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As its name implies, Open Workbench is yet another open-source project management program. It runs only on a Windows computer with the Java Virtual Machine Runtime installed. The company backing Open Workbench sells online training for $150 to get you up and running. Otherwise, this application is free to use, although you have to go through the minor hassle of registering for a user account at the Open Workbench Web site.
Open Workbench cannot open files saved in any of the Microsoft Office Project file formats. It accepts only XML files and its own proprietary file format. Fortunately, Open Workbench managed to import all of the XML files created by Office Project that I threw at it.
In its default settings, Open Workbench renders your project plan as a basic Gantt chart, with no labels on the task bars. Like OpenProj, you can adjust the duration or position on the schedule of a bar by simply clicking and dragging it. But also like OpenProj, clicking a bar in the Gantt chart doesn't highlight the corresponding task or resource name in the task or resource list. (I don't think I'm the only one who finds this type of feature awfully useful when reviewing your plan.)
Its main display (under the Gantt chart screen) is split into six sections, which show the chart, task list, duration of tasks, calendar, resources, and the scheduled availability of your resources. All of these sections will resize respective to one another when you click and drag their borders. This is one of the stronger aspects of Open Workbench compared with the other project managers covered here, mainly because you can see most of the data tied to your plan without needing to click away from the main Gantt chart. This helps to give you the "whole picture" of your plan while you're either building or reviewing it, and I found this all-in-one visual display helpful in teaching myself how to use Open Workbench.
Open Workbench also generates a Critical Path Method (CPM} network flowchart from your plan, although, unlike with the other project management applications listed in this roundup, you cannot manipulate it by dragging and dropping the task chart boxes. You can only alter the pathway links among each task.
Initially, Open Workbench's split-screen display helps to make it a good choice, and it matches up with jxProject and OpenProj in terms of basic features. But, overall, OpenProj is more appealing due to the greater number of charts it can churn out for you, and jxProject for its obsessive visual details in presenting your plan.


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Season 2 of the popular true crime podcast MONSTER features a 15-episode series devoted to the Zodiac mystery. Rolling Stone magazine published a brief article about the series, and The Wrap posted also posted a story about the premiere. The series features retired Vallejo police detective Ed Rust, photographer Tom Balmer, San Francisco Chronicle writer Kevin Fagan, former Chronicle reporter Duffy Jennings, criminal psychologist Eric Hickey, San Francisco State University historian and lecturer Peter Richardson, cipher expert David Oranchak, writer Michael Butterfield, and others, with audio clips of surviving victim Bryan Hartnell, Leslie, the daughter of Zodiac codebreakers Donald and Bettye Harden, possible Zodiac victim Kathleen Johns, SFPD Inspector David Toschi, park ranger William White, and many others involved in the case.
Listen to all 15 episodes of MONSTER: THE ZODIAC KILLER at iHeartRadio.
Episode #1 premiered on iHeartMedia News/Talk radio stations on January 2, 2019. According to several reports, MONSTER: THE ZODIAC KILLER reached more than 12 million downloads in the months of January and February 2019. On March 24th, a live episode of MONSTER was recorded at the Gramercy theater in New York City, including a Q&A session with the audience.

subset: commoncrawl


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Announcing UW Bothell's 2013-2014 Founders Fellows
Published: January 31, 2014
Students at the University of Washington Bothell consistently display a high level of commitment to their academic pursuits, and frequently go on to greater achievements in academic and professional fields. It was in the spirit of fostering this type of ambition and work ethic that the Founders Fellowship was created.
Congratulations to the following students who have been awarded the 2013-2014 Founders Fellowship for their research:
Taylor Frazier, Law, Economics & Public PolicyMentor: Shauna Carlisle
Kindering: A Program Model of Successful Development for Children with Disabilities
Keith Rawson, Computing & Software SystemsMentor: Wooyoung Kim
Characterization of Co-evolution, Adaptation and Diversification in a Model Microbial Mutualism: Computational Approaches to Discover Genome Dynamics
Jiansheng (Jarvis) Xu, Business AdministrationMentor: Deanna Kennedy
Studying Team Disruptions
Colin Feng, BiologyMentor: Kristina Hillesland
Analyzing Genotype Frequencies in an Evolved Syntrophic Co-culture
Tiarra Fentress, Pre-Major IASMentor: Louise Spiegler
Retention of African American Women in Higher Education: Dismantling Accommodations through Sustainable Empowering Pedagogy
"While our students have a good track record of being awarded for their academic and creative achievements, we are especially excited to have our own way of supporting our students," explains Carolyn Brennan, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research.
Clarrie Ng, University of Washington Bothell graduate and former Founders Fellowship awardee says the support went a long way, "The Founders Fellowship has allowed me to explore much more depth into my research," she says. "It was also the recognition and trust given to me that allowed me to continue pursuing my research in graduate school."
The fully vested endowment provides undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in independent research across disciplines. The Founders Fellowship lives on, enabling students to participate in academic inquiry, enhance the reputation of the university, contribute to our region's economic vitality, and become better leaders and global citizens. The financial support is intended to allow students to focus more attention and time on their research, scholarship and creative activities.


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Car Travel
Driving is easy on Grand Cayman, albeit on the left (British style). Most visitors, especially if they're staying along Seven Mile Beach, are content taking taxis or a one-day tour to see the sights rather than renting a car. Traffic on the road from Seven Mile Beach to George Town then onto Bodden Town in Grand Cayman is terrible, especially during the 7 to 9 am and 4:30 to 6:30 pm commuting periods, despite construction of a bypass road. Fortunately, roads are generally well marked and well maintained. One major coastal highway circumnavigates most of the island (remember that no shortcuts divide the extensive East End), though you can get lost in the tangle of side roads in primarily residential West Bay. Exploring Cayman Brac on a scooter is fun and straightforward. You won't really need a car on Little Cayman, though there are a limited number of jeeps for rent; bikes are the preferred mode of transport.
In Grand Cayman, you can find gasoline stations in and around George Town, the airport, and Seven Mile Beach. Although times vary, most open daily with hours that extend into the evening; a few remain open 24 hours a day. There are two gasoline stations on Cayman Brac and one on Little Cayman. Prices are exorbitant, even compared to those in the United States and most of the Caribbean, especially on the Sister Islands.
Park only in approved parking areas. Most hotels offer free parking. Many airport, Camana Bay, George Town, and Seven Mile Beach parking lots are free, but increasing development has prompted some major shopping centers to charge a fee if you park for more than 15 minutes (about $2.50 per hour); however, if you purchase something, parking should be validated and free. There is limited street parking, but watch for signs indicating private parking (in lots as well). Private enforcement companies are employed to discourage interlopers, placing a boot on the wheel and charging CI$75 for removal.
Road Conditions
Grand Cayman has well-paved roads that follow the coastline. A network of main highways and bypasses facilitates traffic flow into and out of George Town. Small signs tacked to trees and poles at intersections point the way to most attractions, and local people are helpful if you get lost. Remote roads are in good repair, yet lighting can be poor at night—and night falls quickly at about 6 pm year-round.
Cayman Brac has one major road that skirts the coast, with a shortcut (Ashton Reid Drive) climbing the Bluff roughly bisecting the island. Little Cayman also provides a coastal route; unpaved sections in less-trammeled areas can become almost impassable after heavy rain. Other than that, goats, chickens, cattle, and the occasional iguana have the right of way.
Roadside Emergencies
Each car-rental agency has a different emergency-assistance provider. In the event of theft, accidents, or breakdowns, call your car-rental agency and follow instructions.
Rules of the Road
In the Cayman Islands, drive on the left, British style. Be mindful of pedestrians and, in the countryside, occasional livestock walking on the road. When someone flashes headlights at you at an intersection, it means "after you." Be especially careful negotiating roundabouts (traffic circles). Observe the speed limit, which is conservative: 30 mph (50 kph) in the country, 20 mph (30 kph) in town. George Town actually has rush hours: 7 to 9 am and 4:30 to 6:30 pm. Park only in approved parking areas. Always wear your seat belts—it's the law!
Car Rental
To rent a car in the Cayman Islands, you must have a valid driver's license and major credit card. Most agencies require renters to be between 21 and 70 years of age, though the minimum age may be 25. Those over 70 may need a certified doctor's note indicating a continuing ability to drive safely. A local driver's permit, which costs $7.50, is obtained through the rental agency. Several dozen agencies rent cars, 4WD vehicles, and SUVs; rates are expensive—ranging from $40 to $95 per day (or $250 to $600 or more per week) in high season, depending on the vehicle and whether it has air-conditioning. Many firms offer significant discounts in low season, as well as reduced three-day rates. The rental generally includes insurance, pickup and delivery service (or shuttle service to your hotel or the airport), maps, 24-hour emergency service, and unlimited mileage. Car seats are usually available upon request.
The major agencies have offices to the left as you depart from the airport terminal in Grand Cayman; the closest, Andy's, is to the right. All require that you walk outdoors for a hundred yards. Make sure your luggage is portable, because there's no shuttle; if there are two of you, one can watch the bags while the other gets the car. Many car-rental firms have free pickup and drop-off along Seven Mile Beach (or second branches) so you can rent just on the days you want to tour. Consider security when renting a jeep that cannot be locked. Midsize cars here often mean subcompact.
Grand Cayman Agencies
Ace Hertz. 345/949–2280; 800/654–3131; 855/212–1713; 345/943–4378; www.hertzcayman.com.
Andy's Rent a Car. 345/949–8111; 855/691–3991; www.andys.ky.
Avis. 345/949–2468; www.aviscayman.com.
Budget. 345/949–5605; www.budgetcayman.com.
Dollar. 345/949–4790; www.dollarlac.com.
Economy. 345/949–9550; www.economycarrental.com.ky.
Thrifty. 345/949–6640; 800/367–2277; www.thrifty.com.
Cayman Brac Agencies
B&S Motor Ventures. Cayman Brac. 345/948–1646; www.bandsmv.com.
CB Rent-a-Car. Cayman Brac. 345/948–2424; 345/948–2847; www.cbrentacar.com.
Four D's Car Rental. Cayman Brac. 345/948–1599; 345/948–0459.
Little Cayman Agencies
McLaughlin Rentals. Little Cayman. 345/948–1000.
Car Insurance
If you own a car, your personal auto insurance may cover a rental to some degree, though not all policies protect you abroad; always read your policy's fine print. If you don't have auto insurance, then seriously consider buying the collision- or loss-damage waiver (CDW or LDW) from the car-rental company, which eliminates your liability for damage to the car.
Some credit cards offer CDW coverage, but it's usually supplemental to your own insurance and rarely covers SUVs, minivans, luxury models, and the like. If your coverage is secondary, you may still be liable for loss-of-use costs from the car-rental company. But no credit-card insurance is valid unless you use that card for all transactions, from reserving to paying the final bill. All companies exclude car rental in some countries, so be sure to find out about the destination to which you are traveling.


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Dispersion colors are a water based pigment made to disperse evenly into water or epoxy resin. Use these colors to make beautiful resin art paintings or add color to your casting resin. Dispersion colors can be mixed with water and applied to our 3D Crete to make stone and wood textures come to life!
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Written by: Ramon Bravo (novel), René Cardona Jr. (screenplay), Christina Schuch (adaptation)
Directed by: René Cardona Jr.
Starring: Hugo Stiglitz, Andrés García, and Susan George
Reviewed by: Brett Gallman
"I bet you I'll go to bed with her before you do."
"That's a bet I wouldn't want to lose."
"That's a bet I wouldn't want to lose."
Exploitation movies rarely come more exploitative than Tintorera. Subtitled Killer Shark (which means the title roughly translates as Tiger Shark: Killer Shark), it would lead you to believe it was one of many Jawsploitation riffs that flooded the market during the late 70s. In reality, it sort of is and isnt all at once: sure, it features plenty of stock footage of sharks, but one has to wonder if René Cardona Jr. didnt decide to just haphazardly wedge them in at some point along the way upon realizing just what a dud he had on his hands. Less a grue-filled schlockfest and more a softcore male fantasy, Tintorera imagines a world where killer sharks might only be the third most dangerous predator behind a pair of sex-obsessed beachcombers trawling for babes.
We meet our first lothario amidst the chaos of a rambunctious prologue thats either the best or worst tourism ad for Mexico. Here, undersexed housewives have rendezvous with gigolos and young hitchhikers decide to put out even when it looks like their rides will attempt to rape them. Missing out is Steven (Hugo Stiglitz), a businessman whos landed in the hospital after a nervous and physical breakdown, the result of smoking seven cups of coffee and smoking three packs of cigarettes in the span of a few hours. When his doctors order him to rest, his sister arranges for him to spend a few months on a yacht on a Mexican beach, where he falls in with a local shark hunter. During one of their first outings, he watches as his new friend savagely fishes for the beasts before admitting that he feels bad for the sharks. Thats life, though, he can only utter.
Indeed, man. Tintorera seems to be guided by this principle: life is what it is, and maybe you should embrace your basest instincts. Steven is the sort of guy where nothings operating beneath the surface: he says exactly whats on his mind, even if its obvious, cloying shit like Im so happy because I think Im falling in love to you to the first woman (Fiona Lewis) he meets on vacation. But when pressed if his love is pure or just physical attraction, he can only be honest: I dont know, he grunts, and she rides right out of his life and back onto the beach. There, she meets Miguel (Andres Garcia), much to the dismay of Steven who, in a jealous rage, tosses sands into his new rivals eyes. Disgusted, his former lover takes off with Miguel and decides to go for a morning swim that ends with her being devoured by a tiger shark. Thats life, though.
Have I mentioned that all of this goes down within the first half hour? Psycho has nothing on this shit. In fact, imagine if Sam Loomis and company didnt give a damn about Marion Cranes disappearance because thats more or less what happens here: Miguel just sort of shrugs his shoulders and assumes the lady went back home heartbroken. Meanwhile, for whatever reason, Steven checks in on his rival, who actually holds no malice; instead, Miguel proposes a truce that leads to the duo living the free-love dream by bedding women together (including the two American hitchhikers from earlier, believe it or not) and occasionally hitting the sea in search of sharks. Eventually, the film insists they settle down with Gabriella (Susan George), a tourist with no qualms about living in a non-love triangle (she insists that love nor jealousy ever taint their relationship) with the two aboard their yacht. After about an hour, Tintorera reveals that this is its actual storyif you consider insinuated softcore trysts and pseudo-philosophical discussions about polyamory much of a story.
When Fiona Lewis is so quickly and callously dispatched without a care, it looks briefly like Tintorera will be one of the great batshit movies because you assume the titular shark is set to raise hell on Stevens idyllic existence. And while that still continues to happen throughout, it does so at such a lethargic pace that it becomes a chore. With the exception of the sporadic shark, the only thing Tintorera has in common with Jaws is a nearly identical runtime just north of 2 hoursonly this feels at least twice as long. The stretch with the trio living in unwedded, sexually charged bliss is especially dreadfully dull, save for an awkward encounter where Stiglitz and Garcia lock eyes in homoerotic tension, implying that these two bros have actually fallen in love for each other. Now theres a movie, but one that is only explored in the margins.
Forgiving Tintoreras bait-and-switch tactic would be easier if Cardona didnt follow some of the worst exploitation instincts: the editing is ragged, the photography shaggy and full of tactless zooms (you can make a drinking game out of how many times the camera pushes in on Stiglitzs bewildered face), and the acting is often exactly what you would expect from a softcore porno in denial. Every bad 70s aesthetic surfaces too, from unseemly chest hair to perv-staches, both of which often arrive in speedos. Just about the only thing that feels more grimy is the eventual shark action, captured here with actual footage of sharks being hooked and fished, among other instances of animal cruelty (it appears they also slit a turtles throat for bait). If Tintorera werent already ugly enough, it engages in this grisly business, so much so that you wonder if it wants you to root for the sharks.
Doing that isnt hard anyway, though a late turn of events where natures fury breaks up the trio left me wondering if I hadnt developed some form of cinematic Stockholm Syndrome with these knuckleheads. Stiglitz is remarkably vacuous and almost childlike as Steven continues to discover the sleazy world unfolding before him; like any child, he is prone to aggressive fits of rage and is truly kind of a high-strung asshole. If theres any story to be found here, its the saga of this hardened beast trying to become a gentle lover in spite of nature: ultimately, hes Captain Ahab, only his singular mission to destroy his aquatic rival is interrupted by anything with breasts. He might be an impetuous asshole, but hes our asshole, one that carries a primal ideal of manliness that insists women will inexplicably melt in his presence. Nothingnot even the grieving processwill keep him from further conquests.
Then again, considering how righteous the sparse human bloodletting here is, you have to wonder how much fun Tintorera might have been had it delivered on that promise. During wholly convincing sequences, human bodies are eviscerated, their extremities left to float to the bottom of the ocean like discarded chum. Blood pools around frenzied survivors desperately seeking the comfort of the shore. Sadly, there are only a few instances of the sort of carnage youd expect from a movie featuring an apparently preternatural shark hell-bent on wrecking one mans vacation. Not that it ever seems to especially bother Steven, of course: by the end of the film, hes made plans to rendezvous with another teenage babe in Los Angeles (whose wealthy father doesnt bat an eye at his creeper vibe), provided he can destroy this asshole of a shark first. Thats life, though.
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Constraint satisfaction is a decision problem that involves finite choices. It is ubiquitous.
The goal is to find values for a set of variables that will satisfy a
given set of constraints. It is the core of many applications
in artificial intelligence, and has found its application in
many areas, such as planning and scheduling. Because of its generality,
most AI researchers should be able to benefit from having
good knowledge of techniques in this field.
Published in 1993, this book was the first attempt to define the scope of constraint satisfaction. It covers both the theoretical and the implementation aspects of the subject. It provides a framework for studying this field, relates different research, and resolves ambiguity in a number of concepts and algorithms in the literature.
This book is arguably the most rigorous book in the field.
All major concepts were defined in First Order Predicate Calculus (FOPC).
Concepts defined this way are precise and unambiguous.
This book was published by Academic Press:
It is now out of print. |


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One of the Most Persecuted Minorities in the World
The full extent of the drama concerning the displacement of the Muslim Rohinghya minority in western Burma by Buddhist Rakhines is becoming ever clearer. Refugee witness statements relate horrifying scenes in the Burmese state of Rakhine: They tell of Muslims' houses being set on fire, the inhabitants shot dead as they fled, and those that were able to flee escaping in fishing boats. Now the first refugees have started to arrive in the tourist region in the south of the state.
"New refugees are arriving here every day, they're also coming from islands in the north," says one of the hoteliers on the popular Ngapali Beach. This is viewed as the main luxury holiday resort in a Burma that is opening itself up to the outside world. A curfew has been in place over the past few weeks in Rakhine State, otherwise there have been no disruptions to regular holiday business.
In view of the recent democratisation of Burma, hoteliers here are hoping for their first good season, and the hotels are all booked out. The German airline Condor has also restored flights to the economic metropolis Rangoon. But now there are fears that the unrest could lead to cancellations. Some of the luxury hotels on the beach have begun sacking their Muslim employees. "The pressure from our Buddhist staff was so great that we had to take the decision to maintain the peace here," says one of the hoteliers.
Police shooting at unarmed civilians
Official reports say 84 people have been killed in the unrest, which has flared up again over the past few months. But the true number could be considerably higher. The United Nations says more than 28,000 people have been displaced. Satellite images of the region show the extent of the fires in the Rohingya villages.
"We were told to stay in our houses. But then they set our houses on fire," says the mother of a four-year-old child quoted by the news agency Reuters. "When we ran out, the Rakhines and the police shot at us." Refugee camps are reportedly full to bursting, and there are outbreaks of malaria. The government says at least 3,000 Rohingya houses have been destroyed since 21 October.
Eyewitnesses report that the anti-Muslim revolts are "strongly influenced by leading Buddhist monks in the region". For example, in the provincial town of Thandwe, every household "must send two people in join a force of between 6,000 and 8,000 people". Thandwe is the gateway to the holiday beaches, a place were more than half the population is Muslim. Several "agitators" were reportedly brought into Thandwe to stoke tensions against the Muslim population.
The government is caught between a rock and a hard place: As it evolves from military dictatorship to democracy, it cannot take a hard line with the Buddhist agitators, as – in foreign nations in particular – this would swiftly rekindle memories of the crushing of the monks' "Saffron Revolution" against the military junta.
Concern about the image, not the people
This risk is described by Burmese President Thein Sein, a former General who used to be a member of the junta himself, but who is now gaining in stature on the international political stage: "As the international community is keeping a close eye on the process of democratisation, such unrest can tarnish the image of the nation," he said.
The United Nations is regarding the conflict with growing concern: "I've been seriously affected by the fear and the mistrust that I saw in the eyes of the refugees," said Ashok Nigam, the UN's humanitarian aid coordinator in Burma. He is also mindful of the dilemma facing the former generals: "The violence, the fear and the mistrust contradict the democratic transition process and the economic and social development that Burma has taken on," he said.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is also adopting a non-committal stance over the unrest. This is because it must also be difficult for her to speak in support of a Muslim minority, and therefore against her Buddhist supporters. The location of the unrest close to the provincial capital Sittwe is also strategically important for the government of a nation that calls itself Myanmar: The region marks the start of the two major pipelines through which the Chinese transport oil and gas from the Bay of Bengal through Burma into the industrial regions of western China.
Conflict is getting out of hand
There has been a long history of animosity between these faith and ethnic groups. The Rakhines want to dispel the Muslim Rohingyas to Bangladesh, which is however refusing to open its border. Furthermore, most of the Bengali-speaking Rohingyas have lived in Burma for generations. The UN regards the Rohingyas as one of the world's most persecuted peoples. Of around two million Rohingyas, some 800,000 live in Burma's Rakhine State, around 300,000 in Bangladesh and many others in neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Malaysia.
In Rakhine State, they constitute a fifth of the population. Burma's former military regime exploited this social divide and denied the Rohingya people Burmese citizenship in 1982. Many of them have lived for many years in miserable conditions in refugee camps, or in a ghetto in Sittwe. The ghetto repeatedly comes under attack, and receives barely any supplies.
The conflict has been getting steadily out of hand since the onset of democratisation in Burma. The flare-up of violence in June was triggered by rumours that four Rohingya men had raped a Rakhine woman. More than 90 people were killed in the fighting that ensued. To date, the UN estimates that a total of 80,000 people have fled the region.
Christoph Hein
© FAZ/Qantara.de 2012
Qantara.de editor: Lewis Gropp


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Cervical Disease Treatment Not Linked to Premature Birth Risk
Findings counter previous research, U.K. study says
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_128373.html
(*this news item will not be available after 11/15/2012)
Friday, August 17, 2012
The British researchers noted their findings are significant because about 40,000 women in England undergo cervical disease treatments every year. The findings also contradict previous studies that suggested women's risk of giving birth prematurely would increase by about 5.6 percent.
"Considering all those treated previously who may be planning to have children, there may be half a million women in the U.K. who can relax now and not worry that they are at increased risk of a preterm birth," study leader Peter Sasieni, professor of cancer epidemiology and biostatistics at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, part of Queen Mary, University of London, said in a university news release.
Routine cervical screenings to detect cancer may be followed up with a colposcopy. During this procedure, a colposcope is used to provide a larger view of the cervix. These women also may have a biopsy in which a small sample of tissue is taken from their cervix. Women who have moderate to severe cervical changes may also have the abnormal tissue removed in a large loop excision using a small tool and electric current, known as an LLETZ.
Previous research cautioned that these treatments could increase women's risk for giving birth to premature babies. To put this to the test, the researchers cross-referenced hospital obstetric records with the medical records of more than 44,000 women in England who had cervical tissue samples taken. They were able to identify more than 18,000 babies born to these women.
The researchers then examined the number of preterm births before and after colposcopy. They also compared women who had an LLETZ with those who only had a cervical biopsy. The investigators also compared preterm delivery rates among the study participants with overall preterm delivery rates in England.
The research revealed that 8.8 percent of the births among the women in the study were preterm, compared to 6.7 percent among the general population in England.
The women treated for cervical changes before pregnancy had about 1.4 more preterm births per 100 than those who had only a biopsy. The researchers noted, however, that the women who gave birth before undergoing a colposcopy also were more likely to give birth prematurely than those who had only a biopsy.
"Clearly treatment that has not occurred until after a birth cannot be causing preterm births," Sasieni pointed out in the news release.
The researchers concluded that treatment for cervical abnormalities did not increase women's risk for preterm delivery.
"Women should have more confidence in going for cervical screening and accepting the treatment offered to them," Sasieni said. LLETZ "should still be seen as the treatment of choice. It would be premature to start using other treatments such as cryotherapy that may be less effective in treating cervical disease, in the hope that it would result in fewer preterm births."
The study authors noted that quality-assurance issues in other countries may play a role in previous findings, which suggested there is a high risk of preterm birth associated with LLETZ. They added that more research is needed to investigate why the other studies found an increased risk and whether extensive cervical treatment or repeat treatments increase the risk of premature delivery.
Commenting on the findings, Julietta Patnick, director of the United Kingdom's National Health Service Cancer Screening Programs, said, "[The findings] are an encouraging reflection of the high standards of our N.H.S. practitioners and our robust system of quality assurance."
Patnick added, however, that, "previous studies have shown that treatments, including colposcopy and LLETZ, are linked to an increased risk of preterm deliveries, and it is important that we continue this project to provide firm evidence in this important area. Regular attendance at screening remains the top preventive measure against cervical cancer, and we would encourage all women to make the decision to attend when invited."
The study was published online Aug. 17 in BMJ.
Copyright (c) 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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- Childbirth Problems


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Posted by Editoress on 07/23/04
2007 BMX World Championships in Victoria BC
Courtesy UCI
The UCI's Management Committee, currently meeting in Salzburg (AUT), awarded today the organisation of the UCI BMX 2007 World Championships to the Canadian city of Victoria.
Track Night in Michigan
No Brakes, No Fear... Too Much Speed!
Rochester Hills, Michigan -- Seven 2-man teams will be burning up the boards tonight, Friday, July 23, at the Velodrome at Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills as NAS-TRACK Team Racing continues into Race #5 of its Friday Night Series.
The bicycle racing begins at 7 p.m. with a schedule that includes 1 mile sprints, a miss-and-out, and the hallmark of NAS-TRACK racing, the Madison Team Races -- one 50 lap event around the 1/8th of a mile oval, the other 100 laps. Teams collect points in each event to determine the overall winner of the evening. During the Madison Team race, the most dramatic of the racing, team mates exchange places throughout the bike race about every 40 seconds to make a race that never lets up in speed or tactics.
Tonight's ticket pairs a considered "master" of the Velodrome Dave Koesel of Livonia with Andre Champoux of Ypsilanti; strong man Tony Bruley of Rochester Hills is teamed with the NAS-TRACK upstart 16-year-old Luke Cavendar of Troy. Current leader in the points Pio Apostoli of Toledo will be racing with Cullen Watkins of Royal Oak. Also paired are Canada's Taylor Martin and Jim Houston of Lake Orion, Keith Thorenson and Rob Good of Toronto, Nick Laughton of Rochester Hills and Steve Geerligs of Howell, and Steve Mlujeak of Rochester Hills and Ray Dybowski of Waterford.
NAS-TRACK Team Racing is featured on PBS-DPTV Ch. 56 at 11 p.m. Saturdays and 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Host for the show is WDFN - 1130 AM morning man Jamie Samuelson. Live racing continues next Friday, July 30 with the Championship event of the NAS-TRACK Friday Night Series. The Detroit 6 Day will be held from August 10-15 at the Velodrome at Bloomer Park.
Admission to the race is $3. Entrance to Bloomer Park is $5 per car. The park is located at the end of John R in Rochester Hills.
Return to Canadian Cyclist homepage | Back to Top |


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PSA: Super Metroid Only 30 Cents On Wii U Virtual Console
The Wii U's virtual console offerings might be very slim at the moment, but that doesn't mean there aren't some gems available. Starting today, Super Metroid has been given a significant price drop.
Samus Aran's Super Nintendo adventure can be yours for only $.30. Why such an odd price? The promotions, which have been running since January, are in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the original Famicom.
It's hard to say no to such a great game at an affordable price. If you've never played Super Metroid and want to understand our enthusiasm, you can always see it in action in a recent episode of Super Replay.


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From cops flashing their private parts to bystanders taking advantage of the crowd and confusion to grope them, women protesters often go through hell on India's rough streets. Sunday Times finds out shocking tales of sexual harassment, abuse and molestation
Maitreyee Boruah , TOI, April 29, 2012
A31, Minoti Saikia has been to jail thrice. Her crime? Participating in a protest. In cities across India, protests are a regular affair. What is not so regular is the treatment meted out to protesters, especially the women. "I always thought it's easier to get heard if you are a woman, until I hit the streets with placards and banners in my hand. Police lathicharge was something I was expecting but the groping and abuses hit me like a bolt from the blue," says the Guwahati-based activist.
Minoti was arrested recently while staging a peaceful protest against the construction of a hydro-electric project. She remembers the details vividly. "We were holding a demonstration that was completely non-violent. The police suddenly came and started dragging women by the hair. It was almost 2.30 in the night. We didn't know how to react. I was numbed when I felt somebody running his hands down my back and waist. It was horrible."
What is even more horrible is how bystanders also take advantage of the situation. "There have been many instances when people in the crowd have joined the commotion and started groping women protesters. That, too, in broad daylight," says Minoti. However, it is tales of policemen molesting women protesters that are shockingly — and increasingly — becoming common. Besides physical assault, there is a lot of verbal abuse hurled at women. "The kind of expletives that the cops use can leave years of mental trauma on any woman," says Mridula Kalita, secretary of Nari Mukti Sangram Samiti, which takes up causes like eviction of farmers and anti-dam protests.
Incidentally, it's not just women in the lower socioeconomic group that are targeted. In March this year, female advocates in
Bangalore who were protesting in the civil court premises came back with horror stories about the police. "Some of them unzipped their pants and flashed at us. They pulled our sarees and groped us. We had seen in films such incidents about the police. We saw in reality also what they are capable of doing," one of them said.
Kamayani Bali Mahabal, a lawyer and human rights activist testifies to the extreme vulnerability of women protesters. She recalls her own experience with the Mumbai police when she was protesting against the Chhattisgarh High Court's decision of prolonging the incarceration of Binayak Sen. "I was brutally assaulted by the police and dragged to the Colaba police station," she says. "My 'crime' was standing silently with a poster proclaiming peace and justice! The cops came and attacked me and even tore my T-shirt. I had to cover myself when they took me to the police station but I did not care at all — it was for them to be ashamed."
Sameera Khan, co-author of Why Loiter? Women and Risk on Mumbai's Streets, says that women are at risk of sexual harassment in any large crowd or mob — not just during protests but even while entering crowded railway stations. "What makes it worse is that in large groups, it is often impossible to identify the perpetrator."
In the rare scenario when the perpetrators are caught, they are seldom punished. In 2006, for instance, a Punjab police personnel was clicked on camera molesting a girl during a peaceful protest by a group of veterinary doctors and students in Amritsar. Even though the Punjab and Haryana High Court took suo motu notice after the picture appeared in a leading English daily, the police personnel were given a clean chit by the court later.
Madhu Kishwar, founder of Manushi, a forum for democratic reforms, says that the problem lies in the way the police are trained in India. "This is a result of bad training and poor recruitment policies. Police in our country neither know how to handle large numbers, nor have they been trained on how to behave in a democracy."
It's not as if police brutality towards women protesters is limited to India. In December last year, shocking images surfaced of riot police in Egypt brutally beating a woman with metal bars. The woman's hijab was ripped off and she was kicked repeatedly on the chest till she became unconscious.
Activists say that such blatant violence is slowly affecting women protesters. "There are so many instances when our fellow women protesters have given up joining protests because of cases of molestation," says Kalita. Adds Nandita Shah, co-founder of Akshara, an organisation that aims at empowering women, "There needs to be an urgent change in the way society treats women during protests. The only other option for women is not to protest at all."
Not a great thing that for democracy.
With inputs from Anahita Mukherji


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Parveen Babi may have died on Friday, but as far as the film industry was concerned, she died a long time ago after she was reportedly diagnosed as schizophrenic. In recent years, one seldom heard or saw her except for an appearance on Shekhar Suman's talk show a year ago, where she appeared as normal as could be.
Distinctly overweight, it was difficult to recognise Parveen Babi in the last one-third of her life. She died a lonely, isolated death.
And to think that in the 1970s, she embodied the new-age heroine! Introduced by Babu Ram Ishaara, alongside cricketer Salim Durrani, in Charitraheen, Babi shot to fame in the films that she did with Amitabh Bachchan -- Amar Akbar Anthony, Do Aur Do Paanch, Namak Halaal, Shaan and Khuddar.
In Yash Chopra's Deewaar, she was cast as a liberated working girl, smoking, drinking and sleeping with her lover, defying every Hindi film heroine rule. At the same time, she could carry off the sari-clad look opposite Jeetendra in J Om Prakash's Arpan.
Babi's most glorious moment was when she was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1976 to represent the new face of Hindi cinema.
Then, suddenly, everything began to go wrong for this defiant girl. According to her close friends, Babi began to lose her mind.
Recalls media baron Pritish Nandy, "Yes, she did begin to crack up. She couldn't take the pressures of being naked before the camera. I think Parveen was very uncomfortable with the idea of exposing her feelings. The exhibitionism required to perform in front of a camera tormented her. She quietly and quickly withdrew from the rat race, to the extent that no one could keep track of her."
More on rediff.com!
Parveen Babi: A Bohemian Rhapsody
Katherine the Great
But why did the industry isolate this beautiful actress so completely? "She chose to be that way," Nandy answers. "Her final affair with a particular actor finished her self-confidence. She cracked up after that."
In the late 1970s, Babi had a tumultuous, widely-publicised affair with Mahesh Bhatt. When, in 1982, Bhatt made a sensational film, Arth, based on his affair with Parveen Babi, with Smita Patil playing Babi's role, she was deeply affected.
Recalls Nandy, "Yes, I suppose the film affected her, as did the men in her life. She was wonderful company, very articulate, a terrific conversationalist, extremely well-read. In fact, she had begun to write her memoirs, which she never completed. I had published portions of her intended memoirs in The Illustrated Weekly Of India when I edited it. Now, of course, we'll never know her full story."


text:
Protests Mount Over Safety And Privacy Of Airport Scanners
If you're planning to fly on the day before Thanksgiving, be warned. Going through security may take longer than your time in the air.
It's because of a growing backlash over the new body scanners that the Transportation Security Administration has deployed to 68 airports.
One group is outraged the new machines see through clothes to detect concealed weapons or bombs, calling it an invasion of privacy. So they've organized a "national opt-out day" on Nov. 24. The group is urging travelers to refuse the body scanning and opt for a pat-down instead.
But that could clog security lines at many airports, given the TSA's new especially thorough pat-down procedures.
Meanwhile, your pilot may not get to the plane in time either.
The U.S. Airline Pilots Association and the Allied Pilots Association are urging their members to demand pat-downs too -- in a private area. The pilots are protesting on both privacy and safety grounds.
"Requiring pilots to go through the Advanced Imaging Technology (machines) means additional radiation exposure," Allied Pilots Association President Dave Bates writes to his members. He recommends that pilots avoid the body scanners.
Meanwhile, the government isn't doing very well at persuading critics in the scientific community that X-ray scanners are safe.
A word of clarification here: There are two types of airport body scanners. The controversial one uses very low doses of X-rays to scan travelers front and back and create a "naked" image. A TSA spokesman says there are currently 206 of these machines at 38 airports.
The other type doesn't use X-rays but instead a technology called millimeter-wave scanning. There are 167 of these units at 30 airports.
Earlier this year, four scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, wrote a letter to Presidential Science Adviser John Holdren raising concerns about the cancer risks of exposing hundreds of millions of travelers every year to airport X-ray scans.
Holdren's office asked the TSA and the Food and Drug Administration to respond. Their eight-page letter to Holdren was recently posted on the FDA's website.
After running through all the reviews and advisory committees that have certified the scanners as safe, the letter concludes:
The potential health risks from a full-body screening…are miniscule…We are confident that full-body X-ray security products and practices do not pose a significant risk to the public health.
The response doesn't satisfy John Sedat, a UCSF professor-emeritus of biochemistry and biophysics who was among those who wrote to Holdren last April.
"The response is deeply flawed," Sedat said in an interview. "It's double-talk. It doesn't answer any questions. Sadly, I have to say we still don't have the information we need to decide what are the dangers of this device."
Sedat says the UCSF group will make a formal reply to Holdren.
Dr. David Brenner is equally unpersuaded by the government's response. Brenner is head of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University.
Brenner's complaint is that the government experts are entirely focused on the risk of cancer for individuals.
"I don't think anybody would argue the point that the individual risk is small. Whether it's one in 10 million or one in 100 million, it's very small," he said in an interview. "But multiply that times 700 million people – the number of people getting on planes currently – and that's the public health risk."
And Brenner says there's reason to think the radiation dose delivered per scan is about 10 times higher than the government says. It comes from a paper by Arizona State University physics professor Peter Rez that is scheduled to appear in a journal called Radiation Protection and Dosimetry.
Rez says he was skeptical that the X-ray dose the government claims for the machines – about 1/10,000th of a chest X-ray -- could produce a usable image at all. He calculated backward to figure out how big an X-ray dose would be needed to get the kind of images the machines produce.
Rez agrees the individual risk is still negligible. "It's a 1-in-20-million chance of dying from radiation for each scan," he says. "Your chances of being struck by lightning in the US in any year is 1 in 500,000. But the probability of being blown up in an airplane by a terrorist is around 1 in 30 million. So the risk from the scan is about the same as the thing you're trying to prevent."
Brenner says if Rez's dose calculation is right, pilots and very frequent fliers could exceed the recommended annual radiation dose limit of 250 microSieverts. That would require going through the scanner 250 times, by Rez's dose calculations, rather than 2,500 times, by the government's.
The result, he maintains, is "you will end up with some number of cancers coming out of each year's scanning operations." Applying it to the 125,000 commercial airline pilots and perhaps 125,000 other flight personnel, each averaging 250 scans per year, Brenner estimates "there might be five cancers, or two fatal cancers, resulting from a year's worth of X-ray screening" among airline personnel.
This could all be avoided, Brenner says, if the government relied entirely on the millimeter-wave scanners instead of the X-ray scanners.
By the way, you might be wondering: Can the average traveler standing in a security line tell the difference? Yes, a TSA spokesman says. The X-ray type is blue and has two walls. The millimeter-wave machine is grayish-white and is more cylindrical.
UPDATE: In a statement e-mailed to Shots, TSA Administrator John Pistole said:
On the eve of a major national holiday and less than one year after al Qaida's failed attack last Christmas Day, it is irresponsible for a group to suggest travelers opt out of the very screening that could prevent an attack using non-metallic explosives. After coming to TSA with 26 years of law enforcement experience at the FBI, I understand the serious threats our nation faces and the security measures we must implement to thwart potential attacks. This technology is not only safe, it's vital to aviation security and a critical measure to thwart potential terrorist attacks.


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Huygens probe on its way to Titan
News story originally written on December 30, 2004
NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is in orbit around Saturn, released the Huygens probe and sent it on its way to Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The probe, pushed away from the Cassini "mothership" on December 24, 2004 by springs, will coast through space for three weeks before starting a 2-1/2 hour descent through Titan's atmosphere on January 14, 2005. Huygens will then land on Titan and may continue to send data for up to 30 minutes after it touches down on the icy moon.
Cassini and Huygens were launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on October 15, 1997. The Huygens probe, riding "piggyback" on Cassini, has been in "sleep" mode throughout most of the seven-year journey to Saturn. Huygens doesn't have a rocket engine to steer itself, so the probe had to be aimed correctly for its approach to Titan when Cassini released it. Cassini fired its engines three days after releasing the probe to change its course and avoid following Huygens on its plunge into Titan's atmosphere. Cassini will continue to orbit Saturn, studying the gas giant planet and its rings and moons, for at least four years.
Huygens, built and operated by the European Space Agency and named after the 17th century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, will be "awakened" by an automatic timer 45 minutes before the start of its descent to Titan. The probe will gather data and images as it descends on parachutes through Titan's thick atmosphere. Huygens will send the data to Cassini, which will then relay the information to scientists on Earth. Huygens will follow a pre-programmed, automated routine during its descent, for Saturn is quite far from Earth and radio signals will take more than an hour to reach us from Cassini at the time of the probe's descent. Cassini will disappear over the horizon as viewed from the Huygens landing site about 30 minutes after the probe touches down, so we will lose contact with Huygens then unless its batteries wear out sooner.
Titan is the only moon in our Solar System with a thick atmosphere. Although Titan is quite cold, the conditions on the moon may be similar to those on Earth early in our planet's history. Scientists are especially interested in the complex chemistry of Titan's atmosphere, which includes many organic compounds and may shed light on Earth's early chemistry before life arose on our home planet. We aren't yet sure what Titan's surface is like, so although Huygens might touch down on solid ground it is also possible it will splash down in a lake or sea of liquid ethane or methane or it might plunge into a pile of frozen methane snow!


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Thanks to language packs it's easier than ever before to change the main language of your site. However, in some cases a single locale is not enough. When WordPress can't find a translation for the active locale, it falls back to the original English strings. That's a poor user experience for many non-English speakers.
This feature project aims to change that by letting users choose multiple languages for displaying WordPress in. That way you can set some sort of "fallback chain" where WordPress tries to load translations in your preferred order.
Please help us test this plugin and let us know if something is not working as you think it should.
Get Involved
Active development is taking place on GitHub.
If you want to get involved, check out open issues and join the #core-i18n channel on Slack. If you don't have a Slack account yet, you can sign up at make.wordpress.org/chat/.
Contributors & Developers
"Preferred Languages" is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors"Preferred Languages" has been translated into 29 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.
Translate "Preferred Languages" into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
For the plugin's changelog, please head over to the GitHub repository.


text:
[FAQ Index] | [3.4 -> 3.5] | [3.6 -> 3.7]
Note: Upgrades are only supported from release to release, it is recommended that you NOT skip releases.
To quickly remove all packages from your system:
After the upgrade, install the new versions of these applications.pkg_delete -q /var/db/pkg/*
updates below.
Sometimes, one needs to do an upgrade of a machine when one can't easily use the normal upgrade process. One can usually do this by carefully following a process similar to a source-based upgrade:
Note the extra steps for copying over the primary kernel: those are done to ensure that there is always a valid copy of the kernel on the disk that the system can boot from should there be a really badly timed power outage or system crash.cd /path rm /obsd ; ln /bsd /obsd && cp bsd /nbsd && mv /nbsd /bsd cp bsd.rd bsd.mp /
!), but often a new userland will NOT
work on the old kernel.
Note: not all file sets will need to be installed for all applications, however, if you installed a file set originally, you should certainly upgrade it with the new file sets now. Also note thatcd / tar xzpf /path/base36.tgz tar xzpf /path/comp36.tgz tar xzpf /path/game36.tgz tar xzpf /path/man36.tgz tar xzpf /path/misc36.tgz tar xzpf /path/xbase36.tgz tar xzpf /path/xfont36.tgz tar xzpf /path/xserv36.tgz tar xzpf /path/xshare36.tgz
and xetc36.tgz
are NOT
unpacked here, as they are handled separately.
The new
file will be copied to /dev by the installation of
, so you simply need to do the following:
Also see any version-specific notes below.cd /dev ./MAKEDEV all
as below.
Nov 1 12:47:05 puffy sm-mta[16733]: filesys_update failed: No such file or directory, fs=., avail=-1, blocksize=380204These messages can be safely ignored, or you may wish to halt sendmail(8) during the upgrade process.
These steps will add both the new users and their corresponding groups. Your environment may allow you to cut/paste those commands.useradd -u77 -g=uid -c"DHCP programs" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _dhcp useradd -u78 -g=uid -c"MOP Daemon" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _mopd useradd -u79 -g=uid -c"TFTP Daemon" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _tftpd useradd -u80 -g=uid -c"rbootd Daemon" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _rbootd useradd -u81 -g=uid -c"afs Daemon" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _afs useradd -u82 -g=uid -c"PPP utilities" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _ppp useradd -u83 -g=uid -c"NTP Daemon" -d/var/empty -s/sbin/nologin _ntp
or on the VAX platform:cd /dev && rm -f [pt]ty[rq]*
cd /dev && rm -f [pt]tyr*
to /bin
rm -f /usr/bin/cksum /usr/bin/sum
Users of authpf(8) must change their anchor rule in the main ruleset from
toanchor authpf
anchor "authpf/*"
file changesetc36.tgz
files to a temporary
Files that can probably be copied fromcd /tmp tar xzpf /path/etc36.tgz
"as is":
Note that it IS possible to locally modify these files, if this has been done, manual merging will be needed. Here are copy/paste lines for copying these files, assuming you unpackedchangelist magic netstart ntpd.conf pf.os protocols rc rc.securelevel services mtree/* systrace/*
in the above recommended place:
cd /tmp/etc cp changelist magic netstart ntpd.conf pf.os protocols rc rc.securelevel services /etc cp mtree/* /etc/mtree/ cp systrace/* /etc/systrace/
Files that must be manually merged, respecting any local changes made to them:
Finally, use mtree(8) to create any new directories:bgpd.conf ftpusers inetd.conf login.conf lynx.cfg rc.conf rc.local remote sysctl.conf ttys
mtree -qdef /etc/mtree/4.4BSD.dist -p / -u
[FAQ Index] | [3.4 -> 3.5] | [3.6 -> 3.7]


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In continuation of the discussion started yesterday about which Linux distribution to benchmark on Phoronix in place (or complement) Mir-based Ubuntu for graphics testing, etc... Here's a poll. Pick your preferred Linux distribution to see benchmarks of on Phoronix.
No announcement yet.
Vote On A Distribution For Linux Benchmarking
Vote On A Distribution For Linux Benchmarking
807Ubuntu Linux21.44%173Sabayon / Gentoo-based4.46%36Manjaro / Arch-based29.00%234Xubuntu2.60%21openSUSE10.66%86Fedora20.07%162Mint2.85%23Debian Sid6.69%54"Something Else"2.23%18The poll is expired.
Michael Larabel
https://www.michaellarabel.com/Tags: None
They support all the DE's out there (that can be "easily" packaged into OpenSuSE) so less likely occurence of DE being configured in less then optimal way.
There is corporate equivalent (so work on enchancing those test would help other phoronix clients?).
OpenSuSE is supported by AMD and Nvidia (through SLED but ..), so bugs specific to it should get a bit more attention.
EXTENSIVE 3rd party repos. (More stuff can be downloaded via binary packages)
OpenSuSE Build Service. (Could be used to spin off, custom linux distro for PTS , but its not OpenSuSE specific..)
Kernel git repo with .specs files so one can get daily builds of supported kernel.
Its green colored. (Though others may not share my favourite color. Shame on them :P )
I voted for Fedora.
I never really understood the fascination with Ubuntu. I alway saw it as a crap botch job of a distro.
Beyond that does it make a big difference. I mean really if you compile a new kernel for testing or new graphics drivers aren't you in the custom distro zone. In fact with all the testing you do I would imagine you wold have to do a lot of clean installs to keep the data rational.
Originally posted by TheBlackCat View PostI personally don't get the point of the poll. Shouldn't the distro chosen be the one most technically suited to testing?
Originally posted by TheBlackCat View PostI personally don't get the point of the poll. Shouldn't the distro chosen be the one most technically suited to testing?
- most Likes on Facebook
- highest score on DistroWatch
- most profitable parent company
- most corporate subscriptions
- most widely used as a base/reference
- most pre-install hardware sold
- most supported by third party closed software
- what they personally run
I currently run Ubuntu LTS, Debian Stable, and Raspbian; I actually voted for Debian Sid because this is ultimately the base of all of those, and it is the Linux "bleeding edge" - it has the software that ultimately ends up in every other distribution, so benchmarking it provides information that is applicable to every distribution, including the RPM based ones. Though I was tempted to vote Ubuntu, because Ubuntu is 4x more popular (Facebook Like metric) than Debian, so reaches a wider audience, and in many ways has potential to reach a much, much wider audience if Ubuntu Touch is successful - which is admittedly a big *if*, but if it does happen that Ubuntu start shipping the software of, say, 50 million phones and tablets a year, in addition to the 18 million desktop pre-installs that they expect this year, then the potential is much greater than the Debian project alone. But the underlying software is still mostly Debian, and as far as Mir/Unity go - you never know - it would only take one developer to package them for Debian...Last edited by chrisb; 27 July 2013, 06:30 AM.
what a waste of time this is...
Hey phoronix how about 3 way benchmarks between os x 10.9, win 8.1, ubuntu 13.10 +mesa?
computational benchmarks with h264 encoding/decoding and stuff like that, what really matters.
I swear the singal to noise ratio in here is getting worse, no one cares about sabagayonarchmangay linux
it has been shown time and time again there isn't any major difference in performance between same kernel distros
if people don't like composite or accelerated DE simply test using xfce or lxde and then everyone will be happy


text:
- Brand Name: Rosalind
- Origin: CN(Origin)
- Number of Pieces: One Unit
- Item Type: Nail Gel
- NET WT: 5ml
- Type: UV Gel
- Model Number: RFA511-522
- Ingredient: Resin
- Quantity: 1pcs
- Color: 12 Colors
- Cured: UV/LED Lamp
- Certificate: SGS,MSDS
- Lasting Period: A Month or Above
- Occasion: Daily,Vacation,Party
ROSALIND 5ml Shiny Rainbow Gel Nail Polish Bright For Glitter Painting Nail Art Design Poly UV Top Base Primer For Manicure
Item Specifications:
Brand Name: ROSALIND
Name: Shiny Rainbow Gel
Volume: 5 ml
Color: 12 Colors
Cured: UV/LED Lamp
We are confident that our gel polish is of the best quality on Aliexpress.
-The Quality is our 1st priority.
-Light, almost no smell (only top coat and foundation have moderate smell), we apply only organic texture to protect your health.
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-Hotting colors optional, suitable for all occasions.
Step by Step:
-1. Shape the nail. Lightly buff the surface of the nail plate. Sanitize.
-2. Apply a base coat of foundation from the cuticle to the free edge (Remember to seal the edge of the nail). Cure the nails under the LED light for 10 seconds or a UV light for 2 minutes.
-3. Apply a thin coat of Soak-Off Gel Polish color of choice. Cap free edge. Cure: 30 seconds in LED Lamp, or 2 minutes in UV lamp.
-4. Repeat the 2nd thin coat of the soak off Gel Polish to the nails. Cure under the LED lamp for 30 seconds or a UV light for 2 minutes.
-5. Apply a top coat. Cap free edge. Cure:30 seconds in LED lamp.
-6. Remove the tacky residue on nails with the cleanser. Then, apply nourish cuticle oil to rehydrate moisture into the cuticle and the skin surrounding the nail.
To Remove:
-1. Soak off the nails into acrylic remover for about 5 minutes.
-2. Rip down the whole piece of nail enamel gently on each nail.
1.The volume is 5ml. Since the capacity of the bottle is more than 5ml, the nail gel will not fully filled with the bottle!
2.Keep tightly sealed. Keep out of sunlight. Keep out of reach of children.
Which payment methods can I use on AliExpress?
On our app you can use the following payment methods:
Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, Alipay Balance, QIWI, Boleto, bancontact, iDeal, Przelewy24,
SMS Payment in Russia(MTC, MegaFon, Beeline, TELE2) and AliExpress Pocket.
On our website (PC) you can use the following payment methods:
Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, American Express, Wire Transfer, Webmoney, Yandex.Money, Western Union, QIWI,
DOKU, Mercado Pago, Boleto, bancontact, TEF, iDeal, Giropay, Sofort Banking, Carte Bancaire (Carte Blue),
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the colors are in stock.
Your order will be shipped out within 72 hours after payment confirmed.We do quality check before shipping out all the items.
We do quality check before shipping out all the items.
All emails will be replied within 2 Working Days.
You have 7 days to contact us and 30 days to return it from the date it was received.
Itmes should be returned in its original condition.
Your satisfaction and positive feedback is very important to us.
Contact us first BEFORE you give us neutral or negative feedback.


text:
Puerto Rico uses the U.S. postal system, and all addresses on the island have ZIP codes. The rates to send letters and postcards from Puerto Rico are the same as those everywhere else in the United States.
Shipping Packages
Many shops—particularly those in Old San Juan and Condado—will ship purchases for you. Shipping services are especially common at art galleries. Pay by credit card, and save your receipts. Make sure the proprietor insures the package against loss or damage and ships it first-class or by courier. Grab a business card with the proprietor's name and phone number so you can readily follow up with him or her if needed.
Post offices in major Puerto Rican cities offer express mail (next-day) service to the U.S. mainland and to Puerto Rican destinations. In addition, you can send packages via FedEx or UPS. Ask at the concierge desk at your hotel; most have regular courier pickups or can call for one. Hotels that offer business services will take care of the entire process for you. Note that courier delivery and pickup is not available on Saturday, and even "overnight" packages often take two to three days to reach the U.S. mainland.
Express Services
FedEx. 800/463–3339; www.fedex.com.
UPS. 800/PICK–UPS; www.ups.com.


text:
The answer to that question is, from the mid-1980s until some time in August or September of 2014, when YMCA Wales went into administration. In the report I've linked to you'll read, "While the head office for YMCA Wales is in the Llansamlet area of Swansea, the majority of the staff are based in West Wales where the charity ran an outdoor education centre at Newgale."
The "outdoor education centre at Newgale" in Pembrokeshire was YMCA Wales' prize asset, worth some half a million pounds. Like a restless spirit that refuses to pass over the Newgale website is still available, though of course it hasn't been updated since 2014.
From the information I've been able to gather it would appear that the Centre was bought in June 2015 for £507,000 by Captiva Holdings of Haverfordwest, and is run by another company at the same address known as The Development Company.
While I'm glad to see that this property (made up of three bunkhouses) was bought by a local company (Land Registry document), I was disappointed when told that all the money raised went to pay off creditors, with the administrators of course taking their cut, rather than it being distributed among the surviving YMCAs scattered about the land.
With the parent body demised, the jewel in the crown flogged off, and the coffers empty, it seems that the various YMCAs left standing affiliated themselves to YMCA England. The clip below is taken from page 3 of YMCA England's Annual Report 2015/6.
I put this clip out on Twitter a few days ago, one response likened it to an acclamation of Hitler's Anschluss of Austria in 1938. For there is something chilling and totalitarian about making the "federation stronger" and adopting "the national brand", which of course can only mean the English national brand.
YMCA Wales was put into administration at the start of September 2014. Its CEO until July had been Mo Sykes, though she had not been at work for a few months, it's possible she had been suspended. She certainly left under something of a cloud, to the extent that the 'Welsh' Government called Plod in to sniff around.
The feedback I was getting in 2014 and earlier argued that the real problem lay in affiliated YMCA groups being taken over and asset-stripped in order to a) fund the parent body run by Mo Sykes, b) pay off its debts, c) benefit projects favoured by Ms Sykes or d) any combination of those three.
One of the more bizarre of those projects was YMCA Wales wanting to build housing on land it claimed to own in Penrhyndeudraeth, just south of Porthmadog in Gwynedd. I wrote about this in July 2013 with YMCA 'Wales', Another Trojan Horse At The Trough. It soon became clear that YMCA Wales was in fact fronting for an evangelical church, Green Pastures, which has, quite unashamedly, commercialised homelessness, to the extent of seeking investors and partners. I explained this linkage in YMCA 'Wales' And The Green, Green Pastures.
A curious feature of this arrangement was the link between Green Pastures and YMCA Flint. To begin with, it appeared that YMCA Flint was not affiliated to YMCA Wales yet YMCA Wales seemed to be paying its salaries; also, there was funding coming from Flintshire County Council.
It only made sense when I realised that Green Pastures, an outfit with a presence all across Lancashire and Yorkshire, was invisible on Merseyside, instead it seemed to be dealing with the homeless of that conurbation through a group of evangelical churches in Flintshire, assisted by the local YMCA.
Another disturbing tale concerned Bargoed YMCA, where Mo Sykes and YMCA Wales displaced the locals who had been running this local outpost. A dispute arose, which went legal, and with perfect Christian timing those who dared challenge Mo Sykes and YMCA Wales were served with a notice to pay £9,800 – on Christmas Eve!
Though perhaps the major casualty was the YMCA Wales Community College, a multi-million pound adult education business that had been going well, expanding year on year. There seem to have been issues in certain quarters over 'duplication' and the Community College has since merged with the Workers' Educational Association Cymru to form Addysg Oedolion Cymru / Adult Learning Wales.
Even though YMCAs in Wales have affiliated to YMCA England that body still brought out a Welsh Manifesto . . . or, rather, a YMCAs in Wales Manifesto 2016, ahead of last year's Assembly elections. Why? Because the YMCA is a social landlord and a Third Sector body, so it wants to continue screwing money out of the 'Welsh' Government.
Having dealt with the more general picture, I'm now going to focus on a specific example of how a YMCA operates. I've written a few times about this subject, trying to explain what a racket it is. Unfortunately, it's a familiar story and not confined to Llandovery.
It goes something like this: a bunch of incomers/good-lifers get together and wonder how the area – Wales, even – managed without them. This acceptance of their missionary duty is coupled with the realisation that there's a lot of easy moolah sloshing around. Next step is to get some semi-numerate 'adviser' to concoct a business plan, spew forth bollocks about 'community space', providing 'facilities', blah, blah, blah, then whack in grant applications to all and sundry.
The real purpose of these schemes is of course to further boost the egos of those involved while also providing salaries and pension pots.
You can find these schemes all over the country but certain areas are affected worse than others because a number of factors come into play. One being whether an area receives EU structural funding (pissed away by the Labour Party at a rate which makes the half-time deluge at rugby internationals look like a trickle). Another consideration is how attractive an area is to good-lifers, white flighters, hippies, enviro-shysters and others. Finally, there's the local council's attitude towards such parasites.
By way of example, the Heads of the Valleys may qualify for Objective One funding, but Ebbw Vale, Merthyr and other towns won't attract many belonging to the groups I've listed; furthermore, the local Labour hetmen have always been reluctant to see money over which they have any control pass out of the 'family'.
On the other hand, the more scenically attractive and rural areas suffer greatly from this influx. One such area is the Tywi valley, and one such town is Llanymddyfri. Which is where we encounter Jill Tatman and her friends.
One source of funding made available to Tatman and her gang was Carmarthenshire County Council's Rural Development Plan: Supporting Rural Carmarthenshire. Here's a RDP video put out in September 2013, you don't need to be a nationalist to be struck by the fact that the only Welsh voice we hear is in the introduction.
What we see here explains why the funding allocated to Wales has achieved so little. In the world of funding, dishing out the money so as not to jeopardise next year's dollop is all that really matters. When the system is run on such lines then funding becomes nothing more than a box-ticking exercise, and money is inevitably wasted.
Thankfully, the Llandovery racket seems to be coming to an end. For I hear that the gang is no longer allowed to use the YMCA name, the Lottery funding may have stopped, and now they hope to keep afloat solely on what they make from room hire. Which means that it might all come tumbling down fairly soon.
It should not surprise anyone to learn that Jill Tatman, educated at a privately run evangelical college in Derbyshire, was for a time a trustee of YMCA Wales; in fact she was personal assistant to the CEO, which probably explains why Mo Sykes became a trustee of Llandovery YMCA, and was almost certainly instrumental in securing the grants and other benefits for her friend Tatman Llandovery YMCA.
Those still involved are an interesting crew, and serve to remind us yet again that our rural areas are being ripped apart by a combination of neglect, tourism and colonisation.
- First of course we have Jill Tatman herself. I hear that the CPS will not be pressing charges against her husband but it's suggested there are questions about the wisdom of allowing children near the (former) YMCA building in future.
- Next up is Andrew Barker, owner of the Tŷ Gwyn tea rooms in Llanwrda. He tweets as Pastor Emeritus @barkerswoof. Barker was a teacher in Essex who married one of his pupils, moved to Wales, and now has eight children. A religious cove, our Andrew, who obviously went forth and multiplied.
- Julie Richards is another ex-teacher, this time from northern England. She taught for a while at Ysgol Pantycelyn, but had to give up teaching due to bipolar disorder. She now helps run the Gwynfe Cat Welfare in Llandovery, which rescues cats . . . from whom or from what I know not.
- Then there's the man described to me as "a self-ordained and self-appointed 'rural pastor'", Simon Bowkett who runs a charity called Y Grwp or, to give it its full name, Grace Rural Wales Partnership. To judge by the photograph he wears the Horse and Hound clothing no authentic Welsh countryman would ever wear.
- Another member of this circus may be encountered at the Cibola emporium in Llandovery. Owner Diane Fontenoy supplements her income by fostering children on her farm near Llandovery. I have it from more than one source that fostering is regarded as a nice little earner among the colon population.
- Moving on . . . Anna Battek-Kosiorowska is – as the name might suggest – Polish, a vet and a friend of Julie Richards.
- Let's not forget one of the current trustees, Anne Swift, an elderly spinster, retired barrister and High Tory. Said to be from Gower, but might respond with the Duke of Wellington's horse and stable analogy if accused of being Welsh. To judge by her Twitter account she has little time for people, being one of those elderly women who is obsessed with cats and dogs.
- Finally, let's remember two more seen in the video (at 1:47), Gill Wright and Jane Ryall. They took over the old North Western pub and had it converted into a bunkhouse called the Level Crossing. I don't know how much public money went into this venture, but however much it was it was wasted. The venture collapsed last year after less than three years in 'business'.
You will have noticed that a number of those involved are of a religious bent but do not belong to anything most of us would regard as mainstream religion, more the 'happy clappy' element, Evangelicals of the kind we met earlier in Penrhyndeudraeth. Nothing wrong with this, or course, but the Land Registry title document for the building makes interesting reading in this context.
You'll see that the property was transferred to YMCA Wales by the Church in Wales, with certain covenants. I have no reason to suspect that Tatman and her clique hold Bacchanalian orgies in the building so it's reasonable to assume that the conditions outlined in 2.1 have been adhered to, but what of 2.2?
Clearly the building has been used "other than for residential purposes", indeed, except for Lee Mattocks – who can be found on the video at 2:53 – living there rent free for two years, I'm not sure the building has ever been used for residential purposes.
Perhaps of more worry should be that the building is said to be regularly used for happy clappy gatherings, which clearly contravenes 2.2 in that these belong to a "religious denomination or sect" other than Anglican.
The latest news is that the remaining Welsh trustees are being elbowed out and Tatman and her gang are seeking new sources of funding.
Though anyone minded to fund these people should insist on a rather more transparent accounting system than the one I'm told is currently in use. For La Tatman is said to pay for things with her personal debit card and then reimburse herself from YMCA funds!
And although there is only one known YMCA bank account some wonder where the £18,000 magically appeared from when that account was running low. Suspicions persist that there may be accounts existing that are unknown to those outside a gilded circle. Perhaps YMCA money is 'resting' in personal accounts, away from prying eyes.
Mo Sykes walked away from the wreckage of YMCA Wales and set herself up as a consultant before landing the post of New Beginnings Manager with the Swansea Young Single Homeless Project in November 2016, yet another ride on the Third Sector merry-go-round. SYSHP income for y/e 31.03.2017 was £1,190,550 (down from £1,349,594 y/e 31.03.2012) and salaries took a very hefty £860,031 of that (£994,721 y/e 31.03.2012).
Under her full name of Maureen Patricia Sykes she also started, in December 2015, a company called Clydach Craft House Ltd which appears to be dormant. Her next planned career move is to become a Labour councillor for the Llansamlet ward in Swansea next month, though the website I've linked to suggests she's already a councillor – that's confidence for you!
(I bet you're surprised to learn that Mo Sykes is a member of the Labour Party! And this being Swansea, it should go without saying that she's not Welsh. Sykes is from the Six Counties.)
Llansamlet is a ward I know quite well. I recall my old mate John Ball becoming the first Plaid Cymru councillor in Swansea when he won Llansamlet back in the early '70s. I sank many a pint with Phil Henri in the Smiths and the Star. And I think the last time I ever spoke with Viv Davies the FWA veteran was in the Smiths. It all seems a lifetime ago now.
The vacancies in Llansamlet were caused by the departure of Bob and Uta Clay, the Anglo-Austrian Trotskyist duo, of whom I have writ more than once. I shall miss them. But I'm sure Mo Sykes will provide me with inspiration. I can say that because Labour never fails to give me something to write about. Add the Third Sector and it often becomes an embarrassment of riches.
And so we've come full circle to Llansamlet. I wonder if, when she's out canvassing, any local will ask Mo Sykes, 'What happened to YMCA Wales?'. I'd certainly like to know. Anyone out there with answers is more than welcome to get in touch.
When it comes to grant-grabbers I take the view that they'll always be with us, as will those, with their Labour Party connections, who think that a 'career' in the Third Sector puts them on a par with people who contribute to the economy by creating wealth and jobs. But they should be slapped down not encouraged and patronised.
What really concerns me in the case of YMCA Wales is that a body serving our country was wrecked, almost certainly by people with Labour Party connections, and the debris was then hoovered up by YMCA England without anyone raising a murmur. And this was happening 16 years into devolution. Unfortunately YMCA Wales is no isolated example.
It's a pattern that sees Wales being integrated with England at a faster rate than we've known since the Tudors. It shows itself in countless ways, from the England (andwales) Cricket Board to Dee Valley Water being taken over by Severn Trent. Yet the politicians in our Assembly, which is supposed to be serving Welsh interests, say little and do nothing.
When they do put on a show of 'doing something', it often turns out to be the kind of thing I wrote about in the previous post – handing Wales over to the likes of Bear Grylls and Gavin Lee Woodhouse.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, devolution is a chimera; the civil servants who run Wales change a few words in laws that have already been passed in England, add (Wales), and then get the BBC or Trinity Mirror to pretend it's all the work of a real government. And while we're being lied to in this way Wales is either being killed off or sold off all around us.
From now on Wales needs people who will not get bogged down debating whether registration of denture makers should be devolved; now that we can see devolution has failed we must reject it, and push for independence. There is no acceptable alternative.
♦ end ♦


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People don't need momentous and calamitous events to inspire them to mount their favorite political, social, cultural, and economic hobby horses, but something as awful as the shootings at Newtown will always cause a stampede.
All over the internet, in the newspapers, and on TV, people are trying to explain what happened or explain it away according to pet theories they've argued for many times before.
It's guns. It's not enough guns. It's mental health. It's personal responsibility. It's video games. It's patriarchy. It's feminism. It's religion. We've made God mad.
The last one is my favorite. God's in a snit because we don't bow and scrape enough so he let twenty little children die.
Conservatives and glibertarians like the Daily Beast's Megan McArdle don't offer an argument or a theory. They just harumph their usual harumph: Nothing to be done. Whatever the problem is, no solution that inconveniences me could possibly solve it, so better to not even bother to try.
At the New York Times Opinionator blog, Christy Wampole, a professor of French literature at Princeton, saddling up a hobby horse I'll bet had been ridden around more than a few tracks well before last Friday, argues that because so many mass shooters have been, like Adam Lanza, young men, the problem is young men. Well, more that young men have a problem. They don't get to grow up to be heroes anymore.
So…what? They become the worse sort of villains instead?
Echidne takes on Wampole's ideas takes them apart to show that as far as Echidne can see they don't have much to do with life as it's truly lived generally let alone provide any insight into what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Seems to me that Wampole should have offered evidence that some of what she's saying is going on culturally was on the minds of at least a few of the young men who became mass murderers.
Before we try to use any grand unifying theories to explain these killers, we should look at what they can tell us about themselves.
I don't have any grand unifying theories. I can cook one up on the spot, using one of my own pet ideas. Try this: Of course we live among so many young men who put no value on life, their own or others. Look at us. We're in the third year of a debate over how many old people should be left to freeze in their homes, how many children should be sent to bed hungry, how many poor and sick people of all ages should suffer and die from treatable illnesses so that millionaires don't have to pay a few more pennies on the dollar in taxes.
But although I believe such heartlessness is catching, it'd be up to me to show that Adam Lanza and James Holmes and Jared Loughner and Seung-Hui Cho caught it.
And here's the thing. This is knowable.
We're talking about a very small set of specific individuals.
There are 300 million of us Americans and 299,999,999 of us did not walk into a grade school last Friday and start shooting children.
That's glib, I know, and I also know I could have been writing that 299,999,998 of us didn't.
Still, it's a big country and while it's terrible to contemplate the number of us who go nuts, it's also a wonder that so many more of us don't.
And though it's important to keep in mind that the great majority of people who lose their minds don't turn to violence, going nuts appears to be a common factor in these mass shootings.
We don't know very much about Adam Lanza yet, but other shootiers have detailed personal histories. Before he killed all those people at Virginia Tech, Cho had a long history of mental illness. James Holmes appears to have come apart all at once before he shot up the movie theater in Aurora. Both had come to the attention of professionals who were watching them as whatever happened to them happened and for one reason or another were unable to help them or stop them.
There are two conclusions to draw.
One is that there are wide cracks in our mental health system and people fall through them.
The other is that it's too easy for the deranged and violent to get their hands on guns.
We don't need any broad theories to fix either of those problems.


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With media attention focused on the Republican presidential primaries and how the race could change as it moves South, I thought it would be good to add an update to my 2007 post, "The Spirit of 76: Reagan Style." The Mark Levin Show linked to the piece yesterday, helping to motivate me to add a few additional thoughts and highlight a newer article on that race.
In my original post, I noted the deep influence former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms had on rescuing Reagan and in turn rescuing conservatism,
Tom Ellis and then Senator Jesse Helms helped resurrect Reagan's campaign from the dead. By spearheading a grassroots movement and focusing on Reagan's conservative credentials, it led to a shocking upset in the Tar Heel State. Reagan's victory meant it was the first time a sitting president had been defeated in a primary of a state where he actively campaigned. Many more primary victories for Reagan would follow.
John Dodd, president of The Jesse Helms Center, elaborated on this in a 2011 piece in the Carolina Journal. Dodd explains,
Ignoring the Washington, D.C., professionals who wanted to feature Reagan's resume, Helms focused on Reagan's conservative views and the difference those views would make in the way the United States made decisions on national defense, control of the Panama Canal, and relations with the USSR.
In North Carolina, with the considerable help of his political ally Tom Ellis, Helms proved that voters cared much more about these issues than the Reagan operatives realized. Following Helms' lead, the Reagan campaign won seven more primaries in May and three in June.
Very few have understood the power of grassroots politics and his electorate more than Jesse Helms. Having the pulse of his own state, he knew it was the power of conservatism and its ideas that could transform a presidential race that already seemed over. In my Spirit of 76 post, I added,
That Republican presidential candidates try to emulate Reagan only adds to his glory, but also creates an unrealistic expectation for themselves. But If conservatism is ever going to be revolutionary, anti-establishment, and popular again, the country and candidates will have to recapture some of the Spirit of 76.
While we have discussed Mitt Romney's Mormonism extensively on the PowerBlog, it's quite probable that his association with private equity firms could be a bigger issue in the South, where states like the Carolinas suffer higher unemployment than Iowa or New Hampshire. How he defends his record and articulates a vision for a free-market resurgence will be critical. I suspect statements where Romney has said he understands what it's like to fear getting a pink slip may not help him in his endeavor. Helms understood that authenticity and conservative ideas were critical to electoral success, not pandering, where suspicion is often magnified in many Southern states.