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Popular Economics Weekly
Rachel Maddow on last night's MSNBC show provided evidence that the Trump White House has been lying from day-one of the Trump Presidency. The White House had denied it asked that tanks and other armaments be included in the inauguration parade, when Freedom of Information Pentagon documents surfaced recently that showed Trump officials had requested that military weapons be included in the parade.
This is but more evidence that the Trump campaign is determined to cover up and/or deny culpability for any of their misdeeds, whether real or imagined.
Rachel then concluded that the Trump White House could not be counted on to provide truthful information on any subject to the media, whom Trump had declared were "enemies of the people", after all. So it is up to the public media to look for the facts elsewhere.
And now we know the Trump campaign, and possibly Trump himself, had done much more than that in its misinformation campaign during the run up to the November election, which in some ways puts Russia's kompromat campaign of slander and fake news against Hillary Clinton to shame.
More-and-more evidence is surfacing that it was the compromising of FBI Director Comey that led to Hillary's downfall. The so-called conspiracy that was one of the misdeeds being investigated by South Manhattan Attorney General Preete Bahara when he was suddenly fired. It was about the collusion of Trump campaign officials with the NYPD, and Manhattan FBI officials that had possession of Anthony Weiner's laptop in their investigation of his internet sexting escapades with women.
A January Huffington Post article documented what was a "domestic conspiracy" to elect Donald Trump. It in effect said information presently public and available confirms that Erik Prince, Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump conspired to intimidate FBI Director James Comey into interfering in, and thus directly affecting, the 2016 presidential election. This conspiracy was made possible with the assistance of officers in the New York Police Department and agents within the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The report went on to say, "As reported by the New York Times, FBI Director James Comey released his now-infamous October 27th letter in substantial part because he had determined that "word of the new emails [found on Anthony Weiner's computer]…was sure to leak out." Comey worried that if the leak occurred at a time when the nature and evidentiary value of the "new" emails was unknown, he "risked being accused of misleading Congress and the public ahead of an election."
By October 27th, the FBI had had access to Weiner's computer—which it originally received from NYPD—since October 3rd, during which interval the Bureau had both the time and IT know-how to determine that the "new" emails in its possession were in fact duplicate emails from accounts already revealed to the Bureau by Clinton, her aide Huma Abedin, and the State Department.
However, when Comey was briefed on the case by agents from the New York field office on October 26th, he discovered that not only had this IT work not been done, but in fact no warrant to seize the full emails had been sought, no permission to read the emails had been requested from cooperating witnesses Weiner and Abedin, and indeed nothing but a summary of the emails' "meta-data" (non-content header information) had been prepared by his agents."
And when they discovered there were emails from Hillary to her aid Huma Abedin and Weiner's wife that were also included on the laptop, they immediately began pushing Comey to reveal the links that might possibly be material evidence in his probe of Hillary's use of a private email server.
And both polling, poll analysis, and internet meta-data (see below) confirm that the Comey Letter was sufficient to hand Trump the 77,143 combined votes in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania that won him the election. We know from the statements made by Giuliani, and from numerous statements made by Trump on the campaign trail, that both men believed the Clinton email server case could be leveraged to ensure Clinton's defeat in November. It turns out they were correct.
I first began writing about the greater lawlessness among Republicans wanting to maintain power in the face of a declining party membership in 2002, when it became obvious that the GW Bush administration was cooking the CIA findings on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify their invasion and coopting of Iraq's oil fields. The underlying reason was once again greed, led by Vice President Cheney's oil company friends who thought they would be able to control Iraq's vast oil reserves.
Then they turned the Iraqi economy into a conservative dream, a tariff-less free enterprise entity that allowed cheaper US imports to put many Iraqi companies out of business, and was a major reason for the Sunni-led uprising and civil war that ensued.
We now know that on January 12th, the DOJ announced that the Inspector General would be investigating the sequence of events comprising the Prince-Giuliani-Trump conspiracy. Inspector General Horowitz noted that within his brief was investigation of the series of leaks that occurred between the NYPD, the FBI, and outside entities—including, we can surmise based on context, the Trump campaign.
Harlan Green © 2017
Follow Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen


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Mary Robinson delivered a keynote speech at the Chatham House Climate Change Conference 2016 during which she highlighted the need for inclusive climate action that would support low carbon development in developing countries and ensure that climate policy is people-centered.
Reflecting on the fact that the Paris Agreement will enter into force in 2016 Mary Robinson said "Getting onto the safe trajectory, and staying there, is partly about finalizing rulebooks and procedural questions for COPs – these things are vitally important and must be done extremely quickly. But if you are one of the 75 million people who live about one meter above sea level, you don't want to listen to procedural explanations about rule books. You want the international community to act before you are forced to flee from your home."
"The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls for an approach that "reaches the furthest behind first", and the Paris Agreement commits us to prioritising the most vulnerable countries and people. These calls should always be in our minds. They can help us to remember why 2015 mattered – not because we have yet guaranteed the future we want for people everywhere – but because we created foundations on which we now need to build."
Addressing the universality of the issue of climate change, Mary Robinson said ".. we can show how multilateralism and respect for others is the way to solve shared problems. In a world where there is too much talk about building walls and not enough about building bridges, climate action can provide a shining beacon for how collaboration and respect work better then isolationism and aggression."
The annual Chatham House Climate Change Conference, hosted over 10-11 October explored issues including:
- The implications of the Paris outcome for capital investment, innovation and planning in the public and private sectors;
- Dynamics within and between the major emitters and the prospects for greater near-term ambition, including potential outcomes of the 2016 US presidential election;
- The outlook for hydrocarbon prices and the implications for low-carbon policies in developed and developing countries;
- How $1 trillion of investment in clean energy can be mobilized;
- The feasibility and implications of a major effort to develop carbon sinks and negative emissions technologies.
The opening keynote addresses were delivered by Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for Climate Change and Climate Champion following COP21.
Further Reading
Mary Robinson's Keynote Address
Patricia Espinosa's Keynote Address

subset: commoncrawl


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Before his On Cinema talk with NYFF's Director of Programming, Kent Jones, Richard Linklater reminisces about bringing SubUrbia to the festival two decades ago and why he deeply believes in the eternal lifespan of cinema.
In Richard Linklater's lyrical road movie, as funny as it is heartbreaking, three aging Vietnam-era Navy vets—soft-spoken Doc (Steve Carell), unhinged and unfiltered Sal (Bryan Cranston), and quietly measured Mueller (Laurence Fishburne)—reunite to perform a sacred task: the proper burial of Doc's only child, who has been killed in the early days of the Iraq invasion. As this trio of old friends makes its way up the Eastern seaboard, Linklater gives us a rich rendering of friendship, a grand mosaic of common life in the USA during the Bush era, and a striking meditation on the passage of time and the nature of truth. To put it simply, Last Flag Flying is a great movie from one of America's finest filmmakers. An Amazon Studios release.
The 18-day New York Film Festival highlights the best in world cinema, featuring top films from celebrated filmmakers as well as fresh new talent. The five-person selection committee is chaired by New York Film Festival Director Kent Jones and includes esteemed critics, curators, and programmers.
Since 1963, the New York Film Festival has brought new and important cinematic works from around the world to Lincoln Center. In addition to the Main Slate official selections, the festival includes newly restored classics, special events, filmmaker talks, panel discussions, an Avant-Garde showcase, and much more.
More info: filmlinc.org
Subscribe: youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=filmlincdotcom
Like: facebook.com/filmlinc
Follow: twitter.com/filmlinc


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In addition to preparing for the upcoming ATPE at the Capitol events this weekend, your ATPE lobbyists were once again busy covering legislative happenings in and around the Capitol this week. Here's a look at this week's developments:
- Today's SBEC meeting
- TRS board meeting highlights
- ATPE testimony in the House Public Education Committee
- An update on House budget talks
- Previewing ATPE at the Capitol and a major hearing on Monday
The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) held ts first meeting of 2019 today in Austin. The board took action on several items, including a new superintendent certificate program to be offered by the Harris County Department of Education and approval of new standards for the English as a Second Language (ESL) supplemental certificate. The board also heard lengthy testimony on the upcoming EdTPA performance-based assessment pilot included within the Teacher Certification Redesign plan, which led to a discussion of concerns among the majority of the board. ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier attended today's meeting and will be posting a full wrap-up of the discussions for our blog in the coming days.
The Teacher Retirement System (TRS) Board of Trustees also met this week. For highlights of the board's discussions, check out this blog post from ATPE Senior Lobbyist Monty Exter, who attended the meetings on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 21-22.
The House Public Education Committee began hearing bills this week. Members considered bills on public education topics including pre-K class sizes, educator preparation, assessment, and special education. ATPE Lobbyist Andrea Chevalier testified for the first time before the committee in support of a bill that would improve and pay for mentoring programs. ATPE supported seven out of the 11 bills on the agenda. For more on the hearing, read this blog post by Chevalier.
On Wednesday, Feb. 20, the House Appropriations Committee's Article III subcommittee met to continue its review of the state education budget. The subcommittee heard from te leaders of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Teacher Retirement System (TRS) before inviting stakeholders to weigh in on the topic of education funding. ATPE Senior Lobbyist Monty Exter testified about the need to prioritize funding for public education this session as well shoring up the TRS pension fund. Stay tuned to Teach the Vote for updates as budget talks continue this session.
On Sunday and Monday, hundreds of educators will arrive in Austin for ATPE at the Capitol, our biennial legislative advocacy and political involvement training event. ATPE members will spend Sunday attending training sessions on the association's legislative priorities and hearing from elected officials about efforts to reform the state's school finance system, among other education issues. On Monday, ATPE members will visit with their legislators and watch the House and Senate in action.
Also happening on Monday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a public hearing on Senate Bill (SB) 3, which aims to increase funding for public schools and give teachers a $5,000 raise. ATPE State Vice President Tonja Gray will be giving invited testimony at the hearing. Follow @TeachtheVote on Twitter for updates on Monday's hearing and watch for a full recap of the event next week here on our Teach the Vote blog.


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Aptychi – updated
The grandmother's hypothesis generated some interest, so here's an updated version with at least a mildly slicker overall appearance. Feel free to use this, please link to this blog and nudge me if you're writing something about this topic.
I've stumbled over a fantastic reconstruction here by Leif Beckmann under Günter Knittel's direction. These look much more plausible to me, so I'm taking this in that direction. The site is only in German for now… we'll see what we ca do about that.


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Copywriters In Johannesburg
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Aziz Gool
Freelance Copywriter & Blog Writer
Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
2 Skills
"Creative visionary with a magic wand"...
The vision I have is to undermine convention through innovation. Where others use images and words to illustrate life, I look at
life as mediums that tell their own stories; whether it is the tree, the sidewalk or the mountain. They are a canvas I can wave
my magic wand around. My wand is two-fold; internally it is my mind with its insight, its logic and its dreams. Externally, it is my
command of the language of communication, my eye to perceive what others do not. It is my hand that can turn the most
inanimate object into a channel which provides a message relevant to the lives of all it touches…
Who Am I?
To make an objective evaluation of myself is difficult; we tend to embellish to cover up our weaknesses. Nevertheless, I will
attempt it with as much honesty as I can. Dedicated, driven, passionate, innovative and energetic are words which come to
mind. However, perhaps they are more effective when placed in contrast to my weaknesses; emotionally attached, stubborn,
perfectionist, critical.
I have partied, I have socialised and I have traveled. I have acquired knowledge, understood it and applied it. I have found
myself through my embrace of my religion. I am first and foremost a Muslim; it requires of me tolerance and the best of
character and is the foundation of all I am, as we exist only in relation to those around us and Islam is the faith of brotherhood,
unity and community. My world or rather my being has consisted of a three- sided identity; the academic, the strategist and the
creative. I am all of the above but I am also none in the sense that my mind is still young, still naive, still absorbing everything
my eyes see and my mind questions.
Identity, fundamentally, is a fluid concept and is made to be changed, to be overwhelmed and to be consumed. The world
around us; culture, religion, media, money, capitalism, materialism, consumerism, spectacle; these are the words which mould,
which shape and which provide meaning to society and to the individual. I do not claim immunity from these influences nor do I
conform to them wholly but here, now, I have taken a stand to be a producer and an active player in the making of meaning.
Advertising means to me to shape the world for the consumer, allow them choice, guide their needs, aid their decisions, and
make them buy. However, it is this very notion which I seek to undermine. Why do we have to deceive to sell? Why is our vision
of beauty so distorted? My goal is to create practical, emotional and innovative solutions for clients using an unwavering
character, a moral backbone, the truth as the truth sits on the page.
I am because I am, I am what people make me out to be, I am the sum of my achievements, I am the consumer, I am the one
you want.
My ideas might seem idealistic and even naive but how can we use our logic to indulge in the practice of magic making if one
cannot dream.
'I, however, have my own thoughts and ideas, images and concepts which are made to dazzle the mind, convert the consumer
and amuse the child. What I want is to be criticized, to be the object of intrigue, for as the famous modernist mantra goes 'I
think, therefore I am' and the consumer must be my examiner for they are my future, the future of modernism;
postmodernism, always chanting, 'I desire/ I consume, therefore I am…
Abdul Aziz Gool'.
Skills (
Blog Writing
© 2020 Freelanced.com. All rights reserved.


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What do you mean this isn't really a living teddy bear? Is it an Ewok, then.
I see, it's Munchkin the Shih Tzu dressed up like a teddy bear—how cuuute.
Although both puppies and teddy bears are adorable, when you put them together you get something cuter than cute.
Anyway, what a great way for Munchkin to keep warm this winter.
Check out Munchkin's FB page.


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Mcallen, TX – Mcallen Web Design is the premier web design, advertising, interactive marketing, and SEO optimization company. Having produced a solid relationship with many local and national brands since 2008 in southern Texas, they have continually shown their prowess in the industry. Being originally developed by local SEO expert Rick Martinez, Mcallen and Harlingen Web Design has since expanded its reach and elevated a plentiful variety of clients' web relations. They specialize in the betterment of professional online presence, having proven repeatedly they are the number one service for optimal results.
As the web continues to expand with development services becoming more readily advertised as qualified and competent, it becomes even more difficult to discern which companies are worth the time of day. Most the time, those advertising their services cannot produce adequate proven results or have done so with minimal success.
Of the many online services around, Web Design Mcallenprovides the most substantial quality services, one that has served a plethora of clients regionally and on the national scale. Brand names local to Texas have found success using their expertise and knowledge to one-up any competitor. They offer a variety of web services, providing any business with the proper SEO, page design, interactive marketing, or advertisement needs by only those well-versed and adept.
They strive to go above their competition by not only providing these superior SEO services, top end web design, advertising, and marketingabilities, but also supply potential customers visiting their homepage with ample directive assistance with simple SEO tips ideal for any small business.
"We have put thousands of hours into web development, multi-media marketing and advertising campaigns," says the company spokesperson. "We are the most experienced web developers in South Texas and know how to create an online brand that will be consistent with and strengthen your company image."
Mcallen Web Design is the premier developmental team any business needs for top-notch page design, advertisement, and marketing, as well as SEO optimizations that offer the most comprehensive knowledge of all their competitors. Led by Rick Martinez, an SEO expert in the industry has endowed the company with great achievements in expansive outreach to many local and national brands. Businesses have been steadily returning to receive their premium services, as they have proven results with every client they take in, making them the perfect solution.
Media Contact
Company Name: Mcallen Web Design
Contact Person: Rick Martinez
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: +1 (956) 580-4488
City: Mcallen
State: TX
Country: United States
Website: www.mcallenwebdesignhq.com


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Model and Bollywood actress Diana Penty features on the cover of Grazia India magazine's July 2015 edition.
Diana Penty acted in Homi Adajania's film Cocktail, in which she co-starred with Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. She has commited to star as the titular character of Anand L. Rai's production Happy Bhaag Jayegi opposite Abhay Deol.
Besides modelling and acting, Diana Penty is currently the brand ambassador of TRESemmé and Micromax Mobile.
(Visited 42 time, 1 visit today)


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Sourcing groundfish from the clear cold waters of the Pacific Northwest, we carry Rockfish (Sebastes spp. and Sabastelobus spp.), Sole (M. pacificus, P. vetulus, E. jordani, G. zichirus), Flounder (A. stomias), Sablefish (A. fimbri), Skate (Raja spp.), and Pacific Whiting (M. productus) to provide customers a complete category range.
See the reference document for more information.
Primary Sources
We carry Flounder/Sole sourced from the clear cold waters of the Pacific Northwest, primarily:
- Alaska
- Washington
- Oregon
- California
The following species are available:
- Atheresthes stomias
- Microstomus pacificus
- Parophrys vetulus
- Eopsetta jordani
- Glyptocephalus zichirus
Arrowtooth flounder (Atheresthes stomias) is shown above.
Product Forms
This product is available Fresh/Frozen in the following forms.
- Round
- J-Cut
- Pan Ready
- Fillets
- Portions
Contact a sales representative to discuss seasons, availability, and how to best tailor a program to fit your needs.


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When looking for new or replacement windows in Calgary, you want to consider all your options. Finding the best replacement windows for you may be challenging. New windows that are energy efficient, enhance the style of your house, go with the decor of your home, etc. If you haven't already thought about getting replacement windows with a Low-E (Low Emissivity) coating on the glass, you probably should.
Some benefits of replacement windows with low-E glass include:
- Block Harmful UV rays form the sun More comfortable in the summer.
- Less radiant heat from outside.
- Warmer in the Winter. Helps retain the heat inside your home.
- Lower energy bills from heating and air conditioning.
- Protects your floor and furniture from long term sun damage.
- Reduced condensation, mold and mildew
- No obscured views due to tinting
- Helps meet Energy Star ratings
The right replacement window will save you money.
We all love sunshine, but it can add heat to a home. If your windows face east, west, or south, this is especially true. You can block the sun with exterior solar screens, dark tint, window films, blinds and drapes. You may even try some creative landscaping. But these strategies also block the view. Why not maintain or even expand your view to the outside world without sacrificing your interior comfort or increasing your energy costs.
Not only can you get protection from the heat of the sun, but you can also get superior insulating performance. This is important in the winter when heating costs are a concern. Low-E coatings will efficiently reflect the heat from your home's furnace back into your housekeeping you comfortable on those cold Calgary winter nights.
In our showroom, we have a demonstration unit set up where you can feel the benefits of Low-E first "hand". There are heat lamps set up with the different options of glass in front of them. Just by placing your hands in front of the glass, you can easily feel the difference and understand the benefits. Come see our show room and see for yourself why you should have Low-E on your replacement windows.


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Dollar Cost Averaging
Broadly speaking, there are two types of investing: systematic and non-systematic. The first is a methodical approach and does not rely on one's emotions or gut feelings. You put a fixed amount into the fund every month, regardless of market behaviour and the price of units. If the price of the fund goes down, you buy more units; if it goes up, you buy fewer units.
This approach is called 'dollar cost averaging'. Simply it means that your average unit cost will be less than if you made an equivalent lump sum investment at its unit cost. Put another way, as prices fluctuate, you get more units.
The statistical effect becomes more obvious over time, especially in volatile markets, as the illustration below shows.
When emotion rules
Each year Dalbar, Inc. publishes an analysis of the effect on performance of investors' buying and selling of US mutual funds. Although the numbers vary from year to year the message remains the same: the average investor earns significantly less than mutual fund performance would suggest.
Why is this? The answer lies in market timing. We all flatter ourselves that we can spot the right moment to enter or exit the market. In practice luck, mostly bad, plays as much a part as skill. Indeed, while the age-old advice to buy low and sell high is simple and obvious, our very unsystematic behaviour leads many of us to do the opposite.
Dalbar shows that over the 20 years ended 31 December 2007, the average equity fund investor would have earned an annualised return of just 4.5%, underperforming the S&P 500 by more than seven percentage points per year! Furthermore, $10,000 invested in equity funds in proportion to actual flows would have earned just $14,011, compared to $21,036 from a systematic approach that spread the $10,000 investment evenly over the 240 months (see chart). So your best course of action is to invest regularly and stay invested.


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Located in the middle of the Oklahoma panhandle away from the maddening rush of the 9 to 5, this refuge with a variety of habitat types, ranging from uplands dominated by sage to creek bottoms in cottonwood trees can be found here. It is a wintering home for migrating waterfowl, primarily Canada geese and mallards, as well as a prime habitat for resident species such as white-tailed deer, coyotes, Rio Grande turkeys, quail and many others. Please Enjoy...
|This was my first opportunity to see a Scaled Quail. As birders would say" another life bird" sighting
|Baby Quail chicks
|Scissor tailed fly catchers
|Wine Cup ( I think)
|Red Ants
|Prickly Pear Cactus Flower with pollinator on board.


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Return and Exchange Policy
We understand the frustration of buying an item online and having it be too big or a little bit tiny. It is important to us for you to feel 100% sexy and confident in your TwistedCandi Bikini. All our sales are FINAL. We do not offer refunds yet will happily exchange your item if all tags and liners are in place and returned within 10 business days. We will not take back any bikini or clothing item that is damaged, worn or soiled. In order to exchange your purchase please fill out the return/exchange form that comes with your purchase. If you need an additional form please email firstname.lastname@example.com. There will be NO returns or exchanges on any special custom orders. NO SHIPPING/HANDLING REFUNDS FOR RETURNS If you are a company wanting to order a bulk order of custom bikinis please email Candi at email@example.com.


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Our Vision
As an educational management system, we aim at revolutionizing the way educational institutes function. In times to come, we foresee a much faster, efficient and an automated management system in schools and colleges. It complies with our endeavor to ensure better coordination among all our beneficiaries. With all the technological advancements being included in the field, the students, teachers and parents can work towards a common goal of :
Achieving Excellence Together
As a committed organization, we recognize the role of education in developing our nation. Thereby we work in collaboration with educational institutes. Backing the adoption of technology to enhance the efficiency of students, teachers and the functioning of schools. "Technology can never replace Great Teachers but technology in the hand of Great Teachers is transformational".


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'Angels' fight to find cure for rare genetic disorder
They are the milestones every new parent looks forward to —when their baby sits up for the first time at 5 months old, when their baby takes his or her first steps at 8 months old, and when their child says "dada" or "mama" for the first time around age 1.
They are the moments when children first start to write their stories, but for Joe and Taina Moretti of Monroe, that story changed with one phone call.
"When Joey was first born we didn't have any problems," said Taina Moretti, mother of Joey Moretti. "He was born at 38 weeks gestation and it was a healthy pregnancy. There were no crazy signs of anything being wrong. He was very tiny though. He was four pounds, 13 ounces."
It wasn't until Joey turned 5 months old that Taina and Joe became concerned about their son's progression, noticing that he had missed every basic milestone made by healthy children in their first year of life.
"In comparison to other children his age, he wasn't hitting the same marks they were," Taina said.
By the time Joey was 7 weeks old, he had been diagnosed with many different disorders — Pertussis, Torticollis, Sandifer Syndrome, Dyspraxia and Developmental Coordination Disorder. But none of the diagnoses provided Joey's parents with the answers they were looking for.
Getting the diagnosis
"He was misdiagnosed a bunch of times. The doctors thought it might be brain damage from a loss of oxygen, like cerebral palsy," Joe said.
It wasn't until a phone call on July 3, 2013 that the Morettis received a correct diagnosis, which fit all of their son's symptoms.
The Morettis were on vacation with their family and friends when they learned that Joey, who was a year-and-a-half-old at the time, had what is known as Angelman Syndrome (AS) — a rare and complex genetic disorder that affects one in 15,000 live births.
"When we got the phone call last summer, Joe and I went on the Internet and what we read was terrible. If you go online, you will see that it basically says your son will be handicapped," Taina said.
Angelman Syndrome, which was first discovered by Dr. Harry Angelman in 1965, primarily affects the nervous system and is caused by a deletion on chromosome 15 (the UBE3A gene).
Various symptoms
AS causes those affected to have delayed development, intellectual disability, severe speech impairment, and problems with movement and balance. These signs and symptoms become noticeable between the ages of 6 and 12 months in those who suffer from the syndrome.
"The worst part of AS is seizures. Luckily, Joey doesn't have seizures, but there are kids who will have 30 to 50 seizures a day and have to be heavily medicated and the medicine slows them down," Joe said.
After reaching out to their pediatrician, Taina and Joe agreed that early intervention was Joey's best chance at improving.
"We started physical therapy with Zielinski Physical Therapy, and then ... we entered the Connecticut Birth to Three program," Taina said.
Currently, Joey is working with a total of eight different therapists — two speech language pathologists, an applied behavioral analysis specialist (ABA), and special education teachers.
"He started off with just physical therapy, and then we moved to occupational therapy and speech therapy after that. This is the first time that the Connecticut Birth to Three program is piloting something with ABA therapy, so now Joey is getting intense therapies Monday through Friday with all these different types of specialists," Taina said.
"Most Angelman kids don't talk, so the chances of him talking are very low," Joe said. "He might say a few words. But the therapy is going to help him walk. That is the goal — for him to walk and move around."
Each day Joey is showing signs of improvement, making milestones of his own.
"The goal of his therapist is when he exits the Connecticut Birth to Three program, he will be able to walk," Taina said. "Balance has always been Joey's biggest obstacle, which is keeping him from being able to walk. He works really hard at it."
But Joey hasn't been slowed down in all respects.
"You look at Joey today and he knows what you are talking about. He may not be able to verbalize it, but he is a smart kid. He knows what he wants," Taina said.
Expert opinions
And while therapy is the best medicine for children with Angelman Syndrome now, it is not a cure. A cure is, however, possible, according to two experts on the disease.
Edwin Weeber, a professor of molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida, and Benjamin Philpot, a professor of cell and molecular physiology and member of the University of North Carolina's Neuroscience Center, are the two leading doctors who are testing and advocating for a cure for AS.
Since the doctors have identified the gene that causes Angelman Syndrome, they have been able to identify the same gene in mice and disrupt it to create a true human cognitive disorder mouse model, according to Weeber on friendshipcircle.org, a nonprofit organization that provides support to the families of individuals with special needs.
"If you have read about Angelman Syndrome, Joey is missing the maternal gene on that chromosome 15. He was born without it," Joe said. "But he was born with the father's gene, the paternal gene. In all humans, your paternal gene is inactive on the 15th chromosome.
"Since the doctors have figured out how to activate that gene in the lab mice, through testing and research, you can watch the lab mice — the ones that are engineered to have AS — go through the maze and they can't get through it; they bang against the wall," Joe said.
"Then when they activate the paternal gene in the mice, they make it through the maze and don't show any signs of having AS," he said.
Research funding is an issue
However, because Angelman Syndrome is so rare — affecting about 25 children born each day — there is not enough funding to allow for further experimentation.
"The doctors feel like if they raised $20 million they would be able to find a cure," Joe said.
Furthermore, finding a cure for Angelman would not only change the lives of children like Joey, it would have a profound impact on people who suffer from other related and rare disorders, such as Prader-Willi, Rett and Fragile X Syndromes, along with more common disorders such as autism and Alzheimer's disease.
And with the potential for a cure in sight, the family and friends of the Moretti family are doing everything in their power to ensure that one day it is a certainty.
Forming a foundation
After receiving the news of Joey's diagnosis, Monroe Town Council Vice Chairman Frank Lieto, Nicole Lieto, Liz Moretti, Tony Moretti and Jamie Cotter formed the Fighting Angels Foundation (FAF) — an organization dedicated to providing support, research, awareness and funding for Angelman Syndrome.
"We started this foundation with the closest people to Joe and Tai; we are all like family," said Frank Lieto, president of FAF. "When the diagnosis came, we were all together on vacation.
"We all said we would really do whatever it took to help," Lieto continued. "We had a launch party in November and we raised over $10,000. That provided our seed money to allow us to move forward and help us get this foundation off the ground."
Since their launch party last fall, FAF has used some of the money raised to send Joe and Taina to attend the Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics (FAST) conference in Chicago.
"Initially what we did was send Joe and Tai to the FAST conference because what we are really trying to do is educate ourselves about what other organizations are out there," Lieto said.
"What we are learning is that there is not a lot of research or attention and not a lot of money being put into research for this disease," he said.
Fund-raising event planned
The Fighting Angels Foundation plans to change that, however. On March 8, the organization will host its first major event — the Raise Your Wings fund-raiser, at Testo's Restaurant in Bridgeport from 7 p.m.-midnight.
Liz Moretti, vice president of FAF, said that this year, the organization expects 300 people to attend the sold-out event, which will feature a raffle, silent auction, dinner, dancing and open bar.
With a ticket price of $125 and sponsorship packages that range from $250 to $3,500, Liz Moretti said the foundation is hoping to raise a total of $50,000 at the event, and hopes to make it an annual occasion.
"We want to fund research, we want to fund events to raise awareness, and do what we can to help Angelman families," Lieto said. "We all love Joey and we want to be able to help Angelman families worldwide. We believe a cure is possible — it just needs the proper attention."
Positive milestones
Despite the obstacles before them, the Morettis refuse to accept that their son will not hit progressional milestones. They believe Joey, who turned 2 years old on Nov. 6, will make milestones of his own.
Whether it's in five months, eight months, a year or more, they believe they will see Joey take his first steps on his own, and hear him say "dada" or "mama" for the first time.
"Joey is perfect the way he is," Taina said. "In 10 years, I hope there will be a cure. He will be 12 years old and will have the rest of his life to live and tell his story.
How to help
To learn more about Joey, the Moretti Family and Angelman Syndrome, visit the Fighting Angels Foundation at fightingangelsfoundation.com.
To make a donation by check, address checks to P.O. Box 173 Monroe, CT 06468, or make a donation online through PayPal.


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This is a blog to discuss philosophy, chess, politics, C. S. Lewis, or whatever it is that I'm in the mood to discuss.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Platonistic Metaphysics and morality
Here's the problem I have with all of this. You have the physical world, which is a closed system of physical causes. I take it that all contingent states, on this view, can be explained from the stand point of the closed and mechanistic physical order, and by whatever supervenience relations obtain. And there are the necessary moral truths, which do not rely on anything, God or the physical, for their existence. The trouble is that for Plato himself, we have a soul, which had a previous existence, and had a direct awareness of the Forms, but now that we are encased in fleshly bodies, we forgot all that knowledge of the Forms, unless it is somehow brought out of us through midwifery of some kind. In other words, Plato postulated some kind of interconnection between the world of forms and how our thoughts get caused in the real world. The Augustinian doctrine of divine illumination is the Christian replacement for the Platonistic doctrine of recollection. But this view you're propounding doesn't have any conduits from the truths of morality to the real world of our experience. If our duties are determined by the abstracta, then we may be able to act in accordance with duty, but we certainly can't act from duty, as Kant would say. If we act morally, the morality of our actions is at best epiphenomenal. Our state of acting rightly would be determined by whatever state the physical was in, and would not be determined by the state of what is morally true. I think this makes the position thus sketched wildly implausible.
13 comments:
- exapologist said...
Hi Vic.
Thanks for your reply. Your cricisims seem to me to boil down to two:
(i) There seems to be some sort of "interaction problem" between abstracta and our minds. This applies to my moral theory (if you can call it that), of course, since if I can't have knowledge of abstracta, then since moral properties and propositions are abstract, then I can't have moral knowledge. But of course the problem "spreads" to all knowledge.
(ii) If I'm in a causally closed system, then my actions are determined (or are at any rate not within my control), in which case I can' t be morally responsible *even if* I could solve the problem of gaining moral knowledge spelled out in (i).
Is this correct?
- June 15, 2007 12:47 AM
- exapologist said...
Hi Vic,
In any case, if these are your worries, then I don't see them as problems for my view:
Re: (i): As you know, there are many accounts of universals out there, including many accounts that construe them as immanent. I could adopt Armstrong's account, for example. If so, then the "interaction" problem disappears.
Re: (ii): I agree with Van Inwagen that libertarianism is utterly mysterious (although I disagree with him that it's the only plausible account to take in the face of his Consequence Argument). In any case, clearly demonstrated that Frankfurt-style counterexamples have demonstrated that moral responsibility doesn't require the Principle of Alternate Possibilities (PAP). Furthermore, I'm a compatiblist, along the lines of Fisher's account of reasons-responsiveness. As you know, the problem of freedom and foreknowledge is a pretty nasty one, and I don't think one can save a libertarian account of freedom there without doing some significant tweaking of theology (I think molinism is looking weaker by the day as I watch that discussion play out in the literature, and so I think the only plausible option left is open theism -- unless, of course, one crosses over to my compatiblist side of the fence. There are a lot of orthodox Christians over here anyway, as you know).
So I don't think your criticisms have much force.
- June 15, 2007 11:01 AM
I don't pretend to really understand this area of metaphysics at all well, but what can it mean to say that universals or other abstract objects are immanent except to say that they are in some way supervenient?
- June 15, 2007 12:15 PM
- exapologist said...
It might be better for me to say instead that the relation between abstracta and concreta need not be so faint as Plato's "participation" releation. Why can't properties, when instantiated, be sufficiently "embedded" with their bearers that it makes sense to say that once can interact with them? Laurence Bonjour gives a response of this sort to Benecerraf's famous objection in the former's book, In Defense of Pure Reason (see especially, pp. 156-64). His account can be summarized as follows: Consider other kinds of universals besides propositions. For example, consider redness. Surely we can have knowledge of redness, even though it's a universal. How? By perceiving objects that *instantiate* tokens of the type, redness, and then forming the *concept* of redness (this seems to be Aristotle's account of concept formation and knowledge of universals. See, e.g., Posterior Analytics II, 19 99b1-100b15). True enough, I can't *causally interact* with the color (the universal), but my process of concept of formation is in some way *responsive* to the character of that color. If, for example, I were instead experiencing objects that instantiated greenness, then (in normal conditions) I would form a concept of the universal greenness, and not redness. Similarly, I don't think it absurd to say that a story roughly along these lines can be told about our knowledge of propositions: we have certain mental states that instantiate tokens of propositions, and our mental states are responsive to the character of a given proposition. For if I were to have a mental state that instantiated a different proposition, my mental state would've been different. Again, it's granted that this responsiveness relation that holds between propositions and certain mental states isn't causal. But just as the relation is sufficient to ground epistemic relations with respect to other universals (recall the color perception example above), so we have reason it think it's sufficient to ground epistemic relations with respect to propositions.
- June 15, 2007 12:51 PM
I have nothing particular against the view you have described here, at least not in relation to colours, but it doesn't seem robust enough to do the work you're requiring of it in the area of meta-ethics.
If properties are "embedded" in the things that have them, the thing which is "embedded" either can or cannot exist independently of these "embeddings". If it cannot, it isn't clear that there is anything which objects two red objects (for example) share or have in common which makes it the case that they are both the same colour. The common element, from what you're saying appears to be the response the objects evoke.
On the other hand, if the thing which is embedded can exist independantly then your back with transcendant objects rather than immanent ones.
So, in general terms the position you're describing sounds like a "response dependency" position:
X possesses F-ness if and only if X is such as to evoke F-type experiences/responses in normal observers in normal conditions.
There are several issues with the general kind of account.
(1) "Normal" is a normative concept not a statistical one. As such, "normal" is one of the terms that we will end of giving this sort of account for, and the account will end up being viciously circular.
(2) Were a disease to take hold of the human race, and somehow alter our experiences of coloured objects, over time our colour concepts would also change. While this does not entail relativism, the interesting question is whether we'd have "lost anything" in the change. The answer would obviously depend upon the specifics of the disease in question ... but it would be difficult to say the same if we presented a similar analysis of "Good" to the given analysis of colours and replace the imagined disease with some political uprising and subsequent events.
I do think that this sort of account is workable, but not for normative concepts. It's pretty much the position I want to hold, only I want the relevant responses, which ground the concepts in question, to be God's responses. This is roughly what I mean by a God-centered variant of psychologism. And therefore, in so far as we are made in God's image, and our characters conform to His, our own "responses" may be a useful starting point in finding out the truth.
Roughly: the metaphysics of your view here is the epistemology of my view.
- June 16, 2007 5:52 AM
- exapologist said...
Hi Steve,
I think universals are transcendent, and thus can exist independently of particulars. But if it turned out that it was somehow unworkable to get *any* such account to relate to concreta -- but I don't think it is (I remember being convinced by Moreland's little book, Universals,that it isn't) -- then I'd switch over to an immanentist account.
At the moment, I see no problem at all about holding on to some sort of account according to which universals are transcendent, and yet they're able to be instantiated in particulars in such a way that it makes sense to say that we can be in a cognitive relation to them sufficient to ground knowledge of them. I think Bonjour is right about this.
You think universals exist, are transcendent, and yet can be instantiated in particulars in a way sufficient for knowledge (or justified belief) about them, correct? If so, then I think that my account is plausible at just this point iff yours is (although, as you know, I'd say that if you're a theistic activist, my account would be more plausible overall ; )).
- June 16, 2007 11:30 AM
- Victor Reppert said...
XA: At the moment, I see no problem at all about holding on to some sort of account according to which universals are transcendent, and yet they're able to be instantiated in particulars in such a way that it makes sense to say that we can be in a cognitive relation to them sufficient to ground knowledge of them. I think Bonjour is right about this.
VR: I don't see a problem either, unless you believe in some version of the causal closure of the physical. If these universal are at all relevant to the actual occurrence of belief as a psychological event, you have to reject causal closure in order to get that. I think a causal closure doctrine is an essential feature of any world-view that is recognizably naturalistic, and so therefore the view you sketch is of no use to anyone in the naturalistic camp.
- June 17, 2007 5:24 PM
- exapologist said...
I'm not sure I'm following you here. Are you saying that the causal closure doctrine must be false if the Bonjour account I sketched is to work? If that's what you're saying, then I'm not sure why that's so. Why can't the universals stand in a weaker relation than a causal one -- e.g., the Bonjourian one I sketched?
On the other hand, if you want to call this relation a *causal* one, in which case it entails the falsity of the causal closure thesis, fine. But that seems a pretty mild pill to swallow: if *that's* the kind of naturalism you're focusing on and attacking, then we're on the same side -- well, you, me, and a huge chunk of analytic philosophers who are nonetheless not theists of any sort. Quine, Russell, and I are right there with you battling the evil foe of "naturalism".
- June 17, 2007 8:02 PM
I'd be surprised to hear than Quine and Russell thought of properties as something over and above the physical states that underly them.
I think the middle position you're trying to occupy doesn't really exist (at least not within naturalism).
The problem is not with immanent abtract objects in themselves, the problem is that if you endorse naturalism these must be reducible to or supervenient upon more common-place naturalistic states or events. If they supervene in that way, you may be able to get them to be one of the relata in a causal relation and so avoid the problems Vic is posing. But if you do that, then it's no longer clear that these abstract objects can be transcendant or necessary in a sufficently strong sense to do the work you are requiring of them elsewhere (in the ethical realm).
On the other hand, if the abstract objects aren't reducible/supervenient, then you either have the non-closure of the material or you have the epistemological difficulties Vic is outlining.
I think an honest naturalism goes for supervenience here, and gets as much work as possible out of the supervening stuff. I think this ultimately pushes you to something like the response-dependance view I outlined a few posts up. There are other possibilities, but I don't see them faring any better.
- June 18, 2007 12:05 PM
- exapologist said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- June 18, 2007 3:54 PM
- exapologist said...
exapologist said...
Hi Steve,
Steve: I'd be surprised to hear than Quine and Russell thought of properties as something over and above the physical states that underly them.
Me: Yes, Russell and Quine believed in universals of various sorts. See, e.g., Russell's classic little essay, "Our Knowledge of Universals", in his classic little book, The Problems of Philosophy. Quine was a nominalist about everything but sets. See, for example, his book Word and Object, which I think is the origin of contemporary indispensability arguments for abstracta of various sorts.
Steve: I think the middle position you're trying to occupy doesn't really exist (at least not within naturalism).
Me: I must register my disagreement here. This goes back to my previous comment to Victor. I'm happy to define 'naturalism' any way you like. But if you define it in such a way that it entails the denial of irreducible abstracta, then a huge chunk of non-theistic analytic philosophers aren't "naturalists" in this sense, since they accept abstract objects that aren't reducible to the physical. This is fine with me if you want to define things this way, but it strikes me as odd, since it countenances Quine as a non-naturalist. But whichever way you want to define 'naturalism', I'll be happy to go along with it. But whichever way we define it, it's certainly *not* true that my "middle position" doesn't exist -- there are just loads of philosophers just like me who aren't theists, and who yet accept abstracta of various sorts, both past (e.g., Frege, Russell, Quine, etc.) to the present (e.g., Michael Jubien, Jeff King, Tyler Burge, D.H. Mellor), Laurence Bonjour, Frank Jackson, etc.).
Steve: The problem is not with immanent abtract objects in themselves, the problem is that if you endorse naturalism these must be reducible to or supervenient upon more common-place naturalistic states or events. If they supervene in that way, you may be able to get them to be one of the relata in a causal relation and so avoid the problems Vic is posing. But if you do that, then it's no longer clear that these abstract objects can be transcendant or necessary in a sufficently strong sense to do the work you are requiring of them elsewhere (in the ethical realm).
On the other hand, if the abstract objects aren't reducible/supervenient, then you either have the non-closure of the material or you have the epistemological difficulties Vic is outlining.
Me: I responded to this in my last comment to Victor: If you take the Bonjour line re: our relationship to universals (the one I sketched in an earlier comment, then you can construe that relation as either causal or non-causal. If the latter, then we don't have an incompatibility between our knowledge of universals and the closure thesis; if the former, then in a strict sense, I'm not a naturalist in your sense. But that's fine with me. I see not the slightest worry in this -- any more than it worries Bonjour, Russell, Burge, Jackson, etc.
Steve: I think an honest naturalism goes for supervenience here, and gets as much work as possible out of the supervening stuff. I think this ultimately pushes you to something like the response-dependance view I outlined a few posts up. There are other possibilities, but I don't see them faring any better.
If so, then so much the worse for 'naturalism' in your sense. But again, this has no force at all against my view -- or the views of the large tribe of analytic philosophers I mentioned.
By the way, have you seen that Bergmann and Brower article I mentioned in another post? Here we have two contemporary christian theist analytic philosophers, and who yet argue that the of *any* form of realism about about abstracta (whether traditional platonist, theistic conceptualist, aristotelian, or whatever) entails the falsity of traditional christian theism. I'd love to see either your reply or Vic's to that article. My suspicion is that the game is over for theists who want to hold on to platonism.
- June 18, 2007 3:57 PM
- exapologist said...
whoops -- I noticed that I referred to Russell at one place in the present tense, as though he were still alive.
- June 18, 2007 6:26 PM
Thanks for this. For someone with a background in analytic philosophy I've read very little of people like Quine and Russell. My studies have been much more topic than history oriented and so I've managed to miss out on some pretty big writers. (I hardly touched Wittgenstein or Kant for example and only ever read Hume were he crossed into Philosophy of Religion).
Despite our obvious disagreements, we seem pretty much agreed about the structure of the situation ... which at least makes it easy to know what the other party is trying to say.
I must admit to still being a little puzzled, however. If immanent abstract objects are not supervenient, I'm struggling to see why we want to say they are immanent at all. I suppose this will be because they have spatial location and extention and are somehow "in" things which are physical and therefore immanent. This makes sense, I guess. Is there more to it than this?
The view you're describing, however, still doesn't seem to me very like naturalism. Given an ordinary naturalistic evolutionary account of our origins, how do these abstract objects get a foothold on influencing the course of events? This is a version of the problem that people usually pose to Dualists. Dualists endorse the existence of two separate types of substance, and the questions which then arise are:
(1) How can these two types of thing interact?
(2) What accounts for the origin of the non-physical stuff?
The two questions are related, of course, in that if the origin of the non-physical stuff can somehow _be_ the physical stuff, we're already well on the way to knowing how the two types of thing can interact.
The difficulty for the naturalist of just this sort, except that the naturalist has to answer their question without appeal to sky-hooks (or do they?).
To my mind, this makes the Dualism questions seem much easier for theism than the equivalent Immanent-Abstract-Objects questions are for naturalism.
- June 19, 2007 11:42 AM


text:
En un lugar diminuto de Polonia occidental un bosque de aproximadamente 400 pinos crecieron con una curva de 90 grados en la base de sus troncos – toda la inclinación hacia el norte. Rodeado por un bosque de pinos de crecimiento normal. "El Bosque Torcido" es un misterio.
Foto: maciej sokolowski
This is a remote forest in Western Poland, where 400 pine trees have grown with a curvature in their trunk structure and it turns out that no one really knows exactly what caused it. There are, however, a few theories:
1) The main theory seems to suggest that this is the result of human interference. It is believed that this is a tree farm and the trees were forced to grow horizontally in their youth to make a carpenters life easier. The curved shape can be induced by laying a heavy object over a young tree stem. Phototropism will cause the stem beyond the heavy object to grow toward the sky, while the growing stem beneath and behind the heavy object will develop what is called morphogenetic compression wood – which ultimately makes the curve in the stem permanent.
The problem with this theory is there is no evidence of a carpenter nearby and as the trees are relatively young (90 years) you would think someone would local would have some insight.
2) The other theory suggests that the curved formation is simply a result of heavy snow load combined with a long spring melt. The trees become photosynthentically active as the angle of the sun increases during spring. With a snow load still on the stem during this period, compression wood forms as the trees grow; resulting in a permanent bend.
Again, another problem comes from this theory; why did snow effect just these 400 trees, rather than the whole pine forest?
3) A third expalnation could be soil creep; as colder temperatures pervade the area, the moisture in the soil freezes and expands, displacing the soil and anything not held fast in it (ie. saplings), then during the warmer part of the day, thaws and retracts. Over days, tiny saplings can be moved to angles ranging from just slightly off 90° to laying flat against the ground as if they had fallen. The saplings prefer very much to remain vertical, as their ability to be able to catch sunlight to keep photosynthesizing is dependent on it, so it will actually bend itself towards the sunlight, much like a sunflower turning its 'head' to face the sun. The result, these curved trunks of trees until they are old enough to grow straight up, and not be affected by soil creep. This phenomenon is most prevalent on hilly terrain, as the steepness of the slope causes for more drastic soil creep.
Once again; this theory falls short; the area is not particularly hilly, especially not to the extent of causing such a dramatic curvature.
Fuente: http://carmenlobo.blogcindario.com


text:
We offer a variety of different methods for protecting metals against corrosion: barrier films, desiccants or VCI (Volatile Corrosion Inhibitors), to ensure your products are safe from the elements.
Paper Corrosion Protection (1 Products)
Kraft paper impregnated with Volatile Corrosion Inhibitors (VCIs) for protecting metals against corrosion. Once the products have been carefully packed, the VCI substance is spread around the products, thus creating a "shield" around the surface and protecting it against dampness, even in extreme transport conditions.


text:
Platters Served 10 – 12 People (prices can be change without notice)
Please Note: Prices include VAT.
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Delicious selection of continental meats including Olive Salami Horns, ham and Asparagus Rolls, Devilled Eggs,
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Taste of Some of SA's favorites like cocktails vetkoed and mince, mini boere rolls with chakalaka, mini prego steak rolls Grille Chicken pieces and bobotie Tartlets
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Selection of Dainty Cupcakes, (Lovely mix of colours


text:
Extent of OCCC storm damage revealed
A tornado that moved through the south side of the Oklahoma City Metro on Friday, May 31, left a path of damage across the city with OCCC being hard hit by the storm.
A notification sent out to students and faculty on June 2 informed them the campus would be closed until June 10 so the damage could be repaired.
Marketing and Public Relations Director Cordell Jordan said flooding became a concern for much of the campus as heavy rainfall poured in through the damaged roof.
He spoke about the damage.
"The hardest hit areas are going to be in the Main Building, first and foremost," he said. "The roof was torn over IT (Information Technology), the area on the second floor.
"And then below that is Records and Student Services. That's the area where we had most of the water coming in through the ceiling and pooling down on the main level," Jordan said.
"The other area that was hardest hit was the Social Sciences hallway. They had groundwater flooding. That includes the Aquatic Center."
Groundwater flooding typically occurs in low-lying areas, according to http://wa.water.usgs.gov. The Social Sciences hallway is one of a few low-lying areas like this in the college.
Jordan said several other areas in the school were damaged by the heavy rainfall and tornado though none as badly the Main Building.
"… There were areas like the College Union (that were damaged)," he said. "The roof over the President's office area (was damaged) — not his office specifically — and spotty leaks here and there.
"In the SEM center there was a pretty significant leak," Jordan said.
"There was also a window blown out in the John Massey Center and a window blown out in Transportation Technology."
OCCC officials are taking steps to ensure the damage is being fixed, he said.
"TRC is the recovery company that is working on remediating the building. They have generator blowers outside … to blow air in, to dry things out."
TRC Disaster Solution is an Oklahoma-based company. Their website describes the company as "a full-service restoration company ready at a moment's notice to provide a wide range of disaster solutions with specialized protocols to meet specific requirements resulting from Fire, Water, Tornado, Hurricane or other disaster."
According to www.mesonet.org, a weather website the monitors weather nationwide, more than eight inches of rain has fallen in Oklahoma City over the past seven days.
OCCC Recreation and Fitness to remain closed extra week
President, vice president give updates on college reopening
GED graduation ceremony rescheduled
College official waiting to learn cost of damage from May 31 storm
College employee shelters at OCCC during storm
Storm damage means some summer kids classes moved while others canceled
College damaged by May 31 storm; summer, intersession classes delayed one week


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This was the fourth and final panel I attended on Saturday at MegaCon. The full name of the panel was CREATING YOUR COMIC/MANGA PART 2: DRAWING THROUGH STORYTELLING. It was hosted by husband and wife comic book creators Adam Withers and Comfort Love. This panel was the second of a three part seminar they did over the weekend about comic book publishing, beginning at the writing stage and going to the publishing and marketing phase.
For more information about Comfort Love and Adam Withers, go to their blog. Search for Comfort and Adam individually at ComicArtFans. Comfort and Adam also have art posted at deviantART. Print and digital editions of their comic book series THE UNIQUES and RAINBOW IN THE DARK can be ordered directly from them.
Thanks to Comfort and Adam for allowing me to record their panel and post it on this episode. I hope they return to MegaCon next year. I'll be sure to look them up.
Continuing our coverage of MegaCon 2012 will be:
The Ins And Outs Of Indy Publishing, hosted by Glenda Finkelstein, Bob McCall, Gary Roen, Trevor Rueckert and Marni Knight Duncan.
Nick Cardy: The Artist At War, hosted by Renee Witterstaetter.
Megacon 2012 Wrap Up.
Check out SLIPSTREAM, the weekly web comic book I'm drawing and lettering, which is written by Jeffrey Taylor, co-host of the FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS PODCAST and contributor to the SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE. New pages of SLIPSTREAM can be found each Saturday at http://www.clockworkcomics.co.uk. Adam Dechanel, another contributor to the SUPERMAN HOMEPAGE, also writes and draws E. O. S. for Clockwork Comics, and new pages are available on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The new home for THE SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST is http://thesupermanfanpodcast.blogspot.com. Send e-mail to email@example.com.
You can join the SUPERMAN FAN PODCAST group or page on facebook, and follow the podcast on twitter @supermanpodcast.
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text:
Critical SQL Injection vulnerability in Drupal 7.x Gives any user admin access
Security researchers from SektionEins have discovered a critical SQL Injection vulnerability in Drupal CMS that leaves a large number of websites that uses Drupal at risk.
SQL Injection attacks
Drupal introduced a database abstraction API in version 7. The purpose of this API is to prevent SQL Injection attacks by sanitizing SQL Queries. But, this API itself introduced a new and critical SQL Injection vulnerability. The vulnerability enables attackers to run malicious SQL queries, PHP code on vulnerable websites. A successful exploitation allows hackers to take complete control of the site.
This vulnerability can be exploited by a non-authenticated user and has been classified as "Highly Critical" one.
A proof of Concept has been released online that allows anyone to change the password of admin account. So, better Hurry UP! Update your Drupal CMS.
Temporary fix
You can also directly modify the "includes/database.inc" file to patch this vulnerability;
Change the "foreach ($data as $i => $value) {" with "foreach (array_values($data) as $i => $value) {" in line 739 .
Proof of exploit
The following python Code changes the admin password of vulnerable Drupal to 'admin' (Tested with Drupal versions 7.21,7.31).


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Teen Ministry
Crossway Church Youth Group (CCYG) exists to provide discipleship, teaching, and fellowship for teens at Crossway and to reach teens in the Keene community with the good news of Jesus Christ. CCYG strives to be a unifying entity within Crossway Church, embracing the discipleship model explained in Titus 2 where older, more mature believers disciple the younger. It is our conviction that ministry to teenagers is the responsibility of the whole church. Because of this, CCYG strives to involve teens in all areas of church life.
There are currently two couples who serve on youth staff at Crossway. Sam & Alex Vendt as well as Sam & Sarah Wullbrandt. As youth staff, their goal is to make gospel deposits into the lives of Crossway's teenagers through teaching, personal relationships/discipleship, singing, prayer, and service. As they minister the gospel to the teens, their admonition is like that of the apostle Paul when he tells Timothy to "guard the good deposit entrusted to you." (2 Timothy 1:14)
Sam Wullbrandt
At various points in his life Sam has lived in Colorado, Texas, California, and New Hampshire. He has traveled to Israel, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Hungry, Austria, and Japan. Needless to say, he enjoys being "on-the-go" experiencing new people and places. As an avid sports enthusiast, Sam craves opportunities to indulge in any form of physical exertion — especially basketball and skiing. He graduated from The Master's College (Santa Clarita, CA) with a degree in Bible Exposition. In the whirlwind years that followed he was married, moved to New Hampshire to serve at Crossway Church, and now has a smiling son named Cooper Fox. The Wullbrandts are preparing for life as foreign missionaries and are praying about where the Lord would have them labor and harvest. Sam cherishes the relationships he has developed with teens at Crossway Church, and sees time spent discipling teenagers as an investment in the Kingdom of God.
Sarah Wullbrandt
Sarah was born and raised in the majestic mountains of Sun Valley Idaho where she grew up skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and biking. She loves to travel and has spent a significant amount of time in China and Israel. After graduating from The Master's College she went on to earn a master's degree in digital teaching and technology. She serves Crossway church in several official capacities including Vacation Bible School Director and youth staff. Sarah is always scouting opportunities to show hospitality and enjoys making a lovely home. Her youth group experience growing up and organizational skills make her a great blessing to the team ministry efforts of CCYG. She has consistently established her dominance in the area of "youth group games" with repeated victories. Though small in stature she somehow finds a way to win!
Sam Vendt
Sam Vendt was born and raised in Boscawen, NH then moved to the Keene area where he attended Keene State College to study music. In 2011, he graduated with a degree in Music Education and also married his childhood sweetheart, Alex. Just recently, the Vendts became parents of a wonderful little boy named Elijah. Sam serves on the Crossway Church worship team, and on the youth staff. He has a passion for the glory of God, and for encouraging others to grow in their love of God, the church, and the lost. Sam is also a singer/songwriter, board game enthusiast, and a backyard sports wannabe athlete.
Alex Vendt
Living in central New Hampshire all her life, Alex came to Keene in the Fall of 2008 to attend Keene State College to study Theatre Design. In the four years leading up to her graduation, she participated in over 16 productions, moved into her first apartment, and discovered her love of board games. Through a friend, Alex also found Crossway Church, where she fell in love with the teaching of the truth of the Word. In 2011, Alex married her childhood sweetheart, Sam, and they have since had a sweet and curious little boy by the name of Elijah.


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June 23, 2014, 11:42 a.m.
did you check your plans recently? we now have Evernote integration and a plan wizard that helps you get started on a plan quickly! come take a look!
June 3, 2014, 11:48 a.m.
we have been busy of late updating the site with new features. you might have noticed the new monthly summary view and the email that we started sending out. there have been a bunch of UI improvements across the site and there are many more changes in pipeline. keep watching, and do let us know your feedback!
Jan. 20, 2014, 4:34 p.m.
did you ever feel that trying to view your plans on your mobile devices was not easy and could be improved? we are proud to announce our new mobile UI! from now on if you happen to visit your plans on the go from a mobile device then you will be presented with a more easy to navigate interface. take a look today and let us know what you think!
Dec. 23, 2013, 11:55 a.m.
today we officially announce the addition of 2 new features. the first one, you can now create monthly targets for income, expense and net amounts and track these against your entries on a graph. the second new feature is that you can now select a base currency for your plan. you can then enter the amount in any currency and we will convert it to your base currency. whats even better is that you can convert your entire plan to any currency and see the values with our currency conversion tool. this is based on the fx close values from the previous day. check out these features and let us know what you think!
Nov. 24, 2013, 3:58 p.m.
we are happy to announce that we have added reports and 2 new charts! the 2 new charts will help you identify the income and expense items as percentages - so you can see which item contributes how much percentage of your income or expense. we also have a basic summary report that gives a nice overview of the plan. pretty soon we will be adding more reports - keep watching this space!
Nov. 17, 2013, 7:27 a.m.
we are on Facebook now! find us at www.facebook.com/rememberthebudget. you can reach us through this page of you have any feedback or any issues
Nov. 16, 2013, 7:27 a.m.
rememberthebudget.in is now live! we are happy to announce that remember the budget is now live! sign up, explore and let us know what you think. send in your feedback to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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[UPDATE] Change log
Keep track of the latest changes and improvements
Version 1.0.5
Version 1.0.4 (latest build 22.214.171.124)
Version 1.0.3 (hotfixed)
Version 1.0.2
Version 1.0.1
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Saudi Wahhabi imperialism in Pakistan: history, legacy, contemporary representations and debates
Waterman, David
MetadataShow full item record
Historically, Pakistan has nurtured an interpretation of Islam based on Sufi philosophy, which has a reputation of being more tolerant and open-minded. Recent decades have, however, seen a rise in conservative Islam exported from Saudi Arabia; Sunni Wahhabism has become more common in Pakistan largely due to a sociohistorical context, which includes the 1970s oil crises, the 1979 Iranian revolution as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Petrodollars have given the Saudi kingdom the necessary resources to finance Wahhabi imperialism, the Iranian revolution has politicized Shia Muslims (who are seen as a threat by the Sunni), and the Afghan war has resulted in the creation of militarized Islam, supported and funded by the USA and Saudi Arabia. General Zia ul-Haq would then take power in Pakistan and capitalize on Saudi support for the hardline Islamization of the country, a policy which has left a trail of sectarian Sunni/Shia violence in its wake.
- Straipsniai / Articles [5273]


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One week. Well, almost. I haven't been really doing anything much the past week. Every since I got sick with a bad cough, I kinda just rested. But that's the thing, I feel soooo lazy to get up and go again. Just over the weekend, I was supposed to go to the gym but I psyched myself and a friend into NOT going (hurray for friends who love you ) but decided to go shopping and junk on Hagen Daaz ice cream which tasted supremely delicious if you must know.
What I have been feeling like doing all week
Fast forward to today and I still haven't worked out yet. I feel fat man. Sorry, this post is kinda whiny but ever have one those days where one rest day turns into two and then before you know it, a whole week goes by? Plus the fact that the antibiotics that the doctor gave me is giving me some unwanted side effects like bad water retention and stuff. Bleah. Plus, I think I am having an epic sugar moment here, I keep wanting to eat bread and dessert… what is wrong with me 🙁 The usual excitement of seeing veggies eludes me and all I want is kaya toast and a teh si.
Anyway, hope this feeling doesn't last and that I will be back being active soon…. Plus now I have a bright idea… Am seriously thinking of cutting out sugar for at least 10 days and that includes fruit! I reckon it would be interesting to document it, stay tuned.
Thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed it, I would love to hear from you guys! Share your tips or thoughts by leaving a comment or dropping me a line using the contact form or simply give me some encouragement by liking offshewent on Facebook here.


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Taiwan is often cited as one of the most tolerant states in terms of religion so this month eRenlai decided to approach the topic of personal faith from a variety of perspectives, to examine the differences in beliefs that appear nominally the same, and the rich diversity behind umbrella terms like "Buddhism", "Atheist" or "Christian", which give the illusion of uniformity to our personal gods, or indeed our individual conception of the world.
First we look at how different people have come to their beliefs or lack of beliefs - whether through reason or by a more spiritual approach. We then look at what faith means for these people, whether it means living faith in a higher being or simply faith in human perception. Following on from this we examine the different ways that people, believers and non-believers conceive of the world around them, and how their faith or lack thereof goes to shape this; how they imagine god in terms of physical shape; how they interact with God; if their morality is shaped by their belief or lack of belief; and what it is like to be religious in Taiwan.
Photo: Lu Kamiao


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The official BBC Weather Twitter feed has been taken over by the "Syrian Electronic Army", supporters of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.
"Syrian Electronic Army Was Here," reads the first of the tweets, with a series of farcical weather warnings for various Middle East countries then following.
Examples include "Saudi weather station down due to head on collision with camel."
Meanwhile, the BBC Weather feed account has seen its followers skyrocket, already up by 2,000 since the takeover started. The BBC has now taken down the tweets.
The BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Arabic Twitter accounts were also hacked in the attack.
You can view a full list of the tweets here.
Blips are TechRadar's new news nuggets that you'll find percolating through the homepage - or you can see them all by hitting the blip keyword below.


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Thanks for the information about Unicode in Qt! I found that another, not related problem I had was caused by casting the characters wrong and now I can process these characters well inside my...PCXT 28th October 2020, 21:56
Have your read the Qt documentation concerning Unicode? Your problem may be in how you are handling the characters either as input to QString or as output to a Qt-based widget for display.
There are two things:
1. I'm doing it from Qt application, but it has smaller meaning.
2. It cannot insert character to any Qt5 application - even to itself. That's why I'm thinking about Qt...
In the code you posted, I don't see any references to Qt at all, other than that this method is in a MainWindow class. Where is the Qt connection?d_stranz 28th October 2020, 17:38
A row or column is not part of a workbook/document in Excel, so it is not overly surprising that these function are "missing" in this third party library's document class. I have never used this...ChrisW67 28th October 2020, 09:31
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If you have any problems with Qt or its usage, you can get help from the members of Qt community on our forum.
Don't forget to check out our links section for more Qt resources.
Qt is a cross-platform application and UI framework. Using Qt, you can write web-enabled applications once and deploy them across desktop, mobile and embedded operating systems without rewriting the source code.