This particular Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp photo can be an incredible imagine, that is one an important part of Mandarin Kitchen Torrance snapshot stock. It is possible to require a lot of vital parts of Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp photo to build an exciting new house or even rework the prevailing property. The form suggested by Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp photo is so timeless, quite simply that you can apply it to your residence. Before working with the form of Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp image to your residence, you should consider be it acceptable and also never. Select factors out of Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp photograph that really concur to your dwelling to make a unified scene. This approach Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp photo which has posted as a result of admin at October 8, 2017 at 9:10 pm as well present you with several techniques for selecting the right cloth and setting, merely discover the application.
As yet, this approach marvelous Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp snapshot now viewed 1 instances. The idea shows that several people just like Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp picture. Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp graphic is a HIGH-DEFINITION graphic by means of 1000 x 666 on the resolution and 115 KB of actual size. Hi-Definition excellent would make Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp pic would be superb to be utilized when background picture to beautify your computer or touch screen phone. If you would like get this particular Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp picture, follow on here. And if you would like to publish the following Awesome Mandarin Kitchen Torrance Mandarin Kitchen Order Food Online 153 Photos U0026 315 Reviews Chinese Torrance Torrance, CA Phone Number Menu Yelp picture aimed at your site, ensure that you constantly add some Url. To live current regarding the beautiful home types, you can actually bookmark the Mandarin Kitchen Torrance graphic collection and that web.


Documentary Photographer- Karissa Barney Photography Co.
I believe in the power of stories and I love how a single photograph can capture who, what, where, when, and why. Imagery has amazing potential to ask questions, share missions, experiences, stories, perspective, and provide insight. Through photographs we can connect with people, places, and companies across the globe. I truly believe it can bring people together, and one of my largest passions is using my photography skills to help tell your story.
So it's probably no surprise when I say that storytelling is at the heart of how I work and what I do. From beginning to end, I work with my clients to learn and capture the narrative of your cause, brand, company, or project.
I work both individually or with a small team of photographers on projects both domestically or internationally. You can learn more about my photography style and how I approach my work HERE.
Interested in learning more? Let's sit down and chat about your project and how I can help you capture your story! Click HERE to get in touch.
Let's grab a cup of coffee and chat in person or over facetime! I'm based in Los Angeles, California but travel is a huge part of who I am and what I do. So no matter where you are located across the globe, I can travel to you to you.


text:
DNA tracks ancient Alaskan's descendants
Author: George Bryson
An ancient mariner who lived and died 10,000 years ago on an island west of Ketchikan probably doesn't have any close relatives left in Alaska.
But some of them migrated south and their descendents can be found today in coastal Native American populations in California, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina.
That's some of what scientists learned this summer by examining the DNA of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Indians in Southeast Alaska.
Working with elders at a cultural festival in Juneau, they interviewed more than 200 Native Alaskans who allowed them to swab tiny amounts of saliva from their cheeks to capture their mitochondrial DNA, the genetic material that's passed from mothers to children.
Preliminary examination of those cell particles indicates:
• None of the participants possessed DNA similar to that extracted from On Your Knees Cave man, the 10,300-year-old Alaskan whose remains were discovered 12 years ago in a shallow cavern on Prince of Wales Island.
• But some participants appear to be closely linked genetically to coastal Indian tribes in British Columbia and Washington state, in spite of anthropological studies that claim Tlingits were originally an Interior people, like the nearby Athabascans.
"We haven't seen connections inland yet ... looking at just the very first couple of samples," said Washington State University Assistant Professor Brian Kemp, the molecular anthropologist who led the research. "That doesn't mean we won't. But right now we only have these long-distant connections."
Apparently On Your Knees Cave man only has long-distant relatives too.
AN ANCIENT TRAVELER
Bones of the ancient Alaskan were first discovered in 1996 by Alaska paleontologist Tim Heaton during an archaeological survey on the northern tip of Prince of Wales, the nation's third largest island.
They are among the oldest human remains ever found in North America -- a 13,000-year-old woman's partial skeleton was discovered 50 years ago in an island cave off the south coast of California -- and the oldest ever discovered in Alaska.
Heaton's team recovered a male pelvis, three ribs, a few vertebrae and a toothy, broken jaw, along with some ancient tools. With the help of archaeologist E. James Dixon, they eventually pieced together the caveman's story.
His teeth indicate he died in his prime, possibly in his early to mid-20s. The content of his bones revealed that his primary food came from the sea. The nearby stone tools, consisting of materials not found on the island, suggest a long-distance traveler, a mariner.
Then the geneticists went to work. Laboring two years as a graduate student, Kemp finally succeeded in extracting mitochondrial DNA from one of the caveman's teeth, the oldest DNA sample ever recovered in the Americas at the time.
It clearly placed On Your Knees Cave man in the "haplogroup-D" branch of the human family tree.
GENETIC TRAILS
Population geneticists trace all humans alive today back to common ancestors who lived in Africa about 60,000 years ago. As they migrated north out of Africa, then east and west across Asia and Europe, the common DNA they carried with them would occasionally mutate.
Different populations that migrated to different destinations carried different sets of mutations, which scientists have categorized into haplogroups and sub-haplogroups. The first people to migrate to the Americas all belonged to one of five primary haplogroups: A, B, C, D or X.
Just knowing that On Your Knees Cave man was a D reduced the chances that he would have any close relatives still living among present-day Native Alaskans, Kemp said. Previous DNA sampling of Eskimos, Athabaskans and Southeast Indians had traced nearly all of them to haplogroup A, with a tiny scattering of Bs.
The only known haplogroup D people in Alaska were the Aleuts. But that made them only distant relatives to On Your Knees Cave man -- very distant, since scientists believe the D mutation appeared for the first time about 50,000 years ago in Asia.
On closer inspection, however, Kemp found that On Your Knees Cave man belonged more specifically to the genetic sub-group D4H3, which may have shown up as recently as 20,000 years ago. Still, it's an exclusive group. Less than 2 percent of all Native Americans share that signature.
Aleuts living today don't appear to be that closely related to the caveman, Kemp said. Of the 163 tested so far, none were D4H3.
"The Aleuts are more closely related to the On Your Knees Cave individual than anyone who is not a member of D," he said. "But that has nothing to do with what happened in the Americas. It happened way before."
According to Kemp's research, part of what happened in the Americas is this:
Some of the caveman's relatives decided to head south from Alaska. Members of his specific genetic lineage have been found among the Chumash people of Southern California, the Cayapa of Ecuador and the Yaghan of Tierra del Fuego.
The fact that most of them landed at seaside destinations lends a lot more credence to scientists who believe the Lower 48 states and South America were populated first by coastal mariners -- Ice Age migrants from Asia who skirted around land-blocking glaciers in Alaska as early as 20,000 years ago
TLINGIT MYSTERY
Did some of those first Alaskans remain behind in the North? In terms of present-day Native Alaskans who might share the same specific genetic marker as On Your Knees Cave man, the jury is still out, Kemp said.
That's because genetic genealogy is still in its infancy. Very few Native Americans have been checked so far.
The DNA testing of 234 Southeast Alaska Indians that occurred in June -- one of the largest samples ever collected in the Americas -- nearly doubled all the previous data scientists had on Alaska Native populations, Kemp said.
It's possible the right person with the right match simply hasn't been tested yet, said Rosita Worl, president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, the nonprofit Southeast Alaska Native group that sponsored the research.
It's also possible that the Tlingits and Haidas -- migrating either from the south or the Interior -- arrived in Southeast Alaska after the cave man's people had already passed through.
Worl's research suggests that the Tlingits of today used to be two separate populations. Tlingit society has long been divided between two groups, called "moieties" -- the Eagles and the Ravens -- based on the mother's ancestry. It's possible that one group preceded the other.
"Our oral traditions always talk about the presence of an older population being here when they arrived," said Worl, a Juneau-based Tlingit who teaches cultural anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast.
"The hypothesis is that the Eagles and the Ravens represent two different populations."
Kemp is anxious to continue his research on his Tlingit DNA samples, to see if the matrilineal branches based on DNA match the matrilineal branches based on culture.
"We collected as much information as we could about individual moieties," Kemp said. "So a cool test will be to see if it (matches) the population genetics. And that may clarify the separate origins."
Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318.
By GEORGE BRYSON
gbryson@adn.com
alaskana news
southeast front
George Bryson
George Bryson was a longtime writer and editor at the Anchorage Daily News.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


← It's Summer Reading Time!!
School will soon be starting…..can that mean that summer is coming to a close? What a summer it has been at the library. StoryTime, Chess Club, and reading good books! 89 readers participated in the Summer Reading Program this year, keeping track of minutes read. 19 readers totaled up 1,000 minutes each! Thanks to Lem's for donating ice cream coupons for every 200 minutes spent reading. Each "scoop" on the cone represents 200 minutes, for a grand total off 38,600 minutes!! Way to go, Fredericksburg readers!!!!!


cushion strew, fairy lit rooftop straight out of Taylor Swifts pinterest board.
Lets recap: a red wine and dairy goodness harmony followed by Japanese-Peruvian fusion. Certificate: 15, see all certifications parents Guide: View content advisory edit, details, official Sites: Samuel Goldwyn Films LLC United States. The Cheap, The Easy The Relaxed: Your Local Joints. You will leave here with new friends to double date with if you are a couple, or if its a first date you will leave with new friends even if it doesnt work out. Pizzas, on fleek too. Heres a list of where you can drink and recite Neruda to each other until the bartenders want to puke into your Campari. All you do is win, no matter what. Yet still, we persevere, boats against the current.
Mature Cheating Wife Gets Facial From Blind Date Hookup.
Fine, maybe not a place for a sizzling date, but they have a ladder that goes up the bookshelves and you can swing around like youre Belle from Beauty and the Beast. But the limo service is actually called Lorenzo's Limo, which you can see in the many shots of the limo. And besides, where you like to hang out is part of who you are, no? He will tell you of our wild tales and youll all be playing dice together in no time. I dont think FernetCola is the solution. Franks (Arévalo 1443) This is swanky date night. Same vibes.) Marry her. The bartenders greet you with a drink gratis if you sit at the bar and whatever else they whip up could possibly have crack in it, its that good. Work on your night cheese with another! Post Street Bar (Thames 1885 impress your date here with its buena buena buena onda vibe.


On December 18, 2015, Comunidad Educativa El Papalote celebrated its 21st anniversary. Being a Waldorf school, 21 is a significant accomplishment as 21 is the age of completion in Steiner's philosophy of human development.
The evening started with Claudia Pozo sharing the history of the school with photos. Then, Rosa Barocio, the Master Teacher, who introduced Claudia to the Waldorf method in 1996, honored Papalote with recognition of Claudia's enthusiasm, focus, dedication, and empathy. The celebration consisted of a contemporary movement show, "The Gifts of Time", which included students from preschool, elementary, middle school and high school. After the show, students, parents, teachers, alumni, and community members stayed to celebrate.
Through the 21 years, Papalote has distinguished itself as a quality non-traditional educational institution which prides itself in fostering the individual growth of each student. It all started with Claudia Pozo's desire to give her own child a quality education. With the help of her partner, Ludolph, they opened a summer course in a house on Av. Juárez. In 1999, Ludolph began building the facilities that we still call home. This same year, a ceiba tree was planted, which over the years has become our symbol, as it grows with our community.
Above all, however, it is Papalote's sense of community that sets it apart. Students, parents, and teachers form an international network where they walk together sharing experiences, beliefs, values, and confidence.
Papalote commits to the continued growth together as a positive atmosphere full of good people that leave marks on each others lives.


Unlike back in my junior high days when I received a swift swat from a large, ventilated paddle as punishment for running on the playground, these days it's a definite no-no for teachers to even touch one of their students.
The arrival of a substitute teacher normally means students have the license to misbehave and completely misrepresent a typical day's study and the character of their teacher to the sub. It was like having a snow day except at school. I still recall the crying faces of some of the frustrated young women who had been relegated to elementary school hell, i.e., our classroom.
Not so with Mr. Bemis. I'm sure he was in demand by teachers to take over the classroom during their absence but for us it meant a day of terror. A yardstick was always in hand as he walked around the room while speaking to us.
Without warning, that yardstick would come crashing down on the desk full force, narrowly missing someone's hands. Mr. Bemis showed no discrimination - the yardstick wasn't reserved for students who were talking or misbehaving in some manner; someone could be paying rapt attention but simply have their hands folded on top of the desk when he or she became the target.
Normally he aimed a few inches away, but I saw one time when that stick went straight for the hands and narrowly missed by literally an inch or two as the kid moved back just in time. Now, I never did see him actually hit anyone but you can imagine how unnerved we were, and also how quiet our class was when he came to visit.
My only recollection of a teacher actually hitting a student happened in Mr. Gallup's 5th grade class. Jesse was a certified juvenile delinquent who was famous throughout 36th Street School for having been expelled numerous times. No one messed with him, despite his rather small size. We'd never seen him actually fight but he was a legend in his own time - no one dared risk making him put his reputation on the line.
Except Mr. Gallup. Jesse had been in our class - or should I say in and out since his attendance was so sporadic - about two weeks when finally he and Mr. Gallup had it out. Jesse talked trash once too many times, so our teacher hauled him into the cloakroom to discuss his behavior. While we sat at our desks, no one brave enough to venture a peek at the activities, we heard plenty of banging and thumping and other sounds of mayhem.
There was plenty of speculation as to who was winning. Most actually thought Mr. Gallup was getting whupped in there.
A few minutes later, the teacher dragged the frowning student to the front of the class, right in the middle of the blackboard.
"Sit down!" commanded Mr. Gallup. Jesse stood there defiantly.
"I said, sit down!" and with that, Mr. Gallup kicked Jesse's feet forward, causing him to plop down on his tailbone. We all sat there, jaws hanging, awed by this rare sight of violence. Jesse tried fighting back and Mr. Gallup kept putting him back down on the floor. Secretly all of us were happy since we knew this kid was getting what he deserved.
A few days later, Jesse was gone from our class and our school.
The last incident for this entry happened on a rainy day when we were confined inside the building for lunchtime. Kitty was no match for Jesse but nevertheless she was on her way to a star on the juvenile hall walk of fame. She and the aide assigned to watch us were not getting along. Kittie was in the middle of more mouthing off when finally the aide had enough and slapped her really hard on the cheek. Some of us had been watching them argue and others immediately stopped in mid-conversation and turned to see what happened.
A stunned Kitty stared at the aide, who stared back at Kitty; she then ran out of the room. As with Jesse, since no one liked her we all felt she got what was coming to her.
Things returned to normal for about twenty minutes. Until Kitty returned. She returned accompanied by this huge woman who turned out to be Kitty's mama. Once again all conversation ceased and all eyes focused on the center of the ring to see what was going to happen in the match of the century.
Mrs. Kitty (or big Kitty? Kitty was kind of big but Mama Kitty was really big) confronted the aide. "Don't you be hittin' my daughter like that!" she screamed while shoving the aide. The aide, meanwhile, began apologizing profusely as Big Mama Kitty continued berating her. Finally she got to her last 'Don't you ever' and stormed off, smaller Kitty in tow, leaving the aide standing there in a state of embarrassment in front of all us witnesses.
A few minutes later Kitty walked back in to our confined area and immediately received red carpet VIP treatment from the aide.
"Is everything okay?" the aide asked Kitty. "Can I get you anything?"
Kitty sat there with a smug look on her face, looking like, well, like a satisfied cat. She just shook her head while the aide continued catering to her every whim. We were all disgusted by this display of groveling but hey, we hadn't been in the shoes of someone who just had to face a bear and came out of it alive.


text:
Home World Let's find why we should appreciate Nikola Tesla as a person
Let's find why we should appreciate Nikola Tesla as a person
Everyone in the world has value in their life. But a few of them are trying to increase their value as humans by doing different things for the world. They are call scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs. From them, one of the craziest person in Nikola Tesla. Let's get to know about him.
Nikola Tesla is an electrical engineer as well as a mechanical engineer. He was born on 10th July 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, Austrian Empire and raised as a Serbian-American. When talking about Nikola's childhood, he is a different person, and as per the researchers, he changed after witnessed his older brothers' accident. In the 1870's he finished his high school studies in Croatia and started studying engineering and physics until 1878. Tesla didn't have any degree till the 1880s, and he acquires experience from Telephony. The turning point of his life started in 1884. After graduation from the university, he emigrated to the United States of America. After the emigration of Tesla, he started to work at Edison Machine Works in New York. He gains a lot of experience from that company, but he worked there for a brief period. Because he wanted to do his own thing, he got the help of friends who knew in Finance and Marketing to markup his ideas. Not only that, Nikola started a laboratory started his career as an investor. One of his most significant inventions is X- rays system. It's called NIKOLA TESLA X – Rays.
As an inventor, he was always searching for inventing the best invention. He started looking into the "Radiant Energy" and called it "Radiant Energy of Invisible Kind". Mark Twain is a friend of Tesla, and he used Tesla's lab for his experiments. They become friends in the 1890s'. At that time, Tesla and his friend experimented using Crookes tube (A vacuum-sealed glass container capable of carrying electricity). Because of that, Twain used to visit his lab and do his inventions. One day Mark Twain wanted to take a photo with his vacuum tube. So Tesla tried to get a picture of Twain and the tube. Twain posed for one of the first photographs using incandescent light. The result was unexpected, and they were surprised. After that incident, Nikola Tesla and his previous master Edward Ringwood Hewett invited Tesla's friend, Twain, to the laboratory and took another photo using Crookes tube. As mention before, it is an electrical device. But Nikola Tesla found that the photo ruined, and a photograph of Twain was spotted and veined. After researching that Tesla sent this ruined photo to German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntigen to check what happened to that photo.
One week later, on 8th November 1895, German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntigen was announced that he discovers the new invention called "X- Radiation" (what Wilhelm called his discovery as X-radiation) created from Crookes tubes. Then only Tesla identified that the photo never ruined, and it was a shadow of camera metal screws.
Nikola Tesla was the one who discovers this application of X-ray; he didn't want any credits for that, and he proceeded with his own and other experiments with X- rays. Not only that, he tried to improve the technology of X-rays. Nikola Tesla gave full credits to Wilhelm for this discovery. The main reason was on 13th March 1895, and he lost most of his data because when his laboratory in New York burnt down. After 11th March 1896, Nikola Tesla looks a new path on X–rays managed to take images of the human body, and called it "shadowgraphs". Tesla didn't give up on his experiments, and he found and express the advantages of using x-ray technology in the health sector. Nikola Tesla described some clinical benefits of x-rays, like determining the lung's foreign body position and detection. In 1897 Nikola Tesla published a series of articles on NIKOLA TESLA X-rays and their biologic treats in Electrical Review, New York, and he died 1943 in New York.
Even NIKOLA TESLA X-Ray didn't become famous, his contribution of finding this technology was to take a new path in the health sector. But as a human, we should appreciate NIKOLA TESLA'S inventions and application of NIKOLA TESLA X- Rays.
Ouida July 30, 2021 At 2:05 pm
You are so cool! I do not think I've read a single thing like that before.
So nice to find someone with unique thoughts on this
subject. Really.. thank you for starting this up. This site is one thing that is needed
on the web, someone with a bit of originality!
lasvegasusa July 30, 2021 At 2:09 pm
It is actually a great and useful piece of info.
I'm happy that you shared this useful information with us. Please stay
us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
agen judi Bola online terpercaya August 1, 2021 At 4:47 pm
Itѕ like you reаd my mind! You seem to know a lot about
this, liқe yoᥙ wrote thhе book iin it ᧐r something.
I think that you could ddo with a ffеw pics to driѵe thhe message һomе a bit, Ьut othher than that, thіs is wonderful blog.
An excellent reaԁ. I'll ɗefiniteⅼy be back.
Brock August 1, 2021 At 5:48 pm
Very energetic post, I loved that bit. Will there be a part 2?
Chanda August 1, 2021 At 8:56 pm
Hello Dear, are you actually visiting this web site daily, if so after that you will
absolutely obtain fastidious knowledge.
Shella August 2, 2021 At 11:12 pm
I've been surfing on-line more than three hours these days, yet
I by no means found any attention-grabbing article like yours.
It's pretty value enough for me. Personally, if all webmasters and bloggers made good content as you probably did,
the web will likely be much more helpful than ever before.
안전카지노사이트 August 3, 2021 At 9:53 am
Just for the reason that you are not physically in a casino does not mean you shouldn't be taken care of and rewarded for your play and loyalty.
jasa backlink August 3, 2021 At 10:58 am
I'mnot that mᥙch of a online reader to be honeѕt but your sіtes reallү nice, keep iit up!
I'ⅼl go ahead and bookmark your site to
come bаck down the road. Many thanks
cheap graphic tees August 3, 2021 At 2:53 pm
Еxcellent goods from you, man. I've understɑnd your stuff рrevious to and you're juѕt too wonderful.
I really like whzt you have acquired here, realⅼy like what you'rе stating and
thee way in which you say it. You mke it enjօyable annd
yoᥙ still care ffor to keep it sensible. I cant wait to read much moгe from you.
This is actually a tremendous site.
Thhiѕ ρost iѕ invaluable. Ꮋow can I find οut more?


Some Weeks Back, Abians rolled out the red carpet to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the creation of the state.
But the million dollar question that agitates the minds of many is: At 21, has Abia any cause to celebrate? The answer you get will depend on which side of the political pendulum the respondent belongs to.
For those in opposition, the answer would be that there is no reason to celebrate! That the dreams of the founding fathers are far from being realised; that Abia is still crawling at 21. Some would even be of the opinion that Abia is a failed state. The moderates, however, would admit that Abia has been making haste slowly.
Using the physical development of the state as an example, the critics would point to lack of institutional structures and infrastructural deficit that has bedevilled the state over time. To people in this school of thought, the incumbent government is always responsible for what they would adjudge as the underdevelopment of Abia.
Regardless of the diversity of these views, everyone is or appears to be in perfect harmony with one fact: Abia is underdeveloped and in desperate need of change. Not just any change, but a positive change that will enhance the life of everyone. Change that will usher in equal opportunity for every Abian. Many also agreed that Abia has more than it would take to improve the life of the greatest number of her indigenes. Everyone agreed that the bane on our state is corruption; Everyone unequivocally agreed that Abia is underdeveloped and needs a change.
The Fact is Abia politics should be planted on Individualism, what should be uppermost in the minds of the average Abian is who will stand in the gap for the ordinary Abian who has been impoverished and made to eat out of the dustbin of the political elites and subjected to even bow down to say thank you for such privilege.
In as much it is difficult to compare circumstances, but Abia of today is ranking in ''clear language'' the least, in terms of infrastructural, social and economic development, because we are stuck in a leadership that lacks focus, strong will, direction and vision to control a state as diverse as ours, richly blessed with abundance of natural and human resources, but today we cannot pay salaries despite huge financial inflows from the federal government.
The Primary need of Abians are affordable Health Care delivery, Education, Security, infrastructure, job creation and physical projects while ensuring the wellbeing of the aged, the weak, vulnerable and the poor. if development is not about focusing on phoney white elephant projects when our existing roads are impassable, then we need to look beyond political parties and source for that Abian who has the pedigree to deliver.
However, in all these, the answer to one fundamental question appears misdirected: who will do the changing? I thought the lives of Abians will be better after the 2015 Election with the emergence of Industrialists like Dr Uche Ogah, a trusted entrepreneur who has the insight & knowledge of transforming Abia startups, businesses and bring about the positive change needed but the people's mandate was denied.
Although we should all have expectations for the government to implement policies, which will make our existence as Abians more comfortable, we should be aware that we each have a role to play in that journey to change. Every single Abian has a role to play in actualizing change.
While government has a great responsibility to attain the parameters needed for us to grow and flourish, one must be realistic and keep in.


text:
Dungeons & Dragons: Vault of Dragons
Click here to be notified by email when Dungeons & Dragons: Vault of Dragons becomes available.
Dungeons & Dragons: Vault of Dragons is a 2-4 player cooperative game of fierce conflicts and hidden treasures. In Vault of Dragons, players take the role of unsavory factions from the streets of Waterdeep, factions who have heard rumors of a hidden vault of gold under the city and are determined to locate it first. In the game, players send followers to locations in Waterdeep to uncover rumors and treasure. Brawling with other factions to control key locations is to be expected but beware the City Watch. Double-sided location tiles give players even more places to explore. Uncover the clues and enter the dungeons of the Undermountain to find the vault of dragons.
Home / Collections / > Board & Card Games / Dungeons & Dragons: Vault of Dragons


are fiber coupled semiconductor laser diode devices including fiber optic combiners and adaptors, control and power electronics, build in forced air cooling and armored output fiber optic cable with a terminal (a connector or a collimator). SPARKs operate at 780nm to 1550 nm at average output power of 50 watts to up to 500Watts.
The SPARK-500-915 is a high power multimode continuous wave (CW) fiber coupled laser.
The SPARK-500-915 laser module is one unit that contains fiber optics components, internal sensors, electrical switch, LED and an electrical connector for connecting a laser driver and control electronics. The module has an optical connector type multimode FC-APC for connection of external light sources and sensors.
The laser is assembled on a heat sink integrated with the laser enclosure.
The heat sink is forced air cooled using build in fans. The laser is terminated with high power armored output fiber optic cable. Output connector of the cable is passively conductive cooled; it includes an end-cap and a thermal interlock sensor.
An innovative developer and manufacturer of state of the art lasers and laser electro-optical systems for defense.


Automatic New 2019 Toyota Highlander SE V6 FWD stock # KS321359 has Blizzard Pearl exterior with a Black and Leather upholstery. This New Mexico Sport Utility Vehicle has 4 doors and carries 7 passengers. Some of the options include: 3.003 Axle Ratio, Wheels: 19 Multi-Spoke Machined-Face Alloy, Heated Front Bucket Seats, Leather Seat Trim, Radio: Entune Premium Audio w/Nav & App Suite, Nightshade Edition, Mudguards (TMS), Rear Bumper Applique, All-Weather Floor Liner Package (TMS), Tow Hitch Receiver & Wiring Harness Package, Black Roof Rails, All Weather Floor Liners, Black Badging, Cargo Liner, Black Exterior Door Handles, Unique Floor Mats, Black Side Mirror Caps, Black Rear Spoiler, Tow Hitch, Wiring Harness, Black Window Trim, Traction control, Trip computer, Turn signal indicator mirrors, Variably intermittent wipers, Front beverage holders, Auto-dimming Rear-View mirror, AM/FM radio: SiriusXM, Exterior Parking Camera Rear, Auto High-beam Headlights, Blind spot sensor: Blind Spot Monitor (BSM) warning, Distance pacing cruise control: Dynamic Radar Cruise Control w/Lane Tracing Assist (LTA), 4-Wheel Disc Brakes, 6 Speakers, Air Conditioning, Electronic Stability Control, Front Bucket Seats, Front Center Armrest, Leather Shift Knob, Navigation System, Power Liftgate, Spoiler, Tachometer, 3rd row seats: split-bench, ABS brakes, Automatic temperature control, Brake assist, Bumpers: body-color, CD player, Delay-off headlights, Driver door bin, Driver vanity mirror, Dual front impact airbags, Dual front side impact airbags, Four wheel independent suspension, Front anti-roll bar, Front dual zone A/C, Front fog lights, Front reading lights, Fully automatic headlights, Garage door transmitter, Heated door mirrors, Heated front seats, Illuminated entry, Knee airbag, Low tire pressure warning, Occupant sensing airbag, Outside temperature display, Overhead airbag, Overhead console, Panic alarm, Passenger door bin, Passenger vanity mirror, Power door mirrors, Power driver seat, Power moonroof, Power passenger seat, Power steering, Power windows, Rear air conditioning, Rear anti-roll bar, Rear reading lights, Rear window defroster, Rear window wiper, Reclining 3rd row seat, Remote keyless entry, Roof rack: rails only, Security system, Speed control, Speed-sensing steering, Split folding rear seat, Steering wheel mounted audio controls, Sun blinds, Telescoping steering wheel, Tilt steering wheel, SPECIAL COLOR, MUDGUARDS (TMS), NIGHTSHADE EDITION -inc: black antenna black rear Toyota emblem and black trunk garnish Black Badging Black Side Mirror Caps Black Window Trim Unique Floor Mats Black Rear Spoiler Black Exterior Door Handles, ALL-WEATHER FLOOR LINER PACKAGE (TMS) -inc: Cargo Liner All Weather Floor Liners, TOW HITCH RECEIVER & WIRING HARNESS PACKAGE -inc: Tow Hitch Wiring Harness, REAR BUMPER APPLIQUE, BODY SIDE MOLDING (TMS), ALL-WEATHER FLOOR LINER PACKAGE (TMS) -inc: Cargo Liner All Weather Floor Liners, Front Wheel Drive, Passenger Air Bag, Auxiliary Audio Input, Cross-Traffic Alert, Lane Keeping Assist, Remote Trunk Release, Multi-Zone A/C, Driver Illuminated Vanity Mirror, Child Safety Locks, Passenger Vanity Mirror, Adjustable Steering Wheel, Back-Up Camera, Power Liftgate, Bluetooth Connection, Power Driver Seat, 4-Wheel Disc Brakes, Brake Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, MP3 Player, Engine Immobilizer, Power Door Locks, Keyless Start, Generic Sun/Moonroof, Leather Steering Wheel, Security System, Driver Air Bag, Tires - Front Performance, Power Passenger Seat, Aluminum Wheels, Rear A/C, Trip Computer, Daytime Running Lights, Integrated Turn Signal Mirrors, AM/FM Stereo, Power Mirror(s), Blind Spot Monitor, Heated Mirrors, Front Head Air Bag, Passenger Illuminated Visor Mirror, 3rd Row Seat, Steering Wheel Audio Controls, CD Player, Power Steering, Tires - Rear Performance, Lane Departure Warning, Rear Spoiler, Traction Control, Auto-Dimming Rearview Mirror, Smart Device Integration, Bucket Seats, Rear Defrost, Power Windows, Heated Front Seat(s), Hard Disk Drive Media Storage, Navigation System, ABS, Keyless Entry, Climate Control, Driver Vanity Mirror, Front Side Air Bag, Satellite Radio, Driver Adjustable Lumbar, HD Radio, Intermittent Wipers, Rear Bucket Seats, Rear Head Air Bag, Automatic Headlights, Privacy Glass, Stability Control, Fog Lamps, Passenger Air Bag Sensor, Knee Air Bag, Leather Seats, Universal Garage Door Opener, Tire Pressure Monitor, Temporary Spare Tire, Variable Speed Intermittent Wipers. Ask for stock # KS321359, the Santa Fe New Mexico new 2019 Toyota Highlander SE V6 FWD.Call right now and schedule a test drive. Visit us online at www.toyotaofsantafe.com or in person at 1601 Saint Michaels Drive, Santa Fe, NM 87505. We serve all of New Mexico. Price includes all costs to be paid by consumer except for sales tax, registration, title, and $369 dealer transfer service fee. Price is valid for date of sale only. Internet price includes all available offers, incentives, and factory rebates assigned to the dealer.


text:
Long Live Post-Rock, Dead Or Alive A Preview of Tortoise at Lincoln Hall
January 2, 2017 at 10:06 am by Bill Kopp
January 2, 2017 January 9, 2017 Filed under:
Chicago Artists
The Who's Roger Daltrey first sang "Rock is dead / long live rock" way back in 1972. So it shouldn't be all that surprising that forty-five years later there's a musical genre known as post-rock, even if the term is so vague as to have no real meaning. Nonetheless, post-rock is the favored label applied to Tortoise.
From Tortoise's self-titled 1994 debut to their seventh and most recent album (2016's "The Catastrophist"), the band has folded in elements of everything from jazz to electronica to dub reggae to krautrock, and even an occasional bit of, well, rock.
Lest that sound foreboding, it should be noted that Tortoise often makes use of standard pop-music forms (verses, choruses and the like), and the result of the group's efforts is far more tuneful and accessible than written descriptions might suggest.
From the very start, Tortoise (which has had a fairly steady lineup since its start) has chosen to work completely in the instrumental idiom. There's a clear jazz sensibility to much of the band's music, most notably on 1998's "TNT." But relatively conventional instrumentation—guitars, synthesizers—keeps things rooted in memorable melody.
Like the albums before it, "The Catastrophist" has earned near-unanimous praise for its winning combination of experimentalism and tunefulness. Despite its somewhat unnerving cover art—which, in grand Tortoise tradition, has seemingly no connection to either the record's title or music—"The Catastrophist" has shown up on several "Best of 2016" lists and is well worth a listen. (Bill Kopp)
January 11, 9pm at Lincoln Hall, 2424 North Lincoln, (773)525-2508; $15.
God Isn't My Only Co-Pilot: Post-Rock Thrives On Two New Releases "Twin Hemispheres" is neither the best composition on the band's new album nor the right choice for the single (which it was), but I'll be damned if they didn't position it perfectly as a statement of intent, as if to say, "We are still Pilot Cloud and we're picking up precisely where we left off. "
Not Dead Yet: A Preview of Dead Sara at Beat Kitchen Dead Sara is one of the best rock bands you're not listening to. Its raging music is infectious, filled with searing guitar riffs and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Emily Armstrong is an unforgettable frontwoman, whose gritty vocals have earned praise from Grace Slick and Courtney Love.
Post-Family Values RECOMMENDED Recent (and very public) disputes between the Zappa Family Trust and guitarist/bandleader Dweezil Zappa have put a spotlight on extra-musical matters. But the eldest son of twentieth-century musical iconoclast Frank Zappa is determined to put the focus squarely back on the music. For legal reasons, Zappa's current group is called Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever the F@%k He Wants (in…
Resurrected: The Dead Boys Revisit Their Debut A commercial flop in its day, "Young Loud and Snotty" has won an increasing share of devotees, regularly showing up on critics' and fans' lists of essential punk records. This past year, to mark the record's fortieth anniversary, founding band member Cheetah Chrome decided to rerecord it.
Arena Rock for Modern Audiences RECOMMENDED The Struts are one of those groups that seem as if they've been around forever. Expertly channeling the glammy musical excess of Queen, the quartet from Derby, England burst onto the pop music landscape with 2014's "Everybody Wants." That album charted modestly in the U.K. and Canada, faring better (number fifteen) on the U.S. rock charts. Ahead of their…
Keeping the Prog-Rock Faith RECOMMENDED Formed in 1979, modern progressive-rock group Marillion got off to an auspicious start: the band's first and second albums—1983's "Script for a Jester's Tear" and the 1984 release "Fugazi"—both top-tenned in the group's native UK. Their third album, "Misplaced Childhood" (released 1985) was Marillion's breakthrough; it hit number one in the UK and rose to forty-seven on the US…
Tortoise (band)
Previous Post Two Bands In One
Next Post Acoustic Fireworks


text:
Movie Reviews: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi (spoilers), Battle of the Sexes, Wonder, Coco
See all of my movie reviews.
Battle of the Sexes: It feels like forever since I've seen a movie with real, engaging three-dimensional characters, instead of the one or zero dimensional characters you get in Disney and Marvel movies.
The story starts with some background on Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King. Riggs is an older former champion tennis player, a sexist but talented socialite, who is having difficulty with his family and looking for a new challenge. King is young and at or near the top in women's tennis, but disgusted that, while women's tennis draws the same ticket sales, the athletes get paid 1/8 what the men do, "because". So she starts her own league. Riggs challenges King to a battle of the sexes.
The trailers for this movie made it seem like Steve Carrell's Bobby Riggs was going to be a caricature of the real Riggs (who was certainly flamboyant). Thank goodness, Carrell, and his screenwriter and director, do a fantastic job in giving us a fully-fledged person that we can care about, even as he is, essentially, the bad guy. So, sucky trailer. Emma Stone does an equally fantastic job as Billie Jean King, as do several of the accessory and side characters, who are fleshed out in full glory (or at least as much as their screen-time allows).
The story lingered perhaps a little too long here and there on some scenes, like the initial haircut scene where she falls for her hairdresser (Carol did a better job with its similar love at first meeting scene). And maybe a little more time could have been added to the story to make it feel like a real epic. But never mind. This was a fun, fine, and satisfying movie to watch.
Wonder: From the trailer I wasn't expecting much for this movie, and in fact wasn't planning to see it at all. It seemed like a straightforward movie about a disfigured boy (Jacob Tremblay) being bullied in school, making and losing friends, and ultimately triumphing. Ho hum. So, once again, sucky, sucky trailer.
That story is, indeed, the backbone of the movie, taking up around 50% of the screen-time; if it was all there was to the movie, the movie would be as expected: not bad, but ultimately nothing special and predictable. But the movie spends the other 50% of its screen-time telling other people's stories, sometimes rolling back the same scene multiple times to view it from different points of view. We spend a lot of time with the sister, but also the mother, the sister's friend, the sister's boyfriend, and two other kids in the boy's class. And all of those stories are better and more original than the main storyline, making the movie so much more than just a story about a bulled boy.
The story is screenwritten by Steve Chbotsky (based on a book by RJ Palacio), the same screenwriter and author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I saw and loved that movie and wanted to read the book afterwards. The same thing happened with this movie: the movie is good, but you can see the left-out parts of the book peeking about here and there, and you really want to get more into depth with the characters.
Yes, the story is still a bit of a tearjerker, sentimental and emotional, but it is also narratively creative with some interesting, less predictable characters and story arcs. The main, predictable arc (basically told in the trailer) is raised up by being interwoven with the other stories, although it, too should have been better. Well worth a see, especially for kids and teens. Note: Chewbacca is in the movie, which makes it a candidate as an entry in the Star Wars canon, in my opinion.
Coco: Coco follows in the tradition of Moana, Brave, and Mulan in presenting not only a story of a hero's journey but a journey that is kickstarted, guided, and resolved in consonance with the literalization of a non-American cultural mythology. And I don't know how I feel about that.
A Mexican boy's (Manuel) family refuses to have anything to do with music because the great-grandfather ran off to become a musician, leaving his wife and child to fend for themselves. Naturally, Manuel wants to be a musician. It is the Day of the Dead, where everyone puts up pictures to the dead in order for the dead spirits to be able to (spiritually) visit, but of course a) there is no picture of the great-grandfather and b) Manuel doesn't want to have anything to do with his family. Manuel's idol is a famous musician, and Manuel learns, by accident, that this famous musician was, in fact, his great-grandfather. To compete in a music contest, Manuel steals a guitar from this musician's shrine and finds himself cursed into the land of the dead. Who are happily visiting the relatives who have posted pictures for them. The ones whose families have not posted pictures of them are unhappy. Manuel needs his dead family's blessing to get back to the real world, but they won't give it to him unless he promises not to pursue music. So he runs off to find the spirit of his great-grandfather.
Many of the themes, including the central theme, are reminiscent of the ones in the other movies I mentioned, and the movie also borrows some narrative elements from Up. It has a lot of "learning moments", which are familiar, and a few nice musical scenes. It leans heavy on appreciating your cultural heritage, by turning mythological aspects into real ones.
Which I find kind of bothersome. When mythology becomes fact, it is no longer a question of faith or practice or choice. While in real life there is no easy answer as to whether choosing to honor or not your dead ancestors makes you a good or bad person, movies like this imply that you have no choice not to believe in your family's traditional stories: If you don't, you are murdering or causing tremendous pain to actual beings who walk, talk, and feel exactly like any other living beings do. I'm not comfortable with that message. A mature individual recognizes that what we do to honor the dead and our traditions has nothing to do with the dead, but is about ourselves, our families, and our communities. Coco is aimed at children, sure, and this is just a children's story. But I thought that this movie was supposed to be sensitive to the cultures it was representing, not trivializing to them. You can't really have it both ways.
There are no glaring flaws with the movie, although a Mexican family rejecting all music for several generations seems a bit of a stretch. The movie is filled with pretty art, colors, and architecture which I presume represent both historical and modern Mexican culture. I'm not sure that modern children will appreciate the music, except the few numbers that are obviously meant to appeal to them. I'm not sure in what time period the movie is supposed to be; it must be modern, but no one has cellphones or computers. Is that normal for a modern, large Mexican town? Anyway, I liked it more than I did Moana, which I found derivative and boring. I'm sure that kids will enjoy it.
Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi: Star Wars once had something that was different from other sci-fi movies and worlds, something precious and important. Unfortunately, the makers of the current movies don't see that. Instead of making Star Wars movies, they are making modern sci-fi movies indistinguishable from other modern sci fi movies, with the iconography of Star Wars. Which is very painful to me. Chris Bateman bemoaned something similar after watching the Star Trek reboot, and I didn't get it, then. I think I get it now.
Update: see the end for thoughts after a second viewing.
The new Star Trek movies, the X-Men movies, the Marvel movies, the Ghost in the Shell remake, the Blade Runner movie, Looper, Valerian, Avatar, DC's movies, and many other sci-fi movies in the last 10 or 15 years have a vast similarity to each other, in much the same way that all modern Disney, Pixar, and other American animated children's movie have vast similarities to each other. They may have different writers, directors, and casts, but they are all, essentially, dumbed down. The creators of these movies avoid complex messages, plots, and themes, throw in snarky slapstick between action sequences, fill the screen with copious action sequences at nearly the same points in the movie, present emotions and dialog that is one-dimensional and transparently representative of the characters, and hammer you with neat and simplistic moral messages in their denouements that are understandable and suitable for a 4 year old. Family is good. Be brave. Be true to yourself. Be loving to creatures, the natives, and the environment.
Star Wars 4-6 and 1-3 were not like that, at all. Well, okay, they often had one-dimensional emotions and dialog, but otherwise. Star Wars did not have tons of snarky dialog, except for Leia, and hers was not slapstick snark but a very specific kind of frustration snark. A Star Wars movie took itself seriously, because the movie was about space opera and adventure, not about instant entertainment. The message about choosing the good side of the force was given, not saved as a discovery for the end of the movie. The dark side of the force and the light side of the force were about our moral choices: people could contain both of these powers, but choosing light meant - by definition - choosing good, while choosing dark meant choosing to be selfish, and therefore evil. People could be ambiguous, but there were clear moral choices. Heroism was heroism: choose good and act on it. Every movie felt like it was part of a world that extended well before and after the movie: what you were seeing was a small part of a great epic, because the movie took time to show and make you feel time passing: Luke's daily routine on the farm represented years, his efforts on Dagobah months. The force presented an exploration of mysticism, not just firepower or "lifting rocks". The movies were NOT just sci fi movies with cool weapons and critters; they were NOT Guardians of the Galaxy, which is a close movie in structure, but just as far in feel as all the others.
The came The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens struck an iffy balance between Star Wars ala Lucas and modern sci fi movies. It felt, at times, too much like a Marvel movie. It was missing a lot of the feel of the Star Wars epic and the mysticism, it felt less like an epic and more like a sequence of events. But the characters, especially Rey, were compelling and the structure was well done, so I had hope it might move in the right direction after the makers received feedback from the fans.
Here be some spoilers, but nothing major.
This movie felt like a Star Trek movie with bits of Star Wars thrown onto it. For the first 25 minutes of the movie, I was in pain, holding my head in my hands aghast at the vast empty, non-Star Wars feel to the movie. Then we got to Rey and Luke, and it was filled with snarky scenes that were supposed to be funny, and I felt my stomach drop. It was supposed to be funny that Luke casually tossed the light saber over his shoulder? Really? It wasn't funny AT ALL, not only because it wasn't funny, but because it wasn't what Luke would do, even if he were disgusted by the force and everything it stood for. He would throw it away in disgust, perhaps, or at least show some emotional acknowledgement that this was his saber he had lost. Or ask some questions of Rey. Anything! The scene was a disaster, and I began to get a headache.
The main part of the movie is dull, with an hour long chase scene where nothing of consequence happens. Poe and Finn basically accomplish nothing in the entire movie. Instead, the entire enterprise of heroism is called into question, because, as one character puts it, we don't kill what we hate, we save what we love? What??? So heroes aren't heroes? It is implied not only that people can have both dark and light in them, but that dark isn't maybe so evil and light ins't maybe so good! What??? That destroys the entire freakin' metaphor! I don't want another vague morality movie that tells me that morality is relative. I don't want a treatise on how heroes aren't heroes, because they should follow orders. And I don't need a new lecture on how both sides are just as bad, and another on how we shouldn't treat animals badly (seriously, the movie took about twenty minutes of run time to tell us this).
The scene on the casino was a phenomenal waste of time; maybe it was supposed to be funny, but it wasn't, and it wasn't Star Wars funny. Even the pod race in TPM made more sense and had more meaning than this. And then we have a scene with Ren gratuitously without his shirt, a callback to the underwear scene in Star Trek Into Darkness. The whole movie takes place over what? Three days? So no story development. Please repeat after me: a character learning something isn't character development. It's just learning. Marvel characters learn things, too, but that doesn't make them less cartoonish. Development takes introspection, depth, complexity, time, and sensitivity.
So yeah, I had problems. Not only in the first 25 minutes, but many times after.
However .... admittedly after the first 25 minutes, some of the scenes were really great, and even really Star Wars great. The Rey-before-Snope and the lightsaber battle afterwards were beautiful, because of the shifting nature of the alliance and the confusion that the characters felt in the process. And the battle over the salt fields with the red plumes were a beautiful thing to see. I liked the dynamic between Ren and Rey, and the Luke and Ren scene, too. I liked Rose, but I didn't like most of the scenes she was in. I hated the multiple BB-ex-machina scenes, even more than I disliked the C3PO nuisance scenes in ESB.
Seen from the non-Star War perspective, the movie dragged in several scenes in the middle, but it was at least as entertaining as any other modern sci fi movie, and better because of the interesting characters of Rey and Ren. But I despair about the future of the franchise. With the exception of certain threads and scenes, these are not Star Wars movies, and for that I mourn. I like these threads and scenes; I want them to be in better, far different movies.
Also ... more spoilers ...
Callbacks: So many scenes were callbacks to TESB and TRotJ: training the Jedi, including entering the "dark side" cave, Rey giving herself up to Ren to be taken before the emperor and snatching up the lightsaber, and others. The resistance flying head on into the marching first order elephant things. And, admittedly, ESB spent mosy of its time simply chasing after the Millennium Falcon.
Things I didn't have a problem with that others might: The above callbacks. The changes in the force, such as the mindlink and the projection. Yes, it's odd that previous generations of Jedi never did these things, but they seem like the kinds of things that they would do, and I'm cool with that. This includes the water actually traveling through the mindlink and that Luke projected an image was of his younger self.
Other minor problems: If this takes place only days after the last movie, how could the republic and/or first order be in any kind of different state than it was in the last one? What happened to the galaxy? Why do they keep calling them rebels, instead of the resistance? Pick one. Since when do bombs fall in space when you release them? Fall which direction? What happened to Snoke insisting on training Ren? Or Rey? What the hell was Snoke? He shows up larger than life, he seems to be stronger than the emperor, and then he just dies? Why didn't the new admiral Holdo just tell Poe what the plan was, instead of waiting until the evacuation? Why did she wait until nearly everyone was dead before light-speeding her ship into the enemy? If that's a thing, can't you rig a bunch of ships to do that and decimate your enemies more frequently
Update: Having now seen the movie a second time, my thoughts are adjusting a bit. The parts that I disliked the first time I dislike now even more: in particular the comedy and the BB8 scenes, which are as annoying as Jar Jar but take up even more screen time. There is a difference between conversational humor, which I can enjoy, and slapstick humor directed at the audience, which I don't. I'm further down on the arrangement of scenes and the pacing. I don't like any scenes with Hux. I don't like the plot about, or even the idea that, spaceships run out of fuel in this universe. I still don't like how the director taunts the audience by not paying off stories about Rey's parents, Snoke, the R2D2 map, Chewbacca's grief, and other things.
The parts that I liked before I like even more, which is also what happened to me with TFA. However, after the second viewing, I'm feeling a bit better about the neutral parts of the story. I don't LIKE the story - both the good and the bad guys throw away the past, Finn and Poe are reigned in as heroes instead of being heroic - but I'm okay with that being the story.
MagicGate: Toxic Misogyny Invades Tabletop Gaming
Tabletop gaming has always had its share of women-hate and male toxicity.
Sexes were historically separated from playing together for thousands of years in order to avoid licentiousness. This was simply an extension of the general separation between the sexes. By the 19th and early 20th century, at least in Europe and the US, the sexes had found ways to mingle by means of parlor games, many of which we would consider overly racy today (a great many of them involved kissing and/or groping, for example).
The last hundred years of tabletop games saw women relegated to "women's divisions" (in Chess, for example), "girls" games (aka pink and/or about makeup and jewelry), or even the kitchen in the belief that they don't have what it takes to play at a man's level. They often don't, if you exclude them from serious training opportunities, exclude them from playing against top players, diminish their desires, goals, and accomplishments, require them to deal with unchecked harassment, and require from them a fanatical devotion to play for endless hours with unwashed, excruciatingly rude, and sexist jerks. Despite this, there are always a few women who are able and willing to complete with many of the top men in any game.
I had hope that in our little corner of the world, harassment would get no worse than that, and hopefully better. While anyone of any sex might get killed playing Dominoes in a Jamaica coffee shop or throwing dice on the streets of Taiwan, tabletop games remain a relatively safe, family-friendly, and gender-mixing activity. Chess, Go, and Bridge have women's divisions, but the majority of their competitions are mixed and relatively safe. Wargaming is a men's club, but it's not toxic to women as far as I know. CCG and RPG events are/were known to attract mostly young male jerks, which scared off some women (see above) but I hadn't thought that these jerks' behavior rose to level of toxicity associated with Gamergate. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Women are not only harassed, but sexually assaulted at these conventions; the organizers and police are often unable or unwilling to help them. Apparently the CCG and RPG players who grew up in their little boys' club are now adult enough to feel entitled and powerful enough to join the ranks of the male toxics, white nationalists, and "pickup artists", just like the Gamergate folks. And just as in Gamergate, douches post harassing videos and posts claiming that woman who complain about harassment are lying for the attention, as a result of which teeming hordes of similarly minded jerks harass them more, and more seriously. And when called on it, of course, they post endlessly, harassing everyone with why they are right and everyone else is lying and "missing the point". Ho hum, how familiar.
Seems like this behavior is getting worse, not better, and I can think of a few reasons why. I just wish that they didn't infect my hobby.
Labels: ccgs, gaming, philosophy, politics, rpgs
Movie Reviews: Star Wars 8: The Last Jedi (spoiler...


How did African-Americans develop a culture that combined African and American elements? What were some features of that culture?
How Congress works and why we should care?
How Country Of Origin Image Can Affect International Business Success And Further Internatinal Expansion.
How convincing is the case that the eradication of pollution should be left to the market mechanism?
How democratic was the government of Periclean Athens?


I forgot my sign in name. Can you help me remember it?
We're sorry to hear that you've forgotten your user name, Satoshi. We'd be happy to help you recover this information. To recover your user name, we ask that you contact us directly for assistance. To do so, you are able to call us 24/7 by dialing 888-751-9000 (800-493-7562 option 2 for BusinessDirect). After account verification, our Representatives will be glad to help you. If you prefer to speak with a Representative in person, feel free to visit us during lobby hours at any TD Store. To take a look at Store locations and hours please visit http://bit.ly/TDStores. If you are referring to a TD Bank Credit Card, you may contact us 24/7 at 888-561-8861 to speak with a TD Credit Card Specialist. If you are referring to a TD Bank Go Card, please call us 24/7 at 855-219-8050. We hope this helps, Satoshi and have a good day.


text:
angular.module('os.biospecimen.models.form', ['os.common.models'])
  .factory('Form', function(osModel, $http, $q, Util) {
    var Form =
      osModel(
        'forms',
        function(form) {
          form.FormContextModel =  osModel('forms/' + form.$id() + '/contexts');
          form.FormContextModel.prototype.$saveOrUpdate = updateFormContext;
          form.FormContextModel.prototype.$remove = removeFormContext;
        }
      );

    function updateFormContext() {
      var form = this.form;
      var formCtxts = [];
      for (var i = 0; i < this.cpIds.length; ++i) {
        formCtxts.push({formId: form.$id(), collectionProtocol: {id: this.cpIds[i]}, level: this.entity, multiRecord: this.isMultiRecord});
      }

      return $http.put(form.FormContextModel.url(), formCtxts).then(form.FormContextModel.modelRespTransform);
    };

    function removeFormContext() {
      var form = this.form;
      var param = {params: {cpId: this.cpId, entityType: this.entityType}}

      return $http.delete(form.FormContextModel.url(), param).then(form.FormContextModel.noTransform);
    }

    Form.prototype.$id = function() {
      return this.formId;
    };

    Form.prototype.getType = function() {
      return 'form';
    }

    Form.prototype.getDisplayName = function() {
      return this.caption;
    }

    Form.prototype.getFormContexts = function() {
      return this.FormContextModel.query();
    };

    Form.prototype.newFormContext = function(formCtxt) {
      return new this.FormContextModel(formCtxt);
    };

    Form.prototype.$remove = function () {
      return $http.delete( Form.url() + this.$id()).then(function(result) { return result.data; });
    };

    Form.getDefinition = function(formId) {
      return $http.get(Form.url() + formId + '/definition').then(
        function(result) {
          return result.data;
        }
      );
    };

    Form.listForms = function(formType) {
      return $http.get(Form.url(), {params: {formType: formType}}).then(
        function(result) {
          return result.data.map(function(form) {
            form.id = form.formId;
            return new Form(form);
          });
        }
      );
    };

    Form.listQueryForms = function() {
      return Form.listForms('query');
    };

    Form.listFor = function(url, objectId, params) {
      var result = [];

      $http.get(url + objectId + '/forms', {params: params}).then(
        function(resp) {
          var opts = angular.extend({objectId: objectId}, params);
          angular.forEach(resp.data, function(form) {
            form.id = form.formId;
            result.push(new Form(angular.extend(form, opts)));
          });
        }
      );

      return result;
    };

    Form.listRecords = function(url) {
      var records = [];
      $http.get(url).then(
        function(resp) {
          Util.unshiftAll(records, createRecordsList(resp.data));
        }
      );

      return records;
    };

    Form.deleteRecord = function(formId, recordId) {
      var url = Form.url() + formId + '/data/' + recordId;
      return $http.delete(url).then(
        function(resp) {
          return resp.data;
        }
      );
    };

    Form.prototype.getRecords = function() {
      var result = [];
      var params = {objectId: this.objectId, entityType: this.entityType};
      $http.get(Form.url() + this.$id() + '/records', {params: params}).then(
        function(resp) {
          Util.unshiftAll(result, resp.data[0].records);
        }
      );

      return result;
    };

    Form.prototype.getFields = function() {
      var cpId = -1;
      if (!!this.cp) {
        cpId = this.cp.id;
      }

      var params = {cpId: cpId, extendedFields: true};
      var d = $q.defer();
      var that = this;
      if (this.fields) {
        d.resolve(this.fields);
      } else {
        $http.get(Form.url() + this.$id() + '/fields', {params: params}).then(
          function(resp) {
            that.fields = resp.data;
            that.staticFields = flattenStaticFields("", that.fields);
            that.extnForms = getExtnForms("", that.fields);
            that.extnFields = flattenExtnFields(that.extnForms);

            d.resolve(that.fields);
            return resp.data;
          }
        );
      }

      return d.promise;
    }

    Form.prototype.getField = function(fieldName) {
      for (var i = 0; i < this.staticFields.length; ++i) {
        if (fieldName == this.staticFields[i].name) {
          return this.staticFields[i];
        }
      }

      for (var i = 0; i < this.extnFields.length; ++i) {
        if (fieldName == this.extnFields[i].name) {
          return this.extnFields[i];
        }
      }

      return undefined;
    }

    function createRecordsList(formsRecords) {
      var recordsList = [];
      angular.forEach(formsRecords, function(formRecs) {
        angular.forEach(formRecs.records, function(record) {
          record.formCaption = formRecs.caption;
          record.formId = formRecs.id;
          recordsList.push(record);
        });
      });

      return recordsList.sort(function(rec1, rec2) {
        return +rec2.updateTime - +rec1.updateTime;
      });
    };

    function flattenFields(fqn, fields) {
      var result = [];
      angular.forEach(fields, function(field) {
        if (field.type == 'SUBFORM') {
          result = result.concat(flattenFields(fqn + field.name + '.', field.subFields));
        } else {
          var f = angular.extend({}, field);
          f.name = fqn + field.name;
          result.push(f);
        }
      });

      return result;
    };

    function filterAndFlattenFields(fqn, fields, filterfn) {
      var result = [];
      angular.forEach(fields, function(field) {
        if (filterfn(field)) {
          result.push(field);
        }
      });

      return flattenFields(fqn, result);
    };

    function flattenStaticFields(fqn, fields) {
      return filterAndFlattenFields(
        fqn,
        fields,
        function(field) {
          return field.type != 'SUBFORM' || field.name != 'extensions';
        });
    };

    function flattenExtnFields(extnForms) {
      var fields = [];
      angular.forEach(extnForms, function(extnForm) {
        fields = fields.concat(extnForm.fields);
      });

      return fields;
    };

    function getExtnForms(fqn, fields) {
      var extnSubForm = undefined;
      for (var i = 0; i < fields.length; ++i) {
        if (fields[i].type != 'SUBFORM' || fields[i].name != 'extensions') {
          continue;
        }

        extnSubForm = fields[i];
        break;
      }

      if (!extnSubForm) {
        return [];
      }

      var extnForms = [];
      for (var i = 0; i < extnSubForm.subFields.length; ++i) {
        var subForm = extnSubForm.subFields[i];
        var extnFields = flattenFields(fqn + "extensions." + subForm.name + ".", subForm.subFields);
        for (var j = 0; j < extnFields.length; ++j) {
          extnFields[j].extensionForm = subForm.caption;
        }
        extnForms.push({name: subForm.name, caption: subForm.caption, fields: extnFields});
      }

      return extnForms;
    };

    return Form;
  });

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: server.py wont start, problem with unicode character in path Okay so I'm trying to run a server using python. When I try to start the server though I get this:
D:\Users\DearJohn28\Downloads\prgm>python3 server.py
INFO:engineio.server:Server initialized for threading.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "server.py", line 63, in <module>
    app.initialize()
  File "D:\Users\DearJohn28\Downloads\prgm\app.py", line 21, in initialize
    settings = initSettings()
  File "D:\Users\DearJohn28\Downloads\prgm\prgm\app\settings.py", line 30, in initSettings
    makedirs(settings['downloadLocation'], exist_ok=True)
  File "D:\Python\Python37\lib\os.py", line 213, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, exist_ok=exist_ok)
  File "D:\Python\Python37\lib\os.py", line 213, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, exist_ok=exist_ok)
  File "D:\Python\Python37\lib\os.py", line 213, in makedirs
    makedirs(head, exist_ok=exist_ok)
  File "D:\Python\Python37\lib\os.py", line 223, in makedirs
    mkdir(name, mode)
OSError: [WinError 123] The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect: '\u202aD:'

I had it work once before so I don't know what happened. As far as I can tell, when it's making a directory there is a unicode character triggering an OSError.
I would say that I'm not too skilled in python, but I follow direction well.
Here's where makedirs() comes in:
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import os.path as path
from os import makedirs

import prgm.utils.localpaths as localpaths

settings = {}
defaultSettings = {}

def initSettings():
    global settings
    global defaultSettings
    currentFolder = path.abspath(path.dirname(__file__))
    configFolder = localpaths.getConfigFolder()
    makedirs(configFolder, exist_ok=True)
    with open(path.join(currentFolder, 'default.json'), 'r') as d:
        defaultSettings = json.load(d)
        defaultSettings['downloadLocation'] = path.join(localpaths.getHomeFolder(), 'mymedia')
    if not path.isfile(path.join(configFolder, 'config.json')):
        with open(path.join(configFolder, 'config.json'), 'w') as f:
            json.dump(defaultSettings, f, indent=2)
    with open(path.join(configFolder, 'config.json'), 'r') as configFile:
        settings = json.load(configFile)
    settingsCheck()
    if settings['downloadLocation'] == "":
        settings['downloadLocation'] = path.join(localpaths.getHomeFolder(), 'mymedia')
        saveSettings(settings)
    makedirs(settings['downloadLocation'], exist_ok=True)
    return settings

def getSettings():
    global settings
    return settings

def getDefaultSettings():
    global defaultSettings
    return defaultSettings

def saveSettings(newSettings):
    global settings
    settings = newSettings
    with open(path.join(localpaths.getConfigFolder(), 'config.json'), 'w') as configFile:
        json.dump(settings, configFile, indent=2)
    return True

def settingsCheck():
    global settings
    global defaultSettings
    changes = 0
    for x in defaultSettings:
        if not x in settings or type(settings[x]) != type(defaultSettings[x]):
            settings[x] = defaultSettings[x]
            changes += 1
    for x in defaultSettings['tags']:
        if not x in settings['tags'] or type(settings['tags'][x]) != type(defaultSettings['tags'][x]):
            settings['tags'][x] = defaultSettings['tags'][x]
            changes += 1
    if changes > 0:
        saveSettings(settings)

prgm.utils.localpaths
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os.path as path
import sys
from os import getenv

userdata = ""
homedata = path.expanduser("~")

if getenv("APPDATA"):
    userdata = getenv("APPDATA") + path.sep + "mymedia" + path.sep
elif sys.platform.startswith('darwin'):
    userdata = homedata + '/Library/Application Support/mymedia/'
elif getenv("XDG_CONFIG_HOME"):
    userdata = getenv("XDG_CONFIG_HOME") + '/mymedia/';
else:
    userdata = homedata + '/.config/mymedia/';

def getHomeFolder():
    return homedata

def getConfigFolder():
    return userdata

How do I go about fixing this?

A: This call makedirs(settings['downloadLocation'], exist_ok=True) seems to indicate that too much information is sent to makedirs.
You need to extract the 'downloadLocation' from settings in the call by running settings['downloadLocation'] to extract the value from your dictionary.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This Sally Ride Science pin was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. She served as president and CEO of the company which she founded in 2001 along with Dr. Tam O'Shaughnessy, Dr. Karen Flammer, and two like-minded friends. The company was created as a response to the gender gap seen in science and technical fields.


This post will contain affiliate links, which when clicked on provide me with a benefit that helps ensure more free content. Thanks for your support!
Hey Friends! I'm a Girl Scout. Haven't I told you that before? That's right I'm a girl leadin', song singin', campin', craftin', SWAPn', cookie sellin' Girl Scout. I love Girl Scouts. I love the girls, I love the activities. I love the organization, I love the message and the mission.
By the way, if you NEED Girl Scout cookies but don't know any scouts, you can buy some here and have them shipped to you double quick! It's an amazing service!
I recently made a little something to include in a gift basket my local council was donating to a regional meeting. The basket was kitchen themed. Naturally they looked at me and said, "Will you crochet something?". Of course I would! I decided to make two hanging kitchen towels. I had some towels that had green polka dots on them which I thought nicely fit the GS theme. I cut them to size and edged them my handy dandy overlock serger. I then used my own Hanging Kitchen Towel crochet pattern to crochet the top of the towels.
So I came up with a quick, easy and very cute crochet applique of the Girl Scout Trefoil symbol, and you can make one too! You can sew your trefoil onto any project and enjoy showing off your handmade Girl Scout pride.
Notes: The Trefoil is the emblem of Girl Scouts USA. Slightly resembling a four leaf clover, the trefoil is green in color and has three rounded leaves, and a pointed leaf at the bottom. This crochet applique can be sewn onto any garment or project. It can even be used as a do-it-yourself "fun patch" for the back of Girl Scout uniforms.
Round 1: hdc 10 into magic ring, join with a sl st, ch 1.
Round 2: (sc, dc) into same st as join, (dc, dc) into next st, (dc, sc) into next st, (top leaf made), (sc, dc, dc) into next st, (dc, dc, hdc) into next st (side leaf made), (sc, dc) in next st, (dc, tr, dc) into next st, (dc, sc) into next st (bottom lead made), (hdc, dc, dc) into next st, (dc, sc) into next st (second side leaf made), join to first sc with a sl st.
Leave a long tail for sewing if using applique on a crocheted project.
Pull starting tail tight, and weave in to permanently secure center.
Applique can be sewn onto fabric with needle and thread, hot glued to craft projects or used creatively in any way desired.


text:
Q: Pre pull image for new Kubernetes cluster autoscale-up Nodes My pods/containers run on a docker image which is about 4GiB in size. Pulling the image from the container registry takes about 2 mins whenever a new VM node is spun up when resources are insufficient.
That is to say, whenever a new request comes in and the Kubernetes service auto scale up a new node, it takes 2 mins+. User has to wait 2 mins to put through a request. Not ideal. I am currently using the Azure AKS to deploy my application and using their cluster autoscaler feature.
I am using a typical deployment set up with 1 fix master pod, and 3 fix worker pods. These 3 worker pods correspond to 3 different types of requests. Each time a request comes in, the worker pod will generate a K8 Job to process the request.
BIG Question is, how can I pre pull the images so that when a new node is spun up in the Kubernetes cluster, users don't have to wait so long for the new Job to be ready?

A: If you are using Azure Container Registry (ACR) for storing and pulling your images you can enable teleportation that will significantly reduce your image pull time. Refer link for more information


confession of judgment -- a clause in a loan contract providing that the borrower waives the right to be notified and the right to be heard in court if the lender brings suit and obtains a judgment against the borrower in the event of a default. This credit practice was prohibited by regulation in 1985.
Confession of judgment -- Said when the debtor admits the debt and concurs in the obtaining of a judgment against him.


text:
Q: Outlook: how to configure to use another server for outgoing mail? I have a client that has problems with his current outgoing mail provider. It seems he uses a server for incoming mail and another server (another provider) for outgoing. But since the outgoing mail service is randomly unavailable, he wants to change to my servers.
Is there a way to configure his outlook to use my MediaTemple servers only for outgoing mail without making changes to the domain configuration (DNS nor NameServer changes)? if so, how?

A: You need to configure your smtp server so that it accepts to relay mails for his domain and configure his email client to use your smtp server.

A: Configure your SMTP server to allow relaying from the client ip address(es), or alternately configure your SMTP server to allow authenticated relaying and create a user account (or user accounts) for your client to use to authenticate to your SMTP server, then confugure the client Outlook settings to use your SMTP server for outgoing email.


text:
.. highlight:: python
.. module:: fontParts.base

Component
*********

Must Override
-------------
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._decompose
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_baseGlyph
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_identifier
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_transformation
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._set_baseGlyph
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._set_index
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._set_transformation

May Override
------------
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._draw
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._drawPoints
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_bounds
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_index
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_offset
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._get_scale
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._init
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._moveBy
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._pointInside
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._rotateBy
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._round
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._scaleBy
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._set_offset
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._set_scale
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._skewBy
.. automethod:: BaseComponent._transformBy
.. automethod:: BaseComponent.copyData