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In some situations, you may need to remove an appliance from your Command Center account. For example, you want to move your appliance to another account or you reinstalled NG Firewall and the appliance has a new UID. Log into Command Center from untangle.com. Select the appliance to be removed. Confirm that you want to remove the appliance from your account.

These days, I'm mostly OK. The big struggles now are finances and logistics and boredom and single-parenting. My life has devolved into getting through today and tomorrow with an eye to how next week is going to fall. It's an improvement. I used to just try to get through each day. Last week, though, I got surprised. I woke up early one morning and it was raining - I have always found rain to be incredibly romantic - and I was warm beneath the comforter in my big, queen sized bed when I turned my head and saw that empty spot next to me. Suddenly, I missed him. I missed him and I wanted to be warm in his arms and listen to the rain and his breathing and know I was loved. Foolish, I know. I was never really loved the way I thought I was by him. If I were, he wouldn't have moved on, even before we were done. Even before I knew we were done. And he's got a new companion and new life and beautiful new house they bought together with state-of-the art everything while I try to figure out how to repair a toilet flapper and can't fix my lawn mower and my oven doesn't work anymore. It's easy, so easy to feel like I got the short end of the stick. Even if they don't end up making it work, he's still got a whole playing field out there waiting for him. He's good-looking, with just enough distinguished gray in his hair. He's fit. He's got a great job as an executive and he can date down twenty years without getting much of a reaction out of anyone. Me? Well, a late-fortysomething, not-quite-at-my-dating-weight single Mom with two kids still at home doesn't have quite the same options. And if I tell someone I'm someday-dating that I'm heavily in debt to my underwater mortgage, I have primary physical custody of my kids and oh, by the way, my son has autism - well, let's just say my prospects will be even more less-than-stellar. Yeah, I got the raw deal. Taken to the cleaners. Treated like a doormat. I deserve to feel shafted. I try not to wallow in it too much or label myself a victim, because that's counter-productive and a total waste of time. It is what it is, and I got what I got and now it's up to me to move forward. Some women are immobilized by the grief that comes with this kind of a wound. Some retreat into bitterness and anger and vengeance. Don't paint me with a saintly brush - I've inhabited all those worlds for short visits, but I haven't felt like staying and building a house on any of them. The thing that's seen me through the worst of this (other than my children, of course) is this one simple truth. I haven't lost as much as he has. Not really. I lost someone who didn't really love me as much as I thought he did. He, on the other hand, lost someone who loved him very much, and with everything she had. I am capable of having and sustaining such a love. It's not much to cling to some days. But some days, it feels like a victory flag set atop the mountain of my new truth. Ellie- I so get this. You put your heart and soul into a man and he betrays that love, breaks your heart and then leaves you holding the peices of the life you built with him. The scars never really heal. But remember this - the love that you gave him that he didin't deserve- its not wasted, love never is. The universe owes you that love and sometime, somewhere, someone will give it back to you.

#21 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling Join Harry and his friends as they return to Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft for their fifth year. Shortly before his return to Hogwarts, Harry and Dudley, his big, dumb muggle cousin, face a Dementor attack... right in the middle of Little Whinging! Harry ends up using magic to repel the dementors, but because of that offense—underage magic in the presence of muggles—he is forced to attend a hearing and face possible expulsion from Hogwarts! But just what were dementors doing in Little Whinging if not specifically sent to attack Harry? So begins Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. The Order of the Phoenix is actually a secret society of Wizards and Witches founded by Dumbledore, it's members being the same that fought against Voldemort last time. Unfortunately, with Cornelius Fudge and the rest of the Ministry of Magic vehemently denying Voldemort's return, and taking every opportunity they can to slander both Dumbledore and Harry through stories in the Daily Prophet, the Order definitely has their work cut out for them. Starting with the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, these books have definitely gotten darker, and in my opinion have stepped outside the realm of children's books while still remaining in the young adult category. I didn't like this book quite as much as The Goblet of Fire which seemed to have a lot more going on. Overall, it was still an excellent book as I rated it 8 out of 10; however I just couldn't help comparing it to Goblet of Fire, and in that regard, I didn't feel it quite measured up to that standard. (I actually feel the opposite about the movie versions: Goblet left out so much from the book, missing a lot of key points and issues, that I didn't like it that much; while Phoenix was more complete to the book, and perhaps even a bit more flashy than its predecessor.) Tags: fantasy, paranormal/occult, young adult #25 Shakespeare's Counselor: A Lily Bard Mystery b... #24 Shakespeare's Trollop: A Lily Bard Mystery by ... #23 Dancing Above the Waves by Susan Walerstein #22 Fendi, Ferragamo, & Fangs by Julie Kenner, Joh... CONTEST - 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom #21 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J... #20 California Demon: The Secret Life of a Demon-H...

Our new Functional Training Zone has been installed at Jubilee Hall gym in Covent Garden and our FREE A.R.D. small group training sessions will be starting on Monday 28th April. The instructor-led workouts will last 30 minutes and utilize the different exercise 'stations' such as the rebound board, monkey bars, dip station and punch bag. There will be three main types of session – A.R.D. abs to target your stomach muscles; A.R.D. tone to tighten and firm your body ready for summer and A.R.D. circuit, a fast-moving mix of different activities for all round fitness. If you want to know more about A.R.D. training or to book a session, please contact reception.

The new rules are very wide-reaching, often completely different than the superseded rules that existed for years, and portions are incredibly complex. Additional guidance in the form of Treasury Regulations is expected. The changes do not entirely move the U.S. out of the "worldwide income" taxation regime and into the "territorial" regime, but they move us much closer in that direction. This article is written with the assumption that its readers have some level of familiarity with U.S. taxation of international operations, although it will provide some background for those less familiar. Some aspects of international taxation have not been changed, and this article is not intended to provide an overview of the system. Instead, it will focus on some of the most widely-relevant areas changed by the TCJA. One can only understand U.S. taxation of international operations by distinguishing between two competing systems – (1) worldwide taxation and (2) territorial taxation – and by understanding the concept and historical use of Controlled Foreign Corporations. Historically, U.S.-based individuals and corporations have been required to report and pay U.S. income taxes on their worldwide income. This results in some income being taxed both by a foreign country and by the U.S. Use of a "foreign tax credit" allows U.S. companies to reduce their U.S. taxes by the amount of taxes paid to foreign countries on that same income. While subject to a number of limitations, this regime attempts to avoid double-taxation that otherwise would unfairly burden U.S. taxpayers. Unlike the U.S., nearly every other industrialized country in the world uses a territorial system, where the country only taxes the income that is earned within its borders. The concept of Controlled Foreign Corporations is pervasive under both old and new law, and their treatment differs from other types of taxpayers. Worldwide taxation generally put U.S.-based companies at a disadvantage compared to foreign-based entities. All income (including overseas income) was taxed by the U.S., and the complex math behind the foreign tax credit did not always allow it to mitigate double taxation. Add to this the fact that the U.S. tax rates have been higher than nearly any other industrialized country's corporate rate, and you had a system that right out of the gate placed U.S.-based multinational companies at a huge disadvantage when competing with overseas competitors. They were faced with a higher tax applied to a broader base than their competitors, and to achieve the same level of after-tax profit, they had to be more efficient (which is difficult when U.S. labor costs are relatively high), or price their products higher, which could drive buyers to their competitors' products. To legally circumvent worldwide taxation and attain equal footing with non-U.S. based competitors, many U.S. taxpayers formed foreign subsidiaries, or even underwent "corporate inversions," whereby the U.S. company or its subsidiary took the form of a CFC. A CFC is simply a corporation that is not based in the U.S., but is owned/controlled by a U.S. taxpayer (often, but not necessarily, another corporation). Because CFCs are based in other countries rather than the U.S., they were not subject to the worldwide taxation regime. They may be subject to their foreign host country's taxation, but their income became subject to U.S. taxation only when repatriated (brought back into the U.S., often via dividends paid to its U.S. owner). The historical CFC can be best viewed as a legal tax-deferral structure. As long as the money stayed out of the U.S., the U.S. taxation of that company's earnings was deferred. Note that foreign entities that are disregarded as separate from their owners (known as "check the box entities"), as well as flow-through entities, are not CFCs. They, instead, generally remain subject to the worldwide income regime. For starters, the TCJA reduces the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% - much closer to the average corporate rate assessed by other countries. It also completely upends CFC's deferral features – in two ways. First, a tax of either 15.5% (for liquid assets) or 8% (for non-liquid assets) will be due on PAST cumulative, deferred earnings. This one-time tax will be payable over an 8-year period, with the first payment, representing 8% of the total tax, due for most calendar year taxpayers by April 15, 2018. Observation: Although this deadline coincides with the filing deadline of many taxpayers' 2017 tax returns, an extension of time to file the tax return does not extend the time to make this payment. The computations necessary to determine the tax may be very complex and time-consuming. The second way the TCJA upends CFC's deferral features is by imposing an annual tax on gross CFC income that exceeds a certain rate of return. It also provides an incentive, though, in the form of a reduced tax rate on a portion of income, for taxpayers who earn foreign income derived from the use of U.S.-based intangibles. These, and many other features of the Act are discussed in more detail below. The TCJA provides a one-time transitional tax on a U.S. 10%-or-more shareholder's pro rata share of the foreign corporation's post-1986 tax-deferred earnings. This is accomplished as somewhat of a deemed dividend, in that it occurs whether or not any funds are transferred. One of two tax rates will be applied to the earnings: 15.5% (in the case of accumulated earnings held in cash, cash equivalents or certain other short-term assets) or 8% (in the case of accumulated earnings invested in illiquid assets, like property, plant and equipment). The foreign corporation's post-1986 tax-deferred earnings subject to tax is the greater of the earnings as of November 2, 2017 or December 31, 2017. It excludes earnings and profits that were accumulated by a foreign company prior to attaining its status as a specified foreign corporation, but allows post-1986 accumulated earnings deficits of any foreign corporations to offset tax-deferred earnings of other foreign corporations (netting generally may be used among all affiliated group members). The U.S. shareholder may elect to pay the transitional tax over a period of up to eight years. The first payment is due for most filers by April 15, 2018 for calendar year U.S. taxpayers. At that time, and each of the next four years, 8% of the tax is due. In years five, six and seven, respectively, the remaining 15%, 20%, and 25% of the tax is due. The TCJA allows shareholders of S corporations that in turn own specified foreign corporations to defer the toll charge until a "termination event" occurs, including a sale of the S corporation stock, cessation of status as an S corporation, or a liquidation of the S corporation. The TCJA exempts 100% of the foreign-source portion of dividends received by a U.S. corporation from a foreign corporation (other than a Passive Foreign Investment Corporation (PFIC) that is not also a Controlled Foreign Corporation (CFC)) in which the U.S. corporation owns at least a 10% stake. It does not allow the same exemption to U.S. individual shareholders; the exemption applies only to C corporations. The effective date is generally for distributions made after December 31, 2017. Some additional specifics are noted below. The exemption applies only if the stock of the foreign corporation has been held for more than one year. No foreign tax credit or deduction is allowed for any portion of a distribution that is also exempt under this provision (no double-dipping!). A special rule applies to the sale of foreign corporations. The TCJA applies the dividend exemption to gain on the sale of foreign stock only to the extent of its earnings and profits (E&P), and clarifies that the dividend exemption will apply on the gain from the sale of lower tier CFCs to the extent of that CFC's E&P. Only for determining loss on the sale of stock of a 10% owned foreign corporation, a U.S. parent would reduce its basis in the stock of the foreign corporation by an amount equal to the exempt dividend it received from that foreign corporation. The TCJA allows an exemption for a U.S. corporation's distributive share of a dividend received by a partnership in which the U.S. corporation is a partner if the dividend would have been eligible for the exemption had the U.S. corporation directly owned stock in the foreign corporation. Anti-base erosion rules, as the name suggests, refer to an attempt to prevent the U.S. tax base from eroding. The TCJA includes some positive and negative encouragement toward this end (a stick and a carrot, if you will), both geared toward taxpayer's utilization of intangible assets. Two predominant provisions stand out from the others: The "GILTI" stick that applies to foreign-based entities (CFCs), and the "FDII" carrot that applies to U.S.-based taxpayers who earn money overseas. The TCJA imposes a new tax on a U.S. shareholder's aggregate net CFC income that is treated as global intangible low-taxed income ("GILTI"). GILTI is gross income in excess of extraordinary returns derived from tangible depreciable assets, excluding effectively connected income (ECI), subpart F income, high-taxed income, and dividends from related parties. The extraordinary return base is equal to 10% of the CFCs' aggregate adjusted basis in depreciable tangible property. Under these rules, only 80% of the foreign taxes paid on the income will be allowed as a foreign tax credit. All CFCs are aggregated for purposes of the computation. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026 the highest effective tax rate on GILTI is 10.5%. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025 the effective tax rate on GILTI is 13.125%. Observation: The one-time toll charge described earlier is just that (one-time). However, this portion of the anti-erosion rules will cause CFCs that are extraordinarily profitable overseas, or whose overseas profits are derived too heavily from intangible sources, to pay a tax in the U.S. based on the deemed excess. This will discourage companies from stockpiling cash earned from offshore intangible property out of the country. How? This feature will tax excess earnings before they are repatriated, and not allow the dividend exclusion described earlier on such income. Foreign derived intangible income ("FDII") is income derived by U.S. companies in connection with property sold, leased, or licensed to, and services provided to, foreign persons. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, FDII is effectively taxed at a lower rate than normally would apply (21% for corporations). Specifically, it allows an effective tax rate of 13.125%. For taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025, the effective tax rate on FDII is 16.406%. Proceeds from sales, leasing, or licensing, and revenue from services provided to a related foreign person are included only if the related foreign person sells the property to an unrelated foreign person, and the taxpayer establishes that the ultimate sale is for foreign use. Income from services provided to related foreign persons is included if the taxpayer establishes that the related person does not perform substantially similar activities for U.S. persons. Observation: This provides a tax break for U.S.-based companies that sell or lease property outside of the country. It thereby encourages companies to remain based in the U.S.. It is unclear to what extent this benefit will apply to flow-through entities, which have their own new 20% deduction of flow-through income created by the TCJA. Practitioners expect a flurry of Treasury Regulations to begin materializing that address this and other ambiguities in the new law. The TCJA changes the definition of intangible property to include workforce in place, goodwill and going concern value and "any similar item," the value of which is not attributable to tangible property or the services of an individual. It also confirms the authority of the Treasury Department to require certain valuation methods. The TCJA establishes a separate foreign tax credit basket for branches, and appears to establish another one for GILTI income (described above). These join the existing baskets of general and passive income, resulting in four baskets. This change reduces a corporation's ability to utilize foreign tax credits generated by one type of activity against income created by another. The TCJA amends the "source of income" rules under Sec. 863(b). For property manufactured in the U.S. and sold overseas, this will result in more income "sourced" to the U.S. for purposes of the foreign tax credit. This will produce a smaller foreign tax credit, but other portions of the Act will in many cases mitigate this damage. Indirect foreign tax credits will be available only for Subpart F income. No credits will be allowed with respect to any dividends associated with exempt dividends. Applicable to C-corporations only, foreign tax credits will be used on a current year basis and will not be allowed to be carried forward or back. The TCJA creates a new base erosion anti-abuse tax ("BEAT"). It applies only to certain very large companies. Specifically, the BEAT applies to corporations (other than RICs, REITs, or S-corporations) that are subject to U.S. net income tax, and have average annual gross receipts of at least $500 million, and that have made related party deductible payments totaling 3% (2% in the case of banks and certain security dealers) or more of the corporation's total deductions for the year. A corporation subject to the tax generally determines the amount of tax owed under the provision (if any) by adding back to its adjusted taxable income for the year all deductible payments made to a foreign affiliate ("base erosion payments") for the year (the "modified taxable income"). Base erosion payments do not include cost of goods sold, certain amounts paid with respect to services, and certain qualified derivative payments. The excess of 10% (5% in the case of one taxable year for base erosion payments paid or accrued in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017) of the corporation's modified taxable income over its regular tax liability for the year (net of an adjusted amount of tax credits allowed) is the base erosion minimum tax amount that is owed. For tax years beginning after December 31, 2025 the rate is increased from 10% to 12.5%. The rate for certain banks and security dealers is 1% higher than the rates described above. Premiums related to reinsurance of life and property and casualty contracts are specifically included as base erosion payments. Transfers of property from the U.S. to another country generally result in taxable gain. Prior to the TCJA, an exception existed that allowed property used in an active trade or business to avoid this treatment, and instead qualify as a tax-free organization, reorganization, or liquidation. The exception is removed with the passage of TCJA. For purposes of the foreign tax credit, the TCJA provides an election to increase the percentage (but not greater than 100%) of domestic taxable income that may be offset by any pre-2018 unused overall domestic loss and re-characterized as foreign source. The definition of a U.S. shareholder was changed to include any U.S. person who owns 10% or more of the total value (as well as voting power) of shares of all classes of stock of a foreign corporation. Related to this, U.S. corporations will be deemed to own the foreign stock that is owned by the U.S. corporation's foreign parent for purposes of determining CFC status. The TCJA clarifies that the provision is intended to target transactions that avoid subpart F by "de-controlling" a foreign subsidiary so that it is no longer a CFC. So brother/sister foreign corporations owned by a U.S. subsidiary's foreign parent would be a CFC and such U.S. subsidiary U.S. corporate tax filings would require additional information tax reporting. Observation: This is relevant to whether or not Form 5471 must be filed (and which portions of this complex form must be completed), the one-time repatriation tax, and GILTI income, and will result in more entities being subject to new requirements via attribution. Under the TCJA, foreign corporations will be considered as CFCs as soon as the ownership requirements are met and the entity is subject to the subpart F and base erosion rules. Under the old rules, an entity was not considered to be a CFC unless held for at least 30 days. The TCJA thus closes a loophole. Currently, Sec. 954 of the Internal Revenue Code ("IRC") allows dividends, interest and royalties received by one CFC from another CFC to qualify as deferred income, rather than immediately taxable income. This feature was a temporary one, set to expire after 2019. The TCJA did not intervene to make this feature permanent. Thus, the rule expires after 2019, and such income will be taxable unless otherwise exempt. Both the House and Senate bill repealed or modified existing Sec. 956 rules, and it was therefore anticipated that the final law would as well. However, the TCJA adopted no such change. Any investments by a CFC into U.S. property, including loans to CFC shareholders and guarantees of U.S. shareholder debt, will continue to trigger subpart F income for such U.S. shareholders. Observation: Without this rule, entities might circumvent dividend treatment under the CFC regime by categorizing cash transfers as loans to their parent companies, rather than dividends. Gain from the sale or exchange of a partnership interest is treated as effectively connected income ("ECI"), and, therefore, is subject to U.S. tax, to the extent the partnership is engaged in a U.S. trade or business and the foreign partner would have had ECI had the partnership sold all of its assets. There is also a provision that would require the partnership to withhold 10% of the amount realized on the sale or exchange of the partnership interest unless the transferor certifies that the transferor is not a nonresident alien individual or a foreign corporation. A previous version of the Act proposed unfavorable changes to the tax treatment of interest charge domestic international sales corporations ("IC-DISC"). Those proposed changes were dropped, however, and the tax treatment of the IC-DISC structure survives. Observation: While the treatment survives, the tax rate savings impact of an IC-DISC is somewhat muted as a result of other tax rate changes in the Act. Its benefit for individual taxpayers that receive DISC dividends relates solely to the difference between the 23.8% top tax rate that generally applies to dividend income (including the net investment tax at 3.8%) and the top rate an individual would pay on pass-through income for entity that pays commissions to the IC-DISC. Under the Act, for S-corporation and LLC owners the owners receive a 2.6% decrease in the top rate, and potentially pay tax on only 80% of their S-corporation income. This makes the effective rate differential smaller. So assuming a pass-through owner with a DISC paying tax on operating earnings is subject to a top tax rate of 29.6% (37% x 80%), this would still result of permanent tax rate savings of 5.8% when compared to the 23.8% top dividend tax rate on DISC dividends. So if the volume of foreign sales is there, IC DISC's still makes sense. It should be apparent that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act imposes significant new burdens on both U.S. and foreign taxpayers. International taxation was complex before these changes, and the new concepts do not simplify it at all. We have a new regime – not the worldwide income structure left behind, or a territorial system sported by many countries, but sort of a pseudo-territorial structure all our own. We most certainly will see voluminous new Treasury Regulations and other guidance to follow. Owners of controlled foreign corporations ("CFCs") are encouraged to very quickly undertake any necessary computations of accumulated earnings, which may be very time-consuming; and prepare for the first payment of the new repatriation tax that for most taxpayers is due by April 15 of this year. If you would like to discuss these matters further, contact Stuart Lyons, international tax practice lead, or your BNN advisor at 1.800.244.7444.

What are the benefits of leaf litter? With fall conditions rapidly removing leaves from the trees home owners are turning their attention to raking... sometimes madly! Lawns and gardens can become very leafy at this time of the year. So the question becomes: is this okay and what should we do with these leaves? Here are some pointers. Can I move my perennials now (in fall) or should I wait until spring? Fall is a time for garden renovations. At this time of the year we can readily visualize changes we want to make using the "data" that relate to our gardens' dynamics (exposure, soil conditions, plant height, colour combos etc). And whether due to plants growing larger than expected or simply for maintenance purposes it is very common to wonder about moving or dividing perennials in September / early October.

International Commission on Missing Persons Inquiry Center Report a Missing Person ICMP Board of Commissioners Ambassador (Ret) Thomas Miller, Chairman Her Majesty Queen Noor, Jordan Ambassador Knut Vollebæk, former Norwegian Foreign Minister Ambassador Rolf Ekéus, former OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Rt. Hon. Alistair Burt, British Member of Parliament Judge Sanji Monageng María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila Bert Koenders Ambassador Dirk Brengelmann Former Chairpersons Steering Committee on Forensic Science Programs Advisory Committee of Government Representatives Kathryne Bomberger, Director-General Andreas Kleiser, Director for Policy and Cooperation Thomas Parsons, Director of Science and Technology Adnan Rizvic, Director of Data Systems and Coordination Simon Short, Director of Corporate Services Deborah Ruiz Verduzco, Head of Civil Society Initiatives René Huel, Head of DNA Laboratories Division Rasa Ostrauskaite, Head of Iraq Program Fawaz Abdulabbas Abdulameer, Deputy Head of Iraq Program Caroline Barker, Head of Archaeology and Anthropology Division Lena Alhusseini, Head of the Syria/MENA Program Matthew Holliday, Head of Western Balkans Program Samira Krehic, Deputy Head of Western Balkans Program Andreas Forer, Head of Colombia Program Edin H. Jasaragic, Head of the Data Coordination Division Alessandra La Vaccara, Program Manager of the Missing Migrants Program Kevin Sullivan, Communications Manager Working for ICMP ICMP Salary Scales List of ICMP's holidays in 2020 From 2010 through 2018, Tom Miller served as President/CEO of International Executive Service Corps, a non-profit that provides expertise to developing countries to train in best business practices. Tom is presently the Chair of the Board of Intralot, Inc., a corporation that runs lotteries in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Since 2011, Tom has served as Chair of the Board of the International Commission on Missing Persons, an internationally acclaimed organization that identifies missing persons by using DNA-matching techniques. He also serves on the boards of Partnership for a Secure America (promoting bipartisanship in US foreign policy), The People's Trust (supporting young entrepreneurs in Greece), and Lampsa (a Greek hotel company). From 2005 through 2008, he served as CEO of Plan International, a nongovernmental organization that works in 66 countries to improve the lives of children in developing countries. A 29-year career diplomat, Tom's experience in the Foreign Service spanned many continents. From 2001-04, he served as U.S. ambassador to Greece, where he focused on security concerns of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. From 1999-2001, as U.S. Ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, he worked on helping the country recover after a devastating war. From 1997-99, he was Special Coordinator for the Cyprus negotiations (rank of ambassador). He was also posted to Thailand as well as the State Department in Washington, where he focused on North Africa, the Middle East, and counter-terrorism issues. A native of the Chicago area, Ambassador Miller holds five degrees, including a Ph.D., from the University of Michigan. Post on Twitter Online Inquiry Center This interactive resource makes it possible for families, government authorities, forensic professionals and others to access and provide information related to missing persons cases. Implementation of the BiH Law on Missing Persons must be expedited, say members of BiH Missing Persons Institute Advisory Board FTESË E HAPUR PËR PROPOZIME PËR GRANTE TË VOGLA TË ICMP PËR SHOQATAT E FAMILJEVE TË PERSONAVE TË ZHDUKUR (FAS) OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ICMP´S SMALL GRANTS FOR THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FAMILIES OF MISSING PERSONS (FAS)", WESTERN BALKANS (2020-2021) About ICMP

A precise, complete calcium & alkalinity control system in one simple, inexpensive package!! 2-Channel Dosing for Calcium/Alkalinity Control - The Nautilis II comes complete with a 2-channel tubing set, which allows you to dose both components of a 2-component system at identical rates simultaneously. The Nautilis II can dose as little as 3.6 mL/day per channel up to 1920 mL/day per channel. 1-Channel Set for Makeup – The one-channel high-volume tubing provides higher flow rates without putting excessive strain on the motor or gear assembly. Rates are adjustable from 5 mL/hour to 850 mL/hour, and the one-channel set can be substituted for the 2-channel set when ordering the pump. Exceptionally quiet - quieter than your computer is right now. Self-Priming: also anti-siphoning when not running. Timer/Controller Compatible- Using the controller interface for timer or pH control enables the user to have the pump be controlled by a timer or pH controller. The pump remains on, but will run only when the controller is energized. Float Switch Compatible - Low voltage float switch accessory controls the pump's operation. The optional float switch uses only 5 Volt transistor-level voltage from pump to float switch, offering very long life of float electronics as well as assuring personal safety. 24/7 Operation - The Nautilis II is designed and built to medical standards for long-term, 24/7 operation. Important note: The Nautilis II is a previously used medical pump modified to provide optimum performance for the discerning reef hobbyist. It will be functionally perfect and is guaranteed for one full year. If you are not completely satisfied with the Nautilis II, you may return it within 30 days for a FULL refund, including shipping.

Celebrity news and Сelebrity gossip Hot Celebrity News Fashion trends & news New generation of rising stars Since 1992, Vanity Fair magazine does Vanities section featuring a full-page portrait of a promising young star. Here are the latest women in film industry who have it all to make it to having their names on the Walk of Fame. Here is a fastidious pick of four girls out of Vanity Fair's 24. Provenance: North Hollywood, California. You first glimpsed her as … Jodie Foster's doppelgänger daughter in Panic Room (2002). "[Director] David Fincher does a lot of takes," Stewart says: There was this one scene we must have done, like, 80 times. I didn't know that it wasn't the norm. Now I wouldn't be as chill with it … " Because now she's a prolific industry veteran, with four films due out this year. Namely, In the Land of Women, The Messengers, The Cake Eaters (the directorial debut of Mary Stuart Masterson, with Stewart in the lead role), and Sean Penn's Into the Wild, based on the Jon Krakauer book. But is this the life for her? Not necessarily: I want to go to college for literature. I want to be a writer. I mean, I love what I do, but it's not all I want to do—be a professional liar for the rest of my life." Still, Kristen's no brooder: "I love big-band music, and I'm taking swing classes now. I can't wait till I'm going to be able to be tossed up in the air." Provenance: London. You know her as … the cold-eyed young Brit who stole The Devil Wears Prada, delivering the performance most comically evocative of what editorial assistants are really like at … oh, certain publishing companies we've heard of. "I kind of knew that girl—she's a total impersonation of various people whom I would find personally excruciating," says Blunt, who is also a 2007 Golden Globe winner for her performance in the BBC drama Gideon's Daughter. But what I liked about that character was that there was the opportunity to glimpse something beyond sarcasm. There's a vulnerability that's transparent to me, when someone defines herself just by having an association with someone else." And you'll know her better still after you see her this year in … Wind Chill, a thriller produced by George Clooney and Steven Soderbergh ("I literally went from wearing Manolos to huge snow boots covered in blood and mud"); The Great Buck Howard, with John Malkovich, Tom Hanks, and Colin Hanks; Dan in Real Life, in which she gets to "have a dance-off" with Steve Carell; and The Jane Austen Book Club, an ensemble piece in which Blunt plays "a total nerd—a different part for me, because I often play the fast-talking, manipulative sort of character." Extraordinary, considering that … I had a really bad stutter as a child. It never occurred to me that I would want to be on the stage, because I couldn't even bloody talk. My parents tried everything: I had speech therapy, I had [recordings of] dolphins squeaking at me at night to try and relax me, cranial osteopathy, everything you could do. And then I had a rather wonderful teacher who encouraged me to do the class play when I was about 12. I think he had the faith in me that I'd rise to the occasion. Or maybe he just had the smarts to say, 'Why don't you be someone else?'" And now she's smooth-talked her way into a relationship with swingin' singer Michael Bublé: "It's wonderful. I love him. We met at some awards ceremony and I was a bit of a fan and I told him, and he liked compliments, obviously." Provenance: Rockland County, New York. Currently serving humankind as … Claire, "the Cheerleader," on NBC's breakout hit Heroes. "[The show] just sort of plopped in my lap," Panettiere says: I was walking out of a general meeting with NBC, and they were like, 'Oh, hey, by the way, read this'—this script with a cockroach running across the front of it. And I read it, and it was amazing." Look out, Mandy Moore: Panettiere's debut album, for which she co-wrote most of the songs, comes out this spring. My [day] job is to portray people who are not myself, and this is sort of getting to portray a little bit of me." What happens to college plans when you have a hit series at 17? "I've got 15 alumni from Duke University in my family. I absolutely want to go to college, but I don't know if it's going to work out with this series. [To her mom, Lesley] How long are we on contract? [Mom says, "I think it's six years."] Oh my God, I'll be 23!" And finally the hottest pick. She is the one from Mamma Mia! Provenance: Allentown, Pennsylvania. You know her… as the coming-of-age teen in everyone's favorite polygamy-motif'd TV show, Big Love. But you'll see her next as Meryl Streep's daughter in the screen adaptation of Mamma Mia! "She's the coolest human being ever," says Seyfried of her on-camera mom. She didn't treat me like I was younger. She respected me. I couldn't ask for anything better." Diablo rising: Next up for Seyfried is Jennifer's Body, the latest project from multi-tattooed Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody. I play the nerdy best friend of Jennifer, who becomes a zombie. I'm like the heroine of the movie. I have to try to save the small town we live in." Eva Herzigova & Karl Lagerfeld's calendar Orlando Bloom is a new UNICEF Ambassador 10 most googled celebrities 2011 Category: Celebrity News Posted to: Amanda Seyfried, Emily Blunt, George Clooney, Hayden Panettiere, Jodie Foster, John Malkovich, Kristen Stewart, Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Tom Hanks Madonna Appeared in a Cub Scout Uniform at The GLAAD Awards » Madonna appeared in a scout uniform while fighting for gay rights in New York City at the 24th annual Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Awards. 18-03-2013 | Read Full Article Celebrities Tweet About The New Pope » We have two amazing news to comment today, one is about the newly elected pope and the second is - celebrities recent tweets, either about the pope and about their everyday life as well! 2013 SXSW Film Festival has Launched » The 2013 SXSW Film Conference and Festival has launched in Austin, Texas. Top Celebrities Walking with their Kids » Top celebrity's kids outside with their children, featuring Naomi Watts, Amy Adams, Salma Hayek and Hugh Jackman and others Miranda Kerr's Real Mondays » Miranda Kerr's carries her son Flynn on Monday, puts her picture naked on Instagram and jokes about sunglasses. Rihanna Wears Double Jeans at River Island After Party! » Rihanna wears double jeans at River Island after party in London! Jennifer Lawrence's harsh transformations, blonde or brunette? » Jennifer Laurence's transformations of recent time. Her hair color gets from blonde to brunette again. Why? Oscars 2013: winners and fails at the event! » Oscars 2013: winners, stage fails and more… What To Expect From Oscars 2013 » Read about all the highlights of the upcoming Oscars 2013 show hosted by Seth McFarlane. Learn who will present and perform as well as get a look at the nominations if you haven't. Brit Awards 2013 Highlights & Winners List » The Brit Awards 2013 went with a glam as usual gathering celebs from Britain and across the pond to honor the winners in various music categories. Adele won another Skyfall accolade, while the best album of the year has gone to British Female Solo Artist award winner Emeli Sandé. Feature Articles 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Miranda Kerr's Mondays Miranda Kerr's real Monday passed like a Monday of supermodel, super momma and a social networker. ... Rihanna's Double Jeans Look! Rihanna shined bright like a diamond in her double jeans worn at the ... Hottest Celebrity Beach Bodies 2012 Hollywood female celebs are really keen to show off their sexy curves on the beaches. They would love to hit the sandy and cool water beaches to play with the ... Jessica Simpson Is Pregnant Again! Jessica Simpson got her big and pretty unexpected Christmas present four weeks prior to Xmas - she's expecting once again! ... Mila Kunis Pops Up Pregnancy Rumors A rumor is going around that will no doubt stain Demi Moore's pillowcases with countless layers of Dior mascara: Mila Kunis ... Kelly Clarkson Writes Open Letter To Clear Up 'False Information' In Clive Davis' New Memoir Alicia Keys Performs At NBA All-Star Halftime Show Lady Gaga Cancels Tour, Needs Surgery On Her Hip Taylor Swift to Elle: "I Never Chase Boys" Grammys 2013: Biggest Moments & Full Winners List Fab stuff Celeb Fashion Trends (393) Celebrity Couples (519) Celebrity Kids (125) Celebrity News (1,476) Celebrity Scandals (365) Glam Events (313) Hot Celebrity News (61) Hot Spot (40) Miss Provocateur (200) Must See Videos (19) Shopaholic Paradise (122) TV/ Movies (496) Amy Winehouse Angelina Jolie Beyoncé Knowles Brad Pitt Britney Spears Charity Chris Brown David Beckham Emma Watson Jay-Z Jennifer Aniston Johnny Depp Jonas Brothers Justin Bieber Justin Timberlake Kanye West Katy Perry Kim Kardashian Kristen Stewart Lady GaGa Lindsay Lohan Madonna Megan Fox Miley Cyrus Oscar Paris Hilton Rihanna Robert Pattinson sale Selena Gomez Taylor Lautner Taylor Swift Twilight Victoria's Secret Victoria Beckham IT'S ALL ABOUT.. The Jonas Brothers Christine Solomon Leah Renee Willow Smith & Jaden Smith Laura McDonald Dons Kristen Stewart Image to Explain Rupert Sanders Scandal As Kristen Stewart is keeping silence since her very public apology, fellow actress Laura McDonald decided kinda help her. In ... Kris Jenner Defends Giving Kim Birth Control at 14 Kris Jenner was grilled this week when it was revealed she allowed daughter Kim Kardashian to get birth ... Ryan Gosling Sings and Dances In Unknown 1991 Video Ryan Gosling may be a heartbreaker now, but he was making the ladies go crazy all the way back in 1991 ... K Stew Doesn't Care About Not Perfect Poses on Red Carpet I can't stop being surprised by Kristen Stewart's ultra-glam image for Vanity Fair July 2012 issue! All the pics positively drip ... Victoria's Secret 'What is Sexy?' List 2012 Victoria's Secret announced their 2012 What Is Sexy?List , honoring the most sizzling celebrities in the world. It appeared that the motherhood adds more sexiness to a woman! ... Rob Kardashian is Handcuffed for Attacking Paparazzi Exactly, the Kardashians are experiencing a bad week! Earlier Kim Kardashian was flour-bombed, and now Rob Kardashian stuck in an ... Miranda Kerr Repeats Angelina Jolie's Right Leg Pose When Angelina Jolie arrived at the Oscars earlier this month wearing a dress with a thigh-high split to show off her ... Vancouver DJ said: I love you Megan.She is my life. on Megan Fox cocomapopsified said: Toby Mcguire is in my opinion, the better spiderman. Spiderman is supposed to be a nerd... on Who makes a better Spiderman? Andrew Garfield vs. Tobey McGuire NIGERIA said: JB I LOVE U on Justin Bieber Joy said: angelina jolie, a mother, UN Refugee Ambassador and good actress. on 11 things Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston have in common (apart from Brad Pitt) Judith said: Wow,i adored miley..such a princess.i always was torn who to like between her and selena….now i totally... on Miley Cyrus' 6 most embarrassing moments Check the ring around his neck! on Ditching the ring: Delta Goodrem is Nick Jonas' new girlfriend Odrie said: He deserves better. on Justin Bieber Is Sated With Selena Gomez, Wants Other Girls fraoli said: HE CAN DO WHAT EVER HE WANT.IF HE DONT LIKE HER ANYMORE THATS HIS CHOICE. Kerr – the youngest Angel stole the show! 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My parents immigrated to Israel in 1950 after surviving the concentration camps of World War II. Once in Israel, they moved to a small village near Petah Tikvah where they continued their family tradition of farming. As a child I helped farm the land, milk the cows and worked in the chicken coop. By the time I was in High School I realized that I did not want to be a farmer. I excelled in my studies in High School and with the support of my parents I decided to focus on medicine as a career. My dream was to not only be a doctor but to become a researcher as well. I wanted to help people in the best way that I believed I knew how. After my first year in the army I became a student at The Hebrew University's Medical School and remained a part of the faculty to this day. My main field from the beginning was prenatal and postnatal development of children. I focused on the causes of abnormal development. By the time I was in my third year of Medical School, I began studying bone and skeleton development which I continued for a number of years. LaterI focused on the development of the brain, with special emphasis on normal and abnormal development of children. After finishing my degree in medicine, I began my training in Pediatrics in Hadassah Hospital. In the US I trained in clinical Teratology and Developmental Pediatrics, which have been the main areas of my research and clinical work for the last twenty years. Serving as the Head of the Department of Child Development and Rehabilitation in Israel's Ministry of Health, I continue to be heavily involved in the development of policies for diagnosis and treatment of children with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). My research in this area focuses on possible prenatal causes of autism: maternal treatment during pregnancy with valproic acid and/or SSRIs or other causes. I also plan to develop experimental models to investigate possible etiologies (causes) of ASD. 2009: Additional training in pediatric neurology, licensef in "Pediatric Neurology and Child Development" 1987: Visiting professor - Clinical Teratology, Child Development and Pediatric Neurology Dept of Pediatrics, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA. Are the body functions of children with Down syndrome related to their participation? The prevalence of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is steadily increasing and is now more than 10 times more common than it was 60 years ago. With that statistic in mind, IMRIC is embarking on new, intensive research in ASD. This research will question whether the maternal use of psychotropic drugs (i.e. anti-psychotics, anti-anxiety, anti-depressives, and other drugs affecting the brain) in pregnancy is associated with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the offspring.

Dad did make it on his Upper Hillsborough WMA archery hunt without me over the weekend, though he didn't put anything in the cooler. He wanted me to be his pack mule. He needed my expertise, I think. As you might recall from last week, Dad turned 65 and was exempt from requiring a quota permit. Upper Hills is one of a few WMAs that allows this exemption. He had applied for the quota, wasn't drawn, but was still able to hunt. He was not, however, able to take me hunting as only quota permitholders are issued guest permits. This reminds me of the challenges associated with wildlife management. On one hand, FWC wants to create hunting opportunities. On the other, they are charged with responsibly managing the resource. As Tammy noted, the system does allow non-hunters to aid in the hunt for all exempt hunters which include residents 65 and over; youth under 16; residents with Disabled Person Hunting and Fishing Certificates; residents in the U.S. Armed Services stationed out of state and home on leave for 30 days or less. Thank you to Tammy for sharing this information. For more information regarding exempt hunters and guest permits, please click here.

package org.qi4j.api.association; import org.qi4j.api.util.Classes; import java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject; import java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType; import java.lang.reflect.Type; public final class GenericAssociationInfo { public static Type getAssociationType( AccessibleObject accessor ) { return getAssociationType( Classes.TYPE_OF.map( accessor ) ); } public static Type getAssociationType( Type methodReturnType ) { if( methodReturnType instanceof ParameterizedType ) { ParameterizedType parameterizedType = (ParameterizedType) methodReturnType; if( AbstractAssociation.class.isAssignableFrom( (Class<?>) parameterizedType.getRawType() ) ) { return parameterizedType.getActualTypeArguments()[ 0 ]; } } Type[] interfaces = ( (Class<?>) methodReturnType ).getGenericInterfaces(); for( Type anInterface : interfaces ) { Type associationType = getAssociationType( anInterface ); if( associationType != null ) { return associationType; } } return null; } }

The rebirth of the media barons of old Imagine we lived in a Britain where a handful of multi-millionaires owned almost the entire media, and had names like Viscount Rothermere, Lord Northcliffe and Baron Beaverbrook. That was the situation only a few decades ago. Today, it would be hard for us to imagine a media system of that nature could describe itself as "free" or the "fourth estate", and claim to be a tenacious watchdog of other power centres. The media of that time, most of us would agree now, was simply a tool of the upper class, looking out for its interests. It really was no more complicated than that. And yet, as Nafeez Ahmed argues in the lengthy article below, the English-speaking world today is little different. Instead of Lords and Viscounts, we have a handful of trans-national corporations, with annual turnovers in the billions or trillions, that control almost our entire media. In the US, just six huge conglomerates own not just all the newspapers and TV channels, but every lens through which we perceive the world: the films, music, ads, and popular websites we consume every waking moment. The personnel who control these media conglomerates are not only fabulously wealthy but have diverse business interests that will be affected by how our societies are run, what laws apply or don't, and how foreign policy is made. Even more worrying, as Ahmed highlights in detail, the heads of these media corporations often have additional interests in military and defence corporations, what he terms a "media-military-industrial complex". Ahmed: "Consider, then, the fact that these individuals simultaneously hold senior positions in global media conglomerates and giant defence contractors, profiting directly from the dividends of 'reconstruction' in devastated war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, on the back of wars enabled by their own propaganda." And yet most of us continue to look to the media for an impartial and accurate picture of the world, simply because Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom and News Corp, unlike their recent forebears, don't preface their names with the title Lord or Viscount. These faceless, profit-driven corporations have persuaded us that they are dispassionate, neutral and classless – unlike their all too flesh-and-blood predecessors. Even with the new possibilities offered by the internet, most traffic is still limited to sites that are controlled by these same big players. And the new platforms like Google, as Ahmed's and Wikileak's investigations show, have enjoyed ties to western security establishments from the very beginning of their development. Edward Snowden's revelations show they continue to cooperate closely with state surveillance agencies like the NSA. Ahmed: "These examples demonstrate the nature of the networks that dominate the global corporate media: an interlocking nexus of private defence contractors, banks, investment firms, and corporate giants with a vested interest in perpetuating the power and privilege of their own class: no matter the implications for the loss of life of millions of people." Ahmed also outlines how these modern media barons, and their enablers in the political class, are starting to undermine the outposts in the new media where real information and critical thinking flourish. www.mediareform.org.uk/blog/how-the-mainstream-media-became-a-neo-stalinist-propaganda-regime-for-wealthy-neocons You can also read my articles HERE. To join discussions about my work, please visit my Facebook or Twitter page. No fair hearing for Assange at the Guardian Guardian admits its cowardice over Paris Receive email notification of new blog posts. (Register on the website for website notifications.) archeology BBC BDS Britain capitalism colonialism corporations environment ethnic cleansing Europe Gaza George Monbiot Glenn Greenwald Guardian hasbara Israel airport Israel apartheid Israel army Israel corruption Israel courts Israel education Israel lobby Israel police Israel racism Israel war crimes Jeremy Corbyn Jerusalem Julian Assange Left politics liberal Zionism media criticism media on Israel Nazareth occupation Palestinian Authority peace process Russell Brand security state settlements Shin Bet surveillance Syria war on terror whistleblowers Zionism ARTICLES SORTED BY DATE AND TITLE

Puer maculatus is een insect uit de familie van de vlinderhaften (Ascalaphidae), die tot de orde netvleugeligen (Neuroptera) behoort. Puer maculatus is voor het eerst wetenschappelijk beschreven door Olivier in 1790. Vlinderhaften

Q: Truncate +CDS Response AT COMMAND I'm with trouble in +CDS return from channel. I'm using a modem with 64 channels and I need to get this value. This missing information in any lines above +CDS: 6,248,"21988 +CDS: 6,249,"6299224415 +CDS: 6,39,"11974579414",129,"13/01/31,16:40:30-12","13/02/01,16:40:30-12",70 +CDS: 6,211,"2199678119",129,"13/01/31,16:40:31-12","13/02/01,16:40:31-12",70 +CDS: 6,51,"6 +CDS: 6,105,"11974579414",129,"13/01/31,16:40:32-12","13/02/01,16:40:32-12",70 +CDS: 6,40,"11973375726",129,"13/01/31, +CDS: 6,106,"2199378635",129,"13/01/31,16: +CDS: 6,251,"1297228284",129,"13/01/31,16:40:38-12","13/02/01,16:40:38-12",70 +CDS: 6,53,"2499482633",129,"13/ +CDS: 6,243,"2198922817",129,"13/01/31,16:40:45-12","13/02/01 +CDS: 6,253,"2198070285",129,"13/01/31,16:40:48-12","13/02/01,16:40:48-12",70 +CDS: 6,43,"2197371789",129,"13/01/31,16:40:51-12","13/02/01,16 +CDS: 6,170,"11975327641",129,"13/02/01,11:47:58-12","13/02/01,16:41:37-12",0 +CDS: 6,158,"1982067777",129,"13/02/01,17:36:31-08","13/02/01,17:36:34-08",0 +CDS: 6,46,"1992200437",129,"13/02/01,17:36:32-08","13/02/0 +CDS: 6,154,"4891019678",129,"13/01/31,17:52:44-08","13/01/31,17:52:45-08",70 +CDS: 6,254,"6296236810",129,"13/01/31,16:41:58-12","13/02/01,16:41:59-12", I'm starting: public PortaCOM(string porta) : base(porta, 115200, Parity.None, 8, StopBits.One) { this.StatusPort = StatusPorta.Ready; this.DiscardNull = true; this.Handshake = Handshake.RequestToSend; //this.RtsEnable = true; //this.DtrEnable = true; //this.ReadTimeout = 12000; //this.ReadTimeout = 12000; } I get value using: static void p_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e) { var p = (PortaCOM)sender; try { int dataLength = p.BytesToRead; byte[] dados = new byte[dataLength]; int nbrDataRead = p.Read(dados, 0, dataLength); if (nbrDataRead == 0) return; var retorno = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(dados); Console.WriteLine(retorno); } catch (Exception err) { Console.WriteLine(err.Message); } } Please, any help me! Ricardo Beck A: I changed inside p_DataReceived static void p_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e) { var p = (PortaCOM)sender; try { **var b = new List<byte>(); while (p.BytesToRead > 0) b.Add((byte)p.ReadByte()); if (b.IsEmpty()) return;** var retorno = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(b.ToArray()); Console.WriteLine(retorno); } catch (Exception err) { Console.WriteLine(err.Message); } }

How Old-Earth Inerrantists Are Unintentionally Undermining Inerrancy Posted by Josh Toupos | Creation, Research | 0 | Ideas have consequences. In fact, ideas often have unintended consequences. American sociologist Robert K. Merton coined the term "law of unintended consequences" to illustrate that policy changes often have far-reaching consequences beyond the actual changes themselves. An example was the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. The pesticide killed the foliage in the jungle so troops could fight easier, but it also gave cancer and possibly other diseases to those same troops. It seems like old-earth theologians, many of whom also believe in biblical inerrancy, have stumbled upon an unintended consequence for their hermeneutic: undermining the very Bible they claim to uphold. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (CSBI) is a clear statement of the Bible's accuracy regarding everything it teaches. A biblical creationist could completely agree with everything in it, and even find seeming support for the plain interpretation of the creation account: We deny that Biblical infallibility and inerrancy are limited to spiritual, religious, or redemptive themes, exclusive of assertions in the fields of history and science. We further deny that scientific hypotheses about earth history may properly be used to overturn the teaching of Scripture on creation and the flood.1 In 1982, the ICBI produced the "Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics" (CSBH). Article 15 affirms, We affirm the necessity of interpreting the Bible according to its literal, or normal, sense. The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of speech and literary forms found in the text.2 Article 22 seems to even contain a clear statement in support of creation: We affirm that Genesis 1–11 is factual, as is the rest of the book. We deny that the teachings of Genesis 1–11 are mythical and that scientific hypotheses about earth history or the origin of humanity may be invoked to overthrow what Scripture teaches about creation.3 So, it might be surprising to learn that most of the signatories of these documents were old-earth creationists or theistic evolutionists. One of the leaders in the writing of the CSBI, Norman Geisler, said, Most of the founders and framers of the early inerrancy movement of the 1900s (e.g., Warfield and Hodge) and the contemporary movement of the 1970–80s (e.g., the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy) held firmly to inerrancy but saw no necessary tie of it to a Young Earth view.4 Additionally, many of the signers have made public statements affirming various old-earth views regarding creation. How do they reconcile their old-earth views with their strong affirmations of inerrancy? Additionally, many of the signers have made public statements affirming various old-earth views regarding creation. Data Versus Interpretation Article 20 of CSBH states, "We further affirm that in some cases extrabiblical data have value for clarifying what Scripture teaches, and for prompting correction of faulty interpretations."5 Article 21 of CSBH states, We affirm the harmony of special [revelation] with general revelation and therefore of biblical teaching with the facts of nature. We deny that any genuine scientific facts are inconsistent with the true meaning of any passage of Scripture.6 But sometimes, what old-earth creationists accept as "data" or "facts" are actually the interpretations of data. For instance, all geologists (both creationists and evolutionists) agree on the composition of the rock layers in the Grand Canyon. But the statement, "The layers of the Grand Canyon were deposited over the course of 300 million years, and the canyon was carved in about 5 million years by the Colorado River," is an interpretation of the evidence. A biblical creationist interpretation would be, "The layers of the Grand Canyon were laid down by water during the global flood of Noah's day, and the canyon was carved as the floodwaters drained from the continent." Biblical young-earth creationists, of course, agree that no fact from the natural world will contradict Scripture. However, the wording of this statement would allow for interpretations of facts to affect the interpretation of Scripture. In fact, Scripture defines and limits general revelation. Romans 1:18–20 explains that creation reveals God's existence and some of his attributes to all people in all places and at all times, regardless of their age, education, culture, or religion. The universality of the revelation is why people are without excuse when they fail to worship and thank God. This is also why the Bible calls the atheist a fool (Psalm 14:1) when he denies God's existence, and why people are culpable for worshipping anything in creation rather than God. History assures us that many things believed by the majority of scientists today will be rejected as false in the future. However, old-earth creationists redefine general revelation as a collection of truth claims believed by most modern scientists and understood only by the fraction of modern humanity who understands twentieth and twenty-first century science. History assures us that many things believed by the majority of scientists today will be rejected as false in the future. Nowhere does Scripture teach that nature is infallible when teaching about the history and origin of the world. In other words, creation is not the 67th book of the Bible, as Hugh Ross erroneously teaches. This also prompts one to consider what kinds of change in interpretation the CSBH would allow. While most would concede that extrabiblical sources could shed light on the meaning of a rarely used word in Scripture or clarify the historical context of a passage, Christians should be cautious about letting extrabiblical data change the meaning of Scripture to something that was never recognized in the history of Christian interpretation of Scripture. Extrabiblical data can add the equivalent of color to a black-and-white photo, but it should not be allowed to change the entire picture! Unfortunately, old-earth creationists, perhaps unintentionally, end up allowing extrabiblical interpretations of data to change critical details of the picture where there is no biblical justification to do so. The timeframe is stretched from a little over 6,000 years to around 13.8 billion years. The order of creation is also changed. In the biblical account, God created the stars on day four, after the earth, sea, dry land, and plants. The evolutionary account has stars forming long before the earth and plants. But because of the CSBH loophole, the "extrabiblical" evidence can be used to radically alter the timescale and order of creation while remaining inerrantist. Theological Implications Old-earth creation has theological as well as historical implications, because it also places death and disease in the animal world before human sin. All old-earth views accept millions of years of what philosophers call "natural evil." In contrast, Christians have historically recognized that both moral evil (sinful actions of human beings like murder, adultery, and theft) and natural evil (disease, famine, hurricanes, etc.) are the result of Adam's sin and God's resulting curse on creation. By asserting that natural evil was not introduced at the fall, but was part of God's design at creation, old-earth creationists radically reinterpret the creation account. Misplaced Hermeneutical Humility The CSBI was released over 40 years ago, but old-earth inerrantists today repeat the same errors. Until his death in 2019, leading inerrantist Norman Geisler maintained belief in an old earth. He stated, "The problem is deepened by the fact that there is prima facie evidence to indicate that the days of Genesis are indeed 24 hour periods."7 However, he claims, "Scientific dating has demonstrated that life emerged gradually over many millions of years. . . Most scientific evidence sets the age of the world at billions of years."8 In other words, what he wrongly views as "general revelation" overrules what he recognizes to be special revelation! The late R. C. Sproul, another old-earth inerrantist, was interviewed on Tim Challies' popular blog. Challies asked him, "Have you ever had second thoughts about the stand that you took in favor of a six-day creation and a young earth, especially in view of all the new material on the subject that has come out since 2006?"9 Sproul responded, Well, that's kind of a complex question because when I took the stand, I took the stand on a six-day creation. I didn't take a stand on a young earth. I don't know how old the earth is. I didn't know then. I still don't. And what do we mean by "young earth"? If you're thinking six thousand years, I doubt that. If you're thinking 12 billion years, I doubt that, too. All I was speaking about was the understanding of what the Scriptures teach regarding the six days of creation. And I'm not even sure it's correct to say that I took a stand. I said that's what my view was. When you say you have a view, it's one thing to say, "I think that this is the way it is." It's another thing to take a stand where you say: "Here I stand. I'm going to die on this mountain." I could be wrong in my understanding of Genesis. It's very difficult to deal with the literary genre in the opening verses of the beginning chapters of Genesis. I think there has to be some room for some flexibility on it.10 However, there are multiple literary markers that Genesis 1–11 is historical narrative and not poetry or myth. And the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11, combined with other equally historical and chronological statements throughout the rest of the Old Testament, give us a clear timeline of a little over 6,000 years from creation to today. Given the clarity of the biblical evidence, why did Sproul doubt the young-earth timeline? At a conference, Sproul said the following: For some people, it's an all-or-nothing issue. When people ask me how old the earth is, I tell them I don't know. Because I don't. And I'll tell you why I don't. In the first place, the Bible does not give us a date of creation. Now it gives us hints and inclinations that would indicate in many cases, a young earth. And at the same time, you get all this expanding universe and all this astronomical dating and triangulation and all that stuff coming from outside the church that makes me wonder.11 [Sproul] acknowledged that the biblical data indicates a young earth, but the evolutionary interpretations of scientific data make him unsure of the actual history of the world. In other words, he acknowledged that the biblical data indicates a young earth, but the evolutionary interpretations of scientific data make him unsure of the actual history of the world. The weight he gives to this evolutionary interpretation makes him both minimize the biblical data (it is possible to create a timeline from creation to the birth of Christ using the biblical data, which is more than "hinting" at a young earth) and consider a view of earth history that is nowhere in Scripture in hints, implications, or otherwise. It might seem humble to allow for uncertainty regarding the age of the earth, but it is actually arrogant to insert uncertainty where Scripture is clear. Unfortunately, evangelicalism is filled with similar "theoretical inerrantists" who take an otherwise strong stance on Scripture but unfortunately allow for evolutionary views. Science over Scripture? Article 20 of CSBH states, "We deny that extra-biblical views ever disprove the teaching of Scripture or hold priority over it."12 But in fact, they allow the interpretations of the scientific majority to determine their views on the age of the earth and Noah's flood. Those long-age interpretations are the only reason for the hermeneutical false humility that claims Scripture is less than clear regarding creation and the age of the earth. Reinterpreting these parts of the Bible to accommodate long ages is another way of saying that the Bible is in error. Equally concerning is that many do not attach much importance to the age of the earth. They do not study Genesis 1–11 carefully and are not familiar with the work done by young-earth scientists and theologians. As a result, the vast majority of Bible scholars and Christian leaders over the last two centuries have uncritically accepted claims that rest on a foundation of naturalistic philosophy that is fundamentally hostile to Christianity. Geological Evolution: A Naturalistic Myth When people think of evolution, they normally think of the biological idea that all life is descended from a common ancestor, a single-celled creature generated from a primordial soup. However, just as important to the naturalistic worldview is geological evolution, the idea that the stars and planets formed over billions of years following the first event in the universe, the big bang. Geological evolution further states that geological uniformitarianism can best explain earth's geological history. For the first 1800 years of church history, almost universally, Christians believed in what could be termed "young-earth creationism." For the first 1800 years of church history, almost universally, Christians believed in what could be termed young-earth creationism. An early-nineteenth century group of geologists known as the "scriptural geologists" defended the biblical view against long-age views. They raised biblical, geological, and philosophical arguments against various old-earth views that were developing at the time. Particularly, they affirmed the six-day creation, a global flood in Noah's day, and the earth's age of around 6,000 years old. After 1840, the uniformitarian view became the ruling dogma in geology. As uniformitarians became professors and taught that view to their students, it became the dominant view, crowding out biblical geology. Charles Lyell, the uniformitarian most responsible for that view's dominance, was not coming from an impartial view of dispassionately weighing the evidence—he was overtly anti-biblical. His goal was to "free the science [of geology] from Moses."13 So what we have is two views, one Christian and one anti-Christian, competing over two views of world history, using the evidence in the present to try to reconstruct what happened in the past. The difference is that Christians have an inerrant, inspired record of world history that records geologically significant events—creation and the global flood of Noah's day. When old-earth inerrantists take the side of the uniformitarians, they are agreeing with them that the Bible's historical record is somehow lacking, or even in error. Darwin was directly influenced by Lyell's uniformitarianism and applied the same naturalism to biology. In 1844 he wrote, I always feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's brains and that I never acknowledge this sufficiently, nor do I know how I can, without saying so in so many words—for I have always thought that the great merit of the Principles [of Geology], was that it altered the whole tone of one's mind & therefore that when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes.14 However, some modern geologists reject uniformitarianism. Some non-Christian geologists, such as Derek Ager, who wrote a book entitled The New Catastrophism, argue from a naturalistic basis that some geological evidence can be better explained by rapid, catastrophic formation than by slow and gradual processes over long periods of time. While these naturalistic catastrophists may be as hostile to Scripture as Lyell was and operate with the assumption of the same timescale, their alternate view of geology shows that the geological evidence is open to interpretation and that criticism of uniformitarianism is by no means limited to the religious. Cosmological Evolution: A Naturalistic Myth The big bang theory is another piece of the naturalistic myth that is increasingly under attack even from secularists. Internationally-known astrophysicist Eric Lerner wrote, Big bang theory today relies on a growing number of hypothetical entities—things that we have never observed. Inflation, dark matter and dark energy are the most prominent. Without them, there would be fatal contradictions between the observations made by astronomers and the predictions of the big bang theory. In no other field of physics would this continual recourse to new hypothetical objects be accepted as a way of bridging the gap between theory and observation. It would, at the least, raise serious questions about the validity of the underlying theory.15 Lerner is far from the only astrophysicist that shares these views. The late Halton Arp, who died in 2013, rejected the big bang and wrote, "Scientists, particularly at the most prestigious institutions, regularly suppress and ridicule findings which contradict their current theories and assumptions . . . astronomers now feel compelled to fit the observations to the theory and not vice versa."16 These secularist dissenters from the big bang theory show that the only reason the big bang appears to be a fact is because its proponents are suppressing contrary views. These secularist dissenters from the big bang theory show that the only reason the big bang appears to be a fact is because its proponents are suppressing contrary views. Not only is it impossible to harmonize these naturalistic paradigms with Scripture, they are not even accepted by some eminent naturalists! Old-earth inerrantists likely have sincere intentions to "save" Genesis from what they mistakenly view as proven science by allowing it to control their interpretation. However, by doing so, they undermine the inerrancy and thus the authority of the Bible. Biblical Creationist Response to Old Earth Inerrantists The preface to CSBI said, We invite response to this statement from any who see reason to amend its affirmations about Scripture by the light of Scripture itself, under whose infallible authority we stand as we speak. We claim no personal infallibility for the witness we bear, and for any help which enables us to strengthen this testimony to God's Word we shall be grateful.17 A group of fourteen inerrantist scholars, most of them Bible professors, responded to this invitation by producing a supplement statement of affirmations and denials. It was published in Coming to Grips with Genesis: Biblical Authority and the Age of the Earth18 and is also available on the AiG website. Anyone who has a master's degree or higher in some field of theology can sign the document. Although Coming to Grips with Genesis has been sold at many annual Evangelical Theological Society meetings, it seems that old-earth theologians have largely ignored the book and its arguments. While it is possible to be an inerrantist and believe in evolution and/or millions of years, it is not consistent, and requires old-earth inerrantists to play hermeneutical tricks that undermine inerrancy itself. While it is possible to be an inerrantist and believe in evolution and/or millions of years, it is not consistent, and requires old-earth inerrantists to play hermeneutical tricks that undermine inerrancy itself. Many Christian leaders who proudly proclaim "sola Scriptura" unintentionally actually practice "sola Scientia" (science alone) when they allow the interpretations of naturalistic scientists to control their interpretation of the first chapters of the Bible. It is clear from the Bible's own witness and the unanimous interpretation of the Church for the first 1800 years of its existence that Genesis 1–11 is history. If Scripture is the only inerrant book, we must affirm its teachings over any other truth claims. It must be the supreme authority in everything that it teaches—not only in matters of theology and morality, but in any area its pronouncements touch—including history and science. We cannot separate the Bible's inerrancy from its authority. Theologians demonstrate true humility when they handle Scripture with reverence, taking seriously its claims and allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture, rather than reinterpreting Scripture to fit with naturalistic philosophy that is fundamentally hostile to biblical claims. Christians should not be afraid to stand firmly on the foundation of Scripture and boldly proclaim and defend what God clearly says regarding the creation and history of the world. As America and the rest of the once-Christian West sink deeper into moral insanity, wickedness, and animosity toward Bible-believing Christians, may God help us to be faithful in the tremendous battle over the truth of God's inerrant and supremely authoritative Word. PreviousGoogle Whistleblower: The Coming Technocracy Is More Dangerous Than Communism NextIs Trudeau's Canada the Globalists' Laboratory For Crushing Dissent Creation Evidence Astronomy Issues Facing Our Ministry Science & the Bible Lucy Exhibit "A"

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In this article we are reviewing various career scenarios and how that could impact your decision making as it relates to budgeting and investing. While your career is often the most important component of your financial well-being, it can also be an aspect of your life that you have the least control over, especially if you do not own your own business. There are three parts to being financially secure: investing your money smartly, budgeting correctly, and making a decent consistent income. Many financial articles will downplay the effect of earning a reliable salary from a high paying job because they want to be the ultimate guide to hack your financial situation into bliss and success. However, cutting corners anywhere in finance will not deliver the necessary results. You can squeeze the most happiness and success out of your life by spending frugally and making your money work for you, but let's not ignore the fact that having a high paying job makes it easier to achieve your financial goals. However, it's possible to be broke even if you make six or seven figures per year; that's why any successful strategy involving finance has those 3 pillars. Breaking any of them makes it difficult to reach your financial goals. The great part about understanding how each pillar is important is that they impact one another, allowing for different actions to be taken with one based on the results of others. The most obvious example of adjusting the pillars is if you earn a comfortable living through a high paying job. This allows you the luxury to spend more, but it does not dissolve you of the responsibility to budget and invest appropriately. It also means your 6 month emergency savings need to be larger to accommodate your spending habits. While it may sound weird to save so much for an emergency if you have a lavish lifestyle because in theory you can reduce spending, in practice it may not be so easy to do that especially if you have high fixed costs such as a mortgage or a car payment. The more money you keep readily available and unencumbered (liquid), the lower the yield you'll receive on your investment, but the greater your peace of mind will be in the event that something doesn't go according to plan. When it comes to investing, your strategy depends on your goals. The advantage of earning a comfortable salary is you'll have the opportunity to invest solely in less risky securities and earn a lower investment return yet still potentially meet your long term goals. On the other hand, if you have sufficient savings as a result of great income, you have the opportunity to consider riskier investments with a small portion of your investment portfolio. We're looking at various career paths because your career is the decision you control the least. It's easy to change your spending habits, improve your credit score, and alter the risk your take in your portfolio, but your career depends on your education, interests, and skills which aren't as fluid. The next career option we'll look at is a risky career. The risk taken in a career can alter your budgeting and investment philosophy. Risky careers can be in highly cyclical industries such as construction or oil fracking or they can be in firms which are seasonal or don't have a long operating history. Working at startups or for your own business has higher risk because the business model might not be proven yet or not profitable. The advantages are freedom as they have less of a bureaucracy and bigger upside because you have more operational leverage with your decisions, and the opportunity to earn more value for your efforts as a function of being compensated with equity in the business. Dealing with a risky career means you need to save more money in case of an emergency. The best way to calculate how much you should save is to calculate the expected return of your salary. You can calculate this by multiplying the success rate of startups in your industry by your pay. This is going to require you to save more money to compensate for the extra risk. You can do a sensitivity analysis to see how much you'll need in different lengths of time spent unemployed. For a cyclical industry, you can calculate the money you will make in a full cycle, assuming you are unemployed during the worst of the cycle. Averaging out the lean years and the strong years, gives you a cyclically adjusted budget. It doesn't make sense for a worker in the energy sector to act as if his/her job is as secure as working for a healthcare services firm. The great part about this analysis is it's easy. If you've had a long career, you can even assume similar cycle lengths and earnings changes. Investing should balance out your career risk. There's nothing wrong with owning equity in a firm you're employed by, but its important to carefully examine potential pitfalls a company can face when you take equity as a portion of your salary. If you work in energy or construction, it's very tempting to invest in what you know, but you want your portfolio to act uncorrelated with your earnings. One way to invest if you really want to make bets in the same industry is to do a pairs trade where you short (bet against) a firm in the industry that you know is a laggard and buy one you think is a winner. That potentially eliminates correlation risk with your earnings. Another way to use your industry knowledge to your advantage is knowing if you sector is dominating a certain part of the market, and avoid investing in companies associated with that sector. An investment not made can often be as good in terms of avoiding losses as a great investment that is successful. One consideration most people don't make when determining their budget and investments is whether their job is their passion. If your job is your passion you won't want to retire early. This is why many people would work on job they are passionate about for less pay. Unfortunately, it's not always feasible to work at a job you love. It's easy to tell someone to work at the perfect job, but that's not realistic for all readers based on their skill set and interests. If you have a tough job, think of your leisure expenses as an investment in your mental health. This means you can spend more money within reason to improve your quality of life. There's no point in saving money if you aren't enjoying the present. Investing when you have a difficult job means you'll want to have high investment returns so you can retire early. Retiring early could be for your mental health or it could be because physically demanding jobs can't be done past a certain age. In this case, make sure to take risk in your portfolio when time is on your side. As a young worker in your 20s and 30s, taking more risk is okay because timing the business cycle is less relevant. You need to slowly lower your risk as you get older to avoid losing money right before you retire.

import re from unittest import TestCase import pandas as pd from sklearn.feature_extraction.text import TfidfTransformer from sklearn.linear_model import PassiveAggressiveClassifier from scattertext import CorpusFromParsedDocuments from scattertext import FeatsFromSpacyDoc, FeatsFromSpacyDocAndEmpath from scattertext import TermDocMatrixFactory from scattertext.TermDocMatrixFactory import FeatsFromDoc from scattertext.WhitespaceNLP import whitespace_nlp, Doc, Tok def build_hamlet_jz_term_doc_mat(): # type: () -> TermDocMatrix categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text term_doc_mat = TermDocMatrixFactory( category_text_iter=zip(categories, documents), clean_function=clean_function, nlp=whitespace_nlp ).build() return term_doc_mat def build_hamlet_jz_corpus(): # type: () -> Corpus df = build_hamlet_jz_df() return CorpusFromParsedDocuments( df=df, category_col='category', parsed_col='parsed' ).build() def build_hamlet_jz_df(): # type: () -> pd.DataFrame categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text df = pd.DataFrame({ 'category': categories, 'parsed': [whitespace_nlp(clean_function(doc)) for doc in documents] }) df = df[df['parsed'].apply(lambda x: len(str(x).strip()) > 0)] return df def build_hamlet_jz_corpus_with_alt_text(): # type: () -> Corpus df = build_hamlet_jz_df_with_alt_text() return CorpusFromParsedDocuments( df=df, category_col='category', parsed_col='parsed' ).build() def build_hamlet_jz_df_with_alt_text(): # type: () -> pd.DataFrame categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text df = pd.DataFrame({ 'category': categories, 'parsed': [whitespace_nlp(clean_function(doc)) for doc in documents], 'alt': [doc.upper() for doc in documents] }) df = df[df['parsed'].apply(lambda x: len(str(x).strip()) > 0)] return df def build_hamlet_jz_corpus_with_meta(): # type: () -> Corpus def empath_mock(doc, **kwargs): toks = list(doc) num_toks = min(3,len(toks)) return {'cat'+str(len(tok)):val for val,tok in enumerate(toks[:num_toks])} categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text df = pd.DataFrame({ 'category': categories, 'parsed': [whitespace_nlp(clean_function(doc)) for doc in documents] }) df = df[df['parsed'].apply(lambda x: len(str(x).strip()) > 0)] return CorpusFromParsedDocuments( df=df, category_col='category', parsed_col='parsed', feats_from_spacy_doc=FeatsFromSpacyDocAndEmpath(empath_analyze_function=empath_mock) ).build() def get_docs_categories(): documents = [u"What art thou that usurp'st this time of night,", u'Together with that fair and warlike form', u'In which the majesty of buried Denmark', u'Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!', u'Halt! Who goes there?', u'[Intro]', u'It is I sire Tone from Brooklyn.', u'Well, speak up man what is it?', u'News from the East sire! THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS HAS RETURNED!' ] categories = ['hamlet'] * 4 + ['jay-z/r. kelly'] * 5 return categories, documents def _testing_nlp(doc): toks = [] for tok in re.split(r"(\W)", doc): pos = 'WORD' ent = '' tag = '' if tok.strip() == '': pos = 'SPACE' elif re.match('^\W+$', tok): pos = 'PUNCT' if tok == 'Tone': ent = 'PERSON' if tok == 'Brooklyn': ent = 'GPE' toks.append(Tok(pos, tok[:2].lower(), tok.lower(), ent, tag)) return Doc([toks]) class TestTermDocMatrixFactory(TestCase): def test_build(self): term_doc_mat = build_hamlet_jz_term_doc_mat() self.assertEqual(term_doc_mat.get_num_docs(), 8) self.assertEqual(term_doc_mat.get_categories(), ['hamlet', 'jay-z/r. kelly']) def test_build_censor_entities(self): categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text term_doc_mat = ( TermDocMatrixFactory( category_text_iter=zip(categories, documents), clean_function=clean_function, nlp=_testing_nlp, feats_from_spacy_doc=FeatsFromSpacyDoc(entity_types_to_censor=set(['GPE'])) ).build() ) self.assertIn('_GPE', set(term_doc_mat.get_term_freq_df().index)) self.assertNotIn('brooklyn', set(term_doc_mat.get_term_freq_df().index)) class TestFeatsFromDoc(TestCase): def test_main(self): categories, documents = get_docs_categories() clean_function = lambda text: '' if text.startswith('[') else text entity_types = set(['GPE']) term_doc_mat = ( TermDocMatrixFactory( category_text_iter=zip(categories, documents), clean_function=clean_function, nlp=_testing_nlp, feats_from_spacy_doc=FeatsFromSpacyDoc(entity_types_to_censor=entity_types) ).build() ) clf = PassiveAggressiveClassifier() fdc = FeatsFromDoc(term_doc_mat._term_idx_store, clean_function=clean_function, feats_from_spacy_doc=FeatsFromSpacyDoc( entity_types_to_censor=entity_types)).set_nlp(_testing_nlp) tfidf = TfidfTransformer(norm='l1') X = tfidf.fit_transform(term_doc_mat._X) clf.fit(X, term_doc_mat._y) X_to_predict = fdc.feats_from_doc('Did sometimes march UNKNOWNWORD') pred = clf.predict(tfidf.transform(X_to_predict)) dec = clf.decision_function(X_to_predict)

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Earlier in March, Slator reported that London-based Pearl Linguistics was going into liquidation. When a UK company goes bankrupt, the liquidator usually puts up a notice on the company's website directing affected parties where to send details. But, as pointed out in our earlier story, Pearl's website was simply taken down. We reached out to Goodier Smith & Watts of Devonshire House, Manor Way, which, according to March 8, 2017 regulatory filing is Pearl's new registered office. The Hertfordshire-based accountants said they are not the liquidator ("we are just the registered office") and that Chris Sykes, Senior Associate at Big Four accounting firm PwC, is handling the case. According to a PwC website on the Pearl insolvency that went live Friday, March 10, 2017, PwC will hold a creditor's meeting on March 17, 2017 in London. The firm called the meeting "an opportunity for creditors to receive information about [Pearl] and the reasons for its failure." The meeting will also ask creditors to approve PwC's appointment as liquidator. Despite repeated attempts, Slator has not been able to contact Pearl's former CEO, Zeynep Demirbilek, who is unlikely to be present at the meeting. Demirbilek signed the document appointing PwC as liquidator on March 3, 2017, but has since gone silent. The Pearl story is obviously far from over. Left holding the bag are the translators and interpreters whose fees were left unpaid by Pearl and its clients, such as the National Health Service (NHS). A March 10, 2017 story by GP Online quoted an NHS spokesman as saying they knew about Pearl's liquidation the day prior and "immediately took steps to make alternative arrangements" so other language service providers (LSPs) could step in. Among these LSPs is translate plus. Director Robert Timms said translate plus hired a project manager from Pearl, who starts working March 13, 2017. "So we have helped a bit in terms of people's jobs — but the biggest casualty is the trust in translation companies among the freelance translator community caused by Pearl just disappearing in a very disrespectful way," Timms said. Meanwhile, the NHS spokesman was also quoted as saying that only "a minimal number of pre-booked appointments" had been affected by Pearl's filing for bankruptcy. A number of Pearl linguists have joined a Facebook Group called "Pearl Linguistics Ltd Survivors Group, UK," put up by Joe Baker, the husband of one of the affected translators. This group is but one example of professional linguists who have taken to social media to air their frustrations. Unite the Union's Regional Officer Andy Murray concurs telling Slator that, at this time, he is not aware of any successful case that has gone to court against an LSP that did not pay its freelancers. Unite is a British trade union that counts a number of linguists among its ranks. Murray said Unite members can get legal advice through the Unite Legal program. He added that cost-cutting is driving highly competent interpreters away because they cannot afford to live on the wages offered. Murray said Unite is currently lobbying government (e.g., Crown Commercial Service, the Justice Secretary) regarding the way it runs public service frameworks. A source close to the matter pointed out that government procurers would do well to perform a more thorough vetting, instead of relying too much on what suppliers claim in their bids. Procurers, typically, do not check the financial stability and other details surrounding their contracted suppliers, the source said.

The Economist magazine dubbed Mayo Clinic one of the nation's most influential voices in the health care reform debate. President Obama has cited the Rochester medical center in many speeches. So it's good to see Mayo weigh in during August's sound-and-fury season of town hall meetings on one of the most controversial reform proposals — Medicare funding for advance directives on end-of-life care. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley helped incite discredited fears that this would lead to so-called "death panels'' that would pull the plug on the elderly and disabled. Mayo's latest policy perspective, released Tuesday, reiterates the organization's advocacy for payment reform and individual mandates, as well as its staunch opposition to a public plan based on a government-run, price-controlled, Medicare-like insurance model. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, one of the longest serving members of the Senate and a central figure in the current healthcare reform debate, died Tuesday night. The nation would be forced to borrow more than $9 trillion to support President Obama's initiatives and other federal programs over the next decade, the White House said Tuesday, a sharp increase in projected deficits that provided fresh ammunition to critics of the president's sweeping proposal to expand health coverage to the uninsured. The White House's grim new budget projections, released Tuesday, show a decade-worth of deficits tallying $9.05 trillion, $2 trillion deeper than anticipated in February. Peter Orszag, the White House budget director, said "the key driver of our long-term deficits" is federal health spending, mainly on the ballooning Medicare and Medicaid programs. One of the most widely accepted arguments against a government medical plan for the middle class is that it would quash competition — just what private insurers seem to be doing themselves in many parts of the U.S. Ron Williams, chief executive of the giant insurer Aetna, has been the most vocal insurance executive in favor of an overhaul of the health care system — as long as it does not include a public, government-run health plan. On Wednesday, Mr. Williams plans to make that case on the "Tavis Smiley Show" on PBS. Click here to link to the PBS interview. Health Populi's analysis of the 2010 Segal Health Plan Cost Trend Survey. Minnesota will announce $47 million in grants to 40 communities to fight smoking and obesity today, the first fruits of a landmark 2008 bill designed to revamp and improve health care in the state. As debate over federally funded healthcare coverage rages across the country, a survey found that San Francisco's universal healthcare scheme gets high marks from participants. A congressman's plan to save Medicare billions could cost the drug industry. In our current system, medical costs are hidden to many Americans, making more radical insurance change seem risky to many. With a discussion of the Wyden-Bennett bill. The Congressional Budget Office's cautious methods may have unintended consequences in the current health care reform effort. Most Americans are satisfied with the status quo for their own healthcare and are doubtful that reforming the system will create affordable or better quality medical care, according to a Thomson Reuters study. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) represents the smallest state in population but he has a big role to play in the negotiations to overhaul health care. Enzi is one of the "gang of six" senators crafting the Senate's health care bill. He says he won't vote for any measure that can't get the support of 75 to 80 senators. Related: Enzi Frustrates Liberals With Harder Line, The Hill. Anchored by two GOP Members who are also medical doctors — Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.) — House and Senate Republicans are joining forces beginning Wednesday and ending Friday to hold four town hall meetings and tour local medical facilities. Though politicians routinely state that health care reform will destroy the nation's medical system, there is no evidence to support this claim. It's not poor communications or town-hall crazies. It's a basic Obama miscalculation. A Q&A with journalist and author T.R. Reid, who traveled the world, including Britain, in search of a better health care system -- and help for his sore shoulder. Reid talks about his journey in a new book -- The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care.

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...to play the upcoming Superfighters Deluxe update! While it is still a long way off, the game has been seeing some spectacular changes lately, most notably the addition of "joints". With these, you can link tiles and objects together in almost any way imaginable. Don't hold your breath for the new version just yet, as there is much work left on the physics, melee system, animations and other content. But things are going very well at the moment.

This old fashioned school room is set up in one of the old classrooms in the Gravelbourg Elementary School, formerly known as Le Couvent Jésus-Marie. The types of desks set up in the classroom are Fashion School Desks; they were first manufactured in 1881. The desk features a Patent T-head, thus eliminating screws and bolts by joining the wood of the desk top, back, and seat to the legs, which are made of cast iron. 5 x 7 fine art greeting cards, featuring these images are available for purchase at Café Paris in Gravelbourg, SK.

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We will close Catholic Schools Week by celebrating Special Guest Day. Please invite grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents or other special persons in your family to arrive at 10 am. We will have a 12:15 pm dismissal. Students should be in full uniform and there will be no Eagle's Nest in the afternoon.

Detail of "Adam and Eve" by Gustav Klimt.Museum of Fine Arts, boston An occasion in itself, the first ever display of a painting by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) at the Museum of Fine Arts, also confirms a new trend in museum showmanship — and I like it. It involves negotiating with other institutions to borrow, for a few months, single works of art, and then making a bit of a fuss over them. Put them on display. Adorn them with one or two, maybe half a dozen, other works from your own museum's collection — works that enhance or illuminate some aspect of the borrowed work. And voila! There's your show. Inexpensive, juicy, surprisingly satisfying. In this era of rising borrowing costs and ballooning overheads (often the result of ill-conceived expansions), this more modest approach to temporary exhibitions is at once practical and commendable. It's all about focus. The Museum of Fine Arts has been mounting such shows for several years under the auspices of its Visiting Masterpieces series. The program has an improvised, what-will-they-pull-out-of-the-hat-next? aspect that I enjoy. Since 2010, the museum has played host to Van Gogh's "The Sower" (from the Van Gogh Museum), Cezanne's "The Large Bathers" (from the Philadelphia Museum of Art), Renoir's "Dance in the Country" and "Dance in the City" (the Musee d'Orsay) as well as the Capitoline Brutus and works by Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca from Italy. It has borrowed the Klimt, which was painted within 12 months of the artist's death and left unfinished, from the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna. Inevitably, these loans involve a quid pro quo — usually a work or works sent from the MFA to the lending institution. But such arrangements seem more spontaneous and civil than the more brutish business of organizing large-scale blockbusters, with their colossal logistical and financial challenges and necessarily long lead times, and obviously preferable to gutting the museum of its masterpieces for traveling shows that raise revenue. The MFA's "Visiting Masterpieces" approach is also being pursued by other museums in the region. The Worcester Art Museum recently launched its so-called "Master Series," which is all about spotlighting a work — often borrowed, but sometimes taken from Worcester's own collection — and pairing it with one or two others. Presently, it is showing a gigantic Norman Rockwell drawing, recently acquired from the Higgins Armory Museum, and Raphael's beautiful "The Small Cowper Madonna," which is on loan from the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Raphael's "The Small Cowper Madonna."national gallery of art The visiting Raphael has been paired with a similar painting of the Virgin and Child from Worcester's own collection, which the museum acquired in 1940, believing it to be a Raphael. That attribution was long ago set aside. It's easy to see why — especially when you see it next to "The Small Cowper Madonna," which Raphael painted as a young man, shortly after coming to Florence from Urbino. A Virgin and Child once believed to be by Raphael.worcester art museum The Worcester picture is lovely enough, but there is something thwarted and incomplete about it. The background landscape feels insubstantial; the infant Christ's fingers are absurdly stubby; and his mother's face — with its half-closed eyes and strikingly long, straight nose — is stylized to the point of vacancy. Note, too, the way the arc describing the back of the boy's head perfectly touches the arc of the Virgin's cheek. As a compositional conceit, it's suspiciously contrived — not at all a trick Raphael would have played. Raphael epitomized instead the Italian ideal of sprezzatura: the notion, which was soon to be developed by Baldassare Castiglione in "The Book of the Courtier" (1528), of a personal freedom and nonchalance that avoids any appearance of over-diligence. His art expressed what Raphael's contemporary, Giorgio Vasari, called "a grace beyond measure." It is exciting, up close, to see Raphael's under-drawing in "The Small Cowper Madonna." We can see, in these visible outlines, the beginning of what we think of now as the modern style — a style that was massively influential not only in Raphael's day, but for the next 400 years. I'm talking about Raphael's special way of combining an unprecedented naturalism, a fidelity to the three-dimensional appearance of reality, with a form of idealization — a style. In unexpected ways, that distinctive combination raises its head again in the work of Gustav Klimt, which is part of what makes these two mini-exhibitions so interesting to think about in tandem. In Raphael, style amounts to an ongoing conversation between the earthly world of appearances (with all its imperfections) and a divine or ideal realm. You can see the dialog at its most rudimentary level in the contrast between, on the one hand, the realism of the fabric that is stretched across the Virgin's bust so that it forms creases at the seam, and, on the other, the idealization expressed by the uninflected curve of her jaw line and the continuous, apparently boneless curve of her right shoulder. In Raphael's many studies for his paintings of the Virgin with the infant Christ (and often John the Baptist), what stands out are the circling motions of his pen. You can feel the beginnings of a Christian theology in these simple-seeming motions. For Raphael, the circle was a perfect form, linked to the divine. But in his drawing, the circles, even as they seem to search for the perfection of completion, are never actually complete. Instead, they are left as unfinished arcs, or they are distended into ellipses — imperfect circles, suggestive of the earthly, rather than the heavenly realm. Of course, these ellipses and incomplete arcs also serve important pictorial functions. On the one hand, they are decorative: They establish rhythms and echoes across the surface of the picture. But they are also fully alive, fully plastic (bendable, malleable); their smallest inflections help Raphael carve out the illusion of space, pushing his figures back behind the flat surface of the image into an imaginary depth, an earthly, embodied landscape. Repeated with small variations, they also convey bodily animation. Raphael's easy naturalism is reinforced in a painting like "The Small Cowper Madonna" by his beautiful rendering of light and his subtle modeling. The way this naturalism harmonizes so comfortably with the divine is what makes his works so fresh, and so timelessly beautiful. Raphael forged a style, as personal and unmistakable in its way as any 20th-century style, but it was a style of unassailable integrity. By 1917, when Klimt painted his "Adam and Eve," on show at the Museum of Fine Arts, the world had moved on from the idea that the relationship between an ideal world and reality — between the heavenly realm and the "fallen" world — could be expressed so comfortably, so seamlessly. Yet Klimt's art expressed exactly the same underlying tensions as Raphael's. It was the tension between naturalism and idealism; between a decorative organization of the picture's surface, and a convincing illusion of reality. Against Raphael's repeating arcs, Klimt expressed the scurrying, flickering, twitchy character of modern life with his wild, unraveling line, full of serpentine energies ominously disturbed. The line, for instance, that defines the contour of Eve's left side (on our right) has no natural grace or proportion — not by Raphaelesque standards, anyway. It seems to ripple and bend wherever it will. And yet Eve's frontally displayed body, with its veinous pallor, thick thighs, and pink knees, also feels extremely naturalistic. "If he wants to make a woman, let him make a woman," said Picasso after seeing Matisse's "Blue Nude (Memory of Biskra)" in 1907. "If he wants to make a design, let him make a design. This is between the two." The same thing could be said of Klimt — but with a crucial difference: Where Matisse struggled endlessly to unite his feeling for decoration with his fidelity to sensual reality, Klimt was happy to play up the dissonance. It is often observed that Klimt's preoccupations overlapped with those of Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, who was thinking and writing and treating patients in the same social milieu in Vienna in which Klimt was painting. The painter's unfinished rendering of Eve (which may have been the last woman he ever painted) suggests a similar desire to excavate the instinctual and especially the erotic side of existence, buried beneath layers of civilization and repression. Klimt, who was the cofounder and first president of the Vienna Secession, had been painting erotic subjects since the 1890s. But to be addressing this theme in 1917, against a backdrop of mass death and destruction — and indeed the artist's own impending death — must surely have felt charged. (Freud at the same time was cogitating on ideas that would soon become "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" — his brilliant, speculative meditation on the so-called "death drive.") In the Bible, the story of Adam and Eve is linked not with a knitting together of heavenly and earthly realms, as in the art of Raphael, but with a fall from perfection, with the curse of original sin. But in this painting Klimt is less interested in any traditionally Christian take on original sin, and more concerned with emphasizing Eve's powerful eroticism. She may, as she emerges from the thigh of the shadowy male figure of Adam behind her, represent the liberation of female sexuality, but it is a sexuality you feel Klimt, and men in general, might feel threatened or overwhelmed by. His Eve, in other words, is not just a pretty woman. She is the archetype of the femme fatale — that evergreen product of the patriarchal imagination that was especially in vogue in Klimt's day. What are we to make of Klimt's vision a century later? His ideas, and his take on female sexuality, do not seem particularly current. It seems that he, like Freud and like his Scandinavian contemporaries Edvard Munch and August Strindberg, wanted to register the radical, tragic nature of the conflict between the sexes — to see it in all its terrible grandeur. Although these visions suggest strong streaks of misogyny — Strindberg, for instance, was "mocked and maddened," as Germaine Greer once wrote, "by the very inscrutability of the female body compared to the pathetic exposure of male libido" — they might in some ways contain truths ignored by our current tendency to trivialize the problem of male-female relations. Still, aesthetically, I find Klimt's style uncomfortable. At times, he can seem like a society portraitist and decorator looking for, but never quite finding, a deeper purpose. His much younger protégé, Egon Schiele, represented here by a charcoal and watercolor drawing and a drypoint from the MFA's collection, pushed his master's delicately dissonant aesthetic powerfully in the direction of naturalism — but it was a neurotic naturalism that frequently tipped over into histrionics. "Two Nudes (Lovers)" by Oskar Kokoschka. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The same tendency manifested itself, albeit with different results, in the work of Oskar Kokoschka. The MFA's Kokoschka, "Two Nudes (Lovers)" from 1913 — a portrait of the artist awkwardly embracing his lover, the legendary Alma Mahler, in a dismal-looking Eden — hangs here next to Klimt's "Adam and Eve." The juxtaposition intensifies, by contrast, the Klimt's decorative aspects, just as the Klimt's blushing fragility brings out the blowsy Expressionism of the Kokoschka. Neither is especially enhanced by the pairing. Klimt's drawings, it must be said, are among the most beautiful of the 20th century. They turn Raphael's incomplete arcs into looping, dancing tangles that twitch with erotic energy. Two are included here, along with Ferdinand Hodler's famous "Secession" poster from 1904, rounding off a fascinating, provocative display. Visiting Masterpiece : Gustav Klimt's Adam and Eve At: Museum of Fine Arts, through April 27. 617-267-9300. www.mfa.org Raphael: The Cowper Madonna At: Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, through Sept. 27. 508-799-4406, www.worcesterart.org • More from Sebastian Smee Sebastian Smee can be reached at ssmee@globe.com.

Future Landscape of Dairy Processing Information Day took place at the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise on 23 May .  The event was a first step in the process that will ultimately identify themes and areas of research that DPTC will engage in beyond 2019 (DPTC Phase II). Pictured are DPTC team members; Dr Abigail Pattenden, Orla Kelly and Mary Frost.

The actors in the pathogenesis of diabetes and its complications are many and multifaceted. The effects of elevated levels of glucose are myriad; among these is the generation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), the products of nonenzymatic glycoxidation of proteins and lipids. The finding that AGEs stimulate signal transduction cascades through the multiligand receptor RAGE unveiled novel insights into diabetes and its complications. Inextricably woven into AGE–RAGE interactions in diabetes is the engagement of the innate and adaptive immune responses. Although glucose may be the triggering stimulus to draw RAGE into diabetes pathology, consequent cellular stress results in release of proinflammatory RAGE ligands S100/calgranulins and HMGB1. We predict that once RAGE is engaged in the diabetic tissue, a vicious cycle of ligand–RAGE perturbation ensues, leading to chronic tissue injury and suppression of repair mechanisms. Targeting RAGE may be a beneficial strategy in diabetes, its complications, and untoward inflammatory responses. Serum endogenous secretory RAGE levels are inversely associated with carotid IMT in type 2 diabetic patients. Low circulating endogenous secretory receptor for AGEs predicts cardiovascular mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease. Blockade of RAGE suppresses alloimmune reactions in vitro and delays allograft rejection in murine heart transplantation. Hexameric calgranulin C (S100A12) binds to the receptor for advanced glycated end products (RAGE) using symmetric hydrophobic target-binding patches. Masquerader: high mobility group box-1 and cancer. Serum levels of sRAGE, the soluble form of receptor for advanced glycation end products, are associated with inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes. Receptor for advanced glycation end products--soluble form and gene polymorphisms in chronic haemodialysis patients. Structural and functional insights into RAGE activation by multimeric S100B. RAGE (Receptor for Advanced Glycation Endproducts), RAGE ligands, and their role in cancer and inflammation. (2009) Louis J Sparvero et al. Higher plasma soluble Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products (sRAGE) levels are associated with incident cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality in type 1 diabetes:... (2010) Johanna W M Nin et al. Effects of glycation of the model food allergen ovalbumin on antigen uptake and presentation by human dendritic cells (2010) Tamara Hilmenyuk et al. Association of serum soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products with subclinical cerebrovascular disease: the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS). (2011) Barry I Hudson et al. Soluble RAGE: therapy and biomarker in unraveling the RAGE axis in chronic disease and aging. (2010) Shi Fang Yan et al. RAGE and soluble RAGE: potential therapeutic targets for cardiovascular diseases. Hidenori Koyama et al. Serum levels of soluble form of receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) are correlated with AGEs in both diabetic and non-diabetic subjects (2007) K. Nakamura et al. Non-surgical periodontal therapy with and without subgingival minocycline administration in patients with poorly controlled type II diabetes: a randomized controlled clinical trial. (2012) Shih-Jung Lin et al. High-mobility group box-1 induces decreased brain-derived neurotrophic factor-mediated neuroprotection in the diabetic retina. (2013) Ahmed M Abu El-Asrar et al. Fluorescent advanced glycation end products and their soluble receptor: the birth of new plasmatic biomarkers for risk stratification of acute coronary syndrome. (2013) Sergio Raposeiras-Roubín et al. Involvement of TAGE-RAGE System in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy. (2010) Masayoshi Takeuchi et al. Effect of Nɛ-carboxymethyllysine on oxidative stress and the glutathione system in beta cells (2014) Boesten Daniëlle M.P.H.J et al. The Role of Advanced Glycation End Products in Diabetic Vascular Complications. (2018) Sang Youl Rhee et al. Serum asymmetric dimethylarginine levels are independently associated with procollagen III N-terminal peptide in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease patients. (2014) Hideyuki Hyogo et al.

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USMNT's first post-World Cup roster includes players you've never heard of — and exciting ones, too Henry Bushnell Alejandro Zendejas will likely play his first game for the USMNT next week. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images) The first U.S. men's national team roster of the 2026 World Cup cycle features 11 newbies and a few players you've likely never heard of. There's a defender whose entire professional career spans the United Soccer League and the Norwegian Eliteserien. There's a newly minted American citizen and a 25-year-old winger who plays in Denmark. There's even a Major League Soccer teenager who has never played a first-team game in Major League Soccer. There's the typical sprinkling of MLS veterans, of course, including a few who were in Qatar last month, but this squad, more than most, comes from everywhere and nowhere. It will play Serbia (Jan. 25) and Colombia (Jan. 28) next week in the USMNT's first two games since the 2022 World Cup. They'll occur amid coaching uncertainty and outside an official FIFA window, meaning clubs weren't required to release their players to national teams. With U.S. stars increasingly populating European clubs, therefore, many were unavailable — as they are every year for this annual January camp, colloquially known as "Camp Cupcake." But the camp, which will be led by caretaker coach Anthony Hudson while incumbent coach Gregg Berhalter is under investigation, is an opportunity for the stars of the next generation to emerge. It will welcome Gabriel "Gaga" Slonina, the 18-year-old goalkeeper expected to someday challenge Matt Turner for the USMNT's No. 1 gig. It could offer debuts to Paxten Aaronson, the brother of Brenden, and Alejandro Zendejas, a Mexican American dual national who has been excelling for Club América in Liga MX. Despite the Mexican league season overlapping with the USMNT's January camp, América agreed to allow Zendejas, a regular club starter, to participate in one of the two games. There will be eight players, including Slonina, Aaronson and Cade Cowell, who'll be eligible to represent the U.S. as under-23 participants at the 2024 Olympics, in its first men's soccer appearance at the Games since 2008. There are 24 players in total, some of whom might never see the field for the USMNT after this month. But several surely will. The full USMNT roster Goalkeepers (3): Roman Celentano (FC Cincinnati), Sean Johnson (free agent), Gaga Slonina (Chelsea) Defenders (8): Jonathan Gómez (Real Sociedad), Julian Gressel (Vancouver Whitecaps), DeJuan Jones (New England Revolution), Aaron Long (LAFC), Jalen Neal (LA Galaxy), Sam Rogers (Rosenborg), John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville) Midfielders (6): Paxten Aaronson (Eintracht Frankfurt), Kellyn Acosta (LAFC), Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas), Alan Soñora (free agent), Eryk Williamson (Portland Timbers) Forwards (7): Paul Arriola (FC Dallas), Cade Cowell (San Jose Earthquakes), Jesús Ferreira (FC Dallas), Matthew Hoppe (Middlesbrough), Emmanuel Sabbi (Odense), Brandon Vazquez (FC Cincinnati), Alejandro Zendejas (Club América) The most exciting USMNT newcomers Among the 24 players, Slonina is the biggest name. The Illinois native turned pro at age 14 and moved from the Chicago Fire to Chelsea for an eight-figure fee at age 18. He was in the mix for a 2022 World Cup roster spot. He and his former Fire teammate, 18-year-old Chris Brady, are considered the USMNT goalkeepers of the future. The most notable inclusion in this squad, though, is Zendejas, an attacking midfielder who has been the subject of a controversial recruiting battle between the U.S. and Mexico. He was born in Ciudad Juárez, then moved to Texas as a child. He played alongside Christian Pulisic and other current USMNTers with the U.S. under-17s, including at the 2015 U-17 World Cup — but later played for Mexico U-level national teams as well. He accepted a Mexico senior-team call-up in 2021 and debuted for El Tri in a friendly, and that's where his situation got messy. To play for Mexico, per FIFA rules, he would have needed to file a one-time switch of association away from the U.S. He apparently never did. With the 2022 World Cup approaching and Zendejas presumably a candidate for El Tri's roster, the Mexican soccer federation reportedly asked Zendejas to sign a document "renouncing" his affiliation with the U.S.; he reportedly declined. Amid the confusion and controversy, he established himself as a regular at Club América. He has now accepted his first USMNT call-up — though his international soccer future won't be tied to the U.S. until he appears in a competitive senior game, the first of which could be in March. Hudson said in a Q&A published by U.S. Soccer that the USMNT staff "didn't think" they'd get Zendejas for the January camp and expressed "huge appreciation" to América for allowing him to join. Hudson said Zendejas is "going to play [for América on Jan. 21], that day that camp starts but they're going to let him fly in and play [for the U.S.] against Serbia." He'll then fly back to Mexico City and play for América on the 28th instead of staying with the USMNT for its second match of the week against Colombia, a team spokesperson confirmed. The other players with the brightest futures are Aaronson, a 19-year-old attacker who joined Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt from the Philadelphia Union this month; John Tolkin, an adventurous 20-year-old left back for the New York Red Bulls; and Cowell, another Mexican-American dual national who has burst onto the scene with the San Jose Earthquakes as a teen. Cowell debuted for the USMNT in a December 2021 friendly. Other notable call-ups include Brandon Vazquez, a breakout MLS striker who'll attempt to establish himself as a potential No. 9 throughout the 2026 cycle, and Alan Soñora, a New Jersey-born midfielder who has spent most of his life in Argentina. He played regularly for Independiente, a top-flight Argentine club, in 2021 and 2022, and has been linked with a move to MLS. Then there are the out-of-nowhere inclusions: Sam Rogers is a 23-year-old Seattle Sounders youth product who started his pro career in the USL before moving to HamKam and then Rosenborg in Norway. Emmanuel Sabbi is an Italy-born product of Ohio and Chicago-area youth clubs. He then moved to Las Palmas in Spain as a teen and has spent his first-team career with Hobro and Odense in Denmark. The Danish and Norwegian leagues, like MLS, do not play through the winter months, allowing those players to join the January camp. Others, such as Slonina, Jonathan Gomez and Matthew Hoppe, meanwhile, are available because they are not regulars for their respective clubs. Many will be fringe players at best for the USMNT going forward. Of the 27 players called into 2019 January camp, only one (Walker Zimmerman) started games and two played minutes at the 2022 World Cup. The following year, though, January granted opportunity to players such as Matt Turner and Brenden Aaronson, and that, precisely, is the point. Even if just a few someday make a meaningful impact, the week in Southern California will have been worthwhile. The games will be played at the homes of MLS' two Los Angeles clubs, Banc of California Stadium and Dignity Health Sports Park. They kick off at 10 p.m. ET Jan. 25 (HBO Max, Universo, Peacock) and at 7:30 p.m. ET Jan. 28 (TNT, Telemundo, Peacock). Bennylyn Burke: Man admits killing mum and her two-year-old daughter in Scotland but denies murder Andrew Innes, 52, admits killing but denies murder of Bennylyn Burke and Jellica Burke 'Ferocious' knife attack killed random stranger in Oxford Street, court hears Jurors at the Old Bailey were shown graphic CCTV footage of the attack outside the Microsoft store in the heart of London's shopping district Flybe: Where are the worst-hit travellers after airline goes bust for second time? Analysis shows Flybe struggled to fill half its seats Founders of education provider Twinkl study £500m Vitruvian deal The husband-and-wife team who founded one of Britain's biggest privately owned educational resources providers are close to sealing a deal that will propel them into the ranks of the country's richest entrepreneurs. Sky News has learned that Jon and Susie Seaton, who established Twinkl in 2010 in a bedroom in their Sheffield home, are in advanced talks with the private equity firm Vitruvian Partners about the sale of a minority stake. 'Unions expressing views to members is unhelpful', says Govt The education minister says that it is "disappointing" that the NEU has decided to go ahead with teachers strikes, adding "unions are expressing views to their membership and I think that it is unhelpful". Nick Gibb also says "it isn't helpful" if members are being asked not to tell headteachers if they are striking by unions. Are sanctions working? Why Russia's economy continues to grow Sanctions on Russia 'might not be having the impact the West had hoped' US dairy policies drive small farms to 'get big or get out' as monopolies get rich Exclusive: Misguided policies have hurt small-scale farms while enriching agribusinesses and corporate lobbyists, analysis shows News Shopper Wilding has its moment! - Martha Rolison of Simon Langton Girls Grammar School Surprise as the first Bison calf is born in the UK for 1000 years.

King Fahad National Library Saudi Arabia, Riyadh Design and project management Gerber Architekten Installations products Qbuc Adapta Plus executive desk Adapta Plus meeting table Adapta Plus workstation The King Fahd National Library, one of the most important cultural buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, was furnished by JG. This installation is, without doubt, one of the company's major successes in recent years, and one of JG's most important projects. The project acts as the central driving force behind urban development and combines the challenge of designing within an existing building with respect for Arab culture. The new building is covered by a filigree textile facade drawing on traditional Middle Eastern architectural lines. It is an exterior see-through cladding made up of white diamond shaped awnings. The membranes are supported by a steel structure, giving them the appearance of canopies in a modern technological interpretation of the Arabian tent structure. JG furnished the building with the Adapta, AMT and Qbuc ranges with various finishes based on the way in which each workstation was to be used: maple and aluminium for the reading and study area; white and aluminium for the administration area. The versatility of the Adapta range, the integration of work and filing solutions in a single brand, and the rapid delivery of project and product requirements were crucial in outfitting this iconic building.

I live in Colorado Springs. With over 9,000 acres of lush parks, 500 acres of trail ways and 5,000 acres of beautiful open space, Colorado Springs fosters active lifestyles 365 days a year with a stunning Pike's Peak backdrop. It's no wonder that Colorado Springs was listed as Money Magazine's #1 Best Place to Live in 2006 and ranked #1 on Outside's list of America's Best Cities in 2009. Military relocation is a specialty living in CO Springs, I understand the complications that come along with that move & am here to help every step of the way. I look forward to helping you make the home buying process easy & enjoyable. As both a resident and professional in this area, I am a great resource for information on the real estate market: including schools scores, shop and restaurant development, local amenities, public transportation, business/economy updates and upcoming area projects. And I understand firsthand that safe neighborhoods and welcoming communities are paramount when choosing a home.

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Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing heads to Donington Park this weekend for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with both its Q50 race cars ready for action. A fortnight after Lesmahagow's Derek Palmer debuted the first race car at Brands Hatch, notching two impressive top 20 finishes, the 28-year-old Scot is joined by team-mate Richard Hawken. The 42-year-old from Walton on Thames sat out the season opener, but will now take his place on the grid for Sunday's BTCC triple-header. The Mallory Park-based team's Infiniti Q50 race cars are prepared by injured ex-servicemen from the Parachute Regiment, with all team profits being donated to Support Our Paras, the official Regiment charity. And Palmer admitted he's targeting his first championship points in Sunday's high-speed triple-header at the Derbyshire circuit. "Yeh, that has to be the goal really," Palmer said today. "That's what I really want to do! Of course it's going to be tough, but we showed at Brands that the team is capable of delivering improvements throughout a race weekend. Hawken meanwhile is looking forward to making his full BTCC debut this weekend. How important to you was it to get three BTCC races under your belt at Brands Hatch? I think it was very important for us to do that. We went into the weekend with the idea of getting as much running in as possible. With such limited testing going into the start of the season, we wanted to learn more about our car and the package we have produced. We achieved this and also had great reliability with only a small power steering issue in race one. I think looking to Donington we want to see another big step forward with the car and ultimately move further up the grid. Was the step up to the BTCC more challenging than you had imagined? I know how tough the BTCC is and how good you have to be to get into the mix, so it was what I expected being honest. What really impressed me was the whole team effort that was put in to make the race weekend a success. We jumped in at the deep end and everyone made a very professional job of it, even when they were under immense pressure in a very stressful situation: but I suppose that's what the Paras excel at, so I shouldn't really be surprised at all! Your times improved impressively through all sessions at Brands Hatch, ultimately delivering two top-20 finishes: are points a possibility at Donington? That has to be the goal really. That's what I really want to do! Of course it's going to be tough, but we showed at Brands that the team is capable of delivering improvements throughout a race weekend. If we continue doing that, and we get the rub of the green, then yes, points are a possibility. What race experience do you have of Donington? I've raced there quite a few times in British GT, single seaters and historics. I love the circuit and I'm excited about the weekend! Finally, can you sum up the level of work and commitment the Paras achieve in preparing your car. I don't think the boys ever stop when we are back at base. I leave and come back and they are still there: they're machines! They are completely dedicated to it. They know, as we all do, that we have a massive learning curve and a mountain to climb to achieve our ultimate goal, but we are just all working as hard as we can to scale it as quickly as we can. This is where it's great to have partners like Infiniti to help us with the task and also bring their experience and insight into the project. It's hard for me to put it into words. The only thing I would encourage anyone to do is stop by the Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing garage at Donington Park this weekend and see them in action. Believe me, you'll be impressed. How have you prepared for your debut in the BTCC? The BTCC is a tough championship to both get in to, and compete in, so over the winter I undertook a very serious fitness campaign with the help of a personal trainer: that has prepared me physically, plus helped shed a further 2kg. Mentally I have for many years visualised racing in the championship for the first time, but I still think when the lights go out on Sunday there will be an enormous rush of nervous excitement. Acknowledging the step up from Club Touring car racing into the 'Premier League', I have also spent valuable time with a driver tutor and a few sessions with a professional sports coach (a friend's father) to get the 'head edge'. I think no matter what you do, nothing can prepare you enough though. How difficult was it to sit-out the opening race weekend at Brands Hatch? Sitting out Brands Hatch was tough for many reasons. Firstly it's my local track, as I live in Surrey 45 mins away; secondly it's the circuit I have had the most poles, most outright wins and most fastest laps on in the Super Touring cars I raced. So when you're confident and you lose your seat for that race it becomes very tough indeed to handle the rush of emotions and disappointment. Hopefully it's not an experience I will need to relive again in my racing career. How challenging do you expect the step up to the BTCC to be? It's the BTCC, so no matter how much you probably think you're ready, there's always the unknown. Having raced classic Super Touring cars where we are all owner-drivers of these fantastic machines, we try not to damage them by staying 1-2 cms apart. The BTCC drivers make a car fit into a bicycle-sized hole, so I think when we start mixing it up as we progress through the pack, the physicality of it will be quite challenging to deal with. I just need to learn to give as good as I get. First time out: what's your expectations for Donington Park? Essentially, Free Practice 1 will be getting used to the feel of the car, as well as collecting critical data for the engineers to work with. FP2 is where I aim to start nibbling time out of the lap as we prepare for qualifying in the afternoon. Ultimately I am a racer, so I want to do as well as I can. However, being a debutant and not having had the experience from the first race weekend, or testing for that matter, I am looking to finish all three races well, hopefully without drama. If I can break into the top 20 I will pat myself on the back and consider than an achievement for my first weekend. I have raced at Donington a number of times over the years with the BARC and BRSCC, visiting the podium more than once. My first experience of the circuit was in a RWD Thundersaloon, so I'll be digging deep to retrieve those experiences. Latterly was with my Vauxhall Cavalier and Nissan Primera Super Tourers. For me the circuit's up there with the best of them, alongside Brands Hatch and Oulton Park. I enjoy the sweeping high speed bends combined with the necessary technical precision to nit a decent lap together. Last time out at Donington I broke the Nissan's gearbox and only had the top three gears, yet still managed a podium. I have the whole team to thank for their total dedication in preparing both Derek's and my Infiniti Q50 race cars for Donington. The Paras are such a tenacious, motivated bunch and no more perfectly illustrated than seeing them working on race cars … our race cars. Eighteen hours a day is a feat for a regular person, let alone one who has suffered injuries, yet nothing stops these guys and nothing phases them. It's just incredible to be a part of, and learn their ethos. One thing I have learned from the Paras recently: always know the job above you and step in when necessary.

Texas, you make me proud! I love my vintage Texas recipe box filled with fabulous recipes like Dutch Apple Cake, three different recipes for Devil's Food Cake, Never Fail Ice Box Rolls, and Boston Cream Pie. This Red Devils Food Cake (from Charis) is so easy and takes basic ingredients you will likely have on hand. If you don't have buttermilk, use lemon juice to sour your milk. You can bake this in two 8-inch or two 9-inch cake pans, a large sheet pan, or pretty much whatever you have on hand. A few notes: you'll add the boiling water and think "what a freaking hot mess" when you look at your bowl of batter. Stir, stir, and stir again. The water will be incorporated and you'll be left with a great, classic chocolate cake batter that rises well and tastes delicious. The recipe didn't say how long to bake – but I guessed at 30-35 minutes and it worked out just fine, resulting in well baked cakes with a nice amount of spring to them. For the love of baking, however, please grease your pans with generous amount of butter and flour or lay parchment on the the bottom because they have serious potential to stick if you do not. Stuck cakes make me frustrated…. I originally intended to frost this cake with a chocolate icing from an old Hershey's cookbook that has been well used and loved in my family. I royally screwed it up. It called for melting sugar in boiling water and cooking to the soft ball (candy) stage, then pouring this mixture into whipped egg whites and mixing until cool, folding in cocoa powder at the very end. Sounds amazing. Complete disaster. My icing never got firm enough and was like chocolate soup. Round two was a whipped butter and powdered sugar chocolate icing mixed with a bit of heavy cream which worked, thank God, because I was by this point I'd been baking all day and needed some chocolate cake right now. In the end I'd run out of daylight for shooting so apologies for the flash photography of the finished product. But no apologies for the huge wedge of cake I managed to eat as a reward for being in the kitchen and fighting with icing for the better part of the afternoon. May your cake be wonderful and your icing be firm ~ Enjoy! Red Devils Food Cake from a vintage Texas recipe box. Chocolate and buttermilk combine to form a classic, chocolate cake. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Add vanilla and buttermilk. Stir until incorporated into batter. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir well. Last: add boiling water to batter. Stir well. Grease and flour cake pan(s). Divide batter equally into pans (if using two). Bake at 350* for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely on rack.

68.33% people happy with AP govt : RGS Survey.. 68.33% people in Guntur, Krishna & Visakha district's are happy with the various welfare and development schemes of AP govt as per the recent Real Time Governance Society survey. Reports say that different category people responded differently over the schemes while expressing satisfaction. People expressed 80% satisfaction over Sand sales, Anna Amruta Hastam, Mid-day-meals, Balamrutham, NTR medical services, mother & child express, AP fibre net, employment & Chandranna medical centres. AP govt has received average response on some of the schemes, functioning of certain departments and especially from farmers over which CM demanded explanation from collectors.

The Delebrities What do you get when you cross a designer with a celebrity? This year saw the answer. By Marc Karimzadeh Plus Icon Marc Karimzadeh Recent Articles by Marc Karimzadeh SMCP Appoints Christophe Cuvillier Chairman Analysts, Markets Think Unilever's GSK Consumer Bid Is a Bad Idea December 11, 2007, 12:00am "I got Roberto's cigar!" a young woman shouted during Roberto Cavalli's appearance in New York to launch his line for Hennes & Mauritz in November. "It fell down when he stood here. I waited until he walked away, then picked it up and put it in a plastic Ziploc bag. I'm going to sell it on eBay. It's open to all bidders." View the full coverage of WWD Year in Fashion 2007 at www.wwd.com/yearfashion07 When a designer's cigar butt is as desirable as some of his clothes, you know that strange times have taken hold of the industry. More so than ever, 2007 was the year that all lines blurred between designers and celebrities, with a continued crossover between the two, at all price levels. While some designers like Cavalli and Vera Wang were treated like movie stars at their lower-priced launches, every celebrity worth his or her salt, from Madonna to Victoria Beckham, has taken a stab at designing clothes. If anything, all the activity furthered the notion of the "massification" of fashion, with exclusive designer names available at accessible prices and well-known Hollywood names leaving their mark on department store fixtures. "It's all happening because there is too much going on in fashion," said David Wolfe, a creative director at the Doneger Group. "The consumer is desperate for some guidance to sort out the crowded retail landscape. Because the media tells us so much about celebrities, people have an idea of what their image means in terms of fashion, and if they can connect a name to an image and merchandise, it makes shopping so much easier." Here are just some of the big names attached to deals that happened this year: -Paris Hilton — who later in the year was arrested and jailed in a lengthy soap opera — kicked things off with the news of contemporary sportswear and lingerie lines, slated for a fall retail launch. The sportswear is licensed to BBC Apparel Group Inc., and the lingerie is licensed to SBH Intimates Inc. and includes mesh baby-doll nighties, corsets, panties and bras. -Jennifer Lopez also widened her reach in January when she unveiled designs for a junior clothing line called justsweet, which complements the contemporary Sweetface line and replaced JLO by Jennifer Lopez at retail. Lopez showcased the designs during New York Fashion Week in September. -In February, Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham lifted the veil on her lifestyle empire with dVb, starting off with a line of sunglasses, which was followed in May with a collection of slim-cut denim pants. September saw the launch in the U.S. of fragrances with her husband, soccer star David Beckham. The jeans, from $285 to $325 at suggested retail, featured details such as contrast stitching, colored zippers and purple pocket linings, while the sunglasses, which sell at a suggested price of $280 on average, were mostly oversize. By the end of the year, Posh would be back onstage in a different way, via a Spice Girls reunion tour. -In March, H&M launched the M by Madonna line, her first full collection for the retailer after designing a capsule line of tracksuits in 2006. The collection featured everything from kimono-style dresses, tailored jackets and knee-length hipster shorts to accessories such as lace-up boots, skinny leather belts and sunglasses. The one-season collection was available in H&M stores in 26 countries. (There has even been talk of Madonna launching a fragrance, though that would not be with H&M.) That same month, the Swedish retail chain also tapped Kylie Minogue as the muse of a new beachwear line called H&M Loves Kylie. -Retail chain Steve & Barry's took a bite out of the celebrity designer field when it unveiled a deal with Sarah Jessica Parker in March. The line, called Bitten and inspired by Parker's personal closet, launched at the chain's 200-plus stores in June, offering apparel, swimwear, costume jewelry, handbags, belts, sunglasses and shoes at $19.98 or less. In May, the Port Washington, N.Y.-based chain disclosed its deal with actress Amanda Bynes for an apparel and accessories collection called Dear, which launched in August. Like Bitten, pieces sold for $19.98 or less. Also in August, Steve & Barry's introduced a special collection with Venus Williams called EleVen, which hit stores with sneakers, velour tracksuits, pleated tennis skirts, fleece jackets and graphic T-shirts. The under-$19.98 line launched at retail in November. -In April, Gap unveiled the Gap Design Editions, featuring a collection by Doo-Ri Chung, Thakoon Panichgul and Rodarte's Kate and Laura Mulleavy. The four emerging designers offered their take on Gap's classic white shirt, which retailed in select Gap stores for $68 to $88. The limited edition project was an offshoot of Gap's partnership with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, and came with a marketing initiative that included a striking black-and-white print and outdoor advertising campaign shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin and featuring the designers with Stella Tennant, Liya Kebede and Carmen Kass. The shirts were also featured on Vogue's May cover. -British chain Topshop jumped on the celeb bandwagon in May when a long-term collection designed by Kate Moss hit its stores in the U.K. and was greeted by a mob scene of fans and fashion lovers. The Kate Moss for Topshop collection is inspired by the model's personal wardrobe, with such pieces as racer-back minidresses, cotton tank tops in Crayola colors and denim HotPants. The collection was also sold at Collette in Paris, Corso Como in Milan and Barneys New York, bringing Moss' design sensibility to each fashion capital. -Vera Wang entered the moderate market with the Very Vera lifestyle brand, which is exclusive to Kohl's and hit the retailer's nearly 1,000 doors in the first week of September. It featured such looks as a brocade car coat for $138 at retail and a silky dress for $128, while the lion's share of the line is available for $30 to $70. -That same month, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen unveiled Elizabeth and James, a contemporary sportswear line named after the Olsens' younger sister, Elizabeth, and older brother, James. The partnership with L'Koral Industries launched at stores including Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and Intermix for fall. -June saw the arrival of Sienna Miller on the celebrity fashion circuit. In conjunction with Carlos Ortega, the Spanish entrepreneur who owns companies such as Pepe Jeans, Miller and her older sister, Savannah, launched the Twenty8Twelve contemporary clothing line. Fall's line included printed silk dresses, denim jeans, cropped tuxedo jackets, canvas trenches and leather bomber jackets, at wholesale price points between $24 and $177. It sold exclusively at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, Neiman Marcus in Los Angeles and Holt Renfrew in Canada in the first season. -Also in June, Ashley Judd jumped into the celebrity designer pool when she inked a deal for a collection with moderate-price retailer Goody's Family Clothing Inc. The three Judd-designed labels — AJ; Love, Ashley, and Ashley Judd — feature such looks as organic and knit T-shirts, sweaters, blazers, blouses, cardigans and denim. And rapper-actress Eve relaunched her young contemporary "Fetish" sportswear collection that included leather jackets, oversize cozy sweaters, high-waisted denim jeans and skirts, leather pants, wool plaid shorts and a few logo T-shirts, from about $50 to $300 wholesale. -Cavalli unveiled the designs for his H&M guest gig in November. In typical Cavalli manner, the 40-piece line was glamorous and festive with animal prints, Lurex, ink-blue denim, fake fur and metallic accents. It was available at 200 H&M stores worldwide, including 10 in the U.S., with prices from $59 to $198, and supported by an advertising campaign that Terry Richardson photographed. -Throughout 2007, Target continued on its quest to bring fashion to the masses, offering collections by Proenza Schouler, Patrick Robinson, Libertine and Erin Fetherston under its Go International initiative. Each collaboration included heavy TV and print advertising, which helped raise the designers' profiles in markets their upscale runway clothes wouldn't necessarily reach. -Similarly, Japanese chain Uniqlo brought in the likes of Alice Roi, Phillip Lim, Lutz & Patmos, Jones and Maruyam to create special limited edition lines for its stores. "It's a reality that's not going away, but it runs the risk of having some backlash if there is too much," Robert Burke, founder of fashion consultancy Robert Burke Associates, said of the "delebrity" phenomenon. "The consumer wants to know that there is some authenticity to the collaborations. If it's not authentic and not genuine, the consumer can sense that and it will not be popular." Burke said these celebrity lines are appealing because turning an unknown name into a brand can be a lengthy and expensive prospect. "Introducing a celebrity collaboration can offer a much faster growth and a wider range of distribution," he noted. On the flip side, he added, guest collaborations like Karl Lagerfeld or Cavalli at H&M can help the designer gain recognition and visibility. "It often boosts sales in their fragrance or other classifications because of this name recognition," Burke said. "Cavalli probably got $20 million-plus in marketing exposure and he got it on someone else's budget." Michael Fink, vice president and women's fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue, said, "This idea of fashion for the mainstream is intriguing. I love the concept that current fashion deals are reaching a part of the public it used to take seasons to filter down to." As for celebrity lines, Fink said at a retailer like Saks, it is irrelevant whether the designer is a celebrity or not as long as the product is well-made and addresses a missing niche in a woman's wardrobe. And that trend could soon run out of steam. "How many celebrities are left that are not the new blonde of the day?" he said, laughing. "I think we are running out of celebrities. Too many are interchangeable."

Q: connecting to clickhouse in R I am new to clickhouse. I am trying to set connection in the following way: library(DBI) con <- dbConnect(clickhouse::clickhouse(), host="localhost", port=8123L, user="default", password="") but I get this error: Error in .local(drv, ...) : dbIsValid(con) is not TRUE I have tested the authentication and they are correct. I also check the connection with dbCanconnect and I get this error: "fail to connect: Operation now in progress" Could you please help on that?

Our investment strategy About Private Equity WPEF VIII Investor Portal WPEF III-VII Investor Portal New growth alliance in the sleep segment: Waterland acquires RUF|Betten and BRUNO from NORD Holding Investment group Waterland Private Equity ("Waterland") has acquired RUF|Betten and BRUNO. The company is among the leading suppliers of premium beds in the German market. The seller is NORD Holding. RUF and BRUNO's current management will remain with the companies in their usual function. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022 and is subject to the usual antitrust approval by the German regulatory authorities; no further financial details have been released. Based in the town of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg, RUF|Betten was established in 1926 and currently has around 200 employees. RUF has a comprehensive offering of box spring beds and upholstered beds and entered the sofa bed market in 2021. The company manufactures over 30,000 high-quality beds each year. The long-established company specialises in stationary furniture sales and prides itself on a high level of individualisation, modern design, and top-class product quality. Headquartered in Berlin, BRUNO is a direct-to-consumer company (D2C) that specialises in online direct sales of high-quality designer box spring beds and sofa beds. In just a few years, BRUNO has successfully built a leading market position in the D2C bedroom furniture segment in Germany. BRUNO joined the group at the beginning of 2020. The annual turnover of the group amounts to EUR 60 million. With the support of the new owner and buy-&-build investor Waterland, the group intends to continue its successful growth trajectory and further accelerate it in the medium term through strategic acquisitions. The focus is on continued internationalisation as well as the expansion of the direct-to-consumer division. Discussing the many years of collaboration, Ronald Grott, member of the management at NORD Holding, notes: "We are very proud of the growth and success that the RUF Group has achieved in the last five years. This investment is an outstanding example of NORD Holding's strategy of supporting high-quality companies from the DACH region and management teams in order to expand nationally and internationally and foster growth through transformative M&A. We are confident that RUF and BRUNO are in good, experienced hands with Waterland." "Thanks to the support from NORD Holding, we have enjoyed outstanding growth in recent years. Together with Waterland, we want to raise this growth to the next level. We are looking forward to the collaboration and to breaking new and innovative ground", says Heiner Goossens, Managing Director of RUF|Betten. "We believe that this new partnership opens up further value creation opportunities, particularly in the D2C area. We are looking forward to working with Waterland to strengthen the BRUNO and RUF brands even further in the years ahead", adds Dr. Felix Baer, BRUNO's Managing Director. "RUF|Betten has a wide, loyal customer base, ambitious staff, and experienced management. With BRUNO, the group is also exceptionally well positioned in the D2C segment and has consistently managed to gain market share in recent years", explains Dr. Carsten Rahlfs, Managing Partner at Waterland. "We intend to build on this growth trajectory through organic drivers as well as further acquisitions in the years ahead. We are looking forward to a successful partnership." Austrian Private Equity & Venture Capital Organisation (AVCO) Belgian Venturing Association (BVA) British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) Bundesverband deutscher Kapitalbeteiligungsgesellschaften (BVK) Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA) Nederlandse Vereniging van Participatiemaatschappijen (NVP) Polskie Stowarzyszenie Inwestorow Kapitalowych (PSIK) Swiss Private Equity & Corporate Finance Association (SECA) Private Equity International Awards 2019: Firm of the year in Benelux. Preqin Global Private Equity & Venture Capital Report 2020: Featured as one of the most consistent top performing buyout fund managers. The Private Equity Awards 2020: Finalist. copyright © Waterland -disclaimer & privacy statement-Speak up!- launched by Major Tom Necessary (always enabled) Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and are used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

U15/U18 Girls T20 Cricket Cups U12/U13/U15 Netball Cups U14 Rugby Union Cup A Life in the Week of My Sporting Life Pupil Diary Tennis Tours Top 100 sports schools Home About School Sport Magazine Subscribe Contact Thinking of subscribing? Don't take our word for it. "I've been teaching PE for 16 years and School Sport Magazine is the first and only publication that I actually read because I want read it. It's not just selected articles either. Everything in there is relevant, interesting and topical. The extensive coverage of all national competitions and the articles on a life in the week of, state and independent schools are also worth reading. The editorial team are very approachable, supportive and generous. They publish what you say and not what they want. Everyone at School Sport Magazine is on exactly the same wavelength as all of us PE teachers. I just love reading about other schools' facilities, provision for sport, famous or interesting staff, sports tours, unique achievements etc. When our school featured as a successful state sports school, our headmaster asked why I'd never shown him the magazine before. Now he's a subscriber too." John Deadman - Dr Challoner's Grammar School "School Sport Magazine is refreshing and informative and acts as a catalyst for discussions in common rooms around the country. From individual diaries, to school reviews and updates on national competitions, School Sport Magazine is the primary school sport resource in this country. Long may it continue." Aly Osborne - Whitgift School "As a head of department, it is great to be kept up to date with new initiatives with school sport. We all went into teaching to make a difference to our pupils so the sharing of ideas and being made aware of any changes or concerns is a real help and School Sport Magazine does just this." Liam Kane – Kings College School, Wimbledon "School Sport Magazine rarely stays on the PE staffroom table for long. It provides some really topical talking points amongst PE staff. We particularly like the review of national schools competitions and the 'life in the week' feature. The regular information bulletins on minibus driving always provide a source for a healthy debate at break times." Ian Breeze - Dame Alice Owen's School "We are delighted with School Sport Magazine. It is so relevant to all we do in PE. Keep up the good work." Chris Moore - Queen's School, Chester "Your excellent publication keeps me up to date with a wide range of sporting developments. You provide an informative magazine but are also prepared to take on board serious issues involving school sport. School Sport magazine is now in my opinion an essential part of any physical education department that is aspiring towards excellence. Long may you continue to publish." Martyn Rock – Stafford Sports College "School Sport Magazine has very interesting articles. We especially like the ones relating to individual school experiences on how they run their sport as well as topical issues." Trevor Barker – QEGS Wakefield "I find your magazine first class and always enjoy reading it." Colin Holman - Woodcote House School National governing bodies "Rounders England have been advertising with School Sport Magazine for many years. The publication is the most cost-effective method for us to use, to raise awareness of the work we undertake and the competitions that we host within the full spectrum of the education sector. School Sport Magazine helps us reach a new target audience, one that would otherwise be beyond our reach." Julia Rice. Rounders England "Many congratulation on a magazine, which just gets better and better. Very informative, excellent results service and tackles many of the important issues, which need an airing. More power to your elbow." Ken Lake – English Schools Cricket Association "The English Schools' Table Tennis Association places the importance of communication high on its priority list. If any sport is to grow, it needs to communicate directly with new audiences. Since its inception, School Sport Magazine has provided a vehicle to reach out to the wider school population through its readiness to report on all of our activities and developmental projects. Not only has it regularly reported, it has reported well. The Editor and his staff are to be congratulated." John Arnold - English Schools Table Tennis Association "We enjoy working with School Sport Magazine. They have been very supportive in helping promote our products and programmes and it's always an interesting read and to catch up on developments across the school sport sector." Tom Gibbins – Tennis Foundation "The Schools Amateur Boxing Association realises that sport can and does change lives. School Sport Magazine is a powerful tool in helping to change young people's lives. All involved enjoy reading reports about their participation in sport. School Sport Magazine has filled a market gap by informing schools about good practice and developments. Reporting about school sport informs, educates and most importantly motivates. This has most certainly been the case with schools boxing. Publicity is an important ingredient in the success of any activity and the Schools Amateur Boxing Association is grateful for the support of School Sport Magazine. Staff at the Sobell Sports Centre in Islington, London, have read School Sport Magazine reports about schools boxing and as a result have invited SABA to work in partnership with them. SABA will now begin to work in London." Frank Collinson – Schools Amateur Boxing Association "The English Schools' Football Association is a regular contributor to School Sport Magazine. The magazine is a very good vehicle not only for the Association to post important inter-school, inter-district, inter-county and international results but also allows us to advertise for our commercial sponsors. All the Association members are either teachers or retired teachers, mostly with a physical education background, who find the articles on all school sports to be interesting and informative. Whilst curriculum physical education has partially moved away from sport in favour of health and fitness, it is good to have a magazine which is dedicated to all those teachers who give up their time to continue this countries high regard for school sports. Best wishes for your 9th year." John Read – English Schools Football Association Thinking of advertising? "It is a pleasure working with School Sport Magazine. The publication is wholly relevant to our target audience. Its content gels well with our brand ethos and it has the breadth of reach we're looking for. They are also responsive and helpful in all our communications, which always makes things that much simpler and easier." Sarah Taylor, marketing manager, Squadkit/Schoolblazer School Sport Magazine opens up potential partnership agreements with educational establishments from all sectors. The ability to get a message like…we are UK and our leadtimes are really quick…via the magazine is proving invaluable. Peter Kennedy – O'Neills New Business Manager "As a small sports specialist company, we spend most of our time and effort looking after our school and retail customers. Because of a lack of time and resources, raising awareness of who we are and what we do is increasingly difficult. Our friends at School Sport Magazine add real value in helping us to plan our advertising schedule and spread the word to other potential customers. We highly recommend their services to others." Paul Franklin, director, Martin Berrill Sports "At sportsequip.co.uk, we have many years of experience solving the sports and play issues that schools commonly face and understand their ever-tightening budgetary requirements. School Sport Magazine provides sportsequip.co.uk with an invaluable source of relevant industry news and information to ensure we remain up to date, alongside an excellent platform to connect with our customers through advertising." Robert Boyd – www.sportsequip.co.uk "School Sport Magazine is a clearly focused publication with interesting articles covering a wide range of sports. Advertising is charged for at rates which small companies such as ours can afford. Most importantly advertising is hassle free with no high pressure telephone marketing as with a number of other magazines." John Wilkinson – Aresson Sports "Ten years after I ended my teaching career, I came across School Sport Magazine while waiting for a director of sport to discuss tours and touring. I had but a few seconds to flick through the pages, but even this was enough to make me look for a copy as soon as possible. A closer read of the magazine pleased me very much. Elitism was confined to athletic performance. The grand independent schools were given their due, but no more than any other school. Always the performer (s) were central to an article, a (very) wide range of sports were covered in every edition and the details of fixtures, results and upcoming events were comprehensive. In just about every edition, there seemed an ongoing philosophy that sport enables people to develop and evolve far more than it is given credit for." Mike Williams – Intoursport World Travel © Copyright 2014 - 2017 School Sport Magazine. All Rights Reserved. School Sport office address: School Sport Magazine, 76 Loxwood Road, Lovedean, Hampshire, PO8 9TY Telephone: 023 9259 4536 | E-mail: [email protected] Built, Hosted and maintenanced by Swiftcreations Web Designers

Fringe benefits like FSAs can be confusing, but they don't have to be. An employer is the provider of a fringe benefit, even if a third party provides the actual benefit. Fringe benefits are taxable unless they are specifically excluded from an employee's income. Here, let's take a deeper dive into the most common fringe benefits that can be excluded from income. Below, we've outlined some common employee fringe benefits. For more information, please review IRS Publication 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits. While the following information is current for 2018, the IRS changes the exclusion limits annually. Be sure to double check with a tax professional to be sure you're using the most up-to-date information. In our previous article, take a look at the section entitled: Classifying an Employee as a Non-Employee For Specific Fringe Benefits. There, you'll find more information about the various types of ineligible employees defined by the IRS. We hope this helps you navigate which employees are exempt from which fringe benefits. What it is: Accident & health plans. Also applies to payments made to an employee under an accident plan. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: Most employees, with the exception of greater than 2% shareholders of an S-corporation. What it is: Self-insured plans that do not favor highly compensated employees. Includes medical care reimbursement plans. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: Most employees, with the exception of greater than 2% shareholders of an S-corporation, provided that the benefit does not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. What it is: This is an award that is given to an employee for either length of service or a safety achievement. Cannot include cash or intangible property such as vacations, meals, lodging, tickets, stocks, or securities. Limited to a value of $1,600 per year. See chapter 2 of IRS Publication 535, Business Expenses, for more details. What it is: An employer may pay or reimburse adopted expenses an employee incurs. An employer shouldn't pay more than 5% of its payments during the year for shareholders or owners (or their spouses or dependents) and the benefit should not favor highly compensated employee. All payments must be reported on Form W-2 in Box 12 with Code "T". For more information see Instructions for Form 8839, Qualified Adoption Expenses. What it is: An employer can provide athletic facility to its employees tax-free provided that (i) the facility must be located on premises the employer owns or leases, and (ii) it is operated by the employer exclusively for the use of current or retired employees, their spouses, and dependent children. Partners in a partnership are treated as employees for this benefit. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: All employees, as well as former employees, partners and widows or widowers of former employees, provided it satisfies the necessary requirements. What it is: Publication 15-B states that "a de minimis benefit is any property or service you provide to an employee that has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide similar benefits to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable." Cash or cash equivalents (such as gift cards) are never excludable. Specific types of de minimis benefits are included elsewhere in this list. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: All employees, provided it satisfies the necessary requirements. What it is: An employer can pay for or provide dependent care assistance to employees, exempt up to certain limits, $5,000 ($2,500 for married employee filing separate return) per year. Value of all payments must be reported in Box 10 of Form W-2. Excess payments must be included in Boxes 1, 3 and 5. The benefit may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: All employees, provided that the benefit does not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees and it satisfies the necessary requirements. What it is: An employer may provide educational assistance to an employee up to $5,250 per year; if you provide an employee with assistance exceeding $5,250, you must include the value of these benefits as wages, unless the benefits are working condition benefits. Graduate courses may also satisfy this exclusion. Educational assistance may include the cost of books, equipment, fees, supplies, and tuition. Employer must have a qualified written plan. Value of benefit is based on when a course begins, not when the benefit is paid. The benefit may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. What it is: This exclusion applies to a price reduction given to employees on property or services you offer to customers. The discount may not be more than the gross profit percentage times the price charged to non-employee customers or not more than 20% of the price charged non-employee customers. The benefit may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. What it is: There are three kinds of stock options—incentive stock options, employee stock purchase plan options, and nonstatutory (nonqualified) stock options. Different rules apply to each, so it's best to check sections 83, 421, 422, and 423 of the Internal Revenue Code and their related regulations for more information about employee stock options. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: It depends on a number of factors. What it is: De minimis fringe only if there are noncompensatory and substantial business reasons for providing the phone. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: Often employer-provided cell phones will not satisfy the noncompensatory business purpose requirement, so the value of the personal use of a cell phone will be considered taxable. What it is: An employer can generally exclude up to $50,000 of the cost of group-term life insurance. Excess value of coverage is subject to federal income tax and FICA, but not subject to FUTA. The value of the excess coverage must be reported on the Form W-2 in Boxes 1, 3, and 5 and in Box 12 with Code C. For more information on how to calculate the value of the coverage, see Table 2-2 of IRS Publication 15-B. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: Most employees, provided that the benefit satisfies the necessary requirements, with the exception of greater than 2% shareholders of an S-corporation. What it is: Employer contributions up to specified dollar limits are exempt from federal income tax withholding, FICA taxes, and FUTA. (For 2018, employers can contribute up to $3,450 for self-only coverage under an HDHP or $6,850 for family coverage under an HDHP to a qualified individual's HSA. Individuals who are age 55 or older may contribute an additional $1,000 a year.) For more information refer to IRS Publication 969, Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans. Related Article: What is a Health Savings Account? Your HSA Questions, Answered. What it is: The value of employer provided lodging can be excluded only if (1) it is furnished on business premises, (2) it is furnished for the employer's convenience, and (3) the employee must accept it as a condition of employment. What it is: Meal or meal money that has so little value that accounting for it would be unreasonable. Includes such things as coffee, doughnuts, soft drinks, and occasional meals that enable an employee to work overtime. The benefit may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. Even non-de minimis meals may be exempt if they are furnished on the business premises and they are furnished for the employer's convenience. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: For non-de minimis meals, most employees with the exception of greater than 2% shareholders of an S-corporation. What it is: Services that are offered to customers in the ordinary course of business that can be offered to employees without incurring any substantial additional costs. Includes excess capacity services, such as airline, bus, or train tickets; hotel rooms; or telephone services provided free or at a reduced price to employees working in those lines of business. The benefit may not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. What it is: You may exclude from an employee's wages the value of any retirement planning advice or information you provide to your employee or their spouse if you maintain a qualified retirement plan. Does not include services for tax preparation, accounting, legal, or brokerage services. What it is: An employer can provide qualified parking, transit passes, and/or rides in a commuter highway vehicle. In 2018, there is an exclusion for transportation benefits up to $260 a month. See IRS Publication 15-B for details. Who's exempt from income tax withholding: Most employees with the exception of greater than 2% shareholders of an S-corporation. What it is: An educational institution can exclude tuition reductions for qualified employees, dependents, and those retired or on disability. Exempt if for undergraduate education (or graduate education if the employee performs teaching or research activities). What it is: Property and services provided to an employee so that the employee can perform their job. Understanding the employment tax treatment of fringe benefits may not be totally straightforward, but we hope this overview gives you a good place to start. Again, it's always a good idea to consult with a tax professional to make sure you're doing everything correctly!

Dear Miss Manners: During the trip, my husband and I decided to stay for the night. I called a large chain hotel for half price. As I spoke, the clerk asked to put me on hold. It's been a long time, but I thought he had to wait for someone at the counter. A few minutes later, we arrived at the hotel. The same woman was at the desk. In the middle of our discussion, he apologized and went behind. It was, once again, a very long wait, and when it finally came out, I asked if there was something wrong. "I'm sick," he said. I asked her if she meant her stomach. Was. I asked if it was contagious, and she said, "I hope not." I was horrified and withdrew from the counter, saying I did not want to get sick. He said he understood and asked his manager to wait for me, then he came back to the back again. I waited and waited and no one came out. I guess he was throwing up again. I told my husband I just wanted to leave. He was very annoyed with me, but we left. He said I was terribly rude and embarrassed about the way I reacted physically. My main concern was not to capture what he had. In addition to being right in front of her, she would have managed my credit card, the room keys, the pen and the documents that I would have to handle myself. Was I rude? I did not want to get sick. How else should I handle the situation? With at least a semblance of polite concern for the person who is actually ill before being consumed with the remote probability of his illness. Dear Miss Manners: What does "elegant shades of white" mean for formal wear? That the bride is the very unusual combination dictatorial, but eager to be overshadowed. On the one hand, since it is the thought that matters, the recipient may want to know the amount of thought ("It was so kind of you!"). On the other hand, such revelations can tarnish the gift and come out like crass fishing for thanks. Although there is a direct inquiry ("How long did it take to make it?"), Is it permissible to respond directly or is the deflection ("Oh, was not it a problem, really") the favorite answer? "Oh, I had so much fun find / sort / cut out this gift for you. I hope you like it. "If you ask for more details, Miss Manners will allow you to indulge modestly, indulge, not luxuriate. The new Miss Manners columns are published Monday through Saturday at washingtonpost.com/advice. You can send questions to Miss Manners on her website, missmanners.com.

(876)929-9200-19 information@visitjamaica.com 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5 Jamaica, West Indies TOURISM INFORMATION PUBLISHING SITE (TIPS) Tourism In Jamaica Information & Resource Center Unrestricted Use Images Restricted Use Images Unrestricted Use Videos Tips > profile-gallery > Robert Stephens TOURISM SPECIALIST In assuming the challenging office of Director of Tourism, Robert Stephens came to the Jamaica Tourist Board with optimism, the drive to achieve and the belief that under his direction the organization could make considerable strides in developing the industry. He brought to the post considerable experience in marketing, management and an understanding of the power of information and technology and the difference that all of these combined, could make to the development of tourism in Jamaica. The closure of Eastern Air Lines and Pan American Airways, the Persian Gulf War, increased competition and the United States Travel Advisory issued on Jamaica in 1991, were just some of the obstacles that the Robert Stephens administration had to overcome. Never one to sit on the sidelines, however, he motivated his staff and took action, by launching an aggressive product improvement and marketing campaign, in an attempt to breathe new life into a besieged industry. Conscious of the power of the media, he sought to convert obstacles into opportunities and mounted a focused advertising campaign, to take advantage of a growing global television audience. He not only marketed the product in major traditional hubs such as North America and Europe, but boldly ventured into Latin America as well as Japan, a country already captivated by Jamaica's music. Robert Stephens understood the importance of the human element in the marketing mix and used familiarization tours, press trips and trade shows to break down the barriers of distance, culture and negative perceptions. These efforts were rewarded with a 60 per cent increase in air seats from Europe, growing interest in the island from Japan and Latin America, and an overall increase in arrivals for 1991 over 1990, Jamaica's best year up to that time. He will long be remembered for his emphasis on community involvement and his attempt to motivate people at all levels of society, to support the industry under the banner of the "Tourism Coalition". Despite the turbulence of the industry both locally and internationally, when he demitted office in 1992, Jamaica was firmly established on a growth path. The Jamaica Tourist Board honours Robert Stephens for the zeal and application which he brought to his office and his invaluable service to the industry. A tourism specialist consultant for the HEART NTA, Robert Stephens boasts over 30 years in senior man¬agement and consulting in Jamaica, Jordan, Ghana, Nigeria and the Caribbean. He is the conceptualizer of the Port Royal Heritage Tourism Development Project; a council member of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and a director of the Kingston City Centre Improvement Company. In the Gleaner article entitled 'Robert Stephens is… Boss of the Year', dated Wednesday, April 13, 2005, pages 10 & 11, ROBERT 'Bobby' Stephens copped prizes valued at over $250,000 and the coveted 2005-2006 All-Island Boss of the Year Award. Jamaica Tourist Board Stock Photo Library Jamaica on the Web Visitjamaica Now VisitJamaica on VisitJamaicaNow on Twitter VisitJamaicaJTB Tourism Action Club VisitJamaica on Instagram Industry Affiliates Tourism Product Development Company Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association Caribbean Tourism Organization Jamaica Association of Villas & Apartments Cruise Jamaica (PAJ) Caribbean Hotel Association Casino Gaming Commission