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Posts Tagged Raja "Rental" Pervez
The Economist: Pakistan's energy crisis
Posted by admin in " RIAZ THE SHAITAN OF PAKISTAN, Corruption, Corruption, Corruption in Islamic Countries, Domestic Policy, Looters and Scam Artists, PPP on February 24th, 2013
SUMMER in the plains of Pakistan is excruciating enough without the added joy of 20 hours of power cuts a day. Earlier this month protesters in several towns in Punjab, Pakistan's wealthiest province, smashed windscreens, blocked motorways, shut down markets and set fire to the offices of parliamentarians and an electric utility. They clashed with police who brought out handcuffs and tear gas and fired live rounds in the air.
It was a reaction to electricity shortages that had plunged parts of the province into darkness and scorching heat. At one point the gap between supply and demand hit 7,500 megawatts (MW), or nearly 40% of national demand.
Under the current government, the power sector has neared the top of a list of security, political and foreign-policy problems that includes some heavyweight contenders. Last week's confluence of events once again underlined how easily Pakistan's power sector can slip into collapse. The system's many weaknesses find it all too easy to conspire. Cool weather in the north meant a reduced flow of hydroelectricity. Demand shot up as summer temperatures further south soared into the forties and air-conditioners strained to keep pace.
Meanwhile, several private power producers had to halt or slash production because the state-run power purchasing company hadn't paid them. They had not been able, because the biggest consumers (especially provincial and federal governments) had not paid their own electricity bills. The bills that were paid are not enough to cover the cost of generation.
This so-called "circular debt", currently about $880m, is an ongoing problem. The government usually bites the bullet, as it did this time, by paying off a portion when power producers are about to sue for default, enabling them to start generating again—for the moment. What remain unaddressed are the structural issues that cause the debt to pile up again: poor recovery of dues (receivables stand at $4 billion), electricity theft, transmission losses, reliance on imported oil and politically sensitive subsidies for certain groups. Perpetuating all of this is a lack of efficiency and co-ordination across a maze of state-owned agencies including a power purchaser, distribution and generation companies, a regulator and various ministries. The gap between the effective cost of generation and payments received is estimated at $12 billion over the past four years.
Riots over power shortages in Pakistan are not new. But this time the protests flared up against a unique political background: that of a prime minister's conviction. On April 26th Yousaf Raza Gilani was declared guilty of contempt of court for refusing to re-open various corruption cases pending against Asif Ali Zardari, the president. In response, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the main opposition party, claimed the prime minister stood disqualified and started calling for his resignation in parliament and through public rallies.
For PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, then, the power crisis could not have come at a better time. His party does run the Punjab government, but that has not stopped him trying to shift the blame onto the federal government. His parry is not merely rhetorical; Punjab relies on the centralised distribution of energy generated by resources in other provinces. Mr Sharif's brother, the chief minister of Punjab, joined the power protests in Lahore.
At stake is more than just the fate of this particular government. If Mr Gilani makes it through the budget on June 1st and to elections next year, he will be the first elected prime minister to complete a five-year term. That would mark an historical achievement in the country's constantly interrupted democracy.
But the disruption of lives and livelihoods may now have gone too far for the anger to confine itself to just one set of politicians. In the town of Vehari, rioters burned the offices of lawmakers belonging not only to a ruling coalition partner (which has threatened to quit the government over the issue), but also the PML-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of Imran Khan, who positions himself as the country's only hope for change. Pakistan's politicians might find they need to start addressing this issue, not just politicising it.
(Picture credit:
Bijlee Choor Raja Rental Pervez, Poer Corruption, Power Scams, Raja "Rental" Pervez
PAKISTANIS IN DARKNESS: PM HO– — USE & PRESIDENCY LIT UP : Blackout across 80 percent of Pakistan as powerhouses trip
Posted by ali rehan munir in Bhutto-Zardari Feudal Family Corruption, Corruption, Looters and Scam Artists, Pakistan's Hall of Shame on February 24th, 2013
PM House & Presidency lit-up:
Corruption of Raja "Rental Pervez & Asif Zardari's have all the power:
Bilawal's Billiard Room shines & Bakhtawar's palatial digs all have bright lights,
while Pakistanis suffer in darkness
PPP Mission Statement
Jeay Bhutto! Jeay PPP! Jeay Nawaz Sharif!Jeay Asfandyar! Murray Pakistan ki Awam!
Blackout across Pakistan as powerhouses trip
February 24, 2013 – Updated 2350 PST
KARACHI: Pakistan has been hit by a massive power outage after two major powerhouses tripped, Geo News reported. According to Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) the fault struck after the failure of Hubco Power Plant. "After HUBCO broke down the system was first diverted to Tarbela and then to Mangla, but both of them tripped under the load one after the other", said a WAPDA spokesman. He added that HUBCO power plant was under repair on emergency basis.
He however said that it could take the teams of engineers at least two hours to fix the fault in the national grid. Dozens of cities across Pakistan including Karachi, Hyderabad, Nawabsha, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, Multan, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad plunged into darkness after Mangla and Tarbela powerhouses tripped. According to sources large swathes of Balochistan including at least 18 districts of Quetta have been affected by the breakdown.
Most parts of Sindh are also facing the same conditions, the sources added. Reports pouring in from Punjab are not different as hundreds of cities there also remain without electricity. Khyber Pakhtunkhwah is no exception as sources say there is not power in nearly all the major cities of the province. The blackout is so severe that it led to panic across the country.
Lights out: Major cities in Pakistan face electricity blackout
Many cities across Pakistan plunged into darkness on late Sunday evening due to a technical fault at the National Power Control Centre (NPCC) in Islamabad, Express News reported. Cities affected include Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Quetta, Sibbi, Hyderabad, Tando Mohammad Khan, Badin and Nawabshah.
60 per cent of Karachi was blacked out. Lahore Airport was blacked out but continued operations by running generators.
16 divisions of Balochistan were in darkness. A 1200-megawatt HUBCO power plant tripped, leading to the system failure across Pakistan. Officials from the NPCC said they had traced the cause of the technical fault, but could not give a time frame on how long it would take to fix. Off-duty NPCC officials were called in to assist with the situation. The KESC depends on the National Grid Centre for a 500-600 megawatt supply of electricity.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-89547-Blackout-across-Pakistan-as-powerhouses-trip
http://tribune.com.pk/story/512091/lights-out-major-cities-in-pakistan-face-electricity-blackout/
Black Out, Crook Zardari, Lights out, Malik Riaz Jiayala PPP, PPP Bad Govt, PPP Looters, Raja "Rental" Pervez
KAMRAN FAISAL MURDER : DID THE GOVT ORDER THE EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING OF RAJA "RENTAL"PERVEZ'S POWER PLANT NAB INVESTIGATOR?
Posted by admin in BOOT THE SCOUNDRELS OR SHOWDAZ, Corruption, LIAR POLITICIANS, Looters and Scam Artists, Pakistan's Hall of Shame, PPP, ZARDAR'S CORRUPTION on January 24th, 2013
This is a story of a historical murder ordered by a Fascist French government in the 1930s. It is also a classic example of how corrupt fascists operate and how they use violence as a means to an end. Raja "Rental" Pervez is a fascist. It is not beyond reason, that Raja "Rental"Pervez, is connected with the order murder NAB, investigator. Kamran Faisal had information which would have resulted in long term jail sentence to Raja "Rental"Pervez Ashraf. His ilk, once cornered resort to violence. They are worse than blood sucking vampire bats. Once, exposed to light, they try all means to hide themselves. This Count Dracula of Corruption is a gift to the nation by none other than, the Demon of Corruption, the civilian dictator, Asif Zardari. Ashraf is not only a bugling stooge, prone to violence but also a hatchet man for Asif Zardari. He has risen from the lower middle class of Pakistan, to reach meteoric heights; through adeptness as a strong hatchet man for Asif Zardari. Unlike, Z.A.Bhutto, who was hanged on very specious evidence, Raja "Rental" Pervez is right up to his neck in the Rental Power Scandal. Rather he is the lead character and the main beneficiary of over $600 Million graft given by IPPs. It stands to reason that his culpability is obvious in this not only sordid but also grisly affair .
Kamran Faisal's murder also has as many similarities to the mysterious death of
Laetitia Toureaux on Paris Metro, which happened under similar circumstances in another era. Laetitia was also eliminated, because, she knew too much, and as they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Kamran also paid dearly for the knowledge he held on the High and the Mighty Ministers of Pakistan's corrupt and US supported government.
Kamran Faisal was a man of integrity, honesty, and, as his father said, served only one Master, The Allah Almighty. His aging father, an honest, soft spoken, and deeply religious man spoke of his son's deep sense of commitment responsibility to the nation. Kamran loved his job and was serving the people of Pakistan and earning Rizq-i-Halal. A rarity indeed in an abjectly dishonest society like Pakistan. His misfortune was that he was at the wrong place at the wrong time He was investigating the fraud perpetrated by a malevolent crook, masquerading as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Raja "Rental " Pervez Ashraf, whose loyalty lies with the Don Corleone of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari. A curse imposed a US government on the Pakistani nation; and also known to the global community as Mr.Ten Percent.
Mysterious deaths of honest investigation officers have happened through out history. Chile's Dictator, Gen.Augusto Pinochet, had death squads at his service. They eliminated any civil servant, who tried to expose or speak against the corruption in Chilean government . Pakistan has now become, the proverbial Pinochet ruled, Chilean model Banana Republic. It is ruled by Knights of Corruption, who have spread their cancerous tentacles of corruption infesting all sectors of Pakistan's economy and commerce.
Pakistan's civil society, which had so valiantly marched for the restoration of Chief Justice; is now in cahoots with the government. Its stalwarts are appearing on every TV channel, vehemently defending the corrupt government in coded terms, by saying, that they "were defending democracy." What democracy? A democracy led by feudal elites and industrialist merchants, who flaunt all national and international laws. They do not pay taxes but enjoy the privileges and immunities of tax paying wage earners like the Pakistan Armed Forces.
An insidiously corrupt government, like that of PM Raja "Rental" Ashraf can do anything it likes. It has no accountability either to the people or the Judiciary, whom, they mock day in and day out. Now, they have resorted to extrajudicial killings. The precedence for extrajudicial killings has been set by the MQM, a murder for hire organization in Karachi. The culture of murder has now reached Islamabad. It is already a norm in metropolitan Karachi, where MQM, reigns terror on ordinary defenseless Karachiites. Karachi's killing fields have now been transplanted in Islamabad. It seems, although, Kamran Faisal's murder will NEVER be solved. Because, those in-charge of the murder investigations are also the perpetrators of the murder. These criminal murderers, go by such names as Pakistan Peoples Party, MQM, and PML(Q). But, those who live by the sword also die by the sword. They are sure to be meted out Justice, if not Here, then in the Hereafter. Pakistan is ruled by a Gang of Murders and Extortionists led by Numero Uno, Asif Zardari. Such rulers can never be brought to justice, except by an Act of Almighty God. His name is also, Al-Adl, the Just. Accountability in the Hereafter, results in punishment forever, as embedded in Islam. It is the faith, Asif Zardari and Pervez Ashraf, claim to follow. Unless, they, are again being hypocritical. Or they consider Islam, as a mumbo jumbo confined to this world. That would be their biggest mistake for which there will not be any expiation or forgiveness.
Murder in the Metro
Mysterious Death Leads to Scholarly Work on Gender and Fascism in 1937 France
By Annette Finley-Croswhite and Gayle K. Brunelle
A Perfect Crime
On the 16th of May, 1937, at around 6 p.m., a striking, 29-year-old Italian woman wearing a finely tailored green suit, white hat and gloves left a suburban Paris bal musette, or dance hall, and walked quickly toward a bus stop. Approximately 24 minutes later, she stepped off the bus and entered a metro station where she boarded a first-class car bound for central Paris. Although the subway platform and the accompanying second-class cars were filled with Pentecost Sunday holiday-makers who had spent the afternoon at the Parc de Vincennes, Laetitia Nourrissat Toureaux sat alone in her first-class car. The train departed at 6:26 p.m., and 45 seconds later arrived at the Porte Dorée station where six passengers entered the first-class car and beheld a shocking sight. In front of their eyes, the woman in the green suit fell forward out of her seat, revealing a 9-inch dagger buried in her neck.
Metro authorities immediately summoned the Paris police and emergency personnel, but Laetitia Toureaux died before she ever reached the Saint-Antoine Hospital and without ever naming her assailant. The judicial section of the Paris police force, known as the Sûreté Nationale, immediately launched an inquiry into the murder. Over the next 12 months they interviewed more than 800 people who either knew Toureaux or who had been at the dance hall, bus stop or subway platform with her on the day of her death. The police never found a single witness to the crime, however, and eventually shelved the investigation. To this day, the murder of Laetitia Toureaux remains officially unsolved, a seemingly "perfect crime."
The paradox of Toureaux's murder is that by mid-January of 1938 the Paris police and even the journalists, who were just as determined to solve the mystery of her death, had little doubt about who had killed her. The murder was connected to the assassinations of three prominent figures: the Russian economist Dimitri Navachine, stabbed to death in the Bois-de-Boulogne on Jan. 26, 1937; and the Italian antifascist exiles Carlo and Nello Rosselli, gunned down on a road in Normandy on June 9, 1937. Police eventually traced all three assassination cases to an extreme right-wing organization called the Comité Secret d'Action Révolutionnaire (CSAR) and popularly dubbed the "Cagoule," or "hooded ones," because of their penchant for donning hoods when they needed to hide their identities. The Cagoule favored violence and planned a paramilitary coup to oust the socialist "Popular Front" government of the late 1930s before installing a military-style dictatorship in preparation for the return of the French monarchy.
CSAR leadership included former army and naval officers, engineers, doctors and industrialists, many of whom belonged to some of the most distinguished families in France. The organization was well-funded by the heads of major companies like Michelin, L'Oréal and Lesieur Oil and had some support within the French armed forces. The Cagoule had no true ideology but expounded a vehement nationalist, anti-communist, anti-socialist, anti-democratic and anti-Semitic stance. During the period 1936-37, the Cagoule committed a number of serious crimes that included two bombings in Paris, at least seven murders and the destruction of several airplanes bound for anti-Franco forces in Spain. They incited public riots and on more than one occasion attempted the assassination of the socialist leader and Popular Front prime minister, Léon Blum. In Paris, members of the Cagoule also formed militias, amassed huge stockpiles of weapons, trained terrorists, built underground prisons, sought support from Mussolini and ran guns in Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Cagoulard cells also existed in the French provinces.
The French police exposed the CSAR on the night of Nov. 15, 1937. Several of those arrested claimed knowledge of Toureaux's murder and provided testimony about her assassination. Additional circumstantial evidence also pointed to her involvement with the Cagoule. Apparently, she was murdered because she had infiltrated the Cagoule as an undercover agent. When the Cagoulard leadership discovered her betrayal, they had her executed. But if the police suspected this, why was Laetitia Toureaux's murder never solved?
The CSAR was a clandestine operation with a strict code of secrecy. Its right-wing orientation arose out of hostility toward the Socialist government of Léon Blum during a time of rising unemployment, massive labor unrest and general post-World War I malaise. Its leader, Eugène Deloncle, boasted that by 1937, 12,000 men in Paris had joined the Cagoule and 120,000 belonged to the organization in the provinces. At most, the Cagoule probably consisted of fewer than 200 known affiliates who had some sense of the true Cagoulard structure and mission, and anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand who were tied to the CSAR through other organizations or associations. Most believed they had joined an auto-defense organization meant to spring into action in the event of a communist uprising, a misconception the Cagoule's leaders actively fostered. Recruits joined seven-man cells linked by vertical ties to units, battalions, regiments, brigades and divisions. There were no horizontal ties in the organizational structure, however, so that no relationship existed between cells. In the end, the police arrested only 71 members of the Cagoule in 1937-38. Those imprisoned were eventually released in 1939 when France mobilized for war. The case against the CSAR did not come to trial until 1948. By then many of those charged were distinguished war veterans. Most had found important places in the Vichy regime and/or ended the war as part of the French Resistance. Few were punished for their prewar crimes, and in the rush for postwar reconciliation in France, the murder of Laetitia Toureaux was largely forgotten.
The Cagoule leadership were simply too important to punish for the death of an Italian immigrant of questionable reputation. A case in point involves the late French President François Mitterand, who never belonged to the Cagoule, but developed close ties in his youth to many in its ranks. Mitterand steadfastly refused to discuss his Cagoulard ties during his long presidency, but he clearly knew of the Cagoule's prewar crimes and chose to ignore them. Laetitia Toureaux's story, therefore, forms part of the larger French refusal to come to terms with the pre-World War II era when many French sympathized with extreme right-wing politics, fascism and anti-Semitism. Indeed, it can be argued that Vichy France was the fulfillment of right-wing agendas.
By retracing Toureaux's life and death in a historical monograph, we intend not only to tell a good story and solve a murder, but also juxtapose the worlds of working-class immigrant culture and upper-class French society in order to craft a portrait of French politics and culture in the 1930s. Toureaux's story thus becomes the lens through which we view French society during a turbulent time when many in France flirted dangerously close with fascism.
Who Was Laetitia Toureaux?
The morning after the murder, "Le Crime du Métro" made sizzling front-page copy in all the papers as Parisians awoke to the shocking news that a beautiful young woman was brutally killed on a subway train. Paris was abuzz with curiosity about the crime and its victim. The doctor who performed the autopsy on Toureaux's body theorized that the blow that killed her had severed her jugular vein so perfectly that only a professional assassin could have done it. But what did this clue indicate about Toureaux's background and lifestyle?
In the weeks that followed her demise, the Parisian newspapers and scandal sheets sensationalized the murder and its investigation, little by little uncovering the details of Toureaux's unconventional life and offering hypotheses on her untimely death. In the first few days after the murder, the journalists and the Parisian public viewed Toureaux as an innocent, an ingénue perhaps, but a respectable, recently widowed immigrant who was a victim of cruel fate. Five days after the murder, however, public opinion turned against her. Exposed as an ambitious social climber with a taste for money and adventure, her marriage to the late Jules Toureaux was revealed to be a clandestine relationship. His scandalized bourgeois family only learned of the union on his deathbed and unsurprisingly severed all legal ties with his working-class wife. Toureaux's lifestyle also had been unsavory, for like many Italians living in France, she frequented bals musette, often located in the most sordid neighborhoods of Paris where pimps and prostitutes solicited customers. Toureaux lived a mysterious and exciting life and was known to acquaintances by another name, "Yolande." The police learned that she had sexual encounters with men in hotels and public parks, but they never uncovered any evidence that she charged for sex. Faithful to her husband during their six-year secret marriage, she took a series of lovers from her milieu after his death in 1934.
Even more intriguing, Toureaux not only worked in a glue factory by day and a bal musette by night, she also gained intermittent employment as a sometime "mouche," or informant, with a detective agency in central Paris called Agence Rouff, where she specialized in surveillance and message delivery. Much of her detective work was done in the bals musette. Her beauty was her greatest asset since her good looks gave her entry into many places and access to people she was expected to watch. Through her employer, Georges Rouffinac, it appears that she began working unofficially for the investigative division of the Paris police and in this capacity infiltrated the Cagoule. Late in his life, her former lover and Cagoule member, Gabriel Jeantet, told a reporter that she had been something of a double agent in the employ of Mussolini, but no documentation to this effect has ever been found.
So Why Was Laetitia Killed?
Laetitia Toureaux loved to dance, and as a dancer she met many young army officers who were attracted to right-wing politics. It appears that sometime in 1936, Laetitia, now known as "Yolande" and working for the police to infiltrate illegal, right-wing political groups, became the lover of Jeantet, the Cagoule's arms smuggling expert. Jeantet ran a garage near Montmarte and commanded a fleet of cars he used to smuggle arms from Geneva to Paris. By the spring of 1937, the Cagoule began to suspect Toureaux of deceit and set a trap for her. News of an upcoming arms run was leaked to her, but when the car was stopped at the Swiss border, it was empty. The ruse cost Toureaux her life. The Cagoule leadership met on May 10, 1937, and determined her fate. In all probability, the group's most notorious assassin, Jean Filliol, was ordered to kill her. Filliol proceeded to pull off the perfect crime and fled to Spain before World War II broke out. He finished his life a rich man near San Sebastian.
Why Tell Laetitia Toureaux's Story Now?
Laetitia Toureaux's story is both timely and compelling. A 500-page summary of the investigation compiled by the police a few months after her death paints a fascinating picture of one woman's struggle to achieve bourgeois respectability in a world that denied upward mobility to people of her sex, class and ethnicity. Her murder is also intertwined with the history of French fascism. The Cagoule leaders were not street thugs but highly educated nationalists who used terrorism, particularly the bombing of two sites in the wealthy 16th district of Paris – ironically, on Sept. 11, 1937 – as a means of sending a message to the French public. On this particular 9/11, they hoped to fool the public into believing that a communist putsch was imminent and thereby hasten the fall of the Third Republic. Historians, however, seldom give more than summary attention to the Cagoule's prewar aims. Ultimately the Cagoule failed to bring about regime change and install an ultraconservative state. Even so, their use of violence as a means of promoting disorder in 1937 has never been fully examined. A reassessment of the CSAR could aid understanding of France's fall in 1940. At the very least, such a study provides insight into how terrorist cells operate, incite fear, and as Americans know only too well, change history.
And in the end, what do we make of Laetitia Toureaux, the woman who gives us access to those violent times? Reconstructing her life was no easy task. The files concerning her murder were sealed by the French government for 101 years and are not due to be released until 2038. We acquired legal derogations and gained access to many of these files but only after signing documents in which we promised never to compromise the names of leading French families. In many instances, files we sought vanished "without explanation." A five-year search finally turned up the police archives that we were repeatedly told did not exist. More than one French archivist warned us not to pursue this research.
In 1997 we set out to find Toureaux's grave. There in the stillness of a cemetery on the outskirts of Paris, we vowed to this woman to tell her story. Laetitia "Yolande" Toureaux was no heroine, but she embodied many of the complexities of interwar French society. In 2002 the lease expired on her grave plot, and her body was exhumed and cremated. In some sense, we believe, the publication of our book will reanimate and validate her existence.
In 1997 Annette Finley-Croswhite, associate professor and dean of graduate studies in the College of Arts and Letters, happened onto two or three sentences in a Paris travel guide about a 1937 unsolved murder in the capital city's subway. That reading would lead to an eight-year project that is now drawing to an end. Finley-Croswhite and fellow researcher Gayle Brunelle, whom she had met in graduate school at Emory University and who now teaches at California State University, Fullerton, agreed that the story was too good to pass up. Although both are French historians whose specialty is the 16th century, they "retooled" themselves to write about this fascinating piece of history from the 20th century. They published a major article in the journal French Cultural Studies, "Murder in the Metro," and have spoken about it at several conferences. After years of research, they have produced a manuscript, titled "Laetitia Toureaux and the Cagoule: Murder, Gender, and Fascism in 1937 France." The subject of the scholarly work remains highly controversial, and many people in France would prefer that the story be forgotten. As dedicated historians and researchers, however, Finley-Croswhite and Brunelle couldn't let that happen.
Corrupt PM, Extrajudicial murder, Graft, Honest Govt.Officer, Kamran Faisal, Nepotism, Power Thief, PPP Corruption, Raja "Rental" Pervez


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Jibo is being pitched as a new member of the family: the robot slave we all need and want! The first step towards Rosie!
Jibo's creator is Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, director of MIT's Personal Robots Group. She describes the 6 pound, 11 inch bouncing baby Terminator spy as something that will "support, complement and extend what we need from others in an affordable, effective and delightful way so that we can succeed, thrive and grow." And if you don't think that statement was massaged by the marketing team to within an inch of its life, you haven't been paying attention.
First, the good news. It can't move. It merely feeds information about our weaknesses and actions to Skynet for future use, and is unlikely to be able to rise up and kill us in our sleep.
That's good, because Intel's 3D printable Jimmy looks like it's ready to start gathering cutlery and unlocking the gun safe in the dead of night. And it's self-replicating!
Jibo is, basically, what would happen if Furby got together with your smartphone and started to reproduce. Its functionality is limited out of the box, but that's expected to change with software upgrades and third part apps over time.
But still: it's a Furbyphone. Let's not kid ourselves.
It's shipping by Christmas 2015 and costs $500. You can order it now. If you dare.
Have I said lately how much I hate robots?
Disney: finding new ways to creep me out.
Okay, it is pretty cool, if pointless.
Ishin-Den-Shin allows you to record a message into a special microphone, and then transmit that message directly another person just by touching his ear. The effect is as though you're whispering right in the person's ear … through your finger.
A Shure 55 microphone is connected to a computer's sound card. The microphone is recording as soon as a sound that is a higher amplitude than a set threshold is sensed. The computer creates a loop with the recording which is then sent back to an amplification driver. This amplification driver converts the recorded sound signal into a high voltage, low current (300 Vpp, 50 uA) inaudible signal. The output of the amplification hardware is connected to the conductive metallic casing of the microphone via a very thin, almost invisible wire wrapped around the microphone audio cable. When holding the microphone, the visitor comes in contact with the inaudible, high voltage, low power version of the recorded sound. This creates a modulated electrostatic field around the visitors' skin. When touching another person's ear, this modulated electrostatic field creates a very small vibration of the ear lobe. As a result, both the finger and the ear together form a speaker which makes the signal audible for the person touched. The inaudible signal can be transmitted from body to body, using any sort of physical contact.
Now get your finger out of my ear.
… right next to an airport.
International architectural firm GDS Architects reports that it's received a construction permit to begin building "the world's first invisible tower." The Tower Infinity will stand 450 meters (1,476 feet) and be situated in Cheongna, near the Incheon Airport just outside of Seoul.
Like other concepts for invisibility cloaks that have tantalized the geeky imagination, this one relies on optical illusion.
The glass-encased Tower Infinity, also called City Tower, will be fitted with a high-tech LED facade that integrates projectors and 18 strategically placed weatherproof optical cameras.
The cams will snap real-time pictures of the area directly behind the building, digitally stitch the images into a panorama, and project them back onto the building's reflective surface. That will create the illusion that viewers are looking straight through the structure to the other side, making it appear to blend into the skyline at certain times of day.
Angelina Jolie has been in the news recently for choosing to have a double mastectomy, even though she does not have breast cancer. She does, however, have the BRCA gene mutation which could lead to breast cancer, and although a voluntary double mastectomy is a radical choice, it's also a reasonable one.
This is not an abstract issue for Jolie: her mother died of the disease at age 56, and the odds of her getting it are very high. The decision is not an easy one, and I think it's fair to say that any woman would require a large amount of fortitude to make it. When that woman is also known for her physical appearance, the choice becomes even more challenging. The word "brave" gets thrown around a little too easily these days, but I'd say her choice to voluntarily surgically remove her breasts qualifies.
Singer Melissa Etheridge isn't having any of that "brave" talk, however.
Etheridge, also a breast cancer survivor, said the decision was "fearful," not brave, as if those things are somehow exclusive of each other. The brave person is often bravest in the face of fear. Fear brings bravery to the surface. It's actually a fairly integral part of the idea of bravery. Fear is the prompt: bravery is the response.
But the cause of cancer is really stress, nutrition, and acidity?
And a person with a very high genetic pre-disposition to cancer can turn the gene off if they just chill out and eat right?
I happen to have one of those genetic diseases that mysteriously turns itself on. Other members of my family have the disease as well, so it's quite obviously, somehow, hereditary.
There's mounting evidence that, at least in the case of autoimmune diseases such as mine, the disease is activated by a virus. The culprit in some inherited diseases may in fact be a retrovirus entwined in the DNA, and activated by an infection which weakens the proteins wrapped around those particular strands.
I'm not saying this explains why some people with BRCA get breast cancer and others don't. We are, however, making incredible progress in understanding the mechanisms of disease and their roots in genetics. Until such time as we have firm answers, it's dangerous and irresponsible to advise people with a high likelihood of certain cancers to pursue unproven alternative therapies. Etheridge is offering nothing more than New Age Christian Science.
Yes, healthy living and a stress-free life are good for us. This is not news. That these things can also effectively stave off an almost certain death-sentence from an aggressive form of cancer is just quackery.
Etheridge's outburst is just the tip of the iceberg: all over the internet natural health militants are condemning Jolie's decision and characterizing her as little more than a shill for something called "The Cancer Industry." This kind of garbage is being widely promoted on the internet by howling loons who also think watching out for "sunlight exposure" can prevent breast cancer, and they're only too glad to sell you a set of CDs explaining their junk science.
The worst part is that women, already facing a horrible decision, may take Etheridge's words to heart and opt for alternative treatments that are only proven worthless after it's too late.
The Heineken Ignite interactive bottle is born from Heineken's ambition to develop an idea that would create a memorable Heineken experience unlocking the power and possibilities of mobile innovation and technology. To match our ambitions we followed an innovative project methodology developed by Tribal DDB called 'SPARK'. It's an innovation process which blends inspiration, ideation and creation to produce an actual working prototype which can be tested in the real world. The project is run like a start-up, which means collaborative ideation, rapid prototyping, multiple rounds of user testing and feedback, all under tight timings. The first 3 day workshop was held end of February in Amsterdam where the Global Heineken Digital team and Tribal DDB Amsterdam built a multidisciplinary creative team partnering with Massive Music, Contagious, the Global Heineken Design team and independent experts from a wide range of industries. Over the 3 days the team goes from a TED like inspiration workshop on day 1, to ideation and refinement of ideas during day 2 and 3. A total of 3 fully fledged briefings were chosen, one of which gets the go-ahead for prototype development. The selected brief was based on the idea that when people 'cheers' with their bottles, 'something magical' should happen: a Heineken moment.
Oh for crying out loud it's a light-up bottle for a crappy beer, not a #$%^&*@ artificial kidney!
Next up: integrated cell phones in bottles so you can drunk-dial old girlfriends without putting down your beer.
This is why we haven't returned to the moon in decades: all the smart people are busy Making a Better Beer Bottle. Because, y'know, that was something we got wrong the first time.
[T]hose individuals who were stupid enough to rush into the arms of the mythical houris and/or Adonis's they would expect to greet them, would simply do so and die – by whatever chemical or biological fate would overcome them… [T]he principle of Survival of the Fittest would draconically prove itself for a couple of years, after which Natural Selection would weed out those for whom there is no hope except through our forbearance.
…Any weeping and wailing over the Poor Little Kids who would perish by immediately gobbling down pills and injecting poison, is summoning up crocodile tears, in my opinion. They would – and presently do – mature into grown-up idiots, and Darwin would be appalled that his lessons were ignored.
I'm sure Darwin would be appalled, but not by what you think, you cankerous old monster.
I'm a believer in Social Darwinism. Not in every case. I would do anything to stop a twelve-year-old kid from doing it. Sincerely. But in general, I think that Darwinism, survival of the fittest, should be allowed to act itself out. As long as it doesn't interfere with me and other sensible, rational people who could be affected by it. Innocent people, in other words.
These are stupid people. And if they can't survive, they don't have the IQ, don't have the thinking power to be able to survive, it's unfortunate; I would hate to see it happen, but at the same time, it would clear the air.
Questions: Why would it be unfortunate? Unfortunate for whom? If it's a good for society, there's nothing "unfortunate" about it. If there's something unfortunate about it, then it's not a good for society, and your grotesque worldview is dust and ashes.
And these stupid people you're talking about: are they stupid because they failed a test, or because of a belief system? Should, say, religious people (whom you hold in contempt and certainly believe are stupid) be allowed to die? Say, if our houses catch on fire, should we be allowed to burn alive for the greater good?
What measure of intelligence are we talking about? For instance, say you need your car fixed, and there's a mechanic who can't read, write, or do higher math, but he can disassemble and reassemble a car engine. I have a relative like this, so it's not an abstract question. Should he be allowed to die? If so, then who's gonna fix your damn car? Do we have a "stupidity exception" for useful people?
What about aging magicians? I'm really not quite sure what you're contributing to the world right now. You seem a little arthritic and, based on the rot coming out of your mouth, your brain is clearly decaying. Senility can't be far off, if indeed it isn't already here. If someone smarter or healthier than you tried to kill you or allow you die through inaction, would I be wrong to stand by idly and let it happen?
I think that people with mental aberrations who have family histories of inherited diseases and such, that something should be done seriously to educate them to prevent them from procreating. I think they should be gathered together in a suitable place and have it demonstrated for them what their procreation would mean for the human race.
A suitable place? You mean, like a camp? Where we can, y'know, concentrate all the unsuitable and untermenschen? Spiffing idea!
Self-styled skeptics (as opposed to, say, Forteans) are just so very tedious. There is no unexplained phenomena they cannot explain away, even unto the point that their explanations become absurdly tendentious. Their skepticism is a religion unto itself, just like evangelical atheism. I traveled in Fortean circles for a while, and never met one "skeptic" who wasn't vain and egotistical. This anti-humanism bubbles below the surface of the entire movement.
Go ahead, take your time. I'll wait. You embraced him. You own him.
Will we see him at the next Reason Rally? I bet we will. They do so love their hate.
The robot is named Vomiting Larry, and isn't being used for sight gags, but is helping scientists to better understand the spread of noroviruses, also know as the winter vomiting bug, which can cause projectile vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and loss of taste. Noroviruses are transmitted directly between people via aerosolization — having physical substances emit particles that float around in the air — and indirectly by contaminated consumables like food and water. When humans throw up, aerosolization takes place, and thus, Vomiting Larry was born so scientists can study human vomiting without, you know, humans vomiting.
Vomiting Larry is anatomically correct, so its vomiting pattern is pretty close to what humans experience. Because of this, it helped scientists figure out that the norovirus can travel up to 9.8 feet with the help of projectile vomiting. Each individual splattering of vomit in that 9.8-foot chain contains enough noroviruses to infect many people — it only takes around 20 particles to fully infect someone.
I guess that's reasonable enough and useful for epidemiology, although it sounds like something Adam and Jamie could have knocked off in a couple afternoons, and made it entertaining in the process. Since it was done by the British Health and Safety Laboratory (and, yes, when I saw the headline about vomiting robots, my first thought was, "Dammit, the Japanese have beaten us again!"), I envision lots of grant money and time-wasting to get the same results, eg: virus's spread when you puke. Duly noted.
Knowing it's 9.8 feet is useful … how? When someone fails their fortitude roll and starts cacking, do you draw a circle around them in chalk, starting at 9.8 feet, and hide the children somewhere at the 10′ mark?
There is a fundamentally anti-human belief that we can program an ethical machine that will coldly evaluate a situation and always make the right choice, unlike these icky meat sacks and their faulty programming. Humans, in this evaluation, are just bad code. Remove them from the loop, and all will be well.
Professor, let me introduce you to Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, courtesy of Leah Libresco, who declined to annihilate the planet despite overwhelming (and false) evidence that this would have been the proper course of action. The computer would have launched. The human–tempered by human judgment and mercy–did not.
Obama's drone war is already one of the most horrific, merciless, cold, inhuman war crimes of our time. Automation wouldn't make it any better. Giving drones the power and authority to kill–removing the human from the decision loop (something an officer once told me would never, ever happen)–is madness to the nth degree.
Professor Arkin is an expert on the subject of autonomous lethality in robots. I would suggest that this is nothing for which we need experts. We need to say: "Okay, no. We don't program robots with that capability, whatever short-sighted and spurious reasons you care to cook up to the contrary." We would be better without any robots at all than with even one programmed with the capacity to kill. Robots aren't actually necessary, and humanity can do just fine without them. You don't need to fear a world without robots. You need to fear a world with people who feel robots can be more "ethical" than humans. You need to fear a world where morality has collapsed so completely that an elite feels the need to restore that morality through machines. A machine is incapable of being a moral agent.
The fun thing about the AP story is that they won't claim our hot summer (I know: a hot summer! We've never had those before!) is caused by global warming climate change climate disruption warming, but that this is what global warming may "look like." In other words, the Big Brains are saying that if the planet is warming, then it will be just like a warm planet. Remember: the first rule of Tautology Club is the First Rule of Tautology Club.
If you listen hard enough, you can hear the Nelson laugh at the end of that sentence.
Is the planet warming? Maybe. Or maybe not. The science isn't "settled," certainly not when scientists are gaming the data and using junk prediction models.
Are we responsible for global warming? Maybe. Or maybe not. I'm inclined to think the giant ball of burning plasma around which we orbit probably has a bit more to do with it than a bunch of higher primates using hairspray and internal combustion engines.
Is there anything that can be done about it by hysterics urging staggeringly expensive, impractical and freedom-killing non-solutions?
Of course not. Not even a tiny bit. The entire global warming industry is a way to transfer money and power back into the hands of a first-world elite, and to continue to keep the third-world poor and undeveloped. Dramatic global changes to "combat" "climate change" would cost lives, money, and development, and the people urging us to adopt these changes aren't even certain they would do a thing.
Seriously: when you've lost James Lovelock, you've lost.
It's funny: scientists and materials are always urging us to be skeptical about everything … except science and materialism.
I just love BS sciency headlines that draw absurd conclusions from facts not in evidence, cite studies that are woefully incomplete even by the standards of the scientists involved, and make bold declarations with no connection to reality. In this case it's an article at Phys.org that wants to assure us that swimming in a cultural swamp does nothing at all to affect the psyches of teenagers with a headline that blares "Teenagers not taken in by raunchy imagery".


General practitioners (GPs) are known to encounter challenges when working with patients from refugee backgrounds. In this study we explore GPs' perceptions of a trial version of the Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide website, an online resource designed to support GPs working in refugee health.
We conducted semi-structured interviews in two phases with 10 GPs from Melbourne, Victoria. Data analysis involved a mixed inductive and deductive framework analysis approach.
The website was viewed as a central repository of refugee health–specific information with useful links. It helped fill knowledge gaps for participants and affirm existing practice. The volume of text on each page was a potential barrier to use in clinical practice.
Supporting GPs to become familiar with the website, further adapting it to make key information rapidly accessible and keeping it up to date will be critical to its future uptake.
Multiple information resources have been developed to address these challenges and support GPs when seeing patients from refugee backgrounds.1,6–9 Two of these resources include the paper-based guide 'Promoting refugee health: A guide for doctors, nurses and other health care providers caring for people from refugee backgrounds'7 and its accompanying desktop guide 'Caring for refugee patients in general practice: A desktop guide'.6 They are produced by the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House) and the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma. Foundation House has recently updated these existing resources and translated them into an online format, incorporating information from the recently updated Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID) and Refugee Health Network of Australia (RHeaNA) 'Recommendations for comprehensive post-arrival health assessment for people from refugee-like backgrounds'.1 The new resource, the Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide, includes a website (refugeehealthguide.org.au) and desktop guide and became available in early 2018. It includes information about approaches to patient care, conducting a refugee health assessment, common health concerns, approaches to working with refugee population subgroups and referral pathways.
This research project involved gathering feedback from GPs on a trial version of the website prior to the official website launch earlier this year. Our aims in completing this study were to provide feedback to Foundation House that could be used to inform future changes to the site and to add to a relatively new and developing body of literature into the use of online resources in clinical practice. Our primary research objective was to determine the perceived utility of a trial version of the website by GPs working in Melbourne, Victoria. Our secondary objective was to determine GP perceptions of how the trial website could be adapted and optimised to better support them when managing patients from refugee backgrounds.
We used a qualitative approach to answer our research aims. The study is designed to be exploratory in nature, not aiming for generalisability.
Ethical approval was obtained from the Human Ethics Advisory Group, Department of General Practice, at The University of Melbourne (ID number 1749681).
Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit 10 GPs working in Melbourne, Victoria, between July and September 2017. Our aim was to include GPs with a range of experience in working with people from a refugee background. We initially contacted GPs known to members of our research team via email and invited them to participate in the study. These GPs then disseminated information about our study to their colleagues. To be included in the study, participants were required to be currently working clinically in Melbourne, Victoria as a vocationally qualified GP. All participants consented to involvement in the study in keeping with The University of Melbourne's requirements. We envisaged that conducting between nine and 12 interviews would enable broad views to be elicited. After completing 10 interviews, we were confident that data saturation had been achieved.
Each participant completed two semi-structured interviews with researcher TW. These interviews were conducted either over the phone or face to face and audio-recorded. The interview schedule was informed by two theoretical frameworks: the Technology Acceptance Model10 and the research conducted by Cook et al,11 which describes key features of effective medical knowledge resources used by clinicians at the point of care. The first interview (phase one) involved questions relating to participant demographics and their experience using existing refugee health–related information resources. Participants were then introduced to a trial version of the website and given a written case vignette as a way to standardise their responses. The vignette described a common general practice presentation of a patient with a refugee background. It was developed by TW and KW, GPs with experience working with patients from refugee backgrounds, with input from JF and PL. Participants were asked to read the vignette in their own time and to use the trial website to complete a series of clinical tasks relating to the vignette. Subsequently, participants completed a follow-up interview (phase two) with TW to discuss their experience using the trial website.
The content analysis approach was used to analyse the characteristics of each of the 10 participants. We conducted a mixed inductive and deductive analysis of all other data, drawing on a framework approach.12 After becoming familiar with the data, we approached the coding process using the two theoretical frameworks that informed our interview schedule10,11 to guide the deductive component of the analysis. As data were coded, we also looked for codes that sat outside of these theoretical frameworks. Codes were subsequently arranged into themes. The data coding was completed in NVivo11 by TW. Samples of the data were coded independently by JF and PL. A subsequent group discussion led to consensus on the final themes.
The characteristics of the 10 GP participants are described in Table 1. We used the Australian Bureau of Statistics Australian Statistical Geography Standard13 to define the practice location, with a practice defined as being inner metropolitan if located within Statistical Area Level 4 'Melbourne – Inner'. Participants self-reported their level of refugee health experience.
There was an even distribution between participants who work in private practice and those based in community health centres. Participant experience working in refugee health was also evenly distributed, from having very little to considerable refugee health experience. Six of the 10 participants were female and half of participants were recent fellows of The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, with five participants having worked in clinical general practice for five or fewer years.
Three themes relating to the website from the second phase of interviews were identified. These were: affirming existing practice and filling knowledge gaps; a central hub, linking GPs with services and resources; and the feasibility of using the website in clinical practice. Each theme related to our aims of exploring perceived utility and identifying areas for improvement of the online resource.
There were, however, occasional issues with broken links and challenges finding specific translated patient information resources on the links provided.
The use of dot points and highlighting were suggestions given for making the key information quicker and easier to find.
There is, however, considerable literature on the broader use of information resources in clinical practice, including clinical practice guidelines, clinical decision support systems and point of care resources.18–24 These studies indicate that making information resources available to health practitioners can have a positive impact on patient care.
As participants in our study noted, existing habits and user familiarity with a resource are likely to affect whether GPs will use it. This is in line with both the HealthPathways literature and other studies describing GP use of clinical practice guidelines.27,29,30 Clearly publicising the Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide website and educating GPs so they are familiar with it will therefore be crucial to its future uptake.
There are limitations to consider when interpreting our study results. Firstly, the existing confidence of participants in using information technology may have influenced the feedback they gave on the website. We did not collect data on this variable. Secondly, the lead researcher (TW) had an existing relationship with six of the participants. While TW was not involved in the production of the website and this was emphasised to all participants, these existing relationships may have influenced the feedback participants gave. Thirdly, because of resource limitations, our study included GPs from metropolitan Melbourne only. While the website is intended for GPs working Australia-wide, our study is exploratory in nature and the results are not generalisable. Finally, our study focused on evaluating a trial version of the website. The results of this evaluation do not necessarily represent the views of our participants on the website that is now 'live'.
In addition to providing feedback on the Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide website, this research adds to our understanding of a growing field: online information resource use in Australian general practice. GPs need resources that are easy to use at the point of care, where they encounter time pressures. Online resources such as this website have the potential to be easily accessible and time-efficient to use. In the case of this site, supporting GPs to become familiar with it, ensuring the information and links are up to date and further adapting the site to make the key information rapidly accessible are crucial factors that will influence future use.
Funding: This research is supported by the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Funding was received from the Australian Government under the Australian General Practice Training program.
We give particular thanks to Samantha Furneaux for her expertise, advice and support of this project.


text:
package org.scalactic

import org.scalatest._
import scala.collection.GenSeq
import scala.collection.GenMap
import scala.collection.GenSet
import scala.collection.GenIterable
import scala.collection.GenTraversable
import scala.collection.GenTraversableOnce
import scala.collection.{mutable,immutable}

class TypeCheckedSetEqualityConstraintsSpec extends Spec with NonImplicitAssertions with TypeCheckedTripleEquals with SetEqualityConstraints {

  case class Super(size: Int)
  class Sub(sz: Int) extends Super(sz)

  val super1: Super = new Super(1)
  val sub1: Sub = new Sub(1)
  val super2: Super = new Super(2)
  val sub2: Sub = new Sub(2)
  val nullSuper: Super = null

  case class Fruit(name: String)
  class Apple extends Fruit("apple")
  class Orange extends Fruit("orange")

  object `the SetEqualityConstraints trait` {

    def `should allow any Set to be compared with any other Set, so long as the element types of the two Sets adhere to the equality constraint in force for those types` {
      assert(mutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3) === immutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3))
      assertTypeError("mutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3) === immutable.HashSet(1L, 2L, 3L)") // does not compile last time I checked
      assertTypeError("mutable.HashSet(1L, 2L, 3L) === immutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3)") // does not compile last time I checked
      assertTypeError("immutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3) === mutable.HashSet(1L, 2L, 3L)") // does not compile last time I checked
      assertTypeError("immutable.HashSet(1L, 2L, 3L) === mutable.HashSet(1, 2, 3)") // does not compile last time I checked
      assert(mutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple) === immutable.HashSet(new Fruit("apple"), new Fruit("apple")))
      assert(immutable.HashSet(new Fruit("apple"), new Fruit("apple")) === mutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple))
      assertTypeError("mutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple) === immutable.HashSet(new Orange, new Orange)")
      assertTypeError("immutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple) === mutable.HashSet(new Orange, new Orange)")
      assertTypeError("immutable.HashSet(new Orange, new Orange) === mutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple)")
      assertTypeError("mutable.HashSet(new Orange, new Orange) === immutable.HashSet(new Apple, new Apple)")
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Null pointer Exception while using handler.obtainmessage I am using an handler to pass the variable value  to UI thread in android. However the app crashes as soon as it reaches handler. Any idea to correct would be  a great help. Here is my code:
String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                        Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                        completeMessage.obj = var;

                        completeMessage.sendToTarget();

Thanks in advance
Here is the full code of the threD:
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;

import android.annotation.SuppressLint;
import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;

import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.media.MediaMetadataRetriever;
import android.media.MediaPlayer;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.os.Handler;
import android.os.Message;

import android.util.Log;

public class FrameProcessor extends Thread {
    private Uri uri = null;
    private Handler mHandler = null;
    private static volatile boolean bKeepRunning = true;
    private String value = null;
    private Context context = null;

    public FrameProcessor(Object obj, Handler handler, Uri uri) {
        if (obj != null) {
            this.uri = uri;
            this.mHandler = handler;
        }
        this.context = (Context) obj;
    }

    public void setIndex(String val) {
        this.value = val;
    }

    @TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.ICE_CREAM_SANDWICH)
    public void run() {

        MediaMetadataRetriever retriever = new MediaMetadataRetriever();

        retriever.setDataSource(uri.toString(), new HashMap<String, String>());
        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Video path set.... ");
        ArrayList<Bitmap> rev = new ArrayList<Bitmap>();
        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "uri is: " + uri);
        MediaPlayer mp = MediaPlayer.create(context, uri);
        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "MP created ");
        int millis = mp.getDuration();

        for (int i = 1000000; i < millis * 1000; i += 1000000) {
            Log.v("FrameProcessor", "In Thread's for loop ");
            Bitmap bitmap = retriever.getFrameAtTime(i,
                    MediaMetadataRetriever.OPTION_CLOSEST_SYNC);
            rev.add(bitmap);

            try {
                saveFrames(rev);
            } catch (IOException e) {

                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

    }

    @SuppressLint("ShowToast")
    public void saveFrames(ArrayList<Bitmap> saveBitmapList) throws IOException {
        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "In saveFrames ");
        if (value != null) {
            Log.v("FrameProcessor", value);

            if (value.equals("0")) {
                uri = Uri
                        .parse("http://html5dev.anorakstech.com/videos/video.mp4");
            } else if (value.equals("1")) {
                uri = Uri
                        .parse("http://html5dev.anorakstech.com/videos/HSNvideo.mp4");
            } else if (value.equals("2")) {
                uri = Uri
                        .parse("http://html5dev.anorakstech.com/videos/HSNMarkVideo.mp4");
            }
            Log.v("FrameProcessor", uri.toString());
        } else {

        }
        if (value.equals("0")) {
            String folder = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()
                    .toString();

            File saveFolder = new File(folder + "/Movies/Frames/");

            if (!saveFolder.exists()) {
                saveFolder.mkdirs();

                Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Extracting Frames.... ");

            }

            int i = 1;
            for (Bitmap b : saveBitmapList) {
                Log.v("FrameProcessor", "In saveFrames for loop");
                ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
                b.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 40, bytes);

                File f = new File(saveFolder, ("frame" + i + ".jpg"));

                f.createNewFile();
                if (i >= 0 && i < 6) {

                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i >= 6 && i < 12) {

                    **String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();**
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i >= 12 && i < 18) {
                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;
                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i > 18 && i < 24) {
                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else {

                }
                FileOutputStream fo = new FileOutputStream(f);
                fo.write(bytes.toByteArray());

                fo.flush();
                fo.close();

                i++;
            }
        } else if (value.equals("1")) {
            String folder = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()
                    .toString();

            File saveFolder = new File(folder + "/Movies/Frames/");

            if (!saveFolder.exists()) {
                saveFolder.mkdirs();

                Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Extracting Frames.... ");

            }

            int i = 1;
            for (Bitmap b : saveBitmapList) {
                ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
                b.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 40, bytes);

                File f = new File(saveFolder, ("frame" + i + ".jpg"));

                f.createNewFile();
                if (i >= 0 && i < 6) {

                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i >= 6 && i < 12) {

                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i >= 12 && i < 18) {
                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else if (i > 18 && i < 24) {
                    String var = "NO Keyword Found";
                    Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                    completeMessage.obj = var;

                    completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                    Log.v("FrameProcessor", "NO Keyword Found");

                } else {

                }
                FileOutputStream fo = new FileOutputStream(f);
                fo.write(bytes.toByteArray());

                fo.flush();
                fo.close();

                i++;
            }
        } else {
            String folder = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()
                    .toString();

            File saveFolder = new File(folder + "/Movies/Frames/");

            if (!saveFolder.exists()) {
                saveFolder.mkdirs();

                Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Extracting Frames.... ");

            }

            int i = 1;
            while (bKeepRunning) {

                for (Bitmap b : saveBitmapList) {
                    ByteArrayOutputStream bytes = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
                    b.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 40, bytes);

                    File f = new File(saveFolder, ("frame" + i + ".jpg"));

                    f.createNewFile();
                    if (i >= 0 && i < 6) {

                        String var = "Keyword HSN Found";
                        Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                        completeMessage.obj = var;

                        completeMessage.sendToTarget();
                        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Keyword ABCFound");

                    } else if (i >= 6 && i < 12) {

                        String var = "Keyword HSN Found";
                        Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                        completeMessage.obj = var;
                        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Keyword SHOP Found");

                    } else if (i >= 12 && i < 18) {
                        String var = "Keyword HSN Found";
                        Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                        completeMessage.obj = var;
                        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Keyword BY Found");

                    } else if (i > 18 && i < 24) {
                        String var = "Keyword HSN Found";
                        Message completeMessage = mHandler.obtainMessage();
                        completeMessage.obj = var;
                        Log.v("FrameProcessor", "Keyword REMOTE Found");

                    } else {

                    }
                    FileOutputStream fo = new FileOutputStream(f);
                    fo.write(bytes.toByteArray());

                    fo.flush();
                    fo.close();

                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    public void kill() {
        bKeepRunning = false;
    }
}

A: If handler is null, you can use
Message.obtain()

instead. You will anyway need to check if handler is not null prior to sending message.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Get the magazine!
on second thought
Parker Posey on New York in the '90s: "There Was Freedom and Silliness"
By Interview
Photographed by Luisa Opalesky
Styled by Gabriel Held
Coat by Adrienne Landau. Dress by Batsheva. Vintage Jewelry by Chanel from Gabriel Held Vintage.
At the height of her indie phase, Parker Posey appeared on the cover of this magazine and shared her idiosyncratic worldview with the writer Graham Fuller. Years (and many, many roles) later, the Southern-bred actor, who can next be seen on the HBO Max true-crime thriller The Staircase, shows that while a lot in the world has changed, she remains her same, unique self.
"Oh, those were the days! When all that was going on was movies and celebrity and scandal."
"The female dolly grip on Tales of the Walking Dead was excited to tell me one day, 'I'm probably not supposed to tell you this but I can't help it, you're such a bad bitch.' She meant it as a compliment. And then we talked about having strong fathers that taught us that just because we were girls, didn't mean we couldn't be in a man's world—how bitches have standards."
"Do you think Graham Fuller would take me to a movie? We can be friends, right?"
"My dad had PTSD and used humor and writing to try to work it all out. He came back from the war throw- ing us in the air, giddy with love, sad he missed our first three years, and shook that it could've been different. He was a master at taking center stage wherever he was—he brought remote fart machines to the airport. He could be domineering and emotionally absent. He drank and liked to party; my parents were fab in the '70s. He read my book and loved it— I handled his narcissism with enough humor to make him a character he'd approve of. I didn't divulge how hard he was on us. For 20 years, he had prostate cancer from Agent Orange in Vietnam, which was tough on our family, to say the least. He passed four months after the book was published. This I'm most blessed for."
"Fame was an adjustment. I had no reference point for it. And I loved being a New Yorker, making movies with friends. There were no cameras to record—there was freedom and silliness. When I was sensitive to being talked about or looked at and not talked to, I'd isolate or regroup. A lot of folks are envious of fame, especially now, but I've grown to handle it."
"'Southern women create alternate realities' comes from Tennessee Williams's Blanche DuBois, when she said, 'I don't want realism. I want magic!' She created this identity for herself, this guise that hid all the pain and dark secrets. Nonnie was like Blanche. The first time I was in Interview, the caption was, 'Golly, it's Holly Golightly,' from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Ingrid [Sischy, Interview's former editor in chief] really got me as a Southerner in New York City."
"This makes me laugh. 'When I'd be a woman.' I'm still such a woman-child. I'd hear this dramatic story every birthday—high-stakes from the get-go, and another reason I became an actor, actress, storyteller. It all comes from my family, my ancestors."
"There's a great podcast called The Plot Thickens, where Peter Bogdanovich talks about how much easier it was to be a failure in L.A. than a success. I was lucky to meet him in person and he was supportive and fun—a real mensch."
"Napping, resting, or meditating are good for refueling or downloading and getting back to a brighter, lighter self. I've always whirled with ideas and energy I like to share with others, then I relax and get neutral again. I'm a lot less sulky and less tormented than I used to be. I get anxious and feel oh so alone, but what actress doesn't?"
"My advice to young creative people is not to take rejection personally because evolution can happen through art, and there are new modes of creativity to be found and nurtured. There's a wider net and reach to have, collectively, with other like-minded new thinkers and makers. So an attitude about your art is important. As a young person I was bored with the status quo because I wanted to create, then I got disheartened when it commodified. I liked the homemade Cabbage Patch doll more than the commercially made ones."
"What I'm hearing in this answer is guilt and impostor syndrome. I remember being asked why I worked so much and doubted that Sam Rockwell was being asked the same. Charlie Rose asked me the same question and I felt guilt, although when we went to commercial he'd confided he's being creative all the time, having ideas constantly. Acting fulfills the person I am, not with a bunch of personalities, but an artist who taps into archetypes making them her own to serve a story. It's not weird, it's just authentic."
"We were both good mimics as kids. It's funny how internally I take Graham's question about relating to him. It shows the complications twins can have. I'm an artist, because I developed a way to make a context for the complications my family gave me. I relate to my family as an artist, they teach me and have given me so much material. Especially the women in my family."
"That film was all-consuming. That's what's fascinating to me about acting: the things you do to your mind when you consume a story, and the reality you create. I think actors live in two realities, and I'm constantly looking for things to feed into whatever character I'm playing. When you're actually working, that someone else kind of becomes you. Method acting!"
Hair by Ledora Francis using Renée Furterer
Makeup by Kristi Matamoros using Chanel Beauty at Art Dept.
Production by Born Artists
Manicure by JazzStyle using Chanel Beauty
Fashion Assistants Evan Dombkowski and Karla Lopez, Hair Assistant Natalia Borges
One Night in Marrakech with Symone, Gigi Goode, and Jessie Ware
Curtis Pawley and Matty Healy Geek Out on Tár, Brian Eno, and Peter Gabriel
CHRISTEENE and Gwendoline Christie Want You to Fix Your Dick
Mel Ottenberg and "Menswear Man" Conduct an Anonymous Paris Vibe Check
Calculated Clash Play with Moncler and JW Anderson
Alyah Chanelle Scott Wants to Be in Control
Mitchell Slaggert Takes Us to North Carolina
John Early Grills Julio Torres and Ana Fabrega on Everything Los Espookys
Nikki Glaser Lets It All Out
Danny Ramirez on Dream Jobs and Flow States
Iris Apatow Gets Grilled by Her Sister Maude
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Natalie Portman Biography
Biography by Riya Published on 30 May, 2014 Updated on 26 Mar, 2019
Facts of Natalie Portman
1981 , June-9
Natalie Hershlag
NataliePortman
Avner Hershlag
Shelley Hershlag
Israelis
Actress, Model
Brown - Light
34-27-32 (Bust-Waist-Hip)
Married to
Benjamin Millepied (m. 2012)
View more / View Less Facts of Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman is a famous American-Israeli actress and director. She made her debut role in the 1994 action thriller, Léon: The Professional. She is the winner of a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for several awards in her career.
Early Life And Education Of Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman is a famous American-Israeli actress and also a director. She was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She has citizenship in both America and Israel.
Natalie is a Golden Globes and Academy awards winner actress who is mostly known for her roles in movies like Stars Wars prequel trilogy, Thor and its sequel Thor: The Dark World. Portman's mother Shelly's family was an immigrant to the United States.
Shelly's family was of Jewish descendants from Russia and Austria who changed their surname from Edelstein to Stevens. Natalie's father Avner Hershlag is an Israeli Citizen who is fertility Specialist and a gynecologist. As far as education concerns, Natalie Portman has a Bachelors degree in psychology from Harvard University.
Natalie Portman's Career And Struggle
Natalie Portman said in an interview that she was a very ambitious, hardworking and serious kid. Her first big screen debut was with the movie Leon: The Professional in 1993. She also did a short Television film named Developing.
Some of Portman's works during the mid -1990s were films like Heat, Beautiful Girls, Mars Attacks! And Everyone says I love You. She portrayed the character of Anne Frank in the 1997 Broadway adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. The same year she also was cast in the Stars Wars prequel trilogy as Padme Amidala.
Natalie turned down the movie Anywhere But Here initially after learning it involve her in a sex scene but when the script was re-written she did the film. "Where the Heart Is" was her last film of the millennium.
After she took the hiatus from acting in any movie except the Stars Wars prequel trilogy for four years to focus on her University education, she actively started acting for the screen again in 2004 A.D.
In 2004, Natalie Portman did independent movies like Garden State and Closer. The final Star Wars prequel, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith released in 2005 and became a massive success. The other movies she did in the year 2005 were Free Zone and Goya's Ghosts.
For her 2006 movie V for Vendetta she shaved her head, the issue became the worldwide hot talk. Her other projects that year was Mr. Magorjum's Wonder Emporium, The Other Boleyn Girl and My Blueberry Nights.
In 2007, Natalie also appeared in Paul McCartney's music video "Dance Tonight". She also did a short film Hotel Chevalier. She served as the youngest of members of the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival jury in 2008.
In 2009, she did a drama film called Brothers. She made her directorial debut at the Venice Film Festival with the movie Eve. The 2010 movie Black Swan won her both Golden Globe and Academy Award for the Best Actress category.
She had to face the controversy of not being the full face behind the credited dancing in Black Swan. Some of the other movies she has done till date are: No Strings Attached Your Highness, Thor, Knight of Cups, Jane Got a Gun and A Tale of Love and Darkness. The latter one is also her directorial feature debut.
Natalie Portman's Net Worth, Salary, And Major Source Of Income
Natalie Portman has an estimated net worth of around $60 million as of 2019. In the year 2014, the actress earned around $13 million from her various works.
In 2009, Portman took her house on the market for $6.55 million which is nestled in Manhattan's West Village.
Natalie Portman's Husband, Children, And Affair
Natalie Portman had a short relationship with American folk singer Devendra Banhart which had ended in 2008. Natalie started to date the ballet dancer Benjamin Millepied in 2009. Benjamin was the choreographer for the movie Black Swan.
In December of 2010, it was announced that the couple became engaged and Portman was pregnant. She gave birth to son Aleph Portman-Millepied in June 2011.
The couple got married in an intimate Jewish ceremony on August 4, 2012. The ceremony took place in Big Sur, California. Natalie plans to relocate to France in 2014 after her spouse Benjamin's new job as director of the Paris Opera Ballet starts. Portman and her husband welcomed their second child, a daughter named Amalia Millepied on February 22, 2017.
Natalie Portman's Age,e Height, And Other Facts
Natalie Portman's age as of 2019 is 37 years.
Portman's height is 5' 3" (1.6 m).
Also See, Natalie Portman Opens Up About Sexual Harassment In Hollywood
5' 3" (1.6 m)
15 Oct, 2019 Biography by Joey Jordan
13 Oct, 2019 Biography by Shally
13 Oct, 2019 Biography by Basanta
Trending Biography
Is actress Natalie Portman expecting a second child? Find out about her married life and husband
26 Dec, 2016 News by Clarence


text:
package oneil.marcel;

public class Country implements Comparable<Object> {
	private String name;
	private long population;

	public Country(String name, long population) {
		this.name = name;
		this.population = population;
	}

	public Country(String csv) {
		String[] values = csv.split(",");
		this.name = values[0];
		this.population = Long.parseLong(values[1]);
	}

	public void setName(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}

	public String getName() {
		return this.name;
	}

	public void setPopulation(Long population) {
		this.population = population;
	}

	public long getPopulation() {
		return this.population;
	}

	public char firstLetter() {
		return Character.toUpperCase(this.getName().toCharArray()[0]);
	}

	@Override
	public int compareTo(Object country1) {
		// TODO Auto-generated method stub
		return Long.compare(((Country) country1).getPopulation(), this.getPopulation());
	}
}


text:
MAR - Marriott International, Inc.
Hilton debuts new line of hotels based on wellness
Hilton has announced a wellness-focused brand of hotels called "Tempo". Yahoo Finance's Brian Cheung, Anjalee Khemlani and Emily McCormick join Seana Smith on The Ticker to discuss.
What This Minor Vs. Marriott Lawsuit Reveals About the Hotel Biz
Marriott International has failed to halt a lawsuit against it in a Thai court filed by Minor International. The parent company of Minor Hotels Group advised investors of the outcome on Thursday. Minor, however, is still unable to proceed with the legal case in Thailand, pending another outcome later this month of a temporary injunction […]
Hyatt (H) Launches Hotel in Waco, Texas, Expansion on Track
Hyatt (H) announces the opening of Hyatt Place Waco-South in Waco, TX. The company's efforts to expand presence worldwide are noteworthy.
W Hotel deal gets Houston First's approval, heads to City Council
Houston First Corp.'s board has approved a plan that aims to bring a long-awaited W Hotel to downtown Houston. The Houston Chronicle reports that the board voted 10-3 in favor of the deal with Texas Hospitality Partners at its Jan. 16 meeting. Next, the deal goes to Houston City Council for approval.
Courtyard by Marriott Culminates Once-In-A-Century Celebration at Super Bowl LIV with Super Bowl Sleepover and Dream NFL Fan Experiences
Courtyard by Marriott, the Official Hotel of the NFL, announced today the winner of its Super Bowl Sleepover Contest – Denise Ammon. Courtyard by Marriott will host Ammon and a select group of her friends for an experience of a lifetime, including waking up in a Courtyard transformed suite inside the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday. All season long, Courtyard by Marriott and the global travel program Marriott Bonvoy have offered fans unprecedented access to NFL experiences that have created lasting memories, in celebration of the NFL's 100th Season. From the Courtyard Super Bowl Sleepover Contest to hundreds of NFL-related Moments made available exclusively to Marriott Bonvoy members, fans have been delighted all season long with NFL experiences that bring travelers closer to the game they love.
Hilton Launches New Brand Tempo Into a Crowded Lifestyle Space
Hotel companies hardly ever shy away from creating new brands, even when they may sound and look like ones they already have. Hilton is the latest hospitality giant to debut another brand. The McLean, Virginia-based company on Thursday introduced Tempo by Hilton with a celebration in New York City. It is the sixth brand Hilton […]
Triad-based hospitality group buys building for new home
A Triad-based hotel developer and operator has purchased an office building with plans to move its headquarters there. CN Hotels of Greensboro paid $1.38 million last month for a 24,000-square-foot office building on 8.8 acres at 711 Gallimore Dairy Road, south of Interstate 40 in High Point. The seller was First Community Bancshares of Bluefield, Virginia.
Grindr Shares Location, Sexual Orientation Data, Study Shows
(Bloomberg) -- Want the lowdown on European markets? In your inbox before the open, every day. Sign up here.Grindr is sharing detailed personal data with thousands of advertising partners, allowing them to receive information about users' location, age, gender and sexual orientation, a Norwegian consumer group said.The service -- described as the world's largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans, and queer people -- gave user data to third parties involved in advertising and profiling, according to a report by the Norwegian Consumer Council that was released Tuesday. Twitter Inc. ad subsidiary MoPub was used as a mediator for the data sharing and passed personal data to third parties, the report said."Every time you open an app like Grindr, advertisement networks get your GPS location, device identifiers and even the fact that you use a gay dating app," said Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems. "This is an insane violation of users' EU privacy rights."The consumer group and Schrems's privacy organization have filed three complaints against Grindr and five adtech companies to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority for breaching European data protection regulations. Schrems's group Noyb will file similar complaints with the Austrian DPA in the coming weeks, according to the statement.Match Group Inc.'s popular dating apps OkCupid and Tinder LLC share data with each other and other brands owned by the company, the research found. OkCupid gave information pertaining to customers' sexuality, drug use and political views, to the analytics company Braze Inc., the organization said.In a statement, Grindr said "while we reject a number of the report's assumptions and conclusions, we welcome the opportunity to be a small part in a larger conversation about how we can collectively evolve the practices of mobile publishers and continue to provide users with access to an option of a free platform."A spokeswoman for Match Group said OkCupid uses Braze to manage communications to its users, but that it only shared "the specific information deemed necessary" and "in line with the applicable laws including GDPR and CCPA." Braze also said it didn't sell personal data, nor share it between customers. Twitter is investigating the issue to "understand the sufficiency of Grindr's consent mechanism" and has disabled the company's MoPub account, a representative said.European consumer group BEUC urged national regulators to "immediately" investigate online advertising companies over possible violations of the bloc's data protection rules, following the Norwegian report. It's also written to European Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager to take action."The report provides compelling evidence about how these so-called ad-tech companies collect vast amounts of personal data from people using mobile devices, which advertising companies and marketeers then use to target consumers," BEUC said in an emailed statement. This happens "without a valid legal base and without consumers knowing it."The European Union's data protection law, GDPR, came into force in 2018 setting rules for what websites can do with user data. It mandates that companies must get unambiguous consent to collect information from visitors. The most serious violations can lead to fines of as much as 4% of a company's global annual sales.Where Tech Giants Are Getting Slapped Over Privacy: QuickTakeIt's part of a broader push across Europe to crack down on companies that fail to protect customer data. In January last year, Alphabet Inc.'s Google received a fine of 50 million euros ($56 million) from France's privacy regulator following a complaint by Schrems over the company's privacy policies. Prior to GDPR, the French watchdog levied maximum fines of 150,000 euros.The U.K. threatened Marriott International Inc. with a 99 million-pound ($128 million) fine in July following a hack of its reservation database, just days after the U.K.'s Information Commissioner's Office proposed handing a 183.4 million-pound penalty to British Airways in the wake of a data breach.Schrems has for years taken on large tech companies' use of personal information, including filing lawsuits challenging the legal mechanisms Facebook Inc. and thousands of other companies use to move that data across borders.He's become even more active since GDPR kicked in, filing privacy complaints against companies including Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc., accusing them of breaching the bloc's strict data protection rules. The complaints are also a test for national data protection authorities, who are obliged to examine them.In addition to the European complaints, a coalition of nine U.S. consumer groups urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys general of California, Texas and Oregon to open investigations."All of these apps are available to users in the U.S. and many of the companies involved are headquartered in the U.S.," groups including the Center for Digital Democracy and the Electronic Privacy Information Center said in a letter to the FTC. They asked the agency to look into whether the apps have upheld their privacy commitments.(Updates with FTC complaint from U.S. consumer groups in last two paragraphs)\--With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni and Ben Brody.To contact the reporters on this story: Sarah Syed in London at ssyed35@bloomberg.net;Natalia Drozdiak in Brussels at ndrozdiak1@bloomberg.net;Nate Lanxon in London at nlanxon@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Amy ThomsonFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
New Marriott hotel coming to College Park
College Park's hotel scene grew exponentially during the tail end of the last decade and it appears poised to continue that growth into the next. The latest? A new Marriott Residence Inn, Republic Properties Corp.
Hyatt on Expansion Spree, Opens 100th Hyatt House Hotel
Hyatt (H) consistently tries to expand presence worldwide and capitalize on demand for hotels in international markets.
City manager says underground debris at Westin parking deck site was a 'surprise, but not uncommon'
Greensboro City Manager David Parrish said the city will pay for the excavation of the debris and hopes construction of the deck will begin in the spring.
How hotels in Charlotte are shaping up in the face of increasing competition
Owners of hotels in the Charlotte area have invested more than $100 million on renovations — with more projects in the works.
New concepts could remake expectations for hotels in Charlotte
Construction is underway on a 21-story, 381-room J.W. Marriott hotel — the first of its kind in Charlotte — at the corner of Stonewall and College streets. "Occupancies are at high levels so I think we have some room to grow." The CRVA's $127 million expansion of the Charlotte Convention Center, combined with a growing hotel inventory, will be a catalyst for landing large-scale events and conferences. "Other cities want these successes as well, and we have to continue to invest in our infrastructure." There's also demand driven by corporate commitments to the market, such as Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) and Truist Financial Corp. (NYSE: TFC).
Teatro ZinZanni hotel developer nears ground lease approval in final race before groundbreaking
The 192-room boutique hotel has been in the works since the dinner theatre was forced to vacate its waterfront space nearly a decade ago.
Report: Marriott, Hilton interested in Trump hotel in D.C.
The Trump Organization has set a Jan. 23 deadline for potential bidders on its downtown D.C. hotel, and there are some big names in the running, according to The Wall Street Journal. The family of President Donald Trump brought on JLL (NYSE: JLL) in October to market the Trump International Hotel, which it operates under a long-term federal lease on the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, told The Wall Street Journal in a prepared statement the property has "received tremendous interest" from "the biggest names in hospitality." JLL declined to tell The Wall Street Journal what entities have expressed interest, but the report cites anonymous sources familiar with the process who say that a mix of domestic and foreign private equity firms, family buyers and hotel operators are potentially in the running — including Bethesda's Marriott International Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) and Tysons' Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HLT).
How Did Marriott International Inc (MAR) Compare Against Hedge Fund Darlings in 2019?
Remember those massive headline-grabbing fines that the UK's data protection regulator handed out to Marriott and British Airways last year? The two proposed penalties — Marriott at $130.4 million (£99.2 million) and British Airways at $241.1 million (£183.4 million) — came within a day of each other last July, but not much has been heard […]
Cafeteria leftovers slow construction of downtown hotel
Kaplan told Triad Business Journal on Monday that portions of the basement -- including small tunnels used for utilities -- of the former S&W Cafeteria on Market Street were found buried on the site of the future parking deck, and must be excavated and removed. The former cafeteria, just east of the intersection of Market and Elm streets, was behind the former Belk department store, now the 101 S. Elm office building. "We're moving forward," Kaplan told TBJ without providing a timetable at a news conference announcing Kontoor Brands and Brady Trane Services as sponsors of hospitality areas at Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts.
First look: Hillsboro Village adds new amenity — its first hotel
The six-story building includes 130 hotel rooms, 47 residences, a 200-car parking garage and ground floor retail space.
There were few common threads in the way the hotel, airlines, and online travel sectors approached U.S. TV advertising in 2019, as their spending trends diverged widely. Among the three sectors, hotels was the only one to significantly hike U.S. national TV spend, according to estimates from television analytics firm iSpot.tv, while airlines cut their […]
Does Marriott International, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:MAR) CEO Pay Compare Well With Peers?
Arne Sorenson became the CEO of Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR) in 2012. This report will, first, examine...
State to help fund infrastructure for new Sheraton next to Bradenton Convention Center
Florida's governor announced that more than $5.2 million will be used to fund infrastructure in rural areas across the state, including Palmetto in Manatee County. The city of Palmetto will receive $1.5 million to go toward street, water, sewer and stormwater improvements to support the construction of the Palmetto Sheraton Hotel adjacent to the Bradenton Area Convention Center, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis' Thursday announcement. It's going to connect from its ballroom to the conference center on the north side via a walkway so people will be able to go to hotel rooms and the convention center.
What Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton have planned for Silicon Valley
The three major hotel companies are expanding throughout Santa Clara County as they open brands aimed at business travelers. Here's a snapshot of their activity, along with a sampling of rates.
Silicon Valley hotels get a business upgrade
Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott are building out dozens of new Silicon Valley hotels in the region's tight hospitality market. Many of the new properties are focused on the high-dollar business travel experience with unique amenities targeted specifically at business travelers.
Marriott execs, family members sell millions in stock to close out 2019
Members of the Marriott family collectively sold more than $8 million in stock during the month of December.