A lot of smartphone owners out there who use the camera frequently are counting the days until smartphone cameras improve. Most of them work fine at closer distances, but if you are far away, you end up with subjects too small to see. What smartphones really need is a camera with optical zoom.
Samsung has offered an optical zoom camera in the past, but it wasn't very popular. Images of a new Samsung smartphone with optical zoom have leaked and the device is said to be called the Samsung Galaxy K. The big feature of this smartphone is that it has a 10x optical zoom lens and this is the first time the smartphone has been spied with the lens out.
Unlike the other optical zoom smartphone Samsung offered, the Galaxy K still has a familiar smartphone form factor. Other rumored specs for the phone include a 6-core processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD screen. The sensor inside that 10x optical zoom camera is a 20MP unit and it has xenon flash. A 2MP front camera and Android 4.2.2 is also rumored.


Updated Apr 12, 2019 at 1:21 p.m.
Updated Apr 12, 2019 at 1:14 p.m.
Updated Apr 12, 2019 at 1:13 p.m.
Updated Apr 15, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
How much should I spend on outdoor renovations?


State Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, has requested an estimate to install air conditioners into every Ohio school, according to a release.
In reaction to Tuesday’s early dismissals across the Miami Valley due to extreme heat, Antani sent a letter to State Superintendent Paolo DeMaria expressing his concern for the lack of air conditioning in schools.
“Today, a number of school districts in the Miami Valley announced early dismissals due to extreme heat. In the 21st Century, it is unacceptable for our school buildings to not be air conditioned. This is disrupting our students’ learning. As well, even on hot days that do not cause a school closure, the heat is creating a hostile environment to teaching and learning. Every school in Ohio should be air conditioned,” Antani said in his letter.
“I am requesting you and the Ohio Department of Education to report to my office a cost estimate to air condition every school building in Ohio that does not already have air conditioning,” he continued.
DeMaria, state superintendent of the Department of Education, has yet to comment.


SAN FRANCISCO—Joyously celebrating after his hometown team defeated the Kansas City Royals to clinch the championship, local 2-year-old Daniel Balane admitted to reporters Wednesday night that he never thought he would actually see the San Francisco Giants win a World Series in his lifetime. “I’ve waited my whole life for the Giants to win the World Series, and it’s just so surreal to actually see it finally happen,” said the 2-year-old toddler, adding that as far back as he can remember, the Giants have only been a mediocre National League team that couldn’t even make the playoffs. “Deep down, I always held out some hope that it could eventually happen, but after waiting for so long, you start to think they’ll just never get over the hump. So, when they finally won tonight, all that pent-up emotion just came pouring out. I still don’t think it’s fully sunk in yet. I mean, we did it—we’re world champs!” Balane went on to say that the Giants’ playoff run was the most exciting he’s witnessed since watching the San Francisco 49ers make it to the NFC Championship Game all the way back in 2013.


In Part Two, the composers shed light on their professional resumes and their son, producer Eric Hudson.
"Holiday" kickstarted Madonna's career in 1983. The writers discuss the song's creation and working with the Queen of Pop.


The mobile fundraising company behind Majella O'Donnell's charity campaign, where she shaved her head live on The Late Late Show last year has helped Irish charities raise €2.5m over the last 18 months.
LikeCharity was set up in January 2013. It provides a service where people can donate to charity by sending a text message. Over 150 charities already use its service to raise money.
"The future of charity is mobile and social," said John Kyne, Chief Operating Officer with LikeCharity. "People will donate to charity in their droves using text messages because it's an easy way to donate money."


III. The Claims of Moderate Realism.
The problem of universals is the problem of the correspondence of our intellectual concepts to things existing outside our intellect. Whereas external objects are determinate, individual, formally exclusive of all multiplicity, our concepts or mental representations offer us the realities independent of all particular determination; they are abstract and universal. The question, therefore, is to discover to what extent the concepts of the mind correspond to the things they represent; how the flower we conceive represents the flower existing in nature ; in a word, whether our ideas are faithful and have an objective reality.
Four solutions of the problem have been offered. It is necessary to describe them carefully, as writers do not always use the terms in the same sense.
Exaggerated Realism holds that there are universal concepts in the mind and universal things in nature. There is, therefore, a strict parallelism between the being in nature and the being in thought, since the external object is clothed with the same character of universality that we discover in the concept. This is a simple solution, but one that runs counter to the dictates of common sense.
Exaggerated Realism invents a world of reality corresponding exactly to the attributes of the world of thought. Nominalism, on the contrary, models the concept on the external object, which it holds to be individual and particular. Nominalism consequently denies the existence of abstract and universal concepts, and refuses to admit that the intellect has the power of engendering them. What are called general ideas are only names, mere verbal designations, serving as labels for a collection of things or a series of particular events. Hence the term Nominalism. Neither Exaggerated Realism nor Nominalism finds any difficulty in establishing a correspondence between the thing in thought and the thing existing in nature, since in different ways, they both postulate perfect harmony between the two. The real difficulty appears when we assign different attributes to the thing in nature and to the thing in thought; if we hold that the one is individual and the other universal. An antinomy then arises between the world of reality and world as represented in the mind, and we are led to inquire how the general notion of flower conceived by the mind is applicable to the particular and determinate flowers of nature.
Conceptualism admits the existence within us of abstract and universal concepts (whence its name), but it holds that we do not know whether or not the mental objects have any foundation outside our minds or whether in nature the individual objects possess distributively and each by itself the realities which we conceive as realized in each of them. The concepts have an ideal value; they have no real value, or at least we do not know whether they have a real value.
Moderate Realism, finally, declares that there are universal concepts representing faithfully realities that are not universal.
How can there be harmony between the former and the latter? The latter are particular, but we have the power of representing them to ourselves abstractly. Now the abstract type, when the intellect considers it reflectively and contrasts it with the particular subjects in which it is realized or capable of being realized, is attributable indifferently to any and all of them. This applicability of the abstract type to the individuals is its universality. (Mercier, "Critériologie", Louvain, 1906, p. 343).
The conciliation of the one and the many, the changing and the permanent, was a favourite problem with the Greeks; it leads to the problem of universals. The typical affirmation of Exaggerated Realism, the most outspoken ever made, appears in Plato's philosophy ; the real must possess the attributes of necessity, universality, unity, and immutability which are found in our intellectual representations. And as the sensible world contains only the contingent, the particular, the unstable, it follows that the real exists outside and above the sensible world. Plato calls it eîdos, idea. The idea is absolutely stable and exists by itself (óntos ón; autá kath' autá), isolated from the phenomenal world, distinct from the Divine and human intellect. Following logically the directive principles of his Realism, Plato makes an idea entity correspond to each of our abstract representations. Not only natural species (man, horse) but artificial products (bed), not only substances (man) but properties (white, just), relations (double, triple), and even negations and nothingness have a corresponding idea in the suprasensible world. "What makes one and one two, is a participation of the dyad (dúas), and what makes one one is a participation of monad (mónas) in unity" (Phædo, lxix). The exaggerated Realism of Plato, investing the real being with the attributes of the being in thought, is the principal doctrine of his metaphysics.
Aristotle broke away from these exaggerated views of his master and formulated the main doctrines of Moderate Realism. The real is not, as Plato says, some vague entity of which the sensible world is only the shadow; it dwells in the midst of the sensible world. Individual substance (this man, that horse) alone has reality; it alone can exist. The universal is not a thing in itself; it is immanent in individuals and is multiplied in all the representatives of a class. As to the form of universality of our concepts (man, just), it is a product of our subjective consideration. The objects of our generic and specific representations can certainly be called substances (ousíai) , when they designate the fundamental reality (man) with the accidental determinations (just, big); but these are deúterai ousíai (second substances), and by that Aristotle means precisely that this attribute of universality which affects the substance as in thought does not belong to the substance (thing in itself); it is the outcome of our subjective elaboration. This theorem of Aristotle, which completes the metaphysics of Heraclitus (denial of permanent) by means of that of Parmenides (denial of change), is the antithesis of Platonism, and may be considered one of the finest pronouncements of Peripateticism. It was through this wise doctrine that the Stagyrite exercised his ascendency over all later thought.
After Aristotle Greek philosophy formulated a third answer to the problem of universals, Conceptualism. This solution appears in the teaching of the Stoics, which, as is known, ranks with Platonism and Aristoteleanism among the three original systems of the great philosophic age of the Greeks. Sensation is the principle of all knowledge, and thought is only a collective sensation. Zeno compared sensation to an open hand with the fingers separated; experience or multiple sensation to the open hand with the fingers bent; the general concept born of experience to the closed fist. Now, concepts, reduced to general sensations, have as their object, not the corporeal and external thing reached by the senses (túgchanon) , but the lektóon or the reality conceived; whether this has any real value we do not know. The Aristotelean School adopted Aristotelean Realism, but the neo-Platonists subscribed to the Platonic theory of ideas which they transformed into an emanationistic and monistic concepton of the universe.
For a long time it was thought that the problem of universals monopolized the attention of the philosophers of the Middle Ages, and that the dispute of the Nominalists and Realists absorbed all their energies. In reality that question, although prominent in the Middle Ages, was far from being the only one dealt with by these philosophers.
(1) From the commencement of the Middle Ages till the end of the 12th century.--It is impossible to classify the philosophers of the beginning of the Middle Ages exactly as Nominalists, Moderate and Exaggerated Realists, or Conceptualists. And the reason is that the problem of the Universals is very complex. It not merely involves the metaphysics of the individual and of the universal, but also raises important questions in ideology--questions about the genesis and validity of knowledge. But the earlier Scholastics, unskilled in such delicate matters, did not perceive these various aspects of the problem. It did not grow up spontaneously in the Middle Ages ; it was bequeathed in a text of porphyry's "Isagoge", a text that seemed simple and innocent, though somewhat obscure, but one which force of circumstances made the necessary starting-point of the earliest medieval speculations about the Universals.
Do genera and species exist in nature, or do they consist in mere products of the intellect ?
If they are things apart from the mind, are they coporeal or incorporeal things?
Do they exist outside the (individual) things of sense, or are they realized in the latter?
"Mox de generibus et speciebus illud quidem sive subsistant sive in nudis intelluctibus posita sint, sive subsistentia corporalia sint an incorporalia, et utrum separata a senaibilibus an in sensibilibus posita er circa haec subsistentia, decere recusabo." Historically, the first of those questions was discussed prior to the others: the latter could have arisen only in the event of denying an exclusively subjective character to universal realities. Now the first question was whether genera and species are objective realities or not: sive subsistant, sive in nudis intellectibus posita sint? In other words, the sole point in debate was the absolute reality of the universals : their truth, their relation to the understanding, was not in question. The text from Porphyry, apart from the solution he elsewhere proposed in works unknown to the early Scholastics, is an inadequate statement of the question; for it takes account only of the objective aspect and neglects the psychological standpoint which alone can give the key to the true solution. Moreover, Porphyry, after proposing his triple interrogation in the "Isagoge", refuses to offer an answer (dicere recusabo) . Boëthius, in his two commentaries, gives replies that are vague and scarecely consistent. In the second comentary, which is the more important one, he holds that genera and species are both subsistentia and intellecta (1st question), the similarity of things being the basis (subjectum) both of their individuality in nature and their universality in the mind : that genera and species are incorporeal not by nature but by abstraction (2nd question), and that they exist both inside and outside the things of sense (3rd question).
This was not sufficiently clear for beginners, though we can see in it the basis of the Aristotlean solution of the problem. The early Scholastics faced the problem as proposed by Porphyry: limiting the controversy to genera and species , and its solutions to the altenatives suggested by the first question: Do objects of concepts (i.e., genera and species ) exist in nature (subsistentia), or are they mere abstractions (nuda intelecta) ? Are they, or are they not, things? Those who replied in the affirmative got the name of Reals or Realists; the others that of Nominals or Nominalists. The former or the Realist, more numerous in the early Middle Ages (Fredugisus, Rémy d'Auxerre, and John Scotus Eriugena in the ninth century, Gerbert and Odo of Tournai in the Tenth, and William of Chapeaux in the twelfth) attribute to each species a universal essence (subsistentia) , to which all the subordinate individuals are tributary.
The Nominalists, who should be called rather the anti-Realists, assert on the contrary that the individual alone exists, and that the universals are not things realized in the universal state in nature, or subsistentia. And as they adopt the alternative of Porphyry, they conclude that the universals are nuda intellecta (that is, purely intellectual representations).
It may be that Roscelin of Compiègne did not go beyond these energetic protest against Realism, and that he is not a Nominalist in the exact sense we have attributed to the word above, for we have to depend on others for an expression of his views, as there is extant no text of his which would justify us in saying that he denied the intellect the power of forming general concepts, distinct in their nature from sensation. Indeed, it is difficult to comprehend how Nominalism could exist at all in the Middle Ages, as it is possible only in a sensist philosophy that denies all natural distinction between sensation and the intellectual concept. Futhermore there is little evidence of Sensism in the Middle Ages, and, as Sensism and Scholasticism, so also Nominalism and Scholasticism are mutually exclusive. The different anti-Realist system anterior to the thirteenth century are in fact only more or less imperfect forms of the Moderate Realism towards which efforts of the first period were tending, phases through which the same idea passed in its organic evolution. These stages are numerous, and several have been studied in recent monograph (e.g. the doctrine of Adélard of Bath, of Gauthier de Mortagne, Indifferentism, and the theory of the collectio ). The decisive stage is marked by Abélard, (1079-1142), who points out clearly the role abstraction, and how we represent to ourselves elements common to different things, capable of realization in an indefinite number of individuals of the same species, while the individual alone exists. From that to Moderate Realism there is but a step; it was sufficient to show that a real fundamentum allows us to attribute the general represention to individual thing. It is impossibe to say who was the first in the twelfth century to develop the theory in its entirety. Moderate Realism appears fully in the writing of John of Salisbury.
In the thirteenth century all the great Scholastics solved the problem of the universals by the theory of Moderate Realism ( Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Duns Scotus ), and are thus in accord with Averroes and Avicenna, the great Arab commentators of Aristotle, whose works hasd recently passed into circulation by means of tranlations. St. Thomas formulates the doctrine of Moderate Realism in precise language, and for that reason alone we can give the name of Thomistic Realism to this doctrine (see below). With William of Occam and the Terminist School appear the strictly conceptualist solution of the problem. The abstract and universal concept is a sign (signum), also called a term ( terminus; hence the name Terminism given to the system), but it has no real value, for the absract and the universl do not exist in any way in nature and have no fundamentum outside the mind. The universal concept ( intentio secunda ) has as it object internal representations, formed by the understanding, to which nothing external corresponding can be attributed. The role of the universals is to serve as a label, to hold the place ( supponere ) in the mind of multitude of things which it can be attributed. Occam's Conceptualism would be frankly subjectivistic, if, together with the abstract concepts which reach the individual thing, as it exists in nature.
We find an unequivocal affirmation of Nominalism in Positivism. For Hume, Stuart Mill, Spencer, and Taine there is strictly speaking no universal concept. The notion, to which we lend universality, is only a collection of individual perceptions, a collective sensation, "un nom compris" (Taine), "a term in habitual association with many other particular ideas " (Hume), "un savoir potentiel emmagasiné" (Ribot). The problem of the correspondence of the concept to reality is thus at once solved, or rather it is suppressed and replaced by the psycological question: What is the origin of the illusion that induces us to attribute a distinct nature to the general concept, though the latter is only an elaborated sensation? Kant distinctly affirms the existence within us of abstract and general notions and the distinction between them and sensations, but these doctrines are joined with a characteristic Phonmenalism which constitutes the most original form of modern Conceptualism. Universal and necessary representations have no contact with external things, sinct they are produced exclusively by the structual functions (a priori forms) of our mind. Time and space, in which we frame all sensible impressions,cannot be obtained from expierence, which is individual and contigent; they are schemata which arise from our mental organization. Consequently, we have no warrant for establishing a real correspondence between the world of reality. Science, which is only an elaboration of the data of sense in accordance with other structural determinations of the mind (the categories), becomes a subjective poem, which has value only for us and not for a world outside us. A modern form of Platonic or Exaggerated Realism is found in the ontologist doctrine defended by certain Catholic philosophers in the middle of the nineteenth century, and which consist in identifying the objects of universal ideas with the Divine ideas or the archetypes on which the world was fashioned. As to Moderate Realism, it remains the doctrine of all those who have returned to Aristotleanism or adopted the neo-Scholastic philosophy .
This system reconciles the characteristics of external objects (particularity) with those of our intellectual representations (universality), and explains why science, though made up of abstract notions, is valid for the world of reality. To understand this it suffices to grasp the real meaning of abstraction. When the mind apprehends the essence of a thing (quod quid est; tò tí en eînai ), the external object is perceived without the particular notes which attach to it in nature (esse in singularibus), and it is not yet marked with the attribute of generality which reflection will bestow on it (esse in intellectu) . The abstract reality is apprehended with perfect indifference as regards both the individual state without and the universal state within: abstrahit ab utroque esse, secundum quam considerationem considerattur natura lapidis vel cujus cumque alterius, quantum ad ea tantum quæ per se competunt illi naturæ (St Tomas, "Quodlibeta", Q. i, a. 1). Now, what is thus conceived in the absolute state (absolute considerando) is nothing else than the reality incarnate in any give individual : in truth, the reality, represented in my concept of man, is in Socrates or in Plato. There is nothing in the abstract concept that is not applicable to every individual ; if the abstract concept is inadequate, because it does not contain the singular notes of each being, it is none the less faithful, or at least its abstract character does not prevent it from corresponding faithfully to the objects existing in nature. As to the universal form of the concept, a moment's consideration shows that it is subsequent to the abstraction and is the fruit of reflection: "ratio speciei accidit naturæ humanæ". Whence it follows that the universality of the concept as such is the work purely of the intellect : "unde intellectus est qui facit universalitatem in rebus" (St. Thomas, "De ente et essentia," iv).
Concerning Nominalism, Conceptualism, and Exaggerated Realism, a few general considerations must suffice. Nominalism, which is irreconcilable with a spiritualistic philosophy and for that very reason with scholasticism as well, presupposes the ideological theory that the abstract concept does not differ essentially from sensation, of which it is only a transformation. The Nominalism of Hume, Stuart Mill, Spencer, Huxley, and Taine is of no greater value than their ideology. The confound essentially distinct logical operations--the simple decomposition of sensible or empirical representations with abstraction properly so called and sensible analogy with the process of universalization. The Aristotleans recognize both of these mental operations, but they distinguish carefully between them. As to Kant, all the bounds that might connect the concept with the external world are destroyed in his Phenomenalism. Kant is unable to explain why one and the same sensible impression starts or sets in operation now this, now that category ; his a priori forms are unintelligible according to his own principles, since they are beyond experience. Moreover, he confuses real time and space, limited like the things they develop, with ideal or abstract time and space, which alone are general and without limit. For in truth we do not create wholesale the object of our knowledge, but we beget it within us under the causal influence of the object that reveals itself to us. Ontologism, which is akin to Platonic Realism, arbitrarily identifies the ideal types in our intellect, which come to us from the sensible world by means of abstraction, with the ideal types consubstantial with the essence of God. Now, when we form our first abstract ideas we do not yet know God. We are so ignorant of Him that we must employ these first ideas to prove a posteriori His existence. Ontologism has lived its life, and our age so enamoured of observation and experiment will scarcely return to the dreams of Plato.


Management students from tier II cities prefer to work for public sector undertakings (PSUs) over private companies because job security weighs most on their minds, according to a survey.
The survey, conducted by industry lobby Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham), is based on responses from 500 students, 300 of whom were from tier II cities.
The findings are in contrast to those of management students from metros, who would prefer challenging assignments and fast-track growth that the private sector offers.
The study could help public sector companies, which are struggling to attract talent, partly because of relatively lower salaries, to refocus their recruitment strategies in smaller cities and towns so as to have a better success rate.
As many as 85% respondents in tier II cities such as Ghaziabad, Lucknow and Chandigarh said their first preference would be “Schedule A" PSUs including Oil and Natural Gas Corp., National Thermal Power Corp. and Steel Authority of India Ltd.
The remaining 15% felt their B-school background will give them an edge while competing at all-India levels for government jobs, said Venugopal N. Dhoot, president of Assocham.
In contrast, 90% of B-school students in metros said leading private companies provide both excitement in terms of job profile and compensation. An overwhelming majority of students in metros said that with increasing liberalization, it would be unrealistic to assume that PSUs will continue to provide job security over the years.


Ever wonder what it looks like when a four-story-tall excavator faces off against several acres of burning trash and scraps? Well, wonder no more, dear reader.
Below you’ll find 20 glorious seconds of a huge excavator gobbling up burning trash and dropping it in water on the other side of a scrapyard. It’s unclear where the fire was burning and what started it. According to YouTube user Arinago, who uploaded the video, the footage was taken on day six(!) of the fire. It’s also unclear if the trash fire is still burning, but we’ve reached out to the cameraman to find out.


The average millennial Facebook user spends over 30 minutes per day on the social network.
Two and a half years ago, everybody freaked out when Facebook's (NASDAQ:FB) then CFO, David Ebersman, said the company was seeing a decline in daily usage among younger teens. To be sure, 2013 marks the beginning of the decline of Facebook as teen's "most important" social network. But that doesn't mean teens and young adults are no longer visiting Facebook.
A recent report from comScore shows that 18- to 34-year-olds in the United States use Facebook more than any other social network. That's not really a surprise, of course. Facebook counts 1.6 billion monthly active users around the world, which is 4 times bigger than its closest competitor, Instagram. More interesting is the fact that according to the comScoare data, millennials spend 2.5 times more time on Facebook than on the next-closest social network, Snapchat.
The average Facebook user spends over 1,000 minutes a month -- about 33 minutes per day -- on the social network. The next closest competitors are Snapchat and Instagram, which both hover between 300 minutes and 400 minutes per month. The average Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) user spends less than 200 minutes per month on the platform, according to comScore, and the average LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD.DL) user spends almost no time on the network.
What makes that number more impressive is that nearly every millennial with access to the Internet uses Facebook. So, when Sheryl Sandberg says, "We have a Super Bowl on mobile every day," she's hardly exaggerating. With the average millennial spending one sitcom's worth of time on the platform each day, few other platforms, even television networks, can claim the same reach and engagement on a daily basis.
Sure, Facebook might not be cool anymore, but it's become a utility of the Internet like email. You can live life without it, but it's inconvenient. And while most teens say Facebook isn't their most important social network anymore (Instagram takes that title), it still grabs a lot of their attention on a daily basis.
Just as striking as the data on Facebook is the amount of time Twitter and Vine users spend on their respective social networks. Twitter users spend an average of only six minutes per day browsing timelines. The numbers are worse for Vine, Twitter's 6-second video app. Just 20% of millennials say they use the app, and those that do barely spend any time on it. Granted, you can watch most Vines on Twitter.
Engagement has been a problem for Twitter for some time. The company added Moments last year to highlight its best content, draw in new users, and increase engagement, but there's no indication that it's working. It also recently changed its timeline to show the most interesting tweets first.
comScore doesn't have any data on Periscope -- Twitter's live-streaming app -- but indications are that it's catching on. The company just reported its users stream nearly 1 million hours of broadcasts every day, up nearly 3 times from August.
The only social network users spending less time on average than Vine users are LinkedIn users. But LinkedIn's business is very different than Facebook or Twitter's, which rely on users' eyeballs gobbling up advertisements. LinkedIn generates the vast majority of its revenue from Talent Solutions and Premium Subscriptions.
But LinkedIn is actively focused on growing its Sponsored Updates business, the biggest part of its Marketing Solutions segment. Moreover, it shuttered its ad network, which allows it to leverage user data across devices, apps, and websites, which means it's more reliant on direct engagement to grow its ad business than before.
While LinkedIn isn't as affected by poor engagement as Twitter, investors would still rather see users visiting the site more often or LinkedIn leveraging its unique user data to drive ad revenue outside of its core product.


This bill will increase penalties to anyone caught ignoring a school bus with its stop arms extended.
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHI) - News 10 is in Indianapolis to find out more about potential state laws that could impact you.
One of them targets your child's safety on and off the school bus. Aliva Stahl's family wants Senate bill 2 to become law after she and her brothers were killed after being hit while getting on their bus.
If passed, it would increase penalties to anyone caught ignoring a school bus with its stop arms extended.
The Senate Judiciary Committee met Wednesday morning to consider the bill, it passed committee unanimously and if you heard any of the testimony from the family, it's no wonder why it passed.
Michael Stahl is Alivia's father, he was the first to testify in support of this bill. Alivia was one of three children killed in Fulton County, Indiana. in this case, this bill would make it a felony to pass a school bus with its stop arm extended and cause injury in the process.
For Michael, he says this bill is one way Alivia can impact Indiana even though she's no longer with us.
"It breaks my heart and I cry and I'm upset about it because I'd rather have my daughter here." Michael says, "I always knew she was gonna have an impact in some way, shape or form. Most parents generally believe that their kids are going to have an impact and all kids do in some way but Alivia had a way about her."
"I don't know how they can deal with the tragic death of one child, let alone three. and yet they're able to talk about it in public in a room full of people, and that's intimidating. but they put all of that aside and share their story. and i commend them for that." said Sen. Randy Head.
The bill now goes before the full Senate.


Ferndale hits the road for the first of three games in a row at 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, at Marysville-Pilchuck for a nonconference game. Bellingham looks to get its bats going at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 1, at Mount Baker in an NWC game.
WP: Lauren Maley (5-0). LP: Eliza Rossman (n/a). Highlights: Ferndale: Kadence Kane 1-3, RBI, 3b; Skylar Robison 1-3, 2b, R; Scarlett Nyenhuis 1-2; Dana Ebe 1-1; Abby Bauthues 1-3; Lauren Maley 1-3; Gabby Edison 1-3, R; Amanda Baker 1-3; Erika Ebe 1-3.


Mililani Memorial Park & Mortuary CRISTOTA GELLA SAMSON Age 85, of Waipahu, Hawaii, passed away December 15, 2010 in Ewa Beach. Born June 10, 1925 in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was a retired employee for Department of Education. She is survived by sons; Michael A. (Sharlene) Samson, Mark G. (Gwyneth) Samson; daughters, Mary T. Samson, Patricia (Jonathon) Samson-Thorbs; 15 grandchildren; 31 great-grandchildren; 1 great-great-grandchild. Visitation 9:00 a.m. Thursday (January 6) at St. Joseph Catholic Church; (94-675 Farrington Hwy., Waipahu) Mass 10:00 a.m. Committal Service 11:30 a.m. at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Casual Attire. Flowers Welcome.


"We are going into Harvey and want to ensure people know where to submit their critical needs and let us know where drones need to go to help with search and rescue, looting and mapping."
DroneUp aims to organize drone hobbyists into a volunteer force that can help authorities in an emergency. If you're a drone owner, check out their app on the iOS App or in the Google Play store.
Right now, they've set up a page to coordinate their efforts to assist with the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
If you're dealing with the storm's aftermath in Texas or Louisiana and need drone assistance, fill out the form on this page. DroneUp will coordinate with authorities and, based on the order received and criticality, notify nearby, available, and qualified pilot pilots through its DroneUp alert system.
Brett talked with us about his military career and the commercial applications of military drone technology last month during out Facebook Live interview (watch that here). We also discussed how his company is using drones to save endangered species in Africa, something he also covers in Drone Warrior.


Pianist Simone Dinnerstein capped off her Music Worcester residency Sunday afternoon at Mechanics Hall. The last of her season-long “Thinking Outside the Bachs” programs was built around five concertos for between one and four pianists, as well as additional pieces written or inspired by J. S. Bach.
Bach’s Concerto in F minor (BWV 1056), the afternoon’s only solo concerto, placed Dinnerstein front-and-center. She imbued its solo part with plenty of vigor, cleanly articulating the first-movement’s triplet figurations and ably capturing the finale’s sense of drive. The central Largo, with its touching melodic writing, sang beautifully.
For the C-minor Concerto for Two Pianos (BWV 1060), Dinnerstein was joined by Awadagin Pratt. The pair drew a shapely account of the score, Bach’s lower-voiced writing coming across with particular clarity and direction.
Dan Tepfer teamed up with Dinnerstein for the concert’s other double concerto, this the C-major (BWV 1061). As in the earlier piece, the soloists’ articulations were well-matched and their parts thoughtfully balanced, especially, here, in the slow central movement.
The D-minor triple concerto (BWV 1063) brought Pratt, Tepfer, and Dinnerstein together. Theirs was a crackling reading: the first movement, propulsive and rhythmically tight; the second marked by lilting pulses; and the finale showcasing dazzling passagework.
Capping off the afternoon was the four-piano A-minor Concerto (BWV 1065).
Sunday’s performance was an appropriately taut account of the piece from the aforementioned keyboardists and Philip Lasser. The solo quartet’s playing of the first movement’s arpeggios and runs were strongly colored, while the finale’s intensity never lacked for a dancing impulse. The central Largo, with its minimalistic patterns, suggested striking parallels between 18th- and 20th-century musical styles.
All of the concertos were accompanied by Ensemble Baroklyn, an eleven-player string ensemble. The group filled out its part with lithe energy and episodes of breathtaking color – as in the C-minor Concerto’s shimmering central movement and the delicate shadings of the middle part of the D-minor’s first.
The non-concerto works included two recent pieces that drew on Bach’s influence.
One was Tepfer’s “Algorithmic Improvisation on B.A.C.H.” Drawing on the composer’s interest in improvisation and technology, it employed a computer algorithm that responded in real-time to Tepfer’s keyboard extemporizations.
Sunday’s performance ran a gamut of gestures — from spiky motivic fragments to lush arpeggios and slashing chord progressions — and moods: dreamy, playful, oracular. It also offered a seamless integration of live performer with machine, Tepfer’s Yamaha Disklavier responding with impressive synchrony to his attacks and phrasings.
Yet these “Improvisations” didn’t add up to more than the sum of their parts. Overlong by about half and lacking in structural definition, they proved conceptually intriguing but expressively wanting.
The other piece was Lasser’s “Intermezzo and Fugatine.” It took the E-major Prelude and Fugue from the first book of Bach’s “The Well-Tempered Clavier” as a starting point and added a new work by Lasser to be played atop Bach’s original.
The result is a dense but brightly-colored reworking of a familiar piece, as Sunday’s sweetly euphonic performance by Lasser and Dinnerstein attested.
Then there were the afternoon’s opening selections.
To start things, he was joined by Dinnerstein for a serene, devotional reading of György Kurtág’s adaptation of “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit.” This may have been the first music of the afternoon, but provided a perfect summation of Dinnerstein’s tenure this past year: noble, thoughtful, beautiful.


An eight-hit attack wasn’t enough for the Truman softball team.
Host Staley scooted to a 5-2 lead after three innings in setting up an 8-5 victory over the Patriots on Thursday.
“Hopefully, we can play better defensively,” Truman coach Amy Temples said of today’s game with North Kansas City. A victory clinches at least a tie for the Suburban Middle Six title.
“Kelsi Broyles got a lot of ground balls,” Temples said of the Truman pitcher. Four errors led to her and the Truman loss.
Brooke VunCannon, Bridgette McAuley and Olivia Brown each singled twice and Tori Zorich singled and tripled with one RBI in accounting for the eight hits for Truman (18-7).
RUSKIN 16, ST. MARY’S 3: Host Ruskin used a 13-run first inning to end a 1-10 St. Mary’s regular season. Nachelle Miller was the losing pitcher.
Kayla Terry had two of St. Mary’s three hits.
“As I told the girls, the real season starts next Wednesday,” St Mary’s coach Jamie Miller said.
The Trojans compete in the Class 1 District 12 tournament at Sherwood.


Federal officials are hinting that public schools in New York state with high opt-out rates during last week's standardized tests could face financial penalties.
But the state's top education official dismissed the possible loss of any funding as imprudent.
"I would say to everyone who wants to punish the school districts: Hold them to standards, set high expectations, hold them accountable, but punishing them? Really, are you kidding me?" said board of regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch.
Tens of thousands of parents across New York kept their children from participating in English/language arts standardized tests in grades 3-8.
For now, the threats coming from Washington are vague, at least publicly. But one thing is certain: Washington and Albany were clearly caught off guard by the high levels of students not taking the tests—70 percent or more in some districts.
In New Jersey, meanwhile, high school juniors opted out of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers exams at a rate nearly three times that of their counterparts in elementary and middle school, according to a preliminary report from the state education department.
A department memo said the combined parental-refusal rate was 14.5 percent of juniors. The refusal rate for students in grades 3-6 was 3.8 percent and a total of 4.6 percent for grades 3-8.
One news outlet reported that 38 percent of students in New Jersey's Montclair district, for example, didn't take the test.


Why does Leap Year exist?
A look at how Leap Year evolved.
- The Earth’s journey around the sun takes longer than 365 days; in fact it takes exactly 365.2422 days for our planet to complete its yearly track.
- Many figures throughout history have spent a great deal of time trying to calculate how we can make up for our lost days.
- The ancient Egyptian civilization was the first to establish a leap year.
- In 238 B.C., King Ptolemy III introduced a leap month into their lunar calendar. The Egyptians did this by adding one month every three years.
- Around 45 B.C., Roman Emperor Julius Caesar adopted this concept for the Julian calendar. However, rumor has it that around 10 B.C. the priests assigned to computing the calendar were adding one day every three years, as opposed to every four.
- This caused leap years to discontinue until 8 A.D., and thereafter they occurred every four years.
- The Julian calendar continued to be used for over 15 centuries, despite its inaccuracy.
- In 1582 the Gregorian calendar, which is currently used almost worldwide, was introduced. To make the shift from the Julian to Gregorian system 10 days had to be dropped in October, because the Julian system was 13 days ahead of time because of its excessive adding of leap years.
- Great Britain, and the colony that would later be called The United States of America, did not adopt the Gregorian system until 1752. As a result 11 days had to be dropped instead of 10.


EU referendum: Top City economist Ruth Lea quits anti-EU Economists for Britain group as rows escalate among eurosceptic campaigns | City A.M.
Leading UK economist Ruth Lea has confirmed her resignation from a eurosceptic campaign group, telling City A.M. she wanted to distance herself from feuding anti-EU campaigns.
Lea, who is an independent non-executive director and economic adviser at Arbuthnot Banking Group, had chaired the Economists for Britain group – which is closely affiliated with the wider Vote Leave campaign organisation – since September 2014.
But Lea, an ardent eurosceptic, told City A.M. tonight that she handed in her resignation last week, saying: "I didn't want to get into the politics of the actual campaign groups. I wanted to be a completely independent speaker.
"I am going to be doing a lot of speaking engagements and I am still attached to a bank," Lea added. "I don't want to be involved in those disputes."
Vote Leave is one of three eurosceptic groups competing for official campaign status in the run-up to the EU referendum. Leave.EU, which is backed by Ukip donor Arron Banks, and Grassroots Out (GO), a new group set up by backbencher MPs, are also seeking to be named the official "leave" campaign.
Vote Leave and Leave.EU have been at odds with each other for months, with internal and external tensions escalating last week when JML chairman John Mills, who is deputy chairman of Vote Leave, accused the group's campaign director Dominic Cummings and chief executive Matthew Elliott of "generating more and more ill feeling" and "put[ting] more and more damaging and unnecessary strain" on the campaign.
"I wish somebody would compromise somewhere," Lea told City A.M. of the campaign groups. "I just stay out of it and I just wish that they would get together."
A Vote Leave spokesperson told City A.M. that the campaign wished Lea "all the best".
"She's a great advocate for the cause," the spokesperson added.
Pro-EU campaigners, meanwhile, said Lea's resignation was "more evidence of the chaos and confusion that reigns inside the Leave campaigns".
"They are fighting and splitting because they cannot agree on what Britain would do if we left the EU, or what our relationship with the rest of Europe would look like," Stronger In spokesman James McGrory said. "If they cannot even run a coherent campaign, how can we trust them with Britain’s future?"


Live updates as Lehigh faces Fordham at home and Lafayette faces Georgetown at home in college football action Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018.
Story of the season so far for Lehigh. Great opportunity turns into a turnover.
An 11-yard TD pass from @BradMayesQB_4 to Devon Bibbens gets @LehighFootball on the board, but they have PAT blocked and trail Fordham 8-6 with 10:29 left in the half.
Some boos heard as halftime arrives with Fordham leading Lehigh 22-6. The 1998 team and the @Marching97 should earn cheers at intermission.
Bragalone powers up the middle for nine yards.
Lehigh dodged a bullet when they recovered their own fumble, but then they throw an INT on the play. Winless Fordham is still leading 22-6 with 5:37 left in the third.
Mountain Hawks lose league opener. Fifth straight defeat.


Yuki Kawauchi is a Japanese marathon runner. He came to prominence after running the 2011 Tokyo Marathon in 2:08:37, finishing as the first Japanese and third overall. He is known as the "citizen runner" given that he works full-time for the government of Saitama Prefecture and trains in his time off with his own expenses without any sponsorship.


I’ve been to the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) twice so far - yes, that was a stunt - and it is easily the second Blackest place I’ve ever been in life. The Blackest? I’m glad you asked. That would be in the southeastern quadrant of Washington, DC, where Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue intersects with Malcolm X Avenue; this corner features a liquor store, a park full of vagabonds, and the coup de grace: Popeye’s.
It is indeed, the Blackest place in America. In fact, I contend that the Blackest thing you can do in this country is eat some Popeye’s chicken wearing a dashiki while listening to DC’s own Marvin Gaye at this intersection. Ask about me. Photos coming soon.
It’s that there were so many Black people looking at so much Black stuff feeling so much Black pride in accomplishments of both those exhibited throughout the museum, but of the museum itself. It is a marvel. It’s expansive. It’s huge. It’s awesome. And yes, that is all what she said. Every person who has been will undoubtedly tell you that it is impossible to fully take in the museum in one sitting. You just can’t. There are too many exhibits and too many floors. You could easily spend an entire day on the bottom floor itself.
In fact, let’s talk about the layout.
There are what seems to be 7 floors, three below ground and four above ground. The below ground levels are where I’d imagine most people would start their journey. You have to go downstairs into a dark and cavernous hallway exhibit that takes you from the 1400s and the beginnings of the slave trade (it feels like you're in the hull of a slave ship, figuratively, of course) all the way through the civil rights era of the 60s. There are so many facts. So. Many. Facts. There is an actual slave shack.
As you move up the ramps, you head to the 2nd level which moves towards Blacks early settling in all Black towns and political movements and into the Civil Rights era. There is a guard tower from Angola prison in Louisiana. There is a Jim Crow railroad car with its split whites only and Blacks only cabins. There are ALL the “White’s Only” signs making you realize just how creative white people were back then because SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF SIGNS. There are Woolworth’s lunchcounter chairs. There are the minstrel toys.
There is Emmett Till’s casket.
Look, I’ve been to a lot of museums. Mine eyes have seen the glory, but there was something about looking at the casket that once held the mutilated body of Emmett Till that was jarring. To be Black in America is to know the story of Emmett Till. Obviously he is not IN that casket, but to know that once upon a time, the body of a boy who became a lynchpin of the Civil Rights Movement for doing nothing more than being a boy was difficult.
As you move further up the ramps are videos depicting the various parts of the struggle and of Black life in general.
Oprah Winfrey’s couch. Hip-hop. And that’s all just on the journey from slavery to the present. On the top floors are various galleries dedicated to sports, music, culture, military, art, etc. Blackness is all around you. I’ve been twice and still haven’t seen it all. And despite my HISTORIC musical leanings, I still didn’t see the music level which based on conversations I’ve had with people, that level was tailor-made for me.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that fact that Dr. Ben Carson of "Gifted Hands" fame and current "bish whet" fame also has a very prominent exhibit. As I walked by I noted that I'll bet every Black person just walks by, looks at it and shakes their had disapprovingly, to which a couple standing there busted out laughing and agreed. It's an SNL skit in the making if I've ever seen one.
On Wednesday – the last time I went, I was also able to go on Opening Day though the sheer number of people plus pushing a tandem stroller made it fairy impassable – I remarked to my best friend that I didn’t ever want to leave. There was so much to see and so much Blackness all around that felt good that I couldn’t see a good reason to actually leave the museum, seeing my children again, notwithstanding.
And to make it even more Black, advanced tickets for the museum are actually “sold out” through the end of the year, though limited day passes will be made available everyday for that day only. The museum is a wonder and it’s a treasure, and at night it lights up with pictures and even a “Black Lives Matter” slide show. It don’t get no Blacker than that.


A pair of baseball camps will start in July at Laguna Beach High.
The Youth Baseball Camp is available for students grades fifth through 12th. The second camp, an Incoming Freshman Camp, is open to middle school and freshmen students. Both camps will run sessions between 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week beginning July 9 at the school's baseball field. The camps run through July 25.
For more information, email Laguna Beach High baseball coach Mike Bair at mbair@lbusd.org.


It was a double celebration for the Aylings of Kirrawee this year. Jim and Olivia Ayling not only marked their 70th wedding anniversary, but also their 92nd birthdays, both in October, 2018. Married in 1948 amid post-war turmoil, they moved into their Kirrawee home in 1951 when wild rabbits roamed the bare streets. Over the years they have witnessed many changes in Sutherland Shire. Always active in the community, they are keen members of several organisations including Probus and the RSL. Mrs Ayling still pursues her lifelong passion for knitting, while Mr Ayling enjoys woodworking and is dedicated to his two choirs, currently in rehearsal for the Messiah at the Town Hall. Together, they like to maintain their garden. The couple have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They celebrated with their daughters Susan and Yvette.
Champagne occasion: Olivia and Jim Ayling celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
It was a double celebration for the Aylings of Kirrawee this year.
Jim and Olivia Ayling not only marked their 70th wedding anniversary, but also their 92nd birthdays, both in October, 2018.
Married in 1948 amid post-war turmoil, they moved into their Kirrawee home in 1951 when wild rabbits roamed the bare streets. Over the years they have witnessed many changes in Sutherland Shire.
Always active in the community, they are keen members of several organisations including Probus and the RSL.
Mrs Ayling still pursues her lifelong passion for knitting, while Mr Ayling enjoys woodworking and is dedicated to his two choirs, currently in rehearsal for the Messiah at the Town Hall. Together, they like to maintain their garden.
The couple have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
They celebrated with their daughters Susan and Yvette.
Discuss "Cheers to the Aylings on a happy union of 70 years"


The May jobs report released Friday morning showed continued good news for the U.S. economy, as followers of President Trump’s Twitter feed might have expected. Since the most recent recession began, unemployment rates have fallen steadily across demographic groups.
The overall unemployment rate hit 3.8 percent, the lowest it has been since April 2000. Since 1955, after a postwar period of below-3-percent unemployment, the rate has been lower than it is now — 3.8 percent — in 27 months. Before 2000, the most recent time the unemployment rate was so low was in 1970.
But another metric hit a historic number. The unemployment rate among black Americans is now at 5.9 percent, the lowest it has ever been recorded.
There are two caveats to that data point. The first is that the government began tracking the figure in 1972. The second is that the metric is volatile. Between December 2017 and January, it jumped nearly a percentage point. That complicated Trump’s frequent use of the figure to demonstrate how he has delivered for black voters during his State of the Union address. The number recovered in February.
Perhaps as important, the black unemployment rate has never been closer to the white unemployment rate. The improvement in unemployment that’s been seen since the end of the recession is one thing, but black unemployment has consistently been at least 66 percent higher than the white unemployment rate. As of May, it was 69 percent higher, the lowest since the depth of the recession.
That’s an important date to note. Usually when black unemployment draws closer to white unemployment, it’s a function of spiking white unemployment rates. (That’s what happened in 1975, too.) That’s not the case now.
As of May, the black unemployment rate is 2.4 points higher than the white unemployment rate, the first time it has ever been less than 3 points higher.
How much of this is a function of Trump’s leadership is unclear, as is the effort to determine the relationship between any president and major economic indicators. Since he has been president, the overall unemployment rate has fallen one point, and the black unemployment rate has fallen nearly two points.
The subtlety of the relationship between a president’s actions and improving economic conditions may, we suspect, be lost in Trump’s rhetoric about this historic new low.


“Hot in Cleveland” actress Valerie Bertinelli knows when to step aside and let the big dog call the shots! Bertinelli, who is now engaged to network TV exec. Tom Vitale, recently admitted to letting her fiance make all their upcoming wedding arrangements.
However according to Tom, the guess list isn’t the most important part of planning.
The couple have been dating for six years and got engaged while on vacation in Florence, Italy. It’s nice to see a woman having enough trust in her man to get the job done!


MARYSVILLE, Ohio, Aug. 3, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG), the world's leading marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products, announced today that its Board of Directors has approved an increase of the Company's quarterly dividend payment to shareholders.
The quarterly payment will increase 4 percent to $0.47 per share. The fourth quarter dividend is payable on Thursday, September 10, 2015 to shareholders of record as of Thursday, August 27, 2015.
"Our business continues to perform well and the increase in the dividend is an expression of our continued confidence," said Jim Hagedorn, chairman and chief executive officer. "Whether by returning cash to shareholders or driving growth in our core business, we remain focused on driving shareholder value."
With more than $2.8 billion in worldwide sales, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company's brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In the U.S., we operate Scotts LawnService®, the second largest residential lawn care service business. In Europe, the Company's brands include Weedol®, Pathclear®, Evergreen®, Levington®, Miracle-Gro®, KB®, Fertiligène® and Substral®. For additional information, visit us at www.scotts.com.


Eating cheese and yogurt may be a more beneficial form of dairy product than milk, suggest experts at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2018.
People who eat cheese are more likely to live longer, but drinking a lot of milk can slightly increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease and death.
A team of researchers led by cholesterol expert Maciej Banach of the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, collected data from studies of 636,726 people on a long-term scale of 15 years. Their findings suggested that not all dairy is equally beneficial when it comes to your heart health.
Individuals who eat more fermented dairy products such as cheese and yogurt are at a lower risk of developing heart disease and Type-2 diabetes.
Drinking milk seems to increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 4%, according to the study, but consuming yogurt and cheese does not appear to be associated with negative health outcomes.
"Public health officials should revise the guidelines on dairy consumption," said Banach.
Are you on a diet? Are you craving for cheese? Good news to all cheese lovers, Feta cheese one the healthiest cheeses in the world can add great taste and flavor to your diet.
Cheese Lovers, Rejoice! A new research shows that eating a daily portion of cheese could reduce the risk of fatal heart attacks and stroke.
Cheese is a good source of calcium and protein. A small cube of it can be an apt high protein snack option.
Cheese is a dairy product which is produced in a wide range of flavors, textures, and forms by the coagulation of the milk protein casein. Cheese is a versatile ingredient which can add taste to your recipes.
Calcium rich foods are essential for the growth of bones and teeth. Up your calcium intake from the list of calcium-rich foods. Excellent sources of calcium include dairy products, nuts, seafood.
It is possible to reverse Candida infection through a strictly followed Candida diet plan. Candida diet plan includes diet devoid of sugar, simple carbohydrates, gluten and yeast.
Cottage cheese is often disregarded because of its mild & almost bland taste. However, there are plenty of health recipes that taste great and offer you all the health benefits of cottage cheese.
Do you want to enjoy a low fat New Year feast? Here are few recipes to help you eat smart from the break of the year.
Past studies have linked dairy foods to good bone health. Nevertheless newer studies are being published and a plethora of other benefits are being associated with dairy food consumption.
Yogurt is a simple food with amazing benefits for the young and old. Yogurt is very trendy among French women on a diet. The popularity of yogurt among Americans is proved by its display of flavors.


When the US under President Donald Trump expounds a new foreign policy vision it is natural to ask how this will affect its relations with Egypt.
Both countries realise that, however their government administrations may change, they have certain interests in common in the Middle East and these compel them to work together to their mutual advantage, regardless of the differences between them over the means towards this end.
He also said that the US supports Egypt’s efforts to destroy the Islamic State (IS) in Sinai.
These two points bring us to two issues that have dominated the debate over US-Egyptian relations since the 1970s — “military aid” and “human rights”. Divisions over these two issues still exist and will probably continue to exist in both Egypt and the US.
In Egypt, those supporting strong relations with the US reject any linkage between “aid” and human rights which, some quarters in Washington argue, are core US values that Egypt should uphold.
The opposing camp maintains that without such a linkage sufficient pressure cannot be brought to bear on the Egyptian regime to improve human rights.
In the US there has been a sharp division between those who believe it is necessary to maintain a permanent level of aid to Egypt in order to safeguard vital US interests and that, as important as the question of human rights is, efforts to address this concern should not be allowed to undermine the strategic relations between the two countries and should be pursued independently of the question of military assistance, and those who argue it is the US tax payers’ right to know how and where their money is being spent and whether its recipients are committed to universal values.
They add that to delink aid from human rights is detrimental to the US’ image among the Egyptian public.
The two sides of the debate in the US are exemplified in the articles “House democrats slash aid to Egypt” in Al-Monitor, 4 January, and “The US is right to restore aid to Egypt” in Commentary, 30 July 2018.
The former covers the campaign on the part of some Democrats in the House of Representatives to cut military aid to Egypt by $300 million in protest against alleged human rights abuses and the continued detention of US citizens in Egypt.
The second article argues in favour of sustaining the level of military aid to Egypt and searching for alternative ways to address the human rights question.
Pompeo’s speech at the American University in Cairo touches in significant ways on the above-mentioned views in both the US and Egypt.
It is important to stress, here, that Cairo has continuously demonstrated its belief in the importance of strong relations with the US and, simultaneously, that it fully subscribes to the view, expressed by Pompeo, that aid does not dispense with performance to meet security and economic needs.
In fact, Egypt has not let aid become a critical determinant of how it handles issues that are crucial to both Egypt and the US. In fact, for a long time now US aid has accounted for less than 10 per cent of Egypt’s GDP.
Theoretically, cutting it would not present such a great problem to the Egyptian budget. But aid does remain an essential ingredient to the momentum of this bilateral relationship in which context it would be useful to change the term “aid” to “America’s contribution to the strategic partnership with Egypt”.
It is impossible to overstate the role Egypt has played in combating terrorism and countering Iranian expansionism in the region, which is as essential to American and, indeed, international security, as it is to Egyptian national security.
Accordingly, decision-makers in Washington would do well to explain to US taxpayers that the “aid” to Egypt that their tax dollars pay for is not given free of charge.
They and their government get what they pay for, and more, from their partnership with the recipient. Decision-makers should also inform US taxpayers that, while Egypt is motivated to fight terrorism and Iranian expansion because this serves Egypt’s national interests, without their government’s contribution to these efforts their own country’s interests and the security of its citizens could be put at risk.
Meanwhile, it is worth pointing out that the research departments of major arms manufacturers in the US save billions of dollars thanks to the findings they acquire from the real-life performance of their products on the ground in Egypt’s battle against terrorism. It goes without saying that this is of direct interest to the US manufacturing sector and, by extension, to the US taxpayer.
As for human rights, the politicisation of this issue by some quarters in Washington, both now and in the past, needs to be considered more closely.
Reports submitted to the White House and Congress inevitably contain erroneous information and exaggerations.
Most human rights activists and this does not apply to Egypt alone either belong to left wing currents or to the Islamist camp.
Both of these disseminate an anti-American discourse that casts the US as an imperialist power rather than a “force for good in the Middle East”, as Pompeo put it. More importantly, these two political currents care little about the principles of democracy and human rights in their own literature and practices.
For them, these principles are merely weapons that they use in their struggle to acquire power and to advance their narrow interests, while their behaviour within their own parties, political bodies and associations betray complete disrespect for transparency, the rule of law, democracy and the right to differ.
Indeed, just as some in the US argue that Egypt should be held to account for its alleged human rights violations, it is equally valid to hold that the agencies in the US that support NGOs in Egypt should ascertain that those responsible for the operations of these organisations here actually spend their funds on the stated purposes, that they do not pursue ulterior political motives behind the guise of rights advocacy, and that they practise what they preach, namely transparency and democracy in their internal elections and other organisational processes.
Although Pompeo’s speech in Cairo may have triggered outcries from Democratic and even some Republican circles in Congress, and from similarly minded civil society activists in Egypt who feel that he did not show sufficient concern for the principles of democracy and human rights, this should be regarded as an exercise of the rights of freedom of opinion and expression.
At the same time, his remarks are testimony to the fact that Egyptian-US relations can continue to grow stronger when the two sides focus on their real interests, without allowing the subject of human rights to encroach on to the political debate which, by definition, is neither objective nor impartial.
Pompeo did right not to ignore the issue. But he kept it in perspective, which is to say free from emotive hyperbole and from an unproductive linkage between human rights and the larger realm of the US-Egyptian partnership.


SEE-North would like to thank everyone who made the fourth annual benefit a great success. The effort of the volunteers, the generosity of the donors and participation of our guests is greatly appreciated. They all made it a fun and successful event.
The evening also provided an opportunity for people to see the Center for Outdoor Studies, which officially opened in July. The center offers day camps, education programs and is the home of Northwings, SEE-North's live raptor program.
SEE-North is moving into its twenty-second year of providing the highest quality math, science and environmental education to children, schools and the community. SEE-North continues to lead the way and be an example and inspiration to other environmental organizations. Thank you for supporting this valuable work.
Visitors are welcome to visit the Exploration Center, located in Petoskey, to enjoy the interactive science exhibits and the Center for Outdoor Studies, just north of Harbor Springs, for live raptor programs. Contact SEE-North at (231) 348-9700 for information or to make a contribution.


IT departments in up to a third of Irish organisations are still spending half their time dealing with day to day IT issues.
Despite the promise of digital transformation and the increasing manageability of IT systems, Irish IT departments are still unable to spend the majority of their time adding value to the organisation, as opposed to keeping the lights on.
That is one of the findings emerging from a current survey of Irish IT professionals. The TechBeat series, in association with Datapac, is finding that in order to deal with this situation, more than half (52%) of Irish organisations are outsourcing key services to managed service provider.
Of the services that are being outsourced to relieve the strain on internal IT resources, infrastructure management and business continuity and disaster recovery were by far the leaders.
This would suggest these tasks are the most onerous and resource intensive for IT, and their outsourcing represents the greatest opportunity to apply those resources elsewhere to add value to the business.
Give us your insights to be in with a chance to win a weekend away for two in the luxurious Kelly’s Resort Hotel and Spa.


OKLAHOMA CITY – A search is underway for a shooting suspect, police say.
It happened just before 11 p.m. Sunday near NW 16th and Rockwell.
Police tell News 4 the victim walked into a 7-Eleven, saying they had been shot.
The victim is expected to be OK and sustained non-life threatening injuries.


Winger Luke Daley has joined Braintree Town after being released by Blue Square Bet Premier rivals Lincoln City.
Daley, 22, is a product of Norwich City's academy and represented England as a schoolboy.
He made his first-team debut for the Canaries in February 2009 after impressing for the reserves, and made ten first-team appearances in 2009/10.
He played 21 times for Plymouth last season, scoring twice, before joining Lincoln at the end of the campaign.


Base strengthening isn’t the most exciting exercise but pays off.
In the offseason, athletes often talk about working on their base training. Your base is exactly what it sounds like — the foundation of your fitness that you build from the ground up.
It’s where your strength, stamina and endurance comes from, as well as where you gain your ability to recover quickly. Development of your base strength and endurance is critical for maximizing your athletic development as you shift off of your initial phases of training toward other elements such as speed, lactate threshold and power.
Having a solid base before you begin training such elements allows you to absorb more from your workouts, add more sets and intervals to your work and recover more quickly between workouts and even portions of your workouts. It can also prevent injury.
So where do you start with your base training? Whether you’re already fit or not, it’s always wise to shift into a phase of base training at least once per year. Many endurance athletes will devote multiple periods of their year to building up their base. Others simply pick a season to get after it, but typically the goal would be to spend a minimum of six weeks to four months devoted to building your base.
There are two main components of your base: strength base and aerobic base.
A solid strength base is critical for the support of your joints and spine during whatever sport you play and whatever significant lifts you do. Strength base training involves a great deal of high repetition training in a variety of bodyweight exercises centered around the shoulders, core, glutes and lower back.
Exercises like pushups, pull ups, planks, situps, kettlebell swings, rowing and superman holds should all be added to your routine in great volume. For many of these exercises, starting out once per week and gradually increasing your volume to two-four days per week is recommended.
Volume can also be expanded by increasing your repetition counts per set or total time per interval as the weeks add up and by gradually increasing the number of daily sets. Reducing the rest between sets is another way to continue to improve during base training.
Runners work on building their aerobic base in the offseason as well, by adding high volume mileage to their routine. This mileage boosts their stamina and endurance, as well as their ability to recover quickly during other workouts. Enhancing their aerobic base allows them to push harder in their higher intensity workouts, reduce their recovery time between intervals and absorb more from their speed and threshold training sessions.
The hard and fast rule of building your aerobic base is that you only increase your running mileage by 10 percent per week. There are similar rules regarding other endurance sports but the mileage rules for cycling and swimming differ from running.
Ideally, if using running to increase your aerobic base, you should aim for three consecutive weeks of increasing your mileage volume, followed by one week of reduced mileage to allow your body to recover before repeating the cycle again. You simply need to follow this sequence for a few months to see a dramatic boost in endurance and overall improvement in your distance running ability.
This aerobic base provides you the ability to recovery quicker between hard anaerobic lifts and power efforts as well. You can improve your strength simply by running more. And you’ll become an all around better athlete.
Building your base isn’t necessarily the most fun way to train. It isn’t exciting or glamorous, but if you focus on it before moving on you will enjoy the fruits of your labor. Your ability to train harder will improve, your recovery time will decrease and your engine will be phenomenal, allowing you to retain more from each workout. After all, isn’t the goal of each of your workouts to maximize your time and effort?


Celebrations were in order this week for the staff at in-toto Southport as they heard that they have won ‘Best Of Houzz’ on Houzz®, the leading platform for home renovation and design.
In-toto Southport and in-toto Ribble Valley were chosen for their customer service by the more than 40 million monthly unique users that comprise the Houzz community.
In-toto Southport ’s Jane Miller said: "This is a huge honour for us.
"We work incredibly hard to design stunning, yet practical, kitchens; often working with architects to create beautiful new living spaces and providing expert advice along the way.
"Our number one priority is always customer service – so to be recognized by this growing community is a huge accolade for the entire team at both our showrooms."
The Award for Southport comes off the back of a major national design award won by the showroom at the end of 2016. A stunning design in a traditional range of furniture was awarded Kitchen Design of the Year, by the KBSA (Kitchen Bedroom & Bathroom Association).
Customer Service honours are based on several factors, including the number and quality of client reviews a professional received in 2016.
A “Best Of Houzz 2017” badge will appear on winners’ profiles, as a sign of their commitment to excellence.
These badges help homeowners identify popular and top-rated home professionals on Houzz.
Andrew Small, MD of Houzz UK and Ireland said: "‘We’re so pleased to award Best of Houzz 2017 to this incredible group of talented and customer-focused professionals, including in-toto Southport and in-toto Ribble Valley.


Beginning June 26, users will be able to download the beta or preview version of Windows 8.1 fairly simply, via the Windows Store. But Microsoft officials confirm that upgrading to the final RTM build will include a gotcha—you’ll need to reinstall all of your apps.
Put another way, Windows RT users will be forced to reinstall all of the “Metro” apps (now known as modern apps) they’ve added to the OS, once the final RTM version is released.
And Windows 8 users will be forced to reinstall all of the modern-stype apps and all of the desktop apps they’ve added—a real pain for anyone with a well-populated system, according to ZDNet, which first reported the story.
However, if the average user opts out of the Windows 8.1 beta and decides instead to upgrade to Windows 8.1 when it is finally released, they will not be required to reinstall their applications, Microsoft representatives confirmed. The Windows 8.1 preview is meant for enthusiasts and IT pros.
Users theoretically would have the option of dual-booting into Windows 8, testing it out in an environment where a minimal number of apps are installed; or run Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine, also isolating it from the rest of the system.
Otherwise, all of a user’s user data will be preserved, both during the installation of the Windows 8.1 beta, as well as the final RTM build—except for the apps, of course.
ZDNet reports that Microsoft won’t do anything to actually hide this from users; once June 26 rolls around, Windows 8 users will be notified via Windows Update of the Windows 8.1 preview. After visiting the Windows Store, users wil be able to read the description (which presumably will notify them about the need to reinstall the apps) and decide whether or not they’ll want to go through with the upgrade.
Microsoft released a video preview of Windows 8.1 on Wednesday morning, outlining some of the improvements that will appear in the preview build. Most are cosmetic, such as the ability to share background images between the Start and Desktop screens.
However, the need to reinstall apps probably will kill any chance that most average business users will be allowed to use the Windows 8.1 preview, even though partial data wipes and the ability to easily download line-of-business apps will probably appeal to corporations, based on the Windows 8.1 business and security features that Microsoft has released.


THE HASHTAG #RAKnomination was trending on Twitter in Ireland this afternoon as people reject the neknomination” drinking game in favour of something more positive.
Ógra Fianna Fáil is one of a number of groups who have got on board to promote the approach and have advocated donating a pint of blood instead of filming yourself drinking a pint of alcohol.
RAKnomination refers to “random acts of kindness” and involves people doing just that and nominating others to do so.
A Facebook page dedicated to the idea was set up yesterday and already has a number of videos posted to it.
Another similar idea “nekdonate” has also reached Ireland as the video above shows.
The video shows David Stapleton donating €5 to Temple Street Children’s Hospital and then nominating two friends to do something similar.
Ógra Fianna Fáil has been more specific in asking people to donate a pint of blood to charity instead of drinking a pint of alcohol.
“This is an opportunity to turn something destructive into something more positive,” says Uachtarán of Ógra Fianna Fáil Kate Feeney.


GOP senators are warning the president his trade war could fuel a recession in the 2020 campaign.
Republicans are trying to head off their next potentially explosive conflict with President Donald Trump.
In a series of private meetings and conversations with Trump over the past few months, Senate Republicans have pleaded with him not to impose a new round of tariffs on foreign automakers — fearing they could debilitate Trump-backed states and cast the economy into a recession ahead of the 2020 election.
But Trump isn’t heeding the warnings so far.
Behind closed doors, GOP senators push back on Trump consistently when he brings up existing tariffs on steel and aluminum or potential tariffs on automakers, according to Republican senators. But Trump doesn’t back down from his position: He says the threat of tariffs gets the attention of trading partners — like China — who need to permit more imports of American products.
Whether GOP senators can head off another round of tariffs ultimately lies with the whims of the president. Administration officials have tried to reassure worried Republicans that the president has hit pause as he considers a trade report that would allow him to declare tariffs on the basis of national security.
But Republican senators said in interviews on Wednesday they have enormous concerns that Trump might go ahead with it anyway. That’s in part because Trump may once again make a unilateral decision. “He’s in conflict, to a certain extent, with his agencies,” said Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, home to a Kia plant.
“To suggest that Volkswagens are a national security threat to the United States is not true and we should not be doing that. It would be very bad for our economy and very bad for our consumers,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), among the most fervent tariff opponents.
But the Senate GOP is coming at the debate from a position of weakness, with limited legislative firepower at their disposal and Democrats far less worried about tariffs. So Republicans are relying on a persuasion campaign intended to let Trump know he could alienate his working-class voting base in a way that could stifle the manufacturing boom in the south and hit longstanding plants throughout the U.S. Domestic auto companies also are pressing the president to not move forward with foreign auto tariffs, according to a Republican senator who has raised the issue repeatedly with Trump.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is moving forward with an effort that would allow Congress to put more restrictions on tariffs, but to become law, Trump would have to sign it or Republicans would have to cough up veto-proof majorities — an unlikely scenario with Trump’s dominance of the GOP.
Republicans’ best hope is that Trump is really using the threat of tariffs to show China he means business and to drive a harder bargain with Europe and Japan. But they acknowledge that Trump could ignore them in the end.
Trump is weighing the new tariffs after receiving a report from the Commerce Department last month giving him the legal justification to move forward. Trump has 90 days after the report was submitted to make a decision.
But the conflict has been brewing for weeks. In late February, Commerce officials briefed aides on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees. It didn't go well.
“It was described as the worst, most tense meeting they had participated in with members of the administration,” said an industry source.
The meeting prompted a bipartisan group of senators to fire off a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross with a list of questions they wanted answered in 10 days. That included how the department, which led the investigation, defined national security for the purpose of imports of autos.
But the most substantive pushback has come from lawmakers themselves. Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Alexander raised concerns about the tariffs in a meeting at the White House two weeks ago, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Indeed, the constant threat of auto tariffs is clouding the path for Trump’s marquee trade achievement — the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that is intended to replace the 25-year-old NAFTA deal. But Trump sees things differently: as a point of leverage to get foreign trading partners to offer up concessions in upcoming negotiations.
The Trump administration also wants to negotiate new trade deals with the European Union and Japan, both of which export significant numbers of vehicles to the U.S. Trump agreed with political leaders in the EU and Japan that the tariff threat would be pulled back as long as negotiations were occurring.
“We should in fact be operating under that non-escalation agreement. And therefore, we should not see tariffs on the European autos,” Toomey said.
Still, it’s unclear whether the threat is working. The European Union has refused to negotiate on agriculture in potential talks with the U.S., which Washington is demanding. Brussels also said it would walk away from the table and retaliate if the president moves forward with tariffs. Trump has also repeatedly singled out Germany in private talks with senators, according to an attendee.
Even if it is only used as a negotiating strategy, Republican lawmakers are raising the alarm that the constant threat of tariffs to get countries to the table sets a bad precedent for future talks.
“Most of our members are opposed to auto tariffs and they’ve made that clear to the president,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican whip.
Republicans have been through this before on the steel and aluminum tariffs. Some urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to bring legislation to the floor allowing them to block the tariffs. But McConnell never did, in part because Trump would never sign it and also because it would expose another intraparty divide.
Grassley is preparing to move legislation that would claw back tariff power for the Senate GOP. But he also knows it may never reach the president's desk. So even as he makes his push, he’s also taking a Zen-like approach toward the mercurial president.


Values of λ are determined for which there exist solutions in a cone of the nth order nonlinear differential equation (see PDF) satisfying themultipoint boundary conditions (see PDF) where a and f are nonnegative valued, and where both (see PDF) exist.
No. 03, approx. 11 pp.
Eloe, Paul W. and Henderson, Johnny, "Positive solutions and nonlinear multipoint conjugate eigenvalue problems" (1997). Mathematics Faculty Publications. 99.


Mom, however, would have a different reaction.
She would be concerned for her country.
There is nothing nuanced about the war of words between President Donald Trump and many in the media.
But there’s a difference between leadership and self-aggrandizing pandering.
Still, some in the press bite the bait.
Bro, your sentiment is spot on. Your behavior and methods are not.
Her retort is what’s called in basketball a slam dunk.
If you go into journalism for attaboys, you’re an idiot. Heck, until the kinder, gentler 21st century many editors were just plain mean.
When I was an intern, the intern next to me sweated wildly on deadline. Our editor ordered him to go to lunch and never return.
I actually looked at his footwear. Phew. He was wearing Hush Puppies.
When I became a columnist, I received — and continue to receive — kind and thoughtful calls and emails. (Thank you.) But, of course, it was the nasty emails and phone calls I fretted over.
It took me 24 hours to conclude that as a professional writer I want eyeballs.
In short, my brothers and sisters such as Acosta need to develop thicker skin.
Still, Trump’s press baiting is deeply troubling.
Ever since there was such a thing as a town crier, humans have wanted to kill the messenger.
In contrast to Trump, however, Agnew’s name-calling was, ahem, amusing.
To be sure, everyone I know — and probably tens of millions I don’t know — are satisfied with the economy. But the presidency is about more than money.
And it’s about more than one man’s fragile sense of self-esteem.
It’s about things like boldly protecting the Bill of Rights, fiercely cherishing the First Amendment.
The mother who forced me to junior cotillion to imprint manners would shudder.
Perhaps it was with intentional irony at Wilkes-Barre that our president took full advantage of the first part of that phrase while stomping on the second.
Over the decades, I’ve written or edited some 50,000 articles and worked with over 1,000 journalists.
Some journalists are better than others and on rare occasions we all have made errors.
But in mainstream media, the number of fake news stories I have encountered are infinitesimal.
Lisa Sparks is a professor and dean of the School of Communication at Chapman University. Early in her career, she was a television journalist in Casper, Wy., and worked in Atlanta at — yikes! — CNN.
But like many current and former journalists whom apparently the president has somehow never met or heard of, Sparks is neither horrible nor horrendous.
In fact, Sparks — like my college professor wife — believes there needs to be far more balance in the media.
“It’s sad that none of us can trust what the media tells us,” Sparks tells me the morning after the Wilkes-Barre rally. “The media is shooting itself in the foot and journalists don’t have that luxury.
The cure, the dean says, is to restore credibility by acknowledging both sides of Trump’s presidency, the negative as well as the positive.
Sparks points to a website called TheKnifeMedia.com and reports it points to bias by both so-called liberal (CNN) and conservative (Fox News) media organizations.
It’s the kind of question that both the president as well as journalists should be asking.


TYLER, TX (KLTV) - The Wings Over Tyler Air Show is just days away and organizers are making last minute preparations as aircrafts arrive.
All the way from Hill Air Force base in Utah, F-16s gave a small crowd at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport a preview of what's to come this weekend.
"We fly to a different strip of concrete every weekend so we use that time to familiarize ourselves with the actual area and then when it's time to fly the actual demonstration it's not brand new to us," said Captain Garrett Dover.
Dover has been in the U.S. Air Force for 7 years and flying F-16s for four.
"When I was six or seven years old I became completely addicted to aviation and set it as a goal to become a pilot. Now to have actually have made it into aviation, it's great to come back to other air shows to see other little kids who look upwards in awe," Dover said.
He said attendees are sure to leave impressed if you make it out to Sunday's show.
"We'll fly the F-16 single ship and basically I'll show just what the F-16 can do. I'll go as slow as 120 knots and up to 650 knots... just under the speed of sound. We'll go from 200 ft up to about 15,000 ft.. that transition takes just a matter of seconds and the whole time I'll be holding up to 9 G's or 9 times my normal weight in the seat. I get a pretty good work out and I think It's a fun show to watch," Dover said.
The F-16s will fly in two shows this weekend.. At Cedar Creek Lake and here in Tyler.
Organizers have made special arrangements for the crowd, which they said could be about 20,000 people.
Parking will be available at the old Tyler Pounds Terminal where the show will take place. However, that's not going to be enough for everyone.
Organizers said overflow parking will be available at the Greater Tyler Auto Auction, the Wal-Mart on 64W and Loop 323 and Harvey Hall Convention Center.
Randa Conner, one of the Wings Over Tyler Air Show organizers, said there will be shuttles running about every 15 minutes.
"They'll go from site to site and when they get a full load, they'll come to the airport and then turn around and go back," Conner said.
Admission is $25 per carload if you park on airport grounds or $5 per person if you take the shuttle. But, don't forget to bring cash.
"We will have tickets available to purchase for your food items. Everything is cash only to purchase your tickets for vendor items," Conner said.
And organizers said it's probably going to be very hot so they're asking people to plan accordingly.
"Bring lots of sunscreen and bring law chairs. We will have some tents up that they can get under and I keep praying for a small cold front, but I don't think that's going to happen," Conner said.
Items not allowed into the air show include: ice chests, alcoholic beverages, pets and firearms.
On Sunday the gates will open at 9 a.m. and the show starts at noon. But, organizers said if you want to take photos of the planes you should probably arrive early because some of the aircrafts will be taking off immediately after the show.
Saturday night you can meet the pilots at the Meet the Pilots Gala. Find more information at their web site HERE.


With a simple email to an in-house mailing list, last Friday Oracle announced the general availability of Oracle Linux 6. There is, as yet, no press release on the release, which is unusual as the company and its CEO usually tend to aim for maximum publicity.
The new generation Oracle Linux is largely a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL), which was released last November. New features listed in the release email and release notes are, therefore, already familiar from the original, for instance the use of Ext4 as the default file system, the support of XFS and the ftrace and perf tracing tools. One section in the release notes lists all the packages Oracle has modified to adjust the distribution's "look and feel" and remove Red Hat trademarks.
In the x86-64 version of the Linux distribution, Oracle has integrated a variant of the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel already familiar from Oracle Linux 5 – in certain tests, it's reported that the generation 5 kernel has been considerably faster than the Linux 2.6.18-based RHEL kernel. Oracle has also added modules to support its custom OCFS2 cluster file system; RHEL6 uses GFS2. While Oracle's kernel is started by default, an RHEL 6 compatible kernel is also installed.
Oracle Linux is a commercial product and one of the best known RHEL clones, although the most popular such clone is probably the free CentOS project. The CentOS developers are currently giving priority to completing their RHEL 5.6 clone, CentOS 5.6, so that systems running CentOS 5 can be updated to include the latest developments. The developers have slightly deferred cloning RHEL 6.0, which was released a few weeks before RHEL 5.6, and CentOS 6 will therefore probably be released a few weeks after CentOS 5.6.


Background check for ammo purchases? It’s the latest gun-control proposal.
Background check for ammo purchases? It's the latest gun-control proposal.
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal plans to introduce legislation to require instant background checks for purchasers of gun ammunition.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, based in Newtown, did not return a call for comment late Tuesday afternoon. The National Rifle Association also did not respond to a request for comment.
Blumenthal said he has discussed the proposal with Vice President Joe Biden and others on the task force that President Barack Obama set up under Biden’s supervision to study the issue of gun violence. Blumenthal said he views this as one part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce firearms-related deaths.
While there have been noted failures in the background-check system, he pointed out that of the 100 million background checks that have been done in the past 10 years, some 700,000 purchases were blocked.
Blumenthal said it shows that less than one percent of the checks resulted in a “no” but the ones that did kept guns out of the hands of felons, those with mental illness, domestic abusers, drug addicts and others disqualified under federal law.
Blumenthal’s proposal would require ammunition sellers to keep records so they could potentially help police solve gun crimes.
It would also require dealers to report purchases or thefts of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Such record-keeping was previously required, before being abolished in 1986.
The bill would also ban Teflon-coated bullets and incendiary ammunition, both of which can defeat body armor of the kind worn by law enforcement.
He said anyone with a hunter’s license or a pistol permit that requires a background check would not have to go through an additional one.
Blumenthal stressed that many other things must be done as part of a comprehensive response: A ban on assault weapons, prohibition of high-capacity magazines, closing the gun-show loophole, strengthening gaps in the federal background check database, and better treatment, diagnosis, and intervention in mental-health cases.
Blumenthal said he has discussed the ammunition issue with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who has asked Blumenthal to co-sponsor an assault-weapons ban with her. He also said Vice President Biden was “very encouraging” to him.
“He knows my background in this area as an attorney general (of Connecticut) and he has said he wants me to be involved in this issue,” Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal said he expects to introduce the legislation toward the end of January, and that in the meantime, he is seeking co-sponsors.


All professionals practising in the country will be required to be members of a professional organisation in a strategy meant to rein in misconduct and reduce corruption.
The Association of Professional Societies in East Africa (APSEA) said Thursday the move is expected to make blacklisting of professionals engaged in corruption easy.
APSEA chairperson Irene Wanyoike said the organisation was already engaging a legal team to craft a Bill that will be submitted to Parliament to entrench the requirement in law.
“We also have professional bodies whose running remains questionable and whose formation lacks legal backing. This makes it impossible for them to punish members as culprits simply challenge their legality in court and are left Scot-free,” Ms Wanyoike said.
She was speaking on the sideline of the inaugural National Anti-Corruption Conference organised by the private sector to deliberate on the challenges and strategies to fight the vice.
The professional association has so far registered 28 members.


Robert A. MacLellan of Mattituck died Sept. 8 at Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue. He was 68 years old.
Bob was born in New York City Jan. 23, 1950, to James H. and Mildred (Siebold) MacLellan. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School and Queensborough Community College. From 1969-1972, he served in the U.S. Army, fighting in the Vietnam War.
He married Susan Goldberg July 17, 1976, in New Hyde Park. Bob worked as a manufacturing supervisor, owned a satellite TV business and was a real estate agent.
Bob was a member of BraveHearts at St. Francis Hospital, a support group for those recovering from heart surgery. Family members said he was a fan of NASCAR racing and classic cars.
Predeceased by his brother James D. MacLellan in 2016, he is survived by his wife Susan, of Mattituck; daughter Mindy (Mike) Viggiano; grandson Michael Robert Viggiano; and granddaughter Miley Blue Viggiano, all of Cutchogue.
The family will receive visitors Thursday, Sept. 13, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Coster-Heppner Funeral Home in Cutchogue. Interment will take place at Calverton National Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to East End Hospice Kanas Center for Hospice Care at eeh.org.