I don't get the demonizing of Common Core. It isn't a curriculum or testing system, though I suppose one would naturally need to test students to see if they "pass" Common Core.
Common Core is just a list of standards on what kids should learn. Johnny must learn X in 3rd grade to go into the 4th grade. This makes sense to me, as before each state had it's own standards. I know my brother in law had to repeat a grade because the curriculum in Oklahoma didn't meet the Kansas requirements when he transferred schools. I don't see how one can argue that having a base platform of skills/knowledge that is universally taught is a bad thing.
I don't get the demonizing of Common Core. . . I don't see how one can argue that having a base platform of skills/knowledge that is universally taught is a bad thing.
It's not Common Core itself that's a problem, nor standards as a concept. It's the incessant testing to "prove" that schools and teachers are "performing well" by producing enough students who demonstrate learned absorption of a common knowledge and skills set.
The real problem is that like No Child Left Behind, Common Core is a neoliberal Trojan horse for busting teachers' unions and privatizing (that is, profiting from) education.
Just like the first two posters, I'm torn. I think common core is important because it means we can know that all kids who make it to a certain level in the USA have had the same education. (Although, I can see people on both sides of the political spectrum seeing how that could be bad for them.) One of the benefits would be reduction in the importance of the money making scheme that is the SATs.
But all this testing is NOT good for education. Or rather, all this high-stakes testing is not good for education. Teachers cheat and change their kids' scores and kids miss out on the exploratory learning that yields innovative thinking. I don't know if this is xenophobia or racism masquerading as research, but I have read that this obsession with test-taking that took storm in Asia with confuscianism led to a decline in innovation and an eventual end to China's lead in technology.
Pearson is adding material in the curriculum they sell which is not part of the CC standards, and then including that material in the CC tests they create. And in the world of big data and aggregate statistics, Pearson only needs to slow down the non-Pearson curriculum test-takers by a minute or so in order to make their curriculum look superior.
My brother is an administrator who is interested in creative approaches to learning. His style of management fits right in with the charter school movement; however, his career has been spotty to say the least because most of the charter schools are really just ways for businessmen to put tax dollars in their pockets. At least two of the school systems he worked in are now involved in lawsuits over mishandling of funds.
I think all the emphasis on testing, accountability, putting down the role of teachers, of the unions, is about people seeing the profit that can be made in education if they come up with a system they can sell (all those books) that takes the unknown of teaching ability out of the equation and promises to deliver a predictable result.
Too bad humans aren't optimized for mass production.
Pearson and other businesses are the stakeholders that seem to be making the biggest impact. If you want to understand how Big Data is a part of this, have a look at the CEO of Knewton, which provides the back-end API for Pearson, talking gleefully about how Facebook, Google, and Netflix will only have a mere fraction of the kind of data Knewton will get when the Pearson-flavored curriculum goes fully online.
The issue with it is that it's not based on known research on kid's abilities at different ages, so they are consistently being taught skills that are known to be above their cognitive ability at that age.
No one said you had to be in the same grade as other people your age.
I'm all in favor of reducing excessive and useless testing - it's gotten much worse in the 10 years since I finished high school, but it had already started then.And I've come across my fair share of (what seemed to me) dumb ways of solving problems and presenting information. I admit they may help some students whose brains worked differently than mine, but some teachers insist on something that isn't essential and it (sometimes legitimately) undermines students' confidence in their abilities.
Really? You went through years of geometry and algebra, and don't get number lines? You didn't use number lines to count in kindergarten, or to graph lines and parabolas and so on in middle and high school, or to introduce the idea of negative and complex numbers? I admit "number sentence" is an odd turn of phrase for those of us more used to the traditional terms "equation" and "expression" but it is actually a completely natural and intuitive way of describing what an equation is - a compact, grammatical, symbolic representation of a numerical idea in the same way that a natural language sentence is a less compact, grammatical, symbolic representation of a verbal idea. And "show your work" has been the rule for decades. It is often pushed too far (I had middle school teachers that would take points off if I did 2 arithmetic steps in 1 line of an algebra derivation) but how can anyone possibly think this has anything to do with Common Core?
Tests were my favorite part of school so I really don't understand why people are so against them. How else are you going to evaluate if a student has absorbed the information? Do you just not test and assume that Billy knows how to multiply, then pass them on to the next teacher?
Frankly, I'm generally confused why in this day and age, half of learning doesn't take place in video games or through movies.
We can have an honest discussion about Common Core, but honestly, why the hell do we care what Louis CK thinks about it?
I love Louis CK, but he's a comedian, not an education expert. This is celebrity culture, and nothing else. I think Louis would probably do a skit about people taking him seriously.
And really, "My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!"? Guess what? Your kids used to count bunnies in "math" class, now they are older and have to do different math! How can he possibly know if they would have liked third-grade non-Common Core math?
So I sort of have this impression that is's a lot of people not reading the instructions, or missing the point that Math is bigger than Arithmetic, or just getting upset that the teaching of Math has changed. But I'd love to get a more nuanced view before I have to deal with this on my own.
I grew up in a system with standardized, moderately high-stakes testing in the higher grades: the NY Regents Exams. I still consider that an example of how to do it right. Set a reasonable baseline for expected knowledge that qualifies for (a) a more highly-ranked diploma, and (b) scholarship opportunities (so it's worth something to the kids rather than just being another hurdle to jump through), make the test optional but desirable, test once at the END of the term (or of the multi-term program) to allow variation in teaching approaches/sequences.
Of course it helps if that attitude is also built into the culture. I grew up during the space race. The fact that we are no longer setting ourselves a Grand Challenge does make motivating kids a bit harder.
As far as I can tell the math section seems to have more focus on number sense over rote application of a single method. This is good IMHO, but I can see how it would cause people who learned the latter to freak out.
Frankly, math is scary to a lot of people, and anything different than what they learned is even scarier. If you aren't afraid of numbers most of the techniques make a lot of sense, at least in certain circumstances. The whole point of number sense is recognizing the pattern and applying the easiest technique to solve it, and extremely valuable skill to have once you graduate to Algebra and beyond (where, shock of shocks, a lot of people who learned the old system suddenly found themselves in way over their heads and learned to hate math).
An example: Subtract 132 from 889. In this case, the traditional method is easiest: 757. Now subtract 975 from 1115. In the traditional method this requires a lot of carries and gets annoyingly cumbersome, but in the "new math" method you would note that 975 is just 25 away from 1000, so you can add 25 to 115 and get 140 with virtually no effort. This latter example has caused so many Facebook freakouts that I'm really starting to wonder if there isn't some other agenda to all of this pushback. I can understand complaints about over-testing, but that's been an issue long before Common Core came along, all Common Core did was provide a baseline for all of the tests.
Also, I note that people are freaking out over "WORDS, in MATH problems?!?" It's reassuring yet sad to see that nothing ever changes.
Sure, I think it's important that everyone get some shared base of knowledge… but the thing about Common Core is that it's expansive. If it was "half your curriculum should teach these things, then teach other valuable stuff to actually make that knowledge useful", I'd support it, but the idea that schools are factories that should be churning out identical goods seems absurd.
The other reason lots of people oppose common core is because the arguments common core components make are, frankly, terrifying. The official common core standards website has a "faq" that explains how Common Core is going to turn every aspect of education into a competition! That the people behind common core think this is a convincing argument terrifies me. And that they think the primary purpose of education should be to make it easy to compare our kids to kids around the world in identical ways.
You forget Louis CK's prime qualification: he is a parent and that trumps comedian. This is hardly anything about celebrity culture as he is only adding a voice to an ongoing controversy.
The point about his rant that many will overlook is that his daughters simple math homework is alienating him and millions of other parents. If math savvy parents are outraged and alienated by bad and obtuse material, how do we expect them to be "involved" in their students learning? Isn't parental engagement supposed to be one of the major elements of a child's success in school? Do you believe such a curriculum is helping or hurting that engagement, say, with the non-math savvy single parent of three, during the evening homework hours?
This parental alienation isn't unique to Common Core, but it is becoming more evident as the CC-flavored curriculum creators attempt to invent "new" methods and mechanics to justify selling "new" curriculum, which is a major scam. Consider how in the age of the Internet with all things computerized and the burgeoning free online curriculum market, that Pearson and others are selling curriculum with the same business model they used in 1975 (e.g, ten year "lock-in" contracts) only to have 90% of the digital versions be scanned in versions of their old paper products.
It's performance measures that mainly seem to be to blame for these issues, but it's understanding to want them. A group of underprivileged students have a high drop out rate and seem to be falling behind academically. How do you asses the problem? You try to give a quantifiable measure of dropout rate and academic performance. You want to stay quantitative and not qualitative in your data set so it isn't skewed. So you invent a set of standardized repeatable measures to do this. The standardized testing system. You want to use these scores in hopes to identify gaps in where teachers are not providing adequate instruction. There are no demons in this system yet. It's in the application.
You source the performance analysis to a third party to stay objective. That third party wishes to protect their measures, both for financial and quality reasons. You don't want teachers who strictly perform to maximize the measure. You're still trying to improve education. The analysis will have flaws or gaps versus reality. It's a generalization. So flaws start to creep in. But they're expected and could be adjusted for by improving your measures. And then you give it to people.
You use the generalized measures to rate actual performance of individuals because it's what you have. Oops. Was it possibly a decent measure in many cases to help a teacher adapt better to their student's needs? It's likely. Is it good as the primary measure of how a teacher is doing? Absolutely not. But it's objective data based on quantifiable results and it's what you put so much time and effort into getting. At this point you're most likely biased towards those results and there's little hope of applying them objectively.
And that's if you don't have vested interest in any of the other portions being successful. Did you make the test? Or worse, are you selling the test or analysis?
Students who need an education, people protecting their livelihood as academics making tests and businesses selling them, teachers trying protect methods they believe are best for their students as well as their livelihoods, parents who experience the students frustration, and politicians who want to get involved (euphemism.) Any approach to try and improve education is going to throw one or more of these groups into a spin. And they will in many cases react fiercely to protect their interests.
Of course, it's undoubtedly true that educators are incredibly at making the natural fun and awesomeness of math into soul-crushing, heartrending misery. But your average teacher was doing that to students long before Common Core came out, and the only real criticism of Common Core here is that it's not a problem CC is trying to fix.
All of the standardized testing to measure school performance was a misapplication of an industrial technique. Deming in WWII then Japan in the 50s then the US again in the 80's taught a system of continuous improvement. Find ways to do things better (not just products) by giving people the tools they need to make improvements. Harness pride of workmanship.
One of the tools is measuring your results. How can you tell what the problems are or if you made any improvements if you don't measure? It what industry does when it test widgets, it's what teachers have been doing for decades when you get a pop quiz.
Extending measurements to compare teachers and schools makes sense … if you are using it to figure our what works and doesn't work. Famous Deming quote: "You get what you measure." Well, that also applies to how you use the measurement. Use it wrong, and you get something like his red/black bead experiment: http://maaw.info/DemingsRedbeads.htm Basically, you create a weird system of rewards and punishments that doesn't work and demoralizes everyone.
Alternately, you can measure how kids are doing over time, look for patterns, try to figure out the cause of the patterns, and make improvements that offer a better education. To date, almost no one is doing that. Teachers and schools get rewarded and punished based on instantaneous snapshots of test results.
So everyone freaks and figures they just need more testing and higher stakes. Double down. Administrators implement flavor of the week programs hoping something will magically work. Teachers teach to the test knowing that bad results are punished, but mediocre results get rewarded as much as outstanding results. And we go no where.
Unfortunately, the correct way to do things requires lots of data. Years of data. Hard mathematical analysis. Deep thinking. Training teachers, administrators, and students based on what you learn. Give people power to make things better, rather than micromanage. Oh, and make hard decisions like firing teachers or ending programs or telling parent that little Timmy is not going to be a neurosurgeon but would be a great electrician or making classes harder if that's what needs to be done. Stuff no one wants to do.


text:
Home HospitalityTech
Marriott International announces "the largest hotel-branded residential project" located at Ho Chi Minh City
"Marriott International's commitment to operational excellence will help bring world-class standards to residents of this dynamic new project", Jason Turnbull, Deputy Managing Director & Chief Financial Officer for Masterise Homes.
by Prerona
in HospitalityTech, News
Marriott International has announced a milestone agreement with Vietnam-based real estate firm, Masterise Homes
The agreement states that this is the "largest hotel-branded residential project announced to date worldwide"
The project is set to incorporate branded units from two Marriott International brands- JW Marriott and Marriott Hotels
THoD Newsdesk, Vietnam: Marriott International has proclaimed a milestone agreement with Vietnam-based real estate firm, Masterise Homes, to establish a dual-branded residential and 'officetel' project in Ho Chi Minh City. As per the Savills International Development Consultancy, the agreement states that this is the "largest hotel-branded residential project announced to date worldwide", with close to 4,200 residential and 'officetel' units.
The project is set to incorporate branded units from two Marriott International brands- JW Marriott and Marriott Hotels. Slated to open late in 2024, the project will play a major role in an integrated mixed-use complex, which would include residential, office and commercial units. The development will be bestowed with Marriott Hotel's branded "sophisticated spaces meant to inspire residents" and JW Marriott-branded units, "designed for mindfulness and fostering togetherness with loved ones".
Paul Foskey, the Chief Development Officer of Asia Pacific for Marriott International, stated that the agreement with Vietnam-based real estate firm Masterise Homes "underscores the strong appeal of the branded residences segment, especially within the Asia Pacific region", while the Deputy Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer for Masterise Homes, Jason Turnbull, commented, "Masterise Homes has developed renowned properties in Vietnam for over six years and solidified its position as an industry leader with its focus on building a real estate ecosystem with premier international standards." He further added that Marriott International's commitment to operational excellence will help bring world-class standards to residents of this dynamic new project.
Prerona
Prerona has a Master's Degree in Advertising and Marketing Management. She plays with words for a living, having been into content writing for the past 4 years and counting.
When you think of the word luxury, you might not immediately think of a luxury hotels. But if you're reading...
If you're not the type who likes to stay cooped up in one place for too long, a luxury cruise...
If you're lucky enough to get offered a post-graduation job in the beautiful city of Vancouver, B.C., then you know...
Enjoying the finer things in life doesn't always mean shelling out a ton of cash. With a little bit of...
If you're any kind of hotelier, you've probably heard the phrase 'Guest is King.' It's not a new saying, and...
QR-coded vaccine certificates may facilitate international travel in the near future
Machu Picchu to go green; plans to cut down emissions by 100% by 2050
5 Most Luxury Hotels in Maldives
5 places where you can make your Christmas and New Year celebration memorable.
5 best places to visit in North America:
Top 5 Most Profitable Airlines In The World
How Airbnb Disrupted The Hospitality Industry

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


By the way, there are TONS of other selves (your future self, past self, your self if you hadn't turned left instead of right on the way to that party last night), but for now we'll only care about these three. To repeat my past self, all three of these selves are perceptions and are, as such, prone to be REALLY off.
Think of those people who are so delusional as to who they are. We all know them.The slimy and gross guy who is convinced that he is God's gift to women. The self-important actress with the chalkboard-screech voice who is 100% certain she's destined for Broadway. Their confidence is admirable, but everything else is utter nonsense. Then we've got the incredibly talented people who, for some reason or another, don't think they're good enough; smart enough; pretty enough and therefore never have the confidence to reach the potential they have within. These examples are on the obvious side, but every single one of us has a set of perceived traits that are quite off the mark.
But what is "the mark"? In a world of perception, this is certainly a tricky question. After all, if everything is perception, how can we possibly know what "real" is? The short answer: we can't. We can only take educated guesses at what the truth is and go from there. Some truths are obvious and almost impossible to refute: the law of gravity, aging, the existence of dogs…other things are not so simple: the existence of dark matter, ghosts, the wrong- or rightness of homosexuality. I'm sure I'll tackle these scientific, metaphysical and moral subjects in near future, but for now let's talk about you and how to get as close as humanly possible to the real you.
One of the crudest, but most important ways of discovering how close perceived self is from your true self, is through how you are perceived by the people around you. From birth we are told not to care what other people think of us. While that works very well from an individualist perspective, it's not entirely correct. We are social creatures and as such what people think of us impacts our life and therefore is certainly something we should care about. As far as the world is concerned, what other people think of us IS who we are. They will treat us as they perceive us- not as we perceive ourselves. The genocidal dictator might see himself as a great champion of his people…certainly we do not. The talentless actress I mentioned before won't be viewed as the next Bernadette Peters by the theatrical world. Examining the way others react to you; what they think of you, is a quick and dirty way of getting another perception yourself.
Of course, there are some HUGE risks involving this method of self-evaluation: First up, the dreaded "yes-men". There are some people who are surrounded by a pack of people who will bend over backwards to tell them how great they are, supporting their every decision whether it be out of fear, greed, or pure admiration. These people have successfully bent their social world to mirror their self-perception, thus creating a safe bubble completely impervious to the truths and growth potential that a more diverse group would offer.
And how could we possibly forget the other end of the spectrum: those people who are, for one reason or another, surrounded by morons. Say there's an island where every year, at the first full moon, a virgin must be sacrificed to appease their gods and ensure another year of good fortune and plentiful crop yields. One person decides that this tradition is wrong, inhumane, and she stands up against it. Obviously, this woman in this the right, but the other members of the tribe see her as a traitor. It's this scenario that the cliche "Don't care what other people are thinking" is referring to.
Basically, relying on what others say about you to truly know who you are is risky business…and not the smartest way to go about things, but never forget that the way you are perceived is the way you will be treated and must be taken into consideration in all you do.
Repeat after me: You CANNOT become the person you want to be if you do not know who you are.
Looking back to the crappy actress with delusions of theatrical superiority, because her self-perception is so off, she cannot become the Broadway starlett she so desires. Let's say she had a potential to be truly great, all she needed was a few voice and acting lessons. In her current mindset, she is already a fantastic singer and actor, so lessons are out of the question.
Then there's the guy who is attractive and gifted, but doesn't see himself that way. In this instance, he is so blinded by his low self-worth that he's convinced that his ideal self is impossible. Or maybe he's aiming too low. In both instances, faulty self-perception ruins opportunity for becoming the ideal.
If the opinions of others are a mixed bag when it comes to knowing yourself, our own perceptions could be just as volatile, and the ideal self is of no use UNTIL you know yourself, then how the heck do we figure out who we are?!
For starters, let's take a crack at the people in our social network. How do they interact with you? Do they constantly shower you with praise? Do they think everything you say is a joke? Do they look for reasons to hate you? Once you've gathered answers from diverse groupings of your life (family, friends, coworkers, teammates etc…) it's time to ask yourself, "What do they have to gain by thinking of you this way?" Once you've reached your results, take the answers that primarily focus on the other party getting something out of you (attention, money, pain etc…) and throw them away. Then take the answers that focus on giving something TO you (advice, training, critique etc…) and ask yourself, "Why do they feel this way?" The answer to this final question will get you to see yourself through the eyes of someone who has your best interests in mind; it is a foundation to figuring out your truest self.
Question: How does he interact with you?
Answer: He agrees with everything I suggest.
Question: "hat does he have to gain by thinking of you this way?
Answer: I am his boss. He says 'yes' because he doesn't want to upset me. He doesn't want to get fired. He wants to keep his job.
Verdict: The Yes-Man is saying "yes" for himself, not for you, and thus his opinion is irrelevant in this exercise.
Question: How does she interact with you?
Answer: She offers guidance and coaching in forming and achieving my goals.
Question: What does she have to gain by thinking of you this way?
Answer: Nothing, really. She just wants what's best for me.
Verdict: The Mentor's primary focus is to better you and therefore her opinion is quite relevant, because it is for YOU.
Question: Why does she feel this way?
Answer: Because she sees my potential to become something more. Because she wants me to succeed; she believes I can succeed.
Example #2 provides us with a beneficial relationship from within one's social network. First, we'll put this dialogue in the context of the bad actress. The mentor tells her that she's not as great as she seems; that she needs practice or she'll never make it. This may be hard for her to hear, but it's coming from an honest and compassionate place and therefore should be considered…and rightfully so. On the other hand, let's return to the island where virgins are being slaughtered. The mentor of the person who stands up against this act begs her to adhere to tradition. Sure, the mentor's advice is coming from a caring place (she's trying to convince the person that she is doing what she believes to be the right thing)…but the advice is misguided. Like I said, any info gained from social networks is a mixed bag.
Fortunately, there's a little thing called "extending your worldview". Extending one's worldview is important because it forces a person to remove themselves from their usual area of thought and see how other cultures might view you. If you live in a small town, look to a big city. Or vice versa. If you live in one country, look to another. Look to areas that are known for their diversity and open-mindedness; where they are not governed by hatred, fear, or a severe control of freedoms of speech; for these places have themselves used an extended worldview to evolve themselves into progressive and welcoming places. New York City, London, Rio De Janeiro, to name a few. The anti-virgin-killer, those in support of gay rights, of racial equality, sexual equality, would find many friends.
Lastly, never underestimate the power of your gut. The fact of the matter is that most people know EXACTLY who they are; but they hide behind a mask out of the fear of embodying their true selves. They willingly alter themselves so that both they and the people around them can perceive them as something different than they truly are. What's to be afraid of? Lots, actually. Losing the support of loved ones. Losing stability; easy answers. Having to start over again. In certain situations people might even fear for their lives. Whatever the fear, know that you will NEVER be happy unless you're honest with yourself and your surroundings about who you are. So listen to your friends, your world, and, most importantly your heart. Don't fear what others think of you, but consider it, and fear only what you will not become if you continue to be something you're not.
And for all those who've got it all figured out…rock on and dominate!


text:
English Practice – Learn and Practice English Online
Dear students and teachers: Please make sure you subscribe to the free grammar updates here
TOEFL: General Information
TOEFL is the most widely accepted and most popular English language test in the world. It is recognized by more than 8,500 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries.
The TOEFL test has two formats. You can do it on paper or on a computer.
The Paper-based TOEFL is still administered in countries where the internet based TOEFL (iBT) is not available. Note that you can't choose the format you take: it depends upon your location. If your local TOEFL test center gives the iBT, it is the format you will have to take.
There is also a TOEFL exam for younger students. It is called TOEFL Junior.
Where do I take the test?
The TOEFL test is organized by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). It is administered 30 – 40 times a year at test-centers authorized by ETS.
How much does the TOEFL test cost to take?
Prices vary in each country. The paper-based TOEFL costs approximately $160. The TOEFL iBT can cost as much as $240.
The Paper-based TOEFL test has the following format.
The listening comprehension test takes 30 to 40 minutes. You will have to answer 50 questions.
Structure and written expression
It takes about 25 minutes. You will have to answer 40 minutes.
The reading comprehension test takes about 55 minutes. You will have to answer 50 questions.
Writing (An essay)
You will get 30 minutes to write your TOEFL essay. You have to write on the topic you are given.
English for children
English Games
English Quiz
English Teaching
Follow @ESLUpdates
Simple, Complex vs. Compound Sentence
Articles Exercise
Gap Filling Grammar Exercise
Pronouns Worksheet
Present Perfect Tense Worksheet
Mixed Grammar Exercise
Preposition Worksheet
Adjectives Worksheet
EnglishPractice.com © 2023 - All rights Reserved.


Plus all VISP services stated under How It Works and Features pages.
Ideal for small businesses, clubs, charities etc. wishing all the benefits of Abel VISP, but who do not wish to own their own client base nor wish to take part in the 0845 Call Share revenue scheme.


ONLINE REGISTRATION ends 8 pm on Wednesday, February 20th, you can only register at the Birkie Bash after that.
It's Birkie Bash Celebration 2019! Includes pasta buffet (white/red sauces) & salad bar, live music by Molly & the Danger Band, Birkie Brew-Ski, free drawing for pair of 2019 Madshus Redline 2.0 skis (MSRP =$750), good company with old friends & new. Guaranteed to be oodles (or noodles) of fun! Great pre-race carbo load for Korte and Prince Haakon skiers! and great pre pre-race carbo load for Birkie skiers!! Meet and support Olympic Nordic Skiing Gold Medalist, Kikkan Randall!
Support Kikkan Randall on her journey to #FINISHCANCER and get AKTIV Against Cancer. You could win a framed Birkie bib, autographed by Kikkan Randall! Buy your ticket to the Birkie Bash and then support Kikkan by buying a ticket(s) for the Kikkan autographed and framed bib drawing!
Can't make it to the Birkie Bash? you can buy a ticket(s) for the drawing now – you needn't be present to win!
ONLINE DRAWING PURCHASE ends 8 pm on Wednesday, February 20th, you can only purchase at the Birkie Bash after that.
Buy a Ticket(s) for the Drawing!
Madshus Redline 2.0 skis! One lucky skier will win these custom, 2019 Limited Edition Birkie Commemorative Skis at the Birkie Bash. Value $750 MSRP! Sign up for the Birkie Bash to be entered to win. (One other pair available through Virtual Event Bag.) Good luck!


text:
Rodnei Francisco de Lima (born 11 September 1985), commonly known as Rodnei, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Austrian club SV Anthering.

Career
Rodnei made his Bundesliga debut for Hertha on 14 February 2009 against Bayern Munich, a match that Hertha won, leaving them in first place in the Bundesliga.

On 25 July 2009, Rodnei was loaned to 1. FC Kaiserslautern until the end of the 2009–10 season. In 2012, he went on to FC Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga.

In February 2015, Rodnei joined RB Leipzig on loan. Ahead of the 2015–16 season he signed a contract with 2. Bundesliga club 1860 Munich. His contract was terminated in 2017.

References

External links

 Rodnei at Jagiellonia Białystok

1985 births
Living people
Footballers from São Paulo
Brazilian footballers
Brazilian expatriate footballers
Association football defenders
Clube Atlético Juventus players
FC Vilnius players
Jagiellonia Białystok players
Hertha BSC players
1. FC Kaiserslautern players
FC Red Bull Salzburg players
RB Leipzig players
TSV 1860 Munich players
FC Blau-Weiß Linz players
Bundesliga players
2. Bundesliga players
Ekstraklasa players
Austrian Football Bundesliga players
2. Liga (Austria) players
A Lyga players
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Germany
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Poland
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Lithuania
Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Austria
Expatriate footballers in Germany
Expatriate footballers in Poland
Expatriate footballers in Lithuania
Expatriate footballers in Austria

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We enjoy a mix of contemporary worship and old time hymns, great songs that have stood the test of time. The service is relaxed and family friendly.
Available for use is the cry room where parents of young children may sit and listen to the service.
Please stay for coffee / tea and a chat. There might be cake and scones!


text:
Baltimore Mayor Responds To Trump's Infantile Attacks Like A Boss
Gloria Christie
Donald Trump wants to stir up his base so that more of them will get out and vote for him in the 2020 presidential election. He knows that he has lost all Democrats. He has also lost many independents who voted for him, because they believed his lies about being a successful businessman. POTUS only has two pathways to winning the next election. The first is that he motivates those who fear black anger. Trump stirred the coals of this until they have caught fire. The other way for him to win is for the Russians to help him, just like they did in 2016. After all, this commander-in-chief knows Secretary Hillary Clinton is the true president of these United States, and he cannot bear that thought.
As a result, Trump has been walking around with matches to light any fire he can. He hit Baltimore, Maryland's representative and chair of the most powerful committee in the House, the Oversight Committee, Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Trump railed against Baltimore on a morning where the California Garlic Festival exploded in a mass shooting, and a six-year-old boy lost his life along with others.
CNN's John Berman interviewed Baltimore Mayor Bernard "Jack" Young who reacted to Trump's rhetoric about his urban center. Young told Berman this about Donald Trump:
'I would like to tell him, stop tweeting. 'No president in modern history of the office of the president has done any childish behavior like this president has exhibited. If he really wants to, he needs to send us federal assistance, not only to Baltimore but cities around this country, that are in the same situation that Baltimore is in.'
Then, Young continued:
'He's the most powerful man on the face of the Earth as president of the United States of America. This is below a president to do these kind of things. He should be uniting this country instead of racially dividing us. A president has never in my lifetime exhibited this type of behavior. He's alienated our allies around the country. What else is he going to do?'
Berman said:
'The president claims he's talking about the conditions in the city of Baltimore. Let me ask you, you've been mayor of the city since May, has he reached out to you once since you've been mayor to talk about conditions?'
Young responded:
'No, he has never reached out, He had a pledge, that he was going to do infrastructure. We're still waiting on that. We have an aging infrastructure in the city of Baltimore for unfunded mandate by the EPA for us to correct it, and we have to constantly raise water rates on the poor people of the city of Baltimore. We're a poor city. Do we have, you know, problems? Yeah. We have problems with crime and everything else, just like any other major city, just like the city that his person — Mitch McConnell — represents has these problems.'
The reporter asked the mayor:
Do you think these attacks are even really about your city, or about something else?'
Mayor Young responded:
'I think it's about dividing this country. If you look, he attacked four minority women and didn't even do the research to find out three were born here and one is a naturalized citizen now. Then he attacked one of the most powerful congressmen in the country, Elijah Cummings, who represented Baltimore as well. He has a pattern of attacking people of color.'
Young continued:
'If you want to help us, help us. Don't talk about us. Send the resources that we need to rebuild America. He's talking about he wants to make America great again, put the money in the cities that need it the most. That's where you can make America great again. What he's doing is, he's making America the laughingstock of the world … Our country is in turmoil under his leadership.'
Young noted that Baltimore was a city with many issues, not unlike many urban centers but:
'It's because of the constant reduction in (federal) funding for cities like Baltimore.'
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
Reverend Al Sharpton
Trump racism
trump racist
Previous articleTrump Targets 'Racist' Bernie Sanders In Psychotic AM Meltdown
Next articleTrump Responds To Mass Shooting At Garlic Festival & People Get Pissed
Gloria Christie founded Gloria Christie Reports, a common sense column about liberal politics. She has a masters in Radio-TV-film and an MPA in business/government relations. Christie invented and implemented the first computerized patient chart. She also worked on Howard Dean's, John Kerry's, and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. She is particularly interested in liberal politics, high-tech, complex systems, and change
'POLITICO' Announces Trump Business Corruption At Taxpayer Expense
Trump Tweets At Black Voters On MLK Day Like A Lunatic
Schiff Responds To Trump's Monday Outburst Like A Boss
Trump's MLK Day Tweet Embarrasses Republican Party
Acosta Publicly Embarrasses Hannity & Goes Viral Fast


text:
Q: How to test if $ⅈ$ is in an expression? From this answer https://mathematica.stackexchange.com/a/9773/68791 and according to the documentation:

FreeQ[list,form]    test whether form occurs nowhere in list

However, I encountered some oddities:
expr = x[0] + (-(1/2) - (I*Sqrt[3])/2)*x[1] + (-(1/2) + (I*Sqrt[3])/2)*x[2];
FreeQ[expr, I]
(* True -- I *is not* in expr whereas it obviously is *)

FreeQ[expr, I/2]
(* False -- I/2 *is* in expr *)

By using TreeForm it seems to me than I/2 is handled as an atom, and not as a compound expression Div[I,2].

How can I reliably test if $\large ⅈ$ (or any complex with a non-zero imaginary part) is in an expression?

A: Look at the FullForm. This is what Mathematica actually sees.
expr // FullForm

Plus[x[0],
 Times[Plus[Rational[-1, 2],
   Times[Complex[0, Rational[-1, 2]], Power[3, Rational[1, 2]]]], x[1]],
 Times[Plus[Rational[-1, 2],
   Times[Complex[0, Rational[1, 2]], Power[3, Rational[1, 2]]]], x[2]]
 ]

I/2 // FullForm

Complex[0,Rational[1,2]]

I is really Complex[0, 1] so Mathematica searches for that specifically. If you just want to find a Complex number use FreeQ[_Complex]
If you have to deal with the corner cases where the expression may contain Complex[_, 0.] or Complex[_, 0], you should use FreeQ[Complex[_, n_?(#==0.&)]]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I must confess to engaging in more than a little schadenfreude in watching the Republican party leadership reaping what they have sown.
Trump is starting to show cracks. He falls before the end of the year.
Carson falls within a few weeks after that. Helped out by both the satire attacks by TV shows and by the Republican old guard who realize he can't win. Bush is already out. He was clearly too tainted right from the start. Democrats would come out of the woodwork to vote against him and some moderate Republicans will likely stay home in disillusionment.
Rubio vs. Clinton will be the match-up. Republicans are already starting to jockey him into position. All hard right republicans will come out to vote against Clinton. Their hatred of all things Clinton cannot be silenced. Rubio will siphon off enough Hispanic votes and a number of younger voters who think it's time for someone closer to their age to be in charge. That, along with the lower turnout of black voters who gained nothing from Obama and who are indifferent to Clinton will provide a win for Rubio.
Republican House, Senate, White House, and, with at least two Supremes likely to retire during the next administration, a far right Court ... Republicans will have to live with laws matching their rhetoric. And, unfortunately, we will too.
Yeah, I think you're probably right. God help us.
If only demagoguery were defeated so easily!


It was with great sadness we learned of the passing of former Black Watch Soldier, Glasgow Rangers Footballer and friend of Erskine, Harold Davis, on 26 June 2018.
Harold was born in Cupar in 1933 and was a player with East Fife when he enlisted into the Black Watch Regiment. He was soon sent to Korea, where he was severely injured and hospitalised for two years. Remarkably, Harold fought back to full fitness and went on to sign for Rangers FC in 1956, where he played for eight years, winning four league titles.
In 2007 Harold became President of the Rangers Supporters Erskine Appeal, leading with great passion as the Appeal went on to raise over £750,000 for Erskine. Harold loved nothing better than visiting The Erskine Home which he visited with his wife Vi, and we have fond memories of our time spent with them both. We will always remember Harold, not least because of the large wooden sculpture of a Scottish Soldier in place at The Erskine Home, called simply 'Harry', in honour of his kind and generous support of our residents.
Our thought are with Harold's wife Vi, and their son Alan, at this sad time.
His book tougher than bullets is a must read.
The one thing that kept Rangers football club alive when everyone who wanted us gone was the knowledge that people like the honourable Harry Davis pulled on our jersey and gave his all, I was a wee boy when he played for us and only have a distant memory as we did not have the football coverage we have today as he would have been a hero now as he was then but even more importantly he supported Erskine and the other Brotheren and women who sacrificed life and limb so that we have the freedom of speech we see as the norm in todays world, Harry Davis we salute you and you will be running out for the Queens eleven in the sky.
I heard many great stories about Harold and was sad to hear of his passing.
I never met him but he was a real gentleman by all accounts.
I am sure his memory will live on amongst ,not only his family, but those who knew him especially at Erskine.


text:
Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding Will Be Released on November 8
Kojima Productions has released a new 4K trailer for its reclusive but highly anticipated PS4 title, Death Stranding, offering both a first look at gameplay and Fall release date: November 8, 2019. It's the first game from Metal Gear and Policenauts creator Hideo Kojima after he cut ties with Konami and established his own studio.
The trailer proves that Death Stranding will be a beautiful game, but it doesn't say much about the plot or what kind of unique gameplay mechanics it'll have, if any. Stealth appears to have returned, as the lead character (Sam, played by Norman Reedus) can be seen in one portion attempting to sneak past a few wraithlike figures. They're presumably the primary antagonists of the story.
Death Stranding features an all-star cast that includes Mads Mikkelsen, Lea Seydoux, Margaret Qualley, and Lindsay Wagner. Kojima has even included two of his director friends in the game, Guillermo Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn.


text:
Q: Fast solution to Subset sum algorithm by Pisinger This is a follow-up to my previous question. I still find it very interesting problem and as there is one algorithm which deserves more attention I'm posting it here.
From Wikipedia: For the case that each xi is positive and bounded by the same constant, Pisinger found a linear time algorithm.
There is a different paper which seems to describe the same algorithm but it is a bit difficult to read for me so please - does anyone know how to translate the pseudo-code from page 4 (balsub) into working implementation?
Here are couple of pointers I collected so far:
http://www.diku.dk/~pisinger/95-6.ps (the paper)
https://stackoverflow.com/a/9952759/1037407
http://www.diku.dk/hjemmesider/ansatte/pisinger/codes.html
PS: I don't really insist on precisely this algorithm so if you know of any other similarly performant algorithm please feel free to suggest it bellow.
Edit
This is a Python version of the code posted bellow by oldboy:
class view(object):
    def __init__(self, sequence, start):
        self.sequence, self.start = sequence, start
    def __getitem__(self, index):
        return self.sequence[index + self.start]
    def __setitem__(self, index, value):
        self.sequence[index + self.start] = value

def balsub(w, c):
    '''A balanced algorithm for Subset-sum problem by David Pisinger
    w = weights, c = capacity of the knapsack'''
    n = len(w)
    assert n > 0
    sum_w = 0
    r = 0
    for wj in w:
        assert wj > 0
        sum_w += wj
        assert wj <= c
        r = max(r, wj)
    assert sum_w > c
    b = 0
    w_bar = 0
    while w_bar + w[b] <= c:
        w_bar += w[b]
        b += 1
    s = [[0] * 2 * r for i in range(n - b + 1)]
    s_b_1 = view(s[0], r - 1)
    for mu in range(-r + 1, 1):
        s_b_1[mu] = -1
    for mu in range(1, r + 1):
        s_b_1[mu] = 0
    s_b_1[w_bar - c] = b
    for t in range(b, n):
        s_t_1 = view(s[t - b], r - 1)
        s_t = view(s[t - b + 1], r - 1)
        for mu in range(-r + 1, r + 1):
            s_t[mu] = s_t_1[mu]
        for mu in range(-r + 1, 1):
            mu_prime = mu + w[t]
            s_t[mu_prime] = max(s_t[mu_prime], s_t_1[mu])
        for mu in range(w[t], 0, -1):
            for j in range(s_t[mu] - 1, s_t_1[mu] - 1, -1):
                mu_prime = mu - w[j]
                s_t[mu_prime] = max(s_t[mu_prime], j)
    solved = False
    z = 0
    s_n_1 = view(s[n - b], r - 1)
    while z >= -r + 1:
        if s_n_1[z] >= 0:
            solved = True
            break
        z -= 1
    if solved:
        print c + z
        print n
        x = [False] * n
        for j in range(0, b):
            x[j] = True
        for t in range(n - 1, b - 1, -1):
            s_t = view(s[t - b + 1], r - 1)
            s_t_1 = view(s[t - b], r - 1)
            while True:
                j = s_t[z]
                assert j >= 0
                z_unprime = z + w[j]
                if z_unprime > r or j >= s_t[z_unprime]:
                    break
                z = z_unprime
                x[j] = False
            z_unprime = z - w[t]
            if z_unprime >= -r + 1 and s_t_1[z_unprime] >= s_t[z]:
                z = z_unprime
                x[t] = True
        for j in range(n):
            print x[j], w[j]

A: // Input:
// c (capacity of the knapsack)
// n (number of items)
// w_1 (weight of item 1)
// ...
// w_n (weight of item n)
//
// Output:
// z (optimal solution)
// n
// x_1 (indicator for item 1)
// ...
// x_n (indicator for item n)

#include <algorithm>
#include <cassert>
#include <iostream>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

int main() {
  int c = 0;
  cin >> c;
  int n = 0;
  cin >> n;
  assert(n > 0);
  vector<int> w(n);
  int sum_w = 0;
  int r = 0;
  for (int j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
    cin >> w[j];
    assert(w[j] > 0);
    sum_w += w[j];
    assert(w[j] <= c);
    r = max(r, w[j]);
  }
  assert(sum_w > c);
  int b;
  int w_bar = 0;
  for (b = 0; w_bar + w[b] <= c; ++b) {
    w_bar += w[b];
  }
  vector<vector<int> > s(n - b + 1, vector<int>(2 * r));
  vector<int>::iterator s_b_1 = s[0].begin() + (r - 1);
  for (int mu = -r + 1; mu <= 0; ++mu) {
    s_b_1[mu] = -1;
  }
  for (int mu = 1; mu <= r; ++mu) {
    s_b_1[mu] = 0;
  }
  s_b_1[w_bar - c] = b;
  for (int t = b; t < n; ++t) {
    vector<int>::const_iterator s_t_1 = s[t - b].begin() + (r - 1);
    vector<int>::iterator s_t = s[t - b + 1].begin() + (r - 1);
    for (int mu = -r + 1; mu <= r; ++mu) {
      s_t[mu] = s_t_1[mu];
    }
    for (int mu = -r + 1; mu <= 0; ++mu) {
      int mu_prime = mu + w[t];
      s_t[mu_prime] = max(s_t[mu_prime], s_t_1[mu]);
    }
    for (int mu = w[t]; mu >= 1; --mu) {
      for (int j = s_t[mu] - 1; j >= s_t_1[mu]; --j) {
        int mu_prime = mu - w[j];
        s_t[mu_prime] = max(s_t[mu_prime], j);
      }
    }
  }
  bool solved = false;
  int z;
  vector<int>::const_iterator s_n_1 = s[n - b].begin() + (r - 1);
  for (z = 0; z >= -r + 1; --z) {
    if (s_n_1[z] >= 0) {
      solved = true;
      break;
    }
  }
  if (solved) {
    cout << c + z << '\n' << n << '\n';
    vector<bool> x(n, false);
    for (int j = 0; j < b; ++j) x[j] = true;
    for (int t = n - 1; t >= b; --t) {
      vector<int>::const_iterator s_t = s[t - b + 1].begin() + (r - 1);
      vector<int>::const_iterator s_t_1 = s[t - b].begin() + (r - 1);
      while (true) {
        int j = s_t[z];
        assert(j >= 0);
        int z_unprime = z + w[j];
        if (z_unprime > r || j >= s_t[z_unprime]) break;
        z = z_unprime;
        x[j] = false;
      }
      int z_unprime = z - w[t];
      if (z_unprime >= -r + 1 && s_t_1[z_unprime] >= s_t[z]) {
        z = z_unprime;
        x[t] = true;
      }
    }
    for (int j = 0; j < n; ++j) {
      cout << x[j] << '\n';
    }
  }
}

A: great code man, but it sometimes crashed in this codeblock
    for (mu = w[t]; mu >= 1; --mu)
    {
        for (int j = s_t[mu] - 1; j >= s_t_1[mu]; --j)
        {
            if (j >= w.size())
            { // !!! PROBLEM !!!

            }

            int mu_prime = mu - w[j];

            s_t[mu_prime] = max(s_t[mu_prime], j);
        }
    }

...


text:
Carol Dodge
Carol Dodge, 76, of Ankeny, Iowa and formerly of Boone, Iowa passed away at Mercy Hospice in Johnston, Iowa on Wednesday morning, November 18, 2015. She was born on May 31, 1939 in Maynard, Iowa the daughter of Elmer and Anna (Brelsford) Klink. On April 12, 1958, she married James F. Dodge in Maynard, Iowa. Carol graduated from West Central High School in Maynard, Iowa. She worked at City Laundry in Oelwein, Iowa and later as a secretary for the Stebbins Accounting firm. In 1975, the couple moved to Boone from Oelwein, Iowa where she served as the office manager for Arnold Motors in Boone which her husband Jim managed. She was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Boone. Carol loved to read and travel, but her greatest joy were her grandsons and attending family events. Her parents; husband, Jim in June of 1992; son, Tony in July of 1978; 3 sisters; and 1 brother preceded her in death. Survivors include her son Mark Dodge and wife Pam of Ankeny, Iowa; 2 grandsons Kameron Dodge of West Des Moines, Iowa and Beau Dodge of Ankeny; 1 brother Norman Klink of Maynard, Iowa; and several nieces and nephews. Services will be held on Saturday morning, November 21st at 10:00 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Boone with Pastor Charles Klink officiating. Visitations will be at the Stark-Welin Chapel in Boone on Friday evening, November 20th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with the family present during that time to greet friends. Visitations will continue on Saturday morning at the Church from 9:00 a.m. until the time of service. Interment will be in Boone Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Boone. In memory of Carol, memorials may be directed to the family to be distributed to the North Polk Community School.
Carol Dodge, 76, of Ankeny, Iowa and formerly of Boone, Iowa passed away at Mercy Hospice in Johnston, Iowa on Wednesday morning, November 18, 2015. She was born on May 31, 1939 in Maynard, Iowa the daughter of Elmer and Anna (Brelsford) Klink. On... View Obituary & Service Information
The family of Carol Dodge created this Life Tributes page to make it easy to share your memories.
Carol Dodge, 76, of Ankeny, Iowa and formerly of Boone, Iowa...
Send flowers to the Dodge family.


Time Warner wants $20 billion for AOL, not the $13-$15 billion "fair price" we estimated.
Time Warner doesn't want Yahoo stock: It wants cash.
Microsoft could outbid Yahoo for AOL–and, based on past behaviour, almost certainly would. Microsoft could also hand over $20 billion in cash and barely miss it, whereas Yahoo would have to construct complex equity or debt deal financing.
We think Yahoo would be a better fit for AOL than Microsoft. We also think that, if Time Warner were a different kind of company, a long-term Time Warner – Yahoo/AOL content/equity partnership could yield huge benefits for both sides (that $20 billion of stock could easily be worth $40 or $50 billion in a few years if things go well). That said, Time Warner is not a partnering kind of company, and we think Bewkes would prefer $20 billion today to $40-$50 billion (or $5 billion) in a few years. So the door is wide open for Ballmer & Co.
Financing: $20 billion concurrent equity offering at $24 per share. (To get the financing done, Yahoo would like have to take a discount to the current share price. Yahoo could also finance the deal with less equity and some debt, but we think the market would balk at more than, say, $5 billion of debt. None of Yahoo's competitors carry a big debt load, and although we aren't allergic to the idea, we're not crazy about it. Perhaps some form of convertible, which Yahoo has used well in the past).
Combination cost savings largely offset by further declines in AOL's access EBITDA.
Deal still accretive (see this online spreadsheet).
Current Yahoo shareholders end up with about two-thirds of the company, new investors with 1/3rd.
Transaction difficult to pull off and risky, so likelihood low.
Microsoft, however, could pay $20 billion in cash for AOL tomorrow. So we expect Jeff and Steve will have a brief chat before long.


Situated in a most desirable road in Torquay is this wonderful four bedroom detached house occupying an impressive sized plot with a large driveway, double garage and extensive rear gardens with stunning sea views over the bay. The property briefly comprises of two reception rooms, a kitchen/breakfast room, utility room, cloakroom, four bedrooms, two en-suites and a family bathroom.
Wrought iron double gates opening to a brick paved driveway/parking area and a detached double garage. Storm porch with exterior light.
Wall mounted radiator. Telephone point. Stairs rising to first floor. Under stair cupboard.
Low level WC. Pedestal wash hand basin. Tiled splash back. Obscure window to utility room.
Dual aspect room with double glazed window to the front and rear elevations with views over the rear garden, and sea views across the Bay. Telephone point. Double glazed door giving access to the rear patio area. Feature fireplace. Coving with centre ceiling rose.
Double glazed window boasting sea views and over the garden. Wall mounted radiator.
Fitted wall and base units incorporating inset double bowl sink unit with mixer tap over. Modern wood effect roll edged work surfaces over. Electric and gas cooker points and space for freestanding cooker. Space for fridge/freezer unit. Telephone Point. Complimentary tiled surrounds. Wall mounted radiator. Further double glazed window with outlook to the side elevation.
Wall mounted radiator. Double glazed sliding patio doors giving access onto the rear garden boasting sea views.
Fitted wall and base units with roll edge work top over incorporating inset double bowl stainless steel sink unit with drainer, mixer taps and separate cold water tap over. Space and plumbing for washing machine. Complimentary tiled surrounds. Double glazed window to front. Wall mounted gas fire combination boiler supplying hot water and heating. UPVC obscure double glazed door to the side.
Double glazed window with outlook to the front. Wall mounted radiator. Larger than average access to insulated and boarded loft space via a Slingsby style ladder.
Double glazed door with windows to either side, giving access to the balcony boasting stunning views to the rear over the garden and across Tor Bay. Built-in furniture comprising three double wardrobes. Wall mounted radiator. Television point.
Corner shower cubicle with electric wall mounted shower. Close coupled W.C. Panelled bath with Victorian style mixer taps and shower attachment. Vanity unit with His & Hers basins with storage below. Obscure double glazed window.
Two built-in double wardrobes fitted with hanging rail and shelving, built into the alcoves, with display shelving between. Wall mounted radiator. Built-in vanity unit with wash hand basin, storage cupboards below. Double glazed bay window with outlook to the rear over Tor Bay towards Paignton. Power points. T.V. point. Telephone Point.
Shower cubicle with wall mounted thermostatic shower. Pedestal wash hand basin. Close coupled W.C. Spotlights. Extractor fan.
Double glazed window with outlook to the rear, again with views over the rear garden and over Tor Bay to Paignton in the distance. Two built-in double wardrobes. Radiator.
Double glazed window with outlook to the front. Radiator. Power points. Built-in double wardrobe. Archway to ensuite area.
Shower cubicle with electric shower. Close coupled W.C. Wash hand basin. Radiator. Obscure double glazed window.
Gated access around both sides of the property leading to the rear garden, where there is a level patio area, accessed from both the Kitchen and Living Room. From here steps lead down past the rockery garden, planted with a number of bushes, shrubs, palms and trees, to the lower garden where there are two good sized near level lawned areas, raised flower beds planted with a number of mature shrubs, trees and plants. There is a most useful timber built store with double glazed windows and light and power. There is a further covered garden summerhouse along with two further timber built stores at the side of the property.
Up and over door. Light and power. Obscure glazed window to side. Driveway with parking for four vehicles.


text:
Amsterdam to Paris Cheap Train Tickets and Schedule | Save A Train
Your Amsterdam to Paris train travel starts here
Cheap Train Travel From Amsterdam To Paris
Distance from Amsterdam to Paris is 467 Kilometer
% in terms of Carbon footprint if you travel between Amsterdam to Paris by Trains and not by Airplane
% in terms of Carbon emissions if you travel between Amsterdam to Paris with Trains vs Car
Departing Train Station: Amsterdam Central Station
The Train station is located at the center of Amsterdam
Arrival Train Station: Paris Charles De Gaulle CDG Airport
The Train station is located at the center of Paris
You can order your Train ticket from Amsterdam to Paris 3 months ahead of your departure date
You can pay for your train trip to Paris by these payment terms Mastercard, Visa, American Express, Maestro credit cards but also with the following alternative payment methods: Paypal, Alipay, WeChat, Trustly, Ideal, Sofort and more.
Remember traveling by train is very scenic experience especially if you train travel between Amsterdam and Paris, Enjoy.
See how your train trip from Amsterdam to Paris will look like
More Important Information About Your Travel to Paris
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with a population of 2,148,271 residents (official estimate, 1 January 2020) in an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2020 population of 12,278,210, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva.
Additional Information About Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands with a population of 872,680 within the city proper, 1,380,872 in the urban area and 2,410,960 in the metropolitan area. Found within the province of North Holland, Amsterdam is colloquially referred to as the "Venice of the North", attributed by the large number of canals which form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amsterdam's name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the city's origin around a dam in the river Amstel. Originating as a small fishing village in the late 12th century, Amsterdam became one of the most important ports in the world in the Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century and became the leading centre for finance and trade. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the city expanded, and many new neighbourhoods and suburbs were planned and built. The 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Images of France trains
Other Train Trips From Amsterdam:
Amsterdam to Nieuwerkerk Aan Den Ijssel train ticketsAmsterdam to Zaltbommel train ticketsAmsterdam to Amsterdam Sloterdijk train ticketsAmsterdam to Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena train ticketsAmsterdam to Blerick train ticketsAmsterdam to Buitenpost train ticketsAmsterdam to Borne NL train ticketsAmsterdam to Barneveld train ticketsAmsterdam to Geleen Lutterade train tickets
Amsterdam to The Hague Laan Van Noi trainsAmsterdam to De Huet Doetinchem trainsAmsterdam to Deinum trainsAmsterdam to Eindhoven trainsAmsterdam to Apeldoorn De Maten trainsAmsterdam to Gramsbergen trainsAmsterdam to Haarlem Spaarnwoude trainsAmsterdam to Heino trainsAmsterdam to Hoogeveen trainsAmsterdam to Hardinxveld Giessendam trains
Amsterdam to Horst Sevenum ticketsAmsterdam to Klimmen Ransdaal ticketsAmsterdam to Maastricht Randwyck ticketsAmsterdam to Nijverdal ticketsAmsterdam to Opheusden ticketsAmsterdam to Rotterdam Lombardijen ticketsAmsterdam to Spaubeek ticketsAmsterdam to Terborg ticketsAmsterdam to Uithuizermeeden ticketsAmsterdam to Schiedam tickets
To travel from Amsterdam to Paris , trains would be the best travel choice, for several reasons:
2. Speed - Traveling by train is in most cases the fastest way to get from Amsterdam to Paris .
* Trains always costs you less when you train travel Amsterdam to Paris so remember to calculate everything.


I can't tell you how many times we get calls from prospective clients who are outraged at the fees that these probate lawyers are charging in Florida estates and Florida probates.
Hello, my name is John Pankauski, I'm a probate litigation attorney at Pankauski Hauser. Our lawyers handle matters throughout the state of Florida regarding estates and trusts, probates, guardianship as well as business litigation. Can you get a lawyer thrown off a probate case in Florida.
I can't tell you how many times we get calls from prospective clients who are outraged at the fees that these probate lawyers are charging in Florida estates and Florida probates. You may or may not be able to get a lawyer kicked out of a case but that is kind of a separate issue from how much they are getting paid or how much they are taking from the estate. Remember, before you get a dime in inheritance, all the expenses need to be paid and that includes the lawyers. So if you are sick of legal fees, or if you are upset or outraged at how much these estate lawyers are taking to administrator the estate, talk to a serious probate litigation firm that has forceful advocacy and is unapologetic at the stances that they take.
Fighting someone's fees or attorney fees in a Florida Probate or a trust is a very narrow area of the law. You may want to get somebody who has actually tried those cases, had those hearings and knows the intricacies of those specific laws and the procedures. They are more complex than you may realize and they are not as straightforward as you would think. In the end, you may not only need a good probate litigation lawyer but somebody who is comfortable enough to handle a complex probate appeal.


Fill in an open application - we will contact you when a suitable match is found.
If you are a technical guru or passionate sales professional, fill in the form and we will see if your next interesting challenge could be at Netwell. We value interest for social business, experience on web technologies or IBM social software products and interest to work close to the customer interface.


text:
Smokey Road Middle School
965 Smokey Road | Newnan, Ga 30263 | (770) 254-2840 | Fax (770) 304-5933
CCSS Home Page
Facility and Food Services
6th-8th Grade Sp.Ed.
All Faculty and Staff
Wildcat Weekly
CEC Home Page
Meal Pay
Supply List (2018-2019)
Mission Vision Beliefs
SRMS Accomplishments
SRMS School Council
Edgenuity (e2020)
Student Handbook (EN)
Student Handbook (ES)
kbox (work orders)
Teacher Email (Gmail)
GA Department of Ed.
MyPSC
CABnet
Gifted Information
Athletic Forms/Video
Curriculum / Testing
Lexile Info
Coweta Connection
SRMS Report Card
Citizenship and Community Involvement
Coweta County Food Pantry Can-a-thon: 97,701 Canned Goods Donated (since 2005)
Relay for Life: $31,837.51 Donated (since 2005)
March of Dimes, Cystic Fibrosis, St. Jude Children's Hospital, Hurricane Katrina Victims, Oprah's Angel Network, Locker 56 Childrens Foundation, Coweta Tornado Victims, United Way, Community Welcome House: $13,418.07 Donated (since 2005)
Smokey Road Middle School Mitch and Anne Powell Memorial Scholarships: $11,500 in Scholarships Awarded (since 2008)
Adopted Army Platoon Stationed in Afghanistan (2008-2009)
School Honors and Recognitions
2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP Participant)
2016 National Beta School of Merit
2016 High-Progress Title I School
2015-2016 Title I Reward School
The Georgia Department of Education has recognized Smokey Road Middle School in Newnan as a 2013 "Reward School," a title reserved for schools with the highest performance or the biggest academic gains by students (2013)
Named a Silver Award recipient for the Greatest Gain in Students Meeting and Exceeding Standards by the state of Georgia Governor's Office of Student Achievement (2011)
Named a Georgia Title I Distinguished School for Making AYP for five consecutive years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
National Semi-finalist for the 2011 MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools™ Grant Award (2010)
Selected for Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education's 18th Annual Bus Trip Across Georgia (2010)
Clark Atlanta Academic Bowl Team: 1st Place in State of Georgia (2010)
Recipient of the GAMSP Middle School Effective Program Award (2007)
Excellence in Recycling Award and $1,500.00 Grant (2006)
Good Works $1,000 Grant from WalMart/Sams Club (2006)
Faculty Honors and Recognitions
Certified Faculty, 71% with Advanced Degrees, 100% Highly Qualified (2010)
Two Coweta County Teacher of the Year Recipients and Two State of Georgia Teacher of the Year Top Ten Finalists (Clay Hildebrand, 6th Grade Math, 2008/2009; Pam Brown, Engineering and Technology, 2001/2002)
Only Georgia Master Teacher in Coweta County (Paige Galt, Spanish, 2010)
Three Coweta-Fayette EMC Bright Ideas $1,500 Grant Recipients (Whitney Garner, Art, 2009; Audrey Anglin, Deaf/Hard of Hearing, 2008; Shawn Allen, 6th Grade, 2007)
State of Georgia Middle School Engineering and Technology Education Program Excellence Award Winner (2009)
GAEL Outstanding Middle Level Educator Award (Dr. Laurie Barron, principal, 2008)
Coweta County Media Specialist of the Year (Anne Powell, media specialist, 2008)
GAMSP Mike Campbell Exemplary Leadership Award (Dr. Laurie Barron, principal, 2007)
Visual Arts Honors and Recognitions
Georgia National Fair First Place Awards (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)
Newnan Coweta County Art Show Best in Show (2010) and First Place Awards (2009, 2010)
Kiwanis District Art Competition First Place Awards (2008)
U.S.S. Georgia Art Competition State Winner (2008)
State Winner of Atlanta Magazine Black History Month Visionary Art Contest (2008)
Georgia National Fair Superior Art Award for Middle School – only middle school in state to receive award, (2007)
Performing Arts Honors and Recognitions
Band, Guest Performer at the Jacksonville State University Day of Percussion (2014)
Band, Guest Performer at the 22nd Annual University of Georgia Middle School Band Festival (2012)
Band, State Exemplary Performance Award, Highest Honor Given by Georgia Music Educators Association (2010)
Band, Festival Superior Ratings (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Band, All-State Participant (2010, first in Smokey Road history and only middle school student in Coweta County in 2010)
Band, District Honor Band Participants (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Band, County Honor Band Participants (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Band, District Solo and Ensemble Superior Ratings (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Band and Strings Program: Abraham J. & Phyllis Katz Foundation $10,000 Instrument Grant (2010)
Indoor Percussion Ensemble: 1st Place Scholastic Concert Division, SE Assoc. for Performing Arts (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014)
Chorus, State Exemplary Performance Award, Highest Honor Given by Georgia Music Educators Association (2010)
Chorus, Festival Superior Ratings (2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014)
Chorus, All-State Participants (2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010)
Chorus, District Solo and Ensemble Superior Ratings (2009, 2010)
Athletics County Championships
Coweta County Middle School Girls' Basketball Champions (2015)
Coweta County Trophy of Excellence for Academics and Athletics (2008, 2009)
Volleyball, Coweta County Champions (2009)
Football, Coweta County Champions (1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008)
Boys' Basketball, Coweta County Champions (2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014)
Girls' Basketball, Coweta County Champions (2001, 2008)
Boys' Track and Field Champions (2000, 2004, 2007, 2008)
Girls' Track and Field Champions (2007, 2008)
Disclaimer: The purpose of our web site is to provide an educational tool to our staff and students and to provide an additional means of communication between the school system and the community. Many of our pages contain links to sites not managed by the Coweta County School System. We frequently check our links in an effort to make sure they remain live and appropriate. They may change at any time. Neither the Coweta County School System nor the Web author is liable for information provided on these sites and cannot be held responsible for their content.


Destination weddings have become extremely popular in recent years, current surveys find that nearly 1/4 of all engaged couples choose to travel to a destination outside of their home area to get married. Almost 1/3 of destination wedding couples head to the Caribbean or Mexico to tie the knot, wanting a beautiful tropical backdrop as their location of choice whilst others choose to have a wedding in Italy which is one of the most romantic places in Europe.
While a destination wedding sounds intriguing, exactly how do you go about planning one? We've talked to local destination wedding expert Tracy Dennis, owner of Four Seasons Travel LLC in Mechanicsville, to get the "inside scoop" on how to start planning your big day.
Couples choose to do a destination wedding for often very different reasons, but the most common one is to save money. It also gives couples an opportunity to spend more than just a few hours celebrating with family and friends.
What are the most popular places that couples are choosing to be married?Definitely for us, the most popular destinations are Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bahamas and Mexico. A big reason for that is the ease of getting to those destinations combined with the wide range of resort options for couples to choose from.
What are the "legalities" of getting married in Mexico or the Caribbean?
Each destination has their own specific requirements to be legally married in that country, such as the "residency requirement". Most will require couples to "reside" (basically, be on the ground) in that country for a certain number of hours/days prior to the ceremony. There's also paperwork that needs to be submitted and processed in advance, and something we help our couples take care of.
How do couples navigate through all the choices of resorts and destinations, as well as the legalities involved?
That's really easy, work with a destination wedding specialist from the beginning. Choose one who has a great track record of not only working with large groups (I've had weddings that were just the bride and groom, all the way up to a group of 200, and everything in between!) but one who also travels regularly to the destinations you're considering. They'll help you narrow down the best location and resort for your event, as well as keep everyone on track during the planning process. I handle not only the couple's travel arrangements, but those of all their guests as well which makes the entire planning process go smoothly and ensures all rooms are part of the wedding group. I charge absolutely no additional fee for my services.
If you're thinking about a destination wedding, feel free to give me a call!
Tracy Dennis is Southern Maryland's romance travel expert, and has helped hundreds of clients create an unforgettable vacation experience. She is president and owner of Four Seasons Travel LLC located in Mechanicsville, MD, and a honeymoon and destination wedding specialist. Her agency has won many top travel industry awards, including Sandals "Best of the Best" agency six years in a row, Funjet 500 Silver Agency, Sandals Platinum agent and Sandals Chairman's Royal Club agent. She's also a Jamaica specialist, St. Lucia Preferred Agent, Cancun specialist and regularly visits the most popular vacation destinations to stay up to date on what's new. Tracy enjoys sharing her passion for Caribbean and Mexico travel with her clients and helping them create lifelong memories. Tracy Dennis resides in Mechanicsville with her husband, two young adult children and a Min Pin named Harley. She loves traveling to the Caribbean, gardening, cooking and spending time with her family. Stop by to visit her at Four Seasons Travel LLC (29015 Three Notch Rd., #3 Mechanicsville, MD 20659) and visit her online at www.loveintheislands.com and www.fourseasonstraveltime.net.


COLUMBIA -- A former student who says he was hazed at the Columbia College firehouse has filed a civil lawsuit seeking more than $25,000 in damages.
The lawsuit names the Yosemite Community College District, Tuolumne County, Cal Fire, the seven current or former students accused in the hazing, three other firefighters, former fire program supervisor Preston Birdwell and Gary Mendenhall, dean of instructional services at Columbia College.
Andrew Grafius, 20, claims the students physically assaulted him, forced him to drink excessive amounts of alcohol and poisoned his food from November 2006 to January 2007. Grafius filed liability claims against the county and YCCD, which were rejected. Grafius was seeking $1,000 in damages from a dorm deposit, $5,000 for medical expenses and more than $10,000 for general damages.
The civil lawsuit is the next step in the judicial process and asks for more than $25,000 and attorney fees.


text:
FC Grenchen je švýcarský fotbalový klub z města Grenchen.

Historie
Klub byl založen roku 1906. V 1. lize hrál v letech 1924–1931, 1937–1951, 1952–1956, 1957–1968, 1971–1973 a 1985–1986. Od té doby se propadá stále níž a níž.

Úspěchy
 Švýcarská liga
 2. místo: 1938–39, 1939–40, 1941–42, 1958–59
 3. místo: 1963–64
 Švýcarský pohár: 1959

Externí odkazy

Grenchen, FC
Grenchen, FC
Sport v Grenchenu


THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED. The Great Skin Giveaway promotion is available for redemption between 13th-15th April 2017 only.
One per Client, while stocks last. Registration of details is required to receive a free trial kit.
Information required for registration; name and email address.
Giveaway samples are trial size only.
Liquid Facial Soap 30ml, Clarifying Lotion 30ml, Dramatically Different 15ml.


Scrappydue had the most liked content!
Had a friend make the exact same move. He couldn't be happier he said.
Buying Advice: Owners of the New RP-8000f or RP-6000f?
Discernible......are you gonna use a sub? If so then get the 6000's and call it a day.
Will I feel the need to swap the RP-440C for the 450C?
Yes you will want the bigger one. Return it or cancel it before it ships and just get the bigger one now. It shouldn't have been more than like 100$ difference anyways.
All new reference premiere line, RP-6000F VS RP-260F / 280F?
If you plan to add center and surrounds hen get the 6000 so other stuff will match. Otherwise you will be forced to find matching stuff on the used market.
Move that tv up and run LCR like its supposed to be. Will make a great bit of difference. And what did you do with the Palladiums? I'm on the hunt for a center.
Man i heard this thing down in hope at Klipsch factory. Along with a pair of the ultra surrounds a Klipsch 12" sub i thought it sounded rather good for its size. However expectations play a lot of ones brain. I walked in to listen to something tiny and expensive and had low expectations. Was rather blown away by it. Had i paid 2200 for it and hooked it up at home i might have sent it back as well.
Real happy with my new Klipsch HT system, but a little worried about my sub?
It's an issue. However keep in mind A LOT of these are sold. So easy to read lots of stories vs another product that might have less "issues" but sell 1/2 the amount. Hope that makes sense.
CDT cause better deals to be had plus i can install myself. Others have to be professionally installed i believe.
RP-250s for sure on the side. If couch is against back wall then yeah no need for surround backs. If there is 5 feet or more behind you, then sure make it a 7.1 setup.
Well I'm that case i have some p-17's I'll sell you you can use for a center.
Seriously man??? You are just on here to ask everyone if they are gonna sell their center? Kind of ridiculous if you ask me.
If mains are on sides i prefer the Wdst style surrounds myself. If they are behind then direct firing is fine. If you are gonna do bookshelf on a stand might as well just do tower. Built in stand basically. Not much more money.
I have them back again now.
What are you rocking now? I don't get on here much anymore now that i run the Klipsch owners Facebook group. Haven't seen a post from you in a while.
I ran my palladium setup on a denon with zero issues. If i were doing it all over again I'd probably go the anthem route.


Giffords offer a wood waste collection and recycle service. Dependent on your individual needs we offer a range of services to suit, including: 20 Cubic Yard Skip Containers (Sited), 40 Cubic Yard Skip Containers (Sited), Wait and Load Skip Service, 7.5 Tonne Collection Vehicle and Articulated Trailer Collection Service. Whatever your requirements Giffords Collection Service will be able to meet your needs. If you would like further information regarding the above, please call (0121) 553 1910 for a no obligation quotation or fill out your details on our contact page and one of our dedicated team will contact you by return or arrange for a site visit.
Giffords Recycling – Ensuring your company gets an efficient, effective and a low cost solution to your wood waste collection issues.
Giffords offer a fully tailored consultancy service – just ask us, and we will find the best way forward for you and your Company.
For further details please call (0121) 553 1910 or complete our contact page requesting further information.


text:
FAQ ERC MEMBERSHIP & EVENTS
Login personal account
Thank you for attending
Working Group Leaders
Oil and Gas Reinvented Community, Report Event
The Hydrogen Economy is emerging and could be playing a major role in the transition to a carbon neutral energy system in 2050. Muscle and dedication of some key industries will be needed, however, to accelerate the technological innovation and attract the necessary investment to scale-up production and increase the employability of hydrogen in our societies. These were some of the conclusions during the 10th event of the Oil & Gas Reinvented Community on Thursday 9 November 2017 in Amsterdam.
During the afternoon and evening program, the debate centered around the question whether hydrogen can redeem its promise as a breakthrough energy solution. The program offered new insights into some of the most important aspects of this emerging economy. Professionals and stakeholders reviewed general trends and examined some promising business perspectives. The successful implementation of Power-2-Gas technologies, for example, would render major synergies possible between offshore, chemical, mobility, and distribution sectors and could lead to a hydrogen economy of scale.
Several guest speakers emphasised, therefore, that hydrogen's opportunities should be capitalised by bringing the right people together and forging new coalitions and partnerships across industries. "The oil and gas sector has to invest to build the capacity for producing hydrogen and shipping hydrogen around the world", according to Ad van Wijk (TU Delft). Marcel Galjee of AkzoNobel added that "companies will need to work closely together to build these new value chains of tomorrow".
We would like to thank all speakers, working groups, members, and participants for sharing their insights and perspectives. Please get in touch with us in case you have remarks or would like to contribute to our website. We are keen to improve your experience and grow an even stronger community!
Author: Marijn Popma
Back to news overview
© 2021 Energy Reinvented Community
We use anonymous cookies to enhance the use of our site. Our privacy statement has been updated to reflect the new EU privacy policy.


We use a number of conventions in this documentation, that are mostly easy to understand; if you're in doubt, look here for the explanation.
Here you can find documentation concerning mod_perl in general, but also not strictly mod_perl related information that is still very useful for working with mod_perl. Most of the information here applies to mod_perl 1.0 and 2.0.
mod_perl related tutorials, teaching you things not only about mod_perl, but also about any related topics of great interest to mod_perl programmers.
mod_perl Books, Articles, Presentations, and links to sites covering other relevant topics.


text:
Alert Station Agent and BART police thwart bike thief
An alert Station Agent Monday morning at the Lake Merritt Station played a critical role in helping BART police arrest a suspect who investigators say was trying to steal bicycle parts.
At 9:22 a.m., the agent saw a man casing the bikes that were locked on the concourse level of the Lake Merritt Station. Police say the man took two tires off of the parked bikes and then placed them on a bike frame (pictured below) he brought with him into the station.
The agent called BART police officers who were able to quickly arrive and arrest the suspect. The suspect has been identified as 26-year-old Corrie Blackwood of Hayward.
This latest arrest highlights the vigilance of BART police officers and station agents when it comes to protecting bicycles parked at our stations. Those efforts resulted in a nearly 11 percent decline in bike thefts including bike parts in the BART system. In 2015 there were 757 reported bike thefts including bike parts in BART. Last year that number declined to 676.
Over the last couple years, BART has focused bike program investments on secure bike parking. There are now almost 1,500 BikeLink on demand bike lockers located at 37 stations—including all East Bay stations and all stations from Glen Park south. BART also operates seven Bike Stations, three with free valet parking and four self-park keycard facilities with more than 1,000 spaces. Additional Bike Stations and bike lockers are in the design and planning stages as BART strives to keep pace with the increased demand.


Proud Youth is all the cool stuff that we do for LGBT+ people aged 13 – 19.
We run the Proud Youth drop-in each week. It's a place to relax, be yourself, meet new people, and get some advice or support if you need it too. The drop-in is really chilled out, everyone is friendly and you'll receive a warm welcome. You can even bring friends along if you want (and yes, even if they are not LGBT+).
At the drop-in we try to do whatever you'd like us to do. So sometimes we'll have trips to the cinema or theatre, go out for something to eat, have guest speakers, do art or music projects, watch a film and order pizza, or simply chill out and chat.
Proud Youth is completely FREE to join. Find out more by visiting the Proud Youth website, or call/text 07580 532659 for info.


text:
5 Ways To Inspire Teenagers To Take A Step Towards Community Service
Guest post by Aileen Pablo
Most parents can't even get them to tidy up their rooms, so what are your chances of motivating teenagers to leave their computers and work on an "impossible" mission, right?
If that's how you view today's youth, I suggest you quit leading them. Your perception of who you are dealing with will shape your behaviour, and treating teenagers of today like they are children is a great recipe for inaction.
A 2008 Boston Globe article titled "Youths propel a push toward volunteerism" reported record numbers of young people volunteering. Here are the facts:
American teenagers today are 100% more likely to volunteer than those in the last few decades, according to government research.
The internet increased awareness of various social issues, thus propelling young people into volunteerism.
Approximately 66% of students entering college in 2006 "felt that helping others in need was essential or very important," the highest rate in 26 years".
According to another 2007 study by CIRCLE, 25% of those who attended college volunteered, while only 11% of those with no college experience do. I needn't tell you about the record number of students heading to college, right?
But all these contributors to the jump in volunteerism – the internet, better education, etc. – are just part of the story. The main driver, I believe, is people just like you: Community leaders who inspire the younger generation.
In fact, the same Boston Globe article reported that one of the most significant catalysts of increasing youth volunteerism is a mindset shift among adults to see teenagers as an asset. And when you see teenagers as an asset, you begin to delegate…
Which brings me to my first point:
Grant Autonomy
How would you like it if someone was always breathing down your neck when you work? Well, that's exactly how most teenagers feel.
Most adults get pretty defensive when I bring this up. "They should act more responsibly, THEN I will grant them autonomy," they tell me. But the opposite is actually true: how can young people act more responsibly when not given the chance?
If anything, psychological studies have found that as you place more trust on someone, he/she is more likely to behave the way you want them to.
Bill Drayton, CEO and founder of Ashoka, was one of the first community leaders who had such a mindset shift. He didn't set out to "use" young people around him. He set out to give youth the tools to be "change-makers" – trusting that they will be motivated enough to take him up on the offer.
Show Empathy
When a person doesn't feel understood, he/she will never try to understand. That is the reality in which most youth live.
Empathy is more than just "putting yourself in another person's shoes" or being a really good listener. That advice has been repeated so much, there's almost no meaning to it anymore.
Empathy involves feeling what others are feeling. If your child's pet rabbit died, and you empathize, you won't say, "I understand." You'll grieve with him or her.
If a teenager is concerned about looking "uncool" when volunteering, it's something you shouldn't dismiss as "teens being teens." Empathy involves decisive action: What can you do to make volunteering cool?
James A. Baldwin once said, "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them." There's a biological reason for that. Not psychological, but biological.
I won't go through it here but if you're interested, read about the effects of mirror neurons on group behaviour.
Bottom line: Don't expect youth to do what you wouldn't do personally.
Recognize Their Efforts
Feeling like you're invisible is a great way to kill motivation. After all, why contribute when you don't feel like you're contributing? This is why it's crucial to communicate to young people that their work is making a difference.
What most leaders do wrong is to do this to a group instead of to an individual. There's a difference in impact when you tell a group of 100 how well they did vs. when you tell one person directly.
What's The Purpose?
What's the purpose for the teen in doing all these things?
Is it to keep their parents happy? Is it to spend time with that guy/girl they like? Or – and this is the most common – is it to accumulate some kind of points from school? All these are poor motivation.
Instead, try explaining how the youth's community service is making a difference. Just how important is the work he/she is doing? What would happen if people like him or her doesn't show up?
This works because a purpose in life is one of the most critical factors of psychological – and physical – health. It's part of the reason why retirees who volunteer tend to live longer and are less likely to suffer from depression compared to their stay-at-home counterparts.
Or as revered psychologist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once said, "Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for."
Aileen Pablo is a freelance blogger from Smile Tutor, a Singapore based company offering private tutorial services in Singapore. When not working, Aileen loves to do baking healthy goods. During her free time, she does volunteering in community work.
(Photo from Phillip John Bernardino)
Tags:millennial volunteering, nonprofits youth, teen volunteering, volunteer appreciation, volunteer engagement, Volunteer recognition, volunteer recruitment, youth volunteering
Topics: inspiration
Written by Shari Tishman
Shari led Online Marketing and Communications at VolunteerMatch from 2010-2015. After working with nonprofits for 9 years, she moved over to the corporate sector and is now leading Inbound Marketing for a tech company in San Francisco.
7 Ways To Appreciate Your Volunteers
Creative Ways to Plan an Office Food Drive


Home News McCrory cheerleading for offshore drilling in N.C.
McCrory cheerleading for offshore drilling in N.C.
It sure would be sad to dodge an oil slick on the beach.
Former Gov. Jim Martin was a scientist. I mention this because it's a popular dodge for Republicans these days, when asked about any environmental issue they'd rather not address, to say that they aren't scientists and can't be expected to foretell the future.
Martin is a Republican and, before getting into politics, a chemistry professor at Davidson College. And when, as governor, he was faced in the late '80s with the question of whether drilling for oil off the North Carolina coast was in the state's best interest, he looked to the scienceand science advisersbefore giving his answer: No.
The Martin model was much missed by the scientists and environmental activists who gathered at UNC-Chapel Hill last week to discuss the new push for offshore drilling in waters from Virginia to Georgiaincluding North Carolina.
This time, Republican Gov. Pat McCrorynot a scientistis waving his pom-poms for the oil and gas industry. McCrory chairs the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, eight governors who represent some but not all of the Atlantic Coast states. The group exists "to influence a sensible path forward for the development of America's offshore energy resources."
Translation: Drill, baby, drill" and que sera sera.
• The North Carolina coast, because of an unusual confluence of coastal flows along with the Gulf Stream, is a unique habitat for fish, shellfish, birds and marine animals to feed and breed in bountiful numbers.
• The diversity of species, including 30 whales and an amazing variety of birds, is unmatched in the U.S.
• Not enough is known about the impact of oil and other pollutants on our coastal ecosystem.
• Not enough is known about the direction of ocean currents at different times.
• A major oil spill, from a deepwater well or tanker at sea, could be devastating to the ecosystem.
• A major spill, if it comes ashore, would be catastrophic for the commercial and recreational fishing industries and for tourism.
Charles (Pete) Peterson is a professor at UNC-CH who was among Martin's advisers. When Mobil sought to drill off Cape Hatteras, Peterson said, Martin decided the company must first produce sufficient data to assure that drilling wouldn't threaten the coastal economy.
The data didn't exist, Peterson said, and for the most part, still doesn't. Lack of knowledge about whether a spill might reach estuarine areas, threatening fish and shellfish reproduction, remains "an area of grave concern," he said.
According to Larry Cahoon, a UNC-Wilmington professor, some of the things scientists "knew" proved to be wrong. For example, they assumed that a spill where Mobil wanted to drill38 miles offshorewould be carried out to sea. But studies showed that, 30 percent of the time, it would head for shore. "That was a big surprise," Cahoon said.
The risks were large, therefore, and the rewards iffy since early seismic testing indicated that our offshore oil reserves were modest. The risks shot up when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker working in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, ran aground in 1989, slathering 1,300 miles of coastline.
Two decades later, the industry was back trying to get North Carolina's support for drilling in the Atlantic. In 2010, an advisory panel to Gov. Bev Perdue issued a lukewarm report. One week later, BP's infamous Deepwater Horizon well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. One credible estimate of the damage to Gulf fisheries: $8.7 billion and 22,000 jobs.
Nonetheless, offshore drilling continues in the Gulf and Alaska. In January, the federal Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) issued a draft five-year plan (2017–2022) which could potentially lead to drilling in 10 new locations in the Gulf, three more in Arctic waters and, for the first time, in a single large area located 50 miles or more off our coast.
No question, McCrory's cheerleading was a factor. Under the laws governing offshore drilling, BOEM can grant leases to industry, but state policies must be found "consistent." The way the Martin Administration rebuffed Mobil, for example, was by arguing that Mobil couldn't show that the impacts from drilling would be consistent with the goals of the state's Coastal Area Management Act.
Martin created a special office to examine drilling's impacts. By contrast, McCrory's much-reduced Coastal Area Management office no longer employs even a single full-time staffer to analyze consistency issues, said Robin Smith, former assistant secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
Smith questions whether the state is prepared to protect its interests. As do I.
It's still unclear how much oil and natural gas is available off the N.C. coast. Not to mention that the price of both is down sharply because of global over-production and breakthroughs in wind, solar and other renewable energy alternatives.
Perhaps there's nothing to fear, therefore, from the BOEM leasing plan. It is only a draft and subject to change, or to the industry's deciding it's prohibitively expensive to drill in the Atlantic with oil prices so low.
Or, lots of oil and gas might be out there, the price may be right, and in 20 years, we could have hundreds of oil rigs pumping offshore and, onshore, the equivalent of another New Jersey in terms of pipelines, refineries, storage tanks, tanker trucks, with all the attendant pollution and, yes, jobs.
That would spell success for industry. But it doesn't sound like a future any North Carolina governor should want for our coast.
This article appeared in print with the headline "The coast is not clear."