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through completely legal means. Most forfeitures (69 percent) take place during traffic stops and most of the time only money is seized. According to the state report, cash was taken in 99 percent of forfeitures during 2016, with the median seizure amounting to only $1,031. The paperwork alone for the following seizure easily surpassed the value of the property seized. And that's just in terms of office supplies. Add on the labor involved and what is even the point. That means, in many cases, the amount seized was considerably less than four-figures. In one instance, the report shows, police took $16 from a motorist. So much for the "don't drive around with large amounts of cash" solution. To avoid being robbed by opportunistic law enforcement, the mantra needs to be shortened to "don't drive." Or simplified to "don't leave the house." Utah's smallball seizures aren't an aberration. Before the Washington DC Metropolitan PD was hit with minor forfeiture reforms, it also believed no amount of cash was too small to be seized. It racked up nearly $3 million in seizures slowly and steadily from citizens who went on to sue the department. Altogether, the nearly 1,400 claimants in the class action lost almost $700,000 to forfeiture, so the settlement will restore roughly three-quarters of what was taken from them. Yet the claimants represent just 14 percent of those affected by this particular D.C. forfeiture policy. Over a six-year period, the Metropolitan Police Department seized a staggering $2.9 million from these owners collectively. Among the owners represented in the lawsuit, the median amount of cash seized was a mere $120. In fact, the MPD seized as little as $1 from some owners. There is little indication trivial amounts of money can be plausibly tied to the drug trade, noted Sean Day, who was co-counsel on the class action. These low dollar amounts discourage owners from seeking the return of their property. In some places, the fee just to file a motion for return is higher than the amount taken. Even the median seizure in Utah (~$1,000) is easily dwarfed by filing fees and the costs of legal representation. It would be ludicrous to believe officers aren't aware of these facts when they seize cash. It's hard to see how civil asset forfeiture benefits society. It doesn't take criminals off the street because criminal charges are rarely filed. It doesn't put criminal cartels out of business because the few hundred dollars lifted off random people likely isn't directly tied to these organizations — and if it is, the hit is so small an organization won't feel it. Law enforcement agencies fight reform by claiming it will harm taxpayers if the agencies are forced to rely solely on general funds (something with actual oversight) to pay officer overtime and purchase equipment. But the alternative is even worse: agencies and officials are arguing it's OK to tax certain citizens the amount of cash they happen to have on them when interacting with police officers. It's a preposterous argument that says law enforcement agencies not only shouldn't be expected to play by the same public funding rules as every other agency, but will actually be unable to perform their basic functions without a second stream of income. Filed Under: asset forfeiture, civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement, stealing Report Says DEA Doesn't Even Know If The Billions In Cash It Seizes Is Having Any Impact On Criminal Activity from the also:-doesn't-seem-to-care dept Thu, Mar 30th 2017 09:36am - Tim Cushing The DOJ's Inspector General has just released its latest report [PDF] on federal civil asset forfeiture. It's not pretty and it confirms many of the criticisms of the program. Law enforcement agencies — including the DEA, which is responsible for nearly 80% of the $28 billion of forfeited assets over the past decade — claim the program is key in the dismantling of criminal organizations. However, the facts don't back up this claim. The report opens by pointing out agencies involved in civil forfeiture seem completely uninterested in the actual pursuit of criminals. One multimillion dollar seizure resulted in nothing more than millions of dollars being seized. Any criminals associated with the cash are presumably still out there committing criminal acts. Based on intelligence collected from the money laundering operations, other federal law enforcement agencies conducted additional investigative work which, according to the task force, resulted in the arrest of 84 individuals and the seizure of approximately $49 million. The OIG found that the BHPD received over $6 million in revenue derived, in part, from equitable sharing payments related to these seizures. However, according to a task force official, the task force did not file a single criminal indictment related to its money laundering investigative operations. From which the OIG can only draw this conclusion: Such outcomes can raise questions about whether seizures are intended to serve legitimate law enforcement interests or to bolster law enforcement budgets. The report focuses on the DEA, as it's responsible for most of the forfeitures. Again, the claim that forfeiture is an effective crime-fighting tool isn't backed up by any data the DEA has on hand. In fact, the DEA seems uninterested in self-assessment or anything else that might undermine its claims of crime-fighting effectiveness. As the OIG points out, the DEA has no idea whether civil asset forfeiture actually works. We found that the Department and its investigative components do not use aggregate data to evaluate fully and oversee their seizure operations, or to determine whether seizures benefit criminal investigations or the extent to which they may pose potential risks to civil liberties. The Department and its components can determine how often seizure and forfeiture advance or relate to criminal investigations only through a manual, case-by-case review of component case management systems As is noted here, the DEA is not only uninterested in quantifying the results of forfeiture, but has expressed zero concern about potential civil liberties violations. The DEA basically doesn't know if forfeiture is good or evil. All it cares about is the money. It is so focused on seizing cash, it's set up a network of informants in airports, trains stations, bus deposts, and post offices who do little more than notify the agency any time they come across currency. The DEA also does little to justify the initiation of seizures. The report notes nearly every seizure examined began with something barely approaching reasonable suspicion. [W]e found that 85 of the 100 seizures occurred as a result of interdiction operations at transportation facilities, such as airports, parcel distribution centers, train stations, and bus terminals, or as a result of a highway interdiction or traffic stop. All but 6 of the 85 encounters or situations that led to interdiction seizures were initiated on the observations and immediate judgment of DEA agents and task force officers absent any pre-existing intelligence of a specific drug crime (the remaining six were based on preexisting intelligence). Further, a majority of the seizures examined were seemingly carried out for no other reason than to seize cash. [T]he DEA could verify that only 44 of the 100 seizures, and only 29 of the 85 interdiction seizures, had (1) advanced or been related to ongoing investigations, (2) resulted in the initiation of new investigations, (3) led to arrests, or (4) led to prosecutions. Another seizure detailed in the report backs up the OIG's conclusions: the DEA is interested in cash and little else. After Transportation Security Administration agents discovered U.S. currency artfully concealed in a manufactured compartment within the pulley of a checked bag, a task force officer assigned to a DEA group responded with a drug dog to assess the bag. The dog positively alerted to the presence of a controlled substance, and the group seized $70,460 concealed in the bag and its pulley. According to the DEA's documentation, the group that

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A Queer Quarantine Transition Story Posted by Ali Lehman When I met Addison, she was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar. Well, that much is almost true. I did sing those lyrics to her on the night our team got second at trivia in the Lipstick Lounge. When we met, she was bartending downtown at a restaurant where my husband and I went by chance on a date night. I immediately knew she was a person I wanted as my friend. In fact, since we sat at the bar for dinner I got to chat her up all night. She's the only friend I've ever "picked up" at a bar. I left my number on the receipt and wrote "Want to be friends? Call me!" We've been friends ever since. This spring, while all of us have been enduring the brutal transition from normal life to quarantine, Addison endured another type of brutal transition. She underwent gender affirmation surgery. When she first told me she was getting surgery, I – clearly without thinking – blurted out, "are you getting your boobs done too?" I am embarrassed and ashamed that I asked this question, but Addison is a champ and informed me that she loves her breasts, which are the same size as the other women in her family, and didn't chastise me. I have since apologized for asking this insensitive question, and she brushed me off, but I know that it was a stupid thing to say. So I asked her about the surgeries some trans people choose to get and why. She and I discussed how everyone wants a timeline: When did you know you were trans? How long have you been transitioning? When will you be done? When did you have the surgery? Addison says that last question is as invasive as it is irrelevant, yet it is the first thing our minds run to when we meet a trans person or see their story on tv or Instagram. Yes she is calling you all out on this, and it's okay. "We are curious by nature and our society demands to be informed. The nature of the question is not the problem; it is the question itself." But, she felt comfortable answering those questions: I knew when I was about 11. I didn't say it until I was 29. Since high school when I realized I wanted to be one of the girls as much as I wanted to be with them. Medically, since I was 29. Medically – never. My body does not naturally produce estrogen so I will be taking those little blue pills for the rest of my life. For me – I don't know. And I don't really care. I love my transition. I feel as if I am in a constant state of learning about myself and analyzing and evolving and it's like, the least boring thing ever. When we refer to "the surgery," do you know which one? According to Addison, for girls like her who were assigned male at birth, feminizing procedures can include: Facial feminization Hairline surgeries Vaginoplasty Orchiectomy (removal of the testicles) Vocal feminization Tracheal shave and any number of other procedures to help alleviate that person's dysphoria and live their most authentic truth. OR NONE AT ALL Even poor problematic Caitlin Jenner, who both of us watched transition under media scrutiny, was bombarded with questions about surgeries and genitals. In Addison's words, "In Caitlyn Jenner's case, we didn't see the years of hormone replacement therapy or hair removal or mental health struggles or painful recovery process. This only helps to further an already rampant problem in the trans community of folx dealing with Imposter Syndrome." For Addison, getting surgery is a privilege, but it's also saving her life. To her, "I don't look at my decision to have this procedure as a choice to have my birth-given male genitalia transformed into a clitoris, labia, and a vagina, rather it was a choice to live or not." Those who understand this surgery saves lives know it's "medically necessary," it shouldn't be considered elective. Although it shouldn't be a privilege to have life-saving surgery, we live in America, where most necessary healthcare is a privilege of the white and financially able. "I myself have looked at other womxn and wondered (and despaired) why I haven't experienced as dramatic a transformation as they have," she told me. This chapter of Addion's life was rewritten due to the pandemic. During quarantine, she received a phone call from her surgeon letting her know the procedure would be postponed, less than three weeks ahead of the original date. The beginning of her journey toward getting surgery started in June/July 2019. In her words, "I swore to myself that I wouldn't go through another summer with a penis. I couldn't do another trip to the beach worrying if my waterproof tape would live up to its claims." When she found out surgery was delayed, she told me, "Dysphoria feels like a poison and when the antidote was finally in reach, I was told to just hang in there a little longer." When she finally got the green light six weeks from the postponement, she was so overwhelmed with prepping for surgery (tests, work arrangements, dealing with insurance, therapy letters from multiple professionals, preparing her family) that she wasn't able to focus on the sudden reality of her rebirth. "I was ready, but I was terrified… Despite the setbacks and emotional distress, I gained a lot of valuable new perspectives in the time that my life was put on hold inside a world that was doing the same." One of the biggest downsides of quarantine is her inability to make her debut at Pride this year. Her past Pride experiences were beautiful. In 2017, she introduced the world to Andi, the embodiment of all her most basic femininity who "allowed me to confidently identify as genderfluid." By Pride 2018, she was out and proud as herself, Addison, and even went to NYC Pride with her mom. In 2019, she marched in the parade with her amazing work family, had three costume changes on the first day alone, and Pride-d with a partner for the first time ever. This year is different. "The outfits that I myself longed for a few weeks ago have been traded in for facemasks and signs of protest." When she found out NYC Pride was cancelled, she knew Nashville was next. "Times like these can make us feel selfish. I thought, 'What about my triumphant return?' I mourned the outfits that would never be, the pictures that would be missed, the drag queens and kings that would go untipped; it all seemed so hopeless." But, she acknowledges that the revolution that is Pride changed the world. And so did Coronavirus, and the murder of George Floyd. According to her, the LGBTQIA+ community learned that it is no longer enough to call out the "rainbow capitalism" that has overtaken so many Pride celebrations, which is not about Pride-shaming. "But to do all of these things and not recognize and stand up for people and communities of color while they are constantly being abused and murdered by the same institution that our queer heroes fought against so that we could live authentically, is to walk backwards in time and say 'Our fight is our fight, and theirs is theirs.'" I agree when she told me that it is no longer enough to spend one month educating ourselves and our already-woke peers about Marsha and Sylvia, that their names and legacies need to be taught in schools alongside civil rights leaders. "The line between the history of a racist police institution and the fight for queer equality is not thin. For years we have marched and celebrated for our one weekend of our one month, telling the world to be thankful that they don't need to do the same, and now we are seeing that we were complicit against our own mission." I am overwhelmingly proud to call

Dave Henderson Henderson with the Oakland A's in 1989 Center fielder Born: (1958-07-21) July 21, 1958 Dos Palos, California April 9, 1981, for the Seattle Mariners July 29, 1994, for the Kansas City Royals Seattle Mariners (1981–1986) Boston Red Sox (1986–1987) San Francisco Giants (1987) Oakland Athletics (1988–1993) Kansas City Royals (1994) All-Star (1991) World Series champion (1989) David Lee Henderson (born July 21, 1958), nicknamed Hendu, is an American former Major League Baseball player who played for the Seattle Mariners (1981–1986), Boston Red Sox (1986–1987), San Francisco Giants (1987), Oakland Athletics (1988–1993) and Kansas City Royals (1994). He batted and threw right-handed. He attended Dos Palos High School, where his football #42 and baseball #22 were both retired for his hometown Broncos, who wear blue and gold. He graduated from Dos Palos High School in 1977. Henderson helped his teams reach the World Series four times during his career (1986 with Boston, 1988–1990 with Oakland). However, his only World Series ring came in 1989, when the A's swept their Bay Area rivals, the San Francisco Giants. 1986 ALCS home run 1 Later career 2 Broadcasting career 4 1986 ALCS home run Henderson is best remembered for the two-out, two-strike home run he hit in the top of the ninth inning in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. At the time, the California Angels were playing at home and had a 3-1 series lead. They had a 5-2 lead going into the ninth and were three outs away from their first-ever trip to the World Series, but Boston closed the gap to 5-4 on a two-run home run by former Angel Don Baylor. When Henderson stepped to the plate, there were two outs and Rich Gedman was on first after being hit by a pitch. On a 2–2 count, Henderson, who had entered the game to replace the injured Tony Armas, then hit a drive off Donnie Moore that stunned the Angels and all of Anaheim Stadium. The home run saved Henderson from possibly being a scapegoat, after Bobby Grich's sixth-inning warning track fly ball deflected off his glove and over the wall for a two-run home run that gave the Angels a 3-2 lead. The ball hit the palm of his glove an instant before he hit the fence, dislodging the ball and sending it over the fence. The Angels tied it up at six in the bottom of the ninth, but in the 11th inning, Henderson hit a sacrifice fly that would prove to be the margin of victory. Still down 3 games to 2, the Red Sox returned home to Fenway Park for the final two games, where they defeated the Angels 10–4 and 8–1 to win the series. Henderson went on to hit .400 in a losing cause as the Red Sox were defeated in the 1986 World Series by the New York Mets in seven games. Henderson hit two home runs, his second scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning of Game 6. Later career Henderson was one of baseball's biggest surprises after signing as a free agent with Oakland following a brief stint with the Giants. In the 1988 season he set career highs in batting average (.304), runs (100), hits (154), slugging average (.525) and doubles (38). He also hit 24 home runs that season and the Athletics were 23–1 when he homered. Selected for the 1991 All-Star Game, Henderson was on his way to the best season of his career, batting in the number-two spot in the A's lineup behind Rickey Henderson (no relation). The slugger was consistently getting fastballs to hit because the speedy Henderson was a stolen base threat every time he reached safely. Henderson was batting .340 before the All-Star break, but his average dipped in the second half of the season and he finished the year at .276, though he did hit a career-high 24 home runs. That year, Henderson blasted three home runs in consecutive at bats against Minnesota.[1] While he did come back to hit 20 home runs in 1993, Henderson was never the same player after blowing out his knee the previous season. He finished up his career as a reserve player with the Kansas City Royals in 1994. In 14 seasons, Henderson batted .258 with 197 home runs, 708 RBI, 710 runs, 286 doubles, and 50 stolen bases in 1538 games. In eight post-season series (four ALCS and World Series appearances a piece), he hit .298 with seven home runs, 20 RBI, 24 runs, and a .570 slugging average. Broadcasting career From 1997 to 2006, Henderson worked as a color commentator during Seattle Mariners radio and television broadcasts. In 2011, he returned to the Mariners' radio booth as one of a rotating crew of part-time announcers succeeding the deceased Dave Niehaus. ^ "BASEBALL; Zeile's Homer in 10th Sends Pirates to 8th Straight Loss". New York Times (August 4, 1991). August 4, 1991. Retrieved 2009-01-12. Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube Venezuelan Professional Baseball League Baseball LibraryPage at Baseball's 25 Greatest Moments: Dave Henderson's Home Run 1977 Major League Baseball Draft First Round Selections Bill Gullickson Paul Molitor Tim Cole Kevin Richards Terry Kennedy Richard Dotson Brian Greer David Hibner Craig Landis Bruce Compton Randy Martz Andrew Madden Ricky Adams Paul Croft Craig Harris Anthony Nicely Drungo Hazewood Bob Welch Scott Munninghoff Tad Venger Tom Goffena Seattle Mariners first-round draft picks 1977: Henderson 1978: Nanni 1979: Chambers 1980: Coles 1981: Moore 1982: Owen 1983: Akerfelds, Bell 1984: Swift 1985: Campbell, McGuire 1986: Lennon 1987: Griffey, Jr. 1988: Martinez 1989: Salkeld, Burrell 1990: Newfield, Manahan 1991: Estes 1992: Villone 1993: Rodriguez 1994: Varitek 1995: Cruz, Jr. 1996: Meche 1998: Thornton 1999: Christianson, Heaverlo 2000: No first round pick 2001: Garciaparra 2002: Mayberry, Jr. 2005: Clement 2006: Morrow 2007: Aumont, Mangini 2008: Fields 2009: Ackley, Franklin, Baron 2010: Walker 2011: Hultzen 2012: Zunino 2014: Jackson Oakland Athletics 1989 World Series Champions 2 Tony Phillips 4 Carney Lansford 7 Walt Weiss 9 Mike Gallego 12 Lance Blankenship 14 Storm Davis 19 Gene Nelson 20 Matt Young 21 Mike Moore 24 Rickey Henderson 25 Mark McGwire 27 Ron Hassey 28 Stan Javier 33 Jose Canseco 34 Dave Stewart (World Series MVP) 35 Bob Welch 36 Terry Steinbach 39 Dave Parker 40 Rick Honeycutt 42 Dave Henderson 43 Dennis Eckersley 44 Ken Phelps 54 Todd Burns 10 Tony La Russa 5 Art Kusnyer (Bullpen) 8 Dave McKay (First Base) 15 Rene Lachemann (Third Base) 18 Dave Duncan (Pitching) 45 Merv Rettenmund (Hitting) 46 Tommie Reynolds (Bench) American League Championship Series Bay Bridge Series Major League Baseball on ABC Major League Baseball Game of the Week (1953–1954; 1960; 1965) Monday Night Baseball (1976–1988) Thursday Night Baseball (1989) Baseball Night in America (1994–1995) ESPN Major League Baseball (broadcasters) Non-MLB programs Little League World Series (broadcasters) The Baseball Network World Series television ratings Television contracts List of events on Wide World of Sports ABC's owned & operated TV stations WABC 7 (Brooklyn Dodgers, August 17, 1953-October 1, 1953) WLS 7 (Chicago Cubs, 2015-present) KTRK 13 (Houston Astros, 1962-1972) WFIL 6 (later WPVI) (Philadelphia Athletics, 1949-1954; Philadelphia Phillies, 1959-1970) Falstaff Brewing Corporation Gary Bender Bob DeLaney Merle Harmon George Kell Gene Kirby Brent Musburger Bob Prince Gary Thorne Al Trautwig Steve Zabriskie Color commentators Buddy Blattner Norm Cash Carl Erskine Tommy Hutton Jim Kaat Tommy Henrich Steve Stone Warner Wolf Guest commentators Rick Dempsey Ross Porter Hosts & field reporters Jack Arute Tim Brant Corey McPherrin Lesley Visser "Inside Pitch" scouting analysts Roger Maris' 61 home run season (1961) "The Bird" (1976) "The Double" (1995) Tiebreaker games 1959 National League playoff series 1978 AL East Playoff 1980 NL West Playoff LCS games Chris Chambliss' Walk-Off Home Run (1976) "Garvey Home Run" (1984) "Gatorade Glove Play" (1984) "You're Looking at One for the Ages Here" (1986) World Series games "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx Is Burning" (1977) "Mr. October" (1977) "The Call" (1985) 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake 1994 (cancelled) 1995 (Games 1, 4-5) AL Championship Series 1995 (Games 1–2) NL Championship Series AL Division Series 2002 (ABC Family, coverage produced by ESPN) NL Division Series "Hello Old Friend" "Lights" African-American baseball players American League All-Stars Bellingham Mariners players Boston Red Sox players Kansas City Royals players Leones del Caracas players Major League Baseball announcers Major League Baseball center fielders Modesto A's players Oakland Athletics players People from Merced County, California San Francisco Giants players San Jose Missions players Seattle Mariners broadcasters Seattle Mariners players Spokane Indians players Stockton Mariners players Tacoma Tigers players New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Chicago White Sox, Seattle, Milwaukee Brewers Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, World Series, Oakland, California New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Massachusetts, Oakland Athletics, Babe Ruth 2006 Seattle Mariners season Seattle Mariners, Seattle, 1977 Major League Baseball season, Nintendo, 2006 Major League Baseball season List of Seattle Mariners first-round draft

a cannery, and raised one son who became a prominent surgeon. For some reason, perhaps a series of tragic deaths of her most beloved in rapid succession – compounded with childhood separation from her mother and untold abuse at the hands of nuns and priests, Bertha fell apart in her early thirties – became a chronic alcoholic and abandoned her seven children. Protected: Jean, A Life NC Blog, Out & Back, The Farm Douglas Glover's Interview with Gordon Lish now out in a book In the mid-1990s I hosted a weekly literary radio interview show at WAMC-Albany (New York). One memorable morning over the studio phone, I interviewed Gordon Lish, whom I knew because he had published stories of mine inThe Quarterly as well as my novel The Life and Times of Captain N. (1993) at Knopf. The interview now appears in Conversations With Gordon Lish, edited by the estimable Cambridge (UK) critic David Winters and Jason Lucarelli, who was once a student of mine and contributing editor at Numéro Cinq Magazine. The book was published earlier this year by University Press of Mississippi in their wonderful "Conversations" series. The cover photo above is, of course, by NC contributor bill hayward. Here is the publisher's book description: Known as "Captain Fiction," Gordon Lish (b. 1934) is among the most influential–and controversial–figures in modern American letters. As an editor at Esquire (1969-1977), Alfred A. Knopf (1977-1995), and The Quarterly (1987-1995) and as a teacher both in and outside the university system, he has worked closely with many of the most pioneering writers of recent times, including Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo, Barry Hannah, Amy Hempel, Sam Lipsyte, and Ben Marcus. A prolific author of stories and novels, Lish has also won a cult following for his own fiction, earning comparisons with Gertrude Stein and Samuel Beckett. Conversations with Gordon Lish collects all of Lish's major interviews, covering the entire span of his extraordinary career. Ranging from 1965 to 2015, these interviews document his pivotal role in the period's defining developments: the impact of the Californian counterculture, the rise and decline of so-called literary "minimalism," dramatic transformations in book and magazine publishing, and the ongoing growth of creative writing instruction. Over time, Lish–a self-described "dynamic conversationalist"– forges an evolving conversation not only with his interviewers, but with the central trends of twentieth-century literary history. This book will be essential reading not only for students and fans of contemporary fiction, but for writers too: included are several interviews in which Lish discusses his legendary writing classes. Indeed, these pieces themselves amount to a masterclass in Lishian literary language–each is a work of art in its own right. The Erotics of Restraint #1 New Release in Erotica Fiction Writing Reference on Amazon (this morning) Click on the image for a bigger version. I can't resist this. Cynthia Sample alerted me to the fact that you can pre-order my new book of essays already! (Book not out till next July.) I checked Amazon, just to see, and was, as often happens, charmed by what I saw. There's my book. Though that's not the actual cover. This is standard for new books. Publishers put up a placeholder till the real book cover is available. And the subtitle appears different on the cover mockup and in the book description. I probably caused that confusion myself, since have always gone back and forth between the two. (I welcome your input.) But best of all is the little "#1 New Release" flag followed by the words "in Erotica Fiction Writing Reference." No doubt this will do my public image no end of good and make me popular in the B&D crowd. Just to check, I searched the book title only and this is what came up. The irony is, of course, as many of you know, that the title essay of the book — "The Erotics of Restraint" — is a long text on Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park. But let me not deter anyone from buying the book on mistaken (or any other) grounds. Weird Plots for Strange Stories: Alternatives to Conventional Plot Structure — Julie Jones "Here we rediscover the old truth that repetition is the heart of art" (Douglas Glover, Attack of the Copula Spiders 94). A story, like all artistic work, requires a structure upon which it can sustain itself. Most stories rely upon the arc of the conventional plot: a beginning, middle, and end, with rising tension culminating in climax then denouement; a wave rising from the ocean, peaking close to shore, crashing upon the beach, and dissipating with a hiss of water and foam. There are many ways to describe this classic structure. Douglas Glover calls it a series of repeating conflicts between one character's desire and a resistance to that desire (24-26). Michael Shaara describes it as the shifting of power back and forth between opposing characters (Burroway 265). Claudia Johnson reframes the dynamic in terms of emotional connection and disconnection (Burroway 267). Resisted desire, shifting power, emotional disconnection. However you phrase it, these describe inherently interesting plots. But what of the outlier story that eschews the classic plot? How can it be made interesting? Captivating prose carries the reader only so far. What tools are available to the writer who veers away from the conventional, but still hopes to achieve an interesting, resonant story of some depth? In this essay, I will examine five short stories with unconventional plots: "The Distance of the Moon" by Italo Calvino, "Axolotl" by Julio Cortázar, "The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter, "The Available Data on the Worp Reaction" by Lion Miller, and "The Fog Horn" by Ray Bradbury. In analyzing each story, I will consider whether and how it departs from the conventional plot structure, and what other literary devices are used to engage and hold the reader's interest. "The Distance of the Moon" by Italo Calvino "The Distance of the Moon" is a speculative story about a time on earth unknown to us when the moon travelled in an elliptical orbit and, once a month, would come so close to the earth that people could climb upon the moon with ladders. This fourteen-page story has no line breaks or numerations to indicate story sections, but the structure is dual, split in two. The first half is primarily descriptive, detailing the phases of the moon, its orbit, how the people used rowboats to move under the moon and ladders to climb upon her, the acrobatics used to navigate the gravitational field between the moon and earth when mounting or dismounting the moon from the ladders, the ingredients and formation of moon-milk and how they harvest it from the moon's scabby surface. It also introduces the story's characters: the first-person narrator, Qfwfq; the Deaf One, Qfwfq's cousin who has an affinity with the moon; Captain Vhd Vhd, who commands the boats; Mrs. Vhd Vhd, the Captain's wife who plays the harp; and Xlthlx, a twelve-year-old girl. Ending the first section is a short pre-story that presages events in the main story. Xlthlx becomes stuck in the ambiguous gravitational field between the moon and the earth. She's too light to fall into either orb's influence. She floats between them and eats the shellfish and sea creatures that are also caught between worlds, gaining heft as she eats and as other sea creatures attach to her body, till finally her weight reaches a critical threshold and she splashes to Earth. It is at this halfway point, after the characters and setting are (thoroughly and delightfully) explained, that Qfwfq tells us outright the nature of the story: "This is how the story of my love for the Captain's wife began, and my suffering." He then succinctly describes the situation: the Deaf One loves the Moon, Mrs. Vhd Vhd loves the Deaf One, and Qfwfq loves

saying I want to cash out. I am saying the BOD should consider the long term effects I outlined and whether it would be best to return the shareholders investment at a high value rather than a low value, thus the question. To put the above email in perspective, remember my purpose in writing was because there was a private park sale meeting that blew up, then a request for a joint POA BOD and COLV City Council meeting that Mayor Randy Kruger has torpedoed, and finally most important for several months now no one would simply say, a park sale is off the table. I could not figure out why anyone would sell a park under those conditions, or why a board of directors would assert some "Community Burden" over shareholders in a private company. Also, I was writing to see who was legally obligated to who and for what. I know a lot of the above is obvious to most business people and would never need to be stated. But, I was dealing with people who would indicate a sale was off, but not just say it, and who kept voicing this "Community Burden" that meant we are paying for private facilities and parks that could be used to benefit other developers and the city at large. This is unlike most other private entiries which exist to serve their customers and shareholders. Our POA is supposed to be a structure left in place by the developer to allow them to cash out while providing attractions to attract buyers to maintain an after market for our lots within the POA footprint. But the City and usually the POA Board itself tend to say the LVPOA has a "Community Burden" for the other lots outside its footprint, which makes no sense. Can you imagine someone on Sam's Club Board of Directors saying Costco didn't allow for enough warehouses, so now Sam's Club has a "Community Burden" to give Costco use of Sam's Club warehouses whenever Costco needs one? Of course not! That would never happen! But, what the city and our LVPOA often does is the same thing. In other words, because other people don't prepare as they should, we have to give them our amenities, which we pay for. They are fond of saying only a few currently live outside the POA boundaries but there are many LOTs outside the POA boundaries. Those are put in place by other developers just as our lots were put in place by our developer. Given that they wouldn't admit to understanging what private means, and kept referencing this "Community Burden", in emails and in the meeting I'd attended, I wanted to break it out in detail. I wanted to find out if they just didn't have good business sense, were ignoring known business principles, or find out whatever it could be. It's one thing not to know, it's another to know and ignore facts. They can't unring a bell. By going into this excruciatingly detailed list it would be impossible for anyone to reply by glossing over items without it being obvious. I support Mr. Freeman in all the time and effort that he has taken to answer your continuing hypothetical question. I further support his answer as they are the best that anyone could give to your queries. Mr. Freeman has 2 years left on his term as a member of the POA. The sitting board has 2 members leaving in a month and a half, and 2 members have three years. The sitting board made and offer to the city to sell one park, the least uses, for fair market value of just under $1,000,000.00 and the offer was declined and is a dead issue. Future board will do what they think is best for the POA and to continue to ask hypothetical questions is not something Mr. Freeman be expected to properly answer. Nothing committed to today obligates future BOD. I am not sure people appreciate that for Mr. Freeman the past four year has seen this gentlemen working 40 or more per week, and most likely many more hours on the POA business. I for one would appreciate your asking questions that have to do with the hear and now rather then dwell on long term questions and hypothetical question which are beyond the control of this boar and are the responsiblity of future boards. Thanks you. In the above email, it works both ways, the park sale is dead for the 2010 board but the cannot obligate the 2011 board. That sounds reasonable until you remember the 2011 board will carry over 3 of the 5 members. 3 of 5 is a majority so yes they can obligate the next board, the 2011 one, at least. But, to be fair, lets assume there is no way to control the future board even with 3 of the same 5 members being carried over. In that case, it makes sense for me to store the question and ask it again later when the new board is seated. That is exactly what I did. Also they were not answering my questions from the beginning, which is why we'd now gone through some excruciatingly detailed emails just to explain basic business to them, and they are on the board of a private company. I had spoken with realtors and business people as well as other LVPOA members in an effort to try to understand what was going on with this Board. I'd shown them the emails and I'd gotten advice on what normal people should know. Most of the people I spoke to were incredulous. So, finally, the gloves came off. I tried to explain shareholder interests to this board at this point. I was not trying to write a textbook, and I was using words in their common meaning, not an accounting one. Basically, I was simply trying to get the idea of shareholder value across because if you've kept up with these emails, the pattern was they were going to sell in a private meeting with no outside input, no public review, when it wasn't needed to sell it. One thing that had struck me through this whole ordeal was this Board won't admit to owing the shareholders anything but they will force a "community burden" on the shareholders. That is the context for this email, trying to explain to a board of directors of a private company what shareholders are. Please note I have since heard various estimates on the number of lots in the POA, the 11,200 was what I was hearing at the time. You are an officer in a corporation, thinking ahead and preserving shareholder value is a board of director function. I am asking routine shareholder questions. You are taking it personally. I think that is part of the problem. Instead of circling the wagons, it would be helpful listen, learn, and to get some advice as I have done and continue to do. We have 11,200 lots each of which has one beneficial (ownership) interest, one per lot, in the POA itself. It's like shares in a corporation. The value of the organization DOES affect the current value of my investment as it does all the other members based on the number of lots. That means if you reduce the value of the organization, you reduce the value of our shares in it. A POAs actions are supposed to attract and retain investment in our personal lots. The BODs actions affect the value of our lots by changing the amenities mix. We shareholders hold a financial interest in the LVPOA itself at all times. As an investor, I have the right to expect that my capital is being used

criticism from more than 40 former employees how it spend the more than $800 million it raised in the past sick years. we asked mark owens, a former director of tax-exempt organizations at the irs to review the wounded warrior project's tax documents. >> what was your biggest concern in reading these forms? >> that i couldn't tell the number of people that were assisted. i thought that was truly unusual. if the organization is asking for money and spending money purportedly spending money to assist veterans, i would look to know. wounded warrior project says 80% of their money is spent on programs for veterans. that's because they include professional items, direct response advertising, and shipping and postage costs. take that out, and the figures look more like what charity watch dogs say only 54 to 60% of donations go to help wound service members. >> chip reid with our cbs news investigation. chip, thank you very much. a lawsuit today its demanding all the lead pipes in flint, michigan's water system be replaced. at least 100 children there have elevated levels of toxic lead in their blood. the lead came out of the pipes for more than a year after flint failed to add standard anti-core corrosion chemicals to the water. adriana diaz is back in flint tonight. >> now is time to act to help the people of flint. >> reporter: michigan governor, rick snyder told flint to have faith in his recovery plan. it will take months before he knows if the tap water is clean. flint residents want their lead pipes replaced before they drink the water. when is the soonest one of the lines will be replaced? >> a lot of work is being done to understand where the lead the cbs overnight news will be let's get these dayquil liquid gels and go. but these liquid gels are new. mucinex fast max. it's the same difference. this one is max strength and fights mucus. mucinex fast max. the only cold and flu liquid gel that's max-strength and fights mucus. let's end this. music throughout unlike ordinary diapers, pampers has 3 absorbent layers to stay up to 3 times dryer so your baby can sleep pampers it's not always as easy for me as it is for him... it's easy for me cause look at her. aw... so we use k-y ultragel. it enhances my body's natural moisture so i can get into the swing of it a bit quicker. and when i know she's feeling like that, the u.s. cases are in people who traveled from south of the border, but dr. jon lapook is looking into the likelihood of an outbreak here at home. >> reporter: brazil is fighting zika virus trying to control its mosquito population. so farther zika virus has not been found in mosquitoes in the u.s. the types that could carry the virus are found in this country. in fact, in warmer months those mosquitoes can be found in regions where 60% of americans live. that's about 200 million people. the zika virus has been linked to a birth effect, microcephaly where babies are born with small head. and dr. tara shrazian says doctors are bracing for likely arrival of the virus. in america, about 4 million women get pregnant each year. symptoms. the other four don't have symptoms and may have been exposed but may still develop microencephaly in their fetuses transmission from mom to fetus we think is relatively high. >> nurse practitioner safiyyah okoye is pregnant and decided not to vacation in the caribbean this year. >> even countries that weren't on the travel ban list, i felt like by the time of our trip in march seemed like the list was rapidly growing. >> reporter: today united and american airlines, issued new policies allowing pregnant women to postpone travel or receive full refund of flights to zika infected countries. the common way zika spreads through mosquito bites and more is needed about risk of transition through sexual contact and blood transfusion. a vaccine could be three to five years away. jon, thank you very much. this evening. you can find his response on our right back. customs officials have been confiscating knock-off hoverboards. in chicago they showed off 16,000 counterfeits. authority say the fakes are more likely to overheat and catch fire than the real ones. in washington, the big storm led to a blizzard of tickets for parking on snow emergency routes. nearly 5,000 were written. that is a snowfall windfall for the city. $1.25 million. by comparison, new york gave parkers a pass during the emergency. rescue sending 15 trucks to help pick up the snow with signs that say visit florida. in canton, ohio, officer ryan davis has a new partner, steve hartman reported the officer's former partner, jethroe was shot and killed by a suspected burglar and given a hero's funeral. davis flew out to houston to scout replacements and when he saw a german shepherd named tuko it was a match. in a moment, a super bowl match up for the generations. woman: what does it feel like when a woman is having a heart attack? chest pain, like there's a ton of weight on your chest. severe shortness of breath. cold sweats. there's an unusual tiredness and fatigue. there's unfamiliar dizziness or light-headedness. unusual pain in your back, neck, jaw, one or both arms, even your upper stomach, are signs you're having a heart attack. don't make excuses. make the call to 9-1-1 immediately. learn more at womenshealth.gov/heartattack. when the twins were about 10 days old, the doctors told us they were going to need blood transfusions. we're so proud of who they've become. as a result of one person, deciding to spend an hour of their life giving blood is just immeasurable, how powerful that one donation could possibly be. we end tonight with an epic battle of the ages. a 20-something against a 30-something in a game that should be something else. peyton manning's candid moment with bell belichick after sunday's championship game. is adding more drama to a game that already features the most diametric division of team leaders in super bowl history. manning, 39, most prolific passer the game has ever seen. but perhaps the least mobile. cam newton, just 26. >> for the touchdown. >> the best running quarterback today. he rushed for more yards than any of his peers. 636. >> is it possible to put into word how different the styles are? >> opposite end of the spectrum. >> ray lewis played quarterback for four teams during his career. look at peyton manning. the typical old-fashioned quarterback. look at cam newton. running and passing threat. >> reporter: the extreme style split extend beyond game plays and age gaps. on the sideline. manning never takes his eyes away from the printouts looks like he is constantly cramming for the s.a.t.'s. newton is demonstrative, hyperemotional, smiling and soaking in every moment like most rambunctious kid on the playground. only thing they do share is stifling defenses two. best in the nfl. >> picked off by coleman. >> think this is a defensive match up. people want to see, 49, 4. don't think it will be that way. it wil be fun. awesome. >> one of two walks away with the ring. the bronco riding the last rodeo >> and, of course you can see 7th. right here on cbs. that's the "overnight news for this thursday." for some of you the news continue thousands. later for the morning news and cbs this morning. from the broadcast center in new york city, i'm scott pelley. captioning funded by cbs CBS Overnight News CBS January 28, 2016 1:37am-4:30am

DEFRA / DFT Air Quality Consultation – May 2017 The Consultation outcome has been published online including a summary of responses. The SPACE for Gosforth submission is set out below. Following this consultation the Government set out its 'Air quality plan for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in UK (2017)' including the requirement for local authorities to produce local plans. We have written about the plan for Newcastle here. Official air quality figures for Newcastle's two air quality management areas in 2016 are here. Following the publication of this plan, the Parliamentary Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental Audit, Health, and Transport Committees re-launched their joint inquiry into improving air quality and SPACE for Gosforth also submitted evidence to that enquiry. The SPACE for Gosforth Response to DEFRA/DFT consultation May 2017: Tackling Nitrogen Dioxide in our towns and cities [Qus 1-6 are admin questions] Q7. How satisfied are you that the proposed measures set out in this consultation will address the problem of nitrogen dioxide as quickly as possible? Please provide comments to explain your answer This response if from Space for Gosforth (SPACE) which is a group to promote and campaign for a Safe Pedestrian And Cycling Environment for Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne. We are residents of Gosforth, most of us with families and we walk, cycle, use public transport and drive. We are not affiliated to any other campaign group or political party. The aim of the organisation is to promote healthy, liveable, accessible and safe neighbourhoods where Walking and cycling are safe, practical and attractive travel options for residents of all ages and abilities. Streets are easier and safer to navigate for residents or visitors with limited mobility and for residents or visitors with disabilities or conditions for whom travel is a challenge. There is good walking and cycling access to local community destinations including schools, shops, medical centres, work-places and transport hubs. Streets are valued as places where people live, meet and socialise, and not just for travelling through. The negative consequences of excessive vehicle traffic including injury and illness from road traffic collisions, air pollution, community severance, noise pollution and delays are minimised. We are pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this consultation on air quality which is a real issue for our community as evidenced by the designation of Air Quality Management Areas in Newcastle, including in Gosforth. Our response follows. The High Court has recognised air pollution to be a public health crisis that kills tens of thousands of people each year in the UK and has required that legal limits, which should have been met by 2010, must now be achieved "as soon as possible" We therefore expected the government to produce a plan to achieve compliance as soon as practicable to safeguard the health of our communities, with compliance to be achieved no later than the end of 2018 consistent with the High Court's judgment. The proposed measures do not include any new concrete actions to achieve NO2 levels within the shortest possible period. We are therefore not satisfied with the measures. Within the plan, where we expected firm proposals, there were merely proposals to consider what should be done. The government is dithering while expecting local authorities to take prompt action. Examples of actions that are proposed for consideration but which should already have been concluded and resulted in firm proposals include "Engaging with car manufacturers to see what role they could play" "Pressing car manufacturers to develop options for recalling existing vehicles to improve their real world emissions performance" "Exploring tax treatment for diesel vehicles" This is not an executable plan that has been put forward for consultation: it is a plan to develop a plan. With the UK already 7 years late in achieving compliance and with hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths during that time, this further delay is not acceptable. The government has been breaking the law on air pollution for 7 years and we need effective actions to be implemented quickly, without further delay. The plan is also misleading and confusing. The accompanying technical report makes it clear that a Charging Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is the most effective way to reduce emissions in a locality, but the plan says that they should only be considered as a last resort, despite the evidence showing that they are the most effective measure to achieve compliance and protect people's health. The government should have been much clearer in explaining that Charging CAZs are the quickest way to clean up our air and that there is no evidence that CAZs without charging could make the rapid reductions in NO2 that are needed. Any plan that does not mandate the application of the most effective measures would clearly be in violation of the High Court judgment to achieve compliance as soon as possible. Conversely, the plan includes measures which the government knows are not effective. It suggests 'Improving road layouts and junctions to 'optimize' traffic flow, for example by considering removal of road humps' despite this not being included in the shortlist of most effective measures in the Technical Report. If such measures induce additional vehicle traffic, or cause more people to drive because they don't feel safe walking or cycling, then there is a high risk they will lead to more pollution in other nearby locations. The plan also defers the responsibility that the government has for controlling to poor air quality (e.g. through its policy on vehicle tax regime), instead pushing responsibility onto local councils. It's not clear whether new funding will be available to implement the plan or how the proposals would be funded in any case. There is very little detail and it pushes responsibility to deliver clean air to local councils without giving them any resources to do so. The plan does not put any onus onto manufacturers who helped get us into this situation in the first place and whose cheating on emissions has resulted in NO2 emissions from diesel cars being several times higher than expected. The plan needs to include a clear governance framework that sets out the responsibilities of Central Government and of Local Authorities including who is responsible for ensuring air quality targets are met for a given location, when those targets should be met, how they should be measured, and a set of mandatory emergency measures that must be applied if targets are not met in the mandated timescales. Section 6 of the plan defines 'the solution', rightly noting that it is road transport that is the largest contributor to poor air quality in our urban areas but goes on to focus on high technology, high cost, long term solutions based on the unconstrained use of road transport when the only quick way to reduce air pollution and protect public health is to have fewer vehicle movements of the most polluting vehicles in our most polluted areas. The measures do not address the transport market failures that lead people to choose high cost personal vehicle transport with large negative externalities, such as air pollution, rather than choosing very low cost alternatives such as walking and cycling which have no negative external costs. These inefficiencies in the use of capital, materials and road-space, if resolved, could provide a significant economic boost to the UK as a whole in addition to resolving air quality and other related public health issues. It is therefore our conclusion that this plan is not fit for purpose. Q8. What do you consider to be the most appropriate way for local authorities in England to determine the arrangements for a Clean Air Zone, and the measures that should apply within it? What factors should local authorities consider when assessing impacts on businesses? The technical report is clear that Charging CAZs are the most effective measure, being more effective than Non-Charging CAZs. As local authorities have

also arguably a cutoff between stays for which legal procedures related to residential evictions must be used to kick out guests who don't pay their bills, and stays for which guests can merely be locked out. (A news article sets forth the rule to this effect, but I'm not convinced that Colorado law is actually so definitive on this point. There is a fair argument that this simply alters the amount of advanced notice required for motel owners to utilize the legal eviction process.) Assuming that long term guests actually use the rotating occupancy loophole (rather than just simply moving to a motel in some other jurisdiction, which is no doubt what Greenwood Village hopes will happen), this ordinance will, at a minimum, also have the practical effect of diminishing the legal rights of long term guests who allegedly have not paid what they owe and of inconveniencing them by requiring frequent moves to new motels. Greenwood Village is a Denver suburb (entirely or nearly entirely in Arapahoe County, Colorado which is part of the Denver metropolitan area) that is one of the most affluent Colorado municipalities in Colorado (it is the 31st highest income city of 10,000 or more in the United States). As of the 2000 census, the median household income in the city was $116,147 and the median income for a family was $145,802. The city's population was 13,925 as of the 2010 census and was 11,035 according to the 2000 census. Most of the increase in population has arisen from the construction of luxury apartments and condominiums in the city. This probably brings down the median income, the median age of residents, and their average family size somewhat, although the median income may nonetheless have increased since 2000 since those at this high end of the income scale have increased their share of the economic pie in the last decade and a half. The number of people who work in Greenwood Village on a typical work day is on the order of 100,000 or perhaps slightly less. Of course, not everyone who lives in Greenwood Village works in Greenwood Village. About 60% of Greenwood Village residences are adults aged 18 to 64, and a significant number of them are college students, homemakers, and early retirees (there are probably more early retirees than there are people who are working beyond the "normal" retirement age of sixty-five). If 75% of the working age population is employed (an estimate greater than the national average that reflects the character of the residents), and if two-thirds of residents who live in Greenwood Village and are employed also work in Greenwood Village (probably also an overestimate, but of the right order of magnitude), then the number of Greenwood Village residents who work in Greenwood Village is on the order of 30% of the City's total population (i.e. about 4,000 or so people in 2010). Thus, roughly 95% of the people who work in Greenwood Village live somewhere else in Colorado. Most of the municipality consists of the lion's share of mid-rise building office parks collectively known as the Denver Tech Center, which rival downtown Denver in terms of square footage of office space and is home to the headquarters of many of Colorado's leading businesses. These office parks are comparable, for example, to the complex of offices found in Oakland County, Michigan in the Detroit metropolitan area. Interspersed with these offices parks are a variety of retail and service businesses, some catering to people who work in the Tech Center, and some with a wider draw (e.g. a Big Box golf and tennis supply outlet). The vast majority of people who work at these Greenwood Village businesses (i.e. roughly 95%) don't live there. Even then, the employees who live in Greenwood Village is probably skewed. Only a tiny percentage of the administrative, clerical, food service and retail employees live there, a significant but still decidedly small minority of lower level managerial and professional employees live there, and a substantial but still almost surely minority share of senior level managerial and professional employees who work there live in Greenwood Village. Apart from the households of the senior level managerial and professional employees, most people who both live and work in the Denver Tech Center are singles or newlyweds without children who are renters. There is lots of middle class housing elsewhere Arapahoe County, which is a first ring suburb of Denver, and there is lots of upper middle class housing in Douglas County, a mix of affluent second ring suburban areas and even more affluent exurbs, which is immediately adjacent to Greenwood Village to the South. Lower income housing and services for the poor and the homeless tend to be found further to the North, in Denver, which is now accessible to Greenwood Village via light rail. On the residential side, it is home to some of the most affluent people in Colorado, mostly housing the families of senior executives and high end professionals who work in the Tech Center or Downtown Denver in large lot mansions and mini-mansions in gated communities and to a handful of luxury apartment complexes catering mostly to young professionals and executives who work in the Tech Center (aka DTC). Greenwood Village also has four medium to high end extended stay hotels mostly serving young managers and professionals relocating to the Tech Center or working on temporary assignments there (often paid for with corporate expense accounts), and four decidedly less expensive ordinary motels that are decidedly less expensive, which are attracted to the location mostly because it is the first urbanized area that someone coming into Denver from the South on I-25 encounters. There are also a few more expensive hotel/motels that are not pertinent to this post because they don't make rooms available to guests for periods of a month or more as a matter of pre-existing business policies. Greenwood Village has no trailer parks, RV parks, working or even middle class neighborhoods, no lower rent apartment complex, and no significant service provides for the poor or the homeless. Indeed, there is probably no place in the city that is zoned to permit this in any place where it is practically viable to do so (e.g. because there isn't already a building with another purpose that is not easily modified in the locations where zoning permits these uses). This situation, called exclusionary zoning, is not an accident. Unlike many Colorado municipalities, Greenwood Village was incorporated in 1950, after modern zoning practices had been widely adopted. The strategy adopted by Greenwood Village, which is similar to that of the municipality of Glendale, which is also in Arapahoe County (entirely surrounded by the City and County of Denver), is to make the city attractive for businesses and high end housing by building up a large tax base highly regulated by an urban planning regime that the is joint effort of large tract real estate developers and city planners, while keeping the cost of municipal services (and hence tax rates), low. Colorado's tax policy encourages this strategy. Colorado taxes business real estate at a much higher rate for property of the same fair market value than homes, due to something called the Gallagher Amendment to Colorado's state constitution. Businesses also generate sales tax income and other tax revenue streams that residential development does not. But, in practice, office space uses demand very little in the way of municipal services, and other commercial uses and high end residential housing generates less of a demand for municipal services than middle class to low income housing. Exclusionary zoning is a practice that courts, civil rights lawyers, constitutional scholars and academics distrust, but it is not illegal or unconstitutional per se. Nothing under Colorado or federal law

25, 2018 Categories NewsLeave a comment on CORE SWX EXPANDS THE HYPERCORE BATTERY SERIES WITH NEW HYPERCORE XL CORE SWX BRAVES THE HEAT IN CHAD ON A MISSION TO HELP RESTORE THE BLACK RHINO POPULATION Company's Hypercore 9 Mini Battery Used with RED EPIC-W Camera for National Geographic Documentary REPUBLIC OF CHAD, AFRICA, JUNE 26, 2018 – As part of a continent-wide mission to restore wildlife and wild places, six black rhinoceroses were recently flown from South Africa to Zakouma National Park in Chad, where the threatened animal has not roamed in nearly five decades. The expedition was captured by Wildlife Cameramen Alexander Braczkowski and Steve Winter, supported by Core SWX, a leader in battery and charging solutions, for a forthcoming National Geographic documentary that will appear online. The pair were also filming on behalf of the African Parks, a conservation NGO that has managed Zakouma National Park since 2010 on behalf of the Chadian Government. The organization, which currently manages 15 parks in nine countries, has undertaken similar reintroductions and translocations, most recently lions to Malawi, rhinos to Rwanda and 520 elephants to a new home in Malawi. This rhino reintroduction was particularly historic in expanding the rhinos range to an area once devastated by poaching, but in the last eight years has recovered. The organization relied on Braczkowski and Winter to document the recent rhino relocation. For ease of filming in the field – which requires fast response – and ability to travel, the pair turned to Core SWX's Hypercore 9 (HC9) Mini batteries, which they used in conjunction with the RED EPIC-W Camera. "These batteries are incredibly small, which provides us with an added practicality that is necessary for handheld filming styles," explains Braczkowski. "I can't tell you how helpful the Core Minis were in reducing the payload of our camera system while we were filming from the Jeep or jumping out to capture on the fly." This feature was especially useful during a day of shooting when the team encountered a herd of 15 elephants just a short distance from the vehicles. Though the animals typically appear in the area each day, to water themselves, the sheer number was more than expected – and the videographers knew they must capture the footage. "Knowing that I could run those batteries for upwards of 70 minutes each, without major fluctuations was incredibly important," continues Braczkowski. "Further, I knew that the battery wasn't going to fail on me in the extremely hot weather, upwards of 113 degrees Fahrenheit, maybe more. This ruggedness is vital to a project of this nature, because this is once in a lifetime footage we're collecting." With travel becoming more and more difficult due to restrictions on battery sizes, the pair turned to the HC9 Mini battery for its travel compliancy. "We used Core products because of the ease of use and safety during our flight, as we are able to legally fly with them as part of our carry-on luggage," says Braczkowski. "We needed to get to the field to set up and start shooting very quickly, so we took a chance on these batteries. We were so impressed with all its features that Steve [Winter] is already planning to use them for his next National Geographic project." At only 1.4 lbs. (861.8 g.) and 3.54 in. x 4.65 in. x 1.90 in. (.09 m. x .12 m. x .05 m.), the HC9 Mini is the perfect complement for mobile camera setups. The HC9 Mini's battery cells are incased in an over-molded, rubberized housing, providing additional protection against accidental impacts that may occur when operating in rugged conditions. Its trio of options – the V-mount, RED-specific and Gold Mount, which is compatible with Anton/Bauer® chargers – make it ideal for any established videographer to incorporate into their existing kits. The HC9 Mini is a 98wh (14.8v) battery with a 12A load. With the latest in Lithium Ion technology, the battery also comes with an LED backlit runtime LCD on the front of the battery pack that lets users know how much battery time is left when in use and indicates remaining charge time while connected to a charger. The RED-specific version can communicate directly with a RED camera's LCD/VF. Author Core SWXPosted on June 26, 2018 June 27, 2018 Categories NewsLeave a comment on CORE SWX BRAVES THE HEAT IN CHAD ON A MISSION TO HELP RESTORE THE BLACK RHINO POPULATION CORE SWX BATTERIES INCREASE CYCLE RATINGS TO 2,000 Nano98, HCS-98 and HC9 Mini Batteries Return Impressive Cycle Ratings PLAINVIEW, NY, MAY 30, 2018 ─ Core SWX, a leader in battery and charging solutions, announces the cycle ratings of its Nano98, Hypercore Slim 98 (HCS-98) and Hypercore 9 (HC9) Mini battery packs have all doubled, allowing for 2,000 cycles. Core is the only battery manufacturer in today's market delivering results of this scale. Battery cells naturally age, which results in a gradual reduction in capacity over time. Core SWX's proprietary battery management firmware assures the cells employed are always balanced and at an optimal state to withstand continuous operation for extended periods of time while maintaining service life. With an increased cycle rating, Core is providing its customers with a greater return on investment. "Every time we design a new battery or series, the cells are tested thoroughly for six months to a year, prior to release, to ensure exemplary quality and performance," says Ross Kanarek, CEO, Core SWX. "After a year in the market, these pack series are delivering results to give us the confidence to increase this rating." Along with a high cycle rating, Core battery packs are some of the few available in the industry that keep cycle count for better inventory management and to better track the life cycle of the battery. Cycle count is calculated based on the use of all the battery's power. By tracking this information, Core products allow production and rental companies, broadcast stations and owner/operators to more closely monitor the battery usage and ROI. "The goal is to provide our client base with the best user experience and the highest return on investment, consistent with the finest packs in the industry. Core is proud to say that we are producing battery packs of such high quality," says Kanarek. "Our customers are investing in products that have proven their worth." This cycle rating is inclusive to battery packs purchased within the past year. Check out these battery packs along with other advanced Core SWX power solutions at Cine Gear Expo 2018 (Booth 32). Author Core SWXPosted on May 30, 2018 May 30, 2018 Categories NewsLeave a comment on CORE SWX BATTERIES INCREASE CYCLE RATINGS TO 2,000 CORE SWX KEEPS THE CAMERAS ROLLING FOR SONY PLAYSTATION COMMERCIAL SHOOTS Hypercore Solutions Provide Long-Lasting Power for Veteran DP Kevin Otterness CHICAGO, APRIL 25, 2018 – Kevin Otterness has spent the past 25 years honing his craft and building a reputation as one of the industries most respected cinematographers and directors of photography (DP). Otterness understands the importance of working with reliable equipment that can handle the extremely long hours and grueling production schedule that comes with the job. On four recent commercial shoots for Sony Playstation, he relied on a selection of equipment from Core SWX, a leader in battery and charging solutions, to ensure the cameras stayed powered and rolling. Otterness began using Core SWX products about five years ago after having ongoing issues with other manufacturers' batteries. He kept having complications including V-Mount release buttons breaking off and batteries not holding their power over time. Otterness knew he needed to invest in a reliable power solution, which is when he discovered Core SWX. Over the last four years, he has been building up his Core product inventory, which now includes the Core Fleet-Q4S Charger V-Mount, V-Mount HotSwap for RED, Hypercore 98 RED

& Services Committee. Respected Professional Colleagues, I once again express my thanks and gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the Central Council. I feel privileged for being given the opportunity to head the Members INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIAMEMBERS LOGINFORMSGUIDELINES/CIRCULARSPRACTISING MEMBERSONLINE MEMBERSHIP THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Communiqué from the Chairman, Members' Facilities & Services Committee. Respected Professional Colleagues, I once again express my thanks and gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the Central Council. I feel privileged for being given the opportunity to head the Members INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Extension of time for CEP Credit Hours for renewal of Certificate of Practice (COP) for the year 2021-2022. Mandatory Capacity Building Training (MCBT) for renewal of CoP. Advisory for Renewal of Certificate of Practice 2021-22. New admission to Associateship and advancement to Fellowship w.e.f. 09 th February, 2021. INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA 02/06/2021. "Blockchain Technology and Management Accountants". BENGALURU CHAPTER, Webinar through online "CMA Bhawan", No.81, Mallikarjuna Temple Street, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru - 560 004. 2. 04/06/2021. 04/06/2021. Pre-Packaged Insolvency Resolution Process for MSME - Role of Cost Accountants. EASTERN, THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Communiqué from the Chairman, Members' Facilities & Services Committee. Respected Professional Colleagues, I once again express my thanks and gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the Central Council. I feel privileged for being given the opportunity to head the Members INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Welcome to Online Student Registration System. Students admitted / registered / enrolled to Foundation / Intermediate / Final course at least 4 months prior to the month of Examination shall be eligible to appear in the Foundation / Intermediate / Final Examination *. INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Enrollment. Enrollment to Associate and Fellow Membership. A person who has passed the Final Examination of the Institute and who has obtained for a period of not less than three years of practical experience covering different branches of Costing or Industrial Accounting viz. stores, materials, THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) H.Q: 12 Sudder Street, Kolkata – 700 016 INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA 02/06/2021. "Blockchain Technology and Management Accountants". BENGALURU CHAPTER, Webinar through online "CMA Bhawan", No.81, Mallikarjuna Temple Street, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru - 560 004. 2. 04/06/2021. 04/06/2021. Pre-Packaged Insolvency Resolution Process for MSME - Role of Cost Accountants. EASTERN, INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) Home; Members. Professional Avenues; Enroll as THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA User name (11 Digit Registration No.): Password (Date of birth): Password Example :- Date of birth : 02/07/1980 Password(Date of birth) THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Communiqué from the Chairman, Members' Facilities & Services Committee. Respected Professional Colleagues, I once again express my thanks and gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the Central Council. I feel privileged for being given the opportunity to head the Members THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) H.Q: 12 Sudder Street, Kolkata – 700 016 Delhi Office: 3, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) H.Q: 12 Sudder Street, Kolkata – 700 016 INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA 02/06/2021. "Blockchain Technology and Management Accountants". BENGALURU CHAPTER, Webinar through online "CMA Bhawan", No.81, Mallikarjuna Temple Street, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru - 560 004. 2. 04/06/2021. 04/06/2021. Pre-Packaged Insolvency Resolution Process for MSME - Role of Cost Accountants. EASTERN, INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) Home; Members. Professional Avenues; Enroll as THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) H.Q: 12 Sudder Street, Kolkata – 700 016 Delhi Office: 3, Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Extension of time for CEP Credit Hours for renewal of Certificate of Practice (COP) for the year 2021-2022. Mandatory Capacity Building Training (MCBT) for renewal of CoP. Advisory for Renewal of Certificate of Practice 2021-22. New admission to Associateship and advancement to Fellowship w.e.f. 09 th February, 2021. INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) Welcome to Online Student Registration System. Students admitted / registered / enrolled to Foundation / Intermediate / Final course at least 4 months prior to the month of Examination shall be eligible to appear in the Foundation / Intermediate / Final THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Communiqué from the Chairman, Members' Facilities & Services Committee. Respected Professional Colleagues, I once again express my thanks and gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the Central Council. I feel privileged for being given the opportunity to head the Members THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Timing -10: 00 am to 1: 00 pm. Extension of time granted to undergo MCBT upto 31st December, 2021 (For COP taken during the period 1st February, 2019 to 31st March, 2021). Please Click Here. Behind Every Successful Business Decision, There is always a CMA. ©2018 The Institute of Cost Accountants of INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA Institute of Cost Accountants of India. Enrollment. Enrollment to Associate and Fellow Membership. A person who has passed the Final Examination of the Institute and who has obtained for a period of not less than three years of practical experience covering different branches of Costing or Industrial Accounting viz. stores, materials, LOGIN PAGE - EICMAI.IN Login Page Instructions for Filing Online Practical Training / Exemption Forms . Download Training Form. Form T1 Intimation for Engagement of CMA Students as Trainees (for PCMA/ Firm of PCMA ). LIST OF MEMBERS HOLDING CERTIFICATE OF PRACTICE list of members holding certificate of practice (as on 1st april, 2020) the institute of cost accountants of india (statutory body under an act of p arliament) cma bhawan, 12, sudder street, kolkata - 700 Disclaimer. The suggested answers are indicative only and not exhaustive. These are only guidelines, not to be constructed as complete answers. The students are expected to apply their knowledge and not to blindly follow the reply given in the suggested answer. GUIDANCE NOTE ON INTERNAL AUDIT OF TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY The Institute of Cost Accountants of India Guidance Note on Internal Audit of Telecommunication Industry Page 2 a) Audit schedule: The audit schedule is a program to chalk out a timetable after discussions with the auditee before taking up an internal audit and identify the functions/ areas in the INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIAMEMBERS LOGINFORMSGUIDELINES/CIRCULARSPRACTISING MEMBERSONLINE MEMBERSHIP Extension of time for CEP Credit Hours for renewal of Certificate of Practice (COP) for the year 2021-2022. Mandatory Capacity Building Training (MCBT) for renewal of CoP. Advisory for Renewal of Certificate of Practice 2021-22. New admission to Associateship and advancement to Fellowship w.e.f. 09 th February, 2021. THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA The Institute of Cost Accountants of India (Statutory body under an Act of Parliament) H.Q: 12 Sudder Street, Kolkata – 700 016 THE INSTITUTE OF COST ACCOUNTANTS OF INDIA User name (11

corrections to be made or the corrections are extensive c. when a low-stock situation occurs and minor corrections are made d. every two years to update the magnetic variation information 2538: The light characteristic of composite group flashing (2 + 1) is used in the Aids to Navigation System on the Western Rivers for lights on __________. c. preferred-channel buoys 2539: Under the IALA cardinal system, a mark with quick white light showing 3 flashes every 10 seconds indicates that the safest water in the area is on the __________. 2540: The distance between any two meridians measured along a parallel of latitude and expressed in miles is the __________. a. difference in longitude b. mid-longitude c. departure d. meridian angle 2542: Which magnetic compass corrector(s) CANNOT be set while the vessel is on a heading of magnetic north or magnetic south? a. Athwartships magnets d. All of the above can be set on magnetic north or magnetic south headings. 2544: At McAlpine L & D, normal upper pool elevation is 420.0 feet MSL, equal to 12.0 feet on the upper gage. The vertical clearance at the Clark Memorial Highway bridge is 72.6 feet above normal pool. What is the clearance if the gage reads 27.2 feet? a. 25.4 feet 2546: A structure, usually made of stone, or cement pilings, which extends from the bank at approximately right angles to the current is called a __________. a. dike b. revetment d. crib 2548: On the Mississippi River, gage zero is the gage reading measured from the __________. a. National Geodetic Vertical Datum b. low water reference plane c. the lowest recorded river depth d. the highest recorded river depth 2560: A plane that cuts the Earth's surface at any angle and passes through the center will always form __________. a. the equator b. a great circle c. a small circle d. a meridian a. the GHA of the Sun is approximately 330° b. your date is one day later than the date at Greenwich c. the LHA of the Sun is approximately 120° d. you are in west longitude 2566: When the time is based on the movement of the visible Sun along the ecliptic the time is known as __________. a. real time b. visible time c. apparent time d. mean time b. a wreck to be left on the vessel's starboard side d. the port side of the channel 2569: The mean sun used to measure time moves __________. a. along the ecliptic at 15° per hour b. along the celestial equator at 15° per day c. along the ecliptic at 15° per day d. along the celestial equator at 15° per hour 2570: A plane that cuts the Earth's surface and passes through the poles will always form __________. b. a loxodromic curve 2572: The dividing meridian between zone descriptions -4 and -5 is __________. a. 60°00'E b. 67°30'E b. 11 min. 28 sec. c. 11 min. 56 sec. d. 12 min. 18 sec. 2576: What is the equivalent of 8 min. 56 sec. in arc units? 2579: A phase correction may be applicable to correct the sextant altitude correction of __________. a. any star b. the Sun c. third magnitude stars only d. some planets 2580: The angle at the pole measured through 180°From the prime meridian to the meridian of a point is known as __________. a. the departure b. the polar arc c. longitude d. Greenwich hour angle 2582: You must construct a Mercator plotting sheet on a piece of paper measuring 32" by 36". The area includes latitude 31°S to 37°S and longitude 005°W to 002°E. Allow a three-quarter inch neat line on all sides. What is the maximum distance between each degree of longitude that will permit the area of the plotting sheet to be drawn within the stated limitations? 2583: You are in the Northern Hemisphere and a tropical wave is located 200 miles due west of your position. Where will the wave be located 24 hours later? a. In the same place b. Closer and to the west c. Closer and to the east d. Farther away to the west 2584: You must construct a Mercator plotting sheet on a piece of paper measuring 30" by 36". The area includes latitude 30°45'S to 37°15'S and longitude 004°00'E to 005°00'W. Allow a one inch neat line on all sides. What is the maximum distance between each degree of longitude that will permit the area of the plotting sheet to be drawn within the stated limitation? 2586: A chart has extensive corrections to be made to it. When these are made and the chart is again printed, the chart issue is a __________. a. first edition b. new edition c. revised edition d. reprint 2587: Given are the courses and speeds of 4 vessels. The navigator of which vessel would be required to know the actual time of meridian transit in order to take an accurate observation at LAN? a. C 166°T, Sp 24 knots b. C 013°T, Sp 7 knots c. C 291°T, Sp 25 knots d. C 112°T, Sp 4 knots 2588: You are approaching an open drawbridge and sound the proper signal. You receive no acknowledgment from the bridge. Which action should you take? a. Approach with caution and proceed through the open draw. b. Approach under full control to a position no closer than 400 yards from the bridge and await a signal from the bridge. c. Hold in the channel as a vessel is closing the bridge from the other direction. d. Resound the opening signal and do not pass through the bridge until signals have been exchanged. 2589: Under the IALA cardinal system, a mark with a quick white light showing 6 flashes followed by one long flash indicates that the safest water is on the __________. 2590: A plane perpendicular to the polar axis will never form what line on the Earth's surface? a. Great circle b. Equator c. Small circle d. Meridian 2592: A deadhead is a(n) __________. a. tree or log awash in a nearly vertical position b. crew member who refuses to work c. upstream end of a land wall d. buoy that is adrift 2594: At McAlpine L & D, normal upper pool elevation is 420.0 feet (130.8 meters) MSL, equal to 12.0 feet (3.7 meters) on the upper gage. The vertical clearance at the Clark Memorial Highway bridge is 72.6 feet (22.1 meters) above normal pool. What is the clearance if the gage reads 10.6 feet (3.2 meters)? a. 84.6 feet (25.8 meters) b. 83.2 feet (25.4 meters) c. 74.0 feet (22.6 meters) d. 62.0 feet (18.9 meters) 2596: The abbreviation L.W.R.P. on the navigation maps means __________. a. low water reference plane b. low winter runoff point c. least water river plane d. land wall reference point 2598: A vessel is proceeding downstream in a narrow channel on the Western Rivers when another vessel is sighted moving upstream. Which vessel has the right of way? a. The vessel moving upstream against the current b. The vessel moving downstream with a following current c. The vessel located more towards the channel centerline d. The vessel with the least amount of maneuverability 2600: A parallel of latitude other than the equator is a __________. b. loxodromic curve d. gnomonic curve 2602: The lunar day is also known as the __________. a. lunitidal interval b. vulgar establishment of the port c. nodal day d. tidal day 2604: A sidereal day is approximately how much shorter than a solar day? a. 4 minutes b. 8 minutes 2606: The measurement of local time is based on the passage of the Sun over the __________. a. upper branch of the observer's meridian b. lower branch of the observer's meridian c. upper branch of the Greenwich meridian d. lower branch of the Greenwich meridian c. from every fix or running fix 2609: The letter A in illustration D006NG represents the __________. (D006NG ) 2610: A line on the Earth parallel to the equator is a __________. a. gnomonic curve b. small circle c. meridian d. great circle a. 112°30'E b. 118°30'E c. 120°00'E 2618: You must draw a plotting sheet covering latitudes 38°N to 43°N and longitudes 179°E to 178°W. If the distance between each degree of longitude is 5 inches, what is the distance between latitude 38°N and latitude 43°N? a. 29.0 inches b. 29.6 inches c. 32.1 inches d. 32.8 inches 2619: In low latitudes, a first quarter Moon will always rise at about __________. 2620: The navigator is

InicioFirst certificateConsejos sobre el First Cambridge reading and use of English. Lección 21. Curso FCE Lección 21 – Consejos sobre el First Cambridge reading and use of English. En esta lección tú puedes escuchar a un profesor habla del First Cambridge reading and Use of English con consejos para ayudarte en la preparación del examen con prefixes and suffixes. Un prefijo es un conjunto de letras que se agrega al comienzo de una palabra, creando así una nueva palabra con un significado diferente. Lo mismo ocurre con un sufijo, pero para un sufijo, las letras aparecen al final de la palabra. Having told Emma what to revise, Gordon decides to test Emma on her knowledge of prefixes and suffixes, which are a crucial element of the exam and have already been highlighted by Emma as one of her weaknesses. GORDON: Ok, Emma, don't feel too intimidated, but we're just going to do a mini test about some grammatical items, especially focusing on prefixes and suffixes. Ok? EMMA: Sure, let's give it a go! GORDON: Excellent, ok. So first of all, can you tell me what a prefix actually is? EMMA: Yes. A prefix is a set of letters which is added to the start of a word, thus creating a new word with a different meaning. The same goes for a suffix, but for a suffix, the letters come at the end of the word. GORDON: Ok and out of prefixes and suffixes, which is the one which is most likely to change the class of the word? For example, to change a verb to a noun or a noun to an adjective? EMMA: That would be suffixes, right? I'm guessing that because I know you can add '-LY' to the end of an adjective to make it an adverb. GORDON: Very good, Emma! So let me just test you a little. If I give you the adjective 'different', what would you add to the end of this word to form the verb which means 'to make something different'? Would you add -ise, -iate, -fy, or -en? EMMA: Um, would it be -ise? GORDON: That's incorrect, sorry… The right answer would be -iate: "differentiate" is the verb we use to express that we are making something different. Ok, here is another one. If I give you the verb "advertise", what would you add to create the noun which is the result of the verb? Would you add -ment, -ant, -er, or -sion? EMMA: I would say -er: "advertiser"? GORDON: That's not right either unfortunately… However, "advertiser" is a word but it is "advertisement": which is the result of the verb "to advertise". When I say "result", I mean that if someone advertises something, the end product which they are advertising is the "advertisement". Do you see? But an "advertiser" is the person who carries out the act of the verb. As a common rule for verb to noun suffixes, we either add -tion,-age, -ment, -sion, -al, -ence, -ance, -ery, or -ry at the end of the verb, to change it to the noun, which is the action or result of this verb. In addition, we add -er, -ant, or -ent to the verb to create the noun which describes the person doing this verb. And moreover we add -ship, -ity, -ness, or -cy to express a state of being. Now let's focus on the change from nouns to adjective! The most common suffixes for adjectives are -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less and -able. Out of these, which would you add to the noun 'drink' to create the adjective which means something which people are able to drink? EMMA: Um, that's a tricky one. Well, I doubt it will be "-less" because this usually has a negative connotation rather than the affirmative one you have presented to me. What about "-able"? Because people are able to drink it. Yes, that sounds right. Is it the word "drinkable"? GORDON: Absolutely! Well done! You worked that out well. Now, let's have a look at prefixes! So, the most common prefixes in English are re-, dis-, over-, un-, mis- and out-. If I give you the verb 'visit', which prefix out of these would you add to the start of the word to convey the meaning of visiting something again? EMMA: I think that if you are doing something again, you use the prefix re-, don't you? So, "revisit"? GORDON: Exactly! So, if I give you the verb "appear", which prefix would you add to convey the completely opposite meaning? EMMA: Would it be "un-"? "over-" means to do something too much. "mis-" means to do something badly or wrongly. "out-" means to do more or better than others. As you'll have noticed, the prefixes added haven't changed the verb from word class to another like suffixes have the ability to do, but they have just changed the meaning in a significant way. How do you feel about prefixes and suffixes now Emma? EMMA: Better, thank you for your help! Diálogo 21: Consejos para First Cambridge, Prefijos y sufijos. Después de haberle dicho a Emma qué revisar, Gordon decide poner a prueba a Emma sobre su conocimiento de prefijos y sufijos, que son un elemento crucial del examen y que Emma ya ha señalado como una de sus debilidades. GORDON: De acuerdo, Emma, ​​no te sientas demasiado intimidada, pero vamos a hacer una mini prueba sobre algunos elementos gramaticales, especialmente centrándonos en prefijos y sufijos. ¿Okay? EMMA: ¡Claro, vamos a intentarlo! GORDON: Excelente, está bien. Entonces, antes que nada, ¿puedes decirme qué es realmente un prefijo? EMMA: Sí. Un prefijo es un conjunto de letras que se agregan al comienzo de una palabra, creando así una nueva palabra con un significado diferente. Lo mismo ocurre con un sufijo, pero para un sufijo, las letras aparecen al final de la palabra. GORDON: Bien y de los prefijos y sufijos, ¿cuál es el que tiene más probabilidades de cambiar la clase de la palabra? Por ejemplo, para cambiar un verbo por un sustantivo o un sustantivo por un adjetivo? EMMA: Eso serían sufijos, ¿verdad? Supongo que porque sé que puedes agregar '-LY' al final de un adjetivo para que sea un adverbio. GORDON: ¡Muy bien, Emma! Déjame ponerte a prueba un poco. Si te doy el adjetivo 'diferente', ¿qué agregarías al final de esta palabra para formar el verbo que significa 'hacer algo diferente'? ¿Agregarías -ise, -iate, -fy o -en? GORDON: Eso es incorrecto, lo siento… La respuesta correcta sería -iate: "differentiate" es el verbo que usamos para expresar que estamos haciendo algo diferente. Vale, aquí hay otro. Si te doy el verbo "anunciar", ¿qué agregarías para crear el sustantivo que es el resultado del verbo? ¿Podrías agregar -ment, -ant, -er o -sion? GORDON: Desafortunadamente, eso tampoco está bien… Sin embargo, "publicista" es una palabra pero es "publicidad": que es el resultado del verbo "publicitar". Cuando digo "resultado", quiero decir que si alguien anuncia algo, el producto final que anuncia es el "anuncio". ¿Lo ves? Pero un "anunciante" es la persona que lleva a cabo el acto del verbo. Como regla común para sufijos de verbo a sustantivo, agregamos -tion, -age, -ment, -sion, -al, -ence, -ance, -ery o -ry al final del verbo, para cambiarlo al sustantivo, que es la acción o el resultado de este verbo. Además, agregamos -er, -ant o -ent al verbo para crear el nombre que describe a la persona que hace este verbo. Y además, agregamos -ship, -ity, -ness o -cy para expresar un estado del ser. ¡Ahora centrémonos en el cambio de sustantivos a adjetivo! Los sufijos más comunes para los adjetivos son -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less y -able. De estos, ¿cuál agregarías al sustantivo 'bebida' para crear el adjetivo que significa algo que la gente puede beber? EMMA: Um, eso es complicado. Bueno, dudo que sea "inútil" porque eso generalmente tiene una connotación negativa en lugar de la afirmativa que

There are many expenses in life we just have to deal with, and the price of gas is one of them. Watching the price per gallon can feel like a roller coaster ride with the way it spikes up and slide down. With these ways to save on gas though you don't have to feel that you have no control over the amount you spend at the pump. Gas prices fluctuate a lot. I'm very happy that we're not hovering around $4.00 a gallon any more, but even with our current prices a fill-up can get costly. That is why several years back I took the time to research how to save on gas. Getting more miles per gallon isn't all that difficult. It might just mean modifying how you do some things. As busy moms we're all rushing from one place to another, but driving too fast to get to our next place on time can cost a lot more than a speeding ticket. According to www.fueleconomy.gov you can expect to pay an extra $0.25 per gallon for every 5 mph that you drive over 50 mph. That means that you'll pay an extra dollar per gallon if you just drive at the posted highway speed limit of 70 mph. Multiply that by the number of gallons your tank holds and you'll see just how much money you're adding every time you fill up. Of course driving 50 mph on the highway just to save money isn't always the best idea. It's far more important for your safety to drive with traffic, so find a safe speed between flying and being pushed down the road. We've all been on the highway at some point dealing with a driver that is driving steady by jerks. The one that speeds by you, only to then slow down in front of you, so you pass them and the cycle repeats. Driving this way is not only annoying, but it's a big waste of gas. Speeding up and slowing down plays havoc with your gas use, but you can prevent that by setting your cruise control. For me it doesn't matter whether I'm driving on city roads or the highway. If I'm driving at least 45 mph I'll put the cruise on. I must say that I have been able see significant improvement with my gas use with this trick. One thing I hate doing is going to get my oil changed. I always feel like the techs working give me grief when I'm there because I'm a female. Even though it's a task I hate I still make sure I do it because regular car maintenance is important not only for the life of your car but also for keeping your gas costs down. You want to make sure that you get your cars oil changed every 5,000 miles. You also want to make sure that you keep your tires inflated and that you change the air filter periodically. Another important thing is to make sure that you clean your car out often. The heavier your car is the more gas you'll use. So when mommy brain takes over and you leave the new cat litter in the trunk for a week like I did last month you're costing yourself money. Luckily for me it was lightweight litter so it didn't add much weight! A dog may be man's best friend, but I swear a drive-through is a mom's best friend. Whether it was because Nick was a sick baby, had fallen asleep, or I just didn't want to deal with the hassle of getting him in and out his car seat, I have never been as grateful for drive-throughs as I have since becoming a mom. Sadly though using the drive-through can cost you a lot of money in gas. When you can it's far better to park the car and go in instead of using the drive-through. Also, if you get stuck at a long red light, or in stopped traffic, you'll save on gas by putting your car in park. Just make sure that you're paying attention to when traffic starts again. Once you live somewhere long enough you start to notice things such as what gas stations often have lower gas prices. It doesn't always work out that way, but if you need gas it's a good idea to head towards the cheaper spots. Club stores such as Sam's Club commonly have lower gas prices, and I know ours doesn't rush to raise their prices. Many grocery stores such as Kroger also offer fuel rewards. With Kroger you get an automatic three cents per gallon off on every fill up and making purchases at Kroger can help you earn even more money off each gallon. Many gas stations now offer their own reward programs as well. My favorite right now is the Shell Fuel Rewards Program. Everyone automatically starts off in the Gold Status program which gives you five cents off per gallon at each fill up for your first 3 months in the program. After that you can maintain that status by filling up 6 times (with 5 gallons or more) during a 3 month period. If you don't do that then you drop to the Silver Status which gives you three cents off per gallon. There are also ways that you can earn more money off such as shopping online, or using a linked credit card while dining out. It really is a great program. It actually saved us a lot of money on our vacation to Walt Disney World over the summer. Something else to consider is what station has the best gas. For example, I used to find I could go a lot farther on one tank of gas when I filled up at BP. Their Invigorate gas is pretty great. The BP near my house now usually has much higher gas prices though so it's no longer my best choice. This is one of my best tips to not only save on gas, but for time management as well. Whenever you can plan out your errands for the day and the most fuel efficient way to get to them. For example, when Nick was in daycare we would hit the grocery store on the way home to save me an additional trip. Even better, if you can, plan one day a week to run all your errands to save trips back and forth. Another idea is to run errands while your kids are busy at scheduled activities (if you're able to leave them there). There are lots of ways to combine trips and activities to help save on gas. This is actually my least favorite tip. Still other people remark on it all the time, so I felt I should add it. Many people say that the best day of the week to buy gas is on Wednesday. The theory for this being that gas usually goes up in price on Thursday in preparation for the weekend. I've watched for this one, and I haven't found it to be true, but maybe it's just my area. That being said, I do recommend paying attention to things such as hurricanes and big holidays. These type of events often cause gas prices to go up, so it would be good to fill up ahead of them. While you may have a good idea of where the lowest gas prices are it's hard to know for sure. There are a lot of great apps out there though that can help you figure it out. Gas Buddy is a popular and well liked app and it's free. Check it out here on Amazon, or here for iOS. I don't know one busy mom that doesn't feel like she's driving

process of concentration of capital and the formation of monopolies in all capitalist countries, notwithstanding all the differences in their banking laws. The banking system "possesses, indeed, the form of universal book-keeping and distribution of means of production on a social scale, but solely the form", wrote Marx in Capital half a century ago (Russ. trans., Vol. III, part II, p. 144). The figures we have quoted on the growth of bank capital, on the increase in the number of the branches and offices of the biggest banks, the increase in the number of their accounts, etc., present a concrete picture of this "universal book-keeping" of the whole capitalist class; and not only of the capitalists, for the banks collect, even though temporarily, all kinds of money revenues—of small businessmen, office clerks, and of a tiny upper stratum of the working class. "Universal distribution of means of production"—that, from the formal aspect, is what grows out of the modern banks, which, numbering some three to six of the biggest in France, and six to eight in Germany, control millions and millions. In substance, however, the distribution of means of production is not at all "universal", but private, i.e., it conforms to the interests of big capital, and primarily, of huge, monopoly capital, which operates under conditions in which the masses live in want, in which the whole development of agriculture hopelessly lags behind the development of industry, while within industry itself the "heavy industries" exact tribute from all other branches of industry.[6]" Peter Mertens is silent about a THIRD (also more QUALITATIVE) aspect of imperialism: the NECCESSITY (and NOT just "a possible choice"...) of developing COLONIALISM..... and in a world that is already divided we should talk about continuously RE-affirm a new division of the world, based on colonialism.... Just a quote of Lenin about this, a quote that Peter Mertens would never chose..... "Alongside the colonial possessions of the Great Powers, we have placed the small colonies of the small states, which are, so to speak, the next objects of a possible and probable "re-division" of colonies. These small states mostly retain their colonies only because the big powers are torn by conflicting interests, friction, etc., which prevent them from coming to an agreement on the division of the spoils. As to the "semi-colonial" states, they provide an example of the transitional forms which are to be found in all spheres of nature and society. Finance capital is such a great, such a decisive, you might say, force in all economic and in all international relations, that it is capable of subjecting, and actually does subject, to itself even states enjoying the fullest political independence; we shall shortly see examples of this. Of course, finance capital finds most "convenient", and derives the greatest profit from, a form of subjection which involves the loss of the political independence of the subjected countries and peoples. In this respect, the semi-colonial countries provide a typical example of the "middle stage". It is natural that the struggle for these semi-dependent countries should have become particularly bitter in the epoch of finance capital, when the rest of the world has already been divided up. Colonial policy and imperialism existed before the latest stage of capitalism, and even before capitalism. Rome, founded on slavery, pursued a colonial policy and practised imperialism. But "general" disquisitions on imperialism, which ignore, or put into the background, the fundamental difference between socio-economic formations, inevitably turn into the most vapid banality or bragging, like the comparison: "Greater Rome and Greater Britain."[7] Even the capitalist colonial policy of previous stages of capitalism is essentially different from the colonial policy of finance capital. The principal feature of the latest stage of capitalism is the domination of monopolist associations of big employers. These monopolies are most firmly established when all the sources of raw materials are captured by one group, and we have seen with what zeal the international capitalist associations exert every effort to deprive their rivals of all opportunity of competing, to buy up, for example, iron-fields, oilfields, etc. Colonial possession alone gives the monopolies complete guarantee against all contingencies in the struggle against competitors, including the case of the adversary wanting to be protected by a law establishing a state monopoly. The more capitalism is developed, the more strongly the shortage of raw materials is felt, the more intense the competition and the hunt for sources of raw materials throughout the whole world, the more desperate the struggle for the acquisition of colonies."[8] (Emphasising by me – Nico) ....and here is not meant, the official recognised "colonies" that existed in the stage of capitalism BEFORE becoming imperialism, so countering already a possible reaction about the so-called "decolonisation" after the Second WW.... as I will illustrate by a second quote from Lenin about the phenomena of colonisation linked to imperialism. "The non-economic superstructure which grows up on the basis of finance capital, its politics and its ideology, stimulates the striving for colonial conquest. "Finance capital does not want liberty, it wants domination," as Hilferding very truly says. And a French bourgeois writer, developing and supplementing, as it were, the ideas of Cecil Rhodes quoted above,[9] writes that social causes should be added to the economic causes of modern colonial policy: "Owing to the growing complexities of life and the difficulties which weigh not only on the masses of the workers, but also on the middle classes, 'impatience, irritation and hatred are accumulating in all the countries of the old civilisation and are becoming a menace to public order; the energy which is being hurled out of the definite class channel must be given employment abroad in order to avert an explosion at home'."[10] Since we are speaking of colonial policy in the epoch of capitalist imperialism, it must be observed that finance capital and its foreign policy, which is the struggle of the great powers for the economic and political division of the world, give rise to a number of transitional forms of state dependence. Not only are the two main groups of countries, those owning colonies, and the colonies themselves, but also the diverse forms of dependent countries which, politically, are formally independent, but in fact, are enmeshed in the net of financial and diplomatic dependence, typical of this epoch. We have already referred to one form of dependence—the semi-colony."[11] I think that I have now given enough arguments to prove that Peter Mertens in his by dogmatism influenced analyse of imperialism led his public to a rather limited determination of what is the actual working class. And by a chosen quote out of "Imperialism,...." he want to give his analyse a "anti-imperialist" character without really analyse what are the real qualitative characteristics of imperialism that differs from capitalism noticed and analysed by Marx, in HIS time. The REASONS of Peter Mertens of doing this are similar to those of Kautsky, against whom Lenin argued in his book "Imperialism,...." Again some quotes that Peter Mertens would never chose..... "Special attention has been devoted in this pamphlet to a criticism of Kautskyism, the international ideological trend represented in all countries of the world by the "most prominent theoreticians", the leaders of the Second International (Otto Bauer and Co. in Austria, Ramsay MacDonald and others in Britain, Albert Thomas in France, etc., etc.) and a multitude of socialists, reformists, pacifists, bourgeois democrats and parsons. This ideological trend is, on the one hand, a product of the disintegration and decay of the Second International, and, on the other hand, the inevitable fruit of the ideology of the petty bourgeoisie, whose entire way of life holds them captive to bourgeois and democratic prejudices. The views held by Kautsky and his like are a complete renunciation of those same

essentially moribund inside Libya since Gaddafi's regime launched a repression campaign against it in the late 1990s." In Bosnia and Kosovo the Clinton administration only paid attention to terrorist Islamic networks by working towards "similar objectives" and maintaining channels which were distant, however, it is hard to keep this channel too distant when America and other nations allowed nations like Iran to violate the UN military arms embargo. Also, thousands of Islamists from nations like Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, and homegrown Islamists in the United Kingdom, were given the green light to enter and somehow escape all those national security passport agencies. Not only this, the Bosnian Muslim government was issuing passports to Islamic terrorists and clearly the Clinton administration understood the "Islamic rat lines." Steven Emerson continues by commenting that "In February 2006, the Treasury Department announced it was formally designating four organizations and five individuals as financial supporters of the LIFG, "an al Qaida affiliate known for engaging in terrorist activity in Libya and cooperating with al Qaida worldwide." Patrick O'Brien, assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, said the LIFG "threatens global safety and stability through the use of violence and its ideological alliance with al Qaida." The current situation in Libya is complex and how do you keep Islamists out of the opposition and how do you unite an ad hoc mixture of radical Sunni Islamists, disgruntled army units, democrats, socialists, and a mixture of other forces and added to this you have regionalism and tribal based loyalties. Similarly, how can America, France, the UN, and others, support the Muslim opposition leader against the Christian leader of Laurent Gbagbo? Who is to say which side is open to democracy and greater religious freedom and what policies are in place in order to stop the bloodletting? Therefore, we have the global disgrace of UN forces and France bombing forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast and this is happening amidst a massacre of between 800 Christians to 1,000 Christians in Duekoue by mainly Muslim forces who are loyal to Alassane Ouattara. This shame applies to many democratic nations who still support Hashim Thaci and Kosovo independence. After all, Kosovo Albanians have destroyed countless numbers of Christian churches and ancient monuments after the war and more alarming the leader is being implicated with organ trafficking and other evil deeds. Vojin Joksimovich, in his article called Grisly Albanian Organ Harvesting Crimes: Is Justice Going To Be Served, comments that "In my late December essay Amorality of US Kosovo Policy: Friends with the Snake "I have published reactions to the Council of Europe (CoE) 27-page report authored by the Swiss-Italian politician, senator and prosecuting lawyer Dick Marty. The report, after his two-year investigation, claimed that the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs headed by the current Kosovo prime minister Hashim Thaci, known as the "Snake," abducted mostly Kosovo Serbs but also some Albanian so called "collaborators," transported them to northern Albania, murdered them, extracted their organs like the kidneys, and sold them on the black market. These macabre Nazi/Croatian Nazi style crimes were covered up by the leading international organizations such as the UN, NATO, OSCE as well as the governments of leading western countries. NATO's secret documents as well as an UN report have been leaked out clearly demonstrating that both of those international organizations had full knowledge of these grisly crimes and opted to cover them up in addition to several western governments, the U.S. and Germany in particular. While a EULEX investigation is being launched, it will focus on the grisly crimes committed by the Snake and his thugs but will not include an investigation of those who enabled these crimes to be covered up for over a decade. In addition, it is doubtful if EULEX is capable of conducting an all-encompassing inquiry. Hence, the most important question needs to be posed: Is the justice going to be served?" The question raised by Vojin Joksimovich is important and it also applies to the Bosnian civil war whereby Islamists from all over the world were given a free reign to slaughter Orthodox Christians. It now also applies to the massacre of Christians in the Ivory Coast where UN forces and France are in collusion with one faction over another, despite the massacre that their allies have just done. Also, like Steven Emerson warns about Libya, the situation on the ground is very complex and Islamists may fill the vacuum or just like Bosnia and Kosovo; then Islamists in Libya may be supported from a distance. Of course Bosnia, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, and Libya respectively are complex and you have no easy solutions but supporting either terrorist organizations or turning a blind eye to massacres, while continuing to support forces deemed "legitimate," can't be the answer. Also, the West may have stepped into Bosnia and helped the Muslim cause just like they supported the Turkish invasion of Cyprus or at worse allowed it to happen; but despite this some Sunni Islamists used Bosnia on their way to doing September 11 and Madrid; if this does not alarm you then you can ignore the "fog of war" in Libya but the long term consequences are still unknown apart from the fact that Al Qaida will try to fill part of the vacuum or to at least exploit the situation. Meanwhile, the debacle in Ivory Coast is shaming the name of France and the UN because nothing was done to stop the massacre of between 800 and 1,000 Christians and not only this, both France and the UN are supporting the mainly Muslim forces which did this massacre. http://moderntokyotimes.com/2011/02/21/grisly-albanian-organ-harvesting-crimes-is-justice-going-to-be-served/ – Grisly Albanian Organ Harvesting Crimes: Is Justice Going To Be Served? – By Vojin Joksimovich http://www.investigativeproject.org/2626/in-libya-an-al-qaida-ally-lurks-in-the-shadows – In Libya, an al-Qaida Ally Lurks in the Shadows – By Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism Posted in AFRICA, BALKANS, ISLAM, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment » Tags: al qaida and kosovo, al qaida and libya, alassane outtara and anti-laurent gbagbo, around 1, Bosnia and September 11, brutal civil war in ivory coast, brutal civil war in libya, christians slaughtered in Duekoue, clinton supported radical islam in the balkans, endgame for Gaddafi, fogs of war in libya, france and bombing libya, france and killing christian forces in ivory coast, Gaddafi Digs in as Libyan Violence Grows, hashim Thaci and organ trafficking, invasion of cyprus, islamic jihad in bosnia and clinton, islamic jihad in kosovo, killing christians in Bosnia, killing Christians in Kosovo, killing christians in the Ivory Coast, laurent gbagbo forces being bombed by the UN, Lee Jay Walker, madrid bombing and bosnia, massacre of 1, massacre of 800 christians in ivory coast, massacres by alassane ouatarra forces, modern tokyo times, muslim rat lines, Muslim victim card, obama and ivory coast, obama is supporting islam, persecution of orthodox christians in kosovo, persecution of shia muslims in bahrain and yemen, radical islam in Bosnia and Kosovo, radical sunni islam in libya, september 11 and bosnia, september 11 and islamic jihad in bosnia, Steven Emerson and Libya, Steven Emerson and terrorism, Steven Emerson and the Investigative Project on Terrorism, systematic persecution in Kosovo, tony blair supported hashim thaci, UN killing innocents, UN taking sides in the Ivory Coast, vojin joksimovich and kosovo, Vojin Joksimovich and terrorism ISLAMIC TERRORISM: Afghanistan to Bosnia and September 11 Lee Jay Walker – The Seoul Times The former conflict in Bosnia was manipulated by Islamic and Western media because both focused on the "innocent Muslims" and the need to protect Muslims from the forces of evil. In other words, "the forces of evil" were Christian Serbs and it was essential to protect the Muslims. However, nothing is ever that simple because a "hidden war" was happening in which radical Islamists and terrorists were allowed to travel

at home. Laura, Exeter, Devon." ("Teddy bears: Adults on their stuffed toy companions" (BBC Magazine., Published 8 February 2013), online source (Last accessed 8th February 2017), http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21367728 ) Additionally, this is also supported by the New York Times. Dr. Juliette Peers says that it was very fashionable for adult women to carry dolls in public in the early 20th century: "As dolls were becoming closely identified with medicalized norms of girls' behaviour, many adult doll-type products began production in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of these, such as the Lenci felt dolls from Italy, crossed over from adult mascot or living room decorations into the realm of children's toys. Others-such as the pinchusion dolls and porcelain dolls in the shape of hair tidies, bookends, perfume bottles, vases powder bowls, powder puffs, lamp bases and face brooches- would have been familiar items to the younger teen at least in their personal home environment and their mother's room, if not standing on the girl's dressing table o decorating her bedroom. DURING THE 1920S, IT WAS TRENDY FOR ADULT WOMEN TO CARRY DOLLS IN PUBLIC, especially in urban areas, as a fashion accessory, and perfume flasks, purses and handbags were produced with doll or teddy bear faces. The Nancy Ann Story Book Company of California produced small dolls in series that encouraged young girls to collect the whole set. The Nancy Ann Dolls crossed over from the younger to a young ADULT AUDIENCE, who regarded them a mascots and ornaments. Because the Nancy Ann dolls were extremely popular, the company had to switch to locally produced dolls when the supply sources in Axis countries became unavailable during World War II." (Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia [Claudia Mitchell, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (editors), GP – Greenwood Press, 2008] by Dr. Juliette Peers, volume 1, page 28) And here: "Collectible dolls are often given as presents to girls by doting parents and grandparents, as well as being bought as personal items by adult women." (Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia [Claudia Mitchell, Jacqueline Reid-Walsh (editors), GP – Greenwood Press, 2008] by Dr. Juliette Peers, volume 1, page 36) The above instances on dolls, show that just because one has a doll or plays with one it does not equate to the person being a child. As the above evidence has demonstrated, adult women play with dolls also. Therefore, this claim that Aisha was prepubescent for merely playing dolls is baseless, since we know that grown women in this very era play with dolls. Prepubescent or Young Women There is only one Hadith which the critics bring up to show that Mother Aisha was Prepubescent. Let us take a look, i will cut of words and focus on main point because the Hadith is very long. ………..The people who used to carry me on the camel, came to my Howdah and put it on the back of the camel, thinking that I was in it, as, at that time, women were light in weight, and thin and lean, and did not use to eat much. So, those people did not feel the difference in the heaviness of the Howdah while lifting it, and they put it over the camel. At that time I was a young lady………On that Allah's Messenger called Buraira and said, 'O Burair. Did you ever see anything which roused your suspicions about her?' Buraira said, 'No, by Allah Who has sent you with the Truth, I have never seen in her anything faulty except that she is a girl of immature age, who sometimes sleeps and leaves the dough for the goats to eat.'……..[Sahih al-Bukhari volume 3 Book 48 Hadith 829] The word which is translated as Immature age is حَدِيثَةُ السِّنِّ it is a mis translation because it actually means modern or young age. Br. Bassam Zawadi gives evidence that there is nothing in the Hadith that suggests that she was "immature", in the sense of being prepubescent: "Looking at the Arabic text, I don't see word "immature" anywhere. It only states that she is a YOUNG GIRL, which we will already know. But if someone is young that doesn't necessarily imply that he or she is immature. Secondly, the companion was not criticizing Aisha for her age. Rather, he was saying that her fault was that she: 'GOES TO SLEEP while kneading the flour and the lamb eats that'. Imam Nawawi (1233 – 1277) states in his commentary: And the meaning of this statement is that there are no faults about her (Aisha) to begin with. There is nothing wrong about her EXCEPT THAT SHE SLEEPS WHILE KNEADING THE FLOUR. (Imam Nawawi, Sharh Saheeh Muslim, Kitab: Al Tawbah, Bab: Fee Hadeeth Al Ifk Wa Qubool Tawbat Al Qaazhif, Commentary on Hadith no. 4974, Source http://hadith.al-islam.com/Loader.aspx?pageid=261 ) The companion might have attributed her carelessness due to the fact that she was young and did not take seriously her responsibility over her tasks. However, this does not imply she was immature or psychologically incapable of being married."(Source) The second point about the Hadith is that it itself makes clear by Aisha herself saying twice she is a Young lady جَاوَزْتُ الْجَيْشَ: Lane's Lexicon Page 418: Dictionary Of The Holy Qur'an of With References and Explanation of the Text by Malik Ghulam Farid M. A., page 134: This Hadith is repeated several times and is Sahih. It is again to be noted she told two times in same Hadith she is young women. There is an explicit mention that she was mature and had hit puberty long before Marriage: Narrated AISHA: (the wife of the Prophet) I had seen my parents following Islam since I attained the age of PUBERTY. Not a day passed but the Prophet visited us, both in the mornings and evenings.[Sahih al-Bukhari volume 1 Book 8 Hadith 465] This Hadith explicitly tells us that she attained Puberty. Another Hadith below says: Narrated Aisha: (the wife of the Prophet) "I do not remember (A'QAL) my parents believing in any religion other than the Religion (of Islam), and our being visited by Allah's Messenger in the morning and in the evening. One day, while we were sitting in the house of Abu Bakr (my father) at noon, someone said, 'This is Allah's Messenger coming at an hour at which he never used to visit us.' Abu Bakr said, 'There must be something very urgent that has brought him at this hour.' The Prophet said, 'I have been allowed to go out (of Mecca) to migrate.'[Sahih Al-Bukhari Volume 8 Book 73 Hadith 102] Amazingly this word AQAL is used when a person is mature. Hans Wehr A Dictionary of Modern written Arabic [Edited by John Milton – Spoken Language Services, Inc. 1976], page 737 … a'qal more reasonable; brighter, smarter, more intelligent | … a'qal al'umr the most reasonable time of life, the years of reason and MATURITY. There is one more scientific evidence: Narrated Aisha: The Prophet engaged me when I was a girl of six (years). We went to Medina and stayed at the home of Bani-al-Harith bin Khazraj. THEN I GOT ILL AND MY HAIR FELL DOWN. LATER ON MY HAIR GREW (again) and my mother, Um Ruman, came to me while I was playing in a swing with some of my girl friends. She called me, and I went to her, not knowing what she wanted to do to me. She caught me by the hand and made me stand at the door of the house. I was breathless then, and when my breathing became Allright, she took some water and rubbed my face and head with it. Then she took me into the house. There in the house I saw some Ansari women who said, "Best wishes and Allah's Blessing and a good luck." Then she entrusted me to them and they prepared me (for the marriage). Unexpectedly Allah's Apostle came to

a deeper sense of media awareness in this (anti-) 'movement of the squares'. Gionanopoulos writes: "..the stance of the movement toward Mass Media is also differentiated, with the refusal to engage with them, not even by way of issuing press releases. With the screening of what part of its procedures and organising is photographed or taped, and most importantly, with the creation of the movement's own channels of communication — with its main website www.real-democracy.gr, being the only medium-voice of its decisions." But obviously, the well-chosen site, the public city square derives much of its power from its public visibility. It is certainly impossible, and also highly undesirable for this public spectacle not to be picked up by mass and mainstream media. In fact the public camps on city squares are one of the most mediagenic forms of popular protest to have emerged in recent years, from Tahrir to Puerta del Sol, and this status has undeniably facilitated their international dispersal by the very system the activists claim to deny. Some activists can also get disheartened with the lagging nature of collective and non-hierarchical decision making procedures. In a text of 2002, The Dark Side of Camping, Susanne Lang and Florian Schneider reflect on the daily experience of the International border camp in Strasbourg, July 19 – 28, 2002. [6] They recall how by the time that the 'radical-democratic decision-making process' had come to the point of stating positions, the sun had already reached Zenith, without actual decisions having been made. The urgency of the matter on the table, the inhuman border, detention and expulsion regimes appeared to get lost in the haze of bottom-up democracy, for activists in a hurry to address them head on. Exasperation and frustration can easily set in. Thus, de-centred decision making always needs to navigate a precarious balance. Refusal of the media question was prevalent in those days, more so than in the current 'movement of the squares'. Lang and Schneider lament the ignorance towards the media activist component in the border camp, derided internally as 'silicon valley'. But they also point out how the complete refusal to co-operate with any media outlet, not even the indymedia type, lead to a fatal distortion of public perception of the actions: "Clearly, the manner in which the whole event is perceived from the outside will necessarily shift if the simple attempt to mediate ones own positions will be dismissed as opportunistic. : calls for freedom of movement might easily be interpreted as calls for freedom to muck about and act the fool. Who is protesting on the streets and why, which actions have been chosen and for what reason? The history, background, aims and ideas of the camp were concealed. Therefore the press relied on the statements of the police and the mayor", Lang and Schneider write. And while scepticism about playing the mainstream media game might be justified, relying on at least self-organised media outlets and communication channels to the wider public seems an essential step forward for the activists. Lang and Schneider had to recover from a severe case of camping blues in those days. For them the marriage of camping and media activism was about political communication: "networking understood as situational negotiations that are based on the possibility of changing ones own standpoint as well as the standpoint of the other". However, what they encountered was an introverted political culture, what they call a 'a neo-romantic motivated anti-capitalism'. Lang / Schneider: "Prevalent in those ten days in Strasbourg was a hermetic culture of immediacy that was neglecting and dismissive of every form of artificial or technical supported mediation, due to the fear of it being a hindrance on some amorphous idea of natural self-development." [6] From the media to the street One of he central claims of the tactical media 'movement' has been to state that power has shifted to the symbolic domain of electronic mediation, and therefore power also has to be contested in the sphere of symbolic mediation, as for instance Steve Kurtz of Critical Art Ensemble has claimed [7]. This shift also implies that to intervene in and tamper with the symbolic (in real-time mediation) means to intervene in and tamper with 'real' power. So, why then this seemingly regressive move back to the street and the square? One important lesson can already be drawn from the Syrian uprising, an escalating conflict bordering on civil war whose outcome is still completely uncertain while this text is written. Dubbed the 'Syrian Cyber Revolution' the tactical appropriation of social media tools played a prominent role in organising the street protests, as they have done in many other places. The Syrian youngsters / activists derived a strong sense of empowerment from their newly found capacities to organise, coalesce and unify around common interest via social networking tools such as facebook. However, a painful lesson was to learn that the newly established networks could also be 'read' – necessarily so because of the relatively open and public character they required to be useful for intended purposes – by the Syrian authorities, whose prime interest was to seek out the central nodes in the network and eradicate them, working outwards towards the mass of networked participants. Visibility here means not just empowerment, but also vulnerability, becoming a discrete, identified, and localised target. A strange paradox emerged: In the seemingly private space of the social network activists had now become identified as an individual and more importantly as a discrete target for authoritarian repression. On the street however, the individual protester dissolved into a crowd to become a public. The rising death-toll from the Syrian protests indicates that this act of dissolving in the public is by no means without risk. It does, however, escape the targeted designation of the social networking space, which as an activist tool had de facto become ineffectual or even counter-productive for the local activists. Only in exile, out of reach of a repressive and violent authority, could the social networking space be used for effective public political communication, and possibly to mobilise the international diaspora. The tactical operations, both in the streets as well as in the media, necessarily need to remain nomadic in these circumstances, always on the look out for temporary spaces of opportunity. Hybrid tactics in a hybrid space Embodied public spaces and media spaces do not exist independent of each other anymore. They constitute each other. As much as that the spaces of opportunity in the media are determined by the physical and political conditions they are built upon, so is the physical public space constructed by the media flows that permeate it; communicative practices, surveillance, mediated representation. As a result the logic of these spaces is hybridised: the media flows have to locate themselves to become manifest and meaningful, to escape their inherent virtualisation, while physical presences are permeated by electronically mediated flows that both construct and capture them. Activists need to understand the hybridised logic of hybrid space [8], its variability, its moments of opportunity and closure, to make use of them. The newest generation of civic activists, the (anti-) 'movement of the squares' seems to have ingrained and internalised this hybrid logic, almost unthinkingly. Social media tools, wireless devices, digital networks, self-publication channels seem nothing less than self-evident to them, and they are learning how such spaces of opportunity can suddenly close down, at which point it is time to move on – thus producing a continuous nomadic movement that as yet is unclear where it will land. by Eric Kluitenberg, June 20, 2011. 1 – Michel de Certeau, "The Practice of Everyday Life", University of California Press, 1984, p. xiv. 2 – www.democraciarealya.es/?page_id=814 3 – See the archived announcement for June 19, 2011, at: www.tacticalmediafiles.net/article.jsp?objectnumber=53248 4 – ibid. 5 –

In meno di una giornata, Bob era diventato un uomo crucciato e io una ragazzina che vegliava con la madre, una ragazzina ormai troppo grande perché qualcuno cercasse di propinarle storie di diavoletti o di marmotte parlanti. Qualcuno era morto. Sissy Morgan era morta e quella morte non era naturale. Un assassino si aggirava nell'ombra delle baite, aveva zombificato Bob e scavato rughe sul viso di mio padre, rughe che prima non c'erano, che gli davano un'espressione da ebete, quasi avesse ricevuto una mazza da baseball sulla nuca. Ed era proprio quanto era successo nella radura, dove una decina di uomini, assieme a lui, erano stati colpiti da un'arma sconosciuta. Da quando lo avevano tramortito inaspettatamente, mio padre cercava di addizionare cifre che non avevano senso, Zaza più Sissy, e rimaneva a bocca aperta davanti a un'equazione che non riusciva a risolvere, giocando con le parole che avrebbero ridato consistenza al reale come se si trattasse di dati erronei aleggianti in una massa spugnosa. Dopo quanto avevano visto nella radura, gli occhi di mio padre, al pari di quelli di mio fratello, restavano increduli: da noi certe cose non capitavano. Eppure le prove c'erano, nelle rughe, nell'orrore che suscitava l'incredulità, sul cadavere che giaceva nella foresta. Un assassino viveva fra di noi. Dopo essersi tolti le camicie di lana, mio padre e mio fratello si erano seduti a tavola, mia madre aveva preparato loro del caffè e uno dei due, mio padre probabilmente, aveva detto morta, assassinata. Mia madre si era portata le mani alla bocca, io avevo sentito il mio corpo intorpidirsi come se cadessi svenuta, e mio fratello si era creato un ghigno d'uomo i cui brufoli dell'acne non avevano avuto il tempo di seccarsi. Tutto era stato detto: morta, assassinata. Pochi minuti dopo, Millie si era alzata, trascinando Bobine per un braccino sporco. Da quando avevo ritrovato Bobine, Millie non l'aveva più lasciata, rifiutandosi di darla a mia madre perché ricucisse i bottoni che le facevano da occhi e adesso le penzolavano ai lati del naso. La bambola non aveva davvero un bell'aspetto e stentavo a credere che il suo stato fosse dovuto soltanto alle intemperie. Dovevano averla trovata dei bambini, Yvon Tanguay o Michael Jamison, e averla strapazzata ben bene prima di buttarla sotto un mucchio di assi. Non appena avessi avuto un minuto libero, sarei andata a far sputare la verità a quei due mocciosi deficienti, troppo vili per prendersela con qualcuno forte come loro, e gli avrei cambiato i connotati come loro avevano cambiato quelli di Bobine. Nell'attesa, mi ero costretta a rimettermi in modalità "vivente", per Millie, per Bobine, tornata finalmente a casa. Per tutta la giornata, molte persone erano venute a bussare alla nostra porta: donne che non potevano sopportare di rimanere in silenzio; Jocelyne Ménard, che si preoccupava per Gilles, suo marito – non l'ho mai visto così pallido – e che sorbiva il tè lanciando occhiatine tutt'attorno, forse nella speranza di trovare un rimedio alla prostrazione del suo uomo colpito dai raggi di sole che attraversavano la cucina. S'è trovato fra i piedi due cadaveri, Florence, tre contando la volpe. Quanto a Berthe Grégoire, temeva che il suo Valère desse di matto. La polizia era arrivata in casa loro all'alba, per le tagliole, quelle che Valère aveva smontato, e Valère aveva dato in escandescenze. Non è più lui, con tutte 'ste storie. Non fa altro che spiare questo e quello. Dal canto loro, gli uomini parlavano sottovoce nel cortile, come all'obitorio, per rispetto dei morti, chiedendosi cosa mai potevano fare e quando la polizia li avrebbe autorizzati a portare le famiglie lontano da Bondrée. Quanto a Millie, passeggiava lì intorno con la sua bamboccia dagli occhi ciechi dicendole di non piangere, non piangere, mia bella Bobine, sistemeremo tutto, troppo piccina per sapere cosa succedeva, ma grande quanto bastava per capire che le cose andavano male. Alle quattro, mentre mia madre lavava delle tazze, Stan Michaud era arrivato col signor Larue, che aveva per me una cartolina di Emma raffigurante King Kong sulla punta dell'Empire State Building. Emma mi scriveva che sarebbe arrivata a Bondrée l'indomani pomeriggio e che aveva una sorpresa per me. Non posso dirti altro, ci sono delle spie. See you tomorrow. Em. Avevo riposto la cartolina nel cassetto più alto del mio comò, fuori dalla portata di Millie, sotto i miei pigiami. Non avevo mai ricevuto una cartolina in tutta la vita ed ero eccitata come se mi avessero regalato una bicicletta a tre velocità con sellino a banana. Di colpo ero importante. Una ragazzina bilingue residente negli Stati Uniti per tutto l'anno, che parlava il francese di Francia senza per questo sentirsi l'ombelico del mondo e che fantasticava su King Kong, aveva una sorpresa per me, che non riguardava né i miei genitori né i suoi, né mio fratello, né mia sorella, né Jane Mary Brown – quella di _Via col vento_ –, né la polizia. Il mio entusiasmo era scemato un po' quando avevo sentito mio padre accennare alla volpe morta rievocata poco prima da Jocelyne Ménard ed ero tornata coi piedi per terra. Una ragazzina aveva perso la vita la notte precedente, Sissy Morgan, e adesso si parlava di una bestia, coperta dal fango rosso dei sentieri di Moose Trap. Nel cuore della montagna, aveva precisato mio padre, morta da poco, il sangue ancora tiepido. Ecco dunque da dove veniva il sangue che aveva spinto Gilles Ménard a ficcarsi le mani in tasca dopo la perlustrazione di Moose Trap. Ecco da dove veniva l'argilla inventata da Brian Larue per chiuderci il becco, a Emma e me, dalle centinaia di volpi il cui sangue aveva intriso il suolo della montagna da quando questa esisteva. Poi si era parlato di una buca scavata a mani nude, di una preghiera, forse, del ritorno in luce, accanto al lago, di un nome che Ménard ripeteva, Sugar, Sugar Baby, poi avevo sentito uno stridore di sedie, il tintinnio delle tazze che mia madre sistemava nella credenza, la porta che cigolava. Stan Michaud e Brian Larue andavano dai McBain. Dalla finestra della mia stanza, avevo visto Michaud e Larue stringere la mano di mio padre e attraversare la fila di cedri, dietro la quale altri poliziotti aspettavano. Stella McBain aveva loro aperto e il silenzio era ripiombato sulla baita mentre io rivolgevo a mia volta una preghiera al dio delle volpi. Erano le quattro e mezzo e il cielo era senza nuvole, il lago di una limpidezza oleosa che metteva voglia di tuffarcisi di testa, ma nessuno, nemmeno Pat Tanguay, turbava l'acqua piatta. Bondrée era appena entrata in una nuova era glaciale. Quattro poliziotti erano seduti intorno al tavolo di quercia dei McBain, Stan Michaud e Jim Cusack, Dave Leroy, il responsabile delle ricerche, e Luke Stanfield, che aveva percorso in lungo e in largo Turtle Road con due colleghi al fine di raccogliere indizi, di strappare qualche commento di sfuggita, senza darlo a vedere, in un contesto che non evocava quello più ufficiale degli interrogatori. Un odore aspro di sudore e tabacco regnava nella sala da pranzo, Stella McBain avrebbe scacciato più tardi con un vaporizzatore al profumo di lillà quell'olezzo di stanchezza e nervosismo che lasciava i suoi segni appiccicosi sul tavolo, dove s'imprimevano le mani umidicce degli uomini riuniti. Nessuno aveva toccato il vassoio di patatine fritte posato al centro del tavolo, con l'eccezione di Luke Stanfield, che ne divorava a manciate e spazzava le briciole col dorso della mano mentre raccontava di aver parlato con due bambini, Michael Jamison e Silas Brown, aveva precisato consultando un taccuino, i quali dichiaravano di aver visto Sissy Morgan, il giorno prima, bisticciare con Françoise Lamar e Mark Meyer, il custode del campeggio. Uno dei suoi ragazzi si era

Bowling for Buckets, Frame 11 (What Kind of Bowling Is This?) I feel like I could cut and paste the opening paragraph from yesterday's blog! Another 1-1 day in the books, another day of small losses with the Free Play winning and the Paid Play losing, which is, of course the one that really hurts. Oklahoma City came through for us again with a beating in Washington, but the Lakers, despite spending the entire day telling the media their goal was to slow the Warriors to 100 points, went ahead and let Golden State score over 110. I really liked that play with both teams on back-to-backs and the line move supporting our handicapping, but as soon as LA fell behind, they threw defense out the window and somehow won the game despite allowing the Warriors to shoot over 55% from the field! Bucks @ Magic - Orlando by 10.5 with a total of 193. This team has not played in ages! The Magic last played on Christmas Day, so they've had all kinds of time to rest up for this one, a rather uninspiring game against the Bucks. The question is, are they TOO rested? We might very well see the Magic a little out of sync from not playing much, or we might see the tired among them rejuvenated, and maybe Dwight Howard needed a rest. I find it tough to handicap games where one team is coming off half a week without a game. The Magic are, however, coming off that Christmas Day stinker against the Celtics, where they scored but 77 points. This might be a spot where they could look to really take out some aggression on a poor road team. The Bucks have just done nothing lately to inspire confidence, having lost 3 consecutive games, 2 at home and 1 on the road, and none has been close. Milwaukee has been posting FG% numbers in the 30's far too often, and I'm just not sure this one is going to be much different. The Magic have very strong interior defense, which means more jumpshots on the road, a recipe for disaster. Amazingly, I lean to Orlando on the big spread, and I lean to the Under since I don't see the Bucks breaking 90. Grizzlies @ Pacers - This line is OFF. Yet, we really don't need it to know what to expect. The Pacers stink without Danny Granger, and the Grizzlies have been red, red hot. I wouldn't be surprised to see Memphis as a road favorite in this contest, where the Grizz are 1-0 SU but 0-1 ATS. Still, they missed that cover against Minnesota on the road by 1.5 points, and I don't think it told us much about Memphis. In contrast, the Pacers got trounced in Chicago last night, come home on the second night of a back-to-back, and really couldn't look any worse in the eyes of bettors. Is this a situation where their value is so high that you just have to bet Indy? I don't think so. The Grizzlies have won and covered 4 of 5 games, but haven't been as successful on the road. The Pacers have lost 7 straight, and have been pretty bad both at home and on the road, so no real notes there. I have to lean to Memphis, just because of how bad the Pacers have looked, but the real value in this game might be in the Under. The Pacers are just unable to score right now, and Memphis plays, I'd say, surprisingly decent defense. Let's see where this opens because these two teams have reputations of being up-tempo clubs, but I wouldn't be surprised to see this thing open in the 190's, and the public on the Over. Time will tell, let's get a line and move from there. Bobcats @ Raptors - Toronto by 5.5 with a total of 195. This is an interesting game, if mostly because I didn't truly remember what Toronto did in their last game before looking it up. As it turns out, the Raptors have quietly won 4 games in a row, covering in all 4, including a home-and-home sweep of the mostly-injured Pistons. Toronto is significantly better at home than they are on the road, and that is presumably why we're seeing a medium-sized spread like this one. This is a clash of two teams with monster home/road splits, where Toronto is 9.8 points better at home than on the road, and the Bobcats are almost 14 points worse on the road than at home. Charlotte just continues to lose on the road, though they have covered a few of those spreads. Is this one of those spots? It's awfully close. I do lean slightly to the home team here to win by 6 or 7, but that might just be too close to call. There just isn't much, if any, value on the Raptors, even though I believe they will win this game without a ton of stress. On the total of 195, I think we have some value on the Under. Both teams have been in a few low-scoring games, and I think Charlotte should be able to defend the Raptors relatively well, I just don't think they'll score. Hawks @ Cavs - Cavs by 6 with a total of 193. This game is a great rebound spot for the Hawks, and I think there's some value in Atlanta on the ML. The Hawks just got burned by the Cavs AGAIN, this time on their home court, and what's more, Cleveland held the high-flying Hawks to just 10 4th-quarter points! Atlanta will not take kindly to this beating at home, and I expect them to bring every ounce of strength they've got left in tomorrow's contest. It is terribly difficult to beat the same team two times in a row in these home-and-homes, and Cleveland was definitely amped up to play this game on the road and ruin the Hawks' day. I think Cleveland actually used more energy in this game than Atlanta did, believe it or not, and if you don't trust me, go back to yesterday's blog and check out the write-up on that game. All my handicapping numbers showed Atlanta by 3 yesterday, but my gut told me the Cavs were going to dominate, and sometimes you just have to stop crunching numbers and look at a picture of Lebron James. The guy is on a mission, but on the road, the Cavs are at way less of a premium than at home, and the ATS marks show that. Cleveland is 13-6 ATS on the road, and now a perfect 5-0 as an underdog. They do not take kindly to a "+" being next to their name. Now, back home they go as a 6-point favorite, and I think this game could go down to the wire. I also think that the score could be much higher with both defenses a little tired from last night's war. I like the Hawks, and I like the Over. Knicks @ Nets - This line is OFF. Not positive why. In any case, the Knicks hop a jet out of the snowy mess that is Detroit, Wayne County, and roll back to the eastern seaboard to tackle the hapless Nets. I expect to see the Knicks as slight favorites in this one, and I expect a decent performance out of them, though the back-to-back might be just what the doctor ordered for a Nets cover. I honestly can't believe how terrible the Nets continue to play. They are 2-29 on the season, on pace to lose 70 games, or more! Every day, every time the Nets play, we

Eimskip.com About Eimskip News General news EIMSKIP ANNOUNCES 2013 RESULTS EIMSKIP ANNOUNCES 2013 RESULTS Operating revenue EUR 433.8 million, up by 2.4% from 2012 Operating profit, EBITDA, EUR 37.1 million, down by 9.1% from adjusted EBITDA in 2012 Equity ratio was 65.5% at the end of the year Transported volume in North Atlantic liner services up by 3.4% from 2012 Transported volume in reefer forwarding services up by 7.9% from 2012 The Board proposes a dividend payment representing 30.0% of net earnings for the year Forecasted EBITDA for the year 2014 in the range of EUR 37 to 41 million GYLFI SIGFÚSSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO We believe that overall the results of 2013 reflect the tough economic environment in Iceland. Adverse weather conditions in the North Atlantic and mechanical issues with a few of our vessels in the fourth quarter put our sailing schedule out of order and negatively impacted our results. For the full year, revenues amounted to EUR 433.8 million and grew by 2.4% from 2012. EBITDA amounted to EUR 37.1 million which equals 9.1% decrease from previous year, taking into account one-off items in 2012. Performance of our international operations did show good results, but our operations in Iceland were below our expectations. Transported volume in our North Atlantic liner services grew by 3.4% from 2012. Transported volume to and from Iceland remained stable but there was growth in volume related to the Faroe Islands and Norway, which are a part of our home market in the North Atlantic, and volume between Europe and North America grew. Volume in the company's reefer forwarding services increased by 7.9% compared to previous year, mainly due to increased Intra Asian transport and transport from Europe to Asia. Eimskip introduced substantial changes in its sailing schedule in March 2013 which increased the capacity of the system and in February 2014 we decided to make some further adjustments partly due to negative effect of bad weather conditions in recent months. A new sailing route, the Gray line, has been added between the Faroe Islands and Scotland in order to increase the flexibility of the sailing schedule and increase service reliability. It is important to be able to respond to requirements of customers with an efficient and flexible system. Eimskip has negotiated a further delay of delivery of the two container vessels which are currently being built in China. It is expected that the first vessel will be in service as from the middle of this year but there is still uncertainty regarding the delivery of the second vessel which will presumably not be delivered until late this year. Related to the delay, Eimskip has negotiated a USD 10.8 million reduction of the vessels' total purchase price. The delay of delivery will neither affect the sailing schedule nor services to Eimskip's customers. It will however extend chartering of vessels since the new vessels are expected to replace two vessels which are currently chartered by the company. The company is seeking opportunities to grow, especially outside Iceland and is working on various projects in relation to strategic acquisitions in line with the company's vision of being a leading transportation company in the North Atlantic. As part of this strategy Eimskip is in correspondence with the Central Bank of Iceland, the Oslo Stock Exchange and other foreign stock exchanges for potential dual listing of the company's shares. The Board of Directors proposes a dividend payment to shareholders in 2014 in the amount of ISK 2.60 per share. The total dividend payment is ISK 504.6 million, or EUR 3.2 million, which represents 30.0% of net earnings for the year 2013. Our EBITDA forecast for the year 2014 is in the range of EUR 37 to 41 million. OPERATIONS OF 2013 Eimskip's operating revenue amounted to EUR 433.8 million in 2013 compared to EUR 423.7 million in 2012, showing an increase of 2.4%. The revenue of liner services amounted to EUR 319.2 million and increased by 3.8% from 2012. There was an increase in transported volume of the liner services in the company's main market areas in the North Atlantic besides Iceland, where imported volume to the country decreased from previous year. The volume increase in Eimskip's liner services in the North Atlantic was 3.4% from 2012. The revenue of forwarding services amounted to EUR 114.6 million, showing a 1.3% decrease from 2012. Transported volume in reefer forwarding services grew by 7.9% compared to 2012, mainly due to increased Intra Asian transport and transport from Europe to Asia. Fluctuations in international sea freight rates affect Eimskip's revenues and rates during the year 2013 were considerably lower than in 2012. EBITDA amounted to EUR 37.1 million compared to EUR 36.2 million in 2012, but adjusted EBITDA, after the EUR 1.7 million cost related to Eimskip's IPO in the third and fourth quarter 2012 and EUR 2.9 million non-cash expense related to the share options forfeited by the executive management in the fourth quarter 2012, amounted to EUR 40.8 million, decreasing EBITDA by 9.1% from 2012. The EBITDA ratio was 8.5% compared to 9.6% adjusted EBITDA ratio in 2012. Drop in imported volume to Iceland negatively affected the operating results, in addition to several negative operational incidents in the fourth quarter partially due to adverse weather conditions in the North Atlantic and mechanical issues with a few of the company's vessels which put the sailing schedule out of order. The changes made in Eimskip's sailing schedule in March 2013, which increased the system capacity and fixed cost immediately, also contributed to the decreased operating results since it takes time to grow revenues in a new and more powerful system. Depreciation and amortization amounted to EUR 21.1 million compared to EUR 22.4 million in 2012. The reduction is mainly due to a part of the company's vessel fleet which now is depreciated to residual value. EBIT amounted to EUR 15.9 million compared to EUR 13.7 million in 2012. Adjusted EBIT, after the aforementioned one-off items in 2012, amounted to EUR 18.3 million, showing a 13.2% decrease in EBIT from 2012. Net finance expense amounted to EUR 3.2 million compared to EUR 3.0 in previous year. The change from previous year is explained by a EUR 0.8 million higher currency exchange loss than in 2012, but on the other hand interest expense on the company's long-term loans was lower by EUR 0.3 million in Net earnings before income tax came to EUR 12.7 million compared to EUR 10.7 million in 2012. Income tax amounted to EUR 1.9 million compared to an income tax benefit in the amount of EUR 2.0 million in 2012 due to recognized tax losses carried forward in a subsidiary in the amount of EUR 3.6 Net earnings amounted to EUR 10.8 million in 2013 compared to EUR 12.7 million in 2012. The company's operations have been stable during the past few years as can be seen in the following graphs which show how revenues and EBITDA are divided to quarters from 2010 to 2013. In these graphs, operating revenue and EBITDA have been adjusted for one-off items in 2011 and 2012. Operating revenue and EBITDA for the first quarter 2011 have been reduced by EUR 6.4 million due to the collection of a claim that had previously been written off. EBITDA for the second quarter 2011 has been increased by EUR 0.7 million due to the grounding of Godafoss and increased by EUR 0.7 million in the third quarter 2012 due to costs related to the company's listing. Finally, EBITDA for the fourth quarter 2012 has been increased by a total of EUR 3.9 million, including EUR 1.0 million due to the company's listing and EUR 2.9 million due to costs related to the share options forfeited by the executive management. Early in March 2013 the company introduced substantial changes in its sailing schedule. The number of vessels on liner services was increased by one, expanding system capacity by 7.7%. The main changes consisted of the introduction of a new coastal schedule in Iceland with a direct connection with the Faroe Islands, the UK and mainland Europe and increased frequency and shorter transit time to and from the USA with Portland in Maine replacing Everett and Norfolk as a port

Analysis, Summary, overview, explanation, meaning, description, of Destiny and a Blue Cloak Destiny and a Blue Cloak Analysis "Good morning, Miss Lovill!" said the young man, in the free manner usual with him toward pretty and inexperienced country girls. Agatha Pollin � the maiden addressed � instantly perceived how the mistake had arisen. Miss Lovill was the owner of a blue autumn wrapper, exceptionally gay for a village; and Agatha, in a spirit of emulation rather than originality, had purchased a similarly enviable article for herself, which she wore to-day for the first time. It may be mentioned that the two young women had ridden together from their homes to Maiden-Newton on this foggy September morning, Agatha prolonging her journey thence to Weymouth by train, and leaving her acquaintance at the former place. The remark was made to her on Weymouth esplanade. Agatha was now about to reply very naturally, "I am not Miss Lovill," and she went so far as to turn up her face to him for the purpose, when he added, "I've been hoping to meet you. I have heard of your � well, I must say it � beauty, long ago, though I only came to Beaminster yesterday." Agatha bowed � her contradiction hung back � and they walked slowly along the esplanade together without speaking another word after the above point-blank remark of his. It was evident that her new friend could never have seen either herself or Miss Lovill except from a distance. And Agatha trembled as well as bowed. This Miss Lovill � Frances Lovill � was of great and long renown as the beauty of Cloton village, near Beaminster. She was five and twenty and fully developed, while Agatha was only the niece of the miller of the same place, just nineteen, and of no repute as yet for comeliness, though she undoubtedly could boast of much. Now, were the speaker, Oswald Winwood, to be told that he had not lighted upon the true Helen, he would instantly apologize for his mistake and leave her side," contingency of no great matter but for one curious emotional circumstance � Agatha had already lost her heart to him. Only in secret had she acquired this interest in Winwood � by hearing much report of his talent and by watching him several times from a window; but she loved none the less in that she had discovered that Miss Lovill's desire to meet and talk with the same intellectual luminary was in a fair way of approaching the intensity of her own. We are never unbiased appraisers, even in love, and rivalry usually operates as a stimulant to esteem even while it is acting as an obstacle to opportunity. So it had been with Agatha in her talk to Miss Lovill that morning concerning Oswald Winwood. The Weymouth season was almost at an end, and but few loungers were to be seen on the parades, particularly at this early hour. Agatha looked over the iridescent sea, from which the veil of mist was slowly rising, at the white cliffs on the left, now just beginning to gleam in a weak sunlight, at the one solitary yacht in the midst, and still delayed her explanation. Her companion went on: "The mist is vanishing, look, and I think it will be fine, after all. Shall you stay in Weymouth the whole day?" "No. I am going to Portland by the twelve o'clock steam-boat. But I return here again at six to go home by the seven o'clock train." "I go to Maiden Newton by the same train, and then to Beaminster by the carrier." "So do I." "Not, I suppose, to walk from Beaminster to Cloton at that time in the evening?" "I shall be met by somebody � but it is only a mile, you know." That is how it all began; the continuation it is not necessary to detail at length. Both being somewhat young and impulsive, social forms were not scrupulously attended to. She discovered him to be on board the steamer as it ploughed the emerald waves of Weymouth Bay, although he had wished her a formal good-bye at the pier. He had altered his mind, he said, and thought that he would come to Portland, too. They returned by the same boat, walked the velvet sands till the train started, and entered a carriage together. All this time, in the midst of her happiness, Agatha's conscience was sombre with guiltiness at not having yet told him of his mistake. It was true that he had not more than once or twice called her by Miss Lovill's name since the first greeting in the morning; but he certainly was still under the impression that she was Frances Lovill. Yet she perceived that though he had been led to her by another's name, it was her own proper person that he was so rapidly getting to love, and Agatha's feminine insight suggested blissfully to her that the face belonging to the name would after this encounter have no power to drag him away from the face of the day's romance. They reached Maiden-Newton at dusk, and went to the inn door, where stood the old-fashioned hooded van which was to take them to Beaminster. It was on the point of starting, and when they had mounted in front the old man at once drove up the long hill leading out of the village. "This has been a charming experience to me, Miss Lovill," Oswald said, as they sat side by side. "Accidental meetings have a way of making themselves pleasant when contrived ones quite fail to do it." It was absolutely necessary to confess this time, though all her bliss were at once destroyed. "I am not really Miss Lovill!" she faltered. "What! not the young lady � and are you really not Frances Lovill?" he exclaimed, in surprise. "O forgive me, Mr Winwood! I have wanted so to tell you of your mistake; indeed I have, all day � but I couldn't � and it is so wicked and wrong of me! I am only poor Agatha Pollin, at the mill." "But why couldn't you tell me?" "Because I was afraid that if I did you would go away from me and not care for me any more, and I l � l � love you so dearly!" The carrier being on foot beside the horse, the van being so dark, and Oswald's feelings being rather warm, he could not for his life avoid kissing her there and then. "Well," he said, "it doesn't matter; you are yourself anyhow. It is you I like, and nobody else in the world � not the name. But, you know, I was really looking for Miss Lovill this morning. I saw the back of her head yesterday, and I have often heard how very good-looking she is. Ah! suppose you had been she. I wonder � " He did not complete the sentence. The driver mounted again, touched the horse with the whip, and they jogged on. "You forgive me?" she said. "Entirely � absolutely � the reason justified everything. How strange that you should have been caring deeply for me, and I ignorant of it all the time!" They descended into Beaminster and alighted, Oswald handing her down. They had not moved from the spot when another female figure also alighted, dropped her fare into the carrier's hand, and glided away. "Who is that?" said Oswald to the carrier. "Why, I thought we were the only passengers!" "What?" said the carrier, who was rather stupid. "Who is that woman?" "Miss Lovill, of Cloton. She altered her mind about staying at Beaminster, and is come home again." "Oh!" said Agatha, almost sinking to the earth. "She has heard it all. What shall I do, what shall I do?" "Never mind it

laws prohibiting brothels, living on the avails of prostitution and communicating in public with clients, the top court ruled Friday that the laws were over-broad and "grossly disproportionate." "Parliament has the power to regulate against nuisances, but not at the cost of the health, safety and lives of prostitutes," wrote Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in the 9-0 decision that noted "it is not a crime in Canada to sell sex for money." This is insanity. It is time for a judicial review. In the United States judges are elected. We need to implement that same process in Canada now. As it stands we have no mechanism in place to get rid of a bad judge. This decision is the perfect example of how bad judges can remove democracy from a democratic nation. Dug addicted public prostitution is a huge public nuisance. Allowing that is in direct opposition of health and welfare of everyone - the public, the johns and the sex trade workers themselves. We need to find a balance between what consenting adults do behind closed doors and the huge problem of living off the avails and human trafficking. No judge has the authority to legalize those crimes. This is why we need a judicial review right now. Before we look at reviewing the prostitution laws, we need to review the selection and retention of court judges. That is far more urgent as it currently is a direct attack on our civil liberty and our democratic system. Gang Banger turns out to be another Woman Beater Nicola Cottrell received a conditional sentence for her involvement in the drive by shooting of the Bacon brother associates outside TBarz back in 2009. The sad part is the revelation that her boyfriend Barzan Tilli-Cholim was a woman beater. The Vancouver Province is reporting that although Tilli-Choli initially treated her nicely, the relationship soon turned violent, with Tilli-Choli beating her often. Once, police had to pull him off her as he kicked her while she lay fetal position on the ground. He was convicted of assaulting her and ordered not to contact her. But they soon got back together again and the violence continued. A few days before the shooting, in February 2009, Cottrell sent Tilli-Choli a text message. "I'm in love with you," she told him. "I'll do what you asked earlier. I want to spend tonight with you so I can wake up with my loved one on Valentine's." God help this woman. Kim Bolan is reporting that Nicola even had Barzan's name tattooed on the back of her neck. I'm sorry but I have a hard time comprehending this kind of behavior. It shows exactly what Kerri Krysko was recently saying in that "statistically those same people often go back, even years later and a new spouse or partner is doing what the last has done. It's about breaking cycles and habits." I cannot comprehend why pretty young girls stay in relationships where they are physically beaten. What's worse is Barzan Tilli-Cholim has just joined with Donnie McWhirter, Don Lions and Ryan Holt into the low life woman beater hall of shame. Update: Nicola claims she was never in the vehicle that did the shooting which makes you wonder why she was charged in the first place. Kim Bolan initially reported that Nicola Cottrell and Sara terebble were both in the car at the time. Judge issues stop order on NSA surveillance The Vancouver Province is reporting that a U.S. judge has ruled the National Security Agency's indiscriminate, bulk seizure of Americans' telephone records is "almost certainly" unconstitutional and has issued a preliminary injunction to stop the highly controversial surveillance program. It was clearly unconstitutional and clearly illegal so I'm not sure what a court injunction will do. Other than make it easier to send them to jail if they keep doing it. Yet they should be charged and imprisoned right now. What they did was illegal. They should go to jail and Snowden should be exonerated. It really is that simple. As I've said before, the fact that the NSA has not gone to jail for their criminal activity and the fact that Obama has broken his oath to defend the Constitution while he tries to incarcerate Snowden for telling the truth is a bizarre saga from the Twilight Zone. When you think about it, the wire taping civil case in England is winding it's way through the courts. Murdoch's News Agency was wiretapping everyone under the sun illegally with the help of Scotland Yard and the local government. Now we hear that Angelina Jolie is suing them in the States for taping her phone and they are trying to have that adjourned to a British kangaroo court with the others. Yet she was living in the states when her phone was tapped. The point is that illegal activity is being confronted in the civil courts while the NSA and Canada's CSEC is not. That is a huge concern for everyone. The NSA and CSEC need to be charged criminally. Another body found in Surrey The Vancouver Province is reporting that IHIT is investigating a body found this morning near 102nd Ave and 124 Street in Surrey. Residents reported hearing a gunshot around 11 p.m. Monday. This would be 24 homicides for Surrey this year. Tragic indeed. BC Local news has a complete list. Not to minimize the situation but after the 23rd murder in Surrey my daughter was surprised. She said I realize that's a lot but it's not nearly as much as I thought it was. I thought it was like 5 a night here in Surrey. She said knowing it was only 23 murders in one year made her feel a lot safer. I'm not sure if that's good or bad but I did find it amusing. News 1130 is reporting that the name of the victim is Philip Oun who was known to the police. Man stabbed in Whalley The Surrey Leader is reporting that a man is in hospital after being stabbed several times in Whalley. The stabbing occurred Monday afternoon at about 3:30 PM near the corner of 106 Avenue and 135 A Street in the parking lot of the Whalley Legion which is right beside the Front Room. The exact spot we are highlighting this winter for the drug related violence there. It is where Janice Shore was last seen before she was brutally beaten to death over what some sources claim was a nominal drug debt. Although this stabbing doesn't appear to be drug related, it shows what kind of violence goes on in that area all the time. The Surrey Leader referred to it as the dead zone. A place when locals say the police tolerate violent crime. We know for a surety they tolerate aggressive crack dealers selling crack in public there. they refuse to stop them. Which makes ya kinda wonder what the new talk force is talking about while they let that go on in broad daylight. I guess the mayor doesn't care about that as long as it's not outside her new ivory tower in Surrey Central. Michael Booth seems to think a group of grandstanding politicians is a waste of time and money. I think they need to arrest the aggressive crack dealers outside the Front Room. Surrey Jack gets Jacked On the bright side, this suspect won't be loose for long. The Surrey Leader also reported that at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, a man and woman with what is described as a small machete approached a man in a blue 2003 Dodge Caravan at an Esso Station near 104 Avenue and King George Boulevard. They told him to get out, and hand over the keys. As the couple got into the vehicle, they were approached by two other

rumor are the lifeblood of isolation. Talking is a major activity and we're all too conscious of people's curiosity, their assumptions and misconceptions. Private conversations can't be had until late at night, phone calls can't be enjoyed: not in daylight hours when there are likely to be outsiders present. I can't be seen in the kitchen in my bathrobe (not after 8:00 A.M.! "Have you had a nice lie-in today? Lucky for some"), nor am I happy to have the children seen in theirs. Judgment, both real and imaginary, hangs heavy over us. Downstairs has become a public zone. Dogs must be locked away upstairs in case they escape. Chris and I start having daytime conversations by e-mail. Doing otherwise risks being overheard, at least before 9:00 P.M., when the back door closes the final time and the home care lady is gone. At nine o'clock we all relax. But that's also Jack's bedtime. The window of ordinary family interaction has shrunk alarmingly. The phone calls continue and are on occasion deeply aggravating. The physical therapist rings to ask why we haven't had the wet room installed that she recommended. From health and social workers, recommendations are usually orders. Someone else rings to report that Morris, at the day hospital, has complained that Nancy's being unsettled at night is keeping him awake and that he worries we won't hear him if he calls for help. She is insistent that we install a baby monitor, so we can listen to Nancy and Morris, reassure ourselves that they are sleeping, and be alert to anything we ought to go and sort out. This phone call has a peculiarly depressing effect. The house has become an institution and we are its night staff. And we ought to be aware that a part of our duties is lying awake listening to Nancy monologuing away in the early hours, and Morris shrieking at her to shut the fuck up and go to sleep. Then one of the nurses at the day hospital telephones to say that Morris is complaining of being lonely. She mentions the name of the day center, the Thursday day center he point-blank refuses to attend. "But he doesn't like the day center!" I retort, perhaps too vociferously. "He used to go to it. He canceled it. He hated it." "Well, I'm just ringing to let you know that I have booked him in to recommence. He'll start on Thursday. Okay?" Morris makes a face when I pass the message on. "I didn't really have any choice," he grimaces, though when Thursday comes he goes off on the bus cheerfully enough. What does he really think about the day center? What does he really think about anything? As if in punishment for our not agreeing to the baby monitor, we have a series of late-evening and early-morning crises. Nancy begins getting up and getting dressed at two or three in the morning, and trying to get to Somewhere Else. I no longer believe the "doorknob prompts" theory. These are breakouts. I find her downstairs rattling at the door that leads from the main hall into the porch. It's a half-glass-, half-wood-paneled door, a Victorian door, and heavy. When it's rattled it swings in its housing and echoes through the house like thunder. "Nancy. It's you. Couldn't figure out what the noise was. You gave me a fright." "I need to go now. I'm late." "Come back to bed. It's the middle of the night." "That's all right for you to say but I'm not supposed to be here!" We meet Nancy almost every evening, on one of her moonlight sojourns. The drawing room door opens in spooky slow motion and she shuffles in, waddling from side to side, shoes on the wrong feet, holding some combination of possessions: her handbag, clothes, a pair of shoes, her address book, her teeth in a handkerchief. Quite often she's singing, to the usual tune. "When I am young and busy, and the world will have to be, and the thing that comes down is the thing I brought here, and that's the same to me." She will be in one of two moods, black and white. Either very glad to see us and intent on joining in our late-night whisky, or misanthropic and full of gloom. And she can still rhyme. I feel bad about putting her to bed so early, but this is how it is. Morris has no choice but to be put to bed at eight-thirty; that's the only slot he could get in the home care schedule, and quite often he's glad of it, his legs bothering him, bed wanted. Nancy must go with Morris. There has to be some granny-free time and this is it. Nine P.M. to 11:00 P.M. is sacred. I've gone the other way on occasion: taken pity on her restlessness, sat with her in front of the television till after midnight, till she began at last to flag, remade the fire, made her toast and hot milk and been tolerant about the ranting. But I can't do it anymore. Besides which, if Nancy is absent, Morris can't sleep. He stays awake waiting for her return. He grows agitated, wondering what she's up to. Late one weekend evening, while the rest of us are upstairs in the family room, there is a sudden hullabaloo from downstairs. A frantic impassioned yelling. It takes a few moments to register that it's somebody calling out Chris's name and sounding desperate about it. Chris and I jump up and go down, insisting the children stay put. "Oh god, it's Granddad!" Millie cries out. Jack bursts into tears and Caitlin follows. Millie joins in and the three of them stand on the top landing, snuffling and clutching each other. When we get to Morris's bedroom the door's open and he's by the threshold, on the chair at the end of Nancy's bed. He's managed to stagger to the door and open it in order to shout for help, but has not been able to get further. He looks ghostly, yellow, terrified. "Oh, son," he says, emotionally. "It's Nancy. My Nancy. I think she's dead." She's lying on her back, utterly still with her arms by her sides. Chris listens to her chest and puts his ear to her mouth. Then he listens to her chest again. "Her pulse is regular," he says. "Oh thank god, thank god. I've been trying to wake her up for a good half hour. Normally she's awake at this time and chatting to me. I couldn't get her to answer." Chris helps his father back into bed. Meanwhile I sit with Nancy and talk to her. "Nancy. Na-an-cy. Nancy! Nancy! Wakey wakey. Hello-o. Are you there?" I squeeze her hands. She doesn't respond. Ten minutes pass like this: me tickling and squeezing and shouting and demanding that she wake up, get up, right now; Nancy unresponsive and apparently unconscious. I keep going. Finally, when I squeeze her big toe, she kicks out at me with a sleepy growl. "Nancy," I say, very firmly, my head dipped close to hers. "You need to get up now. Come on. I need to speak to you. Open your eyes." "No," a small voice says. "Come on." I pull at her arms and she rises, eyes still closed, and puts her legs out of the side of the bed. I pull gently on her arms and she glides to a standing position. I take her, slowly, eyes still closed, to the bathroom, where she sits and has a pee. Then I put her, eyes still closed, back to bed. She's grumbling under her breath. "I just need to speak to you for a moment," I say, knowing Morris is still in a panic. "I need to ask

ALASTAIR OAKMAN HANDS me a 40L rucksack. Inside it is a lunch pack, a two-litre water bladder and a camp mug. With my own sunscreen and camera gear added, it's all I'll need for the day. Then I notice his gaze. It's fixed upon my bare legs. "Shorts man, are you?" he asks. I prefer to hike in shorts, I say. Prevents overheating. I do, but they're old and stiff. Not very comfortable, I tell him. No thanks, I say. I'll manage as I am. Scenic Rim Trail Guide Alistair Oakman leads the group up the final gentle pitch towards Spicer's Canopy Eco Lodge, beneath the twin summits of Mt Mitchell. Oakman loads us into a van and we drive from our meeting point in Cumber to the start of the hike at Cunningham's Gap, inside Main Range National Park. The summit trail to Mt Mitchell commences across the highway from the carpark and as we huddle together beside the van Oakman warns us to be careful when crossing the busy highway. "It's the most dangerous part of the hike," he jokes. There's a chill in the air as our nine-strong hiking group – including two guides – commences the climb towards the summit. Overnight temperatures dipped close to freezing a week earlier and it's still cool now, despite the clear skies and bright sunshine overhead. Oakman leads from the front, pausing often inside the first kilometre to pass on tidbits of information about our surroundings. He bends to pick up seedpods resembling exploded grenade casings, telling us in his rubber-faced style that they belong to native teak trees, or crows ash. And he points out indigenous varieties of ginger and grape vine, and sarsaparilla, raspberry and mint. The track to the summit of Mt Mitchell forms part of the Scenic Rim Trail, a member of the Great Walks of Australia. More than 1000 plant species are found inside the national park, and our self-effacing guide estimates that he'd only know around 200 of them. Throughout the next three days, I reckon he picks out almost every one of those, reciting their common and scientific names, their uses and their genealogical history. He's a walking, talking encyclopaedia. Too often I'll set off on a hike and pay little attention to the finer details of my surroundings, so I appreciate Oakman's insights. I have a tendency to focus on the trail ahead of me instead of looking around or up. As a result, I tend to miss the micro stuff. This way I'm forced to, and it isn't long before I find myself asking Oakman what certain things are before he's had a chance to tell me about them. I'm learning as I go. And in doing so, I'm making an emotional connection to the area – even if I don't realise it until later. Part of the reason for Oakman stopping so often in this early part of the trek is to allow us time to catch our breath. I always find the first uphill hike the hardest; it's when my breathing is at its most laboured, before my lungs and legs have had a chance to find their rhythm. I tend to stop more then. But Oakman is also using these stops as opportunities to assess his clientele. By observing us and seeing how red-faced we are or how quickly we recover, he can set a pace accordingly. Years of experience in leading hikes around the Kimberley region and on Kangaroo Island, as well as across the Bamurru Plains area in the Northern Territory, have taught him that much. And he seems to know his stuff. Even his guiding colleague, Reece Barker, has brought a notebook to jot down interesting pointers he overhears along the way. The higher we climb, the more the din from the highway recedes. Oakman pauses beside strangler figs whose seeds germinate as bird droppings on higher branches then grow downwards, towards the ground, slowly suffocating their host. Epiphytes and orchids sprout from the trunks of larger trees. He pauses. "I'd advise against that," he warns, sternly. The term 'ring of fire' springs to mind. Birds aplenty hide in this richly tangled rainforest, and there are all sorts of unsavoury critters about. Oakman crouches down low, signalling towards the nests of tube spiders and the tousled snares of basket weaving spiders beside the track. Cleverly concealed beneath a mossy lid nearby is the entrance to a trapdoor spider's lair that we'd never have found on our own. In the distance, we hear the calls of Albert's lyrebirds. A plump yellow robin clings to a tree trunk. And crested whipbirds, and bell minors that have caused motorists on the highway to pull over in the mistaken belief that their brakes are squealing, are constant companions – heard, but unseen. After two hours of hiking up and around the double-humped Mt Mitchell, we reach its East Peak summit. A savage wind whips across a precipitous ridge that ends abruptly, affording uninterrupted views over the Fassifern Valley and Spicers Gap – so named by explorer and botanist, Allan Cunningham, when he passed through here almost 200 years ago. Cunningham discovered this route when he camped atop Cedar Mountain – the endpoint of our trek – in 1827. By finding a way through the ranges, pastoralists were accorded access to the fertile Darling Downs region. Coincidently, we've timed our hike with the 188th anniversary of that stay. "The digs weren't quite as flash as the ones that are there today," Oakman opines, referring to Spicers Peak Lodge, the first of seven luxury lodgings built or purchased by Flight Centre founder and managing director, Graham 'Scroo' Turner, and his wife, Jude. It's where we'll bed down on our last night, after we've completed the 36km-long Scenic Rim Trail. But first, we'll spend two nights in Spicer's Canopy Eco Lodge, a tented camp purpose-built as a base for hikers in 2014. With the exception of the occasional intimate conference gathering, it's otherwise off limits to interlopers. The hike back off the summit of Mt Mitchell exits the national park halfway down. At this point we enter Spicers Peak Station, a 3000ha mixed-use property that's two-thirds nature refuge and one-third pastoral. Gone now are the lush rain forest surrounds we've been walking through. From hereon in, it's all eucalypts, she-oaks and towering grass trees, with kangaroo grasses and fallen tree limbs brushing up against our legs. Sure enough, I'm soon starting to question my decision to ignore Oakman's wardrobe advice. Branches and needles scar my bare skin and hundreds of grass seeds cling to my socks. On the positive side, native wildlife sightings become more prominent. Glossy black cockatoos fly overhead and pretty-faced wallabies bound away from our path. Oakman suggests we also keep an eye out for koalas. "We haven't seen them for a few weeks, but they do live around this area," he assures us. Our ridge track slopes down to the inky waters of Millar Vale Creek, where we hike along flat ground until it joins the purer Oakey Creek. The track deviates along the banks of this watercourse until it eventually branches off and climbs a rise to the Canopy Eco Lodge. There, 10 tastefully appointed safari-style tents are spread across a clearing offering unbroken views of Mt Mitchell's twin peaks and the pyramidal Mt Cordeaux. Husband and wife management team, Josh and Rebecca Humphryis, are waiting there for us and they're quick to offer cold drinks with delicious, freshly baked scones. The feast continues later that evening when we all sit down around a table inside the Canopy shelter for a hearty roast dinner. It's accompanied by a selection of local Granite Belt wines, with chocolate cake for dessert. Over dinner, Oakman outlines our plans for the next 24 hours and suggests that if any

BLOG TOUR - The Amish Newcomer Title: The Amish Newcomer Author: Patrice Lewis Genre: Inspirational Romance Can a modern city girl ever become one of the Plain People? She needed a safe place to hide. Instead, she found a place to call home. Television journalist Leah Porte never imagined her career would end with her witnessing a murder. Now she's temporarily living among the Amish in witness protection. Instead of feeling alone and adrift, Leah is warmly welcomed by the close-knit community—and Amish bachelor Isaac Sommer. But caught between two very different worlds, choosing love would mean leaving her big city life behind forever. Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Indie Bound Goodreads | Google books | Harlequin.com Leah Porte is a television journalist who was critically injured by a ruthless gang while reported on a story. They left the job undone, and the only way for her to stay alive is to become part of the Witness Protection Program. The Marshall's decided to hide Leah among the Amish. As it is, Leah's injuries mean she could never face the camera again, but she must now give up her life as English, for as long as it takes. What will it take not only for her to fit in as Plain, and for how long? She lands in Pikeville, Ohio and is taken in by Edith and Amos's loving family. Edith is more than kind to Leah, helping her to change her appearance and to learn their ways. Leah cannot help but feel drawn to the tight-knit and loving community. When she meets Isaac Somer, they realize that they have quite a bit in common, especially as during his rumspringa Isaac spent time among the English and has adapted several of those ways to Amish culture once returning. What a lovely story! Leah and Isaac are more than drawn to one another, but of course Leah is not Amish so there is no hope for anything to develop between them. What ensues in this book is how things do develop, what bonds them together, and what decisions Leah makes. These Amish stories are among my favorite reads and The Amish Newcomer is right there among the best of them. Many thanks to Love Inspired and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion. Please enjoy the following excerpt: Excerpt, THE AMISH NEWCOMER by Patrice Lewis So," he added as he released her hand and fell into step beside her, "you said you were from Los Angeles?" "Big city. Why are you here in Pikeville?" Leah froze inside. It was the one question she didn't want to be asked, but at least she had a predetermined story she could tell, one that mingled with just enough truth to be plausible. "I was in a car accident." She touched her cheek. "It messed me up pretty badly. I used to work as a television journalist, but you can't be in television with a face like this. I—I needed to get away. I have friends who know the Bylers, and they invited me to stay with them until I heal up." Unlike some other men she'd encountered, Isaac didn't seem to be put off by the scar in the slightest. "And then what? What happens after your face heals?" "I don't know." Her shoulders slumped, and for a moment she allowed despair, which was never very far away, to claim her. "I don't know. I suppose I'll have to change my career, and it's something I'm reluctant to do. I loved being a TV journalist." "Why are you dressed in Amish clothes? It seems unusual for a visitor." That was a question she hadn't anticipated. "Uh… uh…since I'm here for so long, I wanted to fit in. I speak a little German, and Edith thought it best if I didn't stand out. But I'm hoping everyone can forgive me for any blunders I make." "Oh, they will." He fell silent as she padded along, her bare feet still tender. "Will you be attending the hot dog roast at the Millers' tonight?" "I don't know. I'm not sure it's polite to show up without an invitation." "The Millers won't mind. They'll have a large crowd of youngies anyway, so one extra person won't matter." "What's a hot dog roast?" "Just as it sounds. They have a long pit where they build a fire, so everyone has a chance to stand by the flames and cook their hot dogs." "But what do they do, besides eat hot dogs?" "Talk. Sing. Play games. And sometimes flirt." He grinned at her. Leah caught her breath. If she didn't know any better, she might have thought Isaac was flirting with her. If so, it was subtle almost to the point of imperceptible. And there was no possible way she could flirt back, not with a man bound within the rules of a faith she didn't share. She looked away. "I'm much older than Sarah or Rachel. Is this a gathering just for young people?" "How old are you?" he blurted, then made a gesture as if to snatch the words back. "Sorry, I hope that wasn't rude." His expression was so comical she laughed. "It's no secret. I'm twenty-eight." "Ain't so? Me too." "And you're not married? That seems unusual, from what I know of the Amish." "I had—" He hesitated. "I spent some time away. Many years, in fact. Now I'm back and I intend to stay, but many of the women in the community aren't encouraging when it comes to risking their future with me. I have too much Englisch in me, they say." She couldn't help but chuckle. "I assume Englisch is the catchall phrase for anyone who isn't Amish." "Ja. It's not meant as a pejorative, just a distinguisher for anyone who isn't Amish." Living on a remote self-sufficient homestead in North Idaho, Patrice Lewis is a Christian wife, mother, author, blogger, columnist and speaker. She has practiced and written about rural subjects for almost thirty years. When she isn't writing, Patrice enjoys self-sufficiency projects, such as animal husbandry, small-scale dairy production, gardening, food preservation and canning, and homeschooling. She and her husband have been married since 1990 and have two daughters. Author website: http://www.patricelewis.com Blog: http://www.rural-revolution.com/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4798049.Patrice_Lewis Labels: 5 Stars, blog tour DJ Sakata August 15, 2020 at 11:23 PM Glad you liked it. Kate @ Bitch Bookshelf August 16, 2020 at 4:14 PM This looks like an enjoyable read to me! Yourwordsmyink August 17, 2020 at 9:43 AM Great review! This sounds great! Megan | Bookstacks 'n Golden Moms August 17, 2020 at 10:11 AM So glad you enjoyed this one. It sounds like a great book :) AUGUST WRAP UP - 65 BOOKS SERIES REVIEW - Meadow Valley by A. J. Pine SERIES REVIEW - City of Windows and Under Pressure BLOG TOUR - The Last Man She Expected SERIES REVIEW - A Little Child Shall Lead Them BLOG TOUR - Here to Stay Review - The Other Mrs. SERIES REVIEW - The Amish of Cedar Grove SERIES REVIEW - Will Trent by Karin Slaughter Review - Someone to Romance Review - The Finders SERIES REVIEW - Amish Marketplace series BLOG TOUR - When I Was You Review - The Babysitter SERIES REVIEW - Detective Katie Scott SERIES REVIEW - Clay Edison series, Books 1-3 BLOG TOUR - She Wears the Mask SERIES REVIEW - Knit & Nibble Mysteries #4-6 BLOG TOUR - Into the Blue Review - Never An Amish Bride Review - Trust No One Review - The Mountains Wild Review - The Girl From Widow Hills BLOG TOUR - The Last Story of Mina Lee Review - Romancing Nadine Review - Someone to Remember PAST DUE REVIEWS RELEASE DAY BLITZ - Into the Blue by Robin Huber BLOG TOUR - A Winning Season BLOG TOUR - His Brand of Justice BLOG TOUR - Save Her Soul Review - When You See Me Review - A Duke Too Far Review - A Duke By Any Other Name Review - The Apartment Review - Small Town, Big Secrets Review - Little Whispers BLOG TOUR - Incognito Ex SERIES REVIEW - Charles Dickens & Superintendent S... BLOG TOUR -

I am pleased to deliver the opening remarks of this conference on stability and development in Africa, organized by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, that I have the honour to chair, and the Istituto Affari Internazionali, which I would like to thank for the excellent research they are carrying and that will be presented today. I am pleased, as I mentioned, to deliver the opening remarks because I am not an expert on African issues and my intent here is just to put on the table a few questions that I consider crucial and that, I am sure, will be discussed at length by the outstanding speakers that will follow me. I remember that at the turn of the Twenty-first century the British magazine "Economist" dedicated a large section of one of its May issues to the "hopeless continent". Failure and despair, warfare and thuggery, poverty and pestilence, floods and famine were the words used to describe the daunting situation and prospects of not just a single country, but of the whole of Africa, which seemed to be so intractable that, I quote, "It began to look as though the world might just give up on the entire continent". Some of the articles focused on Sierra Leone, which, manifesting the African countries' worst characteristics, epitomised the rest of Africa. Fifteen years later, things have changed dramatically. According to the 2014 African Economic Outlook, Sierra Leone is currently the fastest growing country of West Africa. Its projection of growth in the present year is close to 14%. Once again, Sierra Leone represents an extreme example of the circumstances of the continent, whose average growth rate is estimated to be about 6% in the next decade. These figures show as well that Africa's growth has returned to the pre-global recession levels and that even if the financial crisis has impacted on the African economies, their growth remains, on average, impressive. They also demonstrate that, after fifteen years from that disheartening issue of the "Economist", Africa is no longer an hopeless continent and, in spite of broad divergences in the level of development and wealth among the African states, persisting wide economic and social inequalities,and the many obstacles to be overcome in their path towards progress,African economies have grown, on average, since the turn of the century,more than any other part of the world, save for China and India. This positive tendency is indeed to be ascribed to several factors, from the boom of commodityprice, which has been driven mainly by the growth of demand from China and other emerging markets, to the oil and gas as well as mining discoveries – 30% of the new energy resources findings over the last five years have been made in Sub-Saharan Africa –, from the effects of the debt relief packages to the increase in remittances and, above all, foreign investments from non OECD-countries and in particular from new economic actors, such as China and Brazil. However, as mentioned earlier, economic performances differ widely across the continent and not all the African countries are benefitting equally from this positive trend. Some states have managed to improve the investment environment and will keep growing in the years to come; others, despite the impressive economic growth, have failed to diversify their economies or have not carried out the necessary reforms and risk not to maintain a steady pace; unfortunately, there are also countries that are falling behind due to mismanagement, corruption, or conflict. This divergence results,on the one hand,from factors on which men have little or no influence, such as weather conditions or the availability of natural resources, and, on the other hand,fromthe governments' capability to build momentum and face important challenges, such as maintaining political and social stability; strengthening their institutional capacity; improving the investment climate; accelerating the building of infrastructures; promoting regional integration; transforming their economies from resource-driven to ones with higher added value and greater sustainability; managing with caution the natural resources, for whichthere is obviously a growing global appetite. As for the latter points in particular, let's not forget that the high commodity demand that has contributed to the recent growth trends is not endless. Changes in Chinese or Brazilian economies or their slowing down, for example, can have an impact on their African partners. That is to say that Africa has huge potentials and great opportunities, but these need to be grasped in order to consolidate this encouraging trend, which, it must be underlined, seems to be qualitatively different from past spurts. Poor governance, in particular, represents one of the crucial shortcomings of the continent. Most African countries have been moving, with different speed and mixed results, onto a democratic path and have enhanced their governance, institutional framework and democratic standards. Yet a lot remains to be done. According to Freedom House only 10 out of 49Sub-Saharan countries are to be considered free, whileilliberal regimes endure in 19 states; and in most countries political rights and civil liberties have declined over the past five years. As for North Africa, the Arab Spring revolts have fuelled hopes for democratization that, with the notable exception of Tunisia, have not materialized. Actually, there is a widespread fear that unrest in that area might spill over and further affect stability in other regions of the continent. Alongside strengthening democratic governance and the rule of law, social rights and economic inequalities need to be urgently addressed. Even if poverty levels are falling, incomes are rising, a middle class is steadily emerging, and the participation of women in political life is gradually growing, the question of social inclusion, of the highly unequal economic and social opportunities remainsvery serious. Economic growth, in fact, has not led to a corresponding and sufficient increase in wages or employment, or in an adequate improvement of the population's living conditions. And, particularly in the countries that are richer in natural resources, which – it must be noted – benefit mainly national elites and multinational companies, wealth inequalities are even widening. In fact, if we consider the Human Development Index (HDI),we can observe that resource-rich countries are heavily concentrated in the lower ranks. Equatorial Guinea, for example, is ranked 45th on the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita scale, but only 136th on the human development one. Education must also be part of a broad development scheme. Today, African countries suffer an enduring deficit in primary and secondary education. Since the beginning of the century there has been a noteworthy increase in school enrolment, but this is far from being enough. Sub-Saharan countries have the worst world records in this field: 22% of primary school-age children and 66% of secondary ones do not attend school at all. And yet, being Africathe youngest continent of the planet, African governments should look at youth as a potential engine of growth and innovation, and therefore invest on its human capacity, by improving its education standards, building a better skilled workforce, expanding the employment opportunities, particularly in qualified jobs, and tapping into their diasporas as a source of knowledge. Today, the share of vulnerable employment remains as high as 70% of total employment. Too many people still work in the black economy. Another question that should be urgently dealt with and that seems to be almost paradoxical in a continent so rich in energy resources is that of people's access to electricity. Today about 70% of the Sub-Saharan population have none. This means over 600 million people. According to the International Energy Agency's Africa Energy Outlook, in the last fifteen years, "two out of every three US dollars invested in Sub-Saharan Africa went to produce energy for export". A part from the larger investment opportunities that the efforts at filling this gap would offer, providing access to modern energy to African people must

Reach NC Voices Weekly Insight EdNC Reach NC First Vote NC Donate Now Sign up for Friday@Five Reach NC Voices: Returning to your roots of communications by Nation Hahn on January 31, 2017 Students at this elementary school in Durham pick up breakfast on the way to the classroom. Photo Credit: Mebane Rash/EdNC In October I went to the North Carolina Barbecue Festival in Lexington. Everywhere I turned I saw homemade t-shirts and signs in support of then-candidate Donald Trump. I was surprised to not see signs in support of other Republican candidates or any Democratic candidates on the state or federal level. I called Mebane Rash on my way home to discuss a phenomena that was unlike anything I had seen in electoral politics. She told me then that she had seen a substantial amount of homemade signs in support of the Trump-Pence campaign along rural byways and explained that homemade signs were one of her measures of the strength of a political campaign. While questions continue to bubble up about the variances between polling and results, and whether it was the data or journalists explaining the data that missed the mark, we wondered what had been missed about the lived reality of North Carolinians in the run-up to the election and the aftermath and why. What voices are being left out of news coverage driven by an increasingly national press corps that are housed in major metropolitan areas, primarily along the coasts of the United States? We began to discuss how to increase our own access to the voices of those left out of the mainstream media coverage and how to reach those voices with the content that we created. We can imagine content driven by data that we would collect from North Carolinians en masse. Content that includes us diving deeply into stories identified through surveying, policy analysis driven by their voices, and ultimately content created by …. y'all. We thought of it as the Architecture of Participation 2.0 — the next evolution of the heartbeat of EdNC and mission-based journalism with a side of citizen engagement. Idea to reality The reality of mission-based work is that ideas, even good ones, remain on the drawing board without funding. Higgins in Australia So it was a bit of serendipitous timing that led to Kathy Higgins, the Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) and President of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, and I having lunch in the midst of brainstorming the future of EdNC. Kathy spoke at length about her Eisenhower Fellowship experience in Australia and New Zealand which had led her to a group called Parents' Voice, the online network of parents who are interested in improving the food and activity environments of Australian children who have had substantial offline impacts. Parents' Voice, originally known as Parents' Jury, began in 2004 and now represents thousands of Australian parents. They have used nutritionists and dietitians to do analyses of food for children and school menus, surveys of parents to shine a light on ad campaigns aimed at children and their food choices, and more. Their communications platform has proven powerful because it truly represents the voice of the parents. Kathy shared that she had spent time evaluating different organizations who might want to become the home of North Carolinian voices, push the boundaries of communication, and work to bring more context and understanding to people and policymakers alike. Why EdNC? The work of improving your community, just like the work of improving yourself, begins with understanding. And to understand requires context and explanation. I've been privileged enough to be part of EdNC.org from the early days, and I believe that we have worked diligently to build a platform for knowledge for our entire state. In those early meetings Gerry Hancock and Ferrel Guillory, our founders, spoke often of the decline of state level policy reporting. They reminded us of the essential role of journalism to provide a trusted source for information and to serve as a watch dog. They spoke to us about the need to be transparent, and they made clear that journalism, at its best, would serve as a voice for the voiceless. The call to be a voice for the voiceless was one of the moments of inspiration for what came to be called the EdNC Architecture of Participation. New communication channels are more of a return to an earlier age where news was spread around campfires and communal gatherings as opposed to one-way communication that became the norm first through radio and later through television. Our Architecture of Participation is founded on our belief in two-way communication and the inherent power of conversation. Recently, Mebane and I met with a group of business leaders, and as we explained the promise of digital media, I reminded them that the new communication channels are more of a return to an earlier age where news was spread around campfires and communal gatherings as opposed to one-way communication that became the norm first through radio and later through television. The return to the roots of communication will make it possible for the voiceless to now be heard at scale. EdNC has published more than 375 unique voices through our platform including students, parents, educators, aspiring educators, administrators, policymakers, and philanthropists. Those voices have contributed to more than 1,650 pieces. Some of those pieces have influenced policy debates at the N.C. General Assembly, others have been printed off and taken to school board meetings as background for a request. And as Mebane mentioned in her recent article on EdNC's growth and future, the Architecture of Participation determines how we measure impact which is based largely around our key engagement measure — sharing. We do not want the conversation to happen on our social accounts or website alone, we want the conversation to happen in your world — whether that means in the break room at your school, your table at the local diner, or on your Facebook feed. On our end, the Architecture of Participation requires us to publish information where you are. We are experimenting with Facebook Instant Articles, cross-publishing content on Medium, live-tweeting and then capturing the tweets as opposed to recaps that post the next day, and live video. And, as always, anyone can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter to receive information where you are. That is why I believe that we were well situated in the eyes of Kathy, and the entire Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina team, to take on the challenge of building a larger Architecture of Participation that would bring your voice forward. We hope that you will join us as we build out this work in 2017. This project is in many ways the outgrowth of research that began years ago as I dove head first into questions around the decline of the local media, the rise of social media, and my own belief in the power of communication to bring about change. As a teenager in Caldwell County, logging on the internet from a dial-up 56k connection, I began to feel connected to a broader world and to big, hairy questions. I had often wondered about the ravages of addiction, the underlying social issues that caused poverty to be generational far too often, and other issues that impacted both my immediate and broader family. Teachers were kind to answer my questions, librarians often directed me to reference materials, but it was the internet that taught me that I was not alone. One of the challenges of statewide, or national, policymaking is the disconnect between those making decisions and the public in public policy. I learned that from a young age as I watched factories disappear from Caldwell County, noticed the rise of opioid addiction long before

Tag: The Stranger Capture vs Freedom in The Stranger On November 7, 2022 November 7, 2022 By Camila RIn UncategorizedLeave a comment In Albert Camus famous novel, The Stranger, the idea that life is meaningless is revealed through the attitudes of the narrator, Meursault. Halfway through the novel, I was convinced Meursault's random behavior had to do with him being a unique and free individual. It was not until Meursault went to jail that I realized he had been trapped all along. While at his mother's funeral, Meursault displays himself as cold and emotionless. For example, he describes the funeral as something concrete and not emotional, he also demonstrates this when he falls asleep in his chair during the wake. This response is perceived as odd by others around him who expect Meursault to be grieving the loss of his mother. Meursault expresses feeling judged by his mother's friends on page 10 saying, "for a second I had the ridiculous feeling that they were there to judge me". When first reading this quote, I was unaware of its significance to the story. It was not until part two, during the trial, that I realized Meursault had been foreshadowing events of the trial all along. When witnesses were called, the director, the caretaker and Perez, all who were present at the funeral, gave testimonies about Meursault's behavior. They describe how he had not cried or paid his respects, and bring up that he slept during the wake. While listening to the witness statements, Meursault describes a sudden urge to cry. This is because at this moment he began to realize he was guilty. Meursault's attitudes and behaviors throughout the novel paint him as a free, senseless individual but below the surfaced he remained captured. After Meursault is found guilty, he has a final conversation with the chaplain. This conversation helps Meursault accept his fate and he is finally able to let go of the life he had lived before. As he begins to see life and death as equal possibilities, his indifferent attitude switches. Therefore by coming to terms with death and embracing his fate Meursault is finally free. for the first time in years I had this stupid urge to cry, because I could feel how much all these people hated me "II. Zealots Of Stockholm" – The Existentialist Theme Song On October 31, 2022 October 31, 2022 By Elijah MIn Albert Camus, Existentialism, Stranger, UncategorizedLeave a comment Heathen, it's a struggle just to keep breathing "II. Zealots of Stockholm (Free Information)" by Childish Gambino By definition, existentialism is defined a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. While we've explored the lot of existentialist ideals worked into our readings of Albert Camus' The Stranger, I believe one of the most profound pieces of existentialist media is Donald Glovers "Because The Internet", specifically his song titled "II. Zealots of Stockholm (Free Information). The overall story of the song follows Glovers relationships with his parents which evolves into the overall questioning of life and death. Throughout the song many lines allude to the overall existential meaning of the song, such as the final line of the first verse reading "F*ck him, I just really wanna feel something," making reference to a girl pursuing her own individuality through cheating on her significant other for satisfaction. While I won't cite the lines in full due to their explicit nature, it's worth highlighting Glover's notes of existentialist ideals throughout the rest of the track. During the second verse, Glover makes reference to the un-importance of sexual relationships being heavily romantic, the human race being in a constant race to achieve artificial power, as well as the fragility and insignificance of the human life. While Glover is known for plenty works displaying commentary on the worlds issues through music and film, some of his work being categorized as that of the theater of the absurd/existentialist type deserves more exploration and further attention in the media. Marriage in The Stranger and Trust On October 23, 2022 October 23, 2022 By Rohan WIn Stranger1 Comment The main characters Meursault in The Stranger, and Matthew and Maria in the movie Trust (1990), are all prototypes for the Absurdist hero. All of them live as misfits, ignoring social norms and expectations. This is especially evident in their regard for marriage. While Meursault was willing to marry Marie even though he admitted to her on multiple occasions that he did not love her, he did so with emotional involvement of deciding what to eat for dinner. Not once did he question or wrestle with the idea of marriage; he was okay with it if it was something Marie wanted. He certainly didn't see marriage as a life-changing decision that needed any deep thought. Similarly in the movie Trust, Maria was willing to marry her boyfriend more out of convenience due to her pregnancy than any true love for him. She sees him more as a stable provider as he will probably work for his father's business and have a stable income. When he dumps her, she's not upset and doesn't express any real love for him. Matthew too has a strange view of marriage as he offers to marry Maria and raise her baby while only knowing her mostly as a friend and for a short time. None of them take marriage seriously. Although I guess this fits with the Absurdist view that nothing really matters in the end, including marriage. Don't Shoot the Messenger On October 23, 2022 By VICTORIA HIn Albert Camus, Stranger4 Comments In both The Stranger by Albert Camus and the movie Trust (1990), the characters seem unaffected by the norms of the world around them. Meursault of the former appears to be detached and unconcerned with the happenings of society, and the actors in the latter portray their characters with deadpan expressions and unrealistic dialogue. As both of these pieces of media are commentaries on the restrictions of societal norms, the unrealistic and often unemotional appearance of the characters amplifies the social mores that are being critiqued. In The Stranger, Meursault does not value the things that society tells him to value. The character of the people he surrounds himself with does not concern him, nor does the expectation that one should cry at one's mother's funeral. He does not follow the widely accepted way of living and does not care about what people think others should care about. His seeming indifference to the world is received harshly by his peers. During his court case, he is persecuted mostly for the abnormal way in which he acts. Through the harsh contrast between Meursault's unemotional and uncaring nature and society's (as shown through the jury) expectations of others, we see the ridiculous nature of imposed societal norms. In Trust, the actors deliver their lines in a way that is lacking emotion that may make viewers cringe. This muted unrealistic performance of some is matched by heightened unrealistic performance of others in the film. The absurd behavioral patterns of Michael's father and Maria's mother compared to Michael and Maria's subdued and abnormal approach to the world illuminates the strangeness of societal patterns and norms. Misogyny in The Stranger and Trust (1990) On October 22, 2022 By Violet BIn Albert Camus, Film5 Comments Both pieces of media, The Stranger and Trust (1990), center around men, these being Mersault and Matthew. These men both have love interests, the love interests being Marie and Maria, with Maria being more of the main character. My main issue is with Marie from the novel The Stranger. In the book, Marie is never a fleshed-out character, despite being an important character for the events

and local taxation, and representing them in tax-related disputes in administrative and court proceedings. In addition, Alan represents clients in the formation, reorganization, and liquidation of business entities and tax-exempt organizations. Anne H. LittlefieldPartner & Deputy General Counsel(860) 251-5715email Anne's Linkedin ProfileAnne's Twitter Profile Anne represents schools in labor relations, employment and education law, including collective bargaining, personnel policies and practices, constitutional law, special education, student discipline, freedom of information, and education policies. She negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of schools, including representation in interest arbitration proceedings as needed. Anne works with schools to address issues such as bullying and sexual harassment. She is often called upon to advise schools regarding professional boundaries and child abuse and neglect issues. In her role as general counsel to boards of education around the state, Anne facilitates self-evaluation and goal-setting sessions. She also leads Shipman & Goodwin's model policy project, which provides policy support and guidance to a number of school districts. Anne serves as General Counsel to Shipman & Goodwin. From 2010 through 2017, she was Co-Chair of the firm's School Law Practice Group, and from 2011 through 2017, she served on the firm's seven-member Management Committee. Jarad M. LucanPartner(860) 251-5785email Jarad practices labor and employment law on behalf of both public and private sector clients. Jarad has successfully represented employers in grievance arbitration matters, prohibited practice proceedings before the State Board of Labor Relations, and unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board. He has also represented employers in cases involving claims of discrimination and retaliation before the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and State and Federal Courts. Peter J. MaherAssociate(860) 251-5507email Peter's Linkedin Profile Peter Maher is a member of the School Law Practice Group where he represents public school districts in a variety of general education, special education, and labor and employment law matters. Peter frequently presents on various school law topics and provides professional development training for school personnel and professional groups. As a former special education teacher, Pete regularly draws on his teaching experience in counseling clients, as he is able to provide not only legal advice but also practical perspective. Prior to joining Shipman & Goodwin, Peter served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas I. Vanaskie of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Richard A. MillsPartner(860) 251-5706email Rich represents numerous boards of education and other school law clients in labor, employment and school law matters. Rich counsels school law clients in a wide range of matters, including student discipline, Board of Education policies, First Amendment issues, Freedom of Information Act issues, residency matters and budgetary matters. He also advises school law clients extensively on labor and employment matters. Rich also negotiates collective bargaining agreements on behalf of school law clients, and has represented numerous clients in mediation and in interest arbitration proceedings. Peter J. MurphyPartner(860) 251-5950email Peter's Linkedin Profile Peter represents public and private sector employers in a broad array of cases, with a focus on cases involving claims of discrimination, wrongful termination, first amendment retaliation, and other labor and employment disputes. In addition, Peter advises employers on issues such as employee discipline, disability accommodations, and internal investigations, and provides training and seminar presentations on those issues. Saranne P. MurrayOf Counsel(860) 251-5702email Saranne's Linkedin Profile Saranne represents public and private sector employers and non-profit organizations in all aspects of employee relations and employment law, including personnel policies and practices, equal employment opportunity, collective bargaining and related matters. A widely recognized authority on public sector collective bargaining, Saranne is counsel to a significant number of municipalities and serves as special counsel to the State of Connecticut, where she has worked with the State Board of Education and the state's Division of Criminal Justice. Robert J. O'BrienPartner(860) 251-5789email Robert J. O'Brien practices in the areas of construction, surety and specialized banking and commercial litigation. With more than three decades of construction law experience, he handles a broad range of construction-related matters on behalf of contractors, public and private owners, subcontractors, sureties, architects, engineers and condominium associations. Bob's banking litigation experience relates to check fraud liability and financial institution bonds. He has conducted numerous jury and bench trials, and has extensive experience with arbitration and mediation as dispute resolution alternatives. Mark K. OstrowskiPartner(860) 251-5634email Mark Ostrowski has over 25 years of experience defending chemical and product manufacturers, public utilities, retailers, pharmaceutical companies, and business and medical professionals in complex tort and product liability actions. Armed with the latest case management and courtroom presentation technology and with ready access to many of the northeast's leading scientific, engineering and medical experts, Mark regularly handles cases in all courts throughout Connecticut and has appeared pro hac vice in many other jurisdictions. Matthew RanelliPartner(860) 251-5748email Matthew Ranelli's practice includes environmental, energy and land use law. Matt represents schools, municipalities, developers and other end-users regarding clean energy projects, green building standards, energy conservation and efficiency projects, energy savings performance contracts, electric and natural gas purchasing, and managing energy options. Jessica Richman SmithPartner(203) 324-8157email Jessica's Linkedin Profile Jessica represents schools in a variety of education, labor relations and employment law matters. She negotiates certified and non-certified collective bargaining agreements on behalf of numerous public boards of education. Jessica also represents school districts in labor and employment disputes, freedom of information hearings, teacher tenure proceedings, student disciplinary matters, election law matters, and other legal proceedings arising in the education context. In addition, Jessica advises schools on education policies and practices, compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act, and other legal matters arising in the education context. Jessica L. RitterPartner(860) 251-5034email Jessica's Linkedin Profile Jessica represents boards of education in both general and special education matters, as well as labor disputes and employment litigation arising in the education context. Jessica has negotiated certified and non-certified collective bargaining agreements on behalf of numerous boards of education and has represented public employers in arbitrations and in a wide variety of administrative proceedings before various state agencies. William J. RobertsPartner(860) 251-5051email William's Linkedin Profile William Roberts is the Chair of Shipman & Goodwin LLP's Privacy and Data Protection team. Bill is also a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Bill focuses his practice at the intersection of privacy, technology and the law, and represents a wide range of public and private entities. He assists clients nationwide in navigating legal challenges with respect to regulatory compliance, governmental investigations, data breaches and complex contracting. Clients who seek Bill's guidance range from start-ups to Fortune 50 companies. Aside from helping his busy clients, Bill is a father and lifelong skier. Bill's complete biography can be found here. Kevin M. RoyPartner(860) 251-5162email Kevin's Linkedin Profile Kevin represents public sector clients with respect to the full complement of labor and employment matters, including contract negotiations, interest arbitration, contract administration issues, grievance arbitration cases, prohibited practice proceedings, administrative appeals of decisions of the State Board of Labor Relations filed in Superior Court, and applications to vacate arbitration awards filed in Superior Court. Morgan RueckertPartner860-251-5821email Morgan Rueckert practices in the areas of criminal defense, government investigations, internal corporate investigations, tort litigation, and complex business litigation. Rebecca R. SantiagoPartner(860) 251-5164email Rebecca assists many school districts with labor relations, employment and education matters. She serves as the chief negotiator for a number of school districts in contract negotiations with non-certified units as well as teacher and administrator negotiations and represents districts in interest arbitration proceedings. Louis B. SchatzPartner(860) 251-5838email Louis's Twitter Profile Louis Schatz serves as Chair of Shipman & Goodwin's Tax and Employee Benefits Practice Group. From 2007 to 2017, Lou served on the firm's seven-person Management Committee. He is the past Chair of the Tax Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. Lou practices in the areas of federal and State of Connecticut

service from a contractor? As long as both entities are subject to US laws I can't see how this affects the workers' compensation or legal rights. And it would be a tremendous waste of money and economic potential to force every company to develop capacity in so many dramatically different areas. Here's another example: five companies are all headquartered in the same high-rise. What is gained by forcing them each to hire a cleaning crew instead of contracting out the cleaning for that building? Brien Jackson Yeah, cleaning is one of those things that sounds like a bad use of contractors at first blush, but in actuality there's a lot to be said for the efficiency of hiring out (namely, getting expensive/specialized equipment is most more cost effective for a cleaning company than it would be if everyone had to hire people directly to do their cleaning), and in cases where you REALLY want the space to be clean (restaurants), a ton of benefit to the public/consumers as well. As for this specific example, I still think the crux of the matter is getting hung up on food courts specifically since, by definition, a food court is going to be contracted out to the private firms who have space therein. That's just what the thing is! When you place "efficiency" above everything else then its a wonderful practice. But if efficiency were the only goal why bother with hiring cleaning staff in the first place? Why not have each employee clean their desk and work area every evening before going home… and have a rotating list for cleaning the bathrooms. Oh, efficiency isn't everything? Except when it is used to justify paying non-living-wages. I see. Okay, sure. We'll have every employee work a full day, and then however many days a week it needs to be done we'll require them to stay at the office and FULLY (vacuuming, dusting, disinfecting, etc.) clean their office space to boot. I'm sure they'll drastically prefer that to having their employer farm the job out. Also, I didn't say anything about wages, which is a totally different matter to who is writing the paychecks. Since when does efficiency care about the preferences of employees? And who is writing the paychecks is NOT "a totally different matter" than the amount of those paychecks. In fact, this whole discussion is premised on the fact that most subcontractors exist to steal earnings from employees. That…um…doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't ALL businesses exist to steal earnings from workers under that formulation? But they do silly. Business (sole-proprietorship being the obvious exception) is about exploiting labor for a profit margin. If workers earned what they are worth there would be no profits. Subcontracting is just another layer that exists to squeeze more out of labor. Why is a sole proprietorship different, Yankee? That just means the business is owned and run by a single person and there isn't a legal shield between that individual and the business. They may have many people working for them. It's more efficient to have employees do work they're not hired to do? You may as well ask why it wouldn't be more efficient for me to have my web designer spend 20% of his time doing accounting. The reason the kind of subcontracting Loomis describes is bad is because it DOES affect wages and working conditions in a strongly negative way. The subcontractors in the cases you describe (cleaning staff & service workers) are charging money merely for being middlemen in the labor-hiring process. Perhaps if they took a one-time fee to connect an employer to a pool of potential employees that is okay but the ongoing skimming of profits on the backs of workers is abusive and wasteful. I can't tell you how many companies took upwards of 25-40% of of my wages on an ongoing basis in order to connect me to work. Its potentially cheaper for the company that hires the subcontractor because they don't need to manage the staff themselves but it causes poverty and encourages a parasitic class to prosper. Just because it may be cheaper and avoids responsibility does not make it an ethical practice. On the contrary. I don't get it. If companies save money from not having to manage the subcontractors, then, in the absense of the subcontractor, it would cost them more in management costs (rather than in paying wages to workers). I don't see how this would result in you getting more money. And, in most practical cases, it's not going to mean more jobs, but more work for everyone else. Consider a restaurant: how many restaurants can you think of who hire people solely to do the task of cleaning the kitchen? Not bus-boys/dishwashers or whatever, but jut to go around mopping, cleaning surfaces, emptying grease trays, etc.? Basically none…they expect the cooks, wait staff, and other employees whose primary job is to do something else to handle the task of cleaning on top of it. So if you bring in a professional cleaning crew once a week or every week or something, not only are you probably making your kitchen cleaner than it would have otherwise been (a good thing in its own right, obviously), you're probably supporting more jobs at the same time relative to the actual management styles practiced in the real world. A restaurant is not a good example here. Almost all restaurants, in the US anyway, pay one or two Central American immigrants to work 12 hours or more per day doing every odd job there is, including opening and closing the restaurant and constant cleaning. One reason is that there is an additional layer of profit-taking above and beyond the cost of management. Of course its not a fait-accompli that removing the subcontracting layer would lead directly to wage increases and better conditions. The point is that the company that is actually deriving the primary benefit from the employment would be responsible for the treatment of those employees, and they could not fob off their obligations to follow the law, etc., by claiming they are not "our employees". So are we going to have to apply this rule to households who use contractors too? Shall we hold them liable if the company that employs the plumber or HVAC tech who makes a service call is cheating them out of overtime? Require everyone to keep a plumber on retainer and pay them directly? That is a red herring. Work that is truly independent contracting work is a different beast entirely. We are talking about ongoing labor employment, not one-off type jobs where the laborer is already working for a contractor. Not only that, but your example isn't a good one because most plumbers and HVAC techs (at least in my neck of the woods) are unionized and earn a prevailing wage regardless of whether they are contract or subcontract or whatever-type workers. Let's not pretend that "independent contractor" isn't a huge source of labor exploitation now. I'd argue that improperly classifying employees as independent contractors is probably a bigger problem than actual subcontracting for workers. Yep. This is the reason for my comment above. Subcontracting of this sort is generally an opportunity for companies to dramatically lower labor costs for essential services without bearing the responsibility for substandard wages and benefits. Do you mean moral responsibility or what? Because in my experience most companies are perfectly willing to give their own employees substandard wages and benefit. Yeah, what really isn't being explained here is why we assume that firms hiring employees directly would be paying said employees more than the contractors pay their employees. It actually seems quite the opposite, to me. No, because its much easier for a company to shirk responsibility for paying minimum wages and overtime if they are not the

years' time the evidence shows that prosperity has deserted the United Kingdom in anticipation of a Hard Brexit, MPs will vote against Brexit. They will vote to Remain because that is what their constituents will demand. And the Brexiteers fear that. A decision by the Court of Justice that Article 50 can be revoked leaves the door ajar to the whole United Kingdom remaining. But it also gives Nicola Sturgeon a real bargaining chip in her negotiations with Westminster. Deliver what is right for Scotland, protect our interests, or we will vote to keep the whole United Kingdom in the EU. Nicola Sturgeon has accused Theresa May's Government of "disrespecting the whole devolution settlement" by taking a decision of "this magnitude and with this degree of impact on our devolved responsibilities… without the Scottish parliament being consulted." And she is right to demand proper respect for the will of the Scottish people. And this is how she gets it. Labour and Brexit. Against having your cake. Against eating it too. Writing yesterday, I observed that Labour's pro-Brexit positioning was unfathomably removed from both: its 2015 Voters (65% or 63% of whom voted Remain) and its MPs (218 for Remain versus only 10 for Leave) in light of polling showing limited support for a Brexit without strings. The same point is made afresh by recent polling from Labour List which demonstrates overwhelming Labour support for a possible second referendum My post yesterday speculated that Labour's present pro-Brexit positioning was likely to be borne of two defensive factors: first, a need to keep the red tops onside and, second, perceptions of the effects of keeping the door ajar on Labour's vote share in 2020. Of the first I said: Faced with a vigorous and scornful media [Labour] seems determined to repeat its mistakes from the last Parliament. Then MPs bowed their heads regretfully to 'overspending' allegations and the need for austerity. Now they genuflect to demands for a Brexit that ignores the limitations of the mandate. They do so because they understand it to be what the electorate wants. They do so because they are frit. But they ignore that they will take the blame when things go wrong. And they ignore that no one wants a Party that follows where others lead. Of the second, to demonstrate the source of the concerns, I attached some charts (reattached below) which illustrated that a 15% loss of Labour votes in Leave voting constituencies in England and Wales would (all other things being equal) involve a loss of 44 constituencies. These would only be partially compensated for by the mirror image of a 15% gain of Labour votes in Remain voting constituencies in England and Wales delivering an extra 18 constituencies. The additional point I want to make today is this. Few, if anyone, is suggesting voting against triggering Article 50 or somehow otherwise blocking Brexit. What is being suggested is that Labour should in the A50 Bill leave the door ajar to a second referendum. And, critically, the relevant time to judge the popularity of that course is not today. We don't have a general election today. It will be in 2020, when we do. By 2020, MPs will already have voted on the article 50 deal. That vote will probably have taken place in early 2019. If the evidence in 2019 is that the economy is performing well then, of course, Labour will, and rightly, support the Government's Brexit deal. There will be no second referendum. And MPs in Leave voting constituencies will not face a Brexit penalty at the polls. If, on the other hand, the evidence in 2019 is that the economy has tanked, inflation is rising, living standards have slumped, and the deficit has ballooned MPs would be applauded for having in the Article 50 Act enabled a second referendum. Far from being punished at the polls, Labour will benefit in 2020 from being the Party that delivered a way out of the mess. So the very best that can be said about the argument that Labour shouldn't support a second referendum because voters in Leave constituencies won't like it is this. It's an answer to the wrong question: 'what is popular today?' The worst thing that can be said, the really unfathomable thing about Labour's decision to rule out a second referendum now, is this: it has the option. It can wait and see. It can have its cake and eat it too. But instead it is doing neither. Illustrative Charts The following two charts show Labour seats in England and Wales by margin of victory, support for Brexit and (by colour, Runner Up). The first shows all Labour seats. The second highlights those Brexit supporting seats where Labour's margin of victory was less than 15% (they total 44: 39 Conservative, 3 UKIP, 1 Lib Dem and 1 Plaid Cymru). The following two charts show seats in England and Wales where Labour was Runner Up by margin of victory, support for Brexit and (by colour, Winner). The first shows all seats where Labour was Runner Up. The second highlights those Remain supporting seats where the winner's margin over Labour was less than 15% (they total 18: 14 Conservative, 2 Lib Dem, 1 Plaid Cymru and 1 Green). Labour's Brexit tactics Any attempt to analyse Labour's position on Brexit faces a difficult initial hurdle: understanding what that position is. It has a number of different iterations. But let me take the most coherent: that fleshed out by Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Keir Starmer. Here's what Sir Keir said in Parliament: The majority of those voting voted to leave. That result has to be accepted and respected, notwithstanding the fact that many of us, including myself, campaigned for remain. However, that is not the end of the matter. The next question, and one that is increasingly pressing, is: on what terms should we leave the EU? That question was not on the ballot paper. So far so good (For what it's worth, I've explained why I think those statements are true here. If you remain unpersuaded, this blog post is probably not for you). But what are the terms on which we should leave the EU – and how does Labour plan to control them? (Making the traditional assumption for this sort of thought piece on the stance of the Opposition: that it can deliver its strategy in Parliament.) Speaking outside Parliament Sir Keir proposed this: We are clear that we need the fullest possible access to the single market, that we should be in the customs union, and that there should be special arrangements for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. (And let's call this a "Good Brexit"). So far so good. But what happens if the Government doesn't secure them? Not a modest failure of the type described by Sir Keir: Of course the starting position may not be the end position. We all accept that; we are all grown up. but a wholesale failure. What then? How does Parliament react? Logically it has three options. First, it waves the deal through anyway. In that world Parliament would have failed to control the terms on which we Brexit. Second, Parliament blocks the deal whilst respecting the result of the Referendum. Assume as is inevitable that the other 27 members of the EU won't allow us to reopen negotiations. We would then leave the EU without any deal. Again Parliament would have failed to control the terms. Third, Parliament asserts a residual right to block the deal because the Government only has a mandate to Leave on the terms dictated by Parliament. It would say, in effect: 'Unless you the Government do what Parliament has demanded MPs will either reject the deal and Remain or put the deal to the electorate in a Second Referendum. Here's the thing. The first two don't achieve Parliamentary control. Only the third does. And so

Go See Do Photography A Lot of Travel, A Little Bit of History, and a Whole Bunch of Photos Tag: architecture (Page 1 of 3) Wordless Wednesday: Performing Arts Center By Ashleigh In Travel, Wordless Wednesday Visiting the Texas State Capitol "Texas stands peerless amid the mighty, and her brow is crowned with bewildering magnificence! This building fires the heart and excites reflection in the minds of all." – Senator Temple Houston One of the most highly rated attractions in Austin is the Texas State Capitol. The Capitol Building is modeled after the US Capitol Building in Washington, just like the Michigan Capitol Building in Lansing. Being that this is not uncommon for state capitols, I didn't understand the appeal of Texas State Capitol before I laid eyes on it. The exterior is made of beautiful, local, red granite and contains 360,000 square feet of floor space, more than any other state capitol. The building is 302 feet tall making it taller than the US Capitol. Why? Because everything is bigger in Texas. I had not planned to visit the capitol building until we drove by it on our tour of the city. I have seen the US Capitol. I have been inside the Michigan State Capitol. They are all the same right? I was really wrong there! This building is bigger than you can imagine. It is an impressive building and has be seen to be understood. Built in 1888, the rotunda is decorated with a portrait gallery featuring the Presidents of the Republic of Texas and Texas Governors. Sitting on 22 acres, there are many important statues and monuments on the Capitol grounds. Guided tours are offered every day departing about every 30-45 minutes. For more information about tours, visit tspb.texas.gov. Thanks for stopping by! To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to "like" my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com. Pin This: Grand Canyon National Park: Desert View View from the Watchtower at Desert View I don't know about you, but when I think of the desert, I think of snow. No? You don't? Well, my first experience in the desert was 2 days of rain then driving north to discover several feet of snow. I was excited to experience dry heat on this trip and it felt exactly the same as the air feels in Michigan. For an area called Desert View, this, while still beautiful, was not the landscape I was expecting, even in February. The Desert View Watchtower (below) is the man made landmark of this part of the park. Built in 1932 by architect Mary Elizabeth Jane Colter, it is meant to replicate towers in other southwestern cities. The tower was built to blend in with its surroundings. Colter herself described it as "One that would create no discordant note against the time-eroded walls of this promontory…The color and texture of this weathered surface rock naturally matched our terrain as none other could, but we were at the necessity of using it in just the shape it was found, as any tool mark became a conspicuous scar on the face of our walls. So we were obliged to select carefully for size and shape every unit of stone built into our masonry." (NPS) Climbing the watchtower affords great views of the canyon and the surrounding landscape. The interior of the tower on the first floor is decorated with paintings by a Hopi artist. Paintings on higher floors are replicas of those found in other southwestern sites. The paintings help get you in the mind set up the people who lived in the places many years ago. I imagine if you visit in the summer months, the watchtower gets very crowded, but it was relatively empty on this cold, snowy February day. Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to "like" my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com. Wordless Wednesday: Bar Harbor Cottage Learning From Classic Art In Michigan, Photo Tips For my husband's birthday we were given a membership to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Since then, we have taken three trips to the museum and it is very interesting to look at these famous works of art through the eyes of a photographer. So often, as photographers we have heard these rules about composition (rule of thirds anyone?) and lighting (no harsh shadows, EVER!) but when you look at paintings that are hanging on the wall in a famous museum, you see that if you break these rules, that is OK! Yes, there are paintings that depict magic hour and dramatic sunsets, but more of them show blue skies, puffy clouds, and mid-day shadows. I have even seen some portraits with a shadow on the subject's face. You post a photo like that in a photography group on Facebook, and watch out, you are going to hear about it! What is my point? Don't get bogged down by all of these photography "rules" . Do visit an art museum and study the works of art. Discover what it is that makes them good enough to be hanging in a museum. Most importantly, get out there and shoot! Don't let these "rules" make you lose your inspiration! If you like my photos be sure to "like" my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com. Fisher Building In Michigan The Fisher Building, located in Detroit's New Center district and is known as "Detroit's largest art object". Right when I walked in the door, it became obvious how it received that title. This Albert Kahn (the architect who did the Guardian Building and the Belle Isle Aquarium and who is known as The Architect of Detroit") designed marvel is full of marble from all over the world, high, painted ceilings, and accented with brass and bronze. It features 1,800 bronze window and 641 bronze elevator doors. The ceilings in the arcade feature frescoes that were hand painted and at the time cost $20,000 (which would be about $265,000 in today's money)! The exterior of this masterpiece is made up of over 325,000 square feet of marble and is the largest marble structure in the world! Somehow, it took only 15 months to complete and the building opened its doors to Detroit in 1928. In later decades when Detroiters moved to the suburbs, the Fisher building was able to keep tenants because of its dedicated 1,100 spot parking garage, the first of its kind! Over the years, the building has changed hands several times because it is not cheap to run. In 1970, The Detroit Free Press wrote that the Fisher and the neighboring New Center Building cost $3.1 million a year to operate (Historic Detroit)! The building was most recently purchased along with the nearby Albert Kahn Building (previously known as the New Center Building) in 2015 for $12.2 million (Detroit Free Press). The new owner is reportedly putting $100 million into restoring these gems to their former glory! About the Fisher Building, Developer Peter Cummings said "It is more than just a beautiful building or a landmark; it is a beacon in the heart of Detroit for all of Detroit. It is the beacon of our city, both of its past and its future,"

and me from visiting her much more frequently this year. Visits that mean so much to us and to her. The same holds true for my brothers and sisters. Even my sister, Ginger, who lives just six miles away from Mom cannot see her. She drops off groceries and other odds and ends at the "Command Center" at the Home that are then delivered to Mom. Other friends and relatives who live outside of the home are now limited to phone calls just like those of us living away. All that said, Mom has grit. The same grit that she used playing street hockey as a kid with the boys. Martha and Homer picnic Mom and Dad's wedding day: l-r, Jimmy Wingate, best man, Dad, Mom, Mary Beavers, maid of honor The same grit and determination that she used to ride the train from Durham to San Diego during WWII to be close to her Homer. He was stationed at Camp Pendleton in final prep for shipping out to fight the Japanese. It took two days to travel the 2,500 miles. She was one of the few non-uniformed passengers on the train. It was packed with young soldiers moving to the West Coast for deployment. She was the only woman in her car, maybe the only female on the train. "Those boys were so polite to me, so kind and friendly. I don't know that I could have made it without their help," she told me. I can't imagine the courage it took for her to board that train in Durham, leaving her family behind at 20 years old. "I'd never been beyond Catsburg before that trip," she told me a few years ago. The same grit that grounded her throughout Dad's weeks of training, practicing beach landings, going on exercises for days and weeks at a time while she lived with her aunt and uncle in a small bungalow not far from the base in Oceanside. For a while, she worked in a soda shop on base. One day a rough looking, bearded Marine came in and ordered a soda. She hardly looked at him before turning to the fountain to prepare the drink. She turned back to hand him the soda and almost dropped it. She finally had looked at him and saw through the beard and mustache that it was her Homer. He'd grown his beard on maneuvers and wanted to have a little fun seeing if she recognized him before he shaved. No whiskers could cover up the knowing twinkle in his eyes. The same grit to let her man go after he had "jumped ship" for one more kiss and hug the night before steaming to the South Pacific into the great unknown of war. How she made it through so much not knowing, like so many wives during that time, is beyond me. The sacrifices that she, and the country, made during those times, coupled with growing up through the Great Depression, left a mark on her to this day. I will say this for a fact, whatever pain and anguish she suffered during those dark days, when Dad came home and she had him in her arms, she was bound and determined to make a life for them. It was that grit that made her prod her Homer to take advantage of the GI Bill and go to college. He had survived the worst of the worst on Iwo Jima and in that fox hole he dreamed of making it back to his "Sha," as he called her. He envisioned then a life as a plumber, the job he had trained in before the war. They would start a family. Right away. There would be no waiting. It was Mom who insisted that they could do whatever it took, sacrifice whatever they must, for him to go to college. She believed in him and knew that he had the smarts and know-how to apply himself for a better life down the road. It was one of the many times that Dad listened to Mom over the years. It made their marriage such a wonderful partnership. It was that grit that she used to live in a prefab home for married Vets on the campus of NC State College, right next to the railroad tracks. She learned how to cook with a kerosene stove in a tiny little one bedroom house, and sweep floors through which you could see the ground below. She learned the warmth of their love could overcome the cold leaking through the spaces in the windows so wide that snow would blow in and collect on the sill. They had their first child living there. A precious little girl who they named after Mom. The family photos from those times are all happy. Which is not to say that anything was easy or that they weren't tried to the very core of their determination. But they were alive, in love, together and their first of five joys was filling their days. No matter how Dad's career moved ahead, Mom always managed the home as if they still lived in Vetville with little to no money. For her entire life, she has continued to get everything out of a bottle, jar or can and offers sharp criticism when she sees one of us being wasteful…of anything. When she made a batter for a cake, she cleaned that mixing bowl with her spatula and wasted not a drop that could go into the cake pan. Martha, new born Homer Lindell Riley Jr, Dad, Martha Ellen Dad, Mom, Lin (standing) and Steve (me) In their early days, she and Dad set up a budget calculating the amount of money coming in his monthly paycheck and the spending money necessary for food and clothing. He gave her cash upfront with full discretion on how to spend it. She figured out how to make it work, month after month, squeezing every penny, saving green stamps, buying only sale items, ice milk instead of ice cream, shopping for clothes for us at Roses Five & Dime Store. Very rarely did she buy anything for herself that wasn't related to keeping house and raising kids. It was grit and determination that got her through Dad's international travel to construction projects in Africa, Greenland, and South America. When he traveled to these far off places, the days it took to get there and back made for trips lasting up to three weeks at a time. That left Mom alone, in charge of five kids with a twelve-year spread from youngest to oldest. How she handled that without going crazy, I just don't know. Marti certainly helped out as she grew older. Then Lin, then me, as we each got our drivers licenses, we at least relieved Mom of chauffeuring ourselves and the younger kids to after school activities. I know that one of the biggest days of her parenting life was when Page, the baby, got his license and Mom was freed forever from driving kids around. She balanced that grit by giving her love, laughter and time to her family and friends with a boundless energy. Once the last child was a teenager, she really began to live her life even more fully. She showed us all how to find yourself after the kids have left the nest. She and Dad made a great life of retirement. But she never lost her grit. Ever. You hear it in her voice, pushing back the loneliness of living without her Homer and living during the virus. You hear it in her continued interest in everything that is going on in Durham and the world around her. So, here's to Mom, the former Martha Kerr Glymph, and the forever Martha G. Riley. Happy

{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-} {-# LANGUAGE TemplateHaskell #-} {-# LANGUAGE ImplicitParams #-} {-# LANGUAGE CPP #-} module GenTM5Data ( instantiateDoc ) where import Data.Aeson import Data.Aeson.TH import Data.Text (Text) import qualified Data.Text as T import Data.HashMap.Strict (HashMap) import qualified Data.HashMap.Strict as HM import Data.Hashable (Hashable) import Data.Set (Set) import qualified Data.Set as Set import Data.List as L import GenTM5Parser (getDoc) import qualified GenTM5Parser as P import Prelude hiding (read) import qualified Prelude as Pre (read) import Control.Applicative import Control.Monad import Control.Monad.Trans (lift) import Control.Monad.Trans.State import Control.Monad.Trans.Reader import Data.Maybe import Data.Either import System.Exit (exitFailure) import System.IO.Unsafe (unsafeDupablePerformIO) import System.IO (hPutStrLn, stderr) import Text.Printf import Control.Lens -- DBG -- import System.IO.Unsafe unsafePeek :: (Show a) => a -> a unsafePeek showMe = unsafePerformIO $ print showMe >> return showMe -- DBG -- data TM5ConcreteTransition = TM5CTrans { read :: Text , to_state :: Text , write :: Text , action :: Text } deriving (Show,Eq) $(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''TM5ConcreteTransition) data TM5Machine = TM5 { name :: Text , alphabet :: [Text] , blank :: Text , states :: [Text] , initial :: Text , finals :: [Text] , transitions :: HashMap Text [TM5ConcreteTransition] } deriving (Show) $(deriveJSON defaultOptions ''TM5Machine) -- Rich transitions: embeds instantiation meta data along serializable structure. data RichCTransition = RCTrans { cTransRCT :: TM5ConcreteTransition -- toJSON , skellNameRCT :: Text -- template name, i.e. HM key to children template trans. , paramsRCT :: [Text] -- resolved params for this trans., used by children } deriving (Show,Eq) data StateInstance = SI { nameSI :: Text , paramsSI :: [Text] } deriving (Show) exitError :: String -> a exitError s = unsafeDupablePerformIO $ hPutStrLn stderr s >> exitFailure >> return undefined lookupOrDie :: (?deathMessage :: ShowS, Show k, Hashable k, Eq k) => k -> HashMap k v -> v lookupOrDie key hm = HM.lookupDefault (exitError $ ?deathMessage $ show key) key hm getPlaceHolder = getDoc ^. P.templatePatterns ^. P.inheritedNth getRCPOf = getDoc ^. P.templatePatterns ^. P.reciprocal getSameAsRead = getDoc ^. P.templatePatterns ^. P.readPat getSameAsState = getDoc ^. P.templatePatterns ^. P.currentState getGlobAny = getDoc ^. P.alphabet ^. P.globAnyInput getGlobFree = getDoc ^. P.alphabet ^. P.globFreeSymbols getFreeSyms = getDoc ^. P.alphabet ^. P.freeSymbols getRCPFree = getDoc ^. P.alphabet ^. P.freeSymbolsRCP getCollection = getDoc ^. P.alphabet ^. P.collection getExhaustiveSet = Set.fromList$ getCollection ++ getRCPFree makeState :: StateInstance -- The current concrete state and its params (for recursive transitions) -> StateInstance -- The a template state to instantiate with concrete params. -> StateInstance -- the resulting concrete name and list of concrete params. makeState currentState (SI templName params) = if templName == getSameAsState then currentState else let bits = T.splitOn getPlaceHolder templName :: [Text] in case bits of [single] -> SI single [] _ -> SI (T.concat$ L.concat$ L.transpose$ [bits, params]) params #define CALLJUSTORDIE(tailInfo, param) (let ?dbgInfo = ?dbgInfo ++ tailInfo in justOrDie param) justOrDie :: (?dbgInfo :: String) => Maybe a -> a justOrDie = fromMaybe (let ?dbgInfo = "justOrDie: DYING -> " ++ ?dbgInfo in exitError ?dbgInfo) -- Takes a selector -- The selector can be either (rcp to Nth sym) "~~%%N" or "%%N" (Nth sym) -- Returns the index data borne by the selector, -- as either Left iRcp or Right i. -- Non-selector or malformed selector will raise a deadly exception -- through the use of fromJust. indexFromSelector :: (?dbgInfo :: String) => Text -> Either Int Int indexFromSelector sel = let stripRcp = T.stripPrefix getRCPOf sel -- ?dbgInfo = ?dbgInfo ++ "; indexFromSelector" doRead = (Pre.read :: String -> Int) . T.unpack . CALLJUSTORDIE("; indexFromSelector",) . (T.stripPrefix getPlaceHolder) in case stripRcp of Just t -> Left$ doRead t Nothing -> Right$ doRead sel -- Provided a bare, litteral sym from the `freeSyms` set -- -- May throw, provided a non-bare, non-freeSym symbol. resolveRCP :: (?dbgInfo :: String) => Text -> Text resolveRCP t = let ?dbgInfo = ?dbgInfo ++ "; resolveRCP" in case elemIndex t getFreeSyms of Just i -> getRCPFree !! i Nothing -> getFreeSyms !! justOrDie (elemIndex t getRCPFree) -- From state instance params, a selector string: return the targeted parameter. -- A malformed selector, -- An improper (OOB index) selector, -- A bad freeSyms <=> RCP mapping -- will raise a deadly exception. paramFromSelector :: (?dbgInfo :: String) => ([Text], Text) -> Text paramFromSelector (params, sel) = let ?dbgInfo = ?dbgInfo ++ "; paramFromSelector" in case indexFromSelector sel of Right i -> params !! i Left i -> resolveRCP (params !! i) -- CAVEAT: 'action' field is %%'ed for return_* states ! -- CAVEAT²: 'action' field is %%'ed with non-symbols ! -- -- -- Draw obtained syms from the pool ! -- Update env: => accum' <- ((accum `union` gotSyms) `inter` pool) -- pool' <- (pool `diff` (pool `inter` accum')) -- => Env pool' accum' -- Starting and reference pools must include reciprocal-free-syms ! data Env = Env { availablePool :: Set Text, stateParams :: [Text], readEntry :: Text } gatherSyms :: [Text] -> State Env [Text] gatherSyms [] = return [] gatherSyms (sym:ls) = do e@(Env pool params readEnt) <- get let gotSyms = case sym of sym | sym == getGlobFree -> Set.fromList getFreeSyms -- Globbed... | sym == getGlobAny -> Set.fromList getCollection -- ...categories. _ -> let isRCP = T.isInfixOf getRCPOf sym -- Single static|template rcpStripped = spliceOut getRCPOf sym in let resolve = let ?dbgInfo = "sym:" ++ T.unpack sym in resolveSelector isRCP rcpStripped in Set.singleton$ runReader resolve e let pool' = \uSyms -> pool `Set.difference` uSyms in let updateEnv uSyms (Env lp pms r) = Env (pool' uSyms) pms r in modify (updateEnv gotSyms) let gathered = Set.toList$ pool `Set.intersection` gotSyms in return . (++) gathered =<< gatherSyms ls where -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Helpers -- -- -- -- -- -- -- spliceOut intron txt = T.concat$ T.splitOn intron txt resolveSelector :: (?dbgInfo :: String) => Bool -> Text -> Reader Env Text resolveSelector isRcp remainder = do readEnt <- asks readEntry params <- asks stateParams let morphRcpM dbg t = return $ if isRcp then let ?dbgInfo = ?dbgInfo ++ dbg++ "->gatherSyms:RCP: [" ++ T.unpack t ++ "]" in resolveRCP t else id t in do case remainder of rem | T.isInfixOf getPlaceHolder rem -> let dbgInfo = printf "gatherSyms:Straight: %s" (T.unpack rem) in morphRcpM dbgInfo$ paramFromSelector (params, remainder) | T.isInfixOf getSameAsRead rem -> let dbgInfo = printf "READPATTERN: readEnt: %s, rem: %s" (T.unpack readEnt) (T.unpack rem) in morphRcpM dbgInfo readEnt | otherwise -> let dbgInfo = "I AM OTHERWISE" in morphRcpM dbgInfo rem instantiateTrans :: [(Text, Text)] -- Template IO couples -> StateT (Set Text) -- Allowed Sym pool to draw from (Reader (StateInstance, P.M5Transition)) -- reference concrete state, template transition [RichCTransition] -- Resulting concrete transitions instantiateTrans [] = return [] instantiateTrans ((is,os):lio) = do (curSt@(SI parentState concreteParams) , P.M5Trans _ skToSt tpms act) <- lift ask symPool <- get let (iConcreteSyms, Env iRemPool _ _) = runState (gatherSyms [is]) (Env symPool concreteParams is) let resolveSyms = \el poo rs -> evalState (gatherSyms el) (Env poo concreteParams rs) collection = getExhaustiveSet oConcreteSyms = concat$ resolveSyms [os] collection <$> iConcreteSyms pConcretePrms = resolveSyms tpms collection <$> iConcreteSyms cActs = if T.isInfixOf getPlaceHolder act then (\ps -> let ?dbgInfo = "instantiateTrans" in paramFromSelector (ps,act)) <$> pConcretePrms else repeat act lsStates = makeState curSt <$> SI skToSt <$> pConcretePrms in let serialCTrans = zipWith4 TM5CTrans iConcreteSyms (nameSI <$> lsStates) oConcreteSyms cActs in let cTrans = zipWith3 RCTrans serialCTrans (repeat skToSt) (paramsSI <$> lsStates) in do -- return $ seq (unsafePeek curSt) () put iRemPool instantiateTrans lio >>= return . (++) (filter (\tr -> to_state (cTransRCT tr) /= parentState) cTrans) -- ForEach I:O couple -- comprehend template I:O couples -- instantiate State: -- comprehend template States -- makeTransition type WIPTransitions = HashMap Text [RichCTransition] makeTransitions :: StateInstance -- Previous concrete state, whence the transition is starting from. -> [P.M5Transition] -- Associated template transitions -> State (Set Text) -- Track consumed symbols as a State WIPTransitions -- fold resulting concrete transition maps. makeTransitions si@(SI parentState pParams) lSkellTr = foldM instantiateCondense HM.empty lSkellTr where instantiateCondense :: WIPTransitions -> P.M5Transition -> State (Set Text) WIPTransitions instantiateCondense accuHM skellTr = do pool <- get let foldingLRCTrM hm v = return$ HM.insertWith (flip (++)) parentState v hm let saneSkellTr = if skellTr ^. P.toStatePattern == getSameAsState then set P.toStatePattern parentState . set P.toStateParams pParams$ skellTr else skellTr let iol = P._inputOutput

Cuban citizens who after requesting political asylum obtained legal residence, or citizenship in the United States. The usual "modus operandi" of these people includes defrauding insurance companies with self-inflicted traffic accidents or collect bills of fake welfare systems to medical services like Medicare. When the scam is discovered, and as nobody was chasing these "exiles", a considerable number of them return to Cuba, to enjoy the ill-gotten money and escape from the northern bailiffs. The absence of diplomatic relations or close judicial cooperation between the two countries facilitates that, if not breaking the law in their countries of origin, the fugitives can live the rest of their days in apparent tranquility. But the situation appears to be changing. The Gilbert Man "case" The aforementioned police capture in... Cuban hotel customers rather than a plague have become lifesavers The sudden entrance of Cuban customers as a sourceof incomes for the tourist industry in Cuba has regularized after the government decided to open this market for them in 2009. Even though specific numbers are not available, there has been in fact a sustainable growth. The number of guests in 2013 rose by 8% in contrast with 2012, and by the first quarter of 2014 it had increased by 28% in comparison with the same period last year. The exact meaning of these numbers is the thousands of Cubans than can afford it, "mostly self-employed workers and internationalists abroad; though there are all sorts of people", noted sales representative Yana González Korucienko, from Cubanacan, in the province of Cienfuegos. She also recalled that back in 2009 their catalogue was barely one page long and now shemakes bookings in more than 100 hotels from 24 chains. On her desk, María de los Ángeles and Rafaelglance through the "book". They own a guesthouse and they are taking this option for a second time, after the banning for national citizens to stay in hotels was lifted. "This time we are going because our daughter turned 15 and we had promised her we would",... Health in Cuba Punishing those who give us so much They are the main diplomatic letter of Cuba, the most important source of income for the country, but nevertheless they were also affected by new customs restrictions that will come into force on September 1, 2014 Tens of thousands of Cuban collaborators in several continents will pay for the sins of other when it comes to financial and trade protection for the state. To them, they kept only the right to import electrical appliances and other household goods from home, in greater numbers than the rest of the travelers, but they may do so only at the end of their "mission". "I am a teacher working in Ecuador by an agreement between universities. In my case the new regulations do not affect me much, "Ernesto, professor at the University of Cienfuegos, in the south center of the archipelago explains. "Although there are reductions in the amount of items and change in prices, quantities are acceptable. Maybe we can point out some specific items, if the personal goal is 'supply' the family with things that are not there or are of poor quality, "he says. Instead, fellow citizens disagree more with the regulation, "How is it possible that the same treatment... This is not the end of smuggling "Other measures against could have been taken against who carry goods to Cuba for commercial purposes, provided in previous customs regulations, which only have to be enforced," explains a doctor working as a volunteer in Africa and adds that " the internationalists are not who keep the black market. " He reminds us all that "we must keep in mind the importance the Cuban cooperation represents for Cuba and the world "and explains that the cost this has "you must have been for five or more years in internationalist missions to know what it represents in family, personal and patriotic order. " He concludes by asserting "that these new measures will not put an end to the black market" and seems to be right if we go by the interview we made ​​to a "self importer" who works on a large scale, supplying the black market massively and constantly. "The business will continue" The new restrictions on import are meant to contain contraband trade and capital flight, redirecting the money toward the more expansive, inefficient and out of stock domestic markets. But there are always people who can find loopholes to any law, and so will happen; Emilio, a weather-battered... An "explosive" letter For years, the State sold used cars, dropped from rental agencies, through an official letter attesting that the holder had enough savings, foreign currency earned abroad. The queues were made of thousands of people, including diplomats, artists, journalists, health collaborators and sportspeople. And some had the idea that it might be a good business selling others the right to buy a car. That was the main reason given informally to finish overnight with the "letters" and to sell cars to unaffordable prices, when a normal Peugeot can cost up to $ 250,000. Cuban Independence Wars General Máximo Gómez used to say that Cubans fall short or go too far and his judgment seems still valid. However, no matter how extreme the response it was true that the business of the "letters" existed and here's an example: Story that is not a fairy tale Julia and Francisco had a car. But they wanted to have another. Cristóbal, a long time friend of the couple, recently had become a privileged man after being employed abroad under a contract managed by the Cuban government; he deserved a "letter", the administrative blessing, to acquire his own means of transport. But the promise that letter... Cleaning and making money: a possible combination The city of Cienfuegos employs thousands of dollars each month to contain dirt and deterioration of public health caused by the negligence of many of its inhabitants and the material insufficiencies of its collection system. Authorities of the also known as the Pearl of the South (for cleanliness, among other values​​) that seek to maintain national "fame" promoting initiatives such as collecting "classified" garbage and construction of a new landfill. With money provided by the French NGO Cuba Cooperation, neighbors of the Punta Gorda tourism neighborhood received three separate containers: one for "organic" waste and other for recyclable and offal from cleaning gardens and yards; which are collected at the doors of the houses by the crew of a collector car. After eight months of its implementation some inefficiencies in the system are noticeable, but especially the survival of unhealthy habits in people who persist in creating "garbage dumps" in some corners of the community. "He who fails to comply with this is failing because he wants to" say Heberto and Grisel categorically, a retired couple who recently returned from a visit to Germany. "There have been very few days that the truck hasn't shown up, and although it is... Minneapolis to Cienfuegos … and vice versa In one of the groups that each week visit the city of Cienfuegos since the Obama administration reopened the People to People exchange program, came Mariessa Ryan, an artistic Minneapolis developer who insisted on taking up to her city a taste of what she observed in the Caribbean town. Two years after her first trip she is about to get her wish , since in the first days of June painters Adrian Rumbaut and Camilo Villalvilla , photographer Omar Valenti and troubadour Nelson Valdés will leave for the United States; the first group of Cubans who travels to American soil as part of the U.S. Cuba Artist Exchange initiative. Just in April Mariessa and several colleagues were on the island to refine

stops, or after treatment has progressed for several weeks. Post-surgical patients treated with about two grams of organic germanium daily registered complaints of symptoms that were minor, and which disappeared in three weeks. Slight skin eruptions, occurring in only about two percent of patients, cleared within a short time. Although germanium sesquioxide is the safer variety, even germanium dioxide, the nonorganic type, has been shown to be safe at low levels. This is not true at high levels, however. The Journal of Toxicological Science reports on accumulation of germanium dioxide in the tissues of a long-term user who died of acute renal failure . The patient had been taking 600 milligrams of inorganic germanium (germanium dioxide) daily for 18 months. Be assured that the germanium you purchase is verified by the manufacturer to be organic germanium - or bis-betacarboxyethyl germanium sesquioxide. Reputable manufacturers routinely test expensive raw materials like germanium in their own laboratories to verify the chemical structure of the products before final formulation. changes for the better improves life quality. People who move to new locations often acquire the cancer rates of their new environment. For each cancer known in the United States, some society or group elsewhere has been successful in avoiding it. This emphasizes the role of diet and environment in disease. An individual's diet is a key factor in the development of even genetically determined diseases, according to Dr. Robert Good, formerly of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York. Dr. Good believes that dietary modification may forestall or even completely prevent development of these diseases and correspondingly lengthen and enhance the quality of life. The effect of diet on health is no longer debated. Vitamins and minerals, plus the amount of protein, fats, carbohydrates, and fiber have been found to modify the expression of toxicity and carcinogenicity of environmental agents. Slowly, the practice of treating such disease with nutritional intervention is becoming more popular. Nutritional status helps to explain why some people are susceptible to disease while others are apparently spared, even when both are exposed to similar toxins. Evidence points to the fact that nutritional status may be improved with organic germanium, whether it is ingested in age-old healing agents like Siberian ginseng, chlorella, and Reishi and shiitake mushrooms, or in twentieth century supplemental form. It is readily absorbed from water, edible plants, and animal products. Ginseng. Ginseng is used occasionally as seasoning; it is more commonly made into a tea. Soviet cosmonauts have been issued pieces of ginseng to take on missions into space as a preventive against ailments. Comfrey. Similar to spinach in preparation and taste, comfrey offers excellent nutrient value served raw and is delicious when lightly steamed and buttered. Chlorella. Chlorella granules may be added to a variety of recipes such as salads and soups. My favorite company hors d'ouvre is something I call "Green-Marine Taco Spread": 2 tablespoons chlorella granules; 2 tablespoons plain yogurt; 1 clove minced garlic; 1 cube bouillon; 2 tablespoons tamari; 1/2 cup tofu; ground pepper; 4 tablespoons sesame seeds. Combine all ingredients and blend well. A Chlorella Smoothie can be mixed by adding 1/2 tablespoon of chlorella granules to 8 ounces of apple juice, 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, and a few dashes of cinnamon. Watercress. This is a popular salad garnish with a mild but peppery flavor. In addition to adding watercress leaves to your salads, try chopping them finely to use as seasoning. Or simply place a bunch of watercress in a bowl of water, leave it on your kitchen counter, and nibble the leaves through the day. Purists who eat meat seek only organic meat products. The health-oriented may soon be able to purchase germanium-raised organic meat in the near future. One organic rancher in Nebraska has started using germanium in animal feed. He claims that organic germanium has the same effect as the antibiotics (the animals grow fatter faster, and so on), but with the use of germanium, his animals remain healthy, if not healthier. Since organic germanium helps detoxification, these animals have fewer toxins. Organic-germanium beef may be one solution to the degredation of our foodways. The Nebraska rancher believes he can stop the cancer in the meat chain. One company bottles and sells water from Utah's inland sea, the Great Salt Lake, because it contains a significant quantity of germanium. Another company grows vegetable products hydroponically (in water) in a germanium medium to build up the germanium concentration to 800 parts per million. A patent for barley sprouts grown with germanium has been obtained in Japan. Although germanium is believed to be absorbed more efficiently in food form, the quantities found in food may be too limited for therapy. Small amounts can, however, serve for prevention. Because germanium occurs in such small quantities in plants, and because its synthesis involves a difficult process, the cost of supplemental organic germanium may appear to be high when compared with some other supplements. Needless to say, you could never get large quantities in food. And like so many other nutrients, germanium is lost when foods are grown in tired soils, or when they are processed or overcooked. Germanium is present, for example in a whole grain, but not in refined flours. The stability of organic germanium, described in Chapter 6, offers many advantages. Like vitamin C, the effective dose spans a wide spectrum. It can be helpful in microgram amounts, yet an optimal quantity for cancer or serious infections is 5 or 6 grams, administered by a physician. And, like vitamin C, it is not stored in your body, but is cleared rapidly. As a preventive measure, 25 or 30 milligrams a day is usually recommended. For minor problems, 50 to 100 milligrams daily is more effective. For relief of severe pain or for achieving an overall "good" feeling, a gram or gram and a half a day may be prescribed. And for those who are seriously ill, a few grams a day may be recommended by the physician. (Larger amounts should never be taken without consulting a physician.) As stated, Dr. Asai never used more than 2 or 2 1/2 grams, and even reported success with 500 milligrams a day. If he could not cure malignancy with these amounts, at least the pain of advanced cancer was dramatically reduced. Serafina Corsello, M.D., of the Corsello Centers in Huntington, New York, says, "Because germanium is a powerful stimulator of the immune system, I allow a 'cooling off period for very ill patients. This prevents a 'die-off effect. An alternating protocol gives the system an opportunity to unwind before the next stimulation phase. The recommendation is five days on and two days off. (Take organic germanium from Monday to Friday, and none on the weekend.) The sicker the person, the greater the response. A sick patient may even get a rash, but the cooling down period usually prevents both the die-off effect and other symptoms. "Work up to prescribed dosages gradually. Very ill people those who experience severe fatigue and petrochemical sensitivity - require from 150 to 500 milligrams daily. "It is also advisable to check the adrenals. If the adrenals are not functioning properly, you are beating a dead horse." Although sometimes administered intramuscularly and intravenously, organic germanium is very successful when taken orally. The absorption rate is even higher when taken sublingually (under the tongue), quickly affecting your lymph and circulatory systems. This method increases absorption by 15 to 20 percent. Nasal application (sniffing) is also an efficient method, but some may find that this manner of absorption irritates nasal passages. Smaller amounts of organic germanium are used for lung cancer because of the rapid circulation and metabolism of that organ. Only 15 milligrams daily have been demonstrated to help those with candida. It has an energizing effect at

a direct exchange among newcomers and resident population at all age levels. Using the school buildings to host creative workshops for all ages, revitalises the spaces and brings the local community together in an effort to increase the involvement and interaction between neighbourhoods and local schools. The programme is led by the city of Athens and financed by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. During the summer of 2016, 450 out of the 1,250 participants in activities of the open schools were refugees. Today the initiative comprises 25 public schools in the municipality of Athens and numbers 170 courses with a total of 10,184 participants." In Refugees and migrants, Education, Awards Tags Athens Open Schools A new digital coordination platform for refugee and migrant services A new digital platform, accmr.gr, was launched today, bringing together all the services and actions of institutions that contribute to social integration and the protection of migrant and refugee rights. The platform is operated by the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee issues has been operating since June 2017 with Stavros Niarchos Foundation as founding donor and with the coordination of the Athens Partnership. "The platform allows non-governmental organizations, international organizations, migrant communities, and civil society organizations more widely, as well as municipal agencies, to be easily and properly up-to-date with crucial information and to refer beneficiaries appropriately," said Athens Mayor George Kaminis, adding: "We all need to work together to improve existing services and to draw up appropriate policies, both for dealing with new extraordinary circumstances, as well to promote smooth integration of the Athens migrant and refugee population in the city of Athens" The new ACCMR digital platform seeks to fill the gap of valid and up-to-date information on services available for the benefit of immigrants and refugees in the neighborhoods of Athens in areas such as housing, health, education, culture, legal support and integration into the labor market. All stakeholders are invited to participate actively, by registering and listing updated information about their services and initiatives. In addition, accmr.gr encourages residents, as well as private companies and other stakeholders to support initiatives and actively participate in the development of an inclusive and socially cohesive Athens. Interested parties can register, declare how they can help with donations, voluntary contributions, know-how or in-kind contributions, and the ACCMR will bring them together with organizations in need of corresponding support. "The Coordination Center's work is an excellent example of a public-private partnership for the benefit of the city. Through the new accmr.gr platform, we are also reinforcing with a web-based tool the work of organizations supporting vulnerable groups of refugees and immigrants as well as all residents of Athens more broadly. This is an added-value initiative, as it can be implemented in other municipalities across Greece, "said Deputy Mayor for Immigrants and Refugees, Mr. Lefteris Papayannakis." Athens Partnership - two years of impact April 3, 2018 Athens Partnership The Athens Partnership, a nonprofit organization established in 2015 to address pressing needs exacerbated by the economic crisis through public-private collaboration, released its first Biennial Report detailing outcomes to date. Twenty-four public schools remodeled; 25 schools opened with free community activities; 6,000 sq meters of graffiti removed in the city center; and the development of an online case management system serving 40,000 beneficiaries – these are just a few of the results a new wave of public-private initiatives has achieved for the City of Athens. The Athens Partnership estimate over 70,000 Athenians have been directly impacted as a result of its programs to date. DOWNLOAD THE BIENNIAL REPORT (ENGLISH) DOWNLOAD THE BIENNIAL REPORT (GREEK) In partnership with the Municipality of Athens and theTechnical University of Crete, and with a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Athens Partnership launched "Designed for Better Learning", transforming 24 schools, inside and out. "The Athens Partnership is helping to drive change and advance city priorities at an unprecedented pace," said Mayor Georgios Kaminis. "This new model is not only facilitating impactful new programs, it is also helping the City of Athens to reimagine its public spaces and deliver services more effectively." Τhe Chanion multi-service clinic was the first public clinic to offer health and social services under one roof, free for all. "The Athens Partnership's scope has gone far beyond channeling aid rapidly and transparently to address pressing needs. AP projects are now offering model solutions to chronic problems in Athens, as well as helping create new opportunities for the city's rebirth. Thanks to lead support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, our partner and donor base has now grown to encompass individuals, foundations and companies who want to offer funds and expertise to achieve effective public-private partnerships with lasting impact", says Alexandros Kambouroglou, Executive Director of the Athens Partnership. 2015-2017 results include: Collaborated with school community to remodel 24 public schools (impacting 4,215 students and teachers), providing not only upgraded physical spaces but helping build a personal bond between students and their schools and creatively reimagining learning activities. Transformed the city's Commercial Triangle from an overcrowded central neighborhood into a model city center by cleaning 6.000 sq metres of graffiti, pedestrianizing streets, and incorporating public art, while engaging participation from the local community to ensure sustainability. The Commercial Triange project is removing tags, cleaning and pedestrianizing streets and engaging the local community to create a model city center in Athens. Organized the pilot operation of a municipal health clinic in Kypseli, central Athens, which for the first time provides health and social services under one roof, free of charge (15,000 residents served to date). Enhanced the City's refugee response through the creation of the Athens Coordination Center for Migrant and Refugee Issues (ACCMR) by bringing together 75 organizations to strategically address needs. The ACCMR is the first of its kind in the country. Strengthened economic development through a new Athens Tourism Partnership (ATP), bringing together Aegean Airlines, Athens International Airport and the Hellenic Initiative, that supported a multi-media campaign reaching over 34 million potential travelers. Through the ATP's Greeters program, 124 volunteers personally welcomed over 70,000 visitors at key city hubs. Read our Biennial Report here. Tags Athens Partnership Strengthening Athens through Partnership April 2, 2018 Alexandros Kambouroglou In addition to its antiquities, Greece is renowned for its severe economic crisis and the accompanying frightening statistics that demonstrate its harsh impact on residents: 50% unemployment rate among young residents; 15% living in extreme poverty. In addition, beginning in 2015 Greece was faced with an international humanitarian crisis as fleeing refugees flocked to the country, further draining the country's limited resources. The creation of the Athens Partnership strengthened Municipal services, by forging alliances with private sector partners. With the public sector under huge strain, cutting down even on the most basic services, many Greeks in and outside of the country stepped up and asked, "How can I help?" Unfortunately, good intentions and a desire to help do not always translate to impactful and lasting results. When it comes to philanthropy, many challenges stand in the way, such as how to coordinate and direct private investments in an efficient and effective way, and how to make meaningful and sustainable change. Enter: The Athens Partnership (AP), which was formed in 2015 to tackle these challenges and to leverage the existing services and resources of local government. An early advocate for the AP model, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation committed 10 million euro to support the Municipality of Athens and entrusted AP to administer its generous grant for the benefit of Athenians. After two years, AP launched over a dozen impactful programs garnering the support of many donors and project partners. Our Biennial Report features a robust description of the cross-sector programs launched in coordination with the City of Athens and the outcomes to date. What is more difficult to convey is how AP has helped to rethink and reawaken some of the City's essential services, developing a new framework

so as long as you leave the default commenting enabled on your posts, users can still leave a tradition comment. But, if you're only opposed to Facebook, there are other plugins (like Social Login, WordPress Social Login or Social Comments) that make it possible for readers to comment with many other social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Steam, Amazon, etc.) as well as WordPress. I am one of those people too and I hate websites that silence me just because I don't have a Facebook account. It is very inconsiderate. I'm in agreement with Marks2Much. I run a WordPress blog (self-hosted), and I will refuse to succumb to put Facebook comments on mine. As some others said, Facebook owns your comments and is stored on their server, not yours. I have many friends online and IRL who visit my site and tell me, "Alexa, if you ever put FB Comments on your site, I will not visit it again." They don't have a Facebook account, and neither do I. It's not beneficial. It's Facebook's wanting to own the entire Internet. I have NO Facebook share button, only Twitter, Google+, email and print. I prefer it that way. I'm sticking with Automattic Jetpack and Akismet. Because Jetpack and Akismet plainly work for me. I also am not a fan of having Facebook comments on my site and I wouldn't ever use them. But some bloggers LOVE it..they have massive a Facebook following that is very engaged and it makes sense for them. For most people (most bloggers don't have a huge following or huge engagement on their blog) it doesn't make sense but for some it makes a lot of sense. A lot of viral blogs use Facebook comments (such as BuzzFeed) because it helps their content go viral by increasing engagement on social media. It just depends on your niche and visitors. Also you can always have both WordPress and Facebook comments at the same time (let your readers decide). Yes, that is another advantage of using Facebook for comments. Thanks for pointing that out! As per my personal experience Facebook Comment is one of the best way to increase you visitors to comment on post or interact with existing comment. I'd like to switch from Facebook Comments, now that it's no lone=ger supported by Facebook,… to regular WordPress comments. Is there a way to do that AND keep the FB comments already posted at the end of each post?? Thanks! I haven't tried it yet, but the plugin AJ Clarke suggested seems to be the most promising among what I could find on WordPress.org . I hope it works for you! Funny how you are not using facebook comments. Why promote something you are not fully embracing yourself? I am not aware of any plugin that can do this. It sounds like the best solution though! If you are able to locate a plugin please let me know so we can check it out and include it in our post. Thanks! Why don't you use facebook comments? I'd just like to say that, as a user, any blog or news source that uses Facebook as a sole method to interact with the platform is one I really don't feel the need to visit again. the one used on this website. How did you add wordpress,twitter,facebook and google plus buttons in your comment box? This is something added on our website manually. You can use the WordPress "add_user_meta" function to add settings for your users to enter their social profiles then you can display them on the front-end. There are some plugins out there you can use as well for displaying the social in the author box. Also some themes already have it included like our Total WordPress Theme. My big question is, if you have an existing Facebook Page for the website and you use the posts there to engage with a community of Facebook users primarily, would you be able to sync a blog post content to the comments on the FB post tied to the former? I personally started to use facebook comments because I want to drive more social engagement. I can see why some people don't agree with Facebook comments, and I've found a solution for that. I have both systems, Facebook and standard wordpress comments below them. Facebook Comments are Very Easy to Submit and More Useful for Any Website. I am Using All Types of Comments Now. Where does this "wisdom" come from? EVERY website that switches to Facebook comments reduces its comment count by 70-95% (at least in the United States). If you want to completely kill the discussion at the end of your articles, add Facebook comments! I think it just depends on your target audience. Buzzfeed has done fabulously with their Facebook based comment system that helps them reach an even larger audience with their pop-culture articles and other nonsense. On the flip side, here at WPExplorer we know that our posts probably aren't going to go "viral" so we stick to standard comments that are easier for our readers to use and for us to manage. How does using Facebook Comments hurt your SEO? Why don't you use the facebook comment on this blog??? Facebook comments are great, but it depends on the niche. For our particular site it isn't useful because a lot of people leave code snippets in the comments looking for help which won't work correctly with Facebook Comments. One of the main problems I've had with the Facebook Comments Plugin is when changing URLs or domains. Or for example I went from http to https and I lost every single comment on all my pages. I think there maybe workarounds to get them back but it all seems pretty hacky/messy to me and just another thing to maintain, or remember to do. I agree. Facebook comments are definitely not for everyone. It's best on niches where the comments are more for conversation between your visitors (in my opinion) and if you lose them it doesn't matter. We personally use the comments add-on for JetPack so people can subscribe to the comments and because it technically includes Akismet for free since the comments are passed through automatics system first (something not a lot of people realize). The comments themselves are still saved in your database and still displayed by the theme (good for SEO). WP Explorer which is the best comment system between FB comment and Disquss Comment system. How You Customize your Default Comment System. My Site It Have 0 Comments I Don,t Know Why And I Use Disqus Comment System. Do I Need To Use Default WordPress Comments. My Site Is For Media. Are people actually commenting on the site? If you have 0 comments it could just be because the visitors you are receiving are not commenting. If this is the case you need to work on improving the quality of the content or make it more engaging. Or simply increase the natural traffic of the site. In what manner? Please elaborate so we can consider your suggestions. Thanks! I typically get half a dozen comments per post. I get about twice that many on FB, because I put every blog post on FB, on my page and on two group pages. I get most of my FB comments from the two group pages. The comments here leave me a little confused, but my best guess is to leave the FB app out of my system. FB generally annoys me, with the exception of the two groups I mentioned. Is it ethical to manually copy my FB comments into my WordPress comments? Hmmm – that I can't tell you. I have seen websites that automatically pull comments/shares/retweets from social media but I don't think they're selective. Nope. Only offering the Facebook plugin reduces comments. People don't want to risk websites hacking their Facebook accounts

over their hearings. This practice will prevent SSD attorneys from "shopping" for a lenient judge. For 13 years Judge Daugherty was allowed to pervert the SSA System without any action by SSA. Judge Daugherty operated with the implicit authorization of The SSA. They knew and implicitly approved of what he was doing. He was serving their clients; i.e., disability claimants. Contrary to all logic, Social Security Judge Dave Daugherty was paid up to $14,000.00 a month by Atty Eric Conn to grant his clients benefits without holding a Hearing or in some cases without reviewing the medical records. Judge Daugherty received over $2,000,000.00 in bribes between 2002 and 2015. The Social Security Administration continued to pay him his salary of $167,000.00 a year because he was a "high producer" deciding more cases than most other Judges. Conn confirmed he destroyed records after learning of the investigation. Conn's plea deal said Adkins began doing mental-impairment tests on his clients in 2004. Adkins said he spent more than three hours with people, but in fact spent 30 minutes and estimated their IQ — rather than actually testing — and assigned scores to make them appear more disabled, Conn's plea agreement said. Adkins didn't like doing the assessments, however, so in 2006, he told Conn to fill them out himself, saying "It's all bull—- anyway," according to the plea. Conn created several standard templates on impairment and filled them out, and Adkins signed them, Conn told authorities. The plea agreement said Conn faked X-ray reports as well, and lists two unnamed, un-indicted co-conspirators who allegedly took part in the fraud. The claims for Conn clients approved by Daugherty and others based on fraudulent documents obligated the SSA to pay $550 million in lifetime benefits, and the government actually paid $46.5 million to people that the agency has determined were not eligible to receive, the plea document said. Daugherty and Adkins have pleaded innocent. The Social Security Administration was complicit in the fraud scheme. It went on for about 13 years. They threaten to fire anyone who went public. Several Whistleblowers were punished as it is. The SSA benefited by the fraud and deception. The SSA manipulated the statistics to show improving numbers in lowering the Back Log of over due Hearings. SSA even sent Judge Daugherty difficult cases to get rid of, cases that were embarrassingly old and needed to be buried. It is common practice today to send cases from one Region to another and from one Hearing Office to another. Commissioner Mike Astrue was the SSA Commissioner during part of the 13 years. The Chief Judge Frank Cristado (CALJ) knew about Judge Daugherty and the fraud scheme. He must have discussed it many times over coffee with SSA Commissioner Astrue and the SSA Chief Counsel. This fraud was no secret. Commissioners had gone on and Chief Judges have retired or been fired but this fraud was an "open secret " discussed in the 9 Regional Offices and Hearing Offices across the country. Even in California it was common knowledge. So, now Atty Eric Conn and Judge Daugherty are to take the fall for the entire episode. It took hundreds of staff employees and all of the Headquarters people to perpetuate this charade on the American people. Atty Conn is a fall guy. Two former employees in the Huntington SSA office, Jennifer Griffith and Sarah Carver, said they tried for years to bring attention to suspected wrongdoing by Daugherty and Conn. The two, who faced retaliation after making reports to superiors and ultimately left the agency, attended Conn's plea hearing. "I'm glad to see that someone is finally being punished," Griffith said. However, both said there were others in the agency who took part in improper or illegal conduct. They are suing under the federal False Claims Act, which allows whistleblowers to get a portion of the money the government recovers in fraud cases. In May 2015, nearly a year before Conn was indicted, the Social Security Administration(SSA) abruptly notified hundreds of his former clients that the agency would suspend their checks while redetermining if they were still eligible. The SSA said it was taking that action because there was reason to believe some cases Conn's firm handled included fraudulent information from four doctors. The move was a blow in Eastern Kentucky, where disability income is a significant part of the economy. The SSA decided not to cut off off checks during the re-determination process after Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers interceded. However, SSA went ahead with re-determination hearings. The SSA allowed Judge Daugherty and Attorney Conn to operate their fraud scheme for over 13 years. That is over 150 months that SSA knew and paid bogus benefits in bogus cases. Why? To eliminate a Back Log of cases? This benefited the SSA Commissioners, Mike Astrue and others. It allowed them to testify on the Hill about bringing down the Back Log of overdue cases waiting for a Hearing. Some people were waiting about 5 years to get a Hearing. This fraud scheme was beneficial to the SSA bean counters in Washington DC. It allowed them to pad their statistics and maybe advance their careers. The SSA ultimately identified about 1,500 beneficiaries, most of them in Eastern Kentucky, for re-determination hearings, said Prestonsburg attorney Ned Pillersdorf, who led an effort to find attorneys for the people. Most of the hearings are over, and a little less than half the people won decisions to keep their benefits, meaning about 800 people lost money they depended on, Pillersdorf said. "It's a humanitarian crisis," Pillersdorf said. People who lost benefits can appeal. Pillersdorf is representing former Conn clients in a class-action lawsuit that seeks damages from him. His guilty plea is good news in that effort to get people money, Pillersdorf said. (Well-known disability lawyer Eric Conn pleads guilty in federal fraud case; March 24, 2017; Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article140620328.html#storylink=cpy Estep, Bill; Lexington Herald Leader) Eric C. Conn opened his law practice 23 years ago in a trailer in his hometown of Stanville, Kentucky, population 500. There, he built the third most lucrative disability firm in the nation. When the Dyes went looking for a lawyer in 2008, Conn was everywhere. He paid young women he called "Conn's hotties" to attend events across the region with his 1-800 number printed across their tank tops. He erected a 19-foot replica of the Lincoln Memorial in the parking lot of his law complex at a cost, he claimed, of a half-million dollars. He commissioned life-sized Conn effigies to sit atop billboards on the highways; in an online ad, he bragged that he had sent a local boy with terminal cancer to Disney World, and closed with a preacher's benediction giving thanks to God for Conn's kindness. Tim Dye hurt his back in the mines years ago and a car wreck in 2008 aggravated his injuries. He had surgery for ruptured discs and disintegrating cartilage. He resisted applying for disability, his wife said, until it got to where he couldn't push in the clutch in his truck or bend over to tie his shoes. His application was denied. About three-quarters of applicants' initial claims are rejected, and many turn to lawyers to help them appeal. That means big money for attorneys doing disability claims in bulk. If they win on appeal, applicants are entitled to payments dating back to when they became unable to work and lawyers get a chunk of that money, paid directly by the agency. Conn racked in more than $20 million in fees. Media reports in 2011 questioned his relationship with government-employed Administrative Law Judge David Daugherty, who approved nearly all of Conn's clients for disability. In 2013, former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, led an investigation into abuse of the disability program. He entitled his report, "How Some Legal, Medical and Judicial Professionals Abused Social Security Disability Programs for the Country's Most Vulnerable: A Case Study

в будущее в XXI веке : монография / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. В. Г. Егоркина ; Российский гуманитарный науч. фонд [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2010. — 543 с. ISBN 978-5-94856-771-6 Субетто А. И. Манифест ноосферного социализма / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. В. Г. Егоркина ; Ноосферная общ. акад. наук [и др.]. — СПб. : Астерион, 2011. — 107 с. ISBN 978-5-75-91-1176-4 Субетто А. И. Исповедь последнего человека (предупреждение из будущего) / А. И. Субетто ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2011. — 352 с. ISBN 978-5-7591-1211-2 Субетто А. И. Слово (словесная вязь коротких мыслей) / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Гречаного В. В. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион ; Кострома : КГУ им. Н. А. Некрасова, 2012. — 193 с. ISBN 978-5-7591-1262-4 Субетто А. И. Ноосферная научная школа в России: итоги и перспективы/ А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Зеленова Л. А. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук. СПб.: Астерион, 2012. — 75 с. ISBN 978-5-94856-938-3 Субетто А. И. Начала теории социального менеджмента качества. Ноосферно-социальная парадигма: [научная монография] / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Бобкова В. Н. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 263 с. ISBN 978-5-94856-965-9 Субетто А. И. Императив ноосферно-социалистического преобразования мира в XXI веке / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Комарова В. Д. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук, Российские ученые социалистической ориентации. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 34 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-02-2 Субетто А. И. Ноосферная культура и экономика Севера/ А. И. Субетто; под ред. Фетискина Н. П. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 29 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-28-2 Субетто А. И. Планетарная кооперация этносов — основа гармоничного развития человечества ив XXI веке / А. И. Субетто ; Ноосферная обществ. акад. наук, Четвёртый всемирный науч. конгр. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 12 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-20-6 Субетто А. И. Интеллектуальный космос А. А. Зиновьева: [научно-философское эссе] / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Л. А. Зеленова ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 35 с. — (Российские ученые социалистической ориентации) (Серия : Титаны Русского Возрождения). ISBN 978-5-906152-17-6 Субетто А. И. Ленин, Октябрьская революция и ноосферный социализм — символы развития в XXI веке [Текст] / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Зеленова Льва Александровича ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук, Костромской гос. ун-т им. Н. А. Некрасова. — Кострома : Изд-во Костромского гос. ун-та ; Санкт-Петербург : [б. и.], 2012. — 458 с. ISBN 978-5-7591-1308-9 Субетто А. И. Ноосферное смысловедение/ А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Зеленова Л. А. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург ; Кострома : КГУ им. Н. А. Некрасова, 2012. — 260 с. ISBN 978-5-7591-1306-5 Субетто А. И. Миссия коммунизма в XXI веке / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Зеленова Л. А. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 37 с. — (Российские ученые социалистической ориентации (РУСО) / Ноосферная общественная акад. наук, Европейская акад. естественных наук, Петровская акад. наук и искусств). ISBN 978-5-906152-35-0 Субетто А. И. Теория социализма XXI века: начала и проблемы становления/ А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. проф. Л. А. Зеленова ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 39 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-71-8 Субетто А. И. Слово о Вернадском/ А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Л. А. Зеленова ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 27 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-47-3 Субетто А. И. Слово о русском народе и русском человеке / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Воронцова Алексея Васильевича ; Всероссийское созидательное движение «Русский лад» [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 264 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045037-6 Субетто А. И. Рыночный геноцид России и стратегия выхода из исторического тупика/ [А. И. Субетто]; под науч. ред. Зеленова Л. А. ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 127 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045002-4 Субетто А. И. Человек, наука и экономика в эпоху великого эволюционного перелома: ноосферный императив / А. И. Субетто; под ред. Чекмарева Василия Владимировича ; Междунар. ун-т фундаментального обучения (МУФО),…Междунар. парламент безопасности и мира (Палермо, Италия) [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 146 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045063-5 Субетто А. И. Зов будущего: мир, человечество и Россия на пути к ноосферной гармонии/ А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Пуляева Вячеслава Тихоновича ; Российская акад. естественных наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 633 с. Субетто А. И. Юрий Алексеевич Гагарин символ ноосферно-космического прорыва в будущее России и человечества / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Вячеслава Тихоновича Пуляева ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук, Ассоц. ноосферного обществознания и образования [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 230 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045146-5 Субетто А. И. Меморандум стратегии развития России в XXI веке / А. И. Субетто ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук, Европейская акад. естественных наук, Международ. акад. гармоничного развития человека (ЮНЕСКО) [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 38 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045106-9 Субетто А. И. Ноосферно-космическая гармония / А. И. Субетто ; Межправительственный Высш. ученый Совет [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 19 с. Субетто А. И. Глобальная патология и глобальное здоровье в контексте императива ноосферной гармонии : [монография] / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Николая Петровича Фетискина ; Российская акад. естественных наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 113 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045122-9 Субетто А. И. Глобальная патология и глобальное здоровье в контексте императива ноосферной гармонии : [монография] / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Николая Петровича Фетискина ; Российская акад. естественных наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2014. — 113 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045122-9 Субетто А. И., Майборода Л. А. Общая концепция и структура опережающего стандарта качества высшего образования и её приложения применительно к крестьянскому высшему образованию / Л. А. Майборода, А. И. Субетто; Исслед. центр пробл. качества подгот. специалистов и др. — СПб. ; М. : Исслед. центр пробл. качества подгот. специалистов. — 204 с. ISBN 978-5-00-045085-7 Статьи и доклады Субетто А. И. Императив выживаемости, тотальная неклассичность будущего бытия человечества и новый гуманизм // Проблемы ноосферы и экобудущего. Вып.1. М., 1996; Субетто А. И. Русский космизм и сферное учение // Стратегии выживания. Космизм и экология. М., 1997 Субетто А. И. Регионализация культуры и образования в России через призму её национально-этнического и геополитического единства как уникальной евразийской цивилизации // Общее и особенное в региональной культуре Нижегородского края: Материалы междунар. науч. конф. (16 — 17 июня, 1997 г.). — Н. Новгород: Нижегород. гос. лингв. ун-т им. Н. А. Добролюбова, 1997. — С. 10-13. ISBN 5-85839-040-4. Субетто А. И. Цивилизационная парадигма России: взгляд в будущее в контексте философии истории // Модернизация России на рубеже веков : Материалы Межвуз. науч.-теорет. конф. (18 окт. 2000; Санкт-Петербург). — СПб.: С.-Петерб. гос. горн. ин-т им. Г. В. Плеханова, 2001. — С. 65-67. Субетто А. И. Ноосферная глобализация как альтернатива капиталистической глобализации: научный доклад на Международном симпозиуме «Глобалистика: состояние и перспектива развития» на базе Смольного института Российской академии образования в Санкт-Петербурге, 16 мая 2012 года / Субетто Александр Иванович ; Ноосфер. общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2012. — 21 с. ISBN 978-5-94856-963-5 Субетто А. И. Вернадскианская революция как научно-методологическая основа формирования ноосферного общества [Текст] : (научный доклад) / Александр Иванович Субетто; под науч. ред. Бобкова Вячеслава Николаевича ; Московский экономический форум [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 55 с. ISBN 978-5-906152-78-7 Субетто А. И. Методологические основания ноосферно-ориентированного синтеза наук в XXI веке [Текст] : (научный доклад) / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Бобкова В. Н. ; Северо-Восточный федеральный ун-т им. М. К. Амосова [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 45 с. Субетто А. И. Ноосферно-научные и духовно-нравственные основания выживания человечества в XXI веке [Текст] : научный доклад на V Всемирном научном конгрессе / А. И. Субетто; под науч. ред. Л. А. Зеленова ; Междунар. Парламент безопасности и мира [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : Астерион, 2013. — 19 с. ISBN 978-5-00045-027-7 Субетто А. И. Законы социально-экономического развития России как самостоятельной цивилизации (в контексте закона гетерогенности мировой экономики): научный доклад / А. И. Субетто ; Ноосферная общественная акад. наук [и др.]. — Санкт-Петербург : [б. и.] ; Кострома : КГУ им. Н. А. Некрасова, 2014. — 111 с. ISBN 978-5-7591-1427-7 Субетто А. И. Дилемма хаоса и порядка: на пути к ноосферной управляемой экономике // Философия хозяйства. 2017. № 2. С. 252—258. Субетто А. И. Системогенетическая теория времени и пространства. Часть II // Общество. Среда. Развитие. 2017. № 1 (42). С. 14-24. Субетто А. И. Системогенетическая теория времени и пространства. Часть III // Общество. Среда. Развитие. 2017. № 2 (43). С. 13-21. Субетто А. И. Тезисы по некоторым вопросам повестки дня «русского съезда». Санкт-Петербург, 1 июня 2017 г. // Общество. Среда. Развитие. 2017. № 2 (43). С. 145—148. Субетто А. И. Научно-образовательное общество — стратегия развития науки, образования и культуры в России XXI века и основа перехода к управляемому ноосферному развитию // Теоретическая экономика. 2017. № 1 (37). С. 18-32. Субетто А. И. Великий эволюционный перелом — переход человечеством в эпоху ноосферной истории // Теоретическая экономика (ВАК). 2017. № 2 (38). С. 14-21. Субетто А. И. Сто лет спустя после Великого Октября: экологический финал империализма США и ноосферно-социалистическая революция как императив выживаемости человечества // Теоретическая экономика. 2017. № 3 (39). С. 28-40 Примечания Литература Ссылки Субетто Александр Иванович // Академия тринитаризма Полковники (СССР) Экономисты СССР Философы техники Философы науки Философы России Социальные философы Выпускники Военного инженерно-космического

Shrinking Smartly in Estonia : Preparing Regions for Demographic ChangeBuy this book Tables and Graphs Abbreviations and acronyms Key recommendations Assessment and recommendations Key policy recommendations 1. Setting the scene The policy responses to shrinkage: From trivialising to managing strategies Demographic trends in Estonia Digital connectivity The governance structure in Estonia Structure of the report 2. Adapting land use and spatial planning to shrinkage in Estonia Land use planning versus spatial planning Land use and settlement patterns in Estonia The spatial planning framework of Estonia Sparse development is unsustainable Sparse development is costly Sparsity and polarisation result in building vacancies and an old and energy-inefficient housing stock Public services and network infrastructure lack planning coherence 3. Financing local public services and infrastructure in Estonia: Challenges and ways forward Fiscal effects of population decline at the subnational government level: An overview Municipal financing in Estonia Decentralisation in Estonia in international comparison Annex 3.A. Municipal equalisation grant formula in Estonia, 2018 4. The present and future provision of education in Estonia School network governance, reforms and trends Basic and upper secondary education trends Benchmarking school sizes, resources and expenditure Future policy scenarios Digital education provision in Estonia: Opportunities and challenges Annex 4.A. Degree of urbanisation Annex 4.B. Data processing Annex 4.C. School-level results Estonia's population – 1.33 million inhabitants in 2020 – has shrunk by 15% since 1991 and all available projections indicate that this trend will continue. But shrinkage has been uneven. While larger urban areas have grown, more than half of Estonia's counties experienced population decline greater than 25%. Rural and remote areas have been hardest hit. Shrinkage results in lower density, which increases per head service and infrastructure provision costs. It also results in housing vacancies and deteriorating built environments, problems that require additional municipal resources to maintain suitable living conditions in the face of declining tax revenues. Another effect is a higher share of the elderly population in all regions of Estonia. These older residents require additional services and care, compared to the average citizen. This study assesses shrinkage in Estonia across key policy sectors and recommends interventions that adapt regions to shrinkage in a smart and sustainable way. It discusses spatial development and planning practices and presents recommendations to make land use more efficient and spatial planning more coherent. It also reviews Estonia's multi-level governance and municipal finance model, highlighting ways to boost inter-municipal co-operation, improve the transfer system and strengthen the municipal revenue base. Finally, it examines education, by far municipalities' largest spending responsibility, presents recommendations that adapt the school network while ensuring access to high-quality education for all students and considers how other services can apply lessons learned from the education sector. Despite depopulation, the amount of developed land is increasing. From 2000 to 2014, Estonia had the sixth-highest growth (18%) among OECD countries in the amount of built-up area per capita. Over the same period, its population decreased by 5%. This, together with increasingly sparse settlement patterns, suggests that land use in Estonia may be becoming increasingly inefficient. As most development occurs in converted farmland and forests, this generates adverse environmental impacts, which can include degradation of land, biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as economic costs, notably for per capita infrastructure consumption. Depopulation widens and reinforces regional disparities. Estonia's population is concentrating near urban centres, leading to regional disparities in tax revenues, income, house prices and the quality of built environments. Shrinking regions often do not have functioning real estate markets, which makes it difficult for people to move between regions, reinforcing regional disparities and chronic labour shortages. Providing quality education in shrinking areas is challenging. Shrinkage has resulted in 50 000 fewer students over the last 20 years. Student numbers will continue to decline in sparsely populated rural areas while numbers in other areas will remain steady or increase. While shrinking municipalities are consolidating schools, they still face 30% greater, unavoidable per capita costs compared to cities. Attracting high-quality teachers is also challenging in these areas. Regional governance is fragmented and inter-municipal co-operation is limited. Spatial planning, strategic sectoral initiatives and development strategies are all governed separately at the regional level. This leads to a lack of policy coherence, inefficient service and infrastructure networks as well as uncoordinated spending at the national and municipal levels. Voluntary co-operation between municipalities is rare. Planning and legal frameworks are not prepared for shrinkage. Local Comprehensive Plans (CPs) do not address shrinkage or properly integrate population projections. Thus, re-evaluation of settlement boundaries and densification rarely occurs. Vacant housing requires demolition in order to improve land use efficiency and reduce infrastructure delivery costs, yet expropriation is legislatively time-consuming and challenging, and not integrated into spatial planning. Municipal finance and taxation systems encourage inefficiency and weaken local decision-making capacity. Eighty percent of central government transfers to municipalities are earmarked. This prevents discretionary decision-making and discourages efficiency gains, as savings cannot be used elsewhere. Greater land tax exemptions exist for residential plots in non-urban areas, adding to distortions harming efficiency. Impact fees, which require developers to bear the cost of development of public infrastructure and services in the vicinity, are not well enforced. Reduce land consumption and promote densification of central areas. CPs should steer spatial development by incorporating population projections. Subordinate plans should not allow the CP to be overridden. Plans should adapt to demographic trends and economic opportunities through flexible zoning, temporary uses and upward flexible density regulations. Promote governance spanning sectors and levels of government. County-wide spatial plans (CSPs) should act as the central platform for regional governance by integrating frameworks for voluntary inter-municipal co-operation across sectors. The central government should encourage co-operation by directing fiscal transfers to inter-municipal bodies rather than municipalities. Increase the quality of services through municipal co-operation. The central government should direct resources to joint municipal projects with quality-enhancing service goals. This is especially needed for incentives dealing with shortages in teachers, healthcare providers and other key workers in shrinking areas. Aggregated service centres coupled with digital provision should be promoted to increase resource sharing and efficiency while bridging gaps in service quality. Implement demolition and renovation projects within the spatial planning system. Demolition and renovation should be planned at a larger scale within CSPs and local CPs. Spatial planning should guide the location of these projects. Expropriation should be allowed for the demolition of empty detached housing and be based on land use decisions outlined in spatial plans. Reform fiscal structures to better prepare for shrinkage. The complex earmarked grants system should be abandoned or at least considerably reduced. Factors in the transfer system that inadvertently foster remoteness should be replaced with indicators such as population density, encouraging efficient settlement structures. Land tax exemptions in rural areas should be abolished and impact fees should be actively utilised. Fiscal incentives addressing teacher shortages in remote areas need to be implemented together with the streamlining of the school network. Provide municipalities with open information systems and administrative support. Database documenting costs and outcomes of municipal services should be established to support benchmarking of service provision. These databases should be integrated into e-platforms to evaluate and monitor the quality of services across municipalities. The central government should aid local government capacity building by training and maintaining a certified pool of planning and architectural experts to support local governments. The activity "Adapting to shrinkage and ageing through spatial interventions" was co-funded by the European Union via the Structural Reform Support Programme (REFORM/IM2020/004). This publication was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of

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Turgut Cansever: In pursuit of wisdom through architecture Defense, Trade and Foreign Policy: An Interview with CAST Director Ruslan Pukhov Middle Class Discontent Will Have Disruptive Consequences: An Interview with Lütfi Sunar Media is the Message Now: An Interview with Dr. Hakkı Öcal on Foreign Media Outlets in Turkey We Live in a Chaotic Matrix of Perceptions: An Interview with Ali Saydam Turkey's Stance in the Eastern Mediterranean Turkey's Judicial Reform Strategy Turkey's Zero Waste Project Turkey as the top refugee-hosting country Can NATO Still Fulfill Its Purpose After 70 Years? French-German Tension May Create Deep Divisions in Europe Growing Divisions within the CHP Breaking to the Surface Russia May Turn Idlib Into a Tit-For-Tat Game The New Turkey > Column , Middle East , Politics | October 3, 2019 Sisi thought It Was All Over, but Egyptians are Still Ready for Change By İsmail Numan Telci Sisi's regime has not been able to provide political stability, find a solution to the economic crisis, and prevent deepening social inequalities and many Egyptians are willing to take the risk to make their voices heard. Save this article to read later On September 20 and 21, thousands of Egyptians took to streets to protest the regime despite the fear of arrest by the security forces. Shutterstock During the past weeks, Egypt has witnessed unexpected anti-government protests. The demonstrations were triggered by the social media posts of businessman Mohammad Ali, who did construction projects for the Egyptian military, but did not receive payments for some time. Mohammad Ali heavily criticized the Sisi regime and the Egyptian army by revealing their serious malpractices. As his videos became popular, the interest among the youth to organize protests against the regime increased. On September 20 and 21, thousands of Egyptians took to streets to protest the regime despite the fear of arrest by the security forces. While protests didn't last long, it was surprising for many that some people would actually go to streets and protest. The regime's responses were harsh. Hundreds of protesters were arrested in the following days. However, the demonstrations failed to produce tangible results. The lack of international support for the protesters and the continued backing of Sisi by global actors are the main factors behind this. Egyptians know that the increasing regime pressure on civilians will not be condemned, and human rights abuses will continue to occur. Therefore, even though Egyptians wish for the regime to topple, activists were cautious to go to the streets to protest. This applies to Muslim Brotherhood members as well. As the group experienced the harshest pressure in its history under the Sisi regime, they rightly abstained from participating in protests in order to prevent further oppression. However, the Muslim Brotherhood's peaceful struggle for democracy has been the main motivation for a handful of protesters who could stand up against the regime. As the movement lost the opportunity for civil opposition inside the country, it had to carry its struggle outside. The movement was keen on staying peaceful and sought every means to establish a democratic system in Egypt. One of the most important factors behind the protests in Egypt is the continuation of the democratic struggle of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, especially through the use of traditional and social media. One of the most important tools in this sense is the regime-critical television channels. Istanbul-based Mkemmelin and Sharq are two major TV channels that the Egyptian opposition use to broadcast critical coverage of the Sisi regime. These channels have millions of viewers in Egypt where state media allows no critical coverage. While the discussion programs broadcast on these channels reach millions of Egyptians via satellite, they are an alternative source of news for media organizations, which are one of the propaganda tools of the oppressive regime in the country. These programs, which have widespread popularity among young people, reveal the true face of the regime in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood is also supported by other political and intellectual figures in its struggle for a democratic Egypt. These efforts represent a hope for the domestic masses in Egypt and encourage them to continue their struggle for democracy. Another dynamic that triggered the protests was the use of social media. In an environment where oppositional discourses cannot be expressed in the public sphere, young people often use social media tools for political activism. While Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which were used extensively in the early periods of the Arab revolutions, remained popular, it has been observed that regime critical posts and publications have increased significantly. In addition to criticism on social media, Egyptians have shown their dissatisfaction towards the Sisi regime in street as well. Sisi's regime has not been able to provide political stability, find a solution to the economic crisis, and prevent deepening social inequalities. The regime's spending on various sectors was also source of discomfort. The most obvious example of this is the expenditures in the defense industry. In an environment where inflation is increasing and purchasing power is gradually decreasing, the Sisi regime's purchase of billions of dollars of defense industry products has been met with public reaction. A similar situation can also be said in the context of giant projects such as the construction of the new capital and the expansion of the Suez Canal. It is widely argued that these projects did not produce intended outcomes and were waste of public resources. It is unclear how anti-Sisi protests will have an impact on the future of the regime. As a matter of fact, although there is dissatisfaction with Sisi within the army and political bureaucracy, there is no clear indication that regional and global actors have disregarded Sisi. On the other hand, these protests will strengthen the perception that Sisi's image, which has been damaged in domestic public opinion, has become even more negative before these actors. Therefore, since 2013, the countries that support Sisi have been forced to consider an alternative name in case of a possible change in government. Sisi was placed in power by regional and global actors led by the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE with the aim of ending the revolutionary process in Egypt in 2011. Sisi fulfilled his duty by preventing the revolutionary process, prioritizing Western interests, guaranteeing the security of Israel and eliminating the Muslim Brotherhood from political life. However, given both the lack of internal stability in Egypt and the growing reaction against Sisi, it is seen that although Sisi is still a functional actor, and he has completed the mission given to him in the counter-revolution process, there may be an increasing demand for a new and more charismatic actor in Egyptian politics. Therefore, the future of Sisi will depend not only on the developments within Egypt, but also on the attitude of regional and global actors that have an impact on this country. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi Cairo protests Hazal Duran M. Erkut Ayvaz İsmail Numan Telci Ismail Numan Telci is the Deputy Director of the Middle East Institute (ORMER) and an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations at Sakarya University. He is the author of the 'Dictionary of the Egyptian Revolution' and is the editor of www.misirbulteni.com – a news webpage focusing on the developments in Egypt. RELEVANT NEWS Cleaning the House: Anti-Opposition Campaign in Saudi Arabia Why Turkey Will Continue to Honor Morsi's Legacy Trump's Designation of

menu backgrounds (parchments) and the border around the play field. Each of these added to the overall consistency and made the game feel more and more like a whole. While there is still have much room for improvement in my visual creation skill set, I'm happy with how KST turned out. I'll certainly look to achieve the same sort of consistency in any new games we make. Luckily, Michiel also appreciates how important this is, and is better at spotting where improvements are needed than I am, so I'm confident that we'll be able to achieve that consistency. On to the drawing / artsy part of the visuals. As you can see, the drawings for KST improved quite a bit in the second iteration :). I've written quite a bit about creating these visuals, so I'll stick to the higher-level observations here. ​On the upside, in the course of creating the upgraded pictures I learned a lot about creating art assets (using paint.net). For instance, I developed more of an eye to what works and doesn't work, I got better at using all the tools available and I learned to look online for tutorials and plugins that help me to create the effects I'm looking for. Somehow, that last one is as easy to forget as it's obvious. For me at least :P. On the downside, while the artwork is OK - it's both passable and serviceable - it's not outstanding. I'm quite sure that I can improve my art skills, and I'll surely keep working on them, but I wonder whether I should aim to be doing final artwork for our games. Getting it to 'merely' good just takes up too much of that most limited of resources: time. to be clear, I don't think we should have commissioned artwork for a project like KST, especially since it was mostly a learning experience for me, but it's worth keeping in mind that what we buy if we buy the art is a lot more time to do other cool things. So for now, when creating art, I'll be focusing on becoming quicker at creating art that is good enough for a beta instead of focusing on creating artwork that is good enough for finished games. On to the user interface. It's always surprising how complex it is to create a good UI for a game (and probably for any piece of software, looking at my often frustrating experiences with custom built software in my day job). Deciding what the UI has to do and allow, and how that should be presented and enabled, is a complicated affair. Not the individual decisions, mind you, but the accumulation of small decisions which all affect one another. And this is especially true when things change over time. For instance, when I first added a menu scene to KST (or Pirate Game, since it was still called by its working title then) I decided to just make the number of players a variable and be done with that. In hindsight, it might have been better to allow each player to be toggled on and off from their own line. On the other hand, this way it's nice and explicit, which has its advantages as well. And there you go: a simple decision immediately starts to get complicated :). Related to the number of players are the player colours. If you play with two players you get to be red and blue. Green and yellow are added as players number three and four. Of course, it would have been nice to add more freedom to which colour you play with. But this also is a bit of a rabbit hole. Just adding a drop down menu for each player colour isn't enough, since you also have to block the colours that have already been taken. But the colours of inactive players probably shouldn't be blocked, but should change automatically if their colour is chosen by an active player. And this also means you need more than four colours to enable colour switching when you have four active players. What I'm trying to say is not that these things can't be done, but that there are about a gazillion things like this and each one takes some time. And more time that you'd think beforehand because of all the interactions, dependencies and follow-up work. This accumulating complexity, added to the difficulty of creating an interface that makes (intuitive) sense is what makes UI design so time consuming. So what are the lessons I learned? First off, what I've outlined above was driven home to me much more that during Powargrid development, since Michiel did much more UI work there than I did. I also realized that you have to put in the work. UI is obviously not something you can skip, but it's also not something you should do the bare minimum on. So, while working on the UI can sometimes feel like a chore, I'll be sure to keep this in mind. Having said that, another thing I've learned is that investing time into getting to know the UI tools in Unity is most certainly worthwhile. There are many features that save time, make things look better and reduce the need for special casing. Getting familiar with layout groups, canvas scaling options and such is a real time saver.​ Talking about time: that's the one thing I went really, really 'over budget' with. The first digital version of KST was a programming and Unity exercise for me. I then figured that it was a shame to let a nearly finished game just sit there and that there was a lot more to learn. And while both are correct, I severely underestimated how much time it would take to go from that first working version to something I would deem good enough to publish. Part of that is that I haven't truly internalized the lesson we've learned over and over with Powargrid: game development always takes more time than you think, even after you've adjusted for that very fact. Which is something many (if not most) gamedevs run into. Those who don't run out of time during development must have some kind of mystical superpower I am unlikely to ever acquire ;). The other part is that something I'm making has to be good before I can call it finished. Good in this case means that it has to conform to my own (unconscious) standards, which vary per topic but are usually quite stringent. Using a random screenie as a cover image? Nope, that has to be a custom image. Accepting that there are enough Dutch people to make localization to Dutch unnecessary? Nah, I want to be sure that my son can show the game to my parents. Just have the music restart whenever the game field is reloaded? Not good enough, since this breaks the flow too much (even though I managed to introduce a bug there that came back to haunt me much later). And there are many more examples like that, big and small. To be fair, all these things do make the game better, so I certainly don't see that time as wasted. But the big question is whether this was the best way to spend all that time. Would it have been more productive if I'd spent all that time working on one of our new prototypes or on extra content for Powargrid? Honestly, I'm not really sure. But since finishing KST -including the publishing part- was a huge learning experience for me and my son loves the fact that our game is now also an actual digital game, I consider KST development to be time well spent. Looking at that, the main time-lesson I'm

the necessaries for his household. The famine continued for years and thousands upon thousands of people perished of want. 1396-1407 The Durga Devi famine in India, lasting twelve years. 1586 Famine in England which gave rise to the Poor Law system. 1661 Famine in India, when not a drop of rain fell for two years. 1769-1770 Great famine in Bengal, when a third of the population (10,000,000 persons) perished. 1783 The Chalisa famine in India, which extended from the eastern edge of the Benares province to Lahore and Jammu. 1790-1792 The Doji Bara, or skull famine, in India, so-called because the people died in such numbers that they could not be buried. Relief works were first opened during this famine in Madras. 1838 Intense famine in North-West Provinces (United Provinces) of India; 800,000 perished. Famine in Ireland, due to the failure of the potatocrop. Grants were made by, parliament amounting to £10,000,000. 1861 Famine in North-West India. 1866 Famine in Bengal and Orissa; one million perished. 1869 Intense famine in Rajputana; one million and a half perished. 1876-1878 Famine in Bombay, Madras and Mysore; five millions perish. Owing to its tropical situation and its almost entire dependence upon the monsoon rains, India is more liable than any other country in the world to crop failures, which upon occasion deepen into famine. In fact, famine is, to all intents and purposes, endemic in India, and is a problem to reckon with every year in some portion of that vast area. Every five or ten years the annual scarcity widens its area and becomes a recognized famine; every fifty or a hundred years whole provinces are involved, loss of life becomes widespread, and a great famine is recorded. For the period preceding British rule the records have not been so well preserved, but there is ample evidence to show that famine was just as frequent in its incidence and infinitely more deadly in its effects under the native rulers of India. In the great Bengal famine of 1769-1770, which occurred shortly after the foundation of British rule, but while the native officials were still in power, a third of the population, or ten millions out of thirty millions, perished. From this it may be guessed what occurred in the centuries under Mogul rule, when for years there was no rain, when famine lasted for three, four or twelve years, and entire cities were left without an inhabitant. In the famine of 1901, the worst of recent years, the loss of life in British districts was 3% of the population affected, as against 33% in the Bengal famine of 1770. The native rulers of India seem to have made no effort to relieve the sufferings of their subjects in times of famine; and even down to 1866 the British government had no settled famine policy. In that year the Orissa famine awakened the public conscience, and the commission presided over by Sir George Campbell laid down the lines upon which subsequent famine-relief was organized. In the Rajputana famine of 1869 the humane principle of saving every possible life was first 1846-1847 enunciated. But Sir John Strachey, the author of the scheme, explains in his book on India that the original intention was nothing more than the annual application of surplus revenue, of the indicated amount, to purposes of famine relief; and that when the country was free from famine, this sum should be regularly devoted to the discharge of debt, or to the prevention of debt which would otherwise have been incurred for the construction of railways and canals. The measures by which the government of India chiefly endeavours to reduce the liability of the country to famine are the promotion of railways; the extension of canal and well irrigation; the reclamation of waste lands, with the establishment of fuel and fodder reserves; the introduction of agricultural improvements; the multiplication of industries; emigration; and finally the improvement where necessary of the revenue and rent systems. In times of famine the function of the railways in distributing the grain is just as important as the function of the irrigation-canals in increasing the amount grown. Irrigation protects large tracts against famine, and has immensely increased the wheat output of the Punjab; the Irrigation Commission of 1903 recommended the addition of 62 million acres to the irrigated area of India, and that recommendation is being carried out at an annual cost of 12 millions sterling for twenty years, but at the end of that time the list of works that will return a lucrative interest on capital will be practically exhausted. Finally, it is estimated by the census commissioners that in the famine of 1901 three million people died in the native states and only one million in British territory. See Cornelius Walford, "On the Famines of the World, Past and Present" (Journal of the Statistical Society, 1878-1879); Romesh C. Dutt, Famines in India (1900); Robert Wallace, Famine in India (1900); George Campbell, Famines in India (1769-1788); Chronological List of Famines for all India (Madras Administration Report, 1885); J. Hodgetts, In the Track of the Russian Famine (1892); W. Steveni, Through Famine-stricken Russia (1892); Vaughan Nash, The Great Famine (1900); Lady Hope, Sir Arthur Cotton (1900); Lord Curzon in India (1905); T. Holderness, Narrative of the Famine of 1896-1897 (c. 8812 of 1898); the Indian Famine Commission reports of 1880, 1898 and 1900; report of the Indian Irrigation Commission (1901-1903); C. W. McMinn, Famine Truths, Half-Truths, Untruths (1902); Theodore Morison, Indian Industrial Organization (1906). The average rainfall is 30 in., but the period 1891-1901 was a decade of low rainfall, and distress was caused by famine. In the two years 1899 and 1900 the monsoon was very weak, the result being a severe famine which caused great mortality among the Bhil population. In 1890-1892 he was United States minister to Russia, and during that period had charge of distributing among the Russian famine sufferers more than $ioo,000 in money, and five shiploads of food. The prevalence of famine among the Swedes was attributed to the king's remissness in performing sacrificial functions; and on more than one occasion kings are said to have been put to death for this reason. But the most singular esculent lichen of all is the " manna lichen," which in times of drought and famine has served as food for large numbers of men and cattle in the arid steppes of various countries stretching from Algiers to Tartary. (1905); Klebahn, Die wirtwechselnden Rostpilze (Berlin, 1904); Sapin-Trouffy, "Recherches histologiques sur la famine des Uredinees," Le Botaniste (1896-1897); Blackman, "On the Fertilization, Alternation of Generations and General Cytology of the Uredineae," Ann. The separation of Fanti and Ashanti has been ascribed to a famine which drove the former south, and led them to live on fan, or herbs, while the latter subsisted on san, or Indian corn, &c., whence the names Fanti and Santi. Famine and disease soon began to tell their tale. The weapon of famine, formerly in the hand of Alaric, was thus turned against him, and loud in consequence were the murmurs of the Roman populace. 439 B.C.), a wealthy Roman plebeian, who during a severe famine bought up a large amount of corn and sold it at a low price to the people. To increase the alarm of the English, as well as to relieve the famine which then prevailed, Wallace organized a great raid into the north of England, in the course of which he devastated the country to the gates of Newcastle. Edward, compelled by famine, had already given orders for a retreat when he received information. In 1901 the population was 1,489,358, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade due to famine. The population in 1901 was 5,540,702, showing a decrease of 4% in the decade due to the famine of 1896-1897, which was severely felt throughout the division. Elijah emerged from his retirement in the third year, when, the famine having reached its

and a its column index. /// If there are several equal maximum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxAbsRowIndex(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *value, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element in the specified column and its index. /// If there are several equal minimum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbsColIndex(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *value, unsigned *row); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element in the specified row and its index. /// If there are several equal minimum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbsRowIndex(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *value, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the maximum element in the specified column. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxColumn(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the maximum element in the specified row. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxRow(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the minimum element in the specified column. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinColumn(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the minimum element in the specified row. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinRow(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the absolute maximum element in the specified column. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxAbsColumn(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *value); /// \brief Computes the absolute maximum element in the specified row. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxAbsRow(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *value); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element in the specified column. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbsColumn(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *value); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element in the specified row. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbsRow(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *value); /// \brief Computes the absolute maximum element for the entire matrix and its row and column index. /// If there are several equal maximum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxAbsIndex(const MTX *M, double* value, unsigned *row, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the maximum element for the entire matrix and its row and column index. /// If there are several equal maximum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxIndex(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im, unsigned *row, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the absolute maximum element for the entire matrix. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MaxAbs(const MTX *M, double* value); /// \brief Computes the maximum element for the entire matrix. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Max(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element for the entire matrix and its row and column index. /// If there are several equal minimum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbsIndex(const MTX *M, double* value, unsigned *row, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the minimum element for the entire matrix and its row and column index. /// If there are several equal minimum elements, the first index from the beginning is returned. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinIndex(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im, unsigned *row, unsigned *col); /// \brief Computes the absolute minimum element for the entire matrix. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_MinAbs(const MTX *M, double* value); /// \brief Computes the minimum element for the entire matrix. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Min(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the range of the data in the specified column. /// Range = MaxVal - MinVal. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_ColumnRange(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the range of the data in the specified row. /// Range = MaxVal - MinVal. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_RowRange(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the range of the data in the matrix. /// Range = MaxVal - MinVal. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Range(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sum for the specified column. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_ColumnSum(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sum of the absolute values for the specified column. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_ColumnSumAbs(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *value); /// \brief Computes the sum for the specified row. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_RowSum(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sum of the data in the matrix . /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Sum(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sample mean for the specified column. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_ColumnMean(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sample mean for the specified row. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_RowMean(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sample mean for the matrix. /// If the matrix is real, only the real value, re is set, im = 0. /// If the matrix is complex, both re and im are set. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Mean(const MTX *M, double *re, double *im); /// \brief Computes the sample standard deviation for the specified column. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_ColumnStdev(const MTX *M, const unsigned col, double *value); /// \brief Computes the sample standard deviation for the specified row. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_RowStdev(const MTX *M, const unsigned row, double *value); /// \brief Computes the sample standard deviation for the matrix. /// /// \return TRUE if successful, FALSE otherwise. BOOL MTX_Stdev(const MTX *M, double *value); /// \brief Computes the sample variance

dead, for David's second son James has succeeded to those lands; and on 15th December 1664, Agneta Grahame had been retoured heir to her father James Grahame of Monorgund; and four years later (1669) we find the same lady is the spouse of William Lindsay " fiar" of Edzell. In 1666 David of Fintry must have been well on in years, he had succeeded his father in 1592 and was, we believe, married at that date; but his successor and eldest son is not served heir to his father David till Sept. 11th, I675. There seems little to relate. One of the pedigrees state "he was a man of profuse and lavish disposition, and spent a great part of his patrimony during the Civil Wars therefore impoverishing his estates"; that may be, but it depends upon the view taken of the Civil Wars whatever the motive which animated him was worthy or not; his father appears to have done much the same. John married Jean, a daughter of the Hereditary Constable of Dundee and Royal Standard Bearer, Sir James Scrimgeour; Sir James was afterwards raised to the Peerage as Viscount Dudhope in 1641; his grandson was created Earl of Dundee; these titles are in abeyance, represented by Frederick Scrymgeour of Wedderburn and Birkhill. It was while the "boy Earl" of Montrose was staying with John Graham of Fintry's father-in-law, that we find in him that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin. Sir James's gardener supplies a flower for "my Lord on Sunday," and gets 12a. for his pains, and the Earl goes, bedecked as a young gallant should be, to church at Dundee, where he bestows his alms! We can picture him clearly at this age by Jamieson's portrait of him when a bridegroom of nineteen. In 1654 John was still "fiar" there had been "articles" between General Monck and "Sir Robert Graham, Laird of Morphie," for the second Marquis of Montrose, known as "James the good" (the boy who refused his release from the Tolbooth of Edinburgh) which are also signed by the heir of Fintry. John Graham and his wife Jean Scrymgeour had no surviving issue, and he was succeeded by his brother. For the Laird of Monorgan. It is possible that the above letter was written to the James of Monorgan who was in the charter of 1655, and uncle of this James, ninth of Fintry, but it cannot be better placed than here, nothing can detract from the undoubted loyalty of the nephew afterwards ninth of Fintry as shown by the following permit given him in 1654 from General Monck, and other papers. Permitt the berearer hereof, Captain James Graham, sonne to the Laird of Fentry the elder (who is included in the earl Marquis of Montrose's capitulacon) to passe to his father's house, or;elsewhere in Scotland; and to repasse without molestation . He doing nothing prejudiciall to the Commonwealth, and to have with him his servants, horses (not exceeding the value limited by proclamation) his sword and necessaries. 21 Novbr. 1654 George Monck. To all officers and soldrs and other whom these may concerne. Like Oliphant Laird of Gask, Graham of Fintry and Monorgan is a Roman Catholic; in the year 1662 he also is granted a Lenten dispensation "with those at his own table" to take meat during the season of that fast. It is dated at Edinburgh, Feb. 1662, and signed by Blakall. His loyalty is again shown by Charles II.'s Commission to him as Major of the Forfarshire Regiment (under Lord Southesk); his brother John is still laird of Fintry. CHARLES THE SECOND, by the Grace of God, King of Scotland, England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To Our Trusty and Well-Beloved, James Graham of Monorgan, Greeting ; We do hereby constitute and appoint you to be Major of that Regiment of foote appointed to be raised, within the shyre of Forfar, whereof the Earle of Southesk is Colonell. You are therefore carefully and diligently, to discharge the duty of a Major, by exercising the said Regiment in armes both officers and soldiers, and to keep them in good order and discipline. Commanding them hereby, to obby you, as their Major, And yourself to observe such orders and directions as you shall from time to time receive from your Colonell, or other superior officers according to the discipline of Warre. Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 2nd day of Decr. 1669, and of Our reigne the 21st years. At the head of the original document is Charles's handwriting; it is on parchment and has a well-preserved seal attached. Later on he was appointed Lieut.-Colonel in place of Carnegie of Bonnymoone when the Earl of Kinghorne was Colonel. James Graham of Fintry and Monorgan married Anne, daughter of Hay of Keilour; Keilour lies close to Balgowan and was owned by the Hays for a time; it was bought from them about 1700 by one of the Graemes of Gorthie; the Hays of Keilour were a branch of the Earls of Errol and ultimately succeeded to the title. James and Anne Graham appear to have been holding the position of guardian or curator to James the third Marquis of Montrose, who in 1678 seems to have taken French leave and is bent on going abroad, a step which Monorgan has not hitherto approved. The following letters bear apology on their face! Your most affectionate cousin and servant Montrose. Be pleased to present my most humble to yr Lady & to conceall this from my ant and sisters till wt the next post I shall be able to give them an account of it for the Laird of Monorgan. In the letter to "Lady" Monorgan the Marquis refers his sisters; the youngest, Grizel, married afterwards William, second son of Lord Cochrane and was the mother of Mrs Smythe of Methven Castle. (5) Margaret, married to her cousin, Sir David Kinloch of Kinloch, first bart. The Brechin records in April 1698 speak of a Hendrie Graham of Monorgan, godfather of Henry Edgar of Kaythick, afterwards third and last Bishop of Fife, he must have been second son of the ninth laird. It is stated that James, ninth of Fintry, refused a baronetcy from Charles II; it is certain either he or his father did so; these baronetcies were offered by Charles after 1662; David of Fintry his father was then alive, and would more probably be the recipient; like Graeme of Inchbrakie he declined it; the prefix of "Sir" in the seventeenth century had no attraction for the great barons of Scotland. This baron of Fintry received a bond of relief of various large sums of money from many of his kinsmen; besides James, Marquis of Montrose, Earl of Kincardine and Lord Graham and Mugdock, the names of the following Grahams figure in the deed: John Grahame of Killearne, James Graham of Orchill, Mungo Graeme of Gorthy, John Graham of Dougaldston, David Graeme, tutor to Gorthie, Clerk of the Bills, James Graeme of Bucklyvie, (of Inchbrakie), John Graham, son of the deceist John Graham, Commissary Clerk of Dunblane and "Director depute of the Chancellorie", and state that they have "paid and contented". Mr William Graham of Kilmarnock 50,000 Scots, and to James Boswell of Auchinleck, 13,000 pounds sterling, English money, it is signed by the Marquis on the 15th April 1704. Amongst the witnesses are Thomas Graham, late brigadier in the Horse Guards, and Mungo Buchanan, W.S. David the tenth of Fintry married Anne Moray of Abercairny; she was the eldest daughter of Annas Graeme (daughter of the famous Black Pate of Inchbrakie who was the bosom friend of the Great Marquis) and Sir Robert Moray of Abercairny, one of the wealthiest of the great barons of Perthshire; her younger

at the Meadowlands playing Tioga Downs I got an email around 6PM tonight: " I bought a share for some friends as a Christmas gift, and bought a few for myself as well. Now I can say I'm a thoroughbred and standardbred owner, and thoroughbred horseplayer." The email was from a thoroughbred friend who was introduced to the harness races just this past August. The seller of the shares was Frank Antonacci (story on the partnership here), who on Facebook, Twitter and all those new-fangled mediums offered out an $11,000 trotting yearling, to 100 people at $500 a pop. Bills, stakes payments - the whole she-bang are included so the share owner does not have any further liability. According to Frank, this was done to "get some new people involved who have never owned a harness horse". From that point on, the infection of owning horses started - emails back from me, because Charlie would not know a Bettors Delight from Turkish Delight and I was stoked to fill him in on harness breeding - and from Charlie, who was stoked to own a harness horse. It turns out this partnership is expanding, according to Charlie. Two more yearlings have been added, and in my opinion, they look like they have a shot. One is a Bettors Delight and another is an American Ideal. Both are first foals of dams by Artsplace and Life Sign respectively. Like the partnership up here that Woodbine Mike Hamilton mentored, this one makes me smile. I could not wish Charlie and the other shareholders more sincere best wishes. Note: Charlie wrote on the Horseplayers Association of North America site about his first trip to the harness races in August. "What's the difference between a trotter and a pacer" was a question he asked at that time. Now he owns a piece of one of each. To read Charlie's take on harness racing as a first timer, click here. Why I Support the California Thoroughbred Boycott This week it was announced that there is a national boycott of California thoroughbred racing. As a good deal of you know, The California Horse Racing Board decided to raise takeout this past year, despite gambling experts, empirical data, most of the racing press, and horseplayers urging them not to. The same board passed a takeout hike earlier in the year as a test case at Los Alamitos and on-track handle was off over 25%, with total handle off around 15%. Regardless, they pressed on and did it again. California certainly is a dysfunctional state, in many ways. Their horse racing board, which makes wagering decisions, is mostly filled with horse owners, bureaucrats and political appointees. To many, this is a group that should not be making multi-million dollar gambling decisions - real gambling people should - while leaving horse decisions to them, yet they do. As has been shown time and time again, raising purses through a takeout increase (or even through slots) does not help the long-term growth of your gambling business. Over time, your customer base always shrinks and we are left with less than we started with. In fact, the same group (the CHRB) did something similar in 2006, raising purses in the short term, and everything was supposed to be fine. It failed, and now they are back again doing the same thing. Unlike most businesses who correct mistakes after trying them and failing, California redoes them, hoping for a different result. There are many people supporting this because they see a few more dollars waved in front of them, but in my opinion, they are focused on only one thing: Their pocketbook over the short term. I know someone like Bob Baffert supports this hike in takeout, and he has said so. He will see a purse this spring of $20,000 for his horses that last year was $18,000. Who doesn't like money? The problem is, ten years ago that $18,000 purse was $25,000. In ten years that purse will probably be less than $10,000. Not long ago I saw a video of a California trainer say "we should take as much as we can when it's there, because it won't be around much longer." It's the way the business functions, and thinks (and not just in California; as a good friend likes to say "racing cannot look past its own nose"). This takeout hike might have a pharma sales rep adding a few more dollars to his expense account for 2011, because people like John Sadler can put some of the purse increase into a new supplement. Awesome! But ten years ago the same pharma rep had ten stops on his horse route and drove a Lexus. In ten years he will have to move to Pennsylvania in his Impala. It might help some others in the short term too. This takeout hike might get a groom tipped $20 more for a win because of a slight purse increase this spring. That's wonderful. Who doesn't like money? But ten years ago she got $50. Ten years from now she will be unemployed. Why am I supporting the boycott? Because I want horse racing to have a good future; and takeout hikes, a lack of customer appreciation and a dysfunctional management system whereby horsemen make gambling decisions assures a bad future, not a good one. If people like Keith Brackpool, or Bob Baffert, or a groom, or a Pfizer sales rep won't stand up for racing's long-term health, who the hell will? I bet $1833 a day on California thoroughbred racing last season. This season I will bet zero. It is not because I want to hurt someone. It is not because I am a fly-off-the-handle militant who wants something for free. It is not because with takeout going up my betting ROI in California will go down. It's because in a decade's time I want the sport I enjoy to be bigger and stronger than it is today, instead of smaller and weaker. And it appears not a soul in racing other than my fellow horseplayers care enough about our sport to do something about it. Tuesday Notes Some items that caught my eye in racing this past couple of days. Dust up! Have you ever seen two owners go back in forth on a chat board before? Well the owner of Western Silk (Tom Hill) spoke about his filly being the best around, which was taken in a poor sportsmanship way by owner of Put on a Show, Richard Young. The two of them went at it and the fingers were burning. It's entertaining reading. For the record, I think Young's filly is much better than Tom's. But since they are both coming back in 2011 as 4YO's perhaps we will see if that is right or wrong. Equidaily seems to be linking. I have read several times from bloggers that he has been less than supportive of the blogosphere, however two items say otherwise to me. First, he linked to my piece on not being a sport, which was not a puff piece. In racing, as some of you noted in the comments section, if you write something in racing that does not fit the industry narrative on a blog (no matter how good), you won't see the light of day, sans you regular readers. Not with Seth on this piece. I have never been one for pure link bait (and I know how to do it; I work on the internet), because my opinions are mine and if you don't like them, that's ok. It's what the comment section is for. One of the best conferences I have ever been to was the SC conference in 2009 in Windsor. Moira Fanning - someone who loves this sport and who's passion is beyond reproach - stood up in

could help me feel better." Just something like that. And think of a thought that really moves you into a more beautiful space. It is hard, when you are in it. I'm not going to lie. The second it happens it always hurts. And I think it's important to let it hurt for that moment. To talk it out maybe with your parents, with a friend, with another loved one… Be upset about it. Say how you felt. Then block, delete. Move through it. Think of a beautiful thought. Get outside and move your body. And it's so funny, as I say this, cause these are the tools for so many things, right? Mark: For sure. (laughing) I'm running through them in my mind. I'm cataloging against the Unbeatable Mind tools. I'm like, "Check, check, check. There's that one. Good. All right." That's awesome. And you're right, so… But the biggest one I think that you said… They're all really important… is that's their shit. The bully is incomplete, unwhole, bruised, hurt–like you said. And that's uncomfortable for them. Just like it is for us. Cause we're all incomplete. We're trying very hard to be complete, cause that's what life is about. So what they're putting on you is really what they're experiencing themselves. So you just don't have to accept it. But you're going to feel the emotions, still. So you've gotta let those run. Otherwise they'll get stuck and it gets worse, like you said. Lori: Yes. So important. Mark: Amazing. Wow. So I have to tell you I'm working on a book called "Unbeatable Teen" and this is just a really interesting subject. So I would love to circle back with you on this another time. It's really interesting. Lori: Absolutely. Mark: So now you get interested in fitness just by… kind of it seems like your inspiration by seeing other fitness models and seeing gymnastics. So you get out and you start moving your body. And it seems like you have this great enlightening or awakening experience that the mind is equally as important. And it's the mind that has the key to happiness, right? To those moments of bliss. S So where did that take you? Because I notice in your repertoire of things you teach, you also teach mindfulness and happiness. And I know a lot of fit people who aren't mindful, and who aren't happy. So how did you kind of go there? What was your journey like? Lori: Yeah, I was one of those people. (laughing) Which I'm so glad, because now I can really understand people. So I just want to say there was one moment when I was about 14 years old, I met a girl who was in my religion actually. But they were from another town. So, I say that, because I wasn't allowed to hang out with people outside of my religion. So I had a very small… I, like, had 3 girls to choose from. So I met this girl, and she was from about 2 and a half, 3 hours away. And so I would… when we wanted to hang out, we hung out for like a week. Because our parents would meet halfway. So at 14 years old I went to her house. Her family was very fit. They ate 3 meals a day. That was it. They did not snack. So it's after dinner, and I'm like, "Where's the snacks?" She's like, "What do you mean?" And I was like, "No!" And this was like… I was like, "Are you kidding me? I don't get snacks?" I thought I was going to die. (laughing) Mark: (laughing) That's awesome. Lori: So, she's like, "We don't do snacks." So that whole week, we were super-active. I ate 3 meals a day. I go home, I lost 5 pounds. But not only that… I'm like, "Whoah! That was amazing!" Not only that, I felt so good, and we played outside all day long. We just went and did whatever. We were outside the whole time. I felt really clear. I just felt so amazing. So then I started understanding that food had a lot to do with it. So we dieted but then I saw how we ate, and I thought these people didn't have the emotions attached to the food. They just didn't. Food was just there to eat and enjoy at the dinner table together. And then you were done with it. I was so… my mind was so blown that there wasn't this emotional attachment to food. And I think over the week it was just this incredible observing. And I didn't really understand what was going on, but that's exactly what was going on. Just in awe of what was happening. How they lived. That was so different than how I was living. So I also got to see that your environment's are… Cause I went home, and guess what? You put that weight right back on. Because my environment was controlling what I was doing. So that became such a massive observation as well. But then as I moved into my early 20s, what I didn't tell you is I have massive anxiety. Constant panic attacks. It was part of the reason, besides religion, that I was home-schooled through high school. Because I was walking into the classroom just getting extreme panic attacks. I'd be blacking out in the chair. Not passing out, but losing all vision. And full body sweats. My clothes would be drenched. I didn't know what it was. No one talked about it. I felt like I was having a heart attack. And I was like, "Oh my God. Something's wrong with me. I am broken. I am not fixable." So all through my 20s, I had extreme anxiety. But the only thing that was really helping me was moving once again. So as far as moving into the mindset space, I think that a lot of it had to do with feeling like that was the only way I could control my anxiety. But also when I opened a fitness studio in my 20s, I was training all these women, cause I knew that's what I wanted to do. So I started training these women. And I would notice that no matter how much I would work them out, nothing would change. Unless we talked about how they felt. What they were thinking. Because that unworthiness just follows you everywhere. So it's going to… you could be doing something so amazing for your body, and you could get subtle changes, and maybe even great changes for a while. But if your mind is not aligned with what's happening or what you believe, you're going to find a way to go back to that baseline of what you truly believe and sabotage yourself. That's when I was like, "Oh my gosh. I could do more with them just sitting in this chair and us talking through… Mark: (laughing) Right. Fitness therapy. Lori: So… and I think that's what ended up happening, is some women would come and go, "Lori, could we just talk? Because that's been helping so much." And I'm like, "No. We can't, cause I'm so tired." I'm like, "You're my 8th client today, I'm not just going to sit here and talk to you. We gotta move and talk." So that's when I started to really notice, I am missing a huge piece of the puzzle. And started doing a lot of self-development on my own. A lot of books… I started referring people to a lot of books. And then I ultimately started doing self-development courses for myself because that anxiety demon was coming in strong. It was getting stronger the more that I started to know that I'm bad at something I wanted

\section{Introduction} Many important questions in biology are fundamentally statistical. For instance, deciphering the neural code requires knowledge of the probability of observing patterns of activity in response to stimuli \cite{Rieke97}; determining which features of a protein are important for correct folding requires knowledge of the probability that a particular sequence of amino acids folds naturally \cite{Russ05,Socolich05}; and determining the patterns of foraging of animals and their social and individual behavior requires knowledge of the distribution of food and species over both space and time \cite{Oates87,Wrangham87,Eisenberg72}. Building statistical descriptions of biological systems is, however, hard. There are several reasons for this: i) biological systems are composed of large numbers of elements, and so can exhibit a huge number of configurations, in fact, an exponentially large number, ii) the elements typically interact with each other, making it impossible to view the system as a collection of independent entities, and iii) because of technological considerations, the descriptions of biological systems have to be built from very little data. For example, with current technology in neuroscience, we can record simultaneously from only about 100 neurons out of approximately 100 billion in the human brain. So, not only are we faced with the problem of estimating probability distributions in high dimensional spaces, we must make the estimates based on very little information. Despite these apparent difficulties, recent work has suggested that the situation may be less bleak than it seems. There is evidence that accurate statistical description of systems can be achieved without having to examine all possible configurations \cite{Schneidman05,Shlens06,Tang08,Bethge07,Yu08,Russ05,Socolich05}. One merely has to measure the probability distribution over pairs of elements and use those to build the full distribution. These ``pairwise models'' potentially offer a fundamental simplification, since the number of pairs is quadratic in the number of elements, not exponential. However, support for the efficacy of pairwise models has, necessarily, come from relatively small subsystems -- small enough that the true probability distribution could be measured experimentally, allowing direct comparison of the pairwise distribution to the true one \cite{Schneidman05,Shlens06,Yu08,Tang08}. While these studies have provided a key first step, a critical question remains: will the results from the analysis of these small subsystems extrapolate to large ones? That is, if a pairwise model predicts the probability distribution for a subset of the elements in a system, will it also predict the probability distribution for the whole system? Here we find that, for a biologically relevant class of systems, this question can be answered quantitatively and, importantly, generically -- independent of many of the details of the biological system under consideration. And the answer is, generally, ``no.'' In this paper, we explain, both analytically and with simulations, why this is the case. \section{Results} \subsection{The extrapolation problem} \label{problem:extrapolation} To gain intuition into the extrapolation problem, let us consider a specific example: neuronal spike trains. Figure \ref{Fig1}A shows a typical spike train for a small population of neurons. Although the raw spike times provide a complete description, they are not a useful representation, as they are too high-dimensional. Therefore, we divide time into bins and re-represent the spike train as 0s and 1s: 0 if there is no spike in a bin; 1 otherwise (Fig.~\ref{Fig1}B) \cite{Schneidman05,Shlens06,Yu08,Tang08}. For now we assume that the bins are independent (an assumption whose validity we discuss below, and in more detail in Sec.~\ref{small-time-bin-wrong}). The problem, then, is to find $p_{true}(\mathbf{r}) \equiv p_{true}(r_1, r_2, ..., r_N)$ where $r_i$ is a binary variable indicating no spike ($r_i=0$) or one or more spikes ($r_i=1$) on neuron $i$. Since this, too, is a high dimensional problem (though less so than the original spike time representation), suppose that we instead construct a pairwise approximation to $p_{true}$, which we denote $p_{pair}$, for a population of size $N$. (The pairwise model derives its name from the fact that it has the same mean and pairwise correlations as the true model.) Our question, then, is: if $p_{pair}$ is close to $p_{true}$ for small $N$, what can we say about how close the two distributions are for large $N$? \begin{SCfigure} \centering \includegraphics[height=11cm,width=7cm] {figs/bins.eps} \caption{Transforming spike trains to spike count. {\bf A}. Spike rasters. Tick marks indicate spike times; different rows correspond to different neurons. The horizontal dashed lines are the bin boundaries. {\bf B}. Spike count in each bin. In this example the bins are small enough that there is at most one spike per bin, but this is not necessary -- one could use bigger bins and have larger spike counts. \bigskip \bigskip \bigskip \bigskip \bigskip \bigskip } \label{Fig1} \end{SCfigure} To answer this question quantitatively, we need a measure of distance. The measure we use, denoted $\Delta_N$, is defined in Eq.\ (\ref{Delta_N}) below, but all we need to know about it for now is that if $\Delta_N=0$ then $p_{pair} = p_{true}$, and if $\Delta_N$ is near one then $p_{pair}$ is far from $p_{true}$. In terms of $\Delta_N$, our main results are as follows: first, for small $N$, in what we call the perturbative regime, $\Delta_N$ is proportional to $N-2$. In other words, as the population size increases, the pairwise model becomes a worse and worse approximation to the true distribution. Second, this behavior is entirely generic: for small $N$, $\Delta_N$ increases linearly, no matter what the true distribution is. This is illustrated schematically in Fig.~\ref{cartoon_DN}, which shows the generic behavior of $\Delta_N$. The solid red part of the curve is the perturbative regime, where $\Delta_N$ is a linearly increasing function of $N$; the dashed curves show possible behavior beyond the perturbative regime. These results have an important corollary: if one does an experiment and finds that $\Delta_N$ is increasing linearly with $N$, then one has no information at all about the true distribution. The flip side of this is more encouraging: if one can measure the true distribution for sufficiently large $N$ that $\Delta_N$ saturates, as in the dashed blue line in Fig.~\ref{cartoon_DN}, then one can have some confidence that extrapolation to large $N$ {\em is} meaningful. The implications for the interpretation of experiments is, then, that extrapolation to large $N$ is valid only if one can analyze data past the perturbative regime. \begin{SCfigure} \centering \includegraphics[height=8cm,width=8cm] {figs/cartoon_Delta_N.eps} \caption{Cartoon illustrating the dependence of $\Delta_N$ on $N$. For small $N$ there is always a perturbative regime in which $\Delta_N$ increases linearly with $N$ (solid red line). When $N$ becomes large, on the other hand, $\Delta_N$ may continue increasing with $N$ (red and black dashed lines) or it may plateau (cyan dashed line), depending on $p_{true}$. The observation that $\Delta_N$ increases linearly with $N$ does not, therefore, provide much, if any information about the large $N$ behavior. } \label{cartoon_DN} \end{SCfigure} Under what conditions is a subsystem in the perturbative regime? The answer turns out to be simple: the size of the system, $N$, times the average probability of observing a spike in a bin, must be small compared to $1$. For example, if the average probability is $1/100$, then a system will be in the perturbative regime if the number of neurons is small compared to $100$. This last observation would seem to be good news for studies in which spikes are binned across time and temporal correlations are ignored. For such binned spike trains, the probability of a spike can be made arbitrarily small by simply shrinking the time bins, and so the size of the population for which the pairwise model appears good can be made arbitrarily large. The problem with this, though, is that temporal correlations can be ignored only when time bins are large compared to the autocorrelation time. This leads to a kind of catch-22: pairwise models are guaranteed to work well (in the sense that they describe spike trains in which temporal correlations are ignored) if one uses small time bins, but small time bins is the one regime where ignoring temporal correlations is not a valid approximation. In the next several sections we quantify the qualitative picture presented above: we write down an explicit expression for $\Delta_N$, explain why it increases linearly with $N$, when $N$ is small, and provide additional tests, besides assessing the linearity of $\Delta_N$, to determine whether or not one is in the perturbative regime. \subsection{A measure of goodness of fit} A natural measure of the distance between $p_{pair}$ and $p_{true}$ is the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence \cite{Kullback51}, denoted $D_{KL}(p_{true}||p_{pair})$ and defined as \begin{equation} D_{KL}(p_{true}||p_{pair})=\sum_{\mathbf{r}} p_{true} (\mathbf{r}) \log_2 {p_{true}(\mathbf{r}) \over p_{pair}(\mathbf{r})} \, . \label{KL-def} \end{equation} \noindent The KL divergence is zero if the two distributions are equal; otherwise it is nonzero. Although the KL divergence is a very natural measure, it is not easy to interpret (except, of course, when it is exactly zero). That is because a nonzero KL divergence tells us is that $p_{pair} \ne p_{true}$, but it does not give us any real

Leading Change: Painful, But Worth It by: Ed Stetzer Can there be change without pain? The answer, of course, is, "No." (Ok, so this may be the shortest blog post ever.) Actually, I think it's an important question, so I want to address it in a more serious manner. When Pain Is Worth It When I was a seminary professor, a church called me to be their pastor. Actually, they asked me, "Can you come help us reach the young people?" That is what church tend to call the neighborhood around their building—the young people. The median age of the church was 68 years old. In a church building that sat 250 people, 35 (mostly) senior citizens sat huddled together at the front left corner of the sanctuary. At the end of every row, it seemed like there were oxygen tanks and walkers. As a former church planter, recently called seminary professor, I didn't have a lot of contact with senior adults. They are not the most commonly responsive demographic in church planting. But, I learned to love these people and we loved one another. They wanted to reach the community, so I had them go out to door-to-door to meet "the young people." After it was over, I asked them what they thought about it. Here's what they said: "The people aren't like us." Indeed. The church that had been founded in the 1950s had stayed there, while the area around them changed. I worked with them to address the question they faced now, "What are we going to do about it?" We went through a process of evaluation and change that took six months– a lot faster than normal. (Do not expect to go into a church and say one Sunday morning, "We're going to change our worship style." You had better have a U-haul truck ready and running behind the church because more than likely you won't last long.) But for this church, their desperation (and probably their perception of me as some sort of expert) made it possible to move quickly. There were still bumps along the way. When we decided to cancel Sunday night services, a lady I'll call "Alice" told me, "Preacher, the devil's gonna be runnin' loose in our church because you cancelled Sunday night services." I was a bit shocked that the Prince of Darkness had been held back this whole time because of the Sunday night service and the four people who attended it, but we moved on with the proposed changes anyway (and no Lucifer sightings were reported). We reconsidered who we were as a church in light of who we were as a community. On top of ending Sunday night services, we changed our worship and made other adjustments to be more contextual to their neighborhood. And being an older church, we voted on EV-ER-Y-thing. The final vote for the changes was 34 to 1. ("Alice" voted no and left mad that day.) But everyone else in the church was on board. I led them through this process, but they wanted to make the change. Two years later, the church had grown from 35 to about 175 in weekly attendance. The median age had dropped to the mid-thirties. On my last day, before I left to take a job in another state, all of the original members who were still living were there (except "Alice"). On that final day, the wise, old chairman of the deacons (akin to elders in most churches), came up to me, poked me in the chest and said, "Preacher, I still don't like the music. And the kids are breaking everything in this church." He was right; the kids were breaking everything. That's the difference between a church full of senior adults and a church full of kids with senior adults—vases. If you're a church with senior adults every little classroom at the church has a corner table that's sliced off kind of at an angle, has a white doily and a vase with fake, dusty plastic flowers that have been there since 1972. Once you get the kids, the doily and the table are still there, but there's a dust ring where the now-broken vase used to be. So, I knew this older leader was right; I just wasn't sure what it was he wanted to say. But with his finger in my chest, I looked into his eyes and I could see he was starting to tear up. This was not a man who cries easily– think the World War II generation. But as the tears formed in the corner of his eyes, he leaned in and said, "But preacher, it was worth it all." Changing Our Hurts People hurt for their preferences when there's change. But part of the role of pastors and church leaders is to help people hurt for the right things. When people don't get things their way, it hurts them. That shouldn't surprise you. But, instead, leaders have to help them hurt for the things that break the heart of God. Change can come, but it will come by the way of pain. I often use my shoes as an example. I hate buying new shoes. My feet are shaped weird and it takes awhile to break in a new pair. Bones on the side of my feet rub against the new shoe, giving me blisters for three weeks until it has worn down in the right areas. So, I just don't buy new shoes unless things become unbearable. I wear my shoes until the soles have holes in them. I'll keep ignoring the ever-growing hole because it's not bad enough for me to endure the way my feet hurt in new shoes. Then winter comes and everything changes. Walking around Nashville on a day that's colder than a legalist's heart, I'll step into a barely above freezing puddle of water. It will shoot up between my toes, into my sock, and sit there. Now, I'm finally thinking, "I've got to change!" Here's the principle: people never change until the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change. That's why there can't be change without pain. Now, with this church, their pain grew because they were desperate. Early on, I showed them the statistical trends in their neighborhood. In one of the key meetings, that older key leader I mentioned stood up and said, "People, in 10 years, we're all going to be dead and gone, and this church is going to be closed." See, they had the pain already. It was helping them direct it to where it needed to be. Leaders have to help their churches hurt for the things that Scripture tells us God hurts for. The body of Christ has to ache for those things that the Spirit of God leads them to, not the things they are told to hurt over by American culture and personal preference. Change will require pain, but pain directed properly will bring results that are worth it. Read more from Ed here. Tags: Change, Change Principle, Ed Stetzer | What is MyVisionRoom? > | Back to Leadership > Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., holds the Billy Graham Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College and serves as Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches, trained pastors and church planters on six continents, holds two masters degrees and two doctorates, and has written dozens of articles and books. Previously, he served as Executive Director of LifeWay Research. Stetzer is a contributing editor for Christianity Today, a columnist for Outreach Magazine, and is frequently cited or interviewed in news outlets such as USAToday and CNN. He serves as interim pastor of Moody Church in Chicago. See more articles by Ed Stetzer > sufferingservant — 10/16/13 10:17 pm But you need to have

We create places of beauty and enjoyment, connection and memory. We partner with our clients and their communities to connect people with meaningful landscapes. LEES+Associates has been in practice for nearly two decades and has a professional staff of over fifteen. From parks and trails to cemeteries and memorials, we bring diverse skills and experience in the planning and design of open space at every scale. We provide our clients with comprehensive services, tailored to their project needs. Our team maintains high standards for site specific design that fits the space as well as fulfills programming needs. We are proud to have received national and provincial awards for both landscape architecture and planning. Erik Lees RPP, FCSLA, Principal Erik is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and a Registered Professional Planner. He has served on design panels, community associations and numerous advisory committees associated with parks, urban design, health and the built environment. Over the last 35 years his passion for meaningful, sustainable landscapes has underpinned his work. He has been at the helm of LEES+Associates since 1998. Kathi Lees BA, MA, Principal Kathi brings passion for landscapes, physical & cultural, to her engagement as Principal and member of the administrative team. Her background in museum studies, education and interpretation adds another layer of depth to the resources of Lees + Associates. Lacee Barr BFA, MLA, Associate Lacee brings to the team a background in tourism, parks administration and landscape. Lacee is passionate about landscape design and has a particular interest and knowledge in cemetery design. Her graduate studies thesis project explored the history and environmental impacts of cemeteries, as well as the social attitudes towards interment spaces and death.architecture. Her research guided the conceptual design of an urban cemetery that is both ecologically sensitive and serves as a public park. Lacee's skills in 3D modelling, CAD, and graphics combined with her knowledge and passion for memorial landscapes gives her an innovative and creative approach to landscape design. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Lethbridge Patrick Beech BA, MLA, Associate Patrick is an Olmsted Scholar and second-generation landscape architect from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having lived, worked, and studied across the North, including Nunavut, northern Manitoba, and Yukon, he has an interest and admiration for communities with deep connections to the land. Patrick holds a Bachelor of Arts in Geography from the University of Winnipeg and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia. As a student, he was employed on research projects ranging from sense of place to sea level rise planning. JOSH BERNSEN BLA, BCSLA, RLA, Associate Josh is a registered landscape architect with over 10 years of experience in landscape design and construction on projects throughout Canada and the US. Josh is a graduate of Washington State University, having received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture; he has worked in various design and project management roles. Josh brings a diverse range of experience in the design of public and private parks, open space, mixed-use developments, commercial projects, residential projects and construction project management. He has expertise in public process, construction administration, project management and detailed design. Josh has a passion for detailed design, human health in the built environment and culturally sensitive landscapes. Elsa Brobbey BA, Office Manager Elsa comes with a broad background in administrative support and customer service. With a vast experience having worked with Fortune 500 companies in the US and Canada, she is responsible for managing the office and the general administrative functions of the company. Ali Canning Ali has a multidisciplinary background in environmental science and landscape architecture. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria. She brings to the team experience in habitat assessment, restoration design, and environmental management. Ali has worked on projects in environmental planning, parks and trails development, and urban design. Having spent time studying and working in the Netherlands, Ali gained a unique interest in coastal restoration and watershed planning. During her time abroad, she was commissioned to aid in the design of sustainable communities for displaced populations, gaining experience leading international workshops and design teams. Passionate about improving sustainability and protecting ecosystems, Ali synthesizes her scientific background with the creativity of design to form holistic solutions moving forward. Richard Cook BA Hons DipLA (Dist), CMLI, BCSLA, Senior Associate Richard brings 14 years of experience in local government and private consultancy. As a rigorous and sensitive designer Richard has led or been a critical part of design teams on major projects in the UK and internationally. He has worked on a wide variety of projects including historic landscape restoration, master planning, detailed design and construction drawings, and GIS mapping. Stewart Denny BSc Hons, DipLA, Associate With over fifteen years experience working within Architectural and Engineering spheres, Stewart has a strong understanding of the design process, from initiation and client engagement through to construction and realization of projects on the ground. He has a dual honours under-graduate degree in Landscape Architecture and Archaeology from The University of Sheffield, England and a post-graduate Diploma in Landscape Architecture. An aptitude for detailed design and technical proficiency make Stewart the company lead within CAD and GIS realms, producing robust construction and tender documents, as well as managing the in-house GPS and mapping systems. Stewart's unique set of graphic communication skills help realize our passion for creating compelling designs that have a positive effect within urban and natural environments. Eileen Finn BA, MLA, BCSLA Intern, Associate Eileen has over 5 years of experience on landscape, urban design and public art projects at a variety of scales in Canada, the US and the Middle East. She holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Toronto, where she was awarded the ASLA Certificate of Honour. Passionate about active transportation, public space, and sacred landscapes, she brings a balance of creativity and pragmatism to her design work. She has led cemetery and parks projects in Merritt, BC and North Vancouver, BC. Dave Gibbon BCSLA (Past Member), Senior Associate Dave has been intensely committed to park planning and public recreation for more than 30 years. His background in landscape architecture and parks management, combined with a thorough understanding of local government systems, provides an excellent mix of planning and park design skills. In the early 1970s he worked in the private sector, both as a partner in a multi-disciplinary design office, and later in his own company. In 1978, Dave joined Delta Leisure Services Department as parks manager where he was responsible for planning and capital development. In 2001, Dave returned to private practice and his company took on a six year contract with the Capital Regional District to provide parks and recreation management services on Salt Spring Island. Dave currently works with LEES + Associates on projects requiring his specialized background in public recreation and athletic field design. Catriona Hearn BA, BLA, Senior Associate Catriona is a Senior Associate at LEES+Associates with diverse skills and expertise. She has been active in the profession for over 20 years, and with LEES+Associates since 2004, working on projects across Canada and the US. Her areas of expertise include feasibility studies, conceptual to detailed design, construction administration, public engagement and communications. Catriona is a Master Gardener with a passion for horticulture, ecology and sustainable design. Her belief in the significance of the public realm enhances our firm's ability to deliver quality projects to our clients. Catriona's experience at LEES+Associates includes: Mountain View Cemetery Infant Garden, the expansion of Calgary's Cemetery System, expansions at Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa and one of Canada's first green burial areas at Royal Oak Burial Park in Victoria. Reinaldo Jordan BA Hons, MLA, OALA (Associate Member), Associate Reinaldo has a wide range of experience in landscape architecture, urban design, and industrial design. Having worked

Posts filed under 'Judith Stein' Priorities: People – and Medicare – Before Drug Company Profits As we said in today's Politico Op Ed, it's time to support Senator Rockefeller's bill – and all serious efforts to reduce what Medicare pays for prescription drugs. High time. There are over 50 million people with Medicare. Why would we not insist on lowering drug prices for all of them? It would save Medicare $141 Billion over ten years. Wal-Mart knows the value of negotiating low prices for vast numbers of people, and is sure to do so. So should Medicare. ACA is Good for Medicare! Misconceptions and misinformation about the Affordable Care Act are still too many to innumerate. However, as advocates for Medicare beneficiaries and a strong Medicare program, we can tell you that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is good for beneficiaries and good for the stability of a full and fair Medicare program. ACA has already added significantly to Medicare-covered preventive services – with no beneficiary cost-sharing, continues to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for people under Medicare Part D, is phasing out wasteful overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans and added over a decade to Medicare's long-term solvency. Happy Anniversary, ACA. As my grandmother would say, "You should live and be well!" March 25, 2013 at 5:23 pm Judith Stein Leave a comment Ryan Retread: Ideology Trumps Medicare Protection and Deficit Reduction The Ryan plan for 2013 is the same as the Ryan plan for 2012 and 2011: Privatize Medicare and repeal the Affordable Care Act. Once again the Ryan budget proposes to preserve Medicare in name only. It would change Medicare into a defined voucher system, sending beneficiaries into the marketplace to purchase indiivual insurance plans. These ideas were at the heart of the 2012 election. They are about changing the way government and Medicare work, not about saving Medicare or money. The proposals were rejected at the polls. If Medicare and the deficit are really our concern, there are real savings possible that would not harm older and disabled people: Bring down the prices Medicare pays for drugs. Stop all overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans. Add a prescription drug benefit to traditional Medicare. Lower the age of eligibility for Medicare. Let the Affordable Care Act work. Mr. Ryan, move on! Join us in focusing on real solutions. March 13, 2013 at 2:02 pm Judith Stein 1 comment Judge Approves Settlement in Jimmo vs. Sebelius After Court Hearing The Center for Medicare Advocacy, along with its co-counsel Vermont Legal Aid are pleased that the Settlement Agreement in the Medicare Improvement Standard case, Jimmo v. Sebelius, was approved January 24, 2013 at the conclusion of a scheduled fairness hearing, marking a critical step forward for thousands of beneficiaries nationwide. The plaintiffs joined with the named defendant, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, in asking the federal judge to approve the settlement of the case. With only one written comment received, and no class members appearing at the fairness hearing to question the settlement, Chief Judge Christina Reiss granted the motion to approve the Settlement Agreement on the record, while retaining jurisdiction to enforce the agreement in the future, as requested by the parties. "We are not surprised but are very pleased that the judge ruled the settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate," said Gill Deford, Litigation Director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. "This moment is a culmination of two years of hard work, in conjunction with partners and advocates, to ensure that those who need health services covered under the Medicare law are not denied based on an illegal, outdated rule of thumb." With the settlement now officially approved, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is tasked with revising its Medicare Benefit Policy Manual and numerous other policies, guidelines and instructions to ensure that Medicare coverage is available for skilled maintenance services in the home health, nursing home and outpatients settings. CMS must also develop and implement a nationwide education campaign for all who make Medicare determinations to ensure that beneficiaries with chronic conditions are not denied coverage for critical services because their underlying conditions will not improve. "It is important to note that the Settlement Agreement standards for Medicare coverage of skilled maintenance services apply now – while CMS works on policy revisions and its education campaign," said Judith Stein, Executive Director, Center for Medicare Advocacy. "We've been hearing from beneficiaries who are still being denied Medicare coverage based on an Improvement Standard. Coverage should be available now for people who need skilled maintenance care and meet any other qualifying Medicare criteria. This is the law of the land – agreed to by the federal government and approved by the federal judge. We encourage people to appeal should they be denied Medicare for skilled maintenance nursing or therapy because they are not improving." For people needing assistance with appeals, the Center for Medicare Advocacy has self-help materials available on its website, www.medicareadvocacy.org. This information can help individuals understand proper coverage rules and learn how to contest Medicare denials for outpatient, home health, or skilled nursing facility care. "It is exciting to know that by this time next year, Medicare policies will clearly state that coverage for skilled maintenance nursing and therapy is available, and that a beneficiary's access to coverage does not depend on the potential for improvement, but rather on the need for skilled care," continued Stein. To speak with a representative of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, please contact Lauren Weybrew at lweybrew@douglasgould.com or 914-833-7093. Learn more about the Center for Medicare Advocacy at www.medicareadvocacy.org January 24, 2013 at 9:55 pm meshepard 2 comments Medicare Helps People With Chronic Conditions Stay Home Few people understand the value of Medicare's home health coverage. In fact, many people who qualify for Medicare instead pay out-of-pocket, go without needed care, look to Medicaid for payment, or even enter nursing homes unnecessarily. Learn about Medicare home health coverage from nationally known beneficiary advocates. This Wednesday, September 12th! Medicare Home Health Coverage for People With Long-term and Chronic Conditions Presented by: Judith Stein, Executive Director/Attorney and Margaret Murphy, Associate Director/Attorney September 12 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM EDT Unknown to most people with Medicare, and contrary to what is often stated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Medicare home health benefit can provide long term coverage for those who qualify. This webinar will help advocates understand the potential of this important coverage so that people with long-term and chronic conditions can obtain the nursing, therapy and home health aide care they need to remain at home. The presenters will explain: * Prerequisites to obtaining Medicare home health coverage; * Real and imagined limitations to coverage; * Advocacy tips for obtaining and maintaining coverage; * How to appeal home health coverage denials. Register at http://www.naela.org/store/SearchResults.aspx?EventType=WEB Download Speaker Bios at http://www.naela.org/app_themes/public/PDF/Meeting%20PDFs/Webinar/2012sep12webinarbio.pdf September 10, 2012 at 7:54 pm Judith Stein Leave a comment Fight for Medicare The so-called Medicare wars are really a unilateral assault to the community Medicare program by those who favor privatization. Private plans are well known to cost more within and outside of Medicare. For decades, various experiments with private Medicare plans have proved more expensive than traditional Medicare. Nothing in Mr. Ryan's plan is new or any more likely to save Medicare money. In fact, his plan would reintroduce vast overpayments to private Medicare plans that were rolled back by the Affordable Care Act. If the goal is to save Medicare, provide fair access to health care for its beneficiaries, and reduce spending – defeat efforts to turn Medicare into a private voucher system. August 21, 2012 at 4:45 pm Judith Stein Leave a comment We All Lose – If The Supreme Court Strikes Down Health Reform Millions of people will be left with limited or no access to health care if the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

a man to spend three years in Arabia to prove whether the inspiration was genuine, and its pulse healthy; a man to sing praises in a jail, and when an earthquake opened the walls calmly to tell the jailer to do himself no harm, for he had not availed himself of his liberty, and then to preach Christ to the frightened keepers, and the next day to stand upon his dignity until the magistrates had confessed their injustice: a man that could tell without complaining but with a cheerful tone of stripes, stonings, shipwrecks, etc., could also tell of visions of the third heavens, and of the peace that passeth understanding. (Bp. Huntington.) 9. Love, conscience, and pride. Paul's original nature had three dominant faculties--pride, conscience, love; and they stood in that order, pride giving the keynote, conscience supplying the motive power, and love, when it was in consistence with these, accompanying them. After he became a subject of renewing grace, these were still the three dominant faculties, but they stood in exactly the reverse order love first, conscience next, and pride last. By pride I do not mean the offensive kind of pride, but self-esteem--that sense of one's own personality which God gives as the inspiration of dignity and character. (H. Ward Beecher.) 10. Love of city life. Paul was always a lover of cities. Whereas his Master avoided Jerusalem and loved to teach on the mountainside or the shore of the lake, Paul was constantly moving from one great city to another. Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome, the capitals of the ancient world, were the scenes of his activity. The words of Jesus are redolent of the country, and Seem with pictures of its still beauty or homely toil--the lilies of the field, the sheep following the shepherd, the sower in the furrow, the fishermen drawing their nets. But the language of Paul is impregnated with the atmosphere of the city and alive with the tramp and hurry of the streets. His imagery is borrowed from scenes of human energy and monuments of cultivated life--the soldier in full armour, the athlete in the arena, the building of houses and temples, the triumphal procession of the victorious general. (J. Stalker, D. D.) 11. Statesmanship. Paul possessed, together with the spirit of a missionary, the shrewdness of a statesman. But he was no doctrinaire. He was the founder of churches, not the framer of constitutions. He had none of that pedantry which insists on a uniform method of ecclesiastical government, and disdains any diplomatic intercourse between diverse forms of Church administration. He knew that religions, like civil communities, can, if left to themselves, discover and adapt to their own ends the machinery of their own organisation. Hence, even in the Pastoral Epistles, where we should naturally expect some distinct theory of Church government, his advice bears rather on the qualifications of those whom the churches select as their officers, than on the administration and government of the Church. Then, again--a sure mark of true statesmanship--he knew that the best way to obviate quarrels was to recognise differences. He was well aware that men may work for a common purpose, even though their several methods of procedure may be various, and that, provided the means be just and honourable, identity of end is a sufficient bond of unity. Experience proves that the higher the object which men propose to themselves, the easier to invite the cooperation of different forces. The wisdom of the statesman consists in effecting a harmony of interests, that of a great religious reformer in enlisting all action on behalf of one grand purpose. Both wreck their reputation when they ally themselves to party cries and narrow rules, which Paul never did. A great statesman has no policy: he accepts a few leading principles, his wisdom being to show how these principles apply to the various occasions of human life. And similarly the leading rules of Paul's teaching and procedure were a few inductions, the application of which is universal. (Paul of Tarsus, by a Graduate.) 12. Supereminence. Here was one to whom no single man that has ever lived can furnish a parallel. (a) As a theologian, we may compare him with Augustine or Thomas Aquinas; yet how should we be shocked to find in him the fanciful rhetoric and dogmatic bitterness of the one, or the scholastic avidity of the other! (b) As a moral reformer, we may compare him with Savonarola; but in his practical control of the most thrilling spiritual impulses--in making the spirit of the prophet subject to the prophet--how grand an exemplar might he not have furnished to the impassioned Florentine! (c) As a preacher, we may compare him to St. Bernard; yet St. Paul would have been incapable of the unnatural asceticism and heresy-hunting hardness of the great abbot of Clairvaux. (d) As a reformer, who altered the entire course of history, Luther alone resembles him; yet how incomparably is the apostle superior to Luther in insight, courtesy, humility, dignity, and self-control! (e) As a missionary, we might compare him to Xavier, as a practical organiser to Gregory, as a fervent lover of souls to Whitefield, and to many other saints of God in many other of his endowments; but no saint of God has ever attained the same heights in so many capacities, or received the gifts of the Spirit in so rich an outpouring, or borne in his body such evident brand marks of the Lord Jesus. In his lifetime he was no whir behind the very chiefest of the apostles, and he towers above the very greatest of all the saints who have since striven to follow the example of his devotion to his Lord. (Arch. deacon Farrar.) 13. Unity of purpose. His motto, as he tells us in the Epistle to the Philippians, is "one thing only." It is his motto, not in action merely, but in thought. This it was which fitted him supremely for doing the work assigned him by Providence. God meant to use him as His instrument to give currency in the faith of Christendom to the great truth that salvation is of grace, and he so burnt that truth into his soul that he could not get past it, or see round it, or refrain from speaking of it; could not find time for speaking of anything else except in relation thereto. The one-sidedness of the instrument, thus explained, is a homage to the importance of the truth proclaimed. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.) 14. Universality. XIII. General reflections.-- 1. Paul an evidence for Christianity. Here we have a man of liberal attainments, and in other points of sound judgment, who had addicted his life to the service of the gospel. We see him in the prosecution of his purpose travelling from country to country, enduring every species of hardship, encountering every extremity of danger, expecting wherever he came a renewal of the same treatment; yet when driven from one city preaching in the next, spending his whole time in the employment, sacrificing to it his pleasures, ease, safety; persisting in this course to old age, unaltered by the experience of perverseness, ingratitude, and desertion; unsubdued by anxiety, want, labour, persecutions; unwearied by long confinement; undismayed by the prospect of death. Such was Paul. The question is whether falsehood was ever attested by evidence like this? Is an example to be met with of a man voluntarily undertaking a life like Paul's for the sake of carrying about a story that was false, and which, if false, he must have known to be so? (Archdeacon Paley.) 2. Paul a specimen of what Christianity can make of a man. Christianity obtained in Paul an incomparable type of

The six 'subsidiary', or 'basic', exercises are part of a system of exercises in the initiation science of Anthroposophy which develop the 'lotus flowers' or chakrams of the astral body. They are at the same time the development of moral qualities – an integral feature of the esotericism that Anthroposophy promotes. The six exercises correspond to the development of half of the 12 petaled lotus flower located in the heart region of the astral body. It is these six, this half, that we are called upon to develop in our time with our conscious activity. In other techniques, Rudolf Steiner in places makes clear, the lotus flower is awakened by illicit means, uncontrolled by the neophyte and thus often leading to moral ruin. It is described that as the six 'petals' corresponding to the six subsidiary exercises are developed in full consciousness, the remaining six are awakened properly and of their own accord, i.e. indirectly. In like manner, there are eight exercises for the 16 petaled lotus flower and so on, although Steiner's most explicit instructions are confined to these two. The six exercises also feature prominently in the important further step in occult development of the pupil's work upon the etheric body where a center in the heart region of the etheric body (different from what Rudolf Steiner terms the "etheric heart", see GA 161, 1915.5.1) is formed. While various forms of concentration and inner exercises are described throughout Steiner's work and it is not uncommon for anthroposophical authors to relate them, or conflate them, with the six subsidiary exercises, the present wiki entry constrains itself only to those examples that are clearly meant as descriptions of the six. Through the qualities named, the student induces in himself the condition which allows the realities present in the world around him to work upon him without disturbing influences emanating from his own personality. But he has also to fit himself into the surrounding spiritual world in the right way. As a thinking being he is a citizen of the spiritual world. He can be this in a right way only if during mental activity he makes his thoughts move in accordance with the eternal laws of truth, the laws of the "Spiritland." For only so can that realm work upon him and reveal its facts to him. A man does not reach the truth as long as he gives himself up only to the thoughts continually coursing through his Ego. For if he does, these thoughts take a course imposed on them by the fact that they come into existence within the bodily nature. The thought-world of a man who gives himself up to a mental activity determined primarily by his physical brain appears disorderly and confused. A thought enters it, breaks off, is driven out of the field by another. Anyone who tests this by listening to a conversation between two people, or who observes himself frankly, will gain an idea of this mass of will-o'-the-wisp thoughts. As long as a man devotes himself only to the calls of the life of the senses, the confused course of his thoughts will always be set right again by the facts of reality. I may think ever so confusedly: but in my actions everyday facts force upon me the laws corresponding to the reality. My mental picture of a town may be utterly confused; but if I wish to walk along a certain street in the town I must accommodate myself to existing facts. A mechanic may enter his workshop with a chaotic medley of ideas; but the laws of his machines compel him to adopt the correct procedure in his work. Within the world of the senses facts exercise their continuous corrective on thought. If I think out a false opinion about a physical phenomenon or the shape of a plant, the reality confronts me and sets my thinking right. It is quite different when I consider my relations to the higher regions of existence. They reveal themselves to me only if I enter them with strictly controlled thinking. There my thinking must give me the right, the sure impulse, otherwise I cannot find the proper paths. For the spiritual laws prevailing in these worlds are not sensibly perceptible, and therefore they do not exert on me the compulsion described above. I am able to obey these laws only when they are allied to my own as those of a thinking being. Here I must be my own sure guide. The student's thinking must therefore be strictly regulated in itself. His thoughts must by degrees disaccustom themselves entirely from taking the ordinary daily course. They must in their whole sequence take on the inner character of the spiritual world. He must be able constantly to keep watch over himself in this respect and have himself in hand. With him one thought must not link itself arbitrarily with another, but only in the way that corresponds with the actual contents of the thought-world. The transition from one idea to another must correspond with the strict laws of thought. As thinker, the man must be to a certain extent a constant copy of these thought-laws. He must shut out from his train of thought everything that does not flow out of these laws. Should a favourite thought present itself to him, he must put it aside if the right sequence will be disturbed by it. If a personal feeling tries to force upon his thoughts a direction not proper to them, he must suppress it. Plato required of those who wished to be admitted to his school that they should first have a mathematical training. And mathematics, with its strict laws which are independent of the course taken by sense-phenomena, form a good preparation for the seeker. If he wishes to make progress in the study of mathematics he must get rid of all personal arbitrariness, all elements of disturbance. The student prepares himself for his task by overcoming through his own will all arbitrary thinking. He learns to follow purely the demands of thought. And so too he must learn to do this in all thinking intended to serve spiritual knowledge. This thought-life itself must be a reflection of undisturbed mathematical judgment and inference. He must strive, wherever he goes and wherever he is, to be able to think in this way. Then the laws of the spirit-world flow into him, laws which pass over and through him, without a trace as long as his thinking has the usual, confused character. Regulated thinking leads him from reliable starting-points to the most hidden truths. What has been said, however, must not be understood in a one-sided way. Although mathematics acts as a good discipline, pure, healthy and vital thinking can be achieved without mathematics. True a force which diverts him from the wrong path. If he is mistaken, this force guides him to the right paths. Even the objection, "But I may be mistaken," is harmful misgiving. It shows that the man has no confidence in the power of the True. For the important point is that he should not presume to decide on his aims and objects in life in accordance with his own egotistical views, but that he should selflessly yield himself up to the guidance of the spirit itself. It is not the self-seeking human will that can prescribe for the True; on the contrary, the True itself must become lord in the man, must penetrate his whole being, make him a mirror-image of the eternal laws of the Spiritland. He must fill himself with these eternal laws in order to let them stream out into life. The seeker must be able to hold

not change significantly until τ = 2000 s. The ASD of ϕ behaves similarly, but with larger uncertainties since the measurement was made near the degenerate case of θ =0. The presented magnetometer achieves high sensitivity both in magnitude and field direction. Upper limits on processes that limit the stability of the magnetometer readings are derived from the ASD plots and show high sensitivity is maintained even at integration times of 1000 s. This value is probably limited by drifts of the B 0 field components in the present nEDM experiment. Further studies will try to distinguish between instabilities intrinsic to the magnetometer and external field drifts by using several magnetometer modules. In contrast to other recently published vector magnetometers [12] the presented approach does not degrade the scalar resolution when extracting vector information. Consequently, it achieves an order of magnitude better scalar resolution while being able to resolve the B 0 direction with δθ < 10μrad for integration times ranging beyond 2000 s. This makes the presented approach an ideal choice for applications that use long integration times. For our future nEDM apparatus it is planned to use an array of vector Cs magnetometers in order to monitor the B 0 field and its gradients. Scaling to multiple sensors is aided by the low needs on laser power and the efficient data processing possible in the demodulation mode. The magnetometer presented here requires calibration in order to provide absolute field direction information. However, the accuracy of its absolute field magnitude information may be limited—as discussed by Grujic et al in [27]—at the several 10 pT level since k⃗⊥̸ B⃗ 0. The demonstrated stability at long integration times is a necessary step for the future development of such calibration procedures. With the stability proven, the detailed studies of device construction systematics (e.g., perturbations to the values in P (Eq. (5)) and device alignment to an external coordinate system will permit calibration of the device, thus moving it from being a field stability measurement system to a true field measurement system. A remaining disadvantage of this approach is the non-'magnetically silent' π/2 spin manipulation pulse, which can perturb the environment under study. A straightforward way to overcome this is the use of Bell-Bloom pumping, currently under development within our collaboration [27]. A combination of these two methods is being pursued to provide a sensitive and magnetically silent vector magnetometer for our future nEDM search. The authors are grateful for financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in the context of the projects BI 1424/2-1 and /3-1 as well as from the Swiss National Science Foundation, projects 144473, 149211, and 157079. The Polish collaborators acknowledge the National Science Centre, Poland, for the grant No. UMO-2012/04/M/ST2/00556 and the support by the Foundation for Polish Science–MPD program, co-financed by the European Union within the European Regional Development Fund. The LPC Caen and the LPSC acknowledge the support of the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under reference ANR-09BLAN-0046. E. W. acknowledges support as a Ph.D. Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders. This work is part of the Ph.D. thesis of S. A. [23]. 1. A. L. Bloom, "Principles of operation of the rubidium vapor magnetometer," Appl. Opt. 1, 61 (1962). [CrossRef] 2. D. Budker and M. Romalis, "Optical magnetometry," Nat. Phys. 3, 227–234 (2007). [CrossRef] 3. G. Bison, R. Wynands, and A. Weis, "A laser-pumped magnetometer for the mapping of human cardiomagnetic fields," Appl. Phys. B-Lasers O. 76, 325–328 (2003). [CrossRef] 4. R. Wyllie, M. Kauer, R. Wakai, and T. 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behaves like a Russian asset maybe it's because he is one. Elagabalus • 3 hours ago I'm an American but I'm rooting for Canada. bearLvrFL Elagabalus • 2 hours ago I second that emotion. I'm on the side of Justice and Fairness. J Ascher Elagabalus • 2 hours ago I'm considering emigrating to Vancouver, BC or thereabouts if things get significantly worse. Dramphooey Elagabalus • 2 hours ago I am disgusted and embarrassed by this administration trying to treat our allies as satellites. Trump and Bolton want a Warsaw Pact, not an alliance of free peoples. They make me sick and angry. In less than a month there is an event I wanted to go to at which there will be a lot of Canadians. I don't even know how I can look them in the face. if you're going to Toronto, Ottawa, make sure and some milk for your bath said... "I'm an American but I'm rooting for Canada" can we call you a traitor? "I second that emotion. I'm on the side of Justice and Fairness." Canada has much higher tariffs on American goods than America has on Canadian goods. So, if you second that emotion. I'm on the side of Injustice and unfairness. You should try to get in the habit of thinking logically. "I'm considering emigrating to Vancouver, BC or thereabouts if things get significantly worse." Sorry, Baby Justin, Little Lord Hypocrite, announced this week that he will seek ways to halt the flow of immigrants from south of the border. You see, it's only America that is horrible if they control their border. "I am disgusted and embarrassed by this administration trying to treat our allies as satellites. Trump and Bolton want a Warsaw Pact, not an alliance of free peoples. They make me sick and angry." Actually, we've been treating them as satellites for decades by not demanding the pay their equal share. Trump is treating them as grown-ups, and they're throwing a temper tantrum! "In less than a month there is an event I wanted to go to" "at which there will be a lot of Canadians. I don't even know how I can look them in the face." but if you try sometimes you'll find you can stay home, get high and watch the tube! You wouldn't mind that, would you? Diplomacy cannot be dictated by "fits of anger", French President Emmanuel Macron has warned after the G7 summit in Canada ended in acrimony. And oblivious Trump says his relationships with G6 leaders is "10 out of 10", lol! Trump hates Justin but has nothing but praise for Putin. Who got more bang for their buck: Thomas Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase or Vladimir Putin for the Trump Purchase? John Kelly: The WH Is A "Miserable Place To Work" President Trump has gone overseas to embark on some of the most consequential diplomatic negotiations of his tenure, threatening an all-out trade war with allies and seizing a chance to make peace with a nuclear-armed menace. But back home, he left behind a West Wing where burned-out aides are eyeing the exits, as the mood in the White House is one of numbness and resignation that the president is growing only more emboldened to act on instinct alone. Mr. Trump, a former reality television star, may soon be working with a thinned-out cast in the middle of Season 2, well before the midterm elections. Several high-profile aides, including John F. Kelly, the president's chief of staff, and Joe Hagin, a deputy of Mr. Kelly's, are said to be thinking about how much longer they can stay. Last week, Mr. Kelly told visiting senators that the White House was "a miserable place to work," according to a person with direct knowledge of the comment. White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro: "There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad-faith diplomacy with president Trump and then tries to stab in hin the back in the way out the door. And that's what bad-faith Justin Trudeau did with that stunt press converence.' To review: "There's a special place in hell for Trudeau, but Kim, Duterte, and Putin are righteous dudes." Moron Trump and his moron advisors are all stunned and surprised that Canada won't just be their lap dog and take it on the chin while turning the other cheek, lol! The truth is that Justin didn't say anything in that news conference that he hasn't told trump previously in private and in public statments. Trump's just a whiney little bitch. You'll have noticed that in no way has the Great Fabricator indicated HOW sexy Justin purportedly double crossed anyone, whereas in the press conference, sexy Justin was clear and specific as to major points of disagreement and the reasons why. Clearly to Traitor Trump and his sycophants, "double cross" means "doesn't roll over like Traitor Trump does for his Russian master. " It was unclear why Trump and his aides have suddenly begun speaking of Trudeau this way. Until Trump advisor Kudlow explained: Trump is attacking Trudeau because he is trying to show Kim that he is tough. Trudeau's Saturday criticism of Trump's trade policy, Kudlow said on CNN, had made Trump look weak just before the president departed for his talks with Kim. The Trump administration's supposed problem with Trudeau was the Saturday news conference in which the prime minister politely offered the same criticism of Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs that he had been uttering all week. Trudeau said again that the "national security" tariffs were an insult when applied to a close ally, that Canada would not be "pushed around" on trade, and that he would impose retaliatory tariffs "with regret" if necessary. Remember when Republicans warned against a female president because she might be irrational, vindictive, and prone to mood swings? Ohhh, the irony, hahahahahahahaaha! pleasingly plump with victory said... "Robert De Niro has been an outspoken critic of Trump, even saying in May he barred the president from visiting any locations of his swanky restaurant, Nobu." I thought liberals were so invested in the idea that public businesses have to serve anyone who walks in the door. I guess they just mean any homosexual who waltzes in! "Diplomacy cannot be dictated by "fits of anger", French President Emmanuel Macron has warned after the G7 summit in Canada ended in acrimony." chill out, Emmanuel "And oblivious Trump says his relationships with G6 leaders is "10 out of 10", lol! Trump hates Justin" uh, he said it was "10 out of 10" and then that snivelly brat, Justin, came out with a nasty statement let's face it, Baby Justin was intimidated by Trump in person but after Trump left, and he felt safe, he had to save face and came out with an attack on the US Canada will be in a mess unless they stop charging huge tariffs on American imports we're not putting up with that crap anymore "but has nothing but praise for Putin." Trump has a trio of characters to manipulate and Putin is one of them. We'll see what the results are but he's already accomplishing more than Obama ever did. "Who got more bang for their buck: Thomas Jefferson for the Louisiana Purchase or Vladimir Putin for the Trump Purchase?" has Vlad gotten anything so far for his supposed "purchase"? "John Kelly: The WH Is A "Miserable Place To Work"" Canada's a miserable place to live "President Trump has gone overseas to embark on some of the most consequential diplomatic negotiations of his tenure, threatening an all-out trade war with allies and seizing a chance to make peace with a nuclear-armed menace." yes, while Baby Justin makes the world safe for tariffs on milk "But back home, he left behind a West Wing where burned-out aides are eyeing the exits, as the mood in the White House is one of numbness and resignation that the president is growing only more emboldened to act on instinct alone" according to who? Trump was elected, these staffers weren't staffers

MHz FM bands. Examples are the 6SB7Y (1946) and the 6BA7 (1948). The pulling effect had a beneficial side effect in that it gave a degree of automatic tuning. Another disadvantage was that in spite of the presence of the screen grids, the electron beam, modulated by the oscillator electrodes, still had to pass through the signal grid, and coupling of the oscillator into the signal circuit was inevitable. The American Federal Communication Commission (FCC) started requiring radio manufacturers to certify that their products avoided this interference under Part 15 of their rules. In the UK, the Postmaster General (who was responsible for radio licensing), laid down a set of stringent rules concerning radio interference. Hexode Circuit symbol of a hexode The hexode (six-electrode) was actually developed after the heptode or pentagrid. It was developed in Germany as a mixer but was designed from the start to be used with a separate triode oscillator. Thus the grid configuration was grid 1, signal input; grids 2 and 4 screen grids (connected together - again, usually internally) and grid 3 was the oscillator input. The device had no suppressor grid. A major advantage was that by using grid 1 as the signal input grid, the device was more sensitive to weak signals. It was not long before the triode and hexode structures were placed in the same glass envelope - by no means a new idea. The triode grid was usually internally connected to the hexode grid 3, but this practice was dropped in later designs when the mixer section operated as a straight IF amplifier in AM/FM sets when operating on FM, the mixing being carried out in a dedicated FM frequency changing section. The UK manufacturers were initially unable to use this type of mixer because of the BVA prohibition on multiple structures (and indeed unwilling to use separate valves because of the levy). One UK company, MOV, successfully enforced the cartel rules against the German Lissen company in 1934 when they attempted to market a radio in the UK which had the triode-hexode mixer. Following pressure from the UK manufacturers, the BVA were compelled to relax the rules and the UK started to adopt triode-hexode mixers. The Mullard ECH35 was a popular choice. One company, Osram, made an ingenious move. One of their popular pentagrid converter designs was the MX40, initially marketed in 1934. They put on sale in 1936, the X41 triode-hexode frequency changer. The clever bit was that the X41 was a direct plug-in pin-compatible replacement for the MX40. Thus a pentagrid radio could easily be converted to a triode-hexode without any other circuit modifications. America never really adopted the triode-hexode and it was seldom used, even though the 6K8 triode-hexode was available to manufacturers in 1938. In some designs, a suppressor grid was added to produce yet another heptode design. Mullard's ECH81 became popular with the move to miniature nine-pin valves. Octode-based pentagrid converter circuit Although not strictly a pentagrid (in that it has more than five grids), the octode (eight-electrode) nevertheless operates on the pentagrid principle. It resulted simply from the addition of an extra screen grid to the UK version of the pentagrid heptode. This was done mainly to improve the antenna/oscillator separation and to reduce the power consumption for use in radio sets operated by dry batteries that were becoming increasingly popular. In North America, the only octode manufactured was the 7A8. Introduced by Sylvania in 1939 (and used mostly by Philco), this valve was the product of adding a suppressor grid to type 7B8, which was the loctal version of type 6A7. Adding the suppressor allowed Sylvania to lower the current of the 6.3-volt heater from 320 milliamperes[1] to 150 milliamperes[2] while maintaining the same conversion transconductance (550 microsiemens). This allowed Philco to use this valve in every line of radio throughout the 1940s. The Philips EK3 octode was designated as a 'beam octode'. The novel part about the design was that grids 2 and 3 were constructed as beam forming plates. This was done in such a way that Philips claimed that the oscillator electron beam and the mixer electron beams were separated as much as possible and thus the pulling effect was minimised.[3] No information is available as to the degree of success. The manufacturer's information also notes that the valve's high performance comes at a cost of a high heater current of 600 mA – double that of more conventional types. The use of a pentode would seem an unlikely choice for a frequency converter because it only has one control grid. However, during the Great Depression, many American radio manufacturers used pentode types 6C6, 6D6, 77 and 78 in their lowest priced AC/DC receivers because they were cheaper than pentagrid type 6A7. In these circuits, the suppressor (grid 3) acted as the oscillator grid, and the valve operated in a similar manner to a true pentagrid. One UK company, Mazda, produced a triode-pentode frequency changer, the AC/TP. Designed for low-cost AC radios, the device was deliberately designed to allow strong signals to pull the oscillator without the risk of radiating the oscillator signal from the aerial. The cathode was common to both sections of the valve. The cathode was connected to a secondary coil on the oscillator coil and thus coupled the oscillator into the pentode mixer section, the signal being applied to grid 1 in the conventional manner. The AC/TP was one of the AC/ range of valves designed for low-cost radios. They were considered durable for their time (even the AC/TP frequency changer, which was normally problematic). Any AC/ valves encountered today are likely to be brand new as service shops stocked up on spares which were seldom required. In order to distinguish between the two versions of the heptode, manufacturers data often describes them as 'heptode of the hexode type' for a heptode without a suppressor grid, and a 'heptode of the octode type', where a suppressor grid is present. True pentagrids 2A7 and 6A7 – The first of the RCA pentagrids, 1933 VHT1 – Ferranti pentagrid, 1933 MX40 – Osram pentagrid, 1934 6SA7 and 6BE6/EK90 – Pentagrids produced by RCA, Mullard, etc. 6SB7Y and 6BA7 – VHF Pentagrids, 1946 1LA6 and later 1L6 – Battery pentagrid for Zenith Trans-Oceanic short wave radio DK91/1R5, DK92/1AC6, DK96/1AB6, DK192, DK96 – Battery pentagrids Octodes (operating on the pentagrid principle) EK3 – Beam octode produced by Philips 7A8 – The only octode produced in America by Sylvania, 1939 Triode/Hexode types (not operating on the pentagrid principle) X41 – Osram triode-hexode, 1936; plug-in replacement for MX40 above ECH35 – Mullard triode-hexode ECH81 (Soviet 6И1П) – Mullard triode-heptode of the octode type 6K8 – American triode-hexode, 1938 This list is by no means exhaustive. Beam deflection tube ^ http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/084/7/7B8.pdf ^ http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/108/7/7A8.pdf ^ http://frank.pocnet.net/sheets/046/e/EK3.pdf Manufacturer's marketing information. Valve Manuals General Electric Essential Characteristics, 1970 Sylvania Technical Manual, 1958 Sibley, Ludwell, "Tube Lore", 1996 Stokes, john W, "70 Years of Radio Tubes and Valves" 1997 Thrower, Keith, "History of the British Radio Valve to 1940." Mullard FC4 AC/TP data sheet 2A7 data sheet 6SA7/12SA7 datasheet 12BE6 datsheet 12BA7 Datasheet Reflex Converter patent Oct 12 1933 Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) Darlington transistor Field-effect transistor (FET) Heterostructure barrier varactor Insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) Integrated circuit (IC) Memistor Photodetector PIN diode Schottky diode Silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) Unijunction transistor (UJT) Linear regulator Low-dropout regulator Switching regulator Buck-boost Split-pi Ćuk SEPIC Switched capacitor Beam tetrode Barretter Compactron Fleming valve Nonode Nuvistor Photomultiplier Selectron tube Tetrode Williams tube Vacuum tubes (RF) Backward-wave oscillator (BWO) Cavity magnetron Crossed-field amplifier (CFA) Gyrotron Inductive output tube (IOT) Maser Phototube Traveling-wave tube (TWT) Cathode ray tubes Charactron Iconoscope Magic eye tube Storage tube Video camera tube Gas-filled tubes Cold cathode Crossatron Dekatron Geiger–Müller tube Ignitron Krytron Mercury-arc valve Neon lamp Trigatron Voltage-regulator tube Electrolytic detector resettable Wollaston wire Capacitor (types) Relay Switches (Reed relay, Mercury switch) Theoretical principles Thermionic emission Hot cathode Control grid Suppressor grid Glowing anode Acorn tube Pentagrid (Hexode, Heptode, Octode) Cathode ray tube Eidophor Kinescope Talaria projector Trochotron Numbering systems RETMA Marconi-Osram Mullard–Philips List of vacuum tubes List of tube sockets Articles lacking in-text citations from July 2011 All articles lacking in-text citations Frequency mixers Cathode ray tube, Rectifier, Thermionic emission, Tungsten, Oxygen Pentode, Triode, Beam tetrode, Vacuum tube, Control grid Renewable energy, Electric power distribution, Canada, Electric power transmission, Cathode ray tube Cadmium, Television, United Kingdom, Vacuum tube, Radar Cathode ray tube, Pentagrid converter, Thyratron, Magic eye tube, Dekatron All American Five Radio, United States, Pentagrid converter, Morse

technology systems; its team website contained a ``Training'' page with digital tools and specialized checklists for each scientific team it supported (another signal of its commitment to understanding local scientists' needs). SC's focus on technology training, as well as its investment in EBs with special technological privileges, afforded it advantages over other teams that were spread thin over multiple tools. Naturally, then, one might ask: why not always consolidate? At PANL, we observed several inter-team challenges that hindered collaboration technology readiness. As much as technological fragmentation was universally bemoaned, for example, teams at PANL nevertheless found consolidation nearly impossible, because each one was beholden to different external stakeholders. The Central IT team observed in a meeting: \begin{quote} \textit{Person 1:} ``I've noticed that the groups at the lab that mainly interact...with [the] Department of Energy --- so, cyber, supply chain, finance --- they tend to use the DOE type suites, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive.'' \\ \textit{Person 2:} ``...and the folks that interact mostly with the university on the research side and join[t] institutes and most of the academics, tend to use the tools that [the university] favors ...so it's Slack and Google Drive and Zoom.'' \end{quote} Additionally, groups had customized tools to fit their needs. When asked why they would not be willing to change their tools for the sake of consolidation, one survey respondent wrote: \begin{quote} ``The productivity loss would be massive; it's not just for me as an individual, but whole teams will be handicapped. Operational productivity hacks have been enabled in Slack to make us more efficient while remaining effective.'' \end{quote} Furthermore, some roles were required to be compliant to specific legal standards, which limited viable technology options. Despite indicating that they were unhappy with their current tools, for instance, a survey respondent wrote that they were unwilling to switch because ``another tool will have to meet the same DOE monitoring and compliance requirements.'' Partially as a result of having different stakeholders and occupations, collaborators also had competing assumptions about technology. IT began every conversation with a discussion about requirements, assuming that each piece of hardware or software addressed a specific need. Meanwhile, local groups saw technology as part of an experimental process, and trial and error required taking ``a leap of faith'' (IT9, Local Technology Specialist). The differences in assumptions became a source of tension: Central IT would be frustrated, for instance, when other groups started a conversation by asking, ``Can we try this tool?'' rather than framing the discussion around requirements. As the CIO said in a meeting: \begin{quote} ``What I didn't like about that conversation is you started with the tool, not the requirement, which in my world is an absolute no-no, you start with the what is the problem [you're] trying to solve. And then...figure out, okay, what tool is best.'' \end{quote} In this way, adopting shared collaboration technology can be hampered both by hard requirements (e.g., legal compliance or stakeholder norms) and soft social norms (having different approaches and assumptions about technology). Finally, technological literacy was relevant in our data, but played a small role. The IT employee who had been working remotely for years recalled his shock in observing colleagues who were less accustomed to remote work struggle to set up their workstations: \begin{quote} ``I mean, a lot of people in Central IT very naturally do a lot of work from home. So I mean, we're very used to that. ... I did see a lot of tickets about just people not understanding how to just how to even do anything ... which was a little confusing to me, because I was like, you just do the same thing that you do at work. It's just, but I mean, I guess some people just never worked from home. So they maybe didn't even have a good computer at home. So they were just starting from scratch.'' (IT1) \end{quote} The collaboration technology themes we outline here each raise fundamental socio-technical questions that organizations should address if they attempt to scale up remote work. Questions like, \textit{Which technologies do we support?}, \textit{How much customization do we allow?}, \textit{Where do we store the data?}, and \textit{If, and when, do we allow exceptions to the company-wide technology standard?} should be asked as early as possible and communicated prior to creating a remote work policy. The organizations should have a sense for where they want to draw the line --- otherwise, teams will create their own norms or attempt to follow external norms, taking the control out of leaders' hands, and creating technological fragmentation that is more challenging to repair. PANL took steps to draw this line over the course of our study. After working with a member of our research team, PANL's IT group published explicit collaboration technology norms for the first time on its internal website. As of writing, the website has been live for approximately two months, and it is too soon to tell whether practices have sufficiently shifted. However, the website is an example of an artifact that deliberately balances intra-team customization with inter-team coordination. The aforementioned challenges had made it impossible to creating binding norms; instead, the IT group divided the tools into tiered categories: ``Recommended,'' ``General Support,'' ``Limited Adoption and Support,'' and ``End of Life'' (tools that would be decommissioned within two years). These categories enabled IT to slowly consolidate its tool portfolio by nudging groups towards recommended tools, while still allowing groups sufficient optionality. \subsubsection{Coupling of Work} At the intra-team level, coupling of work refers to the ``extent and kind of communication required by the work''~\cite{olson2000distance}, in which loosely-coupled work is sometimes (but not always~\cite{bjorn2014does}) more amenable to remote collaboration. At the inter-team level, however, coupling of work should be reframed as the temporal coordination required to connect the responsibilities of each team to the larger whole. In a sense, inter-team collaboration is already ``decoupled'' because each team is independently responsible for their portion of the project. The challenge is for teams to coordinate, identify dependencies, and refrain from blocking one another. A key piece of the coordination involves shared expectations for timelines. Recall from Section~\ref{inter-team-level} that IT believed that it responded to Held Desk requests in ``a reasonable timeframe,'' while scientists complained of slow response times. It had turned out that IT found it ``reasonable'' to respond in a few business days, while scientists' experiments required 24/7 support. Notably, the disconnect in perceptions of promptness had long predated the pandemic. It was because of the mismatch in temporal expectations that, years ago, science groups had established procedures to manage mission-critical computational processes internally. As one scientist recalled: \begin{quote} ``And we tr[ied] to engage with office of the CIO at the time, but [we need to] provide that 24/7 support for the experiment... we ended up doing IT by ourselves.'' (IT10, Science User) \end{quote} Another piece of coordination involves planning appropriate times to interact. Members of scientific groups complained that IT would schedule maintenance at inconvenient hours. Scientists required very specific maintenance windows, which did not align with those of IT. Some groups had, over the years, even evolved to have alternative maintenance schedules: \begin{quote} ``Maintenance windows are different at the enterprise level. So [for] enterprise...once a month at Tuesday, you have to patch your system from Microsoft. And that's the schedule. Well, when you have a user running, you can't just kick the user off at 10 o'clock at night, because they're running 24/7. So we have our own maintenance schedule as well. It's not to say that work doesn't get done, but it doesn't get done according to the enterprise schedule.'' (IT9, Local Technology Specialist) \end{quote} Both of these work-coupling issues predated the pandemic, so they are certainly not unique to the remote work context. Rather, remote work exacerbated their impact --- making it more difficult for IT and science groups to diagnose

California's Consumer Privacy Act, which was passed in June. Last month, California also passed a bill that sets cybersecurity standards for IoT devices – and there are similar bills that have been introduced in the House and Senate. While it remains to be seen if either of those bills gain traction, it is clear that there is an interest in more significant privacy legislation at the state and federal level, an interest that has to be considered by automakers and other CAV developers as CAVs move closer and closer to wide-scale deployment. The Future of Law and Mobility by Daniel Crane June 1, 2018 Cite as: Daniel A. Crane, The Future of Law and Mobility, 2018 J. L. & Mob. 1. With the launch of the new Journal of Law and Mobility, the University of Michigan is recognizing the transformative impact of new transportation and mobility technologies, from cars, to trucks, to pedestrians, to drones. The coming transition towards intelligent, automated, and connected mobility systems will transform not only the way people and goods move about, but also the way human safety, privacy, and security are protected, cities are organized, machines and people are connected, and the public and private spheres are defined. Law will be at the center of these transformations, as it always is. There has already been a good deal of thinking about the ways that law must adapt to make connected and automated mobility feasible in areas like tort liability, insurance, federal preemption, and data privacy. 7 7. See, e.g., Daniel A. Crane, Kyle D. Logue & Bryce Pilz, A Survey of Legal Issues Arising from the Deployment of Autonomous and Connected Vehicles, 23 Mich. Tel. & Tech. L. Rev. 191 (2017). × But it is also not too early to begin pondering the many implications for law and regulation arising from the technology's spillover effects as it begins to permeate society. For better or worse, connected and automated mobility will disrupt legal practices and concepts in a variety of ways additional to the obvious "regulation of the car." Policing practices and Fourth Amendment law, now so heavily centered on routine automobile stops, will of necessity require reconsideration. Notions of ownership of physical property (i.e., an automobile) and data (i.e., accident records) will be challenged by the automated sharing economy. And the economic and regulatory structure of the transportation network will have to be reconsidered as mobility transitions from a largely individualistic model of drivers in their own cars pursuing their own ends within the confines of general rules of the road to a model in which shared and interconnected vehicles make collective decisions to optimize the system's performance. In these and many other ways, the coming mobility revolution will challenge existing legal concepts and practices with implications far beyond the "cool new gadget of driverless cars." Despite the great importance of the coming mobility revolution, the case for a field of study in "law and mobility" is not obvious. In this inaugural essay for the Journal of Law and Mobility, I shall endeavor briefly to make that case. I. Driverless Cars and the Law of the Horse A technological phenomenon can be tremendously important to society without necessarily meriting its own field of legal study because of what Judge Frank Easterbrook has described as "the law of the horse" problem. 8 8. Frank H.Easterbrook,Cyberspace and the Law of the Horse, 1996 U. Chi. Legal F. 207, 207-16. × Writing against the burgeoning field of "Internet law" in the early 1990s, Easterbrook argued against organizing legal analysis around particular technologies: The best way to learn the law applicable to specialized endeavors is to study general rules. Lots of cases deal with sales of horses; others deal with people kicked by horses; still more deal with the licensing and racing of horses, or with the care veterinarians give to horses, or with prizes at horse shows. Any effort to collect these strands into a course on "The Law of the Horse" is doomed to be shallow and to miss unifying principles. 9 9. Id. × Prominent advocates of "Internet law" as a field rebutted Easterbrook's concern, arguing that focusing on cyberlaw as a field could be productive to understanding aspects of this important human endeavor in ways that merely studying general principles might miss. 10 10. Lawrence Lessig, The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach, 113 Harv. L. Rev. 501 (1999). × Despite Easterbrook's protestation, a distinct field of cyberlaw has grown up in recent decades. "The law of the horse" debate seems particularly apt to the question of law and mobility since the automobile is the lineal successor of the horse as society's key transportation technology. Without attempting to offer a general solution to the "law of the horse" question, it is worth drawing a distinction between two different kinds of disruptive technologies—those in which the technological change produces social changes indirectly and without significant possibilities for legal intervention, and those in which law is central to the formation of the technology itself. An example of the first species of technological change is air conditioning. The rise of air conditioning in the mid-twentieth century had tremendous effects on society, including dramatic increases in business productivity, changes in living patterns as people shifted indoors, and the extension of retail store hours and hence the growing commercialization of American culture. 11 11. Stan Cox, Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer) (2012). × The South's share of U.S. population was in steady decline until the 1960s when, in lockstep with the growth of air conditioning and people's willingness to settle in hot places, the trend abruptly reversed and the South's share grew dramatically. 12 12. Paul Krugman, Air Conditioning and the Rise of the South, New York Times March 28, 2015. × The political consequences were enormous—from Richard Nixon through George W. Bush, every elected President hailed from warm climates. One could say, without exaggeration, that the Willis Carrier's frigid contraption exerted a greater effect on American business, culture, and politics than almost any other invention in the twentieth century. And, yet, it would seem silly to launch a field of study in "law and air conditioning." Air conditioning's social, economic, and political effects were largely indirect—the result of human decisions in response to the new circumstances created by the new technology rather than an immediate consequence of the technology itself. Even if regulators had foreseen the dramatic demographic effects of air conditioning's spread, there is little they could have done (short of killing or limiting the technology) to mediate the process of change by regulating the technology. Contrast the Internet. Like air conditioning, the Internet has had tremendous implications for culture, business, and politics, but unlike air conditioning, many of these effects were artifacts of design decisions regarding the legal architecture of cyberspace. From questions of taxation of online commercial transactions, 13 13. See, e.g., John E. Sununu, The Taxation of Internet Commerce, 39 Harv. J. Leg. 325 (2002). × to circumvention of digital rights management technologies, 14 14. See, e.g., David Nimmer, A Rif on Fair Use in the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, 148 U. Pa. L. Rev. 673 (2000). × to personal jurisdiction over geographically remote online interlocutors, 15 15. Note, No Bad Puns: A Different Approach to the Problem of Personal Jurisdiction and the Internet, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 1821 (2003). × and in countless other ways, a complex of legal and regulatory decisions created the modern Internet. From the beginning, law was hovering over the face of cyberspace. Al Gore may not have created the Internet, but lawyers had as much to do with it as did engineers. The Internet's legal architecture was not established at a single point in time, by a single

Produced by David Widger BLOW THE MAN DOWN A ROMANCE OF THE COAST By Holman Day Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers TO MY GOOD FRIEND Captain John W. Christie BRITISH MASTER MARINER WHO HAS SUNG ALL THE SHANTIES AND HAS SAILED ALL THE SEAS "_O, blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down! Way-ay, blow the man down. O, blow the man down in Liverpool town! Give me some time to blow the man down." --Old Shanty of the Atlantic Packet Ships._ CONTENTS: I ~ CAPTAIN BOYD MAYO GETS OUT OF SOUNDINGS II ~ THEN CAPTAIN MAYO SEES SHOALS III ~ THE TAVERN OF THE SEAS IV ~ OVER THE "POLLY'S" RAIL V ~ ON THE BRIDGE OF YACHT "OLENIA" VI ~ AND WE SAILED VII ~ INTO THE MESS FROM EASTWARD VIII ~ LIKE BUGS UNDER A THIMBLE IX ~ A MAN'S JOB X ~ HOSPITALITY, PER JULIUS MARSTON XI ~ A VOICE FROM HUE AND CRY XII ~ NO PLACE POR THE SOLES OP THEIR FEET XIII ~ A CAPTAIN OP HUMAN FLOTSAM XIV ~ BEARINGS FOR A NEW COURSE XV ~ THE RULES OF THE ROAD XVI ~ MILLIONS AND A MITE XVII ~ "EXACTLY!" SAID MR. FOGG XVIII ~ HOW AN ANNUAL MEETING WAS HELD--ONCE! XIX ~ THE PRIZE PACKAGE FROM MR. FOGG XX ~ TESTING OUT A MAN XXI ~ BITTER PROOF BY MORNING LIGHT XXII ~ SPECIAL BUSINESS OF A PASSENGER XXIII ~ THE MONSTER THAT SLIPPED ITS LEASH XXIV ~ DOWN A GALLOPING SEA XXV ~ A GIRL AND HER DEBT OF HONOR XXVI ~ THE FANGS OF OLD RAZEE XXVII ~ THE TEMPEST TURNS ITS CARD XXVIII ~ GIRL'S HELP AND MAN'S WORK XXIX ~ THE TOILERS OF OLD RAZEE XXX ~ THE MATTER OP A MONOGRAM IN WAX XXXI ~ THE BIG FELLOW HIMSELF XXXII ~ A GIRL'S DEAR "BECAUSE!" BLOW THE MAN DOWN I ~ CAPTAIN BOYD MAYO GETS OUT OF SOUNDINGS When in safety or in doubt, Always keep a safe lookout; Strive to keep a level head, Mind your lights and mind your lead. --Pilot-house Ditty. For days he had been afraid of that incredible madness of his as a man fears a nameless monster. But he was sure of his strength even while admitting his weakness. He was confident that he had the thing securely in leash. Then all at once it happened! Without preface of word or look he whirled and faced her, swept her into his arms and kissed her. He did not attempt to absolve himself or mitigate his offense by telling her that he loved her. He was voiceless--he could not control his speech. He did not dare to show such presumption as talk of love must seem to be to her. He knew he must not speak of love; such proffer to her would be lunacy. But this greater presumption, this blind capture of her in his arms--this was something which he had not intended any more than a sane man considers flight to the moon. He did not understand; he had been himself--then, instantly, in time measured by a finger-snap, he had become this wretch who seemed to be somebody else. He had ceased, for an insane moment, to be master of all his senses. But he released her as suddenly as he had seized her, and staggered to the door of the chart-room, turning his back on her and groaning in supreme misery. In that moment of delirium he had insulted his own New England sense of decency and honor. He was afraid to look back at her. With an agony of apprehension he dreaded the sound of her voice. He knew well enough that she was striving to get command of herself, to recover from her utter amazement. He waited. The outrage must have incensed her beyond measure; the silence was prolonged. In the yacht's saloon below a violin sang its very soul out upon the summer night, weaving its plaint into the soft, adagio rippling of a piano's chords. He searched his soul. The music, that distant, mellow phrasing of the call of love, the music had unstrung him. While he paced the bridge before her coming that music had been melting the ice of his natural reserve. But he did not pardon himself because he had acted the fool. He stared at the night framed in the door of the chart-house. Little waves were racing toward him, straight from the moon, on the sea-line, like a flood of new silver pouring from the open door of plenty! But the appealing beauty of that night could not excuse the unconscionable insult he had just offered her. He knew it, and shivered. She had come and leaned close to him over the outspread chart, her breath on his cheek--so close to him that a roving tress of her hair flicked him. But because a sudden fire had leaped from the touch to his brain was no reason for the act by which he had just damned himself as a presumptuous brute. For he, Boyd Mayo, captain of her father's yacht, a hireling, had just paid the same insulting courtship to Alma Marston that a sailor would proffer to an ogling girl on the street. "I'll jump overboard," he stammered at last. "I'll take myself out of your sight forever." The ominous silence persisted. "I don't ask you to forgive me. It is not a thing which can be forgiven. Tell them I was insane--and jumped overboard. That will be the truth. I am a lunatic." He lurched through the door. In that desperate moment, in the whirl of his emotions, there seemed to be no other way out of his horrible predicament. He had grown to love the girl with all the consuming passion of his soul, realizing fully his blind folly at the same time. He had built no false hopes. As to speaking of that love--even betraying it by a glance--he had sheathed himself in the armor of reserved constraint; he had been sure that he sooner would have gone down on his hands and knees and bayed that silver moon from the deck of the yacht _Olenia_ than do what he had just done. "Captain Mayo! Wait!" He waited without turning to look at her. Her voice was not steady, but he could not determine from the tone what her emotions were. "Come back here!" She was obliged to repeat the command with sharper authority before he obeyed. He lowered his eyes and stood before her, a voiceless suppliant. "Why did you do that?" she asked. It was not the contemptuous demand which he had been fearing. Her voice was so low that it was almost a whisper. "I don't know," he confessed. The violin sang on; the moon shone in at the door; two strokes, like golden globules of sound, from the ship's bell signaled nine o'clock. Only the rhythm of the engines, as soothing as a cat's purring, and the slow roll of the yacht and the murmuring of the parted waves revealed that the _Olenia_ was on her way through the night. "I don't know," he repeated. "It doesn't excuse me to say that I could not help it." And he understood women so little that he did not realize that he was making the ages-old plea which has softened feminine rancor ever since the Sabine women were borne away in their captors' arms and forgave their captors. She stared at him, making once more a maiden's swift appraisal of this young man who had offered himself so humbly as a sacrifice. His brown hands were crossed in front of him and clutched convulsively his white cap. The cap and the linen above the collar of his uniform coat brought out to the full the hue of his manly tan. The red flush of his shocked contrition touched his cheeks, and, all in all, whatever the daughter of Julius Marston, Wall Street priest of high finance, may have thought of his effrontery, the melting look she gave him from under lowered eyelids indicated her appreciation of his outward excellencies. "I suppose you are thoroughly and properly ashamed of what you have done!" "I am ashamed--so ashamed that I shall never dare to raise my eyes to you again. I will do what I promised. I will jump overboard." "Captain Mayo, look at me!" When he obeyed, with the demeanor of a whipped hound, his perturbation would not allow him to show as

wisdom reflections for the journey History and Family Inner Landscape Mission Commission, Connections, WEA Mar 26 / Bill Creation groans, the nations rage, and Lent is our season—all March events. March 26, 2011 Creation groans, the nations rage, and Lent is our season—all March events. The groaning of creation………….. Japan groaning A March shattering, the second one within one year, of Christchurch, New Zealand, with a higher level of destruction than the one last year. About a third of the beautiful centre city was demolished, and symbolically, the Anglican cathedral partially destroyed. Perhaps the only "happy" people were the seismologists, who discovered a brand new tectonic plate they did not know existed before. Japan groans much more Then we witnessed the Japan massive earthquakes (shifting parts of the nation by close to 4 meters, about 13 feet) followed by a horrendous tsunami (with waves up to 25 meters, about 53 feet), and the incalculable destruction. Tsunami assault Incalculable sorrow How many times did you watch those mesmerizing videos? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-in/ And again, boston.com has a terribly powerful series of photographs, "The Big Picture" http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/03/massive_earthquake_hits_japan.html The raging of the nations………… North Africa, starting with a depressed and frustrated Tunisian fruit vendor who immolated himself, then the fall of one dictator; followed by the Egyptian Facebook Revolution of March 25 and beyond, leading to the expulsion of another strongman. And the dominoes continue to collapse upon each other, though with deeply different reactions and outcomes. Now it's Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain. Some creative brain in the Pentagon dubbed the Libya mission "Operation Odyssey Dawn". What muse suggested THAT name? Are not odysseys long periods of time, and we want rapid outcomes, the departure of another dictator and the installation of some kind of democracy? Democracy? Huh!! So what else are we smoking these days? In the mid 1970's, one of our favorite and thoughtful writers, Joe T. Bayly, crafted a poem that was later put to music by concert pianist and Latin America missionary, Dick Foulkes. While the nuclear threat then was radically different—the Cuban missile crisis (So who was around to even remember those scary days?)—the Japan realities of even this morning are sobering. Here it is, and consider the profound evocation of these words, even as we see how an "older" poem can return to revisit us with new insight. The hymn was written in 1976, entitled "Glenwood" (the cemetery where three of the Bayly sons were buried), and the music set to Saint Saen's majestic symphony. Note the construction, with five presenting truths and conditions, the poignant query, the Lord's response, and the believers hope. "The nations rage, men's hearts are failing " The nations rage, men's hearts are failing For fear of death and war's atomic blast; All nature groans at sin prevailing, And longing hopes for day of sorrow past. Lord, why this long and painful waiting, When will the promise be fulfilled? "I am not willing one should perish." Even so come Jesus Christ, our Lord. The Shepherd, by His own rejected, Returns to call the sheep for whom He died, The flock He fed and led and guarded, He gathers from all nations to His side. But what of sheep who have no Shepherd, The tribes that have no word from Thee? "Go tell them of the Seeking Saviour" The Lamb once slain to bear our sinning, Returns to earth, redemption to complete, In tender love shall take us to Him, In awful wrath bring Satan to defeat. We see the world in Satan's bondage. The cities filled with sin and pain. "Show my compassion for the lost ones." The King descends, the sight is glorious, No humble coming as at Bethl'em's inn; Each eye shall see our God victorious Return to reign, triumphant over sin. How long shall be our time of travail, Shall faith be found on earth at last? " Walk holy in the dark'ning hours_____." Then shall our God be vindicated, In flaming fire His vengeance surely take; The faithful saints who long have waited To resurrection glory shall awake. We look for Thee, O Loving Shepherd, We look for Thee, O Lamb of God. We look for Thee, O King Eternal: I posed this question to Yvonne this week: How many people died in the Irish potato famines of mid 19th Century? The solemn report: "The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Gaelic: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol), known more commonly outside of Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, is the name given to the famine that occurred in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The famine was due to the appearance of "the Blight" (also known as phytophthora)—the potato fungus that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the island's population. The immediate after-effects of the famine continued until 1851. Much is unrecorded, and various estimates suggest that between five hundred thousand and more than 1 million people died in the years 1846 to 1849 as a result of hunger or disease. Some 2 million refugees are attributed to the Great Hunger (estimates vary), and much the same number of people emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia." http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Irish_Potato_Famine_(1845–1849) So my second question to Yvonne: What would the world have done then had they had the Internet, Facebook or Twitter to report on Ireland? Would we have tolerated that famine? Of course not. But nobody knew, beyond the Irish, and the British (fie on their foreign policy regarding Catholic Ireland!), and a few others. Who could have conceived the dimensions of that devastation? The sad ironies of history that forever the Irish national landscape and culture, leading to a 20% decline of the Irish population. So was it just famine, or perhaps genocide or something else? And where was the Internet? But today technology (blessing and curse) links us perhaps more than we want to. The holy visitation of Lent, another March marker……… And in the midst of these earth-shaking events comes the liturgical calendar with its cadence. Lent started with the solemn ceremony of Ash Wednesday on March 9. It was my privilege to serve chalice that night, as two Austin congregations gathered, hosted by Hope Chapel (where we worshipped 11 years; the first ministry context for Christine and Cliff; the venue of David's arts pastor ministry for 10 years) and Christ Church-Anglican, where we now worship and serve. Sitting in the first row I heard the phrase repeated perhaps 150 times, "from dust you have come; to dust you shall return". It mesmerized me. No! It struck me as a slap in the face when I was reminded so many times of the brevity of life, and the solemn truths in that phrase. David's blog has his rich and textured statement on Lent, and allow me to quote from it (by permission). I encourage you to read his full reflections for your own spiritual pilgrimage. "THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 2011 Lenten Practices: Putting off the "elsewhere self" Saint Anthony by Dali This year I have a theme to my Lenten practices. I don't think I've ever thought of my Lenten practices in thematic terms, but that's what the Spirit seems to be prompting in me and the following quote captures the spirit of my desire to mentally de-clutter. This comes from Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn's very fine essay, "From Inwardness to Intravidualism," published in the recent Hedgehog Review. Tracing out the lines of thought in Dalton Conley's incisive book, Elsewhere, U.S.A, she draws these observations: "Recent socioeconomic trends have yielded a whole 'new breed of person' and a 'new texture of everyday life' (17-8)–a phenomenon he hopes to capture by employing 'elsewhere' as an adjective. The 'elsewhere' society is comprised of only the most 'fleeting and one-dimensional' social interactions, and the 'elsewhere' individual is in perpetual state of inner conflict, plagued by the uneasy feeling that no matter where one is, one is potentially missing out on something more important. This new person is not so much an individual

Toward a Covenantal Relationship: The Church and the Jewish people need each other by Ezra Benjamin It's been two years now since the world seemed to "shut down" all at once. While COVID-19 is still a daily reality, I have sensed over the past few months a new energy as life slowly grinds closer to "normal." The same has been true of our ministry work here at Jewish Voice, and I'm so grateful to God for that. Still, we are a global ministry. And when the "globe" closed for travel in 2020, our Executive Team knew we needed to lean in to what the Lord might have to teach us. And He met us there with this encouragement: That's not an easy ask for such an energetic (and frequently over-caffeinated) team! But by His grace, we spent 2020 waiting on the Lord. And He met us there. What I want to share with you today is what He taught us in our waiting. I. Engaging the Church Our Jewish Voice team has put great thought, care and prayer into our mission statement: We exist to Proclaim the Gospel to the Jew First, to Grow the Messianic Jewish Community, and to Engage the Church Concerning Israel and the Jewish People. It's that last prong of our mission – engaging the Church – that we believe the Lord is calling us to deepen. Our motivation here comes from Scripture. In his letter to the Romans, Paul – a Jewish believer – writes earnestly about his love for his Jewish brothers and sisters; and his hope that they would come to know Yeshua, Jesus, as the Messiah. Those of us who share that love and hope find great cause for rejoicing in Romans 11:26, which says that one day, "all Israel will be saved." But it's critical that we also study what comes immediately before that promise. Paul writes: "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved" (Rom. 11:25-26, emphasis mine). The Holy Spirit, through Paul, has unveiled part of a great mystery for us here. Part of the saving of all of Israel is spiritually linked to the fullness of the Gentiles. This is the great wisdom of God's plan: the Old Testament says that He chose Israel as His people in order to reveal His goodness and glory to all peoples – fulfilling Israel's mandate, given to Abraham and his seed, to be 'a blessing to all the families of the earth.' (Genesis 12) Now, Paul says, God will use the redemption of the Gentiles through Yeshua to renew Israel's jealousy and love for God – the God Who first chose Israel and Who continues to desire her. I once heard a prominent evangelical pastor, while preaching on Paul's letter to the Romans, tell his congregation that "no church that fails to engage the Jewish people can long hold onto the Gospel." Strong words, no? And yet, this pastor recognizes that the Good News of the Messiah, divorced from its Jewish root and its being first "for the lost sheep of the House of Israel" is incomplete and not fully effective. Similarly, we can say that failing to recognize that Jewish Believers – the Messianic Jewish part of the Body – have not only a calling to reach our own Jewish people with the Good News of Yeshua, but also to take up our centuries-old biblical mandate to become a blessing to all the families of the earth with that same Good News, is also incomplete. But we cannot do this alone. We need each other. It is only when the Gentiles come to their "fullness" (the full abundance of God's intent in redeeming them from every people, tribe and tongue) that somehow, in God's mysterious provision, all Israel will be saved. And it is with this urgency and clarity that we continue to prioritize Engaging the Church – the third facet of our missional mandate at Jewish Voice. Partnering with the Church – the Body of Believers – towards the "fullness of the Gentiles" and the "salvation of all Israel" is not a departure from Jewish ministry. It is Jewish ministry! II. But… how? Now comes the million-dollar question: how do we engage the Church – and how should the Church engage with the Jewish people – well? As I've studied these questions in prayer, the Lord has made clear to me and to our executive leadership team here at Jewish Voice that Engaging the Church cannot be a purely academic or theoretical exercise for our ministry. It must be done in relationship. So, over the past several months, I've been conceptualizing a spectrum of levels of relationship between the Evangelical Church and the Jewish people. I want to share those with you now, keeping in mind that different churches and even denominations will fall in different places along the spectrum. In most cases, the stages, or types of relationship between the Church and Israel are not 'good' and 'bad.' Or 'Pass, Fail.' Rather, each type of relationship is an important steppingstone on the path towards what we can call a covenantal relationship between Israel and the Church (see what I mean below). While not condemning or criticizing the less-than-covenantal stages of relationship, my hope is that together, when we recognize the ways these various types of relationship may fall short in ultimately leading to unity, self-sacrificial love, fullness, and salvation, and that we can begin the (hard) work of moving closer to our goal. III. The Relationship Spectrum The first two levels of relationship, Antagonistic and No Relationship, have negative consequences. To be clear, I believe these types of relationship are "not okay." An antagonistic relationship between the Church and the Jewish people could look like open anti-Semitism; or it could involve a more subtle anti-Semitism in the form of Replacement Theology. That's the belief that the Christian Church has "replaced" the Jewish people as receivers of God's blessing and covenant (and that's despite God referring to His covenant with Abraham as "everlasting"). On the other hand, some Christian believers simply ignore the biblical mandate to love and to minister to the Jewish people. They may not harbor any explicit ill will. But this "No Relationship" relationship can, in some ways, be as dangerous as antagonism: it says Jewish people just don't matter – to God or to us. The next five levels of relationship between the Church and the Jewish people can each bear some fruit in their own right. Still, I believe it's the last stage, the Covenantal Relationship, that bears the most fruit toward fulfilling Romans 11:26. Still, we must start somewhere. Many prayerful, well-meaning Christians have embraced ministry to the Jewish people out of what I call a Genesis 12:3 conviction. In that verse, God says "I will bless those who bless you (Israel)." It is good and right for this verse to stir the Church to care for the Jewish people! But it would be wrong to stop here. We love God not merely because He has the power to "give and take away;" we love Him because He is holy. Likewise, we should love the Jewish people not just because God will bless us for it; we should do it out of humble recognition that our Messiah came through them; and because we know the redemption of the Gentiles is inextricably linked with theirs! Other Christian believers may find themselves attracted to Jewish ministry because they recognize the distinctly Jewish roots of the Christian faith. We at Jewish Voice agree – really knowing our Jewish King, Yeshua, requires understanding His Jewishness! The problem here arises when the Church views the "Hebrew Roots" of their faith as merely a

if i want to be safe from others. In conclution, everyperson do somthing that he/she doesn't like it but he walk and moved with rules and motivation in his/her life. People should sometimes do things that they do not enjoy doing. I absolutely agree with this statement. Every thing you do in life can't be just fun. We have a motto in Norway that says that you have to work before you can enjoy. I think this is a good motto that relate to everything in life. For instance if you want to spend your holliday in a warmer country you maybe have to get an extra job to afford the exspensive holliday. Even if you don't enjoy working late in this extra job, I think you should do it, because it will let you do something you realy want to do later. Another eksampel that illustrats that you sometime have to do things you find meaningless or boring is at school. It was not allways easy for me to motivate myself to work whit the mathematics, but today I see that get use for allmoste everything that I learnd. So I'm glad did my mathematics homework even if I didn't enjoyd it. My conclusion is that every thing in life is not just fun, and sometimes you have do to thing even if you don't enjoy doing it! The statemnt above can have different meaning to different people and different people will construe this statement differently.However being a student of psychology, I strongly agree to this statement that sometimes people should do things that they usually don't enjoy doing.We as human beings learn new things everyday and it is a well known quotation" once a new learning rolls over you,if you are not a part of steamroller,you rae part of the road"-Stewart Brand.So, only thing you need to do is it explore new things each day and one day you we will be the master of that thing.Even Sir Einstein tried his formula several times and initially everything went in vain but later there was a discovery. Here I would also like to add on that if you always do things that you have always done,you will always get what you have always got.So, one needs to dig deep into oneself and do little introspection evryday to see what they like doing and what they don't before claiming about their likes and dislikes. Thanks for sending in your essay. Why don't we work through your essay together? To improve you need to start thinking about what you are doing. Why don't we start by looking at content. 1. What is the statement you agree with? 2. What are your main ideas? 3. For each main idea, what are your supporting details? Once these questions answered we will look at organisation/presentation? "our actions speak our thought". either a good or a bad, what ever is in the minds of people, they tend to act in that way. feeling sleepy or sometimes in a mood play, people tend to do it. normally people do the things what they want to do. whether its to play or to dance, to work or to chat, people do the things as they desire, but i personally feel that people do the things that they don't want to do. and i feel it is true in most cases. being a small kid, who wants to study??, and as we grow young, we never wants to get up early morning. Most of the people do the things they dont want, people tend to work day and night, pressing their feelings inside. they do the work only because they dont have any alternative. if they already have in excess for what they are working for, they would stop to work. its only their need that they work. A young teenager,for whom life has so many gifts, is forced to go to school, and in the school he or she has to bear all the tortures of school work and the boring homework. at that age they never would have thought to study, its not their want, its only the compulsion put on them and the force to get better grades. at that point of time their are many thoughts, wats the use of these grades, what the benefit of that, a topper and an average student will get into the next class together. students study due to compulsion from teachers and parents. every parent want their child to be an engineer or a scientist, can every parent have a scientist?. Then in a normal life too, people do the thing which they have never want to do, to get up early every morning, to work all day long, and then even at home their is lot of work to do, assignments, projects, seminars, meetings who wants?. but now as we have been led into the 21st century, and as the technology is advancing day by day, we have to do the things which are against our will in order to cope with the modern world, inorder to survive, in order to rise we need to work hard, even its against all luxuries and will, people have to work. And yes, people do the things which they dont want to do, because theirs no other alternatve left, if they have the right successs, they will do what they want, but its normally said " do what u don't want to do or do what no one else has done and you will rise " Life is not a piece of cake. We can't arrange our life whatever we like. Life is like a journey where we can learn so many things. So I think we should do both things which one we like to do and also which one we don't like to do. If we never do things which we don't like then we never gain experience the pleasure of that work. If we want to be successful in life then we have to know everything. If I have very good knowledge in math and I like to do math but I hate English so I always do math and don't want to practice English then when I get my result I got like 90 % marks in math but I fail in English then I couldn't able to get admission in any university. As a result it loss my one year. If we focus in our personal life then all of our mentality is not same. I like something it doesn't matter that my family members also love the same things. We live together so we can't be selfish and always do things whatever we like. We also need to take care about other peoples feelings. If I care about another feeling then they will also care about me and in that way our bonding will be stronger. In every stage of life we face different kinds of problems. So we have to handle it very strongly. If we think I don't like it and I don't want to do it then we will never prosper in life and if we don't feel the taste of pain and we will never understand the feel of happiness. I definitely agree with the fact that people should sometimes do things they do not enjoy doing. Indeed, living in society, meaning with other people, every single day of your life compels you to do things you would not do if you were alone in the world. And usually doing things you do not really enjoy enables you to appreciate even more things you like to do. Let me explain you my thoughts about this topics. Fist of all, we all live in society, which means we all have to follow some rules to be

both house and inspire the recently rural working classes. It is at this time that government buildings, such courthouses, post offices, and other public spaces, began to be built large and ornate, both inside and out. The first skyscrapers were erected during this period; the first in North Carolina were the Independence Building in Charlotte (1909, J. A. Jones) and the Masonic Temple building in Raleigh (1907-1909, Charles McMillen). With a concentration of labor now living in downtown areas, residential suburbs began to spring up to which affluent families could escape the noise, grime, and density of the city proper. Built along the streetcar lines that extended outside the city limits, it was in these neighborhoods where most of the rising architects of the time designed homes. Charlotte was the first city in North Carolina to have "streetcar suburbs," with the Myers Park neighborhood (designed by John Nolen) being the most well known. Streetcar suburbs in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham, Raleigh, and Wilmington soon followed. Many of the social and political movements of the early 20th Century influenced the types of buildings that were being built in the state, as well. The Progressive Era pushed for education for all children, which led to a boom in school construction. Advancements in higher education led larger state universities to expand their facilities, and the opening of smaller teacher colleges and vocational schools to staff the increasing number of primary and secondary schools and hospitals being erected. Some of the state's most well-known campus architecture was built during this period, reflecting the variety of styles popular in the pre-World War Two period. Duke Chapel, designed by Julian Abele and built between 1930 and 1932, is an example of Gothic architecture. The Louis Round Wilson Library (designed by Arthur Cleveland Nash) and the South Building portico, both built on UN.C.-Chapel Hill's campus in the 1920s, are examples of the Beaux Arts neoclassicism style popular at the time. Driven by reform and a belief in science and technology, the Progressive Era also encouraged public infrastructure development in the areas of health, including the building of hospitals, sanatoriums, and children's homes. The wealth was not distributed equally, however, and segregation and Jim Crow laws were reflected in the quality of the separate facilities built for blacks and whites. Assembly line technology and increased emphasis on factory-made products soon lead to pre-fabricated houses, which began to appear in mail-order catalogs at this same time. A consumer could select the style of house they wanted, order it from the catalog and it would be delivered and set up on the lot of their choosing. The bungalow, a style commonly identified by low, horizontal massing, sloping roofs, eaves, front gables, and "cozy" interiors, was popular in North Carolina. Aladdin and Sears and Roebuck were the two best-known companies selling pre-fabricated homes, and several examples from the early days of factory-built residences in North Carolina still stand. Mid 20th Century to Present Beginning in 1948, with the establishment of North Carolina State University's School of Design (now College of Design), the North Carolina landscape greatly benefitted from the influx of progressive architect-educators. The school's first dean, Henry Kamphoefner, actively supported the faculty's innovative design contributions, including Dorton Arena in Raleigh, designed by Matthew Nowicki in 1951. In addition to Nowicki, Kamphoefner's faculty included George Matsumoto, Lewis Mumford, James Fitzgibbon, Terry Waugh, and many other regional and national leaders of the Modern architecture movement. The faculty at the School of Architecture designed the majority of the Modernist residential homes in the Raleigh and Chapel Hill area during this period. G. Milton Small's Office Building on Brooks Avenue in Raleigh, built in 1966, is a prime example of Modernist architecture in North Carolina. While professional architects worked in the Modernist aesthetic in the 1950s and 1960s, the general public was moving away from architect-designed homes and towards more conservative, all-purpose residential designs. Colonial Revival – a style based loosely on the simple symmetry of the Georgian and Federal periods –was the most popular choice for North Carolina suburban home builders and buyers. Houses were increasingly built by "design-build contractors who drew on published sources and their own experience, and house plans grew more standardized." (Guide to the historic architecture of Piedmont North Carolina, p.79) The country's dependence on the automobile increased during this time period as well, and architecture and landscaping, especially in the suburbs, began to reflect this with street-facing main entrances, driveways, and attached garages and carports. In North Carolina, the suburbs grew at a greater rate than cities they surrounded, and this move away from centralized downtowns continued to characterize the built landscape of the 1970s and later. Bishir, Catherine W., J. Marshall Bullock, and William Bushong. 1990. Architects and builders in North Carolina: a history of the practice of building. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Powell, William Stevens, and Jay Mazzoguide to the historic architecture of Piedmont North Carolinacchi. 2006. Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Bishir, Catherine W., and Michael T. Southern. 1996. A guide to the historic architecture of eastern North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Bishir, Catherine W., and Michael T. Southern. 2003. A guide to the historic architecture of Piedmont North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Bishir, Catherine W. 2005. North Carolina architecture. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press. Bishir, Catherine W., Michael T. Southern, and Jennifer F. Martin. 1999. A guide to the historic architecture of western North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Built Heritage of North Carolina: Historic Architecture in the Old North State, http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/builtheritage/. North Carolina Architects and Builders, https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/division-historical-resources/nc-state-historic-preservation-office. Bibliography at https://www.ncdcr.gov/about/history/division-historical-resources/nc-state-historic-preservation-office. Preservation North Carolina, http://www.presnc.org/. North Carolina Modernist Houses, https://ncmodernist.org/. Resources in libraries [via WorldCat]. "John Wright Stanly House in New Bern, NC." 2009. Image by Wikipedia user Smallbones. Online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewBernHouse1.JPG "Christ Episcopal Church." 2006. Raleigh, NC. Photo by Flickr user Fotomoe. Online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/60445767@N00/352189218/ "Duke Chapel, 1950-09." 1950. Repository: Duke University Archives, https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/uarchives. Photo online at https://www.flickr.com/photos/dukeyearlook/3399137218/ "Dorton Arena, NC State Fairgrounds, Raleigh, NC." North Carolina State Archives. Call no. N_72_8_8. Online at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/2479215292/ Merryman, Kristen Scott, Sarah Rice NCpedia. 10 December 2010 | Merryman, Kristen; Scott, Sarah Rice The creations of the The creations of the Progressive era mentioned here, (sanatoriums and children's homes) are very sad,and quite a reflection on how abhorrent the progressive philosophy is. Thanks for the reminder of this bankrupt way of trying to control the world. How about a little detail on the architecture of the buildings you are describing? Like, for example, what are the names of the exterior features of Duke Chapel? Thank you for taking the time Permalink Submitted by munderhill on Mon, 01/03/2011 - 08:49 Thank you for taking the time to post a comment and suggestion in the NCpedia's entry on the overview of architecture in North Carolina. You suggested adding more information about Duke Chapel's architecture as well as that of other buildings mentioned. There is some information about Duke Chapel on their Web site at http://www.chapel.duke.edu/building.html. There is also a list of additional resources at the end of this entry that will have more information about various architects and buildings across North Carolina. We hope you will take a look at some of them for more information about the buildings mentioned here and more. This entry is a very general overview and we would like to add more entries addressing more specific topics relating to architecture in NC in the future but do not have any coming soon. We rely on volunteer contributions from individuals across the state on topics within their expertise. Thanks again for your suggestion. Michelle Czaikowski, Government & Heritage Library PLEASE NOTE: NCpedia provides the comments feature as a way for viewers to engage with the resources. Comments are not published until

Otherstream IN STEREO WHERE AVAILABLE About Yer Host Perhaps the greatest thing about being single, childless and pet-free? You can, at 8:00 on a Friday night, say to yourself, "I must take a road trip to the beach and this must happen right now." And do it… David Personal, Travel 3 Comments 2 February 2013 2 February 2013 1 Minute I think "Auntie Mame", "The Music Man"' and "My Fair Lady" on TCM definitely qualify as counter-programming tonight. Just sayin'. David Pop Culture 3 February 2013 1 Minute Wherever I lay my hat… Since I can't (and probably shouldn't) sell it right now, the thought occurs to me that I could save a fortune in housing and commuting costs by simply moving into my parents' vacant house and putting mine back on the market–maybe a bit more aggressively. The pros, of course, would be all the money I'd save on the mortgage once my own house was sold, and the fact that I'd no longer be commuting sixty miles a day. I'd save $150/month in gas alone. I could keep my house perpetually "staged" and ready to show on a moment's notice. And I'd have that extra hour a day; that would be nice. But there are cons as well. I don't particularly like my parents' house. I like my house much better, even if it is too big and in the wrong city. In fact, my love for it has been rekindled somewhat lately. My parents' house is kind of awkward, needs a lot of work (can you say "deferred maintenance"?), and comes with a tremendous yard–a whole extra vacant lot next door, even. Frankly, all the memories associated with it over the past year or two sort of depress me. I'd feel I was giving up some of my privacy since my aunt lives next door. I'm also not sure if there would be any legal issues although that seems unlikely. Of course, I could pay someone to deal with the yard (I already do that) and to do the repairs. I'm not really all that concerned about my aunt or my privacy (I rarely throw orgies these days) and it wouldn't be permanent anyway. I have to take care of the house either way. The idea here would be to live in it until my mom needs the sale proceeds for her continuing care…or dies. At that point, I'd sell it and use all the money I'd saved on a place I liked better. It's not something I have to decide immediately but it is one of many things on my mind his week. David Home and Domesticity, Personal 3 Comments 12 February 2013 19 October 2014 1 Minute Vacation cruises have just never appealed to me. I appreciate that some people really like the relaxation they offer, but I think I would go out of my fucking mind on a cruise ship. It would be utter hell for me. All the same, I'd never considered it could be quite this bad. David Current Events 4 Comments 12 February 2013 12 February 2013 1 Minute Videolog: Oblivious Oblivious (1983) This song came up this morning on the shuffle in my car AND on my computer at work, so I assume the cosmos is telling me I should share it… David Videolog 14 February 2013 14 February 2013 1 Minute Close to the end After more than two years and many starts and stops, I'm finally almost done with Phase One of my massive home video archiving project. This is seventeen years of video–nearly three terrabytes–that's now completely digitized and organized into folders by date. It was no small task. I've shot lots of video over the years in multiple analog and digital formats. And I still have all of it, save for a defective tape from 1995 (shot in North Carolina) and one from 1996 (shot in Minneapolis and San Francisco) that I lent to an ex many years ago and never saw again. I started working on this project right after Mark moved back to San Francisco and kept working on it off an on through the pretty thoroughly miserable two years of personal and family drama that followed. It may not have been the best timing since a virtual walk down memory lane was probably not exactly what I needed at the time. There were a few times when I stopped because things were getting too intense–I was in no mood to listen to romantic banter or my parents in healthier times–or because I didn't have time, or I was experiencing equipment failure (e.g. the G5), or whatever other reason. All in all, it was sort of like watching my middle age unfold as sort of a documentary. And it wasn't an altogether bad one, I suppose. Phase Two will involve making MP4 versions so that I'll have accessible copies in one consistent format. At that point, I'll probably complete an index of sorts as well. Yes, I'm a geek and an archivist. If you didn't already know that by now, you've obviously not been paying attention. A few important realizations: I've never been terribly social, but I'm even less so than I used to be. I used to smoke a whole lot. Radio used to suck less than it does now, but not by much. Particularly in places like Winnemucca. I say incredibly stupid and repetitive things while driving. When I look at video from the past few years, I can really see those forty pounds I've lost since September. I like that. I hope that my love affairs with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles never go sour. I used to be able to have my way (date, cavort, etc.) with lots of really cute boys. Not quite sure what happened there. OK, I have an idea what happened… David Geeky, Personal, Technology 17 February 2013 18 February 2013 2 Minutes Randomly Monday afternoon It's President's Day in the US, Family Day in Canada, and just a plain old non-holiday Monday in campus. We take President's Day and Veteran's Day the week between Christmas and New Year's, as George Wahington intended. Random stuff: While the university is not taking the day off, our email apparently is. Cool collection of Century 21 material from the Seattle Public Library. CBC Toronto story which interests me for its subject matter but also gets points for its "King of Kensington" reference. In case you're bored, last year's grant project is officially live. It's been unofficially live for several months. And yes, all those naked HTML tags in the transcripts are there for a reason. I'm cold and am now going home. David Current Events, Pop Culture, Technology, Work 18 February 2013 26 September 2016 1 Minute Videolog: Too Good to Be True Too Good to Be True (1978) David Videolog 19 February 2013 1 Minute Videolog: Moonlight Feels Right Moonlight Feels Right (1976) Videolog: Lovin' You Lovin' You (1975) Evidently I'm on a hardcore 1970s kick this week… David Videolog 1 Comment 21 February 2013 21 February 2013 1 Minute Customer servitude I know it's too easy ranting about the post office, but damn, what a staggering level of incompetence they exhibit. They do a great job of delivering unprofitable letters on Saturday at forty-odd cents a pop but they really blow it on the added-value stuff that might actually make them profitable if they did it correctly–like the express package I should have gotten yesterday but will be lucky to see by Monday despite my having followed their instructions to the letter to have it redelivered today. I can't even track the damned thing. And don't get me started on the phone call to try to determine its status. The sad thing is that I'd actually been trying to use the postal service again over the past few years. After my last two run-ins, though, I'm swearing off for anything other than the basics. Mistakes happen but these involved too many distinct levels of them. Additional awards for staggering incompetence today go to my doctor's office

law and is not in privity in any way with any former title. Generally, it is as effective as a formal conveyance by deed or patent from the government or by deed from the original owner. In fact, it is a good, actual, absolute, complete, and perfect title in fee-simple, carrying all of the remedies attached thereto. The title acquired will pass by deed. After the running of the statute, the adverse possessor has an indefeasible title, which can only be divested by conveyance of the land to another, or by a subsequent ouster for the statutory limitation period.20 When the occupation is through use rather than possession, an easement generally results, although essentially the same requirements must be fulfilled. The process is known as prescription. With any type of occupation against another title holder, one can only acquire the extent of title that the title holder holds. Eminent domain. Eminent domain is the power of the state to take private property for public use.21 The process is known as condemnation, and the condemnor can only acquire the extent of the title held by the condemnee. It requires a formal procedure outlined in the law of the state. Escheat. Escheat signifies a reversion of property to the state in consequence of a want of any individual competent to inherit. The state is deemed to occupy the place and hold the rights.22 When a property holder dies without will or legal heirs, generally the law provides for such property to automatically become state property through the process of escheat. Dedication. An appropriation of land to some public use, made by the owner. A dedication may be express, as where the intention to dedicate is expressly manifested by a deed or an explicit oral or written declaration of the owner, or 3 Am Jur 2d, Adverse Possession, § 298. it may be implied, shown by some act or course of conduct on the part of the owner from which a reasonable inference of intent may be drawn. A dedication may also occur according to common law and may be either express or implied, or it may be statutory, made under and in conformity with provisions of a statute regulating the subject, making it necessarily express.23 Dedication is the devotion. In order for the public to acquire the dedicated rights, there must also be an acceptance by the appropriate governing ­authority. The acceptance is a discrete event. Containing the element of estoppel. An estoppel is a bar or impediment raised by the law, which precludes a person from alleging or from denying a certain fact or state of facts, in consequence of his previous allegation or denial or conduct or admission, or in consequence of a final adjudication of a matter in a court of law.24 The doctrine of estoppel rests upon principles of equity and is designed to aid the law in the administration of justice when without its intervention injustice would result. The rule is grounded in the premise that it offends every principle of equity and morality to permit a party to enjoy the benefits of a transaction and at the same time deny its terms or qualifications. 25 In brief, estoppel is an equitable principle utilized to prevent one who has failed to act when he should have acted from reaping a profit to the detriment of his adversary.26 Regarding easements, estoppels may fall into three possible categories: estoppel by deed, estoppel by record, or estoppel by conduct. Accretion. Accretion is the increase of real estate by the addition of portions of soil, by gradual deposition through the operation of natural causes, to that already in possession of the owner.27 It may be by water, which is the most common, or by wind, which is often subtle, long-term, and not considered by the average person. Ownership of accretion generally is in the owner(s) of the land it attaches to. Parol gift. While generally transfers of real property fall under the English Statute of Frauds (1677) and therefore must be in writing, under certain circumstances there may be a parol transfer of property, or property rights. In addition, transfers made prior to the adoption of the statute of frauds by a particular state, are not affected, and therefore may be valid although not in writing. Operation of law. Situations not covered by the foregoing, affected by law or legal requirements, may be included in this category. Most of them are not a matter of record and take place automatically upon the satisfaction of specified requirement. Reversion is a classic example, whereby an estate, or part Thompson v. Soles, 299 N.C. 484, 263 S.E.2d 599 (1980). Sizemore v. Bennett, 408 S.W.2d 449 (Ky., 1966). thereof,28 automatically returns to its origin when a certain situation arises. It is defined as the manner in which rights, and sometimes liabilities, devolve upon a person by the mere application to the particular transaction of the established rules of law, without the act or cooperation of the party himself. Custom. Custom is a usage or practice of the people, which, by common adoption and acquiescence, and by long and unvarying habit, has become compulsory, and has acquired the force of a law with respect to the place or subject matter to which it relates. It is a law not written, established by long usage, and the consent of our ancestors. If it be universal, it is common law; if particular to this or that place, it is then properly custom. Customs result from a long series of actions constantly repeated, which have, by such repetition, and by uninterrupted acquiescence, acquired the force of a tacit and common consent.29 Prior appropriation. This is a doctrine developed by Sir William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England. Distinct from the prior appropriation doctrine of the western United States pertaining to water rights, Blackstone labeled flowing water as "transient property," usable by the owner(s) of land against whom it touched. He stated that water was a corporeal right, a transient element to the public but subject to a qualified individual property or title during use. Title subsists only during time of use, as water cannot be possessed or appropriated in the same manner as land. The prior appropriation theory is distinct from theories of acquisition of incorporeal rights by prescriptive long user.30 Any one of the foregoing may play a role in the creation, termination, alteration, or transfer of one or more easements. Corporeal and Incorporeal Hereditaments Corporeal hereditaments are substantial permanent objects that may be inherited. The term "land" will include all such. Incorporeal rights are those rights in things that can neither be seen nor handled, that are creatures of the mind and exist only in contemplation.31 They are rights and interests acquired by one person in and over the land of another, and include rights of way, rights to water, support, air, light, view, and a multitude of similar interests that are appurtenant to and constitute the enjoyment of land. They are known as easements or servitudes.32 An incorporeal hereditament has been defined to mean a right growing out of, or concerning, or annexed to, a corporeal thing, but not the substance of the thing itself.33 Blackstone, Commentaries, 1765-1769. Blackstone op. cit. Huston v. Cox, 103 Kan. 73, 172 P. 992. Easements in General Definition: What Is an Easement? An easement is a liberty, privilege, or advantage without profit, which the owner of one parcel of land may have in the lands of another; or, as conversely stated, it is a service which one estate owes to another, or a right or privilege in one man's estate for the advantage or convenience of the owner of another estate.34 It is not ownership of the fee, or the land itself, and is called a non-possessory interest in another's land for a special purpose.35 It is more than a mere personal interest, and since it constitutes an actual interest in the land, it is regarded as realty.36 An easement exists within (in, on, over or under) land of another. A person cannot have an easement in their own land, nor would they need one, having already all the rights and benefits of land ownership.37 C.J.S. Easements § 1. Easement is a right which one person has to use the land of another

'Whoever does not work, does not eat." By promising to send more people on training schemes, organisations like Working Links are pulling down some serious money. £4m profit in 2006, to be exact. Although profits were down to less than a million quid in 2007, this was mainly because of the recruitment of a new 'sales team'. Turnover's up 15% and the business won 43 new contracts generating another £6m during the year. The government says that it is determined to 'grow the value of the business as measured by sustainable economic profit', and in this spirit shareholders received a dividend payment of £300,000. Proving that you can make money by pushing people off benefits and into work, Working Links can make nearly three grand for every Incapacity Benefit claimant it gets into a job for at least 13 weeks. Nice little earner! Business-friendly Brown is promising more and more schemes which must be driving investors wild. Next year Incapacity Benefit will be replaced by the Employment and Support Allowance. 'Customers' who don't agree take part in work-focused interviews or take up training 'opportunities' will lose £11 a week for the first refusal, a penalty that doubles if they refuse to toe the line a second time. Companies like Working Links stand to pick up more contracts as the government considers proposals to cut the benefits of lone parents (with kids over 11) who fail to look for work. There'll be more 'intensive mentoring' of claimants which suggests that Working Links may be putting that new sales team to work phoning jobseekers up at home with the occasional 'outreach visit' to boot. And its onwards and upwards as at the end of November, Working Links landed a contract to run a new welfare-to-work programme in Chile. "The problems facing Chilean workers are similar to those of the UK unemployed," according to Working Links managing director, Keith Faulkner - boring jobs, low pay presumably? Another profiteering company is the Careers Development Group. They've set themselves up as a charity and in a speech to Brighton & Hove Business Forum, told local businesses that "CDG could be used by local businesses to source enthusiastic, skilled workers at no cost." Bargain! Remember kids, as famous US union leader Lane Kirkland said, "If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves." (OK, we looked that one up on the internet...) For being a wallflower... Colin West, one of the Preston Road tree campaigners in Brighton (see www.roughmusic.org.uk/rm16.html#1 for background), was sitting with mates on a wall outside an empty office building just up from the camp, when eagle-eyed cops swooped and arrested him and his mates on suspicion of theft - from an empty building, apparently! This is just the latest in a series of police aggro targeting the camp – Colin's partner Sandra was nicked for the missing Steve Ovett statue in September despite being unable to lift a pallet, let alone a half ton piece of metal... URANIUM ON THEIR PARADE It doesn't really matter how nasty the weapons may be - big bangs are big business. And nothing's more insidious than depleted uranium (DU). Used on a massive scale in the Middle East, these weapons have caused widespread cancers and birth defects in countries such as Iraq and Afganistan. There is also evidence that the use of DU has led to long term ill heath for many service personnel, including "Gulf War syndrome". DU is mainly used in anti tank shells which create millions of particles of radioactive metals which contaminate the battlefield (the whole of Iraq) for millions of years. Classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations, it's a favourite tool in the war against terror being pursued by the US and its lap dogs in the UK government. The multi-billion dollar companies that make DU are backed by a range of financial institutions across the globe. In the US, companies such as Alliant Techsystems (ATK), GenCorp and General Dynamics are being backed by big banks, among them the Bank of New York, Goldman Sachs, General Electric and Barclays Bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland (which also owns Natwest) was a member of a 19-strong banking consortium that agreed credit worth £250m to ATK. They are the world's largest supplier of ammunition and keep profits rolling by flogging 1.5 billion rounds each year, with DU weapons being exported to Greece, South Korea, Turkey, Taiwan, Thailand and Kuwait. Barclays has 5% of the shares in Gencorp and 3% of the shares in ATK. In 1994, a fire at Gencorp's Jonnesborough factory led to the release of DU uranium into the atmosphere. Its former Aerojet testing ground at Chino Hills, California, is not only contaminated with DU, but also mustard, nerve and tear gas. The International Coalition to Ban Depleted Uranium Weapons is calling for action against these low life investors and is running a disinvestment campaign to persuade high street banks to pull out of their deadly investments. You can download an activist kit and find out more about the campaign at www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/143.html ROOT'N'BRANCH LINE Just down the road from the SchNEWS Plaza, residents in Hove are busy fighting Network Rail over the destruction of their local railway embankment. The private sector company in charge of track maintenance has a national policy of cutting and poisoning trees, claiming that they only clear diseased or dangerously located trees. Apparently, using the toxic herbicide, 'Round-up' (which faces an EU ban from parks and other public open spaces in 2008) kills "woody re-growth, while encouraging the development of grasses to help stabilise erosion." As ever with private companies with their eyes fixed firmly on the balance sheet, the green-sounding friendly claims turn out to be downright lies. One SchNEWS correspondent on a protest with the Save The Trees campaigners in late November witnessed perfectly healthy trees being cut down. Poisoning the roots destabilises the whole embankment and leads to subsidence, as Millie Ferguson, Save the Trees coordinator explains, "This is a short sighted, cost-cutting measure. If Network Rail coppiced the trees, there would be no problem, It is the local ecology that suffers and there is danger of landslips as the roots which keep the soil intact are killed." She's backed up by Sussex University archaeologists who say the chalk base of these particular embankments make the tree cutting doubly dangerous and there have already been documented cases of landslips further north on the line at Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath following cutting and poisoning. To stop future protests Network Rail have erected a 7ft chain-link fence - which has already been damaged by some naughty little Christmas pixies. Why not drop Network Rail Chairman Ian McAllister a seasonal greeting and let him know what you think by emailing his secretary: joan.blake@networkrail.co.uk WORKING ON THE CHAIN GANG Why tackle the underlying causes of crime when you can just lock people up? Whilst it might seem obvious that the 37 grand a year currently spent on each individual residing under Her Majesty's pleasure would be better spent reducing the poverty experienced by many of those who get banged up, UK plc begs to differ. Particularly when the prisons are privatised and there's some easy cash to be made, especially those in the business of using cheap prison labour. Last week Neo Labour announced that it would be building three new 'super prisons' (to be called 'Titans') each capable of housing 2,500 inmates. The plan is to lock away 100,000 people by 2010 – up 60% since 1996. And no wonder - 3,000 more criminal offences have hit the statute book in less than a decade, so there's plenty more people breakin' the law! A million and a half people are found guilty of some offence or

It might seem strange to some, but I have grown up within a stones throw (alright the stone might have been thrown by Superman, but I think you get the idea) of Gatwick airport, but I have never flown in a plane. Don't get me wrong it's not that I didn't want to or that I'm afraid to, its just the opportunity never arose. It's not that I never went on holiday when I was a child, but my parents never left the British Isle. We went on holiday to places like Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Camber Sands and at one point the Isle of Wight (a great adventure). This is the thing, it was the late 60's and 70's and we never went abroad, I don't remember us being poor as such (colour telly, food on the table, new clothes, and all the presents I asked for at Christmas and birthdays). Now I admit that such things didn't way heavy on my young cotton wool like mind, so if we were poor I didn't realise it (cue Monty python sketch) "Poor, Poor! POOR!! We had to get up in the middle of the night, half an hour before we went to bed, wipe the road clean with our tongues, eat a shovel full of cold gravel for our breakfast, work thirty two hours down the mines and pay the owner for the privilege, go back home to our shoe box where our Father would brutally hack us to pieces before we had to get up on the previous morning!" "Aye and you try telling that to the kids to day and they won't believe you!" It could have been that my parents went abroad before I came along but as they are no longer with us I can't ask them. Then the 80's came along and I no longer wanted to go on holiday with the family. But the 18-30 club holidays never appealed to me (I was very sad and spent all my time and money in sci-fi shops in London and Brighton). Then came married life and responsibilities, time to act like an adult (stop laughing Tony). So here I am rapidly approaching my Fortieth year and until recently I had never flown. It's a seven seated car and I'm crammed in to the back with seat with Jamie traveling through the darkened streets of London and I get to see my first sunrise (cue Sleeping in Light moment). We get there at five (our flights are at six), deciding to check in our baggage and get some breakfast airside. Its about here that my first disturbance begins, to get airside we have to go through customs, at the passport check I'm asked to put my mobile phone in my hand luggage. So to save its battery I turn it off (my bad). As with the films I pull my metal bits and bobs on the tray, put the luggage on the conveyor belt and walk through the arch. As soon as my bag hits the X-ray machine all the lights bells and whistles start up and I'm firmly but politely escorted to one side (where a man was trying to smuggle 24 bottles of H.P. Brown sauce in his case). The bag is emptied, the phone and the shaver is brought to me to switch on, three books that I was going to read are pulled out and examined, a small boxes is pulled out and opened and the Dalek is reveled. The custom officer gives me a "look". I have a sudden vision of what the next two hours of my life is going to be like "Would you like orange or lemon scented swarfeger, Mr. Dunn?" The custom officer asks as she snaps on her rubber gloves. Everything clenches (I've always believed that the rectal canal was designed by nature for things to come out of rather then go up no matter how much K.Y. jelly or selotape is used). Fortunately for me she just smiles slightly and puts the Dalek down, makes sure the bag is empty, allows me to repack the bag and I'm allowed to continue. So we pile through to airside for a hearty breakfast (I did think at the time it was for the condemned man). I plumed for the full English breakfast as it's going to be the last one I'm going to eat for awhile (or at all if things go wrong). Now this is not a gripe or a moan but an observation, If its meant to be a English breakfast why dose it include Hash browns (I'm not sure they're English, I think they're American) I mean I can eat them till they come out of my ears, but they seem to be a recent thing (when I say recent I mean within the last fifteen years). It just used to be bacon, fried egg, sausage and a piece of fried bread, but the fried bread got elbowed for toast (which is probably healthier) and the hash browns appeared, just a thought. After breakfast we stroll down to the departure gate and the first Dalek pictures much to the bemusement of a couple of Americans (who I did run into again when we foundered around the Vatican). Then it was down across the tarmac to board the plane. It's a big plane and all in a day-glow orange colour, it's here I decide we are not going to crash; I refuse to die in some thing that's such a ghastly color. We board the plane, take our seats next to the wing, once the plane is full I take a look at our fellow passengers, no nuns, no token blacks (the seats are occupied by a range of ethnic groups), no sick children that are being rushed abroad for life saving transplants, no newly weds and finally no pregnant women. It's not that I've got any thing against these people it's just that I've seen far too many airport movies (as it was I refused the Tuna sandwiches they brought round just incase). And finally with my heart doing the Mexican Rumber we taxi down the runway and soar into the wide blue yonder. Between being asked whether I alright by Andrew, Jean and Karen I settle down to read my book, the Saturday before I scoured the London book shops for something new to read, at the Forbidden planet I picked up Strontium dog, 'Bad Timing'. It wasn't as absorbing as I had hoped as my subconsious kept whispering in my ear, things like "You do realise that you are over thirty thousand feet high in a metal tube full of volatile aviation fuel probably built by the lowest bidder". Or "You saw what happened to the car on the making of the Blues Brothers, that's what's going to happen to you!" A sudden thought grips me, we are sitting next to the wing, I make sure it's empty of figures and quickly check round the cabin for John Lithgow or William Shatner. It's then that I come to Chapter Three of the book I had brought to read, to take my mind off the flight. Do you know what the chapter was called? "Chapter Three: Crash Landings!!!" Fate has a sense of humour. I put the book down and offer to play a game of cards with Jean and Andrew, besides a magnificent view of the Alps nothing much more happened, besides that I realise that as a boy I wanted to be an astronaut and I going about the highest and fastest I ever will be in my life. For more information on the trip see Adam's Travelogue. The journey back was uneventful and in the dark, when we hit the coast we also

The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, by a 3-2 majority, made a big decision Tuesday with regard to the sad and indeed scandalous tug-of-war between Catholic dioceses over the relics of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, my friend, mentor and spiritual father. The Court reversed a Nov. 17, 2016 decision by Justice Arlene Bluth of the Supreme Court's New York County Petition Court that had granted the request of Archbishop Sheen's niece to translate his relics from underneath the main altar of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to a shrine being built in St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois. And when that yet-unscheduled evidentiary hearing is held, I'm convinced that the court will find that Archbishop Sheen is indeed buried where he wished to be interred and that there's no evidence at all that he would have wanted to be buried in Peoria or anywhere else in the world. I say this with confidence because I talked to him about the subject on several occasions. I am the last surviving member of the "household" of Archbishop Sheen. Since bishops do not have children of their own, they generally form a spiritual family around them — informally called their "household" — which involves their priest secretaries, the religious sisters perhaps who staff their residence, and other close collaborators, who often are closer to them than their siblings, nieces and nephews, since the members of their household are those who have lived with them and have become like their spiritual sons and daughters. I first got to know Bishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1959 and remained close to him for the remaining 20 years of his life. I was Archbishop Sheen's assistant at the national office of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in New York from 1962-1967 and also served as his peritus or theological adviser at the Second Vatican Council. During this time, we lived together at his residence located at 109 East 38th Street in Manhattan. When he was named the bishop of the Diocese of Rochester in 1966, I accompanied him there to help him in his transition, and then, after a brief assignment at Our Lady of Victory in Mount Vernon, in 1967 I was called to serve at the Apostolic Delegation in Washington D.C., and from there, for the next 26 years, in the Vatican. Archbishop Sheen and I remained close friends and regularly corresponded until the end of his earthly life. I had intended to write some memoirs of my life with the Archbishop for a long time and finally in 2014, based on our correspondence — I treasure over 100 of his handwritten letters to me — and our long friendship, I published a book entitled Bishop Fulton J. Sheen: Mentor and Friend. We spoke several times about "last things," and he told me quite unambiguously that he wanted to be buried in New York. As the retired bishop of Rochester, it would have been expected for him to be buried with the other deceased bishops of that diocese. As a native of El Paso, Illinois, he could have chosen to be buried with his parents in the family plot. Instead, and notably, he wanted to be buried in the Big Apple. To this end, he had purchased a burial plot in Calvary Cemetery in Queens, the official cemetery of the Archdiocese of New York, which is operated by the Trustees of St. Patrick's. During conversations, however, at his apartment in New York after he retired from Rochester — whenever I was back in New York I would never miss the chance to visit him — he would tell me with joy that Cardinal Terence Cooke had verbally proposed that he could be buried in the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral, a privilege accorded normally only to deceased Archbishops of New York by custom and a few other notable people by exception. Some might ask, as Justice Bluth did in her now overturned 2016 decision, why Archbishop Sheen, in the will he executed five days before his passing, mentioned St. Patrick's as the place for his funeral but "Calvary Cemetery, the official cemetery of the Archdiocese of New York," as his place of burial. I think the reason is somewhat clear to anyone who knew Archbishop Sheen well or has a sense of Church decorum. For him to have declared in his will that he wished to be buried in St. Patrick's would have been, in ecclesiastical circles, to say the least presumptuous — since it's only by exception that non-archbishops of New York are buried there — and therefore it's something that a dignified and humble man like him would never have done. For the same reason, he didn't even suggest it as a hypothetical, lest there be the slightest semblance of posthumous pressure on Cardinal Cooke or anyone else. Knowing Cardinal Cooke, however, Archbishop Sheen fully trusted that His Eminence would fulfill the pledge he had made about the most generous "upgrade" in burial location. And Cardinal Cooke did, approaching Archbishop Sheen's family, after his death, and formalizing what Archbishop Sheen had told me the two Churchmen had previously discussed. I attended his funeral and interment in the crypt at St. Patrick's Cathedral and am of the opinion, based on my many conversations with him and on our friendship, that a permanent transfer of his remains to Peoria would clearly violate his intention to be buried in New York. He loved New York. He loved St. Patrick's Cathedral. He loved preaching from that pulpit. He loved how St. Patrick's puts into stone his "solicitude for all the Churches," what the Second Vatican Council I attended with him said every bishop must have. He loved that Catholics and non-Catholics from all the missionary countries he helped during his service at the Society for the Propagation of the Faith come to visit St. Patrick's. He loved that every day tens of thousands enter St. Patrick's to be strengthened for their journey of faith through prayer, attending Mass, which was the center of his life, adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament before whom he would daily spend the "best hour" of his day, and going to confession to receive the mercy he loved to proclaim and dispense. In short, Archbishop Sheen was honored by the offer to be buried at St. Patrick's, desired it, and thanks to Cardinal Cooke's magnanimity and goodness, got his wish. There's no evidence whatsoever, on the other hand, that Archbishop Sheen wanted to be buried in Peoria. In the legal documents filed in 2016 petitioning the court to order a transfer to St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria, lawyers for Mrs. Joan Cunningham, Archbishop Sheen's niece, noted that the future archbishop grew up in Peoria, his parents are buried there, the majority of his relatives live there, and he received his first Communion and was ordained there. That's all true — and no one knew those facts better than Archbishop Sheen. He could have easily and freely chosen to be buried there for any or all of those reasons. But as his will shows, he unequivocally chose to be buried not in Peoria but in New York. Not only is there no evidence whatsoever for such a claim, but if the archbishop clearly didn't want to be buried in Peoria upon his death but rather in New York, why would he have ever wished for his remains to be disinterred and moved to Peoria later? Even though Archbishop Sheen's wishes are the "paramount factor" according to the court, what about his family's wishes? The Court notes that back in 1979, Archbishop Sheen's niece, Joan Cunningham, assented to Cardinal Cooke's formal invitation to bury him underneath the main altar of St. Patrick's. When the Diocese of Peoria

Undone (radio series) Undone is a radio comedy broadcast by the BBC on the digital channel BBC 7, written by and starring Ben Moor. It uses a sci-fi theme of parallel universes to poke fun at life and especially the media business in London. The series focuses on the life of Edna Turner (Sarah Solemani in Series One and Alex Tregear in Series Two and Three), a journalist for a listings magazine who discovers a weird parallel version of London called "Undone". Sarah Solemani (Series 1) Alex Tregear (Series 2-3) Colin Anderson 25 March 2006 – 2 January 2010 No. of series 3 + 1 pilot Stereophonic sound "We Are The Sleepyheads" by Belle & Sebastian The pilot episode (also known as "Mind the Gaps", and first broadcast March 2006) was subsequently designated Episode One of the first season. That first season was broadcast on consecutive evenings in October 2006. In November 2007 it was re-broadcast over five weeks. BBC7 broadcast a second series of six weekly episodes, beginning Sunday 20 January 2008. A third series was broadcast starting on 28 November 2009, making Undone BBC Radio 7's longest-running original narrative comedy, that is one not previously broadcast on any other BBC network. Would-be journalist Edna Turner comes to London to work on the listings magazine Get Out!, a parody of Time Out. She encounters Tankerton Slopes (Ben Moor) who works in a parallel version of London called Undone. They have something in common, in that they both work for the same boss, Carlo Jones, although Tankerton's boss is a parallel version of Edna's. Tankerton recruits Edna to help find residents of Undone who have crossed to London. Tankerton is somewhat taken with the fact that Edna comes from the town of Towcester, as its name is pronounced in the same way as the common kitchen appliance. Naturally he buys her a toaster from Undone as a gift. Undone is "where the weirdness comes from". Ideas leak from Undone to London, making it the peculiar place it is. However, according to Tankerton, reality "cannot stand too much weirdness". There are "gaps" here and there which connect London and Undone. People like Tankerton and Edna can learn to find the gaps. Others sometimes cross over to make a new career in London, but inevitably upset the balance between the worlds. Tankerton sends Edna to check out unusual events and places that may be the results of people crossing over. Edna, however, cannot resist letting the dishy Grant (Tim Key) from Undone stay in her London, piling up problems for the final episode, while Edna's mother descends from their home in Towcester to visit Edna and her old friend Carlo, in Undone. In the first series finale, weirdness threatens to flood London while mundaneness threatens Undone. Edna discovers that she is the one who can maintain the balance between realities. In the process, she perceives even more universes, including one in which she is "a fictional character played by Sarah Solemani". She restores the balance, but Tankerton and other Undoners she has come to know vanish, and the gaps between London and Undone are closed. Returning to her flat, she wonders if she imagined everything, but sees the gifts Tankerton gave her, and discovers she can cross to Undone simply by concentrating. In the second series, Edna learns that Tankerton has become engaged to a woman called Ida (Sophie Duval) who lives in another version of London called Donlon, which is very generic. She also learns that they are half sisters and their father is The Prince (Kevin Eldon), a man who wants to unite all versions of London together and thus is an enemy of Tankerton. In the third series Edna meets the "real" Tankerton Slopes, and journeys to the "Prime" version of London, along with other cities such as Roman Londinium, "Londres" (a French version) and "Lahndan", a vibrantly Cockney version. A character called "Golfer Mackenzie" gathers together all his alternate selves from the different Londons, and rampages across reality. One of the Golfer Mackenzies, who comes from a version of London where everyone is angry, kills the Undone version of Carlo. Edna comes to realize that all the Londons are her creation, and she has to learn to sort them out before they all destroy each other. At the end she has restored a London that includes her, Ida, Tankerton (as Tim Stokes), the London Carlo and other important people. Everything seems stable, until she receives a phone call from Golfer. EpisodesEdit Main article: List of Undone episodes Mind The Gaps, AKA Undone Unappreciated Unrivalled Unfamiliar Unravelled Unaccompanied Unsurprised Unaccustomed Unwelcome Unification Unalike Untoward Ungainly Characters in UndoneEdit Edna Turner (Sarah Solemani in Series 1, Alex Tregear in Series 2 and 3), a neophyte journalist. After meeting the Prince, Edna is not sure whether to continue believing in Tankerton's work, or the Prince's own plans. As the story progresses, she becomes uncomfortably aware of her increasing number of abilities, including the trick of switching to a new reality when the current one becomes too boring. Tankerton Slopes (Ben Moor), a man who patrols the gaps between the worlds and returns errant Undoners home. He plans to marry Edna's half-sister Ida who lives in the duller parallel world of Donlon. Tankerton initially presents himself as coming from Undone, but in the second series he reveals that his real name is Tim Stokes and he comes from Edna's universe. At the end of series three, we learn that there is an Undone version of Tankerton, who was the version Ida meant to marry. The name "Tankerton Slopes" is actually that of a geographical feature near the town of Whitstable. Carlo Jones (Duncan Wisbey). In London, he is Edna's slightly vague boss who knows more about what's really going on than he would like. In Undone, he is Tankerton's take-charge boss who may be working for the Prince. There is also a counterpart in Donlon, called "Charles Jones", also played by Wisbey. In the first two series, the London Carlo is in charge of a listings magazine called Get Out!, which folds at the end of series two. At the beginning of series three, it becomes a weekly email called Go On!, formed with the help of Ida. Midway through series three, the Undone version of Carlo is killed. The Prince, or the Man Man, (Kevin Eldon), Edna and Ida's father, who wants to unite all the parallel Londons. He has been tossed out of an organization known as "The Court" for his attempts to do this. He knows about "The Gem", a jewel which has power over the realities, and which has been broken into pieces. This may have been done to prevent him joining all the worlds, or it may have been done by him to stop the Court from acting. Edna thinks she knows where at least three of the five pieces are. Billy O'Malley (Duncan Wisbey), a stereotypical Irishman who technically looks after the flats where Edna lives, but usually pleads back trouble when called upon to do any work. He works part-time for the Prince in getting Undoners into London, operating the "Anomaly Project" (i.e. "An O'Malley Project") from his flat. Ida (Sophie Duval), Edna's half-sister in the mundane world of Donlon. In Donlon everything is generic, including names, so she comes from "a small town, called 'Smalltown'." She and Tankerton plan to get married, presumably in a church called "Church". According to the Prince, Edna and Ida played together as children, but Edna is not sure if she believes this. Grant (Tim Key), an Undoner with the best eyes Edna has ever seen and a talent for drawing, especially drawing veils over activities he and Edna would prefer were private. He develops bizarre theatre projects, and also runs "We Will Hide Your Stuff", a company which hides things from people so they can experience

dumbest things I've ever heard. It's a shame it has taken Householder and Seitz so long to get their guts going, but I guess its better late than never. Now that people in Ohio know that the Covid-19 virus was a scam in the way it was sold to the public as the next death of civilization, they want their money back, and their lives and somebody is going to have to deliver. It's a shame that its an election year and the Republican party would like to unite behind Trump and DeWine, but both have global activists in their administrations and people are going to hold them responsible for that, and its not going to be pretty. Trump has Fauci and DeWine has Acton. Isn't it stupid that we are doing the same thing in Ohio and the United States in general that the losers around the world are doing? Why is that @realDonaldTrump @GovMikeDeWine @LtGovHusted ? Following other people's advice isn't leadership. Doing something different is. https://t.co/1ECk4bCGuO DeWine's biggest failure was in the lack of leadership during the whole Covid-19 outbreak. Sure the media loves him because he led Ohio over a cliff, which is what they wanted—fear ruling over logic. But it was DeWine who just took everything Trump did and go several steps further by letting Amy Acton guide the administration policy. For a comparison, sure its safer to go get your mail out of the mailbox of your house dressed in a helmet and knee pads, but is it practical. Just going safer isn't leading—its yielding, and that is what DeWine did. He played things safe to save his own ass, and in so doing he ruined the lives of everyone who should have been following him. These politicians keep calling themselves leaders, but all I have seen from them is followers, governors following World Health Organization directives which the CDC adopted, and legislators following those governors with no checks on power by allowing emergency powers to continue infinitely as their minds were captured by fear. Maybe now that people see the hoax of the numbers regarding coronavirus they'll start showing some leadership. But the lack of it up to this point has destroyed so many lives because they trusted politicians to make the right choices, and as we can all see, the people of Ohio were let down by Republicans who sat on their hands and chose not to do the right thing when it mattered most. Cliffhanger the Overmanwarrior Budget problems, Conservative politics, Justice, Literature, Politics, Progressive, Rich Hoffman, Taxes Leave a comment May 6, 2020 May 5, 2020 6 Minutes IMPEACH MIKE DEWINE: Is the governor having sex with Amy Acton? Why does NO ONE care about these people? pic.twitter.com/TLpEXFBFqP — Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) March 18, 2020 There are only two explanations for it, Mike DeWine is either having sex with Amy Acton, or he's a complete idiot and is just letting her be the liberal activist she's always wanted to be because he doesn't know better. Watching those two in these every day public scare announcements has been like watching a couple of young kids in love. Yes Mike DeWine, I "get it" I understand how a virus spreads. But I don't trust you to make decisions for me, you have lost that trust with this massive over-reaction to this virus. I think of Mike DeWine as a good family man, if there is anything good to say about him at this point, and it would shock me to find out that he's bent over for this girl. But I was surprised to learn that many people, even very religious people, fall to the fruits of a little attention by someone climbing for power at any cost. Whatever it is, Mike DeWine needs to be impeached for what he did over the voting issue on Tuesday. Its bad enough that he had already shut down the economy of Ohio which set off a chain reaction across the nation by other panic driven governors, but he has essentially been letting this former assistant climate change activist, and abortion supporter run economic policy in the state of Ohio and has circumvented the legislature all in the name of emergency to do it giving this lady free reign essentially over the nation. Impeaching DeWine would not be like the congressional attempt to impeach President Trump, in this case DeWine actually did something wrong even as a judge stated that the elections would go on as normal. DeWine went even further and tampered where he had no right to go, and that is why he has to go—as soon as possible. At the very least we must elect some other Republican the next time around, but due to his extreme radicalism, well intentioned or not, he needs to be made an example of. Ultimately its DeWine's problem that he appointed a bad person for the Public Health Director in Ohio. He knew her record and he appointed her anyway, she has a tendency toward liberalism and as we are learning, so does Governor DeWine. That's why many of us held our nose to vote for him, but the surprises don't stop there. One of the selling points was that DeWine came with Jon Husted who we hoped would keep the Governor in check. But in a meeting held shortly after the closing of the restaurants and bars in Ohio on Sunday, Husted told those listening that if all these measures saved just 10 lives, that it would all be worth it. The world had literally fallen apart, and sanity had dropped away. What leftists like earth girl Amy Acton want in the deepest recesses of their hearts is to turn humanity into a harmony with the earth and shut down all those mean big businesses, and using a little flirty feminine charm, whether or not things actually got touchy and feely, a pent up old man is likely to give more ear to her than she would otherwise deserve, and that brings up a whole lot of problems we need to consider. What makes the 127 lives lost to COVID-19 so much more valuable than the 50,000 lives lost to the flu? I'm personally not convinced that this coronavirus is very dangerous at all. Over the weekend there were four people in West Chester who were found to have had it, the hospital there diagnosed it, then sent them home to self-quarantine. They were all in the same family, so it wasn't exactly the end of their lives. Tom Hanks and his wife just recovered from the virus and that is likely going to be the story with anybody who gets this. We are not going to have rows and rows of hospital beds in parking lots all across the nation with sick people dying left and right. These fears come from the imaginations of climate scientists and pot smoking loons who are left over hippies yearning for a return to Woodstock, not right thinking, practical people. It looks like most people who get coronavirus won't even know they have it and will likely recover completely with their own immune systems. This whole thing reminds me of the campaign several years ago to reduce the amount of toilet paper that people bought and consumed, in order to save the planet. Some of these people are very loony people, and they have a right to exists of course, but they don't have a right to shut down our economy and induce panic over nothing. Mike DeWine has empowered one of these loony leftists and given her full power to run the national economy by default all in the name of an emergency. As I ponder the relationship of Mike

Softball Swept by Regis in NECC-Opening Twin Bill (L 5-2, L 14-3) Regis (MA) Regis (MA) (2-4) 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 5 10 4 Southern Vt. (2-4) 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 4 0 Regis (MA) (3-4) 3 6 0 2 3 14 18 1 Southern Vt. (2-5) 3 0 0 0 0 3 5 6 2B: Kelsey Heath; Rachel DesRochers 3B: Katie Cuozzo 2B: Alyssa McKinnon 3B: Rachel DesRochers; Katie Cuozzo 2 HR: Kirbie Garvey HR: Emily Fleming QUEENSBURY, N.Y. — The Southern Vermont College and Regis College softball teams both opened their New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) schedules Thursday afternoon, the Pride sweeping the doubleheader played at the Adirondack Sports Complex. A twin bill that was scheduled to be SVC's home opener was relocated as outdoor fields in the Northeast continue to be unplayable. Regis held on for a 5-2 win in the first game before slugging its way to a 14-3 victory in five innings during the day-cap. The Pride improve to 3-4 on the year (2-0 NECC) while Southern Vermont slides to 2-5 (0-2 NECC). The Mountaineers are next slated to host Elms College on Monday for their true home opener, the NECC twin bill scheduled to start at 1 p.m. at Willow Park in Bennington. The Pride are off until Wednesday when they visit Fitchburg State University for a 3 p.m. non-conference doubleheader. GAME 1: Regis 5, Southern Vermont 2 RC never trailed in the opener after grabbing two runs in the top of the second. Southern Vermont responded with one of its own in the bottom of the inning, but the Pride added a third in the visitors' half of the fourth. Regis put up two more in the sixth before the Mountaineers scored once in the ensuing half inning. RC then kept SVC from mounting a comeback in the seventh for its second win of the season. Mountaineer senior catcher Kirstin Buchan (Troy, N.Y.) went 2-3 with the bat while junior second baseman Rachel Robtoy (Baltic, Conn.) turned a walk into a run. Three Regis players tallied a pair of hits including junior pitcher Katie Cuozzo (Lynn, Mass.) who helped herself with a 2-3 showing and a pair of runs scored. Sophomore shortstop Rachel DesRochers (Westford, Mass.) went 2-3 with three RBIs out of the nine-hole, and senior center fielder Kelsey Heath (Lowell, Mass.) finished the game 2-3 with a run scored and another batted in. Cuozzo took the complete-game win from the circle (2-3), giving up just one earned run on four hits in her seven innings of work; she struck out five while surrendering a pair of walks on the day. SVC senior righty Emily Fleming (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) suffered the loss (1-4), striking out six Pride batters in her seven frames with the ball. Fleming got off to a strong start on the rubber, striking out the Regis side in the top of the first. SVC used a walk and a sacrifice to get a runner in scoring position, but the Pride were able to execute a 1-3-5 double play on a chopper back to the pitcher to get out of the inning. The top of the second saw Fleming retire the first two batters she faced, but Regis then got a string of hits together to grab the lead. A Heath shot to right center bounced over the fence for the ground-rule double, and the Pride got some help from the roof when a pop-up to Fleming ricocheted away from the Mountaineer fielders before finding fair territory. DesRochers then ripped a grounder up the middle for the first RC run to cross the dish. Junior left fielder Kirbie Garvey (Littleton, Mass.) beat out a ball hit to second while sophomore catcher Rachel Tortora (Malden, Mass.) came in to score to increase the lead; DesRochers rounded second and faulted on the base path as SVC returned the ball to the pitcher's circle, being called out to end the inning. Southern Vermont answered with one in the bottom of the frame as a pair of Regis mishaps came back to hurt. SVC shortstop Shelby Jones (Hoosick Falls, N.Y.) advanced to second on a Buchan bloop to right that found its way between three Pride fielders, and the senior then came in to score as the throw on a sacrifice bunt attempt was sent into the outfield. With runners at the corners and no outs, Fleming got a hold of one on what looked to be a promising liner; the ball was snagged by DesRochers at short, however, and Cuozzo then got out of the jam with two straight strikeouts. Both sides went down in order in the third, Fleming working two K's from the circle while Regis junior first baseman Alyssa McKinnon (Raynham, Mass.) was part of three infield ground outs in the bottom of the box. Cuozzo started the top of the fourth with a laced shot to the gap in right center, a ball that found its way to the fence as she made her way safely to third. Heath followed with a one-out liner that glanced off Fleming's glove before making it up the middle through the infield, easily scoring the Pride hurler from third. That would be all RC would get in the inning as Fleming got the next two batters, sending the game to the bottom of the fourth with Regis on top 3-1. A lead-off error would be quickly erased as SVC was doubled-off on a liner back to the pitcher. RC got out of the inning but wouldn't be in the dugout for long as Fleming put down the Pride in order to get out of the top of the fifth. Southern Vermont senior left fielder Michelle Flores (Pico Rivera, Calif.) roped a one-out seeing-eye single through the left side in the bottom of the frame, but she would be caught stealing for the inning to end with Regis clinging to its 3-1 edge. The Pride were able to pad their advantage in the top of the sixth after loading the pond with no outs on three straight singles. Fleming induced a pop-out and a fly-out to center, but DesRocher wouldn't let her get out of it that easily as she tagged a two-run double to left for the 5-1 lead. Southern Vermont then tacked up one of its own in the bottom of the sixth to get back to within three. A Robtoy walk would result in a Mountaineer run as she scored on the subsequent at bat; SVC senior third baseman Brianne Nichols (Albany, N.Y.) dropped one into shallow right, allowing Robtoy to touch second and keep motoring on to third. Pride sophomore right fielder Jenna Casello (Westborough, Mass.) tried to gun her out from the outfield, but the ball sailed out of bounds for the SVC captain to be awarded home. The inning was extended when Southern Vermont got some help of its own from the dome's cover, a Buchan pop-up bouncing off the roof and finding the turf before RC junior second baseman Michaela NeJaime (Sandisfield, Mass.) could get her whole glove around it. Cuozzo worked out of the first-and-third situation, however, as an inning-ending liner to first kept it a 5-2 Regis upper hand. The seventh saw six straight outs as both sides went down in order, Cuozzo getting the last two Mountaineers to strikeout for the complete-game victory. GAME 2: Regis 14, Southern Vermont 3 (5 inn.) The second matchup of the day saw both teams score three in the first, SVC's coming on a Fleming jack to center. Regis came back in the second to chalk up six runs, and Southern Vermont would be hard-pressed to score through the remainder of the game. RC added two more in the fourth and another three in the next box to put the game

putting a sold-out launch in my T-line and I got to work embodying the feeling of committed and actually going out and closing those clients. And that's exactly what I did. I sold out the launch. And then from that moment on I was like, "Okay, it's my mind, it's my identity." I then, later on, learned how to incorporate thought work into my experience being a Black woman because I realized that I needed to put the model in a way that took my lived experience into context. And once I was able to do that, once I was able to realize that I do have power, I do have agency, even though there are circumstances in the world that are not my fault, that make it difficult for me to navigate in this space, especially the very white coaching industry. When I put all those things into context I was able to use the model for me and that's when I saw the majority of my work. And I really doubled down on mindset work. I hired a mindset coach. I went all in on mindset for the first time. And then something fascinating happened. Once I started just focusing on my mindset my own business philosophies came out to be true. I started implementing my own sales frameworks that weren't from other people. But I started actually developing my own intellectual property. And I realized, for anyone who doesn't know my story, I started out as a social worker. And I realized that social work and sales go hand in hand, it's always just about relationships and it's always just about trust. And that's when I started really developing my own intellectual property. Stacey: So good. Now I have so many follow-up questions from that. Okay, so can you go back and spend some time on – because I think people, I'm trying to think of the people that might be listening that aren't from the LCS world, who aren't proficient in the model. Or when we say, I do this on my podcast all the time where we say T-line, or F-line, or R-line. So what's she saying is the model, there are circumstances in the world that are factual, or measurable, or everyone would agree with them, you can't change them and those go in the circumstance line. And then based on that you get to decide what you're going to think or what you want to think, what you choose to think. That will determine how you feel once you believe it. And then that drives your actions which create your results. So in the community we often say the T-line or the F-line, we're meaning the thought line or the F-line because when you change one it changes everything including your results. So I'm curious, if you wouldn't mind spending some time, especially for my Black coaches listening, what does it look like when you say you integrated your lived experiences into the circumstances and how you made the model work for you as a Black coach? I'm just curious if you could kind of break that down a little bit so we don't lose the conversation from there and everybody goes with us. Dielle: Sure, absolutely. And so I think when it comes to the C-line, what are circumstances that are just factual? I really had to put, and this is also during 2020 where George Floyd happened and so many things were happening in my world, where just literally I felt like it was a dollhouse and everyone was shaken out. That's how I felt. It was very difficult for me. I had to take time off from work, it was really traumatic for me. And I had to learn that racism goes into the C-line. Racism is a circumstance, it's not something that I have to change my thoughts on. But also my thoughts about the coaching industry, the coaching industry is very white. The coaching industry was started from this certain group of people that had a lot of money and now they're looking to expand it and to being more accessible. The coaching industry was designed for a certain person and now all of these new people that are learning about it, BIPOC people, so many different groups of people were trying to see, well, where is our place here? And what does this look like? And it's okay if it doesn't look like every single other person's out there. That was totally my journey. I was just speaking to a friend and she was like, "I remember a long time ago I shared the story how I was jealous. I was jealous of these coaches that had these big beautiful communities and I was struggling to grow my audience and I was struggling to do so many things to get that same traction at that same rate." But then I realized, well, what if I just did this my way? What if I wasn't trying to look them, how would I be able to still sell, hit all my goals and create a beautiful amazing community? And that's exactly what I was able to do. And so I think it's just realizing that there are some facts in the world that as Black people, as people of color that we have to interact with. And that doesn't mean that you're wrong if there's just a fact in the world. It's like, okay, well, what do you want to do with that fact and how do you still want to accomplish your goals even though those facts are still living in the world? And so that's definitely what I did for growing my business and showing up. It still blows my mind that I did a million with only 700 email subscribers, just a small, small community. Stacey: That's so great. Dielle: Yeah. And so I never needed to look like someone else. I never needed to do it exactly like someone else. I got to do it while being me. Stacey: Yeah, that's so good. I love that so much. Yes, I think that's super important because there are a lot of people who don't know the model or who don't use the model, or who might think the model isn't for them, for those reasons. Or I think what I've seen a lot in the industry is it's just misunderstood, it gets kind of passed down from one line to the next, to the next, to the next. I'll see something said and I'm like, "Wait, that's not what they're teaching at The Life Coach School at least in rooms I've been in." So I think it's helpful and then there is that piece I think that Kara's so brilliant about this too, is there's the model and then there's how you want to use it and how you want to teach it in a way that really resonates with you and serves you. Because it really is just someone's lived experience and their knowledge thus far. It's like what we were talking about in Two Million Dollar Group when I said, "There is how you teach early and the days will be just your tiny lens." And I'm seeing that even now when people come to me and they're like, "Well, you had that but doesn't this apply to me or this right here." And so I have to think about – this is a great example, this is just pretty mundane for the coaching industry. But I don't tell anyone anymore you have to have a one-on-one coach to sell one-on-one coaching. Or you have to – I don't know, those typical things like that where they're like, "Well, I

4 Ways To Stay Motivated At Any Job Top 5 Kindle Author | Author of 10 Books Read full profile The rate at which the global career market is shifting and establishing new opportunities is faster than it ever has been. Strangely enough, the majority of people still remain dissatisfied with their jobs. You may be a mid-level corporate employee who feels your career path has struck a stubborn dead-end. Maybe you're a single mom and you're fighting your hardest to provide for your children with two minimum wage jobs. Perhaps you're a recent college graduate and you have visions of grandeur for your future, but haven't the faintest clue where to start. The good news in all of these situations is that there are always steps you can take to induce growth. Staying motivated at your current job and continuing to reap benefits is not exclusive to those who live their dream jobs. Check out the tips below to squeeze maximum potential out of your present job. 1. Establish meaningful connections To some it may be a no-brainer, but getting to know the people you work with on more meaningful levels is an ideal way to remain motivated. Handling an entire workday with people you despise or simply don't know very well can make it feel like forever. Take a few minutes, two or three times during the day, to ask your coworkers some genuine questions. You'll likely be surprised by the amount of information you come across. Who knows – perhaps you'll make a lasting connection through simple, straightforward conversation! What's more, establishing meaningful connections throughout your place of work is likely to open doors faster, if that's something you're hopeful for. Someone wise once said, "There's always one more spot for a person in any career who delivers quality exceptionally well." Don't mentally impede yourself from progress before you've even given it a chance! 2. Clearly outline a handful of goals Across the incredibly wide spectrum of available jobs, any workplace can feel more like a prison without relevant, significant goals. Setting clear goals for yourself in your job is guaranteed to make your work feel more meaningful. First, think of the position you want to move into or excel at. You can't move forward until you've established at least a handful of pertinent checkpoints. Second, outline your goal on paper and keep it easily accessible. The number one reason people fail to reach their goals is because they are not physically written down and periodically reviewed. Break this nasty cycle by reviewing your written goals frequently! 3. Pour out your full effort This may seem like another "Duh!" moment, but it is far and away worth mentioning. You are only hampering your own growth if you aren't pouring out your full effort every day. Success knocks on the door of those who are committed to excellence (even in the small things), not those who are looking for a shortcut at every turn. In addition to this, you may subsequently impress your supervisor or boss when you start kicking butt on the clock. If you were previously someone who lagged behind and now there's a spring in your step, people will take notice. Everyone likes someone who works hard, and this virtue alone is likely to work in your favor. 4. Ask questions Fostering a genuine curiosity about your workplace and taking moments to ask questions is one of the magic doors you can open of your own accord. The reason questions are so powerful is because they provide a way to discover new information. And new information – of any kind – can be used for your benefit. "Knowledge is power" has rung true for decades, but it has never been truer than in the Information Age. Harnessing the discoveries that arise from your questions can establish the difference between the mediocre execution of a job and authentic fulfillment. Top 5 Kindle Author | Author of 10 Books 12 Little Known Facts About Famous Entrepreneurs 20 Timeless Characteristics Of Quality Leaders 9 Reasons Your Belly Fat Doesn't Go Away And How To Get Rid Of It Did You Know This Many People Speak This Language? All The Choices You Get For Graphic Design In One Place Trending in Work 1 7 Powerful Habits To Win In Office Politics 2 10 Signs of a Bad Boss and How to Deal with Them 3 10 Great Skills to Include in Your Resume When You Change Careers 4 How to Become Smarter: 21 Things You Can Do Every Day 5 7 Powerful Steps to Achieve Career Success How to Concentrate and Focus Better to Boost Productivity Lawrence Cheok Lawrence writes about living a balance life and provide tips for improving your career. Read full profile Office politics – a taboo word for some people. It's a pervasive thing at the workplace. In its simplest form, workplace politics is simply about the differences between people at work; differences in opinions, conflicts of interests are often manifested as office politics. It all goes down to human communications and relationships. There is no need to be afraid of office politics. Top performers are those who have mastered the art of winning in office politics. Below are 7 good habits to help you win at the workplace: 1. Be Aware You Have a Choice The most common reactions to politics at work are either fight or flight. It's normal human reaction for survival in the wild, back in the prehistoric days when we were still hunter-gatherers. Sure, the office is a modern jungle, but it takes more than just instinctive reactions to win in office politics. Instinctive fight reactions will only cause more resistance to whatever you are trying to achieve; while instinctive flight reactions only label you as a pushover that people can easily take for granted. Neither options are appealing for healthy career growth. Winning requires you to consciously choose your reactions to the situation. Recognize that no matter how bad the circumstances, you have a choice in choosing how you feel and react. So how do you choose? This bring us to the next point… 2. Know What You Are Trying to Achieve When conflicts happen, it's very easy to be sucked into tunnel-vision and focus on immediate differences. That's a self-defeating approach. Chances are, you'll only invite more resistance by focusing on differences in people's positions or opinions. The way to mitigate this without looking like you're fighting to emerge as a winner in this conflict is to focus on the business objectives. In the light of what's best for the business, discuss the pros and cons of each option. Eventually, everyone wants the business to be successful; if the business don't win, then nobody in the organization wins. It's much easier for one to eat the humble pie and back off when they realize the chosen approach is best for the business. By learning to steer the discussion in this direction, you will learn to disengage from petty differences and position yourself as someone who is interested in getting things done. Your boss will also come to appreciate you as someone who is mature, strategic and can be entrusted with bigger responsibilities. 3. Focus on Your Circle of Influence At work, there are often issues which we have very little control over. It's not uncommon to find corporate policies, client demands or boss mandates which affects your personal interests. Gossiping and complaining are common responses to these events that we cannot control. But think about it, other than that short term emotional outlet, what tangible results do gossiping really accomplish? In most instances, none. Instead of feeling victimized and angry about the situation, focus on the things that you can do to influence the situation — your circle of influence. This is a very empowering technique to overcome the feeling of helplessness. It removes the victimized feeling and also allows

equipped with an electric propulsion (external motors) via fuel cells and solar rescue, embedded equipment High technology of detection of the radiation in the visible and invisible domains, spectrometry and of high resolution cameras, means of transmission of the data, this equipment has already existed for a long time on combat aircraft and helicopters but also classically in the large space agencies on military satellites. Various Organizations could be interested worldwide. High resolution cameras in the event of incident detection could also extend their scanning to 300 or 500 meters around the target point and photograph possible vehicles involved in criminal acts. On-board equipment could reach 300 kg and the piloting could be robotized as well as the installation of the sequences of intervention device by device and analysis of the alert and countermeasures. Following the execution of the ANALYSIS specification, depending on the distance between HELIOTORR and the geodesy of the target and the qualification of the alert the coordinates of the incident would be sent to the competent authorities. Either for immediate intervention or be entrusted for various reasons to HELIOTORR- (control and command station) HELIOTORR could detect a spectral image (a fire start of 30 cm in diameter or a smoke of particles rising between 10m and 50 meters) by embedded absorption spectrometry or laser diffractometry. HELIOTORR could also house a programmed retro-parachute drone in the cargo bay that could dump beacons in the center of the aggressive zone and issue the exact geodesy to be targeted to the authorities. This methodology could be applied in general by civil protection in the context of refineries or reserves of drinkable water, active or inactive nuclear power stations, and finally any infrastructure deserving intelligent surveillance (intercommunication). HELIOTORR should be a powerful preventive tool adaptable to various missions, including the transport of indivisible masses (nuclear or petrochemical plants to be dismantled and therefore indivisible payload) - the dimensions of HELIOTORR should be revised upwards either (from 30 m to100 m). In case of necessary security measures, HELIOTORR aircraft navigating at low altitude could embark counter measures equipment with a possible use of thermal decoy signatures, in order to avoid possible attempts by terrorists to send terror-to-air rockets. SOL-AIR missiles cannot reach the GEO STATIONARY HELIOTORR at 21 km altitude. HELIOTORR could not be destroyed by conventional weapons of war because it is not filled with flammable gas, but HELIUM is INERTE, and HELIOTORR could be composed of honeycomb cells in KEVLAR and some damaged cells could not the technical viability of HELIOTORR. A permanent beacon in agreement with the civil or military authorities would be installed on HELIOTORR. The return to the ground of HELIOTORR for reasons of maintenance or incident would not pose any danger for inhabited or industrial areas. The management of INDUSTRIAL POLLUTIONS should be part of HELIOTORR 's specifications. The CUSTOMS services should be interested in HELIOTORR as well as the port authorities, and therefore for the defense of the territory. FREQUENT QUESTIONS (FAQ) AND LOGICAL RESPONSES QUESTION: How is it that it doesn't yet exist in the tools of the authorities? The novelty (even old! ) is scary and nobody wants to take responsibility, it is the good old method of the umbrella. About novelty all the technologies embedded on HELIOTORR have existed since the Cold War between the USA and RUSSIA! It is not a matter of putting in place complex and time-consuming research and development to deal with these problems of fire prevention, nor of qualifying a new particle in nuclear physics, but simply of bringing together skills and federate the real wills in the United States and California. QUESTION: How much does a HELIOTORR cost? It is comparable to a military truck, parts and labor and especially embedded options, we estimate that a budget of US $ 3 Million should be suitable, excluding purchase of a construction zone. HELIOTORR would be in the envelope total budget for approximately US $ 7 Million. Financial losses of $ 7 BN cannot be considered as turnover ! The sum of US $ 7 million compared to the loss of 7000 million US $ (7 BN $) is ridiculous 1/1000 and raises questions! QUESTION: Why didn't you propose it before? There are experts in this field who will be urging us as promoters of the HELIOTORR project to move forward as soon as possible in the construction of these engines in France (the merit of the prioritization in the Aerostats belonging to the French (Montgolfier brothers!)) in order to be ready for summer 2018, if possible. Our field of expertise is mainly focused on Space Research (Extraterrestrial Mining, including Moon - MARS - Asteroids) and also on the cleaning of the satellite space encumbered by inactive (commercial or military) satellites in NEO - LEO - GEO Earth orbit, and which represent a significant hazard, patents Plasma tools -2006-PCT-2016 filed in the USPTO and entered the PCT phase (International). Note: a Joint Venture between Glycan Industries LLC and Goodyear at Tucson could be an interesting way. ANTERIORITY IN COMPETENCE Christian Daniel Assoun AT3. In charge of the manufacturing of the PEGASE 1975- 2 meter diameter model CNRS-INAG Verrières Le Buisson 91 (France) The model of 8 meters of diameter (MQ1) was tested favorably in ONERA Meudon wind tunnel for its form of lenticular shape (France). Project Director Pierre Balaskovic 1973 CNRS - INAG Verrières Le Buisson (91 France) Author of the project proposal HELIOTORR 16.09.2017 Dr. Christian Daniel Assoun (Ph.D. in Atomic Spectroscopy Paris VII 1979 Meudon CNRS-INAG Samuel Weniger, Director of Research.) Former NASA-JPL Adviser 1981-1982 Pasadena CA author of PERT Project Plasma for Extraterrestrial Resources and Applied Technologies addressed to NASA-JPL 1981. 2016 -present: President GLYCAN SPACE XR - HELIOTORR LLC USA Pasadena 91101 2008 - present Director GLYCAN SPACE XR CORP. Ltd UK SpinOff(s) of HELIOTORR: PLANET BENEFIT (Earth) PLANET BENEFIT (Earth)Reconstruction of the Ozone Layer (O3) (Earth) PLANET BENEFIT (Earth)Transportation and Settlement on Moon and -Mars, others contact us: allied-industries-headquarters@glycangroup.com PLASMA TECHNOLOGIES MOTORRTM MISSION MOTORR, the energy of the future and the stars… That Men will create in deserts on Earth and in the Solar system, on planets or their moons, the source of energy for space colonization. Please note that the project is patent pending and therefore the dissemination of the details is unavailable. The MOTORR project is an avant-gardist High-Tech energy program based on high temperature plasma technology. It will allow considerable sources of energy in the next decades and will be coupled to natural energies. The MOTORR project will change our planet. The MOTORR project will need important efforts in Research & Development in order to be integrated into the Energy Network of our planet. Presently, the main part of our industrial and domestic energy resources result from fossil energies (black carbon and oil). They represent about 83 % to 90% of the total energy produced. Thus, a small and, for the moment, insignificant part of these energy resources come from nuclear plants. Indeed, nuclear plants – on a worldwide basis – represent only 10 % to 15 % of the total energy produced. On a worldwide basis, the energy production via solar energy is negligible. The fossil energies – including the new bio-fuels – produce all very high amounts of carbon dioxides (CO2 – CO) and other dangerous molecules. Indeed, the carbon combustion chains (aliphatic and aromatic chains), generate invariably molecule compounds such as CO2 (Carbon dioxide), CO (Carbon mono-oxide), C (Carbon), O3 (Ozone), NxOy (Nitrogen Compounds) - SxOy. The O3 (Ozone) production through fossil energy is considerably damaging our lower atmosphere and is more and more damaging to cellular viability also seen as a direct consequence devastating increases in respiratory pathologies, mainly in the large cities and industrialized countries where pollution becomes more and more concentrated. We know now from reports of scientific experts that the CO2 production by conventional motors (petrol and gasoline) will lead in the near future to an increase in temperature but

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At the end of the last century, fleeing the scourge of yellow fever that devastated Panama during the construction of the railroad between the two oceans, he had arrived with many others who stayed here until they died, living in Chinese, reproducing in Chinese, and looking so much alike that no one could tell one from the other. At first, there were no more than ten, some of them with their wives and children and edible dogs, but in a few years, four narrow streets in the slums along the port were overflowing with other unexpected Chinese, who came into the country without leaving a trace in the customs record....In the popular view, they were divided into two kinds: bad Chinese and good Chinese. The bad ones were the ones in the lugubrious restaurants along the water front where one was as likely to eat like a King as to die a sudden death at the table, sitting before a plate of rat meat with sunflowers, and which were thought to be nothing more than fronts for white slavery, and many other kinds of trafficking. The good ones were the Chinese in the laundries, heirs of a sacred knowledge, who returned one's shirts cleaner than new, with collars and cuffs like recently ironed communion wafers. Gabriel García Márquez (Love in the Time of Cholera) Let those souls who think their work has no value recognize that by fulfilling their insignificant tasks out of a love of God, those tasks assume a supernatural worth. The aged who bear the taunts of the young, the sick crucified to their beds, the ignorant immigrant in the steel mill, the street cleaner and the garbage collector, the wardrobe mistress in the theater and the chorus girl who never had a line, the unemployed carpenter and the ash collector — all these will be enthroned above dictators, presidents, kings, and cardinals if a greater love of God inspires their humbler tasks than inspires those who play nobler roles with less love. Fulton J. Sheen (The Cries of Jesus From the Cross: A Fulton Sheen Anthology) America was sleeping when I crept into the hospital wing that night. She was cleaner, but her face still seemed worried, even at rest. "Hey, Mer," I whispered, rounding her bed. She didn't stir. I didn't dare sit, not even with the excuse of checking on the girl I rescued. I stood in the freshly pressed uniform I would only wear for the few minutes it took to deliver this message. I reached out to touch her, but then pulled back. 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rdv live from Tokyo See our online course on quantum computing or our online courses on quantum communication. Some Recent Important Quantum Theory Results, Part One: MIP* = RE While preparing for class, and for my general edification, I have been trying to organize thoughts about recent important results in theory and algorithms. The latter I try to keep up with on general principles, but the former is largely above my station on the mountain, as I stand on the col looking up at the peak through the swirling clouds of my own ignorance. I'm an engineer, and proud of it, and so I have an engineer's understanding of complexity theory. In fact, I have the understanding of an engineer trained in the 1980s; the theorists have been busy since then, and have really changed the landscape! So, take all that I say here with a grain of salt... MIP* = RE (announced in January 2020, with evaluation ongoing) Zhengfeng Ji, Anand Natarajan, Thomas Vidick, John Wright, Henry Yuen I'm not part of the CS theory community, but I could hear the trumpets, kazoos and champagne corks from over here in the Engineering quad on our global, virtual campus. This paper is considered a big deal, assuming it's right, to which most people seem to have given provisional assent. The introductory paragraph of the CACM version summarizes forty years of theory -- exactly what I need. The key advances: understanding the importance of randomness (in both the action of the algorithm, and in a willingness to accept a probabilistic answer, I believe), interactive proofs, and multiple interactive provers. The authors then go on to cite the addition of entanglement as the fourth major shift. I feel like if I understood this paragraph alone, I would be a far better researcher. Backing up a bit, computational complexity classes...checking The Complexity Zoo, we see that there are currently 546 complexity classes acknowledged there. Back when I was an undergrad, I learned about 2.5 of them: P, NP, and "bigger than NP", so things have changed a bit. To understand the importance of this paper, we are going to have to understand IP, MIP, MIP*, and RE and their relationship to some of the other basics. Okay, the Complexity Zoo itself is pretty intimidating, so let's try the introductory Petting Zoo, which introduces sixteen important classes...none of which are IP, MIP, MIP*, or RE. All right, let's roll up our sleeves and see what we know... P is the class of problems solvable in polynomial time -- the simple ones. NP does not mean "non-polynomial", it means non-deterministic polynomial. If you have a Turing machine that solves problems with high combinatoric complexity, then the challenge is to pick good potential answers to try. If trying one solution and failing doesn't help a whole lot in eliminating other possible solutions, you might be in NP territory. Typically, if the size of the problem is n, then the number of possible solutions is O(e^n). But the formal definition of NP is such that the Turing machine scratches its head, shrugs its shoulders, and somehow magically picks the right answer each time, in polynomial time. The practical implication is that there is an exponential number of potential answers that have to be checked one by one, but once you have found an answer it is easy to verify that the answer is correct. MA is Merlin-Arthur, and is the first time we run into two parties in our theoretical conception and proofs. Merlin has infinite computational power, and wants to prove to Arthur that he knows the solution to a problem, so Merlin sends Arthur a proof. (This proof must be no more than polynomial in size, relative to the problem size n.) Arthur has normal, mortal computational power, but he also has access to a source of randomness (coin flips), which he uses after receiving the proof from Merlin. Arthur check the proof, using his coin flips as needed, but there is a probability he will wrongly decide whether or not the proof is correct. Generally, we require the probability of correctly accepting a true proof to be at least 2/3, and the probability of incorrectly accepting a wrong proof at 1/3. (That is, the probability of false positive or false negative is each no more than 1/3.) This is the introduction of randomness discussed above. Note that, in this conception, only one round of communication is used. Merlin can be called the prover (P), and Arthur the verifier (V). Those terms come up a lot later. (Theorists were actively working on this around the time I was an undergrad, but I was completely oblivious to it. Babai 1985 is a key reference.) AM is Arthur-Merlin, which is similar except that Arthur makes his coin tosses before Merlin produces the proof, and sends the coin toss results to Merlin, who can use them as he wishes. After Merlin sends the proof to Arthur, Arthur is required to deterministically check the proof. IP is Interactive Proof, also introduced in 1985 by Goldwasser, Micali and Rackoff. It's similar to AM, except that there can be a polynomial number of rounds. This is where the interaction mentioned above comes in. MIP is Multiple Interactive Provers, introduced by Goldwasser & co. in 1988, uses two (or more?) provers. The provers are allowed to decide on a shared strategy or otherwise share information before the proof starts, but not after it begins. Perhaps the easiest way to enforce that non-communication is to verify the position of the two provers, and require their answers to be received by the verifier in time so short that the speed of light prevents them from having communicated with each other. Now we have our multiple provers. RE is Recursively Enumerable, and is the set of all problems that a Turing machine can solve in finite (but not limited to polynomial) time. It's a very big set. ...and for the purposes of this blog entry, there things stood for a long time...until: MIP*: MIP, except that the provers get to share entanglement beforehand. MIP* includes things like the CHSH game. I'd like to have good pedagogical examples to go with each of those classes, but at the moment, I don't. My apologies; I'll try to add some later. One important note is that from MA on down, a lot of classes are often expressed in terms of cryptographic functions or cryptographic games. Also, roughly, that list goes from less complex to more complex, with each class including all of the problems in the classes above it on the list, but in general not all of the relationships are exactly known. Most famously, NP is commonly believed to include problems that are outside of P, but that has never been proven. And so, the proof of MIP* = RE...drum roll, please... I don't understand it. But I'm not alone, most people don't. It's a complicated thing. In fact, the link above is to the CACM version of the paper, which is written for readers like me, but the full paper is 237 pages. Not very many people have even read the whole thing. But, I think I am safe in saying this: Very, very, very roughly, it is now (provisionally) known that polynomial amounts of entanglement can be used to solve some very enormous problems. What "polynomial" means here, and what the constant factors are, and real-world examples of problems that are classically intractable but quantumly tractable in practice, all remain as future work. Henry Yuen even refers to this as an "elephant" they are trying to get a feel for. I wish I could do a better job of explaining its importance, though. Instead, I will defer to one of the authors, Henry Yuen, and to Scott Aaronson. Scott in particular links to

I'm sure you picked up, there's a bit of a tussle between some folks and Tor. I think I heard somewhere there's a boycott, and of course Tor has a public answer for that. If we had no influence on the market, I don't think any of the Torlings would be involved in this. Obviously, they think we potentially have some influence. How much? Haven't got a clue. Really don't have an opinion. But one thing I've noticed over the last two months, is that there are a lot of people showing up online, not necessarily future puppy supporters, that say they gave up SFF a few years ago and read about the kerfuffle. They would also like to see more story, with either less message or the message buried deeper and more a part of the story rather than forced. It might take a while, but I wouldn't be surprised that a few of the other publishers start looking for different kinds of stories, to fill an underserved segment of the market. Thanks for the input. I found and read the 770 discussion which is referenced in the thread below. And thanks for telling me what ASP is. I guess everyone has a SF/F niche favorite and mine has been time travel, dystopian and recently urban fantasy. Dystopian and Urban Fantasy have exploded so I am not seeing a shortage of material. Sure I loved Tolkien but that is really difficult to reproduce. And I liked the Martian which is straight up rocket ship sci fi. But that is not my niches. Given that the market is putting lots of stuff out for me, I don't see a shortage of material and with my Goodreads friends I am getting plenty of recommendations. For example, I never heard of Hugh Howey until someone told me to give the Wool series a try. Really good dystopian fiction. And like most readers, SF/F is just one genre, and I read lots of other genres. I don't feel deprived by a message over entertainment agenda that worries many people here. If someone is under served as to their niche as you suggest, I would say yes the market will respond. None of what I recently read/liked is all that Hugoish. It's not their thing. I am following this recent conflict. I find it fascinating. I went to Sasquan and checked the membership. It is approaching 9500 and I am told this will be the first time there will be more non attending voters than attending voters. Given the $40 membership barrier I am pretty amazed. I have no idea how this contest is going to end. I looked but I can't find any information on a probable break down. I guess I will have to wait and see just like everyone else. That's hard for us accountants. BTW, I am from Dallas and an accountant so the accountant throwing his boss out the window in MHI #1 had a special appeal for me. Oh, dystopian fiction and Urban Fantasy. For the moment I'm going to set aside the dystopian fiction. I was first introduced to Urban Fantasy before it was called that. Fred Saberhagen wrote an interesting take on Count Dracula, and made it into an interesting series. Then there's the Harry Dresden stuff. That's really affected everything since it came out. Patricia Briggs has an interesting take on things with both the Mercy Thompson series and the "Alpha and Omega" series. I think of the MHI series as Urban Fantasy too. There are several others I've read but haven't hit the same deep chord. "Kitty", and the "Greywalker" comes to mind. Since I've been hanging out on a few of the puppy supporting sites, there are several "new to me" authors I need to try out. I've read a couple of excerpts from a couple of Amanda Green's books, for instance, and have to add them in to this summer's reading list. Thanks for the conversation. Larry is a former accountant, so that had lots to do with it. =D And when I gifted my brother with the book, he had a boss who was just as insufferable as the one in the book, so he told me he deeply appreciated that I gave him the book to enjoy. Every person I have read that opening paragraph of MHI has them hooked immediately 🙂 I got my dad started on it a couple weeks ago, and he was an accountant before his retirement. I've read some urban fantasy like dark suns daughter and looking forward to eventually starting the dresden books. For dystopian, if you haven't read Vampire Earth from E.E. Knight, check it out. There are a lot of novels if you enjoy it. The only time I'd cut myself off from the opportunity to purchase something is if I was convinced the money would be used to harm me. Frank Probst says: I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for someone to say, "I was wrong. I'm sorry." Depends on the personal investment. Suggest a bad new restaurant to a friend and it's easy. Define your worldview in terms of opposing the vile filthy racist evil x-phobes? You have to disrupt quite a bit of your "self" to apologize for it, and that is hard. I think I understand Correia's comment better now. Once he made it personal it became about him. It gave them something to focus on and to point and screech their rage at. I think Andrew you nailed the problem. Now that they are invested in their mob mentality it is harder and harder for them to jump ship. Look at how they rage at James Doherty. This is a good point. It seems they are marinated in group think. So when someone like Larry shows up as an individual, it's an easy target for the group. They also like projecting, so I guess that kind of explains how they like to tar and feather everyone in the "broad brush". Maybe they are incapable of comprehending people as individuals, such as Larry, Brad, etc. That would by why when VD says something, they think everyone else has to defend it. snelson134 says: It's in their Bible, Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.) When your strategy and tactics are based on cruelty, nothing we've seen is a surprise. All Larry and Vox have done is make the personalization easier, but if it hadn't been them. it would have been something else. I have to say that I really liked Tom Doherty's letter. He distanced himself from Gallo, which is PR 101, but he went on to provide one of the most succinct summaries of the Sad Puppies/Hugo situation. It isn't perfect, but if you're looking for a good place to start, start there. I liked it as well. And I don't think it was "taking sides" and favoring Sad Puppies at all. He merely said that certain things were not true and that Tor publishes everyone and that Gallo's words did not represent the company. It was an incredibly bland corporate statement and about what anyone would expect. I liked Tom D's statement too. It inspired me to email this to him as part of the Peter Grant email campaign: Dear Mr Doherty, I was very glad to read your statement on Tor.com last week. It gives me hope that I will someday identify the Tor logo as a mark of quality in the same way that I find the Baen logo to be. Sadly my own recent experience right now is that the Tor logo is a sign that – except for

1. An immediate reform: the US State Department/AID uses initial exit polling abroad to test the fairness of elections. This is exit polling done by employees of a poll company talking with randomly selected voters as they leave the voting booth about whom they voted for. In contrast, Lenski and Edison Media adjust initial exit polls immediately based on precinct counts to approximate "results" on electronic machines which are often old and leave no paper trail. Edison exit polling – and all exit polling – should, by law, revert only to what it does abroad: exit polls based on brief interviews with actual voters after they vote. No other poll should be misnamed an exit poll. 2. A second immediate reform. All ballots should be paper, hand counted as soon as possible/within 12 hours, and stored for review if need be. The range of initial results should be revealed by exit polling, which would identify most likely winners and losers immediately except when the election is, in fact, very close – within the margin of error. All elections would be legally determined by hand count majority or plurality. Motivation: these reforms would restore or create "one person, one vote." They would restore America's standing in the world as a democracy of integrity rather than a model for uncheckable and illegitimate elections. Both reforms would be resisted by profit-making companies which have a monopoly interest in the current system, for instanceEdison Research and the News Consortium as well as ES&S and other manufacturers of machines. It will take a serious citizen movement from below to achieve them. But highlighting the initial exit poll/ electronic machine "results" discrepancies of the 2004 Bush/Kerry election as well of some recent Democratic Primaries, the first reform, by itself, would make them less likely. Exit polling is today a monopoly, done by a single company, the Edison group, secretly for a Media Consortium – CBS, ABC, FOX, AP, NBC, and CNN. The New York Times is also involved. On the caption of its twitter page, Edison says about itself: "sole providers of the US election exit polls." But Edison and the Media Consortium companies respond to sharp discrepancies between initial exit polls and voting recorded on unrealiable electronic machines by doctoring successive exit "polls" to ornament machine results. Instead of using the initial exit poll as a test for fairness, Edison manipulates their "polls" to fit "outcomes." The manipulation is done by Edison officials or electoral officials who do not talk with individual voters, but rely, instead, on machine "counts" That practice, however, inverts the purpose of exit polling as a test for the fairness or transparency of elections. Moreover, corporate media journalists ignore or, when there is controversy about elections, attack any questioner about Edison's methods as "a conspiracy theorist." As I have shown here and will again below, however, their targets then must include the U.S. State Department/AID in its use, a minimum of fourteen times recently, of initial exit polling to test the fairness of elections aboard. In fact, they must include the Edison group itself and even Mr. Lenski who engage, relying on the initial exit poll, in such tests abroad. See here and here. This hypocrisy, on the part both of Edison Research and the corporate media, is, unfortunately, glaring. 1. Why is a single company charged with designing exit polls for the media consortium? Why is a monopoly appropriate in this case rather than competition or the so-called free market? Wouldn't the latter, at least, generate more debate – more response to questions – about the obvious problems in the New York Democratic primary of April 19 and other American elections? 2. Why is but a single spokesperson designated to speak "authoritatively" about initial exit polls? Why don't reporters consult a range of experts? 3. Moreover, why don't reporters question Lenski further about his often vague – and as we will see, sometimes, contradictory – assertions rather than use Lenski's "authority" to suppress the questions of others? 4. Why, without explanation, does Edison use successive, deceptively named exit "polls"? For these numbers are adjusted – often unbelievably in arithmetical terms, as we have seen in the New York primary – not to any poll of actual voters, but to recorded "votes" on machines. I say unbelievably: between the first exit poll (9pm) and two successive ones (11pm; the following morning), Bernie Sanders lost 33 votes. See here. 5. Why, in the corporate media and by unspoken, bipartisan agreement among politicians, are the profits of the Edison Group and corporate media put above the "public trust" as that term is used in the constitution? Why are the profits of unreliable voting machine companies, who treat their computer programs as "proprietary" and refuse to allow assessment either by the states or by an independent panel of experts, put above the public trust that elections be and be seen to be fair? 6. Why are such corporations allowed to do this even after their computer programs have been hacked and changed? See the famous Holsti Hack, confirmed by Berkeley computer experts here. Even after Volkswagen has designed a computer program which fools American pollution tests, but everywhere else pollutes? See here. (h/t Barbara Simons) Can we be confident – so far, Edison and the corporate media offer no reason – that relatively few "VW-style elections"occur? Yet, over many years, there is no response to such questions either from the Edison or the corporate media. Instead, Lenski and the pundits deny there is a problem. Moreover, they smear or attempt to crush anyone who protests. Wouldn't reasonable people want to explain our error or show that we were wrong…? Contempt here substitutes for straightforwardness, reasonableness. At the Edison group, Joe Lenski is now Executive Vice President. Lenski worked closely with Warren Mitofsky, an early exit poller. In a 2006 interview with Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center, Lenski described his close relationship with Mitofsky who had just died. In 2004, however, the second George W. Bush "election" had unexplainably large exit poll/recorded "vote" discrepancies in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania – see here (h/t Michael Keefer); initial exit polling showed Kerry winning both in Ohio and nationally. At this time, the Edison Research was named Edison Mitofsky. Now, Lenski is the single go-to person for the corporate media about the New York primary. Yet, oddly, Lenski himself does not write directly on exit polling. Instead, when a fierce controversy arises – on April 19, Wolf Blitzer on CNN kept announcing the initial exit poll as 52 for Clinton- 48 for Sanders, and saying the recorded margin would close during the early evening – Lenski offers a few, often superficial comments. In fact, in one interview, Lenski contradicts the central point he makes in another. But what Lenski said to Bump is the opposite of what Lenski said – references to "transitional democracies" having disappeared – to Joshua Holland. Both claims cannot be right. Apparently, neither journalist bothered to check what Lenski says from one interview to the next. Yet whatever Lenski says is solemnly pronounced as "authoritative" by journalists in the corporate media. It is then hurled against "weak-minded" people like Tim Robbins and many others who question what Edison calls exit "polling" in America. But given these two interviews, to call others "weak-minded" is arrogant and a psychological projection of themselves onto others. Note Lensky's exit polling experience abroad – for AID-funded projects – to test the fairness of the elections. That experience means that his line of argument and practice at Edison in the United States knowingly inverts the purpose of exit polling. Initial exit polling, when done carefully, establishes a range of possible results – has, technically, a margin of error – for an election. Lenski's comment does not distinguish American

Mikael Lustig move on — arguably has put the club in the precarious position it finds itself today. But that's another topic for another discussion at another time. The Philadelphia Union's Mark McKenzie could very well join the Hoops during the January transfer window. Look through any window With the new year around the corner, it will be time for — fanfare, maestro — the January Transfer Window, and the wailing and gnashing of teeth that will undoubtedly follow. A primary target on Celtic's radar has been Philadelphia Union's Mark McKenzie, who sees his road to the EPL running through Glasgow. "I've done my fair share of research (on Celtic and the Scottish Premiership) and I've always loved football so I've known about Celtic for a while," McKenzie recently told SkySports. "You hear about Celtic and the path of Virgil Van Dijk — going from there to the Prem." Not the kind of loyalty you would expect to the club, but understandable in this day and age of mercenaries. If the price of a top-notch defender is that he plays outstanding football for Celtic while punching his ticket to a larger club, then maybe that's the best we can expect. However, in this transfer window, it would not bother me if we stood pat with this team — maybe adding McKenzie or another defender — and bring up some of the Reserves to play for the Hoops. Over 40 million Californians agree: This bhoy Cameron Harper, a native son of the Golden State, should be on Celtic's first team. Cameron Harper in particular deserves the opportunity to show what he can do on the first team, since his ability to challenge and go thorugh defenders at the Reserves level shows he could do it at the top level. The same goes for Armstrong Oko-Flex and Karamoko Dembele — both reported to be on the radar of a few teams down south — who both deserve to show what they can do for the first team. Get Jonathan Afolabi back from his loan spell from Dundee. The fact of the matter is we have all the pieces we need going forward. It's just putting them in the right order so the club fires on all cylinders as we motor to the 10 in the 2nd half of the season. Those who know me well already know this, but for the rest of you following me on social media, there are a couple of clubs which have earned my following due to their actions in their communities. As mentioned in a previous post, Nairn County FC took a windfall they had when COVID-19 stopped their season and put it back into their community, as thanks for the community's ongoing support for the club. More locally, just up the road in the San Francisco Bay Area, Oakland Roots SC deserve a shout-out in the same regard, and I am a supporter of a club that "harness(es) the magic of Oakland and the power of sport as a force for social good." No one is more excited than me that Oakland Roots have partnered with FC St. Pauli in promotional efforts, and hopefully in the near future a friendly between the clubs in Oakland will be on the horizon. My affinity for community-based, community-owned clubs does not stop there. As some readers know from a past post offering a few tips to former Celt Lewis Morgan in his move to Inter Miami, I spent my formative years — from 3 to 29 to be exact — living in Miami. That said, a shout out goes to a new community-owned, community-based club in the area — Biscayne Bay SC — which will play its inaugural season in my old stomping grounds, so to speak. Not only this, they've adopted the quintessential Miami mascot — the Manatee! Score that as an own-goal for David Beckham in NOT adopting that mascot for Inter Miami, but Beckham's loss is BBSC's gain. Mon the Manatee! Celts to bring home more silverware tomorrow — you read it here first. Author Larry CafieroPosted on December 19, 2020 December 19, 2020 Tags Armstrong Oko-Flex, Biscayne Bay SC, Cameron Harper, David Turnbull, Greg Taylor, Inter Miami CF, Ismaila Soro, Jonny Hayes, Jozo Simunovic, Karamoko Dembele, Lewis Morgan, Mark McKenzie, Mikey Johnston, Nairn County FC, Oakland Roots, Oakland Roots SC, Scott Brown, Scott Sinclair1 Comment on Some bits, more bobs Torture and The Late Late Show I will be the first to admit that Celtic fans who have supported the team for decades surely don't need a lecture from a relatively new fan 5,000 miles away. However, I do think I can offer some perspective on some of the games this season — like today's — from America's baseball world. The San Francisco Giants in the early aughts, when they were winning championships by any means necessary (and usually "winning ugly"), had a term they always used to describe their style of play: "Torture." Sound familiar, Celtic fans? Torture. That would aptly describe the first 89 excruciating minutes of Sunday's game at McDiarmid Park against St. Johnstone, where the Saints took a poke or two in that time — glancing one off the bar, even — while mostly playing back. Thank whichever diety you believe in that Leigh Griffiths got the header at 90 minutes, and then Patryk Klimala sealed the deal at 93 minutes for a 2-0 win and wrap up the Late Late Show. Ladies and gentlemen, the Late Late Show, with your hosts Patryk Klimala, left, and Leigh Griffiths. Let's talk about Klimala for a minute. For those who think that offseason training does not pay off, ask yourself if Klimala makes that comeback — Terminator style — quickly upright from a tackle to make that second goal if he hadn't strengthened up. Chances are he doesn't, and with the way the referee was being selective with fouls — multiple ignored muggings of Jeremie Frimpong, to no one's surprise, for example — chances are Klimala doesn't get the call as well. Then there's Griffiths: The bhoy is back. Full stop. But that goal doesn't happen in a vacuum. The lead up of Kris Ajer to Hatem Elhamed, and then Elhamed's perfect cross, is a play to watch over and over again. And how's this for strategy: Put the soul of your club on the bench and then bring him in to direct traffic toward the end of the game. It's pretty clear that Scott Brown has an influence on the team that transcends his immediate play. In geological terms the first 89 minutes of the game had the magma of the Celtic Boo Birds pressurizing the surface, awaiting to erupt in the lava of negativity all over social media. Thanks to Messrs. Griffiths and Klimala, eruption was averted, for the most part. In addition, let's be clear about something which some folks may be missing: The other 11 teams in the Premiership are all professional outfits, with players who step up their game a notch or two when playing Celtic. It definitely makes the difference between having a highlight reel and a highlight slide when a club plays Celtic well or, God forbid, beats Celtic. Opposing players get that and up their game accordingly. Yet some in the support expect this season to be a walk in the park where we dust off other clubs as if they are made up of starving orphans or cloistered nuns. News flash: They're not. So winning 2-0 against St. Johnstone may not be historic, or even noteworthy. But it is another win, and another 3 points. And if we have to grind it out to get to the 10, then that's the "torture" we have to endure to get there. Naturally, I'd prefer it to be easy, but we would be well prepared

3.1 Schedule 2 to this Bill amends the ITAA 1997 to implement part of the OECD hybrid mismatch rules by: preventing certain foreign equity distributions received, directly or indirectly, by an Australian corporate tax entity from being non-assessable non-exempt income if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction. 3.3 In the 2016-17 Budget, the Government announced that it would implement the recommendations made in the OECD Action 2 Report, taking into account the recommendations made by the Board of Taxation (see Chapter 1). These recommendations include modifications to the domestic income tax law to: deny imputation benefits on franked distributions made by an Australian corporate tax entity if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction; and prevent certain foreign equity distributions received, directly or indirectly, by an Australian corporate tax entity from being non-assessable non-exempt income if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction. 3.4 These modifications are consistent with Recommendation 2 of the OECD Action 2 Report. 3.5 In the 2017-18 Budget, the Government further announced that it would eliminate hybrid tax mismatches that occur in cross border transactions relating to Additional Tier 1 regulatory capital. Transitional rules for Additional Tier 1 capital instruments issued before 9 May 2017 were also announced. 3.6 Consistent with the OECD Action 2 Report and the Board of Taxation recommendations, Schedule 2 to this Bill makes amendments to: prevent a foreign equity distribution from a foreign company that is received, directly or indirectly, by an Australian corporate tax entity that holds a participation interest of at least 10 per cent in the foreign company from being non-assessable non-exempt income if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction. 3.7 Transitional rules apply to Additional Tier 1 capital instruments issued by ADI's, general insurance companies and life insurance companies before 9 May 2017. Under these transitional rules, the amendments to deny imputation benefits do not apply in relation to distributions on the instrument that are made before the first available call date of the instrument that occurs on or after 9 May 2017. An entity that receives a franked distribution is denied access to imputation benefits if all or part of the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction. Under the company imputation system, when an Australian corporate tax entity distributes profits to its members, the entity has the option of passing credit for income tax paid by the entity on those profits to those members. This is done by franking the distribution. When the Australian corporate tax entity makes a franked distribution, the entity must make a debit to its franking account. The amount of the debit is equal to the amount of the franking credit on the distribution. If a member of an entity receives a franked distribution: an amount equal to the amount of the franking credit is generally included in the member's assessable income (in addition to the amount of the distribution); and the member is generally entitled to a tax offset equal to the amount of the franking credit. A foreign equity distribution from a foreign company that is received by an Australian corporate tax entity, either directly or indirectly through one or more interposed trusts or partnerships, is generally non-assessable non-exempt income if the Australian corporate tax entity holds a participation interest of at least 10 per cent in the foreign company. However, if the foreign equity distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction, then the distribution will not be non-assessable non-exempt income. In this event, foreign equity distribution will be included in the assessable income of the Australian corporate tax entity. A foreign equity distribution from a foreign company that is received by an Australian corporate tax entity, either directly or indirectly through one or more interposed trusts or partnerships, is non-assessable non-exempt income if the Australian corporate tax entity holds a participation interest of at least 10 per cent in the foreign company. Denial of imputation benefits 3.8 Consistent with the OECD Action 2 Report and the Board of Taxation recommendations, Schedule 2 to this Bill makes amendments to deny imputation benefits on franked distributions made by a corporate tax entity that give rise to a foreign income tax deduction. 3.9 Under the company imputation system, when an Australian corporate tax entity distributes profits to its members, the entity has the option of passing credit for income tax paid by the entity on those profits to those members. This is done by franking the distribution. 3.10 When the Australian corporate tax entity makes a franked distribution, the entity must make a debit to its franking account (section 205-30). The amount of the debit is equal to the amount of the franking credit on the distribution. 3.11 If a member of an entity receives a franked distribution: 3.12 The amendments operate to deny these imputation benefits if the distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction. [Schedule 2, items 1 to 3, paragraph 207-145(1)(db), paragraph 207-150(2)(eb) and section 207-158] 3.13 Subject to transitional rules, these amendments address the announcement in the 2017-18 Budget relating to the application of the OECD Hybrid Mismatch Rules to Regulatory Capital (even though the amendments are not limited to regulatory capital). Foreign equity distributions assessable 3.14 Consistent with the OECD Action 2 Report and the Board of Taxation recommendations, Schedule 2 to this Bill makes amendments to ensure that foreign equity distributions that are entitled to a foreign income tax deduction are included in a corporate tax entity's assessable income. 3.15 In this regard, a foreign equity distribution from a foreign company that is received by an Australian corporate tax entity, either directly or indirectly through one or more interposed trusts or partnerships, is non-assessable non-exempt income if the Australian corporate tax entity holds a participation interest of at least 10 per cent in the foreign company (Subdivision 768-A). 3.16 The amendments ensure that, if the foreign equity distribution gives rise to a foreign income tax deduction, then the distribution will not be non-assessable non-exempt income. [Schedule 2, items 6 to 8, paragraph 768-5(1)(d), paragraph 768-5(2)(f) and subsection 768-7(1)] 3.17 Consequently, in this event, foreign equity distribution will be included in the assessable income of the Australian corporate tax entity. 3.18 However, these amendments do not apply to a foreign equity distribution if: the foreign income tax deduction arises because the company that made the distribution is recognised under a law of a foreign country in which the deduction arises as being used for collective investment; and foreign income tax or a withholding-type tax was payable in respect of the distribution. [Schedule 2, item 8, subsection 768-7(2)] 3.19 The reason for this exception is to ensure consistent treatment for Australian investors in collective investment vehicles that are established under the laws of different countries which may utilise different tax mechanisms for achieving the same overall outcome for the same types of specific investment. 3.20 In this regard, different models are used around the world to permit investors to collectively invest in vehicles that own real property and be subject to taxation in a manner that is akin to a direct investment - that is the investor is required to pay tax on their share of the vehicle's income and the vehicle does not pay entity level corporate tax. Some countries achieve the shift in taxation of the vehicle's income from the entity to the investor by exempting a portion of the vehicle's income from taxation. Other countries achieve the same outcome by allowing the vehicle a deduction from its assessable income in respect of dividends paid to its shareholders. 3.21 The exception ensures that, for example, an Australian corporate investor does not lose the benefit of receiving a tax exempt dividend from a foreign real estate investment

ride of the standard iM when we get one in for review in the future. On some back roads, the iM felt planted and showed little sign of body roll. However, the iM's steering felt rubbery and didn't have much feel. But for most owners, this isn't such a big deal. In city and highway driving, the iM did a mostly decent job of dealing with bumps and imperfections. Some bumps did make it into the cabin, mostly due to the TRD suspension components fitted on our iM. Road and wind noise were about average for the class. The iM follows Scion's 'Mono spec' mantra. That means every iA will come equipped with automatic climate control, 7-inch touchscreen, 17-inch alloy wheels, Bluetooth, and a number of other features. The only real choices for a buyer are color, transmission, and if they want to spring for navigation. Pricing for the Scion iM starts at $19,255 for the manual, and $19,995 for the CVT. The prices put the iM in a good spot as many competitors such as the Mazda and Ford Focus are a bit more to match the iM in terms of features. After spending some time with the iM, we came away somewhat mixed. While Scion has done a lot in terms of filling the iM with a lot a value, the powertrain doesn't seem quite in tune with the vehicle. Now a lot this comes down to the manual transmission which isn't a good fit. Pair this with the TRD parts which tended to make the ride a little bit worse, and it has left us confused about our feelings. We'll admit that Scion is on the right track with iM with trying to reach a more mainstream audience, but we need some more drive time with it before we say whether or not it's a good fit for Scion. Disclaimer: Scion Invited Cheers & Gears to a Two-Day Driving Event In Grand Rapids Year: 2016 Make: Scion Model: iM Trim: N/A Engine: 1.8L DOHC, VALVEMATIC, 16-Valve Four-Cylinder Driveline: Front-Wheel Drive; Six-Speed Manual, CVT Horsepower @ RPM: 137 @ 6100 Torque @ RPM: 126 @ 4000 Fuel Economy: City/Highway/Combined - 27/36/31 (Manual), 28/37/32 (Automatic) Curb Weight: 2,943 lbs (Manual), 3,031 lbs (Automatic) Prices: $19,255 (Manual), $19,995 (Automatic) - Prices includes a $795 Destination Charge On Sale: September 1st Last week, we introduced to the Scion iA. This model is part of a two-prong attack for Scion to get themselves out of the dark hole they currently find themselves in. The second prong to this attack is the Scion iM. Like the Scion iA, Scion turned to another maker - in this case Toyota - to see about using a current model to help revitalize their lineup. What they got was the European-market Toyota Auris hatchback as a replacement for the boxy xB. We came away impressed with the iA, will the iM be the same? The only real difference between the Auris sold around the world and the iM that will be sold in the states is the change from Toyota to Scion badging. Otherwise, the iM is one of the best-looking vehicles that Scion, let alone Toyota has brought out in a while. Such details as a narrow grille, 17-inch wheels with a black outline, and distinctive side sculpting give the iM a sleek look in a class that tends to play it safe. Moving inside, the iM isn't going to set the world on fire in terms of looks. The dashboard is a simple design with a mix of hard and soft touch materials. Scion did a couple of things to the interior to make it look somewhat premium. Along the bottom edge of the dashboard on the passenger side and center stack, there is a piece of soft-touch plastic with stitching. Also, the center stack is finished with piano black plastic. Interior space is average for the class with the iM offering 90.4 cubic feet of passenger volume and 20.8 cubic feet of cargo space. What that means is that you and a few your friends will be comfortable no matter where they sit and be able to carry all of their stuff. You'll also be able to expand that space with a set of 60/40 split folding seats. Standard equipment is quite generous on the iM with automatic climate control, heated outside mirrors, 4.2-inch TFT screen in the instrument cluster, six-speaker audio system, and a 7-inch touchscreen. The touchscreen is easy to use thanks to a simple interface and clear graphics, but Toyota's infotainment system could use an update to make it slightly modern. Power comes from the Corolla Eco's 1.8L four-cylinder 137 horsepower and 126 pound-feet of torque. There is a choice of either a six-speed manual or a CVT. For fuel economy, the iM is rated at 27 City/36 Highway/31 Combined for the manual, and 28 City/37 Highway/32 Combined for the CVT. The 1.8L has to be worked to get to its power zone. Now this would be great if the engine wanting to be worked with a nice engine note. This isn't happening in the iM as the engine sounds very unpleasant, telling you that you don't want to push the engine at all. Not helping matters is the standard six-speed manual transmission which has long throws and doesn't feel precise when you put it into gear. Some people we talked to after the event said the CVT was the better as it seems more in tune with the engine's behavior. We should state here that the particular iM we drove was equipped with some TRD parts - lowering springs and strut bar. This means we have some different ride impressions of this iM than other iMs available at the event. We'll have some thoughts on the ride of the standard iM when we get one in for review in the future. On some back roads, the iM felt planted and showed little sign of body roll. However, the iM's steering felt rubbery and didn't have much feel. But for most owners, this isn't such a big deal. In city and highway driving, the iM did a mostly decent job of dealing with bumps and imperfections. Some bumps did make it into the cabin, mostly due to the TRD suspension components fitted on our iM. Road and wind noise were about average for the class. The iM follows Scion's 'Mono spec' mantra. That means every iA will come equipped with automatic climate control, 7-inch touchscreen, 17-inch alloy wheels, Bluetooth, and a number of other features. The only real choices for a buyer are color, transmission, and if they want to spring for navigation. Pricing for the Scion iM starts at $19,255 for the manual, and $19,995 for the CVT. The prices put the iM in a good spot as many competitors such as the Mazda and Ford Focus are a bit more to match the iM in terms of features. After spending some time with the iM, we came away somewhat mixed. While Scion has done a lot in terms of filling the iM with a lot a value, the powertrain doesn't seem quite in tune with the vehicle. Now a lot this comes down to the manual transmission which isn't a good fit. Pair this with the TRD parts which tended to make the ride a little bit worse, and it has left us confused about our feelings. We'll admit that Scion is on the right track with iM with trying to reach a more mainstream audience, but we need some more drive time with it before we say whether or not it's a good fit for Scion. Disclaimer: Scion Invited

The Battle for Control of the Law, wrote that the Federalist Society's influence on the judicial selection process may not be the group's most important impact. Instead, the "supply-and-demand relationship between the judges and the network" may be paramount, with judges needing "scholarship and arguments extending Federalist principles into new areas. Where new legal theories depart from the status quo, they need them to be vetted and legitimized through public debate. They require targeted cases raising questions that provide an opening to move the law. Without professors and lawyers in the network filling that demand, you're not going to maximize what you got through the electoral process."[2] The Washington Post Magazine wrote that the Federalist Society "provides the enduring climate within which storms on the right come and go" and that "Much of the Federalist Society's influence comes not from its very public Washington victories but from its behind-the-scenes, grass-roots ability to shift the law at the idea level, even the cultural level."[2] The Federalist Society lobbies for no particular policies, it does not sign amicus briefs, and it does not represent clients in cases.[2] Amanda Hollis-Brusky, political science professor at Pomona College, and Calvin TerBeek, Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Chicago, dispute that the Federalist Society is non-partisan, pointing to documents written by the Federalist Society to donors in 1984 where the organization states that one of its missions is pushing conservative positions.[17] In rebuttal to Hollis-Brusky and TerBeek, former Solicitor General Ted Olsen also wrote in Politico Magazine pointing out that in 37 years of its existence never "has the Federalist Society filed a lawsuit or brief in any litigation, and never once during that period has it passed any resolution advocating for or against any legal issue."[18] In 2018, Politico Magazine wrote that "the organization had markedly and undeniably changed the nature of the judiciary."[6] The Federalist Society has been described as influential during the presidencies of George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump.[9][8] The American Constitution Society, founded in 2001, was explicitly started as a liberal analogue to the Federalist Society.[2] Judicial philosophy According to The Washington Post Magazine, "Many individual Federalists are political and ideological warriors, though never in the name of the Federalist Society. Rather, society events provide the proving ground where they hone their arguments, seize a chance to shine and come to the attention of mentors higher up in the political-legal hierarchy. In that sense, the Federalist Society is a talent network and placement agency as well."[2] A 2008 study found that Federalist Society members appointed by Republican administrations to the U.S. Courts of Appeals had more conservative voting records than non-members.[19] Critics say the organization favors judicial activism, in particular on social issues.[20] Many members of the Federalist Society favor overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that permits abortion.[20] The organization tends to favor judges who take conservative stances on abortion rights and other social issues.[20] Members of the Federalist Society have presented oral arguments in every single abortion case that has been before the Supreme Court since 1992.[21]:141 According to the authors of Building Coalitions, Making Policy: The Politics of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Presidencies (2012), "Federalist Society members declaim the notion that they are united around a particular philosophy," although many members have been associated with textualist or originalist methods of constitutional interpretation. Judicial restraint tends to align with conservative views on abortion and LGBT rights, while "Critics point out that conservatives are typically not so intent on following 'original meaning' in areas such as affirmative action, executive powers, free speech and federalism."[22] Liberals have questioned "how suspiciously convenient it is that the jurisprudence advocated by society members so often yields conservative results."[2] Leonard Leo, former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, "disputes the notion that the Constitution contains either conservative or progressive values, and he denies that originalism is rigged to reach conservative and libertarian results." Leonard has said "You're practicing originalism appropriately when you're doing so without looking behind the curtain and trying to predetermine results" and that "There are liberals who work really hard at trying to develop a neutral, originalist approach to interpretation...The fact that people may come out differently occasionally — that's okay. Half the battle is just agreeing that it is essential."[2] Increasingly, "A number of liberal scholars have applied themselves to the task of showing how, in fact, originalist approaches can yield progressive results. As this train of thought has flowed out of the academy, liberal originalist logic is, more and more, showing up in legal briefs and even in Supreme Court dissents."[2] Legal activities of members Members of the Federalist Society have opposed regulation of private property and private businesses, and have argued that specific regulations must be enacted by legislatures rather than courts or executives that interpret existing statutes and powers.[21]:75[20] Members of the Federalist Society have argued that courts should not take race into account when making decisions.[21]:99 For example, members of the group have argued that civil rights cases involving racially discriminatory policies should not consider race, but rather the individuals involved.[21]:99 Federalist Society members were extensively involved with the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 ruling where the Supreme Court struck down voluntary desegregation plans in several jurisdictions.[21]:99 The authors of The Federalist Society: How Conservatives Took the Law Back from Liberals write that "Conservatives believe, however, that it is not appropriate for the government to promote racial balance. The essence of the conservative position is that there is no legal difference between considering race or gender for purposes of exclusion and considering race or gender for purposes of inclusion. They argue that both are harmful and make racial problems worse. On the other hand, many civil rights advocates believe that because our history has been one of the systematic exclusion of racial minorities and women from social, political, and economic institutions and from positions of power and influence, the conservative view leads to the continuation of exclusion and retards society's ability to move toward inclusion."[21]:100 Members of the Federalist Society have forcefully argued against regulations on guns. Members hold that the Second Amendment protects the rights of individuals to guns, as opposed to being a collective right to arms. At the time of the Federalist Society's creation and since the 19th century, the Supreme Court and academics had held a more restrictive view of gun rights. The Federalist Society was influential in shifting legal views on gun rights, culminating in the Supreme Court ruling District of Columbia v. Heller which struck down gun regulations in the District of Columbia that required guns to be kept "unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock".[7]:48 The Federalist Society had a significant influence on the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling which weakened regulations on campaign finance by finding that the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for communications by nonprofit corporations, for-profit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.[7]:82–87 King v. Burwell The ideas of the Federalist Society were "at the intellectual heart" of King v. Burwell, which challenged the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with members of the group playing a "mostly behind-the-scenes part in King — and in many of the most significant conservative legal victories of the last 30 years."[23] In her book on the history of the Federalist Society, political scientist Amanda Hollis-Brusky writes that "Federalist Society members had been invested in the litigation efforts against the ACA well before the Act was signed into law—before there was even anything concrete to litigate against."[7]:135 Libertarian law professor Randy Barnett attended his first Federalist Society event in 1986. He was reluctant to attend

cm) long and vary in shape. They are retained through the winter, with old growth dying off in the spring. Allow complete dieback, then pull out dead growth, using one hand to support the base of the plant to avoid snapping the delicate rhizomes. _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _purpurea_ is the northern subspecies, and has the accolade of being the hardiest of all sarracenias, with its natural range extending across much of Canada and naturalized populations in Ireland, England, and even Switzerland. The leaves are usually rather slender, and may be solid red, veined, blushed orange, or any combination of these. An anthocyanin-free plant, _S. purpurea_ subsp. _purpurea_ f. _heterophylla_ is lime green, a striking contrast. Anythocyanin-free _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _purpurea_ f. _heterophylla_ (left) and _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _purpurea_ (right). Anthocyanin-free _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ f. _pallidiflora_ ( _left_ ) _and Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ (right). Anthocyanin-free _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ var. _burkii_ f. _luteola_ (left) and _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ var. _burkii_ (right). Unlike the blooms of others in the species, _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ var. _burkii_ has a pink flower. _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ is the southern form, found from the state of New Jersey southward. It is a stockier plant in all respects, with a wider pitcher and a more open, flared mouth. Varying degrees of attractive veining are present, and can become a solid pink-red in good light. There is also an anthocyanin-free plant, _S. purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ f. _pallidiflora_. To many, the most beautiful expression of the species is pink-flowered _Sarracenia purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ var. _burkii_ , a stocky variant with a bulbous pitcher and a distinctive, thick lip across the mouth. An anthocyanin-free plant has delicately pale yellow-green leaves, and is blessed with perhaps the longest name of any carnivorous plant: _S. purpurea_ subsp. _venosa_ var. _burkii_ f. _luteola_. It's scarce, but worth growing for the name alone. _Sarracenia rubra_ **SWEET TRUMPET** I have a soft spot for _Sarracenia rubra_ because it is often overlooked due to its smaller stature and growth habit. To me (always on the side of the underdog) this is a shame, as it is a beautiful plant and deserves a second look. It is a favourite for a couple of reasons. One, it is the only species to produce more than one flower from each growth point, a characteristic which on a mature plant can result in a large and impressive number of blooms in the spring. Second, the flowers are among the smallest in the genus, dark red in colour and often only around 1 in. (2½ cm) across on dainty stems, their modest size affording them a delicate elegance against the more substantial flowers of larger species. They possess a charm and grace absent from their ostentatious cousins. Samples of the five subspecies of _Sarracenia rubra_ (from left): _S. rubra_ subsp. _alabamensis, S. rubra_ subsp. _gulfensis, S. rubra_ subsp. _jonesii, S. rubra_ subsp. _rubra_ , and _S. rubra_ subsp. _wherryi_. _Sarracenia rubra_ follows the usual pattern of flowering prior to leaves opening. There are two bursts of growth: slender and at times floppy leaves appear in the spring, and a second round of taller, stockier leaves are produced in the summer, lasting well into winter. There are five subspecies of _Sarracenia rubra_ , and plants grown or positioned together offer a wide selection of colours—a good display can be made just with representatives of this single species. Together, _Sarracenia rubra_ subspecies add a splash of colour and vibrancy to an autumnal morning. _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _rubra_ is the typical form, a slim and densely clump-forming plant, generally apple green with purple veining. Occasionally rather attractive red individuals are found. It is small in stature, the tallest plants generally under 12 in. (30 cm). _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _alabamensis_ has the largest of the summer pitchers, the tallest up to 20 in. (50 cm). It is a vibrant green and often sports a good cover of reticulate purple veining in the throat, under the large lid. The delicate flowers of _Sarracenia rubra_ , nodding in the greenhouse. _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _gulfensis_. _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _gulfensis_ is a more variable plant, producing tall leaves to around 20 in. (50 cm). The top section of the often olive-green pitcher bulges slightly, but is not as wide as _S. rubra_ subsp. _alabamensis_. Leaves are occasionally shaded an attractive red, with copper-coloured tops. There is also an anthocyanin-free form, _S. rubra_ subsp. _gulfensis_ f. _luteoviridis_ , which often bears white patches over the upper quarter of its leaves. _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _jonesii_ is another tall, variable plant in the wild, but comparatively few clones of this scare plant are in cultivation. It too bears a pitcher which slightly bulges at the top, and those likely to be encountered are often ornate with good veining. An anthocyanin-free plant is S. _rubra_ subsp. _jonesii_ f. _viridescens_. _Sarracenia rubra_ subsp. _wherryi_ is my personal favourite of the subspecies. It is smaller in stature, the summer leaves generally only up to 9 in. (25 cm) high, and it often develops a wonderful, subtle colour which can include hints of copper, red, and pink. These pitchers are usually slightly pubescent, giving them a felty, tactile nature. A mixed display of carnivorous plants by the author, with a variety of _Sarracenia_ species and hybrids. _Sarracenia_ hybrids This is where things get messy, and neatly compartmentalized species give way to a dazzling array of hybrid plants. As we've mentioned, a hybrid is a cross of two plants of different types, and in their simplest form they are known as primary hybrids—that is, a cross between two species. These occur in the wild where the ranges overlap, but can also be created in cultivation. Hybrids can introduce an extra element of vibrancy and form to any display of sarracenias, and serve to lift the colours of the species. They also demonstrate what is known as hybrid vigour—the increased vitality that the offspring of two parents has when it comes to growth rates, size, and often longevity of leaf life. _Sarracenia ×mitchelliana_ is a great plant to add intermediate height between the smaller species and taller specimens. It and the similar _S. ×catesbaei_ bring a different shape, as their lids (from the _S. purpurea_ parent) are upright and open. _Sarracenia ×mitchelliana_ is also serrated and often heavily veined from the _S. leucophylla_ influence. _Sarracenia ×moorei_ 'Adrian Slack' is one of those highly sought-after plants, named after the man responsible for bringing carnivorous plants to popular cultivation in the 1970s and '80s. It is a beautiful plant with vivid red-pink colour in the mouth and a white lid, carefully drawn with heavy and deliberate veins. _Sarracenia_ × _moorei_ 'Adrian Slack'. _Sarracenia_ 'Joyce Cooper'. _Sarracenia ×moorei_ 'Brook's Hybrid'. _Sarracenia_ 'Constance Healy'. _Sarracenia ×moorei_ 'Brook's Hybrid' is a plant which has been in general cultivation for a number of years. Essential for sheer size (reaching over 39 in. [100 cm] in height regularly), its colour is predominantly green, with a slight degree of white speckling on the lid and in the throat. It is lightly veined in red, and also has a remnant patch of solid red in the throat from its _S. flava_ var. _rugelii_ parent. _Sarracenia_ 'Constance Healy' is one of two plants I named after my grandmothers, who did so much to encourage my appreciation of the botanical world. A complex cross between a red form of _S. ×catesbaei_ , and _S. ×moorei_ 'Brook's Hybrid', the plant attains a height of around 12 in. (30 cm). It has an apple-green pitcher with fine red veining in the upper half, giving way to a lid that can be over 4 in. (10 cm) wide, where the green breaks into white while retaining the veining. Its large flowers have broad, dark pink petals. _Sarracenia_ 'Joyce Cooper' is the cultivar named for my other grandmother, and is from the

Today's generation of breast implants are much improved over previous devices, and most should last a long time. However, we cannot expect them to be lifetime devices. At some point, implants may require replacement; this is normal and should be considered with every breast augmentation surgery. This doesn't mean that you have to have breast surgery on a regular basis. By and large, if everything looks and feels good and there is no evidence of rupture, you can keep your implants for many many years. Most of the time, removal and replacement of breast implants is desired for cosmetic reasons, rather than implant ruptures or other complications. In either event, if you aren't happy with the outcome of a previous breast augmentation or you are experiencing problems with your current set of implants, there are several options available to you. Dr. George Landis has extensive experience performing breast augmentation revision procedures, and he can devise the best treatment plan to deliver exceptional results safely. Is Breast Implant Removal and Replacement Right for Me? There are several reasons for breast implant removal; it is a personal decision that each woman makes according to her own body goals. As time passes, you may wish to have your breast implants removed. Desired to increase physical activity. Larger breasts can limit an active lifestyle, such as affecting arm motion when participating in golf or tennis. The additional weight on the chest can make running more challenging and sometimes can result in back pain. Dissatisfaction with appearance. After several years of having implants, some women want to return to their smaller figures. Dr. Landis offers knowledge, experience, and high ethical standards of medical excellence and professionalism. Together we can build a partnership to achieve your optimal aesthetic results while improving your self image and quality of life. This is the most common reason for revision breast implant surgery. Of course, is no way to guarantee a bra cup size after surgery, as all bras fit differently and every implant size looks different from person to person, depending on many individual physical traits. However, the implant must match the patient's frame to prevent deformities and other problems. It is important to remember that larger implants have a higher risk of complications including stretching soft, rippling, and increased sagging over time. Some implant sizes just too large on small body frames. Occasionally, some patients admit they didn't realize just how big their implants would look; they may feel as if they look heavy with large breasts. We keep in mind that going much smaller can lead to skin redundancy and increased sagging. From 1992 to 2006, the FDA banned silicone implants and, during this time, many women received saline implants. However, they may now be opting for surgery to switch from a saline implant to the newer generation of soft and natural-feeling silicone gel breast implants. Also, patients who have had old leaking silicone devices may choose to have implants replaced with the more modern and durable generation of cohesive gel implants. Breast implants add volume but they do not treat sagging, and they do not lift breasts. This added volume of weight from breast implants can create sagging over time for patients with poor skin tone and loose skin. Sometimes, removal and replacement of implants requires a breast lift to treat sagging. At the time of surgery, implant size can be increased or decreased, depending on the patient's desires. Some patients may have regrets about their initial decision to undergo breast augmentation. Some women are just "over" having large breasts. A particular subset of patients notices their bra size increases as they age, while other patients find themselves less concerned about their breast size and appearance as they age. Explant treatment can be completed with or without a breast lift, but having a simultaneous breast lift often reshapes breasts to create a perkier and more youthful appearance. Without a breast lift, you can expect some natural drooping of tissue. For patients that undergo breast augmentation by an experienced surgeon who is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, complications are rare. However, there is still some risk that complications might occur, as is the case with all surgical procedures. When difficulties arise, you may be able to correct poor outcomes with a breast augmentation revision procedure. Your body will form a thin capsule or scar tissue in response to any foreign material placed within the body; most of the time, these scars cannot be seen or felt. However, everyone heals differently, and some patients form thicker capsules than others for reasons we don't understand. When a moderate to severely thick capsule squeezes implant, it can feel uncomfortably firm. In severe cases, capsular contracture can change the shape of the breast and become painful. The risk factors below further the risks for development of capsular contracture. Rippling often occurs in thin patients with larger implants. The breast tissue surrounding the implants thins out, especially with larger implant sizes. We all know that larger implants often result in more tissue stretch, rippling, thinning, and sagging issues over time. These problems are very difficult to correct in the future and so you must choose your initial size wisely. Bigger isn't always better. If you`re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and have any questions about a procedure or wish to schedule a consultation on a procedure with Dr. Landis, please contact our office. A tear or hole in the implant casing is called a rupture. Most implant failures are due to wear and tear in this outer layer. An opening here can allow the saline to escape from the implant casing, creating a rapid decrease in volume, as the sterile saline is released and gradually absorbed by the body. The newer generation of silicone gel breast implants is cohesive or form-stable, which means the silicone stays within the shell and you may have no apparent symptoms of shell rupture; this is called a "silent rupture." The casing itself will not degrade. The FDA recommends that women with cohesive silicone implants have MRIs from time to time to make sure that the shell is intact. The risk of implant rupture increases with the age of the implant — about 1% per year. The FDA determined that there is no danger from internal exposure to silicone. There is no relationship between silicone breast implants and autoimmune disease, cancer, connective tissue diseases, rheumatologic disease, or other illnesses. Be sure to view our Before and After Photo Gallery of procedures to see real patient results performed at Landis Plastic Surgery. Looking for a New Year's Resolution that You'll Stick to in 2019? "I would like to be a poster child for Dr. Landis – but I am way too old. I cannot recommend him highly enough. I had a quarter of my nose taken off with Mohs surgery, and Dr. Landis put on a graft at the end of my nose that is undetectable!!! I was so lucky to have had him as a surgeon. Not only is he very talented, he is extremely nice. Anyone would be lucky to have him do any kind of work on them." – S.L. "Dr. Landis and his team are the most amazing, competent, dependable group of health professionals, in my opinion. They treat me like family and I have always felt like they really care about my situation. Dr. Landis has always been available to me whenever I've needed him and my situations have been demanding. I'm extremely thankful for their care and would HIGHLY recommend Dr. Landis to friends and family." – M.G. "After making my decision to have a bilateral mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, I was referred to Dr. Landis by medical providers at MN Oncology and Virginia Piper Institute. From the initial consultation through my post

Tony?" I said. "Always." His eyes scanned across the bluish-orange iridescent sheen coming off the water. "Heard you got Centipede," Pepo said. His breath reeked of onions. Julio nodded ferociously. "Yeah, he got it. First one. We played today." He beamed a smile. Tony's eyes tightened in my general direction. I looked away. "His dad always buys him the latest Atari cartridges. Got them all—" "Shut up, Julio," I hissed between my clenched teeth. Tony's face contorted. A sneer was forming. Julio ignored me. "Tank Battle. Asteroids—although that one is not as good as the arcade. Yar's Revenge. Have you played that yet? No one has. He's got it." "Shut up, Julio!" I said. Everyone looked at me. I pursed my lips then mumbled, "We're here to catch turtles, right?" Tony motioned at me with his chin. He was a whole head taller and about fifty pounds heavier. "Yeah, rich kid. That's what we're here to do." I edged two car tires into the water and flopped the rotting plywood on top of it as the others watched. "I'm not a rich kid," I said without looking back. "My dad just buys things. I didn't ask him to. He just does it. I don't know why. Your dad... he probably saves his money..." I looked back at Tony for acknowledgment. He was seething, which, I knew, was very, very bad. Tony was the type of kid that held magnifying glasses above ants, roasting them alive. He was the type of kid who liked to catch spiders so he could pull their legs off one by one. He was the type of kid who liked to catch squirrels so he could cut their tails off and release them back to the trees to bleed to death. He had a whole collection of squirrel tails. Julio hopped on our raft. I boarded and push-rodded it out into the murk using a broomstick. Tony and the lint balls made another raft and followed us. I didn't want them to see where the big turtle was so I pressed the raft to the far corner of the pond, far from the big snapper's bobbing head. Tony pushed his pole into the muck, following us close, too close, me looking back, trying to avoid him. He smashed the edge of his raft into ours. The jagged edge of his plywood slid under ours, shifting one of our tires. Everyone jostled. Only Tony and I had poles to steady ourselves. "Hey! What are you doing?" Julio yelled as he grabbed my arm to prevent himself from falling into the tar-water. I pressed my pole into the mire and spread my feet wide, attempting to stop the raft from shifting into the reeds where it would most certainly get stuck. The lint balls cackled. Tony backed up his raft and slammed it into ours again, a leering grin painted on his face. "Hey! Stop it!" I pulled my short pole out of the water, instinctively, and held it up like a baseball bat. Tony's face changed. It lightened as if he had just seen something, a realization maybe, something that gave him immense pleasure. In one swift, flowing arc from the water to my body he swatted me with his pole. The strike stung. "What the hell..." I swung back. He deflected. My pole hit Tony's. A stream of black tar muck splattered the lint balls. Some went in one of the kid's mouth. "Get him, Tony!" he screamed. Tony's nose wrinkled then he swung low. I shrugged at that. His swing was not even close to hitting me. I easily avoided it by stepping back to the edge of my raft. The rotten plywood splintered and cracked, easily tearing a quarter of our plywood sheet away. The chunk sank. It was then that I realized he didn't intend to hit me; he was trying to destroy our raft. I tried to push away, into the reeds. Tony bashed our raft again. Another chunk broke off and sank. Julio clenched my arm. The raft wasn't big enough for two. He teetered, looking at me wide-eyed, then leaped onto Tony's raft and grabbed the arm of one of the lint balls. The lint ball pushed him away, but allowed him to stay on the back edge of their raft. "Come on, Tony. I got nothing against you." I smiled, innocent-like. I wanted to stare at Julio, to condemn him in a most heinous condemnation but my eyes had no time to wander from Tony because Tony was pressing his raft towards me, a glint in his eye and a grin on his face. He intended to sink me. "Come on, Tony. What's this all about?" I asked as I jabbed my pole forward at him, attempting to slow his advance. "What did I ever do to you?" I tried to sound young and maybe even a little pathetic, like his whiny younger brother who I detested. Maybe Tony would realize what he was doing was wrong. I was going to attend high school in the fall; he had just graduated. I was just a kid, just starting out and he was going to end my life, because, hey, that water was toxic. Maybe Tony had no future. Maybe his girlfriend just left him. Maybe he was taking out his life's frustrations on me. Or maybe Tony was just a jerk. Yeah, that's it, I decided. He closed in. I jabbed, futilely. He swung, smashing my raft, splitting the frail wood plank in two. One of the tires shifted. Tony poled it away. His expression hadn't changed. It was etched on his face, focused, concentrated. The lint balls cheered. Julio only stared, slack-faced. I was furious in my helplessness. I waited for the final blow. One more strike and I would surely go down into the murk. Then, amazingly, Tony pressed his raft away. I stood, barely balancing on the single tire—the plywood was useless so I kicked it away. Tar-water splashed up onto my feet and ankles, soaking my shoes, new blue pro-keds with a neat white stripe that my father had just bought me, knee high white socks and pants. I wanted Tony closer, then. I wanted him to push-rod his raft back out to me, just get closer enough for me to leap onto his raft. If he did I would scratch and punch and claw and swing and grapple myself onto him and pull both of us into the tar-water. I didn't deserve this! I didn't desrve any of it. Something happened to him, I reasoned, something I wasn't responsible for and now I was paying the price. Tony pressed his raft back to the launch area, a piece of land that sloped down from the train tracks to the pond. He leaped off the raft, abandoning the others. I carefully pushed my pole into the mud, trying to steer the tire across the pond, but the tire wouldn't go straight. Steam seemed to be coming off the pond instead of mist. My head was boiling. Each time I pushed, the tire would spin in place, twisting me, nearly causing me to fall. By the time Tony reached the train tracks, I had made it to the middle of the pond. Pepo said, "Are we just going to leave him out there?" Tony sneered at his little brother. Pepo said, "But he's got Centipede..." Tony snorted, staring down at the ground. He slowly stooped over and picked up a chunk of gravel. He stood, smiled at me, and hurled the rock. It nearly hit me. "No! What are you doing?" Julio said as he scrambled up the embankment. Tony hissed at the lint balls, "Hit him." A command. The lint balls and Tony began firing rocks at me. I felt like a carnival target. The lint balls couldn't throw very far—maybe they were trying to miss me,

of the center arch. Hence the two railway tracks ascended on a steep grade from the mixer for about 175 ft., then they descended rapidly to the other end of the bridge. Hence to haul the concrete cars up the grade by using a wire cable, it was necessary to anchor a snatch block at the center of the bridge. This was done by erecting a short post, the top of which was about a foot above the top of the rails. The post stood near the track, and was guyed by means of wires, and braced by short inclined struts. To the top of the post was lashed the snatch block through which passed the wire rope. Fig. 165 shows this post, P. About 10 ft. from the post P, on the side toward the mixer, another post, Q, was erected, and a snatch block fastened to it. When the hoisting engine, which was set near the concrete mixer, began hauling the car along the track, a laborer would follow the car. Just before the car reached the post Q, he would unhook the hoisting rope from the front end of the car, then push the car past the post Q, and hook the hoisting rope to the rear of the car. The car would then proceed to descend in the direction T, being always under the control of the wire rope, except during the brief period when the car was passing the post Q. Each of the two cars was provided with its own hoisting rope, and one engineer, operating a double drum hoist, handled the cars. The hoist was belted to an 8 HP. gasoline engine, no electric motor being available for the purpose. [Illustration: Fig. 165.--General Plan of Rope Haulage System.] [Illustration: Fig. 166. Fig. 167. Details of Haulage Rope Guides.] Where hauling is done in this manner with wire ropes, it is necessary to support the ropes by rollers wherever they would rub against obstructions. A cheap roller can be made by taking a piece of 2-in. gas pipe about a foot long, and driving a wooden plug in each end of the gas pipe. Then bore a hole through the center of the wooden plugs and drive a 1-in. round rod through the holes, as shown in Fig. 166. The ends of this rod are shoved into holes bored into plank posts, which thus support the roller. Where the rope must be carried around a more or less sharp corner, it is necessary to provide two rollers, one horizontal and the other vertical, as shown in Fig. 167. When conveying concrete to a point on the bridge about 300 ft. from the mixer, a dump car would make the round trip in 3 mins., about ¼ min. of its time being occupied in loading and another ¼ min. in dumping. One man always walked along with each car, and another man helped pull the wire rope back. Including the cost of laying the track and installing the plant, the cost of mixing and placing the 1,600 cu. yds. of concrete was only 55 cts. per cu. yd., in spite of the high wages paid. However, the men were working for a contractor under a very good superintendent. Summing up the cost of the concrete in the arches of this bridge, we have: Per cu. yd. 1.35 bbl. cement at $3 $4.05 1 cu. yd. gravel at $1 1.00 66 lbs. of steel in place at 2.2 cts. 1.45 Centers in place (lumber used once) 1.12 Labor, mix and place concrete 0.55 ----- Total $8.17 The cost of the nails, wire, excavation and plant rental is not available, but could not be sufficient to add more than 10 cts. per cu. yd. under the conditions that existed in this case. ~CONCRETE RIBBED ARCH BRIDGE AT GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.~--The bridge consisted of seven parabolic arch ribs of 75 ft. clear span and 14 ft. rise. The five ribs under the 21-ft roadway were each 24 ins. thick, 50 ins. deep at skewbacks and 25 ins. deep at crown; the two ribs under the sidewalks were 12 ins. thick and of the same depth as the main ribs. Each rib carried columns which supported the deck slab. Columns and ribs were braced together across-bridge by struts and webs. All structural parts of the bridge were of concrete reinforced by corrugated bars. The abutments were hollow boxes with reinforced concrete shells tied in by buttresses and filled with earth. There were in the bridge including abutments 884 cu. yds. of concrete and 62,000 lbs. of reinforcing metal, or about 70 lbs. of reinforcing metal per cu. yd. of concrete. Of the 884 cu. yds. of concrete 594 cu. yds. were contained in the abutments and wing walls and 290 cu. yds. in the remainder of the structure. (Fig. 168.) [Illustration: Fig. 168.--Details of Ribbed Arch Bridge.] _Centers._--The center for the arch consisted of 4-pile bents spaced about 12 ft. apart in the line of the bridge. The piles were 12×12 in.×24 ft. yellow pine and they were braced together in both directions by 2×10-in. planks. Each bent carried a 3×12-in. plank cap. Maple folding wedges were set in these caps over each pile and on them rested 12×12-in. transverse timbers, one directly over each bent. These 12×12-in. transverse timbers carried the back pieces cut to the curve of the arch. The back pieces were 2×12-in. plank, two under each sidewalk rib and four under each main rib of the arch. The back pieces under each rib were X-braced together. The lagging was made continuous under the ribs but only occasional strips were carried across the spaces between ribs. This reduced the amount of lagging required but made working on the centers more difficult and resulted in loss of tools from dropping through the openings. Work on the centers and forms was tiresome owing both to the difficulty of moving around on the lagging and to the cramped positions in which the men labored. Carpenters were hard to keep for these reasons. _Concrete._--A 1-7 bank gravel concrete was used for the abutments and a 1-5 bank gravel concrete for the other parts of the bridge. The concrete was mixed in a cubical mixer operated by electric motor and located at one end of the bridge. The mixed concrete was taken to the forms in wheelbarrows. The mixture was of mushy consistency. No mortar facing was used, but the exposed surfaces were given a grout wash. In freezing weather the gravel and water were heated to a temperature of about 100° F.; when work was stopped at night it was covered with tarred felt, and was usually found steaming the next morning. _Cost of Work._--The cost data given here are based on figures furnished to us by Geo. J. Davis, Jr., who designed the bridge and kept the cost records. Mr. Davis states that the unit costs are high, because of the adverse conditions under which the work was performed. The work was done by day labor by the city, the men were all new to this class of work, the weather was cold and there was high water to interfere, and work was begun before plans for the bridge had been completed, so that the superintendent could not intelligently plan the work ahead. Cost keeping was begun only after the work was well under way. Many of the items of cost are incomplete in detail. The following were the wages paid and the prices of the materials used: Materials and Supplies: No. 1 hemlock matched per M. ft. $20 No. 1 hemlock plank per M. ft. 17 No. 2 Norway pine flooring per M. ft. 19 No. 2 yellow pine flooring per M. ft. 20 12×12-in.×16-ft. yellow pine per M. ft. 29 12×12-in.×24-ft. yellow pine, piling per M. ft. 27 Maple wedges per pair 50 cts. ½-in. corrugated bars per lb. 2.615 cts. ¾-in. corrugated bars per lb. 2.515 cts. 7/8-in. corrugated bars per lb. 2.515 cts. Coal per ton $4 Electric power per kilowatt 6 cts. Medusa cement per bbl. $1.75 Aetna cement per bbl. 1.05 Bank gravel per cu. yd. 0.85 Sand per cu. yd. 0.66 Carpenters per day $3 to 3.50 Common labor per day 1.75 The summarized cost of the whole work, with such detailed costs as the figures given permit of computation, was as follows: General Service: Total. Per cu. yd. Engineering $451 $0.512 Miscellaneous

example shown in Table~\ref{tab:annotationsample}, we extracted 9 audio excerpts, disregarding the remaining non-useful portions of audio. The available audio excerpts varied in duration, with the average being 2.7 seconds. Fig.~\ref{fig:breathing_interval} shows the distribution of the obtained audio duration. \begin{table}[b] \centering \footnotesize \caption{Example of breathing cycles recorded in one audio file. 0 means ``absence'', 1 means ``presence''.} \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline \textbf{ID} & \textbf{Start} & \textbf{End} & \textbf{Crackles} & \textbf{Wheezes} \\ \hline 1 & 2.3806 & 5.3323 & 1 & 0 \\ \hline 2 & 5.3323 & 8.2548 & 0 & 0 \\ \hline 3 & 8.2548 & 11.081 & 1 & 1 \\ \hline 4 & 11.081 & 14.226 & 1 & 1 \\ \hline 5 & 14.226 & 17.415 & 1 & 1 \\ \hline 6 & 17.415 & 20.565 & 1 & 1 \\ \hline 7 & 20.565 & 23.681 & 0 & 1 \\ \hline 8 & 23.681 & 26.874 & 0 & 1 \\ \hline 9 & 26.874 & 30 & 0 & 1 \\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{tab:annotationsample} \end{table} To ease the processing of the audio excerpts, and similarly to previous works, we used a fixed-length for each excerpt \cite{9412226}. Specifically, respiratory cycles lasting less than 3 seconds were wrap-padded while those that lasted more 3 seconds were truncated. To represent the audio characteristics of each excerpt and their evolution in time, we extracted Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) on moving windows. MFCCs are widely used in audio signal processing, including speech emotion recognition~\cite{9373397}, acoustic scene analysis~\cite{8721379}, music analysis~\cite{simonetta2022context}, and medical acoustics~\cite{Ntalampiras2020}. First, the audio signal was converted in a log-amplitude spectrogram using windows lasting 40ms and overlapping by 50\%; Hamming windowing function was applied before of computing the FFT-based log-amplitude spectrum. Then, the Mel filter banks are applied to each spectrogram column in order to extract perceptually relevant audio characteristics. Finally, the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) is used to compress the extracted information; the first component, which is proven to be highly correlated with the energy of the signal~\cite{zheng2001comparison}, was removed to prevent the model of learning information strongly correlated to the recording conditions. As such, 12 MFCCs were considered. \section{Anomaly Detection Model} \begin{figure*}[t] \label{fig:schema} \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{img/APPROACH_.pdf} \caption{Block diagram of the proposed anomaly detection approach. Starting from the database, a pre-processing phase is performed which is followed by a feature extraction step. The model is then trained with samples belonging to the normal class learning how to reconstruct the input, the optimal hyper-parameters are determined and tested. Finally, the optimal thresholds for the validation and test sets are determined.} \end{figure*} Variational Autoencoders (VAE) are neural networks that unify variational inference approaches with autoencoders. Autoencoders are neural networks composed by two parts: the first part, named \emph{encoder}, learns a mapping from the input sample $x$ to a latent representation $z$; the second part, instead, is named \emph{decoder} and learns to map a point from $z$ to $x$. In variational inference, instead, a distribution is inferred via point-estimation methods to approximate Bayesian inference when the number of parameters or the size of datasets makes the problem intractable with Monte Carlo methods~\cite{blei2017variational}. In the case of VAEs, the latent representation $z$ must satisfy two important properties, i.e. it must be \begin{inparaenum}[a)] \item a continuous distribution, and \item easily samplable. \end{inparaenum} Usually, $z$ is modeled as a Gaussian distribution. In this case, for each sample, the encoder predicts a mean and a variance, defining the corresponding latent Gaussian distribution. Then, a single point from the predicted distribution is sampled and passed to the decoder. Figure~\ref{fig:VAE_structure} depicts a VAE with Gaussian latent distribution. Compared to basic autoencoders, VAEs allow to draw random samples at inference time, making them suitable for generation tasks, such as creativity in music applications~\cite{Yamshchikov2020}. Moreover, they allow to mimic Bayesian models, which by construction predict distributions. Indeed, when multiple samples are drawn from $z$, one can analyze a set of outputs that constitute a distribution by themselves, allowing to analyze the epistemic certainty measure of the model regarding its own prediction. In other words, VAEs can be used to help the final user with an estimation of the certainty of the prediction; for instance, a medical expert could decide if the probability score predicted by the model should be trusted or not. As regards to the loss function, we used the sum of Mean Squared Error between the reconstructed matrix and the input, and the Kullback-Leibler Divergence between the unit Gaussian and the latent distribution. We defined each layer as the sequence of a convolutional layer, a batch-normalization layer, a ReLU function, and a dropout layer while training. The encoder is then built from a sequence of such layers, while the decoder is composed by the corresponding layers with transposed convolutions instead of simple convolutions. The latent means and standard deviations are computed with pure convolutional layers. Figure~\ref{fig:schema} illustrates the whole anomaly detection pipeline. \begin{figure}[t] \centering \includegraphics[width=0.8\textwidth]{img/VariationalAutoencoder.drawio.png} \caption{Structure of the proposed VAE consisting of 4 convolutional layers.} \label{fig:VAE_structure} \end{figure} \subsection{VAE Training} \begin{table} \centering \footnotesize \caption{Hyper-parameters and the optimal value found for each of them. BH indicates the best hyperparameters while HS indicates the hyperparameter space that has been considered.} \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|} \cline{2-3}\multicolumn{1}{c|}{} & \textbf{BH} & \textbf{HS} \\ \hline \textbf{Loss function} & MSE + $D_{KL}$ & \{MAE,MAPE,MSE, MSLE\} \\ \hline \textbf{Optimizer} & Adam & \{SGD, RMSprop, Adam, Adadelta\} \\ \hline \textbf{Learning rate} & $1 \times 10^{-4}$ & \{$1 \times 10^{-5}$,$1 \times 10^{-4}$,$1 \times 10^{-3}$\}\\ \hline \textbf{Epochs} & 1000 & - \\ \hline \textbf{Patience} & 10 epochs & \{5,10,15\} \\ \hline \textbf{Batch size} & 32 & \{32,64,128\} \\ \hline \textbf{Activation Functions hidden layer} & ReLU & \{LeakyReLU, ReLU, sigmoid, tanh\} \\ \hline \textbf{Activation Functions output layer} & Linear & \{linear, sigmoid\} \\ \hline \textbf{Dropout rate} & 0.3 & \{0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4,0.5\} \\ \hline \end{tabular} \label{tab:HP} \end{table} During training, we first searched for the optimal hyper-parameters using Bayesian Optimization method~\cite{brochu2010tutorial} with a Gaussian Process as surrogate model, 2.6 as exploration-exploitation factor $k$, and Lower Confidence Bound (LCB) as acquisition function. The hyper-parameters and their optimal values are shown in Table~\ref{tab:HP}. We then trained the model using the Adam optimization algorithm with a learning rate equal to $1 \times 10^{-4}$. Training is performed in a weakly-supervised fashion by using the anomaly labels of the validation set only. Specifically, the model is trained to reconstruct samples from the normal class, thus when the input is an excerpt from the abnormal class, we expect that the model will not be able to efficiently reconstruct the input. Since the network is trained to minimize the Mean Squared Error (MSE) between the input and the output, we expect a small MSE for normal respiratory cycles and larger MSEs for abnormal ones. Consequently, the MSE computed on the training set observations can be used as a threshold to spot anomalies. Since the dataset is not fully balanced, the threshold is chosen so that it maximizes the balanced accuracy on the validation set. Balanced accuracy, compared to Matthews Correlation Coefficient \cite{Matthews1975}, allows for an easy interpretation, being the average between true-positive-rate (TPR) and true-negative-rate (TNR). In our case, TPR is the rate of correctly identified anomalies, while TNR is the rate of correctly identified normal observations~\cite{chicco2021matthews,bekkar2013evaluation}. \section{Experimental Set-Up and Results} \begin{table}[t] \footnotesize \caption{Results obtained on the testing set using two different thresholds, one computed on the validation and one computed on the testing set.} \label{tab:thresholds} \centering \begin{tabular}{cc|ccc|} \cline{3-5} \multirow{2}{*}{} & & \multicolumn{3}{c|}{Validation threshold} \\ \cline{3-5} & & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{TPR} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{TNR} & ACC \\ \hline \multicolumn{1}{|c|}{\multirow{2}{*}{60\%/40\% split}} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Validation\\ threshold\end{tabular} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.33} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.80} & 0.57 \\ \cline{2-5} \multicolumn{1}{|c|}{} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Test\\ threshold\end{tabular} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.44} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.70} & 0.57 \\ \hline \multicolumn{1}{|c|}{\multirow{2}{*}{80\%/20\% split}} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Validation\\ threshold\end{tabular} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.48} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.71} & 0.60 \\ \cline{2-5} \multicolumn{1}{|c|}{} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Test\\ threshold\end{tabular} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.58} & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{0.61} &

and each of those standards is looked down upon as "not suiting our use case" which results in those "standards" never becoming a standard in the first place. Then we have to build more bridges. Tent's goal isn't just to come up with a protocol. They want to standardize what they've got and they are very serious about it. So instead of building bridges which require all decentralised networks to collaborate, lets just adopt the most complete and expansive thing out there and build on top of that. We can kill all the poor standards and protocols in favor of something more commonly adopted, which would draw way more developers than a splintered community such as Diasfriendentica. Please remember that there is no competition on the open social web. One project cannot kill another project; it can only kill itself by being too stubborn and too unexperienced. I have seen different projects growing into different directions for the sake of it and none of them had a significant break-through. I don't know whether Friendica Mike would be up for that personally, especially with all the work he's putting into Zot2/RED. It'd be nice to get the Friendica community to talk to the Tent guys, though. I have no idea what would go into making Diaspora a Tent app, but if it benefits both projects and helps push forward the agenda of decentralized social networking, I'm all for it. As it stands, this thread is intended to be a discussion over the merits of doing it, and what kind of problems we'd have to face, should we choose to do it. When the discussion is far enough along (need moar commentators up in here!), it'd be good to make a proposal and vote on it as a community, as this is definitely a big deal. I'm not the right person to talk about technical implementations but I think Diaspora could settle with supporting the standards while building in some translations under the hood. Tent and Diaspora are both very different, or maybe not different enough, to really merge. Both host the user data and both do it differently. I'd probably talk to tent in tent's native language, though that doesn't take away the fact that Diaspora has it's own weird language. The only way to really merge with tent would be to turn joindiaspora into a tent hosting provider which provides Diaspora on top. That means separating the app from the host and that would be a huge undertaking. So then I'd probably try to apply tent's rules wherever possible while maintaining workarounds elsewhere. Following people, receiving posts, managing aspects, should all be possible in tent's language, whereas user@diaspora would probably need an user.diaspora equivalent to make things work. Gah, it's so complicated! :3 deadsuperhero (Sean Tilley) October 17, 2012, 12:00am #10 Maybe a total merge would be overkill at this point, but seeing as we want to put federation into a layer anyway (some kind of hot-pluggable federation backend system might be nice), maybe we just want to be compatible on a federation level? Of course, it'd be nice to have the benefits of "Log in with Tent" for apps. I guess we'd have to figure out the best strategy to use, and the best point of attack. To me, being Tent-compatible through some refactoring and restructuring may be good enough for now. sleepydaddysoftwar (SleepyDaddySoftware) October 18, 2012, 12:00am #11 I like how Tent allows many kinds of apps on top of the same core tent protocol. As far as I know, the apps don't even need to be self hosted (a tent app could be an iOS/android app without its own backend), although they do require registration, which might require a homepage at the very least, and possibly a redirect_uri? Applications can then post to your feed using either the standard formats for maximum interoperability (I think tent.is supports "status" format messages for tweet-like posts when you use the free account, and essay/photo/etc… posts for paid accounts). Or apps can define their own post format to be anything they want. This is, in my opinion, tent's "killer feature". As some have already mentioned, rather than be yet another facebook-like service, tent is a platform and ecosystem on top of which any app could potentially be written. Although it doesn't go all the way, this seems like it's really one step closer towards a Personal Data Store (PDS) future, where app developers like me can take advantage of the user's existing tent server for some limited cloud storage, instead of having to pay for my own cloud hosting service. Users, on the other hand, get to take control of the data that apps like mine can store - because that PDS may be hosted on their own personal tent server, or else their tent server might have account settings letting them export their app's isolated storage data or import data exported elsewhere, or to delete that data entirely. But, now that I think of it, you could always just have a PDS/VRM app on top of tent… Hmmm… interesting… Anyway, some good questions to ask before we even consider taking the tent route: Is Diaspora going to be a tent server implementation in and of itself, or just an app? Both? Currently "Tent" is still under Copyright for Appollic Software, INC to "prevent fragmentation". It is unclear what this means, because it also states that it is a free and open standard, which seems contradictory to me. They say they're going to release it under an open license, but I've heard that song before. What features do we lose when we use the standard tent post formats? Can we still do aspects? What about tag following? Likes, reshares? Threaded comments on posts? Can we do this without just creating our own proprietary post format (because of course that wouldn't be compatible with anyone else). If we implemented Tent protocol - what would happen to users' existing posts, aspects, profile, private messages, photos, and so forth? goob (goob) October 18, 2012, 12:00am #12 Isn't this a human problem more than a technical one? I.e. it's a case of everyone who is working on open-source social software agreeing on which protocol to adopt, rather than a technical issue. A standard is merely a protocol which enough people have agreed to use, isn't it? I don't know anywhere near enough to make any recommendations about which course of action to take, although it might be best to wait until it becomes clear which protocol is going to work best for Diaspora. By the sounds of it, tent is in fairly early stages of development, and there's Zot2/RED being developed as well. I'm sure there are a few others. It would be a shame to nail our colours to one mast too soon and find out, once all the work of making D* compatible with that protocol, that actually it has a lot of security holes which make D* less attractive as a network (or something like that, some big flaw which causes problems). I'd suggest, for the time being, discussing and voting on whether we should aim for D* to be part of or adopt a standard in the future, when there is one protocol which it is clear will be good enough for D* and open enough to become a standard for all decentralised social interactivity. But not jump on to one particular one too soon, just because it looks promising in the early stages. Definitely keep an eye on what progress is being made on the various attempts to achieve this, and perhaps support the people working on these; perhaps with donations; perhaps also by talking to them, discussing with them what D* would need their protocol to be in order for it to work and for D*

others jealous." "Ha," I say as my eyes land on the ridgeline of his collarbone and the gold chain that rests there with a shark's tooth attached. I found it way back when on the beach and gave it to him—biggest tooth we'd ever seen. Chris had it made into a necklace. The tooth belongs to a great white, he always tells people when they ask, the same shark that chomps on surfers up and down the coast. Not us, though. By wearing its tooth, it shows the sharks we're one of them. Like most surfers, Chris is a bit superstitious. I turn away so he won't see my face and pretend to inspect Lady Macbeth. "She's pretty dinged up, though." "You little shit." He shoves me lightly. "You're the one who dinged her." I smile. He's so protective of his boards. "If I take her off your hands, she might not answer to you anymore." "She never did. I'd have sold her if it weren't for you." He lays his hand on the board's edge and gives her an affectionate little squeeze. His ruddy golden hand with his sun-bleached nails, next to mine, so close they're practically touching. Chris is always just an inch too far away. "So, you'll come to Sebastian with me?" Is it my imagination, or is there some unspoken plea in his voice? I don't know how I'm going to survive the weekend with him, much less my entire sophomore year. Lots of cold showers. But like most things with Chris, I don't have the willpower to say no. "Yeah, I'll come. But I get shotgun." I always get shotgun unless there's a girl in the car, Hopefully he's not bringing a girl with us. "Damn, Theo, I go away for a summer and you've turned into a shark." I shake my head and nudge him lightly with my shoulder, my bare skin brushing against his. I glance over, and even though I can't see them in this light, I know that's where he collects his freckles, on the tops of his shoulders. I've spent way too much time memorizing them, but it's partly his fault for never wearing a damn shirt. "You know you always get what you want in the end," I tell him. As if there was ever a question. He smiles with an arrogance that only adds to his appeal. "Don't make me work too hard." That deep, gravelly voice gets me every time. Feels like my heart is being rubbed over a cheese grater. I remind myself to breathe, then make up an excuse about something I need to do at home and walk back out of the shed with his fumes still in my nostrils and his voice humming in my head. Our summer apart hasn't changed a thing. If anything, it's only gotten worse. I'm still hopelessly infatuated with my best friend. My straight best friend. Laura Lascarso wants you to stay up way past your bedtime reading her stories. She aims to inspire more questions than answers in her fiction and believes in the power of storytelling to heal and transform a society. When not writing, Laura can be found screaming "finish" on the soccer fields, rewatching Veronica Mars, and trying to convince politicians that climate change is real. She lives in North Florida with her darling husband and two kids. She loves hearing from readers, and she'd be delighted to hear from you. Website: lauralascarso.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/lascarso Twitter: @lauralascarso Must be 18 years of age or older to enter. Rafflecopter Giveaway Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/c9886b9d9/? Embed: a Rafflecopter giveaway https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js This entry was posted in Book Giveaways, Book Reviews, Book Tours and Contests, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, Uncategorized and tagged @lauralascarso @dreamspinners #newbookrelease #WhenEverythingIsBlue #giveaway, A Dreamspinner Press Author Guest Tour, author Laura Lascarso, When Everything is Blue by Laura Lascarso. Jaclyn Quinn on Inspiration, Writing and her new release Hard To Let Go by (Blog Tour, excerpt and giveaway) HARD TO LET GO JACLYN QUINN Cover by Cate Ashwood Designs Interior Design and Formatting by Flawless Touch Formatting Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words is happy to have Jaclyn Quinn here today talking about the inspiration behind writing her latest story Hard to Let Go. Welcome, Jaclyn. I wrote Hard to Let Go so long ago, it's hard to say if there was something that specifically inspired me. Music is a big influence for me, whether it be an entire song or just one line. I find myself wondering happened for those lyrics to be written. What was the story behind it? I like stories where the MCs face their struggles, whatever they may be, and find love under all the layers. The hard part is trying to figure out where forgiveness is beneath all those layers. I wanted to write a story that dealt with difficult issues, but that also had a strong family feeling. There also needed to be humor, because that's what real life is. There are moments during trying times where you find yourself laughing at something, whether it be a friend, a family member, or something unexpected. It's the ups and downs of our emotions. So it was important for me to show the reason for Owen's anger, but also show how he finally gets to a place where he can let that anger go. With Brody, I think he needed to forgive himself before he could truly love another person. As for the family part of the story, I really just drew from my own life and experiences. My family is incredibly close. We have Sunday dinner as often as we can. Sometimes, our schedules don't permit it, but we always pick right back up the next week. Our family dinner table is a lot like Owen's. We're loud, laugh a lot, and tease each other. We've also been known for an outdoor food fight or two. Ha ha Owen Richards lives a quiet life in his small hometown of Haven's Cove. He has a rewarding life consisting of three very supportive—not to mention feisty—women, and a successful bakery that he owns and absolutely loves. Yet, Owen can't seem to shake this emptiness inside or the intense feeling that something is missing. A sudden encounter with a man from his past, one he despises, turns his entire world upside down. When Owen finds himself attracted to that sexy man, he questions everything, including his sanity. After all, only an incredibly disturbed person would find that he can't stop thinking about his high school bully. Brody Walker never expected to return to Haven's Cove. He's made a life for himself in Boston where he can truly be the person he was always meant to be. But an unexpected call has Brody facing all the demons he'd left behind so long ago. Now, he's faced with not only a difficult goodbye, but one long overdue apology to a man who is no longer that lanky kid from high school. The challenge is to convince the guy he's changed—and also prove he's worth taking a chance on. When passions ignite, truths are exposed, changing beliefs these men have held on to for years. Faced with the knowledge that things aren't always what they seem, will they choose to hold on to the incredible thing they've found…or is it easier to give in to the fear and let go? Brody nodded his head and let his aunt Nora lead him down the hall. Had this hallway always been so damn long? The walls were lined with pictures. There were Brody's school pictures, holidays, and family photos of the three of them smiling. It was a hall full of lies. As he crossed the threshold into the room, it was like breaking through a thick wall. His chest hurt and

The Inside Story of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 An old drug for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis could hold promise against the coronavirus. New data looks promising for hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. The Inside Story of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for C... 4.4- 203 ratings We have all been waiting for some good news about the coronavirus pandemic that is creating chaos around the world. New data about the drugs chloroquine and especially hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 might be the breakthrough we have been hoping for. Of course, it is still early days. We will need much more clinical trial data to know for sure. Nevertheless, the preliminary reports are encouraging. We are about to provide you the latest information on these drugs for the coronavirus, aka SARS-CoV-2. What Are Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine? I learned about chloroquine (CQ) 50 years ago. I was a pharmacology grad student at the University of Michigan. The drug intrigued me then. Now it, and its chemical cousin hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), have captured the world's attention because of COVID-19. Chloroquine had been synthesized by German chemists as early as 1934. It is related to the drug quinacrine and quinine, both of which have been used for the treatment of malaria. Quinine originally came from the bark of the cinchona tree. Extracts of this compound have been used since the early 17th century to treat symptoms of malaria. Quinine has also been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. This drug gives tonic water its bitter taste. Chloroquine, like quinine, has been used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Chloroquine has a fair amount of toxicity (more about that later). Chemists synthesized chloroquine's chemical cousin, hydroxychloroquine, in 1946. The FDA approved it under the brand name Plaquenil in 1955. It was thought to be somewhat safer than chloroquine. It is currently FDA-approved to treat lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and malaria. Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: We first got wind of possible antiviral activity associated with CQ and HCQ several days ago. One of our loyal readers, Charlotte, tipped us off to YouTube videos by Dr. Roger Seheult. This physician explains complex molecular biology in ways most people can comprehend. His Coronavirus Update 34 (March 10, 2020) and Coronavirus Update 35 (March 12, 2020) describe the potential benefit of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. You can read our commentary on these videos, watch Dr. Seheult do his thing and get a great overview of the preliminary research at this link. Are There Compounds That Might Help Control Coronavirus? There are NO FDA-approved medicines against coronavirus. Thanks to Dr. Roger Seheult, we learned about a few compounds that might help control coronavirus. New Research on Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Over the last few days there has been dramatic new research regarding chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. French researchers published early data in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (online, March 17, 2020). These researchers were aware of the antiviral activity of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine over two decades ago. One of the authors proposed using these drugs 25 years ago against hard-to-treat bacterial infections. Recently, he remembered that it was potentially effective against four different kinds of coronavirus. When a Chinese team reported that the SARS-CoV-2 was sensitive to CQ and HCQ, the French team decided to conduct a preliminary clinical trial three weeks ago. They used HCQ plus the antibiotic azithromycin, which may also have antiviral activity. Within three to six days they saw complete clearance of the virus. You can watch a YouTube video with one of the principal French investigators at this link. He describes his experience with hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 in a charming French accent! Here is a link. Key Findings About Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: If you would like to read what the French researchers wrote in their scientific paper, we quote some of their key findings below. The investigators recruited 36 patients for the study. Although the results are preliminary, they felt it was important to share the findings with the medical community "given the urgent need for an effective drug against SARS-CoV-2 in the current pandemic context." "We show here that hydroxychloroquine is efficient in clearing viral nasopharyngeal carriage of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients in only three to six days, in most patients. A significant difference was observed between hydroxychloroquine-treated patients and controls starting even on day3 post-inclusion. These results are of great importance because a recent paper has shown that the mean duration of viral shedding in patients suffering from COVID- 19 in China was 20 days (even 37 days for the longest duration). "Despite its small sample size our survey shows that hydroxychloroquine treatment is significantly associated with viral load reduction/disappearance in COVID-19 patients and its effect is reinforced by azithromycin." "Such results are promising and open the possibility of an international strategy to decision-makers to fight this emerging viral infection in real-time even if other strategies and research including vaccine development could be also effective, but only in the future. We therefore recommend that COVID-19 patients be treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to cure their infection and to limit the transmission of the virus to other people in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the world." We encourage you to watch the video yourself at this link. Chinese Research with Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Chinese scientists have also been looking for effective treatment strategies against the coronavirus (aka SARS-CoV-2). In the journal Cell Discovery (March 18, 2020) they wrote about their research: "We have recently reported that two drugs, remdesivir (GS-5734) and chloroquine (CQ) phosphate, efficiently inhibited SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro." In vitro means in a test tube or petri dish. The researchers go on to note that remdesivir has shown preliminary promise. They also note: "…as an experimental drug, remdesivir is not expected to be largely available for treating a very large number of patients in a timely manner. Therefore, of the two potential drugs, CQ [chloroquine] appears to be the drug of choice for large-scale use due to its availability, proven safety record, and a relatively low cost." These researchers go on to describe a derivative of CQ, hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). It was first synthesized in 1946. It is currently prescribed under the brand name Plaquenil or in an inexpensive generic form. "Clinical investigation found that high concentration of cytokines were detected in the plasma of critically ill patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, suggesting that cytokine storm was associated with disease severity. Other than its direct antiviral activity, HCQ is a safe and successful anti-inflammatory agent that has been used extensively in autoimmune diseases and can significantly decrease the production of cytokines and, in particular, pro-inflammatory factors. Therefore, in COVID-19 patients, HCQ may also contribute to attenuating the inflammatory response. "In conclusion, our results show that HCQ can efficiently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. In combination with its anti-inflammatory function, we predict that the drug has a good potential to combat the disease. This possibility awaits confirmation by clinical trials. We need to point out, although HCQ is less toxic than CQ, prolonged and overdose usage can still cause poisoning." Pros and Cons of Hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19: Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are not without potential adverse reactions. Chloroquine Side Effects: Digestive distress: stomach discomfort, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea Visual changes, damage to the retina Headache, ringing in the ears, hearing loss Skin reactions, sensitivity to sunlight Muscle discomfort, weakness Serious heart arrhythmias Hydroxychloroquine Side Effects: Headache, ringing in the ears Digestive distress: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, weight loss Itching, serious skin reactions Heart rhythm irregularities, heart disorders The good news about these drugs is that the French researchers saw dramatic improvement in viral load after just a few days. If other investigators confirm these results, this would be a dramatic advance in the treatment of the coronavirus. These drugs are already FDA approved. They have been on the market for decades. We know the toxicity and can monitor it. The French researchers note that these drugs may become important for health care workers: "Further works are

the modern era that have become an essential part of contemporary popular culture. • Presents a compelling mix of some 500 entries drawn from traditional Native American and European American culture as well as Mexican American, African American, Chinese American, and other national traditions • Includes numerous primary documents that help readers to pinpoint and understand the origins of different myths and legends as well as how they evolve over time • Features a wide variety of entries drawn from newer traditions of science fiction, urban legends, and conspiracy theories • Supplies bibliographic references with each entry that include websites for further reading and research The Brothers Grimm and Folktale Author : James M. McGlathery Publisher : University of Illinois Press Download The Brothers Grimm and Folktale by James M. McGlathery PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of The Brothers Grimm and Folktale by James M. McGlathery. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. "Some of the best folklore and Grimm scholars from Europe and the U.S. combined to give an excellent overview of the scholarly research and current critical thought regarding Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm and their hugely popular Grimm's Fairy Tales. . . . The book is directed to the general educated public and is very readable." -- Choice The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales Author : Donald Haase Publisher : Greenwood Publishing Group Download The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales by Donald Haase. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. Provides alphabetically arranged entries on folk and fairy tales from around the world, including information on authors, subjects, themes, characters, and national traditions. Download The New Yorker by PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of The New Yorker by . This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. Creaturely Love Author : Dominic Pettman Publisher : U of Minnesota Press Download Creaturely Love by Dominic Pettman PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of Creaturely Love by Dominic Pettman. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. To our modern ears the word "creature" has wild, musky, even monstrous, connotations. And yet the terms "creaturely" and "love," taken together, have traditionally been associated with theological debates around the enigmatic affection between God and His key creation, Man. In Creaturely Love, Dominic Pettman explores the ways in which desire makes us both more, and less, human. In an eminently approachable work of wide cultural reach and meticulous scholarship, Pettman undertakes an unprecedented examination of how animals shape the understanding and expression of love between people. Focusing on key figures in modern philosophy, art, and literature (Nietzsche, Salomé, Rilke, Balthus, Musil, Proust), premodern texts and fairy tales (Fourier, Fournival, Ovid), and contemporary films and online phenomena (Wendy and Lucy, Her, memes), Pettman demonstrates that from pet names to spirit animals, and allegories to analogies, animals have constantly appeared in our writings and thoughts about passionate desire. By following certain charismatic animals during their passage through the love letters of philosophers, the romances of novelists, the conceits of fables, the epiphanies of poets, the paradoxes of contemporary films, and the digital menageries of the Internet, Creaturely Love ultimately argues that in our utilization of the animal in our amorous expression, we are acknowledging that what we adore in our beloveds is not (only) their humanity, but their creatureliness. Corpus and the Cortex Author : Jacques M. Chevalier Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP Download Corpus and the Cortex by Jacques M. Chevalier PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of Corpus and the Cortex by Jacques M. Chevalier. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. Chevalier shows how the attentions and inhibitions of affect and norm are best understood at the crossroads of several disciplines, including neuropsychology, semiotics, and philosophy. He delves into these linkages, with an emphasis on the reciprocal concessions between the pleasure principle and the teachings of normative language (moral, rational). These mutual allowances of sentiment and judgment go far beyond cognitive models of the mind. They also bridge the Freudian and Kantian gap between self-enjoyment and morality. Far from being constantly in struggle, The Corpus and the Cortex shows that norms and infractions are the warps and wefts of a single "neurosemiotic" fabric. Symbolic analyses illustrating these intriguing manifestations of brain, language, and culture range from personal anecdotes to cultural identity rhetoric, animal farm imagery, shoe fetishism, and body piercing. The 3-D Mind 2 presents these analyses against the background of theories and debates concerning concepts of identity construction, metaphor, rhetoric, simulation, consciousness, morality, and eroticism. Remaking Love Author : Mary Tabor Publisher : 3ones Inc Download Remaking Love by Mary Tabor PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of Remaking Love by Mary Tabor. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. Mary has written a memoir of the highest quality. Her experiences and the way she brings them to us remind us why we bother to read in the first place: empathy is better than callousness, trust more rewarding than cynicism, adventure food for the soul. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales Author : Jack Zipes Publisher : Oxford Companions Download The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. This Oxford companion provides an authoritative reference source for fairy tales, exploring the tales themselves, both ancient and modern, the writers who wrote and reworked them and related topics such as film, art, opera and even advertising. The Grimm Reader: The Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm Author : Maria Tatar Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company Download The Grimm Reader: The Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of The Grimm Reader: The Classic Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Maria Tatar. This book is available in ePub and PDF format with a single click unlimited downloads. Forty of the most famous and celebrated stories from the Brothers Grimm translated and edited by a leading professor of folklore. Even after two hundred years, the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm remain among our most powerful stories. Their scenes of unsparing savagery and jaw-dropping beauty remind us that fairy tales, in all their simplicity, have the power to change us. With some of the most famous stories in world literature, including "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," as well as some less well known stories like "The Seven Ravens," this definitive collection promises to entrance readers with the strange and wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm. Maria Tatar's engaging preface provides readers with the historical and cultural context to understand what these stories meant and their contemporary resonance. Fans of all ages will be drawn to this elegant and accessible collection of stories that have cast their magical spell over children and adults alike for generations. Fairy Tale and Film Author : S. Short Rating : 4.2/5 (2 users download) Download Fairy Tale and Film by S. Short PDF/Ebook Free clicking on the below button will initiate the downloading process of Fairy Tale and Film by S. Short. This book is

Conditions page on My35. I 35 Waco Live traffic coverage with maps and news updates - Interstate 35 Texas Near Waco. Traffic cameras from Austin and San Antonio are also available, showing you the closest thing In Waco, I-35 is known as the Jack Kultgen Freeway, and begins its concurrency with US 77. Discussion in 'Inside the 40 Acres' started by asics, May 12, 2019. With a surge in fame over the last few years after being featured on a popular TV show, Waco is on the rise. Southbound I-35 traffic through downtown Waco will be interrupted by the first of many demolition projects, beginning this week. Practice limited to Criminal Defense. Sep 27, 2019 · WilCo Traffic Alert: I-35 Closure Planned - Round Rock, TX - Crews to close north and southbound Interstate 35 main lanes and ramps at CR 305 to accommodate bridge demolition work. Waco is the largest city in McLennan County and is situated along the Brazos River in eastern central Texas. Located conveniently off Interstate 35, Quality Inn & Suites ® is minutes away from the popular Magnolia Market at the Silos, owned by former HGTV Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines. Southbound I-35 is narrowed to one lane between the rest area at mm 226 and SH-11 (mm 222) in Blackwell through December ; The speed limit is reduced in the Sep 30, 2019 · WACO, Texas – Construction crews will fully close the southbound Interstate 35 frontage road in certain areas for drainage and utility work. What is the traffic situation? I have heard about road construction on the I-35 but am unsure of whether this will affect our drive in the morning. Future reconstruction of IH 35 through south Waco will replace Exit 333A to La Salle Avenue and the Waco Traffic Circle with new ramps located just north of the New Road overpass. when a pickup truck slowed in an attempt to avoid an object on the road. I'm terrified of this Before 35 was built, people must have traveled to Austin on some other roads right? Texas - Food along I-35, Waco and West - Opening this thread so that people can make recommendations for those making the drive south on I-35 to Austin. Car hits, injures woman in 7-Eleven parking lot Travis Traffic / 3 days ago. Aug 14 The interstate was a parking lot starting just north of Waco. In Waco, Interstate 35 is known as the Jack Kultgen Freeway. Wheatley@txdot. The map above shows the i-35 (highlighted in i-35 Waco TX traffic is shown in map above - with Interstate 35 positioned aprox. There, it has briefconcurrencies with both Interstate 10 and Interstate 410, and serves as the northern terminus of Interstate 37. Downtown Waco struggled in the 1960s in the aftermath of the 1953 tornado and suburbanization. Hotels near I-35 North, Exits 337, 338, 339 – Waco, Texas The hotels below are listed in order of their exit number. I 35 Waco Status, Road Closure with live updates from the DOT - Interstate 35 Texas Near Waco ezeRoad I-35 Texas Interstate 35 Texas Live Traffic, Construction and Accident Report I-35 Projects. Interstate 35 is named the Pan Am Expressway in San Antonio. Hardly anybody on the road and someone isn't paying attention and an accident happens!! "First, it'll give reliable traffic forecasts for I-35 travelers while the expansion project is under construction. single family home built in 1999. The other 86 percent of vehicles are local I-35 travelers. Jul 25, 2017 · 5. October 25 on I-35 near mile marker Jul 12, 2019 · CENTRAL TEXAS — A multiple-vehicle crash on southbound I-35 near Waco Drive/US 84 and Bellmead Drive is causing significant traffic delays, said the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The Texas Department of Transportation's Waco district held a public meeting this month to share information on the project. My 35 Central Texas News. I-35 Waco, Tx. This property is not currently available for sale. 35 INTERSTATE N 35 INTERSTATE I-35 Additional Lane I-35 Additional Lane I-35 Southbound Lanes I-35 Northbound Lanes Frontage Road Frontage Road SIGNS SIGNS SECTION ENHANCEMENTS. 3 Nov 2011 Waco (MM 334)0 min. My35 is your connection to the latest news, project and road condition updates, traffic camera views and community meetings along the I-35 corridor – all 588 miles. S. You can view current road conditions by any of the categories listed below. 100 S. The Interstate 35 in San Antonio, abbreviated "i-35 San Antonio", is one of the major interstate highway routes and traffic corridors that travels thru the metro San Antonio region. Includes Comfort Suites Waco North Reviews, maps & directions to Comfort Suites Waco North in Waco and more from Yahoo US Local Apartments for Rent in Waco, TX . Love it or hate it, Interstate 35 is a presence that is difficult to ignore. i-35 Waco TX . 2419 Arroyo Rd is located in Mountainview, Waco. will be closed; Downtown Waco Street Closures Austin Avenue between 5th & 8th streets will be open to pedestrian traffic only. Approximately 42 million drivers a year traverse the interstate through Waco past the Baylor campus and across the river. I'm hearing horror stories of 7 hrs in the car on 35. Waco. Austin traffic reports. afternic. 290, and northwest on Hwy. Earn free nights, get our Price Guarantee & make booking easier with Hotels. Waco, TX 76704 254/867-2836 Jodi. Ended up eventually making it to the E/W split on 35 and not seeing another car on the interstate for the rest of the night. View 1 photos for 35 Oleander St, Waco, TX 76708 a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,608 Sq. • All I-35 southbound mainlanes closed • Traffic detours to frontage road at Exit 284 Please observe all warning signs, traffic control devices, and police officers in the project area. An ambulance was at the Want to know what the traffic looks like on I-35 before you go? Check out the live camera feeds to help plan your route. Click here to read the article in its entirety on the site. Loop Dr. Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about. Hotels near I-35 at New Road, Exit 331 – Waco, TX The hotels below are listed in order of their exit number. Four 18-wheelers and one pickup truck were involved in two separate accidents only two miles apart on Interstate 35 near Waco. Starting Tuesday through mid-2021, a five-mile stretch of Interstate 35 through the heart of Waco will be constricted as crews shift all mainlane traffic to the northbound side of the freeway. 35 MustGoFaster, May 12, 2019. The current Trulia Estimate for 2419 Arroyo Rd is $660,777. TxDOT plans to shift all main lane traffic to the northbound side of the interstate from business 77 to 17th and 18th streets. Overview. Ft. in the 23 Nov 2019 I 35 Waco Live traffic coverage with maps and news updates - Interstate 35 Texas Near Waco Highway Information. in the middle of map on initial page load. As a reminder, traffic fines double in construction areas when workers are present, whether or not they are visible. Photo taken 08/18/05. in Waco Wednesday afternoon. We're leaving North Dallas at approx 5pm the night before Thanksgiving (have to work, so can't leave earlier). What is the traffic situation? I have heard about road construction on the I -35 My35 is your connection to the latest news, project and road condition updates, traffic camera views and community meetings along the I-35 corridor – all 588 miles. Zoom in/out of map via controls on map, or change elevation with Mouse.

actually appear red. I used to have a picture of that, but I think it was taken with a potato, so I will spare you the cruelty of it. I have talked about this series in the past. I have written an article about the first game in the series. I had a lot of fun with that game, and honestly I still have. It has been quite some time since Nintendo released a new entry of this series. At first, you might think that this game is nothing more then simply drawing circles, but it's more then that. It's a puzzle game and it makes you look in a different angle to Pokémon. Now they are actual helpers to finish your quest instead of helpers in battle. I mentioned most of my complaints in my first impression article, so I won't give a long explanation here. It can be repetitive yet it's so much fun to play. Also, when you look at the later games in the series, you see it clearly evolve into an amazing game. The latest game in the series is one of the best entries ever. I advice people who where on the fence for this series to give it a try. Read some articles about it. I enjoyed myself with it. The difficulty can be a bit off, but hey, at least it's something different from the main Pokémon formula. Pokémon Trozei The biggest issue this game suffers from is that the story just seems so well, created just for the sake of having a story. This game/series is actually a sequel to the gameboy color game: Pokémon Puzzle Challenge. It's a Pokémon styled Puzzle Quest game. Pokémon Puzzle Quest was more Bejeweled kind of game. While I'm totally not a fan of the latest free game that they released, I think the puzzle Pokemon games where all pretty amazing. When I'm bored, I sometimes start playing these games. And the time flies by. It's one of those games that "one more round" really applies. A big negative of this game is that you are expected to know which Pokémon has which type. If you have that knowledge, some bosses are way more easy to defeat. A big positive in this game is that when fighting a boss-Pokémon, it will come inside your playing flied and remove some columns. You will have to adapt a new strategy and quickly, since those attacks can hurt quite a lot. I wouldn't recommend this game or this series to anyone. I would recommend it to hardcore Pokémon fans, casual gamers and puzzle game fans. Otherwise, this game is a safe one to pass. I'm not saying that these games are bad in any meaning of the word, but they aren't for everyone. PokePark Wii I almost forgot about this series. While I was about to write the closure to this article, I saw this game sitting on my shelve. These games are quite something. This game is a more relaxing Pokémon game where you need to make friends with the Pokémon of an area before you can progress to the next one. The way you can befriend a Pokémon is by a race, hide-and-seek, quiz, quest or a battle. During your adventure, you will get different Pokémon in your party that have different abilities in battle and in exploration. Also, the party games make for quite a nice time. If you have a young child that loves Pokémon, I urge you to buy this game for them, I'm quite sure they will enjoy this one. I'm still playing the sequel of this game and it's a lot of fun. When I am in the mood again to play on my Wii, I'll most likely try to finish PokePark 2. Closing the article. Well, I have talked about most of the spin-offs I played. It's quite clear that I haven't played some big ones, but I'm planning to change that in the future. I hope you found some new Pokémon spin-offs that seem interesting to you or maybe you enjoyed reading my opinion about a Pokémon spin-off you played. In any case, I might write a sequel to this article if I played some other Pokémon spin-offs that I find worthy to be talked about on my blog. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog. Until then, take care! Posted on March 29, 2015 March 29, 2015 by NekoJonezPosted in Gamer's Thoughts, Gaming HistoryTagged 001, 10, 3, 3DS, arpegi, bad, best, buttonsmashers, chalange, ds, Dungeon, first, freak, GameFreak, gamers, handheld, i, impression, information, is, it, jea, Jonez, jonez001, jonezjea, more, Mystery, neko, NekoJonez, Nintendo, off, play, Pokémon, Pokepark, puzzle, review, rules, should, spin, spin-off, spinoff, sucks, The, thoughts, top, Trozei, wii. Leave a comment Review: Pokémon Gold, Silver and Crystal (GBC) ~ Pokémon 2 I have an objection. This game can actually be played on the original Game Boy. Well, only the Gold & Silver versions. Crystal has to be played on the good old original Game Boy. Anyway, you might have seen this one coming. Since I played this game a lot as a kid, and I'm writing the final articles for the GB(C) month, well, why not talk about this game? It's one of the biggest in everybody's top 10 lists. It will appear each and every time. So, yeah. Without further ado, I'll review the first Pokémon game I actually finished. As always, feel free to leave a comment on the content of this article and or the game. I have a big surprise for you guys. My best friend was recently playing this game, so why not ask him to do a co-op review of this game? So, lets both give our opinions. He played Pokémon Crystal and I played Pokémon Gold. Miz: I think that some people are wrong. Some people think that the end of the game is beating the elite 4. Yet, this is the midway point in the game. Team Rocket is still present in the game, but they aren't the big bad. There is actually no real story. The game is just a series of side quests, with a vague goal. Some areas are totally optional and can be skipped without hindering your progress. Me: The story is just lacking. Miz asked a valid question, is there actually any story? After some discussing, we both agreed that the game is just side-quests with a vague goal. As soon as you reach Kanto, the amount of side quests go down. The game was first supposed to be a sequel of Pokémon Blue and Red, but somehow it evolved into Pokémon Gold and Silver. Truth to be told, the fact that there are side-quests, is an improvement over Pokémon Red & Blue, they were completely absent in that game. Miz: It's pretty cozy, but when you ride your bike a lot… It can get annoying and repetitive quickly. I don't like the PokéCenter tune. The cries of the game are pretty sweet. Steelix and Espeon are one of my favorites. Me: I agree with Miz, but the sound when a Pokémon is on low health. That's extremely annoying. I'm so glad that they somewhat fixed this in the 3DS releases. The surf theme is actually one of my favorite themes. Graphics, (world) design and animation Miz: The animation is pretty basic, but that's due to the Game Boy's limitations. It does give a different atmosphere. Because it's all similar, nothing is bad. Graphically, the game is pretty sweet. With the limited resources, they did manage to give you the right feel. The first few routes are just too big and too empty compared to all the other routes, while the other routes get really lively. At some routes,

Diabetes Mine Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Really Change Daily Life with Diabetes? Written by Moira McCarthy on August 25, 2020 — Fact checked by Jennifer Chesak Ask just about anyone what makes living with diabetes so challenging, and they think they know the answers. "The shots." (Actually, you get used to them pretty quickly.) "The meal planning." (Truthfully, it's what everyone should be doing.) "The cost." (Yes, that's pretty rough, but not the end-all.) The reality? What weighs most on those with diabetes or battling pre-diabetes is more than just a treatment plan, countless needle pricks, or even the oft-daunting bills. "It's the endless, constant, and inescapable buzzing in your head about what you're doing right, what you're doing wrong, how long your insulin has been on board, if the barista really measured the peanut butter like you asked," says Jaime Jones of Colorado, who has been managing her child's type 1 diabetes (T1D) for eight years now. "It's the inescapability of it all. Honestly, it can feel soul-crushing." Indeed, experts say people with diabetes are in constant decision-making mode. Famed endocrinologist Dr. Howard Wolpert, Chief Medical Officer for Connected Care at the Lilly Cambridge Innovation Center, estimates a person with diabetes makes at least 300 diabetes-related decisions a day. That's more than 109,000 decisions per year. No wonder folks get burned out, tripped up, or just plain quit. Could all that be moving toward a better tomorrow? The use of so-called machine learning, or artificial intelligence (AI), in diabetes care is a growing industry. It's focused not just on better outcomes for those with diabetes, but a better life as they work toward those goals. The hope is to create accessible programs, apps, and other tools to take over some of the constant decision-making — or, at the least, help people gather and assess their own data to make sense of it in a way that helps ease their day-to-day burden. Could AI be the next big breakthrough in daily diabetes care? Many are hoping so. Why AI? The terms AI and machine learning are often used interchangeably because they refer to the capability of computers to crunch enormous data sets and "learn" from the patterns detected at a level that the human mind could never achieve. Artificial intelligence in healthcare is expected to be an $8 billion industry by 2022, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still has concerns about the reproducibility of results and flaws in the datasets used — including lack of diversity. Still, the dream is an AI-powered world where the step tracker talks to the menstrual cycle calendar, the heart monitor, the meter or continuous glucose monitor (CGM), and more. These systems would share and compare data using algorithms and then present, in an easy-to-read-and-access, simple-to-understand way, what decision would be best for a person in the moment, like a doctor in your pocket or a true "diabetes whisperer," quietly guiding you toward those decisions and freeing your brain to focus on the rest of your life. Pipe dream? Perhaps not. In the diabetes world, AI has already enabled a revolution in closed-loop systems (aka Artificial Pancreas technology) and interconnected tools to help a person with diabetes gather and store more data, see trends from that data, and be pointed to better decisions. 'Smart' diabetes technology When insulin pumps first started keeping track of things like bolus doses for past meals, the diabetes world celebrated. It was a baby step, and now additional steps have brought us to smarter and more integrated tools. Today, companies like Livongo, Cecelia Health, One Drop, Virta Health, and mySugr are all up and running with AI-powered systems designed to help gather, store, disseminate, and utilize data for more efficient and individualized diabetes care. Livongo, for example, combines blood sugar monitoring with coaching and remote monitoring (nudging the user when need be), along with some nice touches like keeping track of how many strips you use and reminding you to order. One Drop helps users track glucose levels along with activity, medications, and food, offers in-app coaching, and connects users to a community for support when needed. Virta Health offers virtual nutrition coaching for those with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The fun tagline at mySugr embodies the goal of them all: "To make diabetes suck less." Their system comes in three levels. First, a free app that guides users in tracking glucose levels, insulin doses, meals, and more, and then offers a detailed analysis of that information. It estimates A1C results, prints out a report for medical appointments, and gives users a solid look at 24 hours of information at any time. There's also a higher-level, more amped-up report, and a third level of service that brings in coaching in the form of diabetes educators who watch and study users' information and reach out when they deem it needed. Longtime type 1 Scott Johnson, who is mySugr's spokesman, says he would not call it "true AI" yet, but said the company is on track to get there in time. "We know diabetes care is data-driven," Johnson says. "But really, not many people continue logging (data) for long. mySugr does that kind of work now. And in the future, it will offer even more data analysis and guidance." He adds on a personal note, "I want to offload as many of my diabetes decisions as possible, and frankly, I think [mySugr] can do a better job of it than I can." There's widespread consensus that while these are better than anything previously available, AI could go much further towards improving life with diabetes. The Steady Health app The Quin app takes diabetes AI further London-based Cyndi Williams was working as a chemical engineer and innovator when she met co-worker Isabella Degen, who happens to have T1D herself. In time, the two realized they had a combined calling: Create a platform that betters the lives of those with diabetes and those who care for them. That's how the Quin app was born — which Forbes magazine believes "could transform diabetes management for millions across the world." Quin stands for "quantifying intuition," which is a nod to anyone using insulin. While the developers don't plan for this to be a closed loop technology, it does include many of those automated and decision support functions that APs can offer. What Quin does — or what Williams and team are working for it to do — is take every kind of personal health data possible, morph it with daily life decisions, and then use all that combined information to help people with diabetes make smart choices with less brainwork. In time, Williams says the app will dig deep into the many physiological and psychological happenings in a person's body, track what different foods do to a person at different times and in different places, take all that as one, and become, in essence, that all-knowing doc in a pocket people with diabetes may need. While not yet available in the United States, an early version has been in the hands of users in Ireland and the UK for the past year. Importantly, Quin does not demand a person be on an insulin pump or even a CGM. It does not study or suggest carb ratios, nor does it predict blood sugar levels. "Until now, digital diabetes has been very much about observing what we do and putting it in the data. It's relatively flat," Williams says. "We live in a world where Spotify knows what music we want to listen to. We are not yet there in diabetes, but we can be. We want to reduce the cognitive load on a person with diabetes." How Quin works Quin draws on data from other health tools a person with diabetes may use (step trackers, heart rate monitors, etc.) and also from the information they share directly with the app to help formulate decisions based on

can be easily calculated in terms of the Casimir operators eigenvalues for the groups $SU(6)_{FS}$, $SU(3)_F$ and $SU(2)_S$ using the formula given in Appendix A. The corresponding matrix elements are given in Table 1, from where one can see that, energetically, the most favourable configuration is $[51]_{FS}$. This is a direct consequence of the general rule that at short range and with fixed spin and flavour, the more ``symmetric" a given FS Young diagram is, the more negative is the expectation value of (\ref{opFS}) \cite{GR96}. The difference in the potential energy between the configuration $[51]_{FS}$ and $[33]_{FS}$ or $[411]_{FS}$ is of the order : \begin{equation} \begin{array}{cccc} <[33]_{FS} | V_{\chi} | [33]_{FS}> & - & <[51]_{FS} | V_{\chi} | [51]_{FS}> & = \\ <[411]_{FS} | V_{\chi} | [411]_{FS}> & - & <[51]_{FS} | V_{\chi} | [51]_{FS}> & = 24 C_{\chi}\\ \end{array} \end{equation} and using $C_{\chi}$ given above one obtains approximately 703 MeV for both the SI = 10 and 01 sectors. In a harmonic oscillator basis containing up to $2\hbar\omega$ excitation quanta, there are two different 6q states corresponding to the $[6]_O$ spatial symmetry with removed center of mass motion. One of them, $|s^6 [6]_O>$, belongs to the $N=0$ shell, where $N$ is the number of excitation quanta in the system, and the other, $ \sqrt{\frac {5}{6}} |s^52s [6]_O> - \sqrt{\frac {1}{6}} |s^4p^2 [6]_O>$, belongs to the $N=2$ shell. There is only one state with $[42]_O$ symmetry, the $|s^4p^2 [42]_O>$ state belonging to the N=2 shell. While here and below we use notations of the shell model it is always assumed that the center of mass motion is removed. The kinetic energy KE for the $|s^4p^2 [42]_O>$ state is larger than the one for the $|s^6[6]_O>$ state by $KE_{N=2} - KE_{N=0} = \hbar \omega$. Taking $\hbar \omega\simeq 250$ MeV \cite{GR96}, and denoting the kinetic energy operator by $H_0$, we obtain : \begin{equation} <s^6 [33]_{FS} | H_0 + V_{\chi} | s^6 [33]_{FS}> - <s^4p^2 [51]_{FS} | H_0 + V_{\chi} | s^4p^2 [51]_{FS}> \simeq 453 MeV \end{equation} which shows that $[51]_{FS}$ is far below the other states of Table 1. For simplicity, here we have neglected a small difference in the confinement potential energy between the above configurations. This qualitative analysis suggests that in a more quantitative study, where the radial dependence of the GBE interaction is taken into account, the state $| s^4p^2 [42]_O [51]_{FS}>$ will be highly dominant and, due to the important lowering of this state by the GBE interaction with respect to the other states, the mixing angles with these states will be small. That this is indeed the case, it will be proved in the section 4 below. Table 1 and the discussion above indicate that the following configurations should be taken into account for the diagonalization of the realistic Hamiltonian in section 4: \begin{equation} \begin{array}{ccc} |1> &=&| s^6 [6]_O [33]_{FS} > \\ |2> &=&| s^4p^2 [42]_O [33]_{FS} > \\ |3> &=&| s^4p^2 [42]_O [51]_{FS} > \\ |4> &=&| s^4p^2 [42]_O [411]_{FS} > \\ |5> &=&| (\sqrt{\frac {5}{6}}s^52s - \sqrt{\frac {1}{6}} s^4p^2) [6]_O [33]_{FS}> \\ \end{array} \label{basis} \end{equation} A strong dominance of the configuration $|3>$ also implies that the one-channel approximation $\hat{A}\{NN\chi(\vec{r})\}$ is highly inadequate for the short-range NN system. This problem will be discussed in section 5. Now we want to give a rough estimate of the interaction potential of the NN system at zero separation distance between nucleons. We calculate this potential in the Born-Oppenheimer (or adiabatic) approximation defined as : \begin{equation} V_{NN}(R) = <H>_R - <H>_{\infty} \label{born} \end{equation} where $\vec{R}$ is a collective coordinate which is the separation distance between the two $s^3$ nucleons, $<H>_R$ is the lowest expectation value of the Hamiltonian describing the 6q system at fixed $R$ and $<H>_{\infty} = 2 m_N$ for the NN problem, i.e. the energy of two well separated nucleons. As above we ignore the small difference between the confinement energy of $<H>_{R=0}$ and $<H>_{\infty}$. That this difference is small follows from the $\lambda_{i}^{c} . \lambda_{j}^{c}$ structure of the confining interaction and from the identity : \begin{equation} <[222]_c | \sum_{i<j}^{6} \lambda_{i}^{c} . \lambda_{j}^{c} | [222]_c> = 2 <[111]_c | \sum_{i<j}^{3} \lambda_{i}^{c} . \lambda_{j}^{c} | [111]_c> . \end{equation} If the space parts $[6]_O$ and $[3]_O$ contain the same single particle state, for example an s-state, then the difference is identically zero. It has been shown by Harvey \cite{H81} that when the separation $R$ between two $s^3$ nucleons approaches 0, then only two types of 6q configurations survive: $|s^6 [6]_O>$ and $|s^4p^2 [42]_O>$. Thus in order to extract an effective NN potential at zero separation between nucleons in adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer approximation one has to diagonalize the Hamiltonian in the basis $|1>-|4>$. In actual calculations in section 4 we extend the basis adding the configuration $|5>$, which practically does not change much the result. For the rough estimate below we take only the lowest configuration $|3>$. One then obtains \[ <s^4p^2 [42]_O [51]_{FS} | H_0 + V_{\chi} | s^4p^2 [42]_O [51]_{FS}> - 2 <N | H_0 + V_{\chi} | N> = \] \begin{equation} \left\{ \begin{array}{ccccc} (-100/3 + 28)C_{\chi} + 7/4 \hbar \omega & = & 280 \mbox{ MeV}, & \mbox{if} & SI=10 \\ (-32 + 28)C_{\chi} + 7/4 \hbar \omega & = & 320 \mbox{ MeV}, & \mbox{if} & SI=01 \\ \end{array} \right. \label{estim} \end{equation} The rough estimate (\ref{estim}) suggests that there is an effective repulsion of approximately equal magnitude in the NN system in the nucleon overlap region in both $^3S_1$ and $^1S_0$ channels. In a more quantitative calculation in Section 4 we find that the height of the effective core is much larger, in particular 830 MeV for $^3S_1$ and about 1.3 GeV for $^1S_0$. At this stage it is useful to compare the nature of the short-range repulsion generated by the GBE interaction to that produced by the OGE interaction. In the constituent quark models based on OGE the situation is more complex. Table 1 helps in summarizing the situation there. In this table we also give the expectation value of the simplified chromo-magnetic interaction \begin{equation} V_{cm} = - C_{cm} \sum_{i<j} \lambda_{i}^{c} . \lambda_{j}^{c} \vec{\sigma}_i . \vec{\sigma}_j \label{vcm} \end{equation} in units of the constant $C_{cm}$ (the constant $C_{cm}$ can also be determined from the $\Delta - N$ splitting to be $C_{cm}\simeq 293/16$ MeV). The expectation values of (\ref{vcm}) can be easily obtained in the CS scheme with the help of Casimir operator formula in Appendix A and can be transformed to FS scheme by using the unitary transformations from the CS scheme to the FS scheme given in Appendix B. The colour-magnetic interaction pulls the configuration $|s^4p^2[42]_O [42]_{CS}>$ down to become approximately degenerate with $|s^6 [6]_O [222]_{CS}>$ which is pulled up. In a more detailed calculation with explicit radial dependence of the colour-magnetic interaction as well as with a Coulomb term the configuration $|s^6 [6]_O>$ is still the lowest one \cite{OY84,OK88}. (With the model (\ref{vcm}) the $\hbar \omega$ should be about 500 MeV). Thus in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation we can roughly estimate an effective interaction with OGE model through the difference $$ < s^6 [6]_O [222]_{CS}| H_0 + V_{cm}| s^6[6]_O [222]_{CS}> - 2 < N | H_0 + V_{cm} | N >$$ \begin{equation} = \left\{ \begin{array}{ccc} \frac {56}{3}C_{cm} + 3/4 \hbar \omega = 717 MeV& \mbox{if} & SI = 10 \\ 24C_{cm} + 3/4 \hbar \omega = 815 MeV & \mbox{if} & SI = 01 \end{array}\right. \end{equation} We conclude that both the GBE and OGE models imply effective repulsion at short range of approximately same magnitude. \section{The Hamiltonian} In this section we present the GBE model \cite{GR96,GPP96} used in the diagonalization of six-quark Hamiltonian in the basis (\ref{basis}). The Hamiltonian reads \begin{equation} H= 6m + \sum_i \frac{\vec{p}_{i}^{2}}{2m} - \frac {(\sum_i \vec{p}_{i})^2}{12m} + \sum_{i<j} V_{conf}(r_{ij}) + \sum_{i<j} V_\chi(r_{ij}) \label{ham} \end{equation} where $m$ is the constituent quark mass; $r_{ij} = | \vec{r}_i - \vec{r}_j |$ is the interquark distance. The confining interaction is \begin{equation} V_{conf}(r_{ij}) = -\frac{3}{8}\lambda_{i}^{c}\cdot\lambda_{j}^{c} \, C \, r_{ij} \label{conf} \end{equation} \noindent where $\lambda_{i}^{c}$ are the SU(3)-colour matrices and C is a parameter given below. The spin-spin component of the GBE interaction between the constituent quarks $i$ and $j$ reads: \begin{eqnarray} V_\chi(\vec r_{ij}) &=& \left\{\sum_{F=1}^3 V_{\pi}(\vec r_{ij}) \lambda_i^F \lambda_j^F \right. \nonumber \\ &+& \left. \sum_{F=4}^7 V_{\rm K}(\vec r_{ij}) \lambda_i^F \lambda_j^F +V_{\eta}(\vec r_{ij}) \lambda_i^8 \lambda_j^8 +V_{\eta^{\prime}}(\vec r_{ij}) \lambda_i^0 \lambda_j^0\right\} \vec\sigma_i\cdot\vec\sigma_j, \label{VCHI} \end{eqnarray} \noindent where $\lambda^F, F=1,...,8$ are flavour Gell-Mann matrices and $\lambda^0 = \sqrt{2/3}~{\bf 1}$, where $\bf 1$ is the $3\times3$ unit matrix. Thus the interaction (\ref{VCHI}) includes $\pi$, $K$, $\eta$ and $\eta'$ exchanges. While the $\pi$, $K$, $\eta$ mesons are (pseudo)Goldstone bosons of the spontaneously broken $SU(3)_L \times SU(3)_R \rightarrow SU(3)_V$ chiral symmetry, the $\eta'$ (flavour singlet) is a priori not a Goldstone boson due to the axial $U(1)_A$ anomaly. In the large $N_C$ limit the axial anomaly disappears, however, and the $\eta'$ becomes the ninth Goldstone

So you get out the door and watch as the 7:24 bus sits stopped at the light, literally at your doorstep. But there's ice on the sidewalk, still, and your wife has your baby strapped to her and circumstantially insufficient footwear (through no fault of her own) adorning her feet, so you can't make it the half-block to your right to the bus stop before it's already moved there, picked up passengers and even waited for a woman running after it before pulling away. But you have another bus that's due in ten minutes. It gets there in twenty. The driver makes a teenager get up from the reserved-for-disabled seat in the front so your wife and child can rest. But it's crowded, and standing near them means you're blocking the aisle, so you move along to a precarious stance at the back doorway. At your stop, you rush to push through that back door and run over a frozen berm of plowed "snow" at the side of the road to reach the front door to help wife and child down the stairs and over the self-same berm. Then it's up the stairs to the outdoor elevated subway stop, where the wait is not too bad, and the train is not too crowded, which is probably why no one offers your wife a seat. At the next transfer, the platform is very crowded with people ready to board the train you're exiting. A young man plows into the car as soon as the doors open, in defiance of the mass exiting it and nearly knocking into your wife and child. You could yell, but he wouldn't hear, and it would add to your wife's stress, and there isn't time. But you also don't have to get out of his way, and you don't. And maybe, just maybe, you get a little more in it. This station, though also outdoors, is better sheltered, and you don't have too long to wait for the train besides. This one is pretty crowded, but not terrible. In fact, as soon as you get on the train a young man gets up to offer your wife a seat, which she gratefully accepts. At the first underground station, because it's rather crowded and you made it just into the doorway when you entered, you have to step outside momentarily to allow people room to disembark. As soon as you do, hand still clutched to the sliding door (as though you had the strength to stop it closing) you hear your child cry - assuming you've left, for some reason deviating from the routine she's apparently memorized right down to the characteristics of each subway stop. You edge back on, and because you can't reach her where she's sat you just do your best with a smile you don't feel and, "I'm right here. I'm right here." Then you're at the stop for her daycare and disembark, taking advantage of the narrow space between two iron ceiling supports to thin out the approaching mass of commuters rushing to board. You act as a guide and shield (as best you can) to get the lot of you past the lottery of turnstiles with people pushing through and past you in a hurry. Inevitably, somewhere between the platform and the busy five-way intersection at the top of the stairs, someone or -two or -three has gotten between you and your wife. But you reunite at the corner, replace the child's hat and/or mittens as necessary, and navigate the gestalt of them over slush lakes and rock-hard moguls to start the quarter-mile walk. The sidewalk is narrowed by vehicles parked on the curb and frozen precipitate and, in various places, completely blocked by construction. You hold your wife's hand again, making slow progress and frequently walking ahead to allow others to pass in the other direction, or from behind. You try to ignore your instincts. Some of them, anyway. If you feel her slip or clutch, you must hang on, pull up, or engulf. That much is easy. But if your traction gives, if your purchase on the path is in peril, you must - above all else - LET GO. You cannot contemplate the consequences if you fall, and fail, so you practice it in your mind as you cross another intersection (which somehow isn't a four-way stop, in spite of continuous traffic coming from all four directions). Finally you arrive at daycare, and no one has fallen. You drop off the little one, who is thrilled to be there, which makes up for the little hassles of the cold - a suction-sealed front door, and having to undo remove and replace and redo boots to enter-then-exit the room. A kiss goodbye, adorable, and maybe an extra blown kiss, if she's facing the right way, and not too distracted by her waffles and banana and toddling friends. And then the cold again, and the quarter-mile walk, and the feeling every single time that you've forgotten something because you're carrying two fewer bags and one fewer human being now. You hold hands with your wife, except when you can't, and brave stopless intersection and sub-arctic, sub-aquatic, five-point intersection, and head back down into the final stop before Manhattan. A train came, but was so congested with passengers you thought yourselves wily, to wait for the next, which by all precedence must be nearly empty as a result of the passenger-plowing the train ahead of it is accomplishing. And you're late already; five minutes will not suffer more. The next train that comes is similarly devoid of air, especially after dozens more people cram in. So you wait. As does the train. It sits there, with its doors open, stoic. On the fifth cycle of its motors warming up then cooling down, there's no announcement still, and now the platform mirrors the train's interior with its population density, and a NYCT officer strides down the unspoken aisle from wherever he appeared - the engine of the train, or maybe one of those small operator booths tucked into the mouths of the tunnels. And you know it's bad, when you see a human being who is in direct relation to the object of your existential angst. It's someone "sick," which can mean so many things here in the underworld. So you tell your wife you're going to walk to the nearest alternate line, and she comes with you. And you trundle through the human aisle, against the current, back through the stiles and back up the steps while a woman ahead of you broadcasts for all descending that there's a "sick passenger," and you wonder at why you never perform this public service, and how she can be so sure, with no announcement. You and your wife make the walk, which is not quite a mile, fortunately. Your fingertips ache, and you worry about her toes in her thin galosh-ean footwear. You're never quite sure of the way to this station, but you know the general direction and which directions are useful to turn until something looks familiar. At least this hand-holding is clearer, and you don't have to worry as much about your wife saving herself from you now that she hasn't got 25 extra pounds strapped onto her front. You take turns releasing hands and removing gloves to text work about your ordeal. She does it on the go, a feat you've never mastered. At the station, you descend once more, and it's indoors, which you can really appreciate once you've walked far enough down the platform to be past the overhead grates leading to the sidewalks above. And a train comes right away, also packed to the gills. But there are two lines that run

WRBB's Top Ten Albums of 2016 December 12, 2016 WRBB Media Team Album Reviews With 2016 (finally) coming to a close, it's time to take a look at this year in music. It's no question that 2016…sucked, but some great music was released this year and it's time to honor those albums. The Media Team carefully chose 30 nominees (out of 80+ different albums) and narrowed those down to (what we believe) are the ten best albums released in 2016. Keep reading to find out if your faves made the list! 10. Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book Genre Hip Hop · Label Independent · Released May 12, 2016 "Ever since the release of 'Sunday Candy', with Chance the Rapper as the vocalist, Chance has had a steadily increasing fan base. After the success of this song about going to church with his grandmother, Chance was invited to be the first ever independent artist to appear on SNL as a musical guest. However, Chance's true rise to stardom came when he appeared on SNL for the second time, featured on Kanye West's 'Ultralight Beam'. His verse was so well received that, the night after the show, there was more buzz around Chance's verse on 'Ultralight Beam' than Kanye's album, The Life of Pablo, which dropped the same night. Over the four months, separating the hit verse and the release of Coloring Book, hype for Chancellor Bennett's third mixtape/album was building to nearly-unattainable heights. Nevertheless, Chance did not disappoint. Chance the Rapper made the most joyous Hip-Hop record of this decade, employing themes of Christ, family, and fun to connect with listeners on an emotional level. The artist doubles as both vocalist and composer, arranging the unique talents of his 20 featured artists to create a wonderful blend of sounds and styles. The vibe of "Coloring Book" is so universal that it is guaranteed to put a smile on the face of every member of the family." – Jacob Dennis 9. Death Grips – Bottomless Pit Genre Experimental Hip-Hop · Label Harvest Records · Released May 6, 2016 "2015 was a year that dug Death Grips deeper into the niche they created for themselves. 'The Powers That B' was a double release that may have been their most fluid and unconventional yet. On one side, 'Jenny Death' presented a heavily punk rock inspired album, while 'Ni**as On The Moon' was one of the glitchiest albums the band had released to date. Together, 'The Powers That B' was a masterful mess, and the band was in need for a more cohesive atrocity in their follow up. Sure enough, 2016 brought Bottomless Pit, which gives us Death Grips at their most accessible since The Money Store. Focusing on lyrical craft and developing a fresh fusion of genres, the band gives us an abrasive tour de force. MC Ride is perhaps at his strongest, and fellow members Zach Hill and Andy Morin do not fall far behind in their proven talent. Death Grips will always be a punch in the face, but they have yet to fail to impress us." – Christian Triunfo 8. Porches – Pool Genre Synthpop · Label Domino Recording Company · Released February 5, 2016 "After 2013's low-key dark folk of Slow Dance in the Cosmos, Porches' mastermind Aaron Maine took refuge in his Brooklyn apartment to begin reinventing the way he made music. With 2016's Pool, the endearing and lo-fi efforts of his previous works are cast into the shadows, inviting in hazy, yet danceable synths to color the listener the most interesting and introspective shade of grey. Although lyrical content is not the main focus, Maine's knack for vocal melody enhances the melancholy storylines, providing a contrasting personal touch to the cold and metallic environment set before us. As always, the release features a familiar touch from his girlfriend and Frankie Cosmos frontwoman, Greta Kline, on backing vocals and bass. Equal parts equipped to handle the dancefloor of an indie party and a night home alone, Pool captures Porches in their most mature and striking form to date, where Maine has found himself ascending the ladder from xanny bars to Pitchfork acclaim." – Andrew Goldberg 7. Anderson .Paak – Malibu Genre R&B/Soul · Label Steel Wool Records · Released January 15, 2016 "2016 has been a breakout year for Brandon Paak Anderson, better known by his performance name, Anderson .Paak. Following his significant features in Dr. Dre's Compton in 2015, he went on to release two full length albums this year – Malibu as a solo artist and Yes Lawd! under the duo NxWorries. Malibu was extremely well-received by critics, to the extent that it received a Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album. The album is full of guest features, including ScHoolboy Q and The Game, but still manages to remain extremely personal. It's clear from the jazzy opening track, 'The Bird,' in which .Paak smoothly reflects on his troublesome upbringing that he's ready to let his listeners join him on an introspective journey. This journey flows through tracks with distinct influences from different time periods and feels like a travel through time, but manages to never feel out of place. The soulful vocals and lyrics are complemented by simple production that required nothing more than a simple Mac mini and a dented microphone. Now that he's up for another Grammy for Best New Artist, it's clear that Malibu has been a success in catapulting .Paak to the recognition he deserves." – Ingrid Angulo 6. Beyoncé – Lemonade Genre Pop · Label Columbia Records · Released April 23, 2016 "They say it takes a village, and Beyoncé's Lemonade is no exception. For all the work put into this record by dozens of people, and especially Beyoncé herself, the result is stunning. This album is FLAWLESS. Beyoncé absolutely shines in on this album and her messages about race and gender equality are extremely relevant in today's society. If you haven't listened to it yet (because Tidal sucks) you need to find a way. The range of styles on this album is also extremely impressive. From a bluesy, country song "Daddy Lessons" to an infectiously catchy reggae influenced song, "Hold Up." Songs like "Formation," "Freedom," and "6 Inch" send powerful messages that support the major themes of this album, reinforced by the accompanying visual album, or hour long music video. This album could very well be Beyoncé's magnum opus. It summarizes her personal, political, and most of all artistic message in a cohesive collection of music. Though the styles and messages vary, her voice is what brings it all together." – Dominic Yamarone 5. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo Genre Hip Hop · Label GOOD Music · Released February 14, 2016 "Few people in the history of music have been as polarizing, controversial, and news-grabbing as Kanye West. 2016 has arguably been one of Kanye's rockiest years to date, with events like his wife Kim Kardashian getting robbed in Paris and West having to cancel the rest of his Saint Pablo tour in the last month due to fatigue and mental instability. However, despite these bumps in the road, West was still able to put out The Life of Pablo this year, truly one of the most unique recordings you will ever hear. On this album, we not only learn about Kanye's hectic life, but through his production and lyricism, we get to experience it with him; the album's messy, thrown-together aesthetic gives off a vibe that Kanye has just stopped caring, when in fact it is the exact opposite. Numerous times after originally releasing the album to streaming sites, West has made adjustments and changes to the songs on TLOP, showing us that even though he may seem like a mess, deep down everything he does