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A team of EPFL researchers has developed tiny 10-gram robots that are inspired by ants: they can communicate with each other, assign roles among themselves and complete complex tasks together. These reconfigurable robots are simple in structure, yet they can jump and crawl to explore uneven surfaces. The researchers have just published their work in Nature. Individually, ants have only so much strength and intelligence. However, as a colony, they can use complex strategies for achieving sophisticated tasks to survive their larger predators. At EPFL, researchers in NCCR Robotics Professor Jamie Paik’s Laboratory have reproduced this phenomenon, developing tiny robots that display minimal physical intelligence on an individual level but that are able to communicate and act collectively. Despite being simple in design and weighing only 10 grams, each robot has multiple locomotion modes to navigate any type of surface. Collectively, they can quickly detect and overcome obstacles, pass them and move objects much larger and heavier than themselves. The related research has been published in Nature. Robots modeled on trap-jaw ants These three-legged, T-shaped origami robots are called Tribots. They can be assembled in only a few minutes by folding a stack of thin, multi-material sheets, making them suitable for mass production. Completely autonomous and untethered, Tribots are equipped with infrared and proximity sensors for detection and communication purposes. They could accommodate even more sensors depending on the application. “Their movements are modeled on those of Odontomachus ants. These insects normally crawl, but to escape a predator, they snap their powerful jaws together to jump from leaf to leaf”, says Zhenishbek Zhakypov, the first author. The Tribots replicate this catapult mechanism through an elegant origami robot design that combines multiple shape-memory alloy actuators. As a result, a single robot can produce three distinctive locomotive motions – crawling, rolling and jumping both vertically and horizontally – just like these creatively resilient ants. Roles: leader, worker and explorer Despite having the same “anatomy”, each robot is assigned a specific role depending on the situation. ‘Explorers’ detect physical obstacles in their path, such as objects, valleys and mountains. After detecting an obstacle, they inform the rest of the group. Then, the “leader” gives the instructions. The ‘workers’, meanwhile, pool their strength to move objects. “Each Tribot, just like Odontomachus ants, can have different roles. However, they can also take on new roles instantaneously when faced with a new mission or an unknown environment, or even when other members get lost. This goes beyond what the real ants can do” says Paik. Future applications In practical situations, such as in an emergency search mission, Tribots could be deployed en masse. And thanks to their multi-locomotive and multi-agent communication capabilities, they could locate a target quickly over a large surface without relying on GPS or visual feedback. “Since they can be manufactured and deployed in large numbers, having some ‘casualties’ would not affect the success of the mission,” adds Paik. “With their unique collective intelligence, our tiny robots are better equipped to adapt to unknown environments. Therefore, for certain missions, they would outperform larger, more powerful robots.” The development of robots for search-and-rescue applications and the study of collective robotics are key research areas within the NCCR Robotics consortium, of which Jamie Paik’s lab is part. In April, Jamie Paik has presented her reconfigurable robots at the TED2019 Conference in Vancouver. Her talk is available here.
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Bob Thomas
Bob's Columba Walk
Challenge complete
Fundraising for this challenge has ended so we're no longer accepting donations. Thanks to everyone who supported this challenge.
[p][b]Bob's Columba Walk[/b] has been completed! I walked the 75 miles between St Columba Church Fareham and St Columba Church of Scotland in central London to raise money for the Iona Abbey Capital Appeal to improve the inclusive nature of the hospitality offered there. I am a Member of the Iona Community and my walking companion Chris Merrien is an Iona Community Associate. The good people of St Columba Church Fareham gave us a send-off at their morning service on Sunday 3 June and we were welcomed by the lovely folk at St Columba's, London at their St Columba Day service at 11.00 on 10th June. We walked almost exclusively on footpaths, following the Meon Valley Railway Path, the St Swithun's and North Downs Ways, The Wey Navigation and Thames Paths, through Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common, finally crossing Putney Bridge into London. There were significant and stimulating encounters along the way with interesting and generous people as well as opportunities for conversation and reflection. We attended Evensong at Guildford Cathedral and stayed for two nights at St Columba's Retreat House in Woking. [/p][p][b]Some words from the Patron of the Iona Abbey Capital Appeal:[/b][/p][p][i] "As Patron of the Iona Abbey Capital Appeal I am delighted by the Iona Community's campaign to renovate the monastic buildings at the Abbey because I recognise the unique nature of this heritage site which offers hospitality as was originally intended. The distinctive pattern of community life at Iona Abbey is fundamental to the spiritual and economic well-being of the island and the impact reaches far beyond Iona. This initiative will enable the Iona Community to extend an inclusive welcome to people from all walks of life and build on its commitment to issues of poverty, peace and social justice. It deserves our support." [/i][b]HRH The Princess Royal, Patron of the Iona Abbey Capital Appeal.[/b][/p][p]As a Member of the Iona Community I am planning to walk the 75 miles between St Columba Church Fareham and St Columba Church of Scotland in central London. I'll be leaving Fareham after morning service on 3rd June, arriving for the St Columba Day service in London at 11.00 on 10th June. [/p][p][b]The Iona Abbey Capital Appeal[/b][/p][p]The Christian faith was first brought to most parts of what is now Great Britain by an Irish monk called Columcille who established a monastery and centre for mission on the remote island of Iona in the year 563. Now known as St Columba, he and his monks took the Christian message across Scotland, far down into England and across a large swathe of northern Europe. After Columba’s death in 597 Iona remained a centre of mission and became a place of pilgrimage and hospitality. In the 13th century Columba’s wooden buildings were replaced by a stone Abbey which fell into ruins after the Reformation. In 1938 the Rev George MacLeod, First World War army officer turned Church of Scotland minister, took a group of trainee ministers and unemployed craftsmen from Glasgow to Iona to rebuild the Abbey, forming the basis for the Iona Community. Since then thousands of visitors from around the world have experienced Christian hospitality and a time of refreshment in the ‘thin place’ that is Iona.[b] [/b][/p][p]Now in the 21st century the Abbey is in urgent need of updating. Generations have been touched by the varied and vital work of the Iona Community – work we want to ensure continues as reality not history. This is especially true of our presence in the Abbey on Iona. Issues about the building’s accessibility, flexibility and sustainability must be addressed in the next five years if the Abbey is to continue to fulfil its original purpose. In partnership with Historic Environment Scotland, we will ensure that active use of this iconic building is safeguarded for the future.[/p][p]The key areas of work required to welcome people of all physical abilities are:[/p][p]• new level access and doors.[/p][p]• installation of a lift to the first floor accommodation.[/p][p]• reconfiguration of the refectory to create an inviting and accessible communal space.[/p][p]• improved kitchen and servery facilities.[/p][p]• provision of new toilets and showers.[/p][p]• reconfiguration of bedrooms for single or twin occupancy.[/p][p]• enhanced lighting and design in corridors to aid access and mobility.[/p][p]• improved insulation and installation of a new heating system.[/p][p]These improvements will enable the Iona Community to provide facilities which match our hospitality. They will also enable us to extend the guest season, to welcome more people and to improve financial sustainability across the organisation.[/p][p][b] For more detail about the Abbey Capital Appeal go to:[/b][/p][p][b]https://iona.org.uk/capital-appeal-information/[/b][/p]
Share Bob's story
Well done Bob.
Geoffrey from Pilgrim home group
Good luck on your journey
Jean Oliver
Well done Bob!
Kate TUcker
Dear Bob, well done on your walk. Hope you've reached way more than your GBP5,000 total. Best wishes, Kate and Mark Tucker
Rick and Liz
Sorry Bob - we seem to have missed this. Well done on achieving the walk, it must have been tough
Sue and Dave
Gosh - well done!
Deanne and Ian
Helen P
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AHL Morning Skate: 5.21.17
May 21, 2017 jchaimovitch
Take a game-day spin around the AHL ice with latest news and notes from the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs in today’s AHL Morning Skate.
Playoff Brackets | Today’s Scoreboard | League Stats | Series Infographics
Game 2 – 7:05 ET, AHL Live
(SYR leads series, 1-0)
Follow @AHLBruins Follow @SyracuseCrunch Tweet #PROvsSYR
Providence hosts Syracuse in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center tonight… Six different Crunch players scored and 11 skaters recorded a point in Syracuse’s 6-3 win to open the series on Friday night… Yanni Gourde (3-7-10), Gabriel Dumont (4-2-6) and Joel Vermin (5-1-6) all tallied a goal and an assist for the Crunch in Game 1 and Matthew Peca (4-8-12) recorded two assists… Mike McKenna (8-4, 2.62, .902) made 33 saves, his most since stopping 38 shots in Syracuse’s double-overtime win at St. John’s on Apr. 22… Providence cut a 4-1 third-period deficit to 4-3 on Friday thanks to goals 13 seconds apart by rookies Jake DeBrusk (6-3-9) and Danton Heinen (6-7-13)… Zane McIntyre (7-6, 2.25, .915) stopped 19 of 23 shots as the Bruins lost in regulation for just the second time this postseason… Providence, which did not allow a first-period goal over its first nine playoff games, has given up six goals in the opening period of its last four contests… Syracuse is 8-1 this postseason when captain Erik Condra (4-8-12) records a point and 0-3 when he is scoreless.
Eastern Conference Finals – Series “M” (best-of-7)
A4-Providence Bruins vs. N1-Syracuse Crunch
Game 1 – Fri., May 19 – Syracuse 6, PROVIDENCE 3
Game 2 – Sun., May 21 – Syracuse at Providence, 7:05
Game 3 – Wed., May 24 – Providence at Syracuse, 7:00
Game 4 – Fri., May 26 – Providence at Syracuse, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 27 – Providence at Syracuse, 7:00
*Game 6 – Tue., May 30 – Syracuse at Providence, 7:05
*Game 7 – Wed., May 31 – Syracuse at Providence, 7:05
*if necessary… All times Eastern
(GR leads series, 1-0)
Follow @sjbarracuda Follow @griffinshockey Tweet #SJvsGR
San Jose looks to bounce back as it hosts Grand Rapids in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals this evening at SAP Center… The Griffins took Game 1 last night, 3-1, their eighth victory in nine games to start the postseason… Mitch Callahan (4-5-9), Ben Street (3-7-10) and Matthew Ford (5-2-7) scored for Grand Rapids, and Eric Tangradi (1-9-10) chipped in two assists… Kevin Labanc (3-3-6) scored the lone goal for San Jose 10:34 into the game but could not got another one past Jared Coreau (8-1, 2.47, .914), who made 16 of his 26 stops in the final period… Jacob Middleton (0-4-4) helped set up Labanc’s goal, giving him an assist in four straight games… Ryan Carpenter (7-7-14) also drew an assist, his league-leading 14th point of the postseason… Troy Grosenick (7-4, 2.29, .918) made 25 saves for the Barracuda, who lost Game 1 for the second consecutive series… Grand Rapids was 1-for-4 on the power play last night while killing off all six San Jose opportunities… The Griffins have gone on to win 12 consecutive series after winning Game 1.
Western Conference Finals – Series “N” (best-of-7)
P1-San Jose Barracuda vs. C2-Grand Rapids Griffins
Game 1 – Sat., May 20 – Grand Rapids 3, SAN JOSE 1
Game 2 – Sun., May 21 – Grand Rapids at San Jose, 8:00
Game 3 – Wed., May 24 – San Jose at Grand Rapids, 7:00
Game 4 – Fri., May 26 – San Jose at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 5 – Sat., May 27 – San Jose at Grand Rapids, 7:00
*Game 6 – Tue., May 30 – Grand Rapids at San Jose, 10:00
*Game 7 – Wed., May 31 – Grand Rapids at San Jose, 10:00
There have been 16 overtime games played in the 2017 Calder Cup Playoffs so far:
May 14 – Hershey 3, PROVIDENCE 2 (Madison Bowey, 1:58)
May 11 – Hershey 2, PROVIDENCE 1 (Chris Bourque, 7:14)
May 10 – San Jose 4, SAN DIEGO 3 (Timo Meier, 17:40)
May 7 – HERSHEY 3, Providence 2 (Travis Boyd, 5:44)
May 5 – San Diego 3, SAN JOSE 2 (Kevin Roy, 0:38)
*May 2 – SAN JOSE 2, Stockton 1 (Ryan Carpenter, 8:52)
*Apr. 28 – TORONTO 2, Albany 1 (Justin Holl, 46:43)
*Apr. 28 – SYRACUSE 2, St. John’s 1 (Gabriel Dumont, 2:18)
*Apr. 26 – Grand Rapids 3, MILWAUKEE 2 (Kyle Criscuolo, 10:03)
Apr. 26 – TORONTO 3, Albany 2 (Colin Greening, 0:45)
Apr. 26 – Lehigh Valley 2, HERSHEY 1 (Chris Conner, 1:49)
Apr. 23 – Charlotte 4, CHICAGO 3 (Connor Brickley, 9:28)
Apr. 23 – W-B/Scranton 6, PROVIDENCE 5 (Derrick Pouliot, 7:49)
Apr. 22 – Syracuse 4, ST. JOHN’S 3 (Tye McGinn, 30:37)
Apr. 21 – GRAND RAPIDS 4, Milwaukee 3 (Tomas Nosek, 9:32)
Apr. 21 – Hershey 1, LEHIGH VALLEY 0 (Nathan Walker, 7:38)
*clinched series
Alumni Watch
In the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs last night, Pontus Åberg scored the game-winning goal as Nashville defeated Anaheim, 3-1, in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals… It was the first career playoff goal in the NHL for Åberg, who tied for third in the AHL with 31 goals for Milwaukee in 2016-17.
In the semifinals of the 2017 IIHF World Championships yesterday, Calvin Pickard made 26 saves as Canada scored four times in the third period to defeat Russia, 4-2… William Nylander notched a goal and an assist and John Klingberg scored the game-winner as Sweden beat Finland, 4-1.
May 21, 2014 – Wilkes-Barre/Scranton scores five goals in 5:59 early in the second period to take a 5-0 lead, then holds on for a 5-4 victory over Providence in Game 7 of their second-round playoff series.
May 21, 2000 – Terry Virtue, who had won a Calder Cup with Providence a year earlier, gets the overtime winner as Hartford eliminates the Bruins, 3-2, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
May 21, 1986 – The Adirondack Red Wings win their second Calder Cup with a 7-3 victory over Hershey.
AHL Live
Don’t miss a second on the road to the 2017 Calder Cup championship. AHL Live brings AHL action to your desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet all season long with live video webcasts and free highlights of every AHL game… Visit ahllive.com for details.
AHL Morning SkateCalder Cup
Previous PostGriffins open West Finals with 3-1 winNext PostBruins end OT hex, even series with Crunch
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Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden – Review [Lord of the Night]
December 04, 2012 Lord of the Night 1 Comment
Lord of the Night reviews the exemplary start to the Night Lords trilogy, Soul Hunter by Aaron Dembski-Bowden.
“An amazing start to an amazing trilogy, not only because it uses the most underrated group of Space Marines in 40k, but with some of the best characters in Black Library, an epic plot and plenty of grim humour to boot, how could it not be awesome?” – The Founding Fields
Soul Hunter is a special novel to me. It was the first Night Lords novel and the first novel that I ever reviewed, because it was just so awesome that I had to share my thoughts on it. This is a re-review because my review back then could use some retouching and updating.
The Night Lords are a scattered Legion. No-one has truly led them since Konrad Curze allowed himself to die on Tsagualsa 10,000 years ago, now they roam the galaxy bringing terror and death wherever they go. When Talos, the Prophet of the Eighth Legion, suffers a vision of a world named Crythe the 10th company makes for the planet, only to find that the Black Legion are here already. And with them is the Warmaster Abaddon, who has a task for the Sons of Curze. With the Blood Angels charging towards Crythe to end the threat and the Black Legion, always untrustworthy allies, at their back with bolters aimed at them, the Night Lords find themselves trapped and must trust each other in order to escape the deathtrap that is Crythe Primus.
The story that Soul Hunter starts is not only about the Night Lords but about the protagonist most of all. Talos Valcoran. This is his story more than anything else, and it’s a damn good story. Aaron tells a character driven story, one that explores Talos as much as it does his Legion, this book focusing on his status within the Legion and about his beliefs regarding the Imperium, Chaos and the other Legions. But it’s also a story about the Night Lords in the present day, how they are viewed by other Legions, how they view their own brothers and about the general situation that the Legion itself is in, and the 10th company as it becomes involved in the Battle of Crythe. ADB also uses flashbacks to tell the story of the Night Lords after the Heresy, how they survived and what they did, and these parts feature some surprisingly revelations about Konrad Curze and about his Legion as a whole. I also very much enjoyed the links to Simon Spurrier’s Lord of the Night, though you’d have to have read the book to understand them.
One thing that Aaron does well, among many others, is characters, believable yet alien characters. It’s this series’s characters that I feel put him a league above other authors for one key reason, he made Chaos Space Marines sympathetic. And these are not guys who go easy on the murder and mayhem, they are just as evil as the Black Legion or the Word Bearers, but the novel gives us many characters from Talos the Prophet, Cyrion, Uzas, Xarl, and the slaves Septimus and Octavia whose own story is that of a new arrival to servitude to the Legion and it’s through her that we learn about the Night Lords from those who are the closest to them. But the traitor marines are the best part of it, the dark humour of Cyrion makes me laugh whenever he cracks a joke, Uzas whom at first I thought i’d hate but I grew to love as much as the others, Xarl the straight-man whose more dangerous than an entire Tactical squad. But Talos most of all for being one of the most complicated characters that i’ve read, and who is definitely one of my favourite fictional characters overall.
The Night Lords at their finest, in a deep blue colour and covered in lightning.
The battles are done as well as you’d expect ADB to do them, brilliantly. The terror and rapid strike warfare of the Night Lords makes for very interesting reading, whether they are boarding enemy ships, fighting a Warhound Titan on foot, or battling Space Marines in tight corridors, the Night Lords are always a delight to read in battle. Uzas in particular was fun as I couldn’t help but chuckle as he praised Khorne and hacked his way through deck hands or blasted a Titan at near point blank with a bolter, some battle humour is always welcome. But the battles are very well written and coreographed, and it’s a very interesting sign when you find yourself rooting for the traitor marines and not the loyalists, or even just the traitors and hoping that not one loyalist survives.
The pacing is nicely done as well. ADB creates a very dark atmosphere aboard the Covenant of Blood and on Crythe, using the darkest aspects of 40k life for slaves and prisoners to make the locales fit in with the theme and protagonists of the novel. His dark humour keeps the novel from becoming too grimdark, and his addition of an actual use of the Nostraman tongue really lets you get into the novel and feel like you are actually there on board the Covenant with First Claw. And the flashback scenes were a brilliant touch, elaborating on a pivotal moment in 40k that i’m sure many were dying to know more about.
Now for my favourite quote, there is one that cracks me up every time I read it but i’ll go for this one instead just for how awesome it was in the book,
“Even after all this time, you are still a worm.”
The ending is rather surprising and sad, surprising because of it turning to a POV that was completely unexpected and unshadowed by the book, yet it promises so much more to come that you’ll be hard-pressed not to turn to Blood Reaver and start reading right away. And sad because of the fate of one character, without spoilers you don’t see this particular type of character dying in 40k and yet it happens here, a very grimdark moment that gives you a very good image of the harshness of life aboard the Covenant and in the 41st millennium as a whole.
For a brilliant start to what is, in my opinion the best series that Black Library has to offer, characters that are some of my favourite fictional characters of all, and for being the first real book about my favourite Legion and not just one character of it, I give Soul Hunter a score of 9.0/10. Any fan of Chaos Space Marines NEEDS to read this book, as do any other 40k fans and perhaps even just sci-fi fans. This is a series that I believe any sci-fi fan can love and hopefully many will use this series as their first step into the grim darkness of the 41st millennium.
That’s it for this review. Next will be a review for Skulduggery Pleasant: The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy, so until next time,
AVE DOMINUS NOX! IN MIDNIGHT CLAD!
Lord of the Night is one of TFF’s original reviewers. He’s done quite a few for TFF and that number keeps expanding. You’ll enjoy his diverse mix of book reviews. Always a treat.
http://twitter.com/PaperlessRead Ken
I love how ADB stories are focused on characters. The relationship between Talos and the First Claw as well as his relationships with Septimus and Octavia are all superbly written.
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A Rossy vacation: Lulu
A visit to Donald Ross's revitalized Lulu Country Club
by Andy Johnson
Lulu C.C. might be the most fun course in America that anyone can play. The Donald Ross design is filled with quirk, strategic bunkering and interesting green complexes. The design remains mostly untouched from 1918 when Ross redesigned the original nine and built nine new holes, adding it to the lineup of fantastic Philadelphia country clubs.
In the early 2010’s Lulu Country Club was a course heading towards decline. The club faced financial strains from the economic downturn and teetered on the brink of closure. It was a situation that I followed closely thanks to some family history. My uncle was the head pro at Lulu for 19 years in the 80s and 90s. For much of the late 2000s and early 2010s it seemed that Lulu would fade away. Thankfully that all changed when it was purchased in 2015. The new ownership invested in the club’s biggest asset – the golf course. Matt Stout was brought on as Superintendent and focused on improving playing conditions and bringing Lulu back to its earlier self. Thanks to aerials from the Dallin Archives, it’s easy to see what Lulu should be.
Lulu C.C. in 1938 - Photo Credit: Dallin Archives
Today, Lulu is a semi-private facility that allows public play every day. The revenue from the public play helps subsidize improvements. Progress to date has made today’s Lulu a far superior golf course to the one I remember from the early 2000s. The tree removal and greens expansion efforts have brought back more of the Ross charm and enhanced the agronomic conditions. The improvement plan is set to continue at Lulu and their semi-private model is one that more struggling country clubs should mimic.
Lulu today
Like most courses in Philadelphia, Lulu lays on a beautiful property. A road breaks the course into two parts with holes 1-7 playing on half the property and 8-18 on the other. Ross’s design predates by ten years his most famous work in the area – Aronimink – and has a distinctly different character. Lulu’s charm comes from its unique features. The property is littered with hummocks, rock outcroppings and magnificent green complexes.
The par-3 15th
The field of hummocks on the 11th
The approach into the punchbowl 8th
From behind the 13th green
The 8th and 10th greens
The par-3 6th
Lulu is a course that every golfer should see in the Philadelphia area. It won’t grab the headlines of Aronimink, Philadelphia Cricket Club or Merion, but it has terrific architecture and features that you can’t see anywhere else. Lulu is fun golf, the brand that has you cresting every hill in anticipation of what comes next.
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7/17/19 ALL NEWSLETTER ARTICLES
We talkin’ about practice! Not a game, not a game…
A preview of the 2019 Open Championship
Show and Frittelli
Dylan Frittelli does not fear the Deere, Bernd Weisberger has the lowest of many low scores, and... IT'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!
7/13/19 EXTRACURRICULARS
Introducing Sunday Brunch
A new Fried Egg series
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Republicans target regulations in budget ‘vote-o-rama’
By Megan R. Wilson - 03/21/13 10:10 PM EDT
Several GOP amendments to the Democratic budget resolution would place new constraints on federal regulators by requiring them to make a long list of calculations before issuing new rules.
Under current law, only a select few regulations are required to undergo a cost-benefit analysis, but Republicans say that needs to change.
GOP Sens. Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsTrump angry more Republicans haven't defended his tweets: report Republicans scramble to contain Trump fallout The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump digs in ahead of House vote to condemn tweet MORE (Maine), John Barrasso John Anthony BarrassoHouse passes bill to crack down on toxic 'forever chemicals' GOP senator: US should 'reevaluate' long-term relationship with Saudis Meet the key Senate player in GOP fight over Saudi Arabia MORE (Wyo.), James Inhofe James (Jim) Mountain InhofeTrump's pick to lead Pentagon glides through confirmation hearing Trump says US will not sell Turkey F-35s after Russian missile defense system purchase Warren spars with Trump's top Defense nominee over ethics MORE (Okla.) and Roy Blunt Roy Dean BluntSenate passes bill making hacking voting systems a federal crime GOP put on the back foot by Trump's race storm Top Democrat demands answers on election equipment vulnerabilities MORE (Mo.) each introduced an amendment to the budget that would require more cost-benefit analysis from federal regulators.
The Collins amendment, No. 145, would stop agencies from going around the long, wrought regulatory process by publishing informal guidance — a practice used by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Election Committee (FEC).
Often, independent agencies like the SEC and FEC write up specific ways for industry to comply with established rules.
“As a practical matter, [agencies] operate as if they are legally binding,” Collins’s office said of the guidance.
Republicans are also taking aim at rules from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Amendment No. 142 from Barrasso would shift $5 million in budget funds to EPA to help fund the staff and hours needed to conduct cost-benefit analysis for “all pending regulations,” according to the senator’s office.
“EPA has the ability to conduct cost-benefit analysis that considers the impact of regulations on the economy, including ripple effects of indirect job losses,” Barrasso’s office said in a statement.
The agency currently has 26 rules and proposals sitting at the White House for approval, the most of any executive federal agency. Only three of those regulations are considered economically significant, meaning they would have an impact of $100 million or more on the economy.
Inhofe's amendment, No. 174, doubles down on cost-benefit analysis and would make sure agencies include the full costs — “including indirect job losses and the negative health impacts of indirect job losses” — before enacting any new regulations.
Blunt’s amendment, No. 215, says regulators must calculate the costs of rule-making and tailor it specifically to the manufacturing industry.
Opponents say expanded cost-benefit analysis is simply a tactic for slowing down and killing valuable regulations.
“Hard numbers look compelling when you put them up against these very-hard-to-quantity values of dignity and honesty,” said Randy Rabinowitz, the director of regulatory policy at the Center for Effective Government. “It's set up to make these regulations sound inane and wasteful, when there's a great part of society that gets a great deal of dignity out of them.”
The fate of the amendments is uncertain, but the Senate will vote on them — and more than 100 other proposals — before the Senate leaves Washington for its spring recess.
The Democratic budget is not expected to be reconciled with the House resolution, meaning none of the amendments are likely to become law, even if they are approved. Republicans hope to use the amendment process to force Democrats into tough votes.
Tags John Barrasso Susan Collins James Inhofe Roy Blunt
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Home D23 Expo Epcot’s Riviera Hotel, Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction Updates
D23 Expo
X Theme Park News
Epcot’s Riviera Hotel, Disney Skyliner Gondola Construction Updates
WALT DISNEY WORLD (Orlando, Florida) — Construction has already commenced on Disney’s Skyliner aerial gondola system, as well as the Epcot area’s newest Disney Vacation Club resort, the Riviera.
Twitter user @bioreconstruct has done it once again with aerial views of the constructions sites.
Here’s a view of the location for the new Riviera resort near Epcot.
And here you can see the site of a gondola stop in the foreground.
According to @bioreconstruct, the yellow line indicates where one of the gondola lines will be. You can see a clearing in the trees if you look hard enough.
One of the worst kept secrets in the park’s history, the Disney Skyliner gondola system was officially announced during the D23 Expo earlier this month. The new transportation system will connect several Epcot area resorts to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
Disney’s Riviera is a new Disney Vacation Club resort that will connect to the Skyliner system.
There’s been no official opening date for either project.
[Source: Twitter]
Walt Disney World Celebrates Toy Story Land’s First Anniversary
Epcot’s ‘O’ Canada!’ Temporarily Closes in August for Refurbishments
Little Kids Are At Their Most Magical In Walt Disney World
35 to Epcot 35: Day 35 – The Beginning of EPCOT...
T.W. Pratt - August 28, 2017
RUMOR – Walt Disney World Replacing Monorail Fleet?
T.W. Pratt - April 16, 2018
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With the addition of Just Cause 4, Xbox Game Pass continues to be the absolute ‘Dog’s Bollocks’
Adam Llewellyn March 7, 2019 Featured, News, Xbox
Just Cause 4 was added to Xbox Games Pass yesterday. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was added last month. There’s also the small additions of Crackdown 3, Forza Horizon 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, We Happy Few and the Return to Arkham collection. Meh, you say? Well throw in Rocket League, PES 2019, Ark: Survival Evolved, Shadow of Mordor, Doom, ESO, Sunset Overdrive, Ori, Banjo-Kazooie, Ninja Gaiden Black, and Oblivion. Oh and about 100 more titles on top of that. Long story short? Xbox Game Pass is absolutely incredible and Just Cause 4 is the game that truly proves that.
Every Xbox First Party game coming to Game Pass on launch was and still is a big deal. Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 4 go one step further and show true intent from the most important area in the industry: third parties. The lifeblood of any console. Both games were barely three months old when they hit Game Pass. Heavy hitters from legendary publisher Square Enix. You can now get them for less than a tenner (even less with the constant deals) a month on top of everything else. One of these games hitting Game Pass was great. A repeat is a genuine showing of intent. Xbox Game Pass will only continue to grow. That’s good for Xbox, good for developers, good for you and most importantly, great for me.
Tags: just Cause 4, Xbox Game Pass
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Every game available on Xbox Game Pass
September Xbox Game Pass Update Brings Top Titles
Another Day, Another E3 Leak … Just Cause 4 Anyone?
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Education 3 Operations and Facilities 1 Strategy and Planning 1 Other 1 Curriculum 1
Product and Program Management Community Engagement and Outreach Sacramento
Parent Organizer, Sacramento Featured
Title: Parent Organizer, Sacramento Location: Sacramento, CA Overview of Responsibilities The Parent Organizer, Sacramento will play a key role in identifying, training, and developing parents from across the region to be leaders in their communities. These leaders build powerful organizations that successfully protect and expand charter schools so that all children have access to excellent education. The ideal candidate will be a skilled community organizer, with an understanding of education reform and a knack for developing people as leaders in their communities and a comfort with running local and political campaigns. The Parent Organizer, Sacramento will also work closely with the Sacramento Organizing Team to lead and execute local campaigns aligned with the organizational missions of both CCSA (501c3) and CCSA Advocates (501c4). The ideal candidate must possess strong interpersonal skills, hands-on experience developing leadership in others, and be well organized and flexible. A sense of humor, knowledge of the charter school policy and advocacy landscape, and a passion for educational justice make the candidate a good fit for the team and position. Strong project management and written/verbal communication skills are required. Essential Duties Identify, train and develop parents and other community members as leaders in the principles and practices of community organizing in order to build powerful parent-driven teams connected to CCSA Families. Conduct at least 12 one-to-one visits and one house meeting with parents and community members every week, as well as build and manage multiple parent teams in Sacramento. Build multiple parent teams that drive local issue work and develop charter school parents into a powerful voice in their schools, neighborhoods, cities, and statewide. Develop and lead trainings in collaboration with staff to grow parents in their advocacy, organizing, and leadership skills. Train and guide leaders and teams in relationship building, research, and policy development to building political power in Sacramento. Prepare leaders to hold demand meetings, press events, public actions between parents and public officials, including state legislators and local school board members. Mobilize parents to lead or attend large public forums, rallies, and demand actions demonstrating the power of charter school parents and families. Execute electoral campaign operations, including coordinating and turning out volunteers for phone banking and canvassing in conjunction with CCSA Advocates. Work with Director, Parent Organizing, Sacramento to develop, implement, and adjust unified campaign strategies (state, citywide, and local communities). Develop and implement campaign strategies and tactics, with parent voices driving decisions. Manage and maintain a timely and comprehensive database of current and potential parents who can be called on for political action and advocacy. Manage relationships with leaders from multiple sectors, such as principals, teachers, charter school leaders, elected officials and community leaders to support the agenda of CCSA Families. Develop a proficiency in education reform issues, learning best practices in school development, education policy, and the elements of excellent public schools Serve as an active member of the Sacramento Organizing Team and participate in cross-department working groups and committees. Participate in internal, regional and national staff development sessions with organization partners. Complete daily administrative and reporting activities, including timely submission of timesheets, significant daily data entry of field activities, manager reports, and credit card forms. Provide support, as appropriate, to CCSA Advocates - CCSA's tandem 501(c)4 organization - with campaign efforts at the local and state level. Required Capabilities Strong written and oral communication skills Willingness to work flexible hours including occasional weeknights and weekends; ability to travel and work remotely; driver's license and access to a vehicle Experience motivating others to action Experience and willingness to track data daily and use data strategically Ability to build relationships quickly with diverse stakeholders Knowledge of and belief in the essential role of charter schools as a means for improved educational options for students and a lever for broader educational change in California Experience managing multiple, simultaneous work efforts and a strong ability to plan strategically and marshal resources toward the implementation of that plan Ability to take initiative and high levels of ownership for outcomes, and exercise sound judgment in day-to-day decision-making 100% follow-through: No dropped balls policy; stay on top of specific tasks and consistently meet deadlines Spirit of Yes: Embrace the obstacles that will pop up and be creative on how you come up with solutions; embrace the changing landscape and adapt quickly Action-oriented: You must love getting people together to take action; you must be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and know how to motivate others to get out of theirs Understand and appreciate the use of outcomes-based data and information to help drive performance Strong commitment to social and educational justice Strong technology skills with expertise in MS Office Spanish speaking required Preferred Capabilities 3-5 years of professional work experience Bachelor's degree preferred Prior experience in community, labor, or political organizing Campaigning, lobbying, advocacy, public policy, training or relevant experience Comfort with multiple modes of effective communication, including social and on-line media tools How to Apply Please submit a cover letter, resume, and references as one PDF or Word document: Cover Letter answering the following questions: What is it about our mission that resonates with your experience and/or interests? What makes you an exceptional candidate for this position in particular? Where did you learn about this opportunity? Resume References (will only contact after notifying you) Save the document as "your first name and last name" - Parent Organizer, Sacramento, and email it as an attachment to: [email protected] . Do not write anything on the subject line or in the email body . Position will be open until filled. About the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) (501c3) CCSA’s vision is to build great public schools of joy and rigor that prepare all California students for success in college, career, community, and life. We accomplish this through our mission of meeting parent, educator, and community need for great public school options by supporting and advocating for high quality non-profit charter schools and sharing their success throughout California’s public schools. CCSA embraces its history of being an advocacy organization advancing issues of social justice and civil rights. Our members and the teachers and administrators who serve in their schools value diversity in culture, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, and perspective. While we seek to grow a movement that serves all students, all families, and all communities, we work with a special spirit of urgency to provide our most historically underserved and vulnerable students with the high quality public education they deserve. We join in common cause with those fighting both inside and outside of public education for greater equity, opportunity, and access for all. For more information, visit www.ccsa.org . About the California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA Advocates) (501c4) The California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA Advocates) is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to increasing the involvement of the charter school community in the public policy arena, creating a pipeline of charter school supporters and activists, electing public officials who support California charter schools, and growing the political influence of the California charter school movement. The Vision of the California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSAA) is to increase student learning by growing the number of families choosing high quality charter schools so that no child is denied the right to a great public education. The Mission of Advocates is to increase the number of students attending quality charter schools in California as quickly as possible by creating a political environment that is supportive of charter schools. For more information, please visit http://www.ccsaadvocates.org/ . Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment-qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records .
California Charter Schools Association Sacramento, CA, USA Full-time
Impact Manager Featured
Reporting directly to the Senior Impact Director, as a member of the Impact Leadership Team, the Impact Manager (IM) plays a critical role overseeing successful implementation of City Year Sacramento’s school-based service model. In this role, the IM manages a team of up to 16 City Year AmeriCorps members at their designated school, where they spend the majority of the work week. The IM is an effective talent developer who will lead AmeriCorps members to have a successful and rewarding year of service through civic engagement and a citizenship development curriculum. The IM develops and manages partnerships with the school administration and personnel to ensure the necessary conditions and resources are in place for AmeriCorps members to deliver attendance, behavior, and course performance interventions for students throughout the school day. The IM also works with school staff and AmeriCorps members to support after-school programming. This position announcement will remain posted until all positions are filled. The target start date for these open positions is July 1, 2019. People and Partnership Management AmeriCorps Member Management: Ensure the professional accountability of all team members, including Team Leaders (TL), through ongoing one-on-one check-ins and formal performance reviews. Team Leader Management: Effectively manage and leverage Team Leader experience to support service delivery; engage school administrators and partner teachers; coach and provide feedback for TL professional development. School Partner Management: Build strong and sustainable partnerships with all school-based stakeholders; Impact Manager ensures that Whole School Whole Child (WSWC) platforms are understood and implemented; reinforce commitment to shared goals with school leaders and deliver on City Year’s contributions. External Partnership Management: Identify leaders and resources in the community to develop partnerships that support the ability of the team to implement its school-based and community-based service objectives; support City Year Development department in securing and engaging team sponsors AmeriCorps Member Experience Observation and Coaching: Actively support AmeriCorps members in service with regular observation and coaching in English Language Arts & Math; AmeriCorps members are coached and managed to meet performance standards for service excellence and inspirational standards that are expected of all City Year members. Team Development: Ensure team is well-developed, strong, connected to their work, and the organization; Impact Manager is well respected by AmeriCorps members and is an effective leader of the team; IM supports professional development of AmeriCorps members by effectively facilitating content to groups of 8-66 AmeriCorps members. Community Awareness: Engage team in activities and experiences that deepen their understanding of the communities in which they serve; leverage City Year Values and frameworks to help AmeriCorps members develop perspective on their role in the school community; work with team to understand the resources provided by local community organizations that may benefit students and the school community. Program Fidelity Service Model Fidelity: Use Whole School Whole Child model with fidelity to enhance service quality and maximize impact; ensure that service tools are utilized effectively; school site supports a practitioner culture; set and monitor clear, measurable weekly and monthly deliverables for AmeriCorps members to ensure effective planning and execution of service priorities and parent/community engagement events. Results & Outcomes: Ensure effective and timely collection of data through the administration of summative and formative standardized assessments, implementation of quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools, and that evaluation results are used to make service and program improvements. After School Program: City Year team supports high quality, effective, safe, and well-organized after school programs. In collaboration with the contracted after school program provider ensure the successful implementation of the program; routinely monitor all elements of the program for quality and make necessary adjustments. Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree strongly preferred; or equivalent work experience 2-6 years of work experience A least 1 year of management experience with strong track record of results: Setting high expectations and holding self and team accountable for performance goals Developing diverse talent through performance plans, reviews and leadership opportunities Using progress and outcome data to inform team management Ability to meet deadlines , plan ahead, and manage competing priorities in a fast paced and diverse team environment Tenacity and flexibility in the face of challenges; working in high-need environments Experience setting-up structures for effective teams and ability to delegate effectively and appropriately Strong track record in building and maintaining productive relationships with key stakeholders Passion for service and the City Year mission Background in education preferred City Year/AmeriCorps experience is a plus Additional Qualities Needed: In order to succeed in this role, an applicant must have the following competencies: Executes to Results: City Year is a data-informed organization and all staff members are held accountable to performance metrics. These metrics are used to ensure that our organization is achieving transformational results with students. These outcomes are also central to our federal and state grants, as a mechanism for ensuring the effectiveness of City Year’s program. Successful applicants must understand and be able to articulate the importance of utilizing a data-informed approach to provide excellent program services. Desire to Learn: City Year has a unique service model and organizational culture. Successful applicants will have strong experience and a proven track record of success in the above areas, but must also be willing and eager to continue to learn and must be self-aware of their areas for continued professional growth and development. Communication: Ability to translate mission and vision from organization level to AmeriCorps members and talk about complex topics and parse them for specific audiences. Able to communicate effectively, efficiently and with transparency to the right people at the right time to ensure success of our AmeriCorps members in service. Grit and Resilience: As a direct service program, City Year AmeriCorps members and Impact Managers are faced with challenging and emotional circumstances during their in-school service. Impact Managers must be able to lead their teams through these emotional circumstances; they must demonstrate resilience to support AmeriCorps members while also ensuring that the team continues to maintain focus on addressing the needs of our students and communities. Compensation and Benefits Full time employees are entitled to compensation commensurate with experience. Benefits for full time employees include health insurance with Flexible Spending Account, paid vacation, holidays, parental leave, 401K, and more. City Year is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a diverse workforce. Individuals from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply, including persons with disabilities and veterans.
City Year Sacramento, CA, USA Full-time
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Apple Meets Its Worst Nightmare: Federally Appointed Antitrust Lawyer Hell-Bent on Doing His Job
Lynn Stuart Parramore,
(Photo: Daniel Dudek-Corrigan)What is Apple hiding? Monopolistic rip-off tactics, perchance?
As detailed in a recent article in the New York Times, Apple is flipping out over an outside monitor nosing around in its business. The technology giant has spent the last several months pulling out all the stops to keep one Michael R. Bromwich, a Washington lawyer appointed by a federal judge to ensure Apple’s compliance with antitrust laws, from doing his job.
Apple complains that Bromwich is guilty of ghastly intrusion with his impertinent requests for such things as interviews with board members and executives, including CEO Tim Cook. Otherwise known as doing what he is supposed to be doing — finding out if Apple is abiding the law. The Wall Street Journal wailed that the mean, bad Bromwich is so aggressive he would end up wanting to “disinter Steve Jobs” if he is not stopped. (Hmm. Are we quite sure Jobs was not cremated and packed into an Apple-shaped urn?)
In an effort to besmirch Bromwich’s character, Apple has also accused the lawyer, who is charging the company $1,100 an hour for his services, of using the inquiry as a means of making money for himself and his Washington consulting firm. Lawyers making money! Who would have thought? Really, if Apple would like to cut down on Bromwich’s bills, it might consider cooperating with his inquiries instead of stalling and obfuscating. Those invoices do add up, don’t they?
Most absurd, Apple claims that if Bromwich is not stopped, the company will no longer be able to innovate and create new products. What a hoot! If Apple was really eager to innovate and create new products, perhaps it would stop doing stock buybacks to enrich executives and devote some of the Mt. Fuji of cash it is sitting on to R&D.
The judge who appointed the monitor is not amused by Apple’s antics. The NYT reports that at a Jan. 13 hearing in Manhattan, Judge Denise Cote “told Apple and its lawyers to stop wasting time and start cooperating with the monitor.” Apple’s lawyer retorted that the company planned to continue its fight to unseat Bromwich with an appellate court. This is getting quite nasty. The Wall Street Journal huffed that the judge was mean and bad, too. If only these people would go back to doing nothing and leave big business in peace.
So what has Apple’s knickers in such a twist? Why has it become so secretive and combative? Perhaps the company is nervous because it is actually becoming a giant, monopolistic rip-off machine and doesn’t want you to know what kind of tricks it is up to.
When a company manages to get a certain amount of control over a particular market, regulators are supposed to start looking into possible abuse and coercion. That’s just what Bromwich is doing with Apple. If there’s nothing to hide, Apple should have nothing to worry about.
Apple is worried.
Last summer, you may recall, Apple was caught conspiring with five publishers to fix prices for e-books. That’s what triggered Judge Cote to appoint the monitor in October, because price-fixing is, you know, pretty much against the law.
The company has also pissed off consumers by doing stuff like forcing users only to use apps purchased through them or else it’ll shut down their devices. It has even developed special screws so you can’t open your iPhone and other devices, mwa-ha-ha-ha.
Apple has aggressively moved to squash any viable competitor in the high-mobility market, which includes smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Many accuse it of trying to patent everything but the kitchen sink in an effort to make sure nobody else has a shot at competition. Obviously, this is bad for consumers.
Apple has even used its tablet dominance to lock students into using certain textbooks.
Let’s see: Anti-competitive, playing games like price-fixing, acting to limit consumer choice…If it walks like a duck….
Lots of companies have started out making useful things and doing good for society, but ended up becoming monstrously fixated on profits and market share. Apple is starting to look a bit like the Standard Oil of the 21st century. Standard Oil, you may remember from history class, once controlled a 10th of the U.S. oil business in the free-for-all climate of the late 1900s, doing all kinds of shady deals and disposing of competitors. The company faced legal issues in 1890 following passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Ida M. Tarbell of McClure’s Magazine exposed the company’s evildoing, and eventually Standard Oil was broken up into separate state companies.
It’s hard to say how this will all turn out for Apple, but the company has been steadily losing its shine. It dodges taxes with such shenanigans as the notorious “Double Dutch Sandwich,” displays much more interest in playing Wall Street casino games with stock buybacks than developing cool products, and pays many of its workers sqat. Now the feds are dropping the “M” word. 2014 could be a bumpy ride for Tim Cook.
Lynn Stuart Parramore
Lynn Stuart Parramore is an AlterNet contributing editor.
Donate Learn More
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TNW’s Daily Dose: Ouya games console is a Kickstarter hit, Twitter heads to more feature phones, and more
by Martin Bryant — in Daily Dose
The Ouya games console has raised more than $2m in its first 24 hours on Kickstarter, Twitter partners with Mediatek, and Amazon launches its own version of Apple’s Game Center. It’s all in today’s Daily Dose.
You can catch The Daily Dose every Monday through Friday right here on The Next Web. Make sure to hit the subscription button of your choice below to get The Daily Dose as soon as it’s available.
Ouya blasts past $2 million barrier on Kickstarter, calls on backers to suggest new features: Read more
Twitter strikes deal with MediaTek to embed app on millions of feature phones worldwide: Read more
Amazon launches GameCircle for Kindle Fire to rival Apple’s Game Center: Read more
Read next: Spain's Social Point takes on $7.4 million more to help it grow into the Zynga of mobile gaming
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Now that it is officially summer break, This is Statistics is here to make sure you don’t fall victim to summer learning loss with these statistics reads. Here’s our round-up of books to take poolside:
Dear Data
By: Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec
Follow the lives of Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec, two information designers who highlight their daily lives through a set of postcards that contain just as much data as they do emotion. This compilation of mail art and data visualizations just might inspire you to map your own life!
Everydata: The Misinformation Hidden in the Little Data You Consume Every Day
By: Johnson and Gluck
Learn to be a sophisticated consumer of data! Everydata explores “little data” that will help you make smarter decisions in all areas of your life. It is also filled with countless examples of misinterpreted data, for example: pregnant women avoid caffeine because they interpret correlation as causation.
An Accidental Statistician: The Life and Memories of George E. P. Box
By: George E.P. Box
Take a look into the life of world-renowned statistician George E. P. Box. In this autobiography, you’ll learn about the unlikely events that led him to a statistics career and the statistical methods he taught himself.
Numbers Rule Your World: The Hidden Influence of Probabilities and Statistics on Everything You Do
By: Kaiser Fung
In Numbers Rule Your World, you’ll gain insight into the facts and figures that play a large role in your everyday life. With this book you can explore the power of statistical analysis, no training required!
The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes’ Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy
By: Sharon Bertsch McGayne
The Theory That Would Not Die takes a look into the controversial theorem that has a long and convoluted history. From its development in 1740, to understanding why statisticians considered it taboo for 150 years – learn how Bayes’ rule can be found everywhere.
The Tiger That Isn’t: Seeing Through a World of Numbers
By: Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot
Learn the trick to seeing straight through confusing numbers in The Tiger that Isn’t. By the end of this book, you’ll be empowered and fascinated by the bewildering world of numbers.
The Ghost Map
By Steven Johnson
This riveting read presents a multidisciplinary reflection in solving the 1854 cholera outbreak in London. You’ll be presented with history, contagion theory, nature of scientific inquiry and more. Learn just how much this epidemic changed science, cities and the modern world.
Truth or Truthiness: Distinguishing Fact from Fiction by Learning to Think Like a Data Scientist
By Howard Wainer
Ever wonder how you can take all the information you read and figure out fact from fiction? Well, this summer read shows how statistics can help you decipher what’s true, especially in the era of fake news. Be entertained and educated, and learn more about how knowledge of data can challenge authority.
Errors, Blunders, and Lies: How to Tell the Difference (ASA-CRC Series on Statistical Reasoning in Science and Society)
By David S. Salsburg
Science is not always exact. This fact-filled read looks at measurements followed by errors and statistical methods through a historical lens. Learn how oftentimes, “errors and blunders” can lead to useful information and uncover false data.
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Gillibrand Strikes Out At Town Hall
Britain Goes Rude For Trump State Visit
Queen Elizabeth Gives Great Gifts To The Trumps
by Deanna Fisher in People 1 Comment
Remember that Michelle Obama quote, “when they go low, we go high?” Yeah, no one was listening. Least of all some very disgruntled people in Great Britain.
Today kicks off the official state visit by President Trump to Britain, an invitation that was issued at the beginning of the president’s term by now-outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May. The president visited Great Britain last July, but that was classified as a “working visit” (even though the Trumps met with Queen Elizabeth for tea), and did not have all the pomp and circumstance that entails a “state visit.” This visit will also mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day – an important date for both Great Britain and the United States.
Well, some of the British still aren’t happy about having President Trump there. And they’ve decided to be rude about it. So much for British manners.
Remember the Trump “baby blimp?” Well, it’s back, courtesy of a Sky News snarky tweet.
Guess who's back?
Watch full coverage of President Trump's state visit to the UK from Monday on @SkyNews. #TrumpVisit
You can find us on Sky channel 501 or live here https://t.co/mFrfbZynow pic.twitter.com/o68z0wfqtn
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 1, 2019
Wow. Very mature. And the BBC got in on the act, too.
https://twitter.com/JulesSunbeam/status/1135516945598619648
Oh, but there’s more – this time with some obnoxious American help.
A talking, tweeting Trump robot seated on a golden toilet has arrived in the U.K. to form a centerpiece for protests during President Trump’s three-day state visit, according to its creator.”
Don Lessem, an American better-known as the designer of giant animated dinosaurs, said his creation, titled “Dumping Trump,” was ready to be unveiled on Monday, when Trump’s visit begins.”
He would next be headed for an Independence Day event in Washington as he tried to bring the spirit of British satire to the U.S., but that it was fitting that the $25,000 robot receive its first outing in London, as he was inspired by the “baby blimp” that appeared for Trump protests last year. Trump is planning to lead a major gala in Washington on the Fourth of July.”
The blimp is expected to take to the air again if police grant approval on Monday.”
“I am proud of the British that they go out in the streets to insult Trump. We don’t seem to do it. So, I wanted to debut it there in London,” said Lessem.”
His 16-foot creation is a picture of vulgarity. The figure’s pants sit around his ankles, and the trademark red tie hangs into the bowl.”
It arrived at the port of Southampton on Friday after its journey from China.”
Where has Don Lessem been during the Women’s March for the last few years? That event is ALL about protesting Donald Trump. But if this is what you want to blow your money on, Don Lessem, go right ahead. I’m sure the people of Great Britain appreciate the help in protesting Donald Trump.
They seem to not need a fancy animatronic statue to get their point across. They manage to be crude and rude with no extra help at all.
Guess who's been busy today mowing a stiff message for Trump under the Stansted flightpath… Please share and let's see how far we can spread the welcome!#climatechange #Trump #welcometrump pic.twitter.com/crnZo5rnDv
— born_eco (@born_eco) June 2, 2019
Such creativity. So classy. Much wow.
So, in protesting how “mean” and “rude” President Trump is within the perception of the people of Great Britain, certain people have decided to be even ruder and meaner. Well, I’m certain THAT will show Trump what British manners are all about, and teach him how to behave!
Featured image: Trump animatronic (screenshot via Washington Examiner on YouTube)
animatronic baby blimp Donald Trump Great Britain state visit
Written by Deanna Fisher
Slate: Crude and Classless is Now “Revolutionary”
Historian Says Trump Tied for Most Racist President
CaptDMO says:
NWO dupes, and otherwise idle dolesters aside, why do the poofters in GB go to such flamboyant effort to be boorish at Mr. Trump?
“SO much for English manners”? Well, that only applies to the civilized segment, apparently a waning demographic
if the “elected” Mayor, and number of tolerated Shariah courts is any metric, JUST like “certain” segments here in the US.
“Twas ever thus”
It must burn with the heat of a thousand suns to have a French crown, and coat of arms, attached to The Beast
prowling their streets!.
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TV, Views
What I don’t want to see in Gotham
The tv show I’m currently most excited about seeing is Batman prequel, Gotham. The footage, trailers, images, casting and story-ideas I have heard all sound perfect for a show set in and around Gotham City when Bruce Wayne is just a boy and Commissioner Gordon is a rookie detective.
It seems like the show is shaping up to be something quite special but with anything like this, there are going to issues, temptations and mistakes that the creators could very easily make. These are things I do not want to see in the amazing looking show;
Too many hints, nods, winks and easter eggs
Everyone that watches will be familiar with the Batman mythology, origins and general idea of the superhero. There will be die-hard fans (like me) who will watch in excitement and soak in every detail. Unfortunately, this also means that there will be a huge temptation to throw pre-shadowed lines, little hints at what the audience know will be coming and tiny in-jokes to get a knowing, nod of appreciation.
These are fine in small doses but not one an episode and certainly make them clever and purposeful rather than moments like Alfred calling Bruce “a little Joker (“wink wink”, “hint hint”). Used in a clever or funny way, they can be amazing, thrown in at every opportunity, it can become boring and slightly insulting.
If you want an example of how this is done well, see Smallville’s early seasons. An example of how it’s done badly, see Smallville’s later episodes.
Messing with the backstory of characters dramatically
This is a prequel. That means its the origins of the characters we are really familiar with. This means that we will see the developing years of Bruce Wayne, what made Jim Gordon such a decent detective and how crime got so bad in Gotham that a man had to dress up as a Bat to fight it.
Of course there will be villains and characters we know. Edward Nigma (Riddler), Oswald Cobblepot (Penguin) and a young Selina Kyle (Catwoman) have all been announced and featured heavily in the trailers. These make some sense, particularly Catwoman and Penguin, but Edward Nigma wasn’t always a riddling master criminal and it is very tempting to bring events forward to suit the story.
The creators need to trust their characters and stories. Kyle shouldn’t dress as a cat, Nigma shouldn’t refer to himself as Riddler and under no circumstances should Bruce Wayne be anywhere near a bat, cape or mask.
In the same vein, I already have issues with the idea that Kyle and Wayne will know each other as kids or that well-known villains will begin so early. Smallville introduced Lois Lane way before Clark was Superman, don’t make the same mistake.
Rely too much on existing characters
Jada Pinkett-Smith is playing a character known as Fish Mooney and although the surname is familiar to comic fans, this feels like a relatively new character. This is the direction the show should go in. Introducing and relying on every well-known villain Batman has encountered means that the show will lose any originality and tie-itself in continuity knots. One or two a season, alongside the characters already announced, should see the season through, rather than a new recognisable villain every episode.
Also, no other superheroes! This isn’t Arrow!
No Joker
As far as I’m concerned, he doesn’t exist until Batman does. He is the opposite to the hero, the reaction and result of what Batman does. You can’t give him an origin story and if you introduce him, you have to stick with him, messing with the backstory of the character and others – you don’t need him!
Overall, if the series sticks to these solid don’ts, there is hope for it. I loved Smallville, which started strongly and destroyed itself by changing its format and forgetting it was a prequel. Gotham looks better, darker, more realistic and less like a comic-orientated show so as long as it has its own identity, there should be little to worry about.
I can’t wait for this series!
July 6, 2014 BenBatman, Catwoman, Commisioner Gordon, Gotham, Jada Pinkettt-Smith, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Smalllville, TV
One thought on “What I don’t want to see in Gotham”
J.Crowe says:
Well, they’ve already changed Poison Ivy’s backstory it seems: She’s now called “Ivy Pepper” rather than “Pamela Isley”. I for one think that’s fine, as GOTHAM appears to be in it’s own universe (and I hope it stays that way).
Also, I’m indifferent on the whole “no joker” thing. However, I would love to see The Red Hood, done in a similar vein to ARROW’s version of Count Vertigo.
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The Escapist Portal > The Escapist Forums > Featured Content
The Big Picture: Celebritoons
Pages 1 2 3 NEXT
MovieBob
1 POSTED: 30 Jul 2013 12:00
Celebritoons
MovieBob gives us further proof that cartoons are, most definitely, weird.
I'm getting tired of MovieBob going "WTF did I just see?!" while I'm sitting there stone-faced at what he just showed. Granted, Mohammad Ali's face while talking was pretty weird, in an uncanny valley sort of way, but... well, maybe it's because I've been on the Internet AND I've seen what Cartoon Network and especially [adult swim] show on a regular basis, but the stuff he seems to imply are weird and insane, I'm just like "eh".
MovieBob reminds me a lot of Seth MacFarlane when I think about my opinion of him. I find both men to be entertaining as hell until they decide to bring out the soapbox(although Bob is significantly more tolerable than MacFarlane in this field). If I were to give any career advice to Bob, it would be to stick to things like this.
Stabby Joe
While these cartoons in themselves are weird, the fact this was a "thing" at all for a period still baffles me.
That Ali cartoon in particular is just surreal.
I've heard of many of these during an episode of Laser Time podcast ( http://www.lasertimepodcast.com/2012/05/28/laser-time-animated-vanity/ ) and actually seeing them in action here makes it all the more strange...
...I do wonder how the Governater would have turned out in the long run.
Safaia
I think the cartoon element set a level of disbelief that reality TV doesn't have anymore. Broke the 4th wall basically. I personally would take a cartoon over the real thing most of the time.
This opinion has been brought to you by ambien. Good night.
Zarbear
I was waiting for "ProStars" to show up! Saved the best for last. That show was a huge deal to 6-year-old me. Seeing a cartoon version of Wayne Gretzky fighting bad guys was mind-blowing.
bdcjacko
Remember all of these shows. Bob forgot the Rosie O'Dollen show, and I wish I did too.
Also Pro-Star is amazing. Go Royals!
TAdamson
As always when you post this sort of thing, I sit there asking
------Where do you find this stuff?------
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
????...?
DVS BSTrD
Fuck Reality TV, CelebriGAMES are where it's at!
Ickabod
10 POSTED: 30 Jul 2013 12:23
I grew up in the 80's, I still don't see anything wrong with GI Joe or Transformers as being nothing more than commercials for toys. Generally they had the same 5 or 6 characters that they recycled every episode and it was a "treat" to see a different character show up from time to time. But the funny thing, usually I wanted to buy the characters not shown in the cartoon. Except Devastator, come on he was awesome!
Whatever, commercialism done entertainingly is fine with me.
franksands
I would've liked to see more of globetrotters, loved that show. Great episode anyway. In Brazil, we have star sponsored comics until today, usually with soccer celebrities.
DVS BSTrD:
Hear, Hear. I would definitely like more Jack Black games.
No mentioning if "Jackie Chan Adventures"? Now I am disappointed... (probably the only show of this kind that I ever saw, too.)
lazinesslord
I'm surprised you didn't mention "Jackie Chan Adventures." Which, by the way, was awesome! It had some of the coolest action sequences, it made use of Chinese/ other Eastern mythologies and settings, and it had a kid sidekick character that wasn't completely annoying (or at least I didn't think so). Heck, one could make the argument that Jackie Chan's cartoon helped bring about other, similar cartoons like "Avatar: The Last Airbender." So yeah, Jackie Chan+Cartoon=Awesome.
puff ball
how was the Jackie Chan show left out of this. i mean it was at-least half way decent, and far more recent then anything else on the list.
CronoT
I think part of the reason that those celebrities starting getting into cartoons again in the late 80's and 90's is for the very same thing that people accuse Nintendo about incessantly. They knew their current fanbase was either dying off or growing up and leaving them, so they wanted to get a new fanbase growing, quite literally, from the ground up.
John Candy, on the other hand, like Michael Jordan, never really forgot his rots, and seemed to have a genuine passion for helping kids.
Also, just for s***s and giggles, does anyone else know the one-degree of separation between John Candy and the cartoon Pro Stars?
kailus13
Bindal:
I think he was only pointing out the bad ones.
I haven't heard of any of these. Were they not considered good enough for English children or something?
Pro Stars actually seems kinda fun.
JPArbiter
I watched way to much pro Stars as a Kid. I remember Season 1s theme was a rip off of Queens "We Will Rock You."
Bo Jackson... back when the Kansas City Royals were a halfway decent baseball team and perrenial Playoff contenders
Vault Citizen
Granted he might not have heard of it but I'm surprised that Bob didn't mention the Jackie Chan cartoon. For those of who you don't know it starred a guy named Jackie Chan who worked as an archeologist and knew Kung fu. He worked in his uncle's house, looked after his niece and fought both mystical villains and criminal organisations. At the end of each episode Jackie Chan (the real one) would answer a question about himself.
azra_jael
lazinesslord:
Jackie Chan Adventures was one of my favourite cartoons as a kid! I loved the premise of the first two seasons. The comedy was gold to me, and I'm still quoting things Uncle said to this day!
Scarim Coral
Ah I remember fondly of shows like Gravedale High (I was wondering what that show was called until now), Life with Louie and to a certain extent Bobby World (don't really know who that celebrity is but the show was somewhat decent when I was a kid).
Ken_J
I don't think that was out of actual malice. The Jackie Chan adventures is probably out of Bob's time period of knowledge, being an early 2000s series and all. And compared to the rest displayed here it was both fun AND interesting rather than bad and interesting.
ShirowShirow
I liked "Jackie Chan Adventures" (I'm too old to add "When I was a kid" to that) but the first thing that came to mind for me was the Puffy Ami Yumi Show. Apparently Teen Titans was so popular another show got greenlit based on the popularity of its' theme song alone.
Mister K
Hey, hey, hey! Don't add "Life with Louie" to this list. It was quite entertaining.
WhitbyDragon
Does remembering all these make me old? 'cos it feels like it should...
Thanks Bob, great trip down memory lane, when I saw the title I instantly thought of Hammerman, and you delivered. Now can you take the images back out of my head again? I'd repressed those damn hard!
templar1138a
Jackie Chan Adventures was pretty good. It certainly had a much less cheesy premise and DIDN'T have a ridiculous theme song. Plus I'm just a sucker for runic magic in animation.
Hell, I'm thinking of rewatching it at some point. I didn't get to see the rest of the episodes with the various demons.
The problem is that reality TV is not aimed toward kids. I would say most reality Tv shows should not be watched by kids (anyone in fact, by how you choose to spend your time is your problem).
I think gaming killed Tv for kids. You see kids who grew in the 1990's and 2000's were born with gaming and the internet boom. Both forces adopted by younger audience. The internet with more focus on the 2000's demographic. Also this generation is much more cynical than the previous one. Just look at what you listen and idolize. Those shows were about sending a message. Yes they were tawdry, but at least it was something. Now most of big hits in pop culture don't worry to much about upright morals.
Elijah Newton
*chuckle* I'll see your Jack Black-ery and raise you KISS: Psycho Circus: Nightmare Child - a game based on a comic based on a band. Truly, truly, I say to you, this is the turducken of games.
Additional weirdness as the band is made of up comic book exaggerations of its members.
You can add Class of 3000 to the list of recent ones you left out. It was about rapper Andre 3000 from Outkast as a schoolteacher. I never saw it, but it sounded interesting.
And even more recently, you've got Secret Millionaires Club, which is apparently an educational show that teaches about financial responsibility and stars the only real-life rich person that it's OK to cast as a good guy, Warren Buffett. As far as I know, that one's even still on the air. On the Hub, because who else would be crazy enough to air that.
cricket chirps
puff ball:
JACKIE CHAN. Was all I was thinking the whole time. That was easily the one successful celebrity cartoon. It was good! >.< "Ay-yah Jackie!"
Ragsnstitches
It isn't any better bob... it is definitely far worse.
As much as those shows were corporate cash ins, at least that had SOME semblance of creativity (as soulfully dead as they were). Throwing a bunch of mismatched personalities into some mundane and/or surreal context and then hoping something good will happen (and cheap edits if what happens isn't "entertaining" enough) is perhaps the laziest, most creatively bankrupt avenue for mainstream media to take.
At least it's slowly educating people on how easily subverted context can be with modern editing. Heck, even my sister who is far from savvy when it comes to the inner workings of media, is able to tell where stuff is being deliberately edited for drama.
Or am I trying to squeeze some good out of something that is devoid of any?
Souplex
I'm noticing that a lot of these were made by DiC.
In the mid-90s to early-00s DiC were the people who made expendable forgettable crap.
Good to know nothing changes.
ShirowShirow:
Oh yeah, I remember "Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi." It was a pretty good show. It was a decently funny show despite the premise of being about a relatively unknown J-pop band (at least in the US). It was a shame that it got cancelled only after its first season.
ConanThe3rd
Really, the only reason Hammer-Man, ProStars et all even register on my consciousness is the fact that they weren't Sonic The Hedgehog and "the fuck were they doing on Channel 4 at the 7 am time slot devoted to mah sonic stories?"
Zer0Saber
Well, that was pointless...and I'm OK with that.
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X-Men Primer
UXN Forums
Story Title:
Vampire State - prologue
Paul Cornell (writer), Leonard Kirk (penciler), Jay Leisten (inker), Brian Reber (colorist), VC’s Joe Caramagna (letterer), Daniel Ketchum (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (editor), Joe Quesada (editor-in-chief), Dan Buckley (publisher)
Dracula has a meeting on the moon with Dr. Doom, bargaining for a non-aggression pact with Doom and his allies, for when Dracula commences his plan to conquer England. Afterwards, Dracula has his scientists send magical vampire assassins at the various members of MI13. Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom are having a good time in a pub with two backpackers. They share a cab with the two ladies when they are hit by the vampire “bullet.” In Wakanda, the Black Knight and Faiza Hussain are given back the Ebony Blade by Storm. However, on the way back, during which they manage not to discuss their feelings, their plane is fired upon by missiles. Meanwhile, Blade and Spitfire spend an evening at an SAS club and talk. Later, Jaqueline offers herself to Blade, who tells her he wants to wait, because he is still scared of relationships. Later, when Jaqueline is alone, her vampire son Kenneth calls her, pleading to be let in. At the Hussains’ home, Dracula tricks Faiza’s parents into letting them in and then attacks them.
Full Summary:
The moon. An American flag waves in the background as two men of power meet. The Latverian leader Dr. Doom and the vampire prince ,Dracula who currently makes this his home. Arms akimbo, Doom muses that this is really an interest request, calling Dracula Tepes, a non-aggression treaty. What does Doom stand to gain?
Addressing Doom as “your majesty,” Dracula states that now that he has regained his kingdom… he would wish to see Dracula’s people policed, ruled, would he not? Kept away from Latveria’s borders. There is also the matter of Islam. It will close the gap with the West in term of science and super-powered individuals. Latveria stands on that border as did Dracula’s own land. The realm he would crate would do well without it, serve as a bulwark against it.
Doom derogatively orders him to spare him his racism. He finds it ridiculous in human leaders, because it is an assumption. But in an artefact, a mystical viral package such as him, it’s almost funny. Dracula’s probably thinking of attacking him, Doom continues. It is his nature. His armour contains splinters of the “True Cross” and other such defenses. He studied under one of Dracula’s greatest enemies. He always anticipated war between them. Why does he want Britain?
Dracula smirks, showing his fangs. It’s the home of magic. The peasantry have a sensible knowledge of their past. An inclination to follow their betters. And there is the matter of the door opened by Wisdom. If he gains his new kingdom, will Doom then address him by his proper title?
Heh, Doom replies, of course. He’ll be a proper ruler then. He’ll call him the little prince. He is a prince only for his people, Dracula reminds him. The vampire diaspora who will finally have a homeland. The agreement is this: Doom and his “new allies” he has hinted at will allow Dracula Britain. Without interference and he shall be Doom’s ally and resource. He points at Doom threateningly. And Doom will never find out who would win that war.
A more relaxed ambience, the pub “the Torch and Horses” in London’s Soho where Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom are kicking back a few beers with two backpackers they’ve just met. So what does Captain Britain’s agent actually do? one of the two women, Tara, asks Pete. It’s work, work, work, Pete tells her. He’s in charge of Brian’s hair. It must be hard to keep her hair that gorgeous when she’s backpacking, he continues smoothly. Sorry. Shouldn’t have said that. He means, he likes her, He doesn’t mean to be… It’s okay, Tara tells him, thanks.
Between him and her, he confides conspiratorially, he’s thinking about getting out of the business. Too many betrayals and that’s just his own contribution. Does she reckon he could get a railpass and come with her?
Brian and the other backpacker, Liz, watch the spectacle in a mix of amusement and disgust. Is he really his agent? Liz asks. He’s really an agent, Brian amends. Good, because she feared for him, she quips.
Turning more serious, she asks, he said he saw his wife, but she turned out to be a… hallucination? Spot on, he replies. That’s terrible, Liz replies. The things superheroes have to deal with… He’s all right, he tells her. It’s Meggan who’s lost somewhere. All that happened to him was that he was reminded… of everything left unsaid. Everything he wishes he’d have done. He was such a useless husband. If he knew she’d died… he hates to say it even… He could mourn, Liz continues. And she very much doubts he was a useless husband.
Could he give her superpowers? Tara, asks Pete. She’s already there, he assures her. That’s so corny, she knows he can do better, she pouts.
Liz and Brian look embarrassed. They’ll probably call for a taxi soon, Brian sighs. She just hopes it’s not back to the hostel, Liz remarks.
At the S.A.S social club near Hyde Park the solders are cheering “Lady J” on as she empties a huge glass of beer in one go. They carry her to the bar as she asks whose turn it is. Blade, who’s been standing in the corner, lifts her down. The sweetheart of the regiment, he mocks gently. Abso-bloody-lutely she agrees.
Yo mate, one of the men addresses Blade. How about joining in? He doesn’t drink… beer, comes the reply. He doesn’t have to, the soldier rejoins. Not all of them are. Some of them are flying out tomorrow… to sort the messes out Blade’s lot left them with. His lot? Blade asks, arms crossed. Their American friends, the soldier clarifies. Blade snorts amused. The soldier state Blade stands in the corner, arms folded, sunglasses on, not saying a word, ooh, tough guy. All he’s saying… they don’t appreciate the &%%$§ pose.
For a moment, there is silence. Then Blade takes the sunglasses off to reveal unusually pale eyes. With a smile he admits they are right. He guesses he’s been around superheroes too long.
Later… Jaqueline and Blade sit at the counter. He keeps surprising her, she admits. And himself, he states. These last couple of weeks, she and he… he realizes he’s not used to talking gently to someone, just everyday to someone. Somewhere along the line, he got real melodramatic.
Vampirism will do that, she remarks smiling. He was meant to be someone responsible: a businessman, a good dad. Instead, he is a Hammer Horror. Someone with only their punchlines to lean on. Like her.
She turns away embarrassed. She didn’t mean to sound flippant. The help he’s provided her, the progress they’ve made concerning her family… she wouldn’t want to. Hey, he interrupts her. Shut up. He understands. He kisses her.
The royal palace of Wakanda, Queen Ororo, aka the X-Man Storm, sits on her throne, the other throne next to hers empty. Before the throne stands Faiza Hussain, dressed in armour and wearing the Essex coat of arms. Next to her kneels the Black Knight, asking Ororo for an audience. He only seeks what is his. And has come in humility and compassion His sword is at her feet.
Literally, Storm remarks wryly, as she’s sure he knows. She gestures toward a servant who brings the genuine Ebony Blade. Storm explains that her husband was waiting for the Black Knight to approach him for it. He suspected that, if others took it, they would try to save the Black Knight from it and he knows how those who shoulder great responsibilities must make such decisions themselves. She hands him the Blade.
Dane thanks her. May he ask how her husband came to have it? He moans quietly as he touches the blade. Storm explains that the Black Panther took it from the Vatican’s Black Knight who found it in a vampire nest in Iraq that had been flattened by Opus Dei. She knows he will use it well.
Later, on the flight back, there’s silence between Faiza and Dane until he finally breaks it. What? he asks. Is that it then, being his steward? she asks. Is that what it involves? Standing quietly behind him? She means, she was… she is a doctor… And that was Storm! And she didn’t get to say a word.
What did she want to say? Dane mocks. “I’m such a big fan?” H just took on the burden of the Ebony Blade again, if she didn’t notice. Faiza looks away. And he did that really quickly. Like he couldn’t wait. And he’s an injured man…
What? he exclaims. What does she mean “injured?” He’s carting around two evil weapons, she reminds him, the fake one which according to the guys in white coats has a fang inside it… so she’s pretty sure they know what sort of creature swapped those swords and he’s already suffering from some… magical ailment… A heart of stone. Which he still hasn’t told her about. How many curses does he want?
Dane has to laugh at this. Okay, he explains, the heart of stone isn’t exactly a… curse. It’s a… defence. Something an …ex of his…put in place… to help keep him above it all, uninvolved. With anything… or anybody.
She thought it might be something like that, Faiza replies in a small voice. So let’s not keep that steward thing going then, she suggests. She should find another niche somewhere else on the team.
Faiza, the steward becomes the knight, Dane tells her. There’ll be a moment. She’ll see it. Grab it, make it hers. She carries Excalibur. She’s worthy. He’ll knight her now, if she wants. But even better, be a knight at that one great moment, because she knows she’s worthy. Whichever, please stay at his side.
“Git,” she calls him. Stop making her cry. She can’t ask for… she wants to earn… he know she does. She thought being his steward might get in the way. Of stuff. They both look at each other awkwardly, silently.
Back on the moon, Dracula is in a fit of rage after his meeting with Doom and rants. “Baron of Hassan” “Baron of Krozi”… Hah! That man’s “nobility” is no older than he is! One day he will have that peasant as his body servant, he vows. Still, he gave them what he needed. He enters his lab. Vampire scientists are at work with strange tubes, computers and magical tomes. They can begin phase one, he announces. Prepare to launch attack squad. All ceremonial to full speed. All spells to full focus. Control to him in the conference room. And bring him another girl, he shouts.
Lilith says go. Fate says go, come the reports. Mutating the assassins for individual targets. Launch cannon to full magical power. Awaiting the count’s order. Forward! Dracula orders, standing over the corpse of another girl and the magical vampire assassins are sent forth from the missiles.
Dabbing his mouth, Dracula orders to prepare a skylaunch. Have a disciple in the British government invite him to Earth. Make it “Mayhew.” He says the words particularly well. They must watch every detail. He will lead phase two. Food be damned. Von Doom has put him in the mood for some torment.
In a cab, Wisdom is still flirting with Tara. Taking off his sunglasses, he assures her he wants to stop playing games. He wants to have a straightforward encounter. Just for once. She’s in complete agreement, comes the reply. All back to his townhouse? Brian asks. Are the walls soundproofed? Liz sighs. Yeah, from previous experience, comes the reply. And there’s a fine selection of malts. If she’d like to share a nightcap… before enjoying his guestroom, he hurries to add. That moment, their car is hit by one of the assassins.
In the air, the Black Knight shouts a warning before another vampire missile flies right through the plane.
Blade has accompanied Jaqueline to her home. She hesitates. Nervously, she stammers this is one of those things her lot never had to bother with in the old days. If he fancied… Oh, for goodness sake, does she really have to say something about “coffee?”
With a smile, he tells her he would very much like a cup or even two. But… not yet. He is more old-fashioned than she is, she realizes. He shushes her and explains. He just kind of feels it would be him making a commitment. It would be that. He wants it to be that. And that freaks him out. Makes him feel vulnerable. He needs to get used to that. He kisses her hand. When he has, he’ll want the whole damn percolator!
Within her home Jaqueline laughs. Percolator! She’ll perk him later she tells her cat. Suddenly a voice from outside calls mother. She turn around startled to see her dead son Kenneth. Don’t be scared, he tells her, it’s just him, Kenneth. Is she going to let him in?
The Hussain family home, Chelmsford. Dr. Hussain gets up annoyed in the night, having heard a noise. He calls for his wife, Farida, to hit the security button. Is that Faiza? He hears his daughter’s voice calling him, Please let her in? Can she come in?
He disables the security lock, telling her, of course, she can come in. Suddenly, Dracula rises before him, holding his wife whom he has already bitten. Grabbing Hussain’s throat, he laughs that the old enemy is in his hands again at last. Nobody is going to help him. Neither of them can escape. He is here to send a message to MI13. If any of them survive the night. So this is going to take a while. Which will be an absolute pleasure!
Characters Involved:
Black Knight, Blade, Captain Britain, Faiza Hussain, Pete Wisdom, Spitfire (all MI-13)
Storm (X-Man and Queen of Wakanda)
Dr Hussain and Farida Hussain (Faiza’s parents)
SAS soldiers
Kenneth Falsworth / Baron Blood III
Liz, Tara (two backpackers)
Story Notes:
The historical basis for Dracula was Wallachian ruler Vlad III (1431-1476): He also carried the names Tepes (the Impaler) for his favourite execution method and Draculea (son of the dragon), because his father was a member of the Order of the Drago. Due to his bloodthirstiness later legends turned him into a vampire. Marvel’s version of the vampire Dracula has always had him be identical to the historical Vlad.
Doom got back his kingdom thanks to Norman Osborn as told in Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1.
Doom’s allies are the members of the Cabal as shown in Secret Invasion: Dark Reign #1.
When Doom refers to having studied under Dracula’s greatest enemy, he refers to “Cagliostro", as revealed in issue #14.
The historical Dracula spent many years fighting the spread of the Osman Empire. Indeed, as a youth he had been a hostage of the Turks – hence his dislike of Islam shown here.
Hammer Horror refers to Hammer Film Productions, a film production company based in the United Kingdom. First founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic "Hammer Horror" films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s.
Storm is holding the audience because the Black Panther is currently badly injured (as told in Black Panther (5th series) #1.
The Essex coat of arms can be seen here:
http://www.civicheraldry.com/page/6877
The Black Panther got the Ebony Blade in the early issues of the 4th series by a fake Black Knight.
Dracula scoffs about Doom’s “nobility,” probably referring to the fact that he is the son of gipsies.
Kenneth Falsworth and Baron Blood: The Falsworth family ahs long been beset by vampires. The Original Baron Blood was John Falsworth, Spitifre’s uncle. Embittered that his brother Montgomery had inherited the family fortune, shortly before the outbreak of WW I, John travelled to Romania where he sought Dracula. Dracula turned John into a vampire, and then commanded John to wreak havoc on England. John sided with Germany during World War I as an assassin (where he gained the code-name Baron Blood), and fought his brother (secretly Union Jack).
During World War II, John also sided with Germany. He fought the Invaders, crippling his brother, Union Jack I, and wounding Jacqueline Falsworth (who received the blood transfusion by the Human Torch that turned her into Spitfire). He was killed when he was impaled on silver-veined stalagmite, but has been resurrected several times.
Kenneth Crichton was supposed to take on the identity of Union Jack, but refused, stating that his friend Joey Chapman was better suited. Joey agreed and became Union Jack III. Suffering from anemia and feeling estranged from Joey as Union Jack and his recently rejuvenated mother, Lady Jacqueline Crichton, Kenneth became an easy target for Baroness Blood, who turned him into the new Baron Blood as a "cure" for his anemia. The Baroness used Kenneth and several other vampires to obtain the Holy Grail, which gave her immunity to sunlight and the other traditional weaknesses vampires had, but she didn't want to share this power with other vampires and destroyed the Grail. The sun rose and Kenneth and the other vampires all died, despite Union Jack's efforts to save Kenneth.
Issue Information:
This Issue has been reprinted in:
Captain Britain and the MI13 Vol 3: Vampire State
Ruth.
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April 11, 2019 May 4, 2019 unchartedadam
100 years ago Lancaster’s trolleys transported 12 million people annually. Today almost all signs are gone. Join the search for the lost Pequea Trolley
Uncharted Lancaster: Pequea Trolley Adventure
Difficulty: 🤠🤠
Distance: 2.5 miles round trip. More if you do a lot of exploring off the main trail.
What to bring: Appropriate footwear. Phone service is non-existence along much of the trail so preload or save any web pages and/or images you need for finding the treasure cache.
If you are ready to start the Pequea Trolley Adventure, click here. Otherwise, read on for more history about Lancaster’s trolley lines.
Trolley Service in Lancaster County
Trolley service first began in Lancaster in 1874 when the stagecoach ran between the county seat and Millersville was replaced with a horse-drawn streetcar. One of the line’s main purposes was to transport Millersville Normal School (which eventually became Millersville University) students to and from Lancaster City. In fact, special arrangements were made at the start and end of the fall and spring semesters by adding a baggage car so students could transport their luggage.
Conductors wait for passengers at South George and West Frederick streets in Millersville circa 1908.
The Lancaster to Millersville streetcar departed from the Brunswick Hotel, traveled along Manor Street, and eventually ended at the corner South George and West Frederick in Millersville. The trolleys were stored, serviced, and painted a few blocks away at 143 West Frederick Street at the trolley car barn. The building still stands today. The entire Lancaster to Millersville trip took 30 minutes. In 1891 the line was electrified.
Trolleys were stored here at 143 West Frederick Street.
Conestoga Traction Company
By 1899 the Conestoga Traction Company—later called the Conestoga Transportation Company and a predecessor to the Red Rose Transit Authority—was operating trolleys throughout the county. At the height of service in 1913, forty trolleys ran through the city alone as well as serving 12 million passengers annually. By 1917 there were 38 different trolley companies serving southeastern Pennsylvania.
The CTC radiated from Lancaster City with seven main routes using trolleys the size of a city bus to reach surrounding towns and farm villages throughout the County using a hub and spoke approach. During the first decade of the 20th century, the CTC added new lines either by building them or purchasing existing lines from competitors. CTC service from Lancaster reached Columbia on February 1, 1900; Strasburg on December 18, 1901; Adamstown on May 9, 1903; Blue Ball on July 21, 1904; Leaman Place on July 7, 1906; and Elizabethtown on September 5, 1908.
Lines of the Conestoga Traction Company and connections. The Pequea Trolley (not owned by the CTC) is highlighted in yellow.
Ultimately, the CTC ran through Amish farm country east to Coatesville, Strasburg, and Quarryville, south to Pequea, west to Columbia, Marietta, and Elizabethtown, north to Manheim and Lititz, and northeast to Ephrata, Adamstown, and Terre Hill. The rural component of the CTC was mainly a side-of-road trolley system. It provided reliable and relatively fast transportation between many southeastern Pennsylvania farm towns when most people and freight traveled via in horse-drawn buggies and wagons on narrow dusty roads in summer or deeply rutted muddy roads in winter. The CTC even transported farm freight, such as milk and produce, using trolleys called “combines” designed to carry passengers in one section and freight in another.
Rocky Springs Park Trolley Station
One of the most popular destinations on the Lancaster City route was the ride to Rocky Springs Park. In the summer, 20 cars at one time would be assigned to handle the crowds of patrons going to the amusement park located to the city’s south.
This was the trolley that made the last run from Lancaster to Rocky Springs Park.
There even was a special trolley line that ran to Rawlinsville. It operated a mere ten days a year to transport people to the annual Christian themed Rawlinsville camp meetings. There was a trolley junction at Martic Forge where the Rawlinsville line split off. It climbed 552 feet over 1.25 miles as it left the gorges of the Pequea Creek on its way to Rawlinsville.
The stone abutment picture below just outside of the Martic Forge is one of the few remains of the Rawlinsville trolley line.
This stone abutment, located just outside of the Martic Forge, is one of the few remains of the Rawlinsville trolley line.
If a conductor was not careful, the trolley car would easily jump the tracks as it made the steep descent from Mt. Nebo on its way back to the Martic Forge.
Secured by cribbing and cables, L&YF No. 1 is being returned to the tracks at Martic Forge in 1908.
Lancaster & York Furnace Street Railway Company
One of the few trolley lines not owned by the CTC was the Lancaster & York Furnace Street Railway Company. The “Pequea Trolley,” as it was locally known, was promoted by Frederick Shoff as part of his efforts in the early 1900s to commercially develop Pequea as a summer resort. It operated a 12.5-mile trolley line from Millersville to Pequea between December 1903 until closure on October 15, 1930.
The Millersville to Pequea trolley line—highlighted in yellow and red—operated by the Lancaster and York Furnace Street Railway Company from 1903 to 1930.
The L&YF line started opposite the “charming Normal School grounds” at what is now Millersville University. In warm months, students could ride in open cars, taking them to Pequea for boat races and swimming. Fares were only 5 cents in the 1920s, and by the time the trolley service ended in the 1930s, they still were only 15 cents.
The route headed south out of Millersville then turned abruptly east to cross the Conestoga River.
South of Millersville the cars crossed the Conestoga Creek on this bridge.
The piers from the bridge that carried the trolley are still visible today.
Piers that once held a bridge that carried the trolley across the Conestoga River outside of Millersville.
The trolley meanders in a southward direction eventually following Silver Mine Road before crossing over the Pequea Creek on the edge of what is now Silver Mine Park. There is a sign on the trail marking the trolley’s path and the remains of stone abutments from the bridge that once stood there can be seen as well.
Sign marking the path of the Pequea Trolley at Silver Mine Park.
All that remains of the bridge that once carried the trolley across the Pequea Creek. The stone ruins can be since from the paved walking path at Silver Mine Park.
Once over the Pequea Creek, the trolley entered Martic Township. Author Howard Wiegner Kriebel in his 1910 book, Seeing Lancaster County from a Trolley Window, said this:
As the trolley approaches the Enola Low-Grade Line (click here for more information about the Enola Low-Grade Adventure), it begins to follow the winding path of the Pequea Creek all the way to the Susquehanna River. Just before it reaches the Martic Forge, the trolley line passes 150 feet below the Martic Forge Trestle Bridge.
Martic Forge Trestle Bridge
It is here that our Pequea Trolley Adventure begins at the site of the former Martic Forge Hotel that burned down in 2004. In the photo below, March Forge circa 1905 can be seen as cattle graze near the tracks.
Cattle graze contently near the Lancaster & York Furnace tracks at Martic Forge in 1905.
Pequea Gorge
After passing through Martic Forge, the trolley continued its path hugging the banks of the Pequea Creek. The name of the creek is Shawnee for “dust” or “ashes,” referring to a clan that once dwelt at the mouth of the stream.
Trolley tracks along the Pequea Creek.
Trolley tracks, especially in the early 1900s, were very different from the railways in use today. The “casual” nature of this trackwork reportedly caused many attacks of “seasickness” for passengers as the cars swayed back-and-forth. The rocky, hilly nature of the area along the Pequea Gorge area further enhanced the effect.
A Lancaster & York Furnace car hugs the Pequea Creek as it heads towards the Susquehanna River resort town of Pequea in 1910.
The trolley along the creek from a different angle.
It is here that Suzy’s Hole is found. The source of the name has long been a source of conjecture. But old-timers insist the name comes from a woman who drowned there. Furthermore, most people don’t know that Suzy’s Hole is not the narrow rapids but a placid swimming area just upstream.
After passing the rushing water’s of Suzy’s Hole, the creek slows as it approaches what was once the town of Colemanville. The remains of the forge, rolling mill, and dam are still visible today on the other side of the creek. It is here that the trail opens up and the Colemanville Covered Bridge becomes visible. At 170 feet, it is the second longest covered bridge in Lancaster County. At 1.25 miles, the bridge marks the turn around point for the Pequea Trolley Adventure hike but before heading back be sure to admire the engineering of this wooden structure. Click here to learn more about the Colemanville Covered Bridge and its Side Quest.
View of Colemanville from Martic Township side of the Pequea Creek. The Colemanville Covered Bridge, forge, and rolling mill are visible.
Final Destination: Pequea
From the Colemanville Covered Bridge, it’s another two miles to the town of Pequea. If you hike the trail today, you will soon pass through Pequea Creek Campground before the path transitions back to a dirt road. Just before reaching Pequea, the trail becomes the appley named Trolley Road. It is here that you will see homes built directly into the hillside above the creek and perched almost directly above the road. Steps led from the road almost straight up the bluff to the houses there. Some of the older homes are abandoned while others are neat and clearly still in use.
Northbound trolley car loaded with summer passengers in 1907.
Finally, the forested road opens up with a view of the historic Susquehanna and its bleak shores and rocky bed. It was here in the summer resort town of Pequea that the trolley reached its final destination. Visitors spent their time fishing, studying eloquent rock formation, or exploring Cold Cave (see the Wind Cave Adventure for more information) much as they do today. Amazingly, Kriebel’s 1910 description of this part of the trip is still accurate.
End of the Line for the Pequea Trolley
Passenger travel on the Lancaster & York Furnace to Pequea was heavy during the summer months but it wasn’t enough to sustain the line during the offseason. In fact, the operation was never a financial success and on October 15, 1930, Harry Bortzfield ran the last car from Pequea to Millersville. The line was scrapped the following spring. It was around this same time that several other trolley lines around Lancaster County either shuttered their service or were sold.
View of Pequea and Wise Island
Nevertheless, the trip south from Millersville, through the rolling hills to Marticville and along the winding Pequea Creek was probably the most picturesque trolley ride in Lancaster County. The trip was rarely without adventure as cows frequently blocked the track, low voltages required patrons to help push cars up hills, and the swaying of the cars caused motion sickness.
As buses began to replace trolleys here in Lancaster, the Conestoga Traction Company reorganized into the Conestoga Transportation Company to represent the transition of services on December 4, 1931. But the writing was already on the wall. Trolley lines all over the county were discontinuing service in the 1930s. As more people purchased automobiles, fewer used the trolley system.
Workers remove trolley tracks from Lancaster’s Penn Square on July 14, 1947.
By the late 1940s, Lancaster had one remaining trolley line—to Rocky Springs Park—but that too was shuttered on September 21, 1947. While a few trolley cars were donated to museums, most traveled to Rocky Springs where they were, one at a time, flipped off the tracks and burned.
Open car burning along the Rocky Spring line. Note the trucks on the rails, the cars were unfastened and simply rolled down the embankment.
A trolley car on fire at Rocky Springs.
If you want to see one of the old CTC trolley cars visit the Manheim Historical Society. They own a 1926 model. It runs a short one-block route every Sunday from June through September when the station at 210 S. Charlotte St., Manheim, is open.
Uncharted Lancaster: Trolley Trail Adventure
But that’s enough history. When you are ready to start Pequea Trolley Adventure, click here.
Lancaster County Trolley Gallery
Lancaster and York Furnace Street Railway Company schedule for the Millersville to Pequea line.
Conductors wait for passengers at South George and West Frederick streets in Millersville sometime around 1908.
After the CTC ended trolley service, the cars were taken to Rocky Springs, pushed off the track and burned.
Postcard showing Colemanville in the early 1900s.
Southeastern Pennsylvania Trolleys By Kenneth C. Springirth
Seeing Lancaster County from a Trolley Window
The National Geologic Map Database: McCalls Ferry, PA 1912
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 1911 Map
Map of the Public Roads in Lancaster County 1905
Then and Now: When Lancaster abandoned its trolleys
This is the last operating trolley in Lancaster County, and you can ride it
List of covered bridges in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Dams located from historic atlases of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Bureau of Railways Department of Internal Affairs
History of Conestoga Township
The “Saving Of Trolley Car No. 236” Story
Remembering Lancaster County: Stories from Pennsylvania Dutch Country
Lancaster That Was: The old Millersville trolley brought students to school and took them to the ‘big city’ of Lancaster
Garden Spot Trolleys – An Illustrated History of the Electric Street Railway in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Aztec Death Whistle
Colemanville Covered Bridge
Conestoga Township
Death Whistle
Discover Lancaster
Martic Township
Mayan Death Whistle
Pequea Creek
Pequea Trolley
Published by unchartedadam
View all posts by unchartedadam
Previous Lancaster County once boasted nearly 500 of these silent stone sentinels. Today fewer than 20 percent remains. Unlock the mystery of these ancient masonry guardians.
Next Covering a wooden bridge has nothing to do with the horses that use them. Learn why when you visit Lancaster’s second longest.
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Salad, Soups & Noodles
Bento Boxes & Poke Bowls
Lunch Specials (11-3PM)
Teppanyaki & Entrees
Makimono
Recipe: Shabushabu
https://urbanhibachilakenona.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/sound1.mp3
Resto Old town, 44 Canal Center Plaza #200, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
14th, February, 2016
Until recently, Japanese food typically meant sushi, sukiyaki and tempura, but now Japanese gourmet is making a name for itself all around the world! Here, we would like to introduce some delicious Japanese dishes and foods that we recommend you try during your stay in Japan!
Sukiyaki is a dish in which meat and vegetables are stewed in an iron pot. The sauce, known as warishita, is made from soy sauce and sugar. There is a lot of variation in the ingredients and way of eating the dish depending on the region, with some areas mixing beaten egg into the sauce to create a milder flavor. If you are looking to enjoy a lot of great beef, this is the dish for you!
Ramen is a noodle soup dish which has grown to become incredibly popular and is thought of as a byword for Japanese food. Originally, the soup was made from a chicken bones, but in recent years, pork, beef and seafood also being used in the soup, creating a diverse range of tastes. In addition to the typical salt, soy sauce and miso flavors, you can even find curry flavored ramen now. There is also a type of ramen where the noodles and soup are served separately, known as tsukemen.
Tonkatsu is a dish based on western pork cutlets, where a thick slice of pork is dipped in a flour and beaten egg batter, coated in breadcrumbs and fried in oil. There are both sirloin and fillet tonkatsu, with the fillet tonlatsu being more expensive. While quite tasty even at a cheap restaurant, we really recommend trying tonkatsu at a specialist restaurant.
Japanese Soba
A dish of noodles made from soba (buckwheat) flour eaten with a soy sauce and sugar sauce, and toppings such as egg, tempura or other ingredients. The noodles you get from a soba noodle shop will be particularly good, but very expensive, so it might be good to try the soba at a standing restaurant. The different dishes and toppings are usually on display in a showcase outside the restaurant, making it easy to decided what to order.
By Site Admin February 25, 2016 0 Comments
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Preliminary report released for deadly Wood County helicopter crash
Posted: Tue 9:33 AM, Jan 16, 2018 |
Updated: Fri 1:57 PM, Jan 26, 2018
WOOD COUNTY, Ohio (WTVG) - Two people are dead after a helicopter crash in Wood County.
The crash happened just before noon near Bradner Road, just south of the Ohio Turnpike in Genoa.
Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn tells 13abc that the helicopter is affiliated with a utility company. They were out doing survey work on lines in the area. Two people were on board, and both of them died.
The Wood County sheriff's office has identified the pilot as Tyson Snyder, 32, of Wooster, Ohio, and his passenger,Jeffrey Fluharty, 62, of Fairmont, West Virginia.
The company is said to not be based in Toledo, and the two killed were not from northwest Ohio.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are expected on the scene Tuesday morning to being an investigation.
Some people living near Monday’s deadly helicopter crash scene heard the crash, not realizing exactly what they heard until they saw the wreckage.
The sound of a low flying helicopter is something residents living off Pemberville and Bradner roads hear quite often. Monday though they heard a sound they're not familiar with hearing.
"All I heard was a big boom. I thought it was a tire that blew off a truck on the turnpike," said Sandra Minarik who lives near the crash scene.
Unfortunately that's not what Minarik heard after she got a phone call from another neighbor.
"A neighbor called and said a plane had crashed in my woods. And I ran out into the woods and I didn't see anything," said Minarik.
She eventually found the wreckage in another person's yard. Another neighbor says they heard what they now believe was this helicopter while in flight this morning.
"The helicopter going back and forth but it's not unusual out here," said Ken Reeves who lives near the crash site.
Reeves and others say they see if a few times a month, inspecting the power lines.
"You see the helicopter buzzing up and down. They follow the high tension lines as afar as you can see in both directions," said Reeves.
"It's very sad. Very sad. I feel bad for all the families involved," said Minarik.
Minarik flies her own plane in this area. While it's far too early to tell how this crash occurred, she is always cautious around one part of these lines.
"The one thing that scares us is that there are these stabilizing wires along the line and they're very, very difficult to see. When we take off we go left or right to get over them. With these snowy conditions it would be hard to see those lines," said Minarik.
Those neighbors say the helicopters do fly pretty low in this area looking at the lines but they're not sure exactly how low the pilot was flying Monday.
UPDATE: 12:00pm 1/16/18
The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating the helicopter crash. Investigators arrived in Wood County today. They will spend hours processing the scene, and looking at the helicopter before it is shipped to a facility in Tennessee for further examination.
The lead safety investigator tells 13abc they will not speculate on any cause of the crash at this time. They will research the pilot's history, his flight experience and any medical records to check for potential health problems.
They will also search for the "black box" recorders and process those for any pictures or last words that could explain what happened.
At the time of the crash it was snowing and visibility was between 1-1.5 miles in the area where the helicopter was flying. The NTSB says they work with meteorologists in Washington, D.C. to evaluate conditions and if they played a role.
The lead safety investigator on scene says the helicopter appears to have landed on it's belly. According to the NTSB, the rotors have minor damage indicating there was little power and rotation when it hit the ground.
A preliminary report on the crash will be available within 5 days. The full investigation is expected to take a year.
NTSB has released the preliminary report for the deadly helicopter crash. At this time, no cause has been determined. We will continue to update this story when the final report is released.
The full preliminary report is attached here.
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Yangtze porpoise nears extinction; protections rubber support braceletsurged
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A Yangtze finless porpoise is seen in Poyang Lake in January. [Photo/Xinhua]
The Yangtze finless porpoise remains in extreme danger of extinction despite intensified efforts in recent years to protect the rare species, which is endemic to China"s longest river, according to the most recent national survey.
The total number of the finless porpoises is estimated at 1,012 - with 445 in the main channel of the Yangtze River, and 567 in Dongting and Poyang lakes, two large freshwater lakes linked to the river, Yu Kangzhen, vice-minister of agriculture and rural affairs, said at a news conference on Tuesday.
The animals numbered just 1,045 in 2012, he said. It is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The survey was carried out by the ministry between Nov 10 and Dec 31. Researchers assessed the porpoises" population and distribution, Yu said, noting that there had been a 10 percent decline of the animals in the Yangtze, compared with a previous survey by the ministry in 2012, while the number of the porpoises in the two lakes increased.
"The rapid decline in the number of Yangtze finless porpoises has eased over the past few years," he said. "But they are still in extreme danger of extinction and face severe challenges."
The number of the species dropped by more than half between 2006 and 2012, but the decline slowed noticeably between 2012 and last year, Yu said.
"Human activity is still the major threat - water pollution, construction and overfishing," he said. "These have shrunk the porpoise habitat and can cause accidental deaths. In the first half of the year alone, more than 10 of the dolphins died because of human activity."
The ministry has taken steps in recent years to improve the reproduction of the species outside its habitat, including setting up eight nature reserves for the species along the Yangtze River and Dongting and Poyang lakes, he said.
Ma Yi, the ministry"s chief fishing supervisor for the Yangtze, said the ministry is working with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration on a proposal to the State Council, China"s Cabinet, to upgrade the species to a Category 1 animal for national protection. The porpoise is currently on the Category 2 list.
Yu said more efforts are needed to protect the porpoises from extinction, adding that the ministry has made special plans to intensify protection, including protection of its habitat, guiding more animals to reserve zones and promoting research in artificial reproduction.
The Chinese baiji dolphin, another major mammal once common in the Yangtze, was declared functionally extinct in 2007. It has not been seen since. Many experts have argued for stricter protection of the Yangtze river porpoise so it will not go down the same path.
China further regulates militapersonalized rubber wristbandsry expenditure
Abbot of Longquan Temple under probebrain twitch for sexual harassment
Powered by rubber support bracelets.
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WNBAlien
Women's Pro Basketball coverage that's out of this world
The Daily W, 05/30/2014
May30 by richardbcohen
Connecticut Sun 65 @ Indiana Fever 79
Lineups: Same fives again for both teams – so Tamika Catchings continues to sit out due to her sore back. Connecticut center Kelley Cain is also out at the moment due to a foot injury, but on the scale of importance to her team, Cain’s at almost the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Catchings.
Story of the Game: Perhaps the most important piece of information to offer from this game is that if you missed it, don’t bother hitting the archives to catch up. It wasn’t pretty, and unless you’re a diehard Fever fan, you won’t get much out of it. Connecticut got off to the better start, although partly by accident. An early knee to the thigh sent Kelsey Griffin to the bench, bringing center Kelsey Bone into the game. That slid Chiney Ogwumike over to power forward, forcing fellow rookie Natasha Howard to guard her, while Erlana Larkins took Bone. Howard couldn’t handle Ogwumike, who had the perfect opportunity to establish herself in the paint early on and dominate. Griffin came back in pretty quickly, but Connecticut led by as many as seven points in the first quarter.
At the other end of the floor, we were seeing far too much of The Marissa Coleman Show. It’s a little bit ‘chicken and egg’, but Indiana’s offense has a tendency to bog down, which led to Coleman trying to make something happen on her own, which rarely ends well. The ‘egg’ perspective is that Coleman tends to ball-stop, leading to the offense bogging down, and then she’s forced to shoot or create. They’ve asked her to do too much in some of these early games, and she’s a much more effective player as a complementary piece whose primary job is to hit open threes. Despite being a new player who’s never been on the same team as Catchings before, Coleman’s effectiveness has perhaps taken the biggest hit from the absence of Indiana’s superstar.
Connecticut’s offense started to fall apart as soon as Ogwumike took her first rest late in the first quarter. Once she was removed as a post-up target or an offensive rebounder who could salvage teammates’ bricks, the cracks started to show. The Sun don’t have a lot of movement, they’re not well-organised or well-coached, and their offensive play devolved into turnovers and bad one-on-one attempts. Indiana weren’t great either, but their ball movement improved a little, they started to hit some shots – from better looks, due to the ball movement – and crept into the lead late in the first half. Howard’s minutes were limited after that rough early stretch because the Fever found some success using Karima Christmas as an undersized power forward. Christmas is more of a small forward, but her energy, effort, and smarts can work sometimes even when forced to defend posts. Ogwumike helped by missing some looks you’d expect her to convert, but Christmas did the job her team needed.
The third quarter was painful to watch, as an endless stream of fouls and free throws dominated the action. Indiana were up by 15 midway through the period, as Anne Donovan threw out every option on her bench in an effort to find something that would work – including Kelly Faris, who’s barely seen the floor so far this season. Connecticut fell into an 11-0 run more through Indiana mistakes than their own efforts, but between Ogwumike and Alex Bentley the Sun briefly made it look like a contest again.
The Fever stopped that Connecticut run by getting out in transition, which is vital for them. Their halfcourt sets have always had a tendency to drag them down into static, immobile basketball, so quick offense is invariably their best way to avoid that. Once the transition chances get them moving, the halfcourt possessions that follow tend to have more speed and aggression behind them as well. In this game, once they found their rhythm again behind Briann January and Shavonte Zellous late in the third, they reestablished their lead before pulling away in the fourth quarter. Connecticut never looked like being able to put together a concerted push to turn the game around in the closing stages.
Key Players: The Fever gave up a ridiculous 21 offensive rebounds, without which the game wouldn’t even have been close, but the partnership of Christmas and Erlana Larkins in the post still did an important job in keeping Connecticut in check in the second half. The Sun helped out by being unable to create any decent passing lanes to feed Ogwumike, and occasionally just forgetting she was there, but Indiana did what they needed to do.
On the offensive end, January continues to shoot well from outside when they move the ball well enough to create good looks for her. Zellous also produced easily her best stretch of the 2014 season in the second half, hitting from outside and then attacking off the dribble. They desperately need that kind of production from her if Catchings’s return remains a way off.
Ogwumike was once again virtually the only bright spot for the Sun, finishing the game 8-17 for 18 points and 15 boards (8 of those offensive). Bentley had a couple of moments as well, but the team shot poorly, and don’t look like they know what they should be doing. Donovan continues to cycle between her three point guard options, without looking convinced by any of them. Allison Hightower can initiate the offense, but doesn’t really create for her teammates – and when she’s shooting as poorly as she was last night, becomes a difficult player to keep on the floor. Bentley can create, and likes to shoot as well, but is a little wild and still prone to youthful mistakes. And the forgotten woman on this roster, Renee Montgomery, apparently has a near-permanent seat in Donovan’s doghouse. She’ll attack a defense, but apparently Donovan isn’t convinced that she can help this team. All three have been valuable rotation players on good teams before, but in this disorganised mess they’re just floating in and out virtually at random, hoping something works on a given night. It’s not much of a plan.
Kelsey Bone has also completely disappeared, after a decent rookie year in New York and a strong offseason in Turkey. Donovan doesn’t seem to know what to do with her, despite the huge physical advantages that an Ogwumike/Bone frontcourt should have over a lot of WNBA teams. The scrappy energy game of Kelsey Griffin is apparently more to Donovan’s liking.
It’s a young team, still finding its feet, yadda yadda yadda. How long do they get to trot out those excuses? I felt they should’ve switched to a new head coach to lead the development of their rebuilt roster, and nothing they’ve done early in the season has changed my mind.
New York @ Washington, 7pm ET. This weekend is something of a test case for the Liberty, even this early in the season. They beat the Storm during the week, but looked pretty unimpressive while doing it. Now they’re on a back-to-back against two Eastern Conference rivals, both of which work hard but don’t have the superstar talent that New York boast. They’re in Indiana on Saturday, but it’s Washington first, where they’ll be hoping Cappie Pondexter and Tina Charles combine to shoot better than the 9-28 from Tuesday. The Mystics already look like they’re going to be similar to last year – a tough team that you can’t take lightly, who’ll scrap their way to a decent number of wins without blowing anyone away.
Seattle @ Atlanta, 7.30pm ET. Seattle have had huge problems against Atlanta in recent years, largely because they just couldn’t keep up with them. Even if Camille Little and Crystal Langhorne manage to overcome the extra size and length of Erika de Souza and Sancho Lyttle in the paint, the Dream may well just run by them on the break. The key element to watch is Seattle’s turnovers. If they cough it up as much as they have been this season – and as much as they usually do against the Dream – they’ll struggle to stay in this game.
San Antonio @ Minnesota, 8pm ET. This one will be interesting because Minnesota’s early-season weaknesses don’t necessarily match up with San Antonio’s strengths. The Lynx have struggled with their help defense in the paint early in the season, and left driving lanes to the basket far too open. But San Antonio are more fond of jump shots than drives, and might not fully exploit that. At the other end, the Lynx have stayed perfect largely through the ridiculous offensive skills of Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus, and there’s little reason to believe that the Stars can slow those two down. Danielle Robinson and Kayla McBride will presumably start as the defenders on those two, while Becky Hammon tries to survive on Lindsay Whalen. All three of those look like dangerous mismatches for San Antonio whenever Minnesota has the ball.
Connecticut @ Chicago, 8.30pm ET. You can read the review of yesterday’s game above to see what I think of the current state of the Sun. Travelling to Chicago on the second half of a back-to-back isn’t going to make things any easier. Kelsey Griffin and Alyssa Thomas give Elena Delle Donne two players she can guard without expending too much energy, so she should be able to concentrate on the offensive end without too much trouble. If she can stay out of foul trouble this time, it’ll be interesting to see how successful Thomas is at defending Delle Donne on the other end. Hopefully this game will also mark the return of Sky shooting guard Epiphanny Prince, after she returned from her absence for personal reasons but sat out last weekend’s games in street clothes. The Sky have done an excellent job of surviving without her and Sylvia Fowles, but they’ll want to work Prince back in as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Tulsa @ Phoenix, 10pm ET. The nightcap could be a shootout, with Phoenix looking to bounce back from their home loss to San Antonio last Friday, and Tulsa still searching for their first win of the season. The Diggins-Sims backcourt is still settling in but looking offensively dangerous, and could give Phoenix some problems both off the dribble and from outside. However, Tulsa’s own defensive issues are likely to be shown up by the size and mobility of Candice Dupree and Brittney Griner inside. Of course, if Tulsa’s games so far are any guide, it’ll be a tight game that the Shock find a way to lose in the closing seconds.
This entry was posted in WNBA Today and tagged Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, wnba, WNBA Today.
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2 comments on “The Daily W, 05/30/2014”
If the Storm can somehow find a way to trade for Bone, i would be sooo happy. Agler can get so much more out of her then she has been showing in Con. But our only trade piece is Stricklen and they dont need her
You called the turnover/run out problem. Storm give up a lead in the 3rd despite strong play from Langhorne simply through turnovers and failure to keep up. It is really scary how that happens at every level of basketball. Fast teams that create turnovers can always win a lot of regular season games.
Contact: richardcohen123@yahoo.co.uk
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England: Man Grows Breasts After Drinking Too Much Soy Milk
TOPICS:EnglandhealthSoy milk
London | Sydney Wellington, a 54-year-old British man is suing a local soy milk company after he noticed dramatic changes in his body from consuming the product for the past months.
The man that was recently diagnosed lactose intolerant claims he switched to soy milk because his doctor told him soy milk would be a good alternative.
“At first all was well, but after a few months, I noticed my breast were growing and my nipples started pointing out, like those of a pubescent girl,” he told reporters.
“My sexual desire disappeared,” he says. “My penis—I won’t say it atrophied, but it was so flaccid that it looked very small in comparison with the way it used to be. Even my emotions changed.”
“I’d break out and cry at a sad movie, that kind of thing. It just wasn’t like me” he admits, visibly shaken.
Mr. Wellington’s doctor claims his patient’s estrogen levels were eight times higher than the normal limits for men, higher even than the levels typically seen in healthy women
High estrogen levels
Although soy products do not contain any estrogen, the primary female sex hormone, they do produce plant-based estrogens also known as phytoestrogens.
“It seems my patient developed a severe form of gynecomastia which is a non-cancerous increase in the size of male breast tissue,” explains his physician, Dr. Allan Greenwall.
“His diet high in phytoestrogens would also explain his extreme mood swings, irritability, decrease of libido and lack of rationality, all symptoms similar to women suffering from PMS” he adds.
“Crying for no reason”
Sydney Wellington claims the mood swings immediately ended after he stopped consuming soy products over two weeks ago.
“I would wake up in the middle of the night and start crying for no reason, it was pretty harsh on my spouse who had no idea what was going on with me,” he recalls.
“My libido completely dropped, every time my spouse was aroused, I told her I had a headache or that I wasn’t in the mood. She once even thought I had turned gay,” he told local reporters, visibly glad these events were now far behind.
“If that is what it is like to be a woman, then being a woman is a man’s worst nightmare” he adds, laughingly.
A similar case occurred in Belgium in 2013 when a transgender man who had been a vegetarian for over 20 years discovered he was not a woman after ending his soy-based diet for medical reasons.
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Monsanto Creates First Genetically Modified Strain of Marijuana
5 Comments on "England: Man Grows Breasts After Drinking Too Much Soy Milk"
Tony Mangelli | October 11, 2018 at 6:25 am | Reply
Wow, now that’s astonishing! And all this time I thought drinking soy milk just turned you into a huge pussy.
Ljb | October 4, 2018 at 4:07 pm | Reply
Hmmm does soy milk also give saggy arm skin or has he actually just lost weight !!!!
Lee | October 4, 2018 at 9:17 am | Reply
Nice tits fatty 😂
jason | December 23, 2017 at 7:44 pm | Reply
i have tits but you don’t see me suing anyone. He should be suing mcdonalds.
Grontmoot | July 15, 2017 at 4:07 pm | Reply
What’s with all the loose skin? Is that a part of what soy milk does?
That’s weird and scary!
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29 Nov Counseling begins at WFS
Westview Family Services has begun its intended work. Counseling rooms have been constructed and furnished at its Oklahoma City office. Ron Bruner, executive director of Westview Boys’ Home, has announced that Westview team members have begun their counseling and family coaching work there. Westview Family Services is an operating division of Westview Boys’ Home.
Chase Thompson, LPC, has begun seeing the families of young men who currently live at Westview Boys’ Home. He has also seen other families to provide counseling and visited with other families to help them make good decisions about whether to place their sons in a residential setting.
Josh Birney, Westview’s manager of social services, has also begun to use the Oklahoma facility to interview families seeking to place their young men at Westview Boys’ Home.
Chase Thompson, Josh Birney, Westview Family Services
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African Barred Owlet Glaucidium capense. Lion and Elephant Motel, near the South Africa border, Zimbabwe
John Caddick, November 2012
Zimbabwe has a confirmed bird list of over 660 species and new vagrants continue to be spotted. It is unlikely that any new species resident in the country will be found unless they are created by splitting present species. The best birding areas have been well covered. Although there are no endemic species in Zimbabwe, some are restricted to the forests of the Eastern Highlands and western Mozambique e.g. Chirinda Apalis Apalis chirindensis and Swynnerton's Robin Swynnertonia swynnertoni.
There are many areas of interest for the visiting birder: the Eastern Highlands and the associated Haroni-Rusito and Honde Valleys; the Brachystegia woodlands of the plateau; the Chizarira Fault Block; the Save River basin; Hwange and the Kalahari Sandveld; the Granite domes of Matobos and the Zambezi River. The last is best divided into three sections (a) above the Victoria Falls (b) Kariba Basin and (c) the lower valley including Mana Pools.
The successful African Bird Club tour to Zimbabwe in 2012 found that there were no problems with fuel supplies and that the parts of the country visited, the south and eastern highlands were safe. The move to $US as the curency appears to have stabilised prices and shops had plentiful supplies of goods.
The purpose of this document is to provide a summary of Zimbabwe and its birds for birders interested in the country and potentially planning a visit. The information has been put together from a number of sources by Peter Ginn and it is intended to add new information as it becomes available. It is not exhaustive as this would require much recent information not currently available to the author. As such, readers are welcome to submit contributions by e-mail to info@africanbirdclub.org.
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Apr 1, 1999 Issue
Tips from Other Journals
Challenges in Diagnosing the Cause of Breast Pain
Am Fam Physician. 1999 Apr 1;59(7):1944-1951.
Breast pain (mastodynia) can be a difficult condition to manage, and the cause of the pain often remains undiagnosed. Mammography or biopsy (or both) may be used to evaluate the painful area, but the contribution of these investigations is unclear. Duijm and colleagues studied women referred to a Dutch teaching hospital for investigation of breast pain to establish the usefulness of mammography and biopsy in the assessment of breast pain.
A total of 987 women were referred for evaluation of breast pain of unknown etiology. Patients with palpable masses or a history of breast cancer or breast augmentation were excluded from the study. All patients were examined by a radiologist and underwent mammography. Additional views were performed as indicated. Ultrasonography was performed if the mammogram was inconclusive, if breast tissue was dense or if pain was localized to one quadrant in a patient younger than 25 years.
Two years after the initial studies, the study subjects' physicians were asked to complete a questionnaire providing follow-up information on the patients. The researchers also monitored all breast pathology specimens in the region as well as in the national cancer registry to detect any breast cancer or other breast pathology developing in study patients.
The average age of the study subjects was 50.4 years. Unilateral pain was reported by 76 percent of the women, and bilateral pain was reported by 24 percent. Mammography was normal in 86.5 percent of the study subjects and revealed benign abnormalities in 8.6 percent. Only four malignant lesions were detected by initial mammography. Four additional cancers were confirmed by further investigation of mammographically suspicious lesions. At two-year follow-up, the family physicians reported that 948 women were free of breast cancer. Two women developed breast cancer during the follow-up period, three died of unrelated causes and five women could not be traced.
The authors conclude that breast imaging is not useful in diagnosing the etiology of breast pain but may provide reassurance. Radiologic abnormalities are found in few patients with breast pain, and those nonpalpable lesions that are detected are predominantly not clinically significant.
ANNE D. WALLING, M.D.
Duijm LE, et al. Value of breast imaging in women with painful breasts: observational follow-up study. BMJ. December 1998;317:1492–5.
Home / Journals / afp / Vol. 59/No. 7(April 1, 1999) / Challenges in Diagnosing the Cause of Breast Pain
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2015 Congress of Delegates
Family Physicians Passionately Debate Education, Training Issues
October 05, 2015 11:05 am Sheri Porter Denver –
During the AAFP's 2015 Congress of Delegates, family physicians gathered here for several days of impassioned discourse and brainstorming to tackle tough issues and consider ways to improve their training, their practices, and the lives of their patients.
Kansas alternate delegate Jennifer Bacani McKenney, M.D., of Fredonia, elicits laughter during a Sept. 28 reference committee hearing when she says the collective age of her two practice partners (one of whom is her father) is 144 years. She's been trying to recruit another physician to her town of 2,500 people for the past six years.
During the Sept. 28 Reference Committee on Education hearing, the plight of rural and underserved communities that desperately need to recruit family physicians was highlighted by a steady stream of FPs eager to provide input on a resolution offered by the Washington AFP.
The resolution, titled "Medical Education Support for Practice in Rural and Underserved Areas," asked the AAFP for help in preparing medical students for rural practice and increasing the likelihood that students ultimately would choose to practice rural family medicine.
Several physicians spoke to the challenges of recruiting and keeping physicians in their small towns.
"I come from a community of 6,000 -- 30,000 for the county. Probably some of the people living in the big cities have more people living on their block than I have in my county," observed Wayne Strouse, M.D., of Newfield, N.Y.
He added, "We had nine family physicians when I first arrived 15 years ago; we now have five. I wonder how many people would do well if 40 percent of their workforce suddenly left?"
During the 2015 Congress of Delegates in Denver last week, the Reference Committee on Education dealt with numerous issues, including the shortage of rural family physicians and the increasing predominance of human trafficking.
The Congress adopted a number of measures and referred others to the AAFP Board of Directors for further investigation, including a resolution that directed the AAFP to develop educational materials on buprenorphine.
Other issues delegates tackled included transparency in medical education and access to training in settings affiliated with a religious health care organization, as well as simplification of maintenance of certification requirements.
Iowa delegate Mary Barinaga, M.D., of Boise, echoed that sentiment. "We're very rural and in desperate need of doctors, so we're very much in favor of this," she said.
Resident physician constituency alternate delegate Alex McDonald, M.D., of Fontana, Calif., drew a round of applause after telling his colleagues how he came to appreciate family medicine.
"I was going to be a pediatrician for the first three and a half years of medical school. And then I saw the light," said McDonald. "One of the big reasons for that was I was forced to go to Holton, Maine. It's about three miles from Canada and Nova Scotia and I would never have gone there of my own accord, but I was told to go there, and so I did.
"I worked with a wonderful doctor, and I found out what family medicine was all about -- and what working in a rural community was really about," he said.
McDonald said most medical students will never have a similar eye-opening experience. "We're not exposed to that in the university setting" where most students receive their medical education, he said.
A substitute resolution offered by the reference committee removed wording that asked the AAFP to "create" rural curriculum; delegates voted to adopt the substitute resolution after adding language directing the AAFP to also identify and disseminate model elements of medical school "admission practices" that would increase student interest in rural medicine.
The New York and Texas chapters introduced a resolution on human trafficking that elicited plentiful and riveting testimony.
Texas alternate delegate Troy Fiesinger, M.D., of Sugar Land, said trafficking was a huge issue in his state. "I've seen these people in the exam room and didn't realize it; they die in the desert, they're imprisoned in homes and we don't realize it.
"In Texas, a state that likes to argue about everything, we've got Republicans and Democrats together advocating to protect these people," he said.
New York alternate delegate Marc Price, D.O., of Mechanicville, said he was shocked to discover during a patient visit that "this was someone who was trafficked -- and was sold for sex. This is a much bigger problem than any of us realize," he said.
California delegate Jeffrey Luther, M.D., of Long Beach, said, "We have a fair amount of similar troubles in California, and I think this is not only a pervasive problem but an underemphasized one."
Sonya Sidhu-Izzo, M.D., M.B.A., of Queensbury, N.Y., a member constituency delegate, noted that the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website indicates that 100,000 U.S. children under 18 become entrapped in the sex slave market every year, and the average age of entry is 12 to 14.
"This is obviously a huge societal issue, and any societal issue is a national issue and, by definition, a family medicine issue," she said. "Just as we are trained in how to recognize child abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence, we should be trained in how to recognize victims of human trafficking" and the special health problems these patients may have, Sidhu-Izzo concluded.
Ultimately, the Congress adopted a substitute resolution that directed the AAFP to
provide human trafficking-related health care education, including at least one educational workshop;
work with the Council of Academic Family Medicine to encourage its four member organizations to identify opportunities to advocate for the integration of education about human trafficking;
investigate the feasibility of human trafficking-related CME; and
develop a position statement on human trafficking.
Testifying on a resolution that asked the AAFP to encourage residency programs to train physicians to be certified as medical examiners for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Iowa alternate delegate Douglas Martin, M.D., of Sioux City, tells the reference committee that he served on the national committee that wrote the exam. On Sept. 29, delegates adopted a substitute resolution that would encourage -- but not mandate -- programs to facilitate resident training and certification.
Buprenorphine Education
Two separate resolutions related to buprenorphine -- a drug used to treat patients with opioid dependence -- elicited lengthy debate from attendees. The first resolution, which called for residents to be trained to use the drug to treat patients with opioid dependence, was not adopted.
A second resolution asked the AAFP to develop buprenorphine educational materials, including a position paper, periodic CME lectures and chapter resources.
During reference committee testimony, resolution author Lucinda Grande M.D., of Olympia, Wash., said the purpose of the resolution was to draw attention to a highly effective tool that was "almost invisible" to family physicians.
"Every day in my clinic, I see the striking effectiveness of buprenorphine, more commonly known by its brand name, Suboxone. I currently prescribe it to 60 patients who formerly suffered from addiction to opioids, either legal or illegal," said Grande.
She told a story about a phone call she received from the father of a 25-year-old man who was a heroin addict. She recounted that father's plea: "Please, Dr. Grande, I need you to save my son's life."
Grande said no physicians who would accept buprenorphine patients lived within an hour of the patient's home, so Grande stepped in.
She soon had not only the son stabilized on buprenorphine but also his pregnant sister, who had also been using heroin, as well as their parents, who, according to Grande, "were miserable at the end of every month when their prescription pain medications ran out."
Ultimately, delegates agreed with the reference committee's recommendation to refer the issue to the AAFP Board of Directors.
Delegates considered several other resolutions that dealt with issues important to family physicians, including
transparency in medical education and access to training in settings affiliated with religious health care organizations,
simplification of maintenance of certification requirements,
improvement in procedural training through state licensure reciprocity,
provision of resources related to debt relief, and
standardization of visiting medical student elective medical history forms.
The Congress also reaffirmed a measure that asked the AAFP to support miscarriage management residency training.
Related AAFP News Coverage
Delegates Put Focus on Patients, Environment
Affordable Medications, Marijuana Research Among Topics Debated
2016 FPOY Has Built Legacy of Caring for Patients, Future FPs
'Our Time is Now'
AAFP President Pledges to Fight for Respect, Resources
Family Physicians Aim for Efficient, High-quality Patient Care
Social Determinants of Health Issues Take Center Stage
Q&A With Wanda Filer, M.D., M.B.A.
New AAFP President Declares Family Medicine a 'Noble Profession'
Delegates Choose New AAFP Leaders
Academy Working to Address 'Asinine' EHR Issues
Storify: 2015 AAFP FMX: Day Four(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 AAFP FMX: Day Three(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 AAFP FMX: Day Two(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 AAFP FMX: Day One(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 Congress of Delegates: Day Three(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 Congress of Delegates: Day Two(storify.com)
Storify: 2015 Congress of Delegates: Day One(storify.com)
Home / AAFP News / News From 2015 COD and FMX / Family Physicians Passionately Debate Education, Training Issues
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Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans Anime Premieres Tonight on Toonami
posted on 2016-06-04 22:45 EDT by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Hiroshi Arisawa draws image of Barbatos to celebrate premiere
Adult Swim's Toonami block will debut the Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans television anime series tonight at midnight. The block runs tonight from 11:30 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Turner had revealed last month that it had acquired the anime to air on Adult Swim.
The show's chief mechanic animator Hiroshi Arisawa drew an image of Barbatos to celebrate the premiere.
The Gundam Facebook page also posted a preview of the English dub. Sunrise is producing the dub with Bang Zoom! Entertainment.
The 25-episode series premiered in Japan in October, and ended with a teaser that it would return this fall. Daisuki, Gundam.Info, and Hulu streamed the series as it aired. Crunchyroll and Funimation streamed new episodes one week after they aired.
cloudflare ray# 4f84c3d2b634567f-IAD
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Supreme Court Declines to Adopt Automatic-Dismissal Rule for Violations of False Claims Act’s Seal Requirement
D. Jacques Smith
Michael F. Dearington
Randall A. Brater
On December 6, 2016, the Supreme Court determined in State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. United States ex rel. Rigsby that violation of the statutorily mandated seal requirement, 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b)(2), in a qui tam False Claims Act case does not automatically require dismissal,
Instead the district court has discretion to determine the appropriate sanction under the circumstances – whether it be dismissal or a less severe sanction. See here for Arent Fox’s past coverage of the case.
In an opinion delivered by Justice Kennedy, a unanimous Supreme Court held that the District Court did not abuse its discretion by denying State Farm’s motion to dismiss. Notably, although the Court rejected an automatic-dismissal rule, it did not adopt any particular standard by which a district court should determine whether dismissal, or another sanction, is appropriate for violation of the seal requirement. Instead, the Court analyzed whether the District Court abused its discretion in not granting dismissal and determined that the court did not do so. The Court therefore resolved a split on whether violation of the seal mandates dismissal, but left for future cases the exact standard to apply in determining whether dismissal is warranted.
*This alert was originally posted on Arent Fox's Health Care Counsel blog. To read this alert in its entirety, please click here.
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Home | Press Centre | Photographs | 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture recipients
Samir Kassir Square, Beirut, Lebanon.
The ancient city of Shibam is one of three major urban centres in Wadi Hadhramaut. Due to its composition and stunning setting, Shibam was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List (1982-1984). Rehabilitation of the Old City of Shibam, Yemen.
Anne De Henning
The choice of the structural system of dome-shaped roofs was dictated by the need for longer spans to accommodate the use of tables and stools in the stalls and allow free and easy circulation. Central Market, Koudougou, Burkina Faso.
Amir-Massoud Anoushfar
The chancellor complex marks the main entrance and forms a grand backdrop for the vista along the landscaped road. University of Technology Petronas, Tronoh, Malaysia (South-East Asia).
Patrick BINGHAM-HALL
A front courtyard is situated on the south side of the building. It is not rectangular because there is an indentation at its southeast corner, providing direct entrance to the courtyard from ground level. Restoration of the Amiriya Complex, Rada, Yemen (Arabian Peninsula).
The common facilities set in ground floor tropical gardens are an added attraction. Moulmein Rise Residential Building. Singapore, Singapore (South-East Asia).
Tim GRIFFITH
The use of natural light constitutes a major source of design in this project. Royal Embassy of the Netherlands, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (East Africa).
Christian Richters
Social and cultural services are being set up: there are cultural centres that host exhibitions and offers classes in various subjects. Rehabilitation of the Walled City, Nicosia, Cyprus (Europe).
Dimitri VATTIS
Colourful cotton drapes hung at ceiling level and in doorways soften the harsh walls of the mud structure. School in Rudrapur, Rudrapur, Bangladesh.
Birol Inana
2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture recipients
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On 4 September 2007, at a ceremony held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, His Highness the Aga Khan announced the nine recipients of the 2007 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Founded in 1977, the Award marked its 30th anniversary this year, and the completion of the 10th cycle of the programme. Recipients of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture - Kuala Lumpur, 4 September 2007 :
Samir Kassir Square, Beirut, Lebanon
Rehabilitation of the Old City of Shibam, Yemen
Central Market, Koudougou, Burkina Faso
University of Technology Petronas, Bandar Seri Iskandar, Malaysia
Restoration of the Amiriya Complex, Rada, Yemen
Moulmein Rise Residential Building, Singapore
Royal Embassy of the Netherlands, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Rehabilitation of the Walled City, Nicosia, Cyprus
School in Rudrapur, Dinajpur, Bangladesh
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© 2018 Aga Khan Foundation, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. All rights reserved.
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Aldnoah.Zero: Season 2 - Blu-ray
Synopsis: "The year is 2016, a year and a half after the assassination of Princess Asylum. Despite his status as a Terran, Slaine has been granted the title of Mars Knight, is now served by his own subordinate, and has been taking part in battles against the United Forces of Earth, Meanwhile on Earth, the Deucalion is finishing up its repairs as, one by one, the ships former crew members return in order to proceed to a new battlefront."
Contains episodes 13 to 24 on Blu-Ray with both the English dub and the original Japanese track with English subtitles.
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Mad Cool Festival 2017: The 15 Best Performances
Jack Parker July 9, 2017
FESTIVAL SEASONFestivals
The last three days have been quite a whirlwind for Madrid’s Mad Cool Festival. Some 45,000 revellers went into the weekender expecting endless sun and an atmosphere hard to match across the rest of Europe. Instead, they were met with torrential thunderstorms and a tragedy (more on that here) which looks set to unfortunately tar Mad Cool’s reputation for editions to come. However, this should not take away from the fact that the Caja Magica spectacle has the potential to become one of Europe’s biggest festivals. Boasting a star-studded line-up spearheaded by Foo Fighters, Green Day and Kings of Leon, Mad Cool had something for everyone. From relaxing on the artificial grass surface to the sound of Wilco’s dulcet tones to losing your shit in the pit courtesy of Rancid, festivalgoers were treated to a varied selection of performances from across a broad range of different styles. We spent the weekend enjoying the best of what Madrid had to offer, and you can find out below exactly which performances stood out far and wide above the rest within the confines of La Caja Magica’s sprawling festival site.
15 Kings of Leon
Now it’s safe to say that Kings of Leon haven’t had the best live reputation of late, often being described as dull, uninterested in their own performance or just downright lazy. However, there seems to have been something in the Spanish water ahead of the Caleb Followill-fronted quartet’s set, because it seemed as though Kings of Leon had a spring in their step. Whether it be Followill’s personal cause for celebration, or the fact that the crowd were making the most of the weekend’s grim occurences, it was almost scary how much the band had “improved” compared to other recent performances. That’s not to say that the performance was perfect, though; a strong start was halted by a slightly lazier mid-passage which drew largely from lacklustre new album WALLS, before the set came to an end on the slightly less impressive Waste a Moment. Set highlights Supersoaker and Sex on Fire followed one another in quick succession, hyping up the crowd for an ending which was on the verge of falling short of the mark. It may not have been a show-stopping performance, but it was definitely above the (low) standard which we’re used to from the Nashville indie rockers.
14 Aurora & the Betrayers
In an unfortunate twist of fate, Scandinavian indie poppers Peter, Bjorn & John had to swap their early evening set time on the KOKO UK Stage with Madrid’s very own Aurora & the Betrayers. Having originally been scheduled to appear on the smallest stage at 2am, Aurora Garcia and co. pulled off their raw and gritty rock ‘n roll with effortless ease, almost as if the big stage was made for them. The initial swap wasn’t made aware to the crowd beforehand, meaning that festivalgoers expecting sickly sweet indie pop were greeted with a hefty wake up call. Discovery of the weekend, anyone?
(c) Ruben van der Horst
13 The Lumineers
The festival’s first day was one unfortunately met with torrential rain and thunderstorms, meaning that Colorado’s The Lumineers performed for a mere twenty minutes. Despite this, though, it was evident that Wesley Schultz and co. had plenty up their sleeve for the duration of their six songs onstage. Breakthrough hit Ho Hey featured early on, enabling the crowd to grow by the minute as their careered towards a close. Newer cut Ophelia stood out as well, incorporating twinkling harmonies and sweet Americana guitars. It may have been short, but it was certainly sweet.
12 Kurt Vile & the Violators
Every festival needs a good comedown moment, and on Thursday this task was up to slacker hero Kurt Vile and his band the Violators. The 37 year-old singer songwriter took to the KOKO UK Stage following a blistering set by Foo Fighters, giving Madrid some room to breathe, relax and smoke up as he (somewhat lazily, as expected) presented the Spanish capital with cuts from 2015 LP b’lieve I’m going down. He hasn’t followed the album up just yet, however his set was just powerful enough to put Madrid in a marijuana-infused trance. By the time Vile puts out some new music, it wouldn’t be all too surprising if he’d been elevated to even higher heights.
11 George Ezra
Singer songwriters seemed to do well at Mad Cool Festival, with the boy next door George Ezra hitting the KOKO UK Stage on the festival’s first day. New single Don’t Matter Now is the first hint of creativity from camp Ezra since 2014’s Wanted on Voyage, which he’ll be following up this year with a brand new collection of music. Taking to the stage just after the rain stopped, golden boy Ezra charmed the crowd with his effortlessly catchy indie pop, utilizing his soothing voice to get the sunny party started. It was by no means a spectacular show-stopper of a performance, however it didn’t need to be that in order for Ezra to give Madrid exactly what they needed: fun anthems with lilting guitar lines and catchy choruses. Breakthrough hit Budapest garnered the biggest reception of the set, with Listen to the Man and Don’t Matter Now also making for a memorable moment early on in the day.
10 Xavier Rudd
You know what they say: it isn’t a successful festival without a fun performance by a wacky Aussie. Xavier Rudd ticked that box at Mad Cool, bringing his didgeridoo to Madrid for an hour of danceable fun which got heavier and more encapsulating as time passed. He hasn’t released a studio album since 2015, but it didn’t seem to faze the crowd much; in fact, it enabled Rudd to simply focus on the songs which everyone loved, and boy did Madrid lap it up on what was the final date of the musician’s European tour. Taking place not even a day after the tragic accident on Friday night, Rudd presented Spain with the exact feel good vibes they needed to overcome the numb feelings many had gathered over the course of the preceding 24 hours.
9 Green Day
Cali punkers Green Day had what was most certainly the toughest job of the weekend, only they didn’t even know it. Billie Joe Armstrong and co. topped the festival’s main stage not even an hour after acrobat Pedro Monroy fell to his death during an aerial acrobatics performance. Due to reasons unknown, the band were never informed and took to the stage under the impression that they were presenting Madrid with a classic, by-numbers Green Day show. It’s exactly what the band did, but the crowd’s response was lukewarm to say the least. Set opener Know Your Enemy saw one lucky fan sing the last verse with Armstrong, before fellow show staples Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Hitchin’ a Ride all featured alongside a hefty dose of new album Revolution Radio. Had no incident occurred, then the 45,000-strong crowd would have definitely helped Green Day celebrate the end of their European festival tour in style. However, it wasn’t meant to be, and the band could do nothing about it.
8 Rancid
Ska-punkers Rancid opened the festival’s main stage on Friday, performing a set which spanned some 22 songs and served as a peek into Tim Armstrong and co.’s expansive back catalogue. The quartet’s energy seemed boundless as Armstrong and his men energetically bounded about the stage, with new album Trouble Maker featuring throughout the course of the outfit’s hour and a half long set. Show highlight Time Bomb featured towards the very end of the show, with the rest of the set seemingly building up to this certainly exciting climax. They’ve spent the summer on the road together with Green Day, and their stage presence certainly seems to have rubbed off on Rancid.
7 Foster the People
If one thing’s certain, then it’s that Foster the People may well be one of Mad Cool’s best bookings this year. The Californian outfit are only playing a handful of festival dates this summer ahead of new album Sacred Hearts Club, a record which seems to have absolutely kicked the band up a few notches on the live front. New track SHC opened the set with pulsating energy as frontman Mark Foster energetically made his way around the stage, before fan favourite Helena Beat and breakthrough track Pumped up Kicks both turned proceedings up to 11, remaining there until the final notes of set closer Lotus Eater became mute. Foster the People are set to have a massive year, and they’re only just getting started.
6 Wilco
Cult heroes Wilco don’t half get around now, do they? Jeff Tweedy and co. are one of the biggest bands in the world that most people won’t have heard of, performing a career-spanning set on Mad Cool’s main stage in front of a packed field. Classic album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot featured predominantly, with the first half of the set also drawing from the more recent Star Wars. The twinkling Random Name Generator kicked off proceedings, showcasing each band member’s unique abilities and the different ways in which they all come together to form a spectacular whole. Wilco’s show climaxed on the mesmerising Impossible Germany, before coming to an end on the captivating I’m a Wheel. There’s no stopping Wilco, however it doesn’t seem like they want to either.
5 alt-J
It’s all fair and well if a band has a great back catalogue, but what’s the point if they can’t translate it to the big stage and put some sort of spectacular production around it? Luckily for alt-J, this isn’t too much of a problem. Debut album An Awesome Wave and its follow-up This is All Yours are both equally as timeless as one another, spawning festival anthems in the form of the scuzzy Fitzpleasure, lilting Breezeblocks and groovy Left Hand Free. Now, Joe Newman and co. have another, more introverted collection to their name: the sparse and twinkling RELAXER. It’s by no means as memorable or forward-thinking as alt-J’s first two records; rather, it’s a snapshot of a band comfortable in the position they’re in. Their Mad Cool set opened on RELAXER’s 3WW, with the track receiving just as wild of a reception as their older cuts did later on. Newman’s voice is still as strong as ever, and the production surrounding the band perfectly complemented the music: sparse, yet grandiose. Alt-J are still working their way up towards the upper echelons of festival posters, and it won’t be soon before they find themselves at the summit.
4 Savages
The Jehnny Beth-fronted Savages only seem to go from strength to strength. London’s grizzliest punkers don’t shy away from packing a punch wherever they go, leaving a hole in the wall upon departure regardless of where they go. Beth and co. performed in front of a packed crowd in Madrid, one which grew by the song until set closer Fuckers saw strobe lights flicker in all directions at a similair pace to frontwoman Beth and her band. If there was ever a moment this weekend where a whole crowd stood still and watched in awe amongst all the madness, then it was during Savages’ set.
3 Foals
Oxfordshire’s very own Foals have slowly but surely become seasoned festival veterans over the last few years, releasing a constant stream of enviably destructive music with every step they take. It’s been a couple of years since they last shared new music (2015’s What Went Down), but they’re still going strong and look ready to release another collection of music this year. Frontman Yannis Phillippakis is still an absolute beast of a musician, commanding the crowd effortlessly and hoisting them into the palm of his hand at short notice. Set highlight Inhaler enabled the packed crowd to go mental once more, with pits erupting left, right and centre. And quite rightly so, because Philippakis and co. are bill-toppers of the future.
2 Cage the Elephant
You never know what to expect when Matt Shultz and his men in Cage the Elephant take to the stage. Will they give a straightforward rock show, or will they go all out and give the crowd a night to remember? Taking to the stage all the way across the festival site from where tragic events took place some two hours before, Shultz and co. seemed to brush it all aside and give the packed crowd a reason to take their mind off things. Set opener Cry Baby was just the beginning, with guitarist Brad Shultz making his first of three forays into the crowd. It instantly set the tone for a night which was nothing short of absolute carnage, taking in songs from across the band’s vast back catalogue. The pummelling Spiderhead featured early on, with newer cuts Cold Cold Cold and Trouble (both taken from 2015’s Tell Me I’m Pretty) making for anthemic moments. The show only became crazier by the minute, coming to a cataclysmic close on the absolutely destructive Teeth. Matt Shultz is one hell of a showman, channelling his inner Mick Jagger as he left no stone unturned. Just like many of the other acts performing in Madrid this weekend, Cage the Elephant are festival headliners of the future.
1 Foo Fighters
The best performance of the whole weekend could only be reserved for the biggest band on the bill – Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl and co. are currently gearing up to put out new album Concrete and Gold in September, with lead single Run making its way into the set by means of a rousing, upbeat rendition. It was just one of many highlights which Grohl and his men made for, kicking off proceedings on the massive Everlong. The hits didn’t stop coming, with Monkey Wrench and Learn to Fly following in quick succession. Newer hits Something From Nothing and the ferocious The Pretender also made early appearances, with the 45,000-strong crowd lapping up every moment and giving the seasoned rockers (who were all in celebratory moods) something worth smiling about. There never tends to be a dull moment during a Foo Fighters show, and their show-stopping performance in Madrid was no different. Set closer Best of You saw a full field of rabid Spanish fans chant along in unison, much in the same way that they’d cheered on the band all night long. For an opening day, Foo Fighters set the bar so high that no other performance has managed to surpass its greatness.
Mad Cool Festival will return next year, taking place from 12-14 July 2018. Check out an assorted gallery of shots from across the weekend below.
alt jAurora & the Betrayerscage the elephantfoalsfoo fightersFoster The Peoplegeorge ezragreen daykings of leonKurt Vile & The ViolatorsMad Cool Festivalrancidsavagesthe lumineerswilcoXavier Rudd
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Home>Awards & Competitions>Grants>Initiative Fund
Proposals must align with the Society's objectives, set forth in the Society Bylaws, Article B2, Paragraph 1, and with the goals and strategies set forth by the BOT.
Preproposals are optional but allow applicants to gauge Initative Fund Evaluation Committee interest prior to investing significant time and resources in developing a full proposal. Preproposals may be submitted at any time during the year, using the Preproposal Template. Preproposal submissions are limited to four (4) pages including the cover page. The chair of the Evaluation committee will respond within six weeks of receipt with feedback. Please submit prepoposals to InitiativeFund@asabe.org.
Proposals must be completed using the Proposal Template and may be submitted at any time. Proposal submissions are limited to eight (8) pages including the cover page. The Board will review proposals three times annually, in the spring, summer, and fall. Proposals should clearly identify the alignment with Society objectives and Board of Trustees priorities and should include a detailed budget and project milestones. Applicants are encouraged to involve, as early as possible, the appropriate Council, committee, division, community, or group, and headquarters staff. Endorsement of requests by an appropriate Council, committee, division, community or group is encouraged and enhances the probability of approval. Generally, proposals that include travel costs for participants for meetings are not evaluated favorably.
All incomplete proposals (including budget request information) will be returned to the originator for completion and re-submission. The evaluation cycle will be determined using final submission date.
Please send preproposals and proposals in PDF format to InitiativeFund@asabe.org. A reply e-mail will serve as an acknowledgment of receipt of the proposal.
The Initiative Fund Evaluation committee will base its reviews on the suitability and merit of the proposals, with no obligation to recommend the expenditure of all available Initiative Funds. The Evaluation committee will provide comments on each proposal, including strengths, weaknesses, and a recommendation regarding funding.
Upon submission, preproposals shall be forwarded to the Evaluation committee for review. Committee members will have two weeks in which to provide comments. The Evaluation committee will determine whether the preproposal has merit and a full proposal should be pursued. All comments will be summarized and included in the response to the applicant. All preproposals will receive a recommendation and comments within six weeks of submission.
Initiative Fund proposals may be considered at any of the BOT’s three annual meetings, as outlined below. Upon submission, proposals will be reviewed by the Evaluation committee, who will forward recommendations to the BOT in advance of these meetings. Decisions will be conveyed to the applicants no more than two weeks after the BOT meetings.
Deadlines for Submission Review
Board Meeting Decision Date
Proposals submitted June 2 - September 1
Fall meeting (October/November)
Proposals submitted September 2 - March 1
Spring meeting (April)
Proposals submitted March 2 - June 1
AIM meeting (July)
An Evaluation committee is formed annually to consider all preproposals and proposals and make funding recommendations to the BOT.
The Evaluation committee is chaired by the Society treasurer and includes the immediate past chairs of Membership Development, Meetings, Standards, and Publications councils and two at-large members. Prospective at-large members are identified by the past council chairs and contacted by the treasurer. If one of the past council chairs is unable or unwilling to participate on the Evaluation committee, an additional at-large member shall be selected.
For questions regarding the submission process, contact Darrin Drollinger (InitiativeFund@asabe).
A final report summarizing how the funds were used and the impact to the society is required for all approved Initiative Funds no later than one year after the completion date identified in the proposal. If the request covers multiple years a brief summary must be provided annually by September 15. All final reports and mid-project updates should be sent to InitiativeFund@asabe.org and include a reference to the original proposal.
Availability of Funds
Each year the ASABE Finance committee recommends to the BOT an amount to be made available in the Initiative Fund during the following year. Initiatives are funded from ASABE’s restricted reserve. Finance committee recommendations are based on the financial health of the Society, and the committee may suggest that no monies be made available for the Initiative Fund. Authorization of Initiative Funds is made by the BOT.
Initiative Funds may be requested for use in a single year or over multiple years. Multi-year proposals must clearly indicate the budget for each year. All awards must be used within one year of the project completion date identified in the proposal, after which any balance will be forfeited. All awards must be used for the purpose for which they were approved.
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Preproposal Template
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Opinion, Columnists
Is it so hard to conduct credible polls?
Niaz Murtaza
Published : May 23, 2018, 12:28 am IST
Updated : May 23, 2018, 12:28 am IST
he first three were held under the establishment; were they atoning partially for past rigging?
Pakistan flag
Pakistan desperately needs credible polls that produce political stability. A regime with a clear public mandate can tackle serious national problems more easily. But public mandates have often been usurped in Pakistan via various rigging tools. Though less blatant than before, these tools still remain potent.
Vote delay has been the most common rigging tool, consuming 30-plus years since 1947, with the establishment planning much of these delays, aided by some opportunist politicians. The 1970 polls were the first credible polls but unluckily suffered from vote results’ rejection as the establishment didn’t transfer power to the winner. The 1977 polls were held by politicians. They were rigged blatantly via vote stuffing, vote miscounting, vote suppression and vote extortion. Other polls generally considered rigged (1985, 1990, 1993, 1997 and 2002) were held under the shadow of the establishment.
The 1970, 1988, 2008 and 2013 polls were more credible. The first three were held under the establishment; were they atoning partially for past rigging? There is a clear pattern though. Polls were manipulated at the peak of its powers, when there was little internal or external pressure to hold credible elections. Credible polls were held only after long bouts of martial laws had ruined the country and there was much internal and external pressure to finally do so. Even then, fair polls were held not due to any institutional strengthening of the electoral process by dictators but due to their decisions to rein in certain elements under pressure.
In contrast, the 2013 polls were more credible due to the institutional measures voluntarily legislated by politicians, especially the clause related to interim regimes. Clearly, it is sections of the establishment, and not politicians, which are chiefly held responsible for manipulating polls in Pakistan. In fact, by introducing the constitutional clause about neutral interim set-ups, politicians have voluntarily eliminated their ability to implement nationwide rigging under any centralised plan. The main potent tool left in the hands of politicians to rig polls is vote buying at constituency level. But this tool is different from all other rigging tools where voters are deprived of practically all choice.
That said, it is also true that opportunist politicians have always provided cover to the powers that be in their quest to eliminate other politicians. Thus, the PPP sided with the establishment against the Awami League in 1971. The PML helped it in its struggles against the PPP in the 1980s and 1990s and the PTI is now being similarly accused of siding with certain elements against the PML(N).
Over time, the tools of rigging have become less blatant and more subtle due to increasing external pressure and internal pressures. So, prolonged vote delays have become less common. Vote stuffing and vote miscounting under a planned strategy nationwide have also become less feasible.
For example, the main tools during the 1990s were ones like vote suppression, vote extortion and vote buying. Even there, the focus was on using less blatant tactics. The focus was not on physically stopping voters of a particular party but on discouraging strong candidates from competing on its platform and voters from voting for it by giving clear signals that the party was unlikely to be allowed to win. These signals included dubious dismissals of the party’s governments and controversial court verdicts. With vote buying and vote extortion, it appeared that certain sections of the establishment were getting strong candidates to switch parties.
There are worrying signs that some quarters could be getting ready to play an active role in the 2018 polls. Many of the emergent patterns seem similar to the subtle tactics used for vote suppression, vote buying and vote extortion in the 1990s. The controversial dismissal and lifetime barring of a Prime Minister, selective accountability and suspicious changing of loyalties by opportunist politicians are perceived as some signs.
The end result may be a hung Parliament. While this may suit the aims of the powers that be, unfortunately, it will also mean a weak government without the authority to deal effectively with festering national problems.
By arrangement with Dawn
Tags: pakistan, manipulating polls
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Home > The AXELOS Blog > Be cyber resilient in today’s digital–driven business environment
Be cyber resilient in today’s digital–driven business environment
By Nick Wilding, General Manager, Cyber Resilience – AXELOS
Best Practice, Collaboration, Cyber resilience, Cyber-attack, Leadership, RESILIA, Skills
By 2019 businesses globally will lose $1.2 trillion* to cyber breaches. This stark fact alone should make any company ensure it is resilient to cyber attack.
So where do you start? What does the leadership team need to know and do? What skills are required for organizations to prosper in the face of growing cyber risks and how can organizations balance their digital transformation with effective resilience?
These were the subjects discussed by a panel of experts during a special edition of Digital Leaders TV entitled Cyber resilience in the digital age – skills, leadership, balance and collaboration.
The programme, hosted by technology journalist and presenter Kate Russell, featured Vicki Gavin, Compliance Director and Head of Information Security and Business Continuity at The Economist Group; Richard Knowlton, former Group Director of Corporate Security at Vodafone and Chairman at Richard Knowlton Associates; Nick Wilding, General Manager, Cyber Resilience at AXELOS and Louisa Perry, Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry.
Kate Russell opened the programme by asking the panel to consider how a business can balance the need for digital transformation with the risk that digitalization brings to their businesses.
Vicki Gavin: Cyber resilience is about having a mindset that it’s not “if” but “when” an attack will happen. Attacks are growing all the time and that has to be acknowledged by companies. In my own organization we had 25 attacks in 2012 which grew to 350 in 2016 (a 1300% increase).
Nick Wilding: You have to be able to respond when an attack happens. Being prepared means knowing how you are going to respond and, importantly, bounce back. This is why it is important the board and senior management see it as a business issue and not something which affects solely the IT system.
Richard Knowlton: Any response has to be business-wide covering not only the IT department but also HR, legal, internal and external communications and the commercial teams. It is also important that, should a breach happen, everybody is familiar with their expected roles and responsibilities.
Louisa Perry: Being prepared for an attack has got to be seen as an insurance policy. How ready you are depends on how much insurance you want to have. Be proactive not reactive.
Louisa: Organizations need to think about the training and skills needed. It’s not always necessary to look outside for the skills as it’s often better to grow people from within and support them to gain the skills they need.
Nick Wilding: It’s no longer enough to have a tickbox, compliance-driven approach to training and learning. It needs to move from passive learning to engaging, collaborative learning delivered in a way which demystifies the tech language which surrounds it.
Vicki Gavin: In this day and age, we are all becoming tech companies and digital transformation is happening we like it or not; if we don’t transform, we’re going out of business. But people have to be brought on that tech journey: they need to understand what security is, how it works and what their role is. Technology is not the answer to the problems of cyber resilience – people are the solution and it’s people using technology intelligently that protect the business. In looking at the risks which exist we have to realise that “good old fashioned” risk management is what’s needed.
Richard Knowlton: We can no longer see [IT] security as a back-office function. We have to see that all those involved in those roles as comfortable in communicating effectively to all levels within the business about the threats and combating them.
Louisa Perry: Challenge the way you think. Companies and departments can’t work in silos as every department has a part to play in maintaining resilience.
Richard Knowlton: If your culture considers cyber risk an issue for the technology department then no-one else will worry about it. In reality it is everybody’s responsibility where all key stakeholders have to own the risks.
Vicki Gavin: Companies need to have a good detection regime where they are looking out for intruders. They have to be able to pick up early warning signs such as problems with phishing emails or someone clicking on spurious link to a bad website and act on it. You can look at this problem forever and think it looks huge; pick something and do it!
Nick Wilding: It’s about effective risk management and knowing what your risk appetite is while agreeing on what is most precious to the organization and how vulnerable that is. You also have to remain vigilant at all times and rehearse how you will respond to attacks when they happen. Do the simple things well – it’s about making sure you develop, test and rehearse your response to any problem. Effective resilience is about understanding everyone in the organization has a critical role to play – it’s about being brave, bold and on this ongoing journey we need to be much more open as a society in sharing our experience, learning lessons and best practice.
Watch today!
Watch the full edition of Digital Leaders TV – Cyber resilience in the digital age – skills, leadership, balance and collaboration and gain more insight about maintaining cyber resilience.
Visit AXELOS.com/resilia-frontline to find out more about RESILIA™ Frontline cyber security awareness training developed by AXELOS Global Best Practice.
You can also sign up to a free 14-day trial and see for yourself how to make your people your greatest defence against cyber-attacks.
*Juniper Research - ‘The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial & Corporate Threats & Mitigation'.
Cyber resilience: How important is your reputation? How effective are your people?
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A cyber resilience Q&A with Karoliina Ainge, head of Estonian cyber security policy - Part 2
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James Ellroy - American Tabloid
American Tabloid, the first of the three books, exposes the underbelly of a country on the threshold of Kennedy's golden age.
On this month’s World Book Club, as he turns seventy, another chance to hear acclaimed American writer James Ellroy, who over a span of fifteen years worked on a massive fictional chronicle of 1960s America.
American Tabloid, the first of the three books, exposes the underbelly of a country on the threshold of Kennedy's golden age, and follows three men close to the tentacles of power in a conspiracy with the Mafia that leads to the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and the assassination of JFK in Dallas. Brutally brilliant and profane, the book bursts at the seams with crooked policemen, corrupt politicians, mobsters and hitmen, all driven by a desire for power, money and the settling of old scores.
Image: James Ellroy (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
Wed 5 Sep 2018 23:06GMT
BBC World Service except News Internet
Hilary Mantel: Bring Up the Bodies
Sun 2 Sep 2018 03:06GMT
BBC World Service Australasia
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Rib Village
BBQ Vendors / Competition
Non-BBQ Vendors
Backyard BBQ Grillers
Fri. 5-10PM | Sat. 12-10PM | Sun. 12-8PM
Fountain Valley Sports Park, Fountain Valley, CA
2019 Lineup By Day
Live Music • FREE Souvenir E-Photo • Karaoke Lounge w/Live Band (Fri. & Sat. Night) • Children's Stage with Animal Variety Show and Petting Zoo (Sat.) • Children's Stage with Magic Show and Balloon Sculptures (Sun.) • Roaming Cowboys (Sat./Sun.) • Close-Up/Strolling Magicians (Sat./Sun.) • Live Interactive Reptile Exhibit
ALL SHOWS, BANDS, TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.
For a timeline schedule, scroll down to the bottom.
Friday Performers — Friday, August 16, 2019 • 5PM-10PM
FRIDAY: $5 General Admission and $5 Beers.
Live Music • DJ • Free Souvenir E-Photo • Karaoke Lounge with Live Band • Interactive Live Reptile Exhibit • Specialty Drinks • and more...
Eric Turner Band
5-6:30PM
Classic Rock, Hendrix Tribute, 90s Grunge.
Boogie Star (70’s Disco)
Boogie Star is a high energy four piece 70's theme band playing all of your favorite Disco and Funk dance hits of the era in full costume and choreography. Bring your bell bottoms and platform shoes and Get Down Tonight with Boogie Star!
Video Star
(80's New Wave/Rock)
8:45-10PM
Video Star is a high energy four piece 80's theme band playing all of your favorite New Wave and Rock dance hits of the era in full costume and choreography. You'll swear it is 1982 all over again. I want my MTV!
Karaoke Lounge
with Live Band
Included in general admission. Join us center stage and become the lead singer of a rocking live band!
S.C.H.A.&R.
Live Interactive Reptile Exhibit (5-10PM)
For over 40 years, the SCHA&R has been a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching the public about reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates as well as saving as many lives as possible through rescue and rehabilitation efforts.
Get your hands on the chilling side of nature with some reptiles that are cold-blooded and seriously cool. Participants can chat with an educator, touch a reptile, and hear fun facts.
Saturday Performers — Saturday, August 17, 2019 • 12NOON-10PM
Outerwave
12NOON-1PM
OuterWave plays surf music with vintage gear the way it was meant to played, without digital effects and with plenty of wet dripping reverb staying true to the surf music of the 60's when muscle cars ruled Pacific Coast Highway and surfboards were taller than the surfers. It's 1963 and surfs up.
SoundCake
1:30-3PM
SoundCake is Southern California's quintessential party band, entertaining audiences by playing a wide variety of hits from the 80's & 90's with a sprinkling of surprises from other eras. Super-sized slices of dance & groove favorites, modern party rock, classic rockers, a bit o' country & reggae are all served up as part of the experience!
More information to be forthcoming soon.
Pitmasters vs. Locals
The Battle is On...
Acclaimed winning national BBQ Cooking Teams vs. local grillers go head-to-head in match-ups for the coveted title "The Best BBQ". WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE ULTIMATE TITLE?
Award Presenters: BBQ Music Fest Roaming Cowboys
Each winner will receive a EZStart® Charcoal Chimney. The easier and safer way to barbecue while eliminating odors, chemicals, and the unsafe need to lift and pour out hot coals. www.ezflamebbq.com
Shotgun Jefferson
Shotgun Jefferson is a Southern California based Country Rock band, well known for their energetic “Rock Show” performances.
Ultimate 80’s Tribute
Fast Times The Ultimate 80’s tribute band. Southern California’s biggest 80’s show. Playing all your favorites from the 80’s Depeche Mode, The Cure, Guns N Roses, Journey, Bon Jovi, Metallica and many many more.
Animal Variety Show - CHILDREN'S STAGE (12-6PM)
The animal variety show has an array of feathered, furry and scaly critters. Feel the prickly spines of a hedgehog, delight in a furry ferret scurrying across the stage. These are just some of the fascinating animals you might enjoy!
Petting Zoo - NEAR CHILDREN'S STAGE (12-6PM)
The Petting Zoo has an assortment of critters such as ducks, goats, chickens, pig, tortoise, guinea pigs and bunnies. There may be occasional variations to the list as we are always adding new animals to the Zoo family.
Roaming Cowboys - 2:30-6:30PM
Keep a lookout for our Roaming Cowboys, they are playful and mischievous - a good laugh, partners in crime who roam the grounds with their crazy funny shenanigans.
Beer and Magic
Close-up/Strolling Magicians
Beer and Magic is a collection of award winning magicians who are experts in the art of close up magic. Magic is no longer just for kids. Visit our booth to have your mind blown.
Close up magic is performed right in front of your eyes and in many cases in your own hands. Magic has never been more popular and will entertain you in ways you have never experienced and will never forget.
Live Interactive Reptile Exhibit (12NOON-10PM)
Sunday Performers — Sunday, August 18, 2019 • 12NOON-8PM
Moving in Stereo
A tribute to the Music of THE CARS
Moving In Stereo is the ultimate tribute to The Cars - performing all of their hits such as Shake It Up, Let's Go, My Best Friend's Girl, Just What I Needed, and, of course, Moving In Stereo.
A High Energy, Interactive Music Experience… Their talent spans over 100 yrs, from seasoned players to “up and coming stars”. They're the 80’s & 90’s R&B, Funk and Top 40. They Sing, They Dance, They Devastate...
THE TRIP is a high energy, genuine cover rock band that takes you on a fun-filled musical journey through the 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's … as well as today’s Top 40 and rock hits.
People's Choice and
Backyard BBQ Battle
People's Choice Favorite (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place) to be awarded.
Backyard BBQ Battle (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place) to be awarded.
Skynyrd Reloaded
Skynyrd Reloaded is a Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Band from Southern California. They perform the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd in a fascinating show recreating the Hey Day period of 1975-1977. Our live shows are an adrenaline rush complete with the look and sounds of a real Skynyrd Concert. Both casual and hardcore Skynyrd fans are guided through an unforgettable experience that builds from the first note played and concludes with our audience literally jumping in excitement at our finale' rendition of the classic Free Bird.
The Arty Loon Show! - CHILDREN'S STAGE (12-6PM)
With over 18 years of experience and over 1000 shows under his belt, Arty Loon is one of the funniest and friendliest family entertainers in the world. Arty's began by taking an interest in the magic at an early age. At the age of 14 he became a part of the Los Angeles Magic Castle's junior magicians program, and since then has been astounding audiences. With comedy magic, amazing illusions, spectacular juggling, fantastic balloon sculptures, hilarious puppetry, and tons of audience participation, Arty has created the ultimate show for any occasion!
MYART Showcase Troupe - CHILDREN'S STAGE (1:15-2:45PM and 3:45-5:15PM)
MYART’s Showcase Troupe is a performance team with a 25 year history of offering comprehensive training in vocals, dance and stage presence, while developing a strong sense of community awareness, responsibility and teamwork. Showcase Troupe serves as MYART’s outreach program, with a clear vision to enrich and broaden community awareness of the performing arts throughout LA and Orange Counties.
Roaming Cowboys 2:30-6:30PM
Live Interactive Reptile Exhibit (12NOON-8PM)
KLIQ Radio Station - SECOND STAGE 6-8PM
KLIQ Radio Station is the way a radio station should be. We're for the people and by the people; Keeping "Love In the Qommunity" (Community is Quality and the Q always comes full circle pointing right back at you) with DJ XX7.
Devonte Styles, CEO
Shelly Ward-Styles, Pgm Manager
Angela James, Liaison
Bobby Reed, Dir. of Technology
For community and special events, please contact us at (323) 300-8132.
Kliqradio.com.
Friday, August 16, 2019 • 5PM-10PM
Karaoke Lounge with Live Band - SECOND STAGE
Included in general admission. Join us center stage and become the lead singer of a rocking live band! Everybody should be a rockstar once in their life so come join us and experience a new twist on karaoke.
Video Star (80's New Wave/Rock)
Saturday, August 17, 2019 • 12NOON-10PM
12NOON-6PM - PETTING ZOO
LIVE INTERACTIVE REPTILE EXHIBIT (12-10PM)
12NOON-10PM
Animal Variety Show! - CHILDREN'S STAGE (12-6PM)
1PM - ANIMAL VARIETY SHOW
Beer and Magic - Close-up/Strolling Magicians
Pitmasters vs. Locals Award Ceremony
The Battle is On... Acclaimed winning national BBQ Cooking Teams vs. local grillers go head-to-head in match-ups for the coveted title "The Best BBQ". WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE ULTIMATE TITLE? Award Presenters: BBQ Music Fest Roaming Cowboys
Fast Times Ultimate 80’s Tribute
Sunday, August 18, 2019 • 12NOON-8PM
Moving in Stereo - A tribute to the Music of THE CARS
LIVE INTERACTIVE REPTILE EXHIBIT (12-8PM)
12:30PM - MAGIC SHOW
MYART Showcase Troupe - CHILDREN'S STAGE
1:15-2:45PM - MYART Showcase Troupe
Creative balloon twisting.
1:30PM - BALLOON TWISTING
3PM - MAGIC SHOW
4PM - BALLOON TWISTING
People's Choice and Backyard BBQ Battle Award Ceremony
People's Choice Favorite (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place) and Backyard BBQ Battle (1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place) to be awarded.
5:30PM - MAGIC SHOW
KLIQ Radio Station - SECOND STAGE
The support we receive from our sponsors every year is tremendous. It allows The BBQ Music Fest to continue in its quest to not only provide our attendees to the Festival with a fun and exciting time, but to continue giving back to our local community.
Fountain Valley Recreation & Community Services
Fountain Valley Community Foundation
Organic Sweet Leaf Tea Co.
EZ Flame BBQ
Chronic Cellars
Estrella Jalisco
Watts Healthcare
This BBQ extravaganza and music oriented event is an all-in-one outdoor family festival, and of course, the best BBQ in town. Live music, award-winning pitmasters and local grillers cooking their Ribs, Pulled Pork, Tri-tip, Sausages and Chicken..., dancing, All-You-Can-Eat VIP Rib Village and more.
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FV Sports Park • Fountain Valley, CA
© 2019 BBQ Music Fest | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions
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About New Atlanticist
To Bolster Ukraine, Help Modernize its Arms Industry
A Better Army and Economy Will Help Kyiv Stay Independent of Moscow
A version of this article was published originally on Defense Industrialist.
Read the Atlantic Council's full coverage of the Ukraine crisis.
As the United States and NATO search for the right ways to oppose Russia’s seizure from Ukraine of the Crimean Peninsula, policymakers should note a surprising industrial fact: Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, having sold more than $1.3 billion in weapons and related products in 2012 (the latest year for which the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has published its annual estimates).
This suggests a long-term policy tool that the West can use to help Ukraine build its frail economy and upgrade its own military as a better bulwark against Russian coercion. That is, help the Ukrainians modernize their (almost entirely state-owned) arms industry and their national defenses.
US Must Pull Germany Into Helping Lead NATO Against Russia - Erik Brattberg
Four Steps NATO can Take to Support Ukraine - Ian Brzezinski
How to Beat a Russian Cyber Assault on Ukraine - Jason Healey
Nicholas Burns: Five Steps Obama Should Take Now Against Russia - New Atlanticist (AUDIO)
Putin’s Strategy - Damon Wilson
See all our Ukraine Content
Ukraine’s biggest military brand name is Antonov, the Kyiv-based builder of the world’s largest transport aircraft, which NATO uses to move its outsized loads in and out of Afghanistan and other places. Zorya Mashproect, in the Black Sea ship-building center of Mikolaiv, builds gas turbines for ships, including those of the Russian navy. But Ukraine’s arms business is substantially the heavy kit of ground combat, including T-84 tanks, armored personnel carriers, rocket launchers, howitzers, grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles, and machine guns.
Ukraine for years has sold its weapons to anyone – a repeated headache for governments trying to manage or end wars and arms races. In 2007, it secretly shipped 33 refurbished T-72 tanks to Sudan’s south amid that country’s civil war. In 2000 and 2001, Ukrainian arms dealers sold 12 Kh-55 cruise missiles to Iran, despite the UN embargo on such sales.
For all that industrial muscle, Ukraine has bought little new weaponry, or otherwise modernized its own forces. The country’s total military spending in 2012 was only about $1.9 billion. According to Sam Perlo-Freeman of SIPRI, the government is actually spending more on military pensions than on the active force.
Russia’s seizure of Crimea leaves unclear exactly what kind of Ukraine will emerge from this crisis – and when. But as analyst Mark Safranski noted last week at War on the Rocks, Ukrainians are likely to respond to Russia’s assault by stepping more firmly than ever toward the European Union and the West. Governments and defense companies in the transatlantic community should begin thinking now about how they might engage Ukraine’s government and defense industry to mutual, long-term, strategic benefit.
To see the possibilities, observe how Ukraine’s factories beat some of the world’s leading land warfare equipment suppliers in big sales to countries like Thailand and Iraq. For such middle-income countries, Ukrainian industry can offer reliable weapons at affordable prices. Its labor costs are low, and surplus inventories (at least for now) are huge. But for a First World fight, its products need a little boost. As NATO armies have learned over the past twenty years, old metal can be re-bent and stuffed with the latest electronics. The Israeli firm Elbit has made a particularly good business of upgrading old Soviet equipment – just the relatively inexpensive modernization that Ukraine’s own army needs.
Once Ukraine’s government and its arms companies are past this crisis and can begin contemplating the future, North American and European governments should engage them with policies like these:
Quick action on export licenses. When Kyiv comes looking for the nuts, bolts and technologies to modernize its industry and its forces, governments should respond. While the West may still ponder the risk of Russian sympathizers in Ukraine passing technology on to Moscow, the current crisis may help reduce that hazard.
Encouragement for western defense companies to work in Ukraine. Companies in the West should plan to get involved with the Ukrainian firms. As Byron Callan of Capital Alpha recently wrote, just “forget about notions of Ukraine in 2015–17 buying F-16s or F-35s.” The solutions must be cost-effective on an Eastern European scale. Companies such as Boeing and Sikorsky learned how to do this years ago, working with post-communist enterprises in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Renew and expand NATO-members’ lease of Antonov transports. A dozen NATO member states, with a couple of non-NATO partners, have for a decade leased six massive Antonov An-124-100 cargo jets – some supplied by Antonov, and some by a Russian company, Volga Dnepr Airlines. When this contract (the Strategic Airlift Interim Solution, or SALIS) expires at the end of the year, the states should consider expanding it, and should re-direct it to purely Ukrainian providers.
None of this can begin actively amid the insecurity of the Crimean conflict. But as soon as it’s practical, upgrading industry in the East with help from the West should again be a strategic priority, as it was following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This time, the work is not about defense conversion or a peace dividend. It’s about building strong institutions in Ukraine that in the future can help deter such blatant violations of a European country’s territorial integrity.
James Hasik is a senior fellow on defense issues at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security.
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Expert analysis on the most pressing issues facing the transatlantic community from the Council's staff, board, affiliated scholars, and friends.
The views expressed in New Atlanticist are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.
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Get a free audiobook
Wisecracker
The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star
Written by: William J. Mann
Narrated by: Bo Foxworth
4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 (2 ratings)
CDN$ 14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Or, Buy for CDN$ 39.63
Audible Editor Reviews
William Haines, the number-one box office star of 1930, has somewhat faded into obscurity. In all likelihood his career would’ve survived the shift from silent films to talkies but could not survive the increasingly repressive atmosphere of Hollywood at the time of the production code. Biographer William Mann says the first "openly gay" actor may be somewhat of an anachronism - the idea didn’t even really exist at the time - but calls Haines courageous nonetheless for abandoning his career when Louis B. Mayer told him to choose between his contract and his boyfriend. Bo Foxworth gives a rich, refined performance of this well-researched, sympathetic biography of the wisecracking actor whose life has proved as historically important as his work.
Publisher's Summary
In 1930 William Haines was Hollywood's #1 box-office draw - a talented, handsome, and wisecracking romantic lead. Off screen, however, protected by a careful collaboration between studio and press, he was openly gay with reporters and studio chiefs alike. Here is Haines's virtually unknown story - rich with detail, revelations, and scandal - about silent movies and talkies; his lover Jimmie Shields, and their fifty-year relationship (Joan Crawford, their best friend, called them "The happiest married couple in Hollywood") and the enforcement of the Production Code and establishment of the Hollywood closet, which led to the blacklisting that ultimately doomed Haimes's film career.
Wisecracker sweeps from gay pool parties to the excitement of early talkies to Haines's infamous encounter with gay-bashing white supremacists in 1936. He survived the scandal to emerge as a top interior decorator to the stars and to such clients as Nancy Reagan and Walter Annenberg, who employed him for the American Embassy in London. With a cast of characters running from Tallulah Bankhead to Betsy Bloomingdale, from Clark Gable to William Randolph Hearst, Wisecracker is an astounding piece of newly discovered gay history, a chronicle of high Hollywood, and - at its heart - a great and enduring love story.
©1998 William J. Mann (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Tinseltown
The Wars of the Roosevelts
And the Birds Rained Down
Take Command
Loose Balls
4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5
5 out of 5 stars 5.0 out of 5
Audible.ca reviews
Lucian Siedler
Juicy, Thoughtful and One of a Kind!
I had little to no knowledge of "courageous" Billy Haines and author Mann told an involved historical tale superbly. As the audio book ended I found myself going to google to look for additional information. I found archived photos of Haines, his pals and his amazing decor at a website in his name. Someday we will have audio books that
feature actual archived voices counter poised against the authors rendering. Mann's book and it's narration came alive when Haines was quoted. In the meantime I am content to remember Mann's rich and thoughtful exploration.
Stewart Gooderman
A Story That Needed To Be Told
What a fascinating life! Yet so few people really know of William Haines today. The author is right when he states that when you come down to it, this is a love story of a couple who just happen to be of the same sex. No different than the great enduring marriages you hear or read about from the humblest to the mighty. Joan Crawford was right in stating that their's was "The happiest marriage in Hollywood."
If there was one thing that I'm at odds with, and even Mr Haines is guilty of this, is that William Haines is considered a film actor primarily in the silent film era who became a famed interior decorator. I see him as the opposite, a world famous interior decorator who earlier in life did some work in film.
I've seen some of his films and they are okay, with the best one being Show People. Even today, it holds up as being a very good film, and had Haines not been his own worse enemy and took acting seriously, he could have gone on to become a great character actor, even with his lost hair and this weight gain.
I think the book is recorded well, with the exception of glaring edits with variable sound quality.
A touching love story and a fascinating history of Hollywood
Any additional comments?
Bo Foxworth's warm reading style conveys the real affection that author William Mann developed towards William Haynes in the process of talking to his friends and family for this biography. Haynes' story offers amazing insights into the secret lives of Hollywood stars in the early days of silent films, followed by the transition to films with sound and the imposition of stodgy censorship of the movies. Mann skillfully describes how societal attitudes towards gay people went through many ups and downs over the decades, and how William Haynes was consistently open and forthright about his love for his long-time partner and his right to live his life as he saw fit.
Just because is not interesting
Just because he was the first openly gay movie star does not mean he was interesting. This book, though performed well, was simply boring....William Haines apparently did not do anything terribly interesting. Perhaps the good stuff is lost to time but in truth, he seemed to be Just a normal Joe who happened to be gay. Chapter 9 was basically a political commentary and overall, it was just a depressing, boring book.
Kevin Mcgue
A Nearly Forgotten Hollywood Figure Comes Alive
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Although many would file title under "gay interest" it is worth the time of anyone interested in classic Hollywood, MGM and the old studio system. There are great stories about Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, George Cukor, Cole Porter and more.
What other book might you compare Wisecracker to and why?
William J. Mann's Tinseltown is also a great true-life detective story.
Have you listened to any of Bo Foxworth’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Bo Foxworth does a great job with this title, doing different voices for the many people quoted, including William Haines, Clark Gable and even Anita page. The one problem is that he pronounces some names wrong, such as Dorothy Kilgallen. On a sidenote, the text briefly mentions Elizabeth Montgomery, who was the narrator's stepmother.
Erruk
glimpse into the past
really enjoyed this view to the past. much of the narrative felt like speculation... but it was plausible enough that the underlying theme resonated with me. I recommend this book.
Vicki McConnell
Fascinating story
If you could sum up Wisecracker in three words, what would they be?
Fascinating, Compelling, Well-written
Who was your favorite character and why?
Billy Haines -- He kept true to his principles and was a courageous man in the face
of much prejudice, at a time when being openly gay was not tolerated.
I have not heard Bo Foxworth's other performances. I felt he was excellent in this
book.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
There were many moments in the book that were compelling, but one particular
moment stands out and that is when Haines had to make a choice on whether to
engage in a "Lavender wedding" or remain true to his partner.
I enjoyed this audible book very much and would highly recommended, which I have
already done to several friends. It is informative about a seldom talked about period
in the movie picture industry.
Anna M. Kauffman
william haines
What made the experience of listening to Wisecracker the most enjoyable?
the book brought painted a vivid history of life in Hollywood from the early 1920's. I listened to it in black and white...I enjoyed every minute of it...and I liked Williams Haines very much. I was sorry when the book ended....
Well researched biography of the 1st out gay actor
I learned so much about being gay in Hollywood. This is an excellent historical work!
R. D. A. Whatley
What a wonderful journey... !
It is difficult to imagine, in today's world, just how brave and exceptionally well Billy Haines lived his life. It is a story of not only courage, ambition, and success, but also a kaleidoscope of people, events, and memories of a world forever lost. This is a book well worth reading and one of the most touching here on audible.com.
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Terps rally to thump Tigers
COLLEGE PARK, Md. --- Sean Mosley scored 20 points, Greivis Vasquez had 15 points and 13 assists, and Maryland rallied from a 15-point deficit to defeat Clemson 88-79 on Wednesday night.
It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Terrapins, who trailed 31-16 in the first half and 52-40 shortly after halftime.
Jason Williams scored 18 and Eric Hayes added 15 for Maryland, which solidified its hold on second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Terrapins (20-7, 10-3) improved to 14-1 at home, including 7-0 in the ACC.
Demontez Stitt led Clemson with 15 points. The Tigers (19-8, 7-6) appeared poised to win their fourth ACC game in a row for the first time since 1996-97 before Maryland took control with a 12-0 run.
The Terps trailed 67-65 before Williams made two free throws. Vasquez then drilled a 3-pointer with 7:24 to go, putting Maryland up 70-67 -- its first lead since 14-12.
Williams followed with a layup, further thrilling the sellout crowd, and Hayes added a 3-pointer before Vasquez capped the spree with a steal and a dunk to make it 77-67 with 6:04 remaining.
The Tigers couldn't come back.
Clemson led 52-40 before Williams scored in the lane and Landon Milbourne hit a 3-pointer to spark a 13-4 spree that got Maryland within three points. Mosley contributed a three-point play and Cliff Tucker ended the run with a trey.
Andre Young answered with a 3-pointer, then hit a soft jumper. But the Terrapins scored the next six points, and with 10:17 left, Mosley hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 63.
The Tigers led 48-39 at halftime. Only Villanova scored more points against the Terrapins in one half.
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Marketing & MediaExhibitions
Danette Breitenbach
Danette Breitenbach was the editor and publisher of Advantage, the publication that served the marketing, media and advertising industry in southern Africa. Before her editorship, she was deputy-editor as well as freelancing for over a year on the publication before that.
Glenn van Eck
Glenn is a true entrepreneur. From the age of 16, he has been involved with Magnetic Storm, initially by assisting his brother with the setting up and de-rigging of AV equipment and thereafter maintenance of equipment; and at 25 years of age Glenn purchased Magnetic Storm.
Leigh Andrews
Leigh Andrews (@leigh_andrews) AKA the #MilkshakeQueen, is Editor-in-Chief: Marketing & Media at Bizcommunity.com, with a passion for issues of diversity, inclusion and equality. She's also on the Women in Marketing: Africa advisory panel, and can be reached at
moc.ytinummoczib@hgiel
Louise Marsland
Louise Marsland is currently Africa Editor: Bizcommunity.com; a Content Strategist and Trainer; and Trend Curator for Bizcommunity.com and her own TRENDAFRiCA.co.za. She has been writing about the media, marketing and advertising communications industry in South Africa for over 20 years, notably, as the previous Editor of Bizcommunity.com Media & Marketing; Editor-in-Chief AdVantage magazine; Editor Marketing Mix magazine; Editor Progressive Retailing magazine; Editor Business Brief magazine and Editor FMCG Files ezine..
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US Supreme Court hands down important decision on challenge to the border wall
December 4, 2018 | BPR Wire | Print Article
Kevin Daley, DCNF
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a challenge to President Donald Trump’s border wall Monday, which asserted that the administration violated the Constitution when it exempted border barrier projects from environmental regulations.
The plaintiffs warn of adverse effects to local ecosystems should the administration raise a wall along the border with Mexico.
“It’s disappointing that the Supreme Court won’t consider this important constitutional issue,” Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), told The Daily Caller News Foundation by email. “Trump has abused his power to wreak havoc along the border to score political points. He’s illegally sweeping aside bedrock environmental and public health laws. We’ll continue to fight Trump’s dangerous wall in the courts and in Congress.”
A 1996 law authorized the attorney general (and later the Homeland Security secretary) to build border barriers to deter illegal immigration. In that connection, the law gave the Department of Homeland Security secretary power to exempt certain border projects from environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act, as well as other legal rules, to ensure quick construction.
The law also restricts the jurisdiction of courts to hear legal challenges to the secretary’s waivers, and provides that such lawsuits must be lodged on an accelerated timetable.
A coalition of green advocacy groups sued after the Trump administration issued two waivers under the ’96 law for border wall projects in southern California. The plaintiffs argued the waiver and jurisdictional provisions violate the constitutional separation of powers.
“[The ’96 law] effectively allows an unelected cabinet secretary to repeal existing laws, and then shields the repeals from judicial review,” the CBD’s petition to the high court reads. The petition urged the justices to curtail the “extraordinary conferral of waiver authority that fundamentally distorts the allocation of power in our tripartite system of government.”
U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel sided with the federal government at an earlier stage of the case, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
The president has clashed with Curiel in the past, as Curiel presided over a civil suit against Trump University, a real estate training program that has since closed.
2020 aspirant Robert “Beto” O’Rourke is among the signatories to an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief from Democratic lawmakers urging the justices to hear the case.
Trump has made funding for the border wall a priority during the lame duck Congress, threatening to shut down the government if the project is not funded in full by year’s end.
“We need border security in this country, and if that means a shutdown I would totally be willing to shut it down,” Trump said on Nov. 28. “And I think it’s a really bad issue for the Democrats.”
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]
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ICE Acting Director rips sanctuary city mayors for helping illegal aliens avoid arrest - July 14, 2019
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What if you have a brand story or message that cannot be constrained by the limitations of a 90 second or 3 minute film? Yes it’s true that attention spans are short, but if you are giving your audience what they want, they will gladly watch a longer film. In fact, some of the best stories we’ve told for clients are those which we have told through a series of films over time. This approach enables a brand to organically grow a relationship with their audience around a particular theme.
Ahead of the launch of the Cricket World Cup ticket ballot, Ogilvy PR commissioned Black Shark Media to produce a series of comedy films featuring Chabuddy G. Written and directed by James Kibbey, the 3 film ...
Show Your Stripes
For the launch of Southampton FC’s new kit, Mischief PR asked Black Shark Media to create a mockumentary presented by a comedy character. Using our relationships at Independent Talent and Beach Casting, we cast ...
Row To Rio
In the build up to the Rio Olympics, British Rowing commissioned Black Shark Media to make a series of films following the GB Rowing Team. The 11 film series shot over the course of 12 months followed ...
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Cal Thomas: Questions I would have asked the Democrats
By Cal Thomas
Jul 06, 2019 | 6:00 AM
California Sen. Kamala Harris has sharp words for former Vice President Joe Biden on the issue of busing during the debate Thursday.
The likelihood I would ever be invited to serve on a network panel questioning the Democratic presidential candidates is equivalent to an invitation to take the next trip to the moon.
Still, as I tortured myself watching the two "debates," which were not really debates, but mostly a show of memorized sound bites, I thought of unasked questions that ought to have been put to them all.
Question 1: Some of you have, or had, the power to change many of the things you now say are wrong with America. Why didn't you?
Question 2 (for Joe Biden): You and Barack Obama, for a time, had a Democratic majority in Congress. Why didn't you reform immigration laws and address homelessness? Your administration deported a lot of people who were in the country illegally, so why criticize President Trump for wanting to follow your example? Do our laws mean nothing?
Question 3: During the second debate, all of you raised your hands when asked if you would provide free health care to immigrants who are here illegally. Aren't you inviting even more to come to America with such a policy, and wouldn't that add to our already staggering debt? Follow-up: President Trump said we should take care of Americans first. Why would you use American tax dollars to pay for people who break our laws?
Question 4: Is there anything President Trump has done that you could praise? Many of you talk as if unemployment hasn't declined -- especially for minorities -- and wages haven't risen. Unemployment is at, or near, record lows and wages are up.
Question 5: Some of you think raising taxes again is a good idea, but with a $22 trillion debt and with record amounts of revenue already coming into Washington, isn't the real problem uncontrolled spending? Follow-up: Are there any government programs you would cut or eliminate?
Question 6: Many of you have a lot of complaints about the U.S. Is there anything positive you could say?
Question 7: Many of you have criticized President Trump for confronting Iran and withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Iran is a major sponsor of terrorism in the world and its leaders say they have a religious mandate to wipe out Israel and impose Islamic law on everyone. How would you negotiate with their leaders and what is your plan for fighting terrorism?
Question 8: Some of you say Russia is the greatest existential threat and others name China. Russia has been supporting the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad and the crumbling dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. Russia has also sent a warship to Cuba. How would you oppose Russia's adventurism and China's expansionism? How would you deal with China spying on us?
Question 9 (for Sen. Kamala Harris): You attacked Joe Biden for working with segregationist senators during his time in the Senate. He (and Lyndon Johnson, who pushed through significant civil rights legislation in the '60s) said it was necessary in order to accomplish anything. If you were in the Senate at that time, would you have refused to work with those senators, possibly scuttling significant legislation that has led to improvements in the lives of many Americans, including African Americans?
Question 10: There have been 60 million abortions in America since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, black women are more than five times as likely as white women to have an abortion. Does this trouble you? Follow-up: Some states allow babies to die if they survive an abortion and some call that infanticide. Are you opposed to that practice?
These questions and others might have provided more useful information to the public than the ones tossed at the candidates. As I say, though, it is unlikely I will ever have a chance to ask them and the network stars won't either.
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Viticultural destinations to savour
Discover a plump bunch of destination wineries worth serious investigation.
Over the past few decades, the world’s best wine destinations have welcomed new generations of winemakers dedicated to art, architecture, natural and historical preservation as well as, of course, oenology. Here are ten wineries to visit across the globe that have brilliantly combined viticultural and straight cultural attractions.
1. Chateau Mouton Rothschild – Bordeaux, France
In 1924, Baron Philippe De Rothschild enlisted artists to paint his chateau’s labels, and over the years the collection grew to include the likes of Salvador Dalì, Joan Mirò and Marc Chagall. The Bordeaux-region winery features zen-raked pathways, a single-level barrel hall containing more than 1,000 casks, rooms adorned with masterpieces of painting and sculpture and a museum of wine in art. chateau-mouton-rothschild.com
2. Bodegas Ysios – Rioja, Spain
Santiago Calatrava’s wavelike design for Bodegas Ysios is perhaps one of the most famous winery designs in the world. A curved silhouette that has also become Ysios’ logo, the Spanish architect’s structure forms a barrier between the Sierra de Cantabria mountains and the vineyards. Anyone can visit the winery but it also has a private club whose members can gather in a theatrical hall within the building and taste four exclusive wines from a private collection.
3. Castello di Ama – Tuscany, Italy
An agricultural hamlet in the heart of Tuscany, the winery at Castello di Ama was founded by a group of local families in the 1970s. These days, second-generation Lorenza Sebasti and husband Marco Pallanti have turned it into an award-winning winery and art hub. The couple have invited contemporary artists (from Daniel Buren to Anish Kapoor) to visit the estate and create a site-specific piece, turning the five-century-old castle into the ultimate destination for art and oenology. castellodiama.com
4. Marqués de Riscal – Elciego, Spain
American architect Frank Gehry designed this vineyard hotel in 2003, taking cues from his previous Guggenheim Museum Bilbao project. Gehry’s project was an impressive renovation of the 19th century winery, and his titanium roof was inspired by the colours of grape skins. Upon arrival, visitors take a glass elevator down into a 3,000-bottle cellar, and services include a spa offering wine therapy. marquesderiscal.com
5. Donum Estate – Sonoma, California
Since 2014, the Donum Estate winery has been acquiring sculptures to dot around its vineyards, and in just three years the collection has grown to include works by Fernando Botero and Keith Haring. In 2015, it acquired Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals, and the evocative power of the Chinese artist’s work inspired Anne Moller-Racke, the estate’s president and winegrower, to commission him to work on the labels for the estate’s signature Pinot Noir. thedonumestate.com
6. Chateau La Coste – Aix en Provence, France
This 600-acre estate is the vision of Irish property developer Paddy McKillen, who imagined a place where art, architecture and wine coexist and merge. The organic winery features architecture by Tadao Ando, Jean Nouvel and Renzo Piano, as well Villa la Coste, a luxury hotel comprising 28 villas, which guests reach via a path that takes them through the chateau’s Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Vermentino vineyards. chateau-la-coste.com/en
7. Penfolds Magill Estate – Adelaide, Australia
Established in 1844, the Magill Estate is one of Australia’s rare urban vineyards, located just east of Adelaide. Home to the Grange wine (and Penfolds’ first vineyard), the Magill Estate features bluestone cellars and underground tunnels, as well as a restaurant offering stunning views over its vineyards. A tour of the winery is completed by a tasting of the exclusive cellar reserve range. penfolds.com
8. Zuccardi – Valle de Uco, Argentina
This family winery was founded in the 1960s and is now run by third-generation oenologist Sebastián Zuccardi, who recently created the family’s second winery in Argentina’s Uco Valley. Called Piedra Infinita (‘Infinite Stone’), the building is framed by the snow-capped Andean peaks and constructed using stones from the range so that it blends into the landscape. zuccardiwines.com
9. Ceretto Wines – Piedmont, Italy
Wine, art and food are the Ceretto family’s passions, and their estate is the embodiment of this triple harmony. The single-vineyard Barolo and Barbaresco winery is in fact not only a wine-making destination but also home to prestigious art and architecture projects, such as the Chapel of Barolo, a 1914 chapel reimagined by Sol LeWitt and David Tremlett in 1999. Also run by Ceretto is the Michelin-starred restaurant Piazza Duomo, headed by chef Enrico Crippa and with interiors by artist Francesco Clemente. ceretto.com
10. Waterford Estate – Stellenbosch, South Africa
One of many picturesque estates in South Africa’s wine region, the Waterford Estate has a mission to preserve the local flora and fauna, which they guarantee by only using about half their land for vineyards. The winery’s cellars are built around an inner courtyard, allowing guests to taste their wines while observing the wine making processes. waterfordestate.co.za
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Commodities Videos
Vegas is now home to the 'world’s biggest’ cannabis store
Craig Giamonna, Bloomberg News
'Future upside is international': Analyst on cannabis earnings after legalization
Come for the giant neon lotus flowers, stay for the weed.
That’s the pitch from Planet 13, a Las Vegas marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the world’s largest. Housed in a 40,000-square-foot (3,700-square-metre) building—with retail space, back offices and room for weed cultivation—the store opened earlier this month just off the Strip in the shadow of the Palazzo, Treasure Island and the Wynn.
Planet 13 embraces the gaudy showmanship that lures more than 40 million tourists to the desert each year to gamble and party. Besides the 15-foot lotus blossoms on the roof, there’s a glowing 20-foot orb sitting in a fountain out front—strategically positioned for maximum visibility from thousands of hotel rooms nearby.
Planet 13 feels like someone put an upscale jewelry store inside a night club. Alongside tasteful wood and glass display cases, are the glam embellishments one associates with Las Vegas. The floor lights up when you step on it. Massive screens play trippy 3-D images.
The marijuana is displayed in containers designed to look like wine goblets; customers can grab a sniff or examine the buds with magnifying glasses. Cashiers at more than 40 registers wait to ring up bags of weed—or edibles and vape pens for gamblers seeking discretion. A gram of high-grade weed sells for US$20, an eighth of an ounce for about US$60 and disposable vape pens cost US$40.
Las Vegas businessmen Bob Groesbeck and Larry Scheffler decided to open a weed store when Groesbeck, a former suburban mayor who once opposed the drug, realized the state was moving toward legalization.
He acquired a license for a store outside the city and transferred it to Planet 13, so named because the “m” (for marijuana) is the 13th letter of the alphabet. The company parent, Planet 13 Holdings Inc., is publicly listed in Canada and has a market cap of roughly US$125 million.
The store, which will eventually include a coffee shop and tasting room, cost more than $8 million to build and is aimed squarely at free-spending tourists seeking an upscale experience. This being Las Vegas, the joint is open 24/7. “These are the same people who are paying $12 for a beer and don’t bat an eye,” Groesbeck says. “We wanted to take this out of that head-shop mindset.”
Weed was legalized for adult use in Nevada last year, and stores have sprouted across Las Vegas. For some tourists, dispensaries have become the first stop on the way into town from the airport. There’s no marijuana for sale on the Strip itself (yet), and Planet 13 is one of the closest weed stores to the casinos and hotels.
Competition is ramping up as weed growers and retailers look to cash in on Las Vegas’s millions of free-spending tourists. Green Thumb Industries, whose $1.6 billion market capitalization makes it one of the nascent industry’s most valuable companies, recently acquired Nevada stores and cultivation facilities in a deal valued at $290 million. That included a dispensary called Essence on South Las Vegas Boulevard, a quick cab ride from the main hotels.
In addition to its store, Planet 13 owns two growing facilities, one housed in a former brothel about 120 miles north of the city. The company can produce about 2,500 pounds of marijuana a year and uses the harvest for its Medizin brand.
Smoking weed is not allowed in the casinos or technically at Las Vegas hotels. With that in mind, Groesbeck is hoping local authorities will approve a bill backing “on-premise consumption,” allowing him to add a smoking lounge at Planet 13.
“We want this to be a destination,” he says.
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Anne Bancroft, Mel Brooks And Me – Manifesting A Dream
by Joan Oshatz in Hollywood,Movie Stars
The year was January 2005. My marriage of twenty years was over. My parents who I had been a caregiver to in their later years were dead. My son was grown and no longer needed me like he did when he was young. Suddenly, I was at a crossroads in my life.
It was at this time that I read an interview by the actress Anne Bancroft.
Anne talked about there being few roles for older actresses.
At first I was surprised by what I was reading. To me it was simply inconceivable that an actress such as Anne Bancroft, who had garnered five Oscar nominations during her illustrious career, and had won one Oscar, two Tonys, two Golden Globes and an Emmy, was no longer being offered leading roles. That smacked completely of ageism in Hollywood against older actresses.
Right then I decided that I would take my writing talents and I would write strong character-driven screenplays for older actresses.
In January of 2005 I sat down determined to write an incredible screenplay for Anne Bancroft. I even thought that if this age bias against older actresses was as prevalent as I was beginning to suspect it was, that my screenplay could very well be Anne Bancroft’s swan song — and if it was I wanted to send a powerful message to Hollywood that older actresses could, indeed, open a film!
I was so irate by the injustice that older actresses, who had worked a lifetime at perfecting their acting skills and honing their craft — and were now at the top of their game, were being blackballed by Hollywood just because they had reached a certain age. It angered me so much, that never once did it dawn upon me to think, “Hey, wait a second! Who the heck are you to think that you can write a screenplay for Anne Bancroft?”
I was, after all, a completely unknown writer who had only two published articles to my credit, and they did not even appear under the byline of my maiden name, Joan Oshatz. Instead they appeared in The Los Angeles Times under the byline of my married name, Joan Peters, since I was married at the time — It Pays to Have Women in Films and It’s High Time a Channel Targets Women of the ‘90s.
Nevertheless, I kept fantasizing just how excited Anne Bancroft was going to be when her agent called and informed Anne that she had read the most brilliant screenplay written just for her.
And then I fantasized Anne Bancroft’s reaction upon hearing the news. “Really? You mean somebody remembered that I was once a star?”
But my fantasy did not end there. Instead, I would go on to fantasize that Anne Bancroft’s agent would pdf my screenplay to Anne to read, but somehow by mistake she ended up e-mailing it to Mel Brooks.
Then Mel Brooks would read my screenplay and he would be totally captivated by it.
The next thing that would happen in my fantasy was that my telephone rang and it was Mel Brooks calling me.
“Hello, this is Mel Brooks. I’d like to speak to Joan Oshatz.”
My God! Could it be true? Was Mel Brooks really calling me? My inner voice screamed, “Say something! Do you want him to think that you’re dumb?” I struggled to remember my name.
“This is Joan Oshatz.”
“Joan, I have just read your screenplay.”
I felt like fainting! Mel Brooks had read my screenplay! But I didn’t faint, because I needed to know what he thought of it! If he hated it, I was going to give up writing.
“This is the most brilliant screenplay I have ever read, outside of my screenplays, of course. My screenplays are the most brilliant screenplays ever written!” Mel Brooks said.
Phew, I didn’t have to give up writing after all!
“I only have one criticism,” Mel Brooks said.
I was ready to burst into tears. Mel Brooks didn’t like my screenplay after all. He was just being polite when he called it brilliant. He hated it! What made me think I was a writer and that I could write a screenplay for Anne Bancroft? I was being totally delusional.
“Your screenplay needs to be funnier. It is missing that one element that would make it really funny,” Mel Brooks said.
“What is that element?”
“Me! You need to have me in your screenplay,” Mel Brooks said.
“But, Mr. Brooks, I wrote it for your wife. I didn’t write it for you,” I tried to say tactfully.
“Precisely, and that’s why it’s not as funny as it can be. Can you imagine having me, Mel Brooks, in your screenplay? Now that would be funny!”
I tried to imagine having Mel Brooks in my screenplay, but not even my imagination could stretch that far.
“Mr. Brooks, am I understanding you correctly? You want me to rewrite my screenplay and add a role in it for you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying — and preferably a leading role so that I can co-star in it with my wife — and then maybe I’ll even consider producing it and throwing in my directing talents too!”
Holy Toledo! Mel Brooks was offering to co-star, produce and direct my screenplay! Golly, this would really be phenomenal if it happened! The only thing that had me a little nervous was I was hoping Mel Brooks didn’t suggest that he would rewrite my screenplay too.
“I’ll tell you what, Joan — you don’t mind if I call you Joan?”
“No. Not at all.”
“Or do you like Joanie better?’
“My family and friends call me Joanie.”
“So this is the thing, Joanie. I think you may have something here. In fact, I know you have something here — especially if I’m in it! This can turn out to be a very funny screenplay!”
“Oh, it definitely will be funny if you’re in it, Mr. Brooks!”
“So this is the thing — can you write funny?”
“Well, when I was in film school my writing professor said that I was the female version of Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon all rolled into one.”
“Your writing professor said that?”
“So if your writing professor said that, who do you think is the funniest — Woody Allen, Neil Simon or me?”
I decided it was time to hang up on my imaginary conversation with Mel Brooks.
Four months went by. I had incorporated Mel Brooks into my screenplay and I was working on perfecting my script. It was now April of 2005. My imaginary telephone rang.
“Hello. . .”
“Hello, Joanie — it’s Mel Brooks.”
“Hello, Mr. Brooks!” I said excitedly.
“Joanie, I think you know me well enough that you can start calling me Mel.”
“Okay, Mel.”
“So, how’s my role coming along?”
“Oh, it’s coming along just fine.”
“Are you making me funny?”
“I’m making you laugh out loud funny.”
“Are you making me funnier than Woody Allen and Neil Simon?”
Since this was an imaginary conversation, I decided it was time, once again, to hang up on Mel Brooks, which is something that I would never do in real life.
I continued working on my screenplay and I received no more imaginary phone calls from Mel Brooks, which kind of disappointed me, because I actually enjoyed talking to him.
And then my phone rang on June 8th, 2005. By now I had been working six months on the screenplay and it was just about finished. However, this time it was not an imaginary phone call. It was my sister-in-law calling to tell me that she had just heard on the news that Anne Bancroft had died of uterine cancer.
I took Anne Bancroft’s death very hard. It was inconceivable for me to think that this consummate actress had been silenced forever. Yet, I knew that her legacy would continue to live on in all the wonderful films that she left behind.
I had so wanted to surprise Anne Bancroft with a screenplay that had been written just for her. Now she would never know that there was somebody out there who had been writing a screenplay for her.
What does this story have to do with manifesting? Well, as it turns out it has a lot to do with manifesting. I had a dream and I went for it. I did not let my fear of being an unknown writer stop me from writing a screenplay for a world renowned actress.
In my last post, The Money Tree – Or Quieting The Negative Voice Inside Of Me, I talked about how important it was to use your imagination when wanting to manifest your heart’s desire.
Anne Bancroft, Mel Brooks And Me – Manifesting A D...
BLOOEY!
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Liber XI
[Da’ath]
1. The Ordeal: An Holy Thelemic Overview
2. The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon
3. The Ordeal of an Majestic Spook
4. The Ordeal via Enochian Magick
5. An Analysis by a Master of the Temple
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"SOMA is the moon astronomically; but in mystical phraseology, it is also the name of the sacred beverage drunk by the Brahmins and the Initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial rites. The ’soma’ plant is the asclepias acida, which yields a juice from which that mystic beverage, the Soma drink, is made. Alone the descendants of the Rishis, the Agnihotri (the fire priests) of the great mysteries knew all it’s powers. But the real property of the true Soma [’The Elixir of Life’] was (and is) to make a new man of the initiate, after he is reborn...
"The partaker of Soma finds himself both linked to his external body, and yet away from it in his spiritual form. The latter, freed from the former, soars for the time being in the ethereal higher regions, becoming virtually ’as one of the gods,’ and yet plainly preserving in his physical brain the memory of what he sees and learns. Plainly speaking, Soma is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge forbidden by the jealous Elohim to Adam and Eve or Yah-Ve, ’lest man should become as one of us.’"
-H.P. Blavatsky The Secret Doctrine, Vol. II: Anthropogenesis (p. 499) Theosophical University Press
Having recently passed by a Thelemic archive or twain on one of our observational strolls, we were quite taken by numerous references to an apparently transcendental and transformitive experience which appears to be called "The Crossing of the Abyss."
Although we are in no wise permitted to comment specifically on the process, nevertheless we have captured a brief, albeit disjointed, snapshot, funneled it through common UFOlogical perceptions and presented it here. Not as a studied art or science but merely as the briefest and shallowest of descriptions for your consideration.
It is no big secret that the subject of "aliens" holds an High Degree° of interest for the Holy Blue Brethren and we have been quite intrigued on many occasions to note certain crossover points where the very diverse socio-cultural ideologies and ontologies of our species appear to overlap somewhat.
And indeed, what has remained veiled for millennia.
In regards to the strange process noted above, it was not long after reading certain Thelemic remarks on this subject that we recalled a portion of Strieber’s book "Majestic" from a few years back which appears remarkably similar in many respects.
Hence the title, Whitley and the Abyss.
It has been often rumored that Mr. Strieber has enjoyed certain Wiccan affiliations in the past so bearing this in mind, one wonders if these formerly inculcated belief systems may have filtered their way into the tapestry of his current "space alien" mythology or if certain occult groups have long been privy to a view of what A.F. Col. Donald E. Ware (ret.) has succinctly termed the "larger reality."
This series is in four parts.
Part one here contains a snippet from the alt.magick FAQ entitled "A Glimpse of the Structure and System of the Great White Brotherhood" which pertains to the process noted above.
Part two is a portion of a [metaphorical/allegorical?] dramatic story which appeared in Crowley’s Equinox -- the "official organ of the A:.A:." -- in which a young woman at the turn of the century is guided on the abyssmal journey by a fellow initiate (with apparently hidden agendas) and provides an interesting yet deeply veiled account for those adept at reading between the lines.
Part three is the excerpt from Strieber’s novel in which a young intelligence officer (also a member of a secret "occultic [intell] society" which maintains it’s own "initiation ceremonies," has it’s own hierarchical "need to know" classifications and structures and enforces it’s own version of "sacred oaths") has an encounter with some "aliens" and is transported via some strange elixir to his own disturbing yet ostensibly enlightening "crossing of the abyss."
Part four is an Enochian flavoured perception of the same phenomena.
See if you note any similarities between the core substances of each expression. Then see if you can determine why this might be.
-Frater Caeruleus
A Glimpse of the Structure and System of the Great White Brotherhood
Excerpts from Alt.Magick FAQ #7: "A Glimpse of the Structure and System of the Great White Brotherhood."
"The Order of the S. S." (Silver Star, Argon Astron, A.'.A.'.) is composed of those who have crossed the Abyss; the implications of this expression may be studied in Liber 418, the 14th, 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th Aethyrs in particular. All members of the Order are in full possession of the Formulae of Attainment, both mystical or inwardly-directed and Magical or outwardly- directed.
Every active Member of the Order has destroyed all that He is and all that he has on crossing the Abyss; but a star is cast forth in the Heavens to enlighten the Earth, so that he may possess a vehicle wherein he may communicate with mankind. The quality and position of this star, and its functions, are determined by the nature of the incarnations transcended by him.
To attain the grade of Magus he must accomplish Three Tasks:
the renunciation of His enjoyment of the Infinite so that he may formulate Himself as the Finite
the acquisition of the practical secrets alike of initiating and governing His proposed new Universe
the identification of himself with the impersonal idea of Love
Any neophyte of the Order (or, as some say, any person soever) possesses the right to claim the Grade of Master of the Temple by taking the Oath of the Grade. It is hardly necessary to observe that to do so is the most sublime and awful responsibility which it is possible to assume, and an unworthy person who does so incurs the most terrific penalties by his presumption.
"The Order of the R. C." The Grade of the Babe of the Abyss is not a Grade in the proper sense, being rather a passage between the two Orders. Its characteristics are wholly negative, as it is attained by the resolve of the Adeptus Exemptus to surrender all that he has and is for ever. It is an annihilation of all the bonds that compose the self or constitute the Cosmos, a resolution of all complexities into their elements, and these thereby cease to manifest, since things are only knowable in respect of their relation to, and reaction on, other things.
To attain the Grade of Magister Templi, he must perform two tasks; the emancipation from thought by putting each idea against its opposite, and refusing to prefer either; and the consecration of himself as a pure vehicle for the influence of the order to which he aspires.
He must then decide upon the critical adventure of our Order; the absolute abandonment of himself and his attainments. He cannot remain indefinitely an Exempt Adept; he is pushed onward by the irresistible momentum that he has generated.
Should he fail, by will or weakness, to make his self-annihilation absolute, he is none the less thrust forth into the Abyss; but instead of being received and reconstructed in the Third Order, as a Babe in the womb of our Lady BABALON, under the Night of Pan, to grow up to be Himself wholly and truly as He was not previously, he remains in the Abyss, secreting his elements round his Ego as if isolated from the Universe, and becomes what is called a "Black Brother." Such a being is gradually disintegrated from lack of nourishment and the slow but certain action of the attraction of the rest of the Universe, despite efforts to insulate and protect himself, and to aggrandize himself by predatory practices. He may indeed prosper for a while, but in the end he must perish, especially when with a new Aeon a new word is proclaimed which he cannot and will not hear, so that he is handicapped by trying to use an obsolete method of Magick, like a man with a boomerang in a battle where every one else has a rifle.
...he must employ to this end the formula called "The Beast conjoined with the Woman" which establishes a new incarnation of deity; as in the legends of Leda, Semele, Miriam, Pasiphae, and others.
From the Abyss comes No Man forth, but a Star startles the Earth, and our Order rejoices above that Abyss that the Beast hath begotten one more Babe in the Womb of Our Lady, His concubine, the Scarlet Woman, BABALON.
There is not need to instruct a Babe thus born, for in the Abyss it was purified of every poison of personality; its ascent to the highest is assured, in its season, and it hath no need of seasons for it is conscious that all conditions are no more than forms of its fancy.
The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon
Excerpt from "THE ORDEAL OF IDA PENDRAGON," which appeared in The Equinox, An. VII Vol I No. VI
THE GREY HOUR
"TO resume," observed Rolles as he removed the tea-tray, "since you have done no prescribed practices (wicked little sister!) you cannot banish the body by bidding it keep silence. So it must be banished by exhaustion, and the spirit awakened by a sevenfold dose of the Elixir."
"Have you the Elixir?" she asked, rather awed.
"It is entrusted to me," he answered simply. "To this laudable end I have appointed a sufficiency of Bisque Kadosh at the Cafe Riche, followed by Homard Cardinal and Truffes au champagne. With a savoury of my own invention. The truffes au champagne of the Cafe Riche are more to be desired than all the hashish dreams of all the wicked, and than all the divine dreams of all the good. We shall walk there, and drive back. This incense shall be kindled, and this lamp left burning."
He took a strange object from a locked cabinet. It had flowered chased pipes of gold, copper and platinum, coiling about an egg of crystal. The three snakes met just above the egg, as if to bite or to kiss. Rolles filled the egg with a pale blue liquid from a Venetian flask, then pressed the heads of the serpents just a little closer together. Instantly a coruscating flame leapt between them, minute, dazzling, radiant. It continued to burn with a low hissing noise rarely interrupted by a dry crackle.
"It is well," said Rolles, "let us depart."
Ida Pendragon had not said a word. She put on her hat and followed to the door as fatalistically as the condemned man walks to the gallows. She had passed through anticipation; she was content to await what might be.
At the door she whispered, hushed in awe of the real silence of the room with its monotonous hiss, in his ear. "You have the Lamp. I almost begin to wonder if you have not the Ring!"
"’This is a secret sign,’" he quoted, "’and thou shalt not disclose it unto the profane.’ Tonight yours be the ring -- the Eternal Ring, the Serpent to twine about my heart."
"Ah! could I crush it!"
He closed the door. Like a priest celebrating his first high mass he led her through Paris. Neither spoke. Only as they mounted the steps of the Cafe he took her arm and said, sharply and sternly:
"Attention! From this moment I am Edgar Rolles, and you are Ida Pendragon. No more: not a thought of our real relation. Man and woman, if you will; beasts in the jungle, if you will; flowers by the wayside, if you will; but nothing more. Else you will not only fail in the ordeal, but you will be swept aside out of the Path. You were in greater danger than you knew this afternoon; you will yet pay the price."
"I understand," she said. "You devil! I love you." "And I love every inch of your white body!"
They ran laughing arm in arm through the swing doors.
Edgar Rolles sat curled up Hindu fashion on his bed. The sacred lamp still hissed. At his side lay Ida, her arms stretched out cruciform. She hardly breathed; there was no colour in her face. One would have said the corpse of a martyred virgin. On her white body its own purity hovered like a veil.
Edgar Roles watched the lamp, erect, attentive. It went out. Hardly a hint of grey filtered through the blackness. In his hands he held two threads. "One is black, and one is white, he mused, and only God knows which is which. So only God knows what is sin. In our darkness we who presume to declare it are liars -- charlatans, groping quacks at the best. Will the sun never dawn? For us on whom the lightning of ecstasy hath flashed for a moment -- ’much may be seen by its light’ -- the light of the tempest.
But the Light of the Silver Star? Oh, my Brothers (he began to speak aloud) give me wisdom as you have given me understanding! Knowledge and grace and power? These are nothing and less than nothing. Is not this a precious think that you have given into my charge? Am not I too young among you to bear so wonderful a burden? It is the first time that I have dared so far. The Abyss! The Razor-Edge! Frail bridge and sharp! Yet is it not a ray of the Evening Star, a ray of Venus, of the Love Supernal! ..."
Can I tell black from white? It seems I can -- and then the certainty flickers, and I doubt. I doubt. I am always doubting. Perhaps a wise man grows angry, and declares his will. ’It shall be what o’cock I say it is,’ or ...see ! I lay the threads on her white breast. No doubt remains."
Then clear and loud: "Ave Soror!"
The girl, as it seemed mechanically, murmured the words "Rosae Rubeae."
"Et Aureae Crucis," he rejoined.
Then together, very slowly and distinctly: "Benedictus sit Dominus Deus Noster qui nobis dedit signum."
It seemed hardly possible that her voice joined his. The lips hardly moved; it was as if an interior voice spoke in her heart. Yet the room was suddenly filled with a pale green light -- or was it rosy? -- or was it golden? -- or was it like the moon? That was the strange thing about it. To every name one put to it an inward voice answered: No, not that; like that, but not quite that. Luminous, spectral, cloudy, shimmering -- it was all these, and something more.
He placed his hand upon the girl’s forehead.
"Are you perfectly awake?"
"I am awake, frater."
"Can you give me the sign of your grade?"
"I must not move. But I am poised for diving, frater."
"The word?"
Haltingly came the answer: "Ar--ar--it--a."
"One is His beginning; one is His individuality; His permutation one. Do not forget it, little sister."
"Are you ready?"
"I am ready. Farewell -- farewell for ever!"
"Farewell."
He took his signet-ring, and pressed a spring. The bezel opened and disclosed a small jewelled wheel, divided into many compartments. He pressed a second spring. The wheel began to revolve, and in the silence sang a tiny tune. It was a faint tinkle, like a distant cow-bell, or like a chime heard far off, heard from the snow. There was an icy quality in the note.
"Where are you?"
"I -- I --" she broke off.
His eyes lit with joy.
"I am in the sand; I am buried to the waist in the sand. I see nothing but sand."
His face fell again.
"What is sand?" he asked.
"Oh -- just sand, you know. Leagues and leagues of sand; like a great bowl of sand."
"But what is sand?"
"Sand -- oh! sand is God, I suppose." There was a patience and weariness in her voice, as of one who has suffered long and is at rest, or convalescent.
"And who are you?"
She did not answer the question. "Now I see sky," she said. "Sky is God, too, I think."
"Then do you see God?"
"Oh no! I think I am God, somehow. It is all like it was before, long ago. I was once a spider in the sand. God is a spider; the Universe is flies. I am a fly, too. ...And now the desert is full of flies."
Rolles bit his lip; his face was drawn with pain. At that moment he looked an old man.
"Black flies," she went on. "Horrible white maggots. And now there are corpses. The maggots play about their mouths and eyes. There are three corpses that were God when they were alive. I killed Him. That was when I was a camel in the sand. Now there are only my bones."
"It may be only a veil," he muttered, not wishing her to hear. But she heard.
"It is a veil," she said. "But is there anything behind veils?"
"Only the sand."
"Tear it down!"
"There might be Nothing behind."
"There is Nothing behind. It is through that that you must pass."
"This veil is God. I am a holy nun in the trance called Rampurana. I am canonized. My name is on every banner. My face is worshipped by every nation. I am a pure virgin; all the others are soiled. Thought is worse than deed. All my thoughts are holy. I think. I think. I think. By the power of my thought I created the Word; and by the Word came the Worlds. I am the creator. I will write my law upon tablets of jade and onyx."
Rolles bowed his head in silence.
"I am thought itself," she went on quietly. "And all thought is I. I am knowledge. All knowledge is in three. Three hundred and thirty-three. I am half the Master. I have cut him in two."
The adept shuddered.
"That was when I was an axe. I will not be an arrow. I will be an axe. ..." She gave a giggle.
"I am gleeful by reason of hate."
"And I am gleeful because I am reason. ..."
"All reason ends in two. I have cut the Master in two."
"Can she pass through?" wondered Edgar. "Is it a fault to be identified so well with that which she beholds?"
"There are devils," she cried. "Black, naked screaming devils. They touch, and at a touch each oozes back to his slime. This slime is Chaos."
"Ararita!" he breathed the word upon her brow.
"Don’t touch me! don’t touch me!" she screamed. "I am holy! I am God! I am I!" Her face was black and distorted with sudden passion.
"It’s quite different to my own experience in many ways," thought the watcher. "Yet -- is it not the essence of all ordeal, all initiation, that it should be unexpected? Otherwise, the candidate would have passed through the gate before he approached it. Which is absurd."
The last word must have been audible.
"Absurd!" she cried. "Indeed, it is not absurd. It is all rational. It is you who are absurd."
"Do you understand what you are saying?"
"No! No! I hate all who understand. I will bite them. I will bite their waists." Dropping her voice suddenly: "That was when I was a mouse-trap."
"Dear God! this is like delirium."
"Oh! go on about God. I don’t mind God. I could tell you wonderful things about what I have done to God. I was a Nonconformist preacher once: I had secret sins. They were mine! Mine! How proud I was of them! Every Sunday I used to preach against the sin that I had done most in the week. There are many butterflies in the desert; ever so many more than one would think. This proves that God is good. And then, you see, there are beetles. Beetles and beetles. And scorpions. Dear little amber beasts. There! one has stung me. It is the sacrament of hate. I will sleep in a bed of scorpions and rose- leaves. Scorpions are better than thorns. Why do I wander about naked? And why do I thirst? And this torment of cold? It ought to be hot in the desert. And it isn’t. Now that proves -- oh yes, my cat! you shall have milk. I will strike a rock for you. Milk and honey."
She started up suddenly, and put her hands to her face, then threw them round his neck.
"Edgar, darling!" she cried, "your pussy has had such a dreadful dream. Come and love his girl!"
He dared not tell her that she had tried and failed, that she had come come {sic} back as she set out. He flung his will into that act of mercy; his kisses ravished her into delight.
It was late morning when they woke, faint with rapture, fresh kisses blossoming on their young lips, as the sun himself lit their awakening with his love.
Only then came memory, and solemnity, and sorrow.
So, with a thousand tear and kisses, they parted. She would not come to see him off; her self-command was weakened alike by her new love and by the terrible ordeal that she had undergone. Her mind remembered nothing of it -- such is the merciful order of things; but her soul, beaten with rods, was sore.
An Majestic Experience
Following is an excerpt from Strieber’s "novel" Majestic wherein an alleged military/intelligence operative -- dying of lung cancer and seeking to appease his battered conscience -- describes events which took place much earlier in his life; events brought on by his contact with "alien visitors."
The Alien Elixir
How incredibly alien they were. Had I understood then who they were, I wonder if I would have acted differently. All of my life I have wished I knew what they thought of me. It must have been an incredibly funny, poignant experience -- if they had the full range of human feeling available to them in those strange bodies.
"Open your mouth," the man said.
"I will not."
"Goddammit, I knew it. Look, I gotta..." He threw himself at me. He was huge and as hard as stone. I was too spent to resist him, even for a second. With one arm around my chest he held me from behind. With his free hand he forced open my jaws.
I tried to clench them but his fingers were powerful. The woman had a graceful little bottle from which she withdrew a curved dropper.
My jaws were open, I was helpless. She put three drops of ice-cold liquid on the tip of my tongue. When they let me go I smacked and coughed. I spat.
"You can spit," the man said. "It doesn’t matter."
"What have you done to me?"
"You needed that. You’re going on a trip."
"I want to go home."
They pushed me into one of the seats. I quelled a wave of nausea, but it was followed by another, stronger one. The man reached around behind my seat and came out with an airsickness bag from the pocket. TRANSCONTINENTAL AIR TRANSPORT was printed on it in red letters. I used it.
The air had changed. Far from being cold, it was now thick and hot. It was getting hard to breathe. Whatever was happening to me, my body was being taken to the extremes of endurance. In those days we knew nothing of hallucinogenic drugs.
Without a sound the walls of the room became clear.
At first I did not understand what I was seeing. A huge shining strip of light curved off into the sky. Beneath it there shone the amazingly complex surface of a gigantic sphere colored in a thousand shades of tan and green and blue.
Then I saw that it was all surrounded by reefs and oceans of stars, stars in endless numbers, stars beyond belief in a billion colors winking, as if God’s own treasury had been spilled.
We appeared to be in the rings of Saturn. How far from earth would that be? I couldn’t even begin to remember. However, I was completely convinced that we had come an awfully long distance in a very short time.
In the middle of the clear wall was a round doorway. It did not appear to open into the view around us at all, but revealed broad plains beneath the light of a strange, brown sky. It looked like a patch pasted on the wall of stars.
I had no intention of going through that door.
The Chronicle of Wilfred Stone
The next second I was standing in a desert. It was strewn with sharp black boulders that shone dully in the weak light. A forlorn breeze fluttered my paper garment.
I was aware of the fact that Saturn was a ball of gas, so I did not imagine myself to be there. I didn’t know where I was. They had removed me from reality. A few minutes before I had been struggling in the depths of a cave, now I was on a desert worse than the Sahara.
I have wondered at those events, trying to determine if they were physically real or if they happened in some other way.
I was here, and the grit underfoot was real and the air was crackling dry and the sky was brown.
I staggered a few steps, hitting my naked foot against one of the stones. I sat down, rubbing my ankle. I looked around.
In a way that is almost impossible to describe, this place was unfamiliar. Even the details were wrong. Perhaps especially the details. The shape and color of the stones, the quality of the sand, all of it was wrong. Even the air against my skin felt different.
I wasn’t really thinking anymore. I was just here, my eyes looking out into the open.
Which was, of course, the whole point. My humanity had dropped away. I was still conscious, but I was an animal again.
And I was so lonely. I raised my head to the brown sky and keened. My sound was the only noise in the place. It seemed to be coming at once from far away and from deep within me, deeper than I had ever been. I took a breath, did it again. My spirit rose with the sound, for a moment to fill the empty air with the magic of being.
Then it died away and I was little again and it was getting dark.
I suspect that we made such sounds when we lived in the forest.
Grabbing a rock I stood up. I threw it a tremendous long distance.
It landed with an empty thud.
I raced across the plain, dodging and skipping with a grace I had never before possessed.
When I came to a high point I stopped. Seeking for the scent of water, I smelled the air.
A growl of frustration came from my throat. The sound startled me. At first I thought there was some kind of animal behind me. Then I thought, "No, that is how you’re supposed to sound."
I was me, me alone. No name, no education, no expectations. Just me.
The sky was pale and unmarked by clouds. Not far above the horizon there was a powdery brilliance, which I presumed was the sun in deep haze.
Next I scanned the horizon, looking carefully for some sign of life, a swatch of green, perhaps, or the glitter of water. Then I looked for smoke or just the outline of a building.
The place was completely empty and entirely silent.
Again I smelled the parched air. I was already quite thirsty; I couldn’t live like this for long. The air was so dry that it was leaching moisture from my body. My hands looked like paper, the skin puckered and shriveled. I touched my face, feeling fissures that had never been there before. And my nose was cracked inside.
Where would I go, naked except for a flimsy piece of paper? Graceful or not, my feet were thoroughly banged up from the mad run. I don’t think there was a single rock that wasn’t sharp.
For the most part the desert seemed absolutely flat, but off to my right the land rose. I could not judge distances. The views, though, seemed much longer than they had any right to be.
I walked in the direction of the rising land. At least this would keep the sun behind me. What had appeared to be the gentlest of rises soon became quite steep. I wasn’t going to be able to keep this up forever. My chest and head ached, my legs felt like lead, my feet were on fire.
Very suddenly I started to have trouble seeing. At first I didn’t understand why, because I did not realize how fast night came. By the time I realized what was wrong the sun was already on the horizon.
It seemed as if the air literally absorbed light. The instant the disk of the sun disappeared it was absolutely dark. There were only one or two bright stars visible through the dusty haze.
God, this place was ugly.
I sat down. There was no point in walking farther without light. The dark was like ink, like something you could feel.
I wished they’d at least left me my lighter.
Then I was crying bitterly. The tears came without warning. I had been left here to die. It was so damn unfair and I was so far from home.
Later I heard something, or thought I did. Now that it was dark I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to hear anything that I couldn’t see.
The sound was low and slow and high in the air. It was as if some tremendous thing was floating through the sky above me, breathing.
The breathing got louder and louder. I felt like it was right above me, huge. I cringed, waiting for it to land on me.
Instead it went away. I let out my breath.
No sooner had I begun to relax than there was a tremendous rattling noise in the distance.
It got closer and closer and lower and lower and I could hear the breathing again, fast and excited. There was urgency in it, like a starving prisoner inhaling the aroma of the jailer’s soup.
A new sound started up, sharp scraping. It was very regular, as if somebody was slashing knives together.
Something whizzed through the air just above me, so close that my hair was touched with a breeze.
Involuntarily I shrank away-and saw a red glow out of the corner of my eye. I looked. Redness spread along the horizon on my left.
A moment later a huge red star popped up and the place was bathed in dim, bloody light.
There seemed to be a forest of thin trees all around me. It took me time to understand that I was looking at tall, black legs, many of them.
It took every ounce of my composure not to scream. I was under what appeared to be a gigantic insect of some kind, perhaps a spider. The rattling noise started again. I could see sharp mouth parts working.
Jumping, twisting, turning to avoid the legs I made a dash to get away from the thing.
It rose up into the air, making a gigantic leap. I had to scramble to avoid it landing right on top of me. Again I ran. This time I threw stones at it.
It leaped.
I evaded, but barely. I scrambled up the rise on the theory that those jumps would be harder uphill. They weren’t. It sailed high into the red air and came down on top of me.
Legs clutched, mandibles scraped -- and I was caught. I grabbed a rock and hammered against one of the limbs. For all the good it did I might as well have been trying to break steel pipe.
I fought against its quick, clever legs. Finally I went wild. I hit, kicked, bit. The jaws were slashing and I could see a bright green tongue darting in and out of its mouth. I was brought closer and closer to being sliced to pieces.
I could not possibly taste good to the thing. It was sure to tear me to pieces and spit me out. I was furious at dying so pointlessly.
Then the legs pressed me against the wide open mouth and I began to die.
As I sank away I saw around me a starry night of home. I was back at our old house. We were playing on the porch, my sister and I. I saw her beside me, attending to her beloved doll Ricardo. That word -- I hadn’t thought of it since I was tiny. The moment was bathed in a light that seemed to contain some essential emotion of loss and urgency.
There was between me and the thing that was devouring me a kinship of tremendous power. It pushed my fear aside and I lay like a raptured lover in the forest of legs.
If this was death, from where did love emerge?
I was dropped on the ground from a distance of a few feet-put down gently. For an instant I saw the complex face of the thing that had held me. It looked like nothing so much as a tremendous mantis. But those eyes -- huge, reflecting the red air -- were not blank. I was shocked. Somebody was looking at me. Joy rang out. There was peace, wisdom and then a cock of the head: the irony of our situation. Soundless in the charged air, laughter.
I was left collapsed on the ground, drained now not only of my culture and my name but also of my physical strength.
Bit by bit I was being demolished, reduced to the simplest nub of self.
I lay staring at the sky. Did I sleep? I don’t know, but when I finally felt like getting to my feet I was stiff and ached in every joint.
Keeping the red sun on my right I forced myself up the rise. As I walked I understood that I had been brought a long distance. Before me there stood the most tremendous cliff I’d ever seen. It seemed to go up for thousands and thousands of feet.
On its highest ridge there was a very distinct blue glow. The glow was pulsating.
So the attack had not been an attack at all. Somebody had simply been helping me.
The cliff was not sheer. There were plenty of footholds, and I had already reached a dizzying height when the red sun sank below the horizon.
Again darkness came abruptly. I was left hugging the wall in front of me, afraid to go another inch.
I don’t think it was dark for more than ten minutes. When the pale sun rose again I resumed my climb.
There were moments of dizziness when I would have to stop. I wasn’t in shape for a climb like this. My throat felt as if it had been packed with powdered glass. My head pounded.
Not only was I thirsty, I was also becoming hungry. I kept remembering that beef stew I’d had for lunch. Once I even sucked a bit of it from between two teeth.
When that happened I hugged the rock and cried like a baby. The loneliness came again, and stopped me for a long time.
The higher I went the more difficult the climb became. Worse, the soil up here was friable and there wasn’t a single stable handhold. I had to dig down then haul myself up as the dirt collapsed around me.
Above me the blue glow was massive. I tried to call out but it was no good. I hadn’t a trace of a voice.
At this height the cliff was more like a sand dune. To make headway I had to lie against it and squirm. I was so frustrated that I would have been in tears, but I had no tears.
It took me some time to realize that I’d made it.
Before me was a sparse but huge park. I dragged myself onto the surface, which I found to consist of tightly matted grass, bright green. I inhaled it, chewed at it trying to get some moisture. It was very dry.
I pulled myself to my feet. Off to my left there was a stand of tall, narrow trees. They were really huge, a hundred and more feet high by my estimation.
Directly ahead I saw a truly welcome vision, a cluster of buildings. They were obviously adobe. It looked very much like a Hopi town. I started stumbling forward.
A smell came to me on the air-or rather, a sensation. This was dampness. It loosened my drum-tight skin. It filled my nose with life, made my lungs open.
As best I could I ran.
Then I saw it. A fountain. It was made of black, shiny stone, round, with water playing out of a nozzle in the center.
I plunged my head in and opened my mouth. The water was glorious, cold and pure and perfect. I could feel my skin drinking, my mouth, sucking and drinking. Never had I experienced such raw pleasure. It was ecstatic, delicious, almost sexual in its intensity.
Finally I raised my head. Beyond the fountain there was a small garden.
In the garden stood a child. Her looks did not matter to me; what I saw was the radiance within. I ran to her as would a youth to his perfect love.
[the transcription stops as the author recollects the interview]
I finally felt what I should have felt from the beginning for Wilfred Stone. My youth and arrogance had prevented me, though.
I looked at that old man in a completely new way. I reached toward him. He looked down at my hand, and then at me. In his eyes was an emotion I cannot name. It sent a jagged edge of fear through me, as if I had scented death.
"Turn it off," he said. I put down the tape recorder. He flipped the switch. He didn’t actually tell me to leave out the material that follows, but that was the implication.
I do not feel that he was right, but out of respect for him -- yes, respect -- I took notes on this part of his narrative of the other world, rather than record it.
[the experience resumes]
The wise child walked quickly away, a chalky ghost in the gloom. She was the size of a three-year-old but her movements were mature.
Will called out.
She stopped when she heard him. When she smiled he sensed what he described as something almost vampiric about her. There was a sense of tremendous, overwhelming power, the night in the child.
He felt himself in the presence of tremendous wisdom. This was what it was like to be with somebody who had gone beyond the human.
His next words just popped out, as if formed from purest instinct. "Help us," he said.
The response was immediate. The next second he was back in his boyhood home in Westchester County.
The whole place was flooded with pure, sweet light. He could hardly believe it. And this was no illusion. Will says that he was there.
What’s more, he remembers the event now from two different perspectives -- that of himself as a little boy encountering a strange, shadowy man in his room ...and also that of himself as the man.
The old red fire engine was there, standing against the wall opposite his crib.
He moved slowly around in his room. The wonder of it made everything seem jewel-like and perfect.
Then he noticed movement in the crib. His own curly head, his blue eyes-the Willy Stone of thirty and more years ago rose up and climbed deftly out to the floor. Will could smell his baby freshness, could hear him, see him.
"Oh God, God," he told me, "Nick, my heart just broke in two. I was so little! And in that huge, shadowy, mysterious world, the courage in the eyes..."
The wise children, the others, had brought him home to the best and purest thing that he was.
He remembered a warm, huge hand that had come out of the dark ... and suddenly the curtains blew and the moonlight came in and he saw a huge, terrible man, a nightmare man bending over him.
He screamed, a high bullet of a sound.
Feet pounded from downstairs. Will the man saw his father’s balding head shining in the moonlight as he came up the stairs. Behind him his mother floated in her lace and silk.
He stepped into the shadows.
Will as child was terrified. "Daddy! Man! Man here!"
He saw his own father engulf him in himself and carry him like a limp offering back to the crib.
Then the room fell away, growing smaller and smaller until it was a dot of light in the air, and then was gone.
The vampire child was dancing slow turns around him. She stopped and smiled a dangerous smile. And he felt nothing but love.
At the far end of the oasis there was a tall arch, and beyond it a round, tumbledown building.
He wanted to go there, but she restrained him, pushing against his belly as a clown child might against her clown father.
Leaving him for a moment she ran to a small table. She pointed. On it there was a plain gray plate and three gray pancakes. Will realized that he was ravenous. He remembers still the taste of that food, the pure flavor of the buckwheat from which the cakes were made, the sense of a freshness he had never tasted before.
There was also a wide bowl of water. The girl came and scooped it up for him and he drank from her cupped hands.
Afterward she sang to him in a whispering voice, in a language he did not know. He began to feel sleepy and lay down on his side.
Much later he was awakened by a soft hand stroking his head.
He jumped to his feet. All the weight of his years seemed to have fallen away.
He walked, then, as his excitement rose; finally he ran to the ancient building. Where the blue-gray stones were intact their perfect fit reminded him of Inca work, but for the most part the place was cracked and crumbling.
He went up the steps and into a wide, cool hall. It was made of dark-blue stone worked with great intricacy. When he tried to follow the labyrinth of these carvings his head began to pound. Finally he had to stop looking at the walls, the ceiling, and keep his eyes on the floor.
There was a circle of children sitting before him. It was all so very familiar. Words came to him: beyond fear there is another life.
Was this the place the dead went?
Had he been killed? Was that what this meant?
He went to the center of the circle and waited, standing quite still. He soon heard a drum beating out in the corridor. The sound stirred him, infected him, made him start to move.
The children began to chant in repetitive notes, wonderful notes.
He spread his arms and started to turn. The room whirled and the drum pulsed and chanting hypnotized him.
He remembered his own beginning.
He was moving swiftly and secretly across the sky of home. There were little flecks of cloud. He went past them and down into the spreading summer trees. He moved around a great, gnarled limb, his heart full of love and delicious with the secrecy of his coming. His movement was so stealthy that not even a grasshopper stirred from her rasping as he passed by.
Then he saw a window. The shades were drawn but he passed through them as if there was nothing there.
The room was dim and very quiet. A young woman lay on a bed, her head turned to one side. She was as fresh and lovely as new light, covered only by a thin gown. Brown curls spread over her brow. Her belly was huge.
He loved her terribly, and could not resist going closer to her. Then he began to drift downward. He could no longer float.
In an instant he was inside her womb, a glowing cavern. Her body was roaring, the heart fluttering like a tent in the wind, her whole self a bubbling, oozing bladder barely managing to contain its liquids.
He swam into the fluid of her and drank her and smelled her essential flower, and was filled with the taste and sense of her.
There began a dialogue between them, long speaking together of the days they would spend as mother and son.
He would love her as a boy, but when she grew old he would abandon her. His love for deception would replace his love for her and so she would die alone, her breast weakly shuddering, on a cot in the hallway of a public cancer ward.
He sat before me, his head bowed, tears streaming from his eyes. So this was what he didn’t want recorded and why he never, ever mentioned his mother. I wanted to help him, to offer him some word of comfort but I could not. We are all betrayers, all of us.
To find true joy one must first accept true pain.
Once again he was back in his old bedroom, only not as a man. This time he was a little boy again. He was dancing and dancing. It was a moonlit night and there was danger in the air. Terrible things were happening.
He saw waves of ships crossing the highest air. They were gray disks and the streets below rang with screams.
But more people were singing than were screaming and chains lay abandoned that had weighted their shoulders.
"The lamb will lie down with the lion." The secret meaning is that the son will love the errant father, the lamb will welcome the hungry nuzzling of the wolf-mother, the rat will perish of love as the owl’s talons pierce his heart.
Beyond fear there is another world.
Enochian Temples: Generating the "Abyss" Experience with the Temple
by Benjamin Rowe
The technique described herein can be VERY DANGEROUS to the emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being of the magician who makes use of it. I am releasing it solely because full disclosure was one of the requirements under which the Enochian Temple system was originally given to me. The entities who provided the basic information feel that people can not grow to spiritual adulthood without being exposed to adult hazards. My experience of the results prevents me from being quite so cold- blooded. The same goals can be accomplished by more gradual means, as those entities have stated themselves. The magician who chooses to use this technique must take full personal responsibility for both the decision to do so, and for any events resulting from its use.
Should a magician want use it despite this warning, he or she should do so only after constructing a strong, fully charged Temple which includes the altars of the sub-elements. And any invocations using this technique should be immediately preceded by the erection of the strongest wards the magician is capable of constructing.
The names of a Tablet’s Seniors can be formed into a table on their own by placing their names one above the other, going clockwise from the Senior of Jupiter. For the Earth Tablet, the table of the Seniors would be:
Similar pseudo-tablets can be formed from the other elemental tablets. Names of six letters are formed by reading down the columns. These names already exist in the Temple, where they are formed by drawing a circle clockwise from any square of the Senior of Jupiter, connecting the corresponding squares in the other Seniors’ names. In their natural place, they express the radiatory effect of the Elemental King as his force passes out along the paths provided by the Seniors. But the names can also be used in another way.
First, hollow hexagons are formed, as in figure ( ), one-half unit thick with outer faces one unit wide. Each letter of a name is assigned to one of the wedge-like segments of this structure in clockwise succession. Each name’s hexagon is placed immediately below the corresponding arm in the wheel of the Seniors, about two-thirds of the way from the center of the Temple to the end of the arm, with the base side at the same level as the tops of the pillars. The hexagon attributed to the Sun is in the center of the upper Temple, with the Elemental King’s beam passing through the hole.
In the chart as given above, the columns are attributed (from left to right) to Venus, Sun, Saturn, Earth/Luna, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars. When used in invocations, the name should be vibrated immediately after that of the King or corresponding Senior, and at no other time. Also, the first enochian key should always precede the invocation of the element when these names are used. When they are visualized in the upper Temple, an appropriate telesmatic image for the Senior (or the god-form of the related planet) should be visualized standing upright above (not in) the hollow center. (1) The magician himself should stand in the beam of the King while invoking them, and attempt to identify himself with it to the greatest extent possible.
As the Elemental King and each Senior is invoked with the corresponding name from the table, the hexagon should be visualized as projecting itself downwards into the lower temple, forming a hollow crystal column. The force of the King or Senior is channeled down through the column and then radiates outward through the faces. (This is in contrast to the normal Temple formulation, where the Seniors’ force spreads out to form a curtain around the lower Temple.)
In the Enochian system, six of the planets are attributed to the first six sephiroth of the Tree of Life. The seventh, Saturn, takes in the last four sephiroth as a group. In the formulation here, the Senior of Saturn takes Sol’s place in Tiphereth as the governor of the elements, and the Elemental King abandons his solar attributes, taking on his secondary attribution to the path of Shin, which connects Tiphereth and Kether in Achad’s version of the Tree of Life.
In the Tree of Life, the centralizing effect of Sol normally causes the forces of the upper Tree to be focused in Tiphereth. But when Sol’s force is repressed or removed, the balance of these sephiroth moves to the empty area in the center of the upper Tree. The path of Shin passes through this area, but it does not provide any focus for the forces of the six sephiroth. (2) Each of the sephiroth becomes focused in itself, and the attractive force of each draws equally on the empty center area. That area experiences a uniform pull outwards in all directions, resulting in the rending and dispersal of anything placed there. A conscious being passing up the path of Shin perceives this effect as the experience of the Abyss.
Normally, the Enochian Temple expresses the essential unity of the Tablets with the whole Tree of Life as a balanced, integrated structure. Using the technique presented here suppresses that integrity and replaces it with a strong force towards dispersion. The magician, identified with the Elemental King’s beam of light, places himself to experience the full strength of that dispersion.
Depending on the degree of success, the magician may experience a variety of perceptions. At the least intense level, he may experience sensations of inexplicable "wrongness" and non-specific paranoia, or a sense of jittery energy like an overdose of methedrine. At a somewhat more intense level, he will experience a sense of his soul being ripped into extremely small pieces, while each piece is simultaneously being crushed to a point.
At full force, the experience then evolves into what can only be called the perception of voidness; the negation, the removal of any being or value from absolutely everything perceptible, both internal and external. The intensity of this voidness can not be adequately described. At this stage the paranoia sometimes returns, causing the magician to perceive the voidness as an all- consuming malevolent entity. Giving in to this paranoia, struggling to avoid being devoured, brings one on to the path of those whom Crowley calls the Black Brothers. If one does not struggle, that which perceives is itself absorbed into the void and another condition supervenes for which description is futile.
1. Images for the Seniors of the Earth Tablet are given at the beginning of each Senior’s section in The Book of the Seniors, which is available through the Archives.
2. The idea that an eleventh sephira exists in this position is one of the most vile lies ever perpetrated. It is unfortunate that some otherwise competent scholars have made their reputations by spreading it even further. While there is the appearance of something occupying the center of the hexagram when it is viewed from lower down in the Tree, this appearance is entirely hallucinatory. The Tiphereth consciousness merely sees a reflection of itself in the surface of the Great Sea, as a skin diver sees a distorted reflection of himself in the waves above his head.
Some wonderfully iconoclastic and myth-shatterin’ notes proceeding from the V.H. Frater Joshua Norton, MoT
Concerning the Abyss
From the PODnet Thelema echo:
Date: 26 Nov 93
From: Josh Norton
Subj: the abyss
Thus said K. B. to Josh Norton:
oh good! i thought that you might find my reaction offensive. BTW, i’ve been tryng to find out something about how you conceptualize the abyss. i’ve been looking through whatever i’ve found of your writings, but haven’t been able to find much. is there a paper that you’ve written floating around in cyberspace anywhere, that might give me some idea of your views on this? (i’ve never felt that what the GD or crowley has said about the abyss seemed valid. yet, i’ve not been able to even figure out my own conceptualization of it. i just know that the crowley/GD writings on it, don’t feel right to me.) so little has been written about it, by anyone. i’ve even been through some of the jewish cabalistic literature, and still havent dug up much.
There’s not a whole lot in one place -- it tends to get brought up as a side-issue to some other topic. Besides, most of those papers were written before I claimed the M.T. grade, so are mostly second-hand information received by inspiration or told to me by various magickal beings. Not very reliable.
Other places, I don’t think there’s really much available. Crowley’s the only one I’ve seen talk about it in a magickal context to any great extent. He must have got the idea somewhere, but I don’t know where; I’ve never seen any sources he might have read. (Perhaps Paul H. or some other scholarly magician can clue us in on that.) A couple of English Christian mystics -- can’t remember the names -- talk about it in a similar way. In other places it’s used for a variety of different experiences, confusing the issue.
The primary usage of the term is to denote a "gap" or discontinuity between the perceptual states and internal organization of the Ruach or mind aspect, and the perceptual states of the transcendental grades. This is how Crowley uses the term.
The traditional Western interpretation of this apparent discontinuity is to say that there is a real gap between the divine levels and the lower levels, as if God had taken a sword and cut all connections between the Supernal Triad and the other sephiroth. And having accepted the reality of the division, they necessarily go on to view the transition to transcendental levels as requiring the seeker to somehow "leap" or "cross over" this gap. One gets the impression that this transition involves all sorts of horrific experiences, confrontations with demons, violent destruction of the self, etc., etc.
My own experience denies this view almost entirely. In the reality of the universe, there is no gap of any sort. All parts of existence are completely connected to each other, and are constantly interacting. All of them are involved in every event; the transcendentals as much as any other.
The Abyss is an illusion generated by the way in which the Ruach filters, organizes, and assigns priorities to the elements of experience. All the things that make up the experience of the MoT are already present in the raw experience of the person. It’s just that the way the Ruach processes experience creates internal structures into which those things don’t fit.
(I’m going to have to build up to my point -- please be patient.)
Let’s start with an extremely simplified example to illustrate this. Say you’ve got a little computer that does certain things when it gets a signal. Whoever programmed this computer put in instructions for what to do when it gets the signals "01", "10", and "11". It is capable of also receiving the signal "00", but has no programmed instructions for that case. So what happens when it receives a "00" signal? It either ignores it, or treats it as one of the signals for which it does have instructions. As far as its internal activity goes, the signal "00" simply doesn’t exist.
On a vastly larger scale, this is what the Ruach is doing. It only processes information for which it has a hard-wired program, or for which it can create new programs by adapting and combining older programs. Any information for which it can’t make an interpreting algorithm simply doesn’t exist, as far as it is concerned.
Most of the Ruach’s processing programs are software, and some of them are capable of modification in such a way as to handle the usually-excluded data that makes up the transcendental experience. The problem is that nearly all its programming derives (sometimes through many levels) from adaptations of the basic "hard-wired" instructions for processing and responding to raw data from the physical senses. That’s why the sephira Yesod, where this processing takes place, is called "The Foundation" of the Tree of Life.
So the entire structure of our minds, from our basic emotions up to the most inclusive "intuitive" level, has a built-in bias towards seeing and processing data in sensory-like ways, and an equally complete inability to see or process information that can’t be fit into that schema or its more abstract analogues.
Now as I said in another message, nearly all of the path of initiation is a process of expanding the number of levels at which we can perceive consciously and integrating each new level into what came before. When this process is done for a given level, its functioning becomes relatively automatic, and falls below the threshold of awareness. Throughout most of the process the expansion and integration are fairly well-balanced, so that new levels open up at about the same speed with which we integrate the old ones. The progress is incremental, allowing gradual adaptation of old programs to new uses.
But as we reach the Exempt Adept level (in Chesed) we also get close to the limits of the available data-flow that can be easily integrated into a structure based fundamentally on the programs for processing sense-data. The Ruach, deprived of its means of further expansion, turns towards improving its internal models, making them more complete, tying up loose ends, and consciously dealing with aspects of the integration that were previously done through automatic unconscious processes. The mind starts to develop its "Grand View" of the universe, in which all its knowledge is brought together in a single structure.
This is where the "Abyss" starts to come into the picture. As with previous levels of integration, the "Grand View" level begins to fall below the threshold of consciousness. The conscious self starts to look around for new levels to explore, and doesn’t see any. It’s not that there isn’t anything to see; there is plenty there. It’s that the consciousness is so accustomed to seeing the universe through the pre-processing of the Ruach that it literally cannot perceive anything that doesn’t fit into the Ruach’s integrated structure.
The person thus enters into a curious and somewhat unpleasant state. He seems to be living in a wasteland, devoid of the life-giving, perpetually-stimulating diversity of the earlier stages. His invocations never seem to produce anything new, just variations on experiences that he already knows well. His efforts to forcefully project his awareness into higher levels leads him into states that aren’t truly new, but are obvious distortions and perversions of his normal state of awareness. He feels like he’s run up against a barrier like the light-speed barrier; no matter how hard he pushes, he never quite gets through it. And beyond the barrier -- perhaps making up the barrier -- there appears to be nothing but a void, a total lack of any perceptible quality whatsoever. This is the so-called "Abyss".
I can testify from my own experience that the Wasteland is well-named. It is a desert in which the hunger, the thirst for a touch of a higher spirit can reach excruciating levels. (The biblical crucifixion seems to me to be a compact but very appropriate description of this stage.) The intensity of the need is so great that sometimes total oblivion seems a preferable state.
I can see how someone reaching this stage might eventually decide that there really isn’t any further to go, turn his back on it, and try to continue living in the world he has known. This is what Crowley says makes a "Black Brother", one who denies the spirit and sees himself as the epitome of creation, with no purpose higher than his own desires.
But you’ve got to keep pushing, no matter what. Because, while one’s conscious experience is utterly miserable, on unconscious levels there is a very great deal going on. As I said, the perception of this gap or void is an illusion, produced entirely by the limitations of the Ruach with its biased processing structures. Fortunately, the universe doesn’t give a damn about our illusions; it just keeps working in its own way, whether we see it or not.
In the unperceived under-reality, the magician’s invocations (and more important, his intense hunger for the spirit) are actually producing a response from higher levels. These may even erupt into the conscious level on occasion, so that for brief moments the magician gets a glimpse of what it is like on the "other side" of the non-existent gap. But the details of these experiences are usually forgotten almost as soon as they are over; the mind simply can’t retain them in its current state.
Anyway, these underground activities produce the usual destructive effects on the structure of the Ruach, and condition at least the highest levels of the structure so that they can change their program along lines that are not limited to the biases mentioned above. This allows the transcendental levels to enter the person on a conscious level, thus creating the impression that one has "crossed" the "Abyss". But there was really no Abyss to begin with; just an inadequate perceptual organization.
The Illusion of the Abyss
by Benjamin Rowe,
This piece was written for an English occult magazine. I forget the title I originally put on it -- something cleverly pompous.
The word "abyss" has seen widespread use in the occult community, with many different meanings. In various times and places it has been used to represent everything from the Christian Hell to existential angst. In this century, among the many occultists influenced by Aleister Crowley, the term has taken on a specific reference to the process of transcendence, the events by which a person’s awareness transforms from an individualized state into a transcendental or "enlightened" state. Crowley called this process "Crossing the Abyss".
Crowley’s description of the process is highly dramatic and equally idiosyncratic. It is also extremely vague, consisting of a few symbols and metaphors that he used throughout his life, without ever attempting to expand or explain them, or to explain in detail the relationship between the transcendental and human levels of being. Perhaps this vagueness is the reason for it’s popularity; it provides a simple, easily-grasped image, however mistaken it might be.
Crowley perceived the "Abyss" as a literal gap in the stuff of creation, separating the human levels of existence from the transcendental or divine levels. He describes this gap as a region of nullity and terror, in which anything that enters is torn asunder. (In this much, he was following a long-established theme in Hebrew cabalistic lore.) In order to attain to enlightenment, the magician must "leap" into this Abyss, where his human self is ripped apart and destroyed. If he has established enough momentum in his climb towards the divine levels, then the divine spark in himself (freed from its bindings to his human self) will be carried over to the other side of the gap to become a Master of the Temple, the magickal grade equivalent to the basic enlightened state.
Somewhere along the way from one side to the other, Crowley says, the magician must also confront and temporarily become the "Demon of the Abyss", whose nature is Dispersion. Crowley named this demon Choronzon, a name for Satan from the works of Dr. John Dee; but the characteristics he assigns to the demon owe more to the "Dweller on the Threshold" from Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni novels. It is unclear how this confrontation relates to the destruction of the magician’s human self.
Crowley’s description of his own "crossing of the Abyss" is recorded in his book The Vision and the Voice. The record conforms closely to his metaphor of the process. However, his depiction disagrees in many ways with those provided by other enlightened people across the years; it also disagrees with my own experience of that process, which was achieved through the same means Crowley used: John Dee’s "Enochian" magickal system, coupled with the system of lore from the Western traditions of ceremonial magick and the cabala.
From the perspective of my own experience, the whole "Abyss" concept is nonsense. There is no gap between the divine and human levels of existence; the transcendent being is already constantly present and active in every person. Since this is the case, there is nothing to "cross" or "jump". The discontinuity, to the extent there is one, is entirely a matter of perspective; the transcendent view *is* dramatically different from the Self-centered view common to the lower levels. But there is a constant connection and interaction between the divine and the human; they make up a single, undivided system.
Rather than a separation, our normal lack of awareness of the divine aspect of ourselves is a matter of ignorance. Through ignorance, reinforced by a lifetime of conditioning and habit -- and reinforced even more by magickal disciplines -- the transcendent being in a person is deluded into believing it is something that it is not: an individualized "self" or "soul", operating in the mundane world through the medium of a personality mask. In its ignorance, it becomes so thoroughly identified with this self (which is a constructed thing) that it becomes unaware that it is anything other than that self. You might think of it as a weird sort of dharana or deep meditation; a concentration on an object of meditation (the self, in this case) so intent that the difference between the perceiver and the perceived disappears.
Achieving transcendence therefore is not a matter of creating a bridge over a gap, or of leaping a gap, or anything of that sort. Rather, it is a matter of awakening the already-present transcendent being from its state of identification with the self, getting it to realize and act from its natural state.
What it takes to do this can vary widely. It might require something as catastrophic as the complete destruction of the "self", as in the typical Abyss myth; but it could equally be as subtle and gentle as a breath of air slipping out through an open window, leaving the self completely intact. In my own case, it was somewhere between these extremes. There were some long and rather painful steps leading up to it, but the final event was quick, undramatic, and utterly simple.
To put the event in context, there are two main thrusts to the magickal/cabalistic approach to initiation. First, through invocations, astral explorations, meditation, etc., it seeks to open up the hidden portions of the mind (both sub- and superconscious), to bring their activity under conscious direction, and to make use of them to explore and perceive the corresponding aspects of the universe at large. The scope and control exercised by the individual is constantly increased, and the various parts brought into a state of tight coordination.
At the same time, the cabalistic side of the work seeks to bring about an ever-increasing synthesis in the "contents" of the mind. Through the use of correspondences, the chaos of raw experience is gradually reduced. Ideas and experiences get organized into hierarchies, each level abstracting something from the lower ones, so that ever-greater numbers of events become instances of ever- simpler ideas. Eventually things coordinate into an elegant system of archetypes, energies, and relationships.
By the time the person has achieved and absorbed the highest purely human level and become an "Exempt Adept", both these processes have pretty much been exhausted. Those parts of the person’s being that are capable of being controlled and coordinated by the individual self are as integrated as they are ever going to be. The contents of the mind have been reduced to an integrated scheme and an encompassing philosophy. He is the Complete Individual, so to speak. Such people -- as Crowley notes -- tend to become leaders of "schools of thought" for spreading their philosophy; or they become priests or social leaders of some sort.
Crowley talks about the next stage of the process as if it were something to be consciously decided; but in fact, if it happens out of anything except necessity, the person is probably jumping the gun.
(I should note that the description that follows is from my own experience, coordinated with a very few other people’s; your mileage may vary. And this applies *only* to the magickal/cabalistic approach; it doesn’t seem to occur -- at least not with the same severity -- in the more mystical approaches of the Eastern systems.)
The Exempt Adept now enters into a period of increasing "dryness", what I call "wandering in the wasteland", following the myth of the Grail Knights . I don’t know how this associates with the so-called "dark night of the soul" -- descriptions of that never resonate for me. He has reached a point of diminishing returns in both his magickal and cabalistic endeavors.
His magickal work still raises his consciousness above its normal level; but instead of staying at that higher level, he always seems to fall back to the point where he started, or advances only the most minute increment -- far too little for the amount of effort expended. And such advances as he makes eventually turn out to be only variations on what he has already accomplished, not something truly new. There seems to be some sort of asymptotic principle in effect. Each increment he moves above his current level requires substantially larger amounts of effort; he can expend all the energy at his command without getting to a stable higher level.
A similar state exists with respect to his cabalistic work. He continues to make elaborations on his synthetic scheme, but finds that new additions and expansions decrease in frequency. At the same time he becomes aware that there are aspects of existence that cannot be fit into his present scheme without destroying it utterly and starting over from scratch; he doesn’t know what these aspects are, exactly, but he can sense them looming over the horizon.
And his finely coordinated Self seems to be spinning its wheels in most of its endeavors. He can still act out the functions of the Exempt Adept, but gets less pleasure and fulfillment out of doing so. He can’t get a grip on things, on a way to use this great Self of his; he feels like he is trying to act in a frictionless environment.
The reason for all this is that the Adept is looking for something that isn’t there -- that is, a continuation of the path as he has experienced it so far, with its blinding revelations, ecstatic highs, encompassing archetypes, etc. There just isn’t any more of that, above his current level; such things are characteristic of the human-accessible magickal realms, not the transcendent realms. But he doesn’t know that.
Needless to say, the Adept in this situation is a pretty miserable character. Not all the time; usually he can go about his business in the character of the Adept without any difficulty. But periodically the futility of it all hits, and the despair and desperation can reach incredible levels of intensity. What he wants, more than anything, is to get OUT, without seeing any way of doing so. Like the mythical Christ on his cross, he calls out to his god, and gets no answer. All he can do is suffer alone.
But even despair has its limits; when nothing one does can have any effect on the situation, one eventually just gives it up. He gets beyond hope of anything happening, beyond despair that nothing is happening, and just lives life as it comes, without any particular plans or expectations, without any desire beyond the moment. He goes on because that is what he does, and for no purpose. This whole process can go on for a long time. In my own case, the period of increasing despair lasted over five years, the period of "just living" lasted another five.
The actual awakening of transcendent being seems an anticlimax after the wasteland period. Even now, four years after the fact, I am uncertain exactly what triggered the moment when it awoke. All I recall is that some chance remark by a person in an online discussion group caused me to make an assessment, and the being noted that it was no longer identical with the self, but was aware without dependence upon the facilities of the individualized "soul". It was now the no-thing-ness of Binah, instead of identifying with the differentiated activities of the lower spheres. It could put the self on, like a set of clothes, and off again at will.
What happened then is another story. But a few things to note:
Despite being very unpleasant, there was no destruction of the individualized self involved; the transcendent being simply "stepped out" of it, leaving it more or less intact, for the moment. A rather substantial re-orientation of it took place later, but it was still undamaged.
There was no "jumping into the Abyss"; in fact, no Abyss as such.
There was no confrontation with the Demon Choronzon, or any other supposed "denizen" of the "Abyss". No apparently external horrors of any sort, not even Chthulhu.
No particular invocations were involved in triggering the event. It took place during an hiatus in my Enochian work, and that work was directed to other purposes in any case.
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Theater Information
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Regal Cinemas Fishkill 10
18 Westage Business Center
Rt. 9 Hudson Valley
Fishkill, NY 12524
Message: 845-897-4613 more »
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Showtimes on Thursday, July 18th
Running Time: 1:58
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6:20, 6:40, 7:00, 7:30, 9:20, 9:40, 10:00, 10:20
2D;CC;DV;No Passes
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SoftBank’s less risky Swiss Re bet is still silly
Soft approach
4 April 2018 By Aimee Donnellan Follow @aimeedonnellan
The Swiss insurer says any investment by the Japanese tech and telecom group won’t exceed 10 percent. A $3 billion stake would be substantially smaller than previously suggested. Given the dubious benefits of any tie-up, though, it’s still a questionable use for SoftBank’s cash.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the world's second largest reinsurer Swiss Re is seen inside the company's offices in Zurich, Switzerland, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Moritz Hager/File Photo - RC1523D77390
Reuters: Swiss Re says SoftBank stake won't exceed 10 percent, talks at early stage
SoftBank’s new interest is anything but reassuring
Swiss Re said on April 4 that talks with SoftBank over a minority stake were continuing and “at an early stage” but a potential holding would not be expected to be greater than 10 percent.
The Swiss reinsurer also said at a planned investor day that it was not considering the issuance of new shares for the possible investment by the Japanese company. The comments came two months after a Wall Street Journal report said SoftBank could buy up to a third of the reinsurer’s shares at a premium, in a deal worth $10 billion or more.
Swiss Re shares were down 2.9 percent to 93.64 Swiss Francs at 0905 BST on April 4.
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Texas Border Sheriff’s Investigator Sentenced for Hunting While on Patrol
Starr County Sheriff's Office
Ildefonso Ortiz
A Texas border county sherriff’s investigator was sentenced in a Starr County court to probation and home arrest. The charges grew out of a wild night of driving down the highway and shooting at animals from a patrol car. The stunt cost the investigator his job, a one-year probation term and 30-days of house arrest.
Texas Game Wardens arrested Javier Pena, a 10-year-veteran with the Starr County Sheriff’s office, in 2011 after catching him, another man and two women in his police car shooting at deer from the highway about 10 miles north of Rio Grande City, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed.
Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens were able to find Pena because his police spotlight gave their location away, court records revealed.
Late last year Pena was found guilty of three counts of poaching, which is a misdemeanor offense in county court, and he was just recently sentenced to 180 days in jail by Judge Romero Molina. Judge Molina later changed the sentence to 12 months probation and 30 days of house arrest. Pena is also facing felony charges related to the same case for which he has not yet gone to trial.
As previously reported by Breitbart Texas, Starr county law enforcement officials have a history of corruption and illicit activity:
Last November, a Star County Sheriff’s Deputy was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol while moving a drug load.
In 2013, Romeo Javier “RJ” Ramirez, a Sheriff’s captain who was in charge of the jail division, pleaded guilty to bribery charges for having taken money from the Gulf Cartel in exchange for law enforcement sensitive information.
In 2012, Nazario Solis, also a sheriff’s deputy, was arrested for getting assault weapons and protecting drug loads for a Gulf Cartel boss in Mexico. In addition to his employment by the Gulf Cartel, Solis had also been charged with taking bribes for tipping off underground casinos about police raids.
In 2008, former Starr County Sheriff Reymundo “Rey” Guerra went to federal prison for giving free passage through his county to members of the Gulf Cartel.
Follow Ildefonso Ortiz on Twitter and on Facebook.
Border / Cartel ChroniclesBorder CorruptionBreitbart TexaspoachingStarr County
Tommy Robinson Sentenced to Nine Months in Prison
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Articles Tagged with Senate
Michigan Senate Passes Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform
Yesterday, the Michigan Senate passed a bill which would require a criminal conviction before law enforcement can permanently take an individual’s assets using civil asset forfeiture.
This is the latest attempt by the legislature to reform civil asset forfeiture laws in the state. Last year, a similar bill passed the House but was never voted on in the Senate. Another bill introduced last year was intended to ensure police officers had adequate training when it came to seizing property. A third bill would have put local forfeiture processes under the domain of state law, making asset forfeiture consistent across the state.
Tagged: Civil Asset Forfeiture, Michigan, reform, Ryan Chappell, seizure, Senate and Stephen Nichols
Updated: February 13, 2019 8:55 pm
Published on: April 11, 2018
Tennessee Legislature Passes Civil Asset Forfeiture Reforms
A bill giving new protections for people involved in civil asset forfeiture has now passed both houses of the Tennessee legislature. If Governor Haslam signs it into law, it may become easier for people to regain property seized by law enforcement.
The bill passed the State Senate with unanimous support and was supported by both civil rights and libertarian groups. “This is a rare bill because you had the ACLU on one side and the Beacon Center on the other, and they both agreed on it,” said Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), who cosponsored the bill. Continue reading
Tagged: ACLU, Civil Asset Forfeiture, civil asset reform, civil rights, property, seizure, Senate, Tennessee and Todd Gardenhire
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Pennine Way
268 challenging miles along England's most famous trail
The Pennine Way is Britain’s first and best known National Trail, and stretches for roughly 268 miles from the Derbyshire Peak District to the Scottish Borders, maintaining a high and often wild course along the backbone of England. The route traverses a wide variety of terrain, from the gritstone moorlands of Derbyshire through the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales, to the wild, remote final stretch through the Cheviot Hills to the finishing point at Kirk Yetholm.
Full Length Itineraries
Itin A: 18D / 19N £1505 pp *
Day 1: Edale to Crowden (15m)
Day 2: Crowden to Diggle (13.3m)
Day 3: Diggle to Hebden Bridge (17.5m)
Day 4: Hebden Bridge to Cowling (15m)
Day 5: Cowling to Malham (18m)
Day 6: Malham to Horton-in-Ribblesdale (14m)
Day 7: Horton to Hawes (13m)
Day 8: Hawes to Keld (12m)
Day 9: Keld to Bowes (12m)
Day 10: Bowes to High Force (16m)
Day 11: High Force to Dufton (15m)
Day 12: Dufton to Alston (19m)
Day 13: Alston to Greenhead (17m)
Day 14: Greenhead to Twice Brewed (7m)
Day 15: Twice Brewed to Bellingham (15m)
Day 16: Bellingham to Byrness (15m)
Day 17: Byrness to Windy Gyle (15m)
Day 18: Trows to Kirk Yetholm (approx 14m)
£1,505 per person
Itin B: 13D / 14N £1180 pp *
Day 2: Crowden to Hebden Bridge (28m)
Day 5: Malham to Horton in Ribblesdale (14m)
Day 6: Horton to Keld (25m)
Day 7: Keld to Middleton in Teesdale (23m)
Day 8: Middleton in Teesdale to Dufton (20m)
Day 9: Dufton to Alston (19m)
Day 11: Greenhead to Bellingham (20m)
Day 13: Byrness to Kirk Yetholm (25m)
Itin C: 14D / 15N £1245 pp *
Day 2: Crowden to Mankinholes (24m)
Day 3: Mankinholes to Cowling (23m)
Day 7: Hawes to Tan Hill (16m)
Day 8: Tan Hill to High Force (24m)
Day 9: High Force to Dufton (15m)
Itin D: 15D / 16N £1310 pp *
Day 9: Middleton to Dufton (20m)
Day 15: Trows to Kirk Yetholm (14m)
Itin E: 16D / 17N £1375 pp *
Day 9: Tan Hill to Middleton in Teesdale (19m)
Day 10: Middleton to Dufton (20m)
Itin F: 17D / 18N £1440 pp *
Itin G: 19D / 20N £1570 pp *
Day 4: Hebden Bridge to Stanbury (10m)
Day 5: Stanbury to Elslack (12m)
Day 6: Elslack to Malham (12m)
Day 10: Keld to Bowes (12m)
Day 18: Byrness to Trows (15m)
Itin H: 20D / 21N £1660 pp *
Day 13: Dufton to Garrigill (15m)
Day 14: Garrigill to Knarsdale (11m)
Day 15: Knarsdale to Greenhead (9m)
Shorter Itineraries
Itin 1: Edale to Malham 5D / 6N £505 pp *
Itin 3: Edale to Horton 6D / 7N £585 pp *
Itin 5: Malham to Alston 7D / 8N £665 pp *
Day 5: Bowes to High Force (16m)
Itin 6: Horton to Greenhead 6D / 7N £595 pp *
Day 1: Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Hawes (13m)
Day 6: Alston to Greenhead (17m)
Day 6: Dufton to Garrigill (15m)
Day 7: Garrigill to Knarsdale (11m)
Day 8: Knarsdale to Greenhead (9m)
Itin 9: Malham to Kirk Yetholm 11D / 12N £990 pp *
Day 8: Greenhead to Bellingham (20m)
Day 9: Bellingham to Byrness (15m)
Itin 10: Malham to Kirk Yetholm 13D / 14N £1,145 pp *
Day 7: Dufton to Alston (15.5m)
Day 8: Garrigill to Greenhead (19m)
Day 9: Alston to Twice Brewed (7m)
Day 8: Garrigill to Knarsdale (11m), taxi to Greenhead
Day 9: taxi to Knarsdale, walk to Greenhead (9m)
Itin 12: Alston to Kirk Yetholm 4D / 5N £430 pp *
Day 4: Byrness to Kirk Yetholm (25m)
Day 4: Byrness to Windy Gyle (15m)
Day 5: Trows to Kirk Yetholm (14m)
Day 2: Greenhead to Twice Brewed (7m)
Day 3: Twice Brewed to Bellingham (15m)
Itin 15: Garrigill to Kirk Yetholm 7D / 8N £670 pp *
Full Route - All Itineraries
Edale to Malham
5 Days: £75 per person
Edale to Horton
Malham to Alston
7 Days: £100 per person
Horton to Greenhead
Malham to Kirk Yetholm
11 Days: £155 per person
Alston to Kirk Yetholm
From our parking facility in Kirkby Malham to Edale and return to Kirkby Malham from Kirk Yetholm.
£315 per person (minimum 2 passengers)
£210 per person (3 passengers)
The Pennine Way is Britain’s first and best known National Trail, and stretches for roughly 270 miles from the Derbyshire Peak District to the Scottish Borders, maintaining a high and often wild course along the backbone of England. The route traverses a wide variety of terrain, from the gritstone moorlands of Derbyshire through the limestone country of the Yorkshire Dales, to the wild, remote final stretch through the Cheviot Hills to the finishing point at Kirk Yetholm. It offers a superb and ever changing landscape of hills, moors, valleys and villages. The route is traditionally walked from south to north, from to Kirk Yetholm, and most guidebooks describe it this way.
The Pennine Way is a serious challenge, and you must be fully equipped to meet it, and unless you are fit and an experienced long-distance walker, you should not tackle the Pennine Way, certainly not alone. It is important that your boots are broken-in, and that you are able to carry a rucksack with your requisites for one or two days. Most people undertaking the walk in one go take 2 – 3 weeks to complete it, but many people choose to do a section at a time. The usual time required for a non-stop walk is 17 days. The route attracts thousands of walkers each year, and yet some do not get beyond the second day, usually because fitness and stamina have been over-estimated, and the weight of personal belongings required has also been over-estimated!
Brigantes Baggage Couriers have helped hundreds of walkers to achieve the completion of the walk - also to enjoy it without having to carry a heavy backpack, knowing that warm and dry clothing awaits them at the end of each day. Our courier service is the only service which will provide you with door to door baggage transfers, from Edale at the start, all the way to the end in Kirk Yetholm, by using our own vehicles and personnel, thereby ensuring reliability.
OL1 - Peak District - Dark Peak area
OL16 - Cheviot Hills
OL19 - Howgill Fells & Upper Eden Valley
OL21 - South Pennines
OL31 - North Pennines
OL41 - Forest of Bowland & Ribblesdale
OL42 - Kielder Water & Forest
OL43 - Hadrian's Wall
288 - Bradford & Huddersfield
"Pennine Way South (A-Z Adventure Atlas)" - Published by Geographers’ A-Z Maps - ISBN: 978-1843489610
"Pennine Way North (A-Z Adventure Atlas)" - Published by Geographers’ A-Z Maps - ISBN: 978-1782571643
"Pennine Way: Trailblazer" by Stuart W. Greig - Published by Trailblazer Publications - ISBN: 978-1905864614
Wainwright's world-famous Coast to Coast path runs for 183 miles across some of the most beautiful scenery in the UK
The Yorkshire Wold Way is a gentle 78 mile walk through the chalk hills, from the Humber estuary to the dramatic Cleveland coast
Ravenber Way
The 210 mile Ravenber Way (RAVENglass to BERwick) offers a challenging alternative coast to coast route across England
29 Replies to “Pennine Way”
Val Moreland says:
We’ve just used Brigantes to move our bags on a section of the Pennine Way and found them to be super efficient and very reasonably priced. We started at Haworth, staying at The Fleece Inn (lovely pub, friendly staff and good food) and joined the Way at Top Withins. Our second night was at Cowling where we stayed in an Airbnb property – the Lodge at Intake Farm. This was self contained accommodation, tastefully furnished and very comfortable. The third night was at Malham where we stayed at The Buck Inn (small room, a bit expensive but good breakfast). We finished off at Horton in Ribblesdale where we stayed at The Crown which is a great pub, used by walkers of the Three Yorkshire peaks as well as the Pennine Way. We will definitely use Brigantes when we do the next part of the Way!
John Herbert says:
We completed the Pennine Way over 3 weeks on 25th May 2019. We used the baggage transfer service which was first class! From the moment we made the initial enquiry through to the actual walk, we have been delighted. The service was fully reliable and secure. Comments from the various B&B hosts supported this too. Very many thanks!
Rose Procter says:
Thank you for your excellent bag transfer service on our recent pennine way walk from Castleton to Malham. Even when we had to change accommodation at short notice, your communication was excellent and everything ran to plan.
Kevin Ball says:
I have just completed the C2C walk and I feel I must thank you all at Brigantes for making my trip so enjoyable. The accommodation that you booked for me was entirely appropriate for my needs. Each of my hosts went out of their way to ensure that my overnight stay was as comfortable as possible. My bag was delivered to each location well before my arrival and picked up each morning around 9.30, which meant that my breakfast was not disturbed!
I have now used Brigantes for the last three years for both the C2C and the Pennine Way and I would certainly recommend them for both booking accommodation and transporting luggage between overnight stops. Thank you Annette for all of your help and I am sure I will be in touch in 2019.
Raphael says:
I would like to thank Brigantes for the smooth organisation of my trip, the efficient and invisible baggage transfer and foremost for the very good choice of accomodation. The proprietors always spoke well of Brigantes and how reliable you are. Having said that, I had twelve days of walking with remarkably little rain, coming down only during the second half of my walk, therefore leaving me dry altogether when crossing the Lakes. I had great holidays.
paul gath says:
just want to say a BIG thank you to all the team at Brigantes .me and my girlfriend have just done the pennine way in august and all stress free on our luggage transfer each day by the Brigantes team.i would highly recommend Brigantes and will definitely use them again .
thank you again Paul Gath & Michele Delaney.
Graham Melrose says:
Just back from walking the middle section of the Pennine Way. As with my last trip, Brigantes’ arrangements worked perfectly. The quality of the accomodation and the baggage transfers were very impressive. Thanks very much.
Derek Parsons says:
A friend and I have just come back from walking the Howgills and Limestone Trail – 76 miles from Kirkby Stephen to Settle in a very roundabout way. Brigantes booked our accommodation, transferred our bags, arranged taxis at each end and altered their times when needed. Their organisation was brilliant and all the accommodation was fine – couldn’t fault any of it. I would recommend them without hesitation and use them for arranging walks in the future. We had a great week.
roy cocker says:
22nd July 2018 at 07:52
Many thanks to Brigantes for organising our accommodation and baggage transfer on our Yorkshire Wolds Way trek in June. As usual the service was first class.
Laura O'Mahony and Mike MQuillan says:
Many thanks for helping with our baggage transfers. Our holiday had to be cut short due to feet problems- not unusual I’d imagine!
But we had a great experience, made even better by you taking the load for us – it made a huge difference
You were so helpful and accommodating and I would definitely recommend your services…
David Michael Chatterley says:
I used Brigantes to carry my camping kit when walking a section of the Pennine Way from Hebden Bridge to Horton in Ribblesdale recently and would wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who doesn’t want to carry a heavy/bulky pack. They accommodated me at short notice and were friendly and helpful at all times. Their fees were also very reasonable. My kit was always waiting for me when I arrived at my various destinations. 10/10
John Hughes says:
We completed the Dales Way in late June in unaccustomed heat. We were well supported in completing this otherwise (heat notwithstanding) relatively easy long distance walk by the luggage transfers and choices of accommodation that Brigantes arranged for us. The walk takes in Wharfe Dale and Ribble Dale which are both beautiful, with a day in genuine upland crossing the national watershed. We had a fine selection of pubs along the way and particularly enjoyed the isolation of Swathghyll Farm, with the supported self catering they offer as well as the B&B’s in Sedbergh (Daleslea) and Kendal (Bridge House) all three of which were very well appointed. The response we got from all places we stayed at was helpful and welcoming so we were able to get on with the business of enjoying our holiday.
Colin Niblock says:
Our second week with Brigantes on the Pennine Way went very well. We were very impressed with the Middle Studfold Farm, near Horton in Ribblesdale, they really went out of their way to make us comfortable. The Strathmore Arms at Holwick was also very hospitable and again they couldn’t do enough to make us welcome. The luggage transfer went very well and we were pleased to have the secure parking in Kirby Malham. All the accomodation was to a very high standard and, of course, it is good to be able to dry off and have a warm and comfortable night’s rest as well as being able to get a decent meal every night after a days walking. We were using the Harvey polyethylene maps during the walk and sometimes the small scale made it difficult to find where the way went and we did go wrong on the Bowes loop turning left after the bridge at the start rather than right. The OS map shows the path exactly but they are difficult to use on the path – although if you have a smartphone, which we don’t, you can download the map. We had welcome stops at Tan Hill – we were quite wet – and Twaithe. Otherwise the provided packed lunches saw us through the day. More next year…
I have just returned from walking the South section of the Pennine Way. The itinery Brigantes provided worked very well and the baggage transfer arrangements were excellent. I carried some pieces of china in my bag for the last couple of days with perfect confidence that it would arrive home unbroken. The bed and breakfast places I stayed in were all fine and the landladies and landlords were very welcoming. I had a great week-thanks very much. I’ll be back to do more another year.
Karen Hodgkins says:
I’m just back from doing the 2nd section of the Pennine Way (Horton to Alston) with 5 friends and want to say that yet again Brigantes provided a seamless, hassle free service. As mentioned by others on this page, it’s reassuring to know that the luggage transfer is being handled by such a capable team, leaving us to concentrate on the walking.
Many thanks to all at Brigantes.
maria gamucci says:
31st July 2017 at 21:25
Just finished the south part of the Pennine Way, very poor weather, but what a happiness to know our luggage will be waiting for us, all dry !
The service of Brigantes has been absolutely perfect !
alaurebAnne Laure says:
We walked the penines way from Gargrave to Dufton in april 2017.
Thanks to brigantes, no lugage problem !
Despite the cold weather, (a bit of snow, a lot of wind.. ) we enjoyed the walk very much.
We stopped in Youth hotel in Malham, Dufron and Hawes (Malham is particularly lovely).
Of course, we enjoyed our stay in Keld lodge, for the place, the view, the food… ( http://www.keldlodge.com/
The women only place in Horton in ribbelsdale (http://www.hortonwhc.org.uk/) is very lovely too.
The pub in forest in Teesdale is nice, and the walk from there to Dufton was my favorite part.
Thanks for the good work with the luggage, who made our walk possible and enjoyable !
Bill Edwards says:
Thanks for your great baggage transfer when we walked the North of England Way. Even though we had gaps due to friends moving the baggage or staying more than one night in a location all worked well.
We stayed in 4 youth hostels Eskdale, Coniston ,Windermere and Helmsley. All were fine we enjoyed Windermere the most only because it was a beautiful clear day when we arrived and the views were amazing.
Other notable and exceptional stopovers were The Barn tea room in Hutton le Hole and The Horseshoe Inn in Levisham.
We stayed in Hawes for 3 nights using the train from Dent to Garsdale and then the exceptional Little White Bus and vv. Also used the LWB to get to and from Aysgarth great service run by great people.
It was a very enjoyable well signed route as it took us over a number of paths like the Dale’s Way, Pennine Bridleway and the Pennine Way. We used the Tabular Hills Way to get from Helmsley to Scarborough. David Maugham’s route retains its charm ad challenge.
John Burton says:
I wanted to say thank you to Brigantes for organising baggage transfer on part of my recent long distance walk. Overall, I walked from Greenhead to North Warwickshire, but had my bag transferred between Horton in Ribblesdale and Glossop.
Even though I was travelling ‘the wrong way’ from north to south, Brigantes arranged transfer quickly and efficiently at a reasonable price. It is so nice to arrive at a YHA, weary from a long day’s walk, and there is one’s bag waiting!
Jane Armstrong says:
Very many thanks for moving my luggage so efficiently during my recent Pennine Way walk from Middleton-in-Teesdale to Kirk Yetholm. I booked the accommodation myself but it was wonderful to have you miraculously moving my stuff every day. I was particularly pleased that you were able to deliver luggage to Cocklawfoot Farm (half way between Byrness and Kirk Yetholm). In my opinion there’s no alternative to moving on each day, in addition, Christina at Cocklawfoot Farm made me feel especially welcome and even transported me back up to the Way by Landrover in the morning – no need to struggle to regain lost height!
Other particularly enjoyable stops (for me and my dog) were Alston House, the Cheviot Hotel in Bellingham and the Farm House in Kirk Yetholm.
We’ll be back!
Tim Lewis says:
We received the usual seamless and efficient service we have come to expect from you.
We were very happy with Alston House as a starting point, as this was where we stayed when we finished our stint on the Pennine Way last year, a fact of which you would have been aware. I was even allocated the same room as I had had last year!
We arrived at Four Wynds Guest House in Greenhead in the afternoon of 2nd June to find it shut up and deserted, so phoned the owned of Bush Nook in Gilsland, as arranged. He came to get us very quickly and immediately made us feel very welcome. We felt that we had had a narrow escape with Four Wynds as from the outside it looked small and undistinguished. Bush Nook, on the other hand, was probably the best place we stayed at on our trip, and I hope that you are able to make use of it extensively for clients in the future. We had a meal cooked on the premises in a dining room which we shared with about 12 other residents, meeting some interesting people (mostly walkers) in the process.
The Twice Brewed Inn had been refurbished since the last time we stayed there three years ago, and indeed the refurbishment was still in progress. My room was fine, but the bathroom very small, rather like being in a cabin on the ferry to Spain or France. Food, drink and service were all fine, but they got tied up in all sorts of knots trying to sort out our separate bills.
We were given a very warm welcome at the Lyndale Guest House in Bellingham, and a choice of chocolate bar when we left! It was nice to have rooms downstairs for a change, and it was also very welcome to have accommodation which was actually on the Pennine Way.
Forest View in Byrness was basic but fine, and it was nice to be in the same room for two consecutive nights. I had not appreciated the subtle difference between having a private and ensuite bathroom, and wonder if the ensuite rooms were already fully booked when we made our bookings through you? The fact that there was no television was made up for on our first night there at least by the arrival of several locals in the bar…Colin and Joyce have obviously made it their aim to support the Pennine Way come what may, including providing transport to and from Trows Farmhouse (a 30 mile round trip) for which they had to obtain permission from the colonel of the Otterburn camp to use the army roads, and have turned what used to be the youth hostel in Byrness into a reasonably comfortable haven for walkers doing the Pennine Way. The food they produced was tasty and filling, and their bar was well stocked. Incidentally, please note that it is 2.3 miles from Windy Gyle to Trows Farm rather than 1.5 miles, and it took us an hour to return to the Pennine Way when we were dropped at Trows Farm on the morning of the final day; it was a relentless uphill climb during which we ascended 340m, which was a somewhat tiring start to the day…
Finally, the Border Hotel was just what we needed at the end of the trip, providing us with our free half pint and certificate, while a local customer was most eager to take our photo under the pub sign proclaiming it to be the “End of the Pennine Way”. We had a good dinner there, and they were very helpful in booking us taxis to get to our individual destinations. My only complaints are that the TV in my room was not working, and they were not very well informed about taxi fares to the destinations we wanted to go to (Galashiels and Berwick upon Tweed).
Maynard Marceau says:
Thank you Brigantes for a flawless baggage service on our walk last week from Edale to Horton in Ribblesdale. It makes for a more enjoyable walk and we will certainly use you again when we do the next stage.
Jan & Paul says:
3rd May 2016 at 16:23
We had a wonderful walk, Horton-in-Ribblesdale to Haltwhistle. We enjoyed the landscape, the stunning views and the satisfied feeling in our body after a day rambling. The stay in the B&B’s was very pleasant and we were welcomed by very friendly owners. Thank you very much for the organisation.
Jan & Paul, april 2016.
Thank you for your feedback, we are delighted you enjoyed your walk on the Pennine Way and look forward to being of assistance again in the future.
Carry Pannekeet says:
Thanks very much for a perfect organisation of my walk from Dufton to Jedburgh. Good b&b’s, nice people, useful information and of course the timely luggage transfer. Taxi pickup from Dere Street went well. It was fantastic. Thanks again. Carry Pannekeet, April 27 2016
Thank you Carry, we are so pleased everything went well on your Pennine Way walk, and look forward to organising one of our other walks for you in the future!
Raphael (and Jochen) says:
3rd September 2015 at 21:07
We were both very happy about our holiday on the Pennine Way as everything worked out so well, we had lovely accomodation at all the places thanks to your choice, and also the baggage transfer went very smoothly. No need to worry, it was a perfect time.
Martin Sinha says:
1st July 2015 at 10:19
Just thought I’d send you some feedback on my first few days of walking last month.
I hugely enjoyed it and it was very reassuring to know that you were handling the bookings and the luggage transfer each day. All I had to think about was the walking, which was a luxury in itself given the busyness of everyone’s lives these days.
All your arrangements worked flawlessly, and all of the places that I stayed in were notable for the warmth of the welcome and the friendly hospitality from the owners and staff. Particularly notable were the lovely bedroom with a huge bay window at the Angeldale; the overall top notch excellence and luxury of the Tempest Arms; the friendliness of the proprietor at Windy Harbour Farm, who collected me from the end of the walk after my first day, and cheerfully delivered me back to the same spot next morning after breakfast; and the hospitality of the proprietors at Wellcroft House, who sat me and two other walkers on their beautiful terrace with a large pot of tea on arrival, and who drove us all to the pub and back in the evening.
Many thanks for arranging and enabling such a wonderful and memorable week.
Ann Gaffney says:
Thank you very much for transporting our bags during our recent C2C walk. Everything went very smoothly!
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Adrienne Walker News
Bio
Adrienne Walker comes directly from Disney's The Lion King as "Nala" and is grateful to join this talented company. A native of Jonesboro, Georgia, Adrienne is a proud graduate of Spelman College. Favorite regional and touring credits: Porgy & Bess, Iphigenia in Aulis, Agamemnon (Court); The Color ... (read more)
Adrienne Walker News Feeds
Latest News on Adrienne Walker
Adrienne Walker Returns as Nala in THE LION KING Tonight, July 16 (Jul 16, 2019)
BWW Flashback: KISS ME, KATE Takes Final Broadway Bow Today! (Jun 30, 2019)
Richard Kind Will Join Cast of KISS ME KATE for Final Weeks (Jun 20, 2019)
Adrienne Walker Returns as Nala in THE LION KING Tonight, July 16
BWW Flashback: KISS ME, KATE Takes Final Broadway Bow Today!
Richard Kind Will Join Cast of KISS ME KATE for Final Weeks
by BWW News Desk - Jul 16, 2019
Broadway's award-winning best musical THE LION KING will welcome back Adrienne Walker as Nala to the company, beginning performances Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at the Minskoff Theatre. (more...)
by BWW News Desk - Jun 30, 2019
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Roundabout Theatre Company will conclude its critically acclaimed spring production of Kiss Me, Kate, directed by Scott Ellis, choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Paul Gemignani, after 30 preview performances and 125 regular performances. Before the cast takes their final bows, we're flashing back through its journey on Broadway! (more...)
BroadwayWorld has just learned that Richard Kind will return to Roundabout's stage, following his Tony Award-nominated and Drama Desk Award-winning performance in The Big Knife, in Kiss Me, Kate. Kind will reprise the role of "Second Man," which he played in Roundabout's 2016 benefit concert reading of Kiss Me, Kate. (more...)
Last 2 Weeks To See Roundabout's ALL MY SONS, KISS ME, KATE And SOMETHING CLEAN
Roundabout Theatre Company will conclude its critically acclaimed spring productions on Sunday, June 30: Arthur Miller's All My Sons, directed by Jack O'Brien, Kiss Me, Kate, directed by Scott Ellis, choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Paul Gemignani, and Something Clean, by Selina Fillinger, directed by Margot Bordelon. (more...)
VIDEO: The Cast Of KISS ME, KATE Performs 'Too Darn Hot' at the Tonys
by Stage Tube - Jun 10, 2019
The Kiss Me, Kate cast turns up the heat at the 2019 Tony Awards with a performance of 'Too Darn Hot.' (more...)
KISS ME, KATE Cast Album Now Available Digitally
by BWW News Desk - Jun 7, 2019
Cole Porter's musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate - 2019 Broadway Cast Recording is available for digital download and streaming starting today, Friday, June 7. (more...)
BWW Exclusive: Listen to Kelli O'Hara & Will Chase Sing 'Wunderbar' on KISS ME, KATE Cast Recording
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS will release the 2019 Broadway Cast Recording for Cole Porter's musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate. The album will be released for digital download and streaming on Friday, June 7. The CD release is planned for later this year. (more...)
KISS ME, KATE Cast Album Now Available for Pre-Order; Release June 7th
GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS has announced that Cole Porter's musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate - 2019 Broadway Cast Recording, is available for digital pre-order starting today, Friday, May 31. (more...)
KISS ME KATE Offers $49 Tickets To All Kates May 16
As we celebrate Tony Award season, Kiss Me, Kate - winner of the first Tony for best musical in 1949 - will offer $49 tickets to the first 100 "Kates" at the Studio 54 Box Office! (more...)
VIDEO: The Cast of KISS ME, KATE Performs 'Too Darn Hot' on TODAY
by Stage Tube - Apr 30, 2019
This morning, the cast of the Tony-nominated musical 'Kiss Me, Kate' hit the plaza during TODAY's Best of Broadway Week with a live performance of 'Too Darn Hot.' (more...)
BWW TV: Watch New Highlights of Will Chase & Corbin Bleu in KISS ME, KATE
by BroadwayWorld TV - Apr 26, 2019
Kiss Me, Kate is bringing audiences to their feet every night at Studio 54, where it opened just last month. Check out new highlights of Will Chase performing 'I've Come to Wive it Wealthily in Padua' and Corbin Bleu performing 'Bianca' below! Click here for even more of the Kiss Me, Kate cast in action! (more...)
Roundabout's KISS ME, KATE Revival Will Get a Cast Recording
by BWW News Desk - Apr 19, 2019
Ghostlight Records has announced it will record a new cast album of Cole Porter's musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, based on the current hit production from the Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director/CEO). The show is directed by Scott Ellis, choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Paul Gemignani and features a book by Sam and Bella Spewack, and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Kiss Me, Kate marks the 24th cast album recording for Roundabout Theatre Company, since launching the musical theatre program with She Loves Me in 1993. The album, produced by Kurt Deutsch and Lawrence Manchester, will be recorded Monday, April 22. (more...)
Too Darn Hot to Quit! KISS ME, KATE Extends Four Weeks
by BWW News Desk - Mar 19, 2019
Roundabout Theatre Company announces a four-week extension of the new Broadway production of the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, after opening to rave reviews on March 14, 2019. (more...)
Photo Coverage: Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase & More Celebrate a Wunderbar Opening Night for KISS ME, KATE!
by Linda Lenzi - Mar 15, 2019
It was all wunderbar last night at Studio 54, as Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase, and the company of Roundabout's latest musical, Kiss Me, Kate, celebrated opening night. BroadwayWorld was on hand for the festivities and below, you can check out photos taken after the curtain came down! (more...)
BWW Review: Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase Star in a KISS ME, KATE That Offers Another Rewrite, Another Show
by Michael Dale - Mar 15, 2019
Buried amongst the over twenty names receiving the smallest-sized billing for their contributions to Roundabout Theatre Company's hot new revival of Cole Porter and Sam & Bella Spewack's masterpiece of kick-back musical comedy entertainment, Kiss Me, Kate, is the credit 'Additional Material' with the name of the accomplished Broadway lyricist Amanda Green written below. (more...)
Photo Coverage: Another Op'nin, Another Show! Check Out the Cast of KISS ME, KATE Taking Their Opening Night Bows
by Walter McBride - Mar 15, 2019
Kiss Me, Kate officially opened last night, March 14, at Roundabout's Studio 54. This is a limited engagement through Sunday, June 2, 2019. Check out photos of the cast taking their opening bows below! (more...)
Photo Coverage: On the Carpet for Roundabout's 2019 Gala, Honoring John Lithgow!
by Walter McBride - Feb 26, 2019
Just last night, Roundabout Theatre Company presented its 2019 Gala evening celebrating John Lithgow with The Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre. (more...)
They're So in Love! Meet the Cast of KISS ME, KATE- Now in Previews!
by Julie Musbach - Feb 14, 2019
Roundabout Theatre Company's new Broadway production of the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate, starring Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara, begins preview performances today. Get to know the cast below as they begin Broadway performances! (more...)
Photo Flash: In Rehearsal with Kelli O'Hara, Will Chase and the Cast of KISS ME, KATE!
by BWW News Desk - Feb 4, 2019
Get an inside look at rehearsals for Roundabout Theatre Company's production of KISS ME, KATE, featuring a book by Sam and Bella Spewack, music and lyrics by Cole Porter, directed by Scott Ellis, choreographed by Warren Carlyle with music direction by Paul Gemignani. (more...)
Photo Flash: The Cast of KISS ME, KATE is Too Darn Hot in This New Portrait
by BWW News Desk - Jan 30, 2019
Check out the principal cast of the new Broadway production of the musical comedy Kiss Me, Kate (more...)
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The Role of the Financial Conduct Authority for PPI Claims Companies and More
Kamran Mirshahi, director of Canary Claims, discusses the latest changes in the PPI claims market. What does it mean for these companies and other businesses offering financial services?
Earlier this month, the government introduced a fee cap for all PPI claims companies. These companies now cannot charge more than 24% (inclusive of VAT) for their services. This has caused a big shake-up in the claims management market as many companies were, for a long time, charging more than this amount.
The fee is intended to benefit consumers, as many were left giving nearly 40% of their successful refund to the company that acted on their behalf. Reputable claims companies, such as Canary Claims, were charging well below this mark before the fee cap.
The impact this will have on the industry is not yet known, but it’s thought that some companies will fold as they struggle to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market.
This change could also fare as a warning to other companies which are under scrutiny for their high charges, such as letting agents.
Changes to PPI Claims Company Regulations
The fee cap isn’t the only shake-up in the PPI claims market. As of April 2019, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is taking over regulation of all claims companies. The role of the FCA is to protect consumers using financial services in the U.K. It regulates companies and ensures they comply with strict guidelines.
All claims management companies currently operating will need to complete registration and apply for authorisation before the end of March 2019.
Many small businesses starting out in the financial service sector are regulated by the FCA. Fees are paid to the FCA and the company is listed on the Financial Services Register, promoting transparency and making it easy for customers to look up reputable firms.
A Busy Time for Claims Companies
If the fee cap and regulations weren’t enough for most companies to handle, there is also the mounting pressure of the PPI deadline getting ever closer.
The Financial Conduct Authority set the deadline to encourage those who have not yet made a PPI claim to do so. With the deadline set for 29th August 2019, consumers have little over a year left to process their claims. But with over £30 billion already paid to consumers, it’s a worthwhile claim to make.
The deadline is keeping claims companies busier than ever, as we strive to process as many claims as possible and help consumers to reclaim their deserved money.
The combination of new regulations and an imposed fee cap could have a dramatic effect on many companies. Some of these businesses may swap to a different industry or offer a wider selection of claims services to compensate for charging lower fees.
Succeeding as a Financial Service
As smaller companies are weaned out of the claims management market, those of us left will face tougher competition. Keeping customers happy and providing the very best service is key to standing out in the market.
Of course, claims management companies which also offer a competitive price benefit. Having a low fee before the fee cap was introduced has put us at an advantage, as we have not had to adjust our financial projections. A lower fee has also allowed us to build trust with consumers. Charging a fair price to consumers for the services you offer can go a long way in helping your business succeed.
Any business wanting to start in the financial service sector will need to adhere to FCA regulation and ensure that their actions are always in the best interest of the customer.
Claims Software Paving the Way for Successful Businesses
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The Changing Role of Financial Advisers
How to become a Trusted Authority to Improve Sales
Related Topics:FCA regulationsinancial service sectorPPI claims marketRole of the Financial Conduct Authority
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Start-Up Business 101: 10 Budget Management Tips To Stay Out of the Red
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CBK hits borrowers hard to save shilling
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 10:00
Analysts said the move represents a mark of decisiveness on the part of Dr Njoroge, but warned that it could come at the expense of slower economic growth as a result of reduced investments and consumption.
Dr Patrick Njoroge, the Central Bank of Kenya governor. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA
BY VICTOR JUMA, vjuma@ke.nationmedia.com
Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge shocks the market with fresh rise in CBR and an increase in base lending rate.
The move effectively raises interest rates on new and existing bank loans that currently attract an average interest rate of 15.5 per cent.
The new KBRR remains in force for the next six months unless market developments force the MPC to review the rate earlier than scheduled.
Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge on Tuesday led his first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting into increasing the benchmark Kenya Banks’ Reference Rate (KBRR), setting borrowers on the path to paying higher cost of loans.
The MPC increased the base rate (KBRR) to 9.87 per cent from 8.54 per cent and raised the policy Central Bank Rate (CBR) for the second time in as many months in a move aimed at taming inflation pressure and stabilising the shilling, which touched the 100 units to the dollar mark on Monday.
KBRR’s rise to 9.87 per cent paves the way for banks to add own risk premium, dubbed “K”, on this higher base rate beginning Wednesday morning.
That decision effectively raises interest rates on new and existing bank loans that currently attract an average interest rate of 15.5 per cent.
Analysts said the move represents a mark of decisiveness on the part of Dr Njoroge who took charge of the country’s monetary policy last month, but warned that it could come at the expense of slower economic growth as a result of reduced investments and consumption.
Shilling remains at lows after lending rate change
“The raise has exceeded market expectations and I actually did not see it coming. The economy is very soft and it will most likely slow down with the higher interest rates,” said Aly-Khan Satchu, the CEO of Rich Management, a data vendor firm.
“The governor has moved too quickly to raise the policy rate given this is his first MPC meeting. I expected him to make changes in the next meeting.”
In raising the cost of credit, Dr Njoroge hopes that consumption, especially of imported goods and services will slow down and help tame the current account imbalance that has been one of the main causes of the shilling’s woes.
READ: CBK chief faces first test as shilling hits 100 to dollar
The increase in the CBR from 10 per cent to 11.5 per cent also portends a possible rise in the cost of funds for commercial banks, setting the stage for another possible jump in the KBRR in January.
Kenya’s GDP grew by 4.9 per cent in the first quarter compared to 4.7 per cent in the same period last year, driven by improved performance in construction and financial services that will now be vulnerable to higher interest rates.
The higher interest rates are expected to knock down the Treasury’s rosy growth projection of up to seven per cent this year— which was based on interest rates remaining stable at around the current levels.
The CBK’s decision to raise the benchmark CBR twice in a month to a cumulative 11.5 per cent to tame inflation and support the shilling was the MPC’s biggest shocker.
The CBR previously stood at 8.5 per cent before it was raised to 10 per cent in June and subsequently to 11.5 per cent in yesterday’s MPC meeting.
The KBRR, a credit pricing tool that the CBK introduced last year, is the average of the CBR and a two-month weighted average of the 91-day T-Bill.
By raising interest rates, the CBK intends to tighten liquidity and ultimately slow down inflation and support the shilling that weakened to new lows of 100 units to the dollar this week.
“The committee noted the elevated risks to the inflation outlook mainly attributed to pressures on the exchange rate over the last few months,” reads part of a statement from the MPC.
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Portugal's World Cup Team Is Decimated By Injuries Going Into US Game
Tony Manfred
Martin Rose/Getty Images
In yet another injury scare for the Portuguese national team, starting central defender Bruno Alves missed training on Friday with a thigh issue.
Portugal is decimated by injuries and suspensions going into the pivotal Group G game against the United States on Sunday.
Three players who started in the 4-0 loss to Germany are definitely out, and three others are carrying injuries. The full list:
Pepe will miss the game due to suspension. He got a red card after losing his mind and head-butting Germany's Thomas Muller in Portugal's 4-0 loss.
Fabio Coentrao is out of the World Cup with a groin injury he picked up in the second half against Germany.
Hugo Almeida will miss the U.S. game after going down with a thigh injury against Germany.
Cristiano Ronaldo reportedly left training early this week to get treatment on the patellar tendinitis in his knee. While he's expected to play, news broke that his personal doctor advised him against playing in the World Cup. He won't be 100%.
Rui Patricio, the Portuguese goalie, suffered a thigh injury against Germany. He could miss the U.S. game.
Bruno Alves missed training Friday. There's no official word on his status.
That's three of four first-choice defenders (including both central defenders), the goalie, the center forward, and the best player all in question for Sunday's game.
It's horrible timing for this team, and a shame for Ronaldo — who probably won't be the player he is today when he's 33 years old at the 2018 World Cup.
Portugal needs a win to keep its World Cup hopes alive.
Here's a photo of the team before the Germany game, with injured players X'd out and questionable players with question marks. That's more than half the starting 11:
More: World Cup Portugal USMNT Soccer
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Insurance insiders still hopeful that Congress will pass Medicare bills
Sheena Harrison
December 23, 2012 Reprints
Retirement Benefits Workers Comp Coverage More + Less -
Republican Senators Lamar Alexander, left, and Bob Corker, both from Tennessee, hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Dec. 28. President Obama should show leadership on averting a / Bloomberg
With Congress set to adjourn this month, insurance insiders said they still hoped lawmakers would push through two bills intended to alleviate common Medicare Secondary Payer issues.
Observers said H.R. 1063 and H.R. 5284 would help simplify the process of reimbursing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which holds insurers and self-insureds responsible to pay for a Medicare beneficiary's medical treatment related to workers compensation or liability cases.
As fiscal cliff issues dominated much of the legislative discussion, observers remained hopeful that the legislation would be included in an end-of-year bill package.
“Congress hasn't moved very many bills at all (this year), so everybody wants their bills moved, if they can,” said Keith Bateman, vice president of workers compensation for the Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
H.R. 1063, the Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers Act, aims to ease the process of finding out how much an insurer or self-insured must pay to CMS for Medicare-funded treatment of work- or liability-related injuries.
Currently, CMS does not tell settlement parties how much is owed for Medicare reimbursement until after a settlement has been reached. Observers said that procedure prevents claims from being closed as they await a “final demand” letter from CMS.
“Everybody wants to know what the numbers are so that we can agree on a settlement amount,” said Roy Franco, co-chair of the Washington-based Medicare Advocacy Recovery Coalition. “When you don't know what the numbers are, it tends to make everybody pause.
%%BREAK%%
The SMART Act would require CMS to issue its final demand prior to a workers comp or liability settlement agreement. It also would establish a minimum threshold for settlements in which CMS can seek Medicare reimbursement and set a three-year statute of limitations for CMS to seek reimbursement from a settled claim.
Last week, the U.S. House passed provisions of the SMART Act as part of H.R. 1845, the Medicare IVIG Access Act. The parent bill would study access to intravenous immunoglobulin for Medicare beneficiaries. The legislation was sent to the Senate for further consideration. Late Friday the Senate had not yet acted.
H.R. 5284 would set a minimum threshold of $25,000 for workers comp settlements that require Medicare set-aside accounts, which pay projected future medical costs for Medicare-eligible workers. The bill also would allow payers to skip set-aside agreements for claimants who are likely to be ineligible for Medicare coverage within 30 months of their settlement.
Both bills are supported by industry groups such as PCI and the American Insurance Association. Melissa Shelk, vice president of federal affairs for the AIA in Washington, noted that Medicare secondary payer legislation has turned claimant attorneys, employers and insurers into unlikely allies, since the groups believe that the bills will ease the settlement of workers comp and liability cases.
“That shows you what kind of a problem there is out there, that we all came together to address it,” Ms. Shelk said.
The bills could help make the Medicare secondary payer process less challenging over time, said Martin Cassavoy, vice president of strategic services at North Reading, Mass.-based Crowe Paradis Services Corp., a Medicare secondary payer compliance company.
“Everybody who deals with this process on a daily basis would probably, at some point ... see more predictability,” Mr. Cassavoy said.
Mr. Franco said the SMART Act's savings could help the bill get pulled into an end-of-year legislative package, since lawmakers would seek to pass bills that won't increase the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimated in November that the SMART Act would reduce Medicare spending by $45 million from 2013 to 2022.
If the bills are not passed during 2012, observers said they expect both to be reintroduced during the next term. “A lot of the people that have sponsored the legislation have been reelected, so there's still a lot of interest there and it's not going to go away,” Mr. Franco said.
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Workers comp outperforms nation in reducing opioid prescribing
July 12, 2017 Reprints
Prescription Drug Benefits Prescription Drug Management Regulation Workers Comp Cost Control Workers Comp Coverage More + Less -
An examination of opioid prescribing in workers compensation when compared to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show that entities in charge of treating injured workers are doing a better job at reducing the prescribing of powerful painkillers.
Nationwide, the average days’ supply per opioid prescription increased 33% from 13 days in 2006 to almost 18 days in 2015, according to research released by the CDC in July, while the amount of opioids prescribed per capita in 2015 was approximately three times as high as in 1999.
The CDC’s annual study of opioid prescribing shows that opioid prescribing in the United States peaked in 2010 and then decreased each year through 2015, but remains at high levels and varies from county to county.
Meanwhile, nearly half of the states included in a study of opioid prescribing in workers compensation cases have seen reductions in the frequency and strength of powerful pain medications given to injured workers, according to a study released in June by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Workers Compensation Research Institute.
“Year over year we (in workers comp) are decreasing,” said Nikki Wilson, Omaha, Nebraska-based pharmacy product director for Coventry Workers’ Comp Services, which also released its own 2016 Drug Trends Series report in June, finding that opioid prescribing is down.
Specifically, Downers Grove, Illinois-based Coventry found an 8.5% drop in opioid utilization and a 9.9% decline in cost per claim, according to the latest batch of pharmacy data that compared 2015 prescription figures.
Ms. Wilson, whose company oversees prescribing for injured workers via claims management programs and other interventions, said there’s a clear incentive for the workers comp industry.
“Because opioids for us and for everyone in workers comp are the most prescribed ... that makes us pay attention,” she said. “Part of the motivator is paying for (the drugs).”
Because of claims management programs and workers comp formularies that call for utilization reviews of drugs, those who prescribe under workers comp are “jumping through more hoops” than those who prescribe under group health, Ms. Wilson said.
The CDC, meanwhile, has acknowledged that providers overall need to further reduce the amount and strength of prescriptions.
“The amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. is still too high, with too many opioid prescriptions for too many days at too high a dosage,” said Anne Schuchat, M.D., acting director of the CDC, in a press statement. “Healthcare providers have an important role in offering safer and more effective pain management while reducing risks of opioid addiction and overdose.”
The CDC is working on using what it now understands to spur change, wrote Dr. Debbie Dowell, one of the authors of the CDC’s report, in an email. In 2016, for example, the CDC released guidelines for opioid prescribing.
“We have overestimated the benefits of opioids for chronic pain and underestimated their risks,” she wrote. “Increased opioid use for chronic pain increases amounts of opioids prescribed because prescriptions are written for more types of problems, because prescriptions are written for longer time periods when they are used for types of pain that persist, and because dosages tend to increase gradually when opioids are used long term. We now know that for most people with chronic pain, other treatments are safer and more effective over the long term. … Clinical practice changes often take years even in the face of new evidence about benefits and risks.”
Half of opioid prescriptions written for mental disorders: Study
Adults with a mental illness account for 51.4% of the estimated 115 million opioid prescriptions distributed in the United States annually, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine on Monday.
Opioid prescribing down in states implementing changes: Study
Regulators to monitor opioid prescriptions for injured federal workers
Opioid prescribing varies by county, CDC report finds
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New CEO plots growth roadmap for Feedback plc
11 July, 2019 - 12:11 By Tony Quested
Quoted UK company Feedback plc has announced unaudited revenue of £563k for the year ended May 31 – an increase of 23 per cent on the previous financial year’s £458k.
The uplift for the business, which is based just outside Cambridge, follows new hires and investment in product sales. AIM-listed Feedback specialises in medical imaging technology.
New CEO Dr Tom Oakley, who took over in April, has swiftly completed a strategic review of the business and believes he has identified a clear route to further growth.
In the review, the board assessed both its Cadran and the TexRAD portfolios. The Cadran portfolio has been initially prioritised.
Dr Oakley said: “An exciting opportunity has arisen from the first phase of our strategic review. We believe that Cadran’s innovative features, such as the ability to view clinical grade medical images flexibly on mobile and personal devices, allow it to be repositioned to meet the needs of an emerging medical communications market, particularly in medical imaging.
“There is huge potential to improve the efficiencies and lives of our doctors and patients alike, through more flexible, secure and accurate tools utilising the highest standards in global mobile communications.
“We are now working swiftly to develop this new offering and make it available for the many clinicians eager to use it, both within the NHS and internationally.”
Cadran is Feedback’s established Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) which facilitates the review of medical imaging studies by clinicians.
It is a progressive and rigorously tested Class 1 medical device with a longstanding legacy of service at NHS institutions, such as the Royal Papworth Hospital. However, it is currently positioned in a competitive market that shows little opportunity for future growth.
According to BMJ Innovations, 97 per cent of hospital doctors routinely use WhatsApp to communicate about patients. There is an increasing trend for clinicians to use personal devices to discuss patient care and make clinical decisions, as it is more convenient and efficient than traditional methods of clinical communication.
Medical images are often shared as part of these chats as photos of computer screens, and do not meet diagnostic clinical standards. This raises a number of concerns with regard to safety of patient data, breaches of GDPR and the ability to make safe clinical decisions without using clinical grade medical images.
By incorporating a dedicated, encrypted messaging function to Feedback’s existing Cadran technology, the directors believe it can become the only medical communication device on the market capable of sharing clinical grade medical imaging directly from a hospital PACS to mobile devices, ensuring the safe handling of patient data and facilitating a secure means of communication for clinicians across the UK.
The directors believe this new product will also be the only communication tool to be a CE marked medical device.
The repositioning of Cadran marks a shift away from a traditional software sales model towards a SaaS (software as a service) model which is anticipated to generate considerably higher recurring revenues for the company and lead to a new phase of growth.
With over 15 million doctors globally, Cadran is uniquely positioned to set new standards in this emerging, sizeable, medical communications market.
Having undertaken a period of market research alongside NHS clinicians, the company is investing in the product enhancement of Cadran and launch of the new product is anticipated towards the end of this calendar year.
This rapid turnaround is possible because the core technical features of the product are already established within Cadran and our outsourced development partner, Future Processing, is designing the additional features required.
While driving the development of this exciting opportunity for Cadran, the board will continue its review of the TexRAD product portfolio.
Abcam acquires cell line portfolio from Chinese business
Harry Potter conjures fresh magic for Bango
Cambridge cancer drug company in £500k AIM raise
Kier cull: 1200 jobs axed, non-core divisions sell-off and frozen dividend
Consort alert to acquisition opportunities
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Undo vision to reach world peak as an independent player
6 September, 2017 - 14:25 By Judith Gaskell
It solves a problem that no one would think to Google and companies have no budget for it, but the largest software companies in Europe and the UK are among the latest big players snapping up software tools from fast growing Cambridge tech company Undo.
Software giants SAP and Microfocus have bought into Undo, an idea developed in the early noughties by software designer Greg Law (now CEO) and co-founder Julian Smith (now CTO) to develop tools to work out why computers do what they do or, as Greg explains, “to scratch our own itch as it were.”
What they didn’t realise at the time was that this problem went much wider and was one that would appeal to the big boys of software.
Law said: “SAP is the biggest software company in Europe. They are using us right at the core of a flagship project so it’s a real coup for us. Microfocus, the UK’s biggest software company, is not just using us but repackaging and making it part of the offering it sells on to its customers.”
Realising the potential of the product went way bigger than software developers led to them “putting the pedal to the metal” a bit more than they would have done to take advantage of the obvious opportunity.
This has resulted in growing the team quite quickly from being three in a shed in Greg’s Cambridge garden just three and a half years ago to a team of 27 and growing in new offices in Station Road and making sure the business had sufficient funding in place.
Undo secured its first institutional funding of £2.5 million from Cambridge Innovation Capital a year ago.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” says Greg. “The world is changing in a way that really suits us. What any tech company knows is that by the time you have created the technology the world is going to look different.”
For Undo the world looked more like the one they were focusing on. “As they like to say in Silicon Valley ‘software is eating the world’” adds Greg. He says this is down to a couple of trends. “Every technology company is becoming a software company, whether you’re a car company or in publishing. That trend plays squarely into us.
“The other big trend is around AI and software beginning to make significant decisions, such as why a self driving car decided not to stop at the lights or hit the pedestrian rather than the cyclist or why a software would deny health coverage to someone.
“A life and death decision brings with it an accountability problem and we need to understand what the software did and why it made that decision.”
This demand also moved Undo on from direct sales to software developers to enterprise sales.
“Rather than selling directly to developers we can do six figure deals at a corporate level. It’s obviously harder to do, takes longer and is a more complicated sales cycle. But the size of the deal is much bigger and more strategically important to the company,” Law says.
This has moved the company away from just selling its UndoDB product directly to developers to its Live Recorder product, recording the execution of software either in tests or in production and generating a recording that developers can then look at through UndoDB.
The Cambridge tech community has been a great help in moving the company in this direction. Law says: “This whole thing of enterprise sales and relationship sales and six figure deals and purchase orders we didn’t even know existed.
“One of the great things of being here in Cambridge is receiving so much support from people who‘ve been there and done that before. We have people on the board and investors and people who will just have a coffee or a beer and talk things through.”
In addition to the new Cambridge office the company has also set up a base in San Francisco, with two – soon to be three – people and are is actively recruiting engineers in Cambridge.
Although Undo is in the heart of the tech zone alongside Microsoft, Apple and the soon to arrive Amazon, Greg’s not worried about the competition when it comes to recruiting.
“We don’t compete with them quite as much as you’d think because they tend to attract people looking for something that is a bit more predictable and comfortable and of a more stable environment as well as the cache of quoting a big name.
“We’re more competitive with the other start up companies for the kind of person looking to be part of something as it develops, not a cog in the machine but part of it.”
With the success of this “category defining” product surely there is competition snapping at their heels? Yes and no, says Greg.
“Some of the more established US players and startup companies are trying to answer similar problems but no one is doing it quite in the way we are. I’m sure there will be more direct competition over time and our aim is to maintain and grow the gap.”
And what if one of these established players comes knocking on the door interested in the company itself? Greg is unequivocal on this point.
“If people want to sell early that’s a completely legitimate thing to do but it’s not our plan. We think we have the opportunity to build something significant and exciting and that’s what we’re here to do.”
There’ll be no undoing Undo any time soon then!
• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Greg Law
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Spearing - We set the tempo
Midfielder believes aggressive approach to game paid off against Blackburn
Jay Spearing believes that Bolton Wanderers’ aggressive start to the recent derby game against Blackburn proved pivotal in the eventual outcome.
The Trotters were resounding winners on their own patch, running in four goals without reply to registering a successive home victory for the first time this season.
And on-field skipper Spearing paid tribute Wanderers’ lively start to the contest, highlighting Neil Danns’ early tackle on Markus Olsson as a significant moment.
“We’re delighted with the result,” Spearing said after the game. “From the first minute we showed exactly how we wanted to go about the game and it paid off for us.
“I thought we fully deserved the win.
“Neil Danns helped set the tempo with a tackle within the opening five minutes and we all kicked on from there.
“Today wasn’t just about one member or area from the team. I felt that from front to back, Adam in goals to Jukes and Mason up top, we turned in a very good display and thoroughly deserved the result.
“For the goal, if I’m being honest I felt that I should probably just have a go from where I was. Thankfully, the linesman said it went in.
“We feel a result like that has been a long time in coming.
“The back four were tremendous and it obviously nice to keep another clean sheet. Again, that’s an area of our game we’ve been looking to improve and it is great to see that the hard work on the training ground is paying off.
“We’re keeping clean sheets and scoring goals and fingers crossed that carries on.
“We now head into two tough away games with a lot of confidence and the lads are all looking forward to playing again.”
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Programs & Data Habitat and Barriers (NFHAP) Habitat Condition Indices
This dataset presents an assessment of cumulative anthropogenic disturbance to fish habitats in California under the assumption that downstream local habitat conditions will reflect conditions in the catchment upstream.
Geographic information systems data was used to attribute 15 disturbance variables to the catchments of mapped river reaches to calibrate an index of cumulative disturbance that considered effects originating from both local and upstream catchments.
These features contain local and network catchment human disturbance variables representing anthropogenic alterations to landscapes in California, including land use, roads, dams, mines, and point-source pollution sites. The source datasets that were compiled and attributed to catchments were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units.
These variables can be linked to the reaches and catchments of the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus). These data were collected for multiple purposes. First, they were gathered in support of conducting a condition assessment of fluvial waterbodies throughout the United States in support of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP). Second, these data were intended to be made available to NFHAP Partnerships as well as other users interested in acquiring consistently-organized information available characterizing river systems over larger regions. This work was supported by local, state, and federal partners of NFHAP, including the U.S. Geological Survey.
Visit the National Fish Habitat Partnership site to learn more.
Yes - Layer name: National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) Habitat Condition Indices.
When using the map viewer, you will be prompted to either login with your state username and password, or use the public BIOS viewer. All CalFish layers are public layers and do not require a special log-in or state credentials.
No - National Fish Habitat Action Plan data is not available through the CalFish database query.
Yes - Download Name: NFHAP Habitat Condition Indices
View larger... File Size: 75 MB Publication date: 3/2/2011
The National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) Habitat Condition Indices features contain local and network catchment human disturbance variables representing anthropogenic alterations to landscapes in California, including land use, roads, dams, mines, and point-source pollution sites. They were gathered in support of conducting a condition assessment of fluvial water bodies throughout the United States in support of the NFHAP. Please visit the NFHAP science and data page for more information. The download link for these data will take you to the NFHAP site. Once there go to the Data - Metadata - Map Services section and click the Download Data button. Then under Download catchment data by state select California.
None planned
Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University
Arthur Cooper
13 Natural Resources
coopera6@msu.edu
National Fish Habitat Action Plan site
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sport, local-sport, rugby union, central west junior, dubbo kangaroos, orange city lions, grand final, under 15s
Just way too classy. That’s about the only way to describe Dubbo Kangaroos after the side claimed the Central West Junior Rugby Union under 15s premiership at Orange’s Endeavour Oval on Saturday, completing a stunning undefeated season in the process. The side, without NSW Country Eagles guns Nick Tighe and Max Rumble, stormed home in a dominant second half showing to ultimately seal a 43-14 victory over the unlucky Orange City Lions outfit. Roos led 19-14 at the break and, led by super-composed five-eighth Jayden Blake, piled on another 24 unanswered points in the second half to blow the decider out completely. Not that the Lions were bad, far from it. In fact, Orange City was the better side for a large chunk of the first half. Simply, this Kangaroos side was just too good, it was too good all season, the undeniable class among the group shining through in the second half. “Look, all credit to Orange City. They really muscled up and put us on the backfoot, their defence was quite bone-rattling in that first half,” Dubbo co-coach Jason Blake said. “At half-time it probably could’ve gone either way really, but I spoke to my boys about staying true to their form, patterns and sequences of play, what had worked for them all year. “We like to keep the ball in hand, really attack from anywhere on the field, so they needed to have belief in that plan and go to it. They did, it really showed in the second half. “It was an amazing effort, it built on last year. We were the younger (Dubbo) side and we finished third in 2016, but we lost 11 or so players. “We picked up eight new guys in the side this year and of those eight, seven had never played rugby. “They’re very passionate about rugby now and that’s a real highlight for me and [co-coach Damien Johnson], seeing the whole side come together. “This side has really worked so hard together this year, they deserve this, they’re reaping their reward.” Orange City coach Nigel Ryan said he was over the moon with his side’s effort, but also couldn’t fault the Dubbo boys’ showing. “They’ve been the best side all year, and they were better than us [on Saturday],” Ryan conceded. “They really deserved to win, they played a great game so congratulations to them. “They’re a team that’s been together for a long time, they’re very quick out wide. “But I’m really proud of the boys, they played really well all season and did so again in [the decider].” After Bathurst Bulldogs shocked everyone at the ground by upsetting Roos in the under 13s, many suggested a boilover would be possible in the 15s too. Outside the first 10 minutes, in which Dubbo shot to a 12-0 lead, that boilover looked entirely possible in the first half. Dubbo hooker and skipper Michael Strydom charged through some soft Lions defence in the middle to give his side a 7-0 lead – it was converted by Jayden Blake – after five minutes. Blake kicked cross-field from his own 40-metre line four minutes later, it was regathered and popped off to Ben Rosenbaum, who went 30 to finish the stunning phase of play. Blake missed the kick, leaving Dubbo’s lead at 12. That second try woke the Lions up, and they crossed through fullback Henry Bouffler in the 14th minute. Sean Carpenter nailed a tough conversion to slash the deficit to five, and Jack Ryan in the 20th after what Jason Blake labelled “the biggest, best tackle I’ve seen all season”. With Roos attacking, Lions centre Kyle Morley read their attacking play like a book, shooting up on James Finch and jamming him, forcing the ball loose too. Ryan scooped it up, went 70 metres and scored, Carpenter converted and just like that Orange City was leading 14-12. That was the last highlight of the Lions’ day though. Dubbo prop Connor Watts dived over for the first of his two tries, with Blake’s conversion Roos edged ahead 19-14. Roos crossed straight after half-time, Blake laying a five-pointer on for Cam Bourchier, and the floodgate opened. Ben Hoey dived over, Finch scored and then Watts grabbed his second. Blake converted one, sealing Roos’ 29-point victory and the 2017 title. Blake was among the side’s best, as was openside flanker Will Schwagger and Watts. For the Lions, Morley shone in defence – and not just for that one shot either – while loosehead prop Nick O’Hara was at his barnstorming best. The battle between the two loosehead props was an interesting side-story to the grand final’s narrative. Watts and O’Hara were both among their sides’ best on the day, and all season, and neither gave an inch at scrum time or around the paddock. At times, it looked as though the pair was actively going looking for the other to try and gain the upper hand. Appropriately, as the full-time whistle was blown Watts made a beeline for O’Hara, where the two embraced in a show of mutual respect.
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/Qrs2cpbWHRW8qVd3GhSkX2/1a5235e0-2092-4f29-811d-8d4843d7863b.jpg/r127_231_2048_1316_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg
Roos’ ecstasy is Lions’ agony as Dubbo storms home to seal premiership | Photos, videos
Matt Findlay
UNDEFEATED CHAMPIONS: Dubbo Kangaroos' class shone through in Saturday's decider, they stormed home in a massive second half showing. Photos: MATT FINDLAY
Dubbo Kangaroos v Orange City Lions, grand final
All the action from Saturday's Central West Junior Rugby Union grand finals at Endeavour Oval
Just way too classy.
That’s about the only way to describe Dubbo Kangaroos after the side claimed the Central West Junior Rugby Union under 15s premiership at Orange’s Endeavour Oval on Saturday, completing a stunning undefeated season in the process.
The side, without NSW Country Eagles guns Nick Tighe and Max Rumble, stormed home in a dominant second half showing to ultimately seal a 43-14 victory over the unlucky Orange City Lions outfit.
Roos led 19-14 at the break and, led by super-composed five-eighth Jayden Blake, piled on another 24 unanswered points in the second half to blow the decider out completely.
Not that the Lions were bad, far from it.
In fact, Orange City was the better side for a large chunk of the first half.
Simply, this Kangaroos side was just too good, it was too good all season, the undeniable class among the group shining through in the second half.
“Look, all credit to Orange City. They really muscled up and put us on the backfoot, their defence was quite bone-rattling in that first half,” Dubbo co-coach Jason Blake said.
FT | Dubbo Kangaroos, your #CWJRU17 undefeated champions! They bested City 43-14. pic.twitter.com/Bl2l0FzKMk
— Matt Findlay (@MRFindlay24) September 9, 2017
“At half-time it probably could’ve gone either way really, but I spoke to my boys about staying true to their form, patterns and sequences of play, what had worked for them all year.
“We like to keep the ball in hand, really attack from anywhere on the field, so they needed to have belief in that plan and go to it. They did, it really showed in the second half.
“It was an amazing effort, it built on last year. We were the younger (Dubbo) side and we finished third in 2016, but we lost 11 or so players.
“We picked up eight new guys in the side this year and of those eight, seven had never played rugby.
“They’re very passionate about rugby now and that’s a real highlight for me and [co-coach Damien Johnson], seeing the whole side come together.
“This side has really worked so hard together this year, they deserve this, they’re reaping their reward.”
Orange City coach Nigel Ryan said he was over the moon with his side’s effort, but also couldn’t fault the Dubbo boys’ showing.
“They’ve been the best side all year, and they were better than us [on Saturday],” Ryan conceded.
“They really deserved to win, they played a great game so congratulations to them.
“They’re a team that’s been together for a long time, they’re very quick out wide.
“But I’m really proud of the boys, they played really well all season and did so again in [the decider].”
After Bathurst Bulldogs shocked everyone at the ground by upsetting Roos in the under 13s, many suggested a boilover would be possible in the 15s too.
Outside the first 10 minutes, in which Dubbo shot to a 12-0 lead, that boilover looked entirely possible in the first half.
Dubbo hooker and skipper Michael Strydom charged through some soft Lions defence in the middle to give his side a 7-0 lead – it was converted by Jayden Blake – after five minutes.
Blake kicked cross-field from his own 40-metre line four minutes later, it was regathered and popped off to Ben Rosenbaum, who went 30 to finish the stunning phase of play.
Blake missed the kick, leaving Dubbo’s lead at 12.
That second try woke the Lions up, and they crossed through fullback Henry Bouffler in the 14th minute.
Sean Carpenter nailed a tough conversion to slash the deficit to five, and Jack Ryan in the 20th after what Jason Blake labelled “the biggest, best tackle I’ve seen all season”.
With Roos attacking, Lions centre Kyle Morley read their attacking play like a book, shooting up on James Finch and jamming him, forcing the ball loose too.
Ryan scooped it up, went 70 metres and scored, Carpenter converted and just like that Orange City was leading 14-12.
20 | WHAT A SHOT!!!!! Morley, outrageous. Ryan goes all the way too! Carpenter goal. City leads 14-12! #CWJRU17pic.twitter.com/P7151bLBN8
That was the last highlight of the Lions’ day though.
Dubbo prop Connor Watts dived over for the first of his two tries, with Blake’s conversion Roos edged ahead 19-14.
Roos crossed straight after half-time, Blake laying a five-pointer on for Cam Bourchier, and the floodgate opened.
Ben Hoey dived over, Finch scored and then Watts grabbed his second. Blake converted one, sealing Roos’ 29-point victory and the 2017 title.
Blake was among the side’s best, as was openside flanker Will Schwagger and Watts.
For the Lions, Morley shone in defence – and not just for that one shot either – while loosehead prop Nick O’Hara was at his barnstorming best.
The battle between the two loosehead props was an interesting side-story to the grand final’s narrative.
Watts and O’Hara were both among their sides’ best on the day, and all season, and neither gave an inch at scrum time or around the paddock.
At times, it looked as though the pair was actively going looking for the other to try and gain the upper hand.
Appropriately, as the full-time whistle was blown Watts made a beeline for O’Hara, where the two embraced in a show of mutual respect.
DUBBO KANGAROOS 43 (Connor Watts 2, Michael Strydom, Ben Rosenbaum, Cam Bourchier, Ben Hoey, James Finch tries; Jayden Blake 4 conv) def ORANGE CITY LIONS 14 (Harry West, Jack Ryan tries; Sean Carpenter 2 conv)
Discuss "Roos’ ecstasy is Lions’ agony as Dubbo storms home to seal premiership | Photos, videos"
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Probabilistic safety assessment: A tool to estimate risk and drive safety improvement at nuclear power plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/educational-resources/feature-articles/probabilistic-safety-assessment.cfm
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RD-310: Safety Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/acts-and-regulations/regulatory-documents/published/html/rd310/
Feb 3, 2014 ...RD-310: Safety Analysis for Nuclear Power Plants Preface This regulatory document was developed pursuant to the requirements and obligations set forth in the General Nuclear Safety and Control Regulations and in the Class I Nuclear Facilities Regulations, where a safety analysis report demonstrating the safety of the nuclear facility must be submitted
Maintenance regulation and oversight for Canadian nuclear power plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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Inspection of Nuclear Power Plants—Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/osh_20161124_e_41867.html
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Managing radioactive releases from nuclear power plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/emergency-management-and-safety/managing-radioactive-releases.cfm
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Participant funding for the CNSC’s Regulatory Oversight Report for Canadian Nuclear Power Plants: 2016 - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
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Feb 10, 2017 ...Participant funding for the CNSC’s Regulatory Oversight Report for Canadian Nuclear Power Plants: 2016 Participant funding for the Regulatory Oversight Report for Canadian Nuclear Power Plants: 2016 will be open from February 10 to April 28, 2017. Participant funding notice The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is offering participant funding
Darlington New Nuclear Power Plant Project Joint Review Panel
https://www.canada.ca/en/news/archive/2010/05/darlington-new-nuclear-power-plant-project-joint-review-panel.html
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Modern Application of the Single Failure Criterion in Nuclear Power Plant Design and Its Future Evolution - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/research/technical-papers-and-articles/2015/2015-modern-application-single-failure-criterion-nuclear-power-design-evolution.cfm
Oct 31, 2017 ...Modern Application of the Single Failure Criterion in Nuclear Power Plant Design and Its Future Evolution Abstract of the technical paper/presentation presented at: DeGruyter magazine (degruyter.com) Development, (e-Doc 4805506) November 2015 Prepared by: R. Rulko Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Abstract: Approaches to the applications of single failure
Reliability Requirements and Use of Risk Applications for the Reliability Program in Canadian Nuclear Power Plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
http://www.nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/research/technical-papers-and-articles/2016/reliability-requirements-use-of-risk-applications-in-canadian-npp.cfm
Oct 18, 2016 ...Reliability Requirements and Use of Risk Applications for the Reliability Program in Canadian Nuclear Power Plants Abstract of the technical paper/presentation presented at: European Safety and Reliability Conference September 25–29, 2016 Glasgow, United Kingdom Prepared by: Usha Menon, Chantal Morin Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Abstract Reliable
RD-360: Life Extension of Nuclear Power Plants - Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
Feb 3, 2014 ...RD-360: Life Extension of Nuclear Power Plants Table of Contents 1.0 Purpose 2.0 Scope 3.0 Relevant Legislation 4.0 Introduction 5.0 Project Initiation 6.0 Establishing the Integrated Implementation Plan 6.1 Environmental Assessment 6.2 Integrated Safety Review 6.2.1 ISR Basis 6.2.2 ISR Safety Factor Reports 6.2.3 Confirmation of the Adequacy of ISR Safety
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Op Ed in Fusion Urging President to Pardon More Women by Amy Povah
When Amy Ralston Povah was escorted across the compound at FCI Dublin, after President Clinton granted her clemency, she told the women she would never forget them. Fifteen years later, Amy is still fighting to garner attention for the women who have been locked up for decades and need relief. Many of the women on the CAN-DO site are people Amy served time with and will advocate for until they are free.
As a result of Amy’s Op Ed in Fusion, Amy will conduct a radio interview with Dean Becker on Sept. 10th, on the Drug Truth Network’s Cultural Baggage on kpft.org – a subsidiary of pacifica.org
Amy R. Povah’s Op Ed in Fusion seeks to increase more pardons for women
Two days after Fusion published Amy’s Op Ed, Vikki Law’s article entitled Mothers Serving Long-Term Drug Sentences Call for Clemency was the lead story on Truthout.org about four of the women the CAN-DO Foundation is assisting in their desperate attempt to be one of the very lucky few who will find their way home to their children and family – and the right to sleep in their own bed, and cook whatever they’d like to eat. These every day basic rights we all take for granted have been robbed from otherwise good American citizens who are victims of a “tough on crime” era that many recognize was a mistake, and yet few are willing to correct. Oscar nominated David France wrote about my story for Glamour magazine in the late 90s – it was the first time a journalist explained the flawed conspiracy law in a major publication and how it was targeting wives and girlfriends of drug dealers and holding them equally culpable to the actions of the kingpin – who can often go scot-free for “cooperating.” Legislation was introduced to minimize the amount of time ancillary women in drug conspiracy cases would receive but it was never passed and ultimately forgotten. So many people assume that the women are equally guilty and should not be given favoritism. There are many cases where the woman was the minor participant and she is the ONLY one still serving time. In my own case – I collected bail money and I ended up with more time (I think) than anyone in the entire nation has ever received for ecstasy. Sammy the Bull admitted to 19 murders, received immunity for testimony against Gotti, but was later arrested for running a large ecstasy ring while on probation – and he only got 20 years – vs my 24 years – as a non-violent first offender. Why can’t these insane conspiracy laws and mandatory minimums be given TOP PRIORITY and changed so we can begin the healing process. What is the new Attorney General, Loretta Lynch prepared to do to end MASS INCARCERATION IN THE US? What are our new presidential candidates prepared to do? I’m not hearing that question in the media, or among our current leaders or this administration?
On Sept 15th, pardon expert, Professor Douglas Berman shared Amy’s Op Ed on his Sentencing Law and Policy blog that is closely monitored by every pardon aficionado in the nation.
Long-time American Democratic campaign worker and consultant, Joe Trippi tweeted Amy’s Op Ed, as did Director of DPA, Ethan Nadelman, among many others. Let’s keep up the momentum and get these women out of prison – Together, we CAN-DO this!!!
Read the entire Op Ed here:
Related article by Casey Tolan entitled: Why Hasn’t Obama Pardoned More People
Amy Povah Amy Ralston Pofahl Amy Ralston Povah clemency commutations conspiracy law drug war FAMM injustice mandatory minimums President Obama Presidential clemency presidential pardons
← Honoring Men in Prison on Father’s Day – Huffpost
Vera Institute focuses on lack of clemency for women →
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How To Travel And Still Save Money This Summer
Because we all know that every piso counts.
BY Ysa Singson for Cosmo.ph | Mar 26, 2017
IMAGE pixabay.com
Book cheap or free flights.
Traveling requires money, but with enough diligent research, booking a flight doesn't have to hurt that bad. If you're disciplined and resourceful enough, you'll be able to find deals and discounts that can help you travel even when you're not raking in serious cash yet.
Use your own resources.
My cousins and I wanted to explore the outskirts of Manila, but no one wanted to drive; we ended up joining a tour group instead. It was one of those tours that offered whole-day itineraries, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but we didn't enjoy all of the stops. In retrospect, we should have just coordinated with each other better and brought our own car so we could customize our tour. It probably would have been cheaper, too.
10 Tips for Traveling on a Budget
5 Budget-Friendly Road Trip Destinations for Your Barkada
Walk (don't be lazy).
For some reason, Filipinos don't like to walk. Yeah, it takes up a lot of energy; exercise always does. And yes, it's hot outside, but the sun won't kill you (as long as you apply sunscreen!). If you don't want to burn through your travel money, suck it up. In Puerto Princesa, tricycle drivers charge P100 for one ride, which doesn't sound like a lot of money, but again, it can add up.
Make a list of all the free things you can do in one place.
This one's fairly obvious, but you'd be surprised by how much people value convenience that they just book packages to all the basic tourist destinations without even considering exploring new spaces on their own first.
How to Travel When You're Broke
How to Take Travel Photos Like Nadine Lustre
Try dorm-style accommodations.
Unless you're enjoying a nice hotel staycation, you probably spend most of your day touring outside. If you think about it, tulugan lang naman talaga 'yung kailangan mo. And most of the time, you're so beat, you pass out almost instantly anyway. What we're trying to say is, you do not need to sleep on something fancy while you're traveling. Dorm-style hostels are perfect for those who want to tighten the purse strings and spend more on meaningful experiences.
Train yourself to not be a picky eater.
EAT. STREET. FOOD. You can't imagine how much money you save by filling your stomach with local street food. Do you know how many empanadas I've eaten in Vigan?! I also bought two more for the drive home. But if you really want to dine like a queen, my trick is to just splurge on one meal. Look up the one restaurant that's worth splurging on and eat your heart out.
Visit off-season.
Have you ever tried visiting Baguio in December? Or Sagada? Or Tagaytay? Everybody's trying to feel the winter spirit, but the congestion is almost unbearable. Plus, businesses always jack up the prices because they can. If you don't want to overpay for travel, book a flight when it isn't peak season and spare yourself the headache.
Plan before you leave the house.
Spontaneity is great, but not when you have no idea where you're going so you end up driving in circles for an hour and a half in Philippine traffic. Look at a map—ANY map—and check out all the spots you want to see to get a feel for the area before you attempt to ~*explore.*~ Not only will you avoid wasting a lot of time, but you'll also save a lot of money (on gas).
* Minor edits have been made by the Candymag.com editors.
Ysa Singson for Cosmo.ph
VIEW OTHER ARTICLES FROM Ysa Singson for Cosmo.ph
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in Midsize sedans
$22,440 - $33,995 See Inventory Prices
Pricing & Deals
Specs & Features
Detailed Review
The Passat sedan is among the affordable sedans available in the USA and belongs to the midsize car segment. It was launched back in 2011 in the USA with an aim to cater the needs of average size families. In contrast with the outgoing model, the 2017 version of Passat Sedan offers forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking as standard features.
Looking at the power section of the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan, it comprises of either a 1.8 L V4 engine or a more powerful 3.6 L V6 engine. Irrespective of the engine variant, a 6-speed automated manual transmission is utilized for effortless gear shifting.
See detailed review »
Spacious interiors provide extra comfort to passengers
The V6 engine is powerful
Exceptional safety ratings
Very responsive handling
Aggressive pricing
Simple exterior design
2 colors added to the lineup
No significant Change
vehicle bio
4dr Sedan
110 cu. in.
184 lb.-ft. @ 1500 rpm
independent front strut suspension
independent rear multi-link suspension
brake rotors (f/r)
10.7 in. ventilated front disc/12.3 in. solid disc brakes
passenger volume
102 cu ft.
cargo volume
15.9 cu ft.
zero to 60 mph
7.7 sec.
standing ¼-mile
15.8 sec.
city/combined/highway
23/27/34 mpg
highway range
3 years/36000 miles
corrosion warranty
12 years/unlimited
Vehicle images are guides only and may not reflect the model's exact specifications/features– exact specifications/features should be confirmed with the seller.
2017 Ford Fusion Energi Sedan
2017 Ford Fusion hybrid Sedan
Trims and Configurations
27 combined
S 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
Starting at $22,440 MSRP (23/27/34) 170 hp @ 4800 rpm, 1.8 L, I4, regular unleaded
See Full Specs 6-speed automatic front wheel drive 5
R-Line
R-Line 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
SE 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
SE w/Technology 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
See Full Specs 6-speed automatic front wheel drive 5 Deep Blue Pearl
Platinum Gray Metallic
Reef Blue Metallic
Reflex Silver Metallic
Urano Gray Metallic
V6 SE
Premium unleaded (required)
V6 SE w/Technology 4dr Sedan (3.6L 6cyl 6AM)
Starting at $29,295 MSRP (20/23/28) 280 hp @ 6200 rpm, 3.6 L, V6, premium unleaded (required)
SEL Premium
SEL Premium 4dr Sedan (1.8L 4cyl Turbo 6A)
V6 SEL Premium
V6 SEL Premium 4dr Sedan (3.6L 6cyl 6AM)
Top Volkswagen Cars
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Engine: 292 hp @ 5400 rpm, 2 L I4
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Engine: 228 hp @ 4700 rpm, 2 L I-4
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Engine: 170 hp @ 4500 rpm, 1.8 L I4
Volkswagen Passat For Sale
$7,950 / 30,218 miles
$13,998 / 46,059 miles
Osceola, IN
See all used Volkswagen Passat for sale
Also, checkout new Volkswagen Passat for sale
CARHP Editorial September 25, 2018
In the USA, there are numerous midsize sedans that are potential rivals of the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan. However, the three closest rivals of the 2017 Passat are namely Honda Accord, Mazda 6 and Chevrolet Malibu.
2017 Volkswagen Passat Features
The 2017 Volkswagen Passat's lineup consists of 5 distinct trim levels viz. S, SE, SEL, SE 3.6L V6 and SEL 3.6L V6. The Passat S is the base trim, whereas the Passat SEL 3.6L V6 is the top-end trim and is the most expensive. One important thing to notice about the trims of the Volkswagen Passat is that the lower three trims namely S, SE and SEL comes with the 1.8L engine while the upper SE V6 and SEL V6 feature the more powerful 3.6 L engine.
SE 3.6l V6
SEL 3.6l V6
Automatic Vehicle Illumination
Composition Color touchscreen sound system, MP3/WMA-compatible CD player, AM/FM radio, and SD memory card reader
LED headlights with LED Daytime Running Lights (DRL)
Discover Media touchscreen navigation system with proximity sensor, MP3/WMA/FLAC-compatible CD player, AM/FM/HD Radio, and SD memory card reader
Volkswagen Car-Net Security & Service with 6-month trial subscription
Keyless access with push-button start
SiriusXM Satellite Radio with 3-month trial subscription
The low-end S trim is available for a price of almost $22,440 and offers features such as cloth upholstery, dual-zone climate control, rearview camera, 16-inch alloy wheels, 6-way manually adjustable front seats, keyless power door locks, and cruise control.
Moving a step ahead, the SE trim stands in the lineup with a price tag of $25,495. Apart from the features available in the S trim, the SE trim provides more advanced features including, leatherette finished seats, heated front seats, keyless entry with push-button engine start, 8-way power driver seat, leather-wrapped steering wheel and bigger 17-inch wheels.With an MSRP of $30,995, the SEL trim deals even more enhanced features that are not available in the lower two trims. Some of those features include LED headlamps, lane departure warning system, adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, leather upholstery and 18-inch alloy wheels.Jumping to the SE V6 and SEL V6 trims, the major difference between them and their SE and SEL counterparts is of their engine. Both the SE V6 and SEL V6 comes with the more powerful 3.6-Liter engine and have MSRPs of $29,295 and $33,995 respectively.
2017 Volkswagen Passat Engine
The 1.8-Liter 4-cylinder engine variant of 2017 Volkswagen Passat is capable of generating a power of 170 hp at a maximum rpm of 4,800. Whereas, it can deliver a torque of 184 lbs.-ft. at a maximum rpm of 1,500. Switching to the more potent 3.6-Liter 6-cylinder engine, its maximum power and torque delivery correspond to 280 hp and 258 lbs.-ft. respectively. Additionally, the 2017 Passat's drivetrain comprises of a 6-speed automatic transmission with the manual gear-shifting mode.
Volkswagen Passat S
Honda Accord LX
Mazda 6 sport
Chevrolet Malibu L
2.4L 16-Valve DOHC i-VTEC I4
2.5L DOHC 16-Valve I4
1.5L turbo DOHC 4-cylinder
170-hp @ 4,800 rpm
184 lbs.-ft. @ 1,500 rpm
181 lb-ft @ 3900 rpm
Comparing the engine specs of the rivals with the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan, it is found that the Honda Accord LX has the highest power figure of 185 hp while the highest torque of 185 lbs.-ft. is offered by the Mazda 6 Sport. For the transmission, both the Mazda 6 and Chevrolet Malibu have 6-speed automatic transmission, whereas, the Honda Accord utilizes a CVT automatic transmission.
The V4 engine present in the Passat S allows it to go from 0 to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, which is second best after the 7.3 seconds of the Honda Accord LX. Moreover, after continuing the run, the Volkswagen Passat hits the quarter mile distance mark within 15.7 seconds. However, the Chevrolet Malibu\u2019s 14.3 seconds of quarter mile time is the best.\xa0
Quarter mile
(Tons/yr of CO2 Emissions @ 15K mi/year)
In terms of emission, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is the most polluting vehicle among its three major rivals due to its high annual emission of 6.5 tons.
Ride and Handling
The front wheel drivetrain allows the Passat to behave very well in terms of throttle response. Moreover, the V6 engine is even more satisfying in terms of aggressive movements and agility. The chassis of the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is sturdy and thus enables the car to have ample stability even when cruising at high speeds on the highways. Additionally, the power steering of the Passat operates effortlessly and allows the vehicle to maneuver easily in cities as well as on highways. The Sedan utilizes four-wheel independent suspension along with front and rear stabilizer bars that result in smooth rides even when the vehicle is moving on bad roads.
The 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan incorporates disc brakes in all of its 4 tires that are backed by a 4-wheel ABS system. The curb weight of the Passat is approximately 3263 lbs., which entitles it as the heaviest sedan among the rivals. However, its 60-0 mph braking distance is 124 feet and is better only against the 126 feet of the Mazda 6 Sport. The most efficient braking system is that of the Chevrolet Malibu L that allows it to have the 60-0 mph distance of just 113 feet.
Brake Front (in.)
Brake Rear (in.)
Curb Weight (lbs.)
60-0 MPH (ft.)
2017 Volkswagen Passat Fuel Economy
Fuel economy is not the parameter where the 2017 Passat outshines its competition. In fact, in comparison with the three rivals considered here, the Volkswagen Passat has the worst fuel economy (combined), which is equal to 27 MPG. On the contrary, the highest fuel economy of 30 MPG is offered by both the Honda Accord LX and Chevrolet Malibu followed by the 29 MPG of Mazda 6 Sport.
MPG (city)
MPG (highway)
MPG (combined)
2017 Volkswagen Passat Interior
"One of the most inviting parts of the 2017 Volkswagen Passat is its reserved yet classy interior. Cabin materials are excellent, and the cabin layout is, as you'd expect from the German automaker, logical and simple" -Edmunds.com
Seating and Comfort
The seating capacity of 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan, as well as of its competitors, is limited to 5 people. At the front row, the Passat Sedan offers the lowest headroom and shoulder room than its rivals. However, the legroom offered by the Volkswagen Passat is 42.4 inches, which only falls a little less than the 42.5 inches of the Honda Accord.
Front (Head/Shoulder/Leg) (In.)
38.3/56.9/42.4
(Head/Shoulder/Leg) (In.)
In the second row, the Passat\u2019s interior space comprises of 37.8 inches of headroom, 57.0 inches of shoulder room and 39.1 inches of legroom. When compared these figures with that of competition, it can be established that both the headroom and legroom available in the Passat are the highest. Whereas, its shoulder room is only 0.1 inches shorter than that of the Chevrolet Malibu.
The 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan employs its proprietary MIB II infotainment system with a 5-inch touchscreen display for entertaining the passengers. Moreover, the infotainment system is intuitive and easy-to-use and offers various features such as Bluetooth connectivity, a USB port, Auxiliary input port, AM/FM reception, navigation support, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and MirrorLink. However, in the upper trims of the Passat, a larger 6.3-inch display comes with the infotainment system along with additional features such as satellite radio. \xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0
The interiors of the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is highly functional and incorporate numerous features with a few of them listed as ahead:
2 one-touch windows
Steering mounted cruise and audio controls
When it comes to accommodating cargo, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan offers an ample space of 15.9 cubic feet, which surpasses the cargo capacities of all of its three major competitors.\xa0
Cargo Volume (ft.3)
2017 Volkswagen Passat Exterior
"True, this is a sedan to get if you're not interested in flash and flare. With reserved but classy styling, the Passat has a pretty timeless look to it" -Edmunds.com
The 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan measures about 191.9 inches in length and 72.2 inches in width with both the figures lesser than the competing sedans. However, its 58.5 inches of height makes it the tallest car. The 2017 Passat offers a good ground clearance of 5.4 inches but it is inferior in comparison to the 5.8 inches and 6.4 inches of ground clearances offered by the Honda Accord and Mazda 6 respectively.
Length(in)
Width(in)
Height(in)
Ground clearance (in)
Track width (in) F/R
From outside, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is not among the best-looking sedans but it still has many interesting features. Some of its main exterior features are as follows:
Four bar front grille
Dome-shaped hood
LED headlights and taillights
2017 Volkswagen Passat Safety
For assuring the safety of passengers and avoiding accidents, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan integrates numerous safety features in it. Some of the most prominent safety features of Passat include 3-point safety belt at rear center, child safety locks at rear doors, engine immobilizer, dusk sensing headlamps, traction control system, tire pressure monitoring, 4-wheel ABS, automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning.
The safety features of the 2017 Passat are effective and this is backed by the impressive ratings scored by the sedan in both the IIHS and NHTSA safety tests. In the IIHS safety test, the Passat has scored a \u2018good\u2019 rating in most of the individual parameters. Similarly, the NHTSA has approved the safety of 2017 Volkswagen Passat with an overall safety rating of 5-star.
Driver and passenger front and side thorax airbag supplemental restraint system
Side Curtain Protection\xae head airbags, front and rear
3-point safety belts for outboard seating positions
LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) child seat anchor points
Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Anti-Slip Regulation (ASR), Electronic Differential Lock (EDL), and Engine Brake Assist (EBA)
Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake-pressure Distribution (EBD), Hydraulic Brake Assist (HBA)
IIHS Ratings
Small overlap front driver side
Small overlap front passenger side
Marginal
Moderate overlap front
Roof strength
Head restraints & seats
Front crash prevention
Child seats anchors (LATCH)
NHTSARatings
Overall frontal barrier crash rating
Frontal barrier crash rating driver
Overall side crash rating
Side barrier rating
Side pole rating driver front seat
Combined side rating rear seat
Side barrier rating driver
Frontal barrier crash rating passenger
Combined side rating front seat
Side barrier rating passenger rear seat
2017 Volkswagen Passat Competition
Volkswagen Passat vs. Honda Accord LX
Priced at $23,155, the Honda Accord LX is $715 expensive than the Volkswagen Passat. However, the Japanese Accord outperforms the Passat in terms of engine power, 0-60 mph time, annual emission, fuel economy, ground clearance and braking ability. On the other side, the Passat only excels in having more torque delivery, larger second-row space and extra cargo capacity. Overall, there is no denial in the fact that the Accord is a better sedan than Volkswagen Passat in terms of performance.
Volkswagen Passat vs. Mazda 6 sport
The Mazda 6 Sport is yet another close competitor of the Volkswagen Passat and its price has been set at $22,995. Comparing the specifications of both the cars, the Mazda 6 has an upper hand over the Passat when it comes to engine power, torque, fuel economy, ground clearance and front row space. However, the Passat easily beats the Mazda 6 in parameters including 0-60 mph acceleration, quarter mile time, braking capability and cargo space availability.
Volkswagen passat vs. Chevrolet Malibu L
Chevrolet also competes with the Volkswagen Passat with its Malibu Sedan, which comes at an MSRP of 21,680, which makes it $760 cheaper than Passat. Despite the low price tag, the Malibu offers lower emission, lesser 60-0 mph deceleration distance, greater mileage, and bigger headroom and shoulder room at front row as compared to the Passat. On the contrary, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is superior in terms of engine power, acceleration, second-row space and cargo capacity.
2017 Volkswagen Passat Final Verdict
The 2017 Volkswagen Passat Sedan is highly reliable due to the fact that it is a German engineered vehicle. Moreover, the price of Passat makes it one of the most affordable sedans. Talking about the competition, most of the major rivals of Passat may have better performances but when it comes to safety, the Passat is one step ahead of them. In total, the 2017 Volkswagen Passat is one of the best family sedans available in the US and is a worth buying vehicle.
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In addition to providing nourishing food, Operation BBQ Relief gives hope, friendship, and compassion to displaced residents and emergency personnel during times of natural and other disasters.
Lisa Waterman Gray
On March 20, 2019, volunteer members of the nonprofit Operation BBQ Relief organization headed to Nebraska and Illinois communities that had been severely impacted by spring floods. Providing barbecue meals for displaced residents and emergency personnel was one small way to temporarily soothe the harsh realities of their immense cleanup challenge.
Considered a small-scale deployment, "OBR" volunteers filled two semi-trucks to the brim with ingredients and equipment. During summer 2018, volunteer teams also assisted in the Carolinas following massive damage from Tropical Storm Florence.
“Barbecue reminds people of good times and that there are good times to come,” says David Marks, OBR’s Chief Marketing Officer.
In addition to providing nourishing food, hope, friendship, and compassion supplied by volunteers was a welcome balm at the worst time in these people’s lives.
Operation BBQ Relief began after an F-5 tornado caused $2.8 billion in damages to the Joplin, Missouri area in May 2011, killing more than 160 people. Will Cleaver knew the city well. It was the place to enjoy "fancy" dates while he attended Pittsburg State University in nearby Pittsburg, Kansas.
Volunteer prepares freshly smoked pulled pork to ensure the one hot meal that matters is received. (Photo: Jeremy Lock)
Barbecue teams from eight states — including Cleaver’s — mobilized to help. They served 120,000 meals to displaced Joplin families, first responders, and other emergency personnel over a 13-day period. After that experience, Cleaver and current OBR CEO, Stan Hays, co-founded the organization.
Since 2011, OBR volunteers have served 3+ million meals following more than 50 disasters in dozens of states.
“We found a gap that exists from the time a disaster happens until the time that large sustaining groups can get their supply chain and equipment in,” Hays says. “We felt we were uniquely qualified to fill the gap and that — plus the emotional charge you get from helping people — helped shape our decision.”
OBR volunteers combine their barbecue cooking and catering skills with well-honed expertise in mobilizing teams to disaster areas. The organization’s executive team discusses each new disaster situation to determine the need for mass feeding.
The team then pushes out events through its OBR Volunteer App, which volunteers download and use to register. Social media posts and emails inform partners and sponsors about OBR’s intent to deploy, which may include purchasing food or moving it to the disaster location.
About half of OBR’s equipment occupies a Peculiar, Missouri warehouse and fenced yard. That includes two semi trucks and trailers, nonperishable goods, and other necessities. Volunteers that can’t travel but live in this area get last-minute things ready here.
“We then start getting core team members [organized] to set up and run a deployment and get equipment to the area while working on finding the right location set up,” Hays says.
“[We arrive], set up our equipment, and start producing food for those in need and the community. This [may] all happen in a matter of hours depending on location and severity.”
Volunteers from Freeport, Illinois gather to celebrate the 3,681 hot meals served. (Photo: Operation BBQ Relief)
A retired FedEx driver has driven semis for the organization for about two years, and a professional backup driver helps whenever he can. Corporate partner, Airlink Flights, helps get free driver flights to disaster areas. If neither driver is available, OBR pays drivers from a trucking company sponsor to help.
Volunteers, including BBQ teams, average three days on a deployment and may participate twice if they live close by. Many volunteers take vacation days to participate, but business owners or retired people may have more time available.
Most teams only use their own grills for smaller disasters. If teams do use their own equipment, OBR offers to reimburse their expenses. When big disasters occur, most of the cookers used are high-capacity smokers that OBR and several core members have, with fuel provided.
OBR typically creates a seven-day menu for each site, which may repeat depending on the length of deployment.
“We have a Head Pitmaster and Culinary Director Nick Woolfolk, who works with a team to put [the menu] together,” Hays says. “A lot of the food is donated, but what is not, we will purchase.”
These relief efforts have an enormous amount of moving parts. People trained to be “site leads,” and run each deployment often work 12-hour days. “We try to rotate them out and bring in fresh core team leads each shift, or change up their duties to ensure they get rest,” Hays says.
OBR pays for hotels or VRBOs for key team members working those long days for a week, while many barbecue teams sleep in their own trailers or campers. Two air-conditioned bunk trailers sleep about 14 people. Sometimes OBR also sets up a tent with air-conditioning and cots for people to sleep on.
Having sufficient financial and other support is important to OBR. Generous corporate sponsors include Seaboard Foods and Prairie Fresh, with two dozen additional corporate sponsors. On April 12, the organization’s first fundraising cookbook became available for pre-order, too.
In 2017, Hays reluctantly accepted designation among CNN’s Top 10 Heroes because of how it might benefit the organization.
“…What we do is not about me but about [8,000 volunteers]…who give their hearts, their time, and [often] their own money to help people,” he says. “I didn’t want the story to be about me, but about our volunteers. Additionally, there are other co-founders, and I felt that it wasn’t just me.”
After much discussion, Hays agreed.
“We have spent the last two-and-a-half years outside of disasters feeding those in communities that needed a good hot meal. When you look at what we do in disasters in filling that [food] gap, it is less than 75 days a year, so we still have 290 other days we can help communities, engage, and bring on more volunteers and train and educate them.”
Stan Hays does a morning meeting with volunteers in Wilmington, NC in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence. (Photo: Jeremy Lock)
OBR recently launched their Always Serving Project, joining forces with the National Organization of Voluntary Organizations. "ASP" provides non-disaster meals to help fight hunger across the nation, as well as feeding first responders and military and veteran communities.
Most ASP programs will be scheduled throughout the year, allowing OBR to track and share results. Volunteers may teach people about grilling and smoking their food, too.
“In each [situation] over the next year, we will learn more and see how we are doing,” Hays says. “We have already seen a positive response from our volunteers and new volunteers starting to sign up.”
ASP creates a much larger opportunity for OBR to receive grants because these predictable and measurable programs are on the calendar and clearly visible to foundations. In addition, more companies are interested in partnering with the organization because of its expansion into the non-disaster programs.
Although disasters are not predictable, ASP efforts can be. “But, with that being said, if there was a tragedy in the U.S. around military or first responders, we would look at mobilizing to help,” Hays says. “This is a natural progression and our board agreed with the vision and how it will help sustain our growth.”
Recovery efforts
Lisa Waterman Gray is a freelance writer and photographer in Overland Park, Kan. and the Kansas City metropolitan area. Her byline has appeared in Chow Town/the Kansas City Star, Dreamscapes Travel and Lifestyle Magazine (Canadian), five AAA magazines, Midwest Living, Missouri Life, KANSAS!, Feast Magazine, and others. Lisa’s online stories have also posted at CivilEats.com, FoodTank.com, USAToday.com/10Best, OffbeatTravel.com, BusandMotorcoachNews.com, and WanderWithWonder.com. She is also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the Soul, Messages from Heaven and Other Miracles (January 2019) and author of the 400-page statewide travel book, An Explorer’s Guide: Kansas (June 2011, The Countryman Press/W.W. Norton & Company).
My transition was easy, finding meaning after service was not
For one veteran, surrounding herself with civic-minded people brought her more fulfillment than corporate life ever could.
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Service providers see boost from govt's secure cloud list
More than 20 services are currently undergoing assessment to be added to the Australian Signals Directorate's Certified Cloud Services List
Rohan Pearce (Computerworld) 02 October, 2015 10:54
The creation earlier this year of the Certified Cloud Services List has had an already begun having an impact on government adoption of cloud according to the Australian vendors who have been added to the CCSL.
The CCSL is maintained by the Australian Signals Directorate, which unveiled the initial list in April alongside the newest edition of the government's Information Security Manual.
The refresh of the ISM and the CCSL's launch followed the 2014 release of an updated government cloud policy under which agencies must adopt cloud where it is "fit for purpose, provides adequate protection of data and delivers value for money" when obtaining new ICT services or replacing existing services.
The list is intended to make it easier for government departments and agencies to securely adopt cloud services.
"Assessments are performed by members of ASD's Information Security Registered Assessors Program," a spokesperson for the Department of Defence said.
"A vendor itself is not assessed, rather a specific cloud service that the vendor provides. If a service meets ASD's certification requirements, it will be awarded certification and added to the published CCSL."
The first tranche of services to join the list were Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service and Office 365 and Amazon Web Services' EBS, EC2, S3 and Virtual Private Cloud services.
Macquarie Telecom in May became the first Australian company to be added, with its GovZone cloud service becoming part of the CCSL.
Then in September the ASD added another two Australian cloud providers, with services from Canberra-based Sliced Tech and Sydney-headquartered Vault Systems joining the CCSL.
Read more Government's ACSC launches secure administration guide
IRAP assessors are currently undertaking more than 20 assessments of cloud services for government use, according to Defence.
Anecdotal feedback on the initiative from government agencies has been "overwhelmingly positive," according to the spokesperson for the department.
"Smaller federal and state/territory government agencies in particular rely on the list to inform cloud adoption projects."
"The CCSL is a strong example of how government can work with industry to save time and resources," the spokesperson added.
Read more ASD expands secure cloud services list for government
"The CCSL provides an authoritative list of services to inform the accreditation decision by an agency, as detailed in the Australian government Information Security Manual."
"The reality is government is inherently risk averse and we expect them to be prudent custodians of the country's assets," said Macquarie Telecom co-founder and managing director Aidan Tudehope.
"So they do look for guidance when adopting new technology. And the reality is, most agencies aren't experts when it comes to technology – they're experts in their domain.
"When they have another department that takes the effort to understand the dynamics of new technology and put out some guiding frameworks, they absolutely leverage that framework."
Read more Hacker nabs David Jones customer data
"From an Australian government and public point of view, in addition to streamlining procurement processes, the initiative allows government departments to leverage the benefits of the cloud while reducing the likelihood the exposure of sensitive government data," said the CEO of Vault Systems, Rupert Taylor-Price.
The assessment process undertaken by Vault Systems covered a range of OpenStack-based services the vendor offers, including compute, object and block storage, networking, and secure Internet gateway.
"The list is extremely useful as it provides certainty for government customers that a minimum level of security compliance has been attained," said Sliced Tech's CEO, Jason McClure.
"It also enables agencies to feel more enabled to progress cloud and other 'IT-as-a-service initiatives whilst still meeting their obligations for compliance."
Read more Aussie cloud contact centre market worth $6.1m
"We actually had a number of existing and new customers asking when we were going to be on the list since April," McClure said.
“Being added to the list has provided validation by ASD of the information Sliced Tech provided to those customers. Government agencies now feel more enabled to utilise us as a result of us demonstrating our compliance, especially when we achieve higher compliance than themselves or other providers."
Taylor-Price said there has been an "overwhelming amount of interest" in Vault's services after it was added to the CCSL.
"It would appear that cloud solutions offer opportunities to solve a lot of the challenges that agencies have with tight project timelines," the company's CEO said.
Read more The importance of building trust to guarantee Australia’s cyber-secure future
Prior to creation of the CCSL, Sliced Tech had already on its own initiative submitted to government audit reports of its clouds at the Protected ISM classification, McClure said.
The creation of the list validated Sliced Tech's decision to invest in the process, the Sliced Tech CEO said.
"We are currently one of two providers that hold both ASD certifications (gateway and cloud), which provides significant differentiation in the assurance that we provide a range of compliant services," he said.
Tudehope said that Macquarie Telecom was “absolutely” seeing an impact of being on the list.
Read more Stolen credit card numbers going for A$21 to $40
That's classified
Currently the cloud services on the CCSL are only ratified by the ASD for use with so-called 'Unclassified DLM' data — information that is unclassified but sensitive.
The government's categories for information requiring security classifications are Protected, Confidential, Secret and Top Secret.
All the vendors Computerworld spoke to were seeking to have their services ratified by the ASD for use with more stringently protected levels of information.
Read more Open data: NSW to launch new hub for transport data
Vault's Taylor-Price said the company had never officially applied for Unclassified DLM ratification; its application had been split by the ASD because of the length of time the ratification process would take for the Protected level.
Vault is due to receive ratification for its Protected certification this quarter but is hoping to receive it within a month.
Taylor-Price said Vault had built its service to the Top Secret standard although does not expect the government to ever outsource services that require that level of protection.
Being able to have a mix of Unclassified and Protected data in the same cloud environment is likely to hold significant appeal for government agencies, the CEO said.
Read more Ninefold to close down
"We have a number of our services that are in the process of being certified at both the Unclassified (DLM) and Protected classification," said Sliced Tech's McClure.
"We are engaged with ASD to progress these certifications in the near future."
Macquarie Telecom is also seeking to have its services ratified with more stringently classified data, Tudehope said.
All three CEOs had praise for the list and the ASD's work.
"Given the resources available to ASD to develop and maintain this list and supporting processes, the process has been efficient," McClure said.
"The challenge for ASD is that this is a very fast changing world of cyber security," Tudehope said.
"They have defined resources and therefore just as they achieve a certain milestone, the goalposts move and they need to reinvest in new initiatives – that's the challenge. And that's a challenge not just for ASD but for everyone in the industry...
"The reality is you can't do it on your own unless that is actually your business – you're going to lose against the cyber attackers who in many cases do to it for a business."
Follow Rohan on Twitter: @rohan_p
Security Market Review 2019: Navigating an Evolving Security Landscape
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Arts-Life > Entertainment
Reasons why people are in the mood to spend
In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, photo, Heather Camacuari, of Charlotte, shops for clothing at a Kohl's store in Concord, N.C. Many kinds of chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores. A booming economy, which has shoppers spending more freely, and companies' own efforts in trying to Amazon-proof their business is driving people’s mood to spend. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Chuck Burton
In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, file photo cashier Liz Moore, right, checks out customers Christie Meeks, center, and Lisa Starnes, left, at a Kohl's store in Concord, N.C. Many kinds of chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores. A booming economy, which has shoppers spending more freely, and companies' own efforts in trying to Amazon-proof their business is driving people’s mood to spend. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Chuck Burton
FILE- In this May 30, 2018, file photo, a shopper walks through the updated cosmetic department at a Target store in San Antonio. “There’s no doubt that, like others, we’re currently benefiting from a very strong consumer environment, perhaps the strongest I’ve seen in my career,” Target CEO Brian Cornell told investors. Target saw sales at established stores post the strongest growth in 13 years. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Eric Gay
In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, photo Mark Vega, 7, left, looks inside his family's cart as parents Frankie Vega, center, and Kimberly Vega, right, shop at a Kohl's store in Concord, N.C. Many kinds of chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores. A booming economy, which has shoppers spending more freely, and companies' own efforts in trying to Amazon-proof their business is driving people’s mood to spend. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Chuck Burton
In this Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, photo Heather Camacuari, of Charlotte, N.C., shops for clothing at a Kohl's store in Concord, N.C. Many kinds of chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores. A booming economy, which has shoppers spending more freely, and companies' own efforts in trying to Amazon-proof their business is driving people’s mood to spend. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Chuck Burton
FILE- In this May 23, 2017, file photo, an employee adjusts a television display at a Best Buy in Cary, N.C. Many kinds of old-guard chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores, and are raising their outlooks for the year. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File) Gerry Broome
In this Aug. 28, 2018, photo Luke Vega, 7, left, looks in a cart with his mother Kimberly Vega, right, as they shop at a Kohl's store in Concord, N.C. Many kinds of chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores. A booming economy, which has shoppers spending more freely, and companies' own efforts in trying to Amazon-proof their business is driving people’s mood to spend. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) Chuck Burton
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
The store isn’t dead for Home Depot, Kohl’s, Best Buy or Target. Many traditional chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores, as people are in a mood to spend.
What’s driving it? A booming economy and companies’ own efforts to try to Amazon-proof their businesses. That means making their stores more pleasant, updating their websites and speeding up delivery.
The bounce is a welcome reprieve from talk of a retail apocalypse that flourished after a spate of bankruptcies. Plenty of stores are still struggling, particularly mall clothing chains like Victoria’s Secret and department stores like Sears.
Here are some of the main trends right now.
A strong economy: Shoppers are spending more freely in an economy that has recently grown at the fastest pace in nearly four years. Unemployment is near an 18-year low. Average hourly wages rose 2.7 percent in July from a year earlier.
Faster options at the store: Stores are catering better to time-conscious shoppers with delivery and pickup services that take advantage of their store networks.
Walmart has curbside grocery pickup at 1,800 stores, and is expanding its pickup towers, which serve up items ordered online within seconds. Target says it’s reduced the wait time for curbside pickup to 2 minutes. Target has also found where it’s testing same-day delivery for store shoppers the average basket size is more than $200, the highest of any service it provides.
Though Walmart has dropped mobile checkout at its namesake stores, others like Macy’s and Kroger are embracing it. Urban Outfitters says more shoppers than it expected are using self-checkout at its store in Manhattan’s Herald Square.
Revamping websites: Stores are trying to make it easier to browse and discover products online as a way to compete with shoppers accustomed to Amazon.
Walmart overhauled its website with a special emphasis on fashion and home goods, and has special sections dedicated to Lord & Taylor as part of their partnership and for the outdoor brand Moosejaw it bought last year. Consolo cited Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s as others that have made their sites easier to shop.
Powerful exclusive brands: Shoppers are responding to the brands stores have developed to differentiate themselves – and which have better profit margins.
Target has been aggressive here, particularly in clothing and home goods. The children’s clothing brand Cat & Jack generated $2 billion in sales one year after its launch in 2016.
Macy’s hopes to have its private label and exclusive brands account for 40 percent of the merchandise it offers in the next few years, up from about 30 percent. And Kohl’s teamed up with media company PopSugar on a clothing collection that will hit next month.
“The department stores that have a clear strategy and vision are going to be the clear winners,” said Greg Petro, founder and CEO of First Insight, which helps retailers set prices.
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Don't want no stinkin' Louisiana driver's license: Andrea Ballinger, LSU administrator with six-figure salary, quits her job rather than get Louisiana driver's license
Louisiana law requires unclassified state employees who earn salaries over $100,000 per year to obtain Louisiana drivers licenses and register their cars in Louisiana.
A few days ago, four LSU administrators, all making six figures, quit their jobs rather than comply with the law. All four claim Illinois as their primary residence, and three of them worked for LSU at least part of the time from Illinois.
Who are these jokers?
Andrea Ballinger, LSU's Chief Technology Officer, makes $268,000 a year. She left Illinois State University in 2017, where she made $193,424. Apparently, LSU was so desperate to hire Ballinger that it gave her a $20,000 moving stipend.
Matthew Helm, LSU's assistant vice president in information technology services, draws a salary of $202,085.
Susan Flanagin, director in information technology services, makes $149,000.
Thomas Glenn, LSU's director of information technology services, gets paid $144,000 a year.
If I were making more than a quarter of a million dollars to work at a Louisiana university, I would damn well get a Louisiana driver's license and put a Louisiana license plate on my humble Subaru.
So why would these knuckleheads quit their jobs rather than register their cars in Louisiana? Their lame explanation: Getting Louisiana driver's licenses and registering their cars in Louisiana would violate Illinois law!
I doubt we will ever know the full story, but here is my guess: All four of these characters have some sort of financial tie to Illinois that would be jeopardized if they established legal residence in Louisiana. If so, those ties must be substantial for them to give up their high-paying gigs at LSU.
Apparently, all four former LSU employees are leaving the Pelican State and heading back to the Land of Lincoln. I say good riddance!
Andrea Ballinger, LSU's former chief technology officer
Posted by Richard Fossey at 8:17 AM
Labels: Andrea Ballinger, Illinois State University, Louisiana State University, LSU, Matthew Helm, Susan Flanagin, Thomas Glenn
Both Ballinger and Helm worked at Illinois State University. We said good riddance to them as well. LSU should be thankful they left.
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Stephanie Hutton & Sophie Van Llewyn - Fiction
Stephanie Hutton is a clinical psychologist in Staffordshire, UK who writes short fiction. In 2017, she was nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Find her here.
Sophie van Llewyn lives in Germany. Her prose has been published or is forthcoming in the 2017 NFFD Anthology, Ambit, Banshee, Litro, New South Journal, The Guardian, etc. One of her flash fictions has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She tweets @sophie_van_l
Stephanie Hutton & Sophie van Llewyn Interview with Jonathan Cardew
A double header today! Thank you so much, Stephanie and Sophie, for joining us at Connotation Press with your wonderful collaborative piece, “Chimaera.”
First of all, let’s talk logistics! I’m sure many of our readers have considered working on a collaborative piece of fiction, but were always afraid to ask. Could you describe to us how this project came about, how the story idea was generated, and how you worked on it from concept to polished piece (including any hiccups, u-turns, and/or revelations along the way)?
SVL: The truth is, we never meant to write a collaborative piece! Stephanie and I are in the same writing group, Flash Force 5. One day, she posted a nearly finished flash, asking for advice. I loved it: the atmosphere, how evocative it was, the details (like Gloria’s nails, who, by the way, was named Greta in the initial version), the mysterious singer on the stage. The piece, at the time, ended with Greta/Gloria weaving her way back to Frank’s table. Stephanie was unsure where to take it from there. Strangely, a seed was planted in my head. After a few days, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the story. I was aching to write it! So I asked Stephanie if I could play around with it and she agreed— our collaboration was born. And here’s the thing: we’ve been editing each other’s work for so long, that we trust each other blindly. Stephanie allowed me to do whatever I wanted with her flash, and this gave me total freedom. And when I had to turn in the new version of the piece, I was confident that Stephanie’s editing decisions would be no less than perfect.
SH: My flash had characters, a setting, a start but fell flat. It was a piece I shared with Sophie around the time we were discussing virtual collaboration. She said she had an idea where the story could go and this was not what I expected! The shift in gear to the strange and magical represents one of our shared interests. It was exciting to see where she took my idea and characters so it became something so different. We took turns editing as I noticed one major difference was our sentence lengths. Sophie added in the ‘f’ word, which I wouldn’t have dared but in fact fitted the character exactly. I have complete trust in Sophie’s ideas and editing, and we are in contact most days virtually about writing and life!
The chimaera in this piece is a hybrid creature that ultimately sends the unsavoury main character over the edge. Who doesn’t love a good cathartic monster! What’s one of your favourite monsters from any art form or literature?
SVL: Griffins, I’d have to say. I love them in fantasy movies, computer games (don’t act so shocked, please. I loved Warcraft), and books. But griffins are also hybrid creatures, aren’t they? And predators.
SH: I have a soft spot for werewolves. On the fringes of our awareness lurk those other parts of ourselves, the animal part that responds with rage, abandon, freedom. There is something alluring about the pack and its cohesion, unstoppable.
I know that both of you are active with your writing on various social media platforms. Speaking of collaborations, writers have never been so connected in this new world, and I feel there are many benefits but also drawbacks. What do you love/like/dislike/hate/can’t abide by in this social media writer scene?
SVL: I would have never gotten into flash fiction, if it weren’t for Twitter. I’m not joking. I’m rather isolated here, in Germany, from what goes on in the English-speaking world, and isolated from the literary world, in general (I mean, I’m a doctor. I don’t have the same kind of access/opportunities someone who finished an MFA/MA in Creative Writing would have). I basically found out about flash fiction from AdHoc Fiction via Bath Flash Fiction Award via Bath Short Story Award (so, thank you, Jude Higgins!). I had just gotten into writing, and finished a historical novel in a few months, but with no idea on how to begin to edit it. I felt hopeless. Then, I tried writing a very short story for the AdHoc weekly competition— and my very first flash was longlisted, and published in their ebook. I had a tremendous sense of achievement. So, I spread my Twitter wings, began following other flash fiction magazines and authors, reading a lot, ordering flash books, and so on. Ta-da! There it is, the secret is out. My love story with flash began on social media.
SH: I agree. Without making writing connections on Twitter and now within a flash Facebook group and through direct messages, I don’t know if I would have continued to write. I came to writing later in life two years ago through a competition I saw on Twitter. Once you comment on work that you love, so many friendships and support build up. I’m amazed how little envy or competitiveness I’ve witnessed, the appreciation and excitement for other writers seems utterly genuine. Social media is perfect for those of us who don’t or can’t get out much in the real world, and helps to connect with people all over the world. Through Twitter I was invited into a critique group by Sophie, which I’m in no doubt has improved my writing so much. I write to be read, and social media allows that so easily with a group of wonderful followers who make it worthwhile. I think the downside for me is how much time can be swallowed up by scroll, scroll, scroll instead of writing, the procrastinator’s black hole.
You are both super-duper flash fiction writers! Can you share with us a signature piece of your flash, and also a piece that you have read and loved from another author recently?
SVL: Thank you so much, Jonathan! *blushes*
But let’s do this the other way around: Stephanie will share one of mine, and I’ll share one of hers. My favourite is ‘Gut’. I think this is brilliant: the dark humour, the perfectly honed language, the bits of authentic dialogue.
A piece I loved recently is ‘ Apology Note To My Roommate Irene After My Chimaera Destroyed Her Blue Suede Heels '. I stumbled upon it only days after completing my collaboration with Stephanie, and I was drawn by the chimaera in the title. The story is absolutely fantastic— although Kaely Horton’s chimaera is completely different from ours.
SH: My favourite piece of Sophie’s that is available online is Tinnitus in Lost Balloon – this is a perfect example of Sophie’s work which is always layered and beautiful. A recent favourite of mine is the powerful ‘The Microbiology of Laiq’ by Christopher Allen in Jellyfish Review such an innovative, precise way to explore a painful and relevant topic.
What’s next? What projects or publications do you have in the pipeline?
SVL: I’m currently quite busy fine-tuning a longer project, but I’m not really allowed to talk about it (yet!). But soon.
On a different note, I’m quite excited that a chapter from my novella-in-flash will be appearing at the end of the month in Ambit.
And I hope Stephanie and I will soon collaborate on a new piece. Working on ‘Chimaera’ was such a fun experience, and the entire process felt so organic, that I really wouldn’t want to push a second collaboration. It will come when it will come.
SH: I’m trying some different ideas but not sure which will turn to reality yet: a longer project, a flash collection inspired by fairytales, writing for children. I’m trying to learn how to write prose poetry well, for those flashes that aren’t quite flashes. I co-run a community based writing project The Writing Kiln, so have lots of plans for more workshops, day retreats and to host National Flash Fiction Day in my area in 2018. Following a flash class for people in recovery from substance use in London this year, I’m interested in developing ways to help people use writing therapeutically as a combination of my profession of Clinical Psychology and belief in the value of creative outlets.
Finally, let’s talk duets. Which two writers/artists/filmmakers etc. (past or present) would you like to see get it on collaboratively?
SVL: Jane Austen and Isabel Allende.
SH: I have been thinking about this tricky question for days! Rather than specific people, what came to mind was how wonderful it would be to combine flash fiction with dance. I think there could be real scope to ‘see’ the flash represented through dance, both the story and the flow of language, without detracting from the actual words.
Thanks ever so much for being our hybrid creature this issue!
Frank knocks back another whiskey and stops his top lip from curling at the vile flavour. He likes to keep himself in pain. The jazz singer sways off-beat, her chocolate curls moving moments behind. She smokes between verses. This isn’t the kind of place that worries about what the state says is banned. Frank knows the year of course — all his marbles are where they should be — but for all he knows, it could be 1979 right now: a vintage of bitter cigars, sweaty lust, and the uncertainty of syncopation.
Gloria scratches at the table with her decorated nails, one of which is a different shade; Frank hasn’t asked why. There are probably twenty-six year-old grooves in the wood, he thinks. Perhaps they spell something out. H-E-L-P. Not that Gloria would admit it of course. She’d blame millennials. Or Mexicans.
Frank reaches for her hand, but instead of grasping it softly, as he would have back in the day, he pinches the sides of the yellow-coloured nail between thumb and forefinger. He squeezes hard. Gloria says nothing; she doesn’t even try to pull her hand away. He grits his teeth, crushes harder. The pain carves a deep crease between her eyebrows, makes her whimper.
He laughs. That’s how he likes her— whimpering. The laugh creeps into a cough, rattling his ribs. Gloria winces, as he takes a handkerchief from his pocket and spits into it. She stands up, smoothing down her linen dress again and again with her hands. A slight nod of her head, and she’s off to the restroom.
The singer exhales a series of smoke rings as if to gain his attention. Then she starts the next song. It’s in Spanish. Consonants growl from the back of her throat and spurt from her tongue trapped between perfect teeth. Frank can’t look away from kohl-rimmed eyes that seek him out, pin him to the chair. And even though he speaks no language but English, he understands the message: he hasn’t got long left.
Around cluttered tables, Gloria weaves her way back. She stops in front of the stage, glaring at the singer. Frank watches how a ripple passes through her body, straightening her back, flicking her head backwards. The tips of her red hair barely brush her bare shoulders. She didn't want to wear the blue dress that unveils so much cleavage, so much leg, but Frank insisted. He was right. In this faded light, full of dust and shades of orange, like a sunset, her thighs look like they used to back in the day, when Frank would bury his fingers in them when they made love , so he could admire the purple marks that showed when she wore her short skirts. It was a bit like branding his cow. She didn’t look much like one back then.
Gloria stands upright and unmoving in her spot. He calls her name. She doesn’t turn. Instead, she sets a foot on the step that leads to the stage. He jumps up from his seat, shouting. His screams dissolve in coughing, his face turns the colour of blood he is spitting in his handkerchief. He throws his whiskey glass after her, but she isn’t on the step any longer. She’s on the stage, singing. It’s a different tune from the smoking singer’s, lower, sadder, but somehow, the two women are in harmony. Gloria’s hand grips the microphone, and she starts rubbing it gently. When did she learn to speak Spanish?
The singer moves closer to her, lays a hand over Gloria’s, and that is when their fingers mingle. Then the back of their hands, and their wrists, slowly merge into one. They are now a monster, two bodies sharing a single hand, grasping the microphone.
Frank is choking in his own blood while his wife sings about their wedding day. He should climb the stage, and drag her down, but he can’t move. The women dance, they undulate like pulsing waves, drawing closer and closer to each other. Blending. A hand, a half-bared breast, the hair, until there is only one woman, singing two different tunes. Her contours are as haloed as a reflection in a dirty window. She has long, curly red hair, kohl-rimmed eyes, a raspy voice and great thighs she keeps touching with her fingertips. Its fingertips. Their fingertips.There was a Greek name for what it is, but Frank has long forgotten it.
The bar is empty, yet Frank can’t pause to think about how this happened, because they are singing about swimming in the creek, and the liquorice snakes he stole from the neighbour’s kid, and how he laughed when his Grammy beat him with her flaccid slipper. Frank sits down, trying to sing along, but he doesn’t know the words.
The song melts into a sequence of disparate images: the touch of a hand lifting him, a voice, a spurt of a sweet liquid on his tongue. His eyes flicker, and close, and there is only darkness, until the coughing rips them open again.
They are standing in front of him. They take his hand, and hoist him up. They hug, squeezing the last trace of breath out of him. He tries to flail, but he is weak, as soft and flabby as a newborn.
He gurgles and foams and his head is whirling, when they let him loose, and leave.
“ I want to come with you,” he wheezes.
They chuckle. “Honey. But you’ve already gone.”
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Researchers reprogram brain cells into heart cells
Penn researchers are the first to directly convert a non-heart cell type into a heart cell via RNA transfer, managing to change both a brain cell and a skin cell into a heart cell.
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore
July 8, 2011 5:36 PM PDT
Being able to regenerate injured heart cells would give physicians the tools to repair and replace damaged tissue and ultimately save lives. So while researchers have spent more than a decade trying to reprogram cell types in general, changing them into heart cells has been a sort of holy grail.
Now, a team at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has done just that--and is the first to directly convert a non-heart cell type into a heart cell via RNA transfer. In fact, the researchers reprogrammed both an astrocyte (a star-shaped brain cell) and a fibroblast (a skin cell) into heart cells.
The heart cell tCardiomyocyte (center) shows protein distribution (in green and red) indicative of a young cardiomyocyte. Tae Kyung Kim/University of Pennsylvania
"What's new about this approach for heart-cell generation is that we directly converted one cell type to another using RNA without an intermediate step," says James Eberwine, a pharmacology professor at Penn, in a news release.
Because a cell's signature is characterized by messenger RNAs (mRNAs), which act as a sort of blueprint for making a protein, the researchers introduced an excess amount of heart cell mRNAs into the host cells and let the new, abundant population essentially take over the smaller, indigenous one. This new population then directed DNA in the host nucleus to actually change the cell's RNA populations to the new heart cell ("tCardiomyocyte").
Ultimately, the heart-cell mRNAs are translated into heart-cell proteins, which influence gene expression in the host so that heart-cell genes are turned on and heart-cell-enriched proteins are made. The chain of events may be lengthy, but the process is direct.
The team's approach, called Transcriptome Induced Phenotype Remodeling, has been fine-tuned in Eberwine's lab in recent years.
While it may be a way off, the team says that reprogramming a patient's cells to be heart cells would enable personalized screening for efficacy of drug treatments and new drugs. It reports its findings online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We drowned AirPods, Powerbeats Pro and Galaxy Buds: We sprayed them, dunked them and even put them through the wash to find out which one of these three wireless earphones can handle the most water.
Gadgets Sci-Tech
Discuss: Researchers reprogram brain cells into heart cells
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Venture 13 - A Business Incubator for Cobourg
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Cobourg News Archive - the Cobourg News Blog has moved
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2017-05-29 - Full agenda at Council meeting on May 29, 2017
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Written by John Draper
Cobourg has announced it will create a business incubator to help entrepreneurs start up in the area. The Federal Government on Wednesday announced a grant of $400,000 towards this and the Town is expecting the Province to also provide a grant – to be announced by the end of July. The project will occupy part of the ground floor of building #13 at 739 D’Arcy Street in Northam Industrial Park. CFDC and other tenants will occupy the rest of the ground floor while the second floor will be used by the Police Services operation. The new facility will be called Venture 13 and its total cost to the Town will be $1,620,000. A report by Stephen Peacock to the Committee of the Whole meeting on May 29 gives full details including a business case. This post provides a summary.
Wendy CurtisThe idea was presented to Council on March 13, 2017 by Wendy Curtis of Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) at a joint closed meeting of Council and the Police Services Board. Wendy described it as an opportunity for the Town to work with CFDC and other partners for the creation of an Economic Development Tech Innovation Center. (For those who don’t know, the CFDC is a Federally funded organization that helps entrepreneurs both with advice and funding).
Cobourg Council's Strategic Plan
Objective 3 "Promote Diverse Economic Development Opportunities" states to "Develop and Implement a business incubator/entrepreneurship programs" and also to "Develop and implement a marketing and promotion program that is integrated with other strategic partners". (Strategic Plan on Town’s web site here). Venture 13 will meet these objectives.
The project will meet a long list of Economic Development goals.
The idea to create a centre that will provide help to budding entrepreneurs – the help will be with dollars, facilities, advice and an environment where there are other entrepreneurs to share ideas with. It will be aimed at attracting and setting up high-tech industries in Cobourg and Northumberland. The specific goal is 73 jobs and 16 new business start-ups in two years. The business incubator will share a facility with other groups that are complementary although the Police Services on the second floor are a totally separate operation.
Lead Partners
CFDC will occupy a suite of offices on the main floor and will oversee attraction and support of clients utilizing the maker space and entrepreneurship component of the building.
Cobourg Police Services will be a major contributor to the capital campaign and will occupy the entire second floor of the building with their Business Services Unit which needs space since they are expanding.
Building #13 in Northam Industrial park is Town owned and currently vacant. The tenants in the building will pay rent of $90,000 per year and this will cover taxes, utilities and health and safety equipment testing and maintenance costs. Currently it costs $70,000 to maintain the closed building.
The new centre will include:
Economic development professionals office space
Start-up/SME incubation areas
Acceleration areas and services including non-dilutive start-up capital (debt/equity)
A 77 seat lecture hall complete with a higher learning centre
Seminar rooms equipped with state-of-the-art technologies facilitating global connectivity
Partner "hot offices"
Public and private meeting rooms
Maker spaces for design, prototype and creation
The Business plan noted that construction of a state-of-the-art 77 seat lecture theatre will draw a variety of post-secondary institutions and educational opportunities currently not available in Cobourg. The lecture theatre and break-out training rooms will also be utilized by Northumberland Manufacturers' Association to carry out training sessions for industries. The addition of a maker space area will fill a gap in the community. The incubator/accelerator area will be utilized by entrepreneurs who are seeking low cost space and support services not currently available in one location.
Permanent Tenants
Town of Cobourg Economic Development. They will move from their current location in Dressler House. The “ongoing disposition [of Dressler House] will be determined through results of Cultural Master Plan” which is planned for 2018.
Northumberland Community Futures Development Corporation
Cobourg Police Business Unit
There will also be a large number and variety of temporary tenants.
The day to day operational management will be carried out by a Venture 13 centre Coordinator who will ensure the smooth operation of the facility.
$400,000 from Eastern Ontario Development Program’s Collaborative Economic Development Projects Stream - managed by CFDC. To be used for construction costs
$250,000 funded from Holdco reserves for the purposes of outfitting of the building;
$250,000 - hopefully funded from the Province’s Rural Economic Development (RED) fund.
$650,000 – from Police Capital Reserve
$70,000 - Donation from Lakefront Utilities, other partners and private donations
Stephen Peacock says:
Cobourg Police Services have retained PICCINI Architects to continue development of plans for their portion of the building. With this in mind staff are seeking Council permission to sole source work to the point of construction contract award to PICCINI Architects. The quoted price for the engineering, architectural work, including inspection, is estimated 10% of the work price. This price is in keeping with industry standards.
Stage 1- presentation of Business Case and direction to staff to proceed with preparation of Tender drawings and documents. (May 29, 2017)
Stage 2- final decision on provincial funding tendering and approval of contract by Council (Sept 2017)
Stage 3- Construction and move in (Dec 2017)
Download CAO Stephen Peacock’s Memo and full Business case with building floor plans.
Complementary CFDC Northumberland initiatives
On May 17, CFDC and M.P. Kim Rudd also announced additional funding for Entrepreneurs (Report by Northumberland Today):
The creation of the NVenture Fund (an “early stage equity fund”) to support funding of next-generation, innovative and knowledge-based startups. ($500,000)
The award of funds to startup companies through the NIM program ($691,000) and the annual N100 Startup competition ($100.000)
The County also announced a new name for the Business Advisory Centre which is now a County responsibility It is now called Business & Entrepreneurship Centre Northumberland and will “expand service offerings to business start-ups and entrepreneurs across Northumberland.”
Looks like there’s a big push to get more businesses in the Town and the County. A good idea. More employment, more tax revenue.
There was an initiative in Port Hope called the IdeaHub that was similar to parts of Venture 13 although it focused on Green instead of High-Tech - but it died. The big difference is that although the focus here is on the business incubator, the building is 75% occupied by existing groups who need more space or need to be grouped together. If the incubator part has a problem, very little would be lost.
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SEC Sues Alleged $26 Million ‘Crypto’ Ponzi Scheme Operator
Nikhilesh De
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is suing a California resident on charges of selling unregistered securities and conducting a Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency.
The SEC announced Thursday that it had filed for an injunction against Daniel Pacheco, claiming that he sold unregistered securities through IPro Solutions LLC and IPro Network LLC, giving investors “points” which they could theoretically convert to PRO Currency, a digital asset affiliated with the companies.
Pacheco allegedly raised $26 million through the scheme.
Moreover, investors in the project could earn extra points or cash commissions by recruiting new members to the network, a common facet of Ponzi schemes.
In a statement, Michele Wein Layne, director of the SEC’s Los Angeles Regional Office, said that the respondent “hid an old fraud under the guise of cutting-edge technology,” adding:
“He enticed investors by offering them the opportunity to speculate in cryptocurrency, when in fact he was simply operating a pyramid scheme.”
Pacheco allegedly used the funds he raised to purchase a $2.5 million home and a Rolls Royce, resulting in him being unable to pay his investors’ cash commissions or other bonuses.
In its release, the SEC said that “Pacheco’s offer and sale of IPro instructional packages constituted an unregistered sale of securities because the IPro instructional packages involve (i) an investment in a pyramid scheme; and/or (ii) an investment in the PRO Currency digital assets, and therefore must be registered with the SEC unless an exemption applies.”
In its actual complaint, the SEC also lists seven entities or people that allegedly possess funds belonging to IPro’s investors, though they are not accused of any wrongdoing.
Data site CoinMarketCap lists a ProCurrency, trading around 0.196 cents as of press time. However, it is unclear whether this is the same cryptocurrency involved in the scheme.
SEC image via Shutterstock
SECPonziEnforcementDaniel PachecoIPro
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author: Veluppillai Thangavelu
Chief Minister Wigneswaran Worships Serial Rapist & Murderer Premananda
By Veluppillai Thangavelu –
Veluppillai Thangavelu
There is a proverb in English language “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are…” It means find wise people and be in their company as much as possible. Very few know the dark side of Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran‘s life or they know but pretend ignorance. In a recent interview M.A. Sumanthiran alluded that Wigneswaran is a devotee of Premananda who was convicted of raping under-aged orphan girls living in his Ashram and murder of a young engineer Ravi. All the victims of Premananda’s sexual exploits were young girls from Jaffna who followed Premananda when he emigrated to Tamil Nadu following the 1983 communal riots.
Premananda was born on November 17, 1951 at Mandandawela in Matala. His real name is Premkumar Somasunderam but later took the name Premananda meaning one possessed with love and eternal bliss. Premananda’s father Somasunderam is from Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. He married Pushpakanthi. Premkumar (his original name) attended Christ Church College in Matala until 8th standard. The house he was born is still there after undergoing renovation.
His biography reveals that as a young schoolboy Premkumar could manifest sweets or fruits out of nowhere for his friends, and he became renowned in his school for multiplying his lunch food, for holding erudite discussions on philosophical subjects and even for performing miraculous healings. Knowing that he could immediately see anyone’s problems and infallibly predict their future, the parents of his friends became the boy’s first devotees before he reached adolescence. As news of his powers spread, hundreds of people in cities and villages began to seek his blessings and healings.
At the age of 16, after Premkumar used to conduct prayers, ceremonies and interviews in his grandmother’s house. As time passed an Ashram was built to welcome the crowds of people who flocked to see him. Named the ‘Centre of Peace for All Religions’ with symbols of every major faith painted on inside walls.
In 1969 while he was addressing some 200 devotees who had gathered to listen, his body began to glow and a saffron coloured robe suddenly seemed to descend on him. A saffron coloured garb is that of an initiated Hindu monk. At the time he was only 18 years old but from then onwards he became known as Swami Premananda. He often materialised holy ash or vibhuti from thin air. It was claimed that even as a toddler he exhibited an unusual interest in spirituality. While his brothers and sisters played outside, Premananda could be found performing poojas (rituals) with his grandmother, or facing a wall in a corner absorbed in deep meditation. It is said that if he thought too much about the divine or the lives of saints, he would fall into an unconscious state of rapture.
In 1983 Premananda’s modest Ashram was destroyed during 1983 communal pogrom, so he emigrated to Tamil Nadu with some orphan children and settled down in Thiruchi. Soon his name became famous, next only to another god man Sai Bava, for materialising objects like lingam, rings, chains and even watches made in Japan. He bought 150 acres of land at Viralimalai in Pudukkoddai and set up an Ashram and an orphanage. The Ashram was officially opened in 1989 and about 100 boys and girls lived in the Ashram, most of them orphaned during 1983 riots. In the Ashram all the children are provided with food, clothing, and shelter, schooling and medical attention free of charge. Premananda’s Ashram flourished and he set up Premananda Centres and Premananda Youth Groups in many countries, including UK, Switzerland, Belgium. The aim of the Ashram, Centres and Groups is to offer spiritual guidance and help to all who come and to offer service to those in need throughout the world. It is claimed Premananda’s teachings are universal and transcend the barriers of race and religion.
Many politicians and several foreigners became his devotees. They were mesmerised by his production of vibhuti (sacred ash) by sleight of hand. He wore saffron clothes and had a kinky hairdo. When the girls reached puberty, he raped them, hoodwinking them into believing that he had divine powers. Educated fools mistook him as a god incarnation and became his followers. One of them is ex Supreme Court justice and current Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council Wigneswaran who considers him as his Supreme Guru.
Normally god men look intensely charismatic and attract followers, especially women in their thousands. But, the stoutly built, dark-skinned and bearded Premananda possessed no such charisma, but the magical powers he claimed attracted both the educated and uneducated. They were mesmerised by his production of vibhuti (sacred ash) by sleight of hand. He wore saffron clothes and had a kinky hairdo. When the girls reached puberty, he raped them.
Wigneswaran at the commencement of his speech makes it a point to pay homage to his guru whom he considers as Guru of Gurus. “குருப்பிரமா, குரூர் விஷ்ணு, குரூர் தேவோ மகேஷ் வரஹ, குருட் ஷாட்ஷாத் பரப்பிரம தஸ்மை ஸ்ரீ குருவே நமஹா! (Homage to Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha Guru Sakshat Parabrahma tasmai Shri Guruve Namaha.) This is a Sanskrit recital paying homage to the Trinity of Hindu Gods—Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the protector and Maheswaran, the destroyer. “You are my preceptor,” it states, “And I revere your name.”
Premananda recites this prayer on Guru Purnima day, a day to remember the saints, sages, avatars and spiritual masters who guide followers on the spiritual path and who have been born on this earth from the time the world was created. On this day which comes once in 365 days, Premananda exhorts his flock to think about those great souls and chant, “Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu, Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha” and think of the Supreme who is the Guru of Gurus. Then think of the spiritual master you have accepted as your Guru and chant his or her name nine times. Furthermore, accepting a spiritual master as your Guru may be your wish, but if that Guru, too, accepts you, it will be your great, good fortune. Guru Purnima is the day to remind us of that fortune. It goes without saying Wigneswaran’s spiritual master is serial rapist Premananda and this recital is homage to him.
Till 1993 Premananda’s fame and name rivalled that of only Sai Bava of Puddaparthi in terms of wealth and number of followers, including foreigners! As usual, it was claimed Premananda was a reincarnation of a great and very learned scholar, spiritualist and sage Vivekanda. Some of his devotees called Premananda Thiruchi Sai Bava.
With the AIADMK coming to power in 1991, the Ashram gained enormous political clout. Apart from various Ministers, Jayalalithaa’s foster sister, Sasikala Nadarajan (now a convict and in jail for corruption) and her family were regular visitors here. However, few knew about the goings-on in the Ashram —seduction, molestation, rape and debauchery—till November 1994. Two women residents of the Ashram, Sureshkumari and Latha, escaped and came to Chennai in November 1994, and spoke to the press about the activities in the Ashram. The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), took up their cause.
On the morning of 19th November, 1994 the stillness of the Ashram was shattered when a battalion of police officers with machine guns raided the Ashram in armoured vehicles. Premananda was arrested and remanded to judicial custody the next day. His associate Kamalananda and his wife Dr Chandra Devi were also lodged in the Thiruchi Central Jail for abetting sex-related crimes and for performing crude medical termination of pregnancies of their victims.
Subsequent investigations revealed the murder of engineer Ravi, who had opposed the un-holy activities at the Ashram. He was tortured for a few days before being killed and buried. The police exhumed his remains on November 24, 1994 and on the same day, police also seized documents, fixed deposit receipts worth Rs 75 lakhs and details of other investments. They found that Premananda was among the top tax defaulters with arrears of Rs 1.5 crores.
Even as the police started its investigation, the Ashram witnessed a steady exodus of the foreigners. Divya Mathaji, Premananda’s girl friend and the inmate in charge, fled the country to Germany and later to France. Assets worth Rs 80 lakhs in her name was frozen. During the early stages of the investigation, Premananda was confident that his friends in the ruling AIADMK would save him from the long arm of the law. Indeed, the police was asked to go slow in the case. However, with the change of government, the investigations were resumed in right earnest.
The First Information Report, which is the primary stage of complaint by an alleged victim that a criminal offence has taken place was submitted after the story had leaked to the press. The first newspaper article appeared on 5th November 1994, but Suresh Kumari only filed the complaint with the police on 17th November, 1994 accusing I Premananda of raping her 8 years previously.
On 19th and 20th November many people were taken away from the Ashram by the police for investigation and inquiries. In total 20 girls and young women (aged between 14 and 35) were taken away for interrogation.
In January 1995, a medical examination ordered by the court confirmed the rape of 13 girls and one of them Aruljothi was pregnant at that time. She sought court permission to abort the foetus. To prove medically that Premananda was raping the girls, a foetus aborted from Aruljothi, in January 1995 was examined by a forensic scientist for the prosecution, Dr. Lalji Singh. The prosecution stated that his DNA findings showed that Premananda was the father of the foetus.
The Defence called a DNA expert from the United Kingdom, Dr. Wilson J. Wall a specialist in genetics. The results of his test, done according to international DNA standards gave a contradictory opinion and stated Premananda had not fathered the foetus. However, the court rejected Dr. Wall’s test results and the scientific explanations given by him.
The charge against Premananda was that behind smokescreen of dispensing Bhakti in his Ashram near Thiruchi in Tamil Nadu, he raped women devotees and forced those who became pregnant into abortion. He also murdered an engineer, Ravi, who stood up to his venal activities. Premananda, a Tamil of Indian origin, hails from Matala in Sri Lanka, where he ran an Ashram. In the wake of the anti-Tamil pogrom by the Sinhalese on the island in July 1983, he came to Tamil Nadu as a refugee with some Tamil girls and women. He started an Ashram near Viralimalai in Pudukoddai district, which had modern buildings, air-conditioned cottages and an orphanage.
To cut the story short, on 20th August, 1997 after a lengthy trial the Pudukoddai District sessions judge, R. Bhanumathi (currently Justice of the Supreme Court of India) in a landmark judgement, sentenced self-styled god man Premananda to life imprisonment for two consecutive terms (32 years) and fined Rs 67.30 lakhs for 13 counts of rape, molestations of two girls and a murder. Failure to pay the fine was to carry an additional term of 32 years and 9 months. He was also convicted of cheating the residents of his Ashram which carried another one-year sentence. Six others (all from Jaffna) were also found guilty of conspiracy to commit rapes and destroying evidence. Five were given life sentences. In view of the severity of the crimes, the judge denied them any future remission of their sentences or amnesty by any state or central government.
Premananda’s appeal to the Madras High Court proved futile. The High Court on December 12 confirmed District Court order sentencing fake sanyasi Swami Premananda and his secretary Kamalananda to double consecutive life imprisonment. Justices P. Shanmugam and M. Chockalingam of the High Court said: “The proceedings are unique and have shown the vulnerability of the orphans, especially the girls, and the need for their protection. They have revealed to what extent persons professing to be spiritual gurus could screen their true profiles.”
Two women residents of the Ashram, Suresh Kumari and Latha, escaped and came to Chennai in November 1994, and spoke to the press about the clandestine activities in the Ashram. The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), took up their cause. The police filed a case against Premananda and others. Tamil newspapers published the sordid tales of torture, rape and so forth in the Ashram under the veneer of poojas and bhajans. On August 20, 1997, Pudukkoddai Sessions Judge R. Bhanumathi convicted and sentenced Premananda to two consecutive life terms and slapped on him a fine of Rs.66.40 lakhs for multiple rape and murder. He and the other accused filed an appeal in the Madras High Court (Frontline, September 19, 1997 and December 16, 1994).
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sach / July 11, 2017
Tells a fellow who has been ( and still ) worshiping a megalomaniac terrorist :))))
Mama Sinhalam / July 11, 2017
Good hatchet job Mr Golden Spear. What is your motive in all this in your old age? Why denigrate the living Wigneswaran through his obviously misguided “worship” of a godman. There are other more popular godmen in India of whom similar things are said and very influential people follow them. Maybe Buddha and Jesus were also imperfect godmen, one who left his wife and child and the other also with many imperfections. Unfortunately, as Hindus we are asked to look for a guru who can give us spiritual guidance. Maybe, CVW chose his wrongly. But, does that affect his politics, his stature as a former judge or as a leader. At your age, it may not be good to throw such heavy stones. Have a regard to hernia.
SJ / July 11, 2017
CVW could have avoided such reminders of his personal flaws–
like his forwarding note to Modi in a plea to release the rapist-killer Premananda’s accomplices –had he kept his private beliefs to himself.
This string of attacks arose from his equating Premananda to Jesus Christ.
There are bigger issues that concern the socio-political conduct of CVW that need discussion, which get distracted by such irrelevancies (except that they make one question CVW’s judgment).
Tsylana / July 11, 2017
yobbish phlegm.!
dirty linen dirty wash, dirty Veluppillai Thangavelu spurting venom over the wall . the article is the typical village mindset of the north which was disliked by the urban elite of colombo 7.
Veluppillai Thangavelu repeat constant repeat of paragraphs shows that he is possessed by stupidity. many rich folk of colombo 7 were impressed by this illusionist and his knowledge. Anyway, the madras court was vindictive and politically instigated that is how cruel madras courts are – power is more important for judges to hang on. The report submitted by defence from a british expert was disallowed without reason is a familiar quality of indian power politics.
Veluppillai Thangavelu writes as if he was holding the candle during sexual activity for non other than a new entry to colombo 7 through the back door of political push-
YOB Suma a parasite lawyer with no class as a debater Is now body guarded fish in a frying pan. Just like his meen kara faith.
Kumarathasan Rasingam / July 13, 2017
Dirty filthy person always likes to wash dirty linen in public. They do not have any shame in doing this for their dirty masters , like a very faithful dog. wagging its tail for crumbs. Shame Shame.
Raza, Mata;e / July 11, 2017
He is a real cheat he has been chased away from Matale if you need evident consult Matale people, especially non-Hindus. He is a sex maniac.
Ajith / July 11, 2017
You are right. The author interpreted that proberb inaccurately. When we follow Lord Buddha or Lord Krishna or Lord Jesus our focus is only on what he preaches to the society. As far chief minister CVW is concerned he is a follower of the principles of that swamy’s teachings. Unlike many other crooks like Mahinda or Gota or even Sampanthan, He is honest, he is not a thug, he does not get bribe, he obeys the law, he respects the human rights, he respects other religions, he listens to the people, he is not a terrorist or racist or fundamentalist.
I think that this attack on CVW was unnecessary, and I am no admirer of Sampanthan in any way.
But how can you list Sampanthan alongside Mahinda and Gota in: “He is honest, he is not a thug, he does not get bribe, he obeys the law, he respects the human rights, he respects other religions, he listens to the people, he is not a terrorist or racist or fundamentalist.”
True that Sampanthan is politically dishonest. Is not CVW? Perhaps he is more honest than S, but that is inadequate.
S, if at all, is only as racist as CVW or less.
S does not listen to the public, but does CVW? I have quite a list of issues in which he was indifferent to public concerns.
CVW has protected bribe-takers. (The last bit of NPC theatre had little to do with anti-corruption). To my knowledge, S has not got caught doing that .
Is equating a criminal convict to Christ respect for other religions?
Do you know what the principles of the rapist murderer “Swamy” are? Others may be interested to know.
CVW is closer to the TNPF which is more indifferent towards the Muslims than the TNA.
“”CVW is closer to the TNPF which is more indifferent towards the Muslims than the TNA.”” Muslims were tenants now they are looking for ownership of the land (sometimes via forged documentation) because of the push they got from Obama administration and now Athul without the consent of State Department of today.
In any administration when the head of a place is super clean (has enough and is very intelligent so has to toggle diplomatically) the high class rats have a wail of a time.
soma / July 11, 2017
Man you are a genius- you can justify anything.——–
This man Thangavelu is always plays this record [cracked one] whenever he has a chance. He is very clever in character assassination on those who do not agree with him or against those who criticize the political moves of Illanki Tamil Arasu Katchi [ITAK] by doing this ugly deeds he is demeaning himself to the lowest level of a human being to the level of an animal.
Words / July 11, 2017
What’s surprising here? Vigi worshipped and continues to worship serial murderer Prabakaran too!
Anpu / July 11, 2017
When did you find out all these details?
i.e before CVW became CM, after he became when he had disagreements with some of the ITAK supporters
Emanuel / July 11, 2017
he may have received a handout from thoppi karayas of matale.
Is this kind of bigotry desirable?
Razam - Matale / July 11, 2017
He was chased out from Matale not that he went in 1983 for the communal pogrom. He went before the violent because he by force tied Thali (In a Hindu Matrimonial groom ties around the bride’s neck in a ceremony called Mangalya Dharanam) to a beautiful girl who was his friend’s sister. Those days he had a lot of Muslim friends whom he relates interesting stories- since these guys are Muslims and talk in Tamil he had close relationship with them to have fun, they don’t believe his gimmicks, he too was young then use to relates different stories all about girls to them ( they are still living in Matale one of them is my good friend), Most of the Matale people don’t believe his holiness. In the evening the said boys go to Mahatma Ashram to have fun with him. He is a cheat nothing else.
Dr.Raghavan Pathmanathan / July 11, 2017
I am extremely disappointed that all educated people are running after these self style “Gurus” who are really crooks. This chap Premananda was cheapest among the cheap. He has been proved as an organized crook and sex lunatic beyond any doubt.The judiciary noticed that he is one of the most dangerous criminal who involved in numerous rapes and murder cases. His ill dealings were strongly testified by a Jaffna born Tamil who brought him to the justice in the court .Politicians and business people are having ill-gotten wealth and they run after these kind of priest and fake religious leaders with hidden agendas. During my PhD research period, I could distinctly remember that one of the guys was saying that Swami Premananda brings out Shivling from his mouth another guy spontaneously questioned him that so from his underwear what he can bring out.I sincerely feel that we do not require any intermediate between man and the god.Most of the crimes and violence are created or instigated by these fake priests of EVERY RELIGION. Hinduism is not an exception here.We have plenty of sch kind of people are available in all religions around the globe
Douglas / July 11, 2017
One among the “Trinity” is “Maheswaran”, the Destroyer. Does that rhyme with “Wigneswaran”?.
shankar / July 11, 2017
“Homage to Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnu Gurur Devo Maheshwaraha Guru Sakshat Parabrahma tasmai Shri Guruve Namaha”
“It goes without saying Wigneswaran’s spiritual master is serial rapist Premananda and this recital is homage to him.”
That is your assumption you donk.Where is premananda’s name mentioned by wigneswaran in this recital?Wiggie obviously has a nut or two loose as old age creeps in it even happens in machinery.
Ad / July 11, 2017
You believe in something when you cannot understand. That cannot be regarded as a crime. CV’s actions does not reflect swami’s behavior. The writer should have shown maturity in understanding the facts.
It is sad to see Mr Golden Spear, the bearer of the name of the ultimate Guru of Saivaite Tamils, Murugan, stoop to gather dirt to throw at another aging individual on the basis of the latter’s avowal of piety towards a false guru. Unfortunately, this is more an Indian tradition than the Jaffna Saivite tradition, where gurus like Yogar Swamigal were mendicants like the Indian Ramana Maharishi. Their lives are recounted in a book on the Siddha Tradition among the Tamils of Ceylon. Certainly, the guy Mr Golden Spear talks of will not be classed among the Tamil Siddhas. CVW made a wrong choice. Choosing Indian saints is an aberration of the Ceylon Tamil rich. Anyway, CVW’s choice is his business. The taint is that he is a bad man because he chose the wrong godman. Think of the Indian politicians who chose a variety of scoundrels like Chandraswami and the head of the Madurai Adeenam who chose a young sex maniac to be his successor or the murder charges against the present head of the Kanchi Adeenam. The lesson is to avoid choosing such gurus, knowing that Murugan, the bearer of the Golden Spear is the Ultimate and Certain Guru. “Kuruvai Varuvai Arulvai Kuhane”- (“Muruga, come, be my Guru”). I do hope that you live up to your name and have peace instead of making this personal attack against CVW with the intention of benefitting some other tainted person and thereby compounding the intensity of the personal tussles that exist among Tamil politicians.
Uthungan / July 12, 2017
Mama Sinhalam
I can wholeheartedly concur with you on all what you have said to the exclusion of the rest of the dribble that appears on this column.
Sellam / July 11, 2017
Even Satya Sai Baba was in the same category as Premananda. Sai Baba was more powerful with the support of the Indian politicians, he escaped punishment for rape and murder. There are
many rich and powerful people fall into the mesmerisms of the wicked. CVW may be one of them. I suspect there is one man inside CVW and another outside of him.
I always doubted people with extreme religious behaviour.
“I always doubted people with extreme religious behaviour”
sellam
they have a screw or two loose.It is a precursor to madness.i always have a few antidepressants in my pocket in case i bump into them.I take a picture of their face when i give it to them.They are puzzled as to what it is and roll it around in their fingers .When they ask what it is and i tell them ,i take another picture for just for laughs.Google just for laughs and see what i mean.The best one i liked is where they were recruiting for kandahar in afghanistan.
Sri-Krish / July 11, 2017
This article is in bad taste.Everyone is entitled to their idiosyncrasies..Let us be not very judgmental.
But the politics of Wicneswaran is another matter. Wwe are disappointed with his performance as Chief Minister
K.Pillai / July 11, 2017
Veluppillai Thangavelu: “Chief Minister Wigneswaran Worships Serial Rapist & Murderer Premananda”
There are two statements here. The first is Wigneswaran worships Premananda and the second is Premananda is a serial rapist and murderer.
The fact that Wigneswaran worshipped a “Godman” was probably well know – certainly to the Lankan judiciary. They never held this against him. Sambanthan and Sumathiran knew this when they canvassed him for the CM-ship. Probably this man Veluppillai Thangavelu knew this. Now they find that W has an independent mind. So this foul-mouthing. Is Thangavelu against Godperson worship? That will make T a rationalist! But T believes in astrology and Brahman priests uttering things in an unknown language (not Sanskrit) in Hindu temples.
Is T worried about Godpersons in general? Many believe that all Godpersons are frauds. Why is T picking on Premananda? He has got these inside information but why the devil did he not divulge these earlier?
The Indian court verdict on Premananda? Remember Perarivalan was sentenced by an Indian court to death because the prosecutors said that he had a receipt of two AA batteries in his pocket.
Thangavelu sagaciously says “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are…”.
We bloody well know your circle of friends Thangavelu.
His faith in the ‘godman’, his ‘magical skills’, and above all his ‘innocence’ were at best amusing to me.
The Tamilnadu public are well aware of what went on in the ‘aashram’ of Premananda. It was such a scandal that legal action followed mounting public concerns.
It is unfair to Perarivalan and the co-accused to compare their case with that of a rascal in robes, with a sordid record back in Matale.
But it was not funny when he endorsed his support for the release of accomplices of the ‘godman’ in an appeal to Modi two years ago.
He denied the charge to say that he only forwarded a plea, but went silent when a copy of the letter with his words of support (that also claimed that the charges were cooked up) was made public.
Good reply: What Mr. T is trying to say in his other part. Another stupid character assassination against someone else. Mr. T. is a turncoat, changes colors to suit the occasion and dance to the tune of his masters ITAK.
Rajash / July 12, 2017
Veluppillai Thangavelu –what a pathetic attempt to rape CVW’s credentials.
Veluppillai Thangavelu –”Very few know the “DARK SIDE” of Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran‘s life …”.>>>and the article ends >>>”…to be continued”>>>>> .even Alfred Hitchcock was not able to write a thriller like this .can’t wait to read Part 2….do you intent to make a suspense movie as well?
Thanga / July 12, 2017
“As far chief minister CVW is concerned he is a follower of the principles of that swamy’s teachings” Ajith.
I have never heard this logic before! So you are concerned with the teachings and not the teacher? So you will follow the teachings of a teacher, even if the teacher is found a serial rapist, a murderer and a crook? You will follow the teachings of a butcher if he preaches about non-violence? You will follow a drunkard if he preaches about prohibition?
Teachers like Buddha and Jesus practised what they preached. In contrast, Premananda preached to the gullible during day time and when night falls he was raping under-aged orphaned girls under his protection. By erecting a temple and installing the statue of Premananda a convicted serial rapist and murderer is Wigneswaran not trampling on women’s rights?
Dushan / July 12, 2017
I really ain’t surprised! What do you expect from a retard who still worships Prabakaran!
Sri / July 12, 2017
Mr. TV. What this has to do with CVW politics, you should be ashamed to pen this article, is it for money or political loyalty. There are many ways to make money third grade editor!
Naga Ramalingam / July 12, 2017
The writer seems to have a political axe to grind. Is he trying a smear campaign against CVW on behalf of TNA and Sumanthiran? His article is lopsided and lacks substance and coherence. CVW is one of the finest and honest politicians Tamils ever had in a very long time. Some people took refuge in safe havens while fanning hatred and discord in Sri Lanka. That’s how they caused chaos and destruction in the Tamil areas in the last three decades. Premananda’s crimes dwarf compared to this!!
Clown / July 12, 2017
“In a recent interview M.A. Sumanthiran alluded that Wigneswaran is a devotee of Premananda”..
It seems CVW was a devotee of Premananda long before the Premananda was caught with his pants down.
Premananda was jailed in early 90s.
CVW became a Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judge in 2001!
Why CVW was promoted to SC in 2001?
CVW was selected as a CM candidate few years ago. Why CVW’s personal spiritual belief wasn’t an issue when SAM &Co introduced CVW to people in North?
It seems Thangam was paid to do the dirty work by SUM &Co. What a Pathetic Clowns!
Dirty clowns, this character assassination is politically motivated to reduce the popularity of CW in the North, East and all over the world. The dirty trio [sam, sum, mavai] assigned this man to bring down the good image of CW. The ITAK is very desperate and furious about the sudden rise of CW. These agents are assigned to do the dirty work for the trio. Shame.
Billa / July 12, 2017
I thought this article was written by Mr.H.L.D.Mahindapala, the infamous gossip who writes venomous and racially biased garbage here. Never expected Mr Thangavelu doing this “hitting below the belt” style or this kind of cheap and degrading stuff about a distinguished, honest & a god fearing person of CVW’s calibre.
I was shocked and felt very sad. Still couldn’t stomach the write up. This kind of vomit only bring down the image, many of us had about Mr Thangavelu. What happened to his intellectual thinking suddenly ? Mr Velu, you have written many impressive articles in the past and I was very proud reading some of those.
No matter what, this particular tabloid kind of garbage is not worthy of the paper it was printed and I humbly request Mr T.Velu to stop this (often repeated) nonsensical stuff and the continuation of the same again…Just leave Premanada & CM Wigneswaran alone please without slinging mud and make yourself a cheap gossip….Thank you.
Manicka Vasagar / July 13, 2017
This explains what a low grade person he is. His grandchildren should be ashame of this Thangavelu.
Anbarasi Singam / July 13, 2017
There is no doubt Thangavelu is laughing stock. Premananda died in Cudolre Central prison on 21 Feb 2011. That is nearly two years before the Northern Provincial council election. Everyone including Sambandan know that Wigneswaran is a devotee of Premananda. So, why do they ask Wigneswaran to contest the election if worships a serial rapist. For the part of this insane guy, Thangavelu who is the leader of ITAK – Canada branch, they have collected SL Rs. 1,00,00,000 and sent to ITAK for the NPC election. Now under the instructions from anti-Saivaite Methodist preacher Sumanthira, he tries to mudsling on Wigneswaran,
Ambrasi S—–
“Everyone including Sambandan know that Wigneswaran is a devotee of Premananda. So, why do they ask Wigneswaran to contest the election if worships a serial rapist. ” This is nothing for Sambandan who asked Tamil people to accept Prabakaran as their sole representative. Why can’t any Tamil who worshipped Prabakaran worship Premananda ? What is the problem?——-
Mr Thangavelu did a regrettable mistake, trying to sling mud on CM and got that back on to himself. It’s okay he’s an atheist , no problem. He even solemnized his sons marriages only with the famous “Thirukkural” book of Thiruvalluvar. He’s such a modernized individual but doing this creepy scandalizing write up at his olden age is not an intelligent thing. His acceptance of his sons marrying a Philipino & an Indian are something great for such an ardent Jaffna Hindu. He has a wonderful family, children, grand children and he is a great patriot of Eelam but trying to degrade CM Wiggie is too much. He only degraded himself by writing this Tabloid stuff ! Can only feel sorry for him. Probably he’s aging and should stop writing anymore.
Selva Ramu / July 14, 2017
I am very much in favour of “Billa’s” comment on Thangavelu. Thangavelu knows very well about Sambanthan, Sumanthiran, Mavai, and Sarawanapawan, and their unjustifiable conducts. These four are working against the Tamil population’s human rights on it’s own traditional home land. They try to hide the genocide done on Tamils, to please the Sinhala state, and to be on the good books of them. What for??? To keep Sambanthan as an opposition leader of Srilanka? Yes. Even Mahinda is support of him, being the opposition leader, even though he(Mahinda) has more members on his side. Both sides knows through Sambanthan they can get over the UN pressure. Sambanthan got the Tamils mandate(on false promises) and using it to defend Srilanka from outside pressure including UN, US, India and European union countries. This we are seeing openly and helplessly. Thangavelu is a very intelligent and experienced person to understand this serious damage these Sambanthan, Sumanthiran and co doing it to Tamils. Being the leader of ITAK in Canada, he should stop these people, and work to oust them from the party leadership. Instead he is vomiting venom on the person, who is exposing these politicians serious damages to the Tamil Nation and its people. By supporting to Sambanthan and co, he is also is culpable in destroying the future of Tamils.
This is the reason for his harsh and venom writing against the Chief Minister Wickneswaran, to degrade him, by character assassination.
OtherGodMan / July 15, 2017
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/
Riz / July 15, 2017
To be fair to CVW, Mr. V Thangavelu used to once worship someone who was considered a Terrorist and mass murderer by both SL, India and IC and collected funds for that organisation as VP of World Tamil Movement, got prosecuted and then forfeited assets to save his a****.
Similarly hundred of thousands of tamils worship god men/women who are considered to be molesters. Same applies to Baba where certain western countries warned their citizens to be wary of as per the following extract:
Victims have told in harrowing detail how they were groped during private audiences and required to take part in sexual acts with the man they had trusted. So seriously were the claims taken that for many years the US government warned its citizens to stay away from the ashram because of the risk and UNESCO, the UN’s Educational, Social, and Cultural Organisation, pulled out of a conference at the ashram citing deep concerns about “widely-reported allegations of sexual abuse”.
Sai Baba had dismissed the sex abuse allegations as false and described them as the “cawing of crows”. Telegraph UK
There is a picture of the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family members, whom Nakiran Thangavelu considers to be War criminals, paying obeisance at Sai Baba temple in Shirdi. Yep the same Baba black sheep millions of Tamils consider their god!
Shri Shri Ravi Shanker and his outfit, Art of Living, too is the subject of very serious allegation and is also the subject of legal action over such matters. Just Google and you will find it.
Contd- Therefore the proverb in English language “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are…”applies bloody well to Nkaira Thangavelu as well as million of other Tamils who worshipped/Worship all kinds of heroes and god men. Nikran’s own friends may be worshippers of these god men. And the TNA goons he worships todays were once worshipers of the “Sooriya Thevena” yes Sun god VP. Remember Lance Amermstrong the 7 times Tour De France Champion still is a god among despite he himself admitting taking drugs and engaging in blood doping!!!.
For Nakira Velu anyone who is in opposition to his view needs to be assasinated. The outfit he headed extorted funds from Tamils and was the subject of an extensive investigation and an informative report by the Human Rights Watch called Funding the “Final War”
LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora
Extracts from HRW
The LTTE and groups linked to it such as the World Tamil Movement repeatedly call
and visit Tamil families seeking funds. Some families have received as many as three
visits in a single week. Fundraisers may refuse to leave the house without a pledge of
money, and have told individuals who claim not to have funds available to borrow the
money, to place contributions on their credit cards, or even to re-mortgage their homes
The LTTE identifies Tamils from the West who return to Sri Lanka to visit family
members, and systematically pressures them for funds when they arrive in LTTEcontrolled
territory in the North of Sri Lanka. The assessed “rate” is often Cdn$1, £1, or
€1 per day for the length of time they have lived in the West, so individuals who have
been abroad for years may be asked for thousands, and told they may not leave until
they produce the requested amount. In some cases, the LTTE may confiscate their
passports until the money is paid.
In most countries with a significant Tamil diaspora, Tamils established charitable
organizations to raise funds for Tamil causes. These included the World Tamil
Movement, British Tamil Association, and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization,
among others. Although the charities solicited funds to assist civilians affected by the
war, numerous inquiries, including investigations by Canadian intelligence, have found
that a significant amount of the funds raised were channeled to the LTTE for its military
operations. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) concluded in 2000 that at
least eight non-profit organizations and five companies were operating in Canada as
fronts for the LTTE.
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Interview: John Viega
Real-Time Cyber Threat Detection and Mitigation
New York University Tandon School of Engineering
Course 3 of 4 in the Introduction to Cyber Security Specialization
This course introduces real-time cyber security techniques and methods in the context of the TCP/IP protocol suites. Explanation of some basic TCP/IP security hacks is used to introduce the need for network security solutions such as stateless and stateful firewalls. Learners will be introduced to the techniques used to design and configure firewall solutions such as packet filters and proxies to protect enterprise assets. Perimeter solutions such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems are shown to have significant drawbacks in common enterprise environments. The result of such weakness is shown to often exist as advanced persistent threats (APTs) from nation-state actors. Such attacks, as well as DDOS and third-party attacks, are shown to have potential solutions for modern enterprise.
i think it was an excellent and very helpful cousre and a big thankyou for the instructor for his hardwork
Very good course to start with for Real-Time Cyber Threat Detection and Mitigation.
Basic Network Security
This module introduces the basics of TCP/IP for security, including firewall design and use.
Introduction: What You Will Learn from This Course on Cyber Security1:51
Assignments and Reading2:23
Security Through Obscurity4:54
TCP/IP Evolution and Security6:06
TCP/IP Overview8:17
IP Spoofing5:57
TCP Sequence Number Attack5:36
Packet Flooding5:04
Packet Sniffing5:54
SYN Packets for Access Control5:13
Definition of a Firewall5:51
Firewall: Stateful versus Stateless5:28
Interview: John Viega8:36
Dr. Edward G. Amoroso
Research Professor, NYU and CEO, TAG Cyber LLC
Hi, folks, I am sitting here with my good friend John Viega,
the chief executive officer of Capsule8.
How you doing, John?
>> Good Ed, thanks for having me.
>> Hey, listen, tell us about yourself.
And kind of how you got into being CEO of a cool internet start up company.
Absolutely, I stumbled into security by accident, wrote the first book for
developers on how to build secure software with our good friend Gary McGraw.
Did the GCM encryption algorithm that's used everywhere.
And then took a turn onto the business track with McAfee,
where I was a tech exec for a long time.
And then landed at Capsule8 just because I'd done a good job
marrying deep technical background in security with the business side of things.
>> How does somebody with a super geek background as a developer hacker
get into starting a company?
Is that a big transition to go from, I'm assuming you still do tech work.
But is it hard to be the CEO of a cyber security company?
>> Yeah I spend a lot of time sitting on my hands.
>> [LAUGH] >> Meaning I want to roll up my sleeves
and do something that keep me from atrophying but
I try to stay disciplined about prioritization.
>> [LAUGH] Tell us about the company.
You guys work, Linux security is your area, so what do you guys do?
>> So Capsulat8 is doing security for production environments.
So those pretty universally run Linux,
more and more so 93% of instances in Amazon are running Linux.
And even a third in Microsoft's cloud are running Linux as well.
And so, what we're doing is providing visibility
into what's going on on your production systems without impacting production.
Then doing security on top of that, particularly threat protection,
looking for instances of attacks and preventing those.
Being able to respond seamlessly to that and then if there is an incident give
you the ability to go back and do forensic investigations.
>> This may sound like a dumb question, you can fix it if you say it wrong.
But in terms of the Linux software, do you guys have to add a bunch of stuff to it?
Or is most of it there and you're just making use of what's there?
Are you adding, or are you just sort of, or is it all of the above?
>> Now so in terms of adding,
that's something that big enterprises are really sensitive to.
They don't want a Linux kernel module, it risks stability of the system.
It means if they do have a problem, their Linux vendor's not going to support them.
So in a sense you can't build something that adds to the Linux,
and expect that people are going to use it.
So we have to make due with the technologies it provides for
getting data out and doing whatever we need to so.
So thankfully, Linux over the past few years made great progress.
So that's actually something where what we're doing today to provide real
protection to a Linux system, we couldn't have done five years ago,
not even three years ago.
>> What's kind of the business model are you selling to data managers to software
companies, to enterprise security teams, like who would be buying your product?
>> Right now we're focused to large enterprises and
many of them are making this transition right now.
Where they're designing platform as a service for internal use and
that might be based on a hybrid of going into a public cloud and
still some on their private cloud.
And they're stitching together open source and sometimes commercial components.
And they want to have their own kind of internal platform that they give to
developers.
And so that's really where we're starting is becoming the security fabric for
companies that are making that transition.
And so that is typically the Fortune 500 enterprise today.
And as we figure out what their needs are, we'll have a good sense of
how that's going to transition to other markets and move on from there.
>> Those number you said earlier staggering, you've told me that before.
The percentage of coverage that Linux has in a data center.
I bet a lot of people watching don't realize how pervasive that is.
>> Yeah, I was kind of surprised that Microsoft bragged about it.
>> [LAUGH] >> A third of our server running Linux.
>> [CROSSTALK] [LAUGH] >> Probably at some point be dealing with
Microsoft folks.
Hey, let me take you back to your earlier work.
You did a book with Gary McGraw.
>> Yeah. >> And it's about secure coding.
I want to ask, maybe this is a rhetorical question.
But is it possible to write secure code?
I bet you get asked that a billion times.
>> You know what, probably not actually.
I think everyone just assumes that it isn't.
And I'd say that's pretty much universally true.
There are even in the early days I can remember finding
security vulnerability in some code that one of the L0pht guys wrote.
Who knew everything that could go wrong that people had found out about and
still it was tough for him to kind of keep it out of his code.
>> L0pht being of one of the more prominent hacking groups kind of over
the last 10 or 15 years.
>> Right, right.
>> Little less active now it seems like.
>> Yeah, they got acquired by @stake what, 15 years ago and they kind
of disappeared as a thing but they were really the smartest of the smart.
They were still messing things up and I'd say that we've got a lot
of abstraction to that helps in some instances.
But it's really, I think there is, as long as there are stupid people,
there will be ways to game a system and everybody is at some point.
So I think that the software security problem might get better but
it's not ever going to go away.
Coding is just too complicated in itself to never have any security problems.
>> Are you more optimistic or pessimistic about cyber security in general?
>> Some days it feels easy to be like where a hamster's on a treadmill and
the faster we run, the more we realize we're not making any real progress.
I think there's still plenty of room to innovate our way out of it.
I think that some people would say, well it's a lost cause because
the bad guys can always reverse engineer and figure out any problem that's there.
But you always can set the bar higher so
it's a question of how much work they have to do.
And then in our modern world too when a lot of your code runs in the cloud and
there's no access to the source code.
Then security through obscurity can actually help provide more robot systems.
I feel like there are a lot of modern companies that do a good
job of locking down their production environment, reducing their tax surface.
And have relatively few incidents compared to
the titans of yesterday, the Yahoos of
the world who can lose billions of records and not notice it for a couple of years.
So I feel like there are always new problems, and it is an arms race.
But we're trying to find the force multipliers that will
kind of help us stay abreast of it, but I'm not sure that ever changes.
That's always, if we do nothing, then we're even more hosed.
>> Yeah so I'm glad you're doing the work you're doing.
>> Thanks. >> On behalf of our whole
learning community, I want to thank you for taking some time in sharing.
>> Thanks Ed, thanks for having me.
>> And we'll see you all in the next time.
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American Statistical Association
Housing Boom, Bust Phases Grow Longer Over Last 40 Years
At lot can happen in four decades, and in the housing markets of industrial countries around the world, more than just demand has changed in the last 40 years.
National 04 May 2015 17:02
Kirkland Urban in WA Welcomes Retail Tenants
Home Street Bank, AT&T, Top Golf and QFC are among the first tenants of the mixed-use project in Kirkland, leasing more than 120,000 square feet.
Knotel Expands NYC Footprint With 2 New Locations
The shared space provider signed on for some 20,000 square feet in two neighboring Midtown Manhattan office buildings.
Northern Nashville Office Changes Hands
The Dilweg Cos. traded the nearly 166,000-square-foot Class B asset for more than $26 million, with Pinnacle Bank providing the buyer with acquisition financing.
Paramount Group Signs First Republic to SF Lease Expansion
The financial services provider’s 515,000-square-foot lease at One Front Street accounts for 80 percent of the 38-story trophy tower.
Inland Empire Office Changes Hands
CIP Real Estate traded the building, which contains more than 70,000 square feet of Class A space, for upwards of $20 million.
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Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture
Cultivating, building, and fostering a culture of partnership and investment
We're extremely proud of our alumni.
Our Distinguished Alumni 2016
Tony & Sue Godfrey
College of Agriculture, Class of 1969
A Fallbrook couple whose friendship began at Cal Poly Pomona nearly 50 years ago has been named the College of Agriculture's Distinguished Alumni for 2016.
Tony and Sue Godfrey own Olive Hill Greenhouses in Fallbrook, Calif., which grows indoor houseplants such as bromeliads, anthuriums, ferns, and pothos. The company employs 80 workers and sells primarily to interiorscapers, wholesalers, and a few retail nurseries and florists in the Los Angeles-San Diego area, but also throughout the western United States. It has been recognized as one of the 100 largest-grossing nurseries in the country.
Read about other Distinguished Alumni recipients »
Company: Cal Poly Pomona Department of Human Nutrition & Food Science
Position: Didactic Programs in Dietetics (Full-Time)
Description: The department is looking for a full-time director of the Didactic Programs in Dietetics program. The responsibilities include program management and maintenance of an ACEND-accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics, including verification of DPD completion, undergraduate instruction, and student advisement.
More information: See this flyer.
(added 3/22/17)
Company: Tudor Ranch Inc.
Position: Ranch Manager
Description: The organization is looking for a bilingual, computer-literate manager to supervise its ranch staff, oversee cultivation and production fo fruits, facilitate farming equipment maintenance and rentals, and be responsible for governmental and food safety compliance.
(Added 2/20/17)
We like to receive update from our alumni on where they are and what they have been doing. Do we have your current contact information? Please update your information using this electronic form. Or you can contact Deanna Stewart in the Don B. Huntley College of Agriculture (dstewart@cpp.edu or 909-869-5390) with the following information:
Current job title
Your information will be added to the invitation list for your major’s alumni events.
What's going on with alumni in...
Agribusiness & Food Industry Management
Agricultural Science (General Ag & Education)
Animal Health Science
Apparel Merchandising & Management
Virtual Tour & Gallery
Ron Simons
Don Huntley
Stuart Sperber
Be an active Bronco Alumnus
Events & Fundraisers
What's going on with our Alumni
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Gleanings: October 2015
Important developments in the church and the world (as they appeared in our October issue).
CT staff| September 24, 2015
Image: Neamov / Shutterstock
Divorce is a sin when . . .
Protestant senior pastors are more forgiving of divorce than most Americans in cases of adultery, abuse, and abandonment, according to LifeWay Research. However, Americans in general are about twice as likely as Protestant pastors to say divorce is never a sin (37% vs. 19%) in the below situations. The latest General Social Survey suggests 38 percent of weekly churchgoing evangelicals have been divorced.
Baptist missionaries lose jobs
Two months after promoting plans to send out “limitless” numbers of missionaries, the International Mission Board (IMB) revealed it needs to cut 600–800 missionaries and staff in order to balance its budget. The Southern Baptist Convention agency, which overspent its revenue by $210 million over the past six years, faces a $21 million shortfall this year. President David Platt said he didn’t want to question the decisions made by past IMB leaders, who used foreign property sales and cash reserves to help fund missionaries. And the IMB still expects to send 300 new missionaries in 2015. But Scott Moreau, editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly, told Christianity Today, “This might be a step toward the demise of the centrally funded mission agency.”
Family Christian sheds debt
After six months of wrangling in bankruptcy court, the largest US Christian retail chain will get a second shot at solvency. Family Christian Stores was able to shed $127 million in debt during its sale to a related entity. The sale was approved 162 to 7 by its creditors, many of them Christian publishers and vendors hoping to keep the chain as an outlet for their products. (At least one publisher, Gospel Light Publishing, filed for bankruptcy in the wake ...
October 2015, Vol. 59, No. 8, Pg 18
This article is from the October 2015 issue.
Can One Marriage Support Two Callings? Leer en español
Under Discussion
Can the Baker, the Florist, the Photographer, and the Clerk Win?
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Please log in or subscribe to view the slideshow.
This article is from the October 2015 print issue. Subscribe to continue reading.
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* A GOANESE IVORY INLAID, HARDWOOD CHEST ON STAND
AUD 64,625
AUD 30,000 - AUD 40,000
In two parts, the upper section with an arrangement of twelve varied drawers behind sixteen fronts, the base with two drawers above a deep drawer with a twin-drawer front, having four legs carved with female herms on scroll carved and foliate cornucopia bases, inlaid overall with a geometric design of interlocking circles and stars, with pierced brass corner mounts and backplates
117 cm (46 in.) wide; 139 cm (54 3/4 in.) high; 57.5 cm (22 3/4 in.) deep
With its geometric inlay of stars and circles and its vargueno form of a multiple drawer cabinet on stand, so typical of furniture from the Iberian peninsula, this unusual chest on stand marries the decorative Mughal tradition of its ivory inlay with a European furniture form. A Portuguese colony from 1510 until 1961 Goa has a fascinating blend of latin and oriental cultures. A similar cabinet was sold by Christie's Los Angeles, The Duquette Collection, lot 346 (US$37,600)
Notice Regarding the Sale of Material from Endangered Species. Prospective purchasers are advised that several countries prohibit the importation of property containing materials from endangered species, including but not limited to coral, ivory and tortoiseshell. Accordingly, prospective purchasers should familiarize themselves with relevant customs regulations prior to bidding if they intend to import this lot into another country.
A 10% Goods and Services tax (G.S.T) will be charged on the Buyer's Premium in all lots in this sale
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Sale 12483
The Joseph Collection of Japanese Art
A Lacquer Fubako [Letter Box]
SIGNED KOSAI [TSUZUKI KOSAI], TAISHO PERIOD (EARLY 20TH CENTURY)
The rectangular box slightly curved with an overhanging cover, decorated in gold, silver and black hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, togidashi, kinpun and nashiji with deer and the torii gate of the Itsukushima Shrine in the sea, the design continuing onto the sides, the nashiji interior, silver rims
39cm. long
Christine Bowie
cbowie@christies.com
Constructed in the 12th century and late renovated, the Itsukushima Shrine at Miyajima in today’s Hiroshima Bay became one of Japan’s famous ‘Three Great Beauty Spots’ along with Amanohashidate and Matsushima. As travel for purposes of pilgrimage and sightseeing increased, so did the popularity of such picturesque sites and such celebrated places provided the subject matter for many artworks. The shrine was built like a pier over the water, permitting pilgrims to approach by boat. The beauty point is the grand torii gate that is more than 16 metres in height and appears to float in the sea at high tide. The deer in Itsukushima are regarded as the shinroku [sacred deer], the divine messenger in Shinto religion.
Tsuzuki Kosai was the pupil of Ikeda Taishin (1825-1903).
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.
Collecting Guide: 5 things to know about Meiji-period art
The art that came out of Japan as it emerged from 200 years of isolation at the end of the 19th century, illustrated with works offered in Hong Kong
Collecting guide: 9 things to know about Japanese screens
Professor Matthew McKelway is your guide to these exquisitely beautiful emblems of wealth and power
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Fescue Toxicosis in Horses
By Dr. Susan Muller Esneault
Filed Under: Horses, Poisoning
Is your mare having trouble with foaling? Think your foaling dates are almost a month off? Is your mare producing enough milk to care for her foal? Did you get what looks like a full term foal only to find it stillborn? This unfortunate situation may be a result of your pasture.
Tall fescue (Festuca elatior or F. arundinace) is among the most common cool season pasture grass grown in North America and in other countries having a temperate climate. Almost all of the pasture planted before 1980 is infected with Neotyphodium coenophialum, a microscopic fungus or endophyte. The fungus does not effect the growth of the fescue and, in fact, the fungus-infected grass has a growth advantage because it is more drought and stress-resistant than non-infected fescue.
The fungus produces toxic ergot alkaloids including ergovaline, peramine, and ergine.
The most potent of the ergot alkaloids is ergovaline. The concentration of ergovaline varies with the seasons. Ergovaline reaches peak concentrations in the seed heads during the summer months and will decrease during the early fall, followed by a rebound in levels with the fall regrowth. Drought, and reversely rainy conditions, will increase the ergovaline concentrations contained within the plant. Fertilization of fescue with nitrogen and phosphorous-based fertilizers or chicken litter will also increase the concentration of ergot alkaloids. Due to the previously mentioned conditions, the concentration of ergovaline, and therefore the resulting toxicities, would be expected to vary from season to season as well as from year to year. Ergovaline is also present in hay grown from affected pastures.
The variety of fescue also determines the extent to which the fescue is affected by the fungus. Kentucky-31 is the variety of fescue most affected by the endophytes with >95% of the pastures testing positive for the fungus. Kenhy, Mo-96, and Kenmont varieties of fescue are intermediate in their sensitivity to N. coenophialum, with the Fawn variety being the least affected by the fungus. In the U.S. alone, the fungus is estimated to cost producers more than 1 billion dollars of losses in livestock production yearly.
Ergovaline is a potent vasoconstrictor and a strong prolactin inhibitor. Prolactin is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that is responsible for the growth of the mammary gland following parturition (the act of giving birth) and the production of milk. A complete lack of prolactin production results in no milk production (agalactia) in the horse or the pig following fescue poisoning.
Ergot alkaloids have been linked to prolonged gestation, abortions and fetal death in pregnant mares. Mares in late gestation (over 300 days pregnant) are the most sensitive to the effects of ergovaline. Abortions tend to occur late in gestation. The length of gestation (the period a mare carries her foal) tends to be 20 to 27 days longer than normal. Dystocia or problems with delivery will occur due to the large size of the fetus. The large fetus may result in vaginal tearing during delivery thereby causing rebreeding problems or even death of the mare. Additional clinical signs of poisoning include retained, thickened placentas with secondary endometritis (infection of the lining of the uterus); laminitis; and septicemia. Mares will have a profound drop in milk production and typically do not have normal udder development. Affected mares may not show signs of impending parturition (giving birth). Mare mortality is increased.
Foals that are not born stillborn are weak. Although larger and ganglier, these foals are immature in their development. Foals, once born, have unerupted incisors and overgrown hooves.
Reproductive efficiency in mares will be significantly decreased in non-pregnant mares. These mares will have a prolonged luteal phase to their reproductive cycle. The number of cycles bred per pregnancy will increase, as will the possibility of early embryonic death.
Pregnant mares should only be maintained on endophyte-free pastures especially when in late gestation. Domperidone or Equidone®, an oral gel, has been used with limited success. Domperidone is given once daily for 10 to 14 days before the expected date of parturition. Once foaling has occurred, domperidone is used twice daily if needed to stimulate milk production.
Removal of a mare in the last month of pregnancy from a fescue pasture and the avoidance of fescue hay during this same period will help prevent a foaling problem.
Gupta, Ramesh Editor. Veterinary Toxicology. Elsevier Inc. 2007. Pp. 907-913.
Radostits, Otto and Clive Gay et al. Veterinary Medicine. 10th Edition. Saunders. 2007. P. 1901-1902.
Stegelmeier, Bryan DVM. “Third of four articles: Myotoxic Plants: Identifying Poisoning Signs, Sequelae.” DVM. October 2007. Pp. 16E-17E.
Topics: fescue, poisoning
Symptoms: foaling problems, reduced milk production, stillborn foals
Fescue Toxicosis in Cattle
Tall fescue (Festuca elatior or F. arundinace) is among the most common cool season pasture grasses grown in North America and in other countries having a temperate climate. Almost all of the pasture planted before 1980 is infected with Neotyphodium coenophialum, a microscopic fungus or endophyte. "Endophyte" describes the location of the fungal growth within the grass as endo=within and phyte=plant.
Avocado Poisoning in Horses
Raising avocados may be detrimental to the health of your horse. Avocado leaves, fruit, bark, and seeds all contain persin and an unidentified cardiac toxin. In lactating mares, persin produces a non-infectious mastitis (inflammation of the mammary glands), epithelial necrosis (skin cell death over the mammary glands) and agalactia (decrease in milk production). Occasionally gastritis and colic may occur.
West Nile Encephalomyelitis in the Horse
West Nile virus (WNV) is a flavivirus that was first identified in Africa during 1937. WNV is considered to be endemic in Africa, Asia, Southern Europe and North America. The virus first appeared in North America around the New York City area in 1999, when wild and zoo birds, horses and humans died of meningoencephalitis. WNV has been found in 225 different wild and captive bird species. Birds are the natural host and reservoir of this virus.
Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA)
Are you currently breeding horses? Are you vaccinating your horses for Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA)? A 2005 study found that a mere 11.7% of breeding operations are vaccinating for this highly contagious, reportable, viral disease that causes sporadic outbreaks of respiratory infection and abortion in horses.
Chytrid: a Deadly Fungus Threatens Endangered Amphibians
The chytrid fungus, whose scientific name is Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), is decimating amphibian populations worldwide, especially in Central America and Australia. The fungus has contributed to the extinction of nine frog species native to Australia and almost 200 species worldwide. When B. dendrobatidis affects a community, up to a 50% morbidity rate is seen in the native amphibian population and 80% of the affected animals will die within a one year period (mortality rate).
Contact Critterology.com
Critterology.com content is provided for informational purposes only. Consult with your veterinarian before pursuing any course of treatment.
Copyright © 2006-2015 Veterinary Internet Company.
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Morcellator Revamped, Safety Still an Issue
Posted on September 11, 2017 by CSSFIRM.COM
Olympus America, Inc. is going forward with its efforts to overhaul the power morcellator with its new, “contained-tissue extraction system,” but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remains unconvinced regarding the device’s safety.
The FDA is requiring that the redesigned device – which is combined with a bag intended to prevent cancer cells from escaping during morcellation – carry a warning stating that it has not been clinically proven to reduce the risk of spreading uterine cancer, and that morcellation is not a suitable treatment in most cases. Olympus recently announced that the company plans to launch a clinical study of 140 hysterectomy patients to show that the system is safe and effective, but some have charged that the study is too small to accurately assess oncological safety.
Other companies have developed similar bags to use in contained morcellation, but the systems have not been widely used because they posed technical issues. Olympus says that in laboratory tests, its bag did not exhibit leakage of cells or bodily fluids, and endured the tugging that is anticipated to occur during use. The company said it would consider the upcoming clinical trial a success if no more than one bag out of 140 ruptures during the testing, which has not yet begun.
What is Morcellation?
Power morcellators are minimally invasive tools used to remove common uterine growths known as fibroids during gynecological procedures like hysterectomies. The devices can cut the sometimes large, cumbersome growths into smaller pieces that can be removed from the body through small incisions.
But deadly cancers can appear as benign tumors and there is no conclusive way to diagnose uterine cancer before morcellation, so when the tissue is ground up the undetected uterine cancer cells can be spread throughout the abdomen, leading to rapid upstaging of the disease. As a result, power morcellation has come under growing scrutiny and prompted numerous lawsuits.
Tags: Childers Schlueter & Smith, contained morcellation, contained tissue extraction system, FDA and Morcellator, hysterectomy involving a morcellator, Lawsuits from Morcellator Victims, Morcellator Injuries, Morcellator Injury Lawyer, morcellator related cancer, Neil Edwards Morcellator Lawyer
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New Talc-Ovarian Cancer Lawsuit Filed Despite Recent J&J Victories
FDA Discourages Use of Ultrasonic Aspirators for Uterine Fibroid Removal
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Dark Dry Ice on Southern Cap - Thermal Image
Website Address:https://www.curriki.org/oer/Dark-Dry-Ice-on-Southern-Cap--Thermal-Image-555003
The early part of the Mars Global Surveyor mission provided good TES coverage of the Mars south polar region. These data allow mapping of the polar cap recession, surface and atmospheric temperatures, and albedo features found within the seasonal cap itself (Kieffer et al, 1998, Titus et al, 1998). During the period observed, the seasonal south polar cap retreated continuously and asymmetrically around the geographic pole, much the way Viking observed in 1976-1977 (Kieffer et al., 1977). One of the most dominant albedo features on the seasonal cap is a region that appears almost as dark as bare ground, but yet remains cold. We refer to this region, generally located between latitudes 85S and 75S and longitudes 150W and 310W, as the Cryptic region. A re-examination of the IRTM data revealed that the Cryptic region was not unique to the TES era, but also was quite apparent during the Viking era. Interesting enough, Antoniadi (Blunck, 1977) observed dark regions forming on the season cap that loosely correlates to the Cryptic region: Depressio Magna (1909) and Depressio Parva (1929). These depressios were located at 270 W, 78S and 166 W, 76S, respectively. Analysis of both the TES and IRTM data indicate that the Cryptic region is unique in its thermophysical properties relative to the rest of the cap. The region is a repeatable event that occupies the same general area from year to year. It is darker and slightly warmer than the rest of the south polar cap. Even though the Cryptic region is slightly warmer, it must still be CO2 buffered since it remains "cold" for several days. Spectral analysis of the TES longward of the 15 micron atmospheric band shows that the Cryptic region shows less spectral than the rest of the polar cap. This suggests that the region may be composed of "ice", as opposed to snow or frost (Hansen, 1998). Further spectral analysis on going. This image is a map of TES data, showing TES "T20" of the south polar cap. (The TES "T20" is a synthetic band created by convolving the response function of the IRTM 20m filter with the TES spectra.)The image is a composite from the first rolls of orbit 43 (Ls =219.2, Nov 17, 1997) and orbit 45 (Ls=220.8, Nov 20, 1997). The Cryptic region is the blue area curving along the 80S latitude line. The region shows up in this image as only slightly warmer than the rest of the polar cap, but still too cold to be bare ground. See also the Lambert Albedo Image
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Lawmakers reach deal on border wall funding
By Andrew Taylor and Alan FramThe Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators reached agreement Monday night to prevent a government shutdown and finance construction of new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, overcoming a late-stage hang-up over immigration enforcement issues that had threatened to scuttle the talks.
Republicans were desperate to avoid another bruising shutdown. They tentatively agreed to far less money for President Donald Trump's border wall than the White House's $5.7 billion wish list, settling for a figure of nearly $1.4 billion, according to congressional aides. The funding measure is through the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
The agreement means 55 miles of new fencing — constructed through existing designs such as metal slats instead of a concrete wall — but far less than the 215 miles the White House demanded in December. The fencing would be built in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
"With the government being shut down, the specter of another shutdown this close, what brought us back together I thought tonight was we didn't want that to happen" again, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala.
Details won't be officially released until Tuesday, but the pact came in time to alleviate any threat of a second partial government shutdown this weekend. Aides revealed the details under condition of anonymity because the agreement is tentative.
"Our staffs are just working out the details," said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
The pact also includes increases for new technologies such as advanced screening at border entry point, humanitarian aid sought by Democrats, and additional customs officers.
This weekend, Shelby pulled the plug on the talks over Democratic demands to limit immigrant detentions by federal authorities, frustrating some of his fellow negotiators, but Democrats yielded ground on that issue in a fresh round of talks on Monday.
Asked if Trump would back the deal, Shelby said: "We believe from our dealings with them and the latitude they've given us, they will support it. We certainly hope so."
Trump traveled to El Paso, Texas, for a campaign-style rally Monday night focused on immigration and border issues. He has been adamant that Congress approve money for a wall along the Mexican border, though he no longer repeats his 2016 mantra that Mexico will pay for it, and he took to the stage as lawmakers back in Washington were announcing their breakthrough.
"They said that progress is being made with this committee," Trump told his audience, referring to the congressional bargainers. "Just so you know, we're building the wall anyway."
The agreement got bad reviews from some of Trump's conservative allies.
"While the President was giving a great speech in El Paso, Congress was putting together a bad deal on immigration," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote on Twitter.
Democrats carried more leverage into the talks after besting Trump on the 35-day shutdown but showed flexibility in hopes on winning Trump's signature. After yielding on border barriers, Democrats focused on reducing funding for detention beds to curb what they see as unnecessarily harsh enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
The agreement yielded curbed funding, overall, for ICE detention beds, which Democrats promised would mean the agency would hold fewer detainees than the roughly 49,000 detainees held on Feb. 10, the most recent date for which figures were available. Democrats claimed the number of beds would be ratcheted down to 40,520.
But a proposal to cap at 16,500 the number of detainees caught in areas away from the border — a limit Democrats say was aimed at preventing overreach by the agency — ran into its own Republican wall.
Democrats dropped the demand in the Monday round of talks, and the mood in the Capitol improved markedly.
Trump met Monday afternoon with top advisers in the Oval Office to discuss the negotiations. He softened his rhetoric on the wall but ratcheted it up when alluding to the detention beds issue.
"We can call it anything. We'll call it barriers, we'll call it whatever they want," Trump said. "But now it turns out not only don't they want to give us money for a wall, they don't want to give us the space to detain murderers, criminals, drug dealers, human smugglers."
The recent shutdown left more than 800,000 government workers without paychecks, forced postponement of the State of the Union address and hurt Trump's poll numbers. As support in his own party began to splinter, Trump surrendered after the shutdown hit 35 days, agreeing to the current temporary reopening without getting money for the wall.
The president's supporters have suggested that Trump could use executive powers to divert money from the federal budget for wall construction, though he could face challenges in Congress or the courts.
The negotiations hit a rough patch Sunday amid a dispute over curbing ICE, the federal agency that Republicans see as an emblem of tough immigration policies and Democrats accuse of often going too far.
According to ICE figures, 66 percent of the nearly 159,000 immigrants it reported detaining last year were previously convicted of crimes. Reflecting the two administration's differing priorities, in 2016 under President Barack Obama, around 110,000 immigrants were detained and 86 percent had criminal records.
Few convictions that immigrants detained last year had on their records were for violent crimes. The most common were for driving while intoxicated, drugs, previous immigration convictions and traffic offenses.
The border debate got most of the attention, but it's just part of a major spending measure to fund a bevy of Cabinet departments. A collapse of the negotiations would have imperiled another upcoming round of budget talks that are required to prevent steep spending cuts to the Pentagon and domestic agencies.
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Tom Lassandro
Despite what you may have been told, cloud computing isn't just for startups and enterprises. [Midmarket companies and SMBs also use the cloud.]
However, as midmarket companies and SMBs know, advice about cloud deployments that holds true for enterprises or startups doesn't necessarily apply to businesses in the middle.
In a new eBook sponsored by Digital Realty | Telx titled "The Midmarket and SMB Guide to Cloud Computing," FierceCIO tackles cloud computing for midmarket companies and SMBs and explores a number of topics including:
The different cloud options and why you should consider them
How shifting to cloud can save you money—and what hidden costs to keep in mind
Why the cloud, in theory, is much more secure than private environments—and how to make sure that the provider you choose is
Why a hybrid deployment makes sense for many midmarket companies and SMBs
Frequently, many of these issues are discussed in the context of enterprises or agile startups, but less often in regards to midmarket companies and SMBs. Businesses of this size have unique challenges to contend with, not the least are smaller IT teams and budgets. Nonetheless, they still stand to benefit significantly from cloud computing, given the right approach.
What does it take to realize the full benefits of cost savings, enhanced IT security, and access to the latest technologies associated with cloud computing? Find out in our new eBook! To download this eBook, please visit our resource page here (registration required).
You can learn even more about how midmarket companies and SMBs can realize the value of cloud services and applications in this accompanying webinar, The Midmarket and SMB Guide to Cloud Computing. John Freimuth, General Manager of Cloud & IT Services at Telx, joins several other speakers to provide guidance in cloud computing and how to eliminate common errors and blind spots.
Have questions about the eBook or webinar? Please reach out to us via the contact page of our site, or by Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
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Five rebuttals to State of the Union are slated. Yes, five.
They reflect the age of social media, the era of Trump and lingering Democratic divisions.
Five rebuttals to State of the Union are slated. Yes, five. They reflect the age of social media, the era of Trump and lingering Democratic divisions. Check out this story on desmoinesregister.com: https://usat.ly/2DYrCSe
Donovan Slack, USA TODAY Published 6:08 p.m. CT Jan. 30, 2018 | Updated 6:41 p.m. CT Jan. 30, 2018
When President Trump addresses a joint session of congress Tuesday night, he will undoubtedly say that the State of the Union is strong, and he's right. The economy is growing, the stock market is booming, and unemployment is low. USA TODAY
It is a long-standing State of the Union ritual that the opposition party takes a few minutes after the president speaks to lay out a rebuttal and opposing view.
But this year, there will be no fewer than five rebuttals to the speech. Yes, five.
There will be the “official” Democratic response by Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy, and the Spanish language response by Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman.
Then there’s former presidential candidate (and rumored 2020 contender) Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who will be live-streaming his response over Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif, will be delivering an “exclusive rebuttal” on BET. And former Democratic congresswoman Donna Edwards will be delivering a response on behalf of the Working Families Party on Facebook.
One could assume this is just a natural development in the age of social media, where anyone and everyone can broadcast their thoughts.
But it is also a reflection of deep divisions within the Democratic Party, which has struggled to unite since the highly contentious primary battle between Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In any case, Americans will have more options than ever before to hear opposing views. In case they were missing them.
More: Progressives hammer Senate Democrats for striking deal with GOP to reopen government
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2DYrCSe
Jury decides Terry Branstad discriminated against gay employee as governor, awards employee $1.5 million
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U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst is top fundraiser in 2nd quarter as she prepares re-election bid
Rep. Steve King faces a funding deficit of more than $300,000 to GOP challenger
Sen. Joni Ernst calls Trump's tweets on congresswomen racist; Rep. Steve King says she's wrong to do so
Gay discrimination lawsuit could cost Iowa taxpayers more than $6 million
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By Donna Fluss, , Beth Eisenfeld, Senior consultant, DMG Consulting
Feedback Is the Future
Contact center surveying/feedback and analytics applications, while still evolving, show great promise for companies of all sizes. Vendors are developing and enhancing solutions to create products that capture and report the voice of the customer from a growing number of channels. Though many surveying solutions have been in the market for years, they have gained much greater prominence since 2007. Surveying/feedback solutions are increasing in popularity, as evidenced by the substantial expansion of the contact center segment of the surveying market in 2008. The number of contact center surveying/feedback and analytics implementations grew by a very strong 21.3 percent between 2007 and 2008, and DMG Consulting expects this momentum to remain strong for the next three years, despite the economic slowdown.
Surveying is the best method for an enterprise to determine if customers are satisfied with the quality of its products and services. Surveying is an indication of customer loyalty and also measures market perception, brand strength, customer satisfaction, and the overall customer experience. Surveying is both an art and a science. There’s an art to designing questionnaires and writing effective questions; it is science to determine the number of surveys required to provide a statistically valid sample set. Analyzing and interpreting the rich feedback from customer surveys requires a methodical blending of art and science.
The Competitors
DMG Consulting’s 2008 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Report (issued in September 2008) analyzed the 10 leading vendors that serve the contact center market. These 10 vendors are, in alphabetical order:
Allegiance,
Autonomy etalk,
Customer Relationship Metrics,
CustomerSat,
Mindshare Technologies,
Ransys,
RightNow Technologies,
Satmetrix,
United Carrier Networks, and
Verint Systems.
We also reviewed five other vendors with contact center surveying/feedback and analytics solutions that are either currently available or scheduled for release before the end of 2008. These vendors are:
CallCopy,
CFI Group,
Confirmit,
Interactive Intelligence, and
KnoahSoft.
We expect additional vendors to enter this market over the next 24 months.
Market Evolution
Contact center surveying/feedback and analytics solutions are designed to create, issue, collect, and analyze feedback in an increasing number of channels. The offerings are beginning to support both solicited and unsolicited customer feedback, as new forms of communication and social networking applications are changing the business landscape. Today’s visionary vendors are not only collecting feedback; they are developing the capability to routinely take the pulse of customers, as well as mechanisms to gather feedback from community forums where customers openly speak their minds. These vendors are transforming their offerings to incorporate both traditional, solicited surveying approaches and real-time, unsolicited community platforms.
A growing number of vendors have already incorporated the concept of enterprise feedback management (EFM) into their offerings. Several vendors are extending their surveying capabilities beyond the contact center to various departments throughout the enterprise, including marketing, sales, product development, and investor relations. Along with offering these new capabilities, vendors need to update their marketing and advertising campaigns and become skilled at selling outside of the contact center. This means they must develop relationships with key executives in these other departments.
Real-Time Surveying
In a business world that is compelled to make decisions at ever-increasing speeds, the ability to perform real-time surveying is a key strategic advantage. Real-time surveying/feedback solutions change the enterprise-customer dynamic. The benefits of real-time information are numerous, including improvements in service quality and customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention. Real-time surveying in the contact center provides an opportunity for enterprises to respond to issues raised by customers as they happen. It enables an organization to take immediate actions to prevent problems or fix problems before they can have a negative impact.
Many of the surveying/feedback vendors process and make customer data available in real time, though their definitions of real time may differ. Feedback may be posted to the database as customers complete surveys, but it is not always available for immediate viewing, reporting, and analysis. True real-time surveying solutions supply results immediately (or within 15 seconds); near-real-time applications deliver feedback for viewing and reporting within a somewhat longer time frame (but still within five to 15 minutes).
One of the biggest challenges in the contact center surveying/feedback and analytics market today is the increasing rate at which companies are reaching out to customers with survey requests. The Internet makes communication with customers cheap and easy, and low-cost solutions enable almost anyone (or any department in a company) to create and issue a survey. As a result, customers are finding themselves bombarded with requests for feedback, creating frustration and “survey fatigue.”
Most solutions in the market today offer some method for enterprises to define sampling rules and deployment criteria. One way to increase response rates is to utilize these capabilities to limit the number of surveys each individual customer is asked to complete. Other tips include personalizing invitations, limiting the number of questions, sending reminder emails, and sharing survey results with survey participants. The most important aspect, however, is an enterprise surveying/feedback strategy that manages all customer survey requests.
Taking Action Based on Feedback
The biggest mistake enterprises make with surveying is not taking action based on the feedback customers provide. Most of the offerings today capture feedback in real time and perform analysis in near-real time, reporting on events within minutes or hours after a customer interaction. The benefit of real-time surveying is that it allows managers to take action while a call is still in progress. Real-time solutions offer alarms and alerts to supervisors and agents during actual calls, and one vendor offers coaching to agents on customer service issues or sales opportunities as an interaction is being conducted. Real-time surveying facilitates a closed-loop process, as can be seen in Figure 1, below.
Figure 1: Quality Management/Liability Recording Suites
Source: DMG Consulting LLC, August 2008
Unfortunately, few enterprises use these real-time capabilities, and few let their customers know what they are planning to do in response to the collected feedback.
An exciting new role is emerging at some organizations—the customer advocate (or champion). The responsibility of the advocate is to ensure that customer feedback is used to drive change throughout the enterprise. Customer advocates are charged with developing processes, assigning tasks, and following up with customers to let them know how valuable their feedback has been and what the company is doing in response.
Enterprise and contact center surveying/feedback and analytics has a bright future. The market is seeing an upswing in interest and implementations due to the strategic and tactical benefits of these applications. Exciting new feedback opportunities are also on the horizon. Most promising are some of the Web 2.0 and social software applications. These include wikis, blogs, customer-review sites, community forums, social networks, content feeds, content rating, and reputation management.
Enterprise feedback management is the future of contact center surveying, as it enables survey results to be shared with all relevant departments throughout the company. EFM extends surveying to address customers, employees, partners, and investors. It is a means of incorporating feedback, whether solicited or unsolicited, from all sources and channels, into business operations. EFM also provides a centralized method for collecting, managing, and using feedback, and allows organizations to engage customers and other constituents on multiple fronts. Now that enterprises are finally showing interest, we expect to see most of the contact center surveying vendors extend their solutions to address the greater enterprise.
For more information about contact center surveying/feedback and analytics solutions, see DMG Consulting’s 2008 Contact Center Surveying/Feedback and Analytics Report at www.dmgconsult.com.
Donna Fluss (donna.fluss@dmgconsult.com) is founder and president of DMG Consulting LLC, a leading provider of contact center and analytics research, market analysis, and consulting. Beth Eisenfeld (beth.eisenfeld@dmgconsult.com) is a senior consultant at the firm.
Every month, CRM magazine covers the customer relationship management industry and beyond. To subscribe, please visit http://www.destinationcrm.com/subscribe/.
The Hosted Contact Center: A Paradox No Longer
Vendors were waiting for the market to pick up. End users were waiting for enhancements. Both waits are over.
Web 2.0, social media, customer feedback, conversations. Transparency is the new currency in CRM—but are you really ready to let your customer behind the curtain?
Productivity and Workforce Management
WFM solutions typically pay for themselves in under a year -- can you afford not to have one?
Monitoring the Quality Monitors
What you need to know about quality management and liability recording solutions.
Performance Management Requires Process Improvement
Contact center performance management isn't about measuring flaws -- it's about fixing them.
The High Quality of Quality Management
New solutions continue to make an impact inside and outside the contact center.
The Feedback Funnel
Properly harnessed, customer feedback can help companies forge a competitive advantage. But with feedback pouring in from all directions, companies are struggling just to keep up.
Contact Centers in the Web 2.0 World
Web 2.0 technologies can support your customer service processes.
Confirmit Sets Its Sights on the Horizon
The enterprise feedback management vendor broadens its multichannel reach and releases a new on-demand platform.
Top 10 Contact Center Goals
The contact center is part of a larger organization—and its goals must reflect that.
Workforce Optimization Is the Optimal Goal
Helping contact center managers achieve four primary goals.
Allegiance Acquires Inquisite
The enterprise feedback management vendor scoops up an online-survey software player.
Why Do You Ask?
Be prepared to act on customer feedback.
Confirmit Broadens Its Horizons
The latest launch from the enterprise feedback management vendor involves a flexible application toolkit, PowerPoint integrations, and more-intuitive designs.
Buyer's Guide Companies Mentioned
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Shadow of the Tomb Raider promises Lara's most dangerous and terrifying adventure yet
2018-04-27 08:00:00by Brett Makedonski
Everything we know from the reveal event
Square Enix's 2013 Tomb Raider showed us a Lara Croft we had never seen before. For decades, the only Lara we knew was an iconic action star -- confidently dual-wielding pistols while running, jumping, and gunning her way through any situation. The reboot aimed to show Lara's formative moments. She was vulnerable and scared for once, just trying to survive.
With Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara will become the Tomb Raider.
Square Enix emphasizes and re-emphasizes this point many times over the course of our in-person Shadow of the Tomb Raider presentation. This is the conclusion of a trilogy, but, more importantly, this is the end to Lara's arc of personal growth. She's more experienced and more skilled. She's going to have what lead developer Eidos Montreal calls "a defining moment." And hopefully all that means something beyond "She murders better."
We played a 45-minute Shadow of the Tomb Raider demo that took place near the beginning of the game. The most immediate takeaway is that this will feel very familiar for anyone who has spent time with the previous two installments. Duck-and-cover combat sequences, stealthy brutal insta-kills, exhilarating run-and-jump-and-hang-on-for-dear-life setpiece platforming -- it's all back.
However, it's what's new that made the biggest impression. The demo began with Lara and companion Jonah talking shop in Cozumel, Mexico. It's El Día de los Muertos, a giant celebration to pay respects to the deceased. Lara carefully navigates the crowded city, as she's completely surrounded by the vibrant festivities. It looks absolutely incredible.
Tomb Raider routinely does spectacular vistas, but it hasn't experimented much with social spaces. This Cozumel one is a great start. Narrative director Jason Dozois explains that this is something Eidos is bringing over from its experience with Deus Ex. Shadow of the Tomb Raider will have city areas where the player can choose how Lara interacts with non-playable characters; we'll have to wait to see what kind of meaningful impact this might have on the narrative.
A large portion of the demo centered around retrieving an ancient Mayan dagger from a tomb. Lara's main priority is beating the malevolent Trinity organization to recover these artifacts. She succeeds with the dagger, but Trinity ends up taking it by sheer force. Trinity's nefarious plan is to essentially seek salvation by triggering the apocalypse through possession of the dagger and a yet-unfound Mayan silver box. The race between Lara and Trinity to locate an ancient hidden city that houses this silver box is seemingly the plot device that will propel most of Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
The stakes are certainly raised, and this feeds directly into Square Enix's most intriguing claim: Shadow of the Tomb Raider is Lara's most dangerous adventure -- specifically with regard to the actual tomb raiding. Eidos seemingly takes a lot of pride in the design of the tombs. Dozois explains that once Lara figures out where the tombs are located, it's dangerous to physically enter them. It's not a cakewalk from there, though. The tombs' puzzles will kill Lara if she tries to solve them incorrectly.
The non-tomb parts sound rightfully treacherous too. The Peruvian jungle seems like a stunning backdrop for this sort of action. There's sure to be plenty of perilous climbing and leaping through the dense and vibrant wilderness. Lara can swim in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is almost definitely a clear indicator of several tense near-drowning scenes. Also, Dozois mentioned something about Lara fending off parasites, which seem like the least of her worries. Oh yeah, and there's the whole thing about Trinity actively trying to murder her.
What we were shown was predictably light on gameplay changes. That's likely because the demo was early in the game and Shadow of the Tomb Raider is set less than a year after Rise of the Tomb Raider. Any new skills will probably be acquired later on. However, we saw Lara's penchant for hiding in vine-covered overgrowth. It's a fine place to launch a sneak attack by putting a climbing axe through an unsuspecting guard's jugular. We were told that Lara will eventually blend into her jungle surroundings by covering herself in mud. Square Enix talked of her evolution into "the apex predator," which she'll partially do by channeling Schwarzenegger in Predator.
It's also worth noting that Shadow of the Tomb Raider looks as if it'll follow in Rise of the Tomb Raider's footsteps with regard to structure. The original game was rather straightforward, whereas Rise featured a few large open areas. The slice we saw was completely linear, but lead game designer Heath Smith assured us that's only because it's the beginning. Once into Shadow, things will open up. Smith says "It's very much the Metroidvania game you know and love from the previous [Tomb Raiders]."
The culmination of all this artifact-recovering and enemy-killing in the demo was bleak for the residents of Cozumel. It triggered a great flood, one that wreaked untold destruction on the quaint town. It served as a grand setpiece, a natural disaster for Lara to save herself from. There's dismal and undeniable irony in Lara swimming through the corpses of these people who were celebrating the Day of the Dead just minutes prior.
When she reaches safety, Lara's reunited with a grief-stricken Jonah who yells that she needs to consider the consequences of her actions -- that everything isn't about her. An inevitability of Lara's arc will almost certainly be that she's the best at raiding tombs and she's the best at murdering anyone who stands in her way. Shadow of the Tomb Raider seems poised to be a thrilling conclusion to her tussle with Trinity.
But Square Enix talks about Lara's personal growth, basically taking the words right out of Jonah's mouth. Over three games, she has matured into this murder machine. Has she matured emotionally? Has she realized not everything is about her? And does this figure into Lara's "defining moment?" For now, it's all as mysterious as the relics Lara hunts.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider releases on September 14 on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
[Disclosure: Travel and accommodations were provided by Square Enix.]
Click to open photo gallery:
Brett MakedonskiManaging Editor gamer profile
While you laughing, we're passing, passing away. So y'all go rest y'all souls, 'Cause I know I'ma meet you up at the crossroads. Y'all know y'all forever got love from them Bone Thugs baby... ... more + disclosures
Also on Destructoid: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (43) From our database:
Eidos Montreal 'super happy' with Shadow of the Tomb Raider performance - Chris Moyse
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is the latest triple-A game to come to Xbox Game Pass - Brett Makedonski
Lara must confront the past in Shadow of the Tomb Raider's The Nightmare DLC - Chris Moyse
Shadow of the Tomb Raider invites you to explore The Pillar - Chris Moyse
Shadow of the Tomb Raider's new DLC, The Pillar, coming next week - Chris Moyse
Shadow of the Tomb Raider just got a free trial on everything - Chris Carter
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is on sale and some fans are not happy about it - Chris Moyse
Shadow of the Tomb Raider's first mini-DLC is coming in November - Brett Makedonski
Review: Shadow of the Tomb Raider - Brett Makedonski
Filed under... #Action #Crystal Dynamics #Eidos Montreal #PC #Previews #PS4 #Square Enix #Tomb Raider #Top Stories #Xbox One
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Airside Solutions
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A Radio frequency power amplifier (RF power amplifier) is a type of electronic amplifier that converts a low-power radio-frequency signal into...
An Antenna (plural antennae or antennas), or aerial, is an electrical device which converts electric power into radio waves, and vice versa.[1] It...
dBD Communications can supply a wide variety of RF Attenuators for RF and Microwave applications.
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RF power dividers from dBD Communications are available in 2 way, 3 way, 4 way, 6 way, 8 way and 16 way port configurations. Our RF power dividers include 1.85mm, 2.92mm, 3.5mm, 7/16, BNC, Type N and SMA connector input...
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+972-(0)52-2201776
Desert & Wine. A taste of the divine
Activities Stargazing Helicopters Bedouin Boutique Corporate Gallery Contact
Join us on a unique 4 hour experience blending a rugged jeep tour in the Ramon Crater with fine wine tasting in a boutique desert vineyard - including a personal meeting and talk with the winegrower and visionary.
But before we open the bottle, let's start with some background...
Surprisingly, the story of the wine production in the Israeli Negev Desert highlands dates back almost 2000 years ago - to the time of the Nabatean culture - after they lost their control over the Incense Route and ceased to be nomadic. At this stage, the VERY pragmatic Nabatean people abandoned their three strict rules of life (never to build a house, never to plant a tree and never to drink wine), and turned from a nomadic culture to an agricultural One. As such, they began experimenting and discovering outstanding methods of water manipulation, enabling them to cultivate the dry desert terrain to a fertile land on which they grew grape vines, almond trees, olives, figs, barley and other crops. These were used both for their own consumption and for commercial sales, mainly to the local legion of the Roman Empire. Naturally, the grapes were used to produce wine, which was bottled in clay jugs and left to age in caves.
Among the irrigation techniques the Nabateans developed were agricultural terraces that were built across wide river beds, dividing them into separate plots. The terraces were built with a slight reverse incline and had two main functions: one was to break the force of the rushing flash-flood water and prevent it from uprooting the crops, and the other was to keep a bigger amount of water on the separate plots and for a longer time, allowing it to seep slowly into the earth and penetrate deeper into the roots of the plants.
The wine that the Nabateans produced from the vines growing on these terraces is said to be exceptional and jugs of it were found in archaeological excavations throughout the Mediterranean.
Amazingly, many of the Nabatean terraces are still in tact today and can be found throughout the Negev Desert.
Over the past 20 years new and impressive agricultural initiatives have sprung in the Negev resulting in quite a few modern farms which in many cases are (excitingly) reusing the ancient, 2000 years old, Nabatean terraces - with the main crops being grape vines for the wine industry.
Due to the unique conditions of this desert area, including the soil salinity, the extreme temperature differences between day and night and the controllable irrigation, the Negev highland grapes hold unique tastes and properties which winemakers are raving about and boutique wineries all around Israel are eager to have in the best of their blends.
About the tour
This 4 hour package will leave you with bursting desert aromas and soothing wine bouquets. After 2.5 hours in the Ramon Crater our tour will reach the Nana-wine vineyard for wine-tasting accompanied by complementary finger food, a meet-up with the winegrower and an opportunity to purchase wine on the spot.
Nana Winery's beautiful vineyard is planted on the same agricultural terraces mentioned above and is literally recreating history. Nana is without a doubt the current boutique-wine prodigy of the Israeli wine scene. If you love great wine you have to be there! Le'chaim...
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Contact Tourist Information
Jeep tours Rappelling Hiking Camping Wine-Tasting
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Fort Bragg Cancels July 4th Passes, Implements Mandatory ‘Self-Awareness’ Training
Fort Bragg Cancels July 4th Passes, Implements Mandatory 'Self-Awareness' Training
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Following the highly public July 2nd arrest of a Fort Bragg soldier, base officials have canceled Fourth of July passes and festivities in favor of mandatory “Self-Awareness” training and updated safety briefs.
In a statement issued this morning, Fort Bragg Spokesman Tim McCall wrote, “It has become apparent to the Base Commander that some of our soldiers lack critical, basic self-awareness, a skill which benefits both the individual, and the Army as a whole. Because ‘Not Looking like the Headquarters for Asshole Division’ is a top priority for Fort Bragg this year, it has been decided that the best way to teach soldiers how to use their freedom, is by taking it away.”
On July 2nd, Fort Bragg Sgt. Bryan Scott Wolfinger, 25, was arrested at the Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, N.C., when police responded to calls about an armed man wearing a plate carrier entering Macy’s. He was apprehended without incident, and it was later revealed he was simply there to have a series of tasteful glamour shots made of him with his AR-15 rifle, literally hours after the Navy Yard in Washington reported a possible active shooter. Fort Bragg officials have suggested that, “even an ounce of Self-Awareness could have prevented this incident from occurring.”
McCall spoke to Duffel Blog reporters about the new training module.
“Soldiers will be briefed like toddlers, because apparently they can’t fathom being goddamned normal human beings for 10 fucking minutes without drawing all possible attention to themselves,” McCall said.
“Last month, we had a guy literally rain on a Memorial Day Parade. He stood on the curb, spraying spectators with a garden hose, because he thought they shouldn’t be enjoying themselves.”
Soldiers and veterans alike have increasingly embroiled themselves in major news stories recently, perhaps most notably in a widespread social media campaign that argued, “Caitlyn Jenner isn’t brave, only soldiers are brave.”
The goal of the new training is to teach service members “how to just be normal,” according to Master Sgt. Laurence Tabor, Fort Bragg’s newly appointed Self-Awareness NCOIC, who allowed Duffel Blog reporters to observe a lecture given to members of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division.
“Is it OK to post signs around your neighborhood asking people to respect your military service by not using fireworks this Fourth of July?” Tabor asked the mostly-awake auditorium of angry junior-enlisted soldiers.
“No,” he continued, pointing to a slideshow presentation. “Because that’s not what normal people do,” he said, emphasizing the word “normal.”
Moments later, one private first class asked, “Is it still acceptable to write ‘I already paid for your freedom’ in the tip line instead of leaving a monetary tip at a restaurant?”
“Do push-ups,” answered Tabor. “You are the worst kind of person.”
At press time, soldiers participating in the training could be overheard discussing lessons they had learned, including how to react appropriately to companies that don’t offer military discounts, and why rainbow-colored American flags aren’t necessarily “a despicable attack on our patriot dead.”
Related Topics:Fort Bragg
Chairman Says ‘Fuck This Noise’ In New National Military Strategy
Female Ranger School Attendees Question Pickle Jar Opening Test
Major forced to go to morning PT spontaneously combusts
NCO who cares about soldiers screened for traumatic brain injury
Private who crashed fuel truck not even playing Pokémon GO this time
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Back of the Envelope
Donald S. Crankshaw
As I mentioned the other day, Kristin and I did some ancient Roman cooking a week ago. The great challenge in doing something like this is finding the ingredients. Garum, a popular fish sauce in ancient Rome, isn't exactly available at the grocery store (although there's a reasonable substitute used in Vietnamese cooking). We managed to make do there. Harder to find was a substitute for defrutum, which is reduced grape must. We had to go to a wine supply store to get something roughly equivalent.
That was the most difficult part from our end, but in reality the most difficult part of Roman cooking is figuring out the recipes. There are a few ancient sources of Roman recipes, Apicius being the most famous. However, Roman recipes tend to lack such niceties as amounts and cooking times. For example:
For mussels: Garum, chopped leek, cumin, passum, savory, and wine. Dilute this mixture with water and cook the mussels in it.
(This is taken from the Nova website, which is quoting from the book we used.)
This brings us to the topic of this post, experimental archaeology. Experimental archaeology is when modern scholars attempt to reproduce the work of previous generations, doing their best to follow their techniques. This can include reproducing an Ancient Greek repeating ballista, running an Iron Age farm, or cooking a Roman meal. There is of course a lot of variation in how rigorously this is done. Our cooking, for example, used a lot of ingredient substitutions, along with modern kitchen appliances, following an interpretation of the Roman recipe. So not very rigorous on our part. The authors of the various cookbooks based on Roman recipes are, fortunately, better scholars. They were the ones who did the actual experimental archaeology in order to turn the the recipes into something usable in a modern kitchen in the first place.
Another way that Kristin and I have taken part in experimental archaeology is in the medieval swordfighting lesson we took earlier this year. Medieval swordsmanship is a lost art--no one's practiced it for hundreds of years. The Eastern traditions fared better, as practitioners continued to pass down their fighting techniques, even after they had been surpassed by the gun on the battlefield. However, European sword techniques have been preserved in one way: there are a number of surviving fight manuals, which display the techniques used in medieval swordsmanship. They look something like this:
Usually, with a one or two word caption. This, from Talhoffer (the most famous of the fight books), has the caption War-work. ARMA (the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts) has lengthy excerpts available online. Even with the complete fight book, it's hard to make out exactly what's going on in the images. That's why experimental archaeology is so valuable. It brings together all the manuals, with real swords, experience with related martial arts, and actual sparring, and attempts to reproduce the techniques which are only hinted at.
That turns a number of images like the above, into something like this:
Aside from the exercise, why would anyone want to reproduce sword fighting techniques from the late Middle Ages? Or, for that matter, recipes from the late Roman era? It's partly a scholarly exercise, useful for archaeologists. But I find it very helpful for a different reason. As a writer of fantasy that draws inspiration from both Roman society and the Middle Ages, such experiments give me a better understanding of how the people of that time lived, allowing me to write with greater verisimilitude.
Plus it's fun. And I, at least, thought the Roman food was pretty good.
Posted by Donald S. Crankshaw at 12/22/2010 01:28:00 AM
I moderate comments on posts more than a week old. Your comment will appear immediately on new posts, or as soon as I get a chance to review it for older posts.
"(another good blog, BTW)"
-Captain Ed
"I thought he was kidding about the quantum computation part, but he wasn't."
-Doc Rampage
"The next C.S. Pierce..."
-Joe Carter
What does "back of the envelope" mean?
What are all those equations in the background?
Why are there no posts between 2004 and 2009?
Kristin Janz
Livia Blackburne
Doc Rampage
This past year in writing
Storyblogging Carnival coming up
Review of "From Words to Brain" by Livia Blackburn...
Storyblogging Carnival?
Roman cooking
Storyblogging Carnival CXV
The History of the Domini: Part IV
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Dorcena Forry endorses Chang-Diaz
By Gintautas Dumcius
Another politician who endorsed state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson during the September Democratic primary has switched support to challenger Sonia Chang-Diaz. State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry said she is now endorsing Chang-Diaz for the general election.
"I've known Sonia for several years," Forry said, noting that Chang-Diaz, a former public school teacher, worked on her election campaign in 2005. Forry added that she admires Wilkerson, who is running a sticker campaign to retain her seat, "but the voters in her district chose Chang-Diaz in the primary."
Forry is married to Bill Forry, managing editor of the Dorchester Reporter. The Reporter did not endorse a candidate in the primary and has not endorsed a candidate for the general election.
In the primary, Chang-Diaz had few notable endorsements to tout, beyond those of mostly local newspapers, and won on Sept. 16 by over 200 votes. Wilkerson, until Tuesday night, kept a list of primary endorsements up on her campaign website. Many local Democrats, such as state Rep. Marty Walsh, Mayor Thomas Menino and City Councillor at-Large Sam Yoon, are publicly staying on the sidelines.
Former state Rep. Mel King, a political legend in the South End section of Wilkerson's District, came out in favor of the voters' choice - Chang-Diaz - in the Boston Globe on Wednesday. Without the volunteer power that some of these political figures can influence, Wilkerson may face a challenge finding enough hands to pass out stickers and get out the vote. Wilkerson and Chang-Diaz are on the ballot with Socialist Workers Party candidate William Leonard.
Linda Dorcena-Forry
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Dotty Gallery
Mia Sarosi
Mia Sarosi Fireworks
Mia is a full time artist specialising in porcelain, producing hand made and hand painted, functional and decorative pieces. She has had notable achievements in her career.
Mia currently sells work through a range of stockists including Heal’s in London the British Museum and of course, Dotty Gallery in Twyford !
Mia began working with ceramics in 1991, spending an initial seven years as an artist for a company specialising in English Delftware reproductions. She then moved into designing and making her own work, spending time learning and working with other potters. Following a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship (QEST scholarship) in 2004, Mia has worked exclusively with porcelain.
Over the years, Mia has had notable achievements. She was a Craftsman Highly Commended Newcomer at The British Craft Trade Fair in 2003 and featured in July 2003 and 2004 magazines.
In the past she has supplied pottery to Fortnum and Mason, making tea caddies, jam, honey and mustard pots for their grocery department.
Mia took part in the inaugural London Craft Week May 2015 in Make/Create, a unique project involving a collaboration between contemporary fine art and traditional crafts, exploring points of intersection between the two disciplines and challenging perceptions of both in the process. The exhibition was presented by Griffin Gallery in West London and QEST and featured the work of 13 QEST Scholars and 13 fine artists selected by Griffin.
Dotty Opening Hours ...
Sun 1 - 4pm
Tues - Fri 12.00 - 5.30pm
But alway's happy to open out of hours if I'm around or by prior appointment. Just give Lesley a call on 01664 840910
dotty gallery | 12 Main Street | Twyford | Leicestershire | LE14 2HU | Tel: 01664 840910
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IAS officer from Mizoram allegedly harassed by lawyers in Delhi|Representational image
Mizoram IAS officer harassment: BCI serves notice to lawyers
The woman was allegedly stopped and pushed inside the premises of Saket court in New Delhi on Thursday; her husband was beaten up when he tried to intervene
New Delhi: Taking suo moto cognizance of the alleged harassment of a woman IAS officer from Mizoram inside the Saket Court premises in Delhi on Thursday, the Bar Council of India (BCI) has served notice to the lawyers who were involved in the incident.
The BCI asked the lawyers to show cause why their certificates of practice be not suspended even as the Saket Bar Association claims that it was the husband of the officer who slapped an advocate that led to the incident.
The 2014-batch officer, who is posted in Mizoram, was allegedly stopped by a group of advocates and pushed after a heated argument. Her husband was beaten up when he tried to intervene, said reports.
An FIR was registered at the Saket police station. The woman reportedly handled a property-related case during her earlier posting in the city.
If reports are to be believed, the other party of the case got into an argument with the woman and her husband. They even stopped their car as they came out from court.
MizoramCourtIAS officerDelhiharassment
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| 0.662627
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Estimated between Tue. Aug. 13 and Thu. Aug. 22
Just Cavalli Women's Tops & Blouses,
Roberto Cavalli Women's Tops & Blouses,
Just Cavalli Men's T-Shirts,
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Long Sleeve T-Shirts Flower Tops for Women,
Chiffon Long Sleeve Flower Tops & Blouses for Women,
Just Cavalli Men's Dress Shirts
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| 0.274413
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← Back to Writers
Robert Ubell
Robert Ubell is vice dean emeritus of online learning at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, and author of the collection, Going Online: Perspectives on Digital Learning.
Robert Ubell is vice dean emeritus of online learning at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. A collection of his essays on virtual education, Going Online: Perspectives on Digital Learning, was recently published by Routledge. He serves on the advisory board of the scholarly journal, Online Learning, and on McGraw-Hill Education Learning Science Research Council Advisory Board.
Articles Written by Robert Ubell
Colleges Should Build Online Programs, Not New Gyms and Climbing Walls
For Colleges, Outsourcing the Virtual Future Is a Bad Idea
Online Learning’s ‘Greatest Hits’
Can Online Learning Help Higher Ed Reverse Its Tuition Spiral?
Opinion: With the Fox in the Henhouse, Betsy DeVos’s Ed Department Is Hurting Low-Income College Students
Does Online Education Help Low-income Students Succeed?
How Risk-Averse Universities Take Chances with Satellite Campuses Abroad
Why College Is Not an Employment Agency
Will Online Ever Conquer Higher Ed?
From Neutrality to Inequality: Why the FCC Is Dismantling Equal Access and What It Could Mean for Education
How Online Can Save Small, Private Colleges from Going Under
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