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Home Community Loud and Clear
Loud and Clear
One podcast founder on using her voice to foster community among determined mothers // Photographs by Rosa Maria Zamarron
Emma Klug
On the first episode of Mother Honestly Podcast, released in October 2018, host Blessing Adesiyan thoughtfully discusses work-life alignment with Taharah Saad, an engineer at Ford Motor Co., vice president of the Arab American Women's Business Council, and a mother and step mother of three. In another episode, she speaks with Erinn Moss, operating partner of Dry Bar Birmingham and mother to three boys, on how to start a business before you're ready. And, on a more recent episode, Adesiyan talks mental health and motherhood with some of the women behind Honey, a Ferndale-based clubhouse where mothers can find parenting, lifestyle, and childcare support. "Listening to their stories has given me courage in my own journey," says Adesiyan, 32, a full-time senior supply chain sales and operations leader at BASF, a chemical company with local offices in Southfield. Adesiyan launched Mother Honestly, the more than 100-member collective, to support mothers in their professional lives in June 2018. "We knew we wanted to have a podcast, but we didn't know that we were going to be spreading this message of resilience, and empowering women, and elevating our potential."
After moving to the United States from Nigeria in 2006, Adesiyan graduated with a chemical engineering degree from the University of Florida and worked at DuPont and PepsiCo. She later married and, in 2009, gave birth to her daughter. Despite her professional success, by the time she welcomed her son last summer, she felt as though she lacked the tools to effectively balance the endless obligations of motherhood with her professional ambitions. "There was just so much," she says. "My dreams and my career needed a different kind of attention."
Blessing Adesiyan, pictured with her son at Motor City Woman Studios where she records Honestly Podcast.
Now, as a mother of two, she says the sense of community she's been able to cultivate since starting the Mother Honestly empire — in addition to the podcast, the collective encompasses a blog, an annual summit for mothers featuring panel discussions and networking opportunities, a range of online self-improvement classes, and a pitch competition for entrepreneurial mothers — is something that was missing while she was on maternity leave with her then newborn son.
A natural problem solver, Adesiyan sought out other like-minded women to help her build the infrastructure of Mother Honestly. Her goal was to meet ambitious mothers where they already were. "When we become moms, we don't have time," Adesiyan says. In part, that's why when Robin Kinnie, the owner of the Southfield-based Motor City Woman podcast studio, reached out about having her launch a Mother Honestly show and offered to assist with the technical side of recording, Adesiyan jumped at the opportunity.
"The podcast — you don't need to leave your home to listen to," Adesiyan says, adding that she's been able to learn from others such as superstar entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso's Girl Boss Radio, WorkParty by Create and Cultivate, and NPR's How I Built This episodes while commuting to work, dropping off kids, or picking up around the house. "You have so many amazing powerhouse people giving their thoughts and processes away for free."
So far, Mother Honestly Podcast, which boasts a five-star rating on iTunes and attracts over 24,000 worldwide listeners, has featured several metro Detroit-based members of the collective. Moving forward, Adesiyan hopes to speak with mothers outside of Michigan, as well, especially as the show's reach and Mother Honestly's impact continues to expand into more cities. "We're powered by women," she says. "This is just the beginning."
Tune into more podcasts led by local women
A Drink With adrinkwith.com
Hillary Sawchuk, the host and founder of A Drink With, sits down with influential leaders, including skateboarder and entrepreneur Tony Hawk, Détroit Is the New Black owner Roslyn Karamoko, and Grammy Award-winning songwriter Allee Willis — all over a drink of choice at the Detroit Foundation Hotel's podcast studio.
Freelance Friday ajourneyeast.com
LaTasha James, a metro Detroit-based digital creator and strategist, launched her podcast just over a year ago. Through interviews with expert creatives as well as tips and tricks from James herself, each episode attempts to give a behind-the-scenes look at the path to freelance success.
The Lively Show jesslively.com
The Lively Show focuses on how to live with intention by using the law of attraction and tapping into the subconscious mind. The podcast, which to date, has more than 10 million downloads, is hosted by Jess Lively, a Rochester native who has recently move to Detroit after living abroad in Australia.
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Alumni Association to recognize outstanding alumni at annual awards banquet
October 17, 2018 /in LSSU News /by John Shibley
Lake Superior State University invites the community to help celebrate three distinguished alumni and outstanding friends of the institution during its annual Alumni Awards Banquet, part of Great Lake State Weekend, Nov. 2-4.
The banquet begins at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 2, in the Walker Cisler Center. Tickets are available by calling 906-635-2831, or by going to www.lssu.edu/glsw for more about weekend events and to register online.
"Each year the Alumni Association is proud to honor select alumni who have excelled in their professions and engaged with their alma mater," says Susan Fitzpatrick, director of LSSU Alumni Relations. "There are more than 34,000 graduates and former students of the Soo Branch of Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State College, and Lake Superior State University. It is our privilege to honor these three incredibly accomplished alumni."
Edward F. Smith M.D. is recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Alumnus Award – the highest award bestowed by the Alumni Association. Smith's service to the Northern Lower and Eastern Upper Peninsulas hearkens back to the early days of the traveling physician, who made rounds to distant communities caring for patients while building long-term, personal relationships with them and their families.
Smith extends this tradition of personal attention at hospitals in Petoskey, St. Ignace, Newberry, and Sault Ste. Marie, while being supportive of the communities he serves through philanthropy and volunteerism.
Smith earned a bachelor of arts degree in biology/chemistry from Lake Superior State College, graduating cum laude in 1978. He completed his doctor of medicine at Michigan State University, graduating with honors from the College of Human Medicine in 1982.
With more than 36 years of diverse experience, Smith has earned professional privileges with Mackinac Straits Hospital, Northern Michigan Hematology and Oncology in Petoskey, McLaren Northern Michigan, Helen Newberry Joy Hospital, Mackinac Straits Hematology/Oncology, and War Memorial Hospital.
Smith's research includes working as a fellow to develop and investigate thrombostatins. He spent joint research time with the Southwest Oncology Group at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, and the Community Clinic Oncology Program in Grand Rapids.
He was principal investigator for Northern Michigan Regional Hospital from 2007-2009.
Through all this, he still finds time to teach LSSU nursing students in their oncology rotation, and more.
"I have had the privilege of giving academic lectures to biology and nursing classes," says Smith. "Our Oncology Department at Mackinac Straits Hospital has nursing students spend time with us learning about cancer care."
Smith stays involved in the community and with LSSU's alumni and foundation offices. He helped establish the "No Cancer Patient Left Behind Fund," a financial assistance fund for cancer patients at Mackinac Straits Hospital. He created and developed a nursing scholarship/internship for LSSU nursing students at Mackinac Straits Hospital. Smith teamed up with the Sault High Blue Devil Hockey's Board of Directors for "Pink in the Rink" events that support War Memorial Hospital's Road to Recovery Program, which provides transportation for cancer patients requiring radiation treatments in Petoskey, Mich.
Smith has served on the Lake Superior State University Foundation Board of Directors since 2012. He and his wife, Jill, established a scholarship at LSSU to assist students in LSSU's pre-med concentration program. The couple supported the South Hall renovation project, and continue to support the Center for Freshwater Research and Education, Laker Club, and the Fund for LSSU.
The Smiths have one son, Bradley.
This year's Shouldice Professional Achievement Award goes to Julie Ann Vincent, M.D., who graduated from the smallest public university in Michigan to attain truly big goals nationally in the field of medicine. The award, established in 1994, is presented to alumni who have demonstrated significant success in their chosen professions. It is named in honor of the school's first chancellor and president, who is considered to be the father of Lake Superior State University.
Vincent earned a bachelor of science in medical technology from Lake Superior State College, graduating summa cum laude in 1983, and was awarded her doctor of medicine degree by the Wayne State University School of Medicine in 1988.
"I had my first course with the late Steven J. Person," recalls Vincent. "What a superb teacher! He made biology, anatomy, histology and all the many other courses he taught so exciting and interesting. By my last two years of college, I had decided to get a degree in medical technology. Dr. Person encouraged me during my senior year to take the medical college admission test (MCAT), which nudged me towards medical school."
Vincent is now chief of the Division of Pediatric Cardiology and the Welton M. Gersony Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, both at Columbia University in New York. From 2010 to 2014 she also directed the pediatric cardiology fellowship program there.
Prior to Columbia, Vincent was an assistant professor of pediatrics and director of cardiac catheterization research 1997-99 in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Stanford University, 1995-97.
Concurrent with these academic appointments, Vincent practiced medicine at the Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital in Stanford, Ca., and the Children's Hospital of Michigan in the Detroit Medical Center.
From 2002 to 2006 she was director and attending physician of the cardiac catheterization laboratory at the Phoenix Children's Hospital, where she was responsible for overseeing development of the first state-of-the-art pediatric hybrid catheterization lab in the southwest.
Vincent has written a variety of professional education materials and helped direct multiple clinical trials of various medical devices. She has authored or co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed papers as well as case reports, abstracts and posters, and continues to lecture and moderate at numerous cardiology conferences.
Vincent lives with her partner and wife of nearly 25 years in New York City.
The 2018 recipient of the Paul Ripley Award for Young Alumni is Erin Strang, LSSU class of 2002. Strang is president and chief executive officer of the Central Michigan University Research Corporation (CMURC) in Mt. Pleasant, a position she has held since 2010. The company shares space with an accelerator program that focuses on advancing economic development in the Great Lakes Bay Region.
The Ripley Award honors graduates who have enjoyed exceptional personal and professional success early in their careers. Paul Ripley was Lake State's first Alumni Director and was a member of the Pioneer Class of 1946.
Strang played volleyball for LSSU from 2000 to 2002 and earned her bachelor of science degree in business administration with a minor in marketing. Prior to attending LSSU, she completed an associate's degree at Glen Oaks Community College in Centreville. Currently, she is taking courses at Oakland University towards a masters of public administration.
"I graduated from LSSU with a solid business foundation that I have been able to leverage to assist entrepreneurs in their business strategy and development," says Strang. "I am honored to be receiving the Ripley Award, as I am fortunate to have found my passion due to the education of my alma mater."
As president and CEO of CMURC, Strang has had a direct hand in the creation of more than 170 companies – 84% of which are still pursuing growth, creating more than 490 new jobs, and investing $53 million. Her mandate includes a tech-transfer process to commercialize CMU-researcher technology and leading SmartZone District development in Mt. Pleasant.
Prior to becoming CMURC CEO, Strang served as director of operations in 2010. In that role she managed day to day operations for business development and business insights; recruited and retained entrepreneurial start-up tenants and affiliate client companies to provide industry, market, and feasibility analysis; and developed product, manufacturing, and supply chains.
Outside of her day job, Strang is chair of the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce, vice chair of the Michigan Small Business and Development Center, and a member of the CMU Senior Leadership Team. Previously, she served on the Great Lakes Bay Regional Alliance Board, the Mid-Michigan College M-Tec Advisory Board, and the Middle Michigan Development Corporation.
"Prior to coming LSSU, I remember debating on if I were to pursue additional education at all," says Strang. "Looking back, I could not have asked for a better experience or better education. LSSU was a big part of the journey that molded me into the individual I am today, and I am honored to be receiving this award."
Erin and her husband Jason Hughes have a 4-year-old daughter, Alexis.
https://www.lssu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/2018-Alumni-Award-Recipients.jpg 1600 3000 John Shibley /wp-content/uploads/2016/01/headerlogo_white-300x80.png John Shibley2018-10-17 15:51:232018-11-06 15:14:39Alumni Association to recognize outstanding alumni at annual awards banquet
Professor Moerke Appointed by Governor to Environmental Science Advisory Bo... Gov. Snyder appoints Timothy Lukenda to Board of Trustees

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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BMC Acquires IT Masters
Service modeling solutions strengthen IT service-level management tools; analysts see winners all around
Houston — March 27, 2003 — Enterprise solutions provider BMC Software has acquired IT Masters International, an enterprise management solutions company, for approximately $42 million in a move that analysts say will benefit both companies as well as their customers.
IT Masters is a privately-held company with software development offices in Belgium and Austin, Texas. The company develops service management technology that allows customers to model and visualize information technology (IT) infrastructure components correlated with the ultimate services being delivered. IT Masters' flagship product is MasterCell, an adaptive service management solution.
With this technology, IT organizations can prioritize their work according to their critical business needs. Specifically, customers can prioritize problem responses in a real-time, business-relevant manner by directly linking service delivery and support with IT infrastructure and application elements.
BMC Software said in a statement that the acquisition strengthens its service level management solutions for information technology (IT) organizations by adding adaptive service management capabilities to BMC's enterprisewide offerings. Combining BMC's enterprise management solutions with IT Masters' service modeling capabilities will enable customers to manage their business with an integrated service management approach.
The acquisition adds approximately 75 IT Masters employees to BMC Software.
Analysts See Winners on All Sides
In a commentary on the acquisition, Dennis Gaughan, an analyst with technology consultancy AMR Research, noted: "IT shops are increasingly evaluating their current systems management and service delivery capabilities. Being a good project delivery organization is no longer sufficient; today's IT groups must deliver efficient and continuous service delivery."
While a key part of this change is the IT organizations' shift from managing such technology components as servers and networks to managing business services, such as order management, Gaughan said that tools for measuring and managing the quality of service delivery are also critical. "BMC sees this change, and its acquisition of IT Masters gives it a process visualization technology to help tie together those processes for its customers," Gaughan wrote. "This level of process-centric management is the cornerstone of business service management (BSM), and BMC is now one step closer to filling out this strategy for its customers."
In addition, analysts Debra Curtis and Milind Govekar, of IT consultancy Gartner Research, believe the acquisition should benefit both suppliers as well as their customers. "IT Masters gets a safe exit from an event console market dominated by big enterprise management suite suppliers," they wrote, adding, "BMC gets to use IT Masters technology to build a business service management solution."
The Gartner analysts go on to assert that, "IT Masters technology will breathe new life into BMC's event console product, Patrol Enterprise Manager (PEM). BMC will immediately integrate technology from MasterCell, IT Masters' event console product, into PEM to improve event correlation, threshold analysis and alert escalation."
And MasterCell customers will benefit because the acquisition of the smaller IT Masters by major player BMC "ensures continuity and investment in the product," although Curtis and Govekar warned: "Enterprises using this product with IT Masters' previous partners — Computer Associates International, IBM Tivoli and Peregrine Systems — should prepare for a decline in support for integration with tools from these suppliers. Although BMC is committed to integrating data from multivendor management solutions, these competing suppliers will likely prove far less cooperative for BMC than they were for noncompeting IT Masters."
Final Word to BMC
For her part, Mary Nugent, vice president and general manager for service management solutions at BMC, predicted that the acquisition of IT Masters and its service management solutions would give BMC a significant advantage in the industry, strengthening the company's ability to help its customers understand more fully how the performance and availability of IT technology impacts specific business services.
"Knowing there is constant pressure on IT and business managers to reduce costs and target improvement efforts to areas that are critical to the business, companies need solutions that will help them understand where to focus," Nugent said. "IT Masters' technology allows modeling of the relationships between elements of the business service so that service can be managed dynamically. This makes the customer's service management infrastructure more adaptable so that their business can change faster."


2nd October 1990.''The Derwent Reservoir which is just over a third full. For the past two years the water has been so low the ruins of the village can be seen.
The year was 1990. Yorkshire farmers were facing tough conditions after one of the hottest periods in more than a century.
River levels fell considerably and water from boreholes was running low.
Farmers had already lost tens of thousands of pounds, many having to 'plough in' ungerminated wheat and barley seeds into already sun-bleached fields. The National Rivers association banned 33 farmers from drawing water from the River Derwent - it's flow had slumped eight million gallons in five days.
There were plans to bring in bans on water fountains and car washes. In England, it was officially the hottest day since 1875 and the driest spring for more than 30 years.
None of this was helped when a water main burst in Vicar Lane, sending gallons of the precious liquid down the drain.
Shops and businesses in the area had their water supplies cut off for several hours.
Yorkshire Water said it received a call about the burst main at 7.55am. By 8.12am its workers were on site and by 8.35am, the main had been shut off.


The most common question we are asked is How can I see Out of My Head?
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Hunter Creek
Mine, Inactive
Ag; Cu; Hg; Pb; Sn
cassiterite; cinnabar; galena; gold; native copper
Cobb (1972, MF-413), loc. 57; SE1/4SE1/4 sec. 34, T. 8 N., R. 12 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The coordinates given are for the eastern end of the placer mine tailings along Hunter Creek. The placer ground continues downstream into the Tanana Quadrangle.
Except near the mouth and the extreme headwaters of this placer-mined creek, the bedrock is shale, tuff and diabase of the Rampart series (Spurr, 1898). Prindle and Hess (1906) describe the bedrock as slate near the head, quartzite with tuffaceous greenstone in the lower part of the valley, and Kenai (Tertiary) sandstone and conglomerate near the mouth. More recent geologic mapping of the area indicates that most of the Hunter Creek drainage is underlain by mafic igneous rocks with a few interlayered sedimentary rocks (Weber and others, 1992). Prospectors found gold through the entire length of the creek (Spurr, 1898).
Gravels are 2 to 12 feet thick and overlain by as much as 40 feet of frozen muck (Prindle and Hess, 1906). Much of the gold was found in bedrock cracks along with considerable barite and some hematite in the concentrates (Prindle and Hess, 1906). Eakin (1912) reported that there was very little production from stream gravels and that most gold came from the bench 15 to 20 feet above the stream. The bedrock surface was noted to be uneven with overburden thickening toward the valley wall (Eakin, 1912). The gravel and the top 4 feet of shattered greenstone bedrock were mined (Mertie, 1934). Heavy mineral in concentrates include magnetite, ilmenite, hematite, barite, pyrite, picotite, cinnabar, galena, cassiterite, and native copper (Mertie, 1934). Waters (1934) reported that concentrate samples also contained garnet, zircon, limonite, quartz, diopside, and epidote.
Mining began in 1896 and continued with few interruptions to as recently as 1940 (Cobb, 1976; OFR 76-633, p. 100). The ground was apparently mined out with little gold being found upstream from Dawson Creek (Eberlein, 1977, p. 66).
Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Mining began in 1896 and continued with few interruptions to as recently as 1940 (Cobb, 1976; OFR 76-633, p. 100).
Yes; small
Brooks, A.H., 1904, Placer mining in Alaska in 1903: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 225, p. 43-59.
Brooks, A.H., 1907, The Alaskan mining industry in 1906: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 314-A, p. 19-39.
Brooks, A.H., 1908, The mining industry in 1907: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 345-A, p. 30-53.
Brooks, A.H., 1915, Mineral resources of Alaska; report on progress of investigations in 1914: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 622, 380 p.
Brooks, A.H., 1916, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1915: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 642, 279 p.
Brooks, A.H., 1918, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1916: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, 469 p.
Brooks, A.H., 1923, The Alaska mining industry in 1921: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 739-A, p. 1-50.
Brooks, A.H., and Martin, G. C., 1921, The Alaska mining industry in 1919: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 714-A, p. 59-95.
Chapin, Theodore, 1914, Lode mining near Fairbanks, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592-J, p. 321-355.
Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Livengood quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-413, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.
Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p.
Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Livengood quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-819, 241 p.
Collier, A.J., 1903, The Glenn Creek gold mining district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 213, p. 49-56.
Eakin, H M., 1912, The Rampart and Hot Springs region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520-I, p. 271-286.
Eakin, H.M., 1913, A geologic reconnaissance of a part of the Rampart quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 535, 38 p.
Ellsworth, C.E., 1910, Placer mining in the Yukon-Tanana region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 442-F, p. 230-245.
Ellsworth, C.E., and Davenport, R.W., 1913, Placer mining in the Yukon-Tanana region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542-F, p. 203-222.
Forbes, R.B., and Cannon, Bart, 1991, Native mercurian-silver, silver, and gold nuggets from Hunter Creek, Alaska, in Reger, R.D., ed., Short notes on Alaska geology 1991: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Professional Report 111, p. 41-44.
Hess, F.L., 1908, The Rampart placers, in Prindle, L.M., The Fairbanks and Rampart quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 337, p. 64-98.
Malone, Kevin, 1962, Mercury occurrences in Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Circular 8131, 57 p.
Malone, Kevin, 1965, Mercury in Alaska, in Mercury potential of the United States: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 8252, p. 31-59.
Martin, G.C., 1919, Alaska Mining Industry in 1917: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 692-A, p. 11-42.
Martin, G.C., 1920, The Alaska mining industry in 1918: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 712-A, p. 1-52.
Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1934, Mineral deposits of the Rampart and Hot Springs districts, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 844-D, p. 163-226.
Orris, G.J., and Bliss, J.D., 1985, Geologic and grade-volume data on 330 gold placer deposits: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 85-213, 173 p.
Prindle, L.M., and Hess, F.L., 1905, Rampart placer region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 259, p. 104-119.
Prindle, L.M., and Hess, F.L., 1906, The Rampart gold placer region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 280, 54 p.
Purington, C.W., 1905, Methods and costs of gravel and placer mining in Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 263, 273 p.
Smith, P.S., 1926, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1924: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 783-A, p. 1-30.
Smith, P.S., 1929, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1926 and Administrative Report: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 797-A, p. 1-50.
Smith, P.S., 1932, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1929, in Smith, P.S., and others Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1929: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 824-A, p. 1-81.
Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.
Smith, S.S., 1917, The mining industry in the territory of Alaska during the calendar year 1916: U.S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin 153, 89 p.
Spurr, J.E., and Goodrich, H.B., 1898, Geology of the Yukon gold district, Alaska, with an introductory chapter on the history and present condition of the district by H.B. Goodrich in Walcott, C.D., editor, Eighteenth annual report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior, 1896-1897: Part III - Economic geology: U.S. Geological Survey 18th Annual Report, Part 3, p. 87-392.
Waters, A.E., 1934, Placer concentrates of the Rampart and Hot Springs district: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 844-D, p. 163-246.
Wayland, R.G., 1961, Tofty tin belt, Manley Hot Springs district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1058-I, p. 363-414.
C.J. Freeman, J.R. Guidetti Schaefer (Avalon Development Corporation)


This point ties in with recommendation. While OTAs make recommendations based on various factors, the most important factor is affordability. To keep a track of these changing prices and suggest the best price to a customer, AI can come handy. It forecasts where travellers would want to go and accordingly present ads that can cater to the various sections of customers. This has been made possible by predictive analytics developed on machine learning algorithms.
Hello Hipmunk, a personal virtual travel assistant from Hipmunk, has successfully merged with messaging platforms such as Facebook, Slack and Skype, and provides all round assistance to users. When asked a question, it accesses massive datasets of pricing, itineraries and room inventory, to provide instant and contextually pertinent advice. It also provides alerts based on preferences such as price. It delivers a personalised experience by remembering conversations about future travel plans, and shows suggestions for hotels and more on the tentative dates.
AI Is Fast Disrupting The Travel Industry. Here's How..


Summer weather in LA is warm and dry. Temperatures range from 65 F (18 C) to 90 F (32) or more. Heatwaves and droughts are not uncommon.
The Dining hall is walking distance from the accommodation, no further than a 15 mins walk.
Buffet service including a wide variety of hot and cold options such as pasta, pizza, burgers, hot dogs, stews, curries, Mexican food, selection of soups, extensive salad bar, vegetarian options, fresh fruit, ice cream, range of desserts, tea, coffee, juice, etc.
EC will not tolerate the consumption of alcohol by Young Learner students. Students who consume alcohol risk being expelled from the school and repatriated to their home country. In America the legal age to drink is 21 and the legal age to buy cigarettes is 21.


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Home Community Community News Lord Ram's images to be displayed in Times Square to celebrate Aug...
Lord Ram's images to be displayed in Times Square to celebrate Aug 5 Ram Temple groundbreaking
A model of a proposed Ram Hindu temple is displayed at Karsevakpuram campus in Ayodhya on November 12, 2019. (Photo by SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP via Getty Images)
Images of Lord Ram and 3D portraits of the grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya will be beamed across the giant billboards in the iconic Times Square in New York on August 5 to celebrate the temple's groundbreaking ceremony.
Prominent community leader and President of the American India Public Affairs Committee Jagdish Sewhani on Wednesday said that arrangements are being made to celebrate the "historic moment" in New York on August 5, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Sewhani told PTI that among the prominent billboards that are being leased for the occasion are the giant Nasdaq screen and the 17,000-square-foot wrap-around LED display screen, considered among the largest continuous exterior displays in the world and the highest-resolution exterior LED screen in Times Square.
Beginning from 8 AM on August 5 till 10 PM, images of the words 'Jai Shri Ram' in Hindi and English, Lord Ram's portraits and videos, 3D portraits of the temple's design and architecture as well as pictures of the laying of the foundation stone by Modi will be displayed across several billboards.
Sewhani said that members of the Indian community will also gather at Times Square on August 5 to mark the celebration and distribute sweets.
"This is not a once in a lifetime or a once in a century event. This is an event that comes once in the life of mankind. We had to give it a befitting celebration and what better place than the iconic Times Square to commemorate the 'Ram Janma Bhoomi shilanyas' (groundbreaking ceremony).
"Under Prime Minister Modi, the construction of the Ram Temple is a dream come true for Hindus all over the world. Till six years back, we never thought that this day will come soon but due to Modi's leadership, this day has come and we want to celebrate it in a befitting way," he said, adding that on August 5, images of Lord Ram will flood Times Square.
Sewhani said that the Times Square commemoration is being made possible with the help and support of the community and sponsors.
Prime Minister Modi had announced the formation of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust in February following a Supreme Court verdict that ruled on a long-running title dispute on the land where the Babri Masjid mosque – demolished by the Hindu mobs in 1992 – once stood. The Trust has invited Modi to lay the foundation stone of the Ram Temple.
VIAPTI
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Q: Mercurial Workflow for small team I'm working in a team of 3 developers and we have recently switched from CVS to Mercurial. We are using Mercurial by having local repositories on each of our workstations and pulling/pushing to a development server. I'm not sure this is the best workflow, as it is easy to forget to Push after a Commit, and 3 way merge conflicts can cause a real headache. Is there a better workflow we could use, as I think the complexity of distributed VC is outweighing the benefits at the moment.
Thanks

A: *

*Forget all you know about CVS. Mercurial is nothing like it even if some commands feel somewhat similar.

*Read http://hginit.com/. Follow the examples.

*Forget all you know about CVS.

*I mean it. This is the hardest part. Learn to trust your tool.

A: It sounds like you're all making your changes to the same branch. This has the unsatisfying side-effect that you're merging each others' changes on almost every single commit, which would be fine except that manually intervening for conflicts isn't something you want to do every time you push.
Here's the workflow I would suggest. The idea is to use branching more heavily, so you need to merge to the master branch less often.

*

*Have every developer develop every feature in a separate branch. This way:

*

*you avoid constantly merging changes from other people, and

*you are free of the pressure to push incomplete work before the next guy, "makes it hard to merge."

*When a feature is "done" and if the changes would appear to apply cleanly (a judgement call), merge the feature branch directly into the master branch and delete the feature branch.

*If a feature falls way behind the master branch (many features merged), or if the merge otherwise appears difficult:

*

*merge master into the feature branch.

*Find and fix any bugs in contented isolation from other developers.

*Assuming the feature is ready to go, merge it into master (notice: now the merge in this direction will be clean by definition). If not, you can just continue developing.

A: If you are running into a lot of 3 way merges it might be because you have too much overlap in what you and your team members are working on. Mercurial is pretty good at handling merges itself, so long as you all aren't editing the exact same lines of a file. If possible, you could divide up the work more clearly and avoid some of the headaches of large merges. Also note that this would still be a problem with CVS since it's arguably worse at merging than mercurial.
You also don't need to push after every commit. Your workflow could look something like this:

*

*Commit part of some feature.

*Commit some more of some feature.

*Commit last part of feature.

*Commit bug fixes for stupid mistakes.

*Push full feature to repo.

To an extent, this looks like Going Dark, but that can be alleviated by making sure that the features in the above example are smallish in scope.

A:
We are using Mercurial by having local repositories on each of our workstations and pulling/pushing to a development server.

That sounds fine to me.  My team is about double the size and it works great.

I'm not sure this is the best workflow, as it is easy to forget to Push after a Commit,

You don't have to push after every commit; you push when you want to push.  That's the big idea about DVCS: that Commit and Push are distinct!

and 3 way merge conflicts can cause a real headache.

Are you working on the same lines of code a lot?  On my team of 5-6 programmers, pushing/pulling a few times a day, and committing up to a couple dozen times a day, I can't remember the last time I've had to manually resolve merge conflicts.  Certainly not in the past month or two.

Is there a better workflow we could use, as I think the complexity of distributed VC is outweighing the benefits at the moment.

Perhaps you should describe your workflow in more detail, because the only complexity over centralized version control that I encounter on a typical workday is maybe one command, and the benefits are huge.  Doing "hg blame" just once saves me more time over the centralized version than all the "hg push"es I've had to type all year!

A: For what it's worth, we're a similar size team working with Mercurial for the first time and we started with the same problem.
We persisted and things are now significantly better. I think most of the problems occurred when the codebase was tiny and people were all trying to work on the same thing. Now that it's a little more established people aren't treading on each others' toes quite so much and the Paris much reduced.
Hope you get it sorted!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Families with links to a British Columbia justice training centre were among the targets in the firebombings and shootings of their homes and vehicles by a man who has pleaded guilty to orchestrating the attacks, the Crown told a sentencing hearing Thursday.
Vincent Cheung, 43, of Langley, pleaded guilty in B.C. Supreme Court to 18 of 23 counts stemming from the attacks between April 2011 and January 2012.
Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown lawyer Joe Bellows said the man targeted 15 families throughout the Lower Mainland after tracking down their homes with information obtained from their licence plates.
All the victims — including a corrections officer and members of a church group — had a member of their family park at the British Columbia Justice Institute, which offers training for people working in public safety including police officers and firefighters, he said.
Bellows said the Crown and defence will jointly ask for sentencing in the range of 10 to 15 years in prison.
He said nine witness impact statements on Friday will shed light on what the families endured.
Court heard that Cheung hired and directed others, and might have personally participated in the attacks. Most victims were at home and several were sleeping, but nobody was injured or killed, said Bellows.
Their safety was not the result of careful planning, "it was simply dumb luck," he told the court.
Video footage played in court showed a firebombing at the home of West Vancouver's former police chief. Bellows said in one case, a fire was set to the front and back entrances of the home of an elderly woman.
Investigators spent four years piecing together the mysterious reign of terror, which at first appeared to involve random victims, court heard. But an email sent to the justice institute in July 2011 drew the connection that concentrated police efforts.
The email listed nine names and addresses. Eight had been victims of arsons or shootings, court heard.
Investigators also found a bag at one victim's home with a loaded handgun and a document listing names, addresses and accurate descriptions of attacks that had occurred at those residences. DNA found in the bag also matched the accused.
Police arrested Cheung last September.
Another man facing a single charge in the case pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of arson. A sentencing hearing for Thurman Taffe of Burnaby is scheduled next month.
An employee of the Insurance Corp. of B.C. has also been fired after investigators found the person looked up the addresses of all the victims, court heard. That investigation continues and no charges have been laid.
symptoms of a serious mental illness yet, despite this, he was treated as though he was not mentally ill.
While the police and justice habitually abuse their powers and or behave as if suffering from delusions, paranoia about men, and make draconian decisions in law, they will attract or cause the mentally ill to target their paranoid delusions towards innocent targets.
We have a delusional justice system that sees what it wants to see rather than what is actually in front of them.
Placing this particular accused in a jail for 13 years is unlikely to solve any of his problems and more likely to create problems. Our jails are full of the mentally ill and rather than address the root causes, the courts rewrite history or form conclusions that satisfy their own delusions and fail to address the root causes.
Expect more incredible offences like this while the courts fail to address the root causes of mental illness or see it when it exists.


text:
namespace content {

namespace {

// Events for UMA. Do not reorder or change!
enum SSLGoodCertSeenEvent {
  NO_PREVIOUS_EXCEPTION = 0,
  HAD_PREVIOUS_EXCEPTION = 1,
  SSL_GOOD_CERT_SEEN_EVENT_MAX = 2
};
}

SSLPolicy::SSLPolicy(SSLPolicyBackend* backend)
    : backend_(backend) {
  DCHECK(backend_);
}

void SSLPolicy::OnCertError(SSLCertErrorHandler* handler) {
  bool expired_previous_decision;
  // First we check if we know the policy for this error.
  DCHECK(handler->ssl_info().is_valid());
  SSLHostStateDelegate::CertJudgment judgment =
      backend_->QueryPolicy(*handler->ssl_info().cert.get(),
                            handler->request_url().host(),
                            handler->cert_error(),
                            &expired_previous_decision);

  if (judgment == SSLHostStateDelegate::ALLOWED) {
    handler->ContinueRequest();
    return;
  }

  // For all other hosts, which must be DENIED, a blocking page is shown to the
  // user every time they come back to the page.
  int options_mask = 0;
  switch (handler->cert_error()) {
    case net::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID:
    case net::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID:
    case net::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID:
    case net::ERR_CERT_WEAK_SIGNATURE_ALGORITHM:
    case net::ERR_CERT_WEAK_KEY:
    case net::ERR_CERT_NAME_CONSTRAINT_VIOLATION:
    case net::ERR_CERT_VALIDITY_TOO_LONG:
      if (!handler->fatal())
        options_mask |= OVERRIDABLE;
      else
        options_mask |= STRICT_ENFORCEMENT;
      if (expired_previous_decision)
        options_mask |= EXPIRED_PREVIOUS_DECISION;
      OnCertErrorInternal(handler, options_mask);
      break;
    case net::ERR_CERT_NO_REVOCATION_MECHANISM:
      // Ignore this error.
      handler->ContinueRequest();
      break;
    case net::ERR_CERT_UNABLE_TO_CHECK_REVOCATION:
      // We ignore this error but will show a warning status in the location
      // bar.
      handler->ContinueRequest();
      break;
    case net::ERR_CERT_CONTAINS_ERRORS:
    case net::ERR_CERT_REVOKED:
    case net::ERR_CERT_INVALID:
    case net::ERR_SSL_WEAK_SERVER_EPHEMERAL_DH_KEY:
    case net::ERR_SSL_PINNED_KEY_NOT_IN_CERT_CHAIN:
      if (handler->fatal())
        options_mask |= STRICT_ENFORCEMENT;
      if (expired_previous_decision)
        options_mask |= EXPIRED_PREVIOUS_DECISION;
      OnCertErrorInternal(handler, options_mask);
      break;
    default:
      NOTREACHED();
      handler->CancelRequest();
      break;
  }
}

void SSLPolicy::DidRunInsecureContent(NavigationEntryImpl* entry,
                                      const std::string& security_origin) {
  if (!entry)
    return;

  SiteInstance* site_instance = entry->site_instance();
  if (!site_instance)
      return;

  backend_->HostRanInsecureContent(GURL(security_origin).host(),
                                   site_instance->GetProcess()->GetID());
}

void SSLPolicy::OnRequestStarted(SSLRequestInfo* info) {
  // TODO(abarth): This mechanism is wrong.  What we should be doing is sending
  // this information back through WebKit and out some FrameLoaderClient
  // methods.

  if (net::IsCertStatusError(info->ssl_cert_status())) {
    backend_->HostRanInsecureContent(info->url().host(), info->child_id());
  } else if (info->ssl_cert_id() && info->url().SchemeIsCryptographic()) {
    // If the scheme is https: or wss: *and* the security info for the cert has
    // been set (i.e. the cert id is not 0), revoke any previous decisions that
    // have occurred. If the cert info has not been set, do nothing since it
    // isn't known if the connection was actually a valid connection or if it
    // had a cert error.
    SSLGoodCertSeenEvent event = NO_PREVIOUS_EXCEPTION;
    if (backend_->HasAllowException(info->url().host())) {
      // If there's no certificate error, a good certificate has been seen, so
      // clear out any exceptions that were made by the user for bad
      // certificates.
      backend_->RevokeUserAllowExceptions(info->url().host());
      event = HAD_PREVIOUS_EXCEPTION;
    }
    UMA_HISTOGRAM_ENUMERATION("interstitial.ssl.good_cert_seen", event,
                              SSL_GOOD_CERT_SEEN_EVENT_MAX);
  }
}

void SSLPolicy::UpdateEntry(NavigationEntryImpl* entry,
                            WebContents* web_contents) {
  DCHECK(entry);

  InitializeEntryIfNeeded(entry);

  if (entry->GetSSL().security_style == SECURITY_STYLE_UNAUTHENTICATED)
    return;

  if (!web_contents->DisplayedInsecureContent())
    entry->GetSSL().content_status &= ~SSLStatus::DISPLAYED_INSECURE_CONTENT;

  if (web_contents->DisplayedInsecureContent())
    entry->GetSSL().content_status |= SSLStatus::DISPLAYED_INSECURE_CONTENT;

  if (entry->GetSSL().security_style == SECURITY_STYLE_AUTHENTICATION_BROKEN)
    return;

  SiteInstance* site_instance = entry->site_instance();
  // Note that |site_instance| can be NULL here because NavigationEntries don't
  // necessarily have site instances.  Without a process, the entry can't
  // possibly have insecure content.  See bug http://crbug.com/12423.
  if (site_instance &&
      backend_->DidHostRunInsecureContent(
          entry->GetURL().host(), site_instance->GetProcess()->GetID())) {
    entry->GetSSL().security_style =
        SECURITY_STYLE_AUTHENTICATION_BROKEN;
    entry->GetSSL().content_status |= SSLStatus::RAN_INSECURE_CONTENT;
    return;
  }
}

// Static
SecurityStyle SSLPolicy::GetSecurityStyleForResource(
    const GURL& url,
    int cert_id,
    net::CertStatus cert_status) {
  // An HTTPS response may not have a certificate for some reason.  When that
  // happens, use the unauthenticated (HTTP) rather than the authentication
  // broken security style so that we can detect this error condition.
  if (!url.SchemeIsCryptographic() || !cert_id)
    return SECURITY_STYLE_UNAUTHENTICATED;

  // Minor errors don't lower the security style to
  // SECURITY_STYLE_AUTHENTICATION_BROKEN.
  if (net::IsCertStatusError(cert_status) &&
      !net::IsCertStatusMinorError(cert_status)) {
    return SECURITY_STYLE_AUTHENTICATION_BROKEN;
  }

  return SECURITY_STYLE_AUTHENTICATED;
}

void SSLPolicy::OnAllowCertificate(scoped_refptr<SSLCertErrorHandler> handler,
                                   bool allow) {
  DCHECK(handler->ssl_info().is_valid());
  if (allow) {
    // Default behavior for accepting a certificate.
    // Note that we should not call SetMaxSecurityStyle here, because the active
    // NavigationEntry has just been deleted (in HideInterstitialPage) and the
    // new NavigationEntry will not be set until DidNavigate.  This is ok,
    // because the new NavigationEntry will have its max security style set
    // within DidNavigate.
    //
    // While AllowCertForHost() executes synchronously on this thread,
    // ContinueRequest() gets posted to a different thread. Calling
    // AllowCertForHost() first ensures deterministic ordering.
    backend_->AllowCertForHost(*handler->ssl_info().cert.get(),
                               handler->request_url().host(),
                               handler->cert_error());
    handler->ContinueRequest();
  } else {
    // Default behavior for rejecting a certificate.
    handler->CancelRequest();
  }
}

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Certificate Error Routines

void SSLPolicy::OnCertErrorInternal(SSLCertErrorHandler* handler,
                                    int options_mask) {
  bool overridable = (options_mask & OVERRIDABLE) != 0;
  bool strict_enforcement = (options_mask & STRICT_ENFORCEMENT) != 0;
  bool expired_previous_decision =
      (options_mask & EXPIRED_PREVIOUS_DECISION) != 0;
  CertificateRequestResultType result =
      CERTIFICATE_REQUEST_RESULT_TYPE_CONTINUE;
  GetContentClient()->browser()->AllowCertificateError(
      handler->render_process_id(),
      handler->render_frame_id(),
      handler->cert_error(),
      handler->ssl_info(),
      handler->request_url(),
      handler->resource_type(),
      overridable,
      strict_enforcement,
      expired_previous_decision,
      base::Bind(&SSLPolicy::OnAllowCertificate,
                 base::Unretained(this),
                 make_scoped_refptr(handler)),
      &result);
  switch (result) {
    case CERTIFICATE_REQUEST_RESULT_TYPE_CONTINUE:
      break;
    case CERTIFICATE_REQUEST_RESULT_TYPE_CANCEL:
      handler->CancelRequest();
      break;
    case CERTIFICATE_REQUEST_RESULT_TYPE_DENY:
      handler->DenyRequest();
      break;
    default:
      NOTREACHED();
  }
}

void SSLPolicy::InitializeEntryIfNeeded(NavigationEntryImpl* entry) {
  if (entry->GetSSL().security_style != SECURITY_STYLE_UNKNOWN)
    return;

  entry->GetSSL().security_style = GetSecurityStyleForResource(
      entry->GetURL(), entry->GetSSL().cert_id, entry->GetSSL().cert_status);
}

void SSLPolicy::OriginRanInsecureContent(const std::string& origin, int pid) {
  GURL parsed_origin(origin);
  if (parsed_origin.SchemeIsCryptographic())
    backend_->HostRanInsecureContent(parsed_origin.host(), pid);
}

}  // namespace content

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Americans see Robert S. Mueller III as being far more credible than President Trump, but the public has scattered and partisan perceptions of Mueller's motives and findings so far, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll reveals.
The Post reports that by a 56 to 33 percent margin, more say they trust Mueller's version of the facts than Trump's.
Nearly two years into his investigation, Mueller has charged 34 people and secured guilty pleas from some of Trump's closest advisers, including his former campaign chairman, deputy campaign chairman, national security adviser and personal lawyer, the Post notes.


text:
Q: Android - Textview + Button opens twitter app and enters text as status I know this is possible, and I have seen it done, I just do not know how to do it myself, or where to find documentation.
I want it so the user can enter text in a textfield, and then push a button, and it opens the official Twitter for Android app, and puts the text entered in the textfield, into the status update on the Twitter app.
If you are wondering where I have seen this done, it is with the CNN app (and other news apps), where you click share, you can choose twitter and it puts the link and headline as a status update.

A: It uses an Intent to launch the Twitter Android app: take a look at http://lisudza.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/tweeting-using-twitter-for-android-intent/ and see if it covers what you want.


text:
It's 'back to school' on Monday but apprehension is in the air
PARENTS are being asked to gradually send their children back to school from Monday (April 27) but Lismore MP Janelle Saffin can understand some apprehension may be in the air, given wider social distancing restrictions.
Ms Saffin said the fact that The Northern Star newspaper was conducting an online poll asking parents their intentions underlined that the jury was still out on the wisdom of such an early return to schooling during the COVID-19 crisis.
The unscientific readers' poll asks, Will you send your kids to classes when schools open or keep them at home? Yes, No or Uncertain.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell yesterday (Tuesday, April 21) announced NSW school students will gradually transition back to the classroom during Term 2.
Ms Saffin noted the main takeaways from the NSW Government's staged return to school plan were:
Parents will be asked to keep children home for the first two weeks of term where possible.
Beginning in Week 3 on May 11, students will return to school for one day a week of on-campus learning.
Individual schools will be left to determine which students attend school on which days.
Hand sanitiser will be available in all classrooms and provisions are in place for at-risk teachers to work from home.
Drop off, pick up, recess and lunchtimes will also be staggered to ensure social distancing.
Ms Saffin said the safety of students, teachers and support staff was critical, and their health and well-being would have to be closely monitored as the Government's plan is implemented during Term 2, and possibly, for longer.
"Our public health units within the Northern NSW and Hunter-New England Local Health Districts are well placed to advise the NSW Department of Education and Catholic and independent schools on how to minimise risk," Ms Saffin said.
"One positive thing to come out of this is that the NSW Government has committed up to $95.7 million to help keep casual and temporary school staff engaged in active work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Casual and temporary teachers and non-teaching staff struggle for continuity of work at the best of times, so recognising the important roles they play, alongside our permanent teachers, is well overdue."
Wednesday, April 22, 2020.


text:
Domino's free pizza gimmick goes awry in Russia after too many people get logo tattoos
Published Tue, Sep 11 201812:45 PM EDT Updated Tue, Sep 11 20182:46 PM EDT
Sarah Whitten@sarahwhit10
In Russia, Domino's offered 100 free pizzas a year for 100 years to customers that got tattoos of the brand's logo on visible parts of their body.
Domino's had to curtail the number of accepted winners to 350 after too many people got tattoos.
A Domino's employee preparing a pizza.
A Domino's
franchise owner underestimated how much Russians love the American pizza — enough to get neck tattoos of the company's logo in exchange for up to 10,000 free pizzas.
As part of a Domino's Forever campaign launched by an independent franchise owner in Russia, the pizza chain offered up 100 free pizzas each year for 100 years to customers that got tattoos of the brand's logo on visible parts of their body.
However, Russian diners were all too happy to etch themselves with the iconic domino in the name of free pizza, causing Domino's to curtail the number of accepted winners to 350.
With so many entrants, Domino's was forced to ask customers to cancel getting their tattoos if they had not already been accepted to a master list of participants, as they would not be rewarded with free pies.
Some Domino's customers in Russia are already reaping the rewards of their fresh ink.
Domino's is by no means the first restaurant to offer up free food or perks for showing off brand loyalty.
Melbourne's Cafe 51, an Australian burger joint, offered up free burgers for life to patrons that got inked with one of the chain's signature burgers. Last year, restaurant company 40 North offered free all-you-can-eat wings to customers at some of its chains on National Chicken Wing Day if they had a tattoo of a chicken or chicken wing on their body.
KFC even said it would give parents $11,000 towards their child's college tuition if they named their baby Harland, after the company's founder.
Here are some of the tattoos that Domino's fans in Russia got inked with to get their free pies:


text:
The Prince of Wales's Speeches
A speech by HRH The Prince of Wales for the Royal Agricultural Society of England Annual Lecture, Royal Commonwealth Society
Sustainability and stewardship are not new objectives in farming; they are thoroughly traditional objectives, and well tried and tested in the process. We can still attain them today, but only if they are made absolutely central to farming policy. Bolt-on extras, whether for greenery, food quality or other social responsibilities simply won't work.
Are you absolutely sure that you know what you have done in electing me as your President, because I can only presume that you have a taste in the Council for living dangerously. Like the College of General Practitioners, who have joined the Dangerous Sports Clubs by electing me as their President.
As advancing decrepitude overtakes me, I cannot remember which organisation elected me. It is worse when, having asked someone a question, they merely reply that my father asked them the same question too. The final straw was when someone actually said that my great grandfather had asked them the same question.
I'm not sure that I can remember a time when one section or another of the farming community was not experiencing financial problems. There has tended to be a natural cycle of good and bad times, just as we experience good and bad growing seasons - and farmers, being phlegmatic sorts of people, learn to take both in their stride. Today, I think everyone in this audience knows that things are very different. All sections of the farming community are in serious economic difficulty, and there is no immediate prospect of things getting any better.
Last year, farm debt reached £7 billion and 6,000 British farmers stopped farming. Those who carried on were forecast to earn, overall, real incomes only fractionally over half the average level achieved between 1979 and 1984. To this catalogue of gloom we now have to add the uncertainty created by the volatile state of the GATT negotiations, a massive CAP budget over-run, and ideas which would place an unreasonable burden on British farmers.
There is, of course, a terrible irony in much of the current situation because the majority of the problems are due to farmers' success in responding to Government and EC policies and pricing signals over the last 40 years. There is no doubt that the whole situation has become incredibly complicated, and some of the issues now are far removed from real farming. Farmers have ensured that the people of Europe are well-fed. Now they are successful they are being blamed for the surpluses - and I have to say I both understand and share the general feeling of injustice which is in the air at the moment.
As if an economic crisis was not enough, I believe we also have to face up to the fact that there is a separate crisis - a cultural crisis - facing us. It concerns the very identity of farming itself, and it has arisen largely because we have not made clear our dual role of providing food and looking after the countryside. This may seem an obvious point to those of us here today, but I fear it is not fully understood in the country at large and perhaps we haven't paid enough attention to that dual role ourselves in recent years. The vast majority of the population now live in towns and cities, and even many of those who live in the country follow what can only be described as urban lifestyles. Many people are now four or more generations removed from anyone who actually worked on the land - and it shows in their attitudes. They don't know what farming is or does: and they are increasingly suspicious of it.
I believe this cultural crisis has been exacerbated by the fashionable concept that farming is 'just another business'. I don't know where this idea started, but I have to say that I think it is both wrong-headed and thoroughly unhelpful. Farming is not like any other business. It is, or should be, a rather special way of life, and I believe most farmers recognise this, even if they don't always recognise the benefits of not have to commute, being one's own boss and having room to breathe.
That is not to say that it should not bring proper financial rewards and security, but what makes farming different is the element of long-term stewardship of a precious natural resource - and I don't think there is anything soft, romantic or otherwise unrealistic about such an interpretation. Farmers are at the very heart of rural life and without them we wouldn't have a countryside - at least not as we know it today. In this regard it may just be worth indicating what stewardship means to me. In my estimation a steward is someone who cares for, or manages, the property or estate of someone else and who has to account for the condition of that property at the end of the day either to the owner or to God.
It seems to me that any long-lasting solution to farming's problems will have to address both the economic and cultural issues. We need to get away from a sterile debate in which farmers accuse environmentalists (which in this context seems to me to include just about everyone who is not a farmer) of nostalgic hankering after the past, while environmentalists accuse farmers of a technocratic obsession with profit at all costs.
This is certainly not a helpful exchange of views. It would be much more constructive to acknowledge that there can be no going back technologically, and actually take pride in the advances made possible by modern science, but in the same breath confess that technology doesn't have all the answers and that we need to retrieve some of the wisdom of the past, both in terms of values and husbandry skills. Happily, there are increasing signs that environmentalists and farmers are seeing that the future lies in cooperation not confrontation.
It seems to me that some kind of consensus (I hardly dare use that word!) along these lines may be starting to emerge. If so, it is a timely development, because we are clearly at a watershed period for British agriculture. When historians look back on the last 40 years, I believe they will see them as an aberration; a time when guaranteed output-related subsidies came to dominate agricultural decision making in a way which they had never done before, and are unlikely to do again.
There are some important similarities between today's situation and the events that led to the 1947 Agriculture Act - though no doubt there are some important differences too. Then, consensus was achieved on the need to invest in our farming industry to deliver what society needed - large quantities of relatively cheap, high quality food. Although today's debate is infinitely more complex, I believe a similar kind of consensus is emerging today - this time for a farming enterprise which is economically viable, responsive to the needs of consumers, socially acceptable, environmentally friendly and moving towards genuine sustainability.
The essence of this consensus should be policies which enable our farmers to look after the land and produce the food that we need. We cannot allow any significant part of the 80 per cent of Britain which is now farmed to be lost permanently to agriculture, and farming must be sufficiently rewarding to allow our farmers to continue to care for it.
Whether or not this emerging consensus can be turned into action is a matter for conjecture. But it is clear to me that it will certainly not happen without positive, decisive leadership and encouragement. It does seem that we may at last be getting away from the attitude that there isn't much wrong that a few financial tweaks and green twiddles can't put right, and towards a recognition that much more wholesale reform is necessary, but there is still a long way to go.
Any attempt to balance the two key issues of economic viability and environmental friendliness must start with the recognition that the countryside needs its own thriving economy, responsive to consumer needs. Neglect of this basic marketing principle has brought the Common Agricultural Policy into disrepute in this country and around the world.
The guaranteed payments of the last 20 years have led to farmers being too remote from continental counterparts, due to our different inheritance systems. This is a very important fact to remember. This may seem to be an advantage, but one of the consequences is that historically the smaller continental farms have required much more sharing between themselves, even of production resources, and this has produced a much more cooperative mentality which now gives them real strength in their marketing.
One of the aims of the CAP was to create a level playing field, which is a key component of any genuinely free market, within Europe. Sadly, however, it failed - as it has done in so many important ways. But we must be sure we don't dig up what is left of the playing field in trying to level it. I therefore applaud the strong line which the Government is taking against proposals which would place our farmers at a disadvantage and our countryside under further threat purely as a result of the greater size of farms in this country. But to oppose the current EC proposals is not enough. Reform is now both necessary and inevitable - the question is how it is to be achieved.
One of the most widely reported consequences of the CAP has been the surpluses it has produced - and they are not going to go away without major changes somewhere in the system.
Two options which are frequently discussed are based on production quotas (which have so many undesirable features that I do not propose to mention them again), and on reducing on the two key inputs - land and fertiliser.
Reduction of land in production has been attempted by the set-aside scheme, but the results so far have been thoroughly unsatisfactory, both in the amount and quality of land set-aside and, more importantly, in its highly damaging environmental and psychological effects. Paying farmers not to farm, and perpetuating the notion that we have surplus land rather than surplus food is not the answer. Even if it were, the price for set-aside is clearly too low to tempt many farmers into what amounts to a denial of their existence.
Encouragingly, more positive and creative options, such as encouraging reversion to permanent pasture by allowing a grazing regime, and the Farm Woodlands scheme are now being tried, with the result that we in this country are increasingly the pioneers in Europe of making set-aside an environmental asset.
Another possible control is on fertiliser use, and specifically nitrogen. I am aware that this is a highly contentious idea, and no doubt the agro-chemical lobby are preparing their powerful defences against any such proposal, but I hope the possibilities will be examined with great care. Advocates of such a policy point out that nitrogen is the most important single factor affecting the quality of food produced on a given area of land. A reduction in nitrogen, through some sort of quota, or even tradeable permits, would solve the production problem. It would also help reduce both the amount of pesticide needed to safeguard over-lush crops and the levels of nitrate in our drinking water.
The other way of reducing surpluses is through cutting the CAP's high support prices. This may seem an obvious answer, but immediate reductions to the level needed to remove surpluses would literally drive many farmers out of business. I also believe (though other people do not) that price pressure can lead, as can set-aside, to intensification, as farmers struggle to maintain their incomes.
It has to be said that none of these alternatives of set-aside, nitrogen quotas and price pressure is in the least bit welcome to farmers, because all three promise a reduction in real incomes. But in each case the proposals can be made acceptable, and the threat of intensification reduced, by introducing direct payments to farmers for environmental services - whether it be for enhancements to set-aside or more specific habitat creation and re-creation proposals. The crisis of the CAP obviously has to be faced, and the cycle of intensification has to be broken. The challenge is to substitute something meaningful in its place. We know what the public want - sensible quantities of food, and an attractive environment. Personally I don't believe that is an impossible task.
Having just touched on the environmental issues, I would now like to look at them in a little more detail. Much the most encouraging development is the establishment of the Environmentally Sensitive Areas scheme - a British idea, pioneered in Europe by the then Minister, Michael Jopling. This genuinely broke new ground, in those areas which have been designated. Farmers in the scheme do not need to plan their next capital investment or intensification, and their income is assured - at least for the duration of the scheme.
This scheme does deliver genuine environmental benefits, but in national terms it touches less than the tip of the iceberg. The ESA budget in the UK is only a miniscule half of one per cent of the UK's agriculture budget, and the ESAs themselves cover less than 5 per cent of our land area. There is immense scope for other schemes along these lines, with the ultimate aim of recognising that the entire countryside is environmentally sensitive. I believe every farm has, or could have, features of real interest - green lanes, wildlife corridors along river-banks, rare arable plants in cornfield margins, or even just an expanding colony of orchids.
An environmental approach to the land must still take into account the need to produce what consumers want to buy, and indeed it opens up new opportunities. As CAP support declines and as governments become more careful about approving fertilisers and other chemical usage, the sheer output orientation of farmers should reduce. As at the Duchy of Cornwall Home Farm at Highgrove, many farms may revert back from the almost one-product crop to the mixed stock and crop methods which British farmers operated for centuries. Balanced mixed farming methods using rotational systems can maintain and improve soil by-products. Mechanisation and larger farm sizes both make mixed farms more easily organised.
There is no doubt that the guaranteed payments for individual products under the CAP scheme have resulted in a most unhealthy degree of intensification and specialisation. This has meant, for instance, that in some parts of the country the disposal of straw has become a real problem, and yet in other areas, valuable muck and slurry is now seen only as a potential pollutant. This sort of imbalance has been caused by farmers not having to worry about the risk of only producing one product, because the payment for that product was guaranteed by the government. In the new world of lower support prices and more market orientation, that imbalance must surely begin to change so we can once again farm each area in a m ore diverse and sustainable manner, regaining empathy with soil, plants and weather.
In this new situation, many farmers will find that it actually pays them to produce organic or Conservation Grade foods, "real" meat and local specialities. These are all options which increase consumer choice and provide for higher standards. A greater marketing orientation by farmers is an essential element in all of this, but it is equally important that the produce offered to the consumer is a real improvement on the standard item and achieves what it claims it does. There is ample scope for confusion in this area and plenty of evidence that the confused consumer quickly becomes both disillusioned and highly resistant to further approaches of this sort.
Personally, I am encouraged by the number of farmers who have already gone beyond these 'halfway houses' by choosing to farm organically. But I remain astonished at just how many other farmers still look at organic farming as some kind of drop-out option for superannuated hippies, since, as one of those superannuated hippies, I have just taken the decision to farm the whole of the Highgrove Home Farm organically, I hope I may be excused the luxury of injecting a short commercial at this point. Don't worry, I quite expect to see mental shutters coming down, and eyes glazing over, but the level of ignorance about both the principles and practice of organic farming does disturb me, and you would probably think it remiss of me not to mention something in which I believe so strongly.
The first thing to say about organic farming is that it will not provide an economic means of feeding the entire nation, at least not while we maintain our current dietary preferences. There are simply too many of us on this small island. Nor is it something which every farmer can embrace, because it requires a strong degree of personal commitment and belief in the principles behind it.
To me, organic farming combines the traditional wisdom of sound rotational farming practice with much of the best that modern technology can provide. There are, I believe, greater advantages in improved soil management, maintaining a diversified flora and fauna, reduced pollution and increased energy self-reliance than many commentators have so far been prepared to acknowledge. And you only have to see the faces of some of the people who come to look at some of our organic farming operations at Highgrove to see that sometimes scepticism finishes.
Most of us who farm organically do so because we want to produce food in a natural and sustainable way; to work with rather than against nature and to rear and keep our animals economically in an extensive rather than an intensive manner. Experience at Highgrove has included re-learning a lot of traditional skills and, yes, of course there have been mistakes along the way. But there is also an economic aspect and, so far, our organic farming is doing well. With 60 per cent of this country's organic produce coming from abroad, there is clearly substantial scope for other farmers in this area.
There are just two main impediments to success. Firstly, the high prices charged for organic produce continue to put it beyond the reach of many consumers. Better marketing and liaison with retailers should eventually lead to an increased market share and therefore to reduced premiums. Secondly, the conversion period has to be regarded as an investment, and few farmers have anything left to invest. Bearing in mind the role of organic farming in reducing both over-production and environmental pollution, and the potential for reducing imports, I do hope the Government will soon be able to carry out a long-standing promise to find more and better ways of helping potential organic farmers. I am told this particular path is blocked in Brussels. If so, I hope it will soon be unblocked.
Of course, there are a number of schemes which already recognise environmental and social factors, rather than the pure output considerations which have dominated the CAP. I have already mentioned the Farm Woodlands scheme and special help has been provided for many years to upland farmers. But I am concerned that although these and other similar schemes are good initiatives they are somewhat arbitrary and not sufficiently well coordinated or targeted.
For instance, the Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance has encouraged farmers to overstock, leading to over-grazing and the undesirable 'improvement' of ecologically valuable semi-natural habitats. The British initiative to 'green' the HLCAs, which has gained Community agreement, should make it possible to avoid these disadvantages, and produce a scheme which will give support in the hills without damaging the environment through overgrazing. Many of us would be particularly pleased were such a scheme to tackle the increasing problem of heather loss in our upland areas.
There does seem to me to be enormous potential for overhauling all the existing grant schemes, bringing them together in a much more coordinated package with a real sense of direction and adequate funding and, above all, making them available to all farmers, wherever they are. Such a policy would be a clear acknowledgment that although the market does indeed provide the best discipline for food production aspects of farming, there are other functions, to do with the long-term care and appearance of the countryside, which cannot be resolved through the operation of the market. Those stewardship and environmental functions are in great demand as far as the public is concerned and they need to be properly rewarded.
Providing the resources for direct environmental payments will undoubtedly mean a re-direction of agricultural support. The money, in global terms, is certainly there; last year the CAP budget was £20 billion, but nevertheless farmers in Britain face declining incomes. Partly this is because a good deal of the money is not paid to farmers at all. If only we could redirect our expenditure so that it supported environmentally friendly farming and the proper conservation of the land.
One of the most remarkable - and encouraging - developments in this area in recent months has been the way in which the environmental organisations, once fierce and largely indiscriminate critics of farming, have turned their increasingly professional hands to articulating positive alternatives to agricultural policy. I can think of half a dozen well written and carefully argued documents which I have seen recently. They all acknowledge the needs and problems of farmers and their proposals deserve to be taken seriously - not least because they represent the environmentally-concerned public, whose support for farming is vital.
Sadly, where the general public's attitude to farming is concerned we have a public relations problem. All the health scare issues have not helped and agriculture is, regrettably, not often seen as a friendly environmental influence. Images persist of wealthy farmers riding around the countryside, destroying wildlife habitats and living off a generous tax-payer, as do reports of butter mountains, cereal stores and wine lakes. Set-aside is easily (and not unfairly, in my view) portrayed as paying farmers for doing nothing. In a slightly muddled, but well meaning, way the public has a series of notions about what it wants from the countryside, in addition to reliable supplies of good food, and I believe it is up to us to translate those notions into practical action.
Farmers themselves must accept the responsibility of reducing the alienation which now exists between farmers and the bulk of the population. It is essential that farmers become better understood. The RASE, through the Royal Show and in other ways, plays its part, but far more needs to be done. Education is the first essential. I know that there are some splendid schemes in operation such as 'Farmers Adopt a School' run by the South of England Agricultural Society and Brighton Polytechnic, and anything of this sort is tremendously helpful. Of course, such activities can take up precious time, but they are, quite literally, an investment in the future. Processors and retailers can also do much to help by ensuring that production of food has a strong positive image with consumers.
It is now an inescapable fact that public concern about animal welfare is growing all the time. Farmers are having to come to realise that although the majority of people do indeed still like eating mate, they're not prepared to put up with unjustifiable cruelty and poor husbandry practices. In the debate on Sir Richard Body's Private Member's Bill to outlaw the use of all stalls and tethers in pig rearing systems in this country, David Maclean, the Junior Minister at MAFF, informed the house that he had received as an MP more mail about this issue than on the crisis in the Gulf - and even that, I suspect, is but the tip of the iceberg of humanitarian concern for the welfare of farm animals in this country.
I understand only too well the problem for UK pig farmers of being placed at an economic disadvantage if their European counterparts are able to continue with indisputably cruel practices - as I believe has been the result of the UK banning the use of veal crates while the rest of Europe carried on as before. It was therefore good to see that Mr Gummer has decided to pursue these concerns with his EC colleagues, many of whom face far less vociferous lobbying from environmental and animal rights activists than he does!
I don't think it is necessarily all that helpful if many of those with the interests of the farming community at heart continue to dismiss public concerns about the welfare of farm animals as irrelevant or irrational. In this respect, it may not be productive any longer to claim that "the experts always know best". The crisis engendered by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) seriously undermined the credibility of such patronising expertise, and the livestock industry in this country is only just recovering from the experience.
There were many farmers, even in the early Eighties, who felt very strongly that it simply wasn't right to be feeding herbivores with the rendered remains of other herbivores. There may well have been no specific scientific evidence to demonstrate the dangers of such an approach, but 'natural wisdom' was enough to deter them. Others simply accepted the practice because it was legal.
Farmers would of course argue that they have little influence - let alone control - over the animal feed industry. But choices can still be made by individual farmers. Post-BSE, I suspect that they will be. But for responsible choices to be made, there has to be proper freedom of information about the specific contents of different feed brands. I gather that labelling rules are now a matter for the European Community. In which case I can only say that it has taken an extraordinarily long time for them to produce sensible and proper rules, and I profoundly hope that Professor Lamming's enquiry into the practices of the animal feed industry will ensure that customers have all the information necessary for them to make proper decisions.
Given the huge issue of consumer confidence which is at stake, it is hard to believe that if very competitive, food manufacturers cannot adequately label their products for farmers. Accountability to the public requires a much more positive role from farmers themselves in defence of the public good. That is the only way in which the farming community will restore confidence in itself and in which the image of modern farming will be transformed.
Many of the environmental issues I have mentioned so far could be addressed in the short-term to provide rapid and reassuring results, and I hope they will be. Even the maddeningly slow process of planting broad-leaved trees will produce evidence of growth after a few years. But arguably the most important environmental concern, sustainability, cannot be seen, only deduced - or its absence detected. It is a concept which is much discussed, and has come to mean many things to many people (often closely approximating to what they would each like it to mean). To me it means that everything is done with one eye kept on the needs of future generations as well as our own. It is the acid test of our stewardship of the natural resources which someone else will need one day - perhaps more than we do.
Historically, farmers have been very conscious of preceding generations and even more conscious of the land and fertility store they were leaving for their families. In medieval times the importance of sustainability was recognised in a whole series of local regulations to prevent long-term damage to village resources. Replacement trees were to be planted every year, and no manure was to be sold off the manor. Even the expression 'by hook or by crook' derives from the way that wood could be collected from trees - only by knocking or pulling down the dead branches with a hook or crook, and not by felling.
The concept of sustainability is something we have tended to lose sight of under the pressures of output subsidies. Instead we hear a great deal about efficient farming. But should we not stop and ask ourselves "efficient for whom, and over what period"? Is it really efficient to produce more wheat than we need, at four or more tons per acre, at three times the real world price, and then dump the surplus on the world market, thereby depressing the price even further - to the great disadvantage of third world producers? I need hardly add that the huge amounts of nitrogen fertiliser required in such 'efficient' farming are synthesised using vast amounts of power, most of which comes from non-renewable fossil fuels - with the release of equally vast amounts of carbon dioxide.
Is traditional mixed farming, using animal manure and the nitrogen-fixing ability of clover and other leguminous plants to build soil fertility, any less efficient in the long-run? It is certainly infinitely more sustainable, and I suggest that it may also allow a more flexible response (and therefore greater security) in times of hardship. Of course, sustainability is not only important in a physical context, it also has cultural aspects and the human and social dimension must be considered when looking at the impact of our policies.
Food production and stewardship of the land can be re-integrated, but this will require fundamental reform of agricultural policy as we know it. Flows of money will have to be re-directed, so that less is wasted on surpluses and more reaches the pockets of farmers, in ways that will encourage them to farm with a greater sensitivity to the environment and the concerns of the consumer. To do this we will have to get away from using the output of farms as the sole measure of the extent to which farmers should be rewarded. We will also have to reject absolutely the suggestion that we should have a two-tier agricultural system with some areas designated for full-blown intensive production, and others for conservation only, with farmers as fully paid-up park keepers.
This idea, you may have noticed, is usually compounded by those who farm large areas of god land, and cheered to the echo by the agro-chemical lobby. Now it may well be that we will one day need some high input/high output farming to feed ourselves and others, and it is comforting to know that we can do it if we have to, but the fact is that at a time of massive over-production we don't need to do it. And nor should we because the consequences for those on the poorer land, who frequently tend to be the smaller farmers, and their communities would be disastrous. Can we not accept that we need to keep the whole countryside working and accept that it is all environmentally sensitive?
It would be encouraging if some of this thinking could inform the continuing debate in Brussels about the future of the CAP. There are clearly both external and internal pressures on the Community to make substantial changes in current practices. This could give Europe the same opportunity to set a positive direction for the next decade as was given by the introduction of the 1947 Agriculture Act in the UK.
The overwhelming impression one gets from the current debate is that all the balls are still in the air, but there is no way of knowing whether all - or any - of them will be caught. Farmers are, rightly, dismayed by their own circumstances and what they perceive as a lack of leadership, bewildered by events internationally and in Europe, and angry about the repeated batterings they receive from all sides. But some of the clouds around us do, perhaps, have silver linings. The potential for creative alliances between farmers, environmentalists and consumers has certainly never been greater. The challenge is to turn this latent goodwill into something more tangible, and then to convince policy makers that there are some real, convincing and workable alternatives.
All of this constitutes a compelling challenge to the RASE and the Royal Show. I would like to stress to you today the real urgency of this. There is a window of opportunity at the moment which may not remain open for very long. May I suggest to you and your Council that you have the debate I have suggested about the economic and environmental factors and then set out to provide leadership for the industry in reconciling these items. If you agree that this would be useful, perhaps I could help the Council to use its good offices to bring together all the interested parties.
I would then be very pleased to attend a further Council meeting later in the year at which you could present your views and we could discuss how best to take things forward. Nobody wants to sit back any longer and watch the decimation of the British farming community and the continuing erosion of the British countryside. I know that you all share these concerns with me and I am certain that there would be wide public support for the RASE if it were to rise to the challenge and turn a thoroughly messy crisis into a new opportunity."


KARACHI - Former Interior Minister and Sindh Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Moinuddin Haider says intelligence agencies should enhance mutual cooperation and coordination to effectively deal with terrorists across the country.
Talking to The Nation in the backdrop of the terrorist attack on the Karachi airport, he said killings in various incidents show as if human life has no value in Pakistan.
When asked as to how he evaluates the performance of security forces in dealing with the airport attack, he said that security forces had given their best performance. But, he said, steps must be taken to equip them with modern technologies and intelligence gadgetry. He said some external forces were supporting Taliban which made it imperative for the government to uncover these elements.
Responding to a question about the make of the ammunition and explosive used in Karachi airport attack, for which the TTP has claimed responsibility, the former interior minister said that all sorts of ammunitions were available in Afghanistan so it is not difficult for terrorists to use ammunitions of any country.
"No foreign spy agency would make such a stupid blunder to provide ammunitions of its country make to the terrorists to carry out terror acts in another country".
In his opinion certain external forces who wanted to create bad blood and misunderstanding between Pakistan and its neighbor could hatch such a conspiracy.
Mr. Haider said the nation was in state of confusion whether dialogue should be held with the Taliban or not. Some religious parties, he said, were in favour of dialogue with Taliban while many other parties wanted a military action against them. In this confusing and complicated situation it was the duty of political leadership to bring the nation on one page, said the former interior minister.
Replying to another question about the possible objective of the terrorists behind attack on the Karachi airport, he said they had attacked to cause maximum losses and damages and not just to attack and kill the ASF personnel. He said that Sri Lanka had faced grave situation and terrorist attacks and plan hijackings.
When asked for comments on report presented to the Prime Minister, he said that it was a snap report. However, the situation would become clearer after the autopsy reports of the killed terrorist.
When his attention was drawn towards the prevailing situation and the role of government and the political leadership, he said that the state of Pakistan was in danger and is passing through a critical phase. It demands that the political leadership sitting in London or those protesting at home should come on one page to safeguard the state.
He said that time demands a mature leadership which steer the country from present morass.


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BBC News – Danny Alexander denies public sector pension 'assault'.
Seriously dangerous deranged thinking! This government is comprised of upper-class rich w*nkers who are only focused on their own nests.
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