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"We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus."
So it was that a redline was drawn against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons to destroy the rebel forces that threatened his hold on power.
But nothing happened. By the spring of 2013 there were numerous reports of chemical weapons being used by the Syrian military, culminating in the launch of sarin-laden rockets into the rebel-held region of Ghouta. That attack, the deadliest since Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in 1988, killed 1,400 civilians, many of whom were children.
The Obama Administration labeled this a "Munich moment," a reference to Britain's decision to appease Germany rather than go to war with Hitler, and seemed prepared to engage in substantial military action. But they then promised that any military action would be "unbelievably small." And then, in response to a question by reporters as to whether there was something Assad could do to avoid U.S. strikes, then-Secretary of State John Kerry responded "sure."
"Sure, he could turn over every bit of his weapons to the international community within the next week, without delay," Kerry said, throwing up his hands in a flippant manner. Kerry even went on to say, "but he isn't about to do it," adding that "it can't be done, obviously."
The Obama White House panicked, attempting to downplay Kerry's remarks as a "hypothetical" and "rhetorical." But sending a window of opportunity, Russia jumped in to leverage the gaffe toward their benefit in Syria and the region.
"We are calling on the Syrian leadership not just to agree to put chemical-weapons stores under international control, but also to their subsequent destruction," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
Syria also saw an opportunity and quickly accepted. The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad said it "welcomes the Russian initiative," adding that they also "welcome the wisdom of the Russian leadership, which is trying to prevent American aggressions against our people."
Of course the deal was going to be a farce. Russia, a close ally of Syria, voted against the UN Security Council condemnation of Assad's chemical weapons attack on civilians in Homs. Now they would be the ones to enforce the removal of the same weapons that they formally expressed they didn't have a problem with. If anything, this pushed the two allies into closer alignment and gave Russia a strategic leg up in a region in which they are desperate to demonstrate their power.
So it wasn't surprising when Kerry, who once gloated that they "struck a deal where we got 100 percent of the chemical weapons out," publicly acknowledged in a farewell memo to staff that "unfortunately other undeclared chemical weapons continue to be used ruthlessly against the Syrian people."
This became crystal clear when Assad, who had retreated to using chlorine gas (which was omitted from the deal to remove chemical weapons), once again graduated to using sarin, a deadly nerve agent. Not only using it, but producing and storing up significant quantities of it.
Following the U.S. missile strike in 2017 in retaliation for yet another chemical weapons attack, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said they took steps "to avoid hitting what we believe is a storage of sarin gas … so that would not be ignited and cause a hazard to civilians or anyone else."
In other words, the Assad regime has been in open contravention of its 2013 deal with the U.S., the UN Resolution that underpins it, and the Chemical Weapons Convention that they acceded to following the 2013 attacks. The Obama Administration made a habit of ignoring Syrian atrocities, thereby eroding American credibility in the Middle East, and worse, normalizing the use of chemical weapons.
President Trump is working to reestablish accountability in the region. By engaging key allies and responding to any use of chemical weapons with force, the Trump Administration is sending a clear message that America's promises matter once again. Other regimes and dictators must now take note. Should they opt to use chemical weapons against their foes, the United States will respond.
Inevitably dictators will test the boundaries of American commitment. And almost assuredly Assad will eventually resume chemical attacks against anyone who threatens his regime. But there can also be no question that Trump's swift, decisive action will make even the most deranged autocrats question whether they really want to cross the reestablished red line. In that way he's made the world safer from chemical terror. Mission accomplished indeed.


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OMG Certified Systems Modeling Professional™ (OCSMP™)
In The News
Press Releases:
- UML Technology Institute (UTI) Becomes Certification Partner in OMG Program to Certify Practitioners of Model-Based Systems Engineering Using SysML
UTI Will Administer Certification Program in Japanese Language Throughout Asia
- OMG Announces Program to Certify Practitioners of Model-Based Systems Engineering Using SysML
Founding Sponsors Lockheed Martin, IBM, and Sparx Systems Underwrite Examination Preparation
- OMG and INCOSE Join Resources on OMG's New Certification Program for Systems Modeling Language Practitioners
Subject Matter Expert Testimonials
"IBM is a long time supporter of MBSE and SysML. The increased demand for intelligent, instrumented and interconnected products and services make these technologies and best practices critical to the design and development of innovative products. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with the OMG and the other sponsors to develop a formal certification program that provides System Engineers appropriate recognition of their skills within the community."
Greg Sikes, Director of Modeling and Architecture for IBM Rational® Software
"A model-based approach is a key element in advancing the practice for complex systems development. We are proud to work with OMG in sponsoring this important certification effort."
Jeff Wilcox, Lockheed Martin's Corporate Vice President of Engineering
"Sparx Systems is proud to be working with the OMG and our esteemed colleagues to launch the OCSMP certification program. This program will usher MBSE into the new frontier. It's the first program to certify SE professionals in the application of SysML with industry-standard SE practices and as a result - it'll advance this field by cultivating a new wave of innovative and exciting industry opportunities."
Sam Mancarella, Chief Technology Officer of Sparx Systems
For more information or questions about the OMG Certification Program, contact email@example.com.
OCUP, OCRES, OCEB and OCSMP are joint programs of the OMG and the UML Technology Institute (UTI).

subset: commoncrawl


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"We must reform workers' compensation, eliminating the abuse and streamline the system, making it more affordable to business in Illinois."
"Reforming workers' compensation we can create jobs and bring businesses back to Illinois, which will bring Illinois back as a economic power house.."
"I am the only candidate who has the knowledge and history of legislative success in this race."
"IL House District 37 has some of the best school districts in our state. We need to reform to help the schools give our children the education they need for successful futures."
"The schools and teachers are doing their jobs as the state has mandated. The state needs to reform so that it is mandating what is needed now and in the future."


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Any experienced social media marketer knows the holidays are a time to get creative with content. Throughout the calendar year it can be challenging to constantly create new and interesting content that your followers will appreciate. Holidays – both big and small – can provide a creative break from the monotony of your usual content, allow you to promote seasonal products and services, and better engage with your followers during a time when consumers expect a certain amount of sentiment from the brands they follow.
If you're looking to leverage the holidays, particularly with the Fourth of July approaching, but aren't quite sure how to make the most out of the integration, take a look at these social media capabilities:
User-Generated Content
Create a holiday campaign that allows your followers to get involved and produce shareable content of their own that your brand can use. You'll need to brainstorm and answer the question – how can your followers better engage with your brand and create something of their own? Develop a branded holiday hashtag to accompany their content so you can easily find the posts and share them.
Contests and Giveaways
Get your followers engaged by running holiday-themed contests and giveaways. Loyal followers will look to brands for fun ways they can interact with you, and what better way than rewarding them for their loyalty than the chance to win something of value?
Perhaps you use this opportunity to promote a new or seasonal item from your brand. The Fourth of July is a great way to integrate summer products and services into your social media strategy. Consider asking followers to sign up for your company newsletter for the chance to win (allows you to build your email list and use them year round), or share a photo of themselves using one of your products with a unique hashtag.
Livestreaming allows your brand to pull back the curtains and give your followers a deeper look inside your company in real time. Take them behind the scenes at events, workshops, or an inside glimpse into the in-store experience. With the Fourth of July approaching, maybe your brand is hosting a party or event and you can use Facebook or Instagram livestreams to allow followers at home to feel like they're right there with you. Social media "stories" are another great way to share in-the-moment video footage and photos with your audience. Get creative and consider activities like takeovers, a day in the life of employees or brand ambassadors, and any other concepts that your followers may find appealing.
Tailored Content
Blog posts, imagery, videos and campaigns can all be built around the holidays to provide valuable and timely information. Fourth of July-themed recipes, party preparations, outfit and make up inspiration are just some of the ways a brand can integrate the holidays into their content depending on your niche. Start with thinking about what activities and events your followers may be taking part in around the holiday. Then, how can you help shape your campaigns around their needs? What information can your brand provide that will spark your followers' interest and get them to engage with your content?
Nothing says holiday quite like an exclusive discount and that is exactly what consumers are looking for when browsing their favorite brand's social media channels surrounding an upcoming holiday. Use these times throughout the year to provide discounts, free shipping, 'buy one get ones' and other promotions that will save your customers some money and encourage sales, while building some brand loyalty at the same time.
What type of marketing techniques do you utilize during the holiday season? Share your ideas with us in the comments below.


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You Will Dry Your Hands in the Sink in the Future
You know those Dyson hand dryers you're used to seeing in the bathrooms of airports, restaurants and hotels? The company unveiled on Monday a new way we'll likely dry our hands in the future — directly within the sink itself.
Along with a motor that essentially scrapes water off hands in a few swoops of air, Dyson has been developing new concepts intended to make drying your hands faster and easier than before.
Instead of dripping water across the floor as you make your way to the dryer, you'll be able to do it all in one place in the future, the company said. The new system called the Airblade Tap uses infrared sensors to determine whether or not you are putting your hands underneath to wash or dry them.
Mashable gave it a try, and it was much easier to use than we thought. Unlike some sensor-based sinks, which make you wave your hands under a few times before it registers, the Airblade Tap easily recognized when hands were centered for washing and off to the side for drying.
Another concept — called the Airblade mk2 — is a sleek and angled wall model, which also touts the same super high tech motor. It took more than seven years to create and can skyrocket to 92,000 rpm in less than a second. The motor uses bonded magnet encased in a carbon fiber sleeve, and is one of the world's smallest integrated 1400W motors.
In addition, the company has re-engineered its original hand dryer with the new motor. The Dyson Airblade mk2 has two sheets of air — flying at 420mph - to scrape water off hands like a windshield wiper in just 12 seconds.
For a full look at the models, check out the gallery below.
Images courtesy of Dyson and by Mashable


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Verifies whether a user account with the specified username is already present.
isusernametaken( username )
username: (Text) The username to check against the current list of active and deactivated users.
Returns a value of type Boolean.
false result indicates that the username is available to use when creating a new user, unless the username contains special characters that are not permitted.
Both active and deactivated user accounts are referenced.
The username parameter is case-sensitive, however you will not be able to create a username if case-insensitive matches exist.
You can copy and paste these examples into the Expression Rule Designer to see how this works.
isusernametaken("john.doe") returns
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As it turns out, this Guild Wars 2 thing is pretty big. How big, you may wonder? Big enough to move 2 million copies in just over 2 weeks, with half of those purchases originating as pre-orders. The distinct lack of a monthly subscription fee probably didn't hurt sales, but according to president and co-founder Mike O'Brien, ArenaNet have no intention of coasting on their success.
"Reactions from around the world justified the time and care we put into developing Guild Wars 2 and making it into the game it is today," said O'Brien. "And this is only the beginning. We're continually fine-tuning the game to deliver the polished experience that our players expect, and we're already working on new adventures and experiences to introduce into this truly dynamic online world."
To put the situation in perspective, Funcom's struggling MMO The Secret World barely grazed 200,000 after 2 months while Cataclysm, the most recent World of Warcraft expansion from Blizzard, peddled off 3.3 million copies on day 1.
With the looming September 25th release of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, we'll see how Guild Wars 2 stacks up against the elephant in the room.


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Buy Stocks Directly at ComputerShare: The Complete Process
By Sun
I bought my first share of Bank of America (BAC) through ComputerShare back in November 2006. Since then I have been making regular monthly purchase and consider it as a good alternative to buying stocks through a broker with a fixed commission.
If you're also considering investing with ComputerShare, but haven't started the process yet, then this post will give you a rough idea of what it takes to buy dividend paying stocks from ComputerShare. In this post, I will use Pfizer as an example to show the complete process of buying stocks directly at ComputerShare.
Investment plans
ComputerShare offers two kinds of investment plan: Direct stock purchase plan (DSPP) and Dividend Reinvestment plan (DRIP). Of them, DSPP is available to all investors, whether they own the stocks or not, and DRIP is for existing shareholders. If you haven't purchased any stock from ComputerShare before, then you will need to use the DSPP link on the Investment Plans page to find the company you want to invest in to become a shareholder first.
Costs of DSPP plans
Since I don't own Pfizer (PFE), which is available as a DSPP stock, I have to go to the DSPP list and find PFE. In this list, you can also find information such as the minimum initial investment for each stock. The minimum initial investments rage from $50 to $2,500, which are lower than most mutual fund minimums. One of my criteria when selecting a DSPP stock is low initial investment because I plan to buy the stock on a monthly basis, there's no reason to make a big initial purchase. So I usually don't look at stocks require more than $1,000 to begin with. For PFE, the $500 initial investment is within my range.
In addition to minimum initial investment, there are other factors to consider before making a decision on whether it's worth it to buy stocks from ComputerShare instead of from a discount broker. Of those factors, what I concern the most is always the costs, which include (click on View of a particular plan to see details of plan fees):
- Initial Setup Fee
- Cash Purchase Fee
- Ongoing Automatic Investment Fee
- Per Share Purchase Processing Fee
- Dividend Reinvestment Fee
- Sale Fee
- Per Share Sale Processing Fee
- Maximum Sales Fee
As you can see, buying stocks form ComputerShare could involve more fees than from a broker, potentially making the investment too expensive. Therefore, when choosing a plan, I will try to stay away from those that charge a per-share based purchase fee and per-transaction based processing fee, though I can afford to pay a small one-time account setup fee. An example of how investing with ComputerShare can incur excessive fees is the Altria's (MO) investment plan which charges:
- Initial Setup Fee: $10.00
- Cash Purchase Fee: $5.00
- Ongoing Automatic Investment Fee: $2.50
- Per Share Purchase Processing Fee: $0.03
In this case, it's better to go directly with a discount broker such as TradeKing ($4.95 commission) or Zecco ($4.95 commission), or even Scottrade ($7 commission). Fortunately, for Pfizer, the plan only charges a $15 Sale Fee and $0.12/share Sale Processing Fee. On the other hand, sale fees, which are very common with direct investment programs, could become a big expense later when the shares are to be sold because the cost is proportional to the number of shares owned.
Looking for a cheap stock broker to trade stocks, ETFs, or options? Check out
Make a purchase
After reviewing all the costs of investing in a particular plan, the next step is to setup an account and make a purchase (click the Buy Now link), which involve six steps:
- Registration Details
- Purchase Options
- Bank Details
- Dividend Reinvestment Options
- Validation
- Confirmation
For the Purchase Options part, there are two options: One-time purchase or Recurring purchase. Since this is the first time that I will buy Pfizer shares, I will need to use the one-time purchase option to make an initial investment. For recurring purchase, ComputerShare currently only offers monthly automatic investment.
With ComputerShare, purchase can be made via direct debit from a bank account. To establish direct debit, bank information such as routing number and account number need to be provided. And in Step 4, I chose Full Dividend Reinvestment over partial cash payout. Finally, after validating and confirming that the information I provided is correct, my new DSPP plan is ready.
Invest in DRIP plans
The above process for buying stocks offered by ComputerShare in DSPP plans. There are also many other stocks (from companies such as Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), etc.) available through DRIP programs which require investors to be become a shareholder first before using the dividend reinvest plans. In order to buy these stocks through ComputerShare, you will have to buy one share of the stock you want to invest from a broker then transfer it to ComputerShare, either electronically or by mailing them the stock certificate. I haven't done a transfer like this before, but this is what I wasn't told when I called ComputerShare last week, asking the procedure of investing in DRIP plans.
Once the transfer is completed, you will be able to see the one share you own from your ComputerShare account and start to make regular purchase using what I have discussed above.
Is it worth it?
With so many discount brokers out there which charge a small commission for buying a stock regardless the number of shares purchased, direct investment plans from ComputerShare are not that appealing, especially when discount brokers only offer free dividend reinvestments (TradeKing and Zecco do, but Scottrade doesn't). So when does investing with ComputerShare make sense, given that there are more fees involved than buying the stock from a broker?
In my opinion, if you want to buy a stock in one lump sum, then there's no reason to use ComputerShare because many plans charge account setup fee, purchase processing fee, and sale fee which could be more than what a discount broker charge for buying and selling a stock. That said, it doesn't mean ComputerShare will make a better choice if you want to invest in a small amount regularly (dollar cost averaging). In this case, a broker isn't an option for DCA if it charges commission for each transaction. Since most DRIP/DSPP plans charge per-share based processing fee every time shares are purchased, you will need to consider:
- The cost of buying a share;
- The investment time frame;
- The number of shares to be purchased every time.
so that it won't cost you too much to buy a share every time and you won't have to pay a big sale fee later either. Of course, always pick the stock that costs less to own and pays a fat dividend
This article was originally written or modified on . If you enjoyed reading this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. Or you can also choose to have free daily updates delivered right to your inbox.


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Last week saw the release of Resident Evil 6 in Japan. The game sold 634,933 copies on the PlayStation 3 and another 41,652 copies on the Xbox 360, handily beating out sales of its predecessor, Resident Evil 5, by nearly double.
Sales tracker, Media Create, report that Resident Evil 6 had 380,000 pre-orders in Japan, which is the highest number of pre-orders for a Resident Evil game since April 2005.
Interestingly, the second-highest number of pre-orders for a Resident Evil game (again, since 2005) goes to Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. That game had 118,000 pre-orders prior to its release, and sold 268,810 copies across PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in its first week.
Additionally, Media Create also shared an interesting piece of data for Resident Evil 5. That game, released in 2009, has reached 1.2 million copies sold in Japan across all versions.


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Thinking Reading is a high-impact intervention for adolescents. This applied research programme provides training and resources to ensure rapid, sustained progress for students who have been reading significantly behind their peers.
"Thinking Reading addresses the critical problem of poor literacy faced by some secondary students in today's education system. Its whole school strategy is based on best practice teaching procedures along with a wide range of real books and a system for individualising each students' programme. I'm greatly looking forward to seeing how Innovation Award Winner Thinking Reading grows over the next year to enable students to achieve outstanding progress in reading and to maintain their gains, and proud that Teach First's Innovation Unit will support its development through partnership in 2015/16."
Brett Wigdortz, Founder and CEO, Teach First – September 2015
Follow us on Twitter: @ThinkReadTweet
Visit our website