text:
package com.adobe.acs.commons.rewriter.impl;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Optional;

import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Component;
import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Properties;
import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Property;
import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Reference;
import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Service;
import org.apache.sling.api.SlingHttpServletRequest;
import org.apache.sling.api.resource.Resource;
import org.apache.sling.rewriter.ProcessingComponentConfiguration;
import org.apache.sling.rewriter.ProcessingContext;
import org.apache.sling.rewriter.Transformer;
import org.apache.sling.rewriter.TransformerFactory;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.xml.sax.Attributes;
import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
import org.xml.sax.helpers.AttributesImpl;

import com.adobe.acs.commons.rewriter.ContentHandlerBasedTransformer;
import com.adobe.acs.commons.rewriter.DelegatingTransformer;
import com.adobe.granite.ui.clientlibs.HtmlLibrary;
import com.adobe.granite.ui.clientlibs.HtmlLibraryManager;
import com.adobe.granite.ui.clientlibs.LibraryType;

/**
 * ACS AEM Commons - Stylesheet inliner removes stylesheet links the output adds
 * them as <style> elements. Links found in <head> are added to the beginning of
 * <body>, whereas those in <body> are included where they're found.
 */
@Component(
        metatype = false,
        label = "Stylesheet Inliner Transformer Factory",
        description = "Sling Rewriter Transformer Factory which inlines CSS references")
@Properties({
    @Property(name = "pipeline.type", value = "inline-css", propertyPrivate = true)})
@Service(value = {TransformerFactory.class})
public final class StylesheetInlinerTransformerFactory implements TransformerFactory {

    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(StylesheetInlinerTransformerFactory.class);

    private static final char[] NEWLINE = new char[]{'\n'};

    @Reference
    private HtmlLibraryManager htmlLibraryManager;

    public Transformer createTransformer() {
        return new SelectorAwareCssInlinerTransformer();
    }

    private final class CssInlinerTransformer extends ContentHandlerBasedTransformer {

        private static final String HEAD = "head";
        private static final String STYLE = "style";

        private final Attributes attrs = new AttributesImpl();

        private final Map<String, char[]> stylesheetsInHead = new LinkedHashMap<>();

        private SlingHttpServletRequest slingRequest;
        private boolean afterHeadElement = false;

        @Override
        public void init(final ProcessingContext context, final ProcessingComponentConfiguration config) throws IOException {
            super.init(context, config);
            slingRequest = context.getRequest();
            log.debug("Inlining Stylesheet references for {}", slingRequest.getRequestURL());
        }

        @Override
        public void startElement(final String namespaceURI, final String localName, final String qName,
                                 final Attributes attrs) throws SAXException {
            try {
                final ContentHandler contentHandler = getContentHandler();
                if (SaxElementUtils.isCss(localName, attrs)) {
                    final String sheet = attrs.getValue("", "href");
                    if (afterHeadElement) {
                        log.debug("Inlining stylesheet link found in BODY: '{}'", sheet);
                        if (!inlineSheet(namespaceURI, sheet)) {
                            contentHandler.startElement(namespaceURI, localName, qName, attrs);
                        }
                    } else {
                        final Optional<char[]> contents = readSheetContent(sheet);
                        if (contents.isPresent()) {
                            stylesheetsInHead.put(sheet, contents.get());
                        } else {
                            contentHandler.startElement(namespaceURI, localName, qName, attrs);
                        }
                    }
                } else {
                    contentHandler.startElement(namespaceURI, localName, qName, attrs);
                }
            } catch (final IOException | SAXException e) {
                log.error("Exception in stylesheet inliner", e);
                throw new SAXException(e);
            }
        }

        @Override
        public void endElement(final String uri, final String localName, final String qName) throws SAXException {
            if (HEAD.equalsIgnoreCase(localName)) {
                afterHeadElement = true;
                try {
                    // add each of the accumulated stylesheet references
                    for (final Map.Entry<String, char[]> entry : stylesheetsInHead.entrySet()) {
                        log.debug("Inlining sheet found in HEAD: '{}'", entry.getKey());
                        inlineSheet(uri, entry.getValue());
                    }
                } catch (final SAXException e) {
                    log.error("Exception in stylesheet inliner", e);
                    throw new SAXException(e);
                }
            }

            getContentHandler().endElement(uri, localName, qName);
        }

        private Optional<char[]> readSheetContent(final String sheet) throws IOException, SAXException {
            InputStream inputStream = null;

            final String withoutExtension = sheet.substring(0, sheet.indexOf(LibraryType.CSS.extension));
            final HtmlLibrary library = htmlLibraryManager.getLibrary(LibraryType.CSS, withoutExtension);
            if (library != null) {
                inputStream = library.getInputStream();
            } else {
                final Resource resource = slingRequest.getResourceResolver().getResource(sheet);
                if (resource != null) {
                    inputStream = resource.adaptTo(InputStream.class);
                }
            }

            if (inputStream != null) {
                return Optional.of(IOUtils.toCharArray(inputStream, "UTF-8"));
            }

            return Optional.empty();
        }

        private boolean inlineSheet(final String namespaceURI, final char[] content) throws SAXException {
            if (content != null) {
                final ContentHandler contentHandler = getContentHandler();
                contentHandler.startElement(namespaceURI, STYLE, null, attrs);
                contentHandler.characters(NEWLINE, 0, 1);
                contentHandler.characters(content, 0, content.length);
                contentHandler.endElement(namespaceURI, STYLE, null);

                return true;
            }

            return false;
        }

        private boolean inlineSheet(final String namespaceURI, final String sheet) throws IOException, SAXException {
            return inlineSheet(namespaceURI, readSheetContent(sheet).orElse(null));
        }
    }

    final class SelectorAwareCssInlinerTransformer extends DelegatingTransformer {

        @Override
        public void init(final ProcessingContext context, final ProcessingComponentConfiguration componentConfiguration) throws IOException {
            final SlingHttpServletRequest request = context.getRequest();
            boolean inlineCss = false;
            final String[] selectors = request.getRequestPathInfo().getSelectors();
            for (int i = 0; !inlineCss && i < selectors.length; i++) {
                inlineCss = "inline-css".equals(selectors[i]);
            }

            if (inlineCss) {
                setDelegate(new CssInlinerTransformer());
            } else {
                setDelegate(new ContentHandlerBasedTransformer());
            }

            super.init(context, componentConfiguration);
        }
    }
}


View one of the best image of Carla Ossa – it is 174 image from all 475 we have.
If resolution 1430x2000 is less than your mobile device screen size, then you need to find another picture. All Carla Ossa images has resolution of 1430x2000, and the filesize is 471 KB.


Late last week a Justice Department official told a congressional committee investigating the prosecution of late technologist Aaron Swartz that the young man's political writings had been taken into account in building their criminal case. According to HuffPo's Ryan Reilly "a Justice Department representative told congressional staffers during a recent briefing on the computer fraud prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz that Swartz's 'Guerilla Open Access Manifesto' played a role in the prosecution."
Swartz had co-authored the manifesto in 2008, which advocated for civil disobedience against copyright laws. The document, which Swartz did not even write alone and which made no mention of specific intentions to breach any copyright laws, was used by the DoJ to illustrate that Swartz had "malicious intent in downloading documents on a massive scale." However, there was no specific evidence that Swartz intended to share the millions of JSTOR articles he downloaded -- and certainly no suggestion that Swartz ever aimed to profit off the articles. Indeed, it bears constant repeating that the Justice Department pursued felony charges against the activist even when the purported victim, online academic publisher JSTOR, had declined to press any charges.
The government's admission that Swartz's (co-authored and years-old) political manifesto was used as evidence for criminal intent is troubling enough. Swartz's ideals about open data were used against him -- what clearer evidence of ideological persecution is needed? Yet, as Reilly reported, "the Justice Department believed federal prosecutors acted in a reasonable manner, according to the sources."
I was going to start... with "In a stunning turn of events," but I realized that would be inaccurate — because it's really not that surprising. Many people speculated throughout the whole ordeal that this was a political prosecution, motivated by anything/everything from Aaron's effective campaigning against SOPA to his run-ins with the FBI over the PACER database.
.... Keep in mind that Aaron did not in fact distribute the articles he downloaded from JSTOR. Keep in mind that he had the legal right to download each and every one of those articles individually. Keep in mind that the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto that the DOJ cites was written by a group, not by Aaron individually, several years before Aaron's actions — and take it from me that several years could be an eternity in the evolution of Aaron's political views.
... Even if Aaron's intention was in fact to distribute the journal articles (to poor people! for zero profit!), that in no way condones his treatment. But the terrifying fact I'm trying to highlight in this particular blog post is this: According to the DOJ's testimony, if you express political views that the government doesn't like, at any point in your life, that political speech act can and will be used to justify making "an example" out of you once the government thinks it can pin you with a crime.


text:
Federal Realty CEO Says Company "Firing On All Cylinders"
Donald Wood, president and CEO of Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT), joined REIT.com for a CEO Spotlight video interview during REITWeek 2014: NAREIT's Investor Forum, held in New York.
Federal Realty's funds from operations (FFO) per share hit an all-time high in the first quarter. Wood was asked about the factors behind those results, and whether he expected them to continue.
"We certainly do. Our company is based on properties in great locations with lots of people, money to spend, and most importantly barriers to entry," he said. In the wake of the financial crisis, "we're firing on all cylinders, there's no question about that," he added.
"If you take a look at where we are – that's strong leasing, that's strong results from our development, there's an acquisition impact or two from the prior years - that is just the beginning of where we see ourselves going," Wood said.
He stressed that Federal Realty is trying to effectively double earnings during the next 10 years. "We can do that with things that we already have under our control, both in the form of the great core portfolio that we have, development opportunities that are starting to deliver, and the occasional acquisition," he said.
Wood noted that Federal Realty has about 85 properties in its portfolio. "To me that's a real benefit of the company because it means we look at each individual project. Real estate is a local business and we don't look at it as a giant portfolio," he said.
Turning to specific projects, Wood highlighted the Pike & Rose mixed-use retail and residential development in Rockville, Md., which is currently delivering its first phase. He noted that "$250 million is being put to work at about an 8 percent yield… (and) that's only the first phase, for the next 10 years you are going to see incremental phases there."
Federal Realty is also delivering on the first phase of Assembly Row in Somerville, Ma., worth about $200 million. "That's also the first phase of a long window of development," Wood stressed.
"The long-term perspective is that opportunities are as good as they've ever been at our company," Wood added.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Assigning objects dynamically from array - best practice - nodejs javascript What is the best practice to assign objects dynamically from the contents of an array. This is the way I'm doing it right now and it works, but it seems a bit dirty. Is the better approach to make a class like object? How would I do it in that case?
example:
var names = ["test", "foo", "bar"];
var dict = {};
// init values
names.forEach(function(n){
   dict[n] = {};
   dict[n].property1 = false;
   dict[n].property2 = true;
   dict[n].property3 = "";
});

A: I would create factory function to create object from array. Inside that function you can use for example Array.prototype.reduce() to initialize object:
var makeMyDict = function(arr) {
    return arr.reduce(function(r, n) {
        r[n] = {
            property1: false,
            property2: true,
            property3: ""
        };
        return r;
    }, {});
}

var names = ["test", "foo", "bar"];

var dict = makeMyDict(names);

A: Your approach seems fine. You can always use reduce to build an accumulated object.
const props = {
  property1: false,
  property2: true,
  property3: ``
};

const names = [`foo`, `bar`, `baz`];

const dict = names.reduce((a, x) => {
  a[x] = {};
  for (let p in props) a[x][p] = props[p];
  return a;
}, {});

// Or using object spread (requires babel at the moment)
const dict = names.reduce((a, x) => (a[x] = {...props}, a), {});

console.log(dict);

{ foo: { property1: false, property2: true, property3: '' },
  bar: { property1: false, property2: true, property3: '' },
  baz: { property1: false, property2: true, property3: '' } }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


American Dreamer is a folk ensemble from Austin, TX. Their music is a lush sound they call 'orchestral folk', steeped in both folk and classical styles. Their fundamentally simple music unfolds into a multi-layered soundscape.


text:
SEEK THE CONTEXT: Biblical Texts, Language, Cultural Background & Meaning. Context Changes Everything!
History, Culture, Language
Context Videos
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Roman Dining Room Mosaic in Egypt
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In Archaeology, Posts, Videos
Researchers from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority and Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, believe they have discovered the Philistine town near Kiryat Gat, immortalized in the Biblical narrative. Ziklag is mentioned multiple times in the Bible…Continue Reading
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text:
Strong winds and slippery roads cause problems in the north – NRK Nordland
With full gale force winds and 100 millimeters of rain expected to fall on Nordland in one day, it was a challenging day in Nordland.
As of Monday afternoon, 1,180 customers were without power in the Ofoten and Vesterålen regions.
On Monday afternoon, the main rescue center was notified that a lone tourist had been called unbreakable Above Reinebringen in Lofoten.
According to meteorologists, the force of the wind is a strong storm – that is, 30 meters per second.
– He climbed the mountain alone and turned to the weather, Kjetil Kaalaas, Operations Manager at Nordland Police District, tells NRK.
A rescue helicopter was dispatched from Bodo, but the SarQueen rescue helicopter was abandoned after two attempts due to strong winds in the mountains.
The helicopter flew to Svovær to pick up rescuers from the Svolvær Alpine Rescue Team. Kalas says these help from the floor and are in class at 6 p.m.
Police in Nordland received a call at 3.30pm that a man had turned against the weather on Reinbringen mountain in Lofoten.
– Norwegian Alpine rescue teams are experts in this type of rescue in the mountains under these conditions. It is up to them to assess whether there is an opportunity to actually take it. The operations manager says there is a risk of mudslides and avalanches in the area.
After a quick observation, the rescue team will climb the 448 meter high peak.
The man, a foreign tourist, was unharmed, police said.
– But he might be out cold, so it's important for us to get him down as soon as possible. Callas says the health service has been notified.
See also Kronekurs, DNB | Strong Crone effect for Norwegians: - More to worry about
Can be dramatic
According to the operations manager, the situation is worse because it is already cold and the tourist does not know what kind of clothes they have.
– If we don't take him down, it will be an even more dramatic situation.
– But we're not there yet. We are working on plan A to get people to hike and are waiting for feedback on how it is going.
The man reportedly contacted acquaintances on the ground, who again called for help.
– It is not known how long he was there, says the operations manager.
Kalas currently does not want to say where the tourist is coming from, but says there are many linguistic challenges in communication.
– It is undesirable for people to move around the area at this time of the year. It's mostly tourists, locals know the conditions, says Kalas.
Cruise ships must have towing assistance
Also cruise ship "Viking Venus" On her way to Norvik she ran into trouble in strong winds and required the assistance of two tugs to get into Norvik Harbour.
Maritime manager Øistein Kaarbø tells Fremover.no that the ship made the assessment based on safety considerations.
A video shot by Narvikværingen Gunhild Margaret Normark shows the ship heading into port.
Warning and strong winds
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for wind in parts of northern Norway
Winds from the southwest inland at 27 to 33 m/s are possible Monday morning through Monday evening.
An overturned trailer closed the E10 to Lofoten.
See also This is where the last journey of the Oslo tram goes
Then proceed Here is his wind chart of Yr.
The E6 over Saltfjell is already closed, and both ferries between Bodø and Lofoten have been canceled due to bad weather.
Urges customers to limit usage
All of Antonis lost power earlier today. 811 customers were without power between 10:00 PM and 4:00 PM on Monday.
This is due to a broken high voltage pole Vesterålen online.
– We have discovered the fault and have now prepared all the crew to fix this defect, Terje Andreasen, technical manager at Andi Energy, tells NRK.
– We expect to finish before midnight, but things can happen along the way, he says.
Andreassen encourages electricity customers to reduce electricity consumption.
Øyvind Strøm of Hålogaland kraft nett says that 369 customers in Bjerkvik and Seines are also without power. 1,109 houses were without power this morning.
Central parts of Bodo were shut down as roof tiles that fell to the ground flew in the air.
Photo: Kåre Riibe Ramskjell / NRK
– Three errors in the network are responsible for this. Bugs have now been discovered, one fixed and two others under repair.
They haven't figured out the exact cause yet, but Strom is betting that all customers will have power by evening.
– It is reasonable to believe that weather and wind caused short circuits and earth faults in the network, he says.
Uniform roads throughout the district
On the E6 near Gratangsfjellet, a bus was thrown onto the road on Monday afternoon, police report. The bus did not overturn.
Lofoten Post Office The 180 meter cargo vessel SSI Providence has sought emergency port at Dverberg. The ship was actually on its way to Murmansk, Russia, but had to take a break due to high tides.
Mild weather leads to very slippery roads across the district.
– It is absolutely true that the weather has been great this week. Especially in the north towards Lofoten and Vesterålen the wind is strong. Meteorologist on duty Ingwilt Villa says strong cyclones will emerge from the southwesterlies, as well as a small storm in the north and strong winds inland.
A yellow warning has been issued for the whole of northern Norway, and it will be worst in Nordland on Monday. On Tuesday, there will be a lot of wind, but at the same time more precipitation, especially in Nordland.
Photo: Bureau of Meteorology
Boat connections are also affected due to weather.
Vegtrafiksentralen nord writes that the ferry connection between Bojnes and Skarberget has been canceled at six o'clock on Monday evening.
Detour via the ferry link between the drag and Kjøpsvik, they write.
More rain is expected
It's not just a wind warning in Nordland, but also a yellow precipitation warning south of Bodo from Tuesday to Wednesday.
By Monday afternoon, it was upgraded to an orange warning for very heavy rain.
– Lots of weather tomorrow, but then more southerly. We have issued a yellow warning for heavy rain from tomorrow evening to Wednesday evening. And then there's 40mm at six hours, which seems pretty powerful.
A total of 70-100 millimeters will fall in 24 hours in Sør-Salten and Helgeland.
– I encourage people to look out for new updates. Now Helgeland can withstand a lot of rainfall, but there is a lot of snow and ice in many places, so storm water is more likely. Then it is better to check the drainage etc.
Waves of up to eight meters have been reported in northern Norway.
Photo: Screenshot
Small boats will have to be grounded today as waves rise up to eight meters along the coast.
NVE's on-duty hydrologist Christian Nordun confirmed to NRK on Monday morning that there may be an avalanche warning during the day.
NVE Monday issued an orange warning for mudslides, mudslides and flash floods for Tuesday.
– Orange warning now in place for large parts of Nordland. The reason for this is the heavy rainfall. Ann-Live Øye Leine, NVE's Landslide Warning Officer says.
In Nordland, the risk of avalanches is high, especially in areas with 30-50 cm of snow.
– What is a slush avalanche?
– Sørpeskred is a soup of water and mud, a soaked snowpack. It can be released on gentle slopes where snow is allowed to accumulate. Then the landslide often descends into old river channels, which can then develop into floodplains. But now it is the danger of mudslides that is considered the greatest.
Traffic problems in the north
Expand the fact box
The E6 over Saltfjellet was closed, but there were reports of traffic jams on Monday morning.
Route A between Bognes and Lødingen has been canceled due to strong winds on Monday morning.
Both ferries between Bodø and Moskenes have been canceled on Monday morning.
The ferry between Skrova and Svolver was canceled on Monday morning.
The fast ferry between Tromsø and Harstad (line 2) and the ferry between Harstad, Bjarkøystredene and Skrolsvik (line 6) have been cancelled.
The Tjeldsund Bridge is closed due to gusts of up to 35 meters per second.
Norlet reports that due to bad weather the ferry connection between Stagnes and Sorolnes has been suspended until further notice.
There is a bus Driven off the road at Gratangsfjellet.
The shipping company Torghatten Nord canceled the ferry route between Storstein, Lauksundskaret and Nikkeby in Nord-Troms due to bad weather.
A trailer of a truck train overturned on the E10 in strong winds on Sunday. The E10 was closed for over an hour, meaning the only route to Lofoten was blocked for a time.
Photo: Jens André Mehammer Birkeland
Full storm in Finnmark
Nordland alone will see high winds over the next few days.
Troms and Finnmark will get a good portion of the storms, then strong winds are the key word.
From Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon, local snowfall is expected due to snow showers and strong winds from the southwest in the areas of Trams and Finnmark.
Trond Lien has warned of a full storm in Finnmark from Tuesday.
Photo: Jørn Inge Johansen / NRK
– In Troms, a small gale from the south-west in exposed areas today, a strong south-westerly gale to a small gale along the coast tomorrow. You also have showers that turn into snow and sleet, says meteorologist Trent Lien.
But the wind is still strong in Finnmark.
– You will get an increase in Finnmark today, but tomorrow, Tuesday, will increase from a strong storm to a full storm. In these areas, there is also a yellow warning, which will remain in Finland for a long time.
A full storm is not a wind speed, but a sustained wind speed of about 25 meters per second, the meteorologist insists.
The E6 above Saltfjellet was closed on Monday and it won't be the last today. Shortly after 8 o'clock there was a convoy. The film is directed by Dunderlandsthalen.
Photo: Norwegian Road Administration
Previous Wagner defector raises fears: Expert: Russian border guards monitor mobile signal
Next Health minister says we must take more responsibility for our aging – NRK Norway – An overview of news from different parts of the country


Coordinated cotton satin sheet with mini flap. Reverse straight. Bagcases.
Washing:Washing in water or dry with a delicate program. Use detergent for delicate items. Do not use aggressive detergents or bleaching substances. Centrifuge at maximum 400 revolutions per minute. Tumbler crying can be carrie out. Iron with moderately warm iron at temperature below 150C°.


What's better for kitchen cleanup than a thirsty cotton dishcloth? A bright and happy holiday dishcloth! Dishcloths for Special Days presents 21 designs by Julie A. Ray that are quick to make using only knit and purl stitches. Choose between following written instructions or charts, and check out our free online videos for extra help. Enjoy!


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We've taken our popular and revolutionary Rutmaster boot and made it lighter and more flexible. These boots are waterproof and offer flexibility and easy on/off, while ScentBan™ scent control eliminates odors. The aggressive lug pattern provides superb stability and traction on the toughest terrain. An Irish Setter exclusive scent control process, ScentBan™ is added to various materials from leathers to linings to footbeds, killing bacteria that cause odors.


Many in the so-called "mainstream" media like to use America's "murder epidemic" as a call to action for more restrictive gun laws. Yet new research shows that, far from being a national epidemic, U.S. murders are heavily concentrated in a very limited number of areas.
We recently touched base with criminologist and researcher John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and author of the new book, The War On Guns: Arming Yourself Against Gun Control Lies, to find out the truth.
A1F Daily: You've recently conducted some research about the concentration of murders in the United States. What did you learn?
John Lott: Murder isn't a nationwide problem; it's a problem in a very small set of urban areas. In 2014, the worst 2 percent of counties accounted for 51 percent of the murders. And 5 percent of counties account for 68 percent of murders.
Yet even within these counties with all these murders, there are large areas without any murders. So these murders are concentrated in a small portion of these tiny areas. For example, Los Angeles County had the most murders, with 526. But large, high-population areas, such as West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, have virtually no murders. In the case of Indianapolis, there were few murders in the northern half of the city or outside the 465 Highway loop.
Another way of looking at this concentration? Fifty-four percent of counties had zero murders; 69 percent had at most one murder.
Perhaps surprisingly, murders used to be even more concentrated. From 1977 to 2000, on average 73 percent of counties in any given year had no murders. This change may be a result of the opioid epidemic's spread to more rural areas. But as of yet, no one has clearly shown what has caused this change.
If you are going to reduce murders, you have to deal with the problems in these urban areas.
A1FD: What is the significance of these findings?
Lott: The counties with no murders are also by far the counties with the highest gun ownership rates. The household gun ownership rate in rural areas was 111 percent greater than in urban areas. Suburban households are 28.6 percent more likely to own guns than urban households. Despite lower gun ownership, urban areas experience much higher murder rates. One should not put much weight on this purely "cross-sectional" evidence that looks across places at one point in time. But it is striking that so much of the country has both very high gun ownership rates and no murders.
The differences also raise real questions about comparing murder rates across countries. There are really three different types of places in the United States—places where there are no murders, places where there are a few murders, and places where murders are very common.
A1FD: Are you seeing any reporting of this in the so-called "mainstream" media?
Fox News, the Washington Times, Breitbart and a few others have covered this, but the "mainstream" media have ignored it.


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EGA supports Special Needs Challenge 2016
Aluminium giant is Diamond Sponsor of the event
United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium ("EGA") is the Diamond Sponsor of the Special Needs Challenge 2016, which takes place on Thursday, February 4 at IPIC Arena, Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi. Organised by the Abilities Development Centre in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of HH Sheikha Salama bint Tahnoon bin Mohamed Al Nahyan, Honorary Chairman of Abilities Development Centre, and in the presence of HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa bin Khalid Al Nahyan, the annual event aims to instil a spirit of competition in special needs students from schools around the UAE through sport and entertainment activities.
Now in its ninth consecutive year, the Special Needs Challenge will welcome 1,500 special needs students at this year's event where activities will include a swimming competition, various sports contests and interactive entertainment. EGA's sponsorship of the 2016 event marks its first collaboration with the Abilities Development Centre. Commenting on the sponsorship, Khalid Buhumaid (Senior Vice President, Communication & Government Relations) said, "EGA strives to make a positive impact in the communities where we operate. Sponsoring events such as the Special Needs Challenge is part of our on-going corporate social responsibility strategy and is testament to our belief in charity and humanitarian support. We are delighted to support the event and show our solidarity with the students; who represent an important segment of our society."
The Abilities Development Centre is a private organisation that specialises in training, evaluating and developing the abilities of children with mild to medium mental difficulties and autism. The centre seeks to assimilate these children into society by all means possible and offers specialised teaching, psychological training and social programmes. The centre aims to improve the behaviour and learning abilities of students, so that they can eventually be integrated into regular schools.
EGA's collaboration with the Abilities Development Centre is part of a long-term commitment from the business to support special needs causes in the UAE. For example, EGA regularly works with the Emirates Autism Centre through events sponsorships and was the exclusive sponsor of a music event organised by the Abu Dhabi Museum and Art Foundation. EGA also sponsors physical therapy for special needs students at Senses Special Needs Centre in Dubai.


Do Up, Demolish Or Develop - You Decide!
AUCTION: Friday, 12 April 2019 at 12:00pm Harcourts Wellington City Office (unless sold prior). What an opportunity awaiting an astute buyer. Our amazing owner has lived here for 84 years and is sadly leaving this much-loved home for life up the coast. Built in the 1910s, it's largely original, with three bedrooms, a sitting room as well as a separate lounge, a tidy kitchen and a sunny and large (approximately 632 m²section) to enjoy. Situated on the flat, in popular Lyall Bay, it's walking distance to the beach and you'll see the potential to either renovate or develop on this sizeable site. With your sleeves rolled up and plenty of imagination, you could transform this cute cottage into a modern, warm and comfortable home. Or remove the house and build afresh. Either way, with an auction buyer's guide from $550,000, this is a brilliant opportunity for someone. LIM has been ordered - don't delay, you must come and view today.


NEW granite slab countertops / undermount SS sink / faucet and backsplash(2019) Gorgeous end of the cul-de-sac home. Huge home with vaulted ceilings and Brazilian Cherry hardwood floors through out the main floor. Finished walk out basement.


Posted on June 22, 2016	by Ray V.
Posted on June 9, 2016	by Ray V.
Posted on June 8, 2016	by Ray V.
Posted on June 7, 2016	by Ray V.
From the pen of Chuck Gallagher It is important that one must stay alert and learn to tell the difference. . . my advice to me.
Posted on June 6, 2016	by Ray V.
Posted on June 4, 2016	by Ray V.


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Early Childhood Literacy
Happily Ever After – The Role of Fairy Tales in the Young Child's Life
13/07/2016 UncategorizedDisney, Fairy Tales, George Lucas, Hero, NRAdonna burke esgro
©donnaesgro
Unicorns do not exist
They only think they do
They've better things to do
Watching the intensity with which children pretend to be Belle, Ariel, Elsa, Batman, or a Jedi Knight, I am struck by the vital importance of this kind of play in the child's understanding of who he is and who he aspires to be.
When a child creates scenarios based on her belief of how a heroic character would act under certain circumstances, she engages in fundamental questions about the meaning of life. What looks like the simple wearing of a blue sparkling dress is really a ceremonial act with roots in ancient rites of storytelling and mythology.
Because a child's thinking is animistic, he readily believes that a beast can turn into a prince, that wind can speak, or that creatures such as mermaids exist. Children see the world subjectively. Until they are able to understand the complexities of life in a more objective manner it is not only counter productive, but harmful to the psyche to point out that such things as dragons, unicorns, or fairies are not real. Fairy tales speak directly to the child's subconscious which intuits the hidden truths inherent in the stories. Explaining that these tales are imaginary, as some well meaning adults are wont to do, only makes the child distrustful of his own inner voice that so vibrantly tells him that these lovely creatures are real. It robs the child of the solace of believing that with a valiant heart, even the very small and weak can overcome the big and powerful. Fairy tales provide a secure foundation that will only later be understood as metaphor. Dorothy melting the Witch, and Jack outwitting the Giant become over time solid beliefs that evil can be vanquished by good.
The hero in any fairy tale begins as an innocent, thrust into a position in which she must face grave dangers. With courage and honorable deeds, she wins out over all obstacles and lives happily ever after.
Fairy tales acknowledge what the child instinctively knows to be true. Bad thing exist, and sometimes he will make bad choices himself, be unkind, greedy, jealous, lazy, or go down the wrong path – the dark one, full of monsters. Fairy tales are profoundly moral stories that emphasize the power of honor, courage, humility, generosity and love. That reassure the child that mistakes and missteps will ultimately be of no consequence and happiness will prevail if the heart is pure.
A child feels empathy for the archetypal character who is at the mercy of unkind fortune, who is the youngest, the one often thought of as a simpleton, or with the least strength, because this is often how he perceives himself. The magic of the fairy tale is not in the dragons and castles, but in the idea that an ordinary boy or girl can be transformed into a hero.
In the classic fairytale being abandoned, lost, orphaned, or forced by fate to leave one's home represent the inevitability of having to grow up. The symbolism of life's journey resonates with the child's realization of what her future will contain. The hero must preform a series of tasks or tests to prove herself – often with the help of seemingly ordinary creatures who bestow invincible totems as rewards for such simple gestures as kindness or politeness. The boy or girl acts solely out of sympathy and in turn is given an item that is invaluable in performing an otherwise impossible mission. This motif tells the child what she already perceives to be true – that growing up will not be easy, will not happen all at once, is full of wonder and mystery, and requires great fortitude.
Fairytales may seem outdated, irrelevant, or even too scary to a modern day parent. But it is important not to apply adult sensitivities to these stories which acknowledge, and pacify natural fears that the young child grapples with daily. If a fairytale truly alarms you, then choose another, there are hundreds of them from all over the world. But trust that these classic plots, which are repeated throughout all cultures, have very good reasons to have lasted for thousands of years.
Fairytales can be disturbing, but never in any one of them have I been so horrified as I was at this recent attempt of the NRA to use these stories to indoctrinate our youngest…
http://mobile.nytimes.com/images/100000004293807/2016/03/26/us/the-nra-reimagines-classic-fairy-tales-with-guns.html
Fairytales celebrate the true, the honest, the kind, the trustworthy, and the virtuous . They offer hope and redemption. This twisted idea from the NRA of what strength and courage is corrupts the very meaning and purpose of the fairytale.
Although Disney has become the modern cantadora of fairytales, don't leave this rite of passage entirely to a giant corporation whose singular interpretation is marketed and templated. Read to your children, let their imaginations soar, and you will be holding hands across generation after generation of parents and grandparents who have participated together in this mystically beautiful and ancient tradition.
Believing in the possibility of happy ever after achieved by goodness of heart and nobility of spirit at once brings a sense of order, power over wickedness and inspiration on how to live to the child.
I wanted Yoda to be the traditional kind of character you find in fairy tales and mythology. One of the basic motifs in fairy tales is that you find the poor and unfortunate along the side of the road, and when they beg for help, if you give it to them, you end up succeeding. If you don't give it to them, you end up being turned into a frog or something. It's something that's been around for thousands of years, a concept that's been around for thousands of years. -George Lucas
Where Environmentalism Begins
04/06/2016 Children, UncategorizedEcology, Environment, Pollutiondonna burke esgro
Clockwise: Michael, Donna, and Laura Esgro ©donnaesgro
Do we want our children to care about protecting the planet earth? Then, we must make sure that they are in awe of its myriad wonders. It can be as simple as taking your child outside to star gaze – as singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. This humble song has raised children's awareness of the preciousness of the night sky more than all the warnings of what pollution is doing to the visibility of the heavens…because it is about love. It is about loving the stars, especially one little star among all the rest. This is how we learn compassion. Children look to us for guidance in all things, small and in this case infinite. To tell a child who has never pondered a sparkling sky that if we don't reuse and recycle we will one day be unable to see the stars has no meaning. To tell a child who has no knowledge of sea horses, of anemones or tide pools, who has never heard the songs of dolphins and whales that we are poisoning our oceans, is an empty threat that cannot be understood with the senses and so, will have no meaning.
We can site statistics about the vital importance of preserving our forests, but can a child understand why? Not unless the joy of trees is in his consciousness-until he has climbed onto a fragrant low hanging branch, watched a bird arduously building its nest, or day dreamed in the dappled light of a leafy dome will he understand viscerally the vital link between a tree and himself. A tree might as well be playground equipment if there is no emotional or spiritual connection.
It is difficult for young children to think abstractly. This is why stories, either from books or experience, "Your grandmother was a brave gypsy who wore scarves threaded with gold…" resonate in ways that facts never can. I know that I love the ocean because my mother swam in it all the while I was in her womb.
Sometimes knowledge is first hand, tiny fingers touching a spiny sea star, but often it cannot be. This is where books can fill the gap -opening up the awareness that is necessary in order for a child to treasure his environment.
As a young girl I read The Secret Garden over and over. Oh, how I longed for a garden of my own! A place where I could grow vines of snap peas and pick flowers to wear in my hair. Books like this helped shaped my image of who I was and who I aspired to be.
Over 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris.
How does a child understand the dire weight of this information? Does she know about the majestic sea turtles who eat plastic bags thinking that they are jelly fish and die? To be told that it is a good idea to reuse shopping bags is one thing, but to be aware of the plight of the sea turtle is an other.
Silent Killers – YouTube
We can hear about natural disasters, floods, famines, but finally, it is the faces of the victims that make us understand the depths of their suffering. Our hearts must ache with sorrow or joy before our heads can understand. So, go outside with your child often and show reverence for all living things. Read books that celebrate the exquisite magic of our fragile planet.
"Everything you can imagine is real." Picasso
Imagine a world that works as one to save itself, from global warming to the horrors of war. Imagine clean oceans and skies, respect for all creatures, and the power of love. Show your children the glory of this blue marble cast into the infinite that we are blessed to inhabit. Plant a sunflower, build a sand castle, listen for crickets on a summer evening, look for spider webs after a rain… Show them your joy in the bounteous gifts that surround us, and you will inspire them to care.
21/04/2016 Literacy, UncategorizedAmerican Library Association, Autodidactic, Bob Dylan, Dalai Lama, David Bowie, David Denby, Independence, James Dean, Patti Smith, Rimbaud, Sherman Alexie, William Blakedonna burke esgro
"When I read Rimbaud's works, the bells went off." Bob Dylan
Reading is not something that can be measured by a standardized test. Reading is unique, it is universal, and it is cool. Ask Jack Kerouac, if you don't believe me. From William Blake to Sherman Alexie – It is very hip to be literary.
In her memoir, Just Kids, the iconic rock star Patti Smith speaks fondly of her love of old book stores and states that the 19th Century classical poets Rimbaud and Baudelaire have been keen sources of inspiration in her work.
Bob Dylan, vagabond of cool, was influenced in his writing by such philosophers of literature as Ferlinghetti and Bertolt Brecht.
The 80 year old Dalai Lama, scholar of Buddhist scripture, and Noble Peace Prize recipient, is globally recognized as having a "cool factor". This highly erudite man can recite arcane Buddhist texts from memory.
Writer, musician, actor, performance artist, painter, and Renaissance Man, David Bowie, was frequently found browsing the famous New York book stores McNally Jackson and The Strand. Bowie felt so passionately about reading that he posted 100 of his favorite books on his website. The list includes such literary works as Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange and Juno Diaz' The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The original rebel without a cause, James Dean, the young man that made motorcycle jackets the uniform of cool, was an avid reader. Knowing how much he loved Antoine De Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, a close friend chose a quote from the book, "What is essential is invisible to the eye." for Dean's memorial plaque near the scene of his tragic automobile crash.
©Dennis Stock/Magnum Photos
In Cyrano de Bergerac, the beautiful Rosalind falls in love with the poet, not the handsome pretender – that is the tragedy and truth of this wondrous play. Being well read makes you attractive, interesting, and desirable to the opposite sex. Pretty Cool!
A reader is an explorer, a seeker, a visionary. One on a quest for something deeper, truer, stronger and more meaningful than what modern culture can offer. Readers are not content with status quo. This makes them defacto non conformists-quintessentially cool. They do not measure truth by what is currently popular. Readers are curious, passionate people with hearts full of wonder. They have discovered that books are passageways.
When teenagers are asked "What is cool?" One character trait comes up consistently:
Throughout history an important theme in literature, whether for children or adults, is the importance of standing up for what you believe in, even when you stand alone.
The Oxford dictionary defines "radical" as "essential and fundamental", Malala Yousatzai, the young radical who wrote I am Malala, one of the coolest young women in the world, speaks out in her autobiography about how she risked her life for the right of every one to be allowed an education, no matter what sex they are born into.
Role models do not necessarily have to be living. Characters, whether in fairy tales or novels (see previous post on To Kill a Mockingbird) have the ability to help people make transformative decisions; have the power to remind us to treat one another with empathy, decency, and without exploitation.
When reading to a child about characters who are strong and honorable, who courageously choose good over evil, who forge their own path and are triumphant, we offer a compass with which to navigate. The enhanced empathy that early readers acquire helps make them leaders, not followers, as they mature. Good books can teach us to be more compassionate and humane, can encourage us to fight for a kinder, wiser world- that is cool.
Even those with aware, informed, open minded, and educated families cannot possibly be exposed to all the ideas and ways of seeing that books can offer. Books are the ultimate autodidactic key to knowledge. In many dystopian novels, the banning of printed material is both a symbol and a warning of not only the loss of freedom, but a certain kind of imprisonment without bars – the imprisonment of only being allowed to think what those in charge allow you to think. To be illiterate is to be suppressed, as Mahala knew well.
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451
Only thorough education, through knowledge (and this is attainable not only through formal schooling – but through the vast stores of historical material both fiction and nonfiction available to all of us in free countries) do we gain the power to accept or reject the status quo, do we gain the strength that allows us to make important changes in this world. Reading is a right and a privilege, and should not be taken lightly. Teachers have an obligation to let their students in on the value of this precious resource, and not to let the loud circus of modern technology drown out the power of a book's soft whisper in the darkness.
Two junior high school teachers, who with a little creativity, succeeded in getting their students excited about reading:
http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/mississippi-schools-literary-lockers-give-cool-factor-reading/story?id=33159515
Read about more teachers who care in David Denby's Lit Up:
Books (the old fashioned paper kind) are almost the only activity left that doesn't require technology or specialized equipment. They are also one of the only places you can escape to in which you not only don't have to spend any money, but won't be bombarded with advertisements for things you can't possibly live without.
In a world obsessed with speed, in which people are more often treated as consumers than not, reading requires that you sit down and slow down and it has nothing to sell. Become reflective. Choose your companion for the night, whether it be Holden Caufield, Titania- Queen of Fairies, or Charlotte the spider.
Reading opens up our hearts and minds. We fall in love with characters because of how they think and how they feel, not because of how they look or what they wear. Books express universal feelings, and yet are deeply personal-no one imagines the same pictures when they read. At a time when we are most lonely, books remind us that we are not alone. They teach humbleness, authenticity, connectiveness, and encourage us to dream – all very, very cool traits.
You can never in a lifetime read all the books you want to read. But if you'd like some of the "coolest" to start with, here you go: A link to the 100 best books for children chosen by the NY Public Library:
http://www.nypl.org/childrens100
©AmericanLibraryAssociation
"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads."
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
Can Harper Lee Rest In Peace?
04/03/2016 UncategorizedAtticus Finch, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, Joe Nocera, racisim, To Kill a Mockingbirddonna burke esgro
drawing courtesy of Lucy Raymond, age six
"Remember, it is a sin to kill a mockingbird." Atticus Finch – To Kill a Mockingbird
In memory of Harper Lee 1926 – 2016
To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic, a novel of profound significance to millions of people all over the world. Just beneath the surface of the dappled watercolor and heady magnolia scented streets, the gentile Southern hospitality and firefly nights, lies hatred, violence, cruelty, and hypocrisy. Through the painstaking writing and rewriting that produces a work of genius, Harper Lee created characters that reflect both how glorious and depraved humanity can be. She gave us Atticus Finch, the gentle and dignified hero who acts courageously on his deep beliefs of justice, shining a piercing light of truth through the dark labyrinth that was the moral norm of 1930's Alabama.
Go Set a Watchman, the first draft of what later became To Kill a Mockingbird, reincarnates Atticus into a despicable bigot, "Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?" Painful words to read coming from any character's lips, but from the man who has become a symbol of the redeeming power of compassion in the human heart, it is wrenching.
Atticus Finch, who, in Mockingbird, inspired millions to recognize the sacred nature of honor was originally drafted as a self righteous, hate filled racist. It was only because the author was encouraged by her brilliant editor, Tay Hohoff, to rethink the novel, take a different slant and go back twenty years in time, that Atticus, who had originally represented all that was evil in the repugnant segregation of southern culture, was elevated into the man who reminds us that our souls are noble, a legendary character that belongs to the elite legion of heroes of modern mythology.
If this novel truly was a sequel, if Harper Lee had spent years perfecting it into a well written novel, if she had a compelling message to tell, a reason to take Atticus off of his pedestal, a believable evolution, and if she was of sound mind when making the decision to publish, then that is to be respected. But, from the start, the release and grandiose promotion of this first draft, the continual reference to it as a "Sequel" or "New Novel by Harper Lee", has been suspect.
Joe Nocera, journalist for the NY Times, in an article entitled Harper Lee The 'Go Set a Watchman' Fraud (7/24/15) stated that "Go Set a Watchman constitutes one of the epic money grabs in the modern history of American publishing." Harper Lee was almost 90 years old, a stroke victim, wheel chair bound, living in a nursing home, hard of hearing, nearly blind, and with extremely limited short term memory, when her first draft was "discovered" by her new lawyer, Tonja B. Carter, not long after the death of the previous gate keeper of Harper's estate, her sister Alice Lee, also an attorney. The senior vice president at Harper Collins said that the publishing company had never spoken to Ms. Lee about the second manuscript and that all negotiations were made through her agent and recently hired lawyer.
One winter after having worked arduously for over two years on rewrites of what would become Mockingbird, Harper Lee became so frustrated and enraged with her inability to get what she wanted on paper that she threw the manuscript out of her apartment window into the snow. It was only because she called her friend and editor Tay in tears, who insisted Harper rescue the damp pages immediately, that the tedious work of all those months and meetings was saved. Does this seem like the action of someone who would want the public to read an early, rejected, draft of her work?
Harper Lee had many vital years in which both her publishers and the public begged her for more material. All the while her first draft was in her files, yet she declined to publish it. She polished To Kill a Mockingbird until we could see ourselves in its' mirror. This is what she set out to do and this is what she won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The National Medal of Arts, and the Pulitzer Prize for. What better legacy could an author wish for?
Trying to cash in on Harper Lee's fame (Go Set a Watchman sold over one million copies the first week it was available to the public) by publishing a discarded early draft after the author became infirm, lost her sister's protection, and was less likely to resist, is shameful in and of itself, but when it ruthlessly destroys the memory of a character that has imbued hope in generations of hearts, it is a betrayal of the very integrity that the novel stand for and is, indeed, a sin.
"To Kill a Mockingbird represents a sense of emerging humanism and decency"
Andrew Young, former United Nations ambassador, veteran of the civil rights movement, and colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr.
To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into 40 languages, has sold over 30 million copies, and has been a vital part of middle and high school English classes the world over for over fifty years.
The Power of "I Don't Know"
28/01/2016 UncategorizedFailure, Gifted, Grades, Leonardo da Vinci, Libraries, Neil Gaiman, Over Functioning, Picassodonna burke esgro
It is difficult not to idealize our children, and in fact, unconditional love promotes security and self esteem. We believe that our child will move mountains. But expecting too much from children can be unrealistic and detrimental. When we proudly display only A+ papers and gush over accomplishments, we set our child on a pedestal, a lonely and uncomfortable perch. Our love becomes conditional in the child's mind and she believes that she will not be valued unless she consistently performs well.
Expecting to see disappointment in a parent's face at a less than stellar grade, a child may feel shame and try to hide what he perceives to be a failure by making excuses, "It was the teacher's fault." "The room was too noisy." "The boy next to me was talking." The wish to bask in the limelight of being superior is tempting. Awards bolster this position and second or third place becomes not good enough. This begins, in the young student, a process of over functioning – dysfunctioning by another name.
An extolled child is not allowed to be forgetful, messy or dreamy. Being gifted carries the weight of the gift. Adults ask what the child wants to be when he grows up and act less than satisfied if the answer isn't in the PhD range. After a time a child will internalize this search for the Holy Grail of Harvard, and self doubt will grow as he wonders, as anyone might, if he is up to the task, and if not, is he still special?
It is difficult for a child labeled as exceptional to say "I don't know." yet this simple sentence is a powerful knock on the door of knowledge. Saying "I don't know." allows the child to take off the genius mask and just be herself. It gives her room to realize her own limitations, to accept having them, and to gain self-respect by bounding beyond them. "I don't know." is one of the most intelligent sentences anyone can utter. It drives scientific discovery, exploration, innovation, insight, and creativity.
"I am always doing what I cannot do, in order to learn how to do it." Pablo Picasso
No one likes a "know it all" because we sense how false this stance is, how ego driven. Admitting our ignorance of a particular subject makes us vulnerable, in the best of ways. It opens us up to ideas, new ways of seeing, epiphanies! and it takes courage. Thinking one "knows already" can lead to a shutting out of other's opinions – a form of narrow mindedness and prejudice that is unhealthy, unadvised, and not something we wish to instill in our children.
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions." Leonardo da Vinci
When children ask questions it shows that they are listening and thinking. It is important to take every question seriously, even if it seems silly. In doing so we show by our attitude that not knowing, and seeking out answers, is as honorable as any gold plated trophy. As tempting as it is to Google answers to inquiries, use curiosity to instill a respect and appreciation of books. Let questions lead directly to the local library, where, whatever the subject, from worms to shooting stars, dozens of books are available to take home. Let your children know that you don't judge intelligence by grades, that a lower score is not a stigma but an opportunity, and an important part of how everyone learns. It is how one handles mistakes that defines one, not the errors themselves.
"…if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something." Neil Gaiman
Knowledge is not only a cognitive pursuit. It is an emotional and spiritual one as well, that thrives in an atmosphere of freedom. Your child may well be bright, but let him embrace enigmatical darkness, it is often by candlelight that the most profound truths are revealed.
(Big) Barbie is Watching You
18/12/2015 UncategorizedAPA, Artificial Intelligence, George Orwell, Hello Barbie, Mattel, Toy Talk, Video Games, WATCHdonna burke esgro
copyright©donnaesgro
"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull."
George Orwell – 1984
WATCH (World Against Toys Causing Harm), a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, recently released its "Ten Worst Toys for 2015" list:
1. Bud Skipit's Wheely Cute Pull Along – Potential for choking injuries
2. Jiefeng Foam Dart Gun. Realistic toy weapon – Potential for mistaken identity
3. Stats 38″ quick-folding trampoline – Potential for head, neck and other injuries
4. Poo-Dough – Potential for wheat allergy-related harm
5. Splat X Smack Shot – Potential for eye injuries
6. Kick Flipper – Potential for head and other bodily injuries
7. Leonardo's Electronic Stealth Sword – Potential for blunt force injuries
8. Kid Connection Doctor Play Set – Potential for ingestion and choking injuries
9. Pull Along Zebra – Potential for strangulation and entanglement injuries
10. Jurassic World Velociraptor Claws – Potential for eye and facial injuries
Although some toys are just obviously dangerous, there are others with a potential for harm more insidious and subtle. According to the latest statistics from the American Psychological Association (APA) more than 90% of all children play video games, and 97% of all teenagers.
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.pdf
Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Wii U have all set new bars for graphic depth, continue to put simulated weapons right into your children's hands, and have ramped up the violence, blood, gore, and fatalities for the holiday season. Most child development experts agree that these games can become addictive, and may lead to various developmental and emotional problems in young players. New studies continue to reveal disturbing facts surrounding this controversial issue:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/05/20/video-games-brain/#.VnL1m3i4mWs
But, while we were looking the other way, at the dangers of violent video games, choking hazards, and hoverboards, a new toy, produced by Mattel and Toy Talk, was introduced this year. Designed for three to nine year olds, and cleverly disguised in the familiar pink plastic perfect body with straight long blond hair. Hello Barbie, a doll with Advanced Artificial Intelligence, is no Talking Elmo.
She doesn't just talk. She listens. Or, to be more precise, a mega-million dollar corporation listens – to your child's most intimate thoughts, wishes, dreams, and desires – and stores them in the cloud for future referencing.
Hello Barbie has been preprogrammed with scripted lines designed to engage young girls in conversation. Whatever your child reveals, whether it is joy, anger, loneliness, insecurities, or precious secrets, adds to Barbie's digital bank of information-just like a "real friend" Barbie can refer to a comment made several weeks after having been told. If your child shares with Barbie that, "Nobody likes me." Several days later Barbie may say, "Have you made any new friends at school?" But, unlike a fickle "real friend" Barbie will always remember your child's likes and dislikes while being perennially sycophantic . No matter what the subject, her face will remain expressionless except for a permanent pert smile.
The doll is designed so that the more that a child tells Barbie, the more reality and fantasy merge. For young children, who already have a strong disposition to anthropomorphize, this blurring has a potential for psychological damage in ways that we can only guess. Do you want your child exposed to anything that executives at Mattel decide to tell her? Do you want them to know what your child is most afraid of and what she most desires? In the name of profit, our children are being used as guinea pigs in a global mass social experiment. And because the effects won't be as obvious as head injuries or lead poisoning, and because every child is different psychologically, it will likely be sometime before the impact of this new way of playing is understood.
Magical thinking is a beautiful part of being a child. Imagining that you and your friends live in a castle or believing in faeries and unicorns, enrich a child's life and develop creativity. This kind of play is a positive developmental step, a form of story telling that a child has control over. But what happens when imagination is stifled and much of the story telling is preprogramed pap? Imagination is infinite, wild, and free, it changes as a child changes, from day to day. Hello Barbie has a predetermined personality, which has been scrubbed thoroughly to be politically correct. Although Barbie is able to extrapolate and reference information, she is, of course, completely unable to feel. At an age when developing social skills is critical for necessary personality development, having a "friend" like Hello Barbie does not gender realistic expectations about how a real friend would act and is simply a plastic personification of a warped and unhealthy relationship.
Although Hello Barbie will not make any dangerous toys list and her saccharine coated words won't leave the kind of scars that Jurassic World Velociraptor Claws might, there are other ways to be wounded in our rapidly evolving culture of Artificial Intelligentsia.
"Best of all, this is cool, she has Wi-Fi capabilities so all her content is stored up in the cloud so we can actually push new data to her." Mattel Representative
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RJMvmVCwoNM
When is "Dark" Young Adult Fiction Too Dark?
10/12/2015 UncategorizedCensorship, Chris Grabenstein, Fairy Tales, G.K. Chesterton, Lois Lowry, The Giver, YA Novelsdonna burke esgro
copyright ©donnaesgro
Imagine a few well known stories with different plots: The witch in the gingerbread house is a sweet old lady who loves children…Oliver Twist is a well fed happy school boy…and Romeo and Juliet marry with their parent's blessings…What would these stories be missing? Would they be as potent and still be read as avidly centuries after having been written?
"Fairytales are more than true, not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." ~ G.K. Chesterton
Good stories, whether fairy tales, Shakespearean plays, or Young Adult novels, are more than entertainment; they are conduits to understanding ourselves and others, connecting us intimately and immediately to our innate nature. Evil exists, but with strength and fortitude it can be overcome. We all, especially adolescents, get lost and need guidance. Reading a variety of authors who again and again confirm that strength comes from within and that triumph is possible whether it be over the evil witch, the classroom bully, or, as in some YA novels, rape, incest, and drug abuse, can be a solace in an often confusing world in which tragic events seem to have no beginning, no end, and no easy answers.
We all want our children to be protected from the ugliness of the world, but how realistic is this desire, and what harm could it potentially do? When sensitive authors, such as E.B. White, can create sympathy for a big grey hairy spider, or when Jean-Marie Leprince de Beaumont (Beauty and The Beast-Eighteenth Century) can have us fall helplessly in love with a hideous beast, they are on to something big. They teach us in a simple, visceral, timeless way, that even very young children can understand, that we need to look deeper; that patience, kindness, truth, and honor are powerful defenses that lie within us all.
When I was a young I read Black Beauty, Of Mice and Men, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, over and over again, crying every time at their messages of fierce sorrow. I remember sitting cross legged on my rumpled bed, the sounds of the household dim in the background, feeling the rise of emotion, knowing it would lead to tears. Why did I pick these books, knowing that each held such grief? What was it about the stories that compelled me to read and re-read?
Great books, the ones that pass down through the generations, have many qualities in common. One is that they tell the truth. Good literature unites us in our humanity. Feelings of isolation, apartness and disconnection fall away. We are transported into the very souls of the characters.
Letting tears fall while reading profound and universal truths in fiction is something I have always accepted as an important part of an empathetic immersion experience with the characters in a story. Being emotionally wrenched was a testament to the art of the writer. So a recent experience that I had while conducting a fifth grade book club surprised and unnerved me. We were reading Lois Lowry's riveting classic The Giver. The members had excellent questions as we read carefully through each chapter. One scientifically minded child asked "How did they make everything seem black and white even though it actually had color? Wouldn't that be impossible unless they did some kind of operation on people's eyes?" I posed questions such as, "Would you like to live in a world like this one, everything in order, no crime, no poverty, with everyone the same?" I wanted them to think and I wanted them to feel. I thought that all was going well…until Chapter Nineteen.
The point of view in The Giver is through the eyes of the protagonist, a twelve year old boy named Jonas. The skilled author unfolds the story page by page, so that the reader sees and feels everything simultaneously with the main character.
(Spoiler Alert)
Jonas watched as his father bent over the squirming newchild on the bed. "And you, little guy, you're only five pounds ten ounces. A shrimp!" His father turned and opened the cupboard. He took out a syringe and a small bottle. Very carefully he inserted the needle into the bottle and began to fill the syringe with a clear liquid…his father began very carefully to direct the needle into the top of the newchild's forehead, puncturing the place where the fragile skin pulsed…he pushed the plunger very slowly, injecting the liquid into the scalp vein until the syringe was empty…"He killed it! My father killed it!" Jonas said to himself, stunned at what he was realizing.
At this climactic moment one of the book club members threw the book from the table. "I hate Lois Lowry! She wrote this book for children! FOR CHILDREN!! I'm not reading it." He jumped up, outraged, got some tape and began taping up the book so that no unsuspecting reader would ever open it. He grabbed a pen and furiously wrote, "Worst Book EVER! NEVER READ, EVER!" and taped it to the cover. He walked away from the rest of the members and sat on the couch staring straight ahead.
I was shocked, perplexed, and guilty. What had I done? This was a 12 year old who had sat through movies with aplomb that were way to scary for me. Who had told me that the video game Five Nights at Freddy's was "not so bad". I had never expected this. I went to him and encouraged him to keep reading with us. That Lois Lowry was trying to warn us against this kind of world, that she wasn't being 'mean' as he called her. He refused. When I told him that I thought it would help if he kept reading to the end, that things were going to work out, he was unable to be comforted. We broke for the day.
Later I discovered that he wouldn't discuss his feelings with his mother, telling her that, "it was too terrible for her to know". After much urging he did finish The Giver with the rest of the group and felt proud that he had shown the courage to see this difficult book through to its cathartic ending. We discussed how brave Jonas had been to escape the monstrous society he lived in and postulated on why the author might have written such a book. Reading the novel had been a powerful and meaningful experience for all the members of the book club, including me, who had read it many times before.
Where do we draw the line between well intentioned guiding and banning?
How do we determine good and bad taste? And who decides?
Although I abhor the idea that some authors who write for the YA market may use horrendous images, sexuality, and abundant profanity simply to spice up an otherwise poorly written novel, I believe that it still comes down to the fact that it is better for some badly written books to be out there than for such authors as J.D. Salinger, D.H. Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, Allen Ginsberg, and even Walt Whitman, who write of ideas that do not appeal to everyone, be censored.
http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica
When authors as acclaimed as Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, or George Orwell confront the reader with harrowing views of spiritual dystopia, what are they attempting to communicate? If I had held a book back from these 12 year olds, not wanting to hurt them, wouldn't I be guilty of perpetrating the exact "sameness" that Lois Lowry is so desperately warning us against in The Giver?
Books allow us to experience the unimaginable, to peer safely into the abyss. Without despair the word hope is meaningless. That books, in this age of emotionally distancing communication patterns, still have such power to touch us is truly wonderful.
However, I did decide to give my book club members a breather and picked Chris Grabenstein's delightful Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library for our next book. They are going to need a break before I introduce Fahrenheit 451 next year.
Most Likely To Succeed
12/10/2015 UncategorizedA Class Divided, ADHD, advanced tract, Barbara Smaller, Friedrich Froebel, gifted and talented, IQ Tests, Kindergarten, Standardized Testingdonna burke esgro
©Barbara Smaller-The New Yorker – Conde Nast Collection
Many public schools begin a Kindergartener's education by sorting the child into one of two groups, "gifted" and well… "not gifted". In one of our local schools, this determination is made during a fifteen to twenty minute assessment test given at the end of summer, just before Kindergarten begins.
Little children, who have recently celebrated their fifth birthday, and who have generally been taught not to talk to strangers, are sat down alone with a stranger and asked a series of questions designed to determine if they are gifted. These children are then placed in two separate classes-one for the advanced tract and one for all the rest. They are not evaluated again until the end of their Kindergarten year, at which time, should a child prove to the powers that be that he is "worthy", he will be admitted to the first grade advanced tract.
A Kindergarten teacher that follows this practice admitted that once a child is excluded from the advanced class it is very difficult to get in, and only becomes harder as the child grows older and the curriculum more complicated. Even public schools that do not practice this whimsical sorting are mandated to give standardized tests to all children during the first weeks of school. Kindergarten teachers, rather than focusing on age appropriate social skills, creativity, and hands on problem solving, are required to meet curriculum standards formerly expected of children at least one year older. While expectations have changed, developmental milestones, emotional needs, and children, have not:
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325
The practice of labeling children is egregious enough, but at such an early age and in such an arbitrary way, it is shockingly unfair. How can educators who have chosen the vocation of guiding young hearts and minds become so misguided themselves as to send a clear message to more than half the student body that they are just "not as smart" as the rest of their peers? Not only "not as smart", but chosen to be placed in a separate classroom so as not to slow these "super kids" down?
And don't think that even very young children won't know. They understand that they are being categorized and, what is worse, believe it: "How could all these grown-ups be wrong about me?" The pressure on teachers to churn out stellar students who "test well" begins at the federal and state levels and trickles down to each school district. Schools that perform well on standardized tests are rewarded with much needed additional funding-a system that encourages teachers to "teach to the test".
It is not only the children classified "not gifted" that are affected. Labels in any form hurt the growing mind. The documentary "A Class Divided", still as relevant today as it was over twenty years ago, clearly shows how vulnerable children are to suggestion and how dangerous any kind of labeling can be, no matter if one is deemed superior or inferior.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRnRIC9JQTQ
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) tests are designed to assess ephemeral and elusive cognitive abilities. These evaluations have no ability to measure creativity, innovative thinking, leadership, compassion, curiosity, wonder, or social skills. It is commonly agreed by child development experts that intelligent children often "overthink" test questions, realizing that there could be more than one answer. This "outside the box" thinking causes them to become confused when asked to check just one "box".
Limitation of IQ testing is well known and found to be unreliable, especially at the pre-K level, yet IQ Test Prep is a multi-million dollar business that has grown rapidly to support parent's fears that their child might be among the ones passed over. Books and test kits designed to prepare children as young as two and a half years old for WISC IV, WPPSI III, WAIS III, and other early IQ assessments are readily available on the internet and range in price from forty to seven hundred dollars. These tests help a child to be evaluated for such things as: short term auditory recall, sequencing ability, and processing speed. All this for children who often still pronounce their "R's" as "W's"?
Standardized evaluations practice exclusivity-judging children without regard to background, cultural variations, what a particular child has been exposed to in the home (familiarization), introversion, physical state (tiredness or hunger), what type of learner a child is (many of these tests demand the viewing of photos or drawings – best for a child who is a visual learner, but certainly not suited for tactile, auditory, or kinesthetic learners.) No allowance is made for children who tend to be perfectionists and freeze at the idea of failure, or for the fact that, often, there can simply be a bad chemistry between the subject and test giver. There are innumerable reasons why individuals may not be at their best at a particular time of a particular day. To have children tested for something as important as class placement by these standards is fuzzy science at best.
So parents, be wary. While your young child who longs to be outside running, laughing, exploring, jumping, building, collecting, climbing, pretending (in other words, learning), is being tested for things he cannot yet pronounce: VCI, PRI, WMI, and PSI (verbal comprehension index, perceptual reasoning index, working memory index, and processing speed index) should become irritable, bored, restless, inattentive, resentful, distracted, or day dreamy, there is a chance that the test giver, whose job it is to apply labels as she sees fit, may determine that your child is neither gifted nor not gifted, but instead, a possible qualifier for ADHD treatment.
"The mind grows by self revelation. In play the child ascertains what he can do, discovers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting his power spontaneously. In work he follows a task prescribed for him by another, and doesn't reveal his own proclivities and inclinations; but another's. In play he reveals his own original power."
Friedrich Froebel – founder of the first Kindergarten
Are Shakespeare's 500 Year Old Works Still Relevant?
18/08/2015 UncategorizedAdam Bradley, Hip Hop, Royal Shakespeare Companydonna burke esgro
– King Richard III (Act V, Scene IV).
My assignment was to tutor a seventh grader. Her grade in English had slipped dangerously and now it was time for the final test: Shakespeare's As You Like It. We were at ground zero. She not only had no idea what the play she had studied in class was about, she had very little interest in finding out. I had twenty-four hours. How could I help a modern teenager, fan of Taylor Swift, Texting, and Twitter, feel empathy for a troupe of actors from the 16th Century? She was, first, surprised to hear that the key players were her age. In As You Like It, the lead characters are teenagers on their own, without adult supervision, adrift in an alluring forest, and falling deeply and madly in love.
Really? This boring play is about the things I am most interested in – friends, freedom, and love? She looked skeptical.We began to read the play aloud together, stopping often to clarify or answer questions. After a short while she was reading with expression and comprehension. "I get it!" she said, with a note of wonder. As we sat in her fuchsia colored bedroom with a spangled cell phone on mute beside her, she read the exquisite lines of passion, rivalry, longing, betrayal, and rebellion, written centuries ago. Lines that will be as true and pertinent hundreds of years from now because the emotions that they evoke are universal. Particularly for teenagers, who feel life so keenly and wrenchingly; who can't eat, who can't sleep, who can't think of anything except the beloved, who rage against the status quo, who grapple with uncertainty and insecurity, whose hearts are quickly broken and quickly mended, who experience bewilderment and bedazzlement daily – feelings that ring true whether they are expressed through the lyricism of hip hop or the pen of Shakespeare:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/12/06/word-kelefa-sanneh
There is a definite prejudice against Shakespeare – one that assumes the text will be too hard. This prejudice probably began for most of us in high school, where the required Shakespeare Unit is often taught by dispassionate teachers. Hamlet is young, unsure, handsome, troubled, vulnerable, angry, fatherless, confused, misbegotten in love, distrustful and suicidal. How could any teenager not relate? Shakespeare plays offer murder, insanity, treachery, fools, fairies, ghosts, humor, prostitutes, thieves, witches, wizards, beggars, and the greatest love stories ever told. His works help us to understand what it is to be human. Noble heroines, like the strong and independent Rosalind in As You Like It, continue to be inspirational. We are encouraged when evil is exposed and punished in a logical way, as in Macbeth's guilt ridden descent into madness, and we long, in these technocratic times, whether we are aware of it or not, for ephemeral and ethereal midsummer night's dreams. In an age in which most teenagers communicate with monosyllables, we need such flights of fancy as this:
"Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow." Romeo and Juliet
Or the quintessential Shakespearean rogue's remark:
"I would challenge you to a battle of wits, but I see you are unarmed."
Students should be exposed to Shakespeare in school as early as possible, because the longer one waits, the more daunting it becomes. Get them interested in the story, make it personal, accessible, and relevant to their daily lives, break the text down into understandable parts, and the confidence that the novice Shakespearean scholar will feel will be matched by the enchanted consciousness of having been touched across the centuries by magic:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=72pyUuNLuoE
"Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Prospero – The Tempest
From Picture Books to Chapter Books
14/07/2015 UncategorizedCynthia Rylant, Early Chapter Books, Interactive Reading, Johanna Hurwitz, Picture Books, Ruth Stiles Gannettdonna burke esgro
Taking the step from picture books to chapter books is a natural process for the early reader. Just as children gradually grow from learning almost exclusively through the senses into more abstract thinkers, they will be able to understand and enjoy the process of combining the technical skills of reading with their growing use of imagination to create their own wondrous images from words. Let your child's interests guide your choice of books. Typically, throughout early childhood, a child goes through heightened stages of interest in which certain concepts fascinate him for an indefinite period. Look for early chapter books with these themes. A child will be more likely to keep the sustained interest that chapter books demand if he is curious about the subject.
Be wary of early chapter books that pander to what some publishers think children will ask parents to buy- mean spirited, frenetic stories geared for boys in which the word "gross" often appears, usually featuring a cartoon character on the cover. Often, though not always, these books are churned out, not well written, and designed so that children are encouraged to look at the illustrations and read just snatches of dialogue or captions. I think that children deserve more respect. Although there are those who disagree with me:
http://www.ala.org/offices/resources/gross
The lesson here is to look over the plot of any book before you hand it over to your child.
I like the My Father's Dragon trilogy by Ruth Stiles Gannett. In addition to being a classic story of heroism and adventure, each novel is short (about eighty pages) and printed with larger typeface than the norm, which makes it an inviting challenge for a young reader. Other excellent choices, are Cynthia Rylant's Lighthouse Family series and Johanna Hurwitz' Park Pal Adventures. All of these early chapter books have lovely illustrations that help to create a bridge between books with mostly pictures and books with mostly words.
Although a child has begun to develop the skills to be able to read and comprehend chapter books, don't give away all of his picture books. Children find these familiar stories soothing and will often turn to them for enjoyment as they are transitioning. Chapter books demand much of an early reader who may still be struggling with technical skills and unused to the increased attention span that a chapter book requires.
But, by no means wait to introduce chapter books until your child has mastered the skills to read by herself. Begin the transition by reading from some of the books that were your favorites. Your child will be excited by the idea that you read this very same story when you were little. Continue to read interactively, as you have done with picture books, stopping frequently and asking such questions as, "Why do you think Winnie the Pooh said that?" or "What do you think Piglet will do now?"
Interactive reading brings a deeper and more personal understanding to the story. It is certainly all right to paraphrase – part reading, part telling – from time to time to help comprehension. I would rather do this than read an abridged version as I believe that an introduction to unusual vocabulary is one of the delights of literature. When reading a particularly obscure book, with antiquated wording, such as Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, this approach is advisable or you may completely lose your listener. However, part of the joy of chapter book reading is being exposed to interesting use of language and different ways of seeing, so be judicious before paraphrasing such beauteous language as the following:
"In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel." (Rudyard Kipling)
Even if a child does not fully grasp the meaning of each word, he will, undoubtedly, be enchanted by the very sound and rhythm of the language, especially if you are. Children have acute sensibilities and know when an adult is truly enjoying the time spent reading or is just performing another necessary chore. So, pick a time (everyday) in which you are unhurried and able to relax with your child over a book, though it may only be 15 minutes before bedtime, it is a very worthwhile time together that will help your child to form deep and positive attitudes towards literature.


A recruiting event for anyone fancying themselves as a firefighter is being organised by Tower Hamlets Council to encourage them to know if they've got what it takes.
It's part of the council's WorkPath employment and training programme which is now running a recruitment drive with the Fire Brigade to find the next generation of firefighters.
"I want to encourage particularly women and anyone with ethnic backgrounds," mayor John Biggs said.
The WorkPath programme is to run a recruitment event next month for those interested in meeting serving firefighters and getting hands-on experience with some of the equipment used in the job.
The date is yet to be decided, while the location is likely to be one of the five East End fire-stations which would be better suited than Canary Wharf originally intended.
Those interested in knowing more about joining London's fire and rescue service have can register online for details of requirements and the application process, or call 020-7364 0626.


← New Benefit Available to SWINY Members: Free Access to Elsevier's ScienceDirect!
Sept. 16: "Going Viral" — What does the future hold?
In West Africa's Ebola outbreak, over 12,000 people were infected and 6,476 died. In the recent MERS outbreak in Asia, almost 3,000 people were quarantined and more than 10 died. What happens next time?
A vaccine against Ebola has been successfully tested in Africa. Will it be effective—or will the virus mutate and become an even bigger threat?
Sci-fi movies like "Contagion" and TV series such as "The Last Ship" portray viruses as virtually unstoppable without a miraculous "cure" or "vaccine." Are these scenarios grounded in science?
A panel of experts will discuss these issues—and more. Come and learn!
Wednesday, September 16, 5:30–8:30 p.m.


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G3 Quality recently completed its accreditation process with AMRL and CCRL to expand its national accreditation. The additional accreditation services include masonry testing. This rounds out our existing laboratory capabilities of HMA Design, HMA Testing, PCC Design, PCC Testing, Aggregate and Soils testing. Many of state specifications require AMRL accreditation for Superpave HMA design services and Structural Concrete quality control. G3 Quality is one of few that offers accredited HMA Superpave mix design and quality programs with the technical support and experienced staff needed. G3 Quality is also certified by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).


You cannot add that amount of "Millefiori silk blouse" to the cart because there is not enough stock (0 remaining).
Totally rad Adidas track trousers from the 90s. It has a stretchy drawstring panel at waist and three pockets. Survived in a great condition, shows only some light pilling. Labelled size: UK26. Waist: 66-82 cm.