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The Ems Tip Their Cap to the 100th Anniversary of the Negro Baseball League
This season the Eugene Emeralds were set to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Negro Baseball League at PK Park. This league was known for spotlighting some great sportsmanship. Although the pandemic has stopped the Emeralds season, we will move forward with recognizing some of the great
This season the Eugene Emeralds were set to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the formation of the Negro Baseball League at PK Park. This league was known for spotlighting some great sportsmanship. Although the pandemic has stopped the Emeralds season, we will move forward with recognizing some of the great players who played in the Negro Baseball Leagues.
Baseball had a prominent standing in African American society since the mid to late 1800s. Racist norms of the day prevented teams with black players from joining the Association of Amateur Baseball Players and this segregation was codified in the 1890's by a "gentlemen's agreement" among National League owners. Banned from the major leagues, black athletes and teams barnstormed in the US, competing against anyone who would play them.
In 1920, Andrew "Rube" Foster, the managers of one of these teams and a former pitcher, met with 7 of the owners of similar teams in Kansas City, MO and created the Negro National League, comprised of eight teams from the Northeast and Midwest. This Negro National League is generally recognized as the first of the Negro Leagues, and it provided a spotlight on some of the best baseball players of the era.
From the beginning the league had many hardships. In addition to racism, Jim Crow laws, and tough economic conditions, most teams played in ballparks owned by white teams which were only available when the white team was out of town. Games were sometimes cancelled when a profitable exhibition against a white team became available. Wide disparity in the quality of teams exasperated financial woes and led to a number of team failures which, in turn, led to league failures. Despite the hardships, the decades between 1920 and 1950 always included at least one active league.
World War II led to an improvement in the economic situation of many African Americans, which in turn lead to a great improvement in the leagues. Similar to MLB, many teams lost players to the armed forces, but the leagues continued to put a quality product on the field. Teams became a linchpin for economic development in black communities. Games drew crowds of over 5,000 and black business men and women started to build their businesses around the game of baseball. They saw the chance to offer goods, services and entertainment to the players as they would come through town for games. Cities began to see hotels, restaurants, night clubs, barbershops and barrooms being created to cater to players and their crowds.
The integration of Major League Baseball that started in 1947 with Negro League alumnus Jackie Robinson led to a slow but irreversible gutting of talent of the Negro Leagues. Teams were not able to compete financially and did not want to stand in the way of African Americans playing in the Majors. Quality of play declined and finances suffered. Teams tried to stay relevant by signing white players as well as women, but it wasn't enough and the last one folded in the 1960's.
Many outstanding players started their playing careers in the Negro League and the Eugene Emeralds will be highlighting some of the players over the next week. Be sure to watch the Emeralds Facebook page as we learn more about founder Rube Foster, Josh Gibson, James Bell and Toni Stone. You can also visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum e-museum (http://www.nlbemuseum.com/ to find out more about the League and its players. Please join us as we tip our cap to honor the Negro Leagues in its centennial year.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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but can't remember what the full title is.
on a form with bound controls? Into a Listbox? Report?
Searching with multi-selects and textboxes.
Searching for records using a subform.


Token-as-a-Service ('TaaS'), dubbed the "first-ever" tokenized closed-end fund (CEF) that allows investors to capitalize on the rise of blockchain markets, is to launch a fundraising next month through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The platform on which TaaS is based claims to offer "full transparency' for investors by deploying Cryptographic Audit technology.
Utilizing the Ethereum blockchain and its Cryptographic Audit technology, TaaS was co-founded by Blockchain protagonists Konstantin Pysarenko, Ruslan Gavrilyuk, Dmytro Chupryna and Maksym Muratov.
Together with team members from the United States, China, Poland, South Africa and the Ukraine, fledgling startup TaaS with offices in Kiev and San Francisco intends to offer a "new way" to participate in and benefit from capital raising, fund management and cryptocurrency investing. Its use of the ICO funds raised will be audited by HLB, a worldwide network of independent accounting firms and business advisors.
Pysarenko, TaaS' 26-year old Ukrainian-born American co-founder, commenting said: "Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies have risen exponentially over the last 12 months with little doubt for its ability to disrupt and revolutionize major industries over the coming years."
Having previously co-founded Geo-Earth Resources Ltd in 2011 and more recently Bitup Analytical Group in the crypto asset management space last year, he asserted that the blockchain pioneers believed there is "a unique window of opportunity for early adopters, enthusiasts and professional investors to join this phenomenon."
What Assets Will Be Invested In?
Pysarenko told Forbes that in terms of the scope of investment to be pursued they intend to be "an active player" across blockchain markets, investing in cryptocurrencies and tokens. It is understood that they are interested in investing in "blockchains built by progressive-thinking teams" that solve crucial real-world problems, or are pioneering and stretching the limits of blockchain.
Citing "many barriers" to entry, TaaS aims to "reduce risks and technical barriers" associated with investing in the blockchain space and trading cryptocurrencies.
Indeed, investors interested in exploring blockchain markets face several problems. These sapn technical barriers such as owning and operating wallets, a lack of market understanding (including lack of understanding of blockchain economics), as well as a lack of transparency in existing investment solutions, and, limited investment instruments.
As the first and truly transparent closed-end fund on the market, Pysarenko stated that TaaS offers a solution to all the above cited problems.
Unlike traditional closed-end funds, TaaS will issue tokens, which represent a 'Proof-of-Membership' in a fund that are built on a profit-sharing smart contract - executed by an Ethereum smart contract - where token owners collect 50% of quarterly profits. It is intended that these tokens will in due course to be traded on all major exchanges including Bittrex, Kraken and Poloniex.
In order to grow the fund's capital pool without attracting additional investment, around 25% of the profits will be reinvested back into the fund.
The reasoning here is explained on the basis that as the Net Asset Value (NAV) of a token increases over time. And, TaaS tokens will have their value "explicitly tied" to the performance of its parent project, thereby introducing a 'Token-as-a-Service' business model.
"While smart contracts can guarantee payout distribution, it does not contribute to the problem of transparency of investing in non-Ethereum tokens," explained Pysarenko, who studied at the University of Buckingham. To solve this they have built an in-house Cryptographic Audit technology.
What Is A Cryptographic Audit?
The Cryptographic Audit (CA) is a set of autonomous auditing techniques that tracks, records and timestamps trading activity. The technology was built by TaaS to ensure all profits are properly recorded, the money flow is transparent and the company is in possession of all declared funds from investors. It is said to enable any member of the public to validate trading history and portfolio history.
Proof of Reserves: Preference will be given to using exchanges that have Proof of Solvency implemented; cold storage reserves are able to be audited such with Poloniex and Kraken.
Auditable Exchange Accounts: Where for each account used for trading on exchanges will have a view-only API key that permits anyone to check and verify the balance and trade history of the account.
Proof of Reserves for Non-Exchange Accounts: For all non-exchange accounts (e.g. cold storage address that will be used for their funds) a proof of ownership will provided.
Proof of Reserves for Fiat Accounts: TLSNotary or a similar solution will be used to provide a cryptographic proof of fiat currency in bank and exchange accounts.
Regular Blockchain Snapshots: In order to have proof that no one mismanages data between the audits, a special smart contract will be developed to retain the daily snapshots of audit data.
By incorporating a bonus system for early bird investors, a 25% bonus will be offered for the first 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC) raised with the bonus system decreasing progressively up to the 9,000 BTC mark.
A figure of 2% of the funds collected will be reserved for bounty programs for investors and contributors, who include social media contributions, assistance with translations, beta testing and others. Payments for these bounties will be held upon completion of ICO.
In terms of the venture's roadmap, a 'Q1 payout' is indicated for July 2017. The ICO distribution is broken down as follows: Portfolio (75%); Operations (15%); and, Reserve Fund (10%).
In addition to their fund, TaaS is also building Kepler, which is described as a "first Bloomberg-like" cryptocurrency portfolio management and analytics platform that aims to cover the "entire spectrum" of the investment process.
It understood that Kepler will provide market research, due diligence and order management as well as risk exposure and performance forecasting. Some might view this as an ambitious project for the early startup. A Kepler beta test release is slated and envisaged for later this year in December.
Board members include fund management expert John Wong, a former investment banker at Lehman Brothers with over 25 years' experience taking companies public and managing funds. Joining Wong is Sergey Rabenko, a legal consultant at the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), who has over a decade of experience in advising on legal, M&A and tax issues.
TaaS' upcoming ICO is scheduled to open for investment on March 27 and will run until to April 27, 2017. A whitepaper explaining TaaS' development and plans more fully can be found on their website.


text:
Wonder Woman 1984 mistakes
Cobra Kai mistakes
What's Eating Gilbert Grape ending
The Truman Show questions
Luke Evans movies & TV shows
The Wizard of Oz trivia
Doctor Who mistake picture
Cast Away plot
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
46 continuity mistakes
Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Alan Rickman, Brian Blessed, Christian Slater, Kevin Costner, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael McShane, Morgan Freeman
Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Romance
All mistakes 4 audio problems46 continuity mistakes2 deliberate mistakes9 factual errors2 other mistakes1 plot hole5 revealing mistakes2 visible crew/equipment mistakes Order by popularity Order chronologically Significant dates Titles starting with R
Continuity mistake: When Robin is burying his father, he cuts his hand saying, "I swear it by my own blood" and that he will avenge his fathers murder. We see the blood dripping over his fingers. Suddenly the camera shot changes and Robin's hand has no blood seeping between the fingers.
Continuity mistake: When Robin reaches the cliffs after escaping from prison, he jumps out of the boat and starts kissing the ground. He then reaches out with his right hand for help up, but when the camera switches, he's being lifted by his left.
Continuity mistake: At the start when Azeem is tied up in the prison, at one point when he asks the Christian to free him, his hands are tied at the wrists, then apart tied to the wall, and then back to his wrist all in three quick takes. (00:05:15)
Continuity mistake: When Robin heroically swings across to Fanny and the child in the Sherwood Forest battle scene: He swings straight across, with the rope's focal point fixed between himself and Fanny. Then he gives the rope to Fanny to swing across to John. This time the focal point is between her and John. Someone somehow managed to "move" the rope in order to move the plot along. That was jolly nice of them wasn't it?
Continuity mistake: When Robin reaches his homeland, after he kisses the ground, he rolls over in the water. His coat is covering him, then in the next scene, it isn't, then it is, then it isn't. (00:12:15)
Continuity mistake: When Azeem first blows something up, the Friar is next to him and Will, Robin, John and Bull are seen behind them around the model of the castle. However when it goes to the next shot there's only Will and Robin around the model. John and Bull walk in a few seconds later.
Continuity mistake: When Robin goes to the Church, the camera pans down from an enormously high vaulted ceiling in a vast cathedral. A few moments later, Robin and the Sheriff come running out of the Church and it's a small little stone shack.
Continuity mistake: At the execution scene where Will Scarlet is about to be beheaded, Robin picks up a burning arrow to shoot the executioner. When the arrow is first picked up from a dead body, the flame is half-way up the arrow, but when Robin fires it, the flame is (conveniently) at the arrow's tip.
Continuity mistake: When Robin first goes to visit Marian, he enters the house with a roll on his back (over the shoulder). It's there when he enters and the maid tells him to 'stand right here'. A moment later "Marian" appears, and the roll is gone, it's not on his back, or even in a wide shot showing he took it off. It never appears again.
Jack's Revenge
Continuity mistake: Throughout most of the film, Robin wears brown boots with metal studs around the calf. When he is fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham at the end, he is suddenly wearing greyish boots, with cross-garters. Since you see his brown boots just before he enters the castle - when he kneels down near the dung they're especially visible - it is rather ludicrous that he would suddenly change them, given that he is rushing around trying to save the other outlaws, and then Marian.
Continuity mistake: When Marian and Duncan leave the camp by boat, Marian's lady-in-waiting, Sarah, is nowhere to be seen. Surely she should have left with Marian, as she is with Marian later in the chapel.
Continuity mistake: When Robin and Azeem are approaching Dover Beach, there is shot behind the boat showing only one sailor standing at the stern. In the very next shot, not only is the sailor standing but suddenly so is Robin, at the bow.
Continuity mistake: When Robin is challenged by John Little after attempting to cross the river watch Johns staff. The scene cuts between shots from in front of and behind John. All shots from in front of him show him leaning closely on the staff, all shots from behind show him holding it to side and not leaning on it.
Continuity mistake: When Robin is talking to the Bishop about his Father, they are in a small chamber in the Church. Later on in the film, when the castle is being stormed, Friar Tuck enters this room and throws the Bishop out of the window. Only this time the exact same room is in the castle, not the Church.
Continuity mistake: In the big fight scene in the forest Robin is not wearing his necklace. But when he goes to help save Fanny before he swings across the necklace suddenly is around his neck. (01:39:40 - 01:40:25)
Continuity mistake: Guy of Gisbourne's men come upon two of Robin Hood's men in the forest, trying to pull a log onto the path. The men see their enemies and run away, leaving the log sticking out onto the path. But the log suddenly disappears when Gisbourne's men go after them, and never again reappears.
Continuity mistake: During the hanging scene, when Bull cuts the rope to close the gate, he cuts it and runs so he doesn't get squashed by it, but in the zoomed out shot, he is suddenly on the ground and rolling away. (01:57:20)
Jennifer 1
Continuity mistake: Just before the 'one true weapon' speech, one of the villagers shows Robin what the soldiers did to his son, Will walks toward Robin and pulls his dagger from its scabbard, after Azeem says 'if it's fame you seek.' the camera goes back to Will and he is no longer carrying it. In the behind shots, it can be seen back inside its scabbard. (00:55:00)
Continuity mistake: When Will tells the sheriff he'll have to "respectfully decline" his execution, from one angle his hands are behind him holding onto the gallows, but from another angle they're outstretched.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Will Scarlet goes back to Sherwood after being captured by Nottingham, Little John attacks him calling him a traitor. In one shot the cuts on Will's chest are going one direction in the next shot, they are going another.
More for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Factual error: When Marian is embroidering at home, she is singing to herself "Le chant des oiseaux", which Renaissance composer Clement Janequin didn't write until the 16th century.
More mistakes in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Guy of Gisbourne: Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?
Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!
More quotes from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Trivia: There is a close relation between Sean Connery and Robin Hood. Connery played Robin Hood in the movie "Robin and Marian" in 1976. His son, Jason Connery, played this same character in "Robin of Sherwood," the TV series, in the eighties. And, finally, he had a small part in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" as King Richard.
More trivia for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Question: Who exactly are the masked cult of which the Sheriff is a member, shown at the beginning when he unmasks and demands that Robin's father join them or die? If memory serves, the cult and the Sheriff's affiliation with them isn't referenced again at any point in the film. I know the Sheriff and the Witch are dark magic practitioners, but that was suggested to be a private thing between them in the bowels of the castle.
Purple_Girl
Chosen answer: The masked men weren't part of a cult, they were the Sheriff's soldiers, the same ones that Robin meets when he first returns home. They are just in hoods and masks to appear intimidating while trying to kill the noblemen, like Locksley.
More questions & answers from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Mistake & trivia booksMost popular pagesBest movie mistakesBest mistake picturesBest comedy movie quotesMovies with the most mistakesNew this monthWonder Woman 1984 mistakesThe biggest mistakes in the Harry Potter moviesCobra Kai mistakesWhat's Eating Gilbert Grape endingThe Truman Show questionsLuke Evans movies & TV showsThe Wizard of Oz triviaDoctor Who mistake pictureLife quotesCast Away plotMore for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin and Azeem land at the white cliffs and Robin says something like, 'Tonight we will dine with my father'. Those white cliffs are the Seven Sisters in East Sussex, about 200 miles from Nottingham. It would probably take about two weeks to walk it. They also reach Hadrian's Wall in the next scene, which is 200 miles further north than Nottingham.
Sheriff of Nottigham: That's it then! Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!
There was a series made in the UK (and very popular in many other countries) in the 80's called Robin of Sherwood. One of the characters was a Saracen called Nasir. He was not originally supposed to be one of the regulars, but the actor (Mark Ryan) got on so well with the rest of the cast, the decided not to kill Nasir, but keep him on as one of Robin's men. When Robin Hood Prince of Thieves was in development, a character called Nazeem was written because the writer thought that the Saracen was a traditional part of the legend (along with Little John, Will Scarlet and Marian). The name was changed to Azeem because they found out that the character was unique to Richard Carpenter's Robin of Sherwood. So, thanks to a random piece of casting in the UK in the 80's, we were given Morgan Freeman's Azeem.


When planning a holiday party, consider these ideas and suggestions that Magic Jump Rentals has taken the liberty to prepare for you. There are a number of party ideas to help you organize and enjoy a successful event.
Easter is right around the corner and you want to make sure your Easter celebration is one that will have guests jumping for joy. Send out your invites as soon as possible. Online invites are quickest, but if you want a more personal touch you may decorate card invites with an Easter theme.
As decoration for your party it is important to remember the pastel colors. Stick to these colors for your banners, table covers and paper goods. Baskets of eggs, Easter bunnies, chicks and spring flowers are all fitting symbols of Easter to decorate with.
On the menu you may have traditional Easter foods such as fish, rack of lamb or a roast lamb, and finger foods such as mini egg salad sandwiches or deviled eggs. For refreshments you may have Easter candies and cupcakes or cookies decorated with bunnies and chicks.
As for entertainment, you will definitely need to plan for an Easter egg hunt. Hide plastic eggs full of toys inside and outside the house for kids to find. Make some easier to find for the little ones. You may also play games like egg toss, egg roll or have an egg and spoon race. Having guests bring their favorite dyes for an egg coloring party is also a great idea.
Another great idea for entertainment is inflatable games. Why should the Easter bunny be the only one enjoying a day full of fun-filled hopping around? Any number of bounce houses, combo rides, inflatable slides and interactive games will make for an exciting Easter party.


text:
Q: Slow Post request in React Native I am making a post request in react-native using apisauce, but the request is too slow. The request takes around 1000ms in Postman, but is slower in react-native. How can I optimize this?
My sample response data is like
[
    {
      "email": "abc@gmail.com",
      "id": 2753,
      "phone_number": "",
      "user_name": "New client"
    },
    {
      "email": "cda@gmail.com",
      "id": 2754,
      "phone_number": "",
      "user_name": "New client"
    },
    {
      "email": "dsa@gmail.com",
      "id": 8868,
      "phone_number": "",
      "user_name": "Slow"
    }
  ]

And the program for post request is:

    const setConfigHeader = () =>
        api.setHeader(
          'Authorization',
          getState().login.data.access_token
            ? `Bearer ${getState().login.data.access_token}`
            : null,
        );

    const getAddressBookData = data =>
        api.post(globalConstants.user_address_book, data, setConfigHeader());

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Filed Under: Poet's Corner, Presente!
Sam Hamill, who gave up a wayward life to become an accomplished poet and founder of Copper Canyon Press, a leading nonprofit poetry publisher, and whose impromptu protest before the American invasion of Iraq in 2003 became a cri de coeur for artists nationwide, died on April 14 at his home in Anacortes, Wash. He was 74.
Mr. Hamill was a former Marine-turned-pacifist who beat a heroin habit before helping to found Copper Canyon Press in 1972 with a $500 prize he had won for editing the literary magazine Spectrum at the University of California, Santa Barbara. After buying a printing press, he and three partners — Tree Swenson, Jim Gautney and William O'Daly — set up shop in Denver.
The company released its first book: "Badlands," a collection of verse by Gerald Costanzo, in 1973. The next year, Mr. Hamill and Ms. Swenson moved Copper Canyon to Port Townsend, Wash.
Mr. Hamill served as Copper Canyon's editor for the next three decades, and his refined taste and painstaking translations of Asian poets like Du Fu, Wang Wei and Matsuo Basho helped ensure the company's success.
Copper Canyon has since released hundreds of new books or fresh translations of work by, among others, the Nobel laureates Pablo Neruda, Rabindranath Tagore and Octavio Paz and the Pulitzer Prize winners Carolyn Kizer, Ted Kooser and W. S. Merwin.
Mr. Hamill was a prolific writer himself. He published several books of prose and 17 collections of lyric poetry. His work could be autobiographical and naturalistic, but he believed that verse should engage with the world.
in pain as his body was consumed.
with such horror, but with dignity and conviction.
and never cry and never blink.
for me would never come.
is mine, mine to suffer in its grief.
Mr. Hamill felt obligated to take action when he received an invitation in January 2003 to a White House symposium to be held by the first lady, Laura Bush, on the work of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman. Outraged by the Bush administration's proposed military campaign in Iraq, he sent an email to 50 friends and colleagues rejecting the invitation and asking them to submit protest poems to him.
"The only legitimate response to such a morally bankrupt and unconscionable idea is to reconstitute a Poets Against the War movement like the one organized to speak out against the war in Vietnam," he wrote in the email.
Mr. Hamill's correspondents shared his call to action, and within a few days he received more than 1,500 responses. He built a website to present the poems he received, and the White House eventually canceled the symposium.
Sam Patrick Hamill was born, by his account, in Northern California to an illiterate carnival fry cook. His date of birth is listed in records as May 9, 1943, his daughter said.
As a toddler he was adopted by Samuel Hamill, a poultry farmer, and the former Freeda Empey, a schoolteacher; the couple lived in Holladay, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City.
Mr. Hamill said that his adoptive parents had been abusive and that as a teenager he ran away from home, making it to San Francisco, where he began using heroin.
He met the poet Kenneth Rexroth outside the City Lights bookstore there, and the two became friends. Mr. Rexroth fed Mr. Hamill, helped him give up drugs and taught him about poetry — kindnesses that Mr. Hamill said changed his life.
He joined the Marine Corps before he turned 20 and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where he began studying Zen Buddhism. He became a pacifist, which did not endear him to his commanding officers, and he was honorably discharged in 1965.
In the mid-1960s he married Nancy Harmon, and they moved to Marin County, Calif. They divorced in the late 1960s as Mr. Hamill began studying poetry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he became involved with the civil rights and antiwar movements.
Mr. Hamill married Ms. Swenson soon after they started Copper Canyon. Their marriage ended in divorce in the early 1990s, and a few years later he married Gray Foster, a painter. She died in 2011. His daughter is his only immediate survivor.
Mr. Hamill's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. His last collection, "After Morning Rain," is to be published this year by Tiger Bark Press.
Tomgram: Arnold R. Isaacs, Why Can't the World's Best Military Win Its Wars?


When an electric field is applied to microspheres which are dispersed in a ferroelectric smectic liquid crystal, particle translation along the smectic layer plane, i.e., in a direction nearly perpendicular to that of the director, can be observed. Under certain electric field conditions the translation is shown to be linear in time. We have determined the stability regime of linear particle displacement in the parameter space of amplitude and frequency for various applied wave forms. This regime enlarges for increasing electric field amplitude and frequency, with a threshold behavior observed for small parameters. The upper stability boundary is related to the reciprocal ferroelectric switching time. The microspheres translational velocity is independent of the applied electric field amplitude, but increases linearly with applied frequency. The microsphere velocity also increases with increasing temperature, which is indicative of the respective decrease in liquid crystal viscosity. Possible mechanisms of electric-field-induced particle motion are discussed.


text:
Swaefred was samen met zijn broer Sigeheard heerser van het Koninkrijk Essex van 694 tot 709. In 705 werd zijn neef Offa medeheerser.

Context
Na de dood van koning Swithhelm in 664 werd het Koninkrijk Essex verdeeld onder zijn twee neven, Sighere en Sæbbi. Sæbbi had twee zonen, Sigeheard en Swaefred, Sighere had een zoon, Offa. Sighere stierf in 683 en Offa was nog een kind, eenmaal volwassen regeerde hij mee. Sæbbi was van 683 tot 694 alleenheerser. In 694 trad hij in het klooster, zijn zonen volgden hem op.

Een conflict tussen Sighere en Sæbbi zorgde ervoor dat Essex een vazalstaat werd van het Koninkrijk Mercia. Weinig is er over deze periode gekend, behalve dat de invloed van de kerk groot was. De drie werden opgevolgd door Saelred.

Koning van Essex
Persoon in de 7e eeuw

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Target (TGT) on target, at least today. Investors were prepared for nothing but bad news coming from Target Corp, but the stock is up 2% after beating earnings and sales numbers. The company also guided second quarter in line with indications a turnaround is taking hold. Good news today, but the stock is still down over 20% year to date.
Comey and Trump have the major averages headed to their worst day of the year. The Dow Jones industrial average traded 250 points lower, with Goldman Sachs (GS) contributing the most losses, down nearly 4%. Even the mighty Apple, Amazon and Facebook are trading lower. Not sure all three have fallen in the same day this year.


text:
1911 Schubart este un asteroid din centura principală, descoperit pe 25 octombrie 1973 de Paul Wild.

Legături externe

 1911 Schubart în JPL Small-Body Database
 1911 Schubart în baza de date a Minor Planet Center
 Diagrama orbitei asteroidului 1911 Schubart (JPL)

Obiecte astronomice descoperite în 1973
Centura de asteroizi
Familia Hilda


text:
Visit website Twitter icon < a>@AstraZeneca Cambridge, UK
AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines.
Our Purpose is to push the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines. We believe the best way we can achieve our Purpose is to put science at the centre of everything we do. Science defines who we are. It is why we come to work every day and is part of our DNA. But this is only half of the story. We know that we do not have all the answers. We want to share ideas because we believe it results in better medicines. We want the way we work to be inclusive, open and collaborative. This approach runs through all that we do.
We focus on three main therapy areas – Oncology, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease (CVMD) and Respiratory – and we are also selectively active in the areas of autoimmunity, neuroscience and infection. To put ourselves in the best position to push the boundaries of science, we seek to leverage our combination of capabilities, which encompass both small molecules and biologics, and include immunotherapies and developing innovative delivery devices that can offer choice to patients. These are reinforced by a strong focus on personalised healthcare capabilities, which aim to match medicines only to those patients who will benefit from them. Our teams also work alongside the world's leading academic and biotech research institutions to stimulate innovation and evaluate emerging technologies such as Modified RNA and CRISPR genome editing.
AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. For more information, visit www.astrazeneca.com.
Community Guidelines: bit.ly/2MgAcio
AstraZeneca Jobs


Funding for these programs totals more than $1.7 billion. State allocations were released for SHSGP and EMPG, and local allocations for UASI. Target allocations also were announced for the state set-aside within the NSGP.
Federal assistance for natural disasters comes in many forms, with different eligible funding activities, matching requirements, and funding streams coming into play under varying circumstances. Most funding to state and local governments is provided through the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), generally after the president issues an emergency or major disaster declaration under the Robert T. Stafford Emergency Relief and Disaster Assistance Act (Stafford Act).
This Issue Brief describes major DRF programs for state and local governments and their relevant provisions for states.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Emergency Relief (ER) program supports repair work on federal-aid highways damaged by disasters. In fiscal year (FY) 2019, FHWA has released $706 million in ER funds to 34 states.
This Issue Brief provides a summary of the ER program, and state-level funding since FY 2012.
Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released preliminary state personal income data for 2018. The federal government uses state per capita income to calculate each state's federal reimbursement rate—the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)—for Medicaid and certain other grant programs. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) uses an enhanced FMAP, which is higher than the Medicaid matching rate.
The BEA release facilitates projections of fiscal year (FY) 2021 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years (CYs) 2016-2018. FFIS's projections show that FMAPs will increase in 28 states and decline in 11. However, these projections are based on preliminary data, and subsequent adjustments can have a large impact on final FMAPs. All states will see significant reductions in their enhanced FMAPs because FY 2021 marks the full phase-out of the 23 percentage-point increase under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Department of the Treasury has published a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) soliciting applications from state and local governments for Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act Demonstration Projects. The grant program, which was created in 2018 by the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA), reimagines the prevailing structure of federal grants by providing funding to grantees only upon the successful completion of projects that meet target outcomes, as determined by an independent evaluator. This Issue Brief provides background on Social Impact Partnerships and information on the funding announcement.
Because of the recent partial government shutdown, the rule was not published in the Federal Register until February 1; comments will be accepted through April 2, 2019. This Issue Brief summarizes the proposed rule, and reviews work and eligibility requirements under current law.
Preliminary FY 2019 allotments total $12.6 billion, $295 million (2.4%) more than FY 2018. Initially, states expected to see significant reductions in DSH payments under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) beginning in FY 2014. These cuts have been delayed multiple times, most recently until FY 2020.
In fiscal year (FY) 2019, Congress provided a $20 million set-aside within Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) to support kinship navigator programs. These programs link relative caregivers to services and supports that help to meet their needs as well as the needs of children they are raising. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) recently released guidance and estimated state allotments. States must apply by March 15.
The president has signed into law both the First Step Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-391) and the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-385). Title V of the First Step Act reauthorizes the Second Chance Act through fiscal year (FY) 2023 and authorizes $95 million in competitive grants for state and local offender reentry programs. The Juvenile Justice Reform Act amends existing juvenile justice programs and repeals the Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Block Grant.
This Issue Brief summarizes provisions of both bills that affect state grant programs.
This brief provides details on changes to existing grants and newly authorized programs included in the laws.
This Issue Brief examines the law, focusing on the nutrition, rural development, and research titles, which cover most state grant programs—and in particular on SNAP, which accounts for the majority of outlays for programs funded under this and previous farm bills.
The U.S. Census Bureau released state resident population estimates for July 2018 and revised data for prior years. The new data identify population shifts and affect certain formulas.
The U.S. population continues to grow at historically low rates. Not only was this year's increase of 0.62% the lowest in recent years, but last year's estimate was also revised downward. Nevada and Idaho were the fastest-growing states, with growth greater than 2%. Nine states and Puerto Rico registered population declines.
This Issue Brief summarizes the new population estimates and calculates their effect on calendar year (CY) 2019 tax-exempt private activity bond limitations and fiscal year (FY) 2020 Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) allocations.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released allotment percentages for Child Welfare Services for fiscal years (FYs) 2020-2021. The percentages are calculated using per capita personal income and are one of the factors used to distribute Child Welfare Services state grants.
This Issue Brief provides the new allotment percentages and calculates their impact on Child Welfare Services state allocations.
Congress provided almost $4 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2018 to address the opioid crisis. Funding is widespread, but primarily in the departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Justice (DOJ). This Issue Brief provides an overview of grant funding to states, including funds awarded to date.
It is accompanied by a spreadsheet that provides awards by state for each program.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released $3.65 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2019 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant funds. Of the total appropriated, $36.9 million has not been allocated to states. It is uncertain whether this amount will be released later or if the secretary of HHS is transferring it to other accounts.
This Issue Brief focuses on grant provisions in the agreement, highlighting new programs, changes to existing ones, and Medicaid reforms.
America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) of 2018 (S. 3021) has passed the House and Senate, and now heads to the president for approval. The legislation authorizes new Army Corps of Engineers projects, creates grant programs, modifies the Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund (DWSRF), amends provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA), and reauthorizes Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loans. This Issue Brief highlights provisions of interest to states.
The fiscal year ended on September 30, 2018, without an extension or reauthorization of the Agriculture Act of 2014, also known as the farm bill—a recurring package of reauthorizations that govern most of the nation's agriculture and nutrition policy. The largest and most important farm bill programs will continue to operate based on appropriated funding, but some programs may see a lapse in funding due to the farm bill's expiration.
This Issue Brief discusses the various ways in which farm bill programs may or may not be affected by the bill's expiration.
Yesterday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released revised state personal income data for 2017 and prior years. The federal government uses state per capita income to calculate each state's federal reimbursement rate—the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)—for Medicaid and certain other grant programs. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) uses an enhanced FMAP, which is higher than the Medicaid matching rate.
The BEA release facilitates calculation of the final fiscal year (FY) 2020 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years (CY) 2015-2017.
This Issue Brief summarizes the BEA data and provides FFIS's estimates of the final FY 2020 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs. FFIS estimates that FMAPs will increase in 19 states and decline in 17, ranging from a +3.64 percentage-point increase in Oklahoma to a -1.52 percentage-point decline in Utah. Comprehensive revisions to the BEA personal income data affected results in some states.
Among the major congressional priorities this year, passing a new farm bill—a recurring package of agriculture and nutrition reauthorizations—is one of the most important items that might still be accomplished before the end of the legislative session. The House and Senate have each passed separate proposals, and have begun negotiations to reconcile their proposals in conference. However, there are significant differences between the two bills.
This Issue Brief compares the House and Senate proposals, focusing on provisions of interest to states.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced $552.8 million in payments to counties under the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program for fiscal year (FY) 2018. These payments compensate local governments—usually counties—for property tax revenue that would otherwise be collected on non-taxable land owned by the federal government.
The FY 2018 PILT payments are the largest amount ever allocated, and represent a 19% increase compared to FY 2017. This Issue Brief provides background on PILT and details on the FY 2018 payments.
The preliminary FY 2018 DSH allotments are $288 million (2.4%) more than FY 2017. Initially, states had expected to see significant reductions in DSH payments under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) beginning in FY 2014. These cuts have been delayed multiple times, most recently until FY 2020.
The White House has released Delivering Government Solutions in the 21st Century, a proposal to reorganize the federal government. Some of its components are narrow in scope and seek to streamline processes, while others call for privatizing, restructuring, eliminating, or merging entire agencies.
This Issue Brief summarizes components of the proposal that would have the biggest impact on states. Table 1 contains a full list of the proposals.
Addressing the opioid crisis is a major item on the congressional agenda. The full House and four Senate committees have approved multiple bipartisan opioid-related bills, with additional action expected in the coming months. The bills cover a wide range of issues, including expanding access to services through Medicare and Medicaid, improving drug safety, strengthening law enforcement, and enhancing prevention and treatment efforts.
This Issue Brief focuses on the grant provisions in the bills, highlighting new programs, changes to existing ones, and Medicaid reforms. Within these areas, there are some similarities between the House and Senate, but many differences remain.
When Congress enacted the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act in 2015, it created a new, competitive grant program for major freight projects funded at $4.5 billion over five years, called the Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (NSFHP) program.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) later rebranded the program as the Fostering Advancements in Shipping and Transportation for the Long-term Achievement of National Efficiencies (FASTLANE), for the fiscal year (FY) 2016 round of awards. Then, in July 2017, it rebranded the program again, as the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program, significantly altering the program's goals and selection criteria.
DOT recently announced more than $1.5 billion in INFRA grant awards for projects in 23 states, awarding all FY 2018 funding, as well as $710 million from FY 2017. This Issue Brief provides details on INFRA and the recent awards.
The National Farmworker Jobs Program (NFJP) provides grants to state agencies and community organizations to counter chronic unemployment among migrant and seasonal farmworkers. The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) allocates funds using a regulatory formula based on state shares of eligible participants. On May 23, ETA published a notice in the Federal Register proposing significant changes to the NFJP formula, and announcing estimated allocations for program year (PY) 2018. This Issue Brief provides details on the formula change.
ETA also recently published PY 2018 allocations for other major workforce programs, and revised its NFJP allocations for PY 2017. These funding announcements are reported in this brief as well.
Funding for these programs totals more than $1.6 billion. State allocations were released for SHSGP and EMPG, and local allocations for UASI. In addition, target allocations were announced for a new $10 million state set-aside within the NSGP.
The omnibus spending bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018 included several titles unrelated to FY 2018 appropriations. Among them was a two-year reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools (SRS) Act, which provides increased revenue-sharing payments to states from timber sales on federal lands. The reauthorization is retroactive to FY 2017 and expires after FY 2018.
On May 8, the Forest Service announced the payments to states for FY 2017 (paid in FY 2018).
This Issue Brief provides background on SRS reauthorization issues, and compares payments for FY 2017 with those for recent years.
The omnibus spending bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018 appropriated $2.525 billion in supplemental funding for federal-aid highways, as part of a bipartisan agreement to provide at least $20 billion in additional infrastructure spending over two years. On April 25, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) apportioned $1.98 billion of these funds to states.
This Issue Brief provides details on the supplemental highway appropriation, and compares state apportionments of this funding to apportionments of highway contract authority for the year.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the fiscal year (FY) 2018 allocations under the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), which include three funding streams—discretionary, mandatory, and matching. The discretionary portion, the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), received an 83% increase in funding in FY 2018.
The House has passed a comprehensive reauthorization of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs, through fiscal year (FY) 2023. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 4) extends tax and spending authority of the Airport and Airways Trust Fund, reauthorizes the Airport Improvement Program (AIP), and reforms aviation policy.
The bill also includes the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA), which would reform federal disaster programs to improve pre-disaster planning and mitigation.
This Issue Brief highlights provisions of interest to states in H.R. 4.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released the final $609 million of fiscal year (FY) 2018 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) block grant funds. States received an initial release of $3 billion last October. While LIHEAP funding increased 7.4% in FY 2018, state allocations varied from -2.7% in Hawaii to +28.7% in five states—Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the release of $485 million in second-year Opioid State Targeted Response Grants (Opioid STR). A forthcoming funding opportunity announcement will be issued shortly for an additional $1 billion provided in the fiscal year (FY) 2018 omnibus appropriations.
Funding for Opioid STR is authorized for two years (through FY 2018). However, legislation is being considered to reauthorize the program through FY 2021.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the parameters that will guide calendar year (CY) 2019 individual and state costs for the Medicare Part D drug benefit. CMS projects a 3.96% increase in per capita Part D expenditures. After accounting for prior-year downward revisions, the annual percentage increase is 1.94%. Based on the release, FFIS estimates that CY 2019 clawbacks will cost states $11.7 billion, a 1.7% ($194 million) increase from CY 2018.
A grant program that was created in response to the contentious presidential election of 2000—and concerns that state election systems were badly in need of updating—has been resurrected in the wake of new concerns about potential foreign intervention in U.S. elections. Specifically, the recently signed omnibus appropriations act for fiscal year (FY) 2018 (P.L. 115-141) provided $380 million for Election Security Funds, as authorized by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA; P.L. 107-252). This brief summarizes the election assistance program and lists state awards.
On March 22, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released preliminary state personal income and per capita data for 2017. The federal government uses state per capita income to calculate each state's federal reimbursement rate—the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)—for Medicaid and certain other grant programs. The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) uses an enhanced FMAP, which is higher than the Medicaid matching rate.
The BEA release facilitates projections of fiscal year (FY) 2020 FMAPs and enhanced FMAPs, which are based on per capita incomes for calendar years (CY) 2015-2017. FFIS estimates that FMAPs will increase in 16 states and decline in 20 states. However, these projections are based on preliminary data, and subsequent adjustments can have a large impact on final FMAPs.
On March 9, the Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded nearly $500 million in competitive grants to state departments of transportation, local governments, and other organizations under the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program for fiscal year (FY) 2017. DOT has awarded more than $5 billion in TIGER grants since the program's creation in 2009, but the program has been targeted for elimination, both in the president's budget request and in an omnibus spending package passed by the House last year.
This Issue Brief provides background on TIGER grants and details on the latest awards.
Yesterday, the House passed the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act (H.R. 4909). The bill amends and reauthorizes the Secure Our Schools (SOS) grant program, which has not received funding since fiscal year (FY) 2011. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate last week.
This Issue Brief describes proposed House and Senate amendments to the SOS program.
As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (P.L. 115-97), enacted on December 22, 2017, Congress created a new program to incentivize long-term private investment in low-income communities (LICs). Under the Opportunity Zones program, investors receive tax incentives for qualifying investments in low-income census tracts nominated for inclusion in the program by governors.
This Issue Brief describes the Opportunity Zones program and how states can nominate Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) before the March 21 deadline.
On February 24, the Department of the Interior awarded $300.7 million in mandatory fiscal year (FY) 2018 Abandoned Mine Land (AML) reclamation grants to 25 states and three tribes, an increase of nearly $120 million compared to last year. AML funding helps states eliminate dangerous conditions and pollution caused by abandoned coal mines.
This Issue Brief provides background on AML grants and a breakdown of recent funding distributions.
On February 12, 2018, the White House released its long-awaited infrastructure proposal, entitled a Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America. The document is a policy proposal only, and contains no legislative text or executive actions. However, infrastructure reform is expected to be a priority for Congress in the coming year, and the administration's proposal may serve as a framework. The proposal also recommends changes to major workforce and training programs.
This Issue Brief summarizes the proposal, focusing on new grant programs, new sources of federal funding, and other provisions of interest to states.
On January 18, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule establishing four new Superfund sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), as well as a proposed rule identifying 10 additional sites. The EPA also updated its Superfund Redevelopment List, which highlights 31 Superfund sites from the NPL with the highest commercial and redevelopment potential. The EPA has suggested there will be refocused effort on cleaning up Superfund sites throughout the country.
This Issue Brief describes the Superfund program and the separate-but-related Brownfields state grant programs.
In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the federal government began phasing out the income-eligibility requirements for IV-E Adoption Assistance. As a result, more children have become eligible for the federal program—which is paid for by federal and state funds—rather than state-funded programs. States are required to spend any savings from this federal expansion on child welfare services. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) released details on the FY 2016 adoption savings, which totaled $110 million.
The eligibility expansion was fully implemented at the beginning of FY 2018. However, the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) of 2018 (P.L. 115-123) delayed the full expansion until July 1, 2024, as an offset to child welfare financing reforms in the agreement.
On January 22, Politico published a leaked document outlining the administration's plan to spur investment in the nation's infrastructure. While the document is unofficial, it provides a relatively detailed preview of a major infrastructure plan the administration is expected to announce on or about January 30.
This Issue Brief summarizes its provisions.


text:
> Teaching Reading
> Expert Interviews
A video interview with
Sylvia Diehl, Ph.D.
President, Knowledge Counts; Professor, University of South Florida
Dr. Sylvia Diehl is a nationally known expert in teaching children with autism. She has a master's degree in speech language pathology; an educational specialist degree in language, learning, and reading; and a Ph.D. in education curriculum and design, with a focus on autism (all from the University of South Florida).
Dr. Diehl is retired from the University of South Florida, where she taught courses in autism and augmentative and alternative communication. She has years of experience in public schools, universities, and clinical settings. She consults for school systems and conducts workshops nationally and internationally. Dr. Diehl has authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and continuing education classes for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and Medbridge Education.
Dr. Diehl is the founder of Knowledge Counts, an online school for parents and families of children with autism.
See Dr. Diehl's presentation on reading comprehension in children with autism, Reading It and Meaning It. The presentation was made at the 18th Annual Autism Conference (October 2018), sponsored by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD).
Meet Sylvia Diehl, autism expert
My name is Sylvia Diehl. I worked for over 30 years at the University of South Florida teaching courses in autism and augmentative and alternative communication. And after I retired, I decided that I really wanted to focus on educating parents in evidence-based practices. And so I'm really focusing on teaching them what I taught my graduate students all those years. So that's my present passion at this moment. Part of that is reading, because we know that reading comprehension is an area of need for children with autism.
Executive functioning and reading comprehension
I'd first like to start off by talking about executive functioning. We know that executive functioning impacts children with autism in all kinds of ways, particularly in reading comprehension. We also know though it's not specific to children with autism, so children with ADHD struggle with executive functioning and children with traumatic brain injury suffer with delays in that area. When we talk about reading however, executive functioning really comes into mind, because what we know about good readers is — what do they do? They check themselves. They go, "Oh, did I understand that?
That kind of repair and reflection is part of executive functioning and that's very difficult for them. Another part of executive functioning is flexibility. And so the ability of being able to attack something flexibly is very difficult. So somebody might be reading, and it may go off in a different way and it throws them something within a reading passage may remind them — may have "pounce" on it — and remind them of The Lion King. And so then they've gone to The Lion King and they have difficulty bringing themselves back. As you can see as I'm going through, executive functioning is a really broad term that encompasses a lot of things. In fact people call it the CEO of the brain. Other things it involves are the working memory. If I have to hold things in my memory — so for instance if I said, "say 'horse, chicken, dog,'" and then, "horse, chicken, dog."
That's no problem. But then if I say, "Okay, say those three words in alphabetical order," I have to hold that in my memory and then be able to put "chicken, dog, horse," in the right order. So that ability to hold something in the short-term memory is sometimes difficult for children with autism, although if they've put it in their memory — their long-term memory is wonderful, and they are the proverbial elephant. They just never forget. Many times those kinds of things — being able to follow through on a project — which really involves, you know, homework, science projects, all of those kinds of things — in what order — how do I get started? All of those things really involve executive functioning issues.
Theory of mind in children with autism
The next of the core characteristics that I'd like to address is theory of mind. Theory of mind is being able to take someone else's perspective. Do I think I know what you're thinking? You know, and then later on, do I think I know what you think about someone else? And when we talk about theory of mind we don't just talk about feelings.
We also talk about words like knowing and remembering and thinking, and understanding, "How do I think? What is my opinion?" as well as, "How do you think, and what is your opinion?" We have those two things on the cognitive level, and then on an affective level we have, how does someone feel when they fell down and skinned their knee? Or how do I feel?
Many times when I'm with children and they'll have fallen down and they have a skinned knee and it's obvious they feel awful. And I'll say, "How do you feel?" And they'll say "Happy," because they want to give you the answer that they'd like and they're not as in touch with their feelings at that point. So we spend a great deal of time trying to get them to understand not only how they feel but how others feel, and get what they know and what other people would know.
When we think about it in terms of reading comprehension, the impact is just huge. If you have a narrative story, especially if they have multiple characters, well, why did Anne want to get to the top of the hill? And why did Joe want to get to the top of the hill? Why did they have that argument? Did they feel proud of each other when they were done? All that kind of character perspective and their own background and what their motive is comes into it. And it's all pretend, so someone has to, "It's not real," which may be difficult for children with autism. The reader has to say, "Oh, this is a pretend story about Polly, but this is what Polly is thinking." A lot of times when we're dealing with theory of mind we have to really talk about the difference between someone speaking and someone thinking and what they might be thinking.
What might be their motive behind those things? And that's very difficult for children with autism.
I think in anything, especially when you're talking about people's emotions and how other people feel, that connection is so important. That's one of the reasons why it's very important that we use evidence-based strategies like activating schemas. You know, you have to start with a child with autism where they are, what their functional experience is.
What have they done, what do they know? And bring those in, so they can organize their brain and say, "Oh, I understand. That's like when I did" — whatever. And that brings their learning in and organizes their learning so it makes sense.
Understanding multiple perspectives in complex text
When we're talking about higher-level expectations in school, which in high school would be debate, compare and contrast, and those kind of higher-level arguments where you have to take multiple perspectives, that makes expository language much more difficult for children with autism.
In the beginning, expository language may be their strength because there's a paragraph about China — where China is, how many people are in China, what they like to eat, and all those facts very easy for them. Getting the big global part may not. Main topic may be difficult, so you could say, "Oh, what's the main topic?"
And they might say, "Star Wars," because that's what they'd like to talk about. But as we go along, expositories get harder and harder and harder because we expect to know that this person thinks China is a player in the world's — in the world financial markets, and this person says "Absolutely not, we don't need China, we should pull up the United States a little bit more." same topic, but people — this person with this mind thinks this way, and this person with another mind thinks another way, is very difficult. They're trying to accept people that have two different minds in battling opinions, and that's sometimes very difficult for them.
Seeing the bigger picture
The last cognitive characteristic I'd like to talk about is central coherence. Central coherence is simply the ability to take clues that you find and form a higher meaning. So there's a trunk, there's some twigs, there's a branch, there's some leaves — "Oh, it must be a tree."
Children with autism may look at that leaf and see every vein on that leaf much, much more in depth than we may ever see, but seeing where that leaf fits in the whole tree may be difficult for them. Now there is a little controversy about central coherence. Some people believe that children with autism have central coherence, but you have to tell them to use it.
For instance, if I gave you a worksheet with words that sound the same but mean differently according to context — if I say, "Okay, just fill in the right word in the sentence," they may not do as well than if I say, "I'd like to look — you to look at the sentences very carefully, and from what the sentence says pick out the right word that goes in that sentence."
So sometimes they have a lot of knowledge and a lot of abilities, but they aren't really sure when to use those knowledge and abilities. As it looks on the surface, without going deeper, children with autism have a terrible time with main topic, with summarization where you have to take out those important details, leave those unimportant details alone, all of those things that make you form a bigger whole. Because from their perspective they're usually only seeing those little parts of things rather than the big picture.
Adapting teaching strategies for students with ASD
One of the things I feel very strongly about is that as much as possible children with autism should be educated and have access to the general education curriculum. But because their learning style is sometimes not conducive to the learning style of the typical classroom, I find that if we can use the evidence-based practice that works with all the other children and just tweak it a little bit — so it works for children with autism, that makes that more possible and it makes the teacher be able to incorporate that child into the classroom.
Primarily we have a few things that are — literature that is specific to children with autism like anaphoric reference, some graphic organizer work, some grouping kinds of things and shared storybook reading — but for the most part what we do is take the evidence-based strategies that we know of and make them more visual to help the child with autism really understand the focus of the evidence-based strategy that we're working on, or to make the social communication part of the comprehension easier for that child to understand.
A lot of times I use thought bubbles for instance, so, "Here's Mr. Smith, he thinks that the penny has had its day and it should go away, right? And here's Mr. Robert, he thinks the penny is very, very important." I'm showing these two people who are kind of arguing with each other, and they both have a different thought bubble. Well then, I've made those two different perspectives visual for that child with autism, and they can understand the premise of what's being asked of them.
Adapting the summarizing strategy for students with ASD
The next strategy I'd really like to address is summarizing, because we know summarizing is kind of the gold star of knowing that you comprehended something. You took something you read and you put it in your own words. That means I have to choose what's important in that article. I have to choose what supports those arguments in that article and what really doesn't belong in that article.
When I'm first starting, I try to make the differences really very wide. I might take a short story and clip them — the sentences — and then put a few sentences of their narrowed and restricted interest such as Star Wars, Chewbacca, something like that in there. And I have three boxes. One says, "main, important facts of the story." One says, "supporting details." And one says, "unimportant." So I'm going to have them sort which ones of those stories are there. So they start to develop that pathway and that organization of their brain that as they're reading, "Oh no, I don't need that."
That also follows over in math kinds of word problems — where people may put excessive sentences in a word problem, and even though Bobby has 17 cents I don't need that Bobby has 17 cents in that word problem.
These kinds of reading comprehension issues not only impact their reading scores but also impact their math scores, because typically children with autism do very well on the computation end of things — but the minute the language starts coming in it's a problem, because you have to use those little words, all together, you know, things that are not visually seen.
The power of semantic mapping
I'd really love to talk about semantic mapping which is one of my very favorite interventions. One, it really activates someone's schema. So we have the topic in the middle, so say the topic in the middle is China. Then as children add things, you know, "It's in Asia, it has many people," things like that, we add circles.
And it shows how various things are connected to each other very visually. And then if a child with autism comes off with, "But Chewbacca has big furry hair and he's six foot three," it's a way I can put the circle not connected to the China discussion, and show them that that topic is not appropriate at this time.
And it also helps them when they're organizing their writing. So I take it and I put the circle over here where it's not connected, and let them know that even though this is China talking time, at the end may — perhaps we could have two minutes of talking about Chewbacca.
Inference strategies for students with autism
Inference is something that is throughout every story that we read. Even through expository stories we have to make these jumps, and because it's not a direct kind of language, you know autism is a disorder of functional connectivity. So if I was to look at your brain, your whole brain would be lit up because your visual cortex would be reading the words — your language centers would be taking care of all that, and then any kinds of memories that that story brings up in you is also really lit. So you're on fire when you're reading. However, for children with autism you see a more direct kind of thing.
You see a lot of activity in that visual cortex and maybe a little bit in the language centers but much less in the environmental, kind of situational things that show those connections. So when it comes to inference we're not talking about very literal, very straightforward language. We're talking about getting information from a story and making predictions, or making assumptions on what we've read — but it's not directly there, you know. It's not, "William has a red sweater," it's like, "William looked outside and the skies were gray. He had a baseball game. I wonder what he's going to do." And you have to infer that that's rainy.
One of the things we do intervention-wise, because children can infer when things are presented verbally and have a much more difficult time when things are presented auditorily — we start, separate from the story, where they are.
Perhaps we have a baby with shampoo in their hair and they're crying and that kind of stuff. And we look, "What do we know, from just looking at the picture?" "Oh, the baby is crying, the baby has soap on its hair." And then, "What do we know from our head? What do we know just from our head, not what we saw in the picture?"
"Oh, soap can sometimes get in your eyes, and soap can make you cry because it stings." And so, "Then what's our inference?" "The baby may be crying because the soap is stinging their eyes." You give them an idea to do that on just a visual basis with a picture, and then you pull it to your text comprehension — so they can do that same order in what they're reading and see they can take part, which is similar to a question where part comes from the story and part comes from their head. They can take those and put them together and make an inference.
What do you already know?
It's very difficult for children sometimes to recognize their own knowledge. It may be specific to a person, it may be specific to an environment, it may be specific even to a story. So I always tell students, you know, you're not done unless everything you're doing is applied across materials, people, and settings.
When we're doing these kinds of things it activates what they already know, and that's important, and we need to cement that with them. "Oh look what you already know! This is already in your head. Here's my thought bubble. It's not so full." You know, "Look, you know much more about fish than I do." So they get that kind of theory of mind that goes back and forth.
Understanding character perspective
Another area of particular difficulty is character perspective. When we're understanding character perspective we have to be able to say, "Here's this pretend character Polly, and she's been raised by her grandmother, and she knows a lot about sewing and she knows a lot about playing with dolls, and here's this other character Dick who, you know, knows a lot about playing soccer." There's not much in between there.
Both of their approaches to this problem are very different. One of the things I do, again, is to use thought bubbles to show the difference between what someone is thinking and what someone isn't thinking. For instance, if you play 20 Questions with a child with autism, typically if they have a bag of things and they're supposed to give you hints, you'll say, "Is it yellow?" And they'll go, "Yes! It's a comb." Right? It's very difficult for them to keep a secret where your mind knows it doesn't know it and my mind does. So we spend a lot of time in those areas so they can understand just the pure fact that your mind might know something that my mind doesn't.
Family storybooks
What I start really early on is to make storybooks about their family. This is the Dickinsons' TV book, so-and-so likes — this is their favorite TV, Dick likes — this is their favorite TV, Daniel Tiger is this person's favorite TV — and then we do colors of people's shirts and different kinds of categories.
And then when things come up we might say, "You know, Mom's birthday is coming up and she really wants a blouse. What color do you think the blouse could be?" And I'll hand them mother's book, and he can go through and go, "Oh, her favorite color is blue. I think we should buy her a blue blouse." You know, that kind of application starts getting theory of mind directly into their lives.
Teaching comprehension and social communication together
When we're teaching reading, because there's such little time to talk about social communication as well as some of the comprehension issues and they dovetail together so well, it's a perfect time to teach social communication along with teaching reading comprehension.
I try to choose texts that highlight those things that may be difficult for the child at that particular time and then — also add times for them to make predictions, time for them to make inferences, time for them to look at anaphoric reference, which is those nonspecific rules that sometimes they have difficulty with.
For instance, I had a young man who was just learning how to lie, and most children with autism don't lie very well. And so whereas we've been lying since we were two or three and by the time we're in adolescence we're pretty good at it, they're just kind of starting out.
This young man was using a scale that was addressing his own behavior, and being able to tell the teacher when he really just needed a break before he had a big blowup. So the scale was from one to five, and so four would be, you know, "I'm a little shaky," and five would be, "Leave me alone, I just need to calm down." Well, at first he was really excited about it, it was working really well.
As he learned to start lying he realized that if he said a four or a five, he could get out of work. And so we were kind of excited, because that meant — if you're lying, that means I can fool your mind into thinking of something else. So that's growth, that's wonderful growth. However, his teachers were not so fond.
So I chose a parable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, to show the effects of lying. And he learned how to kind of predict what was going to happen, but at the same time learned some social rules about the fact that if you lie all time people aren't going to help you.
I try and choose those kinds of texts that will allow me to create many kinds of directions to hit both social communication goals and reading comprehension goals.
Teaching anaphoric reference improves comprehension
One of my other strategies, and one that is certainly literature-based — O'Connor and Klein did a wonderful study in 2004 that showed that if you support anaphoric reference, children have better reading comprehension. Well, what is anaphoric reference? It is simply referring to something in a non-specific way.
"William had a red shirt, he really loved it," so William's responding — is the referent for "he." And many times our children, because these are not definite specified words, don't get the idea that "he" refers back to "William." For that reason their reading comprehension might be great at a two-sentence level, but if you go through in longer and longer things, they can't keep creating that memory because they're not following through who exactly is "he" over here, who exactly is "they" over there, what's this, what's that, what's anything.
Those kinds of non-specific words are very difficult. One thing that O'Connor and Klein did was as you were reading, they would take a little laminated index card and write three words and say, "Okay well, here's 'he,' who is 'he' in this story?" and have them circle all along so they're keeping that continuum.
Another thing that I do that I really like is to use tape that goes on the book — invisible tape that goes on the book, but doesn't hurt the book. And I can use it color-coded so the "he's" are all blue and the "she's" are all pink and the objects are all green, so they can see how it goes throughout, and entertain the fact that this is an integrated story rather than sentence by sentence by sentence.
And truthfully, in research terms that's one of the most powerful studies that we have — that we know that teaching anaphoric reference will increase children's reading comprehension.
Shared read-alouds for students with autism
Another thing that I think is really important in the literature right now is shared read-alouds. It's always been shown that shared reading aloud is fabulous for children when they're learning how to read, and recent studies have shown it also is fabulous for children with autism.
And recent studies have shown that it's fabulous for even older children. However, sustained silent reading — where they're just reading by themselves doesn't help. So it needs to be guided discussion that really talks to them about what's going on in it and being able to have discussions and writing down what's going on. And I think that is so rich and helpful.
It also is a perfect time to start getting them to talk with other children about what they've read and discuss what their opinion is according to others.
I love that time because it's so supporting and they learn the text so well that they're able to start forming opinions. It's one of my favorites.
The benefits of family shared read-alouds
I love shared read-alouds, because it's such a perfect thing for children and parents and such a special time and a great time to, you know, kind of take it all down just a little bit before they go to bed, and I think that's a wonderful sharing time. Teaching them how to support making predictions to teaching them how to support really listening to the words and looking at the pictures and making sense of a story by asking good questions.
A lot of times, we parent how we were parented. Some help with what kinds of questions make your child think, or not too many questions — if you ask a question every single minute or five or six questions a page, that child's going to forget what the story is about, right? So those kinds of things make that time so much richer for the parent and for the child and really helps them.
In fact they even did a study that combines attention with the shared storybook reading with their parents aloud. And because children don't always pick out what's the most important — children with autism don't — they looked at whether if they read the story that was going to be read the next day, whether there was more attention than if they read a different story than was going to be read the next day.
And they found if they read the story that was going to be read the next day it primed that children's mind to know what to pay attention to, and they focused on it and they were able to answer questions and really be part of the classroom discussion. So I think that's wonderful and a way that parents can really help.
The strengths of students with autism
When we look at what do children with autism bring to the table? Well one, they love visuals. So the fact that they love visuals make it such fertile ground for us to teach them to read. So immediately I start to make symbols make sense to them by using either real objects — miniature objects — or line drawings or real photographs, so they start seeing that symbolization. And then that makes them excited because those are visual and that's exciting to them.
Many children — but not all — learn to decode quite early. I've had children who were three years old and could read The New York Times, and people go, "Oh my goodness!" Now, did she understand what she read? Oh, no. But she had this innate phonological sense, that she could read all of those words.
People used to say, "Oh, they have autism so that doesn't mean anything, that they can call words." Of course it does! We spend a huge amount of time using something that's not innate, which is learning how to read, and teaching children phonics and how to read. With many children with autism we don't have to do that.
So we have extra time to spend on those semantic connections that we want to make and really make the social communication part of that. Their memory for facts is absolutely wonderful.
Using their narrowed and restricted interests to help them explore their strengths and expand it — for instance, I had a child that wanted to be a pilot. It was perfect! You can find math in pilots, you can find geography in pilots, I can find biographies in pilots, it was wonderful. So we just expanded their narrowed or restricted interest in that.
They bring such fertile ground to want to read and such interests to want to read that it just makes you have so much fun when you're working with reading comprehension.
High expectations and positive feedback
For years we've known that if we expect a lot of children, that they do what we'd like. You know, if we tell them they're a failure then they act like a failure. If we tell them, "We expect great things," that we think they are so smart, they're going to do wonderful things, they will do well.
We haven't really considered what that's like for children with disabilities, and some recent studies have come out where it's so important that the child with autism feels like they are able, that they are empowered, that they have the power over their own mind, say to even change from being mad to being calm.
You know, many children with autism don't even think they have that power. They're waiting for someone else to calm them down, instead of internally being able to calm them down.
So as teachers — and parents — I think it's vital that we instill that in children with autism, that we think they can achieve, that we're proud of them and their achievements. So I always tell parents and teachers alike that you never say anything in front of a child with autism unless it's positive.
Now, you can describe what happened very easily. I can take a teacher and say, you know, "Johnny and I worked together very hard on reading this story today, and it was difficult for Johnny to realize what the pronouns were, but you know, before we were done, he did it." Then I just told the teacher what we did and made that connection, but I did it in a positive way.
And I think as teachers we all need to focus — and as parents — on talking about our children in positive ways. That doesn't mean you give them a reward for every single one, it means you recognize what you really enjoy about that child — and there is no child that you can't find things to enjoy in.
Rachael Walker
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"Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. " — Neil Gaiman


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Throngs Mourn, Iranian Leader Weeps for General Slain by US
Soleimani's killing Friday in a U.S. drone strike has prompted a vow by his successor to take revenge. Tehran also has abandoned the remaining limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in response
By Nasser Karimi and Jon Gambrell	• Published January 5, 2020 • Updated on January 6, 2020 at 6:12 pm
Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP
Iran's supreme leader wept Monday over the casket of a top general killed in a U.S. airstrike, his prayers joining the wails of mourners who flooded the streets of Tehran demanding retaliation against America for a slaying that's drastically raised tensions across the Middle East.
The funeral for Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani drew a crowd said by police to be in the millions in the Iranian capital, filling thoroughfares and side streets as far as the eye could see. Although there was no independent estimate, aerial footage and Associated Press journalists suggested a turnout of at least 1 million, and the throngs were visible on satellite images of Tehran taken Monday.
Authorities later brought his remains and those of the others to Iran's holy city of Qom, turning out another massive crowd.
The death of Gen. Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, is expected to dramatically increase tensions between the United States and Iran.
The outpouring of grief was an unprecedented honor for a man viewed by Iranians as a national hero for his work leading the Guard's expeditionary Quds Force. The U.S. blames him for the killing of American troops in Iraq and accused him of plotting new attacks just before his death Friday in a drone strike at Baghdad's airport. Soleimani also led forces in Syria backing President Bashar Assad in a long war.
His slaying already has pushed Tehran to abandon the remaining limits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers as his successor and others vow to take revenge. In Baghdad, the parliament has called for the expulsion of all American troops from Iraqi soil, something analysts fear could allow Islamic State militants to mount a comeback.
Soleimani's daughter, Zeinab, directly threatened the U.S. military in the Middle East while also warning President Donald Trump, whom she called "crazy."
"The families of the American soldiers ... will spend their days waiting for the death of their children," she said to cheers.
Her language mirrored warnings by other Iranian officials who say an attack on U.S. military interests in the Middle East looms. Iranian state TV and others online shared a video that showed Trump's American flag tweet following Soleimani's killing turn into a coffin, the "likes" of the tweet replaced by over 143,000 "killed."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prayed over the caskets of Soleimani and others at Tehran University after a brief mourning period at the capital's famed Musalla mosque, The mosque was where prayers were said over the body of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, after his death in 1989.
Khamenei, who had a close relationship with Soleimani and referred to him as a "living martyr," broke down in tears four times while offering Muslim prayers for the dead.
"Oh God, you took their spirits out of their bodies as they were rolling in their blood for you and were martyred in your way," Khamenei said as the crowd wailed. Soleimani will be buried Tuesday in his hometown of Kerman.
Soleimani's successor, Esmail Ghaani, stood near Khamenei's side as did President Hassan Rouhani and other leaders of the Islamic Republic. While Iran recently faced nationwide protests over government-set gasoline prices that reportedly led to the killing of over 300, Soleimani's death has brought together people from across the country's political spectrum, temporarily silencing that anger.
Demonstrators burned Israeli and U.S. flags, carried a flag-draped U.S. coffin or displayed effigies of Trump. Some described Trump as a legitimate target.
Mohammad Milad Rashidi, a 26-year-old university graduate, predicted more tension ahead.
"Trump demolished the chance for any sort of possible agreement between Tehran and Washington," Rashidi said. "There will be more conflict in the future for sure."
Another mourner, Azita Mardani, warned that Iran "will retaliate for every drop of his blood."
"We are even thankful to (Trump) because he made us angry and this fury will lead to shedding of their blood in the Persian Gulf and the region's countries," Mardani said. "Here will become their graveyard."
Ghaani made his own threat in an interview shown Monday on Iranian state television. "God the Almighty has promised to get his revenge, and God is the main avenger. Certainly actions will be taken," he said.
Markets reacted Monday to the tensions, sending international benchmark Brent crude above $70 a barrel for part of the day and gold to a seven-year high. The Middle East remains a crucial source of oil, and Iran in the past has threatened the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all the world's oil traded passes.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, chairing emergency talks with the alliance's ambassadors in Brussels, called for "restraint and de-escalation," adding: "A new conflict would be in no one's interest."
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned global political tensions were "at their highest level this century." In a letter, Iraq's U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom called on the U.N. Security Council to condemn the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani and ensure "that Iraq is not dragged into international and regional crises."
Ghaani, a longtime Soleimani deputy, has taken over as the head of the Revolutionary Guard's Quds, or Jerusalem, Force, answerable only to Khamenei. Ghaani has been sanctioned by the U.S. since 2012 for his work funding its global operations, including its work with proxies in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Those proxies likely will be involved in any operation targeting U.S. interests in the Middle East or elsewhere.
Already, the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia warned Americans "of the heightened risk of missile and drone attacks." In Lebanon, the leader of the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said Soleimani's killing made U.S. military bases, warships and service members across the region fair game for attacks.
"We promise to continue down martyr Soleimani's path as firmly as before with help of God, and in return for his martyrdom we aim to get rid of America from the region," Ghaani said.
The head of the Guard's aerospace program, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, suggested Iran's response wouldn't stop with a single attack.
"Firing a couple of missiles, hitting a base or even killing Trump is not valuable enough to compensate for martyr Soleimani's blood," Hajizadeh said on state TV. "The only thing that can compensate for his blood is the complete removal of America from the region."
On the nuclear deal, Iran now says it won't observe the accord's restrictions on fuel enrichment, on the size of its enriched uranium stockpile and on its research and development activities. That's a much-harsher step than they had planned to take before the attack.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson have urged Iran to "withdraw all measures" not in line with the deal.
Iran insisted it remains open to negotiations with European partners over its nuclear program. And it did not back off from earlier promises that it wouldn't seek a nuclear weapon.
However, the announcement represents the clearest nuclear proliferation threat yet made by Iran since Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions last year. It further raises regional tensions, as Iran's longtime foe Israel has promised never to allow Iran to produce an atomic bomb.
IranIraqTrumpQasem Soleimani


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Home » News » College of Business student to speak at commencement
College of Business student to speak at commencement
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Commencement speaker to encourage graduates to remember lessons learned
Colette Bersie plans to focus on lessons learned at NDSU when she gives an address to fellow graduates at spring commencement. Bersie is set to speak at the 2 p.m. ceremony, Saturday, May 13, in the Fargodome.
"I was thinking about how bittersweet it is to graduate from the awesome NDSU community and how graduates can take some of the core concepts from NDSU into our post-graduate lives" said Bersie, who is from Delano, Minnesota.
She'll talk about the importance of finding commonalities with people, taking pride in the work of other people and yourself, and celebrating victories along the way to reaching big goals.
Bersie double majored in management and marketing and has already started her career at Cargill in Wayzata, Minnesota, as a marketing coordinator. She works remotely and will move into the corporate headquarters after commencement. She interned at Cargill last year.
"I'm never bored, and I love what I do there," said Bersie. "I already feel like a contributor to my team."
Bersie was a big contributor at NDSU, too. She was a student representative on the College of Business Dean's Advisory Board, member of Beta Gamma Sigma and Order of Omega honor societies, Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, co-founder of the College of Business organization Leading Edge and student senator in NDSU's student government.
"Colette exemplifies the very best of our college and NDSU," said Scott Beaulier, dean of the College of Business. "She's been an outstanding student, both within the classroom and through her countless extracurricular activities."
She's excited to represent her fellow graduates and the College of Business at commencement and continue her career.
"NDSU excelled in blending my business curriculum with an emphasis on modern agriculture and all the career opportunities in this industry," said Bersie. "There is a place for every student to pursue a passion and stand out for their accomplishments."
Colette Bersie, a management and marketing major, will represent her fellow graduates as commencement speaker on May 13 at 2 p.m.