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Abstract
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We analyze shareholders’ incentives to change the leverage of a firm that has already borrowed substantially. As a result of debt overhang, shareholders have incentives to resist reductions in leverage that make the remaining debt safer. This resistance is present even without any government subsidies of debt, but it is exacerbated by such subsidies.
Our analysis is relevant to the debate on bank capital regulation, and complements Admati et al. (2010). In that paper we argued that subsidies that favor debt over equity are the key reason that banks funding costs would be lower if they “economize” on equity. Subsidies come from public funds, and reducing them does not represent a social cost. It is thus irrelevant for assessing regulation. Other arguments made to support claims that “equity is expensive” are flawed.
Like reduction in subsidies, the effects of leverage reduction on bank managers or shareholders do not represent a social cost. In fact, we show that debt overhang creates inefficiency, since shareholders would resist recapitalization even when this would increase the combined value of the firm to shareholders and creditors. Moreover, debt overhang creates an “addiction” to leverage through a ratchet effect. In the presence of government guarantees, the inefficiencies of excessive leverage are not fully reflected in banks’ borrowing costs.
Since banks’ high leverage is a source of systemic risks and imposes costs on the public, resistance to leverage reduction leads to social inefficiencies. The main beneficiaries from high leverage may be bank managers. The majority of the banks’ shareholders, who hold diversified portfolios and who are part of the public, are likely to be net losers. Our analysis highlights the critical importance of effective capital regulation and high equity requirements, especially for large and “systemic” financial institutions.
We analyze shareholders’ preferences when choosing among various ways leverage can be reduced. We show that, with homogeneous assets, if the firm’s security and asset trades have zero NPV, and the firm has a single class of debt outstanding, then shareholders find it equally undesirable to deleverage through asset sales, pure recapitalization, or asset expansion with new equity. When these conditions are not met, shareholders can have strong preferences for one approach over another. For example, if the firm can buy back junior debt, asset sales are the preferred way to reduce leverage. This preference for asset sales, or “deleveraging,” can persist even if such sales are inefficient and reduce the total value of the firm. | {
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Age Friendly Wanneroo
City approves Age Friendly Strategy
On 19 September 2017 the City of Wanneroo Council voted to adopt its inaugural Age Friendly Strategy, which will be implemented over the next three years.
The aim of the strategy is to assist in creating an age-friendly City and supporting seniors in line with the World Health Organisations (WHO) framework.
“This strategy will help the City become a more age-friendly place to live, work and visit. It is important that we begin to lay the foundation now that will ensure we are well placed to assist our seniors to access the City’s services, amenities, partners and community groups they need in future,” Mayor Tracey Roberts said.
“It is vital that we have an inclusive community and that our seniors are healthy, active and engaged.”
Through the strategy, the City will strive to further recognise the diversity among older people, promoting the inclusion and contribution of the elderly in all areas of community life.
Once implemented, the City will be able to better anticipate and respond to ageing related needs and preferences.
The Age Friendly Strategy commenced development last year, following consultation with 450 seniors, carers and service providers, as well as government representatives and non-government agencies and stakeholders.
The City has more than 18,000 residents aged 65 years and over, and this figure is set to increase to more than 22,500 by 2020.
The strategy means the City can join the WHO’s Global Network for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities, and be able to exchange experiences and share mutual learning between communities across the world. | {
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There is a new threat looming over Nearwood: all of a sudden, winter has come down upon the land. The once green and lush landscape is now locked in ice and covered with snow, driving away the gnomes from a quiet village on the outskirts of the kingdom. Fey the Advisor again calls upon Jane for help, and together they inch their way towards the source of the cold – which turns out to be more than a mere fluke of weather. An ancient evil has awakened to take hold of Nearwood: the powerful Killiman is back for revenge after thousands of years spent in captivity between the two worlds.
As Jane and Fey explore new locations, they help the villagers survive the freeze, while once again saving Nearwood from the clutches of impending doom! | {
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New Businesses
July 07, 1997
Newington Office & Conference Center, a former Loctite Corp. headquarters, 705 N. Mountain Road, Newington, is a 70,000-square- foot conference center with the potential for more than 200 offices. Conference and seminar rooms are being outfitted for use by occupants and the general public. For additional information, call (860)953-2130.
*
The Inn at Harbor Hill Marina, 60 Grand St., P.O. Box 452, Niantic section of East Lyme, is a bed and breakfast whose eight rooms have water views and a private bath; some rooms have private balconies. Open year-round. For additional information, call Sally Keefe at (860) 673-6485.
*
Price, Brochu & Associates LLC, 53 Treeborough Drive, West Hartford, is a consulting and training company specializing in helping organizations that work with older adults. Services include seminars, workshops and organizational assessments. For additional information, call Barbara Price at (860)313-0060 or Elizabeth Brochu at (860)231-8904.
Relocations
* Nationwide Wig Imports moved from 318 Farmington Ave., Hartford, to 9 Oakwood Ave., West Hartford. The telephone number is (860)231- 0020. | {
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HT1632 library (for the Sure Electronics LED display), written by westfw. (HT1632 functions are included directly in Wise4Sure.pde sketch.)
Note: If you already have DS1307.zip installed, you may get an error saying that DS1307 is defined in multiple places (it is already included in WiseClock2.zip). If that is the case, delete the DS1307 folder from hardware/libraries.
Now bring on your 16x24 LED display from Sure Electronics to see Wise Clock 2 in action.
Plug the display into the Duino644 board (or vice versa :). Make sure that the display has the CS1 in the "ON" position and the other three switches are set to "OFF".
Note: The LED display board has a pair of 2-pin screw terminals on the back (face opposite to LED matrices). They may impede the Dunio644 to plug into the display board. Even if that is not the case (it did not happen to me so far), it is a good idea to extract those screw terminals, which can be useful somewhere else. The picture above shows the LED display board with the screw terminals removed.
Next, copy the two text files, time.txt and quotes.txt onto the SD card, after you made sure the card is formatted as FAT16. For information on how to check the formatting, follow this article on adafruit website.
Open the file time.txt in a text editor and modify the line containing the time. This will be the time used for setting the RTC, and it happens when the clock is powered with the time.txt file on the SD card. (After the time was set, the file is "deleted". See more information here.)
Now, after uploading the sketch to Duino644 board, the text from the file quotes.txt should be scrolling on the top half of the display, and the time should be displayed on the bottom half, as shown in this video.
Congratulations! It is now the time (pun intended :) to design a nice enclosure and to show it off to friends and family.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
With the Duino644 kit assembled, we can now start testing it.First, plug the USB cable in the USB miniB onboard connector and make sure the blue LED is lighting.Alternatively, plug in the FTDI connector (or "FTDI basic breakout"), making sure that the USB (power-only) cable is unplugged. Unlike Wiseduino board, Duino644 is powered by the 5V FTDI pin. Blue LED should be on.
Before uploading any sketch to Duino644, we need to install the Sanguino libraries. (Remember that Duino644 is compatible with Sanguino.) At the end of the integration we will see Sanguino listed in the Tools/Board menu of the Arduino IDE. This is the board that must be selected when working with Duino644.
Before proceeding further, we need to modify boards.txt file, specifically the "Sanguino" section, to look like this:
sanguino.name=Sanguino
sanguino.upload.protocol=stk500
sanguino.upload.maximum_size=63488
sanguino.upload.speed=38400
sanguino.bootloader.low_fuses=0xFF
sanguino.bootloader.high_fuses=0xDC
sanguino.bootloader.extended_fuses=0xFD
sanguino.bootloader.path=atmega644
#sanguino.bootloader.path=atmega644p
sanguino.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644.hex
#sanguino.bootloader.file=ATmegaBOOT_644P.hex
sanguino.bootloader.unlock_bits=0x3F
sanguino.bootloader.lock_bits=0x0F
sanguino.build.mcu=atmega644
#sanguino.build.mcu=atmega644p
sanguino.build.f_cpu=16000000L
sanguino.build.core=sanguino
sanguino.verbose=false
This is because Duino644 comes with ATmega644 instead of Sanguino's ATmega644P. The difference between the two processors is a second UART in ATmega644P.
(Note: Future revisions may ship with ATmega644P, although the extra functionality is not required nor used in Wise Clock 2.)
Using the FTDI cable, upload the first sketch, the one that sets the real time clock.(Note: This is just for testing the RTC, since the clock itself can be set using the method described here).
If you feel adventurous you can start directly with the main sketch. It should work, unless you skipped a step or two (forgot to insert the DS1307 chip in the socket, for example) .
To set the clock, un-comment the portion of the code in setup(), upload the sketch and run it once. To avoid setting up the same time at every reset and power-up, modify the sketch by commenting out the setup() portion, then upload it again. Now, the board will just send back the time from RTC on serial port.
Testing the EEPROM is done similarly with Wise Clock and detailed here.
(Note: The Wise Clock 2 functionality does not use the EEPROM so far. In the "glass dome" Wise Clock, the quotations were stored in EEPROM, there was no SD card.)
Friday, October 23, 2009
As mentioned in an earlier post, Duino644 can form the base for an implementation of the Uzebox project. A "uzebox shield" would be plugged in the Duino644 board, much as shields are used with Arduinos. The picture below shows my current effort in trying to get the "uzebox" working. Soldering is done, testing/debugging is next.
A few changes (from the Wise Clock setup) are required:
ATmega644 has a different firmware burnt in (not the Arduino/Sanguino bootloader);
the microcontroller, nominal frequency of 20MHz, is overclocked at 28.63636 MHz.
Many components on the main board are not necessary (RTC, battery, EEPROM etc). Instead of the LED display (2x8 female header) connectors, the four extension (8 pin female header) connectors are used.
I will post the results of this experiment later. I also plan to design a "uzebox shield" PCB.
On the same note (other uses), it was pointed out by fellow Arduino enthusiast BroHogan, of X10 fame, that the Duino644 is also compatible with his Nex10 board (I am grateful for the link on his page), so it can be used as the base for my next X10 project (following his instructions, obviously).
I will keep you posted on the Nex10 project as well, hopefully I will find the time to do it.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
I was close to giving up on SDuFAT library in favour of FAT16, but my one last attempt worked. I was trying to implement a feature suggested by fellow Arduino blogger BroHogan, to set up the clock using a file on the SD card. Since real time clock is set up quite rarely, this idea makes perfect sense.
Here is how it works:
the user creates/copies the file "time.txt", which contains the time, formatted as HH:MM:SS, onto the SD card;
after reset, if "time.txt" is found, the clock is set with the given (in the file) time;
"time.txt" file is deleted, so the next reset won't find the file anymore;
It is always easier said than done.
Firstly, SDuFAT requires the file to have some characteristics, the most important being to contain a pseudo-EOF (0x03) character.
Secondly, the deletion of the file is not physical, the file does not disappear from the SD card, but it is rather modified so that its first character is the pseudo-EOF (0x03). The "deleted" file can be opened and its content read. The code decides that the file is "deleted" by checking the first character. How smart is that?
setRtcFromSDCard() shown below is the function that gets called in setup().
The other software change I made was also the contribution of BroHogan, who wrote (see reply #147) a few functions that perform "fast writes" to the LED display from Sure Electronics. Basically, the calls to digitalWrite() in ht1632_writebits() function have been replaced with calls to fWriteA(). This allows control over the speed of scrolling, ranging from fast to slow, rather than from slow to slower.
Monday, October 12, 2009
At the moment, all of the "original", revision 1.0 (first batch of) PCBs are gone. In the meantime, I designed an improved version, by adding a few more components, to bring it closer to its intended functionality as the backbone of the Wise Clock:
Once the new boards are in, I will have to re-price the Duino644 kit to cover the cost of the extra components, essentially increasing it by US$4, to a total of US$58 (free regular shipping to North America) and US$62 (free shipping outside North America) respectively.
The orders placed until then, at the old prices, will be filled with the new design. Consider this as a "promotion" campaign and take advantage of the "reduced" price. | {
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Good Friday is an important Christian celebration which is marked as a holiday. Good Friday is celebrated on 30th March 2018 in the significance of recall and Respect for Jesus Christ crucifixion and death. Good Friday is also known in the names Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday, or Easter Friday.
Good Friday is here and its time to celebrate with your friends and family and to your dear once. Good Friday is celebrated in Easter Week. Good Friday is the day of praying and give blessings, people on this day send motivational quotes and pictures to their near and dear once through so many social sites.
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On This Holy Day
May His Light Guide Your Path
May His Love Grace Your Heart
And May His Sacrifice Strengthen
Your Soul !
HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY 2018
For God so loved the world
That he gave his only begotten son
To be crucified & perished
For the sins of the world
And saved humanity
May God bless us all on this
Good Friday!
GOOD FRIDAY in my heart! Fear & affright
My thoughts are the Disciples when they fled
My words the words that priest & soldier said
My deed the spear to desecrate the dead.
He showed us the way
He has long been gone
And yet in our hearts
His name shines on….
Wish u a Holy Friday.
Good Friday.
The way of the Cross.
Fasting and abstinence.
Examine consciousness.
Have a day very blessed.
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I am the witness
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I am the CROSS
Blessings on Good Friday
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when all the while
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Feel good when somebody Miss u.
Feel better when somebody Loves u.
But feel best when somebody never forgets u.
Good Friday…
Thankfulness = Fruitfulness
Thanklessness = Fruitlessness
Thanksgiving expands your capacity to receive more from God.
Happy Good Friday
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Good Friday
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Here is the best collection of Happy Good Friday (Holy Friday) 2018Quotes and Sayings.
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. ― W.H. Auden.
“The dripping blood our only drink, The bloody flesh our only food: In spite of which we like to think That we are sound, substantial flesh and blood — Again, in spite of that, we call this Friday good.” ― T.S. Eliot.
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair. – Blaise Pascal.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. – Bible – Peter, 2: 24.
I believe in person to person. Every person is Christ for me, and since there is only one Jesus, that person is the one person in the world at that moment. – Mother Teresa.
At Sussen, the Devil carried off, last Good Friday, three grooms who had devoted themselves to him. – Martin Luther.
We may say that on the first Good Friday afternoon was completed that great act by which light conquered darkness and goodness conquered sin. That is the wonder of our Savior’s crucifixion. – Phillips Brooks. | {
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Observations focused on the problems of an underdeveloped country, Venezuela, with some serendipity about the world (orchids, techs, science, investments, politics) at large. A famous Venezuelan, Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo, referred to oil as the devil's excrement. For countries, easy wealth appears indeed to be the sure path to failure. Venezuela might be a clear example of that.
Archive for July, 2007
This is a puzzling graph which appeared in El Universal a couple of days ago and I don’t quite know what to make of it, it is the Central Bank’s (BCV) study of Venezuelan homes:
1) It says Venezuela was mostly a middle class country in 1997 and has remained the same since.2) There has been little change since 1997. Only 1.1% of the poorest families moved from strata V tto IV.the biggest change is in the increases in the seond strata, which is fully middle class3) Given the change in the price of oil between 1997 and 2005, you would think even spending the money inefficiently would have a larger effect.4) It disagrees with data from the INE, the national Institute of Statistics and the data from Universidad Catolica.
PDVSA’s black box does not tell us what is the national consumption of gasoline and diesel of the vehicles in the country. Recently a presentation by PDVSA’s former economist Ramon Espinasa, put the number at 770,000 barrels per day. In this post we estimate the number using the growth in vehicle sales in the last few years and compare it to Espinasa’sIn the figure above (which has a shift in the x-axis (My Mac died, using Windows!), that is, the first point corresponds to 2001, the last one to June 2007), we plot the total number of vehicles in the country, using the sales reported by Cavenez and adding them to the number of vehicles estimated to exist in the country in December 2000, subtracting a small attrition rate per year.
In the graph below, we assume gasoline and diesel consumption increases proportionally to the number of vehicles. Then, we use the total number of barrels of gasoline and diesel sold by PDVSA’s Deltaven in 2000, which represented 51% of the country’s sales, according to PDVSA’s 2000 SEC report and extrapolate year by year to obtain the graph below.The number I come up with is 750,000 barrels per day, which is quite and similar to Espinasa’s number. In fact, given that the price of gas has not changed since 2000 in local currency and that the currency has depreciated officially by roughly 200% and unofficially by 500%, then it would seem logical to believe that people are using more gas than ever or that more is being smuggled to Colombia due to the price differential.
Thus, if you take Espinasa’s production (or IEA’s or OPEC’s) this type of number, you get that Venezuela’s exports can be no more than 1.63 million barrels of oil a day.
Jezz, my guess is the project was born “cold”. A US$20 (or is it 30?) billion project invented by Hugo himself to carry gas Venezuela does not have across the Amazon and all the way to Argentina. As for the wealth there are an estimated 350,000 shacks in Caracas waiting to “share the wealth”.
Well, it is a pity you had no project and spent the first six years looking for one. But what happens if you change your mind and start a new one? Maybe Venezuelans would be better off with someone who has some idea as to where she or he is going.
It can also be caused by bad Governments, since Chavez became President the number of homes built every year has gone down to one third of what it used to be under this “less capitalistic system”
—“Cities like the one we are building in El Camino de Los Indios, will be the model for the socialist society we are building”
Well, it certainly starts badly, building a city in the middle of a National Park, but he never mentioned that. I thought the international left wanted to sell the world that Chavez is a “green” President. Maybe they realized what a stupid idea and hard sell this would be just by looking at the Transamazon pipeline idea above.
Constitutionalist Hermann Escarra gave a press conference to outline the changes the Commission for Constitutionla Reform will present to President Chavez. Esacrra claims to have a copy of the document (from his brother Carlos?) He has made the following observations:
Macro: The fundamental principles of the Constitution are outlined in the first 9 articles but are contained throughout the document. He mentions, as an example, Art. 19. which prohibits discrimination, to change it would require a Constituent Assembly because it is a fundamental right given to people. The same applies to articles like 152, which gives equality to all states, Art. 299 on social justice and democratization of the economic system or 339 on when the Government can declare a state of emergency. Thus, even if the first nine articles were not being violated, this would not imply that a Constitutent Assembly is not needed.
On the changes that will be proposed, he notes the following, which I have shortened, to note the most significant ones:
On the Political division of the Republic:
The Government creates communal cities and territories, special federal territories and the Head of State may at any time and by decree change the political organization of the States and municipalities without the people voting on it.
On Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties
–It establishes new limits to individual rights such as when they go agaisnt the general interest or against “constitutional rights”–The hierarchy of international Human Rights Treaties of Art. 23 is removed.–Retroactivity is eliminated for all but penal cases (Art. 24)–Injunctions will not be allowed if a state of exception is activated.–The right to access information is limited. People will now have to prove direct and legitimate interest to the inforamtion. (Art. 28)–It establishes limits to international justice on Human Rights.–It allows for revoking the nationality to those not born in Venezuela.–It establishes a new crime when someone is being “persecuted by public clamor”–A judicial order will no longer be needed to raid a home.–The State no longer protects property (Art. 55) it now only refers to “possesions”–Freedom of Speech is now limited (Srt. 57), introducing the concepts of “hate and promoting crimes”–It limits parent’s rights over their kids, adolescents will have the right to decide who educates them.–One will not be able to invoke freedom of conscience when it may affect society,a person or group of persons (Art. 61)–The “people’s” sovereignty is now limited as a function of the needs to build a socialist state (Violation of Art. 5 of the Constitution)–All requirements for referenda are increased.–The health system will no longer be decentralized.–Young people will have a duty to participate in the social transformation of the country.–Freedom of work is eliminated (Art. 87)–University autonomy is eliminated and Graduate Programs will be determined by the State.–Limitations to the media are introduced in Art. 108.–Only the State may have a monopoly –Art. 115 creates the concepts of :Public property controlled by the State, Social Property controlled by the State, Collective property controlled by the State, Mixed property under the custody of the State and private property which may be confiscated when it affects the rights of third parties or society. Confiscation will be decided by the State itself, not a judicial decision.–Public workers lose the right to strike.–Communal Councils are created.
Organization of the State
–States will no longer be able to organize their municipal division–States will no longer be able to exploit roads and highways commercially.–The National Assembly will be able to remove a Mayor when the Communal Power requests it.–The President will name “Territorial Vice-Presidents” for matters or sectors. He will decide their function, they will be above the Governors.–The President can be reelected indefinitely.–Qualifications to be a Justice of the Supreme Court are made easier–Decentralization is eliminated.–The Bolivarian Armed Forces are created.–The Civil Registry is eliminated.–Art. 299,302 and 303 define the Socialist State.–Limits to the debt of the State are eliminated.–The Central Bank will no longer be autonomous.–The Armed Forces may assume investigative powers on penal cases.–The fight against imperial States is introduced as part of the security doctrine of the country.–Under a state of exception only the right to life communication and torture are left.States of exception will no longer have a time limit.
Changing the Constitution
–Number of votes required to change goes up.–The article on Civil Disobedience (350) is now limited to approval by the Supreme Court.
From
December to January we heard all sorts of reasons why the Government had the
right to end the concession of RCTV, which it did on the end. From the public use of the airwaves, to the
right of the Government to manage the “Hertzian spectrum” in Chavezspeak, we
heard a convoluted and complicated logical sequence in order to justify what
could not be justified. We had seen it before. In fact, this is the way Chavez
has legislated since he became President in 1998, looking for ways to make laws
and arguments that suit him, rather than thinking about the way things should
be and being consistent.
We saw it
with the original referendum for the Constituent Assembly, with the way the
Constitution was stepped on to elect the members to that Assembly. We saw it
when the infamous and illegal Congresillo ran Venezuela for months, selecting a
new Supreme Court, the Prosecutor and other important “independent” political
positions. We saw it with the way the CNE legislated to block the recall vote
against Chavez as much as possible and the way the in which the number of
Justices was increased to 30 members by simple majority of the National
Assembly so that Chavez could regain a majority in the same Court he had appointed
in 2000.
And we saw
with the first RCTV battle and we are seeing it again now with the new argument
that pretends to force cable and satellite channels to carry Chavez’ “cadenas”
live, including now the revival of RCTV in the cable and satellite systems as
RCTV International. As RCTV began broadcasting via satellite and cable, the
Government first suggested that all cable TV and satellite channels should
carry Chavez live and once it was realized that this involves many technical
and legal difficulties, CONATEL ruled by whim that RCTV had to register as a
national broadcast channel, carry the “cadenas” as well as carrying other
institutional messages by the Government, including the National Anthem a few
times a day.
Many of
the earlier arguments given by the Government contradicted the new ruling. We
were no longer talking about the “free” and “public” frequencies of the
Hertzian spectrum that the Government had a right to regulate. Nor were we
talking about a Venezuelan company either. We were talking about the
reincarnation of RCTV as an international company to broadcast to all of Latin America, capturing the upper end of the Venezuelan
market and trying to capture other Latin American markets to compensate the
loss in market share.
As such,
it has to be given the same treatment as the History Channel, or more clearly
as the treatment given to Telesur, the Government’s attempt to create a
competitor to CNN in Latin America. You see,
Telesur is funded by the Venezuelan Government; it is run mostly from Venezuela, mostly produced in Venezuela and
is mostly watched by Venezuelans as its popularity has not been extensive due
to the somewhat boring programming. It would hamper this negligible popularity
is on top of that it had to broadcast Chavez’s long speeches, every time the
autocrat wants to celebrate something as irrelevant to Venezuelans as the birth
of the Cuban revolution. This is not an invention as last night Chavez forced
all TV channels to broadcast a speech for hours in which the origins of the Cuban
revolution received a lot of attention.
Thus, it
would be discriminatory to apply these new rules to RCTV and not Telesur, but
CONATEL has ruled that if in five days RCTV has not registered as a Venezuelan
station, cable systems and satellite systems will no longer be able to carry
its programming.
And it is
illegal because it goes into the realm of a private system in which those that
watch have to pay to watch and up to now, the only existing regulation was that
those TV channels that broadcast under the free and public service had to carry
the same programming and could not remove cadenas and the like.
But
clearly, the Government never expected RCTV to adapt itself to the ban, nor its
replacement to have such a small audience, nor RCTV to generate the excitement
it has. In fact, the banning of RCTV has been a boon to satellite systems and
cable systems that have began making special offers to the lower income segments
of the population who miss watching RCTV programming.
Thus, once
again the Dictator shows how naked he is, something that Venezuelans who
understand what a functional democracy should be. But we have nothing even close
to it as everything is done to satisfy every whim and desire of Hugo Chavez. We
have no rule of law, no rights, no transparency, no checks and balances and no
dialogue. The autocrat says and it is done as he wishes, and only the fanatics
that support him cheer.
While most
Venezuelans had understood this for many years, it was the removal of RCTV’s
concession which finally convinced them that Hugo Chavez was indeed wearing no
clothes.
By now,
politicians and the media abroad understand this quite well. No group
understands it better than Reporters without Borders (RSF), which has seen the
way the Chavez Government has always treated both the media and reporters for
the last eight years. This has led to that organization issuing exquisitely worded
press releases which simply undress the Government’s arguments.
This time
it was no different and as usual RSF’s wording had
little waste: The administrative maneuever happens to be somewhat crass, so as
not to think it is a new attempt at censorship. The Venezuelan Government
always defended the shutting down of the channel because it was excluding it
from the Hertzian network. What else could it be after if it can’t also appear in the
programming of Cable TV?”
It is still a mystery how well the heavy crude partnership of Sincor will work under the “new” management of PDVSA, but what we do know, is that discrimination will be the rule of the day under the Presidency of Chavista Ysaac Donise, from what Tal Cual relates today about the meeting last Friday of the company’s workers with the old employees.
Said Donis: “I am here. Anyone that wants can ask me.” Those present began questioning the veracity of a new listing based on the infamous Tascon/Chavez database, in which people were rated as “apt” or “not apt” to work at the company.
Donis removed any doubts they may have had when he said: “This is a matter of the State. There is a list being circulated in the press and it is real. It came out of here, we are investigating it and whomever leaked it will go to jail. It will be applied to key personnel which is within or outside the company”
Said one worker: “He told us that at Sincor there are new guidelines: If on Fridays you have to dress in red, you do it and that’s it. It is an order from above. If you have to register in a “mision”, you do it and if someone does not like it, we will see about it”
Four engineers in the “Not Apt” category have already been fired by Sincor.These are the words of one of the useful idiots of the revolution, known as commissars at other times and in other places.
By the way, shame on French company Total and Norwegian company Statoil, who are partners in the Sincor projects and allow these policies in their company. In fact, they chose to stay as partenrs of Sincor, with a 40% stake between the two.This would be absolutely unthinkable in their own countries. But that is something I have learned in the last few years, most companies and politicians are willing to tolerate orders of magnitude of abuses more in Venezuela that they would allow in their own countries.
I guess, we now have an “upgraded” Tascon/Chavez list ready to discriminate and persecute Venezuelans on the basis of their political ideas and foreign companies are participating openly in making money out of these operations.
More pictures from Santos M., lots more coming in the future! Below top lft a very nicely shaped Cattleya Lueddemanianna. On the right an unidentified hybrid. In the next row, onthe bottom left there is a Ionopsis and on the right a beautiful Lueddemanianna concolor, wish it was mine!
When I came back three weeks ago, I got the feeling that not much had changed while I was away but many people I respect told me otherwise. They suggested the student movement and the closure of RCTV had Chavez in check and this would force the Government to forget, reduce or minimize the reform of the Constitution, as well as removing autonomy from the university system.
Three weeks later, it seems as if my appreciation was unfortunately right. The committee that has been preparing in secret the changes to the Constitution continues to meet and change the project, the much rejected “indefinite” reelection has been re-baptized the “continuos reelection and the word autonomy is likely to be left in the magna carta adding to it words like democracy and participatory that ar sure to end autonomy as we know it (Even if I disagree with parts of it).
Thus, we will likely see the all-Chavista committee that is studying the changes to the Constitution, present its proposal to the all-Chavista National Assembly and by September 15th. the project is likely to be approved by that body in much the same form as submitted. Of course, they will claim that it was widely discussed, with teh full participation of all sectors of society. But we we all long for the bad old days of the IVth. Republic, when we had dissent, discussion, objections and even some filibuster of such discussions. But more important, political parties attempted to reach some form of agreement or consensus when differences were large.
In this case, all we will see is someone from the opposition ask for an injunction in the Supreme Court arguing that some of the changes are unconstitutional, which they are, but the Court will obviously reject the arguments, since its President is part of the Committee proposing the changes, thus all of the answers to this request will have been prepared and elaborated on by that time.
But you don’t have to be a lawyer to know that some of the changes being proposed do violate th fundamental principles of what Chavez himself used to call the best Constitution of the world, which it wasn’t. Thus, these changes will be approved without a Constituent Assembly and by December, as announced yesterday, we will have all of the changes approved wholesale by the population.
People will get excited that the reforms will not be approved, the day will come and thank to the magic of a rigged electoral registry and the use of the latest computer voting technology, the new Constitution will be in place before the end of the year. A new rape of the Venezuelan Constitution would have taken place, guaranteeing Chavez’ permanence in power for as long as he wishes, even if the “people” do not want it.
A good one by Petkoff, as the robolution parties and persecutes at the same time.
The masks are falling by Teodoro Petkoff in Tal Cual
Costly, ostentatious and overflowing with prententiousness parties-many a week-, brutal forms of political discrimination in the oil industry-not because they repeat they become less hateful-, the unusual frankness of the high oil executive Luis Vierma undressing the disaster of the “new PDVSA”, the swan song of General Baduel, it all became in one week a true mudslide of information about the course of XXI st. century socialism and the self-destructive advances of the “Chacumbele effect”*
The stuff at Sincor is not a causal or isolated phenomenon; nor is it a personal initiative, which can be attributed to the policeman and inquisitorial zeal of one Jesus Ochoa, “Human” Resources Manager of the company. Of course, if the task was given to him to act as the executioner of his work mates, it must not be because he is a quiet angel. But that is irrelevant. All repressive regimes always encounter their dogs of war. That does not exonerate him, nor does it attenuate his individual responsibility, but that manager obeys and applies a line of action, a repressive conception designed in the high spheres of the Government-not even of PDVSA-, in the same place where the instruments for social and political controls of the population are cooked. The questions to which the workers are subject to, the swiny classification of “apt” or “not apt”, on the basis of a purely political measure, leave behind almost like a fairy tale the ineffable “IDocracy” of AD and COPEI of yesteryear.We are now in the presence of a sinister machination, of a “Current Operating Procedure”-to use military language-, advancing with cold and implacable determination, to break the will of the population, to tyrannize it, from a totalitarian perspective.
This is not the “criollo” sneakiness but the institutionalization of the political ghetto where they want to put their adversaries.
We are facing a state policy. Those that oppose the Government lose their rights, are transformed into non-persons. That is why it is not impossible to think in the Cuban/Fidel “advisers”.The other side of the coin is the permanent party binge. The noveau rich that have risen out of the corruption of the dirty deals, of the use of the connections of power to steal, they devote themselves to imitate like monkeys the habits and cstoms that at one time they denounced “in the rich people”. While the jesusochoas and other individuals “apt” for the inquisitorial job do it, the josevicentes and pedrocarreņos enjoy themselves. But not in the modest ways that you would assume from in careful listeners of Alo Presidente-from which the thickest streams of revolutionary morality are poured-, but from a cartoon of the most crass yuppism. They are pathetic, and deep inside what they inspire us disdain.
The masks are falling. This is an endless ash Wenesday, but not for repenting but so that everyone can see the repulsive face of power for the sake of power.
*Chacumbele killed himself by trying out his own poison, in this case it refers to Chavez
At last I got time to take some pictures of the latest flowering. Above a hybrid of Cat. Lulu x Cat. Maui Plum. Yes, it may look artificial, but those are the true colors. On the right a Schomburgkia Brysiana from the Cayman Islands.
On the left a Brassavola Cordata. On the right my Cattleya Violacea. I love this flower, I am no expert and I am not sure how good the flower is, but I just checked and this plant was posted in June 2006 (three flowers), Nov. 2006 (four flowers), April 2007 (5 flowers) and now (four flowers). This from a plant that is not supposed t flower well in Caracas? Strange, no? Anyone want to make a clone?
I love these little Sophronitis Cernua from Brazil, this time I took the picture in full sun. | {
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Clayton’s tradition of charm and hospitality began more than a century ago when the 1000 Islands Region was the playground of the
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Be sure to stop for a bite to eat at one of Clayton’s many restaurants. Watch the boats go by from the deck of one of our river front eateries. Unwind with a leisurely gourmet dinner; or grab a quiet bite to eat at a cafe or pizzeria. Have a sandwich wrapped to go and picnic at one of our beautiful parks. Don’t forget to stop for ice cream!
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How To Learn More
The only factor which makes humans different from other living beings is the power to use their brains to the fullest. We talked before about thinking rational, which helps us choose better decisions even when facing problems. Today we will talk about using our brain to learn more.
Everyone can become smarter and learn new things every day. Whether you have bad memory like me or can’t focus on learning something or you don’t have high IQ level. We talked before about neuroplasticity in the article about improving your brain activity. We talked about what is it and how we can use it to our advantage. So stop the excuses of not learning because if you are reading this article then you have the ability to learn things. Plus by learning new things and new ways to do some things you create new neuro-connections in your brain.
Believe in yourself
It always comes down to mindset setting. If you think that you can do it, then you will. If not then you won’t. Simple as that. Your beliefs shape your actions and therefore in the end your outcomes. Some things are harder than other or you might not getting them as easy as some else. Don’t worry about. Every individual has different strengths and weaknesses but it doesn’t mean that you can’t do what others do. You just need to give time to yourself.
Fixed vs growth mindset
Scientific studies showed that people can have one of these two mindsets. The fixed mindset is the one that you think that you don’t have what it takes to achieve the goal you want to achieve. The growth mindset is the one that you think that you can grow as a person in general. You can learn a new skill; you can acquire knowledge beyond the things you learned at school etc. You are capable of choosing any of the two, so choose the growth one to help you move forward in your life.
Don’t force yourself
I wasn’t an advocate of learning before I realized that. That was also one of the reasons that I didn’t like school back then. Probably most of you also. Who likes to be forced to do something? No one right? Do a research on the subjects you like and want to learn more about at first. Then search for the different options you have to learn from and choose the ones you like. Some of these are seminars, workshops, webinars, books and 1-one-1 coaching. Finally find the tutors and/or mentors you want to learn from because you like the way of explaining things and what they teach.
Focus vs diffuse mode
For better results with the learning process depending on what you need to learn you must use one of the two learning modes. When something is really hard to master it and needs your full attention you need to use the focus mode. In this one you have to be completely focused only on that specific thing and stop paying attention on anything unrelated to that. When you are learning something that is not hard or you need a few more resources to learn about it, then you need to use the diffuse mode. In this mode is like connecting the dots. You take small pieces from random sources at the same time or things you already have learned before and combine them in your brain to reach the end goal.
The 80/20 principle
Aka the Pareto principle. Probably you heard it before somewhere. The reason for that is that it can be used anywhere to help you do something faster and more efficient. You can learn more about it by reading the “The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less” by Richard Koch. Basically the principle states that you need to find the 20% of the work you need to do in order to do the 80% of what needs to be done. For example you don’t need to learn every single line of what you need to read. Find the highlights of the book and the areas that you prefer learning from that book and focus on that. That will bring you more results in less time.
Remove distractions
This one is pretty obvious and needs no explanation but I have to say it. We mention before in the article on how to create better habits the influence that environment has on us. Some quick tips on that are remove notifications from mobile phones and computers, don’t use social media, put your phone in silent mode and study somewhere that is quiet.
Ask, ask, ask
Be curious like children. They always want to learn things about the world around them and that makes them grow as human beings. Curiosity is powerful when learning. Whenever you stuck on something or you don’t understand what others said but you want to learn what that is just ask them. Asking is one of the best ways to learn new things and it’s also free. People like to give advice to others or guide them towards a goal, so it won’t bother them. Instead they will love to help you out because they feel confident that they know and teach something to some else.
The Pomodoro technique
It was designed by Francesco Cirillo and pomodoro means tomato in Italian. For this technique you use those tomato-like timers for cooking and by the way that’s why it’s called like that (you can also use any type of timer). You set it to remind you in 25 minutes to stop whatever you do for a 5-minute break and so on. The basic idea is that you need time to absorb what you learned so far and relax for a while. That will refresh you and you will be ready for more instead of boring yourself to death and giving up.
Chucking
Sometimes you are going to have a lot to learn and you feel pressure of learning all these. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Chucking is a great technique to help you on that. It’s similar to diffuse mode of learning but it’s not the same. When you create a chuck you connect parts of the same material you are learning to help you create a better and more detailed big picture in your mind so you can master it. You don’t have to learn by heart from the whole section you are reading. Just learn the most important parts and move on. While proceeding and connecting the new knowledge you acquired you will see that everything becomes clearer in your brain and you remember the information you need.
Step-by-step progress
Lastly do not get frustrated and push yourself to hard because you might not progress as much as you thought you would in a day. Your brain is like your body, it needs time to adjust to something new. Don’t be hard on yourself because you will ruin everything in the end. Small steps are better than no steps at all.
Those tips are more than enough to help you learn faster and more efficient without feeling tired or stressed out. Use the ones that you help you stay on course and not back down instead. Learning is supposed to be fun and informative, not boring without positive outcomes.
Share this article to inform more people and tell us your thoughts in the comments below: Did you find these tips helpful? Do you like learning new stuff? What’s your way of doing that? Do you have a fixed or growth mindset? Can you suggest other ways of learning?
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The newest video on mobility drills 🤸♂️🐒Subscribe for more 👍youtu.be/nikRtI6JhAwSubscribe for more: goo.gl/uT6gqo A few easy to-do mobility drills which include hanging, crawling and floor work. Use them both before training as a... ... See MoreSee Less
Make sure you follow me on #Instagram 👇You don't wanna miss the stories and posts I share every few days (some available only there)💯 I'm posting #workouts, #drills and #fun activities from my daily life 💪🤸♂️🧘♂️🥋✈️📖www.instagram.com/thelifeupgrades/... See MoreSee Less | {
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Rock Hill mom of three daughters thwarts intruder standing in her kitchen
Tina McManus heard the Chihuahua and her two puppies barking a few minutes after 3 a.m. Thursday when she got up to use the bathroom at her house in the Rock Hill Homes neighborhood just off Cherry Road.
The house was dark. She stepped from her bedroom across the tiny living room to the hallway, past the dark kitchen, then to the bathroom.
When she came out of the bathroom, she felt a draft.
“It was cold, and it shouldn’t have been cold, and the dogs were barking,” McManus said. “I could feel the draft coming from the kitchen.”
She stuck her right arm into the kitchen to turn on the light. There stood an intruder, a stranger staring straight back at her.
“I just flicked on the light and there he was, right in front of me,” said McManus, 36. “We were face-to-face, nose-to-nose.”
McManus’ mind flashed to her three daughters – the oldest 18 and two in middle school – asleep in adjacent bedrooms.
“All I could think about was, ‘I am here alone with my three girls’ – and I was not going to let anything happen to them,” she said.
So McManus – all of 5 feet tall – did what a mother home alone with three kids who finds herself nose-to-nose with a stranger in her kitchen does.
“I screamed out,” McManus said. “I yelled, and I must have screamed so loud and was so nervous that I fell back and fell down.”
The shouts sent the interloper fleeing the few steps across the kitchen to the open back door of the house. The Chihuahua and the puppies gave chase after the guy, but he escaped into the backyard and was gone.
McManus’s oldest daughter, Kyla, 18, found her mother on the floor.
“She was screaming to call 911,” Kyla said. “I saw her on the floor, and I was worried that something had happened to her, that she was hurt or something worse.”
Kyla said her mother was “a hero,” acting quickly to call police and get help.
Officers responded in “two minutes, if that,” Tina McManus said. “They were here right away, and then they stayed around all night until it got light out. They were great.”
Officers searched the area, and a K-9 team arrived, but the man was not caught. Rock Hill detectives are investigating the case as a burglary.
When talking to police about what happened, McManus found that the back door leading from the kitchen was unlocked.
“I guess one of the kids let the dogs out at some point, and the door didn’t get locked back again,” McManus said. “We have stuff here. Tablets, phones – thankfully nothing was missing. I guess I got up at just the right time before anything was taken.”
The barking dogs might have been what kept the house from being cleaned out by the intruder, McManus said.
Later Thursday, McManus was still anxious about finding someone in her house in the middle of the night, staring straight at her from an inch away in the sudden burst of a kitchen light.
“It freaked me out,” she said. “It was just really scary waking up to a stranger in my house. I was thinking about my kids, that somebody might try and hurt my kids. | {
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Background The anthracycline doxorubicin (DOX) is widely used as an effective antineoplastic drug. Cardiotoxicity leading to congestive heart failure is the primary factor limiting the clinical use of DOX. However, although a variety of approaches... | {
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Tom Lane wrote:
> Bernd Helmle <mailings(at)oopsware(dot)de> writes:
>> It might be interesting to dig into your proposal deeper in conjunction
>> with TOAST (you've already mentioned this TODO). Having serial access with
>> a nice interface into TOAST would be eliminating the need for
>> pg_largeobject completely (i'm not a big fan of this one-big-system-table
>> approach the old LO interface currently is).
>
> Yeah, it would be more useful probably to fix that than to add
> decoration to the LO facility. Making LO more usable is just going to
> encourage people to bump into its other limitations (32-bit OIDs,
> 32-bit object size, finite maximum size of pg_largeobject, lack of
> dead-object cleanup, etc etc).
The reason why I tried to mention the named largeobject feature is
that dac security checks on largeobject require them to belong to
a certain schema, so I thought it is quite natural to have a string
name. However, obviously, it is not a significant theme for me.
I can also agree your opinion that largeobject interfaces should be
redefined to access partial stuff of TOAST'ed verlena data structure,
not only pg_largeobject.
In this case, we will need a new pg_type.typstorage option which
force to put the given verlena data on external relation without
compression, because we cannot estimate the data offset in inlined
or compressed external verlena data.
I'll try to submit a design within a few days.
Thanks,
--
OSS Platform Development Division, NEC
KaiGai Kohei <kaigai(at)ak(dot)jp(dot)nec(dot)com> | {
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About Morinaga
Who isMorinaga
Morinaga Nutritional Foods, Inc. (MNF) is a manufacturer of soy products based in Torrance, CA USA. We produce the popular Mori-Nu Silken Tofu brand, a line of silken tofu widely sold across the US and around the world, as well as the industrial and food service ingredient Silken Soy Puree. Our soy products are sold in a unique aseptic package that protects fresh tofu from light and bacteria and allows for a long shelf life without refrigeration—without the use of preservatives!
Mori-Nu’s Soybeans: Quality from Seed to Tofu
Mori-Nu is proud to introduce our soybean supplier, KAPI (KG Agri Products). They boast being able to fully control everything from breeding unique, Non-GMO seeds to shipping out the final product. This means that our soybeans have a watchful eye on them from before planting, all the way until they get to you.
The best soybeans from each generation are chosen to replant for the next year’s crop which ensures that our product will, little by little, continuously improve. This seed development program, one of the most eminent Non-GMO soybean development programs in North America, is one way that we can guarantee that our products are of the highest quality.
KAPI’s in-house developed soybeans are grown by contracted farmers, which keeps our competitors from being able to use the exact strains used for our tofu. This Identity Preservation process, checked by OSIA (Ohio Seed Improvement Association), shows our consumers that they truly are getting the best.
Once harvested, our soybeans go through rigorous quality testing, and only those that pass are accepted and shipped out to our customers. Your quality is assured because KAPI has a hand in every second of our soybeans’ life.
After that, it’s on to our manufacturing facility, where our beans are carefully crafted into the high quality silken tofu that many have come to know and rely on. That way our customers can craft great recipes, with a great ingredient.
1972
Morinaga Milk Industry Inc
The second largest dairy manufacturer in Japan, develops silken tofu sold in an aseptic package, Using Tetra Pak's revolutionary new packaging process that seals in all the wholesome nutrition of tofu in an airtight, shelf-stable box, this new Morinaga tofu can be stored without refrigeration and consumed safely for many months after the manufacture date.
1985
Morinaga Nutritional Foods, Inc.
Morinaga Nutritional Foods, Inc. (MNF) of Torrance, California began marketing aseptic- packaged silken tofu in the United States under the Mori-Nu brand name.
1993
Mori-Nu Lite Silken Tofu
With the success of original Mori-Nu Silken Tofu, Morinaga introduced low-fat Mori-Nu Lite Silken Tofu. Initially sold in both Firm and Extra Firm varieties, Mori-Nu Lite Silken Tofu contains just one gram of fat for every 6 grams of protein.
1995
Pacific Nutritional Foods, Inc.
Pacific Nutritional Foods, Inc. (PNF), located in Tualatin, Oregon, was established in October 1995 as a domestic manufacturer of aseptic-packaged tofu and subsidiary of Morinaga Nutritional Foods.
1997
First Domestically-Produced Tofu
Morinaga Nutritional Foods began distribution of its first domestically-produced tofu products manufactured at PNF. Tofu made at PNF is sold in a 12.0/12.3oz package with 18% more tofu than the original package.
Certified Kosher by KSA
All Mori-Nu Silken Tofu is certified Kosher by the Kosher Supervision of America (KSA).
Mori-Nu Organic Firm Silken Tofu
Exporting to Canada
Taking advantage of the shelf-stable and long life features of aseptic tofu, Morinaga Nutritional Foods began exporting to Canada.
2003
Exporting to Europe and India
Morinaga Nutritional Foods began exporting to Europe and India.
2006
Silken Soy Puree
Morinaga Nutritional Foods introduced Silken Soy Puree, an industrial and food service ingredient designed as a non-dairy alternative to dairy ingredients, with higher density than soymilk and a mild, rich creamy taste.
2010
Nigari Silken Tofu
Morinaga Nutritional Foods introduced Nigari Silken Tofu made with magnesium chloride (nigari). Nigari is a natural component of sea water traditionally used to make tofu in Japan, which brings out the creamy and sweet taste of soy beans.
2013
Non-GMO Verification Program
In keeping with the high quality standards of our parent company, Morinaga Nutritional Foods has always used exclusively non-GMO soybeans in our products. However, recognizing the importance of trusted labeling in keeping our consumers informed, we chose to enroll in the Non-GMO Project's rigorous Non-GMO Verification Program. In 2013 Morinaga Nutritional Foods completed our audit and Mori-Nu Silken Tofu and Silken Soy Puree were verified Non-GMO by the Non GMO Project. | {
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He just got a job down in the Fairfield County/New York area with a company that works at risk kids that help to train service dogs that are donated to wounded soldiers.
He transferred to another community college down that way to finish off this year of college. He still wants to transfer to a college with a ROTC program so he can go into the Army, but for now, he is going to work with kids that were like him and lead by example.
"Lead by Example." Those were his words, not mine.
Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men ~ General George S. Patton, Jr.
She taking all the stars down from her sky to hang them up someplace new, where there's better weather and the sky's a different blue. ~ Autumn Fields
I have no idea what made me read this thread. I normally would have looked at it and the original date and passed right over it.
But, wow Noel, what a wonderful update. It brought tears to my eyes. It is so wonderful that he has done so well, and is interested in helping others do the same. You ladies who were involved are awesome. You just never know whose life you will touch.
Maybe I missed it somewhere, but what did you ultimately do for him as a thank you? There were some great ideas floating around out there, so I'm just curious. =)
Two new backboards went up at the basketball court where they play. Somebody somewhere pulled some strings with the City and got the basketball court repaved with new lines painted. Between me, John, my client and other Police officers, about 14 new basketballs were handed out to the kids including.
Several new benches have been put in that area since then, I know two were made by a few of Jamal's friends who go to the Technical school. Now that the area has been fixed up, the kids have been doing a good job of keeping it nice.
I did some embroidery for him. He wanted some graffiti looking graphics embroidered on a jacket, so I bought him a jacket like the one he usually wore, took it apart and embroidered all the graphics onto it for him. (I checked with his PO to make sure none of it was gang stuff)
When Joyce sent the camera, I added in a 36 pack of batteries, a 512mb SD card and "cool" carry case.
Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men ~ General George S. Patton, Jr.
She taking all the stars down from her sky to hang them up someplace new, where there's better weather and the sky's a different blue. ~ Autumn Fields
Whata neat story! Did you and Joyce know you were helping the same boy or was that coincidence? My neighbor is sort of trying to help a girl who could go either way at this point and has NO partental support (they are jerkos) - I keep telling her she is doing a good thing and that kids often do remember the good deeds done for them. I just wish more stories had such happy and positive endings as this one!!
HappyPuppy wrote:Whata neat story! Did you and Joyce know you were helping the same boy or was that coincidence? My neighbor is sort of trying to help a girl who could go either way at this point and has NO partental support (they are jerkos) - I keep telling her she is doing a good thing and that kids often do remember the good deeds done for them. I just wish more stories had such happy and positive endings as this one!!
Yes. When Joyce posted she was giving away her camera, I asked her if I could have it for Jamal.
Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men ~ General George S. Patton, Jr.
She taking all the stars down from her sky to hang them up someplace new, where there's better weather and the sky's a different blue. ~ Autumn Fields | {
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This table contains the weekly summaries of fatalities and catastrophes resulting in the hospitalization of three or more workers. Employers must report these incidents to OSHA within eight hours. The summaries below include only preliminary information, as reported to OSHA Area Offices or to States which operate OSHA-approved State Plans. The fatalities listed here include only those that initially appear to be work-related, but exclude fatalities that do not appear to be work-related, such as an apparent heart attack of a sedentary worker. OSHA investigates all work-related fatalities and catastrophes. After OSHA's investigation is complete, these reports will be updated with inspection results and citation information.
Worker was operating an aerial lift to perform painting on a 4-story condominium, when he was pinned between the building and the control station in the elevated working platform. His body pushed against the joystick that controlled the lift, causing it to push him even more against the building, which eventually caused his death.
12/09/2010
S. Digregorio & Son, Inc.,Silver Spring, MD 20910
Worker was found under an overhead door.
12/09/2010
Shawn Smith Contracting,Everett, MA 02149
Worker fell from lower level while installing asphalt roof shingles.
12/10/2010
Highways Inc.,Montery, TN 38574
Bulldozer operator was backing down a slope preparing for seeding. Bulldozer flipped over twice and worker was ejected after hitting his head on dash.
12/11/2010
Wayne Farms, Decatur, AL 35602
Worker fell from a vertical staircase located in the locker room. She cut her lip and was taken to the medical room, where she later passed out in the chair. She was rushed to the emergency room, where she was pronounced dead.
12/13/2010
Bronco Drilling, Edmond, OK 73019
The drilling rig crew was making a connection, when a worker threw a chain over his shoulder. The chain wrapped around the line going into the drum, and the worker was pulled into the draw works.
12/13/2010
Radi LLC, Garyville, LA 70051
Worker fell into the Mississippi River under the barge he was working on. He was admitted to a hospital, where he later died.
12/14/2010
Eagle Insulation LLC., Westlake, LA 70669
Worker was stepping out of his vehicle and fell over onto the ground.
12/14/2010
Eclipse Construction Company, Etters, PA 17319
A 15- to 20-foot trench collapsed on two workers who were inside helping to move storm drain pipes.
12/14/2010
Francisco Becerra,Prosper, TX 75078
Worker suffered fatal injuries when he fell from a second floor area, which was not equipped with guardrails or fall protection, to the floor of the foyer below.
12/15/2010
S. Miller Excavating, Attica, OH 44807
Owner of an excavating company performing forestry operations was killed after being struck by a falling branch.
12/16/2010
Marshall Durbin Food Corp,Hattiesburg, MS 39401
Worker was picking up trash on the side of the access road and stepped in front of a truck.
12/16/2010
Osi Industries LLC,Chicago, IL 60609
Worker was fatally injured while working on a grease recovery platform. Worker was attempting to use a boom pipe to fill a tanker truck with grease and collapsed on the platform. | {
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} |
Related Links
Johannesburg - The KwaZulu-Natal community safety
department should re-instate the drug intervention unit, the DA said on
Wednesday.
"I will be raising this matter at the next sitting
of the community safety portfolio," spokesperson on community safety
Rishigen Viranna said in a statement.
"It has become even more evident that this province
will never win the war against drugs unless the drug intervention units are
re-instated."
He said the SA Police Service had embarrassed themselves
and the province by reportedly bungling what they claimed was a R3bn heroin
bust in Kloof, Durban, two weeks ago.
"Experts who tested the seized drugs have now said that
police actually seized Mandrax valued at R20m. This is ridiculous and shows
that SAPS is short of the expertise needed to fully fight the drug scourge that
has engulfed this province," Viranna said.
Last month, drugs initially thought to be heroin were
discovered during a raid in the posh suburb of Kloof. Three men, aged 23, 55
and 56, were arrested.
National police commissioner Riah Phiyega said it was the
biggest drug laboratory ever found in the country.
Approximately 10 000kg of drugs were recovered. At the
time, Phiyega estimated the value of the haul at R3bn.
It was later reported that the drugs were methaqualone,
the base ingredient of Mandrax, rather than heroin.
Viranna said the case raised serious questions about the
state of police intelligence monitoring.
"I will be submitting questions to the legislature
to ascertain as to how this misguided episode happened to begin with," he
said.
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Matthew Jonathan "Matt" Darey (born 29 November 1968)[1] is an English trance music producer and a member of Lost Tribe. He is known for his work in the Euphoria trance series and for 'Gamemaster' (as Lost Tribe) and his remixes of Agnelli & Nelson's "El Nino". In 2005, his first major US albums, an EP, Point Zero (featuring the Li Kwan song of the same name), and a double album, Upfront Trance, were released.[2] Matt has sold over two million albums and singles with numerous top 10 and top 20 chart hits.[3] | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
This fast-reading, easily understood book shows how to integrate effective dog training into normal, daily interactions resulting in a level of behavior tht will make your dog a true friend and a constants source of pride. This sensible, effective approach makes use of how dogs learn and shows you how to use tht understanding to establish and maintain the response and communication level you want from your pet. The text is matched to a series of helpful photos and drawin... View more info
Does your cat express his love for you by lying on the book you're trying to read? Does your cat fight with your houseplants, play 'clear the shelf', and refuse to come when called? Does your cat insist on plenty of space - like the entire living room? ? Chances are that your beloved pet, like millions of other cats, is neurotic! In this hilarious cat's-eye-view of the world, Steven Baker, who gave perfect advice in How to Live With a Neurotic Dog, tells you everything y... View more info
The jacket is folded back at the top and bottom, front and back. It is lightly worn at the spine top with a 1/2" tear at the back, repaired. There is a tiny closed tear at the back gutter. ; From the endpapers which are covered with cats to the beautiful portraits and words written that match the cats temperment and beauty, this is a wonderful book to page through. The pages are heavy, and some illustrations are drawings, some paintings, but all are interesting and m... View more info
Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Using a quick A to Z format, the authors provide solutions for such problems as: How to solve housebreaking difficulties that have you baffled; what to do when your dog's barking is out of control; how to stop your dog from destroying your shoes, furniture, or yard; what to do if your dog is shy, nervous, or overly excitable; and how to help your kids and dog get along better. The cover has a bend in the front and one in th... View more info
If you're considering having more than one cat or bringing other animals into the house, you'll value author Karen Davis's advice on keeping peace among your pets. She discusses the pros and cons of choosing between a kitten and an adult cat as your new household resident, adopting a second animal from a shelter, taking in a stray, compatibility between cats and dogs, and protecting pet birds in cages and fish in tanks. She also advises on your cat's diet and how in can ... View more info
Written by James Herriot (1916 - 1995) , this is a new book of memoirs in over a decade. It is filled with the warmth, humor, drama, color, and humanity we have come to expect from the author. His tales of life as a country vet are rendered with skill, grace, and savor; they are the work of a true literary artist. At the writing of this book he still lived in Yorkshire, England, with his wife and family, and his son had taken over the Herriot veterinary practice. The jac... View more info
NEW - A nine-year-old boy is finally old enough to take care of a dog. The family gets a cocker spaniel and names him Barkis. One day, the brother and sister become too engaged in a sibling rivalry. Their curious puppy leaves the house unnoticed. He gets himself into more trouble than a young dog can handle. Who will rescue Barkis? The writer is a Caldecott Honor Author. The jacket is slightly wrinkled in the back, and has a 1/2" tear at the front top edge. This is a... View more info
Nan's Book Shop - providing you with new, used,
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December 10, 2010: Is it ever too soon for a nation to begin activating behind its hosting of the FIFA World Cup? Not for, Qatar, which made headlines worldwide in early December when it was selected by FIFA to host the 2022 World Cup. National leaders have wasted no time in using sports marketing to ramp up their global persona, signing a multi-year, multi-layered branding, advertising and promotional deal with with FC Barcelona that will be anchored by jersey-front sponsorship for the Qatar Foundation.
Team executives for FC Barcelona, winner of the 2009 Champions League and one of the most storied soccer clubs in the world, called the deal a "remarkable milestone." Barcelona head coach Joseph "Pep" Guardiola played soccer for two years in the Qatar Stars League and was among the ambassadors promoting Qatar's World cup bid.
According to team officials, the five and a half year deal is in excess of $200 million. The team said it would receive $20 million for the second half of the current season and $ 40 million for each of the following five seasons, plus upward of $7 million in bonuses for any titles won. The Qatar Foundation, founded in 1995, is a non-profit organization whose purpose is "to bolster education, science and development" in the nation and surrounding regions.
Other FC Barcelona sponsors also include Nike, Audi, Turkish Airlines, Estralla beer. Among its players are international stars Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi.
Lionel Messi's FC Barcelona jersey front will feature the Qatar Foundation logo.This deal marks the first time in the 110-plus year history of FC Barcelona that team officials have worked a financial deal for jersey sponsorship. Since 2006, team jerseys have sported the logo of the United Nations Children's Fund, but the team said it does not receive money for the placement. According to Barcelona, a new jersey incorporating both logos is being designed by Nike, which is the club's official outfitter, but "if that is not possible the UNICEF name will take priority."
Industry analysts said the deal would help to motivate interest in and understanding of Qatar as their time to host the FIFA World Cup approaches. Concurrently, it provides FC Barcelona with needed financial support. The club is reported to have lost $100 million last season with current debts in excess of $500 million.
"With this deal Barcelona places itself as the indisputable brand leader in world football ahead of our international competitors," Javier Faus, vp-finances for Barcelona, said in a statement. The club stated that the alliance with Qatar Foundation "[is] a remarkable milestone because it represents a record level of revenue for a football club and has more value still in the current economic climate."
Faus said the team would renew its five-year deal with UNICEF that would end after the current season. He said that the club has contributed about $2 million per year "for humanitarian projects."
"The groundbreaking partnership between UNICEF and FC Barcelona advanced the global message on the importance of children's issues in a unique way," UNICEF officials said in a statement following the announcement of the deal with Qartar Foundation. "UNICEF is looking forward to the next stage of the collaboration and is exploring various options."
"With this deal Barcelona places itself as the indisputable brand leader in world football ahead of our international competitors."
Numerous soccer clubs in Europe with global followers akin to the level of FC Barcelona already have jersey-front sponsors, but Barcelona's deal, according to analysts, exceeds the jersey-front financial deals of such clubs as Manchester United (AON), Real Madrid (Bwin) and Bayern Munich. In the U.S. more than 75% of Major League Soccer clubs have jersey-front sponsor deals.
For the record, the State of Qatar is an Arab emirate located on a peninsula surrounded by the Persian Gulf on three sides and bordered by Saudi Arabia on the other. The official language is Arabic, and its population is about 1.7 million. It is among the most gas and oil rich laden nations in the world.
Reader Comments (13)
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Do we give students enough?
A couple of weeks ago I found myself giving the opening keynote at the Association of Graduate Recruiters development conference as a TEDx style talk (ie around 18 minutes). Held in London and at a rather swish conference centre there were about 200 delegates. It was all about how one develops the skills in newly recruited graduates. Interestingly during the short break I spoke to number of those delegates, a great many of whom were not graduates themselves and when asked why they had decided not to go to University, pretty well all replied that they had preferred to ‘get stuck in’ to work and to learn by doing.
That thought stuck with me as I opened the careers day at the Stockholm School of economics. SSE has two campuses, one in Stockholm and a smaller one in Riga, Latvia. I was in Latvia at their excellent campus building. It’s a small University; less than 400 students in total from all over the world, lecturers and tutors drawn from a global community and which receives support from the Soros Foundation. George Soros, one might recall, is credited as being the man who brought to an end Britain’s membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism: his financial clout was greater than the UK’s ability to maintain the exchange rate. At that careers day there were some 50 organisations, ranging from Facebook and Google (their first foray into SSE) and EY, KPMG and the raft of Blue Chip organisations all eager to attract and recruit from this hugely prestigious business school.
But when I say that SSE has students from all over the world, there is one country from which there are no students. The UK. And it’s not a matter of fees: SSE fees are around 5,000 euros per year which includes books and other material: living expenses are around a further 3,000 euros and the entire course is taught in English.
No, the reason why there are no students from the UK is quite simple. No one has ever applied. And that made me really wonder. I asked the Director of Studies why that was. She really did not know: she thought that a few UK students would be useful for all parties: SSE is very multicultural to a UK perspective adds richness, and it’s highly regarded: It’s in the FT top 20 business schools in the world so UK students would gain a great education.
But that got me thinking even more about the journey for UK students. There’s currently a great deal of discussion about University fees running at £9,000 per year – but that of course is not the case throughout the UK. Similarly other countries do not have the same charges. No, I fear that this is a matter of simply not knowing what possibilities there are.
I was in Lithuania a day after leaving Riga, where I was co-hosting TEDx Vilnius (more of that in another blog). One of the unpaid, volunteer, organisers had just secured a place in New York to take a further degree in drama and performing arts. The fees were some USD 50,000 and she proudly advised me that she had secured a scholarship bringing the fees to half that amount. But she had been really ferocious in her selection of where to study to spend her money on the course – “invest, not simply spend”, she retorted. She was not going to accept mediocrity as she would have to take additional jobs just to cover fees and living costs as she did not have parents who could afford that sort of money. It was her investment in her future and she would make sure that her hard earned money would be well spent.
And that brought me back to the UK and SSE and that no applications had been received from UK students. No, it was not a matter of fees: perhaps it was a fear of travelling all the way to Riga to take a course in English surrounded by English speaking other students or perhaps it was just that students had not thought about it. At all. And perhaps their schools had never thought of advising that there are other Universities in the world and that some offered much better value.
Or maybe that the drive which Ruta in Lithuania clearly showed, was just much stronger than so many UK students.
I wonder if we are offering our bright eyed 17 year olds real guidance as to how they can make the most of the enormous set of opportunities which await them.
After all, there are over 3,000 Universities in the EU alone. So I wonder whether our schools in the UK have the resources to guide our young people in their selection of University, other training schemes whether or to “get stuck in”. | {
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About Cynthia Angeles
Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Cynthia lives in Washington, DC with her husband, Michael Nowak, an avid fly fisherman and an excellent cook. They enjoy dining out, traveling and share a love of food and wine.
“Growing up, my siblings and I were not schooled in art, but we were always sketching. Even my late mother drew every night before going to bed”, Cynthia mused. She studied piano for many years. In late 1993, she took art classes at Guy Mason Studio Arts. There, she learned oil painting by copying the works of the Old Masters like Monet, Picasso, and Modigliani, among others. Painting has since become a passion. She attended the Washington Studio School to further sharpen her skills. Her piano is still tuned every year but has, sadly, played second fiddle to her art.
Her Art
Cynthia uses watercolor, charcoal, pastel, and ink periodically but oil is her favorite medium. Her style is primarily representational with touches of impressionism although she has ventured into abstraction in some of her pieces. “My art reflects my visual and emotional experiences. A face in the crowd, a scene from nature, or a disquieting piece of news can trigger an idea for a painting or drawing.
“Her body of work covers a wide range of styles and themes including colorful landscapes and portraits that exude intimacy and warmth… Her style of brushwork and use of colors add drama and energy to her paintings. Whether representational or abstract, her work reveals a personal approach to her art that seeks to convey a mood or tell a story.” (Neil Joffe, local artist and art teacher from South Africa)
Lately, she has joined a multitude of artists who turn their artwork into wearable art through ShopVida (https://shopvida.com/). Her design collection consist of scarves, silk tops, and a tote bag.
Her Books
Cynthia has written a book, A Life Reclaimed, published in September 2009 by Booklocker.com. It is about her niece, Sheila, a quadruple amputee who lost her limbs to meningococcemia in 2003. What happened to her was a tragedy but what she has accomplished since then is an inspiring story of hope, courage, and determination. | {
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Kenya is one. Its coastline is a national asset for fisheries, tourism, a growing population and economic development. But Amu Coal – a consortium of Kenyan and Chinese energy and investment firms – is set to start building a coal plant on the only part that is untouched by industrial development. The plant is planned to be some 20km from the town of Lamu on the mainland coast, at the mouth of Dodori Creek.
Quite apart from the unfavourable economic and financing aspects for generating energy from coal, the plant may be Kenya’s single largest pollution source.
The problems should be set out in the Environment and Social Impact Assessment study required by Kenya’s Environment Act and vetted through the National Environment Management Authority. But three key issues are omitted or glossed over by the study. Any one of them should be cause for the environment authority, other arms of the Kenyan government and certainly the public to oppose the coal plant. Thankfully, opposition is growing.
The first problem is a classic Industrial Revolution, Victorian issue. Toxic pollution. Coal releases a range of toxic substances into the environment. These go into the atmosphere, rain, groundwater, and seawater – and then to flora, fauna and people. These substances are barely mentioned in the assessment study. There are also no detailed estimates on the amounts that could be released and how they could be reduced by mitigating actions. The coal intended for use – initially to be imported from South Africa, and classified as “bituminous”, releases large amounts of toxins, particularly if improperly burned.
The impact study also doesn’t clearly state the full size of the mountain of coal residue left behind after burning – almost 4km long by 1km wide and 25 metres high. No credible plan for disposing of the waste is presented.
Second is Kenya’s contribution to global carbon dioxide emissions. Under the Paris Agreement on climate change the Jubilee government committed to reduce these by 30% by 2030. The impact study dismisses the carbon emissions from the plant as negligible on a global scale, at only 0.024% of global emissions. But what it attempts to hide is that the emissions of the coal plant alone will double Kenya’s energy sector’s entire CO2 emissions. This at the same time that citizens, businesses and the government are investing in efforts to reduce their carbon footprints, through – for example through wind, solar and geothermal power generation.
The third reason is a chimera of the above – climate change and toxic pollution combined. It is reasonably certain that sea levels will rise due to climate change. Estimates suggest this could be in the order of half to one metre by the end of this century, and very possibly more. The toxic waste mountain left by the plant will be on Kenya’s flattest shoreline, built on sand. Its base will be maybe 2-3 metres above sea level, and tens to 100m from the shoreline. This is the most vulnerable part of Kenya’s coast to sea level rise, and yet the massive toxic dump is to be placed there.
Part of the impact assessment argues that “the area is remote” so few people will be affected by pollution. Quite apart from the flawed logic that it’s okay to pollute natural wilderness areas, if plans for a major urban development under the LAPSSET project – Eastern Africa’s largest and most ambitious infrastructure project bringing together Kenya, Ethiopia and South Sudan – are concluded, there will be a city of over one million people in the area by 2050.
The report contains nothing about exposure of this number of people to toxic waste. Even the Strategic Environment Assessment for the LAPSSET project, conducted in the last few years, doesn’t include the coal plant in its assessment. The logic is that the plant is “not part of LAPSSET” yet even the simplest understanding of the purpose of both impact assessments and strategic environment assessments is to consider all interacting threats, and particularly the biggest ones, to the environment and people.
Improved standards are undoubtedly needed in Kenya’s Environment Impact Assessment sector. The country will develop, by hook or by crook, with or without a vision for 2030. Strengthening environment and social impact assessment as a tool to facilitate the right sort of development – where currently it’s viewed by business and most government authorities as a pesky bureaucratic step at best – will be one of the single most significant steps the government can take to protect and grow the natural and social assets that secure, healthy and equitable development is founded on.
David Obura is the director of CORDIO (Coastal Oceans Research and Development – Indian Ocean) East Africa, a Kenyan non-profit research organisation. This article was originally published on The Conversation. | {
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Facts:
In his early 20s AB formed a sexual relationship. When that relationship broke down, the ex-partner contacted police and made an unsubstantiated allegation that AB had sexually assaulted him. Relying on that sole allegation, the police officer in question arrested AB. At the time of the arrest, AB was living in a hostel and his arrest was very public. During the arrest AB was given no reason for his apprehension. AB was ultimately released without charge when the police considered the scant evidence against him.
Result:
O’Brien Solicitors argued that the anecdotal allegation of one individual is not sufficient grounds on which the police can form a reasonable suspicion necessary for arrest. We also argued that the arrest was humiliating and unnecessary. We made a further suggestion that our client was unfairly targeted because he was previously known to police – despite that involvement coming about because he had previously been a victim of crime. Once again, being previously known to police is no grounds for arrest. Police settled on AB’s claim of unlawful arrest.
Testimonial:
Thanks Deo and Peter!
Thankyou for settling my claim – I know it was hard work, but the results have paid off in a miraculous way. I recommend O’Brien Solicitors to everyone who has been unlawfully arrested or who has been the victim of unlawful police claims. Thankyou! | {
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German city evacuates high-rise apartments over fire risk
Sep. 21, 2017
BERLIN (AP) — Officials in the western German city of Dortmund say they are evacuating a residential tower block that's home to hundreds of people for fire safety concerns.
The city says the decision to evacuate more than 400 apartments in the "Hannibal 2" high-rise building was "unavoidable ... to protect the tenants living there."
Authorities said they plan to provide further information on the reasons for their decision late Thursday.
Officials in the nearby city of Wuppertal evacuated an 11-story apartment block in June because of concerns over exterior insulation similar to that of London's Grenfell Tower, where a fire that month killed about 80 people. | {
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Also popular is Elementalism's Blaze/Aidelon spam combo. You could pair that with Blades' Affliction/Pen combo. Just be wary of mobs that do nasty things when you Afflict them.
Blade/Blood has alot of synergies. I don't play Blood so I'll leave that for someone else who does.
There's also alot of Blade/Assault Rifle for those focusing on Strike attacks and leeching self-heals.
As for stats, those will come. As you quest just focus on talisman roles (tank, dps, heal). Once you get up in QLs you can focus on stats that will support your build.
I will say though, that you should put Hit Rating on both your weapons for consistancy since the game only uses the stats on a weapon while it's in use, and ignores the stats on your "sheathed" weapon.
See I was looking into blades and fist but the further in game I go the less effective thats becoming.
So now i'm looking at other options such as blade/ele for the ext dps and hinders to stop mobs running like wusses if anyone who was out there could let me know how blade/ele works out if they use it or if its any good at all? | {
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Public procurement
Our public law team is proficient in all dimensions of public procurement law. We have extensive knowledge and experience in advising and representing both public authorities and corporate entities, on a daily basis, in public procurement matters.
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Areas of expertise
Our advisory competencies range from advising contracting authorities regarding the applicability of public procurement law, to guidance throughout the procedure itself and assistance in drafting the award decision.
The team’s public law experts also inform and advise private corporate entities on the public procurement legislation in its widest sense, including on the spot advice regarding tenders submissions, possible actions against an award decision, etc. | {
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A swampy blog of uncertainty, mud and mirth.
Weaved together with lyrical reeds of true stories and imagined happenings.
What is, may not. What's not, may be.
Don't fall in.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Last week's 'Quote of the Week'
After teaching Chinese weekly for perhaps 20 weeks to one of my students, we came across the word 'Qichuang' (get up in the morning) pronounced 'chee-chwang'. After trying to say it several times, my student said with a big grin: "Finally we are speaking real Chinese."
Overall, I got 66.4%, which was over the 60% I needed to 'pass' and get a certificate saying I was of Grade 2, but it floated very close to that line. It was an improvement on my 1998 result in every area though:
Vocabulary and Characters 81%, Listening 19%, Reading 57.5%.
My next step is not as clear as for Chinese. I am not sure if I can devote the huge amount of time and energy I put into getting this result, and doubling it, to get to Level 1 level. I am interested in continuing my studies in Japanese. I have already lost my edge, but would probably still use the materials I have to deepen my understanding and try the same level again. It is a nice level and I don't mind remaining on it and seeking a more satisfying result. Of course, once I get back on the studying horse, I might be grasped by inspiration to go the whole way. We'll see.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Health
2006, contrary to my desire, has been a rather bumpy road in regards to my health. In early January I had chosen it as a main focus to get well and then get fit both of body and mind. I hadn't expected the first one of those to take so long. It is the eighth week of the year and I am only finally escaping from what has been a rather bad run of nuisance health problems (yes, I count myself lucky that something really serious hasn't grabbed me, as should all people. Here's a run down:
I started the year with one mostly healed injured ankle. Well enough to go 17km on New Year's day, that through imprudence (a key word for me), was reinjured and then due to my lopsided protection of that ankle, injured the other ankle. At its peak, both ankles were injured on both sides; the lower calf on the outside was strained and the inside ligaments on both were sprained. Now, I would provisionally say one, the original troublemaker, has healed. The other is painless right now, and should it be painless till my next block of work.
Wisdom teeth have been a non-problem, that became a problem and then, well, let's hope its all for the best. I had all four wisdom teeth removed, which to my ears sounded OK (so long as they need to be removed), but to everyone else's ears sounded a tad excessive, and a rip off. Either way, with the surgery more than a week old, I have still got some teeth concerns. It seems that the swelling pushed my teeth around, and then as the swelling went down the teeth all went back to where they came from, this however opened up the gums close to the teeth and was collecting food in them and it became painful to eat. So I had to revert to soft or mulched food again and still am. But the trip to the dental surgeon explained the necessity of each removal and soon as things are back to normal, I will be happy that I have had them done together without any great ordeal.
I may have also had a mild bout of anaemia again after the surgery. This is purely self-diagnosed, but I felt dizzy and nauseous till about Wednesday this week. It was possibly also another case of imprudence when I decided to start work again on the Monday after my surgery.
And my back is still a work in progress. Absolutely fine when there is nothing wrong, and painful if I sit to play chess or teach for more than an hour.
With such a long list, I have considered how I am going to get back out of this unhealthy hole. Namely, iron tablets in the short term, mulched diet till my next working week, grass-walking throughout this week, gentle exercise and stretching for my back and legs ongoing, longer-gentle walks next week, yoga when my back is no longer in any pain, a nice variety of food once my gums have recovered and then hopefully 100km's in April to wash it all down.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Losing Wisdom
When I was on the bus in Taiwan, one of the few AIESECers who vaguely wanted to continue a conversation with a scary foreigner was explaining his Chinese name, Yingzhi, saying it meant "full of wisdom". And every time he met me again he always said, 'Remember me? I'm full of wisdom.' Anyway, in a different way, last Friday I was depleted of my wisdom with the expensive extraction of four of my "third molars".
The surgery itself was a piece of cake. You lie back, get injected and then leave the world for what seems like barely a few minutes (wish I watched the clock, it was over an hour). What happens after that is much more exciting. You suddenly get moved out on your wobbly, wobbly legs and thrown into a waiting car, which happens to be piloted by Xin's mum. Suddenly you realise that your mouth is full of stuff and you find the front of your jaw, everything from the mouth down, including your lips are completely without sensation and hanging limply. Then you discover that one of those things in your mouth is your tongue - also dozing. You stare into the wing mirror and realise your left jaw decided to adopt an expansive strategy. You look like a lopsided gangster.
You go home with a bag full of drugs and are told not to make any important decisions or drive a car. Hmmmm. Should I take these drugs? Anyway, you do crosswords and watch Chinese TV instead and then remember the drugs two hours later. You struggle down a banana smoothie, which is an appalling experience when your tongue is not in operation or with sensation, and then take those pills. Without a tongue to motivate one's desire for food, many of us would die of hunger you surmise. Your girlfriend kindly calls and you tell her, 'Rhaaay dung eeth nung.' Then feel awfully tired and collapse on bed, awaken at sometime, feel dizzy, collapse on the bed again. You celebrate the reactivation of every mouth muscle.
You get amazed that none of your previously chronically sore body parts are sore and claim to have been miraculuously cured and then remember to take your regular dose of Codeine. You cut down your painkiller intake and suddenly those body parts are reinjured.
Well, that's how it was for me, or was it? The last two days have been better, and now I am almost back to normal. I can almost eat all the things I would usually. Although if I were a carnivore, steak would be an impossibility. My jaw is back to about a third of its swelling from Friday, but still obvious. Anyway, a nice little adventure in the journey of life.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
'To have no hate nor love toward people'
My Chinese study is slowly overcoming inertia and has some movement forward after a break of about a month and a half. I am absolutely flabbergasted in retrospect at my study work-rate last year. I was a machine! It is impossible to return to that state immediately, so I am doing what comes naturally: Indulging in reading, recovering my vocab, listening to Chinese radio and chatting with Xin's mum.
One of my favourite ways to study has been to read in that language. Every student I have ever had, I have recommended it to - but few take it up. When you find something you are interested in reading, it is an amazing motivator. I am fortunate enough to have found my perfect reading material in Chinese - a magazine called Duzhe (meaning: The Reader). It is an assortment of various genres of short reading sections. Small stories. Essays. Jokes and the like. Short enough to immerse yourself in and finish in a break between lessons. And with enough variety so that you can move on easily when you choose wrongly.
One of the readings I did today was called 'To have no hate nor love toward people', which is a line from a Chinese poem by Su Manshu (unless that is a transliteration of a foreign surname). To the author, the line describes a state close to what he thinks would be heaven. He then boldly says, that that is how he describes many places in America. Friends and neighbours don't 'love' each other (love naturally means platonic love). They don't have the expectations on each other that people do in China. As there are few mutual expectations, there is nothing to bind them, and very little to repel them. He lived in America for 20 years and says he never had someone whom he could call a friend. Everyone in the places he lived just had a pool of people that were more mutually recognising acquaintances - very few had what he'd regard as friends. He suggests it comes from individualism - by believing in our requirement to be ourselves, it makes it hard to really meld together, and there is an emotional barrier that is virtually impossible to traverse without making people uncomfortable or making the other person suspicious. That is like New Zealand. In societies that are not as individualistic, the barrier just isn't there and people can intergrate themselves emotionally and also be more repelled when there is not that connection.
This coincides a little with a short story I am writing about someone with an overwhelming desire to connect with people. Someone who I am not, but sometimes play the role of. It is someone I might want to be. But interestingly, someone from that other side of the equation - sees our situation as a paradise - blissfully uncomplicated.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Chinese Test Result
After a long wait, resulting from the teacher-in-charge being away on holiday and no-one being around to send them forward till now, I have finally received my Chinese Language Test result. It was better than my expectation, but with the variation in scores that I had feared.
Listening 81% (even higher than my practice tests)Grammar 94% (as expected, kicked butt)Reading 91% (had expected much worse; this was when my powers of concentration were in free-fall, I must have guessed well)Miscellaneous 69% (my fear, it was my biggest concern just prior to the test, plus in the third solid hour I was in a mental meltdown. It was my second lowest score for that section).
Regrettably with my low score in the last section, my total score fell out of the 'A' band score for Intermediate by a mere three marks (out of 400). Since there are fewer questions than points, 170 marks generating a total of 400, one extra correct answer would have got me there. But as a total score, it is better than all my practice tests - so I am happy with my results. I never quite got into that high band even with a pleasant atmosphere, tea in cup, breaks between sections and so on.
Now remains the choice of whether to go hell for leather at Advanced (and be massacred) or master Intermediate this year. Frankly, I consider only one a viable choice... Anyway, nice to finally know. I might get back to serious study soon. | {
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With Donald Trump winning the White House on November 8th, we though we heard the last of Hillary Clinton. Sure, she’d still be around, causing trouble. But all the deserved criticism of her criminal activity would have been swept under the rug.
Those of us paying attention will remember the many crimes of the Clinton campaign. Long before the election, she was under FBI investigation for an illegal private email server.
Not only that, but her “Foundation” was under investigation for suspicious donations from foreign powers. At the time we all suspected she was taking money to give out favors to such countries as Saudi Arabia.
Then there were even more problems with how her aids handled important emails. More and more we learned that Clinton and her people were skirting the law.
Now it looks like the story is not over. And even democrats are saying something needs to be done.
From IJR:
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Thursday to discuss the news from Wednesday’s James Comey hearing. More specifically, the topic was the FBI director revealing that longtime Hillary Clinton advisor Huma Abedin forwarded classified emails to then-husband Anthony Weiner, ostensibly so he could print them out.
“Do you believe that is a crime?” panelist Willie Geist asked to open the Blumenthal interview. “If there was classified information and it was improperly passed to a person unauthorized to receive it? Yes, it’s a crime,” the senator replied. ”Without knowing what the intentions were and so forth, there is potentially a prosecutable crime.”
Moments later, host Joe Scarborough jumped in: “Should it have been prosecuted?” he asked. “It still may be potentially,” answered Blumenthal. “It’s not outside the statute of limitations. Who will decide it? That’s why we need a special prosecutor to review all of this investigative material.”
Now that Clinton is out of running for president, it seems like democrats aren’t too keen on protecting her. She’s got nothing over them, so they’re not afraid of her.
It comes as no surprise, then, that Blumenthal is so honest about the criminal activity Hillary’s aid committed in sending emails to her husband.
Normally, Clinton allies would make excuses for her behavior. They did this throughout the election. Even though Clinton was frequently exposed in breaking the law, they pretended she did nothing wrong.
That’s all over. The democrats know Clinton and her people played fast and loose with serious laws concerning classified documents. Any one of those emails could have been intercepted by spies or foreign countries. We know many of her emails were stolen, perhaps by Russia, and leaked to Wikileaks.
These laws are in place so that kind of thing doesn’t happen. Yet the reckless behavior of Huma, Hillary, and others jeopardized American citizens. Imagine what would have happened if she became president?
But will there be a special prosecutor? Will Huma and Hillary be brought to justice? We can hope, but don’t be surprised if other liberals come out to protect her.
It will take a concerted effort by the GOP and President Trump to hold Hillary accountable for her crimes. | {
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Mexican Squash Soup
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This soup is packed with vitamins and scented with garlic, cilantro, and nutmeg. It tastes light and fresh but is also wonderfully warming on a winter night. It can be as spicy or mild as you like; simply omit, reduce, or increase the number of chiles to suit your taste.
Instructions
If you’re using zucchini or summer squash, trim the blossom ends and cut into 1-inch pieces. If you’re using chayotes, peel, remove pits, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a 3- to 4-quart pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Cook, stirring, 1 minute; then add the squash. Cook 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the broth, increase heat to high, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until the squash is very soft, 8 to 10 more minutes. Add the spinach, poblano chiles, cilantro, and jalapeño, and cook 8 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a blender and purée until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and reduce heat to low. Add the milk and nutmeg and check seasonings; add more salt if needed. Cook 10 more minutes, to let the flavors combine. Stir in the sour cream just before serving. Serve hot.
Instructions
NOTE: Chayotes are pear-shaped fruits, common in the Veracruz region of Mexico where Aracely Rojas grew up; their flavor is much like that of summer squash. Either chayotes, zucchini, or summer squash will work well in this recipe.
Instructions
NOTE:
Roasting ChilesOn an open flame: Hold the pepper with tongs over the fire; cook, turning, until all sides are charred and blistered.
Under a broiler: Slice peppers in half lengthwise; then arrange, cut side down, on a baking sheet lined with foil. Set an oven rack to the uppermost position and broil the peppers until blackened and blistered.
Remove the peppers from the heat, place in a zip-top bag, and seal. Let sit 5 to 10 minutes, or until the steam loosens the skin. Use a knife and fork to gently remove seeds and skins. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
During intercourse if no suitable lubes are around and many beers are present, grab a lite beer and proceed to pour gently into the open crevice. Once a sufficient amount of light beer has been soaked up enjoy
Peter brought a cougar back to the hotel room who was as dry as a rock. To fix this he gave her the old budlite | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Contents
/ The Best VA Loan Companies for 2019. by Ryan Guina, Flagstar offers conventional loans, FHA, Jumbo loans, and even construction and renovation loans. And yes, Flagstar offers VA loans. They’re available for both purchase and refinance.
Best Fha Loans Comparing USDA vs FHA Loans – Which is Right for You? – FHA Loans. Before the Federal Housing administration was created you needed a large down payment and excellent credit to qualify for a mortgage. FHA loans were created to encourage homeownership after the great depression. today FHA loans are the most used type of mortgage for first-time home buyers.Average Fha Interest Rate Check out the mortgage rates charts below to find 30-year and 15-year mortgage rates for each of the different mortgage loans U.S. Bank offers. If you decide to purchase mortgage discount points at closing, your interest rate may be lower than the rates shown here.
An FHA loan is one option if you need a mortgage with a low down payment but your credit isn't perfect.. updated jul 18, 2019 7 min read. shop around for the best mortgage, because FHA loans are issued by private lenders with different.
Home Buyers looking for the best lenders in Arizona have a lot of shopping around to do. Arizona is home to around 7 million people, and with today’s mortgage rates as low as they are, the housing market is ready for serious home buyers. Home values have increased by roughly 8.3 percent between December of 2017 through 2018 and are forecasted to rise another 3.9% through 2019.
“The federal housing administration (fha), in an effort to provide. Evergreen Home Loans is proud to announce that for the fourth year in a row it has been named a Best Workplace in the Financial.
How To Get A Hud Home Loan HUD helps by insuring loans through other lenders. The lenders will offer you a loan when it is insured by HUD because they are spared the risk of default on the mortgage. It’s best to get pre-qualified for a loan before searching for your dream home so you can move forward quickly once you find a place you like.
Nevertheless, FHA loans are still the best option for some borrowers. Credit score requirements for FHA mortgages are much more relaxed than conventional loans. For that reason, FHA loans may be the.
2019 Fha Best Lenders – Carbon56 – Lenders Fha Best 2019 – Containers-cases – The 8 Best FHA Lenders to Use in 2019 . Share Pin Email By eric rosenberg. updated april 19, 2019 We are committed to researching, testing, and recommending the best products. Best mortgage lenders for VA loans.
A Federal Housing Administration loan, (FHA loan), is a mortgage insured by. As of 2019, you can borrow up to 96.5% of the value of a home with an.. bankruptcy or foreclosure, provided you've re-established good credit.
Conventional Loan Home Condition Requirements What is a Conventional Loan? A conventional loan is a mortgage that is not backed by any Government agency such as the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) or veterans administration (va). conventional loans meet the lending requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest buyers of mortgage loans in the US.
August 15, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Hourigan, Kluger & Quinn PC is pleased to announce that nine of the firm’s lawyers have been named, in multiple categories, to the 2020 Edition of The Best.
FHA almost priced itself out of competition with giant investors fannie mae and Freddie Mac by raising its premiums several times in recent years. FHA made itself too expensive and its market share.
A common misconception about FHA-backed loans is that the government is the source of the loan, but, on the contrary, the FHA only insures the loan – up to 90% of the LTV (loan-to-value) ratio.. You’ll still need to find an individual lender to obtain a mortgage loan, which generally means a bank or another financial institution. | {
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} |
Personal Outlook
It’s about inspirational living and how you relate to people around you.
Personal Outlook is designed to stimulate your interest in Astrology and give you a deeper understanding of your personal motivation, challenges and strengths. You can either choose to live life, following well-worn paths, the easiest options, or you can discover that you have, something unique and of value to contribute.
The moment you were born
Astrologers believe that our character and the events that occur in our lives are influenced by the alignment of the planets at the moment of birth. However, we are still able to exercise free will and make creative choices. Your Birth-chart is a map of the solar system, a blue-print for your life.
Interpretation of birth-chart
Your birth-chart is essential if you want to take your study of astrology further. Looking at the meaning of each planet in turn, Personal Outlook describes the extent and intensity of the relationship between the planets that are representative of you as an individual. | {
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} |
Our Artists
Joseph Pilime aka G – Joza
Started rapping in 2008, recorded an album but failed to be completed due to his high school commitments (that time he wasn’t a Christian and he made music with no clear defined purpose). In 2011, after he received Jesus he changed his raping style and lyrics as most of his music to date is a reflection of his faith in Jesus Christ.Read More
Joseph Pilime aka G – Joza
born in 1985 and his musical journey began as a dancer in high school before spearheading “the basement” freestyle sessions at the prestigious St Faith’s High School in Rusape.Read More | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
All rates are TAX inclusive and per Room listed in Australian Dollars (AUD)
Room
Date
Inclusion
Rate
Extra Adult
Extra Adult Rate
Extra Child
Extra Child Rate
Total
Silver Eye 2 Nights - 1
Sun 27 May 2018
Silver Eye
160
0
-
0
-
160
Mon 28 May 2018
Silver Eye
160
0
-
0
-
160
Total Payable :
320
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Terms & Conditions
Booking Policy
Off peak requires a deposit of one nights accommodation then full payment of balance on arrival.
Peak periods requires a 50% deposit at time of booking then full payment of balance 6 weeks prior to arrival.
Cancellation Policy
Cancellations up to 7 days before the arrival date incur a $50 cancellation fee, with the balance refundable if we are able to rebook the Chalet for the full duration of your stay. If the cancellation is not notified until within 1 week of the arrival date, the full deposit will be withheld.
Child Policy
No charge for children under one
Deposit Policy
Off peak requires a deposit of one nights accommodation at the time of booking then full payment of balance on arrival.
Peak periods require a 50% deposit at time of booking then full payment of balance on arrival.
For bookings during Easter, December and January the 50% balance is required six weeks prior to arrival and will be automatically deducted from the supplied credit card number. If the booking is made less than six weeks prior to arrival the full amount will be deducted when the booking is made.
Noshow Policy
No shows will forfeit all payments.
Other Policy
- School Holidays & Public Holidays are at Peak Rates
- Prices are for two people using one bedroom
- No pets allowed
PLEASE NOTE: Smoking is not permitted in any of our chalets, extra cleaning fees will apply.
- Any damage caused to the premises will be charged to the guest responsible. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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The Maverick Queen
During the 1950s, Barbara Stanwyck starred in a string of westerns that exploited the aggression and independence associated with her star image. The unofficial series, which included Cattle Queen of Montana (1954), The Violent Men (1955), The Maverick Queen (1956), and Trooper Hook (1957), culminated in Forty Guns (1957), the Sam Fuller western so beloved by the directors of the French New Wave. This period is generally brushed off as a time when the aging Stanwyck is trying to re-establish her niche in Hollywood, or worse, as a period of decline. After the 1957 release of Forty Guns, she did not make another film until the baroque Walk on the Wild Side, which was released in 1962. However, Stanwyck soon found her place on the small screen, first in The Barbara Stanwyck Show, which won her an Emmy, and then in The Big Valley. Later, she costarred in the mini-series The Thorn Birds and lent her considerable star presence to Dynasty and its spinoff, The Colbys.
It is fitting that two of the 1950s westerns feature "queen" in the title, because the word not only suits Stanwyck's regal bearing but also indicates the power and authority her characters wielded in most of these films. Women characters were conventionally of two types in classic westerns: They were either the school marm/settler's wife who represents the civilized values of marriage, family, and education in the untamed wilderness; or they were the rough and rowdy saloon girls, Indians, and "half-breeds," who belonged to the wilderness. Neither archetype conventionally represented power or authority, which is signified in westerns by mastery over weapons and horses. Stanwyck's series from the 1950s stands out not only because her characters can match any man with a gun or on a horse but also because they seem to reject the conservative values of the 1950s. During World War II, women had worked at male-dominated jobs and positions while the men were at war, but in the postwar era, they were pressured to give up those jobs to returning soldiers. Reflecting this change in cultural attitudes, Hollywood genre films, especially melodramas and romantic dramas, worked hard to return women to traditional roles. Stanwyck's westerns, including The Maverick Queen, seem to fly in the face of that trend.
In the film, "The Maverick Queen" refers to both Stanwyck's character, Kit Banion, and the hotel and saloon that she owns in the Colorado territory. Kit has formed an alliance with the infamous outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, assisting them in their plans to rob trains and rustle cattle. Kit and Sundance are involved in a relationship, though Kit clearly has the upper hand. After Sundance returns from being on the trail, he rushes to see Kit, but she pushes him away, griping, "Oh, for heaven's sake, take a bath first." The Queen begins to change after Jeff Younger, cousin to legendary outlaws Cole and Jim Younger, comes to town. She decides that Jeff is the "better man" she has been searching for and gives him a job as a faro dealer in her saloon. As her feelings for Jeff grow, she invites him in on the next train robbery and admits her connection to the Hole in the Wall Gang.
Vying for Jeff's affections is ranch owner Lucy Lee, another character that thwarts the female archetypes in westerns. As much at home on the cattle trail as in the ranch house, Lucy buys and sells cattle, orders the ranch hands around, and is in charge of destiny of her property. Powerful and authoritative, Lucy is the equivalent to Kit except she is on the right side of the law. The climax revolves around Jeff's true identity: He is actually a Pinkerton agent in disguise who is determined to bring in Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang.
The Maverick Queen was based on a novel attributed to Zane Grey, though the book may have been completed by Grey's eldest son, Romer. Still, the novel was in the style of the elder Grey, who happened to be Stanwyck's favorite western author. Apparently, the Old West fascinated Stanwyck. In one interview, she referred to the era's gunfighters, pioneers, and outlaws as "our royalty, our aristocracy." She noted, "All the immigrants coming over on the covered wagons and atop the trains, the little Jewish peddler with his calico and ginghams on his back, the good men, the bad men, they all made this country." After Stanwyck's divorce from Robert Taylor was finalized in 1951, she kept their ranch and continued to ride the horses. She was in prime riding shape for the westerns she made during the 1950s, and she was inclined to perform her own stunts. Forty Guns includes a dangerous scene in which her foot is caught in a stirrup, and she is dragged across the prairie. In The Maverick Queen, the Sundance Kid chases Kit across the wilderness at full gallop, forcing her to ride down a rocky incline, which can be a treacherous maneuver for horses. The stunt required the sure hands and steady seat that Stanwyck clearly exhibits.
Unfortunately, Republic Pictures was not up to the potential in the material. Republic, originally one of Hollywood's small, niche studios specializing in serials and programmers, had expanded its budgets during the war years. Studio head Herbert Yates had begun to tackle serious films with major stars, including Johnny Guitar (1954) and The Quiet Man (1952), which won John Ford the Academy Award for Best Direction. However, Republic's attempts to enter the big leagues with major stars in high-profile films only exposed its Poverty Row origins. Aside from Stanwyck, The Maverick Queen featured the studio's stock players, including Barry Sullivan, Scott Brady, and Mary Murphy, who were not in her league. Murphy in particular lacked the charisma and weight to hold the screen in her scenes with Stanwyck.
Director Joe Kane had a reputation for working quickly, and The Maverick Queen was his fourth film of 1955. Whether Kane cut too many corners, or whether he preferred to focus his energies on chase sequences, confrontations, and fight scenes, his directorial choices didn't always bring out the best in the material. Kane opted to depict the exposition and complex interrelationships in extended dialogue scenes. For example, a voice-over narration opens the film with commentary on the lawlessness of the post-Civil War era, which is then followed by a lengthy dialogue sequence between two incidental characters who reveal the entire backstory of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as well as the set-up in which Jeff tries to infiltrate the gang. Not only was this a tedious approach to exposition, but the eye-lines between the characters in the conversation scene do not match as the camera cuts from one man to the other.
The Maverick Queen was shot in Trucolor and Naturama, which were Republic's color and widescreen processes, respectively. Trucolor offered bold hues that were bright and vivid, while Naturama flaunts the beautiful Colorado landscapes, though at 2:35 to 1, the process was narrower than CinemaScope. Whatever the film's shortcomings, a bravura performance by Stanwyck combined with the location shooting near Silverton, Colorado, where George Roy Hill's more famous Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) would be shot thirteen years later, make The Maverick Queen worthwhile viewing. | {
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Top 3 iOS Camera Replacement Apps
With the iPhone being one of the most popular cameras on the planet, it isn’t without its limitations. In today’s article we’ll be going through our top 3 camera replacement apps to circumvent these limitations and take better photos with your smartphone.
Taking the #1 spot in the paid photography apps category in the App Store, Camera+ is the most feature filled camera replacement app available. As far as shooting goes, the app features a stabilizer, timer, burst mode, and the ability to set custom focus and exposure points. Just like the native camera app, Camera+ takes advantage of the volume button to take photos if you don’t like using the touch screen to take photos. The app also includes a photo editor that allows you to set custom scenes, filters, crops, and borders. Once you’re done shooting the app can share your photos to Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or to contacts via SMS and Email.
Since it’s release in October 2010, Instagram has amassed over 15 Million users making it the #1 free photography app in the App Store for quite some time. The app allows you to quickly snap a photo, add filters, and share to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare, Posterous, and via Email. If you prefer taking photos with more feature filled apps like Camera+, the app gives you the option to import previously shot photos from your camera roll. Since Instagram really focuses on being social, you’re able to view images uploaded by your friends right inside the app. Instagram has quickly earned itself a permanent spot on my homescreen, and I’m sure it will on yours too.
Based on the Hipstamatic 100, a cheap, toy like camera produced in the early 1980’s, Hipstamatic allows you to swap lenses, flashes, and film to create a custom analog look. If you’d like to expand your collection of accessories, they offer a myriad of In-App Purchases to create an even greater number of possible combinations. The app features an interface much like the body it was based on, and even has custom sounds for certain features (Ex: you’ll hear a capacitor being charged if you enable the flash). Images can be shared across various social networks, however, unlike Instagram, you cannot easily view images uploaded by other users. One really nice feature Hipstamatic offers is the ability to create stacks of photos and order prints. This makes it much easier than other apps which require you to find other services to take care of printing your photos.
Conclusion
The iPhone can be a very powerful tool when paired with the right apps. Personally, I find myself using Camera+ and Instagram on a daily basis with Hipstamatic being an app I use if I have time to create a perfect combination for the shot I’m trying to achieve. Be sure to let us know your favourite camera apps in the comments section below. | {
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Seiko Velatura Kinetic Perpetual SNP101P-2
Ships in 1-3 Business Days from Sydney with AusPost Express. Sydney customers can pick up on the same day from our Sydney office by choosing to Click & Collect.
3 Year warranty from Seiko (Australia).
Seiko Velatura Kinetic Perpetual SNP101P
Seiko. An unbroken tradition since 1881
A legend in timekeeping, Seiko watches have set the standard according to which other watch companies are measured. The innovation in technology and design by Seiko has been recognized by the many awards it has received from leading authorities in the watch industry. Seiko has served as the official timekeeper at various professional sporting events including the Summer and Winter Olympic games.
Features:
Kinetic - Powered by the Movement of the wearer
Perpetual Calendar till February 2100
Lumibrite Hands & Markers
3 Year Seiko (Australia) Warranty
Specifications
Brand : SEIKO
Code : SNP101P-2
Gender : Male
Face Colour : Black
Water Resistance : 100m / 10ATM / 320ft
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Case Diameter : 46.3mm
Case Thickness : 12mm
Crystal/Glass Type : Sapphire Glass
Strap/Bracelet Type : Silicon Strap
Strap Width : 19mm
Clasp Type : Push Button Buckle
Calendar : Date
Battery : Kinetic
Watch Movement : Kinetic
Warranty : Seiko 3 Year
Packaging : Seiko Box + Instructions + Warranty
Shipping
Orders received before 2pm are generally shipped on the same business day. Please allow up to 3 business days as there may be occasional delays during sales periods. | {
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Your growing baby’s development in week 17
Help your growing baby develop in the seventeenth week of your pregnancy
You may be able to feel your growing baby’s movements this week! Give his or her motor skills a boost with proper nourishment.
What’s happening this week?
Your growing baby has been learning reflex actions over the past few weeks. He or she now knows how to suck and swallow – important skills to know after being born so he or she can receive nutrition properly. Your little one’s brain, meanwhile, has developed to a point where it can regulate his or her heartbeati.
The umbilical cord is thick and strong now, and is firmly attached to your growing baby and the placenta, delivering nutrients and oxygen to him or her and taking away wasteii.
Your growing baby gained a lot of weight this week and is now around five ounces (150 grams).iii
What can you expect?
This week, you just might feel your growing baby’s movements for the first time! Called ‘quickening’, your growing baby’s tiny movements often feel like small bubbles popping or the fluttering of tiny butterfly wings.
Your growing baby’s weight has doubled in the last two weeks, which has also made you gain more weight at this pregnancy stage. Gaining too many pounds, however, can contribute to pregnancy and labor complications. Note these steps to manage weight gain and keep your pregnancy on a healthy track:
Track your weight gain. If you are of a normal weight before pregnancy, on average, you should be gaining almost a pound (0.36 to 0.45 kilograms) per week at this stage of your pregnancy, and a total of 25 to 35 pounds (11 to 16 kilograms) throughout pregnancy.iv
Weight gain can also be regulated with periodic exercise that is gentle on your body such as prenatal yoga and swimming. Remember to consult your doctor before doing any exercises during your pregnancy.
What can you do to support your pregnancy?
Of course, one of the things you should consistently do throughout the pregnancy is to maintain a healthy and balanced diet. Look after your growing baby by limiting your caffeine intake as it may affect the growth of your developing baby and is linked to low birth weightv.
The general recommendation is to limit your intake to less than 200 milligrams of caffeine per dayvi. An 8-ounce cup of coffee has about 95 milligrams of caffeine, while the same amount of brewed tea has 47 milligrams.
If you’re looking for a midday pick-me-up, a great alternative is to go outdoors for a short walk. The change in environment is sure to stimulate your senses and you’ll get a little endorphin boost out of it too. Just don’t forget the sunscreen. | {
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Description
This project site offers resources and information especially for (but not limited to) University of Delaware Elementary Teacher Education (ETE) student teachers (especially those placed in Cecil County Public Schools [CCPS] in Maryland).
Description
This class focused first on personal information management practices, and then expanded to include connecting with the right people online, collaborating, and how to use social media and web 2.0 in educational settings. Even if you don’t currently teach, you’ll be able to use the skills developed during the course to become a lifelong learner, and you’ll be in a better position to convince colleagues and stakeholders of the value of social media and web 2.0 for teaching and learning in your unit. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Carbohydrates are also a needed ingredient in your diet. It is made up of long chains of simple sugar, vitamins and minerals. But what seems to be the connection of the three: carbohydrates, sugar and losing weight?
Do you eat for emotional reasons? Here are some tips on how to stop emotional eating, in the most safe and gentle way, so that you can achieve a lasting state of happiness on your journey to a healthier body and mind.
Our modern, fast-paced world, with all its technological advancements, has allowed us to live more comfortable lives. However, this kind of lifestyle has widely prompted unhealthy eating habits. Find out if you are committing these habits and learn how to avoid them.
While many diet experts will tell you that willpower is the key to dropping your chocolate cravings, the truth may not be so simple. Here are some doable tips that will surely help you overcome your cravings for chocolates.
Healing emotional eating habits with yoga? Mindfulness in yoga is a powerful tool that helps us deal with the heavy circumstances, events, situations, and emotions plaguing our lives. This very same technique can be used to deal with that pest called emotional eating.
Have you ever devoured almost half a gallon of ice cream in one sitting, and then feeling ashamed after doing so? If yes, then you are guilty of binge eating. Get rid of your urge to binge eat in 57 Seconds.
Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
Do you use food as an incredible source of comfort?
Have you ever devoured almost half a gallon of ice cream in one sitting, and then feeling ashamed after doing so? If yes, then you are guilty of binge eating. Get rid of your urge to binge eat in 57 Seconds. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Obagi Medical Devices: Short Term Huge Gainer On Buyout, Long Term Investment Without One
By Scott Matusow:Lately there has been a lot of buzz on a company I have been writing about called Obagi Medical Products (OMPI). I was first alerted some months ago to this company as a potential buyout candidate and informed by anonymous sources that larger pharmas were interested in buying the company out. Lately, speculation of a buyout has become stronger based on the poison pill being voted down by shareholders by over a 2 to 1 margin at the recent annual shareholders meeting.As well, Voce Capital Management, a major shareholder of Obagi publicly revealed its opposition to the poison pill implemented by the Board of Directors of Obagi. Sources continue to say that an $18-$20 "all cash" buyout of the firm may finally be close to being announced.But what if a buyout does not occur soon? Examining this company, I have really liked what I have found. For starters,Complete Story »
By Scott Matusow:I chose the title to this article based on the old adage of "sh**t or get off the pot" -- my sentiments regarding the ongoing Obagi Medical Products (OMPI) saga that has escalated to its current point after VOCE Capital Management wrote an updated note to Obagi shareholders
By Medhanie:There has been a great deal of hope and speculation that Obagi Medical Products (OMPI) is an imminent target for a buyout. This hope was given a big boost when shareholders voted down a poison pill introduced by the company board and executives. It was a resounding statement that shareholders made, telling the board and CEO we want to sell. On the face of it, this makes perfect sense.
By Scott Matusow:Another chapter has been written on the nearly year-long effort by Voce Capital management to get Obagi Medical Products (OMPI) sold. On Monday, 12/3/12, Voce made public another letter sent to the Obagi Board of Directors (BOD).
By Scott Matusow:The buyout talk is heating up concerning Obagi Medical Devices (OMPI) as Cantor Fitzgerald's Irina Rivkind said the company could be attractive to "multiple suitors." The analyst named Valeant (
By Scott Matusow:Yesterday, Voce Capital released a letter sent to the Solta Medical (SLTM) Board of Directors (BOD) expressing its displeasure in the company's appointment of Mark M. Sieczkarek as interim CEO of the company.
By Scott Matusow:As many who follow me know, I wrote several articles covering Obagi Medical Products (OMPI) as a key acquisition target for several larger players in its field. Obagi engages in marketing and selling skin care products which include: Obagi Nu-Derm Systems, Obagi Condition & Enhance Systems, and Obagi-C Rx Systems, just to name a few.
In an exclusive interview with ET Now, Harish Bhat, Chairman, Tata Global, says having a chairman of the board who is in a position of hostility to the major promoter company which is Tata Sons is really detrimental to the interest of all stakeholders including the minority shareholders of the company. Edited excerpts Take us through the events, the flow of events at the board meeting yesterday. What is it that prompted you to propose Santhanakrishnan’s name as the chairman of the company. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
Docker is an open source project to pack, ship,
and run any application as a lightweight, portable, self-sufficient container.
When you deploy an app with gitpush or tsuruapp-deploy, tsuru builds
a Docker image and then distributes it as units (Docker containers) across
your cluster.
A unit is a container. A unit has everything an application needs to run; the
fetched operational system and language level dependencies, the application’s
source code, the language runtime, and the application’s processes defined in
the Procfile.
A platform is a well-defined pack with installed dependencies for a language or
framework that a group of applications will need. A platform might be a
container template (Docker image).
For instance, tsuru has a container image for Python applications, with
virtualenv installed and other required things needed for tsuru to deploy
applications on top of that platform. Platforms are easily extendable and
managed by tsuru. Every application runs on top of a platform.
A service is a well-defined API that tsuru communicates with to provide extra
functionality for applications. Examples of services are MySQL, Redis, MongoDB,
etc. tsuru has built-in services, but it is easy to create and add new services
to tsuru. Services aren’t managed by tsuru, but by their creators. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
4″ Props for Kiln Batts
£2.10 – £19.11exc. Vat
Code 7647 4″ Props for Kiln Batts.
Kiln props are used to support kiln shelves within the kiln, use 3 props of the same height in a triangular formation for the most stable results. Where possible stack the next prop on top o existing prop to form a column allowing weight to transfer directly from the top right down through to the kiln floor | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
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Man banned from Boynton Beach Mall for wearing hoodie
A man is handcuffed and nearly arrested after he refuses to take off his hooded sweatshirt at the Boynton Beach Mall.
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Updated: 5:34 PM EDT Aug 5, 2013
Man banned from Boynton Beach Mall for wearing hoodie
A man is handcuffed and nearly arrested after he refuses to take off his hooded sweatshirt at the Boynton Beach Mall.
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Updated: 5:34 PM EDT Aug 5, 2013
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WEBVTT ONLY ON WPBF 25 NEWS... WETALK TO A LOCAL MAN WHO SAYSHE LEARNED THE HARD WAY ABOUTWHERE YOU CAN AND CANNOT WEARYOUR HOODED SWEATSHIRT. HE WASNEARLY ARRESTED THIS WEEKENDAFTER KEEPING HIS HOOD UP IN ALOCAL MALL. JAHRETT ALEXANDER9-124.33 "IT WAS TAX FREE WEEKENDI WANTED TO SEE WHAT WAS ONSALE.' 22-YEAR-OLD JAHRETTALEXANDER SAYS HE WAS CHECKINGOUT BARGAINS WHEN A BOYNTONBEACH MALL SECURITY OFFICERAPPROACHED HIM. 4.41 "SIR CANYOU TAKE YOUR HOODIE OFF? ISAID NO, FIRST I IGNOREDHIM... CAUSE I DIDN'T ET WHATWAS GOING ON... HE CALLED FORBACKUP.MOMENTS LATER ALEXANDERSAYS MORE SECURITY OFFICERSSHOWED UP... 4.54" WHY ARE YOUHARASSING ME, I AM NOT GOINGTO TAKE MY HOODIE OFF, "5.07"WE'LL CALL THE COPS IF YOUDON'T DO IT... I SAT THERE FORLIKE 5 MINUTES AND AFTER AWHILE I LOOKED AT THE CLOCKAND IT WAS TIME TO GO BECAUSEI HAD TO GO TO WORK AND ILEFT." BUT WHEN HE WALKEDOUTSIDE... HE WAS MET BYPOLICE. HE THOUGHT THEYWOULD CLEAR THINGS UP, BUTINSTEAD... ALEXANDER SAID THEYPUT HIM IN HANDCUFFS ANDQUESTIONED HIM.6.38 "WHYDIDN'T YOU COMPLY WITHSECURITY GUARDS TO TAKE YOURHOODIE OFF? I SAID BECAUSE IWASN'T STEALING, I WASSHOPPING LIKE EVERYONE ELSE... I WAS JUST SITTING THEREBY MYSELF, WAITING FOR MYSHIFT TO START." 6.47FILE AT ATIME WHEN HOODIES IN OURCOUNTRY ARE ONE OF THE MOSTTALKED ABOUT ARTICLES OFCLOTHING FOLLOWING THE DEATHOF TRAYVON MARKET...ALEXANDER WHO WAS JUST TRYINGTO SHIELD THE RAIN, LEARNEDYOU CAN'T WEAR THEMEVERYWHERE...FS HERE AT THEBOYNTON BEACH MALL THEY HAVETHIS CODE OF CONDUCT POSTED ATALL THE ENTRACES... IT READSIN PART... THE "MALL MAYRESTRICT HOODIES, HATS ANDDARK GLASSES CONCEALING FACIALIDENTIFICATION OF PATRONS ANDVISITORS AT THE MALLSDISCRETION." THIS IS HISHOODIE... HE BOUGHT IT A FEWWEEKS AGO, HERE AT THE MALL.2.19 'I WAS WEARING THE HOODIELIKE THIS I WASN'T COVERING MYFACE ... I WAS JUST SITTINGLIKE THIS... THAT WAS IT."ALEXANDER WAS GIVEN A CITATIONFOR TRESSPASSING AND WAS TOLDHE COULD NOT RETURN TO ANYSIMON MALLS FOR A YEAR. THEBOYNTON BEACH MALL SAYS ITSCODE OF CONDUCT POLICY HASBEEN IN PLACE FOR YEARS- INFACT IS POLICY FOR ALL SIMONMALLS. COMING UP ALL NEW AT6 WHY ALEXANDER AND HIS MOMTHINK HE WAS TARGETED.
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Man banned from Boynton Beach Mall for wearing hoodie
A man is handcuffed and nearly arrested after he refuses to take off his hooded sweatshirt at the Boynton Beach Mall. | {
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Presented by the South Windsor Jaycees Foundation, Inc.
A new year...a new fair! Two by Two Zoo and Petting Area, Racing Pigs and Dachshunds!
September 4-7, 2014
The 122nd Wapping Fair is brought to you by the South Windsor Jaycees Foundation, a 501C3 organization. The Wapping Fair brings an exciting combination of fun, unique entertainment and lots of family friendly hands on attractions! | {
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MSI Hybrid Gaming Storage Card.
MSI’s new hybrid gaming storage array is the best thing for me shown at this year’s Computex. The MSI Hybrid Gaming Storage card is all in one PCIe storage card that holds 2 M2 NVMe SSDs and a 2.5″ HDD.
According to MSI, the dual NVMe SSDs are capable of transferring data at a speed of 7200MB/second running in RAID zero. To protect the data, the card comes with super capacitors that will prevent the data transfer to be cancelled in case of power loss. It comes with a custom blower style fan that takes care of the airflow.
MSI says that the card will ship in Branded MSI Desktop systems. According to Anandtech, the company don’t have any plans for a standalone release of this Hybrid Gaming Storage Card. The company aims the gamers having problems with slow speed HDDs. Currently, no other details have emerged. The card is still a prototype and we can’t expect this any time sooner. It may be released next year.
Want to install all games and don`t want to loose speed by using a slow HDD? MSI gaming storage is a PCIe x8 interface card which provides 2 additional M.2 2280(221110) slots in Raid 0, which can provide up to 7200MB/sec.
MSI Hybrid Gaming Storage card is probably the best thing so far by MSI. The drawback, yet, is there is no news that the company will release it separately. Means, we will have to buy the whole MSI Branded Desktop System to test this out. We will keep providing you with the latest new. To keep track of the latest tech and gaming news, keep visiting TheTechsLab.
MSI Demos Prototype Hybrid Storage Card Having M.2 & 2.5” SATA on a PCIe Card was last modified: June 13th, 2017 by Danish | {
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AT Armor Ballistic Plates
Professionals looking at tactical body armor plates for sale can do no better than the selection of stand-alone AT Armor ceramic armor plates offered here. These optimized plates are available as stand-alones or in sets of two and include Level IV body armor options (the highest threat level at which personal body armor can be rated).
Although only about ½-inch thick and weighing in at only 5 pounds, these Special Threat Optimized Plates (S.T.O.P.) are made from a combination of ceramic and polymers and have the ability to stop M193, M855 and 7.62x39 rounds, including armor-piercing incendiary ammo. These lightweight, ultra-thin plates are much more comfortable to wear than steel plates yet offer just as much protection. They're designated as "stand-alone" because they can be utilized without the need for any backers. You have the option of single-curve or multi-curve plates, with the multi-plate options available in a variety of SAPI sizes (Small Arms Protective Inserts). Reach out to us with any questions you have; otherwise, place your order today and know you’re getting the best protection possible. | {
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Ahead of their set at the 11th annual Gem and Jam Festival, T&E did a quick email interview with founding member and drummer of The Motet, Dave Watts. We discussed the lineup changes throughout the years, overcoming hurdles while self-producing their latest album, and more.
Ahead of their headlining set at Gem and Jam, Mark Hill spoke with T&E Collective about all things new with The Floozies. We discussed the recording process of their latest EP, the new structure to their live shows, favorite albums of the year, and what fans can look forward to from the duo next year.
Just after wrapping up the first leg of their winter tour, multi-instrumentalist Evan Fraser spoke with T&E in an email interview about all things Dirtwire. We discussed the universal nature of music, creating harmony with songwriting, and what fans can look forward to from the group in the following year. | {
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View the Evidence:12 Abstracts with Pesticides & Carcinogenic Research
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Frankly, there is a frightening coincidence glaring at us, right before our eyes. Obesity has become pandemic in the past 30 years, paralleling the use of genetic engineering, and increased pesticide use. More than 60% of Americans are overweight, and obesity has doubled in the past 20 years globally. Our intestines may be colonized with new microbes, making us very sick. Something is seriously wrong here and has not been seen before.
Much of the produce that is sold today in supermarkets is supplied from farmers who practice conventional farming methods. In other words, the produce has been grown using chemical fertilizers as well as pesticides and herbicides. Many scientific studies suggest that the effects of synthetic pesticides can be detrimental to our health;one study suggests that the consumption of pesticides may lead to ADHD in children;in some other cases, exposure can lead to many forms of cancers.
Pesticides have been widely spayed over farms, forests, gardens, golf courses, and lawns all over America for several decades. Consequently, they have caused perpetual ecocides, destruction, and disease.
A recent study from UCLA has confirmed that exposure to the herbicide Paraquat is linked with a heightened risk of Parkinson’s disease. Other studies have found that pesticides significantly increase the risk of Parkinson's.
There are three natural catastrophes occurring within nature in slow motion at the moment and they are our fault. All three catastrophes stem from the same kind of mistake made by human science and corporate greed. What are they and what are we doing wrong?
Years ago, Gaia Health informed that bee dieoffs are a direct result of pesticide nerve agents called neonicotinoids. The term, Colony Collapse Disorder, is fraudulent, designed to direct attention from the known cause. Agribusiness, the poison manufacturers making death-producing pesticides, is the other face of Big Pharma.
The commonly used insecticides in the world are promoted by their manufacturers as safe, controlled and effective. However, the latest research tells a frightening and very different story which includes the die off of millions of birds, fish, invertebrates and non-targeted insects in a wide range of natural habitats.
Scientists call on the World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer to re-evaluate the carcinogenicity of cell phone radiation after the Ramazzini Institute and US government studies report finding the same unusual cancers
Major tectonic shifts have occurred around the historically secretive multinational corporate structure of Monsanto, forcing transparency, furthering the public debate, and assisting lawsuits that expose the true nature of Monsanto’s toxic product and its multi-level collusion to hide the fact of its carcinogenicity.
The past of our ancestors lives on through us: Groundbreaking research illustrates how parental experience is not only epigenetically imprinted onto offspring, but onto an unprecedented number of future generations. Rather than occurring over the elongated time scale of millions of years, genetic change can transpire in real biological time through nanoparticles known as exosomes
Few would argue that consuming ample quantities of fruits and vegetables in the diet is a good idea, right? Fresh produce may be the only food on the planet that all diet gurus agree on, but did you know that you may be getting a chemically-applied dose of a known carcinogen every time you eat a piece of “fresh” fruit?
Rodney Palmer gives concerning testimony to the Royalty Society of Canada on how the roll out of powerful wi-fi systems in Canadian schools may account for debilitating and even deadly side effects, such as sudden cardiac arrest in students
A new testing program organized by The Detox Project in coordination with Kudzu Science, has released the first ever results for glyphosate levels in human hair, in an extraordinary announcement on Wednesday
This website is for information purposes only. By providing the information contained herein we are not diagnosing, treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any type of disease or medical condition. Before beginning any type of natural, integrative or conventional treatment regimen, it is advisable to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional. | {
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Sharethrough Introduces Mobile Native Ad Platform
The company says that its new Sharethrough Mobile platform allows brands to promote sponsored content within the stream of a publisher's mobile site, automatically giving the ads the look and feel of each site they appear on.
With mobile ads an increasingly important revenue stream for social networks and native ads all the rage among brands, it was only a matter of time before companies started to make use of native apps for mobile. But with so many different mobile sites out there, it's still a hassle for marketers to adapt to all the different mobile publishing sites.
Now Sharethrough, a company whose technology enables companies to create and manage native ads, has launched a product that it claims makes it easier for brands to publish native ads on mobile. The company says that its new Sharethrough Mobile platform allows brands to promote sponsored content within the stream of a publisher's mobile site, automatically giving the ads the look and feel of each site they appear on.
"Today's options for mobile advertising don't provide a user experience that matches the quality of the devices we hold in our pockets, nor do they provide publishers with a simple way to integrate brands into their content experience," the company said in a statement today.
Sharethrough says its platform automatically identifies the style elements of any mobile web page such as fonts, colors, and lightboxes, then matches each ad to those attributes in real time. It also enables them to match any future updates to the style template, so if a publisher changes their design, the ad remains consistent with the new style elements.
Brands including Cruzan Rum, Sauza Tequila, and Pepsi are already using Sharethrough technology for sponsored content; Sauza Tequila is running its "Make It With a Lifeguard" video series using the platform and Pepsi is distributing the video Pepsi Beyoncé "Mirrors" to mobile. Publishers People, Forbes, and food blog Serious Eats have also incorporated the technology into their mobile websites.
"We've steadily seen our mobile traffic growing at Serious Eats and are excited about new mobile monetization options that provide a quality user experience. Sharethrough Mobile offers us a new native mobile advertising option that we are confident our users will appreciate," Jennifer Weinberg, senior executive director, sales at Serious Eats, told ClickZ in an email.
Separately, Sharethrough also today published the results of a study in conjunction with IPG Media on the effectiveness of native ads. The study compared the reactions of 4,770 consumers to native and banner ads, which included campaigns from National Geographic and Southern Comfort. The study also used eye-tracking technology on 200 of the participants to gauge their reactions to the various ads.
The study found that participants looked at native ads 53 percent more frequently than banner ads, and viewed native ads 4.1 times on average per session compared to banner ads, which were viewed 2.7 times on average per session. The native ads also drew more eyeballs, with 25 percent more consumers looking at in-feed native ad placements than banner ad units. Study participants were more likely to share native ads, with 32 percent saying the ad was one they would share with a friend or family members, vs. only 19 percent for banner ads. The consumers also professed to a purchasing intent after viewing a native ad that was found to be 18 percent higher than for those who watched banner ads. Also, more of those watching native ads said the brand was one they personally identified with. Some 71 percent of those who had previously bought a product from a specific advertiser made that statement, compared to 50 percent of those who viewed the banner ads.
Want to learn more? Attend ClickZ Live New York March 30 - April 1. With over 15 years' experience delivering industry-leading events, ClickZ Live brings together over 60 expert speakers to offer an action-packed, educationally-focused agenda covering all aspects of digital marketing. Register today!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Lisbeth D'Amico is a freelance writer based in Jersey City who frequently covers digital marketing, social media, tech startups, and venture capital. She has contributed to a wide range of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Red Herring, and Real Deals. Find her on Twitter at @mldamico.
Featured White Papers
Google My Business Listings DemystifiedTo help brands control how they appear online, Google has developed a new offering: Google My Business Locations. This whitepaper helps marketers understand how to use this powerful new tool. | {
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March 24, 2015 – Standing with a bipartisan group of lawmakers today at the United States Capitol, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and retired Navy combat veteran and NASA astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, the Co-Founders of Americans for Responsible Solutions, urged Congress to act on newly re-introduced legislation that would close loopholes in federal gun laws that let dangerous people buy guns without a background check.
The bill, the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Protection Act of 2015, is co-sponsored by four House Republican and four House Democrats.
Congresswoman Giffords and Capt. Kelly were joined at a press conference today by several of the bill’s co-sponsors, including Congressman Mike Thompson (D-CA); Congressman Robert Dold (R-IL); Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty (D-CT); and Congresswoman Kathleen Rice (D-NY).
“Stopping gun violence takes courage. Now is the time to come together – to be responsible. Democrats, Republicans, everyone,” said former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Co-Founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions, in her remarks. “We must never stop fighting.”
“We have a gun violence problem in the United States, and law-abiding, responsible gun owners are not the problem. Guns themselves aren’t to blame, either. The problem is that we have weak laws that let dangerous people get their hands on guns. That’s why Congress must act on this bipartisan bill to close the loopholes that let people buy a gun without a background check,” said retired Navy combat veteran and NASA astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly, Co-Founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions. “The vast majority of Americans agree that Congress must close these loopholes. And like Gabby and me, so do the majority of America’s gun owners. Congress must come together and act.”
The bipartisan legislation would protect Americans’ Second Amendment rights and make communities safer from gun violence by:
1.) Expanding Background Checks. The bill would require licensed dealers to conduct background checks for commercial-style sales, including on the internet and at gun shows, that are not currently required under federal law. Transfers between family members and friends are exempted and would not be affected. The bill explicitly bans the federal government from creating a federal registry and creates new penalties for the misuse of records.
2.) Strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS): The bill would reauthorize the National Criminal History Records Improvement Program (NCHIP) at $100,000,000 for FY16-FY19. This program has been successful in providing states with the resources to improve their criminal history record systems. The bill would also incentivize states to improve their reporting by eliminating unnecessary responsibilities for states and directing future grant money towards creating systems to send records to NICS. The bill would reduce funding for states that don’t comply; and,
3.) Establishing a National Commission on Mass Violence. The bill would set up a 12-person commission to study the availability of firearms, the connection between mental health and firearms and incidents of mass violence to understand and prevent further acts of mass violence.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-NY). The bipartisan group of lawmakers co-sponsoring the bill include:
Take Action
Connect
Paid for by Americans for Responsible Solutions, a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, and Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC, a federal political committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. | {
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
Chile and Costa Rica thought to be considering alternative bids after Brazil withdrew offer
Britain is bidding to host the UN climate change conference in 2020, the biggest since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, as part of the government’s aim to be seen as a green leader.
The conference will mark a vital deadline for countries to comply with their commitments on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and move on to tougher targets for the decade to 2030, and so it is likely to be a fractious affair.
Continue reading...
Researchers conclude the most likely cause for the dramatic declines is commercial fishing
Shark numbers along the Queensland coast have declined by more than 90% for some species in the past five decades, according to new research that calls for better protections for sharks in Australian waters.
University of Queensland and Griffith University researchers analysed shark control program data to measure changes in shark populations along the Queensland coastline in a 55 year period.
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After months of protests, council says it won’t fell 87 trees earmarked for chop
Sheffield city council has pledged to save nearly 100 trees that were marked for felling as it sought to defuse a bitter row that sparked scores of arrests and months of protests.
The council has been locked in negotiations with campaigners over the future of its controversial scheme to fell thousands of trees to improve the condition of the city’s streets.
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Study shows people in cars and buses spend longer in toxic air, as do walkers on main roads
Cyclists are the least exposed to air pollution on daily commutes into a congested city centre, research has shown. People in cars and buses spent longer in toxic air, as did walkers unless they made detours to avoid main roads.
The work, conducted in Leeds, supports the investment in cycle lanes to both reduce air pollution by cutting vehicle journeys and improve citizens’ health. It also found that air pollution reached relatively high levels inside cars, echoing a recent warning that cars are “boxes collecting toxic gases”.
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UK Met Office professor tells UN summit Earth’s ‘energy balance’ is changing
“Global heating” is a more accurate term than “global warming” to describe the changes taking place to the world’s climate, according to a key scientist at the UK Met Office.
Prof Richard Betts, who leads the climate research arm of Britain’s meteorological monitoring organisation, made the comments amid growing evidence that rising temperatures have passed the comfort zone and are now bringing increased threats to humanity.
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Today’s black lung rates are higher than 50 years ago, affecting men as young as their 30s, and in Kentucky their right to decent healthcare is being curtailed
Dr James Brandon Crum was alarmed. For months, unemployed coalminers had been coming into his clinic in Coal Run Village, Kentucky, seeking chest radiographs.
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More than 200 species make their homes at America’s most diverse sanctuary, but construction through the reserve could begin in February
On any given day at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, visitors can to see more than 60 varieties of butterflies. In the spring and fall, monarchs and other species can blanket the center’s 100 acres of subtropical bushlands that extend from the visitor center to to the banks of the Rio Grande river, where their property, and US sovereignty, ends.
“It’s like something from Fantasia,” said the center’s director, Marianna Wright. “When you walk you have to cover your mouth so you don’t suck in a butterfly.”
Continue reading...
Activist groups warn providing finance for coal-fired power stations is inconsistent with banks’ commitments to Paris agreement
Environmental and progressive activist groups are urging Australia’s major banks and financial institutions not to fund new coal projects now that the Morrison government has flagged taxpayer assistance for power generation.
The Australian Conservation Foundation, GetUp, Greenpeace, Environment Victoria, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the Australian Centre for Corporate Responsibility and the Australia Institute wrote on Thursday to chief executives of the major lenders, warning the provision of finance for new coal, or retrofits of old coal-fired power stations, would be inconsistent with their public commitments to the Paris agreement.
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If emissions continue at current rate, Australia will miss Paris target by 1.1bn tonnes, Ndevr Environmental predicts
Australia’s carbon emissions are again the highest on record, according to new data from the emissions-tracking organisation Ndevr Environmental.
Ndevr replicates the federal government’s national greenhouse gas inventory (NGGI) quarterly reports but releases them months ahead of the official data.
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Mark Butler says party will make decision on using carryover credits from the Kyoto protocol after Paris ‘rule book’ established
The shadow climate minister Mark Butler has not ruled out using carryover carbon credits from the Kyoto protocol to help Labor meet its more ambitious emissions reduction targets in the event it wins the next election.
Butler expressed reluctance about using accounting tricks as part of Labor’s climate policy arsenal, but told the ABC he would not make a decision about whether carryover credits were in or out until after the Paris rule book was established.
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Case Study: San Diego County Correctional Facility Humanized by Use of Color, Art and Landscaping
A correctional facility in San Diego County that is currently under construction has been designed to humanize what have historically been institutional and sterile detention environments.
The San Diego County Women’s Detention Facility (SDCWDF) is a $221 million project that is currently being constructed on a 45-acre site in Santee, CA. This new facility will replace the Las Colinas Detention Facility (LCDF), which has served as the county’s adult women detention facility since 1979.
When complete, SDCWDF will include 25 buildings, 1,216 beds and more than 500,000 square feet of building floor space including housing units, administration facilities, medical facilities, food service areas, a visitation center, a learning resource center and accommodations for employment programs and other services.
The design, aesthetics and experience of SDCWDF falls in line with an emerging trend in corrections. This new trend makes use of color, art and landscaping to create a more normalized environment to benefit both inmates and staff. It also makes use of furniture that is more aesthetically pleasing, made of materials other than steel and is more residential in appearance. This humanistic approach to design is believed to decrease inmate violence and reduce recidivism rates.
“Our design team researched this premise and studied facilities in Europe that have found success through the approach of humanizing correctional facilities,” said Pam Maynard, Director of Interior Architecture for HMC Architects, a firm that is part of the team designing and building the facility. “This research confirms that the environments in which people live, learn, heal and are governed in, can affect us both psychologically and physiologically in both negative and positive ways depending on various environmental qualities.”
For more than 30 years Norix has provided secure furnishings and fixtures for every application. The product line has expanded to include industries and environments such as behavioral healthcare, public safety, transportation, educational institutions, corrections, commercial facilities and military installations. For more information, call 800-234-4900 or visit: http://www.norix.com. | {
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These heated gloves earned The Best rating from the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute because they generated the most heat and were the most comfortable. On their highest temperature setting, The Best model generated almost twice as much warmth (135.6°F on high) as lesser gloves, and panelists praised them for dispersing heat across the top of the hand. While other models lost power after only 61/2 hours, the rechargeable battery in The Best Heated Gloves warmed hands for more than 12 hours on low power (three hours on highest power). Unlike lesser gloves that were found to be stiff and clumsy, The Best Gloves are made with a soft Thinsulate lining and waterproof material that panelists praised as “Very soft inside, flexible outside, making it easy to grab things.” Cinches at the wrist keep heat in and cold out, and a zippered, windowed pocket allows easy access to the battery and provides a quick glimpse at the temperature setting. A press of the battery’s large button changes the temperature to one of four levels. The 7.4-volt batteries recharge in four hours with included AC adapter. Imported. Unisex sizes S/M (circumference of hand size at knuckles 71/2"-9"), L/XL (9-101/2"). (7 oz.)
Sizing
Glove Size
S/M
L/XL
Hand Size (inches)
7.5"- 9.0"
9.0"- 10.5"
How To Determine Your Glove Size
To ensure a proper fit in our gloves, we encourage you to measure your hand to determine your glove size.
How to Measure Your Hand
Hold your hand flat, palm side down.
Wrap a measuring tape tightly around your hand, making sure to measure the widest part of your knuckle area, all the way around your palm and back.
Make a fist with the measuring tape in-hand, making sure it is still over the top of your knuckles.
The resulting measurement in inches is your hand size. If in-between sizes, order the next size up.
Reviews
Reviews
Lifetime Guarantee
The Best Heated Gloves come with The Hammacher Schlemmer Lifetime Guarantee at no additional charge. If this product ever disappoints you, for any reason, you may return your Hammacher Schlemmer purchase for exchange, credit, or refund.
Should you have any questions, we are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Please call 1-800-321-1484 to speak with a product specialist or email us at [email protected] to receive a response within one hour.
Nice looking gloves. However, I planned to use them for snow skiing; but they did not do the job in mid-20s, nor in the 30s.
Sizing:
Feels true to size
Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend
Hammacher Schlemmer Response: At Hammacher Schlemmer, our goal is your complete satisfaction. Our reputation for quality and service has been earned over generations of satisfied customers. Since 1848, we have held our product offerings and customer service to the highest standards - as should you. You should never expect to be any less than delighted with a purchase from Hammacher Schlemmer, because we stand behind our products with an unconditional lifetime guarantee of satisfaction. If you are ever disappointed with a product - for any reason - we request that you return it to us. Please call our customer service hotline at 1-800-321-1484 and one of our representatives will be happy to assist you.
I only give these 4 stars because of the gauntlet. It is to small to go over more than a long sleeve shirt, much less a winter coat. The batteries make the gauntlets too large to go inside the coat sleeve. They should be much bigger to go on the outside where they belong. That said, they do a really good job of keeping your hands warm. They work even better with a light liner.
Heat level controls are conveniently located and easy to operate. Cannot get glove opening over winter coat sleeve. Glove and battery is all bunched up at your wrist. Heating elements do not extend down to the end of the fingers that get the cooldest. Mfg cost saving? Cannot understand how the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute tested and rated these gloves and not discovered these shortcomings. Inside the office without a coat on? Plan to return these gloves for refund.
Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend
Hammacher Schlemmer Response: Thank you for your feedback/sharing your recent experience. We value all the input we receive from you and other concerned customers because it helps us improve the quality of our merchandise, sharpen the product descriptions in our catalog and website, and provide even better customer service. Although our goal is your complete satisfaction with every product, we understand you may encounter the rare occasion when an item doesn't meet your expectations. That is why we make it easy to return an item—simply call our customer service team at 1-800-321-1484 at your convenience and they will be happy to assist you.
I have tried many options including layering, exercising, heat packs, etc. This item does generally what is says however be aware that it is significantly heavier than I expected. On my first run with them, I really felt that weight. Also, and this is a plus or minus depending on your perspective, the blue lights are very obvious when the unit is on. The brochure states that you can flip them but then you can't control the heat. Difficult to use fine motor skills, so have to take off gloves to change heat settings... Finally, when it gets warm, the sweat doesn't easily evaporate so the inside remains moist.
Needed a covering mitten to retain heat in extreme cold (12 below zero at the top of the mountain).The clips that hold one glove to the other are almost impossible to open; better to link the back-of-the-hand tightening strips.Battery at lower settings does indeed last a long time and can readily be set with gloves on.
Received these gloves just before the extreme cold set in and gave as a Valentine's gift to my husband. He LOVES them! Wears them every day. They are flexible in the fingers and grip the steering wheel well. The battery lasts a long time so he doesn't need to charge it every day. He is a big fan of these gloves!
The gloves are, sadly, poorly designed. There is no insulation on the fingertips so if you touch something cold the cold immediately affects your fingertips no matter what the heating setting. In addition the cuffs are too narrow and so will not fit over a parka sleeve--you cannot fit them under a parka sleeve because of the battery pack. The major problem is lack of fingertip insulation. I returned the gloves.
Sizing:
Feels true to size
Hammacher Schlemmer Response: While we regret that this product didn't delight you, we are gratified that you took advantage of our unconditional Lifetime Guarantee. Although our goal is your complete satisfaction with every product, we understand you may encounter the rare occasion when an item doesn't meet your expectations. That is why we make it easy to return an item—simply call our customer service team at 1-800-321-1484 at your convenience and they will be happy to assist you. | {
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Jayalalithaa Files Defamation Case Against BJP’s Subramanian Swamy
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today filed a defamation case against the BJP’s Subramanian Swamy in a court in Chennai for alleging that the boats of Indian fishermen apprehended by Sri Lanka belong to Sasikala, a close aide of the AIADMK chief.
Ms Jayalalithaa had on September 2 urged PM Modi to take up the issue of the arrest of Indian fishermen with Sri Lanka’s highest authorities.
“The alarmingly increasing frequency of apprehension of our fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy is a matter of utmost concern for my government. An immediate intervention at the highest level is sought to resolve this long-standing issue,” Ms Jayalalithaa had written in a letter to the PM.
She had said the Sri Lankan Navy arrested 15 fishermen on September 1 and 2 while they were fishing in traditional waters. Referring to the non-release of apprehended fishing boats belonging to Indian fishermen, Jayalalithaa said the “inhumane” and “cruel strategy” was causing great loss to the livelihood of the fishermen and their families.
However, after Ms Jayalalithaa’s letter to the PM, Mr Swamy too wrote to Mr Modi and alleged that the boats in question belong to the chief minister and senior DMK leader TR Baalu. | {
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I don't know if this will help but I was trying to output a 1920x1080 MP4 this weekend and it kept on letter boxing it to 1440x1080 (black bars top and bottom). I had to unlink the aspect aspect ratio check box and explicitly set the frame width and height while leaving pixels set to "square".
1. You need to scale the photos up to fit the sequence size in the Effects controls tab.
OR
2. You need a smaller sequence size to fit the photos.
The other problem is that you turned the camera sideways for some of the images. You can either scale them up and lose the top and bottom of the image or leave black bars on either side of the image. For those kinds of images, I usually scale to fill the screen and then animate the photos to move from top to bottom or vice versa.
Your other images are not the size of the sequence either, so scaling the image up will lose some of the image.
If you want a sequence the same size as your image, you can create one automatically by drag/dropping it onto the New Item button in the Project panel.
Yes, I know that some of the photos are in landscape while others are in portrait. I dont expect the portrait photos to fill a landscape screen.
Guess I have to play more around with Premiere Pro, just bought Production Premium end Nov 2011.
In the end there seem to be not too many screen/project dimensions selectable for HD there are 1080p and 720p or so. Maybe there is a setting somewhere where I dont have to select an option out of a list but can adapt the sequence size to my picture size (e.g. 1265pxx821px)
...there seem to be not too many screen/project dimensions selectable for HD there are 1080p and 720p or so. Maybe there is a setting somewhere where I dont have to select an option out of a list but can adapt the sequence size to my picture size (e.g. 1265pxx821px)
Yes, you can even drag/drop a representative photo onto the New Item button. It will create an ideal sequence setting for you automatically.
Tried that and it creates a 29.97pps movie but I want a 10fps movie. Found that 10fps is better for slide shows because it creates smaller rendered files (theoretically). It also seems the frame rate can not be changed
*I have also managed to crach Premiere Pro a few time in a row.
Created a new project, Imported the Photos and then attempted to create a new Sequence. There I just went to " settings" to change the scene settings and got a crash...the second time I managed to type in some values like 10fps but then it sais the Preset doesnt exist and I have to make a new one...tried that and the Premiere Pro crashes.
2) Took any of the Presets, changed the size to 800x.600 and then the fps to 10...crash
3) Took any of the Presets, changed the size to 800x.600 and then the fps to 10...got a message that a preset with those parameters doesnt exist and that I have to make a new one OK...I went to SAVE PRESET, gave it a name and CRASH
4) Took any of the Presets, changed the size to 800x.600 and then the fps to 10...got a message that a preset with those parameters doesnt exist and that I have to make a new one OK...I went to SAVE PRESET, gave it a name and CRASH again and again...
I think you actually need to click first on the "General" tab (not on Custom), and make your settings there. If you want to have the settings saved as a preset for a next time, click "Save Preset" at the bottom.
Edit: sorry; you obviously figured that part out. Set the editing mode to desktop.
I think you have a point. The dialog should say, "Choose the Custom setting for non-standard codecs" and then switch over to that setting. It could also just cancel you out of that process and throw you back to the New Sequence dialog.
As it stands, choosing a non-standard frame rate or frame size, you'd need to go to the Editing Mode and choose "Custom" for Premiere Pro CS5.5. For Premiere Pro CS5 and earlier, choose the "Desktop" preset. This is how you make sequences for things like web banners and digital signage.
I'll try to make this clearer in documentation. Anyone want to make a video tutorial about Custom settings? It would be a great piece of content to place into Help. | {
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Philip Keith Lee, who died in Adelaide on August 9, 1980, at the age of 75, played twice for Australia - against South Africa in 1931-32 and against England at Sydney in the body-line series of 1932-33. His four for 111 in England's first innings of 454 included the wickets of Hammond for 101, Paynter for 9 and Allen for 48, in spite of ill-luck with catches. In Australia's first innings, batting at number eight, Lee scored 42. For South Australia in 1930-31, his first innings of 106 (his only first-class century) and five for 57 in the West Indians' second innings had much to do with South Australia gaining an exciting victory. Bowling off-breaks at a slow-medium pace, he had good control of length and his flight could be deceptive. With Wall and Grimmett, he formed the nucleus of a useful South Australian attack. Like Victor Richardson, the great South Australian sportsman, Lee was also a talented footballer and baseball player. In 1933-34 he played in both Test trials, held as a guide to the selection of the Australian side to England in 1934, but although he scored a fifty in the second of them he was never chosen to tour. His 152 first-class wickets cost him 30.16 apiece and he scored 1,669 first-class runs at an average of 18.54.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
One of Australia's finest all-round sportsmen, Philip Keith 'Perker' Lee, died in Adelaide on August 9, aged 75. A product of Adelaide's famous St Peters College, he ranked second only to the mighty Vic Richardson in his talent as cricketer, baseballer and footballer, and though his performances for South Australia were less than sensational, he did earn two Test caps, the first against South Africa in 1931-32, when he failed to score and took only a
tailend wicket, and a year later, again at Sydney, when he took four wickets -
Hammond for 101, Larwood 98, Paynter and Allen - for 111 off 40.2 overs, having
scored a valuable 42. In the second innings his 15 was the only double-figure score apart from Woodfull's 67 and Bradman's 71, and the match (and series) was finished with an eight-wicket England victory as Hammond drove him for six.
Born in Gladstone, SA on September 14, 1904, Lee was a slow-medium offspinner, and the State attack was one to be reckoned with when Tim Wall used the new
ball and Lee and the immortal Grimmett took on the spin bowling. He made 1556
runs for South Australia, took around 150 wickets, and returned the impressive
double of 106 and 5 for 57 against the 1930-31 West Indians. A cameo distinction
is that Don Bradman reached the first of his 117 centuries with a pull for four off Lee's bowling.
Wisden Cricket Monthly
ABOUT COOKIES
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Participants required for university survey on driving and cars
The Curtin-Monash University Accident Research Centre (C-MARC) is currently seeking drivers aged 17-25 years across Western Australia and drivers older than 25 years residing in regional and remote areas of Western Australia to participate in an on-line survey.
The survey, which can be completed anonymously and takes around 15 minutes, is concerned with driving behaviour and drivers’ knowledge and beliefs regarding ‘Safe Vehicles’. The survey is being sponsored by the Western Australian Road Safety Commission. | {
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Three Russian Tales of the Eighteenth-Century : The Comely Cook, Vanka Kain, and Poor Liza
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Because Knetbooks knows college students. Our rental program is designed to save you time and money. Whether you need a textbook for a semester, quarter or even a summer session, we have an option for you. Simply select a rental period, enter your information and your book will be on its way!
For those who cannot read the language of the original texts, the lively and varied world of eighteenth-century Russian literature has been largely inaccessible. In this valuable collection, expert translator David Gasperetti presents three seminal tales that express the major literary, social, and philosophical concerns of late-eighteenth-century Russia. The country's first bestseller, Matvei Komarov's Vanka Kaintells the story of a renowned thief and police spy and is also an excellent historical source on the era's criminal underworld. Mikhail Chulkov's The Comely Cookis a cross between Moll Flanders, with its comic emphasis on a woman of ill-repute who struggles to secure her place in society, and Tristram Shandy, with its parody of the conventions of novel writing. Finally, Nikolai Karamzin's "Poor Liza," the story of a young woman who kills herself over a failed love affair, set the standard for writing sentimentalist fiction in Russia. Taken as a whole, these three works outline the beginnings of modern prose fiction in Russia and also illuminate the literary culture that would give rise to the Golden Age of Russian letters in the middle of the next century. | {
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The production company run by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller is partnering with Chiller Films on The Boy, the first film in a planned trilogy tracking the childhood of a future serial killer. Spectrevision‘s plan is to make installments depicting the character at ages 9, 14 and 18, respectively, and ending with his full transformation to an iconic mass murderer. Shooting is set to start February 17 on location in Colombia. The pic is based on the Sundance short Henley, which premiered in competition in Park City last year. Craig McNeill, who directed the short, and Clay McLeod Chapman, who created the characters in his novel Miss Corpus and penned the script for the short, will reunite for the same duties on Boy. Wood, Noah and Waller are producing.
Jared Breeze, age 8, will play the lead Ted Henley, and Aiden Lovekamp, who starred in Paranormal Activity 4 and plays the young Bobby Fisher in Edward Zwick’s upcoming Pawn Sacrifice, also has been cast. Both are in Spectrevision’s Cooties, the prepubescent horror comedy written by Saw‘s Leigh Whannell and Glee co-creator Ian Brennan and starring Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson and Jack McBrayer. It screens tomorrow night in the Park City at Midnight section and is one of two films the production/music management outfit has premiering at Sundance. The other is A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, which debuts Sunday in the NEXT section. | {
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Traditional style with today´s modern amenities. The Lagoon Explorer I & II are the first and only junks on the Bay which can really sail! Built for expeditions, you can truly go to any corners of the Bay. Whether you are dinning in the restaurant, louging on the sun deck or relaxing in the comfort of your cabin, you will be surrounded by the handcrafted woodwork of teak and oak which make the Lagoon Explorer Junks a true masterpiece.
Day 2: Vung Vieng Fishing Village- Hon Gai Harbour
07.30: Morning view of Bay’s landscape with acup of tea or coffee. Have breakfast in the fresh air.
08.30: Visit Vung Vieng fishing village by a rustic row-boat, meet the local people and pass through the floating school and fish farms.
09.30: More time for swimming in the middle of the bay.
10.00: Start cruising towards the harbour while an A la carte lunch is served.
11.45:Lagoon Explorer disembark Hon Gai harbour. Farewell.
15.45: Arrive in Hanoi. Trip ends.
Notes:
Cruise itinerary and schedule subject to change upon weather and operations conditions.
Advance registration is required with full name, date of birth, nationality, passport number, visa expiry date for all Passengers
A valid passport is required upon check-in on board. Children whose traveling documents are attached to parent's passport must travel with the parent. Credit cards accepted on board: Amex, Visa and MasterCard.
Special requests on food (diet or vegetarian) please inform us before departure.
Things to bring
Original passport, swimming suites, sun glasses, insect repellent.
Trip code: HLLagoon03
Itinerary: Ha Noi - Hon Gai - Bai Tu Long Bay - Hon Gai - Ha Noi
Cabin type
01 Pax
02 Pax
03 Pax
04 Pax
05 Pax
06 Pax
07 Pax
08 Pax
Deluxe
$709.00
$418.00
$307.00
$251.00
$228.00
$204.00
$187.00
$174.00
Book now
Highlight:
A small group cruise with interesting flexible itineraries, profesional services and optional light entertainment.
Visit a large area of Bai Tu Long Bay, join in local activities like fishing, planting trees
Visit Cong Dam fishing village
Good for:
Private Cruise, Honeymoon Cruise, Exploring Cruise
Those wish to experience Ha long Bay in a very quiet are far from other tourists.
Day 2: Tra San – Cong Dam – Cong Do
06.30: Morning view of Bay’s landscape with a cup of tea or coffee. Have breakfast in the fresh air.
08.30: Start cruising to Cong Dam while discovering geological values of Halong Bay.
9:00: Enjoy kayaking through the hidden lagoons and geological park in Cong Dam
11.30: Reach to Tra Gioi beach for sunbathing, relaxing or swimming.
12.30: Have a BBQ lunch and relax on a wild beach.
14:30: Visit Cong Dam fishing village by a rustic row-boat, meet the local people and pass through the lagoons.
16.00: Cruise back to Cong Do for swimming or kayaking.
19.00: Have dinner & overnight on board.
Cruise itinerary and schedule subject to change upon weather and operations conditions.
Advance registration is required with full name, date of birth, nationality, passport number, visa expiry date for all Passengers
A valid passport is required upon check-in on board. Children whose traveling documents are attached to parent's passport must travel with the parent. Credit cards accepted on board: Amex, Visa and MasterCard.
Special requests on food (diet or vegetarian) please inform us before departure.
Things to bring
Original passport, swimming suites, sun glasses, insect repellent.
Accommodation
The junks each have one deluxe & three other cabins room, a fine dining restaurant & bar, an outdoor lounge, a swim platform, a well trained crew, 24 hour electricity supply and a host of activities to make your stay memorable.
Activities
Swimming, snorkeling and kayaking in the crystal clear turquoise waters of Halong Bay are favored activities for the energetic. Adventure outings, tour excursions, cooking demonstrations and theme cruises are also available by prior arrangement. | {
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Top Trending 5 stars Star Hotels in Skopelos Island
One of the highlights of our trip to Greece was our stay at the Adrina Resort in Skopelos. The beach! Stone pebbles and crystal clear waters and quality beach beds.
The food on the island in general isn't great, but the restaurant at the sister hotel, Adrina Beach, was enjoyable.
We will be back.
The service at this hotel is exceptional, All of the staff are friendly and approachable and go out of their way to ensure you have the best stay possible. When my partner and I were faced with a work issue the staff went out of their way to get us to the port quickly so that we could resolve the problem. Overall experience was excellent we will be staying for longer next time.
Flight-inclusive holiday packages and Flight-Plus arrangements created on Expedia.co.uk are financially protected by the Civil Aviation Authority (under Expedia, Inc.'s ATOL number 5788). But ATOL protection does not apply to all holiday and travel services listed on this website. Please ask us to confirm what protection may apply to your booking. If you do not receive an ATOL Certificate then your booking will not be ATOL protected. If you do receive an ATOL Certificate but all the parts of your trip are not listed on it, those parts will not be ATOL protected. Please see our general terms and conditions for further details on ATOL or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate.
For the sale of travel insurance Expedia Inc. is an Appointed Representative of Mondial Assistance (UK) Limited trading as Allianz Global Assistance which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Mondial Assistance (UK) Limited's FCA registration number is 311909. FCA authorisation can be checked at the Financial Services register at www.fsa.gov.uk/register/ | {
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Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1
March 5, 2016 – For the last two years the founders of Zentangle, Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, have been quietly working behind the scenes on their second book. And it’s here at last!!
Introducing Zentangle PRIMER Volume 1.
This much anticipated second publication is available now, and you can order yours here!
Zentangle PRIMER Volume 1 is intended to be a companion book to The Book of Zentangle and it is the same size and coffee table format as the first book. “It is the same dimensions with 187 pages of step-outs, tangles, and text in hardbound format.”
“This book is an ‘old-world’ instructional that is simple in its delivery but with enough information to gently guide the novice, or enlighten the master. Whoever reads this, will find what they seek. Hidden in the margins and borders and exemplars are inspirations. Each time you leaf through its folios, you will find something new to spark your creativity. Each time you study it, you may find yourself going just a bit beyond what you previously thought possible.
Working solely on white tiles with black ink, this book digs deep into the fundamentals of the Zentangle method and teaches the techniques and tools you need to take your Zentangle practice where you want.
Here’s a look at its Table of Contents:
Dedication
Foreword
Introduction
The Zentangle Method
Lesson 1 – Your First Tile
Lesson 2 – Your Next Tile
Lesson 3 – String Theory
Lesson 4 – Shading
Lesson 5 – No Mistakes
Lesson 6 – More Tangles
Lesson 7 – Reticula and Fragments
Lesson 8 – A Zentangle Practice
Appendix A – Resources and Information
Appendix B – Glossary
Credits
Notes
Index
Colophon
In this book we introduce the terms “Reticula” and “Fragments.” We think you will find this approach adds a new and exciting aspect to your Zentangle explorations.
Our desire in creating this tome was that your copy will eventually have tattered corners, well-worn pages, and hand-drawn notes in its margins. A book that has been loved and used. It will become your go-to book of all things Zentangle.”
Place your order now
Hardcover $49.95 US plus shipping. Softcover $23.95 US plus shipping. US orders are shipped by USPS Priority Mail; Canada and International orders are shipped by USPS First Class Air. Mail orders are also accepted, please visit the ordering page below for prices including shipping and mailing details. A book bundle offer is available to order both Zentangle books together and save on shipping, visit the page corresponding to your order’s destination below. Book sales are final.
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Enhance your Zentangle experience ...
BRAND NEW! TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, 2019 Edition
The newest and 8th Edition of my TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE. This instant-download 72-page (40 MB) interactive digital eBook contains all the tangles on the site from May 2010 through December 31, 2018. Containing over 1,000 tangles, it's a must-have tool for using the site.
"Linda, Thank you! I was relying on too few and getting stuck after 3 years of daily working with Zentangle. This has inspired me to ‘begin again’ with renewed excitement." ~ Barbara R.
See the BOOK REVIEWS page for more details on its features and view a sample page.
Visit the STORE > E-BOOKS page for more information and support TanglePatterns.com by getting your copy now!
NOW AVAILABLE IN SOFTCOVER: This is the only Zentangle book you'll ever need: the fabulous Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1. It's your CZT-in-a-book by the founders of Zentangle®! Visit the STORE tab on the top menu bar or click on the image. For more about the content and to read the rave reviews, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab.
"Absolutely the best Zentangle Book yet! As an accomplished artist I used to think I did not need instruction on this art form. How wrong I was! My tangling improved by leaps and bounds after reading this book. If you think you have Zentangle down then you need this book more than ever!" ~ Kris H
Another great jump-starter for new tanglers is the original Official Zentangle Kit. The Kit includes all the supplies you'll need to get started properly: Sakura Micron Pens, Zentangle Tiles, pencil, sharpener, tortillion, a booklet and an instructional DVD by co-founder Maria Thomas. Click on the image for more information about the Kit and its contents.
Hi Krystyna, until now they had to be ordered separately and then I refunded the shipping surcharge when the orders were shipped. However I’ve just added an option to purchase both Zentangle books together as a bundle – see Item #10 above. Thanks for asking and for the prompt to add this option! Cheers and happy tangling, Linda
is the TanglePatterns.com Tangle Guide something that I can take to a printer to have printed double side? I bought one a few years ago and printed it out on a home printer. 1,000 seems a bit more significant, so I’m considering taking it to a printer, having it printed and then spiral bound. Any thoughts?
Hi Denise, you can still print it on a home printer but you should only send a few pages at a time or you will overwhelm your printer’s memory. Naturally you’ll probably save time taking it to a printer and their spiral binding is a great choice – that’s what I do myself. But I print my own pages and take it to them to have them bind it for me. Choices, choices!! 🙂 Hope that helps.
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My only grievance about Omega is the lack of Squadmate involvement. The lack of squad dialogue and interaction has a way of making the mission feel disjointed from the rest of the game, at lest that's how I felt with the mute squadmates in LotSB and Overlord.
But I have high hopes that Aria and Nyreen will satisfy so I remain optimistic.
BTW: What´s the point in adding more and more war assets with each DLC when they already reduced the needed EMS for the best ending to 3000 or something?
Continuity. But aside from that, I actually like War Assets, not because of the affect they have on your ending or game in general, but because, like Planet descriptions, I feel they add to the universe. I enjoyed collecting them and reading about the different forces and troops in the galaxy, I felt it added some depth and insight into the Alien species and their militaries and I welcome more.
I collect war assets just because I like to see how high I can get it. And, while I know intellectually that anything above the 3000ish required for the better endings does nothing, I find myself thinking that higher assets are a good thing anyway.
But who knows? Maybe they will add a "perfect" ending after all the DLC is out and that'll become canon for ME4!! ... What? A man can dream, damn it!
I collect war assets just because I like to see how high I can get it. And, while I know intellectually that anything above the 3000ish required for the better endings does nothing, I find myself thinking that higher assets are a good thing anyway.
But who knows? Maybe they will add a "perfect" ending after all the DLC is out and that'll become canon for ME4!! ... What? A man can dream, damn it!
It´s called "Puzzle Theory" and is basically speculation that once we have done all DLCs and collected all of those war assets that come with them BW will give us a perfect ending as "thanks" for playing the series and supporting them and Shepard. You know an ending where you can successfully refuse and win the war without your cycle to fail.
Maybe it will be a happy end for all the fans where the whole Crew of the Normandy survives with Shepard instead of Shepard dying (or being presumably dead).
I saw that Puzzle Theory thing before too. It's interesting, at least.
That´s why I wrote "presumably dead" because we don´t know if he is really alive. We only see him in the rubble taking a breath. I still don´t know if it was an actual breath or not.
Still I would love to have an ending where you can shoot the Catalyst and then successfully win the war on your own terms instead of getting an "Game over" screen with Liara´s time capsule.
Why have they added this 4th ending if the only thing you gain out of it is to doom the galaxy? This is why I believe that once we have done the final DLC they will decide to give us a special thanks to wrap up the Shepard storyline before they release ME4. Maybe that perfect ending will be canon for ME4, who knows?
I would've said "possibly dead" rather than presumably. Meh, semantics, to hell with 'em.
Their original explanation for the addition of the refusal option was something along the lines of "players wanted it, so we added it." I guess there were a lot of players saying they were upset that they couldn't take the course of action they felt Shepard would be most likely to (i.e. saying go to hell to the Catalyst and continuing his/her mission as planned). Could be as simple as that, could've been a convenient excuse for a grand scheme regarding the DLC that BW has had, or could be a little of both. Who knows. I'm just gonna enjoy the ride either way.
By the way I found another thing that hints on a future DLC featuring Harbringer and the Collectors:
Harbinger and the Collectors are effectively an ace in the hole for Bioware. I'm expecting they'll save their return in the single player campaign for something truly epic, maybe even their last DLC.
Anything in single player that involves Harbinger and/or the Collectors is guaranteed to sell like hot cakes. Combine that with a final, shock twist in the tale that leads us into ME4 = welcome to Hypesville.
Plus, I don't believe for one second that Bioware went through the trouble of redesigning, reanimating and rebalancing the entire Collector faction for a free multiplayer DLC only; that's a hell of a lot of hard work, and re-using the assets in a single player DLC is a way to make it pay off.
FInally - look at the end of the Retaliation trailer, where Harbinger drops down onto Firebase Dagger. That is not an animated cut scene. That is footage from the game engine. An in-game Harbinger model, on an in-game map.
By the way I found another thing that hints on a future DLC featuring Harbringer and the Collectors:
Harbinger and the Collectors are effectively an ace in the hole for Bioware. I'm expecting they'll save their return in the single player campaign for something truly epic, maybe even their last DLC.
Anything in single player that involves Harbinger and/or the Collectors is guaranteed to sell like hot cakes. Combine that with a final, shock twist in the tale that leads us into ME4 = welcome to Hypesville.
Plus, I don't believe for one second that Bioware went through the trouble of redesigning, reanimating and rebalancing the entire Collector faction for a free multiplayer DLC only; that's a hell of a lot of hard work, and re-using the assets in a single player DLC is a way to make it pay off.
FInally - look at the end of the Retaliation trailer, where Harbinger drops down onto Firebase Dagger. That is not an animated cut scene. That is footage from the game engine. An in-game Harbinger model, on an in-game map.
The fact that they took the time to remodel/adapt ME2 model for multiplayer indeed hints at a Single Player DLC involving collectors. Omega might have been the occasion but it seems it might be later.
FInally - look at the end of the Retaliation trailer, where Harbinger drops down onto Firebase Dagger. That is not an animated cut scene. That is footage from the game engine. An in-game Harbinger model, on an in-game map.[/LEFT]
Harbinger model is already present in ME3 SP - you can see it at the Citadel transportation beam on Earth, London. It's the reaper that shoots Death-rays at ya.
Why have they added this 4th ending if the only thing you gain out of it is to doom the galaxy? This is why I believe that once we have done the final DLC they will decide to give us a special thanks to wrap up the Shepard storyline before they release ME4. Maybe that perfect ending will be canon for ME4, who knows?
Because the players wanted it.
Fits in good with the fact that bioware stated prior to ME3 release that it would be possible to lose to the reapers.
If they added a IT ending, or that puzzle ending. I'd pre-order DA3 & ME4 2 times in order to make up for Yakobo15 not ordering
To declare that a personal, inner experience gives certainty about the workings of the universe is to assign far too much value to one’s subjective sense of conviction.
I’m not that arrogant.
The brain, marvelous instrument though it is, isn’t infallible. It can misfire, seize or hallucinate, and it can do so in a way that’s utterly indistinguishable from reality to the person experiencing it.
To declare that a personal, inner experience gives certainty about the workings of the universe is to assign far too much value to one’s subjective sense of conviction.
I’m not that arrogant.
The brain, marvelous instrument though it is, isn’t infallible. It can misfire, seize or hallucinate, and it can do so in a way that’s utterly indistinguishable from reality to the person experiencing it.
So, I haven't checked up on ME3 since the Extended Cut came out. Anything important I've missed concerning single player?
If Goku's power level increases at the same rate till the end of DBGT as it does till the end of the Frieza saga, as a SS4 Goku would have a PL of roughly 939 Quinoctogintillion. For reference that is a 260 digit number. A PL of 14,600 is required to destroy an earth sized planet. There are about 2 nonillion earths worth of mass in the universe. That means SS4 Goku can destroy the universe about 32 Octosexagintillion times over. There's a reason they made Goku a god at the end of GT. | {
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SEO
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To make a search engine friendly website a well thought out strategy is an important first step. A successful SEO strategy involves various techniques that work best when used together. Firstly, a strong technical infrastructure needs to be built to allow search engines to easily read your website. Secondly, content on the website needs to be of good quality, well researched and unique; Google’s algorithm lowers the website’s rank if the content is copied. Thirdly, extensive link building is required both internally and externally; quality linking raises the overall popularity of your website.
Methods We Use
Maximizing Meta Tags – The title and Meta description of a website are displayed when it is listed in the search results. It’s a short description of the websites that informs the audience what a website does. The content included in this area plays a major role in your site’s click through rate (CTR). In order to maximize the CTR, customized Meta descriptions are written for all pages, and need to be interesting and easily understandable.
Getting Indexed Search engines use crawlers to index your website for updates such as fresh content or even address changes. In order to rank your website, search engines must first be able to crawl your website efficiently. To accomplish this, external links or in other words, business directories, is necessary.
Daily or weekly sitemap generator – can send a ping to Google and other search engines of all your new or modified links within your website, your website is similar to a tree with branches, a site map generator will draw this tree starting from the trunk, ending on the very extremities of your website, the purpose is to inform engine on the exact shape of your website.
Google Analytic – are used to track how well the SEO efforts are doing by calculating the traffic each keyword brings to your website. It opens up a world of useful information for your website visitors.
xYou can hire any SEO agency to get fast results but you will only receive short term results from them. They mainly use Black Hat techniques that can damage your ranking severely in the future; only a few offer a truly organic SEO experience – the kind that lasts. | {
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Thank you for visiting the PFX Photo Brand Ambassador Application Site! The PFX Photo Brand Ambassador Program is a great way for high school students to get incredible senior portraits at a significant discount and earn a little extra money as well. If chosen to represent PFX Photo at your school, you'll be helping show off the high quality, creative style PFX Photo provides. Here are some benefits and requirements of becoming a Brand Ambassador for PFX Photo:1. A free 30-minute photo session taken between Sept – April of Junior year. 2. We will use a selection of these images to create a set of 50 custom designed cards you will use to hand out to friends and classmates to begin your campaign. 3. Your own Ambassador Code to track friends who came to PFX Photo.4. Your images may be shown on Websites, Blogs, Brochures, Displays & You'll receive a few images to display on your Facebook page. 5. For every ambassador card or Promo code redeemed from your friends, you will receive $10 cash. Valid one card per senior, per session. 6. **You are required to purchase a senior portrait session, which you will get for ½ price.**
Ambassador decisions are based on personality, activities, and eagerness to be in the program. I am looking for students that appreciate the PFX Photo quality, and can see the difference in my work. Remember, only a limited number of PFX Photo Brand Ambassador Reps are accepted from each school! If you meet the requirements…sign up today! | {
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It is gorgeous... I've been thinking of ways to express my sympathy and grief towards those who have lost their loved ones in the tragedy...so far I've only manage to keep them in my head and not my sketch book unfortunately
This is so well done, Cathy! I've been racking my brains trying to come up with something meaningful to do. And of course, the black wave, who could forget that horrible sight. You've said a lot with this one. | {
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1869
18 January
Receives from ten Kate a versified translation (Dutch) of the fairy-tales.
February
HCA's contributions to The Riverside Magazine are translated by Anna Raasløff, daughter of Waldemar Raasløff, the former envoi in Washington. A total of 12 of HCA's little stories are thus released in America before they are available in Denmark.
3 February
Reads aloud at a concert for ladies and gentlemen at the Students' Association.
10 February
Harald Scharff, who HCA had, of late, once again socialized with quite a bit, announces that he is to be engaged to Camilla Pedersen, daughter of the grocer Søren Pedersen.
"I feel this young friend is lost now" (the diary, same day).
Abandons the idea of taking Scharff with him to Vienna during the up-coming Summer. Suddenly feels cut off from youth and is saddened by the thought of old age.
"I feel very disturbed, quite nervous and have a feeling in my legs as though I were walking on stilts and about to fall" (the diary, 12th).
19 February
At the university HCA hears Professor Rasmus Nielsen lecture on the fairy-tales.
20 February
Attends the engagement party for Scharff.
Hears on the same day that Caroline David (Georg Brande's lover) has left her husband and is staying with the Collin family for a few days.
HCA later sees her and her children (on 3rd May) at a dinner held by the Collins.
2 March
Reads aloud at The Danish Society.
3 March
Reads aloud at the society 'Det Gode Minde' (The Good Memory) at Vaisenhuset.
7 March
Hears that Clemens Petersen, one of the most prestigious critics, whose reviews of the fairy- tales HCA had read with great interest, had been banished from the country two days earlier by the police. The next day he hears more:
"Apparently he was involved with the boys at the school where he teaches, or so they say. If only it were lies all of it! What will become of the poor man, without money, in foreign countries" (the diary, 8th).
After speaking with Mrs Drewsen and Mrs Heiberg about Clemens Petersen, HCA notes in the diary on 15th: | {
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AAA Indie: Crowdfunding Game Development
The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
Zero Point Software has raised upwards of $125,000 to make their game, Interstellar Marines. In an experiment they are calling “AAA Indie,” their fans are actually funding the game’s development. This is not an entirely new concept. Musicians have used fan-funding, or crowdfunding, to fund record albums and concert tours. Crate Entertainment has used fan-funding to fund it’s game, Grim Dawn. Markus Persson has used it to a large extent to fund Minecraft. Spiral Studios and it’s game, Orion: Prelude, has also been funded by crowdfunding they obtained through Kickstarter.com.The upside is, of course, studio control over the project. For the price of involving the community in the making of the game, which actually creates rabid fans of your project, studios maintain control over their IP, their profits, and the making of the game itself. Unfortunately, every upside has a downside. The money tends to trickle in instead of coming as a lump sum. Some of the crowd-sourcing websites, such as Kickstarter, will not give you the money if your goal is not met. Delays in funding can create production delays and make it hard to pay workers. That is potentially a large downside. However, when it works, it seems to work very well.There are several ways to go about fan-funding your project. Like Spiral Studios, you could pitch your project to fans on Kickstarter, 8-Bit Funding, IndieGoGo, or RocketHub. Since most of these sites do require you to reach the goal you set before you actually get any money, this may be the best source of seed money to begin your project, but it is probably not the best way to sustain your project. To sustain the project, then, a community site, such as Zero Point Software’s Interstellar Marines page, will be the next step. This gives investors an active role in the community, continual access to the studio, and updates of the game’s progress. In return for investing in the studio and the game, the games funded in this way usually offer tiered rewards. For a minimal investment, players may get upgraded forum access and forum enhancements that identify them as investors. As the fan increases investment amounts, the investment packages improve to include concept art, t-shirts, access to slices of the game, access to demos, the opportunity to be chosen as a beta tester, promises of in-game rewards and access to exclusive content and, ultimately, a copy of the completed game. As stated earlier, this kind of access to a game and game development creates rabid fans. Similar to developer diaries, this level of communication between developers and consumers enhances an environment in which players care not only for the game, but for the studio, itself. Players want a say in the game. They enjoy giving feedback. Being able to take part in communicating with the company as a game is made gives them a feeling of inclusion in the outcome. It also opens up a line of understanding in which players no longer question decisions made by a developer regarding game mechanics or assets because the developer is already sharing their reasoning. | {
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Stephanie Ratcliff – Land In Unknown Places
Vancouver indie folk-pop artist Stephanie Ratcliff released her latest EP, Land In Unknown Places, late last month celebrating with a show at Reality Vancouver, followed by a string of Canadian Tour Dates throughout Ontario and Eastern Canada in August. See below for the remaining tour schedule.
The first single from the EP, ‘Come Alive’, made its debut on June 29th when the video (Stephanie’s first official music video!) premiered at Live in Limbo. Directed by Dan Loewen, the video tells a very simple kind of love story, even though the song isn’t necessarily about romantic love.
“It simply tells the story of two children who end up spending their whole lives committed to each other, loving each other, giving themselves to each other,” says Stephanie. “It ends with them as an older couple sitting on a bench, still loving each other after all the years and seasons of life. This kind of love is just such a beautiful, incredibly sacrificial, transforming way to live. We kept the video very simple in terms of storyline, but hopefully conveyed the deeper truth and reality that love – whatever shape it takes – really can last a lifetime.”
Land In Unknown Places is Stephanie’s second EP and third release. Her first EP Things Above Ground was released last year and her debut full-length album Memories of the World came out in 2015. When she began the process of creating her new EP, Stephanie found herself moving in a new musical direction.
“My first two releases were very much about my own brokenness and healing and wanting to give hope to others, and I think that thread is woven through all my music, but this EP is more “other-focused” and specifically about the kinds of connections we have with each other, and how deep, powerful, and life-changing those connections can be,” says Stephanie. “Musically, it’s intentionally a little less polished and a little more raw, which I felt was important in order to help shape and convey the meaning and emotions of the songs. Because, really, that’s just how life is with each other – unpolished and raw!”
Look for Stephanie on tour this August and into the fall, as she makes her way to Kelowna in October for Breakout West and the Western Canadian Music Awards where she is nominated for Spiritual Artist of the Year.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
Aug 11th – Dartmouth, NS – House Concert
Aug 12th – Charlottetown, PEI – Baba’s Lounge
Aug 15th – St. Stephen, NB – House Concert
Aug 16th – Perth, ON – House Concert
Aug 17th – Lansdowne, ON – Farmer’s Market (afternoon show)
Aug 17th – Ottawa, ON – House Concert (evening show)
Aug 18th – Barrie, ON – House Concert | {
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Re: Jared, Ivanka private emails, texts
Is it being suggested here that Jared and Ivanka should be treated differently from Hillary?
If so, how do you justify that? Anyone here able to do this in a rational way?
Not suggesting anything different. The FBI investigated Clinton, and now it can investigate the Trump administration for the same thing. Oh, and about 2 weeks before the 2020 election, the FBI can declare it's reopening the investigation. How's that sound. Fair enough?
Jared, Ivanka private emails, texts
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and a powerful White House aide, did not preserve all of her official emails as required by federal law, and her husband, Jared Kushner, used a messaging application to conduct U.S. business outside government channels, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said on Thursday.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in aletterto the White House that the use of private email accounts and the messaging application WhatsApp by senior administration officials raises “security and federal records concerns.”
Cummings said that Trump’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told the committee that Trump doesn’t preserve official emails she receives in her personal account if she doesn’t respond to them. Cummings says that appears to violate the Presidential Records Act.
But just hours later, Lowell issued aletterof his own disputing Cummings’ characterization. Lowell said he was referring to Trump’s email use before September 2017 and that he told committee staff that now “she always forwards official business to her White House account.”
The dispute arose as Cummings also released information about Kushner’s use of WhatsApp and raised questions about personal email accounts used by other former senior White House aides to discuss a proposal to transfer U.S. nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia.
Cummings’ letter says Lowell told his staff that Kushner uses WhatsApp to conduct official U.S. government business including by communicating with “people outside the United States.”
When asked whether Kushner had ever used WhatsApp to discuss classified information, Cummings said Lowell responded, “That’s above my pay grade,” and referred questions to the White House and the National Security Council, according to Cummings’ letter.
Lowell said Kushner archives the messages he sends by taking screenshots of them and forwarding that record to his official White House email account or the National Security Council.
In his response letter Thursday, Lowell stressed that he didn’t say whether Kushner used WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders or officials. He said he also informed the committee that Kushner complies with all protocols involving classified information.
CNN reported last year that Kushner was communicating with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman using WhatsApp.
In a statement Thursday, White House deputy press secretary Steven Groves said the White House will review Cummings’ letter and “provide a reasonable response in due course.”
The House committee’s investigation comes after Ivanka Trump last year dismissed any comparison to the use of private email by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which prompted an FBI investigation and inspired the “Lock Her Up” chant at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign rallies.
While the top U.S. diplomat, Clinton sent thousands of emails using a private server set up at her home in Chappaqua, New York. The FBI found classified information in some of the emails that were sent or received on the nongovernment system, but federal authorities declined to pursue charges against Clinton.
Last year, The Washington Post reported that Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account to White House aides, Cabinet members and her assistant. The newspaper said many of those communications, during the early months of the administration, violated federal public records rules.
In a previous written statement, Lowell spokesman Peter Mirijanian has acknowledged that Ivanka Trump used private email while transitioning to a position in the White House but said that the emails were retained “in conformity with records preservation laws and rules.”
He also noted that “there was never classified information transmitted” using her private email account.
In an interview with ABC News last year, Ivanka Trump defended her use of a private email account, saying: “All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions.”
In his letter, Cummings also singled out former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, questioning whether they preserved documents related to a proposal to transfer nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. That proposal isunder investigationby Cummings’ committee, which is looking into information from whistleblowers who have said they witnessed “abnormal acts” within the Trump National Security Council involving senior White House officials who were pushing the plan.
The committee found that McFarland used an AOL account to discuss the effort pushed by Trump friend Tom Barrack. It cites a Feb. 6, 2017, email between McFarland and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Bannon also received a Jan. 29, 2017, email from Barrack that Cummings said was a pitch of the plan sent to inform “Bannon’s official work relating to developing ‘broader Middle East policy.’”
Cummings is asking the White House whether these communications were properly preserved.
Robert Giuffra, a lawyer for McFarland, declined comment.
A representative for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | {
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Between answering the unanswered questions and trying to uncover all the easter eggs, my head has been stuck deep inside the Star Wars: The Force Awakens hole this week. I can’t stop thinking about the new Star Wars movie, and like many of you, I want to see what comes next. Episode VIII is 520 days away, and that seems like forever. I’ve been chatting with friends and theorizing about possibilities of what we might see, and I’ve collected some thoughts on the matter below. So what might come next?
Please Read This Before Reading These Star Wars Episode 8 Theories
What follows is my (and others) ridiculous fan speculation. If you’re the kind of person like me who sometimes enjoys “what if”s and thoughtful fan theories, this is for you. I have no insider knowledge about the storyline for Episode VIII at this time, so this is just basically fan fiction.
It should be stated that Episode 8 writer/director Rian Johnson probably has far more creativity in one finger than I do in my whole body (as evidenced by his filmography). So I think it is very unlikely that I have stumbled onto anything that he may be planning for the next installment. I’m not suggesting any of these things should even happen, just putting them out there as part of the conversation.
That said, what I speculate about could possibly happen, so if you’re spoiler-phobic about slight possibilities, don’t read any further. Also, don’t read the following unless you have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens as it contains spoilers for that film. So let’s get to the Star Wars Episode 8 theories.
Who Are Rey’s Parents?
Another possibility is Rey is the daughter of Leia Organa and Han Solo, which would still make her part of the Skywalker bloodline alongside her brother Kylo Ren.
And the third, less likely, possibility that she is the granddaughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi
And finally the least likely: Rey’s background leads to no known/established character in the Star Wars universe.
Since writing that article a friend shared with me an interesting new possibility: What if Rey was the daughter of Supreme Leader Snoke?
Okay, before you freak out, let me present the evidence:
The symmetry seems perfect: Our villain (Kylo Ren) is the son of one of our heroes (Han Solo), so why not have our new hero (Rey) be the offspring of one of our new villains (Snoke)? Much has been made about how J.J. Abrams has mirrored A New Hope in The Force Awakens, so what if Empire Strikes Back is being mirrored slightly in Episode VIII? We already had the prequel trilogy’s Obi-Wan Kenobi killed at the new Death Star, why not end Episode 8 with a twist on the most legendary “I am your father” moment.
We know almost nothing about Snoke other than the First Order answers to him and that Kylo Ren was seduced to the dark side by the Supreme leader.
Snoke appears to be very afraid of Luke Skywalker. The official novelization goes further into this, but this is why he wants to stop everyone (including Kylo Ren) from uncovering the map — he wants Luke to remain in exile. Why is Snoke so afraid of Luke? And is it possible that he hid his daughter on a desert planet in the western reaches of the galaxy to keep her out of harms way?
But we also don’t know if Snoke is a human, capable of creating human offspring. He looks almost like an alien, but maybe that is the result of the dark side of the force deteriorating/consuming his body, much like Emperor Palpatine.
I like this idea for a couple reasons: No one is expecting it and it gives our main hero more personal conflicted stakes in this new Star Wars trilogy. That said, it seems unlikely. Kathleen Kennedy has said the Star Wars saga will continue the Skywalker story. And while Kylo Ren is most definitely a Skywalker, and if this trilogy mirrors either of the previous ones, Kylo will end up redeeming himself by the end of Episode IX — so that story could continue. But it seems much more likely that Rey is a Skywalker.
As for Luke Skywalker, on the next page I explore a rumored ending for this film which didn’t happen. | {
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As noted in media reports and a trending Twitter moment, Alexa seemed to start laughing without being prompted to wake. People on Twitter and Reddit reported that they thought it was an actual person laughing near them, which is certainly scary if you’re home alone. Many responded to the cackling sounds by unplugging their Alexa-enabled devices.
"Over the past few days, users with Alexa-enabled devices have reported hearing strange, unprompted laughter. Amazon responded to the creepiness in a statement to The Verge, saying, “We’re aware of this and working to fix it.”" | {
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Azure Active Directory B2B: How it works
B2B is based on invitation model which lets you enable access to your corporate applications from partner-managed identities. You can provide email along with the applications you want to share and send invitation to your partners, customers or anyone else who have account in Azure Active Directory. Azure AD sends them an email invite with a link. The partner user follows the link and is prompted to sign in using their Azure AD account or sign up for a new Azure AD account.
How it works
You Azure AD admin can invite other users using structured CSV file which he uploads using Azure portal.
The portal sends invitation to all of the users specified in the uploaded file.
Each user who receive such email can click generated link and will be prompted to sign in using their work credential if they are already in Azure AD. If you doesn’t have an account, B2B collaboration has a streamlined sign-up experience to provide Azure AD accounts to your business partners.
Then user is redirected to an application to which they were invited.
Partner users exist in your Azure AD as external users. This means your admin can assign them to groups or roles and manage access to your apps independently of your business partner's account lifecycle.
CSV file format
Current version of B2B collaboration requires CSV file in which we are specifying users to be invited. There are two groups of fields.
Required:
Email – email address of user to invite
DisplayName – display name of user to invite
InviteConcatUsUrl - URL to include in email invitations in case the invited user wants to contact your organization
Optional:
InviteAppID - The ID for the application to use for branding the email invite and acceptance pages
InviteAppResources – AppIDs of applications to assign users.
InviteGroupResources – ObjectIDs for groups to add user to.
InviteReplayURL - URL to which to direct an invited user after invite acceptance. This should be a company-specific URL.
Applications IDs which we can specify in InviteAppResources can be easily retrieved using PowerShell and calling:
Please remember that first row of labels is required and spelling must match the fields specified above. It’s necessary for the CSV file to be parsed successfully. For optional fields that aren't needed, their labels can be removed from the CSV file and the entire column can be left empty.
Current preview limitations
Invites are possible only via CSV, individual invites and API access are not supported.
Only Azure AD Global Administrators can upload *.csv files.
There are limitations to consumer email addresses – emails such as gmail.com, hotmail.com are not currently supported. | {
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Virtual reality games?
Virtual reality games can be defined as three dimensional(3-D) applications of artificial environments in computer gaming. Virtual reality environments/games are created using high-end Virtual Reality software with environments experienced in such a way that they supercede the users real-world environment, creating and helping the user experience in virtual reality games environment as real.
At virtual reality South Africa we have custom designed virtual reality games to suit people of all ages and genders.
Virtual reality games which include
Beat Saber
Richies plank experience
Skiing
Virtual Reality Boxing
Bait
All our virtual reality games are created using modern high-end virtual reality technology and are designed by pioneers and architects who specialize in virtual reality technology to give nothing but the best experience since 1998.
However I discovered the weirdest thing in virtual reality games over a weekend activation event such as the different reactions from both kids and adults.
Over the weekend a group of adults and kids had the opportunity of being orientated by our team of highly trained staff to eventually experience the amusement of virtual reality games through our activation events such as the event we conducted in Centurion over the weekend.
The Virtual reality games are almost like the promised land for computer gamers which gave adults and children the time of their life by immersing each individual using our high end virtual reality technology in a sequence of games throughout the entire event.
Adults experience virtual reality games at our activation event
It was an exchange of virtual reality gaming platforms for both the adults and kids as they got to enjoy our virtual reality games. The fun and interactive nature of our virtual reality games provide experience that allow adults to get in touch with their inner child through the simulative environment and virtual environment in our activation events.
Children experience virtual reality games at our activation event
Kids filled with curiosity as they express it through their inquisitive actions even at our virtual reality games event they were more inquisitive with an element of fun, discovery, experience and getting immersed in a virtual environment.
Through my observation at the event It somehow seemed with virtual reality games they found some new and usual almost like a clone of a certain reality that provides a fun space and the immersive experience through the use of our high-end virtual reality technology that gives nothing short of a reality in what we provided for the experience during the event.
The virtual reality games are created by pioneers and architects of virtual reality South Africa using high-end virtual reality technology that will provide users with the most fun, immersive and simulative virtual reality game experience ever. Our high end virtual reality technology can be hired for activation events around the country and across the world. | {
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A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
SAN CLEMENTE — For the second year, cancer survivors, caregivers and community members turned out to Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park to honor loved ones and to support cancer research, services and education.
The American Cancer Society Coastal Communities Relay For Life, held Saturday, July 28, drew hundreds of residents from Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Dana Point and San Clemente.
To date, about $38,000 has been raised from the walk, and fundraising is on track to reach $50,000, said David Robinson, event chair.
Activities included a survivor’s brunch, relay races, a basketball contest and live entertainment. The event culminated with 100 luminarias – each bearing the name of a person who lost their battle with cancer – placed around the track.
“It’s something that really touches people, when they walk around the track and see all the people who have touched their lives and the lives of others who have passed from cancer,” Robinson said.
Entertainment included the Knowles Brothers, two high school students whose original song “We’ll Never Stop Fighting” is raising money for the American Cancer Society.
Martha McNicholas of Laguna Niguel holds a “Heroes of Hope” sign while walking with fellow cancer survivors during the opening SurvivorÕs Lap at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
“A Ray of Hope” team members pose for a photo with Iron Man during Saturday’s Relay For Life event in San Clemente on July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Sound
The gallery will resume inseconds
Relay For Life participants from Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente walk together during the Coastal Communities Relay For Life in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Juliana Vandenberg of Laguna Niguel walks with fellow “A Ray of Hope” team members while carrying the team banner during Saturday’s Relay For Life event in San Clemente on July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
The “Footin’ for Family and Friends” team walks together around a track at Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018 during the Coastal Communities Relay For Life. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Christina Farrow, 16, of San Clemente helps create luminarias for the evening Luminary Ceremony at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Relay For Life participants bow their heads during an Invocation at Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Cancer survivor Colin Cook, who was diagnosed at age 13 and has been in remission for 20 years, tells his survival story during the Opening Ceremony at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Cancer survivor Chase leads the Pledge of Allegiance during the Opening Ceremony at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
The Communities Outreach Alliance team walks together around a track at Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018 during the Coastal Communities Relay For Life. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Katie Robinson of San Clemente carries a giant flip-flop while walking with fellow ÒSteppin’ Forward in SupportÓ team members at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life event on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Maria Arnold of Laguna Niguel bids on an item in the silent auction at the Coastal Communities Relay For Life on Saturday, July 28, 2018, with all funds raised at the event going towards cancer research, services for cancer patients and education and prevention programs. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Community Outreach Coalition Founder Pondo Vleisides gives an Invocation during the Opening Ceremony of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
A group of cancer survivors walk together holding a survivors banner during the opening lap of the Coastal Communities Relay For Life, with teams from Newport Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente, at the Jim Johnson Memorial Sports Park in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Relay For Life participants from Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo and San Clemente walk together during the Coastal Communities Relay For Life in San Clemente on Saturday, July 28, 2018. (Photo By Jeff Antenore, Contributing Photographer)
Jennifer Karmarkar joined the Orange County Register in 2012 as a reporter for the weekly Laguna Woods Globe, where she has enjoyed delving into issues unique to the senior community. She is currently city editor for the Globe as well as Aliso Viejo News and Laguna Niguel News. | {
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28 May 2008
Summary of the Open letter for executive perusal[Written to members of the LITD 15 committee of BIS, India]ByProf Deepak B Phatak, IIT Bombay, India
1. OOXML is a document format developed by Microsoft and submitted to ISO by ECMA for a fast track approval as an international standard. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the Indian National Body (NB) representing India as a participating member of ISO. LITD 15 committee of the BIS is responsible for examining this standard and for deciding India’s position at ISO. The committee has 22 members. It deliberated over a prolonged period, and participated in the defined ISO processes for the fast track consideration of OOXML standard. Based on the committee decisions, India registered a disapproval vote with comments at ISO in August 2007. A Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) was held by ISO at Geneva in February 2008. Indian delegation believed that our technical concerns have not been addressed and registered a negative vote at the BRM. The LITD 15 committee was briefed by the delegation about the BRM proceedings. The final Indian position at ISO was decided by the committee on 20th March 2008, which retained Indian ‘disapproval’ vote.
2. Microsoft started filing complaints to various Indian authorities in early March 2008, claiming bias on part of several members of the committee because of their presumed membership of a group called ‘ODF Alliance India’. My Institution and its representatives are part of the group which has been falsely implicated in these complaints. Worse, the complaints have painted these organizations and their representatives, including the Indian delegation which attended the BRM, as acting against the Indian National interests. This is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian, amounting, personally for me at least, to intolerable blasphemy.
3. The meeting of the committee on 20th March 2008 had clearly and unambiguously finalized the Indian position of retaining the earlier disapproval vote. In spite of this, Microsoft continued to make representations to top Indian leadership, pressurizing them to change the Indian vote. This act, in my opinion, goes well beyond the behavioral boundaries for a non-Indian commercial entity, amounting to interfering with the governance process of a sovereign country.
4. I have lost my sleep and peace of mind for last two months over these distasteful activities by Microsoft. Their leaders in India sought a meeting with me and my colleagues to explain their point of view. We in turn reminded them of the positive approach taken by us and the work done by us to resolve technical issues. They appreciated the stand of IIT Bombay, and have apologized to us for the distress caused. We accepted their apologies as individuals, but have reminded them that the name of our Institution still stands maligned. I had suggested that they should immediately withdraw these complaints, and apologize to the Institute for their wrongdoing. There has so far been no action from Microsoft in this regard.
5. This is a rather long letter. But I assure the readers that the length of this letter is minuscule when compared with the depth of my hurt. The letter has 5 main parts. Section 1 is the preamble, describing the background. Section 2 gives the details of the role which IIT Bombay has played in the OOXML deliberations. Section 3 contains details of my personal anguish and my thoughts in the last two months. As a part of this section, I have constructed a hypothetical counter-complaint, including it as a stand-alone annexure to this letter, primarily to indicate that if we do not conduct ourselves properly amidst whatever arguments we have, we may all lose out in the end. Section 4 contains suggestions for the BIS on the way forward, and requests for certain urgent actions. I would request the LITD 15 committee to formally consider these requests in the subsequent deliberations. Section 5 is the concluding section.
6. I thank all the colleagues on the LITD 15 who worked diligently throughout the long and arduous process. I am grateful for the open and transparent manner in which the committee has conducted its proceedings under the chairmanship of Dr (Mrs) Neeta Verma, and look forward to more fruitful interactions in future. I wish to put on record a special word of thanks for the superb leadership which Shri Rakesh Verma provided to the Indian delegation at the Geneva BRM, and for the entire delegation for having taken a principled and correct stand on Indian position. Needless to add, my respect and pride for our senior bureaucratic and political leadership has been upheld by their professional, correct, and statesmanlike handling of the attempts to pressurize our process.
7. This letter is written to colleague members on the committee to express my deep anguish at the events. Some details of the role which IIT Bombay has played in the committee, and which may not be well known to people outside the committee, also needs to be recorded and made known to all concerned. I have no way of even knowing who all have read the Microsoft complaints. Therefore the only possible way for me is to make this letter an open letter and post it on the web. Accordingly, this letter will be posted on my blog-site (http://deepakphatak.blogspot.com/).
8. A whole lot of facts stated in this letter have got mingled with my own comments, observations, and hypotheses. If there are any facts which have not been correctly stated, I will be obliged if corrections are suggested by colleagues or other readers who know these more accurately. I will immediately put up the correction on my blog.
9. I would like to assure all colleagues and other readers that my intentions are purely to respond to the grave provocation caused by the actions of Microsoft. If my letter in turn causes any unintentional hurt to other colleagues, or to their organizations, or to any other reader, I deeply and sincerely apologize.
With reference to the recent happenings in connection with the ISO standardization process of OOXML, actions by or on behalf of Microsoft have caused me deep pain and hurt. Apart from the personal anguish, these actions have tarnished the name of my Institute along with that of several other organizations represented on our committee. In my opinion, these actions go well beyond the behavioral boundaries for a commercial entity. some of these amount to interference with the governance process of a sovereign country. Luckily, wiser and experienced people are in-charge of governance of the nation. However, as a humble teacher and a proud Indian, I wish to register a strong and visible protest.
I have waited for almost two months for my anger to subside, so that what I write is not written out of spite, and is not written to malign anyone including Microsoft. As a member of the committee, I believe that I have a right to be heard by colleagues. I am aware that this right does not include the right to be taken seriously. I leave that to the better judgment of colleague members. Please forgive me this indulgence.
Since this is a rather long letter, I have added the preceding ‘summary for executive perusal’. The letter has 5 main parts. Section 1 is the preamble, describing the background. Section 2 gives the details of the role which IIT Bombay has played in the OOXML deliberations. Section 3 contains details of my personal anguish and my thoughts in the last two months. As a part of this section, I have constructed a hypothetical counter-complaint, including it as a stand-alone annexure to this letter. I have written this to suggest that everyone should exhibit proper conduct amidst whatever arguments one has. If anyone indulges in slander using false charges, it could draw a strong reaction in equally bad terms, and we may all lose out in the end. Section 4 contains suggestions for the BIS on the way forward, and requests for certain urgent actions. Section 5 is the concluding section.
1. Preamble.
This section outlines the general background to the issues I raise.
1.1 OOXML was submitted to ISO for a fast track approval as an international standard. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the Indian National Body (NB) representing India as a participating member of ISO. In order to decide and submit Indian position on OOXML, BIS entrusted this task to the Data Management Systems sectional committee, LITD 15. The committee deliberated over a prolonged period in 2007 and in early 2008, and participated in the defined ISO processes for the fast track consideration of OOXML standard. As of date, the following organizations are on the committee:
1.2 The committee deliberations up to August 2007 resulted in the Indian position of 'disapproval with comments' of the proposed standard, listing some 82 comments which were unresolved. The committee also concluded that if all the Indian comments are resolved, India would approve the standard after obtaining concurrence of the National body.
This decision of the committee to disapprove OOXML, reached during the meeting held in New Delhi on 28 August 2007 was unanimous. All 22 members were present during that meeting.
1.3 OOXML failed to obtain the supporting votes, as stipulated by ISO, in the ballot held in 2007. As is provided for in the ISO fast track process, a Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) was scheduled in Geneva, for which an Indian delegation was nominated by BIS comprising the following four members:
Additionally, two members, one each from Microsoft and IBM were nominated to assist the delegation.
The delegation went to Geneva believing that each of the outstanding issues which concerned India, and also issues which concerned other nations, would be discussed threadbare in the BRM. It was discovered during BRM that there were more than 1000 objections. A few issues were discussed and resolved, in some cases changing the original dispositions made. However, since a very large number were still pending, it was decided by the BRM to resolve all of these by a vote rather than by technical discussion, presumably because lack of time available. Indian delegation did not consider this to be a satisfactory resolution of all Indian concerns, and registered a NO vote at BRM. To the best of my knowledge, the vote at BRM was 6 nations voted Yes, 4 voted NO, as many as 18 abstained, and 4 did not record any position.
1.4 After coming back from Geneva, the delegation briefed the committee on the happenings of the BRM. In its meeting on 20th March, the committee voted on the resolution whether India should change its earlier disapproval vote. A total of 19 members were present. 13 members voted NO, only 5 voted YES, 1 member abstained. The resolution did not carry the required support, and the Indian position to be conveyed to ISO was recorded as that of NOT changing our earlier disapproval vote.
1.5 During the month of March 2008, Microsoft made a representation to the ministry of Indian Government under which the BIS functions. Name of an entity called ‘ODF alliance India’ was mentioned by Microsoft in this complaint (for the first time in the entire year long episode). It was claimed to be an organization promoting ODF standard. (which is a correct fact). It was further claimed this alliance was opposed to OOXML (this is fiction, attempted to be substantiated by some media reports as ‘proof’!). Worse, it was claimed that several members of the Indian committee, being members of ODF India alliance, are biased against OOXML! I found out later that several representations have been made by Microsoft to various Government departments. These included representations to senior political leaders of other ministries as well. In some representations, the Indian delegation to BRM was also painted in similar derogatory terms.
The common members so claimed by Microsoft to be members of this alliance and who are also members of the LITD 15 committee were:
1 IIT Delhi2 IIT Bombay3 CDAC4 NIC5 SUN6 IBM7 Red Hat8 TCS
None of the members (certainly not IIT Bombay) was ever informed by Microsoft, at any time, of the concern that Microsoft had about the perceived bias, nor was the issue of bias ever raised in any meeting of the committee.
1.6 During the meeting of 20th March 2008, the committee chairperson, Dr Neeta Verma, who belongs to NIC, expressed her anguish at the complaint lodged to her ministry about her organization being a member of this ODF India alliance and therefore her being biased against OOXML (This was actually the first time I, or for that matter most committee members heard of such a complaint. She pointed out that any issue of bias on her part was never ever raised in any meeting by anyone, least of all by Microsoft. She further pointed out that, she had conducted all the committee meetings in the most fair and transparent manner. She mentioned that, in any case, NIC is not a member of ODF India alliance. All the members, including Microsoft, expressed their full faith in the chairperson, and the meeting continued with her in chair.
1.7 There is one more small fact which I must state here, as it has a bearing on what I have to say later. In that meeting on 20th March 2008, one of the members (I believe, it was the representative of CSI) explicitly asked whether Microsoft will now withdraw their complaint. The Microsoft representative reportedly said that the complaint was made by higher ups, and that he had no authority to withdraw the complaint! This was in spite of the fact that he had just officially expressed faith in the impartiality of the chairperson and had commended her conduct of all meetings as fair and transparent.
1.8 Microsoft continued its efforts of pressurizing the Indian leadership to change the Indian vote, even after the committee decision for BIS and for the nation was finalized on 20th March 2008. I was personally contacted around 27th March. The inquiry was polite but clear to the effect whether our membership of the ODF India Alliance would have caused us to have a bias against OOXML, and whether, therefore, our participation in the Indian committee could affect national interests . This was a major shock to me. I, of course, explained that such was certainly not the case. I clarified that when we sit on any national committees, it is our competence and experience alone that we bring to the table. I mentioned the work that our team had done for the committee and our attempts to sort out technical issues raised on the proposed standard. I emphasized that it was completely unthinkable that any IIT Bombay representative, or for that matter, any other member of such committees will ever act against Indian national interests. I mentioned that I found such a charge very derogatory and insulting.
2. The Role played by IIT Bombay in the OOXML deliberations
This section of the letter describes the process which we followed at IIT Bombay. The purpose is to clarify once and for all, the role that we played in the OOXML standardization process and the rationale behind that role.
When IIT Bombay was requested to participate in LITD 15, Dr. Sharat Chandran had early interactions as IIT Bombay nominee, mostly through emails. After a few meetings, he found out that there were a lot of technical issues which needed to be studied and resolved. A group was then formed within IIT Bombay, comprising 4 professors of our department of CSE:
Since then, every opinion/vote given at the committee meeting has been arrived at through a debate, sometimes lengthy, but always resulting in a consensus. It is important to remember that, like all academicians, each one of us has very strong individual opinions, and these are rarely in complete alignment. But no matter what was the opinion of any individual, once we reached a consensus, it was that stand, and that stand alone, which was presented at every meeting of the committee by whosoever attended.In this particular case of OOXML, the view which emerged very early was that there is nothing wrong with multiple standards but any standard must satisfy two basic requirements. These are:a) Openness, which means that standard can be implemented by independent multiple vendors without recourse to any proprietary information. In particular, there ought not to be any access or patent restriction. This is one way of encouraging competing products to be built. In any case, India does not recognize software patents.b) Interoperability, which means a product conforming to this standard, must inter-operate with a product conforming to any existing standard (in this case ODF).
Our observations and subsequent actions were as follows:
i) It was noticed that OOXML has two objectives. One is to get in its fold all the legacy documents presently in Microsoft office proprietary format. Second is to ensure that the standard is forward looking and is able to enhance in coming years.ii) It was felt that these two objectives, viz., backward compatibility and future extensibility are often at loggerheads. Thus utmost attention needs to be paid to each and every technical issue and its resolution.iii) The list of technical objections raised was studied. A few meetings were held with Microsoft experts to understand their dispositions. We came to a conclusion that, from the original set of 200+ technical issues, some 80+ were still not addressed by the disposition. The consensus that emerged was that the standard could not be accepted as is, unless these are resolved satisfactorily. In the latter case, OOXML can be approved.iv) This is the stand which was conveyed to committee in August 2007. IIT Bombay was indeed happy to note that this view was largely accepted. It was a moment of great satisfaction to us that Indian vote was arrived at unanimously, in contrast to that of most other countries of the world.v) ISO reported in September 2007, that the OOXML standard has not succeeded in getting sufficient support as per ISO rules. ISO announced a Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva to be held in February.vi) Our thinking was that many of the pending Indian concerns revolved primarily around free access to the proprietary binary formats, and around the worry on Microsoft patents for these. We communicated these aspects to Microsoft both independently, as also in the committee meetings.vii) We have been very worried about the interoperability with ODF and the extensibility of the proposed standard. We were also concerned about the provision of a large number of deprecated features in OOXML proposal. Our view was that the backward compatibility is only useful to ensure that a legacy document with deprecated features can be read by a conforming implementation and can then be correctly migrated to the new standard, or to ODF through interoperability. While a number of other countries have a very large number of documents presently in Microsoft proprietary format, Indian situation is not comparable since most of the Indian documents are still in the paper form and would get digitized over the coming decade. We believed that going forward, India would benefit by having only the new features of OOXML in our documents, if one chooses to use products conforming to this standard eventually after it gets adopted by India. This requirement was expressed by us, along with others, as an important concern at the LITD 15 meeting held just before the BRM. Microsoft agreed to change its disposition to state that such deprecated features will NOT be present in documents, which are freshly created, including those, which are migrated.viii) Dr. Sharat Chandran was nominated as a member of the Indian delegation by BIS for the BRM at Geneva. A special subgroup was constituted in India to try and resolve more of the remaining Indian comments. Since none of us from IIT could attend the meetings of the specially constituted subgroup held in Delhi, we suggested that Dr. Sharat Chandran will understand from Dr. Balasubramanian (who was also a member of the subgroup), the nature of issues still pending. We also suggested that Dr. Sharat Chandran should carefully note all points raised by other countries, and advice the delegation if any of those could additionally pose a concern from Indian point of view.ix) The delegation reported the sad happening at BRM. Dr. Sharat Chandran’s feedback to us was that those few technical issues, which were discussed in the first two days, indeed were resolved to make the standard better, and the corresponding original dispositions were appropriately modified in several cases. He felt that if similar discussion was held for all the remaining points, the draft would have become much better through many more changes in the dispositions, and thus would have become technically acceptable. However, the decision to ‘resolve’ an unprecedented number of pending technical issues by a single vote without any technical discussion precluded any such possibility. This appeared to him to be completely out of tune with the basic BRM objective of ‘resolution through technical discussion’ and also against the principle of creating the largest consensus on technical issues. In particular, he observed that there was no chance for the remaining Indian concerns to be technically resolved, nor a chance for the Indian delegation to learn about other issues which could be relevant to India.x) He agreed (and later all of us here concurred with him) on the principled stand taken by the Indian delegation to ‘disapprove’ the acceptance of these dispositions in the vote.xi) In the meeting held on 13th March 2008, the delegation debriefed the committee on the BRM proceedings. In our final discussion at IIT Bombay, we concluded that:
a) BRM has failed in its basic objectives of resolution through technical discussion. Even in the vote, we noted that 4 P members had voted Yes, 2 O members also voted yes, 4 P members had voted No. We thus noticed that the majority to the resolution was provided by the 2 Yes votes registered by countries with O status. It was also noticed that that as many as 18 countries registered an ‘abstain’ vote, and 4 more countries refused to register any position. In our opinion, the ISO spirit of arriving at the 'largest possible agreement' was clearly violated. When as many as 22 countries participating in the BRM did not say both yes or no, and only 10 registered affirmative or negative positions, we could not conclude otherwise.b) The entire standard is now restructured into multiple parts. New conformance criteria have been introduced for strict and transitional compliance. Even the scope is now changed.c) There is no single document describing the standard that can be studied by anyone to arrive at proper understanding of the entire standard. In particular, from the information which is decipherable, it is evident that the Indian concerns are not taken care of.d) The standard, as it is now, is thus not mature enough for acceptance as an ISO standard as of date. This was the opinion Dr. Sharat Chandran conveyed to the committee during the meeting held on 20th March 2008.
(xiii) IIT Bombay accordingly registered a “NO’ vote to the proposal of changing the earlier Indian Vote of disapproval.
As I have mentioned earlier, at no stage of the proceedings till March 2008, the word ODF alliance ever entered our discussion. I was personally not even aware of ‘ODF alliance India’, till the term was thrown at me later. When I inquired around, this entity was explained to me and I was told that its objective was to promote ODF. I was also informed that Prof Sivakumar of IIT Bombay was associated with the activities around ODF. Initially I was mildly amused that something completely irrelevant was being brought into the debate. It is to be noted that, while all four of us at IIT Bombay are involved in some activity or the other in the Open Source, neither that nor this particular association with ODF ever came in the way of our active participation in resolving the technical objections against OOXML. Even Microsoft has acknowledged this fact.
I write this elaborately to make an important point that, membership of ODF or any such alliance has absolutely no bearing on the actions of people when they sit on important national committees. If any individual has a bias, the reasons would clearly lie elsewhere. The positions of companies with commercial interests in competing products pertaining to the domain of this standard, for whom certain preferences were perhaps natural, were well known. In this particular case, I would think that these companies are Microsoft, IBM and SUN. These account for just 3 members out of a total of 22 members constituting this committee. We never noticed any bias from any member otherwise.
We were therefore very surprised and later deeply shocked when we learned that various complaints and representations have been made by Microsoft, going all the way up to the political leaders of the nation. A few things have affected me most. One is that certain organizations have been falsely painted as biased organizations in these complaints. The second, and far more derogatory, is that people and organizations are claimed to have acted against Indian national interests. Worse, even as I write this letter, these ridiculous claims have not yet been withdrawn by Microsoft.
3. My personal anguish.
My first anguish is the way the name of my colleagues and my Institution, along with names of several others on the committee LITD 15, have been maligned and tarnished by Microsoft. My second anguish is that Microsoft persisted in its attempt to pressurize Indian leadership to change the Indian stand, in spite of the fact that a due process established by the Government had completed its job, recommending no change in the Indian vote. These two things, amongst others, have caused me to lose my peace of mind and my sleep over last two months. I share my thoughts (which sometimes have been rather wild), and my anguish in this section.
3.1 My colleagues, my Institute, and some other maligned organizations
I have detailed in the previous section, our approach and work that our team did at IIT Bombay. One of the complaints raised by Microsoft was about the Indian delegation itself. The delegation included Dr Sharat Chandran from my Institute as a member.
Microsoft's complaint about the delegation again invokes the bogey of ODF India Alliance. In its listing of the composition of the Indian delegation it states that the delegation comprised of 2 members of the bureau and 2 others were representatives of the ODF India alliance! The complaint, of course states, that the alliance is opposed to OOXML. It further states that the delegation was not acting in the spirit of promoting India’s best interests, It states that in an attempt to thwart the development of a competing standard, the delegation has now made several challenges to the ISO procedure, and so on. On the last issue, it is my understanding that it is not the delegation but the committee which has forwarded some critical observations to ISO. But let me draw your attention to the work of 2 technical members of the committee claimed by Microsoft to have been biased against OOXML, and working against Indian National interests!
It is noteworthy that these two members of the delegation, stated to be members of ODF alliance are:
1. Dr Balasubramanian, who spent a lot of time with Microsoft representative, as a member of the special subgroup constituted just before the BRM, and actually helped resolve 35 dispositions before the BRM. Further, he belongs to NIC. Dr Neeta Verma, the committee chairperson, has since clarified that NIC is NOT a member of ODF India alliance.
2. Dr Sharat Chandran of IIT Bobmay, who, amongst all my colleagues at IIT, has spent maximum time pondering over the OOXML document, and had worked with Microsoft to resolve many of the 200 issues, helping to reduce these to 82 before the meeting held in August 2007.
With the clarification of NIC, the Microsoft representation against the delegation effectively reduces to singling out ONLY IIT Bombay as THE member of the ODF alliance in the delegation. Therefore, by implication, IIT Bombay is opposed to OOXML, has acted against the national interest, has attempted to thwart the development of a competing standard, etc.
This leaves me truly speechless and dumbfounded. I would like to believe that IIT Bombay has perhaps, rather quietly, done amongst the maximum technical work towards resolution of technical issues, other than NIC and, of course, Microsoft. The work of IIT Bombay has been acknowledged time and again by Microsoft itself. Yet, Microsoft has no hesitation in making absurd allegations like these. For Microsoft, Dr Sharat Chandran is a ‘good man’ when he spends precious time, along with colleagues of IIT Bombay team, to ponder over technical issues raised on OOXML. He is thinking ‘positively’ when he is trying to see if the dispositions by Microsoft address the technical concerns or not. IIT Bombay is acting in the interest of consumers and in the interests of nation, when it opines that multiple standards are all right. In the final meeting of the committee before the Indian vote to ISO in August 2007, when Dr Phatak requests the committee members to take a unified stand on the Indian position and to indicate our willingness to support the OOXML standard if all our concerns are addressed, Dr Phatak has done a good job and has acted in 'national interest'.
But when Dr Sharat Chandran does not think that the process of voting adopted at BRM is right, and that not only Indian concerns but even all other concerns raised by various NBs have not been resolved through technical debate at all, he is suddenly ‘not behaving correctly’. When he agrees with the decision of the Indian delegation to register a vote of disapproval at BRM, he and his other technical colleague in the delegation are suddenly portrayed as representatives of the evil ODF India alliance. When he conveys the opinion of IIT Bombay to the committee, that since several problems in OOXML have not yet been technically resolved and OOXML is not yet ready and mature to become an international standard as of now, he is portrayed to be acting solely to oppose OOXML. When IIT Bombay registers a ‘NO change’ vote at the final meeting of LITD 15 on 20th March 2008, we are portrayed by Microsoft as acting against Indian National interests!
This is the way Microsoft has treated people and organizations. Friends, good men, positive thinkers, excellent organizations, acting in the national interests, etc., one day. Enemies, members of evil alliance, acting against national interests, the day they dare to register their technical opinion which is not in consonance with what Microsoft expects! Forgive me for saying this, but ‘Backstabbing a friend’, is the most polite phrase that comes to my mind.
Words from the famous star-wars movie episodes perhaps most aptly describe the Microsoft behaviour. I believe these were “Either you are with me, or you are my enemy”. Perhaps in the context of Microsoft, these should be rephrased as “Either you are with me in exactly the way I want you to be with me, or you are my enemy”.
Forget individuals for a moment. What about fine name of my Institution which has been portrayed as an evil organization acting against OOXML because of its bias, and therefore acting against national interests! Microsoft has thus attempted to destroy the fine reputation of my Institution. Luckily, IIT Bombay does not need certificates from Microsoft on its conduct. But I just cannot digest the insult. I had bad dreams for several nights, imagining things. I thought of a scenario where the dead reputation of my Institute is being buried by a large crowd. Readers will recall the funeral oration of Mark Antony over the dead body of Julius Caesar. This is well known, at least as Shakespeare’s imaginative creation for his play, if not the historical writings of Dion Cassius and Plutrach. I imagined that some friend of my Institute, who saw some good in IIT Bombay’s ambition to do the right things the right way, and who would have been perturbed by the dead body of the reputation of the Institute, may perhaps say, describing the action of Microsoft and its friends as:
I come to bury the reputation of an Institute, not to praise it. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with IIT Bombay. The noble Microsoft has told you IIT was ambitious; If it were so, it was a grievous fault, And grievously hath IIT answer’d it. Here under leave of Microsoft and the rest, For Microsoft is an honourable organization; So are they all, all honourable men;
If out of anger and hurt, such wild thoughts come to my mind, the reason is simply that my faith in the goodness of my Institute, and my bondage with it has been the main passion in my career. Simply put, I shall not tolerate such trumped up charges to hurt the reputation of my beloved IIT Bombay. I believe that no representative of any organization on the committee can tolerate such crude and false accusations.
I would like to point out that IIT Bombay is not just a well known Indian academic Institution of higher learning . It is a component of the ‘IIT System’ of my country. A system created directly through special acts by the parliament of my sovereign nation. A system that has been carefully supported and tenderly nurtured by the government of my sovereign nation. This system is meant to provide opportunities for the talented Indians to learn the cutting edge knowledge in the best possible way to build their successful careers, and to build their nation, This is a system which guarantees to every young boy and girl of the nation that, no matter what language you speak, no matter what religion you practice, no matter whether you come from the poorest of the poor or from the richest of the rich; if you can demonstrate your merit, you shall be admitted to the system to build a fine career.
Microsoft may please note that the IIT system today is a symbol of aspirations for the Indian talent. Any attempt to lower the stature of the system, particularly an attempt based on falsehood and misplaced allegations, may not be taken kindly by my nation. Claiming that IIT Bombay acted against national interest will not be believed even for a moment. such claim would be met with due disdain it deserves. But the fact that such a deliberate attempt was made, makes one feel very sad and publicly humiliated. The hurt is irrevocable.
And what about the National Informatic Centre (NIC)? Independent of the fact that NIC has clarified that it is NOT a member of the ODF India alliance, I am equally pained at this baseless allegation painting NIC as an organization which is biased, which is opposed to OOXML, and which acts against national interests.
My anguish runs specially deeper for this last dirty allegation against NIC, of ‘not working in the interest of India’. I have had the privilege of working closely with NIC. I have personally known the heads of NIC from Dr. Seshagiri to Dr. Gairola. I assure you that these people have done nothing else in all their professional lives, except serving the interests of the nation. Thousands of NICs' technical officers have been working in far flung talukas (sub-districts) and districts, building applications for district administration, for state and central Government ministries and departments. They do not work on dollar equivalent salaries as many of their counterparts in the industry do, but in my opinion, they are the unsung heroes of the Indian e-governance story. I am not trying to belittle the great and complex projects done by commercial companies in this area, but to imply that anybody in NIC could act against national interest, is truly a sickening allegation.
Since IIT Bombay and NIC had representatives on the BRM delegation, these explicit allegations are more elaborate in the complaints. However, all other members listed earlier as being claimed by Microsoft to be ODF India alliance members suffer the same accusation by direct implication. They do not deserve such nonsense either.
Did Microsoft anticipate that the representatives of these organizations may vote against OOXML? Was Microsoft trying to send a message that these organizations should rethink their position and vote 'properly'. Well, none seem to have taken notice except for one. What about TCS? Since TCS is also a member of ODF India alliance, did it also act against national interests in August 2007 vote of the committee? What if someone develops a grudge against TCS by reading the Microsoft complaints? Does the TCS representative on the committee even know about this allegation? If he does, people may wish to know whether this was the reason why he finally voted YES to change India’s disapproval at ISO. Since TCS has supported OOXML, by Microsoft induction, TCS has now redeemed itself and has finally acted in national interest! But would all the senior people, who read the Microsoft representations and complaints, remember to make such a fine distinction?
What a wonderful way of maligning friends and foes alike!
Microsoft has committed a gross libel against these Institutions, which have been serving the nation with distinction. Microsoft leadership has since met us and apologized for the mistake, appreciating the contributions made by IIT Bombay. Individually I have accepted the apology. But as an Institution, this is completely inadequate. The names of IIT Bombay, of NIC, and of several other organizations have been wrongly, falsely, and deliberately tarnished in the eyes of top bureaucratic and political leaders of various ministries of the nation. At the minimum, Microsoft must formally write to all those whom they have sent their complaints, withdrawing these immediately. Further, they must clearly, formally and unambiguously apologize to these organizations. If even this is not done immediately, I am not sure what the reaction would be.
To illustrate how someone could react to this mudslinging by Microsoft, I have written a hypothetical complaint titled ‘Microsoft is looting the nation in alliance with Indian IT giants'. While constructing this hypothetical complaint, I have used what I call the ‘Microsoft patented mud-slinging algorithm’. I have included it as a stand alone appendix (Annexure A) to this letter. The purpose is to demonstrate that such complaints and counter complaints would lead all of us to disaster. This hypothetical counter complaint shows Microsoft as working at national and International forums to maintain and enhance its monopoly in global markets, and as attempting to ensure its monopoly strangle-hold on Indian desktop Market. It also paints INFOSYS, TCS, WIPRO and NASSCOM as willfully helping Microsoft in this evil design, and thus acting grossly against Indian National interests. The last one has hit me very hard emotionally, even though the construction was done by myself and it is purely hypothetical. The significant contributions made by these organizations to the Indian IT story are well known. The past and present leaders of these organizations are icons of modern India. I have the privilege of knowing them closely and being counted amongst their friends. I am sure that a large number of my countrymen will react very strongly if anyone was to really engage in such slander against them. I will be one personally eager to counter any such foolish attempts to malign these great names. These people and their Institutions are and must be treated with genuine respect.
But then, should lesser mortals and smaller organizations deserve any less? Several of us working on the committee may be relatively smaller in stature. Organizations we work for may be relatively less known, less rich, and less powerful. But does any one have any right to trample on our self-esteem? Does any one have a right to malign any committee members or their organizations, specially using wrong presumptions, lies, and blasphemous allegations of acting against their nation's interests? I believe that such attempts must be treated with same contempt and must be repelled with exactly the same vigour.
There is one particular allegation in my hypothetical construction which I must mention in passing because this issue is real and may get raised if matters get out of hand. One allegation in this hypothetical counter complaint relates to these 4 organizations acting against Indian interests by asking for Indian vote to be changed, in spite of the fact that Indian technical concerns were not resolved. Technical concerns which they themselves had agreed must be resolved satisfactorily before we rethink Indian position of disapproval. In order to explain this point, I need to back-track a little.
Recall that the Indian position of disapproval with comments, finalized by the committee in August 2007, was UNANIMOUS. After months of hard work the committee had unanimously concluded that several Indian concerns were not yet addressed by the dispositions. We also specifically agreed that if all the technical issues are resolved to India's satisfaction, then India will change its vote to ‘Yes’.
This convergence of opinion displayed two very important points. Firstly it showed very clearly and unambiguously that absolutely no member of the committee took a stand against either multiple standards, or against OOXML, as has been alleged by Microsoft. It is to be particularly noted that every member of the now famous ‘ODF India Alliance’, without any exception whatsoever, agreed to support OOXML as an ISO standard, provided all the technical concerns posed by India are resolved.Secondly, it showed that the Indian technical objections were indeed important to all of us and that these were required to be properly resolved. The unanimous vote included every one of these 4 members as also Microsoft itself. Each of these 5 members thus actually opposed the ISO adoption of OOXML on specific technical grounds by agreeing to the unanimous Indian vote.
I have already explained my understanding that the BRM process had singularly failed to technically discuss and resolve all the Indian technical objections. This was clearly explained in the debriefing by the Indian delegation to the members of the committee. This is also obvious even through a cursory reading of the available ISO documentation about BRM, whatever little that may be. Since the important criteria put forth unanimously by India earlier, was NOT satisfied by ISO through the BRM, the only logical position for India to take was NOT to change its earlier vote.
This is the position 13 members of the committee took on 20th March. Exactly five members of the committee took the position that Indian must change its vote. If we remove Microsoft as a naturally interested party for the change of position, it leaves us with INFOSYS, TCS, WIPRO and NASSCOM. The ‘nay’ Sayers have been consistently maligned as saying ‘No’ after being 'influenced' by some imagined strategy of the members of so called ‘ODF India alliance', even when each such member had legitimate reason to say ‘no’ based on what had happened at the BRM as explained by the delegation. The allegation in my hypothetical counter complaint implicitly asks these 4 respected members, who insisted that India must change her vote, as to how exactly they came to the conclusion that all the technical concerns raised by India have now been technically discussed and resolved to India’s satisfaction.
Please do remember that each one of these 4 was a part of the unanimous Indian vote on these concerns. As representatives of the Indian IT industry giants and as the leading Industry association, may I politely inquire as to whether a detailed technical analysis of each of the pending issue and its disposition by BRM after technical deliberations, was carried out by each colleague member representing these 4 organizations. Can they point out the exact clauses or paragraphs in the final OOXML document which precisely resolve Indian concerns? I will specifically ask them just one of our concerns as an example. This was mentioned earlier in section 2. In a meeting just before the delegation left for the BRM, Microsoft had agreed for an important Indian requirement related to deprecated features. The agreement was for Microsoft to change its related disposition to say that the deprecated features will NOT be present in documents which are freshly created, including those which are migrated (I believe it was part of the Indian comment IN0030. This required that no migrated document can have any of the deprecated features.
The debriefing by the delegation has clearly indicated that neither this, nor many other Indian concerns were technically resolved at the BRM. Surely these 4 members would have done the exercise of cross checking the final documents. They must have determined that the debriefing was incorrect and indeed all the Indian concerns have been resolved. Could they please enlighten me on their detailed analysis done before casting their vote on 20th March. As a teacher, may I pose them the quiz: please indicate the page numbers, paragraph numbers, line numbers, etc., where the OOXML standard post BRM precisely and satisfactorily addresses all of India’s technical concerns. As an example, please tell me the wording in the OOXML documentation where this specific issue is sorted out as had been insisted upon by all of us unanimously.
The sad fact now is that neither this, nor resolution to other Indian concerns can be found precisely in the form in which it was required. This is because the entire standard document has been restructured. I believe the word deprecated now appears as transitional and references to such features are spread over several parts. Even the scope has been changed. It is not even ready in its final form, this exercise itself being now part of the maintenance process of the standard!
Should the committee now conclude that, knowing fully well that serious Indian technical concerns have not been addressed, these 4 members still voted for changing the Indian position of disapproval of OOXML? If no citation from the new standard (as on 20th March 2008) is available from these members, should the nation now conclude that these 4 organizations deliberately acted against Indian national interests? If there is any evidence of support now found to have been given by any one of these 4 organizations to the efforts of Microsoft to pressurize the Indian Government to change our vote, should the nation now conclude that there indeed is a ‘secret alliance with Microsoft to loot the country’?
Hard questions friends, with no easy answers.
In conclusion, I will reiterate that my anguish, caused by Microsoft by slandering Individuals and organizations represented on committee LITD 15 of BIS, runs very very deep. I have requested Microsoft to immediately withdraw all such frivolous complaints and representations maligning colleagues on the committee. I have also requested Microsoft to formally apologize to my Institute for causing damage to its reputation. I await action from them in this regard. I am absolutely unable to tolerate the mudslinging on IIT Bombay. I believe the same holds for other colleagues.
3.2 My sovereign nation, and attempts to interfere in her Governance process
This is a far greater anguish I have been suffering from for all these days since March. In its attempt to get Indian ‘disapproval’ vote retracted and changed, Microsoft first tried to convince the committee. When it appeared that the committee may not agree for such a change, Microsoft made complaints to the governing ministries of some of the organizations as explained earlier, stating that people from their departments were not acting in national interest. When the bureaucratic leadership refused to make any alterations in the process of the duly constituted committee, they went to the political leadership. If this was limited to a request for change in the committee constitution, it can at least be understood, howsoever distasteful the method of allegations adopted by them may have been. But their objective was to get the Indian vote changed. Even after the committee deliberation on 20th March, they still persisted with their pressures at the highest levels of Indian leadership, this time very clearly articulating the main demand, that the Government should change the Indian disapproval vote, and persisting with the same representations which stated that people were not acting in national interests.
In doing this, Microsoft has clearly transgressed the behavioural boundaries for any foreign commercial entity. They were asking the Government of India to forget the well defined process, and override the decision so arrived at. Of course, the Government is sovereign, and it has the authority and responsibility to take decisions in the best interests of the nation. And, of course, the Indian leadership refused to intervene; perhaps finding no substance in the representation after it looked at all the details. Apparently, from the Microsoft’s perspective, even the Indian leadership has acted against Indian national interest! What next?
My greatest angst against Microsoft is in their arrogance in telling Indian government about Indian ‘national interest’, particularly at the highest levels of the leadership. One really wonders whether they even properly understand what a nation is.
To appreciate why I feel so strongly on this issue of interference in the governance process; I take you through a part of the more recent history of (just last 200 years of) my country.
In the 19th century a company called East India Company maintained its own army to enforce its desires. Sometime in 1824, the company determined that it was not in the 'best interests' of a small princely state called Kittur to be governed by the adopted son of the dead king, I believe a person called Lord Amherst was heading the operations of the relevant segment of the company then (Prof Krithi Ramamritham may wonder at the interesting coincidence of this name being familiar as the name of the place of a great university today in US where he worked with distinction). When the queen of the state refused to accept this ridiculous verdict of a company, and rose in arms, she was simply crushed in battle. Another paid employee of the same company, some decades later in 1848, did the same thing with other Indian states. This gentleman, called Lord Dalhousie, actually had the temerity to formalize this principle as a 'doctrine of lapse', which arrogantly declared that such states will be 'annexed' to the company and will be directly ruled by the company itself. The company managed to annex several states this way. But in 1856, when another small state called Jhansi objected, the company crushed the army led by the queen of that state as well, killing the queen in the process. In 1857, the Aakrosh (strongest sentiment of resisting any unjust behaviour) against the company was far widespread. There was a general rebellion, under the banner of the last Mughal Emperor of India, Bahadur Shah Zafar. That rebellion was again mercilessly crushed. Many male members of the emperor were killed by the British, and he himself was exiled after a show-trial. The nation saw thousands of mutineers hanged by trees because they dared dream of being masters of their own fate. Incidentally, this so-called victory of the Company resulted in such great unrest, that it was immediately followed by the more unfortunate direct intervention by the British Crown. Curiously, the first thing that the crown did in 1858, this time through a representative called the Viceroy, was to immediately cancel this funny 'doctrine of lapse', guarantying now that there shall be no interference in the matters of Indian princely states!
My nation will neither easily forget the martyrdom of Kitturu Rani Chennama or of Jhansi ki Rani Laxmibai in the fight for their right to determine their own interests and manage their own affairs; nor will it easily forget the dead bodies of thousands of Indian mutineers hanging by the trees. The Indian struggle to permit herself the right to determine what is in their own national interest, had to continue for another 90 years. My Nation witnessed many remarkable struggles by her people. A reputed leader in the political struggle called Lala Lajpat Rai was beaten to death in a British Jail, Those who dared to protest more vociferously and violently were promptly hanged. We cannot forget the martyrdom of Sardar Bhagat Singh, or Sukhdev, or Rajguru. My nation gratefully remembers the heroic act of Subhash Chandra Bose, who built the 'Azad Hind Army' to fight the foreign rule. We cannot at all forget the sacrifices of those millions who followed the great Mahatma, joining his non-violent clarion cry of 'quit India'. We ultimately achieved independence in 1947, and became a sovereign republic in 1950 when we adopted our constitution. Till date, we are governed by ourselves under this constitution. We immensely respect and cherish our freedom, like people of all other nations respect theirs.
One may wonder why this teacher is reciting past history in a letter being written in 21st century. It is because I see painful glimpses of dead bodies of people, hanged because they dared to proclaim that they shall be masters of their own fate and of their nation. A company today does not, thankfully, maintain standing armies, and cannot award kingdoms to Mir Jafers for their support, nor can it punish opponents like Tipu Sultan, or Veer Pndya Katta Boman, or Rani Laxmibai by killing them in battles. But promising to reward those who support you; attempting to punish those who oppose you by tarnishing their image and maligning them; trying to pressurize people and Institutions of a sovereign nation at all levels to ensure your own petty gains; trying to pressurize sovereign governments to disregard their own lawful processes and to endorse what you want; any of these may be seen by many in this country to be, in principle, a very similar attempt. Teachers are usually expected to be amongst the first ‘antennas’ to detect such happenings in any society. They have the responsibility to warn their fellow countrymen.
What Microsoft has done in India to get a favourable vote for OOXML at ISO, earlier by trying to discredit several members of the committee in the eyes of the government, and later by continuing to pressurize her government after a decision was reached by BIS in LITD15, was a blatant interference. As I understand it in plain English, this is an attempt by an external entity to interfere in the governance of a sovereign country. I do not know how such attempts are perceived and tackled in other counties, but India is rather sensitive to such perceived threats. Personally, I am particularly extra-sensitive.
I am aware that I am only a humble teacher. I am aware that Microsoft is a mighty, rich, and powerful company. But if I perceive a threat to my national sovereignty and to her honour, this old teacher will simply pack his pen, and pick up a sword for a mortal combat. I believe many more of my fellow Indians may think of doing likewise. Please be informed that If I am forced to join such a battle, then I will never come back defeated. I may come back only dead. That, Mr Microsoft, is my privilege, and that indeed is my honour.
In this 21st century, India is a unified nation of more than one billion people. My countrymen seek to live happily in a just and civil society full of prosperity, love, and harmony. They seek to share knowledge and technology from all other people of the world. They do want to listen to useful advice from every quarter. Come and discuss business and let us negotiate a win-win deal. Do discuss technology and knowledge, and we will be eager to have mutually beneficial relationships. Do discuss economic policies, and we will be equal partners in the humanity's march to prosperity.
But please, please do not try to tell us what our national interests are. More particularly, please do not take upon you, the task of announcing how or who in our country is fulfilling these or is acting against these. Indians are determined to be masters of their own fate. They decide what is in their best national interest and only they decide if someone is acting against national interests. They will never ever abrogate this precious right to any outsider. And if they feel that this right is being encroached upon, they will rise one and all against such threat.
If any company now tries to behave like a 'West India Company' (this phrase is from the writings of a friend Dr Dharmesh Bhandari), or if any nation appears to ape the actions of a 'crown', then please beware. My nation will rebuff such attempts, just as my Government has demonstrated to Microsoft very clearly in this small matter of OOXML. If such a demonstration is inadequate, and if someone is seen to pursue similar tactics in future, then be prepared to face the wrath of this sovereign nation of One Billion people.My anguish over the sad activities of Microsoft may not be shared by the next generation of the educated youth. This generation does not necessarily possess such emotionally strong bondage with the notion of nation state. Armed with modern education, they hop across continents, wherever their talent and hard work finds recognition and rewards. For many of them, the concept of nationality is naturally notional. They genuinely see the entire globe as a single continuum of humanity. Even I cherish the dream that some day, people from all over the world would unite to form a single political and economic entity. They will live happily as a part of a just society, where economic, ethnic, cultural, religious, or linguistic diversity does not stand in the way of aspiration of and opportunities for any individual or group, and where any unjust activity is properly dealt with, irrespective of how mighty or powerful is the force behind such an attempt. Perhaps my grandchildren will grow to see that day. As of now, all we have is the set of various nation states. The activities of people within a nation are governed by her own laws, and interaction between people or groups of different nations are governed by international conventions, treaties and such like. The latter arrangements attempt to create a fair and level playing field for people of different nations in their global activities.
Internationally accepted standards for products and technologies are such instruments in the domain of knowledge based commercial activities. It is vital for nations to understand the short and long term implications of these standards. That is the reason why bodies such as ISO provide for extensive discussion and provide for the largest consensus to be developed for any standard. Sadly, this principle has got brutally mauled in the OOXML happenings. I am not trying to blame any person or agency, but I believe that ISO should have a caveat of extending the duration of discussions, may be multiple and longer duration BRMs, for any fast track process. At least when a very large number of technical issues remain unresolved, there should be a provision to revert to the normal process. I do not see, as to how otherwise ISO can restore the shaken faith of the global technical community, and even that of participating nations.
Since in the meanwhile, we all have to live by the standardization activities within national and international arena as per the available processes; I now proceed to the next section to make specific requests to the committee for some urgent action.
4. The way forward.
I have shared my anguish in this letter so far. But I also have to discharge my duty as a member of the committee. In the light of all that has transpired, I would like to submit the following for consideration of BIS for further decisions at the national level with regard to OOXML standard.
1) The normal ISO process is defined for achieving largest possible consensus on standards through very wide and thorough discussion. In my opinion, this spirit has been severely compromised in this fast track process for OOXML. The resulting standard has no clarity even on what it is, as there is no single document available describing the standard. Ordinarily, it does not matter if the final document release takes some time, since all the major issues are taken care of during very wide consultations, and issues which remain are rather mundane. In this case, a very large number of already known serious technical concerns posed by many NBs across the world have been pushed into the so called maintenance phase even before the standard is borne. The BRM vote itself, with as many as 22 out of a total of 32 NBs in attendance, neither saying 'Yes' nor saying 'No', reveals that there was no consensus at all. I believe that this is unprecedented. Stating this as objectionable, India should move the ISO for cancellation of the acceptance of OOXML as it stands now, asking that the standard should be put through the normal process rather than on fast track. I think the world body and all NBs can easily see that it was essentially lack of time which was responsible for so many concerns not being addressed. We must, of course, continue to critically examine the OOXML document as it emerges, to ensure that the technical issues are resolved.2) In case, this appeal is not maintained by ISO, we have no choice but to 'fast track' our own examination. In such a situation, this examination will be far more challenging. We not only have to address all our concerns, but also critically examine how the concerns raised by others are being resolved. This is because we can no more depend on other NBs necessarily continuing to do such critical examination of the concerns raised by them in any great hurry. After all, many have already changed their earlier vote at ISO, perhaps based simply on the BRM result. The others may have reconciled to the idea that the 'maintenance phase' may take care of these serious problems in future.
3) We must pay special attention to the issues of interoperability between ODF and OOXML. Thus we will have to vigorously participate in the activities of the other relevant subgroup of SC-34 as well.
4) Ordinarily, national technical standards are evolved in response to local needs. If there exist international standards, these are examined for their suitability and if found useful, are adopted by a nation almost on an 'as is' basis. This process simply cannot be applied for OOXML. We must wait till all our concerns are sorted out, which may take several months. For example, there is no statement on transitional features being definitely out for all migrated documents as required by us. If one goes by the vague statement on transitional features, that these will disappear from the standard 'sometime' in future, we may even have to wait for years before we can even touch the new standard in India.
5) India should therefore carefully watch how all of these are being handled by the SC-34 committee. India should consider nominating a team of experts to assist our representatives on the working groups in order to actively engage with this process. The team should study each and every one of all the objections, and their disposition by ECMA as submitted and recorded at the BRM. For each such disposition, we should examine if the final document is changed or not. If it is changed, India should examine whether the modified version actually addresses the original issue raised or not. We may even consider referring such points to the respective national bodies which raised the issue in the first place. If we come to a conclusion that the changes do not satisfactorily resolve the original technical objection, we again make a request to SC-34 to reconsider the issue. If we do not see such reconsideration happening, we then make a final list of all such points which remain unsolved. BIS should then ask the committee to take a considered view whether, in spite these deficiencies remaining in the standard, should we still adopt OOXML for use in India.
6) The work was hard enough as it was. It has unfortunately been made harder because of the mess which has got created. But I do not see any easy way out. Since we are committed to make OOXML better and acceptable to us in India, we either get our request to ISO for putting this standard back on to normal process, or we need to do this harder work. Doing anything else, in my opinion, will be wrong. Adopting a half baked standard, which is likely to continue to rapidly keep changing over a fairly long period will mean the following:
(i) Multiple implementations is an important desirable feature of any standard. This is what actually permits competition and helps reduce the cost to the end consumer. This is not very unlikely to happen as no vendor (other than Microsoft, of course) is likely to invest money, efforts, and time to play in a game where the goal-post is continuously and unpredictably shifting.
(ii) During this entire period of maturity and availability of multiple implementations, the Indian consumers adopting to use this standard will necessarily depend on only one vendor (Microsoft).
(iii) Additionally in order to produce documents which remain compliant with OOXML standard, the Indian consumers will have to keep migrating their documents produced just a few months or year earlier, to confirm to the 'final' standard which eventually evolves.
5 Concluding remarks.
In this section, I offer a few more final comments, and acknowledge various people who have played a role in the OOXML events up to now in India.
5.1 Final comments.
When I first understood the impact of the actions by Microsoft, I almost went mad. My first impulse was to go berserk, call a press conference, and openly refute every lie and half truth. But a teacher is not permitted to act out of anger, so I counted up to 10, and started thinking of taking some alternative action. I thought of doing a 'Satyagraha', a model set for us by the great Mahatma, where you demonstrate your protest through non-violent means. Typically, these are either going on a hunger strike publicly, or renouncing something which symbolizes the cause for anguish. I had thought of renouncing the use of Microsoft technologies and products for my personal use, and just telling this to that part of the larger world which I interact with. But even a 'Satyagraha' has the possibility of many more joining such renouncing, and the purpose of an action by a teacher must be to point out the issues, and not to cause harm to anyone.
I must confesst that I did face a dilemma. I had to get my message across and seek correction from those who did wrong. But I am also a teacher, and not just a teacher by profession, but by 'dharma'. This word is not easy to translate. It is often used in its limited popular interpretation as religion, which is incorrect. 'Dharma' means 'the way of life', implying, of course, the right way of life. For every one, at every stage, dharma defines the right conduct, the right thoughts, the right interaction with others, right everything! Dharma is an embodiment of all the right values that one must try to imbibe while living in this world and fulfilling one's own destiny, whether as a student, as a teacher, as a trader, as a king, as a worker, as a boy or girl, as a family man, whatever. It is indeed extremely difficult to practice one's dharma due to known human emotional weaknesses. These are typically anger, envy, temptation, greed, etc. One needs to develop emotional strengths such as compassion, commitment, determination, justness, etc.
For me, the dilemma has been that, on one hand I must point out the abysmal wrong that has been committed, and must vigorously pursue to get it corrected. On the other hand, as a teacher, I must not act out of spite, and must not act to harm. So how do I seek redress without seeking revenge?
I continued to be very disturbed and looked at segments of ancient human wisdom to guide me. I read books from Gita to Upanishads, and from Kuran to Bible. I found many beautiful thoughts which did help me to overcome by anger. Of these, I am tempted to quote one which appears to me to be most appropriate. This is from the ancient Tamil classic Thirukkural authored by the great saint Thiruvalluvar in second century B.C.
Senra idaththil chelavida thidori Nanrinpal uyppa darivu.
[It is wisdom that restrains the wandering mind, and diverts it from evil to good]
It is thus that I decided to write an open letter, clearly explaining my anguish and my views. I seek redress, but I mean no harm to either Microsoft or to anyone else. I hope those who read it will understand me. This is that letter.
I am sending this letter to all the colleague members of the committee. I shall also be putting it up on a blog site. Since I have never written a blog in my life so far, I had to start by creating a blogspace. I have done so now (the URL is http://deepakphatak.blogspot.com).
The letter will soon be posted on this URL. I say soon, because I still need some assistance yet! This letter is released under the latest version of Creative Commons India 'by attribution' license. ('Attribution 2.5 India, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/in/). Friends from Open source community may like to note that this license is not like GPL license which is more popular, but is rather like the BSD license. In my personal opinion, this license is less restrictive of actions that others can take on the contents. My only request to readers is that if someone finds something worthwhile to quote from this letter, please try not to quote portions or segments out of context. But this is only a request and the freedom given by the license stands as is.
A whole lot of facts stated in this letter have got mingled with my own comments, observations, beliefs, and hypotheses. If there are any facts which have not been correctly stated, I will be obliged if corrections are suggested by colleagues and others who know these more accurately. I will immediately put up the correction on my blog.
I would be particularly happy and grateful if someone wishes to add either to the information, or to the way forward.
5.2 Acknowledgements.
I begin by thanking all my colleagues on the committee. I am grateful for the open and transparent manner in which the committee has conducted its proceedings under the chairmanship of Dr (Mrs) Neeta Verma, and look forward to more fruitful interactions in future. I wish to put on record a special word of thanks for the superb leadership which Shri Rakesh Verma provided to the Indian delegation at BRM, and for the entire delegation for having taken a principled and correct stand on Indian position. Needless to add, my respect and pride for our senior bureaucratic and political leadership has been upheld by their professional, correct, and statesmanlike handling of the attempts to unduly pressurize our process.
The few meetings of the committee which I have attended have been exemplary in the comradeship exhibited by all colleagues. We have had heated discussions and debates. But whenever we broke for tea or lunch, all acrimony was gone, and we freely mixed with each other as good human friends. I would like to thank all the colleague members for permitting Dr Sharat and me, these simple but important pleasurable moments in life.
I have a special word of thanks to the officials of Microsoft, some of whom have been personal friends for years. Their representatives on the committee spent large chunks of time with us. They had to often fly down to Mumbai for very short meetings, sometimes having to wait almost eternally till one of us became free to interact with them. Not once did they lose their cool or courtesy. Even when we had a long and rather acrimonious debate in a meeting in April, when we discussed the matter of their complaints and our anguish, and they shared their concerns, the end of that debate still left us as friends. I particularly admire their act of providing us with copies of some of their complaints. Very sad these have been, but the hurt would have been infinitely greater, if I was to get these independently through the normal route of RTI which I was contemplating. The act of the leadership of Microsoft India in personally owning up the responsibility, and offering genuine apologies to us individually, demonstrates their courage and character. I admire it immensely and thank them for the same.
I, of course, still await the action from Microsoft which I have requested, viz., formal withdrawal of all complaints, and a formal apology to my Institute.
Prof Krithi Ramamritham, Prof Sivakumar, and Prof Sharat Chandran, were three of my colleagues who worked with me very closely and as a team through out the episode. Prof Sharat Chandran, in particular, has spend maximum time amongst all of us in this activity. These people have been more of close personal family members, and It is not an Indian custom to thank family for support. But I will be failing in my duty if I do not gratefully acknowledge the immense contributions they have made.
A hypothetical sample counter-complainttitled‘Microsoft is looting the nation in alliance with Indian IT giants,’byDr. M. U. D'Slinger
[The author is a teacher who is currently engaged in research on theory and practice of baseless blaming. Acronym chosen is suitable for the occasion]
A1. Preamble:
Microsoft recently made several representations and complaints to various Indian Government departments and to her top leadership. The objective was to get India to agree to support their proposed document format OOXML in the ISO deliberations. Unfortunately, these complaints have painted several participants in the Indian committee as villains acting against Indian national interests. A lot of dirty mud was flung on to many individuals and organizations, tarnishing their names and reputation. The objective of this paper is merely to demonstrate that such distasteful activities may invoke a strong reaction. The same process can be effectively used by others as well to sling mud at you in turn. The author believes that the resulting mud-slinging battle may achieve nothing positive, except that all participants including by-standers will get their cloth littered in dirty mud!
This hypothetical counter-complaint has been constructed using a formal but hypothetical ‘mudslinging algorithm’ originally (again hypothetically) developed by Microsoft. The algorithm is unpublished and is probably patented. The author has used sample complaint documents created using this algorithm, which he has access to, and which were submitted in the recent past by Microsoft to various authorities in India. These sample documents are likely to be available in public domain. Prospective authors desirous of developing such effective complaints may access these through the Indian 'Right To Information' (RTI) act, for which at least one co-author or supporter must be an Indian citizen.
Names of real organizations and people have been used for effectiveness of the sample. However, the scenarios painted in the sample are purely imaginary. Any resemblance to the actual activities by individuals or organizations is purely coincidental.
Significant additions and extensions to the given sample are possible, for which an in-depth understanding of the original Microsoft algorithm will be necessary. This mud-slinging algorithm is an old algorithm evolved and perfected by Microsoft continuously over the years, always maintaining backward compatibility. You will thus have to work really hard to decipher the correct interpretation and implementation of their legacy complex interfaces, for dovetailing the algorithm with your own ideas. Since Microsoft has a new interoperability initiative, help may be sought through that route.
Microsoft is understood to have put all the complex interfaces for this mudslinging algorithm for international examination, so as to make this algorithm an international standard. However, Microsoft insisted that such standardization must be done in a very short time span in a fast track process. Delegates of various nations did assemble for a detailed technical discussion, eagerly waiting for clarifications on thousands of queries. To the surprise of these experts, through a process adopted in that meeting, Microsoft managed to effectively hide as many as 98.44% of these serious queries (some say 98.7%) from an open and public technical debate at the highest level of participation of various national bodies. A working group has now been appointed to quietly dispose all the concerns.
In the absence of proper clarity and resolution of these pending issues, the 'quality' of the mud produced may not reach the desired dirty level.
A2. Basic Principles
The basic principles of this elegant Microsoft mud slinging algorithm are rather few and simple:
i. Be clear of your final objective. Achieving that end is the only important thing in life. Remember that you are fighting a war. Your main job is to get as many people as possible to support you. There may be some people and organizations which may not be convinced by your arguments. Such entities must be converted to your side by any means. You must forget the philosophy ‘end does not justify the means’. Instead, you must adopt the more suitable philosophy which states that ‘everything is fair in love and war’.ii. Those who persist with their opposition need to be denigrated in no uncertain terms as being 'bad people'. Since such opposition may be otherwise respectable in the eyes of some, you must sling mud at them so that they look bad and dirty.Iii. The mud is to be composed of a few truths, a lot of half-truths, and some cleverly disguised lies.iv. To be more effective, use phrases which paint the 'bad' opposition as 'evil'. Blasphemous terms, such as 'acting against the national interest', will cause every reader to take urgent notice.v. When you generally throw mud on a relatively large group, some onlookers and even some friends may be tarnished. Tender sensitivities of several people will be badly hurt. Clear yourself of any conscience. Remember that a large number of soldiers on either side ordinarily die in a war. It is not uncommon for a few civilians, who have nothing to do with the war, also to suffer. Monuments and tombs are usually built for all of them. A few relatives come to cry over those tombs every year. But your job is to win without worrying about such casualties. In modern commercial wars, some friends and others standing around may have to be sacrificed for the greater cause, viz., your victory. Their suffering is merely a collateral damage in the war.
The principles stated above are merely generic guidelines. The true skill lies in their application in formulating an effective mudslinging attack. This is illustrated by the sample 'counter complaint' letter given in the next section. [Footnotes] are cited at the end of the composition to illustrate some finer points. It is recommended that prospective authors should do a lot of practice by composing several bits and pieces of such mudslinging before preparing the final document and submitting it to multiple authorities including the highest authority of the concerned nation.
A3. Sample Hypothetical Counter Complaint letter
From: Concerned citizens of India Date: Whichever releventToThe Honorable Prime Minister of India,(with copies to all the Honorable Ministers of the Government of India, and to the Secretaries of various Ministries of the Government of India)
Sub: Microsoft looting the nation in alliance with Indian IT giants
Honourable Sir Prime Minister,
We have come to learn from reliable sources that a foreign multinational company Microsoft is planning to ransack the nation through their monopoly products. They are being aided in this effort by some giants of the Indian Industry. The following facts are submitted to your kind self for your serious and immediate consideration.
i. It is well known that Microsoft has been building its monopoly stranglehold [1] over global desktop software market through a large number of propriety binary formats and protecting these with patents ensuring that no competition emerges.
ii. When International Standards Organization (ISO), after years of patient and detailed technical work, was about to accept a competing document format standard called ODF as an international technical standard, Microsoft felt threatened and tried to push its own OXML standard through ISO. Microsoft was in a hurry to quash this upstart competing standard threatening its monopoly, so it chose a process called fast-track process at the ISO deliberations.
iii. When several countries around the world, including India, raised serious technical issues, instead of satisfactorily resolving all of these, Microsoft adopted influencing and pressurizing tactics [2] to get favourable vote from such nations participating in the ISO process.
iv. It is a well known fact that Microsoft office suite, like their browser 'Internet Explorer' is available ONLY on the Microsoft Windows Operating System. By refusing to open up the interfaces for all such tools to permit these to function on other competing operating environments, Microsoft continues its stranglehold on the entire global desktop market by ensuring their monopoly and prohibiting competition. It is well known that the European Union has imposed a fine of Billions of dollars [3] for such monopolistic practices. Microsoft continues to pay the fine but has not yet changed its monopolistic ways.
v. Microsoft operations in India have always tried to establish and sustain their monopolistic practices to control 100% market share on the Indian desktop market. The operational practice used by Microsoft has been very clever. They first let people just copy their software freely. It is even alleged that they surreptitiously use hardware vendors to offer such copies when PCs are purchased [4]. They then deliberately ignore use of such pirated software, and once people and corporate bodies get addicted to their software, they suddenly threaten to sue if the legal licenses are not bought by the users at Microsoft defined high prices for each PC. There are many examples of such threatening letters [5].
vi. The ODF standard already accepted by ISO, has multiple implementations available from different vendors on multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, etc. These permit users to buy licenses at competitive prices. One of the implementations, called Open Office, is actually in open source and can be downloaded totally free of cost from Internet. The Microsoft products, being proprietary on the other hand, are extremely costly. As an example of how the Microsoft monopoly will cause exorbitant cost to poor Indian users, consider as an example, just 10 users in an SME company using the Microsoft environment. The company will have to shell out more than Rs. 100,000 as license fees just for the office products, in addition to about Rs. 30,000 for windows operating system. Even if just 1 million Indian SME companies were to adopt this solution over the next three years, the nation will have to dole out a phenomenal cost of Rs. 1,30,000 Crores in foreign exchange to Microsoft just on this count [6]. Many SMEs, which are desperately trying to enhance their global competitiveness to build national wealth [7], may face serious problems and may have to close shop because of the burden of such high license costs [8].
vii. INFOSYS, TCS, and WIPRO are leading IT companies of the country which offer their services globally. NASSCOM is an association of which they are all founding members. These companies have substantial business interests in Microsoft and in Microsoft technologies, and have significant relationship with Microsoft in terms of specific business units, labs, and practices, specially put in place to interact exclusively with Microsoft [9].
viii. These companies and their mouthpiece association NASSCOM have teamed up with Microsoft, specifically to protect Microsoft’s monopoly over desktop market in India. There are many [10] instances where these companies have caused humongous loss to Indian consumers while safeguarding Microsoft monopoly.
ix. As an example, we bring to your notice, the implementation of MCA-21 project by TCS which, for the end user, can work ONLY on Microsoft’s Internet explorer, in spite of their commitment to Government that the solution will work on all browsers on different operating platforms. Since all the registered companies in India have to compulsorily file their information on-line, they are all being forced to submit to Microsoft’s monopoly prices and terms with this active help from TCS.
x. We also quote the example of the famous banking solution ‘Finacle’ by INFOSYS, whose front-end is certified only to function on Internet Explorer of Microsoft. This solution is used by many large public sector banks of the country. All employees of these important PSUs are forced to use Microsoft Monopoly products, thus causing great loss to Indian exchequer and thereby to Indian tax payer.
xi. We wish to add the TCS offering of FNS has exactly the same explicit support for Microsoft. There was a rumor in Australian circles that the original owner company of this FNS software was planning to make this solution work on multiple platforms [11]. Perhaps sensing a threat to the monopoly of Microsoft [12], TCS has bought over that company with full ownership rights of that software [13]. TCS thus merrily continues to serve the monopoly interests of Microsoft in India [14].
xii. Another instance of this alliance is the e-learning software for village schools developed and deployed by Azim Premji Foundation [15]. This software has been developed to work exclusively on Microsoft environment. The poor village schools, which are keen on training rural children in IT, are made to pay through their nose for the Microsoft environment.
xii. The most concrete proof of the working of this alliance is clearly seen in the actions of these companies in the recent meetings of an important committee LITD 15, constituted by the Bureau of Indian Standards to examine the proposed OOXML standard and to determine Indian position on the same, where these companies voted asking India to change her earlier disapproval vote for the proposal. It is to be remembered that the same organizations had been part of the earlier unanimous opinion of the committee which had listed many specific and serious concerns that needed to be resolved. Many of these concerns related to Microsoft’s proprietary and patented features being present in the standard [16].
xiii. The Indian delegation to the Geneva meeting had clearly informed the committee that there was no technical discussion on these critical concerns and that all of these are not yet resolved to our satisfaction. It is worth noting that in the committee comprising 22 members, only these 4 commercial organizations along with Microsoft voted for change in the Indian position. All of them are clearly working in alliance with Microsoft and are deliberately acting against Indian national interests [17].
xv. There is a large number of NGOs who have been vociferous in the past against such monopolistic practices of Microsoft. Representations from a few well known NGOs are enclosed with this appeal [18]. All of these request the Government to take an urgent action in the interests of the Indian consumers, and in the wider interests of the nation [19].
xvi. We earnestly appeal to you to immediately ban Microsoft operations in India, to save the country from their monopolistic practices, and to protect the national interests [20]. The Government may also consider suitably warning the Indian organizations to behave differently and correctly while conducting their business.
Yours truly,
(A group of dedicated Indians)
Footnotes
[1] Terms such as 'well known' need not be substantiated! Even if untrue, the reader will assume that the statement is true, if only to guard against being dubbed ignorant! In any case, every commercial entity in a free market economy would like to benefit through whatever monopoly it can establish and sustain. It is the task of other agencies established by the society to ensure that competition thrives, so that such attempts are thwarted and the consumers benefit.
[2] There is enough venom against Microsoft in print and on web. Relatively juicier components, specially written by 'well known' experts should be annexed as proof. Fortunately, there are truly well known and respected technical experts on both sides of the divide. But even otherwise, use of the phrase 'well known' absolves you of giving any proof. Specially choose opinions of those who earlier held that OOXML is inadequate and immature; but later felt that, if Microsoft is truly opening up and is willing to ensure openness of the standard and its interoperability with ODF, then this effort ought to be supported. Of course, you quote only the earlier opinions. In fact you may want to suggest that these experts were influenced by Microsoft to change their opinion. 'Coerced', or 'bought over' may be even more appropriate terms. You must very carefully avoid any mention of Microsoft making their binary formats public. If someone else points that out later, you can genuinely counter it by quoting ‘deliberate delays’, ‘initial attempts to control the public availability only through Microsoft’, 'information not being integral part of the proposed standard', etc.
[3] The actual figure and the exact cause of dispute need not be mentioned. The phrase 'well known' again comes to your help. Also, 'Billions of dollars' will effortlessly go through, as most readers will vaguely remember newspaper headlines stating the fact that a fine was indeed imposed.
[4] A slur of 'mild' mud at friends from the Manufacturers' Association (MAIT)
[5] Since anything more than 1 is technically ‘many’, just two such letters will suffice. Author of this sample can dig out copies of more than two!
[6] Examples using simple arithmetic and some assumed statistical values go a long way to prove a point. The math can be wrong, e.g., Rs 130,000 Croses instead of Rs 13000 Crores. Nobody checks! You must omit to mention that at least several companies may find the Microsoft suite to be more convenient to use, and the company may determine that the price is worth paying. If this is later shown to be the case, claim that such 'convenience' comes out of the familiarity which Microsoft deliberately bred in the minds of Indian consumers by permitting piracy!
[7] That a company is primarily trying to generate wealth for itself is not relevant here.
[8] There could be many reasons for a SME company to close down. Very likely, market conditions such as slack demand, inefficient operations, poor quality of work, bad marketing, etc., may be the real reasons. But since this counter complaint is against Microsoft, ignore all these points as being inapplicable.
[9] Even a small annual business interest of US$ 100M translates to over Rs. 400 Crores of revenue, which is ‘substantial’ in the eyes of any Indian readers. Of course, you must omit to mention that the individual overall annual business of these companies is orders of magnitude more. Similarly you must not mention that they also have such labs and relationships for practically every major technology/vendor of the world, including Open Source technologies.
[10] Again ‘many’ is just more than 1, so 2 examples will do. Since you have clubbed 3 companies together, one example for each will add to a total of 3 instances, which is certainly ‘many’.
[11] You can significantly 'improve' the dirty quality and quantity of the mud by claiming ‘rumours’, which do not have to be substantiated at all!
[12] Pure fiction
[13] Pure fact
[14] More mud!
[15] Finally, for good measure, you also add something to implicate WIPRO. No matter if the instance you are quoting has nothing to do with WIPRO directly, since the foundation is an entirely independent entity. But every Indian citizen will mentally read WIPRO when Azim Premji’s name is mentioned, thus serving your purpose. You must not, naturally, even remotely indicate the great impact the foundation’s work has made on the education in village schools of Karnataka.
[16] Again, No mention must be made that Microsoft has now made these binary formats available publicly.
[17] The Blasphemy! No Indian in the right mind will believe that these organizations will ever act against national interests. Your job, however, is to create serious doubts in the minds of readers. This is justified because your job is to ensure achieving your ultimate objective. These organizations merely serve as sacrificial lambs in your war.
[18] There exists a very large number of NGOs doing grass root level activities, some of whom would be willing to write such strong letters of appeal. It is preferable to get at least one letter signed by the IT chief of that NGO. Also, do not worry much if not many in the country have heard much about these NGOs. They are ‘well known’ because you say so!
[19] Keep reinforcing the blasphemy. The phrase ‘national interests’ is actually very powerful, although you may not believe in it at all.
[20] The master stroke. The main objective of throwing out Microsoft from India is mentioned only once at the end. Rest of the complaint is merely to prepare the necessary background and a suitable mindset which may encourage the Government to take you seriously.
A4. Concluding remarks
The following portion of an old song, recently recited by my friend George Mathew (who is MD of LIC) in a dinner get together, perhaps sums up the moral of this hypothetical exercise. This used to be my favorite in 1970s, as a very sobering reminder for good conduct.
[If you do good to others, good will happen to you.If you do bad, then bad will happen to you. Friend, please do not lie or use falsehood.Remember that all of us have to depart one day on our journey to God.Neither your elephant nor your horse will be available for that journey,Each of us has to walk that distance]
For me, this is a reminder that wealth should be generated legally and ethically. Any falsehood used in the process would make it ‘bad’ wealth, all of which one has to leave behind anyway. | {
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Resources
Page Content
The BC Visibility Coordinating Committee (BCVCC) works with stakeholders to develop a visual air quality protection and improvement program for British Columbia. Formed in 2006, the BCVCC is a collaborative venture between B.C. Ministry of Environment, Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley Regional District, Environment Canada and Health Canada.
Follow the links below for more information on Canadian and international visual air quality improvement initiatives.
One study estimates that a single poor-visual air quality event in the Lower Fraser Valley can result in a loss in future tourism revenue of 9 million dollars. Environment Canada, July 2000.
The work of the BCVCC has advanced on several fronts with expanded and improved visual air quality monitoring and modelling, enhancement of the ClearAirBC website, public launch of the visual air quality rating and the development of a stakeholder engagement plan. The 2015 BCVCC Annual report provide further details. | {
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Tag Archives: pregnancy
Gestational diabetes, a common pregnancy complication, has been found to be possibly related to eating fried foods on a regular basis. The research published in the journal Diabetologia discovered 13% increase in gestational diabetes among pregnant women who eat fried foods one to three times per week comparing to ones who eat once a week. The percentage escalates to 31% and more than 50% for those who eat four to six times and seven or more times per week, respectively. However, the cause-effect relationship has not been yet established in this study, and more evidence is needed. How do you typically counsel your pregnant patients about healthy nutrition? What are some of the recommendations that you make?
A study published in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors this month presents new insight into the baby brain of pregnant mothers. It has been thought that pregnant women would have a harder time quitting smoking due to their increased metabolism which may intensify triggers and withdrawal symptoms. This study set out to see if 20 minutes of mild-to-moderate intensity exercise would reduce the desire to smoke and withdrawal symptoms amongst pregnant women. Women included in the study were on average 25 years old, in their second trimester of pregnancy and smoked more than 5 cigarettes per day. They reported clear reductions in their desire to smoke post exercise as well as improvements in mood in relation to withdrawal symptoms. How do you counsel pregnant women attempting to quit smoking?
According to a small study at Columbia University Medical Center (New York City), women who suffered from polycysticovary syndrome (PCOS) and took cinnamon were able to regulate their menstrual cycle. The nature of PCOS causes disruption of the ovulation cycle so women may have difficulties getting pregnant. Women in the study who received cinnamon supplementation had about twice as many menstrual cycles compared to those who received placebo. After 3 months of supplementing, 2 women had spontaneous pregnancies. What natural medicines do you currently recommend to enhance fertility?
According to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry, teenagers are more likely to be depressed if their mothers were depressed while pregnant. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children followed the offspring of more than 8,000 mothers who had postnatal or antenatal depression. The risk of depression was determined to be about 1.3 times higher than normal at age 18 in those children. Researchers suggest treating depression in these pregnant females is important and that medical treatment during pregnancy could lower the risk of future mental health problems in the child. How do you feel about treating depressed pregnant females with medication therapy? What other options do you suggest for the treatment of depression?
The FDA has teamed up with the American Academy of Pediatrics to revise lactation information on drug labels. The “Nursing Mothers” section on drug labels will be replaced with a “Lactation” section which will include detailed information about the drug’s transfer to breast milk and its potential to harm to an infant. This will inform breast-feeding moms when they can safely take medications. Also, this would do-away with the blanket legal statement that cautions against taking nearly any medication while pregnant when in fact only a small proportion of medications are contraindicated. What are your current recommendations to women who breastfeed while on drug therapy? Are you excited about this new clinical report?
New research published in the Nutrition Journal investigated the association between generally recommended iron supplementation during pregnancy and fetal growth. Scientists looked at 337 South Korean pregnant women concluding that there was a negative association between excessive maternal iron intake at mid pregnancy and fetal growth. When looking at vitamins and minerals how do you counsel patients in general? Do you have a solid understanding of which ones are beneficial and which ones can be harmful, in what populations and in what doses?
A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that pregnant women who take DHA supplementation have babies that are of greater weight, longer gestation periods, and fewer early births. During the last half of their pregnancy, 154 women were randomly assigned to receive DHA 600mg daily and 147 women were assigned to take a placebo daily. Only 0.6 percent of the women in the DHA group gave birth at 34 weeks’ gestation or less, while 5 percent of women in the placebo group gave birth at 34 weeks’ gestation or less. What benefits of omega-3 supplementation do you discuss with your patients?
A recent population-based prospective cohort study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine evaluated exposure to mercury during pregnancy and the development of ADHD behavior in children. The study concluded that low level mercury is associated with a greater risk of ADHD related behaviors. Fish consumption during pregnancy was also concluded to be protective of these behaviors. This association was seen primarily in boys. How do you balance the benefit of fish consumption and potential dietary mercury exposure in your recommendations? What fish do you recommend to women during pregnancy? | {
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The Coming Death of the Democratic Party – Part 1
Tue, 10 January 2017
The Democratic Party in the United States is the oldest and most long-lasting political party on earth, whether one choses to date its actual founding at the beginning of the 19th century by such luminaries as Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and the Tammany Hall political organization in New York City, or its successful ascent to national power with the triumph of Democratic voting rights for white males in Andrew Jackson’s victorious election campaign in 1828.
Judged at the most obvious level of the votes and support it can command in national presidential campaigns, the Democratic Party has never been stronger or more popular. In the 2016 election, its nominee Hillary Clinton won more than 2.8 million votes more than her opponent, Republican Donald Trump.
The 2016 outcome marked the sixth time in the past seven presidential elections that the Democratic candidate won the most votes. In 2004 George W. Bush was the only Republican candidate in the past 28 years to win more votes than his Democratic opponent.
And yet despite this apparent dominance in national popularity, the Democrats have managed to lose control of the executive branch for three out of the past seven terms.
Far worse, they have now lost control of the House of Representatives, the lower and more powerful of the two chambers of Congress exercising the fiscal power since 2010 and they have only controlled the House for four years (from 2006 to 2010) out of the past 22 years.
Outgoing US President Barack Obama won both his national victories with commanding margins of first eight million votes in 2008 and then five million votes in 2012. Yet in the midterm elections of 2010 and 2014, his stewardship of the nation was twice humiliatingly repudiated. Republicans won control of both chambers of Congress by wide margins both times.
In 2014, the Democrats’ numbers in both the Senate and the House were reduced to their lowest levels since 1928.
After the 2016 elections, the Democrats were reduced to holding only 13 out of the 50 state governorships across the United States.
Why Buy Cycles of Change?
Cycles of Change is a ground-breaking work that transforms the understanding of America's history: It confirms veteran foreign correspondent Martin Sieff - who has an unrivaled record in predicting America's future - as the country's foremost authority on the history of change in America. The coming Crisis of Change will be more intense than the Civil War and the Great Depression combined. This revolutionary book provides the only guide to the great crisis that is upon the United States and the American people. You need this book. | {
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Mayo Clinic hopes to spread model of medical efficiency
The Mayo Clinic has an international reputation for the quality of its care, but few people know that it's also one of the most efficient health care systems in the country.
President Barack Obama has suggested that Mayo could be a possible model for a new way of structuring care. He told members of Congress last month that Mayo manages to provide some of the best health care services in the nation at half the cost of some of its competitors with lower quality care.
Before surgeon Dana Thompson can begin her first surgery of the day, she previews all of her cases with her surgical team.
Mayo requires its surgical teams to have these morning briefings. They're designed to help staff members think about all of the possible issues they might encounter in the operating room that day.
Thompson relies on her team to help her catch anything that could trip them up once surgery begins.
On this day Thompson's colleague Amy gets a gold star for thinking ahead.
"Did you want any Mitomycin or Kenalog available for any of these patients today?" Amy asks.
"No," Thompson says.
Thompson says that's an example of something she might not have thought of.
The question is not, “Can you be the Mayo Clinic?” Can you use principles that we've established or implemented here and apply them locally to make a difference?
Dr. Michael Joyner
"Since they know my routine," she says, "they're asking do I need the medication whereas if I did need it and we're in the middle of the case that's like what, how long does it take to get it from pharmacy."
Amy says Mitomycin can take 20 to 30 minutes to get from the pharmacy.
A delay waiting for medication means more time under anesthesia which costs money and can cause complications. Anticipating these problems is important because it can potentially avoid unnecessary care and expense.
In surgery, Thompson is paired up with the same crew every day - so her colleagues are familiar with her work style and are better able to anticipate what she needs during surgery.
But if you ask Thompson what distinguishes her employer most from other clinic and hospital systems, she'll tell you it's all about philosophy.
"I think when you work somewhere where the needs of the patient comes first, it really allows you to practice medicine without putting other things in to clouding your judgment," Thompson says.
What Thompson means by "clouding your judgment" is that her medical judgment is not influenced by pressure to pad the bill with extra tests or unnecessary treatments. Her fixed salary won't increase by performing more treatments.
Mayo's salary system is quite different from what you'll find in many other health care systems where specialists from different group practices have privileges at hospitals but usually work for themselves.
In that environment there often is pressure to treat as many patients as possible because that's how physicians and hospitals make the most money. That, however, does not always the best health care.
A group of Dartmouth researchers has found that in regions of the country where the most money is spent on health care, those patients often do not have better outcomes. In some cases, they do worse. The Dartmouth data show that Minnesota hospitals are more efficient than many of their counterparts elsewhere.
Few can claim the type of savings that Mayo has been able to demonstrate.
At Mayo a team of researchers is constantly looking for better ways to give critical information to doctors. The clinic's annual research budget is just over $500 million. Part of the money comes from a huge federal grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Mayo uses its research money to improve its care and drive down unnecessary costs. On one project the clinic system saved $60,000 in just three months by getting doctors to do fewer blood transfusions.
Dr. Ognjen Gajic, who oversees the computer software that resulted in 1,000 fewer transfusions during that period, says Mayo's technology is only there to give doctors a helpful nudge when they need it.
"It is the minimum, just to steer them the right way and they can decide," he says.
Pre-op consultationMPR Photo/Lorna Benson
Before the computer system, doctors frequently made the decision on whether to give a transfusion based on a patient's hemoglobin level, but the hemoglobin number isn't always the best indicator of whether a transfusion is really necessary.
Gajic says Mayo programmed its computer system to ask the ordering doctor a question.
"We just added one hoop...for the provider to order the transfusion, they have to pick why. They have to say active bleeding, peripheral ischemia, symptomatic anemia. They can even say 'other' and put 3x if they want, it would allow them to, but they have to think."
But being one of the most efficient health care providers in the country, doesn't make Mayo one of the cheapest places to get care.
Mayo officials said they don't know how all of their individual procedure prices compare to their competitors, but some Minnesota health plans don't reimburse as much for care at Mayo in large part due to what the clinic charges.
Mayo anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Joyner is an at Mayo says decisions like that are short-sighted because Mayo does save patients money in the long run by giving them better care and making it less likely that they'll have complications.
"Even if in specific examples where it might cost more here, we think the total lifetime cost would be lower," Joyner says.
To many patients around the state and around the world, it is worth it to spend more to travel to Mayo for care.
But for many others, especially those without health insurance, it's not an option.
Still, Joyner says the solution to the nation's health care problem isn't to bring more patients to Mayo. He thinks more hospitals and clinics should adopt Mayo's principles of care.
That might sound impossible to some health care systems that currently operate under a very different financial model and don't have a huge research budget, but Joyner says it's not an all or nothing proposition.
"There's a lot of reasons to say, 'We can't be the Mayo Clinic.' But the question is not, 'Can you be the Mayo Clinic?', can you use principles that we've established or implemented here and apply them locally to make a difference?" Joyner says.
"And I think to the extent somebody has tried that, every time they've tried it it works."
It's probably not realistic to think that very many health care organizations will be able to implement a Mayo-style salary system.
Bits and pieces of Mayo's model are already in place at a number of Minnesota hospitals and clinics, but only Mayo and the University of Minnesota have the enormous research budgets that enable them to examine everything they do. | {
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Next Generation Diversity
Submitted by Scott Jaschik on October 27, 2006 - 4:00am
In the 1980s, many colleges adopted diversity requirements, typically telling students that they had to take at least one course about a non-Western culture or about an American minority group. These requirements frequently set off heated debates, with proponents talking about the need for diversity, and critics shouting about political correctness.
Williams College is in the process of changing such a requirement -- with far more civility than characterized many of those '80s discussions. In the process, faculty members have managed to be quite critical of the old requirement -- while coming up with a new way to require study of a broad range of groups.
The old system at Williams was pretty basic. Students had to take a course about a minority group or a non-Western group. Anything that met that basic criterion could count, and got a "people and cultures" asterisk. "It was a good idea. It grew from nice liberal white guilt," but it stopped being effective some time ago, according to Christopher Waters, a history professor who is overseeing the new system. The requirement was so vague that it didn't have any real meaning, he said. Further, the idea that students needed to study a non-white group to represent difference doesn't make sense when the college has attracted a much larger share of non-white Americans and of international students.
"This requirement was seen as a joke," Waters said. "We were sticking things with the asterisk without a solid intellectual justification. I think a lot of our international students wondered what on earth this was about, and many of our non-white students viewed it as tokenism. Why would our minority students need to take such a course?" (A series of articles and editorials in The Williams Record,[1] the student newspaper, reflect widespread student frustration with the requirement -- regardless of students' ethnicity or politics.)
So after a year of deliberation, the Williams faculty voted to do away with all the asterisk designations and to instead require that the diversity requirement be about more than some "other" group. The "exploring diversity" courses can't just be about another group or culture, but must "include an explicit and critical self-reflection on and immersion in a culture or people," according to the college's new policy.
Courses could do that in several ways:
Through comparative study of cultures and societies.
Through curriculums that encourage "empathetic understanding" of diverse groups by "recreating the social, political, cultural, and historical context of a group to imagine why within that context, those beliefs, experiences, and actions of the group have emerged."
Through study of "power and privilege."
Through "critical theorization" in which students explore the ways scholars analyze cross-cultural interaction.
Through "cultural immersion," which could involve study abroad or through foreign language courses that "explicitly engage in the self-conscious awareness of cultural and societal differences, traditions, and customs."
The new approach is at once more demanding (a course can't just be about a group) and much more broad. Courses about gender and sexuality could qualify. Courses about various Western societies could qualify. Courses that are critical of the groups they explore could qualify.
Edward Burger, a professor of mathematics who was chair of the Committee on Education Policy, the faculty body that led discussion of the changes, said that the old system was premised on the idea that Williams students were white. "It identified us. It said, 'we're white guys who are now taking courses to learn about people of other colors.' At its core, that's very racist if you think about it."
Burger said that he is particularly pleased with the way the change shifts the goal away from learning some facts about another group to learning to understand other people's ideas and approach to life. He said, for example, that a course might qualify that explored the antebellum South in which students would learn, among other things, why white farmers might have backed the Confederate cause. "We'd want students to actively engage that mindset -- suppose you were a farmer in Georgia. How would you feel about people in the North telling you about slaves?"
These courses aren't going to focus on agreeing with groups, but understanding them, and that's why it's possible to give an example of a group of ideas (pro-slavery) that students and professors certainly wouldn't endorse, Burger said. He said that the "empathy" component was especially important in light of the way the world is changing.
"When we hear that halfway around the world, people are burning down stores because of cartoons of Muhammad, we need to be able to do more than think that these people are wacky," Burger said. That doesn't mean students need to agree with those views, but they need to have some basis for understanding, he said.
William G. Wagner, dean of the faculty at Williams, said that he thought some of the good that would come from the change would arise from faculty members' explicitly thinking about how their courses would fill the requirement, as opposed to just having the designation added. "Under the new requirement, not only will courses need to include a more self-conscious and rigorous examination of the concept and methods of studying diversity, but faculty teaching the courses will need to demonstrate how they satisfy the objectives of the requirement," he said.
Many of the courses that used to qualify may still qualify, of course, and professors stressed that many of the underlying values that led to the original requirement were still valid.
In part as a result, the changes have won support from faculty who teach ethnic studies, who also see value in the new approach.
Carmen Whelan, co-chair of Latina/o studies at Williams and an associate professor of history, said she was "very supportive" of the new approach. Many diversity requirements were created in part as a counter to "institutional racism in the curriculum" that resulted in many parts of history and culture being ignored or denigrated, she said. Courses that meet the new requirement will still provide a balance to traditional offerings, she said.
"But I think diversity comes in many forms, and the new initiative here is to really broaden those definitions of diversity," she said. "And in this way, diversity requirements can continue." | {
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Blog
An interview with Paul Norbury, founder and Chief Executive of Cardwave
15th January 2018
At the end of 2017, Cardwave’s founder and CEO, Paul Norbury shared his thoughts, views and hopes about the EU GDPR and the year ahead (2018) with Business Exchange Magazine. Here you can read what he had to say…
Paul Norbury, founder and CEO of Devizes-based Cardwave Services Ltd, is a true expert when it comes to flash technology. Paul’s passion for flash memory began over 15 years ago, long before smartphones and tablet computers were invented, and in even before SD cards and USB drives existed!
Founded in 2004, today Cardwave is proud to be a market leader in the flash memory market, a trusted advisor and the go-to company for world-class manufacturers, distributors and resellers.
Cardwave’s passion for data, and keeping it secure, also extends to products/services relevant to SMEs and individuals.
How can Cardwave help businesses prepare for the EU GDPR which becomes enforceable in May 2018?
There’s no denying that the GDPR is a big deal. We’ve known about the new legislation since April 2016 but worryingly data breach stats and research indicate that the majority of UK businesses are still far from ready. In October press headlines included ‘“Heathrow probe after ‘security files found on USB stick’”.
Preparing for the new EU General Data Protection Regulations isn’t a quick or easy job, but the ramifications of not being ready don’t bear thinking about. There’s lots of EU GDPR advice and guidance available online, the ICO website – https://ico.org.uk/ – is a good place to start.
One aspect of data security (and EU GDPR compliance) that you can tick off your list quickly, easily and at little cost, is that of keeping data safe on the move. Hardware encrypted USB3.0 flash drives, such as SafeToGo® from Cardwave, offer the perfect solution.
Tell me a bit more about the relevance of SafeToGo and the EU GDPR.
SafeToGo boasts AES 256-bit XTS hardware encryption, which prevents any unauthorised access and keeps your sensitive files 100% safe. This means that should a SafeToGo drive be lost or stolen, what could have been a serious data breach, will be downgraded to just a security breach, and no fine will be incurred.
Come May next year, businesses will face fines of up to 4% of their annual global turnover (or €20 million, whichever is greater) in the event of a data breach. That’s on top of the major business disruption typically associated with such incidents.
What have been the highlights of 2017 for you?
It’s been a challenging year (due to shortages in flash supply) but the team’s hardwork and commitment has been recognised with SafeToGo being named a finalist in the 2017 Computing Security Awards (Encryption Solution of the Year) awards, and Cardwave being featured as a company of best practice within the Parliamentary Review – http://tinyurl.com/y9yaao5k
And looking ahead to 2018, what are you excited about?
Firstly, and most importantly, Swindon Wildcats winning lots of silverware! (Note: Paul is a massive Wildcats fan/supporter. So much so that Cardwave is an official Swindon Wildcats sponsor).
Business wise, 2018 is all about the EU GDPR and data security. We’re committed to helping businesses achieve compliance for data on the move ahead of May, SafeToGo can now be bought via our Amazon shop, as well as through our authorised distributors and resellers, and we’ll be launching SafeToGo Solo (an unmanaged option) for individuals and small businesses early in the New Year.
We’re also busy launching SmartDrive™ in the UK and Europe – www.smartdriveusb.co.uk SmartDrive is a USB drive that delivers more, in that a company can update information stored on a SmartDrive USB after it has been distributed via a Content Management System. This is really exciting functionality which could benefit all sorts of businesses.
Raspberry Pi
Cardwave are delighted to be recognised by the Raspberry Pi Foundation for being a valued partner and supplier. We have enjoyed a close business relationship with the foundation since the massively successful launch of the Raspberry Pi in early 2012. Cardwave works with memory distributor, Xel Electronics, who supply Samsung SD cards to Premier Farnell and RS Components, two of the companies authorised by the charity to supply the Raspberry Pi. We are pleased to work with the foundation again on this superb SD card offering. Visit website | {
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Cover lithograph shows a gentleman trying to encourage his lady friend to go with him to the 5 cent moving pictures. She stands with her back to him in an unhappy pose. The ticket booth is between them. | {
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The 'New Normal'
Singer has returned to light duty, received Purple Heart medal
Caption
(Photo provided)
According to his mother, Jennifer Cherveny, Cpl. Joe Singer had mixed feelings about receiving the Purple Heart. “He kind of said it was something he didn’t really want to have to get, but I told him that Purple Heart is something to be very proud of,” she said. “I said, ‘Be proud of yourself.’”
DIAMOND, Ill. — A Diamond family whose lives were put on hold by news of a son wounded in Afghanistan over the summer is now working to resume a sense of normalcy.
In the weeks following a July 12 rocket-propelled grenade blast that critically wounded Cpl. Joe Singer, a 22-year-old Marine on his second tour in Afghanistan, Singer was taken to Germany and Maryland before being brought home. By September, Singer was in significantly better health and called back to light duty at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
Singer's mother, Jennifer Cherveny, said Tuesday that was sooner than she had expected.
"I was really taken by surprise because I thought, 'Well, you know you got really hurt, I wouldn't think they'd request you back, but you have time on your contract,'" she said. "It's how the military works, I guess."
Singer's time with the Marine Corps is set to end in January.
The move to North Carolina also came with a special event — Singer receiving a Purple Heart. He was presented with the honor in a ceremony held Sept. 19. Cherveny said she was unable to attend because there was not enough prior notice to make the trip.
She said Singer had mixed feelings about the award.
"He kind of said it was something he didn't really want to have to get, but I told him that Purple Heart is something to be very proud of," she said. "I said, 'Be proud of yourself.'"
The daughter of a Purple Heart recipient herself — her father served in the Vietnam War — Cherveny said she's proud of him.
"I'm happy for him," she said. "He deserved it, for all that he's been through."
Cherveny said a recent doctor's visit has shown Joe is in good health. Cherveny said the goal is for him to regain some of the nearly 40 pounds of weight he's lost, as well as just continuing monitoring to make sure he isn't having any problems. Because of severe wounds to his abdomen, she said a number of health concerns could pop up, from intestinal issues to a detached colon.
"We have to watch everything," she said. "He'll have to be careful probably for the rest of his life, with everything, because there was so much damage done to him internally."
From receiving the initial notice to being tied up in D.C. with last-minute passport issues, Cherveny recounted the trip to see her son in a military hospital in Germany.
She said it did not compute with what she had initially been told — that her son had broken ribs, leg damage and shrapnel damage. A few days after the message, she was summoned overseas when his condition worsened. She said she was not prepared to see what she saw at the hospital.
"I walked into Germany and I saw dead kids missing arms, legs, hands and faces. That's something I don't think that anybody should see," she said. "And then you're seeing your own son who is so damaged, it's almost like hell. That's just hell alone, itself, right there in that hospital."
She flipped through photos on her iPhone to show photos of Joe at various stages of care, showing modest steps forward.
"We've just come a long way," she said. "I'm so proud of how he's done. Being young and strong — that probably saved him."
As Singer has transitioned to base life, Cherveny is transitioning back to day-to-day life herself, trading in caring for her son for her job at The Chrome Rack in Diamond. She said she's becoming acclimated with the "new normal" in her life.
"The new normal is just trying to restart your life all over," she said. "... So far, it's going. (I'm) getting back to work and trying to readjust."
Cherveny said what has helped tremendously in that transition has been the support of the local community and from beyond. She wasn't able to immediately see the growing support as locals pinned up yellow ribbons in Diamond and Coal City or see checks coming into a local fund in Singer's name, but she was able to see the hundreds of people who befriended her on Facebook, interested in updates.
"It's just amazing, the help our family has received. It's been a blessing," she said. "I don't know what I would have done without the community backing us up like that — it was incredible"
She said if she could say anything to the many who have shown support, it's 'Thanks.'
"Just a big thank you for all the support," she said. "It meant a lot in a pretty traumatic time of our lives." | {
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Forms of employment
The university has various forms of employment. Below, you can read about how they affect you as an employee and about aspects such as maximum contract terms, function-based contracts and what is set to change after 1 July 2016.
Employment contracts and appointments
Public universities offer appointments, whereas special universities offer employment contracts. This should be stated on the letter you received upon entering into service. An appointment is a unilateral decision made by the university to take a person into service. Public universities are government bodies and are governed by the Central and Local Government Personnel Act (Ambtenarenwet). An employment contract is a contract between an employer and an employee governing the employment relationship and falls under the Dutch Civil Code. The CAO applies to employees with either a contract or an appointment. Some sections contain provisions specific to either public or private universities.
Function-based contract
Function-based contracts are based on performance rather than time, allowing employees to organise their time and work more easily. You are responsible for managing your own working hours, break times and holidays. The most important rule is that your performance must satisfy the agreements made with your supervisor. For the duration of the current CAO, the university may conclude function-based contracts with academic staff and with support and management staff below salary scale 11. More details can be found in Article 4.4a of the CAO.
No obligation
You are not obliged to conclude a function-based contract with the university – both parties have to agree in order to do so. If you conclude a function-based contract when starting employment, you may cancel it within three months without stating a reason.
Contract term: temporary employment
The maximum term for consecutive temporary employment contracts depends on the position. Until July 1, 2016, the university may agree on a longer term for temporary contracts for academic staff. Temporary contracts may not be extended more than twice. Your time spent working as a doctoral student or student assistant does not count towards the number or duration of temporary contracts.
The maximum term for temporary contracts is as follows:
Six years for academic staff;
Three years for support staff and four years if the contract is paid for by temporary external funding;
Doctoral contracts are always temporary as they are linked to a programme of study.
After July 1, 2016
Depending on your job category, the following duration/extension regulations will apply to temporary contracts as from July 1, 2016:
Academic staff: the total duration (including any successive contracts) may not exceed two years. Situations as described in Appendix L of the CAO may permit a total maximum duration of four years. Temporary employment contracts may not be extended with a new temporary contract more than twice.
Support and management staff: the total duration (including any successive contracts) may not exceed two years. Situations as described in Appendix L of the CAO may permit a total maximum duration of three or four years. Temporary employment contracts may not be extended with a new temporary contract more than twice.
Doctoral students: contracts are always temporary, for the anticipated length of the degree programme. When commencing employment, an initial 18-month temporary contract may be concluded in order to evaluate your suitability for the position. For doctoral students, no maximum applies to either the number of successive temporary contracts or the duration of any contract.
For student assistants, no maximum applies to either the number of successive temporary contracts or the duration of any contract. | {
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Tory ‘rising star’ confirmed for 2021 election
Mr Greene has been hailed as a ‘rising star’ of the Scottish Conservatives as he is promoted to shadow cabinet secretary for transport, infrastructure and connectivity .
He stood for the North Ayrshire and Arran seat in the 2016 General Election and the following year in 2016 Scottish Parliament election, increasing his party’s vote share by 11 per cent and was elected on the regional list as an MSP.
The Scottish Conservatives are currently the official opposition to the SNP Government in the Scottish Parliament. The Largs-based politician was previously the shadow digital and transport minister.
Mr. Greene said he was delighted at being chosen and has promised to provide North Ayrshire and Arran with a voice at the Scottish Parliament.
He said: “These are difficult and divisive times in politics but we also need to come together and look after the everyday things that matter to people.
“For too long North Ayrshire and Arran has lacked a voice in both our parliaments. Over the next 18 months, I will make my case that it is time we had an MSP who had the guts to stand up the SNP government in Holyrood. One who believes in the UK and one who actually respects the results of every referendum that Scotland has faced.
“After many years of SNP failures and mismanagement in charge of Scotland, be it NHS waiting times, GP and teacher shortages, our crumbling roads, higher taxes, the new Arran ferry fiasco, and our underfunded local council, I think it’s about time people got the MSP they deserve.
Richard Wilkinson, North Ayrshire and Arran Conservative Party Chairman said: “I would encourage others to step forward and volunteer their time to help elect Jamie as the local MSP and give North Ayrshire and its island communities proper representation in Holyrood.”
The incumbent MSP for Cunninghame North is Kenneth Gibson MSP of the SNP.
This website and associated newspapers adhere to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then please contact the editor here. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can contact IPSO here | {
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2017 Plans
Recommended Posts
As a recreational prospector I hope to have a much more productive 2017 summer than last year.Unfortunately, in the summer of 2016, my son was in a nasty car wreck and our summer prospecting was limited to 4 days of dredging.He is fine but it has been a nasty recovery for him the last 6 months. We hope to get out a lot more this year and the heavy snowpack should ensure adequate water for most of the summer/fall.We’re kicking around another trip to Alaska this summer for some dredging but have yet to make any commitments.We’ve got on some decent gold close to home the last couple of summers so it makes it difficult to justify the expense of getting up to Alaska.We’ll keep you posted as the prospecting season approaches.
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hello , my plan for 2017 , run my trommel , so I have 80 acres in Nevada county ca. , pretty high up , on a few small creeks , I have a dry leg of an older river that's 30 feet wide and 400 feet long to dig up , the creeks bypass it leaving it high and dry but close enough to pull water over to , I have my p.o.o. filed , my plan has passed the water board with approval , forest service seems good , but still waiting for final approval , the archeologist hasn't cleared my plan yet , but I think there should not be a problem , now I just wonder how much difference these storms will make on that dry leg I almost have full approval on , I hope its still there , I guess it could wash out , but at least I know there will be enough water this year , and since I can only dig by hand in cali , but I hopefully can run my little trommel , I will only run about 40 or so buckets a day by hand , but if my plan does not get approval , I will be looking to work elsewhere
I have considered heading north , maybe alaska or Canada , I would like to find a larger scale miner that has finished a cut and moved on , but before the reclamation begins I want to try a mini excavator and my trommel in the bottom of the cut , , but I do not know anyone up there and I don't want to just show up blind ,I know there is a lot of material left , too small or too spread out to chase after with large equipment, but I think as a small clean up crew , with small overhead it could be possible , let me know if you have any ideas , thanks
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Hello dredgernaut, sounds like you have a good summer planned, hope all gets the OK. Just wondering what type / make of mini excavator and trommel you are useing. Have a mini / mini myself and can feed a trommel or big banker, just curious.
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hey bud , thanks , me too , I built the trommel with a friend , I call it the "dredgenaut" , it is meant to be bucket fed , or small excavator , but the trommel will require direct supervision pretty consistently if using a mini ex. to feed it , and I have not purchased a mini yet , but I am willing and able too, should the need arise , California will not let me use one on my claim , and I am praying the will let me run my trommel , that is why I'm considering other opportunities , I work by myself because I don't have anyone to work with , lol , so I built the trommel to be very mobile , meant to be carried in pieces , 6 to 7 trips , heaviest piece is about 75 lbs. , I can carry each piece like nothing , made a backpack to carry the motors , here is a short , first test run , with old concentrates with some hammered lead added ,
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Dredgernaut, impressive trommel that you built. For the dirt we process here in Idaho and most of the dirt we've run through our highbanker, we'd need to have more water flow to clean the material in the hopper. Any way you can push more water through the hopper? Of course it would help the flow through the sluice box as well. Good luck.
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I plan IiIII think I'm going to have a very interesting season myself. Gonna be doing some dredgeing, digging with my mini / mini excavator & feeding a highbanker, then moving up one sde of my claim and clearing some timber and overburden to check and see if it's bench off like I suspect, and of course with all that I'll do some metal detecting as well. And of course haveing some fun along the way.
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Rick....I'd say the sampling was successful, very nice! What part of the US are you prospecting? With the snowpack here in Idaho, we won't be able to get near some of our rivers for quite some time. Glad to see your river is accessible. You'll be a busy man this year with 1k feet of stream bed? Will you be using a dredge to prospect I assume?
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JR. on the Mother lode in Northern California. Wife and I plan on holding this claim for some time so no hurry. No dredge as very little overburden and all slate bedrock so crevicing will be the order of the day. I attempted to use a gravity dredge but don't have enough drop for it to work.
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Good Luck to all who hope to reap the rewards of a strong runoff this spring. One recommendation; do not declare yourself as a "recreational miner". There is no protection under the 1872 Mining Law for "recreational miners". Consider yourself a "small miner". Only trying to make life a little easier out there. Chris, I think you will back me up on this.
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As a recreational prospector I hope to have a much more productive 2017 summer than last year.Unfortunately, in the summer of 2016, my son was in a nasty car wreck and our summer prospecting was limited to 4 days of dredging.He is fine but it has been a nasty recovery for him the last 6 months. We hope to get out a lot more this year and the heavy snowpack should ensure adequate water for most of the summer/fall.We’re kicking around another trip to Alaska this summer for some dredging but have yet to make any commitments.We’ve got on some decent gold close to home the last couple of summers so it makes it difficult to justify the expense of getting up to Alaska.We’ll keep you posted as the prospecting season approaches.
What are your 2017 Plans/Objective?
What area are you working in Idaho and are you having any luck? I live in the Idaho City area, but do to medical issues I haven't been able to get my gold pan wet this year.
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Hey Gambrinus, good to hear from you. You know we've only had the dredge out for 4 days once this summer up in the Idaho City area. In the four days We had a total of 16 hrs of dive time on the nozzle with limited success. Picked-up lots of mercury gold. Its been crazy busy for us and we plan to get back up there one more time but the Fire situation and air quality are so nasty we're not sure we'll make it back up. How long have you lived in the Idaho City area?
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I moved here in 1980, back when there were "Old Timers" miners still alive and I was dredging on Elk Creek with a 6" dredge, just 1/2 mile north of town. How times have changed. In fact that is the reason I gave up dredging, because of all the insane laws.
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Still work on Elk creek albeit a few miles further up from town. Wish I had some better history of the area I'm working as it would likely help my recovery.
Do you have a claim on Elk creek? Do you know Dean from Utah? I have really been out of touch on mining around here but have always liked the Elk creek area and I have some knowledge about it.
Maybe we could hook up sometime, it would be fun for me too just get out and look around. I am in recovery from rotator cuff surgery and I am not trying to horn in on your operation or jump your claim, I just really enjoy gold mining and wish it would pay wages enough to call that my job but I haven't found that to be the case for me.
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Yes, we are associated with some folks that have a state lease on some Elk Creek mineral claims. We've worked it for the last few years but have never really got on a decent pay streak. I think the Elk Creek bottom has been turned over a number of times and that's why I think it would be helpful if I had some insight to the history on how it has been worked. It would be good to hook up but I think we're done for this year as my weekends are booked until the snow flies. That being said, I think it would be hard to make any wages on Elk Creek unless you stumbled onto some ground that hasn't been worked.
With regard to Dean, I've met a bunch of folks from the Northern Utah Prospecting association who camp above Elk Creek when they have a club event. I've ran into them two or three times. Not sure if Dean is one of them or not but last time I ran into them they were working claims owned by Puma Mining also on Elk creek. They were running a trammel operation and moving a fair amount of dirt given there were so many of them.
In any event, lets keep in touch,
JR
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Most of Elk creek that is on state land got worked pretty heavy, for one reason is that the old timers had enough room to divert the creek to one side and mine that material, then divert the water to the other side and get the rest. The better places to dredge are where the creek narrows in the canyon, also the gold gets concentrated better there because it doesn't get widely dispersed naturally.
Another reason the narrows are better is because of large boulders which the old timers were less inclined to move, in fact most of the good paying ground I have found anywhere in Boise Basin had problems, either large boulders or lack of water.
Dean who I spoke of had much of Elk creek staked on fed and state land a few years ago, but he was in bad health the last time I saw him, so I hoped you may have met him and maybe knew his status. He is a very nice man and would let you dredge his ground for the small fee of just showing him the gold that you found.
My girlfriend is coming up from Marsing tomorrow so I think we will take a drive up there and have a look around.
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ya buddy , already done , this was the first run , ever , I added a bunch more hole in the hopper spray bars , much better now
That is a good looking well designed and built trommel! A similar one is on my project list. How did your season at your 80 acre prospect work out? My prospecting this year was a series of distractions and I didn't get to nearly as many places as I planned on. Wait 'til next year.
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thanks Mr. T , it was very good , too much hard work for sure , lol , trommel ran great , looking forward to melt off so I can get back in , ive been trying to find a warmer spot to frequent in the winter months , but I think its cold everywhere , have 5 buckets of fines to clean up , but winter is still long , , I will do a lot more of the same thing this coming summer and I would like to prospect colorado for a couple weeks if I can get in where I'm thinking . I hope everything works for you this year just leave some gold for me . lol | {
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Saturday, April 14, 2012
A Review of Grave Mercy by Robin LeFevers
Forget about Catherine, Called Birdy; it's time to meet Ismae! If your horrible father forces you into an arranged marriage in 1485, what you really want is to flee to a convent where the nuns specialize in training female assassins. Hopefully you'll get to kill some men who remind you of dear old dad. Except—Ismae isn't really her father's daughter. As the circumstances of her birth make clear, her true father is Death, or "St. Mortain." Once she has passed a test at the abbey (by not dying), Ismae finds happiness in her new life. She makes a friend named Annith and trades her father's endless beatings for intriguing lessons. She even learns to read. Ismae is especially good at poisons, and she meets a strange girl named Sybella who has apparently survived horrors worse than her own.Soon Ismae is being sent out on an assassination mission. She succeeds, and another mission follows. But her third mission isn't like the others. Ismae is asked to accompany a man named Duval to the court of the young, uncrowned duchess of Brittany. There she will have to face intrigues for which she is thoroughly unprepared, including spying on Duval to see if he is loyal or a dangerous enemy.
As Ismae sneaks about the castle, you may be reminded of Elizabeth C. Bunce's Starcrossed or Rae Carson's The Girl of Fire and Thorns. Who can be trusted? Obviously not the brutal Lord D'Albret, who is trying to force the young duchess to marry him. Nor the French, who consider themselves to be in charge of the girl. But even though Ismae is feeling more and more like she can trust Duval, her contacts from the convent pressure her to find him guilty of treason.
LaFevers does a masterful job of showing how a sheltered, downtrodden girl can grow in confidence and purposefulness. Yes, there's an odd sort of romance brewing between Ismae and Duval, but the rest of the plot holds its own. The characters seem so real and ordinary and flawed that it's easy to forget you're reading a story. The world the author builds is a medieval one—with a twist. The language is smooth and clear. Here's a sample:
We ride all day. In the newly cleared fields, sheaves of wheat hang from a cross, begging for Dea Matrona's blessing on the harvest. Cattle graze nearby, feasting on the remaining stubble in the ground, one last fattening before slaughter. Indeed, the slaughter of animals for winter has already begun and I can smell the copper tang of blood in the air.
A few stone cottages are scattered throughout the countryside, squat and stubborn against the encroaching wildnerness. Most doors have a polished silver coin nailed to them, an attempt to discourage Mortain from casting His gaze on their households, since it is believed He will go to great lengths to avoid His own reflection. Those that are too poor to afford that small protection hang hazel twigs, in the hope that He will mistake them for the real bones He has come to collect.
One ongoing mystery in Grave Mercy has to do with the will of Mortain, or rather the mark of Mortain. Being Death's daughter gives Ismae certain powers. Taught that when she sees the mark on someone, she has the go-ahead to assassinate them, Ismae begins to wonder if the nuns got it quite right. This book is arguably a coming-of-age story as Ismae begins to trust her own judgment even when everyone around her says otherwise.
Grave Mercy is a long book, but a thoroughly satisfying read. The next book in LeFevers' His Fair Assassin series will be about Sybella, and it's a safe bet the third book will be about Annith. Definitely something to look forward to, not to mention a nice break from fallen angels!
Note for Worried Parents: This is a book for teens with some mature situations involving violence and sex (or the threat of both together). Though these scenes are handled tastefully, I wouldn't recommend Grave Mercy for tweens or MG readers.
ABOUT ME
I am madly in love with children's books and want to get great books into the hands of kids who will love them, too. Books are like magnifying glasses, intensifying the wonders of people and their imaginations and everything in the world from spiders to shoelaces. Books are a unique sort of conversation. I write them, too, mostly MG fantasy, but sometimes poetry and picture books. Thank you, Johanes Gutenberg! | {
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AFSCME president blasts Governor’s budget plan
The president of the state’s largest employees union is critical of the budget plan Governor Terry Branstad released Thursday that calls for $360-million in state budget cuts. AFSCME Council 61 president, Danny Homan, is especially critical of cuts to education.
Homan says area education agencies, the regents institutions, community colleges and other education funding take “severe hits” in the governor’s proposal. “If we’re going to attract the kind of good-paying jobs that Governor Branstad has talked about creating, we must keep the high standard of education and opportunity that Iowans have traditionally had,” Homan said.
The governor has said that union workers will get a 15% raise when step increases for experience are figured into the deal agreed to by the previous governor. Homan says those facts are wrong. Homan says more than 50% of the union workers will not receive anything but the negotiated increases, and the total cost of the union negotiated wage costs in the next fiscal year are roughly 15-million dollars, and the step costs are roughly $19-million.
Homan says the remaining amount of the $89-million labor costs are the governor’s responsibility. Homan says he doesn’t know who the governor believes is getting the other $55-million but he believes it is the administration staff and unrepresented state workers. “I really don’t know what the governor wants to do, or won’t do, because the governor has not talked to this union,” Homan said, “so I can’t comment past that.”
An advisor to the governor recommended last week that the negotiating process, known as “Chapter 20” be changed. Homan commented for the first time on that idea. Homan says Chapter 20 was passed in 1974 by then Governor Ray and a bipartisan House and Senate and he says it has worked well. He says the proposals for change from the governor’s office are “radical changes” and not moderate changes and are changes the union will not support.
Homan said again he will not talk publicly about whether the union would be open to renegotiating the contract approved before Branstad took office. | {
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Teenagers must know the perils: warning
Teenagers and their parents needed to be better educated about the deadly meningococcal disease, the Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard said yesterday, but the Federal Government defended its role, saying it was acting to protect young people against the disease.
Ms Gillard said she supported a Federal Government program to vaccinate at-risk children against meningococcal C, but more needed to be done to tackle the dangers of other forms of the disease. "In the community it's not recognised that whilst you can be vaccinated against meningococcal C there are still other forms of meningococcal you can get, and there are no vaccines available for those other forms," she said.
Doctors say that while meningococcal C is by far the most common form of the disease, two other rare strains, meningococcal A and B, are just as deadly.
Ms Gillard said money spent on the Government's high-profile advertising campaign about the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme could be redirected. "We think that the $27 million Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme advertising, which is seen by millions of Australians that it is not relevant to because they are not taking prescription medicines, is a waste of money."
A spokeswoman for Federal Health Minister Senator Kay Patterson, Sarah Higginbottom, said the Government was spending about $300 million over four years to ensure children most at risk of meningococcal C received free vaccinations. "It's one thing to talk about the risks of meningococcal, we are actually doing something about it," Ms Higginbottom said.
A Health Department spokesman said $3.5 million would be spent to raise awareness of the dangers of meningococcal C.
The Australian Medical Association said yesterday the Government was taking a short-term view by refusing to fund essential immunisations. The federal vice-president Mukesh Haikerwal told ABC radio Senator Patterson should listen to expert advice. "There is a major problem with the financing of public health in general and, of course, immunisation comes in under that public health umbrella," he said.
Last week, the National Health and Medical Research Council added chickenpox and pneumococcal vaccinations to the childhood immunisation schedule, but the Government said it will not subsidise these shots. The pneumococcal jab will cost up to $150 for each of three necessary shots, while the chicken pox vaccine costs $60. | {
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Location-based Services (LBS) with Location-triggered To-do Lists
Location-based services (LBS) that let the user associate a geo-tag to a to-do item hold a great deal of promise for a location-based marketer and are gaining in popularity with users.
Imagine the possibilities if you could know that someone intends to make a specific purchase at your store the next time they are there. You could plan offers to get them there sooner, rather than later. Or make offers to sell associated products in addition to the intended product.
Geoloqi: This service takes a bit of a different approach than most other applications. The developers combined the concept of geofencing with the concept of future you. With Geoloqi, you can create location-triggered events that will remind you of things that you want to do or things that you need to do when you enter certain areas.
For instance, let’s say that you’re having a conversation with your friend and she tells you about a kind of pastry pocket called kolaches. She swears that the only place you should bother trying a kolache is in Houston, TX, where it originated — and you’re both in Seattle. Luckily, you’re going to Houston in June, but it’s January — and how are you going to remember your kolaches? Geoloqi is how!
Geoloqi has layers that provide functionality. One of these is called geonotes, which activate when you enter the area that triggers them. You can attach a geonote to the Houston airport so that when you land there in June, you’re reminded about the kolaches.
Geoloqi is also a platform. People can build layers to be incorporated into the application. The possibilities are as endless as the data streams available. For a brand? The most obvious would be to create a layer that lets someone know when they are near your business.
There are other cool things you could do to provide good content for people and enrich their experiences. For instance, if your brand is about kayaking, you could tag all of the best kayaking spots everywhere and notify people when they are near.
Neer: Owned by mobile technology giant, Qualcomm, Neer can share location with individuals versus wider groups of people. Neer also lets users set reminders that appear when the user has reached the designated area.
For example, a user can set a reminder to buy paper towels at a specific store, and the reminder appears when the user’s GPS detects that the user is at that store. What’s key about Neer is that it gets closer to the idea of passive check-ins. | {
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Data Visualization Tools
A collection of Data Visulization Tools written in IDL programming language is
presented in this talk.
The complete mouse driven IDL widget application scanSee is presented in detail. It can monitor scan record and display the near real-time 1D/2D scan data. It provides powerful post scan visualization and simple analysis features for 1D/2D/3D scan. The sharable visualization/analysis sub-programs are also discussed, they are designed to be re-usable by any other IDL programs. Some examples of scan object methods are also presented for displaying and extracting data from scan file.
It is trying to answer the following questions for interested users.
What are the EPICS/IDL visualization tools?
What are the catcher/viewer and canSee/sscan?
What are the common/sharable display and analysis tools?
What are the hdfb/h5b?
What is the system setup requirement?
What analysis and output features are available in scanSee?
How to access stand-alone tools and IDLVM tools?
How to extract MDA/catcher scan data by object methods?
How to access ezcaIDL functions? | {
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You are here
The Wildlife Garden: Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis californica)
The Wildlife Garden: Praying Mantis (Stagmomantis californica)
This publication describes praying mantids and their habits. It explains what type of habitat they need and how you can provide habitat in your yard. Includes sources of additional information and fun facts. | {
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2-Hour Evening Paintball
Paintball at West Virginia's New River Gorge—Guns and Paint Provided
Pulse pounding and intense!
The New River Gorge area has a four-acre paintball course, Ambush WV. Top-notch terrain, including two fields. Plus paintball guns, equipment and more!
Perfect for weekend fun, corporate teambuilding, bachelor and birthday parties and located minutes from Class VI - Mountain River, Ambush WV's fast paced, exciting paintball & speedball games are one more reason to vacation with us! Open Year Round!
Ambush WV offers two battlefields. The woodland paintball field is perfect for groups of 8 to 20. The smaller spool course doubles as a speedball field and strategic teambuilding course for your paintball pleasure.
Unlike most paintball areas, Ambush WV Paintball has professional referees which lead instructional sessions and ensure fair play for all participants. Our referees will teach you how to play West Virginia paintball the Hatfield and McCoy way. Other paintball games include: civil war, the presidency, capture the flag and surrender or die. Bring your family & friends, girl friends, bachelor party or come solo... we'll team you up for some 'predatory' fun!
TRIP RATING/AGE
TRIP LENGTH
1 - 3 Hours
LUNCH
No
SEASON(S)
Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer
PRICE RANGE
$59 - $64
This is the perfect group activity for weekend fun, corporate teambuilding, bachelor and birthday parties. Located minutes from Adventures on the Gorge West Virginia resort, Ambush WV's Fast Paced, exciting paintball & speed ball games and fields are one more reason to vacation with us! And Ambush, WV is open year round. | {
"pile_set_name": "Pile-CC"
} |
So You Have Asthma NIH Publication No March 2007
Transcription
1 So You HaveAsthma
2 So You HaveAsthma NIH Publication No March 2007
3 Contents Introduction Asthma Some Basics Why You? How Does Asthma Make You Feel? How Do You Know If You Have Asthma? How To Control Your Asthma Your Asthma Management Partnership Your Asthma Medicines: How They Work and How To Take Them Taking Your Medicines: How s Your Technique? Your Asthma Triggers and How To Avoid Them How To Control Things That Make Your Asthma Worse Asthma and Exercise Monitoring Your Asthma How To Use Your Peak Flow Meter Taking Your Peak Flow What If My Asthma Gets Worse? Reacting Quickly to Worsening Symptoms Putting Your Asthma Action Plan Into Action Your Treatment Goals Following Up So You Have Asthma For More Information Sample Asthma Action Plan
4 Introduction It s like breathing through a straw. That s how many people with asthma describe what asthma feels like. But for most people with asthma, it doesn t have to be that way! We know a lot more about asthma today than we did just a decade ago, and we have a much better understanding of how to treat it. In fact, based on what we now know, most people with asthma should be able to gain control of it and keep it under control for a lifetime. By working closely with your doctor or other health care provider, you should be able to learn how to control your asthma. And once it is controlled, you should usually be able to do whatever someone without asthma can do whether it s sleeping through the night every night or competing in the Olympics. In other words, you should be able to live a normal active life! The following list shows what your life could be like if your asthma were controlled: As a rule, you should have: Few, if any, asthma symptoms Few, if any, awakenings during the night caused by asthma symptoms No need to take time off from school or work due to asthma No limits on your fully participating in physical activities No emergency department visits No hospital stays Few or no side effects from asthma medicines Introduction 1
5 Doctors often refer to this list as the goals of asthma treatment. Happily, most people with asthma can reach these goals by taking the following four actions: 1. Work closely with your doctor or other health care provider to learn how to manage your asthma. This is the key to keeping your asthma under control. 2. Learn which medicines you should take and when you should take each of them. Also learn how to use an inhaler and spacer correctly. Then take your medicines just as your doctor recommends. 3. Identify the things that bring on your asthma symptoms your asthma triggers. Then avoid them or, at least, reduce your exposure to them. 4. Learn how to monitor your asthma and to recognize and respond quickly to warning signs of an attack. This guide gives you the very latest on asthma and provides practical suggestions for managing it effectively. It contains information about the most effective medications for treating it and describes how to take them. It also includes information about common warning signs of an asthma attack and explains how to act quickly to keep your asthma symptoms from getting worse. Welcome to So You Have Asthma your one-stop source for the latest information on controlling your asthma. 2 So You Have Asthma
6 Asthma Some Basics Here are some basic facts about asthma that should help you understand more about how to control it. Asthma is a lung disease. It is not an emotional or psychological problem, or an illusion. Don t let anyone tell you your asthma is just in your head. It is real! You are not alone if you have asthma. More than 20 million Americans report they have asthma. Asthma is on the increase, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. It is estimated that 300 million people worldwide have asthma. Inflammation of the lining of the airways is a major factor in asthma. Inflammation is produced by your immune system. The immune system s job is to defend your body against things that it sees as foreign and harmful for example, bacteria, viruses, dust, chemicals. It does this by sending special cells to the organs that are being affected by these things. These cells release chemicals that produce inflammation, or swelling, around the foreign substance or substances to isolate and destroy them. Although inflammation is a defense mechanism for our bodies, it can be harmful if it occurs at the wrong time or stays around after it s no longer needed. Because our lungs are used to breathing in air with irritants, such as bacteria, viruses, pollens, and dusts, all day every day, they ve developed ways of dealing with these things, and normally, an inflammatory response does not occur. But the airways in the lungs of people with asthma are more sensitive to many of these things, and the immune system in these people overreacts by releasing many different kinds of cells and other chemicals to the airways. Asthma Some Basics 3
7 These cells cause the following changes in your airways: The inner linings of your airways become swollen or inflamed (inflammation), leaving less room in the airways for the air to move through. The muscles surrounding the airways tighten up, which narrows the airways even more. (This is called bronchospasm.) The mucus glands in the airways may produce lots of thick mucus, which further blocks the airways. These changes make it harder for you to breathe. They also make you cough and wheeze and feel short of breath. People with asthma can develop ongoing inflammation that makes the airways super sensitive. As a result, if the inflammation is not treated, each time your airways are exposed to your asthma triggers, the inflammation increases, and you are likely to have symptoms. (This is called bronchial hyperresponsiveness.) Because inflammation plays such an important role in asthma, treatment for most people with asthma includes taking medicine every day for a long time to reduce and control it. Asthma is a chronic disease, like diabetes and high blood pressure. This means that once you develop asthma, you are likely to have it for a lifetime. It cannot be cured. Even when it is not causing symptoms, even when you are feeling just fine, the asthma is still there and can flare up at any time. 4 So You Have Asthma
8 How Asthma Affects Your Airways Normal Airway Airway Under Attack The healthy airway is open to allow the air that you breathe into your lungs to move in and out freely. When you are exposed to your asthma triggers, the sides of your airways become inflamed or swollen, and the muscles around the airways tighten, leaving less room for the air to move in and out. Source: American College of Chest Physicians A chronic condition like asthma requires daily attention. Depending on how severe your asthma is, that may include monitoring your breathing and taking medicine every day, even when you do not have symptoms. Taking care of your asthma must become a routine part of your life, just like monitoring and taking diabetes or blood pressure medicines are for people with those chronic conditions. Your asthma can be controlled! By managing your asthma effectively taking your medicines as prescribed, avoiding your asthma triggers, and monitoring your asthma you should be able to get and keep your asthma under control. You should expect nothing less! Asthma Some Basics 5
9 Why You? Doctors still don t know what causes some people to develop asthma. They think that many different genetic and environmental factors play a role. Researchers are working hard to identify the responsible genes. They have also made progress in identifying other factors that seem to either lead to the development of asthma or possibly protect you against developing asthma. Probably the most important factor in the development of asthma is atopy. This is the inherited tendency to be allergic. So if other people in your family have allergies, you may have inherited a tendency to be allergic, and your chances of developing asthma are greater than average. Researchers also are beginning to see that exposure to certain irritants when you are very young may play a role in the development of asthma. If you have a family history of asthma or allergies and your mother was exposed to certain irritants, such as tobacco smoke, when she was pregnant with you, you may be more likely to develop asthma. Exposure to certain indoor allergens in early childhood may also play an important role in the development of asthma. In many places, exposure to house dust mites appears to have this effect. Other indoor allergens that may play an important role in the development of asthma include cat dander, cockroach droppings, and mold. 6 So You Have Asthma
10 Exposure to irritants, certain chemicals, or substances in your workplace may increase your chances of developing occupational asthma. Changes in the way we live and work in the United States today may also increase our exposure to these allergens and irritants. For example, we now spend far more time indoors than we used to, and we have reduced ventilation in our homes and workplaces to conserve energy. This may trap allergens and irritants inside. Researchers have also found a link between asthma and obesity. Some think that being obese may increase your chances of developing asthma, while others argue that people with asthma may not be active enough, and, as a result, they become overweight. This is an issue that is now being studied. On the other side of the coin, medical research has identified factors that seem to help protect us against developing asthma. For example, they think that children who are exposed to certain types of infections and environments during their first year or two of life may be less likely to develop asthma. As an example, research has shown that many children who grow up on or near farms and are exposed to livestock and poultry are less likely to develop asthma and allergies. The same appears to be true of children who have two or more older siblings or attend daycare during their first 6 months. This discovery has led to the theory that our western lifestyle with its emphasis on hygiene and sanitation has resulted in changes in our living conditions and an overall decline in infections in early childhood. Many young children no longer experience the same types of environmental exposures and infections that they did in years past. This affects the way their immune Why You? 7
11 systems develop during very early childhood and may increase their chances of developing atopy and asthma. This is especially true of people who have close family members with one or both of these conditions. This theory is called the Hygiene Hypothesis. It may help explain why asthma has been on the increase in recent years. 8 So You Have Asthma
12 How Does Asthma Make You Feel? Most people with asthma experience one or more of the following symptoms: Coughing. Coughing from asthma is often worse at night or early morning, making it hard to sleep. Sometimes coughing is your only symptom. Sometimes coughing brings up mucus, or phlegm. Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or squeaky sound when you breathe. Chest tightness. This can feel like something is squeezing or sitting on your chest. Shortness of breath. Some people say they can t catch their breath, or they feel breathless, or out of breath. You may feel like you can t get enough air out of your lungs. But the symptoms of asthma are different for different people. They can vary from one time to another. They can also vary in frequency: Some people have symptoms only once every few months, others have symptoms every week, and still others have symptoms every day. Asthma symptoms can sometimes be mild; other times they can be serious enough to make you stop what you are doing; sometimes symptoms can be so serious that they are life threatening. In a severe asthma attack, your airways can narrow so much that not enough oxygen can get into the blood that goes to your vital organs. This condition is a medical emergency. People can die from severe asthma attacks. With effective asthma management, however, most people with asthma can expect to have few, if any, symptoms. How Does Asthma Make You Feel? 9
13 How Do You Know If You Have Asthma? Now that you know more about the symptoms of asthma, you can see that it s easy to confuse them with symptoms of other conditions for example, a cold or bronchitis. But asthma can be serious, so if you have a cough that won t go away or are often short of breath, or wheeze a lot, especially at night or after being active, it s a good idea to ask your doctor or other health care provider to check out what is causing your symptoms. It will be helpful if you monitor your symptoms for several days before seeing your doctor. Write down what symptoms you had, what time of day or night they occurred, where you were at the time, and what you were doing. Take this log of your symptoms with you when you go to see your doctor. Also take with you a list of ALL medicines you are taking for any other condition, and the doses, in case one of them might affect your asthma or interact with an asthma medicine. The first thing your doctor will do is to ask you some questions. Be prepared to discuss the following: Periods of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or chest tightness that come on suddenly or occur often or seem to happen during certain times of year. Colds that seem to go to the chest or take more than 10 days to get over. Medicines you may have used to help your breathing. Your family history of asthma and allergies. What things seem to bring on your symptoms or make them worse. 10 So You Have Asthma
14 To help diagnose your condition, your doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to your breathing. He or she may also use a device called a spirometer to check how well your lungs are working. All you have to do is take a deep breath in and then breathe out as hard as you can into a tube that is connected to the spirometer. The spirometer will show the amount of air you breathed out and how fast you breathed it out over a specified time period, usually 1 second. If your airways are inflamed and narrowed or if the muscles around your airways have tightened up, the results will show it. As part of the test, your doctor may give you a medicine to help open up your airways to see if your spirometry results improve. He or she may also test how sensitive your airways are to irritants in the air. You will be asked to gradually inhale increasing doses of methacholine, a substance that can cause your airways to narrow. After each dose, spirometry will be used to measure any changes in your ability to breathe out forcefully. Once the test is completed, you will be given a medication to open your airways back up. Your doctor may also conduct or send you for other tests. These include: Allergy testing to find out if and what allergens affect you A test to see how your airways react to exercise Tests to see if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) A test for sinus disease A chest x ray or an electrocardiogram to find out if a foreign object or other lung or heart disease could be causing your symptoms How Do You Know If You Have Asthma? 11
15 How To Control Your Asthma Your doctor says that yes, you have asthma. Well, breathe easy because asthma can be controlled. But YOU need to take an active role in managing it. You don t have to do this alone though. In fact, the key to managing your asthma effectively is to work closely with your doctor or other health care provider to learn how to handle it on a routine basis. Your Asthma Management Partnership Think of your doctor and his or her staff as your teachers and partners in asthma management: They can work with you on an ongoing basis to keep your asthma under control. Their role in this partnership is to help you learn how to manage your asthma by: Talking with you about your asthma treatment goals and how to achieve them; Providing you with a written asthma action plan and making sure you understand and know how to use it; Discussing the medicines you should take explaining: What they do, How much to take, When to take each of them, How to take each of them, and What, if any, side effects you should look for; Demonstrating how to take your medicines; Showing you how to monitor your asthma by using a peak flow meter; 12 So You Have Asthma
16 Discussing your asthma triggers with you and providing information about how to avoid them; Describing the possible warning signs of an asthma attack and explaining clearly what you should do if you feel an attack coming on; Addressing any concerns you have about any aspect of their recommendations; and Answering ALL your questions about managing your asthma simply and clearly. Your role in this partnership is to: Ask questions and participate in decisions about your treatment. Discuss your treatment goals with your doctor and come to an agreement on what you can expect from treatment. How To Control Your Asthma 13
17 Do what your doctor recommends, including taking your medicines as prescribed and monitoring your asthma on a regular basis. Keep your doctor informed about changes in your condition. Visit your doctor about every 6 months to review your written asthma action plan. Partnering with your doctor in managing your asthma is one of the key actions you need to take to get and keep your asthma under control. The following sections provide information about the three other actions you need to take to control your asthma. You and your doctor will work together to record the specifics about each of these three actions in your asthma action plan. A sample plan appears on page 44. As you read through the following sections, write down on this plan the actions that you and your doctor have agreed upon. Your Asthma Medicines: How They Work and How To Take Them Most people with asthma need two kinds of medicines: 1. Quick-relief medicines, to be taken when you need them, for immediate relief of your symptoms, and 2. Long-term control medicines, to be taken daily, for a long time, to stop and control the inflammation in your airways and thereby prevent symptoms and attacks. 14 So You Have Asthma
18 Everyone with asthma needs a quick-relief or rescue medicine to stop asthma symptoms before they get worse. An inhaled short-acting beta 2 -agonist is the preferred quick-relief medicine. It acts quickly to relax tightened muscles around your airways so that your airways can open up and allow more air to flow through. You should take your quick-relief medicine at the first sign of any asthma symptoms. Your doctor may recommend that you take this medicine at other times, as well for example, before exercise. WARNING! Quick-relief medicines are very good at stopping asthma symptoms, but they do nothing to control the inflammation in your airways that produces these symptoms. If you need to use more quick-relief medicine than usual or if you need to use it every day, it may be a sign that you also need to take a long-term control medicine to reduce the inflammation in your airways. Discuss this with your doctor as soon as possible. Long-term control medicines are used to prevent asthma symptoms from coming on in the first place. These medicines work more slowly than quick-relief medicines, and you may need to take them for several weeks before you feel their effects. Once your asthma is under control, you may be able to cut back on some of these medicines. The most effective long-term control medicines are anti-inflammatory medicines. They reduce the inflammation in your airways, making the airways less irritable and less likely to react to your asthma triggers. How To Control Your Asthma 15
19 Make sure you carry a quick-relief inhaler with you at all times in case of an asthma attack. Anti-inflammatory medicines are usually most effective when you take them every day, even when you don t have any symptoms. The most effective anti-inflammatory medicines for most people are inhaled corticosteroids. Some people don t like the idea of taking steroids. But the inhaled corticosteroids used to treat asthma have been studied over the years in large groups of adults and children as young as 2 years old and have been found to be generally safe when taken as directed by your doctor. They also are very different from the illegal anabolic steroids taken by some athletes. They are not habit-forming even if you take them every day for many years. And, because they are inhaled, the medicine goes right to your lungs where it is needed. Like many other medicines, inhaled corticosteroids can have side effects. But most doctors agree that the benefits of taking them and preventing attacks far outweigh the risks of side effects. Take inhaled corticosteroids as your doctor prescribes and use a spacer or holding chamber with your inhaler to make sure the medicine goes directly to your lungs. It s also a good idea to rinse your mouth out with water after taking these medicines. 16 So You Have Asthma
20 Other long-term control medicines available to treat asthma include: Inhaled long-acting beta 2 -agonists. These are bronchodilators that can help prevent symptoms when taken with inhaled corticosteroids. These medicines should not be used alone. They also should not be used to treat serious symptoms or an attack. A two-in-one medicine containing corticosteroids and longacting beta 2 -agonists is now available. Cromolyn sodium is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine that can be used to treat mild persistent asthma, especially in children. It s not as effective as inhaled corticosteroids. Leukotriene modifiers, or anti-leukotriene medicines, are a newer class of long-term control medicines that block the action of chemicals in your airways. If not blocked, certain chemicals, called leukotrienes, increase the inflammation in your lungs during an asthma attack. Anti-leukotriene medicines, which are available in pill form, are used alone to treat persistent asthma or with inhaled corticosteroids to treat moderate asthma. They are not as effective as inhaled corticosteroids for most patients. Inhaled corticosteroids are the most effective long-term control medicines for asthma, and they are generally safe for both children and adults when taken as directed by your doctor. How To Control Your Asthma 17
21 Theophylline, also available in pill form, acts as a bronchodilator to relax and open the airways. It can help prevent nighttime symptoms. It is sometimes used alone to treat mild persistent asthma, but most of the time it is used with inhaled steroids. If you take theophylline, you need to have your blood levels checked regularly to make sure the dose is right for you. Taking your medicines: how s your technique? Inhalers Many asthma medicines both quick-relief and long-term control medicines come as sprays and powders in an inhaler. An inhaler is a hand-held device that delivers the medication right to the airways in your lungs where it is needed. There are several kinds of inhalers. The metered dose inhaler (MDI) is a small canister that delivers a measured dose of medicine through your mouth to your airways. Some MDIs use a chemical to push the medicine out of the inhaler. Inhalers that use the chemical chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) are gradually being replaced. (See Box on CFCs on the next page.) Other types of inhalers include: A breath-activated inhaler from which you simply breathe in by mouth, and the medicine comes out in a soft spray, A dry powder inhaler (DPI), A Turbuhaler, and An Aerolizer. 18 So You Have Asthma
22 The CFC Story MDIs have been in the news recently as a result of a 1987 international treaty that banned the future use of products containing chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) worldwide. CFCs are gases that are produced by the kinds of aerosol propellants that have been used in most MDIs, and they are thought to damage the earth s protective ozone layers. MDIs that contain CFCs are now being replaced by new inhaler devices that do not contain CFCs. This means that you will have additional choices in how you take your medicine. CFC MDIs will remain available until an adequate number of safe and effective non-cfc inhalers are available. It is important for you to learn how to use your inhaler correctly. Read the instructions that come with it. Also ask your health care provider or pharmacist to show you how to use it. Then try it yourself and ask him or her to make sure you are using it the right way. Spacers A spacer or holding chamber can make using an MDI a lot easier. It is an especially good idea to use a spacer with corticosteroid MDIs as it decreases the amount of medicine that lands on your tongue or in the back of your mouth. This reduces irritation to your throat and increases the amount of medicine that gets down into your lungs where it belongs. There are many kinds of spacers. Some have a mouth piece. Some have a face mask that comes in different sizes to fit both children and adults. How To Control Your Asthma 19
23 Many spacers fit on the end of an inhaler; for some, the canister of medication fits into the device. Some MDIs come with builtin spacers. Spacers are not needed for dry powder devices. Most spacers also come with instructions on how to use them. It s important to ask your health care provider to show you how to use a spacer with your MDI. Then try it yourself and ask him or her to make sure you re doing it correctly. Nebulizers A nebulizer is another device that makes it easier to take inhaled medicines. It provides the medicine in a fine mist, rather than a spray. Using a nebulizer is usually easy; you simply breathe in and out normally through a mask or mouthpiece connected to the nebulizer. But it takes more time to use than an inhaler. It also is more expensive and requires more maintenance. Instructions for using different nebulizers vary, so follow the instructions on the package insert. Nebulized asthma medication may be especially useful for infants, young children, and adults who have trouble using an inhaler. Regardless of which of these devices you use, you have to use them the right way, or you won t get all the medicine into your lungs. The best way to learn to use these devices correctly is to ask your doctor or a nurse, pharmacist, or respiratory therapist to show you how. Then demonstrate it back to him or her to make sure you have it right. 20 So You Have Asthma
24 What Medicines Do I Need? Doctors usually decide which medicines and how much of each to prescribe, based on your lung function and your pattern of symptoms how many days and nights you have them, as shown on the chart below. Usually, if you have symptoms no more than 2 days a week or 2 nights a month, they will consider your asthma to be mild and intermittent and prescribe only quick-relief medicines to be used when you have symptoms. If you have more frequent symptoms, you probably need daily long-term control medicines to prevent symptoms. It may take several visits before the doctor finds exactly the right medicines and doses for you. Intermittent asthma Mild persistent asthma Moderate persistent asthma Days With Symptoms No more than 2 days each week 3 days or more a week but no more than one bout of symptoms on any 1 day Every day Nights With Symptoms No more than 2 nights each month 3 nights or more a month More than 1 night a week Severe persistent asthma Throughout the day every day Often Now that you know more about asthma medicines and what they do, ask your doctor to write on your asthma action plan: The name of each of your quick-relief and long-term control medicines, How much of each medicine you should take, and When to take each of your medicines How To Control Your Asthma 21
25 Other measures for treating asthma include: Allergy shots (immunotherapy) may help if you have allergies that can t be easily controlled by avoiding your triggers and taking medicine. Older people with asthma should have pneumococcal (pneumonia) vaccinations. Antibiotics are not recommended for either routine or emergency treatment of asthma, except, as needed, for a bacterial infection, such as pneumonia or suspected bacterial sinusitis. Any time your doctor prescribes a new medication ask him or her about the right way to use it! Ask about possible side effects and how to deal with them. Also ask what to do if you forget to take the medicine. Your pharmacist can also give you information about your medicines. Your Asthma Triggers and How To Avoid Them Avoiding the things that bring on your asthma symptoms your asthma triggers is another important part of your asthma action plan. Some of the most common things that bring on asthma symptoms are allergens, irritants, viral infections, and exercise. Allergens are substances that can cause you to have an allergic reaction. That is, in some people, the immune system sees them as foreign or dangerous and reacts in an exaggerated way to protect the body against them. 22 So You Have Asthma
26 How To Remember To Take Your Medicines To Take Your Medicines: Put a favorite picture of yourself or a loved one on the refrigerator with a note that says, Remember To Take Your Asthma Medicine. Keep your medicine on the night stand next to your side of the bed. Take your asthma medicine right after you brush your teeth and keep it with your toothbrush as a reminder, or put it next to your cereal box and take it with breakfast. Put sticky notes in visible places to remind yourself to take your asthma medicine, i.e., on the refrigerator, on the cabinet where you keep your favorite morning mug (You might even keep the medicine bottle inside the mug.), on the bathroom mirror, on the front door. If you use the telephone company s voice mail service, record a reminder for yourself, and the service can automatically call you every day at the same time. Establish a buddy system with a friend who also is on daily medication and arrange to call each other every day with a reminder to take your medicine. Ask one or more of your children or grandchildren to call you every day with a quick reminder. It s a great way to stay in touch, and little ones love to help the grownups. Place your medicine in a weekly pill box, available at most pharmacies. If you have a personal computer, program a start-up reminder to take your asthma medicine or sign up with one of the free services that will send you reminder every day. If you have a watch with an alarm, program it to beep and remind you to take your asthma medicine. Remember to refill your prescription. Each time you pick up a refill, make a note on your calendar to order and pick up the next refill one week before the medicine is due to run out. How To Control Your Asthma 23
GLOBAL INITIATIVE FOR ASTHMA What You And Your Family Can Do About Asthma BASED ON THE GLOBAL STRATEGY FOR ASTHMA MANAGEMENT AND PREVENTION NHLBI/WHO WORKSHOP REPORT NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NATIONAL
Asthma Basics Patient and Family Education This teaching sheet contains general information only. Talk with your child s doctor or a member of your child s healthcare team about specific care of your child.
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Whooping Cough Introduction Whooping cough is a serious bacterial infection of the lungs and breathing tubes. It is also called pertussis. About 16 million cases of whooping cough happen worldwide each
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WHEN COPD* SYMPTOMS GET WORSE *Includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has no ownership interest in any other organization that advertises or markets
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New York City to Receive Source Water Protection Award from American Water Works Association
Award Recognizes Department of Environmental Protection’s Innovative and Effective Programs That Protect Water Quality Across its Upstate Watersheds
New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Carter Strickland announced today that the City will receive the 2013 “Exemplary Source Water Protection Award” from the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The award for metropolitan-size systems recognizes organizations that protect drinking water at its source by setting ambitious goals and implementing programs that are effective and innovative. DEP Deputy Commissioner for Water Supply Paul Rush will accept the award at the AWWA Annual Conference & Exposition in June.
“We are thrilled that AWWA has chosen to recognize New York City for its innovative thinking, long term planning, and robust financial commitment to source-water protection,” said Commissioner Strickland. “This award underscores DEP’s successful protection of water quality in our upstate watersheds by acquiring land around our reservoirs and their headwaters, helping neighboring communities improve their wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, and working with farmers, local governments and other watershed partners to create and strengthen programs that ensure clean, safe drinking water for 9 million New Yorkers.”
“Source-water protection is fundamental work for water service providers as part of their larger mission to provide safe and sustainable water supplies for their communities,” said AWWA Executive Director David LaFrance. “We commend New York City Department of Environmental Protection for the impressive programs they have enacted to do this critical work on such a large scale, thereby ensuring that New Yorkers will have access to clean water supplies for generations to come.”
Founded on the notion that the most cost-effective way to provide high quality water is to protect it at its natural source, DEP’s programs have become a national and international model. Each year water and public health professionals come from around the globe to study the City’s source water protection strategies. A key element of the success of the program has been the development of strong relationships with watershed communities, locally-based organizations, environmental groups, and federal, state, and local government agencies.
The City has invested more than $1.5 billion in watershed protection programs since 1993, when the Environmental Protection Agency first issued the City a waiver from the federal requirement to filter tap water. A 1997 memorandum of agreement allowed the City to move ahead with three key components of its source-water protection strategy: acquisition of vacant land in the watersheds to minimize pollution related to widespread development in areas near reservoirs and other critical source waters; regulatory controls over new development to ensure water protection; and a series of City-funded partnership programs to address existing and potential sources of water pollution. This multi-pronged approach has provided flexibility to address evolving threats such as climate change, and the agility to reallocate resources and adjust to changing conditions.
A successful land acquisition program that committed $541 million toward buying land and conservation easements from willing sellers throughout the watershed from 1997-2017. Thus far, the City has obtained 105,650 acres through fee-simple purchases or conservation easements. The Watershed Agriculture Council (WAC), a partner organization funded by the City, has purchased another 22,838 acres of farm easements in the watershed. In addition, the City already owned nearly 45,000 acres of land surrounding its reservoirs, the State of New York owns and permanently protects 210,000 acres as parkland or forestland, and other entities own and protect nearly 25,000 acres as parkland or forestland.
WAC has also completed 400 “whole farm” plans that incorporate pollution prevention into the business operations of local farms. Those plans have included roughly 6,000 “best management practices” to control runoff from farms.
DEP has completed upgrades on all private and public wastewater treatment plants in the Catskill-Delaware Watershed, including upgrades to five City-owned treatment plants and 34 treatment plants not owned by the City. In the Croton Watershed, DEP has completed upgrades on 54 wastewater treatment plants, representing 94 percent of the total wastewater flow. Another 15 are in the process of being upgraded. In addition, the City has funded construction of new wastewater treatment plants or other wastewater solutions in select communities throughout the watershed.
The Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC), another key partner organization funded by the City, has invested in the repair of failing septic systems across the watershed, with more than 4,000 repairs completed to date. CWC also works with communities to construct stormwater controls to protect water quality.
DEP has implemented a comprehensive stream management program to restore the natural stability and flood resiliency to failing stream banks. To date, the program has funded construction of 66 stream restoration projects, restored stability to 14 miles of stream, addressed hydraulic constrictions at 23 project sites, and re-vegetated riparian buffers on 105 sites.
DEP has developed a plan to manage the forests on City-owned lands, which naturally filter many nutrients and helps protect the high-quality water.
DEP administers a program to review and approve new development proposals in the watershed. All proposals must comply with standards designed to protect the sensitive water features of the region.
DEP maintains a robust monitoring program that tests water quality on a daily basis. The water quality program annually tests about 25,000 samples from 475 sites that include reservoirs, streams, and other key points and performs approximately 250,000 analyses of the samples.
Balancing the goals of watershed protection with the needs of the region, DEP has opened at least 114,833 acres of City-owned land for recreation throughout the watershed, including 80,941 acres of land, and 33,892 acres of reservoirs. Of that, 52,198 acres can be accessed without a permit for activities such as hiking, hunting, snowshoeing and more. DEP has also established a recreational boating program on four of its reservoirs.
DEP maintains an outreach program to share information about water-quality protection and the watershed. In 2012, for instance, DEP estimates that more than 765,000 people received information about the water supply and watershed protection through more than 446 unique outreach efforts that were attended, coordinated, and supported by DEP and its partners.
Founded in 1881, AWWA is an international, nonprofit, scientific and educational society committed to the safety and improvement of water quality and supply. Focusing its work in four strategic areas, Knowledge Creation and Exchange, Leadership and Advocacy, Member Engagement and Development, and Organizational Stewardship, AWWA unites the full spectrum of the water community to advance water management, education and science and to advocate for smart water policies.
DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than one billion gallons of water each day to more than nine million residents, including eight million in New York City, and residents of Ulster, Orange, Putnam, and Westchester counties. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP employs nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and others professionals in the upstate watershed. In addition to its direct investments in source water protection, DEP supports a $68 million payroll and pays $153 million in annual taxes in upstate counties DEP also has a robust capital program with a planned $14.4 billion in investments over the next 10 years that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nycwater, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/nycwater. | {
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Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced Wednesday that House Republicans will roll out the six policy papers that make up their "Confident America" agenda one at a time throughout June, starting with ideas to combat poverty.
"What you will see with these [releases] are detailed policy papers," the Wisconsin Republican said. "We’re not talking about principles here. This is substance. It’s going to be a clear explanation of the policy changes that are needed in these areas."
The agenda will be dead on arrival if Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner is elected the next president, Ryan acknowledged, saying, "I don't think Hillary Clinton is going to agree with a lot of these things."
However, it's also unclear if presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump will fully embrace the ideas. "He is familiar with what we’re doing," Ryan said.
Trump had previously said he was "not ready" to support Ryan's agenda, effectively mocking the speaker after Ryan said he was "not ready" to support Trump. And after their first sit down two weeks ago , neither Trump nor Ryan was ready to revise those positions despite a joint statement they issued citing movement in a "positive direction." Ryan's comments on Wednesday were similar.
[Ryan Still Hasn't Decided on Trump] "Our staffs talk virtually every day," the speaker said. "We’re having good conversations and more folks are getting with him as well – you know, other members of Congress – and that’s all what you need to do to begin to get on the same page."
The poverty policy paper will be released the week of June 6 and the schedules for releasing the other five will be announced later. Ryan said the unveiling would be "over the course of June," and the House is in session for three weeks that month, so the releases will likely be two per week.
Ryan declined to detail the contents of the policy papers, other than a offer a few hints: anti-poverty proposals will transition existing programs from "a work replacement system to a work encouragement system"; deficit reduction proposals will not affect seniors in or near retirement; and a healthcare overhaul will involve repealing the Affordable Care Act despite recent member proposals that wouldn't involve full repeal.
The final papers will be presented to the full Republican Conference before their release, but the contents shouldn't come as a surprise given that members were the ones who effectively put them together, Ryan said.
"The conference is writing them and then giving them to the public," he said.
Ryan said the policy papers will reflect five months of work, including dozens of listening sessions, constituent town halls and task force meetings. Members were all given the opportunity to participate in any of the task forces they wanted, he said.
"This agenda is not an exhaustive list of the things that we believe in as Republicans, and it doesn’t cover every issue of public concern," Ryan said. "But these are the big ideas that unite all Republicans and address the countries’ priorities."
Contact McPherson at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @lindsemcpherson. Get breaking news alerts and more from Roll Call on your iPhone or your Android. | {
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