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Etymologies
Examples
I do some teaching at the Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City and have access to its library, so the next time I'm there, I'll do a little research on the origin and meaning of the zozobra and report back to this thread. zaragemca | {
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Diabetic Pedicure
5
Diabetic Pedicure image here are part of popular Diabetic Pedicure collection which added by admin in Diabetes field. We believe all these images will be your best reference.
We have uploaded another great Diabetic Pedicure in gallery section. You can save as your references. Bookmark our site now to get more amazing wallpaper by share it to your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus or your other social media account.
This though-provoking article about Diabetic Pedicure will give you fresh inspiration. We hope you enjoyed it. | {
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} |
This is a 2010 episode of Jeremy Corbyn’s talkshow on Press TV, the propaganda arm of the Iranian regime. The first caller rants about Israel, describing it as a “disease” which Arabs must “throw out” and “get rid” from the Middle East. Corbyn replies: “Ok. Thank you for your call.”
The second caller describes the BBC as “Zionist liars”. Corbyn responds by telling him to complain to the BBC about their coverage, adding that the caller had a “good point”. There is no crisis… | {
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} |
This poem is about falling in love when you know it’s not going to work. There is something defiant in that, that I think Hollywood misses. Sure, if we’re lucky in our lives, we meet the “one.” But life’s messy and beautiful and imperfect and I’ve always felt that the journey is the point not the preface. I tried to play with the imagery of fire because it is both brief, dazzling, and can burn you if you’re not careful. The dance is not for a show, it’s genuine. It’s a special form of devotion to skip around a dance floor together while it slowly burns up. I hope I captured that here. | {
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} |
Hip Hop vs. House
DJs battle it out spinning hits from the two genres. Each DJ will get approximately 30 minutes to spin and win over the crowd, giving club goers the chance to hear the best of both worlds and party into the early hours of the morning. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
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There are quite a few of us that dont let our hubby's/OH's find out what we buy/how much it costs!!...i tend to order strategically so i know nappies come during the week when he is at work and then claim we have had it ages! He doesnt change the nappies so wouldnt have a clue! Thankfuly!
There are quite a few of us that dont let our hubby's/OH's find out what we buy/how much it costs!!...i tend to order strategically so i know nappies come during the week when he is at work and then claim we have had it ages! He doesnt change the nappies so wouldnt have a clue! Thankfuly!
There are quite a few of us that dont let our hubby's/OH's find out what we buy/how much it costs!!...i tend to order strategically so i know nappies come during the week when he is at work and then claim we have had it ages! He doesnt change the nappies so wouldnt have a clue! Thankfuly! | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Originally Posted by Draconi Redfir
h'uh? When did Bro ever mention that there was more then one statue?
To be specific, I'm referring to Bro-Dave's manufacturing of ****ty jpeg objects that were worth negative amounts of money, that he then sent up into orbit. It's not beyond reason that if he made one jpeg Statue, he could make more than one.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
I had another epiphany about Troll relationships (Don't worry, its about Morials this time):
Did you know why eridian wen't on a killing spree? Because Feferi is the worst Morial EVER. She did the stupidest thing a calmer morial (as apposed to a berserker morial) can make. She broke up.
You could say Eridian was being too clingy but thats the point. A calmer must endure. This isn't a freaking Boyfriend. You in charge of holding a mad, angry person in line so he doesn't go ballistic and kill everybody. Your stuck for life until possibly the berserker can get another.
Feferis job was to be stuck with Eridian, no matter how repulsive he may be and ensure that he doesn't kill anybody. A morial isn't as much a friendship as much as a dangerous responsibility.
I know that as a fanfic its non-cannon, but I saw a great example of a Morial relationship. One troll needed to take care of a psychopath, and needed to endure lots of abuse and even needed to DRUG the berserker to ensure that she didn't kill anybody.
And why would anybody want that kind of risk in a relationship? Trolls can be best friends without needing a psychopath in the mix.
And why would the psychopath want this?
Which brings me to my next point: Why was Calliope saying she can't feel 3 other types of relationships? She likes having friends. Thats like Morials except without the dangerous parts. Unless she can't feel Best friendship?
And final thing. Pre Scratch alternia makes more sense if you think that Aranea was lying through her teeth. That Alternia 1 was just as bad as alternia 2.
There is pretty much confirmation that Scratch didn't genetically alter the trolls in any way.
But there are too many things that are genetically vile in their physiology for alternia1 to be any form of decent society, not even talking about Utopia.
Gamzee was drugged out and was not under the influence of anything (Fate does not count) when he revealed that his true colors are a mad enraged psycho.
Now which "Utopia" society has an entire blood caste born insane and violent with voodoo powers?
Which "Utopia" society has a relationship (As in these aren't just rare occurrences. This happens so much that people WANT this. This means that there are so many psychos that half the planet is psycho and the other is not) based around keeping their insane people in check?
Which "Utopia" society has relationships based around hate, and making sure that the people that hate each other don't kill each other?
If you think that Earth2 was just a slight change up of Earth1. Alternia2 could have been just a slight change up of Alternia1.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
i'm too tired to think about everything else you mentioned there, but i'm going to step in and hold a shield up for feferi before somebody else comes in with a sheild covered in spikes and explosive swords aimed right at you.
Yes, Feferi broke up with Eridan, and yes, this may have been a mistake. But to be perfectly fair, he was not exactly helping the situation any. Even despite his morailigence, he was still a largely violent troll with an open hatred towards lower casted trolls. it's not that feferi WASN'T doing her job, it's that she COULDN'T do her job, she simply could not hold back the massive charging train that was Eridan's instability and could only instead slow it down as much as she could. If there was a more pacifying troll such as say Kanaya or Nepeta (Eri/Kan seecret moirail shipper here, hi.) then maybe things could have worked out better, but the problem was that while on Alternia any other viable options were either already taken (Viriska, Equius) or too far away or unknown to do anything about it. (Various other trolls we never saw.)
And on Feferi's side, she had to put up with this genocidal troll who would often times not listen to her, or otherwise SAY he listened to her, simply to turn around later on and reveal that he really didn't, he was an emotional drain for her, if it was anything like i think it is, it might even have been so bad that there were times when she feared leaving her computer in case Eridan tried to do something stupid or horrible again, and if she wasn't there to talk him out of it, he or everyone around him would pay the price for it!
Eridan was the equivalent of a broken plug that always leaks, and the sink he is attached to is Feferi, and the water is her emotions and sanity. Had she not broken her relationship with him, he might have improved yes, but from what she could see, the only thing in her future was an uncomfortable life of catering to this angry fish boy who didn't even like water with little to no success, and sacrificing all her personal freedoms to do it.
And hey don't get me wrong here, i think she should have kept at it too, i even ship Fef/Eri as both hearts and diamonds depending on the situation. But as it is in canon, and as far as feferi could tell, she could not do the job she had been given, and after so long of trying, she didn't even want to anymore, and had to break the relationship in order to liberate herself, hence the "i'm FR-E-E-E-E-E-E-E" bit as she swam up into her first gate.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Thats my point:
Hes YOUR Crazy Genocidal fish now. You have to stand all the abuse and all the problems. You can't JUST break up. If your job is to monitor a nuclear reactor and then you get annoyed you don't leave it unsupervised yelling FREEDOM! And if it means sacrificing everything about your life to ensure that it doesn't go nuclear then thats tough ****.
I think Kanaya <> Equis worked out better because Equis isn't as voilent as a troll. Well yes to Violent but just not as "Kill others" type.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Originally Posted by Scowling Dragon
Thats my point:
Hes YOUR Crazy Genocidal fish now. You have to stand all the abuse and all the problems. You can't JUST break up. If your job is to monitor a nuclear reactor and then you get annoyed you don't leave it unsupervised yelling FREEDOM! And if it means sacrificing everything about your life to ensure that it doesn't go nuclear then thats tough ****.
I think Kanaya <> Equis worked out better because Equis isn't as voilent as a troll. Well yes to Violent but just not as "Kill others" type.
So yeah. Who wants Morials again?
But here's the thing - moiraillegiance goes both ways. Moirails (note the spelling, please) take care of EACH OTHER. It's not just one way. Eridan was a whiny jerk, and Feferi was a naive kid, but she tried to help Eridan and he didn't try to help her. Also worth noting is the relative prevalence of genocide complexes in Alternian society. Eridan's ideals wouldn't be that uncommon, and not very worthy of note. It would be more like having to look after a loud dog, who you were supposed to be playing with. It was just loud, all bark and no bite, until it unexpectedly killed you after you went to your friend's house.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Weaker, more stable trolls keep the stronger, more violent trolls from harming themselves or those around them, and in exchange the stronger/violent ones are supposed to help the weaker ones, either defending them or teaching them to be strong.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Mizzim has the truth of it - all trolls are potentially volatile, moirails are supposed to keep each other grounded and supported. Gamzee and Karkat are a great example of this.
The problem with Feferi and Eridan is that Eridan doesn't want her as a moirail, he wants her as a matesprit* and is being increasingly aggressive about it. And she's not interested. The fact that she shows any interest in Sollux (who, besides being a lisping nerd, is near the bottom of the hemospectrum) not only adds fuel to the fire of his rivalry with Sollux (no blackrom here, they simply want to kill eachother), it makes her respond poorly when Sollux is shot, which leads directly to her death.
* Honestly, Eridan seemed to just want anything with horns as a matesprit. He was a sad and lonely guy who only had his pride to cling to, but his pride was what made him so repulsive to everyone. The catch 22 made him ever more desperate and unhinged.
Nepata and Equius are much better moirails. Equius may be caste obsessed, but he really does care for her and wants what's best for her - it's just that he can't accept the thought of her flushing with someone of a lower caste, which is tricky because there's nobody on the entire meteor who shares a caste, so any relationship would be guilty of that. They protected each other, fought for each other, and tried to keep each other from self-destructing. In the end their focus on protecting each other was what put them in a position to be killed.
Originally Posted by M'aiq the Liar
The Wood Elves are not made of wood and the Sea Elves are not made of water. M'aiq still wonders about the High Elves.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
I call that by blood powers. We all know that outside of that it doesn't make sense. And Karkat is just angry. Not Homicidal (He seems to be very queazy of death). He didn't reely need calming down (Outside of the usual).
Again, Im once again questioning the effectiveness of a relationship based of preventing a crazy person from flying off the handle if the calmer just can quit if they get annoyed. The majority of crazy people will not act pleasant. Especially the ones that need Moirail the most. Berserkers need to protect thier partners. I don't think it stretches beyond that.
I still think that my Nuclear reactor analogy stands here. Even if the nuclear reactor doesn't seem to be acting up-You don't leave it alone.
But I should try not to think about it because everything about trolls breaks apart into little tiny pieces if you think about it.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
I'd agree with mizzim's assessment, I think.
I saw Equius and Nepeta's relationship being much more mutually beneficial and caring than Eridan and Feferi's. Equius was (perhaps over-)protective of Nepeta and she seemed (to me) to genuinely enjoy helping him with his feelings.
Eridan didn't care so much about Feferi as he was obsessed with her and with romantic relationships (especially the one he had). And Feferi didn't enjoy what she had to do, it was a burden on her that lead to her wanting to have less responsibility for him. It may have been a mistake to try to break up with someone who obsessed with having relationships whose role in his life was keeping him from committing genocide, but it was an understandable decision (especially considering that his genocidal shtick was more empty boasting and faulty doomsday devices than actual violence - that may have just been that, at least for Eridan, the moirallegiance was working but it still brings up questions of how serious he was).
It also seemed that while Equius would vent and then be noticeably calmer and safer for a while after talking with Nepeta, while Eridan was constantly angry and pushing genocide (IIRC). That may have been a difference between the two or symptoms of an unsuccessful moirallegiance.
Moirails balance one another's personalities, it's not just keeping the more violent one in check (though that can be a large part of it).
All the above is obviously as I understand or observe it.
Edit: Also, Eridan's situation probably wasn't helped by the extinction of all but twelve trolls. The odds of having an ideal romantic partner among the other eleven for any quadrant is rather small (especially for someone as unpleasant and difficult as Eridan), and at least on Alternia he might have been somewhat more threatened by the idea of lots of trolls turning on him (which might have been an ideal situation complicated by Feferi interfering - presumably what normally happens is that the trolls too unstable to have a moirail self-destruct by pissing off too many members of an incredibly violent race for them to handle, or realise the threat and tone it down/find a way to vent it).
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Originally Posted by ScionoftheVoid
Moirails balance one another's personalities, it's not just keeping the more violent one in check (though that can be a large part of it).
Sort of this. Moirallegiance is more than friends/acquaintances, but it's non-reproductive (that's matespritship). "Soul bros/sisters" is sort of one way to put it, only not really. While one typically looks after the other, that's not the entirety of the relationship - similar to human nebulous "love" in which reproduction is not the entirety of the relationship. The closest I've seen to a solid definition in relation to human terms of love is "sibling love" or "familial love", despite trolls not having human families. The reason Trolls consider it romance probably stems from the fact that they don't have families in the human sense.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
I view Equius and Nepetas Relationship as just friendship. She never really calms him down that much. He seems to have it sorted out by taking out his anger on robots.
Wha... bu... no!
The whole point of Equius and Nepeta's moirallegiance is that it is supposed to be the iconic example of a pairing functioning so well that everyone just looks at it and says "Oh, yeah, that's a moirallegiance there". They are the most successful pale red pairing in the comic.
When Nepeta starts to go off the handle, Equius calms her down and brings her back under control. When Equius starts to flip out, Nepeta cuddles with him in the horn pile and he remembers himself. The two of them are a carefully balanced pair, friends so close that they are there for each other no matter what.
Moirallegiance isn't just about calming down psycopaths, or else it wouldn't be something that every troll aspires to. It's about being a balancing force and support in someone else's life, and in return them being a balancing force and support in yours.
Equius and Nepeta are exceptional morails to one another. Karkat and Gamzee are very good moirails, and there's some evidence that Aradia and Sollux become decent moirails.
Feferi and Eridan were terrible moirails, because even though Eridan thought that he was helping and balancing Feferi, he wasn't doing very much of that, and she was wearing herself to the bone trying to rein him in.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Your telling me the same thing over and over (Moirials are an equal relationship) yet I keep bringing this point up:
How effective is a relationship thats supposed stop Trolls crazy people from going berserk if one can just quit if they get annoyed by them.
Crazy homicidal nasty people tend to be- you know: Crazy and nasty. How can you expect them to NOT be crazy and nasty. Thats the point! If they are not crazy and nasty then they don't need to be watched over!
Thats why I find it makes 0 sense for this to be an relationship where they can EXPECT to be equals.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
Trolls have innate maternal/paternal instincts that are never fully realized due to the fact that they do not raise their own young. as such they crave having somebody to take care of, and at the same time due to a lack of a parent, crave having somebody take care of them. Hense the need for moirails.
Re: MS Paint Adventures 6:12
So I'm attempting to register on fimfiction.net and I want a name that references homestuck. I'm using the first name of the OC my friend made for me, Cirrus, and something to go with it like a chumhandle.
Any suggestions/IDE's?
Originally Posted by Scowling Dragon
I still think that my Nuclear reactor analogy stands here. Even if the nuclear reactor doesn't seem to be acting up-You don't leave it alone.
But I should try not to think about it because everything about trolls breaks apart into little tiny pieces if you think about it.
I think the former is objectively wrong because like all relationships, troll and human alike, it has to be mutually beneficial. It's two reactors keeping each other from melting down. The fact that someone can break off means that it simply didn't work, exactly like any other relationship. To say that's a flaw is like saying that reality is flawed because unwanted outcomes can happen. Hell, the fact that the nuclear reactor problem exists is a flaw. But it comes down to the simple fact that not all problems can be fixed all the time.
The latter only happens because no matter what you are a human with incomplete information. You cannot reach any conclusion but, "It works for them *shrug*"
@^: Not to be rude but that's a rather annoying endeavor. It's a draining excercise to no end on a atm narratively irrelevant detail. It works fine enough within the story to presenta conflict. | {
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to Washington D. C. ostensibly
to assist Cale, but really to
work against me - It was
brought up tonight at their
regular meeting & Anderson
& Kelsey made the fight but
were beaten on every turn!!
The miners are evidently getting
their eyes open to their true
interests.
-5-
"News" tonight has Wash. D. C.
telegram saying that President
has not yet received Hoyts report
but that if it is adverse he will
not again send my name to
the Senate, but in meantime
I am to continue to act as
judge!! Damn nice fix!
Still at work writing opinions | {
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So we're just now wrapping up a long day of determining which teams have blown past the $500…
Read more Read more
Granted, The General wasn't using real wood in the 1990s, but that's the only flaw we can find in this fine, 220,000-mile wagon. We're spending the day inspecting these cheaters prior to the race, so come back tomorrow for more LeMons action as it unfolds! | {
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Part One of Two: I get horrendous migraines, just awful ones, and don’t think very well during them. (Some would argue that I don’t think all that well at any time. Probably I should make a category on here for Poor Impulse Control comics.)
Lights really bother me during a headache, so it was so nice to find a cool dark place at work.
I have no idea anymore why I thought that a stranger hearing me pee in the dark was like THE WORST FAUX PAS EVER when actually, talking to a stranger in the bathroom WHILE YOU ARE PEEING, unless you are asking for toilet paper, is creepier. Then I came back and told the studiomates what I did, hoping for sympathy, but you should never ask for sympathy from cartoonists. I’m blaming this all on the migraine when the reality is probably that my first grade teacher was RIGHT and I am socially retarded.
This was totally fun! I got to draw dogs for Dove Lewis Animal Hospital, the emergency vet hospital here. Not only were we treated wonderfully by them, but the place was great- since this is Portland, it was a brewpub that dogs can come to. My studiomate, Natalie Nourigat, is featured here but you should go look at her great comic here: http://natalienourigat.com/. It was an all girl artist fest. Another studiomate, Cat Farris, and a friend of the studio, Joelle Jones, were also there cranking out dog sketches.
Also the lovely SJ of I, Asshole showed up and I got to meet her and babble incoherently while trying to draw dogs who only wanted to show me their butts. Someday I hope to make a better impression on her. | {
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} |
The Senate recently confirmed Sally Jewell as the next Secretary of the Interior. This could be a positive change from her predecessor, Ken Salazar, who failed to deliver on his promise to reform the federal wild horse and burro program. Salazar, a rancher, defended other ranchers to the detriment of wild horses and burros.
During Salazar’s tenure, the Bureau of Land Management removed more than 35,000 wild horses from public lands. Jewell is known as an outdoor enthusiast and conservationist and IDA is hopeful that her appointment will be good news for wild horses and burros, but she needs to hear how important this issue is to you.
Jewell has already pledged to “pursue effective and ecologically sustainable policies” for management of America’s wild horses and burros. Please take a moment to urge her to keep that promise!
2. Background | IDA
The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) has a long-standing and shameful record of animal neglect and mistreatment at its animal labs. Despite the $92,500 they were fined in 2005 by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture to settle violations of the Animal Welfare Act, more than 100 additional violations of federal animal welfare laws and guidelines have recently been exposed.
These involved the agonizing fate of a female monkey who, apart from her multiple invasive brain surgeries in a Parkinson’s study, suffered further extreme distress due to painful complications from a piece of plastic acrylic left in her head for two years. Another monkey was subjected to multiple invasive brain surgeries and was deliberately deprived of food so that he would perform tasks while locked in a restraint chair. He lost 25 percent of his body weight. In another horrific incident, experimenters placed live newborn mice inside a freezer meant for dead animals.
UCSF’s animal abuse must not go ignored and they must be held accountable.
3. Background | PETA
Following a lawsuit brought by two local citizens—with the support of PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund—Jambbas Ranch, a squalid roadside zoo in North Carolina, has been found to be in violation of state cruelty-to-animals laws. The court found that Jambbas’ treatment of Ben, a bear Jambbas kept confined to a tiny, barren pen made of concrete and chain-link fencing, caused him to suffer in violation of North Carolina law. The court also noted that Jambbas even failed to meet Ben’s most basic veterinary, dietary, and environmental needs.
Fortunately, Ben has been given a chance at a new life at the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California, where he is thriving in a vast natural habitat—one that is measured in acres, not feet and inches. He can now splash in his very own pool, rub his back on trees, and sleep soundly in a large straw nest or under oak trees.
But hundreds of animals are still languishing at Jambbas. In fact, inspectors routinely find animals in dire need of veterinary care at Jambbas—and sometimes even dead animals. And despite the cruel conditions that caused Ben to suffer in violation of state law, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to renew Jambbas’ Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license year after year. Enough is enough. The USDA must take action. Now that Jambbas has been found to be in violation of cruelty laws, the USDA has no excuse. The AWA gives the agency clear authority to revoke a license when there are violations of cruelty laws, and it must act on that authority immediately.
Please take a moment now to join PETA in politely urging USDA officials to revoke Jambbas’ license immediately, before even more animals suffer.
4. Background | PETA
Bullfighting is shameful, violent animal abuse dressed up as “sport.” Yet, despite growing condemnation of this cruel tradition, the Spanish government is currently considering whether or not to recommend that bullfighting be protected as a national cultural pastime.
Such a move would be a huge step backward and could provide the legal basis for overruling existing bans on bullfighting in Catalonia and the Canary Islands. Bullfighting has been on the decline for years, with attendance decreasing and bullrings closing across the country as more and more people put animal welfare first. Seventy-six percent of Spaniards say that they have no interest in this barbaric ritual, and the industry survives only because of huge subsidies.
Spain is a country rich in history, architecture, cinema, art, and culture. We need to let authorities know that protecting bullfighting will damage Spain’s reputation and can only have a negative impact on the tourism industry, which is so important to the country’s economy.
Please write to Spain’s ambassador to the U.S. and ask him to oppose protection for bullfighting. The government’s decision is imminent, so take action today!
5. Background | Force Change
Target: Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Goal: Protect the endangered Asian elephant by prohibiting the illegal smuggling of Burmese elephants into Thailand.
A recent film by the Ecologist Film Unit exposing the violent and illegal trade of endangered Asian elephants from Burma to Thailand raises the need to act now to save these animals from a life in brutal captivity and likely death. After viewing the film here please sign the petition below asking the Thai government to enforce the law on illegal elephant smuggling. At least 100 elephants, mostly calves, are taken from Burmese forests and traded illegally to supply Thai elephant tourist camps. The journey for the calves and their families is horrific. For every calf taken, approximately five elephants in its family group are shot. The calves then undergo a ritual known as the phajaan, where the calves are tied up, starved, and beaten until a fear of humans is deeply ingrained in them. It is estimated that only one in three elephants survives this torture. Those that do, are than smuggled into Thailand.
The elephants that reach Thailand are subjected to living in captivity, often having their pictures taken with tourists none the wiser to what they have endured. The Thai tourism industry is doing very well and fueling the demand for elephants. A baby elephant can fetch anywhere from $21,000 to $31,000. When traveling toThailand, it is not advised to boycott the camps, as this would lessen the monies available to care for the elephants, but to report suspicious operations. Action needs to be taken at the government level for true change to occur.
Traditionally, attention has been given to the African elephant sought after for its ivory tusks. However, the Asian elephant population is in critical danger. Already listed as endangered, it is estimated that there are 25,000 to 35,000 left in the wild, far fewer than those in Africa. Burma’s population is second only to India with approximately 5,000 elephants. If trade continues as it is, the population could be decimated within ten years.
By signing this petition you are urging the Thai government to tighten and enforce laws against illegal smuggling of elephants into Thailand.
6. Background | Change
Donkey roping is torture. Not only does it inflict serious damage to donkeys physically, but also causes mental trauma. Physical damage includes rope burns to the legs and neck, crushed tracheae, broken legs, and death. Donkeys often become difficult to handle and extremely fearful of people after being roped. This terrible practice needs to be stopped in Texas. The only way to do that is to show the support of the people to stop it!
once upon a planet so blue,
the sun shone brightly,
her job to do.
then darkness fell,
the sun did what she can,
but she was helpless against
the cruelties of man.
so help her find her shining rays,
and show the world
a better way.
Great post Stacey i signed two of these petitions already so i signed the others i hadnt signed yet and i shared them ALL in several places! Im still trying to play catch up after protesting Ringling Circus in Trenton New Jersey all weekend long its amazing how exausted you can get just from standing and passing out leaflets lol i think i can feel every single one of my 41 years today lol
Thanks Karen i think both You and Stacey ROCK too!! Stacey brings all these things to light and informs and educates the public and Karen, you add beautiful moving meaningful words of poetry and wonderful moving paintings which together makes it all come to life !
LOL all the compliments are making me blush!!! Thanks you ladies, i wish i could take the credit for why i do all i do but its really not because im a great person lol its because if i didnt act write letters send emails sign petitions cross post and protest for the animals i would probably die of guilt! Its really self preservation combined with a great respect love and adoration of all animals!! Thanks you for the compliments though i appreciate them all! Besides i do nothing more than you two ladies do! I think we are all pretty great!
Stacey i want you to look at something to see if you may want to post it i found out about it on FB this is the only way i know to contact you so heres the link I sent emails but thought you may want to see this too
Thank you so much for all you do, Florence. I have to agree that part of it is self-preservation. I could not imagine knowing all we do and not doing anything or just flat out ignoring it. Very wise of you.
once upon a planet so blue,
the sun shone brightly,
her job to do.
then darkness fell,
the sun did what she can,
but she was helpless against
the cruelties of man.
so help her find her shining rays,
and show the world
a better way.
A PPC campaign should be used to test your site against keyword phrases
before you spend the time and money on an seo
campaign. According to details provided to Examiner, thousands of Dev – Network community members assessed the
top advertising data and API technologies of 2014. Some marketers opine
that print ads are one of the oldest modes of brand promotion adopted by
business owners ever since the concept of advertising took birth. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Morgan Pressel and Lexi Thompson happy about new LPGA tour stop
By Gary Curreri
Sun Sentinel Correspondent|
Aug 22, 2019 | 4:24 PM
Lexi Thompson, left, and Morgan Pressel, right, will be headlining the inaugural Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio tournament. The tournament will feature 108 players and a $2 million purse and will take place Jan. 20-26, 2020 at the Boca Rio Golf Club. (Gary Curreri)
Morgan Pressel and Lexi Thompson grew up playing golf about 30 minutes apart in South Florida — Pressel in Boca Raton and Thompson in nearby Coral Springs.
The two talented golfers, who between them have won nearly $18,000 on the pro tour, won’t have to travel far in January for a chance to add to their win totals as the LPGA tour has added a stop at the Boca Rio Golf Club in Boca Raton.
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Thompson has 11 tour victories, 66 top 10 finishes and has nearly $9.9 million in career earnings since turning professional in 2010. Thompson, who now lives in Delray Beach, has won an event in each of the past six seasons, the longest active streak on the LPGA Tour.
Pressel has two career victories to her credit and 63 top 10 finishes. She has earned nearly $7.9 million since her rookie year in 2006.
The inaugural Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio tournament will take place from Jan. 20 to 26 and will feature a 108-player field with a $2 million purse.
“This is amazing,” Thompson said. “I never thought I would be able to stay in my own bed for a tournament. To be able to get up and drive 15 minutes and be here is going to be unbelievable, not only for the LPGA, but because a lot of players live here.”
Thompson, 24, said the community will support the tournament and she’s looking forward to it.
“I have never played in a home tournament so it is going to be a little different being able to cook my own dinners and stay in my own bed with my puppy,” she said. “It will be different, but I think it will be great and a lot more relaxing. When we are out on the road, we rent a house, which makes you feel like you are at home at least rather than being in a hotel room.”
Pressel said she is happy to be involved in a community where her own Morgan Pressel Foundation has raised more than $7.5 million to aid and support patient care and research in the fight against breast cancer.
“It is going to be even more fun to get my friends to come to Boca Raton to show them the area where I grew up and where I learned to play golf,” said Pressel, 31, a graduate of Saint Andrew’s School in Boca Raton. “It is very tangible for us to give back to the community.
“It is a wonderful golf course,” she said. “Once they get here, they will see it is fabulous and really puts a premium on your second shots and there are some tricky greens.”
Pressel said she believes it is a great opportunity for the younger players to see LPGA golfers up close.
“I remember when I was younger going out and watching the LPGA players, and as a young kid that was inspiring for me to go out and watch the best players in the world,” she said. “I think this will be no different because we want to grow the game with the youth and our crew is so fan-friendly…and that is what I remember as a young kid and hopefully we will be able to add that back to South Florida by playing at Boca Rio.”
Ricki Lasky, who is the chief tournament business officer for the LPGA, said they get requests all of the time to host LPGA events and he was thrilled with Boca Rio.
“There’s always tons of ins and outs of why it doesn’t necessarily work out,” she said. “So when I got the call to come down to take a look at this club, they had me at hello. It’s just a marriage made in heaven."
“The course was designed by an architect named Robert von Hagge, and basically his edict was to design a course that none of us can play and he did a great job,” said Paul Shapiro, president of the Boca Rio Golf Course. “This is a very difficult course. It’s a very unusual Florida course because it’s not defended by water. We do have 104 bunkers and they are very strategically placed. It’s going to take a lot of intelligence for the players to win this tournament.” | {
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Child not injured on Grouse Grind, says school district
The West Vancouver School District has clarified reports that a student was injured in a fall on the Grouse Grind hiking trail earlier today, triggering a 911 call-out of firefighters and ambulances.
Earlier this morning the North Vancouver District firefighters issued several statement on Twitter saying they were helping an 11-year-old down off the Grouse Grind trail after he or she fell more than 10 metres.
But it was eventually revealed the child did not suffer a fall while hiking the Grouse Grind with his classmates, but was simply out of breath.
"His mother was called, she joined him and they resumed the class field trip as planned," said a statement issued by the West Vancouver School District communications manager Bev Pausche.
"Our staff handled the situation according to district policies and procedures," said the statement. | {
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So I was on FP and I answered a request for a co-author and now I'm quietly freaking out because what if she doesn't want me? And then on top of that, I added a seeking beta readers and co-writer blurb to my profile because I've been thinking about it for awhile.
Then I feel weird because she wrote that she's been trying to write a novel and not having much luck, and I've already self-pubbed 21 stories, I've got a novel coming out in August, and my novella's currently being serialized by LT3. Are we in such different places in our lives that it's going to be awkward?
Anyways, that whole social anxiety thing is kicking in. Does anyone have any experience with picking a writing partner and working with one?
And seriously, I'm not even 100% sure if I want a writing partner, or if I need a life manager/agent. I need someone to kick my butt so I make my submission deadlines (I missed one this month and I feel bad about it). So I was thinking having a writing partner would spur me on -- when there's someone waiting for me I try not to disappoint them. Left to myself I procrastinate and watch a lot of cartoons
Anyways, that whole social anxiety thing is kicking in. Does anyone have any experience with picking a writing partner and working with one?
No, but I stayed at a holiday inn....
Anyway....
I would think the most important aspect of a writing relationship would be the ability, and willingness, to listen to critiques about your work without getting offended - and be able to compromise on the storyline/character development even if it isn't exactly how you would do it.
Also, if the other individual is not as experienced as you, are you ready, willing, and able to be a mentor? Because it will happen.
The only way I know to avoid the above is to sit down at the beginning and develop the whole framework and then assign different sections...then go home and don't talk to each other until its done...then bring the parts together and hope they meld seamlessly!
If you are willing and able to do the above then you just might find a writing partner that will take both of you to the next level...and maybe even find a great friend in the process!
Actually, it's not. But I doubt if I could do it - certainly not the way I write now. Like you, I would be worrying that you are both at such different points in your writing - I think Turtle91 could be right, that the person may actually be looking for a mentor rather than a partner. BUT ... you don't know until you try. Who knows, you may find that it suits you perfectly. (Let's all join in the chorus: Always look on the bright side of life, da-da, da-da, da-da-di-da-di-da ... )
I could never do it. But be interested on how your experience turns out
Thanks. I'll keep you apprised
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
I would think the most important aspect of a writing relationship would be the ability, and willingness, to listen to critiques about your work without getting offended - and be able to compromise on the storyline/character development even if it isn't exactly how you would do it.
This is what has me a little worried. What if I'm terrible at working together? I mean, I'm kind of pushy about some things, then really slack about others. I get this vision in my head about what a story should be, and now I'm questioning how well I could take the criticism without being a simmering little stew pot of resentment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
I doubt if I could do it - certainly not the way I write now. Like you, I would be worrying that you are both at such different points in your writing - I think Turtle91 could be right, that the person may actually be looking for a mentor rather than a partner. BUT ... you don't know until you try. Who knows, you may find that it suits you perfectly. (Let's all join in the chorus: Always look on the bright side of life, da-da, da-da, da-da-di-da-di-da ... )
One of my favorite movies
I don't know how well I would do in the role of mentor seeing as there's so much stuff I don't know myself. Self-publishing is a lot easier when you're doing it alone because you can just do whatever and your screw ups only affect yourself.
But how does sharing the money even work with a partner? Do I just break off half and hand it over, then file a 1099 at the end of the year? If we submit a story to a publisher, will the publisher just cut two payments?
Just make sure before you start that you have a very clear contract about who does what, and what the compensation should be.
This. And make sure ownership of the rights is spelled out before a single word is written. Make sure the entire deal including but not limited to: who does what part, who will be the editor, who covers marketing, who find publishers, who talks to agents, who picks cover art, and who comes up with title. Leave nothing to doubt, and your chances at success will be higher.
This. And make sure ownership of the rights is spelled out before a single word is written. Make sure the entire deal including but not limited to: who does what part, who will be the editor, who covers marketing, who find publishers, who talks to agents, who picks cover art, and who comes up with title. Leave nothing to doubt, and your chances at success will be higher.
There goes the fun. Not saying it's not good advice, just saying that it doesn't sound like much fun any more.
There is some - not exactly contrary but maybe complementary - advice to be considered too: If it ever comes to needing to call upon the details of the contract then you're pretty much sunk already. That's not saying the contract is not needed (it's good for both parties to have the details set out clearly in advance), but rather that you should only go into such a contract on the firm belief that it won't be needed. If you don't feel like this then it's probably better not to go there in the first place.
There goes the fun. Not saying it's not good advice, just saying that it doesn't sound like much fun any more.
There is some - not exactly contrary but maybe complementary - advice to be considered too: If it ever comes to needing to call upon the details of the contract then you're pretty much sunk already. That's not saying the contract is not needed (it's good for both parties to have the details set out clearly in advance), but rather that you should only go into such a contract on the firm belief that it won't be needed. If you don't feel like this then it's probably better not to go there in the first place.
That is the point. You really do not want to end up in court trying to defend the contract, but getting everything clearly documented and agreed upon up front can prevent a gazillion issues later. Plus if you can not agree to the terms of the contract, you will never work well together so good to find that out before you start.
Harper, I don't think I could work with a co-writer, but as you say it might be motivating. In the specific case you mention, I think you are mis-matched and you are much further along that the ad-person you answered. It's up to you of course, but I think you'd be on the short end of the stick in that relationship.....who knows though. | {
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Bleszinski return is very likely
Has a Cliff Blezinski return watch started? Many think so, based on his recent comments to VentureBeat, but he appears in no hurry to do so since his departure from Epic back in October.
Blezinski, when he returns to triple-A title development, with likely be with a new studio he has founded and will have at least a significant ownership stake. Still, he is apparently in no hurry to move forward till he has the right people; and don’t look for his new studio to be a big studio. Instead, it will likely be a small independent studio when it does start to ramp up.
Sources claim that Blezinski has been talking to a number of people in the industry, but so far he remains cautious, as it is apparently his belief that the industry is in a state of flux as evidenced by much of what we are seeing happen. Whispers suggest that Blezinski has already heard a number of pitches from publishers eager to work with him and replicate the success he has had in the past.
Experts that we have spoken with expect Bleszinski to be back sooner, rather than later. As one analyst told us, “Cliffy-B has a proven track record and publishers, of course, like that; but with the new consoles coming out soon, the timing could not be better and we suspect he will have to choose from a number of options before he decides on what he wants to do. Look for it to be exceptional because I suspect that he has ideas floating around in his head for a number of titles that he has wanted to make for a long time.” | {
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07 Mar 2011: Report
Agribusiness Boom Threatens Key African Wildlife Migration
The Ethiopian region of Gambella is home to Africa’s second-largest mammal migration, with more than a million endangered antelope and other animals moving through its grasslands. But the government has now leased vast tracts to foreign agribusinesses who are planning huge farms on land designated a national park.
by fred pearce
Unreported, an environmental tragedy is unfolding in a remote corner of Africa, on the borders of the newly-designated state of South Sudan, that could imperil the second-largest mammal migration on the African continent.
Most of us know about Africa’s largest migration, the millions of wildebeest and their attendant predators who race across the Serengeti plains of east Africa in search of water each year. It is the stuff of countless photographs and hundreds of TV natural history programs. But how many have heard of the second-largest migration? I certainly hadn’t until I stumbled on it last month in the Ethiopian region of Gambella.
As we drove into the bush, the track ahead was alive with large animals. From the far distance they looked like cattle, but it soon became clear they were antelope. As we drew closer, their numbers grew, and they began running. I could see a dense column stretching in all directions. They numbered many thousands, with warthogs in among them, darting through the tall wet grass between a series of ponds and heading toward the Baro River, a tributary of the Nile.
Mike D. Kock/Gallo Images
More than a million white-eared kob, an endangered antelope, migrate across the Gambella grasslands.
But as the antelope ran I saw, not far away on the horizon, bulldozers and plumes of smoke. Someone else wanted this rich grassland and its water. This bush would soon be transformed — and the future of the great migration in grave doubt.
My guides said the antelope were white-eared kob. Along with the Nile lechwe, another endangered antelope, and the giant shoebill stork, they were the main reason for the creation back in 1974 of the Gambella National Park. The 5,000-square-kilometer park occupies much of Gambella, which is a thinly-populated appendix to the far southwestern corner of Ethiopia.
Geographically and ethnically, the swampy lowlands of Gambella look as if they should be in the neighboring new state of South Sudan, which was formed in January when Sudan was formally divided in two. Gambella’s tall, jet-black skinned Anuak and Nuer tribes are very different from the lighter-skinned peoples of highland Ethiopia. And the vicissitudes of war in Sudan and pogroms in Gambella have seen a constant flow of refugees across the border.
South Sudan is where most of the white-eared kob I saw came from, traveling across the open woodland bush at the end of the dry season in search of Gambella’s open water and wetlands. More than a million of them are estimated to come this way each year, along with a scattering of elephants and giraffes.
But the park that is supposed to protect them is little more than a mark on the map. Two years ago, the Ethiopian ministry of agriculture declared that, whatever its wildlife credentials, the park had “a huge agricultural investment potential.” And now the ministry is seeking to realize that potential through a series of major leases to foreign agribusinesses. Some
Two years ago, Ethiopia’s agriculture ministry declared that Gambella National Park had ‘huge investment potential.’
400,000 hectares, an area 80 times the size of Manhattan, much of it within the 1974 boundary of the park, has been promised so far.
Drive west from Gambella town, the capital of the region, and for most of the two hours it takes to reach Nyininyang near the Sudanese border, you are in the concession of the Indian firm Karuturi Global Limited. Take the road south and the bush suddenly gives way to the vast compound of the other large investor, Saudi oil billionaire Sheik Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi.
Both concessions are being developed at a breakneck pace with heavy machinery everywhere, clearing forests, draining swamps, and installing irrigation systems. Bush along the roads is burned and, as the dry season ended in late February, smoke plumes dotted the horizon.
Al Ahmoudi’s company, Saudi Star, is constructing a 30-kilometer canal from an old unused state reservoir to irrigate tens of thousands of hectares of rice paddy. But so far the lead actor is Karuturi. The Indian company is the world’s largest grower of roses, claiming 10 percent of the global market. But when we met in Karuturi’s compound by the road an hour west of Gambella town at Iliya, its local project director, Karmjeet Singh Sekhon, resplendent in turban and long twirling moustache, told me the world rose market was now saturated. So Karuturi is moving into other products. And that is bad news for the white-eared kob and much else.
Photo by Fred Pearce
Workers clear earth for irrigated rice farming on Ethiopian land leased by a Saudi firm.
Until recently, there were no roads around Iliya, except the main dirt road west. But the Karuturi concession will soon have 600 kilometers of roads. Within a couple of years, Sekhon expects to have 100,000 hectares under cultivation, with another 200,000 hectares awaiting the go-ahead. Every square meter of bush has been surveyed. His 15 huge John Deere tractors are ploughing 500 hectares a day. “This May we will plant 35,000 hectares of rice, 10,000 hectares of maize, and 10,000 hectares of sorghum,” he told me. Some 20,000 hectares of oil palm and sugar cane will be added soon. This is land clearance on a gigantic scale.
“The soil is excellent,” he said. “It’s virgin land. You can grow anything here. We have no land like this in India. There you are lucky to get 1 percent of organic matter in the soil. Here it is more than 5 percent. We don’t need fertilizer or herbicides.”
Within five years, Sekhon expects to have 50,000 people living within the concession area, working its fields and operating processing mills in three townships. But locals expect most of the jobs to go to highlanders, which they contend routinely happens when businesses come into this region.
There is also growing concern about what is happening to the land. One former ranger at the park told me that Karuturi’s engineers were draining the large Duma swamp 30 kilometers south of the highway and deep inside the Gambella National Park. It is one of the last refuges of the endangered Nile lechwe. And there is the kob migration, which appears to run right through Karuturi’s concession.
I asked Sekhon about the wildlife. Yes, he said, the animals on his land were a “problem.” What about the park? On my map all the land for the 60-kilometer stretch from Baro River in the north to the Gilo River in the
What is happening in Gambella is probably just the start for this forgotten corner of Africa.
south is part of the national park. At least part of that is on the concession. But he said he knew of no rules that prevented Karuturi from cultivating its concession.
He may be right. It turns out that the park, though marked on maps, has never been formally gazetted. In any case, according to Cherie Enawgaw of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, a government agency, the park may have a handful of rangers but it has “no management plan and no clear indicated boundary.”
What angers Ethiopian environmentalists is that alternative economic uses such as tourism have not been explored. Sanne van Aarst of the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre at Addis Ababa University says Gambella has the same potential as the Serengeti and Maasai Mara tourist “hotpots” in Kenya and Tanzania.
Instead, the government has asked the conservation authority to “re-demarcate” the park’s boundaries. There are three options, according to Enawgaw. Each involves moving the park boundaries south and west by several tens of kilometers to make way for the new concessions. But his own maps of sightings of wildlife, produced to help with the demarcation, show that the plan will allow migration paths to be blocked and “wildlife core areas” ploughed up.
Photo by Fred Pearce
“After the farm came, the animals here disappeared,” says Omot Ochan, one of the local Anuak people.
Many of the local Anuak people, who farm small areas and hunt in the park, are not happy. I talked to a small group that had refused to move from their village right next to the Saudi Star canal and a road that ran right through their old fields.
“We used to hunt with dogs, but after the farm came the animals here disappeared,” said Omot Ochan, sitting by an open fire on an old waterbuck skin and eating corn from a bowl. “Two years ago they began chopping down the forest and the bees went away. We used to sell honey. Now we only have fish.”
He insisted the company had no right to be there. “Everything for two days’ walk from here is ours,” he said. But nobody is listening. Another truck rumbled past his straw hut, shattering the silence of the bush and creating a cloud of dust. After it had gone, I noticed a large, dead stork in the road.
Park rangers sporadically chase Anuak hunters through the swamp grasses, which can grow up to three meters high. On the road to Nyininyang, I spotted a small gang with dogs, rifles and a couple of chestnut-colored kob slung over their shoulders. Elsewhere, we drove through dense smoke and flames that darted across the road, set by hunters trying to corral their prey.
Back in Gambella town in the evening, as power gave out in the old government hotel, I spoke to a park official. He took note of my report on the hunters. He would send his people out in the morning to check if they were still there. But on the subject of the land grabbers — the real threat to wildlife in the park — he could only shrug his shoulders. It wasn’t his business.
The inland Niger delta of Mali is a unique wetland ecosystem that supports a million farmers, fishermen, and herders and a rich diversity of wildlife. But now, the country’s president and Libya have begun a major agricultural project that will divert much of the river’s water, Fred Pearce writes.READ MORE
And what is happening in Gambella is probably just the start for this forgotten corner of Africa. Across the border, the emerging government of the soon-to-be official nation of South Sudan is entertaining would-be agricultural investors in its capital, Juba. As in Gambella, the land of South Sudan is fertile, well watered and, by modern standards, hugely under-populated. It is ripe for land grab.
Environmentalists fear that the crown jewel of the upper basin of the White Nile could be under threat — the vast swampland known as the Sudd. Investors are eyeing its water to irrigate huge plantations, says Jane Madgwick, the head of Wetlands International, a Dutch-based NGO that wants a global campaign to resist the move.
In recent decades, few outsiders have visited these areas. They have become almost mythical gardens of Eden, surrounded by civil war. But, now that peace has broken out in southern Sudan, the economic dividend may be wholesale ecological destruction.
COMMENTS
I liked the coverage on this important topic, however the author could suggest some solutions as well. The whole world know that Africa is being denuded from its lush greenery but none of the RICH COUNTRIES made any efforts to help these African Nations technical know how or financial Aid to develop a good system to have development as well as preserve their natural gift.
R.Surapaneni
Posted by
R.Surapaneni
on 07 Mar 2011
Some large mechanized agricultural projects in Southern Sudan a number of years ago were
unsuccessful, I wonder if part of the problem was that the so-called 'rich organic soil" was easily depleted.
Vast herds of White-eared Kob and Tiang may still be migrating inside of Sudan near Pibor Post. I fear their numbers may be depleted by organized hunting gangs from the north.
Posted by
Lester Bradford
on 10 Mar 2011
Lets see what happens in about 5 years.
Around the world in Australia, S america, Asia large corporate agricultural enterprises on this scale have rarely, if ever, been successful in tropical regions at this scale.
Weather conditions ofen beat sowing operations, and productivity of the crops named are not particularly high in tropical conditions, inherently due often to inferior adapted varieties, bred for more temperate conditions.
UNLESS.........the whole enterprise is irrigated, with dry season production, not wet season.
I have seen a lot of schemes fail, and I know the region in Ethiopia / S Sudan.....
Posted by
Peter H
on 11 Mar 2011
As always, this is heartbreaking to read. It's time to change the name H. sapiens to H. stupidis. Aside from the obvious fact there are too damn many people on earth, there is also the fact we've lost all reverence or value for the non human world and earth. Everything is about the damn dollar.
Our time is coming and when it gets here, we'll deserve every ugly manifestation of disease or war that occurs thanks to our plundering of this planet. I say a prayer every night for the creatures and ecosystems left on this planet. They don't stand a chance against our greed, our numbers and our intent on destroying every last remnant of wilderness. What a sad, sad time to be alive and to bear witness to what was once a mysterious, magical and beautiful planet on which to live. At this rate the only animal that will be left alive on earth will be the ugly, selfish human animal. That equals a human waste land as far as I'm concerned. Ugh!
Elizabeth
Posted by
Elizabeth Tjader
on 11 Mar 2011
what u talking about ? all those years, national geography and the rest western media when they show those beautiful places they were tell us it were from kenya, zambia etc. they never claim to be from Ethiopia. we never had tourism exposure. now when it comes the development, different story.
we have been told to western people starved underweight poster child. Desert nothing to grow.
Ask pastor pat roberson he still show the picture of 30 years ago. Enough is enough we have the right to do whatever we want to do. get used to it.
getahun
Posted by
shumie
on 12 Mar 2011
I find it ironic that Yale Environment 360 has on its main page a video piece on semi-nomadic tribes in Eastern Africa competing over dwindling water resources leading them into conflict alongside this article about an Eastern African country making investments in irrigated agriculture since irrigated agriculture is a much more stable and productive form of food production than the aforementioned pastoralists.
North America used to have pastoralists too and they roamed the Great Plains. The United States and Canada kicked them out in a morally reprehensible way which nonetheless greatly expanded the food supply of the two nations. Should the US & Canada destroy their breadbasket to reintroduce buffalo migration?
I am sympathetic to the aims of many environmentalists, but it's frustrating when it seems like too many environmentalists want to have their cake and eat it too.
Posted by
Jon
on 30 Mar 2011
For anyone interested in the subject of this article, The Economist has a wonderful article going into greater depth as to the globalization dimensions driving these commercial farms:
http://www.economist.com/node/13692889/
From the print edition, May 21, 2009, "Outsourcing's Third Wave"
Posted by
Jon
on 31 Mar 2011
Its not only the leasing out of land either in southern Sudan the people are being told that they could be the bread basket of Africa with the export of food being second only to the oil payments from the north. Yet the biggest crop that south Sudan will harvest this year is ... tobacco. The reason for this is the price the farmers get for the crop (which sounds like good business and it is )but for a country that is very poor and cant feed its self probably not the best crop to grow.
Posted by
Dave Sheridan
on 19 Apr 2011
While the Earth has always endured natural climate change variability, we are now facing the
possibility of irreversible climate change in the near future. The increase of greenhouse gases in the Earth?s atmosphere from industrial processes has enhanced the natural greenhouse effect. This in turn has accentuated the greenhouse ?trap? effect, causing greenhouse gases to form a blanket around the Earth, inhibiting the sun?s heat from leaving the outer atmosphere. This increase of greenhouse gases is causing an additional warming of the Earth?s surface and atmosphere. A direct consequence of this is sea-level rise expansion, which is primarily due to the thermal expansion of oceans (water expands when heated), inducing the melting of ice sheets as global surface temperature increases. Forecasts for climate change by the 2,000 scientists on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) project a rise in the global average surface temperature by 1.4 to 5.8°C from 1990 to 2100. This will result in a global mean sea level rise by an average of 5 mm per year over the next 100 years. Consequently, human-induced climate change will have ?deleterious effects? on ecosystems, socio-economic systems and human welfare. At the moment, especially high risks associated with the rise of the oceans are having a particular impact on the two archipelagic states of Western Polynesia: Tuvalu and Kiribati.
According to UN forecasts, they may be completely inundated by the rising waters of the Pacific by 2050.According to the vast majority of scientific investigations, warming waters and the melting of polar and high-elevation ice worldwide will steadily raise sea levels. This will likely drive people off islands first by spoiling the fresh groundwater, which will kill most land plants and leave no potable water for humans and their livestock. Low-lying island states like Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives are the most prominent nations threatened in this way.“The biggest challenge is to preserve their nationality without a territory,” said Bogumil Terminski from Geneva. The best solution is continue to recognize deterritorialized states as a normal states in public international law. The case of Kiribati and other small island states is a particularly clear call to action for more secure countries to respond to the situations facing these ‘most vulnerable nations’, as climate change increasingly impacts upon their lives.
Posted by
Jennifer DOherty
on 05 Dec 2011
The investments are undertaken without the participations or consensus with local dwellers. It's a big challenge which affects or will be affecting the whole lives of biodiversities of the region. Therefore, a strong partnership of local communities, regional officials, N. park workers, environmentalists, NGOs engaging in wildlife protection, etc, are needed to handle the 'unstructured investment strategy' that is operating in th region. 'No good investment strategy, no investment in the region,' must be carry out if policies of investments are far from environmental sustainability of Gambella.
Posted by
Gatdet
on 08 Mar 2012
Comments have been closed on this feature.
ABOUT THE AUTHORFred Pearce is a freelance author and journalist based in the UK. He reported on the Cancun conference for New Scientist magazine, where he serves as environmental consultant. He is the author of numerous books, including When The Rivers Run Dry and With Speed and Violence. In earlier articles for Yale Environment 360, Pearce has written about a dispute between Egypt and upstream African nations over rights to waters of the Nile and how Africa’s national parks are failing to protect wildlife.MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Badru’s Story: Early Warnings From Inside an Impenetrable African Forest "Badru’s Story," which documents the work of researchers in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, is the first-place winner of the Yale Environment 360 Video Contest. Filmmakers Benjamin Drummond and Sara Joy Steele trek along with scientist Badru Mugerwa and his team as they monitor the impact of climate change on one of Africa’s most diverse forests and its extraordinary wildlife.READ MORE
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How Forensics Are Boosting Battle Against Wildlife Tradeby heather millarFrom rapid genetic analysis to spectrography, high-tech tools are being used to track down and prosecute perpetrators of the illegal wildlife trade. The new advances in forensics offer promise in stopping the trafficking in endangered species. READ MORE
African Wetlands Project: A Win For the Climate and the People?by winifred birdIn Senegal and other developing countries, multinational companies are investing in programs to restore mangrove forests and other wetlands that sequester carbon. But critics say these initiatives should not focus on global climate goals at the expense of the local people’s livelihoods.READ MORE
Ghost Forests: How Rising Seas Are Killing Southern Woodlandsby roger real drouinA steady increase in sea levels is pushing saltwater into U.S. wetlands, killing trees from Florida as far north as New Jersey. But with sea level projected to rise by as much as six feet this century, the destruction of coastal forests is expected to become a worsening problem worldwide.READ MORE
The Rising Environmental Toll Of China’s Offshore Island Grabby mike ivesTo stake its claim in the strategic South China Sea, China is building airstrips, ports, and other facilities on disputed islands and reefs. Scientists say the activities are destroying key coral reef ecosystems and will heighten the risks of a fisheries collapse in the region.READ MORE | {
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Memorable TV
Classic TV Battles: Dr Finlay’s Casebook versus Emergency Ward 10
Classic TV Battles: Dr Finlay’s Casebook versus Emergency Ward 10
Published
2 years ago
on
February 10, 2017
The earliest medical media rivalry in the UK must be between Dr Finlay’s Casebook and Emergency Ward 10.
Doctor Finlay’s CasebookDr Finlay was loosely based on stories by author A.J. Cronin about a general practitioner from the 1920s in the rural (and fictitious) Scottish village of Tannochbrae. The Arden House surgery staff consisted of crusty old Dr Cameron, played by fine Scots actor Andrew Cruickshank, and young, dashing Dr Finlay, played by former TV newsreader Bill Simpson. Their ministering angel was the saintly housekeeper Janet, played by Barbara Mullen.
The series was originally thrown together in five weeks to fill a five week gap in the BBC’s schedules… and lasted in an almost unbroken run until the early 1970s. It also existed for a long while as a radio drama, and then returned again in the early 1990s in a Scottish TV drama (with high production values but without, sadly, the inimitable Cruickshank, Simpson and Mullen.
The cast of Emergency Ward 10.
Emergency Ward 10The chief rival to Dr Finlay had already been running a while on ITV – Emergency Ward 10. Set in the imaginary city of Oxbridge in the English Midlands. This twice-weekly serial started in 1957, when a lowly writer suggested ‘something about doctors and nurses’ might fill a yawning gap in the schedules (is there a pattern emerging here?). The emergencies always took second place to the romantic lives of the doctors and nurses, and the number of deaths allowed per year was set at five (compared to E.R., which sometimes manages to clock up five deaths before you’ve even got as far as the opening titles).
An astounding range of British acting talent cut their teeth on Ward 10 – including Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley – and a movie was released starring Wilfred Hyde-White called Life in Emergency Ward 10. The series ran out of steam and viewers in 1967 – but was revived pretty much intact (different hospital, different stars, same stories!) as General Hospital in the early seventies. | {
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Holiday review by E Furr
Overall level of Satisfaction
Tribes Overall: "One of my best holidays (and I travel a lot). I now have to spend a few hours(days/weeks!) sorting through my photos trying to establish correct bird names as I became quite passionate about my birding experience. This came as quite a surprise to me as I'm usually more comfortable underwater naming nudibranchs...! But we had such varied holiday experiences, including close encounters with humpback whales and superman style zip-wiring, all of which I loved. "
Tribes Service: "Paul Cook gave us such a personal service that you could easily believe we were his only clients. He responded very quickly to our questions and organised a package that responded brilliantly to our wishes (even when we didn't really know what we wanted!)"
Guides: "The majority of guides were excellent, sharing their enthusiasm for the amazing flora and fauna (especially birds) of Costa Rica and going beyond their brief in time and effort. At the hanging bridges in Arenal we could easily have had a nice walk but seen very little (like so many groups that were escorted past us) but our guide responded to our genuine interest and gave us a very personal informative tour. He saw and identified so many birds! One or two guides were average, no doubt competent but possibly a little bored doing the same thing every day. I wish I could remember all their names to give more personal feedback. Sorry! Standard of driving usually very good."
Social & Environmental Responsibility: "Hard to know how much of the money filters down to local people but all the guides were part of their local community and appeared to be happy employed in the tourism/guiding industry."
Accommodation
Wonderful reception staff (Yorlena). Basic breakfast included (fruit, coffee and granola with yoghurt) but rather pricey for additional items ($7 for one egg on toast). The only bread/toast available seemed to be garlic bread. Not so good with jam...!
Beautiful spacious room. Well appointed and simply decorated. Very comfortable beds and the best pillows in Costa Rica!
Stunning views over the coffee plantations towards San Jose from the private terrace at the back of each 'chalet'. Warm blankets included so you could sit outside on a chilly evening.
Enjoyed a very special coffee plantation tour with Jose, the guide at Chayote Lodge.
Comfortable rooms with humming birds close by and outside seating. A very good place for intensive birding with good guides (though the other group had a novice guide who was much less informative). Food OK but rather a basic cafeteria style restaurant, but probably no point paying extra for a pizza in the downstairs restaurant just to get a white tablecloth and waiter service.
Very far out of town so taxis were necessary to go anywhere and were expensive. Wherever you were picked up it cost $10 even for a mile or two. A regular hotel shuttle a couple of times a day would have been appreciated. But we had some wonderful tour experiences from this location in Monteverde. Even got to see the Resplendent Quetzal!
Our Memories
"Mainly lovely accommodation (not too keen on Villa Lapas as there were too many large groups). Loved Lomas del Volcan at Arenal, Cuna del Angel. Aguila de Osa and Chayote Lodge. The guide at Evergreen Lodge in Tortuguero was brilliant and incredibly hardworking. He appeared to start at 6am and finish at 10:30pm and still stay enthusiastic. We loved crossing the Arenal Lake in a boat all to ourselves so that the boatman gave us a wonderful private tour, pointing out the birds and animals along the shore. The shared tour from Uvita for whale watching was excellent and we had fabulous sightings of young humpback whales breaching close to the boats. Obviously we were lucky as this can never be guaranteed.
Only disappointment for me was not being able to do two dives at Caño Island as the only dive guide was taking the snorkelling tour. So I did that instead. Well run safety conscious snorkelling trip, just not what I was hoping for."
customer rating
5/5 from 234 reviews
our travel expert
TALK TO RORY
Start planning your tailor-made holiday to Costa Rica. Tell us what you want, and we will tailor make your perfect trip.Call: 01473 890499
facts and information
Time: GMT -6 hours
Flight time: The flying time is about 12 hours from the UK. There are now direct flights from the UK using British Airways. We work with all the major airlines and can offer flights from the UK or via the USA, Panama or a European hub. With the connection times you are looking at around 15 or 16 hours.
Language: Spanish is the official language. English is widely spoken throughout Costa Rica
Visas: Not required for British travellers. Other nationalities should obtain advice from their embassy.
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Stubby
Dependencies
In this mode, the only dependency is OpenSSL (version 1.0.2 or later is required for hostname authentication to be supported). If this is installed in a non-standard location on your system use the --with-ssl option to configure below to specify where it is.
--enable-debug-daemon If you don't want to see the connection statistics then remove the --enable-debug-daemon option in the configure line above.
--enable-debug-stub If you do want to see very detailed debug information as messages are processed (including connection statistics) then add the --enable-debug-stub option to the configure line above.
Create a config file
Stubby will use the config file at /etc/stubby.conf by default if it exists, or the config file location can be specified on the command line using the '-C' flag. [Note: With no config file stubby will use opportunistic mode to the default nameservers for queries).
Info
It is recommended to use more than one upstream for increased performance and reliability. A config files that uses Strict Privacy to several of the current test servers that support this over both IPv4 and IPv6 is provided in the stubby source. To use it simply execute
Code Block
sudo cp ../src/tools/stubby.conf /etc/stubby.conf
To hand-craft a config file, read the instructions below. Changes to the config file require a restart of Stubby.
The config file below is an example that will configure Stubby to:
listen on IPv4 and IPv6 on port 53 on the loopback address
use TLS over IPv4 to the NLnet labs test DNS Privacy Server for outgoing queries
enforce a 'Strict' Usage Profile based authentication of both a domain name and a SPKI pinset (Note the hex representation of the SPKI pin is required here, not the base64 encoded form)
Additional privacy servers can be specified by adding more entries to the upstream_recursive_servers list above (note a separate entry must be made for the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses of a given server. More DNS Privacy test servers are listed here.
A custom port can be specified by adding the 'tls_port:' attribute to the upstream_recursive_server in the config file.
Run Stubby
Simply invoke Stubby on the command line. By default it runs in the foreground, the '-g' flag runs it in the background.
Code Block
> sudo stubby
The logging is currently crude and simply writes to stderr.(We are working on making this better!) If don't want to see any logging for some reason then include the following on the command line: 2>/dev/null
If you build with both stub and daemon logging and want to see only the daemon logging use: 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep 'DAEMON'
The pid file is /var/run/stubby.pid
Test Stubby
A quick test can be done by using dig (or your favourite DNS tool) on the loopback address
Code Block
> dig @127.0.0.1 www.example.com
Modify your upstream resolvers
Note
Once this change is made your DNS queries will be re-directed to Stubby and sent over TLS! (You may need to restart some applications to have them pick up the network settings).
You can monitor the traffic using Wireshark watching on port 853.
For Stubby to re-send outgoing DNS queries over TLS the recursive resolvers configured on your machine must be changed to send all the local queries to the loopback interface on which Stubby is listening. This depends on the operating system being run. It is useful to note your existing default nameservers before making this change!
Linux/Unix systems
Edit the /etc/resolv.conf file
Comment out the existing nameserver entries
Add the following (only add the IPv4 address if you don't have IPv6)
Code Block
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver ::1
OS X
From the command line you can do the following to set the local DNS servers on, for example, your 'Wi-Fi' interface (first line clears all servers, second line adds localhost):
which should pick up the default DHCP nameservers. Or use something similar to the first set of instructions if you want to specify particular namerservers.
Or via the GUI:
Open System Preferences->Network->Advanced->DNS
Use the '-' button to remove the existing nameservers
Use the + button to add '127.0.0.1' and '::1' (only add the IPv4 address if you don't have IPv6)
Hit 'OK' in the DNS pane and then 'Apply' on the Network pane
Notes:
If you are using a DNS Privacy server that does not support concurrent processing of TLS queries, you may experience some issues due to timeouts causing subsequent queries on the same connection to fail.
Stubby currently backs-off for 1 hour from using servers that provide poor service - the next version will make this time configurable. Or this can be reset by restarting Stubby.
which enables it to act as a local DNS Privacy stub resolver(using DNS-over-TLS). Stubby encrypts DNS queries sent from a client machine (desktop or laptop) to a DNS Privacy resolver increasing end user privacy.
Stubby is in the early stages of development but is suitable for technical/advanced users. A more generally user-friendly version is on the way!
It is recommended to use the latest release of the 1.1 version of getdns to have the most up to date version of Stubby.
In this mode Stubby (getdns) does several things
Runs as a daemon
By default obtains its configuration information from the configuration file at /etc/stubby.conf
Can be configured to listen on the loopback address and send all outgoing DNS queries received on that address out over TLS to a DNS Privacy server
Other options
Other ways to run a privacy daemon are:
Run Unbound as a local forwarder using the ssl_upstream option to encrypt outgoing queries. This is provides a local caching resolver but at the moment Unbound doesn't fully support RFC7766 as a client and so you may not see the same performance as from Stubby (which pipelines queries). | {
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It's easy to understand why some of us don't like the idea of autonomous cars. We enjoy the drive, adore the freedom, and practiced heel-toe downshifts for too damn long to give it up. But Ben Collins – former Stig and current halfwit – apparently gets paid to play fear mongering pundit rather than rational commentator.
"I think it's terrifying," is how Collins sets up the softballs. "Robots are fantastic as dishwashers, but they don't make very good drivers."
Agreed! Our magical robotic dishwashers are amazing! And ironically, they're treated the same as cars by people who consider both to be appliances for doing menial shit.
Collins then goes on to explain that computers aren't capable of decision making and that all the necessary systems aren't up to snuff. (Exactly why we threw out the first dishwashers and continued to scrub pots and pans by hand. Technology never improves!)
One place we do agree is that drivers should be better trained. It's just too bad that both the public and politicians aren't willing to step up, which is one of the reasons autonomous technology is being developed. | {
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Wednesday, December 31, 2008
A Metropolitan gives advice to the young - and food for thought for all at the turning of the year
I found this meditation by a Ukrainian Metropolitan online. Regardless of our state in life (or age) this reflection should provide moments of penitent reflection for all. Especially as many consider "resolutions" for the new year, would we not all benefit from repentance over our sins and a true commitment to living the Christian life of love, charity, and virtue in the upcoming year?
Metropolitan Anthony (Krapovitsky) of Kiev
Ask the person confessing whether his conscience does not accuse him either of some crude outrage or insult against his parents or else of constantly offending them in small ways. Let him not think that this is an everyday triviality in family life. The Lord said to Moses, "He that curses his father or mother shall surely be put to death" (Ex. 21:16). This death sentence for one who reviles his parents is confirmed by the Saviour as being a commandment of God (Mt. 15:4; Mk. 7:10), although not in the sense of a criminal law concerning the death penalty, but in the sense that it is a mortal sin. This then is what the priest should say to an adolescent who is guilty of this: "When you grow older and, perhaps, bury your parents, then, believe me, on remembering such occasions, even while by yourself, you will blush from shame right up to your ears and wring your hands, wishing in vain to make amends for the sin which now seems so insignificant to you. For, although you cannot understand it now, when an insolent son or daughter grieves his loving parents with malicious words or rude disobedience, it is like thrusting a sharp knife into their breasts. You will understand this when you have your own children, but then in all probability it will be too late to wipe out your guilt before your deceased parents." The same thing, or nearly so, is experienced by teachers when their pupils are insolent to them; as a result of this, many become embittered and the sacred task of teaching becomes a torment both for the teachers and for the pupils. However, it is much easier for the latter to change this situation for the better, than it is for the former.
Guided by the desire to awaken or strengthen in the penitent a feeling of his guilt before God, put questions to him about which he probably does not think, but which reveal the wounds of his soul to him. To this end it is more profitable not to continue your questions in the accepted order of sins against God, against one's neighbour and then against oneself, but rather to ask them in the order which is most likely to awaken his conscience. You see, our contemporary flock has almost forgotten about its direct relationship to God. What sense is there in asking a person about going to church regularly or attention to prayer if he forgot the way to God's church years ago, and never so much as makes the sign of the cross in the morning or in the evening? "I am not used to praying," such people boldly answer, "but I live honorably and do no harm to anyone; but there are many who pray to God and devour people." If a spiritual father has managed to dislodge a sinner from such a self-satisfied position by using the basic questions we have indicated above, then let him thank God. However, it is still useful to continue asking questions in the same order, according to the degree in which the conscience of contemporary people is sensitive to them" i.e., first ask about sins against one's neighbour, then about sins against the Person of God and finally about sins which derange the inner life of the sinner himself.
And so, if a Christian thinks that he has never offended his neighbour, tell him: "That is good, but we must understand "offense" not only in the sense of what makes a person angry, but even more in the sense of what causes him harm. Thieves are strictly punished by the law and despised by people, but man has pleasures that are far more significant than money or things" his soul and his purity. Have you advised people to do anything evil or depraved? Have you made fun of any one's chastity or modesty, or of their obedience to their elders, their honesty at work or in their studies? When young people lose their innocence, modesty and obedience to their parents and even their honesty, it is always under the influence of bad examples and evil advice, but those who have turned them away from the good path entirely forget about them and about the evil they have done to them. They have sinned terribly before God, far worse than thieves and robbers. But far more criminal are those who, not content with giving treacherous advice when they are asked, also make efforts on their own initiative, sometimes over a considerable period of time, to lure an innocent person into a sin from which he will probably not be able to free himself for a long time, or even for his whole life. How many such tempters there are in any school, who will not be content until they have dragged their comrade into a public house or acquainted him with corrupt people. Nevertheless, who does not know Christ's words: "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." (Mt. 18:6)? So, haven't you committed this sin? Have you purposely sowed the seeds of doubt in your neighbor's heart? Have you made fun of his piety? Have you driven him away from prayer and church? Have you sowed the seeds of discord between brothers, between husband and wife, between co-workers or comrades? All those who do things like this will understand how far from the truth is the prejudice that has long been commonplace in society" that prayer and religion in general are the helpers and servants of the devil. The devil acquires great power over them, since they have surrendered themselves to his will. The same fate awaits those who sin by slandering their neighbour, either in conversation or in print; it also awaits those who condemn their neighbours without being sure that they are guilty of anything.
Perhaps you have no opportunity to tempt or grieve your neighbor or lead him into disaster, and do not even wish to do so, but nevertheless, if you find out that some misfortune has befallen him, you glory over it rather than feel compassion for him. If this is so, see how black your soul is, and what a dangerous path you are on, for the Scriptures say that "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). But you are not guilty of this, glory to God. However, are you not given up to remembrance of wrongs, even if it is not expressed as a desire for revenge? According to the words of our Lord, this makes your prayers quite worthless, and shows that your heart is filled with great self-love and self-justification. You are guilty of the same thing if you have the spirit of disobedience in the family, at school or at work; if you fulfill your obligations only when you can be made to answer for them and find satisfaction in doing something your own way. It was through this disobedience that sin came into the world, and it is precisely from this that criminals begin their sinful exploits" guided always by the spirit of self-justification. This demonic spirit leads them through the following steps: disobedience, laziness, deception, outrages against their parents, seeking sensual enjoyment, theft, rejecting the fear of God, leaving their father's house, robbery and murder and denial of the faith itself. When the person confessing hangs down his head, and you hear the voice of penitence in his speech and also that he is frightened by his sins, then tell him that these evil feelings of disobedience and especially of remembering wrongs and gloating over others misfortunes, grow up in a soul which likes to condemn everyone. This is sinful because a feeling of pleasure at others shortcomings always develops together with the habit of judging people without need. After this comes the desire not to recognize anything good in them, and this is already near to gloating over their misfortunes and even nearer to remembering wrongs. In secular or worldly society all this is considered praiseworthy " people openly make fun of obedience, or even become indignant at the very mention of it, expecting, on the contrary, that every subordinate, every soldier, workman, official and especially every professor should demand freedom upon freedom. This is expected especially of students and even of school boys. This spirit has even moved into the country and the parish, and even into the family, where only a strong paternal hand and the threat of being thrown out or of hunger can uphold that small amount of order that is left, which still protects the home from destruction. The last two years have shown where this foul teaching of self-will has led. Not to mention the fact that people have become villains almost to a man, they are also dying of starvation, going about in ragged clothes, are deprived of the possibility of studying and communicating with each other by letter " in a word, they have returned to the state of savages. How, through what struggle did our Saviour lead people out of their former life and make them righteous and intelligent? Through obedience! Through the obedience of one, many were justified.And even up to our days the highest form of piety, monasticism, consists primarily of obedience.
And so, young Christian, the priest will say, if you wish to be a good, intelligent person and not just a stupid sheep, another member of the flock, then do not agree with the crowd of your contemporaries who are perishing spiritually and physically, do not go by the path of self-will, but by the path of obedience.
Only then will you be a person; then, perhaps, of your many comrades you alone will not be a syphilitic at the end of your studies, will preserve your faith and your heart uncoarsened; truthful in word and honorable in soul, you will not be battered and storm-beaten like a weather vane, as are the majority of our contemporaries. But now you must know that, as you have admitted, you have already sinned much against God, and I am glad to see that you are filled with grief at the picture of your not insignificant sins, which have now been revealed to you and about which you probably did not even think previously.
Followers
About Me
Weigh Carefully the Times
Let not those who seem worthy of credit, but teach strange doctrines, fill thee with apprehension. Stand firm, as does an anvil which is beaten. It is the part of a noble athlete to be wounded, and yet to conquer. And especially, we ought to bear all things for the sake of God, that He also may bear with us. Be ever becoming more zealous than what thou art. Weigh carefully the times. Look for Him who is above all time, eternal and invisible, yet who became visible for our sakes; impalpable and impassible, yet who became passible on our account; and who in every kind of way suffered for our sakes.
Piotr Ilyich Kamenev: This is you. Political prisoner 103592R, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota. All of you is here, from the day you were born until now. Except for the answer to one question. What have you learned in twenty years of confinement? | {
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Hillary Clinton
The Mueller probe into supposed collusion between Donald Trump and the Russians to win the election has come up empty. So now it’s flailing about, obstructing justice while trying to blame the President for obstruction justice. Listen… Watch…
Leftwing pundits and doctors have been screaming that Donald Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. But how does he match the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual? And, by the way, what about the elephant in the room, Madam Pantsuit Hillary Clinton? Or watch on YouTube…
The question that Director Comey has refused to answer is whether Hillary Clinton’s emails were hacked. If they were, her private server becomes a clear violation of our security laws. New evidence has come to light. Read more…
The MSM have refused to cover the news. They try to make news in their own image. And when 60 Minutes tried to slander me, I shot back. Kerry Lutz, of Financial Survival Network, and I discuss the story, and how what I did was not “fake news,” but real[…]
I had an excellent 45 minutes or so with Andrea Shea King (sitting in for Mike Volin). We discussed 60 Minutes’ slander of my work, and a number of topics related to Hillary Clinton’s health. For example, why would 60 Minutes bother with my story? And why would they[…]
Josh’s headline may be a bit over the top, but the interview is fun and hits a number of topics around Hillary Clinton’s future. It even touches on the future of ObamaCare and its replacement. (20 minutes long) Enjoy!
Even though our focus on Hillary’s Parkinson’s Disease has moved on, occasionally something pops up. BadLipReading did a piece on the Inauguration. In it a few frames of Hillary were used, and this picture caught my eye. It’s not dramatic, but it’s clear. Her left eye is almost straight at[…] | {
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England's future isn't as bad as it seems
England fans haven't had much to cheer about on the international scene in recent times, and they would be forgiven for feeling pessimistic about the chances of our newest crop of talent after their exploits at this years U21 European Championship and U20 World Cup.
However, we've made a potential team of players aged 23 and under, to prove it isn't all doom and gloom for the Three Lions.
Goalkeeper: Jack Butland
Age: 20
Club: Stoke City
Profile: A series of fantastic performances for Birmingham City led to Butland recieving his first full international cap in 2012, and he will be hoping the brilliant Asmir Begovic will move on from Stoke so that he can cement a first team position and carry on his development in the Premier League.
Right-back: Kyle Walker
Age: 23
Club: Tottenham Hotspur
Profile: As a regular with one of the best teams in England, Walker is one of the elder statesmen in my under 23 XI, but his maturity and talent belies his true age. He will be hoping to displace Glen Johnson in the international first team, and will surely do so if he continues his stellar form at domestic level.
Centre-back: Phil Jones
Age: 21
Club: Manchester United
Profile: One of English football's biggest hopes, Jones has been earmarked as a future captain of both United and England. A rugged, commited defender in the mould of John Terry, Jones will be hoping to establish himself in his preferred position at club level, before stepping into the international limelight.
Centre-back: Steven Caulker
Age: 21
Club: Tottenham Hotspur
Profile: After a successful loan spell at Swansea two years ago, Caulker returned to White Hart Lane last season, making 18 Premier League appearances. This led to him making his international debut in 2012, a match in which he also scored his first international goal.
Left-back: Luke Shaw
Age: 18
Club: Southampton
Profile: Shaw rocketed into the national conscience last season with 25 Premier League appearances, leading to him being linked with clubs such as Manchester United. Has sensibly signed another five year contract with Southampton, and will be looking to continue his development by playing regular football. A real gem.
Centre-midfield: Jack Rodwell
Age: 22
Club: Manchester City
Profile: Injuries and a perhaps ill advised move to big-spending Manchester City have hampered Rodwell's development in recent years, but I for one have still got high hopes for this prodigiously talented youngster. The signing of Fernandinho will have shoved Rodwell further down the pecking order at the Etihad, so hopefully he can negotiate a loan move and continue his development by playing first team football.
Centre-midfield: Nick Powell
Age: 19
Club: Manchester United
Profile: After leading Crewe to promotion in 2011/12, and then scoring against Wigan on his Manchester United debut, many earmarked Powell as Paul Scholes' successor. Injury limited his chances in the latter half of the season, but United fans will be excited to see the impact he can make undernew manager David Moyes.
Attacking-midfield: Jack Wilshere
Age: 21
Club: Arsenal
Profile: Perhaps the only English youngster to prove himself as a world class talent, Wilshere plays football like he was brought up on the continent; Spanish touch and Portuguese flair mixed with the quintessential English grit. If he can stay fit, he will surely becoming a leading figure in the international team for years to come.
Right-winger: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Age: 19
Club: Arsenal
Profile: Chamberlain burst onto the scene as a 17 year old in 2011, leading to him already amassing 12 caps for the senior England side. However, last year was a difficult one for the talented winger, and he will be looking to kick on in 2013/14 and make himself a first team regular for both Arsenal and England.
Left-winger: Wilfried Zaha
Age: 20
Club: Crystal Palace
Profile: A series of scintillating performances in the Championship last season led to Zaha getting the transfer of his dreams to Old Trafford with the Champions. It is thought that Sir Alex Ferguson acquired Zaha as he reminded him of Cristiano Ronaldo; strong, direct and dazzlingly skillful. If he can cement a place in the United first team, a place in the international set-up will surely follow.
Striker: Danny Welbeck
Age: 22
Club: Manchester United
Profile: Welbeck was a first team regular for United last season, and has already begun to cement his place as an England regular as well. However, his versatility, super-human workrate and inconsitent finishing has seen him often appearing wide on either flank. If he can improve his goal-scoring, he will undoubtedly become a top-level striker.
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Rock The Vote News
What? Let's go. ♪ Turn out for what ♪ A slight change of the words for lil Jon's hit song. The rock anthem to rockthevote . The video's gone viral. The twist of fate with the rapper so outspoken about the vote almost couldn't vote himself
enthusiasm comes as little surprise since he starred in a RocktheVote PSA based around his song "Turn Out for What" with ..... complain if you don't participate. Get out there and rockthe # vote today, folks!! #ivoted pic.twitter.com/6ffNLTs46o
America to shame if they didn't vote. Jon has been outspoken about getting out and voting, even appearing in a RocktheVote remix of one of his hit songs, called "Turn Out for What." The video also featured Lena Dunham, Fred Armisen and
girls club that den swrel Washington went to. I'm an actor. Magic Mike. One month out from election day, and rockthevote has the star-studded new video. Very encouraging for the younger generation. And little John experiences an awkward
song, "Turn Down For What." But, have you heard his new remix, "Turn Out For What"? The rapper teamed up with RocktheVote to create a video with cameos from celebs including Whoopi Goldberg , Lena Dunham , Darren Criss and others, encouraging
on Election Day ? Try sarcasm. RocktheVote , best known for its celebrity ..... Ashley Spillane, president of RocktheVote . “We really wanted to drive home ..... University Institute of Politics , RocktheVote is hoping the ads will help their
President Obama. I think didn't McCarthy's job is mostly dispute tend to ship for the next couple of months and not RocktheVote too much I don't think there's going to be an effort. To get much of anything done particularly given the scrutiny
that I was uncomfortable with that hair news. I just solid shut up and smile you don't want anybody I did not wanna RocktheVote . And it's there every time somebody brings up to remind me sometimes it's a good thing to rock the there's a
people to vote. Griffin joined the nonprofit group RocktheVote in October to encourage young people to cast a ballot ..... did a joint promotion with "Assassins Creed III" and RocktheVote . Have you found time to make your way through the game
doll was bought for $1,200. Those proceeds benefited the American Red Cross. This year's auction will benefit RocktheVote . The presidential election dolls join the likes of celebrity talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah, who are also
similar voting initiatives, such as RocktheVote , have also worked to drive young ..... polls. Similar to TurboVote, RocktheVote , entered the culture 21 years ..... vote, according to its website. RocktheVote has also made its way onto college
to tout its new partnership with RocktheVote , Virgin America hired Obama and ..... America has recently partnered with RocktheVote , installing QR codes on its seatback ..... started on registering to vote via RocktheVote 's online process. According
media. The project originated out of conversations with RocktheVote , an organization that works to register young adults ..... Hamlin, co-director of elections in Washington. RocktheVote wanted to transfer responsibility for registering Washington
the returns with his family, also rallied in Iowa today, targeting high school students at an event organized by RocktheVote , a group devoted to engaging young people in the political process. A new Facebook data analysis from the independent
students would show him similar success on Tuesday night. The morning event at Valley West High School was organized by RocktheVote , a group devoted to engaging young people in the political process. Paul received one of the warmest welcomes as
Auditorium in Des Moines. This morning, Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Ron Paul all address the Rock the Caucus, part of RocktheVote , at Valley High School in West Des Moines. Bachmann's evening event will be at the West Des Moines Marriott. This
rock the boat and I don't think he is going to rock the But what if some other faction in North Korea decides to RocktheVote . Not yet clear how much Kim and commands respect among the military hard line. This is only the second time in history
ten weapons. And I think he's not going to want to. Have anybody rock the boat and I don't think he is going to RocktheVote . Kim Jong had baffled most observers with his carefully honed cult of personality. His elevator shoes his shades
horse riding bull dog vs Lee Rowland. Table setting border calling it came down to the wire and by shows then gave RocktheVote . Leaving three finalists Ruger and competing for the title of GM top job.
said. Thompson pointed out that MTV has succeeded in some socially conscientious programming and campaigns, such as RocktheVote , which encourages young people to cast their ballots. He also said that while MTV found the formula for successful
people who really would never ever snatching a Hollywood celebrities are coming to. Now their their vote to. Yes RocktheVote which you might remember from the 2000 election bare back with big ad campaign features Wayne Brady Kate Wallace
with these people who really would never ever snatching a Hollywood celebrities are coming to Now their vote to. Yes RocktheVote which you might remember from the 2000 election bare back with big ad campaign features Wayne Brady Kate Wallace
Sperling's BestPlaces, an independent research firm, and RocktheVote . The study, now in its fifth year, found that sexual ..... Quihuis said. Trojan will also be teaming up with RocktheVote this year to engage in conversations on a political
turned out for him the president gave pep talks to college students during conference calls yesterday Heather Smith led RocktheVote in 2008 and says times have changed for young voters. They want to participate. And but they're starting today
77 percent of those 65 and older. A recent poll by RocktheVote showed that 60 percent of young Republicans were very ..... participate," said Heather Smith, executive director of RocktheVote . "But they're starting to increase in their cynicism
activist Elaine Johnson – all of them are suddenly caught by a wave of hope for change.” Some of the songs include RocktheVote , Help Somebody , Hustler , Look No Hands , Am I Enough , Chaos , and of course Yes We Can . Another musical based
the members are to you for taking the message out there to create a drumbeat across America," she told members of RocktheVote , Families USA and the AFL-CIO gathered in an ornate conference room. "Because without that outside drumbeat and
will headline a fundraiser for RocktheVote at the Denver Opera House on Wednesday ..... Spokeswoman Chrissy Faessen says RocktheVote will "be bringing the artists ..... political process." Last month, RocktheVote launched its 2008 efforts with
winning vote margin," said Hans Riemer, the Obama campaign's youth vote director and a former political director at RocktheVote . "Our job is to leverage the entire campaign to effectively target young people, and get them out to vote. This
Overseas now to Iraq and the results from last weekend's election the party led by prime minister nori Al-Maliki won big the religious parties were soundly defeated. coalition finished well ahead in races for ruling councils in Baghdad and eight other provinces. Here's Jim It was a landslide
Tech in western Virginia, a polling place was apparently moved to a spot 6 miles from campus, said Heather Smith of RocktheVote . The group worked with a local bus company to drive students to the precinct, though when students arrived, they
was something special about this election in regards to turnout," he said. Heather Smith, executive director of RocktheVote , said these numbers did not come as a surprise to her. In 2008, the organization, aimed at getting the young generation | {
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April Jazz is an annually Jazz festival organized by Espoo Big Band ry. It consists of several venues around Tapiola and I did the lighting and stage design for the main stage. Visuals were done by Paula Lehtonen.
The 2014 design was combination of old and new. We wanted to keep the iconic honeycomb custom structures as a part of the design, but also evolve it as the venue grew bigger.
Lighting the performers is always as essential as creating interesting design. To focus the light just where it's needed I had a rig of 10 moving heads with shutters and invited Eero Alava to operate them. In comparison to conventional follow spots this solution gave more freedom with the directions of light as follow spots require much space and also lots of crew. | {
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Comments on: Preparing ahead for healthy gluten free eating successhttp://glutenfreefitness.com/preparing-ahead-for-healthy-gluten-free-eating-success/
Gluten free recipe ideas and fitness tipsTue, 06 Dec 2016 20:42:57 +0000hourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7By: Erinhttp://glutenfreefitness.com/preparing-ahead-for-healthy-gluten-free-eating-success/#comment-8198
Sat, 25 Aug 2012 09:01:19 +0000http://www.glutenfreefitness.com/?p=252#comment-8198Sounds awesome, Shirley, thanks for sharing your ideas! Skillet meals are great, and I also get a lot of frozen vegs at BJ’s (similar to Costco.) I’ll also do a tomato paste/balsamic vinegar add in.
]]>By: Laura Shivelyhttp://glutenfreefitness.com/preparing-ahead-for-healthy-gluten-free-eating-success/#comment-8197
Fri, 24 Aug 2012 21:51:08 +0000http://www.glutenfreefitness.com/?p=252#comment-8197Thanks for the tips Erin. I also cook my lunch for the week in bulk (I tend to microwave oatmeal at work in the morning so my breakfasts are covered and I like making simple dinners in the evening). Instead of roasting I usually make skillet meals as I have a very large skillet. I usually dice and saute chicken until mostly done, then throw in a bunch of frozen veggies, add lemon juice, chicken broth, herbs de provence and simmer until the veggies are nice and soft. I usually steam brown rice or make quinoa in a separate pot. The whole process takes less than an hour and is very inexpensive since I get most of my ingredients from Costco. For variety, I will purchase the stir fry frozen veggies at Costco and instead of the lemon juice, chicken broth and seasoning, I will add one of the San-J Asian sauces that are available at my local health food store or can be found on Amazon. I will definitely have to try roasting my meals sometime.
]]>By: Donnahttp://glutenfreefitness.com/preparing-ahead-for-healthy-gluten-free-eating-success/#comment-551
Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:12:35 +0000http://www.glutenfreefitness.com/?p=252#comment-551Just the sort of eating out info I’ve been after. Glad I found your blog, I’ll be checking back often. Donna Xxxx
]]> | {
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Grant: Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan laughs at notion that offseason was a 'disaster'
3/11
Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer
2. Cruz in question: The Rangers already lost OF Josh Hamilton, but they could face life without Nelson Cruz for awhile, too. In late January, a Miami New Times story linked Cruz and other players to a Miami clinic that specialized in performance-enhancing drugs. MLB is looking into the allegations, and though no punitive action has been taken by the league yet, it could still be coming. The standard punishment for a first-time PED offense is a 50-game suspension.
SURPRISE, Ariz. – In the last six months, Nolan Ryan has put to bed two completely different seasons for the Rangers. The way, he describes it, they are almost mirror images.
The 2012 baseball season started with such promise and ended with disaster. The 2012 off-season began with such disaster and ended with promise.
The off-season picked up right where the regular season ended, with the Rangers’ plans collapsing one after another until all their major free agent and trade acquisition targets were off the market. The Rangers left the winter meetings thinking they had a chance at landing Justin Upton, Zack Greinke and bringing back Josh Hamilton.
Much like Hamilton in last season’s finale, they swung and missed often.
What Ryan likes is how well the Rangers recovered. Champions adjust. The Rangers adjusted. What looked like an unmitigated disaster in December, now has taken some shape.
“I laugh at comments that it was a ‘disaster,’ or that it was ‘the worst in the organization’s history’,” Ryan said Friday, about three hours before the Rangers played their first exhibition of the spring to a 5-5 tie with Kansas City.
“I think our baseball guys stepped back and looked at the landscape and said, ‘How can we make this club better?’,” Ryan added. “We are a club that wants to build from within. We don’t want to give up our young talent. We realize we have to be willing to do it with that young talent. I know this: we are a better ballclub than the day Josh signed with the Angels.”
The question, though, is not about that day. On that day, Ryan said, the “pucker factor was pretty big.”
The question is whether this Rangers team is – or will be – better than what the 2012 Rangers ended up being?
“I think that’s one you have to give some time and thought to,” Ryan said. “You have to let it play out.”
The playing out of things began Friday, and it was easy to see why it may take some time to figure things out. The Rangers do plan to count on a number of young players, and those young players don’t grow up overnight.
All of the concerns were evident on the first day of the spring training schedule.
Leonys Martin, who will likely replace Hamilton for the bulk of the time in center field, showed that he’s still has plenty to learn about baserunning. He was thrown out trying to steal without ever paying any attention to the pitcher’s move.
Alexi Ogando, who is transitioning back to the starting rotation after a year in the bullpen, couldn’t find the inner half of the plate.
Tanner Scheppers, who the Rangers would like to figure prominently in the bullpen, still has trouble getting the ball down in the zone and can’t seem to make it move at all to throw a hitter off.
Did we mention the 6-foot, 165 pound elephant (OK, maybe that didn’t sound as imposing as it was supposed to) in the room: Jurickson Profar? Three hours before the first pitch, Ryan said he thought the Rangers would have to be able to guarantee 350 at-bats to carry Profar as a “utility” player, and he didn’t see how they were going to be able to do that. When he got in the game, Profar looked bad on a strikeout and let a ground ball roll off his glove.
It was quite an inauspicious start. It also means nothing.
The Rangers have another 37 games to tune up for the regular season and then may jockey for position for the four months after that. It is by that time that the young players should have settled into roles, that pitchers who begin the season on the disabled list will be back to reinforce the staff, and that a supportive ownership group will be able to reach back into their fat wallets and approve payroll-increasing trades.
“Our position is a little more guarded,” Ryan said. “We have more questions. But I think we are going to compete very hard in this division.”
The Rangers may not have looked better than last year’s team when they took the field Friday, but the possibilities are far more likely they will be better at the finish than at the start.
And if 2012 – and the off-season that followed – have taught the Rangers anything, it’s not how you start that matters, but how you finish.
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110 Years of Excellence!
Celebrate 110 years of rich soccer heritage with this Real Madrid away jersey from adidas. Real Madrid was founded in 1902 and continues to be one of the most successful and most talented clubs in the world.
This ClimaCool jersey has a badge commemorating this milestone year embroidered on the left sleeve and the official La Liga badge embroidered on the right. The adidas logo and Real Madrid team badge are embroidered at the front with the team's kit sponsor heat-transferred below.
Anatomically placed mesh at the sides and underarms keep you feeling fresh and cool when you're getting fired up for your favorite team. | {
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After her impressive win, 22-year-old young gun Keeney said: “It was an awesome event. I love what I'm doing and I hope I can make a living from it soon.”
On the men's side of things, the decision over Gold or Silver was a close one with the better ending for the more experienced rider.
Leinonen, a slopestyle ace with so far three World Cup wins to his belt, came out first with 87.60 points and thus only .60 points more than Szczepan Karpiel (POL) scored, who in the end was pleased with Silver.
“I couldn't understand the jury. But I'm not ashamed being second behind Kalle”, the Polish skier said who will now focus on the big thing.”
“I'll try to qualify for Sochi: it will be hard but I'll chance my luck.”
Janne van Enckevort (NED, 84.20) rounded out the podium as third.
Full ladies results can be viewed here, with the men's being available here. | {
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Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Philippine plans to have submarines
Submarines for the Philippine fleet will help the navy protect the country’s territorial waters a lot better, a military spokesman said days after a study advised that new vessels be bought.
According to Navy spokesman Commodore Miguel Jose Rodriguez, submarines are the vessels of choice of many countries, including our Asian neighbors.
“A submarine is a very good naval platform to monitor what’s happening in your maritime environment,” Rodriguez explained.
Submarines are equipped with sensors and radars that can monitor movement on the surface, and even identify nearby ships using propeller signatures.
He added that purchasing a submarine will help even out the playing field, especially now that some of the Philippines’ Asian neighbors have purchased their own submersibles to beef up their fleet.
“What is important is that we really have to leverage on the things that we need,” Rodriguez said. “As other nations acquire submarines, we need to even up our capability. It becomes a very good deterrent against future potential conflicts.”
However, Rodriguez said that while buying a submarine will automatically boost the capability of the Philippine fleet, legislators should also allocate a budget for training of personnel and maintenance of the vessel.
“’We need to program funds for training and maintenance,” he pointed out.
The Navy is likewise waiting for the arrival of a Hamilton-class patrol ship from the United States set to be delivered in early August.
The cutter was acquired by Armed Forces of the Philippines as part of its modernization and capability upgrade program. The Philippine government acquired the patrol vessel through the US Excess Defense Articles for a minimal price, but had to shoulder costs for the refurbishment, transfer of the ship, and training of personnel. | {
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Public Speaker, Life Coach, and Recruiterin Canada
Designer Credit Martell is actually on to some thing along with her line of Simple style boot. It’s not every day that you look for a fashionable shoe that’s made from such unique materials. The actual Mere brand collection will be hailed as wearable artwork together with bright colors, daring slashes and snug back heel levels that make all of them perfect for any special occasion.
Searching for a cosy slip you will get in and proceed? The particular Penelope is a good ideal choice. Typically the minimum stacked heel imitates organic comfort of strolling without having shoes but provides the actual security not walking unshod. Often the ridged under single is usually slip resistant, ensuring a secure grip on damp as well as dry surfaces. | {
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Types Of Birdseed Photo GalleryTypes Of Birdseed Photo Gallery Bird Seed Types Different Types Of Bird Seed Different Types Of Bird Seed Wild Bird Feeding Country Farm And Home
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I knew nothing about football, then someone showed me a film of Petit and I realised how interesting the game could be. He is divine. When I met him I could barely speak, he was so gorgeous. Women will love that show. | {
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Kanye West super fan organises The Life of Pablo pop-up art exhibit
Kanye West is no stranger to the art world as the mega-celebrity continues to innovate and blur the lines between music, fashion and art. Back in February, TLOP, Kanye’s latest album was released at his third Yeezy fashion show with an installation by contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft. The album’s Tumblr-like artwork was also designed by Peter De Potter, who has been a Kanye collaborator since 2001. Then in March, Kanye hosted a three day TLOP pop-up shop. With no knowledge of what would be sold nor the price points, obsessed fans lined up days in advance. There, tour merch was sold, created in collaboration with artist Cali Thornhill Dewitt.
It was no wonder that when us editors found out there was TLOP (The Life of Pablo) pop-up art exhibit on the horizon, we got super excited. On Thursday we attended the opening event which took place in a rented space in the West Village. Organized by Event Coordinator and Marketing Manager Brianni Taylor, TLOP showcased work by 17 artists who brought the TLOP album and all things Kanye West to life. The event was rounded out with Yeezy themed cupcakes, drinks, baseball caps, tunes and an MC entertaining the eclectic and fashionable crowd. It’s important to note that the pop-up had no official affiliation with Kanye West, but the effort did show the extent to which he inspires his super-appreciative fanbase.
Here we chat with Brianni about the TLOP exhibit, the artists involved and how it came about.
What is the concept of The Life of Pablo Art Exhibit?
I like to call it “Your Guilty Kanye West Pleasure.” It’s all things Kanye from a playlist, to art, to drinks to food. Everything is influenced or inspired by Mr. West.
How did this exhibit come about? What was your process for putting together the pop-up?
I already started to plan an exhibit but I wasn’t sure exactly which theme I wanted. I was bouncing between ideas and finally I heard The Life Of Pablo. After listening to it was like “oh! I’m going to curate an event based around Kanye West”. He’s just an amazing artist and I think his influence over the pop and hip hop and art culture is so vast and putting together an exhibit around him was just one way to show it.
Who are the artists participating in the exhibit? How did you discover their work?Some of these artists I know personally and I know their work. Others I found via Instagram or I’ve seen their work at other exhibits. A few others reached out to me, and I added them onto the roster.
Why this album as inspiration for the pop-up?
I’ve been waiting for a Kanye album for a while. I love Kanye as an artist I think he’s amazing. Once he dropped TLOP, he solidified all of the thoughts I already had about him. He’s very inspirational and innovative, I think those are two qualities one should have to be the focal point of an art exhibit.
What’s your take on Kanye’s relationship with the art world?
I believe everything Kanye does is art or inspired by art. His music, his album covers, his music videos, the production of his concerts, his clothing line… They all exude artistic. Kanye using art work by George Condo on his album cover for [My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy] is just another form of proof that he is in touch with the ‘Art World’.
Tell us about the charitable aspect of the exhibit. What’s the nonprofit you’re working with?
I’ve partnered with an organization called The Kids League, which is one I had heard so many great things about. I already wanted to do a charitable event and an art event so I decided to merge the two. I want all of my events to serve a charitable cause.
Are the works for sale?
Yes, the pricing and how the sell it is at the discretion of the artist. Once they sell, a portion of their proceeds should go to a charity, as agreed upon when they decided to be a part of the event.
What’s next for the TLOP art show? Will there be more pop-ups? Do you have plans to do it again or in other cities?I don’t want to disclose too many details, but there are talks of curating more TLOP art exhibits in LA, MIA, and ATL for right now. I think those would be great places to start since Kanye lives in LA and there’s a huge art scene in Wynwood. If anyone contacts me about doing them elsewhere, I’d probably accept depending on location. | {
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Inspired by today's woman, the Vanessa tote's elegant look is handcrafted in strong, scratch resilient palmelatto crust leather. Presenting with a semi-structured silhouette and a roomy interior, it features a median zipper pocket for essentials. Polish every style choice by carrying this new, stylish, light weighted tote by the round elegant handles or attach the leather adjustable shoulder strap.
I had been eyeing a different bag entirely (one of the neutrals, actually), but when I saw this one in the beautiful port color, I couldn't pass it up. The bag is large - fits my computer, make-up bag, sunglasses, keys and so much more with total ease. The color is basically a neutral that goes with absolutely everything. And the cute accessory adds a great little bit of flair to the bag. Also very pleased with the leather. Absolutely recommend this one.
SandraBel • 09/24/2017
Great purse!!
Love this bag. Super roomy and perfect for the fall!!
LoreAnna • 03/22/2017
Classy
I prefer to wear tote bags because I always carry a lot of stuff with me and because I love the dark blue color this bag is perfect for me. The leather quality, the stitching and the suede leather interior are amazing! The price was a little high for my taste, but once in a while I like to treat myself to something nice :) | {
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} |
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(N) Hard Rock Hell AOR/PROG Festival 2013 Review
There were no words the day I first set eyes on this year's HRH AOR/PROG line up. It was a sunny afternoon (probably wasn't), and my good friend and colleague Shane showed me the line up with a grin of excitement like no other. From that moment, there was no way that I could NOT be at this festival. We saw, we purchased, we waited. Inevitably, within about three minutes - give or take 6 months - we were en-route to HRH AOR festival.
After figuring out how to navigate the steel structured rabbit hole that is Magna, an astounding choice of venue despite the location and the layout - we finally stumbled upon our first band of the festival - Daylight Robbery. Despite only catching the last few songs of this band's set, I can safely say they didn't really capture me. The front man had an epic stage presence and an astonishing set of lungs, and the band appeared to be extremely tight and well rehearsed - however by the end of their set, Daylight Robbery were living right up to their name. C'mon guys, even Dick Turpin wore a mask.
After slogging down a pint or two, I caught up with my Hammer friend Dom, who dragged me across the venue to check out a band I've heard tons about in my particular Twittersphere, but never actually listened to. TesseracT, were my next victims of critique. Now the last time someone told me to check out a progressive band, I spent 6 months whinging about it before actually doing it and falling in love with them (Dream Theater). TesseracT, effortlessly replicated that reaction. Wonderous lashings of prog, with a tasty element of groove that is both vicious and encapsulating. I found myself rooted in the same spot for the duration of their set, eyes attached to the stage like a facehugger to a marine, probably drooling in awe a bit, though that wasn't pointed out to me at the time. A definite recommendation, I'll be keeping an eye out for them!
Romeo's Daughter were up next, a favourite of mine and a majorly underrated asset to the AOR genre. I think Leigh Matty wins the award for sleekest haircut in music history, though that has absolutely nothing to do with her astonishing vocals. Romeo's Daughter never cease to impress; playing a eclectic collection of both old classics, fan favourites and newer, ambiguous material, which included my absolute favourite 'Attracted to the Animal'. How they were never bigger I will never know. This is the first time that I've seen them on a moderately massive stage, which is where their collossal, anthemic tunes SHOULD be. The one thing I adore about this lot is their modesty - Matty is always mega thankful for the support Romeo's receive, and her appreciation radiates, through her hair apparently.
Back through to the depths of Satan's freezer (Prog room) to catch the second half of It Bites' set. I caught these fellas opening for FM earlier this month, and I don't recall finding them that great. Must have been my fault, considering this time round they were pretty damn fine! They have such an infectious, optimistic sound that could make even the most cynical of bastards feel just that little bit better. That, and their hit 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' is catchier than the infuriatingly tactless female that runs upstairs in a horror film. I had the chorus rooted in my head for days afterwards.
Up next were a band, that do not need any introduction. The mighty FM bounded out on to the main AOR stage, and everyone within a 400 yard radius gravitated towards them. No band had a bigger crowd today! When Steve 'The Voice' Overland opens his mouth, it's like gazing in to the face of the sun. Not in a painful way - in a 'what is this beautiful, relentless, INHUMANE force, and where can I get one?' Or at least that's how I feel about the situation every single time I see FM.
They're all such a pleasant, humble set of individuals, and that really is reflected in their performance. Especially bassist Merv! You'll be damned if you ever catch him when he's not smiling or winking. I could waffle all day about how amazing this band are, but there's a lot to get through. Please, do go and see them for yourselves, they may be the un-certified 8th wonder of the world.
Steve 'The Voice' Overland. Making everything effortless since 1986.
We were one of the few caught heading back up to the second AOR stage towards the end of the evening, to catch Mia Klose. I've been following Mia for just over a year, and have always been impressed with what she has to offer. A complete throwback to the bombshells of the 80s, Mia and her crew create a sexy, nostalgic, yet cutting edge portrayal of 80s sleaze; though it definitely works more efficiently as a live show. There's always an element of personality that can't be captured on record, and Mia has lashings of that for such a tiny lady! I thoroughly enjoyed her set, which was rounded off fantastically with an tantalising cover of the Guns 'N' Roses classic, 'You Could Be Mine'. I'm sure a few members of the crowd left the second AOR room with their undergarments considerably wetter than when they arrived.
Mia Klose, the tiniest bombshell you'll ever see!
I awoke considerably more alert this morning, and after a massive breakfast, we headed back over to Magna for the second day of HRH AOR/PROG. It was pleasant to not have to queue outside for almost an hour this time! The first band I encountered was Nubian Rose. That lot kicked my day off with velocity, delivering ballsy, infectious Swedish AOR wonderment. I always enjoy seeing females within the genre, and damn, Sofia Akerlund can really wail! Her vocals are reminiscent of Lee Aaron's 'Metal Queen' album. I didn't catch a lot of their set, but enough of it for them to be slotted in to the 'Buy album' part of my brain. Unfortunately, Nubian Rose didn't have an astounding crowd, though to be honest, I hadn't heard them before now, so I'm guessing a fair few other's hadn't either. That, and a lot of folks were still nursing tender heads after Saturday's party!
Up next, were a band that I'd heard great things about, but had never got round to listening to. H.E.A.T, exploded on the stage with the velocity of a tank, unleashing lashings of pure, unfiltered AOR in to everyone's ear holes. The energy of the five of them was insane! I want to know what vocalist Erik swallowed before he emerged; the stamina in that man was incomprehensible. Just watching him made my limbs tired! There wasn't an inch of that stage unoccupied as H.E.A.T bounded and wailed incessantly, leaving the huge crowd they'd attained tantalised and in awe. Whatever followed H.E.A.T, had to be DAMN good. If FM weren't playing, they would have definitely been my favourite band of the festival.
Back up to the second AOR stage - which was considerably colder than it was yesterday - to see Barnsley boys Serpentine. I caught a snippet of this lot opening for Romeo's Daughter last year, and I was downright silenced by them. They emit this, sparkly, anthemic sound so synonymous AOR; particularly close to the likes of Elevener, a favourite of mine. Matt's voice is a glitter bomb in the ears, beautifully sonorous yet perfectly pitched, carried by Chris' swooping riffs and solos. Some technical faults arose during the set, however Serpentine just shrug and continue with the stance of a band that don't take themselves too seriously, and have no need to. What sets Serpentine apart from other acts of their calibre is their ability to connect with an audience, yet still produce an enormous sound. They played a blinding set and I'll be seeing them again very soon!
Chris and Matt of Serpentine. Mmmm.
After popping in to the main AOR room and deciding that Kip Winger's blase, one-man acoustic get up wasn't really for me, I proceeded on the Prog room, where I stumbled across an unknown entity known as The Von Hertzen Brothers. Holy shit, is my only way to describe what I witnessed during that hour. I'd never heard of them prior to HRH, but I, amongst many wasn't going to forget them in a hurry. Ever heard of genre boundaries? They haven't. The set kicked off as well-sculpted, encapsulating prog metal, then rapidly evolved in to ska, before fading back in to some form of infectious hardcore wonderment, then returning to prog as if nothing had happened. The band took their crowd and made them their bitches from start to finish - if you weren't a fan of a style they were playing - tough! The VH Bros are without a doubt, masters of their craft and I urge every single one of you to go right out and listen to them. Now.
The last band of merit I can comment on before I slipped in to a alcoholic haze with H.E.A.T and others, was legendary Skid Row. I was feeling fairly ambivalent towards this set; I grew up with Sebastian era SR, and was excited to see tracks I've known and loved for years live, however, I was dubious of Jonny Solinger and how he would deliver. There will always be the 'He's not Seb' argument. That's absolutely right, he's not, and no amount of money will make it so! Fans can either bitch and whinge about that fact, or embrace the band's new, excited vocal force and continue to enjoy the music of Skid Row performed to an impeccable standard. I couldn't fault their show in any way, and it was nostalgic as hell to watch and incredibly enjoyable! Sure, it's never going to be the Skid Row anyone wants, but that's life, innit?
All in all, Hard Rock Hell AOR/Prog has been an incredible experience! All the bands I saw performed amazingly and the affinity shared by everyone throughout the venue and the weekend was beyond awesome. Definitely one of the best festivals I've had the pleasure to attend. Bring on AOR II!
H.E.A.T's Erik Gronwall. Breakin' silences... and that.
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Denim and Leather is reborn! Denim 'N Leather Hellions is a continuation/reboot of the old website, by the original founder.
We are an online magazine which sends a fistful of metal straight through your primary visual cortex. We believe that the underground music scene does not get the attention and respect it deserves. We are hoping to change that sorry fact by bringing into your lives a webzine full of all the latest news, reviews and insights from the circuits of Yorkshire and the scene at large. No self respecting music fan should be without it. Any bands that want a review for their EPs/albums should e-mail us with ‘FAO Editor’ as the subject. Other media: Hotmail Address – [email protected] FacebookOfficial Youtube Official TwitterReverbnation
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Similarly, “Blockchain” and “DLT” news is generally dominated by reports about various government policies:“Spain’s Securities Regulator Undertakes a
Blockchain Pilot”
“President of Uzbekistan Signs Decree on Blockchain Integration”
“Maltese Parliament Passes Laws That Set Regulatory Framework For Blockchain, Cryptocurrency And DLT”
But these stories really miss the point.
We’ve been talking about this a lot lately in our conversations: it’s been nearly a decade since Bitcoin was created. Crypto and DLT are no longer in their infancies.
A few years ago? Sure, the price of Bitcoin was big news.
Few people knew much about it, so it was noteworthy that digital currency churned out by a piece of C++ code was selling for cold, hard cash.
But today the prices of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are about as relevant as the the prices of cotton and copper; in other words– not entirely inconsequential, but hardly worthy of front-page news on a regular basis.
Even still, though, the noise continues unabated. The media hasn’t woken up yet to what this trend is all about.
It’s not about the price. And it’s not about the whatever the latest, hotshot ICO du jour happens to be.
This trend, like most major technological trends, is about all the incredible possibilities to revolutionize entire industries.
The Internet went through a similar progression. Early on, around 30 years ago, it was an exciting curiosity that few people had even heard of.
Within a decade, it had caught fire. Everyone was jumping on to the ‘information superhighway’, and investors were throwing money at every idiotic 19-year old kid with an idea for a dot-com.
Eventually that euphoric buble burst. The market (and the public) became much more sophisticated, and all the worthless businesses went under.
The ones who survived and succeeded were those who were dedicated to applying the technology to solve real challenges.
And that’s the fundamental opportunity with crypto.
While there’s an overwhelming number of bloggers and speculators who are trying to get rich quick chasing the next ICO… and no shortage of snake-oil salesmen promoting their own ICOs, there are a handful of entrepreneurs who are applying DLT and crypto technologies to solve real challenges, with the support of the investors who are backing them.
So- one small example is a company called HelloTickets, which has applied blockchain technology to the event tickets industry.
This is an industry that’s rife with fraud and abuse; concert attendees either get gouged by a monopoly like TicketMaster (that charges absurd fees for zero value-add), or they risk buying fake tickets, or dealing with scalpers, etc.
HelloTickets provides a platform for events to publish tickets into the Blockchain… which guarantees every ticket’s authenticity.
Concert-goers would never have to worry about buying fake tickets. And the concert promoters wouldn’t have to rely on an expensive middleman.
It’s a win/win.
A few days ago, HelloTickets achieved a major milestone by rolling out its blockchain ticketing solution to a festival in the UK attended by 9,000 people. It worked perfectly.
I think this is a great example because of its pure simplicity– it’s not rocket science.
HelloTickets is taking the core technology that underpins this giant crypto/DLT trend and applying it to an industry that notoriously screws the consumer. Simple. But brilliant.
There are countless other industries just like ticketing where a handful of elites have dominated and abused their customers for decades. And they’re ripe for disruption.
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Most Useful Answer
morris - Answered a Question by short (20 May 08 21:54)
We were on the Serena earlier this year from the Med into the Atlantic down to the Canaries and back again and to be quite honest I doubt if you will feel seasick at all!!! It is a huge ship and hardly moves in the water. However if you think you will be, it would be much cheaper to take tablets with you (we always carry Stugeron tablets available from Boots but have never had to take them.) The injections are very expensive apparently around 50 pounds a time. Tips if you do feel queazy are to keep in the middle of the ship and go as low as you can to minimize the movement. I'm sure you will be fine.
I've been researching Costa as I'm considering a winter cruise on the Serena. She like most ships has a medical centre onboard. The injection for sea sickness is usually always available. I had to get one on the Lirica last month, not because I was sea sick but because I had a chest infection and couldn't stop being sick. Had be vomitting for over 20 hours and stopped within 15 minutes of having the shot. I'd only have it as a last resort after trying the usual remedies such as tablets or the wrist bands. However if you are feeling awful, then it is certainly worth a try. Not sure how much they will charge you. MSC kindly didn't charge me at all. (Think they must have felt sorry for me! | {
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Supporters
The Gear up with Jon Ryan Foundation’s Corporate Partnership program represents a fabulous opportunity for businesses and corporations to work with Gear Up so that, together, we can effectively bring Change on how our children’s equipment in sport is being provided and cared for.
By providing funds, in-kind gifts, and volunteer support, our partnerships with businesses large, medium and small has been key to our long-term sustainability. We are proud of our many long-standing and mutually beneficial relationships with corporate Canada, and it’s our hope that many more organizations partner with us as we grow.
At Gear Up with Jon Ryan, we’re not just about taking. We’re also about giving: creating opportunities, positive outcomes and giving the ability to have every child play sport.
The more you’re able to help our kids, the more we’ll be able to help you, too. For more information on how you or your business can help support the work of Gear Up and receive real recognition as a result, please contact: [email protected]
Here’s just some of the great businesses and corporations that are helping Gear Up bring safe sport to their communities: Presenting Sponsors
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The Coming Global Economic Collapse & The 3rd Seal of Revelation!!! Come back to this article for updates!
Jeremiah CH 50
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.
Revelation CH 6
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
When the planes hit The World Trade Center it sounded like Thunder & The U.S./Babylon has been waging war ever since!
3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
When War broke out in Egypt in February of 2011 Cival war broke out all over The Middle East! See ISAIAH CH 19 “The LORD rideth on a swift cloud the idols of Egypt are broken! This was the 2nd Seal !
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine
I would like to comment on the U.S. ECONOMIC COLLAPSE which began in the Fall of 2015 with the Obamacare Co-op Collapse. Ky. State Governor Matt Bevin shutdown The Federal Healthcare Computerized Exchange because it would BANKRUPT the Kentucky State Economy & Former governor Steve Beshear is trying to get the Exchange up & running again! WE are starting to see Ruler against Ruler as is written in JEREMIAH CH 51 vs 46. Oh how I pray for the Body of Christ in these perilous times! We should all as Christians Unite as One as The Most Blessed Holy Trinity is ONE we should be ONE with Them Amen. Jesus said, “I and the Father are One.”
This indicates Economic Collapse & massive inflation! The days of The U.S. Dollar are almost done!!! Japan is 1 of the few countries holding at least 1.5 Trillion dollars of our debt! This is part of the trigger Japan!!! Many articles indicating collapse It also appears that Iran is also deeply involved in this collapse!!! | {
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Collected here on four discs are sumptuous BBC productions of two of Charles Dickens' most revered novels. Bleak House, adapted by four-time BAFTA Award–winning writer Andrew Davies, features Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock and Charles Dance as Mr. Tulkinghorn. This acclaimed production from 2005 won two Emmys and five BAFTAs, and was nominated for two Golden Globes. Derek Jacobi stars as the doting grandfather of Nell Trent (Sophie Vavasseur) and proprietor of The Old Curiosity Shop in this 2007 adaptation. Toby Jones costars as the villainous usurer Daniel Quilp, who takes possession of the magical London shop filled with dust-laden treasures. | {
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In a culture that thrives on keeping up with the Joneses, this story could not be more relevant.
King Nebuchadnezzar has constructed a massive gold statue and has ordered everyone to worship it. 3 Jewish Babylonian men–Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego–refuse to do so because they only worship God. As a result, the king has the men thrown into a fiery furnace, but because of their willingness to stay loyal to God, He has spared them and the fire doesn’t burn them. Seeing this miracle, King Nebuchadnezzar praises God.
You’re probably like, “How in the world is this relevant to me?” Let me explain. Continue reading → | {
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Month: September 2014
The Way He Looks – TrailerSet against the music of Belle and Sebastian, Daniel Ribeiro’s coming of age tale,THE WAY HE LOOKS is a fun and tender story about friendship and the complications of young love. Leo is a blind teenager whoâs fed up with his overprotective mother and the bullies at school. Looking to assert his independence, he decides to study abroad to the dismay of his best friend, Giovana. When Gabriel, the new kid in town, teams with Leo on a school project, new feelings blossom in him that make him reconsider his plans. Meanwhile, Giovana, grows jealous of this new found companionship as tensions mount between her and Leo.Directed by: Daniel RibeiroStarring: Fabio Audi, Ghilherme Lobo, Tess Amorim
Inherent Vice – TrailerâInherent Viceâ is the seventh feature from Paul Thomas Anderson and the first film adaption of a ThomasPynchon novel. When P.I. Doc Sportelloâs ex-old lady shows up with a story about her current billionaire land developer boyfriend and a plot by his wife and her boyfriend to kidnap that billionaire and throw him in a looney bin⦠well, easy for her to say. Itâs the tail end of the `60s, paranoia is running the day and Doc knows that âloveâ is one of those words going around, like âtripâ or âgroovy,â thatâs way too overusedâexcept this one usually leads to trouble. With a cast of characters that includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, LAPD Detectives, a tenor sax player working undercover and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists… Part surf noir, part psychedelic rompâall Thomas Pynchon.Directed by: Paul Thomas AndersonStarring: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Katherine Waterston, Reese Witherspoon, Benicio Del Toro, Martin Short, Jena Malone, Joanna Newsom
Two Night Stand – ClipA no-strings-attached, online hook-up turns into a morning after disaster for twenty-something New Yorkers Alec (Miles Teller) and Megan (Analeigh Tipton). When a paralyzing blizzard hits the city, trapping them in Alecâs cramped Brooklyn apartment, they are forced to get to know each other far beyond the confines of a typical one-night stand.Directed by: Max NicholsStarring: Miles Teller, Analeigh Tipton, Jessica Szohr, Scott Mescudi
The Interview – Trailer 2In the action-comedy The Interview, Dave Skylark (James Franco) and his producerAaron Rapoport (Seth Rogen) run the popular celebrity tabloid TV show âSkylark Tonight.â When they discover that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is a fan of the show, they land an interview with him in an attempt to legitimize themselves as journalists. As Dave and Aaron prepare to travel to Pyongyang, their plans change when the CIA recruits them, perhaps the two least-qualified men imaginable, to assassinate Kim Jong-un.Directed by: Seth Rogen, Evan GoldbergStarring: James Franco, Seth Rogen, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park
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V/H/S: Viral – TrailerA police chase after a deranged ice cream truck has captivated the attention of the greater Los Angeles area.Dozens of fameâobsessed teens flock to the streets with their video cameras and camera phones, hellâbent on capturing the next viral video. But there is something far more sinister occurring in the streets of L.A. than a simple police chase. A resounding effect is created onto all those obsessed with capturing salacious footage for no other purpose than to amuse or titillate. Soon the discovery becomes that they themselves are the stars of the next video, one where they face their own death.Directed by: VariousStarring: Patrick Lawrie, Emmy Argo, Heather Hayes, Jessica Luza, John Curran, Justin Welborn, Mary Ralston, Michael Aaron Milligan, Gustavo Salmeron, Marian Alvarez
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The Blue Room – TrailerTwo adulterous lovers go from pillow talk to possible murder in this sexy, brain-teasing thriller. Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Grand Budapest Hotel) directs and stars as Julien, a middle-aged salesman embroiled in a steamy love affair with a married woman who, after a round of kinky sex, makes a startling suggestion. Suddenly Julien is caught up in a police investigationâbut just what exactly happened? Based on a novel by celebrated crime writer Georges Simenon, this beguiling cinematic puzzle keeps the audience guessing every step of the way.Directed by: Mathieu AmalricStarring: Mathieu Amalric, Lea Drucker | {
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Mourinho told Portuguese TV station SIC: "Cristiano has to win the Ballon d'Or, not because he has been the top goalscorer, he was that already last season, but because his goals have delivered a title.
"Messi scored 50 goals that weren't worth anything, in the same way that Cristiano scored 42 last season that didn't stand for anything.
"He hasn't been able to win the Pichichi and I believe he should be compensated with the Ballon d'Or." | {
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Another step forward in sending highly treated wastewater to Del Puerto Water District farmers.
Modesto and Turlock have taken another step forward in sending highly treated wastewater to Del Puerto Water District farmers.
The cities have approved an agreement that lets Turlock send its wastewater through a Modesto pipeline. Turlock’s City Council approved the agreement in August. Modesto’s council approved it Tuesday.
Modesto started work last week on building the 7-mile pipeline to ship the wastewater from its Jennings Road treatment plant to the Delta-Mendota Canal, where it will flow to Del Puerto farmers, who will use the water to grow almonds, walnuts, peaches, cherries and other crops. Turlock will build a 6-mile pipeline to carry its wastewater to the Jennings plant.
The Del Puerto Water District comprises about 45,000 acres along Interstate 5 from Vernalis to Santa Nella. It has been hit hard by drought and fish protections limiting its water supply. The wastewater from Turlock and Modesto gives the district a reliable water source and about a third of its supply in a normal year. The water is treated to almost drinking-water quality.
Modesto’s project will cost about $50 million and is expected to be completed by December 2017. Modesto is paying for the work with a $35 million, 1 percent-interest state loan and a $15 million state grant. Besides the pipeline, Modesto is building a pump station and other infrastructure.
Turlock expects to award a contract to a civil engineering firm in January to design its pipeline. Construction should start in late summer 2017. The pipeline should be operating in late 2018. Turlock Municipal Services Director Michael Cooke said the project could cost $20 million to $30 million and that he expects the state to approve a low-interest loan for the project in February.
Del Puerto Water District farmers are paying for all of Modesto’s and Turlock’s costs through an agreement between the water district and the two cities. The project also is expected to provide $500,000 a year in revenue to Modesto and about $300,000 a year to Turlock.
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Modesto and Turlock have taken another step forward in sending highly treated wastewater to Del Puerto Water District farmers.The cities have approved an agreement that lets Turlock send its wastewater through a Modesto pipeline. Turlock’s City Council approved the agreement ...... | {
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PennyQuest Progress
This afternoon took a hit to dealing with mail and employment stuff for one of my artists, but the biggest consumer of time wound up being the second fight of Penny’s quest. In this fight, you’re battling two plant-girls with Penny by your side. Each of them targets one of you exclusively with abilities, and one of them can throw vines at Penny to slowly drag her forward for “capture”. If Penny is downed (which happens easily due to them having a pheromone attack), this happens much more often (and much faster). Of course, you can save her by targeting the “vines” enemy that it spawns so long as you don’t miss a clutch hit.
This fight has a ton of edge cases to handle, like having to give one of them a second set of tease attacks that are written for targeting you, or writing text for what happens if the last one in combat sucks up Penny (and therefore removes itself from combat). Spoiler alert: this is technically a win, though you have to pry drugged-up, violated Penny out of her clutches after. Will that have any lasting consequences? Maybe.
Coding it was a nightmare, but I think it’s mostly handled now. I just need to write one bad-end for when you lose and a suite of new victory scenes for satisfying your lusts with each other, since these creatures are too dangerous to fuck directly. I may also commission someone to come write a scene where you can choose to fuck them after winning and voluntarily bad-end yourself, but I need the regular bad-end written and in game before I can do that.
A busy day.
(P.S. I’m increasingly glad the final fight after this will be relatively simple and against genderless mining robots.)
+1
And to add on to what Belly97 said would you still be able to do Dr Badger’s quest and either bimbofy Penny after you’ve recruited her or tell Penny about it and bimbofy Dr Badger instead? Or would the quest be disabled while Penny is on your ship?
Kinda hope we can recruit Bimbo Penny, cause she’s been a bimbo in my game since the beginning. If not, probably gonna see if I can save edit her back to normal without breaking anything so I can experience this questline. I’d rather have her as a crew member than just the bimbo on the planet.
Hey I was wondering if ya’ll could fix a line in Olympia’s dialogue. When you choose the work and sex option with the required stats one of her lines says, “and you can get start working on me.” when it should be , “and you can get started working on me.” Using the past tense of start sounds better but if I am wrong then by all means ignore my comment. | {
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US adds 151,000 October jobs
Two somewhat good pieces of economic news might have helped the Obama Administration during election week had they come out before Black Red Tuesday rather than after it. The first was the $600bn quantitative easing (QE2) by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernacke announced the day after the election and the second was today's jobs report out of the Department of Labor, which showed the economy adding 151,000 jobs in October.
With 14.8 million people still unemployed, the unemployment rate static at 9.6 per cent, and the US needing to create 100,000 jobs per month just to keep up with population growth, the relatively good jobs report (relative to some weak ones in recent months, that is) would not have done a huge amount of good for the Democrats. But since December 2009, which was the bottom of the Great Recession, the economy has added 1.1 million private sector workers.
During October, private sector jobs actually rose by 159,000 in the US, with the Federal government shedding most of the census workers in prior months. Professional and business services companies (some of them in the IT racket in one shape or form) added 35,000 workers in October and have added 451,000 workers since their trough in September 2009.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which puts together the monthly jobs report (which you can see here), called out the computer systems design and related services segment of the economy in the October report, saying that after seasonally adjusting the figures, these tech companies added 8,000 workers in October and have added 53,000 jobs since the trough in this sector in June 2009.
Healthcare companies added 24,000 workers in October and have added 244,000 jobs in the past twelve months; retailers added 28,000 jobs in October, and have expanded employment by 128,000 since the low of December 2009 in this sector. Government employment was flat in October across local, state, and Federal branches, but local governments keep slashing people to close budget gaps.
Some 14,000 people lost their jobs in local government across the country in October, and 123,000 have lost their jobs in the past year. The Feds hired a peak of 564,000 census workers, peaking in May and bleeding down to the remaining 1,000 employees still trying to do the body count in October.
The BLS doesn't track employment by job title, so we can't really see the effect of the economy on jobs directly related to IT functions. But you can look through the raw data by company type and get an indirect feel for at least some IT employers. Among manufacturers, the BLS calculates that computer and electronics manufacturers now employ just over 1.1 million people, up 2,300 from the prior month.
Within this group, computer and peripheral equipment makers have 161,400 people on the payroll, up a mere 200 in October. Communication equipment makers have 123,300 workers, up 1,200 from September. Semiconductor and electronic component makers added 500 jobs and account for 368,900 workers across the 50 states.
Within the information sector, which includes all kinds of publishing and entertainment as well as telecommunications and various data processing services, telcos added 3,600 jobs in October after months of slashing and now employ 916,800 workers. Companies engaged in data processing, hosting, and related services added 2,000 jobs in October, with a total of 245,200 workers at the end of the month. In the professional and business services sector, companies in the computer systems design and related services biz have just under 1.48 million workers (using the raw data), up 16,900 employees. Management and technical consulting services firms employed just over 1 million people in October, an increase of 13,500 people since September. ® | {
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In this last book of the Dr. Nekros saga, you will experience reunions, betrayals, final confrontations, reappearances, deaths, and reconciliations. Every epic must end, and so concludes that of Dr. Nekros, Zetta Southerland, and the demon Xaphan.
In this second book of the Dr. Nekros trilogy, you will learn the fate of Zetta Southerland, the origin of the demon Xaphan, how the Packard came to be haunted, and witness yet another confrontation between Dr. Nekros and the evil beings working to destroy every aspect of his life. Dr. Nekros: Book Two delivers nonstop action, fascinating characters, and an intricate plot that will leave you stunned. | {
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1 Tuner + 1 or more non-Tuner monsters Once per turn, you can select 1 card you control and 1 card your opponent controls. Destroy them. When this card is destroyed by your opponent's card (either by battle or by card effect) and sent to the Graveyard, select 1 non-Synchro "Scrap" monster in your Graveyard and Special Summon it. | {
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Facility Rentals
Host your next event or meeting in one of the newest buildings in the city! From meetings to receptions, Resurgo Place will provide a unique experience to your event. Resurgo Place offers parking, Wi-Fi, barrier-free access and walking distance from downtown. | {
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Dave Winer takes a Swing at Apple’s Photocasting RSS Implementation
This morning when I woke up I saw that one of our editors here at Geek News Central had done a great iLife 06 review, and when I went to look at her photocasting page via my Windows machine it said I could not view them as the browser wasn’t supported both Forefox and IE would not load the page.
So I switched over to my Mac Mini, I loaded Firefox and tried to load the page and to my suprise I could not view the page. Finally I had to resort to using Safari and the page loaded and what they have created looks pretty cool. But I kinda of did a are they kidding me routine when it took 4 browsers to get the page to load. What the heck is wrong with Apple? They should have a big ass disclaimer that say Photocasting is limited to Safari browsers on Mac operating system only all others go away!
Then I read Dave’s post on his six month mostly positive experience with a Mac, but what shocked me is how much he paid for it, The system cost him $5500.00 and he is complaing on how slow it is (Dave did that include the monitor cost),
he like many others are no longer willing to be locked into a platform and I think that is a good stance to have.
I will be the first to admit I really like what they have done in Garageband though, for Podcasting that was a definite step in the right direction.
On a side note though it was a interesting revelation that Adam Curry the so called PodFather has switched back to an inexpensive PC to do Podcast recording because of the trouble he has had in production recently [Dave Winer]
Here is what Apple says on their website..
Oh, and if Aunt Sophia doesn’t have iPhoto or she has a computer that runs Windows, she can still subscribe to your Photocasts via any RSS-compatible browser or RSS reader.
The address she gave for her iPhoto library is a rss feed, all you do is place it in a rss application like I did and you can view all the photos and updates just fine. Use a PC or Mac RSS reader with the index.rss file and you are subscribed to her iPhoto library. It’s a simple subscription to an rss feed. | {
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This blog is maintained by the New Mexico Corrections Department Public Affairs Director. The purpose of this blog is to showcase what is happening at NMCD in both the Adult Prisons Division and Probation and Parole.
"We commit to the safety and well-being of the people of New Mexico by doing the right thing, always."
Please contact [email protected] if you have questions about this blog.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Craftsmanship and Trades Fair Roundup
Our 2nd Craftsmanship and Trades Fair has come and gone. First we would like to thank everyone who came out to join us, all the volunteers and the inmates for crafting amazing art!
Now on to the numbers...We are pleased to announce we made $18,000!!! Don't forget that this money benefits victims, children of offenders, other inmates learning new crafts and much more!
Congratulations to everyone involved. Thank you all for your hard work.
We hope to see you at are next one in October. Stay tuned to this page for more information. | {
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The Dublin Collection is lighting for
today’s home. The pressed glass appears mesh-like both inside and out for a textured look and the Brushed Nickel finish highlights the industrial styling of the fixture. Cord Length (FT.): 0.5 Wire Color: Black and White Install ...
The Emmons lighting collection by Sea
Gull Lighting combines form and function in a traditional empire silhouette. Trumpeted Satin Etched glass shades and a circular finial further enhance the design. Cluster three sizes together in a multi-fixture installation to make a beautifully dramatic ... | {
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Google deprecating its BlackBerry Gmail app
Want a real Gmail app? A man's Gmail app? Not like you were ever really going to find one on a BlackBerry, but what those poor clunkers did have is going the way of the dinosaur, as Google's decided to deprecate its BB app. Starting Nov. 22, support ends, and our CrackBerry cousins will be relegated to the mobile browser. Not that that's the worst thing the world, we suppose (hey, it was pretty much good enough for an official "native" iOS app). But it still means that Android has the best Gmail app around. Try not to act surprised. | {
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This darkly festive tale of a yuletide ghoul reveals an irreverently twisted side to the holiday. The horror-comedy tells the story of young Max, who turns his back on Christmas as his dysfunctional family comes together and comically clashes over the holidays. When they accidentally unleash the wrath of Krampus, an ancient entity from European folklore, all hell breaks loose and beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own
This darkly festive tale of a yuletide ghoul reveals an irreverently twisted side to the holiday. The horror-comedy tells the story of young Max, who turns his back on Christmas as his dysfunctional family comes together and comically clashes over the holidays. When they accidentally unleash the wrath of Krampus, an ancient entity from European folklore, all hell breaks loose and beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own | {
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This video is part of the following collections:
I Like Em White -My brothas and me, our game is tight. We could mack black all day, but we like 'em white. If her ass is fat, and her skin is pale, we'll fuck her so good, bitch be postin' our bail. It's what every nigga wants but only a balla can cop, so holla at your boy cause I'm about to drop...my load...all on her face. | {
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Naked City on LP
The 1959 Naked City album is the musical portrait of a city. It's a bold portrait told in striking, vivid tone colors, bringing to life the throbbing intensity of a great metropolis and it's people. It's a musical portrait with the pulse-pounding rhythm of the city's heartbeat and melodies drawn from the dreams, the triumphs, the tragedies of the people. Naked City was a police drama TV series that aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. Filmed on location in New York City, it was inspired by the 1948 motion picture The Naked City and mimics it's dramatic semi-documentary format. Ned Washington, author of the lyrics and narrative for the Naked City album, is one of the best known and most honored musical collaborators on the Hollywood scene. Limited first press of 500 copies. | {
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VNA of Ohio Blog
Navigating the post-acute continuum of care can be frustrating, particularly for the patients and family members. But it can also be frustrating for the doctor, insurance company and the provider. A lot of frustration stems from a lack of basic communication and understanding on all sides.
We sat down with Kimberly Bloir, Insurance Specialist for Visiting Nurse Association of Ohio to get an insider’s perspective on what it’s like for home care providers who are also navigating this minefield.
What are the major challenges facing home healthcare providers?
Due to many reasons, including the mounting costs of insurance and rising instances of fraud and abuse, restrictions are constantly being updated. These can sometimes slow our delivery of care for patients. With all the new regulations that are placed on home healthcare providers, we still need to make sure that we’re able to be reimbursed so that we can continue to provide services to patients and their families.
What’s the normal process for referrals and where does communication start to break down?
There are so many people who are involved in home healthcare. It starts with a patient who is discharged from a hospital or facility or their family doctor recommends home healthcare. Doctors themselves are receiving faxes every day that require their signature and may not be able to submit an order for home healthcare for a patient in a timely manner. As a home healthcare provider, we can’t initiate services for a patient until we have an order for homecare from the patient’s doctor.
After the patient has been approved, we schedule patients for one episode, which is typically 60 days of services. Patients can be recertified for an additional 60 days, as long as the patient and doctor have ordered the services. Patients typically meet their goals within 120 days of service.
Doctors and providers tend to agree that two episodes is a sufficient time for patients to recover, but care is always based on individual patient needs. However, many insurance companies are beginning to require that patients be discharged in a much shorter time frame than we in the industry have experienced in the past.
So many of these challenges are not something that the patient or provider can control. What advice do you have for patients and families going through this process?
Although the process can be frustrating, patients should know that, as providers, we are here for the patients. We have relationships with the facilities, and they also hold us to a very high level. Sometimes, we will accept patients and provide care unsure if we will be reimbursed. Having a good working relationship with your family doctor or physician is also key, as well as communication with your insurance company. These open lines of communication can lead to improved care. | {
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Consumer and Community Affairs
The Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs (DCCA) has primary responsibility for carrying out the Board's consumer protection program. DCCA augments its dedicated expertise in consumer protection law, regulation, and policy with resources from other functions of the Board and the Federal Reserve System to write and interpret regulations, educate and inform consumers, and enforce laws and regulations for consumer financial products and services. Key elements of the division's program include
rulemaking, utilizing a team of attorneys to write regulations that implement legislation, update regulations to respond to changes in the marketplace, design consumer-tested disclosures to provide consumers consistent and vital information on financial products, and prohibit unfair and deceptive acts and practices;
supervision and enforcement of state member banks and bank holding companies and their nonbank affiliates to ensure that consumer protection rules are being followed;
consumer complaint and inquiry processes to assist consumers in resolving grievances with their financial institutions and to answer their questions;
consumer education to inform consumers about what they need to know when making decisions about their financial services options;
research to understand the implications of policy on consumer financial markets;
outreach to national and local government agencies, consumer and community groups, academia, and industry to gain a broad range of perspectives, and to inform policy decisions and effective practices; and
support for national and local agencies and organizations that work to protect and promote community development and economic empowerment to historically underserved communities.
Rulemaking and Regulations
Credit Card Reform
In May 2009, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 (the Credit Card Act) codified and expanded existing Federal Reserve regulations prohibiting unfair credit card practices. Among other things, the new rules ban harmful practices and require greater transparency in the disclosure of the terms and conditions of credit card accounts. Throughout 2009, the Federal Reserve worked to implement the Credit Card Act.
Consistent with the effective dates set by Congress in the legislation, the Federal Reserve's rulemakings to implement the Credit Card Act were divided into three stages. As discussed below, the Board has completed the first two stages of rulemaking. The third stage will be completed later in 2010.
Stage One
The first stage of the Board's implementation of the Credit Card Act includes provisions with an effective date of August 2009.1
45-Day Notice Requirement for Significant Changes
The new rules require creditors to provide written notice to consumers 45 days before increasing an annual percentage rate (APR) on, or making another significant change to the terms of, a credit card account. The notice requirement is triggered by increases in rates applicable to purchases, cash advances, and balance transfers. Creditors must also provide notice when changes are made to the terms that are required to be disclosed at account opening, including those terms that are most important to consumers and that can have a significant impact on the cost of credit for a consumer: key penalty fees, transaction fees, fees imposed for the issuance or availability of credit, any grace period, and the balance computation method.
Consumer's Right to Reject Rate Increase or Change in Terms
In addition to the advance notice, consumers must be informed of their right to reject the increase or change before it goes into effect. If a consumer rejects the increase or change, the creditor may not impose a fee or charge, treat the account as in default, or require immediate repayment of the balance on the account.
Periodic Statements Must Be Mailed 21 Days in Advance
The rules require creditors to mail or deliver periodic statements for credit cards at least 21 days before the payment due date and the expiration of any grace period. This requirement must be met before creditors can treat a consumer's payment as late or impose additional finance charges.
Stage Two
The second stage of the Board's implementation of the Credit Card Act includes provisions with an effective date of February 22, 2010.2
Restricting Rate Increases for Existing Balances
An increase in the interest rate that applies to existing balances on a credit card account can come as a costly surprise to consumers who relied on the rate in effect at the time they opened the account or used the account for transactions. Subject to certain exceptions, the new rules generally prohibit credit card issuers from increasing the rates and fees that apply to existing balances, including when an account is closed, when an account is acquired by another institution, and when the balance is transferred to another account issued by the same creditor. The exceptions include temporary rates that expire after a specified period, rates that vary with an index, and accounts that are more than 60 days delinquent.
Evaluation of Consumer's Ability to Pay
Under the new rules, credit card issuers are required to establish and maintain reasonable policies and procedures to consider a consumer's ability to make required minimum payments each billing cycle (based on the full credit line and including any mandatory fees) before opening a new credit card account or increasing the credit limit for an existing account. Reasonable policies and procedures include consideration of at least one of the following in assessing the consumer's ability to pay: (1) the consumer's ratio of debt to income; (2) the consumer's ratio of debt to assets; or (3) the income the consumer will have after paying existing debt obligations.
Age Restrictions
The rules also impose specific requirements for opening a credit card account or increasing the credit limit on an existing account when the consumer is under the age of 21. In particular, an issuer cannot issue a credit card to a consumer younger than 21 unless their application includes either: (1) information indicating that the underage consumer has independent ability to make the required minimum payments for the account, or (2) the signature of a cosigner over age 21 who has the ability to make those payments and who assumes joint liability for any debt on the account.
Rules for Marketing Credit Cards to Students
The rules also prohibit creditors from offering a college student any tangible items (such as t-shirts, gift cards, or magazine subscriptions) to induce the student to apply for a credit card or other open-end credit product if the offer is made on or near a college campus or at an event sponsored by a college. In addition, colleges must publicly disclose their agreements with credit card issuers for marketing credit cards, and card issuers must make annual reports to the Board regarding those agreements.
Restricting Over-the-Limit Fees
The rules generally require creditors to obtain a consumer's express election (or "opt in") to the payment of transactions that exceed the account's credit limit before the creditor may impose any fee for those transactions. Credit card issuers are also prohibited from imposing more than one over-the-limit fee per billing cycle and may not impose an over-the-limit fee for the same transaction in more than three consecutive billing cycles.
The rules also prohibit credit card issuers from
assessing an over-the-limit fee because the issuer did not promptly replenish the consumer's available credit (such as after the consumer makes a payment);
conditioning the amount of available credit on the consumer's consent to payment of over-the-limit transactions; and
imposing an over-the-limit fee if the consumer's credit limit is exceeded solely because of accrued interest charges or fees on the account.
Additional Consumer Protections
The wide-ranging consumer protection regulations adopted by the Board also include
Credit card issuers are required to establish procedures to ensure that the administrator of an estate can resolve the outstanding credit card balance of a deceased accountholder in a timely manner.
Credit card issuers are required to allocate a consumer's payment in excess of the required minimum payment first to the balance with the highest rate.
Credit card fees charged to a credit card account during the first year after account opening may not exceed 25 percent of the initial credit limit.
Credit card issuers may not impose interest charges on balances for days in previous billing cycles as a result of the loss of a grace period (a practice sometimes referred to as "double-cycle billing"). Card issuers also are prohibited from imposing interest charges on the portion of the balance that has been repaid when a consumer pays some but not all of a balance prior to expiration of a grace period.
Credit card issuers may not charge a fee for making a payment except for payments involving an expedited service by a service representative of the issuer.
Credit card issuers must disclose on the periodic statement sent to consumers: (1) the amount of time and total cost (interest and principal) involved in paying the consumer's balance in full by making only the required minimum payments; and (2) the monthly payment amount required to pay off the consumer's balance in 36 months and the total cost (interest and principal) of repaying the balance in 36 months.
Overdraft Services and Gift Card Rules
Restrictions on Overdraft Fees
In November, the Board announced rules that prohibit financial institutions from charging consumers fees for paying overdrafts on automated teller machine (ATM) and one-time debit card transactions, unless a consumer opts in, or affirmatively consents, to overdraft services for these transactions.3 Overdraft fees can be particularly costly in connection with debit card overdrafts because the dollar amount of the fee may considerably exceed the dollar amount of the overdraft.
Consumers often are enrolled in overdraft services automatically, without their express consent. Consumer testing by the Board indicated that many consumers are unaware that they can incur overdrafts for ATM or one-time debit transactions, believing instead that these transactions will be declined. In contrast, consumer testing by the Board showed that consumers generally want their checks and automated clearing house (ACH) transactions paid even if the payment results in an overdraft fee being assessed.
Opt-In Requirement
The Board's rules require institutions to provide consumers with the right to opt in, or affirmatively consent, to the institution's overdraft service for ATM and one-time debit card transactions. The notice of the opt-in right must be provided, and the consumer's affirmative consent obtained, before fees orcharges may be assessed on the consumer's account for paying such overdrafts. The opt-in requirement applies to both existing and new accounts.
Protections for Consumers Declining Overdraft Coverage
The rules prohibit institutions from conditioning the payment of overdrafts for checks, ACH transactions, or other types of transactions on the consumer consenting to the institution's payment of overdrafts for ATM and one-time debit card transactions. For consumers who do not consent to the institution's overdraft service for ATM and one-time debit card transactions, the rules require institutions to provide those consumers with account terms, conditions, and features that are otherwise identical to those they provide to consumers who do consent. The rules include a model form developed through consumer testing that institutions may use to satisfy the opt-in notice requirement.
The Board's overdraft rules are issued under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act and have an effective date of July 1, 2010.
Restrictions on Gift Card Fees and Expiration Dates
In November, the Board proposed rules that would restrict the fees and expiration dates that may apply to gift cards. The rules would protect consumers from certain unexpected costs and would require that gift card terms and conditions be clearly stated.4
The Board's proposed rules generally cover retail gift cards, which can be used to buy goods or services at a single merchant or affiliated group of merchants, and network-branded gift cards, which are redeemable at any merchant that accepts the card brand (such as Visa or MasterCard).
Dormancy, Inactivity, or Service Fees and Expiration Dates
The proposed rules would prohibit dormancy, inactivity, and service fees on gift cards unless: (1) there has been at least one year of inactivity on the gift card; (2) no more than one such fee is charged per month; and (3) the consumer is given clear and conspicuous disclosures about the fees on the card and before the card is purchased.
The proposed rules would also provide that expiration dates for funds underlying a gift card must be at least five years from the date the card was issued or the date when funds were last loaded onto the card. This information would have to be clearly and conspicuously disclosed on the card and before the card is purchased.
Additional Disclosure Requirements
The proposed rules also would require the disclosure of all other fees imposed in connection with a gift card. These disclosures would have to be provided on or with the card and prior to purchase. The proposed rules also would require the disclosure on the card of a toll-free telephone number and, if one is maintained, a website that a consumer may use to obtain fee information or replacement cards.
The Board's proposed rules would implement statutory requirements set forth in the Credit Card Act that become effective on August 22, 2010.
Mortgage and Home Equity Lending Reform
The Board proposed significant new rules designed to (1) improve the disclosures consumers receive in connection with closed-end mortgages and home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and (2) provide new consumer protections for all home-secured credit.5 The Board also adopted new rules to implement provisions of 2009's Helping Families Save Their Homes Act and the Mortgage Disclosure Improvement Act of 2008 (MDIA).
To shop for and understand the cost of a home-secured loan, consumers must be able to identify and understand the key terms that determine whether a particular loan is appropriate for them. The Board, working with a consultant, conducted focus groups and one-on-one cognitive interviews with more than 180 consumers from nine metropolitan areas across the United States in order to understand consumers' key concerns when shopping for home-secured credit. The results of these sessions informed the Board's rulemaking, which aims to ensure that required disclosures are presented in clear, understandable language and formatting so as to provide consumers with essential information at the appropriate time in the loan process.
Providing Meaningful Disclosures about Mortgages
The Board proposed rules in July 2009 to make disclosures about closed-end mortgages more meaningful and useful to consumers by highlighting potentially risky loan features, such as adjustable rates, prepayment penalties, and negative amortization.
Specifically, the proposal would include several requirements:
At application, lenders would have to provide consumers with a one-page list of key questions to ask about the loan being offered. The new disclosures are designed to answer those questions.
The information consumers receive within three days after application would highlight risky mortgage features (such as possible payment increases or negative amortization).
For adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders would be required to show consumers how their payments might change, including by illustrating the highest monthly amount the consumer might pay during the life of the loan.
The computation of the APR would be revised to include most fees and settlement costs, making it a better measure of the total cost of the loan.
Disclosures would show consumers in a simple graph how their loan's APR compares to the average rate offered to borrowers with excellent credit.
In addition to the early disclosures provided at application, lenders would also be required to provide final disclosures to consumers at least three days before the loan closing.
For adjustable-rate mortgages, lenders would have to notify consumers 60 days in advance of a change in their monthly payment. (Currently, notice may be given 25 days in advance.)
Creditors would have to provide monthly statements to consumers with loans that have payment options that could result in negative amortization.
Early Disclosures for Mortgage Loans
In May 2009, the Board issued final rules revising the disclosure requirements for mortgage loans in order to ensure that consumers receive information about loan costs earlier in the mortgage process.6 These new rules implement provisions of MDIA and were effective July 30, 2009.
The new rules expand on rules published by the Board in July 2008, which require, among other things, that a creditor give a consumer transaction-specific information about costs shortly after the consumer applies for a closed-end mortgage loan secured by the consumer's principal dwelling ("early disclosures"). These early disclosures must be provided before the consumer pays any fee other than a reasonable fee for obtaining the consumer's credit history. The May 2009 final rules apply these provisions to loans secured by a dwelling even when it is not the consumer's principal dwelling, such as a second home.
Moreover, these rules require that:
Creditors must deliver or mail early disclosures at least seven business days before closing.
If the APR contained in the early disclosures becomes inaccurate (for example, due to a change in loan terms), creditors must provide corrected disclosures to the consumer at least three business days before closing.
The disclosures must inform the consumer that they are not obligated to complete the transaction simply because disclosures were provided or because the consumer has applied for a loan.
The new rules also permit a consumer to waive the waiting periods and expedite closing to address a personal financial emergency, such as foreclosure.
Anti-Steering Protections
Disclosures alone may not always be sufficient to protect consumers from unfair practices. For example, yield spread premiums, which are payments from a lender to a mortgage broker or loan officer (loan originator) based on the interest rate, can create incentives for mortgage loan originators to "steer" borrowers to riskier loans with higher rates for which the loan originators will receive greater compensation. Consumers generally are not aware of the mortgage broker's or loan officer's conflict of interest and cannot reasonably protect themselves against it. Yield spread premiums may provide some benefit to consumers who choose to pay a higher rate so that the lender will fund origination costs that would otherwise be paid by the consumer.
To prevent mortgage loan originators from steering consumers to more expensive loans, the Board proposed rules that would
prohibit payments to a mortgage broker or a loan officer based on the loan's interest rate or other terms, and
prohibit mortgage brokers or loan officers from steering consumers to a lender offering less favorable terms in order to increase their compensation.
Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs)
In July 2009, the Board proposed rules to enhance consumer protections for HELOCs and improve the timing, content, and format of information that creditors provide to consumers at application and throughout the life of such accounts.
The proposed rules would require certain disclosures:
At application, the lengthy, generic disclosure consumers currently receive would be replaced with a new one-page summary of the ba- sic information and risks about HELOCs.
Within three days after receiving a consumer's application for a HELOC, lenders would be required to provide disclosures specifically tailored to the actual credit terms for which the consumer qualifies. These disclosures would provide information about costs and risky mortgage features in a tabular format.
At account opening, lenders would provide final disclosures in the same format, allowing consumers to more easily compare them with earlier disclosures.
Throughout the life of the HELOC plan, lenders would provide enhanced periodic statements showing the total amount of interest and fees charged for the statement period and the year to date.
The proposed rules also would enhance certain consumer protections applicable to HELOCs:
To the extent a lender can change any terms of a consumer's HELOC plan, the lender would have to notify the consumer 45 days in advance of the change. The proposal would also improve the form and content of these notices.
Lenders could not terminate an account for delinquency until payment is more than 30 days late.
When a consumer's credit line has been suspended or reduced, creditors would have to provide additional information about the reasons for the action and the consumer's right to request reinstatement.
Notifying Consumers When Mortgage Loans Are Sold or Transferred
One of the consumer protection provisions of the Helping Families Save Their Home Act aims to ensure that consumers know who owns their mortgage loan. Because mortgages may be sold and transferred several times, borrowers can face difficulties in determining who owns their loan and who to contact about their loan. The Helping Families Save Their Home Act, which was enacted in May 2009, requires a purchaser or assignee that acquires a mortgage loan to provide the required disclosures to consumers in writing within 30 days of acquiring the loan. Although the statutory provision became effective immediately upon enactment, in November 2009, the Board issued interim final rules which pro- vide guidance for complying with the statute.7
Private Education Loan Rules
In 2009, the Board revised Truth in Lending Act rules for private education loans--loans made to a consumer by a private lender in whole or in part for postsecondary educational expenses.8 The Board's rules implement provisions of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) and apply to loan applications received by creditors on or after February 14, 2010.
Improved Disclosure
To enhance disclosure about private education loans, the Board worked with a consultant to conduct one-on-one cognitive interviews with consumers in order to develop effective disclosures that consumers can use to understand the costs and features of these loans.
The rules specify disclosures that creditors must provide at three different times in the loan origination process: (1) with the loan application or solicitation, (2) when the loan is approved, and (3) after the consumer accepts the loan but at least three days before funds are disbursed.
Under the Board's rules, with applications and solicitations, creditors must provide consumers general information about loan rates, fees, and terms, including an example of the total cost of a loan based on the maximum interest rate the creditor can charge. The disclosure must also inform the consumer about the availability of federal student loans, their interest rates, and where the consumer can find additional information regarding those loans.
Creditors must also provide a set of transaction-specific disclosures when the loan is approved and at consumma-tion. These disclosures must include specific information about the rate, fees, and other terms of the loan that are offered to the consumer. The creditor must disclose, for example, estimates of the total repayment amount based on both the current interest rate and the maximum interest rate that may be charged. The creditor must also disclose the monthly payment at the maximum rate of interest.
30-Day Period to Accept or Reject Loan
Under the Board's rules, a consumer has the right to accept the rates and terms offered at any time within 30 days after receiving the transaction-specific disclosure provided at approval.
Three-Day Right to Cancel
A creditor must provide additional disclosures after a consumer accepts a private education loan. A consumer has the right to cancel the loan without penalty for up to three business days after receipt of this disclosure and the loan funds may not be disbursed until the three-day period expires.
Prohibition on Co-Branding
The rules prohibit creditors from using an educational institution's name, logo, or mascot in its marketing materials to imply that the educational institution endorses the loans offered by the creditor, unless the creditor and educational institution have a preferred lender arrangement under which the educational institution issues a permissible endorsement of the creditor's loans.
Consumer Credit Reporting and Risk-Based Pricing Rules
Credit reports are used to determine whether, and on what terms, consumers may obtain credit and other important products and services, and are also widely used to determine a consumer's eligibility for employment, insurance, and rental housing. Therefore, it is essential that the substantive information included in those reports is accurate. In 2009, the Board worked with other federal financial agencies to implement provisions of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, which amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act, to impose new responsibilities on credit information furnishers and allow consumers to play a more active role in ensuring the accuracy of their own credit reports.
Credit Reporting Rules
Accuracy of Information Reported to Credit Bureaus
In July, the Board collaborated with other federal financial regulatory agencies and the Federal Trade Commission to publish rules and guidelines promoting the accuracy and integrity of information furnished to credit bureaus and other consumer reporting agencies.9
The rules require entities that furnish consumer information to credit bureaus (furnishers) to establish and implement reasonable written policies and procedures to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information that is reported about consumers. Furnishers' policies and procedures should address matters including recordkeeping, internal controls, staff training, oversight of third-party service providers, and periodic self-evaluations.
The rules also require furnishers to include the consumer's credit limit (if applicable) among the information provided to a credit bureau. The Board and other agencies also published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking seeking to identify additional consumer information that furnishers should be required to provide to credit bureaus.
Right to Submit Disputes Directly to Information Furnisher
Under the credit reporting rules, if a consumer believes his or her credit report includes inaccurate information, the consumer may submit a dispute directly to the furnisher of the information and the furnisher must investigate the dispute. If the furnisher's investigation reveals that the information reported to a credit bureau was inaccurate, the furnisher must promptly notify each credit bureau to which the inaccurate information was provided and provide corrected information. The rules become effective July 1, 2010.
Risk-Based Pricing Rules
In December, the Board, along with the Federal Trade Commission, announced rules requiring creditors to notify consumers when, based on the consumer's credit report, the creditor provides credit on less favorable terms than it provides to other consumers. For example, if a consumer, because of information in his or her credit report, receives a mortgage with an APR higher than that offered to a substantial proportion of other consumers by that creditor, such that the consumer's cost of credit is significantly higher, the creditor must send the consumer a "risk-based pricing" notice.10
Risk-based pricing refers to the practice of setting or adjusting the price and other terms of credit offered or extended to a particular consumer to reflect the risk of nonpayment by that consumer. Information from a consumer's credit report is often used in evaluating the risk posed by the consumer.
The rules require that a notice include a statement that the terms offered to the consumer may be less favorable than the terms offered to consumers with better credit histories. The notice also must contain a statement informing the consumer that he or she may obtain a free copy of his or her credit report from the credit reporting agency identified by the creditor in the notice.
The rules give creditors the option of providing consumers with a free credit score and information about their credit score as an alternative to providing risk-based pricing notices. Creditors that use the credit score disclosure alternative generally must provide free credit scores to any consumer who applies for credit before the consumer becomes obligated for the credit. The rules become effective on January 1, 2011.
Information Privacy Rules
In November, the Board, along with seven other federal regulatory agencies, released a model privacy notice designed to make it easier for consumers to understand how financial institutions collect and share consumer information.11
The Board and other agencies developed the model privacy notice based on extensive consumer testing that involved approximately 1,000 consumers from five locations across the United States. Consumer testing confirmed the effectiveness of the model notice as compared with other privacy notices, including a form of notice commonly used by financial institutions.
To ensure that privacy information is provided to consumers in a form that is readable and understandable, the model privacy notice uses a standardized tabular format and presents information in a question-and-answer format. The rules specify the format, typeface, font size, and presentation to make it easy for consumers to find specific information on the form and compare information provided by various institutions. A financial institution that uses the model form obtains a "safe harbor" for compliance with the regulatory requirements for privacy notices.
The rule, which was issued under Regulation P, became effective on December 31, 2009.
Community Reinvestment Act Rules
In June, the Board, along with other federal financial regulators, proposed revisions to regulations under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that would require the Board to consider low-cost education loans provided to low-income borrowers when assessing a bank's record of meeting community credit needs under the CRA. Under current CRA regulations, education loans are considered consumer loans, which may not be evaluated as part of a CRA assessment in some cases. The proposed revision reflects statutory changes made to the CRA by the Higher Education Opportunity Act.12
The proposal would also incorporate into the CRA regulations statutory language allowing the Board to consider capital investments, loan participations, and other ventures undertaken in cooperation with minority- and women-owned financial institutions and low-income credit unions when assessing a bank's CRA record.
Oversight and Enforcement
The Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs supports and oversees supervisory policy and examination procedures for consumer protection and community reinvestment laws in the oversight of state-chartered, depository institutions, and foreign banking organizations that are members of the Federal Reserve System. In addition, the division oversees the efforts of the Reserve Banks to ensure that consumer protection laws and regulations are fully and fairly enforced. Division staff provide guidance and expertise to the Reserve Banks on consumer protection regulations, bank application analysis and processing, examination and enforcement techniques, examiner training, and emerging issues. The staff develop and update examination policies, procedures and guidelines, as well as review Reserve Bank supervisory reports, examination work products, andconsumer complaint analyses. Staff members also participate in interagency activities that promote uniformity in examination principles and standards.
Examinations are the Federal Reserve's primary method of enforcing compliance with consumer protection laws and assessing the adequacy of risk management systems for consumer protection. During the 2009 reporting period, the Reserve Banks conducted 282 consumer compliance examinations of the System's 782 state member banks and one foreign banking organization.13
Community Reinvestment Act Compliance
The Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requires that the Federal Reserve and other federal banking and thrift agencies encourage financial institutions to help meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they do business, consistent with safe and sound operations.14 To carry out this mandate, the Federal Reserve
examines state member banks to assess their compliance with the CRA;
analyzes applications for mergers and acquisitions by state member banks and bank holding companies in relation to CRA performance; and
disseminates information on community development techniques to bankers and the public through community affairs offices at the Reserve Banks.
The Federal Reserve assesses and rates the CRA performance of state member banks in the course of examinations conducted by staff at the 12 Reserve Banks. During the 2009 reporting period, the Reserve Banks conducted CRA examinations of 229 banks: 40 were rated "Outstanding," 187 were rated "Satisfactory," and two were rated "Needs to Improve."15
In June 2009, the Federal Reserve and other federal banking and thrift regulatory agencies proposed two revisions to the CRA that would incorporate new statutory requirements into the CRA regulations.16 The first revision would implement Section 1031 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act, which requires the agencies to consider low-cost education loans provided to low-income borrowers when assessing a financial institution's record of meeting community credit needs. The second revision would incorporate the CRA statutory language that allows the agencies to consider and take into account capital investments, loan participations, and other ventures between nonminority- and nonwomen-owned financial institutions and minority- and women-owned institutions and low-income credit unions.
Mergers and Acquisitions in Relation to the CRA
During 2009, the Board considered and approved four banking merger applications:
An application by Morgan Stanley, New York, NY, to acquire 9.9 percent of United Western Bancorp, Inc., Denver, CO, was approved in October.
(Two other protested applications were withdrawn by the applicants.)
Members of the public had the opportunity to submit comments on the applications; their comments raised various issues. Some comments referenced pricing information on residential mortgage loans and concerns that minority applicants were more likely than nonminority applicants to receive higher-priced mortgages. Other comments alleged that certain minority groups received preferential treatment in comparison to other minority groups; that lenders failed to make credit available to certain minority groups and to low- and moderate-income individuals and in low- and moderate-income geographies; that lenders deliberately omitted reporting race information about certain applicants, information that is required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA); and that lenders had not fulfilled their CRA responsibilities. In addition, some commenters claimed that lenders engaged in high-cost predatory lending and less-than-satisfactory loan servicing activities that contributed to the current foreclosure crisis.
The Board also considered 51 applications with outstanding issues involving compliance with consumer protection statutes and regulations, including fair lending laws and the CRA; 34 of those applications were approved and 17 were withdrawn. The number of applications with CRA issues, consumer compliance issues, or both was somewhat lower in 2009 than in 2008, as was the total number of all applications received, due, in part, to the financial crisis in the banking industry. However, the applications reviewed contained significantly more complex fair lending concerns than in previous years.
Fair Lending Enforcement
The Federal Reserve is committed to ensuring that the institutions it supervises comply fully with the federal fair lending laws--the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the Fair Housing Act. Fair lending reviews are conducted regularly within the supervisory cycle. Additionally, examiners may conduct fair lending reviews outside of the usual supervisory cycle, if warranted by fair lending risk. When examiners find evidence of potential discrimination, they work closely with the division's Fair Lending Enforcement Section, which brings additional legal and statistical expertise to the examination and ensures that fair lending laws are enforced consistently and rigorously throughout the Federal Reserve System.
The Federal Reserve enforces the ECOA and the provisions of the Fair Housing Act that apply to lending institutions. The ECOA prohibits creditors from discriminating against any applicant, in any aspect of a credit transaction, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, or age. In addition, creditors may not discriminate against an applicant because the applicant receives income from a public assistance program or has exercised, in good faith, any right under the Consumer Credit Protection Act. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in residential real estate-related transactions, including the making and purchasing of mortgage loans, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.
Pursuant to the ECOA, if the Board has reason to believe that a creditor has engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination in violation of the ECOA, the matter will be referred to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ reviews the referral and determines whether further investigation is warranted. A DOJ investigation may result in a public civil enforcement action or settlement or the DOJ may decide instead to return the matter to the Federal Reserve for administrative enforcement. When a matter is returned to the Federal Reserve, staff ensure that the institution takes all appropriate corrective action.
During 2009, the Board referred the following six matters to the DOJ:
One referral involved redlining, or discrimination against potential borrowers based upon the racial composition of their neighborhoods, in violation of the ECOA and the Fair Housing Act. Based on an analysis of the bank's lending practices, its marketing, the location of its branches, and its delineated assessment area under the CRA, the Board determined that the bank avoided lending in minority neighborhoods.
Two referrals involved discrimination in mortgage pricing, in violation of the ECOA and the Fair Housing Act. In one matter, the Board found that Hispanic and African-American borrowers paid higher annual percentage rates (APRs) and overages than non-Hispanic white borrowers. In another matter, the Board found that African-American borrowers paid higher APRs than non-Hispanic white borrowers. Legitimate pricing factors failed to explain the pricing disparities in either matter.
Two referrals involved discrimination on the basis of marital status, in violation of the ECOA. One referral involved a bank's policy and practice of requiring spousal guarantees on commercial loans, in violation of Regulation B. In the other referral, an institution improperly required spousal signatures for its agricultural, consumer, and commercial loans, in violation of Regulation B.
One referral involved discrimination on the basis of age, in violation of the ECOA. The lender offered customers over 50 years of age membership in a special club with preferential credit features, including a 25 basis point discount on non-mortgage loans. The ECOA generally prohibits creditors from considering age when evaluating creditworthiness, except that a creditor may consider the age of an applicant 62 years or older in the applicant's favor.
If a fair lending violation does not constitute a pattern or practice that is referred to the DOJ, the Federal Reserve acts on its own to ensure that the violation is remedied by the bank. Most lenders readily agree to correct fair lending violations. In fact, lenders often take corrective steps as soon as they become aware of a problem. Thus, the Federal Reserve generally uses informal supervisory tools (such as memoranda of understanding between the bank's board of directors and the Reserve Bank) or board resolutions to ensure that violations are corrected. If necessary to protect consumers, however, the Board can and does bring public enforcement actions.
The two previously mentioned referrals involving mortgage-pricing discrimination resulted from a process of targeted pricing reviews that the Federal Reserve initiated when Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) pricing data first became available in 2005. Board staff developed--and continues to refine--HMDA screens that identify institutions that may warrant further review on the basis of an analysis of HMDA pricing data. Because HMDA data lack many of the factors lenders routinely use to make credit decisions and set loan prices, such as information about a borrower's creditworthiness and loan-to-value ratios, HMDA data alone cannot be used to determine whether a lender discriminates. Thus, Board staff analyze HMDA data in conjunction with other supervisory information to evaluate a lender's risk for engaging in discrimination.
Using 2008 HMDA pricing data--the most recent year for which the data are publicly available--Federal Reserve examiners performed a pricing discrimination risk assessment for each institution that was identified through the HMDA screening process. These risk assessments incorporated not just the institution's HMDA data but also the strength of the institution's fair lending compliance program; past supervisory experience with the institution; consumer complaints against the institution; and the presence of fair lending risk factors, such as discretionary pricing. On the basis of these comprehensive assessments, Federal Reserve staff determined which institutions would receive a targeted pricing review. Depending on the examination schedule, the targeted pricing review could occur as part of the institution's next examination or outside the usual supervisory cycle.
Analyzing HMDA Data
Enacted by Congress in 1975, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) requires most mortgage lenders located in metropolitan areas to collect data about their housing-related lending activity, report the data annually to the federal government, and make the data publicly available. Data reporting requirements have expanded in recent years to capture reporting lenders' pricing information for higher-priced consumer mortgage loans.
An article published in September 2009 by Federal Reserve staff in the Federal Reserve Bulletin uses 2008 HMDA data to describe the market for higher-priced loans and patterns of lending across loan products, borrowers, and neighborhoods of different races and incomes.1 The analysis documents the sharp contraction in total home lending between 2007 and 2008 (about 31 percent), led by a steep reduction in conventional lending. The analysis also provides a detailed assessment of the dramatic growth between 2007 and 2008 in home lending backed by the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA) mortgage insurance program.
As in recent years, the 2008 HMDA data show that most reporting institutions originated few if any higher-priced loans in 2008: 53 percent of the lenders originated less than 10 higher-priced loans that year and 30 percent originated no higher-priced loans. Of the 8,388 home lenders reporting HMDA data, 947 made 100 or more higher-priced loans.
The HMDA data also show that the majority of all loan originations were not higher priced; in fact, owing in large part to the mortgage market turmoil that first showed signs of emerging in late 2006, the incidence of higher-priced lending fell from a high watermark of 29 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2007 and to 12 percent in 2008.
Overall, the incidence of higher-priced lending fell notably because lenders were unwilling or unable to extend credit to borrowers perceived to entail higher risk. Also, the incidence of higher-priced lending in 2008 was affected by the general "flight to quality" that tended to increase loan prices relative to the yield on Treasury securities and cause some loans to fall above the price reporting threshold even though those same loans would not have crossed the threshold prior to the financial market turmoil.
The HMDA data show that the incidence of higher-price lending varies by product type: higher-risk loans, such as those for manufactured homes, show the greatest incidence of higher-priced lending (in 2008 more than two-thirds of these loans are higher priced); lower-risk loans, such as those for first-lien mortgages and junior-lien loans, have a much lower incidence of higher-priced lending. Only seven percent of first-lien conventional home purchase loans and 11 percent of comparable junior-lien loans were reported as higher-priced in 2008.
Also, the data indicate that the incidence of higher-priced lending varies greatly among borrowers of different races and ethnicities. In 2008, 17.1 percent of African-American borrowers and 15.4 percent of Hispanic borrowers received higher-priced first-lien conventional home purchase loans, compared with 6.5 percent of non-Hispanic white and 3.3 percent of Asian borrowers. A similar pattern is found among government-backed loans (those insured by the FHA or guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs), but the differences across racial and ethnic groups are much smaller.
Even if an institution is not identified through HMDA screening, examiners might still conclude that the institution is at risk for engaging in pricing discrimination and perform a pricing review. The Federal Reserve supervises many institutions that are not required to report data under HMDA. Also, many of the HMDA-reporting institutions supervised by the Federal Reserve originate few higher-priced loans and, therefore, report very little pricing data. For these institutions, examiners analyze other available information to assess pricing-discrimination risk and, when appropriate, perform a pricing review. During a targeted pricing review, staff analyze additional information, including potential pricing factors that are not available in the HMDA data, to determine whether any pricing disparity by race or ethnicity is fully attributable to legitimate factors, or whether any portion of the pricing disparity may be attributable to illegal discrimination.
Monitoring Emerging Fair Lending Issues
During the past year, economic conditions have shown signs of improvement; however, certain trends in credit markets continue to pose fair lending risk, especially related to credit tightening and loan modification activities. Lenders remain cautious and continue to reevaluate their lending practices. Some policies to tighten credit standards may fall disproportionately on minorities and raise fair lending concerns. For example, some lenders have implemented tighter credit standards in specific geographic markets, or have otherwise limited lending activity in certain geographic areas. In addition, the rapid increase of loan modifications and other loss mitigation efforts threatens to outpace compliance management programs.
Flood Insurance
The National Flood Insurance Act imposes certain requirements on loans secured by buildings or mobile homes located in, or to be located in, areas determined to have special flood hazards. Under the Federal Reserve's Regulation H, which implements the act, state member banks are generally prohibited from making, extending, increasing, or renewing any such loan unless the building or mobile home and any personal property securing the loan are covered by flood insurance for the term of the loan. The law requires the Board and other federal financial institution regulatory agencies to impose civil money penalties when they find a pattern or practice of violations of the regulation. The civil money penalties are payable to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for deposit into the National Flood Mitigation Fund.
During 2009, the Board imposed civil money penalties (CMPs) against seven state member banks. The dollar amount of the penalties, which were assessed via consent orders, totaled $221,205.
Coordination with Other Federal Banking Agencies
The member agencies of the FFIEC develop uniform examination principles, standards, procedures, and report formats. In 2009, the FFIEC issued the following work products:
Interagency Examination Procedures for the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) - The procedures are used to determine institution compliance with SCRA, including provisions related to interest rate reduction to six percent for active duty servicemembers, foreclosure protection, and protection of servicemembers' rights with regard to suspension of life insurance premiums, taxes, and business obligations.18
Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Flood Insurance - The questions and answers supersede the 1997 questions and answers document, and it supplements other recent guidance and interpretations issued by the agencies and FEMA.19
Interagency Examination Procedures for Regulation Z (revised) - The revised examination procedures incorporate the 2008 amendments to Regulation Z. The amendments were designed to protect consumers in the mortgage market from unfair, abusive, or deceptive lending and servicing practices. Among other things, the changes apply protections to a newly defined category of "higher-priced mortgages" that includes virtually all closed-end subprime loans secured by a consumer's principal dwelling.21
Interagency Examination Procedures for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (revised) - The revised examination procedures incorporate the 2008 amendments to Regulation C for reporting pricing information on higher-priced loans. The changes to Regulation C conformed the threshold for rate spread reporting to the definition of "higher-priced mortgage loans" included in 2008 amendments to Regulation Z.22
Interagency Examination Procedures for the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) (revised) - The revised examination procedures incorporate the changes to RESPA that HUD issued in its 2008 final RESPA reform rule (73 F.R. 68204), which included both technical and substantive changes to its Regulation X. The key technical changes provide streamlined mortgage servicing disclosure language, eliminate outdated escrow account provisions regarding the phase-in period, and permit an "average charge" to be listed on the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) and HUD-1/1A Settlement Statement. The key substantive changes include implementation of a standardized and binding GFE form and revised HUD-1/1A Settlement Statement.23
Interagency Examination Procedures for Regulation DD (revised) - The revised examination procedures incorporate changes to Regulation DD that address depository institutions' disclosure practices related to overdrafts. The changes require institutions to disclose the aggregate dollar amounts charged for overdraft fees and returned item fees on a periodic statement and, for institutions that provide account balance information through an automated system, to provide a balance that does not include additional funds that may be made available to cover overdrafts.24
Training for Bank Examiners
Ensuring that financial institutions comply with laws that protect consumers and encourage community reinvestment is an important part of the bank examination and supervision process. As the number and complexity of consumer financial transactions grow, training for the examiners who review the organizations under the Federal Reserve's supervisory responsibility becomes even more important.
The consumer compliance examiner training curriculum consists of six courses focused on various consumer protection laws, regulations, and examination concepts. In 2009, the Board held 11 training sessions for 158 System consumer compliance examiners and professional staff, 25 state examiners, and one examiner from another regulatory agency. Several courses use a combination of instructional methods: (1) specially developed computer-based instruction that includes interactive self-check exercises, and (2) classroom instruction focused on case studies.
Board and Reserve Bank staff members are charged with providing updates to the System's content mapping initiative. This mapping tool, which provides a detailed view of training content in each and every System course, allows staff to more quickly identify and revise course materials that may be affected by regulatory, legal, or other changes. This year, FedLearn skill level definitions were identified for each training objective for consumer compliance courses and were included in the content map.
In addition to providing core training for non-commissioned assistant examiners, the examiner curriculum emphasizes the importance of continuing professional development for all examiners. Opportunities for continuing development include special projects and assignments, self-study programs, rotational assignments, the opportunity to instruct at System schools, mentoring programs, and an annual senior examiner forum. For example, in response to an ever-changing regulatory environment, System staff conducted two real estate workshops for experienced examination staff. The focus of the workshops was the new and revised mortgage rules and the RESPA reform. In addition, in 2009 the System continued to offer Rapid Response sessions, a mass-training effort using multi-media to deliver training, focusing on 12 time-sensitive or emerging consumer compliance topics. These sessions were designed, developed, and presented to System staff within days or weeks of perceived need.
Agency Reports on Compliance with Consumer Protection Laws
The Board reports annually on compliance with consumer protection laws by entities supervised by federal agencies. This section summarizes data collected from the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, the FFIEC member agencies, and other federal enforcement agencies.25
Regulation B (Equal Credit Opportunity)
The FFIEC agencies reported that approximately 81 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation B, compared with 85 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved
failure to provide notice of approval, counteroffer, or adverse action within 30 days after receiving a completed credit application;
failure to provide a written notice of denial or other adverse action to a credit applicant, containing the specific reason for the adverse action, along with other required information;
failure to collect information about applicants seeking credit primarily for the purchase or refinancing of a principal residence, including applicants' race, ethnicity, sex, marital status, and age, for government monitoring purposes; and
improperly collecting information on applicants' race, color, religion, national origin, or sex when not permitted by the regulation.
The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) each initiated one formal Regulation B-related public enforcement action during the reporting period, while the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) initiated 13.26 There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a complaint against a mortgage company alleging that it violated Regulation B (and the FTC Act).
The other agencies that enforce the ECOA--the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Small Business Administration, and the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration of the Department of Agriculture--reported substantial compliance among the entities they supervise. The FCA's examination activities revealed that most Regulation B violations involved either: (1) creditors' failure to request or provide information for government monitoring purposes or (2) creditors providing inadequate statements of specific reasons for adverse actions. None of these agencies initiated formal enforcement actions relating to Regulation B during the reporting period.
Regulation E (Electronic Fund Transfers)
The FFIEC agencies reported that approximately 94 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation E, which is comparable with the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved failure to
investigate and determine whether an error occurred and provide the results to the consumer within 10 business days of receiving a notice of error from a consumer;
provisionally credit the consumer's account for the amount of an alleged error when an investigation into the alleged error cannot be completed within 10 business days;
provide initial disclosures that contain required information, including limitations on the types of transfers permitted and error-resolution procedures, at the time a consumer contracts for an electronic fund transfer service; and
provide a written explanation to the consumer when an investigation determines that no error or a different error has occurred.
The OCC initiated one formal Regulation E-related enforcement action during the reporting period, while the FDIC initiated five. There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies or the SEC. The FTC filed three actions against companies for violating Regulation E and settled two cases brought in 2008.
Regulation M (Consumer Leasing)
The FFIEC agencies reported that 100 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation M, compared with 99 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The FFIEC agencies did not issue any public enforcement actions specific to Regulation M during the period.
Regulation P (Privacy of Consumer Financial Information)
The FFIEC agencies reported that approximately 98 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation P, compared with 97 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved failure to
provide a clear and conspicuous initial privacy notice to customers;
provide customers with a clear and conspicuous annual notice reflecting the institution's privacy policies and practices; and
The OCC initiated one formal Regulation P-related enforcement action during the reporting period, while the FDIC initiated five.27 There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies.
Regulation Z (Truth in Lending)
The FFIEC agencies reported that 92 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation Z, compared with 81 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved
failure to accurately disclose the APR in a closed-end credit transaction;
failure to disclose the fact that a creditor has or will acquire an interest in a property purchased as part of a transaction; and
on certain residential mortgage transactions, failure to provide a good faith estimate of the required disclosures before consummation, or not later than three business days after receipt of a written loan application.
In addition, 182 banks supervised by the Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC, and OTS were required, under the Interagency Enforcement Policy in Regulation Z, to reimburse a total of approximately $3.14 million to consumers for understating APRs or finance charges in their consumer loan disclosures.
The OTS and the OCC each initiated one formal Regulation Z-related enforcement action during the reporting period, while the FDIC had 12. There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies. The DOT continued to prosecute one air carrier for its alleged improper handling of credit card refund requests and other Federal Aviation Act violations. The FTC filed two settlements and issued three consent orders involving alleged violations of Regulation Z.
Regulation AA (Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices)
The FFIEC agencies reported that more than 99 percent of the institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation AA, which is comparable with the 2008 reporting period. The OTS initiated three formal Regulation AA-related enforcement actions, the OCC initiated one, and the FDIC initiated six during the reporting period. There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies.
Regulation CC (Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks)
The FFIEC agencies reported that 90 percent of institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation CC, compared with 89 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved failure to
make available on the next business day the lesser of $100 or the aggregate amount of checks deposited that are not subject to next-day availability;
follow procedures when invoking the exception for large-dollar deposits;
provide required information when placing an exception hold on an account; and
make funds deposited from local and certain other checks available for withdrawal within the times prescribed by the regulation.
The OCC initiated four formal Regulation CC-related enforcement actions during the reporting period, while the FDIC initiated six. There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies.
Regulation DD (Truth in Savings)
The FFIEC agencies reported that 87 percent of institutions examined during the 2009 reporting period were in compliance with Regulation DD, compared with 86 percent for the 2008 reporting period. The most frequently cited violations involved
inappropriate use of the phrase "annual percentage yield" in an advertisement without providing required additional terms and conditions;
failure to provide account disclosures clearly and conspicuously, in writing, and in a form that the consumer may keep; and
failure to provide timely, subsequent disclosures before maturity of time accounts.
The OTS and the OCC each initiated one formal Regulation DD-related enforcement action during the reporting period, while the FDIC initiated nine. There were no other enforcement actions by FFIEC agencies.
Responding to Consumer Complaints and Inquiries
The Federal Reserve investigates complaints against state member banks and selected nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies, and forwards complaints against other creditors and businesses to the appropriate enforcement agency.28 Each Reserve Bank investigates complaints against state member banks and selected nonbank subsidiaries in its District. The Federal Reserve also responds to consumer inquiries on a broad range of banking topics, including consumer protection questions.
In late 2007, the Federal Reserve established Federal Reserve Consumer Help (FRCH) to centralize the processing of consumer complaints and inquiries. In 2009, its second full year of operation, FRCH processed 53,904 cases. Of these cases, half (26,979) were inquiries and half (26,925) were complaints, with most cases received directly from consumers. Approximately three percent of cases were referred from other agencies.
While consumers can contact FRCH by telephone, fax, mail, e-mail, or online, most FRCH consumer contacts occurred by telephone (78 percent). Nevertheless, 40 percent (10,643) of complaint submissions were made online, and the online form page received nearly 395,000 visits during the year.
Complaints against State Member Banks and Selected Nonbank Subsidiaries of Bank Holding Companies about Regulated Practices, by Regulation/Act, 2009
Regulation/Act
Number
Regulation AA (Unfair or Deceptive Acts or Practices)
82
Regulation B (Equal Credit Opportunity)
49
Regulation BB (Community Reinvestment)
2
Regulation C (Home Mortgage Disclosure)
4
Regulation CC (Expedited Funds Availability)
265
Regulation D (Reserve Requirements)
8
Regulation DD (Truth in Savings)
283
Regulation E (Electronic Funds Transfers)
142
Regulation G (Disclosure / Reporting of CRA-Related Agreements)
1
Regulation H (National Flood Insurance Act / Insurance Sales)
13
Regulation M (Consumer Lending)
2
Regulation P (Privacy of Consumer Financial Information)
35
Regulation Q (Payment of Interest)
7
Regulation V (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions)
6
Regulation Z (Truth in Lending)
508
Fair Credit Reporting Act
83
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
52
Fair Housing Act
1
Home Ownership Counseling
1
HOPA (Homeowners Protection Act)
3
Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
80
Right to Financial Privacy Act
11
Total
1,638
Consumer Complaints
Complaints against state member banks and selected nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies totaled 8,073 in 2009. Nearly 40 percent (3,151) of these complaints were closed without investigation pending the receipt of additional information from consumers. Of the remaining complaints, 67 percent (3,284) involved unregulated practices and 33 percent (1,638) involved regulated practices.
Complaints against State Member Banks and Selected Nonbank Subsidiaries of Bank Holding Companies about Regulated Practices, by Product Type, 2009
Thirty-one regulated complaints alleging discrimination were received. Of these, 18 complaints (one percent of total regulated complaints) alleged discrimination on the basis of prohibited borrower traits or rights.30 Fifty percent of discrimination complaints were related to the age of the applicant or borrower. Thirty-three percent of discrimination complaints were related to the race, color, national origin, or ethnicity of the applicant or borrower. The most common violations where discrimination was alleged involved real estate loans and other loans.
In 75 percent of investigated complaints against state member banks and selected nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies, evidence revealed that banks or subsidiaries correctly handled the situation. Of the remaining 25 percent, ten percent are open cases that are in process, 5 percent were deemed violations of law, one percent was regarding general errors, and the remainder primarily involved factual disputes or litigated matters. The most common violations involved checking accounts, real estate loans, and credit cards.
Complaints About Unregulated Practices
As required by Section 18(f) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, the Board continued to monitor complaints about banking practices not subject to existing regulations, with a focus on instances of potential unfair or deceptive practices. In 2009, the Board received 3,304 complaints against state member banks and selected nonbank subsidiaries of bank holding companies that involved these unregulated practices. Most complaints were related to checking account activity (35 percent), real estate concerns (25 percent), and credit cards (9 percent). More specifically, consumers most frequently complained about issues involving insufficient funds or overdraft charges and procedures; credit card interest rates, terms, and fees; debt collection/foreclosures; depository forgery, fraud, embezzlement, or theft; and opening and closing deposit accounts.
Complaint Referrals
In 2009, the Federal Reserve forwarded 18,360 complaints against other banks and creditors to the appropriate regulatory agencies and government offices for investigation. To minimize the time required to re-route complaints to these agencies, referrals were transmitted electronically.
The Federal Reserve forwarded eight complaints to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act.31 The Federal Reserve's investigation of these complaints revealed no evidence of illegal credit discrimination.
Consumer Inquiries
The Federal Reserve received 26,979 consumer inquiries in 2009, covering a wide range of topics. The top three consumer protection issues documented with specific codes were: adverse action notices received pursuant to the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (11 percent); pre-approved credit solicitations (7 percent); and depository forgery, fraud, embezzlement or theft (3 percent). Consumers were typically directed to other resources, including other federal agencies or written materials, to address their inquiries.
Supporting Community Economic Development
The Board's Division of Consumer and Community Affairs (DCCA) works to promote community economic development and fair access to credit for low- and moderate-income communities and populations. As a decentralized function, the Community Affairs Offices (CAOs) at each of the 12 Reserve Banks design activities to respond to the specific needs of the communities they serve, with oversight from Board staff. The CAOs provide information and promote awareness of investment opportunities to financial institutions, government agencies, and organizations that serve low- and moderate-income communities and populations. Similarly, the Board's CAO promotes and coordinates Systemwide, high-priority efforts; in particular, Board community affairs staff focus on issues that have public policy implications.
Foreclosures and Neighborhood Stabilization
In 2009, issues related to high rates of foreclosure continued to dominate the System's community affairs agenda. While each Reserve Bank addressed the impact of foreclosure on low- and moderate-income communities--through programming tailored to the particular needs of communities in their Districts--the entire System coordinated resources, knowledge, and expertise related to mortgage markets to address the foreclosure problem through the Mortgage Outreach and Research Efforts (MORE) Initiative.32
The MORE initiative aims to enhance the System's response to the foreclosure crisis by improving understanding of the incidents and underlying causes of foreclosures, working to mitigate the impact of foreclosures on individual borrowers and communities, and enhancing the System's communication of important research and policy findings to consumers, financial institutions, community development practitioners, state and local governments, and federal policymakers.
As part of the MORE initiative, for example, the System is conducting a study of the uses of funds distributed under the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which was established by HUD to stabilize communities that have suffered from foreclosures and abandonment. In 2009, the System solicited input from various local stakeholders, which will serve as the foundation of a report to be issued in the spring of 2010 to describe the uses of NSP funds and to identify best practices for future funding expenditures. In addition, the Board worked with the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and Cleveland on a publication addressing issues related to the acquisition and disposition of real estate owned (REO), a class of property owned by a lender, typically a bank, after an unsuccessful sale at a foreclosure auction. In addition, the System's Foreclosure Toolkit, a web-based resource center for borrowers, housing counselors, and community development practitioners, was updated to provide links to new information on outreach programs and to allow for further customization at the District-level.
The Board also partnered with NeighborWorks America® (NWA) again in 2009 to continue to leverage the System's resources with those of the NWA network to address community stabilization in the wake of the record number of foreclosures.33 As part of the partnership, the Board co-sponsored the Neighborhood Stabilization Symposium, a featured program at NWA's December 2009 Training Institute in Washington, D.C. Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke delivered opening remarks at the symposium, which featured discussions and presentations of strategies and best practices in neighborhood stabilization.34 The symposium attracted an audience of approximately 400 local practitioners and policymakers.
CRA Did Not Cause the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
As the recent financial crisis unfolded, many theories emerged about its underlying causes, including some claims that the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) encouraged commercial banks and savings institutions (banking institutions) to undertake high-risk mortgage lending.
The Board rebuts claims that the CRA lies at the root of the crisis by making the following points.
The language and enforcement of the CRA do not portend excessively risky lending by banks.
The CRA encourages banking institutions to extend credit to low- and moderate-income (LMI) neighborhoods and households within the framework of safe and sound operation. Moreover, the CRA does not stipulate minimum targets or even goals for the volume of loans, services, or investments banking institutions must provide. Finally, while subprime mortgage lending grew most significantly in the early to mid 2000's, the CRA rules and enforcement process have not changed substantively since 1995. These three considerations weaken the theoretical link between the CRA and the subprime mortgage boom and bust.
Only a small portion of subprime mortgage originations in 2005 and 2006 can reasonably be linked to the CRA.
Data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in 2005 and 2006 also suggest a tenuous link between the CRA and subprime mortgage lending. First, institutions not covered by the CRA (independent nonbank institutions) accounted for about half of all higher- priced mortgage originations (a proxy for subprime originations). Second, about 60 percent of higher-priced originations went to middle- or higher-income borrowers or neighborhoods, populations not targeted by the CRA. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, only six percent of all higher-priced mortgage originations were extended by CRA-regulated lenders (and their affiliates) to either lower-income borrowers or neighborhoods in the lenders' CRA assessment areas (the geographies that are the focus of CRA evaluations).
Mortgage defaults and foreclosures have been severe even in middle- and higher-income neighborhoods, areas that are not the focus of the CRA.
Analysis of data on non-prime mortgages (subprime and near-prime loans) from First American LoanPerformance (LP) finds that the 90-days-or-more delinquency rate (as of August 2008) for loans originated between January 2006 and April 2008 is very high across geographies regardless of income. Similarly, data from RealtyTrac on foreclosure filings between January 2006 and August 2008 indicate that about 70 percent of filings have taken place in middle- or higher-income neighborhoods, and filings have increased more sharply in middle- or higher-income areas than in the lower-income areas targeted by the CRA. It is important to note, however, that the LP and RealtyTrac data do not identify borrower income, tempering the conclusions one can draw from these data.
In 2009, the Board also hosted a series of forums to address the availability of affordable rental housing. Topics addressed in the series included the particular problems of tenants that rent properties from owners in foreclosure, strategies for managing scattered site properties, policies designed to create rental property from REO inventories, financing of small multifamily properties, and strategies for reviving the market for Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs). The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis partnered with the Board for the LIHTC forum and published a collection of policy papers featured at the forum.35
Other Community Development Initiatives
Beyond foreclosure and neighborhood stabilization issues, DCCA provided important policy leadership in several areas in 2009. The Federal Reserve Banks of Boston and San Francisco published Revisiting the CRA: Perspectives on the Future of the Community Reinvestment Act, a compendium of policy recommendations regarding the modernization of the Community Reinvestment Act. The Boston and San Francisco Banks, together with the Board, co-hosted a policy discussion that introduced the publication and attracted leaders from the financial services industry, community advocates, foundations, think tanks, and academic institutions.
In addition, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco partnered with the Board and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund to host a Community Development Finance Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit brought together leaders in community development finance and featured a robust discussion of strategies to respond to the economic crisis. The San Francisco Bank's Center for Community Development Finance published materials that served as the basis for the discussion entitled The Economic Crisis and Community Development Finance: An Industry Assessment.36 The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston also partnered with the Board and the Aspen Institute to follow-up on a System initiative begun in 2004 to address the scale and sustainability ofcommunity organizations by hosting a forum on subsidies in community development.
Consumer Education and Outreach: Meeting Consumers Where They Are
In today's complex and ever-changing consumer financial services marketplace, it is critical that consumers know where they can go for reliable information to assist them in making financial choices, and be able to spot a scam or a deal that is "too good to be true." The Federal Reserve has a wealth of unbiased, research-based consumer information, and, throughout the year, DCCA engaged in innovative ways to expand its outreach to connect consumers with these resources.
In 2009, high foreclosure rates gave rise to concerns about new risks for vulnerable consumers in the mortgage marketplace. With concern about an increase in foreclosure-related scams, the Board was among the first federal banking agencies to reach out to consumers to warn them. Board staff conducted research to determine the most effective strategy for delivering short information pieces to the greatest number of people. Data indicates that consumers go to the movies even in a down economy, so the Board began running ads in movie theaters in April that focused on helping consumers avoid foreclosure scams:
"Having trouble keeping up with your mortgage payments? Are you facing foreclosure? Don't be taken advantage of--it shouldn't hurt to get help. Go to FederalReserve.gov and click on 5 Tips for Avoiding Foreclosure Scams."
Messages on avoiding foreclosure and scams were later expanded, with ads running in theaters over Labor Day weekend.
The Board also alerted consumers to changes in laws and regulations that have increased consumer credit card protections. With sweeping new rules being implemented in 2009 and 2010 (see "Credit Card Reform" in this chapter), the Board wanted consumers to have information about their accounts and rights, so it ran additional movie ads over Thanksgiving weekend to encourage wise credit card usage, directing viewers to 5 Tips for Getting the Most from Your Credit Card."1
The Board also took steps to expand its Internet presence in order to provide consumers with easier access to information. In 2009, the Board began developing an interactive, user-friendly website that focused on new credit card rules released in early 2010.2 The Board developed a similar consumer education webpage on new rules for overdraft protection products.3
DCCA developed other new, web-based consumer resources and updated existing materials. In the spring of 2009, a new interactive Credit Card Repayment Calculator was added to the Federal Reserve's website.4 The calculator helps consumers estimate how long it will take to pay their credit card bills under different payment scenarios. This new tool complements other interactive calculators on the website, including calculators that focus on mortgages and mortgage refinancing. DCCA also expanded its popular 5 Tips series, with new information on shopping for a mortgage.5
The Board is also accessible to consumers through Federal Reserve Consumer Help (FRCH), a consumer complaint website.6 This site includes information about bank products and services and consumers' rights, as well as links to other useful websites that provide information about recognizing and reporting scams. In fact, nearly 100 scams were reported through FRCH in 2009 and were sent to the appropriate federal authorities for investigation and prosecution.
In April, the System held the sixth biennial System Community Affairs Officer's Research Conference.37 The conference, entitled Innovative Financial Services for the Underserved: Opportunities and Outcomes, explored the role, processes, and outcomes of inno-vation in financial services for low- and moderate-income consumers and underserved populations. Leading researchers presented original and objective research designed to inform innovative market and product development through a framework that addressed (1) individual consumer preferences and behaviors with respect to consumer finance products, (2) influences affecting market participation, such as financial education and institutional structures, (3) effects of mortgage products on performance and wealth creation, and (4) approaches for shaping market participation.
Meeting Data and Analysis Needs
The Federal Reserve made a concerted effort to address the data needs of community development practitioners in 2009. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a conference in June entitled Understanding the Housing and Mortgage Markets: What Data Do We Have? What Data Do We Need?38 The conference brought together researchers and government offi-cials responsible for data collection to discuss existing data available from federal, state, and local sources to monitor economic and housing conditions in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, as well as the limitations of the data and efforts to improve the quality and availability of data to address community development needs.
In addition, several Reserve Banks developed survey instruments to monitor economic conditions in low- and moderate-income communities. For example, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City developed the LMI Survey, a quarterly survey that measures the economic conditions of low- and moderate-income communities and the organizations that serve them.39 The survey results are used to construct five indicators of economic conditions in low- and moderate-income communities and two indicators of the condition of organizations serving them. The LMI Survey is available on the Reserve Bank's website and provides a gauge for service providers, policymakers, and others to evaluate and respond to changes in the economic conditions for low- and moderate-income individuals.
Consumer Advisory Council
The Board's Consumer Advisory Council (the Council)--whose members represent consumer and community organizations, the financial services industry, academic institutions, and state agencies--advises the Board of Governors on matters of Board-administered laws and regulations as well as other consumer-related financial services issues. Council meetings, open to the public, were held in March, June, and October. For a list of members of the Council, see the "Federal Reserve System Organization" section in this report; also, visit the Board's website for transcripts of Council meetings.40
Among the significant topics of discussion for the Council in 2009 were
proposed changes to Regulation Z regarding disclosures that consumers receive in connection with closed-end mortgages and home-equity lines of credit and amendments that would provide new consumer protections for home-secured credit;
proposed rules regarding overdraft services;
issues related to foreclosures; and
strategies and challenges related to neighborhood stabilization.
The Credit Card Act
In the June and October meetings, the Council addressed certain provisions of the Credit Card Act amending the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and proposed amendments to Regulation Z (Truth in Lending) to protect consumers who use credit cards from a number of potentially costly practices (see "Credit Card Reform").
The Credit Card Act prohibits creditors from opening a new credit card account or increasing the credit limit for an existing account unless the creditor considers the consumer's ability to make the required payments under the terms of the account. Industry representatives encouraged the Board to adopt a broad, flexible approach regarding issuers' evaluation of a consumer's ability to pay, stating that issuers should be permitted to use an array of factors in underwriting, including generic and custom credit scores as well as institutions' internal information that is statistically derived from their portfolios. Consumer representatives expressed concern about the ability of regulators to review and validate issuers' underwriting models and methodologies due to their proprietary nature and about the use of credit scores for underwriting rather than a holistic assessment of consumers' ability to repay their full potential indebtedness.
In response to the Board's proposed rules to implement the ability-to-pay provision, industry members expressed support for the proposed rule requiring consideration of existing obligations as well as income or assets in assessing consumers' ability to make the required minimum payments, but noted the challenge in obtaining income information for existing customers. They encouraged the Board to include payment history as an additional factor in the ability-to-pay analysis and to permit use of modeled income, based on empirically derived and statistically sound models, as a substitute for reported income. Consumer representatives cautioned that regulators should closely monitor such modeling. Industry representatives also supported the proposed rule requiring issuers to estimate minimum payments based on a consumer's utilization of the full credit line, but encouraged the Board to clarify that the analysis would take into account only the credit line offered by the particular issuer, not the full utilization of a consumer's other credit lines. A consumer representative expressed the view that issuers should consider the full utilization of all credit lines in determining ability to pay.
Regarding penalty fees associated with credit card accounts, consumer representatives expressed the view that any fees should be reasonably related to the cost incurred by the creditor as a result of the violation, as verified by empirical data; that basing fees on deterrence should also be supported empirically; and that the overall standards for penalty fees should be subject to rigorous validation. Industry representatives supported the adoption of a flexible set of criteria to consider in determining the reasonableness and proportionality of penalty fees and encouraged the inclusion of portfolio-based analysis and issuers' loss rates as factors in addition to those specifically listed in the statute.
For over-the-limit fees, consumer representatives urged the Board to ensure that issuers provide appropriate disclosures regarding the opt-in requirement for extensions of credit that exceed the account's credit limit and to require that consumers who do not opt in nevertheless receive the same account terms, conditions, and features provided to consumers who do opt in. A consumer representative encouraged the Board to prohibit the assessment of over-the-limit fees due to credit-line reductions. An industry representative stated that the opt-in requirement for the over-the-limit feature will help to regulate the reasonableness of that fee. A consumer representative expressed the view that the opt-in requirement for over-the-limit transactions and fees will foster consumer choice and competition in the marketplace, but urged regulators to monitor the ways in which issuers communicate the change to consumers. Industry representatives encouraged the Board to allow issuers to begin informing consumers in advance of the requirement's February 22, 2010, implementation date that creditors obtain a consumer's express consent before imposing over-the-limit fees.
Regarding the statutory requirement that issuers reevaluate interest rate increases that are based on the credit risk of the consumer, market conditions, or other factors, industry representatives encouraged the Board to adopt a broad set of criteria for issuers to consider in making such decisions. Consumer representatives expressed the view that issuers' rate-setting and repricing methodologies should be subject to rigorous scrutiny and validation by regulators.
Industry representatives generally pointed to the emergence of a new business model in the credit card industry as issuers adjust to the elimination of "back-end" risk-management tools such as repricing and turn to more stringent "front-end" underwriting and overall higher pricing.
Overdraft Services
At the March meeting, Council members discussed the Board's proposed amendments to Regulation E (Electronic Fund Transfer Act), which would provide consumers with certain choices relating to the use of overdraft services and the assessment of overdraft fees (see "Overdraft Services and Gift Card Rules"). The proposed rules would prohibit financial institutions from imposing a fee on a consumer's asset account for paying an overdraft for an ATM or one-time debit card transaction unless the consumer is given notice of the right to opt out of the institution's overdraft service, and the consumer does not opt out. As an alternative approach, the proposal would require a consumer's affirmative consent, or opt-in, before such overdrafts could be paid by the financial institution and a fee imposed on the consumer's account for the service.
Members commended the Board for its work on the proposed overdraft rules and incorporation of feedback from the Council in prior meetings. Several industry representatives ex-pressed support for the opt-out approach, which they stated would allow consumers to retain control of their financial situation while averting potential operational disruptions at the point of sale and alleviating the burden on institutions to gain affirmative consent from existing account-holders. One member suggested that the Board adopt an opt-out approach for current accounts and an opt-in approach for new accounts as of a certain date. Industry representatives also supported the idea that financial institutions should be permitted to price differently those accounts that do not allow overdrafts for ATM withdrawals and one-time debit transactions, compared to accounts that allow the payment of such overdrafts.
A consumer representative stated that surveys show that consumers want a choice about whether overdrafts are paid for debit-card transactions and that consumers generally want the transaction to be declined. Consumer representatives generally supported the opt-in approach, which they stated would provide incentives for institutions to communicate clearly about overdraft services to their customers. They also expressed the view that institutions should not be permitted to alter the account terms, conditions, or features for consumers who do not opt in compared to those who do opt in. According to one consumer representative, if banks change their business models to move away from free checking accounts, any account fee should be uniform and applied to all account-holders. One member also urged the Board to adopt substantive protections regarding overdraft services, such as limiting the number of overdrafts a consumer could be charged for during a year.
Closed-End Mortgages and Home Equity Lines of Credit
In July 2009, the Board proposed changes to the disclosures that consumers receive in connection with closed-end mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) with the goal of improving their content and format to make them more useful to consumers (see "Mortgage and Home Equity Lending Reform"). These disclosures are required by the Board's Regulation Z. Many of the changes are based on the consumer testing conducted in connection with the review of Regulation Z. Council members strongly commended the Board's work on the disclosures and the use of extensive consumer testing to inform the content and format of the disclosures. Several members urged the Board to do further testing regarding consumers' experiences with mortgage transactions.
For closed-end mortgages, the Board's proposal would revise the calculation of the finance charge and annual percentage rate (APR) so that they better capture most fees and costs paid by consumers in connection with the loan. Several industry representatives cautioned against including additional fees, such as third-party charges, in the APR because such a calculation could mean that more loans will exceed the high-cost threshold under federal and state laws. A consumer representative supported including all fees in the APR to make it a more useful number for consumers and suggested that fees should be amortized over a typical refinancing period or the actual term of the loan, whichever is shorter.
The Board's proposal would require the creditor to provide a "final" TILA disclosure that the consumer must receive at least three business days before consummation, even if nothing has changed since the early TILA disclosure was provided. The proposal sets out two alternative approaches to address changes to loan terms and settlement charges during the three-business-day waiting period: receiving a new disclosure (and new waiting period) if any changes occur, or only when the APR becomes inaccurate or a variable rate feature is added. Consumer representatives and an industry member endorsed a strict three-day rule requiring a new disclosure and waiting period, with no waivers permitted. Other industry representatives supported a more flexible approach, such as allowing consumers to waive the three-day standard so that the closing could take place, and setting a threshold, with a de minimis exception, for the type or amount of changes that would trigger a new disclosure and waiting period.
The Board's proposal would also amend Regulation Z to provide limits on compensation to mortgage brokers and to creditors' employees who originate loans, prohibiting certain payments to originators based on the loan's terms or conditions. Several industry representatives expressed the view that the rule should apply only to loan originators, not to institutions that function as mortgage brokers, such as credit unions, community banks, or mortgage broker businesses; they stated that a broader application of the rule would have the effect of diminishing competition. Consumer representatives supported the rule and its classifications according to function, opposing any exception for brokers. One member urged the Board to consider means to ensure that the rules regarding compensation are applied consistently to banks and non-banks. In response to the proposal's prohibition on directing, or "steering," consumers to transactions that are not in their best interest in order to increase the originator's compensation, both industry and consumer representatives urged the Board to set forth a clearer, bright-line rule for what would constitute steering. A consumer representative noted that there is less risk of steering when a consumer is presented with multiple loan options.
Regarding HELOCs, the Board's proposal would prohibit creditors from terminating an account for payment-related reasons unless the consumer has failed to make a required minimum periodic payment for more than 30 days after the due date for that payment. An industry member supported the 30-day timeframe, but a consumer representative urged the Board to adopt a 60-day delinquency timeframe, consistent with the new delinquency period in the credit card context. The Board's proposal also would establish a new safe harbor for suspensions and credit-limit reductions and would impose additional requirements regarding reinstating accounts that have been temporarily suspended or reduced. Some members noted the impact on small businesses when HELOCs are suspended or the credit limit is reduced. Consumer representatives expressed the view that there should be a clear appeals process regarding line suspensions or reductions and that the lender should bear the costs associated with reinstating accounts, especially if later analysis shows that the line should not have been changed. Industry representatives also supported an appeals process, but stated that consumers should bear some of the cost, which could be refunded if the appeal is successful. An industry representative supported the proposed 30-day timeframe for lenders to complete an investigation of a request for reinstatement, but encouraged clarification that the time period would be triggered when the lender receives complete information from the borrower.
Foreclosure Issues
In each of its meetings in 2009, the Council discussed loss-mitigation efforts for mortgages, including the Administration's Making Home Affordable Program, the performance of modified mortgages, and other issues related to foreclosures. Members generally agreed on the need for more comprehensive and detailed data collection about mortgage delinquencies, foreclosures, and real estate owned (REO) properties.
Regarding the federal Making Home Affordable mortgage modification program, consumer representatives expressed concern about the capacity of servicers to handle the volume of requests and associated documentation, as well as delays in moving borrowers from trial modifications to permanent modifications. They also stated that some foreclosures are being filed while the borrower is in the trial modification period. Industry representatives stated that the need to fully document and completely underwrite loan modifications under the federal program leads to longer processing timeframes and compliance challenges. They also expressed the view that, in the early stages of the federal modification program, servicers were hampered by a lack of detailed technical guidelines and little advance notice of changes to the program, specifically noting the need for definition around the net-present-value model.
Later in 2009, some members pointed to signs of progress in the federal modification program, such as the increasing number of trial modifications initiated and borrowers evaluated for trial modifications. Industry representatives stated that, while participating servicers have increased their staffing and resources to implement the modification program, they face strict compliance requirements regarding documentation, as well as operational challenges in adjusting to changes to the program. Members agreed on the need for uniform loss-mitigation processes and guidelines to increase efficiency and reduce confusion among servicers and borrowers. One member noted that while most borrowers with trial modifications are making their payments, some are not able to do so because of economic hardship, such as job loss. Members generally agreed that the federal program does not adequately address the situations of jobless borrowers or those who are underwater on their loans.
A consumer representative expressed concern about the lack of information provided to borrowers who are denied a loan modification and the absence of an appeals process for the federal program. Members commended the Board for its work on fair-lending issues, particularly in the context of loan modifications. A consumer representative also urged the Board to monitor fair-lending issues related to the maintenance and disposition of REO properties by lenders.
Members raised concerns about the increasing prevalence of for-profit foreclosure consultants and foreclosure scams and emphasized the need for enforcement against such entities and warnings to consumers about not paying up-front fees for counseling or modification services. A consumer representative urged the provision of more resources for legitimate counseling agencies and legal services organizations to help guide distressed borrowers through the modification process. Members cited examples of successful collaborations among lenders, servicers, and nonprofit groups to engage in direct outreach with borrowers.
Several consumer and industry representatives endorsed a focus on principal write-downs as a key way to achieve sustainable modifications, and some members also suggested greater use of short sales in cases where an affordable modification cannot be achieved. Several consumer representatives expressed support for judicial mortgage modifications in the bankruptcy context and court-mediated resolution programs as additional tools to deal with foreclosures. Industry representatives cautioned that judicial modifications should be a last resort and should have reasonable limitations, such as being permitted only for subprime loans, and that the primary focus should be on achieving affordable modified payments for borrowers. Consumer and industry representatives disagreed about the value of second liens and the appropriate treatment of those loans both in the federal modification program and in the safety-and-soundness context.
Neighborhood Stabilization
Throughout 2009, the Council discussed the effects of foreclosures on the surrounding community, particularly in areas where foreclosures are concentrated, and efforts such as the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to address the challenges of stabilizing communities. Members noted the negative effects of REO and vacant properties on neighborhoods, such as increased vandalism and crime, and the impact on the decisionmaking process of other homeowners who are struggling to stay current on their mortgage. They expressed concern about banks not maintaining their REO properties or not completing foreclosure sales, leading to "toxic titles," and urged federal regulators to increase oversight of regulated institutions regarding these issues. One member urged lenders and servicers to be attentive to the valuation process in the sale of REO properties and the effects of their property-disposition activities on housing prices and to focus on selling REO properties to owner-occupants.
Members described challenges in the implementation of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), such as a lack of government infrastructure in some communities for managing the influx of federal funds and the reimbursement feature of the program. They noted that, given the relatively short implementation timeframe for the NSP, many local governments have opted for less complicated projects such as land banks or closing-cost assistance, rather than more complex acquisition and rehabilitation efforts. They also pointed to some positive developments, such as the NSP's provision of technical assistance and a move toward collaborative efforts on the local level, often led by community development organizations. They expressed support for initiatives to capitalize community development financial institutions (CDFIs) and other community development groups that can play important roles in neighborhood revitalization. Members noted that the CDFI industry serves as a key funding source for small businesses and other economic development activities, particularly in low- and moderate-income communities.
One member noted that the National Community Stabilization Trust is working to provide tools to address the issues of neighborhood stabilization and vacant and abandoned properties, such as a clearinghouse for REO properties between servicers and communities. However, members also described the difficulties in working with local governments regarding acquisition of REO properties due to the lack of standard purchase agreements. Members noted that nonprofit groups face significant challenges in addressing REO issues, from holding troubled properties to finding credit-worthy homebuyers and managing scattered-site rental properties. Finally, one member urged that further guidance be provided regarding the implementation of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009.
Other Discussion Topics
At the March meeting, the Council addressed issues related to the availability and quality of credit, particularly for consumers and small businesses. Members discussed measures that aim to restore the flow of critically important credit as well as the current state of lending, including the types and quality of credit products and terms that are available to consumers.
An industry representative commented on the experience of credit card issuers, which face increased funding costs and a sharp increase in loan losses and are responding by repricing and cutting credit lines; he also noted that Congressional action is likely to impact the overall business model of the credit card industry and access to credit. One member stated that increased monthly payments and interest rates for credit cards can exacerbate the cyclical problems that consumers and the industry are facing; another member expressed concern that individual issuers' actions in terms of risk-based pricing for credit cards may work to increase systemic risk. Some members also noted that credit cards and home-equity lines of credit are key sources of capital for small businesses, which face difficulties when those sources of funding are cut off.
A consumer representative stated that some consumers are still being offered credit products that raise concerns, and an industry representative noted the need for quality products that will help bring people who have experienced foreclosures or bankruptcy during the crisis back into the conventional credit market. One member urged attention to potentially problematic credit products, such as tax refund anticipation loans and short-term loans from banks, which may become more appealing to cash-strapped borrowers who cannot access other forms of credit. One member pointed to the need for both access to credit and quality of credit and the difficulties faced by individuals who have thin or no credit files; the member urged the Federal Reserve to study options for generating alternative sources of credit data to analyze consumers who do not have a traditional credit file.
Members praised the Federal Reserve's steps to bolster the markets for securitized assets and recommended further attention to the markets for Small Business Administration loans and affordable multifamily financing through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.
At the June meeting, Council members focused on the future of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), including possible changes in light of developments in the financial services industry. Members discussed the idea of extending the CRA beyond depository institutions, such as to non-bank affiliates of depository institutions or to other non-bank financial services providers, such as credit unions or insurance companies. Several members noted that non-depository institutions benefited from government interventions during the financial crisis and should be subject to the responsibilities of CRA in exchange for such benefits. Members also expressed support for expanding the CRA to cover financial services and products beyond lending. One member noted that over the years regulators have added products for which institutions can receive CRA credit, but that the process of measuring the impact of such products needs improvement. A consumer representative suggested that CRA coverage should be extended to members of federally protected classes, such as racial and ethnic groups, women, and persons with disabilities, to ensure fair lending and the availability of quality financial products and services for those individuals.
Several industry representatives noted that the CRA's original purpose focused on serving low- and moderate-income communities from which deposits were taken and cautioned that expanding the CRA, whether to include other products and institutions or to address fair-lending issues, could dilute that purpose and the regulation's impact. An industry representative also expressed concern about the burden of complying with the CRA, particularly for smaller institutions. Both consumer and industry members agreed that any reexamination of the CRA should include attention to the quality and sustainability of credit, not just the quantity of credit.
Also at the June meeting, members provided input on the Board's rulemaking regarding the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act). Some members expressed the view that loss-mitigation personnel should be exempt from the SAFE Act's licensing requirements. Several members supported applying the requirements to personnel who provide refinancings. One member encouraged the Board to adopt a "grandfathering" approach for existing originators and to set stricter requirements for education and testing for loan officers at regulated depository institutions.
13. The foreign banking organizations examined by the Federal Reserve are organizations that operate under section 25 or 25A of the Federal Reserve Act (Edge Act and agreement corporations) and state-chartered commercial lending companies owned or controlled by foreign banks. These institutions are not subject to the Community Reinvestment Act and typically engage in relatively few activities covered by consumer protection laws. Return to text
14. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). Return to text
15. The 2009 reporting period for examination data includes examinations with end dates between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009. Return to text
17. The FFIEC member agencies are the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). Return to text
25. Because the agencies use different methods to compile the data, the information presented here supports only general conclusions. The 2009 reporting period was July 1, 2008, through June 30, 2009. Return to text
26. Public enforcement actions are categorized by regulation throughout the report. Because some enforcement actions include violations of more than one regulation, the overall sum of actions derived from each regulation will be greater than the actual total number of enforcement actions initiated, which was 30. Return to text
27. The FDIC's reported information in this area relates to Part 332--Privacy of Consumer Financial Information--of the agency's regulations and not Regulation P. Return to text | {
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It was late in the day and I was not sure if I was going to make out the boreal Chickadee in the pictures. But I liked the way the side light hit the cones and went for it. Was able to get out enough details to make out the chickadee while still having the cones looking like part of a Christmas tree decoration. | {
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Marcellus Williams was convicted of fatally stabbing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a burglary at her suburban St. Louis home in 1998. (Missouri Department of Corrections via AP, File)
The Republican governor said in an email just hours before Williams was to be put to death that he was issuing a stay of execution. Williams was convicted of fatally stabbing former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Lisha Gayle during a burglary at her suburban St. Louis home in 1998. Williams’ execution was scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The governor’s decision comes after Williams’ attorneys cited DNA evidence found on the murder weapon that matched another unknown person, but not Williams. But St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said there was ample other evidence to convict Williams, and said there was “zero possibility” he was innocent.
“A sentence of death is the ultimate, permanent punishment,” Greitens said in his statement. “To carry out the death penalty, the people of Missouri must have confidence in the judgment of guilt.”
Greitens said he will appoint a five-member board of inquiry that will be made up of retired judges who will have subpoena power. The board will make a recommendation to the governor concerning whether Williams should be executed. No timetable was set.
Williams’ attorney, Kent Gipson, called the stay “the appropriate thing to do.” He believes large-scale protests were a factor in the governor’s decision.
“The people have spoken,” Gipson said. “This online petition had a quarter of a million signatures. The case has generated a lot of outrage all over the country and the world.” | {
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SAMI MOKBEL AT THE EMIRATES: Arsene Wenger's wait for a League Cup trophy as Arsenal manager will go on after Southampton sealed a deserve victory in in their quarter-final. MailOnline on November 30, 2016 | {
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Time magazine just published a fascinating account of how President Obama’s campaign team used data to microtarget voters. At HBR, we’ve been tracking the rise of Big Data in the private sector for some time, and see this as a useful case study of how one organization actually implemented those analytic principles to get results. I spoke over the phone with MIT’s Andrew McAfee, a regular contributor and principal research scientist at the Center for Digital Business in the MIT Sloan School of Management. What follows is an edited version of our conversation.
Even though there’s a push for data transparency, it seems like Obama’s key to success was the opposite: to keep his data and algorithms as secret as possible. Organizationally, does it make sense to keep your data team siloed off from the rest of the team, or do you want them to work together more closely?
In this case, it’s easier to identify the downsides of sharing that data more broadly. It could leak out, leak to the press, leak to the other candidate. If there is some secret sauce, you want to keep that close. If either the data asset itself or the algorithm on top of it seems to be cutting edge or proprietary, I wouldn’t go shout it from the rooftops. You want to have the data team say to the volunteers, “Call up these people, knock on these doors, go to these neighborhoods.” The volunteer doesn’t need to know why; they just need to know they’re knocking on the right doors.
That seems to be a move away from this movement we’ve been reading about about information wants to be shared, data wants to be free, everything should be transparent —
From any rational standpoint, that line is nonsense. That’s like saying, “All money needs to be free,” or if you’re a trucking company, “All trucks need to be free.” Data is an asset, like everything else.
In the spotlight on Big Data that we just ran in the magazine and online, we focused heavily on making the case that executives really do need to use it. We focused less on the execution piece of it. But it seems to me that having the data is only one part of the problem; you really need to know what to do about it.
There are two different questions to the execution piece. First, there’s executing with the data resource and the computing resource itself. A lot of organizations aren’t good at that because our data is fragmented. The amount of centralization and rationalization to take real advantage of big data is pretty daunting for a lot of organizations. To take the Obama campaign as an example, look at their move from having two databases in 2008 to one in 2012. I guarantee you that was not easy. That was technically pretty challenging, and it was organizationally super, super difficult — it means you have to convince one group to let go of their database and let go of being the sole keepers of that data. That’s hard.
The second side of the execution, though, is the question of what do you do with the data. Which ads do you serve up, which doors do you knock on, which streets do you go down? Campaigns have been doing this for a long time; they know how to knock on doors. That’s not the hard part. But to my eyes, what big data can do is help them be more efficient, by allowing them not to knock on every door on that street. You can say to the volunteer, “Just go knock on house numbers 14 and 18, and then skip the next six houses and go knock on house number 30.”
Big data lets you be small. It lets you do really precise, targeted interventions. I see evidence of this over and over, in all kinds of organizations. It started with marketing, but that has led the way to operations and the supply chain also using those kinds of precise data-driven interventions. And then you can do that at scale.
So you’re saying it lets you be small, but at scale? Are you then big again? [Laughs]
It’s a very different kind of big; it’s not mass production. “Mass customization” is an overused phrase and it’s been around for a while, but in this era of big data we can really do that. It’s no longer just configuring my car so it has the upholstery I want. It’s that campaigns no longer need to do the kind of mass mailings they’re always relying on; they can get the right kind of mailing to the right kind of voter. Maybe this one cares about women’s rights, but that one cares about economic policy.
For the Obama campaign, that was at the heart of their ground game advantage. In our HBR article, we included an example from the health care sector. Over and over we’re seeing this ability to be precise and differentiated, at scale and repeatedly, with a lot more efficacy.
How would this work in the business world, say in health care?
Take the example of Aetna. They have around 20 million lives under care. Because they’re the company that pays the doctor, the lab, the pharmacy, and so on, they have all this information about my health. There are huge confidentially concerns, of course, but let’s put that aside for a moment.
What that means is that they have better data about my health than any other player in the system; than my doctor, my hospital, my pharmacy. What Aetna can do at scale, in real time, over and over, is check across the millions of lives in their system and say, “Do we see any obvious gaps in care here?” They can then send a message to the doctor or to the patient. Now, we need to be careful about confidentiality, and we need to make sure the messages are phrased the right way so they’re not ignored, but we can use this database to do mass scale interventions into health care delivery. And that means we can improve outcomes without having to rejigger the entire system.
Okay, so say everyone starts doing that. Then do you get to a place like we see now in baseball — where a few years ago, crunching the numbers gave some teams a big advantage, but now everyone does it and it confers less of one? Look at the Oakland A’s. Using data used to give them a big advantage, but since every team started to do it, it really doesn’t seem to give them much of one.
Yes, you’ve got to move on. It’s not going to give you an advantage forever, but if you are analytically oriented, you can push ahead and get finer-grained insight and advantage. In baseball, the science of sabermetrics has moved on. They’re doing increasingly sophisticated things. Billy Beane and the A’s were able to pick the low-hanging fruit and do really well for a while because they were able to do the simple things better. Now everyone has those insights so they’ve got to work harder. The marginal benefit might be less, but you’ve still got to do it. If you just go back to scouting players like you did in the 1990s, that’s a great way to have a terrible team. Standing still is a very bad strategy.
What’s interesting to me is that the volumes of data are exploding terribly quickly. The toolkit is also expanding by leaps and bounds. This is a real new arms race. You might not love it, and you might wish the world was predictable and calm and that Excel would get you through — but that would be a recipe for disaster. | {
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Although a controversial subject in some circles, I’d like to answer the question “What is the difference in a Miniature Australian Shepherd and a Miniature American Shepherd?” in my own words.
Originally, Australian Shepherds were bred as working dogs and used by immigrant shepherds in the northwest US. Ranchers were looking for their best dogs with strong herding instinct and drive so what we now see as Australian Shepherds most likely looked very different in the early 1800’s, even from place to place. Utility, not appearance, was the goal for those shepherds and their dogs. Over time, the breed became more standardized and was accepted by American Kennel Club as a distinct dog breed in 1991. AKC currently lists their breed standard for an Australian Shepherd at 18″-23″ at the shoulders (withers). I find it interesting that I have a picture of my grandparents along with my father and his two brothers in a family group standing with their farm dog that looks very similar to a red tri Aussie taken in the late 1930’s in Kentucky.
Between the “then” and “now”, a few motivated breeders whose kennel names are found in the majority of the Mini Aussie foundation bloodlines, started to breed small to small to get a more compact dog. In the late 1980’s, my father brought me a little red merle female registered Australian Shepherd to “keep” until she was old enough to work his Black Angus cattle. Patch, as we called her, stood about 16″ and weighed 28 pounds as an adult. She was undoubtedly an Aussie, but in today’s measurements would be called a Mini. I can imagine that with time her progeny could have been reduced much further in height over a few generations. By the way, that pup that I was to babysit and give some basic obedience shared my house for the next 16 1/2 years and didn’t muddy her feet in the barn lot. Instead, she was our house dog and protector, herding any stray boyfriends back to their cars with a nip on the behind!
Since AKC limited their standard size to the Aussie, those smaller dogs took on a life of their own and folks started to call them Mini Aussies. As people do, a division line in the sand was drawn and the die hard Aussie folks took a serious dislike to the smaller versions. National Stock Dog Registry who had previously registered working Border Collies before they were accepted by AKC (another story), Australian Shepherds and also the old breed of English Shepherds begin to register and keep records for pedigrees on the Mini Aussie and listed their size as between 14-18″. At that point and even now, you find AKC registered Australian Shepherds in the bloodlines of the Minis.
Now back to the question, what is the difference between a Mini Aussie and a Mini Ameri? Again, this is my words, and please no flaming! There is not one iota of difference except the verbage. North American Miniature Australian Shepherd Club of USA (NAMASCUSA) became the home club for the Mini Aussie and sought recognition by AKC for them to be an accepted breed for conformation showing in that venue. Over a period of time and with much debate and deliberation, AKC allowed the Mini Aussie to join the ranks as AKC Foundation Stock Service (new developing breed) with some caveats. The Australian Shepherd folks still had their line in the sand and wouldn’t back down on the Mini being an offshoot of their breed standard, so to be accepted, the NAMASCUSA Mini Aussie folks agreed to change the name and a few revisions to the breed standard wording including the size range 13″-18″. A vote of the members chose Miniature American Shepherd as the official breed name. Within the next year, the Mini Ameri will have passed the “trial by fire” as FSS and be added to the AKC ranks with full rights and privileges.
As humans do, once again, another line was drawn in the sand. There are many Mini Aussie breeders who are determined to keep the name “Mini Aussie” and others who think the benefits of being AKC recognized was worth a name change. During this transition time, any Mini Aussie that is registered with National Stock Dog Registry can also be registered with AKC FSS as a Mini Ameri, thus having dual names and dual registration. Those that drew the line against AKC have mostly moved their registrations to American Stock Dog Registry (ASDR).
At this point and probably forever, the two will continually cross pedigrees. For example, in the case of my dogs, the pedigrees include dogs registered as AKC Standard Aussies, ones registered NSDR as Mini Aussies and some of the younger ones also ASDR as Mini Aussies. Because the general public doesn’t know or care about all the background, I still for the most part call my dogs Mini Aussies. When I talk to other breeders, I more likely use the Miniature American Shepherd name. What is the difference? In my house, one day a Mini Aussie..sign a registration form and the next day a Mini Ameri! The dog is the same, the pedigree is the same, the snuggles are the same….so no difference! | {
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MEMBER MONDAY: CHARLIE MACPHERSON
posted on 1:32 PM, April 24, 2017
Silver Leaf Series I
Tell us about yourself!Charlie Macpherson – I specialise in blown glass, but in recent years have been using casting processes to expand the work I can make. I work with my wife, and fellow glass artist, Amanda Notarianni. We have recently moved to Dorchester, in Dorset (UK), and set up a new studio to allow us to make larger and more bespoke pieces.
What draws you to the material you work with?Nearly everything I make is cold worked and polished in some way, adding textures or revealing details within the glass. The initial draw to the material was the way the light passes through the material, and the vibrancy of the colors. More and more I am drawn to the movement and fluidity of glass, capturing a given moment during the making processes. The cold working adds to the finished pieces by adding reflections and refractions to the thick polished surfaces.
What themes do you pursue in your work?Simplicity, Repetition, Clarity, Movement.
My glass has always looked to use strong, timeless forms, and incorporate details and cane work within the pieces. These are then highlighted and exposed by polishing, and introducing windows into the glass so the viewer doesn't immediately see the finer details. As a student I read a beautiful story about a tea garden near Osaka, which was designed with a hedge obscuring the view of the distant sea. Only when a guest bent over to wash their hands as part of the ceremony, would they catch a glimpse through a break in the hedges. The beauty remains every time it is glimpsed, and properly observed, rather than becoming part of the background that is seen all the time.
My recent work, still alludes to these themes, but is less rigid and has become more sculptural, based on solid forms, and capturing a moment of movement.
What is your dream project?I would love to do a large installation using components, linked to movement systems that allow the shape of the installation to change as an interactive piece.
If you weren't working in this field, what career would you choose?Music.
What's something about you that most people don't know?If you're looking for a Didgeridoo player....
Why are you a member of GAS?GAS represents a great opportunity to link with other artists and galleries outside of the UK. At this stage in my career, it has become more about sharing and looking outwards. | {
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Birds & Clematis Floral Drawstring bag
$19.95
At Snoring Dog Studio, we believe that using fewer plastic bags is a great way to respect Mother Nature. These gorgeous floral print drawstring bags will show that you care about the environment. Lots of wildflower patterns to choose from!
One size: 15" x 17"
Maximum weight limit – 33lbs (15kg)
100% spun polyester fabric
Fabric weight: 6.61 oz/yd² (224 g/m²)
Twin cotton handles
Drawstring closure
Shipping
Vendors can take up to 4 to 5 business days to produce the order before it’s shipped. (Weekends don’t count as business days.)
Depending on the shipping method you chose at the time of placing the order and your location, the delivery itself can take up to 12 business days in the US, or up to 21 business days if products produced in the US are shipped internationally*.
When it comes to international shipping, those packages are usually delivered within 1-3 weeks from the ship date through DHL or USPS Priority International. | {
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Guest Review: 21 Jump Street
Today is a treat for you. My friend Phil (nicknamed “Megaman”) and his wife scored some advance prescreening tickets to 21 Jump Street. (LUCKY!!) After viewing, they so graciously decided to share their thoughts on this new film coming to theaters this upcoming weekend. Enjoy their review below!
Synopsis: “Schmidt and Jenko are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier – and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind..” (Collider)
Even if someone is not familiar with the original 21 Jump Street series, this attention-getting action/comedy film leaves no questions behind. The plot begins with two opposing high school students that later rely on each other to graduate from the police academy. After teaming up and many screw-ups later, the pair land their last hope at 21 Jump Street: a group of young-looking undercover cops, poised as high school students.
The two begin life anew as their polar-opposites from high school, in hope of bringing down a synthetic high school drug ring.
The adult-themed comedy is a fast-paced story combined with the comically stereotyped ideas of a police lifestyle mixed with plenty of high school dramas. Although some scenes are over-dramatic and obviously unreal, they add to the movie’s over-the-top comical style mixed with the occasional vulgarity. Similar movies would include: The Hangover, Dude Where’s My Car and Bridesmaids.
Other things of note about 21 Jump Street: The cinematography added to the “believable factor” as it were, and made you feel like you were there. The soundtrack was appropriate and a tribute to the original series from the 80’s. While sitting amongst the very diverse audience members that took advantage of this advanced screening with us, we noticed that everyone of all ages (both old and young) seemed to enjoy it. A fun re-emergence of a classic series from another time.
Who knows? Pretty soon the rumored Magnum, P.I. film may be hitting theaters! 😉
We give this movie a 3 out 5 stars.
Thank you to Mr. & Mrs. “Megaman” for the early review!
What do you think? Will you be seeing this during the upcoming weekend in theaters? Let me know in the comments!
I have zero interest in seeing this, sorry to be a gloomy gus, but I just don’t like the cast. I love the TV show and I was initially interested in this given Johnny Depp’s rumored involvement. Well A-Team’s got a movie so it’s only a matter of time that Magnum PI, Hunter, Airwolf, etc will have theirs too. I actually don’t mind seeing the film version of Crime Story though 🙂
I hear ya rtm. I was actually not very excited to see the movie when I was waiting (+1 hrs) in line. But I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was the crowd that was in the theater or possibly the movie itself…. in either case my wife and I ended up walking out of the movie in good spirits. I would not mind watching it again, but I would probably wait for it to come out on DVD and watch it with some likeminded friends. =) | {
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The Ramada Kissimmee Gateway is located one mile from the entrance to Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom, Disneys Animal Kingdom, Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios. Other attractions near this hotel include Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Seaworld, Wet N Wild and the Orlando Orange County Convention Center. This family friendly resort provides amenities such as free high speed wireless internet access, Business Center, 2 outdoor pools with 1 heated and a game room. Purchase tickets to all Disney theme parks at this official Walt Disney ticket location. Banquet and Convention space is also available for weddings, reunions or meetings. Kids Eat Free Program in our Smokehouse Grill Restaurant. Children 9 and under eat free with paying adult. Pets Allowed in Inn rooms only, fee apply. Managers Reception at Mulligans Sports Bar - Monday - Thursday 5 pm to 6 pm, Draft Beer and House Wine. We accept and store mail and packages for guests for a nominal fee per package. If you have any additional questions, please contact the hotel directly. | {
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Local Blogs
About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo... (More)
About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community. (Hide)
Redwood City's Vesta named Michelin Bib Gourmand
Uploaded: Oct 5, 2017
Redwood City Italian eatery Vesta is the only Midpeninsula restaurant that retained its status in the Michelin guide's latest Bay Area Bib Gourmand list, which honors places that serve high-quality food at an affordable price.
The sausage and honey pizza at Vesta in Redwood City. Photo by Veronica Weber/Palo Alto Weekly.
The 2018 list, released Thursday, only includes four new restaurants in Oakland, San Mateo, Marin and Millbrae. A total of 67 restaurants are highlighted throughout the Bay Area.
Bib Gourmand restaurants are selected by anonymous Michelin food inspectors "who choose restaurants serving high quality food on their menus and make it possible to order two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less (tax and gratuity not included)," a press release states. "These selections are very often the same restaurants that the Michelin food inspectors frequent when they are off the clock."
Vesta -- operated by Peter and Courtney Borrone, son and daughter-in-law of the owners of Menlo Park's Cafe Borrone -- opened on Broadway Street in 2012. It has been a Bib Gourmand restaurant for several years in a row.
Disappointed that Zola was dropped. I've dined there and found the food marvelous and service excellent. Perhaps it didn't meet the Bib Gourmand criteria - too expensive? Would like to know .. From what I know Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurants are ones where you can get two courses and a glass of wine or a dessert for $40 or less, excluding tax and tip.
Posted by charles reilly,
a resident of another community,
on Oct 7, 2017 at 5:05 am
Thank you, Elena, for mentioning a Redwood City establishment. We're rockin' up here withs TONS of great mid-priced places. It's great that we can simply walk along Broadway and choose one. Also, the restaurants that open mostly tend to stay in business. There is not a "here today gone tomorrow" atmosphere that I find distracting. We aren't picky eaters, don't need a gourmet experience; our middle-class palettes are very happy here.
Posted by Gebhard,
a resident of Mountain View,
on Oct 7, 2017 at 8:39 pm
A well deserved award. I work in Redwood City and have been going to Vesta since they opened. Always great food, friendly service, good prices. A truly wonderful restaurant. Congratulations to the whole team at Vesta that makes it happen!
Posted by Reality check,
a resident of Mountain View,
on Oct 10, 2017 at 11:35 am
Keep in mind once again that Michelin's "Bib Gourmand list" is separate from its category of "budget" restaurants (the Guide has included a separate "under $25" list in recent years, but that is not part of Michelin's annual pre-release publicity program that prompted this and other journalistic references to Bib Gourmand). "Bib Gourmand" is a list of Michelin inspectors' personal favorites within a price range somewhat above the "budget" category. The distinction between the two is made very clear in the actual book.
Posted by cook,
a resident of Old Mountain View,
on Oct 11, 2017 at 8:55 pm
@ Eater Reader:
Tip should only be calculated on food price, not including sales tax. While many restaurants have suggested tips based on including sales tax for the calculations in the past, I have been noticing that many in the last couple of months have changed and now only make the percentage suggestions on the food price excluding sales tax.
Posted by tip-poll,
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood,
on Oct 11, 2017 at 10:43 pm
Didn't mean to derail the thread, but "tax and gratuity not included" omits a significant amount. I doubt the tip-consensus is still 15% around here, except for maybe a quick breakfast served at the counter. Don't know what the servers see or expect. Perhaps they are happier with a pleasant low-maintenance customer than they would be with a high-tipping boor. Compensation is a touchy subject.
Posted by Lawman,
a resident of Menlo Park,
on Oct 12, 2017 at 6:42 pm
Neither of the two dropped restaurants meet the criterion of less than $40 for 2 courses plus glass of wine or dessert. There is another (unlikely) possibility: one or both of them has been elevated to "star" status. If RWC commercial rents do not go the Palo Alto way, there is a good chance Vesta will maintain its status and maybe even more RWC restaurants will be awarded bibs. | {
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
NAME
lab 49 - wrappers
NOTES
Acme is the hub of my activity where all my tools are at hand. It is inconvenient to have to step outside it while working on a task. But it is impractical to port all the tools I need into Inferno. However, Inferno is an integrating environment.
It is oftentimes easy to put a wrapper around an external tool so that it is usable within Acme.
In this lab I show a few examples of putting wrappers around external tools so that they blend in to the Inferno environment and work together with Inferno's tools.
The first, very simple example is awk.
fn awk {os awk $*}
With this definition it is only possible to use awk as a filter without naming files as command line arguments. But this is often good enough.
Very often I work on my laptop which has NT as the host os. But I need to use dict and spell all the time, and my laptop doesn't have these installed. I integrate these tools into my environment by running emu on a Plan9 or Linux machine and exporting a styx service that will include the #C device bound to /cmd. Then I just need to bind remote service before running the command.
Now I can use >spell within acme and become oblivious to the fact that spell is running elsewhere on my network.
Let's say I want to run javac hello.java from within Acme, and also button-3-clicking on any error messages would jump to the relevant line within the file. The problem here is the Inferno namespace needs to be mapped to the host namespace. This can only be done if the file actually resides on the host. But given that assumption we can easily establish a convention whereby names within inferno map to hostnames.
This assumes we have bound, say the C: and D: drives to /n/c and /n/d. The mapping is simple. The benefit is that I can use mk to manage builds, and use plumber to plumb the compiler errors to Acme.
Here's a more complicated example, used for building the emu source code and libs. The assumption now is the source code is on the host and the mapping from inferno to host namespace is just prepending the $emuroot.
This is interesting because emu could be built using mk from inside Inferno. Given a definition of 9c, 9l and 9ar for each platform the mkfiles could be simplified (however, shifting the complexity to the shell).
The final example is for XML tools. Often these tools take URLs instead of filenames. The trick is to serve the files I'm working on using httpd. Httpd is now serving as a general mapping from my local namespace to a universal namespace. I can bind the files in from anywhere and then work on them with XML tools, using tools that might also be bound in from anywhere. For example, I want to use xalan to transform XML using XSLT. I bind my working directory onto /services/httpd/root and run svc/httpd/httpd. Then files below the root get mapped to URLs.
This last approach is possibly the most flexible. But all of them demonstrate that Inferno supports, in the classic UNIX way, using shell to modify a program's interface. In doing so the external tools and Inferno tools can be made to work together, creating a richer, more productive environment. | {
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In a case about power plant emissions, arguments focused on whether the Environmental Protection Agency properly interpreted a regulation and on dramatically different cost-benefit analyses.Read More »Education
Eos is a source for news and perspectives about Earth and space science, including coverage of new research, analyses of science policy, and scientist-authored descriptions of their ongoing research and commentary on issues affecting the science community. | {
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Stone Edge is on par with Rock Blast. Stone Edge performs worse only if Golem faints with a partially charged bar.
Earthquake is best paired with either of Golem's Ground-type fast moves.
Ancient Power is inferior to Golem's other Rock-type charge moves.
Defensive Moves Explanation
Rock Throw is better than Mud Slap. The former has much better type coverage on Golem’s Grass-type counters and Gyarados.
Mud Shot is a legacy move that tickles attackers.
Rock Blast is superior to Stone Edge due to having more charge bars to work with. Golem may not be able to get off a Stone Edge against its best counters.
Ancient Power is slightly inferior to Rock Blast. It's more easily reactable, but it does more damage.
Earthquake is Golem’s worst defensive charge move.
Rating Explanation:
Golem is well known by now as a legendary bird killer, preying on their pervasive Rock-type weakness. It benefits from strong stats, excellent moves, and a specialized typing. With the departure of the legendary birds, Golem has fallen from grace somewhat. There are few instances now where Golem is a go-to attacker.
On defense, Golem has some hard-hitting attacks, but a pair of crippling weaknesses to Grass and Water-types severely hamstring its performance.
How to use: You need to know your Pokemon's exact level. To find exactly what level your Pokémon is, power up your Pokémon following this chart until you're certain of your level from Stardust cost changes.
A Pokémon's minimum level is 1, and its maximum level is equal to your trainer level + 1.5.
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Everybody’s Happy Now? Prozac and Happiness
February 28th 2008
There has been much in the UK news about Prozac and other anti-depressants over the last couple of days. This is because of a recently released study from the University of Hull, which suggests that some of these drugs might not be as effective as we have been previously led to believe. With over 31 million prescriptions being given out for these drugs in England alone, this is a grave statement indeed. In light of this study, this morning I’m bringing you an extract from our book Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle, which sheds a little light on the history of Prozac and other “happy pills”.
Aldous Huxley’s prophetic novel Brave New World (1931) depicts an England where unhappiness has been eliminated. ‘Everybody’s happy now’ is the mantra repeated to the young 150 times a night for the first twelve years of life. Perfect happiness is ensured by a combination of genetic engineering, artificially controlled growth conditions, and intense mindtraining from an early age. However, for any residual glimmers of dissatisfaction that somehow survive into adulthood, there is soma. Soma is a synthetic drug which the population is encouraged, almost required, to use on a daily basis. It banishes all feelings of discontent; ‘one cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments’. As well as getting people through their working week, soma can be used for social control. Puffing an aerosol of soma into the air easily disperses a riot that threatens to turn into a revolution.
Though Huxley’s satire is astonishingly perceptive and fresh today, most of the technical aspects of his vision—growing babies in jars, for example—are as farfetched and implausible as they were when he wrote them. What about soma? Could there really be a drug whose specific action would be to produce a state of happiness? This implies that happiness has a specific locus in the brain that it would be possible to manipulate. Is there any evidence of what such a locus might be?
The most obvious equivalents to soma in real life are antidepressants like Prozac. Prozac (the trade name of the compound fluoxetine) was the first of a new generation of antidepressants called the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Before the advent of the SSRIs, antidepressants had been rather effective at dealing with clinical depression, but had produced a wide range of side-effects, often including sedation, weight gain, blurred vision, and a dry mouth. The SSRIs were about equally effective at treating the depression, but with fewer of these side-effects. Indeed, at least a subgroup of patients reported feeling ‘better than well’ with the new drugs. In healthy volunteers with no history at all of depressive illness, taking an SSRI increases measures of extroversion and positive emotion. The effect is not dramatic, but it is detectable. SSRIs proved effective in treating a wide range of conditions, including, for example, social phobia, a disorder of extreme shyness that scarcely existed before the drug was found to cure it.
The reception of the SSRIs has been astonishing. Prozac was launched, in the USA first, in 1988. Over the following ten years, antidepressant use rose by 100–200% in many developed countries, including the UK and USA, and much of this was due to the uptake of the SSRIs. Rates of use continue to grow at 6–10% per year, with over 3% of the population taking SSRIs in the UK and USA at any one time. For sufferers from clinical depression, SSRIs are a lifeline, but there are probably many people out there who seek them simply because they want a chemical shelter from the normal pains of being human. Some evidence for this comes from the fact that rates of use in Germany and France are less than half that in economically comparable Britain.
Prozac is not soma. Its effects in healthy volunteers are subtle, and moreover, it needs a few weeks of taking the drug for the effects to kick in. This is thought to be because the action of the drug on the relevant systems is quite indirect. The SSRI disables a mechanism whose function is to remove the important brain messenger chemical serotonin; levels of serotonin at one end of certain brain cells are augmented; the cells retune and become more active; and this causes an increase in serotonin activity at the other end of the cell. Only then does the antidepressant action follow. Soma, by contrast, produced positive feelings and ended negative thoughts in minutes.
Recent Comments
ssri lifesaver28th February 2008
the anti-ssri groups are having its field day with ONE study using “meta-analysis” which is witchcraft in itself! the ssri class of drugs are life saving meds! they are not meant for somebody who is feeling “down” because their pet goldfish died! these are real drugs that are far from perfect, but talking therapy is not going to help somebody with a chemical disorder! the media treated this study as the holy grail however it is far from it! now that the push is on for “talking therapies” I would love to see the meta analysis on how effective that is in real life!! and please someone other than a cognitive therapist from the university of hull should run the data check!!!
Anonymous4th March 2008
On the contrary, I suspect that in many cases, people with clinical depression, anxiety, complex PTSD, etc, can best be helped by an antidepressant in conjunction with talk therapy. I say this as someone who suffers from the previous three diseases, who has tried both antidepressants and talk therapy alone. It was only when I started using both together that I felt I was truly becoming “well”.
Josh14th March 2010
“talking therapy is not going to help somebody with a chemical disorder!”
What makes you think its a chemical disorder? Aspirin can cure a headache, clearly headaches are caused by a lack of aspirin in the body right?
What we have is a cause and effect relationship, if depression was caused solely by the lack of Serotonin in the synapses than SSRE (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Enahancers) wouldn’t exist to treat depression would they? | {
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A team of Belgian scientists excavated an important fossil off of Peru´s southern coast in the province of Ica. Specifically, the scientists uncovered a fossil bearing the skeleton of the Mystacodon selensis, an ancient whale.
This discovery is groundbreaking for paleontologists, because it the oldest known relative of the baleen whale ever found, at 36.4 million years old. Baleen whales are subset of the whale species that includes blue whales and humpback whales.
Futhermore, the whale fossil is the first relative to the baleen whale (more…)
A Peruvian farmer is helping fight climate change in his community, by creating an organic fertilizer. The farmer, Jammer Vega, is just 17 years old and lives in the San Martín region of Peru.
After seeing firsthand the effects of climate change on his fellow cocoa farmers, Vega decided to take action. Therefore, he developed BIOL, a fertilizer made completely from biodegradable plant material and water.
BIOL is better for the environment than most fertilizers because it saves water and helps the root systems of the coca plant to grow. (more…)
The future looks bright for Peru´s coffee industry. After years of being plagued by the insidious disease, coffee rust, Peru´s coffee crops have finally returned to health and seem better than ever.
Many Peruvians depend heavily on the success of the coffee plant as their source of livelihood. Unfortunately, during the years of hardship, around 250,000 families found themselves in tough times, as around 60% of the coffee crops were destroyed.
However, in 2017 this hardship seems almost distant. This year alone, Peru´s coffee industry is predicted to see a 20% growth. (more…)
Pre-Incan artifacts were recently discovered in province of Cajamarca by a group of tourists visiting the Ilucan Hill.
What the tourists found was 100 different pieces of metal that seemed to belong a certain collection. The tourists then handed over these artifacts to the Municipality of Cutervo.
These pieces of metal were confirmed to be pre-incan gold by the Peruvian archaeologist, Walter Alva. Alva marveled at the fact that the pieces were not only original, but very well preserved as well. (more…)
Justin Bieber donated to flood victims in Peru when he came to Lima to give a concert early last month. The show was a stop on his international Purpose tour and had over 30,000 people in attendence.
Bieber asked concert-goers to bring donations of things like non-perishable food items, bottled water, blankets, etc. to his show on April 5th. These donations were then delivered to victims in the small village of El Tigre near San Vicente de Cañete, a coastal city located 144 km south of Lima, in a region that was deeply affected by the floods. (more…)
Peru won the award ¨Best Destination in the Americas¨ at the 2017 Shanghai World Travel Fair. The Shanghai World Travel Fair is widely recognized as one the most important travel fairs in all of China.
Tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and other business in the tourism sector from over 55 different countries took part in the 2017 Shanghair World Travel Fair.
The selection of the awards was done by the event organizers and was given to Peru, largely for the work the country´s tourism industry is doing to attract more visitors from places like China. (more…)
An increase in visitor numbers is expected at Machu Picchu with the new change in the visiting hours of Machu Picchu, starting July 1st of this year. These new changes give visitors two set times to enter: one in the morning from 6:00am-12:00pm, and the other in the afternoon from 12:00pm-5:30pm.
Currently, the average number of daily visitors to the site is between 3,000 and 3,200 people per day. However, during the high season, sometimes this number can creep up to more than 4,000 people.
The new schedule will better allow for up to 5,000 visitors to enter the site per day. (more…)
Peru has been nominated for an important travel award. More specifically, Peru has actually been nominated for 41 different categories for the 2017 World Travel Awards in South America.
Of these 41 categories in which Peru was nominated, 31 of Peru´s nominations are for specific businesses in the private sector. Namely, businesses that have to do with tourism such as hotels, tour agencies, etc.
The rest of the nominations concern Peru as a destination. For example, Peru has been nominated for awards in the categories (more…)
Swiss and Peruvian students are now working together to help beat pneumonia in Peru. Together, these students have created a mobile phone application that helps to diagnose pneumonia in its early stages.
Out in Peru´s countryside, pneumonia is a still a very common illness in children. For these remote communities, pneumonia is very difficult to treat because there are no nearby hospitals and generally their local clinics are under-funded and under-staffed.
This is what spurred the idea behind the app, the result of the collaborations between students from ETH Zurich (more…)
Several tribal leaders from the Peruvian Amazon recently joined Leonardo DiCaprio in the United States to take part in the People´s Climate March.
Before the march, DiCaprio met with the different tribal leaders to discuss climate change and to pose for photos. It seemed that both the tribes and DiCaprio were honored to have the chance to meet one another.
For example, DiCaprio posted photos with each one of the tribal leaders to his Twitter account. One of the tribal members, Ronald Suarez, leader of the Shipibo-Konibo-Xetebo tribe (more…)
Machu Picchu, on of the seven world wonders and most important tourist destination of Peru, will be changing its visiting hours starting in July of this year. From July 1st on, the famous archaeological site will be offering entrance for tourists in two set time slots.
Tourists in Peru will now be admitted in the morning between 6:00 am and 12:00 pm, or in the afternoon from 12:00 pm to 5:30 pm.
These changes will be reflected in the tickets sold and reserved after the 1st of June. All other tickets purchased before then will follow the current schedule (which is the complete day, until 5.00 pm). (more…)
Despite the floods that devastating the country earlier this year, Peru has seen growth in their agricultural exports. This is largely because the Peruvian government has been trying to rebuild and keep up with the current demand for agricultural exports.
Last year, Peru´s agricultural exports totaled 5.5 billion in US dollars. If current trends continue, this number will come to 10 billion by the end of this year.
Moreover, all of these predications have been done with the acknowledgement that much of Peru´s cultivatable land is still not being used. (more…) | {
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Tag Archives: Cinnamon Teal Abaco
SEVEN NEW BIRD SPECIES ON ABACO
THE BIRDS OF ABACOwas published very nearly 4 years ago. At the time, the checklist of species recorded for Abaco at the back of the book, so meticulously compiled by Tony White and Woody Bracey, was definitive for as long as records have existed (in practical terms, since 1950). The final new species included in the book was a Black-browed albatross amazingly spotted in Abaco waters from the BMMRO research vessel by a keen-eyed intern the previous summer.
Brown Thrasher Nov 2014
Within 3 months of publication, the checklist had been rendered out of date. A totally new species had touched down on Abaco – a small flock of 6 black-bellied whistling ducks. They worked their way up South Abaco from down by Crossing Rocks up to MH Airport via Schooner Bay, Delphi and Bahama Palm Shores. By then, numbers were down to 2. Soon even they disappeared, heading presumably from wherever the flock had intended to go in the first place. Maybe they got tired en route. Maybe their internal Satnav suffered a collective failure. Maybe senior BBWD had had a bright idea for a shortcut…
Masked Booby January 2015
We are not talking here of rarities in global terms, but species that have never been seen before on Abaco. Or, if seen, went unremarked. Or, if remarked, without awareness of the significance! The advent of the current enthusiasm for birding in the Bahamas plus the ease with which a quick photo can be taken – on a phone for example – as evidence of a sighting and to aid a clear ID, may well increase the number of new species sightings in the future.
Pearly-Eyed Thrasher March 2015
There’s the added benefit from the ease with which photos can be taken and distributed – people will no longer have to do any of the following:
Shoot birds and take them as samples (hello, J.J. Audubon & historical cohorts)
Pack a sketch pad & crayons to draw birds before they fly away (or from memory)
Rely on scribbled notes made in low light and a light drizzle
Listen to, or read, a query about a “sort of brownish medium sized bird with maybe a bit of yellow on the wings, and a black tail I think, but I didn’t get a very good look and oh yes it had sort of beady eyes and sounded a bit like ‘Kalik Kalik Kalik’ “.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper Oct 2016
Over the 4 years, there have been a few birds that, although not ‘first evers’, are second or third ever – and the first ones with supporting photos. These include the fabulous scissor-tailed flycatcher; and the bald eagle that was sighted several times over south Abaco last year. I’ll return to these rarities another time. Let’s see the sixth new bird, from late last year.
Scaly-naped pigeon Nov 2107
To complete the set, so to speak, 2017 ended with another gorgeous duck, the cinnamon teal. You can read more about all these birds using the following links to the relevant posts.
CINNAMON TEAL: ANOTHER NEW BIRD FOR ABACO
Picture the scene. You take a camera to photograph the winter ducks on a local pond on South Abaco. Suddenly you notice something strange and out of place out there. Something unfamiliar. It’s a duck for sure; but not one you’ve ever seen before in your life. Maybe it’s one you know about. Maybe you have no idea what it is at all, and have to identify it later on from a book or online. Anyway, you take some shots before it dabbles off into the overgrown margins of the pond, and leave with a modest air-punch: it’s a “lifer”.
Keith Kemp, principal monitor for Abaco Piping Plover Watch, has just had this experience. There, on the local pond with the blue-winged teal, was a stranger. For him, a “lifer”. And as it turns out, for Abaco also a “lifer”. The only record of one I have found for the Bahamas is a single vagrant sighted on Andros (see range map below). Here are Keith’s unique photos of Abaco’s first Cinnamon Teal.
The cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) is a dabbling duck species found in western North America, and in South America. They live in and around marshes and ponds, feeding mostly on pond-weed and plants, along with any attached aquatic insects. On the range map below, note the single red dot in the Bahamas denoting the single vagrant sighting on Andros.
The duck is named for the overall colouring of the adult male has a cinnamon-red head and body; and it has startlingly noticeable orange-red eyes . The adult female, as is so often the way, is rather less showy – a mottled brown, with a pale brown head, brown eyes, and a grey bill. For those who like comparisons, it resembles a female blue-winged teal, a few of which are shown above (not the ones with the white stripe on the face, which are male blues).
Since the publication of BIRDS OF ABACO in 2014, with its comprehensive checklist of all recorded species since 1950, several new species have been sighted on Abaco. The latest was only last month – theSCALY-NAPED PIGEON. Now we have a new species of duck. Conveniently, there’s no other ‘regular’ duck species quite like it. So if you see a pretty cinnamon-coloured duck on a pond near you, you’ll be looking at the newest ‘Bird of Abaco’. And if you do see one, please share the news! | {
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10 Steps to a Successful K9-Assisted Drug Sweep
Organizing a successful canine sweep requires careful planning, and the process should start weeks before the date you have chosen. While every canine sweep will be unique to the school in terms of the process, the following strategies have proven successful for Armstrong High School and the Plymouth (Minn.) Police Department:
1. Start by developing a team of organizers, often referred to as a crisis team. Your crisis team should consist of school administrators, SROs, school social workers, guidance counselors and other educational professionals who would be appropriate for your school.
Information sharing beyond the scope of the crisis team can be detrimental to the success of the narcotics sweep. School administrators and SROs must emphasize to the crisis team that all details must remain in confidence. Sharing information about the sweep to other staff members or students may jeopardize its effectiveness.
2. Select a date and time in which movement in the building is predictable. This will help to reduce educational interruption to instruction and testing. It will also ensure that groups of students are not interfering with the sweep.
3. Focus on which staff will participate in the sweep, what each person’s role will be and what their duties will look like. It is essential that school administration and law enforcement work hand-in-hand during this stage of the planning.
School administrators who know staff best should be responsible for assigning duties to campus employees. The duties should be assigned in a way that will afford staff the best opportunity to contribute to the process.
4. Equally important is law enforcement’s ability to communicate exactly what they will need from the school to run a successful sweep. For example, it is important to keep students away from the area being searched and to set up a location to interview students.
This type of collaboration will lead to an efficient search that is least intrusive to the building.
5. School resource officers should communicate with canine officers leading up to the day of the sweep and attempt to solicit assistance from neighboring jurisdictions if necessary. Most sweeps can be conducted in less than an hour with three to five canine handlers. On the day of the sweep it is important for canine handlers to stage offsite so students do not see a gathering of police officers near the school parking lot or coming into the school, in turn announcing a narcotics sweep will be underway.
6. Fifteen minutes prior to the start of the sweep it is recommended that the school be placed in a modified lockdown, meaning all movement in the building is restricted. Teachers continue with instruction, however, students are not allowed to leave a classroom until further notice from school administrators. It is recommended that both students and staff practice lockdown procedures to become familiar with their expectations.
7. Once the canine handlers arrive, they are each assigned two crisis team members who will assist them during the sweep. This canine team will consist of one school administrator and a police officer. Each canine team is assigned a section of the building or parking lot to be searched.
8. As the handlers and canines begin their work, the halls should be empty of everyone but the canine teams. If a canine indicates positively on a locker, it should initiate the team into action. Once the canine handler has identified a positive “hit”, the school administrator will communicate via radio to the main office to determine who the locker belongs to and where the student is located. The canine will continue to work while the rest of the team starts the investigation. This process can be replicated when sweeping vehicles in the school parking lot as well.
9. The school administrator will document the time, the locker number and the student who is assigned to the locker. During this time, the other two members of the team begin their tasks. One team member assists the administrator in searching the locker. If any contraband is found, it is placed in an evidence container and numbered to match the administrator’s documentation.
10. During this time, assisting team members are simultaneously locating students. Students will be walked to an area that has been assigned as a processing room and turned over to school administrators and SROs for person and property searches. Recovered narcotics will be handed over to law enforcement, field tested and inventoried as evidence. Students are interviewed and often given a school and legal consequence.
Jeff Dorfsman is an eight-year veteran with the Plymouth (Minn.) Police Department and can be contacted at [email protected]. Chris Meisch is an assistant principal at Armstrong High School in Robbinsdale School District and can be contacted at [email protected].
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We’ve put together this guide to help you improve communication with your many stakeholders, including students, faculty and staff, families, media, alumni, governing board, community members and others. | {
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TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Four co-defendants charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of 34-year-old Ashley Alcala are said to have been in Topeka at the time of the homicide.
That's according to testimony from Topeka Police Detective George Henley, a co-lead investigator in the case. Manuela Alcala told him she and her son Gabino Alcala had driven to Topeka from El Paso, Texas, on October 17 and were staying at an apartment with the victim's estranged husband Manuel, Henley testified.
She told detectives she, Manuel and his two young children were with her the night of the murder.
Ashley Alcala was found in her house, with a gunshot wound to her head on the morning of October 18. Shawnee County coroner Dr. Don Pojman ruled the death a homicide.
Benjamin Anaya was also determined to be with the group, travelling from El Paso with his friend Gabino, detectives said, adding that Manuela Alcala failed to disclose his presence in Topeka. Anaya and Gabino Alcala left just hours after arriving in Topeka to return home.
All three, along with Ashley Alcala's husband Manuel Alcala, are charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Manuela Alcala's defense attorney, Julia Spainhour, objected to parts of Henley's testimony, arguing that the statements provided to him by her client was "hear-say" because she spoke to Henley through an interpreter in Spanish.
Judge Evelyn Wilson took a recess mid-morning to research the issue. Det. Oscar Rodriguez who acted as the interpreter then took the stand Tuesday afternoon and the hear-say motion overruled.
Henley also analyzed phone records that showed the defendant received a call from her son Gabino Alcala at 6:11 am on October 18. Records of that call showed she had travelled to the vicinity of 3022 SE Kentucky, he said.
"We think that Ashley was killed about 7 o'clock or so, and what we know from phone records is that at 6:11 (am), she was at Mani's apartment. By the time that same telephone call ended, she was at victim's house. Again, that's close to the time that Ashley was killed," Chief Deputy District Attorney Jacqie Spradling told 13 News.
In the afternoon, detective Angela Widener, told the court that video footage from Walmart showed Manuel Alcala had sent a $600 Moneygram to his mother in El Paso two days before the killing.
Sergeant Richard Volle, who oversees homicide investigations, testified last and provided revealing details. He and another detective had travelled to El Paso a day after the murder.
He said Benjamin Anaya and Gabino Alcala were detained upon their return to El Paso by Texas authorities. The Dodge pick-up they were travelling contained bloody clothing, Volle said.
He also told the court he observed Manuela Alcala at her house after she had returned to El Paso. Going through her trash, he found a hand-drawn diagram of a neighborhood map in her trash bins. An "X' on the map marked Ashley Alcala's house.
Between the evidence provided by state witnesses, the fact that Manuela received money from Manuel and provided an alibi for him the night of the murder when he was over at Ashley's house was, the court foundthis defendant should be bound over for trial, Spradling said.
In her closing statement, Spradling argued that though the evidence was circumstantial and not forensic, it was enough for the state's burden of probable cause to be met. Defense attorney Julia Spainhour argued that there was no evidence tying Manuela to any activities related to Ashley's death and "in no way ties her to the residence where the homicide happened."
Judge Evelyn Wilson disagreed and set Manuela Alcala's trial date for March 25.
Outside the courtroom, Manuala's oldest son, Antonio Alcala, who had travelled to the hearing from El Paso, said the decision was unfair. "My mother is a good woman and I'm here to support her...as well as my brother," he said. But "the law is the law," he told 13 News. "We're gonna go to trial, we just hope for the best and hopefully everything comes out good."
"We are definitely sorry for Ashley's death," he said, struggling for words, "She was family too." he said.
Ashley's mother, Karren Bacon, did not want to speak on camera, but told 13 News in a statement, "I would like to thank all of Ashley's co-workers and friends and even those I don't know - for all their support and help over the last few weeks."
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Komaroff's summary of IACFS/ME now on YouTube
The CAA synced up our recording of Komaroff's summary presentation at IACFS/ME with his slideshow. Overall, I think he summarized the conference quite well and the video is worth watching. The summary starts at 2:13 and ends at 34:25, then goes into a Q&A.
If anyone is up for transcribing the Q&A I think it could be very helpful, although the sound isn't as good during the Q&A portion. | {
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Good Spirits News - The spirited world of mixology
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Blair Frodelius is a professional full-time musician, an award-winning mixologist, USBG Spirits Professional, BarSmarts Live & Wired graduate and member of the Museum of the American Cocktail. Several of his original cocktails can be found in the 75th Anniversary Mr. Boston Official Bartenders Guide, and one inspired by Harry Craddock in the Mixellany publication The Deans of Drink.
Egan’s Irish Whiskey recently added a new, limited-edition Legacy Reserve to its portfolio. The new expression ups the ante on its predecessors, the 10-Year-Old Single Malt and Vintage Grain, which were introduced to the U.S. markets in 2015 and 2017, respectively. A legacy brand, Egan’s has enjoyed a revival in recent years.
“We’ve been in the whiskey-making business for over a century and a half; that’s six generations of Irish blood in each bottle,” says Jonathan Egan, part of the sixth generation of the Egan Family. “Legacy Reserve is an ultra-premium single malt, about as perfect as an Irish whiskey can get.”
Legacy Reserve is limited to 1,000 bottles worldwide— an exceptionally rare spirit ideally suited for collectors and connoisseurs. Aged for 15 years in American bourbon casks, each bottle is hand-selected by Maurice and Jonathan Egan, whose forefathers Patrick and Henry Egan began the brand six generations ago.
“Legacy Reserve is meant to be had neat or on the rocks — that’s the Irish way, and the only way,” says CEO John Ralph. “We’re a bare-knuckles brand. With this bottle, we’re out to prove that small, thoughtfully produced legacy spirits have a viab
Egan’s Legacy Reserve Irish Whiskey (92 proof)Visual: Light gold.Nose: Mildly sweet malt essence with a light touch of smoked vanilla bean.Taste: A good dose of barrel wood heads out of the gate, followed by a chewy malt texture. There is a lot going on here in a very tight, compact package. Some dry spice creeps in towards the end, but overall this is exactly what it needs to be.Finish: Long with a lingering tannic/vanilla afterburn.Overall: Well done, quite quaffable and a special treat for those who rarely see Irish whiskies in this age range.GSN Rating: A
In 2012 wife and husband team, Genevieve and Dan Brazelton, started The Bitter Housewife with the mission to create a brand that made cocktails approachable through great tasting flavors, simple recipes, and lots of education. They expanded to add RAFT Syrups a few years later because bitter is always better with sweet. See our previous review of some of their more interesting syrups and bitters here.
Now, for a limited time only, they have a seasonal flavor syrup just in time for the holidays! RAFT Cranberry Five Spice is a tart, sweet, spiced syrup that tastes like the holidays. Bright cranberry is complimented with fresh ginger, star anise, cinnamon, black pepper, and cloves.
Cranberry Five Spice: Tart with a fresh cranberry flavor supported by a medium ginger spice heat. A touch of anise and clove hit the top notes. This is a fantastic syrup that will work well with just about any base spirit, or as the lead in a non-alcoholic cocktail or soda. The flavor is immensely appealing and shines through due to the bright cranberry and warmth of the spice blend. Grab a few bottles so you don’t run out before the end of the year!
Take a trip to your local liquor store and you’ll quickly realize that buying the ingredients for a cocktail is a pricey and sometimes disappointing adventure. Why pay for a whole bottle of something only to realize that it isn’t something that you really liked?
Enter Shots Box, a monthly subscription service that brings a variety of interesting spirits and liqueurs from around the world to your doorstep. Their goal is to connect you to new brands, have you enjoy new cocktails that are more interesting than “the usual,” and provide an easy way for you to share and read opinions on different products written by people just like you.
Once you sign up, you receive a box of 10 mini bottles along with several recipe cards to create a single cocktail. Each card has clear and easy instructions along with a color photo of what the finished drink should look like.
The variety is interesting and will appeal to just about anyone interested in spirits. I would have liked to have had two less gins and instead an american whiskey along with a scotch. But, perhaps these will be forthcoming in upcoming shipments.
In any case, it is a great way to try new products, saves a trip to the liquor store and all for the cost of one typical top shelf spirit. Plus, if you really like one of the spirits, you order full-size bottles directly from the Shots Box website. They also have a selection of glassware, barware and cocktail-centric decor available for purchase.
A family-owned business since 1821, Luxardo has cultivated a reputation as Italy’s premier liqueur producer, known for their distinctive, all-natural cherry products. This past summer, Luxardo entered the fruit gin category with the release of Luxardo Sour Cherry Gin, an infusion of the brand’s gin distillate with their proprietary Marasca cherry juice, imported by San Francisco’s Hotaling & Co.
The base of Luxardo Sour Cherry Gin is made using the recipe for Luxardo’s London Dry Gin (a product not currently available in the U.S.), which can be traced back to the Ginepro di Dalmazia that the family produced in the 1900’s. The recipe contains a selection of nine botanicals, including juniper, coriander, iris, angelica, sedge, licorice, cinnamon, cardamom, and bitter orange. Once distilled in traditional copper pot stills, the gin is infused with Luxardo’s Marasca cherry juice, made from cherries cultivated exclusively by the Luxardo family in the orchards of the Euganean Hills in the Veneto region of Italy. The result is a bright, rich, and sour taste that retains the strong juniper and spice of the original distillate. Each bottle is outfitted with an artisanal label designed to reflect 19th century Italy, further celebrating the family’s history.
Matteo Luxardo, export director and sixth generation of the Luxardo family shares, “The recipe marries two of our oldest recipes to create a flavored gin, rather than a traditional sloe gin, meant to be used as the main spirit in a cocktail or enjoyed in unusual gin and tonic serves.”
Luxardo Sour Cherry Gin (37.5% ABV)Visual: Garnet.Nose: Funky blend of ripe cherry, juniper and baking spices. The licorice and cinnamon are at the forefront.Taste: Not exactly sweet, but definitely fruity. The cherry juice tempers the gin down to an undercurrent. What really makes the flavors pop are the unusual botanicals which create a deep heat on the back of the palate.Finish: Long and spicy. The cherry fades into a slight cooling effect from the juniper at the tail end.Overall: Unlike anything else in the world, this is akin to a sour amaro. Perfect for holiday themed libations, I see this getting heavy use at craft cocktail bars this season.GSN Rating: A+
Beefeater Pink, the latest expression to come from Beefeater, fuses natural strawberry flavor, citrus and classic juniper botanicals, in a gin that is visually vibrant with its statement-making shade. It is the first innovation to be launched by The Gin Hub, a new, stand-alone entity that brings together three of Pernod Ricard’s award-winning and pioneering gin brands under one roof: Beefeater, Plymouth and Seagram’s gin.
Beefeater Pink is crafted in London by Master Distiller Desmond Payne MBE – a pioneer of today’s global gin boom. Payne was inspired by Beefeater’s founder James Borrough’s creative curiosity. A pharmacist by trade before becoming a distiller, Borrough’s wonderful inventions included raspberry gin, cherry brandy, British Brandy, bitters and mint. Beefeater continues to embrace Borrough’s passion for blending craftsmanship with experimentation and has created this natural strawberry flavored gin for the new generation of drinkers.
The transparent glass bottle was created to enhance the natural vibrancy of the gin. With its graffiti style logo inspired by stencil art, Beefeater Pink also captures the contrast between tradition and modernity that optimizes the spirit of London – the home of Beefeater Dry Gin.
Sophie Gallois, Managing Director of The Gin Hub, adds: “We know that the gin industry is booming and there is a real appetite for new and innovative expressions that offer consumers a different drinking experience. In Spain, for example, the pink gin trend accounts for 40% of all value growth within the total gin category, so there is huge potential to tap into.”
Beefeater Pink Gin (37.5 proof)Visual: Pink crystal.Nose: A curious mix of juniper and fresh strawberry. Dessert-like, but not cloying.Taste: Medium strawberry flavor on top of a crisp, yet subtle juniper base. The botanicals play a secondary role in the mix, preferring to let the strawberry lead the way.Finish: Medium long, with the strawberry lasting for several minutes.Overall: Almost a cocktail on its own, this will appeal to “tini” lovers. Also, not a true pink gin, in the sense that there are no bitters used. Nonetheless this is very drinkable, approachable and lovely. Great for spring and summer cocktails, this is excellent in gin based punches.GSN Rating: A-
Mi CAMPO is a recent entry to the popular mid-tier tequila offering. This is a market which has started to see strong contenders these past couple of years and Mi CAMPO has entered the fight without turning a blind eye to this fact. Ten years ago you’d be hard pressed to find anything respectable at this tier but these days there are some decent contenders and Mi CAMPO is pulling in strong to this market.
Mi CAMPO BlancoVisual: Clear with a faint golden amber hue.Nose: A surprisingly sweet and pronounced bouquet somewhat reminiscent of vanilla caramel.Taste: Sweet vanilla, mild pepper; and despite the strong sweet bouquet, the taste is mildly sweet.Finish: A hint of anise & herbal finish.Summary: If you want a blanco that’s delightful to smell and easy to drink, this is one of the best bangs for the buck on the market. I would recommend this as an easy entry into blancos.GSN Rating: B+
Mi CAMPO ReposadoVisual: Clear with a faint golden amber hue.Nose: A hint of vanilla and pepper, with no sweet tones like the blanco.Taste: A more pronounced vanilla tone with a hotter pepper taste.Finish: A warm pepper taste.Summary: A more standard reposado that traditionalists will prefer, offering a good bang for the buck.GSN Rating: B
The Virginia Distillery Company recently released the second edition of its Brewers Batch Virginia-Highland Whisky. Batch No. 2 was created in collaboration with 3 Stars Brewing Company, a Washington D.C. brewery known for pushing the limits of creativity in artisanal craft ales. Last year, 3 Stars Brewing Company used Virginia Distillery Company whisky barrels to age its Barrel Aged Ale. Virginia Distillery Company took the barrels back for finishing for eight months to make its second release of Brewers Batch.
In February 2018, Virginia Distillery Company introduced the Brewers Batch series in collaboration with Three Notch’d Brewing. Along with an annual Virginia project, the Brewers Batch series will continue to collaborate with breweries in markets outside of Virginia where Virginia Distillery Company whisky is available.
“We love partnering with passionate makers and are proud to collaborate with the talented team at 3 Stars Brewing,” said Gareth H. Moore, Virginia Distillery Company’s CEO. “We know consumers will enjoy the latest offering in the Brewers Batch series and look forward to working with more breweries in the future.”
The Brewers Batch Virginia-Highland Whisky is one of several other available offerings from Virginia Distillery Company, including the distillery’s flagship Port Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky, Cider Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky and Chardonnay Cask Finished Virginia-Highland Whisky. The distillery is currently crafting its ultra-premium American Single Malt, Courage & Conviction. The flagship offering, made from 100% malted barley and aged in former Bourbon, Sherry and Cuvée wine casks, will be released in the spring of 2020. The name is a nod to a phrase founder Dr. George G. Moore was often heard saying: “Always have the courage of your convictions”.
Brewers Batch No. 2 Virginia-Highland Whisky (92 proof)Visual: Pale gold.Nose: High malt notes with a rich oak char patinaed with a curious hop nose. Even tempered and approachable.Taste: At first a light malt character comes through in the style of a young single malt, but then a slightly acidic/bitter tinge adds a layer of depth and intrigue. The hoppy quality comes through in an entirely different form that is only vaguely reminiscent of an ale. But, it adds enough to the experience that you know this is a unique whiskey. There is an almost fruity apple taste that has a cider-like quality.Finish: Dry, light and even. The beer essence hangs on surprisingly long, but this makes for a more interesting lasting impression.Overall: We really enjoyed this experiment and look forward to more from the Virginia Distillery Company. This is easy-going and special.GSN Rating: A-
Highland Park recently announced the release of a new special edition single malt Scotch whisky: Valknut. In partnership with renowned Danish designer Jim Lyngvild, Highland Park Valknut is the second in a series of three Viking Legends releases inspired by the rich Viking heritage and mythology of Highland Park’s Orkney Islands home.
The first expression, Valkyrie, was released in mid-2017. Viking sagas tell of the Valkyries, the fierce angels of Norse mythology who combed the battlefields for the bravest fallen warriors. Vikings who met an honorable death were marked out by the symbol of the Valknut and spirited away by the Valkyries to Valhalla to join Odin’s mighty army and prepare for Ragnarok, the battle of the end of the world.
Valknut means “knot of those killed in battle” and is represented visually by three interlinked triangles. This symbol is closely associated with the Norse god Odin, who guided the spirits of the dead to Valhalla. Designer Jim Lyngvild says, “The story of the Valknut is compelling and I wanted to ensure that the design feature of this packaging was a fitting match to the whisky created by Master Whisky Maker Gordon Motion. Also, as Valknut is part of a series of three expressions, I made sure that there is continuity in the style of the packaging; for example, the frieze design at top is consistent in look, but the story of the symbol has been brought to the front panel.”
“Valknut is a bolder, more intense style of Highland Park with a drier and smokier profile and a higher ABV than Valkyrie. It has been matured predominantly in American sherry seasoned oak casks with a slightly higher phenolic level compared to Valkyrie,” says Jason Craig, Highland Park’s Global Brand Director. “We’ve also used a small amount of Orkney grown tartan barley, which adds to its smokier edge and lingering sweet, spicy finish.”
Highland Park Valknut will be succeeded by Valfather, the final expression in the Viking Legends trilogy.
Highland Park Valknut Whisky (93.6 proof)Visual: Light gold.Nose: Smoke-forward nose with a light sherry top note. Friendly, approachable and very much akin to the previous iteration in this trio of whiskies.Taste: A fair amount of spice gives added weight to the blend of sweet malt and smokey barley. There is an overall light, dry and tight flavor profile which wraps the whisky in a blanket of autumnal warmth.Finish: Lingering notes are of fading sweetness, and a hint of creosote.Overall: A welcome addition to the Viking Legends portfolio. This is a more aggressive and semi-rustic brother to Valkyrie. Like night and day in terms of similarity. We can’t wait to see what the Valfather expression is like.GSN Rating: A | {
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Razer's customizable fight stick returns to TGS for final beta, is still nameless (video)
Remember that disassembly friendly, unnamed Xbox 360 arcade stick Razer trotted out at TGS last year? It's back, and while it hasn't gained any traction in the moniker category, it's received a few notable hardware tweaks. Razer's TGS team told us the stick has been through a total of thirteen revisions since it entered closed beta last year, and is now entering its final beta before production. Leveraging feedback from over 200 enthusiasts, Razer has made a number of tweaks to the controller, including alternative joystick tops, an included miniature screwdriver and a honeycomb screw-mount bottom so modders can install custom PCBs.
The new unit also wears an acrylic cover, allowing perspective buyers to swap Razer's default artwork for a custom inlay. Just like last year, this unit features Sanwa Denshi components -- but picky players will be able to swap them out for their preferred parts without fear of voiding their warranty. Razer couldn't tell us how long the final beta phase would last, and only said that the stick would be released once it was "perfect." Our host did hazard a guess, however, that it would be out by early next year. Want to see more? Relive our TGS booth visit after the break.%Gallery-166072% | {
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Let’s Me the “Prodigal” Family!
Let’s Me the “Prodigal” Family!
Sermon on Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 for the 4th Sunday in Lent, March 31, 2019
The television game show “Family Feud” has been on for at least 25 years, probably more. Families compete with one another to answer questions and ultimately to win the cash prize. The show begins with the host (Richard Dawson, years ago; Steve Harvey, today) telling a couple jokes then introducing the families: “Let’s meet the Jones family! And going against them, let’s meet the Smith family!”
In today’s lesson, Jesus used a picture of a family which ended up “feuding” a bit in a parable to illustrate a truth for his disciples and especially to the Pharisees and Jewish religious law teachers who had condemned him for associating with people they considered to be awful and irredeemable sinners against God; people like tax collectors and others who had poor public reputations regarding their behaviors and lifestyles. There are valuable lessons for us, too. Using the “Family Feud” introduction …
Let’s Meet the “Prodigal” Family!
Before actually meeting this family, we probably need to visit the word Prodigal. Many of us who years ago grew up with the King James Version translation of the Bible learned this parable in Christian Day School or Sunday School under the title, “The Parable of the Prodigal Son”. In our more recent translation (New International Version), the editors have put a title at the beginning of this section, “The Parable of the Lost Son”, probably because the Father in the parable spoke about his son who was “lost and has been found”, and this parable was taught by Jesus together with parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin. In all three of the parables Jesus taught at this time, the main point seems to be the concern and love of the person who lost someone or something.
Which brings us to the word “PRODIGAL”. I remember thinking as a child when I learned this parable that “prodigal” just meant “wicked” or “foolish” or “immoral”. But it does not necessarily mean “wicked” or “careless” or “immoral”. Rather, the dictionary definitions are: 1) “wastefully or recklessly extravagant”; 2) “lavishly abundant, profuse”; 3) “to give or yield profusely”, or “to lavish someone with something”. Our word “prodigy” would be related. A child prodigy is a child on whom a certain talent has been abundantly poured out, such as the child who seemingly by nature takes up the violin or piano and at age 5 is playing Beethoven. To be “prodigal” can be good or bad. We see it in the younger son and in the Father in Jesus’ parable. So, let’s meet the “prodigal” family. We start with “Junior”, the younger son in the parable, the prodigal son.
The Prodigal Son – WASTEFULLLY EXTRAVAGANT
In his parable Jesus described this younger of the father’s two sons as having asked his father while he’s still living for his share of the inheritance he would receive from his father’s estate when father would die. Father gave it to him and Jesus says that he soon left home for a foreign country and quickly spent his entire inheritance on “reckless living”. We can probably put details to the concept of “reckless living”. We’ve perhaps been there; or at least seen it around us. Led by the desires of his “heart” and by the lure of the glittery and glamor he found in the foreign country, he no doubt was eating expensive food and drink; partying; buying all sorts of unnecessary things. And, according to his brother’s accusation at the end of the parable, probably spending money on immoral sexual behavior (brother accused him of spending on prostitutes).
This wasteful extravagance, his “prodigal” behavior, did not have a good result. He ended up ruined, and finally enslaved during a time of famine. In our ways of speaking, he had “hit rock bottom”, having wasted everything and having sold himself as a slave to a man who sent him out to feed his pigs. With no one giving him any handouts, he was still starving, craving even the meager food he fed the pigs. Finally realizing he had sunk about as low as he could go, and admitting that he was helpless and pretty much hopeless, he sees only one way of rescue: return to his father and throw himself on his mercy, admitting to his father his sin and his total unworthiness to be part of that family again. He would ask to simply be a servant.
In the parable the father is also “prodigal”. His extravagant generosity came also from the desire of his heart. It seems he wanted nothing greater than to have his wayward son back with him and to share with him all that was the father’s. That desire of his heart to generously and extravagantly pour out his goodness on his son appears in his spotting the wayward son when he was a long way off. I picture this father as every morning stepping out of his house and searching the horizon lovingly and hopefully wondering if this is the day his lost son comes home. This was the attitude of the father’s heart – to have the son back and to pour out profusely his love on that son.
When the son did finally show up and take responsibility for and admit to his sin against God and against his father, the father did just that – profusely, extravagantly poured out his love in a tangible way. No way was he going to treat him like a servant. Clothe him in the best robe, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And even more extravagantly generous, kill the fattened calf and let’s have a banquet!!! Indeed extravagant! Some (like the older son) would also say reckless, undeserved, and wasteful considering who was being honored. It was also unconditional. The younger son had admitted that he had sinned and that he had nothing to offer his father. He had nothing with which he would ever be able to pay back his father for what he had taken.
Jesus told this parable to the self-righteous, snobbish Pharisees who muttered about Jesus spending time with the people they looked down on – tax collectors, commoners, people whose sins may have been on display. The only thing profusely flowing out of them was their disgust and disregard for those people, and now for Jesus who actually cared about them. Jesus hit them between the eyes with the final part of the parable, regarding the older son who was angry about the father’s extravagant welcome of the younger son. While the brother referred to the prodigal, younger son as “this son of yours”, the father told the older son that they had to rejoice because this “BROTHER OF YOURS” was lost and has been found. They were family. In the case of those Pharisees and law teachers, they were fellow Israelites / Jews with those “sinners”. They were all part of the nation God the Father had raised up to bring into the world the Messiah and Savior needed by ALL people. Beyond that they were all part of the family of the human race, created by the same Father. In the other parables told during this conversation, as well as this one, Jesus made the point that his Apostle Paul would later make when writing to Timothy: “…God our Savior wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God our Father, and all his angels, rejoice when any sinner repents and is restored to God’s family through trust in the rescuing life and death of his beloved Son, Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, This is our family!!! Each of us is that PRODIGAL son – led by our own desires and lured by the glittery “promise” of pleasure from this world’s things and activities. Whenever we’ve been lured into “reckless living” and wander from our God’s holy path for us, we are that “lost son”. While I suspect few of us have ever been so hungry and ruined that we’ve “hit rock bottom”, still God’s holy commands for our lives show us that in our relationship with God we have been at that point. But we also have a “PRODIGAL” FATHER IN HEAVEN!!! In the same way as the father in the parable he has open arms; opened by the sacrifice of his very own Son in our place! He freely and radically offers full forgiveness and life everlasting because of his Son’s arms spread and nailed to that cross!!! This is how he receives you in Christ!!! You were lost; he found you! You were dead; he made you alive!!! Turn to him! What haunts you? What is your struggle? He is ready to cover you in the prodigious garment of Jesus’ innocence!! With all these people with whom Jesus ate and interacted, he didn’t turn a blind eye to their sinful behavior, nor does he to ours. He took the punishment. He calls, “Follow me”.
Our Father’s “prodigal” love then has an effect on us, an effect Jesus sought to effect in the Pharisees and law teachers to whom he spoke the parable. We have human brothers and sisters wandering from Christ, lost and dead. Our Father gave his Son for all, each of us included. We have the privilege of sharing with them that our Father’s arms are open to them. This is our privilege. It’s the privilege of our congregation’s district elders; to show the Father’s open arms and to honestly and lovingly call them to him. Amen. | {
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DT = Russian Mafia or DT = Postmodernism?
Sunday, April 21, 2019
“Hinge Pictures” is an austerely playful exhibition featuring eight globally prominent women artists. Their work ranges from curiously personal to boldly conceptual. Between those extremes, the large photo-murals and smaller sculptural works of Berlin-based Claudia Wieser provide a provocative new view of the relationship between form, time and space in the expanses of the downstairs corner gallery. Here a vast wall collage, top, includes mirrored glass constructs that kaleidoscopically slice and dice the gallery spaces as images of classical statuary vie with Bauhaus patterning and a shadowy view of a modern woman like a female time traveler wandering across the history of civilization.
German born, Paris based Ulla von Brandenburg bridges minimalism and intimacy with sweeping, sensual ripples of richly hued fabrics arranged as a kind of undulating amniotic labyrinth that leads to a chamber where you can watch more fabrics glide across a video screen, above. Other no less improbable highlights include Sarah Crowner's blandly bold, Ellsworth Kelly-esqe wall relief paintings like lost pieces of a giant picture puzzle. Erin Shirreff melds Bauhaus formalism with the cool edginess of Franz Kline's abstract paintings, even as Tomashi Jackson's mixed media works lament gentrification and its impact on public transportation with works like old awnings festooned with streamers of red film strips etched with the faces of the forgotten masses. Brazil's Ariana Varejao blends the formal with the personal in graphical circular color scales and color coded portraits on the walls, all partly explained by a modest display case filled with tubes of pigment in shades like “Snow White,” “Half Caste” and “Big Black Dude.” Local artists rule in two separate downstairs expos where Bonnie Maygarden's “Principle of the Hinge” series of translucent illusionist wall works suggest vivid yet minimal views of graphical humidity, left. Aimée Farnet Siegel's “Principle of Uncertainty” lends a formal perspective to the rise and fall of civilizations as festive streamers turn to tatters. Curated by Andrea Anderson, all of these works articulate a challenging, femme-centric approach to the myriad modalities of modernism. ~Bookhardt / Hinge Pictures: "Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension," Through June 16, Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., 528.3805. | {
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Facebook Bans FEMEN (NSFW)
Recently Facebook announced that it removes roughly 20,000 facebook profiles daily, citing that most of those removed are children under the age of 13. However, it seems that FEMEN are among those 20k banned, yet the girls have most likely surpassed Facebook's age limits.
The girls of FEMEN are a little bit upset over this fact, citing that this act impedes on their free speech. While I agree with them in principal, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the majority of FEMEN's pictures are of them topless, which can be viewed as pornography or at the very least erotica.
I, for one, have no problem with this, and openly encourage all women to go topless (yeah, even the fugly ones), but I am a progressive kind of guy. Unfortunately, Facebook resides in a country of religious conservative morals, and our dear friend Mark Zuckerberg seems to agree. Come to think of it, didn't he create a profile for his puppy? To the best of my knowledge, that puppy doesn't meet the Facebook age requirements, at the very least.
There are plenty double standards in this world, especially with Facebook, so I suggest the girls simply move on to bigger and better. Their Facebook presence will be missed, but I am sure if they created a new profile that lacked in nudity and concentrated on their politics, Facebook would allow them to stay.
The girls, of course, did a topless photoshoot of See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil, so why not sit back and enjoy the wonderful erotica. (Source, Livejournal)
What is Mizozo?
Mizozo is a user generated content site which is in the process of a major shift in business. Originally a news site, Mizozo is now becoming the first truly transparent corporate entity. Not only will everything be laid out, but everyone will have a say in how things are run and get a cut of the revenue. Yes, Socialism. | {
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AEW President Tony Khan was not a fan of the unprotected chair shot to the head
AEW President Tony Khan was not impressed with Cody’s unprotected chair shot to the head at Fyter Fest last night, calling it a mistake.
Speaking to reporters after the show, Khan said that they regret that it happened and the company took immediate precautions by calling a doctor to check on Rhodes as soon as he got to the back.
“I don’t know if this is the time to go into what happened but we had taken precautions in this situation…in that specific situation. A doctor was available and Cody does not have a concussion, he has staples, and we’re all very grateful for that,” Khan said.
Khan also said that they don’t intend to present such hardcore matches on TNT when the weekly show debuts, adding that Fyter Fest was a PPV-caliber show and there are different “rules” for pay-per-views and regular television.
Meanwhile, Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks stuck by his fellow EVP Cody for what happened, saying that we “think” it was unprotected and he’ll “just leave it at that.” | {
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One of the many portrait sketches made by Harry Furniss during his career as caricaturist and illustrator, this drawing shows Johnston in white tie and tail coat, with his elbow on a lectern; he is seen slightly from below, suggesting that the image was sketched during one of Johnston’s after-dinner lectures on the affairs of central Africa (see also NPG 2902), probably during the 1890s and most probably during 1894, when Johnston was in Britain between two colonizing expeditions.
The clothes are drawn with Furniss’s characteristically vigorous ink strokes, while the head is more lightly traced. By endowing Johnston with an anxious expression over a wide, handlebar moustache the artist has given the sitter a faintly comical air, which is gently underscored by the disproportionally large head and thin legs, reflecting Johnston’s wiry build and short stature.
No publication of the sketch has yet been found, but it may have been done for one of the illustrated magazines to which Furniss contributed. Johnston is not mentioned in Furniss’s volumes of memoirs. | {
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Escape artist celebrates Houdini with double straitjacket feat
Lucas Wilson frees himself in 58.46 seconds while hanging 33 metres in air
AMHERST — On Sunday a 24-year-old hung upside down, 33 metres in the air, wrapped in two straitjackets.
He was making a name for himself.
“Houdini drew crazy publicity to advertise a show doing stunts like this,” Lucas Wilson said shortly before his Amherst performance. “He made escaping into an art form.”
When Harry Houdini arrived in Amherst 118 years ago on Sunday, he hadn’t even seen a straitjacket yet.
He was a 22-year-old, penniless, wide-eyed magician whose show a few days earlier in Halifax had been cancelled by the sheriff because the company Houdini was working for was behind on its bills.
So he and his wife Bess left the company and went out on their own, touring the small, tough little resource towns of Springhill, Parrsboro and Joggins before arriving in the then-prosperous industrial town of Amherst.
“Houdini starved for the first 10 years of his career,” said Bruce McNab, author of The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini.
The carpenter from Williamsdale, Cumberland County, led Houdinites on a tour through Amherst on Sunday before Wilson’s performance.
In this town as well, Houdini encountered more bad luck.
The Amherst Daily News had run a column a few days earlier warning people to beware of strangers because a gang of pickpockets was about.
Needless to say, a short man with a heavy Hungarian accent practising sleight of hand didn’t get the warmest welcome — except at the furniture and carriage factory across from the train station; there they stopped work so Houdini could entertain hundreds of labourers.
McNab pitched the day of magic, including a performance by New York magician Margaret Steele, to Amherst town council as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations going on this week.
So to cap off the Maritime Rockabilly Shakedown Festival, which ran over the weekend, the town brought in Wilson, who lives in Port Dover, Ont., and his assistant Kelly Defilla.
Like Houdini and Bess, the two young entertainers spend their days touring and promoting their act.
And on Sunday they did make a name for themselves.
In 58.46 seconds, Wilson escaped from those two straitjackets to the cheer of thousands. | {
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International O's
1 July 2017
Neilson Kaufman
All Orient players who have represented their country during their time with the Club.
A total of 18 Orient players have represented their country at full international level, from Englishman Owen Williams in 1923 to Jamaica’s Jobi McAnuff between 2014 and 2016. McAnuff went onto win a total of 16 caps for Jamaica the most by any O’s player. | {
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07 April 2015
Picturing Change @ White Box
Despite good intentions to educate the public about visual culture, a dearth of visually attractive exhibits render this show a wordy affair, notwithstanding its concise wall notes. The wide time gap between seven posters from the National Archives, to Liew Kung Yu's majestic 2009 artwork, contribute to a lacklustre presentation. Sourcing difficulties aside, this incoherence can be attributed to the wide range of mediums on show, and its "one exhibit per medium" approach. Artful interventions include one clay tapir and a Photoshop-ed lightbox, while social awareness campaigns take the form of overhead photographs, typographic posters, and protest banners.
Jaguh/Pendatang (2014)
Highlighting an advertising agency's online video about racism, and its merchandise-based flood relief efforts, promotes the lofty notion about high-minded corporates. Old posters are interesting to the modern viewer for its message but not its style, while 1Malaysia products demonstrate the failure of traditional propaganda design in a contemporary social media landscape. Indicative of how power impedes creativity, unsanctioned graphic works project the strongest visual interest. Pangrok Sulap's grand green banner feature their own prints held up as demonstration placards, while depictions of Lee Chong Wei as hero/immigrant is provocative street art at its best.
Mind-boggling at first sight, the five-panel 'Pantai Gelora Cahaya' by Kung Yu mesmerises upon reflection. With its visually arresting scale, multilayered cut-outs, and lowbrow sensibilities, photographs of kitschy constructs are put together and held up like a mirror to the astonished viewer. Are these real places? Would I not take a picture of it? What is wrong if such objects attract people to it? Why visit a place, any place? Is that Istana Budaya? An impossible number of perspectives from each individual photograph, are inserted into an inwardly slanting composition, its overall garishness accentuating the sense of make believe. Described as "...simultaneously glorify as they critique", the neutrality in Kung Yu's work, marks it as the odd one out in an exhibition about art & advocacy.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyright @ 2018 ChinoDevean. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author is prohibited. Excerpts may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to ChinoDevean and/or Art KL-itique with specific direction to the original content. | {
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Long periods of peace and quiet favor certain optical illusions. Among them is the assumption that the invulnerability of the home is founded upon the Constitution and safe-guarded by it. In reality, it rests upon the father of the family who, accompanied by his sons, appears with an ax on the threshold of his dwelling. -- Ernst Junger
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Happy Thanksgiving
A lot of us think of Thanksgiving as a time to eat too much, take a couple of days off work, watch football on TV and hit the Black Friday sales. A nice, modern Thanksgiving.
Originally, in the Pilgrim tradition, a thanksgiving day could be declared at anytime of the year, and was a day for solemn reflection and prayer. In 1863, during War Between the States, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day.
Over time, as American society became more affluent, food and fellowship with family and friends took over. As our current consumerism driven culture took hold, we added in the "After Thanksgiving Sale!" part of the equation.
And here we are.
As I write this, the turkey is in the oven, and I have the CNBC special "The Age of Wal-mart" on the TV in the den. In a couple of hours, we'll load up the food and take a short trip to my Dad's house, to spend time with him and my Mom.
It's easy to look at your life and see all the things that are wrong, that you don't like, that you aren't happy with. It's against human nature to be satisfied with the status quo, and that is what keeps us going.
But for this one day, I'm going to count my blessings, and I'm going to be satisfied with the status quo. | {
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Concept of Liberty
At the young age of 16, Floyd Abrams A&S '56, now regarded as one of the country's top constitutional lawyers, began his undergraduate education at Cornell University.
"I often say, I grew up at Cornell."
Monday, Abrams, a graduate of the College of Arts & Sciences, returns to the university to deliver the Milton Konvitz Memorial Lecture at the ILR School. Free and open to the public, the event begins at 4 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall.
He'll be talking about one of his favorite topics, something he started to take an interest in during his Cornell years – First Amendment rights. The title of his lecture is "The Citizens United Case: Dissenting from the Dissenters."
The controversial case involves Citizens United, a nonprofit corporation. It sought an injunction to distribute its documentary, "Hillary: The Movie," free of charge through video on demand in 2008. The film expressed opinions on Clinton’s ability to be a good president.
In what some have called a "blockbuster" and "infamous" decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizen's United, saying that the First Amendment banned government from restricting political expenditures by corporations and unions.
"During the lecture, I plan to show a piece of the documentary. I thought people might like to see what started the controversy and what the previous statute would have prohibited."
Abrams' distinguished career began after he graduated from Yale Law School in 1960. His interest in First Amendment issues really took hold as he met more journalists in the 1960s and began to better understand the important social role they play.
He's been involved in many historic cases, including The New York Times Co. v. United States, better known as the Pentagon Papers case.
In this case, the government attempted to prevent The New York Times and The Washington Post from publishing portions of a secret government study on the Vietnam War.
"I served as co-counsel alongside one of my Yale professors, who was chief counsel. I was ready to defend The New York Times against the government."
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Times, and the case was hailed as a major victory for freedom of the press.
"This was a very significant case. If we had lost, I think we’d be living in a rather different country now."
As he prepares for the annual Konvitz Lecture, Abrams says he remembers what it was like to be at Cornell when Konvitz was teaching here.
"He (Konvitz) had only been at Cornell a few years before I arrived, and his name was already the stuff of campus legend. If you talked to anyone in Arts & Sciences or ILR who had heard his lectures, they would tell you, they were in awe."
While Abrams can't say for sure how Konvitz would have felt about the Citizens United ruling, he does think he would have found the subject very interesting.
"Professor Konvitz deeply believed in individual liberty. When he wrote about the Bill of Rights, the single most important word he used was 'liberty.'"
"I will be using this concept of liberty as a stepping-off point for my lecture," he says.
Currently, Abrams is working on a brief that will be filed just days after his lecture relating to the Citizens United case. The Supreme Court will be rethinking the case, based on a recent state of Montana ruling that says the highest court's decision does not apply to state laws and elections.
In his brief, Abrams said, he will include data showing that, since the ruling, there has been very little corporate political spending. This, he says, contradicts the primary fear expressed by people outraged by the Supreme Court decision.
"I hope those who attend the lecture and learn more about this case will see that this is a subject that reasonable people can disagree about. There’s been so much overheated criticism, which I think has prevented serious and thoughtful discussion about the issues."
A positive outcome of the Citizens United case, he believes, is that more people in more states have been participating in public discourse.
"We live in a country that prides itself on the degree of protection we have for free speech. It's our greatest export to the world." | {
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Singles
User Comments
I was wondering if I could use a 30 second sample from your track Fair Game for the intro to my Minecraft Lets Play video. My videos are open to monitazition so I guess it would be considered commercial use.
It's a great track, and I think it will fit with what I have planned for the series very well. | {
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Kelsey Grammer explains why he brought his baybay for a night of debauchery at the Playboy Mansion:
“Kayte is breast-feeding and we do not have a nanny or a trusted babysitter at this time, so Faith goes everywhere with us,” Grammer said in a statement to E! News Tuesday. “We enjoyed the party with a few of our friends, the baby slept as her ears were covered the entire time and we left shortly after midnight.”
Yeah, I’m not much of a Kelsey Grammer apologist, but I gotta go with dude on this one. I do not get the outrage. IT’S A BAYBAY. BOOBS ARE ITS FOOD. [E!]
Stop what you’re doing right now and watch the crap out of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis on Ellen:
Victoria and David Beckham might be planning a move to New York. I never understand why it matters when celebrities move. When you have enough megabucks to fly to Paris for a nightcap, doesn’t that kind of mean that you live everywhere? [DigitalSpy]
A British man is suing Russell Brand, saying that the comedian hit him with his car or “horseless lorry-coach.” Brand responded by wearing these legwarmers. [E!] | {
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Social Gamer AlamoFire Gets $2 Million First Round
Southlake, TX-based AlamoFire, a developer of games for social networks, has raised a $2 million first round from The Founders Fund and Alsop Louie Partners, reports PE Hub. The company’s current announced product is the game Packrat, which runs on Facebook. The company is an offshoot of design firm Firewheel. | {
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Pride pays off for Hedley
A commitment to quality has earned an Oxfordshire based site manager a top industry award.
Hedley Jackson, who oversees construction of new homes at Asquith Park in Sutton Courtenay, is one of 18 Redrow employees to receive Pride in the Job ‘Quality’ Awards from the NHBC (National House Building Council). Around 15,000 site managers undergo the judging process with just 450 winners selected.
Hedley, 32, who lives in Bletchley, said:
“This is my first win and hopefully the first of many,
“It shows that my hard work has paid off. It’s something I aspired to achieve since I was an assistant site manager.
“The award is good for the moral of everyone working on site and I’ve thanked each contractor personally for their hard work. It also offers a reassurance to customers that they are buying a quality home that’s finished to a high standard. I’m a diligent site manager and check everything thoroughly.”
Launched in January, Asquith Park is a 64-home development featuring designs from the sought-after Heritage Collection.
As site manager Hedley is responsible for overseeing the 45-strong team of construction workers.
Hedley has worked in construction for 11 years, initially as a materials controller before becoming an assistant site manager and then a site manager. He joined Redrow two years ago.
Hedley added:
“I’d worked with construction director Bill Cairns previously and, when he showed me the showhomes at Scholars Place in Hardingstone, I jumped at the prospect to work for Redrow as it’s such a prestigious company.”
Judging for the Pride in the Job Awards begins a year before the announcement of the first round of winners. It includes spot checks of the day-to-day running of their site, plus assessment across 38 areas of site management, including their technical knowledge, consistency in the build process, leadership and organisational skills.
Only site managers who demonstrate exceptional standards in every aspect of their work on site and in the homes they build are considered for a Pride in the Job Award.
Hedley and the other ‘Quality’ Award winners will now have to wait until the autumn to discover if they’ve made it into the top 130 site managers to secure the coveted ‘Seal of Excellence’. | {
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The Stranger
Watching Dead Empires in Decay
Strange Sounds
Watching Dead Empires in Decay
(Modern Love)US: 29 Oct 2013UK: 28 Oct 2013
British ambient artist James Leyland Kirby has surfaced in the electronic genre under various monikers, as fitting for whatever project he’s embarking on at the time. Though he has recorded as Billy Ray Cyrix and Notorious P.I.G., he also has worked as V/Vm and as the Caretaker. His other project, the Stranger, has now put out its first album in five years, and, if the album title wasn’t enough of a tip-off, it is a rather bleak and dour affair. With songs such as “Spiral of Decline”, “We Scarcely See Sunlight” and “Ill Fares the Land”, you pretty much know that you’re in for a record of dark emotion that rivals anything put out by a death metal group. But there are moments that offer optimism here, such as album closer “About to Enter a Strange New Period”, which sounds like minimalist world music from Africa filtered though the sensibilities of a modern classical composer. This song, along with a clutch of others, lifts Watching Dead Empires in Decay from the murk.
It’s not surprising to learn that Kirby is originally from the moors of northern England, because the music of the album is generally evocative of the dark and rainy mood of such swamp lands. Watching Dead Empires in Decay is a little like sticking your hands into the damp, muddy soil of the region and smelling the rot of dead leaves and grass that cling to your fingers. Opening with the static-y sounds of “We Are Enemies But Not Here”, it’s clear that Kirby, as the Stranger, is trying to embrace a certain moodiness and bring to the fore feelings of terror. There are bits on the record in the background, too, that bring to mind the most upsetting horrors of humanity. There are what could be samples on “We Are Enemies but Not Here” and “Ill Fares the Land” where you could swear that Kirby had infiltrated a den of cannibals or zombies munching on the deceased, recorded their feast and brought the material back to the surface of the earth as a kind of ethnological study of an alien culture. Truthfully, this is a record not for the faint of heart as listening to it may cause palpitations, but those brave enough to journey into Kirby’s mystifying landscape will be fascinated with the rotting corpse-like stuff that he brings to the table under this pseudonym.
Watching Dead Empires in Decay
Rating:
Zachary Houle is a writer living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He has been a Pushcart Prize nominee for his short fiction, and the recipient of a writing arts grant from the City of Ottawa. He has had journalism published in SPIN magazine, The National Post (Canada), Canadian Business, OttawaShowbox.com and more. He also reviews books for bookwookie.ca. | {
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Two Pulled From Fiery Crash
Source: Area OPPDate: Sat Sep 29 10:35:10 MST 2018
(TOWN OF ERIN, ON) - On September 25, 2018 at approximately 9:30 p.m. a Wellington County Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer patrolling Wellington Road 124 came across serious head-on collision near Fifth Line, Erin. A west bound SUV and an east bound sedan had collided at a curve in the road. A passerby had pulled one driver, a 74-year-old man from Erin, from the sedan. The driver of the SUV, a 53-year-old Erin man, was trapped. As the officer and two passersby attempted to pull the semiconscious man from the SUV it erupted into fire. The man was narrowly pulled from the vehicle suffering injuries including smoke inhalation.
Town of Erin Fire & Emergency Services attended and extinguished the fire. Guelph-Wellington Paramedics Service also attended and provided medical treatment. The 74-year-old driver was transported to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The 53-year-old man was transported to a local hospital and later transferred to a trauma centre with serious injuries. Both drivers were the lone occupants of their respective vehicles.
The cause of the collision is currently being investigated. The roadway was closed for a few hours but is now open.
The Wellington County OPP is asking anyone that may have witnessed this collision to please call 1-888-310-1122. | {
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Institutions that have relied on traditional channels to build and grow personal relationships face a future in which conversations and in-person meetings have become the equivalent of landline phones and cursive writing.
If you never meet the customer, how do you get to know them? Just as you trained employees to ask the right questions and read body language, you need to learn to decipher the digital footprints that your customers leave behind. By applying advanced analytics, you can predict customer behavior and deliver a highly personalized communication or offer at the moment when the customer is most receptive to receiving it.
A bank with 40 million customers would gain $485 million in incremental revenue by improving its customer experience rating from below average to above average.
Analyst firm CEB TowerGroup estimates that 75 percent of US banking transactions in 2012 came from digital channels. By 2016, that percent is expected to rise to 84 percent. Today, online transaction volumes are more than double that of branch activity. Bank employees have fewer opportunities to say, “Is there anything more we can do for you?”
Yet, customer service is critical - whether customers are in front of you or at their computers. A 2012 Forrester Research report, The Business Impact of Customer Service, calculates that a bank with 40 million customers would gain $485 million in incremental revenue by improving its customer experience rating from below average to above average.
Big data vs. small data
Finding a way to personalize offers involves making sound decisions on which data is meaningful, and in what context. Customer analytics tends to get conflated with the phrase “big data,” but success is just as dependent on “small data.” What’s the difference? Small data is knowing something specific about your customer, such as he just deposited a check much larger than ever before. Big data crunches information to compare a customer’s transactions and demographics against similar customers to segment that customer for marketing offers. Both involve analytics, but not in the same way.
Finding a starting point
Being able to segment customers is a critical starting point, the first stop in ending the “one size fits all” approach to customer communication. Your analysis needs to review customer behavior data to develop insight into how they will respond going forward. No two institutions will have the same segments, and savvy institutions are constantly honing and reworking segments as new information becomes available. Offer-response rates can be looped back into model building. Increasingly, understanding online behavior (how a customer moves through a website or app) is critical to successful segmentation.
Laying in optimization and real-time strategies
Let’s think about the customer who made that huge deposit. You want to get the right offer in front of him before he transfers that money into an investment account at your competitor. If your analytic efforts surface that information about the large deposit a month or a week later, it might be too late. This is where it becomes critical to optimize the process and use real-time monitoring. Optimization does more than create the right offer and the right means to get it in front of the customer. It calculates the opportunity cost of not making the offer. Not every big deposit should trigger a communication.
The real-time component makes sure that if an offer is necessary, it happens as quickly as possible and while the customer is still in-session. And the offer should be tailored to what she’s done or liked in the past. If one customer responds to a direct email or text message, that might be the approach to take. For another customer that tends to engage when she goes to do something (check her balance online), she might see a pop-up ad while checking the balance.
Customers like feeling that you ‘get them’
Some institutions are concerned that customers will find this kind of marketing intrusive - even if they would have no problem training a teller to ask that same customer about opening a CD or handing them a brochure about wealth management services. The reality is quite different. Despite privacy concerns, customers expect that you will know them: 60 percent said so in a 2013 SAS survey of 1,260 US respondents. They want recommendations for products and services based on their lifestyle, previous purchases and search history. Years of shopping on sites like Amazon and Zappos that offer personalized recommendations based on search patterns condition customers to expect this. This level of personalization is becoming a factor in how customers view service quality. Online retailers get high ratings, where industries that typically shy away from customized offers fare worse.
From conceptualization to reality
Being able to optimize and place offers in real time involves a few easily overcome technology hurdles. Banking has not invested in segmentation and personalization to the degree online retailers have. The first step is to recognize that if your customer analytics doesn’t monitor digital paths and can’t be done with optimization or real-time options, it won’t be effective. Many banks use analytics providers that offer a report on overall website activity, not the kind of personalized data that can be read as it streams in to the site. Website tags that allow institutions to track how a customer interacts with a digital channel haven’t been readily available in the past. Additionally, all of this data is useless if you can’t merge the online and offline data to build the profile that allows you to know what offer to make.
Luckily, banks don’t need to create this from scratch. Customer experience personalization solutions exist that can help by:
Capturing the complete online behavior of the customer and accurately associating it with data from other sources (including transactions).
Matching this behavior to a library of offers, reworking what is stocked on the library “shelves” as you see what clients respond to.
Striving to constantly deliver the best offer, not just any offer.
These types of solutions offer solid payoffs. Among the successes:
A global retail bank has increased target audience members by 500 percent at the same time it cuts its online media spending by 10 percent.
A global insurer doubled customer engagements in three months.
More targeted campaigns and improved customer service helped a North American bank achieve annual growth of 80,000 - 100,000 more incremental accounts than what the bank would gain by simply waiting for customers to come through the door. | {
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BLUE Store Locator
BLUE BUFFALO PET PRODUCTS, INC. PRE-CLEARANCE POLICY
Effective date: July 22, 2015
Overview
Blue Buffalo Pet Products, Inc., and its subsidiaries, (the “Company”) has approved an Insider Trading Policy relating to transactions in Company securities by all of the Company’s Directors, executive officers and other employees. This Pre-Clearance Policy describes additional procedures (the “Pre-Clearance Procedures”) that apply to all (i) Directors and executive officers (as defined in Rule 16a-1 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)), (ii) family members who reside with Directors and executive officers, anyone else who lives in a Director’s or executive officer’s household and any family members who do not live in a Director’s or executive officer’s household but whose transactions in the Company’s securities are directed by such Director or executive officer or are subject to such Director’s or executive officer’s influence or control, (iii) trusts, corporations and other entities controlled by Directors and executive officers and (iv) other persons who are informed by the Company’s General Counsel that they are subject to the Company’s Pre-Clearance Procedures, their household and family members (as described above) and trusts, corporations and other entities controlled by any of such persons (each a “Company Insider”).
General
The Pre-Clearance Procedures have been established to:
Help prevent violations of the Federal securities laws and to avoid both the trading and the appearance of trading on inside information;
Assist Directors and executive officers in complying with their filing obligations pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”); and
No Company Insider may engage in any transaction in the Company’s securities (including hedging transactions, transactions in derivative securities, gifts, contributions to a trust or similar transfers, loans, pledges and any exercise of an option (whether cashless or otherwise)) at any time without first obtaining pre-clearance of the transaction from the General Counsel. A request for pre-clearance should be submitted to the General Counsel at least two business days in advance of the proposed transaction (two weeks in the case of using shares as collateral for a loan). If the General Counsel is not available, or in the case of a request made by the GeneralCounsel, such requests should be submitted to the Chief Financial Officer. Any pre-clearance to transact in Company securities given under this policy will only be effective for two business days following the authorization or such shorter period as set forth in the pre-clearance. Another request for pre-clearance must be made for any transaction put in place later than the second business day or such shorter period as set forth in the pre-clearance. The General Counsel may revoke any approval previously granted if she or he subsequently determines that a Director or executive officer is in possession of material, non-public information about the Company or such transaction would result in a violation of law. If the transaction is not pre-cleared or pre-clearance for such transaction has been revoked, then the proposed transaction may not be conducted.
The General Counsel shall have the authority to prescribe the procedures and documentation required to implement this Pre-Clearance Policy.
10b5-1 Trading Plans
Any Company Insider who wishes to implement, modify or terminate a 10b5-1 trading plan under Rule 10b5-1 must comply with all the requirements with respect to such plans set forth in the Company’s Insider Trading Policy, including the requirement to first pre-clear any such action with the General Counsel.
In addition, as described below under “Short-Swing Profit Transactions,” if you are aDirector or executive officer subject to Section 16 of the Exchange Act, and the rules thereunder (a “Section 16 Person”), 10b5-1 trading plans require special care. Because in a 10b5-1 trading plan you can specify conditions that trigger a purchase or sale, you may not even be aware that a transaction has taken place and you may not be able to comply with the SEC’s requirement that you report your transaction to the SEC within two business days after its execution. Therefore, for Section 16 Persons, a transaction executed according to a 10b5-1 trading plan is not permitted unless the 10b5-1 trading plan requires your broker to notify the Company no later than the close of business on the day after the execution of the transaction.
Short-Swing Profit Transactions
As described in the Company’s Insider Trading Policy, the Company considers it improper and inappropriate for any Company Insider or any other Company employee to engage in speculative transactions in the Company’s securities. The Company expects each Section 16 Person to monitor his or her own compliance with such rules and to avoid recognizing short-swing profits.The rules under Section 16 are complex, and Section 16 Persons should consult with the General Counsel prior to trading in the Company’s securities in order to maintain compliance with those rules. In general, however, Section 16 prohibits short sales (i.e., a sale of stock that is not owned by the seller or a sale of stock where the seller does not deliver the stock within 20 days or deposit the stock in the mail within five days of the sale) by Section 16 Persons. Section 16 also discourages Section 16 Persons from engaging in short-term trading of the Company’s securities because such short-term trading may focus Company Insiders on the Company’s short-term stock market performance instead of the Company’s long-term business objectives. Section 16 provides that a Section 16 Person must forfeit to the Company any profits made on short-term transactions in the Company’s securities.
A trade will be considered short-term if a Section 16 Person buys or sells a Company security and offsets that transaction within six months of the original transaction date. For example, a short-term trade would occur if a person buys shares in January and then sells shares before June, or conversely, the person sells shares in January and then buys shares before June. With limited exceptions, any such matched transactions within a six-month window that give rise to profits will be subject to forfeiture to the Company. Any shareholder of the Company, including members of the public, may insist on the Company’s right to enforce such forfeiture.
Broker Requirements for Section 16 Persons
The timely reporting of transactions requires tight interface with brokers handling transactions for Directors and executive officers. A knowledgeable, alert broker can also serve as a gatekeeper, helping to ensure compliance with the Pre-Clearance Procedures and helping prevent inadvertent violations. Therefore, in order to facilitate timely compliance by the Directors and executive officers of the Company with the requirements of Section 16 of the Exchange Act, brokers of Section 16 Persons need to comply with the following requirements:
Not to enter any order (except for orders under pre-approved Rule 10b5-1 plans) without first verifying with the Company that your transaction was pre-cleared and complying with the brokerage firm’s compliance procedures (e.g., Rule 144), and
To report no later than the close of business on the day after the execution of the transaction to the Company by telephone and in writing via e-mail to the complete (i.e., date, type of transaction, number of shares and price) details of every transaction involving the Company’s stock, including gifts, transfers, pledges and all
10b5-1 Transactions
Because it is the legal obligation of the trading person to cause this filing to be made, you are strongly encouraged to confirm following any transaction that your broker has immediately telephoned and e-mailed the required information to the Company.
Post-Termination Transactions
A Company Insider who is aware of material, non-public information when his or her service as a Company Insider ends, may not trade in the Company’s securities until that information has become public or is no longer material. In addition to the foregoing, unless notified otherwise by the Company, the Pre-Clearance Procedures set forth in this document will continue to apply to Section 16 Persons for six months after the termination of their status as Section 16 Persons.
Company Assistance
Any questions regarding this Pre-Clearance Policy or its application to any proposedtransaction should be directed to the Company’s General Counsel.
Certification
All Company Insiders must certify their understanding of and agreement to comply with this Pre-Clearance Policy by signing the attached Certification and returning it to Human Resources initially and annually thereafter.
AmendmentThe Company may amend this Pre-Clearance Policy from time to time, and a copy of thisPre-Clearance Policy shall be posted on the Company’s intranet website.
PRE-CLEARANCE POLICY CERTIFICATION
I certify that I have read and will comply with the Blue Buffalo Pet Products, Inc. Pre-Clearance Policy as amended from time to time. I understand that the Company’s General Counsel is available to answer any questions I have regarding this policy. | {
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Posts I've Made
I almost never use a debugger because:
-I usually have a good idea of where the bug is; it's usually in the last code you wrote (assuming you're testing properly). The code's errorneous behavior is also usually enough to determine roughly where the bug is. Having to look at stack traces and whatnot takes a good amount of time and it's usually not necessary to know exactly where the bug is.
-My approach to fixing bugs is to look at the relevant code and try to improve it. I may find other bugs that I didn't know about or I may find that the code or variable names are confusing. I may also decide that the method I'm using is naturally error prone (has many special cases, etc) and that I should rewrite the code to be simpler. With a debugger, I normally find the bug, fix it, and leave, so the code quality is not improved much. I'd rather spend time looking at the code than using a debugger.
When I do use a debugger, it's usually to generate a stack trace for an uncaught exception or segmentation fault. Although well written C++ code shouldn't throw many exceptions or have many opportunities to segfault, so I very rarely use the debugger. I normally do printf-style debugging since it's faster than using a debugger to generate the same information if you're lucky, and since I prefer reading log files over suspending the program every time I want data.
I also hate Visual Studio because it gets in my way so much. You should just be able to write text without having a box suddenly pop up on the screen, eat your keyboard input, and block out the rest of the code. Why can't the autocomplete stuff be on a seperate panel on the side of the screen instead of blocking the code? I use Dev-C++ (a beta version of it and with the most recent version of GCC) to do all development because the IDE is simple and doesn't get in my way. Also, autocomplete encourages lazy variable naming because the penalty for not naming your variables properly is reduced which makes it harder to detect badly-named variables. Many of the other IDE's features are stupidly implemented and it would waste more space (specifically vertical space) than Dev-C++ even if you disabled all of its features.
With that being said, most people are reliant on debuggers and prefer complicated IDEs such as Visual Studio.
I soon realized this after posting that reply and decided to go with the function overload. Extending the standard namespace is something I try to avoid, but I am interested in what these "certain conditions" are, if you could explain further.
This is what the standard says about it (this is from a 2005 draft but I doubt the C++11 standard changed this significantly):
"It is undefined for a C++ program to add declarations or definitions to namespace std or namespaces within names-pace std unless otherwise specified. A program may add template specializations for any standard library template tonamespace std. Such a specialization (complete or partial) of a standard library template results in undefined behaviorunless the declaration depends on a user-defined type of external linkage and unless the specialization meets the standardlibrary requirements for the original template.171)A program may explicitly instantiate any templates in the standardlibrary only if the declaration depends on the name of a user-defined type of external linkage and the instantiation meetsthe standard library requirements for the original template."
Footnote 171: "Any library code that instantiates other library templates must be prepared to work adequately with any user-supplied specialization that meetsthe minimum requirements of the Standard."
You might want to wait for concepts to be standardized (or killed) before trying to add information about when a template would work to its interface. You're going to have to change your code if the standards comittee actually implements concepts and you want to use that feature (which would basically do what you're trying to do right now).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concepts_%28C%2B%2B%29However, this probably isn't going to be standardized for another 5 years at least (if it does become standard).
I could try this but it would involve specializing is_arithmetic for mytype which is something I don't really want to do. Even still it would only evaluate to true and produce the same problems.
I really doubt you're going to be able to specialize the function if your type doesn't have is_arithmetic<mytype>::value==true . You are allowed to specialize templates in the standard library (under certain conditions). The following code compiles even though the mytype specialization of func doesn't use is_arithmetic:
If the is_arithmetic specialization was removed, the code would fail to compile on GCC 4.6. If your type is not an arithmetic type then I think you're going to have to use function overloading.
I think I was concerned that creating an overload would break func for integer types because mytype does not have an explicit constructor and it still takes a single argument integer value. However this is not the case apparently.
Yes; the compiler will prefer to instantiate a template over having a cast and using a non-template (although you can force it to use the non-template version by generating a function pointer to it and calling it, or you can force it to use a template by specifying the template arguments explicitly). | {
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