text:
A reality check for the promise of the oil sands
Nathan VanderKlippeU.S. correspondent
At the joslyn north mine project
Total's Joslyn site, seen from the airNathan VanderKlippe
To build an oil sands mine, you start by tearing away the forest. You rip down trees, peel back the top layers of earth, and then cleave ground into carefully engineered trenches to divert rainfall and snow melt.
It's a complex effort, compounded by the enormous scale and cost. Here at the Joslyn project 90 minutes northwest of Fort McMurray, French giant Total SA is clearing the way for a new $8-billion mine that is a major backbone of the next chapter in the oil sands.
It is a future that is already being stamped onto the landscape with heavy machinery by dozens of companies across hundreds of kilometres of boreal forest. It promises a coming decade that will see the oil sands double in output, elevating Canada to greater prominence on the global energy stage.
But the oil sands' next chapter is suddenly in the midst of a major rewrite. Joslyn itself has become a symbol of both the eager ambition the world's oil companies have brought to northeastern Alberta, and the question marks surrounding how those ambitions will be realized. The economics of Joslyn, along with two other projects that are pillars of oil sands growth, have been placed under review by partner Suncor Energy Inc. The company has abandoned lofty growth targets in favour of a rigid focus on costs, and has even said it could abandon some projects.
That scrutiny comes amid a broad moment of reckoning for an industry that has spent most of a decade in frenzied construction. Now, amid sagging share prices and profits held back by price shocks, the oil sands industry is being forced to contemplate how profitably it can build new projects. No one expects growth to stop. It may, however, slow as question marks rise over a sweep of spending plans formulated by companies now concerned that weaker global demand and surging U.S. production will soften future oil prices.
The oil sands have been in this place before. In 1989, Syncrude Canada Ltd. was faced with such high costs that its profits largely vanished. Syncrude spent half a decade arduously wringing out better performance from its assets – a time in which its new project growth largely ground to a halt.
Some now believe the oil sands is due for another dramatic check. In a decade and a half, the cost to produce a barrel from an oil sands mine has risen from under $14 to, in some cases, over $40 – a tripling in costs over a period when Canada-wide inflation rose just 37 per cent. Meanwhile, capital costs for oil sands mines jumped more than fourfold in the past decade. And selling prices for Canadian producers are under pressure due to transportation bottlenecks. Raymond James calculated earlier this year that heavy oil producers were receiving just $45 (U.S.) a barrel, though recent prices have been stronger.
"Industry has to have a bit of a recalibration again," said Jim Carter, who oversaw the cost-cutting at Syncrude, where he was president from 1997 to 2007. That means "focusing on those operating costs, and making it more efficient as opposed to adding more capacity."
Mr. Carter is not the only one suggesting a pause might be needed in the oil sands, a time to pare back the big numbers industry has long promoted – how many barrels a day they would produce in five and 10 years time, and how many billions they would spend to get there – and focus instead on how much inefficiency it can shed.
In part, that's because larger factors, including concerns about oil prices, have had a real impact on the viability of future oil sands projects. "What may have looked like a fairly low-risk proposition may all of a sudden be the subject of a lot more discussion," said Leo de Bever, chief executive officer at Alberta Investment Management Corp., or AIMCo, which manages some $70-billion in provincial funds.
Plus, there is the concern that some of the best oil sands lands have been developed. For Gwyn Morgan, the former head of Encana Corp., poorer resources combined with tight labour markets spell trouble: "Because of some reduction in average quality combined with escalating cost, new projects must be justified by a higher price forecast than most previous ones," he said.
None of those men want to be seen as criticizing the oil sands, an industry that they both expect to continue growing and sustaining Alberta's economy. But there is, as Mr. de Bever puts it, "reason for a rethink" today.
So the oil sands sit at an important juncture. The industrial complex that surrounds Fort McMurray now pumps over two million barrels a day, but is on the cusp of a tremendous expansion. According to numbers gathered by the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental consultancy and advocacy group, another million barrels a day are under construction, plans for a further two million barrels a day have been granted regulatory blessing and companies have applied for approval on an additional two million barrels a day. Across the oil sands, more than five million barrels a day is under way in some form, equivalent to nearly 6 per cent of total current global consumption. For Canada, those potential barrels represent tens of billions of dollars in construction spending, and even more in long-term revenues and royalties.
In other words, the stakes for getting the next chapter right could hardly be higher. But that may require building less, and doing it better.
"We're the high-cost barrel around the world," Mr. Carter said. "And if we want to stay competitive, we have to be constantly vigilant on our operating costs, and also on the cost of building facilities as well."
'A MEGAPROJECT, FOR SURE'
Even in its early stages, the scale of a single oil sands project is almost cartoonishly exaggerated. Take Joslyn, whose plans call for a 100,000-barrel-a-day mine that will constitute Total's first major foray into building and operating an oil sands project. The contracts for early works alone – the process of readying the site for major construction – occupy 30 three-inch binders. The effort required to conduct that early work has consumed just shy of a half million person-hours, including the logging of 1,600 hectares of forest. Once the trees are down, heavy equipment comes in to "clear and grub," knocking down remaining shrubs and trees, and transforming a green area into a blank canvas of earth.
At one spot on the Joslyn site, it took three months to conduct that process over an area 3.5-by-2.5 kilometres in size. Workers equipped with bulldozers and large dump trucks are clearing and grubbing a hectare every 1.7 hours. In some areas, they then strip away the top layers of earth, sorting into three different types of piles, according to its composition. The material is stored in windrows up to five metres tall and 500 metres long, where it will remain until it is needed to rebuild the landscape years from now. Joslyn has regulatory approval to disturb up to 5,000 hectares at a time. That's an area 12 times Vancouver's Stanley park, although the company is nowhere near that today.
Those on site speak casually about the work ahead: a long stretch of giant electrical transmission towers will have to be picked up and placed elsewhere. A paved road passes over what will one day be the mining pit. It will have to move, too, and 18 kilometres of new highway built. At another area of cleared land – this one three by one kilometres in size – plans call for a camp to be set up. It will have 4,000 rooms.
"It's a megaproject, for sure," said Rolfe Timm, the site manager for Joslyn, a position that places him in charge of the extraordinary number of moving parts needed to build the mine. The oil sands, he said, "were on the map before, and we're really getting on the map now."
Mr. Timm spent much of his career building coal mines. But, he said, "the complexity is much higher in the oil sands."
That complexity is one of the reasons for investor unease about not just Joslyn, but the array of projects that stretch out across the horizon from it, over a huge area of northeastern Alberta. They are enormously difficult to design and build. They are enormously costly. And that has not gone unnoticed, by investors or executives.
So even as Mr. Timm prepares for another winter of work on the site, he knows the preparations away from his field headquarters have grown complicated. In late July, Steve Williams, CEO of Suncor, announced that he was applying "rigorous scrutiny" to the company's coming projects. That includes those projects it has partnered with Total to build: Joslyn, another mine called Fort Hills, and an oil sands processing "upgrader" called Voyageur.
It's a major shift for Suncor, which has abandoned growth targets in favour of pursuing profitable growth – even if it means cutting loose some of its plans. Mr. Williams was explicit: "In principle, there is the opportunity to not progress those projects."
For Mr. Timm, that means things are in a state of flux. People in what he calls "the project world" are "taking a step back and they're having a hard look at their projects, and they're making sure the cost side of the business is optimized and they get the return for the investments," he said. It's what "any good business people do."
A MISSION OF CUTTING COSTS
Today, they call it "sweating the assets." Three decades ago, it was "getting more bacon out of the pig."
Either way, it is a gruelling process, and not always done by choice. That was the case at Syncrude in 1989, a year when it cost $17.17 to make a barrel of crude that sold for $21.40. Layer on a 50 per cent royalty, and there was barely anything left to pay back capital. Something had to give. Jim Carter was in charge of figuring out what.
"We had to get the costs down if we were going to make it attractive for further investment," he said.
It took five years of whittling away, asking workers for ideas on how to improve efficiency, and even paying them back for some of the gains their ideas produced. They discovered that oily sand was falling off the edge of conveyors, causing them to "trip," or shut off. So they built skirting. They changed conveyor gear ratios to speed them up. They tinkered with the chemical processes in their coker, which uses high heat to process heavy oil into a lighter product.
The result: Annual production rose from 54 million barrels in 1989 to 74 million in 1995. Major maintenance work at the cokers moved from once every 12 months to once every 24 to 30. And operating costs fell to $13.69 a barrel, using "essentially the same hardware."
That experience, Mr. Carter said, is directly applicable to today's oil sands, where the most expensive new projects require crude prices of $90 (U.S.) to bring home a reasonable return. Even some of the companies with what are historically the cheapest projects are facing mounting costs: Cenovus Energy Inc. has said it needs $35 a barrel on its current plants. Projects in years to come will need $65.
The higher the needed crude price, the more vulnerable the oil sands are – which is why Mr. Carter says it is increasingly imperative for companies to focus on pruning existing operations, rather than merely building new ones.
"We have to really refocus here and make sure we have our house in order in terms of our operating costs and our capital costs on major projects, otherwise we're going to slow down the growth opportunity that's available to us in the oil sands," he said.
He isn't alone. AIMCo's Mr. de Bever points to the continued inefficiencies in producing oil sands crude, where the average in situ operation, which uses underground steam injections rather than an open-pit mine to produce bitumen, burns a barrel's worth of energy for every five barrels produced. Mines are just a bit more than twice as efficient. But bitumen still requires substantial energy to transform into a transportation fuel – further widening the gap with the sellers of conventional crude, who use a barrel of energy to produce upwards of 100 barrels of oil.
And as companies take a hard look at their new projects, Mr. de Bever said the equipment they're seeking to employ must be part of the conversation. After all, what gets built today will operate for 25 – and perhaps 40 – years.
"The technology needs a quantum leap in efficiency to really be attractive in the very, very long run," he said.
The industry itself has acknowledged change is needed. In a recent speech, Suncor's Mr. Williams suggested that technology was critical to his company "improving efficiencies." The "leaning," or cost-trimming, business of consultants like PricewaterhouseCoopers has doubled or tripled in recent years, as companies hire efficiency experts from other industries, including pharmaceuticals and automotive, to help in the oil sands.
Total spokeswoman Elizabeth Cordeau-Chatelain said the current "business review" of projects like Joslyn includes a look at "engineering decisions, you look at efficiencies, you look at cost, you look at all those things."
What happens to Joslyn appears to be an open question. Ms. Cordeau-Chatelain said the company has not updated its 2013 time line for a decision on whether to build the mine. For now, it's pressing ahead with a winter season that will involve clearing and grubbing more square kilometres of northern Alberta.
BMO analyst Randy Ollenberger suggests that among oil sands projects, Joslyn "is probably one of those ones that it is on the bubble" as Suncor tries to spread out its coming work to avoid inflation.
But, he notes, the current focus on costs comes amid a broader demand from investors that "we'd rather have the money than continue to see you push forward with all these projects." In response, dividends and share buybacks have risen across the oil patch. But if the economy starts to pick up again, that's liable to shift quickly. It's entirely possible, Mr. Ollenberger said, that two years from now the economy may look better and markets may "be prepared to pay a premium for growth rather than a premium for yield" – a circumstance that could dramatically shift the calculus in the oil sands.
For now, though, Total says, those working behind closed doors are contemplating a series of difficult decisions.
"When you have three projects you're looking at together, you have to figure out how to sort them out and what are the priorities," Ms. Cordeau-Chatelain said. That means, she said, figuring out "what the best practices are to make them be the most viable projects going forward."
Follow Nathan VanderKlippe on Twitter: @nvanderklippeOpens in a new window
Foreign suitors circle oil patch as Ottawa weighs Nexen deal
Nexen shareholders approve $15.1-billion takeover by China's CNOOC
Oil industry calls BS on critics
The growing reach of Canadian crude oil
Suncor digs for value with $1-billion share buyback
Nathan VanderKlippe


Our deepest sympathies on the loss of your father. May G-d comfort you and your family during this difficult time.
We extend our condolences and sympathy.
May you be surrounded and comforted by the loving embrace of Jesus and your friends and family.
Sending a huge hug and kitty purrs, too.
Sending you our best thoughts and sympathy and purrs. We know this Father's Day must have been very hard for her and we know you will be extra loving and purry. XOXOXO We look forward to hearing about him next week--he's musta been a pretty great guy cause he raised a fantastic daughter!
Very sorry to hear of your loss. Sendin hugs and purrs.
We are so sorry to hear this .
We are so deeply sorry. Our condolences and purrs to your human mom and her family. Peace and blessings to all.
The head peep has been thinking of you all weekend. Much love to you in such a sad time.
Sorry for your loss. Take your time and remember all the good times you had with him.
Our thoughts to you in this difficult time.
We're so very sorry for the loss of your sweet daddy. You've been constantly in our thoughts ever since we heard the news. We hope you feel our virtual purrs and hugs coming through.
Our sympathies. We can't wait to read about him.
We send our deepest sympathy, (I KNOW all too well how hard it is to lose a father)....our hearts are broken. Sending you love and comfort.
Please accept our deepest condolences. We are praying for strength and comfort for you at this time.
We're so very sorry for your loss. Our deepest purrs and firmest hugs to you friends.
Sending prayers, purrs and gentle headbutts to all of you. This must have been a very hard Sunday for you, so here are some gentle hugs too. Keep your memories close in your heart.
I am so sorry for your loss. I hope that your wonderful memories will comfort you during this very difficult time.
We are so very sorry. Take your time to grieve.
So sorry, sending comforting purrs to you.
We are so very sorry, Mom Lisa. Sending purrs, prayers and love as you mourn the loss of your father.
We were so sorry to hear about your mom's dad. We're sending comforting thoughts, purrs, and prayers.
We're so sorry for your loss. We're sending prayers and hugs to all of you.
Sending comforting purrz to your Mom.


text:
:mod:`bz2` --- Compression compatible with :program:`bzip2`
===========================================================

.. module:: bz2
   :synopsis: Interface to compression and decompression routines compatible with bzip2.
.. moduleauthor:: Gustavo Niemeyer <niemeyer@conectiva.com>
.. sectionauthor:: Gustavo Niemeyer <niemeyer@conectiva.com>

.. versionadded:: 2.3

This module provides a comprehensive interface for the bz2 compression library.
It implements a complete file interface, one-shot (de)compression functions, and
types for sequential (de)compression.

For other archive formats, see the :mod:`gzip`, :mod:`zipfile`, and
:mod:`tarfile` modules.

Here is a summary of the features offered by the bz2 module:

* :class:`BZ2File` class implements a complete file interface, including
  :meth:`readline`, :meth:`readlines`, :meth:`writelines`, :meth:`seek`, etc;

* :class:`BZ2File` class implements emulated :meth:`seek` support;

* :class:`BZ2File` class implements universal newline support;

* :class:`BZ2File` class offers an optimized line iteration using the readahead
  algorithm borrowed from file objects;

* Sequential (de)compression supported by :class:`BZ2Compressor` and
  :class:`BZ2Decompressor` classes;

* One-shot (de)compression supported by :func:`compress` and :func:`decompress`
  functions;

* Thread safety uses individual locking mechanism.

(De)compression of files
------------------------

Handling of compressed files is offered by the :class:`BZ2File` class.

.. class:: BZ2File(filename[, mode[, buffering[, compresslevel]]])

   Open a bz2 file. Mode can be either ``'r'`` or ``'w'``, for reading (default)
   or writing. When opened for writing, the file will be created if it doesn't
   exist, and truncated otherwise. If *buffering* is given, ``0`` means
   unbuffered, and larger numbers specify the buffer size; the default is
   ``0``. If *compresslevel* is given, it must be a number between ``1`` and
   ``9``; the default is ``9``. Add a ``'U'`` to mode to open the file for input
   with universal newline support. Any line ending in the input file will be
   seen as a ``'\n'`` in Python.  Also, a file so opened gains the attribute
   :attr:`newlines`; the value for this attribute is one of ``None`` (no newline
   read yet), ``'\r'``, ``'\n'``, ``'\r\n'`` or a tuple containing all the
   newline types seen. Universal newlines are available only when
   reading. Instances support iteration in the same way as normal :class:`file`
   instances.

   .. method:: close()

      Close the file. Sets data attribute :attr:`closed` to true. A closed file
      cannot be used for further I/O operations. :meth:`close` may be called
      more than once without error.

   .. method:: read([size])

      Read at most *size* uncompressed bytes, returned as a string. If the
      *size* argument is negative or omitted, read until EOF is reached.

   .. method:: readline([size])

      Return the next line from the file, as a string, retaining newline. A
      non-negative *size* argument limits the maximum number of bytes to return
      (an incomplete line may be returned then). Return an empty string at EOF.

   .. method:: readlines([size])

      Return a list of lines read. The optional *size* argument, if given, is an
      approximate bound on the total number of bytes in the lines returned.

   .. method:: xreadlines()

      For backward compatibility. :class:`BZ2File` objects now include the
      performance optimizations previously implemented in the :mod:`xreadlines`
      module.

      .. deprecated:: 2.3
         This exists only for compatibility with the method by this name on
         :class:`file` objects, which is deprecated.  Use ``for line in file``
         instead.

   .. method:: seek(offset[, whence])

      Move to new file position. Argument *offset* is a byte count. Optional
      argument *whence* defaults to ``os.SEEK_SET`` or ``0`` (offset from start
      of file; offset should be ``>= 0``); other values are ``os.SEEK_CUR`` or
      ``1`` (move relative to current position; offset can be positive or
      negative), and ``os.SEEK_END`` or ``2`` (move relative to end of file;
      offset is usually negative, although many platforms allow seeking beyond
      the end of a file).

      Note that seeking of bz2 files is emulated, and depending on the
      parameters the operation may be extremely slow.

   .. method:: tell()

      Return the current file position, an integer (may be a long integer).

   .. method:: write(data)

      Write string *data* to file. Note that due to buffering, :meth:`close` may
      be needed before the file on disk reflects the data written.

   .. method:: writelines(sequence_of_strings)

      Write the sequence of strings to the file. Note that newlines are not
      added. The sequence can be any iterable object producing strings. This is
      equivalent to calling write() for each string.

Sequential (de)compression
--------------------------

Sequential compression and decompression is done using the classes
:class:`BZ2Compressor` and :class:`BZ2Decompressor`.

.. class:: BZ2Compressor([compresslevel])

   Create a new compressor object. This object may be used to compress data
   sequentially. If you want to compress data in one shot, use the
   :func:`compress` function instead. The *compresslevel* parameter, if given,
   must be a number between ``1`` and ``9``; the default is ``9``.

   .. method:: compress(data)

      Provide more data to the compressor object. It will return chunks of
      compressed data whenever possible. When you've finished providing data to
      compress, call the :meth:`flush` method to finish the compression process,
      and return what is left in internal buffers.

   .. method:: flush()

      Finish the compression process and return what is left in internal
      buffers. You must not use the compressor object after calling this method.

.. class:: BZ2Decompressor()

   Create a new decompressor object. This object may be used to decompress data
   sequentially. If you want to decompress data in one shot, use the
   :func:`decompress` function instead.

   .. method:: decompress(data)

      Provide more data to the decompressor object. It will return chunks of
      decompressed data whenever possible. If you try to decompress data after
      the end of stream is found, :exc:`EOFError` will be raised. If any data
      was found after the end of stream, it'll be ignored and saved in
      :attr:`unused_data` attribute.

One-shot (de)compression
------------------------

One-shot compression and decompression is provided through the :func:`compress`
and :func:`decompress` functions.

.. function:: compress(data[, compresslevel])

   Compress *data* in one shot. If you want to compress data sequentially, use
   an instance of :class:`BZ2Compressor` instead. The *compresslevel* parameter,
   if given, must be a number between ``1`` and ``9``; the default is ``9``.

.. function:: decompress(data)

   Decompress *data* in one shot. If you want to decompress data sequentially,
   use an instance of :class:`BZ2Decompressor` instead.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
RE/MAX Coast Delta Realty
Coast Delta Realty
Homestead Tax Information
About Mississippi
Official State Website of Mississippi
Mississippi Economic Council
Guide to Mississippi's Counties
MS Gulf Coast Communities:
RE/MAX Career Videos
Explore one of our Beautiful MS Gulf Coast Communities!
Bay St. Louis: http://baystlouis-ms.gov/
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Harrison County: http://co.harrison.ms.us/
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Blake Ellis (* 6. Januar 1999 in Brisbane, Queensland) ist ein australischer Tennisspieler.

Karriere

Juniorenkarriere
Als Junior spielte Ellis erfolgreich Tennis. Im Jahr 2016 ging er bei alle vier Juniorausgaben der Grand-Slam-Turniere an den Start. 2017 erreichte er bei einem Turnier dieser Kategorie in Paris erstmals das Viertelfinale, sein bestes Abschneiden, das er gegen Nicola Kuhn verlor. Im Doppel war Ellis erfolgreicher: 2016 gewann er mit Alex De Minaur die Australian Open. 2016 bei den French Open sowie bei seinem letzten Juniorenturnier 2017 in Wimbledon (diesmal mit Matteo Martineau) unterlag er im Halbfinale. Er erreichte mit Platz 23 seine höchste Juniorennotierung.

Karriere als Profi
Schon früh spielte Ellis Turniere auf der drittklassigen ITF Future Tour. Sein erstes Match auf der höherdotierten ATP Challenger Tour gewann er in Canberra 2017, als er Lucas Miedler und Evan King besiegte. Ende des Jahres stand er auf Platz 675 der Tennisweltrangliste im Einzel und auf Rang 757 im Doppel. Anfang 2018 erreichte er mit dem Halbfinale in Kyōto sein bis dato bestes Abschneiden bei einem Challenger. Er gewann dabei sechs Matches in Folge, ehe er an John Millman, dem Turniersieger, scheiterte. Im Doppel konnte er seinen zweiten Future-Titel feiern.

Das Jahr 2019 begann für Ellis mit seinem Grand-Slam-Debüt bei den Australian Open erfolgreich. Dort trat er mit Alexei Popyrin an und besiegte zwei besser dotierte Paarungen, ehe sie gegen Łukasz Kubot und Horacio Zeballos unterlagen. Danach stand er mit Platz 348 im Einzel am höchsten im Einzelranking. Der Rest des Jahres verlief ohne Höhepunkte, im Doppel schaffte er mit passablen Ergebnissen im September mit Rang 212 noch sein Karrierehoch zu steigern. 2020 flog er in Melbourne mit seinem Vorjahrespartner in der ersten Runde raus. In die Corona-Pause ging er mit einem deutlich niedrigeren Ranking als im Vorjahr.

Erfolge

Doppel

Turniersiege

Weblinks

Tennisspieler (Australien)
Australier
Geboren 1999
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


CET's Property Assure business is pleased to announce our success in obtaining funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) http://www.esa.int/ESA for their innovative Ground Instability Risk Profiling initiative (GIRP). The ESA funding will greatly assist ourf GIRP study, to enable accurate and predictive ground stability risk profiling to the insurance industry through the integration of property data sources and satellite information.
The study will be undertaken across the insurance sector and we are delighted that our User Group is comprised of key stakeholders from a number of high calibre, global insurance related organisations. Supporting us in the design of the service are several highly respected Geology and Space Technology providers.
The use of satellites has never been used before in the UK's subsidence market and this initiative will explore how measurement relating to ground movement to be monitored from outer space can be made and reported. "You think of satellites as being really hi-tech and measuring small movements would be impossible", stated Andy Lucas, Property Assure MD "but with the advancement of space and satellite technology, we are confident we will develop a platform to integrate satellites and subsidence in a day-to-day environment".
Andy adds 'The Launch Lunch was a great success and brought together all the key parties for the first time. It really started to develop our key relationships for a successful project delivery'.
It is well documented that the incidents of subsidence will grow over the next 10-25 years (British Geological Survey, Environmental Agency and Swiss Institute of Technology). Whilst we have seen significant development in flood mapping, subsidence and ground stability remains a challenge – a challenge that the Ground Instability Risk Profiling service will address.
The Project will take 10 months to complete.


text:
Ungarn nahm an den Olympischen Sommerspielen 1976 in Montreal mit einer Delegation von 178 Athleten (124 Männer und 54 Frauen) an 109 Wettkämpfen in 17 Sportarten teil.

Die ungarischen Sportler gewannen vier Gold-, fünf Silber- und 13 Bronzemedaillen. Im Medaillenspiegel der Spiele platzierte sich Ungarn damit auf dem zehnten Platz. Olympiasieger wurden der Turner Zoltán Magyar am Pauschenpferd, der Speerwerfer Miklós Németh, die Florettfechterin Ildikó Schwarczenberger und die Wasserballmannschaft der Männer. Silber sicherten sich der Gewichtheber György Kőszegi im Fliegengewicht, der Freistilringer József Balla im Superschwergewicht und die Kanuten Zoltán Sztanity im Einer-Kajak über 500 Meter, Géza Csapó im Einer-Kajak über 1000 Meter sowie Anna Pfeffer und Klára Rajnai im Zweier-Kajak über 500 Meter. Fahnenträger bei der Eröffnungsfeier war der Fechter Jenő Kamuti.

Teilnehmer nach Sportarten

Boxen
 László Pákozdi
 Sándor Orbán
 József Nagy
 Vilmos Jakab
 József Jakab
 György Gedó
 András Botos
 Tibor Badari

Fechten
Männer
 Lajos Somodi
 Pál Schmitt
 István Osztrics
 Péter Marót
 Tamás Kovács
 Csaba Körmöczi
 József Komatits
 Jenő Kamuti
 Ferenc Hammang
 Imre Gedővári
 Csaba Fenyvesi
 Sándor Erdős
 Győző Kulcsár
  Degen

Frauen
 Ildikó Ujlakiné-Rejtő
  Florett Mannschaft
 Magda Maros
  Florett Mannschaft
 Edit Kovács
  Florett Mannschaft
 Ildikó Bóbis
  Florett Mannschaft
 Ildikó Schwarczenberger
  Florett
  Florett Mannschaft

Gewichtheben
 Lajos Szűcs
 Imre Stefanovics
 András Stark
 János Rehus-Uzor
 János Komjáti
 Imre Földi
 Ferenc Antalovics
 Péter Baczakó
  Leichtschwergewicht
 György Kőszegi
  Fliegengewicht

Handball
Männer
 6. Platz
 Gábor Verőci
 Károly Vass
 István Varga
 István Szilágyi
 Mihály Süvöltős
 Péter Kovács
 Zsolt Kontra
 József Kenyeres
 László Jánovszki
 Ernő Gubányi
 Ferenc Buday
 Béla Bartalos

Frauen

 Ágota Bujdosó
 Mária Megyeri
 Borbála Tóth-Harsányi
 Katalin Laki
 Amália Sterbinszky
 Ilona Nagy
 Klára Csík
 Rozália Lelkes
 Mária Vadász
 Erzsébet Neméth
 Éva Angyal
 Mária Berzsenyi
 Marianna Nagy-Gódor
 Zsuzsanna Kézi

Judo
 Imre Varga
 Mihály Petrovszky
 Károly Molnár
 Endre Kiss
 László Ipacs
 József Tuncsik

Kanu
Männer
 Károly Szegedi
 Zoltán Romhányi
 János Rátkai
 Csaba Giczy
 József Deme
 Tamás Wichmann
  Einer-Canadier 1000 m
 István Szabó
  Zweier-Kajak 1000 m
 Zoltán Bakó
  Zweier-Kajak 1000 m
 Zoltán Sztanity
  Einer-Kajak 500 m
 Géza Csapó
  Einer-Kajak 1000 m
 Oszkár Frey
  Zweier-Canadier 500 m
  Zweier-Canadier 1000 m
 Tamás Buday
  Zweier-Canadier 500 m
  Zweier-Canadier 1000 m

Frauen
 Anna Pfeffer
  Zweier-Kajak 500 m
 Klára Rajnai
  Einer-Kajak 500 m
  Zweier-Kajak 500 m

Leichtathletik
Männer
 János Zemen
 Ferenc Tégla
 Imre Stankovics
 Ferenc Paragi
 István Major
 Endre Lépold
 Endre Kelemen
 János Faragó
 Sándor Boros
 Miklós Németh
  Speerwurf

Frauen
 Ilona Bruzsenyák
 Magdolna Lázár
 Ildikó Szabó-Erdélyi
 Margit Papp
 Anikó Milassin
 Andrea Mátay

Moderner Fünfkampf
 Tamás Kancsal
  Mannschaft
 Tibor Maracskó
  Mannschaft
 Szvetiszláv Sasics
  Mannschaft

Radsport
 Gábor Szűcs

Ringen
 Mihály Toma
 Ferenc Toma
 Ferenc Seres
 István Séllyei
 János Rovnyai
 Lajos Rácz
 Géza Molnár
 István Kovács
 János Kocsis
 László Klinga
 Csaba Hegedűs
 Mihály Gyulai
 Henrik Gál
 Mihály Fodor
 József Farkas
 József Doncsecz
 László Réczi
  Federgewicht, griech.-römisch
 József Balla
  Superschwergewicht, Freistil

Rudern
Frauen
 Ágnes Szijj
 Katalin Pál-Ribáry
 Erzsébet Nagy
 Kamilla Kosztolányi
 Judit Kéri-Novák
 Valéria Gyimesi
 Ilona Bata
 Mariann Ambrus

Schießen
 István Talabos
 Gyula Szabó
 Lajos Papp
 Sándor Nagy
 László Hammerl
 György Gruber
 Tibor Bodnár

Schwimmen
Männer
 Zoltán Wladár
 Zoltán Verrasztó
 Csaba Sós
 Róbert Rudolf
 Sándor Nagy
 István Koczka
 András Hargitay

Frauen
 Gabriella Verrasztó

Segeln
 András Haán

Turnen
Männer
 Imre Molnár
 Béla Laufer
 Árpád Farkas
 Ferenc Donáth
 Imre Bánrévi
 Zoltán Magyar

Frauen
 Margit Tóth
 Éva Óvári
 Krisztina Medveczky
 Mária Lővey
 Márta Kelemen
 Márta Egervári

Volleyball
Frauen
 4. Platz
 Ágnes Torma
 Zsuzsa Szloboda
 Emerencia Siry-Király
 Éva Sebők-Szalay
 Judit Schlégl-Blaumann
 Ágnes Gajdos-Hubai
 Katalin Eichler-Schadek
 Gabriella Csapó-Fekete
 Zsuzsa Biszku
 Éva Biszku
 Gyöngyi Bardi-Gerevich
 Lucia Bánhegyi-Radó

Wasserball

 Gábor Csapó
 Tibor Cservenyák
 Tamás Faragó
 György Gerendás
 György Horkai
 György Kenéz
 Ferenc Konrád
 Endre Molnár
 László Sárosi
 Attila Sudár
 István Szívós

Weblinks

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Sommerspiele 1976


text:
Perk up at the Berkeley Coffee and Tea Festival
By Guest contributor Aug. 10, 2012, 9 a.m. Nov. 7, 12:52 p.m.
Last year's Coffee and Tea Festival drew 400 participants. The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, which is organizing the 2012 event at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza, expects even more people this year. Photo: Ira Serkes
By Hannah Long
Sina Carroll is a committed tea enthusiast. She travels to China twice a year to source high-end tea from local farmers and sells a wide selection through her online store Red Circle Tea. Carroll has no employees and acts as the company's owner, accountant, and buyer; her favorite part of the job, however, is teaching others about the craft of tea making.
"I love the process of steeping tea for others," said Carroll. "I like to show people how easy, elegant, and fun it can be to make tea in this beautiful and traditional way. The look of wonder on their faces when they see this ritual is amazing."
Carroll's favorite place to share her enthusiasm and meet other tea connoisseurs is the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce's Coffee and Tea Festival. The second annual festival, which will be held on Saturday, August 18th at Hotel Shattuck Plaza, will feature dozens of local coffee, tea, and dessert vendors. Along with Carroll's Red Circle Tea, other offerings will include traditional lattes from Berkeley favorite Caffe Mediterraneum, and unique Vietnamese coffee from V Café. (See below on how to win free tickets to the Festival!)
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Longtime Chamber of Commerce member Richard Hom is one of Berkeley's most enthusiastic coffee and tea drinkers, and the festival was his idea. Hom was inspired by his love for Peet's rich, strong coffee and a recent trip to China, during which he toured a traditional tea farm.
"When I think of coffee and tea, I think of Berkeley," said Hom. "It seemed like the perfect fit. And as far as I'm aware, and I've done a lot of research, no one else does a coffee and tea festival geared completely to the consumer."
Latte art. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Although Hom knew that his own enthusiasm for coffee and tea was probably matched by other Berkeley residents, last year's festival was far more popular than even he imagined. Early that Saturday morning, 400 people showed up clamoring for coffee, tea, and treats. Many of the attendees were local small business owners and Chamber of Commerce members, but coffee and tea aficionados traveled all the way from Southern California and Sacramento for the event.
The festival's schedule provides ample time for tasting, chatting, and learning. For four hours, vendors will be exhibiting products, supplying samples, and answering questions. During this time, two panel discussions will take place. Coffee 2.0, which will discuss the merits of specialty coffee, will be led by Kenneth Davids, author and founder of The Coffee Review. James Norwood Pratt, a highly regarded author and tea expert, will lead a discussion about proper tea brewing methods in Tea 2.0. The festival will conclude with a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
Carroll, who will be on the panel for Tea 2.0, says that the Coffee and Tea Festival allows her to share her own knowledge, connect with other vendors, and learn new things herself.
"For me, the best part of the tea and coffee experience is trying new things and discovering new types, and The Coffee and Tea Festival provides the perfect opportunity for this adventure," she said.
The Berkeley Coffee and Tea Festival will take place on August 18, 9am to 1:00pm, at the Hotel Shattuck Plaza. Tickets cost $25 and can be purchased online or at the door.
As a sponsor of the Coffee and Tea Festival, Berkeleyside has a few free tickets to give away to our members (ie, anyone who is supporting us with donations, whether one-off or regular). The first five Berkeleyside members to email wendy@berkeleyside.com will each receive a pair of tickets to the event, worth $50.
Participants to this year's Festival include: Anfilo Coffee (Ethiopian coffee); Berkeley Coffee & Tea Company; Caffe Mediterraneum; Catahoula Coffee Company; Clarine's Florentines; Five Mountains Coffee Company; Genuto; Madecasse Chocolates; Moschetti Roasters; Nothing Bundt Cakes; Red Circle Tea; Silk Road Teas; The Tea Room
Find out more about the Berkeley Coffee and Tea Festival here.
To find out about more events in Berkeley and nearby, visit Berkeleyside's Events Calendar. We also encourage you to submit your own events.
Berkeley Chamber of CommerceBerkeley food and drinksCaffe MediterraneumcoffeeDowntown BerkeleyPeet's Coffee & Tea


With various passive RFID products coming out, we extended our trading business to all types of rfid tags, including RFID animal tags, RFID Keyring tags, RFID laundry tags, RFID Library tags, RFID Wristband, RFID Anti-metal tags and so on. The range covered Low frequency 125khz, High Frequency 13.56mhz and Ultra High Frequency 860~960mhz.
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Now, we own industrial area of around 3,000 square meters along with three production lines and more than 100 employees. The monthly output is 40 million pieces for PVC plastic cards, 5.5 million pieces for smart cards and 5 million pieces for RFID tags .
We are committed to R&D on RFID Tags based on customer's demand and market's trends, ensure several new products comes out per year to provide a wider choices.
Our overseas sales are experienced in Business English and RFID, your visiting to our factory anytime is welcome. And your inquiries will be replied professionally within 24hours.


Don Peracchi, President of Westlands Water District, published this advertisement in the LAT over the weekend. Titled "A Little Straight Talk About Agriculture, Saving Water and Drainage," it is certainly very straight talk - straight from the point of view of a very influential and impressively well-organized interest group.
Not that this establishes a particularly high bar for why Westlands - as opposed to other territories - should survive, but in principle, despite the hubris, I agree!
I'd also concede that Peracchi's correct when he cries foul about some of the tired, old cliches Westlands' bashers trot out - about excess water use, for example. I get tired of them, too.
Westlands gets that they are an agri-culture of water that must deal with scarcity, like every other interest and entitlement. Farming requires extremely rational thinking. And if it takes a gallon of water to produce a single almond, then you'd better use that water very efficiently.
What is a corporation? Is it "corporate" farming when you have - to paraphrase Peracchi - 2,250 landowners farming an average farm size of 710 acres, all or most of whom buy into a very expensive and very effective legal and public relations apparatus? Would you, family farmer, call that "family farming?" Many corporations are family businesses, too - like the Walton family. So, my definition is that when farming aggregates to 1.6 million acres, or 2,484 square miles of land, it might not be corporate, but whatever it is, that's a lot of power for 2,250 families.
I haven't done the math, but how many gallons of water do these 2,250 families use to make a living? How many, compared to a tomato farmer in Spain? A single family of farmers, mind you - since that is the metric here.
Of course. The "wasting water" argument. We'll have to agree to disagree about whether it is a waste to maintain ecosystems on life support or to send publicly subsidized water to a factory of toxic materials and almonds.
What defines "community?" In his advertisement, Peracchi also appeals to us to recognize the "communities that have grown there as a result" of the creation of Westlands. Like Punjab, India's vicious circle of ever-increasing use and contamination of its groundwater water supply, there is perhaps no more environmentally unsustainable landscape of small communities anywhere in the U.S. If you don't believe me, perhaps you'll believe Facebook's advertising algorithm.
What is a waste of money? Finally, there's Westlands' ace in the hole: the absolutely intractable issue of who is responsible to "provide drainage services" to their salt-laced lands. I've already written about this Big Problem, so I won't revisit the details of Westlands' "we-are-the-victim-of-Government-inaction" argument.
For the sake of argument, though, let's just say Westlands' advocates are right, that their 2,250 family farms are the victims here. So what's next? Shall continued hundreds of millions of dollars be spent by them and others in perpetuity on legal battles and local infrastructures to mediate and remediate what is obviously an insoluble situation?
Westlands gets water, Westlands irrigates land, Westlands produces a toxic drainage soup that cannot enter the Delta. "Don't look at us," Westlands claims. Not our problem. Their's or someone else's, it is most definitely a problem, one that has no technical solution.
It seems to me that this is pretty simple math that the owners of Westlands property, smart people, probably get.
If you look at a time scale of 50 years, which is the time scale that should be looked at here, the only rational solution is for the Feds to buy out Westlands "family farms." Give them their money. They win - move onto the fourth inning.
They are so picked on.
Mr. Peracchi drones on with tired cliches that are no more or less true than those used by some of his detractors.
Mr Peracchi proudly tells us that "not a drop of drain water has left Westlands after 1986", yet their downhill neighbors the Grasslands Drainers continue to deal with their sewage coming down the hill necessitating multiple 10 year exemptions from the SWRCB discharge requirements.
I agree with you that the only long term solution is to buy them out and end the irrigation,just don't hold your breath waiting.
Unless and until they are allowed to retain and upgrade their water rights to senior status they are not for sale.
The water is the prize not the land.
If we buy them out and they retain their water rights they win and taxpayers lose.
If we buy them out and they lose their water rights the taxpayers, both state and federal, win.
Chris hits the nail on the head and is the point missed by just about everyone…it is t the land that is the prize, it is the water.
WWD knows it has to fallow their toxic land…planting permanent crops within their boundaries has never been about the long term crops, it has always been about the water allotments.
As expressed by Hank Nordhoff, former Delta Stewardship Council appointee from San Diego, it is about putting OUR public trust resource, water, to the highest economic value and folks, crops are NOT the highest economic value for water!
But Tejon Ranch, Newhall Park, Saltflats development in Redwood City to name just three, all depend on water exported from the Delta to be built.
As always, read their EIR documents where the must declare where the water will be supplied from for a start and then follow the money.
The money trail leads right back to the stole. kern Water Bank. Every. Single.
The reference to Westlands in comparison to "growing crops in a saline estuary" referring to the Delta fertile farmland is incorrect and misleading. The Delta Estuary is NOT saline. It may become that way if the exporters are allowed to continue over-exporting and surely will become salt water if the BDCP Delta Tunnels are built. But that is the crime and the hoax. Westlands is robbing fresh water from the north and will ruin fertile Delta farmlands in order to irrigate selenium laced, damaged land to sell profitable almonds to Asia.
They claim it's family farms. As you drive down I-5 through endless almond orchards do you see any family farmhouses? No. Schools? No. Farm communities? No.
Drive through the Delta if you want to see family farms, schoolhouses, churches and communities.
Yes, of course, of course - it's about the water, not the land, which is nigh on worthless without the water. And of course the buyout would have to include buying out whatever "water rights" they have.
As for "growing crops in a saline estuary:" sure, it's a quite a lot more shaded than that, depending where you are in the Delta, what time of year it is, how much water is being "not wasted," and so on. So calling the Delta saline may be a rhetorical flourish, but so is "the crime and the hoax," "robbing," etc. I've got no problem with either.
Unfortunately John it feels like we're headed for a worst case scenario.
Yeah, I saw that, Chris - and you might be right. One should try to be glass half full whenever possible, don't you think, and in order to do that, I will continue to hammer at Westlands every chance they give me. Like this time.
Any rational and neutral person who looks at the full extent of the water supply and demand issues will ultimately conclude that it is Westlands, more than any other single interest. that should be left without a chair when the music stops.
It just hasn't stopped yet.
Yes, whether this rational conclusion has any utility in a culture defined by a century and a half of "greed is good" tradition and ideology, talented lawyers and pr flacks, and indifference - who's to say?


The Tigers came back to friendly confines and came away victorious.
Ivan Bolden (5) gets a block and takes off for his 77-yard trip to the house in the first quarter.
T.J. Mills Stadium also saw the return of alumni members from the Tigerettes, band, and twirlers.
The student section brought the noise for the season-opener, assisting the defense to not make it easy on the Rattlers.
A.J. McGee (10) and Clay Roberts (2) try to entice the referees to call the flag on the motion they noticed themselves before a punt.
The Tigers made their long-awaited return to T.J. Mills Stadium and left little doubt quick, holding a 22-0 advantage after the first ten minutes of play.
Despite being forced to punt on the opening drive; when Sealy got the ball back it came out with something a little different.
A double-reverse behind the line of scrimmage ended with the ball back in quarterback Garret Zaskoda's hands and he made the connection to Ivan Bolden who beat his defender and raced the rest of the way to complete the 51-yard score.
On top of that, to earn the two-point conversion, it was sophomore receiver Draper Parker who threw to Clay Roberts in the corner of the end zone to grab an 8-0 lead in front of a home crowd that caught Head Coach Shane Mobley a bit by surprise.
"I didn't really turn around and look until halftime when I was talking on the radio and I looked up in the bleachers all the way across and I said to myself, 'This looks like a homecoming game,'" he noted.
"We had great attendance last year but I think for our first home game that's one thing we will talk about tomorrow morning before weights is how much this community is starting to get behind us…I know there's a lot of great coaches who coached here who would be very, very proud of this community," he finished.
That collective group of fans got quite the show, not only from Ivan Bolden and the rest of the Tigers but also from the alumni of the Sealy High School Band, Twirlers and Tigerettes.
Some were as recent as the last handful of years and others hadn't practiced in a handful of a handful of years. But it was certainly a memorable performance for those family members who were finally able to perform together on the field.
For the rest of the football game that was played, Bolden finished the game with 14 carries for 136 yards and a trio of scores on the ground including a 77-yard burner immediately following his receiving touchdown.
"When they called the play, I saw they were in a 4-1 [with a single linebacker] and I saw him motion away and I thought 'it's go time,' and once I saw the green I was gone," Bolden recalled.
However, despite all the points on the board early, Sealy's offensive coordinator Chris Carruthers still wasn't all too pleased with the production he had seen.
On the other hand, the defense likely doesn't need much emphasis on that killer instinct, turning down every big play from the Navasota Rattlers.
Before the visitors' final drive where they finally found the end zone, no gain exceeded ten yards as Tigers were all over the field, breaking up long pass-attempts and disallowing even more by containing quarterback Zack Dyer in the backfield.
Dyer finished the game with five completions on 20 passing attempts for 18 yards and 20 yards rushing on nine tries.
La'Darrin Thomas took over signal-calling duties at the end of the game and completed one of his two passing attempts for a yard and racked up 64 rushing yards, most of which came on his 44-yard score with just over a minute and a half left to play.
The Tigers' focus now shifts to the Waller Bulldogs who also came away from week two victorious at their own place over the Brenham Cubs, 28-21.


text:
Jennifer Gilchrist, John Tupy and Heather Hitt get bags of sweet potatoes ready for distribution. Photo by Ken Warren, USFWS.
Florida Service staff helps Food Bank distribute goods to families
By Ken Warren, South Florida Ecological ServicesDecember 3, 2018
On Nov. 14, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff members volunteered to help the Treasure Coast Food Bank distribute food, toiletries, toys and other items to about 400 needy families in Fellsmere, Florida.
This was done in conjunction with the food bank's monthly mobile pantry distribution program, where they deliver and distribute donated goods to needy families in the communities where they live.
Lindsay Nester (left) and Shana DiPalma prepare bags of toiletries. Photo by Ken Warren, USFWS.
The families lined up in their vehicles and then drove through a series of stations at Mesa Motocross Park where volunteers loaded up their vehicles with items ranging from canned goods to fresh sweet potatoes to hams to bottled water.
"All I can say is 'Thank you!' to the volunteers from the Fish and Wildlife Service out here today," said Travis Myers, program Coordinator for the Treasure Coast Food Bank. "Without them and the other volunteers, this wouldn't be such a smooth, efficient process."
At this time of the year, although it's a food bank, they get lots of donations of items for children like toys and stuffed animals.
Brian Powell sets up a table with cookies. Photo by Ken Warren, USFWS.
Biologist Lindsay Nester, of the South Florida Ecological Services Office, who organized the office's participation in the event, worked at the station where toys and toiletries were handed out. "This sounded like a great opportunity for us to give back a little bit to this community," she said.
"Helping people feels good," Lindsay added. "We met lots of people who were all so friendly and appreciative. That made it so much more meaningful."
Ken Warren, Public Affairs Specialist
ken_warren@fws.gov, (772) 778-5498
Vero Beach Ecological Services Field Office
October 4, 2018 | 2 minute readFriends, plants, and pollinators grow at Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge garden
February 28, 2018 | 3 minute readShutterbugs at St. Marks
October 11, 2018 | 1 minute readAnnual Wounded Warriors Fishing Event at Wolf Creek
Last updated: December 3rd, 2018


1) The passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's founding Prime Minister and a titan in Singapore's nation building history throws up questions about Singapore's future. What are the challenges ahead? There are many I have identified but would put pen to paper for just two.
Wining the Hearts of the People.
2) Extraordinary men do not need extraordinary pay to do extraordinary work. Just look at the Old Guards. Their salary then, for that era, was modest to say the least. The working class could relate to them. These Old Guards were not leaders out to make a comfortable living. Some already came from well to do or middle class families. Lim Kim San was one such man. Already a self-made millionaire, he volunteered to work in the civil service and for three years, did not draw a salary. He first served in the Housing and Development Board where he oversaw the construction of high-rise, affordable apartments for the masses. Later, due to his capability he was tasked to helm other important ministries and statutory boards such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Interior and Defence, the Public Utilities Board and the Port of Singapore Authority. The Old Guards were a bunch of people who came together to bring Singapore forward. That they were in the nation building mission to make their personal fotune hardly crossed the people's mind.
3) Today, many working class Singaporeans opine that the high salaries drawn by ministers and top civil servants have made them elitist, and unable to relate to their hopes and fears.
4) Typically, a minister's salary is benchmarked against the median income of the top 1,000 earners among Singapore citizens, but with a 40 per cent discount to signal the sacrifice in public service. Yet this median is easily distorted by newly minted Singaporean citizens who can easily draw millions in income. Currently, an entry level minister start at about S$935,000 in annual salary, which is more than 20 times the median salary drawn by Singaporeans.
5) While the very attractive salary has no doubt helped to attract good people into leadership positions within the government, it has the unfortunate effect of eroding the moral currency of leadership. And that is worrying.
6) This is not an argument on salary. Singapore is wealthy enough to pay its ministers and civil service leaders $10 million a year each if she wanted to. This is an argument for any government of the day to reclaim the high moral ground ethos; that its ministers and top ranking public officers regard public service as a higher calling and not as a calculative "to the last decimal place analysis" of lost opportunity cost; that their decisions are always for the greater good of the nation and not for personal gains.
7) My view is that if there is one person who will refuse an important government job for $1 million a year, there will be many others, willing to take on the responsibility for perhaps $500,000 a year or $42,000 a month. Not because he is less capable, but because he has no need for the extra $500,000.
8) Ministers and top public officers do not live and perish by KPIs. It is a more forgiving environment that they operate in and rightly so, as it sometimes take policies longer than expected to show the intended results. Even if they do not deliver, they are easily rotated elsewhere where the job scope is better calibrated for their abilities and temperament. However, when their remunerations are compared to corporate CEOs who often get dumped unceremoniously when KPIs are not met, the general consensus is that ministers or senior public officers who do not perform should also be let go. When they are allowed to remain, conspiracy theories take a life of their own. Accountability is questioned and trust takes a beating.
9) I do not believe that a less than hefty compensation package belittles the work of a minister and top civil servants. I do not believe that a less than hefty compensation package give them less clout when having to deal with corporate honchos with fatter paychecks. Mr Lee and his team of Old Guards were drawing way less than the world leaders and corporate honchos of their generation when they successfully convinced them to invest in Singapore and set up companies and factories.
10) The moral authority bestowed by the willingness to decline world class pay to serve Singapore cannot be belittled. On the contrary, it boost one's moral standing and gives leaders more conviction when they say that they can relate to the angst of common Singaporeans' struggle with the costs of living or empathize with concerns of overcrowdedness and CPF withdrawal restrictions among many other issues.
11) If you lose the moral currency of leadership, you run the risk of losing the hearts of the people who will then begin to assess you like cold calculative shareholders. And what do such shareholders do? They will vote in a new CEO and team if results are not delivered by the incumbent leadership, in time or up to expectations. Such leadership changes can be very disruptive to long-term plans where results can be uncertain or take longer to achieve. Is this good for Singapore? To have the people go through thick and thin with you, for the good of the country, the leadership needs a large reserve of moral currency and not eroding this intangible asset is something all leaderships have to consider.
Recruiting enough talented people to run the Government.
12) Do we have enough good people to fill important government positions? Yes, if the criteria is that they need not be affiliated to the ruling political party of the day. But is this realistic? Is it possible for a party outsider to run an important ministerial position inside government? Sadly, the answer is No. Would any incumbent political party allow that and risk that the non-party individual leak "vital information" and cause the incumbent political party's downfall at the next general election?
13) And that explains what I think debunks the lament so often repeated – that we have a shortage of talent to serve in Government. There is not a shortage of dedicated and talented Singaporeans to serve. There is just a shortage of them who also co-incidentally have to be affiliated to the incumbent political party. This is the part where politics plays a destructive part in choosing the best man for the job. And this is something where the current political governance structure needs to be re-examined to assess if it is making the best use of available Singaporean talents in the country, willing to serve with heart and ability.
14) As a Singaporean, I have known only one home as mine and have no plans to migrate. It's in every Singaporean's interest that Singapore continues to thrive and the leadership retains the support of the people, especially during trying times. Tough questions need to be asked and even if there are no immediate responses, the intent is to provoke constructive debate and honest reflection if things need to be done differently.
* Douglas is an ex-public officer who served in the Ministry of Trade and Industry from 2010 to 2013 before founding Empower Advisory.


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Eden Saga - english > Chronological index > Dawn Of Time > Creation For Greece > The Five Mankinds
The Five Mankinds
December 2, 2011 - Creation For Greece
The Greek poet Hesiod shares the history of our species into five successive agesEden Saga has taken up this partition in five humanities, not quite as Hesiod did, however., the age of Gold, Silver, Bronze, Heroes, and Iron, we are still in… on borrowed time! This division was known in Asia but not the age of Heroes, which seems a Greek establishment.
On the above reconstruction, one can see the precise size of these five humanities. Before their destruction, the Buddhas of Bamiyan were only two, the giant of 54 meters, and, further, another of 32 meters. In the past, there were three others, visible on the scale: one of 16 meters, one of 4 meters, and finally one of 1.80 meter. These are very ancient sculptures giving the sizes of the five mankinds.
The myth of the successive ages of mankind appears in The Works and Days of Hesiod, immediately after the myth of Pandora. This succession of ages is not progress, but a decline. Hesiod describes the humanities increasingly dwarfs, more and more away from the gods. For once, here is a Greek who does not believe himself out of the thigh of Jupiter! He remembers the ancients, he knows what Greece owes to the previous civilizations. Hesiod probes souls and hearts in search of true human nature. In the heart of the conflict between humans stirs Nemesis –ie Divine Justice and Hubris –ie excess or drunkenness. The decreasing hierarchy of the Golden Age/ Silver Age/ Bronze Age/ Iron Age is not an invention of Hesiod.His originality is to insert the age of Heroes between the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
This myth is a testament that the gods have left us. It is found almost identical on all five continents. It teaches us that there was no one humanity, but five different versions, more and more distant gods and Righteousness Way Fair, Nemesis, increasingly delivered in excess of Drunkenness , Hubris. The first two versions of humanity, the Cyclops and the Giants were created by the Titans. The takeover by Zeus corresponds to the annihilation of mankind money, ie the Biblical Flood.
Let us try to decipher this using the divine method that gave us Plato himself . An imaginary dialogue will allow us to unwrap the baby. Here's the official version, that the Former Gods seeking to impose on us (and here in parentheses is the version of men, much less known.) The golden age was a harmony with the gods without rivalry. (That is, the part of men, the most slavish obedience to the whims of supermen who exploit them.)
The Nemesis, or the right path, is at its maximum. (That is, men are perfect poodles, the gods have created for that, so the gods are happy)
The Silver Age ended in a final explosion of excessiveness (That is, the intoxication of the courage it took for the men to stand up to their tyrants) when men despise justice of the gods. (That is a total injustice to men, their minions) The hubris, excess, hit men for the first time. (That is, calm down guys, the Gods will eventually get angry!) And when a disaster we fell on his back, the pseudo-gods made us believe that it came from them.
The Bronze Age is a disproportion war without respect for the divine justice. The men are cut from the gods. (That is, men are freed from tyranny. Carried away by their enthusiasm, they make war among themselves and against the giants, orcs and all the pseudo-men that false gods had left behind.) Excess is the norm, much to the misfortune of Men. (That is, we are glad that our tyrants are all gone to hell. So, we made the morons, it's human.)
Finally the Iron age, our present time, is a time where good and evil coexist, a time when men must choose between the right path and excess, with the threat of a victory of the latter. (That is, please stay pending the return of the gods, because they will return soon, you all will have to rush to their service as before, or else!) Sure if the gods tumble as they have threatened us once, and that we are freed, their ready flanked the meal, it would be chaos. But it does seem to be on the agenda.
Some authors believe that Hesiod's account may have been influenced by Persian tradition like. Which itself would have reproduced the Chinese tradition of declining age, and the Shivaic story of Four Yugas. This view is not realistic. If different traditions relate the same story, isn't it more logical to think it did happen? But our historians have such a distrust of myths and legends that for anything they would agree to absorb it further. Too bad for them, who deprive themselves of many nice surprises.
Without wolves, unfortunately, hood becomes less red.
First lesson: our global history tells a decline, not a progress. This law is not limited to corporations, it applies to all material areas. In physics, it is called increasing entropy: the growing disorder, the infinite increase of the disorder. For physicists, it is as if an initial ordervery hypothetic! was damaged by a bunch of diverse and varied factors, all of which targeting a single goal: to blur the original image, to change everything all the time, in a word, to deteriorate.Is it any wonder that young people do graffiti on walls?
Second Lesson: The initial order, in the myth, is the work of the gods who went to trouble to create all the stuff to make it work. But the creature has put his roar in, it went wrong, and entropy did the rest. Entropy is a physical principle, the second principle of thermodynamics, which wants everything to degrade. It is the measure of the disorder that increases with time. It is clear that the vector of physics goes from order to disorder.
However, according to the same physicists, the beginning was not the order, but the chaos of the Big Bang. That is a problem of elementary physics: how can the universal and permanent increase of disorderthat's the status of entropy create order from an initial generalized disorder?
Lesson Three: Without an outside intelligent intervention, there is too little chance that organic life could emerge by itself from the primordial matter. Without a further intervention of the same type, there is too little chance that intelligence could emerge alone from the chaos of the initial stupidity. Without a third external intelligent intervention, there's really, really too little chance that self-awareness could emerge alone from an intelligent machine.
Yet it happened.
It probably took more than three external intelligent interventions, it took countless fairies watching over our cradle for humanity to arise, absolutely ignorant of its origin and its status so particular in the universe: a species created by another species.
Athena My Love
Blessed are the feasts because they let light.
Michel Audiard


Well it's been nearly a week and the excitement still hasn't fully died down after last Saturday's SCAA Brewers Cup and Barista Competition. That's probably at least partly because you all have been so fun and awesome in keeping the buzz going! Thanks for enjoying this with us and for giving your congrats and well wishes to our competing baristas. Thanks for drinking the coffee we put so much passion into.
And just for that... you get to look at some fun photos. Yaaaayyy! You will find them below right after we explain one more time what exactly went into and occurred at this momentous event. But even before that we want to involve you even further in the celebration by inviting you to Quills Cardinal Towne (327 West Cardinal Blvd.) THIS SATURDAY (1/25) where Michael Butterworth will be making all espresso drinks with his competition-profiled coffee - San Cristobal, Guatemala. He's working the rise & shine shift and supplies will run out quickly so be sure to come by early.
The Southeast region of the Big Eastern Barista Competition was held in Durham, NC January 17-19. The event featured 44 baristas from 11 different states. Competitors served 3 courses of espresso-based drinks while giving a presentation to a panel of 4 judges who evaluated the drinks' taste balance, body, and visual presentation in addition to the contestant's customer service skills. All three courses had to be served in a 15-minute time limit. Michael Butterworth, who competed with a coffee from San Cristobal, Guatemala (roasted by Quills) took fifth place and will travel to Seattle April 24-27 to compete in the national championship.
Two other Louisville baristas also reached the final round of the Brewer's Cup, a manually brewed coffee competition. James Tooill of Argo Sons took 3rd place, advancing to the National Brewers Cup and Quills' head roaster Jesse Myers took 4th place, just shy of advancing. Houston Miller did a stellar job and represented Quills proudly as well.
CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO BE SHOWN THE NEXT AND THEN AGAIN AND ETC. AND ETC.


"Dirigibile Italia" (airship Italia) is – surprise! – the Italian research station in Ny-Ålesund. The scientific work of the Italian researches includes microbiology, microbial ecology and biogeochemistry. That sounds very technical, but it touches questions like the storage capacity of arctic soils for carbon. That is important for climate change research and thus also politically relevant.
In the end, a lot of the scientific work done in and from Dirigibile Italia is concerned with the diverse interactions between atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere.


Finished my US taxes using Turbotax, just as difficult as ever, maybe more so with all the foreign account reporting.
Deducting clothing and other stuff donated to Charity. This used to drive my wife's Canadian Uncle Art nuts whenever I mentioned it - "..you get to deduct the cost of old stuff you don't want from your taxes, that is crazy!..up here, nothing is deductible!.."
Deducting mileage you logged for charity work, another Uncle Art peeve.
Deducting insulation and weatherstripping for the house.
The US forms only allow you to enter foreign addresses in the 1116 form to get a deduction for foreign taxes paid. If you try to report the foreign income that generated those taxes, there is no capability in the forms. You fill it in manually with workarounds such as listing Quebec as a state on form 4852. And they wonder why people don't always report their foreign income from pensions etc??
Virginia uses a different mileage rate for charity, so the Turbotax program has to account for this. The Virginia form looks like a misprint since it is set up to be machine-readable but not human readable. It looks like all the headings and boxes did not print out, but it is fine, it looks like this every year.
If we had a pontoon boat with a miniature chemical toilet under the console and a tiny stove (very popular here), I could deduct the interest on the loan to buy it since it is technically my second house. We don't have a party boat like this, but if we did, I would probably throw my back out getting into the toilet but the interest is deductible. There would also be no beans served at any meal.


text:
Collins Street, Melbourne, 1889
This is an 1889 hand-coloured 25 cm x 33.5 cm wood engraving of Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, looking east from Elizabeth Street. The street is filled with activity - pedestrians are buying fruit and vegetables from a handcart, a boy is 'wearing' an advertising board and people are travelling by tram, wagon and on horseback. Telegraph poles are prominent on the thoroughfare, which is paved with flagstones, cobbles and bricks. A bank is among the buildings that line the street. Several buildings have signs and flags, and the Melbourne Town Hall is recognisable by its clock.
Reproduced courtesy of National Library of Australia
Melton Prior, artist, 1889
Illustrated London News, publisher, 1889
National Library of Australia number nla.pic-an8701391
TLF resource R3347
National Library of Australia, http://www.nla.gov.au
© Education Services Australia Ltd and National Library of Australia, 2013, except where indicated under Acknowledgements
Conditions of use (This item contains non-TLF content.)


The PUMA x ATELIER NEW REGIME Suede Sneakers fuse fashion with functionality for the perfect casual sneakers. The Classic Suede jumps to the next level with a winterised Court silhouette and a smooth tonal suede upper. A large rubberised "NEW REGIME" Logo at the front completes the look for the perfect-branded piece for any ANR or PUMA fan.


Environmental Consultant, Terracon Consultants Inc.
My current research aims to understand how the activity of microbes influence the stabilization or loss of carbon from soils. I study microbial community activity and composition in response to long-term temperature increase in a semiarid ecosystem and after high severity forest fires in a subalpine forest ecosystem.
I enjoy living, studying and working in the Sonoran Desert. I am also passionate about informal science education and outreach and spend my free time working with programs that provide these opportunities for young students. In addition to my graduate studies I work as an Environmental Consultant for Terracon Consultants Inc. I have worked on a variety of environmental projects with the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency.


There's nothing quite like celebrating Holi in India especially in Rajasthan . With winter tucked away, this spring festival is the time when finally everyone comes out of their cocoons.Holi is a Hindu spring festival celebrated in India and Nepal, also known as the "festival of colours" or the "festival of love" The festival signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, end of winter, and for many a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships ..It lasts for a night and a day, starting on the evening of the Purnima (Full Moon day) falling in the Vikram Samvat Hindu Calendar month of Phalgun, which falls somewhere between the end of February and the middle of March in the Gregorian calendar.
This year I have celebrated Holi with my friends on March 13th in Pink City Jaipur. On the eve of Holi, on March 12th we went to Johari Bazar in Jaipur for looking at the Holi colors shopping and exactly at 6 pm we have lighted in a Jaipur residential neighborhood the Holika bonfire which symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.. Than headed to our hotel Rambagh Palace, where huge bonfires were lighted together with singing, dancing and the traditional beats of dhol add to the merriment.
Next day it was time to get colored .. We headed to Narain Niwas Palace gardens to celebrate it with our friends. Everyone was offered a welcome drink and a white kurta & pajama.. In the gardens of this noble's house there were live music, dance, drinks and mouth watering delicacies. We smeared colors and splash water on each other, with pichkaries (water guns) and water balloons.
Afterwards wit was time to celebrate the festival on the streets of Jaipur with locals, smearing colors to everyone and sang and danced to the beat of the dholak.


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Andrew Connell - Mix SharePoint with Silverlight and win some cool swag!
Mike Gannotti has started a slick contest and a few softies have chipped into make it a killer give away! Submit an entry mixing Silverlight & SharePoint, document your submission & either put it out there for the world to see OR record a video of it, and you've got a shot to win some cool stuff!
Haven't touched Silverlight or need some help getting started? Mike's posted to killer resource-filled posts to help.
My fellow WCM junkie Spence has already posted a code sample using Silverlight within a custom field control in a Publishing site!


In diesem Video sehen wir einen Weißen Hai, vor der Küste Südafrikas bei der Jagd nach Robben. Die Kamera wurde extra für diese Aktion entworfen, nach ein paar Stunden löst sie sich von der Flosse und treibt dann an der Wasseroberfläche.
The footage, amazingly, shows sharks charging through the kelp fronds, navigating tight channels, hunting for their prey. The seals, for their part, displayed predator evasion techniques, like blowing bubbles at the sharks.
"The film we collected gives us a new perspective on this species. We can see how they interact with their surroundings in real time, and they are able to make some pretty spectacular 180-degree turns in the kelp forest," Mr Jewell said in a statement.
Admittedly, none of the footage captured actually shows a shark catching a seal, which may support the hypothesis the kelp works in the seals' favor.


text:
Help for Scarred Hearts
MicroRNAs turned the scar tissue left by a heart attack into muscle, suggesting a way to restore heart function.
Earlier this year, it was shown that some of the damage caused by a heart attack could be repaired by giving patients an injection of their own stem cells. Now, researchers from Duke University have done the same by injecting tiny molecules of RNA known as microRNAs.
Because microRNAs are so small, they can be made synthetically, which makes them a much better candidate for therapy than stem cells, which much first be isolated from a patient and then grown up in the laboratory.
It wasn't long ago that scar tissue was thought to be permanent. Though that's now known not to be true, the science of turning scar tissue back into healthy tissue is still in its infancy.
Much of the damage from a heart attack comes from the death of heart muscle tissue, which is replaced by scar tissue. Scar tissue is something like a patch; it's never as functional as the tissue it replaces. In the heart, scar tissue can't contract and beat like heart muscle tissue can. And with less muscle, the heart can no longer pump blood as well as it did before the heart attack. But it might if the scar tissue could be turned back into muscle tissue. Which is what the Duke scientists appear to have accomplished in mice.
MicroRNAs were first discovered in 1993. They essentially turn off (silence) genes without interacting with the genes themselves. They attach to the initial gene product (messenger RNA), inactivating it and halting the production of protein that would normally follow.
In this case, silencing specific genes in scar tissue causes it to transform into muscle tissue.
Based on the known effects of specific microRNAs, the researchers selected several to test singly and in combination on cells known as fibroblasts. Fibroblasts are the cells that make up most of connective tissue, which is what scar tissue is. Using fibroblasts grown in laboratory dishes, the researchers found that several microRNAs had the ability to turn them into a cell type that strongly resembled muscle cells. The combination of four separate RNAs given together -- miRNAs 1, 133, 208 and 499 -- was the most effective at producing this transformation.
They then tested this combination on mice with damaged hearts and found that much of the scar tissue was converted into tissue that seems indistinguishable from normal heart muscle. The study did not test the ability of this change to restore heart function back to its pre-damage level.
It wasn't long ago that scar tissue was thought to be permanent. Though that's now known not to be true, the science of turning scar tissue back into healthy tissue is still in its infancy. Studies are now planned to see if microRNAs can repair heart damage in larger animals. If they can, the researchers think that therapies in humans might begin within a decade.
If the technique pans out, its uses will likely extend way beyond the heart. As the researchers point out: "If you can do this in the heart, you can do it in the brain, the kidneys, and other tissues. This is a whole new way of regenerating tissue."
An article on the study was published online by Circulation Research.
Taking the controversy out of stem cell research
Wisdom teeth as a source of stem cells
Scar tissue in the hearts of long-distance runners


MASS is Keele's first official weightlifting and fitness society!
Whether you are an experienced athlete, or simply looking for guidance in beginning your fitness journey, this is the society for you!
Our executive team, which includes trained professionals and experienced athletes, will host weekly gym sessions in which we workout together and offer a variety of training and nutrition advice to suit your goals, including general fitness, powerlifting, and bodybuilding.


It's another picture perfect moment for US president Barack Obama. The leaders of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Egypt have been summoned to Washington, DC for the latest round of peace talks.
However Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the Palestine Center is not optimistic the talks will produce results.
"There are a number of reasons why we can be skeptical of talks and to think that the Obama administration is only doing this for the photo op," said Munayyer.
With negotiations underway at the White House, it is almost impossible to have peace talks without protest. The highly anticipated summit in Washington is already being labeled a failure, because the conditions in which the Palestinians would meet with the Israelis are still in dispute. One of the main issues is a moratorium on Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian lands.
Dan Pollack of the Zionist Organization of America disagreed, "What you are calling settlements are neighborhoods, you have to understand the area you are calling Palestinian territory has never been Palestinian territory."
The Gaza strip has been under Israeli siege for the past three years. No Representatives from Gaza, which is currently governed by Hamas, will be at the negotiating table. The US and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization, even though Israel and the US pushed for the elections which brought Hamas in power.
"One of the major fault lines is between Hamas and the PLO. As you know there was an election in 2006 and Hamas won an overwhelming majority. Even though the US and Israel supported the election, after Hamas won, the U.S. the PLO and Israel wanted the election to be null and void and tried not to recognize it. Eventually Hamas politicians were arrested," said Rob Mansour, the executive director the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
RT asked State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley during the daily press briefing, "Where does Gaza fit into these peace talks?"
"Is Gaza and the situation in Gaza, broadly speaking part of this process, yes it is. We are gratified the recent changes in policy have been made," Crowley responded.
"What changes have been made? You say that changes have been made?"
Crowley said, "It's indirect, but I am certain that as we increase the connect between the Palestinians and Israelis, Gaza will be discussed."
"While I think the reason Hamas is not included is because Hamas is still being considered a taboo," said Munnayyer.
But, how do the American people feel about the latest negotiations?
"The peace process goes against the bible," one man said.
Another woman said, "I'm not optimistic that this meeting is going to solve anything."
"The outcome will be the same as after Olso after other negotiations in the past and that the seizing of Palestinian land will continue, the destruction of Palestinian homes will continue, the death of Palestinian civilians will continue and essentially the process of a very slow ethnic cleansing will continue" said Mansour.
"If the hopes are disappointed again, the price of failure will be too high for all," King Abduallah of Jordan said.
A price the Obama administration is gambling with as clouds of uncertainty fog the future of a Palestinian state.
Richard Hellman of Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign said Hamas is a declared terrorist organization and has no business in the process.
"Hamas is pretty much a pawn of Iran, which is the real issue that we should be dealing with," said Hellman.
He argued that their intents are genocidal and will not contribute anything to peace.
Norman Finkelstein, author of "The Holocaust Industry", disagreed, arguing that Hamas was the fairly elected leadership of Gaza and has an interest in the peace process.
"Hamas has repeatedly made statements over the past several years that it's willing to accept the settlement of the June 1967 border. Under the terms of the international settlement, or proposed international settlement, Hamas has met its responsibilities. It said it will accept a Palestinian state under June 1967 borders," said Finkelstein.
Finkelstein did acknowledge that Hamas has practiced terrorism, but argued that Israel itself has also practiced terrorism.
Hellman referred to such allegations as "absurd". Further he argued that the talks were going to fail.
"We're talking about taking 600,000 Jews, evicting them from their homes, their livelihood, all of their infrastructure and declaring that all of the area where they live today, historic Jerusalem, historic Israel, all the communities that they have legally built since 1967," said Hellman.
Finkelstein said that Israel has an obligation to Palestine, and that Palestine has no reason to concede, arguing they have already conceded their historic homeland to Israel.
"The burden is now on Israel," he said.
"Israel has agreed that this creation, this public relations fiction of this Palestinian Arab people who had the claim to some kind of past homeland that is now going to be constituted, that they will talk about creating a Palestinian Arab state. But, today there is no one on the Palestinian Arab side that can give peace or security," said Hellman.
The Palestinians need to meet the concessions of stopping the violence and ending terrorism, argued Hellman.
"You have no relationship to reality; the Palestinians don't exist, their a fiction. The occupation doesn't exist, the occupation is a fiction. Everything is a fiction. You live inside a fictional world," said Finkelstein.
Both agreed that the peace talks are likely a political photo-op for Obama leading up to the US mid-term elections.


Little Chef had been itching to go to Fremantle Prison for a while and see what lay behind the massive perimeter walls. The convict built prison is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and well worth a visit. It only ceased to function as a maximum security prison in 1991!
Each trip to Freo Prison begins just as the prisoner's. You enter via the big limestone Gatehouse, choose a tour and pay.
You might have a few minutes to wait till the next tour. In the courtyard you'll find a gift shop, convict exhibitions and a café. There are toilets and baby change facilities too.
The Prison offers seven tours of the prison cellblocks, perimeter walls and tunnels. A few tours are new for 2018, so there is always something different to discover. We chose the most popular tour with first-time visitors "Doing Time". The tour lasts just over an hour and begin at regular intervals.
Your tour guide will ring the bell and each tour group gathers at the meeting point. You're then on your journey to jail! Like prisoners in the past, you begin at the processing block. Here your guide gives an interesting chat on how the prisoners are strip searched, given their prison uniforms and then we're taken through the shower block to the huge main cell block.
Our tour guide was really enthusiastic, knowledgeable and engaging, often asking the kids questions and involving them. He had lots of very interesting tales about how the prison was built, riots and general prison life up his sleeve.
First, we viewed cells that were decked out like they would be in the 1800s, early 1900s and more modern times. The first cells were tiny and contained just a hammock and bucket for their toilet.
Real metal framed beds didn't arrive till the 1950s. Conditions at Freo prison were pretty grim.
The Exercise yards are tiny for the amount of prisoners that must have been kept there.
Just before the prison closed its doors, some talented prisoners were allowed to paint murals on their cell walls, resulting in some beautiful artwork.
Prams are welcome, though can't access all areas, as the prison is laid out over a few floors.
Other areas we were taken through were the prison kitchen and the chapel – where people still get married!
Capital punishment varied over the years. You'll see where prisoners were flogged and where they were sent to be in solitary confinement. Lastly, there's an eerie trip to the gallows. The last person to be hanged at Fremantle was serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke, executed in 1964. If this isn't your cup of tea, you can skip this bit.
If you choose to go on another tour the same day, there's a heavily discounted fee for your second tour. We liked the sound of the "Great Escapes" tour which tells tales about famous escapees like bushranger Moondyne Joe. There's a new "True Crime" tour that tells real life stories of the prison's most notorious inmates and how their crimes gripped the WA community.
For the more adventurous there's a spooky torchlight tour on some evenings. For adults and children 12 years and older there's the underground tunnel tour on boats, which is not for the claustrophobic!
We all found the tour absolutely fascinating – especially Little Chef. A trip to Fremantle Prison to uncover its rich 136 year history of convicts, bushrangers, thieves, murderers, bank robbers and escape artists is a must.
Discover more family friendly things to do in Freo here.


Jessie J is now facing a lawsuit accusing her of lack of originality. The obvious response might be, "how come it took so long", but the suit actually relates to a specific song, the 2011 hit Domino.
American singer Will Loomis alleges that Domino shares "substantially similar compositional elements" with his 2009 song Bright Red Chords. He has posted a YouTube video highlighting the similarities.
Jessie J played the song at the Queen's diamond jubilee concert. "When I wrote this melody in my garage I never imagined it would be sung for the King and Queen of England," Loomis said, showing a forgivably inaccurate notion of the British Royal Family, "and I especially never imagined it would be sung by Jessie J."
Loomis recorded the song with his band Loomis and the Lusts, with whom you are unlikely to be familiar. They are pretty much unknown. "Will Loomis is a rising star in the music business," his attorneys venture to suggest, adding that the song in question is one of the band's most popular numbers.
The suit suggests that Domino is a "derivative work", or, in lawyer-speak: "This translates into significant ill-gotten commercial advantage and revenue generation for the defendants as a direct consequence of their infringing actions."
Loomis is seeking a jury trial and looking for at $150,000 (£96,000) in damages. That seems a fairly modest amount given the lavish sums usually demanded in this kind of lawsuit, but will be alarming for Jessie J. Domino is one of her most popular songs, closely bound up with her identity and image as an artist.


text:
security, Security / Privacy
How Facebook and Other Sites Manipulate Your Privacy Choices
3 min read August 12, 2020
Recently, sites like Facebook and Twitter have begun to give their users more fine-grained control of their privacy on the website. Facebook's newly rolled out Privacy Checkup, for instance, guides you through a series of choices with brightly colored illustrations. But Gray notes that the defaults are often set with less privacy in mind, and the many different checkboxes can have the effect of overwhelming users. "If you have a hundred checkboxes to check, who's going to do that," he says.
Last year, US senators Mark Warner and Deb Fischer introduced a bill that would ban these kinds of "manipulative user interfaces." The Deceptive Experiences to Online Users Reduction Act— DETOUR for short—would make it illegal for websites like Facebook to use dark patterns when it relates to personal data. "Misleading prompts to just click the 'OK' button can often transfer your contacts, messages, browsing activity, photos, or location information without you even realizing it," Senator Fischer wrote when the bill was introduced. "Our bipartisan legislation seeks to curb the use of these dishonest interfaces and increase trust online."
The problem is that it becomes very difficult to define a dark pattern. "All design has a level of persuasion to it," says Victor Yocco, the author of Design for the Mind: Seven Psychological Principles of Persuasive Design. By definition, design encourages someone to use a product in a particular way, which isn't inherently bad. The difference, Yocco says, is "if you're designing to trick people, you're an asshole."
Gray has also run into difficulty drawing the line between dark patterns and plain bad design.
"It's an open question," he says. "Are they defined by the designer's intent, or the perception in use?" In a recent paper, Gray looked at how people on the subreddit r/AssholeDesign make ethical calculations of design choices. The examples on that subreddit range from the innocuous (automatic updates on Windows software) to the truly evil (an ad on Snapchat that makes it look like a hair has fallen on your screen, forcing you to swipe up). After combing through the examples, Gray created a framework that defines "asshole design" as one that takes away user choice, controls the task flow, or entraps users into a decision that benefits not them, but the company. Asshole designers also use strategies like misrepresentation, nickel-and-diming, two-faced interactions—like advertising an ad blocker that also contains ads.
Many of these dark patterns are used to juice metrics that indicate success, like user growth or time spent. Gray cites an example from the smartphone app Trivia Crack, which nags its users to play another game every two to three hours. Those kinds of spammy notifications have been used by social media platforms for years to induce the kind of FOMO that keeps you hooked. "We know if we give people things like swiping or status updates, it's more likely that people will come back and see it again and again," says Yocco. "That can lead to compulsive behaviors."
The darkest patterns of all arise when people try to leave these platforms. Try to deactivate your Instagram account and you'll find it's exceptionally hard. First, you can't even do it from the app. From the desktop version of the site, the setting is buried inside of "Edit Profile" and comes with a series of interstitials. (Why are you disabling? Too distracting? Here, try turning off notifications. Just need a break? Consider logging out instead.)
"It's putting friction in the way of attaining your goal, to make it harder for you to follow through," says Nathalie Nahai, the author of Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion. Years ago, when Nahai deleted her Facebook account, she found a similar set of manipulative strategies. "They used the relationships and connections I had to say, 'Are you sure you want to quit? If you leave, you won't get updates from this person,'" and then displayed the pictures of some of her close friends. "They're using this language which is, in my mind, coercion," she says. "They make it psychologically painful for you to leave."
hacking, security, Security / Cyberattacks and Hacks
q&a, security, Security / National Security
security, Security / Security News, Security Roundup
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National Affairs, security, Security / National Security
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oops, security, Security / Privacy


text:
Q: Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket My WordPress site ( http://steamboatperinatalconference.com ) just recently started going down and spitting this error
" Warning: mysql_connect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock' (2) in /var/www/html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 1568 "

I have checked the db password and its ok, also reset the instance and sql server and both are running, I'm able to connect to my database through mysqlworkbench.
Not sure why my website won't display if the database is up and running.
Any help is appreciated.

A: First kill the processes with:
sudo pkill mysql
and
sudo pkill mysqld
restart mysql
sudo service mysql restart
now you should be able to log in
mysql -u root -p

A: It turns out in order to fix the issue I was having I needed to run a sudo yum update on the AWS ec2 instance, after performing the update the page was back up and running

A: my.cnf (location of file /etc/mysql/ folder) configured with
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

check for MySQL is running with the following command:
mysqladmin -u root -p status

changing permission to MySQL folder. If you are working locally, you can try:
sudo chmod -R 755 /var/lib/mysql/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange