It's a Friday evening, you're rushing out of the house so you aren't late to the movie date you have scheduled. Without putting too much thought into it, you decide it would be faster to just turn the inside of the doorknob to lock it, and shut the door behind you. Hours later, you arrive back at your house after a good night; the realization sets in that you didn't grab your keys, they're still on the counter right where you left them. What do you do?
This is one of the most common ways we see our customers locking themselves out of their houses. If you don't have a spare key hidden out back, or had given one to your neighbors, you're in trouble. Your next step should be calling the Locksmith professionals at Locksmith Guru. Our response time is less than 30 minutes, and our technicians arrive fully prepared to beat the toughest situations. But to speed the process up, we have 3 tips for you to ensure the process is completes as smoothly as possible.
1. How many locks are locked, and how many doors for entry are there?
Our technicians have to access the situation once they arrive to your location. Rather than having them spend additional time asking these questions, be prepared to tell the technician once he arrives. This ensures that the locksmith technicians near you knows exactly what he needs to do to get you back inside as quickly as possible.
2. Have your driver's license in-hand, or another proof of residency.
Our locksmith technicians can't let just anyone into your home, they need to be fully sure that you reside in that property before letting you inside. Once they arrive they will ask to see your driver's license, in the event that you just moved to that house and have yet to switch it over; have a utility bill, etc. ready to show our locksmith. This will also ensure you get into your house safe, and fast.
3. Have you explored every option to get back inside?
One of the most common mistakes consumers make, is calling a Locksmith before actually checking to see if they can get back into their homes through other means. Whether that's an unlocked window, a dog door that is open, or a side door unlocked. To ensure you get in fastest, check these other options as soon as you lock yourself out. In the event that you are in need of professional help, call Locksmith Guru. Our fast, professional, and courteous technicians are on standby for when you need them most.
What is a rekey and why should you do it?
© 2018 Locksmith Guru LLC | All rights reserved.


text:
Q: connect four - comparison of evaluation - c I try to implement the minimax algorithm into my connect four game.
I´m done with the evaluation-function and halfway done with the algorithm-function.
I just can`t find the solution for the "last" problem. Here are my functions:
void minimax(field f){
int i;
field c;
convert_1D_to_2D(f, c);
for(i=0;i<COLS;i++) {
    if(can_throw(c, i) == 0) {
        throw(f, i);
        convert_1D_to_2D(f, c);
        if((is_winner(c) == 0) && (is_board_full(f) == 0)) { //no winner, board not full
            minimax(f);
        }
        else if(is_winner(c) == 1) { //there is a winner
            evaluate_turn(f);
            //compare evaluation
            undo_turn(f);
        }
        else if(is_winner(c) == 0 && (is_board_full(f) == 1)) { //no winner, board full
            evaluate_turn(f);
            //compare evaluation
            undo_turn(f);
        }
    }
}

The field is an array with f[COLS*ROWS+1], where f[0] is the depth and the other elements save in which columns were thrown. the "c"-board represents the "graphical" board with 0 for free, 1 for player 1 and 2 for player 2.
static int evaluate_turn(field f) {
field c;
convert_1D_to_2D(f, c);
if (((f[0] % 2) == 1) && (current_player == 1) && (is_winner(c) == 1) ) { //player 1 won, max for him || +1
    return 1;
}
else if (((f[0] % 2) == 2) && (current_player == 2) && (is_winner(c) == 1) ) { //player 2 won, max for him || +1
    return 1;
}
if (((f[0] % 2) == 1) && (current_player == 2) && (is_winner(c) == 1) ) { //player 2 won, counting for 1 || -1
    return -1;
}
else if (((f[0] % 2) == 2) && (current_player == 1) && (is_winner(c) == 1) ) { //player 1 won, counting for 2 || -1
    return -1;
}
else if ((is_board_full(f) == 1) && (is_winner(c) == 0)) { //draw || 0
    return 0;
}

So my problem is, that i can't think of a clean solution to compare the evaluation bottom to top. I really think, that I don't need to introduce a new datastructure (which would get way too big). It's like the solution is right in front of me but i can't grab it.
Is it possible to just compare the evaluation on the "way back" of the recursion? If yes, how?
Or do I really need to introduce something new more complex? Or maybe I'm missing off something completely?
Thanks!

A:
Or do I really need to introduce something new more complex? Or maybe
  I'm missing off something completely?

Unfortunately the answer is the latter. Minimax is not a void function. It returns the value of the node that it represents. That is how evaluation is compared. You are also missing another fundamental concept. Your function only considers terminal nodes to be those where the game is won or the board is full. While this is technically true, no real minimax function works that way. The number of nodes would be around 7^48, so your function would literally take upwards of ten years to terminate on a modern pc. What real world minimax functions do is set a maximum depth for the search to reach (unless you add tree pruning expect this to be 5 or 6), and consider all nodes at that depth to be terminal and evaluate them using a heuristic (inexact guess) evalation function. In connect four this could be based on something like the number of three in a rows. Another mistake you made is calling your eval function if you know there is a winner. If you know which player won than return the proper value straight out, no need to call the expensive eval function. You also cannot stream line your function for both min and max as you did. You must either create a seperate function for min and max, or use the negamax variant.
My advise: It seems you don't really understand how the algorithm should be implemented. Read up on minimax and negamax psuedocode.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Make sure which FINE Cartridge has run out of ink and replace it with a new one. For details on the cleaning, refer to the printed manual: Getting Started. A replaceable cartridge that is integrated with Print Head and ink tank. Note. For details on installing the FINE Cartridges, refer to the printed manual: Getting. A Canon Pixma MP printer will stop recognizing the ink cartridge if the cartridge's expiration date has passed. This is true even if there's still usable ink left in.
This was copied and pasted from a free down load from the canon website. your model # and go to Canon's website and on the front page click manuals. I have a Canon MP Printer whenever I change an ink cartridge, whether it's black The print head is the part of the printer that puts ink from the cartridges onto the page Describe your issueThe assistant will guide you. Replacing and aligning ink cartridges for Canon and most other inkjet printers used in your business is a user-friendly process requiring only a few moments to .
When remaining ink cautions or errors occur, the message will appear on the LCD to When you need to replace a FINE cartridge, follow the procedure below .


The Google Home Mini was the first new product to be announced on the Google product launch. After some rumors it finally became official.
The Google Home Mini is, like its name strongly implies, a smaller version of the original Google Home smart speaker that was released last year.
The Home Mini smart-speaker is covered in a new fabric-like material that was developed specifically for it.
On the other hand, the Home Max is all about music quality, with its two 4.5″ woofers with high-excursion, to really boost those low frequencies. Plus there are two custom 0.7″ tweeters in the device.
It is clearly stated by company that it is 20 times louder than the initial Google Home. Max uses Smart Sound, powered by Google's AI. It adapts to you and your surroundings. It will automatically tune the speaker to correct for where it's placed in a room.
Since it's all done dynamically, if you move it it will adjust again. It will adjust its EQ to what you're listening to, and turn volume up when the dishwasher's running, for example. YouTube Music, Spotify, and other top music services are supported. It can be stood up vertically or placed horizontally.
Google Home Max will be available in the US in December in two shades of grey for a price of $399, and it comes with a free one-year subscription to YouTube Music and YouTube Red, so you can listen to music ad-free.
Both the Google Home Mini and the Google Home Max come with the Google Assistant as you'd expect, and the exact same AI feature set as the original Home.
You can talk to your Home speaker, ask many questions, ask the speaker to play music, you can cast audio to it or have it control your Chromecasts and smart home products.
These are the three Home smart-speaker devices by Google, promised to give us a good experience, now we have to see how this range compares to other smart product like Amazon Echo.


text:
All the Retro
General Retro
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Retro Bunny
He loves hopping back to the past.
The Funeral Arrangements For Jerry Lee Lewis Have Been Announced
This article is from Do You Remember. Click the title to hop over there.
Details of the funeral arrangements and memorial services for music icon Jerry Lee Lewis have been announced. His public funeral has been scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5. It will be held in his hometown of Ferriday, La.
There will also be a public memorial in Mississippi and a private celebration of life in Louisiana. For fans that want to pay their respects, a public visitation will be held on Nov. 3 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Hernando Funeral Home in Hernando, Miss. In addition, a visitation will occur from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Young's Funeral Home in Ferriday on Nov. 5.
Get the details of the funeral and memorial for Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis, portrait / Everett Collection
For those not able to make it, the funeral will be live-streamed immediately after and available to watch online. Jerry's cousin, Reverend Jimmy Swaggart, will officiate the funeral with Clyde Ray Webber.
RELATED: Legendary Performer Jerry Lee Lewis Dies At 87
THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL, Jerry Lee Lewis, (Season 1, ep. 111, aired April 6, 1973), 1972-81 / Everett Collection
The burial immediately after will be private for close family only. He is survived by his wife, Judith, and four surviving children. In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to be made in his name to the Arthritis Foundation or MusiCares.
Jerry passed away on Oct. 28 at the age of 87. He died less than two weeks after he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The statement confirming his death read, "Judith, his seventh wife, was by his side when he passed away. He told her, in his final days, that he welcomed the hereafter, and that he was not afraid."
RELATED: Hollywood Remembers And Pays Tribute To Late Rocker Jerry Lee Lewis
Click for next Article
The post The Funeral Arrangements For Jerry Lee Lewis Have Been Announced appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Lauren Novak
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text:
MIPS may not be the way to reduce hospital readmissions by primary care doctors
Financial incentives to encourage primary care physicians to cut hospital readmission rates may not work, a study finds. (monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images)
While the government's efforts to cut readmission rates by decreasing payments to hospitals seem to have worked, the same strategy may not be effective for primary care physicians.
A study found there was little variation among primary care physicians when it comes to hospital readmission rates, leaving the researchers questioning whether policies that hold these doctors accountable for reducing readmissions may miss the mark.
RELATED: Hospital readmissions reduction program success might have been overstated by more than half, study says
After programs that decreased payments to hospitals with excessive 30-day readmission rates seem to have succeeded in reducing readmissions, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a similar policy incentivizing primary care physicians to reduce hospital readmissions.
With its launch of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in 2015, the pay-for-performance program included performance on readmissions as a mandatory and important measure for groups with 16 or more physicians who have more than 200 admissions per year, the study noted.
RELATED: Vast majority of doctors will get a pay bump under MIPS—but it won't be much
However, an underlying assumption is that readmission rates vary by doctor independent of patient characteristics, so penalties and incentives will encourage primary care doctors to change their practice patterns to reduce readmissions compared to colleagues and increase their own payments.
The problem is those 30-day readmission rates vary only slightly among primary care physicians, according to the study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. So, while it was easy to separate out hospitals with high readmission rates and hit them in the pocketbook, there's no such distinction for primary care doctors.
"Our finding of minimal variation in risk for readmission among PCPs calls into question any pay-for-performance program that aims to reduce readmissions and assumes variation by PCP," the researchers wrote. Their analysis also indicates the threshold used in MIPS of 200 or more readmissions per year is far too low to distinguish real-world differences among primary care physicians or group practices, they said.
RELATED: Study links financial penalties to lower readmission rates
The researchers from the Medical College of Wisconsin and University of Texas Medical Branch studied Texas Medicare claims from 2008 to 2015 to compare 30-day readmission rates for more than 4,000 primary care physicians. They looked at data for a 47-month period, including doctors with at least 50 hospital admissions, which excluded 65% of the primary care physicians.
In contrast to previous research that showed significant variation in risk for readmission by emergency department physicians, they found almost no variation in the readmission rates by primary care physician—only 1.1 percentage points.
Those findings suggest that pay-for-performance programs to reduce readmissions on the basis of variation in readmission rates among primary care physicians may not be effective, the researchers said.
The research did find low rates of and substantial variation in early post-discharge follow-up by primary care physicians. Follow-up care for patients recently discharged from the hospital is a factor in readmission rates.
Physician Practice Primary Care Research Payment Models Value-Based Care Readmissions Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) MIPS Annals of Internal Medicine University of Texas Medical College of Wisconsin


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text:
Parafia pw. Najświętszego Imienia Jezus w Łodzi – rzymskokatolicka parafia położona w środkowej części Łodzi, na osiedlu administracyjnym Katedralna, wchodząca w skład dekanatu Łódź-Śródmieście archidiecezji łódzkiej. Kościół należy do zakonu jezuitów i posługę kapłańską sprawują w nim członkowie tego zgromadzenia zakonnego. Prowadzą oni również przy kościele ośrodek Mocni w Duchu.

Parafia została erygowana w 1950 przez biskupa Michała Klepacza, ordynariusza diecezji łódzkiej.

Kościół parafialny
Kościół został zbudowany w latach 1880–1884 jako świątynia parafii ewangelicko-augsburskiej św. Jana Ewangelisty. Budynek kościoła parafialnego powstał z cegły, w stylu neoromańskim na podstawie projektu Ludwika Schreibera z Kolonii.

W 1945 został bezprawnie zajęty przez jezuitów. Miało to być rzekomo ramach cichej akcji władz świeckich likwidacji śladów niemieckich w Łodzi przez jezuitów – choć w kościele od początku odbywały się polskie nabożeństwa ewangelickie. Kościół ewangelicki przez lata dopominał się o zwrot budynków. Przez kilka lat funkcjonował jako świątynia filialna dla parafii Podwyższenia Świętego Krzyża. Po erygowaniu w 1950 parafii Najświętszego Imienia Jezus kościół stał się jej świątynią parafialną. Budynki kościelne odkupiono od Kościoła w Ewangelicko-Augsburskiego w RP dopiero w 1989.

1 września 2020, decyzją abpa Grzegorza Rysia, kościół pw. Najświętszego Imienia Jezus został podniesiony do godności sanktuarium.

Zobacz też
 Kościół luterański św. Jana w Łodzi
 Dekanat Łódź-Śródmieście
 Ulica Henryka Sienkiewicza w Łodzi

Przypisy

Bibliografia

 Parafia na stronie archidiecezji łódzkiej

Linki zewnętrzne
 strona internetowa parafii

Dekanat Łódź-Śródmieście
Najświętszego Imienia Jezus
Parafie pod wezwaniem Najświętszego Imienia Jezus
Parafie jezuickie

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Talks About whistleblowing
previous Get control over private corporations
next About corporations
About whistleblowing¶
whistleblower¶
A human who decides to disclose information that is considered private by some corporation.
Private corporations should be deprived of certain rights they currently benefit from (see Subdue the greedy giants!). One of these rights is the right to privacy.
Note that public corporations, unlike private corporations, may benefit from this right for security reasons. For example the police or army are public corporations.
Note that refusing to private corporations the right to privacy does not mean privacy is forbidden. It just means that we don't protect their privacy. Private corporations usually do have private knowledge which they don't want to share for various reasons (including the fact that they regard it as their business secret or as a strategic decision). And they may expect from their employees and business partners to respect their privacy, and they may legally write this as a condition in their contracts.
When one of their employees or partners shares some data they wanted to remain secret, and when they discover it, they may terminate the relationship and even sue the employee for contract breach. But they cannot sue him or her for whistleblowing.
Whistleblowing becomes an act of public interest, done by an individual who decides to disclose a secret. The whistleblower is ready to suffer by being dismissed and getting accused of infidelity because he or she believes that this is their duty towards humanity.
Note that having no right to privacy does not mean duty to publish your secrets. Perfect transparency is not possible.
Private corporations may have secrets, and they may protect them, but they must do this themselves and at their own cost. They must not get free support of a public legal system.
© Copyright 2018-2021 Luc Saffre. Last updated on 2022-01-16. Created using Sphinx 4.3.2. Insipid Theme. Online link: https://hw.saffre-rumma.net/whistleblowing/.


text:
INTELLIGENCE / Travel
How to travel without hurting the planet
It's impossible to escape the fact that global travel is having a major environmental impact, whether its CO2 emissions from long-haul flights or excessive tourism having a deleterious effect on fragile ecosystems. But there are ways that travel can be positive for the planet. Here are a few tips to bear in mind next time you're thinking about hitting the road.
Biofuel jets
Aviation accounts for two per cent of total global greenhouse emissions according to the European Commission. Worryingly, by 2020 they're expected to have grown by a further 70 per cent since 2005. There's no escaping it, flying is bad for the planet.
That's where biofuels come in. NASA projects that when fuels made from succulents, logging waste and even municipal rubbish are mixed with standard aviation fuel, emissions from planes can be cut by between 50 and 70 per cent.
In January 2019, an Etihad Boeing 787, powered by biofuel, flew the seven hours from Dubai to Amsterdam. The Salicornia plants used for the fuel were grown in the UAE at the Seawater Energy and Agricultural System farm.
Reef protection and regeneration
Coral bleaching has seen some of the world's most vibrant underwater environments decimated in recent years. At the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, guests can take part in a Coral Adoption Programme, which includes the chance to plant special frames on which coral can attach itself and proliferate. Prices range from $175 for a small frame to $375 for a large frame, with in–house experts overseeing the coral's development and ensuring a broad range of fish species are introduced, to prevent single species domination.
Take the slow line
The Swedish concept of 'flygskam', or flight shame, has seen a boom in train travel from Scandinavia to the rest of Europe. On her recent European tour, environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg chose to take the train from Stockholm to Italy, before heading north to London. Ving, a Swedish tour operator, now offers services from Stockholm to Davos for £1,500.
The UK–based rail travel planning site The Man In Seat 61 (seat61.com) says it has seen a massive growth in traffic from Spain and Italy, with customers increasingly keen on taking scenic routes and swerving airports. Eurostar claims that its route from London to Paris emits 90% fewer greenhouse gases than the equivalent short-haul flight. And with the recent launch of the luxurious new Caledonian Sleeper from London to Scotland, taking the slow line is certainly catching on.
To maximise your eco-friendly travel experiences, please contact our team of travel specialists.
Secrets Of The British Virgin Islands
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From world-renowned party island to chic wellness capital – Ibiza reinvented


Gazing across the Convento River in southern Costa Rica, Taite Nazifi envisions a software solution for conservationists who examine the water rushing below. He snaps photos, observes wildlife and considers fields of data that might be useful to collect.
The UA junior is spending the summer scoping out rivers near Longo Mai, a village created on the notions of agricultural self-sufficiency and environmental protection. But Nazifi is not a typical study-abroad student. Rather, he is creating a web application for the "Movimiento Ríos Vivos," or "Living Rivers Movement."
"I'm really excited about staying in the village because I need to get a feel for the heart of the community to build this app," said Nazifi, who is double-majoring in computer science and French. "This is my first time developing something like this. It's kind of like my own child."
As companies look to build dams near Longo Mai, conservationists document conditions at area rivers to encourage environmental transparency. Though organized, they lack a sophisticated system to collect and store their data. That's where Nazifi comes in.
"My objective is to build an extremely robust and usable mobile web application for an area that doesn't necessarily have a great internet connection, and for people who don't use web applications or devices often," he said.
The app will have two components: a system to streamline on-site data collection, and a feature to capture and post 360 images live to the web.
Nazifi was granted the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica as part of the Tech.Global program, which connects UA undergraduates with faculty members to develop cost-effective software solutions. Located in the UA Study Abroad office, Tech.Global emphasizes projects with an intercultural component and encourages students to embrace international opportunities.
In this case, the Tech.Global team partnered with the Climate Justice study-abroad program to empower conservationists of Costa Rica, while also empowering a student developer from the UA. The project is called Justice 360.
"Taite is learning firsthand how to design an application for people from a different culture in a foreign land," said Madeline Kiser, who co-directs Climate Justice with Oscar Beita, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the UA. "We hope that Taite becomes proficient in creating software that is applicable to cultures other than his own."
Nazifi is not only conducting research for the Justice 360 app, but also learning how the people of Longo Mai demonstrate resilience in the face of environmental challenges. The locals grow their own food, harvest water and strive to act with compassion, to one another and to the earth. Nazifi is staying with a host family in the village.
"The first night was difficult because I didn't know any Spanish, but now I can successfully hold a conversation with my host family and understand the local environmental concerns, and I've only been here two weeks," he said. "The locals have taken a liking to me because of my efforts to speak their language, along with developing a similar love for their land and rivers."
Nazifi will return in late June to the UA, where he plans to complete the Justice 360 app with support from his team. Ash Scheder Black, executive director of Tech.Global, believes the journey to Longo Mai will prepare Nazifi for a career in an increasingly connected world.
"I believe we have entered a time where we don't have technological problems anymore, but cultural problems," Black said. "We can do amazing stuff with technology. It's the cultural challenge that will make or break us. I hope Taite comes back with his eyes open to the culture that he is building the app for."
For now, Nazifi is enjoying the natural beauty of Costa Rica and the reflective lifestyle of Longo Mai. Each morning, he awakens at 5:30 to wash, meditate and pray at the rivers, a practice he describes as transformative.
"I can't even begin to explain what kind of amazing impact this has made in my life," he said. "During the semester, I am so overwhelmed with work that it's difficult to find free time to sit and think, especially in nature. The mornings here by the rivers are my most cherished and valued experiences by far."


Accidents are a common occurrence this day and age. When poor weather strikes, a landlord fails to fix uneven walkways, or there is a lack of safety warning signs, people often experience slip and fall injuries. When you are hurt because of someone else's negligence, you deserve compensation for your suffering and pain. At Overman and Overman Law, one of our personal injury attorneys can evaluate your slip and fall case, and determine who was at fault.
Slip and fall injuries can range in severity depending on where and how they occurred. From sprained ankles to concussions, each slip and fall case is different, so we will work with you closely to understand how this accident happened and who we must hold responsible for your physical and emotional suffering. We represent victims who have slipped on icy sidewalks, tripped over equipment left in hallways, and those who have fallen due to poorly maintained staircases and handrails.
When you turn to a slip and fall attorney at Overman and Overman Law, you can rest assured knowing your slip and fall case is in good hands. Contact us today to speak to one of our personal injury attorneys and learn more about your rights. We serve communities throughout Georgia including Coweta, Henry, Fayette, Clayton, Spalding, and Fulton counties.


Claims – What is and isn't covered?
✅ Car crashes into front fence.
✅ Candle is left burning unattended, curtain catches alight and the whole house burns down.
✅ Washing machine discharges into blocked sink and floods laundry and hallway.
✅ Child draws on bedroom walls with permanent marker.
✅ Tree falls on house in a storm and damages spouting and roof.
✅ Wind catches french door: bends frame and breaks glass.
✅ Frozen pipes cause pipes to crack and burst.
✅ Teenagers jostling each other in the bathroom and accidentally knock toilet over.
✅ Hot pot placed on kitchen bench and laminate top melts.
✅ Fence is blown over by high winds.
✅ Someone accidentally drives their car through the back wall of the garage.
✅ Bath is accidentally left running and it overflows.
✅ Car accidentally drives into garage door, bending it and knocking it off the runners.
✅ Laptop dropped and broken (owner occupied home with replacement contents only).
✅ Electric storm causes appliances to blow.
✅ Tenant is aggravated about being evicted and attacks the house with a golf club, leaving numerous holes in walls and smashed windows.
✅ Cellphone accidentally dropped in the toilet and no longer works (owner occupied home with replacement contents only).
✅ A full bottle of shampoo is accidentally dropped on the shower base and causes a crack. The shower is immediately turned off and a replacement shower base is installed.
✅ Potential buyer requests a methamphetamine test be completed prior to the sale of a rental property. Results come back positive and property requires cleaning. Total claim is under $30,000.
✅ Seal on hot water cylinder fails as it's old and brittle, water slowly drips onto chipboard flooring and causes it to swell and disintegrate, joists are damaged also. Hot water cylinder seal is not covered, but resultant damage to flooring is.
✅ Skirting boards appear swollen and wet behind a bookshelf, carpet is wet also. Cause is determined to be a nail put through a PVC pipe years ago, it's slowly rusted out and left a pin prick hole which has been leaking for a week or two before it's noticed. The pipe repair is not covered, but the resultant damage is.
✖ Pot plant rots carpet.
✖ Roof tiles come loose over a period of time.
✖ Broken window glass that is not over excess amount.
✖ Tenant leaves house dirty and needs to be cleaned.
✖ Cat messes on carpet at various intervals and it isn't cleaned properly. Stains & odour remain.
✖ Tenant leaves behind rubbish and insured has to pay to dump it.
✖ Tenant leaves behind personal belongings and insured has to pay to dump it.
✖ Shower base is cracked and water gets through, soaking the floorboards and joists.
✖ Sealer breaks down around a bath and water soaks through over a period of time.
✖ Oven elements rusted due to insufficient cleaning and maintenance.


Haszlena Homestay situated at No.478 Taman Nilam, Jalan Ayer Hangat, Pulau Langkawi and its about 9km from Kuah. Although its sound like remote area,the journey to Kuah would take around 10 minutes for you to go shopping there and return to homestay about half an hour because the road traffic is not heavy as in mainland.Our homestay is suitable for family that want budget,clean and comfort accommodation during visit to Langkawi.
Ceiling fan are at main hall,dinning room and each bedroom.
6 towels and toiletries will be provided.
Extra bed as customer request.
Main hall equipped with television + Astro and full furnished.
Praying mat and clean 'telekung' also provided.
For your information, the homestay rental is for whole house and not individual room.The owner live separately from the homestay.


Form Us With Love on the design: "We came up with the idea for Match when trying to light a tealight candle, constantly burning our fingers. We have therefore created a design with a vent where the lit match securely travels down to the tealight. The vent also doubles as an aesthetic feature, emphasizing the flickering flame."


New Jersey voters will decide in November whether the state minimum wage should be raised. The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll finds that the measure should pass by a wide margin as few voters believe this increase will have a negative impact on the state's economy.
The November ballot measure asks Garden State voters to approve a constitutional amendment to raise the current minimum wage to $8.25 an hour and to incorporate annual cost of living increases in the future. Currently, 65% of registered voters say they will vote in favor of this measure. Just 12% say they will vote against it. Another 22% are undecided. Support comes from majorities of Democrats (74%), independents (63%), and Republicans (54%).
A coalition of business groups has been running ads to defeat the measure, saying that creating this initial wage increase and locking in future increases will actually hurt low-wage by leading to the loss of thousands of jobs. New Jersey voters disagree with this view by a large two-thirds (67%) majority. Only 23% of voters side with the business community that raising the minimum wage will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs.
"The minimum wage amendment is set to pass by a substantial margin. New Jersey voters simply do not accept the business community's prediction of dire consequences," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.
Another argument against the minimum wage amendment is that it will be bad for New Jersey's small businesses. Garden State voters are divided on the impact, although only a third say it will be decidedly negative. While 33% agree that the wage hike will hurt small businesses, another 26% say it will actually help small businesses and 33% say it will have no impact. Interestingly, a majority (52%) of Republicans say raising the minimum wage will hurt the state's small businesses, even though a majority (54%) of the same group also say they will support the measure. Just 34% of independents and 22% of Democrats feel that small businesses will be hurt by the wage hike.
Even though it looks like the minimum wage amendment will be approved, the new rate will still fall below the inflation-adjusted rate from the late 1960s. Back then, the minimum wage's buying power was the equivalent of about $10.50 by today's standards. The poll asked about voter support of this wage level – without mentioning the inflation-adjusted comparison – and found that 41% of New Jersey voters would support raising the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour compared to 31% who would oppose this higher level. Another 28% have no opinion.
Recent demonstrations by fast-food workers have called for raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. This would be a no-go for New Jersey voters. Only 16% would support a $15.00 minimum wage.
The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll was conducted by telephone with 674 New Jersey registered voters from September 6 to 10, 2013. This sample has a margin of error of ± 3.8 percent. The poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute and originally published by the Asbury Park Press and its sister publications (Courier-Post, Courier News, Daily Journal, Daily Record, and Home News Tribune).
A measure will be on the ballot this November that will amend the state Constitution to raise New Jersey's minimum wage to $8.25 per hour, with future annual cost of living increases. Will you vote for or against this, or are you not sure?
Do think that raising the minimum wage will help or hurt small businesses in New Jersey, or will it have no impact?
Do you agree or disagree that raising the minimum wage will lead to the loss of thousands of jobs in New Jersey?
Would you support or oppose raising the minimum wage to $10.50 per hour, or are you not sure?
How about to $15.00 per hour – support, oppose, or not sure?
The Monmouth University/Asbury Park Press Poll was conducted by the Monmouth University Polling Institute from September 6 to 10, 2013 with a statewide random sample of 674 registered voters, including 516 via live interview on a landline telephone and 158 via live interview on a cell phone. Monmouth is responsible for all aspects of the survey questionnaire design, data weighting and analysis. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling has a maximum margin of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Sampling error increases as the sample size decreases, so statements based on various population subgroups, such as separate figures reported by gender or party identification, are subject to more error than are statements based on the total sample. In addition to sampling error, one should bear in mind that question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of opinion polls.


Rockford Public Schools has again received recognition for its financial practice. The Association of School Business Officials International awarded RPS its Meritorious Budget Award for excellence in budget presentation.
The award is for excellence in the preparation and issuance of the school budget for the fiscal year 2013-14, the current fiscal year.
Applying for the award, according to the association, reflects the high standards RPS has for business management practices. To earn the award, officials submitted the 2013-14 budget for a rigorous review.
RPS announced in June its fourth consecutive recognition for its Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. That award reflects the district's financial performance and audit. Administrators were notified of the Meritorious Budget Award in January, which acknowledges good budget practice on the front-end of budget creation and development.
"This honor illustrates the high standards we apply in the budget development process," said Chief Financial Officer Cedric Lewis. "The award aligns Rockford Public Schools with the very best in the country for budget design."
The Association of School Business Officials International represents more than 5,000 members worldwide and promotes the highest standards of school business management practices. Last year, 14 of the 127 Meritorious Budget Awards were given to Illinois districts.
For more information on the Meritorious Budget Award, visit ASBO's website: www.asbointl.org/MBA.


text:
El evento de menos de 63 kg femenino de halterofilia en los Juegos Olímpicos de Londres 2012 tuvo lugar el 31 de julio en el Centro de Exposiciones ExCeL.

Horario
Todos los horarios están en Tiempo Británico (UTC+1)

Resultados

Récords olímpicos

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Sitio oficial de Londres 2012

63 kg femenino


text:
Experts Offer Guidance on Surgical Laryngeal Rehabilitation
by Thomas R. Collins • March 7, 2016
Myxoma of the larynx.
Morphart Creation/SHUTTERSTOCK.com
A group of panelists discussed the intricacies of laryngeal reconstruction after prior radiation and surgery during a session held at the Triological Society Sections Meeting. The speakers covered when to attempt surgery, when to avoid it, and special techniques to use, offering up a slate of expert guidance for these tough cases.
Panel moderator Peak Woo, MD, clinical professor of otolaryngology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, said the challenge of laryngeal reconstruction lies in restoring both form and function to a complex structure. "If one restores only one, then one is lacking," he said. "If one only restores the form, as in [a] good airway, then you have aphonia. If you only restore the function, as in vibration, then you have laryngeal stenosis."
He harkened back to a 1985 description, which held that the "ideal method" would involve using tissue that is native to the area, highly viable, convenient for the surgeon, and expendable to the patient (Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 1985;94:437-441).
A Light Touch
Edward Damrose, MD, associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Stanford University in Stanford, California, said that when it comes to late surgical rehabilitation after radiation and surgery, his philosophy is to understand and modulate factors that are unfavorable, to minimize long-term morbidity and preserve function, to be expedient when needed, as in the case of an airway compromise, and to preempt and prevent complications in the first place through the education of his colleagues. And, he added, it's good to know "when to use a light touch versus an iron fist."
For instance, in the case of Wegener's vasculitis with subglottic stenosis, patience and a light touch work well. "Suppressing and resolving inflammation through autoimmune drugs and steroids is key. Our surgical goal at this time should be to maintain luminal patency while the inflammation is resolving," said Dr. Damrose.
He emphasized that attempts to limit toxicity from radiation, whether with antibiotics, keratinocyte growth factors, the cytoprotective agent amifostine, or intensity-modulated radiation therapy, have not been very effective to date. Reduction in radiation dose is likely key, but until then surgery will probably be a necessity in the management of post-treatment complications. "All of these are generally applied to try to minimize these types of sequelae where we see this horrendous scarring process that results from mucositis," he said. "And trying to prevent this from happening is a chief goal and a chief focus." At his center, they are transitioning from cisplatin therapy to cetuximab, reducing radiation doses when possible, and switching to surgical procedures to lower radiation use. Ongoing Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group studies,
Dr. Damrose noted, have identified 55 Gy as an important target dose.
It's also important to minimize iatrogenic endotracheal and tracheostomy tube injuries, he said. Here, education of colleagues will be crucial. "The bottom line is, base tube size selection on height, not weight, and ensure tubes are adequately advanced, especially in taller patients," Dr. Damrose said.
Voice and Swallow Rehabilitation
Michael Johns III, MD, director of the University of Southern California Voice Center in Los Angeles, said that when physicians are pondering the course of treatment for voice difficulties, "we're listening and we're looking." Visually, the keys are the size of the gap between the vocal folds and the stiffness of the folds. When listening to a patient, he listens for breathiness. "The breathier the patient is, the more likely we're going to be able to help them," he said. Vocal stiffness is hard to manage, he said, but surgeons are able to close glottal gaps, which can improve vocal function significantly.
"Roughness is hard to manage," he added. "Vocal fold stiffness—we don't really have a lot of tools for improving that." So, when a patient's voice is rough and not very breathy, he is more likely to avoid surgery.
When it comes to trouble swallowing, including loss of sensation, loss of tongue base volume and strength, or reduced pharyngeal squeeze, there are not many good surgical options. Surgery can be more helpful with glottal insufficiency and cricopharyngeal or esophageal stenosis, he added. In cases of dysphagia, Dr. Johns usually will emphasize behavior modification. If things are not very severe, he advised strongly considering the risks and benefits of surgery. If, on a modified barium swallow, you don't see hyolaryngeal excursion, he said, then dilation probably won't help.
When assessing an airway patient for surgery, Dr. Johns recommended getting a sense of how easy it would be to obtain operative direct laryngeal exposure in the office, and whether a tracheotomy would be needed. "If those two features are unfavorable, then try to avoid surgery," he said.
Stenosis Following Radiation
Tools for treating stenosis that occurs after radiation of the larynx include the CO2 laser, bougies and balloons, steroid injections, and the chemotherapy drug mitomycin, said Lucian Sulica, MD, director of the Sean Parker Institute for the Voice at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. "I'm sorry to say that none of these things is a game-changer," he said.
Chronic infection is a common problem, he said, because crusting compromises the mucosa's resistance to infection. "You can clear this temporarily, but it is constantly there and constantly complicating things," he added.
A recent study has confirmed that injection augmentation and medialization laryngoplasty are generally safe in the radiated larynx (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2015;153:582-585); however, there might be more risk when it comes to arytenoid adduction.
Dr. Sulica drew particular attention to the minithyrotomy procedure for scarring, described by Stephen D. Gray, MD, in 1999. It's a combination of an external neck and laryngoscopic technique in which a submucosal implant is placed through a thyroid cartilage window. For the implant, Dr. Sulica typically uses a generous amount of fat, "more than you think you'll need," which is usually readily available. "I think the minithyrotomy is an interesting approach to access the lamina propria, or where the lamina propria would have been in the scarred vocal fold, without an epithelial incision."
Thomas Collins is a freelance medical writer based in Florida.
Take-Home Points
Late surgical rehabilitation after radiation and surgery should involve understanding and modulating factors that are unfavorable, minimizing long-term morbidity and preserving function, and acting expediently when necessary.
When listening to a patient, realize that the breathier he or she is, the more likely surgery will help.
Pages: 1 2 3 | Multi-Page
Filed Under: Features, Laryngology, Practice Focus Tagged With: laryngeal reconstruction, Sections Meeting 2016Issue: March 2016


text:
Atelier's Don Giovanni
Opera Atelier's Don Giovanni.
Opera Atelier is a Toronto-based company that specializes in baroque and classical opera. Mozart's Don Giovanni, which opened on Saturday, is about as "modern" as they get. Here's my review, from today's Globe and Mail.
Opera Atelier's co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski stepped on stage just before the curtain rose on Saturday night. The opera was Don Giovanni – and Pynkoski, who served as stage director for the new production, had a few words to say.
First, he wanted everyone to know that Mozart's take on the Don Juan legend was intended as a comedy. And he also wanted us to know that his production was all about two things: speed and youth.
The "youth" part wasn't surprising: Opera Atelier generally casts with an eye for young and attractive singers.
But the "speed" part came as a bit of a shock. Apparently the rationale for presenting the opera in as little time as possible was that, back in 1787, Mozart conducted a performance that was just two-and-a-half hours long. Be that as it may, Pynkoski's and conductor Stefano Montanari's efforts turned the opera into an Olympic sport.
Some recitatives were sung so quickly that perhaps "sung" is not the right word to use. Several arias that are often allowed to breathe a little – such as La ci darem la mano and Batti, batti, o bel Masetto – were pressed forward. Even complex ensemble scenes were taken at breakneck speed.
This was risky – and fortunately there were no train wrecks. On the contrary, the performance on stage was tight and snappy. And even at accelerated tempi, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra (Opera Atelier's pit band) managed to bring out rich details in the score.
So it was all quite brilliant, in a way. But to what end? Playing the "authenticity" card here seems a bit disingenuous, as Opera Atelier increasingly plays fast and loose with its initial ideals of period performance.
However, one thing is certain: This approach to Don Giovanni couldn't have been realized without a fine cast, willing to push boundaries and stretch limits.
Baritone Phillip Addis proved himself vocally equal to the title role. However, dramatically speaking, his Don Giovanni was not a powerful and malevolent force dominating the stage (as Giovanni often is), but a weak man who just can't help himself. This approach tended to remove the Don from a central position in the plot, rendering him just another character in the opera.
Vasil Garvanliev portrayed Leporello with a plumy and jolly baritone voice, and an enthusiasm for stage antics. By contrast, Lawrence Wiliford placed his clear tenor, tinged with a pleasant vibrato, at the service of an introspective Don Ottavio. Baritone Curtis Sullivan was convincing as a dangerous but bumbling Masetto. Yet when he appeared near the end of the opera as the Commendatore, his efforts to achieve an eerily stentorian vocal effect sounded forced.
No less impressive were the women in the cast. Soprano Meghan Lindsay sang the role of Donna Anna, with a bright and dramatically edgy voice. And soprano Carla Huhtanen was a sweetly lyrical Zerlina.
But the scene-stealer was Peggy Kriha Dye (as Donna Elvira), whose over-the-top portrayal of the opera's crazy lady did much to support the idea of Don Giovanni as a comedy. As well, her supple soprano voice, strong in all registers, was a joy to listen to.
The Atelier Ballet, led by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, added charm to the production with their peasant dances. And in the penultimate scene, they furiously fanned the flames that consumed poor Don Giovanni.
In the end, the effectiveness of Pynkoski's attempts to speed his audience back to 1787 remain questionable. Perhaps the interpretive traditions attached to Don Giovanni – the darker, weightier ideas that developed in the 19th and 20th centuries – are a bell that can't be unrung.
Just drawing on the other reviews posted in the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star: Although the production may be short on psychoanalysis, it's filled with a youthful, exuberant spirit that helps keep a twenty-first-century audience captivated... And in an opera that begins with a murder and finishes with a descent to hell, does the heaviness really need to be coaxed?


Journal acronym: Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.
The behavior of the simplest linear siloxane under base-catalyzed conditions was investigated in the temperature range of 60-110 degrees C for different concentrations of linear siloxane (0.05-0.5 wt %) in dodecane as the solvent with an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide added as the alkali agent. Samples were taken regularly and analyzed by GC-MS. The activation energy for the studied conditions was found to be equal to 68 kJ/mol. The reaction rate decreased with increasing sodium hydroxide concentration as a result of the formation of dibasic siloxanolates, which are less reactive than single siloxanolates. The proposed reaction mechanism includes stages of polycondensation and siloxane cyclization. The composition of the final reaction mixture (i.e., the ratio between the solid and liquid products) was found to depend strongly on the reaction parameters. Analysis of the solid products by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed the formation of sodium siloxanolates. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and temperature-programmed oxidation-mass spectrometry (TPO-MS) results demonstrated that the water content in the solid products decreased with increasing relative concentration of alkali agent in the reaction mixture.


text:
Q: Topic data format in Kafka for KSQL operations I just started using ksql, when I do print topic from beginning I get data in below format.
   rowtime: 4/12/20, 9:00:05 AM MDT, key: {"messageId":null}, value: {"WHS":[{"Character Set":"UTF-8","action":"finished","Update-Date-Time":"2020-04-11 09:00:02:25","Number":0,"Abbr":"","Name":"","Name2":"","Country-Code":"","Addr-1":"","Addr-2":"","Addr-3":"","Addr-4":"","City":"","State":""}]}

But all the examples in KSQL have the data in below format
{"ROWTIME":1537436551210,"ROWKEY":"3375","rating_id":3375,"user_id":2,"stars":3,"route_id":6972,"rating_time":1537436551210,"channel":"web","message":"airport refurb looks great, will fly outta here more!"}

so I'm not able to perform any operations, the format is showing as
Key format: JSON or SESSION(KAFKA_STRING) or HOPPING(KAFKA_STRING) or TUMBLING(KAFKA_STRING) or KAFKA_STRING
Value format: JSON or KAFKA_STRING

on my topic. How can I modify the data into the specific format?
Thanks

A: ksqlDB does not yet support JSON message keys, (See the tracking Github issue).
However, you can still access the data, both in the key and the value.  The JSON key is just a string after all!
The value, when reformatted, looks like this:
{
  "WHS":[
    {
      "Character Set":"UTF-8",
      "action":"finished",
      "Update-Date-Time":"2020-04-11 09:00:02:25",
      "Number":0,
      "Abbr":"",
      "Name":"",
      "Name2":"",
      "Country-Code":"",
      "Addr-1":"",
      "Addr-2":"",
      "Addr-3":"",
      "Addr-4":"",
      "City":"",
      "State":""
    }
  ]
}

Which, assuming all rows share a common format, ksqlDB can easily handle.
To import your stream you should be able to run something like this:
-- assuming v0.9 of Kafka
create stream stuff
  (
    ROWKEY STRING KEY,
    WHS ARRAY<
      STRUCT<
        `Character Set` STRING,
        action STRING,
        `Update-Date-Time` STRING,
        Number STRING,
        ... etc
      >
    >
   )
   WITH (kafka_topic='?', value_format='JSON');

The value column WHS is an array of structs, (where the will be only one element), and the struct defines all the fields you need to access.  Note, some field names needed quoting as they contained invalid characters, e.g. spaces and dashes.


text:
Weekly Prayers >
Pray with Kenya on Sunday, October 15, 2017
By Bosela Eale on October 10, 2017
Lectionary Selection: Matthew 22:1-14
Prayers for Kenya:
God of life, lead Africa to peace, justice, and dignity.
We know that you can do it, you can use us, for peace, justice, and dignity.
We are deeply saddened at the turn of events in South Sudan since its independence, including the killings and unrest leading to a continual displacement of populations inside South Sudan and across borders to neighboring countries – the consequence of which is a dire humanitarian crisis – the failure of the successful peace agreements, the struggles faced by the national dialogue process, etc.
In the midst of all this, and because you are still seated on your throne and are still sovereign, we want to continue to pray for our brothers and sisters who walk through this painful journey.
We continue to pray for the determination of church leaders in South Sudan on maintaining unity against all odds and for continuing to raising their prophetic voices towards the political authorities and the population at large. Give them boldness. We strongly believe that you do not forsake your own. Everything you allow has a higher purpose. We hope to rejoice with our brothers and sisters on the day you would stand on their behalf, turn things around, and make South Sudan a strong and stable nation.
We also come before you with the nation of Kenya. As the presidential election was nullified, there is political tension in the country that is threatening peace. On the other hand, the threat for a terrorism attack is permanent. We pray that you protect your people from any kind of evil and bring about peace in the land.
God of life, we raise from our hearts the concern we have for the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially in Kasai province where thousands of people lost their lives and property was destroyed. As we pray, there over three million Congolese who fled as refugees in Angola and thousands internally displaced. Many are living without shelter and children are exposed to all kinds of illness. We pray for your providence and protection over them. We also pray for the political situation of the same. Since the second and last term of the head of state was over on December 19, 2016, an election has not been organized for a peaceful transfer of power. Tension is now rising for possible trouble in the country at the end of December 2017. We pray that you give wisdom to political leaders to solve the problem in a peaceful way and maintain peace in the country.
We lift up the Church in Eritrea. As the country is going through difficult time economically, socially, and politically, let your Church give hope to your people. Reinforce interfaith dialog among different groups of faith and peaceful coexistence between people of Muslim, Orthodox, Evangelical, and Catholic faiths.
Mission Stewardship Moment from Kenya:
I did a solidarity visit to the Church in Eritrea. Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa. The country was once an Italian colony, then became a British colony and then Ethiopia occupied the country for the last 30 years as they struggled for their independence and succeeded when they won the battled against Ethiopia. They people of Eritrea suffered a lot to experience freedom as well as communion with brothers and sisters from the rest of the world.
Eritrea has among its population half Orthodox and half Muslims. Both Muslims and Christians leave peacefully. Besides the two main religious groups, there are Evangelical Lutheran and Catholic. There is restriction of movement for citizens to travel abroad. Students are not allowed to go oversee to studies. There is very limited import of goods and services while export is not allowed and Eritrea is producing nothing.
The Orthodox Church in Eritrea is one of the constituency of the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), a partner to Global Ministries and member of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The Church in Eritrea is living in isolation and members are really feeling lonely. On the other hand, to get a visa for Eritrea is a milestone since Eritrea government expelled Christian and humanitarian organizations.
When we started planning a trip with the WCC, many people did not believe that we would succeed because of the serious restrictions put out by the government of Eritrea. I planned to go to Eritrea for a solidarity visit with my General Secretary and other people but I was told to forget about it. The Orthodox Church in Eritrea fought to obtain a visa for the Ecumenical delegation and finally they succeeded. The ecumenical delegation was composed of WCC, AACC, Norwegian Church Aid, Church of Sweden, and Bread for the World; we were a total number of eight delegates. To show the visit was highly expected by the Orthodox Church, we landed at Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea at 2:30 am and we found the Orthodox Archbishop and another bishop with other senior staff of the Church at the airport waiting for us.
Our solidarity visit in Eritrea meant a lot for our brothers and sisters in that part of the world. Words cannot express the joy of our visit with them. We saw the need to stand and assist the Eritrean Church. As the body of Christ, we ought to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice.
(Prayer and Mission Moment by Bosela Eale)
Mission Partners in Kenya:
All Africa Conference of Churches
National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK)
Organization of African Instituted Churches
Presbyterian Church of East Africa
Programme for Christian Muslim Relations in Africa
St Paul's United Theological College
More information on Kenya: http://www.globalministries.org/kenya
Global Ministries Mission Coworker in Kenya:
Bosela Eale is jointly appointed by the CGMB and the All Council of Churches with the specific assignment of Director of Peace, Diakonia, and Development Office. His appointment is made possible by your gifts to Disciples' Mission Fund, Our Churches Wider Mission, and your special gifts.
Africa kenya


text:
Weekly Prayers >
Pray for Israel/Palestine on Sunday, June 28, 2015
By Loren McGrail on June 22, 2015
Lectionary Selection: Mark 5:21-43
Prayers for Israel Palestine:
To the Hem of His Garment
Beloved, you call us to be seekers of justice
We ask for prayers today for the people of Palestine
who are bleeding in the occupied city of East Jerusalem,
the villages of the west Bank, and
besieged and bombed out Gaza.
Continue to support their steadfast call
for peace with justice
strengthen their nonviolent resistance
Lord in your mercy feel their touch
Help us to reach back
Beloved, who calls us to the hem of your garment
Be with the women of the YWCA as they reach out
for a better life, a better job,
security, freedom and dignity.
Be with them as they struggle against the violence
of patriarchy and the violence of the occupation
Give them the means to bring food to their tables,
the courage to demand a place at the tables
where decisions are made
Beloved, we praise you for the holy work
the YWCA of Palestine is able to do
and ask you to bless them and their programs
their advocacy projects and campaigns
so that they can continue to be your faithful remnant
in the place where the Prince of Peace was born, died
Lord in your mercy feel their reaching out
Help them to be your faithful daughters and sons
Ready to work for your kin-dom now as it is in heaven.
Mission Stewardship Moment from Israel Palestine:
It's been a busy spring here at the YWCA of Palestine. We are proud to share that after our successful International Conference on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, "Women's Freedom, Peace, and Dignity in Palestine" in early October, which included many United Church of Christ and Global Ministries leaders, we have begun to work with numerous groups and coalitions on a variety of issues that affect women's lives including the design of the Framework for UNSCR 1325 National Action Plan. We are also proud that we were able to send a small delegation to this year's Commission on Women (CSW) Conference at the United Nations in New York in March. We also officially launched our Stop Poverty Campaign and our European Union economic justice Shoumous project in March in Jericho. Members of a UCC and Disciples leadership delegation were able in April to meet youth leaders in a small village in the Jordan Valley to learn about the economic and social challenges youth experience in this particular part of the country, surrounded by settlements. Finally, we are excited to tell you that in April, on YWCA Round the World Global breakfast day, members from all the Ys met in Bethlehem to celebrate our newest association, the YWCA of Bethlehem.
In addition to these exciting developments, I serve on your behalf as missionary with the YWCA, and as part of my work, have been exploring new ways to develop and extend our advocacy on refugee rights through our project, The Fabric of Our Lives. We have been working on new ways to tell the stories of Palestinian women who continue to experience forced displacement and dispossession that began with the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe") in 1948 through listening and accompaniment.
For example, Zbedeh Hasan Amro, from Wadi Joz, is about to lose her home for the third time. Her home, with her two blind sons and their families, is less than a mile from the YWCA of Palestine. The Jerusalem Municipality is claiming they need this land for a city park. With help from the girls in the Jerusalem YWCA Social Media class, we filmed and documented Zbedeh telling her story of the first two displacements. She is originally from a small village near Bir Saba (Beersheba) and was forcibly removed and settled in Dair Amro west of Jerusalem. Then, in 1968, she was forced to evacuate again and her family has lived in Wadi Joz ever since. During our interview, while holding my hand, she told us she wanted to return to her village. Perhaps the imminent destruction of her home has brought back memories of that first tragedy. As Arundahti Roy says, "There is no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced or the preferably unheard." Part of the work of the YWCA of Palestine is to listen and share these stories that have been silenced. It is holy listening, and I am humbled to be a part of it.
The women of the YWCA of Palestine invite you to celebrate their new projects and accomplishments and hold them in prayer as they continue to work for their rights for self determination on the personal and political level.
(Prayer and Mission Moment by Loren McGrail)
Mission Partners in Israel/Palestine:
Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem
Diyar Consortium
East Jerusalem YMCA (Palestine)
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
Friends Meeting in Ramallah
Rawdat el-Zuhur (Palestine)
Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center (Jerusalem)
Tantur Ecumenical Institute
YWCA of Palestine (Palestine)
More information about Israel Palestine:
http://www.globalministries.org/israel_palestine
Global Ministries Missionary in Israel Palestine:
Rev. Loren McGrail serves with the YWCA of Palestine. She helps identify international partners, and relevant sources of funding. Her appointment is made possible by your gifts to Disciples Mission Fund, Our Church's Wider Mission, and your special gifts.
Middle East and Europe israel palestine


Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a pinch of the Piranske Soline Fiori di Sale.
Peel potatoes and boil in water until tender. Allow to cool.
In a large bowl, combine the vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, and Fiori & Salt, mix well.
When the potatoes are completely cooled, chop into 1-inch cubes and mix into oil-vinegar mixture. Gently toss in hardboiled egg.


We are a flat, highly networked, expert-driven public sector management consulting practice. So to make our business work, we look for exceptional people who can thrive in hyper-dynamic, high-pressure (and sometimes insecure) environments.
What expertise are we looking for?
Understanding of governance evidence, policy and practice in a range of settings; knowledge of political systems, core governance concepts and global, regional and transnational drivers of governance change; ability to apply political and institutional analysis and use this to influence strategic planning and programming decisions.
Governance in conflict and fragile contexts including approaches to building stability, inclusive political settlements, conflict prevention.
Political-economy analysis and tools for understanding country and regional contexts and their strengths and weaknesses, (e.g. Country Poverty Reduction Diagnostics, Inclusive Growth Diagnostics, Country Governance Analysis, Analysis of Conflict and Stability).
Institutional analysis and public management reform concepts (including new public management, good enough/best fit approaches).
Regional and global governance context, including key transnational drivers such as organised crime, illicit finance and violent extremism.
Governance research and evidence and implications for operational practice, particularly in fragile states.
Knowledge of public sector governance at national and local levels and application in particular service delivery sectors. Ability to provide analytical, advisory and programme support to civil service and sector reform processes that contribute to the sustainable improvements in service delivery.
Concepts, frameworks and diagnostic tools for analysing public sector organisations and the wider institutional environment.
Programmatic approaches and instruments for improving public sector governance in a range of country contexts and sectors, including problem-driven and adaptive approaches.
Processes of decentralisation, including deconcentration and devolution, and their impact on public sector governance and service delivery.
Political economy of basic service sectors (e.g. health, education, water & sanitation) and the political incentives for delivering services.
Systems strengthening in service delivery sectors (e.g. policy development, human resources management, public financial management, procurement) and the links between sectoral reform programmes and broader public sector governance programmes.
Approaches to strengthen accountability, oversight and citizen engagement in service delivery, including using new technologies.
Interventions to enhance the role of women and other excluded groups in public sector decision-making.
Understanding of how security, justice and human rights contribute to development and stability, and their impact on different groups, particularly women. Knowledge of different legal systems, including non-state justice systems. Ability to work with donor, national and international actors to deliver security, justice and human rights programmes and policies.
Understanding the causes and effects of corruption in countries as well as corruption's transnational and multi-sectoral nature. Ability to provide strategic advice, work across government departments, and design and deliver programmes and strategies on corruption.
Understanding the role of public financial management and domestic revenue mobilisation in development, accountability and state-building processes. Ability to provide advice, policy direction and programme leadership on PFM and DRM, working with donors, country and international partners.


We have a bit of a fitness crush on this lady, the super-enthusiastic, super-motivated, super-bloody-fit, ironwoman Kim Ingleby.
Favourite exercise: Burpee into a Press Up, really effective and works pretty much every muscle in your body! (NUTTER!!! L&L) Plank into side plank, great core exercise. I'm loving the new Tabata training principles, and give me a muddy, hilly off road running route and I'm off.
Favourite kit: My top pieces are the Alpha Bag (a heavy sand bag), Kettlebell, TRX (if travelling) Swiss Ball and Flexi Bar, you can pretty much do everything with these pieces.
Life has no limitations, except the ones you make" – Les Brown.
I love training and empowering people to realise that they can achieve their goals,so in 2004 I set up Energised Performance to do just that. I started with just personal training and now combine this with sports massage, NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), nutrition and hypnotherapy to give people all the skills they need to feel fit, strong and confident inside and out.
We have raised over £32k for charity, run workshops all over the country and I have clients from 10 -79 years old, from Team GB athletes to Strictly Come Dancing stars, comedians and lots of lovely ladies.
Finishing the ironman and still smiling!
I'm really proud that I managed to complete the Ironman UK last year and raise over £3,000 for Sands to support my friend who lost her second baby, Ashley (You can read more here http://www.sportsister.com/category/kim-ingleby/). It was one of the most crazy experiences of my life! Trekking across the Andes from Argentina to Chile, and completing the Winter Tough Guy were also pretty crazy events. My best memories are from three day eventing for the Scottish Under 21 Team (a long time ago!) at Blair Castle on my horse, Casper, brilliant times. I am heading to Turkey soon to compete in the European Age Group Triathlon Champs which I am super excited about too, as I have had Sept – Feb off training due to cervical treatments, which are now all clear, but it feels like a gift to be given this opportunity, so I will do my very best!
♦ Be clear about what and why you want to achieve your goal and what you will gain when you have achieved it. This makes your motivation and focus really clear.
♦ Build a vision board, make yourself accountable to some supportive friends and set consistent, mini goals each week – if you're not sure, ask for advice and support.
♦ Move your body daily, think about your posture and have quality rest days.
♦ Mix up your training sessions with quality cardio, strength and core work each week.
♦ Keep your nutrition simple – eat lots of good, fresh foods, watch your portion size and reduce your sugars, white and processed foods. Drink plenty of water too.
♦ Aim to sleep between 10.30pm and 6am for the best recovery and energy, manage your stress and learn to like the person you are.
♦ Have the courage to go for it and if you get a couple of days 'wrong', don't worry just get back on track towards that positive goal.
Get out of your comfort zone and try something new. We had the best time climbing, and boy does it give you DOMS!


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More summer reading for accountants – 2018
By Daniel Hood
The consultants at ConvergenceCoaching work with countless accountants and business experts every year – and whenever they hear of a book that's had an impact, they add it to their growing list of useful reads that they recommend.
When co-founder Jennifer Wilson offered to share the list with our readers, we jumped at the chance – and in early June we shared the first half. The second half of ConvergenceCoaching's extensive list follows, with enough insightful books and must-read titles to get you through the July 4th weekend and the rest of the summer.
(Note that prices are for hard-copy editions on Amazon.com.)
Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Are Transforming the Economy and How to Make Them Work For You
By Sangeet Paul Choudary, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Geoffrey Parker
W.W. Norton & Co.
Think about some of the most common, most successful names in business today – Airbnb, Amazon, PayPal, Uber and so on – and you quickly realize that what a lot of them do is offer a platform on which people can interact to rent out a room, sell a used book, arrange a ride, set up a date or any of a thousand other things. "Platform Revolution" dives into this phenomenon to explain how to build your own successful platform (or help clients with theirs) and is a very handy guide to a fascinating new business model.
Practice What You Preach: What Managers Must Do to Create a High Achievement Culture
By David H. Maister
$13.99 (Kindle)
An engaged, enthusiastic workforce is a key component of financial success – and a key component of having an engaged, enthusiastic workforce is their belief that the company they work actually lives up to its value. Based on real-world research, this book by pioneering professional services consultant Maister aims to teach managers how they can play a critical role in fostering that belief.
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges
By Amy Cuddy
Little, Brown & Co.
We're used to the idea that other people's body language will affect our emotions – making us feel intimidated or welcome or threatened or recognized – but this book makes a strong case that our emotions can also be affected by our own body language. Taking a powerful stance, in other words, can make us feel and act more powerfully, and Cuddy shows how you can, essentially, fake it until you make it, by adopting the body language of the positions and emotions we want to occupy and feel. It's useful far beyond the business environment, too.
Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value
By Ronald J. Baker
If the value pricing movement was a "Shot Heard Round the World," Ron Baker can make a strong claim to having fired it, so if you're looking to understand why more and more firms are trashing the timesheet, this book is a great place to start. It offers a powerful intellectual framework for a new way to think about the value you offer clients, and how to charge them for it.
Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence
By Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee and Richard Boyatzis
No one wants to be accused of being emotionally stupid, but that isn't the only reason to read this book: In an era where more than ever is required of firm leadership – and where employees have plenty of other options when it comes to finding a job – leaders need to be much more self-aware, empathic, collaborative and generally more in touch with their staff. While we wouldn't want to do without the other forms of intelligence, emotional intelligence is definitely a must-have for 21st century accounting firm leadership.
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss without Losing Your Humanity
By Kim Scott
If you don't have anything nice to say, you can either go sit over by Alice Roosevelt, or you can read this book and learn how to say mean things and have people thank you for it. Seriously – it shows managers how to deliver honest feedback in such a way that people actually improve, rather than hating you, with actionable advice and plenty of real-life anecdotes.
Radical Forgiveness: A Revolutionary Five-Stage Process to Heal Relationships, Let Go of Anger and Blame and Find Peace in Any Situation
By Colin Tipping
Sounds True
This may be a little too spiritual for some (and by that, we mean it's pretty seriously spiritual), but for those who are open to this kind of thing, it offers very specific instructions for letting go of emotional pain and past hurts and freeing yourself from a position of victimhood into something much more proactive.
Reach: A New Strategy to Help You Step Outside Your Comfort Zone, Rise to the Challenge, and Build Confidence
By Andy Molinsky
When you see someone doing something you're afraid to do, chances are pretty good that they don't actually like doing it – they've just found a way to do it that allows them to get past their fear. That's one of the premises of "Reach," in any case, and it aims to help you overcome the challenges that make us avoid doing difficult things, and develop techniques to help you successfully confront what you're afraid of – and even become good at it.
Rules of the Red Rubber Ball: Find and Sustain Your Life's Work
By Kevin Carroll
There's more than one way to improve your life; the trick is to find the way that works best for you. In this short, inspirational book, Kevin Carroll offers a model based on his childhood love of sports and play that aims to help maximize your potential by finding your own "red rubber ball" and chasing it wholeheartedly.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
By Stephen R. Covey
It hardly seems necessary to introduce this classic, which has been read by tens of millions of people, but just in case: It offers a step-by-step pathway to adapting to change – and the accounting profession has never needed more help with that than right now.
Shut Your Monkey: How to Control Your Inner Critic and Get More Done
By Danny Gregory
Winner of the Accounting Today Most Intriguing Title Award, this book actually involves no monkeys: It's a metaphor for the nagging inner critic that keeps so many of us from achieving what we want (unless what we want is another banana), and the book teaches you how to overcome the crippling little simian and put it in its place.
By Simon Sinek
Sinek's notion that no one buys into a product, service, movement or idea until they understand the why behind it has so successfully entered the modern consciousness (or at least the modern management consciousness), that we all think we're familiar with it even if we haven't read the book. But like all attractively simple ideas, it's actually more complicated – and more valuable – than you might think.
StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition
By Tom Rath
Gallup Press
Knowing what you're good at is a kind of superpower – if only because so few people actually know their own strengths (and often think they're better at all kinds of things than they are – see "The Dunning-Kruger Effect" …). And if you don't know what you're good at, you can't maximize your efforts in that direction. "StrengthsFinder" comes with an assessment, and a planning guide for applying your strengths over time.
By Daniel Gilbert
Someday, someone will give a name to the fact that humans as a species are stunningly bad at understanding our own individual desires, reactions, motivations, psychology, values and more, but in the meantime, it's enough to know that we're pretty bad at knowing what will make us happy. Knowing that, though, is the first step to getting better at being happy, and Gilbert's book is a great look at our strange approach to imagining the future and what it will take for us to be happy there.
Teach What You Know: A Practical Leader's Guide to Knowledge Transfer Using Peer Mentoring
By Steve Trautman
The people in your firm possess an astonishing range of knowledge – but tapping into it for the benefit of the overall firm can be difficult. Trautman's tools for getting individuals to share their knowledge horizontally with each other with help you boost the sum knowledge of the entire organization, while making each member that much smarter themselves.
Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well
By Douglas Stone
A lot of attention is paid to how to give employees feedback; less is paid to making sure they make the most of it. This book changes that, with a simple framework and a set of tools to help everyone learn from all the different kinds of feedback we receive every day, from offhand comments to annual reviews.
The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow
Thomas Nelson Inc.
Not gonna lie: That's an awful lot of indispensable qualities. Fortunately, Maxwell's book offers practical tools and insights on developing that kind of comprehensive leadership, and makes it easy to apply many of its lessons right away.
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You
Given the general low quality of leadership in every walk of life these days, we're not going to argue with Maxwell for having so many laws and qualities (42 at last count) – at least the sheer volume explains why it's so hard to be a great leader. Once again, though, Maxwell, is aiming for sharp, practical advice, complete with an evaluation tool for assessing your strengths and weaknesses, and application exercises.
The Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose Your Customers, Narrow Your Focus, Dominate Your Market
By Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema
Based on in-depth studies with top CEOs, this book explores the way businesses can succeed by focusing intently on one of three "value disciplines" – highest quality, lowest prices, or the best customer experience. Leading in one of those, the authors maintain, is the key to thriving in your field – a lesson accountants can apply both to their clients and their own firms.
The Evolving Self: Psychology for the Third Millennium
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Another book from the author of "Flow" (see "Summer reading for accountants"), this intriguing read examines the ways in which we are wired to behave in certain ways by biology, culture and other external factors, and encourages the reader to look beyond those to take more of a hand in shaping their own reality.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
By Patrick M. Lencioni
Here's the last entry from the king of the business parable, and one of his most popular: A story about how to unite teams and get them acting effectively together. The five dysfunctions, in case you're wondering, are: lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results. If some (or all) of those sound familiar, grab a copy and get reading.
The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary into the Extraordinary
By Mark Sanborn
Spoiler Alert: Fred is a postman, one who was so outstanding at his job and cared so much about the people he served that he became a lifelong role model for the author. Sanborn tells the stories of many other Freds, with the goal of showing you how to become more like them through four basic principles that can help you make a difference every day.
The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts
By Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind
While you don't need to do it every day, taking a good hard look at what you do every once in a while is a worthwhile endeavor – and this book is a very bracing look at how technology is going to change professional services, and some of the alternatives professionals (and society) might want to pursue as a result. Fascinating and prescient, if also a little disturbing … .
The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters
By Emily Esfahani Smith
Few concepts are more nebulous than "the meaning of life," but this book does a great job of nailing it down, offering four specific areas to focus on to add more meaning to your life: connecting with others, working toward a purpose, telling stories, and seeking out mystery.
By Norman Vincent Peale
Along with Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People," this is one of the few books of life advice to stand the test of time. Peale was a minister, so expect biblical references and a fair amount of spirituality, but the core message that our thoughts and attitudes have an enormous impact on our lives remains timeless.
The Red Rubber Ball at Work: Elevate Your Game through the Hidden Power of Play
A short, pocket-sized book (like his original "Rules of the Red Rubber Ball"), it profiles 33 successful workers who employ "productive play" to show new ways to unleash innovation, problem-solving and more.
The Speed of Trust: The One Thing That Changes Everything
By Stephen M.R. Covey
With their status as most trusted advisors to maintain, accountants can't afford to ignore the valuable lessons here about the centrality of trust to the modern organization, whether in terms of clients or employees. The book takes a very practical approach to showing you how to build it and maintain it, laying out the 13 behaviors that trust-inspiring leaders bring to the table.
Bonus factoid: Stephen M.R. Covey is actually the son of "The Seven Habits …" author. And all this time we thought it was just one Covey who sometimes couldn't afford the extra middle initial.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Big Difference
Another book that needs no introduction: Gladwell's look at the small things that kick off major changes is something of a modern classic – even if many people have never read it. It's worth it for its dissection of the roles of Connectors (people who bring people together), Mavens (who amass and share expertise) and Salesmen (who persuade others) in spreading ideas and trends.
By Gino Wickman
BenBella Books
Wickman's "Entrepreneurial Operating System" offers your clients (and you) a set of core principles for elevating a business from mere survival to break-through success, with six key components to focus on: vision, people, data, process, issues (the obstacles the business faces) and traction (the ability to execute well and function with discipline and accountability).
True Professionalism: The Courage to Care About Your People, Your Clients and Your Career
Maister is back once again; in this outing, he once again talks about the importance of adhering to your stated values, but this time it's in the context of being, as the title has it, "a true professional." That adherence to high standards and independent values, he maintains, is the real hallmark of a professional; technical expertise and esoteric knowledge are necessary components, but not sufficient.
When Professionals Have to Lead: A New Model for High Performance
By Thomas DeLong, John Gabarro and Robert Lees
For years, accounting firms didn't really require that much leadership: The work that accountants did, the way their firms functioned, and the career paths available to them were all pretty much the same from firm to firm, and from decade to decade, so everyone just sort of flowed along in the same grooves. Today, with rapid change engulfing the profession, firms can no longer rely on tried-and-true models taking the place of leadership: Partners need to step up and perform at higher levels than ever before – and this book is a great place to start.
Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
By Spencer Johnson
G.P. Putnam's Sons
Not to be confused with "Who Stole My Cheese?" (which is actually a parody), "Who Moved My Cheese?" is a business classic – and you know it must be pretty good since its stars are two mice and two mouse-sized people. In the end, it's a valuable guide to handling the terrors of change – something every accountant and every firm are facing right now.
Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution
By Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
You may have heard of firms that offer unlimited PTO – and wondered if they've lost their minds. But the fact is that rising generations take an extremely practical approach to work, one that prioritizes getting the work done, versus simply being in the office. This book defines the "Results-Only Work Environment" that focuses on the outcomes, not the hours invested – a revolution that accounting is going to have to embrace in a number of different ways … .
Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy – Until You're 80 and Beyond
By Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge
You'll need lots of time to read all the books on this list, so it's only right to end it with a book that can add more years to your life: "Younger Next Year" offers a common-sense regimen for getting and staying fit and healthy (mentally and physically) after you turn 50, rather than gradually deteriorating. (The original book, shown above, is aimed at men; there's a version for women, as well.)
Practice managementAccounting firm services
Daniel Hood


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He Killed the Song: The Marina Experiment
Posted on November 8, 2014 by Ron
(Last Updated On August 10, 2019)
This disturbing story reminds me of a Bill Moyers interview with Joseph Campbell where he retells a Pygmy parable about a boy who finds the bird of the most beautiful song in the forest. He brings it home and asks his father to bring food for the bird. The father refuses to work to feed only a bird and at some point, he kills it. The moral is that the man killed the bird and with the bird, he killed the song and with the song, himself.
Pip first told me about the strange story of Marina Lutz (b. 1958) and at the time, I could not do much about it as it was late 2012 when Pigtails in Paint was shut down. It appears that Abbot Lutz (1917-1985), the father, had become obsessed with his daughter and compulsively recorded the first 16 years of her life. Over a decade after his death, Marina found a huge archive of materials: film, audio and over 10,000 photos. Far from being a precious record of a beloved child, the material actually revealed a kind of psychological abuse, particularly that of neglect. It is hard not to feel the emotional impact when examining this story and serious thought needs to be given before a fair judgment can be made. Some issues I bring up here have been discussed online, but many that I find particularly relevant, were not.
Marina's therapist was the first to be exposed to the work. Short films were composed to illustrate some point about Marina's childhood to the therapist. The source materials were compelling and Marina was encouraged to submit a short film to various film festivals in 2009. The reception was favorable and she actually received a couple of awards. Like the Vivian Maier photographs, this work was never meant for public viewing and so ethical issues arise about its use. On the one hand, this is the private efforts of one man, but considering the unhealthy environment that was fostered, there can be some justification that this work might be used for Marina's therapeutic benefit and bring light to something that exists in the dark recesses of the dysfunctional family life of many women. Since Marina is the subject, it seems reasonable that given both her parents are dead, that she should be at liberty to engage in this sort of self-exploitation. Abbot's material is strictly documentary so if there is any artistry, it is due to Marina's efforts.
With the volume of material to go through, what made her choose what she did? Marina explains in interviews that she watched every film, listened to every audio tape and examined each photograph. Her explanation of what was chosen is that those things which had the most hurtful impact were used. She edited the film in such a way to maximize and more clearly communicate the emotion she felt when viewing them. It was clear in many of the images that she was irritated by the invasion of her privacy but over time, she must have became numb to the experience as though she were a deer in headlights.
Abbot Lutz/Marina Lutz- The Marina Experiment (c1970/2009)
It might be fairly said that many artists (including some covered on this site) have had a kind of obsession with their children and involved them in their art. But the critical distinction here is that in a loving family, the children are engaged in a relationship with the parent—sometimes remembering the photo sessions as a fond part of their emotional bonding. In contrast, Abbot's cold observation gave me the distinct impression that he rarely if ever gave his daughter physical affection that would communicate a sense of being loved. When first sifting through the source material, a friend of Marina's commented that it was as though she were a lab specimen and thus the title "The Marina Experiment" was coined. The most wrenching part for me is a recording where Abbot asks Marina to sing. His clear prioritization of propriety over love is reflected in his incessant interruptions in correcting Marina until she finally gives up—no longer wishing to sing the song.
On the official website, Marina shares some of her thoughts about the experience and she makes the suggestion that she was regarded as an object of sexual desire. But I believe that such a passionate reaction implies a warmth not consistent with his personality. In 1949, Abbot did solicit the participation of women to engage in erotic photography, but whatever emotional stirrings that may have implied were converted to cold fascination by the time Marina came along.
All told, I don't believe most of the superficial observations made in this case have been especially insightful. Certainly, I am glad that many women have been able to come forward with their stories and take solace that their experiences were not unique or mere figments of their imagination. And I am glad that skeptics have come forward to caution us about the dangers of attributing sinister intent on Abbot's part. Dysfunctional families exist and the peculiarities of their members can be expressed in bizarre and unhealthy ways. It also makes for an intriguing story to tell and I only hope that Marina can find a kind of emotional closure for herself that will give her some freedom from the shackles of her past.
The Marina Experiment: Part 1 (Marina's original intent was to produce three parts)
Marina Lutz interview
2012 Commentary on The Novel Activist
This entry was posted in Documentary, Film, Video & TV, Lutz, Abbot, Lutz, Marina, Photography, Realism and tagged Abuse, Parent and Child, Portrait by Ron. Bookmark the permalink.
2 thoughts on "He Killed the Song: The Marina Experiment"
Thomas on November 17, 2014 at 10:55 am said:
There's an abusive case where the woman concerned wrote a book, which I would hope provided some kind of redemption, as it seemed from reading it, its Tiger, Tiger by Margaux Fragoso, she clearly has some writing talent and was able to channel her energies into understanding what happened and hopefully distancing herself from the past. Do you know of it?
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10391956-tiger-tiger
Christian on November 24, 2014 at 1:24 pm said:
A humorous review of "Tiger, Tiger" by Tom O'Carroll:
http://www.sexarchive.info/BIB/FragosoRev.htm
eighteen − nine =


IPL– The torchbearer for sports and players.
My 6 year old son is a cricket lover – plays, watches and talks about cricket a lot. We were watching Big Bash League match few days back and he asked me about the teams and players. I told him it's the Australian IPL and he straight away asked what are the cities and their … Continue reading IPL– The torchbearer for sports and players.