The Ohana Group is a specialised hospitality company providing exclusive services and unique experiences in Noosa, throughout the Sunshine Coast and across Queensland.
"Ohana" the Hawaiian word for family and a concept that we are together and remember one another.
The Ohana Group strives to achieve excellence in every aspect of our work. Our values – love, generosity and joy – are an integral part of our business philosophy and are reflected in everything that we do for you.
With over 15 years of local and international experience in hospitality, events, weddings, food and catering, our deepest fulfilment comes from creating unique experiences that bring your wedding, event or special occasion to life.


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Gigas: Providing World-Class Cloud Hosting Services
in sap-solution-magz-july17-list
In the last few years, Cloud-based services have become more of a standard solution for the enterprise world. It is further estimated that cloud-computing will continue to grow at a robust pace in the next five years. Their establishment in the IT market is due to the unmatched advantages that it offers. It provides quick access to functionality, flexibility due to subscriptions, scalability to support evolving business needs and reduces IT efforts. One of the emerging leaders in this highly competitive market is Gigas, a Spanish Cloud Computing company listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange since 2015. They have built a world-class cloud hosting business that provides best-in-class solutions and services to customers worldwide.
Established by proficient internet experts, Gigas offers the most powerful cloud hosting solutions to customers from all verticals, in a simple, safe, reliable, flexible, scalable, efficient and cost-effective manner. They have emerged as a true market leader in its native Spanish market and key-Spanish markets throughout Latin America, thereby attracting large enterprises such as Walmart, Aon, Diners Club, OHL, United Nations, Canal 13 and various others. They are well-known for their close operating relationship with their customers, providing tailored solutions and for offering sound technical support. It should come as no surprise that last year Gigas won the tender to be one of the five official suppliers of public cloud services to the European Commission and its Agencies.
Breaking-free from the Shackles
When the company was formed in 2011, Gigas spotted SAP as the perfect match for the cloud services it was offering to its customers. Cloud Infrastructure as a service back then was almost non-existent in the Spanish market. It was their visionary that enabled them to foresee a future in which the rapid adoption of certain mission-critical applications with significant computing needs supported by virtualized infrastructure made total sense.
For an on-premise environment, putting together an enterprise application SAP involved an enormous investment up-front. In addition to the hefty investments, implementation time to set up the infrastructure also takes longer. Before setting up Gigas, these problems were pre-existent within the industry. The idea behind the launch of Gigas was to address and solve these issues, by reducing implementation time to market dramatically, scaling infrastructure resources up or down as per the business requirements and more importantly, by reducing costs.
Providing a Pool of Services
Gigas SAP-certified Cloud Datacenter is the only available solution in the market that allows their customers to define and design their own cloud infrastructure. Unlike its contemporaries, they do not sell virtual machinery, rather a set of unlimited resources (RAM, memory, storage) to replicate a physical data center in a virtual environment. Within their Cloud Datacenter, they provide their customers with a basic firewall for each of their servers. Gigas offers the most advanced security solutions through their partnerships with some of the leading firewall vendors such as Fortinet. Their Cloud Datacenter solution is one of the few in the world to comply with the new European Code of Conduct for Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers. This, in turn, ensures optimum privacy of customer's data and is in compliance with the strict European Data Protection regulations.
In addition to all the services mentioned above, Gigas is obsessed with providing the best technical support among its contemporaries. They understand that in complex environments problems are bound to spring up, which is why they strive towards providing a knowledgeable and empowered customer technical support to solve customer issues and queries as soon as possible. With a track record of solving over 80% of their customer queries within their first contact itself, Gigas holds an unprecedented position in providing customer satisfaction.
An Inspiring Duo with an Eye for the Future
Gigas was found and built from the bottom by the duo of Jose Antonio Arribas, who currently holds the COO position, and Diego Cabezudo, the CEO of the company. It was them who spotted SAP as the perfect match for the cloud services they wanted to offer their customers. Their ideas and astute prediction of the future market trends, propelled Gigas to what it is known as today.
Their combined experience of over 40 years in the tech arena, led Gigas to become the leading cloud hosting company in Spain and a growing force in the Latin American market. Among the two, Jose holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology, whereas Diego completed Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Navarra in Spain. The latter further continued with his study by completing an Executive MBA course from the London Business School.
Living up to the Responsibilities of Hosting a SAP Platform
It is of enormous responsibility to host a SAP platform that supports some of the most critical processes and information of a company. Customers are always on the lookout for companies that can provide an enterprise grade service, but at the same time be available locally whenever there is a requirement for complex implementations or when a problem arises. Gigas, with its local offices and personnel throughout Spain and Latin America, a proficient technical support team in Spanish, and other unparalleled services, it provides a significant advantage for its customers.
Gigas was one of the first cloud providers who were awarded with the SAP "Infrastructure Operations Service" certification in 2014. Having gone through the process of certifying their platform and with the experience of having deployed dozens of SAP environments, Gigas knows how to optimize the platform so that the processes can run smoothly, efficiently and reliably. This triggers an improvement in performance, productivity, and corporate efficiency. In fact, their certifications and expertise have helped many of their existing customers to make the decision to migrate their SAP applications to the cloud. Cloud computing has solved and improved IT operations from different angles, but it also offers significant advantages to today's companies. It is therefore easy to understand why Gigas platform became the solution of choice for many customers and SAP partners to deploy their SAP installations.
Source :-The 10 Most Valuable SAP Solution Providers 2017
Coupa Software: The Cloud Platform Which Everyone Loves to Use
Herrington Technology: Differentiated and Value-Driven SAP Delivery

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Comcast data cap 'trial' is starting to look less like a trial and more like a handy way to extract money: starting December 1st, markets from Arkansas to Virginia will see data capped to 300GB, with $10 per 50GB over. Comcast says this is about "fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers".
While we believe that 300 GB is more than enough to meet your Internet usage needs, if for any reason you exceed the 300 GB included in your plan in a month, we will automatically add blocks of 50 GB to your account for an additional fee of $10 each. We're also implementing a three-month courtesy program. That means you will not be billed for the first three times you exceed the 300 GB included in the monthly data plan.
If you don't want a 300 GB data plan, the new Unlimited Data option is an alternative that provides additional choice and flexibility, especially for customers who use lots of data. You can choose to enroll in the Unlimited Data option at any time for an additional fee of $35 a month, regardless of how much data you use.
A series of alleged Comcast documents were leaked on Reddit, outlining the changes, and how Comcast reps should deal with angry customers complaining about the change. There's a good list of Dos and Don'ts for phone reps, including instructions to not call it a Data Cap—because Comcast doesn't limit data usage, just charges a bunch more money, it's a 'Data Usage Plan'.
Interestingly, any more difficult questions—like whether Comcast is breaking net neutrality laws by preferring Xfinity services, or how many people actually go over the limit—are to be transferred direction to the retentions department.
The most telling fact is that the 300GB limit is about 'fairness and flexibility', not dealing with an overloaded network. That's normally the line trotted out by cellphone carriers throttling or capping their network; in Comcast's case, it looks more and more like the network is just trying to make a big 'ole pile of money.


This wasn't a major event, but it was a tournament streamed yesterday by a pretty big name in the fighting game community, Team Spooky, and it's not the kind of closeup Killer Instinct was hoping for. The tournament lost its Internet connection and, well, this console couldn't continue.
This occurred in the winners final at yesterday's Defend the School tournament, held at Queens College in New York. Qualifying rounds for the Defend the North fighting game tournament, a pro eSports event, were also held there. The outage occurs around the 6:35 mark of the above video, and the DRM check is done after the match was finished, so the players were not booted mid-round.
Yes, this is how digital-only games work and not just for the Xbox One, when multiple accounts are on one console. What would most easily solve the problem in a competition setting, though, is if Killer Instinct was on a disc, which it is not.
So either the console has to be the unit that bought the game, or an account that bought the game must be signed in, to pass the ownership check if the Internet goes out. How all this is handled when Killer Instinct's basic game is free (you get one playable character) and the rest of its content can be bought a la carte is another wrinkle, too.
Whatever the case, "Huge DRM blowup in the middle of the match," Team Spooky wrote in the description of this video. "I really hope this never happens at majors."
It raises a legitimate question whether an event will want to bother with Killer Instinct if this kind of thing is on the table. We've reached out to Microsoft representatives to ask if they have any comment on this or advice for the fighting games community on how to keep faulty Internet from booting players out of a match. If they make any comment, we'll update it here.
Update: Microsoft didn't have anything specific to say with regard to Killer Instinct's use or viability in fighting game tournaments, restating that anyone can play a digital game (or other content) anywhere on Xbox One by signing in with that account. Which is well and good, but it more or less means tournaments that feature Killer Instinct will have to take extra steps to make sure the consoles running the game are the ones that bought it, in case the Internet connection drops out.


Wilfrid Prest and Matthew Stubbs, co-convenors, on behalf of the Conference Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society, announce that the 34th ANZLHS Conference will meet at the University of Adelaide on December 10-12, 2015. The conference theme is "Legal Reform and Innovation." Proposals for papers are due by March 31, 2015. For more details, see the conference website.


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No Deal Brexit Divorce
In the first of three articles she summarises the Government's plans with respect to different areas of family law
Currently divorce jurisdiction in UK is primarily based on the Brussels IIa rules for all cases. An additional basis for jurisdiction, the sole domicile of either party to the marriage, is only available as a basis of jurisdiction if no other EU court has jurisdiction
For Divorce jurisdiction in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the UK government would seek to repeal the Brussels IIa rules and would replicate them in English, Welsh and Northern Irish law (save for joint application which is not applicable). The additional basis of sole domicile of either party, would be available for all cases. The Scottish Government is considering the best approach for Scotland in the area of divorce jurisdiction.
The EU 'lis pendens' rules which require courts to halt divorce proceedings if an EU court has already begun to consider the case, would be repealed for all parts of the UK as they would not be reciprocated by the EU courts. Instead the courts in each UK jurisdiction would decide which is the most appropriate court to hear a case, as they currently do for cases outside the scope of Brussels IIa.
These changes in divorce jurisdiction and recognition provisions would be replicated for same sex marriages and civil partners in all applicable parts of the UK. The UK would also retain domestic rules that allow for the UK to provide a divorce or dissolution jurisdiction of last resort for cases where the couple formed their relationship under the law here and other states do not recognise their same sex marriage or civil partnership.


Have you heard of PartyLite?
This multi-level marketing company deals in home decor, fragrances, and their primary product is candles.
PartyLite has its roots from the early 1900's when a woman by the name of Mabel Baker began crafting candles from the wild bayberries that grew near her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
She used them as gifts, but then she realized she could sell them to help her financial situation.
Mabel's business grew and grew.
Many people loved her candles, and Mabel stuck with it until her death at 95 years old.
But, the business didn't pass away with Mabel.
The candles continued to sell, and in 1973, the management behind Mabel's business venture realized that a multi-level marketing approach may be a wise move, so they started the subsidiary with the name PartyLite Gifts, Inc.
It all started in 1973 with 3 people and has grown to a network of independent sales representatives world wide.
Mabel actually created a system where people can make profits from the candle making business she developed with wild bayberries.
In today's post, I am going to share what I see as the top 20 products of PartyLite.
I am using a variety of sources to determine this which includes sales statistics, online reviews along with family and friends opinions.
I am not affiliated in any way with PartyLite other than buying a few candles in the past and enjoying the fragrance from them.
So, scroll down and find out what the PartyLite top 20 products are.
I am starting with #20 and moving to #1.
This holder is shaped like a heart and glistens when the tealight that is sold separately is lit within it.
It has an antique appearance and gives a resemblance of mercury glass.
This makes a wonderful gift for that special someone.
These beautiful candles put off an amazing glow and even better, the fragrance they spread is delicious.
Each candle will burn from 20 to 30 hours.
These glass votive or tealight holders are elegant and create that "forbidden" thought pattern.
The black stems set off the romantic feel of these 3 holders that come in stair step sizes.
This spray for the home is simply wonderful.
Many claim it is as if you had a lavender bush growing within your house.
It takes very little of this spray to give your entire home its fresh scent.
When you want that candle light without the burning, these LED pillars are perfect.
This set puts off a somber glow, and you can control it all with the handy remote that comes with the set.
These glass sculpted creations have a glimmering effect from the candle light.
They come in a pair, and are a great addition to a fireplace mantle or as decorative pieces on your kitchen table.
This is a highly sold set.
It gives customers an opportunity to sample the various fragrances.
This colorful centerpiece brings the calling of summer to your table's center.
The butterfly centerpiece has 3 glass votive cups to hold your favorite PartyLite votive candles.
The decorative glass jar in this presents a wonderful addition to your candle collection, and the scent is a wonderful choice.
I know that many just love this fragrance filling their living areas.
These pillar candles put off a magnificent glow, and add that to the fragrance of a bamboo forest with a slight addition of lotus flower, this is a wonderfully crafted product from PartyLite.
Metal lotus blossoms are in a cluster with tealight holders for a great wall decoration.
The reviews are all high on this piece. It seems that when people have purchased it to give as a gift, they end up keeping it for their own wall.
Instead of buying those disposable fragrances that seem to get weak quickly,PartyLite has this great idea that you can take with you no matter where you go.
It is a great way to have the PartyLite fragrance you love in the car, the office or a public restroom.
Ah, the love of cinnamon!
The fragrance will fill your home with that delightful spice, and you will have to be careful…The neighbors may want to all come over and taste those delicious cinnamon pastries you must be baking.
How will you explain that it is just this candle?
If you are a distributor, you will probably sell many.
This unique fragrance is similar to #8 with it being the smell of delicious pink grapefruit.
The odor this candle emits is a wonderful change in the normal candles so many other people use.
With just a simple design, this white sandstone piece holds the wonderful PartyLite fragrance of your choice.
Just place the sticks and allow them to fill your room with a wonderful smell.
The design just melts hearts and scented wax.
This is a red ladybug with black dots that creates a feeling of warmth and affection in the room it is in.
The 3 wick jar candles have been one of the best selling PartyLite products.
This scent is a favorite with the lemon, melon and a dash of mint filling the air with wonderful smells.
As I said, the 3 wick candles are favored over all, and this one has layers of aloe, eucalyptus and fresh home that will change as the candle burns lower.
Customers rave about this candle.
Out of all the 3 wick jar candles sold by PartyLite, the mulberry seems to be a hands-down favorite.
With a strong, but pleasing fragrance, the amount of sales of this candle are high.
Are there enough mulberries to go around?
These mirrored lanterns put off a glow that will fill your visitors with peace and comfort.
The mirrored interior just enhances the extreme glow the votive inside emits.
Use them indoors or out, there are multiple ways you can show off the top PartyLite product.
So, do you agree with my thoughts of the top 20 PartyLite products?
PartyLite also has many products that have been discontinued and are now collectors items.
You can find many of these on eBay. I will put a link in the reference section.
If you would like to have any of these products, or possibly become a PartyLite distributor, you can visit their website that is also in the reference section.
Tell us your favorite PartyLite products.
Which candle fragrance is the best in your opinion?
Just post it in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: Neither I nor the Online MLM Community is affiliated in any way or form with PartyLite. This is not a paid review. It is written strictly for your information. PartyLite is a registered trademark.
My wife loves candles as well as my Mom. They are a great way to give a nice fragrance to the house.
I have several friends who sold the PartyLite products. I have never personally tried them because I am not much of a candle type of duded. That being said, all three of my friends who sell the products have done quit well with the company.


Dr. Michael Schlossmacher, Director, MD/PHD Program, (uOFaculty of Medicine) Neurologist and Senior Scientist, (The Ottawa Hospital) invites you to join him, along with the MD/PhD students currently enrolled in a dual-degree program, to connect, discover and to learn about the latest ground breaking research being conducted by our students.
Meet the students and our researchers to learn about their innovative methods and exciting discoveries.
Afterwards, tour the laboratories to see it for yourself!
Our students need your support to continue to defy the conventional! Every day, in labs like the Sprott Stem Cell Centre, our students work hard to capture scientific breakthroughs and translate their knowledge to positively impact the lives of Canadians for generations to come.


It has been announced that an all-star cast has been announced for a one night only concert performance of The Color Purple taking place at the Cadogan Hall on the 21st May.
This special concert performance is taking place to raise money for The British Theatre Academy, a performing arts programme that has nurtured the talent of thousands of young performers over the past 30 years.
The Color Purple is the story of a woman who, through love, finds the strength to triumph over adversity and discover her unique voice in the world.
It was confirmed today that the cast for this special concert will include: Wendy Mae Brown (Ghost the Musical;Kiss Me Kate; Porgy and Bess) , Cavin Cornwall (Aladdin, Jesus Christ Superstar), Tyrone Huntley (Dreamgirls, Jesus Christ Superstar) , Rachel John (The Bodyguard, Memphis, The Lion King) , Hugh Maynard (Miss Saigon, The Lion King), Seyi Omooba (Junkyard, Ragtime) and Marisha Wallace (Dreamgirls, Something Rotten!).
The creative team for the concert includes musical direction by James Taylor, choreography by Mykal Rand and is produced by Matthew Chandler and Danielle Tarento.
This concert performance is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker (and the popular 1985 Steven Spielberg film) spotlights Celie, a downtrodden young woman whose personal awakening over the course of 40 years forms the arc of this epic story.
With a joyous score featuring jazz, ragtime, gospel, African music and blues, The Color Purple is a story of hope, a testament to the healing power of love and a celebration of life.
The original musical features a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray. It originally premiered on Broadway on 1 November 2005. It was nominated for 11 Tony Awards in 2006, including 'Best Musical', 'Best Book', and 'Best Original Score'. Recently the production at The Menier Chocolate Factory transferred to Broadway winning two Tony Awards – 'Best Revival Of A Musical' and 'Best Leading Actress in a Musical'.


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With a traditional march to Mechi Chal peak will celebrate in Chepelare the national holiday of Bulgaria on March 3rd. The start will be at 08.30 am at the Olympic Square in the city. The march will be accompanied by patriotic songs and national flags.
Until April 14 at the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia, you can see an exhibition of archaeological objects found during the construction of the Struma highway.


Plan on half an hour. Lets have fun and get the photo that best suits your story that you want to tell thru your photo.
asking you to mention Open Lens by Pamela when it is appropriate to do so.
You will be able see your photos on my website through Client Proofing with your code and also be able to choose the photo (s) you want.
Contact Me To Schedule Your Headshot Today!


I have been working up to fitted the central door locking in Fender.
I am using a kit by Hawk and the immobiliser from a Discovery 1. That immobiliser looks, works and connects, the same as the Defender one but also includes the relay to operate the central locking.
I have now fitted the door solenoids which follows on from my earlier post about swapping the immobiliser for one that support central locking.
The solenoid is away from the rear edge of the door so the door card will fit without any cutting.
The solenoid in its extended position is under the interior door frame to ensure it does not foul on that when operating.
The brackets are bent in a step to avoid it catching on the window as it opens.
Conversely, I've also ignored one of the tips about where to run the cables.
My preference is to run the cables the same way as Land Rover do on the newer TD5 Defenders. That is through the 'A' pillar and in to the engine bay.
I started with the rubber cable grommet (part number YQQ000070) that runs from the door to the 'A' pillar. The cables run through and are protected by this. I was unable to find exact measurements for the position of the rubber conduit but I made a best guess from some photographs.
The door card limits the possible positions for a bracket to secure the door end of the conduit to. There is a raised area on the inside of the door card that supports one of the plastic clips that holds the door card secure. The new bracket needs to be placed just above that.
The lower edge of that is 160mm above the bottom edge of the door's steel frame.
I believe that on the TD5 the bracket is welded on to the inside face of the steel frame however the window runners on our Defender were too close to the frame to secure anything on the inside face of it. The solution for that was I used a right angle shape and fixed it to the top of the frame with self taping screws.
I drilled 2.5mm holes in the frame to fit 4mm self tapping screws. The holes in the bracket were 4mm.
The bracket is made from a short length of stainless steel capping usually used to protect stable doors. Any thin steel would have done.
They are 45mm long, 20mm deep on the face fixed to the frame and 25mm tall away from the frame. The slot is 15mm wide and 30mm tall at the apex.
For the other end of the rubber conduit, I used, drills, a rotary tool and files to cut the hole through the trim and the 'A' pillar.
This hole is about 20mm under the door switch. 20mm wide by 27mm tall in the centre of the pillar.
The door card needed to be cut for the grommet to pass through.
I used a 10mm drill to form the round end and then simple cuts to form the slot.
The next bit was fitting the solenoid. I spent a long time working out where the door card curved and then widened out. For the passenger door, I positioned the flat steel bar centred at 160mm from the edge of the steel door frame. When I assembled it all, this fitted but was tight up against the curve of the inside of the door card. For the drivers door I centred the bar at 165mm from the edge of the door to give a little bit more clearance.
I drilled some holes in the inside metal panels of the door. I used an M5x10mm bolt for the top of the support bar and a 4mm self tapping screw at the bottom.
IMPORTANT: make sure the window is fully wound up before drilling any holes to avoid any chance of breaking the glass with the end of the drill.
The kit I had came with 4 flat bars with holes in to support the solenoids. That is one bar for each solenoid. I used two bars for the one solenoid, so if you have 4 or 5 doors and not the two I have, you are going to need to get some extra bars if you use my suggested mounting position.
The two flat bars overlap in the middle and the screws through the solenoid holds the bars together.
The lower bar is bent out by 20mm at a height of 75mm above the bottom of the door or, in my case, 70mm from the end of the flat bar. This gives plenty of clearance for the window and roughly follows the profile of the inside of the door card.
On the driver's door I had to force the bracket out slightly with an extra bolt, just to keep the solenoid in the right place.
While mentioning the driver's door. It was so rusty that I had to fill it and use a wall plug to secure the bottom screw!
Moving on to the connecting rod from the solenoid to the latch mechanism. The way the kit indicates connecting this is by bolting on to the exiting lock rod however the latch has a very convenient 6mm hole which I decided to use.
I purchased suitable rod linkage retainers for the purpose. This will make the finished job look much more like something that would come out of the factory and hopefully more reliable than the bolt on bracket.
The distance from the end of the solenoid plunger is slightly longer than the length of the rods supplied in the kit. They would reach in a straight line but that would not work very well. Either end of the rod should be in line with the direction of travel. I could have joined the rods but, again, that does not look very tidy. I purchased some 600mm long 3mm diameter stainless steel rod. As it turns out I could have purchased 300mm lengths.
I bent the rod with two, approximately 45deg bends and two parallel lengths at either end. The advantage of this is that the rods can be fine tuned by adjusting the bends if necessary, which it was not.
To make the tight bend at the plunger end of the rod I clamped it between two steel bars. As it was close to the vice jaws, I used two hammers to bend it over. The small hammer is held against the rod and the larger hammer is hit against the smaller to get accurate control of the impacts.
Using the rod retainer, it was very easy and quick to fit the rod in to the door. At this point I rigged up a long pair of electrical wires to test the operation. I was pleased it worked well and the rod did not foul on anything.
Now for the bit many people avoid. Threading the cable through the 'A' pillar.
With the correct tools I found this a fairly easy job. From the engine bay I felt for the wires at the very top of the wing, and followed them to feel the grommet in to the pillar.
I used a nylon cable threading line. I would guess a length of strong strimmer line would also do the job. I pushed the line through the grommet, fairly easily, and continued down the pillar. It was not as far as I expected. With the window open I could adjust the line and feel the end of it inside the pillar from the car interior side. It was a bit tricky to hook the end out through the hole but only took a minute.
That done, I attached the wires, without connectors, to the line and pulled them through. I was using my own wire, colour coded to match the Hawk kit. The wires supplied with the kit were not long enough to run the route I had chosen.
I used 1mm2 16Amp thinwall wire which is slightly larger than that supplied with the kit.
With the wire run and cut to length I crimped on the ends. I don't normally like using bullet connectors but I saw no advantage adding unnecessary joints or in changing the ends from the kit.
I like my cable runs to be tidy and look factory installed, where possible. I used spiral wrap in the engine bay. A bit time consuming but the result is one of the better solutions to protect the wires. Cable tied along the back of the engine bay.
There was no need for any protection for the wires inside the doors. I just used a few cable ties and tape to hold them in place.
On the drivers door, there are additional wires. One is an earth. It was not strictly necessary but I decided to earth the door using the bolt I added for the top of the bracket. From that bolt I ran another wire to the solenoid.
I connected the other end to the earth bolt under the bonnet on the bulkhead.
When I got to this stage on each door, I checked it all worked and then put the door back together.
With the door card in place, the passenger door worked fine but when I did the drivers door the lock would stick causing the solenoids to repeatedly try to lock and unlock.
It took a while to identify the problems. Firstly I found the lock button runner was broken so the escutcheon would catch on the button.
Once I had replaced those bits of plastic, it still stuck some of the time.
My best guess for this was that the door latch was stiffer than the passenger side. I oiled and greased that and worked it a little. That appears to have fixed that.
Lastly, I had cabled tied the 4 wires of the drivers door solenoid, on to the outside of the support bracket. I didn't realise the card was that close and it pushed the solenoid under the glass, so the window clipped it.
I had to reposition the wires so that they run on the inside of the bracket and force the bracket away from the window.
After having put the door card on for the second time, the drivers door worked.
The drivers door proved to be more difficult than the passenger door. These notes were updated to reflect lessons learned.


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Il ghazal () è un tipo di componimento poetico breve monorima, proprio della tradizione araba e poi di tutte le altre letterature islamiche, in primis la persiana e la turca.

La radice araba <gh-z-l> indica "discussione", "amore". Gli argomenti affrontati sono infatti quelli amorosi, specialmente legati al tema dell'amore proibito, o erotici, bacchici, naturalistici (amore, vino, feste, natura) piegati spesso in chiave mistica.

Stando alla brevità e al tema amoroso potrebbe venire paragonato al nostro sonetto. Suggestionati dalla cultura orientale, anche autori europei si sono cimentati in questo tipo di componimento sia in tedesco, spagnolo e inglese.

Forma
Il ghazal si distingue per alcune caratteristiche:

 Deve essere breve, in genere si compone dai 5 ai 15 versi
Come nella qasida tutti i versi sono doppi e hanno tutti la stessa rima: eccezione è il primo verso dove rima anche il primo emistichio
Nel penultimo verso il poeta deve rivelare il proprio nome (takhalloṣ)
Nella letteratura persiana, stando alla particolare struttura della lingua, la rima è sostituita dal radif, una forma verbale o anche un emistichio che si ripete sempre uguale ma con sensi diversi
Come in tutta la poesia islamica, non possono esserci enjambement tra i distici, di modo che ogni distico deve contenere una frase (o più frasi) di senso compiuto

Storia
Il ghazal nasce dalla qaside, il genere principe della poesia araba: la qaside si apre con il nasib, cioè un preludio di carattere erotico o bacchico, il quale poco a poco si è sviluppato come un genere autonomo grazie alla poesia higiazena araba  (vedi poesia araba). A partire dal IX secolo, col collasso dell'impero arabo e l'influenza della cultura persiana e della mistica sufi, il ghazal si diffuse in tutto il mondo musulmano, in particolar modo della letteratura persiana, che ne ha fatto il suo genere letterario forse principale.

Autori di ghazal
Tra i più celebri autori di ghazal vanno ricordati Gialāl ad-Dīn Rūmī, persiano, ma attivo a Konya in Turchia, fondatore della confraternita dei dervisci danzanti, e Ḥāfeẓ, persiano anche lui, che visse a Shiraz ed è riconosciuto come il più grande esponente di questa forma poetica in Persia. Si ricordino ancora l'azero Fużūlī e gli indiani Mīrzā Ghālib e Muḥammad Iqbal.

In Europa si ricordano Johann Wolfgang von Goethe col suo Divano occidentale-orientale, e Federico García Lorca col Divan del tamarit, raccolte poetiche ispirate alla poesia islamica.

Curiosità
In Iran c'è la consuetudine di rivolgersi ad Hafez come ad un oracolo: aprendo a caso il libro dei suoi ghazal si leggono alcuni versi nella convinzione che aiuteranno a riflettere sulla propria situazione. Presso la tomba del poeta, a Shiraz, ci sono delle persone che per mestiere fanno questo tipo di consultazioni.

Bibliografia

- A. Pagliaro - A. Bausani, Storia della letteratura persiana, Firenze, Nuova Accademia, 1960

- P. Minganti, Appunti di metrica araba, Roma, Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino, 1979

- Bashshār b. Burd, Dīwān Ṭ. Ben ʿAs̲h̲ūr (ed.), 3 voll., Cairo, 1950-57)

- 'Umar ibn Abī Rabīʿa, Dīwān, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd (ed.) Cairo, 1371E./1952

- Muḥammad b. Dāwūd al-Iṣfahānī, Kitāb al-Zahra, ed. Nykl and Tukan, Chicago, 1351/1932. Ed. critica e trad. ital. di Michele Vallaro, Kitāb al-Zahra (capp. LI-LV), Napoli, Supplemento agli Annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale, 45 (1985), fasc. 4, pp. 1-86 + Indice

- Ṭāhā Ḥuseyn, Kitāb al-arbaʿāʾ (trad. ital. Conversazioni del mercoledì, Intr. e trad. di Isabella Passerini, Roma,
Istituto per l'Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino, 2020, ISBN 978-88-97622-66-6

- F. Gabrieli, "Ǧamīl al-ʿUd̲rī, studio critico e raccolta dei frammenti, in RSO, XVII (1937), pp. 40-172

- J. Rypka, Iranische Literaturgeschichte, Lipsia, 1959, pp. 71-112

- Lemma «Ghazal» (Régis Blachère per la Letteratura araba e A. Bausani per la Letteratura persiana), in: The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New edition.

- Giovanni Maria D'Erme, Hâfez di Širāz. Canzoniere, introduzione, traduzione e commento, 3 voll., Napoli, Università di Napoli "L'Orientale", 2004, 2007 e 2008

Forme poetiche
Letteratura araba
Letteratura persiana

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Pedra Branca State Park () is a state park in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It is one of the largest urban nature parks in the world. It protects an area of Atlantic Forest in the west of the city of Rio de Janeiro that includes the highest point in the city, the Pico da Pedra Branca.

Location

The Pedra Branca State Park is in the west of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and has an area of .
It is one of the largest urban nature parks in the world.
The park contains the Pico da Pedra Branca, the highest point of the city at .
It is surrounded by the neighborhoods of Guaratiba, Bangu, Realengo, Jacarepaguá, Barra da Tijuca, Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Grumari and Campo Grande.
The park contains the chapel of São Gonçalo do Amarante, built in 1625, and the church of Nossa Senhora de Monserrat, built in 1776.

The park provides water to the Pau da Fome, Camorim, Taxas and Engenho Novo dams.
The aqueduct that cuts through the park takes water from the Guandu River to Rio's south zone.
The park occupies about 10% of the city, and protects more than half of the city's Atlantic Forest.

History

European occupation of the Pedra Branca range began late in the 16th century, when Salvador Correia de Sá donated lands in the area to his sons in 1594. At the end of the 17th century some of the land was donated to Benedictine monks, who developed farms and cattle fields.
By the end of the 19th century there were extensive coffee plantations, and a movement developed against the resulting deforestation that resulted in some efforts at reforestation.
In the early 20th century the old coffee plantations were divided into smaller banana plantations.

The Camorim Water Treatment Unit and Pau da Fome Dam were built in 1908. The Camorim dam supplies water for 20,000 people.
An aqueduct was built in the 1960s at what is now the Piraquara Center.
The massive growth of the city caused human occupation to spread uphill into the regenerating forests in the mid 20th century.
The area of the  Pedra Branca State Park was declared of public utility for the purpose of expropriation by decree-law 1634 of April 1963.

After a long period of studies, the park was formally created by state law No. 2377 of 28 June 1974.
The area above  was included in the park.
It is managed by the State Forest Institute Foundation (IEF).
In 2003 the state government launched a R$4 million program to revitalize the park.
This included a permanent exhibition "Da Pedra Branca ao Pau da Fome" for students that describes the geology, flora and fauna.
The park is part of the Carioca Mosaic and has been recognized by UNESCO as an Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve.

Environment

The city of Rio de Janeiro has a humid tropical climate, with maximum rainfall in December - March and least rainfall in June - August.
Annual rainfall averages , with most rain in the summer.
Usually the winds blow from the mainland towards the sea in the morning, and from the southeast in the afternoon and evening.
The Pedra Branca Massif affects the flow of air and moisture throughout the city.
The north slopes are warmer and drier, while the slopes facing west, south and east are more temperate and humid.

The park contains typical Atlantic Forest vegetation.
Vegetation is in different stages of regeneration.
The dominant type is dense rainforest.
934 species of flora in 118 botanical families have been cataloged, of which 429 have some level of endemism.
The endemic bromeliad Neoregelia camorimiana is found in forests in an advanced stage of regeneration.
These are mostly in the Camorim region and include species such as Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata), copaíba (Copaifera lucens), Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra), and red fig tree (Ficus americana).

338 species of birds have been identified, of which 20 are threatened to some extent, such as the white-eared parakeet (Pyrrhura leucotis).
There are 51 species of mammals of which 8 are threatened.
The fruit bat morcego-fruteiro-claro is vulnerable to extinction in Brazil.
Threatened species include collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus), southern tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla), channel-billed toucan (Ramphastos vitellinus), rusty-margined guan (Penelope superciliaris), brown-backed parrotlet (Touit melanonotus), boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) and striped worm lizard  (Ophiodes striatus).
There are 43 species of fish of which 5 are endangered.

The park is surrounded by large urban areas, and is under intense human pressure.
As of 2013 there were 40 park rangers and the state's first environmental police unit.
Fires are common in the driest part of year, from June to July, often caused by candle-powered paper hot air balloons released in festivals, but are quickly suppressed.

Visiting

As of 2013 there were an average of 3,000 visitors per month, or 36,000 annually, but the park management aimed to attract up to 60,000 visitors per year by 2016.
The park is open daily from 8am to 5pm.

Centers

PEPB has three administrative centers: Pau da Fome, Camorin and Piraquara.
The park headquarters is in the Pau da Fome Center in Taquara, Jacarepaguá.
It has an exhibition center in the building designed by the architect Zanine Caldas for Eco 92.
The Camorin Center, also in Jacarepaguá, has a water collection and treatment system and a trail leading to the Camorim Dam.
The Piraquara Center in Realengo has a nursery for seedlings.
The center has a visitor building, toilets, leisure areas and environmental guides.
The Cachoeira do Barata (Barata Waterfall) in the Piraquara center is one of the biggest attractions.
The waterfall is in fact a series of falls and stretches of the Piraquara River that can be used for relaxation, with an artificial swimming pool at the foot.
Beside it there is a children's playground, exercise equipment, tables and picnic areas.

Trails

There are several ecological trails and walks.
Guided tours are available, including an  walk to the top of the Pedra Branca.
The bi-lingual Portuguese/English trail guide with maps and photographs was published by INEA in 2013.
The trails have different lengths and levels of difficulty to cater to all tastes.
The  Circuito das Águas Trail passes waterfalls weirs and dams.
The  Rio Grande Trail with descriptive signs is at the Pau da Fome center, designed for all ages. Attractions include the 19th century aqueduct, the Figuera Dam, a corner of the Padaria Dam, and typical bromeliads and tree of the Atlantic Forest.
The  Açude Camorim Trail, starting at the Camorim Center, provides a beautiful view of the Camorim reservoir, which is about one quarter of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.
The  Piabas-Grumari Crossing leads to Grumari Beach, where visitors may bathe, and includes gazebos and dense Atlantic Forest vegetation.
The  Santa Bárbara Trail is one of the most popular, and leads from the Pau a Fome to the Pico da Pedra Branca, with steep stretches. The Pico da Pedra Branca trail, leading to the highest point, is long but easy.
The shorter Pedra do Quilombo trail is harder, and includes a  exposed section on a rock face where a steel cable and metal foot rests have been installed.
The  Caverna Carlos Bandeira Trail leads to and through the  Carlos Bandeira cave.
The  crossing from Rio da Prata to Pau da Fome, via Monte Alegre, crosses the Pedra Branca massif. It is the hardest trail, with a maximum altitude of . It has natural lookouts, rivers, waterfalls and Atlantic Forest vegetation.
The  crossing from Jacarepaguá to Campo Grande follows sections of an old colonial road, and remnants of the stone pavement are still visible.

Notes

Sources

State parks of Brazil
Protected areas established in 1974
1974 establishments in Brazil
Protected areas of Rio de Janeiro (state)


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text:
Tag: Muallim
Muhaddith, Mu'allim, Murabbi – Shaykhul Hadith Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Yunus Saheb Jaunpuri RH
"Be fearful of a day when you shall be returned to Allah, then every person shall be paid in full what he has earned, and they shall not be wronged." Surah Baqarah
(This is the last verse to be revealed in the Qur'an)
The passing away of our most beloved and honourable Shaykh and Ustadh, the Ameer, the Master, the embodiment of Hadith, Shaykhul Hadith Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Yunus Saheb Jawnpuri (Allah sanctify his secret), was most definitely news that shook our hearts, rather shook mountains. Initially, I did not think it was befitting for me to write anything on Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret), as many of my senior teachers and Ulama had already done so. But after reading them, a few anecdotes and memories came to mind so I decided to share them based on the Hadith:
Ibn Umar (Allah be pleased with him narrated that: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "Mention good things about your dead, and refrain from (mentioning) their evil." (Tirmidhi)
Alhumdu Lillah, in 2007 my late father sent me to Mazahirul Uloom, Sahanrapur in the khidmah of Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret), as he felt it was good for an Alim to be in the company of a Shaykh after graduation for Islah and Tarbiyyah purposes. I had met Shaykh Saheb when he would come to Jamiatul Ilm Walhuda, Blackburn, for the Bukhari Jalsa and had heard many stories of his status and nature from my Ustadhs – many of which had studied under Shaykh Saheb's tutelage.
When I first arrived, I introduced myself and passed on some money and gifts I had from our principal and ustadh Mufti AbdusSamad Saheb and Mufti Shabbir Saheb, as well as some of Shaykh Saheb's previous students. I told him my father had sent me for his Khidmah and I was studying Ifta alongside this. I remember he asked me, if I was his guest (mehman) or a guest of the Darul Uloom. I said, "I am currently staying in the Mehman Khana until my room is arranged, so I shall eat from the Madrasah." He said, "Very well! Otherwise I would arrange food for you." To which I was quite overwhelmed and humbled, at Shaykh Saheb's worry and concern.
In my first few days I imagined there would be dozens of people at his service and I would barely get a chance. As this was the case when he came to the UK, scores of Ulama from up and down the country would be following him "throughout" his stay in the UK. Things were quite different in India. Generally, it was some of the Bukhari/Ifta students that would do his Khidmah, but a very small amount. As they were in fear of being rebuked and told off. There were many days Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) would be alone or just one Khadim with him. I remember telling some of my Ifta colleagues, actually forcing them to come with me and sit with Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) for a while. They were very apprehensive. But I realised the cause behind this, it was what they were fed about Shaykh Saheb's (Allah sanctify his secret) nature. Without doubt Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) was a person whose nature left you full of awe, he was "Jalali." So generally, students were afraid of being told off and criticised. Shaykh Saheb would rebuke us. But he would always say, "I only discipline those with whom I have a connection, the person is fortunate who builds humility after I have disciplined him."
I would like to mention a point here for ulama, we should never think of ourselves too high that we cannot be criticised. Fudhayl ibn Iyadh (Allah have mercy upon him) once said, "Accept the truth, even if it is from a child."
I remember Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) would start the day off with Surah Yaseen and also read Qur'an after Dhuhr Salah. He would say, "I like to start the day off with Qur'an." There was a particular Durood he would read after recitation of the Qur'an, I tried to pick up the words as Shaykh Saheb would whisper it quite loud. I only ever heard, "Allahumma Salle Alaa Muhammad bi Addadi Kulli Harf…" (O Allah! Send salutations upon Muhammad equal to every letter I have read from the Quran). If anyone knows the full Durood, I would be grateful if they could share it In Sha Allah.
I was once told to fetch some water by Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret), I knew in India they did not drink from the tap like we do in UK. But as it was my first few weeks, I was unaware where Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) drank from. Usually, people stored their water in a clay pot (matka) or something similar. So, I was running around in the kitchen and in the bedroom looking for his water storage. I ended up downstairs and I saw a student pumping water out from the Madrasah pump and I told him, Shaykh Saheb has asked for water. He said, Shaykh Saheb doesn't drink this water and he only drinks Zam Zam. Subhan Allah! He rushed me back to the room and under the bed were drums of Zam Zam. I was grateful to him for sharing this with me as I didn't want to feed Shaykh Saheb with normal water, when he only drank Zam Zam.
Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) did not like pretence and deception. Once a few students were sat and one of the students had a white scarf/shaal, like the ones we see in Saudi Arabia worn by their Imams. This student was sat in front of Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) whilst Shaykh Saheb was doing Dhikr. All of a sudden, Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) got really angry and said, "Oh! It's only you… I thought you were a big Alim, the way you are dressed." He ordered him to remove it and told us always to dress humbly.
Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) would cry at times, when putting on Itr before his dars. He would say, "These bottles are worth thousands of Rupees each. But when I was young I didn't have enough money for food. Dear children, I went through a lot of poverty." Tears would roll from his eyes, rahimahullah.
Further he would say many times, his father was a teacher and as a boy Shaykh Saheb was quite weak mentally and physically. He would always remain ill. A man suggested to his father, "Get him on the (cycle) rickshaws, as he will be of no use to you when he grows up. At least this way he will bring money in!" "Alhumdu Lillah! When I sit on the (cycle) rickshaws, the thought crosses my mind. It could have been the other way round!" Shaykh Saheb would say very emotionally.
NB: In Saharanpur there was little use of the motor rickshaws, a man would sit at the front and peddle. Passengers would sit at the back in a carriage. I don't know if things have advanced.
Here I would like to clarify something which I heard from many students and teachers at my time in Saharanpur, that Shaykh Saheb was diagnosed with Tuberculosis at a young age. And TB was such in those days, if you caught it, chances were that you would die imminently. As a result of this Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) did not marry, due to fear of death occurring at any time. But time went by, he graduated as an Alim and even started teaching. He was always on edge, that he could go any minute. Like this he passed his whole youth, but one night he saw the number 5 in a dream (whether it was the figure 5 or a hand indicating 5 I cannot remember). This really confused Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret). He thought, "Maybe it means 5 days or 5 months, I have left to live!" Later, when Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) started teaching and came across the 'maghaib khamsah', the knowledge of five things which only Allah SWT knows. He understood the interpretation of the dream, which meant stop worrying about your death, only He SWT knows when you will die. The five things being, "Qiyamah, rainfall, what is in the womb – male/female, what a person earns – rizq, when a person will die." (Surah Luqman)
This does not defy the fact that Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) had immense love for knowledge and his books, it would even be correct to say he was married to his books.
A similar incident is related regarding Imam Malik (Allah have mercy upon him) and the dream of the number 5.
Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) was connected to Ulama all over the UK and all over the world, he would often get calls of halaat/circumstances in certain countries. Especially, internal conflicts. As he knew I was from UK he once said, "When you return to the UK never get involved with Ikhtilaf/politics, as this is increasing in England."
Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) was very wary when he was eating, with regards to evil eye (nazar). More often than not, he would prefer to eat alone and not in the sight of students or even guests from outside.
I remember asking Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) a few questions that had always been on my mind. The first was the Sunnah method of clipping the nails, as many books show a method which they refer to as Sunnah. He replied, "This is not in Hadith, but rather we begin from the right hand as this is preferable in all matters. Secondly, we begin from the Shahadah finger (index) as it is good to start with this finger." I also asked about walking forty steps after food, He said, "This is only recommended by Hakims, it is not Sunnah."
Approximately, half a million people attended Shaykh Saheb's Janazah Salah:
Aishah (Allah be pleased with her) said: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, 'If a Muslim dies and his funeral prayer is attended by a group of a hundred Muslims, and they all sincerely pray for his forgiveness, he is forgiven'". (Ahmad, Muslim, and Tirmidhi)
Lastly, when Shaykh Saheb (Allah sanctify his secret) came to Jamiatul Ilm Walhuda in May 2017 for the Bukhari ceremony, towards the end I remember him saying, "O children! It is possible that I do not return next year." And such was Allah's wish…
And we are indeed sad at your departure. "
(Bukhari)
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) on the death of his son Ibraheem (Allah be pleased with him)
May Allah SWT elevate the status of Shaykh Saheb and Allah reward him on behalf of the whole Ummah and may his legacy remain in this world until the day of Qiyamah and Allah SWT grant us all the tawfeeq to follow in the footsteps of all the pious personalities and He resurrects us amongst them on the day of Qiyamah and He grant us a place in Jannah with such luminaries and pious Mashayikh… Ameen!
One request, please make Esaal-e-Thawab for Hadhrat of whatever you are able to and as much as you can; Qur'an, Dua, or Sadaqah. (I am hoping to build a Masjid in Shaykh's name – please see link below and kindly donate).
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ismail-satia1
By IsmailSatiain Personalities August 19, 2017 July 30, 2018 2,005 Words2 Comments


text:
Baseball Rules and Regulations
Who holds the Major League Baseball record for the most no-hit games?
The pitcher that pitched the most no hit games in MLB history is Nolan Ryan with 7.
Q: Who holds the Major League Baseball record for the most no-hit games?
What team holds the record for games won in a major league baseball season?
The chicago cubs
What man holds the major league baseball record for most consecutive games with a hit?
Joe Dimaggio holds the record for consecutive games with a hit with 56 games!
What major league baseball team holds the record for most games lost in a row?
Philadephia Phillies
What major league baseball team holds the record for most consecutive games without a walk?
How many Major League Baseball games have there been in the history of Major League Baseball?
What does Major League Baseball wins?
baseball games
How many games do the Major League Baseball players play in a season?
162 games in each Major League Baseball Season
Who holds the record for most games played in Major League Baseball?
Peter Rose played in 3,562 games, the most in MLB history.
How many major league baseball games are played within a year?
162 Major league baseball games are played during a year
What does a major league baseball player do?
There are a number of things that major league baseball player do. They train for upcoming games and participate in the relevant games.
Who holds the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games with a hit?
Joe DiMaggio - 56 consecutive games with a base hit in 1941.
Which Major League Baseball Team has won the most games in a row?
In 2002, the Oakland A's won 20 games in a row, the record for most consecutive games.
How does the Major League Baseball schedule games?
A computer
What player has played in the most postseason games in the major league baseball?
Derek Jeter holds the record for most career games played in the postseason with 138.
Who hold the major league baseball record for the most consecutive games with a hit?
Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games during the 1941 season.
Which major League baseball pitcher has the most no-hitters?
Nolan Ryan had a record seven no-hit games during his Hall of Fame career.
How many games are in major league baseball team?
How many games in a Major League Baseball season?
How many games in a season in Major league baseball?
How many official games in Major League Baseball?
How many games does major league baseball season have?
How many Major League Baseball games?
162 regular season games
What is the worst Major League Baseball record to make the Major League Baseball playoffs?
82-80 by the 2005 San Diego Padres who won the NL West Division. They lost in the NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals 3 games to 0.
Who played more major league baseball games Babe Ruth or hank arron?
Hank Aaron played in 3,213 major league games, while Babe Ruth played in 2,503 major league games.
What are the rules for the Rest period for major league pitchers between games?
In Major League Baseball there is no rule regarding pitcher's rest between games.
What makes 13?


text:
ZBA hears 30 W. Highland Ave. proposal, continues hearing for June 23
by Walt Maguire
The hearing resumption is scheduled for 2 p.m., June 23.
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The Zoning Board of Adjustment scheduled a hearing resumption for 2 p.m., June 23. The neighbors were granted more time to meet with the property owner and his architect in hopes of reaching an agreement. (Laurence McEwen, architect)
Site plan, showing the eight townhouses. (Laurence McEwen, architect)
Though the 30 W. Highland Neighbors group did not get the delay it sought from the Chestnut Hill Community Association, they did get a continuance from the Zoning Board of Adjustment. At a hearing April 28, it was decided to resume on June 23.
The neighbors, represented by lawyer Henry Clinton, were granted more time to meet with the property owner, Henry O'Reilly, and his architect Larry McEwen, in hopes of reaching an agreement. A representative from Councilmember Cindy Bass's office was on hand to relay her support for the continuance, noting that the CHCA committee might have been convinced but 220 neighbors were still reviewing the new information presented at the CHCA Board of Directors meeting April 22.
Because the continuance was granted early on, the hearing focused on reviewing the timeline of the project and what might be addressed in the additional weeks.
Over 60 people registered to testify, but because of the continuance, ZBA Chair Frank DiCicco limited debate, on the theory that many objections and disagreements might be resolved by the time of the next hearing.
Elizabeth Wright, representing 30 W. Highland Neighbors, acknowledged that they did not expect the current building to be saved, and cited the known concerns about density, height, and the owner's perceived "failure to demonstrate a need for this scale."
McEwen pointed out that the new townhouses, at 38', while taller than the two neighboring townhouses at 18 and 20 W. Highland – 35' – are in line with the next two houses at 14 and 16 W. Highland. A rooftop pilot house, or door to the roof garden, brings the height up to about 48'. The city does not count pilot houses or roof gardens when registering the height of a building, but the plans presented April 22 moved the garden to the edge of the third floor and eliminated the pilot house on the house adjacent to Highland Avenue, while moving the third floor back further from the front.
Wright noted the communication issues that have dogged this project. While the plan was proposed in October, she said the neighbors did not see a blueprint until February. The CHCA has made missteps, at one point saying a DRC subcommittee could not share information with the neighbor group, only to state later communication was permitted and there had been a misstatement. At the same time, some of the concerns presented at the DRC meeting on April 22 were based on a survey in March, and a few of those concerns had been resolved. For instance, a study showed traffic congestion would drop 32%, not increase, as neighbors feared. For many of the 220 objectors, the DRC hearing was the first time they were aware of the new information.
There has been some neighborhood support for the project, such as a letter from Kilians Hardware nearby, but there was no indication any of the 220 neighbors on record as opposed had been persuaded by the DRC meeting. Density, and repeated charges of being ignored by the CHCA, have been cited consistently since the neighbors saw the early plans in February.
Philadelphia attorney Carl Primavera represented O'Reilly. To the charge that the owner had not demonstrated a hardship to justify a variance to build townhouses, Primavera responded that "the hardship is that it's a residential block but a commercial building."
Clinton questioned O'Reilly about the feasibility of keeping the existing building and finding a commercial tenant. O'Reilly did not seem closed to the possibility, but pointed out the existing stock of available commercial space along Germantown Avenue, the parking lot being awkward for customer traffic and the work needed to refurbish the 1903 building for a modern business all made this unlikely. He also said that he was planning to be one of the new townhouse residents.
The design materials are available for review on the CHCA website, chestnuthill.org
CHCA Board approves revised 30 W. Highland Ave plan
Germantown church may be demolished
The saving of Abolition Hall: A case study
What happens when a contractor flouts city code?
The trolley car diner is stuck


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Q: lose Ticker and Date columns after merging two Pandas Data frames together I have two data frames, the first represent share prices and the second represent the company names. When I try to merge them on a unique key, which is SimFinId, everything is fine except that I lose the Ticker and the Date columns from the share prices table. I need to keep those two columns on every merge -I want later also to merge the output with a third table -so I can later filter after the date. I'm using Jupyter. Any help will be much appreciated!
pip install simfin
    # Import the main functionality from the SimFin Python API.
import simfin as sf

# Import names used for easy access to SimFin's data-columns.
from simfin.names import *
    import datetime

# Set your API-key for downloading data. This key gets the free data.
sf.set_api_key('free')

# Set the local directory where data-files are stored.
# The directory will be created if it does not already exist.
sf.set_data_dir('~/simfin_data/')

# Download the data from the SimFin server and load into a Pandas DataFrame.
df_prices = sf.load_shareprices(variant='daily', market='us', index=[TICKER, DATE])

Thats the share prices table
                   SimFinId   Open    Low   High  Close  Adj. Close  Dividend  \
Ticker Date
A      2007-01-03     45846  34.99  34.05  35.48  34.30       22.66       NaN
       2007-01-04     45846  34.30  33.46  34.60  34.41       22.73       NaN
       2007-01-05     45846  34.30  34.00  34.40  34.09       22.52       NaN
       2007-01-08     45846  33.98  33.68  34.08  33.97       22.44       NaN
       2007-01-09     45846  34.08  33.63  34.32  34.01       22.47       NaN

                    Volume  Shares Outstanding
Ticker Date
A      2007-01-03  2574600                 NaN
       2007-01-04  2073700                 NaN
       2007-01-05  2676600                 NaN
       2007-01-08  1557200                 NaN
       2007-01-09  1386200                 NaN

# Download the companies data from the SimFin server and load into a Pandas DataFrame.
df_companies = sf.load_companies(market='us', index=[TICKER])

Thats the company name table
           SimFinId                      Company Name  IndustryId
Ticker
A              45846          AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES INC    106001.0
AA            367153                        Alcoa Corp    110004.0
AAC_delist    939324                AAC Holdings, Inc.    106011.0
AAL            68568      American Airlines Group Inc.    100006.0
AAMC          847094  Altisource Asset Management Corp    104001.0

# Merging the share prices Data with the companies Data on SimFinId.
pd.merge(df_companies, df_prices, on='SimFinId')

That image shows the output of the merge

A: I think, what I have missed here is that I must add reset.index() after each data frame in the merge statement. Just in case, someone faced the same simple issue.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: Google Apps Script OAuth2 Library Error for Service Accounts if private Key is not stored in apps script file directly I successfully set up connection from google apps script to Google Cloud firestore database with a service account. It is working fine as long I store the credentials in the apps script file itself. If I store the private Key of the credential somewhere else (in database, in a drive file, google doc...) oauth2 authentication fails with error: "Invalid Argument: Key" thrown by GAS Oauth2 library.
I investigated further and it seems an encoding/charset problem. If I compare the length of the private Key string between hard coded and stored in a File/DB the length of the key is not equal, but the key-strings seems to be identical.
Some help would be appreciated.
function createOAuth() {

// credentials of service account hard coded
var jsonObj = {
      "type": "service_account",
      "project_id": "id of project",
 "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----.....----END PRIVATE KEY-\n",
      "client_email": "servic accoutn email",
      "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
      "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
    }

// not working if store attribute private_key somewhere else like:
/*var fileContent = DriveApp.getFileById('idOfFile').getBlob().getDataAsString("UTF-8"); //OR
DocumentApp.getBody().getText() //OR
var privateKey = Utilities.newBlob(privatKeyFromCredents).getDataAsString()
//store key in cloud firestore database also not working.
*/

return OAuth2.createService("Service Account")
  .setTokenUrl('https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token')
  .setPrivateKey(jsonObj.private_key)
  .setIssuer(jsonObj.client_email)
   .setPropertyStore(PropertiesService.getScriptProperties())
  .setCache(CacheService.getScriptCache())
  .setParam('access_type', 'offline')
  .setScope('https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.external_request https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform https://www.googleapis.com/auth/datastore');

var access = service.hasAccess(); // true if jsonObj is hard coded
// false if stored somewhere else --> error: Invalid Argument: Key
Logger.log('Access: ' + access);

}

A: // get Credentials form Drive in JSON format
var fileContent = DriveApp.getFileById('18t9NnzwKMlmQAnRUa_KovWdDvhk60oZT').getBlob().getDataAsString("UTF-8");

var serviceCredentials = JSON.parse(fileContent);
serviceCredentials['service_name'] = "Service Account Name";
serviceCredentials['scope'] = "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/script.external_request https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform https://www.googleapis.com/auth/datastore ";

var service = OAuth2.createService(serviceCredentials.service_name)
.setTokenUrl(serviceCredentials.token_uri)
.setPrivateKey(serviceCredentials.private_key)
.setIssuer(serviceCredentials.client_email)
.setPropertyStore(PropertiesService.getUserProperties())
.setCache(CacheService.getUserCache())
.setParam('access_type', 'offline')
.setScope(serviceCredentials.scope);

// for testing if access oauth setup is working or not
var access = service.hasAccess();
Logger.log('Access: ' + access); //true or false


Abstract:1,6-hexanediol diglycidyl ether was synthesized with 1,6-hexanediol and Epichlorohydrin as raw materials,with boron trifluoride ether complex as the catalyst,and with sodium hydroxide as the closed ring agent of producing ring reaction . The effects of the closed ring temperature,the dosage of the catalyst,and the moral ratio of sodium hydroxide to 1,6-hexanediol on the reaction were studied,which showed that the preferable synthesizing conditions are 8% of the catalyst mass fraction,the moral ratio 2.1:1 of sodium hydroxide to 1,6-hexanediol,and 45 ℃ of the closed ring reaction temperature.After the the reaction, the product was extracted, dried, filtered, and evaporated under reduced pressure and other treatment. Using column chromatography separation and purification methods,Get IR, MS, hydrogen spectrum of products.


The Cup is different. The original rendering. And it is not reserved for the only fashion shows. With a draped dress, you're suddenly wand well dressed and your figure is miraculously refined. You have never thought, but now you will spend more next.
The draped dress is a trend that comes to us from ancient Greece. At this time, it was aagrave; who had the most beautiful gown. The gown is now dress, but the principle remained the same. Silky fabrics, pleating, everything is in the details and this makes this gorgeous dress. Except for one thing: that to be successful!
The draped dress is somehow a dress with lots of fabric is pleated to create volume. Up, down, around the waist, the hips, the creations are not lacking imagination. Note that although flared, they are most often arched at the waist to emphasize what your curves and highlight your femininity!
Who going to the draped dress?
The waist is especially suitable for the silhouettes X or 8. The wide sleeves and the neckline perfectly match women who have shoulders narrower than the hips. The V-neck will delight those who want to enhance their breasts. The pleats give volume and camouflage so the small curves of your hips and thighs. In short, the draped dress refines your silhouette, it's as simple as that!
For a chic or casual outing, the draped dress fits many situations. If you choose a dress draped at the level of the knees, it will be perfect for a dinner with the in-laws. Short, she will accompany you in the evening. Eventually you prom costume!
With what I'm wearing the draped dress?
Day: associate your dress draped with Brogues or boots and a smocking jacket or a perfecto, for a casual and rock look, a bit crazy to break the classic side of the draped dress.
Night: the draped dress is your best ally for an impromptu party. Wear the dress with choice a lipstickflashy, heels that sparkle, or a pocket of color to enhance the outfit.
Where to buy the draped dress?
To follow the trend until the end of your shift dress, we spotted the dress draped at Asos and H & M, shopper without waiting!
You will find our selection of draped dresses shopping !


text:
Gunniopsis zygophylloides är en isörtsväxtart som först beskrevs av Ferdinand von Mueller, och fick sitt nu gällande namn av Friedrich Ludwig Diels. Gunniopsis zygophylloides ingår i släktet Gunniopsis och familjen isörtsväxter. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Isörtsväxter
zygophylloides


Online Membership Renewal – The Arlington-Fairfax Chapter Inc.
Online renewal for 2019 is no longer available.
If you wish to renew, please call the field office at 703-631-4495 and leave your name & your phone number. We will call you and let you know how to renew.


The global financial crisis was a sharp shock to real estate markets and while interest rates and government bond yields fell in response around the world, real estate yields (cap rates) have risen. The objective of this paper is to analyse the gap between government bonds (index-linked and long dated) and real estate yields over time for the UK, Australia and the USA and determine whether there has been a structural break in this long term relationship. The statistical analysis, based on ARCH models, will identify previous structural breaks in these relationships. The absolute gap levels and their variation over time in the different countries is then linked to the theoretical reasons for the yield gap in terms of a risk premium and compared with the findings from earlier studies.


Simple yet challenging games are some of the most addictive to play on our phones and tablets. They are popular because we can play a quick game while waiting in line or anytime we have a quick break. This is no exception for the hits games Dots which was previously on iOS only and now has migrated to Android. The app is available for Android phones, tablets, and the Kindle Fire as well. The premise is of course all about connecting dots as fast as you can.
Visually the app is very appealing with clean white backgrounds and colorful dots. The first type of game mode is to connect as many color dots in 30 seconds. The more you can connect in one move gets you more points and specially connecting squares. You can also do a more casual game where you get 30 moves total. Both game styles are fun and it's nice to switch it up when you get tired. As you play and earn dot points there is the opportunity to get power ups. If you want to get a really high score then power ups are really the only way to do it. You can take the shortcut and purchase the power points. Like all games you can connect with your friends on Facebook and Twitter to compete and compare. Definitely a nice game and one that I'll playing for a while. Checkout the app and let us know what you think.


ARS Steel was established with the objective of building long term profitable and mutually valued partnerships with stakeholders. Known for its unique distribution network and the best quality TMT Bars, ARS is a brand with the largest steel plants in South India. ARS TMT Bars are widely supplied across South India through its authorized network of distributors.
It is the result of ARS strong focus on customer-centric products, quality, persistence and determination that it continues to be a global leader in the Steel and Metal sector. ARS TMT Bars are widely lauded for their exceptional strength, wear resistance, ductility and ferrous resistance.
ARS constantly ensures to enhance the progress and well-being of its esteemed stakeholders by introducing products like ARS TMT Bars. ARS has set a benchmark for value creation and revenue generation and proudly established itself as the largest steel plants in South India. To maintain its position as the largest steel plants in South India, ARS keeps on enhancing its technical and operational mechanism.
One of the largest steel plants in Southern India.
Modern and fully automated plant manufactures the best quality TMT Rebars and Mild Steel Billets.
Excellent distribution network spread across South India.
Sophisticated infrastructure facilities for R&D.
Stringent quality control standards to ensure the best quality TMT Rebars and Mild Steel Billets.
Apart from obtaining ISO 9001 & 14001 certifications, the company has burgeoned into one of the largest steel plants in South India. We also rank amongst the top few quality conscious steel manufacturing units in South India. ARS Steel has always stood tall on the customers' expectations and the market standards. The brand is powered by a strong will to innovate and develop, which enables us to establish a distinctive position in the industry. Customisation runs at the core of all our product range and our technology excellence ensures to produce a worth acclaiming offerings for our customers. Our consistent growth and ever increasing capabilities stand testimony to our unstoppable chase for excellence. It is the result of the company's world-class product range and unrivaled technology that it is known as one of the largest steel plants in South India.
CMD of ARS Group, Mr.Ashwani Kumar Bhatia, received the silver award from Honourable Union Minister of Steel, India, Mr.Chaudhary Birender Singh, during the Secondary Steel Sector Awards ceremony for the outstanding contribution to the National Economy in the year 2016-17.


Major League Baseball's Tropicana Field has become the first cashless pro sports stadium in North America.
Concession stands, ticket offices and all other point-of-sale systems will not allow cash at the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
"We have made significant investments each year to improve the ballpark experience for fans, including an overhaul of our approach to food and beverage," Rays Vice President of Strategy & Development William Walsh said in a statement last month. "This change will increase speed of service and reduce lines throughout the ballpark."


We are really feeling spring here on the East Coast. I was recently in DC for work and made a delightful side trip to Wollam Gardens in Jeffersonton, Virginia. The Gardens are just starting to wake up with blooming daffodils, flowering apricot and quince in the fields, and ranunculus, anemone and poppies just starting to show their faces in the greenhouses. We witnessed the budding, showy signs of spring as well as the treasures that are just beyond the usual line of sight. Plural varieties of hellebore. Butterflies long-stuck to a metal grid in a greenhouse. An abandoned bird's nest in the crux of an apricot branch. Chives curling out of the ground. And the buds of viburnum just starting to unfurl on late winter's stem. Even my daughter found an unexpected treasure. The gift of friendship that looms in an unexpected place. Welcome Spring!
14 Mar	This entry was published on March 14, 2012 at 6:35 am. It's filed under An Afternoon at Wollam Gardens and tagged Jeffersonton Virginia, Spring!, Wollam Gardens.	Bookmark the permalink.	Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
Beth, what a beautiful post! The buds of loveliness are such a wonderful visual!
In love with the fine dried curly branches!!


New Shabby Chic rustic style round tables with Grey painted base.
Has several marks ideal vintage look !!
They are specifically designed to utilise a minimum of storage space. The trestles are fold-able and are separate to the table top. The legs of the benches can be folded for easy storage.
Plank Tables, warm oak stained with A frame trestle legs.
6ft x 3ft Ideal for weddings, marquees, tipis, gardens, parties.
All timber is pressure treated new scaffold boards with oak stain.
Purchased from new for over £1500. Buyer to collect.
8ft or 6ft Rustic Trestle Tables made from recycled timber. 8ft comfortably seats up to 10, 6ft up to 8. These are are sturdy table tops with separate folding trestles or can be made with folding legs. Can be left unfinished or finished to specific requirements. We successfully hire these out with our marquees. Require a specific size - please contact me. Benches available separately.
Giant 2.2m Chandeliers for sale - 3 available.
These have that retro feel, twisting 50's with 70's, but that back that is still totally on trend, rectangular curve, very Chelsea Harbour darlings. A mixture of solid wood and fabric, in the right fashionable setting these chairs are going to look totally up-to-date. Now up to you to invite your friends from Made in Chelsea round and serve them a nice caviar sandwich.
Used in my restaurant, Ideal for making your space look much larger.
Looking to find original pine wood trestle tables with folding wooden legs that can be renovated and put back into use, older examples welcome as are 8ft versions.
Not looking for any plywood examples.
Very handsome and well-made splat back chapel chairs from St Michaels and all Angels, Castleford. These came with the extra superstructure underneath the seat which was originally for men to store their hats on. The laquer has worn away on some of the high spots – seat edges and top rail giving a very attractive (and authentic!) distressed effect. Heavy and strong, suitable for commercial and domestic use.


This micellar cleansing water with Rose Petals removes make-up from face and eyes.
A 3-in-1 product, it cleanses, removes make-up and softens. Leaves skin clean, soft and comfortable.
- To gently cleanse the eye area, place a cotton wool pad soaked in micellar cleansing water over each eye for few seconds before gently removing make-up.


text:
Ellen Dreibelbis, Nu'11
"My patient, let's call him Eric, was assigned to me on my first night shift after he was transferred to our unit from intensive care.
I was a brand-new Navy nurse on the wounded warrior floor at a military medical center.
Eric's wife hadn't slept in a horizontal position for days. She vigilantly sat in the chair next to his bed and would tell me if she had any specific concerns or noticed any changes in his status. With this degree of sacrifice and physical and mental struggle, she became just as much of my hero as the wounded sergeant in the bed. In addition, his dad would call me at the nurses' station to ask for updates on him. "Does he know what happened to the other three young men in his squad that were with him?"
Eric was physically and emotionally wounded after eight deployments and six Purple Hearts. This time, he had been shot several times, and his internal injuries required a nasogastric tube to deliver feedings and medications, and he had lost a leg. Eric was always uncomfortable and terribly anxious. He suffered from hallucinations due to the cocktail of opiates required to manage his pain. When he was somewhat awake, all he could really do to communicate was a thumbs up or down. Mostly, he would just stare straight at me with this look of fear and helplessness.
Nursing care for the vulnerable wounded warrior population was equally exhausting and rewarding. As I treated physical and psychological wounds for warriors injured from explosions straight off the battlefield, I addressed the needs of their wives and families and helped them bear their burdens. I needed to learn quickly to develop rapport with my patients, earn their trust, and show understanding in order to help guide them through their often-lengthy recoveries. Many times, the best medicine for my patients wasn't medical. For example, I spent hours facilitating visits and arranging phone calls to comrades still overseas. Probably the most rewarding moments were when my patients, like Eric, would come back to visit us on the ward after enough progress in rehabilitation to be walking on their new prosthetic legs.
I was deeply impacted by the severe problems these brave patients faced, such as chronic pain, infections, and feelings of helplessness from new disabilities. As a nurse practitioner, I hope to be able to provide a higher level of care for complicated patients like those I treated as a Navy nurse several years ago."
Ellen Dreibelbis, Nu'11


Everyone admires top players in a team or a group. However, if an employee is managing less you're your expectation then you may feel bad. Earlier deciding on any action such as training or firing, it's vital to work out the reasons of poor presentation at the workplace.
Poor performance is a stimulating problem for every boss. Analyzing the main reasons of workers' low work presentation are likely to help you get the ideal ways to cope with the issue with the least loss for both sides.
It is likely to clearly realize from our own involvement. In my opinion, most people work just for the living. A desire to work is somewhat bonus for these workers. More qualified for the position or inappropriate for the company philosophy also make your staffs, exclusively new hires, relegate.
Also, the deficiency of inspiration is likely to effect from the organization's strategies. Approvals, rewards and gratitude plans should be always associated with company main standards for the best worker engagement to the mutual goals.
If someone is unable as expected, there is likely to remain something wrong with his/her help or required possessions to accomplish the task. The ability gap is simply linked by mentoring, external or internal working out if the person is newly hired, got endorsed or job revolution.
As a manager, you can speak to low performers regarding their job, along with the mutual purposes, their goals and what they think to have to complete their responsibilities well. Make sure you do not disapprove under-performing staffs, but pay attention to their difficulties with attention to improving a common considerate and belief.
After carrying tools and possessions to these staffs, you should track and think about their development to see if there's a variation on their work efficiency or not to take additional activities.
The leader has a better duty to the team presentation compared anyone else. As a leader, you should comprehend every associate in your team for different dealing approaches. One of the major faults that many executives make is "one size fits all" method.
To Set goals with a worker is important to increase worker presentation which welfares both ends for both worker and company. If the leader is unable to realize their workers' requirements, capabilities, and prospects, the team will be a muddle in its precise sense.
The decent news is most people do not go over personal difficulties frequently. Then the bad news everyone has troubles with personal life. Most of us attempt to make private and professional things disconnected, but the line amongst them may turn out to be unclear someway.
To deal with staffs who are in private problem is not a piece of slab as most people think. As a manager, you must understand them and offer them essential care for sure. Some days break can assist them to reorder their personal survives deprived of impacting the team presentation.
Poor performance is the outcome of the worker or/and company, but it can be solved in most scenarios. To appreciate the fruits from high players, the business should generate and shape some values of responsibility for a longstanding general success.


text:
Report and Statistics
About SOFAZ
Advisor to CEO
Previous management
Rules of Ethical Conduct
Cooperation with international institutions
Beneficiary ownership
International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds
Santiago Principles
About SOFAZ's activities
About SOFAZ's budget
About the state budget
SOFAZ in the news
Why SOFAZ?
While working in SOFAZ
Impressions of the practitioners
Impact Investing Conference
Foreign managers
Quarterly investment results
Recent figures
STATE OIL FUND OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN
What is SOFAZ?
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) is a legal entity and an extra-budgetary institution. SOFAZ is a mechanism whereby energy-related earnings are accumulated and efficiently managed. The cornerstone of the philosophy behind the Fund is to ensure intergenerational equality with regard to benefit from the country's oil wealth, whilst improving the economic well being of the population today and safeguarding the economic security of future generations.
What are the in-flow sources of SOFAZ?
The major sources of income for SOFAZ are:
1. Proceeds generated under production sharing agreements from sales of the Republic of Azerbaijan's share of hydrocarbons,
2. Bonuses paid under the terms of production sharing agreements,
3. Acreage fees paid by foreign investors for use of the contract areas in connection with the development of hydrocarbon resources,
4. Dividends paid under the terms of production sharing agreements,
5. Revenues generated from the transit of oil and gas over the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
6. Revenues generated from the transfer of assets from investors,
7. Revenues from management of SOFAZ assets,
8. Grants and other disinterested aid,
9. Other income.
What are the directions of expenditure made by SOFAZ?
In compliance with regulations relating to SOFAZ, the Fund's assets may be used for solving major problems affecting the nation, and for construction and reconstruction of strategically important infrastructure to support socio-economic progress.
Transfers to the state budget also constitute a significant component of the SOFAZ's outflow. A very small portion of the SOFAZ's assets is utilized to cover operating costs. As per the Law "About Budget System" of the Republic of Azerbaijan, all SOFAZ expenditures, except for operating expenditures, are incorporated as part of an annual consolidated government budget presented to the Parliament for approval. In compliance with this Law, SOFAZ can only execute expenditures envisaged by its budget. Execution of expenditures is through the state treasury.
What kind of projects is funded by SOFAZ?
SOFAZ is funding major projects of national scale. They are:
1) Azerbaijan's equity share in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline project (completed),
2) Building of housing and improvement of socio-economic conditions of refugees and internally displaced persons who were forced to flee their native lands as a result of Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict,
3) Oguz-Qabala-Baku water supply system (completed),
4) Reconstruction of the Samur-Absheron irrigation system (completed),
5) Formation of the statutory capital of the State Investment Company (completed),
6) Financing Baku-Tibilisi-Kars railway (completed),
7) Financing "The state program on the education of Azerbaijan youth abroad in the years 2007-2015.
8) Financing of the share of Azerbaijan Republic in the construction of the STAR oil refinery project in Turkey (completed),
9) Financing the share of the Republic of Azerbaijan in "Southern Gas Corridor" CJSC statutory capital (completed),
10) Financing of the share of Azerbaijan Republic in the construction of new drilling rig in the Caspian Sea (completed),
11) "State Program on Increasing the International Competitiveness of the Higher Education System in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023" .
Can SOFAZ execute extra-budgetary expenditures?
No. According to the rules on the preparation and execution of the annual budget for the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), approved by Presidential decree on September 12, 2001, no expenditures from SOFAZ shall be allowed unless the expenditures are in accordance with the Fund's budget and all SOFAZ expenditures shall be executed in accordance with the purpose for which they were approved.
As per the Law "About Budget System" of the Republic of Azerbaijan, all SOFAZ expenditures, except for operating expenditures, are incorporated as part of an annual consolidated government budget presented to the Parliament for approval. In compliance with this Law, SOFAZ can only execute the expenditures envisaged by its budget. Execution of expenditures is through the state treasury.
Does SOFAZ subordinate to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan?
SOFAZ is a state extra-budgetary fund functioning as a separate legal entity, with its own specialist management team and government supervisory hierarchy. SOFAZ's operation is guided by the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Presidential Decrees and Resolutions, and the SOFAZ's Regulations. SOFAZ is responsible to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Fund is also responsible to its Supervisory Board and Chamber of Accounts established by Milli Majlis (Parliament). Reestablishment and liquidation of SOFAZ is carried out by means of decree by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
How is SOFAZ managed?
The State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), is a legal entity and an extra-budgetary institution.
SOFAZ's activities are overseen by a Supervisory Board. 6 members of the Supervisory Board were appointed in accordance with Presidential Decree dated June 27, 2018. The Board is to review SOFAZ's draft annual budget, annual report and financial statements along with independent auditor's opinion and provide its comments.
SOFAZ is lead by the Executive Director, who is appointed and dismissed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. SOFAZ's Executive Director carries out operational management of the Fund's activities. The Executive Director may appoint and dismisses employees of SOFAZ in a manner as determined by the legislation. The Investment Board, comprising senior officials of SOFAZ, manages all investment related activity in SOFAZ.
Execution of the SOFAZ budget, which has to be duly approved by the appropriate Presidential Decrees, is undertaken in line with a set of asset management guidelines (AMG) and specified expenditures. SOFAZ assets are managed in accordance with AMG approved by the Presidential Decree on "Asset Management Rules (Guidelines) for the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan" # 511 dated June 19, 2001.
Is SOFAZ activity beyond the authority and control of the Parliament?
In accordance with the Law "About Budget System" of the Republic of Azerbaijan, all SOFAZ revenues and expenditures are incorporated as part of an annual consolidated government budget and approved by the Parliament. SOFAZ is audited by the Accounting Chamber, which is under the control of the Parliament and reports directly to the Parliament. Moreover, SOFAZ's activity is controlled by the Supervisory Board comprising governmental representatives and members of Parliament.
Where does SOFAZ invest?
Current asset management guidelines of SOFAZ call for conservative asset allocation. SOFAZ is allowed to invest only in the investment grade instruments. Portion of the investment portfolio is managed by reputable external asset managers. SOFAZ's assets are invested in the foreign government securities, debt issued by foreign governmental agencies, debt issued by financial institutions and banks, equities, real estate and gold.
SOFAZ and Transparency
A key measure to promote transparency within SOFAZ's reporting system and operation is a regular audit of the Fund's financial activities by a reputable firm of international auditors.
Information and press releases, and both quarterly and annual statements, in Azerbaijani and English, about the SOFAZ's revenues and expenditures, investment activities are regularly published in the local press and posted on SOFAZ's web-site ( www.oilfund.az ) to reflect developments in varying areas of SOFAZ's activities, and also to promote transparency in the utilization of revenues from oil.
In development of its media relations, press-conferences are held regularly to provide direct, accurate and professional briefings on SOFAZ's activities and to offer an opportunity for the media to ask questions regarding management of the Oil Fund and its assets.
SOFAZ won the 2007 UN Public Service Award for Improving Transparency, Accountability and Responsiveness in Public Service.
Azerbaijan was awarded with 'EITI Award 2009' in February 2009 in Doha, Qatar for its compliance with EITI principles and criteria, along with achievements in EITI implementation.
What kind of information can be accessed at the SOFAZ website?
SOFAZ's official website is regularly updated. The site contains information on the history, goals, and philosophy of SOFAZ, its management structure, international relations, projects, asset management, as well as regulatory documents related to the activities of SOFAZ. SOFAZ regularly publishes information on its website including, the Fund's expenditures, quarterly reports on revenues and expenditures, information on SOFAZ's budget, annual reports, and presentations on the Fund's activities. The press room on the website includes information on SOFAZ's public relations, information policy, news archive, and materials published in the press about the Fund.
Should you have any questions or comments on our website, please contact: pr@oilfund.az