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Meeka Claxton on 'Basketball Wives' Drama, Addresses Tami Lawsuit
Hell hath no fury like a woman … on reality television, especially if that show is “Basketball Wives.”
By now everyone’s seen the infamous episode where Tami Roman strikes Meeka Claxton in the face while on vacation in Europe and now Meeka would like to tell you her side of that exchange and why she doesn’t think Ms. Roman is going to leave the show.
Are you ready?
ESSENCE.com: Did you join “Basketball Wives” to promote your real estate business? Is it odd that you’re the only wife?MEEKA CLAXTON: No, we’re good if we sell one house per year because the average commission is six figures. I thought basketball wives were being misrepresented. I didn’t look for the opportunity, it came to me from a mutual friend Shaunie O'Neal and I share who suggested I join the show. I talked it over with friends and decided to join and show the other side of wives’ lives. It was weird being the only wife, I didn’t know how the other girls would receive me. But I was excited because I wanted to show my great husband, family, business and work we do in the community.
ESSENCE.com: Did you and Tami Roman have issues before you joined “Basketball Wives”?MEEKA: She’s from the older school of wives, [her ex-husband] Kenny Anderson retired the first year my husband Speedy started playing around 2000 so I didn’t know Tami at all. I’m sure she doesn’t know me either. She’s just a ‘negative Nancy.’
ESSENCE.com: Did you expect her to hit you at the club in Italy?MEEKA: No! I didn’t even know we were going to have a conversation, Tami’s opinion never mattered to me. I think that’s why she kept at it but, like I tell my children, you have to ignore bullies. It wasn’t until I was escorted out [of the club] that I realized that she had on flip-flops and to me if you’re dressed like that in a club, you’re ready to fight.
ESSENCE.com: Why file a lawsuit against her for a reality show fight. Is that even legal? MEEKA: I’m well within my rights. I refuse to fight on TV. It was embarrassing. We were the only Black people there and we’re adding to the negative stereotypes of Black women. I was disappointed in Tami as a woman and adult, [the lawsuit is] about consequences to your actions. My kids won’t see this. They aren’t watching ‘Basketball Wives.' Tami’s attitude was so toxic I had to spend a day apart from the girls before [the fight happened], then that happens?
ESSENCE.com: Tami’s said she’s going to quit if you return next season … MEEKA: I don’t think she’s going anywhere. She’s been doing this television thing for a few years so I think this is where she wants to be.
ESSENCE.com: What do you think about the public outcry over how “Basketball Wives” negatively portrays black women?MEEKA: I feel bad that Shaunie O’Neal is taking the brunt of the criticism because we’re contributing to the problem with our actions. That’s where I’m going with [my lawsuit] with Tami, you can’t do that.
ESSENCE.com: It’s presumable that Shaunie greenlit your fight ...MEEKA: I don’t know how much creative control she has. People often have producer as their job title but are too busy to be present. I hope she didn’t sign off because that’s sad, especially from someone who was actually a wife.
ESSENCE.com: What did you think of Eric Williams throwing a drink on ex-wife Jennifer Williams?MEEKA: I’m glad the cameras were there, God knows what he would’ve done if they weren’t. He seemed angry. That’s the thing, there’s so much more to our lifestyle. It’s a crazy, jet-setting, blessed life, and there’s more to us than drink throwing. |
Carrington Farms Coconut Oil. Our pure, unrefined, cold pressed oil is simply pressed and bottled so it retains its original nutrient content, flavor and color. This oil is hexane and chemical free. This is a Gluten free, USDA Organic and Non GMO Cer...
Hymo Cake Icing Shortening, 50 Pound -- 1 each. Hymo is an emulsified cake and icing shortening that allows the true flavor of baked goods to come through. Cakes made with Hymo are moist and delicious while icings are smooth and creamy.... |
Expression of receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand in leukocytes during acute kidney rejection after transplantation in rats.
Acute cellular rejection of the transplanted kidney is an important cause of impaired graft function. One of the basic characteristics of acute cellular rejection according to the latest Banff classification of renal allograft pathology is the presence of a large number of T lymphocytes in the allografted tissue. Osteoprotegerin, receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK) and RANK ligand (RANKL), three relatively novel members of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily, have crucial roles not only in physiologic and pathologic bone metabolism but also in immunologic processes. The aim of our study was to determine the expression of RANKL and RANK by T lymphocytes and macrophages in acute cellular kidney allograft rejection in rats. The study included 15 male Wistar rats of 3 months old and 250-300 g as recipients and 15 male DA rats donors of 3 months old; and weight 250-300 g. When animals were sacrificed at 3 weeks to extract the transplanted kidney for pathohistologic analysis and immunoflorescence. all samples showed acute cellular rejection. Kidney sections were examined by dual-labeled immunofluorescence to detect CD4, CD8, or CD68 (red) and RANK or RANKL (green) with coexpressing cells as orange. RANKL-positive expression colocalized with CD4(+) and CD8(+) T lymphocytes in acutely rejected kidney tissue. There was no association between CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells with RANK expression, which was evident by infiltrating CD68-positive macrophages in the kidney tissue interstitium. RANK and RANKL were expressed by T lymphocytes and macrophages in acute cellular kidney rejection after transplantation in rats. |
Drivers in the Military in Utah
It's difficult to maintain your current driver license and vehicle registration when you are stationed outside your home state, so Utah, like most states, cuts active-duty military personnel some slack.
Driver License Renewal
Military personnel whose Utah driver license expires while they are stationed outside of Utah may continue to use that license until up to 90 days after they are discharged, by which time they will need to file for an extension or renewal.
However, their dependents will need to renew by coming back to the state or acquiring a driver's license from their current state of residence.
Military personnel from outside Utah who are temporarily stationed in Utah may use their valid out-of-state or out-of-country license to drive in Utah, and so may their dependents.
Vehicle Registration Renewal
Military personnel stationed outside Utah who have Utah-registered vehicles that they (not another family member or leasing company) own may be eligible for the following exemptions when it comes time to renew:
Property tax exemption. Contact your local county assessor to find out what documentation the assessor needs to exempt you from this tax.
Military personnel from another state who are stationed in Utah may retain their vehicle's out-of-state registration. However, if you buy a vehicle while in Utah and plan to use it here, you will pay the Utah sales and use tax even if you decide to register the vehicle in your home state. |
Spektrum’s DX6e is the latest low-price, big-feature transmitter in its lineup. The transmitter is available with or without an AR610 receiver. The box also includes four AA batteries to power the transmitter and a 179-page manual featuring instructions in four languages.
For less than $200, you get a six-channel radio with 250-model memory, SD card support, and a wireless trainer link. The menu system is in the same format as higher-dollar DX transmitters and gives you many of the same programming options.
The DX6e is programmable for airplanes, helicopters, sailplanes, and multirotors. The airplane program contains seven wing and six tail types. The helicopter program has two swashplate types to choose from and the sailplane contains four wing and three tail types.
A special feature of the DX6e is the multirotor aircraft option. This is a feature that most radios do not have. If you have a lot of interest in flying multirotors, this is the perfect starter transmitter for you.
The 250-model memory can be programmed with the name of each aircraft for easy identification, as well as the freedom to reorder the model listing to keep your favorites toward the top of the list and easy to find. There are also options for deleting models, copying models, resetting models, and the ability to program a warning tone that sounds if a switch or control stick is in an unsafe position when the transmitter is powered on. I only have one model bound to my transmitter (a Blade Nano QX2), so I haven’t yet taken advantage of most of these features.
The Spring Configuration Switch is new to this transmitter and is patent pending. This innovation allows you to change flight modes on your radio without needing to remove its back to make the adjustments. All you need to do is access the flight modes in the system settings menu and set the mode you need. Power off the transmitter and then move the slider switch found on the back of the transmitter. After the switch is moved to the desired mode, power the transmitter back on and it’s ready to go.
The DX6e has a slot on the bottom that accepts an SD card. This SD card can be used to save and share models, as well as update your firmware. This transmitter had cross-platform sharing with all other Spektrum radios, so you can fly your models on more than one transmitter if desired.
Ratchets and spring controls for stick adjustments are found on the front of the radio. You can change the length of the control sticks, the smoothness of the throttle movements, and the stick tension.
There are two ways to bind a model to the DX6e. The first is to power on the receiver before turning on the transmitter. Make sure the throttle is in the lowest position. While pressing the Bind button on the back of the transmitter, power it on. After the receiver has stopped flashing, release the Bind button.
The second binding method allows you to leave the transmitter on. If you are programming new models into your model memory, there is a Bind option in the system setup menu.
Dual rates and exponential programming are standard to the Spektrum DX transmitters. There is also an option to track aircraft performance through an optional telemetry module and sensors.
A monitor screen can be accessed quickly by moving the scroll wheel to the right. Here you can see the servo positions for which your channels are set. This can also be helpful in the event that you start to experience a loss in control of any of your channels.
After returning your model to the ground, this menu can be used to show if your controls are getting input when moving the sticks. If they are, then it proves whatever issues you are experiencing are not on the transmitter’s end.
The wireless trainer feature lets you perform buddy-box flying without a cord getting in the way. The trainer feature will bind to any other DSMX or DSMX2 transmitter. When bound, the radios will stay linked and there is no need to rebind each time they are used together.
Another great feature of this transmitter is the lap timer. There is a built-in timer in the functions menu that can be programmed to track your flight laps. This can be especially beneficial for multirotor racing.
This really is a fully programmable transmitter. There are so many options that they can’t all be covered here. This is a great transmitter for an exceptional value. It might be geared toward the beginner, but pilots of any skill level can enjoy flying with the Spektrum DX6e in control. |
When playing Civilization, I always liked the early phases the most, when you are still exploring the surroundings of your starting city. In the later phases you have too many cities and too many armies, and that somewhat bogs the game down. So what if somebody made a game where you only ever had one city and a very limited number of armies? Maybe fantasy rather than historical. That would be a rather cool game, wouldn't it? It turns out that somebody made that game. It is called Thea: The Awakening, and it only costs $16 on Steam during the autumn sale. Which is a great price for a game that compares well with some other hex-based fantasy world exploration games that come at full price.
At the core of Thea is an innovative combat game which has you playing cards in turn with your opponent. Each card represents one of your characters, or the monsters the opponent controls, and has values for health and damage. Half of your cards are for direct combat, the other half can optionally be played for various effects that manipulate other cards. Overall that gives great tactical gameplay and is much fun. And because your characters don't just have combat values but also other skills, for example social skills, the same system is used for skill challenges. And if you don't want to bother playing that card game for some insignificant opponent, there is an auto resolve button too. Just don't use it for the hard fights, because you can do better manually.
You characters come in different character classes: Warriors, medics, gatherers, and crafters. You will leave some of them in your village (there are no settlers to found more villages), while others you send out in "expeditions". You might send out adventuring types to do quests or explore ruins, while you might send out a gathering party to collect some resources you need. Everybody needs food and fuel to keep warm, and lots of monsters wander the world and can attack your village and expeditions. So you need to be careful and try to get your economy going in order to survive. Thea is billed as a survival game, and with the limited number of characters you get, you really don't want to lose many.
Your characters get stronger with time, and you will find a lot of resources and gear. Crafting can create more gear, and there is a sort of tech tree for researching materials, crafted items, and buildings. The crafting system is quite interesting, because recipes aren't totally fixed: You can use various alternative materials, and depending on the quality of the resources the quality of the crafted item improves. You can also salvage unused items back into materials.
All of this plays on a procedurally created world. But that world also contains various story elements and encounters. Often you need to make a decision, and what decisions are available depend on the skills of the characters involved. So although you might come across the same story elements again on your next playthrough, there is a lot of replayability. That is also helped by a system where your progress in a game makes the god you chose at the start stronger, so if you didn't manage to survive you can try again with a few more powers.
It has been a long time since I last got into that "one more turn" fascination of a game like this. Thea: The Awakening is really one of the better and more innovative games of this genre. You get a full-price value game for the cost of an indie title. Recommended!
Well, "survival" is in so far correct as the game clearly has a loss condition, and your village is under an increasing onslaught of enemies as the game progresses. I would guess that at the highest difficulty level it becomes quite likely to lose the game rather than to survive and win. On the plus side the game keeps score of everything you do, so even a loss will give you points to level up your god. |
2月12日のまにら新聞から
Palace says it's within Duterte's power to veto certain provisions in the enrolled budget bill
If President Rodrigo Duterte would veto certain provisions, including alleged insertions by lawmakers, in the enrolled budget bill for this year, it would be within his power, Malacanang said on Monday.
Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House appropriations committee, has warned that he would go to the Supreme Court if Duterte would remove the "pork"-type funds in the P3.757 trillion budget for this year.
"How can you question a veto power that’s lodged in the Constitution? It’s there. It’s a power of the President to veto," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a press briefing.
He said what the lawmakers could do is to override Duterte's veto.
"You don’t have to go to the Supreme Court. A President vetoes a measure, then Congress can override the veto by the required number of votes. We have the mechanism," said Panelo, also chief presidential legal counsel.
During the deliberation of the 2019 budget in the House, Andaya and Other lawmakers questioned Budget Secretary Benjmain Diokno's alleged insertion of P75 billion in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways allegedly to benefit the budget chief's in-laws.
But Diokno denied the allegation and said it was not an insertion since it was part of changes made by the executive in the proposed budget to meet the target infrastructure spending for this year.
He has said it would be up to Congress to decide on the matter when the budget was still being discussed.
Both the House and the Senate made adjustments on the budget by allocating multi-billion funds to their pet projects and for congressmen, to their districts.
After months of deliberation, Congress approved last week the proposed budget for 2019 and the enrolled bill is now with the Office of the President and undergoing review.
Andaya has accused Diokno and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, former Davao City congressman and chair of the House appropriations committee, of manipulating the budget by restoring the P75 billion that the DBM allegedly inserted in the DPWH budget.
He has said if the two Cabinet officials succeed in the "evil scheme" of restoring the P75-billion insertion, he would join other lawmakers in questioning the veto message of the President in the Supreme Court.
While it is within the power of the President to veto, Panelo said it would be the right of Andaya and other lawmakers if they would go to the Supreme Court.
If this happens, he still expressed optimism that the government's infrastructure spending would not be affected unless the high tribunal would issue a temporary restraining order.
"The President, as we said, will be scrutinizing every phase, every provision of the budget. He wants to be sure that it is in conformity with the Constitution. And he will veto anything that he feels is not correct or irregular," Panelo added. Celerina Monte/DMS |
Q:
USB ports don't recognize most of my devices anymore after I cleaned my PCs inside
TL;DR: copied latest usb.inf from my own system to C:\Windows\inf\usb.inf, rebootet, connected deviced, uninstalled the ones which weren't working, reconnected them and driver was properly installed and devices did work again
I've opened my PC and cleaned it from the inside, after I attached it to power again, most of my USB devices are not properly recognized anymore.
Specs:
Windows 7 Professional x64
Motherbaord GigaByte GA-X58A-UD7
Case is a Obsidian 800D
How I cleaned my PC:
Opened the case on both sides
used my vacuum cleaner and sucked out the obvious big chunks of dust
used air compression to blow out dust on hard to reach parts
used a just-a-tiny-bit-wet rag to remove the rest of the dust
What happened after I powered up my PC again:
I forgot to really shutdown my PC and thus ended up and the resume screen (I almost always put the system into hibernation)
Mouse & Keyboard both did not work, the mouse pointer appeared on screen
I don't remember about the keyboard, but the mouse had power through USB (middle mouse buttons glows) but still didn't work
I was able to restart my PC with TightVNC from within my own network
Nothing still worked at at this point of course I started disconnected/connected my devices to various ports until I found a combination which worked but found many things not working as expected anymore
What I tried:
I removed device drivers of e.g. the hub, removed power from the PC completely for hours, attached again; no change (i.e. made them electrically removed from any power source)
I disconnected/connected devices randomly until I realized with 12 USB ports that might not be a good idea, see the approach below
Since my board has 12 USB ports for testing and I've some devices, I created a matrix so don't get lost what I did test and what did work, etc.
Image of the frontside: http://i.imgur.com/aa6Dh5B.jpg , numbered
from left to right: Port 1,2,3,4
Image of the backside: http://i.imgur.com/la3furp.jpg , numbered
Black from left/right/top/down: Port 5,6,7,8
Yellow (eSata/USB) left/right: Port 9,10
Blue (USB 3.0): top/down: Port 11,12
Every port I connected something too, it was always "recognized", which this I mean: Windows always got signaled that "something happened"; no port was from my POV considered "dead".
Devices I tested:
The bold character is their abbreviation the matrix further down
M Mouse Razer DeathAdderUnfortunatelyI don't have another USB mouse currently available to me
K1/2 Keyboard Logitech Media Keyboard 600I've two of them for testing
D Dell UltraSharp U2412M
H Digitus Slib Spider USB Hub
S Samsgung Galaxy Note II
Description for the matrix, headlines:
M Mouse
K1 Keyboard 1
K2 Keyboard 2
H Hub
HM Hub w/mouse
HK Hub w/keyboard (didn't differentiate which)
D Dell monitor
DM Dell monitor w/mouse
DK Dell monitor w/keyboard (didn't differentiate which)
Cell descriptions:
Y Yes works
YI Yes works, "i"nstalled driver
N Didn't work
ND Didn't work, but tried to find "d"river
NU Didn't work, "u"nknown device
The matrix:
+------------------------------------------------------+
¦ Port ¦ M ¦ K1 ¦ K2 ¦ H ¦ HM ¦ HK ¦ D ¦ DM ¦ DK ¦
¦---------+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----¦
¦ Front ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 1 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ Y ¦ YI ¦ ND ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 2 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ Y ¦ YI ¦ ND ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 3 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 4 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Back ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 5 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 6 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 7 ¦ YI ¦ Y ¦ Y ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ Y ¦ Y ¦ ND ¦
¦ Port 8 ¦ Y ¦ NU ¦ NU ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ Y ¦ Y ¦ ND ¦
¦ Port 9 ¦ YI ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 10 ¦ Y ¦ NU ¦ NU ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 11 ¦ Y ¦ N ¦ N ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
¦ Port 12 ¦ YI ¦ NU ¦ NU ¦ ND ¦ ¦ ¦ N ¦ ¦ ¦
+------------------------------------------------------+
Tool to create such a table courtesy of http://www.sensefulsolutions.com/2010/10/format-text-as-table.html , via https://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/139013
Tools I used during testing:
USBDeview to have a better insight what's where and quickly remove drivers
Windows Device Manager to see if a device was at least detected with their brand name or just "unknown"
Other resources I consulted:
Windows 7 doesn't recognize USB devices anymore (that's where I got USBDeview from)
Conclusions so far:
Mouse works everywhere
Samsung Galaxy Note 2 works everywhere
Keyboards only work on Port 7
Hub works only on 1 and 2 and only with mouse
Dell works only on 7 and 8 and only with nouse (even though keyboards only work on 7)
I've no idea what's going on here.
Update 1:
As @Bob in a comment suggested, I booted with a Debian Live CD. The keyboards worked on every port I connected to.
I think at this point it's safe to assume:
it's not an electrical problem per se creating due my cleaning
the USB peripheral hardware isn't at fault either
Solution:
Thanks to @Ian I was able to fix the problem. His suggestion that there's a problem with the file C:\Windows\inf\usb.inf was spot on. Here are my findings:
At first I was skeptical about this and although I could verify the file was not present, since I've never heard of it, I didn't wanted to copy files randomly around
Ian stayed convincing and I unfortunately hadn't thought about it but I checked another W7 system I'm having access to and I could verify that it had that file
I searched my local computer and found various usb.inf files in misc. locations. I copied the one with the latest timestamp from C:\Windows\winsxs\amd64_usb.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.20934_none_27ac0e3841194697\usb.inf to C:\Windows\inf\usb.inf and rebootet
After connecting the problematic devices they still didn't work, but this time I could deinstall them in the Device Manager, re-connect and this time the driver was properly installed. I did this with keyboard, mouse, hub, monitor and everything seems to work like it always did!
A:
I have had similar problems in the past. Each time it turned out that the usb.inf file was missing from C:\Windows\inf. If it is missing, copy it from another computer and reboot.
|
A Review Of Video wall
A Review Of Video wall
State-of-the-art video wall controllers will allow you to output multiple resources to teams of shows in the video wall and alter these zones at will even all through Stay playback. The greater primary scalers only enable you to output one source to the entire video wall.
The biggest video wall as of 2013 is situated with the backstretch on the Charlotte Motor Speedway motorsport track.
We stock many measurements and versions of generator from 2900W - 20,000W? towable units Submersible Pump
The Security Functions Center, occasionally referred to as a “SOC”, is the location in a facility or building devoted to monitoring security cameras, infra-red sensors, movement detectors, vibration sensors or some other gadget that detects intrusion or maybe a well being safety issue.
Before The Tetris Company's standardization from the early 2000s (decade), Those people shades different widely from implementation to implementation.
An ideal illustration on the asked for source couldn't be found on this server. This mistake was generated by Mod_Security.
Regardless of the the situation, it’s no secret that men and women are likely to need to inevitably sit. This just about means that chairs are a must For each get together or event.
David Hughes and Many others from SGI designed Media Fusion, an architecture built to exploit the likely of a scalable shared memory and regulate multiple visual streams of pixel data into 3D environments. It provides info administration Alternative and conversation in immersive visualization environments. Its focus is streaming pixels across heterogeneous network more than the Visual Place Community(VAN) comparable to SAGE. On the other hand, it is created for a small quantity of significant displays.
Obtaining your services has become a godsend. I applied to invest several hours and several hours looking to coordinate all the small print. Now I deliver an e mail and clearly show up. I can deal with the training by itself rather than have to bother with one other factors. I love it!! Brenda S.
Many months ago, Facebook disclosed in a post on its “Advertiser Assistance Heart” that its check here metric for the typical time end users expended observing videos was artificially inflated since it was only factoring in video sights of over three seconds. The corporation claimed it Video wall absolutely was introducing a brand new metric to repair the trouble. Some advert agency executives who ended up also knowledgeable by Fb with regards to the transform began digging further, prompting Facebook to give them a far more in depth account, among the persons aware of the situation stated.
They're just squares!" or "Shapes are difficult!" and Buddy will then say "Lifestyle lost" and one of many four squares on the highest screen will disappear. After each and every stage is completed Buddy will inform the participant that has a remark such as: "Degree up!" and there will then be a 45-second reward round which the player can score two or more bonus points.
Modern-day variations of Tetris released just after 2001 make use of a bag-design randomizer that ensures gamers won't ever acquire in excess of four S or Z parts within a row. This is among the "Indispensable Regulations" enforced through the Tetris Guideline that every one formally licensed Tetris game titles need to adhere to.[10] |
Not getting undeliverable notice
Hi,
I have a web application where someone fills in a contact form. My code sends an auto-response to the user. I've been testing non-existant email accounts but am not receiving an undeliverable message. I know the auto-response is definitely sending as I've bcc'd my own email in and receive that.
Re: Not getting undeliverable notice
It really depends on what you mean by "non-existant email accounts" @robbied If you are just picking [email protected] even though that email address may not exist I wouldn't expect GMail to send out a courtesy undeliverable. Servers would be sending out responses all day and could/would be bombarded if that were the case. Email servers that I run wouldn't inform you that you got an email address wrong or to a non-existent address. I just usually define a catchall address to swallow all of those email to non-existant email accounts. I'd just concentrate on the fact that you received the message. You can always check using real addresses. I hope that helps?
...turns out that my two cents is worth less or more depending on the current exchange rate.
Re: Not getting undeliverable notice
The reality is servers will treat different requests differently. It is possible that you individual email address sending from your @yahoo.com or @Gmail.com (or whatever) is treated differently to a request coming in from a contact form which is basically a bot. I don't think that you should anticipate a bounceback. I guess I don't get why you feel like you need to get undeliverable messages back?
...turns out that my two cents is worth less or more depending on the current exchange rate.
Re: Not getting undeliverable notice
I'm having the same issue and the reason it's important that people get an undeliverable/bounceback message when they've incorrectly entered an email address is simple. If they don't, they believe their email HAS been delivered and expect a response.
I would still like to know how to turn this option on if it exists for cPanel email. |
#EveryBodyFits
"Swimsuits from Figleaves fit well, I mean really, really well."
"Figleaves lingerie is always fresh and sexy."
“The colors were beautiful, and the fit was perfect.”
“Created by women for women, Figleaves' 'lingerie-fit swimwear' is poolside perfection.” The Lingerie Addict |
DISCUSSION OF REFORM in the Arab countries
is focused mainly on the nature of the regimes and the lack of democracy. But governments are products of the societies they govern and in Arab countries it is often society, as much as the government itself, that stands in the way of progress. In Kuwait, for instance, it was not the hereditary Emir who resisted granting votes to women but reactionary elements in the elected parliament – and there are plenty of similar examples.
“Social discrimination is the greatest of all ailments facing Arab societies today,” Hussein Shobokshi, a board member of the Mecca Chamber of Commerce, observed
during a TV
debate. “It creates government in its own image but it also poisons the mentality for reform and definitely for democracy … While governments have been introducing little windows of opportunity to reform, there has been great popular resistance against equality based on gender and race from the
people.”
Khaled Diab, an Egyptian-born journalist, summed up the problem more pithily: “Egypt has a million Mubaraks,” he said. In other words, the Mubarak way of doing things is not confined to the country’s president; it is found throughout Egyptian society, in business and even within families.
In order to understand the problems of reform in the Middle East we have to look beyond the obvious questions of ending dictatorships, holding free elections and so forth, to consider the broader picture. When we look at Arab societies as a whole, the issue is not simply one of good versus evil, or tyrants versus the rest. Instead, we see people who are not only oppressed and denied rights by their rulers but who also, to varying degrees, are participants in a system of oppression and denial of rights. Thus, the oppressed often become oppressors themselves, victims become victimisers too, and acknowledging that fact is the first step towards a solution.
No one can deny that people in the Arab countries lack many basic rights and freedoms. Nor can anyone deny that democracy – to the limited extent that it is practised there – is seriously deficient, allowing autocratic regimes to survive without much risk of being removed by the people they govern. At the same time, though, it is a mistake to characterise the Middle East as some kind of latter-day Soviet Union (as the Bush administration tended to do), or to equate freedom with democracy (again, as President Bush often did, using the words almost interchangeably). Freedom and democracy are not unrelated, but nor are they one and the same.
Addressing the Arab “freedom deficit”, as it is sometimes known, is not just a matter of applying the “town square test”
adopted by the former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice:
If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free
society.
The town square test is meant to provide a simple yes-or-no way of distinguishing between “fear” societies and “free” societies but it is of limited usefulness: no Arab country today fits totally into either category. People are still imprisoned from time to time for expressing their views; there are still many taboos and red lines – and yet an increasingly wide range of opinions can be found in print, on television and on the internet. Focusing on freedom in this narrow sense also obscures other denials of liberty which may be less dramatic than dragging people off to jail and torturing them but are actually far more important in terms of the numbers affected and their ultimate consequences.
Put simply, the Arab “freedom deficit” results in a stultifying atmosphere where change, innovation, creativity, critical thinking, questioning, problem-solving, and virtually any kind of nonconformity are all discouraged if not necessarily punished. Along with that, there are systematic denials of rights that impinge on the lives of millions: discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality or family background; inequality of opportunity, impenetrable bureaucracies,
arbitrary application of the
law; and the lack of transparency in government – to mention just a few.
Arab Human Development Reports
These reports, prepared by the UN Development Programme, provide a
basis for much of the debate about Arab reform. The
2002 report identified three "deficits" in the Arab
world - a freedom deficit, a knowledge deficit, and a deficit in women's
empowerment. Available in English, Arabic and French.
See also background commentary
(The Economist, 4 July 2002).
Arab
Reform Bulletin
A monthly bulletin covering various countries in the region.
(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) |
White House Identifies Bitcoin as a Tool for Illegal Drug Sales
The Trump White House Administration has continued its relentless attacks on cryptocurrencies and the crypto sector. Now, the latest in its stream of attacks is a revelation that crypto assets are used in the purchase of illegal drugs.
Yesterday, the White House published two advisory documents in which is showed references to the crypto assets being used in purchasing illegal drugs. The advisories were addressed to various institutions operating within the United States financial industry, including but not limited to digital payment platforms.
Amongst other things, it was revealed that after analyzing financial data and drug purchase processes,, researchers had been able to find that both manufacturers and customers of illegal drugs have employed online payment platforms to purchase pure and synthesized narcotics, adding that their primary point of purchase has been China.
In the context of the document, the White House described the role of CVCs (convertible digital currencies) such as Bitcoin, Ether, Monero, and Bitcoin Cash in purchasing drugs.
In part, the report read, “Similar to purchases from a foreign source of supply using MSBs or online payment processors, individuals located in the United States search for fentanyl and identify potential websites that may provide the opportunity to purchase illicit drugs online. Foreign representatives will instruct the U.S.-based individual to send payments through CVC, such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Bash, Ethereum, or Monero.”
The advisories showed that transactions on CVCs could provide significant information that could be used in prosecuting illegal drug pushers. The information highlighted includes “virtual currency wallet addresses, account information, transaction details (including […] hash), relevant transaction history, available login information (including IP addresses), information obtained from the analysis of the customer’s public online profile and communications, mobile device information.”
As such, financial institutions are advised to collect these important details in any suspicious cases.
While many will see this as another attempt by the Trump administration to paint crypto assets as black and convince people not to buy cryptocurrency (and don’t make any mistake, it is just that), it could also prove to be pointed to what type of cryptocurrency regulations we will see in the future.
Back in July, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin spoke about the prospect of crypto regulations in an interview with news medium CNBC, adding that the current administration will pursue a “very, very strong” enforcement of financial regulations in a bid to prevent bad actors from funding criminal activities with crypto assets.
He said, “We’re going to make sure that Bitcoin doesn’t become the equivalent of Swiss-numbered bank accounts, which were obviously a risk to the financial system.”
If anything, ordering financial institutions is just the government keeping its word that regulations are coming.
However, it is worth noting that these regulations might not be effective. Bitcoin has been used for illegal activities since the crypto market gained mainstream attention, and while there have been significant developments made to stop this, the criminal application of the world’s most popular asset has continued to thrive; just like Bitcoin trading and other activities involving the asset.
Criminals know how to keep their information from getting into the hands of authorities, so if the government is sure about its mission to stop illegal Bitcoin use, this isn’t particularly a strong first step.
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About Jimmy Aki
Jimmy has been following the development of blockchain for several years, and he is optimistic about its potential to democratize the financial system. |
[Leaked] Sony Xperia i1 Honami Cameraphone Specs
As of today, the Nokia 808 Pureview phone has the best imaging capability. with its 41-megapixel main camera, you can take very awesome photos and nice videos. Aside from Nokia, Sony has their Sony Cybershot lineup before but unfortunately, those were now gone for good. But its not over yet for Sony.
In the form of “Sony Xperia i1 Honami”, the Japan-based company revives their cameraphone. (Well, these are still rumors but who knows?) Below are some of the technical specs of the rumored Xperia i1 Honami: |
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Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
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<item android:drawable="@color/review_green" />
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|
Outside Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City on Tuesday, a nun prayed. In the Sistine Chapel, cardinals were beginning their conclave to select the next pope.
Valdrin Xhemaj EPA /LANDOV
Listen
Listening...
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Listen
Listening...
/
Originally published on March 12, 2013 2:25 pm
Update at 2:43 p.m. ET. No Pope Today:
Black smoke just poured from the chimney above the Vatican. That means, as was expected, the cardinals did not choose a pope on the first vote of their conclave to name a successor to the now-retired Pope Benedict XVI. As the cardinals' ballots are burned, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli says, chemicals are added to a fire in a second stove to turn the smoke black if there's no pope elected and white if there is.
Now, if all goes as planned, the cardinals will vote again Wednesday. The next time to watch for smoke is 7 a.m. ET tomorrow. We'll keep an eye on what happens.
Update at 12:35 p.m. ET. The Doors Are Closed:
All those who can't vote for the next pope have been dismissed from the Sistine Chapel. So now, the 115 cardinals who are eligible begin their work.
Update at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Cardinals Are Entering The Sistine Chapel:
The last step in the process of choosing a new pope — the conclave of cardinals in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel — is underway. As you can see on the streaming coverage from the Vatican, the cardinals are heading into the chapel. If all goes as planned, we should see a puff of smoke from the Vatican's chimney — signalling that the cardinals have cast their first vote — around 2 p.m. ET.
If all goes as planned, the princes of the church (who NPR's Philip Reeves profiled on Morning Edition), will vote once Tuesday afternoon during their conclave in the Sistine Chapel. It's not expected that one candidate from their ranks will receive the two-thirds necessary (77 votes) to become pope. So it's likely that Tuesday evening in Rome (mid-afternoon along the East Coast of the U.S.) we'll see black smoke coming from a special chimney atop the Vatican — black is the signal that there's been a vote, but no decision; white smoke and bells chiming signal that a pope has been chosen.
As Phil explained Monday, in coming days the cardinals are expected to vote twice each morning and twice each afternoon until someone gets the two-thirds or more votes.
The conventional wisdom is that it may take several days for the cardinals to reach a decision. On Morning Edition today, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli said that while the cardinals won't be talking among each other and looking to build alliances while in the Sistine Chapel, they will almost surely "be busy murmuring in each others' ears over coffee and pasta" when they take breaks.
That murmuring "could be the key to creating new alliances" that lead to the selection of a pope, Sylvia added.
As for which cardinals are being most talked about as potential popes, Sylvia says they continue to include Italian Cardinal Angelo Scola, 71, and Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, 63, of Brazil.
We'll be watching for news from Vatican City and will update as it comes.
There are, of course, many other stories about the conclave today and many other ways to monitor what's happening:
-- The BBC rounds up the news so far today here, and writes that the homily the cardinals heard today "was more measured in tone than the address given in 2005 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict, which featured a fiery attack on the 'dictatorship of relativism.' " |
Saab Oil Cooler Hose
Your own vehicle's oil cooling scheme must include a superb Saab oil cooler hose to make sure that it will be able to help your power plant and tranny operate as smoothly as is possible. A few car functions could be affected as soon as the Saab comes with an oil cooler hose that has been ruined or leaky. You are going to need to get hold of a replacement as soon as possible to ensure smooth vehicle performance all the time.
Oil that travels through an oil cooler hose absorbs the warmth from warm equipment so as to cool them. Eventually, the Saab 's oil cooler hose might suffer from deterioration or become fragile. If ever you never want to squander oil and also to ensure the efficiency of the car's oil cooling unit, better set up a replacement hose to take the place of the impaired part on the Saab . You might require a special tool to be able to change your Saab 's oil cooler hose appropriately, so ensure that you're all set.
Don't permit old cooler hoses affect the performance of your treasured car or truck. You'll find a Saab oil cooler hose from trusted replacement companies such as Dorman, Cohline, and OES Genuine only here at your one-stop online store, Parts Train. Each and every item includes an inexpensive price tag, and you will be guaranteed to get tremendous value with our numerous offers and promos made particularly for you. |
Peripheral cytokine expression in Standardbred mares at different adiposity during the periparturient period.
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the peripheral cytokine expression could be affected by differences in fat thickness in healthy mares during the periparturient period (last weeks of pregnancy and first weeks of lactation). At the beginning of the 11th month of gestation, 18 mares with normal body condition score (BCS; 5) were divided into two groups with low (L; ≤12 mm; n = 12) and high (H; >12 mm; n = 6) fat thickness. Blood samples were collected every 10 days from the 11th month of gestation to 20 days post partum. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were separated and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-1α (IL-1α), -1β (ILβ), -2 (IL-2) and -6 (IL-6) gene expressions were performed by using reverse transcriptase PCR. TNF-α and IFN-γ expressions were affected by fatness group, as the sampling period influenced the expression of all cytokines with the exception of IFN-γ. The interaction between fatness group and sampling period tended to be significant (P < 0.10) only for IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-2. In H group, compared with L group, IL-1β and IL-2 significantly (P < 0.05) increased at parturition. TNF-α peripheral expression increased from parturition to reach the peak at +10 days (P < 0.05) only in H group. In conclusion, in normal BCS periparturient mares, small body fat thickness variations influence the peripheral cytokine expression, showing a possible role for cytokines in parturition and lactation, events strongly linked to adipose tissue availability. |
-if solution.track_in_independent_mode?
- klass = "solution independent"
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- klass = "solution #{(solution.exercise.core?? "core" : "side")}"
=link_to [:mentor, solution], class: klass do
.core Core
.side Side
.independent{title: "Practice Mode"} PM
.icons
.exercise
=image solution.exercise.turquoise_icon_url, solution.exercise.track.title
.joiner
=image display_avatar_url(solution.user, user_track), display_handle(solution.user, user_track), class: 'person'
-difficulty_word = exercise_difficulty_word(solution.exercise)
.details
/.difficulty{class: difficulty_word}= difficulty_word
.title
.handle #{display_handle(solution.user, user_track)}'s
solution to
.exercise #{solution.exercise.title}
.extra
.language #{solution.exercise.track.title}
.divider
.iteration Iteration ##{solution.iterations.size}
.divider
.submitted-at
-if solution.num_mentors > 0
Last updated #{time_ago_in_words(solution.last_updated_by_user_at || solution.created_at)} ago
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=image solution.exercise.track.hex_turquoise_icon_url, solution.exercise.track.title, class: 'track-icon', onerror: 'if (this.src != "data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7") { this.src = "data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7"; };'
|
The Alliance for Science has announced its 2nd annual essay contest for high school students. This year’s subjects are Climate and Evolution or Agriculture and Evolution. If you know a bright young high school student with an interest in this sort of thing, encourage them to throw their hat in the ring. Full details here. |
/*
* Copyright 2011 Scientific Computation Research Center
*
* This work is open source software, licensed under the terms of the
* BSD license as described in the LICENSE file in the top-level directory.
*/
#include "apfScalarField.h"
#include "apfScalarElement.h"
namespace apf {
Element* ScalarField::getElement(VectorElement* e)
{
return new ScalarElement(this,e);
}
int ScalarField::countComponents() const
{
return 1;
}
}//namespace apf
|
A decade ago, the NPA could make a stronger case because NJ crimes were going up. However, as we pointed out then, Japanese crimes were going up too. And, in terms of absolute numbers and proportion of population, NJ crimes were miniscule.
That’s why the NPA has found it increasingly difficult to maintain its claims of a foreign crime wave. So, to keep up appearances, the agency has resorted to statistical jiggery-pokery.
For example, look again at the NPA chart. The time frame has been expanded to 30 years; in previous annual reports, it covered just a decade. By stretching the parameters, the overall chart depicts a comparative rise rather than a small peak before a precipitous drop.
Not accounted for, however, is the fact that the NJ population has also risen — more than doubling since 1993.
Another method of manipulation has been to focus on partial rises in certain types of NJ crime, despite the overall fall. And I bet you can guess which got more media attention.
The most creative NPA rejig is arguing that NJ crime has been “stopped at a high plateau” (takadomari no jōtai) — even if that “plateau” is downward-sloping.
Every NPA argument leads to the same predictable conclusion: Further crackdowns on “foreign crime” are necessary, because NJ are importing criminality into a once-peaceful Japan.
Yet neither the NPA, nor the Japanese media parroting their semiannual reports, have ever compared Japanese and NJ crime, or put them on the same chart for a sense of scale. If they had, they would see something resembling the 3-D graph that accompanies this column (courtesy of Japan Times).
The other chart in Japanese (that can be found at hakusyo1.moj.go.jp/jp/59/nfm/n_59_2_1_1_1_0.html and in the accompanying images) — on whose data the 3-D graphic is based — breaks down all crime committed in “peaceful” postwar Japan. Note the (less-reported) concurrent “Japanese crime wave” (especially the middle, yellow set of bars, which depict thefts alone).
Since the right-hand scale is in tens of thousands, the graph tells us that there was a spike to well over 2.5 million non-traffic crimes in the peak year of 2002, a number that dropped to just over 1.5 million by 2009. Compared to 2009′s total “foreign crimes” of 30,569 (including visa violations, which Japanese cannot by definition commit), there is a difference of about a factor of 49. Thus “foreign crime” would barely even register on the chart.
It’s still such an obscure term that NPA websites have to define it for the public as “things and organizations that are the basic foundation of crime,” i.e., cellphones under fake names, fake websites, false marriages, false adoptions and fake IDs (see www.police.pref.kanagawa.jp/images/h0/h0001_04.gif)
Although this “crime infrastructure” technically assists thieves of any nationality, the NPA’s online explanations focus on non-Japanese, with five out of eight examples offered specifically depicting NJ misdeeds (complete, of course, with racist caricatures, at www.pref.ibaraki.jp/kenkei/a01_safety/security/infra.html)
You see this “criminal NJ” narrative again and again on NPA posters, such at the one reproduced here (www.debito.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bouhaninfurabokumetsutaisakuJune2013.jpg), found at an immigration bureau last March, warning potential NJ miscreants against “forgery,” “bogus marriage,” “false affiliation” (i.e., claiming paternity on a foreign child to get it Japanese citizenship) and “false adoption.”
Note at the bottom, where the NPA has secured a special goro awase mnemonic phone number (hanzai infura nakuse — “get rid of crime infrastructure”) to help Japanese remember it better.
Clearly this “crime infra” campaign is not bowing out anytime soon. In fact, the NPA is now citing it to discount the drop in foreign crime! As their 2010 white paper reports, “the extent of how much crime has become globalized cannot be grasped through statistics” (Kyodo News and Mainichi Shimbun, July 23, 2010).
Seriously? So, suddenly, despite all the Nihonjinron mythologies, NJ are now supposedly more likely than Japanese to act in groups?
Swallow this, as well as the argument that foreigners are somehow more “invisible” in Japan (of all places), and voila, the only conclusion you can possibly draw is that all “foreign crime” statistics come from a little black box that only the NPA has access to.
Look, this is getting silly. You can’t ask for a more docile foreign population than Japan’s.
That should be enough hardship to contend with, but then in pounces the NPA to make things worse, picking on the weakest members of Japanese society (as it has done for decades, according to scholar Wolfgang Herbert’s “Foreign Workers and Law Enforcement in Japan”) to justify bogus budgets for fighting exaggerated NJ crime.
Of course, foreigners are a soft target anywhere (by definition, they do not have rights equal to citizens in any country), but in Japan they are so disenfranchised that if anyone points a finger at them, there is no way for them to point back.
NPA excesses have gone on long enough to encourage other bullies. We’ve seen a recent spike in the activity of Japan’s hate groups, most famously the “kill all Koreans” march through Tokyo on Feb. 9. Now how about these anonymous posters making the rounds?
One (reproduced in the images accompanying this column) warns of the allegedly “rapid rise” in fake international marriages for illegal overstayers and workers. Another one calls for kicking out foreign crime (murder, mugging, arson, rape and theft, totaling 25,730 cases — again, a drop in the bucket of Japanese crime).
So, the threat to public safety isn’t “crime infrastructure”; it is in fact the “propaganda infrastructure,” reinforced by false NPA arguments, that normalizes public displays of xenophobia and hatred in Japan.
One measure of a society is how it treats its weakest members. Japan’s systemic and unchecked bullying of NJ is going to hurt others, as emboldened haters eventually turn their attention to other weak social minorities.
Message to government: Rein in the NPA, and stop them constantly bashing Japan’s foreign residents. Expose their statistical hogwash for what it is, and redirect budgets to fight crime in general, not “foreign crime” specifically.
=========================
Debito Arudou’s updated “Guidebook for Relocation and Assimilation into Japan” is now available as a downloadable e-book on Amazon. See www.debito.org/handbook.html . Twitter @arudoudebito. Just Be Cause appears on the first Community pages of the month. Send comments and story ideas to [email protected] .
ENDS
For all of Debito’s detractors, there is an interesting first hand account (with pictures) of the treatment of a foreign resident with a baby at the hands of the Japanese police, which has been posted on “The Japan Rants” blog. This is hardly a professional way for the Japanese police to conduct themselves. The blog entry can be found in its entirety along with pictures of the Japanese police in action at this link: http://www.thejapanrants.com/blog/
I have copied extracts below:
———
What I saw today is one of the most unbelievable and atrocious things I have ever seen in my life. It disgusted me to the core, and showed me a side of Japan even darker than I had seen up until now. It showed me just how far the Abusive Japanese police will go to prove their point.
———
The man in the picture on the right started telling the man go back to his own country.
He repeatedly told the Indian man, “You are not Japanese, so you don’t matter. Go back to your own country”
I hadn’t noticed until this moment, but the (Indian) man had tears running down his face.
He was not aggressive or loud at this point, but he was clearly determined to make these officers understand.
As he persisted with his message, the unbelievable happened. Even though he was standing with a baby in his arms, the Japanese police officer on the left (above) used the flotation device in his arm to very aggressively shove the Indian gentleman. But unfortunately he didn’t just shove the man, the flotation device came in direct contact with the baby, and shoved both of them.
It was at this point that the Indian gentleman went to shove the officer on the left back, but was grabbed by the officer on the right who told him “if you touch either of us, I will arrest you. Then it’s over for you”
The man stopped in his tracks. Defeated by his dirty foe.
I watched in disgust and snapped as many pictures of these two trash bag cops as I could.
For the sake of everyone’s reference, here is a more clear shot of the violent cop
————-
Great article.
What we need to make now is a chart showing “Percent of NonJapaneseNationals convicted in Japan annually vs. Percent of JapaneseNationals convicted in Japan annually” with visa violations subtracted, of course.
If I recall correctly, about 1 out of 100,000 (0.001%) NonJapaneseNationals are convicted in Japan annually vs. about 3 out of 100,000 (0.003%) JapaneseNationals are convicted in Japan annually.
A powerful chart illustrating this fact (that JapaneseNationals in Japan commit THREE TIMES more crimes, person for person, when compared with NonJapaneseNationals in Japan) with the figures coming directly from the NPA would be powerful undeniable proof of what your article is pointing towards.
Again, wonderful article. I hope a Debito reader will eventually produce the percentage chart described above. I look forward to framing it and putting it up on my wall as a nice conversation piece.
Debito, as always, a cogent, rational, unemotional, factual and common-sense exposé. Which is exactly why the powers that be will ignore it, and continue to head at full speed off their socially mis-engineered cliff anyway.
I will be in Switzerland next week on business. I am going to assemble a short letter, referencing this post, and drop it off at Jacques Rogge’s office at IOC HQ in Lausanne. My take is that this booga-booga ‘gaijin-hanzai’ drive is one step away from the beginnings of a Srebrenica and ‘israeli’-style ethnic cleansing. (Wouldn’t take much to ignite.) This in a country which is hoping to welcome the entire multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multilingual world to an Olympiad in 2020. (They’d only be welcome as long as they depart right after the games, and they could be separated from their money while in country.)
If the self-appointed militarist, apartheid-leaning, harumphing Oyajis, claiming racial superiority over everyone else want to behave like this, then the entire world should know about it up front. Nothing like the disinfection of bright sunlight to expose and clarify their true position, eh?
For those wanting to write the IOC, you can find their contact info here: http://www.olympic.org/about-ioc-institution right side of the page under ‘Identity Card’ I suggest that folks write members of the Olympic Committees from their country of origin too. See ‘National Olympic Committees’
One person, YOU, can make a huge difference! Can’t leave it ALL to Debito, can we?
#2 AM – what is needed is a category by category comparison of “foreign crime” vs. Japanese crime. Why? Most Japanese people consider overstaying your visa to be a crime. Therefore, compare murder to murder, rape to rape, etc., and keep visa crime separate. Then we will all have data we can use (it will be hard for nationalists to fight facts).
#3 DR – In my opinion, Japan wants the Olympics for the prestige (not the money). They want the world to come to Japan and praise them for what a great job they are doing. How clean, safe and “Japanese” Japan is. With so much grim news in Japan lately (aging population, declining economy, radiation, not important on world stage, etc.), Japanese people want to brag about something to make themselves feel better – but they do not deserve the Olympics. Thank you for the link – I will write the Olympic Committee.
— It won’t be hard for nationalists to fight facts. Nationalists fight facts all the time. That’s one reason they’re labelled “nationalists”. 🙂
So to what extent are the internal/local crime statistics reflected in the published tables,
and to what degree is the malaise in the society being recognised and addressed,without
apportioning blame.
The overseas careworker program (extensively discussed on this blog earlier) could have made
positive contributions to the continuing active participation of the elderly in society but
for the intransigence of bureaucracy and entrenched social perceptions.
I am an advanced qualified carer(in Australia and speak and read(reasonably) Japanese)
As an experiment I recently approached the local Japanese Consulate as to my employment prospects in Japan in the Aged Care Sector.
The response implied that it would be difficult due to “problems”with the previous/existing
programs and also that I am male. Gender differences came to the front.
So it seems, without ongoing support(Japanese or gaijin) that the shoplifting crime rate amongst the elderly(at least in Tokyo but I suspect more broadly) may increase significantly in future crime statistics… there is a detriment of support and what is being done about it?
It seems that there are bureaucratic hurdles that make the system inflexible and unable to achieve ‘overt’ policy goals (in your case), that is so say, where there is an instance of a qualified carer who wishes to make an application, is it the case that if you aren’t Indonesian or Filipino coming on an initial trainee program, then they don’t want you? Stinks of revolving door as policy, to me, since we all know that almost all ‘trainees’ have been going home when they understand how exploitative the system is.
The gender difference you mention is also mind blowing.
I remember when I was at junior high in the 70’s, the principle told us all the following story;
A father was driving his son to school one morning, when they were involved in a terrible accident. The father was killed on the spot, and the son had to be cut out of the wreckage, and taken to hospital with very serious injuries to his head. Upon arrival at the hospital, the nurses paged the head neuro-surgeon to come and perform life saving brain surgery. The head neuro-surgeon rushed to the operating theater, and looked at the boy on the operating table, and said ‘My god! That’s my son!’
Now, most westerners would hear that story and ask, ‘so what happened?’, but I guess that just like when I was at JHS, most present day Japanese would say ‘I don’t get it….he had two fathers?’
Gender stereotyping is pretty much policy here. What did Sick-note say a few weeks ago? Something like ‘We have to mobilize women into the workforce, provided they have 3 years off to take care of the baby, ‘coz that’s women’s work’.
#6JDG
“..is it the case that if you aren’t Indonesian or Filipino coming on an initial trainee program, then they don’t want you?..”
Jim
I suspect there is far more simple than that. By that I mean those from SE Asian countries, are generally regarded as: lower educated, lower income and thus far easier to exploit as “slave” labour and willing to put up with “inconveniences” of Japan in an attempt for a better life. But once here, the bubble bursts. Regardless of the ‘industry’ one is attempting to enter.
Thanks for the reply. I suspect you may be right. As an Australian, you are accustomed to troublesome western ideas like ‘contract law’, ’employment law’, and ‘workers rights’, along with expecting management to ‘act in compliance’ with such laws, since they would be ‘enforced’. Ahhh, so troublesome….this is Japan!!!!!
I also got the impression that being older and silver haired made me automatically a doubtful
prospect,but as I said, I conducted it as an experiment/exercise to ascertain the response, and
was probably not to far off the mark in my interpretation.
So..Qualified aged careers from overseas where the methodology would I strongly suspect, stand in contrast with the trainee program
I posted my comments because of the thread of the crime statistics, and reiterate that elderly crime stats indicate a well predicted severe societal malaise
@Karjh12
An earlier thread of Debito (I trust he can supply the link) was about an 18 year old Vietnamese cute girl of little or no medical experience who made the news as she was “scouted” by a local government official who went on record saying he would “much rather be looked after by a nice young lady than a robot” in Vietnam.
It is that shallow I am afraid. At the time we lampooned a wanted ad along the lines of “Cute single Asian girls wanted by sukebe oyaji in inaka to learn medicine and also make tea. Must love Japan and not just come here for the money (as salary is low).”
I think they want young people-very young, impressionable people-who look Japanese or at least Asian who they can then mold in their blinkered idea of “the Japanese way”, pay a pittance, and maybe even solve the local inaka demographic crisis by marrying them to a farmer.
>So to what extent are the internal/local crime statistics reflected in the published tables,
and to what degree is the malaise in the society being recognised and addressed,without apportioning blame
The visual charts well explain how NPA’s foreign-crime alert is based on junk science. It shows NPA’s foreign-crime alert is phony and misguided. But that does not mean we should dismiss the issue as trivial because the NPA apparently holds the presumption of guilt for people of color and/or foreign-looking appearance to monitor those who are “up to no good”–an unspoken racial principle used for an outrageous George Zimmerman trial this past weekend in Florida. See how such white logic plays out for the justification of trial, and are exploited by the national/state authorities for various purposes.
Japan may see its worse consequence as of today, yet. But I wouldn’t be surprised that the NPA and its upper body of Team-J would follow the same path, should another Suraj tragedy occur, by justifying their actions to set different standards toward NJ and ethnic minorities for their disenfranchisement.
Zaibatsu ways have returned ““..Nine Japan-based companies and two executives agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to fix the price of car parts sold to US car manufacturers.”
Well, did they ever fully go away? Zaibatsu is of course a form of Corporatism, a form of business organization favored by Mussolini. Japan (the LDP) is dominated by large business interests.
Capitalism means a free market, as Theodore Roosevelt would no doubt concur. We have no really had this since the 90s, since large media organizations have merged together to form large conglomerates and thus controlling information.
Another “arrow” of a fascist society is of course an oppressive police force so to get this thread back on track, police seizure of the “narrative” of NJ crime figures is just one more indication, along with rising corporatism, of the anti democratic this society (and others) are taking.
Just in case you missed the news, a young woman was knifed and subsequently died in Mitaka yesterday. The media reported that the suspect was allegedly wearing a turban!! (No prizes for guessing the assumptions a lot of people would have been jumping to)
The suspect was arrested last night. A 21 year old Japanese national.
However, I suspect the accused is a Japanese of mixed heritage and that the media will be looking at it from that angle in the next few days.
I was also following the news this morning. The report says that the police are tracking down a suspect who is alleged as a white-looking guy “警察は、白人風の男を容疑者として行方を追っている.” The news updates caught my attention as its headline says that suspect is Japanese “容疑者は日本人.”
Wearing a turban and ‘white-looking’ appearance are couple of indicators that will lead many people to believe that suspect could be a foreigner. Even left-leaning Mainichi’s headline strokes race-nationality assumption. The newspaper avoided using the word “foreigner,” or “foreign-looking”(“外国人風”), but it didn’t rule out the possibility that suspect could be a foreigner until the word “日本人” was appeared in the headline.
I wonder how media description of individual–especially in the crime report—influences public perception of race/ethnicity in relation to nationality—; and if it could ever change the public perception of what is being Japanese.
It would be interesting to measure the amount and intensity of reporting of this murder case, and compare it to the amount and intensity of the reporting of similar cases where the perpetrator is a Japanese-looking Japanese person. I don’t remember this big of a media outrage about a stalking / murder case in the last couple of years, and I doubt that’s because “nothing happened”.
My impression is that crimes involving a factor of foreignness in looks, nationality, course of action, etc. will get much more and longer coverage by the media, and this combined with the primitive and uncultured practice of endlessly looping video showing suspects on the back bench of a police car is already enough to get the usual message across, i.e.: “Foreign = dangerous”.
It’s easy to see how the Japanese have been brainwashed into believing the myth that “there is no crime in Japan”. The dealings of the “yakuza” alone would be enough to fill a 24h news cycle in normal countries where organized crime is not regarded by a majority as a necessary part of society.
5,423 out of 287,021. It’s only 1.89% of foreigners and NJ residents are arrested for criminal offense in Japan as of 2012. And 90% of those offenders are living in the country legally. Only 5.9% of those are illegal immigrants or overstayers. It’s only 320 every year!
Imagine the US, the UK, and other developed countries have in millions. This shows that Japan’s NPA’s foreign-crime wave is a hoax, and tells us how misleading it is to say foreign crime is dangerous to national security.
I saw on TV yesterday one of the interviews of the Kashiwa murder suspect (from before his arrest, when he was still playing the witness) an he told the media that the culprit had a foreign accent.
Only the police and even media didn’t fall for it.
Sorry Debito, I’m having trouble finding TBS’s transcipts or video images of their program.
What a simple search has turned up is a few sites sporting claims that Takei is a Zainichi Korean. The haters will continue to hate. |
Wow! The last few weeks have been mad busy in the social world. Google Pages for Google+ launched and it sounds like everybody and their mother has created a page. With a different set of functions to its Facebook counterpart it will be interesting to see how companies start to tailor their tactics to fit this new channel. Google has also, finally, released Google+ to apps users (their biggest advocates).
LinkedIn has just launched analytics for its groups and, interestingly, has opened it up for everyone to see rather than just group managers. In its current form it’s looking like a big infographic, but is certainly already valuable, informing you about paid media spend within LinkedIn, and I’m sure it will only get better as time goes on.
The other item on the agenda for me over the last few weeks has been analytics. Recently, I was lucky enough to attend Adobe’s launch of their Social Analytics platform at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel in London. The venue was very prestigious and the free event (which I’d been told had been over-subscribed) was close to capacity. It was set to be a very interesting day, especially as Adobe have promised to bring “Business Results to Social Media”. What this means is they are working to marry social activity with hard business metrics, using both causation – for example, a link placed in a social channel lead through to a sale – and correlation – for example, seeing the impact of social media conversations on sales. You can see the impact it has had on these sales. Why can they do this? Well mainly because the can close the loop with their onsite analytics software.
“Finally!” I think was the first thing I said – enterprise-level software that is actually delivering hard metrics and not just “listening”. Now that said they still have a little way to go; currently it doesn’t look like there is any method of engaging or managing content within the system that the likes of Buddy Media and Involver have, but I can imagine Adobe will want to enter into that fray very soon to put them in front of the competition.
At the event Facebook presented their opinion on increasing customer engagement, driving sales and ROI, which unfortunately felt a little like a pitch to buy Facebook advertising and use their native functionality, rather than discussing some of the best practices they have seen on its site.
Much of the focus at the event was based around the consumer market place, as it’s quite easy to track activity against sales when the end goal is a purchase. Unfortunately, the line blurs a little more in the B2B environment. That said, SocialAnalytics does an excellent job of joining up your social activity to all your web metrics, which means you can accurately track end-to-end activity online, which will show your lead generation and sales funnel. You can then look at how to spread your word further, widening the top of the funnel by finding influencers and then optimising your content around the conversation to increase conversion.
One final point worth mentioning, from Mike Quinn, Product Marketer at Adobe, was that the gap between why people follow brands and what businesses want to communicate is vast! The number one incentive for followers and customers is to receive offers, while the business places importance on teaching people about new products. We must look at a method of closing this gap to drive interest in our brands.
I’d say that other social analytics platforms definitely have some competition from Adobe’s offering, which is backed by a heritage in enterprise software. From what I can gather, Adobe’s product will only be getting stronger in offering. Definitely worth watching a demo video, if nothing else, which they have promised will be coming soon. |
Match Report Roma 0 – Real Madrid 2: First Place Tied
Real Madrid accomplished all the goals at the Stadio Olímpico beating Roma (0-2) in their stadium with the goals of Bale and Lucas Vázquez. Los Blancos suffered but got the three points in a tough stadium. Los Blancos already knew they were qualified before starting the game thanks to Viktoria Plzen victory in Moscow. Both Los Blancos and Roma are in the Last 16 round, but the Spaniards will lead the group.
After the tough defeat at Eibar, Los Blancos needed to bounce back in their competition. For this scope, Solari introduced Marcos Llorente as a stopper and he did a good job. Also Lucas Vázquez entered in the team. But the big news came even before the game because Solari sent Isco out of the bench. We have a problem there.
Real Madrid played quite bad in the first half. Again, the team repeated the same problems, with terrible mistakes from Varane and Sergio Ramos. Roma could take the lead several times, but Courtois made great saves and Under missed a very clear chance just before the half time. Modric could also scored in the first 45 minutes, but the game was quite poor.
In the second half, the team improved. In the first minute, Fazio gave an assist to Gareth Bale, who didn’t miss. We still demand more from the Welshman, but he was decisive at the Olímpico. Only 15 minutes later, Bale gave an assist to Benzema, who put the ball in Lucas Vázquez foot and the Spaniard sent the ball to the net. The game was under control.
In these minutes, Los Blancos found many spaces and the result could have been even bigger, but the counter attacks weren’t finished properly. Los Blancos have won 70 out of the last 100 games in Europe. Amazing stats for the best team in Europe. One season more, Los Blancos will be in the final stages in February. Then, everything could happen.
Realmadridnews.com is the best website to find the latest information about Real Madrid in English. We cover the club's day-to-day stories and events directly from Madrid and have some of the top experts. |
Category Archives: About Face
Result driven, professional skin care treatments and home care products are essential in our youth and as the skin matures. Understand the condition of your skin first before purchasing any skin care product, as all products are not created equally and therefore may be inappropriate depending on your skin type.
Correct the condition of your skin first and then add active ingredients found in Vitamin C serums, peptides, advanced retinol and growth factor products. GM COLLIN professional skin care products have scientifically proven corrective results for all skin types.
Correcting Oily and Acne Skin:
Oily skin is caused by excessive activity in the oil glands. Proper treatment to help control oil production and improve the skin’s organic balance.
Water is to the skin what soil is to the plant. It is essential to water the soil before fertilizing, to ensure uniform distribution. The same applies to the skin- the epidermis must be sufficiently moist before it is fed any active ingredients.
There are 3 conditions common to sensitive skin: Stinging and heat sensations, easily irritated and often unpredictable, heredity and stress. GM Collin skin care treatments and products are specific to each condition
Algo Mask has the corrective elements of the sea and provides a thermo-cooling effect on the skin for diffusing redness and improving acne. This mask provides is excellent to detoxify the skin and provide instant radiance.
Fending off fine lines isn’t all that different from packing for a winter vacation…Think layers
20′s Sunscreen is critical now for preventing wrinkles later. Using an antioxidant serum in the morning and layering sunscreen over is key to minimized sun damage that will later contribute to fine lines.
30′s You will want to add an over the counter Retinol to promote collagen production. At first use the product every other night or every 3rd night, on top of your antioxidant serum. If this does not make your skin sensitive, work up to nightly use.
40′s Retinol products nightly is a must. Adding products with growth factors and peptides are highly recommended. Alternating products on a bi-monthly basis works miracles: for example combine the use of vitamin C serums with retinol for 2 months, then switch to using peptide serums and retinol. Professional peels mid to deep depth in a series twice a year will give your skin a face lift effect. Other great facials include pumpkin peels with a retinol A over it.
50′s You may need to downshift your at-home efforts as the skin tends to become more sensitive with age. More professional facial treatments that encourage strengthening the skin like Vitamin C treatments. The use of ultra sound to encourage blood flow and oxygen help plump the skin and increase cellular turn over. Collagen gels are also excellent for feeding the skin and keeping moisture in. Daily use of ceramides will keep the complexion dewy and youthful.
GM Collin has by far, hands down the best corrective and anti-aging products. Result driven and scientifically proven formulas that combine nature and the latest technologies.
About Prana
Prana is a beautiful theme with simple and clean design. Theme can easily be used as a personal portfolio, simple blog or a complete business website. There is an impressive typography by Google Web Fonts without the need for load-heavy graphics. Some exciting features of Prana are custom menu, custom background, custom flexible header, featured images, widgetized sidebar, threaded comments, improved SEO performance and theme options. Make it yours with a custom menu and a custom flexible header for anything you like to suit your own niche. |
Maintaining success and a level of expectation unreachable at most schools is an annual challenge for coaching heavyweights like Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney, two guys who always get the opposition's best shot considering their stance at the top of the polls year after year. Saban in January tipped his cap to Swinney prior to Clemson's national championship game loss to LSU, taking a moment to appreciate what his adversary has built as a competing power over the past decade.
"I think the one thing people need to understand is success is not a continuum,” Saban said. “It’s momentary, and people have a difficult time really trying to maintain a standard of excellence once they have success. I take my hat off to Dabo for winning 29 games in a row. The championships they’ve won and being able to bring themselves back here again this year.
“Complacency creates a blatant disregard for doing the little things right. To be a champion and to repeat as a champion, you have to do the little things right. You have to do it everyday. I think that’s challenging, and that’s one thing I respect about both of these programs. They’ve had a lot of success."
Looking at college football's most successful programs since 2000, there's an interesting dichotomy of schools trending in very different directions as a whole, some on the cusp of an annual reign as a national power while a handful of others appear to have already passed through their glory years.
Success may be cyclical, but winning big in college football annually takes a perfect recipe of factors and only a couple programs have it.
Based on regular season and postseason results since 2000, here are college football's 10 winningest programs over that stretch:
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Word of the Week: WTF?!
Editor’s Note: The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.
If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.
Literally “his mother’s,” ta ma de is a common swearword. Like “f**k”, the phrase has a sexual connotation, though it is less harsh than its English counterpart and has a broader range of uses. Depending on the context, it can be translated as almost any English swearword, though it often appears as WTF.
Lu Xun, the father of modern Chinese literature, once honored the phrase as China’s “national swearword.”
A very notable use of the phrase appeared in the July 26 2011 edition of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily shortly after the Wenzhou train accident. The front page headline read, “Clearing the Tracks, Not Saving Lives; WTF!“”
The People’s Daily headline on the same day was “The Party’s Sympathy Is Even Greater Than the Height of Lofty Mountains.”
Several days later, the Southern Metropolis Daily defied the Propaganda Department’s ban on critical stories of the train wreck and published an article entitled “What Friggin’ Miracle?” It began:
At 8:27 p.m. on July 23, [a collision between two trains] caused the deaths of 40 people. In the face of such a terrible event and its incompetent handling by the Ministry of Railways, we can only express our views by asking—WTF?!
The article criticized the Propaganda Department’s approach of highlighting various “miracle” stories from the crash. One such “miracle” involved a two-and-a-half-year-old girl named Yiyi, who was the last survivor pulled from the train wreckage 21 hours after the crash. Although both her parents were killed, the state-controlled media gushed over her survival in what many believed to be a cynical attempt to put a positive spin on the tragedy and deflect criticism from the Ministry of Railways. In a press conference, Ministry of Railways spokesperson Wang Yongping was asked how a girl could be found alive while disassembling the train cars, when rescue attempts were already finished:
Wang: This is a miracle. You ask why—
Reporter: This is not a miracle!
[Reporters angrily yelling at once.]
Reporter: What I want to ask is this: Why, after you had already announced that there were no survivors, when you had already begun to disassemble the train—why would there still be a survivor?
Wang: Let me answer that. This happened. We truly did find a girl who was still alive. This is the way things are.
In the end, I think I understand what Wang is trying to say. For a toddler to survive the train crash in which her parents died is nothing short of Potter-esque; for a defenseless child to survive the full force of the Chinese government’s ineptitude and negligence, is nothing short of miraculous. But if little Yiyi is Harry Potter, then what does that make the government? |
Shark attack victim says he screamed at the top of his lungs
http://archive.thenewsstar.com/VideoNetwork/3661529895001/Shark-attack-victim-says-he-screamed-at-the-top-of-his-lungshttp://cdn.newslook.com/47/47d0a54540b0fdb7ff8034eed1b761e4/mp4_low/47d0a54540b0fdb7ff8034eed1b761e4-mp4_low.mp4http://archive.thenewsstar.com/VideoNetwork/3661529895001/Shark-attack-victim-says-he-screamed-at-the-top-of-his-lungshttp://cdn.newslook.com/47/47d0a54540b0fdb7ff8034eed1b761e4/images/frame_ext.jpgShark attack victim says he screamed at the top of his lungsSwimmer who was attacked by a great white shark off a California beach says God was on his side. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).2CalifornianewslookusManhattan Beach01:43 |
I've been playing X-Com lately. You control 14 dudes as they die, panic, succumb to alien mind control and turn into zombies. At the end of a mission you level up the survivors and buy another crateload of rookies. Death is constant and hard to anticipate, so a lot of the strategy revolves around sending in the cannon-fodder rookies to protect the guys you care about.
It's interesting, because as far as I can tell early D&D worked the same way. A lot of the traps in the DMG seem totally ridiculous for the current fashion of ~4 PC's. Save or Die effects, level drain, diseases - Matt's poor PC died to Rotgrubs in a single turn, before he had any way to tell what was happening or how to stop it. These things only really make sense if you have 10+ PC's, with some hirelings for good measure.
(You'll have to excuse me if I'm reiterating stuff everybody knows. D&D is still a strange new land to me.)
Creating 10 normal characters and trying to keep track of the results would take hours and drive me insane. So, here's an experiment: Jack McNamee's 10 Second System (Matt helped).
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Roll oned6 for each starting ability score, then roll an occupation and starting equipment (You can use this DCC character generator for those). Your starting character is finished.
Dret thiefton turned out to be only average at thief skills. His parents will be shattered.
Here's what the scores mean.
Strength: The weapons you can use. Whenever the PC's find a weapon, rate it out of ten; you need that much strength to wield it. Bonuses to damage and to-hit are inherent in the weapons you find, rather than something you earn as you level up. Roll under it on a d10 for strength checks.
Constitution: The hit dice you get whenever you level up. Roll under it for fort saves.
Dexterity: Skill checks and reflex saves. Whenever a PC needs to make a skill check, rate the task: 5 for trivial tasks, 10 for normal tasks, 15 for hard and 20 for impossible. Your dexterity shows which dice you roll for it; d6 to d20+10. At 1 dex, you cannot perform any kind of skill checks.
You can learn skills from expert thieves. If you haven't been trained in a skill, use 1 less dex when rolling for it. If Dret Thiefton has 3 dex, he'll roll a d6 instead of a d10 for any skill he hasn't trained in.
You can use any skill list you want, or just use the DCC list: Backstab, Sneak, Hide, Pickpocket, Climb, Locks, Find traps, Disable traps, Forge, Disguise, Read Languages, Poison, Cast spell from scroll.
Intelligence: Which spells you can learn, and will saves. Whenever the PC's find a spell, rate it out of ten; you need that much intelligence to cast it.
Intelligence applies to both Wizard Spells and Cleric Spells. You go to a wizard to learn spells from the Wizard list, and a Cleric to learn spells from the Cleric list. They hate each other, and they'll want you to become one of them before they'll teach you the better spells. You could obviously cheat them to learn both.
Wisdom: The number of spells you can hold in your brain at once. Vancian rules. Roll under for Perception checks.
Charisma: Which Hirelings you can get. Hirelings can be level 1 to 10; that's how much charisma you need to hire them. At 5 Cha, you can hire level 5 guys. High level hirelings will also have better equipment, and may know some skills or spells. Roll under it for a morale check to stop your hirelings panicking or stabbing you in the back.
Every time you level up, you get one hit dice of HP and one extra point of ability score to allocate wherever you want. Max level is 10.
The system assumes every player will have 2-4 PC's. You get 2-4 new PC's when the last PC from your old batch dies - until then you have to rely on hirelings to restock.
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So, most of the traditional leveling up choices occur in the world. You have to find spells and skills, instead of being abstractly given those things when you level up. This is partially inspired by the old D&D ideas to that effect, and partially inspired by the way Dark Souls and X-Com work. Your PC is defined by the things they have, and their stats define the things they can have.
It's fast as lightning and completely classless. It's not going to be for everyone. I'll try running it on Monday, I'm excited to see if it works. Tell me what you think in the comments..
Here's a way to incorporate the Caste System into your game, ruthlessly stolen from the brilliant Small but Vicious Dog and tweaked to add some heft to Charisma. There are 8 ranks in the Caste System:
8. Queens, Kings, and Heirs. Anyone with a right to the throne.
7. Lords, Barons and Titled Gentry; the highest rank you can possibly be without being born into royalty. Own all the land.
6. Nobles, Aristocrats and Knights. Oversee the land for the lords.
5. Shopkeepers, wealthy merchants - anyone rich who had to work for their money.
4. Freemen. Commoners who can choose where they go.
3. Villeins: Peasants, commoners, laborers. The vast majority, working the land as slaves to a Lord. They are forbidden from leaving their lord's land.
2. Lepers, beggars and guttersnipes. Loathed, but tolerated. Will not be allowed in most places.
1. Witches, devil-spawn, and mutants. Will be killed or chased from any major city or town if seen.
A PC is normally Rank 4, a Freemen; low class peasants who can still choose to go where they like.
Your Charisma modifier effects your rank. +3 elevates you to a Rank 7 Lord, -3 makes you an ostracized freak. You also get + or - one dice worth of starting money per point of charisma mod. You gain rank naturally every three levels or so, but you can also move up and down ranks through your actions.
Pulling rank
The social demands of caste-system etiquette are subtle and complex. You can fuck with anyone below you.
One rank below you: You can ignore anything they say. They must give a good reason for disobeying any orders, or you're allowed to inflict any kind of non-painful punishment on them.Two ranks below you: They must follow your orders. You can inflict any kind of non-lethal punishment on them for disobeying..Three ranks or more below you: You can kill them without any legal ramifications or comment. They must follow any order, to death and beyond.
The same applies in reverse; don't fuck with anyone above you, or they could start throwing out punishments. The system is only enforced socially, obviously. Deep in the wilderness, outside of society, it's easy for the underlings to realize that you're just a weak man in a funny hat.
Unless you go a step further and use;
Divine Right
You aren't just a lord because your dad was a lord; you're a lord because God put you there. The medieval point of view is literally true in all aspects: The caste system is enforced by the universe, and nobles actually are better than peasants in every way.
When fighting someone of a different rank, find the difference between your ranks. Whoever's the highest rank gets +the difference to every relevant roll: To-hit, saves, damage, grapple checks, everything. The lowest rank gets -the difference to every roll.
So, if Graunch the Leper tried to take a bite out of King George, Graunch would be rolling at -6 to everything, while the King would get +6 to everything. This doesn't apply to anyone who doesn't care about the caste system.
A statement of intent: I'm not using these rules to stop my PC's fucking with high-level NPC's. I assume they'll still be constantly toppling governments like always. What I'm going for here is a way to give your Charisma score some serious social weight without forcing people to make Cha checks instead of roleplaying.
With these rules, a high Cha makes you a force to be reckoned with in the city, and a low Cha could make you flee from any nobles you see. It even has hireling implications: You can order anyone three ranks below you to come on an adventure, whether they like it or not. Lepers or Peasants will be terrible at fighting, obviously: You'll still need to shell out coin for the good fighters. But being able to order up a mob on demand is pretty neat.
I like the idea of level drain. It's like taking bites out of your soul. It makes any enemy, no matter how goofy, into a terrifying thing that you never, ever want to fight, or go near, or look at. It sends the message: "There is nothing you have that I can't take."
But jeeze, that book-keeping. There's way too much fiddling around to consider going up or down levels in the middle of a fight.
Dark Souls - the best D&D videogame - has some great alternatives.
Curse
Your max HP is halved. How simple is that? Keep track of what your max HP was, and keep increasing that as normal as you level up, but you can never have more than half of that. Season to taste. The sadist DM may wish to allow players to be double or triple cursed to 1/4th or 1/8th of HP.
Curses are generally inflicted by Basilisks, which obviously look like this:
Also known as "Curse Frogs," these guys puff up their throats and spew cursed smoke everywhere. 1, 2, or 3 saves before you are cursed, according to taste. Anyone who is cursed will immediately solidify as a jagged stone statue, returning the next morning as a shivering wreck. These statues will be littered around any place where Curse monsters live.
The Accursed are the only ones who can harm ghosts. In the middle of ghost towns, you can find men who will take away curses. Curses can never be lifted - only transferred onto someone else.
Infest
Your head sprouts egg-sacks. The creature inside will devour half the XP you earn from now on. Every time you level up, it will too, growing and hatching into... well, you're the DM. Use my worm table for inspiration if you want.
This malady is generally inflicted by the egg-burdened servants of Chaos Witch Quelaag.
They'll grab your legs, and their maggots will infest your head. If you receive their sacred burden their leader will welcome you as one of their own, and he has much sorcery to teach. They may even have a cure, though they consider the idea the vilest heresy.
Every time my players go to buy weapons, I drag out the equipment list and they spend half an hour deciding which of the 10 weapons and armors that exist in the world they want to use. I've always wanted to recreate the fantastic variety of weapons in games like Dark Souls, but make that equipment list any longer and we'd be looking through it for hours.
Anyone selling weapons has about 1d4 of the weapons below for sale. Roll a d10 for the middle of nowhere, d20 for a normal town, and d50 for the big city. The number you rolled is also how much it costs.
Some weapon rules: For ranged weapons, Short range is the size of a dungeon room, medium range is about the size of a football field, long range is anything you can see (At DM's digression). Some weapons on this list have stat requirements, like "Requires +2 str". Anyone who doesn't have that stat can still use the weapon, but they'll critically fail on a 5 or less.
Blowgun, d4, short range. The darts can be loaded with all sorts of poisons.
Shortsword, d6.
Hand axe. D6, critical damage against all wood/plants.
Throwing daggers. D4/d10, short range, D8 per pack.
Net. Two-handed. On a successful hit, victim makes a strength check or is captured.
Light crossbow, d6. Short range.
Shortbow. D6 damage. Two-handed. Medium range.
Longsword. D8, two-handed.
Heavy crossbow, d8. Short range.
Black firebombs. D6, d6 fire damage ongoing. d4 per pack.
Halberd. D8, two-handed, long weapon can hit enemies from a small distance away.
Claw gauntlets. Wolverine claws. D6, can use while taking two move actions.
Carim Parrying dagger, d4. Use in your off-hand while wielding another weapon. Against sword-wielding enemies, you can ready an action to Parry: Dex check to sweep aside their attack and do backstab damage.
God Hand. Cestus marked with banishment symbols. D6, knocks enemies back a large distance, can be held while wielding other weapons.
Spiked shield. D6 damage, +1 AC.
Pike. D8, two-handed, can hit anyone at short bow range, but can't hit anyone that's right up in your grill. |
Test-based age-of-acquisition norms for 44 thousand English word meanings.
Age of acquisition (AoA) is an important variable in word recognition research. Up to now, nearly all psychology researchers examining the AoA effect have used ratings obtained from adult participants. An alternative basis for determining AoA is directly testing children's knowledge of word meanings at various ages. In educational research, scholars and teachers have tried to establish the grade at which particular words should be taught by examining the ages at which children know various word meanings. Such a list is available from Dale and O'Rourke's (1981) Living Word Vocabulary for nearly 44 thousand meanings coming from over 31 thousand unique word forms and multiword expressions. The present article relates these test-based AoA estimates to lexical decision times as well as to AoA adult ratings, and reports strong correlations between all of the measures. Therefore, test-based estimates of AoA can be used as an alternative measure. |
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Now that Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky is getting ready to set sail with his Biblical epic Noah, it's time to firm up the cast for the film that won't hit theaters until 2014. Russell Crowe is already set to play the title ch... |
Tanzanian police say they have arrested three more people over a video shared online in which a woman kisses and embraces another woman.
Ahmed Msangi, police chief in the Mwanza region, says 25-year-old Janeth Shonza was arrested in the central region of Singida. He says police also are holding a man accused of creating the video and another woman seen in it.
One of the women seen kissing, Milembe Suleiman, was arrested in the northwestern region of Geita earlier this week.
Homosexual relations are criminalized in Tanzania and the law prescribes sentences of up to life in prison.
This East African nation has launched a crackdown against people accused of promoting homosexuality. Authorities have threatened to deregister non-governmental organizations accused of supporting gays. |
MX-5 Owners Club National Rally photo roundup
As you may have heard by now we had our National Owners Club Rally at the British Motor Museum on Sunday which went down a treat. With over 2,000 MX-5s on display there was certainly no shortage of cars to look at.
A massive thank you to all who attended and to all who made the day possible. In case you couldn’t make the day, here are just a few of our favourite photos from the main arena. Do you have some photos from the day? Show us in the comments!
Do you like what you’ve seen? Or perhaps you’d like to use our forum to help sell your MX-5? You can click here to join the UK’s biggest MX-5 club. |
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Cover Story
[ Submit a Story ] The following article was posted on April 17th, 2013, in the Santa Maria Sun - Volume 14, Issue 6
Don't eat the fish
By CAMILLIA LANHAM
The story of Oso Flaco Lake starts with liquefied fish—as in fish caught via electro-shock and thrown into a blender. The resulting mush is tested for pollutants.
FIELD DAY: Sarah Hamilton from the Central Coast Region Water Quality Control Board and her assistant tested the water quality at Oso Flaco Lake on April 8. They visited 11 other sites that day as part of a long-term water-quality-monitoring program on the Central Coast. PHOTOS BY STEVE E. MILLER
These aren’t just any old worth-fishing-for fish; they’re goldfish the size of largemouth bass. And these goldfish have levels of DDT in them that beat out any other fish in the state.
In fact, the amount of DDT—a pesticide banned in the United States decades ago—found in Oso Flaco Lake’s goldfish is 10 times higher than the amount found in fish from Watsonville’s Pinto Lake, which tested for DDT at the second highest level found in California.
The test results are from a state lake study completed more than a decade ago, but photocopied signs at Oso Flaco clearly caution that the danger remains: “WARNING: PESTICIDE CONTAMINATED FISH.”
Officials from California State Parks and the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board posted those signs. The words greet visitors in the lake’s parking lot via a cork message board and once again at the entrance to the boardwalk that takes visitors out over the surface of the lake.
But even with visible warning signs posted in both English and Spanish, people continue fishing from the lake. Water board environmental scientist Mary Hamilton said she still has to physically walk over to people and tell them about the dangers they could face if they eat what they catch.
More than fish
Goldfish aren’t the only fish in the lake that tested positive for DDT; bluegill and largemouth bass also contain the banned pesticide, just not in the earth-shattering amounts the goldfish do. The amounts of DDT found in the lake’s bluegill and bass aren’t high enough to deem the scaly creatures “hazardous for human consumption.”
“That said, those chemicals were detected in every single sample,” Hamilton said. “It’s horrible that they’re even found in the fish.”
Hamilton’s concerns with the lake go beyond just fish and their impact on humans. She mentioned algal blooms that take over the lake every summer because of a high amount of nutrients in the water. There are also endangered species that feed on DDT-laden fish and low levels of dissolved oxygen that could kill fish, as well as high levels of sediment and the detection of more modern pesticides.
As a field scientist, Hamilton collects water samples from all over the Central Coast for the water board. Each year, she focuses heavily on a different area in the region, and every five years she starts the cycle all over again. This year, it’s the Santa Maria Watershed’s turn, so of the 63 sites the water board is testing in the region, 30 of them are in Santa Maria.
The water board doesn’t normally test lake water, but Hamilton said they made an exception for Oso Flaco Lake.
“It’s so polluted, I insisted,” Hamilton said. “Oso Flaco is my highest priority in this whole region.”
On April 8, she pulled water samples from Oso Flaco Lake, Oso Flaco Creek, and 10 other Santa Maria Valley sites to test for bacteria, pesticides, nutrients, water clarity, pH levels, oxygen, salts, chlorophyll, and metals. All the data is part of the Central Coast Ambient Monitoring Program (CCAMP) and is the water board’s go-to source for looking at long-term trends in water quality.
Nowhere to go
As Hamilton straightened up after dunking a bottle marked “OSL” in Oso Flaco Lake, she said it is one of her favorite sites to sample because of its beauty. Birds twittered, ducks bathed themselves, and beige hills of sand rolled away from the green vegetation that lined the water.
FISH BOWL: Water board and state park environmental scientists refer to Oso Flaco Lake as a bowl because the water that flows into the lake doesn’t really flow out.
At her next stop, just up the road at a drainage ditch on Oso Flaco Creek, the contrast was obvious: Semi-trucks carried pesticide, water, and empty produce boxes, kicking up dust as they rumbled past. The canvas fencing around agricultural fields blew in the wind.
Oso Flaco Creek runs along agricultural fields; everything that drains off of those fields and into the creek makes a beeline into Oso Flaco Lake. The irrigation ditches that run north along Oso Flaco Lake Road also drain straight into the water body.
Once that runoff gets in the lake, it doesn’t have anywhere else to go, said Ronnie Glick, State Parks environmental scientist for the Oceano Dunes District.
“In many ways, it’s like a sink; things go in and they never go out,” Glick said.
The Santa Maria Estuary, into which other parts of the Santa Maria Watershed drain, is subject to large weather events that can flush out pollutants. That water then mixes with ocean water and spreads out, so it’s not concentrated in one location.
But Oso Flaco Lake doesn’t operate by the same natural forces. It has a tiny, two-inch-deep stream, which empties some of the lake into the ocean, but other than that, it’s a contained water body.
Changing scenery
DDT takes years to break down and is found all over the Santa Maria Valley. The water board has recorded high quantities of it in places like the Santa Maria River bed, Orcutt Creek, the Bradley Channel, and Oso Flaco Creek. The insecticide latches onto sediment. Big storms stir up that sediment, and then it flows with the water down into Oso Flaco Lake, where it settles.
Glick said scientists aren’t exactly sure why goldfish test so high for the pesticide, but they think one of the reasons is that goldfish have a much longer lifespan than other fish in the lake and DDT builds up in their tissue over their lifetime. Goldfish have a tendency to stick to the bottom of the lake, and they take up a lot of sediment as they eat.
“It’s so much more than just the fish; it’s about what has happened to the water quality in the lake over the last 25 to 30 years,” Glick said. “It’s not a problem that started overnight, and it’s not a problem that is going to be solved overnight.”
He points to a photo hanging on the wall in his office that looks like it’s from the early 1980s. It shows Oso Flaco Lake. The lake is staggered with inlets of sand that reach into the water. Short grasses and reeds line the shore. It looks nothing like the round lake with trees all around it in the same spot today.
TOXIC EATS: Fish in Oso Flaco Lake have tested positive for both DDT and Dieldrin, pesticides that have been banned for decades. The levels of DDT in the fish are higher than those of any other lake in the state.
“The lake used to be different,” Glick said. “[It was] not a bathtub ring of willows.”
The ring he’s referring to is a strand of trees lining the lake that wasn’t so dense or orchard-like in the past. He said the trees are fed by nutrients that enter the lake—nitrates in particular—and the trees are taking valuable shore-water habitat away from the marsh sandwort and Gambel’s watercress, two species of endangered plants that don’t naturally grow at any other spot on the coast.
Those nitrates also feed the algae that “blooms” in the lake every summer. For one month this summer, the water board is planning to track what the algal bloom does to the oxygen level in the lake. At night, algae takes up oxygen and, if the lake’s oxygen gets too low, that change could kill the fish.
Solutions?
State Parks is currently working on a project with the San Luis Coastal Resource Conservation District to test water quality and sediment in Oso Flaco Lake and Oso Flaco Creek so they can better understand the big picture: How much nitrate and sediment is coming into the lake, and how does the system deal with the excess?
While State Parks officials are taking measures to try to understand the lake they manage, they don’t have any authority east of the Oso Flaco Lake parking area.
“We have very little control over what kind of water quality we get in the lake,” Glick said. “There’s not much that we can do as a land manager with the water we get at the bottom of the watershed.”
The Oso Flaco portion of the watershed is a mini-microcosm of the Santa Maria Watershed. It’s one of several water bodies in the Santa Maria area that are on California’s impaired waters list because they contain too much pesticides or nutrients or are too toxic to invertebrates.
The water board is in the middle of finalizing regulations called Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the Santa Maria Watershed that should reduce pollutants entering area waterways. There’s one document for nutrients and one for pesticides and toxicity. Glick said those documents should help lay down ground rules to increase water quality in the Santa Maria Watershed, which could also help the situation at Oso Flaco Lake.
TMDLs are pages and pages of complicated, technical jargon that spell out what’s impaired in the watershed, who’s responsible, what the water quality objectives are, and how those goals can be achieved. The documents are a direct consequence of having a water body on the impaired waters list. Although the Santa Maria Watershed TMDL is written, a year and a half could go by before it gets put to use because the document still has to go through a lengthy approval process.
Chris Rose, senior environmental scientist at the water board, said TMDLs don’t change water quality standards, they just spell out the way those standards will be achieved. To gauge water quality for the TMDL, the water board collected mountains of data through its own monitoring efforts and those of individual farmers, agricultural associations, the resource conservation districts, and others.
Rose said he expects to see an increase in water quality since the water board released the document for public comment, which ended on March 29. The reason he gives is the Agricultural Order that was finalized in March 2012, which lays out strict monitoring and compliance measures for the use of certain pesticides and nutrients, depending on how close agricultural fields are to water bodies.
“[Pesticide] use reports say that less have been applied,” Rose said. “Use has dropped since last March.”
While pesticides currently being used on crops might be relatively easy to monitor and regulate, a substance like DDT, which has been in the soil for decades, presents more of a challenge. The solution lies in a community-based approach to solve the problem.
“It appears as though [DDT is] spread out over the watershed over many land-use types,” Rose said. “We’re going to have to get a spectrum involved.”
All of the stakeholders in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties—farm bureaus, resource conservation districts, land users, the city of Santa Maria, etc.—will be able to weigh in and make up a governing body to create and implement a plan that will prevent DDT-laden sediment from getting into waterways.
Claire Wineman, president of the Growers-Shippers Association of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, said that although they don’t think many of the water quality targets in the TMDLs are achievable, a community-based approach to solving problems is better than one regulatory agency laying down the law. However, considering how much DDT is spread out in the Santa Maria Valley and how long the substance takes to break down, Wineman said coming up with a short-term solution to the problem might be impossible.
Rose from the water board echoed Wineman, and said it’s not going to be a problem that’s solved overnight.
“The solution’s going to be tough,” Rose said. “Here we are 40 years later after these things were applied, and they’re still around.”
Contact Staff Writer Camillia Lanham at [email protected]. |
Slow Roll Buffalo pedals through the west side tonight
Tonight's Slow Roll Buffalo will feature some riders who will "Pedal for Peace." The cyclists are raising funds to help at-risk kids in Buffalo.
Clay Davies
With pleasant weather in the forecast organizers are expecting another solid crowd of cyclists tonight for the third Slow Roll Buffalo of the season. Co-founder Seamus Gallivan sees the effort as "a way to come together. We need that in Buffalo and we really feel like the bike is the best vehicle to do it." Tonight's event begins at 6:30 at West Side Community Services on Vermont Street. Forest Avenue and Connecticut, West Ferry and Grant Streets make up part of the ten-mile course. |
Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.
Author: Anselm Hollo
The tale of Hansel and Gretel is an ancient one, woven around the themes of abandonment, cannibalism, and the terrors of dark forests in those forests’ ancient heyday. Told, edited and retold by the German Brothers Grimm in the early 19th century, the tale’s archetypal magic has inspired composers, writers and artists for hundreds of years.
Riina Katajavuori’s new book of poems, Kerttu ja Hannu (‘Gretel and Hansel’, Tammi, 2007), is an imaginative de-and reconstruction of it. By reversing the traditional order of the names, Katajavuori (born 1968) gives notice that her poems are a her-not-his version of the story, a retelling from Gretel’s perspective. More…
Ei. Siis kyllä (‘No. That is to say, yes’, WSOY, 2006) by Paavo Haavikko, the incredibly productive and versatile grand old man of Finnish letters, is a series of apothegms – ‘short, witty, instructive sayings,’ according to your basic dictionary definition. Formally, these may remind one of the Egyptian-born French writer Edmond Jabès’s works, Le Livre des Questions (The Book of Questions), but is not so much a book of questions as it is a book of statements.
As the editor and translator of a number of Haavikko’s works over the past forty years, including two versions of a Selected Poems, two prose works, and, most recently, Kaksikymmentä ja yksi (One and Twenty), a wild mock epic of a band of Finnish Vikings travelling down to Constantinople and on to Africa, I have gained familiarity with the poet’s favourite images and strategies. He employs indirection and ambiguity with great skill:
‘There is no answer without a question, and without knowing the question you cannot understand the answer. But it has always been our habit to ask the question ourselves, then answer it ourselves. That is the only way to gain scientifically valid answers. Therefore, questions must be constructed with exactitude, to prevent their turning into answers.’ More…
If I had to describe Tomi Kontio’s new book of poems, Vaaksan päässä taivaasta (‘A span away from heaven’, Teos, 2004, page 93) in ten words or less, I would say that it is a succession of deep breaths taken between catastrophes great or small.
Since I have a few more words at my disposal here, I’ll also say that it meets every expectation set up by his previous three volumes of poetry: sonorous language, an essentially Romantic but not egocentric worldview, and extraordinary skill in combining straightforward narrative with spectacularly effortless runs of metaphors, as in these lines from the poem ‘Pietà’: More…
I have never heard Timo Hännikäinen read his poems out loud. On the page, the voice I hear is something like an intense but laconic whisper. There are times when the poems in the 23-year-old author’s first book, Istun vastapäätä (‘I’m sitting across from’, WSOY, 2002), skirt the edges of despair:
Riina Katajavuori (born 1965) writes a poetry of quick shifts, cinematic cut, changes in point of view: in a translator’s note for Five from Finland (Reality Street Editions, London 2001), I said that they ‘incorporate voices, observations and acts of speech from the street, television, radio, lectures and books. These hums and buzzes are then distanced by being framed as laconic and ironic propositions.’
That observation still holds true for her new book. Koko tarina (‘The whole story’, Tammi, 2001). Ironic titles seem to be in vogue in contemporary Finnish poetry (e.g. Kai Nieminen’s Lopullinen totuus. Kaikesta, ‘The ultimate truth. About everything’, Tammi, 2002): while these eighty-some pages of poetry cannot literally tell any ‘whole story’, they show that Katajavuori’s work has become more expansive. It delineates a contemporary sphere of urban life in a more richly detailed way, employing an overall syntax that seems less discontinuous than before. More…
Kai Nieminen has translated the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, from its ancient poetic Finnish into modern language. Anselm Hollo has in turn translated an extract of Nieminen’s version into English for Books from Finland; here the two poets and translators discuss the process by e-mail between Pemaja, on the south coast of Finland, and Colorado
Anselm Hollo: Why translate Finnish into Finnish?
Kai Nieminen: It may seem like an odd idea to translate from a language into the very same language, but as you, Anselm, may recall: a few years ago, I taught a workshop at a summer session of the department where you teach, the Writing and Poetics Program of Naropa University in Boulder, with the theme ‘Poetry as Translation of One’s Thoughts’. I started out with the notion that writing poetry – perhaps writing literary works in general really consists of translating personal recognitions into more generally recognizable utterance, recognizable even to oneself. Writing poetry, one translates one’s thoughts for oneself. In that workshop I had the students translate English into English, and they thought it was a good idea, an enlightening exercise, a way to learn to read texts in a new way. As a poet-cum-translator I have probably always done something like this when writing my own poems – and also while reading poems by others. Translation is a two-way process. Secondly: As a translator from Japanese, I have grown accustomed to the Japanese practice of equipping modern editions of classical literature with a translation into modern Japanese. The modern version is not meant to replace the original, it is a way of helping the reader to appreciate the original all the more – which is what I, too, aim at doing. More…
The last couple of months, it has been my pleasure to browse around in a tightly packed shelf of books of poetry published in Finland in the last five years. On the showing of these, and of the excellent anthology Modern finlandssvensk lyrik (‘Modern Finland-Swedish poetry’, 1980), edited by Claes Andersson and Bo Carpelan, poetry certainly seems to be alive and well in the old homeland. In a way, the sheaf translated here is just first travel notes, individual works that struck my fancy seemed translatable: thus, by no means a ‘representative selection’.
Claes Andersson’s poem ‘When I was born, Helsinki was…’ was quite simply a direct hit (perhaps an unfortunate metaphor in that it deals, in part, with the WW2 air raids on Helsinki) – it brought back personal memories from my early childhood. But beyond those immediate circumstances, it is also a very moving evocation of the magnificent and terrifying world of magic children inhabit. Helena Anhava’s ‘These years…’, with its marvelous image of the great hinge turning in the human psyche at certain points familiar to anyone who has lived into middle age, seemed a fine example of her impressive body of meditative lyric poems, sharing a tenor of wistfulness not uncommon in Finland’s poetry with Bo Carpelan’s ‘You drive up…’, which is also a poem of the pangs of change. In Carpelan’s text, the clash between ‘wonderful clear Vivaldi’ on the protagonist’s car radio and the perceived tawdriness of the environment is beautifully balanced between genuine revulsion for the latter and a self-irony directed against the self-declared ‘finer sensibilities’ of the class that can afford them. Tua Forsström‘s ‘Do you want to hear something’ moves in a lovely dance figure from myth to everyday present: we see the interior world that is Nausicaa’s island shimmering through the exterior in which ‘someone’s/ balcony door whines all night like a cat’. More…
About the author
Poet, translator and teacher of creative writing and poetry Anselm Hollo (1934–2013) was born in Helsinki but moved to England in the 1960s and later to Boulder, Colorado. Among the writers he has translated are the poets Paavo Haavikko and Pentti Saarikoski and prose writers Rosa Liksom and Leena Krohn. |
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Adam Najem's Afghanistan trip is one the Union midfielder 'will never forget'
The Union's Adam Najem, left, battling with Columbus Crew's Jukka Raitala in a game last year, admitted that he "got chills" with the response from the home fans after his first international cap with Afghanistan last Sunday.
CHESTER >> Adam Najem might not have been there to witness all the history.
He didn’t live through the same travails as the Afghanistan fans cheering him on. He might not have known that the ground he treaded over at Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium barely two decades ago played host to public executions in addition to soccer matches.
But the Philadelphia Union midfielder needed no translation for the emotion showered on him and his Afghanistan teammates. The 5,000 or so fans that showed up more than two hours before kickoff to the first Afghanistan home match in the country in five years told Najem all he needed to know.
“We took the laps around the field and it was incredible,” Najem said Wednesday. “It gave me the chills. That’s something I’ll never forget.”
Najem started in Afghanistan’s 0-0 draw with Palestine Sunday, his first cap for the nation of his father’s birth and a country he had never before visited. But the native of Clifton, N.J., left with a special understanding of the honor – not just for reaching the exalted pedestal of being a capped international but doing so in a place where soccer is such a salient signal of normality.
“It’s definitely a country that hasn’t been able to have the feeling of joy and happiness for a while,” Najem said. “But we all got to be a part of that, and any sense of joy and happiness that we could bring to them, it was really amazing and it meant a lot. If we could continue bringing that sense to fans and people of the county, it will only keep getting better.”
Najem played 89 minutes, deployed on the right side of a midfield diamond. He played alongside his distant cousin, Benjamin Ali Nadjem, a fullback who plays in Germany. Najem also connected with an uncle who lives in the country, a special family tie beyond his large extended clan in North America.
The game marked the 99th Afghan Independence Day, a vital holiday for a country that has undergone many rebirths in the last century. The fixture was also the first international in Afghanistan since 2013 and just the third since 2003 for a program that was mothballed from 1984-2002. The country remains in a state of perpetual war: Government forces are engaged in battle with Taliban insurgents in Ghazni province 150 miles from the capital, and a suicide bombing at a college prep center last Wednesday killed 34 and wounded 57.
Najem understood the danger of the trip, but he relished the experience.
“Everybody from the camp went in knowing there’s a risk involved,” he said. “Everyone knew that anything can happen at any moment, but that’s life. I’m glad I took the risk of seeing that country and being part of that.”
Najem hasn’t yet played for the Union this season, but he’s performed well with Bethlehem Steel. Coach Jim Curtin pointed out Wednesday that Najem was close to starting on opening day, the honor at the No. 10 going to Homegrown Anthony Fontana, who scored against New England. Borek Dockal has started every MLS game but two since.
“It’s a credit to Adam and the professionalism he’s had where he hasn’t gotten the minutes he’s wanted to get on the first team,” Curtin said. “… Some players maybe pout and put their head down and quit, and some embrace it and try to get better each and every day. I would put Adam in that (second) category. Now he’s played some really good games for the Steel. He’s been recognized for his national team, which is a very special honor for him. You could tell just how much it meant to the country, how much it meant to Adam as well, to represent them.” |
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Welcome to the new winter season! Enjoy skiing in Zakopane with us : )
We are very excited for the coming Winter. We invite you to book your ski holiday with GO!Ski We offer a brand new ski and snowboard equipment, professional ski and snowboard lessons, ski clothes, airport transfers and we with pleasure arrange for you winter attractions like a sleigh ride, snowmobiles trip, dog sledding and thermal pools.Winter holidays are a busy time. Book your tuition and equipment even now This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We are open everyday from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in our new location 23 Kościuszki Street, Natura Tour Kolejarz next to the train and bus station. (There's parking lot behind the building for our guests)
If you are spending Christmas and New Year in Zakopane and want to try skiing or snowboarding write to us. We have still place. Spend the magical time with us!
Ski & snowboard equipment ZakopaneFree delivery of equipment to your accommodation:Upon request we can deliver your ski equipment directly to your accommodation in Zakopane : )Ski & snowboard lessons ZakopaneFree transfer from your hotel to a slope and back to the hotel. Every day different slopes. Your lessons can be on all slopes on Zakopane and the surrounding area.
Be sure to include as much pertinent information as possible including travel dates, number of people, child ages, specific preferences and/or special needs requirements etc. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In Zakopane feel the spring. The first crocuses have already shown. But how it says, the real spring will be when the crocuses will be 3 times covered with snow. So snow will fall. We invite you to ski, slopes are open, quite decent conditions. You are welcome ; )
The February has arrived - it's time to book Your Ski Vacation : ) We begin - ski and snowboard courses in Zakopane, Poland. Every day for you the ski rental is open from 9am to 6pm. Instructors also are waiting for You from 8:30am to ... (closure of the slopes) Join us today - and discover the taste of skiing : )
We are skiing also there : ) Find us on Facebook and check how look like our ski & snowboard lessons/courses - GO!Ski Zakopane. Snowboarding and skiing it's kind of experience. Try do it during winter break.
Hello Everyone! We invite you on Winter Holidays to Zakopane for skiing and snowboarding : )We also invite lowers of the ski jumping World Cup 2014 - 17th of January in Zakopane, more information you find in the likn belowe: |
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redirect_to: ../postgresql/pgbouncer.md
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This document was moved to [another location](../postgresql/pgbouncer.md).
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Apple customer support is often rated highly throughout the world, but that doesn't mean the company always avoids unhappy customers. A disgruntled customer in France entered an Apple Store in Dijon yesterday and calmly smashed devices in front of Apple staff and customers. At least 10 iPhones were smashed with a boule metal ball (used in a French bowls game), alongside a MacBook Air.
French media reports suggest the angry man, who actually calmly smashed devices, was complaining about his consumer rights and a refund. The man appears to have been detained outside the store, and there are no reports of injuries apart from the broken Apple equipment. Hopefully the angry man purchased multiple AppleCare protection plans, otherwise that's going to be a costly bill for thousands of dollars of property damage.
iPhone 7 and 7 Plus review |
Q:
Calculating the sum of rows in a column when other columns satisfy a criterion
I've got a dataframe that looks like this (code is at the bottom, if you care):
A B C D E
Year Category
1980 Alpha 100 800 10 15 1.2350
Bravo 200 700 20 25 2.3550
Charlie 300 600 30 35 3.3600
Delta 400 500 40 45 4.4448
1981 Alpha 500 400 50 55 5.5000
Bravo 600 300 60 65 6.0000
Charlie 700 200 70 75 7.2000
Delta 800 100 80 85 8.0000
For each year, I'm trying to get the sum (and average) of columns A-D for all the rows where the value in E is larger than the median for that year.
So, for 1980 only Charlie & Delta qualify as having a value in column E that is greater than the median for that year. Hence the result for column A should be
...sum = 300 + 400 = 700
... average = mean(300, 400) = 350
The closest I can get here is using groupby / median
df.groupby(['Year']).median()
...but then I'm not quite sure what to do with the outputs. This gives me the medians for each year but I can't then easily link back these results to my initial dataframe.
Dataframe code:
data = {'A': [100,200,300,400,500,600,700,800],
'B': [800,700,600,500,400,300,200,100],
'C': [10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80],
'D': [15,25,35,45,55,65,75,85],
'E': [1.235,2.355,3.36,4.4448,5.5,6,7.2,8]}
idx = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([[1980, 1981],['Alpha','Bravo', 'Charlie','Delta']], names=['Year','Category'])
df = pd.DataFrame(data, index=idx, columns=['A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'])
A:
IIUC, you can do a groupby on the first level and transform median on column E , then compare and drop off rows where E exceeds the median and sum on level=0:
s = df['E'].gt(df.groupby(level=0)['E'].transform('median'))
df.drop('E',1)[s].sum(level=0)
A B C D
Year
1980 700 1100 70 80
1981 1500 300 150 160
For having mean and sum stacked side by side you can do the same with concat and add_suffix to identify:
s = df['E'].gt(df.groupby(level=0)['E'].transform('median'))
m = df.drop('E',1)[s]
pd.concat((m.sum(level=0).add_suffix('_sum'),m.mean(level=0).add_suffix('_avg')),axis=1)
A_sum B_sum C_sum D_sum A_avg B_avg C_avg D_avg
Year
1980 700 1100 70 80 350 550 35 40
1981 1500 300 150 160 750 150 75 80
|
package com.wythe.mall.activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.Fragment;
import android.support.v4.app.FragmentActivity;
import android.widget.RadioButton;
import android.widget.RadioGroup;
import com.facebook.drawee.backends.pipeline.Fresco;
import com.wythe.mall.R;
import com.wythe.mall.adapter.FragmentTabAdapter;
import com.wythe.mall.ui.HomeFragment;
import com.wythe.mall.ui.CategoryFragment;
import com.wythe.mall.ui.TabCFm;
import com.wythe.mall.ui.CartFragment;
import com.wythe.mall.ui.PersonalFragment;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {
public static final String TAG = MainActivity.class.getSimpleName();
private RadioGroup radio_button_group;
private FragmentTabAdapter tabAdapter;
public List<Fragment> fragments = new ArrayList<Fragment>();
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
Fresco.initialize(getApplicationContext());
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
initView();
}
protected void initView() {
radio_button_group = (RadioGroup) findViewById(R.id.radio_button_group);
fragments.add(new HomeFragment());
fragments.add(new CategoryFragment());
fragments.add(new TabCFm());
fragments.add(new CartFragment());
fragments.add(new PersonalFragment());
tabAdapter = new FragmentTabAdapter(this, fragments, R.id.fragment_content, radio_button_group);
// tabAdapter.onCheckedChanged(radio_button_group,R.id.navigation_tab_cart);
// ((RadioButton)radio_button_group.getChildAt(3)).setChecked(true);
}
public void navigateTo(int index){
((RadioButton)radio_button_group.getChildAt(index)).setChecked(true);
}
}
|
ENVIRONMENTAL QUOTES
by popular author ⇊
We need to accept the seemingly obvious fact that a toxic environment can make people sick and that no amount of medical intervention can protect us. The health care community must become a powerful political lobby for environmental policy and legislation. |
1. Are there arguments for regulating speech about drugs more comprehensively than, for example, about dietary supplements? What must an administrative record contain to sustain such a position? In particular, could FDA sustain a position that certain promotional speech about drugs is inherently misleading, unless it complies with FDA requirements? Does anything turn on whether the speech is made to learned intermediaries or to consumers? What is the evidentiary basis of such a distinction?
False advertising is one thing: selective presentation of the facts is another. False advertising already is illegal: no further action is needed on this issue. Selective presentation of facts requires the reader to use his education and judgement on a case-by-case basis, and to accept the consequences of his intelligence or lack thereof. It should not be the job of the government to protect the citizenry from such selectivity: this only invites abuse of the power given, and introduces the inevitable backroom tug-of-war that invariably moves the discussion from the merit of the issue to its political ramifications, at the expense of the public interest.
2. Is FDA's current position regarding direct-to-consumer and other advertisements consistent with empirical research on the effects of those advertisements, as well as with relevant legal authority? What are the positive and negative effects, if any, of industry's promotion of prescription drugs, biologics, and/or devices? Does the current regulatory approach and its implementation by industry lead to over-prescription of drugs? Do they increase physician visits or patient compliance with medication regimes? Do they cause patient visits that lead to treatment for under-diagnosed diseases? Does FDA's current approach and its implementation by industry lead to adequate treatment for under-diagnosed diseases? Do they lead to adequate patient understanding of the potential risks associated with use of drugs? Does FDA's current approach and its implementation by industry create any impediments to the ability of doctors to give optimal medical advice or prescribe optimal treatment?
Advertising of drugs is unfortunate, but must not be restricted on principle. The mis-use and abuse of both over-the-counter and prescription drugs is an inevitable consequence of a misguided consumer mentality combined with the massive third-party payment system which we have had the shortsightedness to develop, and cannot be eliminated without eliminating those root causes, regardless of the presence or absence of advertising.
The most one can hope for in labelling and advertising is to require inclusion of performance data on each product in a manner that is easily grasped by and also relevant to the average consumer. This data might, for instance, rate such issues as overall safety, likelihood and severity of side effects, and efficacy, all rated on both an absolute and a relative scale to other paths of treatment as well as other directly competitive products. Availability of such information to both consumers and the media could dramatically reduce the present bias towards medication as the automatic answer to virtually any symptom. This would be hugely unpopular with the drug industry since it would likely reduce the current largely wasteful spending on pharmaceuticals. However, it may well improve overall health by opening the door to new solutions, while reducing the many side effects caused by approved, but only marginally effective pharamceuticals.
3. May FDA distinguish claims concerning conventional foods from those relating to dietary supplements, taking into account limits on claims that can be made about foods in the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, 21 U.S.C. 301, 321, 337, 343, 371? What must an administrative record contain to sustain or deny claims on food labels? How can information best be presented in a succinct but non-misleading fashion? To what extent do assertions in claims need qualifications or disclaimers added to the label to avoid any misconceptions that consumers may draw? Is there a basis to believe that consumers approach claims about conventional foods and dietary supplements differently?
A simple way to clarify statements would seem to be a disclaimer: The above statements are the opinions of the manufacturer and have not been verified by the FDA or any other independent agency.
It is impossible to completely avoid misconceptions, and it should be the FDA's responsibility to try: consumers must accept responsibilty for making individual judgements in exchange for freedom and access to choices.
Another option is to offer voluntary third-party appraisal as a means for manufacturers to add value to their products. This would likely provide consumers with greater access to more products at wider price ranges: cheaper less verified products would at least be available to those unable to afford more, while those able and willing to pay more could opt for more proven solutions. This solution is far more democratic than the denial that the poor must presently suffer.
4. Should disclaimers be required to be in the same (or smaller or larger) size of type and given equal prominence with claims? Is there any relevant authority or social science research on this issue?
It would appear unreasonable to require absolute equality in type for all data on a label. Howdever, an indication of a disclaimer should be at least as large, i.e. visible as any claims headlines: the actual data could be either smaller or placed in a separate location (insert, handout, etc.). Most consumers won't read it anyway, but I believe access and availability is more important than immediacy.
5. How can warnings be made most effective in preventing harm while minimizing the chances of consumer confusion or inattention? Is there any evidence as to which types of warnings consumers follow or disregard?
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. So it is with the consumer: make the data available, but realize it always will be, and should be, up to the individual to make a choice, even if it appears to be illogical or contrary to agency preference.
6. What arguments or social science evidence, if any, can be used to support distinguishing between claims made in advertisements and those made on labels? Does the First Amendment and the relevant social science evidence afford the Government greater latitude over labels?
It should not be under the agency's purview to dictate either labels or advertising. Both are available for the consumer to judge, and both are covered under current law against false advertising. It should be up to consumers and the courts to settle these issues.
7. Would permitting speech by manufacturer, distributor, and marketer about off-label uses undermine the act's requirement that new uses must be approved by the FDA? If so, how? If not, why not? What is the extent of FDA's ability to regulate speech concerning off-label uses?
In a free sociaety, it is both ethically and pragmatically inappropriate to limit the use of any product as long as no harm is done to an unwilling third party thereby. Therefore the FDA should restrict its involvement in any regulatory effort to review and critiqueof available data and dissemination of information.
8. Do FDA's speech-related regulations advance the public health concerns they are designed to address? Are there other alternative approaches that FDA could pursue to accomplish those objectives with fewer restrictions on speech?
It is my view that current restrictions do considerably more harm than good, both in an empirical sense by preventing the promotion of certain products that may provide some benefit, and in an ehtical sense due to the impropriety of restricting free speech in an otherwise largely enlightened society.
The alternative approach of providing information, evne if that information is that no relevant data are available, would be far more appropriate.
9. Are there any regulations, guidance, policies, and practices FDA should change, in light of governing First Amendment authority?
I do not know the specific policies involved, but the basic principle of consumers' freedom of choice is far too emcumbered by current FDA practices. More products should be allowed on the market in all areas, including supplements, foods, and medications, provided only that they bear accurate and complete information as detailed above. The American consumer should be permitted to exercise freedom of choice without government interference. |
import "./styles.css";
import {
LinkedVisualConsoleProps,
AnyObject,
Size,
ItemMeta
} from "../../lib/types";
import {
linkedVCPropsDecoder,
parseIntOr,
parseBoolean,
prefixedCssRules,
notEmptyStringOr,
humanDate,
humanTime,
t
} from "../../lib";
import Item, { ItemProps, itemBasePropsDecoder, ItemType } from "../../Item";
export type ClockProps = {
type: ItemType.CLOCK;
clockType: "analogic" | "digital";
clockFormat: "datetime" | "time";
clockTimezone: string;
clockTimezoneOffset: number; // Offset of the timezone to UTC in seconds.
showClockTimezone: boolean;
color?: string | null;
} & ItemProps &
LinkedVisualConsoleProps;
/**
* Extract a valid enum value from a raw unknown value.
* @param clockType Raw value.
*/
const parseClockType = (clockType: unknown): ClockProps["clockType"] => {
switch (clockType) {
case "analogic":
case "digital":
return clockType;
default:
return "analogic";
}
};
/**
* Extract a valid enum value from a raw unknown value.
* @param clockFormat Raw value.
*/
const parseClockFormat = (clockFormat: unknown): ClockProps["clockFormat"] => {
switch (clockFormat) {
case "datetime":
case "time":
return clockFormat;
default:
return "datetime";
}
};
/**
* Build a valid typed object from a raw object.
* This will allow us to ensure the type safety.
*
* @param data Raw object.
* @return An object representing the clock props.
* @throws Will throw a TypeError if some property
* is missing from the raw object or have an invalid type.
*/
export function clockPropsDecoder(data: AnyObject): ClockProps | never {
if (
typeof data.clockTimezone !== "string" ||
data.clockTimezone.length === 0
) {
throw new TypeError("invalid timezone.");
}
return {
...itemBasePropsDecoder(data), // Object spread. It will merge the properties of the two objects.
type: ItemType.CLOCK,
clockType: parseClockType(data.clockType),
clockFormat: parseClockFormat(data.clockFormat),
clockTimezone: data.clockTimezone,
clockTimezoneOffset: parseIntOr(data.clockTimezoneOffset, 0),
showClockTimezone: parseBoolean(data.showClockTimezone),
color: notEmptyStringOr(data.color, null),
...linkedVCPropsDecoder(data) // Object spread. It will merge the properties of the two objects.
};
}
export default class Clock extends Item<ClockProps> {
public static readonly TICK_INTERVAL = 1000; // In ms.
private intervalRef: number | null = null;
public constructor(props: ClockProps, meta: ItemMeta) {
// Call the superclass constructor.
super(props, meta);
/* The item is already loaded and inserted into the DOM.
* The class properties are now initialized.
* Now you can modify the item, add event handlers, timers, etc.
*/
/* The use of the arrow function is important here. startTick will
* use the function passed as an argument to call the global setInterval
* function. The interval, timeout or event functions, among other, are
* called into another execution loop and using a different context.
* The arrow functions, unlike the classic functions, doesn't create
* their own context (this), so their context at execution time will be
* use the current context at the declaration time.
* http://es6-features.org/#Lexicalthis
*/
this.startTick(
() => {
// Replace the old element with the updated date.
this.childElementRef.innerHTML = this.createClock().innerHTML;
},
/* The analogic clock doesn't need to tick,
* but it will be refreshed every 20 seconds
* to avoid a desync caused by page freezes.
*/
this.props.clockType === "analogic" ? 20000 : Clock.TICK_INTERVAL
);
}
/**
* Wrap a window.clearInterval call.
*/
private stopTick(): void {
if (this.intervalRef !== null) {
window.clearInterval(this.intervalRef);
this.intervalRef = null;
}
}
/**
* Wrap a window.setInterval call.
* @param handler Function to be called every time the interval
* timer is reached.
* @param interval Number in milliseconds for the interval timer.
*/
private startTick(
handler: TimerHandler,
interval: number = Clock.TICK_INTERVAL
): void {
this.stopTick();
this.intervalRef = window.setInterval(handler, interval);
}
/**
* Create a element which contains the DOM representation of the item.
* @return DOM Element.
* @override
*/
protected createDomElement(): HTMLElement | never {
return this.createClock();
}
/**
* To update the content element.
* @override Item.updateDomElement
*/
protected updateDomElement(element: HTMLElement): void {
// Destructuring assigment: http://es6-features.org/#ObjectMatchingShorthandNotation
const { width: newWidth, height: newHeight } = this.getElementSize(
this.props.width,
this.props.height
);
if (this.props.clockType === "digital") {
if (this.meta.isBeingResized === false) {
super.resizeElement(this.props.width, this.props.height);
}
element.classList.replace("analogic-clock", "digital-clock");
} else {
if (this.meta.isBeingResized === false) {
super.resizeElement(newWidth, newHeight);
}
element.classList.replace("digital-clock", "analogic-clock");
}
element.innerHTML = this.createDomElement().innerHTML;
}
/**
* To remove the event listeners and the elements from the DOM.
* @override
*/
public remove(): void {
// Clear the interval.
this.stopTick();
// Call to the parent clean function.
super.remove();
}
/**
* @override Item.resizeElement
* Resize the DOM content container.
* @param width
* @param height
*/
protected resizeElement(width: number, height: number): void {
// Destructuring assigment: http://es6-features.org/#ObjectMatchingShorthandNotation
const { width: newWidth, height: newHeight } = this.getElementSize(
width,
height
);
// Re-render the item to force it calculate a new font size.
if (this.props.clockType === "digital") {
super.resizeElement(width, height);
// Replace the old element with the updated date.
//this.childElementRef.innerHTML = this.createClock().innerHTML;
} else {
super.resizeElement(newWidth, newHeight);
}
}
/**
* Create a element which contains a representation of a clock.
* It choose between the clock types.
* @return DOM Element.
* @throws Error.
*/
private createClock(): HTMLElement | never {
switch (this.props.clockType) {
case "analogic":
return this.createAnalogicClock();
case "digital":
return this.createDigitalClock();
default:
throw new Error("invalid clock type.");
}
}
/**
* Create a element which contains a representation of an analogic clock.
* @return DOM Element.
*/
private createAnalogicClock(): HTMLElement {
const svgNS = "http://www.w3.org/2000/svg";
const colors = {
watchFace: "#FFFFF0",
watchFaceBorder: "#242124",
mark: "#242124",
handDark: "#242124",
handLight: "#525252",
secondHand: "#DC143C"
};
const { width, height } = this.getElementSize(); // Destructuring assigment: http://es6-features.org/#ObjectMatchingShorthandNotation
// Calculate font size to adapt the font to the item size.
const baseTimeFontSize = 20; // Per 100px of width.
const dateFontSizeMultiplier = 0.5;
const dateFontSize =
(baseTimeFontSize * dateFontSizeMultiplier * width) / 100;
const div = document.createElement("div");
div.className = "analogic-clock";
div.style.width = `${width}px`;
div.style.height = `${height}px`;
// SVG container.
const svg = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "svg");
// Auto resize SVG using the view box magic: https://css-tricks.com/scale-svg/
svg.setAttribute("viewBox", "0 0 100 100");
// Clock face.
const clockFace = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
clockFace.setAttribute("class", "clockface");
const clockFaceBackground = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "circle");
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("cx", "50");
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("cy", "50");
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("r", "48");
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("fill", colors.watchFace);
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("stroke", colors.watchFaceBorder);
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("stroke-width", "2");
clockFaceBackground.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
// Insert the clockface background into the clockface group.
clockFace.append(clockFaceBackground);
// Timezone complication.
const city = this.getHumanTimezone();
if (city.length > 0) {
const timezoneComplication = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "text");
timezoneComplication.setAttribute("text-anchor", "middle");
timezoneComplication.setAttribute("font-size", "8");
timezoneComplication.setAttribute(
"transform",
"translate(30 50) rotate(90)" // Rotate to counter the clock rotation.
);
timezoneComplication.setAttribute("fill", colors.mark);
timezoneComplication.textContent = city;
clockFace.append(timezoneComplication);
}
// Marks group.
const marksGroup = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
marksGroup.setAttribute("class", "marks");
// Build the 12 hours mark.
const mainMarkGroup = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
mainMarkGroup.setAttribute("class", "mark");
mainMarkGroup.setAttribute("transform", "translate(50 50)");
const mark1a = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
mark1a.setAttribute("x1", "36");
mark1a.setAttribute("y1", "0");
mark1a.setAttribute("x2", "46");
mark1a.setAttribute("y2", "0");
mark1a.setAttribute("stroke", colors.mark);
mark1a.setAttribute("stroke-width", "5");
const mark1b = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
mark1b.setAttribute("x1", "36");
mark1b.setAttribute("y1", "0");
mark1b.setAttribute("x2", "46");
mark1b.setAttribute("y2", "0");
mark1b.setAttribute("stroke", colors.watchFace);
mark1b.setAttribute("stroke-width", "1");
// Insert the 12 mark lines into their group.
mainMarkGroup.append(mark1a, mark1b);
// Insert the main mark into the marks group.
marksGroup.append(mainMarkGroup);
// Build the rest of the marks.
for (let i = 1; i < 60; i++) {
const mark = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
mark.setAttribute("y1", "0");
mark.setAttribute("y2", "0");
mark.setAttribute("stroke", colors.mark);
mark.setAttribute("transform", `translate(50 50) rotate(${i * 6})`);
if (i % 5 === 0) {
mark.setAttribute("x1", "38");
mark.setAttribute("x2", "46");
mark.setAttribute("stroke-width", i % 15 === 0 ? "2" : "1");
} else {
mark.setAttribute("x1", "42");
mark.setAttribute("x2", "46");
mark.setAttribute("stroke-width", "0.5");
}
// Insert the mark into the marks group.
marksGroup.append(mark);
}
/* Clock hands */
// Hour hand.
const hourHand = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
hourHand.setAttribute("class", "hour-hand");
hourHand.setAttribute("transform", "translate(50 50)");
// This will go back and will act like a border.
const hourHandA = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
hourHandA.setAttribute("class", "hour-hand-a");
hourHandA.setAttribute("x1", "0");
hourHandA.setAttribute("y1", "0");
hourHandA.setAttribute("x2", "30");
hourHandA.setAttribute("y2", "0");
hourHandA.setAttribute("stroke", colors.handLight);
hourHandA.setAttribute("stroke-width", "4");
hourHandA.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
// This will go in front of the previous line.
const hourHandB = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
hourHandB.setAttribute("class", "hour-hand-b");
hourHandB.setAttribute("x1", "0");
hourHandB.setAttribute("y1", "0");
hourHandB.setAttribute("x2", "29.9");
hourHandB.setAttribute("y2", "0");
hourHandB.setAttribute("stroke", colors.handDark);
hourHandB.setAttribute("stroke-width", "3.1");
hourHandB.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
// Append the elements to finish the hour hand.
hourHand.append(hourHandA, hourHandB);
// Minute hand.
const minuteHand = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
minuteHand.setAttribute("class", "minute-hand");
minuteHand.setAttribute("transform", "translate(50 50)");
// This will go back and will act like a border.
const minuteHandA = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("class", "minute-hand-a");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("x1", "0");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("y1", "0");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("x2", "40");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("y2", "0");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("stroke", colors.handLight);
minuteHandA.setAttribute("stroke-width", "2");
minuteHandA.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
// This will go in front of the previous line.
const minuteHandB = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("class", "minute-hand-b");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("x1", "0");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("y1", "0");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("x2", "39.9");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("y2", "0");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("stroke", colors.handDark);
minuteHandB.setAttribute("stroke-width", "1.5");
minuteHandB.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
const minuteHandPin = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "circle");
minuteHandPin.setAttribute("r", "3");
minuteHandPin.setAttribute("fill", colors.handDark);
// Append the elements to finish the minute hand.
minuteHand.append(minuteHandA, minuteHandB, minuteHandPin);
// Second hand.
const secondHand = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "g");
secondHand.setAttribute("class", "second-hand");
secondHand.setAttribute("transform", "translate(50 50)");
const secondHandBar = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "line");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("x1", "0");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("y1", "0");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("x2", "46");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("y2", "0");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("stroke", colors.secondHand);
secondHandBar.setAttribute("stroke-width", "1");
secondHandBar.setAttribute("stroke-linecap", "round");
const secondHandPin = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "circle");
secondHandPin.setAttribute("r", "2");
secondHandPin.setAttribute("fill", colors.secondHand);
// Append the elements to finish the second hand.
secondHand.append(secondHandBar, secondHandPin);
// Pin.
const pin = document.createElementNS(svgNS, "circle");
pin.setAttribute("cx", "50");
pin.setAttribute("cy", "50");
pin.setAttribute("r", "0.3");
pin.setAttribute("fill", colors.handDark);
// Get the hand angles.
const date = this.getOriginDate();
const seconds = date.getSeconds();
const minutes = date.getMinutes();
const hours = date.getHours();
const secAngle = (360 / 60) * seconds;
const minuteAngle = (360 / 60) * minutes + (360 / 60) * (seconds / 60);
const hourAngle = (360 / 12) * hours + (360 / 12) * (minutes / 60);
// Set the clock time by moving the hands.
hourHand.setAttribute("transform", `translate(50 50) rotate(${hourAngle})`);
minuteHand.setAttribute(
"transform",
`translate(50 50) rotate(${minuteAngle})`
);
secondHand.setAttribute(
"transform",
`translate(50 50) rotate(${secAngle})`
);
// Build the clock
svg.append(clockFace, marksGroup, hourHand, minuteHand, secondHand, pin);
// Rotate the clock to its normal position.
svg.setAttribute("transform", "rotate(-90)");
/* Add the animation declaration to the container.
* Since the animation keyframes need to know the
* start angle, this angle is dynamic (current time),
* and we can't edit keyframes through javascript
* safely and with backwards compatibility, we need
* to inject it.
*/
div.innerHTML = `
<style>
@keyframes rotate-hour {
from {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${hourAngle}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
to {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${hourAngle + 360}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
}
@keyframes rotate-minute {
from {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${minuteAngle}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
to {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${minuteAngle + 360}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
}
@keyframes rotate-second {
from {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${secAngle}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
to {
${prefixedCssRules(
"transform",
`translate(50px, 50px) rotate(${secAngle + 360}deg)`
).join("\n")}
}
}
</style>
`;
// Add the clock to the container
div.append(svg);
// Date.
if (this.props.clockFormat === "datetime") {
const dateElem: HTMLSpanElement = document.createElement("span");
dateElem.className = "date";
dateElem.textContent = humanDate(date, "default");
dateElem.style.fontSize = `${dateFontSize}px`;
if (this.props.color) dateElem.style.color = this.props.color;
div.append(dateElem);
}
return div;
}
/**
* Create a element which contains a representation of a digital clock.
* @return DOM Element.
*/
private createDigitalClock(): HTMLElement {
const element: HTMLDivElement = document.createElement("div");
element.className = "digital-clock";
const { width } = this.getElementSize(); // Destructuring assigment: http://es6-features.org/#ObjectMatchingShorthandNotation
// Calculate font size to adapt the font to the item size.
const baseTimeFontSize = 20; // Per 100px of width.
const dateFontSizeMultiplier = 0.5;
const tzFontSizeMultiplier = 6 / this.props.clockTimezone.length;
const timeFontSize = (baseTimeFontSize * width) / 100;
const dateFontSize =
(baseTimeFontSize * dateFontSizeMultiplier * width) / 100;
const tzFontSize = Math.min(
(baseTimeFontSize * tzFontSizeMultiplier * width) / 100,
(width / 100) * 10
);
// Date calculated using the original timezone.
const date = this.getOriginDate();
// Date.
if (this.props.clockFormat === "datetime") {
const dateElem: HTMLSpanElement = document.createElement("span");
dateElem.className = "date";
dateElem.textContent = humanDate(date, "default");
dateElem.style.fontSize = `${dateFontSize}px`;
if (this.props.color) dateElem.style.color = this.props.color;
element.append(dateElem);
}
// Time.
const timeElem: HTMLSpanElement = document.createElement("span");
timeElem.className = "time";
timeElem.textContent = humanTime(date);
timeElem.style.fontSize = `${timeFontSize}px`;
if (this.props.color) timeElem.style.color = this.props.color;
element.append(timeElem);
// City name.
const city = this.getHumanTimezone();
if (city.length > 0) {
const tzElem: HTMLSpanElement = document.createElement("span");
tzElem.className = "timezone";
tzElem.textContent = city;
tzElem.style.fontSize = `${tzFontSize}px`;
if (this.props.color) tzElem.style.color = this.props.color;
element.append(tzElem);
}
return element;
}
/**
* Generate the current date using the timezone offset stored into the properties.
* @return The current date.
*/
private getOriginDate(initialDate: Date | null = null): Date {
const d = initialDate ? initialDate : new Date();
const targetTZOffset = this.props.clockTimezoneOffset * 1000; // In ms.
const localTZOffset = d.getTimezoneOffset() * 60 * 1000; // In ms.
const utimestamp = d.getTime() + targetTZOffset + localTZOffset;
return new Date(utimestamp);
}
/**
* Extract a human readable city name from the timezone text.
* @param timezone Timezone text.
*/
public getHumanTimezone(timezone: string = this.props.clockTimezone): string {
const [, city = ""] = timezone.split("/");
return city.replace("_", " ");
}
/**
* Generate a element size using the current size and the default values.
* @return The size.
*/
private getElementSize(
width: number = this.props.width,
height: number = this.props.height
): Size {
switch (this.props.clockType) {
case "analogic": {
let diameter = 100; // Default value.
if (width > 0 && height > 0) {
diameter = Math.min(width, height);
} else if (width > 0) {
diameter = width;
} else if (height > 0) {
diameter = height;
}
let extraHeigth = 0;
if (this.props.clockFormat === "datetime") {
extraHeigth = height / 8;
}
return {
width: diameter,
height: diameter + extraHeigth
};
}
case "digital": {
if (width > 0 && height > 0) {
// The proportion of the clock should be (width = height / 2) aproximately.
height = width / 2 < height ? width / 2 : height;
} else if (width > 0) {
height = width / 2;
} else if (height > 0) {
// The proportion of the clock should be (height * 2 = width) aproximately.
width = height * 2;
} else {
width = 100; // Default value.
height = 50; // Default value.
}
return {
width,
height
};
}
default:
throw new Error("invalid clock type.");
}
}
}
|
The Complete Short Stories: Volume One: Volume one by Roald Dahl (Paperback, 2012)
Brand new: lowest price
The lowest-priced brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable).Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item is handmade or was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag.See details for additional description.
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Get it by Tue, 15 Jan - Fri, 1 Feb from Norwich, United Kingdom
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The Complete Short Stories Volume One by Roald Dahl 9781405910101 (Paperback, 2003) Delivery Australian shipping is usually within 13 to 16 working days.
About this product
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Description
The Complete Short Stories of Roald Dahl in the first of two unsettling and sinister volumes. 'They are brutal, these stories, and yet you finish reading each one with a smile, or maybe even a hollow laugh, certainly a shiver of gratification, because the conclusion always seems so right' Charlie Higson, from his introduction. Roald Dahl is one of the most popular writers of the modern age, effortlessly writing for children and adults alike. In this, the first of two volumes chrologically collecting all his published adult short stories, we see how Dahl began by using his experiences in the war to write fiction but quickly turned to his powerful and dark imagination to pen some of the most unsettling and disquieting tales ever written. In 27 stories, written between 1944 and 1953, we encounter such classic tales as 'Man from the South', featuring a wager with appalling consequences; 'Lamb to the Slaughter', in which a wife murders her husband yet has a vel idea for throwing the police off the scent; and in 'The Sound Machine', the horrific truth about plants is revealed. Enter the sinister, twisted world of Roald Dahl: whether you're young or old, you'll never want to leave. 'Roald Dahl is one of the few writers I kw whose work can accurately be described as addictive' Irish Times 'The great magician' Spectator Look out for Volume Two, introduced by Anthony Horowitz Roald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults. These delightfully disturbing tales have often been filmed and were most recently the inspiration for the West End play, Roald Dahl's Twisted Tales by Jeremy Dyson. Roald Dahl's stories continue to make readers shiver today.
Author Biography
Sitting in a hut at the bottom of his garden, surrounded by odd bits and pieces such as a suitcase (used as a footrest), his own hipbone (which he'd had replaced) and a heavy ball of metal foil (made from years' worth of chocolate wrappers), Roald Dahl wrote some of the world's best-loved stories including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, The Witches, The BFG, Fantastic Mr Fox, James and the Giant Peach and lots more. |
What Are Ampakines? A Guide to the Best Types of Ampakine Nootropics
Home/What Are Ampakines? A Guide to the Best Types of Ampakine Nootropics
Ampakines belong to the category of nootropic compounds that enhance learning and memory and efficiently cure brain fog. They are molecules that stimulate α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)-type ionotropic glutamate receptors. The AMPA receptor subunits are distributed differentially in the brain and therefore different Ampakines can act on different regions of the brain as they exhibit subunit preference.
Stimulation of AMPA receptors by Ampakines results in enhancement of fast, excitatory transmission. Ampakines have been shown to slow deactivation and attenuate desensitization of AMPA receptor currents, and facilitate long-term potentiation (LTP). Ampakines also enhance production of neurotrophic factors such as Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).
These properties make Ampakines suitable for enhancing memory function. Those with cognitive disorders typically have impaired Glutamatergic transmission. Therefore, improvement of glutamatergic transmission by Ampakines can potentially correct these cognitive defects. Preclinical studies show that Ampakines have positive effects on various tests for memory and cognition. These early findings suggest that Ampakines can help overcome cognitive impairment and possibly serve as a substitute for Adderall. The potential benefits to neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and schizophrenia are what fuels research and development for Ampakines.
Side Effects of Ampakines
CNS hyperexcitability due to increased AMPA receptor activities is a potential side effect of Ampakines. Low-impact and high-impact are the two main classifications for Ampakines. Low-impact Ampakines may cause lower hyper-excitability compared to high-impact Ampakines. High-impact Ampakines are more potent, but low-impact offer a broader therapeutic window(1).
Overall, few side effects have been determined. Reports vary based on the Ampakine consumed and the individual. However, headaches, impaired episodic memory, and nausea are on the list of potential side effects of Ampakines. In some instances, you can reduce headache severity and frequency with choline supplementation. Commonly used and practical solutions are Huperzine A (an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor) and Alpha GPC, which works by enhancing acetylcholine synthesis.
Several types of Ampakines exist in the new world of brain boosting supplements. This post covers research on many of the Ampakines investigated in various models of cognitive impairment. We will discuss the underlying mechanisms of function of some of these Ampakines.
Sunifiram
Also known as DM235, Sunifiram is a nootropic smart drug, similar in structure to, and four times more potent than Piracetam. Sunifiram has been shown to enhance cognition in rodents partaking in the Morris water maze (MWM) or Morris water navigation task(2). Sunifiram at a concentration of 10 to 100 nM dramatically enhanced LTP via stimulation of the glycine-binding site of NMDAR(3) in mouse hippocampal slices.
In another study, it was found that Sunifiram improved cognitive deficits in olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) mice, an animal model of depression. It also enhanced LTP induction, and this effect was mediated by a glycine-binding site of N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) activity(4). Sunifiram also prevented amnesia induced by scopolamine using a passive avoidance test in mice(2). More information about this Ampakine is available in our Sunifiram review.
Unifiram
Unifiram or DM232 was found to produce results comparable to Sunifiram in animal studies. Like Sunifiram, Unifiram overcame memory disruption by scopolamine in the passive avoidance test(5). Unifiram also significantly reduced the total sleeping time induced by pentobarbital in mice in the same study.
CX-516 (Ampalex)
CX516 (Ampalex) is one of the AMPA modulators currently being developed by Cortex, collaborating with Shire and Servier. It could potentially treat schizophrenia, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. CX516 caused enhancement of performance in a spatial short-term memory task using delayed-nonmatch-to-sample (DNMS) task in rats, a task for measuring short-term memory(6). Another study demonstrated that CX516 ameliorates glutamatergic synaptic dysfunction caused by chloroquine-induced lysosomal disruption, which causes protein accumulation(7).
CX-546
CX546-treated organotypic hippocampal slices showed prolonged and enhanced potentiation upon LTP induction. CX546 improved the disrupted latent inhibition in mGluR5 knockout mice (a mouse model of schizophrenia) and facilitated latent inhibition in control(8). CX546 has also shown efficacy in other applications such as reversing the respiratory depression produced by sedative drugs such as opioids(9).
CX-614
In a study that examined the effect of CX614 on excitatory synaptic transmission, CX614 increased the field excitatory postsynaptic potentials, at very low concentration, in hippocampal slices. CX614 also increased the affinity of AMPA receptors for agonists such as [3H] Fluorowillardiine(10). It was also found to increase mRNA expression of BDNF in cultured hippocampal slices.
CX-691 (Farampator)
Farampator is more potent than CX516 in increasing the slope of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs) in rat hippocampal slices. Farampator potentiates AMPA receptor-mediated responses in vitro systems and enhances hippocampal long-term potentiation.
In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study using healthy elderly volunteers, 500 mg Farampator caused a significant improvement in short-term memory but appeared to impair episodic memory(11). In a rodent model, CX691 administered either in an acute manner or at sub-chronic level was found to attenuate impairment of cued fear conditioning caused by scopolamine. While acute CX691 increased dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex, and extracellular levels of acetylcholine in the dorsal hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex, sub-chronic administration of CX691 elevated BDNF mRNA expression in the hippocampus(12).
CX-717
CX717 was found to cause marked improvements in the performance of monkeys on a task where monkeys visualize a ‘clip art’ image on a computer and after a lag, are required to select it from a set of similar figures(13). CX717 was unable to enhance the cognitive abilities of humans presented with night shift work simulation(14) even though CX717 reversed impaired performance in sleep-deprived rhesus monkeys(15).
In a study involving the performance of control vs. cognitively deficient rats (using bilateral vestibular deafferentation), in an object recognition memory task and five-choice serial reaction time task (5CSRTT), CX717 reduced the number of incorrect responses in 5CSRTT in both sham and BVD rats. However, CX717 produced an unfavorable effect in the object recognition memory task(16).
LY-392098
A member of biaryl propyl sulfonamides, LY392098 is a highly potent, selective and centrally active, positive modulator of native AMPA receptors. In one of the studies, LY392098 enhanced the AMPA-evoked responses in prefrontal cortex neurons. Also, it also enhanced the affinity of the agonist for the receptors(17). LY392098 also caused a concentration-dependent increase in mRNA encoding BDNF(18).
LY-404,187
Both in-vitro and in vivo, LY404187 has been proven to enhance glutamatergic synaptic transmission. Examination of the different recombinant human homomeric AMPA receptors revealed that the activity of all subtypes of receptors was potentiated by LY404187 in a concentration-dependent manner.
At the molecular level, LY404187 increases cerebral glucose utilization and c-fos expression in the rat, providing the mechanistic basis for the cognitive enhancing effects of this Ampakine(19). LY404187 was also tested in rodent models of Parkinson’s disease(PD) and was found to provide protection (neurochemical and histological) against the unilateral infusion of 6-hydroxydopamine into the substantia nigra or striatum of rats, a compound widely used to lesion the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system as a model of PD.
LY-451646
LY451646 was found to have antidepressant-like effect in mice in a forced swim test, a widely used animal model of antidepressant action(20). Another study showed that LY451646 treatment increased progenitor cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, a region involved in learning and memory. This study shed some light on the underlying mechanism for the antidepressant-like activity of LY451646(21).
LY-503430
Similar to LY404187, LY503430 has also been found to provide dose-dependent functional and histological protection in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. The same study showed that LY503430 produced an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the substantia nigra and growth associated protein-43 (GAP-43) in the striatum.
IDRA-21
IDRA-21 enhances learning and memory in normal animals, both in rodent and primate studies. Oral administration of IDRA-21 improved performance in visual recognition memory in macaques(22). In another study, oral administration of IDRA-21 produced a highly significant improvement in the performance of a delayed matching-to-sample (DMST) task by young adult rhesus monkeys. IDRA-21 also improved task accuracy in aged rhesus monkeys(23).
S-18986
S18986 was found to reverse the memory deficit in aged mice but did not modify performance in young adult mice as measured by sequential alternation task, a useful tool to reveal age-induced time-dependent working memory impairments(24). S18986 also stimulated BDNF production in the neonatal brain(25). S18986 improved aged mouse performance in the test of long-term/declarative memory flexibility and exerted a beneficial effect on the short-term/working memory test(26).
A separate study showed that chronic, oral administration of S18986 increased locomotor activity and performance in a spatial memory task (Y-maze) in aged rodents. Also, chronic S18986 treatment retarded the decline in forebrain cholinergic neurons during aging, which is one of the pathological symptoms of Alzheimer's disease(27). S18986-1 was also evaluated on cognitive functions by using a one-trial object recognition test in rats. Oral administrations with S18986-1 before each session of the test had improved object recognition at dosages of 0.3 mg/kg or lower, which was ~30 times lower than the active dose of Aniracetam (10 mg/kg administered i.p) under the same conditions(28).
Org 26576
In a translational study(29), Org 26576 was found to produce inhibition of locomotor hyperactivity in 6-hydroxydopamine-lesioned rats. In treating ADHD symptoms of adult subjects, Org 26576 outperformed the placebo. Most frequently reported adverse effects of Org 26576 were nausea, dizziness, and headache. In a phase 1b trial, Org 26576 demonstrated good tolerability and pharmacokinetic properties in depressed patients(30). Org 26576 was also found to induce expression of BDNF in the hippocampus in the presence of stress during swim stress session(31).
A study evaluated the actions of subchronic Org 26576 administration on spatial reference memory performance in the 5-day Morris water maze task in rats. Org 26576 significantly improved spatial memory storage and retrieval and in particular enhanced search accuracy during reference memory retrieval(32). Furthermore, chronic administration of Org 26576 was found to increase progenitor cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus in the hypothalamus and prelimbic cortex(33).
Are Ampakines the future of cognitive enhancement?
Ampakines have delivered promising results in enhancing cognitive functions in preclinical studies in rodent and primate models, and in some cases, in human subjects. Thus, Ampakines are good candidates for the treatment of cognitive impairment related disorders, especially those with reduced level of glutamate-mediated excitatory stimulation including Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. There is currently no real world limitless pill like NZT-48, but ampakines have promising potential. Further studies are needed to understand how Ampakines affect brain functions and to determine the safety and efficacy of these drugs for long-term use. |
Starring:Video provided by:PrideStudiosVideo description: Juan Carlos has followed Van back into the locker room and he is obviously staring at the large bulge in Van's shorts. Van notices and asks what he is staring at. Juan Carlos asks what the fuck do you have in there and with that Van whips out his massive cock. Juan is shocked by the size, but cannot help but grab it and start stroking it. He can't believe how great the thickness of Vans shaft feels in his hands. He then drops to his knees and tries his best to suck his cock deep. He can barely get half of it in his mouth because of the massive thick size. He tells Van, 'Dude that is one Monster Cock'! Van lies down on the bench as Juan continues sucking and gagging on his thick meaty cock. Van tells Juan to show him his ass and he starts to finger his hole spitting on it as he gets it ready for his huge cock. He tells Juan to sit on it first and Juan struggles as he lowers himself down on Van's monster shaft. It takes a while, but he is able to get about half of it inside him as he grinds on it. Van bends him over Doggy Style and continues to fuck him encouraging him to take more of the length with each thrust. He flips him on his back and fucks Juan deeper until he cannot hold back and he pulls out and shoots a big load all over Juan. Juan continues to milk the cock in amazement that it was just in his ass as the camera zooms in and we see Juan take a little taste of Van's cum. |
This article is from the archive of our partner .
Eventually, as Godwin's law scholars are well aware, any online discussion will produce a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly expanded Godwin's reach to Snowmass Village, Colorado, on Saturday by dropping what sounds like a somewhat oblique reference to Nazi Germany to drive home a point he was making to the Utah State Bar Association against what opponents refer to as "judicial activism."
His talk, subtly titled, "Mullahs of the West: Judges as Moral Arbiters," shares a title with a headline-grabbing speech the justice gave in North Carolina last month. But unless everyone missed it the first time around, it looks like Scalia's talk in Colorado might have opened a bit more provocatively now that the Supreme Court's big decision on the Defense of Marriage Act is public. Here's what he said, according to the Aspen Times report on the otherwise overlooked event:
Scalia opened his talk with a reference to the Holocaust, which happened to occur in a society that was, at the time, “the most advanced country in the world.” One of the many mistakes that Germany made in the 1930s was that judges began to interpret the law in ways that reflected “the spirit of the age.” When judges accept this sort of moral authority, as Scalia claims they’re doing now in the U.S., they get themselves and society into trouble.
Scalia calls himself an "originalist," which he defined this weekend as believing that "texts should be read to mean what they were understood to mean when they were adopted." His pretty well-known frozen-in-amber take on constitutional interpretation pits him against anyone, including his fellow Supreme Court justices, who would read the Constitution in the context of changing times and societies. His ire for anything that he believes whiffs of judicial intervention on a moral or societal issue was in full force during his "argle bargle" dissent against the Supreme Court's decision to strike down part of the Defense of Marriage Act (but not, interestingly, during the court's decision to partially dismantle to Voting Rights Act, a decision he signed on to). Here's more from the Aspen Times, on what Scalia's talking about:
Scalia cited numerous issues that have been thrown to the courts — a woman’s right to an abortion, society’s right to execute someone for a crime, whether “homosexual sodomy” ought to be allowed — and claimed that judges are unqualified to answer them. Medical doctors, engineers, ethicists and even “Joe Six Pack” would be just as qualified as a legal professional to settle some issues that have come before the high court.
Then, Scalia pulled out what, based on repetition, might be one of his favorite jokes:
"I accept, for the sake of argument, that sexual orgies eliminate social tensions and ought to be encouraged,” he said, earning a few laughs from the Utah lawyers. “Rather, I am questioning the propriety, indeed the sanity, of having a value-laden decision such as that made for the entire society by unelected judges."
Unlike last month's very similar speech in North Carolina, which appeared to show the justice's hand on the then pending DOMA decision by the court, Scalia's reported remarks last weekend have gone pretty under the radar, partially because the exact wording of his reported Godwin moment doesn't seem to be out there yet. The Aspen Times report, which does not include a transcript, is the only original account of the speech we've seen so far.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire. |
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How to Transform Your $50 Amazon Fire Tablet To A More Of Stock Android (Without Rooting)
Amazon’s $50 Fire Tablet may be one of the best deals in tech—especially when it occasionally goes on sale for $35. It may feel limited, but with a few tweaks—no rooting necessary—you can turn it (and its larger, slightly more expensive brethren) into an almost-stock Android tablet perfect for reading, watching, and even light gaming.
Don’t get us wrong: Amazon’s 7″ tablet is hardly the best tablet on the market. Its display is pretty low resolution, it isn’t very powerful, and it only has 8GB of storage (though you can add a 64GB microSD card very cheaply). But for $50—$35 if you’re patient—it’s an absolutely killer deal, especially if you’re just using it for media consumption. In fact, it’s such a great deal, I feel guilty for having spent hundreds of dollars on an iPad when the Fire does most of what I need pretty well.
The biggest downside of the Fire tablet is Fire OS, Amazon’s modified version of Android. Amazon’s Appstore may have its advantages, but it doesn’t have near the selection of Google Play. And Fire OS is so loaded with ads and “special deals” notifications that most people would rather have something with true Android.
Not you, though. You are an intrepid tweaker, and you’re willing to hack your way to a stock-like Android experience on the Fire. And thankfully, it’s really easy to do—you don’t even need to root your device. This guide was written with the 7″ Fire Tablet in mind, but some will also work on the Fire HD 8 and other Amazon tablets.
Install the Google Play Store for More Apps
First things first: let’s get a real app store on this thing. Amazon’s Appstore is pretty weak, so if you want all the apps you’re used to on Android, you’ll need the full Google Play Store.
just download a few APK files, install them on your tablet, and you’re off to the races. You’ll have a full version of Google Play running on your Fire, complete with all the apps Amazon doesn’t have—including Chrome, Gmail and all your other favorite apps and games.
Get a More Traditional Home Screen Launcher
I actually like Amazon’s home screen, but if you prefer something more akin to stock Android—with the side-scrolling home screens, pop-up app drawer, and widgets—you can get that on your Fire Tablet with a little hack-y workaround.
Just download your launcher of choice—we recommend Nova Launcher—and grab the LauncherHijack APK from this page. Once you’ve installed both, head to Settings > Accessibility and enable “Turn On Detect Home Button Press” in Settings > Accessibility. The next time you press the home button, you’ll be greeted with Android’s familiar home screen, ready for you to add and arrange your shortcuts.
The best part about Nova Launcher is that you can hide apps from the app drawer—which means you can hide those pre-bundled Amazon apps you never use.
Tame Amazon’s Annoying Notifications
Tired of seeing constant notifications from Amazon’s “Special Offers” and other included apps? There’s a really simple fix, and it’s built right into Android. The next time you see a notification you don’t want, press and hold on it. Then, tap the “i” icon that appears.
You’ll be taken to a screen with a few different options. Pick what you want—I usually just “Block” notifications from that app—and you won’t be annoyed by them ever again.
In some cases—like the bundled Washington Post app—you can just uninstall the app completely, if you don’t use it. You can also check an app’s settings to see if it has options to turn off notifications. But Amazon’s Special Offers app does not offer either of these options, so blocking notifications from the Fire’s settings is really handy.
Get Rid of Amazon’s Ads
You can get the Fire Tablet without “Special Offers”, but it’s cheaper if you get it with Amazon’s ads built in. Apart from the notifications discussed above, Amazon’s ads aren’t too intrusive—you’ll mostly see them on the lock screen, instead of your wallpaper. But if you later decide you don’t want those ads at all, you can get rid of them.
Here’s the catch: you’ll have to pay for it.
Once upon a time, there was a simple way to block Amazon’s ads, but Amazon wised up and closed that loophole. So, if you want to truly block Amazon’s ads on the latest version of Fire OS, you’ll need to pony up the $15 to get rid of them Amazon’s way.
To do so, open a web browser and head to Amazon’s Manage Your Content and Devices page. Click the “Your Devices” tab, choose your device from the list, and next to “Special Offers / Offers and Ads”, click “Edit”.
From there, you can unsubscribe from ads on that device for $15.
Turn Off Amazon-Specific Features You Don’t Want
Apart from ads, the Fire also has a few Amazon-specific features that send annoying notifications and, in some cases, even eat up your bandwidth. So let’s go hunting.
Head to Settings > Apps & Games > Amazon Application Settings. Here, you can see all of Amazon’s extra Fire features they’ve added to Android. You can dig through these settings yourself, but I recommend tweaking the following:
Go to Home Screen Settings and disable Home Recommendations, Show New Items on the Home Page, and whatever other settings you want here. This will de-clutter the home screen a bit (that is, if you didn’t already switch to Nova Launcher.) The Change Home Page Navigation feature is a bit more stock Android-esque, too.
Go to Reader Settings > Push Notifications Sent to This Device and turn off whatever notifications you don’t want to see.
Go to Special Offers Settings and, if you haven’t paid to get rid of ads, you can turn off Personalized Recommendations if you find targeted ads creepy.
Go to Amazon Video Settings and turn off “On Deck”, which automatically downloads movies and shows that Amazon “recommends” without your permission. This will also stop it from sending you notifications about those movies and shows.
Those are the big ones, but feel free to root around these settings. Under Apps & Games, for example, you can also turn off “Collect App Usage Data” if you don’t want Amazon tracking how often and how long you use certain apps.
With all of these tweaks, that $50 tablet feels like it’s worth far more. Even if you pay $15 to get rid of ads and $20 for a 64GB microSD card, you’re still getting a full-fledged tablet—seriously, an actually usable Android tablet-–for well under $100. No matter what your budget is, that’s a pretty unbeatable deal. |
2017: The Gaming Stats
In a stellar year for gaming, all the major platforms have seen success, especially Nintendo who have taken centre stage with the release performance of their Switch console. It’s been officially named as the fastest selling console in the US since its release on March 3rd 2017 and as of December of the same year had sold 10 million units worldwide with 4.8 million of those being in the US alone. Since it’s release, the number of games available on the Switch has surged, with many original Nintendo properties making their way onto new or re-released adventures as well as a huge boost in indie developed ideas.
As of January 2018, Nintendo US released the following ranking for most played games on the Switch console:
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Super Mario Odyssey
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Splatoon 2
Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition
Stardew Valley
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
ARMS
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+
NBA 2K18
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 for Nintendo Switch
Fire Emblem Warriors
Lego City Undercover
Sonic Mania
Pokkén Tournament DX
1-2-Switch
FIFA 18
Disgaea 5 Complete
Rocket League
By comparison looking at PS4 Games ranking for the total number of Playstation Store Downloads: |
True multi-touch capability, up to 40 touch points at the same time. This technology provides high response rates with low latency up to 7m. The Multitouch frame works in ambient light. It is even possible to combine multiple frames to create a multi-panel on one PC, or use web cam motion technology. They are available in screens as large as 200’’ or even larger and, with additional touch points.
Digital Video Business Card
!!! ON SALE NOW !!! MAKE YOUR BUSINESS CARD INTO A REALITY We can now make your business card, folder, brochures etc into something more. Once the business card opens the video plays when closes it turns off. Charge it and change your media with a USB cable anytime. Battery has been known to last almost 8 months depending on usage. PRICES STARTING AS LOW AS $10.95ech Touch screen is optional
Tangible Tables & Objects
Have fun with your touch screen by using tangible objects with tangible software. Ask about modified software that will make your touch table or kiosk look like a futuristic state of the art touch screen. Sizes start at 32inch to 200inches |
It's time for Australia to speak up against Israel crimes
Adam Paul Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens and federal MP for Melbourne: In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced and lost their homes, and many were killed. Since that time we have seen pervasive human right abuses committed against Palestinians. (Thursday, May 14, 2020) |
The International Agatha Christie Festival 2015
Agatha Christie
The International Agatha Christie Festival is celebrating the 125th anniversary of the author’s birth in great style. The programme of events really does have something for everyone. The festival begins on Friday, 11th September with a vintage festival launch party at the Grand Hotel, Torquay and continues with a cornucopia of interesting and varied things to do and see until Sunday, 20th September.
There are Agatha Christie themed walks around Torquay as well as talks with guest speakers including Kate Adie covering many aspects of Christie’s life and times. The Princess Theatre is performing Agatha Christies’ “ Then there were none”. At Torre Abbey visitors will find the International Agatha Christie Festival ‘hub’. The entrance ticket will provide access to the house, gardens and Book Tent as well as a free programme of daily activities and a very special newly curated exhibition ‘Agatha Christie: Unfinished Portrait.’
Ticketed events will also be held in The Spanish Barn at Torre Abbey, The Grand Hotel, The Imperial Hotel, the Princess Theatre, the Palace Theatre, The Little Theatre, Torquay Museum, Cockington Court, Greenway (National Trust), Churston Church and Oddicombe Beach.
For those seeking creative inspiration there will also be a professionally led workshop programme for aspiring writers of all ages. The organisers will shortly be adding a map showing quirky quieter spaces in which visitors can do their own writing or simply read and watch the world go by. For a full list of events and more details of venues and times, visit the festival website.
French author and food writer Anne Martinetti invites you to join her in Agatha Christie’s very own kitchen at Greenway to hear about – and sample – some of the 80+ recipes she has created, based on dishes mentioned in the Queen of Crime’s novels and published in the cookbook Crèmes & Châtiments (Creams and Punishments). To book tickets please visit www.agathachristiefestival.com
An evening of exclusive access to the House and grounds after the crowds have departed. Begin your evening with sparkling wine and canapés, followed by a fascinating tour with one of the extraordinarily knowledgeable volunteers.
This is no ordinary ball. This is The Greenway Ball, taking High Society inspiration from Agatha Christie’s The Yellow Iris. Sure to be one of the English Riviera’s social highlights of the year and raising funds to support the National Trust’s on-going conservation of the place that was Agatha Christie’s much-loved holiday retreat for almost 40 years. |
Ad hoc trending is a feature that is in development for the upcoming release of PI Vision 2019. This feature will support selecting data from displays to add to an ad hoc trending workspace for analyzing data and investigating issues on the fly. |
Friday, August 4, 2017
Tomorrow is "Not Always What It Seems"
I know that it has been a couple days since I posted anything. In fact, the last few days have been insane, between going to the county fair, one of the best concerts I have ever seen (Bouncing Souls, Dropkick Murphys, and Rancid), and going through tech week and dress rehearsal for the play, Not Always What It Seems.
Fortunately, all that handwork with the play will soon be visible. Honestly, I can't believe that tomorrow, the actors will hit the stage at the State Theater in Uniontown for the first 10-Minute Play Festival with The Phoenix Arts Center. Once they begin, it won't be long until my first written stage play closes the show.
This has been a major accomplishment in my writing career and it is a story that should resonate with much of the audience. Over the past few weeks, I have been able to watch the cast grow and the performances are riveting. The way the cast works together and feeds off each other is something that I could have never imagined when I first wrote the script.
The festival is scheduled for 7 o'clock on Saturday, August 5th and 2 o'clock Sunday, August 6th. On a side note, I am still waiting on the cover design and layout of my first fiction novel, After the Static, but I am sure that will be finished soon. After that, my epic poem, Salvation, written as a NaPoWriMo project may be finished as well.
Until then, I will continue to push forth with the reviews, and who knows, possibly even write another play. |
Antibiofilm efficacy of green synthesized graphene oxide-silver nanocomposite using Lagerstroemia speciosa floral extract: A comparative study on inhibition of gram-positive and gram-negative biofilms.
Biofilm architecture provides bacteria with enhanced antibiotic resistance, thus raising the need to search for alternative therapies that can inhibit the bacterial colonization. In the present study, we synthesized graphene oxide-silver nanocomposite (GO-Ag) by non-toxic and eco-friendly route using a floral extract of Legistromia speciosa (L.) Pers. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of plant extract revealed the presence of compounds which can simultaneously act as reducing and capping agents. The sub-inhibitory concentrations of synthesized GO-Ag reduced the biofilm formation in both gram-negative (E. cloacae) and gram-positive (S. mutans) bacterial models. Growth curve assay, membrane integrity assay, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) revealed different mechanisms of biofilm inhibition in E. cloacae and S. mutans. Moreover, quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) results suggested GO-Ag is acting on S. mutans biofilm formation cascade. Biofilm inhibitory concentrations GO-Ag were also found to be non-toxic against HEK-293 (human embryonic kidney cell line). The whole study highlights the therapeutic potential of GO-Ag to restrain the onset of biofilm formation in bacteria. |
[Familial coincidence of hypertrophic cardiomyopathies and thyroxine-binding globulin deficiency (athyropexinemia) (author's transl)].
A twenty-five year old man was found to have simultaneous total deficiency of thyroxine-binding globulin ("thyropexin") and hereditary hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM). The thyroxine-binding capacity (RT3U), thyroid hormone levels, PB127I, PB131I and TBG (RIA) in serum were very low and TBG cap was zero. Trapping of radioiodine in the thyroid was enhanced. Clinically, the patient appeared euthyroid. The case seems to be similar to another one described earlier by Ingbar. An investigation of the family showed that in one uncle and two nephews of the patient thyropexin was absent whilst the mother, one sister and one female cousin had partial thyropexin deficiencies. One of these nephews also suffers from asymmetric septal hypertrophy (ASH), the mother of the propositus has a non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). |
Call for Native American artists, 2019 Artesian Arts Festival
The 6th Annual Artesian Arts Festival is seeking applications from Native American artists for the 2019 festival. The festival takes place every year in Sulphur and celebrates Native American fine art and artists.
Open to the public at no charge, the Artesian Arts Festival welcomed nearly 10,000 visitors to last year’s festival. Esteemed artists from around the nation representing more than 20 Native American tribes from 10 states participated in the 5th Artesian Arts Festival.
The Artesian Arts Festival takes place at the Artesian Plaza, located adjacent to the Artesian Hotel and Spa, 1001 W. First St., Sulphur.
Application forms, entry rules and additional information can be found on the Chickasaw Nation website at Chickasaw.net/ArtesianFest
For more information, please contact the Chickasaw Nation Division of Arts & Humanities Division at (580) 272-5520 or email [email protected].
About the Artesian Arts Festival
Hosted by the Chickasaw Nation, the Artesian Arts Festival spotlights prominent Native artists from across the country and celebrates Native American fine art.
A vast selection of visual art including paintings, basketry, jewelry, sculpture, metalworking, beadwork, textiles and pottery are featured at the Artesian Arts Festival.
A wide variety of musical entertainment, tribal dance demonstrations, art talks and food vendors is also planned, as well as a special area for children’s activities and an elders’ art market.
Open to the public at no charge, the Artesian Arts Festival welcomed nearly 10,000 attendees to last year’s festival. Accomplished artists representing more than 20 tribes from 10 states participated. |
2019 ENTRANT'S RULES
1. This competition is open to Tradelink Pty Limited Trade Account customers, staff and their immediate families only (at participating Branches).
2. All Entrants must be registered with their local participating Branch. Registration forms must be completed and Entrant's Fees paid in full prior to an
Entrant's access being activated to their online tipping page without exception.
3. The Entrant's Fee per person is fifty five dollars ($55), GST exempt. This amount is to be paid in cash OR charged against the
Entrant's Trade Account upon registration (no deferred payments will be accepted).
4. Entrant's Fees will go into the Branch Competition Cash Pool for the local Branch at which
they are registered.
5. Entrant's Fees are not refundable under any circumstances.
6. The Total Branch Cash Pool is accumulated. 90% of this pool is used for Final Cash Prizes at the end of the season; the remaining 10%
will contribute towards Special Rounds and Final Leader prizes. The total cash pool will be divided for the Final Cash
Prizes as follows: First - 50%; Second - 25%; Third - 15%;
Example:
A Branch Cash Prize Pool with 20 entrants will have a total cash pool of $1,100 to be split:
First receives $550 (50%)
Second receives $275 (25%)
Third receives $165 (15%)
Other prize contribution $110 (10%)
7. In the event that a winner/s of a prize is unable to be contacted within 30 days of
the end of the competition the prize will be awarded to the Entrant who achieves the next highest position.
8. All Final Cash Prizes will be paid by cheque in the winner's name managed by the Tradelink Pty Limited National Marketing Department. Entrants must
ensure full name, address details and a contact phone number are provided to the Branch at time of registration.
9. All tips must be registered on the Footy Fever website before the start of each game
10. Tips cannot be altered after Shutoff Time indicated above. Tips must be placed online by entrant or staff member as requested by the entrant.
11. Entrants that fail to register tips prior to a game's Shutoff Time will be automatically allocated 0 (zero) points for that game.
12. Split Rounds (i.e. Rounds played over more than one week) will count as one Round. Tips may be placed as normal at the start of each game.
13. The Branch Manager or nominated Branch Footy Fever Coordinator will mark up the weekly scores from each Round on the progressive Scoreboard displayed
in the Branch.
14. Normal Competition Rounds - One (1) point is awarded for each winning team tipped or in the case of a draw two (2) points will be
awarded if the game is a draw and is tipped by the entrant.
15. The judge's decision is final at all times. The judge is the Tradelink
Pty Limited Head of Marketing.
16. An Entrant may register several times, however the fee remains $55 (GST exempt) for each registration.
17. An Entrant may register after the competition has started, up until 30 June 2018, but must pay the full fee of $55 (GST exempt). Late entrants will be
allocated points to the equivalent of the lowest total points accumulated by an Entrant, in the respective Branch Competition, up to that point in which
they registered.
18. These terms and conditions must be adhered to throughout the competition. Entry into the Footy Fever competition is deemed acceptance of these terms and conditions.
19. Tradelink Pty Limited, its suppliers and any of their contractors and agents will not be liable for any loss, damage, personal injury or death
whatsoever (including, but not limited to, direct, indirect or consequential losses) or for personal injury which is suffered or sustained by the Entrant,
its officers, employees, directors, contractors, agents or any other
person, or otherwise suffered or sustained in connection with participating in this competition, as a result of purchasing any goods, or any act or
omission (whether negligent or not) of Tradelink Pty Limited or its suppliers, contractors or agents or any person associated with any of them, except
for any liability which cannot be excluded by law.
20. If for any reason this competition is not capable of running as planned (including by reason
of but not limited to) technical failures, unauthorised intervention, fraud or any other causes
beyond the control of Tradelink Pty Limited, or which corrupts or affect the administration, security, fairness, integrity or proper conduct of this
competition, Tradelink Pty Limited reserves the right in its sole discretion, subject to any written directions given by State government authorities,
to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the competition. |
Donald Trump's attacks on Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly may not be letting up anytime soon if this weekend's confirmation is any indication. On Saturday, Trump claimed that Kelly was "biased" and said that she should not be allowed to host the network's next Republican primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, which is slated just days ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. In response, Fox declared in a statement late Saturday that Kelly would moderate the GOP debate regardless of Trump's objections.
"Megyn Kelly has no conflict of interest," the network wrote. "Donald Trump is just trying to build up the audience for Thursday’s debate, for which we thank him."
Earlier in the day, GOP front-runner Trump had taken to his official Twitter account to lay into the anchor and question her credibility as a moderator. "Based on @MegynKelly's conflict of interest and bias, she should not be allowed to be a moderator of the next debate," Trump wrote. The billionaire mogul's latest statements come months after network officials confirmed to The Los Angeles Times that Kelly would be moderating the January event with co-hosts Bret Baier and Chris Wallace once again, following a stellar showing at the GOP's first primary debate on August 6.
It's not the first time in recent weeks that Trump has gone after Kelly. On Jan. 11, following the release of the anchor's Vanity Fair cover story, the Republican candidate posted a scathing tweet, targeting Kelly's appearance and her appeal with the opposite sex.
".@megynkelly recently said that she can’t be wooed by [me]," Trump wrote, citing Kelly's comments to Vanity Fair's Evgenia Peretz, in which she indicated that the mogul's early attempts to gain favor in the conservative media had had no effect on her as a journalist. "She is so average in every way," he added, "who the hell wants to woo her[?]"
Based on @MegynKelly's conflict of interest and bias she should not be allowed to be a moderator of the next debate.
For the most part, Trump's barrage of critiques seem to stem all the way back to Kelly's initial turn as moderator at August's debate; At the time, Kelly had questioned Trump on his record with women, pressing him about distasteful comments he had previously made.
"You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals [... and] you once told a [woman] on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees," Kelly challenged, citing Trump's previous tweets about Rosie O'Donnell, Ariana Huffington, and contestants on his former reality show. "Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president [...]?"
While Trump waved off the comments during the debate, his response in the days that followed conveyed a much angrier sentiment. "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, Blood coming out of her wherever," Trump told CNN's Don Lemon of Kelly's line of questioning a few days later, following up his comments with several questionable tweets in the same vein. However, while Trump's comments did draw the ire of many, his poll numbers remained largely fixed. |
Citlalli Ortiz Grabs First Win of Women’s Youth World Championships
Day two of the 2017 Women’s Youth World Championships in Guwahati, India brought two members of Team USA into the ring looking to advance one step closer to a world title.
Welterweight Citlalli Ortiz (Coachella, Calif.) grabbed Team USA’s first win of the championships with a split decision victory over Nadezhda Ryabets of Kazakhstan. She will return to the ring on Wednesday, Nov. 22 for a quarterfinals match-up against
The second American in today’s field, middleweight Sharahya Moreu (Albuquerque, N.M.), fell short of taking the judges card over Russian Anastasiia Shamonova.
Tomorrow the remaining six members of Team USA will make their tournament debut, including 2015 Junior World Champion Heaven Garcia (El Monte, Calif.) The other five boxers will all be making their international debuts.
Head Coach Billy Walsh (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Kay Koroma (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Jeff Mays (San Antonio, Texas) are guiding the American delegation in India. This year’s tournament has brought 160 boxers from 31 different countries looking to take one of the ten World titles up for grabs. |
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It will surprise no one to know that Raffi Torres has been suspended, but we won't find out for how long until Friday.
Torres has been suspended indefinitely following his crushing hit on Marian Hossa in Game 3 of the Coyotes' first-round series with the Blackhawks on Tuesday night. Torres was set to meet with the NHL on Wednesday, but that in-person hearing will be pushed back until Friday at the request of Torres and the NHLPA.
Torres will be forced to sit out Game 4 set to take place Thursday.
A much longer ban could be coming for Torres, who has a checkered history. Torres has been suspended twice in just over the last year. That includes a two-game suspension for a similar hit on Minnesota's Nathan Prosser, in which Torres left his feet and connected with a shoulder to Prosser's head. His elbow to Jordan Eberle's head last season also earned him a four-game suspension.
The fact that Hossa needed to be carried off the ice on a stretcher won't help Torres' case, either, as the NHL factors injuries into the decision-making process as well. |
St. Petersburg, FL -- As you get ready to pack a lunch for the day, here's a cancer-fighting food to add to your diet.
Mangoes are a sweet treat that are packed with antioxidants. These antioxidants can clear the body of free radicals. Free radicals are harmful molecules that can trigger some forms of cancer and heart disease.
Researchers at Texas A&M University found part of the fruit may limit an inflammatory response in both cancerous and non-cancerous breast cells. Mangoes can be incorporated into salsa, salads -- even champagne! |
The Commonwealth Games - The Joy Of Whingeing
The summer of televised
sport drew to a close last night and the green ink complainers will
now have to select some other topic to act as the focus of their ire.
The displacement the sport has caused to the TV schedules had become
the principle source of furious letters from those that regulate
their lives by repeats of Cash in the Attic.
They are differentiated
from those doing the running and jumping by their bellies sticking
out more than their bums do. Both groups were red in the face.
For those of us who
were interested in the action, the athletes were playing games, the
audience was playing follow-the-coverage.
The whiners must be the
reason why any event shown by the BBC this summer was impossible to
follow unless you were unemployed and had nothing at all to do for
the day. Trying to record a competition shown by the Beeb was like
chasing house flies. They would say: “This event will now continue
on BBC2, while on BBC1 we will show you another chance to see some
carefully preserved character effortfully value some old tat that a
Doris, or a Sidney has just blown the dust off."
The letters of fury the
timorous television bods must get when any change is made to the
soothing soup of daytime television schedules must be the reason they
switched coverage, mid-hurdle from one channel to the next and back
again.
That, and a misplaced
sense that The News must not be moved for anything, so the event you
were trying to record was shifted to another channel to make way for
the bulletin that summarised the event you were trying to record. And
all so they would get fewer complaints. Well, I'd like to complain...
The one event that was
not shifted about like a wrestler's jock strap was the closing
ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, featuring a collection of
countries that Britain holds so little sway over that it seemed like
a meeting of human rights refuseniks.
Lulu started the
evening off with something of a bang. Quite surprisingly youthful,
pert and forceful for someone who must be...(just working it
out)...from the Pleistocene Era. She belted out “Shout” and
seemed in full possession of all of her vocal chords and star
wattage.
All about, on the field
there was something with tents, like an introductory lesson on
camping in inclement weather. Those athletes that did not have
engagements with their sponsors, huddled together round the stage for
warmth in the Glaswegian summer evening.
There followed drawn
out speeches that might have sounded fine in front of the bedroom
mirror of the grandees' complimentary hotel rooms, but were so long
that they bordered on rude for the hopping crowd of twitching
athletic muscle that were raring to go on the pitch.
From a lectern that
looked like a TV station logo from the 1980's, one man in particular,
His Royal Highness Prince Tunku Imran of Malaysia, a country that
could show North Korea a thing or two about human rights abuses,
droned on for what seemed an age. It was torture. He sucked up the
approval of the crowd whenever he said how great Glasgow was, which
was often, as though the applause was for himself, rather than the
people doing the applauding.
He was clearly not used
to being interrupted and commandeered the stage for so long that
those around were visibly ageing, apart from Lulu, who continued to
get younger.
The Australians took
the baton and presented us with a perfectly nice singing lady over
which the BBC captioned the message that we did not have much time to
wait for Kylie Minogue. That has to be one of the rudest, most
unthinking things that you could do to a performer.
She sang in front of a
team who moved TV screens back and forth to make shapes that
perfectly framed the changing images shown on them. This was maximal
use of minimal budget. It was such a simple, brilliant effect that it
was surprising that no-one had done it before. Perhaps they had and I
hadn't seen it. It will certainly be repeated by others until it
delights no more.
More speechifying
followed and then The Scrunching Of The Flag. The Commonwealth
standard was borne aloft through the athletes collected on the field
who, in their enthusiasm, managed to screw it up like a used tissue.
It was then “folded” and passed to a matronly lady, like a
student on his first visit home from college would dump his laundry
in his mother's hands.
There was a film of
forthcoming attractions at the next Games, which will be held in the
sun kissed, surfer paradise that is the Gold Coast of Australia. This
had the effect of making Glasgow appear even bleaker and greyer than
it actually is, which is very.
After much trailing and
promises that we would not have to wait much longer, Kylie took to
the stage. A cold, detached, nasally Madonna impersonator with worse
songs and less personality. The backing dancers looked like they had
stepped off the set of an S&M remake of the film Tron. The best
you could say of her performance was that she was singing live. No
backing tape could have sounded that bad.
In a flourish of
inexpensive fireworks, it was over. No more World Cup, no more
Wimbledon and no more Commonwealth games. What are the complainers
going to whine about now? |
“Spring Media is a broadcast rights agency with one key objective — to bring value to our clients. Dedication, accuracy and reliability are cornerstones in Spring Media’s approach to existing and new projects. No event is too small if we see commercial potential, and no event is too big if we can add value,” said Marcus Alm, head of operations at Spring Media.
“We chose MX1 to be our main service provider and partner for global distribution of our content due to its team’s expertise, expansive global network, cost-effectiveness and smooth service that keeps our clients happy. Based on the success of this project, I see the relationship between MX1 and Spring Media to continue for years ahead.”
The bi-annual tournament was held in the Taekwondowon facility in Muju, South Korea. With an estimated 80 million taekwondo practitioners around the world, it is a truly global and popular sporting event.
MX1 was tasked with securely distributing live coverage of the tournament via satellite and IP to CDNs worldwide. MX1’s cloud-based playout service and distribution network provided global reach, allowing the Korean content owners and TV channels to gain a competitive edge in the wider marketplace.
“This isn’t the first major sporting event that we’ve distributed from Korea and it won’t be the last. Beyond the 2017 Taekwondo Championships, we’ve also powered broadcast delivery of EPL, NFL, NBA, PGA and LPGA, as well as Turkish Games to and from the country,” said Brendon Woo, managing director, MX1 Korea.
“We’re thrilled to support the global distribution needs of Spring Media, and look forward to engaging with other Korean sports organisations, federations, broadcasters and right holders to support all of their content delivery needs.” |
Healthy Tip of the Week (HTW): August 14-August 20
HTW #79: August is National Immunization Month - Are you up to date with your shots? Adults should still get a tetanus booster shot every ten years to prevent disease. Check with your doctor to see if you are up to date with all of your shots! |
## [v5.8] not yet released
## [v5.7] published on 2020-09-13
### Added
- Modern Hindu calendar (algorithmic) [#851]
- Stems and branches of month and day in Chinese calendar [#910]
- Getting time of day when shadow length is known [#890]
### Fixed
- Invalid combination of stems and branches not documented [#912]
- United Kingdom date format [#908]
- Package `net.time4j.calendar.hindu` not exported for jigsaw [#906]
## [v5.6] published on 2020-05-31
### Added
- Old Hindu calendar [#892]
- Local variant data for Hijri calendar [#888]
- Getter for observer zone id in `SolarTime` and `LunarTime` [#904]
- Support for Duration.in(Collection<? extends Unit>) [#899]
- Support for Swiss German (Schwyzerdütsch) [#895]
- Let TimeSource deliver current Instant [#884]
- Make PatternType.CLDR_DATE being applicable on PlainDate [#889]
### Deprecated
- `HijriCalendar.VARIANT_ICU4J` scheduled for future removal [#905]
### Fixed
- NPE in deserializing of SolarTime and LunarTime [#901]
- Build problem: More tolerant double comparisons in astro tests [#886]
- Incorrect sign in last term of calculation of mean lunar anomaly [#891]
- Documentation example in SolarTime outdated [#902]
## [v5.5] published on 2019-11-04
### Added
- Reversible time metric [#881]
- Coptic calendar for JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#882]
### Deprecated
- Rename the terms "standard offset" and "daylight-saving-offset" in related methods [#874]
### Fixed
- Document that Hebrew calendar starting at 18:00 is an approximation for sunset [#873]
## [v5.4] published on 2019-05-25
### Added
- Localized stream of weekdays [#871]
- Current calendar week with generic parameters [#870]
- Anomalistic month (apogee/perigee of moon) [#859]
- FULL_DAY-instance in ClockInterval [#867]
- Support for Kurdish (ku) and Somali (so) languages [#866]
- More translations for Badi calendar [#862]
- More translations for new Japanese era REIWA [#860]
### Changed
- Update to CLDR v35.1 [#863]
### Fixed
- Improved approximated normalization of durations [#869]
- Zero clock hour not tolerable in smart parsing [#868]
- Plural rules for Marathi and Nepali are wrong [#865]
- Smart parsing of protected space char [#864]
- Printing of weekdays in Bahai calendar broken [#861]
## [v5.3] published on 2019-04-16
### Added
- Badi calendar (Bahai) [#798]
- Documentation of calendar view customization in JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#857]
### Changed
- New Japanese Nengo "Reiwa" [#840]
- More flexible dynamic patterns [#854]
## [v5.2] published on 2018-12-21
### Added
- Easier truncation of durations with any arbitrary units [#850]
- Easier calculation of Chinese holidays [#844]
- Ethiopian calendar for JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#843]
- New static factory method for astronomical seasons based on a moment [#841]
- Custom duration separators in `PrettyTime` [#839]
### Fixed
- Handle Sindhi and Uyghur as right-to-left [#847]
- AstronomicalSeason fails for years like 999_999_999 [#842]
## [v5.1] published on 2018-11-20
### Added
- Support for languages Assamese, Sindhi and Tongan [#834]
- Generic calendar formatting with regional calendar preference [#833]
- Localized representation of ISO calendar week [#832]
- Formatting relative times like "last Monday" or "next Friday" [#733]
### Changed
- Make parsing month names slightly more tolerant in smart mode [#837]
- Update to CLDR 34 [#831]
## [v5.0] published on 2018-10-23
### Added
- Time arithmetic in class GeneralTimestamp [#810]
- Support tzdb-time-switches out of range T00:00/T24:00 [#825]
- New random()-methods in IsoInterval-subclasses [#827]
- New methods Temporal.isBeforeOrEqual() and Temporal.isAfterOrEqual() [#826]
- New interval class for calendar years, quarters, months or weeks [#822]
- Formatted representation of Years, Quarters, Months and weeks [#824]
- Make enums Month, Weekday and Quarter to operators for PlainDate [#819]
- Enhance duration comparators [#816]
- Partitioned streams in TimestampInterval [#814]
- Easy summing up a stream of durations [#812]
- Simplify bridge chronology accessors in basic types [#811]
- Platform-Timezone now delegates to `ZoneId.systemDefault()` [#805]
- Text elements formattable by help of string converter [#799]
- Extend formattability of extreme integer element values [#797]
- Resolve locale no-NO-NY to nynorsk [#788]
### Changed
- Simplify/Rename some interval factory methods [#821]
- Remove confusing method `ZonalClock.currentMoment()` [#817]
- Improved handling of negative DST-offsets [#742]
- Simplify generic formatter API [#813]
- Remove all deprecated stuff [#524]
- Improve conversion of Windows zones to IANA [#785]
- Move class `AnnualDate` to main package [#787]
- Move class `MachineTime` to main package [#609]
- Replace `ResourceBundle` in module environment [#786]
- Automatic module names (for Java-9) [#784]
- New modular structure [#525]
- `StartOfDay` now uses `CalendarDate` in abstract method [#655]
- Interface `ChronoPrinter` without checked exceptions [#526]
- Renaming of abstract method in `DayPartitionRule` [#815]
### Fixed
- Ensure that big year numbers with 10 digits can be printed [#792]
- SimpleInterval.Factory is wrong about open or closed interval boundaries [#823]
- CalendarWeek.of(GregorianMath.MAX_YEAR, 52) aborts [#820]
- Mismatch between getMinimumSinceUTC and transform for some historic calendars [#808]
- Fix for narrow era names which had been incomplete [#809]
- Fix for changing `JapaneseCalendar.MONTH_AS_ORDINAL` [#807]
- NPE-Fix for loading time zone based on system time zone identifier [#803]
- NPE-Fix for premature assignment of system time zone [#802]
- Wrong day-of-year in HebrewCalendar [#800]
- Rethrow undocumented ArithmeticException as IllegalArgumentException [#791]
- Wrong days-since-UTC after transform in Hijri adjustment [#789]
## [v4.38] published on 2018-05-18
### Added
- Support Kabyle language [#782]
- Show tomorrow and yesterday words in PrettyTime [#781]
### Fixed
- Arithmetic overflow of int-results in JulianCalendar.Unit.between(...) [#775]
- Incorrect translation of "M" pattern in JulianCalendar formatter [#776]
- Same exit and arrival of sun/moon in sign of Scorpius [#778]
## [v4.37] published on 2018-05-11
### Added
- Zodiac constellations and signs [#765]
- Empty date intervals [#771]
- Allow more temporal types for use with Duration.toTemporalAmount() [#769]
- New interface describing equatorial coordinates [#764]
- Static validation method for calendar weeks [#766]
### Changed
- Update some resources to CLDR 33 [#774]
### Deprecated
- Replace/Remove `SolarTime.Calculator.declination(double)` [#772]
### Fixed
- Right ascension of moon position should be in range 0-360 [#770]
- Use automatic fallback to worldwide locale in WindowsZone [#763]
## [v4.36] published on 2018-03-24
### Added
- Reverse engineering of windows zone names [#756]
- Normalization of timezone identifiers [#756]
- Support Asturian language (ISO-639: ast) [#757]
- Convenience week elements for Hebrew calendar [#758]
- Support of Hebrew calendar in JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#759]
- Support of Julian calendar in JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#760]
### Fixed
- Make astronomical calculations possible with leap seconds disabled [#761]
## [v4.35] published on 2018-03-07
### Added
- Traditional Chinese calendar [#396]
- Dangi calendar (Korean) [#722]
- Vietnamese lunar calendar [#641]
- Cyclic year used in East Asian calendars [#638]
- Juche calendar (North Korea) [#748]
- Stream-methods in MomentInterval [#743]
- Shadow length of objects with specified height [#754]
- Increase displayed precision of moon illumination [#747]
- Convenience constants for calendar-specific week elements [#753]
- Bounded calendar-week-elements in CommonElements [#738]
- Optimize chronological extensions during parsing [#749]
- Improved localization for French Rev. calendar [#741]
### Fixed
- Weekmodel.ISO.boundedWeekOfMonth().atFloor() not working as expected [#750]
## [v4.34] published on 2018-01-15
### Added
- Extra features for StdSolarCalculator.CC [#731]
- Search for moon phase at or after a moment [#730]
- Traditional Chinese now recognizes hant-script in locale [#728]
### Changed
- Allow negative DST-offsets [#735]
- Update leap second expiry date [#734]
### Fixed
- date.getMaximum(<week-related-element>) can crash near end of timeline [#732]
## [v4.33] published on 2017-12-18
### Added
- Moon rise/set [#704]
- Calculation for azimuth/elevation of Sun and Moon [#723]
- Positions of Sun and Moon in terms of right ascension and declination [#716]
- Make right ascension of sun accessible [#715]
- Determine min/max-range of possible lunations [#720]
- Convenience combination of operators atFloor() and newValue() [#721]
### Changed/Deprecated
- HebrewMonth.Order.BIBILICAL contains a typo [#714]
- Four methods in SolarTime loose the day information [#724]
### Fixed
- StdSolarCalculator.CC has integer-division-error [#725]
- Class SolarTime normally expects LMT-dates not zoned dates [#719]
- JulianDay misses definition of serialVersionUID [#727]
## [v4.32] published on 2017-11-26
### Added
- Hebrew calendar [#528]
- Hebrew time [#708]
- Hebrew birthdays and yahrzeit [#707]
- Constants of solar time for Jerusalem and Mecca [#711]
- Support unicode extensions fw and rg [#712]
- Add Odia (Oriya) language [#709]
- More flexible numberings of enums in formatting [#706]
- Update to CLDR v32 [#690]
- Conversions to/from old java.util.Calendar + java.util.TimeZone [#705]
### Changed
- Optimize ZoneNameProviderSPI [#713]
## [v4.31] published on 2017-10-20
### Added
- Moon phases [#676]
- Illumination of moon [#702]
- Historic calendar [#698]
- New SolarTime.Calculator based on Dershowitz/Reingold [#701]
- Static factory ChronoHistory.from(variantString) [#697]
- Extended support for always-intervals [#695]
- Generic calendar intervals [#675]
- TimeLine-enhancement [#675]
- Julian centuries with J2000-epoch [#693]
- Document which unicode-ca-extensions are supported [#699]
### Changed
- German names of French Republican calendar months [#692]
- Prevent calling some SolarTime.Builder-methods twice [#691]
- Refine altitude-dependent calculation of solar time [#689]
### Fixed
- Unicode-ca-support not available for HijriCalendar [#700]
- ChronoHistory.month()-annotation is incomplete [#696]
### Deprecated
- Constants in SolarTime.Calculator marked for removal [#701]
- Make surrounding()-method in MomentInterval consistently using APIs [#694]
## [v4.30] published on 2017-09-25
### Added
- New hemisphere-related methods in astronomical classes [#688]
- Unit simulating Joda-behaviour for month-based durations [#687]
### Changed
- Parsing of "AM" or "PM" for all locales [#684]
- Changes to CalendarUnit.keepingEndOfMonth() and atEndOfMonth() [#679]
- Clarify meaning of IntervalCollection [#677]
- Empty intervals should not be added to interval collection [#678]
### Fixed
- Zone name parsing should use string-prefix-matching [#686]
- Duration parser tolerates trailing chars [#682]
- Conversion of Time4J-Duration to temporal amount sometimes broken [#680]
### Deprecated
- Rename PlainTime.ISO_HOUR to HOUR_FROM_0_TO_24 [#685]
## [v4.29] published on 2017-09-10
### Added
- Support for sunrise / sunset - calculations [#663]
- Static validation methods for calendars [#666]
- Twilight definition [#667]
- Sunset as start-of-day (for islamic calendar etc) [#668]
- Simplified version of JulianDay [#670]
- Easy conversions from general intervals to ISO-intervals [#671]
- Intervals surrounding any moment [#672]
### Changed
- Improve calculation of equation of time [#665]
### Fixed
- Conversion of Duration to Java-8 broken if fractional seconds occur [#669]
- French revolutionary calendar not serializable [#664]
## [v4.28] published on 2017-07-28
### Added
- French Revolutionary Calendar [#615]
- New formatter method 'getPattern()' [#662]
- Support for or-logic during printing [#661]
- Prevent escaping of Z-literal in format patterns [#658]
- Easy conversion between MachineTime and JSR-310 [#660]
- Conversion methods for Weekday and Month [#657]
- Direct parse-methods for Weekday, Quarter and Month [#656]
- Weekday-in-month in non-iso-calendars [#653]
- Alternative calculations for PersianCalendar [#634]
- Calculation of astronomical seasons [#628]
- Support for apparent solar time [#633]
- Support for Julian Day Number [#527]
- Implement timescales TT and UT1 [#93]
### Changed
- Redefine value space and epoch of TAI [#652]
### Deprecated
- Make PatternType-API fit for more calendars [#659]
- Prepare StartOfDay-change for next major release [#655]
## [v4.27.2] published on 2017-04-29
### Fixed
- Setting the number system via nu-extension in locale broken [#650]
## [v4.27] published on 2017-04-28
### Added
- Japanese imperial calendar [#560]
- Indian national calendar (Saka) [#642]
- Custom day adjustments on HijriCalendar [#649]
- Make pivot-year for two-digit-years calendar-specific [#643]
- Support for Japanese numbers [#639]
- Improve text resource handling [#626]
- Method nowInSystemTime() for `AnnualDate` and `EthiopianTime` [#646]
- Enable calendar lookup by names [#614]
- Make transformation between calendar dates easier [#648]
### Fixed
- DAY_OF_WEEK-element in some calendars inconsistent [#644]
- Clarify usage of Ethiopian eras [#636]
- TransitionHistory.getPreviousTransition() has improper description [#637]
- Roundtrip of print/parse during zone offset overlap fails [#635]
- Converting geo longitude to ZonalOffset crashes [#632]
## [v4.26] published on 2017-03-27
### Added
- Add ALWAYS-constant to DateInterval [#630]
- Assignment of values to intervals [#629]
- Make zone offset calculation for geo-longitude more precise [#622]
- Enable text-lookup for non-enum elements in formatting [#618]
- Support for Ewe language [#625]
### Fixed
- NPE in IntervalTree containing interval with infinite end [#627]
- ZonalDateTime.toString() should not contain UTC-literal [#623]
## [v4.25] published on 2017-02-22
### Added
- More convenient access to platform timezone data [#616]
### Fixed
- Improve and fix parsing of decimal elements [#617]
## [v4.24] published on 2017-02-06
### Added
- Stream support for fixed calendar intervals [#613]
- New HolidayModel-interface [#487]
- New streaming method for DateInterval with exclusion [#610]
- Support unicode-nu-extension in formatting and parsing [#611]
- Static from(GregorianDate)-factories for partial calendar classes [#600]
- New stream- and counting methods for class LeapSeconds [#608]
- Support different time-scales in formatting and parsing moments [#607]
- Duration conversion to clock units including days [#605]
- Make parsing of ambivalent zone informations easier [#603]
### Changed
- Adjust leap second expiry date [#601]
### Fixed
- Invalid CalendarWeek throws wrong exception [#612]
- equals-contract for ChronoFormatter including zone elements broken [#604]
## [v4.23] published on 2017-01-08
### Added
- Support for Breton (br), Faroese (fo), Western Frisian (fy), Scottish Gaelic (gd), Luxembourgish (lb) [#599]
- Support for generic timezone names [#491]
- Reduce buffer allocation when printing numbers [#598]
### Fixed
- ChronoFormatter.formatToBuffer() should be optimized [#597]
## [v4.22] published on 2017-01-03
### Added
- Add formatting/parsing to class MachineTime [#593]
- Enable or-logic when parsing durations [#592]
- Ensure 4 digit-years in date style patterns [#591]
- Dozenal numbering system [#596]
- Document how to handle wrong platform tz-data on Android [#589]
- Make styled formatters sensible for change of locale [#586]
### Fixed
- Max-calculation for week-of-year sometimes broken [#595]
- RFC-1123-formatter must support northamerican zones [#594]
- MultiFormatParser tolerates trailing characters [#590]
- BridgeChronology: Some format patterns are not runnable [#588]
- BridgeChronology: Some formatters cannot be built [#587]
## [v4.21] published on 2016-12-03
### Added
- Interval search tree [#575]
- Generic interval type for arbitrary foreign types [#578]
- Enable open start of intervals [#584]
### Changed
- Simplify parsing of trailing characters [#576]
### Fixed
- Fix for pattern sanity check [#583]
- Regression: Misleading error message [#581]
- Clarify documentation of AdjustableElement.atFloor() and .atCeiling() [#580]
- Ambivalence parsing check sometimes faulty [#577]
- Unicode-BIDI-chars should not be parsed in context of ISO [#574]
## [v4.20] published on 2016-11-01
### Added
- JavaFX-CalendarPicker [#561]
- Open ChronoFormatter for external types [#556]
- Add some convenient methods around day partition rules [#563]
- Week calculations for non-ISO calendars [#562]
- Add convenient methods to PrettyTime [#559]
- New method nowInSystemTime() also for CalendarXYZ-types [#557]
- Splitting of interval-collections [#571]
- New method `isDisjunct()` in class IntervalCollection [#572]
- New PatternType.DYNAMIC [#567]
- Support span of weekdays [#568]
- Bridge chronologies for AnnualDate, CalendarYear and CalendarMonth [#566]
### Fixed
- Years in far future should not require a positive sign [#569]
- Document pattern order in case of or-logic applied [#558]
### Changed
- Add simple sanity checks for cldr-format patterns [#565]
- Update resources to CLDR v30.0.2 [#570]
### Deprecated
- Specialized threeten-methods outdated due to a more general approach [#556]
## [v4.19] published on 2016-09-18
### Added
- Add historic centuries [#507]
- Add rounding support for MachineTime.dividedBy(long) [#546]
- Simple way needed to add MachineTime<SI> to a moment [#547]
- Add some alternative numbering systems [#550]
- Add active filter to DayPartitionBuilder [#552]
- Add convenient methods to determine current system time [#553]
### Fixed
- PUSH-FORWARD-strategy is not suitable for intervals [#545]
- NPE in Timezone.getDisplayName(...) [#548]
- Improved literal parsing in localized tz-offset [#549]
- Byte-order-marks in UTF8-resources not recognized [#551]
### Deprecated
- One division method in MachineTime without rounding parameter [#546]
## [v4.18] published on 2016-08-28
### Added
- Stream support for ISO-intervals [#537]
- Recurrent intervals as defined in ISO-8601 [#488]
- Add localized display names for `ChronoElement` [#515]
- Support for annual dates [#514]
- Improved documentation of HijriCalendar [#518]
- Add general parse methods for dates in ISO-8601-format [#520]
- Iso8601Format....WALL_TIME now understands T17:45 [#521]
- Embedded formatter should know outer format attributes and defaults [#522]
- 4 new methods findXYZTransiton(...) to TransitionHistory [#523]
- ChronoFormatter.Builder should define default values and global attributes [#531]
- Add convenient methods to ChronoPrinter and ChronoParser [#532]
- Make printing of ISO-formats configurable [#533]
- New date-interval-method to convert to a moment interval [#534]
- Implement reduced ISO-formats for intervals [#535]
- Improve formatting of infinite intervals [#536]
- New interval boundary manipulations based on operators [#538]
- Determine first moment for given calendar date in time zone [#539]
- Add method to determine intersection interval [#542]
- Enable parsing of literals with leading digits after numerical elements [#544]
### Fixed
- Prescan phase of iso interval parser sometimes incorrect [#530]
- AM/PM-element not sensible for output context [#529]
- Inconsistent TimeSpan-behaviour of negative MachineTime [#540]
- Inconsistent exception handling of with()-methods [#541]
- Optimization of day-of-week-queries and date arithmetic in `PlainDate` [#543]
### Changed
- New leap second at end of year 2016 [#517]
- Make fractional second parser more tolerant [#519]
### Deprecated
- 1 method in TextProvider deprecated due to missing output context [#529]
- 1 methods in TransitionHistory deprecated and replaced by new better named method [#523]
- 1 method in ChronoPrinter deprecated and replaced by new methods [#532]
- 1 parse method in each of four iso-interval classes replaced by new one without ParseLog-parameter [#535]
- 1 print method in IsoInterval (replaced by a new one with extra infinity style arg) [#536]
## [v4.17] published on 2016-06-20
### Added
- Add conversion of net.time4j.Duration to TemporalAmount [#511]
- Enhance Temporal-interface by more comparison methods [#510]
- Introduce class for year-week-combination [#508]
- Introduce class for year-month-combination [#503]
- Introduce class for year-quarter-combination [#504]
- Model calendar year as date interval [#505]
- Add timespan classes Years, Quarters, Months and Weeks [#506]
- Better support for week-based durations and units [#509]
### Fixed
- Duration measured in millis only is broken [#513]
- Zone offset without sign - should be parseable in lax mode [#502]
## [v4.16] published on 2016-05-07
### Added
- Related gregorian year for non-gregorian calendars [#370]
- Make MachineTime comparable [#489]
- Modern-coverage of languages defined in CLDR [#367]
- Support for Uyghur [#496]
- Support for Malayalam [#493]
- Support for Basque, Galician and Welsh [#494]
- Support for Esperanto [#495]
### Fixed
- Make alias zone identifiers always parseable [#500]
- Improve performance of parsing timezone names [#499]
- Clarify format behaviour if zoneless types are combined with zone names [#490]
### Changed
- Split `ZoneProvider` into `ZoneModelProvider` and `ZoneNameProvider` [#498]
- Update to CLDR version 29 [#492]
## [v4.15] published on 2016-04-18
### Added
- Add convenient abuts-method to IsoInterval [#486]
- Add boolean query to determine if two intervals intersect [#485]
- Add Thai solar calendar (Suriyakati) [#478]
- Fine-tuning of historization [#479]
- Clarify that PlainDate is historizable [#448]
### Fixed
- OR-operator logic in ChronoFormatter sometimes broken [#482]
- Fix and improve documentation of era manipulations [#481]
### Deprecated
- Deprecate usage of CalendarEra.getValue() [#480]
## [v4.14] published on 2016-03-23
### Added
- Enable unparseable characters to be skipped when parsing [#476]
- Add ChronoFormatter.withDefaultSupplier(...) [#470]
- Move SQL-support to core-module [#471]
- Add SQL-support for type TIMESTAMP WITH TIMEZONE [#472]
- Historic year definition (example Easter style in France) [#473]
- More detailed error message when parsing ZonalDateTime [#467]
- Support for Kirghiz [#474]
### Fixed
- Make resolving zone names more robust [#469]
- Calculus Pisanus does not work in parsing [#466]
## [v4.13] published on 2016-03-06
### Added
- Make ZonalDateTime easier for creation and comparison [#462]
- Calculation of Easter (Computus) [#460]
- Support for Telugu language [#459]
- Add element support for historic day-of-year [#456]
### Fixed
- TimezoneRepositoryProviderSPI throws NPE [#464]
- Refine localized calendar history in Europe [#461]
- PlainTime.toString() does not display fraction of second as per spec [#465]
- Make Timezone.ofSystem() more robust against weird zone ids. [#463]
- Don't permit negative years for any historic era [#458]
- Clarify/correct exception behaviour of new year strategies [#457]
- Reduce array allocation during parsing [#455]
## [v4.12] published on 2016-02-14
### Added
- Proleptic Julian calendar [#444]
- Add Roman numerals [#443]
### Fixed
- Unit-between-arithmetic broken for Persian, Coptic and Ethiopian calendar [#453]
- Improve overall performance [#450]
- Text resources for am-pm are mismatched (in non-iso-calendars) [#452]
- Add equals/hashCode-support for platform formatter [#451]
- Prohibit use of Ethiopian hour with PlainTime [#449]
- Code example in documentation of MultiFormatParser is incomplete [#446]
## [v4.11] published on 2016-01-22
### Added
- Two new approximation normalizers based on max unit only [#442]
- Add pattern-based factory method to ChronoFormatter for any chronology [#441]
- Introduce or-operator in formatting via builder and pattern [#437}
- Add other historic eras [#436]
- Support for various historical New Year events [#434]
- Define convenient methods for creating intervals using JSR-310-types [#433]
- Date arithmetic on HijriCalendar [#429]
- New methods `withVariant(...)` on CalendarVariant [#428]
- Dual parsing of embedded or standalone formats [#427]
- Dedicated MultiFormatParser [#426]
- Support for Indian languages gu, kn, mr, pa, ta [#439]
- Support for Burmese (my - Myanmar) [#438]
### Fixed
- Unable to print java.time.chrono.MinguoDate with Time4J [#440]
- Setting proleptic julian history on formatter is ignored [#435]
- Semantic of changing historic era in ChronoHistory unclear [#430]
### Changed
- Update leap second expiry date to 2016-12-28 [#431]
## [v4.10] published on 2015-12-31
### Added
- Fixed and flexible day periods with appropriate translations [#369]
- Minguo calendar (Taiwan) [#390]
- Enable localized digits in timezone offsets [#411]
- New getters for day-of-week and day-of-year in PlainDate [#416]
- Query parsed raw data for any registered elements [#415]
- New method CalendarText.getIsoInstance(Locale) [#410]
- New methods CalendarText.patternForXYZ(...) [#410]
- Support for Nepali [#422]
- Support for Mongolian [#421]
- Support for Afrikaans and Zulu [#420]
- Support for the languages Khmer and Lao [#419]
### Fixed
- PersianCalendar in Farsi language should be with arabext numbers [#425]
- Bidi literals (LRM, RLM, ALM) should be ignored in parsing [#418]
- Formatting Ethiopian time with AM/PM-marker is not in western style [#413]
- Parsing of Ethiopic tabot names broken if not at end of text [#412]
### Deprecated
- EthiopianCalendar.getYearOfEra() deprecated and renamed to getYear() [#417]
- CalendarText.getGMTPrefix [#410]
- CalendarText.getFormatPatterns() [#410]
- CalendarText.getTimestampPattern [#410]
## [v4.9] published on 2015-11-30
### Added
- Support for Bengali [#409]
- Ethiopian time should support element PlainTime.COMPONENT [#408]
### Fixed
- HijriAlgorithm calendar variant broken [#407]
- Broken javadoc links to some serial forms [#406]
- British date format should be in order DMY [#403]
### Removed
- Tidy deprecated elements [#404]
## [v4.8] published on 2015-11-22
### Added
- Support for Sinhalese [#402]
- Print relative times for java.time.Instant [#392]
- Add Ethiopian calendar and time [#389]
- Enable formatting/parsing moments using another calendar [#399]
- GeneralTimestamp should implement ChronoDisplay [#401]
- Add Coptic calendar [#388]
- Support for triennal julian leap years [#393]
### Fixed
- Ensure that parsing raw data does not resolve anything [#400]
- Compile problem with text elements in ChronoFormatter.Builder [#398]
- plus/minus(CalendarDays) does not document any exception [#397]
- Arithmetic overflow in ChronoHistory [#391]
### Changed (updated/removed/deprecated)
- New method ChronoMerger.getDefaultStartOfDay() [#399]
- Refactor handling of two exotic format attributes [#395]
- Hide internal format attributes of ChronoHistory [#394]
## [v4.7] published on 2015-10-22
### Added
- New style-based factory methods for ChronoFormatter [#376], [#377]
- Repository for localized date-time-patterns [#100]
- Support for Amharic (am) [#387]
- Support for Swahili (sw) [#386]
- Support for Uzbek (uz), Turkmen (tk) and Kazakh (kk) [#385]
- Support for Armenian (hy), Azerbaijani (az) and Georgian (ka) [#384]
- Support for Filipino (Tagalog - fil or tl) [#380]
- Support for Icelandic (is) and Malta language (mt) [#375]
### Fixed
- Improved parsing of MSK timezone name [#381]
- Negative duration in Arabic sometimes without minus sign [#379]
- ChronoFormatter.format()-methods lack type safety [#378]
### Changed
- Better translations for various countries (mainly arabic and french) [#383]
- Better translations for Spanish locales in Latin America [#368]
- Simplify interface ChronoMerger by using Java-8 default methods [#382]
- Two ChronoFormatter.format()-methods renamed [#378]
- Low-level interface ChronoMerger with new method [#377]
- Review plural rules [#366]
- Update i18n-data to CLDR-28 [#374]
- Change ISO-8601-fallback-mechanism to CLDR standard [#373]
- FormatPatternProvider.getDateTimePattern() with 3 args [#100]
### Removed
- FormatPatternProvider.DEFAULT [#100]
## [v4.6] published on 2015-10-01
### Added
- Formatting/parsing of intervals based on custom interval patterns [#359]
- Canonicalization of interval boundaries [#365]
- New Persian calendar [#357]
- Support for Pashto language [#358]
- Support for Turkish islamic calendar (Diyanet) [#355]
### Fixed
- Non-overridden format attributes should be preserved [#364]
- Enable parsing of timestamps with 24:00 even in strict mode [#363]
- 2015-10-25T02:00+01:00[Europe/Berlin] cannot be parsed [#361]
- Wrong between-calculation with overflow units [#360]
- Pattern letter "L" causes exception for non-iso-dates [#354]
### Changed
- Behaviour of interval formatting/parsing changed [#359]
- Make serialization of HijriCalendar versionable [#356]
### Removed
- Interface ExtZoneProvider (no usage) [#371]
## [v4.5] published on 2015-09-15
### Added
- Support for Malay language [#353]
- Unify CalendarVariant and Calendrical by new interface CalendarDate [#350]
- New XOR-operator for interval collections [#347]
- Make PatternType.CLDR useable for non-iso-dates [#348]
- New calendar-related class GeneralTimestamp [#340]
- New intersect-operator for interval collections [#345]
- New method IntervalCollection.getRange() [#344]
- PrettyTime.printRelativeOrDate() using PlainDate [#343]
- Moment-class with a new precision element [#342]
- Add plus/minus-operators for IntervalCollection [#339]
### Fixed
- Disable parsing of ambivalent text forms [#351]
### Changed
- Rename unit pattern resource file names [#352]
- CalendarVariant and Calendrical changed Temporal-signature [#350]
- Two specialized now()-methods in ZonalClock changed the return type [#340]
- IntervalCollection.union() should create a merged collection [#338]
## [v4.4] published on 2015-08-31
### Added
- Support for algorithmic variants of islamic calendar [#334]
- Create direct option to determine length of Hijri month or year [#337]
- Add toDate() and toTime() in PlainTimestamp [#336]
- New method(s) for printing durations with 1 parameter only [#333]
- Create option to either print relative time or normal date-time [#328]
- Print relative times with abbreviations [#327]
- I18n-support for "yesterday", "today", "tomorrow" [#310]
### Fixed
- Printing relative time near a leap second incorrect [#332]
- Behaviour of timezone-offset-parser inconsistent with spec [#330]
- Time-axis-element not fully supported [#329]
### Changed
- ISO-formatters need to be strict by default [#331]
## [v4.3] published on 2015-08-12
### Added
- Umalqura calendar for Saudi-Arabia (experimental) [#313]
- Start-of-day-feature, relevant for current date in islamic calendar [#323]
- New pattern type for generic date chronologies [#324]
- New pattern type CLDR_24 with support for ISO-hour in range 0-24 [#314]
- Convenient method `printRelativeInStdTimezone(moment)` for `PrettyTime` [#311]
- New transformation methods for calendrical objects [#318]
- Introduce calendar families with day calculations [#315]
### Fixed
- Remove unnecessary warning message in ChronoFormatter [#312]
### Deprecated
- Interface `ExtZoneProvider` no longer used
### Changed
- Narrow value-type of BasicElement to Comparable [#321]
## [v4.2] published on 2015-06-26
### Added
- Generic clock-based creation of any `ChronoEntity` [#303]
- Add clock-methods `inPlatformView()` [#304]
- Register `PlainTime.PRECISION` in `PlainTimestamp` [#306]
- Improve adjacent digit parsing of 4-digit-years [#307]
- Language support for Irish (ga) [#309]
### Fixed
- Merger-factories for clock-based objects of basic types too lenient [#302]
- Don't cache system timezone in SystemClock.inLocalView() [#305]
- Threeten-pattern uu does not work [#308]
## [v4.1] published on 2015-06-11
### Added
- Monotonic clocks (main new feature) [#295]
- Add generic ordinal weekday-in-month [#297]
- Queries for dst+raw-offsets in `Timezone` [#288]
- Language support for Belorusian (be), Hebrew (he, iw), Bosnian (bs) [#290, #292, #294]
### Fixed
- `LeapSeconds.enhance(unixTime)` does not follow spec [#296]
- Version-compatibility-bug in tzdata-1.2-2015d [#298]
## [v4.0] published on 2015-05-25
- First release of version line v4.x, represents a fork of Time4J for the sake of interoperability with Java-8.
|
Q:
Merge multiple text files as one CSV file
I have couple of files which contain data like this:
file1.txt
abc
def
hij
file2.txt
def
abc
qlm
file3.txt
def
lop
tmn
desired output:
mergedfile.csv
file1 file2 file2
abc def def
def abc lop
hij qlm tmn
A:
Python Documentation CSV File Reading and Writing
For instance, lowest memory footprint:
import io, csv
fieldnames = [file1, file2, file3]
with io.open(csv_file, 'w', newline='') as fh_csv, \
open(file1) as fh1, \
open(file2) as fh2, \
open(file3) as fh3:
writer = csv.writer(fh_csv, delimiter='\t')
writer.writerow(fieldnames)
while True:
out = []
for fh in [fh1, fh2, fh3]:
out.append( fh.readline().strip('\n') )
if all(out):
writer.writerow(out)
else:
break
Output:
file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
abc def def
def abc lop
hij qlm tmn
Tested with Python:3.4.2
|
HTC is gearing up to announce the Windows Phone version of the One M8, but before that we're treated to an interesting rumor. The bootloader of the HTC W8, as its purportedly called, supports the Windows Phone and Android versions of the device.
In practice, this means that the HTC One M8 can be flashed with Windows Phone 8.1 and vice versa.
HTC is going to announce its latest Windows Phone on August 19. It is expected to be a Verizon exclusive initially, and then launch globally.
HTC's upcoming Windows Phone is should feature a Snapdragon 801 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, microSD card slot and 5" full HD display. If the rumors pans out to be true, we might be looking at an upcoming modern version of the legendary HTC HD2.
HTC's event is scheduled for August 19 in New York.
Source |
Bookmarks Toolbar separate from Speed Dial
Hi everyone, I think bookmarks toolbar should be separated from Speed Dial. For example one of the most common usage of bookmark toolbar is [b]removing the description in order to expand the usable area (with using just icons). When I remove the titles, it applies it to Speed Dial to because of they use the same source.[/b] Beside this, thanks a lot to the dev team for creating this beautifully look, clean & modern browser. Surely it is going to be my default browser in the future. All the best, Talha |
The Homeland Security Department announced new security measuresWednesday for international flights bound to the United States.
Industry and U.S. officials briefed on the announcement saidairlines flying directly to the United States will be required to implement theenhanced measures. If they don’t, their passengers may be barred from carryinglaptops and other large electronics in passenger cabins.
Advertisement
Such a laptop ban has been in place at 10 airports in the MiddleEast and Africa since March amid concerns about an undisclosed threat describedonly as sophisticated and ongoing. The ban applies to nonstop flights to theUnited States from Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddahand Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and AbuDhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The roughly 50 affected flights are onforeign airlines.
The new policy will provide a roadmap for airlines and airportsthat could lead to those bans being lifted. Neither official provided atimeline for compliance. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to discuss the changes publicly before the governmentannouncement Wednesday afternoon.
The government had been considering expanding the laptop ban toinclude some European airports. The new measure sidetracks those plans, thoughthey could resurface if airlines don’t comply with the new guidelines.
The changes comes after the Transportation SecurityAdministration said this month that it is testing computed-tomography, or CT,scanning at one checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
The technology is already used for screening checked luggage,but the cost and larger size of the CT scanners has held back their use forcarry-on bags. TSA had expected to begin testing CT scanners for carry-onluggage by the end of 2016. |
<?php
/**
* PHPUnit
*
* Copyright (c) 2002-2010, Sebastian Bergmann <[email protected]>.
* All rights reserved.
*
* Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
* modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
* are met:
*
* * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
*
* * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
* notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
* the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
* distribution.
*
* * Neither the name of Sebastian Bergmann nor the names of his
* contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
* from this software without specific prior written permission.
*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
* "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
* LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
* FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
* COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
* INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
* BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
* LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
* CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
* LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
* ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
* POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*
* @category Testing
* @package PHPUnit
* @author Sebastian Bergmann <[email protected]>
* @copyright 2002-2010 Sebastian Bergmann <[email protected]>
* @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php BSD License
* @link http://www.phpunit.de/
* @since File available since Release 3.2.0
*/
require_once 'PHPUnit/Util/Log/PMD/Rule/Project.php';
require_once 'PHPUnit/Util/Log/PMD/Rule/Function.php';
require_once 'PHPUnit/Util/Filter.php';
PHPUnit_Util_Filter::addFileToFilter(__FILE__, 'PHPUNIT');
/**
*
*
* @category Testing
* @package PHPUnit
* @author Sebastian Bergmann <[email protected]>
* @copyright 2002-2010 Sebastian Bergmann <[email protected]>
* @license http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php BSD License
* @version Release: 3.4.9
* @link http://www.phpunit.de/
* @since Class available since Release 3.2.0
*/
class PHPUnit_Util_Log_PMD_Rule_Project_CRAP extends PHPUnit_Util_Log_PMD_Rule_Project
{
public function __construct($threshold = array(5, 30), $priority = 1)
{
parent::__construct($threshold, $priority);
}
public function apply(PHPUnit_Util_Metrics $metrics)
{
$numCrappyMethods = 0;
$numMethods = 0;
foreach ($metrics->getClasses() as $class) {
$methods = $class->getMethods();
foreach ($methods as $method) {
if ($method->getCrapIndex() > $this->threshold[1]) {
$numCrappyMethods++;
}
}
$numMethods += count($methods);
}
if ($numMethods > 0) {
$percent = ($numCrappyMethods / $numMethods) * 100;
} else {
$percent = 0;
}
if ($percent > $this->threshold[0]) {
return sprintf(
"More than %01.2f%% of the project's methods have a Change Risk " .
'Analysis and Predictions (CRAP) index that is above the threshold ' .
"of %d.\n" .
'The CRAP index of a function or method uses cyclomatic complexity ' .
'and code coverage from automated tests to help estimate the ' .
'effort and risk associated with maintaining legacy code. A CRAP ' .
'index over 30 is a good indicator of crappy code.',
$this->threshold[0],
$this->threshold[1]
);
}
}
}
?>
|
<?php
/*
* THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
* "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
* LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
* A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
* OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
* SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
* LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
* DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
* THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
* (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
* OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
*
* The software is based on the Axon Framework project which is
* licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. For more information on the Axon Framework
* see <http://www.axonframework.org/>.
*
* This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many individuals
* and is licensed under the MIT license. For more information, see
* <http://www.governor-framework.org/>.
*/
namespace Governor\Tests\Domain;
use Ramsey\Uuid\Uuid;
use Governor\Framework\Domain\GenericDomainEventMessage;
use Governor\Framework\Domain\MetaData;
/**
* Description of GenericDomainEventMessageTest
*
* @author "David Kalosi" <[email protected]>
* @license <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php">MIT License</a>
*/
class GenericDomainEventMessageTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
/**
* @covers Governor\Framework\Domain\GenericDomainEventMessage::__construct
*/
public function testConstructor()
{
$payload = new Payload();
$seqNo = 0;
$id = Uuid::uuid1();
$message1 = new GenericDomainEventMessage(
$id, $seqNo, $payload,
MetaData::emptyInstance()
);
$metaData = new Metadata(['key' => 'value']);
$message2 = new GenericDomainEventMessage(
$id, $seqNo, $payload,
$metaData
);
$this->assertSame($id, $message1->getAggregateIdentifier());
$this->assertEquals($seqNo, $message1->getScn());
$this->assertSame(MetaData::emptyInstance(), $message1->getMetaData());
$this->assertEquals(
get_class($payload),
get_class($message1->getPayload())
);
$this->assertEquals(get_class($payload), $message1->getPayloadType());
$this->assertSame($id, $message2->getAggregateIdentifier());
$this->assertEquals($seqNo, $message2->getScn());
$this->assertSame($metaData, $message2->getMetaData());
$this->assertEquals(
get_class($payload),
get_class($message2->getPayload())
);
$this->assertEquals(get_class($payload), $message2->getPayloadType());
$this->assertNotEquals($message1->getIdentifier(), $message2->getIdentifier());
}
/**
* @covers Governor\Framework\Domain\GenericDomainEventMessage::withMetaData
*/
public function testWithMetaData()
{
$payload = new Payload();
$seqNo = 0;
$id = Uuid::uuid1();
$metaData = new MetaData(['key' => 'value']);
$message = new GenericDomainEventMessage(
$id, $seqNo, $payload,
$metaData
);
$message1 = $message->withMetaData();
$message2 = $message->withMetaData(['key' => 'otherValue']);
$this->assertEquals(0, $message1->getMetaData()->count());
$this->assertEquals(1, $message2->getMetaData()->count());
$this->assertEquals($message->getTimestamp(), $message1->getTimestamp());
$this->assertEquals($message->getTimestamp(), $message2->getTimestamp());
$this->assertEquals($message->getIdentifier(), $message1->getIdentifier());
$this->assertEquals($message->getIdentifier(), $message2->getIdentifier());
$this->assertInstanceOf(GenericDomainEventMessage::class, $message1);
$this->assertInstanceOf(GenericDomainEventMessage::class, $message2);
}
/**
* @covers Governor\Framework\Domain\GenericDomainEventMessage::andMetaData
*/
public function testAndMetaData()
{
$payload = new Payload();
$seqNo = 0;
$id = Uuid::uuid1();
$metaData = new MetaData(['key' => 'value']);
$message = new GenericDomainEventMessage(
$id, $seqNo, $payload,
$metaData
);
$message1 = $message->andMetaData();
$message2 = $message->andMetaData(['key' => 'otherValue']);
$this->assertEquals(1, $message1->getMetaData()->count());
$this->assertEquals('value', $message1->getMetaData()->get('key'));
$this->assertEquals(1, $message2->getMetaData()->count());
$this->assertEquals('otherValue', $message2->getMetaData()->get('key'));
$this->assertEquals($message->getTimestamp(), $message1->getTimestamp());
$this->assertEquals($message->getTimestamp(), $message2->getTimestamp());
$this->assertEquals($message->getIdentifier(), $message1->getIdentifier());
$this->assertEquals($message->getIdentifier(), $message2->getIdentifier());
$this->assertInstanceOf(GenericDomainEventMessage::class, $message1);
$this->assertInstanceOf(GenericDomainEventMessage::class, $message2);
}
}
class Payload
{
}
|
Esteban Armando Nunez, the 19-year-old son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, was arrested in Sacramento County on Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of a 22-year-old college student in San Diego, police said.
San Diego Homicide Capt. Jim Collins said Nunez was arrested along with three other men, all also 19. All four will be taken back to San Diego, where they will be jailed. Each faces one count of murder and three counts of assault with a deadly weapon.
Collins said Luis Santos was stabbed to death at a party near San Diego State on Oct. 4, during a brawl with other partygoers.
Reached by phone Tuesday night, Fabian Nunez declined to comment and referred calls to C. Bradley Patton, a criminal defense lawyer in Carlsbad. Patton did not immediately return a message left at his office.
Arrested in addition to Esteban Nunez were Ryan Jett, Rafael Garcia and Leshanor Thomas. The victim was a student at Mesa College. Three other partygoers were wounded in the fight.
Fabian Nunez served six years in the Assembly, including four as speaker. Term limits forced him to leave office this year.
--
[email protected]
Times staff writers Jordan Rau and Patrick McGreevy contributed to this report. |
Yes my friend, I am a space farmer. I grow zero-gravity crystals, harvest helium-3 from the moon's surface, and extract drinking water from asteroids, all for the benefit of mankind. I am a space farmer. |
// Copyright 1998-2017 Epic Games, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
#include "TextureAlignEdMode.h"
#include "EditorViewportClient.h"
#include "Modules/ModuleManager.h"
#include "EditorModeManager.h"
#include "EditorModes.h"
#include "ScopedTransaction.h"
#include "SurfaceIterators.h"
#include "EditorSupportDelegates.h"
#include "Engine/Polys.h"
IMPLEMENT_MODULE( FTextureAlignModeModule, TextureAlignMode );
DEFINE_LOG_CATEGORY_STATIC(LogTextureAlignMode, Log, All);
void FTextureAlignModeModule::StartupModule()
{
FEditorModeRegistry::Get().RegisterMode<FEdModeTexture>(
FBuiltinEditorModes::EM_Texture,
NSLOCTEXT("EditorModes", "TextureAlignmentMode", "Texture Alignment")
);
}
void FTextureAlignModeModule::ShutdownModule()
{
FEditorModeRegistry::Get().UnregisterMode(FBuiltinEditorModes::EM_Texture);
}
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texture
------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FEdModeTexture::FEdModeTexture()
: ScopedTransaction( NULL )
, TrackingWorld( NULL )
{
Tools.Add( new FModeTool_Texture() );
SetCurrentTool( MT_Texture );
}
FEdModeTexture::~FEdModeTexture()
{
// Ensure no transaction is outstanding.
check( !ScopedTransaction );
}
void FEdModeTexture::Enter()
{
FEdMode::Enter();
const bool bGetRawValue = true;
SaveCoordSystem = GLevelEditorModeTools().GetCoordSystem(bGetRawValue);
GLevelEditorModeTools().SetCoordSystem(COORD_Local);
}
void FEdModeTexture::Exit()
{
if( ScopedTransaction != NULL )
{
delete ScopedTransaction;
ScopedTransaction = NULL;
}
FEdMode::Exit();
GLevelEditorModeTools().SetCoordSystem(SaveCoordSystem);
FEditorSupportDelegates::RedrawAllViewports.Broadcast();
}
FVector FEdModeTexture::GetWidgetLocation() const
{
for ( TSelectedSurfaceIterator<> It(GetWorld()) ; It ; ++It )
{
FBspSurf* Surf = *It;
ABrush* BrushActor = ( ABrush* )Surf->Actor;
if( BrushActor )
{
FPoly* poly = &BrushActor->Brush->Polys->Element[ Surf->iBrushPoly ];
return BrushActor->ActorToWorld().TransformPosition( poly->GetMidPoint() );
}
}
return FEdMode::GetWidgetLocation();
}
bool FEdModeTexture::ShouldDrawWidget() const
{
return true;
}
bool FEdModeTexture::GetCustomDrawingCoordinateSystem( FMatrix& InMatrix, void* InData )
{
// Texture mode is ALWAYS in local space
GLevelEditorModeTools().SetCoordSystem(COORD_Local);
FPoly* poly = NULL;
for ( TSelectedSurfaceIterator<> It(GetWorld()) ; It ; ++It )
{
FBspSurf* Surf = *It;
ABrush* BrushActor = ( ABrush* )Surf->Actor;
if( BrushActor )
{
poly = &BrushActor->Brush->Polys->Element[ Surf->iBrushPoly ];
break;
}
}
if( !poly )
{
return false;
}
InMatrix = FMatrix::Identity;
InMatrix.SetAxis( 2, poly->Normal );
InMatrix.SetAxis( 0, poly->TextureU );
InMatrix.SetAxis( 1, poly->TextureV );
InMatrix.RemoveScaling();
return true;
}
bool FEdModeTexture::GetCustomInputCoordinateSystem( FMatrix& InMatrix, void* InData )
{
return false;
}
EAxisList::Type FEdModeTexture::GetWidgetAxisToDraw( FWidget::EWidgetMode InWidgetMode ) const
{
switch( InWidgetMode ) //-V719
{
case FWidget::WM_Translate:
case FWidget::WM_Scale:
return EAxisList::XY;
break;
case FWidget::WM_Rotate:
return EAxisList::Z;
break;
}
return EAxisList::XYZ;
}
bool FEdModeTexture::StartTracking(FEditorViewportClient* InViewportClient, FViewport* InViewport)
{
// call base version because it calls the StartModify() virtual method needed to track drag events
bool BaseRtn = FEdMode::StartTracking(InViewportClient, InViewport);
// Complete the previous transaction if one exists
if( ScopedTransaction )
{
EndTracking(InViewportClient, InViewport);
}
// Start a new transaction
ScopedTransaction = new FScopedTransaction( NSLOCTEXT("UnrealEd", "TextureManipulation", "Texture Manipulation") );
for( FConstLevelIterator Iterator = GetWorld()->GetLevelIterator(); Iterator; ++Iterator )
{
UModel* Model = (*Iterator)->Model;
Model->ModifySelectedSurfs( true );
}
return BaseRtn;
}
bool FEdModeTexture::EndTracking(FEditorViewportClient* InViewportClient, FViewport* InViewport)
{
// Clean up the scoped transaction if one is still pending
if( ScopedTransaction != NULL )
{
delete ScopedTransaction;
ScopedTransaction = NULL;
}
if( TrackingWorld )
{
TrackingWorld->MarkPackageDirty();
ULevel::LevelDirtiedEvent.Broadcast();
TrackingWorld = NULL;
}
// call base version because it calls the EndModify() virtual method needed to track drag events
return FEdMode::EndTracking(InViewportClient, InViewport);
}
bool FEdModeTexture::IsCompatibleWith(FEditorModeID OtherModeID) const
{
return OtherModeID == FBuiltinEditorModes::EM_Bsp;
}
/*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FModeTool_TextureAlign.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
FModeTool_Texture::FModeTool_Texture()
{
ID = MT_Texture;
bUseWidget = 1;
PreviousInputDrag = FVector::ZeroVector;
}
/**
* @return true if the delta was handled by this editor mode tool.
*/
bool FModeTool_Texture::InputDelta(FEditorViewportClient* InViewportClient,FViewport* InViewport,FVector& InDrag,FRotator& InRot,FVector& InScale)
{
if( InViewportClient->GetCurrentWidgetAxis() == EAxisList::None )
{
return false;
}
// calculate delta drag for this tick for the call to GEditor->polyTexPan below which is using relative (delta) mode
FVector deltaDrag = InDrag;
if (true == InViewportClient->IsPerspective())
{
// perspective viewports pass the absolute drag so subtract the last tick's drag value to get the delta
deltaDrag -= PreviousInputDrag;
}
PreviousInputDrag = InDrag;
if( !deltaDrag.IsZero() )
{
// Ensure each polygon has a unique base point index.
for( FConstLevelIterator Iterator = InViewportClient->GetWorld()->GetLevelIterator(); Iterator; ++Iterator )
{
UModel* Model = (*Iterator)->Model;
for(int32 SurfaceIndex = 0;SurfaceIndex < Model->Surfs.Num();SurfaceIndex++)
{
FBspSurf& Surf = Model->Surfs[SurfaceIndex];
if(Surf.PolyFlags & PF_Selected)
{
const FVector Base = Model->Points[Surf.pBase];
Surf.pBase = Model->Points.Add(Base);
}
}
FMatrix Mat = GLevelEditorModeTools().GetCustomDrawingCoordinateSystem();
FVector UVW = Mat.InverseTransformVector( deltaDrag ); // InverseTransformNormal because Mat is the transform from the surface/widget's coords to world coords
GEditor->polyTexPan( Model, UVW.X, UVW.Y, 0 ); // 0 is relative mode because UVW is made from deltaDrag - the user input since the last tick
}
}
if( !InRot.IsZero() )
{
const FRotationMatrix RotationMatrix( InRot );
// Ensure each polygon has unique texture vector indices.
for ( TSelectedSurfaceIterator<> It(InViewportClient->GetWorld()) ; It ; ++It )
{
FBspSurf* Surf = *It;
UModel* Model = It.GetModel();
FVector TextureU = Model->Vectors[Surf->vTextureU];
FVector TextureV = Model->Vectors[Surf->vTextureV];
TextureU = RotationMatrix.TransformPosition( TextureU );
TextureV = RotationMatrix.TransformPosition( TextureV );
Surf->vTextureU = Model->Vectors.Add(TextureU);
Surf->vTextureV = Model->Vectors.Add(TextureV);
const bool bUpdateTexCoords = true;
const bool bOnlyRefreshSurfaceMaterials = true;
GEditor->polyUpdateMaster(Model, It.GetSurfaceIndex(), bUpdateTexCoords, bOnlyRefreshSurfaceMaterials);
}
}
if( !InScale.IsZero() )
{
float ScaleU = InScale.X / GEditor->GetGridSize();
float ScaleV = InScale.Y / GEditor->GetGridSize();
ScaleU = 1.f - (ScaleU / 100.f);
ScaleV = 1.f - (ScaleV / 100.f);
// Ensure each polygon has unique texture vector indices.
for( FConstLevelIterator Iterator = InViewportClient->GetWorld()->GetLevelIterator(); Iterator; ++Iterator )
{
UModel* Model = (*Iterator)->Model;
for(int32 SurfaceIndex = 0;SurfaceIndex < Model->Surfs.Num();SurfaceIndex++)
{
FBspSurf& Surf = Model->Surfs[SurfaceIndex];
if(Surf.PolyFlags & PF_Selected)
{
const FVector TextureU = Model->Vectors[Surf.vTextureU];
const FVector TextureV = Model->Vectors[Surf.vTextureV];
Surf.vTextureU = Model->Vectors.Add(TextureU);
Surf.vTextureV = Model->Vectors.Add(TextureV);
}
}
GEditor->polyTexScale( Model, ScaleU, 0.f, 0.f, ScaleV, false );
}
}
return true;
}
|
Be Relentless in Your Pursuit of Yourself
My name is Claire. I have been an athlete my entire life. I started lifting in high school to supplement my soccer and diving; and I kept lifting even after I stopped playing sports. I started competitively powerlifting about 9 months ago. Since then I have completed two meets with varying success. Regardless, I fell in love with the sport. Through a lot of time in athletics, I have been subjected to so many people’s opinions and biases and prejudices. Now I feel that I am finally at a point where I can do something about these ideas and make a stand in my community. Through my work I will reduce these prejudices for other women in sports.
People have asked me a lot of questions in my short time as a powerlifter. I remember one time at a dancing bar a young man approached me and asked, “I know you can probably beat me up, but would you like to dance?” Other people have asked me “Won’t you get too big?” or “aren’t you afraid you will be unattractive?” Friends and family have told me they worry about the perception that I am putting off. All these questions and concerns are mostly well intentioned, people are genuinely concerned about someone’s well-being (either mine or their own). The problem is these concerns are founded in all the wrong reasons and with underlying prejudices that are weaved into society. I could write a book on all the things people have said to me and where I think they come from. I don’t believe that these prejudices are going to go away for a long time and I believe that working to improve them will help, but we must be able to affect our own lives first. To be successful in what we are doing, we have to either overcome or ignore the prejudices that are presented to us. I have different tactics for different people I interact with to move past these biases.
For me it started when I realized that the things I love to do didn’t align with what other people thought were acceptable for a young woman to do. I questioned myself and second guessed my abilities and my worth because I didn’t fit the mold that other people wanted me to fit into. Through college I tried to fit into a lot of stereotypes that people thought I should fit into. This resulted in me being unhappy with the woman that I was. Growing up, my parents were big proponents of being an intentional human and critically evaluating the woman I wanted to be. It took a while, but one day, I finally sat down with myself and critically evaluated who I wanted to be.
Introspection is hard, it takes a lot of self-analysis. You must sit down and ask yourself what makes you happy. When I am trying to introspect, I need the ability to be self-aware. I must remove myself from other people (this only affects me, it must be a personal decision). Once removed from people I can work through my thoughts and determine if they make me happy. If they do, great, I am going to continue doing actions that perpetuate happiness. If the happiness I give up is greater than the end goal, I probably won’t continue. For powerlifting I sat down and critically evaluated it from different perspectives. I looked at it before, during, and after a lifting session, I looked at the meets that I have competed in, I looked at the interactions I had with other powerlifters. All those interactions make me happy. I don’t want to be anywhere else when I am lifting (technically I want to be in my bed because powerlifting is hard, but I am actually happy), after a lift I am content with my hard work, happy with the time I spent improving myself.
Listening to who I want to be has been step one in overcoming other people’s opinions. If it makes me happy it doesn’t matter what other people think. Slowly but surely, I have learned to love me. I have stopped caring about how other people think of me, I have started to fully and completely accept who I am as a woman, as a scientist, as a friend, as an athlete. I am so multifaceted, and I love that about myself. I am not perfect, I love that too. Slowly I am realizing that I am more than ok with who I am, and I can confidently say that I am starting to like the woman that I am growing into. It’s not about growing into a woman so that I can fill someone else’s box, but about growing into the woman that I truly want to be. I have goals that I want to accomplish. I don't just want to float through life. I can proudly say that I have learned to accept me and doing so makes it easier for me to be ok with others not accepting me.
Being comfortable with myself was step one, now when strangers come up to me it’s easier to move past their prejudices. I just shrug and move on. My actions don’t hurt other people and so I don’t feel bad about continuing to do things that make me happy. I often think about peaches when I am interacting with those people: You could be the sweetest most delicious peach in the world and there will still be some of you who don’t like peaches. I can’t please all of you. The only person I need to please is me. This sport brings me joy and happiness. My actions have no bearing on your life and I will not change my life to please you.
With people I am close to its much more difficult to move past it. I am still working on this but overcoming their opinions have been the most difficult. When I started this journey, I realized that I had two options, one, I could cut those people out of my life and ignore them. I would lose a huge part of my life and some of the people who provided me with the biggest support systems for other aspects of my life. Two, I could keep doing what I loved and one day they might try to meet me halfway. I realistically don't talk to these people about powerlifting much. It hurts that some of the most important people in my life are not understanding of what I love, but I have chosen to be the bigger person. Their support shows in other ways and I look for the little victories. These people who are close to me and truly care for me have my best intentions in mind and I probably won’t ever change their mind no matter how much evidence-based science I show them that this is healthy for me. I must keep going and keep being successful and I will find their support showing in other ways. This only works with people who truly love you. If they truly love you, they will care another way.
Overall, I had to start with me. I had to overcome the prejudices with myself and accept myself before I could even start to overcome other people’s prejudices. I had to break down the box I had built for myself. Once I defined my own space that I wanted to live in I could finally start to conquer the biases others had set for me. I could move past it all.
As we are all working through our own journeys, take care of the people around you. We are a collective of minorities and are working to continually break down the prejudices that society has set for us. We must keep raising our voice. Talk about prejudice, share your stories. Share how you overcome. We as a collective group of minority athletes need to help each other. Reach out to the people around you. We are all so connected by social media it’s easy to support each other. Do more than like a post. Message someone and tell them how much you love what they are doing. Find groups of people in the world you can positively impact. Join groups in your community. Inspire young people. Do what makes you happy!
Lastly, see the small victories and the little wins. Overcoming biases and prejudices in society doesn’t happen overnight. These wins look different for everyone because they are true expressions of who we are. I consider it a win when I wear clothes that make me happy. I consider it a win that I cook. I consider it a win that I compete in powerlifting competitions and I love it. I consider it a win that I am a woman who is fully aware of who she is that she needs no verification of her own self-worth. Self-worth is internal not external. The biggest win, over anything else: being myself and pushing myself to accept nothing less than what makes me happy and doing what is best for me. Through this I fully believe that I am widening the path for other women to follow. Many women already have existed in the strength space and excelled but I aim to get even more people involved. We are not done; our work will almost never be done because there will always be prejudice. Your body is a tool, a temple, a message. Use it, take up space. Be relentless in your pursuit of yourself. |
import { ensure, isDefined, isString } from 'tiny-types';
import { AnswersQuestions } from '../../../actor';
import { Answerable } from '../../../Answerable';
import { AnswerMappingFunction } from '../AnswerMappingFunction';
/**
* @desc
* Appends the values to the end of the original string and returns a new string.
*
* @param {...Array<Answerable<string>>} values
* The values to append to the end of the string.
*
* @returns {AnswerMappingFunction<string, string>}
*
* @see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/concat
*/
export function append(...values: Array<Answerable<string>>): AnswerMappingFunction<string, string> {
return (actor: AnswersQuestions) =>
(originalAnswer: string) => {
ensure('The value to be mapped', originalAnswer, isDefined(), isString());
return Promise.all(values.map(value => actor.answer(value)))
.then(answers => originalAnswer.concat(...answers))
}
}
|
The legacy automaker known for laying the stepping stones used by all automakers today has recently been receiving praise among EV aficionados. Adding to the ever-growing list of electric car options out there, the Ford Mustang Mach E, unlike most, notably doesn’t suck. Its 300-mile range and comparable specs places it just below the top player in the space, Tesla.
In the current state of automakers all announcing distant future concepts and highly-priced EVs, Ford unveiled a mass-produced affordable electric car ready to hit the road near the end of next year, the Mustang Mach E. This immense feat was commended by current electric car owners but condemned by long-time Ford enthusiasts. Using the famed Mustang namesake really struck a chord with the Mustang zealots. Worst of all, it’s a crossover! What was Ford thinking?
Fact is, Ford was thinking ahead. Our future is electric, at this point there’s no doubt about it. Just about every manufacturer has stated plans to transition towards sustainable vehicles, Ford included. Whether due to tightening regulations or simply doing what’s best for the planet, major changes are happening in the automotive industry.
Crossovers are the largest vehicle segment in the U.S. taking up nearly half of all new cars sold this year. Add that alongside the historic Mustang brand and you have yourself a recipe for success. See, Ford isn’t trying to sell the Mach E to Tesla customers, they’re trying to put the idea of electric car ownership in the minds of the general public. The Tesla Cybertruck unveiling covered “unbreakable” glass while Ford spent a large portion speaking highly of electric cars as a whole, even breaking some misconceptions. Sure, some Mustang owners aren’t happy about the change, but this is bigger than that.
And that’s exactly where the issue lies. If the intention behind the Mach E is conversion to EVs and high sales, Ford made the right call choosing a crossover with the Mustang namesake. The company is seemingly taking this vehicle serious with major global ad campaigns already taking place. But there’s one major flaw which they’ve failed to overcome; proper customer education.
With Ford, that starts at the dealership level. When potential future owners call in asking questions about the vehicle or electric cars in general, staff need to be well informed on the subject. This isn’t simply choosing between a 4-door car and a coupe or the pros and cons of an SUV, it’s a whole lifestyle change. Gasoline vehicle and related maintenance aren’t just things people are already used to, they grew up with them. When making the change, people have questions or more commonly, misinformation regarding electrification.
Questions related to simply charging a Tesla shoot up to almost 100,000 monthly online searches across the board. For those in the know, the answers are simple but each of us began with similar inquiries. A large part of Tesla’s success comes down to having outlets for answering questions of those skeptical. Whether through their stores or online communities, concerns are rectified. The Tesla Reddit community alone has over half a million registered users ready to help. This is where Ford is drastically slacking. There has been exactly zero training done in relation to electric car ownership at Ford Dealerships and there’s no incentive to even begin.
To test my hypothesis we set out to call each and every Ford dealership within a 200-mile radius. With electric cars already a taboo subject and the Tesla Model Y electric crossover around the corner, these things won’t be selling themselves. Asking very straightforward questions regarding both the Mustang Mach E and general electric vehicle ownership, the results were baffling. My expectations were already low but some of the statements made were simply outrageous.
The calls took place three weeks after the unveiling giving Ford ample time to get their ducks in a row. Of the 15 dealerships called, a single sales rep was informed enough to actually hold a conversation. Each initial rep transferred us to someone who was “more informed”. In some cases, the “more informed” rep transferred us for a second time or even a third. It was transfer limbo until some poor, relatively uninformed, fella decided to take a crack at giving us the time of day. In other calls, the “more informed” staff member was not available and as such, they couldn’t even attempt to answer any of our questions.
The calls were met with what would be best described as an abundance of confusion and fear. Those who attempted to help, albeit tried their best, shared nothing of merit. Google seemed to be the go-to resource for answers to basic questions like “how do you charge an electric car?”. I can assure you, there would be no Googling if my same, moderately simple, questions were related to traditional vehicles. Due to what seemed like panicking, most of the Googled results were shared like a game of telephone. There was no “gotcha” intention, just introductory questions we assumed would be asked by anyone considering a shift to an electric vehicle household. How to charge, range, availability, the basics.
Absolutely nothing but misinformation was sold to me. You can’t charge a Mustang Mach E at home, they can use Tesla Superchargers, it doesn’t have enough range, a plug-in hybrid is better, etc. Nothing of importance because it’s all, simply put, wrong. According to one dealership, a Tesla is better than the Mach E but because Tesla’s start at $100,000, the Mach E is a better buy…
How Ford plans to convert a single traditional driver over to the Mustang Mach E beats me. Yet Ford claims to be working heavily towards electric trucks as well. It might be a year away but they began taking reservations on the day of the unveiling. Currently, those calling in and inquiring about the EV are just being turned off. Staff need to have a bit more than just the landing page as knowledge, they need to be trained in overall EV awareness. The mass spread of misinformation will be our demise.
It’s not about pushing a narrative and forcefully pushing people onto electric cars, it’s about sharing facts. The Ford Mustang Mach E starts at $43,895 before incentives, it has up to a 300-mile range, and yes, you can charge it at your house.
Update: Just revisiting this post to clarify a few things. Each dealership called was EV certified according to Ford’s interactive dealership map. Everyone in the calls were aware they were being recorded. Most importantly, we believe the misinformation shared was not intentional. We do not believe any of the reps were trying to upsell us into a Ford or purposely downplay electric cars as a whole. The issue here is not deception, it’s the spread of misinformation. None of the dealerships mentioned coming in to look at any other vehicle nor did they try to sway us into purchasing a vehicle that day. We did however leave a callback number and an email for more information. None of the dealerships have got back to us. As usual, we also reached out to Ford with no reply. |
ohhh boy.....it's in Montreal, right?? Oh my gosh..I doubt that fan is going to be able to get in. But I wish Kristen all the best of luck on this movie!!! I know she's gonna nail it!!1 And did anyone hear?!!? She IS going to be at the Teen Choice Awards this year!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good, cuz I voted for her a million times over!!! Lol.
That was kind of easy to find for anyone living in Montreal as almost every movie set is at "Mel's Cité du cinéma" in Technoparc, Old Montreal. Kellan was also filming there a few weeks ago....But the thing is, it's easily approachable by people not working on the set |
Talent: Eve French
Eve French is London illustrator creating vibrant work through traditional and digital mediums, with a focus on shared human experiences often taken from her personal life.
We are continually curating and championing exceptional emerging illustrators, image makers and content creators like Eve — and supporting them in their professional development through live assignments that form invaluable learning experiences.
Our central team provides the connectivity, support and expertise to ensure all projects are properly licensed, managed and produced, and that learning is captured throughout.
If you've a live brief and would like talent recommendations, please make contact with Helen Scibilia, Project Manager for New Now at YCN on [email protected] by calling +44 (0)207 033 2140.
Cornwall, 1999 by Eve French
Fruit Stall by Eve French
Eve French for Pyjaen
Kew Gardens by Eve French
Late Night Food by Eve French
Christmas Day by Eve French
Eve French for Corner Shop Drop
In Every Dream Home a Heartache by Eve French
The Local by Eve French
Palm House by Eve French
We are continually curating and championing exceptional emerging illustrators, image makers and content creators like Eve — and supporting them in their professional development through live assignments that form invaluable learning experiences.
Our central team provides the connectivity, support and expertise to ensure all projects are properly licensed, managed and produced, and that learning is captured throughout.
If you've a live brief and would like talent recommendations, please make contact with Helen Scibilia, Project Manager for New Now at YCN on [email protected] by calling +44 (0)207 033 2140. |
206 Okla. 79 (1952)
240 P.2d 1058
RICHARDSON
v.
BUTLER.
No. 34710.
Supreme Court of Oklahoma.
January 22, 1952.
Rehearing Denied February 26, 1952.
Bruce & Rowan, Oklahoma City, for plaintiff in error.
Wm. H. Lewis, Oklahoma City, for defendant in error.
GIBSON, J.
On April 17, 1948, plaintiff (defendant in error here) filed his petition in this case. Issue was joined and a jury waived. A trial was had before a judge of another division, who entered judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $115. Defendant filed a motion for new trial which was sustained. *80 Aside from the pleadings and judgment no part of that record is before us.
On December 8, 1948, plaintiff filed an amended petition. He alleged that on March 24, 1948, he took his Pontiac sedan to defendant, who was the owner and operator of Richardson Service Station, for the purpose of having his automobile washed, greased and oil drained and new oil put into crank case. That defendant failed and neglected to put in new oil, and by reason of his breach of duty the motor of plaintiff's auto was completely burned up because of lack of oil, and he alleged other damages all in the total sum of $453.65. Defendant filed an answer denying generally and specifically the charges of plaintiff's petition; alleging he did put in said car 5 quarts of oil from sealed cans; that if plaintiff's car was damaged it was due to some other causes and that the major portion of the damage was a result of plaintiff's own negligence, in continuing to drive the car after discovery that it was not getting proper lubrication.
Following a trial a six man jury returned a unanimous verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $375.25 with interest. Judgment was rendered on the verdict. From an order overruling his motion for new trial, defendant appeals.
The petition in error contains fifteen assignments of error but in the brief they are summarized under two propositions.
Defendant says that he is not unmindful of the rule and decisions of this court holding that if there is any evidence reasonably tending to support the verdict of the jury this court will not reverse the case, but he says that in this case there is no competent evidence tending to support the verdict of the jury, and that the verdict was based on conjectures and conclusions.
Plaintiff's evidence was both factual and circumstantial. Evidence is uncontradicted that defendant operated a filling station in Oklahoma City; that plaintiff, a farmer, took his automobile to defendant's place of business and left it to be washed, to have the oil changed and have the auto lubricated; that defendant undertook, for a consideration paid, to perform that service; that plaintiff, in company with five other persons, started to drive to Taft, Oklahoma; that after driving approximately 130 miles and near the town of Boynton the pressure went down on the car, the oil gauge fell to zero and the car was hot and whatever was in the oil gauge was "frying like grease." Plaintiff drove to Boynton and had the oil drained. He kept a jar of the substance drained and it was put in evidence. Plaintiff put in new oil and continued the journey. After traveling about six miles a rod came through the block. Next day the car was towed back to Oklahoma City. There is no evidence disputing that of plaintiff that the car was in number one condition when delivered to defendant.
The evidence was conflicting as to the character of the substance drained from the motor. It is plaintiff's contention that it was a kerosene flush used to flush out motors, and that after the flushing the defendant forgot to put in new oil. Several witnesses, one a mechanic of 17 years' experience, testified that the substance was kerosene flush and not oil.
Plaintiff's mechanic testified that improper lubrication caused the damage to his car and that the substance drained from the motor had no lubricating qualities.
The defendant and his mechanic both testified that they put 5 cans of oil from sealed cans into the car. The testimony of plaintiff's and defendant's witnesses cannot be reconciled. The jury believed plaintiff's witnesses. It cannot be said that there was no substantial evidence supporting the verdict.
Defendant's evidence suggested various things which could cause an automobile *81 motor to heat, even with proper lubrication.
"Facts may be proved by circumstantial as well as by positive or direct evidence, and it is not necessary that the proof rise to that degree of certainty which will exclude every other reasonable conclusion than the one arrived at by the jury." Stanolind Oil & Gas Co. v. Cartwright, 200 Okla. 633, 198 P.2d 737.
Defendant complains that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict and judgment and that the court erred in overruling defendant's demurrer to the evidence. Defendant's demurrer to the plaintiff's evidence was overruled. Defendant then introduced his evidence. No additional demurrer to plaintiff's evidence was interposed and defendant did not move for a directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence.
Under this state of the record the defendant waived his demurrer to the evidence and he cannot now urge that the evidence was insufficient to establish a cause of action in favor of plaintiff. Marland Refining. Co. v. Harrel, 167 Okla. 548, 31 P.2d 121; Bolon v. Smith, 170 Okla. 407, 40 P.2d 677.
Defendant said in his motion for new trial that prejudice and ill-feeling on the part of one juror developed after the juror was permitted to question a defendant witness. It is said that after the jury was discharged this juror stated that he got mad when the witness testified that oil and gasoline were mixed in the drained substance. Both plaintiff and defendant consented to the juror asking his questions. There is no evidence in this record as to what effect the answers of the witness had on that particular juror or any member of the jury. There is only the statement of counsel and no evidence as to what was said by the juror after the discharge of the jury. If it should be conceded that the juror became angry at the testimony of the witness there is no showing that he influenced any other juror. The verdict was unanimous. Nothing concerning this incident is properly before us for review. There is no merit to this contention by defendant.
Defendant has had two trials of this cause, one by the court without a jury and one before a jury. Judgment went against him in both cases.
We have reviewed this record and find no error which would entitle defendant to a new trial.
Affirmed.
Plaintiff has prayed judgment on the supersedeas bond filed herein, and judgment is hereby rendered in favor of plaintiff and against the sureties, E.C. Moon and Homer Dickson, for the amounts due under the judgment of the trial court.
HALLEY, V.C.J., and WELCH, CORN, DAVISON, JOHNSON, O'NEAL, and BINGAMAN, JJ., concur.
|
/*******************************************************************************
* * Copyright 2014 Impetus Infotech.
* *
* * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* * You may obtain a copy of the License at
* *
* * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
* *
* * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* * limitations under the License.
******************************************************************************/
package com.impetus.client.hbase.crud;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.Table;
/**
* @author Pragalbh Garg
*
*/
@Entity
@Table(name = "book_details", schema = "KunderaExamples@hbaseTest")
public class BookDetails
{
@Id
@Column(name = "book_details")
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.TABLE)
private String id;
/** The isbn. */
private String isbn;
/** The copies_num. */
@Column(name = "copies_num")
private int copiesNum;
public int getCopiesNum()
{
return copiesNum;
}
public void setCopiesNum(int copiesNum)
{
this.copiesNum = copiesNum;
}
/** The hits. */
private int hits;
public int getHits()
{
return hits;
}
public void setHits(int hits)
{
this.hits = hits;
}
public String getIsbn()
{
return isbn;
}
public void setIsbn(String isbn)
{
this.isbn = isbn;
}
}
|
Posting the sane and insane news about the law and what otherwise strikes my fancy.
The opinions and commentary made by this author is solely his own. It does not reflect the opinion of any other individual or organization including the 83rd District Attorney's Office or Pecos, Brewster, Presidio or Jeff Davis Counties.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Stating the obvious
Wow.
Who didn't know this? Anyone who didn't go to school from the 7th through 12th grades?
Survey: Sexual harassment pervasive in grades 7-12
By David Crary - Associated Press
NEW
YORK (AP) — It can be a malicious rumor whispered in the hallway, a
lewd photo arriving by cell phone, hands groping where they shouldn't.
Added up, it's an epidemic — student-on-student sexual harassment that
is pervasive in America's middle schools and high schools.
During
the 2010-11 school year, 48 percent of students in grades 7-12
experienced some form of sexual harassment in person or electronically
via texting, email and social media, according to a major national
survey being released Monday by the American Association of University Women.
The
harassers often thought they were being funny, but the consequences for
their targets can be wrenching, according to the survey. Nearly a third
of the victims said the harassment made them feel sick to their
stomach, affected their study habits or fueled reluctance to go to
school at all. |
"Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English."; Thesis advisor: Heather Urbanski.; M.A.,Central Connecticut State University,,2013.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-79).
"Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History."; Thesis advisor: Robert Wolff.; M.A.,Central Connecticut State University,,2014.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 83-88).
In his ground-breaking books, Orientalism and Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said explains how the Eastern, colonized other was textually created by the imperial powers that controlled them. Specifically, Western experts on and creators of texts...
"Submitted in Partial Fullfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science In Elementary Education."; Thesis advisor: Catherine Kurkjian.; M.S.,Central Connecticut State University,,2012.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves...
The project, "The Limits of Language: Gender, Trauma and the Holocaust," contributes a new theoretical reading regarding Holocaust literature. Traditionally, gender studies have provided insight into gendered responses to trauma, but not...
"Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in International Studies."; Thesis advisor: Mark A. Jones.; M.S.,Central Connecticut State University,,2013.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves...
Thesis advisor: Glenn Sunshine.; " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History."; M.A.,Central Connecticut State University,,2000.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-66).
"Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education." Dissertation advisor: Ethan Heinen.; Ed.D.,Central Connecticut State University,2013.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-228).
"Submitted in partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Literature."; Thesis advisor: Stuart Barnett.; M.A.,Central Connecticut State University,,2013.; Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-90).
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, African-American literature not only explored the influence of racism on the African-American psyche, but it also strove to convey the desire for a political and social identity within a...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman's reputation as a prominent feminist was resurrected during the second wave of feminism during the 1970's. However, upon close examination of her two feminist novels, Herland and With Her in Ourland, it becomes clear that...
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the complexities surrounding the acceptance of personal and cultural identity for protagonists in Chicano/a literature. By way of close reading analysis and methodological comparison, I delve into three...
This study provides an avenue for the integration of diversity appreciation into high school curriculum through literature. The major premise of this thesis is to illustrate how contemporary Latino and Latin American literature can be used as a...
The mysticism of Philip K. Dick and Jorge Luis Borges make for a pairing that exposes a similarity of technique in the invention of imaginary worlds. The use of the double becomes an especially noticeable method that will be explored at length. ...
The research for this thesis focuses on the process of literature censorship in the American high school classroom and closely examines the role of Toni Morrison's controversial novels Beloved and The Bluest Eye in the Language Arts curriculum. In...
Social Movement Theory (SMT) is an area of study in Sociology and Political Science that provides an analytical framework for understanding the factors involved in organized social action. A social movement develops in response to an injustice or...
I. Purpose: The purpose of my descriptive study is to show the parallelisms between the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri and Pedro P´aramo of Juan Rulfo.
II. Methodology: My goal is to show the similarities between the two works, citing specific...
Typically, scholars approach Holocaust literature with a focus solely on history or on trauma theory. And yet, as I propose in 'The Holocaust's Literary Perpetrator,' these modes of examination are not sufficient in their explanations of blame. ...
Canadian novelist and poet, Margaret Atwood, argues that survival is the main theme commonly found in Canadian literature. The purpose of this thesis is to examine this theory of 'survival' in Margaret Atwood's own work. Atwood states in her... |
Q:
How does drive droid work?
I just found this clever little app drive droid that lets you boot from iso from your mobile. It would be interesting to know how it works. Does anyone have any knowledge about it.
Drive droid
P.S. sorry for my bad english
A:
There is a dedicated thread on XDA forum about this application
DriveDroid allows you to boot your PC from ISO/IMG files stored on
your phone.
DriveDroid relies on the kernel of Android, in particular the USB Mass Storage (UMS) feature. It allows your phone to act as an USB-drive and have a device (SDcard) or file (ISO/IMG) be used as the content for that emulated drive.
USB-drive and CD-drive emulation
These two modes allow your phone to act as an USB-drive or as an
CD-drive. Most devices only support USB-drive emulation. Some devices
only support CD-drive emulation.
To get both USB-drive as well as CD-drive emulation on your phone you
need a patched kernel.
With USB-drive emulation it is possible to boot IMG files and most
Linux-based ISO. It also allows you to write to the disk, which allows
you to create data-disks as well as install an OS onto the USB drive.
The downside of this mode is that some ISOs will not boot, since those
ISOs are created for CD-drives.
With CD-rom emulation it is possible to boot all CD-based ISOs. So,
having both USB-drive emulation as well as CD-rom emulation is
preferable
The functionality is such that the android device acts as an emulated drive to boot .iso files from PC.
Once installed, DriveDroid will ask you for the root access after
which you can proceed and download one of the Linux ISO images from
withing the DriveDroid app. However, if you have already downloaded
any bootable ISO image, then you can copy them to the Downloads\Images
folder on your SDCard. This is the default folder where ISO images are
kept.
After connect your Android phone to your PC and press the power button
on the PC. During the booting process, press
F12 to pull up the boot
selection menu and choose your Android device from the menu. Pretty
soon, you would be booting from the ISO image located on your Android
phone.
|
Mar10
Saturday, March 10th. it’s the most popular Day Party with Kid Capri. Event from 3pm to 7pm. Only $20 advance tickets and $25 at the door. Join us for afternoon of great entertainment by the iconic Kid Capri. Event by Darius Murrell Main Room & Patio Event |
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Huang Earns All State Title
November 7, 2013
Freshman Bellara Huang was selected as an All State Violinist out of a group of 44. Huang will be performing during a concert held at Iowa State University’s campus on November 17. “I am really excited for the concert and also it’s an extra bonus that I get to miss two days of school,” said Huang. |
Paul Arco: What’s wrong with fantasy’s greatest player ever?
Are you a frustrated LaDainian Tomlinson owner like me, filled with self doubt, suffering from a lack of sleep, and an 0-3 record to start the season?
Paul Anthony Arco
Are you a frustrated LaDainian Tomlinson owner like me, filled with self doubt, suffering from a lack of sleep, and an 0-3 record to start the season?
The fantasy campaign started out so promising.
After landing the No. 1 pick, it was a no-brainer, right? It was L.T. all the way. There was no wavering. No thought of trading the pick. No question about it. You weren’t going to take Steven Jackson. Or Larry Johnson. Peyton Manning didn’t even tempt you.
On my team, L.T. was soon joined by QB Tom Brady and WR Marvin Harrison. Are you kidding me? Thoughts of back-to-back titles started dancing through my head.
But after three games, L.T. has a paltry 2.3 yards per carry average. He’s rushed for just one touchdown. Heck, he’s thrown that many touchdowns. Those are mere mortal-like numbers. He’s Superman playing like his cape is twisted around his neck. Like the ball is kryptonite.
Or worse. He’s playing like Cedric Benson.
What is wrong with arguably the greatest fantasy player ever?
“There isn’t anything wrong with L.T.,” John Peterson of Roscoe said. “(San Diego has) all new coaches and he’s played against three of the best defenses in football (Bears, Patriots and Packers) who have slowed him down. It will not be easy to match last year’s numbers.”
I’m ashamed to say this: I can’t help but think of all the other backs I’d rather have on my roster right now: Willie Parker. Travis Henry. Joseph Addai. Brian Westbrook. Marion Barber. Speaking of which, I’d even take the guy who trims my hair over the player known for cutting through defenses.
“I own L.T. in the WCOFF (the Vegas-based league) and I’m wondering this myself,” said Mark St. Amant, author of ‘Committed: Confessions of a Fantasy Football Junkie.’
“Norv Turner is wrong with L.T. So is Philip Rivers’ regression. So is the loss of Cam Cameron and Wade Phillips. So is the lack of any other receiving threat besides Antonio Gates (can you believe they miss Keenan McCardell and Eric Parker?).
“But the underrated culprit? The Chargers’ pass defense. Opposing offenses are simply staying on the field longer, scoring more, keeping L.T. off the field. Bottom line, it’s the perfect storm.”
To be fair, L.T. isn’t the only top-flight back struggling this season. Larry Johnson comes to mind. Other backs such as Brandon Jacobs are hurt. Steven Jackson is out this week. Deuce McAllister is out for the year.
L.T. still has Kansas City twice, Oakland twice, Houston, Tennessee and Detroit on the schedule. None of which are great run-stopping defenses.
Game of the Week
New England at Cincinnati
No one can stop the Patriots and the Bengals won’t either. Tom Brady and Randy Moss (five TDs) have been lights out. And that trend will continue this week. Brady has thrown at least three TDs in each game so far. RB Rudi Johnson is likely out for the Bengals, but WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh averages 140 receiving yards in two career games against the Patriots.
Mailbag
Who has been the biggest disappointment so far this season, and why?
“Drew Brees. To have the most interceptions in the league after last year? What happened?” e-mailed Dennis Nelson of Rockford
“Before last week I would have said Donovan McNabb. Now I would probably say Maurice Jones-Drew,” e-mailed Doug Rand of Belvidere. “He may have been a fantasy MVP last year, but he has done nothing this year.”
“It’s WR Lee Evans,” e-mailed Mike Garrigan, news anchor for WIFR-23. “He has five catches for 29 yards. ... His longest catch was for nine yards. Last year he had 265 yards in a single game. This year he’s on pace for 155 yards for the entire season.”
Question of the Week
If you’re looking for a quarterback, do you pick up Brian Griese, and why?
Paul Anthony Arco’s fantasy football column appears every Sunday in the Register Star. Email questions or comments to [email protected]. |
How to run the SLAM simulation language on the Mathematics Network
Leemis
Fall, 1999
The SLAM simulation language package is available on the Unix
machines on the mathematics network. Users can cd to /usr/slam
or /usr/tess to access sample SLAM files.
Set up (must be done once on your account only):
1. Edit the file named .cshrc in your main directory. Add /usr/lang
to your path if it is not already there. Also, add the lines
source /usr/slam/inslam
source /usr/tess/t41/tcoms/intess
source /usr/tess/t41/tcoms/lnprod
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/lang/SC1.0
(in that order) to the .cshrc file after the command(s) that determine
the path.
2. Type the Unix command: source .cshrc
Each time a SLAM program is to be run
3. Create a FORTRAN main program and subroutines according to the rules
given in the SLAM text. This file must have a .f suffix. Also, create a
file that contains the SLAM input commands. This file must have a .dat
suffix. To simplify this step the first time, copy an existing file from
the /usr/slam directory. Here is one such procedure
cd /usr/slam change to appropriate directory
ls list files - look for those starting with exl
cp exl.for ~/exl.f copy the fortran file to your main directory
cp exld.dat ~/exld.dat copy slam input statements to main directory
cp PARAM.INC ~/PARAM.INC copy INCLUDE definitions to main directory
cd change back to home directory
The main directory should now contain the FORTRAN file exl.f and the SLAM
input file exld.dat. These are for a drive-up bank simulation that
allows cars to jockey from one line to another.
4. Compile the FORTRAN file with the command
f77 $SLAM_FOPTIONS exl.f
There will be an additional (object code) file named exl.o.
5. Create a symbolic link with the command
slink exlexe exl no
There will be an additional file named exlexe. This command is slow.
The slink command creates a HUGE executable file. Use the Unix commands
ls -s
and
quota -v
to delete the file with rm once you are done using this particular model.
6. Execute the SLAM model. There are two ways to do this. To execute
immediately, type
rslam exld exlexe
and the output will appear on the screen. For a longer run, it might be
wiser to run the simulation in the batch mode with the command
rslamb exld exlexe
After the model runs, the output will be contained in exld.out and a log
file named islam.log will be created. |
Henry Grey was the great grandson of Elizabeth Woodville by her first husband Sir John Grey of Goby – and incidentally it’s pronounced ‘Grooby’. He died at the second Battle of St Albans in February 1461 leaving Elizabeth a widow with two sons. The rest, as they say, is history.
Henry Grey’s father was the second marquis and on of Elizabeth of York’s closest relatives. He found that his credentials were suspect under the new Tudor regime not least because of his suspected conspiracy in the Lambert Simnel affair. What saved his bacon was his skill at jousting and his friendship with Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk. When he died in 1530 it is perhaps not surprising that young Henry found his wardship in the hands of Brandon. And with that knowledge it is unsurprising that he ended up married to Charles’ daughter Frances. His links to the crown mad whim a suitable match for a girl of royal blood – Frances’ mother was, after all, Princess Mary or the French Queen as she was known during her lifetime.
Henry did what nobles did – he jousted. He gambled. He wandered around looking magnificent whilst being short of cash. He took part in ceremonies such as Henry VIII’s funeral.
To all intents and purposes he does not appear desperately interesting, until that is he became embroiled involved with Sir Thomas Seymour at the beginning of Edward VI’s reign. Seymour convinced Henry and Frances that he could arrange a marriage between their oldest surviving child, Lady Jane Grey, and the new king, young Edward VI. With this in mind and perhaps on account of Henry’s rather sizeable gambling debts, Henry sold the wardship of his daughter to the king’s uncle and was drawn further and further into Seymour’s web. Whilst Jane was at Chelsea in Katherine Parr’s household all initially seemed to be well. Young Jane was in receipt of a first rate education and a step closer to the crown. All that can be said with the clarity of hindsight is that Grey was either extremely ambitious and took gambling to the extreme or that he was incredibly naive to believe that any of Seymour’s schemes would work. Not only that of course but it soon became clear that Seymour was behaving inappropriately by romping with Princess Elizabeth. For reasons best known to themselves, even after they’d heard the rumours Jane’s parent allowed her to remain in Seymour’s care. She did refer to him as a beloved father and there is no evidence of any untoward behaviour on Seymour’s part.
Grey was a man of the time. He had Protestant sympathies. He was father to three of the potential claimants to the throne and husband of the fourth. He was a man worth cultivating. Perhaps for this reason he was appointed to the privy council in 1549 after the fall of the duke of Somerset. He certainly started to extend his collection of lands at this time, he rounded up some of the property of the duke of Somerset when he was convicted of treason, and added to his offices. In 1551 he became a warden of the marches but didn’t really seem to know what to do. It was something of a relief to all concerned, apart possibly from the Scots, when he handed in his notice. Even if he was fairly nondescript as a politician or a military commander his role as head of the family of female Tudors made him important in the Tudor political world so it is fairly unsurprising that Dudley made him duke of Suffolk following the death of his father-in-law and two young half-brothers-in-law. There was also a handy little grant of £2000 a year.
Suffolk, as I shall now call him in line with his title, must have felt as though everything was falling into place when Northumberland persuaded Edward, who was seriously ill by the beginning of 1553, that it would be a good idea if his own son were to marry Lady Jane Grey and that she should be nominated heir to the throne given her protestant credentials. There was the small matter of persuading Jane that it was a good idea but it was effectively a done deal with the marriage being celebrated in May 1553 along with the nuptials of Jane’s younger sister Lady Katherine Grey to William Herbert, heir of the earl of Pembroke on the same day. At the same time as the Grey girls acquired husbands the duke of Northumberland’s daughter, also called Katherine and not yet twelve years old, married Henry Hastings, son of the earl of Hastings – another man with Plantagenet blood threading through his veins. Northumberland was binding his party together through promises of power and through the traditional medium of marriage. Edward VI died on 6 July 1553. On the 9th July 1553 Suffolk together with the privy council declared Jane queen. A few days later Suffolk declared Mary queen outside the Tower before tearing down the canopy of state from over his daughter’s head. He then left her to face the music. Somehow or the other Suffolk managed to avoid being incarcerated in the Tower and having the key to his cell thrown into the Thames. He was imprisoned, along with Frances, on the 27th May 1553. After a few days he was released without charge, unlike seventeen year old Jane. She was a hostage and Mary’s pro-catholic council, featuring amongst its number men who’d made her queen, were looking for an excuse to end her life. Under those circumstances you’d have thought that Suffolk would manage to keep his head down and his nose clean.
Of course, he didn’t. Whilst Frances and their two younger daughters returned to court where they were welcomed by Queen Mary, Suffolk having paid a fine made disgruntled noises about the prospect of a return to Catholicism. It was for this reason that he became involved with Sir Thomas Wyatt who wished to prevent Queen Mary from marrying Philip of Spain. Suffolk thought that as a leading gentleman of the Midlands that he could raise support for a rebellion. He also thought that the Earl of Hastings would support him. Hastings was very busy at that particular time back tracking as fast as he could. Unfortunately Suffolk was just about as good a rebel as he was a politician and had failed to spot that the band of nobles who’d sealed their deal with the marriages of their children were now backtracking rather rapidly – poor Katherine Grey was virtually kick rout of the Pembroke house despite the young couple having taken rather a shine to one another. The plot was betrayed by Edward Courtenay, earl of Devonshire, who also happened to have quite a lot of Plantagenet blood and who Wyatt thought would make a better royal spouse.
It wasn’t long before the Privy Council asked Suffolk to pop around for a cosy little chat. Had he heard anything about a rebellion? Would he take command of men in order to put the insurgents down? Suffolk panicked and scarpered home to Bradgate where the locals showed a determined line in being loyal to the Crown. Leicester and Coventry turned him away.
Suffolk realising the game was up thought that it would be sensible to leave rather rapidly…he wasn’t terribly good at being a fugitive either. He decided that he would flee to Denmark but wasn’t quite sure about the direction he needed to take. Unsurprisingly he was softly captured and returned to the Tower where he was executed on 23rd February 1554. His actions were the excuse that Mary’s government needed to execute his daughter. Grey, attainted of treason, went to his death grieving for his daughter who was executed along with her husband on the 12th.
It’s hard to feel any sympathy for Henry Grey. He played at the top table of Tudor politics without having any real aptitude for the game. His eldest daughter paid with her life.
Robert C. Braddock, ‘Grey, Henry, duke of Suffolk (1517–1554)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11535, accessed 27 Feb 2017] |
The present invention relates to a vehicle cargo compartment, in particular an aircraft cargo compartment. Further aspects of the invention relate to a system of such a vehicle cargo compartment and at least one cargo unit received in said vehicle cargo compartment, as well as to a vehicle, in particular an aircraft, comprising such a vehicle cargo compartment.
The vehicle cargo compartment comprises a compartment housing and at least one latch device. The compartment housing is adapted for being received in a vehicle, in particular in an aircraft fuselage. The latch device is mounted to said compartment housing and adapted for locking a cargo unit received in said vehicle cargo compartment, in a fixed and predetermined position with respect to said compartment housing. Said cargo unit may be e.g., a “Unit Load Device” (ULD) commonly used for loading of an aircraft and in the form of a container or a pallet.
Said latch device comprises a latch housing mounted to said compartment housing, and at least a first latch claw moveably mounted to said latch housing. Said first latch claw is moveable, preferably pivotable, between a latched position, where the first latch claw is adapted to engage a corresponding engagement section on a cargo unit received in the vehicle cargo compartment, and an unlatched position, where the first latch claw is adapted to disengage from said engagement section.
Further, a latch sensor system is provided comprising a position sensor and a target element, said position sensor being adapted for detecting a predetermined position of the target element and generating a latch signal when the target element is in said predetermined position. The position sensor preferably is a magnetic proximity sensor and the target element preferably comprises a ferromagnetic metal material.
One of the position sensor and the target element is mounted to the first latch claw and the other one of the position sensor and the target element is mounted alternatively either to the latch housing, to the compartment housing, or to a second latch claw which is moveably mounted to the latch housing.
Such vehicle cargo compartments are known in the art of aircraft cargo systems. The known latch sensor system, i.e. the position sensor and the target element are positioned and adapted in such a manner that the position sensor detects the position of the target element and generates a latch signal, when the first latch claw and the second latch claw are in the unlatched position. In such a way, when it is detected that the latch claws are in the unlatched position a roller drive can be initiated driving one or more rollers installed on the compartment housing in a rotating manner, said rollers in turn engaging the outer surface of a cargo unit, thereby moving said cargo unit along the compartment housing without the cargo unit being restrained by the latch claws. However, with the arrangement of the latch sensor system known in the art it is merely possible to reliably detect when the latch claws are in the unlatched position.
In connection with the vehicle cargo compartments known in the art, after completing the process of loading the cargo compartment with cargo units the loadmaster has to verify that each cargo unit is properly latched in its intended position in the compartment, so that it does not move during the flight. Such verifying is carried out manually, i.e. the loadmaster has to sight check each single latch device and each single cargo unit. This process takes a long time and at some particular aircraft types is very difficult to be handled, as their cargo compartments do not provide much space for the loadmaster to move along. |
Description: he GS-100 salvage ship, more commonly known as a Trandoshan scavenger ship, was a Gallofree Yards vessel, designed to navigate debris fields in the wake of space battles, picking up salvageable parts to sell for scrap.
A durable vessel capable of dealing with dangerous spatial anomalies, it required a small crew to operate, which allowed the owner to share the profit from salvage with fewer associates.
A notable GS-100 was the Vulture's Claw, owned by Gha Nachkt. Circa 21 BBY, he used it to scavenge the debris field after the Battle of Bothawui and later to bring the astromech droid R2-D2 to Ruusan 2.
Another GS-100, the Raider, was seen scavenging the wreckage after the Battle of Sullust and the crew picked up a wounded Asajj Ventress, hoping to ransom her to to her employers. However she swiftly killed them with the Force and took the ship to Dathomir. This ship was latter used to transport Ventress, along with two other Nightsisters to Serenno to assassinate Count Dooku. When the attempt failed, the ship was used to bring them back to Dathomir.
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Missouri is one of a handful of remaining states that hasn’t issued a stay-at-home order, despite the fact that the number of coronavirus infections and deaths continues to rise at an alarming rate all across the country.
According to The New York Times, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas – see a pattern? – are the other states that haven’t explicitly ordered their citizens to shelter in place.
And while Missouri Gov. Mike Parson hasn’t issued a stay-at-home order to keep his people safe, he has made it clear what his real priority is in the middle of a deadly pandemic: expanding gun rights.
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During an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Thursday, former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill pointed out that Parson made the decision today to waive late fees for folks in his state that want to renew their concealed carry license.
Meanwhile, still no word on whether he’ll take decisive action to address the deadly outbreak in his state.
Video:
.@clairecmc says the GOP governor of Missouri waived late fees for concealed carry renewals but *still* hasn’t issued a stay-at-home-order. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/QFBBbwyEAU — PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) April 3, 2020
Sen. McCaskill said:
My state has not done a statewide stay-at-home order. We are one of those ten states. The governor though today really has his priorities straight. He made sure nobody is going to have to pay a late penalty for renewing their conceal and carry license, but declined to issue a stay-at-home order for the entire stay. So we have real problems here in my state.
In other words, the Republican governor thinks it’s more important to make sure his state is still able to tote its guns as opposed to, you know, preventing the spread of a deadly virus.
GOP governors are making it harder to flatten the curve
The fact that Donald Trump’s coronavirus response has been an unmitigated horror show has meant that states all across the country – both red and blue – have had to step up and show some leadership.
Many states, including some run by Republican governors, have done that by issuing stay-at-home orders and other tough restrictions that prevent people from further spreading the infection.
But the efforts of responsible governors become almost meaningless when states run by Donald Trump clones decide not to take action to protect their people – or they wait too long for those actions to be meaningful.
After all, the coronavirus will continue to spread if Americans in all 50 states aren’t practicing the social distancing guidelines that are shown to be effective.
What happened in Missouri on Thursday is a reminder of just how backwards the priorities of some GOP governors are, even in the middle of a pandemic that has caused over 6,000 American deaths.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter |
Fly through the air, fight in epic space battles, and see the world through the eyes of nomadic goat herders. These are just a few of the first-person experiences offered by VR, or virtual reality. However, not all experiences are created equal, and with brands and media outlets raving about VR it’s difficult to know which headset and what price range is right for you.
After multiple test runs with different VR devices, I can safely break down the VR categories into digestible bites. Let’s dig in.
The Hobbyist
If you’re looking for a simple escape from reality or to kick back in your own virtual home theater, check out the new Google Daydream View. Priced at a very reasonable $49.00, this is a great introductory foray into virtual reality.
Coming in three different colors, the Google Daydream View is the most fashionable and versatile VR headset out there.
Made from breathable fabric, this headset is relatively comfortable to wear and looks the least clunky, but there have been complaints about light leakage through the sides of the device. Attach your 5 inch or 5.5 inch Google Pixel smartphone into the slot on the front of the View and connect to the headset via NFC, or Near Field Connection. Once connected, use the provided remote to navigate through the Android companion app. Download compatible games or search for other apps like Netflix VR and Youtube VR.
Keep in mind, this headset only works for Google’s Pixel phone lineup and has a limited compatible app library. However, VR is becoming a larger and larger focus for Google, so be on the lookout for massive increase in compatible apps for this device.
The Enthusiast
With a much larger compatible app library and a more secure fit, the Samsung Gear VR is the next step up at a reasonable $99.99.
Working at Car-Tel Communications, an Authorized AT&T Retailer, and owning a Samsung Galaxy S6, the Gear VR is the headset I have the most experience with. Compatible with the Samsung Galaxy lineup starting with the S5 through the S7 Edge, the Gear VR is the most widely applicable virtual reality headset on the market.
The Gear VR fits snugly against any size head, allowing little to no light to leak through the sides. Although it comes with a trackpad and clickable buttons built into the side of the device, any serious mobile gamer should purchase an external Bluetooth controller to get the full experience the Gear VR has to offer.
credit: Samsung.com
Connect your compatible Galaxy device via micro USB and clip it to the front of the Gear VR. Once you select your app, whether it be Netflix VR or GunJack, make sure you sit down; I’ve personally seen one or two customers fall over within a few seconds.
The Gamer
For the casual gamer looking for a new challenge, the PS VR was made for you. Unlike the Google Daydream View or the Gear VR, we are now in the tethered virtual reality sector. Video processing has now moved from the headset to a stand-alone computer, or in this case a Playstation 4.
Credit: Playstation
If you don’t already own a PS4, the grand total comes to about $1000 for a 500GB PS4 and the PS VR Launch Bundle, which comes with the headset, VR controllers, the Playstation camera, and the VR Worlds game.
PS VR Bundle
With the higher price-tag comes a much better experience. The total resolution of the PS VR is 1920×1080, or 960×1080 per eye, so right off the bat you are getting a much higher resolution than any virtual reality experience that a cellphone can provide. Playstation also provides more mainstream VR titles like Ace Combat, Batman Arkham VR, Resident Evil 7, and Gran Turismo. These are not simply older games played on a VR headset; all of these games have been optimized for the PS VR system so you can expect seamless integration with the sight, sounds, and controls offered by the PS VR.
The Zealot
For those accustomed to bottles of Mountain Dew, gaming sessions that last till dawn, and “Rigs” that run so hot they need to be water cooled, the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive are the top of the line Virtual Reality headsets on the market today.
Its really a matter of preference… (credit: pcadvisor)
If you are looking to venture into this space, be warned, you need a serious gaming computer to play these games how they were meant to be played. I own an Asus ROG with a 2.6Ghz Core i7, a Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M GPU, and 16.0 GB of RAM and I don’t even meet the lowest benchmark for Steam’s HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift. Before you buy, run a diagnostics check through Steam or download the diagnostics program on Oculus’ website.
If your Rig is up to snuff, then you probably don’t need my two cents, but for those who are thinking about making the $1500 to $2000 investment in a quality gaming computer plus a HTC Vive or Oculus Rift there are a few differences you should know about. Both have 2,160×1200 OLED resolution, 90Hz refresh rate, and 110 degree viewing angle. The main difference comes in the software and sensors. The Vive spouts 37 sensors and a front facing camera providing a Chaperone feature that outlines potential hazards in your physical space within the virtual reality (like the Matrix, but blue!) What the Oculus lacks in sensors it makes up for in games with a 53 and counting VR compatible game library.
Personally, I am waiting for the next generation of virtual reality devices to come out. The available headsets are either too expensive, too clunky, or rely on my phone (which is not quite there in terms of the pixel density for me.) I’m willing to wait and see what comes next, because I have a feeling that the next generation of VR will make us question the nature of our reality.
About the Author
An adventurer obsessed with technology. Recently relocated to Philly from SLC via motorcycle. Now I work marketing for Car-tel Communications by day and play with gadgets, games, and gizmos by night. I believe in the benefits of an integrated life, but still look forward to camping trips out of cell range.
FactoryTwoFour is where modern gentlemen are made. Here at FactoryTwoFour, we bring you those things and experiences that take taste and effort. We don’t believe in a quick way out, and hopefully neither do you. |
Some Ontario high school teachers walked of the job on Wednesday as contract talks with the government have broken down. Travis Dhanraj reports. |