United States.

The Pasifika Festival was cancelled last year as a result of the March 15 terror attack, in which 51 people were killed.

National leader Simon Bridges said he wouldn't be critical of the Government going either way on the events, saying it should pay attention to whatever the advice was.A former LA County sheriff's deputy, who has been under investigation since April, was arrested Wednesday on charges of distributing child pornography over the Internet.

Authorities from LAPD's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force took Lorne Reed, 32, into custody at his home in Santa Fe Springs, California. His two kids are now in the custody of the county's Department of Children and Family Services, according to a news release. Reed, who had retired from his duties in February 2013, was apparently caught off guard by the police and arrested in his underwear, Fox affiliate KTTV reports.

Officers involved in the investigation said they identified Reed's "particular location as a place where child porn was being downloaded," according to KTTV.

Officer Maurice Kwon, who was part of the raid on Reed's


29 injured as bus from Paris to London flips over in France A bus headed from Paris to London has flipped onto its side in the northern Somme region of France, leaving 29 people injured, four seriously

PARIS -- A bus headed from Paris to London flipped onto its side in the northern Somme region of France on Sunday, leaving 29 people injured, four of them seriously, authorities said.

The FlixBus that crashed on Sunday on a wet highway was carrying passengers from the U.S., Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Britain and France. The bus was carrying 32 passengers, a statement from the prefecture of the Somme said.

The injured were taken to Amiens Hospital and several other regional facilities, the statement said. A press official, Herve Fosse, said later thatFor the 4th industrial revolution, on the basis of implementation of big data and a hyper-connected society, development of an electronic system capable of collecting information widely is required in place of limited information gathering method depending on vision, auditory, and tactile sensibility of a human being. An electronic nose, an electronic eye, and an electronic skin are devices imitating an olfactory system, a visual system, and a tactile system of a human being and are electronic devices distinguishing and characteristically analyzing odor, light, and temperature. Generally, the electronic nose, the electronic eye, and the electronic skin are terms for a gas sensor, an optical sensor, and a temperature sensor.
The electronic nose is an electronic device which is capable of accurately analyzing a gas. Recently, the need for


way, but in an inclusive kind of way. The new Ranch, a ski and snowboard school, helps kids feel like they’re not being sent to a reform school for group lessons, and the on-mountain center has its own Buckaroo Express Gondola to help with those initial lift panic attacks. In addition, this is a family-friendly place with lots of free programs, including fresh-baked cookies by the firepits at the end of the day (visit beavercreek.snow .com/info/winter/fam.daily.asp).

Lodging we like

From hidden condos off the beaten path to plenty of ski-in, ski-out spots nestled against the mountains, Beaver Creek is famous for its accommodations. New this season (see Page 2T for specifics): the Osprey at Beaver Creek, the closest hotel to a lift in North America, and the Westin Riverfront ResortA day after the Department of Justice announced it would not challenge state laws legalizing marijuana, not a single top leader in Congress has weighed in on the issue — signaling, perhaps, the noxious nature of pot politics.

The DOJ guidance was heralded in press releases by some Democratic members of the Colorado and Washington delegations — the two states most directly affected by the decision not to challenge legalization laws. And Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking member Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, issued statements for and against the move.

But leaders have chosen to steer clear of the volatile issue, perhaps to avoid getting caught up in the smoke. Recent polls have shown majority support for legalizing the drug and large majorities favoring legalization of medical


marijuana.

The silence of Speaker John A. Boehner and other leaders didn't surprise Colorado Democrat Jared Polis.

"I think it's appropriate given the divisions in his conference that he didn't opine, because his caucus is so divided," Polis told CQ Roll Call on Friday. "Both his conference and Congress itself is divided on this issue."

Polis continued that there was a "strong strain of states' rights" in the Republican party, just as there was also a "strong strain" of anti-marijuana lawmakers.

But Polis took comfort in the fact that Republicans had not immediately rushed to criticize the new guidance.well to induce hype during the moments of the game in which its played.

Final Boss Battle Theme (Song name changed to avoid spoilers)

The climactic act in Xenoblade Chronicles is a sudden, if odd, twist to the game. Brought to such a surprising conclusion, the game changes from the familiar setting from the past 60 hours of the game to one that is literally, out-of-this-world. It’s no surprise that the music changes to accommodate this.

This final boss battle theme perfectly sums up the two aspects of the battle; the godly enemy and the cast that players have grown used to for the entire game. This culmination results in the synth, pentatonic melody and angelic singing being a representation of the unfamiliar surroundings and the looming threat.

The other side of


The addition of sterols and stanols to foods for their cholesterol-lowering properties and the resulting prevention of future diseases, such as atherosclerosis, heart disease and hypertension, has been known for years.
Since phytosterols and stanols are insoluble in water and only poorly soluble in fats and oils, the incorporation of these cholesterol-lowering agents in food preparations, cosmetic or pharmaceutical products poses considerable problems. The unfavorable solubility behavior of the substances results not only in poor dispersibility, but also in reduced bioavailability and in unsatisfactory stability of the food preparations. Accordingly, the prior art proposes numerous formulations for solving these problems.
Efforts to increase solubility included the formulation of esters of the sterols, as described, for example, in European patent application EP 1275309 A1, or esters of the stanols, as describedwas changing the child's diaper on June 29 when he "heard a pop" that came from the child's left leg.

He told the CPS worker he was trying to unfold his son's legs when the "pop" happened.

Steiger allegedly told a Sparta police officer that he could have caused the child's injuries, but he blacked out and didn't know. He also told police and the CPS worker that the boy fell off the living room sofa.

According to the CPS document, the father said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and anxiety and, because of that, takes medication.

"Mr. Steiger admits sometimes he blacks out," the CPS worker wrote.

The state Department of Human Services took custody of the infant on July 2 after a judge signed an order to make him a


of understanding the processes through which outcomes are achieved: context, implementation and mechanisms of impact. The application of this framework is described as follows:**Context:** An examination of the broader school culture (e.g. school structure, school leadership team, school focus) into which the GoActive intervention is introduced, and how it may have influenced and interacted with the delivery and functioning of the intervention\'s essential functions.**Implementation:** An examination of how the GoActive intervention is delivered. The structure, resources, and processes by which the intervention is achieved, the extent to which the intervention was delivered as intended, and any adaptations made to the intervention.**Mechanisms of impact:** An examination of the processes through which the GoActive intervention affects outcomes through understanding how participants (Year 9 s, mentors, teachers, and facilitators) respond to andObituaries

Charles Evans, 81; co-founder of Evan-Picone sportswear

Charles Evans, a founder of Evan-Picone sportswear for women who later produced the movies "Tootsie" and "Showgirls," died June 2. He was 81.

Evans, who is the brother of film producer Robert Evans, died of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital, said his sister, Alice Shure.

He had been a resident of New York City.

Evans was working as a salesman in the fashion business in the 1940s when he got the idea to give women's skirts a menswear look by putting a zipper in the front. He asked Joseph Picone, a tailor, to make the sample skirt. They soon were producing it for stores.

Evans and Picone went into business in 1949 and expanded their line to include classic women's sportswear under the


Evan-Picone label. The clothing was sold in department stores nationwide.

By the time the company was sold to Revlon in 1962, it was one of the best known brand names in women's fashion. It later became part of the Jones Apparel Group, which includes a number of popular women's fashion labels such as Jones New York and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Evans next formed Evans Partnership, a commercial real estate company, with his brother-in-law, Michael Shure. Among other things, the company was known for developing office buildings and office parks.

In the early 1980s, Evans started producing movies. He was the executive producer of the romantic comedy "Tootsie" (1982), which starred Dustin Hoffman and received 10 Academy Award nominations. Jessica Lange won an Oscar as best supporting actress.

He also produced "Showgirls" (1995) andhelped with "The Kid Stays in the Picture," a 2002 documentary about his brother, Robert, whose credits include "Chinatown" and "Urban Cowboy."

Charles Evans was married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce.

He was a philanthropist who founded the educational and lobbying group Crusade for Fire Detection, after his ex-wife Frances and his daughters, Melissa and Elizabeth, died in a home fire in 1975. Evans lobbied to establish laws mandating smoke detectors.

At one time, he served as national director of the Alzheimer's Assn., after his father died of the disease in late 1960s.

In addition to his sister and brother, Evans is survived by his wife, Bonnie; a son, movie producer Charles Evans Jr.; a granddaughter; and three nephews.


changes that give individuals in low-income communities more opportunities to develop community trust," said study co-author Elke Weber, the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.

In addition to Weber, the study was conducted by lead author Jon Jachimowicz, Columbia University; Salah Chafik, Columbia University; Sabeth Munrat, BRAC (an international development organization in Bangladesh); and Jaideep Prabhu, University of Cambridge.

To determine why low-income individuals tend to make more myopic (or short-term) financial decisions, the researchers conducted a series of studies, focusing on both the United States and Bangladesh.

In the first study, the researchers invited 647 participants from the United States to make several choices between "smaller, sooner" and "larger, later" options, taking into account"payday loans" in the United States, which carry high interest rates and exacerbate cycles of poverty among the poor. After reviewing the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, the researchers found that fewer payday loans were taken out in communities where levels of trust were higher. This is because individuals can rely on their communities to help with financial needs (taking out a loan from a friend, for example), instead of resorting to high-interest emergency loans, the researchers said.

In the final part of the study, the researchers turned their attention to Bangladesh, where they conducted a two-year field study. Together with BRAC and The Hunger Project, a global nonprofit organization, the researchers worked with 121 of Bangladesh's smallest local government units, known as council unions.


They trained community volunteers to act as intermediaries between local government and community residents. Volunteers met with members of their community and helped provide them with access to public services. Volunteers also provided guidance to government units directly.

When comparing the unions with community volunteers to those without, the researchers found the two groups differed widely in their levels of community trust. Residents with community volunteers had higher levels of community trust, which also influenced their decision-making. These individuals were more likely to forgo smaller payoffs in exchange for more-profitable, delayed options.

Taken together, the findings highlight the importance of building trust in low-income communities. The findings also point to the benefits of programs currently targeted for budget cuts by the Trump administration, the researchers said.

"The Trump administration's preliminary federalLittle more than a year after the "Panama Papers" leak, the "Paradise Papers" are shedding light on who is investing huge amounts of money in offshore tax havens.

What are the so-called Paradise Papers?

The leak is a trove of 13.4 million files taken mostly from the offshore law firm, Appleby.

The files were leaked to Suddeutsche Zeitung, the same German newspaper that took hold of the Panama Papers in April, 2016.

About 100 different media outlets worldwide are poring over the details.

"There's a new global industry that caters to money that moves around the world," Drew Sullivan, a journalist with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), told Al Jazeera. "This money moves through tax havens and it's moved to evade taxes to hide assets, to steal money.

"It's used by organised


crime; it's used by large businesses."

What has been discovered so far?

Day one of the disclosures, Sunday, revealed that some big names are involved - among them 120 politicians.

Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been named.

"[He] has a stake in a shipping firm that receives millions of dollars a year in revenue from a company whose key owners include Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law and a Russian tycoon sanctioned by the US Treasury Department as a member of Putin's inner circle," said a report in the ICIJ, which received the leak from the German newspaper.

On Monday, Ross told CNBC that it was "totally wrong" he did not disclose the links.

Stephen Bronfman, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's friend and adviser, is reported to have used offshore havens to avoidtax at home.

"The disclosures are likely to generate political heat for the Canadian premier, who swept to power in October 2015 partly on his promise to tackle economic inequality and take on tax avoidance," reported Britain's Guardian newspaper, which was among the media organisations which received the leak.

The Duchy of Lancaster, the private estate of the UK's monarch, is also allegedly involved. The estate of Elizabeth II invested millions of dollars in medical and consumer loan companies, the files show.

While the estate's finance officer said in a statement that the "Duchy was aware" the fund was run offshore, the ICIJ said that it has "never disclosed details of its investments".

There is no suggestion the queen's estate acted illegally.

Queen Noor of Jordan; Uganda Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa; Brazil Foreign


Minister Campos Meirelles and Yuri Milner, a Russian billionaire investor with large stakes in Facebook and Twitter are also named.

The Indian Express reported on Monday that the leak "reveals trails of India's corporates".

"India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names. In all, there are 714 Indians in the tally," said the newspaper, which received details of the leak.

Aside from the companies, the newspaper said Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan and the wife of actor Sanjay Dutt were involved.

Bachchan was a shareholder in a Bermuda-based digital media company, which is now closed.

The law firm Appleby insists there is no evidence of wrongdoing.

Why should anyone care?

While, in most cases, putting your money offshore and outside of your country's financial regulations is legal, many argue hiding from the tax manthis happened that week, he had already stashed a hammer beside his bed. He grabbed it, and threw it at the first person who entered his room. He hit the person square in the head, and chased the rest out. The following night, the three thugs returned, presumably to avenge their friend. Omari put up a fight but was outnumbered. The last thing he remembers was being struck in the face by the machete. He has been in and out of the hospital since, yet remains positive and confident that the suspects will one day see justice.”

The money raised, TheLake said, would pay for a concrete fence with barbed wire to surround the orphanage and prevent further incidents. Throughout the night, the user gave updates to fill in


SkySports Steven Taylor told Goals on Sunday that he was once in a Newcastle United team meeting where players put their hands up to confirm they wanted to be at the club. Following the club's relegation from the Premier League in 2009, they were thrashed 6-1 by and more »

Telegraph.co.uk To borrow a phrase from the Chelsea banners which idolised their former talisman, John Terry, Jamaal Lascelles is a captain, leader and could just be a Newcastle United legend in the making. Lascelles is not only the youngest captain in the Premier and more »

When professional footballers call time on their playing days, many go into coaching. Some end up as TV pundits, while others like Rio Ferdinand opt to have a crack at a different sport. Althoughnext month, will emphasize sports management and boast a strong relationship with the expertly managed Miami Marlins.

"I constantly gave a wrong address to go to a better school," Pit told D.C.'s WUSA 9 last month at the National Charter Schools Conference in Washington. "I don't want anyone in America to have to lie about where they live."

Of course, not everyone thinks that Pitbull is a good spokesperson for education.

Policy reform blog "Mother Crusader" thinks "it is simply mind boggling that Pitbull has been given a charter school in Miami," while the National Education Policy Center questioned the rapper's "misogynistic lyrics and dubious personal behavior."

Enter State Rep. Eric Fresen.

The Miami republican with personal ties to Academica says thinks Pit's heart is in the right place, according to the Herald.

"Armando


A pipeline to take Alberta crude to tidewater is a national priority, says Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci in advance of a meeting with his federal and provincial counterparts this week.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau is meeting with all of Canada's federal and territorial finance ministers in Ottawa Sunday and Monday.

Ceci believes the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines could help expand Canada's gross domestic product.

"It helps all of Canada because it assists us in our energy security as a country; assists provinces with their own GDPs if they see more people put to work building pipelines; and creating that value that will then create better value for our energy exports," Ceci said in an interview with CBC News.

Ceci is also interested in learning how the province andBusiness Directories

Top consultancy opens Dubai base

Dubai, October 24, 2013

Global growth strategy and franchise consulting company Management 2000 (M2000) has announced the launch of its operations in the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey region (Menat).

M2000 brings more than 30 years of experience and comprehensive portfolio of services, systems and processes to its new hub based in Dubai, said a statement.

Founded and led by Bob Gappa, a global authority in business expansion strategies and franchising, M2000 has worked with 1,400 companies across hundreds of locations in the US, Canada and around the world and has pioneered numerous multi-unit operations and franchise system innovations that have become industry standards, it said.

“The region is undergoing a transformation with the unprecedented growth of franchises and emergence of a new generation of multi-unit


is a part of UCTS’s commitment to rewarding academic excellence, enabling students from all backgrounds to enhance their potential. Details for each sponsorship are provided below:1. Internal Sponsorships for Foundation Students2. Internal Sponsorships for Undergraduate StudentsAbo..

When Patrick Ng Li Sheng began searching for a university, he knew he wanted one thing above all else: To secure a good job when he graduated. Sounds simple, right? Something every university promises. Except institutions of higher education are not on the same footing when it comes to preparing stu..

Every year we hear of students fiercely competing for places in medical schools to become doctors.The profession has traditionally been a popular ambition but, yet today, due to competition, limited number of places and cost, it is a pipe dream for many.While doctors,the director Takashi Shimizu can generate scares in under four minutes flat. His two short films, made on video, were the very first to feature Ju-on characters. These were two segments in a TV series, Gakko no Kaidan G (School Ghost Stories G) back in 1998.

Set around a school, they can be considered part of the Grudge timeline, and are even cross-referenced in the first video film. Titled 'Katasumi' and '4444444444', you can presently watch them both on YouTube (here and here), and were spotted by an eagle-eyed member of the Snowblood Apple Extreme Asian movie forum.

THE MOVIESThe Ju-on films are worthy successors to the Ring films. There’s lots of them, they’ve been remade in the US, and they feature a vengeful ghost with long black hair. But


they are consistantly scarier. I'd recommend that you introduce friends to Japanese horror with Ju-on, rather than Ring, if you want to impress.

Inspired by the success of Ring (1998), Takashi Shimizu. carefully formulated a story that fed on his own fears. I’ll look more at his influences in the review of Ju-on: The Grudge film that followed in 2003.

Firstly I’ll take an extended look at the first two Ju-on films, because they seem to be rare at the moment. I'll treat them together, because they were both made on video, but still released in Japanese cinemas (as 'V-Cinema' films) in 2000.

These video versions, often referred to as Ju-on: The Curse, are low budget, but it's not a problem. They have an excellent cast, great sound design, and aThere are also scares which are unique to these films, like those in the school, where the children of the first new occupants carry the curse to their schoolmates.

Famously, Chiaki Kuriyama appears in the very first Ju-on film, in the same year she jogged and stabbed in Battle Royale. It's an instantly creepy scene in a deserted schoolroom, which still makes me jump after repeated viewings. Pestered by scary mobile phone calls, this scene predates the ‘haunted mobile’ plot device that was expanded in Takashi Miike’s One Missed Call films.

The rest of the cast is very strong. The teacher is played by Yurei Yanagi (a casting homage to Ring), the second householder is the hauntingly beautiful Kaori Fujii (who later appeared in Haze) and even the teenagers are


The Grudge, that a set was built of the house.

JU-ON: THE CURSE 2Bizarrely, Ju-on: The Curse 2 repeats 30 minutes of material before showing anything new. The repeated scenes make the film understandable as a stand-alone, but cheats viewers who have already seen the first film. Each one is only 70 minutes long, so there would be little harm in releasing a 110 minute assembly on DVD.

The film continues with the second household to move in after the tragic Saeki family. We also see the police investigations flounder, due to mental breakdowns and further disappearences. Crucially, we see one of (the husband) Takeo's original crimes, in the most shocking and horrible scene, only hinted at in the first film. The curse continues to spread outside of the city...

Incidentallynavigational skills, making him the worst man for the job. His growing ineptitude plays as stupid, like hitting his radio and wrecking the police launch. Scheider must have cursed his luck when the script arrived.

Even in 1978, I sensed the film was going to be lacking from the limp opening scene. Two divers get attacked underwater as they discover the wreck of the Orca (a vague link/explanation of the shark's motivations). There's lots of thrashing about and fast cutting, but you don't see anything actually happen. It's not violent, or interesting, it's just a lame plot point.

The slack story is slackened further by several montages of people on the beach having fun and people on the water having fun (backed by jolly John Williams music). In the first


scarred (er, like the Phantom of the Opera). A woman who tries to protect her boat by braining the shark with a can of fuel, merely looks like she's pouring fuel over herself. This scene is so poorly staged, it makes her look totally inept rather than panicky.

Also, despite the mayhem, I was constantly distracted by the seventies trend of having many characters wearing tight jeans. The camera seems to catch an awful lot of shots of guys butts in often wringing wet denim, Roy Scheider (in shorts) included. I think a film is definitely in trouble if the viewer gets side-tracked in such a fashion.

THE DVDAnyhow, the DVD extras are super, indeed the documentaries are more interesting than the film itself. Keith Gordon, one of the fewthe US). His latest film Loft, is almost upon us. He cast a regular collaborator Hidetoshi Nishijima (Loft and Casshern) in the lead as Renji and the beautiful Tamaki Ogawa as Ruiko (who dazzled me as the daughter in Samurai Fiction SF Episode 1).

Plotwise, a young husband appears to be cheating on his wife, he thinks she is having an affair with her cousin. She retreats to a large upstairs room covered in cobwebs, and is willing herself to become an insect, just like the character in Kafka’s Metamorphosis…

House of Bugs is an impressively constructed tale, flashing forwards and backwards in time as well as dodging between different character’s viewpoints. It’s beautfully acted and slowly builds to a creepy dream-like climax.

The episode is impressive in many ways. And


rainforest atmosphere of Lost World: Jurassic Park 2, but with temples. Both sides start to take casualties in the crossfire and then the forest starts to claim victims of its own.

The first hostile creatures they encounter are a nasty swarm of 'tiger wasps' (according to the subtitles), who deliver more interesting action than ever appeared in disastrous seventies movie The Swarm. The next creatures are rather more mystical and live in the 'ladyfruit' tree… Some marvellous little crocodile/gekko creatures are next - the CGI effects are beautifully composited into the action.As the two sides bump into a group of forest-dwellers, we also meet a giant snake, that's when the CGI fails to convince, the modelling and animation is far from convincing and kicks off the effects-heavy part ofBrody enjoying the thrill of the chase with the sun glistening on the sea behind him, and another high shot of the stuntman flailing besides his upturned rowing boat, as the underwater shadow of the shark glides towards him with its mouth gaping open. His camerawork almost takes you into the action, with numerous point-of-view shots, particularly the ones at water level.

The cast all seem irreplaceable. But there’s one performance I particularly look forward to – Murray Hamilton as the shifty Mayor. He takes us on a steady decline from being the island's Number 1 Mr Big, to a bumbling wreck with blood on his hands.

At the time, Jaws was classed as being part of the disaster movie cycle. Fair enough, besides worrying about tall buildings burning down,


the original book had already been filmed four times in the East, there had already been two TV series and three movie sequels! Talk about lagging behind! This is before we get into the rip-offs.

Guided by the excellent and detailed website RingWorld, and Denis Meikle’s intricate guidebook The Ring Companion (above), I’ve been enjoying Ring in it’s many and various forms. Koji Suzuki’s novels are still being translated, his books have been adapted into manga graphic novels and been translated, and I’m still trying to see the original Japanese filmed interpretations of Ring.

Ring: Kanzenban

The very first filmed version of Ring was a TV movie made in 1995, three years before the hit Japanese movie was released! Ring: Kanzenban was shown on Fuji TV as a movie of thelarge spiders… Little does Bond know, he’s being watched by the Doctor, and the shaft is leading him to a deadly trap…

In the extras, the director explains how he was actually inspired by a scene from The Great Escape where Charles Bronson has to fight his claustrophobia while digging a tunnel.

Shinya Tsukamoto not only directs but stars in this film. In the extras we also see him help build the sets! In an interview he talks at length about the freedom and speed of shooting digitally. He sticks with his trademark intentionally-shaky camerawork, and the stylised look of the film may be digital, but it’s still very filmic. My only reservation is that Haze is short – 49 minutes. I loved the atmosphere and the ‘predicament’ of the


been intrigued by the photograph (at top) in Denis Gifford’s seminal book A Pictorial History of Horror Movies (1973). (For years in the UK, I barely got to see any of Famous Monsters of Filmland. At the time this book, David Pirie’s Heritage of Horror and Alan Frank’s Horror Movies were my only info on horror films). In the photo (above), was a fascinating scene, but the film was unobtainable.

Only now, as I search back through Japan’s earlier horror films that I finally discover that Snake-girl was recently made available on a Japanese DVD, in celebration of 50 years of manga horror stories by Kazuo Umezu.

KAZUO UMEZU

He began writing while still at school and was first published in 1955. As far as I know, his horror stories repeatedlyinterest in Umezu. I’m not the only one - Umezu’s works are being reimagined as a series of films, under the banner Kazuo Umezz's Horror Theater. These are currently being released on region 1 DVDs (I’ll review Volume 1: House of Bugs, the DVD and the manga shortly). Also, at last, a large selection of his manga are now being translated as a series of graphic novels, called Scary Books (from Dark Horse Comics). The third volume in the series is about to be published. His epic, Drifting Classroom, is also being serialised in English by Viz Media.

(I’m a little confused as to why the manga are listed under Kazuo Umezu, and the DVDs are branded Kazuo Umezz – this will surely miss out on cross-promotion and efficient


tanks. Someone hiding in the shadows takes out a snake and throws it at the maid. Its bite kills her instantly. Someone hears her scream, but the murderer is nowhere to be seen. It looks like an accident… Sayuri, a young girl with a short boyish haircut, leaves the care of an orphanage to return to her family home (I read that there was a mix-up at birth and the family got the wrong baby). Though the nun who was looking after her seems to be unhappy about the reunion… Things get off to a bad start as Sayori arrives home, the dead maid is just being carted off to the morgue! Her new found family consists of Mum, Dad and the senior maid, Shige. Their house isyoung actress Yachie Matsui, playing Sayuri, in her only film (according to Imdb). Kazuo Umezo himself scores a cameo as a taxi driver. He has since appeared in other adaptions of his work, such as Drifting Classroom (1987) and the forthcoming God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand. He also has a cameo in the promising Tokyo Zombie (2005) which is hopefully being released on DVD in the US later this year.

DVD

The Japanese release (pictured) is anamorphically presented in 2.35 widescreen. This a good-looking disc, if only it had english subtitles it would be perfect. There’s an original trailer with some glimpses of scenes that aren’t in the final film. Amongst the extras are three more trailers, one for Warning From Space (1956, Japan’s first colour sci-fi film), one


Takanoha High School from the Reformatory, on a secret mission for the police. If Saki does some undercover work, the Government will pardon her and her Mother, (who's on death row)!

This time around, we're treated to an adaption of the early manga stories - something the live-action series couldn't really afford to do. The plot is noticeably more lavish - the rich, powerful (corrupt) Mizuchi family and their three evil daughters all crave more power, fame and fortune. They set their sights on Saki's old school and begin manipulating and extorting the students and the school board.

Instead of low-budget family-friendly action of the tv series, this OVA takes a more brutal approach - with rape, female nudity, drugs and a nasty mass murder (which pre-empts the opening scenewith this Sukeban Deka Fansite before enjoying the movies...

The anime has the same characters and format as the live-action TV series, even the music is the same chugging electro-pop.

But their are huge differences in appearances - like hairstyles, Saki's is bright pink, her controller Jin has long blond hair! And she's lost her red socks! (Jin's lost his nasty bright yellow porsche, too). Perhaps these were the original details of the manga, but it's a big change from the series. With a strangely angular character design, Saki looks like a trained assassin, rather than a schoolkid. In the finale, she's not even in school uniform - which was another enjoyable element of the series. Again, without these elements, it look less original and more like all the rest.

Picky,


Fredrick Ford, "Betty White Lines" went viral, and was featured on The Today Show and CNN's Showbiz Tonight.

Jim has written for entertainment media since his days as the Film Editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian, the college newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in marketing from the Wharton School of Business. Originally from Wayne, New Jersey, he now lives in Los Angeles with Frank and their mischievous Boston terrier, Gabby.that this place is spellbound attracting a large number of tourists.

1. The tourism record of 2016

In 2016 about 950,000 people stayed overnight at the PEI hotels and resorts which is the largest overnight stay in the history of Canada. It was well received by the people of Canada and was hugely publicized in all newspapers. The tourism has always been on rising when it comes to PEI and 2016 is an example which was set as a guiding principle for all other Canadian territories. The Canadian province is known for the best facilities and therefore the tourists always plan on staying for a couple of days before moving forward.

2. Here comes 2017

In 2017 the yesteryear’s record was smashed on 8th December 2017. The best part is that this


NATO, the world's most powerful military alliance, is considering naming its new, billion-dollar headquarters in Brussels in honor of the late Sen. John McCain.

The proposal from British Parliament member Tom Tugendhat would be "considered carefully," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement. "The Secretary-General has tremendous respect for Senator John McCain," she added.

"John McCain – soldier and senator, American and Atlanticist. He will be remembered both in Europe and North America for his courage and character, and as a strong supporter of NATO. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones," Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, tweeted on Saturday.

TWEET

The move to name the NATO headquarters comes on the heels of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's proposal to rename the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington after McCain.However, Schumer's resolution was not immediately embraced by some Republicans. The building is named for Sen. Richard Russell, a Georgia Democrat who staunchly opposed civil-rights legislation and supported racial segregation. Russell, who was also an advocate for the military and poor children, died in 1971 after nearly 40 years in the Senate.

McCain, who was known at home and abroad as America's warrior politician, died Saturday after a year-long fight with brain cancer. The 81-year-old was a naval aviator, prisoner of war during Vietnam, conservative statesman, presidential candidate and strong supporter of the Western alliance.

Read more: Tributes, condolences pour in following Sen. McCain's death

McCain made frequent visits to NATO member countries throughout his political career and frequently criticized Russia's moves to undermine the alliance. He also voiced disappointment with


Worker exposes deadly conditions at Detroit area US Steel mill

By Shannon Jones

12 September 2017

A Facebook post shared more than 15,000 times as of this writing details the harrowing experience of five workers at the United States Steel Great Lakes workers in Ecorse, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, who were exposed to deadly methyl mercaptan gas earlier this year. The incident reveals the callous indifference of management to health and safety and the role of the United Steelworkers union, which functions as an enforcer for the steel companies.

According to a post by Nicholas Doyle, a crane operator at the Great Lakes Works, he and four other men ended up in the hospital after being exposed to methyl mercaptan gas that is well known to be hazardous to humans andcan be fatal in high doses.

Doyle describes how in April 2017 he and four other crane operators became sick after being exposed to the gas while working the night shift at the facility. The men reported the smell of gas to management, but were told to keep working. Eventually the men became so sick they could no longer work and parked their cranes. At that point Doyle and another man were taken to the hospital, soon followed by the three other operators.

At the hospital the men were treated and assigned to 72-hour bed rest. They were told not to operate heavy machinery or to report back to work until their symptoms cleared.

On leaving the hospital, Doyle writes, “Myself and the man I was brought there with were picked


report back to work.

The men did not to work the next day. Doyle reports, “We all called off. The next day, and thank God we did, Dave, the guy I went to the hospital with was found by his wife on his kitchen floor unresponsive. He’s still in and out of the hospital. Three days after that, Glenn was hospitalized for almost two weeks.”

Doyle reported that as a result of the incident he and his co-workers faced disciplinary action from the company, with their requests for help being ignored by the union, which warned them against hiring an attorney.

He concludes, “US Steel poisoned us, and is trying to punish us for getting sick because of it. The Union turned its back and we have nowhere to go. WeSteel laid off all maintenance staff and replaced them with contract workers. Non-maintenance staff were forced to take on the work left behind.

The USW international and USW Local 1066 blocked any resistance by steelworkers who were demanding strike action after Arrizola’s death, which followed the June 2016 electrocution death of 67-year-old electrician Charles Kremke at the same mill.

USW President Leo Gerard, like the United Auto Workers, has given enthusiastic support to the ultra nationalist, protectionist policies of the Trump administration, including plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. Gerard was also a member of the Trump administration’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative until the council collapsed in the wake of the Nazi riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The nationalist program of the USW is not aimed at defending the rights


of steelworkers, but of pitting American steelworkers against their brother steelworkers in China and other countries in a drive to ensure the global “competitiveness” of US Steel and other steel giants and to prepare for war.

The defense of the working conditions of US Steel workers cannot be left in the hands of the USW, which has demonstrated repeatedly that it is a tool of management. Workers must organize rank-and-file committees, independent of the USW, to oversee health and safety and fight for a full and independent investigation of this and other incidents.

The author also recommends:

32-year old worker dies at Detroit area US Steel mill

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Contract worker killed at Indiana steel mill

[18 November 2016]

Please enableof EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.


they could have looked for a shortcut, but they trusted the process and won the war of attrition in the end.

If you give St. Louis an inch, it will take it. Then another, and another, and another until it’s snatched the wheel from right under your nose.

The 2018-19 Stanley Cup Final is very much a tale of two speeds.

Boston attacks with the precision and lethality of a cobra. It only needs the smallest window to inflict a world of pain. The Bruins don’t ice the fastest skaters, but they operate quickly as a collective. The puck doesn’t stick to any single player for too long and they waste little time on the periphery. While the boards are hardly foreign territory for them, their aim is to chart aIn The Ciambra, a small Romani community in Calabria, Pio Amato is desperate to grow up fast. At 14, he drinks, smokes and is one of the few to easily slide between the regions’ factions. When Cosimo, his older brother disappears and things start to go wrong, Pio sets out to prove he’s ready to step into his big brother’s shoes and in the process he must decide if he is truly ready to become a man.

Filmed with participants from the local community, A Ciambra offers an immersion in a world rarely seen on screen, with a level of emotions and an energy captured by a unique cinematic language.

Exeter Phoenix

Exeter Phoenix is a multi-artform, community and film/digital media venue. Our busy, city centre building provides an eclectic, inclusive


The Temple Mount in the Herodian Period (37 BC–70 A.D.)

Leen Ritmeyer July 21, 2019 2 Comments 15211 views Share

This post was originally published on Leen Ritmeyer’s website Ritmeyer Archaeological Design. It has been republished with permission. Visit the website to learn more about the history of the Temple Mount and follow Ritmeyer Archaeological Design on Facebook.

Following on from our previous drawing, the Temple Mount during the Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods, we now examine the Temple Mount during the Herodian period. This was, of course, the Temple that is mentioned in the New Testament.

In 19 B.C. the master-builder, King Herod the Great, began the most ambitious building project of his life—the rebuilding of the Temple and the Temple Mount in lavish style. To facilitate this, he undertook a furtherexpansion of the Hasmonean Temple Mount by extending it on three sides, to the north, west and south. Today’s Temple Mount boundaries still reflect this enlargement.

The cutaway drawing below allows us to recap on the development of the Temple Mount so far:

A visualization of this Temple Mount was made possible by combining the historical sources with the results of archaeological exploration. The main historical source is the first-century historian Josephus Flavius. His works, The Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities, although prone to exaggeration, are indispensable for this period. Also invaluable is the Mishnah, the earliest code of rabbinic law, written about 200 A.D., particularly the Tractate Middot, which deals with measurements. The New Testament adds further detail and context. All this was augmented by the results of the


excavations to the south and west of the Temple Mount following the Six-Day War in 1967.

Read “Quarrying and Transporting Stones for Herod’s Temple Mount” by Leen Ritmeyer as it was published in BAR.

Herod’s extension of the Eastern Wall to the north required the filling in of a deep valley to the north of the pre-Herodian Temple Mount. The Shushan Gate remained the only gate in the Eastern Wall. Towers were erected at each corner and a large water reservoir was built at the northeast corner, the so-called Pool of Israel.

The Western Wall, which had four gates, was placed some 82 feet (25 m) outside the square platform with its southwest corner built on the opposite side of the Tyropoeon Valley.

The Southern Wall featured two gates, the Double Gateand the Triple Gate, often erroneously referred to as the Huldah Gates.

The most fortified feature in the Northern Wall was the massive Antonia Fortress (right in the drawing below), built to protect the Temple against attacks coming from the north and to guard the mount in times of strife. A large reservoir, the Pool of Israel (left) provided additional protection to the Temple Mount.

Once the platform was completed, double colonnades, or porticoes, were built above the outer walls to provide shelter from the elements. A huge hall called the Royal Stoa, with four rows of columns, was erected on the southern end. The pre-existing eastern portico that stood on the square mount was left unchanged. As it belonged to a pre-Herodian period, it was called Solomon’s Porch. Near


the center of this platform a new gold-covered Temple was constructed that in turn was surrounded by many other buildings.

In 70 A.D., this splendid structure that had taken 46 years to build (John 2.20) was destroyed by the Romans. The only vestiges of the compound to survive the destruction were the four retaining walls that supported the Temple platform; the best known today is the Western Wall.

This drawing is the 7th in this series that were made specially for the new Temple Mount guide book. For the previous drawings see: Mount Moriah, Jebusites, Solomon, Hezekiah, Nehemiah and the Hellenistic and Hasmonean periods.

Jerusalem lies at the heart of Biblical archaeology. In the Jerusalem Archaeology: Exposing the Biblical City , learn about the latest finds in the Biblical world’s mostvibrant city.

Leen Ritmeyer is an archaeological architect who has been involved in all of Jerusalem’s major excavations. He was chief architect of the Temple Mount Excavations, directed by the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar, and of the Jewish Quarter Excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, directed by the late Prof. Nahman Avigad, both of the Hebrew University. Together with his wife, Kathleen, he runs a firm called Ritmeyer Archaeological Design, which produces teaching and learning tools used throughout the world and offers consultancy on archaeological background and illustration. In 2006, his major work, The Quest: Revealing the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, was published after thirty years of intensive research.

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

The Stones of Herod’s Temple Reveal Temple Mount History

Sifting Antiquity on the Temple Mount Sifting


The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) has announced the opening of registration for filmmakers and TV makers in the second edition of the Cairo Industry Days, held from November 21 to 26.

Registration at the Cairo Industry Day allows film and television professionals to attend seminars and lectures that provide opportunities for partnership and networking with the international film community.

Filmmakers also have access to three daily tickets to watch the festival’s film screenings in all competitions and screening locations.

The head of Cairo Industry Days Aliaa Zaky said: “We are delighted to be launching the second edition of the Cairo Industry Days, which brings together filmmakers from inside and outside the Arab world to promote, develop, and celebrate storytelling from around the world.”

According to Zaky, promising talents and filmmaking studentscan learn and engage with key influencers in the entertainment industry through the event.

Under Cairo Film Connection (CFC), a panel of experts in the film industry selects films that will receive financial awards. The awards granted to winners last year was worth more than US$120,000.

“In its 41st edition, the Cairo International Film Festival will host the 6th edition of the Cairo Film Connection (CFC), the festival’s co-production platform,” said the CIFF official website.

“Cairo Film Connection will invite international producers, film financiers and film distributors as well as representatives from funding bodies, sales agents and TV channels to come together to initiate international co-productions and partnerships with films from the Arab world,” it added.

The festival also announced the opening registration for the five-day Screen Buzz Workshop, which focuses on


screenwriting for television projects in the Arab world, and gives the opportunity for participants to develop their scenarios with leading industry experts in Hollywood.

A four-day workshop on cinema scenarios was announced as well in partnership with EAVE ON DEMAND, covering all aspects of the development of feature films, which includes screenwriting strategies and the role of the producer, marketing, international sales, and budget and financial planning.

The Cairo International Film Festival festival launched the first edition of Cairo Industry Days at the 40th edition of the festival, which witnessed remarkable success, being attended by more than 200 significant filmmakers from around the world.

Two workshops to develop film and television scenarios were established under last year’s Cairo Industry Day.

Seven film lectures, eight seminars and four discussion sessions with the participationtoo
much traffic on the road for people to take
advantage of this perk, so most of the speeding
is done at night when the roads are clear.
This is exactly when Steele decided it would
be a good idea to take a selfie in the middle
of the highway, and he promptly got hit by
a car driving at full-speed.
9.
Mystery Liquid
In 2012, a man named Gary Allen Banning was
visiting a friend’s house for a party in
North Carolina.
He spotted a salsa jar with a mysterious golden
liquid, and he decided to take a swig of what
he assumed was someone else’s drink.
It turns out that the jar was filled with
gasoline that the friend had been using to
clean up grease.
While the friends had a good laugh, Banning
spat out the gasoline, and it got all over
his clothes.
Banning needed to


take the edge off of what
just happened, so he pulled out his lighter,
and started smoking a cigarette.
The gasoline on his clothes and mouth ignited
into flames.
Banning was rushed to the hospital, but eventually
died from burning alive.
8.
Window Pain
In 1993, an attorney named Garry Hoy was working
on the 24th floor of the TD Centre in Toronto,
Canada for the Holden Day Wilson law firm.
The windows in the building were known for
being unbreakable, and Hoy loved to joke around
by throwing himself at the glass to prove
it.
A group of law students was visiting the firm
one day on a tour, when Hoy went through his
routine of shoving his shoulder into the window.
That day, however, he must not have known
his own strength, because the glass popped
out of the window frame.
He was right – it didn’t break,but he
still went hurtling down 24 stories to his
death.
This story became so well-known that it was
featured on the TV shows Mythbusters, and
1,000 Ways to Die.
It was also featured in a B-movie appropriately
named Darwin Awards.
7.
Faith Healing Failure
In 2015, a pastor from Zimbabwe named Shamiso
Kanyama claimed that he was gifted with powers
from God to heal people.
So, when five men from his town asked for
his help to cure a mysterious illness that
was plaguing their families, he instructed
them to bury him alive, because it would help
him absorb more power from the earth.
Kanyama helped the 5 men dig his own grave,
and laid face-down in the dirt, without a
coffin.
He instructed the men to bury him, and dig
him up after enough time had passed.
Obviously, when they dug him up later, he
was dead.
Despite the fact that


multiple witnesses were
there to confirm the story, the 5 men who
buried Kanyama alive all faced charges for
the pastor’s murder.
6.
Oh, the Irony
It seems like common sense that helmet laws
are put in place to protect people’s lives
while riding bicycles and motorcycles.
But when you tell most Americans that they
need to do something, they consider it to
be impeding on their freedoms.
Over 550 motorcyclists participated in a rally
in New York state in the summer of 2011 to
fight for their right to ride without a helmet.
One of the protestors, a 55-year-old man named
Philip A. Contos had to slam on the breaks
to prevent running into a bike in front of
him at the rally, and lost control of his
Harley Davidson motorcycle.
His body was thrown over the handlebars, and
he hit the pavement head-first.
When doctors examined his bodyat the hospital,
they confirmed that if he had been wearing
a helmet, he would have lived.
5.
A Full Moon
A 25-year-old man named Travis Lane was very
drunk and high after spending the night at
a house party in Otago Township, New Zealand.
A group of friends was standing around a campfire
outside, and Lane thought it would be funny
to pull his pants down and moon, or give a
“brown eye” to oncoming traffic.
Every time he saw a car coming, he would run
towards the road, drop his pants, and then
walk back to the group at the bonfire.
Lane must have thrust his rear end a little
bit too close to the highway during one of
these stunts, because he was hit by oncoming
traffic.
He suffered a broken arm and a brain injury,
and was sent to the hospital.
He died a month


later.
The coroner showed no sympathy for Lane, saying,
“He has paid the ultimate price for his
foolishness.”
4.
When Snakes Attack
In one small town in Kentucky, pastors of
a Pentecostal church claim that by handling
poisonous snakes during their sermons, they
are proving that God is protecting them from
harm.
They have a strict policy that if anyone is
ever bitten by a snake, they are not allowed
to seek medical attention, because God will
take care of them.
In 2015, one of the pastors, John David Brock,
was bitten in the arm by venomous snake, and
he refused to seek medical treatment.
Not surprisingly, Brock did not receive the
antivenom, and he died.
He was not the only pastor to die from this
same church, either.
Despite the obvious flaw in their beliefs,
they continue to use deadly snakes during
church services.
3.
Not All Fun and Games
A 45-year-old school teachernamed James Young
was at Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio.
He went on the Raptor Roller Coaster, which
twisted and went upside down.
His phone and other personal belongings were
in his pocket during the ride, and they fell
onto the concrete below the tracks.
When the ride was over, he did not notify
the employees running the ride that he needed
to get his phone back.
Instead, he chose to jump over the fence into
a restricted area in order to get it himself.
He jumped down to the tracks… while the
roller coaster was still in operation.
It rushed by at full-speed, and killed him.
It took roughly 30 minutes for paramedics
to arrive, but by then it was already too
late.
If you should ever lose anything on a ride
– please – ask an employee for help.
2.
Over the Falls
Niagara Falls is one


of the natural wonders
of the world that lies on the US-Canada border.
It has seen its share of daredevil stunts,
and one attempt in 1995 lead to a man’s
death.
39-year-old Robert Overtracker from California
traveled all the way to the East Coast to
ride a jet-ski at high speed over Niagara
Falls as a stunt to raise money for homelessness.
His plan was to activate a parachute at the
last minute, and fall to safety.
The local police force followed along as he
was going on the jet-ski, pleading for him
to re-think doing the stunt, because it was
far too dangerous.
Unfortunately for him, the parachute never
fully activated, and he plummeted to his death
in front of a crowd of people.
There is no footage of the incident, except
for one photo taken by an Egyptian tourist
at the exact moment he fell offthe edge.
1.
The Ancestors Were Disappointed
A psychic from Thailand named Theprit Palee
claimed that he was immortal, because he was
protected the the spirits of his ancestors.
He was a fan favorite for the locals, who
truly believed that he had incredible powers.
Crowds of people would flock to him whenever
he did a public performance.
During a public ritual, Palee stabbed himself
in the chest to prove that he could not die.
Not surprisingly, it resulted in the 25-year-old
bleeding profusely, and later dying at the
hospital.
This was all part of a rehearsed act that
he had done in the past, using a flimsy sword
that usually broke when he stabbed his chest,
but obviously, the sword he used was strong
enough to pierce the skin.
Apparently he wasn’t immortal after all.
Who could have seen that coming?


Pages

Sunday, June 01, 2014

Merlot, the most hated grape 10 years running, finds a home in Italy (and in my heart)

It doesn’t seem that long, but in 2004 the movie Sideways was released. In the film, Pinot Noir was lionized, and to this day, the sales of Pinot Noir are still roaring. Merlot, on the other hand, was excoriated. The character Miles had a famous line in which he said, “If anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any f***ing Merlot!” Ironically, the last wine he was seen drinking at the end of the movie was a Cheval Blanc 1961, which is a blend, predominantly, of Cabernet Franc and Merlot.

I am one of those people who disavowed any allegiance to Merlot. I shunned it; I avoided itto Levi Dalton interview Marco Pallanti and how he came to Castello d’Ama. His description of going to school in Bordeaux and having access to the great chateaux was spine tingling. To come from Italy in his era, when Italian winemaking was a bit sleepy, and to come to the center of the wine world (at the time) and see what the vignerons were doing must have been nothing short of a revelation. And to bring back those inspirations in a time in which Tuscany had been abandoned by Italy, it took insight, courage and patience. And to plant Merlot next to Sangiovese, all of this was madness. L’Apparita took Merlot (and Tuscany) to another level. And while Pallanti wasn’t alone in pursuing his vision of Tuscany for


a solution. For a long time now, most of the nation’s resources have been plowed into developing the north at the expense of the south, whereas the opposite has been true in terms of industrial policy. The majority of heavy industry and pollution-belching coal-burning power stations are located in the south.

People living in central and southern Taiwan have been expected to swallow this, quite literally. The government ought to amend its industrial policy to remove the cause of the problem, by replacing coal-burning power stations with natural gas burning stations, implementing pollution volume restrictions, and planning for more extensive, faster mass rapid transit systems in order to curb exhaust emissions from personal vehicle use. As the IARC says, there should be no delay in curbing air pollution.

Now thatsector and smallholder tree crop (cocoa, oil palm, macadamia, and mango) farmers in Ghana and South Africa under the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) – WOTRO Global Challenges Programmme. Another research project UENR is undertaking is the NWO-WOTRO Food & Business Applied RESEARCH (2016 -2019) on ‘Improving smallholders’ food and income security by introducing non-timber forest products in reforestation schemes and tree-crop farms.

At the individual level, lecturers and researchers of UENR have won numerous award, arising out of their research. In the course of the year, Dr. Mark Amo-Boateng, a member of staff of the University made UENR proud when he led the only African Team to reach the semi-finals of the $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE, a global competition challenging teams to advance deep-sea technologies


Mick Mulvaney, the Trump-appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, asked for zero dollars in his quarterly budget request Wednesday.

In a letter obtained by TPM (read it below), Mulvaney told Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that “[s]imply put, I have been assured that the funds currently in the Bureau Fund are sufficient” to last the quarter. Politico first reported the request letter.

The move is unprecedented: The consumer watchdog agency has reliably asked the Fed for tens of millions of dollars quarterly to cover its operating expenses. The requests have topped $200 million four times, and have never been rejected.

The “Bureau Fund” Mulvaney referred to is the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Fund at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the CFPB’s bank account and homeLAST weekend Street Machine went to Clunes, a small town near Ballarat made (semi) famous by being one of the film locations for the original Mad Max movie. It was where the Toecutter Gang came to collect the body of the Nightrider and where the Freedom Riders of Australia decided to hold their Johnny The Boy Lives Reunion Tour this year. Basically, it was a crazy Mad Max get together, where hundreds of people came in their replica movie cars and bikes and wore movie-style clothes.

As part of the event we cruised to a bunch of other film locations with some replica rides and met a lot of incredibly passionate Mad Max fans along the way. Check out the video to see how it went down as Editor


the AP reported. Applications could be held because of a dropped hyphen, for example, according to the AP.

The two lawsuits, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, focus on absentee ballots, rather than voter registrations, however. While the lawsuits apply to the whole state, they hone in on Gwinnett County, Georgia, where the challengers say a higher number of absentee ballots and applications are being rejected due to signature issues compared with other counties.

According to the challengers, 493 absentee ballot applications and nearly 100 absentee ballots for the 2018 election were rejected in Gwinnett County as of mid-October because of signature mismatch issues. The county contested those numbers, saying 185 ballot applications and just nine ballots were rejected because of signatureThere's something about Fridays in Alameda these days. Reggie McKenzie seems to love loading up on free agents before he heads into the weekend. This Friday was no different.

The first Friday of free agency, the Raiders signed former 49ers cornerback, Tarell Brown, former Texans former Pro Bowl defensive lineman Antonio Smith, and re-signed Darren McFadden.

Last Friday it was the big trade that sent a sixth round pick to the Texans in exchange for Matt Schaub and the re-signing of Charles Woodson.

This Friday the free agent haul included running back Maurice Jones-Drew, former Packers defensive lineman, C.J. Wilson, and re-signing Pat Sims. There was also the business of reported interest in DeSean Jackson who was cut by the Eagles today.

Jones-Drew is expected to immediately add the workhorse feature back


Joint Cyprus – USA search and rescue exercise wrapsup

17 July, 2014

A Multinational Search and Rescue (SAR) daylight exercise, titled “CYPUSA - 01/14” was conducted on Wednesday, from 11:00 until 14:30, near the coast of Cyprus, with the participation of SAR Units and Personnel from the Republic of Cyprus and the United States of America.

A press release issued by the Cyprus Defence Ministry, notes that Rescue Naval Units and SAR Helicopters took part in the Aeronautical SAR exercise under the operational control and full coordination of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Larnaca, in close cooperation with the 6th Fleet / Command Task Force-65 of the United States Navy.

The main objective of the Aeronautical exercise was the planning, preparation and execution of a Multinational joint SAR exercise, in orderto promote personnel & Rescue Units capabilities, and readiness for effective response in SAR missions and other humanitarian operations within the Republic of Cyprus Search and Rescue Region (SRR), and in the Eastern Mediterranean, in general.

The exercise was the second cooperation on SAR matters, this year, between the JRCC Larnaca, which represents the SAR system of the Republic of Cyprus, and the U.S. Navy as the first combined SAR actual training in the field, was carried out on the 10th of April in the framework of the Multinational Exercise “NEMESIS-2014”.

The scenario dealt with a “Maritime Accident in Open Sea”; as a result the Cyprus National SAR Plan “NEARCHOS”, was immediately implemented by the JRCC Larnaca, in order to confront the situation. Specifically, the training exercises focused on “MAN


be confused with the National Register of Historic Places) is a listing of historic buildings, structures, sites, districts, and objects throughout the state. Maintained by each state’s historic preservation office, the Historic Property Inventory is used for planning and research purposes. If a historical property is present in the project area, the state can require that a Historic Property Inventory Form is filled out before the project is permitted to proceed. Adding a property to the Historic Property Inventory does not prevent it from being altered or demolished by its owner.Friday, Jul 1, 2011, 8:14 am

Environmentalists to Gov. Cuomo: Think Long and Hard About Lifting Fracking Ban

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Yesterday, The New York Timesreported Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning to lift New York state's moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.

The New York State Assembly passed the moratorium 93 to 43 on Nov. 30, 2010, with the goal of giving the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) more time to gauge environmental concerns raised by environmentalists. Yesterday evening, the DEC released these new recommendations.

Hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' injects a largely undisclosed mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break up shale rock and free hard-to-reach oil reserves. Environmental activists, many of whom have been personally affected by fracking, allege these toxic


With Dallas Republicans in Pain, One Local Leader Believes He Has the Cure

Just an hour remains before the polls close on Election Day, but Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman seems remarkably calm. Maybe exhaustion has finally set in after working 13 hours straight, then making last-minute preparations for the Republican Election Night Watch Party at the Radisson Hotel on Central Expressway. This evening represents the culmination of a year's worth of hard work and the committed efforts of thousands of volunteers, donors and candidates attempting to yank the emergency brake on a runaway trend: The county that launched the political fortunes of George W. Bush—one-time Republican-rich Dallas County—was turning dark blue.

Wearing a pinstriped suit, white shirt and red tie and looking every bit the big firmlawyer that he is, Neerman strolls through the hotel ballroom, where guests have yet to arrive. He seems resigned to whatever fate the evening has in store and tends to the few remaining details still under his control, one of which is making certain the Blue Ribbon Band has everything it needs as its members prepare for their sound check. He manages a peek at one of the small TVs set up throughout the large room—each one tuned to the conservative Fox News channel—and looks surprised at an early vote tally showing Barack Obama leading John McCain by 66-33 percent. But when he learns the total is from Maine where only three votes have been counted, he breathes an uncharacteristic sigh of relief before engaging local TV reporters


in some pre-game banter.

Being the local GOP's head cheerleader, Neerman exudes confidence, as if he's expecting a Republican sweep instead of hoping to grab a few scraps from another countywide Democratic ass-kicking. His optimism is tempered by his awareness that Obama poses a serious threat to any GOP plan to regain power after the Dems routed the Republicans in 2006, when they won all 42 judicial courthouse races and highly prized contests for district attorney and county judge. But this election cycle, his party has "pounded the hell" out of his grassroots plan, he says, which he's banking on to neutralize the expected surge in Obama voters. "We haven't sat back playing defense."

Info

Dallas County

People slowly trickle into the ballroom, grabbing plates of assorted fruit, cheese and crackers, ora beer before finding a spot near a TV and planting themselves there. It's still early, but attendees have little time to enjoy themselves, as the presidential results pour in from across the country, and Obama takes a solid lead.

Neerman sips on a glass of water and keeps his eyes fixed on his BlackBerry, waiting for word of early voting returns. He figures it's a foregone conclusion that Obama will take Dallas County, but his concerns are more with local races, which will be the measure of his success, or failure.

The county GOP has focused its efforts on reclaiming the sheriff's office from Democratic incumbent Lupe Valdez, an openly gay Hispanic woman whose record of four failed jail inspections makes her vulnerable to the strong contender the Republicans


have put up—Lowell Cannaday, a former Irving police chief with 38 years of law enforcement experience. Also crucial is winning state house races in District 102, where Republican incumbent Tony Goolsby is facing a challenge from Richardson School Board member Carol Kent, and District 107, where Bill Keffer is attempting to take back his old seat from Democrat Allen Vaught.

No matter the early numbers, Neerman won't panic. He thinks his local candidates will still run well as long as Obama doesn't have an insurmountable lead in Dallas County.

It's just after 7 p.m. when the early votes are posted on the projection screen in the back of the room. Bad news: Obama has a 20-point lead. But Neerman keeps cool, focusing on incumbent Dan Branch's sizable lead in therace for Texas House District 108, the tight contest between Keffer and Vaught, and room for Goolsby to come back against Kent. Neerman also is comfortable with Cannaday's 13-point deficit, convinced that Republicans will out-vote Democrats on Election Day and offset any early voting disadvantage. The numbers don't look promising, but Neerman is hopeful things will turn his way by the end of the night.

To get the crowd's mind off these toxic returns, he does some damage control, taking the stage with a small group of local Republicans—U.S. Representatives Sam Johnson and Jeb Hensarling, Texas Representative Jim Jackson and Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey, whose victories are assured, considering three of them are running with no Democratic opposition. Dickey turns to the county chair and says, "Let's hear


it for Jonathan Neerman." She also calls him a "sweetheart" and awkwardly notes that he is handsome. At 9 p.m., Neerman trots out another group of winners—among them U.S. Representative Pete Sessions, state representatives Branch and Will Hartnet and legislative newcomer Angie Chen Button—but that ends the victory parade.

Democrats not only beat the Republicans in Dallas County in early votes by 100,000, they also outvoted them on Election Day. Cannaday lost to Valdez by 10 percentage points, making a concession speech to a thinned-out crowd and a tearful wife right before McCain offered his to a global audience. Goolsby and Keffer were also defeated along with most local Republican candidates.

For the second straight election cycle, Dallas County voters rendered the GOP virtually irrelevant. On a national scale, themarriage, evolution and stem cell research.

The second strategy is embodied, at least locally, by Neerman, who cares less about social issues and placating the religious right than broadening the GOP by going beyond its traditional constituency and appealing to Hispanics, blacks, gays—young and old alike. He wants to pare down the party's message to a few core issues that resonate with fiscal conservatives: lower taxes, limited government, strong national defense and supporting judges who don't legislate from the bench.

But with Texas continuing to break red and trend blue, particularly in urban counties such as Dallas and Harris, fracturing the traditional Republican coalition of fiscal and social conservatives—the coalition that Reagan built and George W. Bush honed—may be a risky venture, both for the local party and its designated


driver.

Neerman has already accumulated his share of critics, those who don't agree with his direction for the party, those who find his leadership wanting, those who feel that he blew the election through some sort of benign neglect.

And yet, a week after the votes were tallied, when Neerman is asked how much criticism he's received, he shrugs and says, "You mean, 'burn in hell, Neerman'? Believe it or not, I have not received, directly or indirectly, a single piece of negative feedback. But it's still early."

Several days after the election, Neerman makes himself available for a late-afternoon cup of coffee before heading into a conference room on the 37th floor of Fountain Place, a 60-story skyscraper accenting Dallas' skyline. Known for its pointed prism design, the reflective glasstower houses the Dallas office of Hunton & Williams, the white-shoe law firm where Neerman practices securities litigation. The view of downtown is stunning, but he closes the blinds as the sun blasts into the room.

Neerman is hardly the prototypical Republican. He's 34, Jewish, a quarter Chinese, a quarter Indian and all Aggie—with the class ring to prove it. "I'm a radical departure from the perception of the Republican Party, which is old, white and Protestant," he says. "And we get criticized for that all the time."

Neerman graduated from North Mesquite High School before attending Texas A&M where he majored in political science. In the summer of 1994, he worked as a file clerk at the personal injury law firm Baron & Budd, whose founders, Fred Baron and


Russell Budd have been major Democratic fund-raisers and donors. At the time, members of the firm were helping Ann Richards in her bid for governor, while Neerman says he quietly supported George W. Bush. Despite these political differences, he was impressed enough with the lawyers in the firm that he decided to go to law school.

But first he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C., and upon graduating from A&M served as a CIA imagery analyst. He later interned for the general counsel of the CIA while attending George Washington University Law School. After graduating from law school in 2002, he moved to Dallas and joined Jenkens & Gilchrist, which would fold in 2007 after the firm unraveled as a result of a tax shelterscandal originating in its Chicago offices. Many of Jenkens' local attorneys, including Neerman, joined the Dallas office of Hunton & Williams.

Neerman became involved in local politics, working at the grassroots level by making yard signs for Gary Griffith's successful Dallas City Council campaign in 2003, block walking for Republican Pete Sessions' congressional campaign and assisting in fund-raising efforts for Bush's second presidential bid in 2004.

His efforts paid off when he became president of the Dallas County Young Republicans in 2006. That same year, then-state Representative Bill Keffer was defeated for re-election, and Neerman seriously considered running for Keffer's former house seat in 2008. He discussed his intention to run in a meeting with Sessions held in the congressman's Washington office, but Neerman left without Sessions' endorsement. Ultimately, he


decided against running when Keffer announced he was.

"Bill and I are friends," he says. "There was no sense in us running in the primary against each other."

Two Republican consultants, not speaking for attribution, claim it wasn't friendship that dissuaded Neerman, it was Sessions, who, during that same trip to Washington, asked Neerman to run for county chair. Kenn George had decided not to seek another term and "Sessions wanted someone as chair that he could control," says one of the consultants.

Sessions did not return phone calls from the Observer, and Neerman denies he discussed the position with Sessions. He says he shifted his focus to George's job because "I thought about the direction that I wanted the Republican Party to go nationally, but the way to start itwas locally, right here in Dallas."

Neerman met with several local Republican leaders and quickly earned their endorsements. His only opponent was Alan Tompkins, vice president and general counsel for three entities owned by the family of Lamar Hunt. Tompkins, however, removed his name from consideration, and Neerman was named vice chair of the party in January, officially taking the helm in May.

"It's just kinda funny to think about, especially after going through the loss we went though [in 2006], why anybody would want to be county chairman, because it is a thankless task," he says. "You have 30 different masters, and if you lose, the Monday morning quarterbacking starts. I guarantee you it started at 6:30 Tuesday night, and it won't stop until 2010."

Neerman places his BlackBerry—which he


uses to represent Dallas County—in the middle of the table to illustrate his get-out-the-vote strategy during the 2008 election cycle. The screen is the Southern sector of the county, he says, and then he proceeds to point to suburban cities such as Cedar Hill, Coppell, Garland, Rowlett, Sachse and Sunnyvale. He says after its poor showing in 2006, the party targeted these outer-rim, high-density Republican areas to increase turnout.

But even if the GOP had been able to turn out its base vote from 2004, Neerman says a massive grassroots effort would have been needed to find approximately 50,000 new Republican voters to counter the Obama momentum. And no one was willing to fund that kind of drive, which Neerman compares to the effort poured into the mayoral campaignby Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, who raised more than $2 million in his successful 2007 campaign. And in this election cycle, there was no candidate attractive enough to raise that kind of money.

Although the party had only $5,000 in the bank at the beginning of the year, Neerman managed to raise $500,000 more. Money was spent mostly on creating a new GOP Web site, paying for employees and overhead at county headquarters, and covering the costs of phone banks, push cards, door hangers and a letter reminding people to vote straight-ticket Republican.

Some funds were also spent on McCain-Palin yard signs because they weren't provided by the national campaign. Although done on a smaller scale than 2006, funds were also spent on micro-targeting, a method which uses, among other


things, consumer histories to help determine the party affiliation of voters who didn't vote in a primary.

"If anyone says we lost this election because of who we were targeting...that's just complete bullshit," Neerman says. "We lost because we didn't get enough voters out to overcome the Obama wave."

Although Neerman offers no apologies, he knows that frustration within the party is at an all-time high, and people are searching for someone to blame. Rather than hide in his cushy downtown office while the GOP faithful grab their pitchforks, Neerman has decided instead to schedule an open-mic night and confront his detractors face to face.

Nearly 100 people take up Neerman on his gripe session on November 20, overflowing the meeting room at GOP headquarters near Walnut Hill Lane on CentralExpressway. He decided not to allow any press coverage so those in attendance would speak freely. But he has no problem reconstructing the meeting, which included approximately 40 precinct chairs, a handful of elected officials and at least 25 people he had never seen before.

The goal of the meeting, he says, was to "take the spears and herd the cats." To his surprise, no one blamed him, but there were plenty who called for revamping the party message after yet another dismal drubbing at the polls. While opinions varied on exactly what the party's new strategy should be, the consensus was the GOP desperately needed to broaden its base.

Neerman says most attendees agreed the party must reach out to minorities, gays and lesbians, but only a small faction


Facebook, a social networking Web site. "She's the first person I'll call tomorrow," he says, realizing the importance the Internet plays in connecting candidates with young voters—which is why he wants the woman to begin blogging on the party Web site.

While no one at the meeting was willing to criticize Neerman, others haven't been as kind. Cathie Adams, president of the conservative, pro-family organization Texas Eagle Forum, strongly disagrees with Neerman's plan to broaden the party's base at the expense of compromising on social issues. Adams, who served on the Republican National Platform Committee, points out that it took a social conservative like Sarah Palin to energize the base of the party.

"When you think that you've got to appeal to the moderates by setting aside the moral issues,he says. "He did a reasonable job under the circumstances...but there needs to be a whole new cadre of leaders to come in who are principled conservatives and are committed to turning this thing around."

Neerman says he wishes Pauken would have called him with his concerns before the election and stresses that while the party hoped for victory this year, rebuilding from 2006 was always envisioned as a multiyear endeavor. "I'm not suggesting that I'm the perfect person for this job, and there may be somebody better. I've never claimed that I am."

Mari Woodlief, president of Allyn & Company, served as a political consultant for several Republican candidates, including Goolsby and State Representative Linda Harper-Brown. She says Neerman had a difficult job, but the party has an identity


that a new election be ordered. No ruling has been rendered as of press time, but an outcome favoring Harper-Brown would allow the GOP to maintain a one-seat majority in the Texas House and increase the odds that Republican Tom Craddick of Midland will be re-elected speaker.

"[Republican state representative candidates] worked hard, but they were literally treated like second-class citizens by the county party, and Neerman didn't help them out at all," says the consultant.

Neerman says he doesn't see his job as helping out the state reps, who run their own campaigns, stressing that the party's job is "to help the candidates who can't otherwise help themselves" and provide services such as ballot security during the election. Those candidates probably should have started their programs earlier, he says,didn't."

Ed Valentine, a Dallas-based political analyst, says there's an easy explanation for yet another Republican pasting at the polls: "Two words: Barack Obama." However, he doesn't believe the numbers should have been as bad as they were and says both Mike Anderson, the former mayor of Mesquite who lost a tight race for District 101, and Goolsby should have won their state house races.

"I really think a line should have been drawn in the sand in Tony's house district because Tony fought off the tide two years ago, and everybody should have been on deck to fight that battle," he says.

Valentine also says Lowell Cannaday was the wrong horse in the sheriff's race, calling him a microcosm of what the party offered nationally: "yet another old white guy."

Had


think they get it," she says. "The voters in this county are tired of what we've had for the last 25 years, and that's the Republicans."

Ewing says educating people about the benefits of straight-ticket voting was a key part of her strategy, and her efforts paid off. The message was simple: "Don't stop at the top."

Rather than compete in another straight-ticket ballot war in 2010, Neerman supports a bill that would eliminate straight-ticket voting in Texas. In the last legislative session, Republican State Senator Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio sponsored a bill that would have killed the practice. Texas is one of only 17 states where straight-ticket voting is permissible. But the bill received little support, though Wentworth is expected to introduce it again in the 2009 session.

"ItSix of the 12 Republican trial judges up for election in 2010 have already announced their intentions to become Democrats, including Judge Kristin Wade, who agrees judicial races should be nonpartisan.

"I've always considered myself pretty much an independent, but due to the nature of judicial races being partisan, you're forced to make a choice," she says. "I want to keep my job, and I'm a good public servant, so now I'm running as a Democrat."

Perhaps the biggest challenge for Neerman is to find ways of enticing young and minority voters and candidates. One of the few GOP wins in November was in House District 112 where Angie Chen Button, who was born in Taiwan, defeated Democrat Sandra Phuong VuLe, who is Vietnamese. The win was important because it


the ballot, and even if U.S. Senator and Dallasite Kay Bailey Hutchison runs and emerges from the Republican primary, Houston Mayor Bill White could be a dangerous Democrat, if he decides to play. The stakes are high for Neerman, who has little time to retool his party or its message before facing high-profile contests against popular Democratic district attorney Craig Watkins and unpopular Democratic County Judge Jim Foster.

Yet Neerman remains optimistic that without Obama topping the ticket, 2010 will be a good year for Republicans. "I went to sleep seeing that guy in my dreams," he says. "I thought I'd get some peace and quiet watching some football, but he was running commercials during the damned Cowboys game. I nearly dropped my beer, saying, 'Good God, go away!'"Local Dancers Pay Homage To Michael Jackson In Tribute Show

Luis Castillo of Woodbury would like to assure you that Billie Jean is not his lover. But he never tires of dancing to her tune.

By day, Castillo works in regulatory compliance at a bank. By night, he dons a single white glove and moonwalks. Using the stage name LC Jackson, he has been impersonating Michael Jackson for 17 years, since he was a ninth-grader at St. Paul Central High School. This weekend, he opens “Legacy! A Tribute to the King of Pop,” at SteppingStone Theatre, with eight backup dancers — including show manager and former school buddy Marques Matthias — and a dozen costume changes.

“Like a lot of ’90s kids, I had a childhood obsession with Michael’s music,” Castillo


perfect for families and for school groups. There
is plenty of shade, plenty of very interesting plants,
splendid rocks and cliffs, and a good mixture of creeks vs.
dirt trails.

Day
3 - Easy-going Creek Hike

Big contacted some old school mates to take
us up a creek. When we arrived, we luckily happened to meet
another old friend of his who wanted to join us. He ended up
being the leader of this group as this was his stomping
ground. He also spoke quite a bit of English.

At the very beginning part of this creek the
locals offer ATV rides. However, within a few minutes, the
terrain is not compatible for that… only for walking.
Walking up a creek is one of the easiest and most pleasant
ways to access otherwise thick jungle. The only downside is
that some of the rocksare slippery. We quickly got used to
figuring out the appearance of the more slippery rocks and
simply avoided them.

During this time of the year, there are a
lot of trees in fruit and mushrooms are also plentiful. We
found mushrooms that I had never seen before. Some of them
were edible while others were used in medicine.

At one point we headed up a well-marked
trail. This trail is used to avoid a particularly risky area
of the creek that has some drops on slippery rocks. The
trail also allowed us to find some different types of flora
as we were not in the riparian area, but into the jungle.
There were different trees, flowers and fruit from what we
commonly saw near the water.

Khun Wat, the guide who joined us, really
knew his plants. He also informed us at


of us for the entire day. Wind plays havoc with
big trees. There was a downed one and it was full of orchids
and epiphytes. According to my guys, many of the orchids
were quite rare. None were in flower, but the plants were
interesting nonetheless.

At one point we went down to walk in a
high-country creek. It was unique and very pleasant, but
there were a couple of awkward bits where we had to ascend
slick rock. This stretch is avoidable, but I’m glad we did
it.

We found plenty of fruit and plants to eat
on the mountaintop. We saw evidence of Pangolin, bear, wild
pigs, monkeys, and deer. Lunch was at a massive tree with
far-reaching buttress roots that made good seats.

The ridge trail continued for a couple more
hours and, according to Palm, it goes for a#NazeemHowa quits Oakbay Investments

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Johannesburg - Oakbay Investments Chief Executive Nazeem Howa has quit the company with immediate effect following a week of high drama involving the Gupta family and its companies. The company and Howa said on Monday the CEO’s resignation was due to ill-health. The resignation of Howa comes after Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan filed an explosive affidavit in the Pretoria High Court on why he would not intervene on the decisions of the banks to cut ties with the Guptas. In his affidavit, Gordhan attached a series of letters he exchanged with Howa on the banks debacle. Gordhan had insisted he cannot, by law, intervene on decisions of the banks.

But Howa had implored him to intervene in


order to save the jobs of thousands of Oakbay employees.

In the declaratory court application the finance minister revealed that there were 72 suspicious transactions amounting to R6.83 billion on the Guptas’ accounts.

This led to the Financial Intelligence Centre to raise alarm bells.

But the lawyer for the Guptas Gert van Merwe told Independent Media earlier on Monday that the application by Gordhan was ill-founded.

He would reveal at a later why the banks really closed the accounts of the Guptas.

He said the banks did not want to disclose the real reasons for shutting down the accounts.

Howa has become the first top official in Oakbay to quit after the Gordhan fallout.

However, Oakbay did not cite the recent developments as the reason for his resignation.

Both parties said it was due to ill-health.

Theysupporters.

The school board's three library board appointees are board president Bix Branson, Velinda Stubbs and Tim Wilhelmus. The other four appointments are split between the Vanderburgh County Commissioners and Vanderburgh County Council.

How supporters and foes voiced their opinion

Speakers for and against Drag Queen Story Hour mobilized their forces prior to Monday’s school board meeting at the EVSC administrative office on Walnut Street.

Those against the program conducted a pep rally of sorts outside the meeting room about an hour before the 5:30 start time. Then they filled many of the room’s seats. A group supporting the program arrived a bit later and stood in an aisle and outside the room.

Steve Ary, a local pastor and blogger, said, “We are not here to reject the LGBT community in any way,


Freud, Darwin, and the holding environment.
Freud's hypothesis of the neonate, derived from the data of adult psychoneurotic patients, was of a supremely narcissistic being who lived in a dreamlike state of hallucinatory satisfaction. A corollary hypothesis was that the neonate's drive to attach was learned and emerged only after the failure of wish fulfillment. These hypotheses provided the ground for Freud's theories of regression, dream, primary process, and pleasure principle. Darwin's data of the neonate, collected from his observations of a variety of mammals, led him to the conclusion that attachment in mammals is innate. Until 1969 and the work of John Bowlby, psychoanalytic thinking faithfully followed Freud. If psychoanalysis is to survive, then it must attach itself to data and discard any theories that are based onHotel in Eastern Romania designed by Gustave Eiffel, on sale at foreclosure auction

Grand Hotel Traian, a landmark hotel in the center of Iasi - the biggest city in Eastern Romania, has been put up for sale at an auction for the starting price of EUR 5.55 million without VAT.

The hotel, which is classified as a historic monument, was built between 1879 and 1882 based on plans by famous French engineer Gustave Eiffel. The building was initially supposed to be a theater but as the investor who started it went bankrupt due to the high construction costs, it was taken over by one of his creditors who decided that it would be better suited to host a hotel.

The hotel has a rich history. In 1918, when Romania was still


at war and Bucharest was occupied by the German army, the Traian Hotel hosted the Romanian Government’s meetings. Legend says that even famous actress Greta Garbo stayed in one of the hotel’s luxury suites under a false name, in 1934.

The hotel was nationalized in 1950. In 2001, local investor Danut Prisecariu took over the company Turism Moldova, which owned the Traian Hotel and Astoria Hotel in Iasi. He then invested some EUR 4 million in the hotel’s renovation, according to the local media. The company went into insolvency in 2015.

Grand Hotel Traian has 68 rooms and suites and three event rooms. It also has a restaurant and a and English-style pub.

The foreclosure auction, which is organized by judicial administrator BDO Business Restructuring takes place in Bucharest on August8.

Gustave Eiffel, who became famous for the Eiffel Tower in Paris and for his contribution to the Statue of Liberty in New York, also designed the Eiffel Bridge at Ungheni, a steel bridge over the river Prut, which connects Romania and the Republic of Moldova. In 1973, he also built the biggest market in Iasi, Hala Centrala, which was demolished in 1960.

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(Photo source: Wikipedia / Cezar Suceveanu)


The Melbourne Esports Open is back for 2019

From August 31st until September 1st, the Melbourne Esports Open is going to be held at Melbourne Olympic Park – it’s set to be by far the biggest weekend for esports in Australia, so definitely something to take note of for esports fans.

Last year, the event saw two huge esports final – the Oceanic Pro League Finals had several League of Legends pros battling for the title. This year, the finals for that League will be back to – as a matter of fact, the OPL Finals are going to be headlining the Melbourne Esports Open until 2022 at the very least! Players from Australia, New Zealand and surrounding islands get together to compete at Melbourne Olympic Park – a must-watchdeliberation the trial court erred in denying the jury's request for a trial transcript of a witness' trial testimony.
The trial testimony presented by the State revealed the following facts of the robbery-murder.
On Sunday, August 2, 1981, at about 5 p.m., the deceased, Terrell Jackson, age 33, was enjoying the peace and tranquility of his home, where he lived with his wife and five children on the south side of *415 Chicago. He fell asleep on the floor while watching television in the second-floor bedroom. Jackson's young brother, Arlander Adamson, age 18, was watching television in the first-floor living room of the residence. Jackson's stepdaughter, Gwen Thomas, age 19, was in a second-floor bedroom with her baby, either watching television or sleeping.
Two men burst through the rear door of


the premises. Each man had a gun in his hand. The men put their guns to Adamson's head and commanded Adamson to tell them who else was in the house. Adamson told them that his brother, his niece and her baby were upstairs and that no one was in the basement. One of the men checked the basement because a radio was playing there. The two men asked Adamson if there were any drugs or money in the house. One of the men suggested that they should kill Adamson. The other man disagreed. The two men bound and gagged Adamson and forced Adamson to accompany them upstairs.
Adamson indicated to the two men that his niece and her baby were in the room where the door was closed. Themen with Adamson went down the hallway to the room of Terrell Jackson, who was asleep on the floor with the television playing. The men ordered Adamson to lie on the floor and Adamson did so. The men told Jackson to get up and asked him, "Where is the s____t at?" As Jackson awakened, the two men fired six shots into Jackson's body. One of the men took Jackson's jewelry and money and the other looked through various drawers in the room while asking, "Where's the s____t?"
One of the men left the room and went to the room of Gwen Thomas, and with the gun in his hand, the man told Gwen Thomas to come with him. The man directed Gwen Thomas to her father's, Jackson's room, which