text:
THIS GAME IS INTENDED FOR PLAY ONLY WITHIN THE 50 UNITED STATES (AND WASHINGTON D.C.). U.S. LAW GOVERNS THIS GAME. 18 YEARS OF AGE OR OLDER ONLY. VOID IN ALL U.S. TERRITORIES (e.g., GUAM AND PUERTO RICO) AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
- Affiliations. Head2Head ("H2H") Fantasy Hockey and Head2Head Sports is owned by DRF Holdings LLC.
- Eligibility. Head2Head SportsSM Pit Crew Pick'em ("Game") is open only to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States, Washington, D.C. and Canada (excluding Puerto Rico and Quebec) who are eighteen (18) years or older as of the date of entry. Employees of Head2Head Sports ("H2H"), its affiliates, or any entity directly connected with the development, implementation or marketing of this Game, and the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) or household members of each such employee are not eligible. This Game is void in all U.S. Territories (e.g., Guam and Puerto Rico) and where prohibited or restricted by law.
- Package Price. All Game entrants will receive full Internet reports, including personalized team information and standings, unless entered under the Alternative entry method described below. The package price to play includes a one-time fee of $12.95.
- Alternative Entry - No Purchase Necessary to Win. To enter void of all Internet services and introductory package mailing, send your name, address, telephone number and team roster printed on a 3x5 card to: Head2Head Sports LLC, attn: Pit Crew Pick'em Alternative Entry, 4727 E. Bell Rd., Suite 45-328, Phoenix, AZ 85032. Limit one entry per envelope. Alternative entrants will receive no team information or entry confirmation during the Game. Similarly, neither standings nor team reports will be available via phone or website. Alternative entries must be received no later than 5 p.m. ET on Friday, September 14th to be processed and valid for the Game. Head2Head Sports LLC reserves the right to disqualify any alternative entry trades that arrive late, or are received with insufficient, incorrect or illegible information.
- Limit. FOUR (4) ENTRIES (i) PER PERSON (REGARDLESS OF THE NUMBER OF EMAIL ADDRESSES OR REGISTERED MEMBER ACCOUNTS), or (ii) PER EMAIL ADDRESS (REGARDLESS OF WHETHER MORE THAN ONE PERSON USES THE SAME EMAIL ADDRESS).
- Void. Use of any automated system (e.g., robots, automatic, macro, programmed or like entry methods) or submission of multiple entries is prohibited. Any attempt by any entrant to use an automated system or to obtain more than four (4) entries by using multiple/different email addresses, identities or any other methods, will void all of that entrant's entries, and render that person ineligible to receive any of the prizes. Entry materials/data that have been tampered with or altered are void.
- Accept Official Rules. Participation constitutes entrant's full and unconditional agreement to these Official Rules and to H2H's decisions. The decisions of H2H in regards to all matters of this Game are final and binding. Winning a prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.
- The Commissioner's Office. An official standards and practices committee called The Commissioner's Office has been established to govern the rules and play of this Game. You may address any questions, discrepancies, concerns or suggestions to The Commissioner's Office, Pit Crew Pick'em, Head2Head Sports LLC, 4727 E. Bell Rd., Suite 45-328, Phoenix, AZ 85032.
Website Registration. To purchase Internet services for the Game, you must be a registered member of H2H. Registration is available either directly through head2head.com or via one of H2H's affiliated websites (collectively referred to as "Website").
- Entry Page - Not Yet an H2H Member. You may click on the applicable Website link on the entry page for the Game, and follow the instructions. You will be asked to provide your name, mailing address, e-mail address, team name, payment information, player selection(s) and to select a password. You will also be asked if you wish to receive promotional emails or offers. You do not need to consent to receive these emails or offers in order to become a member. Even if you consent, you may subsequently opt-out of receiving such emails by contacting customer service at firstname.lastname@example.com, with your name, member id number and email address.
- Entry Page - Already an H2H Member. If you are already an H2H member, then you do not need to register again. You may sign-up for the Game by logging in directly to the Website using your email address and password or by clicking on the applicable Returning Member link on the entry page for the Game with Member ID number, First Name and Last Name.
- Password. You are responsible for the secrecy of your password. H2H or other third parties are not responsible or liable for any actions taken using your password. You may change your password in the MY ACCOUNTS section of the web site after you log in.
- Change of Email Address. It is the sole responsibility of the entrant to notify H2H during the Game Period if his or her e-mail address changes. To do so, send an email to our customer service group at email@example.com with your current email address, member ID and password and your desired new email address and password. Or you may click on MY ACCOUNT and update your profile online.
- Game Period. The Game begins on Sunday, September 16, 2018 at approximately 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time ("ET") and ends after the last race scheduled for Sunday, November 18, 2018 (the "Game Period").
- Entry Errors. Neither H2H nor any affiliates (collectively, referred to as "Affiliate") are responsible for lost, late, incomplete, damaged, stolen, invalid, unintelligible or misdirected entries, which will be disqualified. Neither H2H nor Affiliate is responsible for any unavailability of or interruptions to any service or equipment used in connection with the Game, including without limitation (1) interruptions to any network, server, Internet, website, telephone, satellite, computer or other connections (2) failures of any telephone, satellite, hardware, software or other equipment, (3) garbled, misdirected or jumbled transmissions, or traffic congestion, or (4) other errors of any kind, whether human, technical, mechanical or electronic, or (5) the incorrect or inaccurate capture of entry or other information or the failure to capture any such information.
- No Return of Entries; Disputes. Once submitted, entries become the sole property of H2H and will not be acknowledged or returned. In the event of a dispute as to any entry, the authorized account holder, i.e., natural person, of the email address used to register will be deemed to be the registrant. Potential winners may be required to show proof of identification. H2H may require that the potential winner provide proof that he/she is the authorized account holder of the e-mail address and/or password associated with the winning entry.
How To Play.
- Overview. Drivers are assigned a rating value based on 2017 and 2018 performances. Entrants must select one driver from each of the ten (10) driver groups to form a complete active roster. Points are awarded following each scheduled race (see Scoring System below). Overall prizes are based on an entrant's total of 10 weekly scores (see Prizes below).
- Entry and Weekly Deadlines. All entries must be received by the official T.V. start time on race day (3:00 p.m. ET) on Sunday, September 16th in order to be eligible. All roster submissions must be received by the designated official race start time preceding a scheduled race listed in How to Play. Any U.S. Mail entries must be mailed to Pit Crew Pick'em, c/o Head2Head Sports, 4727 E. Bell Rd., Suite 45-328, Phoenix, AZ 85032 or logged via the website. Mailed entries without sufficient postage are void.
- Weekly Play. The Game will separate the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule into ten (10) weeks ("Race Weeks"). The weeks will run from the South Point 400 race on September 16, 2018 through the Ford EcoBoost 400 race on November 18, 2018 . Points scored each Race will carry over to a future week, and Driver Groups (explained in Overview above) may be reset after each Race Week. Rosters, however, do not carry over from week to week so every participant will need to select new drivers prior to the beginning of a new Race Week.
- Scoring. From all eligible entries received, the winners will be determined based on their ability to use their skill and knowledge of auto racing to accumulate the most points during each Race Week. In the event a scheduled Race does not occur as scheduled (e.g., the race is cancelled, postponed, etc.) no points will be awarded. Ties will be broken in accordance with the Tiebreaker procedure described below.
Scoring System. Each entrant's team will be ranked by total points by applying the official scoring system: Each race your team earns one (+1) fantasy point for each actual Monster Energy Cup series point earned by each of your drivers.
- Monster Energy Cup points. Each race is comprised of three stages, Stage 1, Stage 2, and the Final Stage. Drivers who finish in the top 10 in Stage 1 and Stage 2 earn points, from 10 points for winning the stage down to one point for 10th place. For the Final Stage, drivers earn points based on their finish position, with 40 points awarded to the winner, 35 points for second place, 34 for third, all the way down to 1 point for those 36th to 40th.
- Bonus points. There are also bonus points up for grabs at each event. Drivers receive one (+1) point for winning Stage 1 or Stage 2, while the race winner receives five (+5) bonus points. Bonus points are awarded regardless of the driver's Playoff eligibility.
- Win from the pole. If a driver manages to win the race when starting from the pole, an additional twenty (+20) points are awarded to the driver.
- Penalty points. We only count points awarded for on-track racing performance. Post-race penalty points will not be deducted from a driver's point total. Points are awarded to the driver only, not the race car.
- Final Race points. For the final race of the season (Ford EcoBoost 400 on November 18th), no bonus points will be awarded to drivers. The winning points will be based solely upon the Monster Energy Cup points earned in that race.
- Driver eligibility. Points are only awarded to drivers who have selected to participate in the Monster Energy Series. XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series drivers competing in Monster Energy Cup races will not be awarded fantasy points.
- Lock Time. All rosters will lock at at the official T.V. start time on race day (times detailed in How to Play) and must be submitted, received and recorded by H2H's computer by this scheduled locktime. Selections submitted after the deadlines listed above are considered invalid. H2H's computer is the official time keeping device for this game.
- Tiebreakers. Should a tie exist between two (2) or more entrants eligible for the weekly prizes, the winner will be the entrant that has the highest score in Driver Group #1. If a tie persists, the winner will be the team with the highest score in Driver Group #2. Persisting tiebreakers will continue using Driver Group #3, Driver Group #4, and so on. If a tie continues to persist, all remaining entrants will receive the weekly prize. Should a tie exist between two (2) or more entrants eligible for the overall prize, the winner will be the entrant who has the highest score in race 10. If a tie persists, the winner will be the team with the highest score in race 9 and so on. If a tie continues to persist, the prize will be split evenly among the remaining entrants, in the case of a cash prizes. In case of a tie for Season Pass or H2H Fantasy Buck$ prizes, all remaining entrants will receive the respective prize. In all cases, an entry that does not win a tiebreaker is eliminated from consideration.
Prizes. Prizes will be awarded to the top point scoring teams over the ten (10) Race Weeks. The approximate retail value ("ARV") of all prizes is $1,824.85.
Overall Prizes (100 winners). H2H will award one of one hundred (100) prizes to the entrants who accumulates the most points during all Race Weeks. To calculate total points, H2H will add each entrant's 10 weekly scores.
- 1st Place: $500
- 2nd Place: $100
- 3rd - 5th Place: Head2Head Season Pass ($49.95 value)*
- 6th - 10th Place: 4,000 H2H Fantasy Buck$
- 11th - 25th Place: 2,000 H2H Fantasy Buck$
- 26th - 100th Place: 500 H2H Fantasy Buck$
- Weekly Prizes (10 winners). H2H will award one of ten (10) weekly prizes to the entrant who accumulates the most points during each Race Week (and wins any pending tiebreaker). Each Weekly Winner will receive 2,000 H2H Fantasy Buck$.
- Odds of winning prizes depend on the total number of eligible entries received and the relative auto racing knowledge of all entrants.
- Substitution; Taxes. No cash or other prize substitution, assignment or transfer of prizes permitted, except at H2H's sole discretion due to prize unavailability. H2H reserves the right to substitute a prize with one of comparable value or greater value (e.g., H2H may opt instead to award the cash equivalent, up to but not greater than the ARV, of any prize in lieu of the prize itself). THE WINNER IS SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL TAXES ASSOCIATED WITH THE RECEIPT OR USE OF ANY PRIZE.
- Prize Delivery. Overall and Weekly Winners should allow up to 6-8 weeks after they return their signed affidavit to receive their prize. Prizes returned as undeliverable or otherwise not claimed within fourteen (14) days after being sent will be forfeited.
- No Warranty. Entrants acknowledge that H2H and their respective agencies or related companies have not made nor are in any manner responsible for any warranty, representation or guarantee, express or implied, in fact or in law, relative to any prize, including but not limited to its quality. The only warranty for any prize is the standard limited written warranty from the prize's manufacturer, if any, which may be included with, and applicable to, the prize.
- Overall Prizes (100 winners). H2H will award one of one hundred (100) prizes to the entrants who accumulates the most points during all Race Weeks. To calculate total points, H2H will add each entrant's 10 weekly scores.
- Verification. ALL POTENTIAL WINNING ENTRIES ARE SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION BY H2H, WHOSE DECISIONS ARE FINAL. ONLY H2H SHALL DETERMINE ANY FORM OF VERIFICATION. AN ENTRANT IS NOT A WINNER OF ANY PRIZE UNLESS AND UNTIL ENTRANT'S ELIBIGILITY AND THE POTENTIAL WINNING ENTRY HAS BEEN VERIFIED AND ENTRANT HAS BEEN NOTIFIED THAT VERIFICATION IS COMPLETE. H2H WILL NOT ACCEPT SCREEN SHOTS, AFFIDAVITS OR OTHER EVIDENCE OF WINNING IN LIEU OF ITS VALIDATION PROCESS. ANY ENTRY THAT OCCURS AFTER THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED FOR ANY REASON MAY BE DEEMED A DEFECTIVE ENTRY AND VOID
- "Prize Notice" via Email or Mail. Winners will be notified via email or U.S. Mail sent approximately 30-days following the end of the Game Period. Entrants are responsible for insuring that all mailing and e-mail information is up-to-date and accurate.
- Alternate Potential Winners; Disqualification. A potential winner will be disqualified and an alternate potential winner will be selected (i.e., the person with the next most points) if (i) he/she does not comply with these rules (or is otherwise determined to be ineligible), (ii) he/she does not respond to the prize notice within ten (10) days of its transmission (or receipt, if mailed), or if the emailed prize notice, after three attempts, is returned as undeliverable, or (iii) the prize is undeliverable for any reason. If H2H notifies, or seeks to deliver a prize to or otherwise attempts to contact an alternate potential winner, and such alternate potential winner is subsequently disqualified then H2H shall use its reasonable business judgment to determine, in its sole discretion, the disposition of the prize (e.g., may choose another alternate potential winner in a manner consistent with these rules or donate the prize to another entity, at it's sole discretion).
- Releases and Affidavits. As a condition of receiving a prize, potential winners may be required to complete, sign and return an Affidavit of Eligibility, a Liability Release, and, except where prohibited, a Publicity Release, within fifteen (15) days of the date stated on the prize notice. Where applicable, the travel companion of the Grand Prize winner must also complete and sign a Liability Release and, where permitted by law, a Publicity Release included in winner's documents. Travel companion must be eighteen (18) years or older at time of document completion, unless traveling with winning parent/legal guardian.
- RELEASE. By participating in this Game or receiving a prize, entrants (and in particular, winners) agree to release and to indemnify and hold harmless H2H, Promoter, and each of their respective related companies, and all of its or their company's officers, directors, employees and agents (collectively, the "Released Parties") for any liability, injury, death, loss or damages to entrant or any person or entity, including without limitation damage to personal or real property, caused in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by participation in this Game (or related activities) or the acceptance, possession or use/misuse of a prize (including any travel or activity related to the prize).
- Publicity. Except where prohibited, participation in this Game constitutes winner's consent to H2H's and its agents' use of winner's name, likeness, voice, opinions and biographical information for publicity, advertising, trade or promotional purposes in any media or manner, now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, without further payment, consideration, notice or approval.
- Conduct. H2H reserves the right in its sole discretion, to modify, cancel, terminate, and/or suspend the Game and to disqualify any individual who tampers with the entry process, violates these official rules, or acts in a disruptive or unsportsmanlike manner. Without limiting the foregoing, H2H may lock out an entrant who, in H2H's sole judgment, has been disqualified, has questionable eligibility or is otherwise ineligible to enter. CAUTION: A PERSON WHO ATTEMPTS DELIBERATELY TO UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THIS GAME OR TO ALTER OR DAMAGE A WEBSITE MAY BE SUBJECT TO CIVIL AND/OR CRIMINAL PENALTIES AND FINES; AND H2H RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH PERSON TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
- Incidents. Without limiting the foregoing, H2H may modify, cancel, terminate, and/or suspend the Game if, in the H2H's sole opinion, an incident of any kind occurs to corrupt or impair the administration, security, integrity, fairness or play (as intended) of the Game, including without limitation: (a) viruses, bugs, unauthorized human intervention, fraud or technical failure; or (b) earthquake, flood, fire, storm or other natural disaster, act of God; or (c) labor controversy or threat thereof, civil disturbance or commotion, disruption of the public markets, war or armed conflict (whether or not officially declared).
- Cancellation. In the event of a cancellation or termination the entrant who has accumulated the highest point total (and who wins any pending tiebreakers) at the time of any said action will be awarded the prizes, or the prizes will be awarded in such other manner deemed fair and appropriate by H2H.
- GAMBLING PROHIBITION. This Game is strictly for entertainment purposes and may not be used in connection with any form of gambling.
- LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY. The Released Parties are not responsible for: (1) any incorrect or inaccurate information, whether caused by entrants, printing errors or by any of the equipment, hardware, software or programming associated or used with the Game; (2) technical errors, defects, delays or failures of any kind, including without limitation malfunctions, interruptions or disconnections in communications lines, Internet or website access, hardware or software; (3) digital or electronic disruptions, e.g., viruses other security breaches; (4) unauthorized human intervention, e.g., hacking; (5) technical or human error which may occur in connection with any aspect of the Game; (6) any injury or damage to persons or property which may be caused, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, from entrant's participation in the Game, access to, copying or downloading materials from Website or any other website, or receipt or use of any prize.
- DISPUTES/CHOICE OF LAW. Except where prohibited, each entrant agrees that: (1) any and all disputes, claims and causes of action arising out of or connected with this Game or any prize awarded shall be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and exclusively by state or federal courts situated in Maricopa county, State of Arizona, i.e., Phoenix; (2) any and all claims, judgments and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, but in no event attorneys' fees; and (3) no punitive, incidental, special, consequential or other damages, including without limitation lost profits may be awarded (collectively, "Special Damages"), and (4) entrant hereby waives all rights to claim Special Damages and all rights to have such damages multiplied or increased. Arizona law, without reference to Arizona's choice of law rules, governs the Game and all aspects related thereto.
- PRIVACY. Personally identifiable information that is submitted by entrants as part of this Game will be used to administer the Game, select prize winners and fulfill prizes, and will be treated in accordance with H2H's privacy policy accessible on its website at www.head2head.com.
- OFFICIAL RULES; WINNERS LISTS. All rules and winners may be posted on the Website. For a copy of the Official Rules and/or list of winners, mail a self-addressed stamped envelope to the address below. Requests must be received within 30 days following the end of the Game (i.e., by December 18, 2018):
Head2Head Sports
Attn: Pit Crew Pick'em - Official Rules & Winners List
4727 E. Bell Rd.
Suite 45-328
Phoenix, AZ 85032
- REFUNDS. Any entrant is entitled to cancel registration in the game and have all monies refunded if H2H receives written notice on or before fourteen (14) days from the official start date of the game. After fourteen (14) days from the start of the contest, no refunds will be made. All such requests must be addressed to Head2Head Sports, 4727 E. Bell Rd., Suite 45-328, Phoenix, AZ 85032, or faxed to 480-429-0911.
- Address; Copyright. H2H is responsible for the Game and awarding of prizes. See address in paragraph above. H2H's address is 4727 E. Bell Rd., Suite 45-328, Phoenix, AZ 85032. The Game and all accompanying materials are copyright © 2018 Head2Head Sports.


text: Can I use /dev/input/event2 with LIRC? If so, can I use irexec (with lirc) to macro some system calls while the remote plugin (under VDR) is already running? I guess I'm asking, can LIRC and the remote plugin work simultaneously? I have a Happauge Nova-T with the card-connected IR receiver... Thanks Simon

subset: commoncrawl


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H5N1 research issues
H5N1 avian influenza is an infectious disease of birds that can be spread to people, but is difficult to transmit from person to person. Almost all people with H5N1 infection have had close contact with infected birds or H5N1-contaminated environments. When people do become infected, the mortality rate is about 60%.
Public health scientists want to know if genetic changes in the virus could make it more easily transmissible between people, so they can improve public health surveillance for early detection of potential pandemic strains. Researchers have recently succeeded in creating H5N1 viruses that are more transmissible in mammals than those that occur naturally, raising concerns about the risks and safety of such research.
Frequently asked questions
FAQs: H5N1 influenza
March 2012
FAQs: H5N1 research issues
March 2012
General information
Technical guidance – avian influenza
Technical guidance - biosafety and laboratory biosecurity
- Guidance for adoption of appropriate risk control measures to conduct safe research on H5N1 transmission
- WHO Biosafety and Laboratory Biosecurity programme
- Laboratory biosafety manual – third edition
- Biorisk management: Laboratory biosecurity guidance
Laboratory Biorisk Management CWA15793
pdf, 361kb
Media centre
WHO statement on new H5N1 influenza research
30 December 2011
Public health, influenza experts agree H5N1 research critical, but extend delay
17 February 2012
Virtual press briefing 17 February 2012
Audio file and transcript from the briefing


text:
Story highlights
- Lloyd and Marian Michael married in December 1942, a year after the U.S. joined WW II
- During Lloyd's deployment to Europe, the couple wrote hundreds of letters to each other
- More than 40 years ago, those letters were stolen
- Exactly who took them, and why, remains a mystery
Of all things to steal, you'd think love letters would be low on the list.
But that's exactly what thieves took from Lloyd and Marian Michael -- the couple's sweet letters and the sleeping memories they stirred.
"We were just overwhelmed ... so sad," said Marian, 88, about the day they discovered them missing.
Still, she and Lloyd, 89, were never the type for self-pity.
What could they do? They moved on.
Then, several decades later, the Michaels got a strange message on their answering machine.
The caller, a military veteran, had painstakingly tracked them down after his father's death. He said he had news about their letters.
"We thought, 'Oh, it must be a mistake,' " Marian said.
It wasn't.
In love and war
Lloyd and Marian met at a California high school in the 1940s, when Bing Crosby was big, a stamp cost 3 cents, and war raged around the world.
For their first date, Lloyd took Marian to a dance at a civic center. He told his family that night he'd found his girl.
Marian took some convincing, but Lloyd's persistence paid off.
"I think that the war situation was so intense at that time," she said. "It was just important for him to find a girlfriend and for me to find a boyfriend. That's what we were, girl- and boyfriend."
They married on December 31, 1942, just about a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor that drew the United States into World War II. Lloyd had joined the U.S. Army Air Forces by that point, and had to get a weekend pass for the wedding.
They were madly in love and eager to start their new life, but the war had plans of its own.
After the wedding, the Army sent Lloyd to Mississippi for aircraft mechanic training, then back to California and on to New Jersey before he deployed to Europe, where Marian could not follow.
To stay connected, the newlyweds wrote each other as often as they could -- open, affectionate letters describing how much they missed each other and longed to be together.
"Darling, I can hear Bing (Crosby) singing over the loudspeaker," wrote Lloyd on July 6, 1944. "He is singing 'By the Light of the Silvery Moon.' Boy, he can really sing. Marian, remember the old moon down in Mississippi ...
"That moon means more than ever to me now. Just right when I got into my foxhole, I could look out and see that old moon shining so very bright. It was so very full. I got a very warm feeling inside of me just sitting there, laying there, and looking at it, and thinking of you."
Lloyd later explained the motif of the moon: "We had made a commitment when we left that we'd kiss the moon at night."
"If you think about it ... the moon, wherever you're at, the other party will see that same moon that day," he said. "That moon would be over her."
The couple made other promises too. Before Lloyd left, he and Marian bought identical maps of Europe. In his letters, Lloyd wrote the position on his map that matched, more or less, where he was.
The censors never cracked their code.
Lloyd was deployed overseas for 27 months. He served in England, Germany, Belgium and France, arriving in Normandy just 12 days after the historic invasion.
After the war, he returned to California. He and Marian made a life in Alta Loma, outside Los Angeles, where they raised four children.
The Michaels locked their love letters in a trunk for safekeeping, along with the rest of Lloyd's war memorabilia. They put the trunk in a shed.
But sometime in the late 1960s, or early 1970s -- the Michaels aren't sure -- someone gutted their shed, snatching the trunk and everything in it.
"We just accepted that they were gone forever, probably trashed. We never dreamed we'd ever see them," Marian said. "And when we had this message from this young man on the phone we just couldn't believe it."
A mystery man
The man at the other end of the line had a plan when he dialed the Michaels' phone last fall.
Using Lloyd's Army serial number, he had tracked the couple down. Apparently, there had been a number of men with the name Lloyd Michael in the service. But there was just one with a wife named Marian.
He asked the Michaels to meet at a nearby In-N-Out Burger.
It was about 12:30 in the afternoon when they pulled into the parking lot.
"He undoubtedly saw two old, gray-haired people walk right in, and got out of his car and walked over and said: 'Are you Lloyd Michael?' " Lloyd said. "Handed me this big box he had of our letters."
The man told the Michaels he had come across their correspondence as he was going through his father's things. His father, a stamp collector, had died.
Maybe his father bought the letters, hoping their stamps would be worth something one day. But who knows?
The man wasn't saying much, and the Michaels didn't want to pry.
"I don't want to put him through that," Lloyd said. "He just did something that was a marvelous thing for him to do."
As quickly as he entered the Michaels' lives, the man left.
They tried to buy his lunch. But he wouldn't take a thing.
Later, they sent the man a box of candy for Christmas anyway.
"He'd been a veteran himself, and he had a boy that had been in either Iraq or Afghanistan and had just returned home. So he knew what letters meant to him, his family -- the same thing," Lloyd said.
"He just thought ... they weren't his, and he wanted to get them back to where they belong."
'Sweetheart, all my life is yours'
The letters are written in tiny print, many on thin onion skin paper. Most have upside down stamps, which was the Michaels' way of saying: "I love you."
They got back 241 letters, which they say is just a fraction of the many hundreds they sent each other over the years.
As they read through their letters, they often have to stop on account of tears, both happy and sad.
Reading one out loud, Marian's voice broke. The emotion was raw, as if she was reading the letter for the first time and still waiting and worrying for a husband in harm's way.
"They're pretty difficult for us to read. It just brings back all the agony, and the worry, and the concern," she said.
Though some letters were serious, others were playful. The Michaels poked gentle fun at themselves and each other, and imagined what they were going to do when the war was over.
They shared the sort of small details that make up a life.
"Guess what we're going to have for supper!" Marian wrote in a letter dated December 8, 1944. "It's really going to be a treat because we haven't had any for so long. We're going to have bacon! Boy, now that's really something in this neck of the woods. ... Pork is a luxury these days."
Though times were tough and being separated was hard, Lloyd said he and Marian never really wrote about their problems.
"That would just burden the other party," he said. "We were always trying to give the best that we had."
Reading from her December 8, 1944, letter, Marian hints at the other reason why Lloyd said they initially kept their letters under lock and key -- to keep their children's prying eyes out of their most private exchanges:
"Darling, I love you more every day. It seems as if I'm wanting your caresses more and more, and I'm wanting your kisses more ... I'm wanting you more and more. Sweetheart, all my life is yours."
Her promise proved true.
Surrounded by family and friends, the Michaels celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in December, shortly after they were reunited with their letters.
Where the rest are is anyone's guess, but they are grateful they got back what they did.
"It's bringing back all the memories. But it can't draw the two of us any closer than we are," Lloyd said. "We've been up and down life -- been to the top of it and down to the bottom. We're just a couple determined to make the best out of our lives."


text:
Summary Meeting Notes: July 31, 2012 Watershed Health and Environment PEG
July 31, 2012, 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., 1900 SW 4th Ave, Room 7A
PEG Attendees: Judy BlueHorse Skelton, Shannon Buono (PEG staff), Claire Carder, Corky Collier, Ben Duncan, Sallie Edmunds (PEG Lead), Don Hanson, Mike Houck, Roberta Jortner, Renee Hackenmiller-Paradis, Maryhelen Kincaid, Noelwah Netusil, Emily Roth, Bob Sallinger, Jonathan Soll, Marie Walkiewicz, Jeri Williams.
Other Attendees: Nan Stark (BPS), Roger Eberbeck (public), Andy Jansky (public), Jeremy O'Leary (public), Elizabeth Seeno (public), Mary Vogel (public), Joan Frederiksen, Marty Stockton, Sandra Wood (BPS)
Facilitator: Dena Marshall
View the original agenda, including materials, for this meeting.
Key Points and Outcomes
- Bios. A reminder to all PEG members to please send in your bios and photo; approximately 150 words in all: 1 paragraph with professional background, 1 paragraph with personal background. Please send to Sallie Edmunds by Aug. 23.
- Environmental Justice. PEG members generally agreed that Environmental Justice is a complex, multi-dimensional theme that permeates the way we interact with our environment and communities; but has limited influence in many planning processes. Many PEG members shared a strong desire to see Environmental Justice principles and terminology incorporated into the planning process through multiple PEGS and resulting Comp Plan policies.
- Habitat Corridors. PEG members explored the need for balance between promoting habitat connectivity, and promoting development density, noting that although the two objectives may appear to be at odds with each other, several cities have designed infrastructure to accommodate corridor connectivity. PEG members encouraged City staff to (1) establish or refine definitions for habitat, corridor, connectivity, and habitat value; (2) explore connectivity plans from other cities; (3) examine potential negative impacts of SB766; and (4) seek to incorporate applicable Climate Action Plan into Comp Plan policies addressing habitat corridors.
Environmental Justice
Presenters: Nan Stark, Jeri Williams, Ben Duncan
Environmental Justice is a component of equity. For purposes of the PEG discussion, Environmental Justice means equal protection from environmental and health hazards, and meaningful public participation in decisions that affect the environment in which people live, learn, work, play, and practice spirituality. Policies developed with a lack of attention to environmental justice can result in inequitable distributions of burdens such as poor air or water quality, and inequitable distributions of benefits such as access to nature. Environmental Justice Communities are those particularly vulnerable to such inequities and include minority, low-income and tribal com-munities, and other communities historically underrepresented in public processes.
PEG members engaged with this issue directly, with a shared desire to work to reverse past discriminations. PEG members discussed the following questions:
- What does environmental justice mean in a comprehensive planning context?
- See the Comprehensive Plan Proposal for Watershed Health and Environment PEG consideration. Are there other elements of environmental justice that should be covered as part of the development of the Comprehensive Plan?
- Should the term "Environmental Justice" be explicitly used in the Comprehensive Plan policies? Or, rather, should policies related to the elements of environmental justice be specifically included?
Many WH/E PEG members expressed a strong desire to see Environmental Justice principles and terminology incorporated into the planning process through multiple PEGS and resulting Comp Plan policies.
Detailed comments from PEG discussion
- Doing environmental justice and learning about environmental justice are two different things.
- This discussion is focused more on learning environmental justice.
- This definition is not a static definition. There is a legal term, a social term, it is a series of principals and values. At the core is how we are going to implement this.
- Can we get language that will direct bureaus to consider environmental justice? That the term "Environmental justice" is incorporated with requirements and guidelines; that environmental justice is a factor in land use decisions and policies.
- What do we do with the data and information that we have and how do we incorporate it into the Comp Plan language.
- Be mindful of the collateral effects of the decisions that are made around work to correct ecosystem issues.
- EJ means community needs to be in the planning process from the beginning, and community has standing.
- Have agencies involved.
- Those people who are directly affected are experts, too. This is a 2-way street.
- Put environmental justice on par with other decisions that give the community standing.
- Call for meaningful process/environmental justice in decision making. Policy proposal should include language addressing:
♦ Disproportional impacts
♦ Cumulative impacts
♦ Unintended consequences
- Outcome oriented not just process oriented.
- The Comp Plan is supposed to protect land uses in the City and where these lands are directly related to environmental justice and this should be a decision point.
- See Portland Plan environmental justice decision making for language to carry into Comp Plan.
- Update public participation policies in Comp Plan to include environmental justice.
- How do we balance competing goals and this will vary from project to project; how to prioritize policy (e.g. environmental goals v. economic development).
- Addressing environmental justice issues can have a positive impacts on the community at large, not just for the marginalized community.
- It is difficult for us to understand the impacts some decisions have on these communities when we have never been in that situation or had to experience their community.
- How can the community understand how to get themselves heard and how can we ensure they are heard or help support them to appeal decisions.
- How to give a voice to the disenfranchised and advocate for them?
- Economic development is also important. Environmental justice is not exclusive of job growth and economic development.
- Acknowledge that we don't know what we don't know, then meet with people so we can learn more.
- Streamlining trend and efficiencies in permitting process leads to exclusion.
- Call for slower, more complete processes to really address environmental justice.
- What are the costs of some of these policies? And, how can we ensure that the populations most directly affected do not bear a higher burden. Ensure fees are not regressive but are progressive.
- We should try to develop language that says the City ofPortlandwill never apply for SB766 funds or status.
Habitat Corridors
Presenter: Marie Walkiewicz
For purposes of the PEG discussion, habitat corridors are both existing anchor habitats – such asForest Park, Oaks Bottom, and stream corridors – and interconnected patches of trees and vegetation. They include diverse habitat types – rivers, wetlands, floodplains, forests, woodlands and grasslands – and support a diversity of native plant and animal species. They also include areas of dense tree canopy in parks, along streets or in developed areas that provide important flyways, nesting, feeding and rest stops for birds and pollinators.
PEG members explored the need for balance between promoting habitat connectivity, and promoting development density, noting that although the two objectives may appear to be at odds with each other, several cities have designed infrastructure to accommodate corridor connectivity. PEG members discussed the following questions:
- Do the proposed policies provide appropriate guidance for reestablishing habitat corridors?
- How should the Comprehensive Plan provide guidance about habitat corridors in developed areas and industrial areas? Would the policies call for corridors having a different character in these areas?
- How should equity be considered in setting priorities for reconnecting habitats?
- What principles should be used to map where habitat corridors should be reestablished?
WH/E PEG members encouraged City staff to (1) establish or refine definitions for habitat, corridor, connectivity, and habitat value; (2) explore connectivity plans from other cities; (3) examine potential negative impacts of SB766; and (4) seek to incorporate applicable Climate Action Plan into Comp Plan policies addressing habitat corridors.
Detailed comments from PEG discussion
We don't always notice the wildlife around us even here in the city. We don't necessarily have to choose between having quality urban life and quality natural life. These corridors provide connections in the way that a sewer system works…if they're not connected and don't have redundancies then they are not functioning. Nature should be woven into the city. But in practice there are some tensions. Should we get as much density as possible or should we enhance for habitat connectivity? We have some questions to discuss and we'd like to hear your thoughts with the understanding that the type of connection you might create in the west hills may be different than one you'd create in an industrial area. When we are thinking about policy, there may be opportunities to use eco-roofs or landscaping to increase these connections. How can the Comp Plan help support these ideas?
- The discussion of ecosystem services can be brought back into the picture, we can develop a knowledge base and understand our trade-offs regarding their relative values.
- What connections are we trying to make – connecting birds or salamanders or plants? Connectivity is not just one thing.
- Are we talking about corridors that are connecting other things or a connected habitat and an interconnected system that can serve nature and us? We need to be very clear and specific about what we mean.
- Ideal definition of connectivity – for biodiversity the specific needs of the organisms we are trying to serve are being met; but for other species we may need a backyard planting program; for an amphibian or fish species there may be a barrier that prevents movement.
- Important to be clear about definitions: connectivity, endangered, tiered approach.
- Is there a specific species that should be prioritized? We can say those species that are threatened or endangered. A tiered approach. We should forget about specific species but rather think about a system that functions for many organisms.
- Putting value or ranking things – we are a good way from being able to do that.
- We've talked about increasing density and how do we integrate that with our desire to improve these corridors? That growth has to go somewhere in the city and we've chosen to increase density. We may end up with a lot of big apartment buildings without access to nature and that no one really likes.
- There's an issue with the City being able to hide behind the code and how land is zoned. I'd like to see something more than aspirational goals.
- Policies should be functional rather than aspirational.
- We need to look at the research that's been done in other cities and put them into our urban design.
- We should not fall into the trap of thinking that a location with low natural resource value is where we will do our development. We need to map these locations with other impacts in mind before we make our land use decisions.
- We need to build into the policy that wildlife safe passage needs to become part of our policy.
- We need to protect the changing of habitat over time.
- Even though this is a planning process, nature does not follow geo-political structures. We need to mandate outreach to adjoining communities to improve our ecosystem function. We need to have those coordinated efforts to support outreach and planning on a landscape level to determine our priorities and where we want to be.
- We need to think about watersheds, corridors, habitat types, etc.
- There is a new regional conservation strategy through Metro that is being finalized. We are looking at how we address what's beyond the urban growth boundary.
- We are just as concerned with the common species as the threatened species.
- We should be using this document. It has chapters on climate change, equity, etc. We have a tool available to us.
- Why don't we plant more plants in public areas that are harvestable?
- Part of the Comp Plan needs to look at the City's rankings of landscapes. Low natural resource value does not equal good for development.
- We have not really addressed climate change and resiliency. If we are serious about addressing storm events, rising rivers and creeks, then we need to look at those impacts over the next 50 years, make projections and integrate that over time.
- We can take heart that some of these species are making their own corridors and are adapting. If we can fully integrate these ideas into the policy we may see… We need to recognize that many backyards are providing habitat and are areas for food development. The schools bond for creating gardens at all schools.
- I second the idea of identifying co-benefits in the plan and how does the climate action plan fit into the Comp Plan?
- We need to recognize the historical value of habitats, just because we wrecked it does not mean it doesn't have value.
- Resiliency – Climate change in the policy process.
- Weave "safe passage" into policy.
- Consider trans-boundary approaches. Policies should support, mandate ecosystem resolution on a level of watersheds, habitat corridors. Regional conservation strategy.
Public Comment
Jeremy O'Leary:
- Acknowledge the distinction between urban and habitat, and attempt to balance them through good policy and implementation.
- Consider water features as a gathering place in the event of a natural disaster.
- Think about the whole: the pieces and how they fit together.
Mary Vogel
- Invitation to the group to attend a Sierra Club field trip throughPortlandwild areas in conjunction with the recent ecosystem conference.
Roger Eberbeck
- Concern for "paper streets" inSW Portland, zoned for environmental and good for habitat corridors and pedestrians, but challenging for private landowners to maintain.
Parking Lot
- General interest in continuing the Environmental Justice discussion. What is the best mechanism for this? Explore options such as an on-line discussion group, additional small group meetings, and new Equity PEG meetings.
Next Steps
- PEG Members please send in your Bios and photos by August 23.
- Sallie Edmunds will explore continuing discussion options for those interested in the EJ dialogue.
For more information, please contact Sallie Edmunds, Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, at 503-823-6950 or firstname.lastname@example.com or Dena Marshall, Facilitator, at 503-249-0000 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Birthday Party
Date of Joke: Friday, 14th September, 2007
A lady is throwing a party for her granddaughter, and had gone all
out..... a caterer, band, and a hired clown. Just before the party
started, two bums showed up looking for a handout. Feeling sorry for the
bums, the woman told them that she would give them a meal if they will
help chop some wood for her out back. Gratefully, they headed to the rear
of the house.


text:
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text:
The pre-game show was all pre-taped, thus no coverage. It was really slickly produced.
TNA Lockdown
The show opened with footage of Magnus and Samoa Joe entering the venue earlier this afternoon.
Bad Influence & Chris Sabin vs. Great Muta & TNA X-Division champion Senada & Yasufumi Nakanoue.
Bad Influence came out dressed in a parody of Great Muta during his NWA run in the 80s. They called Yasufui just "Yasu.†Bit of a Muta chant when he came to the ring.
Sabin and Senada started out. Sabin offered his hand but Senada wanted nothing to do with it. They locked up and Sabin worked over his arm. Senada and Sabin went back and forth until Sabin thumbed him in the eye and shoulderblocked him down. Senada blocked a hiptoss and locked in an abdominal stretch.
Yasu and Kaz tagged in. They exchanged holds until Kazarian clotheslined him down. Kaz missed a leap into the corner and was hiptossed down and caught in a side headlock. Muta tagged in to a nice pop and nailed the corkscrew elbow and locked in an STF. Daniels attacked Muta to break it up but was taken out with a thrust kick. Muta shot the green mist in the air.
Yasu tagged in. He fought off Influence but was knocked backwards into the cage and grabbed at his neck. They worked him over and Sabin tagged in and dropkicked him as he was held. They took turns tagging in and out working over Yasu. They worked him over for a long time but he kept kicking out.
Senada finally made the hot tag and cleaned house but was cut off by Bad Influence. He ducked under and Daniels accidentally clotheslined Kaz. Muta tagged in and nailed Dragonscrew Legwhips on everyone and locked in a leglock for a submission. He was double teamed but sprayed the green mist in Kaz's face. Senada nailed a stunner on him. Muta nailed the shining wizard on Daniels. Senada nailed a moonsault for the pin.
Your winners, Team Wrestle-1!
Good, fun opener to open the show. Some good wrestling here.
Rockstar Spud marched to the ring and introduced TNA President Dixie Carter. She came out on the stage and said that unlike King James, she has earned her role as Queen. She said that she's shown her business prowess but feels like some of the fans still don't believe in her. She said some of the Miami Hurricanes look like they were hit by a hurricane. She said that MVP has pushed her and forced her to do something tonight that no one will ever anticipate. She's going to hit a shooting star press? She said that she's the one who went to NYC and got an insurance card that she's keeping in her back pocket. She said that if Jeff Hardy even tries to enter the venue tonight, she will have him thrown out.
Backstage Jeremy Borash was backstage. Velvet Sky is answering questions all night long online. Eric Young was interviewed by Borash and said everything changes tonight after Lethal Lockdown.
Samuel Shaw vs. Ken Anderson
Shaw was upset Christy Hemme was nowhere to be found at ringside. He took a mic and scaled to the top of the steel cage and sat atop of it. He called for Hemme to come out and said, "Someone's not keeping it professionally. If Christy Hemme doesn't come out here, I'm going to professionally end it all.†He began standing on the cage as if he was going to jump. Yeah, let's make suicide threats part of the storyline. Wonderful. The crowd was chanting, "Creepy bastard†during all of this.
Mr. Anderson came out and interrupted him with his big ring introduction. He told Shaw he doesn't want to jump off, because it's not high enough. The crowd chanted for Shaw to jump. Anderson said that he'll just twist or break an ankle and he'll look like more of a goof than he normally does. He told Shaw needs at least four or five stories to jump from. He told Shaw to come down. He told Shaw he would beat him up a little bit and then drive him anywhere he wants to go.
Anderson entered the cage as Shaw began climbing down. The announcers said it was "escape the cage†rules for this match. Shaw and Anderson began battling back and forth. Anderson had the early advantage. Hemme walked down to the ring and cheered on Anderson. Anderson whipped Shaw hard into the buckles but was kicked off during a charge. Shaw tried to climb the cage but was pulled down.
There is a sign in the front row that reads, "BOB RYDER 4 TNA HOF.†I am fine with that.
Anderson went for the Mic Check but Shaw fired back. Anderson kneed him and nailed a Gutwrench suplex. Shaw stomped away at Anderson and choked him. Shaw climbed up but was pulled back down by Anderson. He nailed a series of right hands and slammed Anderson into the cage face-first.
There was, what I believe, was a quick CM Punk chant.
Anderson and Shaw battled on the top until Anderson caught him with a belly to back suplex off the top. That was a pretty cool looking spot. Shaw took a nasty looking bump there. Shaw recovered and sent Anderson into the cage. He saw Hemme and waved to her, staring intently at her, then told the referee to unlock the door. Anderson came from behind and kneed Shaw, sending him into the still locked door, which slammed into referee Earl Hebner and laid him out.
Anderson grabbed the unconscious Shaw and set up for the Mic Check, then drilled him facefirst into the buckles. The crowd chanted, "TNA†as Hemme cheered and clapped. Shaw was unconscious. Anderson climbed over the top for the win. No referee to call the bell. Shaw grabbed Hemme's arm through a hole cut open in the cage for the cameraman to shoot through. He pulled Hemme through the opening and trapped her in the cage. Shaw menaced Hemme in the cage, who slapped him.
Anderson grabbed the keys and unlocked the cage, grabbing Shaw and saving Hemme. He had Hemme leave but was lowblowed from behind and choked out. Hemme was freaked and ran backstage upset. Shaw walked out of the open door and the referee rang the bell, not even concerned with how the door was opened while he was unconscious.
Your winner, Sam Shaw!
From a storyline perspective, this was fine but probably too early on the card to do the ref bumps, screwy finish, etc. It made sense for the story though. The match itself was more of a backdrop for the angle at the end but a good spot off the top.
Backstage, Team Roode was discussing the match. Austin Aries wanted to know what the insurance policy Dixie was talking about earlier. Roode said he didn't know but soon enough, they'd be done with MVP. Roode said he would start. The others wanted a piece of his promised 10%.
EC3 vs. ?
With Kurt Angle out, the story is that EC3 has issued an open challenge to anyone on the roster. My guess is that it's Abyss.
EC3 cut a promo saying that when he was young, he had a dream to face the best. He said that Kurt Angle is the best, but so is EC3. The crowd chanted, "You can't wrestle" and he responded, "I disagree" and "I'm EC3" in a really funny way. Good way to play off the crowd. He said that it's interesting timing for Angle to schedule his surgery and said he's ready for anyone to face the "new American idol." He asked who is was going to be. The crowd was booing and he told them not to hijack the crowd. That was funny.
Out came Bobby Lashley. I didn't see that one coming.
EC3 vs. ?
With Kurt Angle out, the story is that EC3 has issued an open challenge to anyone on the roster. My guess is that it's Abyss.
Lashley came out EC3 said Lashley's not on the roster. Lashley entered the cage and EC3 told him he's a Carter and he's office (at least he didn't say he's Network) and he knows Lashley didn't have a TNA deal. He warned Lashley that he saw what happened to Kurt Angle and ordered Lashley to leave the ring.
Lashley ducked a clothesline attempt and nailed an over the shoulder running powerslam. Lashley speared him. Carter rolled out of the ring and Lashley celebrated.
Just an angle but as a surprise, it came off well. EC3 was absolutely great in his role. Lashley looked jacked and happy to be there. If he can keep up the intensity, he'll be a fun addition.
They aired a Kenny King vignette. I like them so far.
Backstage, TNA champion Magnus cut a promo backstage. He said he has had to do everything himself in his career. He said tonight, it's different because he's locked in a steel cage and it's Joe's Rules. Magnus said that he has to fight against adversity and MVP in the office. Magnus said he will fight this crusade alone but what bothers him is people asking what Joe is going to do to him. He said no one is asked what he's going to do to Joe. He said that he has Joe all figured out and Joe doesn't have it in the brains department. He said that he may not look and behave like an animal, if you back him into a corner, everyone will find out what happens.
Solid first hour, except for the teased suicide deal, which was extremely lame in my opinion.
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text:
It Is All About BTC, LTC, ETH, ZEC mining as well as other alternative crypto currencies
If you are just getting into Bitcoins and started by installing the Bitcoin wallet on your computer you may notice that the synchronization process with the Bitcoin network is taking up quite some time. This is due to the very large blockchain that has been generated so far and it will continue to grow even bigger, so besides more than 10 Gigabytes of space you need to be ready to wait a bit. There is however a clever solution that might speed thing up, you can download a file to help you import most of the blockchain locally much faster and then synchronize with the rest of the network in no time.
What to do guide:
– Download and install the Bitcoin wallet software, run it and then close it.
– Download the bootstrap.dat file (via a torrent client).
– Copy the bootstrap.dat file in the folder \Users\YOUR_WINDOWS_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin (for Windows) or in the Bitcoin data folder for other OSes
– Run the Bitcoin software to import most of the blockchain locally and then to download only the rest and synchronize the client
This will get you up to speed and running in no time and much faster than running the Bitcoin client and waiting for it to download and synchronize the complete blockchain from the start to the most recent blocks.


text:
|Muggle-Born Registration Commission
|Organisation information
Ministry of Magic (under Lord Voldemort's control)
Courtroom, Level 10, Ministry of Magic
To imprison Muggle-born witches and wizards
- "The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called "Muggle-borns," the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets. Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force. The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission"
- —Daily Prophet article from 1997 discussing the creation of the Commission[src]
The Muggle-Born Registration Commission was set up by the Ministry of Magic following Lord Voldemort's takeover on 1 August, 1997. The public goal of the Commission was to force all Muggle-born wizards and witches to register with the Ministry, then undergo interrogation as to how they "stole" their magical power from "real" wizards and witches. The true purpose of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission was to imprison and degrade Muggle-borns. Dolores Umbridge was the head of the commission.
- Ron Weasley: "People won't let this happen."
- Remus Lupin: "It is happening, Ron. Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."
- Ron Weasley: "But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic? It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"
- Remus Lupin: "I know. Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment."
- — Remus Lupin on the Commission's actions[src]
The Muggle-Born signup was set up within a month of Voldemort taking over the Ministry of Magic, supposedly because the Department of Mysteries conducted research which found that magic could only be inherited, and thus that any "so-called Muggle-born" must have obtained magic by force. The Commission was then set up, ostensibly, in order to investigate this. This news was reported by the Daily Prophet.[1]
In reality, the Commission was an instrument of discrimination against Muggle-borns in line with Death Eater ideology. Although they claimed to have "issued an invitation" for Muggle-borns to meet with the Commission, the Commission in fact forced Muggle-borns to turn themselves in, sending Snatchers against any who tried to avoid them. Some people pursued by Snatchers, such as Dirk Cresswell and Ted Tonks, did not survive the encounter[2]. Furthermore, their "interviews" were shams, fully intent on sending innocent Muggle-borns to Azkaban, or stripping them of their wands and jobs, leaving them impoverished.[3]
Furthermore, pure-bloods who have pro-muggle ideals are kept on constant surveillance by the Commission, as they are blood traitors, which the Ministry's new regime considers unacceptable. Arthur Weasley, being both a muggle enthusiast and a member of the Order of the Phoenix, is marked in his file as tracked.[3] Luckily, half-bloods, despite being against the Death Eaters' ideology of purity, are allowed to remain as citizens within the community, as they technically have have "legally inherited" magic, though they are treated with less respect due to dilution.
ActionsEditThe Commission had Muggle-borns who registered fill out questionnaires about their family history, and then wait for their trial behind bars in the Ministry of Magic. While awaiting trial, they were guarded by Dementors, and threatened with the Dementor's Kiss if they resisted. Trials were held by Commission head Dolores Umbridge, who was assisted by Death Eater and head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement Yaxley at times. Travers, another Death Eater, may also have been involved, as Umbridge once mentioned him sending someone to record-keep for her. Those who could not prove that they had magical heritage — in other words, any Muggle-born and potentially some half-bloods — were sentenced to Azkaban for having "stolen" magic.[3] Some, however, were apparently released after being stripped of their wands and their jobs, and ended up homeless[4].
This led some Muggle-borns to fake their family trees, such as Dirk Cresswell[3], and others to refuse to register and go on the run, such as Ted Tonks[5]. These individuals were pursued by Snatchers, sometimes fatally. Their deaths were not reported by news outlets such as the Daily Prophet, only by the rebellious radio program Potterwatch.[2]
- "Harry felt sickened and angry: At this moment, excited 11-year-olds would be poring over stacks of newly purchased spell-books, unaware that they would never see Hogwarts, perhaps never see their families again either."
- —Harry Potter's reaction to hearing what would happen to Muggle-born children[src]
Also, attendance at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry became mandatory for the first time. Part of the reason for this was to weed out Muggle-borns, as all students were required to prove blood status. Thus, children who could not prove that they had magical ancestry — such as Dean Thomas, whose mother was a Muggle, and whose father was a wizard, but had left when Dean was younger, making it impossible to prove — were rounded up as well, or forced to go on the run. This held true even for Muggle-borns who were invited (or rather, forced) to attend first year at Hogwarts, only to be taken away for imprisonment.
The Commission also seemed to distribute propaganda against Muggle-borns, such as a pamphlet entitled "Mudbloods and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society".[3]
Harry Potter's inflitration of the MinistryEdit
Harry Potter and Hermione Granger encountered the Commission when they, along with Ron Weasley, entered the Ministry of Magic in 1997 to take Salazar Slytherin's Locket from Dolores Umbridge. Before they could decide what to do, Hermione, disguised as Mafalda Hopkirk with Polyjuice Potion, was was sent down to the courtrooms with Umbrige to witness the trial of Mary Cattermole and Ron, disguised as Reginald Cattermole, was forced to stop it raining in Yaxley's office. Harry, disguised as Albert Runcorn, went to Level One of the Ministry to search Umbridge's office for the Horcrux locket, and found himself faced in an open area where employees are assembling anti-"Mudblood" pamphlets. Harry spots Moody's magical eye affixed to a door of Umbridge's office, and to create a diversion, Harry sets a Decoy Detonator free; it explodes, emitting a large, black smoke cloud.
- "He emerged into a wide, open space where a dozen witches and wizards sat in rows at small desks not unlike school desks, though much more highly polished and free from graffiti. Harry paused to watch them, for the effect was quite mesmerizing. They were all waving and twiddling their wands in unison, and squares of coloured paper were flying in every direction like little pink kites. After a few seconds, Harry realised that there was a rhythm to the proceedings, that the papers all formed the small pattern; and after a few more seconds he realised that what he was watching was the creation of pamphlets -- that the paper squares were pages, which, when assembled, folded, and magicked into place, fell into neat stacks beside each witch or wizard [...] He examined it beneath the Invisibility Cloak. Its pink cover was emblazoned with a golden title: MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society."
- —Harry watching the pamphlet-makers in the commission[src]
During the confusion, Harry enters Umbridge's office, finding it decorated exactly like her Hogwarts office, with the horribly cute kitten plates on the wall and the lace doilies on the desks. Looking through the small telescope on the door, he sees everyone is gathered around the Decoy Detonator's remains; he removes Moody's eye, and pockets it, then tries unsuccessfully to Summon the Locket. Harry finds a file on Arthur Weasley, who is noted as a pure-blood likely to be contacted by "Undesirable Number One", Harry himself. Mr. Weasley is also being Tracked. Harry deemes it unlikely the Locket is here and Harry exits unseen, returning to the lift. He must now find Ron and collect Hermione from the courtroom.
- Umbridge: "Could you please tell us from which witch or wizard your took that wand?"
- Mrs. Cattermole: "T-took? I didn't t-take it from anybody. I bought it when I was eleven years old. It -- it -- it -- chose me."
- Umbridge: "No, no, I don't think so, Mrs. Cattermole. Wands only choose witches or wizards. You are not a witch."
- — Umbridge interrogating Mary Cattermole[src]
Covered with the Invisibility Cloak, Harry heads for the courtrooms to extract Hermione while Ron is busy with Yaxley's office. Harry recognises an unnatural chill: Dementors are guarding Muggle-born witches and wizards waiting to be interrogated. Mary Cattermole is called, and Harry follows her into the courtroom. Inside, two Dementors are kept at bay by a cat Patronus, and Umbridge, Hermione (as Mafalda), and Yaxley, are interrogating Cattermole, demanding to know whose wand she stole. Seeing the Locket around Umbridge's neck, Hermione compliments her about it; Umbridge claims the S initial is for Selwyn, an old pure-blood Wizarding family she is honoured to be related to. This lie proves too much for Harry, who furiously Stunned Umbridge, and, before the Death Eater could react, Yaxley.Harry releases the chains binding Mary, while Hermione creates a duplicate Locket to replace the real one. Escorted by Harry and Hermione's Patronuses, the three exit the courtrooms. Gathering the other Muggle-borns, Harry says the new official position is to disguise themselves and leave the country or at least avoid the Ministry. Meeting Ron at the lifts, Mary Cattermole hugs him, believing he is her husband, Reg. Ron warns them that the Ministry knows they are there and is closing off the fireplaces; they must hurry to escape. At the Atrium, Harry sends the Muggle-borns through the remaining open fireplaces.
Amidst the confusion, Yaxley appears, ordering workers to seal all fireplaces. As Ron escapes with Mary Cattermole, Yaxley fires a curse at Harry as he exits with Hermione. Back in the lavatory, Yaxley appears in the cubicle behind Harry. Grabbing Hermione and Ron, Harry Disapparates. He briefly sees Grimmauld Place's front door, then hears a bang, and they are Apparating away Having broken the Fidelius Charm by bringing Yaxley within the limits of the spell while disapparating, the trio had to abandon the house as Hermione Apparated them elsewhere.[3]
The Muggle-Born Registration Commission was disbanded after Lord Voldemort's defeat when Kingsley Shacklebolt became Minister for Magic in 1998. Umbridge was sentenced to Azkaban herself for her crimes against Muggle-borns as head of the Commission.[6] Yaxley was also arrested or killed during the Battle of Hogwarts. It is unknown what happened to the other members of the department.
Once inside the Ministry, the Trio sees how extensively Voldemort's corruption and perversion has spread, and the extreme measures being implemented to separate the "racially impure" from "pure-blooded" wizard society. Anyone not directly serving Voldemort is controlled through his minions, mostly with threats and violence. It appears there is little resistance, and as Voldemort gains more power, many wizards fear for themselves or their loved ones who could be branded as "undesirables" and be incarcerated.
There are still many in the general wizarding population who are simply ignorant about what is happening, while others are fearful and/or uncertain what to believe or who to trust. Voldemort deliberately created this confusion by quietly and insidiously seizing control of the Ministry and other key institutions while spreading anti-Muggle propaganda. He remains unseen—though his return has now been public knowledge for a year: by staying concealed he allows rumour to do his work, spreading fear and doubt, while never providing the public a specific target to rally against.
Meanwhile, the thoroughly corrupt and reprehensible Dolores Umbridge revels in her position as Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission. Bloated with power, she has dedicated herself to purging "impurities" from the wizarding world, much as she did while at Hogwarts, and readily abuses her authority to persecute those deemed unworthy. From what can be seen at the hearing Umbridge is presiding over, it appears that all Muggle-borns are being rounded up, probably to be sent to Azkaban, deported, or exterminated. "Blood traitors," shielded to some extent by their blood status, are nonetheless being watched more closely as well.
Known MembersEdit
- Dolores Umbridge (Head)
- Yaxley
- Albert Runcorn
- John Dawlish (possibly)
Known victimsEdit
- Alderton — sentenced to Azkaban for "stealing magic"
- Mary Cattermole — subjected to a biased trial, escaped due to Harry Potter[3]
- Dirk Cresswell — forced to forge his family tree and go on the run when this was discovered; eventually killed by Snatchers[2]
- Dean Thomas — forced to go on the run[5]; eventually captured and briefly imprisoned in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor
- Ted Tonks — forced to go on the run; eventually killed by Snatchers[2]
- Various people reduced to being beggars on the streets[4]
- Hermione Granger was highly wanted, because of her being a Muggle-born, but mainly because she was on the run with Harry Potter destroying Horcruxes. Fenrir Greyback discovered her identity when she, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were caught by a gang of Snatchers despite her lie of being Penelope Clearwater and narrowly escaped being taken to the Ministry when Greyback found out who Harry Potter was and took them to Malfoy Manor resulting in the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor and Hermione's torture.
Behind the scenesEdit
- Dolores Umbridge, as Head of the Commission, maintained a number of files on those of concern to the commission, including Albus Dumbledore's file, Alastor Moody's file and Hermione Granger's file.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Notes and referencesEdit
Lord Voldemort
|Death Eaters:
Alecto Carrow | Amycus Carrow | Antonin Dolohov | Augustus Rookwood | Avery (I) | Avery (II) |
Barty Crouch Jr. | Bellatrix Lestrange | Crabbe | Evan Rosier | Gibbon | Goyle |
Jugson | Lestrange | Mulciber (I) | Mulciber (II) | Nott | Rabastan Lestrange | Rodolphus Lestrange | Rosier | Selwyn | Thorfinn Rowle | Travers | Walden Macnair | Wilkes | Yaxley
|Death Eaters who Defected:
Draco Malfoy | Igor Karkaroff | Lucius Malfoy | Peter Pettigrew | Regulus Black | Severus Snape
|Category:Death Eater allies:
Vincent Crabbe | Golgomath | Gregory Goyle | Fenrir Greyback | Narcissa Malfoy (defected) |
Quirinus Quirrell | Scabior | Dolores Umbridge
|Other affiliations:
Dementors | Giants (Golgomath's control) | Muggle-Born Registration Commission | Snatchers | Werewolves


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The first thing I noticed about Jenna Rubaii, even through the phone, is her enthusiasm and energy. Jenna comes to San Diego as "The Extraordinary Girl" in "American Idiot" playing at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Playing through June 2nd, this show explores the choices three friends make as they try to find meaning in post 9-11 America.
Rubaii has the interestingly named part of "Extraordinary Girl" in this show. This character, with no name, and later entrance in the show is sure to catch your eye. She's the one that flies through the air. Without giving away the plot she says "He (Tunny) hallucinates about me in an aerial ballet of sorts, and in this hallucination I become a I dream of Jeanie and Arabian nights angel, of sort."
Jenna starting performing at age six, when she joined an all girls song and dance group in Tampa Fl. She performed in that all through high school and in high school is where she really discovered musical theatre. After studying musical theatre at the
University of Miami for college, she graduated and then the opportunity for "American Idiot" came along.
But how does someone, fresh out of school, prepare for an audition for one of the biggest shows on Broadway, based on one of the most popular albums from Green Day, one of the most popular bands of all time?
"The show is almost all musical, and I have always been influenced by pop rock music anyways. So I figure out what genre its in and pay attention to the genre and pick a song that hints at that.", Rubaii says. "I love this show. I saw it on Broadway and I was obsessed with it and being in it."
Having made it's world premiere at the Berkley Repertory Theatre, "American Idiot" is not the typical show to come to and from Broadway. This show zeroes in on a younger generation in the media saturated post 9-11 America. Dealing with disaffected youth, sex, drugs and rock n roll, and with music by Green Day, Rubaii feels this is a show everyone should see.
"I think it's incredible. For the non musical theatre people out there, its an amazing show. It gets the younger generations and people that would usually say ' I don't know about musical theater.' It really opens this door for musicals to people that wouldn't usually go see it," Rubaii says. " We do what we do to tell a story to people, and the story that we tell, is so relatable. This world is so media saturated and the same things are all on TV,. The disgusting images, every channel showing the same thing over and over again, and people want to get away from it. Angry America! It's really relatable now and everything happening now really feels connected to the show."
More than just the show, Jenna is animated about touring and experiencing those cities first hand as well. "I think it's really awesome to go to the different cities. First of all, I love seeing different theatres. It's just really cool to see them and how they are laid out. Some are really beautiful and some a really old and historic, but I also love seeing all the different cities because not every job allows you to visit all of these places that I normally don't get to visit. So it is fun to say that we've been there and can say we've seen the city."
Clearly Jenna throws herself into everything with her whole focus, excitement and energy. I'm not sure that "Extraordinary Girl" is less a character name and more a description of Jenna herself.
"American Idiot" is playing at the San Diego Civic Theatre until Sunday, June 2nd. For show times and ticket information go to www.Broadwaysd.com.
Enjoy this read from San Diego Theater Examiner? Hit subscribe at the top of the page for regular updates! Interested in having your San Diego theater performance, venue, event or other local activity in the San Diego Theater guide? Send details to firstname.lastname@example.com or follow me on Twitter @SDTheaternews and Facebook


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Dinner party recipe: Beef Daube
Here's how it happens, when you've invited 10 people for dinner. You make a beef daube. That way, you're done cooking before anyone arrives, and you even have time to put on a clean shirt.
The trick to a successful daube is to start early. As in, a couple of days early. For whatever mystical reason, stew that's been cooked, then cooled, then rewarmed again takes on an otherwise unattainable richness of flavor that's impossible to cheat. This doesn't mean the recipe is more difficult, it just means you have to start a bit earlier.
First, you visit your butcher, for a few pounds of beef pot roast. Ask for chuck or arm or another nice stewy cut, but get it in big pieces, rather than chopped up stew meat. That way you'll be able to cut it into chunks that are a little bit bigger than you'd normally find in a stew. It's more festive that way. You'll want about five pounds for ten people, which allows for plenty of leftovers. (And, do get it from the butcher; even though you're going to cook the heck out of it, starting with quality beef is essential.) Also, ask for a half pound of pancetta.
Next, you visit the market, where you gather a few onions, carrots, stalks of celery, a head or two of garlic, a tub of pitted olives, some capers, a couple of oranges, some stock (if you don't have any at home — and use chicken or vegetable stock instead of beef stock to keep things lighter) and, if they sell it, some wine. (This all presumes you have some herbs and such at home, including bay leaves and a cinnamon stick, and some butter.)
If your market doesn't sell wine, you'll have to stop at the store for a bottle of inexpensive red wine. Not plonk, but not the Chateau Margaux either.
Back at home, two nights before your party (Thursday, if your dinner is planned for Saturday) you'll cut the beef into chunks big enough that you'd need a knife and fork to eat them. Put them into a plastic bag (or two) with some chopped celery, onion and carrot, a piece of orange peel or two, a few bay leaves, a crushed cinnamon stick, a few parsley stems, and whatever herbs you have around (thyme, rosemary, sage, savory) and wine. Use the whole bottle, minus a swallow or two for yourself. No salt. No salt at all, not yet.
Seal it up and let it rest in the fridge for a day and a night.
The morning before your party (if you're serving on Saturday, this would be Friday), remove the meat from the marinade. Chop the pancetta into small chunks and cook them in the bottom of your biggest Dutch oven until their fat has rendered. Remove them with a slotted spoon, and sear your pieces of beef just until brown and barely crusty (most important — do this in batches so they do not steam). Remove them to a plate as you sear.
Next, add some more chopped onion, carrot, and celery to the pan, cook it briefly, then stack the beef on top. Pour in a quart or more of stock, just enough to cover the meat. (Add water if you need more liquid.) Cover it, and put it in a 225-degree oven for 6 hours. Six. You can stir it once or twice as it cooks, but don't hover.
Take the whole thing out of the oven and let it come down to room temperature, then place it in the fridge overnight. Next day, you'll skim off the fat, let the stew come back to room temperature, add a few fresh vegetables (carrots especially, because they look nice), and a couple of hours before serving, you'll put the whole lot back in the oven for two more hours at about 250 degrees. For the last 30 minutes, add two handfuls of pitted olives, a few spoonfuls of capers, and the cooked pancetta. Taste it when it's done for salt, and add that and some pepper if you need it. Stir in a lump or two of butter here — never hurts.
When there's just an hour before your party, you'll prepare mashed potatoes or egg noodles, keeping them warm over a water bath. When your guests have sat, pour the wine, perhaps an inexpensive Rhone blend, which makes good sense with peasant fare such as this. Fill some oven-warmed bowls with mashed potatoes, and spoon stew over the top. One or two nice pieces of meat per guest, plus some vegetables and a few sliced oranges for prettiness. Parsley leaves only add to the dish.
It will be a lovely dinner.
Shopping list
Chuck roast, arm roast, or other pot-roasty cut of beef, 5 pounds
Some pancetta
A few onions
A few carrots
A few stalks of celery
Lots of fresh herbs, a cinnamon stick, and some bay leaves
Olives and capers
A couple oranges
Red wine
Some chicken or vegetable stock (better to use homemade)


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Aviso IT necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 100 diseños de 40 diseñadores freelance.
Aviso IT
We provide IT services, hardware and software to small-medium businesses. Initially the primary clientele are Dental and Medical practices, but we don't want the logo or corporate image to exclude other clientele (so for example, no dental or medical imagery).
Our approach is to provide professional but personalised advice to our clients.
We'll also, in the future, be providing bookkeeping services. So we'd like the logo to be adaptable to Aviso IT or Aviso Bookkeeping. Again the service will be professional but personalised.
As part of Aviso IT we'll also be providing some web and customer software development services. There's no particular need for the logo to reflect this though.
Our target clientele for both arms of the business is small-medium businesses. For the IT arm it will be mainly dental and medical practices initially. We'd like to expand further into this market, but also other small-medium businesses.
Most of these practices are quite small businesses (ie. less than 10 employees) and therefore appreciate personalised service. The corporate image and logo should reflect this.
The business will provide personalised, professional advice and services. We'd like the logo and corporate image to be friendly but very professional looking.
We'd like to find a balance between a professional looking logo and a small company/personal service logo (ie. we don't want the company to appear as a huge corporation, but we do want the company to appear to be a reasonable size).
We want the logo to be:
• Vector graphic
• Clean / modern / corporate design
• Will be used on many different mediums - including but not limited to business cards, polos, stationery and promotions
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Sara Ledwith and Jack Watling, 13 September 2013
LONDON, (Reuters) - Britain's economy is picking up at last but the country has a problem it didn't face after previous recessions and which even now remains hard to detect: the corporate undead.
Thousands of companies have subsisted through the downturn thanks largely to accommodating bankers and very low interest rates. As the economy gathers pace, some will recover and flourish, but the weakest of these "zombie firms" will find that competition and a shortage of cash spells the end.
More than a million people are employed by businesses showing signs of acute distress, according to the Association of Business Recovery Professionals, R3.
If recovery does kill off the weakest, that may mean unemployment gets worse before it gets better, which in turn may be a cue for the Bank of England to keep interest rates lower for longer, casting its forward guidance in a new light.
"A growth in activity means a growth in competition - demand for working capital - and those that can't keep pace potentially fall behind or over-extend themselves," said Lee Manning, a partner at accountants Deloitte.
The "zombie" phenomenon emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when U.S. savings and loan associations and Japanese banks staggered on thanks to cheap money.
In the UK now, "zombie" firms are commonly defined as loss-makers which, helped by low borrowing costs, can only service their debts. Cash is so tight, even a slow month in the holiday season can finish them off. Where past "zombies" have been mainly in financial sectors, experts say Britain's are widely spread, including service companies, manufacturers, builders and retailers squeezed by recession and online shopping.
To prove this, insolvency experts refer to company failures. These jumped in the months after the financial crisis began, then fell sharply in 2009 as the Bank kept shaving rates.
Now as demand is picking up, so are insolvencies: In the second quarter they ran at about 4,000 a month, says Britain's Insolvency Service. That was still behind their average rate in 2009-12 but higher than in the first quarter of 2013.
"I'm sure in some cases we have kept companies alive for too long," a senior executive at a leading UK bank told Reuters. "You've got to be mindful that we saw it as nursing companies back to financial health and getting a better bank as a result."
So how many 'undead' businesses are there?
R3's estimates are based on surveys of business owners. It says the "zombie count" - firms able to pay only the interest on their debt - has declined to just over 100,000 from a peak around 160,000 in November 2012.
But it says more than 200,000 UK companies - nearly 8 percent of the total - are in acute distress, either negotiating with creditors or struggling to pay due debts.
R3 estimates that at least 497,000 people are employed by "zombie businesses", and 1.3 million by acutely distressed ones. That adds up to about 4.4 percent of the British workforce.
"Businesses with such serious cashflow problems may find that the day of reckoning is not too far off," wrote R3 president Liz Bingham in a June report.
Another assessment, from corporate watchdog Company Watch, quantifies the risky debts on companies' balance sheets.
At Reuters' request, the group analysed the accounts of all companies registered in Britain and identified more than 227,000 that are in negative equity - a technical measure of insolvency which is the business equivalent of homeowners whose mortgage debt is bigger than the value of their property.
Company Watch found these companies in the UK have a combined negative worth of just under 70 billion pounds. Business services, construction and media are the areas with the heaviest liabilities, according to the analysis.
Many of the firms will have shareholders who are ready to support them, but Company Watch economic models predict that, over the next three years, around a quarter will be unable to repay their debt. That is equivalent to a liability of 17 billion pounds, equal to about 1 percent of annual GDP.
"The risk is that there will be a flood of ... corporate failures which could escalate insolvency numbers dramatically," said Nick Hood, head of external affairs at Company Watch.
Recovery is risky for cash-poor firms because orders rise, suppliers put up prices and rivals cut theirs to win market share. Companies whose cash is already absorbed by interest payments have little room for manoeuvre to fulfil extra orders.
"A zombie often cannot take advantage of an improving economy," said Phil Pierce, a Leeds-based partner at insolvency specialists FRP Advisory. "As the economy improves and the company's turnover grows, so too does its need for available working capital to fulfil orders and cash flow is squeezed."
Guessing the firms' potential failure rate is little more than a stab in the dark: Many will be lifted by the recovering economy, and people who lose jobs at one company may find work with another.
But if the jobs were to be lost at the same rate as Company Watch expects the debts to turn bad, then up to one-quarter of the total would be at risk. That's 124,000-325,000 jobs, or potentially as much as 1 percent of those currently in work.
Under new governor Mark Carney, the Bank has pledged to keep rates at their record low of 0.5 percent while joblessness - at 7.7 percent and declining - exceeds 7 percent. Carney has said "a great many" jobs - over a million in the private sector - need to be created to bring unemployment down to 7 percent over three years, and rates may stay low even then.
If insolvencies speed up to the point where they outpace new businesses, such job creation may be harder. The Bank declined to comment for this article.
Whether or not recovery forces zombie firms to close, the problem highlights the hard choices facing policymakers. The central bank's ultra-easy money has helped reduce insolvencies, protecting jobs in viable companies during hard times. Yet it also propped up firms that are now holding back the 'creative destruction' which some think underpins free-market capitalism.
"There are a lot of companies taking up hospital beds... Where you get more insolvencies you will probably find that it is better for the survivors, but there will be higher unemployment," said Russell Cash, an insolvency expert at FRP Advisory.
(Additional reporting by Olesya Dmitracova and Matt Scuffham in London; Editing by John Stonestreet)
First Published by Reuters on 13 September 2013.
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Jack Merlin Watling
Jack is a journalist and historian. He formerly worked as planning editor at NewsFixed, and has contributed to Foreign Policy, Reuters, the Guardian, Vice, the Herald Group and the New Statesman.
June 2018


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PureDWTS Val Chmerkovskiy Answers Your Questions On Dance Junkies TV (Video)
The interview we've all been waiting for with Val Chmerkovskiy is up now at Dance Junkies TV. Their beautiful and talented hosts, Stuart Brazell and Elena Grinenko, ask Val as many questions as they can for what we all submitted last week. Because they had such an overwhelming response of questions, they posted more of the interview with Val at their facebook page which you can read HERE!! THANK YOU Stuart, Elena, and Val!!! You are the best!!!! xxxx


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ERIC Number: ED526101
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Nov
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
The Nation's Report Card Mathematics 2011 State Snapshot Report. West Virginia. Grade 8, Public Schools
National Center for Education Statistics
Each state and jurisdiction that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2011 mathematics assessment receives a one-page snapshot report that presents key findings and trends in a condensed format. Overall results, achievement level percentages and average score results, comparison of the average score in 2011 to other states/jurisdictions, average scores for state/jurisdiction and nation (public), results for student groups in 2011, and score gaps for student groups are included. In 2011, the average score of eighth-grade students in West Virginia was 273. This was lower than the average score of 283 for public school students in the nation. The average score for students in West Virginia in 2011 (273) was higher than their average score in 2009 (270) and was higher than their average score in 1990 (256). In 2011, the score gap between students in West Virginia at the 75th percentile and students at the 25th percentile was 44 points. This performance gap was not significantly different from that of 1990 (43 points). The percentage of students in West Virginia who performed at or above the NAEP "Proficient" level was 21 percent in 2011. This percentage was not significantly different from that in 2009 (19 percent) and was greater than that in 1990 (9 percent). The percentage of students in West Virginia who performed at or above the NAEP "Basic" level was 65 percent in 2011. This percentage was greater than that in 2009 (61 percent) and was greater than that in 1990 (42 percent). [For the main report, "The Nation's Report Card: Mathematics 2011. National Assessment of Educational Progress at Grades 4 and 8. NCES 2012-458," see ED525545.]
Descriptors: Achievement Gap, Comparative Analysis, Economic Status, Educational Assessment, Educational Indicators, Elementary School Students, Ethnic Groups, Gender Differences, Grade 8, Junior High School Students, Low Income Groups, Lunch Programs, Mathematics, Mathematics Achievement, Mathematics Tests, Middle School Students, National Competency Tests, National Programs, Profiles, Public Schools, Racial Differences, Scores, Secondary School Students, Statistical Analysis
National Center for Education Statistics. Available from: ED Pubs. P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Tel: 877-433-7827; Web site: http://nces.ed.gov/
Publication Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 8; Junior High Schools; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Center for Education Statistics (ED)
Identifiers - Location: West Virginia
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: National Assessment of Educational Progress
IES Funded: Yes
IES Publication: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pubs/stt2011/20124518.asp


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NO! That's NOT how it works, not at all. There are two things wrong here:
- Just because you move the InnoDB files, which might well be the storage engine you use, doesn't mean that the other MySQL datafiles are there. Fact is, you CANNOT change where MySQL places the other datafiles, they get into C:\ProgramData\MySQL Server 5.5/data whatever you do! Why this is so I do not know, but if you want to change this location, you have 2 options:
- Edit the my.ini file generated by the Config Wizard. And change the datadir setting and move the files and directories from the C:\ProgramData\MySQL Server 5.5/data directory to the directory where you want the files on your D:drive.
- Instruct Windows beforehand where you want your datafiles, which is real easy, just change the setting in the registry that determines where ProgramData is: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList\ProgramData. Real easy and safe, right :-)
- If you are OK with the MySQL other datafiles, and just want the InnoDB files to be safe, you still have to fix one thing: The innodb_log_group_home_dir setting. This follows the datadir setting, which means that if you move the InnoDB datafiles to another drive using the Config Wizard, the transaction log files will not move with it! They remain in C:\ProgramData\MySQL Server 5.5/data! Ouch! See this bug:66769


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StarFest 2014 photos: Doctor Who, the TARDIS, Star Trek and more
The annual convention StarFest hits Denver Tech Center May 2-4, 2014 for a weekend of sci-fi fun and games, culminating in a huge Star Wars Day on Sunday (May the 4th be with you, get it?)
Below are photos and more compiled from your social media posts. (Keep 'em coming with #StarFest, #StarFestDenver or #StarFest2014!)
Don't miss John Wenzel's interview with Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols, or Clayton Woullard's interview with Star Trek:Voyager's Tim Russ, and check back for more Shiny Objects coverage of StarFest throughout the weekend.


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Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board | Calendar
|Exhibition Public - USA & Canada
Detail: Encounter Buddhist art through the lens of spiritual practice and the perspectives of practitioners. Drawing on the Freer|Sackler's collections from across Asia, this exhibition expands the understanding of Buddhism in Asian art through both beautiful objects and immersive spaces. Visitors can step into a Tibetan Buddhist shrine, travel the Buddhist world with an eighth-century Korean monk, visit a Sri Lankan stupa, meet teachers and guardians, and discover multiple Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Encountering the Buddha illuminates the ways in which art and place embody and express the teachings of Buddhism.
Phone No.: 202.633.1000
Fax: 202.357.4911
Contact Email: [email protected]
Site URL: http://www.asia.si.edu
Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries | Message Board | Calendar


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So here I am reading through a rather lengthy debate on whether or not Amarillo is in West Texas or the Panhandle, and I wonder if it's really so hard to define a geographic region as simple as "West Texas."
I mean, defining what's in West Texas should be pretty straightforward.
- Is it in Texas? y/n
- Is it in the western part of Texas? y/n
That should be it.
It's never that simple, though. I grew up just outside of Sacramento and I always figured I grew up in Northern California. Once I started making regular trips up past the Redwood Curtain to the very northern reaches of the state, my home town started to seem more central than anything else. I started to understand why nobody could agree if Fresno was in NorCal or SoCal.
In any case, what geographic region in America do you think is the hardest to define?
Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove (West Texas, pictured)