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Kirsten Downer braves the dark, cold and wet of an Essex nature reserve for the chance to hear musicians and nightingales duet
Just when did nightingales become synonymous with suffering? Keats, Coleridge and Milton set the tone a few hundred years ago and the tradition is reinforcing itself tonight.
It's dark, wet and I'm still slowly shuffling one frozen foot in front of the other through the Essex flagship nature reserve of Fingeringhoe. I'm finding it tiring to walk so slowly, and it feels like we've been doing this for hours. The weather's changed and cold winds are bearing down from the east, along with short squalls of cold rain. I'm keenly aware of my 80-year-old mother walking slowly in the dark in front of me; I'm fervently hoping she's not experiencing symptoms of hypothermia.
We're here to listen to nightingale song, something I have never heard in real life before, and if we're lucky, hear musicians and nightingales duet. There are more than 40 breeding pairs here and we know they're undaunted by rain and wind, unlike us. I want to hear the sound before it dies out in the UK altogether – experts say this could happen within 30 years, nightingale numbers having plummeted by 90 per cent since the 60s. So rare is the bird now, listening to its song has become something of a ritual fetish. The evening began convivially but once we set out into the woods we were urged to give ourselves over to silence , single-file tramping and a state of 'meditative journeying'.
While I love meditation and the odd shamanic trance on occasion, I would be enjoying the evening more if we could whisper quietly to each other, or the guide could send us the occasional communication about logistics – especially as I know that the nightingales here are accustomed to noise from regular visitors. It all feels unncessarily po-faced and serious.
It's partly my mood – a wrongly set Sat Nav took us 2.5 hours to get out of London. And the organisers can hardly be blamed for the weather. But the anaemic fire wasn't big enough to warm people sitting closer to it than me, and certainly not the 100 plus people gathered in this Essex glade.
We're in the company of fantastically talented musicians – and not just the avian ones. Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee's nostalgic, yearning voice opened the evening, and throughout the night we're treated to the harp music of Serafina Steer, the fiddle music of Caoimhin O Raghallaigh and the electronica of Cosmo Sheldrake. The night is part of a series of Singing with Nightingale events held throughout south-east England by the Nest Collective and Sam Lee, in a bid to reconnect the British public with this bird, whose song was once the soundtrack of spring.
Caoimhin O Raghallaigh is a brilliant musician, playing a unique 10-string fiddle called the hardanger d'amore. But on this night he doesn't do it for me as he sticks to a repertoire of scratches, plucking sounds, and whispers, interspersed with only occasional bursts of piercing beauty. At first I marvel at the strange sounds he's conjuring but after a while I'm merely cold and bored and my Inner Pleb silently screams: Just play us a tune mate. I imagine he's trying to spark one of the nightingales into a duet but so far, it's not working. All I can hear in the distance is the honking of a coot, and the occasional train in the far distance.
We walk on, turn a corner and spy a huge concert harp shining mystically within a partially-lit gazebo, like something out of Lord of the Rings. Serafina Steer's fingers must be frozen, but golden notes fill the air. I lie down on my blanket and give myself up to gravity. Alongside the harp a nightingale sings at the edge of the clearing. It's not so much a duet as the bird carrying on regardless, but the notes go well together.
On our way back we make an unscheduled stop on a small path between scrub and trees. Right there, perhaps close enough to touch, a nightingale sings furiously. This is the musician we all came for.
It's not melancholy at all – if anything it's extroverted, bold and determined; it's showing off, for sure. Now I've heard a nightingale, the sound is unmistakable, and it's far louder than anything else. It's technically brilliant in the same virtuoso way that Eminem showcases his hyperspeed bars and intricate wordplay, or Coltrane sprints across harmonies. One study found a male nightingale using 250 different phrases compiled from a repertoire of 600 different sound units.
There are two characteristic bits to nightingale song: a series of heart-stopping whistles building in orgasmic intensity and a throbbing drumming sound. And then there's a whole heap of other harsher, rhythmic sounds; croaking, grating, clicking. The sound is so powerful it's almost as if it's got its own amplifier; bird sounds expert Geoff Simple says the nightingale 'blasts rather like an operatic diva or a lead guitar in a heavy metal band.'
For twenty minutes in the dark and cold, we stand there. This is a pilgrimage, and we've been blessed by a visitation. The bird shows no sign of stopping. Eventually we have to give in and move off, but I know that I will now be tuned in to the sound of a nightingale wherever I go.
A few days later and I'm in central London, again with the Nest Collective and Sam Lee, who are closing the Extinction Rebellion 10 day protest through an interactive concert: 'A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'. Taking the romantic wartime hit as the starting point, we're going to harness mobile phone technology to bring the sound of the nightingale back to Berkeley Square – where perhaps it could be heard once, hundreds of years ago.
A large crowd gathers under magnificent plane trees, and the colourful XR banners swell in the breeze like Buddhist prayer flags. Sam has reworked the lyrics slightly. We sing:
I may be right, I may be wrong, but I'm perfectly willing to swear
That we can turn this world around
And make nightingales sing…in Berkeley Square.
The song catches in my throat unexpectedly. Touching the grief and hope right at the core of Extinction Rebellion. It's not just about the nightingale. It's a metaphor for pulling the world back from the brink of mass extinction.
And perhaps the idea of nightingales returning to London isn't so crazy. Berlin has at least 1300 breeding nightingales – dwarfing the 40 plus of Essex Wildlife Trust's flagship nature reserve. Berlin is more firmly in the bird's natural range whereas the UK has always been at its edge – but it's not just that. Nightingales love undergrowth and scrub and Berlin is still a city of unkempt green spaces and brownfield sites – it wasn't called 'poor but sexy' for nothing. Cycling is safer there, cars less welcome. The Berlin nightingales have made the most of these opportunities; their population growing by 6 % annually since 2006. There, Berlin birds hang out by busy roads and streetlights; some researchers even reckon their song bears resemblance to German techno. Musicians are duetting with them there too: interspecies music guru David Rothenburg's film and book about their exploits comes out this very month. A capital city can offer sanctuary for this amazing bird – and great music come out of it.
Extinction Rebellion achieved more in ten days than we thought possible. Its demands are huge and necessary – perhaps impossible, but we have to try. In Berkeley Square, the nightingale's song combines with traffic noise, laughter, parakeets, the fiddles, trumpets and voices of roving musicians. It's a glorious crucible of surreal, anarchic sound.
Kirsten Downer is a writer, activist and educator. You can read her blog here.


text: Strong's Concordance mephits: scatterer, disperser Original Word: מֵפִיץPart of Speech: Noun Masculine Transliteration: mephits Phonetic Spelling: (may-feets') Definition: scatterer, disperser NAS Exhaustive Concordance Word Originfrom puts Definition scatterer, disperser NASB Translation club (1), one who scatters (1). Brown-Driver-Briggs מֵפִיץ noun masculine scatterer, disperser; — Nahum 2:2 (si vera 1.), but read perhaps מַמֵּץ club, hammer JDMich We Now; so also Proverbs 25:18, compare Toy. Strong's Exhaustive Concordance maul From puwts; a breaker, i.e. Mallet -- maul. see HEBREW puwts Forms and Transliterations מֵפִ֣יץ מפיץ mê·p̄îṣ meFitz mêp̄îṣLinks Interlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel TextsEnglishman's Concordance Proverbs 25:18 HEB: מֵפִ֣יץ וְ֭חֶרֶב וְחֵ֣ץ NAS: [Like] a club and a sword and a sharp KJV: against his neighbour [is] a maul, and a sword, INT: a club sword arrow 1 Occurrence |

subset: commoncrawl


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Business development and marketing teams often have to juggle multiple tasks and keep everyone happy at the same time. Project management is an art and a skill that can make it easier to deliver results and manage time and expectations more effectively.
Lisa Berrie, Queensland Stakeholder Engagement Manager at NBN Co, will share her unique insights on project management fundamentals for professional services marketers.
The seminar will focus on:
After attending this session you will be armed with practical solutions that you can share with colleagues and implement in your workplace.
About Lisa Berrie
Who should attend?
Marketing coordinators, marketing assistants, business development coordinators and industry professionals who are seeking to improve their project management skills.
Event Details
Amec Foster Wheeler, Level 5, 144 Edward Street, Brisbane
A light breakfast will be served. Please advise dietary requirements during registration.


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Properly working regulators are vital to a safe, efficient, and effective compressed gas application. Our gas regulators are designed to withstand the harshest environments and are 100% tested prior to shipment from the manufacturer.
Regulators reduce unusable high pressure into usable low pressure and can keep the low pressure constant, compensating for changes in supply. Regulators use stored energy from the gas supply system. An adjusting system is used to set the delivery pressure, and a spring deflects the diaphragm to open the seat. This open seat allows gas in and flattens the diaphragm. The seat closes until the downstream valve opens, and so the sequence repeats. Old, damaged regulators not only prevent this process from happening effectively, but they also can present serious safety threats.
Due to technological and materials improvements in recent years, the inherent safety of a new gas regulator can be a significant improvement over that of an older, rebuilt regulator. Our stores and warehouses stock new industrial gas regulators, most manufactured by Harris. The Harris Products Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Lincoln Electric Company, is a world leader in metalworking products used in the brazing, soldering, welding, cutting, and gas distribution industries. We carry and support complete lines of Harris regulators, flowmeters, flow gauges, gas guards, torches, tips, and full kits.
Our gas regulators are manufactured from the highest quality industrial-grade components. Our team is trained to help assist you in selecting the proper regulator. With gas service, product source, delivery pressure, and single or multiple stage requirements in mind, we can advise our customers on which industrial, specialty, or medical gas regulator is best for their application. Contact our technical sales team for consultation.


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Doctor Mergers Could Drive Health Costs Higher
A new survey by the consultancy Accenture shows that more doctors are selling their private practices to work at larger health-care systems.
By 2013, less than one-third of U.S. physicians are expected to remain in private practice, the survey said. Doctor groups note that the health-care reform law is driving this shift and worry that monopolization in health care could drive health costs even higher. All of that calls into question whether the quality and cost of American health care will suffer. For example, the doctor-merger trend comes at a time when more and more consumers are getting vaccinated in supermarkets and pharmacies, says the U.S. government
Doctors surveyed by Accenture said that theyre increasingly attracted to the benefits offered by hospital-based employment opportunities, such as relief from administrative responsibilities; greater access to health-care technology, tools, facilities and equipment; and a more manageable work week and stability.
Plus, merging with bigger operations helps them use the bigger muscle of their new partners in their fight with health insurance companies.
However, the doctor-merger trend comes at a time when the country faces a doctor shortage of as many as 120,000 less doctors by 2025, estimates the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Consolidation can lead to monopolization and higher costs. For example, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that after the last doctor-merger wave between 1990 and 2003, 90% of large urban area hospitals obtained excessive market power, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission.
The study indicated that consolidation drove prices higher by a range from 5% to 40%. The study at the time said that promoting monopolies may be the biggest impediment to cost control going forward.
Another report from PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 2,910 physician offices were involved in mergers or acquisitions in 2009 nearly double the number in the previous year. Changes in Medicare reimbursements were to blame, changes which came down particularly hard on cardiologists. As a result, 60% of cardiology practices were planning layoffs and 39% were considering selling themselves to hospitals, the study said.
Another interesting trend is taking hold. And that involves where consumers are getting an important part of their health care from. Supermarkets and pharmacies were the most popular alternative to doctors offices for influenza vaccination in 201011, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in a new report published this week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
While 39.8% of adults received their vaccine in a doctors office, supermarkets, pharmacies, and other stores came in second with 18.4%; workplaces were third with 17.4%, the CDC said in a statement.
This increase likely resulted partly from changes in state laws allowing pharmacists to administer influenza vaccinations to adults, and subsequently, more pharmacies offering influenza vaccinations, the CDC noted.


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- Overview
- Documents
scrollNav is a light jQuery plugin that grabs your page's existing content, divides it up into logical sections and builds a customizable scrolling sidebar navigation. Scroll this page and watch the nav follow along with you.
Simple to setup
A single file import and function in your footer and you're on your way.
Fully Customizable
All the styling is up to you and the few bits controled by the plugin are editable
Tiny Size
Damn right it's fast! At 1.5kb min'd and GZip'd, scrollNav is pretty unintrusive.
Source: scrollnav.com

This is the main heading for the article

This is a sub-heading for the article

Yada yada yada...

This is a section heading

More yada yada...

Another section heading

More more yada...

Include a class or id hook on the element you want to apply the plugin to and include an
 for section headings you want to inlcude in the navigation.
The plugin scans the article, grabs all the
s, adds them to the navigation list and inserts the list before the article.
$('.post-article').scrollNav({ sections: 'h2', subSections: false, sectionElem: 'section', showHeadline: true, headlineText: 'Scroll To', showTopLink: true, topLinkText: 'Top', fixedMargin: 40, scrollOffset: 40, animated: true, speed: 500, insertTarget: this.selector, insertLocation: 'insertBefore', arrowKeys: false, onInit: null, onRender: null, onDestroy: null });
As mentioned, the script automatically searches for
s within the target article. If your page structure differs, feel free to target another element, like an
 or
 or even a class, like.scroll-headline.
Set to false by default, the plugin supports nesting sub-sections within each section in the final nav. Available selectors are the same as Sections.
Section Wrapper Element
If your article already contains section tags, you'll want to change this to 'div'. Sub-sections aren't affected by this option.
Show Headline
Set this to false to remove the Headline Text entirely.
Headline Text
scrollNav's default headline text is 'Scroll To', but feel free to change it to whatever works for you, like 'Article Sections' or 'Page Navigation'
Show Top Link
Set this to false to remove the Top nav item entirely.
Top Link Text
scrollNav's default return to the top link text is 'Top', but feel free to change it to whatever works for you.
Fixed Margin
This is the top dimension you set for the .scroll-nav.fixed class, which is applied as the user scrolls down the page and is removed as they scroll above the article. You definitely want to set this if you don't use the default 40px, otherwise the nav will jump around as the user scrolls past the top of the article.
Scroll Offset
This option affects two things. First is the "active state" boundries within the viewport. The bounderies are within the area from the top and bottom of the viewport offset by this amount. Second is the destination when scrolling the page. This will place the heading of the section right at the top edge of the "active state" boundry.
Animated Scrolling
The plugin animates the page scroll when clicking on a nav link by default. Set this to false if you do not wish to animate the scroll.
Scrolling Speed
Change this to either increase or decrease the animated page scroll speed.
Insertion Target
If you need to insert the nav relative to an element other than the one scrollNav is initialized on, you can change it here.
Insertion Location
You can pass any of the following jQuery insertion methods to change where scrollNav is inserted in relation to the targeted container. insertBefore, prependTo, appendTo, or insertAfter
Arrow Key Navigation
Set to false by default, change this to `true` to allow up/down arrow keys to jump through each section.
Callback functions
There are three new callback functions that you can utilize to accomodate anything you need to run after specific scrollNav events. They are onInit, onRender, and onDestroy. Add them to your options just like any other and they should look like this:
$('.post__article').scrollNav({ onInit: function() { callback actions in here } });
To keep the plugin simple there are no styles added to the navigation, that's all up to you. The nav structure looks like this and includes class names in the BEM Methodology style

An active class is attached to the nav item matching the section that is the highest within the view bounds. An in-view class is attached to all nav items whose section is within the view bounds. If you have short sections at the end of your page and dislike that the last nav itmes are never activated, you can use the in-view hook to style all sections with in the view.
There are loading hooks added to the body element (similar to how Typekit handles font loading) to allow for css transitions or any other changes in css you'd need. When the plug-in starts sn-loading is added to the body class and is replaced by sn-active when the plugin is successful orsn-failed if it fails


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Welcome to CRANES, we Buy, Sell, Hire, Repair and Dispose of washing machines
We founded Cranes Washing Machines more than a decade ago when we began our first refurbishment on the kitchen table. Since that time, we've moved on a bit and now operate from an industrial unit on the outskirts of Stanbridge, near Leighton Buzzard.
These days, we repair, renovate and sell washing machines, however, the core of our business is in the Hire of washing Machines. The sheer number of machines that pass through our hands is testament to the success of our business, and that's a success that's been achieved by developing a loyal customer base of satisfied customers, and of course being really good at what we do.
We're still very hands on in the business and aim to give all our customers value for money, absolutely no cause for complaint and service with a friendly smile.
If you need anything to do with washing machines, give us a call. We'll work hard to keep you happy.
We look forward to speaking to you
We hire out mainly Hotpoint brand Washing Machines which are first fully refurbished.
View TermsWe sell a large selection of refurbished washing machines, these are usually Hotpoints
Check AvailabilityWe will repair any make of washing machine; Where possible, we'll repair the machine at your home.
Call UsWe buy washing machines in good condition; we may also be able to offer free disposal of yours
Call Us


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Bipartisan legislation would make it easier to find critical mental health resources
DENVER, CO– The House Committee on Public Health Care and Human Services today advanced Representative Brianna Titone's bill to make mental health educational resources more accessible by a vote of 11-1.
"Many Coloradans don't know about all the behavioral health care resources that are currently available in our state," said Rep. Titone (D-Arvada). "This bill will provide links to all these resources in one easy to access online directory and will create a tailored outreach campaign to help make people aware of where they can find these critical resources."
By providing these resources, legislators aim to reduce Colorado's highest in the nation suicide rate based on research showing that targeted advertising campaigns do produce results.
HB20-1113, which is also sponsored by Representative Lois Landgraf, would require the state to contract with an organization to create an online resource directory with information about mental health crisis resources and resources for individuals seeking behavioral health care services. The online directory and internet links would include information about the Colorado SEE ME campaign and the national suicide prevention hotline. It would also include demographic-specific information about behavioral health care providers that are available to people seeking mental health care services with links to the providers' websites.
The bill allows the state to seek and accept private or public donations to create these online resources and requires the department of human services to contract with an organization to develop and distribute community and demographic-specific targeted messaging about the availability of the new mental health resources online directory. Furthermore, the bill allows health care professionals to complete a course in mental health education as part of their continuing education competency requirements.


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Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What are your office hours?
We operate Monday to Friday 7am to 5pm Australia Eastern Standard Time [AEST], excluding Public Holidays. Nevertheless you can shop online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Q. Can I get a quote over the phone?
Yes! And you can also initiate an order of products online to receive an indicative price on goods. You do not have to complete an online order but can contact us with any enquiries resulting from your search.
Q. Can I place my order over the phone?
Yes! We do take orders over the phone during office hours.
Q. If I put something in a shopping cart will I be committed to the order?
No! The shopping cart is only the first step in the process. Only after you are happy with your selection of products and have received the final invoice amount including delivery costs showing. The next step is to proceed to the checkout. Only after you press the BUY NOW button have you been committed to the purchase.
Q. How safe is it to shop online with your shopping facility?
We use a shopping cart based on the highly respected and very safe PayPal gateway. PayPal have secure options in place to ensure both the seller and the buyer are protected in each transaction.
Q. How and when is my order delivered?
We have our own fleet of trucks and all-terrain forklifts with which we can offer a reliable, fast and affordable service directly to any home or building site. If for some reason we cannot make your delivery on the day specified when you placed your order, we will call to make an alternative arrangement. Nevertheless, nearly all our deliveries are made when requested.
e-Mail us to firstname.lastname@example.com
Covering South East Queensland Australia with All Blocks and Pavers
Blocks and Pavers Direct Brisbane


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How Virgin is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic
The Virgin Group has committed $250m to support the Virgin companies during the coronavirus pandemic.
Here are some of the ways Virgin companies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic:
Virgin Atlantic is operating cargo flights to bring more than 43 million items of PPE to the UK throughout May, June and July. It has already completed a series of eight cargo flights in April, in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS, to bring back over 120 tonnes of essential medical supplies and PPE from China, including 3.5 million individual items to be distributed to NHS frontline workers across the UK. For the first of these flights Virgin Atlantic worked alongside Virgin Unite and Virgin Care. They have also brought more than 3,000 stranded Britons home on repatriation flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Hundreds of grounded employees are volunteering for the NHS, including cabin crew that are supporting the Nightingale hospitals, and many more are working or volunteering in roles and charities in their community. These include Pilot, James Farwell; and Flight Service Manager, Darren Moore.
Virgin Australia donated thousands of supplies from their 125 aircraft to people in need. This included rolls of toilet paper and meals. Virgin Australia is also working with charity OzHarvest, and have donated 6,000 excess meals. This surplus food will divert three tonne of food from landfill and includes award-winning meals from the airline's business class menus and airport lounges.
Virgin Care has nearly 7,000 doctors and nurses working as part of the NHS and social care services. Virgin Care has been working on the frontline response helping hospitals create as much bed capacity as possible by supporting people in their own homes and communities. It has also re-designed services and redeployed hundreds of employees in different roles to help support the NHS response to the pandemic. Virgin Care has invested more than £75m to date into the NHS and have never made a profit. If Virgin Care ever does make a profit, the Virgin Group has committed to reinvest 100 per cent of that back into the NHS.
Virgin Galactic has designed oxygen hoods, which can be used for patients who are in the hospital with respiratory problems but are yet to need a ventilator, or can be used when none are available. Virgin Galactic have donated hundreds of masks and PPE and medical supplies including Powered Air Purifying Respirators to local hospitals in the US. These important machines offer additional protection for the front-line workers who are in the closest physical proximity to those patients suffering from COVID-19.
Virgin Media is helping to keep Britain's homes, businesses and public services #stayconnected. Virgin Media is prioritising NHS and critical services customers and giving pay monthly customers free minutes and extra data. Virgin Media is also giving customers extra TV channels at no extra cost and more than one million customers who currently pay for speeds under 100Mbps have been given a free boost from superfast broadband to ultrafast M100 Fibre Broadband. There are also many brand new in-cinema releases now available to watch at home.
Virgin Money is focused on supporting customers, colleagues and communities. It's helping business customers access credit and get payment holidays through empowered relationship managers and is supporting the government's CBILS and CLBILS schemes. Personal customers are being supported with interest-free overdrafts, payment holidays on mortgages, credit cards and loans and money management tools to help them bank from home. It's protecting the wellbeing of colleagues through home working, covering lunch and travel costs for critical workers and not proceeding with previously announced redundancies. The Virgin Money Foundation is supporting local charities' COVID-19 efforts with over £850k of funding and Virgin Money is also covering the platform fee for its not-for-profit fundraising platform, Virgin Money Giving, from April 18th until the end of the government lockdown. Campaigns such as Run for Heroes are using Virgin Money Giving to raise money for NHS Charities Together.
Virgin Orbit has designed a mass producible bridge ventilator. These have been granted emergency use authorisation by the FDA. Guided by the medical expertise and clinical experience of the Bridge Ventilator Consortium — a group of doctors, medical researchers, and medical device engineers collaborating to advise multiple different low-cost ventilator efforts — Virgin Orbit has leveraged its extensive engineering design, manufacturing, and operational capabilities to quickly design a novel ventilator, test prototype units, and ramp up production of these devices.
Virgin Radio has announced plans for a 'Big Thank You Tour' - featuring three live arena shows across the UK this autumn and free tickets for key workers. Chris Evans has raised more than 1.2million for the NHS with a celebrity silent auction.
Virgin StartUp is helping small business founders who have been left out of the UK government's Covid-19 support schemes. They are also providing an enormous amount of business advice for free.
Virgin Unite, the Virgin Group and Branson family's not for profit entrepreneurial foundation, has teamed up with Jeff Skoll and Strive Masiyiwa to help African nations secure low-cost, urgently needed medical equipment. Ventilators and oxygen helmets designed by Virgin Orbit and Virgin Galactic will be manufactured in Africa.
Virgin Unite has also supported Crisis Text Line and Shout in their efforts to support frontline workers and towards the launch of The Mental Health Fund, which aims to support the work of organisations that provide crisis intervention via text message, 24/7. $2 million has already been raised by the founding group to help individuals cope with the mental health and behavioural impact of COVID-19.
Many of our Virgin Companies have created some great in-home experiences to support families and individuals living under lockdown conditions. A few examples of these include:
Virgin Atlantic's virtual flight school
Virgin Limited Edition's Safari from your Sofa
Virgin Experience Days online offering
Virgin Voyages, Virgin Active, Virgin Pulse and Virgin Sport have provided workouts and wellbeing tips from around the world
To find out more about a specific company, head over to our companies page.


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The Post-Journal
by Scott Kindberg
July 28, 2021
Making Dad Proud
A baseball in hand, Ted Wyberanec Jr. made his way from the third-base dugout at Diethrick Park to the pitcher's mound prior to Monday night's Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League contest.
Upon toeing the rubber, Wyberanec — emulating the windup captured in a photo of his late father, Ted Sr., from the early days of what was then Municipal Stadium on Jamestown's east side — delivered a pitch to Tarp Skunks' catcher Johnny Kampes.
"I threw it harder than I thought," Wyberanec said. " … It was a little inside."
The effort, however, apparently impressed Jamestown manager Jordan Basile.
"I came off the field," Wyberanec recalled Tuesday night as he enjoyed dinner at The Pub on Main Street in the city, "and he grabbed me and said, 'Hey, we might need you later.'"
Like father, like son.
But the pregame ceremony wasn't really about Wyberanec throwing strikes. It was more about paying tribute to his father, who pitched on that very same piece of real estate nearly 80 years ago as a member of the Jamestown Falcons. It was no wonder that Wyberanec's eyes were misty as he took the field.
"If you notice, I get out there and the first thing I do is point up to the sky," said Wyberanec, who was wearing a replica Falcons' jersey and, of course, a Tarp Skunks' cap. "(I was thinking), 'Dad, you got to be here. It's a perfect day. It's like 78 degrees and this is your mound.'"
Back in the day, it sure was.
A Bronx native, Ted Sr. had a stellar college basketball career, but his baseball potential drew the interest of Jamestown owner Harry Bisegier, who brought him to Jamestown in 1942 where he played shortstop and third base.
After a three-year stint in the Navy, Ted Sr. returned to the Falcons in 1946 and was converted into a pitcher at midseason. The switch of positions turned out to be the right call as he finished with a 6-5 won-loss record and had the fifth-best earned-run average in the PONY League.
It was only the beginning.
In 1947, Ted Sr. posted a 15-5 record with a 2.60 ERA while also batting .329. After that season, he pitched in the International League, the Eastern League, the Big State League and the West Texas League before finally ending his pro career and returning to Jamestown.
But he wasn't done playing ball.
In addition to managing and playing for Marlin-Rockwell and the Steel Partitions Bombers, Ted Sr. pitched for the touring House of David team for one season, during which he matched wits with the great Satchel Paige of the Harlem Globetrotters. In that game, Ted Sr. had the House of David in the lead until Paige came on and the Globetrotters ultimately prevailed, 3-2.
"My dad was one of the first few players to play (at what is now Diethrick Park) and he had good years," said Wyberanec, who has a home in Florida, but has spent the last two summers in the Jamestown area. "I was able to play some baseball there (as a youngster) and I played football there. … That stadium has a lot of history. I grew up there. I was there every weekend. … To me, it's hallowed ground.
Wyberanec has been there plenty this summer, too.
"We've been following the Tarp Skunks this whole season," he said. "I love it. … I don't think I'd want to live anywhere else in the summer. I want to come back every single summer. Why not?"
Wyberanec noted that his two adult daughters will be visiting Jamestown for the first time next week to help him celebrate his 60th birthday.
One of the first places he intends to show them is the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame, because that's where they'll find a plaque and a photo of their grandpa, Ted Sr., who was enshrined there in 1990 for his baseball successes, especially those on Falconer Street in Jamestown.
Decades later, his son climbed the very same mound on a beautiful July evening.
"I went out and threw it well," Wyberanec said.
Dad would have been proud.
The additional financial assistance of the community is critical to the success of the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame.
We gratefully acknowledge these individuals and organizations for their generous support.


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Last in the Leadership-via-4th-generation-objectives series are two items; (e) mid-course learning corrections and (f) event or decision driven reprioritization. Both of these help create a living, breathing business Bible. You and your organization will become better informed about your business, your decisions will become more intelligent and correct, and your organization will recognize that you are a leader crisply dedicated to making the organization's performance improve.
Regarding (e) a simple example: If the initial judgment in the cash-by-working-capital objective was that $3M could be achieved by changing payment terms, but 60 days later the new judgment is a bona fide but only $2M, change it.
If the initial judgment that $4M could be achieved by better collection procedures and the current judgment is $5M, change it.
Rearding (f) another simple example: If creating a certain cash balance had been the #1 priority but through cash collections, good operating performance, and bank leniency it is still important but not as critical, reassess. Maybe its time to reprioritize, put investments into the European market ahead of cash collection in the priority stack.
When these types of decisions are made with your team, they clearly all share in the decision process and they'll be buying into these substantially better informed objectives and the amended results on their bonus calculations. At bonus time your payout calculations will be both consistent with their expectations and most importantly with the current (not 15 months' ago) view of what is important.


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Kunstplakaat Gerhard Von Graevenitz Kleurenzeefdruk 1968
€ 65,00
Kunstplakaat Gerhard Von Graevenitz 1968
Gerhard von Graevenitz (19 September 1934 Schilde, Prignitz/Mark Brandenburg – 20 August 1983, Habkern/Traubachtal) was a German kinetic artist, co-founding member of the Nouvelle Tendance and member of the op-art movement. He also belonged to the international circle of the Zero-Group. He is seen as one of the uncompromising representatives of the constructive-concrete art of the younger generation (since 1958).


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Iron Finance - it's an "algorithmic stablecoin" project native to Polygon and BSC. Today, that project death spiraled leaving many people holding the bag of yet another algorithmic stablecoin "experiment". The tl;dr on what happened was that there was a "bank run" on the project which caused the price of the project's native token to drop to $0. The funny thing about Iron Finance is that it's a project that Mark Cuban promoted just days ago in this blog post.
I'm by no means an expert on the Iron Finance project but here is a breakdown of what happened over the last 24 hours (as I understand it). The way the IRON "stablecoin" works is that it is partially backed by both USDC and TITAN and of course, it's pegged to $1. Users are able to mint new IRON by locking up TITAN and USDC tokens (25% for the former, 75% for the latter). The way the mechanism is meant to work is that when new IRON is minted, the demand for TITAN increases because it's used to mint new IRON, which in turn drives up its price. You can probably see the obvious downside to this - that is, when demand for TITAN falls (or it gets sold into the market), IRON's peg can become unstable - this is exactly what happened over the last 24 hours.
So, let's move onto the actual details of what happened. The price of TITAN achieved an all time high of around $65 and then large holders started dumping TITAN tokens en masse which triggered a market-wide panic selling event. Of course, IRON lost its peg while this was happening and you could now redeem IRON (worth $0.90) for 75 cents worth of USDC and 25 cents worth of TITAN which presented a lucrative arbitrage opportunity. This then led to TITAN tokens flooding the market which pushed the price down dramatically which meant that IRON's price kept dropping. This cycle would continue until IRON's peg was restored for all of 15 minutes (and TITAN started to recover) but then IRON lost it's peg again and well, the rest is history. The end result is that TITAN's price went to $0 because it will keep dropping as long as IRON is not pegged to $1 but IRON will not be pegged to $1 if TITAN keeps dropping.
So there you have it - another "DeFi" project that blew up due to failed mechanism design (and it certainly won't be the last). I'm all for doing radical experiments in this industry but I don't think Iron Finance was that - I'm pretty comfortable with calling it a ponzi. Though herein lies the problem - calling out projects as ponzis or scams has a negative return in crypto because it's very hard to convince people that their favorite project is a scam if they've made money on it. If you do try to, what ends up happening is that you have an army of token holders descending upon you with toxicity and vitriol - so most people just stay quiet until the scam/ponzi inevitably blows up.
Given that Iron Finance was native to both Polygon and BSC, I suspect that a lot of newer crypto users got burnt in this rug pull. Hopefully this whole fiasco can serve as a good lesson for these people and help them avoid these sorts of projects in the future (in my experience, people only really learn once they lose money). Though given the permissionless nature of these networks, I don't expect these scams, ponzis and rug pulls to ever go away.
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
Join the Daily Gwei Ecosystem
All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.


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Client: U.S. Agency for International Development
Duration: 2021-2025
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Country: Palestine
Solutions: Economic Growth
Palestinian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have long had to cope with persistent challenges—a local market with limited purchasing power, restrictions on the movement of goods and people, limited access to export markets, and more. The COVID-19 crisis put unanticipated pressure on an already constrained economy. The May 2021 conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas inflicted further damage on the private sector, in Gaza especially.
The Palestine Small and Medium Enterprise Assistance for Recovery and Transition (SMART) project operates in Gaza as well as the West Bank, offering a combination of immediate financial support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and sustainable systemic strengthening. SMART helps Palestinian SMEs and startups rapidly recover from shocks and put them on a path to revitalization, creating job opportunities for a growing—and young—population.
DAI worked with key Palestinian sectors to better compete in regional and global markets. Targeted sectors in the West Bank and Gaza included agribusiness, tourism, information and communications technology, stone and marble, fishing, and garments.
Read More


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Your personal comments are important to me. If you would like to submit your testimonial, please send me an e-mail with your full name and remarks to include on this page. I appreciate hearing from you.
Thank you.
But Don't Take My Word, Here Is What My Clients Have To Say About Me
" Edith brings different ideas and points of view to the table, they complement each other's strengths and they truly do work as an excellent team. We found both Edith and Robert were very knowledgeable, honest, hardworking, patient, and they pay extra attention to the little details. We would highly recommend Edith "
Mrs. Gaile
" The decision to hire a particular real estate sales professional can be very challenging. With so many professionals out there to chose from I began the task of narrowing candidates by those with determination, professionals,and successful marketing strategies. After interviewing several sales professionals, I was delighted that Edith had given a thoroughly prepared presentation with an updated market analysis, price comparisons, accurate sale price, and a specific marketing strategy that I knew would work for the sale of my home. Edith took the time to answer all my questions and ultimately, they were there for me whenever I needed to address any questions or concerns about the sale. Edith possessed all the attributes necessary to be an excellent realtor: she knows the market extremely well; she is diligent, responsive,and yet very patient. She is both very professional and personable. Edith clearly take pride in doing a good job. I am very satisfied with her work and we will recommend her services to anyone who is looking for an agent. Thank you for making the sale of my home a pleasurable and painless experience. Thank you for your honesty, passion and commitment. You truly represent the 'ideal" Realtor® and I cannot thank you enough for being a hardworking. The extra time you will spend searching for other sales representatives, you should spend with Edith to effectively sell your home, at the right time and for the highest possible price. Thank you for making the sale of our home a wonderful and memorable experience. "
Claudette L.
" We would like to express our appreciation for the professional manner in which Edith have handled the sale of our house. We have had a great experience working with them. We are very pleased with the service they have provided. They are very knowledgeable in the real estate business. We are especially pleased with how they paid attention to the details of our needs and working towards our goal. If we were to sell any of our property's in the future they will be our number one choice. "
Mr. Kam
Business Owner


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Watch EBN Television Canal 46 Live TV from Puerto Rico
Watch EBN Television Canal 46 Live TV from Puerto Rico
Religious TV Channel / WIDP is a Spanish-language religious television station in Guayama, Puerto Rico, broadcasting locally on channel 46.1 as an affiliate of TBN Enlace. Founded January 25, 1990, the station is owned by Ebenezer Broadcasting Group.
The station also has an analog on-channel booster, WIDP1 in Las Palmas, Puerto Rico. On September 2009, WIDP debuted a subchannel named EBN Music, which airs religious music videos 24/7. Ebenezer Broadcasting Network - EBN Television is a Christian television station from Guayama, Puerto Rico. It is an affiliate of TBN Enlace.


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Don't Miss
All posts tagged "Number 1s"
Backstory: Doors: Waiting for the Sun
In early 1968, as the Doors entered the studio, they had hit the "third album wall", according to producer Paul A. Rothchild. The Los Angeles band's 1967 self titled debut album featured the Number 1 hit, "Light...
- Posted December 9, 2016
Guess the #1 single this week in 1960
This immortal singer's version spent six weeks at #1, starting Nov.28, 1960. "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" is a song which was written by Roy Turk and Lou Handman in 1926. It was recorded several times in 1927—first...
- Posted December 6, 2016


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ACID ORC, Iceberg, and Delta Lake—An Overview of Table Formats for Large Scale Storage and Analy
The reality of most large scale data deployments includes storage decoupled from computation, pipelines operating directly on files and metadata services with no locking mechanisms or transaction tracking. For this reason attempts at achieving transactional behavior, snapshot isolation, safe schema evolution or performant support for CRUD operations has always been marred with tradeoffs.
This talk will focus on technical aspects, practical capabilities and the potential future of three table formats that have emerged in recent years as solutions to the issues mentioned above – ACID ORC (in Hive 3.x), Iceberg and Delta Lake. To provide a richer context, a comparison between traditional databases and big data tools as well as an overview of the reasons for the current state of affairs will be included.
After the talk, the audience is expected to have a clear understanding of the current development trends in large scale table formats, on the conceptual and practical level. This should allow the attendees to make better informed assessments about which approaches to data warehousing, metadata management and data pipelining they should adapt in their organizations.
1 . ACID ORC, Iceberg and Delta Lake an overview of table formats for large scale storage and analytics Michal Gancarski email@example.com wssbck 17-10-2019
2 .TABLE OF CONTENTS All Is Not Well In The Land Of Big Data There Is Hope, However This Is How We Do It Moving Forward 2
3 .All Is Not Well In The Land Of Big Data 3
4 . ACID Properties 4
5 . Single Node Database 5
6 . Distributed Database 6
7 . Distributed Data Infrastructure 7
8 . Lost ACID 8
9 .There Is Hope, However 9
10 . A Table Format? 10
12 . ACID ORC CREATE TABLE d_manufacturers (id int, name string) PARTITIONED BY (country string) STORED AS ORC TBLPROPERTIES ('transactional'='true'); ./d_manufacturers/country=de/base_00000002/ -- bucket_00000 -- bucket_00001 ./d_manufacturers/country=de/delta_0000003_0000003_0000/ -- bucket_00000 -- bucket_00001 ./d_manufacturers/country=de/delta_0000004_0000004_0000/ -- bucket_00001 ./d_manufacturers/country=de/delete_delta_0000004_0000004_0000/ -- bucket_00001 12
13 . ACID ORC + ❖ Native compatibility with Hive ❖ Fast updates / upserts (no file rewrite) ❖ Hive 2.x ACID ORC tables can be converted to Hive 3.x ACID ORC tables ❖ Commercial Support (Cloudera) ❖ Limited support for Spark (being worked on by Qubole) - ❖ Slow listing and metadata discovery ❖ Potentially slower read due to ad-hoc compaction ❖ ORC only ❖ Mandatory S3Guard or EMR with consistent view enabled 13
14 . Apache Iceberg 14
15 . Apache Iceberg val df = spark.read .format("iceberg") .load("s3://datalake/d_manufacturers") 15
16 . Apache Iceberg ❖ Parquet, Avro, ORC supported as file formats ❖ Robust schema and partitioning changes + ❖ Fast query planning ❖ Presto connector ❖ Time travel with snapshot id listing ❖ No dependency on Spark public List<Snapshot> snapshots() { return snapshots; - } ❖ Spark support ❖ Sparse documentation ❖ No commercial support ❖ Not as mature as other formats 16
17 . Delta Lake 17
18 . Delta Lake val df = spark.read .format("delta") .load("s3://datalake/d_manufacturers") CONVERT TO DELTA parquet.`s3://datalake/d_manufacturers` ./d_manufacturers/_delta_log/ -- 000000.json -- ... -- 000010.checkpoint.parquet -- _latest_checkpoint ./d_manufacturers/country=de/ -- file_1.parquet -- file_2.parquet ./d_manufacturers/country=fr/ -- file_3.parquet 18
19 . Delta Lake ❖ Great integration with Spark, including Structured + Streaming ❖ Merge syntax in Spark SQL ❖ Time travel ❖ Comprehensive, well written documentation ❖ Fast development backed by a commercial entity ❖ VACUUM + OPTIMIZE ❖ Incoming Presto reader (Starburst) - ❖ ❖ Parquet only Multicluster writes outside of Databricks only on HDFS 19
20 .This Is How We Do It 20
21 . Delta Lake @Zalando 21
22 .Moving Forward 22
23 . The Future is Bright 23
24 . Further Reading ACID ORC https://orc.apache.org/docs/acid.html https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/Hive/Hive+Transactions http://shzhangji.com/blog/2019/06/10/understanding-hive-acid-transactional-table/ https://docs.cloudera.com/HDPDocuments/HDP3/HDP-3.0.0/using-hiveql/content/hive_3_internals.html Iceberg https://iceberg.apache.org/ https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/ https://github.com/apache/incubator-iceberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7p_m17BXs8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWwQMlrjhy0 Delta Lake https://delta.io/ https://github.com/delta-io https://github.com/delta-io/delta/blob/master/PROTOCOL.md https://databricks.com/blog/2019/08/21/diving-into-delta-lake-unpacking-the-transaction-log.html https://databricks.com/blog/2019/09/24/diving-into-delta-lake-schema-enforcement-evolution.html 24
25 . Further Reading Engine Support https://github.com/prestosql/presto/issues/576 https://github.com/prestosql/presto/issues/1324 https://github.com/prestosql/presto/pull/1067 https://docs.databricks.com/delta/presto-compatibility.html https://www.starburstdata.com/technical-blog/starburst-presto-databricks-delta-lake-support/ https://www.qubole.com/blog/qubole-open-sources-multi-engine-support-for-updates-and-deletes-in-data-lakes/ https://github.com/qubole/spark-acid S3 Consistency https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HADOOP-13345 https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/r3.0.3/hadoop-aws/tools/hadoop-aws/s3guard.html Other https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/storage.html https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/routine-vacuuming.html https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/optimize-table.html https://medium.com/@brunocrt/the-distributed-architecture-behind-cassandra-database-fba8b5cc4785 https://github.com/delta-io/delta/issues/41 25
26 .ACID ORC, Iceberg and Delta Lake Michal Gancarski firstname.lastname@example.com wssbck 26


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IST is located in Ülemiste City—a modern district in the immediate vicinity of Tallinn Airport. Ülemiste City houses a large number of innovative enterprises, aiming at developing the largest knowledge-based economic environment in the Baltic countries. It is a unique and inspiring environment that enhances creativity and innovation.
IST can be accessed from a number of Tallinn's boroughs via public transportation routes, including a tram stop only 2 minutes away from the school entrance. Our learning environment is diverse and inspiring. We guarantee child-friendly and supportive learning facilities including:
New school building
We are expanding, and in the next school year, we will be moving to a brand-new building built specifically for IST according to our requirements. The new school building will meet the latest learning environment standards. It will be located just 5 minutes from our current location, in the heart of Ülemiste city. The school will relocate at the beginning of 2025.
A library, which is connected to the Estonian Public Library system – the school boasts of a well-stocked library with an impressive index of titles and students are encouraged to make full use of these facilities in order to inculcate a love for books and the habit of reading from an early age.
School Cafeteria
The School Canteen offers healthy snacks and beverages. Strict hygiene standards are maintained at all times and students are encouraged to develop healthy eating habits.
Lunch Room
A pleasant and comfortable lunch room – a space for any group or individual who wishes to sit down and eat lunch with comfort.
Rooms equipped for arts & crafts, chemistry, physics and biology labs – these are equipped with interactive and innovative resources thus making our students play with their smart and creative minds and also to provide hands-on practical experience to our students.
Ample and safe outdoor playground areas for recess, sports, and break times – these play areas and equipment provide a variety of activities and opportunities for exploration.
A gym, fully equipped for P.E. classes – a place to rejuvenate mental and physical strength.
Assembly hall
A spacious assembly hall, used as a venue for school events – it fulfils the purpose of conventional gathering and a room to gather a lot of energy from its positive aura.


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Yesterday morning, I had the privilege of going out to Maria's Field of Hope in Avon, OH. This 26 acre field full of sunflowers is inspired by the memory of a young girl named Maria McNamara. Maria passed away at age 7 due to brain cancer.
The field blooms in September, Childhood Cancer Awareness Month with five varietals of sunflowers. The Prayers for Maria Foundation helps raise awareness of childhood cancers and helps lead the fight to increase funding for research and hopefully one day end childhood cancers.
I went early in the morning. It was quiet and peaceful with very few people around. It was a lovely experience to walk through the rows of sunflowers as they were visited by the honeybees. I could hear the traffic whizzing by on the interstate but it was quite tranquil none the less. I highly recommend a visit to Maria's Field of Hope while the flowers are in bloom!
In 2016 the sunflower was named the official flower of city of Avon! The filed is located at the corner of Chester and Jaycox Roads in Avon, just off I-90.
Tours of Cleveland offers exciting and educational walking tours of historic and beautiful downtown Cleveland. Tours are year round! See our schedule on our website at www.toursofcleveland.com.


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THE Energy department said it is currently working with the Office of the Solicitor General on how to respond after the Supreme Court (SC) ruled out joint energy exploration with foreign partners in disputed waters.
"The DoE (Department of Energy) will work closely with the Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice in determining the next steps to be taken on the matter," the DoE said in a statement on Saturday.
In a ruling dated January but released only last week, the SC voided a 2005 government deal with China and Vietnam for joint gas and oil explorations in South China Sea.
The SC declared the 2005 agreement unconstitutional because it allowed foreign entities to explore for Philippine natural resources without full government supervision.
The Constitution requires that exploration, development and use of Philippine natural resources be under full state control and supervision.
"In a decision released in full only yesterday (Friday) but promulgated on Jan. 10, 2023, the Supreme Court invalidated as unconstitutional the tripartite agreement for joint marine seismic undertaking (JMSU) in the agreement area in the South China Sea," the DoE said.
The JMSU was signed in 2005 by the China National Offshore Oil Corp., Vietnam Oil and Gas Corp., and Philippine National Oil Co.
Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla has said that the Philippines and China both agreed to resume talks on exploration in the Recto Bank, which is covered by the Service Contract 72. — Ashley Erika O. Jose


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Welcome to the virtual Old Glory Chicken Farm!!
This site is under necessary construction. Please watch your step!
Well, my husband and I live in Montana. We have a wonderful home, 4 dogs, and have just recently added 3 chickens to our family! They are "brown" (although I'm learning brown can be one of about 8 colors) frizzle cochin bantams. They just turned one month old today. We're at that exciting (and chaotic) time when we're starting to build our first chicken coop, trying to keep the dogs at bay, and praying that at least ONE of these little wonders will be a hen. I will update this site with pictures of our coop process, and our little feathered friends. Until then, thanks for stopping by and please check back often!!


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This standalone fire alarm is designed to be installed in public areas or workplaces, to ensure guests or employees are alerted in the event of a fire. All that is required is 220v power supply, and the system can be installed almost anywhere.
The System includes;
- 6 inch 220v Alarm Bell
- 220v Break Glass Switch
- Fire Alarm Wall Sticker
Installation is available on request.


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Q&A with Senior Shelby Scaffidi
Why did you move to Sycamore?
My Dad's job. He is a general manager at multiple hotels.
What is something that is popular at Sycamore that was not popular where you used to live?
Skyline is definitely not a thing in Tucson, and I haven't had it because the idea of cinnamon in chili does not sound good. It's not appealing to me at all.
How is the culture different?
There is a lot of diversity at Sycamore, and that's something I didn't have at my old school.
How does Cincinnati compare to your last city?
It's bigger, which I like, but it's hard to compare the two. There are really good things about both Cincinnati and Tucson.
Do people from Ohio have noticeable accents?
Some people do, but there are a lot of other accents I hear as well. It's not just Ohio, and it's really cool to hear different accents because I know that a lot of people speak different languages.
What is something you really like about Cincinnati?
It's a very nice place to live–Tucson didn't have a lot of things to do. Cincinnati has Kings Island, and also it's not too far away from New York.
What is something you dislike about Cincinnati?
The Mexican food is not as good as Tucson's.
Do you participate in any after school activities? If so, what?
I do theater and tech because it's super fun, and I really enjoy being behind the scenes.
What do you like about the after school activity?
Theatre and tech helped me make a lot of friends when I moved to Sycamore. I also really enjoy all the people and the atmosphere.


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With the focus on keeping artists at the forefront of the industry, Peak designed a unique stabilizer and inner membrane for its Quartz cartridges. The inner membrane works to provide ideal tension for more fluid tattooing sessions while the stabilizer keeps the needle from moving side to side. Experience the difference this stabilizer makes.All cartridges are made from disposable materials and are in individual sterile packaging so that artists can focus on their work safely and efficiently. All cartridges are also tested multiple times for guaranteed performance.Key Features: Inner membrane for fluid tension and no back flow of ink Stabilizer mechanism in every cartridge Efficient cartridge removal and replacement Sleek, hygienic design High quality single-use material construction Sterilized and individually packaged Compatible with all cartridge system grips and machines Technical Details: 0.25mm, 0.30mm, 0.35mm (#8, #10, #12) Round Liner, Hollow Liner, Round Shader, Magnum, Curved Magnum


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VULM BIOTECHNOLOGY, a member of the group VULM HOLDING, is a modern company engaged in the production of special paints and coatings of high quality, including epoxy coating compositions, paints, wood and metal varnishes, including UV technologies. The production programme is focused on water-based acrylate copolymer and polyurethane dispersion products.
Due to own internationally recognised team, the company develops new types of paints and constantly develops and improves technologies used by now.
In its effort to meet requirements of dynamically developing environment and customer requirements, the company is ready to adapt some characteristics of its products and also provide consultations in their application.
By supplying good quality, health and environment-friendly paints, varnishes, and coatings, the company ranks among the leading players with a strategic position in the European market.


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Coco was really bad this morning. Once she steadied a bit, I took her out in the yard to take her last picture. Walking around the yard with her, I lost my resolve. I just can't do it. Not yet. Coco doesn't appear to be in any pain. She twitches, her feet curl up, her legs slide out from under her, I don't think she can see right, yet her tail is wagging the entire time if I'm with her. I don't understand why she doesn't just lay down for a while. This morning I stood at the upstairs landing and watched her stumble around the first floor. She was crashing in to furniture. It was like she was getting lost. She went into the bathroom and it seemed like she couldn't find her way out until I went down there and helped her. She was sorta stuck there, with her head in the towel basket. Wedging her head against something is one of the first things she does. On a happier note; I drove the mCoupe today! It's been a long time since I've had an experience as humbling as today's first flute lesson. The flute goes back to the Deephaven house, but I don't recall having taken lessons. The fact that I could actually produce sound indicates I may have had a lesson or two, but I'm thinking high school band exposure to the flute could also account for that. Just when I had given up on the Vet, he called. He's never encountered a presentation quite like Coco's. He would like to see a video of the episode. I've changed the battery in my video camera and reacquainted myself with its use. I am also awaiting a call from the Neurology Department at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center. There are a gazillion ants on the sidewalk near the dog door! Solution: Torch & Ant Poison. Yes, poison is out of dogs' reach.
1 thought on "2008-04-22 Tuesday"
She may be having trouble but that old girl sure can pose.
Comments are closed.


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The Montreat College Campus Store is always looking for ways to save our students money while ensuring that you have all of the correct course materials and excellent customer service for the upcoming semester. We have partnered with Slingshot — a convenient and cost-effective program for all of our students.
What is Slingshot?
Slingshot is an equitable access program that provides all of your course materials for a discounted per credit hour rate of $22 per credit hour for traditional undergraduate students and $24 per credit hour for adult & graduate students. The fee is automatically added to your student account. No waiting in a line at the campus store, and no separate payment required! Your book order is automatically sent when upon registering for classes. Books should be returned to the campus store upon finishing class.
On-campus Students
Your rental textbooks and course materials will be delivered to your residence hall before you move in, so you will have all of your course materials on the first day of classes, with the fee conveniently charged to your student account.
Off-campus Students
Your textbooks will either be shipped to your home address or can be picked up in the Montreat College Campus Store.
How do you register for Slingshot?
- Go to https://montreat.slingshotedu.com/
- Click the Log In button on the top right corner of the screen.
- You already have an account; your school email is the username, and your student ID number is the password. If your password is not working, click the Forgot Password link.
From the campus store portal, you can:
- Manage your account and preferences
- Look up price and condition information for your books
- See when your rentals are due, or purchase more time
- Access your digital course materials
Frequently Asked Questions
How are my course materials provided?
All students receive their required materials for every course through Slingshot. Students are opted-in to receive all of their course materials, including consumable items like access codes and workbooks. Your books may be provided as physical books or digital books, dependent on availability.
What happens if I drop or add a class?
When a class is added, Slingshot will automatically fulfill the order. For a dropped class, contact Customer Support within 7 days of class start for return authorization to avoid a non-return charge. Digital items for dropped courses are returned for you automatically.
What if an item is missing from my order?
Check if the book is listed on the 'Items not in this shipment' part of your packing list. If it is, check and see if the Order Item Type is Digital. If so, this is a digital book you can access via the campus store portal. If it says either "Rental" or "Purchase" next to it, that item will be coming in a separate box. Watch for emails from Slingshot about it. If you are missing a book in any other circumstance, contact Customer Support for assistance as soon as possible.
My book is a little banged up. Will I be responsible for the damage?
If you're concerned with the condition of your physical textbook, contact Customer Support within a week of receiving it. We'll help you find a solution.
How do I access digital items?
Once available, digital ebooks are accessible under the "My Course Materials" tab upon logging into https://montreat.slingshotedu.com/. You will receive an email that indicates when a digital ebook is available. It may come after a physical item has gone out.
What if I prefer physical items?
Your school has partnered with Slingshot to provide the most affordable course materials as a standard for every student. This will include digital eBook rentals if they are more affordable than physical rentals. If you prefer physical/printed course materials, Slingshot has an option that you can select called PRINT UPGRADE. For $9.99 per credit hour, you will receive physical books unless an item is exclusively available digitally. This upgrade fee is billed to your student account.
What do I do with my rental textbooks at the end of class?
Physical rental textbooks are due back at the end of class. These are indicated by the word RENTAL on your packing slip, under which you will find the due date for that book. When you're ready to return your rentals, bring them into the Campus Store or return them on the https://montreat.slingshotedu.com/ portal.
Rental due dates will also be found under the "My Course Materials" tab. Digital rental books expire automatically.
What happens if I don't return my books on time?
Physical rentals not returned by the due date will have a rental not returned (RNR) fee charged to your student account. RNRs can be refunded for 14 days after they're billed, minus a 20% restocking fee.
The campus store remains available for beverages, snacks, college apparel, and sundries.
Questions or concerns?
828.669.8012, ext. 3602


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ILIA (International Law in Advocacy) is a unique e-learning platform aimed at training lawyers, attorneys, human rights defenders and others in international human rights law. It aims at empowering civil society members and professional groups in defense and promotion of human rights in their countries, and building capacity of Human Rights Houses to implement human rights standards nationally.About_ILIA
ILIA's courses and seminars are designed for lawyers, advocates, human rights defenders, and other professional groups.ILIA takes a comprehensive approach to human rights education, offering an overview of the international human rights system as well as instruction on how to apply international standards at the national level. The curriculum is structured around the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, relevant human rights treaties and the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education.


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BATSBY Sports offers its seventh deep dive into predicting the top 20 seeds for the NCAA basketball tournament (five per region), with conference action now heading for the home stretch.
It's worth noting: Our projections aren't necessarily focused on power rankings with the 20 schools.
Rather, we're taking certain educated guesses when presuming this elite-level field, factoring in current track record, strength of schedule, expert rankings (analytics) and probability of future success within conference play.
Cleveland, OH
Tampa, FL
Greensboro, NC
Albany, NY
St. Louis, MO
Omaha, NE
Spokane, WA
Sacramento, CA
EAST — New York City
MIDWEST — Indianapolis
SOUTH — Houston
WEST — Los Angeles
FINAL FOUR — Atlanta
- San Diego State (25-0)
- Duke (21-3)
- Penn State (19-5)
- Auburn (22-2)
- Seton Hall (18-6)
a) It's now painfully clear: Next month, the NCAA Selection Committee cannot penalize Gonzaga and San Diego State (one combined defeat) … by placing both championship contenders in the same bracket.
Simply because both schools are located on the West Coast.
It's not a sound strategic move, especially in this Year of Basketball Parity.
Exhibit A: San Diego State and Gonzaga rate 1st and 2nd in the NCAA's NET rankings. With this type of transparency, it would be impossible to justify both schools meeting in the Elite Eight round.
b) Duke currently rates No. 1 with ESPN's Basketball Power Index, No. 3 in KenPom and No. 6 with the NCAA's NET rankings.
In other words, it might be a tough sell to drop the Blue Devils (winners of six straight) onto the 2-line. And yet, theoretically speaking, there's very little separation between San Diego State serving as a low No. 1 seed (due to a low Strength of Schedule quotient) … and Duke being the highest-valued No. 2.
c) Auburn deserves major props for righting the ship from three weeks ago (back-to-back road defeats), and subsequently rolling for seven straight victories — featuring wins over Kentucky, Arkansas, LSU and Alabama.
At this pace, the Tigers (three-way tie for first place in the SEC) are closer to a 3-seed … than a 5 come Selection Sunday.
d) For weeks, we've been touting the top-heavy Big East for its night-in, night-out excellence. In that vein, it only makes sense to include Seton Hall, the conference leader (10-2 … two games over Villanova, Creighton), as a robust 5-seed in the South.
Should the Pirates be a notch or two higher, with seeding?
Uh, maybe. But right now, when factoring in the most renowned metrics sites, Seton Hall has cracked the top 15 with only KenPom and Strength of Schedule quotient.
- Kansas (21-3)
- Dayton (22-2)
- Florida State (20-4)
- Michigan State (17-8)
- Colorado (19-5)
a) Let's start with a minor humble-brag: The top eight teams from Saturday's In-Season Selection Show on CBS, along with the regional destinations for each school, were an exact match to BATSBY's seed-projections piece from last week.
b) Does Kansas (losses to Duke, Baylor, Villanova) meet the proverbial Eye Test of a popular championship pick, especially with the lingering fallout of the Kansas State brawl?
Eh, judgment call on the above question; but here's something which cannot be disputed:
The Jayhawks are the nation's only team to currently boast top-4 tallies with KenPom, the NCAA's NET rankings, ESPN's BPI and Strength of Schedule quotient.
Bottom line: Kansas should be the top seed for the Indianapolis regional.
c) Dayton ranks no lower than eighth overall with KenPom, ESPN's BPI and the NCAA's NET listing.
Plus, the Strength of Schedule trends should remain solid for February and March, since the Atlantic 10 has six viable options for the NCAA Tournament (Dayton, St. Bonaventure, Duquesne, Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Louis).
d) With rock-solid wins over Florida, Purdue, Tennessee, Clemson, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville and Virginia, Florida State makes good sense for a 3-seed … even if the Seminoles rank no higher than 15th with the Big Four analytics sites.
e) The Michigan State alumnus in me wants to scream, yell and quietly boil over disappointing defeats to Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan in recent weeks.
Fortunately for (irrational) people like me, though, the national metrics-makers are still wild about the Spartans, given their brutal schedule and penchant for knocking off solid teams on the road (Seton Hall, Illinois, Minnesota).
For example, despite the 17-8 overall record, Michigan State stands no worse than 11th with KenPom, ESPN's BPI, the NCAA's NET and Strength of Schedule rankings.
Hence, the solid 4-seed in the highly competitive Midwest.
- Baylor (22-1)
- Maryland (20-4)
- West Virginia (18-6)
- Kentucky (19-5)
- Butler (19-6)
a) Good luck poking holes into Baylor's argument for the No. 1 overall seed, come mid-March.
At this point, the Bears (21-game winning streak) boast road wins over Kansas, Florida and Texas Tech, along with strong victories over Arizona, Butler, Texas, Iowa State and Villanova.
Plus, they're perfect geographical fits for the Houston-based regional, in terms of putting fannies in the seats.
The only non-believer to date? ESPN's BPI rankings actually have Baylor at No. 5, trailing Michigan State of all teams.
b) Maryland absolutely warrants a spot on the 2-line, the result of posting seven straight victories and rocketing to the top of the Big Ten standings.
The only downside here: The Terrapins (ranked in the top 11 with KenPom, ESPN's BPI and the NCAA's NET listing) could potentially be prime fodder for Baylor in the regional final, with the Bears possessing a massive home-area advantage (Houston's Reliant Stadium).
c) West Virginia merited a drop to the 3-line based on the rough week of back-to-back defeats to Oklahoma (road) and Kansas (home).
There's also this: Yes, the Mountaineers have a 75-percent win percentage for the season; but when charting their six losses, just one involved a spread of six or fewer points.
d) Kentucky (11-2 in its last 13 games) keeps making subtle improvements in the BATSBY Sports projections, which is fine.
However, the NCAA Selection Committee doesn't share our appreciation for the Wildcats, who own impressive wins over Louisville, Michigan State, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia (twice).
What's more, as of today's date, Kentucky hasn't cracked the top 20 for KenPom, the NCAA's NET listing or ESPN's BPI metric. Ouch.
e) Initially, we had full plans on placing Creighton over Butler, among the 5-seed candidates.
However, here's the deal: The Bulldogs have a worse Big East record than the Blue Jays, but Butler still owns a best-of-three metrics edge over Creighton — citing the NCAA's NET listing (plus-6) and ESPN's BPI (plus-8).
- Gonzaga (25-1)
- Louisville (21-4)
- Arizona (16-7)
- Villanova (18-6)
- Texas Tech (16-8)
a) Gonzaga (victories over Washington, Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon; top-2 rankings with ESPN's BPI, KenPom and the NCAA's NET listing) can probably afford one West Coast Conference defeat (regular season or tournament) … and still earn the West region's top seed.
At the same time, don't be shocked if the Zags breeze through the WCC campaign with nary a setback. Some of these early to mid-year returns in conference play have been seismic blowouts.
b) Arizona boasts top-15 rankings with ESPN's BPI (9th), the NCAA's NET listing (9th) and KenPom (14th).
With this momentum, it sets up a potential Sweet 16 encounter with Louisville … and a possible rematch with Gonzaga in the West final.
c) Please welcome Texas Tech (No. 13 in KenPom, 17th with the NCAA NET), last year's national runner-up, to its first inclusion in BATSBY Sports' evolving survey of top 20 seeds.
What have the Red Raiders been up to lately? On paper, the 4-3 record in their last seven games shouldn't excite the masses.
However, of the three defeats, Texas Tech incurred a two-point loss to Kentucky, a three-point road loss to Kansas … and the sluggish defeat to TCU had been avenged on Monday night — by a 46-point margin.


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Littleroot Cup
What is the Littleroot Cup?
The Littleroot Cup is a 3 month circuit that is open to everyone! It gives everyone a place to play and earn points for our big Invitational event at the end!
How do I participate?
You can always check the LRL Calendar on the front page of our website, or follow us on our twitter (@LRLessons) or on our Discord, where we will always post links to sign up.
Tell me more!
There is so much to tell! Instead of us listing everything out here, check out the FAQ here.
Looking to Qualify for the Invitational?
You can earn points by playing in our events. Both Rumbles and the Dojo award differing amounts of points, but all go towards earning one of the coveted spots to make it into our Invitational!
Sign ups for all of our events can be found through our discord or twitter, and will be posted well in advance before the event is supposed to take place!
Format for Rumbles and the Dojo will always be the most current Ruleset for VGC! You can check out the full standings here!


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Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
27 Nov 2007 : Column 424Wcontinued
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the Answer of 23 October 2007, Official Report, column 272W, on NHS: Finance, how many NHSnet users there are; and what personally identifiable information is contained in the programme budgeting atlases. [166322]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Programme Budget Atlases contain no direct personally identifiable information in the sense of names, identification numbers, postcodes etc. However, some of the statistics contained within the atlases are based on very small numbers of events and may, therefore, have the potential to identify an individual. There are now some 300,000 registered NHSnet users, over 132,000 of whom use the system on a daily basis.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how much money will be transferred to primary care trusts from the Ministry of Justice in each financial year between 2008-09 and 2010-11 to fund the transfer of responsibility for healthcare escorts and bedwatches; [165702]
(2) whether the money to fund healthcare escorts and bedwatches from 2008-09 will be drawn from the budget of his Department. [165704]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The total budget for healthcare escorts and bedwatches activity in a 2005-06 audit indicated an annual spend of £16.9 million(1).
This amount, uplifted for pay, prices, population changes and where applicable, local allowances, will be transferred from the Ministry of Justice to this Department for each year covered by the current comprehensive spending review settlement.
Primary care trusts will shortly receive a communication confirming their allocations for the provision of healthcare escort and bedwatches services for each prison establishment in England for this period. Allocations for 2008-09 will be based on local historical spend as identified in the audit. Allocations for 2009-10 and beyond will then be re-distributed based on a fair shares model agreed with Her Majestys Prison Service, which will take into account a number of factors including prison type, category and operational capacity.
Final adjustments are currently under way.
(1) A Twelve Month Study of Prison Healthcare Escorts and Bedwatches, Department of Health, 2006.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the survival rate of those treated for prostate cancer in (a) Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust and (b) London NHS trusts is. [167293]
Angela Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 27 November 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the survival rate of those treated for prostate cancer in a) Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust and b) London NHS trusts is. I am replying in her absence. (167293)
Survival rates by NHS Trust are not available, but one and five-year survival for eight common cancers including prostate
cancer by government office region and strategic health authority, for patients diagnosed in 1997-99 and followed up to 31 December 2004, are available on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=11991 &Pos=9&ColRank=l&Rank=272
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many alcohol related injuries were treated in accident and emergency at Queens Hospital, Romford, since its establishment. [167439]
Mr. Bradshaw: The information requested is not held centrally.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans there are to appoint a specialist epilepsy nurse at Queen's hospital, Romford. [167315]
Mr. Bradshaw: We are informed that Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals National Health Service Trust has funding for an epilepsy nurse and will be advertising this post shortly.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) on what dates the Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza met in 2007; and if he will place in the Library copies of the minutes of these meetings; [166389]
(2) if he will place a copy in the Library of the empirical evidence referred to in section 2.4 of his Departments Pandemic Influenza Scientific Advisory Groups Subgroup on Modelling summary, dated November 2007, which demonstrates that local epidemics of pandemic influenza will vary in profile between primary care trust areas; [166457]
(3) if he will consider the merits of a contingency strategy for an appropriate response in the event of an extreme pandemic as recommended in his Departments Pandemic Influenza Scientific Advisory Groups Subgroup on Modelling summary, dated November 2007. [166458]
Dawn Primarolo: The Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza has not met in 2007.
The empirical evidence referred to, from the Departments Pandemic Influenza Scientific Advisory Groups Subgroup on Modelling, concern 1918-19 influenza pandemic mortality data from England and Wales. The actual documents used by the Department are tables produced by Niall Johnson as part of his PhD project in the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (1996-2001). The raw data in the Departments possession has been placed in the Library.
The Pandemic Influenza Scientific Advisory Groups Subgroup on Modelling summary, dated November 2007 does not recommend a contingency strategy for an extreme pandemic.
The modelling summary defines an extreme pandemic as one where the case fatality rate (CFR) is above the historic range, i.e. above 2.5 per cent. and indicates that
a policy question is how the response might change for such a pandemic. It does not recommend Government devises a contingency strategy for the situation. It recommends: Based on historical pandemics, a reasonable worst case for a pandemic would be a CFR of 2.5 per cent. This is the upper end of the CFR range considered in the contingency planning as described in the cross-Government national framework for responding to an influenza pandemic.
James Brokenshire:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) 15 to 19-year-olds and (b) adults over the age of 19-years-old in the Havering
Primary Care Trust area were (i) tested for and (ii) diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections in 2006. [167113]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the number of people tested for sexually transmitted infections in genitourinary clinics (GUM) is not currently collected centrally.
Information on the number of diagnoses in young people 15 to 19-years-old and adults over the age of 19 diagnosed in GUM clinics is only currently available at strategic health authority (SHA) level.
Information for 2006 for the London SHA, which includes Havering Primary Care Trust (PCT) is given in the following table.
Chlamydia | Gonorrhoea | Syphilis | Herpes | Warts | |
Notes: 1. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are for diagnoses made in GUM clinics only. Diagnoses made in other clinical settings, such as general practice, are not recorded in the KC60 dataset. 2. The data available from the KC60 statutory returns are the number of diagnoses made, not the number of patients diagnosed. Individual patients may have more than one diagnosis in a year. 3. The information provided has been adjusted for missing clinic data. 4. There is no reporting GUM clinic in the Havering PCT area. 5. Age groups are only available for chlamydia, gonorrhoea, primary and secondary syphilis, anogenital herpes and anogenital warts only. 6. STI testing data in GUM clinics is not collected by age group. Source: Health Protection Agency, KC60 returns |
In addition to diagnoses made in GUM clinics, the national chlamydia screening programme (NCSP) has been running since 2003 in England. Information according to postcode of residence for those who have had a test and are positively diagnosed within the Havering PCT for 2006 is given in the following table.
Years | ||
Age group | ||
15 to 19 | 20 to 24 | |
Notes: 1. The data from the NCSP are for diagnoses made outside of GUM clinics and include diagnoses made by the Boots pathfinder project in London. 2. The data available from the NCSP are the number of tests and diagnoses made and not the number of patients tested and diagnosed. 3. The NCSP screens those aged under 25 years. 4. Data as of 15 November 2007 Source: National Chlamydia Screening Programme. |
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will collate figures for five-year survival rates for skin cancer on a regional basis. [166504]
Angela Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 27 November 2007 :
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will collate figures for five-year survival rates for skin cancer on a regional basis. I am replying in her absence. (165504)
As noted in a response to a similar question you asked previously (Official Report volume 467, No. 10, column 921W, 21 November 2007) sub-national analyses of survival from specific cancers are only routinely undertaken for eight cancers, and do not include skin cancer. Further there are no plans to produce equivalent figures for other cancer sites. However, figures are available for skin cancer diagnosed during 1971-90 in England and Wales, broken down by region, and were provided in the earlier reply.
The sub-national analyses of survival for the eight cancers were produced in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). LSHTM were funded by National Centre for Health Outcomes Development (NCHOD)/Department of Health to produce analyses for these eight common cancers only. These figures were used by the National Heath Service as part of the Compendium of Clinical and Health Indicators.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of (a) 16 and (b) 17 year olds who smoked in each year since 1978, broken down by sex. [166452]
Dawn Primarolo: The information is not available in the format requested. However, latest data on the percentage of adults aged 16 to 19 who smoke in Great Britain, broken down by gender are available from the 2005 General Household Survey and are shown in the following table.
Reducing the number of young people who smoke is a Government priority, which is why the minimum age of sale was raised to 18 from 1 October. Sanctions
against retailers who repeatedly flout the law on age of sale will also be introduced.
Prevalence of cigarette smoking by sex and age, Great Britain, 1974 to 2005 | |||||||
Unweighted (percentage smoking cigarettes) | |||||||
Persons aged 16 and over | 1974 | 1978 | 1982 | 1986 | 1990 | 1994 | 1998 |
Next Section | Index | Home Page |


text: Comprehension & Composition What is Reading Comprehension Passage? Summary Reading Comprehension (RC) Passages form an integral part of majority of language proficiency tests. Most exams dedicate a significant portion to Reading Comprehension to check the test-taker's proficiency at understanding a given text and relate it with some background information. Hence, it becomes imperative for an aspirant to know the ins & outs of the Reading Comprehension Passages. In order to realize the need of incorporating RC Passages in a test, one should first understand the meaning of the term Reading Comprehension Passage. This can be done by exploring the three constituent words i.e. Reading, Comprehension & Passage. Reading Reading is one of the four skills (Reading, Writing, Listening & Speaking) to be acquired in order to learn a language. It is a skill of looking at words with the motive of recognizing them and making out their meanings. Thus, reading helps in getting information through understanding the written words. Comprehension Comprehension denotes an ability to understand the meaning of something or importance of something. It may also refer to the knowledge acquired as a result of undertaking an activity, as for example, reading. It entails mental grasping of an idea or a subject and incorporating the same into one's knowledge through assimilation. Passage Here, a passage means an extract drawn from a piece of writing, such as an essay or a novel. It is a section of a longer composition and may consist of one or more paragraphs. A passage may open on a particular note or it may also have an abrupt opening. Same is the case with its ending. Whatever the case may be, it is of sufficient length to acquaint the reader with the subject under consideration, author's style and point of view. There may be certain hidden elements that the reader is supposed to make out as a result of his understanding and relating it with his background knowledge. Thus, dealing with RC Passages requires a combination of reading with the purpose of understanding and establishing a relation with background knowledge concerned with the subject matter of the passage. A lot of time is required to do this unless one is an avid reader, because the passages presented in the exams are from diverse domains. Since a lot of questions have to be tackled in a very short period of time, it needs a fair play of mind with concerted effort on the part of the reader to attempt the questions based on the RC Passages. Besides being acquainted with RC Passages, it is also pertinent to know the pattern of questions that are asked on the basis of information presented in them. However, the details related to RC based questions and strategy to answer them accurately will be dealt with separately. Primarily, following types of questions are asked on RC Passages. Questions based on main idea and theme of the passage.Questions based on the reader's perception i.e. inference drawn by the reader.Giving a suitable title or heading to the passage.Questions based on contextual references presented in the passage.Questions seeking details provided in the passage.Questions based on vocabulary and diction.Questions based on author's writing style and tone.


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Canadian scientists have invented an online calculator that calculates the risk of developing dementia for people over 55 years of age.
With the help of development, filling in data about their lifestyle, people receive information on how to reduce the risk of developing dementia. The information needed concerns a person's health, diet, stress levels, as well as education and social status.
The creators of the calculator work at the University of Ottawa and practice at the local hospital. They are adamant that by using this innovation in medical diagnostics, people will not need the research that is currently being applied.
Dementia is not treatable, so it is important that people at risk are informed in a timely manner. Lifestyle changes could reverse the prognosis for dementia.
The calculator is available at: https://www.projectbiglife.ca/dementia.
ProjectBigLife.ca offers other tools to assess your own risk of disease.


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The Disability Rights Unit of the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria participated in the roundtable on the development of an integrated plan to protect, promote and uphold the rights of persons with albinism held in Pretoria on 27 and 28 September 2018. The roundtable was hosted by the Department of Social Development (DSD), the department responsible for coordinating national strategies aimed at promoting the rights of persons with disabilities and other marginalised groups who are at risk of compounded marginalisation.
The roundtable was government's response to the upsurge of human rights violations and discrimination of persons with albinism in the country which has included amongst others killings, abductions and desecrations of graves of persons with albinism.
The roundtable brought together 70 key stakeholders actively working on the protection and the promotion of the rights of persons with albinism in South Africa which included civil society organizations, research institutions, Chapter 9 institutions and national and provincial government representatives including Albinism Society of South Africa, Albinism Advocacy on Access Foundation, South Africa Human Rights Commission, Western Cape Albinism And Hypo-Pigment Foundation, South African Police Services, Member of the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, South Africa Broadcasting Corporation and Human Rights Media Centre amoungst others.
The objectives of the roundtable was to share and document current advocacy, support and protection initiatives by both government and civil society (organisations and individuals), to track progress with implementation of the resolutions undertaken at the 2013 National Conference on the Rights of Persons with Albinism, to identify and engage on current challenges facing the albinism civil society sector, to establish a task team that will develop a draft national strategy to promote the rights of persons with albinism in South Africa and to establish an inclusive task team to plan and coordinate the 2019 National Conference on the Rights of Persons with Albinism.
The roundtable was chaired by the Honourable Deputy Minister of Social Development, Ms Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu.The Honourable Deputy Minister in her opening remarks acknowledged the positive contribution made by the participants of the roundtable. She went on to say that part of the impetus of the roundtable was to get a sense of who is working on what and where and see how these different efforts can be channelled towards a common goal.
The Deputy Minister acknowledged the lack of cohesion in the initiatives undertaken by the different stakeholders including the government as a key detractor that has limited the potential of the movement from achieving the objectives of the 2013 National Conference on the Rights of Persons with Albinism and from effective representation of persons with albinism at provincial and local levels. To this end she called on the stakeholders to unite in promoting the rights of persons with albinism. She reiterated her department's commitment to work with persons with albinism to develop policies and programme that will see their rights protected.
The Centre for Human Rights was represented by Ms Innocentia Mgijima-Konopi and Mr Jehoshaphat Njau. Ms Mgijima-Konopi spoke on the work the Disability Rights Unit has been doing in promoting the rights of persons with albinism, specifically the human rights capacity building workshops for the frontline organisations working to advance the rights of persons with albinism the Centre will be hosting for the next two years. The first was held on 20-22 of August 2018 at the University. Ms Mgijima-Konopi highlighted the importance of these workshops as an empowerment tool that will effectively increase the knowledge and understanding of human rights amongst organisations working to advance the rights of persons with albinism in South Africa and beyond.
Mr Njau spoke on the recently launched online platform of the Regional Action Plan on Albinism in Africa (2017-2021) that the Disability Rights was involved in. Mr Njau highlighted the importance of the online platform as an effective tool in the coordination of initiatives and mobilizing of resources required in the tracking of the progress made in the implementation of the Regional Action Plan.
After an intensive two days of deliberation, a consensus was reached that a further consultative process should be put in place that will see a Working Group established representative of albinism structures from all provinces as well as key individual activists, government and Chapter 9 institutions that will determine the objectives of the proposed 2019 conference as well as the modalities of the drafting of the National Strategy to Promote the rights of Persons with Albinism in South Africa. The Department of Social Development was tasked with facilitating and coordinating this consultative which should be completed before the end of this year.
At the end of the roundtable the department committed to put mechanism in place to report to sector on yearly basis its work on albinism, compile a draft Framework for a National Strategy on Advancing the Rights of Persons with Albinism in South Africa, and set milestones and targets that will go hand in hand with the National Strategy that will be developed by the sector in 2019.
The Centre commends the government of South Africa for holding this roundtable, a historical step in the realization of the rights of persons with albinism.
For more information contact
Tel: +27 12 420 5408
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 6398
Fax: +27 (0) 86 580 5743