Thanks Dalai - I'm almost pleased to hear that - but I still recall Rosea being closed for so long (and not so long ago) because (it was reported) of the concern that a tree might fall on someone.
Thanks Tracey for all of your liaison work and for keeping us up to date.
Hey Tracey, do they have a map highlighting the roads that are closed from where to where sort of thing?
And thanks for all the work your putting in..
>where to where sort of thing?
>And thanks for all the work your putting in..
You can find one here http://www.vicclimb.org.au/includes/file.php?id=328 which is the latest one I have.
"Depending on weather conditions we are hoping to open the main entry roads and visitor sites on the western side of the park by the end of August. This will include Glenelg River and Roses Gap Road, Billimina, Buandik, Manja, Red Rock area, Chimney Pots, Strachans and Boreang camping areas.
The roads are currently closed to all vehicles including bikes but this will change once the roads are open."
And to think that people looked surprised when I said quite bluntly "that area will remain closed till September at least. There is little point in Parks Vic scurrying to open it for the wet winter".
I havent really been follwing this situation and dont have a guide handy so dont know what the road closures mean in relation to individual crag access..... Is it possible to access Muline or the Gallery or are those the roads that are screwed??
>in Parks Vic scurrying to open it for the wet winter".
And I won't hold my breath.
Thanks for posting the map, Tracey. It looks like you can get close to Mt Rosea but not quite all the way. Is that right?
Anyone have any idea when the Halls gap dunkeld (Grampiand road) will be open???
>Mt Rosea but not quite all the way. Is that right?
The closest you can get to Rosea by road is the Silverband falls carpark, several kilometres from the start of the Rosea walking track. I'm not sure whether you're allowed to walk up the Silverband road - it may be a construction site.
Current estimate from Vicroads for Silverband falls road reopening is May 2012.
The viewpoint track to Sundial peak is open (national parks advice 10/6) but the advice notes that "there is no further access to other walking tracks from this point".
Perhaps you can enjoy the delights of Sundial Peak or the Lower Sundial, which is something like the Sydney Seacliffs without that locations redeeming features.
I have a vic roads update which i will post later - on the tram at mo.
Have an update meeting 10th august in halls gap so might get some more info then but think it will pretty much be along the lines as the last info. When we get to end of august, i suppose we will see if dates have changed.
@Doug Bruce. The rosea and bundaleer general area is probably one of the trickiest to access because the main roads that vicroads are handling are some of the most badly damaged so getting into them bar a really long hike is not going to be easy and i think you will find that accessing those closed roads on foot is still not an option.
information was current as at 4 July 2011.
Dunkeld and Silverband Falls Road.
Mt Difficult Road at the Boroka Lookout turnoff.
Victoria Valley Road to re-establish access between Halls Gap and Dunkeld.
• Works on Fyans Creek Bridge (No. 1) - 90% complete.
• Works on Fyans Creek Bridge (No. 2) - 5% complete.
• Works on Bovine Creek Bridge - 5% complete.
Silverband Road and Mt Abrupt - 80% percent complete.
• Installation of retaining walls to repair five landslips - 15% complete.
• Drainage repair works to culverts - 75% complete.
section beyond Silverband carpark has sustained very serious damage.
Just heard on the local ABC news that access to large parts of Gariwerd will be opened up "as early" as next week. A ranger was giving the statement (didn't catch his name). Specific roads weren't mentioned but Billimina (Buandik) campground was along with Strachans and "through to Wartook". This is great news for all of us who are missing our Vic Range fix.
This is very awesome news!!
Information was current as at 26 July 2011.
between Dunkeld and Silverband Falls Road.
and Mt Difficult Road at the Boroka Lookout turnoff.
• Fyans Creek Bridge (No. 1) - 95% complete. Road surfacing to be done.
continue on this bridge when the road is reopened.
• Bovine Creek Bridge - 50% complete.
• Installation of four major culverts - 90% complete.
between Silverband Road and Mt Abrupt have been completed.
permanent repairs as the weather improves.
sites making works difficult and slower than anticipated.
another landslip identified for repair.
weather is also delaying construction of endwalls and beaching placement.
• Drainage repair works to culverts and culvert installation - 75% complete.
to a single lane at this site. This site will be repaired as weather permits.
• The section between Grampians Road and Silverband car park is open.
Is it possible, then, to access Rosea from the Bundaleer side (Glenelg River Rd)?
It's not currently possible. At present all Parks roads in the Vic Valley are closed.
The announcement by Parks yesterday said that many of the main access roads will be opening in the next week but the roads weren't specified. It sounds like at least some of Glenelg River Road will be opened but the tracks from there to Rosea might be a different story.
The road past Eastern Wall to Bundaleer will definitely not be open - it's closed because of the rock wallaby project. The other possibility is the Stoney Creek Road but I would be surprised if that is opened this time. I might be wrong of course.


text:
COVID-19CulturePolitics
The Fate Of The Kings Of The Road
Philippine jeepneys are back on the street, but for how long?
By George Buid
A driver worried about his livelihood while sitting by the jeep terminal.
Image by George Buid ©2020
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George Buidhttp://www.georgebuid.com/
An independent photojournalist of the Philippines capturing life as it passes by. He contributes to different news outlet and press publications.
PHILIPPINES. Manila. The transportation sector has been one of the most affected industries during the coronavirus pandemic. The public utility jeeps (PUJ), or jeepneys, are among the many business casualties of the COVID-19 lockdown. Operators have lost their livelihoods since the start of the quarantine in March 2020.
The traditional Philippine jeepney is also called the king of the road in the Philippines.
Stranded without income. The lockdown left the local road kings without a way to make money. Driving is the only means of making a living for many Philippine jeepney operators. A driver was reduced to begging on 11 April. City authorities detained him after seeing him plead for money in the streets. Transcontinental Times returned on 19 April and spoke with the former operator turned beggar. Mang Elvie, the jeepney driver who had been detained for beseeching money, said he´s in a bad situation. He and many other drivers don't know what to do for money. The local government has offered no financial aid or food packs. He can't go back to Occidental Mindoro, where he lives, because of the lockdown. Many of the displaced drivers only receive help from their neighbors or from those passing by and feel motivated to drop a coin into an upturned hat for charity. Sadly, it´s not enough for the nine of them currently living at the jeepney terminal.
A jeepney driver begging at the side of the road.
The government finally allowed jeepneys to resume operations. After three months, the government decided to allow the jeepneys to operate as of 3 July. The Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB), released the guidelines for roadworthy vehicles with Memorandum Circular 2020-026 under the general community quarantine. Each driver has to download their own QR codes from the LTFRB website. Each vehicle has to follow special health protocols. At present, the government is only allowing 49 jeepney routes to resume. A group of drivers told Transcontinental Times that the government succeeded in phasing out the traditional jeepneys. Since May 2017, the government planned to replace the traditional conveyance with more modernized jeepneys. The updated vehicles run on Euro 4-compliant diesel engines or as electric vehicles.
The electric jeepney is an eco friendly vehicle.
This is modernized jeepney that will replace the traditional jeepneys.
Jeepney drivers protest against the phase out of the traditional jeepneys.
The last hurrah for the road kings? Most of the Philippine jeepneys running since 6 July are doing so with shorter routes. The operators are following the health protocols established to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, the group of drivers who work the Boni Ave. to Stop and Shop route, which includes Mang Elvie, are dismayed. They said that when their franchise expired on 31 Dec., the government wouldn´t allow them to renew. This could be a sign of the times and the final days of the traditional jeepneys.
jeepneys
LTFRB
passangers
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Advancing excipient science, quality, and safety
Excipient World
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Learn more about our special events.
Excipient World is the leading education, networking and sourcing resource for the $6+ billion and growing global excipient market. It's the ONLY U.S. event focused exclusively on excipients and their vital role in the development, formulation, quality, compliance and availability of drugs and consumer healthcare products.
Excipient World showcases formulation and delivery system advances, regulatory and compliance initiatives, innovative product applications, manufacturing technologies and equipment, supply chain solutions, testing, contract manufacturing and other manufacturing services year round, enabling professionals in pharmaceutical, biologic, veterinary medicine, combination medical device and consumer healthcare manufacturing to meet consumer demands and remain competitive.
Excipient World's mission is to educate all excipient-user manufacturers on the business, science, quality and safe use of excipients as well as proven excipients and delivery advancements for drugs and products in the pipeline, while bringing buyers and suppliers together to power worldwide excipient sales and innovations.
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An IPEC-Americas event, the premier international resource on excipients
Excipients are vital to pharmaceutical, biologic and consumer healthcare product manufacturers. Only Excipient World offers a deep dive into the inactive ingredients sector to help manufacturers source the right solutions and produce innovative, safe and effective drugs, animal drugs and healthcare products.
Excipient World addresses the needs of ALL manufacturing roles from R&D and formulation, quality and regulations, to supply chain and procurement.
Katherine Eban Keynote and Book Signing at Excipient World
"In a vivid and detailed talk, Katherine Eban will take the audience into the hidden world of endemic fraud and perilous conditions in some overseas manufacturing plants that make America's low-cost drugs and drug ingredients." Learn more…
Katherine will be available to sign copies of her bestselling book, Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom, after the keynote session.
Join formulators, R&D, engineering & operations, regulatory & compliance, quality assurance / control, supply chain, scientists and chemists and other manufacturing professionals from across the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada to learn about new excipient innovations, technologies and solutions that can help manufacturers achieve better functionality, meet supply demands and avoid compliance and quality issues.
Connect with buyers and influencers from pharmaceutical, biologic, veterinary medicine, combination device and consumer healthcare product manufacturers that are focused on excipients and spend quality time with every exhibitor to learn about and source solutions and services.
The internationally recognized conference is the most comprehensive and forward-thinking education program on all areas of manufacturing and excipient solutions. The three-day program, presented by leading manufacturing, government and academic industry experts, includes in-depth workshops and education sessions on formulation, regulatory & compliance, supply chain and emerging trends and innovations.
Excipient World 2022 will be held at the beautiful Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center, located in Kissimmee, Florida. This spectacular venue will provide world-class accommodations and services, while providing an intimate setting for learning and networking.
Come early or stay late to enjoy all that the Orlando metro area has to offer.
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By Excipient World Team	/ May 6, 2020
Crisis Management – is your company ready to manufacture needed drugs when disasters and pandemics happen? No industry is immune from disasters or pandemics, and many are thrust into the middle or greatly impacted because of them. Earthquakes, fires, typhoons,...
The Critical Role of Excipients in the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Fight
Excipient Solutions
By IPEC-Americas	/ March 31, 2020
Excipients play a critical role in the development of new biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines to fight coronavirus and other diseases As companies rush to develop new biopharmaceuticals, drug products, vaccines, and re-purpose older drug products to fight COVID-19, the importance...
By Excipient World Team	/ April 10, 2019
See what's new in the world of excipients at Excipient World 2019 – new solutions, services, supplier offerings and more The role of excipients in the global market is rapidly evolving. Discover all the new inactive ingredients & solutions, manufacturing...
IPEC-Americas demystifies the presence of gluten in pharmaceuticals
By Mike Greene	/ January 14, 2019
IPEC-Americas Regulatory Affairs Committee Gluten Working Group recently published an article in Tablets & Capsules that discusses the amounts of gluten content in pharmaceutical excipients and clarifies common misconceptions about gluten presence in pharmaceutical products. The concern is that gluten...
To use Talc or not to use Talc: Should this even be a Question?
By Mike Greene	/ November 15, 2018
Magnesium silicate (MgSiO3) when hydrated is most commonly known as "Talc". In the pharmaceutical industry, talc is used primarily as a glidant to improve powder flow in tablet compression. Of course, talc is also used by the personal care industry...
IPEC-Americas to Acquire Global Excipient Event
ExcipientFest Rebranded to Excipient World to better address the growing global demand for excipient education and sourcing Press Release Arlington, VA, May 1st, 2018 – The International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council of the Americas, IPEC-Americas, the leading industry association that develops,...
Growing Global Demand for Excipients
Consumer demand for new and innovative drug, over-the-counter, and regulated consumer products is helping to fuel the growth of the excipient market. According to American Pharmaceutical Review's article, the excipients market could reach $9.9 B by 2021: Building on Strength:...
The Vital Role of Excipients
By Excipient World Team	/ April 9, 2018
Excipient World 2019 will showcase excipient innovations on the exhibit floor and in the education program to help pharma, biologics, veterinary medicine and combined medical device manufacturers in the formulation and delivery system process to serve consumers better and produce...
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Excipient World is an IPEC-Americas brand. All Excipient World net proceeds are used exclusively to support IPEC-Americas mission as well as industry education & research initiatives.
IPEC-Americas is the industry association that develops, implements, and promotes global use of appropriate quality, safety, and functionality standards for pharmaceutical excipients and excipient delivery systems. IPEC-Americas, along with our counterparts around the world, serves as the primary international resource on excipients for its members, governments and public audiences.
Copyright 2018 Excipient World, an International Pharmaceutical Excipients Council of the Americas event. All rights reserved.
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Title: Novel or Not? Our Inadvertent Journey Filing a Novel Excipient.
Date/Time: Wednesday, July 22, 11 AM (Eastern)
Featuring: Kara Quinn, Associate Director Engineering, Merck & Co.
A first-hand account of the challenges to realizing, determining, and confirming the novel status of an inactive ingredient in a Phase III Clinical drug product. Quickly followed by lessons learned on the proactive characterization of inactive ingredients, whether novel or not.
The goal of the presentation is to inform the audience on the inherent complexities to effectively identifying, defining, and characterizing a novel excipient.
The presentation will review a first-hand account of:
The factors influencing the internal debate
The strategies developed to solicit regulatory confirmation
The approach to "retrospective" characterization
Necessary remediation efforts
Hindsight is 20/20, I wish I knew then…
Remaining challenges to the effective identification of novel excipients today
The attendee will take away a practical example of one company's journey in the perceived "flying blind" process of novel excipient approval and guidance for proactively navigating, if you must.
Purchasing and Supply Chain
Presenter Bio:
Kara Quinn has over 25 years of experience in the Biopharmaceutical industry supporting large molecule (biologics & vaccine) development, commercialization, and licensure through a range of disciplines including Quality, Regulatory, Process Technology, and Clinical. Currently at Merck & Co., Inc., Kara serves as a subject matter expert in the fit-for-use qualification of procured raw materials and excipients. Kara's participation in industry forums have enabled her to drive alignment between biopharmaceutical manufacturers and raw material suppliers on a shared standard for risk assessments published September 2019 at www.biophorum.com.
Check your inbox for an email with the link to download the "Improving Manufacturing Efficiency & Functional Performance: Co-processed Multifunctional Excipients" presentation.
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New Excipient Regulations in China and its Impact on Imported Drugs
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Title: Toxicology for the 21st Century: What is in the Box for Excipients?
Date/Time: Wednesday, July 8, 11 AM (Eastern)
Featuring: Dr. Thomas Hartung, Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Hartung will discuss revolutionary changes in how we predict human safety by assessing biological effects of chemicals in novel ways independent from the limitations associated with traditional animal-based toxicology.
Objectives for this webinar include:
Illustrate the limitations of animal-based toxicology to predict human safety
Describe the benefits of "disruptive technologies" on product development and safety assessment
Explore specific examples of emerging technologies and their impact on standardization and reproducibility
People from the following areas would be interested in this webinar:
Full Webinar Description:
The limitations of animal-based toxicology to predict human health threats are widely recognized. We also are discovering more shortcomings of traditional (human) cell culture such as cell identity, differentiation, genetic stability and mycoplasma infection as well as non-homeostatic and non-physiological culture conditions. The increasing pace of technological developments of modern cell culture and their integration leads to what is called "disruptive technologies" that can lead to the development of alternatives to traditional approaches for product development and safety assessment.
Such technological advances promise to be real "game-changers". Combined with an increased mechanistic base of reasoning (e.g. Adverse Outcome Pathway concepts), Integrated Testing Strategies and evidence-based methods of data evaluation and integration, a revolutionary change for how we assess the biological effects of substances has been set into motion.
Thomas Hartung, MD PhD, is the Doerenkamp-Zbinden-Chair for Evidence-based Toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, with a joint appointment at the Whiting School of Engineering. He also holds a joint appointment for Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Bloomberg School. In addition, he holds a joint appointment as Professor for Pharmacology and Toxicology at University of Konstanz, Germany; he also is Director of Centers for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT, http://caat.jhsph.edu) of both universities. He is adjunct professor at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.
CAAT hosts the secretariat of the Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration (http://www.ebtox.org), the Good Read-Across Practice Collaboration, the Good Cell Culture Practice Collaboration, the Green Toxicology Collaboration and the Industry Refinement Working Group. As PI, he headed the Human Toxome project funded as an NIH Transformative Research Grant. He is Chief Editor of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence.
He is the former Head of the European Commission's Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), Ispra, Italy, and has authored more than 560 scientific publications.
Title: Vision for FDA's Inactive Ingredient Database in 2020 and Beyond
Date/Time: Wednesday, September 16, 11 AM (Eastern)
Featuring: Susan Zuk, MS, Branch Chief, Office of Policy for Pharmaceutical Quality, OPQ, CDER, FDA
The FDA's IID is used in drug development decisions by industry and application assessment decisions by FDA. In the year 2020 the IID will change. How will these changes affect excipient suppliers and drug product applicants? Find out what is changing in 2020 and how you can be prepared.
This webinar will cover:
How FDA plans to ensure the IID remains accurate, current, and searchable
How the changes will impact the formulator and their selection of excipients
FDA process and timing for updating the IID with inclusion of MDE
Evaluation of potential changes and how will current potency values be linked to new MDEs
Process transparency for industry to evaluate integrity of data and impact of changes
Excipients, the inactive ingredients in pharmaceutical products, are essential drug product components that facilitate drug delivery, promote solubility, improve taste and, in general, allow active pharmaceutical ingredients to be transformed into useable dosage forms. For over 30 years, FDA has published the Inactive Ingredient Database (IID), a publicly available list of the excipients used in FDA approved drug products, as a tool for drug development. Over the years, FDA has made small gradual improvements to the IID in response to requests from industry. But the format and information provided in the IID remained basically the same.
In 2019, FDA published a draft guidance for industry on use of the IID. This guidance not only provided advice to industry on how the IID can best be used to develop drug products and prepare applications, but also identified plans for important future IID enhancements that will be made by October 2020. In 2020, the IID will change in some significant and positive ways as FDA fulfills the commitments made to industry under the 2017 reauthorization of the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments (GDUFA II). What will the IID look like when these commitments are fulfilled? How will these changes impact drug applications, especially with respect to qualification of the excipients used in those drug products? What are the advantages of the IID's new structure? Are there still unaddressed needs?
In this presentation, FDA will identify all the changes that have occurred in preparation for fulfilling our GDUFA II commitments for the IID and changes yet to come in 2020. FDA will provide its vision for the IID as an essential tool for drug development.
Susan holds a BS in Chemistry from Syracuse University and a MS in Biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University. During her 19 years with the FDA, she served in the Office of Generic Drugs as a Chemistry Team Leader for many years, specializing in antibiotics. She joined the Office of Policy for Pharmaceutical Quality in 2015 and is currently a Branch Chief in the Division of Regulations, Guidance and Standards. She is the lead for the FDA's Inactive Ingredient Database (IID). In this role, she is responsible for overseeing IID improvements. Susan has served on many FDA committees and working groups related to product safety and quality. She is currently a member of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Excipient Working Group.
Title: Clinical Relevance: Why are Enteric Coatings Failing In Vivo?
Date/Time: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 11 AM (Eastern)
Featuring: Daniela Amaral Silva, PhD Candidate, University of Alberta
Over the last 70 years many cases of in vivo failure of enteric coated (EC) formulations have been reported. This webinar is designed to help participants understand the underlying science behind the unpredictable in vivo performance of enteric coated formulations.
Raise awareness of the unpredictable in vivo performance of enteric coated formulations
Elucidate the complex interaction between bicarbonate buffer and enteric coating polymers
Describe an in vitro study investigating the performance of drug products in both compendial buffer and physiologically relevant bicarbonate buffer
Explore possible approaches for a better quality control method for EC products
Over the last 70 years many cases of in vivo failure of enteric coated (EC) formulations have been reported. EC products present a marked slower dissolution in physiologically relevant buffer which seems to be the cause for the observed in vivo failures. There is a hidden performance problem with EC products. Upon reaching the intestinal lumen, the dosage form is exposed to an environment buffered by bicarbonate at much lower molarities than those applied in compendial methods with phosphate buffer. Thus, this presentation aims to raise awareness of this matter and to elucidate the complex interaction between bicarbonate buffer and enteric coating polymers. An in vitro study investigating the performance of drug products from the market in both compendial buffer and physiologically relevant bicarbonate buffer will be covered. The results clearly indicate that the in vitro performance of EC products is highly dependent on the ionic composition and molarity of the medium. In fact, this seems to impact the coat opening more than bulk pH. Consequently, the generally accepted concept of a dissolution pH threshold for enteric coating polymers is questionable in bicarbonate buffer. Hence, the physiological aspect of bicarbonate buffer should be taken into account during the formulation development process to avoid possible failures due to insufficient drug release. Analysis of possible approaches for a better quality control method for EC products will foster an environment for rich discussion.
Daniela obtained her BSc in pharmacy from the University of Sao Paulo in 2017. During her undergraduate studies she was a recipient of the Science Without Borders scholarship for an exchange program at the University of Toledo, OH (2014 – 2015). During the year of 2016 she worked at Johnson & Johnson in the regulatory affairs division. Daniela was recipient of the University of Alberta Research Experience award in 2017. In 2018 she joined the PhD program at Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Raimar Loebenberg. Daniela has clear understanding of the underlying sciences responsible for the complexity of oral drug absorption and has authored and co-authored many publications in great scientific journals. Daniela's main scientific interest is focused on formulation, delivery and quality in the drug development process.
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Angel of Tears (P1)
Chantel Lysette	Archangel Highlight, Moods, Spiritual Path	 December 4, 2019 December 6, 2019 7 Minutes
Recently, at the 2019 Shadow Angels gathering, Archangel Cassiel took all the attendees on a tour of his angelic mansion. The timid, soft-spoken angel invited us into his world with open arms, revealing sections I hadn't ever seen before, despite having visited his mansion many times in the past.
An angelic mansion is immeasurable. Literally. Each one is its own world, in its own universe, designed and built by a single archangel. According to Archangel Michael, the angelic mansion was one of the first exercises the Creator assigned to help the archangels flex their creative muscles. Michael also said it was the Creator's way of assigning personal space to the archangels, thereby granting them a private place to decompress after having to deal with human drama day after day. And as I've come to know the archangels as close as family, I believe there is no one more deserving of a private get-away than the angel charged with sharing in the burden of humanity's most harrowing challenges.
Archangel Cassiel is the Angel of Tears and Sorrow. His name means "speed of God," and he is the patron of the downtrodden and unjustly persecuted. His power day is Saturday, his numerical vibration is zero (emptiness), his icons are the raven, the bat, and the howling wolf, to name a few. Cassiel is the regent of Saturn, thereby making him the angel of karma and retribution.
His original station was "angel of kings" up until his first human incarnation as the biblical Judas Iscariot. His brother and then-youngest archangel in Heaven, Immanuel, had personally asked Cassiel to play the role of the disciple. Immanuel would then incarnate as the biblical Jesus, and only well into the story would Judas's role be revealed. No one, except Immanuel and the Creator, knew the Jesus story beforehand.
The surprise, shock, and weight of Judas's betrayal nearly broke Cassiel, and upon returning home, the archangel resigned as a patron of royalty and instead took on the crusade for wounded souls. It was at this time that the archangels were given mansions, and the mansion we see today is the home that was built by Cassiel 2.0, in a manner of speaking. The original angel of kings had died with Judas, leaving the angel of tears and sorrow to build a surreal and deeply haunting world within the walls of what we humans yearningly call Heaven.
Upon entering Cassiel's mansion, you'll most likely manifest in a dark, misty churchyard. A gray and weathered one-room chapel stands against the backdrop of a shadowy forest. The soil is black, the air is cool, and regardless of the time you visit, there will always be autumn leaves scurrying about.
The scene reminds me of childhood visits to New England right on the cusp of fall and winter before the first snowfall – cold, dreary with muted hints of red and amber in a rolling countryside swath of blue-black.
The sun never rises here, but the night sky is resplendent with twinkling stars unless you make the mistake, as I have on occasion, of visiting during soft rainstorms, which Cassiel tends to prefer. Billowing gray clouds folding over and under dim streaks of pink, violet and silvery lightning, along with chilly autumnal showers, also make visiting the old chapel all the more alluring. Don't be fooled, however, into thinking you'll find warmth there. It's a shelter from the rain, a roof and four walls, and not much more in the ways of creature comforts.
As Cassiel, our angelic tour guide, walked ahead of us, he spoke in velvet whispers that drew us close to him but was otherwise his usual jumbled paradox of ancient sublime presence, modern geeky awkwardness, and timeless ethereal beauty. He towered over us that night, at about six-foot-four. With a mop of blue-black hair, which seemed to stand upon his head in defiance of any comb or brush, his features were as pale and as soft as the moon. From behind spiky bangs, large gray eyes twinkled like wintry stars, always so full of sadness despite the soft, timid smile he held for us that evening.
As patron of introverts, Cassiel is highly reclusive and doesn't entertain much at all, which made his tour even more endearing. With a slightly bowed head and darting side glances, it was obvious the angel wasn't completely comfortable with us there, but he had invited us. He was trying. After all, he was an angel used to an eternity in the company of tortured, anguished souls on Earth. Having ten eager and smiling faces gazing up at him as if he were a rock star during this tour was not something he's used to. Being the center of attention is more of Archangel Michael's flavor.
"I cleaned up a bit, but I still like for the place to look aged, I guess. Like Time lives, dwells here," he nervously stammered as he shoved open the large wooden doors. We all stepped into the chapel. The old wooden floorboards creaked under our weight, but to my surprise, they had been swept clean. Usually, the floor was dusty and covered with dried autumn leaves, but not tonight. He wasn't kidding when he said he'd tidied the place. The cobwebs were gone and he had repaired the shattered pews that I had become accustomed to. In their place were eight wooden pews, four on each side, polished and glinting in the moonlight.
As we gathered in the center of the room, Cassiel directed our attention to the stained glass windows, which are one of the mansion's main attractions. "The windows are under construction," he pointed up at Archangel Michael's image. "I'm replacing the glass with special crystals grown by our fae neighbors. I love how the crystals bend the light." He then gestured to the floor, and the moonbeam through the crystals seemed to dance and twist in ways that almost made it seem alive. On the floor, the points of light twinkled, like tiny winged fairies. I couldn't help but grin and wonder if Cassiel's goth side was starting to soften after all these eons. I mean, there was no moon visible in the sky during any part of the tour. The celestial lights and weather in this mansion seem to occur at Cassiel's whim, but regardless of whether there is a moon up above, there are always moonbeams piercing through the darkness of the old chapel, adding a sense of magic and whimsy to an otherwise gloomy setting.
"Uriel made the chandelier," the angel pointed a pale, slender finger to the ceiling. Now this, among many other things, was new to me. For as large as the ornate wrought iron fixture was, I somehow never saw it in all my previous visits through my mind's eye.
Measuring roughly nineteen inches high and twenty-four inches in diameter on its lowest tier, the three-tiered wedding cake chandelier swung precariously overhead. Each tier was an elegant wrought iron vine of black roses and thorns. Uriel, the Angel of Armageddon and Heaven's chief archer, is known for his acerbic attitude, general disdain for humanity, and eagerness to rain fire and brimstone on human worlds. In every sense of the word, Uriel is a destroyer, which is why I found myself entranced by the chandelier. I've come to expect and appreciate the terrible and frightening beauty in how Uriel brings worlds to an end, and so I was completely caught off guard by this delicate sculpture. It was created by hands that, up til now, I always associated with chaos and righteous fury. To see Uriel's artistry in something other than weaponry, war and death made me realize that there's still so much to discover about the archangels.
"And up there behind you is the loft," Cassiel swiveled and pointed above the entrance doors. "I have a small pallet up there where I sleep. A few books. Not much." Speaking of discoveries, I knew Cassiel was an angel of dreams and dreamscapes, but I never knew he slept.
Despite what's displayed in all those adorable cherub figurines your grandmother collected from the Hallmark store, angels don't sleep. Sure, Archangel Michael has told me dozens of times that he and little Archangel Sandalphon fall asleep during Archangel Gabriel's "boring" lectures, but I always thought that was Michael and Sandalphon's way of annoying Gabriel. Angels prank each other all the time.
Sleep, however, isn't something that I hear much about, not in reference to angels, at least. Noticing the obvious confusion on our faces, Cassiel smiled and shrugged, "Yes, I like to sleep." He then muttered in afterthought, "Not enough of us do."
As he tucked his hands in the pockets of his vintage leather biker jacket, he continued, "I like dreaming." And after a beat of silence, barely a breath from us humans, the angel chuckled lightly in his own defense, "Hey, you humans are asleep and dreaming all the time." His crystal gray eyes darted between us, his pale cheeks turned rosy. An angel of divine secrets, this patron of introverts looked as if he were starting to regret inviting us to his humble home. As he nervously cleared his throat and dug his index finger into his hair to scratch an uncomfortable itch, he stepped past the group and headed toward a door at the front of the chapel, the steel buckles on his jacket jingling.
"Watch yourselves, there's a small step here," he quickly disappeared outside to hold the door open for us. It creaked on its hinges. "Sorry. I gotta get some oil on that, I guess," his soft voice flowed in through the door on an autumn breeze. By this point, I couldn't help but to be completely enthralled by this enchanting real time display of God-becoming-man.
Here we were, a group of seekers, curious human souls, in the presence of an archangel – our Creator's great and immeasurable power wrapped up in a bite-sized package for easier spiritual consumption. Through Cassiel we watch the Creator experience pain and sadness just as we do. In this way, each archangel is a facet of the Creator, a complex blend of human characteristics that allow us humans to draw nearer to the Source, the origin of our being, in order to facilitate greater learning and understanding of ourselves.
And in this very intimate moment, we are allowed to see vulnerability in a supreme and divine being. Cassiel, a high-ranking warrior angel, is the Creator's way of showing us that it is willing to experience pain just as humans must, that it will not simply walk as an invisible, intangible observer beside us in our tribulations, but open itself up to every emotion we feel. From the way Cassiel averts his eyes and bows his head – dare I say, in an almost obsequious manner – shows us that the Creator isn't coldly, callously dropping us into these harsh dreamworlds, illusions crafted for the folly of humans. No, quite the contrary.
God is, has been, and always will be right here in the trenches alongside the very human souls (s)he has drafted into existence. (To be continued…)
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It's never a dull day in Florida. A woman posing as a masseuse robbed a poker player for $76,000 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood. Due to swift detective work, local police apprehended the woman who had stolen cash, poker chips, and a Patek Philippe worth $50,000.


text:
Westlake star center Will Baker chooses Texas
by: Chris Tavarez
Posted: Nov 9, 2018 / 05:55 AM CST / Updated: Nov 9, 2018 / 08:13 PM CST
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Westlake senior Will Baker is staying home.
The seven-foot, five-star center chose Texas on Wednesday at a commitment ceremony at his high school. He chose the Longhorns over UCLA. Stanford and Georgetown were in his final four, and he also had an offer from nearly every major program in the country.
"When it came down to it, Texas is the best fit for me," Baker said. "One reason is coach Shaka Smart. he's committed to my success as a player. I feel like I'd be successful there and he would really utilize my offensive abilities. Secondly, I think I fit in with the guys really well there, the other players. I'm really looking forward to playing with Matt Coleman."
During the Texas Tip-Off preseason event, Coleman, a sophomore point guard this year, was actively recruiting Baker, walking around the court with a poster that said "WE WANT WILL #BAKESHOW".
According ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports, Baker is considered a top-10 center in the country.
As a junior, Baker helped lead the Chaps to the state semifinals, before losing to Allen. He averaged over 19 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. In a district that featured loads of D1 talent, including fellow teammates Matthew Mayer, who is now at Baylor, Xavier freshman Keonte Kennedy and current Longhorn Brock Cunningham, Baker was named district 25-6A MVP.
Baker pointed to head coach Shaka Smart's development of big men for why he chose thee Longhorns. In his first three years ont he 40 Acres, Smart's sent both Mo Bamba and Jarrett Allen, a fellow Austin product, to the NBA after just one year on campus.
"Texas has a really good past history with developing big guys," Baker said. "Tthat's important to me, as well. They have that history, so hopefully I can just improve as much as I can like they did their freshman year."
Baker is the third member of UT's 2019 recruiting class, joining fellow center, Kai Jones, and Donovan Williams. Both are four-star recruits according to 247Sports.
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text:
Luba (o San Carlos de Luba) es la segunda ciudad más grande de la isla de Bioko en Guinea Ecuatorial, está situada a 52 kilómetros de la ciudad de Malabo, siendo capital de la provincia de Bioko Sur, ciudad costera, soleada y acogedora.

Historia
La bahía de Luba fue descubierta en 1471 por el explorador portugués Fernando Poo. En la bahía de Boloko, el Conde de Arjelejos (Brigadier Don Fernando Felipe de los Santos Toro) desembarcó el 24 de octubre de 1778 para tomar posesión de los Territorios del Golfo de Guinea, a bordo de los buques Santa Catalina, Soledad y el bergantín Santiago tomando posesión del lugar en nombre de Carlos III, construyéndose así una pequeña población en la bahía. La ciudadela fue bautizada como San Carlos debido a que el brigadier conde de Argelejos y el teniente coronel Primo de Rivera, desembarcaron por primera vez, enarbolando la bandera española, en aquellas playas fernandinas, bajo el reinado de Carlos III. En honor al rey español se le dio este nombre a la población de la bahía.

Con la dictadura de Francisco Macías se cambió el nombre a San Carlos de Luba en honor a Luba, jefe (botuku) del poblado bubi de Balaché, quien encabezó una revuelta contra los españoles en 1910 (su cuerpo descansa a la entrada de la ciudad a Luba). Existen igualmente varias calles en ciudades del país, con el nombre de Botuku Luba, en su memoria. En enero de 1998 se produjo una revuelta bubi cuyos eventos principales ocurrieron en Luba.

Datos de interés

La población estimada en 2003 era de 6800 personas. Se encuentra en la costa oeste, debajo de picos volcánicos, y es un puerto para la industria de la tala de árboles y desde el año 2002 de la industria petrolera. Fue un importante centro turístico internacional durante la colonización española.

Turismo
Paseo Marítimo,
Hospital Colonial,
Club Náutico de Luba,
Casino de Luba,
Manantial de Agua,
Colegio Claret,
Monumento al Conde de Argelejos,
Iglesia de Luba.

Curiosidades

Llama la atención la playa de arena blanca o playa de aleña, extensísima playa de aproximadamente 4 km.

Creación en 2004 de una nueva terminal en el puerto de Luba destinada a barcos petroleros.

En 2010 se inició la construcción de una nueva autopista desde Luba vía Belebú Balachá hasta la Reserva científica de la Caldera de Luba de San Antonio de Ureca, cerca de la costa sur de la isla de Bioko.

La Gran Caldera

Durante los años desde 1960 a 1968, se realizaron tres expediciones al interior de la Gran Caldera de San Carlos (hoy Luba). Las expediciones se realizaron en los periodos 1962-1963 y 1965-1966, participando el entonces periodista Luis Marhuenda, varios sacerdotes claretianos y un fotógrafo profesional, con profusión de publicaciones en texto e imágenes en la prensa y radio local de la entonces. Se llegó hasta el interior de la Gran Caldera y se dejaron hitos de marcación.

En aquellas fechas, las selvas del interior de la Gran Caldera eran verdaderamente vírgenes y ningún europeo las había penetrado hasta entonces. Los datos están publicados y se pueden consultar en números de la revista mensual de la época "La Guinea Española", editada por la Orden Claretiana.

Expediciones en la Gran Caldera en los años sesenta
Expedición de Herminio García Sastre
8 al 15 de mayo de 1962, integrada por:

Herminio García Sastre
Luís Jiménez Marhuenda
Ramón Burcet
Míguelo Atik
Padre Viñas
Tomás Siabú

Expedición de la Federación española de montañismo
22 al 28 de enero de 1963, integrada por:

Herminio García Sastre
Padre Viñas
Pedro Gavilán
Francisco Díaz
Bruno Etingue
Fernando Fernández
Benigno Palomar
Luís Jiménez Marhuenda
Tomás Siabú
Leoncio Riako (entonces con 18 años)
Raimundo Ebiolé

Expedición de Herminio García Sastre y J. M. Fernández Loaysa (Teniente de Navío)
19 al 24 de febrero de 1963, integrada por:

J. M. Fernández Loaysa
Herminio García Sastre
Raimundo Ebiolé
y otros

Expedición de la Misión Católica
2 al 13 de enero de 1966, integrada por:

Hermano Agustín Fernández
Padre José María Viñas
Hermano Felipe Núñez
Hermano Manuel Blanco
Hermano Manuel Cabreros
Raimundo Ebiolé
Tomás Siabú
Leoncio Riako

Véase también
 Anexo:Localidades de Guinea Ecuatorial

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Localidades de Bioko Sur
Municipios de Bioko Sur

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The Chicago Fire ended the Charleston Battery's remarkable run in the 2004 US Open Cup, while continuing to save their own lackluster season, with a 1-0 extra time victory. A severe thunderstorm delayed the second half kickoff for nearly two hours. With the weather and the strong defense of both teams, there was little in the way of offensive chances during regular time. It was during the second half of extra time that Chicago stuck. Orlando Perez and Dipsy Selolwane once again teamed up to score the game winning goal. The two had combined to score the goal that eliminated Richmond in the previous round, and this time, Selolwane again converted off a cross from Perez to send the Fire to their second Lamar Hunt US Open Cup final in as many years.
At the start of the match, one thing was certain, the winner would make their first ever Lamar Hunt US Open Cup final appearance, and that team turned out to be Kansas City. The Earthquakes suffered a setback early on, when US international forward Brian Ching was forced to leave the game with a sprained left ankle. As both teams kept a fast pace action, it was the Wizards that found the net for the only goal of the game. Just before halftime, Josh Wolff was brought down in the box, and Igor Simutenkov converted the penalty to give KC a 1-0 lead going into halftime. San Jose turned up the heat in an effort to find an equalizer, but Kansas City's defense held on to secure their clubs first finals appearance in the competition that bears their owners name.
Bo Oshoniyi (GK), Taylor Graham, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga Jr., Igor Simutenkov (Preki 46') (Justin Detter 80'), Diego Gutierrez, Kerry Zavagnin, Alex Zotinca, Josh Wolff (Jack Jewsbury 74'), Davy Arnaud.
Jon Conway (GK), Craig Waibel, Jeff Agoos, Ryan Cochrane (Eddie Robinson 76'), Todd Dunivant, Brian Mullan, Ronnie Ekelund (Tighe Dombrowski 56'), Richard Mulrooney, Dwayne De Rosario, Landon Donovan, Brian Ching (Arturo Alvarez 7) (Chris Brown 71).


Note: Select one of the following server to start downloading apk file for Elite Commando.
This is a simple and fun application.. You have to save the man from the balls falling on him.
Missing summer already? Why not play beach tennis to feel like that beach vacation never ended!? Now you can with this super fun app!


text:
Q: How to use the NSTimer inside of the for loop iphone? Am very new to iPhone application development. Am adding the events to iCal from my iphone app. The user can add multiple events at a time to iCal from the app. If the user add above 50 events to iCal, the event does not adding in iCal and the app getting crash. So, i want to avoid the app crash. So, i planned to delay the adding event to iCal inside the for loop(While the loop is in running state). How can i pause the  For loop running and continue the for loop after 10 sec's delay. Meanwhile the for loop should continue after 10 sec's from where it was paused. How can i do this? Any ideas? Please help to solve my problem? Thanks in advance.

A: The best way to do what you're after is an NSOperationQueue but it's a bit technical. Something like this might be easier to understand:
Header:
NSMutableArray *events;

When you specify your list of events:
events = /*....*/;
[self nextOp];

The nextOp method:
-(void)nextOp {
    // Do 10 events at a time.
    int stop = MIN(10,[events count]);
    for (int i = 0; i < stop; i++) {
        //Add [events objectAtIndex:i] to iCal
    }

    // Remove these processed events.
    [events removeObjectsInRange:NSMakeRange(0,stop)];
    if ([events count] > 0) {
        // We've still got more events to go, so schedule our next call
        [self performSelector:@selector(nextOp) withObject:nil afterDelay:10];
    } else {
        [events release];
        events = nil;
    }
}

A: You should not pause loops on iOS.  If you cannot complete your processing promptly and synchronously, you should exit the loop and exit the method containing the loop.
To complete your loop's processing, your app should start another iteration of the loop later, such as in a callback from a completion delegate, a timer, a performselector, or an operation queue.  The latter methods can include a delay.  You will have to know how to unstructure loops and how to save local state to do this.  Exiting a loop with a callback in place is roughly equivalent to a delayed "GOTO" statement.
For an NSTimer call to be useful in loop processing, you need to exit your loop and method, as only then will the timer's callback selector be called.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
HOTA $60.5 Million Dollar Gallery Opens
Contemporary cultural precinct HOTA, Home of the Arts opens the major new $60.5 million HOTA Gallery on Australia's Gold Coast this Saturday 8 May 2021.
Spanning six levels and including over 2,000m2 of AAA rated, international standard exhibition space and a dedicated Children's Gallery, HOTA Gallery is the largest public gallery outside a capital city in Australia.
Celebrating artists from across Australia and the world, HOTA Gallery presents world premiere international exhibitions, Australian exclusives and new commissions, and is home to the $32 million City Collection, consisting of more than 4,400 artworks.
Designed by award-winning Melbourne-based architects ARM, the gallery is the latest addition to Australia's dynamic new arts precinct, HOTA, Home of the Arts, sitting on the banks of the Nerang River on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The Gallery is the centrepiece of the City's Cultural Precinct master plan which guides the evolution of the precinct over the next 10-15 years.
Criena Gehrke, HOTA CEO said: 'We're delighted to throw open the doors and welcome the Gold Coast to the new HOTA Gallery for the first time. The Gallery will challenge everything people thought they knew about arts and culture on the Gold Coast, it's bold, unapologetic and completely unbound by tradition.
The Gallery's inaugural program launches with the major exhibition SOLID GOLD: Artists from Paradise (8 May – 4 July 2021). Commissioned by the Gallery, 19 emerging and established Australian artists and collectives, each with a personal connection to the Gold Coast region, have created new works exploring the relationship between people and place, the human impact on the natural world, as well as the urban environment and beauty of the landscape.
Artists including Hiromi Tango, Michael Candy, Abbey McCulloch, Samuel Leighton-Dore, Elliot Bastianon, CJ Anderson and Lisa Sorbie Martin have created indoor and outdoor works ranging from large-scale sculptures, ceramics, paintings, photography to immersive video and installations, presented throughout the Gallery and the surrounding HOTA parklands.
Tracy Cooper-Lavery, Director, Gallery and Visual Arts, HOTA said: 'It's absolutely fitting that the first ever major exhibition in HOTA Gallery is SOLID GOLD – Artists from Paradise, an exhibition of all new works by local artists. SOLID GOLD showcases the incredible depth of creativity and talent in our city and will position local artists into the national conversation.
'SOLID GOLD will be followed later in the year by Lyrical Landscapes – The Art of William Robinson and in November we will present Contemporary Masters, selected works from one of the world's largest private collections based in New York in an exhibition exclusive to HOTA Gallery. Visitors will be able to enjoy iconic works from legendary contemporary artists, such Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons.'
Acclaimed Queensland Waanyi artist Judy Watson and Sri-Lankan born, Sydney based artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran also present two major outdoor artworks commissioned by the Gallery. Responding to the history of the site and local Indigenous people, Brisbane based artist Judy Watson has created a multi-part sculptural garden work, serving as a place of gathering, education, knowledge, and ceremony for all visitors. For his largest sculpture to date, contemporary artist Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran has created a monumental six-metre high, double-sided sculpture welcoming visitors to the entrance of the Gallery.
Alongside the premiere exhibitions and new commissions, HOTA Gallery also presents works from the $32 million City Collection. Consisting of more than 4,400 artworks, the collection includes one of the largest collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in regional Australia.
Presented across three galleries, HOTA Collects showcases more than 100 works from the City Collection to reflect key developments in Australian art over the past 50 years, spanning abstraction, feminist art, Indigenous art, ceramics and twenty-first-century photography. The inaugural hang include works by Ben Quilty, Tony Albert, Julie Rrap, Jenny Orchard, Nell, Tracey Moffatt, Gordon Bennett, Michael Zavros, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Linde Ivimey, the Huxleys, Scott Redford, John Gollings, Kenneth Macqueen, Vida Lahey, Charles Blackman, Fred Williams, William Robinson and Ethel Carrick Fox.
The inaugural exhibition in the new dedicated Children's Gallery is World Upside Down (8 May – 10 October 2021). Working with Gold Coast artists Lowana Skye-Davies and Alinta Krauth, the Children's Gallery is an immersive space filled with interactive art and hands-on making activities, inspired by the themes found in the first two major exhibitions, Solid Gold and Lyrical Landscapes.
Major upcoming exhibitions include Lyrical Landscapes: The Art of William Robinson (31 July 2021) celebrating one of Australia's foremost living artists and greatest landscape painters and a world premiere exhibition exclusive to the Gold Coast and Australia, Contemporary Masters from New York: Art from the Mugrabi Collection (13 November 2021), drawn entirely from the famed art collectors private collection.
Tickets to the HOTA Gallery Launch weekend have proved some of the hottest in town, with all tickets being snapped up in under two hours. Following this, tickets to the first month of the HOTA Gallery experience were released, with over 1364 tickets allocated in the first 24 hours.
Although tickets for the Gallery's launch weekend have sold out, the local community can still join in on the celebrations with free music on the Outdoor Stage all weekend long.
The line up on Saturday the 8th of May will feature the Powerhouse Soul vocals and fiery frenetic instrumentation from Hussy Hicks, dreamy psych pop sunshine from EchoWave, the joyous colourful sounds of Samba, Bossa Nova from Augusta Street, the hip hop, soul, traditional rhythms from young First Nations band, Jarulah and Blackline Band and the funky, house, disco and soul vibes from DJ Felix.
Sunday 9th May will deliver a free concert of live and loud homegrown talent, Echoes of Gold. Featuring performances by Eliza & The Delusionals, Donny Love, San Mei, Alt Fiction, DENNIS. and DJ sets by VICES; hosted by Kate Baggerson and Zac Fahey, with live on stage interviews with artists, musos, and industry movers and shakers.
The Design Collective Markets have also curated a selection of Gold Coast and Queensland makers and retailers for a pop-up market selling a selection of boutique wares, who will be accompanied by food outlets and local brews.
Information on the 2021 exhibition program can be found at www.hota.com.au, with further details and programming to be announced in late 2021.
From Monday May 10 the Gallery is open to the public and free to visit from 10am, but bookings are required.
Surprise Announcement – Surfers Pavilion Opens This Weekend! BASK IN THE GLORY OF THE 80's GOLDEN YEARS


text:
package com.sun.j2ee.blueprints.waf.exceptions;

public class AppException extends RuntimeException {

    public AppException (String str) {
        super(str);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: No. of ways to choose $n$ things from $n$ alike "a" things $n$ alike "b" things and $n$ different things. No. of ways to choose $n$ things from $n$ alike "a" things $n$ alike "b" things and $n$ different things.
Answer is $(n+2)2^{n-1}$. But how to prove it..?

A: Assume that we are choosing n objects from $\{a,\cdots,a,b,\cdots,b, c_{1},\cdots,c_{n}\}$
where there are n a's and n b's.
If we choose k elements from $\{a,\cdots,a,b,\cdots,b\}$, there are $k+1$ ways to do this;
and then we still have to choose $n-k$ elements from $\{c_1,\cdots,c_n\}$,
which can be done in $\binom{n}{n-k}=\binom{n}{k}$ ways.
Therefore the total number of choices is given by $\displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{n} (k+1)\binom{n}{k}$.
Since $\displaystyle(x+1)^n=\sum_{k=0}^n \binom{n}{k}x^k$, $\;\;\;\;\;\displaystyle x(x+1)^n=\sum_{k=0}^n \binom{n}{k}x^{k+1}$;  so
differentiating gives
 $(x+1)^{n-1}[(n+1)x+1]=\displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{n} (k+1)\binom{n}{k}x^k$.
Now substituting $x=1$ gives that $\displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{n} (k+1)\binom{n}{k}=2^{n-1}(n+2)$.

Another way to evalutate this would be to split up the sum as
$\displaystyle\sum_{k=0}^{n} k\binom{n}{k}+\sum_{k=0}^n \binom{n}{k}$
to get $n2^{n-1}+2^n=2^{n-1}(n+2)$.

A: At this stage the combinatorial problem is not clear. We give a suggestion for dealing with a sum quite a bit like the one you have at the end of the post.
You seem to be asking for a closed form for something like
$$n\binom{n}{0}+(n-1)\binom{n}{1}+(n-2)\binom{n}{2}+\cdots +(1)\binom{n}{1}$$
Note that by the Binomial Theorem,
$$(x+1)^n=\binom{n}{0}x^n+\binom{n}{1}x^{n-1}+ \binom{n}{2}x^{n-2}+\cdots+\binom{n}{n-1}x+\binom{n}{n}.$$
Differentiate. We get
$$n(x+1)^{n-1}=n\binom{n}{0}x^{n-1}+(n-1)\binom{n}{1}x^{n-2}+(n-2)\binom{n}{2}x^{n-3}+\cdots+ (1)\binom{n}{n-1}.$$
Put $x=1$. We get
$$n2^n =n\binom{n}{0}+(n-1)\binom{n}{1}+(n-2)\binom{n}{2}+\cdots+\binom{n}{n-1}.$$


After a mid-week holiday, I've been in the mood for a Friday for several days now. Thank goodness it's finally here! I plan to do some scrapping and shopping today and I hope to inspire you to do the same!
We recorded a new episode of The Digi Show this week with guest Renne Looney. Come listen and find out what we do when our mojo goes bye-bye!
Anchor me by t for Me Designs – a mini kit with a nautical theme, focusing on love! 20% off friday til sunday, as usual at zig zag scrap!
Purchase Fuss Free: Pennants from Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs receive Fuss Free: Pennants 2 FREE! Fresh Fruit priced at 20% off the first week of release. FWP offer valid July 5-12, 2012.
Umbrellas Not Required by River~Rose Designs is 20% off July 5th and 6th only.
Liz has a fun new set of templates out. They feature fun big banners and multi-photo spots. They are sure to make some fun digital scrapbook pages!
Buy Heather T.'s Kaboom! Kit, and get the Add-On for FREE! (you must place both items in your cart).
Pick up this Earthy Grab Bag from Scrap Orchard and join us for Iron Scrapper 2012- where one lucky scrapper will win a brand new Canon EOS T4i!!
Special Savings of 43% off my Karen Lewis' Yes You Can Collection Bundle with Bonus Extras but only until 8th July 2012. Individual Packs are 20% off until 8th July.
Have you checked out Chelle's Creations YouTube Channel?
Get the complete collection of Gone Camping by Julia Makotinsky in one BUNDLE! $20.00 value for only $12.00!!!
Have a FUNtastic Friday everyone!
P.S. The random winner from Dani's feature was Alyna and the random winner from Anna's feature was Megan P. Congrats ladies and enjoy your $10 gift certificates!
If you listen to The Digi Show, you know that I think Anna Forrest is a genius! I am always WOWed by her scripts and actions and her contribution to The Digi Files this month is no exception! THIS is the product that has changed my ever-loving-digi-scrapping life!
The Album Builder is a script that will take several folders of photos and journaling (in a text file in the folder) and match them up to quick pages or templates in a different folder. It will then place the photos on the template, size them to match the photo spots, clip the photos, and add the journaling from the text file to the template, it also makes the title of the layout the name of the folder.
Here's a video showing the script do it's thing, see my full tutorial with tips for success using the action here. Note: I did speed this up about double time the script took 30 minutes to scrap the three layouts, but I was working on other things while it scrapped and my program recorded it 🙂 ).
This is ONE of SEVEN complete products you get when you become a member of The Digi Game this month. You also get an interactive Playbook (in PDF and iBooks formats) that has lots of ideas for using the supplies including techniques, tips, and tricks! All of that, including access to exclusive collaborations every four months you are a member, for only $7.50 total per month!
Layout by Wendy. Supplies: Album Builder (for Quickpages) by Anna Forrest Designs; Template by Janet Phillips; Cowboys & Indians (Characters) by Dawn Inskip; Birds of a Feather by Dani Mogstad; Cinnamon Christmas by Studio Rosey Posey; Say It by Faith True; Fonts: DJB First Grade Teacher Print.
Layout by Steph. Supplies: Album Builder (for Quickpages) by Anna Forrest Designs; Template by Traci Reed, papers and elements by Julie Melissa Bennett.
My name is Anna Forrest – mom to 3 kids and wife to DH of 12 years (Can't quite believe it has been that long!). We are an international family splitting our time between the US and Australia but currently living in the US. I am a Software Engineer by day and scrapper extraordinaire by night/weekend.
Since we've just moved into a new house and I'm faced with all sorts of boring blank walls I wanted to put up some photos I took around Western Australia. I found a tutorial on Pinterest describing how to mount your photos on canvas after printing them on tissue paper. The process looked a bit scary at first but actually it went pretty smoothly. The biggest trick – be VERY careful smoothing down the tissue paper. Once it gets moist with mod podge it is very fragile! I ruined two of my tissue paper prints on the first try. Fortunately it was very easy to recover. While the mod podge/tissue paper was still moist I simply wiped it off the canvas with a damp washcloth and let the canvas dry out thoroughly before I tried again.
Being a computer nerd, the first thing I did when I started paper scrapping was fire up Google looking for things to print and add to my scrapbooks. I was like a kid in a candy store when I stumbled upon Scrapbook Bytes. Since that time I have split my time between digi and paper scrapping. But with 3 kids, digi tends to get a bit more attention just because it is easier to start and stop repeatedly – and without the mess paper scrapping generates. These days I'm always looking for a hybrid project too so I can get the best of both worlds!
Fast forward to the end of 2009 I think… At this point I hadn't done any scripting – although I knew Photoshop could be scripted, I'd never had a great idea that warranted the learning curve to figure it all out. Wendyzine Scraps provided that seed of inspiration with the idea for her Element Sprayer. I thought that was the best idea I'd heard of in ages and promptly set out to turn her idea into reality.
That first script was a long process – every new version of Photoshop, every operating system – they all had oddities that had to be accounted for. Then I discovered I could get the scripts to run in Photoshop Elements and the fun started all over!
After doing a few scripts for Wendy, I decided to give it a go in my own store. I opened Anna Forrest Designs at PickleberryPop in Feb 2010 and have been there ever since!
Oddly enough, my best inspirations for scripting are boredom and irritation. I like photo editing actions but I find it hard to remember the effect each produces and then visualize that result applied to my current photo – the result was the Preview Maker for Photo Actions. I can see the result of every action in a set on my photo quickly; pick the one I'm after and move on to the fun stuff!
Likewise I did P365 and I wanted each photo framed in a consistent frame with date, title etc. I did about a month's worth of photos before I gave up – and the Proof Maker script finished them off for me!
Computer: When we moved back to the US I set up a brand new system just for my scrappin' pleasure. It's Win 7 64bit, 8GB Ram, with two pretty matching monitors.
Program: I mainly use Photoshop CS5 for scrapping and Photoshop CS3 for scripting. I have, and will occasionally putz around in Illustrator – I mostly use it to make cutting files for my Pazzles. I just got Radlab too – totally love it!
Anything Else: I do have a tablet, two actually. I think they're both wacoms. I used to use it lots but my wrist gets very sore so I had to take a break from it. They've never gotten set up since my new system arrived.
If you're interested in learning about scripting check out the forum ps-scripts.com. These guys are so knowledgeable and willing to help. Even coming from a software development background I still go running to these guys!
I really like to use Alphas on my layouts but it was so tedious and boring to actually assemble them from all the individual letter images so I really couldn't be bothered to use them much. And I certainly didn't use them if I wanted a long title! It is a good thing scripts don't wear out because this one has gotten A LOT of use.
With version 2 of the script – one of my CT members asked if I could modify it so that she could build a title from multiple alphas. I gotta say – that was one of the best ideas I have ever heard!
One of my biggest pet peeves about posting to the galleries used to be writing out every kit I used on a piece of paper as I worked so that I could post credits along with my layouts. I hated having to interrupt the creative flow to do that, but I knew if I didn't a kits was going to get missed. So I created the Credit Tracker to do all that work for me. These days I'll even tag each kit I buy with the appropriate credits before I even put it away. That way there is no interruption at all while I'm scrapping.
Use Code: DigiFiles20Off for 20% off Anna's store. Expires Aug 1, 2012.
Go have a look in Anna Forrest's site! We will randomly select a winner from the comments to win $10.00 in product from her store! (Comments must be posted before midnight EST to qualify)!
Would you believe that my computer scrapped ALL of the above layouts (at least what you see done so far on them – photos placed in the templates) FOR ME while I was sleeping!?
In Anna's feature, I reference the fact that this script (for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements) has changed my ever-loving-digi-scrapping life and it really has! I ran the script to create seven layouts the first time. Each layout had 10-42 photos on them. I was super impressed with how accurately the script placed the photos into spots, resized the photos, and clipped them. It placed the photos onto the layout as smart objects, so I was able to size them back up if I wanted to move them to a different spot. I scrapped those layouts in about 10 days.
I ran the script again and now have 27 two page layouts ready and waiting for me to add papers, elements, titles, and journaling! Even though the script is designed to be used with quick pages, I have only used it with templates. I love the flexibility of templates and there aren't too many quick pages that are two page spreads with lots of photos (which is how I scrap these days).
Anna's scripts all come with PDF instructions and this one also includes a video tutorial, but I wanted to share some tips I learned when I was using and testing the script.
Navigate to the correct folder and paste it there. See the PDF instructions based on your version of PSE to determine where to install.
The first thing I did was sort my photos into folders. If you use Lightroom, you can do this by selecting your photos and then choosing File>Export and going through the dialog to export the photos to a folder. I've also done the drag and drop method in my folders system.
Each folder of photos should be one layout (it can be a one page or two page layout).
The folder name will become the title in the layout and the saved layout name.
You can add journaling to go on the layout by putting what you want to say in a .txt file, naming that file: journal.
I then right clicked on the template and selected Show in Explorer, it would open the window with the template selected. I copied the template and then pasted it into my template folder I set up earlier.
The script will process everything in the folder that contains your grouped photos. I had originally saved my templates in the "Layouts to process" folder and it tried to put each template on other templates…haha. I made a bit of a mess.
Don't put anything in the layouts folder but the layouts you have grouped into folders.
Have the layouts save into their own folder once they have processed.
You will want to open all of the templates you are going to have the script use and check the layer names.
If you have other layer names that include the above words, it will confuse the script. For example, one of my templates had a rasterized layer named 'title' and the script kept trying to change the title, but it wasn't a text layer, so the script would stop. So, take the time and go through the layers and rename them or delete them as necessary. If you don't have a txt file named journal and there is a journaling layer, the script will just skip it, it didn't cause problems for me.
Now, you are ready to run the script!
I also selected "Includes Keyword" so the layer didn't have to have the exact name. I also selected "Preference Exact Number of Photo Positions" because that's how I had selected my templates (I had tried to select ones that had the photo orientation as well).
Click OK and watch it work its magic! I am now comfortable leaving to do things while the action runs. One night, I set it to run and then went to bed!
Make & Capture Summer Memories Today!
Backyard play by Jady Day Studios. Elise font.
Today is Independence Day in the United States and Americans will be celebrating with fireworks, barbecues, picnics, and social gatherings. What a great day to make & capture summer memories! How about a fun little list to give you some ideas? All items are linked to give you tons of inspiration.
Hope you have a happy summer day!
P.S. Happy winter to our friends in the southern hemisphere! Hope you can find some fun ways to use this list as well.
A great way to add some interest to your pages is to take advantage of transformations within Photoshop. Today I'm going to highlight some ways that digital scrapbookers can use the "skew" function. Just like in the title graphic, using skew allows you to create interesting and non-parallel angles.
Straight: Here's Janet Phillips' original template from her Scrap Your Heart Out 5 collection. I'd use this one for a set of portraits, with soft-muted tones.
Skewed: Here I've skewed the background papers and then placed the photo blocks on an angle. I'd use this with brighter colours and a set of 4 related "action" type photos.
This is an easy (and free) way to change up something we have in our digital stash and use it again in a fresh way.
Skewed: Wouldn't this be great in a speech bubble or coming directly out of an extracted photo of somebody yelling?
You could also use it directly on a photo, to place the title "on" a wall or object, like in this tutorial I found.
Tip: To skew text, rasterize the text layer. Rasterizing converts the layer into pixels – just note that it will no longer editable via the Type tool.
There you have it! The skew tool is so handy. Hope you create some fun and wonky pages!
Summer is in full swing in the Northern Hemisphere. It's hard to believe! I am excited by all of the fun summer kits and colors we are seeing though!
Did you know that ALL of the products included in The Digi Files are brand new, never before released in digi land?!? Many of our annual members were able to start downloading their goodies once the calendar turned to July 1st ET. Our monthly members will start downloading as soon as their payments process through PayPal. Why don't we show what's in the files at the beginning of the month? There are lots of reasons, but the biggest is that our members LOVE the surprise! They have come to trust our quality and they love downloading and unzipping before knowing what's in there.
Each person won $10 in product from one of last month's designers!


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In September 2021's issue of Lexbase, my mentor Richard Kurland, provides further insight into what happens behind the scenes of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada ("IRCC") processing, specifically providing a section titled: "Overview of the Analytics-Based Triage of Temporary Resident Visa Applications."
At the outset, a big thank you to the "Insider" Richard Kurland for the hard digging that allows for us to provide this further analysis.
What the Data Suggests
I encourage all of you to check out the first two pages from the Lexbase issue, as it contains direct disclosure from IRCC's Assistant Director, Admissibility opening up the process by way Artificial Intelligence is implemented for Temporary Resident Visas ('TRVs'), specifically in China and India, the two countries that have implemented it so far. By way of this June 2020 disclosure, we confirm that IRCC has been utilizing these systems for online applications since April 2018 for China, August 2018 for India, and for Visa Application Centre ("VAC") based applications since January 2020.
To summarize (again – go read Lexbase and contact Richard Kurland for all the specific details and helpful tables), we learn that there is a three Tier processing system in play. This filters the simplest applications (Tier 1), medium complexity applications (Tier 2), and higher complexity applications (Tier 3). While human officers are involved in all three Tiers, Tier 1 allows a model to recommend approval based on analytics, where as Tier 2 and Tier 3 are flagged for manual processing. IRCC claims that the process is only partially automated.
The interesting factor, and given we have been as a law firm focusing a lot on India, is how the designated of a Tier 2 file drives the approval rates from the high nineties (%) to 63% for online India apps to 37% for India VAC applications. Moving to Tier 3, it is only 13% for online India and 5% for India VAC. The deeming of a file Tier 3 appears to make refusal a near surety.
What is fascinating is how this information blends usage of "Officer Rules," the first stage filter which actually precedes the computerized Three Tier triages and is targeted at cases with higher likelihood of ineligibility or inadmissibility.
The Officer Rules system would be the system utilized at other global visa offices that do not use the computerized AI decision-making of India and China. Looking specifically at the case of India, the Officer Rules system actually approves cases at a much higher rate (53% for online India, and 38% for India VAC).
These rates are in-fact comparable to Tier 2 moderately complex cases – ones that presumably do not contain the serious ineligibility and inadmissibility concerns of Officer Rules or Tier 3 . It suggests that the addition of technology can sway even a moderately complex case into the same outcomes as a hand-pulled out complex case.
Ultimately, this suggests that complete human discretion or time spent assessing factors can be much more favourable than when machines contribute to overall decision-making.
It Comes Down to Oversight and How These Systems Converge
Recently, we've been discussing in Youtube videos (here and here), podcasts, and articles about IRCC's Chinook system for processing applications. Using an excel-based model (although moving now to an Amazon-based model in their latest version), applicants data are extracted into rows, that contain batch information for several applicants, presumably allowing for all the analytics to be assessed.
Given we know IRCC takes historic approval rates and data as a main driving factor, it is reasonable to think Immigration Officers are given these numbers as internal targets. I am sure, as well, that with major events like COVID and the general dissuasion of travel to Canada, that these goalposts can be moved and expanded at direction.
An excel-based system tracking approvals and refusals likely put these stats front and centre to an officer's discretion (or a machine's) on an application. Again to utilize a teaching analogy (clearly I miss teaching), I utilized a similar 'Speedgrader' type app which forced me, mid-marking, to often to revisit exams that I had already graded because I had awarded the class average marks that were too high. I have no doubt a parallel system exists with IRCC.
What this all means, as my colleague, Zeynab Ziaie has pointed out in our discussions, there are major concerns that Chinook and the AI systems have not been developed and rolled out with adequate lawyer/legal input and oversight, which leads to questions about accountability. Utilizing the Chinook example, what if the working notes that are deleted contain the very information needed to justify or shed light on how an application was processed.
My question, in follow-up, is how are the predictive/advanced analytics systems utilized by India and China for TRVs influencing Chinook? Where is the notation to know whether one's file was pre-assessed by "Officer's Rule" or through the Tiers. I quickly reviewed a few GCMS notes prior to this call, and though we know whether a file was pre-accessed, we have no clue which Tier it landed on.
Furthermore, how do we ensure that the visa-office subjective "Officer Rules" or the analytical factors that make up the AI system are not being applied in a discriminatory manner to filter cases into a more complex/complex stream. For example, back in 2016 I pointed how the Visa-Office training guides in China regionally and geographically discriminate against those applying from certain Provinces assigning character traits and misrepresentation risks. We know in India, thanks to the work of my mentor Raj Sharma, that the Indian visa offices have a training guide on genuine relationships and marriage fraud that may not accord with realities.
Assuming that this AI processing system is still being used only for TRVs and not for any other permits, it must be catching (with the assistance of Chinook's key word indicators no less) words such as marriage, the names of rural communities, marital status, perhaps the addresses of unauthorized agents, and businesses that often have been used as a cover for support letters. Within that list there's a mix of good local knowledge, but also the very stereotypes that have historically kept families apart and individuals from being able to visit without holding a study permit or work permit.
If we find out, for example, that filtering for complex cases only happens at visa offices with high refusal rates or in the Global South, does that make the system unduly discriminatory?
We acknowledge of course that the very process of having to apply to enter the borders, the division of TRV and electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) requiring countries is discriminatory by nature, but what happens when outcomes on similar facts are so discrepant?
In other areas of national bureaucracy, Governments have moved to blind processing to try and limit discrimination around ethnic names, or base decisions on certain privileges (ability to travel and engage in previous work), and remove identifying features that might lead to bias. For immigration it is the opposite, you see their picture, their age, and where they are from, and why they want to come (purpose of visit). As we have learned from Chinook, that is the baseline information that is being extracted for Officers to base their decisions on.
When – as a society – do we decide to move away (as we have) on what were once harmful norms to new realities? Who is it that makes the call or calls for reviews for things such as consistency or whether a particular discriminatory input in the AI system is no-longer consistent with Charter values?
Right now, it is all in the Officer's discretion and by extension, the Visa Offices, but I would recommend some unified committee of legal experts and race/equity scholars need to be advising on the strings of the future, inevitable, AI systems. This would also unify things across visa offices so that there is less discrepancy in the way systems render decisions. While it makes sense that heavier volume visa offices have more tools as their disposal, it should not depend on where you live to receive less access to human decision-makers or to an equal standard of decision-making. We do not want to get to a place where immigration applicants are afraid to present their stories or speak their truths for fear of being filtered by artificial intelligence. From my perspective, we are better of being transparent and setting legitimate expectations.
What are your thoughts on the introduction of AI, the interaction with Chinook, and the need for oversight? Feel free to engage in the comments below or on social media!
Thanks again for reading.
Three Things You Likely Don't But Should Know About How IRCC Assesses Your Study Permit Application
#1 – Your Application is Decided Using a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet
It might come as a surprise to you that IRCC utilizes the classic, but with some tech additions, software of Microsoft Excel to decide temporary resident applications.
The Officer essentially provides all the information about a client in a row with several columns (including working notes – more on this later). This allows them to process multiple applications utilizing one screen. There are also multiple clients that make up the constituent rows.
Each column within a row contains information regarding the Applicant's name, age, purpose of visit, date of receipt of the application, citizenship of the client, and previous travel. It appears that some of this information is pre-assessed by a processing Officer, but much of it comes directly from the IMM forms.
You can see here how the pre-assessment notes show up with respect to the 'verbose client information.' Verbose client information appears to be information directly from the forms. This suggests that the pre-assessment plans a significant and important role in an application. While it is seemingly 'blind' one can see from the below that if you break it down to age, gender, marital status, and citizenship that many of the personal identifying features that can make a young, single, and mobile woman applicant from Zimbabwe difficult to make to record. The Pre-assessment also shows (based on categories selected) that previous travel and proof of funds continue to be important factors. As such, it is difficult to say if travel history is as 'neutral' as the Federal Courts have attempted to establish it is.
Why do they do it this way via excel? Well IRCC claims that officers can increase their processing volume (depending on visa office) anywhere from 5% to 35% using this system.
I would also not be surprised (I am speculating) if the excel-based system allowed also for real-time tracking of statistics. This way a visa office with a refusal target could likely keep track while at the same time processing applications.
#2 – Reasons are Templated and Generated After Refusal. They Don't Have to Refer to Your Original Evidence (their position, not mine)
If one were to think of it logically, or perhaps engage in the exercise themselves, it would make sense to do some sort of a yay/nay list on a chart or table and ultimately decide, based on the facts gathered, whether or not to approve a client. Indeed, while not required, much of immigration (think Ribic factors or the assessment of humanitarian and compassionate grounds) often work on this weighing system.
Such is not necessarily the case with temporary resident refusals. With IRCC's systems, a decision to refuse or approve is made first, and then a notes generator (read: template generator) is utilized to choose the applicable reasons. The Officer then copies and pastes this into Global Case Management System (GCMS).
While Officers continue to have access to the original documents submitted by applicants, much of the guidance suggests the anchoring point is the excel document – one populated by the aforementioned pre-assessed notes and verbose client information. Officers are very much deciding to approve or refuse simply on an individual's basic profile. This suggests that whatever is chosen to be extracted from an application, rather than what is actually in the application is most important. Such guidance should serve as a reminder to keep support letters and evidence not only strong, but visible and searchable rather than tucked away on page 12 of a 15 page submission letter.
There are also 'risk indicators' and 'local word flags.' Risk indicators can capture where there is a trend, for example, of an Office submitting fraudulent information and local word flags, capture words such as 'wedding.' I am still researching what the other words are, but we know they depend on what visa office runs them. It would not be a surprise to see more risk indicators and local I would not be surprised if IRCC is also running OCRs (optical character recognition) or utilizing machine-based decision-makers to flag key words. Yet, looking at the GCMS notes of several recent files, it appears risk indicators and local word flags don't often appear. What this may suggest, is that the Officers rely more on the pre-assessment, verbose info, and their working notes to render a decision.
Which brings us to the issue of working notes below.
#3 Working Notes of Officers (i.e. Where the Factual Analysis Takes Place) are Not Ordinarily Retained
Templated reasons themselves do not (at this stage) need to contain reference to facts in the Application. While IRCC maintains that Officers do have the right to choose not to use them, the reality is any officer facing instructions to process fast and maintain consistency, likely won't diverge too far from them.
When clients come and find me after a referral, I often hear from them that they believe the Officer ignored evidence or turned a blind eye to something they submitted. Turns out there is likely much more to it.
Officers do have space to maintain working notes in their system, but – and importantly, these notes are not transferred to GCMS for privacy and administrative convenience purposes. IRCC claims that if they were required to manually input Officer's working notes it would create too much of an admin burden.
Strategically though, this is a brilliant play. If decisions were to include working notes and commentary it would open up the possibility of all sorts of litigation. Thinking back in history, it was the working notes of several Officers that led to such a departmental disaster such as Baker.
The Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Vavilov also supports short, pithy reasons that maintain consistency – essentially what IRCC is trying to do with this system.
The Majority writes at paragraph 77:
[77] It is well established that, as a matter of procedural fairness, reasons are not required for all administrative decisions. The duty of procedural fairness in administrative law is "eminently variable", inherently flexible and context-specific: Knight v. Indian Head School Division No. 19, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 653, at p. 682; Baker v. Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration), [1999] 2 S.C.R. 817, at paras. 22-23; Moreau-Bérubé, at paras. 74‑75; Dunsmuir, at para. 79. Where a particular administrative decision-making context gives rise to a duty of procedural fairness, the specific procedural requirements that the duty imposes are determined with reference to all of the circumstances: Baker, at para. 21. In Baker, this Court set out a non-exhaustive list of factors that inform the content of the duty of procedural fairness in a particular case, one aspect of which is whether written reasons are required. Those factors include: (1) the nature of the decision being made and the process followed in making it; (2) the nature of the statutory scheme; (3) the importance of the decision to the individual or individuals affected; (4) the legitimate expectations of the person challenging the decision; and (5) the choices of procedure made by the administrative decision maker itself: Baker, at paras. 23-27; see also Congrégation des témoins de Jéhovah de St-Jérôme-Lafontaine v. Lafontaine (Village), 2004 SCC 48, [2004] 2 S.C.R. 650, at para. 5. Cases in which written reasons tend to be required include those in which the decision-making process gives the parties participatory rights, an adverse decision would have a significant impact on an individual or there is a right of appeal: Baker, at para. 43; D. J. M. Brown and the Hon. J. M. Evans, with the assistance of D. Fairlie, Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Canada (loose-leaf), vol. 3, at p. 12-54.
(emphasis added)
IRCC is in the process (the part I am not yet at the liberty to discuss as I am assisting in the litigation) of getting judicial endorsement for their choice of process. I can say that if they are successful, and given it is well-established that the impact to foreign nationals (such as students is on the low end), this could serve as a rubber stamp. Such a process would make future judicial reviews much more difficult if the Courts find that templated reasons do not need factual reference. Furthermore, refusal letters could simply that the Applicant's evidence was insufficient and leave it to their counsel, Department of Justice, to build up a justification after the fact.
Caution: Expect GCMS Notes to Thin at the Detriment to Your Client's Knowledge of the Case to Be Met
What does this all practically mean for your run of the mill temporary resident applicant. Well – expect GCMS notes to say less and less and for the bulk of the information to be retained on IRCC's 'internal' system. It is also likely moving forward (and that we've already seen in some cases) nothing in the notes for when procedural fairness letters are sent. This will make it very difficult to respond, especially where procedural fairness letters are so broadly worded. This could make the process much less transparent and lead to many more misrepresentation finding (as just one example).
Bonus: A Little Gratitude
I want to thank again, my incredible colleague Zeynab Ziaie for her advocacy and supporting our efforts to learn more about the way IRCC operates. I have purposely not included anything in this piece that may be subject of our litigation and is not already publicly accessible. We may be writing more about this shortly.