Translate higher level strategies into needed IT services and priorities.
Set project priorities for a portfolio.
Set parameters for resource utilization within a portfolio.
Set deadlines and monitor progress for projects within the portfolio.
The Teaching and Learning Portfolio focuses on technology to support teaching and learning across campus. This portfolio has primary responsibility for the learning management system, classroom technology, teaching and collaboration tools, and other teaching and learning technology tools. This portfolio prioritizes projects, identifies initiatives, and allocates seed money to innovative technology projects that support teaching and learning at the University, specifically awarding annual Student Computing Fees to university colleges and libraries.


text:
The Dao of Endcrawl
The Art of Showbiz
Keanu Reeves in Johnny Mnemonic (1996, Tri- Star Pictures).
From subculture to superculture with Dennis Hopper, Johnny Mnemonic, and the Pictures Generation
In the 1990s — when up-and-coming artists still considered selling out as something to be avoided, and the boundaries between sub- and superculture were porous as ever — a handful of New York City artists from what writer-curator Douglas Crimp termed the "Pictures Generation" would try their hand at Hollywood, or Hollywood-adjacent, filmmaking.
It's a story as old as showbiz itself: a critically acclaimed artiste relocates to the sequoia'd palms of Hollywood to direct their first big studio release, only to find their creative ambitions ground to a fine dust by bureaucratic infighting, clueless executives and the demands of working within a system biased against everything an individual artist stands for. This isn't to say that no blood was drawn from the Pictures Generation's opportunistic stab at the mainstream. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Backtrack (1990)
Aside from Kathryn Bigelow (who collaborated with artists like Richard Serra, Laurence Weiner and feminist auteur Lizzie Borden, before going on to make artillery-worshipping hits like Point Break and Zero Dark Thirty), the phantom haunting this informal survey is probably Dennis Hopper. While not a member of the Pictures Generation (too old, too West Coast), Hopper spent his storied career straddling the backlot and fine-art milieux as patron, performer, and mastermind.
Following an Oscar nomination for 1986's Hoosiers and rave reviews for helming the LAPD drama Colors, Hopper rigged up a magnum opus called Backtrack with Vestron Pictures, starring himself as an assassin named Milo who becomes obsessed with a young "Cindy Sherman-type artist-entrepreneur" named Anne Benton (Jodie Foster) after she witnesses one of his hits go down. The production spiraled out of control and the producers commissioned a borderline-incoherent cut called Catchfire, which Hopper took his name off of. The twist is that Anne is unabashedly based on the conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, whose signature LED panels — scrolling ominous phrases such as MURDER HAS ITS SEXUAL SIDE, EVEN YOUR FAMILY CAN BETRAY YOU and the iconic ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE — factor heavily into the film.
Backtrack is that rare film maudit that grows weirder and weirder the more research you put into it. The director's cut features Bob Dylan as a chainsaw-wielding artist standing in for either Frank Stella or Laddie Dill (depending who you ask), framed against a backdrop of work by the great wall-relief painter Charles Arnoldi. Given Anne's voluntary (!) decision to become Milo's love-slave, Hopper's real-life fixation on the Taos, New Mexico location where much of Backtrack was shot, and the brain-breaking list of cameos from his extended creative circle, it seems likely his motivations were classic ones: vanity, wish-fulfillment, and challenging Hollywood philistinism by siphoning money to his friends. (Joe Pesci, Fred Ward, John Turturro, Dean Stockwell, Charlie Sheen, Catherine Keener, Vincent Price, and Neil Young all appear in speaking parts of varying sizes.)
Super Mario Bros. (1993)
A few years later, Hopper would star as King Koopa in Super Mario Bros. — widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, directed under intense studio pressure by British video artists Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton (co-creators of the original Max Headroom). While today's summer tentpoles are committee-arbited down to the last frame, Super Mario Bros. represents a serious but compromised attempt — alternatively slap-happy and saccharine, yet filled with disgusting and surreal images — to give a dark reinterpretation to the most popular video game of all time.
Johnny Mnemonic (1996)
A less telling, similarly doomed example is the would-be summer blockbuster Johnny Mnemonic, written by William Gibson and directed by NYC-based fine artist Robert Longo. As recounted by scholar Vera Dika in her excellent The (Moving) Pictures Generation, feature filmmaking was a pinnacle yearned after by Longo — already famous for the armies of assistants and technicians bringing his performances and paintings to life — since the beginning of his career.
Longo's most famous work is arguably Men in the Cities, a series of dazzling charcoal and graphite drawings of contorting bodies isolated in space, redrawn from photographs he shot on the roof of his downtown loft between 1977 and 1983. Featuring the flailing limbs of Cindy Sherman, stand-up monologist Eric Bogosian and other downtown personalities (some of whom would feature in Longo's 1987 anthology-short film Arena Brains) the shots harken back to the hard edges of modern dance, and the ubiquitous film noirs and cop procedurals that were a TV mainstay of many Boomer childhoods: its subjects appear frozen at the moment of impact, a smoking gun perhaps just off-frame.
(In a sly comment on the Reagan-era symbiosis between high art and higher finance, Mary Harron's film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho saw Men in the Cities hanging on the walls of Patrick Bateman's penthouse apartment. The drawings later served as de facto inspiration for Apple's first iTunes ad campaign before completing their circuit in a mini-remake by Longo at the behest of Bottega Veneta — bringing back the original silhouettes, plus luxury brand handbags.)
One of the many appearances by Men in the Cities in Marry Harron's American Psycho (2000, Lion's GateFilms).
Johnny Mnemonic's most zealous defenders cite it as an act of subterfuge, a punk refusal to play by the rules of the system, and a tantalizing glimpse at the possibilities of digital technology in a pre-Matrix landscape. In an interview with Wired before the film's release, Longo and Gibson bemoaned the co-opting of the grunge movement out of Seattle, and the director alluded to his difficulties with Columbia TriStar brass as follows: "We did a good job! They gave us $30 million and we gave them a movie they don't understand!"
The film does feature many inspired touches: Nilo Rodis-Jamero's production design is staggering, Dolph Lundgren plays a Jesus freak remake of Roy Batty from Blade Runner, Japanese auteur Takeshi "Beat" Kitano is the main villain, and the climax involves a clairvoyant, cybernetic dolphin. If Longo and Gibson were angling to subvert the Hollywood tentpole, there's little evidence that they succeeded: the movie walks an uncomfortable line between knowingly deadpan and painfully anemic. It's often hard to tell what is a sincere prediction versus an aggressive stylistic choice, but this tension is one of the most thrilling things about the movie.
Search and Destroy (1995)
On the Indiewood side, revered neo-Expressionist painter David Salle took to filmmaking with Search and Destroy, starring Griffin Dunne as Martin Mirkheim, a would-be con man who turns to filmmaking during a midlife crisis, setting his sights on adapting a mythical self-help book written by a bogus motivational speaker named Dr. Waxling (played, of course, by Dennis Hopper.)
Adapted by filmmaker Michael Almeredeya (Nadja) from a play by Howard Korder (This Boy's Life), and produced by none other than Martin Scorsese (who has a delicious cameo as Martin's bookkeeper), the film is a queasily self-reflexive anti-comedy who's-who of downtown NYC cool, just a few years past prime. Martin turns to selling drugs with the help of a magnate played by Christopher Walken, who describes himself as doing "market analysis for Pacific Rim groups – robot systems, medical equipment and information retrieval, sexy stuff like that".
Costing $1 million, the film foregrounds work by muralist Thomas Hart Benton and painter Alex Katz, a contemporary of Salle and Longo; Walken does a Brechtian number in a Japanese nightclub, and John Turturro plays an hysterical agent; characters dress in shoulder-padded Armani suits at all times. Search and Destroy isn't a fiasco, but watching it means straining to understand Salle's choices, less in a judgmental sense than an aesthetic one.
While Martin claims that what he really wants is to make "capital-A" art, his hustle goes unproduced; meanwhile, he has a fling with Waxling's assistant (the great Illeana Douglas) that proves her ticket to the big time, making a gross-out horror thriller called Dead World. (What we see of that film in Search and Destroy is taken from Glenn Takajian and Ted Bohus' underrated Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor.) Salle told New York Magazine that he pitched the film to Scorsese as a "flat Sixties pop art movie"; running afoul of perhaps-inevitable Tarantino comparisons, he frustratedly cited Buñuel and Dali as his inspirations instead.
Basquiat (1996)
Beyond the backgrounds of the filmmakers, what really binds these movies is the search for discernible traces of auteurism across mediums. Sometimes it's possible to come across as too much of an auteur — which brings us to Julian Schnabel's Basquiat ($5 million), starring Jeffrey Wright alongside both Walken and Hopper, as well as sundry other NYC scene fixtures. While the film has many moments of breathtaking, lumpen poetry (in no small part due to Wright's underrated performance), Schnabel couldn't stop himself from featuring Gary Oldman as "Albert Milo", an obvious stand-in for the filmmaker by which he embellishes his friendship with the tortured young artist.
In her New York Times review, Roberta Smith — who once groan-inducingly rebranded Longo as "Robert Long-Ago" — knocked Schnabel for omitting many of Basquiat's contemporaries, including Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, George Condo, and Francesco Clemente, and for pointlessly inserting a thinly silkscreened version of himself as a young man into the action. (Smith was more generous toward Search and Destroy, which she claimed had "the brittle self-consciousness and sophistication of Salle's paintings".)
Office Killer (1997)
The final film in this dream-retrospective is Cindy Sherman's Office Killer, a macabre comedy starring Carol Kane as Dorine, a mousy copyeditor forced to work from home due to budget cuts at her magazine. Her coworkers are uniformly selfish, hateful people; Dorine declines to call 911 after one of them electrocutes himself trying to fix a PC (the decline of print and onset of digital work culture being one of the animating anxieties of Sherman's film). What results is a slow-burn killing spree connected to Dorine's long-suppressed trauma from childhood, a series of flashbacks skillfully rendered by Sherman in the hues of William Eggleston's 1970s photography and her own famous self-portraiture.
Office Killer was too obscure to catch on with any kind of general public, yet too incisive and crass to win acclaim from professional snobs (the more familiar you are with Sherman's more famous work, the more satisfying it will be). This exposes another paradox: any film costing more than a few thousand dollars will require extensive proofing-of-concept to get green-lit and distributed, so the industry defaults to punishing outside-the-box concepts.
In that same New York Magazine feature story quoting Salle, Longo mused, ahead of Johnny Mnemonic's release, that he had been "accused of being too pop for the art world and too smart for the real world". If the end product failed in all applicable directions, there's still something admirable in that any of these experiments were finished and released at all.
Hollywood has always run on recycled ideas, but in the current moment, imagining an artist of Longo's stature being entrusted with any of today's massive genre properties isn't just a stretch; it's insanity. Salle, Longo and Sherman's contemporaries who stayed at the other end of the filmmaking food chain — toiling in an endlessly corporatized New York City to make zero-budget, obscurantist no-wave video and glitch-art — may not have found success in the conventional sense, but their work will influence future generations, who will inevitably cannibalize it for their breakout festival-land shorts and corporate-commissioned sponsored content in due time.
basquiatcindy shermandavid salledennis hopperjohnny mnemonicjulian schnabelrobert longosuper mario bros.
Steve Macfarlane is a film curator and writer from Seattle, Washington. His writing has appeared in BOMB, Cinema Scope, Hyperallergic and the Brooklyn Rail, among many other publications. His first book - No Accidents: The Films and World of Nancy Meyers - will be released in 2020 by Topos Press.
The Film Industry and the Smiling Curve
Videotaping the Revolution
Iain Marcks
Revolutions Always Come In Twos
18th Jan '17
Off the Shelf: A Pictorial History of Horror Films
From subculture to superculture with Dennis Hopper, Johnny Mnemonic, and the Pictures...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Travel in China
Home History and Culture Lion Dance (舞狮)
Lion Dance (舞狮)
Learn Chinese - History and Culture
Lion dance (wǔ shī 舞狮) is a form of traditional dance in Chinese culture, in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume. The lion dance originated in India. The lion is traditionally regarded as a guardian creature. It is featured in Buddhist lore, being the mount of Manjusri. There are different variations of the lion dance in other Asian cultures including mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sydney, and Singapore, with each region possessing their own styles.
Chinese lion dances can be broadly categorised into two styles, Northern (běi shī 北狮) and Southern (nán shī 南狮). Northern dance was used as entertainment for the imperial court. The northern lion is usually red, orange, and yellow (sometimes with green fur for the female lion), shaggy in appearance, with a golden head. The northern dance is acrobatic and is mainly performed as entertainment. Sometimes, they perform dangerous stunts.
Southern dance is more symbolic. It is usually performed as a ceremony to exorcise evil spirits and to summon luck and fortune. The southern lion exhibits a wide variety of colour and has a distinctive head with large eyes, a mirror on the forehead, and a single horn at center of the head.
The Lion dance is often confused with the Chinese Dragon Dance, which features a team of around ten or more dancers. The Lion Dance usually consists of two people.
Northern style
In the north the lions usually appear in pairs, or do parkour for more felling to it. Northern lions usually have long and shaggy orange and yellow hair with either a red bow, or a green bow on its head to represent a male or female.
During a performance, northern lions resemble a Pekingese or Fu Dogs and movements are very life-like. Acrobatics are very common, with stunts like lifts or balancing on a giant ball. Northern lions sometimes appear as a family, with two large "adult" lions and a pair of small "young lions". Ninghai, in Ningbo, is called the "Homeland of the Lion Dance" (wǔ shī zhī xiāng 狮舞之乡) for the northern variety.
Southern Cantonese style
Guangdong is the homeland of the southern style. The Cantonese style can be further divided into Fat Shan (Buddha Mountain), Hok Shan (Crane Mountain), Fat-Hok (minor style that exhibits a hybrid of Fat Shan and Hok Shan), Jow Ga (minor style performed by practitioners of Jow family style kung fu, exampled by the Wong People), and the Green Lion.
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Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education > Research > Decision Support > Predicting Appropriate Admission of Bronchiolitis Patients in the Emergency Room
Predicting Appropriate Admission of Bronchiolitis Patients in the Emergency Room
Faculty Lead(s)
Gang Luo
Bronchiolitis is the most common illness leading to hospitalization in young children. For children under age two, bronchiolitis incurs an annual total inpatient cost of $1.73 billion. Each year in the U.S., 287,000 emergency department (ED) visits occur because of bronchiolitis, with a hospital admission rate of 32-40%. Due to a lack of evidence and objective criteria for managing bronchiolitis, ED disposition decisions (hospital admission or discharge to home) are often made subjectively resulting in significant practice variation. Studies reviewing admission need suggest that up to 29% of admissions from the ED are unnecessary. About 6% of ED discharges for bronchiolitis result in ED returns with admission. These inappropriate dispositions waste limited healthcare resources, increase patient and parental distress, expose patients to iatrogenic risks, and worsen outcomes.
Clinical guidelines are designed to reduce practice variation and improve clinicians' decision making. Existing guidelines for bronchiolitis offer limited improvement in patient outcomes. Methodological shortcomings include that the guidelines provide no specific thresholds for ED decisions to admit or to discharge, have an insufficient level of detail, and do not account for differences in patient and illness characteristics including co-morbidities.
Predictive models are frequently used to complement clinical guidelines, reduce practice variation, and improve clinicians' decision making. Used in real time, predictive models can present objective criteria supported by historical data for an individualized disease management plan and guide admission decisions. However, existing predictive models for bronchiolitis patients in the ED have limitations, including low accuracy and the assumption that the actual ED disposition decision was appropriate. To date, no operational definition of appropriate admission exists. No model has been built based on appropriate admissions, which include both actual admissions that were necessary and actual ED discharges that were unsafe.
To fill the gap, the proposed project will: (1) Develop an operational definition of appropriate hospital admission for bronchiolitis patients in the ED. (2) Develop and test the accuracy of a new model to predict appropriate hospital admission for a bronchiolitis patient in the ED. (3) Conduct simulations to estimate the impact of using the model on bronchiolitis outcomes. The project will produce a new predictive model that can be operationalized to guide and improve disposition decisions for bronchiolitis patients in the ED. Broad use of the model would reduce iatrogenic risk, patient and parental distress, healthcare use, and costs and improve outcomes for bronchiolitis patients. If the model proves to be accurate and associated with improved outcomes, future study will test the impact of using it in a randomized controlled trial following its implementation into an existing electronic medical record to facilitate real-time decision making.


Two books enter! One podcast episode leaves!
Today I look at Panzram A Journal of Murder through the lens of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, because why not?
Not done digging up parts?
PleasingTerrors ep 017: A Monster of Many Parts pieces together the Woman who made the Man that made The Monster.
The first is Maggie who is also a Twitter True Crime podcast fan extrordinairre. Second is Ariel who asked me to shout out Kiva.org on her behalf. Kiva facilitates micro-loans with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.
Episode transcript available upon request.


Have you ever perused the websites of large wireless providers? Or really watched and listened to one of their ads? That's ok, because they tend to all say the same thing – essentially, they all claim to have the most reliable network, best gadgets and amazing deals on multi-device service packages. We'd like to say that this is an exception to the rule, but in reality, it's not. You see this herd mentality infiltrating advertising in a lot of industries.
The root problem comes when companies and brands start listening more to their competitors than to their audience. They get caught up in the race to showcase services or products in comparison to, or contrasting from, their competitors instead of pushing beyond that and understanding what really matters to their current or potential customers.
The first step on the road to brand recognition is acknowledging when you need to make a change. It's hard to be honest with yourself. It's hard to admit that the price difference between your product and the competition isn't enough to conquer inertia and lure customers who are on auto-pilot.
Take time to really compare your brand tone and advertising approach to your competition. Look at your messaging and your competitors' messaging in side-by-side comparisons. Be prepared to be brutally honest with yourself. If you can't do that, ask the brutally honest people in your organization to be part of the evaluation.
If the competitive analysis tells you everyone is talking about the same thing, your brand is not working as hard as it could or should for you. You all just have products or services that you advertise.
Embrace the discomfort that comes with setting aside the routine and reliable branding and advertising tactics. Find a fresh way to tell your story – no matter what the competition is saying. Talk to your customers or clients about what they crave and about who you are. If you're too close to it, work with a branding expert to help look at your brand from outside in vs. inside out. That's when you'll stop simply creating ads and start realizing your brand.
To bring it full-circle, tell us: Can you say that you're LOYAL to any one cellular provider? Verizon? US Cellular? Sprint? Even the brand with which you currently get service? Likely not. That's in large part because there's not much to distinguish one provider from another.
When you start heading in a new direction with your company messaging and your brand, you'll stand out. You'll stand for something. You'll be a leader. And that's invaluable when trying to gain loyal customers.


Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced an $18.5 million settlement with the Target Corporation to resolve a multistate investigation into the retail company's 2013 data breach. The breach affected more than 41 million customer payment card accounts, along with contact information for more than 60 million customers. To date the settlement amount is the largest related to a data breach achieved by a multistate group.
The states' investigation found that cyber attackers accessed Target's gateway server through credentials stolen from a third-party vendor around November 12, 2013. The credentials were used to exploit weaknesses in Target's system, which allowed the attackers to access a customer service database, install malware on the system and capture consumer's personal information and banking information.
In addition to the financial terms, the settlement requires Target to develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive information security program and hire an executive officer to oversee the program. The company must also hire an independent, qualified third-party to conduct a comprehensive security assessment.
The settlement further requires Target to maintain appropriate encryption policies, particularly as pertains to cardholder and personal information data; to segment its cardholder data environment from the rest of its computer network; and to undertake steps to control access to its network, including implementing password rotation policies and two-step authentication for certain accounts.
Texas along with 46 other states and the District of Columbia participated in the investigation and settlement.


text:
Chris Parente
1 Creative Comrades (NYC-DSA Media)
2 New New York DSA Facebook group
Creative Comrades (NYC-DSA Media)
Members of Creative Comrades (New York City Democratic Socialists of America ) Closed Facebook Group, as of June 16, 2018 included Chris Parente..[1]
New New York DSA Facebook group
Members of the New New York City Democratic Socialists of America Public Facebook Group, as of June 27, 2018 included Chris Parente.[2]
Retrieved from "https://keywiki.org/index.php?title=Chris_Parente&oldid=439763"
New York Democratic Socialists of America


Traveling southwest on the I-10 from Houston towards San Antonio, take exit 604 by the Love's Truck Stop. Turn left under the highway and head south on FM725. Take the second fenced entrance for Seguin Welding. Go around the main building to the left and toward the back of the yard. AnTech is in the building at the back.
The Al Khanza Tower is approximately 30 minutes from Abu Dhabi International Airport. Head east and get on to Abu Dhabi – Sweihan – Al Hayer Rd/Int'l Airport Road for 5 minutes. Drive along the Al Ain Rd and Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan St and take the exit from Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan St/E 10 for approximately 15-20 minutes. Then take Hazaa Bin Zayed The First St. Keep right to continue along this road and then turn right onto Fatima Bint Mubarak St. Turn right onto 9th Street where you will find the Al Khazna Tower.


text:
Q: Can't install software from Ubuntu Software I'm using Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit. Every time I want to install software using the Ubuntu Software or the .deb package, it won't finish installing.

I tried the solution here: 16.04 Cannot install anything from Ubuntu Software center, but it doesn't resolve my problem.

A: There are many possible reasons why Ubuntu Software (a.k.a. gnome-software) is not working for you. I was having issues with it myself.

*

*Firstly, since you started but were not able to complete installs, you probably have an install queue that you need to clear.

*

*Make sure Ubuntu Software (gnome-software) is not running. Before making any changes, you want to backup the gnome-software folder that lives in your home directory, which holds the install queue. In Terminal or a CLI:
cp -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software ~/.local/share/gnome-software-BAK

*Clear the install queue
rm ~/.local/share/gnome-software/install-queue

*Reopen Ubuntu Software (either from launcher or by typing
gnome-software into the command line)

*If the above doesn't work, you could also try removing your home folder's gnome-software directory altogether. Quit Ubuntu Software, then enter:
rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software

*Restart Ubuntu Software. If that did not help, You can always undo the removal of the gnome-software folder and restore the backup:
rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-software && mv ~/.local/share/gnome-software-BAK ~/.local/share/gnome-software

*You could also be having problems because you need to run an upgrade.

*

*In Terminal, enter:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade`

*Then restart your computer.

*Your sources list might be causing issues for you. My problems with Ubuntu Software were resolved by fully removing PPA's that I thought I had gotten rid of using add-apt-repository --remove, which did not get rid of their .list files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, nor did it get rid of their keyrings in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/. If the software you're trying to install is from a PPA, you could still try cleaning out other PPA's, as these may be slowing down Ubuntu Software. There are known issues with the PPA associated with google-chrome-stable, for example.

*

*Edit the list (/etc/apt/sources.list) itself. It's much speedier to do it completely from command line: sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list then sudo apt-get update. You can also do this in the Software and Updates GUI (run from launcher or open in command line with software-properties-gtk), but it seems to take so much longer to do the updating step when I use the GUI. I can add steps for doing it this way if you want, though.

*If you already know the names of the PPA's you want to remove then you can get rid of them one by one using the command: sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:<repo>/<subdirectory>. Note: There's also ppa-purge, which I didn't want to use because it downgrades packages associated with the PPA to versions available in repositories, and I wasn't sure if this would affect the programs I had installed, as the programs themselves were not the problem.

*After editing sources.list, you may find (like I did) that old PPA's are still showing up in /etc/apt/sources.list.d (a directory containing .list files of each PPA), and their keyrings were still in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d.
You can check this yourself by entering the command:
ls -lR /etc/apt/ | grep -v '~'

*Then you can get a list of the .list files in sources.list.d and remove them one by one:
ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d
sudo rm -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/<PPAName>.list
sudo apt-get update

*To remove the keys:
sudo apt-key list
sudo apt-key del <KEY_ID>
sudo apt-get update

After this, Ubuntu Software was actually functioning, hope this helps you!
There's also the possibility you need to do a "deeper" version of sudo apt-get upgrade:
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and restart.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Real Estate Research Center
RealEstateRama Joseph Giannone Heating & Air Conditioning Announces Redesigned Website
Joseph Giannone Heating & Air Conditioning Announces Redesigned Website
By Pennsylvania RealEstateRama -
Newly redesigned web resource for consumer education and awareness in Pennsylvania.
Folcroft, PA – May 13, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Joseph Giannone Heating & Air Conditioning today announced the re-launch of www.calljg.com with a new, easy-to-navigate layout that features educational resources on subjects such as property value benefits from plumbing repair, heating repairs and installation, and AC repairs.
The website boasts a mobile-optimized design, allowing visitors to more easily access different areas of the website from their mobile devices. Among these include a blog with content from expert plumbing repair contractors, a photo gallery of completed projects, and a feedback section where customers can leave a review.
Joseph Giannone of Joseph Giannone Heating & Air Conditioning said, "With the new website design we wanted to make it easier for visitors to zero-in on the information they came to find, whether on their desktop computer, tablet, or mobile phone. We hope the website re-design will achieve this goal and provide value to visitors seeking more information about our company and plumbing repair."
Joseph Giannone Plumbing, Heating & Air Conditioning gives you the peace of mind so you can enjoy the benefits of your home without worrying about something like plumbing or HVAC issue. Our capable technicians and our fully stocked service trucks will handle any type of plumbing or HVAC problem that you may encounter. Let our professionals take care of it and you won't have to lift a finger. What sets us apart is that we always show up on time plus our affordable and competitive rates! We also offer financing options for your new Carrier HVAC systems. For more information and to see the new design, please visit www.calljg.com.
Joseph Giannone Heating & Air Conditioning
Joseph Giannone
www.calljg.com
Pennsylvania RealEstateRama
http://pennsylvania.realestaterama.com/
Pennsylvania RealEstateRama is an Internet based Real Estate News and Press Release distributor chanel of RealEstateRama for Pennsylvania Real Estate publishing community.
RealEstateRama staff editor manage to selection and verify the real estate news for State of Pennsylvania.
Governor Wolf Outlines How Restore Pennsylvania Will Benefit Municipalities
New Plan for Pennsylvania Turnpike Stormwater Runoff Will Better Protect Valley Forge National Historical Park
Governor Wolf Announces New Loan Approvals to Help Small Businesses Expand and Create Jobs
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Ardmore Marist South Auckland Motors remained atop the McNamara Cup standings after beating Manurewa Kidd Contracting 20-3 in their Counties Power Game of the Week clash at Bruce Pulman Park.
The home side stretched their winning run to eight games and have now beaten every side in the competition.
"I can't really say if that is the last box ticked because I feel we still have to do some work moving forward and thinking ahead to the playoffs," coach Doug Sanft said.
"They are one of the top teams and no doubt they will be in the playoffs.
Ardmore Marist now has a six-point buffer back to Manurewa in second place.
Pukekohe Mitre 10 Mega and Karaka split the spoils in their second round clash at Colin Lawrie Fields on Saturday with the teams finishing the match locked at 18-18.
The two sides couldn't be separated over the 80 minutes.
"It probably was a fair result," Pukekohe coach Mark Price said. "It was a pretty physical and hectic game but we were disappointed we didn't come away with the win. We had opportunities to take it but we didn't take them but I suppose Karaka will feel they are in the same boat.
"We played pretty poorly last week so to bounce back with a strong performance was important for us. Unfortunately we didn't quite come away with the win.
Bombay continued their resurgence with a bonus-point 49-33 win over Onewhero Silver Fern Marquees at home.
The four-time champions moved into a share of fourth spot on a congested ladder – joining Pukekohe and Karaka on 25 points with their fourth straight win.
Patumahoe Troydon Patumahoe Hotel kept hold of third place on the championship ladder with a narrow 15-12 win over Papakura Ray White at Massey Park.
The home side couldn't repeat last week's upset win over Karaka but demonstrated their improved play as they pushed the early-season leaders all the way.
Patumahoe coach Reon Graham was pleased with the result and happy that his side made some big improvements after last week's big loss to Ardmore Marist.
"Papakura are a good side – certainly much-improved from the first round," Graham said.
"I was pleased with the win and I was pleased with some aspects of the game but there are certainly some work-ons for us.
In Premier 2 action Manurewa Wise Property Management enjoyed a 20-7 win over Ardmore Marist Ross Roof Group at Bruce Pulman Park. Bombay thrashed Onewhero Hinemoa Produce 48-7 while Patumahoe Dave Redshaw Electrical enjoyed a comfortable 34-26 win over Papakura Ray White to cement their top four position. Karaka got the better of Pukekohe Franklin Long Roofting 25-22 in a close encounter that saw the home side lose for the first time this season. Pukekohe, Manurewa, Karaka and Patumahoe hold the top four spots.
Te Kauwhata thumped Karaka 76-5 in Premier 3 play. Weymouth remained at the top of the standings with a 50-0 win over Maramarua while Drury beat Puni 41-12.
In Under 21 action Pukekohe kept their unbeaten start to the season alive with an impressive 19-12 win over Patumahoe Albycon Ltd. Karaka kept pace with them however taking a 27-21 win over Bombay while Ardmore Marist Ross Roof Group beat Papakura Ray White 29-19.
Patumahoe Pak N Save cemented their place at the top of the Under 85kg standings with a 29-7 win over Pukekohe at Colin Lawrie Fields. Onewhero Bottle'O Tuakau grabbed a 13-7 win over Waiuku while Karaka thrashed Bombay Lincoln Farms 45-7.


text: Q: Start and stop a service using BroadcastReceivers in Android I have a service in my application which I want to run in a specified time period. I am using AlarmManager and BroadcastReceiver to start my service let's say at startTime. Now I want to stop the service at endTime. Please help me on how to achieve this. From following some posts I understand that this can be done with IntentFilters but how to use those in this case? Also, is it okay to use static variable in BroadcastReceiver to keep track of number of calls to startService/stopService?


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Home » James and the Giant Peach – review
James and the Giant Peach – review
The best school trip I ever went on was to Sainsbury's, I think. We took a long walk down the fruit and vegetable aisles, and then learned how to fill doughnuts with jam. School trips have apparently become a lot more sophisticated since then, however, something I realised as I (gently) elbowed my way through the hordes of polo shirt wearing youngsters in the Theatre Royal foyer.
Photo: Ian Tilton/Theatre Royal
We were all there to see the Birmingham Stage Company's production of James and the Giant Peach, an adaptation of that much-loved book by Roald Dahl which features a band of merry insects and, naturally, a very big peach indeed. I was very excited by the prospect of reliving a part of my childhood for the next hour and a half, so settled down with a large bag of Jelly Babies to watch the play.
As the curtain was raised, the first thing that struck me (besides James' brave sweater vest and knee-length sock combination) was the orchestra. The musical collective was not hidden away in a pit below the stage as one might expect, but on stage. And what's more, the instruments were being played by insects themselves (not real ones, of course).
Ladybird was a talented saxophonist, and Spider was exceedingly nimble on the flute for someone with eight legs. Whereas a traditional orchestra might have been alienating for a younger audience, this very visual display gave the inquisitive and inquiring eye something to follow.
There was something charmingly, consciously DIY about the set design: the backdrops were strung across curtain rails or hoisted on pullies, the moon and stars hung on knotted rope from the rafters, and the peach itself grew and grew whilst being inflated by a bicycle pump. The set looked like it had been lovingly stuck together with PVA glue in somebody's kitchen, but this complimented the nostalgic nature of the plot. The whole thing was beautifully done.
A couple of scenes were also acted out through puppetry, which was very exciting. When James dived into the waves to save Centipede from the sharks, the lights were lowered to reveal a glowing display of UV fish swimming from poles. And the moment in which James' parents were killed by a rogue rhinoceros was performed using marionettes, which managed to keep everything light-hearted for the junior members or the crowd.
Audience participation formed an integral part of the production too. James' two nasty aunties, Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge, wove between the rows of seats trying to prise pocket money off of unsuspecting spectators, which, to be honest, I'm surprised didn't result in frightened tears.
But the climax of the performance came as the peach began to plummet through the skies of New York, and James cried for us all to blow into the air to keep the fruit aloft. To help our new friends, we all obediently huffed and puffed. I got a little too over involved and began to feel lightheaded.
Then, a big orange balloon dropped from above and was batted about the stalls like a beach ball. This was, however, until somebody's mum got a little bit too enthusiastic and popped the Peach with what I can only guess was a particularly sharp acrylic nail. The bang hushed the assembly. But James quickly assured us that everything was alright, and the insects took to the stage swiftly to finish the play.
My favourite part of the production was probably the children sat in the row in front of me, who were wearing dungarees and were so cute that I felt my ovaries aching. But my second favourite bit was the fact that at times I actually forgot that I am a twenty year old student with deadlines and boring grown up worries, and just became absorbed in this musical world where everything's just so exciting and lovely.
I did learn that my Jelly Baby-eating stamina isn't quite what it used to be, though. I left the theatre feeling a little bit sick, but thoroughly uplifted nonetheless.
Children's Theatre James and the Giant Peach Norwich Play Theatre Theatre Royal UEA
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The MUUC Gender, Identity & Orientation Topic team invites the church community to read Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love and So Much More, a memoir by transgender journalist and activist Janet Mock.
A discussion of the book will be held Tuesday, May 29 at 7 pm.
Content Note: Contains frank discussion of child sexual abuse and adult sexual experiences.
For more information on the author, Janet Mock, please click HERE.


1951. The NCAA traditionally is trying to protect student athletes and collegiate athletic programs. In 1950 the NCAA Rules Committee abolished the ?fair catch? rule in collegiate football. One year later it was back in the rule book because of the demands by their members. Also in 1951 enforcement of the ?Sanity Code? which regulated scholarships for athletes became an issue and the NCAA took steps to rework the rules to make scholarships and recruiting more enforceable. Willard Mullin ties these two decisions into this cartoon.


One of the main goals for many of the key players in the aviation industry has been the creation and implementation of a seamless passenger experience. Technology adoption throughout the aviation ecosystem is imperative in accomplishing this goal, and industry leaders are using cutting-edge solutions to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in today's passenger journey. One of the most promising technologies being used in airports to meet these challenges is biometrics.
In a newly released eBook from Connected Aviation Today, we explore insights from the industry experts we've had the pleasure of speaking with in past articles about the rise of biometrics in aviation, its revolutionary application to airports around the globe, and what the future looks like for this critical technology. Titled Solving Seamless Travel: How Biometrics is Redefining the Airport Experience, our readers can learn more about biometrics in airports from industry leaders like Collins Aerospace, Aurora AI, and the Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA).
The Connected Aviation Today team will continue covering a variety of global perspectives on biometrics in airports, especially as it relates to border and terminal security, airport and airline operations, and the overall improvement of the passenger experience.
You can learn more about biometrics in airports from the perspective of several industry experts by downloading Solving Seamless Travel: How Biometrics is Redefining the Airport Experience in the Connected Aviation Today resource center.
Chelsea is an editor for Connected Aviation Today, managing the day-to-day editorial activities. Chelsea writes for other federal government and technology industry publications. Her background lies in B2B and enterprise technology, specifically cloud computing, SaaS, travel IT, and mobile devices.


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Stand Your Ground Law Clears the Iowa House – At a Cost!
Yesterday afternoon the Iowa House passed Stand-Your-Ground law by a vote of 58-39!
Even better, after your calls and emails into the House leadership team, they put both criminal and civil immunity language back into this bill via a floor amendment!
Thank you so much for calling and emailing them — it made all the difference!
This means that unless there is probable cause to believe that you violated Iowa's use of force laws, you can't be criminally charged on the whim of an anti-gun prosecutor.
More, you'd also not be able to be civilly sued, either.
After all, it's a small comfort to survive the dangerous encounter only to emerge destitute after a years-long civil suit.
This is the kind of protections that law abiding gun owners deserve!
This is the kind of protections that would have almost certainly kept Jay Rodney Lewis out of jail on that fateful night in West Des Moines five years ago.
But this bill didn't pass without a cost.
You see, the original draft of this bill included Constitutional Carry legislation, which simply makes the carry permit optional for law abiding citizens.
Constitutional Carry — which is sweeping the nation right now — was removed from this bill in some kind of bizarre "goodwill gesture" to anti-gun legislators in the House.
More than that, the unconstitutional permit to purchase handguns, which was removed in the original version of this bill, was reinstated at the request of anti-gun legislators.
The same compromise was struck with pre-emption reform.
The original draft was dramatically weakened in that while cities and counties are not allowed to ban guns, the state will not be enforcing this statute should it become law!
Rather, you would be required to engage in a personal suit against the city on your own dime, to stop their attack on your Second Amendment freedoms.
While watching this debate in the House yesterday, I watched as multiple anti-gun legislators thanked House Speaker Pro-Tem Matt Windshitl for removing these sections from the bill.
(Radical anti-gun Representative Ako Abdul Samad ranting on the House floor yesterday. Of course it was Ako's clerk who faked an anthrax scare the last time the House debated Stand-Your-Ground law, sending him to prison.)
And it made me angry.
After gun owners earned a pro-gun majority in the legislature for the first time in decades, why are we the ones that have to concede ground?
Why must we obtain government permission and put our name in a government database to carry a firearm for self-defense?
Why must we be the ones who have to fund lawsuits against out-of-control city councils who seek to limit our ability to defend our loved ones on 'city property?'
Why must we obtain a permit to buy a handgun at all, when that pre-existing right is guaranteed to us in the United States Constitution?
I can tell you that our enemies in Des Moines almost NEVER concede ground.
The only time they did was right before an election in which they knew that Iowa Gun Owners was going to expose them for killing gun bills to everyone in their districts!
That's what majorities do.
They further their policy objectives while they can, knowing that a majority doesn't last forever.
And that's what should be happening here in Iowa.
Unfortunately, the leadership in the Iowa House was unwilling to do that and they were repeatedly thanked for their willingness to make compromises on the floor yesterday.
Understand that this may be our last chance to accomplish this for some time.
Our fight to pass Stand-Your-Ground law has lasted for YEARS and required an aggressive election program where we exposed anti-gunners in their districts.
This effort — funded by thousands of IGO members statewide — is what put us in the position to pass gun bills in 2017.
But that energy and momentum has a shelf life. It's been seven years since we passed Shall Issue law in Iowa.
We need to act now to make sure it's not another seven years before we make the rest of these changes to Iowa's gun laws.
That's why we're working with pro-gun legislators in the Senate to see what amendments can be offered up to make this bill even better before final passage.
We'll have more on that in the coming days.
In the meantime, thank you for your activism and support of Iowa Gun Owners.
It's grassroots gun owners like you that have us on the precipice of passing Stand-Your-Ground law here in Iowa.
Let's see what else we can get done too, while we still can.
In the meantime, please help us prepare for the Senate floor action as anti-gunners are radically upping their pressure.
Now that the bill has passed the House, Michael Bloomberg will likely be rolling out a huge effort to shut this bill down.
We are preparing radio and TV ads as we speak in anticipation of this fight. Any amount you can contribute will help us with this fight.
P.S. Stand-Your-Ground law passed the Iowa House last night by a vote of 53-39 and now moves onto the Senate.
Sadly, Constitutional Carry was taken off the table by House leadership as part of this compromise deal.
In addition, Pre-emption reform was greatly weakened and the permit to purchase was reinstated in some kind of bizarre gift to anti-gun legislators.
When given a pro-gun majority by gun owners, it makes no sense for House leadership to give up so much ground to anti-gun forces in Des Moines.
Hopefully this good bill can be made even better in the Senate — more on that later.
In the meantime, thanks for all of your activism that's put us in the position to pass a major pro-gun bill.
As the anti-gunners ramp up their pressure, we are planning to do the same thing with radio and TV ads if necessary. Please make a contribution to help us make this possible today!


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Lantern Lit on 12/26/13-1/1/14 for Heather Adamski
Kenosha police say a standoff has ended with a woman dead and a 37-year-old man in custody. The woman has been identified as Heather F. Adamski, 33, of Kenosha, and she had a gunshot wound to the head, according to a police news release. The man is being held in jail on a probation violation.
The Kenosha News reports a SWAT team activated a noise-making device and entered the home where the standoff was taking place about 3 p.m. Wednesday. Police later confirmed the death and arrest. WISN-TV reports the standoff started about 5 a.m., when a man called police and said his brother had shot and killed a woman in the home.
The Kenosha County Tactical Team arrived about 6:30 a.m. and began hours of negotiations. When those negotiations were unsuccessful, the tactical team forced its way into the house where officers took the man into custody and found the gunman's long-time girlfriend dead in the basement of an apparent gunshot wound.


New Delhi, May 13 (UNI) Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat has petitioned President APJ Abdul Kalam against the Election Commission, which it says went out of the way to give credence to a ''frivolous'' complaint against several of its MPs.
Though the complaint filed by a person identified as Mukul Roy on the letter head of the Trinamool Congress did not substantiate its claim with documents, the EC ''called upon'' Mr Roy to make out a case against the MPs, says a letter written to Dr Kalam by the Marxist leader.
According to Mr Karat, the EC exceeded its authority when it asked Mr Roy to submit the ''precise information'' about the date of appointment of each of the MPs to the offices stated to be held by them as well as furnish ''all relevant information/documents'' by which he proposes to back his contention.
''We strongly believe that there has been an unwarranted and unjustified exercise of power and authority on the part of the Election Commission of India - unwarranted because it has violated basic norms of jurisprudence, and unjustified because it has transgressed all rules of fair play,'' Mr Karat says.
The EC's order on March 24 on Mr Roy's complaint was ''illegal and unconstitutional'' especially since the Commission has chosen to step into the arena of controversy, something that it should have eschewed, he says.
The CPI (M) obtained a copy of Mr Roy's complaint and the copy of the EC order after its Rajya Sabha member Nilotpal Basu, one of the MPs named in the complaint, wrote to the commission for the documents.
In his letter, Mr Karat questions why the EC ''quite gratuitously'' went on to call upon Mr Roy to furnish details like date of appointment to the alleged offices of profit whereas it was incumbent upon the Commission to reject the complaint and give its opinion to the President that there as not even the slightest case against the MPs.
''It is well established, a view shared by many eminent lawyers, that no judicial or quasi-judicial authority can seek to obtain materials from a party with a view to make out a cause of action, where none is disclosed,'' says Mr Karat.
Surprisingly, instead of so doing, the EC sought to give an opportunity to the so-called complainant to try to make out a case, he adds.
The EC, he says, should not proceed with the complaint against the CPI (M) MPs and reject it along with its own order on March 24.
Following the complaint, the EC put up on its website the names of 43 MPs, including that of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.


Moving the fairgrounds to the east side of town would open new possibilities including a link to the proposed V&T Railroad project and allowing the Capital to host the state fair, say supporters of Carson City's ballot Question 1.
But opponents hammered away as they have for months saying the project would cost $5 million to $9 million — compared with $900,000 to upgrade the existing park — without any guarantee of benefits to the city.
The ballot question asks whether the supervisors should be allowed to "make available for commercial development" the fairgrounds portion of Fuji Park while protecting the park itself. City officials say the fairgrounds area adjacent to U.S. 395 and Highway 50 is prime commercial land that could be sold to a major retailer for enough cash to offset most of the cost of moving and building a new, larger and better fairgrounds on Flint Drive at the eastern side of Carson City.
The two sides debated the issue Monday night at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters at the Carson City Community Center.
Al Christianson, chairman of the Carson City Planning Commission, said he envisions a fairgrounds joining the V&T as it arrives from Virginia City, expanding the possibilities for tourist attractions from the historic railway project.
"And I see a fairgrounds that could become a state fairgrounds," he said.
But Jon Nowlin of Concerned Citizens to Save Fuji Park said the site is bad — in fact ugly — and would cost the city millions it could never reclaim. He also questioned whether Carson residents want a state fairgrounds, pointing out that many groups use the existing site because it is smaller and more affordable than a larger venue.
Nowlin also protested the suggestion that the city should sell the land because it is commercially valuable saying it is valuable as open space and a public resource. He said selling such a resource when it's not necessary sends a bad message to the public about Carson City's priorities.
Concerned Citizens tried unsuccessfully to put a measure on the ballot that would bar the city from selling or reducing the size of Fuji Park and the fairgrounds. They were denied by the Nevada Supreme Court on grounds that is an administrative decision within the power of the city's elected legislative body, the Board of Supervisors.


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Among Beyond Security's customers are financial institutes, hi-tech, ISPs, information security firms, cellular, telecom and e-commerce companies.


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Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned the US against tearing up the nuclear deal as he was inaugurated for a second term Saturday, but he also faces challenges closer to home amid accusations he is rolling over to conservatives.
Rouhani met with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini before the ceremony and called for greater efforts to safeguard the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers in the face of new US sanctions.
"Iran will not be the first to violate the nuclear deal… but nor will it stay silent when the United States fails to respect its commitments," he told the packed parliament hall.
"Iran has proved that it will respond to respect with respect, and to sanctions and threats with an appropriate response and with resistance," he added.
Some of Iran's older friends, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, also attended the ceremony which came two days after Rouhani was officially sworn in by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The emir of Qatar, which has fallen out with its Gulf allies in part over ties to Iran, was notably absent, despite attending Rouhani's last inauguration in 2013.
He has already been barraged with criticism over indications that women would again be entirely absent and that his reformist allies would barely be represented.
Rouhani's last government had three women among a large cohort of vice-presidents, but they lacked ministerial roles that would require approval by parliament.
"It was the reformists that allowed him to win the elections in 2013 and 2017… he must listen to those who supported him," Rassoul Montajabnia of the reformist National Confidence party told the Arman newspaper.
Rouhani won a convincing victory over hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi in the May presidential election, vowing to continue rebuilding ties with the West and easing social restrictions at home.
That helped win over the reformists – whose candidates dropped out of the last two elections to ensure his victory.
"Rouhani created a lot of expectation and now there is a sense that he is retreating from his promises," said Ali Shakourirad, head of the reformist People's Unity Party.
The absence of women was down to pressure from religious conservatives behind the scenes, Shakourirad said.
"Rouhani didn't want to make his task any more complicated than it already is," he told AFP.
The final line-up is due to be announced in coming days, and must then be approved by parliament.
0:00 Iran warns: 'If America breaches deal, so will we' Share Iran warns: 'If America breaches deal, so will we'
"The main ministers are very likely to stay in place," said Henry Smith, Iran analyst with consultancy Control Risks.
"Rouhani will have a fairly smooth time getting parliament to approve his appointees. He's been doing back and forth consultations with the necessary power centres – the parliament speaker, supreme leader, the Revolutionary Guards – and I don't think you'll see a significant change in economic or indeed social policy," he added.
Despite his efforts to build backroom consensus, hardliners have given Rouhani a rough ride since his election, perhaps worried at the growing strength of the reformists.
The arrest of his brother on corruption charges was interpreted by some as a shot across the bow by the hardline judiciary.
Rouhani also triggered a war of words with the Revolutionary Guards after criticising their outsized role in the economy, although analysts say this is part of a cautious realignment of Iran's policies to balance its security priorities with the need to attract investment.
"Rouhani has no interest in pushing the Revolutionary Guards totally out of the economy. It's about creating enough space so Iran can get the foreign investment and technology it needs," said Smith.
Investment has belatedly started to arrive in the wake of the 2015 nuclear deal that eased sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme, notably through last month's billion-dollar gas deal with France's Total and China's CNPC.
Billions more are needed to jump-start the stagnant economy and tackle a jobless rate of 12.7 per cent.
But with Washington imposing yet more sanctions this week, Iran's re-engagement with the world remains largely stalled.
"The problem is Iran feels the need to react to these moves by the US, which just give the US fuel," said Smith.
Mogherini held a meeting ahead of the inauguration with Zarif, who criticised European governments for their support of US calls for UN action in response to an Iranian satellite launch on July 27.
"This is the wrong path," Zarif said.
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I had a problem in my right shoulder and arm for the last 13 years. The pain was so bad that I felt it was ruining my life. Over the years I saw lots of other specialists and none of them could help me get rid of this problem. As a last resort I went to see doctor Jon to see if Chiropractic could help me. He gave me a really thorough examination and then sat down with me and explained to me what was going on in great detail. I understood for the first time what my condition was and I commenced Chiropractic care that same week. Within 6 weeks I was completely pain free for the first time in 13 years and I now feel like I have my life back. Linda, 41 from Basildon.
My low back was so painful that I was afraid to do anything. I felt 10 years older than I was and every movement I made was done really carefully so it didn't hurt. I wouldn't even go to my holiday home 2 hours drive away because I knew it would make my back worse. I thought I would try Chiropractic because my friend said it might help. I have been having Chiropractic for a month now and I feel so much better. I can move without feeling like my back is going to "GO" all the time and i'm getting less afraid to do things now. I've been to my holiday home twice already!
I was taking pain killers for my back for 30 years until I decided to try Chiropractic. The Chiropractor, Jon examined me for about half an hour and did loads of tests. He then got me back in the next day and explained to me what was happening in my back. I was a little sceptical at first especially as I'd had the pain for so long, but now I just wish I'd gone to see him 30 years ago! After 2 months I'm not taking any pain killers any more and I feel the best I've felt in as long as I can remember.
For a long time I've had a lot of discomfort in my neck which made even simple movements, like looking over my shoulder to reverse my car, extremely painful. After my very first treatment at The Optimum Spine Centre I had about 80% movement back, and it has since made an enormous difference to my well being and comfort. The staff are also very friendly and reassuring, and I feel completely at ease each time I go for treatment.


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A surprising number of people mistakenly think that they are neither spontaneous nor creative. But the idea that those two qualities are special talents reserved for Robin Williams and Meryl Streep is just not true. Spontaneity and creativity are actions not personality traits. Many people just don't see how much more creative they could be. If you feel you have no voice, you are most likely being held back by fears which keep you from taking the actions that would release so much hidden potential within you. As you begin to utilize the many voice "Triggers" that I believe are available to you, be assured that as a living, breathing human being, you are a volcano of creativity whether you know it or not. Michelangelo believed that his David was already encased in the stone. His only role was to release it! You too can chisel away at your fears with actions and discover the work of art which is you and your own voice!
LISTEN to Lights! Camera! Microphone! Action!
Do this: Describe the following famous voices: Lauren Bacall, Richard Burton, James Earl Jones. Would you say these celebrities had good voices? Compelling voices? Attention-getting voices? Now describe your own voice. Would you say you had a good voice? If anything, what don't you like about your voice? Make a list of adjectives to describe your voice.
Now…Did you know that all 3 celebrities I just mentioned had problems with their voices which they were able to correct? Lauren Bacall had a high whiny voice with a heavy New York accent. Young Richard Burton had a thin tinty nasal voice. And James Earl Jones, one of the most famous voices of our time, still constantly works to correct a life long problem with stuttering. These examples are only a few that prove that you can "grow" your voice,and get your own WINNING VOICE!
LISTEN to Grow your voice!
Get to know your voice!
We never actually hear our voices the way other people do. Many people, and you may be one of them, will be told that they have a good voice, but they can't quite hear it themselves. Getting to know your own voice requires patience and time spent listening to recordings of your own performances.
Over time, it is important that you come to know your voice so that you can sell it effectively.
LISTEN to Get to know your voice!
When you describe your voice, do you ever use adjectives like flat, loud,soft, monotone, boring, whiny, etc? If you do, please note that all of these adjectives and most others that you might use are really more about your vocal approach than your innate voice. For example, if you say your voice is loud, soften it and it's not loud. If you say your voice is flat, add more variety of tone and it's not flat. Almost anything that you would like to change about your voice can be accomplished by making simple adjustments in your approach. I call these adjustments…"TRIGGERS".
LISTEN to Pull the "trigger"!
Put some lipstick on it!
A good Voice Over voice is not a normal voice! It is the illusion of a normal voice! In other words, when you speak normally, what you hear as vocal energy and excitement generally translates on microphone as slightly flat. If you use more variety of tone, it will usually not sound inappropriate to your listener. It will simply give you vocal color that will create an attention-getting voice. This is analogous to wearing makeup on TV or in a film. A big masculine TV actor wears a little rouge and lip gloss not to look made up, but to simply look alive. If you use more tone variety than you use in normal life, your voice will simply sound alive!
LISTEN to Put some lipstick on it!
Your whole body is involved in producing a good voice. Take some text and stand up and read it while standing completely still. Now take the same text and read it with a little movement in your body. Wiggle your spine and swing to and fro slightly as if you were moving to the sounds of a favorite song on the radio. If this seems silly to you, ask yourself "Can you sing without movement?" Try it. Stand completely still, don't move a muscle, and attempt to sing. You'll find that you can hardly get the notes out. Now move and sing. The notes are free. The same thing is true of the spoken voice. You need to move to have a voice that "Moves" people!
An absolute key element to improving your voice is rhythm. Why? Food for thought: STUTTERERS DON'T STUTTER WHEN THEY SING. And the reason they don't stutter is rhythm. Rhythm organizes your speech! Take some written text and sing it using the melody of a familiar tune. Do this several times. Keep moving. The movement of the body will not only open up the sound of your voice, but help you to feel the words rhythmically. Now read the same text with the same sense of rhythm that you had while singing, but do so in a spoken voice. Over time, you will find that this gives your voice a sense of organization which keeps you from stumbling. And rhythm also gives your voice a buoyancy, a groovy energy that, along with tonal variety, heightens your vocal presentation. Bottom line: Give vocal presentations that are closer to singing than what we normally think of when speaking!
LISTEN to Feel the rhythm!
The most important thing that the hundreds of people that I have trained over the years have taught me by their example is that you don't have to wait until you feel confident to speak confidently. Instead of waiting for some sort of epiphany, simply pretend your way into a more exciting voice!
I invite you to "Act" as if you have a good voice and get one!
There are essentially three ways to build your voice. I call them "TRIGGERS".
1) Physical "TRIGGERS"… Involve the whole body in the process … Move!.
2) Musical "TRIGGERS"… Add heightened levels of tonal variety and rhythmic energy.
3) Imagination "TRIGGERS"… Pretend your way into more exciting and confident states of being. Once you have opened up your voice in these ways, begin to take a look at the lively qualities in your voice that should now be more visible and make more of them!
LISTEN to Pull all the "triggers"!
I invite you to exaggerate your own vocal idiosyncrasies just a bit. If you are willing to appear slightly foolish, you will be perceived as a genius communicator!
LISTEN to Make more of it!
Over the years, when I have invited someone to show off a good voice, that person will usually present something that is stiff, formal, and serious. They will make a conscious effort to do things vocally that sound traditionally beautiful to the ear.
This is a mistake. Your best voice is not necessarily your most beautiful voice. Your best voice is your FREEST and most exspressive voice!
LISTEN to Free it up!
Let's compare the voices of two former Republican Presidents, Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. Aesthetically speaking, Richard Nixon had a stronger voice. He had a commanding rich baritone. But hardly anyone ever thinks of Richard Nixon as having had a good voice; Whereas Ronald Reagan's voice was vocally wobbly and a little thin and yet we remember him as "The Great Communicator." Why?
Get out there with your voice. Make mistakes. It will be messy at times, but you cannot make an omelette without cracking open a few eggs and even Martha Stewart can't do that without being messy!
LISTEN to Screw it up!
1) Many people, including celebrities, have vastly improved your voices and you can too!
2) You don't hear your voice the way other people do.
3) Most of the things that you don't like about your voice can be changed by simply changing your approach.
4)Use more variety of tone than you use in normal speech.
7) Overall, recognize that a good voice comes from a somewhat heightened vocal presentation.
8) You can Pretend your way into a more dynamic voice.
9) Exaggerate a bit, appear foolish, and be perceived as a genius.
10) Instead of presenting a voice that's proper and right. Present a voice that's dynamic and free!
LISTEN to Put it all together!
Speak softly and carry a "winning voice"!
Bill Clinton's constant battle with vocal fatigue brought on by chronic laryngitis and allergies is a well-known fact. On many occasions, Clinton's voice was reduced to a husky whisper-especially during the final days of his first presidential campaign in the fall of 1992. At that time, when Clinton struggled to say, "I feel your pain," voters listened and identified. Ironically, it was then, when he had the weakest voice, that he was most heard. So often, we assume that the winning voice is the most powerful voice, but in Clinton, you can see a clear example of a vulnerable voice being turned into a communication strength. The next time you need to make a point, try whispering instead of shouting, and see what happens! This is particularly true when using a microphone.
LISTEN to Speak softly and carry a "winning voice"!
Consider one of the most well-known stories in American history: Lincoln at Gettysburg. In the context of re-thinking the winning voice, it is an important story to once again recall. On that legendary day, the 16th president's speech followed a very long address by one of the most noted orators of that time. Lincoln spoke so quietly at Gettysburg that even people close to the platform had trouble hearing him. Yet, it is Lincoln's voice that resonates through the ages, because a heartfelt voice, one that honestly expresses your deepest concerns, is one that people remember. After making improvements to your physical voice, remember that it's also important to be sure of what you want to say so you can figure out the best way to communicate your point.
LISTEN to Speak from the heart!
Pour your heart into it!
It can change the world!
LISTEN to Pour your heart into it!
The voice you possess is so personal and unique that you may not want to change it. Look at Barbara Walters: For years, Saturday Night Live comics and other impressionists have been poking good-natured fun at her voice. All the while, Ms. Walters' stardom has continued to rise, missing r's and all! "TWULLY an achievement", as she might say!
Speaking of achievements, Humphrey Bogart is another star who proved he could succeed as a great leading man-even though he had a lisp. Some speech purists might cringe at Kate Hepburn's shakiness or Marlene Dietrich's growl, but these qualities worked for them. The above examples prove that a "flawed" voice can often be a winning voice. One person's impediment can be another person's signature! Stars are not perfect … They are special!
When a nineteen-year-old New York model named Lauren Bacall first appeared on screen to teach that guy with the lisp (Humphrey Bogart) "How to Whistle," Bogie and millions of others fell in love-both with her look and with her voice. What is fascinating about that (and what most people don't know) is that the voice they heard was the product of Bacall's concentrated efforts. Bacall's original voice was shrill with a thick New York accent. Encouraged by mentors such as director John Houston, Bacall worked hard to create a different voice for herself-one that would match her beautiful look…And she got it. So while it is not always necessary or desirable to alter your voice, if you want a changed voice, you can get it.
Why not have it all?!
LISTEN to Go and get it!
Make a fool of yourself!
Most people are deathly afraid of ever appearing foolish which doesn't really make sense when you consider how much people love clowns like Jerry Lewis, Jim Carey, Robin Williams, Bob Hope, and Whoopee Goldberg. The people who make us laugh for a living are often considered national heroes, held in the highest possible esteem. These funny folks have found a playful voice that has helped them become famous and wealthy, because they have discovered the power that can come to anyone who is not afraid to appear foolish. Terror is a large obstacle in getting a winning voice. To succeed, embrace failure! Play the fool!
LISTEN to Make a fool of yourself!
Take a deep breath. No, Really. Take a deep breath! If you are like most people, you are probably not breathing deeply enough to support a truly winning voice.
Think about this: When your doctor places a stethoscope to your chest and says, "Take a deep breath," does your chest heave and fill out? If you answered yes like most people do, you are not getting a deep breath. Deep breathing actually comes from the diaphragm opening, so it is your gut area that should be dramatically expanding when you breathe…not your chest. Since breath is the essential fuel for the winning voice, you want as much as you can get. So, go get it!
Retraining yourself to breathe from the gut instead of from the chest is simple, since you do it naturally when lying down.
So do this: Lie down on your back on a firm, flat surface (preferably a floor or firm bed or mat). Now, breathe deeply. Notice that your gut naturally rises and falls when you breathe in this position. Place your hands on your stomach and begin to slowly stand up, making sure that you're breathing is still coming from your gut.Your chest should remain fairly still and relaxed. By doing this, and concentrating on your breathing, you are actually retraining yourself to breathe from the diaphragm when standing or sitting. For some time, you will probably need to monitor your new breathing technique by placing your hands on your stomach, but with a little practice, real deep breathing can and will come naturally to you.
LISTEN to Go with your gut!
LISTEN to "Up and in"!
Get a feel for it!
Getting a feel for projecting "UP AND IN".
How do you learn to project your voice "UP AND IN"?
Start by breathing deeply and moving gently. As you continue to move, bring your hands toward yourself as if you were scooping water and splashing it on yourself. Lean backwards just a bit and wiggle slightly as if you were sliding under a limbo stick. While your physical focus moves backward, begin to speak…Almost inhaling the sound.
Concentrate on projecting your voice "UP AND IN" to your body. Imagine that the sound is escaping out of the back of your head, instead of in front of you. Practice this until the approach makes it's way into your "muscle memory" and becomes a natural and automatic part of your voice and your microphone technique.
LISTEN to Get a feel for it!
LISTEN to Put your back into it!
To get good diction for the microphone the one part of your body that should actually move less is your mouth! In the past, when someone told you to stop mumbling and enunciate more clearly, wasn't your solution to move your mouth, jaw, and tongue more aggressively? This common mistake of "chewing out" your words actually makes speech on a mic worse by causing it to become busy and unfocused. A lot of mouth activity confuses diction clarity and thins out vocal tone. Instead of exaggeratedly moving all the parts of your mouth to achieve clear enunciation, learn to speak instead with a much smaller, "funneled," and less active mouth. This is not a new concept. The great speech teacher of Greece, Demosthenes, had his students orate with a mouth full of marbles to force them to enunciate elsewhere. The questions is: Where is elsewhere?
LISTEN to Shut your mouth!
LISTEN to Order the combo!
Americans in particular have very lazy diction. Here are a few major diction points to pay attention to: Don't say "ta" for "to." Words ending in ing like coming or going should not be pronounced as "comin" or "goin," unless you're being deliberately casual for effect. Many words that end in "s" such as "words" or "ours" should be ended, instead, with the "z" sound"wordz" or "ourz." Some words ending with a "d" should be pronounced with a final "t" instead—"helped" should be pronounced like "helpt." In most cases, better diction and cleaner pronunciation is really a matter of LISTENING to yourself and FOCUSING on not being sloppy.
LISTEN to Stop being lazy!
Everybody is waiting for you!
Throughout my life as a performer, director, teacher, and speaker, I have faced some pretty tough crowds. Yet despite the challenges, I have seen even the iciest audience completely melt when they sense a voice that is open, alive, playful, and free. Many people, not in touch with their own winning voice, are grateful for anyone who gives them a glimpse of it. If you are willing to risk failure, you will almost always succeed. When someone walks the tight rope, even the most jaded old cynic at the circus starts to ooh and ah just like an excited child. Your audience is waiting! Get out there!
LISTEN to Everybody is waiting for you!
The winning voice must be shaped and maintained through exercise! And this commitment to exercising your voice and voice over skills must be ongoing. Amateurs will sometimes practice something until they feel they have gotten it right.
Professionals, on the other hand, practice until they cannot get it wrong!
And professionals realize that day will never come!
And so they practice forever! Ask a great dancer or Tiger Woods all about it!
The best thing you can do to exercise your voice and voice over skills is to READ OUT LOUD DAILY!
If you read out loud as little as five minutes a day, you will quickly improve your ability to deal with any copy. Reading out loud is a lost art. Even talented modern American actors don't do it much. When your reading out loud helps you evolve into a fine reader of cold copy, you will become one of a small handful of genuinely competitive voice over performers!
LISTEN to Read out loud!
Another helpful voice exercise that doesn't take much effort is to close your eyes and focus on listening to yourself and others. Savor voices as if you were tasting a rich piece of cake. This kind of luxurious listening will help you speak with more detail, rhythm, tone, color, and substance.
Take a paragraph from a book or magazine you're reading and read it "normally." Then…GO NUTS!
Read it several more times, each time pretending that you're in a different state of craziness. Try acting like you are slightly tipsy, giddy, or angry. Then act as if you are describing your favorite food or talking to someone you are extremely attracted to. It doesn't matter that certain points of view in your imagination are not appropriate to the text. In fact, the more the text and your point of view contrast, the better workout your imagination skills will get. For example, try reading a paragraph about a serious and deadly medical condition and pretend it's hilarious and that it's taking all your strength to hold back your laughter throughout the passage. Going nuts may be one of the sanest ways to truly explore copy and find out how you really feel about it!
The added energy that comes when you "Go Nuts!" (Imagining that you are in different states of craziness) usually does not make your interpretation of copy inappropriate. Instead, you'll find that the different "crazy" approaches merely breathe life into your vocal presentation. Instead of waiting until your fears subside or until you are inspired, simply fake your way into a more exciting voice.You don't have to feel confident to speak confidently!
LISTEN to Make 'em laugh!