text:
Call it coincidence, but when I agreed months ago to do a St Wilfrid Lecture at Ripon Cathedral I didn't think it would take place in the week the Murdochs returned to the Leveson Inquiry. Having agreed to speak about ethics and the media, I decided it was too big a theme and narrowed it down a little… recognising the context of the Leveson interrogation. (After dinner following the lecture the city hornblower came into the Minster house to blow his horn at the Mayor of Ripon. Surreal, but traditional!)
Here's the basic text of the lecture, minus the Q & A and all the asides. It is long…
Andrew Marr begins his excellent history of British journalism My Trade with a rhyme by Humbert Wolfe. It goes like this:
You cannot hope / to bribe or twist, / thank God! The / British journalist.
But, seeing what / the man will do / unbribed, there's / no occasion to.
It's easy to be cynical, isn't it? After all, even Wolfe would be gobsmacked at what has emerged from the Leveson Inquiry so far.
Ethics has to do not only with how we behave, but also why we behave the way we behave. That is to say, when thinking about ethics we need to pay attention to the world view, the thinking and moral assumptions that drive the ways in which we live and choose and relate. So, any consideration of media ethics involves not only a questioning of the media – those who own, work, drive and create media content – but also the rest of us: that is, we who consume media output in any of a million ways. If journalists and media operators need to be subject to ethical scrutiny, so do those who consume their product. As Harold Nicolson observed, "We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others by their acts."
So, we need to begin this somewhat discursive look at media ethics by learning something of the media world in which we actually live and move and have our being. Having done a brief tour of some of the contours of today's changing media environment, we can then move on to take a look at a couple of ethical issues in particular. And, given the potential breadth of any consideration of the media, I will concentrate most of my observations on journalism rather than, say, film, music, advertising or other entertainment media.
However, if what follows bores you, I suggest you fill the time making a note of two books that help us understand some of the trends and realities in media development, particularly print media. I have already referred to Andrew Marr's excellent My Trade; the other is Nick Davies's devastating Flat Earth News – of which more later.
In the context of the Leveson Inquiry we are all aware of the bad behaviour of some elements of the press. Even this week we have seen Murdochs Junior and Senior brought back to face detailed questioning not only of practice, but of motive and the ethical pool in which their media organs have been swimming. And just as goldfish do not usually analyse the nature of the water in their bowl, neither have some media operators critically analysed the ethical nature of the air that they breathe. So, Leveson has dragged out an appalling record of (alleged) lying, duplicity, abuse of power, misrepresentation, deliberate defamation, corruption of public officials and police officers, implicit blackmail, criminality of a variety of types… and the emerging picture begs many questions – not only of those who perpetrated this culture, but also of those of us who fed it by buying the product, not challenging destructive media practices, not questioning the effects of such media behaviours, and feeding the monster by being easily entertained by other people's destruction or humiliation. Anyway, we'll come back to this later, once we have surveyed the landscape. And I can illustrate some of this further when we get to questions later.
The media world is changing. You really didn't need to be told that. My mother was born in 1932 and last week celebrated her 80th birthday. My dad gave her an iPad. She emails form it, takes photos with it and skypes my older brother when he is working in Kuwait. Five years ago she was struggling with a mobile phone. A true silver surfer, she has seen a revolution in media during her lifetime – a revolution that is speeding up by the minute. From no television in her childhood – and she even cut open the mesh on the front of her dad's first radio in order to see the little people inside it – she now has hundreds of channels on cable and is adept at social media and googling. Fings ain't what they used to be.
Not many years ago Fleet Street dominated print media (a term that has only been invented recently) and newspapers at national, regional and local level enjoyed wide readerships. More importantly, they offered an intelligent scrutiny of political power – at the local level by having journalists dedicated to following local council debates and scrutinising the papers that fed those debates. Which is one simple way of illustrating that they played an important role in the democratic discourse, posing the questions the rest of us didn't think of because we didn't have the time to read all the paperwork. That's just one example. Now, however, no newspaper (at any level) makes a profit, journalists do not have the time to do the work they used to do, and there are far fewer of them.
But, it isn't the dominance of radio and television that has done this. Rather, it is the phenomenal sweep of the internet and mobile communications that has led to people dropping the buying of hard copy and obtaining their news and entertainment on their laptops, iPads or smartphones. And there's probably no going back. In the last month we have heard that the position of Editor-in-Chief at the Yorkshire Post has been cut. Why? Because the digital revolution is so fast and deep that traditional print media cannot keep up.
So, while many of us marvel at and enjoy the opportunities afforded by the new digital platforms, we are also aware of the cost – at many levels – of this radical change in the ways in which people engage with the media. For example, as Nick Davies points out repeatedly in his important and challenging book Flat Earth News, journalists are increasingly thin on the ground, have little time to get out of the office and away from the computer, can no longer provide the detailed scrutiny of power that served the interests of democratic accountability so well. PR output finds its way into reportage unchecked – not because journalists are incompetent, but simply because there isn't the money to pay for enough of them to do the job we have expected of them on behalf of the public interest and the common good. In other words, reduced professional journalism creates a democratic deficit that impacts on us all. If we won't pay for it, we won't get it.
But, journalists cannot be paid with thin air or the gratitude of a loving public. Traditional media have increasingly tried to bolster their particular medium using traditional methods. Take, for example, your local newspaper. Like many people, you probably hate the fact that the front page is always headlined with murder, catastrophe, sexual deviancy, conflict or destructiveness of one sort or another. But, the editor will tell you that good news doesn't sell; that bad news does. Somehow. It is the unusualness of an event that makes it newsworthy – a breach in a world that we assume should be both ordered and orderly. Let me illustrate briefly.
Several years ago, on my way to Guildford to preach at a service for the judges of the County of Surrey, I passed a newspaper billboard (for the Croydon Advertiser) that proclaimed: 'Lollipop lady hit with stick'. From the pulpit I asked the judges which bit of this headline I was supposed to be shocked by: that it was a lollipop lady (not a man or a boy); that it was a lollipop lady (rather than an electrician or a lawyer); that she was hit (rather than poked or tickled); or that the hitting was done with a stick (rather than a fork or a wet lettuce)? The judges just laughed under their wigs – which wasn't very helpful and didn't answer my questions.
Anyway, the point is that newspapers try to address the decline in traditional newspaper consumption by trying to sell more newspapers – and they think that this might be achieved by having dramatic front pages rather than good news stories involving local puppies being loved by happy children. But, this solution doesn't actually address the problem: the decline in sales is not related to the blandness of the product; it is because of the decline in usefulness or accessibility of the medium itself. Or, as Bill Clinton didn't say, 'It's the platform, stupid'.
There are those observers, of course, who would say that the result of the economic and financial pressures, the vast reduction in the number of working journalists in various media, and the plurality of media outlets (you can get thousands of TV channels from satellite platforms) is a dumbing down of content. Even the news has to be presented in a way that entertains us. We can't concentrate; so, we get brief, lowest-common-denominator infotainment – what some commentators think is just the latest way of anaesthetising us from the horrible and complex realities of the world. Neil Postman pointed to this in the great title he chose for his seminal book: Amusing Ourselves to Death.
Anyway, it will come as no surprise to discover that online editions of the Guardian are accessed by forty times the number of people who read the paper on paper.
The challenge for the media, then, is to discover the sorts of business plans that will allow for businesses to make a sufficient profit to enable them to employ professional journalists who have the competence, experience and conditions (time and scope) to dig into the stories that matter… in order to expose corruption, spread good news, interpret the world, shine new light on matters we thought we understood. At the moment traditional print media are surviving with massive financial losses, and by cross-subsidies from other branches of media businesses.
Now, I don't want to spend the rest of this presentation explaining media businesses or the radical challenges to traditional media platforms. Nor do I think it will be profitable to try to explain how the various contemporary media operate and interconnect. If we want to do media studies we can go to university and do a course. But, we do need to understand something of the real media environment if we are to comprehend anything of the ethical questions thrown up by the demands of this changing environment. Ethics are not abstract and reality impinges on chosen behaviours. I might add, of course, that to understand is not to condone.
So, having surveyed very briefly and superficially the changing and challenging media scene, let's move on to think about the ethics of all of us who create, own, run or consume the media products. I want to do this by first establishing a fundamental principle – fundamental, that is, to a Christian world view.
A Christian anthropology begins from the belief that every person is made in the imago Dei and is, therefore, infinitely valuable. Being so created, each person has freedom and responsibility… and is accountable to God and others who are also made in his image. We are to 'cultivate the earth' – that is develop and explore and grow the world – including technology. But, when we lose sight of the value of human being, we will quickly find that anything… eventually… goes. Every person, regardless of their particular compromises and failings, being made in the image of God, is to be respected.
Furthermore, every human being is redeemable. That is to say, it isn't hard to find the muck of human life; but, do we believe that people can change? A Christian anthropology argues that people – made in the image of God – are redeemable. Therefore, how they behave or misbehave now is not the final word – something Dr Rowan Williams has a lot to say about (mainly in relation to language) in his marvellous book on Dostoyevsky.
Thirdly, human society offers a context of mutual relational accountability. This means that those who wish to stand in judgement on others must, themselves, be accountable. In other words, no hypocrisy on any side.
Now, this is where, as they say, the rubber hits the Leveson road.
The phone hacking scandal is coloured with the deepest of ironies in that those editors and journalists who 'lost their moral bearings' have argued that they were only wanting to expose the truth about other people's lives – that they have a responsibility to (and I quote) 'hold power to account'. Yet, of course, they located 'power' somewhere else and assumed themselves to be the arbiters of truth, the guardians of integrity, the defenders of a moral world. Some journalists still maintain – without the hint of a smirk – that they and their organs have no power… that they simply expose, tell stories, shine a light, describe reality, and leave it up to the now-better-informed to make their own judgements and draw their own conclusions. This is wilful nonsense. Those who have the power to intimidate politicians, destroy reputations, relationships and lives, consider themselves immune from normal moral and legal accountability, are people who shape the world, create a discourse, and not only set agendas for public life, but also assume the right – nay, responsibility – to act as incontrovertible witness, judge and jury in a society they purport to merely observe.
So, I ask: Is it not deeply hypocritical that those who do the judging and exposing are not themselves subject to the same accountability? During the MPs expenses business I received an excoriatingly angry email from one of the journalists involved. I had said on my blog that I thought the newspaper should be sued for incitement to criminal activity – they paid money to get hold of what was confidential data. He argued that this exposure was in the public interest. I asked if we could see the expenses bills of newspaper editors – on the grounds that they also powerfully shape the public discourse and more. He wasn't pleased.
This ignores the real power that elements of the media have exercised over other people. The fact that a fact about someone is true does not mean that everybody should know it. And something has gone badly wrong when people – flesh and blood human beings – are turned into commodities for other people's entertainment and titillation at the hands of people who then deny any responsibility for the consequences of their actions on other people's lives.
When people are misrepresented or misused – held to account by people who hitherto have considered themselves to be unaccountable or untouchable – they betray an empty denial of humanity or human value. And once we start doing that with one category of person, we won't find it easy to stop the habit. Witness the News of the World. Or listen to Nick Davies – the Guardian journalist who, against all sorts of pressures and threats, doggedly pursued the phone hacking story until it could be hidden no longer: "I know a fair bit about sex and drugs and hypocrisy in Fleet Street: executives whose papers support the war against drugs while shoving cocaine up their nostrils in the office toilets; reporters who attack the sexual adventures of others while routinely dropping their own trousers at the first scent of a willing secretary."
Journalists may counter that they report the world as disinterested observers. I put it to you that they are shapers of the world along with those about whom they report. There is no moral neutrality to be found here.
Now, this brings us to a second ethical lens through which to look at the media in general and journalism in particular: representation of truth.
Pontius Pilate wasn't the only person in history to wonder what truth was all about. Truth is elusive. In a relativistic age it is perhaps more slippery than ever. But, if you ask most people what they want from the media – particularly reportage and journalism – they will probably ask for some representation of the truth. And this is where it gets sticky for some of us – where the realities of journalism conflict with the interests of a particular individual. Let me illustrate with a couple of relatively trivial examples from my own experience:
In 2007 I took a group of twenty clergy and lay people from the Croydon Episcopal Area to visit our link diocese of Central Zimbabwe. Times were tough: inflation was by then running at a mere 10,000% and unemployment was reckoned to be around 80%. There was no power, water was not getting pumped into Gweru, people were beginning to get hungry and ill. We were invited to meet the Governor of the Midlands Province – a nice man who welcomed us to his offices. He had invited some of his senior people, but also a journalist with the state-owned newspaper in Harare. Following a robust exchange during the meeting, this journalist cornered me afterwards and pursued his point… on camera. At one point I argued that a confident country with nothing to hide would not ban foreign journalists and then complain about (to their mind) misrepresentation from outside the borders. However, I made the mistake of adding that in a democratic country we all run the risk of being misquoted or misrepresented, but that we also have the opportunity to challenge and respond. This became the next day's front page headline: 'Bishop: it is all UK media lies'. Apparently, I had seen no problems in Zimbabwe – it was all UK media misrepresentation.
I spent nearly £400 on my mobile phone pre-empting the damage back in London with the Foreign Office, Lambeth Palace, Church House Westminster and the Diocese of Southwark. To make it worse, a couple of months later a glossy magazine called New African was paraded all over WH Smiths with a three page 'interview' with me in which I denied any problems in Zimbabwe. I had done no interview and had no contact with the magazine at all. But, if you google me, you will still get links to this story and there are still people who give me grief when they see it online. (Still, I also saw a headline that read: 'Prophet drowns during baptism' and that compensated for the grief. Lousy prophet…)
Nearer to home, I once wrote a book about Christmas. The Sunday Telegraph ran a story about it – or, rather, about one paragraph in (I think) the fourth chapter. The problem came with the headline which, of course, had been written not by the journalist, but by the sub-editor: 'Bishop says carols are nonsense'. Good story and it travelled the world in hours. According to one newspaper in India I had 'banned Christmas' – something Oliver Cromwell tried to do, but failed in the end. For the journalist this was a great story and a good piece. For me it led to fifteen often aggressive radio and television interviews in two days in order for me to try to put the story right. His triumph was my misery… to say nothing of the embarrassment caused to my wife, my colleagues and the church. (I got a barrage of post and emails, one of which suggested ways I might like to take my life and then was signed 'Yours in Christ'.)
Now, I am not complaining… really. The journalist has to get a story and get it as close to the front page as possible. 'Bishop says carols are quite nice' isn't going to do it. But, I learned the lesson at last that the story is the story – not necessarily what I would like to be the story. It caused me considerable grief, but I survived. The question is, however, was the story true? In one sense it was: I had suggested that (as one of the Wesley brothers had said) we learn our theology from what we sing and not from what we hear from a pulpit – so, if we sing nonsense, we will most likely believe nonsense. I linked this to a comment about babies making no crying…
Yet, the story wasn't true. I wasn't saying that carols are nonsense, nor that we shouldn't be singing them. The point is simply that the journalist was hoping for glory and I was hoping to flog a few books. He got his glory, I didn't flog many books!
As I said, these are trivial examples, but they bring me back to the most frequently ignored verse in the Bible. The ninth commandment forbids misrepresentation: 'Thou shalt not bear false witness'… or 'you will not misrepresent your neighbour's case'. The journalist has a responsibility to represent and not to misrepresent – even if the media game demands a bit of licence here and there. Of course, the problem is that most victims of misrepresentation are more concerned about their reputation and integrity than about the newspaper's sales figures or the journalist's career – especially when the latter is won at the cost of the former. The news moves on; the damage to the individual remains. The internet never forgets…
The former Bishop of Durham, Dr David Jenkins, once wrote of the terrible effects of the media pressure on him when he said that the resurrection was more than a conjuring trick with bones. Quite depressed, he was taken out for lunch by a rabbi friend of his and the rabbi told him a story. A bishop and a rabbi went in a boat on a lake when the rabbi's skullcap was blown off his head and away onto the water. The bishop got out of the boat, walked on the water, collected the yarmulkah and returned to the boat. The next day the newspaper headline read: BISHOP CAN'T SWIM!
But, if the examples I have cited are relatively trivial, then what do we do with the sort of thing that Nick Davies exposed in Flat Earth News and then in his relentless pursuit of the phone hacking story? For, it is worth noting, it was good, solid, intelligent and morally courageous investigative journalism that rumbled the scandals at the heart of the Murdoch empire – in the teeth of opposition from that bastion of a free press.
I guess the real ethical question this throws up is that of utilitarianism: do the ends justify the means? Can morally dubious behaviour be justified if the ultimate outcome is exposure of corruption? Was the Telegraph right to pay an individual to break his own commitments and steal data for the sake of a public story? Ultimately it can be argued that the public interest was served; but the story was run in such a way as to titillate the interest of the public, too – drawn out over weeks. So, even if we decide the ends (the public interest) were justified by the means (of obtaining the data), this doesn't let the newspaper off the moral hook for the means it adopted. Accountability cuts more than one way, after all.
So, we have identified briefly three ethical lenses through which to look at aspects of the media: how they handle the human person (and what this treatment betrays about our anthropological assumptions); truth and accurate representation; and utilitarian assumptions about people, stories and business. I think this leads us next to think a little about the phrase used to justify media intrusion into some people's lives: public interest. Clearly, the publication or transmission of something that is 'of interest to the public' is not necessarily 'in the public interest', is it? A story that is interesting to a particular community might not be of importance to the wider community addressed by particular media organs. Equally, a matter of real public interest might not be communicable in a form that makes it of interest to the audience. However, 'public interest' should not be used as a cover for telling tales that titillate some while destroying the subjects – when the fact of it being interesting to some prurient people says nothing about its importance for the common good. Which brings us back to Leveson.
This must be one of the very few public inquiries to have run for so long and yet still not have lost its power to shock. The fundamental question being addressed by Leveson is: how did a particular media organisation (a) manage to hold such power over public officials, the police and its own industry, (b) develop a deeply and endemically corrupt culture of unaccountable abuse, and (c) have the nerve to pervert the course of justice – allegedly – by attempting industrial-scale destruction of evidence of its wrongdoing? Having addressed these questions, Leveson will go on to draw out the lessons and commend a better way of regulating the press – or, at least, holding the press more accountable not only for its product, but also for its methods and behaviour.
In his Orwell Lecture in November 2011, the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, reminded us of the context in which the phone hacking story broke. He said: "… I think Orwell would have been deeply interested in the broader story – not of how you regulate the press, but how one man and one corporation came to have such sway over British political, commercial and cultural life – and how we came within days of allowing him a position of even greater dominance." You will remember that the new coalition government had decided that there was not really a problem in James Murdoch's News International taking a major holding in BskyB – thus giving him and his business a staggering degree of ownership of a range of media enterprises. James Murdoch was being defended as a fit and proper person, despite the protestations of many of us who were alarmed for a number of reasons. The relentless rise of Murdoch only began to falter at the last minute when the extent of phone hacking began to emerge – challenging previous dismissals of the extent of any wrongdoing and putting a large question mark over the probity of previous refusals by the Metropolitan Police, Ofcom and the Press Complaints Commission to investigate further.
July 2011 – as Rusbridger recalled: "a month that saw revelations that plumbed new depths in journalism. There were resignations, arrests, a death, parliamentary debates, corporate high drama; family feuding; multimillion-pound payoffs, the closure of a newspaper … and the climax: the "most humble day" in the life of the most powerful media tycoon of this, or of any other, generation." Yet that was not the beginning and it certainly wasn't the end of the story. Within weeks the number of people suspected of having been hacked had risen to 5,800. Arrests have continued, prosecutions are now being considered, and Murdoch Junior has had to resign from two of his most prominent positions. Father and son have been summoned and grilled again. They have become the story – a disastrous position for the storytellers to find themselves in.
Yet, what is staggering is that July 2011 followed eighteen months of obfuscation by News International and politicians, intimidation by News International (claiming in print that the Guardian had 'deliberately misled the British public' over its allegations of widespread phone hacking), and negligence by a police force that now appears to have been complicit in corruption at different levels. As Rusbridger put it: "… fascinating in what it said about Britain and the settlement so many people in public life had made, over two generations or more, with Rupert Murdoch."
How did we as a society allow such power and unaccountable freedom to Murdoch's organs? How did we allow such intimidation to continue for so long? Why did we find it so hard to believe the extent or probity of the allegations against the News of the World and its parent? For, if corrupt journalistic cultures were allowed to grow for so long, they did so with the complicity of a public that gobbled up its product with a voyeuristic passion that now looks shameful. Someone was buying the papers in huge numbers when vulnerable people (the McCanns, for example) were being turned into entertainment commodities for the voyeuristic judgmentalism of a public that surely had lost its own moral bearings.
Yet, nothing should distract us from the ethical mire into which this particular media organisation has dragged us. Not only was there allegedly a culture of bullying in which journalists were compelled to indulge practices they clearly thought were dubious. This company generated its own private intelligence operation – "one that outsourced the dirtiest work to criminals and which, according to people in a position to know, had a formidable private investigation capability." Intrusion into the private lives of huge numbers of individuals became routine – which suggests that these people were assumed to be dehumanised commodities, depersonalised and to be denied their privacy. Remember the imago Dei?
A brilliant illustration of this to be found in von Donnersmarck's remarkable and moving 2006 film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others). The Stasi used surveillance to intimidate, humiliate and control people in the German Democratic Republic. This film shows the consequences for particular people – including the intelligence officer who finds himself humanised – at enormous personal cost – by seeing the humanity behind the 'cases'. Intrusion into the lives of others becomes unacceptable once you begin to see people as human beings and not simply objects for the entertainment or judgement of others.
If truth matters and is game for exposure in any circumstances, then this must apply consistently – even to those who do the exposing of others. With freedom goes responsibility; with responsibility goes accountability. And, I might say, human beings are to be the masters of their technologies, and not the other way around.
The phone hacking scandal has exposed the ease with which people can be snooped on, watched, followed and stalked. The electronic world means that privacy is rapidly becoming a fantasy when it comes to our engagement with media. Yes, whole new worlds of possibility are opening up – creating new communities, new ways of experiencing the world and relationships, new ways of learning before engaging, and so on. But, it is also a world in which the technology allows enormous power to those whose power needs to be checked. For, I would contest that we live in a world which has lost the capacity – or vocabulary – for ethical conversation (that is, conversation about ethics) on any other grounds than competence. A fundamental tenet of ethics is, as every teenager knows, you can't get an 'ought' from an 'is'. In other words, the fact that something is – or is doable – does not imply a moral imperative: we can do it, therefore we may do it. Competence does not imply legitimacy.
In our rapidly changing media world technological competence presents new ethical dilemmas. If we can't answer them all, we must at least be alert to their importance and not let them go by default. If we do, we might find ourselves in the brave new world lauded by James Murdoch in his 2009 James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival: "There is an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society. The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit."
Really? What anthropological assumptions underlie that assertion? Discuss.


text:
I have a girlfriend who doesn't have a filter and constantly gets chastised for it. She just says it how it is, and I guess some people just aren't comfortable with her honesty. Do you ever wonder what a day with your friends would be like, if we all had to remove our filters? I know for certain I would be rolling with laughter all day long. The Movie The Invention of Lying is basically what it would be like if we did remove our filters. Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner are hilarious together! I laugh at just the thought of my thoughts becoming words at times!
I love when people have the courage to speak their minds. Not many people do anymore. I think my girlfriend is hysterically funny, she makes me laugh in a away that is always unexpected. The kind of laugh that makes you spit your drink out of your mouth or snot shoots out your nose. I have on several occasions almost pee'd my pants while in her company because of the stuff she says out loud! She also doesn't have an inside voice so when I say out loud I mean out LOUD! That's what cracks me up so much about what she says, its like no one ever told her as a child that sound travels! I think she actually has a filter she's just misplaced it, or chooses not to use it around cerain people. I find humour in that.
It's hard to deprogram leaned behaviour, which is sometimes a good thing but not always! Don't you wish you could just be brutally honest with some people who catch you off guard! I'd like to just let it fly sometimes just to see what people would do. Think before you speak is becoming wayyyy to common and ordinary blah blah blah. We need those who don't think before they blurt out the obvious. They are like adding colour to a black and white photographed society. That's why their type is called 'Colourful'. Don't get me wrong, we need to know when to keep our
pie holes mouths shut too. If we could express ourselves without causing too many waves or hurting feelings it would be a perfect balance. Nobody wants to cause a Tsunami everywhere they go but a nice healthy 20 footer every now and then to keep everyone on their toes would be fun!
Here is an example of perhaps going too far!
If we did have a day that required us to tell the truth would you stay home or bust out the door and enjoy your day? Would telling the truth inspire change? I dare ya to remove your filter and see what happens!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Straight Outta Compton was able to hold off a strong challenge from War Room to remain in first place this weekend with an estimated $13.24 million. The modestly budgeted F. Gary Gray directed N.W.A biopic from Universal has led the weekend box office for three consecutive frames. Straight Outta Compton is the fourth film to lead the box office for at least three consecutive weekends in 2015, as it joins Warner's American Sniper and fellow Universal releases Furious 7 and Jurassic World. Straight Outta Compton continued to show signs of being front-loaded, as the film was down 50 percent from last weekend. In the bigger picture, Straight Outta Compton continues to impress with a 17-day gross of $134.13 million. That is 45 percent ahead of the $92.70 million 17-day take of last year's Ride Along.
Sony's War Room was off to a very nice start this weekend with an estimated second place debut of $11.0 million. The low-budget Kendrick Brothers produced faith based film from TriStar and AFFIRM Films exceeded its modest expectations heading into the weekend. War Room opened 61 percent stronger than the $6.84 million debut of 2008's Fireproof and 21 percent ahead of the $9.11 million start of 2011's Courageous. Making the film's performance even more impressive was that it was only playing in 1,135 locations this weekend. That gave War Room a strong per-location average of $9,692 for the frame. War Room was aided by an effective grass-roots marketing campaign and by the pre-established fanbase for the Kendrick Brothers. Previous Kendrick Brothers films Fireproof and Courageous both displayed strong holding power during their respective runs. War Room will likely display strong holding power of its own going forward, especially given its A+ rating on CinemaScore.
War Room opened with $4.05 million on Friday (which included an estimated $600,000 from evening shows on Thursday), declined a slim 4 percent on Saturday to gross $3.89 million and is estimated to fall 21 percent on Sunday to take in $3.07 million. That places the film's estimated opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.72 to 1. The audience breakdown for War Room skewed towards female moviegoers (60 percent) and heavily towards moviegoers over the age of 25 (85 percent).
It's a very close race for third place this weekend as Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and No Escape are essentially tied based on studio estimates. With only $12,000 separating the weekend estimates of the two films, either could claim third place when actuals are released tomorrow.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation continued to hold up well with an estimated $8.30 million. The fifth installment of the Tom Cruise led blockbuster franchise from Paramount was down just 27.5 percent from last weekend. Thanks in part to strong holding power throughout its run, Rogue Nation has grossed a very healthy $170.39 million through 31 days of release. That places Rogue Nation 6 percent ahead of the $160.14 million 31-day take of 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Expect Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation to hold up very well over the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend frame.
The Weinstein Company's No Escape debuted with an estimated $8.29 million. The action thriller starring Owen Wilson, Pierce Brosnan and Lake Bell opened in line with its modest pre-release expectations. Since its debut on Wednesday, No Escape has grossed $10.35 million in its first five days of release. That gives the film an estimated five-day to three-day weekend ratio of 1.25 to 1 and places the film 8 percent ahead of the $9.60 million five-day start of last year's Pierce Brosnan led The November Man. While No Escape received mixed reviews from critics, the film appears to be going over better with moviegoers as it received a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore. No Escape will hope to hold up well next weekend with the aid of both good word of mouth and the Labor Day holiday.
Upon receiving a re-expansion this weekend that included a return to IMAX locations, Jurassic World took ninth place with an estimated $3.12 million. The 3D blockbuster sequel from Universal expanded into an additional 665 locations this weekend and was up 229 percent over last weekend. Without taking into account ticket price inflation, Jurassic World remains the third highest grossing film of all-time domestically with a current total gross of $643.09 million.
Meanwhile, Warner's We Are Your Friends was off to an anemic start with an estimated $1.80 million. That placed the low-budget Zac Efron led drama all the way down in thirteenth place this weekend. We Are Your Friends obviously opened below expectations and potential for the film was ultimately limited by the film's low-profile advertising push. The film registered a weak per-location average of $772 from 2,333 locations and on top of everything else received a soft C+ rating on CinemaScore. We Are Your Friends debuted 79 percent below the $8.74 million start of last year's That Awkward Moment. We Are Your Friends certainly marks a poor first post-Neighbors performance for Efron, but the actor is likely to rebound in a big way next year with Dirty Grandpa, Neighbors 2 and Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates all scheduled to open in 2016.


text:
News Summary: Fannie Freddie mgrs median pay $200K
REPORT ON PAY: A government report finds median pay for nearly 2,000 senior managers at government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exceeded $200,000 last year. Taxpayers so far have paid about $170 billion to rescue Fannie and Freddie, which almost collapsed from losses on risky mortgages during the financial crisis.
POOR MONITORING: The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees the two mortgage giants, did an inadequate job monitoring pay, according to the report from the inspector general for the FHFA.
COMPENSATION COSTS: Compensation for senior managers at the companies, who represent nearly 17 percent of the workforce, cost about $455 million in 2011.


text:
|Abe in Va.: Quiet rides and sad sojourn deserve note
|Bus-ted: Transit policy blocks Harrington ad
|Bloody Sunday? Repeal of hunting ban thrills-- and chills
|Prelim waived: Halfaday fraud charges go to grand jury
|Local legislators: Tebow, triggermen among their bills
|Biscuit Run reform: Deeds would loosen secrecy... some
|Dumb and dumber: Silly stuff that's supposed to be green
|Peace seeking: Council tells Congress to stay out of Iran
|Pam Melampy: Clerk candidate dies from aneurysm
|Meadow Creek Parkway: Rubber hits road
|Unclouded: Sabato predicts for 2012
|Year in review: The best and worst of 2011
|Child un-support: State agency blames parents for flawed deposit
|Halfaday holiday: Candidate's election fraud case continued
|Person of the year: Ken Boyd. King of the road... and the midnight vote
|Verdant Parkway: County's part likely to open in January
|Cuccinelli effect: Rob Bell and Obenshain eye AG job
|Ready to roll? Boyd pushes Meadowcreek Parkway opening
|Biscuit and gravy: Lawmakers dodge calls to unshroud millions
|Biscuit burden: Cuccinelli demands cash from Craig


text:
I want to have a class that uses generic data types. i want it to be able to use a struct, how do i create an instance of the class. i have tried:
className<struct> name;
but it doesnt work. any tips would be very helpful. i'm using the turbo C++ compiler for my program.
Thanks heaps =)


text:
In Massachusetts' contentious U.S. Senate race, few issues divide the two candidates more sharply than the health care law signed by President Barack Obama and upheld by the Supreme Court.
Republican Scott Brown ran for the Senate in 2010 vowing to be the crucial 41st vote needed to block the initiative, which ultimately passed despite his opposition. He remains critical of the law.
His Democratic challenger, Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, has praised the Affordable Care Act, which was modeled after a 2006 Massachusetts law signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican. Warren said the federal law has helped expand access to health care in Massachusetts and the nation.
Last month's Supreme Court ruling has only intensified the debate.
The latest salvo came from Brown in response to reports that U.S. employers added only 80,000 jobs in June, a third straight month of weak hiring. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent.
Brown called the numbers "grim" and faulted in part what he said were the "job-killing taxes on individuals, families and small businesses" that Warren supports, including those in the health care law.
"These are bad ideas under normal circumstances, but with our economy teetering on the brink, Professor Warren's economic prescription would push us over the precipice," Brown said in a statement.
Warren has been equally emphatic in her support of the law and her criticism of Brown.
"This decision ensures that millions of children, seniors, and families will continue to benefit from health care reform," Warren said in a statement after the ruling was announced.
Warren has highlighted some of the law's more popular elements — including banning insurance companies from denying coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions and allowing adult children to stay on their parents' insurance until age 26.
"Scott Brown doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the issues. But he is very clear on one position: Scott Brown wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act," Warren campaign manager Mindy Myers wrote in a letter to supporters.
One reason the debate is so testy is the role Massachusetts played in helping craft the federal law.
The 2006 state law served as a blueprint for Obama's law — including one of its most debated elements, the "individual mandate" that requires nearly everyone be insured or pay a tax penalty.
In 2010, 44,000 Massachusetts tax filers were assessed the penalty, a drop from the 67,000 required to pay the penalty in 2007, the first year it was assessed. Since the law took effect, an additional 400,000 individuals have gained insurance, meaning about 98 percent of residents are now covered, according to state officials.
When he was pushing the bill in 2006, Romney favored the mandate, saying it would target "free riders" — those who can afford health coverage but instead rely on emergency rooms for free care, driving up insurance premiums for everyone else.
Romney ended up winning bipartisan support for the measure among Massachusetts lawmakers, including Brown, then a state senator.
Despite their support for the state law, Romney and Brown both say the federal law should be repealed. Brown has said that since Massachusetts passed its own health care overhaul, it doesn't need a federal law.
Brown has been particularly critical of a 2.3 percent tax on the sale of medical devices included in the federal health care law, which he said would put an added burden on the more than 200 medical device manufacturers in Massachusetts.
More recently, Brown's campaign has tried to paint Warren as a supporter of a single-payer health care system — a government-run health care system intended to provide universal coverage. Neither Massachusetts' law nor the law signed by Obama creates such a system.
Brown's campaign points to a book chapter Warren co-authored in 2008 that stops short of explicitly endorsing a single-payer system.
"We approach the health care debates from a single perspective: maintaining the financial stability of families confronting illness or injury," Warren and co-author Deborah Thorne wrote. "The most obvious solution would be universal single-payer health care. This would allow people to get the care they need — without risking bankruptcy to pay for it."
In an interview on NECN after the Supreme Court decision was announced, Warren answered "no" when asked if she supported a single-payer system.
"The point is, what we've got to do, is we've got to keep moving in the direction of getting more families covered and bringing down the costs of health care, and I think we've taken a big step in that direction," Warren added.
A spokeswoman for Warren said the single-payer idea is just one of "many possible solutions to the health care crisis" that Warren has outlined over the years.
Warren has also said the country shouldn't revisit the battles of two years ago, but should move forward and focus on job creation, echoing in part Obama's comments following the court ruling.
Brown's campaign manager Jim Barnett, however, said voters should reject what he said was Warren's support for "a radical European-style, single-payer health care scheme."
The Massachusetts contest is one of the most closely watched in the country, with Democrats and Republicans both viewing the outcome of the race as key to control of the Senate.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.


text:
D'Angelo and I (okay, mostly D'Angelo) have been working double overtime to get our 'Adventure Tours in La Fortuna' we'll be selling (VERY CHEAP!) on our websites so you can take advantage of the savings as soon as possible. I first explained what we would be doing a couple weeks ago, CHEAP Tours in Costa Rica - We're Here for YOU! which details why and how we can sell them so CHEAP! But the bottom line is, we want YOU to have the BEST time ever in Costa Rica, without shelling out BIG BUCKS to do so. And we're talking ALL the tours- Rappelling, zip lines, fishing, biking, hot springs, rafting/kayaking, hiking adventures such as the Rio Celeste and Cerro Chato hikes and much more. In ALL, you'll be able to pick from about 50 different tours offered in the La Fortuna area. And believe me, we'll save you BIG TIME!
And of course we just had to do a couple of the tours ourselves for video footage and pics. Here's some pics of TWO of the BEST tours in La Fortuna- the Canopy Tour aka zip lines and Canyoneering in the jungle... WHOO HOO!
This is just a sampling of what's to come. TONS of great footage we're sifting through... KEEP on the L@@KOUT for the video to come about the CHEAP TOURS....
TONS of Costa Rica Travel Info and VIDEOS on our website: Travel Costa Rica NOW and if you want to visit our YouTube Channel: iCostaRica24 ENjoY!


text:
Finding a Toronto laser clinic that instills confidence in first-time clients can be difficult to impossible. With so many salons and clinics offering beauty treatments that are guaranteed to be "the best", Canada MedLaser Clinics brings excellence in treatments and hospitality that they are confident will improve each client's skin and body using the most advanced options available today. The clinic employees experienced therapists, medical aestheticians, and doctors to ensure clients get the best, safest results that exceed their expectations.
Laser treatments can be used to accomplish a number of things today. Laser hair removal is an easy way to permanently remove hair and erase the need for tedious and ineffective hair removal methods. In the past, laser hair removal wasn't used on people with dark skin. But Canada MedLaser Clinics has adapted new technology that has resulted in their ability to treat almost everyone. As a result, men and women can comfortably and effectively get laser hair removal treatment for the face, arms, chest, abdomen, legs, shoulders, back, armpits, bikini line, and more at the laser clinic.
When skin is beginning to show its age, Canada MedLaser Clinics uses a revolutionary laser treatment called ER:YAG to create a micro epidermal peel that eliminates problem areas on the surface of the skin. The fresh layer that takes its place has a smoother, more youthful appearance without the advanced wrinkles, scars, and other blemishes that made skin look ruddy and aged.
In addition to these laser treatments, the laser clinic also offers a number of other beauty services including CoolSculpting, skin and body treatments, cosmetic injections, and nail fungus treatment. Canada MedLaser Clinics is so confident in the capabilities of their equipment and their staff, they offer a 100% money back guarantee. For clients who need a little more time to pay for the treatments they need, 36-month financing is available. For anyone who has any doubt that Canada MedLaser Clinics is the laser clinic they can rely on for the best in beauty treatment, they should check out the reviews by satisfied clients and book their free consultation today.
About Canada MedLaser Clinics
Canada MedLaser Clinics is comprised of a staff of experienced physicians, medical aestheticians, and therapists who take a results-oriented approach to treatments which heal and improve the skin and body. They combine technology with a love of beauty to deliver a broad range of laser medicine service in Toronto that will eliminate many of the problems we all face as we grow older. These services include laser hair removal, CoolSculpting, cosmetic injections, nail fungus treatment, skin and body treatments, and more. The pros at Canada MedLaser Clinics always work to get the best results for each individual and produce improvements that will make each client look and feel their best.
Media Contact
Company Name: Canada Medlaser
Contact Person: Oleg Cheskis
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 647-493-3131
Address:2780 Hyw 7, Unit 110, Vaughn (Concord)
City: Toronto
State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Website: http://canadamedlaser.ca/


text:
"What do you mean take it for a spin?"
I was cautious as I accepted this request, for starters I hadn't visited New Delhi in 7 years and I mean, it was a $300k Lamborghini.
"I have a bit of work to do, go for a drive, hang out, have fun."
I've never been more stressed in my life.
Disclaimer: I have an obscenely wealthy childhood friend who now lives in India. Deal with it. EDIT: I took a bunch of photos of his cars, but since there are maybe 4 Murcielagos in New Delhi, I used stock photos to protect his identity.
If you never driven in a city before, there's two things you need to know: it sucks and you're bound to crash. At least in LA or NYC there are highways and open roads when you get OUT of the city. But when you're in India, there is traffic, and then some more traffic, and then finally when you're out of the city the roads are so bad that you might as well be in traffic. Sure there is the National Highway, and for portions it's a great road but then you'll see a pothole the size of a Polo and you realize, well yes, this is still India.
Still, while I see Lamborghinis daily, a rarely have chances to drive one, so I wasn't going to say no. This was probably the best Murcielago made too, LP670-4 SV with a 6 speed, none of that garbage flappy paddle stuff. An honest to good gated shifter and a clutch pedal, I was happy, happy, happy. Drove it out his house, got on the road and holy crap I was at 60 km/h before I realized what I was doing and BRAKE! Holy shit there's a Scooter merging in front of me! Pay more attention man, this is an expensive car.
I change lanes, err what I think are lanes because the lines drawn on the ground are just suggestions, you make your own lanes and rules. Ok, so I get a nice spot of road, drive like an Indian and gun it and merge back in front of those AutoRikshahs, ok...go for it! Got for it! Go for it! BRAKE! OMG THERE'S A CAR IN MY LANE DRIVING AT ME! This is a boulevard type road, meaning there are two separate sides. Why? Why?! Is there a car going the wrong way on the boulevard? And now he's yelling at me. Oh jeez, I need a stiff drink.
So I take a U-Turn and I drive towards The Imperial Hotel, somewhere where at least the Murcielago will feel at home among the Bentleys, Ferraris, and other high end cars. I drove the car 20km/h the entire way. I was too scared of anything happening to it to even enjoy the drive. I got to the hotel, had my drink and called my friend to pick me up, he sent a driver and drove me home.
When discussing the ride, he wasn't surprised when I told him how terrible a time I had. He told me that three times a year he ships one of his cars to Europe and drives it cross-continent to actually enjoy it. Kind of makes sense why all those Sheikhs and their children bring their cars to London every summer. And then he offered me something a little more fun...and a little more American:
You see them clogged up on the highways in the US everywhere you go and they don't look so exciting. But a pair of $40k each (after customs and taxes) Harley-Davidson Superglides are about as common as a Veyron in India. And seriously, it was the most fun ride I've had in a long time. Easily could go 70-100km/h in the side roads and byways and the sound! The glorious sound of an American V-Twin! In the US, when infested with obese geriatrics, they're just annoying but here I started to see why they love them so much.
Just one piece of advice, Harleys are heavy and you drop it don't pick it up from the right side, your hands won't be happy.


text: TeXstudio is a fully featured LaTeX editor. Our goal is to make writing LaTeX documents as easy and comfortable as possible. Some of the outstanding features of TeXstudio are an integrated pdf viewer with (almost) word-level synchronization, live inline preview, advanced syntax-highlighting, live checking of references, citations, latex commands, spelling and grammar. Find out more at our website.


text:
One of the most important accomplishments for Texas cotton farmers over the past 25 years is the almost complete eradication of the boll weevil. A review of the Texas Plant Protection Conference agendas shows how the program has advanced from one of contention, legal action and a brief suspension to where it is today, with the weevil no longer an economic threat to cotton anywhere in the state except for the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
The program was established by the Texas Legislature in 1993 and began operation in 1994.But it was soon suspended following lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of the mandatory program.
The Texas Supreme Court agreed and ruled that enabling legislation was unconstitutional on April 30, 1997. "They basically said that too much authority had been granted to a private, non-profit foundation," says Lindy Patton, president and chief executive officer, Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation, Inc.
"The legislature immediately put legislation together to address the court's concerns, putting the Foundation under the authority of the Texas Department of Agriculture," Patton explains. New legislation passed by the end of May, 1997, and the program was back up and running by the end of June.
If you are enjoying reading this article, please check out Southwest Farm Press Daily and receive the latest news right to your inbox.
"After the program got back on track in 1997 in three areas of the state, farmers in those areas almost immediately began to see positive results," Patton says. "Soon, farmers in other areas noticed positive economic and environmental benefits. Growers in five more zones voted to begin eradication programs in 1999, three more in 2001, one in 2002, two in 2004, and the last two in 2005.
"Now, 15 of 16 zones have been declared functionally eradicated. Boll weevil populations have been reduced by more than 90 percent in the Lower Rio Grande Valley since the program began."
Patton says some work remains.
"We need to continue the battle and finish the job—eradicate the weevil from Texas and hopefully Mexico can push them further south."
Boll weevil eradication was a key topic weaving through many of the annual TPPA conference agendas, with early presentations focused on chemistry, vegetative management and application strategy.
Patton says an economic impact statement compiled from reports by Dean McCorkle and Ed Smith with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service,along with additional projections from the Texas Department of Agriculture released in February, 2009, illustrates the program's success.
"Since 1996, Texas boll weevil eradication efforts have increased revenue to the state's cotton producers by $1.7 billion, equal to more than 9 percent of the total value of production over that period. Since 2001, the program has added 14 percent to the crop value.
During the 1994 TPPA conference, Tom Fuchs, Texas Extension IPM specialist, reported that the Southern Rolling Plains was the first of nine zones to pass the necessary referenda to begin the program. That zone started treatments in September, 1994.
"Plans call for boll weevil eradication to be completed in Texas and across the Cotton Belt by 2003," he said. That was not to be.
"While those optimistic plans were lofty goals, none of us really understood the challenges of trying to eradicate a difficult pest like this in a sub-tropical environment like South Texas," Patton says. "And they sure didn't plan for the program to be shut down with legal challenges. Over the years, we've had to make changes based on the information we had at the time. We relied on experts in the field who sit on a Technical Advisory Committee to check and double check the science behind the program."
An update during the 1995 conference included a harsh assessment of the first year in the Rio Grande Valley, following a crop failure. The BWEP was one of many reasons cited for the disaster. But increased acreage, cold planting temperatures, severe early season wind, erratic rainfall, aphid resistance, unusually high fruit shed, beet armyworms and whiteflies, also played significant roles. A "reduction in beneficial insect numbers due to widespread use of Malathion," was also listed.
"Although no one can say for sure what caused the beet armyworm outbreak in the Valley, the program and its Technical Advisory Committee did their part to prevent it from happening again by trapping beet armyworms and watching for population jumps so treatment protocols could be adjusted when necessary," says Patton.
Richard Minzenmayer, Texas Extension, Ballinger, Texas, reported at the 10th annual conference in 1998 on: "The Highs and Lows of BWEP in the Southern Rolling Plains." … "The overall impact in the SRP in the past five years has been overwhelmingly positive," he said.
As the boll weevil eradication effort migrated across the Cotton Belt, discussions focused on the impact the program has had on Texas cotton production.
"The number of big, white open bolls I see on the upper plant is what is truly remarkable to me," said Erick Richards, Rolling Plains producer. "I can remember a time when those bolls were considered a sure loss."
As of 2012, 15 zones in Texas have been declared functionally eradicated and have joined the ranks of other states across the Cotton Belt where the boll weevil is no longer a negative economic factor and cotton is grown more profitably.
In recent conferences, representatives of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation have presented even more promising numbers showing that the boll weevil has either been eradicated or is no longer an economically viable pest except in a few areas in South Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Valley remains the last area in the United States with active weevil populations as the program continues to push the pest back to where it first entered the country more than 100 years ago.


text:
"24 Works on Paper," the only travelling exhibition of work by living Oklahoma artists, will open to the public on August 24 from 1-5 pm at the Eleanor Hays Art Gallery in the Kinzer Performing Arts Center on the Northern Oklahoma College Tonkawa campus. Produced as a collaboration between IAO Gallery and the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition (OVAC), the exhibition will then travel the state for a full year, bringing original, contemporary Oklahoman artwork to viewers in communities large and small.
The 24 Works on Paper exhibition features 24 artists from 12 Oklahoma cities. All artworks are created on paper and include media such as printmaking, drawing and photography. Full-color exhibit guides and educational materials are available for visitors of the exhibit which will continue through October 14. Gallery hours are 1-5, Monday through Friday or during KPAC performances and admission is free. For more information contact Gallery Director Audrey Schmitz at 580.628.6670 or firstname.lastname@example.com or go to www.24works.org.


text:
What do you think of renaming the Performing Arts Center for MLK?
Norman Bell: "I think that was a good decision. I'm glad the city has dedicated something special to Dr. King."
Dave Ganoe: "Is that the Charlottesville High School thing? I don't understand the need. Then again, I don't understand why they changed Washington National Airport to Reagan National Airport."
Jane Stewart: "I'm not keen on it. It's always been the CPAC."
Ron Shuey: "I think it's great. I have no strong feelings about what it's called, as long as the quality of the performances stays the same."


text:
Welcome to Donjon-SMIT
Donjon-SMIT is a unique provider of Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA-90) maritime vessel emergency response services in which the nearly 200 years of corporate expertise of? DONJON and? SMIT is combined. The joint venture provides marine salvage, lightering and firefighting services for compliance and response related to OPA-90 requirements.
View an interactive map of our casualty responses by clicking here.
View frequently asked questions about selecting a salvor and VRPs.
We are one of the first salvors in the country to meet the? new OPA-90 salvage and firefighting regulations, and look forward to covering your vessels upon their visit to the U.S.? Donjon-SMIT offers all services required in today's marine salvage business; from highly trained personnel to modern tugboats and specialized equipment to protect the marine environment.
We provide swift, cost-effective OPA-90 related maritime salvage, lightering and firefighting services to any tank or non-tank vessel in U.S. waters, leveraging the unparalleled expertise and equipment of the joint venture partners and their global outreach. By doing so, the joint venture protects both shipowner and environmental interests and sets the industry standard for OPA-90 response services to the maritime community.
Use the sidebar on the right to find out more about Donjon-SMIT, or click here to see the latest Posts & Updates.


text:
About US
Ghasr-e-shirin is a leading Tour and Travel Agency in Tehran, Iran with over 22 years of experience and more than 100 qualified staff and a team of professional tour guides in all languages providing a satisfying quality of services for our clients from around the globe.
This travel and tour agency with the management and supervision of Mr. Ali Esmaili focuses on activities such as: selling tickets to customers and performing charter flights for inbound and outbound destinations, hotel reservation around Iran with most preferable prices, applying visa services, greeting and airport transfers, performing a wide variety of private and group tours in Iran and also foreign countries with every budget category. All of this allows us to create the perfect all-inclusive experience for you.
Our activities are divided into 2 main categories:
-Outbound Tours: As a pioneer tour operator in outbound tours we have charter flights to China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Turkey and UAE every week and seasonal flights to Russia and Bulgaria.
-Inbound Tours: As a leading provider of Iran tours, hotels and ground services to the groups we have created high quality and cost effective travel experiences in cooperation with our customers. Our packages include cultural tours, Eco-adventure tours, multi-country tours, religious tours and MICE.
At Ghasr-e-Shirin Travel Agency, we strive to provide our customers with the very best service in the Tourism industry now a days.We pledge for offering travel services of the highest quality, combining our energy and enthusiasm, with our years of experience. Your complete satisfaction is only the first of our goals – we want your travel experience to be memorable in positive ways. Our greatest satisfaction comes in serving large numbers of satisfied clients who have experienced the joys and inspiration of travel.
Please let us know how we may better serve you.
So whether you are interested in Iranian cities, classical Persian architecture, the vast central deserts or spectacular mountain ranges, Forest areas, from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf we are here to assist you in getting the most out of your Traveling to Iran. If you are interested in traveling with one of our group tours, or if you prefer to travel independently, please contact us.
::You Can Meet Us At ::
Pouya Esmaeili
Email : firstname.lastname@example.com
Tel :+982183349400
| Vice President – Tourism
Reza Mahmoudi
Email : email@example.com
Tel :+982183349150
| Managing Director
Mohsen Esmaeili
Email : firstname.lastname@example.com
Tel :+982183349460
| Marketing Operator
Mahnaz Mardi
Email : email@example.com
Tel :+982183349173
ISO Brands


text:
Product Reviews on ShopStyle
Have the Final Word — and $1,000
Introducing product reviews! We've made shopping easier here at ShopStyle with the ability to rate and review your purchases all in one place. To inspire you to share your thoughts, we're giving one lucky reviewer a $1,000 Visa gift card. Entering is easy. All you have to do is sign in to ShopStyle, search the products that are already in your closet, tell us what you think before Sept. 26, and you'll receive one entry for each review you make. Share your expertise on style, fit, quality, or any other relevant detail, and you'll be in the running.
Who knows? You could win some major cash to fund your next shopping spree. Search and review products to enter ShopStyle's Review and Win Giveaway now!


text:
E Burdick AveComplete address with trial
$130,000 (est. value)
Sign in to view all photos 1 photo available
- 3Bd / 3Ba
- Defuniak Springs
- Walton
- Florida
- 32433
Property DetailsBack to top
Contact InformationBack to top
Maps DirectionsBack to top
Similar PropertiesBack to top
We have 85 properties in this county...Register now!
Useful LinksBack to top
- How to Find a House in Foreclosure
- How to Buy a Home After Foreclosure
- What Happens if my House Goes Into Foreclosure?
- 18 Useful House Cleaning Tips
- 25 Inexpensive Tips to Make Your Home Green
- 20 Tips to Increase Your Home's Value
Home Services:
- Maintenance property interior and exterior etc..
- RJ Home Maintenanc
- We have been providing products and services for the last twenty one years, Helping costumers with ideas and solutions to there problems. Offering customers with all their needs, that will create less headakes because you deal with one contractor only.
- 407 844 1010
Property Removal
Note: If this property belongs to you and it's posted here as a pre-foreclosure in error, please contact us for immediate removal.


text:
Genius Vision NVR CmE
|Op. System:
|Last updated:
|File size:
|Genius Vision
Publisher description for Genius Vision NVR CmE
Turn your iPhone and webcam into a full-fledged IP/CCTV remote video surveillance system. Turn your iPhone and webcam into a full-fledged IP/CCTV remote video surveillance system. Genius Vision NVR is a full featured application that allows you to turn your webcam, mobile phone, home PC to a full-fledged IP/CCTV remote video surveillance system. The applications supports multiple brands of IP cameras, including AXIS, Arecont Vision, VIVOTEK, ACTi, IQinVision, JVC, SONY as well as USB web cameras and RTSP video sources. In order to understand all the product features, you can watch these videos. NOTE: Free for Non-Commercial Use Only. Genius Vision NVR CmE features : - Full remote control through Internet Explorer with built-in web server. - Fast playback and SmartSearch up to 512 times and higher speed. - 360 Panorama in both live and playback mode. - Live view up to 256 cameras per monitor. Multiple monitor support up to 6 monitors. - Synchronized playback up to 25-channels. - Intelligent video analytic function, as well as software-based motion detection. - Commercial-grade enterprise architecture: Designed to process huge multi-mega pixel data streams. Disk-optimized high performance recording engine. Fully support multi-core processors to boost your system performance. Long-time tested against stability. - Smooth digital Pan-Tilt-Zoom with mouse wheels. - Comprehensive time-bar for recorded data review. - Fully customizable user tree for surveillance logic planning. - E-Map: Allows user to edit map and choose arbitrary location and angle of a camera icon, which reflects camera status in real-time. Support inter-map linking/navigation/browsing. Allows viewing/editing in remote site transparently, also with arbitrary resizing and rotating. - Google Map integration. - Powerful trigger policy rules. - Central management station (CMS) architecture for large scale installation. - Support 3GPP mobile phone video streaming. - Support Pan/Tilt/Zoom cameras - User friendly tutorial, automatically guide you the operation of the system. - Group-based multi-level multi-user permission control. - Support various video and audio codecs. - Run as Windows service. Engine can be configured to auto-start recording even without user login nor any GUI activated. - Software watchdog. Automatically restart service upon unknown failure. - Seamless integration of live and playback interface. Live and playback is tightly integrated. User can instantly play backwardly from live. - SDK for web application integration. - Digital matrix wall support - remotely configure monitor layout. Requirements: - System Memory 1G RAM - Video RAM 64MB - Requires DirectX 9 preinstalled - Internet access


text: The mimosa is a surprisingly simple drink: just one part champagne to one part OJ. It's also surprisingly easy to mess up, leaving you with a warm, flat, gross cocktail that'll knock you to the floor before brunch has even been served. Learn the right way to pour this brunch favorite with CHOW Senior Editor Lessley Anderson.


text:
Author index
Starting point: "Shields, Carol."
Browsing headings over a set of 0 records
You searched for: Author Browse (last name first) Shields, Carol. Remove constraint Author Browse (last name first): Shields, Carol. Format Microformat Remove constraint Format: Microformat Language German Remove constraint Language: German Publication date 1640s Remove constraint Publication date: 1640s Subject Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649 Remove constraint Subject: Charles I, King of England, 1600-1649 Subject Area Correlation african_studies Remove constraint Subject Area Correlation: african_studies
« Previous | Next »


text:
Jupe de Abby
Rochester , United States
Bringing you beautiful clothing, so you can look great without compromising your modesty!
During the course of 2010, Abby began Jupe de Abby, a Skirt Store located in Rochester NY. Jupe de Abby began as a home based shop. At the time, Abby was studying for her Associates in Business Administration in a community college where she graduated in 2012. In 2013 Abby was able to open the very first Jupe de Abby Boutique in her home city. She is currently now finishing her bachelor's in business and striving to finish in Spring 2014. The company has expanded worldwide and has been able to bless hundreds of beautiful ladies throughout the world. Jupe de Abby is conceived under the principles in which women should be able to feel great in what they wear without compromising their modesty. We acknowledge the lack of modest preservation within today's world of fashion and strive to demonstrate the balance of how women should represent themselves within society.read more
There are no products matching the selection.


text:
Mississippi, river, principal river of the United States, c.2,350 mi (3,780 km) long, exceeded in length only by the Missouri, the chief of its numerous tributaries. The combined Missouri-Mississippi system (from the Missouri's headwaters in the Rocky Mts. to the mouth of the Mississippi) is c.3,740 mi (6,020 km) long and ranks as the world's third longest river system after the Nile and the Amazon. With its tributaries, the Mississippi drains c.1,231,000 sq mi (3,188,290 sq km) of the central United States, including all or part of 31 states and c.13,000 sq mi (33,670 sq km) of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. Cotton and rice are important crops in the lower Mississippi valley; sugarcane is raised in the delta. The Mississippi is abundant in freshwater fish; shrimp are taken from the briny delta waters. The delta also yields sulfur, oil, and gas.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- The Mississippi Delta
- Attempts at Flood Control
- Course and Navigation
- History
- Bibliography
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Physical Geography


text:
Many visitors to Orlando find that cars are the most convenient way to get around the area, and if you're renting a car, there are numerous rental companies and gas stations that are easy to find. You should allow plenty of time to reach your destination in case of traffic and be aware that it can be hard to find parking in some spots. If you prefer to let someone else do the driving, taxis are widely available and can be pre-booked. Several shuttles also operate around Orlando and there are lots of bus routes that cover downtown and beyond. The I-Ride Trolley connects many places of interest and can be useful for tourists who don't have their own cars. You can buy one-day and multi-day passes in many locations.
Visit the budget-friendly Showcase of Citrus lemon plantation and take a tour of the farm on a truck where you can learn more about agriculture and enjoy delicious fruit. Relax in nature in the scenic Mead Botanical Garden, the 50-acre Harry P. Leu Gardens and University of Central Florida Arboretum. Tour Orlando's diverse museums, including the International Trolley and Train Museum, the Orlando Museum of Art, and the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens. Have a go at hang gliding at Wallaby Ranch and visit the Jack Kerouac House.
Orlando's ever-growing dining scene has something to suit all tastes and budgets. There are round-the-clock diners to satisfy any late-night cravings and it shouldn't be difficult to find somewhere to dine. You'll also find a strong Caribbean and Puerto Rican influence in popular Orlando dishes, and a huge assortment of global cuisine is available, too. Cuban sandwiches make for a filling and tasty lunch, or a quick dinner on the go, and other favorite local dishes include alligator, oysters and seafood. If you're in Orlando between October and May, don't miss the chance to try stone crab claws.
|Fare Type
Rome (FCO)
Orlando (MCO)
Depart: 03/12/2020
Return: 10/12/2020
Milan (MIL)
Orlando (MCO)
Depart: 01/01/2021
Return: 15/01/2021
*Prices have been available for round trips within the last 48 hours and may not be currently available. For Economy class, fares listed may be Basic Economy, which is our most restrictive fare option and subject to additional restrictions. Additional baggage charges and fees for other optional service may apply. Other terms and conditions may apply.