of corporate receipt. In Glanzmann, a secretary at Columbia Pictures received a script which the corporate receipt theory would require a quantum leap to Stephen King then having access to it despite the complete impossibility of that under the facts.
This was Stephen King's novel Christine and a ten-page plot sketch called "Sideswipe."
Other circuits required evidence of reasonable possibility of the work getting intothe hands of the infringer. Towler v. Sayles, 76 F.3d 579, 583 (4th Cir. 1996) (requiring a "close relationship" for the corporate receipt doctrine to apply).
The Sixth Circuit noted it's hard for plaintiff to show chain of possession once the CD enters the maw of a giant corporation. But Blige had clear evidence of independent creation. "[A]n inference of copying is rebuttable by evidence of independent creation of the allegedly infringing work." Ellis, 177 F.3d at 507.
Dr. Dre documented the various states of development and was finished with "Family Affair" by January 10, 2001. "Party Ain't Crunk" was not in final form until March of 2001 and was not in MCA's hands until May of that year.
Leah was appointed Executive Director of the Charleston Conference in 2017, and has served in various roles with the Charleston Information Group, LLC, since 2004. Prior to working for the conference, she was Assistant Director of Graduate Admissions for the College of Charleston for four years. She lives in a small town near Columbia, SC, with her husband and two kids where they raise a menagerie of farm animals.