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Women's group asks Senate to start Darius Brown ethics investigation
Charles Megginson July 9, 2021 Government, Headlines
The Delaware Senate says the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of one of its meetings.
A women's group has called on the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a formal inquiry into the arrest of State Sen. Darius Brown, D-Wilmington.
That committee rarely meets and requires a fellow senator to ask for an investigation because of legislative misconduct.
In May, Brown was arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts of domestic assault after a woman was punched at Taverna Rustic Italian Restaurant in Talleyville. Police reports later said the incident occurred during an argument about a social media post.
Brown was accused of throwing a glass of water at the woman before he left the restaurant.
The Women's Defense Coalition of Delaware, which describes itself as a statewide non-partisan movement, issued a press release Thursday saying it had emailed Delaware legislators in May about Brown. That letter expressed concern about Brown remaining in office and in particular chairing the Judiciary Committee, which votes on issues regarding women's safety.
Brown later was removed from his chairmanship, but State Sen. Dave Sokola, D-Newark, said the Senate would wait and see how the case turned out before focusing on Brown's seat.
"Accusations of domestic violence are serious and in direct conflict with the values of the Delaware Senate Democratic Caucus," Sokola said in a statement then. " However, a presumption of innocence is one of the most sacred principles in the American criminal justice system."
"We understand Sen. Sokola's response and respect the presumptions of innocence until proven guilty," the Women's Defense Coalition of Delaware said in its press release. The coalition describes itself as "a non-partisan movement of women across Delaware providing training, education, resources, and advocacy for a woman's ability to defend herself so that she may live with less fear and more freedom."
"However, our deep respect for the foundation of our justice system does not prevent WDC and its members from requesting our Senate to conduct an Ethics Committee review of Sen. Brown's past and current unlawful and dangerous behaviors."
Efforts were unsuccessful Thursday to reach members of the Delaware Democratic Caucus for comment about an ethics committee investigation.
In order for the Senate Rules & Ethics Committee to conduct an inquiry into Brown's alleged actions, a fellow senator would have to file a complaint against him alleging some kind of legislative misconduct.
The rules governing senators' conduct are passed by way of Senate Resolution at the beginning of each General Assembly. Senate Resolution 2 outlines the rules for the 151st General Assembly.
Senators are subject to sanction if they are suspected of engaging in conduct that brings the Senate into disrepute or reflects adversely on the member's fitness to hold legislative office, or engaging in any disorderly behavior occurring after the member is elected to the Senate.
Members of both parties have said such action should occur only after Brown's criminal charges are adjudicated.
"Should Sen. Brown be found guilty of the charges brought before him, or should irrefutable and incriminating evidence be made public, he should absolutely resign or be removed from his position as a Senator," said a statement from Senate Republican Leadership Thursday.
Senate Minority Leader Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View, and Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn, R-Georgetown, said in a joint statement on Facebook following Brown's arrest that they "are aware of and deeply concerned by the accusations of domestic abuse made against Brown" and "such alleged actions do not represent the values of our caucus or the General Assembly."
They said then they would withhold comment until more information became available.
Ethics Committee investigations are rare in the House of Representatives, and Rules & Ethics Committee inquiries are even less prevalent in the Senate.
Former Rep. John Atkins, a Republican in the House of Representatives from 2003 until 2007, faced an ethics investigation after being arrested for drunk driving, displaying his legislative identification card, then going home where he was arrested for a second time after allegedly assaulting his wife.
The House Ethics Committee found sufficient evidence to begin expulsion hearings, and Atkins resigned. Then he switched parties and defeated his successor in 2008, serving as a Democrat in the House of Representatives until 2013.
Former Rep. Brad Bennett, a Democrat, was arrested for driving under the influence in 2012, but the House Ethics Committee dropped its investigation after Bennett resigned.
Bennett's wife, current Rep. Andrea Bennett, D-Dover, was arrested in December of 2020 and charged with third-degree assault after a domestic dispute, but the House Ethics Committee took no action and the charges were eventually dropped at the victim's request.
Charles Megginson
Charlie Megginson covers government and politics for Town Square LIVE News. Reach him at (302) 344-8293 or [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @cmegginson4.
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Tony Allen to honor mother's life with scholarship for single moms
Dr. Tony Allen with his mother, R. Leatha Allen. Photo courtesy of Dr. Allen R. Leatha Allen, mother of Dr. Tony Allen, president of Delaware State University, died early Tuesday morning from non-COVID pneumonia. Dr. Allen wrote this appreciation of his mother's life. If you ever reached my mother's old-school voice message, you would hear R. Leatha Allen say, "Words are a creative force. Use them wisely. We are not available at this time, but if you leave your name, number, and brief message, we will return the call as soon as possible." "Words are a creative force. Use them wisely." Leatha was a teenage mother banished from her public school in Jacksonville, Florida, forced to relocate to have her son in a school designated specifically for "girls like her" in Newark, New Jersey. She described the experience as "embarrassing" and "painful," until she reconciled herself to one clear and compelling objective: raise her little boy— her only child— to be and do all the things she never thought she could be or do. She had a job to do, and so she did it. She was not much for fanfare or fancy things, always working a steady job, to which she would add another job when the situation required. She understood the importance of place and at 20 years old, purchased her first home for herself and her son. She later fell in love with the man who gave them his last name but soon found that this relationship was not all she'd thought it would be. Ultimately, though, it was that relationship that moved the small family to Delaware to start life anew. It was 1973; Leatha was then just 22 and I was 3 years old. My mother took me everywhere she went. I was attached to her hip, our souls aligned. As young mothers and their sons often do, we grew up together. When my mother gave her life to Christ in 1978, something inside her changed. She grew more confident and self-assured; she expected more from herself and kept moving— constantly moving. We spent our Sundays in the church from sun up to sundown. She was a Sunday School teacher, an usher, and ultimately, a trustee. She would hang tough with my readily adopted Aunt Vivian. She learned from Mother Lacy and Mother Malone and would cut up with Brother Mark and Sister Sallie. Her church family was just that– family— and she was the loudest talker, the biggest laugher, and a learned pupil. Leatha ultimately moved on from that church home and found herself in similar settings where she became Mother Allen. In some small quaint church, she always found herself at home and among family, but as the years progressed, her matriarchal prowess reached beyond church walls. Her family — sisters and brothers alike — looked at her as a small miracle and sought her counsel constantly. I can hear Aunt Betty joking, Aunt Stella fussing, Uncle Vernon trying to edge in a word, Aunt Val quietly observing and Leatha trying to get some order to it all. She used her powers with my friends, too. Back in college, my fraternity would routinely celebrate our founders' weeks with one day that was specifically a "Tribute to the Black Woman." Leatha was routinely the featured speaker. After a few passages from the Bible and a word of deep inspiration from her own experience, Leatha answered questions posed by audience members. Young women leaned forward in their seats and waited patiently to ask my mother their questions until the night was through. You could count on something like this, "Ms. Leatha, I am having such a tough time getting the respect I deserve from this guy who says he cares about me." Her retort: "Sweetheart, leave him." Even my own girlfriend had a conversation with me that night. Such was my mother's influence on everyone she met. Use words wisely, she said, and so she did. People felt the wisdom in her words and lined up to receive it. Perhaps she was not always so measured in her advice; you never quite knew what was going to come out of my mother's mouth in a moment of high tension, but you could be assured that she'd say it straight with no chaser and usually a prayer at the end. All of a sudden, it was the 21st century and Leatha was living her life "unapologetically" and "strong." When she took inventory of her life, the roots she'd planted had leafed and grown. She had four grandchildren and her son had the life she had prayed he would have. Leatha had a host of family and friends, all of whom were directly touched by her uncompromising spirit— Frankie and Sharon, Lisa and Janie, Carol and T, and sons and daughters as far as she could see— Margaret and Bern, David and Charles, Scotty and Vic, Darrin and Tim, Freddy and Q. And in the twilight of her years, the first and most enduring love of my life, my mother, led me to my last, Tara. "Words are a creative force. Use them wisely. We are not available at this time…" The "we" in that sentence echoes loudly in my ears today. My mother, Leatha Allen, is gone now and my heart is broken. I sit in her home, the last one she made for herself and for all those who loved her and who counted her as their "mother." I cannot think of a more difficult time in one's life than to lose a parent. But I am confident in two things. First, anything I have ever done well or with care and love is a direct result of her wisdom and guidance. Second, when I fell, she was the one to pick me up, dust me off, chide me accordingly and demand better. In her memory, Tara and I are starting the "Words Are A Creative Force" Endowed Scholarship Fund at Delaware State University. Annually, the fund will award a […]
Christina School District asks for moratorium on new, expanding charter schools
Christina School District's Board of Education has called for a statewide temporary moratorium on new charter schools and the expansion of existing charter schools. The board hopes that the pause will stabilize relationships between schools and districts that serve students in Wilmington while they work together on developing Gov. John Carney's proposed Wilmington Learning Collaborative and implementing proposals from the Redding Consortium for Education Equity. But Kendall Massett, executive director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, said a moratorium is not what's best for Wilmington's students. "We look forward to working with the Wilmington Learning Collaborative once it is established," Massett said. "We want to work with all schools and districts to ensure every student in Wilmington has access to a high-quality public school that best meets their needs. A temporary moratorium on new charter schools in the area will not help us meet that goal." RELATED: Christina board votes to explore Wilmington Learning Collaborative The Wilmington Learning Collaborative is a voluntary network of schools in Wilmington across multiple school districts. It asks Christina, Red Clay and Brandywine school districts to create a new board to oversee the education of Wilmington students in kindergarten through eighth grade and create programs to help those students learn and achieve at state and national levels. Carney has argued that city students are often faced with unique issues not common in suburban areas, and therefore have different educational needs. His proposed fiscal year 2023 budget includes $7 million for the Collaborative. Those students are also the focus of the Redding Consortium for Educational Equity, which was established to recommend policies and practices to the governor and General Assembly that will achieve educational equity and improve outcomes for students in the city and surrounding areas. The proposed budget includes $12.8 million for that initiative. RELATED: Why high-poverty, racially identifiable schools need money The proposed moratorium is just one item included among a list of legislative priorities approved by Christina's Board of Education during its January meeting. The board doesn't have the authority to enact such a policy on its own, so it asks the General Assembly to consider a moratorium, similar to how it did in 2015 with the passage of House Bill 56. Christina's school board is not asking that the state permanently stop approving new charter schools or the expansion of existing schools, explained board president Dr. Keeley Powell. They're just asking for a pause. "We've just voted to enter into this [memorandum of understanding] to improve education in Wilmington and we want to make sure that the players who are at the table right now are the same people — that we're not adding people and taking people away as we're laying out the groundwork for this agreement," Powell said. "So it's about stabilizing the relationships between the different school districts and not adding in people later." That's also the board's reasoning for including the expansion of existing charter schools in the request, she said. A school that serves students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade, for example, could apply to establish a high school without receiving a new charter. The board wants the moratorium to go on until the logistics and preliminary implementation of the Redding Consortium's proposals for Wilmington schools — including the Wilmington Learning Collaborative — are complete. "Because we're a school board and we only have jurisdiction over Christina, there are some issues sometimes on a state level that we think could help our families and students," Powell explained. "When we set priorities, it's so that we can communicate to the elected officials who can change policy what's important to this board and the students and families in Christina." It also asks that the state Board of Education mandate a formal relationship between traditional school districts and the charter schools that operate within their boundaries, and that the General Assembly amend charter school laws amended to require dissemination of the innovative teaching and learning strategies employed by charter schools compared to the charter school's home district. Very few charter schools in Delaware have formal relationships with their home districts. That can be frustrating for public school districts that, in part, fund charter schools' operations. In Delaware, charter schools are funded by both the state and local school boards using a similar formula to the one used for traditional public schools. Charter schools receive base funding from the state and local funding equal to the district's per-pupil cost from the previous year. Charter schools receive the local share of that funding from the student's home district, meaning it can have an effect on a district's bottom line when a new charter school opens, an existing school expands, or simply when a student transfers to a charter school. It's a worthy investment if a school district is at capacity, but if it has empty seats, it just means less money in the budget. RELATED: Carney plans to put $14 million more into Wilmington education Massett fears that by putting a pause on new schools and the expansion of existing schools, students in Wilmington will miss out on needed educational opportunities. "Every moment in a child's education is precious and families don't have time to wait," Massett said. "Weeks can easily turn into months and months into semesters or school years. Wilmington's students and families, as well as those across our state, deserve excellent educational opportunities right now. We should not be stopping one solution in order to figure out another." Despite the Wilmington Learning Collaborative and Redding Consortium only affecting Wilmington students, the proposed moratorium would not. If passed by the General Assembly as written, it would impose a pause on all new charters and expansions across Delaware. "We do know that there are a lot of charter schools in Delaware and many of them are in northern New Castle County," Powell said. "We also know that many schools actually attract students from all over the state. So the way we worded it was, we asked for across the […]
Delaware libraries continuing policy of waiving fines, late fees during pandemic
Have you been doing some extra reading while stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, there's good news if those books came from a Delaware public library and you're a little late returning them to their rightful place. Library officials have announced there won't be any fines or late fees assessed when you finally do return those overdue books, at least in the near term. Representatives with the Delaware Division of Libraries recently voted to continue their policy of eliminating fines and late fees for at least the rest of fiscal year 2021, which ends on June 30. But that doesn't mean you can just take a book home from the library and never return it. The current policy doesn't pertain to lost or damaged items; those will still need to be paid for in full at the appropriate time. "When this started, it was just a way to do the right thing given the economic impact of the pandemic and we also realized there were people who were afraid to leave their homes," says Lea Rosell, director of the Lewes Public Library. "We were just trying to facilitate the governor's stay at home orders. "But now it's more of a kindness issue really. We're all trying to be sensitive to the economic repercussions of this pandemic. If this is the way that we can help, then we're happy to do it." At least in Lewes, Rosell says that operating expenses, utilities and other factors involved with running the library have decreased dramatically during the pandemic. So losing the fines and fees for a few months hasn't really been that much of a financial burden. "I normally couldn't absorb these costs if I was running at full strength," she says. "But I've never paid less for electricity than I have this year, so it's really just kind of canceling each other out." In addition to the waiving of fines, many libraries are also offering free printing and copying services during the pandemic. This does vary from branch to branch, however. Most Delaware public libraries rely, at least in part, on fines and late fees to fund programs and operating expenses. So waiving this revenue stream permanently, which is being discussed, could have significant financial implications for many First State libraries moving forward. At the Milford Public Library, for example, $53,000 was raised in fines and late fees between July of 2015 and today, revenue that funds a number of programs offered by the library and enjoyed by the community. "I really don't have any idea how that money would be replaced in our budget," admits Kay Hudson, the 20-year director of the Milford Public Library who's retiring at the end of April. "We definitely wouldn't be able to buy as many new books and it would cut our services." For Hudson, the fines and fees program isn't all about the money, though that is a reality that can't simply be ignored. But in her view it's also about teaching respect and responsibility, particularly to young people who use the library on a regular basis. "I really feel you need something that will teach responsibility in the library," Hudson said. "Without having the fines and fees in place, what would keep someone from not returning a book that another child might need?" There are 33 public libraries in Delaware, catering to Delawareans in all areas of the state. In Lewes alone, 195,382 people took advantage of library services and programs in fiscal tear 2019. There was talk in 2019 of proposing legislation that would permanently waive fines and fees at Delaware's public libraries, though no bill has ever made it onto the floor of either the Delaware Senate or the House of Representatives. Extending the fines and fees moratorium into fiscal year 2022 has also been discussed by the state's directors, but will be more seriously considered at a later time depending on the state of the pandemic. "There's just too much that's still up in the air right now to make that call," says Rosell.
Dems retaliate for Republican no votes by adjourning before GOP bills hit House floor
After Republican members of Delaware's House of Representatives voted Thursday against a bill that would allow people to vote absentee for any reason, the Democratic leadership responded by ending the session before three Republican bills came to the House floor. "Those bills were not considered because of and in retribution for the Republican vote against House Bill 75," said Joseph Fulgham, communications officer of the Delaware House of Representatives' Republican Caucus. "It's not unusual since the Democrats took control," Fulgham said. "It is not unusual for Republican bills to either be held hostage or in some kind of vindictiveness to not consider Republican bills in retaliation for a Republican vote that the Democrats didn't like for one reason or another." Efforts were not successful Tuesday evening to reach Democratic leadership for comment, but it was a rare vote this session that knocked down a Democratic bill. With a majority in the House and a supermajority in the Senate, most Democratic legislation has shot through the general assembly like pasta through the kitchen of an Italian restaurant. HB75 sponsor Rep. David Bentz, D-Christiana, pointed out on the floor and in a statement released after the session that nothing had changed in the bill. "Unfortunately, those who switched their votes from 2019 were largely silent on the floor, giving no reasons why," he said. "I hope they explain whether the political rhetoric has changed their minds or if some other concern has surfaced. We will continue to stand up for all residents' ability to vote safely and securely, whether through this amendment or other efforts." State House Minority Leader Danny Short, R-Seaford, noted that no Republican representatives voted to pass the bill. "While the bill had some support from our caucus on its first leg during the 150th General Assembly, in the time since then many of our members re-examined it and began expressing significant reservations," Short said in an emailed statement. He said they repeatedly shared those concerns with House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, D-Bear. "To be clear, despite the sponsors' claims, the bill does not authorize 'no excuse' absentee voting," he said. "Rather, it eliminates from the state constitution the provisions authorizing absentee voting and gives the General Assembly the ability to enact new laws to recreate it in whatever fashion legislators see fit. That change significantly lowers the bar for majority Democrats to manipulate the law, with no Republican votes needed." He said he believed Democrats wanted to change absentee voting into a vote by mail system, "a scheme that will benefit Democrats." "Any doubt about the partisan nature of this issue was erased after today's vote," he said. "There were three Republican bills on Thursday's House Agenda, one of which, ironically, was to make it easier for people to vote in municipal elections … Longhurst refused to allow any of those bills to be voted on in an act of retribution for the Republican vote on HB 75. "We may not have seen the last of this bill, but House Democrats have given us even less reason to trust their good intentions on this issue." Currently, voters may only vote by absentee ballot in Delaware by providing a reason they are not able to vote in person. This requirement applies to voters who will not be in state on the day of the election, or would otherwise be unable to make it to the polling place. College students, active-duty military personnel, incarcerated voters and members of specific religions all take advantage of this voting method. House Bill 75 required a 2/3 majority vote — 28 votes in the House, where there are 26 Democratic members — to pass but died after a tally of 25 yes, 14 no and two people not voting. Even worse for the bill: Because it would alter the state Constitution, the bill must pass in identical form through both the House and Senate in two different sessions of the General Assembly, and assembly sessions are spread over two calendar years. Normally, the bill would be dead, and it would have to be reintroduced and once again pass through two sessions, meaning it could be years before it was approved. But the Democrats left themselves a rear-action door. After the vote, Longhurst switched her yes vote to a no vote, and then almost immediately moved that the session end, which House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, immediately did. House rules allow someone who voted on the winning side — and by switching her vote to no, Longhurst's vote is now on the side that prevailed in the tally — she will be able to ask for the bill to be brought back up in three days, Fulgham said. If that bill fails then, it would have to start over. Jane Brady, chair of the Delaware Republican Party, praised the defeat of HB75. "I am pleased that this amendment has not yet passed," she said. "Few people realize how significantly this amendment would change voting in Delaware, removing the protections in our Constitution and replacing them with the whim of the General Assembly." Bentz believes that sentiment turned against the HB75 when absentee voting became a notorious subject of controversy after mail-in ballots were used across the country in the 2020 election, a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bryan Shupe, D-Milford, said he believes people should be able to vote absentee for any reason, but he did not like other things in the bill. Shupe is CEO of Delaware Live. He declined to vote and saw the session ended without one of his bills coming to the House floor. "I think it very obviously was a vindictive measure since our caucus voted against HB75 that none of the Republican bills that were on the agenda today even were brought up for a vote," he said. He said the bill contained changes that were not well understood. "The way it is written, it allows the General Assembly to make changes for absentee ballots in […]


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PCMag UK Computers & Electronics Laptops
Apple MacBook Pro 13-Inch (2016, Touch Bar)
byJoel Santo Domingo Nov 14, 2016
The sleek new Touch Bar adds some genuine innovation to the well-designed and powerful 13-inch MacBook Pro, but as with all new Apple laptops, you'll need to carry lots of adapters or buy all-new peripherals.
Useful, versatile Touch Bar.
Compact and sturdy chassis.
Four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Display supports DCI-P3 color spectrum.
Shallow key travel.
No USB 3.0 ports.
Requires adapters for legacy peripherals.
The mid-level 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro ($1,799) gives you better connectivity and a faster 2.9GHz Core i5 processor than you get from the $1,499 base model. But the big draw here is Apple's new Touch Bar with Touch ID, which gives you an adaptable row of function keys, as well as an extra way to interact with your programs and data. The new MacBook Pro delivers the polished levels of build quality and performance you've come to expect, with added interoperability with Apple's other devices thrown into the mix. The main sticking points here are the new shallow keyboard, which takes some getting used to, and the need to either switch over to the USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 infrastructure or carry a selection of adapters in your laptop bag. If you can roll with the changes, though, it's a thinner, lighter, more powerful MacBook Pro that's worth the upgrade, and among the best ultraportable laptops you can buy.
The all-new design of the MacBook Pro is the first major revamp since 2012, and overall, that's a good thing. Like the entry-level non–Touch Bar model, which uses the same basic chassis, the system measures 0.59 by 11.97 by 8.36 inches (HWD), and this version weighs 2.98 pounds (0.01 pound less than its brother). It's about half a pound lighter than the 2015 model, enough to make a difference if you carry it around with you all the time. It's a smidgen deeper than the Dell XPS 13 Touch (Rose Gold Edition) , our top pick for high-end ultraportables, but not enough that you'd say it's bulkier. The all-aluminum laptop comes in Space Gray (like our test unit) or silver if you prefer a traditional Mac aesthetic.
The keys have very shallow travel, but they feel better than those on the Apple MacBook. The new trackpad is 46 percent larger than the one on last year's model, and it also uses Force Touch. It's easy to use wih good palm rejection, which is a concern with so much surface area. The speakers flank the keyboard, and produce clear sound with no distortion that can fill a small- to medium-size room easily.
View All 11 Photos in Gallery
The 13.3-inch, 2,560-by-1,600 Retina display is rated for 500 nits, which can help drown out the reflections if you work in a sun-drenched office or outdoors. Like the other 2016 MacBook Pros, the display has a DCI-P3 color gamut, to match the wider range of colors that you can capture with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, the iPad Pro, or an actual camera.
For more on the design, check out our review of the base model 13-inch MacBook Pro sans Touch Bar, which shares many physical characteristics.
This MacBook Pro is equipped with four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, two more than the $1,499 MacBook Pro. There are two on each side (and you can charge the laptop from any of them), along with the standard headphone jack on the right. While we applaud Apple for including four ports, we would have preferred at least one USB 3.0 (Type-A) port for connecting older peripherals. You'll need a $9 USB-C–to–USB adapter if you want to connect a USB thumb drive, a $19 USB-C–to–Lightning cable for your iPhone, and a $29 Thunderbolt 3–to–Thunderbolt 2 adapter to connect a Thunderbolt hard drive.
You're in the same boat with competitors like the HP Spectre 13 and the Asus ZenBook 3, but the Dell XPS 13 Touch has USB 3.0 and USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. Sure, you can use a third-party docking station or a monitor with a Thunderbolt 3 cable, but you'll probably need to either buy a bag full of dongles or upgrade your peripherals. Yes, we all will eventually adjust, but for now it's an inconvenient, potentially costly annoyance.
This configuration comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD), though you can opt for as much as 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD space. You can't upgrade RAM later, though, so keep that in mind before you purchase. As on all Macs, several apps come preinstalled, including iTunes, iBooks, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and Photos, so you're all set to use the system as a home base for your Apple TV, Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad. The one-year warranty includes 90 days of technical support by phone, though you can purchase AppleCare+ ($249) for three years of extended warranty coverage. You can also receive Genius Bar support at an Apple Store for free after the warranty ends, but you will likely have to pay for repairs.
Using the Touch Bar
The most interesting new feature, the Touch Bar, has an active area that's about 10 inches wide and just under a half-inch tall, encompassing the space at the top of the keyboard that has traditionally held the row of Function keys. It's essentially an auxiliary touch screen that app developers can populate with contextual command buttons. Since it's an actual glass display, it's a lot more effective and useful than the function bar and adaptive keys on the 2014 version of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, which simply cycled through backlit stencils to facilitate sharing buttons in four modes on the same physical surface. The Touch Bar works more like the Apple Watch, in that the tactile surface can change and display graphics or text, so app developers can display anything they want you to interact with (buttons, sliders, thumbnails, and so on). It's not a substitute for a touch screen, but more of a workflow enhancer, since it will show you commands you'd otherwise have to dig for in menus or activate with tough-to-remember key combinations.
For example, in Numbers (Apple's spreadsheet program), selecting a cell with the cursor brings up buttons for entering formulas, formatting text, or running an autofill command. The same Touch Bar displays hundreds of thumbnails while watching a video in QuickTime, and you can drag your finger across them to scrub backward and forward in the timeline. If you select a picture in Photos, the Touch Bar displays sliders so you can apply filters, edit the photo, rotate the picture, or adjust the color saturation. And the Touch Bar displays logical commands based on your previous action; it knows that you've selected text with the trackpad, say, and shows command buttons for changing the font's style (bold, italic, or underlined) or color, adding bullet points, and justifying to the left, right, or center. All in all, the Touch Bar works well, and once you get used to the new functionality, it can speed repetitive actions and help you avoid searching the menus and on-screen toolbars for commands you don't use all the time.
From the keyboard control panel you can replace any of the Touch Bar's default functions with commands to turn on the screen saver, take a screen shot, put the MacBook Pro to sleep, activate the screen lock, or enable dictation, among others. If you use these functions a lot, you can have the Touch Bar present them constantly for convenience. I replaced the default Siri key with the screen lock command, because I get up from my desk several times an hour.
If you still need traditional function keys (and the Esc key), just tap and hold the Fn key on the bottom row of the keyboard to bring them up on the Touch Bar. The bar supports 10-finger touch input, so you can hit multiple buttons simultaneously or use other multitouch gestures as an app requires. Programs like Adobe Photoshop, djay Pro, OmniPlan, and Microsoft Office are expected to have Touch Bar support integrated by the end of this year, hopefully by the time you read this. And more apps are sure to follow.
To the right of the Touch Bar there's a combination Power button and Touch ID sensor. It lets you unlock your laptop in one step after you've signed in for the first time (though as on the Apple Watch, iPhones, and iPads you'll have to enter your password after a reboot). After you train the laptop to recognize one fingerprint, you can enter up to four others, so you can use either hand or support up to five different users. You can use Touch ID to unlock your Mac, authorize e-commerce transactions using Apple Pay, and speed up iTunes purchases. As on the iPhone 7, Touch ID only takes a second to register and unlock the MacBook Pro, and it works even if you line up your finger a little askew.
The mid-tier MacBook Pro comes with an Intel Core i5-6267U processor with Intel Iris 550 graphics—improvements on the Core i5-6360U processor with Intel Iris 540 graphics found in the base model. It topped all competitors on the HandBrake test with a time of 2 minutes, 1 second, no doubt due to the combination of the speedy processor and the PCIe-based SSD. It was competitive on the CineBench test (338 points) and the Photoshop test (4:16), though the Dell XPS 13 Touch and the New Razer Blade Stealth each fared a bit better on these two multimedia tests. This MacBook Pro is ready for day-to-day graphics work, a mainstay of the Mac Faithful.
See How We Test Laptops
All of the recent high-end and midrange ultraportables we've tested lately have come with integrated Intel HD Graphics, rather than the more powerful Intel Iris graphics we see here. The difference was apparent on our 3D performance tests. The MacBook Pro returned playable scores on the Heaven (34 frames per second, or fps) and Valley (39fps) tests at 1,366-by-768 resolution with the graphics quality set to Medium. At native resolution and with the graphics settings turned up, frame rates were not quite good enough to be called playable. In other words, you should be able to play 3D games at a casual level, or view 3D interfaces for architectural drawings smoothly, but look elsewhere if you're heavy into CAD/CAM or want to play graphic-intensive games.
Battery life on the MacBook Pro is very good at 9 hours, 28 minutes, on our battery rundown test. That's more enough juice for all-day computing, and a bit better than the New Razer Blade Stealth (9:20) or the HP Spectre 13 (8:36). It certainly outlasts the Dell XPS 13 (Gold Edition) (7:07), but not the newer Rose Gold model (10:42). That said, the base model of the MacBook Pro endured a bit longer (11:53), as did the Asus ZenBook 3 (12:07), and the ultraportable leader is still the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (17:36). While Apple is still selling that model, the company has not announced plans to update the MacBook Air line.
The redesigned 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro is sleek and capable with excellent interoperability (with iOS, Apple TV, and watchOS) thanks to the Touch Bar. And it has the power and battery life to keep you working all day. You'll have to adjust to the new keyboard, though, and you'll likely need to buy some adapters to get that work done. When USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 are as ubiquitous as USB 3.0 is now, we won't have any reservations, but until that time, our Editors' Choice honors go to a system that has both USB-C/Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports. Because of its ports, along with a $150 lower price tag, higher-resolution screen, and competitive performance, the Dell XPS 13 Touch remains our top pick for high-end ultraportable laptops.
For the Mac faithful: Should you upgrade from an older MacBook Pro? Yes, provided you're willing to move from USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt 2 devices to USB-C–Thunderbolt 3. If you have a 2014 or 2015 MacBook Air or MacBook Pro, you should probably hold off, unless you really, really want the Touch Bar. The benefits of the new processor and screen alone aren't worth the trouble of getting used to the new keyboard and USB-C interface. If you're considering the base-level MacBook Pro, we think it's worth the extra $300 for this model, for its faster processor and the Touch Bar's potential utility. And if you need a larger screen, the 15-inch MacBook Pro might be the right choice, since it delivers more memory, a powerful Core i7 processor, and discrete AMD Radeon graphics, but it will cost you at least $2,499.

The Best Laptops for 2021
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About Joel Santo Domingo
Joel Santo Domingo is the Lead Analyst for the Desktops team at PC Magazine Labs. He joined PC Magazine in 2000, after 7 years of IT work for companies large and small. His background includes managing mobile, desktop and network infrastructure on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms. Joel is proof that you can escape the retail grind: he wore a yellow polo shirt early in his tech career. Along the way Joel earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA in Information Technology from Rutgers University. He is responsible for overseeing PC Labs testing, as well as formulating new test methodologies for the PC Hardware team. Along with …
More From Joel Santo Domingo
How We Test Laptops
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Got a New PC? 11 Things to Do Right Away
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What Is USB-C? An Explainer

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Error: final de datos inesperado al hacer JSON.parse Tengo función JavaScript que mediante AJAX envía al servidor con PHP una consulta. Pero obtengo el siguiente error:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected end of data at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

Ésta es la función en JavaScript:
function buscaCliente(){
var opcion = $("#opcionBuscaC").val();
var variable=$('#variableBusca').val();
if(opcion==='0'){
}
if(opcion==='1'){
    location.reload();
}
if(opcion==='2'){//ruc
    var datos={'bandera':'busca','identificacion':variable, 'nombre':'vacio'};
    var datosConver=JSON.stringify(datos);
    //funEnvio(datosConver);
    $.ajax({
        type:'POST',
        url:'funcionesCliente.php',
        data:{parametros:datosConver},
        error: function(){alert ('Error en la llamada Ajax');},
        success: function(dato){
            if(dato==='NO DATOS'){
                alert('No se encontraron registros');
                $('tbody').remove();
            }else{
                var datos = $.parseJSON(dato);
                $('tbody').remove();
                $('#clienteReporte').append('<tbody>');
                $.each(datos, function(i,item){
                    var tr= $('<tr>').append(
                                $('<td>').text(i),
                                $('<td>').text(item.id),
                                $('<td>').text(item.identificacion),
                                $('<td>').text(item.razonsocial),
                                $('<td>').text(item.direccion),
                                $('<td>').text(item.telefono),
                                $('<td>').text(item.celular),
                                $('<td>').text(item.email),
                                $('<td>').append($('<a href="#">').text('VER')),
                                );
                            $('tbody').append(tr);
                });
            }
        }
    });
}}

Éste es el PHP:
    $cliente= json_decode($_POST['parametros']);
$bandera=$cliente->{'bandera'};

switch ($bandera){
case 'ingresa': insertaCliente($conexion, $cliente);
    break;
case 'lista': buscaCliente($conexion, $cliente);
    break;
}

//FUNCION LISTAR CLIENTE
    function buscaCliente($conexion,$cliente) {
        $identificacion=$cliente->{'identificacion'};
        $nombre=$cliente->{'nombre'};
        $consulta= "CALL PA_buscacliente('$identificacion','$nombre');";
        $resultado= mysqli_query($conexion, $consulta);
        if(mysqli_num_rows($resultado)==0){
            echo 'NO DATOS';
        }else{
            while ($filas = mysqli_fetch_assoc($resultado)) {
            $contenedor[] = $filas;
        }
                  echo json_encode($contenedor,JSON_FORCE_OBJECT);
        }

    }

Y éste es el JSON que se forma en JavaScript:
 {
    "0": {
        "id": "1",
        "identificacion": "0123456789",
        "razonsocial": "NOMBRE RAZON SOCIAL",
        "direccion": "DIRECCION",
        "telefono": "012345678",
        "celular": "1234567890",
        "email": "mi@email.com",
        "descripcion": "RUC"
    }
 }

NOTA: tengo el mismo código  en otro archivo y funciona correctamente (solamente que no está dentro de una función).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Comedian Maz Jobrani says a firm "no thanks" to Trump's Iran help on The Late Show
Dennis Perkins
Filed to: ClipsFiled to: Clips
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert (Screenshot: CBS)
Returning for his first Late Show of 2018, Stephen Colbert taped too late to take on the fact that Donald Trump spent his afternoon playing a literal game of nuclear "mine's bigger than yours" with fellow sociopathic, egomaniacal world leader Kim Jong-un. Instead, Colbert's monologue had to make do with catching up on Trump's equally tetchy and juvenile (if less potentially radioactive) tweet-dump from earlier in the day. For those breaking in their 2018 Trump Twitter nonsense journal, today Trump: claimed personal credit for airline safety; attacked the media with a proposed "fake news" awards show; called for the jailing of political opponents; and implied his own Justice Department—the very people he wanted to carry out a dictatorial purge of his political opponents—were, in fact part of a "deep state" conspiracy against him. Calling Trump's most recent social media rants the sort of things you can "never take lightly, and never, ever take back," Colbert expertly held for a long moment before laughing, "Just kidding." (White House spokes-fabulist Sarah Huckabee Sanders indeed rushed out later in the day to deny that that whole "deep state" thing was the president calling his own intelligence personnel the "deep state," despite him calling them the "deep state," in writing.)
So, already a full day without the loose-lipped schoolyard taunts of atomic armageddon. There's always tomorrow night. And none of that took in the fact that Iran—another unfriendly-to-America government with nuclear ambitions—is undergoing its largest popular upheaval since 2009's "Green Revolution," a delicate and complex diplomatic situation that calls for nothing but the measured, informed, and thoughtful statesmanship of Donald John Trump.
Just kidding. At least that's the point taken by Colbert's second guest of the evening, Middle Eastern-American comedian and actor Maz Jobrani. Enumerating the three reasons why he doesn't want Trump to chime in on the Iran situation, the Iranian-born Jobrani, Superior Donuts star, and "fellow CBS-ian," according to Colbert, made a compelling case that, unlike Trump's self-proclaimed ability to keep aircraft aloft, any efforts to aid the Iranian people would likely crash and burn. Apart from the fact, as Jobrani put it bluntly, "I don't like him," the actor explained that, through his three (and counting) court-blocked travel/Muslim bans, Trump has proven himself anything but "a friend to the Iranian people." Jobrani also noted that this "nuanced situation," where any ill-considered, culturally illiterate statement from an American president could be used as pretext for a crackdown against "outside influences," is a place for someone who doesn't—just to pick a crazy example—insult other world leaders with unimaginatively childish nicknames. "I don't know if you've noticed," Jobrani deadpanned, "but..."
(Everyone's noticed.)
Maz Jobrani gets personally political on his new Netflix comedy special
Twitter temporarily suspends David Clarke over violent threats against the media
Scientific study of fake news reveals pretty much what you'd expect
Contributor, The A.V. Club. Danny Peary's Cult Movies books are mostly to blame.
Recent from Dennis Perkins
Late-night reacts to Donald Trump still being a racist, only moreso
Conan avenges Kumail Nanjiani's last-minute cancellation by plugging Nanjiani's competition
Dave Bautista finally gets his Stuber wrap gift from Kumail Nanjiani on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Thursday 5:36am


Great Harvest Bread Co. is a crew of fun-loving bakers, cookie makers and more importantly "people-people". We work hard and we love what we do.
Want to work with us? Come in and "Wow" us with your customer service skills and we'll find a place on our team for you. We love people who enjoy working with other poeple or have a passion for our whole grain products. Come in and taste the difference of whole grain breads.
We are currently looking for a early morning production person who loves our bread, highly energetic, strong sense of detail, old school work ethic and likes to get home before noon each day. "We do more by 9:30am than most people do all day!"


Is Your Home Properly Insulated? Here's What to Look for.
Is Your Home Properly Insulated? Here's What to Look for.
Energy is the ultimate escape artist. Without adequate home insulation, it can sneak through any surface undetected. If your home in Buffalo Grove is plagued by hot and cold spots or sky-high energy bills, it could be letting you know that it is not properly insulated.
According to a 2015 study sponsored by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, 90 percent of homes surveyed were underinsulated. Chances are that your house could use extra insulation. Experts recommend focusing on these areas in order of importance.
Take a look inside your attic. Insulation should be distributed evenly across the joists and into the eaves. You should have at least 14 inches of insulation rated at R38 or better. If the insulation is uneven or slumped below the joists, it's time to add more.
Insulating exterior walls in existing homes is a complex project without professional assistance. Blown-in insulation and specialized sheathing boards are suitable for enhancing this part of your building's insulation envelope.
If your home has frigid floors, extra insulation can amp up your comfort and lower your energy bills. Floors adjoining basements are accessible and relatively easy to insulate. Weatherizing the sill plate at the top of the foundation is another cost-effective improvement.
According to Energy Star, sealing just 25 percent of your home's air leaks can lower your heating and cooling costs by 16 percent. Robust insulation that's appropriate for our climate will also enhance your family's comfort.
Although we don't offer insulation services, we can help you improve your home's energy efficiency in other ways. To learn more, check out our energy-saving solutions, or call Assurance Heating & Air Conditioning at 847-388-0316. We offer insulation services to customers across Chicago's northwestern suburbs.


Our Transportation Management System – TMS allows our clients to access a fleet of carriers using one username and password. Every option our customers need for LTL shipping is at their fingertips.
We are proud to offer a "one stop shop" that offers state-of-the-art technology coupled with best in class carriers and operations team members that can be personalized to meet your specific needs as a transportation consumer. Our shipment management page gives you up to date information about the status of all of your shipments as well as instant access to invoices and shipping documents.


Shop leggings, bras, t-shirts, joggers, sweats and bathing suits at amazing prices in this three day New York sample sale from Gottex Studio!
I returned for second time today, and it was well worth it. There were not as many choices as my first trip yesterday, but because I am extra small/small I was able to get a sports bra and leggings. I love this brand.


KROLLMANN quality offers commissioned work in the work fields of milling, turning, grinding and eroding.
In the sales order, modern components or work pieces are produced in the machine factory according to exact plans, just as the customer requested with the project briefing in the work order.
Naturally, KROLLMANN offers this service where a work piece or component is initially designed and then manufactured. For the entire project management process, the KROLLMANN team from the business areas of construction and production, with its know-how, expertise and experience, stands by the side of the customer, and supports the process from idea to implementation.


text:
Home Celebrity Brat Pack Twitter Debate: Ally Sheedy Laments Rob Lowe Only Worries He...
Brat Pack Twitter Debate: Ally Sheedy Laments Rob Lowe Only Worries He Doesn't Have a Show to Reboot
■Celebrity
■Television
by Roger Friedman - July 7, 2018 9:35 pm
Ally Sheedy and Rob Lowe were only in two mid 1980s movies together– "St. Elmo's Fire" and "Oxford Blues" — but they will always be associated with each other as part of the extended Brat Pack. That group also includes Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, and so on.
Rob went on to make a lot of TV shows and movies, some good, some not. but he's always been affable.
Ally's career was a little more of a roller coaster, and she might be considered "more serious" in her choices.
Tonight on Twitter, Lowe laments that with all the reboots of 80s, 90s, 00s material, he has nothing — like "Will & Grace" –that he could bring back which also be relevant. He could do a spin off of what happened to his "West Wing" character, Sam Seaborn, I suppose. (Sam was the Deputy White House Communications Director and was last seen as a successful Los Angeles lawyer. Maybe he became a senator, or the Governor.)
I guess Sheedy follows Lowe on Twitter. She was quick to ask him if– with everything going on in the world– that's the best Tweet he could come up with. We'll wait for Rob's comeback.
Disney-Marvel Scores Another Number 1 Friday with "Ant-Man" Sequel
Roman Polanski's Actress Wife Emmanuelle Seigner Refuses Oscar Academy Invitation After Husband Expelled


text:
Q: How do I deserialize timestamps that are in seconds with Jackson? I've got some JSON that has timestamps in seconds (i.e. a Unix timestamp):
{"foo":"bar","timestamp":1386280997}

Asking Jackson to deserialize this into an object with a DateTime field for the timestamp results in 1970-01-17T01:11:25.983Z, a time shortly after the epoch because Jackson is assuming it to be in milliseconds.  Aside from ripping apart the JSON and adding some zeros, how might I get Jackson to understand the seconds timestamp?

A: I wrote a custom deserializer to handle timestamps in seconds (Groovy syntax).
class UnixTimestampDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<DateTime> {
    Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(UnixTimestampDeserializer.class)

    @Override
    DateTime deserialize(JsonParser jp, DeserializationContext ctxt) throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        String timestamp = jp.getText().trim()

        try {
            return new DateTime(Long.valueOf(timestamp + '000'))
        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            logger.warn('Unable to deserialize timestamp: ' + timestamp, e)
            return null
        }
    }
}

And then I annotated my POGO to use that for the timestamp:
class TimestampThing {
    @JsonDeserialize(using = UnixTimestampDeserializer.class)
    DateTime timestamp

    @JsonCreator
    public TimestampThing(@JsonProperty('timestamp') DateTime timestamp) {
        this.timestamp = timestamp
    }
}

A: @JsonFormat(shape=JsonFormat.Shape.STRING, pattern="s")
public Date timestamp;

edit: vivek-kothari suggestion
@JsonFormat(shape=JsonFormat.Shape.NUMBER, pattern="s")
public Timestamp timestamp;

A: A very similar approach to that of @DrewStephens's which uses the Java SE TimeUnit API (introduced in JDK1.5) instead of plain String concatenation and is thus (arguably) a little bit cleaner and more expressive:
public class UnixTimestampDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<Date> {

    @Override
    public Date deserialize(JsonParser parser, DeserializationContext context)
            throws IOException, JsonProcessingException {
        String unixTimestamp = parser.getText().trim();
        return new Date(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(Long.valueOf(unixTimestamp)));
    }
}

Specifying your custom deserializer (UnixTimestampDeserializer) on the affected Date field(s):
@JsonDeserialize(using = UnixTimestampDeserializer.class)
private Date updatedAt;

A: I had this exact issue, except my ZonedDateTime objects got turned to unix-timestamps (seconds) and I needed them in milliseconds (to initialize JS Date objects on the browser).
Implementing a custom serializer/deserializer looked like too much work for something that should be pretty straightforward, so I looked elsewhere and found that I can just configure the object mapper for the desired result.
Because my application already overrides the default ObjectMapper provided by Jersey, I just had to disable SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATE_TIMESTAMPS_AS_NANOSECONDS.
Here's my code
@Provider
public class RPObjectMapperProvider implements ContextResolver<ObjectMapper> {

    final ObjectMapper defaultObjectMapper;

    public RPObjectMapperProvider() {
        defaultObjectMapper = new ObjectMapper();

        // this turned ZonedDateTime objects to proper seconds timestamps
        defaultObjectMapper.enable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATES_AS_TIMESTAMPS);

        // disable to serialize dates for millis timestamps
        defaultObjectMapper.disable(SerializationFeature.WRITE_DATE_TIMESTAMPS_AS_NANOSECONDS);

        // using Java8 date time classes
        defaultObjectMapper.registerModule(new JavaTimeModule());
    }

    @Override
    public ObjectMapper getContext(Class<?> type) {
        return defaultObjectMapper;
    }
}

And that's it


I was reading an English transcription of a lecture by the Mechaber of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh yesterday, in which he says: "How does one avoid destroying himself? He must live in a world without desires." This is not terribly distinct from the Third Noble Truth of Buddhism: "By stopping the cravings, the suffering is stopped."
I think the key distinction then is in the next step, the Eightfold Path versus Derech haTorah.
I read through the first two postings and look forward to the next one on L"M 52. (Incidently, Rabbi Avraham Sutton has a great piece on this Torah).
I think the bottom line is practice. You mentioned a few sources, but none as far as I can see go into much detail about how to practice the meditation. The Piacetzner piece was not written by him, but related to us by students. We will never know what his talmidim actually did, nor was anything in detail written down to explain his meditative system more fully.
You see, that is the big difference between Buddhism and Judaism. In Buddhism, there is a wealth of material on how to practice, how to overcome problems, stages in the meditation process, etc., and there is very little in Yiddishkeit.
I read Rabbi Ozer Bergman's book on Hitbodedut and asked him via e-mail about the chapter on silence. He told me that he had little experience in that area of Hitbodedut. The same can be said about teachers of silent meditation in Judaism. Very few if any Rabbis practice meditation. A Jew cannot walk into a shul and get meditation instruction. Very few if any shiurim focus on meditation, let alone silence. Rabbis know Halachah, Talmud, Chumash (we hope), but what you are talking about here is not something a synagogue will offer. Hence Jews are running to Buddhist retreats and classes.
I live in California. There is no Habad meditation, no Breslov, nothing. I have found that the internet is not a good way to learn anything in depth, let alone by e-mail. Don't get me started on the Renewal movement. They have schools that have "produced" Jewish meditation teachers who have a very shallow understanding of Judaism, yet are "experts" in this area.
Which brings me to Buddhism and Judaism. Yes, there are similarities, but the difference is that Judaism demands learning (yes, some schools of Buddhism do, too) and commitment to do things such as mitzvot, Shabbos, Tefillin, etc. Most Jews run away from all that, and I admit it for me is a lifelong struggle. Would they do so if meditation was integral to Jewish practice?
We need to step up to the plate and start putting people out there who can reach the entire spectrum of Jews -- and teachers need to practice what they preach.
What you are writing about is so valuable! Thanks!
Now that Part III about Hisbodedus has been posted, I hope you see things a little differently. Although there are various forms of "Jewish meditation," prayer is the core Jewish practice and there is a wealth of information about the inner dimension of davenning, both from the Siddur and in Hisbodedus. Rebbe Nachman describes some profoundly transformative experiences in connection with Hisbodedus, which is a path for all.
Almost all of these Jewish meditative systems were developed and used by individuals of high attainments as paths to ru'ach ha-kodesh and certain high mystical perceptions. They were not intended for the masses. Ditto the Abulafian meditations, which could be mind-transforming and even dangerous. Only what the Rambam's son and colleagues were doing in the "Jewish Sufi" period prior to the disclosure of the Zohar was a meditative system for a wide audience -- and the prayer-meditation approaches of the various Chassidic schools, which still exist today, even if not in your community. In Breslov and a few other Chassidic communities, davenning is quite an intense, serious business, and if approached the right way leads to deveykus.
As the lesson "HaNei'or BaLaylah" states, Hisbodedus is a path of inner work, which is really a lifelong task. But many great people in and out of Breslov have followed it, and testified that whatever spiritual levels they reached were because of Hisbodedus.
Not to be nitpicky, but "Know him in all your ways" is Proverbs 3:6. Is this phrase also in the Psalms?
There seems to be a fundamental difference between the way Judaism sees the concept of "awakening" and the way it is seen by other religions.
While they seem to talk about some sort of instantaneous revelation (awakening/enlightenment/satori etc.) that brings one to a higher level, in Judaism - especially in Chassidut - we speak about "Hit'orerut", which is a continuous, active process by which, from moment to moment, one becomes fuller with Simcha and closer to G-d.
Similarly, whereas most of the world strives to achieve "happiness" which seems to imply some kind of passive, stale plateau of self-fulfillment, in Chassidut we work on "Simcha", which is an active, growing, living state.
Who knows what they're talking about?
What is the "soul" anyway?
Do you think you understand that?
Do you think G-d is made of pieces, chalilah?
Are you so worried, O Madyamika savants, that the soul is "fixed" and the essence of mind isn't fixed?
Is a "portion of Divinity" fixed?
The Infinite One is not an "it!"
No doubt, because you know that everything comes from Chokhmah Ila'ah, Supernal Divine Wisdom.
But their are levels even beyond this -- RADLA, the Unknowable Beginning!
I never could stand philosophy.
Thanks Anon for catching the mistake about the pasuk from Mishlei. I plan to correct it on the version for the Breslov Center website.
Contrary to what many people think, in Zen Buddhism there is both sudden and gradual awakening, depending upon the school of thought. The Rinzai teachings emphasize sudden awakening and the Soto school, founded by Dogen Zenji, teaches gradual awakening. Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in his landmark book, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" describes this process as walking in a light fog or mist and not realizing that you are getting wet but at some point becoming aware that you are soaked through to the bone. Dogen Zenji also has an essay on continuous practice. In any case, in both schools of Zen, one brings one's practice into the world, into the marketplace. This is definitely not about sitting on a mountaintop in a static state of bliss or self-fulfillment. Instead, it is about going beyond small mind(constricted consciousness) into Big Mind (expanded consciousness) where compassionate action can arise in the world.
I just wanted to mention that your articles you are posting on Buddhism vs. Judaism are amazing. Thank you so much for writing them. Please consider when you are done to collect them together, I would love to have a copy in one place. I have been thinking about this stuff for a long time and have never seen it discussed so clearly. I am taking a course now in something called "Zen Shiatsu", which is a form of alternative therapy, and felt very strongly that most of the basic conceptual underpinnings were in harmony with Torah.
It was quite sad to be in a room full of Jews in Jerusalem who don't recognize this at all! Anyway, I am thrilled to read your work on this. Thank you so much, again. We may not correspond too often (we did speak in Uman this past year if you remember), but I always love and appreciate your work and beautiful, refreshing perspective.
Thank you for the chizuk and the encouragement.
Still, please note that in the parable you bring, even though the process of getting wet is gradual, the awareness of it comes all at once.
It would be interesting to research the correlation between small-mind – big mind, and Mochin De'Katnut – Mochin De'Gadlut.
thanks so much for this posting. it is very important for more religious jewish people to create bridges to jewish buddhists.
in psalms 23,al me menuchot ynahaleni... by tranquil waters you lead me... what a beautiful meditative image to dwell upon, nu?
to me, i probably need to write an article on this bs"d, this is an excellent place for jewish people, jewish buddhists to see that the jewish tradition has a great value for quietness, tranquility, nature and being meditative in nature.
who'd a thunk it? in the most famous tehilim of all is the simplest and perhaps most accessible way to simply be quiet and restore ones soul. mamash!! really!!!!
i think that the issues that jewish buddhists have with judaism need to be addressed and hopefully resolved. for example...given this tehilim, ps. 23, it shows so much potential for quietness meditation.
also, r' david zeller z'l, is probably the rav you quoted about putting on tefilin in a zen way.
zen vat du yu du?
i think simple connections to the pleasant, attractive aspects of buddhism is a great and effective way of helping jewish buddhists to reconnect with their souls.
I strongly disagree to the above.
Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy. A way of living. What is said of the belief in multiple G'ds is absolutely untrue. All these so called G'ds are emanations of G'd. Just like in Judaism we have many names for G'd. But we do not picture G'd in images, whereas Buddhism does. Maybe because by doing so they reveal the many faces of G'd.
BTW I am Jewish, not a Jewish buddhist of buddhist Jew.
I am a Jewish woman who has practiced meditation for 32 years as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during his life. There are no idols, it is not Hindu, there are hundreds of research books all over the world, done very scientifically. So no idolatry here as rumored.
I have developed a very penetrating and real relationship with Rabbi Nachman, through the chant NaNach Nachma Nachman Meh Uman, which came to me in a most marvelous way, even here in the midwest of the U S.
The transcendence developed through meditation gives so much life and power to the chant, and immediately I felt it's effect take hold in my life. I feel a strong connection for Rebbi Nachman I can't even put words to describe it. It took me exactly one night to feel I was truly receiving blessings from the Soul of Rabi Nachman, without traveling anywhere. This has come in the form of an opening into peace, to happpiness,qualities of silence and events that I have not previously experienced. Also I have developed a keen interest in the teachings of the Breslov sages. To Reb David Sears, I hope you read this although it is it is many years since you wrote this - I can only say I am grateful to you for the richness of your book Compassion for Humanity in the Jewish Tradition.
There is a Synagogue here in this University town of Fairfield Iowa , which has 160 members and hardly anyone attends. It is a town of people who practice meditation daily and love knowledge. I hope I can somehow use the knowledge you have given and some Divine Blessings from Rebbi Nachman to resurrect some interest in the rich tradition of Jewish knowledge, Jewish sages.
thankyou so much again and again - your book gives me the material I can present at the synagogue here. I hope I can meet you someday, God willing.


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Meade Township is a civil township of Huron County in the U.S. state of Michigan.  The population was 799 at the 2000 census.

Meade Township was established in 1869.

Communities
 Crown was a rural post office in this township from 1899 until 1904.
 Kinde is a village on the boundary between Lincoln Township and Dwight townships, with about half of the village in both. A small portion of the village is within the township.
 Filion is an unincorporated community located on the border with Lincoln Township at M-53 and Filion Road at coordinates . The ZIP code is 48432.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 35.7 square miles (92.4 km2), all land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 799 people, 304 households, and 234 families residing in the township.  The population density was 22.4 per square mile (8.6/km2).  There were 345 housing units at an average density of 9.7 per square mile (3.7/km2).  The racial makeup of the township was 99.25% White, and 0.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.63% of the population.

There were 304 households, out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.5% were married couples living together, 7.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.0% were non-families. 20.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.  The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 2.97.

In the township the population was spread out, with 24.4% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 22.8% from 45 to 64, and 18.1% who were 65 years of age or older.  The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.3 males.  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.3 males.

The median income for a household in the township was $39,750, and the median income for a family was $43,417. Males had a median income of $30,337 versus $21,979 for females. The per capita income for the township was $17,126.  About 3.3% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.1% of those under age 18 and 6.8% of those age 65 or over.

References

Notes

Sources

Townships in Huron County, Michigan
1869 establishments in Michigan
Townships in Michigan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Mystery of Prescott's Court on student apartments construction site in Friargate
Posted on - 19th April, 2015 - 7:04pm | Author - Paul D. Swarbrick | Posted in - History, Observations, Photos, Preston City Centre, Preston Locations, Redevelopment
The part of Friargate featuring Preston's ubiquitous Richard Bamber and Son Ltd., in which the demolition took place: Pic Preston Historical Society 1976
As most Prestonians will know, there has been a demolition of properties in an area on lower Friargate, to the north side of Great Shaw Street. The properties concerned in the demolition have been swept away to make way for a new development of student apartments being constructed by Eric Wright Group on behalf of Portergate Properties.
It had been noticed that during the demolition work several interesting features had been uncovered below the existing ground level and the Archaeological Services, Durham University were called in to investigate these findings. A complete archaeological 'dig' ensued revealing an old well under what would have been the yard of a former terraced house on the north side Great Shaw Street extending up to Market Street west (both of these streets at one time were formerly known as Back Lane). The line of terraced houses extending from the junction of what was Back Lane and Friargate to where the premises latterly known as Blitz nightclub stood, were demolished many years ago to widen Great Shaw Street to enable easier traffic access. The grounds at the rear of what was Bamber's Furniture yard revealed the footprints of various buildings that would have been built around the mid nineteenth century, along with furnaces and two reservoirs, one which would have been used by the nearby cotton mill.
An old well in what would have been the yard of one of the terraced house's in Great Shaw Street (formerly Back Lane): Pic Preston Historical Society
It appears that in 1824, very little was built on this parcel of land as shown in the Baines Map 1824. When you then view the Myers Map 1836, you notice that a lot more has been built on the land and as time passes the land becomes more populated by houses, shops and industrial premises as indicated in the Ordinance Survey map of 1849 and 1890.
Extract from Baines Map 1824
Extract from Myers Map 1836
Extract from O.S. Map 1849
From the Ordinance Survey map of 1890 extract above you will notice that within that area there is a section which was known as Prescott's Court (later Prescott's Yard). According to records, this was a very densely populated residential small area. Up to around 1871 many people residing in Prescott's Court were involved in the cotton industry in one way or another and many were of Irish decent. This very small court appears to have eventually given up in some way to engineering and blacksmith industries and possibly laundering services.
According to Marmaduke Tulket in his book 'History of the borough of Preston', he states that the Back Lane Cotton Mill was built by a Mr Pearson and consisted of two buildings, one of stone and one of brick and was run by Firm of Messrs. Caton and Leche. In later years the cotton mill ceased to operate and subsequently was taken over by the firm John Cockshott and Co. Mill and General Brush Works. Towards the mid twentieth century the building became vacant and eventually was used as a nightclub premises and up to this year was still used as such apart from a short period of time when it was used as a Hydroponics store.
Part of the former Back Lane Cotton Mill: Pic Preston Historical Society
John Cockshott & Co. Market Street & Great Shaw Street, Preston. Note the terraced properties on the left, one of these houses will be where the well was discovered in the yard: Pic Preston Digital Archive
The Gatsby Nightclub, Great Shaw Street, Preston c.1989. One of the building's various guises as a nightclub premises: Pic Preston Digital Archive
It would have been marvellous to spend longer on the demolition site to investigate further, but alas, we only had a window of an hour or so as the groundwork operations had to continue. Of course, the records investigation will be ongoing for some time to ascertain the exact uses of all the building which existed on the site and the people who used the various industrial and residential premises and for what purpose. Time will tell on this quest.
Worth noting is Prescott's Court, that in later times became Tommony's Yard, as it remained until demolition. Many Prestonians will recall the yard leading to 'Guild Motors', an engineering firm for many years. This can be seen in the image immediately below.
Tommony's Yard, Friargate, Preston c.1985: Pic Preston Historical Society
Part of the demolition site looking toward Friargate: Pic Preston Historical Society
The site of what would have been a reservoir for the Back Lane Cotton Mill: Pic Preston Historical Society
What appears to be where a furnace was once in operation: Pic Preston Historical Society
Part of a metal barrel which was originally embedded into the ground and now almost fully decayed: Pic Preston Historical Society
What appears to be a water way of some sort or possibly a sewer: Pic Preston Historical Society
You can view a slideshow of the set of images of the construction site from the Preston Historical Society Flickr gallery, below.
The photography and the research of the historical information has been compiled by Paul D. Swarbrick, Karen Doyle and Gillian Lawson of the Preston Historical Society and they would like to express their gratitude to Eric Wright Group and Portergate Properties for allowing the Preston Historical Society to be on site to enable them to create this historical account.
What do you think of the archaeological 'dig' images? Let us know in the comments below.


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Q: $\forall n,m \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \ \exists p \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \ \ \text{such that} \ \ \frac{1}{m} + \frac{1}{n} > \frac{1}{p}$ Rearranging the required to prove, it's equivalent to
$$\forall n \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \ \ \forall m \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \ \ \exists p \in \mathbb{Z}^+ \ \ \text{such that} \ \ p > \frac{mn}{m+n}.$$
I'm not sure if I'm misinterpreting this question. It sounds like I just need to find some positive integer that gives is of higher value than $\frac{mn}{m+n}$.
This seems like it's always possible due to the integers extending to infinity.
Could I just say that given any $m,n \in \mathbb{Z}^+$, an integer $p$ exists because I can simply choose $p:= \lceil \frac{mn}{m+n}\rceil + k$ for any $k \in \mathbb{Z}^+$?
e.g. Given $m=2,n=3$, $\frac{mn}{m+n} = 1.2$. Since $1.2 < \lceil 1.2 \rceil = 2 \in \mathbb{Z}^+$ then I can pick $p:= 2$.


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How will the responsibility for the care, control, and supervision of the child be shared?
How will the day to day decisions affecting the child be made?
What type of information should be communicated about the children and how should it be communicated?
Communication when the child is with the other parent.
What happens if a parent cannot care for a child when scheduled?
How will disagreements be resolved? (Be specific).


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With the constant looming question of "What do you want to be in the future?" teenagers are facing more pressure than ever to find a major or profession to settle down with as they apply to colleges. In the month of January, many seniors are rushing to finish their college applications without any true idea of what career they wish to pursue in the future. Taking a gap year could be a solution to the uncertainty faced by these teenagers.
A gap year means taking a year off from education, usually after graduating high school and before entering college. During a gap year, students can travel, intern or volunteer as they use this break to discover and define their future plans.
Many teens who are deeply unsure and still enroll in a university can find themselves constantly changing majors, resulting in a longer, more expensive road to higher educational achievement. Although teens have the opportunity to major in general studies in order to figure out their strengths and interests, discovering your personality and what you should pursue is inevitable with real life experiences. Having hands-on experience, traveling the world and serving others before yourself is the most effective way to find your strengths, interests and future career.
After four years of being in school every week for seven hours of the day only to be followed by extracurricular activities, homework and a social life, it can be hard for teens to step out of this regimented lifestyle and form definitive plans for after high school. Evidently, there is so much of the world teens have not been exposed to. A gap year can give teens the opportunity to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the world around them and become better prepared college-bound students.
Experiences resulting from a gap year can aid in the development of useful skills, such as organization, self-sufficiency and social skills, which can only serve to benefit students in preparing for university. Moreover, it can make a college applicant stand out amongst the enormous amount of other applicants. Many colleges report that students who have taken a gap year are more involved on campus and maintain higher GPAs, according to Global Citizen Year.
Harvard University states that it "encourages admitted students to defer enrollment for one year to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work or spend time in another meaningful way—provided they do not enroll in a degree-granting program at another college." Furthermore, a gap year has been encouraged by many other prestigious universities such as Princeton, Tufts and James Madison University. Some colleges even offer gap year programs of their own to encourage students to become more well-rounded.
In this day and age, it's no surprise that many gap year programs are provided online. These programs are designed to help give guidance and structure more productive breaks as sometimes a break from education can to lead to a very unproductive year of doing nothing. Though enrollment in a gap year program can be costly, many of these programs offer financial aid, scholarships or grants to participants.
Students who are considering taking a gap year are likely to face discouragement from others, such as counselors or family members, due to the fear that students might not pursue higher education after taking a gap year. However, research found that "ninety-percent of students who took a gap year had returned to college within a year," according to Wall Street Journal.
After high school, whatever path a person decides is ultimately and entirely up to that individual. But, if facing constant doubt regarding college, perhaps taking a gap year might be the best choice.


Most people do not know that the first cloning experiment took place back in 1885.It was carried out by Han Spemann. The sea urchin was the first animal to be cloned. It is unknown for how long the researchers at the time had the idea in mind.


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Inspirational words by our exclusive columnists; expert guidance and advocacy
It's never 2 late
In the first in a series, international columnist Jack York shares the incredible life of Vivian Tellis Nayak, a champion for the rights of the elderly
Greetings, readers of Harmony-Celebrate Age!
I'm delighted to have this be my initial offering for the magazine. Executive Editor Arati Menon has asked me to write some words several times a year to bridge the gap between the transformational work being done in the US relative to ageing, and the same creative spirit occurring in India. I'm delighted to have my first two pieces highlighting the work of two remarkable Indian immigrants who have shared their skill and their compassion as they work now in the US.
Today's words recognise a brilliant friend of mine, a soulful man from Mangalore who has helped transform thousands of lives, one heart at a time. Vivian Tellis Nayak, professor, author, motivator, gerontologist, researcher, he is all of the above. He is as comfortable passionately defending the rights of the elderly as he is whispering a ridiculous joke into your ear when he thinks no one is noticing.
His upbringing in India is a fascinating one. He was one of 14 children, his mother was not literate, his father with only three years of formal schooling. Yet of those 14 kids, from such a humble beginning, three have become PhDs and one an MD. His spirit of perseverance obviously runs in the family.
In 1967, at the age of 31, Vivian made his inaugural visit to the US. At that point in his life, he was an ordained priest. He needed to come to the US in order to study for his PhD in sociology; his life was driven in a spiritual direction. The priesthood seemed destined to be his life's journey, but events got in the way and diverted his course. He met the crown jewel of his life, Mary, while studying in the US. She was a nun at the time and they both, rather dramatically, stepped down from their religious callings to start a life together. I don't pretend to have an inside track as to how God thinks, but when you look at the thousands of lives these two people have changed I think it's all good from His perspective!
Vivian continued his path towards higher education, becoming a professor at Hartwick College in upstate New York, teaching sociology for 10 years. While at Hartwick, he led four (three-month) off-campus programs to India, introducing 120 students to the culture of his motherland. He then taught at St Xavier University in Chicago for 17 years. As he reflects on his life, his biggest satisfaction comes from the hundreds of students that have long since started their own careers, individuals that tell him how meaningful he was to them and how he opened their minds as students—their lives changed for the better from him being a part of their journey—especially the students he took to India.
Throughout his academic career, Vivian developed a love for ageing, and for older people. As the years went by he became a sought-after research fellow, delivering countless papers and lectures on how to provide care for vulnerable older adults living in nursing homes and assisted living communities. He continues that work to this day. Mary has had her own passionate career in the field of ageing; to this day, she is a sought-after speaker working to transform the culture of nursing homes in the US.
Vivian professes a love for both of his countries, India and the United States. He misses intensely the friends and family in India that shaped his upbringing, which pains him more than anything else from his homeland. He returns frequently to India to be with his family. He appreciates the academic freedom that has existed in the US, a freedom that allowed him to openly publish articles and state positions without any fear of reprisal.
So a life lived well, a retired professor, a gerontologist in his later years—that would be an easy way to end this story; we could all give Vivian a casual word of thanks for his work and passion. But for me what elevates this man, as much as any person I have ever known, is the way he (with remarkable help from Mary) has come to terms with the devastation of living with Parkinson's for 22 years. Vivian openly shares that part of his journey, not wanting to hide his condition and not letting that condition define who he is.
It's not an easy journey, a brilliant mind trapped in a physical hell, but he makes that journey with grace, dignity and humour. I marvel at how he carries himself, with Mary holding his hand along the way. In fact, Mary and Vivian received a lifetime achievement award in 2013 from the American Health Care Association (our long-term care provider association) for their work to improve quality in nursing homes and assisted living in the US.
There's no end to the energy of this man. Regardless of his age, or his disability, he just keeps moving forward, one shuffling step after another. He has just published a book, Return of Compassion to Health Care, available on Amazon India, which provides a glimpse into his work with ageing, and a window into his soul. It's a great read; I recommend it highly.
So Vivian, keep on inspiring, keep on smiling, keep on whispering those bad jokes in my ear. You're an inspiration to thousands, and a brother to me. My life, like so many of your students, has been enriched by your presence. It's an honour to briefly share your journey.
York is co-founder of It's Never 2 Late ® (iN2L), an American company dedicated to helping older adults realise the full benefits of today's technology
Pix courtesy: Jack York
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
Mukul Sharma tells you how to keep those grey cells ticking Everyone will ultimately lose his or her brain….