Christians in Context: from orthodoxy to orthopraxy.: The Bikini-Wearing Christian Spokeswoman?
Look, I'm sick of all the Miss California stuff too- and I even posted on it right away.
But Doug Wilson has been reflecting on the foolishness of a beauty pageant contestant, parading herself in a bikini as part of the contest, becoming a spokesperson for Christian values whom we're suddenly all supposed to look up to.
And in that process, Wilson has had a lot of good stuff to say about how we think about lust, body image, etc. The best of his posts so far is this one from today. Go read it. It's well worth your time.
After posting a picture of a woman in evangelical leadership in order to demonstrate some of the more obvious incongruities, many of the responses from the men showed that they were battling against lust (good), but appeared to have no awareness of where the templates of the current ideal were coming from (bad). A similar thing happens with Christian women. Christian women resent being held up to that as the ideal shape, but not for the right reason. They don't resent it because they think is a ludicrous ideal, they resent it (or feel insecure about it) because they don't believe they can measure up to it. They resent the failure, which is not the same thing as opposing the standard. Resenting the failure is actually a way of accepting the standard, in this case a standard crafted by homosexuals. But I don't think the ideal woman should be crafted by homosexual designers the same way that first graders play with Mr. Potato Head.
Christian men fail to oppose the standard also -- they hold that it is in fact the ideal shape but that they oughtn't ever look at it. And they might succeed in their battle against lust, never ever looking, while the entire time they freely allow the world to dictate to them the shape of the objectum prohibitum.
NB: Wilson has gotten some flack for illustrating these "incongruities" by posting a picture of evangelicalism's spokeswoman in a bikini. I think it made his point well, but some suggested that he was fueling lust. Anyway, that's what that first sentence in the quote is about.
Give the woman a break. She was not presenting herself as a Christian spokeswoman when she responded honestly to the question. Bashing her beauty pageant participation smacks of legalism. Let's applaud the integrity of the response in the face of cultural pressure and not wag fingers at the brazen hussy.
She has certainly made herself into a spokesperson now. I've seen, heard, or heard of her in a lot of different places now talking about her faith in God and how that made her stand up for what she believes is right. So she apparently is fine being one now.
Thing is, it really reflects more on the Christian culture's desire to have a voice to follow all the time, no matter the reason that the voice is popular. It's the same as when people flock to the newest book or church fad and throw all their chips in on its behalf. And what are Carrie Prejean's credentials? Well, she said what she believed was right to a hostile audience. That's fine and all, but that's her only credential we know of. And it's not like it was the gospel. It was just a comment about how homosexuality is wrong, and one couched in a lot of "Well at least for me" kind of language.
Further, I'd question what you mean by legalism. We can applaud the integrity of the response, but we can also question the integrity of showing off your body in a tiny bikini on national television. That is what she was doing, wasn't it? And doesn't at least something seem a little goofy about that?
Again, I'd refer you back to Wilson's posts on the matter. He's been pretty thoughtful throughout.
Wilson's right to critique a woman who chooses to parade herself around in a bikini--or anything else--and participate in a beauty pageant. There are all kinds of reasons to critique that, Christian and otherwise, but given the fact that she IS making herself--or letting herself be made--into a Christian spokesperson, focusing the critique on the issue of Christian values is dead-on. However, Andrew, I'd be careful about going overboard on Wilson's "thoughtfulness." His laying the blame on "homosexuals" for women's body-image issues is just about the most stupid thing I've ever come across--not to mention grossly prejudiced and offensive. It doesn't even warrant debate, but are really to believe straight men have played no part in the creation of this "ideal" body type? And--even more disappointing--are to believe that YOU buy his thesis?
Fair point- Wilson definitely takes that aspect of his post too far, though I actually think there is an interesting point there about who is controlling aesthetics.
To be sure though, heterosexual males have all too much to do with the wrongly ideal body image, and Wilson gets at that too.
I especially appreciated his comments about how we think about lust, etc.
Honestly, I missed the point that you argued against the first time that I read the post, and you definitely are right to critique that aspect.
We ask that you cease and desist any representation of yourself as a "Christian Spokeswoman."
We can find no record of necessary credentials on file. Moreover, your public appearance in a bikini and participation in a carnal "beauty pageant" were licentious and lascivious--prima facie disqualification for you to hold or express any Christian conviction, since your convictions are suspect at best.
If you ignore this warning and persist in your spiritual charade, we will be forced to denounce and condemn you vigorously until you relent and terminate your fraudulent practice of speaking as "a Christian." Christian indeed.
Christians jumping on the band wagon is true. It is not her fault though but shallow christians who are at fault. The same emotions convinced christians to jump behind Sarah Palin and family as great christian models to represent the cause. True she may the lessor of two evils, look at them now. Obama may confess the wrong things, but his model for family is better than Palin's. Not that Obama should be a spokesperson by any means.
Palin is no longer a spokesperson but she was for a while and most Christians took it hook line and sinker.
Christian culture has a short attention span so miss America won't last long, but the standard is falling lower and lower. You can't be homosexual or pro-abortion, but you can have a dysfunctional family with children having children out wedlock or be a sexually objectified pageant queen as long as Christianity is the greater goal.
It's not that the Palin's and Ms Prejean are not christian, it's christians who glorify them for the media attention they received to a position of unofficial leadership. As if they are suddenly great voices and leaders for christians to follow. The logic would follow that as long as a murderer confessed Christian things and was popular in the media than he qualified as a voice for christian culture. We are not there yet, but the same kind religion shouted "King of the Jews" on Palm Sunday and a week later shouted "release Barabbas".


What is a good way to reinforce a wall?
I have a recliner that is broken beyond repair (the back falls flat), so I have it propped up against a wall, but I'm concerned that I'm going to end up with a hole in my wall. I've been trying to think of a way to reinforce the wall so this doesn't happen, but I've been unable to make a decision. My only idea is to use a large, thin, rectangular piece of wood and screw it to the studs... figured that would spread out the pressure and do less harm to my wall.
Buy a half sheet of 3/4 plywood at home depot. place this against the wall where the chair leans against the wall. That way it bridges across atleast 2 studs taking the pressure off the sheetrock or plaster.
Be aware that the support piece is likely to get dinged up as the chair rubs against it, as is the finish on the chair where it contacts the support.
I'd also add that you may want to think about how to finish the ply to make it appear deliberate rather than a "there, I fixed it" patch. The overkill solution would be to do wainscoting around the entire room... Failing that, you probably at least want to try to finish the ply so it blends into the wall -- or go the other direction and make it a design statement.
Thinner plywood would work but anything less than 3/4" will warp just from the room humidity.


When Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos speaks, business leaders and investors should listen. Amazon is perhaps the most successful company of the past 20 years, and Bezos' annual letters provide insights not only into Amazon's current strategies, but also his general business philosophies.
In this year's letter, Bezos turned some of the spotlight -- and the corresponding heat -- on Amazon's competitors. Bezos named only one competitor specifically: eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY). Poor eBay served as the unfortunate comparison to Amazon's booming third-party sales business, which Bezos heralded as having grown at a compounded 52% growth rate between 1999 and 2018, versus eBay's mere 20%. Bezos attributed Amazon's outperformance to its bold investments in advanced seller tools and its Prime membership ecosystem.
But while eBay was the only named adversary of Bezos' letter, he also threw a fair amount of shade at some of Amazon's biggest, fiercest competitors across Amazon Web Services (AWS) and e-commerce...all without naming them specifically.
While Bezos didn't single these companies out by name, you can be sure he knew both customers and competitors alike would read what he's saying. Here are the Amazon rivals likely feeling the heat today.
Jeff Bezos called out Amazon competitors in his annual letter. Image source: Getty Images.
Bezos was especially proud of Amazon Web Services' accomplishments last year -- as he should be. Interestingly, Bezos didn't focus as much on AWS' core storage and compute infrastructure, but rather on Amazon's relatively newer database services. Specifically, Bezos pointed out how Amazon listened to customers who have been "unhappy with their database providers for decades -- these offerings are expensive, proprietary, [and] have high-lock-in and punitive licensing terms."
This is a clear jab at the largest database company on earth, Oracle (NYSE:ORCL). Oracle rules the database world with about a 50% market share, and its CEO, Larry Ellison, hasn't been shy about bashing Amazon in public. Last October, Ellison claimed that Oracle's database technology was 10 to 20 years ahead of Amazon's. Then in December on Oracle's Q2 2019 earnings call, Ellison blasted Amazon's database as "too expensive," and panned Amazon's practice of repackaging open-source databases as its own. Finally, Ellison pointed to the fact that Amazon has been trying to wean itself off Oracle databases for years, and still hasn't been able to do it -- though Amazon has said it expects to be completely off Oracle databases by 2020.
Still, if Amazon is doing all these things wrong and its product is so inferior, why did Ellison himself admit in a recent interview that Amazon is Oracle's "No. 1 competitor" in the database market?
We spent several years building our own database engine, Amazon Aurora, a fully managed MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible service with the same or better durability and availability as the commercial engines, but at one-tenth of the cost. We were not surprised when this worked.
It's interesting that both Bezos and Ellison claim their company's respective database product is significantly cheaper than the other's. Of course, they can't both be right.
Bezos then went on to tout Amazon's variety of database offerings tailored for more specialized workloads, including DynamoDB, ElastiCache, TimeStream, and Quantum Ledger.
In fact, a good portion of the letter felt like an advertisement for Amazon's comprehensive database services. It's likely that many enterprise IT executives and start-up founders read Bezos' letter (I certainly would if I were a start-up founder), and I don't think this is lost on the Amazon CEO.
We had always offered competitive wages. But we decided it was time to lead -- to offer wages that went beyond competitive. We did it because it seemed like the right thing to do. Today I challenge our top retail competitors (you know who you are!) to match our employee benefits and our $15 minimum wage. Do it! Better yet, go to $16 and throw the gauntlet back at us. It's a kind of competition that will benefit everyone.
It's not often you hear of a CEO asking competitors to come at his company with more competitive salaries. Though Bezos again didn't mention names, two of Amazon's largest retail competitors in the U.S. are Walmart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT).
Both Walmart and Target boosted their starting pay last year in the wake of 2017's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, Walmart's starting salary is still only $11 per hour, while Target's is $12 (though Target plans to get its minimum wage to $15 by the end of 2020).
Both Walmart and Target are also investing heavily in e-commerce initiatives in an attempt to catch up to Amazon. These investments decreased both companies' gross and operating margins last year, despite somewhat stronger revenue growth.
Meanwhile, Amazon's North America e-commerce segment expanded its operating margin last year to 5.1%, up from just 2.7% in 2017 -- surpassing Walmart's margins for the first time ever.
It looks like Bezos' dare would squeeze its competitors' margins -- and thus their ability to invest in the future -- even more.
While Bezos' language was couched in niceties about the great work Amazon employees are doing for customers, make no mistake: There were tough, direct challenges lobbed at rivals within this year's annual letter -- even if Bezos didn't call them all out by name, like unfortunate eBay.


his post is drawn from an online discussion with James Elkins and others, via his blog  and Facebook page. At time of writing Elkins is seeking views in relation to a revision of his book Artists With PhDs. At one extreme, the views emerging show a readiness to accomodate explicit intellectuality; at another, they attest to a desire to keep it out of art altogether.
Elkins makes some very interesting points about the reflexivity he associates with undertaking a PhD, and whether or not it hinders certain kinds of artistic production. The examples he cites are interesting, too.
I like his inclusion of 'cartoons and post-pop', because I think that to address our situation today we do need to consider broad fields of artistic production. I wonder, for instance, whether the kind of emotional drive Elkins attributes to early German expressionists would today be most productively invested in painting. I mean, who would notice if it was? Were those early expressionists addressing their art world, or society at large? If the latter, then we might ask: what, today, is the relation of painting to society at large? What is expected of painting, by whom, and why?
I would say that film and music (especially combined) have shown that the visceral and seemingly intuitive can coexist with the intellectual in an artistic work. Of course, a lot of thought, planning and a high degree of craft are required to balance these aspects, and there must be as many of examples of banality and crudity in film and music as in painting (or any other art form). What I'm really wondering about here is the basis for objecting to explicit intellectuality in and around particular art forms. Are certain forms regarded as the ground for an especially precious kind of intersubjectivity; or are they associated with a kind of practice that some artists are especially attached to, or guarded about?
It's fine for artists to make art for themselves and their circle, even producing and sharing among themselves what Clémentine Deliss has called an 'initiate knowledge'. Saying this, though, invites questions about the wider social legitimacy of art. That, to my mind, is something that artists could reflect continuously on, whether or not they keep explicit intellectuality out of their studios.
Elkins's thoughts on what Cézanne's writings do or do not reveal about his painting processes make me think about what intuition might actually be, especially as invoked by artists describing their working practices. In this context, intuition could just be thought which leads so quickly to action that it is not apprehended before the action creates its own feedback. That feedback - in the form of a higher-than-usual demand to coordinate sense inputs and motor responses - possibly inhibits more reflexive thought. Among some of Elkins's respondents there seems to be a perception that the converse of this - interrupting the cycle of sensory input and motor response, to reflect - will hobble the act of creation.
I know as an artist that sustaining a state of action just at the edge of the rational can feel thrilling. It's very like playing music or (as another of Elkins's correspondents suggests) dancing. Mind and body feel fully engaged, to the exclusion of anything extrinsic. I believe this can be indulged in quite knowingly, again and again, as long as certain preconditions are maintained (here, "the studio" is both axiomatic and talismanistic).
None of this is unproblematic. What I've just described can also be like an addiction that, for some, defines the life-feeling of being an artist. In such a case, being an artist would primarily be about attaining a particular mode of being. And perhaps this would not run counter to a tendency to inflate the inherent value of certain kinds of artistic outcome (mark, effect, or art form); I mean if that inflation helps maintain a legitimating argument for a deeply desired way of life.
 Clémentine Deliss, 'Privacy + Dialect = Capital', in On Knowledge Production: A Critical Reader in Contemporary Art, ed. by Maria Hlavajova, Jill Winder and Binna Choi (Utrecht: BAK, c2008.), pp. 50-66.


1200 = 24× 31× 52 = 3 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 × 5 × 5 = 5 × 2 × 3 × 2 × 5 × 2 × 2 = etc.
The theorem is stating two things: first, that 1200 can be represented as a product of primes, and second, no matter how this is done, there will always be four 2s, one 3, two 5s, and no other primes in the product.
The requirement that the factors be prime is necessary: factorizations containing composite numbers may not be unique (e.g. 12 = 2 × 6 = 3 × 4).
Book VII, propositions 30 and 32 of Euclid's Elements is essentially the statement and proof of the fundamental theorem.
The fundamental theorem of a field of mathematics is the theorem considered central to that field. The naming of such a theorem is not necessarily based on how often it is used or the difficulty of its proofs.
For example, the fundamental theorem of calculus gives the relationship between differential calculus and integral calculus, which are two distinct branches that are not obviously related.
The names are mostly traditional, so that for example the fundamental theorem of arithmetic is basic to what would now be called number theory.
The mathematical literature sometimes refers to the fundamental lemma of a field. The term lemma is conventionally used to denote a proven proposition which is used as a stepping stone to a larger result rather than as a useful statement in-and-of itself. The fundamental lemma of a field is often, but not always, the same as the fundamental theorem of that field.


Client / Service API Authentication - TIER-Data Structures and APIs Working Group - Internet2 Wiki for your Wiki!
tl;dr: Short term x509 certificates provide a mature and universally available means for holder-of-key authentication for TEIR API client and server interactions.
"Client": An app that wants some resource from the Service.
"Service": An app that has some resource wanted by the Client.
"Authorization Service: An endpoint on the Service providing OAuth access tokens.
I made a demo of a client-service registry. A few notes before we get to it.
The registry is a means by which API clients and services can know and identify one another---through a chain of trust architecture.
There's more to building a demo than meets the eye. And I'm new to much of the technology. Some of the details of the resources and API's are a bit haphazard.
There are only GET methods at present.
You can browse the site with a browser or with curl. The browser will return pretty printed HTML.
would get you a list of clients.
It doesn't have any details of the returned resources. Don't know why.
There is also a Token endpoint, by which a client can get authn credentials to a service. It works like this.
1) Client (csr_client1) POSTs to the Token endpoint for a particular service (csr_service1).
2) It then contacts the service, using it's own entity_id and that token as password.
$ curl -o - -X GET -H "Accept: application/json"
If the password is valid the client representation is returned, else 404. Note the token is for that server only.
There are other possible Token types that would obviate the verification call to the registry.
I don't know the efficacy of live authentication demos, but this does get across what I think is the utility of the registry.


Pro Masking Tape is a high tack, artist-quality, tan crepe paper tape. Inexpensive yet totally reliable for holding and masking. 60-yard rolls, 3" core diameter. The crape paper tape has a solvent based adhesive and is perfect for painting, light packaging, labeling, and bundling materials.
Is this acid free tape?
No, the adhesive for this tape is solvent based and is not acid-free. You can view the acid-free tape options that we currently carry on this page of our website https://search.jerrysartarama.com/search?w=acid%20free%20tape Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Can I use this tape on top of oil paint. Will it stick long enough for me paint surrounding areas? If not, what can you suggest?
Yes, you can use this tape with our oil paint. Masking tape is an inexpensive and easy way to mask your canvas or underpainting while oil painting. Masking tape is designed to be lightly adhesive and easily removable. Apply the masking tape to the areas you want to mask and paint the surrounding areas. This will leave the canvas or paint underneath the paint its original color. Some people prefer to leave the tape on until the painting is dry, but this isn't necessary as long as you are careful to maintain the lines while you continue to work.
Will it work as well as the "Blue Tape" we all use when it's pulled off? And will it keep the margins dry?
If you already have blue painters tape I would suggest that you use it. Our Pro Masking Tape works in a similar way, but you will need to make sure that the tape is making strong secure contact with the surface that you are masking. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Can this be used for holding paper on board while painting?
Yes, you can use the masking tape that way. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Thank you for contacting us with this question. The Pro Masking tape is not acid-free. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.


Actually, it's an old one rewarmed by Netanyahu, who a year ago proposed that Israel build on its common interests with Sunni states such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, which also are focused on containing Iranian expansionism and destroying Islamic jihadists. Its present government fully supports the Jewish settlers in their criminal activity of demolishing Palestinian homes and expropriation of their lands.
With a new approach and a strong, friendly president, I believe this will improve the future for the Israel-Palestine situation and also for our country. "It is time for the suffering of the Palestinian people to stop and for Australia to take a more balanced role in supporting the application of worldwide law and not supporting Mr Netanyahu and his policies", the statement organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network said. It could only be acceptable to its people if Israel became a secular state with equal rights for both peoples. It is also generally agreed within more than 100 countries, that have recognised Palestine as an independent entity, that a decision to move the U.S. embassy might cause outrage among Palestinians and could erupt into violence.
On Thursday, however, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Washington still backed a two-state solution to the conflict.
According to the report, Sisi and Abdullah saw the entry of Herzog or another opposition figure into Netanyahu's coalition government as a potential rationale to press Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who was made aware of the secret talks by Kerry, and to help secure the participation of the Saudis and other Arab countries in a regional summit.
Are there other possible plans that might work?
In 1967, Israel's air force knowingly attacked the USS Liberty, a US Navy vessel in global waters in the Mediterranean. Talks to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and create an independent Palestine living alongside a secure Israel, have so often tantalised only to disappoint. These Arabs are called Palestinian Israelis.
Under a second option, proposed by Netanyahu rival Naftali Bennett, Israel would annex the Oslo Accords' Area C, where most of the 400,000 Jewish residents live. During the visit, the prayer for the State of Israel was said. Even some Palestinians are looking around and wondering if now is the best time to test the ability of their society to stand on its feet against a backdrop of Middle East upheaval.
PM Lee had reiterated Singapore's longstanding position that it was friends with both Israel and Palestine, and said he hoped to see both sides make progress towards a just and durable two- state solution.
He warned that the result would be a swift reversal of of the Jewish majority between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, to an Arab one.
Mr Netanyahu's rejection of the plan contradicts his own claim of wanting to involve regional powers in resolving Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.
He said apprehensions on the southern US border had seen an additional surge of 10,000 to 15,000 per month from 2015 to 2016. The memos dated February 17 seek to implement President Donald Trump's broad directive to crack down on illegal immigration.


A tag which exists only on one question is automatically deleted after certain time unless it has a tag-wiki.
Is it possible to check whether a tag have been removed by this process (because of being used on a single question)?
If I remember the name of the tag, can I find out how it has been removed - manually or by the system?
If I remember a question where this tag was used, can I somehow check whether a tag has been removed from this question by this process (and not manually)?
Here is a specific example. As mentioned here on meta, the tag finiteness has been used in this question. If I look at the revision history, none of the edits show removal of this tag. The first revision of the post is shown without tags. This seems to be different from the behavior of a tag which has been removed manually, for example, you can compare the revision history and the first revision of another post, which uses a tag which no longer exists.
Is my guess that the finiteness tag has been removed by an automated process correct? Would I be able to find this out without knowing that this question originally had finiteness tag?
These removals are logged, but there's no easy way to look that up; you'd have to get an employee to search the logs for you.
The finiteness tag was removed on February 1st, 2014; it was removed from one post and 3 history entries by the monthly scheduled task that removes single-use tags after 6 months. That's all the information I have; critically, I can't tell you which post(s) had the tag prior to its removal.


"I didn't know Alan Bennett was gay?"
"I thought the men coming round the house were doing jobs for him?"
It's the kind of maternal comment that Bennett has made a career from. But if that means my mum has now become an 'Alan Bennett Mother', what does that make me?
Fans of the National Treasure himself will lap this up, after all it has Bennett's wonderful dialogue and sly, deadpan humour and there's the familiarity of having it directed by his long time NT collaborator Nicholas Hytner. There's also the simply marvellous cast, with cameos from The History Boys alumni, alongside the likes of Roger Allam, Deborah Findlay, Jim Broadbent, Gwen Taylor and the lovely Claire Foy in more substantial roles, topped by two (or is that three?) superlative performances; Maggie Smith as the titular character, Miss Shepherd, and Alex Jennings as Bennett himself - both Bennett, the writer and Bennett, the man living through the experience of having this demented old dear taking up residency on his drive. Smith is, of course, genius and in describing her performance I can only reiterate the phrase Danny Leigh used in last week's Film 2015 review "Miss Marple meets Gollum" - there is no finer description. But Jennings deserves an equal amount of the accolades here, skilfully crafting a three dimensional interpretation of Bennett rather than offering up an impression or imitation for 100 minutes.
This is a very enjoyable film, comic and deeply tender as it explores Bennett's difficult relationship with both his ailing mother (Taylor) and his surrogate mother, Miss Shepherd. It's not perfect - I would argue that it's a shame the film couldn't find in its heart a way to end on a sincere note, opting instead for some rather jarring grand comedic gesture, whilst some of the characters (specifically those created for narrative purposes like Broadbent's somewhat panto villain) seem to offer little more than a walk on for a famous face like an old Morecambe and Wise sketch - but I think it's important to remember that, fifteen years of squatting on your doorstep or not, Bennett's tale is a very slight one as witnessed by the slender tome it started life out as. Ultimately, Hytner has delivered an enjoyable film that shows in Smith that the grand dame of British acting is in extremely rude health.
I first saw a trailer for this in February - yes, February - so it's surprising to go into it a month after it's been released and find it still has plenty to surprise. The trailers gave no hint of the almost magical-realist elements, for example, not even the key device of doubling Alan Bennett into a Bennett who writes and a Bennett who interacts with the outside world. As per Freud and Borges, doubles are always uncanny, but there's something particularly unnerving about seeing a double of a famous person. Perhaps it makes us confront the fact that their images are duplicated all the time in the media, but seeing Alex Jennings as Bennett standing next to another Jennings-Bennett had the same creepy-funny charge as the room full of Malkoviches in Being John Malkovich, or the mysterious doubles of Bart and Lisa at the end of the Simpsons episode 'The Day the Violence Died'.
For ninety-nine per cent of the world this film will be all about Maggie Smith's haunted, funny, painful turn as Mrs. Shepherd, the titular homeless woman whose temporary arrangement with Bennett to park her van on his drive turns into a fifteen-year comedy of manners. Quite right too - she's excellent, particularly in the heartbreaking scenes where she is tormented by reminders of the life she had before her mental collapse. At these points, The Lady in the Van can sit alongside Clio Barnard's The Arbor and Carol Morley's Dreams of a Life as a film which explodes the myth of 'making it', the comforting lie that people who've had one big break are immune from slipping into society's waste bin.
For me, though, it was Jennings as Bennett who fascinated most. He gets so much raw material by staying within the lines of Bennett's iconic public persona, never feeling like a mere impersonation but also deliberately never giving you something which jars with your idea of who Alan Bennett is. That's important, because Bennett's dilemma in writing about Shepherd is a proxy for concerns about his public and private life. He is quietly aware that he could live very happily as The Celebrity Alan Bennett, but it would mean not writing about his experiences and feelings, not being honest about his sexuality, perhaps even denying his emotions around his increasingly ill mother.
Sometimes Mrs. Shepherd appears as if she's a kind of golem or tulpa, a creature created by Bennett's anxieties around his mother and his life. This material, like the metafictional ending, can be a bit heady for Nicholas Hytner, a brilliant stage director whose film craft still rests too heavily on slathering on the stirring music and crane shots. I was unsure about his very theatrical generosity in awarding all the surviving cast of The History Boys roles, too - sweet, but it gets distracting when James Corden or Dominic Cooper turn up for a couple of lines each. They're certainly not bad in those roles, though; the acting across the board is impossible to fault. The star of the show is Bennett's script, though, which creates a real crowd-pleaser out of some very spiky material and unorthodox ideas.
It might be fair to criticise The Lady in the Van, as some people have, for being a bit one-note but when said note is as hilarious and enjoyable as this little ditty, I’m not sure I can really complain.
Besides, I happen to think The Lady in the Van is a far richer and deeper film than many people have given it credit for. Decorated amidst all the humorous cantankerous vulgarity of Maggie Smith’s titular character are a series of meta flourishes about the process of storytelling and about how Alan Bennett the man and Alan Bennett the writer see people differently. As such, The Lady in the Van becomes as much about the process of chronicling the story of the Lady in the Van as it does about the Lady in the Van herself… still with me?
It isn’t always coherent and some of the performances are a little flat (Roger Allam, for example, is basically playing Peter Mannion again), though the screenplay is certainly strong enough to carry everybody through. Alex Jennings makes for a great Bennett and Smith is clearly relishing her role as the frankly wretched old woman who basically takes advantage of the nicest and must put-upon man in London for fifteen years. The many scenes in which Bennett argues with himself are a particular highlight, as are those more tender moments in the final act when Smith’s character stumbles awkwardly towards her inevitable redemption.
It isn’t anything special – far from it, it’s a very predictable affair – but there’s actually something inherently comforting in that which Bennett himself would no doubt relish. It is the cinematic equivalent of a ragged old blanket and y’know what, there ain’t nothing wrong with that.
The Lady in the Van paints a picture of a world, or at least an affluent part of London, which, if it ever existed, I'm fairly sure doesn't now. This is a place where an itinerant bag lady is, if not welcomed with open arms, somehow tolerated. The residents are sniffy and generally irritated by her presence but not overtly hostile.
And, moreover, the same can be said of the Social Services. Even if they don't exactly grab the bull by the horns they do at least appear every now and again to provide a modicum of support. And if you might speculate that the attitude of individuals has shifted over the years, there is little doubt that the position of the authorities certainly has, out of necessity and a lack of funding. I suppose we have different priorities these days.
Maggie Smith is simply magnificent and right now Alex Jenning's/Alan Bennett's voice is stuck in my head and i find myself thinking with his voice.
At the end of it all you can't help but feel that it's all a little inconsequential, but then again, that doesn't make it any the less enjoyable.
What I can't help but wonder though is whether Mr Bennett (I thought of Pride and Prejudice every time she refered to him) having already inserted two fictitious versions of himself into the story, really needed to place his real self in there as well.
A "mostly true" adaptation by Alan Bennett of his play, this is the story of what happens when he (played by Alex Jennings) lets an elderly lady (played by Maggie Smith) park the van she lives in on his drive for three months. She then stayed for fifteen years. Maggie Smith is excellent as the down and out lady in the van, but I really liked the way that Bennett himself was played here. The film should perhaps have been called The Playwright who Lent his Drive to the Lady in the Van as it told us as much about him as her. I found the film very sad, there were moments of humour, but many of the occasions when people laughed loudly this evening made me feel uncomfortable, it's perhaps rather more a tragicomedy than it sounded everyone else thought.


“Silence” is based on a 1966 novel of the same name by the Japanese author Shusaku Endo . The plot revolves around the fictional character of a Portuguese Jesuit priest in seventeenth century Japan at the time of a violent anti-Catholic persecution. The film represents a “struggle of faith” in which the priest must choose between the lives of his flock and his Faith.
REMNANT COMMENT: True to form, "Silence" was met with the enthusiastic approval of Pope Francis. The film premiered at the Vatican back in December, in fact, and Catholic-bashing Martin Scorsese personally hosted a private screening of the film for Pope Francis.
Perhaps the Holy Father is merely attempting to be consistent. After all, the Roman Pontiff who wants married Catholics in difficult situations to have an escape hatch where the indissolubility of marriage is concerned, would logically favor Catholic missionaries in tough spots being granted a similar escape hatch from martyrdom, where the Church's teaching on apostasy is concerned.
QUESTION: What is meant by anointing the forehead with holy chrism?
ANSWER: By anointing the forehead with chrism in the form of a cross is meant that the Christian who is confirmed must openly profess and practice his faith, never be ashamed of it; and rather die than deny it.
“Rather die than deny it,” remember? This is presumably a wee bit too “rigid”, rules-oriented and even pharisaical for the Pope, who had the insufferable Martin Scorsese over to the Vatican to endorse his new movie about the apostasy of a Jesuit. On the other hand, Pope Francis knows something about all that, so perhaps this isn't so surprising.
Readers admonish us every day to pray for Pope Francis, rather than criticize him. But there’s little cause for us or anyone else to actually criticize Francis. The myriad problems with our pope are made abundantly manifest every time he opens his mouth to speak. So let's not confuse mere reporting on the Pope's own words and actions with "criticism". There's a rather substantial difference.
In the meantime, we do pray for Pope Francis, every day in fact—that he will return fully to the Catholic Faith, that God will forgive this obstinate old man before he dies, and that Our Merciful Lord will call the Holy Father to his eternal reward before he destroys what's left of the human element of the Catholic Church.
Indeed, pray for the Holy Father today like there's no tomorrow....for, indeed, if this keeps up, there may not be.


Determining what foods are the cause of an allergic reaction is key to treatment. Before you identify the culinary culprit you must consider what type of food allergy your child has. There are two types of food allergies. They are classified as food allergies.


The leading strand is synthesized . The lagging strand is synthesized .
Does the following graph represent discrete or continuous data? Explain.
The word CONTINUAL is used correctly in the sentence.
My continual allergies have made me accustomed to continual headaches.
Choose the sentence that is written correctly.
"The snipe is related to the gull," Ann continued.
"The snipe is related to the gull." Ann continued.
"The snipe is related to the gull!" Ann continued.
"The snipe is related to the gull" Ann continued.
Our team will have been playing together for six months by the time the championships roll around.
What tense is the sentence written in?
Next year, my mom will have been working in the same place for 20 years.
These capillaries look like a cavity.
Erica will have been sitting in that chair for five hours by the time school is out.
Our family will be having pizza on Friday night.


Anyone attending the LHQ Seminar in a couple weeks?
I am. Taking a look at the reading material - what did I get myself into?
Pretty much. Some of it is familiar, but I definitely won't have time to make it through all the background readings.
Don't forget about the slides/presentation that were e-mailed recently!
For those working in life valuation & reserving, whether you are planning to be (or are) an appointed actuary or not, I highly recommend attending the Life & Health Qualifications Seminar sometime.
- The volume of reading is intimidating (1,500 pages "required" reading, another 3K of optional reading), but most are good reference points for your work in valuation.
- The presentations manage to take that wide bank of information relevant in our industry (ASOPs, AGs, model regulations, Life & Health Valuation Manual, the Valuation Manual (not the same as the previous item), state regulations, developments in laws, etc.) and organize it in a fairly digestible manner over a few days.
- The case study sessions to dive deeper into some of the more intricate issues of Life & Health are extremely valuable - not just because you get to test yourself on the application of regulations, principles & laws, but you also get to discuss them openly with other actuaries with varying backgrounds. At the end of it all, you get to hear from instructors that are often times privy to the development of why these laws/principles in place, so you get context that is otherwise absent.
Just some thoughts for anyone considering this in the future.
I'm thinking of attending this year. Simple question: in your opinion, do i need to read the required texts prior to the seminar in order to pass the exam at the end? And what happens if you fail the exam anyway?
(i) Anecdotal evidence: I spoke with one attendee last year that didn't prep at all and managed to pass the exam. So, you don't *need* to, but I'll caveat here that participant had significant experience with a fair number of the regulatory topics, so perhaps that person didn't need to read up on it much. I personally would give it a good go.
(ii) Nothing ... besides professional contempt from your peers.
Just kidding. I think you can take it in a future sitting.
I honestly believe the LHQ Seminar is a very valuable experience for those currently working in or planning to be in statutory valuation. This should be popular at least for the next couple years, with numerous changes to the VM continuing to go on through 2019 (e.g., VM-21 & VM-22, specifics to VM-20) and the ever-volatile health regulatory landscape.
But do try to make a good-faith effort to read the required materials, because the people that are going to call you out on these things (regulators, auditors, examiners) have.
I am attending this year. I work in the health space and a bit nervous about having to get life concepts down.
I am looking forward to attending. I haven't seen anything related to LHQS reading list yet. October is going to be busy.
I attended the LHQ 2 years ago. I skimmed through the reading material beforehand but certainly did not read all of it.
The test is open book/notes. If you're already familiar with statutory life and health, then it isn't too difficult as long as you pay attention during the seminar and know where to go to look stuff up in the reading materials. If you aren't already familiar with the topics, then you would get more benefit doing some reading ahead of time.
Really? You should contact Doreen at the Academy - I recall getting my materials in early/mid-August last year.
1) If you're not familiar with the life (blue) blank, there is a lot of information that's testable from the blank, including VM-20.
2) Spend some time the night before indexing important information, concepts and terms. Pay full attention when going through the case studies and actively participate in the small group & large group discussions.
Thanks for the responses. A textbook arrived in the mail in August, but with no indications of what to read. The slides/handouts came last week via email.
1) Not familiar with the blue blank. Orange is what I know.
2) I plan to spend decent time reviewing and plan to fully participate. I am arriving early to wear off the jet lag.


The espadrille sandal is made fresh for the season with slim, crisscrossed straps that top a curvy platform wedge.
. The espadrille sandal is made fresh for the season with slim, crisscrossed straps that top a curvy platform wedge.


Calculates the sine of an angle (in radians). The result will be between -1 and 1.
rad: The angle in Radians (float).
The sine of the angle (double).


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Our rates begin at a mere $2000 per minute of finished product. The price descends with more air time desired. Hence: Two minutes will only cost you $3000 and three minutes will add only $500 more to the price. Since we are but a small company, GST is not part of our pricing. We are not tax collectors for a foreign owned collection agency.
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The most important leadership quality for CEOS?
For CEOs, creativity is now the most important leadership quality for success in business, outweighing even integrity and global thinking, according to a new study by IBM. The study is the largest known sample of one-on-one CEO interviews, with over 1,500 corporate heads and public sector leaders across 60 nations and 33 industries polled on what drives them in managing their companies in today's world.
Steven Tomasco, a manager at IBM Global Business Services, expressed surprise at this key finding, saying that it is "very interesting that coming off the worst economic conditions they'd ever seen, [CEOs] didn't fall back on management discipline, existing best practices, rigor, or operations. In fact, they [did] just the opposite."
About 60% of CEOs polled cited creativity as the most important leadership quality, compared with 52% for integrity and 35% for global thinking. Creative leaders are also more prepared to break with the status quo of industry, enterprise and revenue models, and they are 81% more likely to rate innovation as a "crucial capability."
Other key findings showed a large disparity between views of North American CEOs and those from other territories.
For example, in North America, 65% of CEOs think integrity is a top quality for tomorrow's leaders, whereas only 29-48% of CEOs in other territories view it as such.
Ironically, while company leaders in North America will bring more integrity to the job, they also expect far more regulation than foreign heads — both presumably reactions to negative public perception and heavy government intervention following the recession. A full 87% anticipate greater government oversight and regulation over the next five years — only 70% of CEOs in Europe hold this opinion, and 50% and 53% in Japan and China, respectively. Meanwhile, nearly double the amount of CEOs in China view global thinking as a top leadership quality, compared with Europe and North America.
The area of focus the regions can all agree on is customer focus: 88% of all CEOs, and an astounding 95% of standout leaders, believe getting closer to the customer is the top business strategy over the next five years.


Google is widely expected to be handed a third antitrust fine in Europe this week, with reports suggesting the European Commission’s decision in its long-running investigation of AdSense could land later today.
Right on cue the search giant has PRed another Android product tweak — which it bills as “supporting choice and competition in Europe”.
In the coming months Google says it will start prompting users of existing and new Android devices in Europe to ask which browser and search apps they would like to use.
This follows licensing changes for Android in Europe which Google announced last fall, following the Commission’s $5BN antitrust fine for anti-competitive behavior related to how it operates the dominant smartphone OS.
tl;dr competition regulation can shift policy and product.
Albeit, the devil will be in the detail of Google’s self-imposed ‘remedy’ for Android browser and search apps.
Which means how exactly the user is prompted will be key — given tech giants are well-versed in the manipulative arts of dark pattern design, enabling them to create ‘consent’ flows that deliver their desired outcome.
A ‘choice’ designed in such a way — based on wording, button/text size and color, timing of prompt and so on — to promote Google’s preferred browser and search app choice by subtly encouraging Android users to stick with its default apps may not actually end up being much of a ‘choice’.
Add to that Google has the advantage of massive brand dominance here, thanks to its kingpin position in search, browsers and smartphone platforms.
In its blog post getting out ahead of the Commission’s looming AdSense ruling, Google’s SVP of global affairs, Kent Walker, writes that the company has been “listening carefully to the feedback we’re getting” vis-a-vis competition.
Other opinions are available on those changes too.
Qwant and another European startup Jolla, which leads development of an Android alternative smartphone platform called Sailfish — and is also a competition complainant against Google in Europe — want regulators to step in and do more.
The Commission has said it is closely monitoring changes made by Google to determine whether or not the company has complied with its orders to stop anti-competitive behavior.
In its Android decision last summer the Commission judged that Google’s practices harmed competition and “further innovation” in the wider mobile space, i.e. beyond Internet search — because it prevented other mobile browsers from competing effectively with its pre-installed Chrome browser.
So browser choice is a key component here. And ‘effective competition’ is the bar Google’s homebrew ‘remedies’ will have to meet.
Still, the company will be hoping its latest Android tweaks steer off further Commission antitrust action. Or at least generate more fuzz and fuel for its long-game legal appeal.
Current EU competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, has flagged for years that the division is also fielding complaints about other Google products, including travel search, image search and maps. Which suggests Google could face fresh antitrust investigations in future, even as the last of the first batch is about to wrap up.
The FT reports that Android users in the European economic area last week started seeing links to rival websites appearing above Google’s answer box for searches for products, jobs or businesses — with the rival links appearing above paid results links to Google’s own services.
The newspaper points out that tweak is similar to a change promoted by Google in 2013, when it was trying to resolve EU antitrust concerns under the prior commissioner, Joaquín Almunia.
However rivals at the time complained the tweak was insufficient. The Commission subsequently agreed — and under Vestager’s tenure went on to hit Google with antitrust fines.
Walker doesn’t mention these any of additional antitrust complaints swirling around Google’s business in Europe, choosing to focus on highlighting changes it’s made in response to the two extant Commission antitrust rulings.
“After the Commission’s July 2018 decision, we changed the licensing model for the Google apps we build for use on Android phones, creating new, separate licenses for Google Play, the Google Chrome browser, and for Google Search. In doing so, we maintained the freedom for phone makers to install any alternative app alongside a Google app,” he writes.
Talking about Android specifically Walker instead takes a subtle indirect swipe at iOS maker Apple — which now finds itself the target of competition complaints in Europe, via music streaming rival Spotify, and is potentially facing a Commission probe of its own (albeit, iOS’ marketshare in Europe is tiny vs Android). So top deflecting Google.
“On Android phones, you’ve always been able to install any search engine or browser you want, irrespective of what came pre-installed on the phone when you bought it. In fact, a typical Android phone user will usually install around 50 additional apps on their phone,” Walker writes, drawing attention to the fact that Apple does not offer iOS users as much of a literal choice as Google does.
We’ve reached out to Commission for comment, and to Google with questions about the design of its incoming browser and search app prompts for Android users in Europe and will update this report with any response.


You sit down at your desk, ready to tackle the items on your "to do" list for the day and notice that your company has received a letter from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA). The letter states that the Social Security number you have on file for one of your employees doesn't match his number on file with the SSA.
You have heard from colleagues that these "mismatch letters" are being received all over the country. You had hoped this type of letter wouldn't land on your desk, but it has.
Little wonder. In the past, the SSA issued "mismatch letters" only if 10 percent or more of an employer's workforce had a mismatch. But under a new policy, effective this year, letters are being sent to employers who have even a single mismatch.
If misery loves company, knowing this may ease your mind. However, it still doesn't address the nagging question in your brain: What do I do now?
You might be tempted to immediately terminate the employee mentioned in the letter. At first glance, such a strategy might seem perfectly reasonable. After all, if the employee has given you a false Social Security number, he isn't qualified to work, right? He could he an illegal alien, and by employing him you could be violating federal immigration law. Or the employee could have assumed someone else's identity to land a job.
It's true that either of the above scenarios are possible. However, it would be unwise to make a hasty assumption.
The immediate concern for employers who receive a mismatch letter is that mismatched employees may not be authorized to work in the United States. However, employers should not automatically assume that the letter makes any sort of statement about the employee's immigration status.
Further, employers should not infer that the employee mentioned in a mismatch letter intentionally provided incorrect information. Reasons for a mismatch may include an unreported name change, a change in marital status, a stolen identity or a clerical error on your part (while processing the employee's paperwork) or even at the SSA.
Nevertheless, the receipt of an SSA mismatch letter should prompt an employer to take some action to ensure compliance with the SSA, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
When faced with this situation, here's what you should do.
First, review any documents you prepared or provided when the employee was hired. Review the employee's completed employment application (if any) and the IRS W4 Form to be sure that the data is consistent with other information provided by the employee.
For example, ensure that you correctly filled out the employee's 1-9 Form, which establishes the employee's eligibility for employment. Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (RCA), employees must fill out an I-9 form the first day on the job, arid must provide documentation proving their employment eligibility and identity within three business days of starting work.
The law does not require employers to file I-9 forms with any government agency. As a result, only you have immediate access to this information and only you can tell if the information submitted for an I-9 matches the information an employee provided on other forms.
If your review shows that these documents are incomplete or incorrect, you have a duty to investigate. Be sure to give the employee an opportunity to present acceptable documents and amend the I-9 Form.
If, however, the employee cannot present acceptable documents, you may have to terminate him. Under the IRCA, employers can be legally liable for the "knowing" employment of unauthorized aliens.
Note: Even though I-9 forms are not submitted to federal agencies, they still can provide evidence that an employer intentionally hired an illegal alien. Each year the INS performs more than 60,000 audits of I-9 forms.
The INS is being restructured to split the agency into two divisions: benefits and enforcement. This split is likely to invigorate the enforcement arm of the INS.
The INS is self-funded through fines levied on employers, so there is an incentive for increased enforcement.
What's more, the danger of an improperly completed I-9 Form may not go away in the short term. Under the IRCA, when an employee leaves or is terminated, employers must retain I-9 forms for at least three years from the date of hire or one year after termination, whichever is longer.
Second, employers are required to report accurate information to the IRS. Once an employer finds out that an incorrect Social Security number has appeared on a W-2 form, the employer should correct the information by preparing and filing a W-2C with the correct information.
As long as the incorrect Social Security number was provided inadvertently on the W-2, no penalty should be imposed on the employer.
Providing accurate information also is in the best interest of the employee. This is because the SSA maintains records of the reported earnings of individuals. These reported earnings are used to determine an employee's eligibility for entitlement to retirement, survivor and disability benefits.
The reported earnings that match an individual's name and Social Security number are posted to the individual's record. The reported earnings that cannot be matched with an individual's name are posted separately into an "Earnings Suspense File."
A mismatch could result in employees not receiving proper credit for wages they earned. In 2000, the SSA reported that approximately $4.3 trillion in wages was posted--and approximately $58.5 billion remained unposted as a result of the mismatches.
Third, employers should take adequate steps to document that they have complied with the SSA's request for information. The employer should notify the employee, preferably in writing, of a Social Security mismatch and advise the employee to correct the problem with the employer or, if necessary, to visit an SSA office to correct the information.
And be sure to explain the reasons why employees stand to benefit from clearing up any confusion regarding the use of their Social Security numbers. When they realize that their future income could potentially be at stake, they will be more likely to take immediate action.
Under federal law, both employers and employees have a duty to report Social Security numbers.
When they start working, employee are required to give employers a valid Social Security number or a receipt showing that they have applied for a Social Security number. The employer is then required to include the employee's Social Security number on the W-2 wage report that is field with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for wages paid to the employee.
This process is unrelated to the verification of work authorization conducted by the employer on the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) I-9 Form. In connection with the employment eligibility verification process, employers are required to complete an I-9 Form for each employee within three days of the hire date.
David H. Nachman is a principal and heads the Business Immigration Department at Grotta, Glassman & Hoffman. Debi Debiak is an associate with Grotta, Glassman & Hoffman and serves on the firm's employment litigation team.


uuid : 4d6ad098-4a9d-468c-96b3-7ecc851250d0 templates_id: 119538 templates_uuid: "03a71dbc-ada8-4c1e-aeac-dc4272aeb398" title: "Gross Misconduct Dismissal Letter - Summary Dismissal Letter" display_name: "Gross misconduct dismissal letter" meta_keywords: "Gross misconduct dismissal letter " description: "
Make sure you follow proper disciplinary procedures when you summarily dismiss an employee following a disciplinary hearing, with this instant dismissal letter. Use this summary dismissal letter when you want to dismiss an employee without notice or payment in lieu of notice for gross misconduct and you have held a disciplinary hearing to consider the matter. It covers the date of the hearing and its findings, the facts relied on to establish gross misconduct, the non-necessity of prior warning, the termination date including the fact that the notice period does not apply, arrangements for final salary payment and the right to appeal against dismissal.
What is a gross misconduct dismissal letter?
Normally employers cannot sack an employee on grounds of misconduct without an initial warning and notice being given. However, if an employee commits a serious offence (known as gross misconduct) which requires their swift removal from the workplace, a summary dismissal is possible. In this scenario, a letter dismissing an employee on grounds of gross misconduct should be used to set out the reasons for their dismissal and formalise the process.
Why do I need a gross misconduct dismissal letter?
Employers are required to set out a decision to dismiss an employee in writing, under the Acas Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievance. Failure to do so can result in an employment tribunal increasing any compensation award by up to 25% (eg. if unfair dismissal claim is successfully brought by the employee).
Other than complying with the Acas Code, as a general rule, employers should document their disciplinary processes, to ensure they have written evidence of any decisions made, together with the reasoning, in case the matter ends up in court. This is particularly the case in situations of summary dismissal, which can easily end up being classed as unfair dismissal if the correct procedures are not followed or documented.
What should be included in a gross misconduct dismissal letter?
The right to appeal against dismissal.
Should there be a hearing before dismissing someone for gross misconduct?
Even in cases of summary dismissal for gross misconduct, employers are still legally required to hold a hearing and properly investigate any allegations made against the employee. The employee has a right to be accompanied at the hearing. Failure to hold a hearing prior to dismissal can result in a claim of unfair dismissal.
When is gross misconduct dismissal appropriate?
Although there are no specific rules regarding what constitutes gross misconduct, the offence should be either deliberate or amount to gross negligence, and should destroy the relationship between employer and employee. Examples of gross misconduct include theft, violence, endangering the safety of other employees and breach of a drugs or alcohol policy.
Can an employee appeal a dismissal for gross misconduct?
Employees have a legal right to appeal their dismissal for gross misconduct. If they decide to invoke this right of appeal, an appeal hearing should be held, chaired by someone different (ideally more senior) to the chair of the initial hearing. The employee also has the right to be accompanied at the appeal hearing. Under the Acas Code, it is vital to inform the employee of their right to appeal and their right to be accompanied, in writing.
" created_timestamp: "2018-10-08 04:36:44.0" modified_timestamp: "2018-10-08 04:36:44.0" active: true created_by: 236 modified_by: 236 dcm_id: 243 url_slug: "Letter-to-an-employee-confirming-summary-dismissal" meta_description: "Create a gross misconduct dismissal letter with step-by-step guidance from Rocket Lawyer. Ensure you follow acceptable disciplinary procedure when an employee is summarily dismissed for gross misconduct. Try our summary dismissal letter template." time_to_complete: "15 minutes" role1: "Employer" role2: "Employee"
More than just a Gross misconduct dismissal letter template, our step-by-step interview and guidance makes it easy to create your document.
Easily create online, download, print and sign your free Gross misconduct dismissal letter in minutes.
This document is also sometimes called: Gross misconduct dismissal letter .


This English Language quiz is called 'Connectives / Conjunctions' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at elementary school. Playing educational quizzes is an enjoyable way to learn if you are in the 3rd, 4th or 5th grade - aged 8 to 11.
In this quiz you are going to get some practice in using correlative conjunctions, e.g. 'although-yet', 'as-as', 'both-and', 'either-or', 'if-then', 'neither-nor', 'not only-but also', 'whether-or', 'now-then, and 'as-as'.
You may find this quiz a little tricky. A good way to check your answer is to say the sentences out loud with each option in them and see which sounds correct. The correct answer might not leap out at you straight away, but it will help you eliminate some of the wrong ones.
Take your time, read the questions carefully and have a go at this quiz to get up to speed!
Choose the best correlative conjunctions to fill the gaps.
He is ___ honest ___ loyal.
She likes ___ lemonade ___ orange juice.
He is ___ a good pilot, ___ a good engineer.
You can ___ go on the big wheel, ___ you can go on the ghost train.
___ you persist in being rude, ___ you will be punished.
My daughter ____ requires a pencil, _____ some paper to write a letter.
"___ you sow, ___ shall you reap."
Harry wasn't sure ___ to go to university ___ take a gap year.
He is ___ tall ___ his father.
The rain was lashing down, ___ coming down this way, ___ that way: there was nowhere to hide from it.


Today, new discoveries, innovative technology and a new generation of visionary scientists and private sector entrepreneurs are rekindling excitement in space exploration. The cover story, included as the Technology Quarterly inset in the August 2016 issue of The Economist, focuses on “Pioneers, Planets and the Next Space Age: Remaking the Sky” [Volume 420, Number 9004, www.economist.com] and discusses the topic in detail.
This year, science fiction fans celebrated a half-century since the crew of the Starship Enterprise set out on a five-year voyage into the unknown, which grew into a continuing and very sustainable franchise. Star Trek featured futuristic technology, such as handheld wireless communication devices, portable tablet computers, information stored on solid chips, holograms, video conferencing, touch-screen and voice-control interfaces, 3-D printers allowing for on-demand fabrication of many objects, beam weapons, universal translators, and intergalactic understandings. The imagination of science fiction writers, such as the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, who had the vision to imagine a future where technology and science fiction point out directions in which we could go; and when, combined with basic and applied science, provides humanity with the tools to achieve greatness. Many of these science fiction predictions are now reality and all have radically changed our world, making life better for most all of humanity.
Why is space exploration important? Not only is it an important stimulus to innovation; our very survival could depend on it. On 8 September 2016, NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission was launched into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, beginning a journey that will revolutionize our understanding of the solar system [www.asteroidmission.org]. This space probe will rendezvous with a dark, potentially dangerous asteroid called Bennu in August of 2018; spend two years scanning the asteroid, creating a map; briefly land on it, using a robotic arm to obtain a sample of it; and returning the sample back to eart,h arriving in 2023. Bennu is considered to be one of the most dangerous space asteroids we know of because it could one day collide with Earth. Even though the odds are small — about 1 in 2,500 — scientists predict that this asteroid could impact Earth sometime between 2175 and 2199.  It is important to be proactive and get as much warning as possible for this threat and others to be able to launch an effective space mission to deflect an asteroid, avoiding a catastrophic event.
MIT Technology Review profiles “50 Smartest Companies” [119(4):61-93, July/August 2016, www.technologyreview.com].  These companies are considered “smart” because of the way they create new opportunities; combining innovative technology with an effective business model.   In particular they are smart in how they are taking advantage of new digital technologies.
“9 Key Questions about our Future” is the focus of the cover story in the September 2016 issue of Scientific American [315(3):28-85,  www.scientificamerican.com]. Nine authoritative articles discuss how our species is transforming the world and what these changes mean for our future. Focus areas include geology, environment, population, economics, biotechnology, health, robotics space and an essay on “The Great Unknown”.
Leigh Buchanan describes in the September 2016 issue of Inc. [www.inc.com] how the founders of “500 of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies” have not merely survived, but how they have excelled on their journey to success.  Leading the ranking is Loot Crate with a three-year growth rate of 66,788% followed by Paint Nite and CalCom Solar.  Many of the companies are profiled, providing valuable insights into how they achieved success.
Today, many businesses are taking on society’s biggest problems and achieving financial success.  Erika Fry and others in the FORTUNE article   “50 Companies Changing the World: and Making Money Doing it” [174(3):58-78, September 2016, www.fortune.com] profiles fifty companies that do well by doing good globally.
High-energy facilities around the world are assisting researchers in their quest to reveal the inner secrets of materials.  Mitch Jacoby describes how powerful light sources are able to probe a wide range of materials and reveal their secrets in “Synchrotron Science” [Chemical and Engineering News, 94(32):28-33, August 2016, www.cen.acs.org].
Douglas Guth describes how living laboratories provide students with real-world skills while helping institutions meet sustainability goals in “The Living Lab: Merging Environmental Health and Education” [Community College Journal, 87(1):12-17, August/September 2016, www.ccjournal-digital.com] A case study is presented of the Raritan Valley Community Colleges initiative on this important topic.  In particular the article describes the benefits both to the student and to the institution of applying environmental stewardship to their place of learning.
Valuable tips on how to become the “Ultimate Leader” are provided in “25 Skills Every Leader Needs Now” [Canadian Business, 89(9):23-35, August 2016, www.canadianbusiness.com]. Based upon authoritative interviews the strategies described are important lessons not taught in the classroom that will facilitate your personal and career success. A selection of these include: making the tough calls, rallying the troops, cultivating creativity, cultivating a successor, mastering the power lunch and staying cool under pressure.
Terrance Malkinson is a communications specialist, business analyst and futurist. He is an IEEE Senior Life Member and a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the World Future Society. He is currently an international correspondent for IEEE-USA InSight, an associate editor for IEEE Canadian Review, and a member of the editorial advisory board of the IEEE Institute. Additionally, he leads a number of applied research projects. The author is grateful to the staff and resources of the Reg Erhardt library at SAIT Polytechnic and the Haskayne Business Library of the University of Calgary. He can be reached at malkinst@telus.net.


Hydrogen Bonding: What is Hydrogen bonding and its types?
A hydrogen bonding is a special type of dipole-dipole attraction which occurs when a hydrogen atom bonded to a strongly electronegative atom exists in the vicinity of another electronegative atom with a lone pair of electrons. These bonds are generally stronger than ordinary dipole-dipole and dispersion forces, but weaker than true covalent and ionic bonds. Without hydrogen, bonding earth would have no water cycle, no ocean, no floating ice, no life as we know it.
Why is hydrogen bonding important to life?
Why is hydrogen bonding in water important to life?
In order for a hydrogen bond to occur, there must be both a hydrogen donor and an acceptor present. The donor in a hydrogen bond is the atom to which the hydrogen atom participating in the hydrogen bond is covalently bonded, and is usually a strongly electronegative atom such as N, O, or F. The hydrogen acceptor is the neighboring electronegative ion or molecule and must possess a lone-pair electron in order to form a hydrogen bond.
Since the hydrogen donor is strongly electronegative, it pulls the covalently bonded electron pair closer to its nucleus, and away from the hydrogen atom. The hydrogen atom is then left with a partial positive charge, creating a dipole-dipole attraction between the hydrogen atom bonded to the donor, and the lone electron pair on the acceptor.
A hydrogen bond is the electrostatic attraction between two polar groups that occurs when a hydrogen (H) atom covalently bound to a highly electronegative atom such as nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), or fluorine (F) experiences the electrostatic field of another highly electronegative atom nearby.
Hydrogen bonds can occur within one single molecule, between two like molecules, or between two, unlike molecules.
Intramolecular hydrogen bonds are those which occur within one single molecule. This occurs when two functional groups of a molecule can form hydrogen bonds with each other. In order for this to happen, both a hydrogen donor and acceptor must be present within one molecule, and they must be within close proximity of each other in the molecule. For example, intramolecular hydrogen bonding occurs in ethylene glycol (C2H4(OH)2) between its two hydroxyl groups due to the molecular geometry.
Intermolecular hydrogen bonds occur between separate molecules in a substance. They can occur between any number of like or unlike molecules as long as hydrogen donors and acceptors are present an in positions in which they can interact. For example, intermolecular hydrogen bonds can occur between NH3 molecules alone, between H2O molecules alone, or between NH3 and H2O molecules.
When we consider the boiling points of molecules, we usually expect molecules with larger molar masses to have higher normal boiling points than molecules with smaller molar masses. This, without taking hydrogen bonds into account, is due to greater dispersion forces. Larger molecules have more space for electron distribution and thus more possibilities for an instantaneous dipole moment. However, when we consider the table below, we see that this is not always the case.
We see that H2O, HF, and NH3 each have higher boiling points than the same compound formed between hydrogen and the next element moving down its respective group, indicating that the former has greater intermolecular forces. This is because of H2O, HF, and NH3 all exhibit hydrogen bonding, whereas the others do not. Furthermore, H2O has a smaller molar mass than HF but partakes in more hydrogen bonds per molecule, so its boiling point is consequently higher.
The same effect that is seen on boiling point as a result of hydrogen bonding can also be observed in the viscosity of certain substances. Those substances which are capable of forming hydrogen bonds tend to have a higher viscosity than those that do not. Substances which have the possibility for multiple hydrogen bonds exhibit even higher viscosity.
The size of donors and acceptors can also affect the ability to hydrogen bond. This can account for the relatively low ability of Cl to form hydrogen bonds. When the radii of two atoms differ greatly or are large, their nuclei cannot achieve close proximity when they interact, resulting in the weak interaction.
Hydrogen bonding plays a crucial role in many biological processes and can account for many natural phenomena such as the unusual properties of water. In addition to being present in water, hydrogen bonding is also important in the water transport system of plants, secondary and tertiary protein structure, and DNA base pairing.
The cohesion-adhesion theory of transport in vascular plants uses hydrogen bonding to explain many key components of water movement through the plant’s xylem and other vessels. Within a vessel, water molecules hydrogen bond not only to each other but also to the cellulose chain which comprises the wall of plant cells. This creates a sort of capillary tube which allows for capillary action to occur since the vessel is relatively small. This mechanism allows plants to pull water up into their roots. Furthermore, hydrogen bonding can create a long chain of water molecules which can overcome the force of gravity and travel up to the high altitudes of leaves.
Hydrogen bonding is present abundantly in the secondary structure of proteins, and also sparingly in tertiary conformation. The secondary structure of a protein involves interactions (mainly hydrogen bonds) between neighboring polypeptide backbones which contain Nitrogen-Hydrogen bonded pairs and oxygen atoms. Since both N and O are strongly electronegative, the hydrogen atoms bonded to nitrogen in one polypeptide backbone can hydrogen bond to the oxygen atoms in another chain and vice-versa. Though they are relatively weak, these bonds offer great stability to secondary protein structure because they repeat a great number of times.
In tertiary protein structure, interactions are primarily between functional R groups of a polypeptide chain; one such interaction is called a hydrophobic interaction. These interactions occur because of hydrogen bonding between water molecules around the hydrophobic and further reinforce confirmation.
What is Glycolysis? Explain the Phases of Glycose oxidative pathway at cellular levels?
What are the key structures and functions of the Mitochondria?