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Reel To Reel: Dreamgirls
The Motown Musical.
How It Rates: ***1/2
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson
Red Flags: Some language, brief sex and drug references
Bill Condon knows how to make a musical. He did it with Chicago, and he applies the same formula here, taking a Broadway hit and translating it to film in a credible, believable form. It works precisely because the music flows naturally from the storyline, most of it staged as performances in clubs or recording studios. We don't have to overextend our suspension of disbelief, nor are we dragged into forgettable numbers for the sake of more music.
Dreamgirls borrows from the stories of The Supremes and Motown, following the rise of aspiring girl group The Dreams. Deena (Knowles), Effie (Hudson) and Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) perform at a talent show in 1960's Detroit. They don't win, but they do get noticed by manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (Foxx), a minor player in the record business who offers them their first big break as backup singers for James "Thunder" Early (Murphy) -- a hybrid of James Brown and Little Richard.
Taylor sees a future for the group in finding a sound which will make black music palatable to white radio, the same marketing philosophy Motown used. The urgency becomes especially clear after a white cover version of the Dreams' first hit eclipses the original. Even with payola, a sizable color barrier still dominates pop music radio.
The film follows the inherent pitfalls of mega stardom. Effie and Curtis fall in love, but Effie's diva demeanor and weight gain leads to her ouster. Early gets tired of softening his sound for marketing sake and regresses back into his wild stage persona. Deena rakes in Diana Ross-like success as the group's lead but has trouble finding her own voice. C.C. (Keith Robinson), the group's songwriter, begins to resent Curtis placing business before music. Effie, meanwhile, struggles to put her life back together as a washed-up singer.
The music is awash in soul and Motown nostalgia. It's highly enjoyable coming from Hudson, an American Idol reject who clearly shows she's no loser with an Oscar nomination and a powerful voice to back it up. In her performance as Effie, I have no doubt she drew inspiration from being booted off the country's most popular talent show. Now she's sticking it to Simon's bunch and loving it. She has at least two show stopping numbers. Eddie Murphy does his own singing, too. Many of you will remember his one-hit wonder "Party All The Time" from the 1980's with Rick James backing him up. He's also got an Oscar nomination in the bag.
Dreamgirls failed to earn nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, and that's the great mystery. One possible reason I envision is the Academy deciding Condon already had his moment with Chicago, a Best Picture winner. Another possibility: voters thought the movie had too many stage numbers, making it less a movie and more a filmed play. Split hairs if you want, but we know a winner when we see one. Right, Jennifer?
-- Christopher at 1:42 AM No comments: Links to this post
The Lightning Round:
Rabbit Season! Duck Season! Campaign Season!
It's a long road to the White House. We hope you like potholes.
DIRTY POLITICS. Now that Sen. Hillary Clinton is officially in the presidential race, we at your Lightning Round feel it necessary to warn you about the mud tsunami about to hit.
Provided the former first lady survives the primaries -- and our staff pool has her a 2-1 favorite -- right-wing operatives will attack with a rabid vengeance. They have a long grudge list, including:
* Her involvement in President Clinton's botched national health care plan
* Whitewater (again)
* Bill (again)
* Allegations of her shorting cattle futures
* Conspiracy theories connecting her to the death of White House counsel Vince Foster
* Monicagate (again). Yes, we know she wasn't responsible for that, but do you think the wingnuts care about technicalities?
Mrs. Clinton is already a heavy favorite in at least one poll. But this is now. Savor the moment and relax in the respite of these precious few months before you hear the words: "I approved this message." As John Kerry learned in 2004, there's lies, there's outrageous lies, and there's campaign ads.
SCHOOLED IN THE TRUTH. Hillary's chief rival, Sen. Barack Obama, is already showing he's no Kerry. Obama denies a school he attended in Indonesia as a boy teaches radical Islam.
Investigations by CNN, ABC, and other media organizations have found the allegations, originally reported in the conservative Insight magazine, baseless.
From the AP:
"We will not be swift-boated," said Obama communications director Robert Gibbs. "And we won't take allegations that are patently untrue lying down."
Of course they won't take it lying down. Bill Clinton already did that.
BURNED. Notorious Tucson Mexican flag burner Roy Warden is under orders to lay down his gun and stay away from public protests. He was found guilty of assaulting, threatening and intimidating Hispanic teenager Arturo Rodriguez during a burn in front of the Mexican Consulate last summer. Warden beat a similar charge earlier this year. He might have done so again if Rodriguez hadn't gotten the incident on tape.
Warden, always Mr. Personality, is unrepentant. From KOLD News 13's Dan Marries:
"If you attempt to commit an act of violence against me," a defiant Warden said right outside the courtroom, "I will draw my sidearm and blow your f---in' head off. That's what I told Arturo then that's what I told the judge up in the courtroom...nothing changes."
Rodriguez, to our surprise and amusement, holds a hint of admiration for this character.
"I actually respect the guy because he's brave enough to oppose what most of the city is standing for and what the city believes. He's respectable except for the fact that he threatens little kids."
Arturo, we note, is neither "kid" nor "little." We also note the sentence will do nothing to disarm Warden's machine-gun mouth. He's still free to go near flammable materials and start demonstrations of his own. The net results: more flag burnings, more incendiary rhetoric, and potentially more scuffles with counter-demonstrators.
To paraphrase an 80's gangsta-rap record, not a darn thing changed!
FUNNY OLD GAME. British drama students are doing stand-up comedy from the Victorian era after dusting off an old joke book from circus clown Tom Lawrence.
The gags are not likely to kill 'em in Peoria, much less Manchester. From Chortle:
Lawrence's gags include: 'What's the difference between a rowing boat and Joan of Arc?' To which the answer is: 'One is made of wood and the other is Maid of Orleans.'
However, many jokes were topical. Many took cheap shots. And occasionally, the humor cuts across time... cuts like a knife.
Some more examples from the BBC:
"Bad husbands are like bad coals - they smoke, they go out, and they don't keep the pot boiling."
"You know I'm very fond of the ladies - I say bless those wives that fill our lives, With little bees and honey, They ease life's shocks, they mend our socks - But can't they spend the money."
Ouch, I say, ouch!
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE. You don't need to tell 60-year-old Matthieu Ricard any jokes. Scientists call this academic turned Buddhist monk the world's happiest man.
From The Independent:
MRI scans showed that he and other long-term meditators - who had completed more than 10,000 hours each - experienced a huge level of "positive emotions" in the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain, which is associated with happiness. The right-hand side, which handles negative thoughts, is suppressed.
Ricard hangs out with a good crowd. He's the interpreter for the Dalai Lama. But happiness, like most things, does not come through osmosis.
"The mind is malleable," Mr Ricard told The Independent on Sunday yesterday. "Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time."
On that, I happily concur -- and a few rounds of "Come, Let's Be Merry" help too.
Tags: Lightning Round
Reel To Reel: The Pursuit of Happyness
Will Smith runs after a dream.
Starring: Will Smith, Jaden Christopher Syre Smith
Red Flags: Mild Language -- Brief Mention of the F-word
Horatio Alger wrote scores of novels in the nineteenth century lauding success through hard work and determination. He would've loved the true story of Chris Gardner, who went from broke to broker in early 1980's San Francisco. Gardner went on to form his own firm and write his autobiography, on which this film is based. But whereas Alger later drew condemnation for accusations of child abuse, Gardner's overwhelming goal is to provide for his five-year-old son.
Will Smith slips effortlessly into Gardner's character, a self-employed salesman desperately trying to sell bone density scanners doctors don't need. His wife (Thandie Newton) is working double shifts at a laundry. Overdue bills have the family on the brink of financial disaster, driving a wedge into the marriage and threatening the welfare of their son Christopher (Jaden Smith, Will's real-life son). Gardner already dislikes his young one's day-care, where kids watch TV and "happiness" is misspelled in a mural outside the front door next to an unprintable graffiti slur.
One day, after another fruitless attempt to sell a scanner, Gardner sees a man roll up to the curb in a sports car and asks how he got it. The answer: stock broking. Gardner decides to end his dead-end job and try for the big money, putting everything on the line for a Dean Witter internship that carries no salary and no guarantee of employment.
The dilemmas Smith's character tackles are both heart wrenching and exhilarating. Gardner has lost his car, so he literally lives life on the run, trying to get to a sales pitch, an interview, the bus, or some guy who snatched one of his scanners. This is clearly the "pursuit" part of the title. In one scene, he is hit by a car and angrily refuses an ambulance because he needs to get back to work -- a paramount display of Gardner's determination. He runs to a nearby store to write down a phone number when he can't find a pencil. He loses his house and his hotel room and nearly his sanity, but his dream refuses to die.
He can't let it die, especially in front of his son, who we sense has some knowledge of Daddy's difficulties but is shielded from most of the truth. Gardner takes great care not to burden his child with adult difficulties. "Are you happy?" he asks at one point. "If you're happy, I'm happy." You will not see any father-to-son movie talks about life's troubles. Christopher, on the other hand, lends his father inspiration in the form of wisecracks and innocent insight, such as when they talk about the difference between "probably" and "possibly."
Will Smith's son wasn't a shoo-in for this role. He auditioned with at least 20 others and earned it. The father and son chemistry is perfect, and it doesn't detract from the film. Jaden steals a requisite number of scenes, but those scenes are not there for cuteness. Christopher is not a Cosby kid but a tough, smart idealist.
The whole film is inspirational and genuine because it doesn't overdose on emotion. Every time you think Smith's character is going to break down into an unchecked rage born of frustration, he bottles it back up and keeps running. That's not to say you won't get emotional watching him. I did, and that's genuine, too.
Respect Yourself
In our Lightning Round record collection, the Staple Singers intone, "If you don't respect yourself, ain't nobody gonna give a good cahoot." Thus, the following:
WATERY GRAVE. When WKRP dropped turkeys from the sky, nobody got hurt. When DJ's at KDND in Sacramento, CA sponsored a contest requiring people to hold it in for a Nintendo Wii, a woman died. The aftermath: ten people fired, a wrongful death suit pending, and criminal charges possible.
From the Sacramento Bee:
[Sacramento County] Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said there was public outcry over the department's initial decision not to investigate Strange's death.
But, he said, the pressure did not spur the sheriff to seek charges. Instead, the audio recording changed the landscape.
Discussion during the Friday morning show indicates that disc jockeys were aware of the dangers of water intoxication.
"Can't you get water poisoning and, like, die?" a female disc jockey asked 16 minutes into the show.
Later in the broadcast, Judith Linder, a nurse practitioner, and co-worker Eva Brooks called KDND warning of the dangers of the contest. Disc jockeys rebuffed Brooks, saying the contestants would throw up before they die.
And then they would die!
Maybe prosecutors should force the fired DJ's to... no. We've already been through that in Abu Ghraib. Better to take them to court.
Also from the Bee:
McGeorge School of Law civil torts professor Lawrence Levine said previously that a civil suit likely would be successful, since there are indications that the disc jockeys knew of the dangers of water intoxication while they goaded competitors to keep drinking. He said the jury also will be asked to consider the social value of the contest -- which he characterized as low.
Once again we expect to see rumblings and grumblings about media misbehavior. But let us also remember this outrage involved a willing participant who decided her health took a back seat to winning a new toy for the kids. Sacrificing for your children is standard parental operating procedure, but not when it involves the bladder. Print us a button: Just Say No to Radio Stunts.
KEEPING SECRETS. President Bush quietly decided not to reauthoritize the so-called Domestic Spying Program, the one giving the feds the power to eavesdrop on e-mails and phone calls without a warrant if they suspect terrorist activity.
From Reuters:
"Any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales said.
However, according to the Washington Post:
Gonzales said a judge on the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on January 10 approved a government proposal allowing it to target communications into and out of the United States when probable cause exists that one person is a member of al Qaeda or an associated terrorist organization.
The question now -- did anything really change?
WANTING IT ALL, BUT THANKFUL FOR IT. A new poll finds teenagers are more materialistic.
A survey by market researcher Harris Interactive found the majority of U.S children were materialistic with 71 percent of people aged between eight and 18 saying they would be happier if they had more money to spend on themselves.
The numbers get worse as you get older:
Teens, meanwhile, were less likely (81 percent) to say "I like to help kids who are new to our school" than younger children (91 percent).
The age difference showed up again in response to questions on gratitude, with 92 percent of preteens having "a lot to be thankful for" but only 86 of teens feeling the same way.
But despite the desire for more money for themselves, families rated higher than money with "mom" important to 84 percent of those surveyed.
Despite those bothersome numbers, we still note the high percentages of thanksgiving and family value -- at least 75 percent or better. Hope springs eternal.
GET OVER IT! Virginia lawmaker Frank Hargrove is in a mess after saying blacks should "get over" slavery -- on Martin Luther King Day, too.
In an interview with the Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Hargrove explained his opposition to an official apology for slavery by suggesting that it's time for blacks to move on. Goodness, he said, if Virginia expressed regret over slavery, next thing you know, people would insist that Jews atone for killing Jesus.
Once in the hole, Delegate Hargrove kept digging:
When Del. David Englin, a Democrat from Alexandria, held up a photo of his 7-year-old son so his colleagues could see the face of a Jewish boy who, because of Hargrove's comment about Christ-killers, is now "that much more likely to be verbally attacked or physically attacked," Hargrove displayed all the empathy of a doorknob:
"I didn't know you were Jewish," the delegate said, patting Englin's arm. "And I really don't care." And this about Englin's response to the Christ-killer remark: "I think your skin was a little too thin." This brought gasps even from Hargrove's Republican colleagues.
We admit Hargrove's honest, at least. Ill-mannered, ignorant, undignified, unsympathetic, coarse and curmudgeonly -- but honest. And we'll get over slavery when the rest of the world gets over racism. It's going to take awhile.
FOOTLOOSE AND FINED. Keep your feet firmly on the ground at the San Tan Flat Saloon & Grill in Queen Creek, Arizona. If you dance there, you'll cost the estabishment $5,000. Immediately comparisons to Footloose spring to mind. Visions of backward, joyless Puritans cavort through our heads.
But hold everything. The establishment has gotten noise complaints in the past -- which didn't hold. As East Valley Tribune columnist Slim Smith notes, this is really about juking the system.
Officials will say they are just responding to complaints. But we expect these officials to discern which complaints are legitimate or frivolous. The county should have dropped the matter after finding the noise ordinance hadn't been violated. Anything else is thinly veiled harassment.
Unfortunately, I can see why County Supervisor Sandie Smith, whose district includes the restaurant, has pursued the matter. The people complaining are the ones who put her in office. The path of least resistance is to go along with their demands. It would take character and courage to do otherwise.
And if The Powers That Be can't take the right stand on getting down, you have no choice to wonder how they handle the tough issues, of which dancing is certainly not. Or will they just dance around those, too?
-- Christopher at 1:14 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
In Her Majesty's Elegant Service
The Royal Family of We Make History gathers for an evening of courtly manners, graceful dances, high fashion… and some intelligence work.
As experienced and related by Viscount Christopher Francis with Pictorial Assistance by Sir Michael C.
(Click any image for a larger view.)
Spies are among us!
The warning from His Lordship came as little surprise to the gathering of nobility from kingdoms afar, with rumours floating through the air as did the chill of a January evening.
"They are here looking for signs of weakness in Her Majesty's realm, but Her Majesty's strength is resolute," he reassured. "Their efforts shall be doomed to futility."
Indeed, Her Majesty's very presence exuded strength, her warm and steadfast countenance framed by a magnificent dress of red and gold. It instantly caught the eye of the Viscount as he stepped into the hall, his journey from Great Britain complete.
"Your majesty," he offered with a deep bow, sweeping his gold-trimmed tricorn into his hand.
The Viscount adorned himself in fine blue silk and lace over floral print waistcoat. Others chose colours of cream and royal red, or dark shades of green and brown, topping themselves with the whitest wigs they could find, ambassadors of nation and fashion. Many conversations began with the choices of garment and inquiries of the maker.
"I am working with a new tailor," the Viscount answered. "What he showed was perfect for me." Perfect and a bit French, one observed.
He hoped it would charm many ladies seeking a dancing partner, and he did not wait long. A princess summoned him to her side to lead her about the hall for the procession, and then into the first dance, a lively circle of skipping about. The dancers stretched nearly to the perimeter of the room.
When it ended, he gathered she did not have a partner for the next dance. Although he knew he was flirting with the boundaries of decorum, he offered his hand once again, resolved that she not be ignored.
"Christ's Church Bells!" the Royal Caller announced.
"This is one of my favourites!" the Viscount exclaimed to his partner in the long set.
Yet he had not danced it in awhile. He found himself a step or two off in some figures, as did others, many new to the styles of Her Majesty's Royal Court. Perseverance being the hallmark of the gathered, the fog of confusion soon lifted, uncertainty falling to laughter and a determination to move and enjoy the beauty of each other's company through any missteps. Several lords and ladies were so eager to dance they forgot to rest for one iteration once they progressed to the end of the set. Random couples found themselves stranded during figures of four when the geometry did not resolve itself correctly. Nevertheless, the song and revelry continued undiminished.
"Remember to use all of the music!" the gracious caller reminded, lest the dancers complete figures too hastily and end up with little to do but smile and share a moment of standing admiration and honour with one another.
Many other dances would invite such moments of warmth, in steps where the Princes and Princesses, Lords and Ladies, Counts and Countesses would all change places about the set. They looked into each others eyes as they rounded one another, not holding hands but perhaps holding hearts if only for mere seconds.
If the joy of the dance was not suitable motivation, perhaps a glance into the pupil might reveal a spy… or three. The Viscount found his attempts fruitless, overwhelmed by the beauty of all the noblewomen. He smiled often as he cavorted, often raising his free hand to the air in an open display of happiness.
With looks deceiving, the gathered relied on their skills of courtly interrogation, politely asking each other their country of origin. Her Majesty's Secret Service confirmed all three spies hailed from the same nation. Then word came they were all ladies.
The revelation discomforted the Viscount, having met two charming young ladies from Russia this evening. Surely the frigid land of the tsars had not plunged to the depths of using nobility -- especially young nobility -- for espionage. Yet he had heard of Peter the Great's desire to rid his country of backwardness and align itself with the West. Information bred power. Power stoked conquest. Conquest abetted war.
He needed to find the third member of this treacherous troika, preferably during a pause for refreshments, but His Lordship summoned.
"Viscount Christopher!"
"My Lord?"
"It is an outrage," the host lamented. "Are the men of Great Britain becoming so effeminate that they cannot dance with a fine lady about to turn 16?"
He indicated a countess seated across from him. She blushed at the fuss over her as His Lordship chastised the lack of willing partners for such a woman of beauty.
Shocked, the Viscount needed no prodding. He bowed low before her in his highest court manner and offered her the next dance, appropriately titled, "Come Let's Be Merry!"
Merry they were as they danced in a three-couple set, honouring each other, casting off and down the middle, and leading each other in a graceful short procession between the other couples, catching each other's eyes on alternating steps -- a fine birthday gift.
"You know you get more dances if you smile," one nobleman told a lady during another pause for refreshments.
"I do," she explained, but added the gentlemen looked too serious.
The Viscount, privy to the conversation, nearly dropped his ale.
"It is an outrage!" he grumbled. "Are we not capable of enjoying the dance?"
Hopefully they would be capable of enjoying fine song, he thought, as Her Majesty's Royal Court Singers entertained and uplifted the assembled with a heavenly rendition of a Christmas carol, a harmonious farewell to a joyous season until the days of December passed over the horizon once more.
The façade of the three spies soon ended as well, unmasked by a team of young noblewomen working together for Queen and country. The resourceful duo picked the impostors from the crowd to the astonishment of the guests.
All three of them stood before the court, two wearing masques. They had gone to great care to blend in, but their origins gave them away. His Lordship revealed they hailed from Prussia -- obviously sent to pry information on behalf of that conqueror King Frederick II. Justice should come swiftly, those gathered agreed.
"JIG! JIG! JIG!"
For almost a minute, they were forced to perform a dance of lower classes. They seemed to enjoy it, raising the possibility they were commoners as well as conspirators.
Prussians, not Russians, the Viscount mused as he watched it all. One letter and three ladies off. Hopes of joining Her Majesty's Secret Service faded into the night as the duo collected their prize of fine chocolate for their heroic efforts.
"Queens never make bargains," the great author Lewis Carroll would pen many years later. But Our Beloved Majesty, both merciful and resolute, granted all three spies unconditional pardons, sparing them the dark and freezing gaol to enjoy the remainder of the festivities. The assembled royalty did not hesitate to join hands with them and welcomed them all into the world-famous Pineapple Dance, the simplest and yet most joyous frolic of the evening.
During the final set dance, the Viscount made a disheartening sight over the shoulder of his partner: a noblewoman in blue, dressed in a beautiful full gown, dancing a set dance… alone. She extended a hand to open air where a nobleman should have been, surrounding by nothingness, bowed to by nobody, turning and facing and curtsying to a void.
The Viscount felt his heart breaking as he watched it, almost losing track of his place in the set. As soon as the dance ended, he made haste to set things right.
"I cannot stand to see you dancing alone!" he proclaimed to her before bowing. "Will you share a waltz with me?"
She graciously accepted, and the two shared the final dance of the evening, one that would officially not come into fashion until many years later. But this was the time to ignore such anachronisms.
Her face brightened as they stepped back and forth in gentle motions, the Viscount and his beautiful partner losing themselves in harmony and elegance, friendship and smiles. Her gentle eyes pierced his heart.
"I could dance all night," the Viscount said to her. "These are my favourite moments."
His eyes misted over. "This makes up for so much in my life."
When the dance ended, he bowed to her as he did before, thanking her profusely for the moment of shared peace.
His Lordship encouraged the gathering to return to their home kingdoms and times with the spirit of the evening intact, remembering their duties as members of Her Majesty's Elegant Service. No oaths or pledges were required, for all the nobility knew their mission: a life in service to others, at any time, any place.
For the good of our world and ourselves, everyone deserved the royal treatment.
And now, a few more words and pictures from Her Majesty's Gracious Servants.
COMING IN FEBRUARY: In His Excellency's Loyal Service
FLASHBACK: If You Can Walk... (How it all began for me!)
Tags: Dancing Through History, Life And Timelines, We Make History
We Are Driven
Nary two weeks have elapsed, but already we have a strong candidate for the biggest non-story of 2007: the public feud between Rosie and Trump. All of us here at The Lightning Round are going out of our way to ignore this waste of precious attention span. We invite you now to divert your brain cells to these stories instead:
SCRAP YARD. From our hometown papers comes relief for the casual mechanic. Pima County, Arizona is loosening its junk-car rules to allow people with rides needing repair to keep them around provided they screen it off from the neighbors. Out of sight or out of lawn.
From the Arizona Daily Star:
The ordinance doesn't distinguish between vehicles that are awaiting repairs and vehicles that are just trash.
County officials said such distinctions aren't enforceable.
"One man's junk is another man's treasure," said Greg Hitt, Pima County's principal planner. "To the inspector, it could be junk, but to the owner, it could be a parts car with a lot of value."
We suggest putting the new ordinance to the ultimate test by turning a 1973 Opel into a birdbath.
RIDING IN CARS WITH SMOKES. Bangor, Maine doesn't want you puffing in cars when children are around. Violators face a $50 fine under a new ordinance.
People who smoke with children present in the confined space of a car or truck might as well be deliberately trying to kill those children, said City Councilor Patricia Blanchette, who is a smoker.
"Let's step up to the plate and lead; our children are worth the fight," she said.
So are adults, many of whom are tired of cracking the window. And let's remember the driver distraction caused by digging out a Pall Mall and lighting up. Cancer or crashes -- one is going to get you.
THAT STINKS. The Big Apple was rotten to the core earlier this week, when an obnoxious odor fouled the city air. We'll take Manhattan, but pass the Renuzit. The New York Post followed its nose to a stinking swamp in New Jersey.
From the Post:
The odor, which sparked fears of terrorism, had people jamming 911 and Con Ed lines from Battery Park to Inwood from river to river.
"It was really, really bad, so bad it gave me a headache," said Kate Browne, who lives in the West Village.
Alfred Stewart, 47, who lives in Chelsea, agreed.
"That smell was stinking. It smelled, like, toxic," he said. "If you stayed in it and held it enough, you probably would have gotten dizzy from it."
Those living in Tucson near I-10 and Prince -- downwind from Pima County's premier sewage plant -- tell us, "Heh, you ain't smelled nuttin!"
SUPER SIZE ME! Our fast-food nation made the burger bigger. Now British researchers are beefing up the cow with clone farming. But the main attraction isn't meat, it's milk -- 70 pints a day.
From the London Daily Mail:
Lord Melchett, policy chief of the [British] Soil Association, said: "I cannot think of anything more likely to destroy the public's confidence in British food.
"High-yielding Holstein cows are already one of the biggest welfare concerns in farming because of the huge strain of producing vast quantities of milk. Government figures show that a third of dairy cows are killed after just one lactation because their bodies cannot cope with any more."
Researchers say bigger cows can handle more milk production. We at your Lightning Round wonder how bigger cows can even walk if they're turned into bovine milk trucks.
CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT. Now that Congress is back in session, Democrats are passing several pieces of major legislation in the first 100 hours -- a minimum wage hike and ethics reform among other things. Republicans are getting into the game. Sen. Arlen Specter wants to know why former congressman Bob Barr ended up in the Sacha Baron Cohen movie Borat. Barr says he was suckered.
Cohen pretends he's a reporter from Kazakhstan in the film and meets with Barr. He gives the former congressman a slice of homemade cheese and after Barr eats it, Cohen tells him that the milk came from his wife.
Barr said he didn't sue over the film because he didn't want to draw more attention to the movie.
Specter told Barr "it was a most extraordinary movie" adding "the interview with you was about the only part of the movie worth seeing."
I share your sentiments, Senator.
-- Christopher at 12:03 AM No comments: Links to this post
The Cold Hard Facts
TV station KHGI in Kearney, Nebraska is a mess. A winter storm knocked out power, and now falling ice from the tower next to the station is cutting holes in the roof and making the newsroom too dangerous for work.
From blogger Sean Weide of the The Reader's Media Notes:
Staying safe meant evacuating the newsroom on Tuesday after a huge chunk of ice tore through the ceiling of news director Mark Baumert's office. Computers were moved out of the newsroom into a conference room and the station's lobby. While newscasts were still being delivered from the news set at that time, anchors wore hard hards on the air to protect themselves against the threat of more falling ice.
At least you don't have to worry about anchor hair.
Right now the station's news team is doing the best they can with limited equipment, working out of the Grand Island bureau (about 40 miles away) and what's safe at KHGI's headquarters.
I nearly began my television career at KHGI in 1994. My first impression of the station was that it resembled two double-wide manufactured homes glued together on the outside. But on the inside, they had the people, the tools, and the talent to program three full-power TV stations and gobs of repeaters serving a giant wedge of west-central Nebraska. One of their old black-and-white studio cameras sat proudly in the lobby, a testament to years of service.
"We cover issues," former news director Al Zobel told me at the time, which made sense compared to chasing spot news in ten counties. And if you're ever in Kearney, ask one of the locals about the late beloved Bob Geiger, "the weather tiger."
I lost in a three-way tie for a job as a 10pm producer there, but then came an offer in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I still had to worry about ice storms from time to time, but nothing like this.
Tags: News Biz
Response Of A Town Without Pity
A few weeks ago, I told you the story of Brett Karch, the Snohomish, Washington high school student left injured and abandoned by a ceremonial cannon explosion. An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer left the impression people cared more about the condition of the cannon than Brett. Among other things, he recieved death threats.
Now, the mayor of the town and the superintendent of the school district are having their say, and they want to reassure us things aren't as bad as they seem.
In the two weeks of hospital confinement, Brett was regularly visited by teachers, school and district administrators and students representing JROTC and the student body. Several hundred get-well cards were sent to Brett from the high school students; the football team sent him an autographed football to express support. In November, JROTC students went to Brett's house to bring his recliner from home to the school so he could attend the JROTC annual ball.
Read more of their response here.
Tags: Commentary
Your Government At Work
The hard-working, deadline-beating staff of your Lightning Round have spent the past week on mandatory R & R, with concise instructions from our Fearless Leader not to go near a newspaper unless it's for a Fry's Electronics ad. Still, news being the bread and butter bastion of our lives, worthwhile headlines will creep into our ears like Christmas sales into March. Don't take down that tree yet.
CLEANING HOUSE. Nancy Pelosi is now the first woman ever elected House Speaker. She is promising the most ethical Congress ever, to which we have a simple refrain: Rep. Jim Jefferson of Louisiana, a.k.a. "Dollar Bill," the guy caught with $90,000 in cold cash in his freezer and no ethical way to explain it.
Pelosi, in all fairness, asked for and got Jefferson booted off the House Ways and Means Committee over objections oozing of lameness. Notes The Washington Post:
But at the closed-door caucus meeting, several black Democrats complained that Pelosi was not their emperor or queen, while Jefferson implored his colleagues to keep him on Ways and Means for the sake of Hurricane Katrina's victims. No one spoke up for Pelosi -- except Pelosi.
She began by praising Jefferson's wife and five daughters: Jamila, Jalila, Jelani, Nailah and Akilah. But she quickly made it clear that Jefferson's legal problems had become her political problem: "I am not an emperor or a queen. But neither am I a fool."
And neither are we. The Democrats are promising an ambitious agenda. We have yet to see if High Priest Pelosi will sacrifice one of her own at the altar of ethics beyond drawing some token blood. If she doesn't, then who's the fool?
BY THE BOOK. Rep. Keith Ellison is now the first Muslim member of Congress and also the first one to take the oath of office with one hand on the Koran. This is no ordinary Koran, we observe, but one once owned by Thomas Jefferson. We also observe much fuss over its route to the ceremony in addition to the presence of the book itself.
To protect it from the elements, they placed the Quran in a rectangular box and handled it with a green felt wrapper once inside the Capitol.
Instead of using surface streets, they walked it [from the Library of Congress] over via a series of winding, underground tunnels -- a trip that took more than 15 minutes. Guards then ran the book through security machines at the Capitol.
Interestingly, we don't believe Nancy Pelosi's new gavel was screened for explosives. But back to the subject at hand: some people -- cough -- Rep. Virgil Goode -- cough -- think the Bible is the only appropriate book for a swearing-in ceremony, and he should follow tradition if only to prove he's not a duly-elected sleeper cell.
We can only wonder what Mr. Jefferson would think about the whole affair, but we do note his own stance toward God is the subject of much curiosity, outlined here by Unitarians. He even went so far as to cut and paste his own version of the Bible, rejecting what he considered the unnatural parts of the Gospel. What would Rep. Goode have said about taking the oath with the "Jefferson Bible?"
CALL FOR HELP. Mexico is considering giving out GPS locators to potential illegal immigrants. Those who get lost would push a button, setting off a signal for Border Patrol agents to come get them.
Naturally, the idea is drawing stink-eye from border-control groups. Mexican officials -- who have also handed out informational comic books last year to illegal immigrants -- again throw up their hands when quizzed.
Supporters of the initiative argue that it could save hundreds of lives. Among those looking at the possibility is Jesus Torreblanca, who works for Puebla state's Commission for the Attention of Migrants.
"This won't guarantee that they won't be detained by the border patrol or face deportation, and it won't keep them from facing risks in the desert," he said Thursday. "It is simply an effort at rescuing people while they are still alive."
We at the Lightning Round are all for saving lives, but we note again the stark refusal of our south-of-the-border counterparts to address the root of the problem. Instead of pouring all that money into GPS units, why not use it to lift people out of the poverty they're obviously fleeing for better lives in the U.S.?
CRUMBLING EARTH. Call it prophetic, unfortunate, or just plain bad luck, but a million-dollar sculpture symbolizing our fragile planet now lays in pieces on the campus of Kennesaw State University in Atlanta -- just three months after its debut.
University officials say they suspect water damage or glue failure, but agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are also looking into the possibility of vandalism, said Frances Weyand, a spokeswoman for Kennesaw State.
A crack staff member is drawing up the list of usual suspects, including the Earth Liberation Front, the Bonding Compound Strike Force, and the Defenders of Concrete.
WE ARE A GENEROUS PEOPLE. The Financial Times reports a record year for charitable giving in the U.S., with $35 billion in donations. True, a lot of that came from Warren Buffett, who offered $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
From the Times article:
People who made money in real estate and financial services dominate this year's list. The second and third largest gifts were by donors who profited from the sale of Golden West Financial Corporation to the Wachovia Corporation.
So the rich may get richer, but they also enrich others. How many times do you hear that corollary?
Remember, you can't take it with you... even with debit cards.
Reel To Reel: Blood Diamond
A girl's best friend comes at a heckuva price.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
Red Flags: Graphic Intense War Violence, Language
Blood Diamond will likely not guilt-trip your future bride into giving up dreams of a huge engagement ring, so forget using this as a date movie, gentlemen. In fact, your steady could develop a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio instead, and then you've got a bigger problem.
Levity aside, Blood Diamond plunges into Sierra Leone in 1998, mired in poverty and plagued by rebels who get their funding via "conflict diamonds:" precious stones obtained by slave labor and then sold to unscrupulous gem buyers who launder them like drug money. Danny Archer (DiCaprio) is a smuggler working for those buyers, an ex-soldier who grew up in Africa amongst bloody revolution and has seen the worst. His current line of work involves trading diamonds for cash or guns which he funnels to the higest bidder.
Archer has no loyalties and trusts no one but himself since everybody around him is either trying to make money or kill somebody else, and even the rebels aren't sure if they want to win the war they're fighting because they might actually have to inherit the socio-economic quagmire. "T.I.A.," Archer and his friends say. "This is Africa."
DiCaprio's character is after a huge diamond buried by African native Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) after a smuggling operation goes sideways and leaves him on the hook for a lot of money. Vandy is a poor fisherman trying to steer his children clear of poverty and violence. His young son wants to stay in school and become a doctor. Too bad the rebels don't have an ounce of respect for the people they supposedly are trying to help. They have stormed Solomon's village, sent him off to the diamond mine, and sent his son into the ranks of the rebels to become a child soldier. Solomon manages to escape, but he needs help finding his family. Archer offers that help if Solomon will help him find the buried treasure.
Both of them get help from Maddy Bowen (Connelly), a frustrated American journalist who knows a dirty diamond operation is going on but can't prove it. She needs Archer's inside knowlege and contacts to write a story beyond the Save The Children stories of impoverished young ones and weeping mothers. Archer isn't about to give up anything, especially to another idealist who probably won't end up changing anything. Still, the two of them develop a mutual friendship. Bowen needs information, and Archer needs redemption.
Blood Diamond interlocks several themes: the horrors of war, the ugliness behind beauty, the importance of family, the indifference of others, and good ol' fashioned greed. It is genuine in its rawness and yet emotionally nuanced, even in the sad scenes of rebels training captured young children as soldiers. Hounsou is right on his mark as the prototypical good father without stepping over the line into Father of the Year territory. I especially laud the film for not throwing Bowen and Archer into the sack, especially when both of them are too busy staying alive and focused on their respective goals.
The film could have ended ten minutes before it did. Without revealing the ending, I'm certain some Hollywood suit demanded the last scenes, if only to balance the movie's graphic violence and depression. We don't need Hollywood endings. This is Africa.
The Lightning Round: Rabbit Season! Duck Season! ...
The Lightning Round: Respect Yourself
The Lightning Round: We Are Driven
The Lightning Round: Your Government At Work


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NGC 4452 is een lensvormig sterrenstelsel in het sterrenbeeld Maagd. Het hemelobject werd op 15 maart 1784 ontdekt door de Duits-Britse astronoom William Herschel.

Synoniemen
 UGC 7601
 MCG 2-32-80
 ZWG 70.112
 VCC 1125
 PGC 41060

Zie ook
 Lijst van NGC-objecten

Externe links
  NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
  SIMBAD Astronomical Database
  SEDS

NGC-object in Maagd
Sterrenstelsel in Maagd
Virgocluster

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Full EU Guidelines on FoE
Violence and impunity
Protective laws and practices
Media Freedom and Pluralism
Human Rights in cyberspace and ICTs
Best Practices by Companies
Supporting Democracy
The Importance of Ghana Adopting a Right to Information Act – Expert View by Helen Darbishire
Media4Democracy, EUD Contribute to WPFD UNESCO Event and host lecture with University
Strengthening Media Law and Policy in Support of Freedom of Expression in Zambia
Brussels, May 2018 – As and when Ghana adopts the access to information law that is currently before Parliament, it will become one of the world's 125th Access to Information law[1].
Although there has been a long campaign by civil society to ensure adoption of the access to information law, it's important to recall that the passage of an Act is just the first step in a change in societal and administrative culture that the right of access to information implies.
For Ghana, the RTI bill is generally solid, but there are some particular issues to which attention must be paid in preparing for and in implementing the act.
The first is that a huge effort will be needed to educate both public officials and the general public on their respective obligations and rights under the act. Experience from elsewhere has shown that until requests are submitted, public bodies don't prepare well for the implementation of access to information laws. So encouraging citizens to exercise their right to request information should be a priority. In particular, civil society organisations should submit requests, and take cases to the Information Commissioner to challenge refusals and other systematic bad practices such as administrative silence.
The Information Commissioner itself has a huge responsibility to promote the law, and, once appointed, will need support and cooperation from civil society to help get its work done. Journalists can also play a role here by writing about the new right and how to exercise it, therefore supporting the Information Commissioner in its work to educate the public.
There will no doubt be some challenges when implementing the law.
One will be a tendency to over apply the exceptions, which often happens in the early days of a right to information act. The way to solve this is through appeals (again, the role of civil society, journalists, and active citizens) and through education of public officials (the role of the Information Commissioner).
A particular challenge with the future Ghana RTI Act is that the exceptions do not have strong enough harm and public interest tests. The harm tests are complicated, and some exceptions lack them all together. So, for example, information containing 'an opinion, an advice, a report, or a recommendation' are totally excluded from the scope of the law. This means that legal opinions by official legal services would be excluded, as well as reports on activities that have happened or recommendations on future actions. Such exclusions are not permitted by international standards.
Next, the public interest test is too limited, and can only be invoked in extreme cases such as threats to public health or safety, or miscarriages of justice, or abuses of office. This means that the broader public interests of participation in public debate or general accountability for decisions taken, cannot be invoked. This, again, runs counter to international standards on the right of access to information.
Even more problematic, are the exceptions that exclude certain classes of information. These include exclusion from the scope of the law of information on decisions and other material submitted to or originating from the offices of the President, Vice President and the Cabinet. Although statistical information may be accessed, these exclusions directly undermine a key feature of the right of access to information, which is that it opens up government decision making.
It may eventually be the case that these provisions are struck down by the Constitutional Court as being unconstitutional, given that the Constitution establishes a right to 'information, subject to such qualifications and laws as are necessary in a democratic society' (Article 21(f)). There is no necessity in a democratic society to limit access to an entire class of documents related to the decision making of the highest organs of government. Indeed, the converse is true: in a democratic society it is essential that citizens are able to know the decisions made by government officials of all levels, in particular at the highest levels.
It should be noted here that right of access to information is now recognised as a fundamental right that should apply to all information held by all bodies. This is something that has been confirmed by the UN Human Rights Committee (2011) and the European Court of Human Rights (2009).
Furthermore, the exceptions to the right of access to information established by international standards (including those established by the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, which were agreed following negotiation by the 47 countries members of the Council of Europe), do not permit such blanket exceptions.
Another important dimension of the right of access to information is proactive publication of information. The proactive provisions in the Ghanaian law are rather limited to basic information about public bodies. Nevertheless, Ghana is already in advance of this with publication of information on its open data portal, which currently contains 133 data sets from 25 agencies.
On the one hand, ensuring that all public bodies in Ghana comply with Article 3 of the law on proactive publication will be a challenge for the Information Commissioner (it will require monitoring and establishment of clear reporting requirements), but, on the other hand, Ghana's membership of the Open Government Partnership could be used as an incentive to advance proactive publication and open up even more data to the public.
Given global trends, with increased recognition of the right of access to information and the movement towards open government, it's clearly high time that Ghana adopts its RTI bill into law, and takes the next steps on the road towards transparency.
Helen Darbishire, Access Info Europe Founder and Director and Media4Democracy.EU Expert (UK, Spain)
Helen Darbishire is a human rights activist specialising in the public's right of access to information (freedom of information), and the development of open and democratic societies with participatory and accountable governments. Helen is founder and Executive Director of the Madrid-based NGO Access Info Europe, established in 2006 to promote the right to information in Europe and globally.
Helen has over 25 years of experience, having also worked at Article 19 (1989 to 1998), and for the Open Society Institute (1999-2005). Helen has provided expertise to UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the World Bank. She sits on the boards of a number of right to information organisations, is a founder of the Freedom of Information Advocates Network, and a current member of the Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership. She holds a degree in History and Philosophy of Science from Durham University, UK. Resident in Madrid, she speaks English, French and Spanish.
[1] Source: Access Info Europe
Media4Democracy is an EU-funded technical assistance programme dedicated to assisting EU Delegations in implementing the EU Human Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Expression Online and Offline.
Our mission is to enhance the capacity of EUDs to work creatively on freedom of expression (FoE) within the available frameworks, and to build on best available practice.
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This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Media4Democracy.EU and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Alan Wake: Kinect at E3, Coming Fall 2011?
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Glen View Comments
A while back Remedy, the developers behind hit psychological thriller Alan Wake, began hiring for someone with "Experience on motion-control technology (e.g. Kinect)" as well as a producer for a "AAA console project".
Recently, a resume was discovered online which made reference to in-game cinematic work for "Alan Wake 2". And finally yesterday Remedy confirmed via press release that they are soon to be announcing a new Alan Wake project. But it won't be Alan Wake 2.
It really would seem Alan Wake is very close to the hearts of the fans out there, and to ours too. To that point, it's a shame that this news leaked before our official announcement which will of course include the visuals and information to support it. Well, now that the cat is out of the bag, we owe it to you and the fans to shed a little more light before we get the chance to officially show them what the guys have been up to.
Fans of the franchise will be excited to learn that yes, more Wake is coming! But to be absolutely certain to avoid confusion, this next Wake installment will not be Alan Wake 2. But neither will it be DLC. The rest we're saving for our official announcement when we'll actually SHOW YOU.
We are really excited about this project which a slice of our team has been working on for the last months. It's something that'll definitely give more to the Wake fans out there, but just as importantly, this installment will also give an opportunity for players who aren't familiar with the franchise to finally jump on board.
We can't wait to show you more, bear with us. Release dates, platforms and pricing are unconfirmed as of yet, but Fall 2011 is probably a good guess. More coming soon!
So it would seem a "slice" of the Remedy team have been working on an Alan Wake project for release this fall, which won't be a direct sequel to the first game, nor will it be additional downloadable content. Given their search for Kinect-experienced employees, and Microsoft's strong push for developers to support Kinect, it only makes sense that whatever they're working on will feature Kinect.
A likely scenario is that the game will be a Kinect-enabled spin-off from the franchise. It will be a standalone story that won't necessarily follow on from the first game in a direct way, and will feature gameplay more suited to Kinect. Forcing Kinect controls onto a typical third person action game could prove jarring, unless it complements the standard controller rather than replace it.
This makes sense for a number of reasons -- Microsoft don't want to annoy the core fans who expect the true Alan Wake sequel, which is inevitably also in development, to continue the story with the same controller-based gameplay. There is a time and a place for Kinect, and Microsoft have to be careful about intruding on core experiences where it is not wanted or needed. At the same time, Microsoft get to add another "core" Kinect experience to their line-up alongside the likes of Codename: Kingdoms, Project Draco, Steel Battalion and The Gunstringer and with a familiar franchise name, to boot. Basically Microsoft, and the Alan Wake franchise, get the best of both worlds, and both Kinect and controller fans get the experience they want.
So, when can we expect to finally see this game? A "reliable source" at XG 24/7 claims that it will be unveiled at E3 next month. Given the games fall release date, it seems very likely. Keep checking in, we'll be keeping you up to date with all of the latest announcements directly from E3 itself!
Update: An "extremely trusted source" has told XBLAFans that the game, entitled Alan Wake: Night Springs, will be an Xbox Live Arcade release rather than a full retail title. Although this doesn't confirm nor deny the involvement of Kinect, the name implies that it'll be closely tied to the Twilight Zone-esque TV Show, Night Springs, which featured in the original Alan Wake.
Posted in: alan wake,e3,Kinect,xbox 360


While many beginners and first-time casino players tend to dread Tri Card Poker because of its seemingly complicated connotation, it is actually the easiest game to follow and win once understood and grasped completely. Throughout the years, Tri Card Poker has won the patronage of many and was even recognized as the most sought after game. What makes the game worth a try is its fun, exciting, and gripping gameplay, let alone the big jackpots and prizes the game has to offer. It is not uncommon that once a beginner has started playing the game, he is bound to get hooked and addicted to it. If you are planning to learn the rudiments of this game, then it is best to start now to enjoy a long week of Tri Card Poker madness.
What we today call as Tri Card Poker has actually sprung from a long line of derivatives from the once famous British gambling game "brag." The earlier version of brag was called "primero." It is a very fast card game, hence, the name. The game developed more rules and was then renamed as "Post-and-Pair." However, since the name seemed to be a bit long, players just simply referred to it as "brag." When the game was released in other countries, most of them referred to the game as Brit-Brag in honor of the country from where it came from. Nonetheless, some were a bit intimidated by the term and coined an even simpler term for it, which was the German term for brag: "pochen." Soon enough, the game became famous in America. The game was from then on called Tri Card Poker.
Tri Card Poker consists of two games played in one sitting with the use of a singled deck of 52 cards. The first game is called the Play/Ante game. This is the part where the player is betting against the dealer to find out who among them has the higher hand. The second game is called the Pair Plus game where the player bets on dealing with a pair or better. While some casinos offer the option for one to bet on one game alone, most actually mandates that a player bets on the Play/Ante game prior to proceeding to the Pair Plus game.
At the Tri Card Poker table, there are three distinct betting circles in front of each player's seat. The Pair plus Game's betting circle is the top most one. This is where the player puts his bet if he wants to proceed to the Pair Plus game. The other two circles that are found below the Pair Plus game betting circle are labelled Ante and Play, where players can put their bets for the Play/Ante or the base game. There will be one dealer at the table. A shuffling machine is also essential for speedy shuffling in the entire duration of the game.
At the beginning of the game, the players are requested to put their bets on the table. The bets should either be equal to the table minimum or higher. Betting circles can be visibly seen on the table. Each player has a set of betting circles where he is allowed to put his bets. After shuffling the cards, the dealer will then deal out three-card hands to each player. The first player to begin the round is simply the one on the right side of the dealer, followed in suit from right to left.
There are the so-called Ante and Play Circles on the table. When a player bets on the Ante Circle, he has the option of either playing or folding once has seen his cards. If he decides to fold, his bet on the Ante wager is forfeited. On the other hand, if he decides to play, he must bet on the Play circle. His bet must be equal to his Ante Circle wager. All of the players will follow the same mechanism. Once everyone has already finished deciding, the dealer will lay down all his three cards. The dealer's three-card hand should have at least a queen or any other high-value cards. If the dealer's hand does not have any of these cards, he must pay all of the player's Ante bets while at the same time return their Play bets to them.
If in case, the hand of the dealer does contain any of the high-ranking cards, each player will get the chance to compare his hand to the dealer's. If the total of the player's hand is lower than that of the dealer's, he automatically loses both bets. If, on the other hand, he has obtained a higher point than that of the dealer, he wins the round, and he will be paid for both his Ante bet and his Play bet. If there's a tie, the player is said to win.
The Pair Plus Game is allowed only when the player has received a pair in his hand. If he finds out that his pair are high-ranking cards, he has the option of playing on this type of bet right away, regardless of whether or not the dealer's hand contains any of the high-ranking cards or not. There is a separate betting circle for this one. If the player's hand is found to contain a high-ranking pair, he wins right away. If he doesn't have a high-ranking pair, he automatically loses.


Mobile commerce is proving problematic and Qubit knows it. Founded in 2010, the SaaS company – which personalises approximately four billion shopping experiences each month across 300 brands – has been tracking the advent of mobile traffic and a linked disparity. "We've reached this inflection point," says CEO Graham Cooke, "where mobile traffic is as high as desktop traffic. Within that there are really quite alarming metrics around the actual commercial value you get from mobile." Commerce site owners know that while mobile traffic has been steadily growing, no proportional rise in mobile conversion has been witnessed.
Speaking at October's WIRED Retail event, Cooke detailed the open secret of low mobile against desktop engagement. "It's about half the conversion rate, about 1.65 versus 3.35 per cent." Half is an approximation that seems to persist in mobile commerce. Average customer spend on mobile sites is half when compared to desktop equivalents, revenue is around half and the average amount of products seen by customers on mobile sites compared to desktop is, again, half. Here, Qubit has identified a cause for lower conversion. "We've been wondering if the number of products you can see on the hamburger menu, in that search, is the core driver of this performance issue." Smaller real estate is a fundamental problem for mobile devices, restricting discoverability. But Qubit has a solution.
Qubit Aura is hosted on, and paired with, mobile commerce sites. It's designed to improve experiences for mobile shoppers and offer a completely personalised version of a host site. Yet Aura achieves more owing to Qubit's understanding of the mindset of mobile shoppers. It's not just screen space, "the user is in more of a discovery mode when they're on mobile", says Cooke. It's a key insight, but it makes the challenge for improved mobile conversions threefold. As Cooke points out, mobile sites have less room but need to "interpret what a customer wants – based on that moment and based on what they've done in the past". Plus, "How do you push them to discovery in a much more relevant way?" Providing both relevance and discovery in a limited space, improving shopper experiences and changing customer behaviour, at scale is "a hard thing to do", according to Cooke.
Cooke is clearly excited by the possibilities for AI with Aura and it's easy to understand why. With between ten and 20 billion data points collected every day on the Qubit platform, the engineering team "understands those data points and can apply the right algorithms to some of the most challenging problems that retailers face". The result? By tackling conversion and discoverability in mobile commerce, Aura is already showing strong results.
Twenty retailers, including ColourPop and Wolf & Badger, partnered with Qubit in testing Aura. ColourPop's director of technology Nathan Dierks noted "a 50 per cent lift in add to bags", while George Graham, CEO of Wolf & Badger, sees Aura as beneficial to a specific challenge of its mobile site. "People aren't coming to us for random things, they're coming to us for that inspiration, for discovery purposes." Other brands including Diane von Furstenberg, Hobbycraft and Mothercare are all using Aura; helping customers find inspiration and the products they want. In-store assistants may provide guidance, but online, Aura is picking up the slack.
What's clear is that by addressing key issues of discoverability, relevance and engagement by leveraging AI, Qubit has shown what it can achieve with machine learning. The potential for such personalisation may be felt beyond retail in mobile commerce but for now Cooke says Qubit sees retail as "the bleeding edge". Aura is more than a dressing.


Miller, L. G. March 1, 1900.
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program and one other and was provided by Oklahoma Historical Society to The Gateway to Oklahoma History, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 64 times . More information about this issue can be viewed below.
Miller, L. G. The Hennessey Clipper. (Hennessey, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 40, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 1900, newspaper, March 1, 1900; Hennessey, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc104714/: accessed April 21, 2019), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.


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Reading Dante's Commedia as Theology: Divinity Realized in Human Encounter
Vittorio Montemaggi
学術・一般書 > 文学および修辞学 > Italian, Romanian, & related literatures > Italian poetry
Dante's Commedia compels readers to confront the mystery of their existence, to seek understanding of their relationship to the living conscious reality from which all possible experience arises. By pursuing these lines of inquiry, says Vittorio Montemaggi, readers can reach an ultimate reality that Dante calls love. Montemaggi offers a detailed theological reading of the Commedia, examining the theme of human interaction, both as it is represented in the poem-the narrator Dante's interaction with other characters-and by the relationship between author and reader. In doing so he locates a Dante we may not be used to imagining, a man aware both of the spiritual power of his work, and of his profound, essential vulnerability and moral failing. Montemaggi shows that, for this Dante, truth emerges only through human limitation and failure, rather than in spite of it. Applying this interpretive framework to a reflection on the methodology of scholarship itself, Montemaggi offers his readers a vision of what the academy could be-not individual scholars in competition with others, but a community that seeks to foster the understanding that can arise through interaction, vulnerability, and love. His vision constitutes a benign challenge to some of the ethos and practices of the modern academy, while simultaneously reflecting on the dynamics of one of the most inspiring and influential texts ever written about the relationship between humanity and divinity.
Preface: Scholarship in Gratitude
Prologue: Divinity Realized in Human Encounter
Chapter I: Reading Dante's Commedia as Theology
Chapter II: Truth and Theological Virtue
Chapter III: Pride and Prayer
Epilogue: The End of Scholarship
Vittorio Montemaggi is Assistant Professor of Religion and Literature in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Notre Dame, where he is also Concurrent Assistant Professor in the Department of Theology. Following degrees in Theology and in European Literature, his work has centered on the relationship between language, truth, and love.
Dante's British Public: Readers and Texts, from the Fourteenth Century to the Present
Dante's Persons: An Ethics of the Transhuman'
Orlando Furioso
The Liberation of Jerusalem
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: v. 3: Paradiso
Landscapes of Desire in the Poetry of Vittorio Sereni
The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Volume 3: Paradiso
Dante: A Very Short Introduction


11.00 Holy Communion with Baptism.
If you are housebound and would like communion at home, please ring Moira on 01243 530198.
For details of special services please see the Sunday Pew Sheet.
Please make requests well in advance. Thank you.


GRAYS HARBOR, WA—Perseverance and vision paid off for three budding small business owners, the winners of the Washington Coast Works small business competition announced recently at the Grays Harbor Business Leaders Banquet.
Emily Foster, a Quileute tribal member from LaPush, in Clallam County, won the first-place prize of $10,000 for equipment and supplies to launch Lonzo's Seafood Company, offering smoked Quileute-caught fresh salmon.
"This award means so much to both myself and the Quileute community, because fishing is an integral part of my family history and tribal heritage. The prize money will provide me an opportunity to expand the Quileute fish market in a sustainable way and keep the profits within our local community" Foster said.
Runners up were Liz Ellis, from Aberdeen in Grays Harbor County, and Jean Ramos, a Quinault tribal elder from Queets, in Jefferson County, who each received $5,000 to launch their businesses.
Ellis is starting the East Aberdeen Community Farm, where neighbors in the Wishkah River lowlands can grow, market and buy fresh local produce. Ramos is creating SovereigNDNTea, a business selling locally and sustainably foraged Labrador tea.
The three were chosen from 12 semifinalists, who have all participated in workshops on entrepreneurship, business, and sustainability. Finalists also had access to one-on-one technical assistance from experienced business advisors to develop and refine their business concepts.
Prize funding was provided by First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Port Angeles and the Quinault Indian Nation.
Plans are underway for next year's competition, which is expected to get underway in early 2016. Watch the Washington Coast Works website, www.wacoastworks.org, for updates.
The competition is presented by the Taala Fund, the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship at Pinchot University, and The Nature Conservancy in an effort to diversify the local economy through the development of new small businesses, build business leadership in local communities, grow a constituency that supports conservation and sustainable natural resource use, and ultimately contribute to a new vision of sustainable community and economic development on the Washington Coast.


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Cattle at Hillsborough Farm Are Helping to Fight Climate Change
Guster, My Morning Jacket, Other Musicians Unite to Make Concert Tours More Sustainable
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text:
Weavertown Amish Mennonite Church: Events Dizisine Benzer Podcastleri
Podcasts Like Weavertown Amish Mennonite Church: Events halka açık [dynamic 0]
Christian Bible Church of the Philippines | Sunday Messages
https://cbcp.org
CBCP is a disciple-making church based in Manila, Philippines. Learn more at https://cbcp.org
Joyce Meyer Ministries TV Podcast
Enjoying Everyday Life® is a daily TV and radio broadcast provided by Joyce Meyer Ministries.
Father Roderick
Fr. Roderick Vonhögen
A show about movies, travel, fantasy, TV, faith, sci-fi and minimalism.
Hillsong South Africa's Podcast
Hillsong Church Africa
Thank you for joining us for another great podcast today! Here you'll find many encouraging and challenging messages to help you build a life of significance! Keep coming back to listen to all the latest messages from Hillsong Church South Africa. We would love for you to rate our podcast, subscribe, perhaps write a review and share the channel with all your friends to help us build a Church that Builds a nation.
Tony Evans' Sermons on Oneplace.com
Dr. Tony Evans
To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/222 The Urban Alternative is the national ministry of Dr. Tony Evans and is dedicated to restoring hope and transforming lives through the proclamation and application of the Word of God.
Grace to You: Radio Podcast
The Grace to You radio podcast is what you've come to expect from John MacArthur. Reliable interpretation, solid doctrine, and amazing insight make this podcast a great supplement to help you grow strong and fruitful as a Christian.
Mormon Stories - LDS
Dr. John Dehlin
Mormon Stories is an attempt to build understanding between and about Mormons through the telling of stories in both audio and video formats.
Messages by Desiring God
Messages from the Teaching Team at Desiring God.
PastorRick.com
Rick Warren is an innovative pastor, renowned author, and global influencer.
Joseph Prince Audio Podcast
Willow Creek Community Church Weekend Podcast
Willow Creek Community Church
The Mission of Willow Creek Community Church is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. The Vision of Willow Creek Community Church is to be a biblically functional community of believers so Christ's redemptive purposes can be accomplished in the world.
Catholic Answers Focus
Catholic Answers
Catholic Answers Focus, the world's premier podcast on Catholic apologetics, helps you explain and defend the Catholic Faith. If you want to take a deep dive into the reasons behind Church teaching, Catholic Answers Focus is for you.
Kingdom Intelligence Briefing
Dr. Michael K. Lake
Kingdom Intelligence Briefing Podcast serves as a digital portal to nurture and empower the Remnant worldwide. Join Dr. Michael K. Lake (Author of the Best-Seller, The Shinar Directive: Preparing the Way for the Son of Perdition, and Chancellor and Founder of Biblical Life College and Seminary) for in-depth teachings from God's Word that provide a balanced approach to life that is both Spirit-Filled and Hebraic. It's time to hit the challenges facing believers today head-on with biblical pri ...


Collon hung on against the Mochta's and their goalkeeper Mike Englishby was a lot to do with it.
Superb man marking job on Burnsey see Cian McGuinness on the team.
First Kevins man on the team is Aaron Khan the most unlikely man to get the job on Conor Grimes excellent job. The Gaels cornerback David McComish set Crilly up for the goal as well as an assured defensive display.
Liam Boylan gets the nod.
Wing back David Maloney struck the go ahead point for the gaels in their win.
Man Mountain Robert Leavy work around the middle was the difference on Saturday night. Another Kevins man and Seanie Crosbie has been flying it all year.
Hits the winner that took an age to go over Patrick Clarke deserves to be on the team.
Mochta's talisman Decky Byrneled the charge friday night.
Alan Quigley fired the Joes into the intermediate final.


When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October, 2012 at the age of 37, my world was turned upside down. My particular flavor of cancer was stage 1, grade 3, triple negative infiltrating ductal carcinoma. That's a mouthful, huh? I had my bi-lateral mastectomy performed and one month later I began six months of ACT (Adriamycin, Cytoxan, and Taxol) chemotherapy.
Chemo can cause all sorts of aversions. The most common being that you won't be able to stand anything you consume during chemo. I don't know if it's just the association with it being "chemo food" or if there is some scientific explanation. So do not, I repeat, do not bring your favorite candies or snacks with you to the infusion room. Rather, bring something you're trying to quit (lol), candy bars anyone? Just kidding. Your best bet is to bring bland, stomach-soothing items like crackers, licorice, ginger candies etc.
Some people get a funny metallic taste in their mouth throughout chemo. If this happens to you, I'd advise you to avoid using metal utensils to eat, that'll only make it worse. Other than that, you just have to grin and bear it. And remember, this too shall pass.
Still other get mouth sores. If this happens to you, talk to your oncologist about a special mouthwash that can help on that front.
Non-negotiable. Listen, you won't be buying razors, shaving cream, shampoo or conditioner for the next eight months or so. Divert those funds to a cleaning service.
While I'm at it, look into receiving complimentary integrative service like massage, acupuncture and/or working with a dietician during treatment. Insurance might cover some of the cost of these complimentary services so be sure to investigate.
Speak up to anyone and everyone. Make them listen. Now is the time to act like your oncologist is your personal therapist. Tell him or her everything that you are feeling, especially if you have a gut feeling something isn't right.
When I was receiving my third Adriamycin dosage, my vein collapsed and the drug escaped into my body. It is extremely poisonous and I knew something was wrong immediately. I spoke up, and I kept speaking until I was listened to. I had to go to the ER to get an antidote which was administered over a three-day period. The point is, nobody else is inside your skin. Only you know when something isn't right, so be your own advocate.
Also on this front, each infusion will be different for you. If you think you've figured out the key to your anti-emetics, that formula will likely change by your next infusion. So, listen to your body and if you feel nauseous, ask for stronger anti-emetics. Your doctor has them, she's just waiting for you to need them.
Most people receive their chemo infusion through their power port. But if you didn't get a port, you'll receive your chemo through a regular IV in your arm or hand. Having to deal with that catheter in your arm, rolling the IV pole to the bathroom, getting your pants down, doing your business and then getting dressed again can be a real chore with one free arm. Do yourself a favor and wear elastic/stretchy pants. When you aren't fast asleep in Benadryl heaven, you will be peeing the rest of the time. In addition to the bags of chemo dripping, your doctor will also drip some anti-emetics and lots fo saline to help keep you hydrated. You'll also want to drink lots of water to keep your veins plump and to keep all the poison cruisin' through your body. That's a lot of liquid going into you. Bathroom stops will be frequent!
Oh and just an aside for those of you who are getting Adriamycin like I did, do not be alarmed when your pee is red. That's a totally normal side effect of the drug, that's the reason it's nicknamed the "red devil".
Every infusion room is different, some are really drab and pack patients in like cattle. Others are beautiful wide open spaces. Learn about yours in advance and bring things like noise canceling headphones and downloaded movies on your iPad or smartphone to make you feel at little more at home. You'll likely sleep through the entire infusion from the yummy Benadryl bag they mainline, but at least you'll have your creature comforts, just in case.
Personally, I always had gossip rags like US Weekly with me. That was about all my mind could process. I felt pretty spacey during chemo and couldn't always comprehend what I was reading. So pictures and gossip blurbs were the perfect companions on infusion day!
In my case, relaxation was key. For some of you, maintaining your normal work schedule will be key. Whatever your path, just be sure to listen to your body and be gentle with yourself.
In fact, have someone take you to chemo and keep you company. But that someone should be close enough to you that they won't be offended if you ignore them completely (or sleep the whole time). If you're on your own for an infusion, don't drive yourself, take an Uber. You'll be too whacked out and tired from the Benadryl and the emotion of the day to drive yourself.
Being diagnosed with cancer is the shits. But one upside is all the presents you will receive from friends and family, near and far 🙂 These gifts will serve as your fuel and they will taper off once you're through with active treatment. So enjoy them while they roll in and be sure to send out a handwritten thank you.
I hope this information helps you navigate your own chemo journey. Be sure to check out my first installment "7 Things to Know Before Starting Chemotherapy".


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Cadbury puts quash on cow gas
No burping or farting, please! So read a recent memo coming out of British chocolate-maker Cadbury – to its bovine employees. In an effort to reduce its contribution to global warming, the company has been looking at ways to reduce the amount of methane given off by its cows.
According to Cadbury, over 60% of its greenhouse gas emissions come from the milk used to make its chocolate — a glass and a half per bar, as it proudly states. Each dairy cow annually emits between 80 and 120 kg of methane (incidentally, mainly through burping and not farting) — which is equivalent to the carbon emissions given off by an average family car over a year. As if eating chocolate wasn't guilt-inducing enough for some already.
So, the company is teaching its farmers to put their cows on a diet and has recently come out with a guide to low carbon farming. By modifying their diets, the hope is to reduce the amount of methane that is produced by micro-organisms in the cows' stomachs.
Of course, it's not all about methane, which makes up only about a quarter of the average dairy farm's emissions. Cadbury has committed itself to a reduction of 50% in its overall carbon emissions by the year 2020, and says it's on track to achieve a 10% reduction by 2010. Going "low carbon" will mean farmers have to take a hard look at the overall energy efficiency of their processes and improve the way they use fertilizers. And let's not forget the practice of deforestation, labeled by some as the "hidden cause of global warming," which is used to make way for new pastures. More on that another time.


The Austrian section of EPS Young Minds (ÖPG Young Minds) and the Division "Physics and School" have organized this year's "LehrerInnentag" (teachers' day) of the Austrian Physical Society (ÖPG). We presented the winners of this year's Students' Award for outstanding master and diploma theses in the areas of theoretical and experimental physics, which is awarded by the Young Minds section. This year's laureates are Lukas Semmelrock (HEPHY/TU Wien) for his work "Dissipative Losses in Self-Interacting Dark Matter Collisions" and Raphaela Wutte (TU Wien) for her work "Near Horizon Boundary Conditions for Spin-3 Gravity in Flat Space".
Further, the division "Physics and School" presented the winners of the Roman Ulrich Sexl Award for outstanding achievements in teaching and the winners of the awards for "pre-scientific work" ("Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeiten") in the area of physics.
Following the award ceremony, all laureates presented their areas of research in front of an audience of high school students. During the discussion many interesting questions were asked. Additionally, the participants of both the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) and the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) shared their experiences during these events.
With over 190 attendants composed mostly of high school students, teachers and other interested participants, the event was a great success. It connected graduate students and high school students and it helped introducing the latter to the forefront of research in modern physics. We definitely plan to repeat this event in the coming year.


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Microsoft's Edge Chromium browser is launching on January 15, 2020
http://www.indian24news.com/technology/microsofts-edge-chromium-browser-is-launching-on-january-15-2020/1131764-news November 05, 2019 71
Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser has a new logo and it will be generally available next year on January 15, 2020. The software will be available for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, and macOS. Microsoft has unveiled the 'release candidate' of the Edge Chromium and it is now available for download at microsoftedgeinsider.com.
The announcement comes only a few months after Microsoft released the beta version of the Edge with a promise to release the full stable version in early 2020. The new browser includes a number of features that also include the sync support for passwords, history, favourites, and settings across Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
Microsoft is also introducing a new logo and icon for its Edge browser, which now takes a shift from being too similar to the logo of the Internet Explorer. The new logo looks more like a wave ditches the classic blue 'e' logo Microsoft has been using for its browsers for more than two decades.
With today's release, Microsoft has also announced new privacy features for the Edge Chromium, which includes Microsoft's new built-in tracking protection. The feature will be enabled by default in the browser and its marquee feature is like the new InPrivate browsing mode that in combination with Bing, will keep the online searches and identities private.
The Edge Chromium also brings in some new business-focused features to the browser where users can type in the address bar to search for their co-workers, office locations, definitions of company acronyms, and more. With the new Edge Chromium, Microsoft is targeting businesses and corporate customers.
Reliance Jio UPI now live in MyJio app: Report
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G leaked render basically confirms 100x digital zoom feature
FASTag Recharge Now Made Easier by PhonePe, Google Pay And BHIM: Here is How
Telnet data leak: Passwords for over 5 lakh IoT devices, home routers posted online
Republic Day Offer: Four Asus Phones Get Discounts Upto Rs 4,000 in Flipkart Sale
Samsung Galaxy Fold Sales Reached '400,000 to 500,000' Units, Claim CEO DJ Koh
Sony to launch new flagship at MWC 2020 but should you even care?
Sonos Sues Google for Stealing its Speaker Technologies, Accuses Amazon Too
Global PC shipments rise 2.3 per cent; China's Lenovo remains no 1
Budget May Offer Production Incentives For Semiconductor Makers
Budget 2020 Will Have Plan Of Action On Economy: Prakash Javadekar
L&T Net Profit Rises 15% At Rs 2,352 Crore In Third Quarter


Vinyl skins are a fantastic opportunity for businesses to promote an event or product on a large scale. There are many banner companies who can create these for their clients, but few are able to install these at height. Abseil can be a cost effective way of applying or removing vinyl or banners especially where access is difficult.
Off The Ledge has had experience in both vinyl skin and banner installation.
It is just as important to meticulously install your promotion as much as it is to carefully remove them. Banner removal requires a high level of skill to remove without damage.
These promotions often happen in busy areas with a heavy traffic flow. The health and safety of our workers and the public is paramount. We rope and cone off areas with potential hazards and also place signage to inform pedestrians of the work near them.
We are able to carefully lay out and attach your vinyl meticulously. Each section must be straight, flat, free of air bubbles and perfectly aligned to each sheet of glass.


Bisakol (portmanteau of Bisaya and Bikol) refers to the transitional languages in the Central Philippine language family, between Visayan languages and Bikol languages. They are usually classified by linguists as Visayan languages with a great deal of Bikol influence.
These languages are spoken in the Bicol Region and include Sorsoganon, a group of Warayan speech varieties of Sorsogon, namely Central Sorsogon (Masbate Sorsogon) and Southern Sorsogon (Waray Sorsogon). Distinct Bisakol dialect is spoken in the municipalities in Southern Sorsogon. They are the municipalities of Matnog, Gubat, Bulan, Irosin, Sta. Magdalena, Barcelona and Bulusan. These Bisakol languages are closely related to the Waray spoken in Northern Samar and especially the island of Maripipi in Biliran.
Masbateño of Masbate is closer to the languages of Panay, Capiznon and Hiligaynon. It still has had Bicolano influence since it is in the Bicol Region politically and geographically. Despite its name, Masbate Sorsogon is closer to Waray than to Masbatenyo, but this coast of Sorsogon Bay where Masbate Sorsogon is spoken has had a lot of contact with Masbate Island.
Romblomanon too is also considered as a Far Variant of Bisakol due to its proximity with the Islands of Panay & Masbate.
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Masbate–Sorsogon". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.


Official schedule of the Sanford Lookouts of the 1939 Florida State League. The cover page features a drawing of a batter and catcher. There are two advertisements and a list of games played by the Lookouts in the 1939 Season.


text:
import json

from django.core import serializers
from django.db import models
from django.db.models.fields.related import ManyToManyField
from django.forms import model_to_dict

ASSOCIATION_STATUS = (
    ('N', 'New'),
    ('A', 'Approved'),
    ('R', 'Rejected'),

)

class Publication(models.Model):
    pmc_id = models.CharField(null=False, unique=True, max_length=200)
    pubmed = models.IntegerField(unique=True, null=True)
    doi = models.CharField(null=True, max_length=200)
    title = models.TextField(null=False)
    whole_article = models.TextField(null=False)

    def __unicode__(self):
        # return u'%s(%s): %s' % (self.doi, str(self.pubmed), self.title,)
        return u'%s: %s' % (self.doi, self.title,)

    def to_dict(self):
        return model_to_dict(self)

class Experiment(models.Model):
    accession = models.CharField(max_length=25, unique=True)
    title = models.TextField(null=False)
    description = models.TextField(null=False)
    publications = models.ManyToManyField(Publication, through='Association')

    def to_dict(self):
        opts = self._meta
        data = {}
        for f in opts.concrete_fields + opts.many_to_many:
            if isinstance(f, ManyToManyField):
                if self.pk is None:
                    data[f.name] = []
                else:
                    data[f.name] = list(f.value_from_object(self).values_list('pk', flat=True))
            else:
                data[f.name] = f.value_from_object(self)
        return data

    def __unicode__(self):
        return json.dumps(self.to_dict())

class Association(models.Model):
    experiment = models.ForeignKey(Experiment, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="experiment")
    publication = models.ForeignKey(Publication, on_delete=models.CASCADE, related_name="publication")
    is_associated = models.BooleanField(default=0)
    status = models.CharField(max_length=1, choices=ASSOCIATION_STATUS, default='N')

    # id = models.IntegerField(auto_created=True, primary_key=True)

    class Meta:
        unique_together = ('experiment', 'publication')

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Kansas may be an inexpensive state among the U.S. states with some of the lowest-cost housing. However, it is one of the best states for transportation. You will find Kansas Car Shipping Services all over the United States. So, while looking for car shipping, know what services are offered and what additional services must be offered to guarantee a safe and hassle free delivery.
It does not matter whether Kansas has best transportation, to find Kansas Car Shipping Services; you have to follow certain steps to get best deals at best prices.
Don't go through third party if you want to save money. However easy, it is best to find Auto transport companies websites and apply for quotes their directly.
Always have multiple quotes from different companies to compare quotes to find best services with best prices.
Never go with cheap quotes, look for services like Open Auto Transport, Enclosed Auto Transport, Door-to-Door Transport etc. and thing like insurance, GPS tracking, 24X7 customer services etc.
It is crucial to be assured of the experience, license and other credentials to operate the job efficiently.
However, before narrowing down your options, don't forget to check for reviews of other users online to get the picture of their services better.
After you have found the company with best deal, make sure to get everything in writing. Read any contract you have to sign carefully.
Don't make deposits or advance payments. Step back and choose different company but always go for payment after delivery option.
And when handing over your car, prepare it for shipping and take necessary shots of your car from different angle for inspection after delivery.
Finding the right Auto Transport Company may look like searching needle in a haystack but it's well worth it. Because, it guarantees best service without depleting your bank account. AUTO TRANS SOLUTIONS understand these concerns and thrives on making every transport easy and safe. With round the clock customer services and constant updates on your shipment, it allows you to let your hair down and relax.


Mrs. Jessie Nell Boyd Chambers, age 88, the McNatt Falls Community, died Saturday, April 13, 2019, at her home, after an extended illness. She was a native of Cedar Crossing and lived in Toombs County most of her life. She retired from Oxford Industries in Vidalia after more than forty years and was a member of the Smyrna United Methodist Church. She enjoyed gardening, cooking, canning, crocheting, needle point and knitting. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack Chambers; a daughter, Jackie Nell Chambers Foskey; parents, James Harrison Boyd and Bertha Lou Wood Boyd; two sisters, Lula Belle Beasley and Jimmy Lou Tyson; and two brothers, Alfred Boyd and James Harrison Boyd.