1. I hear your name everywhere. I don't even know how many songs I've heard where the singer yells "Batule". I imagine your collaborations are too many to give us a complete list, but can you give us some examples of the artists with whom you've recorded?
Los 4, La Charanga Habanera, JG, Marvin Freddy & Kayanco, Tania Pantoja, El Rival, Dayran, Mayco D' Alma, Mandy & Yeni (Van Van), Laritza Bacallao, El Yonki, Caribe Girls, Arlenis, Manolin El Medico de la Salsa and La Diosa and many more.
2. If I ask you to name the style of music you do - what genre is it?
I like to make all kinds of music it's just that Timba mixed with Reggaeton is what shaped me. You could call it timbaton.
3. Tell us about your background and how you started working as a DJ.
First, let me emphasize that I am a music producer, well, sometimes it is called DJ, although I also was that for a while. From childhood music always attracted me a lot because I grew up in a totally musical family. And at the age of 17 I had my first computer and started to insert myself in this world of production. Initially with few resources, but always trying to improve myself and give the best of me.
4. Are there people who helped you when you started?
Yes, I received the help of three key people. First my father, who was sound engineer for all the leading orchestras of Cuba and I always sent its audio expertise that have helped me at all times. Later Lemay, violinist of Real Jalisco, who taught me how to produce and work with the music digitally. And mainly Tirso Duarte, an excellent Cuban musician who taught me much of his musical knowledge and opened the doors to the basics of this very complicated genre that is Timba. I am forever grateful to them.
5. Is it difficult on the island for a new DJ to have all conditions for work - programs, computers and other tools of the trade?
Yes it is, because there is no market to buy all the necessary equipment. I have to rely on international tours to little by little buy the work tools that I can't find on the island.
6. What are your musical influences ?
I listen to a lot of American music : ballads, R'n'B , Pop, Soul. But also diverse genres. I think there is something to learn from everything. Music is very rich in its diversity both harmonic and percussive and there are thousands of resources from which one learns , especially the old music , which is where mostly find my ideas, because I think that is the root of all modern music.
7. With whom and where did you your first recordings ?
My first recordings were in my house. I had a semi-studio in my room . The first group for which I did an album was called Cuarta Dimensión a Fusion group back then.
8. How does it work when you make a new song? Do you work with the artist from the beginning or do they come to you with a melody and arrangement already done?
A little of both. It depends on the artist. Some prefer to be with me throughout the process, as they have their own ideas and we try to understand each other well to reach an agreement on the arrangement. And others give me the idea and let me have me free rein, as I say, to do my own thing. Hahaha.
9. Do you sometimes to go to an artist with an idea for a project?
I've been thinking about it but I haven't had time. I would like to so do it since it is like founding something. It is also a good thing, because in Cuba there's a huge reservoir of talent and there are many young groups or soloists who are starting out and have very good abilities, and to produce them would be great.
10. Do you think you have a hallmark; that fans hear a song and recognize - that's Batule? Or it is that each artist has his own style and you adapt the work to the style of the artist?
I think so. I try to set a standard in my music. People always recognize my hallmark. And as for working with several artists, I try to create for each of them their own hallmark in a clear and equitable way; a little of me and a little of them.
11. What is the role of the DJ in contemporary dance music?
I think they play a very important role. Current music is very full of electronic effects produced by DJs. In their hands lie the musical arrangement, rhythm, groove, flavor, in short, everything that is in the music. The chemistry between the DJ and the artist is very important. The more chemistry, the better their work turns out.
12. Tell us about the current tour.
We are now finishing our third tour of Peru, where everything went wonderfully and we received once again the support and love of this country that we love, and that is a faithful defender of Cuban music and a huge source of musicians. Later we have the tour of the USA.
13. Are there any new projects already planned for 2015?
Sure, this never stops. We just finished our last album "Privilegio" and we are already making another album. Many future tours and a lot of work throughout the island.
14. Now that Cuba and the United States are taking steps to normalize relations what are your hopes for the spread and development of Cuban music?
If things progress well in terms of negotiations Cuba and the United States I think it would greatly enhance the cultural sector of the island. In many ways it contributes to improved promotional work mainly on the music of our country. I think it would open a door to a market like ours which is so necessary will expand more and more, but the fact remains that we have not always managed to make our music known worldwide. But it would be very helpful to open that door.
15. Is there any artist from the US with whom you would like to work?
I would say it would be a pleasure to work with any of them. It would be a very good experience for me.
Thanks for giving us your time and good luck with all your project.


text:
Catholic Memorial
Kettle Moraine
Waukesha North
Waukesha South
Waukesha West
Capitol-North
Capitol-South
Dunn-St. Croix
Milwaukee City-Martin
Milwaukee City-Zussman
Six Rivers - Eastern
Six Rivers - Western
Trailways-South
Trailways-West
Woodland-East
Woodland-West
Central Lakeshore
Dunn-St. Croix-Small
Eastern Valley
Trailways-East
Seasons Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season Regular Season
Mikhaela Strasser 1 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .333 .333 .000 0.333 0 0 0
Briana Konitzer 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 .000 0.667 0 0 0
Jenna Seidl 1 5 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .400 .400 .000 0.400 0 0 0
Ally Helm 1 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500 .500 1.000 0 0 0
B Savin 1 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .667 .667 .000 0.667 0 0 0
Erin Powers 1 4 0 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .750 .750 .500 1.250 0 0 0
3 Bailey Beverage 5 16 4 11 2 4 0 1 14 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 .688 .688 .875 1.562 0 0 0
Ryann Chatham 5 15 3 11 3 1 2 0 11 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 .733 .733 .733 1.467 0 0 0
Hailey Brodhagen 6 19 7 11 2 0 1 5 25 0 0 13 0 0 0 0 0 .579 .579 1.316 1.895 0 0 0
Payton Savatski 2 0 2 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0.00 0 8 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0.89
3 Bailey Beverage 4 0 1 0 0 0 19 17 0 0 0.00 0 16 0 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 1.74
Jenna Seidl 11 3 8 0 0 0 64 2 0 0 0.00 0 25 0 35 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0.42
Ryann Chatham 3 11 2 7 2 0 1 0 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .636 .636 .455 1.091 0 0 0
Hailey Brodhagen 4 11 5 7 0 0 1 3 15 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 .636 .636 1.364 2.000 0 0 0
3 Bailey Beverage 4 13 4 8 2 2 0 1 10 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 .615 .615 .769 1.385 0 0 0
3 Bailey Beverage 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0.00 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 0.25

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Children have served as squaddies all through historical past. They fought within the American Revolution, the Civil battle, and in either international wars. They served as uniformed infantrymen, camouflaged insurgents, or even suicide bombers. certainly, the 1st U.S. soldier to be killed through antagonistic fireplace within the Afghanistan battle used to be shot in ambush through a fourteen-year-old boy.
Does this suggest that kid infantrymen are aggressors? Or are they sufferers? it truly is a tricky query without noticeable solution, but lately the appropriate solution between humanitarian businesses and modern students has been resoundingly the latter. those youngsters are usually visible as in particular hideous examples of grownup felony exploitation.
In this provocative publication, David M. Rosen argues that this reaction tremendously oversimplifies the kid soldier challenge. Drawing on 3 dramatic examples-from Sierra Leone, Palestine, and japanese Europe in the course of the Holocaust-Rosen vividly illustrates this debatable view. In each one case, he indicates that kids usually are not continuously passive sufferers, yet frequently make the rational determination that now not combating is worse than struggling with.
With a serious eye to overseas legislation, Armies of the younger urges readers to reassess the placement of kid fighters in mild of situation and background earlier than adopting uninformed baby protectionist perspectives. within the procedure, Rosen paints a memorable and unsettling photograph of the function of kids in overseas conflicts.
Greater than twelve million immigrants, lots of them young ones, gone through Ellis Island's gates among 1892 and 1954. childrens additionally got here during the "Guardian of the Western Gate," the penal complex on Angel Island in California that was once designed to maintain chinese language immigrants out of the USA.
Bridging the distance among reviews oriented round parenthood and people at the 'globalization' of adolescence, Parenting After the Century of the kid offers a well timed intervention to the scholarship. It explores intensive negotiations of traveling beliefs on adolescence, displaying the ability of institutional implementations that have an effect on parenting practices.
Through concerning kids as actors and carrying out empirical learn on children's enterprise, youth stories have won major impact on quite a lot of various educational disciplines. This has made supplier one of many key options of early life reviews, with articles at the topic featured in handbooks and encyclopaedias.
CHERISHING all of the young children both? kids IN eire a hundred YEARS ON FROM THE EASTER emerging brings jointly contributions from a variety of disciplines to make clear the tactics of kid improvement and to enquire how that improvement is encouraged by way of numerous demographic, familial and socio-economic components.


I don't know about you, but I am ready for the kids to head back to school. I think they are ready too, but it's also got me thinking about fun lunch ideas for kids for the first day of school. Every year I send the kids to school with something fun and unique, becasue it helps brighten their day, and for the younger kids it really puts them on the "cool" chart, lol. It's funny, but every year Vayda looks forward to the first day of school becasue I surprise her with a cool lunch. I don't let her look at it, she has to wait until she opens her lunchbox at school.
I hope you like these super cute, totally fun lunch ideas for kids.
Toy Story Alien Bento Box – Doesn't this look like a fun lunch idea for kids. Whether it's at school or home, it's totally looks super fun! You can learn more here.
PB & J Blossom Sandwiches – don't they look so pretty! I made some of these last year for my daughter. She started to love PB & J sandwiches all over again. It's amazing what a little cute food will do for a kids lunch, lol. Learn more here on Spoonful.com.
Sill Face Sandwich – How does one not love these silly faces, espeically for lunch. Learn more here.
Grapefruit Gals – How do you not eat all your fruits with this fun gal helping make things fun! Learn more here.
Candy Apple Cookie Pops – Whoever takes these fun pops to school will have the coolest lunch in school. I wonder if the kids will even notice that it's healthy too? Learn more and find more fun lunch ideas for kids by clicking here.
Butterfly Garden Bento Box – This is almost, and I did say almost too pretty to eat. Without a doubt my kids would love this, and think they were the coolest thing since cookies taking this lunch to school. Again, it's healthy! Yepie, learn more here.
Sandwich Art – Who ever said you couldn't play with your food? Send the kids back-to-school with this awesome sandwich! Why not add a fun twist, and let them create their own masterpiece with fun food coloring paint on a bread canvas. Learn more here.
Thumper's Wrap Sandwich – Who doesn't love Thumper, that awesome rabbit! Lunch is always more fun when Disney's character likes Bambi's buddy Thumber makes an appearance in their lunch box. It sure would be a fun surprise for your child to open it up and find an awesome lunch like this inside. Learn more on Family.Disney.com.
Kermit's Green Apples with Peanut Butter Dip – Oh yea, everyone loves that silly Kermit the frog! Why not add Kermit, with some yummy peanut butter to your kids lunch! It sure would be fun, learn more here.
Phineas and Ferb Bento Box – My kids love the fabulous Phineas and Ferb. Without a doubt they would love to rock this Phineas and Ferb Bento Box their first day of school. Okay, 2nd, 123rd, or even at home, it wouldn't matter they would love this. Learn more here.
Scooter Snacks Recipe – Perfect afterschool snack for kids, especially on those day you have a little extra free time to have fun. They are cute, fun, and healthy you can never go wrong! Learn more on TasteofHome.com.
The Elvis Burrito – This just looks yummy! Peanut butter on a yummy toasted whole-wheat wrap, sprinkle with bacon and drizzle with honey! Oh, and don't forget the banana! Learn more on bonappetit.com.
Fruit Leather Roll-Ups – My mom used to make us fruit roll-ups, and man they are yummy homemade. I think I'll hand on to this recipes, or grab moms and make some for the kids! They'll love it for sure. You can learn more on FoodNetwork.com.
More Flowers – Another cute lunch idea for kids. You can learn more on bento-logy.blogspot.com.
Giraffe Sandwich – Who doesn't want to eat an awesome sandwich like this one. Learn more on FunkyLunch.com.
Chicken and Chips Butterfly Snack – Isn't it cute? I know my kids would get a kick out of this fun chicken and chips butterfly for lunch. You can learn more on HungryHappenings.com.
Shark On my Plate – OMG, I want a shark on my plate! What a creative lunch idea for the kids. Whether it's at school or home, here is another great idea. You can learn more on LittleFoodJunction.com.
Pretty As a Peacock – Is another bright idea from canadianfamily.ca.
Ladybug B.L.T. Sandwich – Another fun lunch idea for kids from canadianfamily.ca.
Flying Falafel Saucer Sandwich – This idea is super cute, and it sure makes eating something healthy a lot more fun. Learn more at Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons.
Back to School Bento Lunch – The last of our fun lunch ideas roundup, but it's a good one to end with. How much fun is this lunch? Swing by Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons for more great ideas.
All these fun back to school lunch ideas has me chomping at the big to share a few fun Halloween snack ideas I have this year, but I will wait. There is no need to rush things, time goes by fast enough.
Whether you are looking for fun ideas for back to school lunches, or you just want something fun for the kids around the house these are some of our lunch ideas for kids. There are some pretty fun lunch ideas for kids, and we sure hope you found one that your kids will love!
Don't forget Albertsons has a HUGE Sale going on until August 13th 2014! You'll be able to get all sorts of back-to-school and at home lunch goodies for the kids. You can learn more about the huge sale by visiting Albertsons.com.
Don't Miss Your Chance To Enter To #Win A Laptop!


text:
Difference between revisions of "User talk:Lcarsos"
Revision as of 04:00, 14 December 2012 (edit)
Waldir (talk | contribs)
(→Blocking IPs: oops)
Revision as of 15:26, 21 December 2012 (edit) (undo)
Jerodast (talk | contribs)
(Wondering about Cueball in the Stick Figure article)
:: I see. Personally, I consider disabling anonymous editing as somehow admitting defeat (assuming bad faith by default) but maybe [[mw:Extension:SpamBlacklist]] could help. It uses a very extensive list maintained at meta.wikimedia.org. Do you think it could prevent spam rampages such as the last one? Otherwise, we could try some of the approaches listed at [[mw:Manual:Combating spam]] and [[mw:Anti-spam features]]. I am inclined towards more automatic methods, as most of those would require Jeff to edit the server, so a one-time config thing (using lists updates elsewhere) would be best. Thoughts? --[[User:Waldir|Waldir]] ([[User talk:Waldir|talk]]) 03:58, 14 December 2012 (UTC)
== [[Stick figure]] linking to [[Cueball]] ==
Hey there. Do you mind explaining why you reverted my comment on the Stick figure page? (that sounds like "argh how dare you do that" - not my intention, just looking to understand, since there was no explanation given in the changelog.) My thought was that "Stick figure" is a page discussing the art style that Randall uses for his characters. In such a page, it seemed appropriate to mention the one character that is the most representative of the "classic stick figure" (Cueball). I thought I added that sentence in a way that fit naturally with the rest of the text. Please let me know what the issues are so I can work on them. Thanks. [[User:Jerodast|- jerodast]] ([[User talk:Jerodast|talk]]) 15:26, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
1 Moved discussion
2 Ruby Importer
2.1 Multi-file Generation
3 Removing Erroneous Categories
4 LCARS
5 Double redirect
6 To the human behind the curtain
7 Congrats on becoming Admin
8 Category:Comic images
9 Captchas
10 Deletion
11 Patrolling
12 Blocking IPs
13 Stick figure linking to Cueball
Moved discussion
Hi, just to let you know that I move the thread you started to explain xkcd:Community portal/Admin requests. Cheers, --Waldir (talk) 10:33, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
Ruby Importer
For discussion of the Ruby Import assistant. Please create subsections for each item.
Multi-file Generation
I assume that ./importer.rb 100{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} would also work? Blaisepascal (talk) 02:08, 26 August 2012 (UTC)
I hadn't even thought of that. I'll try it and report back as soon as I get home after work. lcarsos (talk) 16:18, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
It'll work; it's not a Ruby thing, it's a Borne Shell thing. When the Borne Shell does wild-card expansion, it generates all alternatives enclosed in braces. So "echo 1{2,3,4,5}" is equivalent to "echo 12 13 14 15". I've been known to do things like echo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9}{0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9} 100 to list all numbers between 1 and 100. Blaisepascal (talk) 16:34, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
I just ssh'd into a linux box, and yes that will work. But I still prefer using seq 1 100, much easier to type. lcarsos (talk) 17:17, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
Removing Erroneous Categories
It seems to me that if you are removing the same "erroneous" category from three comics that all refer to the same thing (like Wikipedia) that perhaps a bit more explanation needs to be made as to why the category is erroneous. Blaisepascal (talk) 21:32, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
I was going through categories, and it looked like someone had started to tag any page that had a link to Wikpedia. I was putting a stop to it.
But now that you've elevated this to conscious level, it might be that 2 of the pages were tagged Wikipedia because the theme of the comic was Wikipedia. The first one that caught my eye, 548: Kindle, merely had the word Wikipedia, that one to me seems that it was incorrectly categorized. The other two, now that I think about it, would make sense if we're categorizing comics by theme. I'll go back, make restitution, and fix 739: Malamanteau and 214: The Problem with Wikipedia, and undo changes to the Wikipedia category. Thanks for keeping me honest.
lcarsos (talk) 21:49, 27 August 2012 (UTC)
LCARS
Saw this and thought of you: http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/12/star-trek-padd-app-is-a-lcars-sporting-trekkies-reference-bible/
Okay, first, I'd like to thank you for showing this to me. I'm always interested to see anything Star Trek related. Always. There should never be a Trek-less day, for anyone, ever. But, now, you've opened a can of worms so now I get to do a little bit of ranting.
With a few exceptions, anything "official" that Paramount/CBS Paramount/CBS commissions to be made based on Star Trek is crap. This is one of those things. The interface, while reminiscent of, and is close enough to scare away the children, is a tragedy that shouldn't have the privilege of being able to call itself "official" or "LCARS". The color scheme is vomitous, every color that could have been put into the interface is there, as opposed to the restrained every-color-represents-a-function style that is shown in the show. About the one thing they got correct is the use of the LCARS font. Other than that, the font is too large in every instance. The font should be bottom-right aligned, and there should be a generous amount of padding except for the bottom-right corner. And, except for actual paragraph text, everything should be all-caps.
They also got the elbos (the bits that change from vertical UI to horizontal and vice versa) wrong. The curves aren't skewed like that. A quick look at the fan-made LCARS Standards website would have showed them the correct way to build an elbo. Or, *GASP* they could ask Michael Okuda to consult on the project.
Final UI complaint: What is that panel on the bottom doing? You mean that the people that made this app completely missed the idea of the LCARS UI and just have a panel at the bottom with skinned buttons that take you to the main sections of the app? Also, don't mix the butt-ended buttons with the fully rounded buttons. Just don't. Someone should have slapped you in art school for doing that.
From reviews of the app in iTunes, it looks like the app isn't even fully baked. The database isn't full, just has entries for the popular characters and ships. This should be a front end for Memory-Alpha, but you'd have to do some work to strip out all the wikia bs.
Finally, still iOS only? It's apparently been out for a year, and been updated once, in October, 2011. Was this a one-off, did CBS hire Random Company LLC to "Make a thing for the hip kids, with the iPads and the what-not" pay them to get the app out the door, kept them for a month to fix bugs and then fired them? Have we heard of Android? Is this the 90s when developers had to pick between developing for Windows 95 or Mac OS 8?
Why is this catastrophe $5? There's obviously no development work going on, CBS makes bank off of the DVDs and other crap merchandise they sell (why are there no officially licensed replica isolinear chips?). This is pure, simple corporate greed.
Sorry for the rant, I get angry when my favorite things are mistreated. lcarsos (talk) 17:05, 10 September 2012 (UTC)
Double redirect
You're right. I knew there had been a reason I didn't do that for the first pile of comics I created. That's for reminding me. TheHYPO (talk) 21:37, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
Yep. lcarsos (talk) 21:38, 13 September 2012 (UTC)
To the human behind the curtain
Moved conversation to the correct talk page
Congrats on becoming Admin
Looks like my days of 700+ changes per month are a thing of the past! (What will I ever do with all the free time now? Edit, perhaps? ;-) -- IronyChef (talk) 06:32, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
Grazie. I noticed Jeff do a little bit of work, and then go silent. So, I hoped that I could catch him with a tab still open pointing out our plight. It looks like it worked! Also, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't in part because you started that daily counter of edits on your user page. lcarsos_a (talk) 06:40, 14 November 2012 (UTC)
Minor thing; do it too if you want to. When deleting spam pages, I "[omitted]" any link that appeared in the deletion comment, just so it doesn't even show up in the logs. -- IronyChef (talk) 06:50, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
I keep forgetting. Sorry about that. lcarsos_a (talk) 13:16, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
Looks like you registered your account just two days before I I went on a hiatus for a while, so I'm afraid we never got a chance to interact much. Although away from editing, I've been following the wiki activity through RSS, so I'm aware of the huge amount of work you've put in, which I appreciate. And of course, I take the opportunity to congratulate you on earning your admin "badge". Cheers! --Waldir (talk) 17:05, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
Thanks! I seem to have started contributing at the moment when everyone else went on hiatus. It got very quiet for a while, but it seems like it's coming back alive. lcarsos_a (talk) 18:28, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
Category:Comic images
Hi Lcarsos. I noticed you categorized two images in Category:Comic images. I am actually using the ones that aren't categorized yet as a todo list of those which haven't been moved to the original filenames (lowercase). If you categorize more images, please make sure to also move them to the lowercase filename, and fix the redirect from the filename with only the first character uppercased. That is: there are typically 3 file pages for every comic: file_name.png, File_Name.png and File_name.png, with the first and third redirecting to the middle one, and the end result shoudl be the second and third redirecting to the first. I hope this isn't confusing :) --Waldir (talk) 18:30, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
Sorry about that. I saw that BPothier uncategorized those two, but when I looked at them I saw they were redirection pages, and when I checked a few other images I saw the category was on the images. I thought I would be helpful and put the category on the File page instead of undoing the change on the redirect page. Sorry to be a nuisance. lcarsos_a (talk) 18:36, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
Not at all :) You acted in a perfectly reasonable way. In fact I missed the fact that you were actually moving a category from a redirect to the real image, which makes perfect sense. I am the one using the uncategorized files list as a personal todo list, in clear unorthodox fashion :P --Waldir (talk) 04:29, 23 November 2012 (UTC)
Captchas
I believe there's an option to force all users of a certain group to take the captcha when editing. Could you change the captcha settings to force all anonymous users to pass one to edit? This is getting stupid. Davidy22(talk) 07:14, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
First off, this is a request for Waldir. I have no idea what I'm doing. Second, I've looked at the captcha pages in MediaWiki's manual, and it looks like I don't have the rights to do that, it would have to be someone who can edit the php files to change that over (*ahem* Jeff). Third, I've clicked on every link in Special:SpecialPages and I don't see anywhere that I can change that. I wish I could. Fourth, I am sick and tired of all this spam!!!!! lcarsos_a (talk) 08:12, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
I'm sure you only overlooked this because of being busy fighting huge amounts of spam, but there was actually some valid history behind explain xkcd:Community portal/Design, which I just restored (I left the spam edits under the carpet, though). It's not a huge deal, and as you can see, it's easily reversible, but it's generally nice to preserve page histories for archival reasons. Also, please comment on explain xkcd:Community portal/Technical#We need more maintainers when you have the chance. Cheers, Waldir (talk) 17:50, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
Oops, again. I don't know if it was a case of unfortunate blindness, or I was too far into spam fighting that I simply deleted it. Sorry about that. lcarsos_a (talk) 20:35, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
Patrolling
Hi, Lcarsos. I think this might be useful for you since you're doing so much work on spam fighting: mw:Help:Patrolled edits. I asked Jeff to change the wiki configuration so that edits by "auto-confirmed" users will be automatically patrolled. This means the feature should be more useful from now on. Let me know if it helps. Cheers, Waldir (talk) 21:28, 25 November 2012 (UTC)
Edits from logged in people are still showing as un-patrolled. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. There are several editors that have created accounts that I'm not quite ready to blanket state that every edit they make are perfectly good. I think that if we had more people that were patrolling pages and edits the feature would be more useful. But, since it's just me going through and occasionally remembering to mark a page as patrolled, it's not very useful as I can generally remember where I've perused through. I think if we got Davidy22 rights to patrol edits too, I think that would push it over the mark into useful territory. lcarsos_a (talk) 21:43, 29 November 2012 (UTC)
Jeff just enabled the tweaks to the autopatrolling feature as I asked him to. I know we can't immediately trust every edit a recent user does, but I find that well-intentioned mistakes (which we all make btw) are much easier to fix, and overall less harmful than spam/vandalism. Right now the threshold for autopatrolling is at 3 days of age and 10 edits (both conditions have to be met). We can tweak that if we decide different values would work better, but I am assuming that spammers and otherwise malicious editors would be caught and blocked before that. I intend to use the following links to help weed out the bad stuff from the wiki:
Unpatrolled changes by registered users
Unpatrolled changes by anonymous users
Of course, only edits from now on will apply the new parameters, so older edits by (non-admin) trusted editors still show as unpatrolled. But from now on it will probably make sifting the recent changes a little easier, since we can now filter out edits that we don't have to worry much about, leaving only new users and anonymous ones, the groups spammers/vandals are most likely to belong to.
Also, I agree that Davidy22 could have patrolling rights by now. I am liberal about adminship, so I'd suggest we ask Jeff to "promote" him, as that would do it.
Cheers, Waldir (talk) 03:33, 4 December 2012 (UTC)
Blocking IPs
I don't think anonymous vandals should be blocked indefinitely. IPs are generally not static so we might end up preventing someone from doing a legitimate contribution, while the spammer will likely not use that particular IP for very long. I suggest changing all IP blocks to have a finite expiration date, say a week, or a month. What do you think? --Waldir (talk) 15:55, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
I don't think that would be a good idea. Our second great spam bout was caused by the 1 month block that SlashMe placed on the IPs of a foregone spam attack expired, and suddenly all those computers had access to edit the wiki again. In theory IPs are not static, but the home I live in right now has had the same IP address since I moved in, and that's even with hard resetting the modem about weekly as Comcast fails to bond their channels together, and I suspect most ISPs work that way.
Maybe we could try an experiment where we let all the blocks expire and see what happens. But, I do not want that to be anywhere near any holiday, or major event, or major xkcd comic post (see Click and Drag or Congress) as it would be nearly impossible to hand pick out the good from the spam.
I do understand that theoretically, if this goes on eventually we'll have blocked the whole internet from editing the wiki. We need a better way to lock this down. A lot of the wikis I've looked at disallow editing from anonymous users (See the Valve Developer wiki and the Kerbal Space Program wiki, this would cut down on about half the spam, and then we need a better way to stop the bots from registering accounts, somehow both the VDC and KSP wiki don't have any spam activity (creation or clean-up) for the past few days, we're obviously doing something wrong, but I have no idea what. We may be more popular than the KSP wiki, but certainly we aren't more popular than Valve's own wiki. lcarsos_a (talk) 17:14, 11 December 2012 (UTC)
I see. Personally, I consider disabling anonymous editing as somehow admitting defeat (assuming bad faith by default) but maybe mw:Extension:SpamBlacklist could help. It uses a very extensive list maintained at meta.wikimedia.org. Do you think it could prevent spam rampages such as the last one? Otherwise, we could try some of the approaches listed at mw:Manual:Combating spam and mw:Anti-spam features. I am inclined towards more automatic methods, as most of those would require Jeff to edit the server, so a one-time config thing (using lists updates elsewhere) would be best. Thoughts? --Waldir (talk) 03:58, 14 December 2012 (UTC)
Stick figure linking to Cueball
Hey there. Do you mind explaining why you reverted my comment on the Stick figure page? (that sounds like "argh how dare you do that" - not my intention, just looking to understand, since there was no explanation given in the changelog.) My thought was that "Stick figure" is a page discussing the art style that Randall uses for his characters. In such a page, it seemed appropriate to mention the one character that is the most representative of the "classic stick figure" (Cueball). I thought I added that sentence in a way that fit naturally with the rest of the text. Please let me know what the issues are so I can work on them. Thanks. - jerodast (talk) 15:26, 21 December 2012 (UTC)
Retrieved from "https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Lcarsos&oldid=23321"


tzinfo is an abstract base clase, meaning that this class should not be instantiated directly. You need to derive a concrete subclass, and (at least) supply implementations of the standard tzinfo methods needed by the datetime methods you use. The datetime module does not supply any concrete subclasses of tzinfo.
time and datetime objects support a %f format code which expands to the number of microseconds in the object, zero-padded on the left to six places.
When used with the strptime() function, the %f directive accepts from one to six digits and zero pads on the right. %f is an extension to the set of format characters in the C standard.


Near Zennor Head, Penwith, Cornwall, a few miles along the coast west of St Ives. I never seem to tire of painting this dramatic rocky coastline. 20cm square oil painting on canvas board.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Art, Cornwall, Marine painting., Oil painting, painting, St Ives, Zennor. Bookmark the permalink.
No, you could never tire of that . A wonderful place.


text:
By Global Policy Forum and partners
"We go out and kill these people… I define success as continuing to kill the enemy …"
- US Marine Captain Andrew del Gaudio [1]
In the counter-insurgency campaign, US Coalition commanders have established very permissive "rules of engagement" to insure a swift and unhesitating use of force and to minimize Coalition casualties. At checkpoints and roadblocks, during house-searches and other operations, these rules allow troops to open fire with little hesitation or restraint. Commanders have seen the killing of Iraqi non-combatants in the course of military operations as regrettable but unavoidable "collateral damage." This environment of extreme violence has produced an increasing number of killings, murders and even atrocities, committed by occupation forces against Iraqi civilians.
Rules of engagement (ROE), drawn up by senior commanders, define when, where and how military personnel can "use force." ROEs may vary from one operation or mission to another.[2] Though set by field commanders, they often require approval at a higher level, including civilian leaders. While ROEs determine when it is generally permissible to shoot – sometimes even at civilians - the final decision to fire is left to the immediate judgment of troops on the ground, influenced by uncertainty, stress, fear, hatred and sometimes inexperience.
In light of the large number of civilian casualties,[3] rules of engagement in Iraq have been subject to much criticism. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch[4] , the American Civil Liberties Union[5] and Amnesty International[6] , have requested that the rules be made public, but ROEs are generally classified or for "limited" distribution only. In a news conference in May 2005, when asked to comment on an incident involving the shooting by a US Marine of a wounded Iraqi insurgent in Falluja, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita answered: "We don't discuss rules of engagement… But [soldiers] have the right of self-defense at all times, and that's a consistent rule of engagement."[7]
While acknowledging the hostile environment in which Coalition forces may operate, Human Rights Watch noted that it "does not absolve the military from its obligations to use force in a restrained, proportionate and discriminate manner, and only when strictly necessary."[8] Evidence suggests that US forces operate under permissive rules and that, in practice, there is further permissiveness in the application of the rules by local commanders and the troops themselves. "Kill counts" and other devices by local commanders encourage competition among soldiers to rack up "enemy kills" and have apparently led to very loose standards of restraint.[9] The result has been a rapid "escalation of force" by troops under diverse circumstances, leading to large numbers of civilian casualties.
Roadblocks & Checkpoints
Iraqi children cry after their parents were killed when US troops opened fire on their car as it approached a checkpoint in Tal Afar. Photo credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
From the very beginning of the occupation, there have been excessive and unnecessary deaths at military checkpoints.[10] Civilian casualties occur even at stable and well-defined checkpoints. But most risky are those checkpoints that are set up in ways that make them hard for motorists to see in advance – set up temporarily and suddenly, or in unexpected places, or at night, or in bad weather, or on curvy roads with poor visibility. A combination of these factors can be especially lethal. Approaching civilians do not see the checkpoint and learn of it only when they face a hail of bullets or heavy weapon fire. The troops, for their part, see approaching vehicles as a potential threat and tend to open fire upon suspicion, however unfounded.
The soldiers often say they direct their fire at disabling the vehicle, but the record shows that they often fire directly at the driver and passengers, taken (often incorrectly) to be hostile persons. One example is the case of Walid Fayay Mazban, who was driving with his family in Basra in August 2003. It was about 8:30pm and very dark because there was no electricity. The vehicle turned at a junction near a British temporary checkpoint. The soldiers, fearing "suspicious" behavior, shouted "stop" in English. After the vehicle failed to stop and passed through, they shot at it several times from behind. Walid Fayay Mazban did not understand English. He may not even have heard the order. He died from multiple bullet injuries.[11]
The case of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena brought checkpoint violence into broad public view. On March 4, 2005, after Italian intelligence had negotiated her release from abduction, Sgrena was riding in a car to the Baghdad airport with high-ranking Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calpari. As the car approached the airport, the Italian driver alerted US military authorities by phone. But suddenly, as the car rounded a turn, US soldiers at a temporary roadblock opened fire with 50mm machine guns mounted atop Humvee vehicles. The bullets wounded Sgrena and killed Calpari.[12] The incident caused great outcry in Italy, where the government demanded an inquiry. It turned out that the "mobile checkpoint" had been set up because US Ambassador John Negroponte was having dinner with US General George Casey, commander of US forces, somewhere in the neighborhood.[13] US authorities apologized, but blamed the Italians for driving fast, not stopping, and not providing enough information about their whereabouts.[14] The Italians said they were going no more than 25 miles per hour, did not see the checkpoint until it was too late, and had kept authorities fully posted.[15] Even though none of the official procedures for warnings on the road had been followed, US commanders exonerated the soldiers involved. The incident was widely covered in the press and heavy criticism continued for weeks. Other journalists and media workers have been injured or killed in checkpoint incidents.
Human Rights Watch issued a statement highly critical of checkpoint shootings, saying that many Iraqi civilians and others had died unnecessarily because Coalition forces had failed to take basic precautions.[16] Human rights organizations have urged commanders to reduce these killings by putting out warnings at a distance from the checkpoint – prominent signs in Arabic, physical barriers to force vehicles to slow down such as speed bumps and rubber cones, bright lights and lines in the road.[17] Warning shots, the human rights experts have pointed out, are ineffective and dangerous, because they are sometimes mistaken as hostile fire, causing drivers to accelerate. US commanders adopted many of the suggestions for improved procedures, but the procedures have rarely been implemented on the ground.[18] Checkpoint killings have continued, and many cases have been reported in the press.[19]
US Marines kick in a door of a house. Photo credit: Airman 1st Class Kurt Gibbons/USAF
House-searches
US Coalition forces routinely carry out house-searches, in pursuit of insurgent fighters and weapons caches. They often use disproportionately violent methods to break into houses, such as shooting door locks, placing a bomb or hand grenade outside the door and battering down front walls with army vehicles.[20] During the first two months of Operation Together Forward, US and Iraqi forces damaged "more than 1,100 doors, 35 windows and 1,350 locks" in Baghdad.[21] The searches that follow entry into the house are very tense and orders may be shouted in English which family members do not understand. Troops may follow a procedure known as "prepping a room" in which they toss a hand grenade into a room prior to a search or spray the room with gunfire.[22] Such methods have killed many civilians, including women and children. [23] In Haditha, two house-searches resulted in the death of fifteen civilians.[24] Sometimes, troops may simply consider a house to be a "free-fire zone" and commanders may give orders to "shoot first and ask questions later."[25]
Patrols
During patrols, Coalition forces regularly fire on innocent Iraqis, fearful that they might be insurgents. According to a BBC interview with an Iraqi witness, US patrols have shot and killed many civilians "by accident."[26] Citing several examples from Anbar Province, the man claims that "nearly 100 people have died in this way over the past year."[27] According to estimates by the Iraqi Police in Baghdad, US forces killed 33 unarmed civilians and injured 45 in the capital alone, between May 1 and July 12, 2005.[28]
Under constant fear of being ambushed, troops tend to shoot first. Military convoys constantly patrol the streets. Each convoy has a soldier ready to activate his gun from the roof of the humvee, in case a car comes closer than 100 yards. In June 2005, Salah Jmor arrived in Baghdad with his brother to visit his family. As he was driving, he did not see a US military convoy entering the highway. Suddenly, he collapsed after being shot by a single bullet in the head. His brother claims that there was no signal to slow down and that they did not hear any warning shot.[29] This type of incidents is not rare in Iraq. Iraqis complain that they often do not understand signs or do not see them until it is too late and the shooting has already begun.
During routine foot patrols at night, troops are even more nervous about potential car or road bombs. After curfew, they stop all vehicles by shouting words in English and firing a warning shot. But often, the drivers do not see them in the dark, and do not understand the calls, if they can hear them at all. If cars fail to stop, troops fire waves of bullets, often wounding the driver and passengers. In January 2005, a case gruesomely documented by photojournalist Chris Hondros, US troops during a routine foot patrol fired on an approaching vehicle carrying an Iraqi family. A US soldier shouted "Stop that car!" Simultaneously another soldier fired warning shots. But the car did not stop immediately. A few seconds later, waves of bullets hit the car until it stopped. Six children emerged from the vehicle. The two parents were dead.[30]
Walking is not safer than driving at night. In one case documented by Amnesty International, two men left their home in al-Majdiyeh, and went in the street to find out what was happening after hearing gunfire at night. A few minutes later, they were both dead, mistakenly shot by a British patrol. One of the men was hit by seven bullets in his chest and stomach. The other took five bullets in the right arm, the right leg, the chest and lower body. "I am sorry. There was a mistake. I apologize," said a soldier to the father of one of the men. "It was dark. One colleague was in a hurry. I am sorry..."[31]
The US is increasingly resorting to air strikes against insurgents in Iraq, to minimize US casualties and lower the risks involved in ground operations. According to military figures, the number of air strikes rose from 25 in January to 120in November 2005.[32] While the US Air Force claims to operate with sophisticated, precision guided munitions to avoid civilian casualties, many innocents have died during air operations in residential neighborhoods.
In November 2005, the Coalition carried out an air offensive in Anbar Province. The US did not assess civilian causalities, but the Washington Post reported that according to eyewitnesses and doctors, many civilians were killed, including children.[33] The same month, Coalition air forces conducted an air strike against "two al-Qaida terrorist safe houses" in al-Qaim. While the military claimed to be acting on multiple intelligence sources, the UN Integrated Regional Information Network reported that "dozens of civilians including women and children" were killed.[34] In January 2006, US warplanes targeted a farmhouse in Baiji, killing in their sleep nine innocents in a family, including women and children.[35] Despite the large number of civilians killed during air operations, the US military does not count civilian deaths from US attacks, claiming that "investigating deaths caused by any one strike is often impractical in dangerous areas."[36]
Criminal Homicide & Murder
US troops have occasionally committed premeditated murder against Iraqi civilians, in unprovoked situations. Many such murders doubtless escape notice, because they are attributed to "threatening behavior" that the perpetrator alleges came from the victim. Still, a number of cases have now come to light.
Haditha is the most infamous and well publicized case. On November 19, 2005, a squad of US marines went on a rampage after a roadside bomb killed one of their groups. The squad's leader initially killed five unarmed young men who happened onto the scene in a taxi.[37] The marines then raided nearby houses, firing freely and killing civilians, including women and children.[38] Twenty-four Iraqis died in the incident, including ten women and children and an elderly man in a wheelchair.[39] The marines involved have claimed that they were under a concerted attack by insurgents and their lawyers have argued that their action was a "justifiable use of lethal force."[40] But credible evidence suggests that the civilians were all unarmed and that the marines shot the Iraqis in cold blood and then tried to eliminate damaging evidence, including a headquarters log and video from an aerial drone that showed the incident.[41] Like Abu Ghraib, US officials first described the Haditha massacre as an isolated case of misconduct. But the incident led to other revelations about atrocities, showing that it was part of a pattern of extreme and unrestrained violence that was more common among US Coalition troops than had been previously realized.
Mahmoudiya, another massacre, took place on March 12, 2006. Four army soldiers stationed at a checkpoint south of Baghdad had a drinking bout, changed into dark civilian clothes and walked to a close-by Iraqi home inhabited by the al-Janabi family. Leaving one soldier outside to guard the door, the others entered and killed the two parents and a five year old daughter. Two of the soldiers then raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, and then murdered her. The girl's body was found naked and partly burned, evidently in order to destroy the evidence.[42] According to a FBI affidavit filed in the case, the men made advances towards the young woman for a week before the attack.[43] One of the cases, involving Specialist James Barker, has already come to trial and the defendant has pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 90 years in prison. Barker told the court: "To live there, to survive there, I became angry and mean. I loved my friends, my fellow soldiers and my leaders, but I began to hate everyone else in Iraq."[44]
Ishhaqi, another incident, took place on March 15, 2006. US marines attacked a farmhouse, eight miles north of the city of Balad, evidently because of intelligence that an insurgent was inside. Helicopter gunships fired on the house in support of the attackers. Some accounts say that fire was returned from the house, which US forces eventually captured. According to a report by the Iraqi police's Joint Coordination Center, based on a report filed after a local police investigation, US forces entered the house, "gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men. Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals."[45] Among those who died were a 75 year old woman and a six month old child.
Hamdaniya is similarly disturbing. On April 26, 2006, a squad of seven US marines and one navy sailor apparently dragged an innocent, unarmed and disabled Iraqi, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, from his home, bound his hands and feet, and repeatedly shot him at point blank range.[46] The squad had been lying in ambush for someone else and when that person did not appear they devised a plan to kill any Iraqi instead.[47] The men entered Awad's home, dragged him out, shot him repeatedly in the head and chest, and then staged the scene to make it look like Awad had been an insurgent. The men were charged on June 21, 2006 with premeditated murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and making false statements to investigators. One participant, Petty Officer Nelson Bacos, who testified against the others in an early trial, said: "I didn't believe they would carry out a plan like that … there was no justification … I knew what we were doing was wrong." [48]
Military commanders and courts have systematically referred to Haditha and other massacres as isolated cases. But the large number of such incidents suggests that the atrocities are systemic and have arisen from permissive rules of engagement and a broader culture of excessive violence, often condoned by commanders.
In most cases of serious misconduct and murder, soldiers directly involved have tried to cover up the crimes and often commanders have ignored evidence, failed to actively pursue even the most serious cases and made exculpatory public statements. In the case of Haditha, the Marine Corps issued a press release the next day claiming that many of the Iraqis killed had died from the blast of an insurgent bomb, a version contested by witnesses. In spite of the many Iraqi casualties, the company commander did not inspect the site, choosing to rely on the report of the soldiers involved. Subsequently, investigators found that pages were missing from a company logbook that recorded major incidents and a video tape from a drone flying overhead disappeared, suggesting that the perpetrators or those in collusion with them had destroyed or withheld evidence.[49] Those involved in the incident apparently also made misleading statements to investigators and the drone video resurfaced but was not turned over to investigators until after the first major report had been made by a senior general.[50] A marine inquiry determined that "some officers gave false information to their superiors" in the initial follow-up to the case.[51] In a later report, Major General Eldon A. Bargewell found "willful negligence" among Marine officers and "attempts to hide criminal conduct." Senior officers, he concluded, "exhibited a determination to ignore indications of serious misconduct, perhaps to avoid conducting an inquiry that could prove adverse to themselves or their Marines."[52]
As in Mahmudiya where soldiers tried to conceal evidence of the rape and killing of the teenage girl and her family,[53] or in Hamdaniya where the soldiers put an AK-47 automatic rifle next to the man they had murdered to suggest that he was an insurgent,[54] those involved in the Ishaqi murders called in air support to blow up the house. It appears that they hoped that the crime would disappear beneath the rubble.[55] The US command first exonerated the soldiers, saying that three civilians died due to the exchange of fire in a military operation and also due to the collapse of the house which occurred during the combat. The civilian deaths were determined to be "unintentional," and US forces involved in the incident were said to have "followed the rules of engagement."[56] But following complaints by neighbors and local leaders who claimed the soldiers entered the house while it was still standing, the Iraqi police unexpectedly opened an inquiry using a US-trained criminal investigation team that literally dug up the facts from the collapsed house.[57] After examining the bodies, hands bound, all in one room with execution-style bullet holes to the head and spent US cartridges nearby, the investigation concluded that the people had been murdered in cold blood. Eleven, not three, bodies were found in the rubble.[58] Autopsies at Tikrit Hospital confirmed that all the victims had bullet wounds to the head.[59] The BBC has shown a video from an Associated Press cameraman, taken afterwards on the scene, that the BBC concludes provides strong evidence of the atrocity.[60] But the US military has refused to open a case or to investigate further.
In the case of the death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari too, an Italian government report issued on May 3, 2005 criticized the way that evidence of the shooting disappeared. The scene of the incident was not preserved for investigation and the logs of the military unit on the day in question were later destroyed. At the very least, this seemed to be sloppy procedure and at worst the obstruction of justice and the covering up of a crime.[61]
US military authorities, embarrassed by a rash of atrocities, have chosen to back up the official version of the facts, insisting that victims died as collateral damage in military operations. Such cover-ups have kept some cases from public view entirely, and they have diminished the strength of the evidence against the perpetrators of the prosecuted crimes. They have contributed to the dismissals of cases and the very weak sentences that are usually handed down.
The military justice system has acted only very rarely to punish cases of murder and atrocities. Most such cases have never reached the point of a formal charge. Those cases in which a charge has been handed down have usually been dismissed at the preliminary administrative tribunal stage or at the later court martial phase. Or they have been settled at either stage with a very mild rebuke or punishment. Very few charges have included premeditated murder, even in such egregious cases as Haditha.
In late August, 2006, the Washington Post conducted a substantial review of military cases during the period June 2003 to February 2006. The Post report found that out of thousands of Iraqis killed by US soldiers under questionable circumstances, the military justice system prosecuted only a "small portion of the incidents."[62] No homicide prosecutions at all have arisen from shootings at checkpoints and very few high-ranking officials have been charged.
Commanders – in whose hands lies the initial decision to start a criminal investigation against their subordinates - have often failed to investigate Iraqi civilian deaths. They have preferred to consider them as unintended consequence of combat operations and ordered administrative or non-judicial punishments instead. "I think there are a number of cases that never make it to the reporting stage, and in some that do make it to the reporting stage, there has been a reluctance to pursue them vigorously," said Gary Solis, a former Marine prosecutor. "There have been fewer prosecutions in Iraq than one might expect."[63] An army major quoted by the Washington Post concurred: "I think there were many other engagements that should have been investigated, definitely. But no one wanted to look at them or report them high… It was just the way thing worked."[64]
The killing of civilians by US troops has raised anger and outrage among the Iraqi population and has sparked strong statements from Iraqi officials. Asked to comment on the events in Haditha, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called them "totally unacceptable" and qualified US violence against civilians as a "daily phenomenon" in Iraq. He said bluntly that US Coalition troops do not "respect the Iraqi people."[65] After the announcement that a US investigation had cleared troops in the Ishaqi case, the Iraqi government reacted strongly. Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to Prime Minister al-Maliki, said the government would demand an apology from the US and compensation for the victims in several cases.[66]
The small number of convictions has pushed the Iraqi government to question the immunity given to members of Coalition forces since June 2004. Al-Maliki publicly said he believed immunity from Iraqi courts "encouraged [troops] to commit crimes in cold blood."[67] Iraq Human Rights Minister Wigdan Michael concurred, that the US failure to hold soldiers accountable for their crimes had fostered a climate of impunity among troops: "One of the reasons for this is the UN resolution, which gives the multinational force soldiers immunity. Without punishment, you get violations. This happens when there is no punishment."[68] Michael also raised the possibility that Iraq would demand a review of the Multinational Forces' immunity by the UN Security Council.[69]
The United States and its allies claim they do everything in their power to prevent civilian casualties. Yet, there are many accounts of Coalition forces opening fire and killing Iraqi civilians in circumstances where there was no imminent threat of death or injury to the Coalition troops or anyone else. This is in clear breach of international human rights standards relating to the use of force. In many cases of patrols, house searches, and relentless bombing campaigns, military personnel have used lethal force in absolutely unjustified circumstances. Studies of civilian mortality in Iraq suggest that tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed in this way since the occupation began.[70]
Murders and atrocities are the extreme form of the daily deadly violence. In Iraq, where US Coalition forces see every man of military age as a potential fighter, and where fear and anger affect the behavior of troops, events like the Haditha massacre are all too likely to occur. According to US Major General Eldon A. Bargewell, "all levels of command [tend] to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics." "Statements made by the chain of command (…), taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as US lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes," he concluded.[71]
This environment of extreme violence and impunity paves the way for murder, rape and atrocities. These acts are prohibited by The Hague Conventions and the Geneva Conventions and they constitute serious war crimes.
[1] As cited in Dexter Filkins: "In Ramadi, Fetid Quarters and Unrelenting Battles" New York Times. (July 5, 2006)
[2]Chapter 5 of the Operational Law Handbook put out by the Judge Advocate School of the Army
[3]See Chapter 5, section on "mortality."
[4]Human Rights Watch, Hearts and Minds (October, 2003)
[5]American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU to Seek Public Accountability in Haditha Investigations (June 22, 2006)
[6]Amnesty International, Killing of Civilians in Basra and al-Amara (May 14, 2004)
[7]US Department of Defense. News Transcript, Defense Department Regular Briefing with Lawrence Di Rita, Pentagon Spokesman; and Lieutenant General James T. Conway, Director, Operations, Joint Staff (May 5, 2005)
[9]Borzou Daragahi and Julian E. Barnes, "Officers Allegedly Pushed 'Kill Counts'" Los Angeles Times (August 3, 2006)
[10]See, for example, Human Rights Watch, Hearts and Minds (October, 2003), Human Rights Watch, US Checkpoints Continue to Kill (May, 2005) and "Joint Letter from Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists to Secretary Rumsfeld" (June 17, 2005).
[11]Amnesty International, Killing of Civilians in Basra and al-Amara (May 14, 2004)
[12] "Hostage Recounts US Shooting" CNN (March 6, 2005)
[13]Christopher Dickey: "Reality Checkpoints" Newsweek (March 11, 2005)
[14]Declassified US Report
[15]"Italy Disputes US Shooting Acount" CNN (March 8, 2005)
[16]"Joint Letter from Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists to Secretary Rumsfeld". (June 17, 2005)
[17]Human Rights Watch, Hearts and Minds (October, 2003) See also: Human Rights Watch, Iraq: Checkpoints Lack Basic Safety Measures (June 17, 2005)
[18]"Joint Letter from Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists to Secretary Rumsfeld" (June 17, 2005)
[19]See for instance Hillary Brown " Pregnant Iraqi Woman Shot near Security Checkpoint" ABC News (May 31, 2006); Trudy Rubin "Hidden Toll: Civilians Killed Accidentally" Philadelphia Inquirer (July 12, 2006)
[20]For example, see World Health Organization, Detailed Situation Report in Talafar. (August 19, 2005)
[21]Spc. Joshua Ramey, "Together Forward Restores Life to Ameriyah" Official MNF-I website (September 20, 2006)
[22]Gary Younge, "If Wanton Murder is essential to the US Campaign in Iaq, It's Time to Leave" Guardian (June 26, 2006)
[23]Richard Whittle, "Rules of Engagement: What Were they at Haditha?" Christian Science Monitor (October 10, 2006)
[24]Gary Younge, op.cit.
[25]Josh White, "Death in Haditha" Washington Post (January 6, 2006)
[26]"Iraqi Viewpoint: Iraqis Fear US Troops" BBC (June 1, 2006)
[27]Ibid.
[28]Richard Paddock "Shots in the Heart of Baghdad" Los Angeles Times (July 25, 2005)
[30]Chris Hondros: "A Shooting after Nightfall" Newsday (January 19, 2005)
[32]Ellen Knickmeyer and Salih Saif Aldin "US Raid Kills Family North of Baghdad" Washington Post (January 4, 2006)
[33]Ellen Knickmeyer "US Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians" Washington Post (December 24, 2005)
[34]"Civilians Killed Near al-Qaim in Air Strike, Doctors Say" UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (November 1, 2005)
[35]Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Omar Al-Neami "US Strike on Home Kills 9 in Family, Iraqi Officials Say" New York Times (January 4, 2006)
[39]Richard Engel, "What Happened in Haditha" NBC News (May 30, 2006)
[40]David S. Cloud, "Marines Have Excised Evidence on 24 Iraqi Deaths" New York Times (August 18, 2006)
[42]Tim Whitmire "Ex-Soldier Charged with Rape, Murder" Associated Press (July 3, 2006)
[43]Rick Jervis & Andrea Stone, "Four More Soldiers Accused of Rape, Murder in Iraq" USAToday (July 9, 2007)
[44]As quoted in "Iraq Rape Soldiers given Life Sentence," Guardian (November 17, 2006)
[45]Mathew Schofield, "Iraqi Policy Report Details Civilians' Deaths and Hands of US Troops" Knight Ridder Newspapers (McClatchy) (March 19, 2006)
[46]White, Josh, Sonya Geis. "8 Troops Charged In Death Of Iraqi" Washington Post (June 22, 2006)
[47]Carolyn Marshall, "Corpsman Who Failed to Halt Killing of Iraqi Receives Prison Sentence" New York Times (October 7, 2006)
Another marine, John Jodka III, after a plea bargain, was found guilty on a reduced charge and sentenced to 18 months in jail on November 16, 2006 (see "Marine Sentenced Over Iraq Civilian Killing," Guardian (November 16, 2006).
[49]David S. Cloud, Inquiry Suggests Marines Excised Files on Killings, New York Times ( August 18, 2006)
[51]Thomas E. Ricks, " Probe Into Iraq Deaths Finds False Reports" Washington Post (June 1, 2006)
[52]"Simple Failures' and 'Disastrous Results': Excerpts from Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's report" Washington Post (April 21, 2007)
[53]"US Military Trial Ordered in Iraq Murder Cases" Reuters (October 19, 2006)
[54]Sonya Geis, "Hearings Begin for Marines Accused of Killing Iraqi" Washington Post (August 31, 2006)
[55]Mathew Schofield, Iraqi Policy Report Details Civilians' Deaths and Hands of US Troops, Knight Ridder Newspapers, McClatchy (March 19, 2006)
[56]Will Dunham, "Troops Cleared in Iraqi Deaths in Ishaqi" Reuters (June 2, 2006)
[57]Mathew Schofield, op.cit.
[58]Ziad Khalaf, "Raid Kills 11, Mostly Women and Children" Associated Press/Army Times (March 15, 2006)
[60] "New 'Iraq Massacre' Tape Emerges" BBC (June 2, 2006)
[61]Fitzroy Sterling "Still Seeking Answers in US Checkpoint Killing" Inter Press Service (June 24, 2006)
[62] Josh White, Charles Lane and Julie Tate, Homicide Charges Rare In Iraq War, Washington Post (August 28, 2006)
[63]"Convictions in US Cases Rare in Iraq" United Press International (August 28, 2006)
[64]Cited in Josh White, Charles Lane and Julie Tate, "Homicide Charges Rare In Iraq War" Washington Post (August 28, 2006)
[65]Richard A. Oppel "Iraqi Assails US for Strikes on Civilians" New York Times (June 2, 2006)
[66]Brian Brady "Furious Iraq Demands Apology as US Troops Are Cleared of Massacre" Scotland on Suday (June 4, 2006)
[67]Cited in Aaron Glantz "GIs in Iraq Could Be Stripped of Immunity After Rape –Murder Allegations" OneWorld (July 12, 2006)
[68]Mariam Karouny "Iraq to Ask UN to End US Immunity after Rape Case" Reuters (July 2, 2006)
[70]See Chapter 5, section on Mortality
[71]Cited in Josh White, "Report On Haditha Condemns Marines" Washington Post (April 21, 2007)
Full Report on the War and Occupation in Iraq
More Information on Atrocities and Criminal Homicides in Iraq


On Saturday, March 16th, 2019, come out from 9:00 pm to 2:00 am to the Miramichi Civic Centre, 487 King George Highway in Newcastle as the Rotary Club of Chatham presents "Miramichi's Biggest Saint Patrick's Day Bash" – "Raglan Road 4.0".
The doors will open at 8:00 pm and will close at 11:30 pm.
Tickets are $20.00 and sold in advance at the N & J Convenience, 447 King George Highway, in Newcastle and at the Family Convenience Ltd., 231 Wellington Street, in Chatham.
The proceeds of this event will go towards the Sistema Miramichi Program.


Did you happen to notice that most indoor plants used inside commercial buildings are those that don't necessarily require a lot of water? Cactus, for example, is a type of plant that you don't only see in deserts. You can also see cactus at home, in an office, or even in a backyard because these are quite easy to take care, especially if you live in a place where scarcity of water is somewhat a regular experience. While cacti plants are somewhat scary to look at because of its thorns, it's actually a better alternative to gorgeous plants that don't only need much of your time for tending, but also needs much water supply to grow beautifully. These plants my friend, are a no-no if you don't want to grow plants that'll dry your water supply.
Firstly, always opt out those beautiful plants that grow in tropical climates. While these plants can naturally make any barren land look lovely, they would also need a lot of moisture to thrive, which can technically dry up your water supply when you don't have enough of it. Here are some popular plants that are worth checking out before officially putting it in your garden.
Hibiscus – Coming from the mallow family and often called as rose mallow, hibiscus is usually recognized for its vibrant colored, large, trumpet-shaped flowers with its pollen sticking out in the middle. It is a popular plant in landscaping and in gardening because of the colors of its flowers, which range from yellow, orange, and red. Apart from that, hibiscus can also be processed into tea and into some foods, and is even considered as a delicacy in Mexico, believing that it is a natural diuretic. Being such, it is said to contain Vitamin C and minerals that help treat kidney woes. However, it is not the best plant for a place that lacks enough water supplies because it naturally grows in areas where there is abundant supply of rain. On the one hand, hibiscus is called gumamela in the Philippines, and is recorded as the national flower of South Korea and Malaysia.
Flowering maple – There is no doubt that flowering maple has one of the most beautiful flowers in the world; thanks to its bell-shaped flowers that come in plethora of colors in red, orange, yellow, and pink. Its size varies as some can as short as a toddler and some can reach 15 feet tall. Maple flower grows best in areas where there is good supply of sun and water. Its bed should always stay moist and it should be directed to sunlight for at least 4 hours each day. Just like the hibiscus and the rest of flowering plants that thrive in tropical areas, flowering maple also needs a steady supply of water because its soil needs to be moist all day. When undernourished, its leaves start to fall and it may stop producing flowers, too.
Bromeliad – Bromeliads are easy to identify because of its widely-opened, slim leaves and large, multihued bracts or flowers that bloom in its middle. Aside from being a staple in landscaping, this type of plant is also best when used indoors because of its welcoming appeal. However, it grows best when its roots are tied to an orchid bark or when their pot is smaller than its body. This is because they can collect lots of moisture this way. Leave it dry for a few days and it will surely die.
Banana – A lot of pros in landscaping would claim that banana trees are indeed beautiful when infused in a landscape, but it takes a lot of pain for it to grow well. Its large and attractive leaves are the main reason that makes it a staple in landscaping, but its immense need for water and moisture makes it quite an attention getter. Furthermore, it needs a large space to grow, so careful consideration of the lot size should be made prior to planting it.
Alocasia – This type of plant is renowned more for its leaves than its flowers. Its leaves are big, very attractive in its rich green hue, adding a different appeal to a garden. Its leaves are not only green-colored though because there are also those with yellow green and green-violet colors that never fail to add more life to any barren spot.
Philopendrons – From its name alone, we can already sense that it's one heck of an exotic plant. Just like alocasia and the rest of those exotic plants that are generally found in tropical rainforest, philopendrons are also known for their big leaves that come in dark tones. There are deep violets to olive greens while there is also a mixture of red violets to lime.
Zamia Cycad species – This species of plant is popular for its huge and welcoming leaves that come in a wide variety of shapes.
Annual plants are not only popular for its beautiful flowers and exotic look, but are also known for its constant need of water. Here are some examples of common annual plants that you should avoid when you think that your water supply cannot provide their need. General knowledge about annuals: it stops flowering and then dies when an inch of its soil is dry most of the time. In fact, watering them is the most challenging part of growing them.
African daisy – There is no doubt that daisies are always beautiful. They originate from South Africa and in places that have constant rain distribution and when summers are not too hot.
African marigold – With its big, round bloom of full color, marigold never fails to attract onlookers and landscapers. It resides in places that are moist and well-watered. It grows up to three feet tall only with its leaves looking crisp and beautiful all the time.
Balsam– Usually described as an unusually attractive plant, balsam is considered as an old-Victorian charm. It thrives well in pots and in small containers and its pink flowers will always be in full bloom if you keep its soil moist and well-watered all day.
Castor bean – Known as the biggest of all annual plants, castor bean is the fastest-growing annual plant there is and it can be as huge as 20 feet, which makes it best when placed in the corners or when wanting to come up with a plant division in the yard.
Coleus – Although coleus is generally known as a sun-loving plant, it is also known for its love of moist soil all the time. Because of its gorgeous, rich colored leaves make, it's a staple in almost every landscaping commercial project in most countries. It loves to be in the shade and can also be used as an indoor plant.
Finally, you can tell the need of the plant for water just by looking at its foliage. Usually, plants with thicker and greener foliage are having higher and constant need for water supply because its leaves tend to absorb sunlight easily. Plants with fleshy trunks, like banana trees, tend to absorb more water also. You can opt for plants with silvery and smaller foliage since majority of them don't absorb heat hastily. Choosing the right plants for your garden or yard may not be very easy, but if you know which ones can thrive well in your place, you will not have to worry on other major things such as water supply.


/Podcast & Blog/Are you driving your last car?
Posted on July 27, 2018 by Ryan Hogarth wrote in Uncategorized. It has 0 Comment.
Along with everything else that is transforming this century, people are (very slowly right now) rethinking the entire concept of owning things. It's a massive shift considering the overwhelming consumer drive of the last century has ingrained the idea of having things.
Naturally the shift has started with digital goods like music. Anything digital can be stored in the cloud somewhere, ready whenever we need it. Our iTunes or Spotify accounts allow us access to whatever music we want, whenever we want it so why own a thousand CD's?
With digitisation coming to every industry we see that almost anything can be a service or a facility ready for us to use on demand. Uber introduced the world to on demand transport. In its early days it was an easy way to go partying without having to deal with the question of driving. However this is creeping more and more into daily, ordinary use.
So the question now is: Will we move away from owning cars? Is the car you are driving now the last you'll ever own? I explore this question with Uber and with someone who gave up the car to go on demand full time.


The Lord is shaping me in ways I never imagined. Today was one of those days spent down in the well with Jacob. I will be so glad to get some rest and am claiming the scripture that joy comes in the morning!
Genesis 38 introduced the story of Judah, another of Jacob's sons (by Leah) and Jacob's brother. The legacy of deceitfulness and broken promises continues in this history. Judah moved away from home and got married. He had three sons. Back then, if a man died before giving his wife children, the man's brother married her and gave her children to continue the family line. Judah's first son, Er, died before giving his wife Tamar a child. So his brother married her but practiced birth control of some sort so she wouldn't get pregnant. God was displeased, and that son died also. Rather than having Tamar marry his last son, Judah sent her away to her father's house to life as a widow, promising her she could marry his other son when he became of age…but he did not honor that promise.
Well, Tamar struck back years later. She dressed as a prostitute and slept with Judah after he finished grieving for his wife who had died. She kept his ring and walking stick as payment. Lo and behold, Tamar finally got pregnant. When Judah found out she was pregnant without being married, he wanted to have her burned to death. But then he learned that she had tricked him and that he himself was actually the father of her child. He left her alone, and she gave birth to twins.
Why this story is stuck in between the story of Joseph and his rise and fall and rise again, I just don't know.
Tamar was certainly desperate for a child and ended up with twins. I've made wrong choices before in the midst of desperation, although not of the prostitute variety. But there are times in my life when I have done boneheaded things instead of turning to the Lord. Worse, I've turned to the Lord and STILL done boneheaded things.
I recently made a tough decision about the management of our homeschool group that I pray fervently was not one of those boneheaded actions. I did pray about it but am concerned that it's a case where I am penalizing the rest of the group due to the actions of a few. That is one of the very reasons I dislike school settings! But in this case, I had to set a new policy where children have to stay with their parents on campus the entire time. I eliminated the role of recess monitor because I figured that if kids are with their moms, a recess monitor is unnecessary. I also made some other changes, such as designating "clean up supervisors" and having a closing time of prayer together. I am afraid that I made too many changes at once, but it's a done deal now. The SEND button has been pressed. Probably the email will be in my inbox tomorrow.
God is certainly stretching me in this leadership role! I pray I will have an open heart and open ears to hear his direction so that I do not lead my group astray. I pray the Lord would come and fill me up tonight with his Living Water, because I am parched. I pray for peace and to have a measure of God's heart so that I can love my community the way He loves them…in truth and humility.
I think your changes sound like good ones. We've been involved in co-op type enrichment classes in the past, and let me tell you, I understand! Some of the children acted as if they were never taught basic common sense of how to act in a public situation! Anyway, I'm sure that even if there is an initial backlash, it will be for the best in the end.
PS…I'm woefully behind on this! I always struggle spiritually whenever I do an in-depth study of the Old Testament, and sure enough it is happening this time around. My first reaction is always to avoid reading more, but I'm trying to push through that. I'm still intending to walk this with you!
Our class day went well with all the new changes, for the most part. I'm convinced that's because several moms were praying for us. A sense of peace permeated the whole day…a very welcome change from the previous week's class.
Don't worry about being behind! I am pushing myself harder than I thought I'd need to in order to read and blog every single day. So far I've made it 29 days, but only through God's grace. I have to go back and re-read my posts after your comments because I don't always remember what I've written. I'm not sure if that's a good thing (meaning the Holy Spirit is working through me) or a bad thing (meaning I'm just blowing a lot of hot air!). But I do appreciate and read all your comments!


By choosing Smart Touch Energy, you're also choosing easy online ordering, loyalty rewards and online price checking. Essentially, convenience without contracts or commitments. This is why many who live in Blackstone Valley in Rhode Island choose us for their home heating oil. With Smart Touch Energy, you can easily check fuel prices online and order from anywhere. In addition, get fast delivery from reliable providers, especially during the winter.
Check Live Pricing in Blackstone Valley.
The Blackstone River Valley is often considered one of the key sites in the American Industrial Revolution. To this day, the region maintains a longstanding tradition of innovation and ingenuity, with a booming tech sector and a number of prestigious educational institutions located nearby. It's no stretch to say the residents of the region are a savvy, forward-thinking bunch. Why is it, then, that so many essential home-service providers seem stuck in the past?
Throughout the Blackstone Valley, Smart Touch Energy is changing the way heating oil is delivered. We have leveraged sophisticated technology and innovative partnerships to make it easier and more affordable for residents to heat their homes. Keep reading to learn how we do it.
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One of the biggest rewards of making Smart Touch Energy your exclusive heating oil supplier is our Automatic Delivery program. Automatic delivery customers benefit from our lowest oil prices. They also never have to worry about having enough oil on-hand. We'll monitor your tank remotely using our proprietary method of calculating heat degree day (HDD). When you're due to be topped off, a team member will contact you directly to arrange a time that's convenient for you.
Smart Touch Energy is a Shipley Energy company. As a part of one of the largest oil companies in the county, we have the bulk buying power necessary to provide a hedge against seasonal jumps in the price of oil. This means our prices are not only lower, but they are more consistent over time and from region-to-region. Check our current Blackstone Valley oil prices against averages posted by the US Energy Information Administration — you'll see we are as much as $0.40 lower per gallon, saving you over $200 a year!
As a more advanced oil delivery company, we offer a better everyday rate than the competition. Moving to a fully online platform means less overhead — in addition to the convenience of ordering online, our decision to forgo a brick-and-mortar location is one that saves you money every time you buy oil from us.
Online ordering means more transparent pricing, as there are no hidden delivery or admin fees. It means less time spent on the phone and no need to have cash or a check on-hand when your delivery is fulfilled. With Smart Touch Energy, you only pay for the fuel you need. If you prepay in advance for more than is necessary to fill your tank, we refund the difference instantly to your credit card.
If you're like most Blackstone Valley residents, you already go online to pay your bills, bank and do your shopping. Why should scheduling essential services be any different? Our online portal is designed to bring oil delivery into the 21st-century. With just a few clicks, you can access updated heating oil prices for the Blackstone Valley, place an order, lock in your rate and pay your bills.


Home › News › Does medical marijuana have a place on the FSU campus?
Does medical marijuana have a place on the FSU campus?
Even with a legal certificate, medical marijuana is not allowed on campus.
The government sees marijuana as a class D psychotropic drug, and since Fitchburg State receives grants, federal work-study and financial aid for students from the government, the university has to follow federal law.
If they violate this law, the school could lose that funding and they could lose more than ¾ of students on campus who receive financial aid.
"You can't smoke in the dorms anyway," Bucholc said. He explained that the main medicinal component in marijuana, THC, is available in other forms so you don't have to smoke it, but these methods are sometimes not as effective for patients.
The problem is, even with the correct documentation from a doctor, marijuana is not allowed on campus.
Bucholc suggests some alternatives, include using it off campus. "We're under what's called the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act which is a federal law that dates back to 1979 and prohibits drugs on campus and around schools, so we're not allowed to have it on campus," he said.
"I personally know people who have used marijuana for treating cancers and it helps," Bucholc said. "They don't always know why, but it works so they go with it." Bucholc sympathizes with students who need this medication.
"What's odd about it is that there are FDA approved drugs that have THC that have the same effects as smoking marijuana," he said. "If you smoke it and it's the same as taking the pill, why couldn't both be approved by the FDA?" Bucholc asked.
Bucholc advises that students let him and campus police know if they have a prescription for marijuana, so that they are aware of this medication in the event that the student is found with the drug on campus.
"Generally we don't arrest students for marijuana if they have a personal amount," Bucholc said. "We work with them on campus unless they are dealing or have a large quantity," he said.
Despite the university being in a tight fix, Bucholc is glad for the changing laws. "What I am glad for, is that those who have a medicinal purpose for marijuana will have dispensaries and clearing houses, and a good quality product." Because it is not yet regulated, you don't know what you're getting on the street.
In the future, when sold in a safe environment from people interested in your health can only be a good thing.
"As a state institution, the quandary we're in is that we can't break the federal law," Bucholc said. "We did check with our legal counsel and we simply can't have it," he said.
The university can't allow the drug within the dorms. One solution suggested students leave their medication in a safe place with campus police or health services; however, Bucholc explained that also wasn't an option.
"They can't distribute an illegal drug," he said. Health services don't distribute or store medications for any students, and even from their perspective, medical marijuana is an illegal drug.
"I know that there are people that truly need it so we would work with them to get the treatment needed and still attend the university," Bucholc said.
Even states that have legalized marijuana can't use the drug on college campuses because it breaks federal law. "Right now, the government can look the other way but at some point they may not be able to," Bucholc said.
THC binds to receptors on cancer cells causing cell apoptosis. This is also how the body naturally fights cancer cells with endocannabinoids. Look up "biochemist Dennis Hill" and also "Dr. Christina Sanchez molecular biologist Compultense University in Madrid Spain" for more information.
In the context of medicine having a drug free campus is not much different from having an anti-biotic free campus. It makes no sense except perhaps to the religiously motivated. And given that the prohibitions were originally racially motivated and are still mostly enforced that way they amount to institutionalized racism. And to think that schools back this program. I guess that without slavery and Jim Crow they need something.


With the departure of our social media champion Russell Taylor a (little!) while ago, things have been on the back burner at DCC with respect to developing our social media.
We have always adopted a fairly relaxed attitude and encouraged the responsible use of social media by staff (guidelines can be found on the staff Yammer site). However, we lack a coherent plan around social media, which means we are not making best use of the different channels, not engaging well, and when we do engage we are not necessarily doing it in a very efficient manner.
Hannah Wicks has taken on the task to start the ball rolling with a social media audit, and her email – to staff that we have contact details for – is reproduced below. At the bottom of the email is our current list of known DCC social media accounts, which we know is far from complete. This follows my post last week outlining a similar conversation under way with other #localgov in Devon, to bring together best practice and see if we can develop something together. If you are involved in social media at DCC or #localgov, do get in touch (hannah.wicks@devon.gov.uk). We're planning to document our experience on this blog, under the Social Media category, if you want to check back on progress.
I'm contacting you as I believe you manage your service's social media account(s).
We need to develop a more coherent approach to our social media channels at DCC to provide better and consistent customer service, and there are a couple of things we need to get started on soon to make that happen.
Firstly, managing a variety of corporate accounts and assigning tasks across services and teams is complicated without a formal tool to enable this. We feel there is a lot of merit and value in investing in a social media platform for the whole organisation to enable us to bring our different channels together, to allow us to deal with different enquiries that need a response more efficiently, to track responses and other metrics, and to enable more efficient cross-posting and publication, especially in emergency situations.
Our plan to buy in to a corporate social media management tool to ensure consistency and quality across all social media channels is in the early stages, and we would welcome your input.
At the moment we (the corporate comms team) use a fairly primitive – but effective! – set up of a free, shared, Hootsuite account, and a linkup via IFTTT and Trello to record tweets that need a response. There are a variety of platforms out there – e.g. Hootsuite, Social Sign in, Sprout, Radian (part of Salesforce), Falcon Social and others.
How do you manage your social media account(s)? Do you currently use such a platform? If so what platform are you using? What is your experience of using such a platform? Benefits? Costs?
Having the ability to automatically assign a tweet/ facebook message etc to the appropriate person in the appropriate service area, with a record of that, would be fast, efficient and would help to deliver great customer service.
We also need to do more to support the use of social media and promote digital engagement to ensure there is consistency in our approach as an organisation. We want all DCC social media accounts holders and managers to be connected through appropriate online and offline groups as sharing and learning from each other will help develop good practice and new creative approaches.
One of the ways we have done this in the past is through the Social Media Forum. Could we revive this and work on creating a schedule for forum dates around certain themes or learning opportunities? Do you have any suggestions?
How can comms better support you to manage your social media account? How can we all support each other better? Are there any online tools you think we could use for collaborative learning and support?
Finally, we need an up to date list of all of the organisation's social media accounts. I've listed all the accounts we are aware of below, but I'm sure there's some we've missed. If you know of any other accounts, please let me know and I'll add them to the list. Also, we don't have contacts for all of them, so if you know who manages an account that would be helpful too.
Please get back to me with you thoughts, comments, observations etc and I'll collate and circulate.
If I have emailed this to the wrong person, apologies and do please forward on to the right person!
We have recently been doing a social media audit at Bradford Council. I have been meaning to blog about it. I would be happy to have a chat and compare our methods. I would also be happy to share my audit template with you to if you would like to see it.


Confined Spaces, Which Standard Should I Follow?
The presentation will compare and contrast OSHA's general industry 1910.146 Permit-required confined space standard, and confined spaces in construction standard 1926.1201-1213 with ANSI Z117.1 R2016 Safety Requirements for Entering Confined Spaces.
Attendees will learn the main requirements and safeguards of each standard.
1979 Mr. Krug started with OSHA as an IH Compliance Officer in Lubbock, TX. After 3 years, transferred to the OSHA Training Institute (OTI) as an IH Instructor. In 1987, he accepted a management position with ATSF Railway Co, which he held for four years. In 1991, he left to start a consulting business, Industrial Hygiene Technical Consultants (IHTC) that he operated for 6 years.
In 1997 he returned to the DOL OSHA's Chicago North AO as a Safety and Health Specialist/ Compliance Officer conducting enforcement safety and health inspections. Mr. Krug has conducted hundreds of inspections during his time with OSHA and as a Training Instructor for the OTI and in his career, has taught thousands of students in safety and health topics. Mr. Krug was the chairperson for a half dozen OSHA courses one being the Permit-Required Confined Space # 2260.
Mr. Krug retired from OSHA in March of 2011 and started a consulting business called EXOSHA. He has been the past chair of AIHA's Confined Spaces Technical Committee, and is presently chair of the ANSI Z117.1 standard Safety Requirements for Entering Confined Spaces. Mr. Krug has been an active member of the ASSP's Standards Development Committee from 2014-2018. Mr. Krug has been an expert witness for government and the private sector and has written and revised numerous health and safety programs.


What is the correct spelling for WHENTER?
This word (Whenter) may be misspelled. Below you can find the suggested words which we believe are the correct spellings for what you were searching for. If you click on the links, you can find more information about these words.
ghent Perhaps he desired to protect the King of France at Ghent, though he was surely relieved of responsibility by his despatch of June 18th, 3 a.
vented Colonel Butler says:-"The Madras Red-vented Bulbul breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa all through the hot weather and in the monsoon.