text:
namespace gpu {

struct SyncToken;

namespace gles2 {

class Texture;

// Manages resources scoped beyond the context or context group level.
class GPU_EXPORT MailboxManager : public base::RefCounted<MailboxManager> {
 public:
  static scoped_refptr<MailboxManager> Create();

  // Look up the texture definition from the named mailbox.
  virtual Texture* ConsumeTexture(const Mailbox& mailbox) = 0;

  // Put the texture into the named mailbox.
  virtual void ProduceTexture(const Mailbox& mailbox, Texture* texture) = 0;

  // If |true| then Pull/PushTextureUpdates() needs to be called.
  virtual bool UsesSync() = 0;

  // Used to synchronize texture state across share groups.
  virtual void PushTextureUpdates(const SyncToken& token) = 0;
  virtual void PullTextureUpdates(const SyncToken& token) = 0;

  // Destroy any mailbox that reference the given texture.
  virtual void TextureDeleted(Texture* texture) = 0;

 protected:
  MailboxManager() {}
  virtual ~MailboxManager() {}

 private:
  friend class base::RefCounted<MailboxManager>;

  DISALLOW_COPY_AND_ASSIGN(MailboxManager);
};

}  // namespage gles2
}  // namespace gpu

#endif  // GPU_COMMAND_BUFFER_SERVICE_MAILBOX_MANAGER_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Pediatric surgical ministry focuses training on local medical professionals across Africa
Tracy Riggs
Featured, International News, Latest News, Medical Issues, Missions
(Photo courtesy of BethanyKids)
It's been about 20 years since the work of an American surgeon in East Africa provided the inspiration behind an initiative to help alleviate the suffering of children with major medical needs.
The surgeon worked in Africa in the 80s and 90s and stressed the need for qualified medical missionaries to assist children born with complex conditions that require early surgical intervention, explained Peter Lublink, executive director of the nonprofit BethanyKids.
BethanyKids came out of that experience and currently exists as a group of Christian medical professionals working to transform the lives of African children and their families through surgery, education, ministry and training health professionals.
"If you gave them surgery early, the whole course of their life would be transformed," Lublink said.
BethanyKids trains pediatric surgeons from across Africa, who then go back to their home communities where BethanyKids continues to provide support.
"Whatever the family can pay or if there's a national insurance plan they can afford, great! They'll pay for it. But whatever they cannot afford, we pick up the difference," Lublink said. "The bottom line is that we don't want any child to be denied care because he can't afford it.
"We try to make sure that by saving one child's life, we are also transforming that child's life and that child's community."
BethanyKids doesn't try to fit the needs of a community or family into what they already offer. Instead, they work to meet needs that are discovered.
"I would say we are very 'people centric,'" Lublink explained. "When surgeons are trained and return home, we really depend on them and their local expertise to shape any program. So our program in Ethiopia and our program in Sierra Leone is going to look very different.
"Our goal is to invest in those surgeons to make sure they are well-trained, offered continued training, fairly compensated, and then from there, if they have program initiatives they want to launch, we do whatever we can to back those."
Partnering with others in-country
Lublink shared how one Zambian surgeon said his government will pay the full cost of surgery expenses, but they don't cover diagnostic tests. A family has to wait months to confirm that their infant has a congenital challenge that, if treated sooner, would have been a less extensive and safer surgery. Beginning in 2021, BethanyKids is covering the costs of the diagnostic testing in Zambia for children.
Lublink contrasted Zambia with Kenya. BethanyKids discovered a residential school with 300-plus orthopedically challenged students, all using wheelchairs, crutches or other assistive devices. The BethanyKids surgeon said there were no medical professionals, wheelchair technicians, nurses or therapists.
After providing trained personnel in those areas, they saw the school also didn't have wheelchair-accessible washrooms, so they renovated those.
Furthermore, each "house mother" cared for around 40 students, most with incontinence issues. Laundry, showering and personal care were overwhelming.
BethanyKids hired two laundry professionals and bought equipment to run a laundry facility in an empty room in the school, freeing up about 30% of the house-mothers' work, allowing them to focus on the well-being of children.
Meeting one other need in that Kenyan school involved God's intervention.
From patient to manager
Years before, a Samburu native (nearby and similar to the Masai tribe) was born with spina bifida. Believing she was a curse, her family tried to poison her. She spent her life with other family but was always soaked in her own body fluids due to incontinence related to her condition. She later wished they had killed her, and tried to poison herself, but it didn't work.
Through God's providence, she got connected to a church that introduced her to the BethanyKids' founder, who helped her get surgery and the continence training she needed.
Now she runs continence management at that school, sharing what she has learned with others.
"It's easy to forget about the needs of children, to not notice that this is transformative when it's on the other side of the globe," Lublink noted. "I'm hoping to identify churches and bodies of believers who will align themselves with this mission and help support these local missionary surgeons transforming the lives of children and families."
He reflected on the old model of churches having a bulletin-board, highlighting missionaries they aligned with, prayed for and supported. His hope is that churches would be willing to support these missionaries with a deeper relational connection through BethanyKids.
"We want long-term partners … participants and not just check-writers," Lublink said.
"We are very much a missionary organization. The difference is that instead of sending, we are locally equipping. When we say we're Bible-believing and we're faith-based, at the heart of it is that we try to emulate His love for us to the people around us."
To hear a podcast interview on BethanyKids by TAB Media, click here. For more about BethanyKids and how to partner with them, visit www.BethanyKids.org.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Esky, Jun 30, 2009.
I would like to compile pcntl into php-cli and not php-cgi.
Is it possible to make a file like /var/cpanel/easy/apache/rawopts/all_php5_cli ?
Well a year and a half has passed and I must say that I'm surprised nobody else wants this feature, or is it available already?
I'd like to find out if it is possible to enable pcntl for php5-cli only as well using the rawopts method.


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Enter the Facebook ID below You'll get full access to the account.
Facebook World Enter the account ID.
You can hack the Facebook account of your choice.
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I talk to my friends tomorrow.
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DP: How did you get involved in "Battleborn", and can you tell us a bit about the project?
Michel Gagné: In June 2013, I received an email from James Sanders who was the effects lead at Gearbox Software in Texas. James had been to one of my animation workshops a few years prior, and was wondering if I'd be interested in doing a similar one for his VFX crew at Gearbox.
I told him that I'd love to do it and suggested that they bring me in for a week instead of a day. This way, I could do the workshop on the Monday and then, spend the rest of the week working on production with the crew to see how I could share some of my ideas in a more casual setting.
After a few back and forth discussions, I was flown for an on-site meeting in September 2013. Once I got there, I was introduced to Gearbox's new IP, Battleborn , which actually didn't even have a real name at that point. The project was just starting and I saw a great opportunity to bring my kind of signature effects into the fold. Following my workshop on that Monday, I was given a work station in the middle of the VFX department and started brainstorming some ideas with James about how we could integrate hand drawn effects into Battleborn.
Four days go by quickly, but in that short period we were able to create a couple of tests that showed the potential of such an endeavor. By the time I left, the whole crew was excited. For the next few months, I kept doing animation tests and concepts on a freelance basis to prove the viability of the premise. Within that time, I was also flown to Los Angeles for a couple of weeks to create the hand drawn effects featured in the Battleborn reveal trailer. As the weeks went by, I became more and more entrenched in the project.
By January 2014, Gearbox hired Seung Kim to be my full time assistant. Since I was working mostly off site, it was important to have someone at the studio who could not only help me with inbetweens, but also build the flipbooks and act as my bridge to the pipeline. Right around that time, I was brought in to meet Seung and to help refine our pipeline. We figured out a lot of stuff in that two-week visit, but ultimately our techniques evolved through the whole production as we kept learning new tricks and progressed in our ability to resolve technical issues. Another thing that happened on that trip was Gearbox offering me to go on the project full time as VFX Director, which I enthusiastically agreed to. And this is how I spent the following two years of my life!
I'd been working in games on and off since 2003, but I had yet to prove my mettle on a triple A title. Battleborn not only offered me that opportunity but also allowed me to bring my signature effects style in a new ambitious way.
DP: How big is the team for that game?
Michel Gagné: At first, I worked closely with James Sanders whose technical knowledge of the game engine used by Gearbox was essential to the whole enterprise.
Once we had a good pipeline figured out and my assistant, Seung Kim came on board, Nicholas Wilson was put in charge while James went to other projects. At this point, I started working closely with the other three members of the VFX crew, Gabe Simon, Ash Lyons and Mark Forsyth, who handled the implementation of my animation in the game.
DP: And what was your job in the creation ?
Michel Gagné: My responsibility as VFX Director was to design the esthetic, animate and do the final rendering of the 2D hand drawn animation assets. Although my duties were artistic, it was important for me to understand the technical aspects so that I could design and configure my work in the most optimal way possible.
In game, you are always creating against a memory ceiling. Battleborn has so much 2D FX animation happening at all time, that we quickly ran into a big wall. This is where I applaud the Gearbox team for finding new creative ways to resolve these issues. Some very creative sleight of hand was performed to make this work.
DP: Which tools did you use for that, and what do you generally use for 2D-Animation?
Michel Gagné: My main arsenal of tools consists of Photoshop, Harmony, After Effects and Premiere. For Battleborn, I used Harmony for the animation, and Photoshop for doing my painted concepts.
DP: Since you are an avid Harmony-User, could you tell us why you use it?
Michel Gagné: Before jumping ship in 2012 to Harmony, I had been using software called Animo since 1992. After finishing Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet in 2011, I pretty much concluded that the time had come to start migrating away from Animo.
Animo was software I actually helped develop, spending time in Cambridge, UK, working with the programming crew. In 1992, 2D digital ink and paint / compositing packages were just starting to emerge and companies were eager to team up with animators to help them move their software forward. I had a short film, Prelude to Eden, already animated but I needed a way to get it finished in color so this is when I teamed up with Cambridge Animation and entered the digital age.
I used Animo on several movies afterward, including The Iron Giant, Osmosis Jones and Pixar's Ratatouille.
Eventually, Cambridge Animation went out of business ending support and upgrades. I used the software for another year or two after their demise but eventually knew I had to make a switch. This is when I turned my attention to Toon Boom, a series of 2D animation software that were receiving a lot of praise from members of the animation community at the time. I downloaded the trial version of Toon Boom Animate Pro and it didn't take long to make me a convert.
For me, software has to be sufficiently intuitive so that I can proceed without tutorials or reading a manual. I have a trial and error approach that lets me discover software at my pace and on my terms. If I can't make sense of it, I quickly lose interest. I'm sure my experience with Animo and Cambridge Animation facilitated my approach to Harmony, both software having a similar interface architecture, but still, intuitiveness is very important to me.
Harmony keeps me curious and inquisitive. There is much depth to the software, so much to explore.
DP: What are the Hardware-Requirements for doing a decent Animation in Harmony?
Michel Gagné: Well, I always work on pretty high end PCs so I've never had any issues as far as requirements. Someone at Toon Boom might be better suited to answer that question.
Michel Gagné: It varies from project to project, but for the creation of Battleborn's VFX, it sat right at the top of the effects creation.
First, I would get some video footage from the game with the particular character I was working on, along with a document featuring the list of his/her abilities. At that point, I'd have a little discussion with the particular VFX artist that would be assigned to work with me on that character. Sometimes I would send concepts to make sure we were all on the same page.
Once we all agreed on a direction, I'd fire up Harmony and start animating the effects components required. Sometimes, to help the team understand what I wanted, I'd import the game play footage into Harmony and do a mock-up comp with the FX, so that they could get a clear picture of what my vision was.
Each character's VFX was a team effort with me creating the hand drawn animation, Seung prepping the files, and a VFX artist implementing my animation in the game. Once, those assets are introduced in the game engine, the VFX artists added geometry, particle bits and PhysX to better integrated the 2D animation in the 3D environment.
Remember that everything I did on Battleborn is a cheat. I'm doing 2D FX Animation in a 3D world. How do we sell that to the audience? This is where I relied on the expertise of the Gearbox team to make the illusion as convincing as possible.
DP: What connections did you have with your Harmony-Pipeline into the Game engine for Battleborn? Could you do Realtime-Previs?
Michel Gagné: Once the frames are rendered and introduced in the game, you can start viewing the asset in motion right away and experiment with it at your heart's content, all in real-time.
DP: When animating assets in Harmony, what is your workflow?
Michel Gagné: As mentioned before, sometimes I'd paint concepts in Photoshop and shared them with the team before committing to animation. Other times, I'd do all the concepts in my head and then jump right into the animation. If an asset was 9 to 16 frames, I usually did all the drawings myself. For longer assets such as 25, 36 or more frames, I did the keys frames (on ones, twos or fours) and my assistant, Seung Kim, filled in the blank.
Once that part of the animation was done, I composited the effect, by painting it and adding filters. My goal here was to get the effect to be as close as I could to its final look before it even entered the game. Colours could always be tweaked once in the engine, but for my part, I wanted to deliver as much of a turn key asset as I possibly could. My work with Harmony was done for a particular effect once all the images of the sequence were rendered as a set of PNG4. From that point, the images were assembled in Photoshop using a special script and then, the resulting flipbooks were introduced in the game engine.
DP: Do you maybe have any tips for Harmony-Beginners, who are switching from other software-environments?
Michel Gagné: Do as I did. Download the trial and experiment with it. See if this is something that will suit you and your project.
DP: Can you recommend resources (Tutorials, Books, DVDs, Blogs) for anyone interested in learning to use Harmony?
Michel Gagné: As I mentioned to you before, I'm more of a trial and error kind of guy. Whenever I get stuck I just go on Google and do a search to resolve my issue. So I guess my recommendation for resources would be to "Google it"!
DP: And, from your perspective as a 2D-Artists working in the 3D-World of Games: What's in store for that particular style in the next few years?
Michel Gagné: We'll have to wait and see how people react to Battleborn. This is a new approach to 3D Game VFX. I mean flipbooks have been around in the past but never to that extent. I did well over ten thousand images for Battleborn. There's so much variety in the effects. I hope people will dig it. For some, it might be a bit jarring from what they are used to, but I hope they will give a chance to the depth and imagination that went into creating those effects. I'd be thrilled to see this trend continue. Perhaps a new way to look at game FX?


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text:
HH Mahant Swami Maharaj Inaugurates the Svāminārāyaṇa-siddhāntasudhā and Announces Parabrahman Svāminārāyaṇa's Darśana as the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana
The land of the free and the home of the brave proudly hails once more its twilight's gleam. With lady liberty's guiding torch welcoming all to its shores, America has always been the land that has embraced the diversity of cultural expression. September 17, 2017 was witness to such a demonstration.
On this historic day, an assembly consisting predominantly of those fluent in Gujarati gathered on the sanctified grounds of Akshardham in the suburban township of Robbinsville, NJ to celebrate the inauguration of a traditionally composed Sanskrit text. The proceedings were an example of diversity in its purist form. The assembly was a celebration of two momentous events:
The inauguration of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā
The recognition of Śrī Svāminārāyaṇa's Vedānta as the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana, as Vedic, and as distinct from the other Vedanta darśanas by the Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad.
The evening assembly was marked with the inauguration of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā by the auspicious hands of HH Mahant Swami Maharaj. Authored by Sadhu Bhadreshdas, the text is traditionally categorized as a vādagrantha – a formal exposition, justification, and defense of the philosophical and theological positions of a darśana. It is composed on the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana as it was revealed by Parabrahman Puruṣottama Svāminārāyaṇa. Divided into nine chapters identified as dhārās, the text presents a sophisticated treatment of the philosophical principles of Bhagavān Svāminārāyaṇa. Among other things, it grounds these principles on expositions found within the Prasthānatrayī – a collective designation for the Upaniṣads, Śrīmadbhagavadgītā, and the Brahmasūtras. It also presents a unique epistemological system that is characteristic of the darśana. Its comprehensive, critical, yet reverent treatment of alternative darśanas and their disagreements not only reflects the traditional methods of a vādagrantha, but also emphasizes the robustness of the text.
In admiration for the text's intellectual appeal, several dignitaries and renowned academics in the assembly expressed their thoughts and praise for the text. Both the text and its author was honored by invited guests including Professor George Cardona – a renowned professor emeritus of linguistics and South Asian studies at the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Sthaneshwar Timalsina – a distinguished professor at San Diego State University; Professor Graham Schweig – the director of studies in religion at Christopher Newport University; Professor Deven Patel – a professor of South-Asia Studies at University of Pennsylvania; Professor Jyotindra Dave – the director of BAPS Research Institute at Akshardham; New Delhi; and Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami – the chief editor at Hinduism Today.
Professor Deven Patel began by explaining the significance of a vādagrantha and its distinctive role in establishing the principles of a darśana. He offered a brief summary of the great philosophical insights that have been offered by the Sanskrit commentarial tradition and positioned the vādagrantha within this tradition. Among other things he complemented the texts 459 kārikās – poetic syntheses of the text's exposition, justification, and defense of the principles of the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana. He also offered reverence to Swamiji for his outstanding work as the author of both the comprehensive commentary of the sacred texts of the Prasthānatrayī and the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā – an accomplishment never performed before by a single author.
Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami substantiated how a work of such great prominence is possible only by the divine grace of the guru. He focused on the significance of the guru in sustaining a darśana's principles and emphasized the need to follows a guru's commands. He concluded by commending Sadhu Bhadreshdas' commitment toward fulling Pramukh Swami Maharaj's wishes to compose both commentaries of the Prasthānatrayī and a vādagrantha on the darśana's foundational principles.
Professor Timalsina then revealed the significance of the text in the modern world. He emphasized that although very few members of the audience could fully comprehend the Sanskrit discussions in the text, let alone read the language, the fact that so many had gathered to celebrate its creation was a testament to the enduring nature of the language and an indicator of its magnificence. He also revealed that the text was unique in that while being drafted in simple language, its content and depth reflected profound thought. He projected that the text would draw and inspire great academic scholarship and would play a pivotal role in invigorating not only the appreciation, but also the practice of Sanskrit studies.
Thereafter, Professor Graham Schweig expressed his admiration for Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami. He offered reverence to Swamiji for his outstanding work. He emphasized the clarity with which the text was composed and conveyed that it was a great fortune for him and all those who had gathered to have had the opportunity to meet the author of such outstanding works.
Professor George Cardona followed by identifying distinctive features of Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami's commentary on the Prasthānatrayī and the vādagrantha. He began by discussing characteristic features of the commentarial tradition. Thereafter, he highlighted Sadhu Bhadreshdas' exposition of Akṣarabrahman as a distinct ontological entity from Parabrahman based on readings of the Prasthānatrayī. Professor Cardona summarized his assessment of these readings by stating, "You will find in Swami Bhadreshdas' bhāṣya (commentary) on the Brahmasūtras an absolutely lucid, faithful interpretation of the sutras." Thereupon, he reflected on the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā's unique consideration of alternative perspectives and responses to them. Moved by the vādagrantha's sympathetic treatment of opposing viewpoints, he stated in appreciation, "Another thing that characterizes Bhadreshdas' work in contrast to a typical other sort of comparable work is the lack of animosity." Sadhu Bhadreshdas' subtle treatment of raised objections is conducted in such a manner that one "never realizes that he is really arguing against anybody."
Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad's Recognition of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā
The assembly thereafter continued by recalling the admiration, commendation, and recognition expressed by the Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad for Sadhu Bhadreshdas' creation of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā. Established in Varanasi, the Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad is an authoritative, honorable council which serves a decisive role in matters concerning Vedic principles and its research. In recognition of the outstanding composition of the text, the novelty of the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana, and its characteristic Akṣara-Puruṣottama Siddhānta (doctrine), the council presented a letter of endorsement and a copper-plated letter of declaration to Mahāmahopādyāya Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami. Notably, the two documents express the following:
"The Prasthānatrayī-Svāminārāyaṇabhāṣya and the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā are sacred texts on Parabrahman Svāminārāyaṇa's revealed Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana. These sacred texts are in every manner the protectors of the eternal Vedic religious tradition."
"Acclaimed by all scholars, respected Mahāmahopādyāya Sadhu Bhadreshdas is an ācārya and a contemporary commentator in the lineage of commentators on the Prasthānatrayī."
"Within philosophy, just as Śrī Śaṅkara's Vedānta is identified as the Advaita Darśana, Śrī Rāmānuja's Vedānta is identified as the Viśiṣṭādvaita Darśana, Śrī Madhva's Vedānta is identified as the Dvaita Darśana, Śrī Vallabha's Vedānta is identified as the Śuddhādvaita Darśana, and others are respectively known; it is in every way appropriate to identify Sri Svāminārāyaṇa's Vedānta by the title: Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana."
"We (members of the Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad) all collectively endorse that this Akṣara-Puruṣottama Siddhānta that has been revealed by Parabrahman Svāminārāyaṇa is a Vedic siddhānta that is distinct from Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, and all other doctrines."
Both the letter of endorsement and the copper-plated letter of declaration were offered by Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami to guru Mahant Swami Maharaj. Speaking on this occasion, Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami humbly credited his scholarly works to the inspiration he had received from Pramukh Swami Maharaj and the blessings of guru Mahant Swami Maharaj. He added: "The Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana is not only confined to such texts, but is also practiced as a way of life by thousands of devotees of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha."
The assembly concluded with HH Mahant Swami expressing the significance of the vādagrantha and extolling the humility of Sadhu Bhadreshdas Swami. Revealing the work's historical importance, Swamiji identified it as a pinnacle text on the foundational principles of the Akṣara-Puruṣottama Darśana. All those present at the assembly expressed their deep admiration and were honored to have witnessed the inauguration of such a historic text.
HH Mahant Swami Maharaj inaugurates Swaminarayana-Siddhanta-Sudha – a vādagrantha written by Mahāmahopādyāya Pujya Bhadreshdas Swami
HH Mahant Swami Maharaj sanctifies the Swaminarayana-Siddhanta-Sudha recognition letter
Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad's admiration, commendation, and recognition of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā by presenting the Pariṣad's letter of endorsement
Śrī Kāśī Vidvat Pariṣad's admiration, commendation, and recognition of the Svāminārāyaṇasiddhāntasudhā by presenting the Pariṣad's copper-plated letter of declaration


In 2004, the Tulsa-based Tulsa Reaches Out and the Community Service Council conducted a survey of the Tulsa area LGBTQA+ community to help identify important needs. More than 500 individuals responded, and many others participated in focus groups.
This information was used to better advise many agencies and other providers better understand and meet the needs of LGBTQA+ citizens in the state of Oklahoma.
Much has changed since the 2004 survey. To identify today's needs, Tulsa Reaches Out has engaged OU – Tulsa to undertake a new survey which will aid agencies and organizations in providing services and support to the LGBTQA+ community.
This new online survey will be open from April 1 until April 30th, 2019. If you are part of the LGBTQA+ community, we strongly encourage you to take 30-40 minutes to complete the online survey by going to the link below or using the QR code to access the survey.
While certain demographic information will be collected to aid in the aggregate data analysis, no identifiable information is being requested so responses are anonymous.
The survey is open to anyone living in Oklahoma. The data will be analyzed, and a report prepared by OU in July 2019 and disseminated to appropriate organizations for consideration and action.
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The Gayly. 4.1.2019 @ 10:15 a.m.
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text:
M A I N N E W S
Army foils LeT infiltration bid
Lashkar warns of more attacks
Srinagar/New Delhi, March 25
Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba today acknowledged its role in trying to push militants into India across the LOC. A Lashkar spokesman Abdulla Ghaznavi was quoted by a news agency as saying that attacks will continue on Indian soil and that the push at Kupwara was part of the LeT game plan.
The fierce encounter at Kupwara, that lasted for five days, signals stepped-up terrorist activities from across the border, warned Army chief General Deepak Kapoor on Wednesday. He said Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba, was attempting 'the biggest push' to infiltrate around 300 terrorists across the Line of Control into India.
Pakistani troops have been firing throughout last night at Indian posts in Uri sector, apparently to give cover to militants crossing over. The arms, ammunition and the sophisticated communication equipment recovered from the 17 militants killed in the encounter at Kupwara, said General Kapoor, also indicated the involvement of official agencies in Pakistan.
The Army has recovered 23 AK assault rifles, one pistol, four Under Barrel Grenade Launchers, 19 UBGL grenades, two hand grenades, two global positioning systems and 10 radio sets at Kupwara.
The encounter, which began on March 20, lasted five days and claimed the lives of 17 militants and eight security personnel.
Brigadier General Gurmeet Singh said in Srinagar that the terrorists couldn't have accessed the weaponry without state backing. "The operation is still in progress. The majority of the terrorists have been killed. However, those who might have escaped, will also be eliminated," said the Brigadier General.
All martyrs, including Major Mohit Sharma and jawan Shabir Ahmad Malik, were laid to rest in Jammu and Ganderbal in north Kashmir.
In New Delhi, the Army chief said 40 to 50 terror camps were operational on the other side of LoC in Pakistan, camps which kept shifting their locations. More terrorists were waiting to infiltrate once the conditions get conducive for crossing over.
On the highly sophisticated communication equipment used by terrorists during the encounter, the Army chief said, "Obviously they were contacting their handlers on the other side." He added that the terrorists had received a fairly high level of training, which became obvious after the Mumbai attacks.
Asked why it took the Army so long to eliminate the terrorists in Kupwara, the Army chief said, " In such a terrain where there is still snow, passes are still closed and reaching outlying areas is difficult, we killed 17 terrorists and recovered arms and equipment that indicate how well-prepared they were. It was a high-risk operation and in the event our boys did quite well."


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This is an Ancient Aliens & Giorgio A. Tsoukalos Spoof Video Promoting The Gates Musical Soundtrack for the webcomic by Hal Hefner in support of the Ronnie James Dio Cancer Fund. The webcomic is being presented Heavy Metal Magazine and being produced entirely by Hal Hefner.
This video stars comic artist and writer of the new science fiction comic Gates, Hal Hefner as Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, the fun and eccentric ancient alien theorist. Hef uses Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and pokes fun at the show ancient aliens on the History channel, taking a Funny Or Die, Saturday Night Live and Comedy Central like approach to a rather serious show and uses it to promote the musical soundtrack to the webcomic that was launched in August of 2011. The commercial spoofs the ancient hieroglyphs of the Mayans who populated the Yucatan Penninsula, Mexico and built Chichen Itza.
PLEASE go to http://gatesthecomic.com now to read the comic and learn more about the soundtrack.
The soundtrack to Gates, is dedicated to Ronnie James Dio who was on the original Heavy Metal soundtrack, to the cult classic film, Heavy Metal, in 1981. Dio was the lead singer for Black Sabbath at the time and their song mob rules is an epic track that fit perfectly with the animated movie Heavy Metal.
The soundtrack to Gates is for sale on Amazon & Itunes MP3 and 100% of the proceeds of the sales are being donated to the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer fun and are synchronized with the story of Hal Hefner's new science fiction comic book franchise Gates.
PLEASE BUY IT NOW AND MAKE A DONATION TO THE RONNIE JAMES DIO STAND UP AND SHOUT CANCER FUND available for download on iTunes and AmazonMP3, benefiting the Ronnie James Dio "Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund."
The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund. We hope to do you right!
Thank you History Channel! Hal Hefner is a huge fan of Ancient Aliens and it was an honor for him to parody such a great show.
Thanks you Kismet Cinema for the production of the video.
"I Got A Gun" -- LoveKrafty, "M.O.D." -- Hemoptysis , "The Entity (Ghostly Lust)" -- Rusty Eye : THANK YOU!
Thank you to Giorgio A. Tsoukalos for being you. You rock and it was an honor for Hal Hefner to play your likeness in support of a great cause. Best of luck to you and all you do.
WE ARE VERY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR DONATION - THANK YOU!


text:
Division of Sciences
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Latest research stories
Can mirror imaging fool the brain? - Liz Franz and Ranjan Debnath
LiDARRAS digging into our history, surveying our heritage - Pascal Sirguey, Richard Hemi, Chris Page
SMART grid, green power - Michael Jack
Exploring the Ross Ice Shelf - Christina Hulbe, Christian Ohneiser, Andrew Gorman, Greg Leonard
Brain computer interface - Zhiyi Huang
Clonal propagation and cryopreservation - David Burritt
Rock and ice deformations - Dave Prior
Hoea te Waka, Piki te Mātau - Anne-Marie Jackson, Sally Carson
Comparing apples with apples - Valentina Ting
Large-scale 3D models from images - Steven Mills, Zhiyi Huang and David Eyers
Eruptive geology at Cape Wanbrow - Ben Moorhouse
Sediment cores in the subantarctic - Chris Moy
Trace elements in the ocean - Rob Middag
Leaf phenology - Steven Higgins
Magnetometers - Christian Ohneiser and Sally Brooker
Coral-eating seastars - Miles Lamare
For other recent news and research stories, go to the News and Events page.
For business-related case studies, go to the Business and Community Engagement page.
Research story archive
Deep Fault Drilling project phase 2
Russell Bissett - winner of the 2014 Hatherton Award
Monique Francois and Jim Cotter - Short bursts of exercise
Dr Matthew Parry -Disease spread through trees
Professor Steve Higgins - Not all savannas are created equal
Dr Virginia Toy - Journeys of a green rock
Dr Tina Summerfield - Cyanobacteria
DFDP-2 : exploring the fault line
Geology PhD student Jack Williams explains: "The Deep Fault Drilling Project phase 2 (DFDP-2) aims to sample the Alpine Fault that runs along the West Coast of the South Island at a depth of ~1000 m. The drill site is based in Whataroa Valley, about 30 km north of Franz Josef where we're currently at a depth of about 350 m (as of 00:00 on 22nd October). This has involved drilling through a 240 m thick sequence of recent (Quaternary) sediments during which we have already made some surprising scientific discoveries!
A new drill rig is in place that's designed to drill through the hard schist bedrock that we expect to encounter most of the way to intercepting the Alpine Fault itself. Drilling is proceeding smoothly, 24 hours a day come rain or shine, at a rate of about 2-3 m/hour; we hope to reach the fault in mid-November. With drilling going smoothly morale is currently high amongst the 50 or so strong science team comprising researchers from New Zealand and much further afield. When not on shift the team are making use of the great (and not so great) weather to venture to field exposures of the Alpine Fault and some of the stunning scenery around the West Coast.
The project is being jointly led by GNS Science, Victoria University of Wellington, and the University of Otago and is funded mainly by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and the participating scientists' own organisations. It involves scientists from New Zealand organisations and from more than a dozen other countries. (Photo courtesy of Dave Prior)
Visit the DFDP website for more information
Visit the DFDP Daily News page for the latest updates on the project
Russell Bissett wins 2014 Hatherton Award
Dr Russell Bisset, formerly of the University of Otago but now doing a postdoc in the United States, has been awarded the 2014 Hatherton Award by the Royal Society of New Zealand, for his paper "Fingerprinting Rotons in a Dipolar Condensate: Super-Poissonian Peak in the Atom-Number Fluctuations" by R. N. Bisset and P. B. Blakie, Physical Review Letters 110, 265302 (2013). The award is for the best scientific paper by a student registered for the degree of PhD in Physical Sciences, Earth Sciences and Mathematical and Information Sciences at a New Zealand university.
This paper presents a new theory for the behaviour of condensates in which exotic "roton" excitations develop. These excitations were first predicted to occur in this system more than 10 years ago, but have yet to be observed in experiments. With the rapid developments made in experiments in the past two years, a vigorous race has developed to find these excitations. Russell's work has discovered a striking feature of the rotons that has been welcomed by the field as a smoking gun for proving their existence. Furthermore, this theory provides fundamental insight into the underlying properties of these excitations, and shows that the precise way that measurements are made can reveal important details about the rotons, like where they "live" in the condensate, and what size they are.
Monique Francois and Jim Cotter - Short bursts of exercise to curb glucose spikes
Monique Francois (Masters) and Associate Professor Jim Cotter of the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences have recently published results of their research into effective control of blood glucose for people suffering from insulin resistance , a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
Monique says: "We found exercise snacking before meals to be a novel and effective approach to improve blood sugar control in individuals with insulin resistance. Brief, intense interval exercise bouts undertaken immediately before breakfast, lunch and dinner had a greater impact on post-meal and subsequent 24 h glucose concentrations than did a single bout of moderate, continuous exercise undertaken before dinner.
The practical implications of our findings are that, for individuals who are insulin resistant and who experience marked post-meal increases in blood glucose, both the timing and the intensity of exercise should be considered for optimising glucose control." The research has close associations with the MoveMe programme in Dunedin.
Matthew Parry - Spread of disease through trees: new statistical models
For fruit growers, it is crucial to understand how plant disease spreads through an orchard. In order to do so, however, the growers face a problem: they depend on the orchard for their livelihood. while scientists would like to leave the disease unchecked so the spread can be observed.
To address this problem, a set of modelling tools has been developed that factors in control measures being taken against an emerging plant epidemic.
These modelling tools have been announced this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), in a paper whose lead author is Dr Matthew Parry of the University of Otago's Department of Mathematics & Statistics.
The research is based on a long-term study of a Florida citrus orchard infected with the disease Huanglongbing, which is spread by a small winged insect known as the Asian citrus psyllid. The approach of Parry and his co-authors is innovative because it takes into account control measures such as spraying to kill off the psyllid and removal of diseased trees. Their model also takes note of the way a tree's age affects its response to the disease and how this response changes throughout the year.
Armed with the results of their study, the researchers next intend to work with growers to test alternative control methods virtually. In this way, they aim to find the most efficient and cost-effective control measures for Huanglongbing.
Parry says it should be possible to use these tools in New Zealand contexts. The researchers are already discussing potential applications with Plant & Food Research and the Bio-Protection Research Centre.
Steve Higgins - Not all savannas are created equal
Open grassland with a scattering of trees is called savanna – it's a savanna in Africa, a savanna in Latin America, and a savanna in Australia. A classification like this makes sense of bio-geographical areas that have similarities, but recent research shows that focusing on these similarities won't produce useful models for predicting climate change impacts.
Professor Steve Higgins from Botany is co-author on a paper recently released in Science; he and his colleagues analysed data from more than 2000 sites in savannas in South America, Australia and Africa. They found that although four main impact factors – moisture availability, fire, soil-type and temperature, shape all savannas, the impact of these factors is not uniform across all.
Higgins says "This paper forces us to realise we can no longer assume that similar looking vegetation will respond in the same way to climate change. This in turn means we have to rethink how we represent the world's vegetation in models used to predict climate change impacts."
At the moment scientists represent vegetation in global climate change impact models using structurally similar vegetation units, which they call biomes. Doing this makes modelling the impact of climate change much more straightforward! In savannas for example, there is carbon storage by vegetation, but also fire which releases carbon into the atmosphere. Modelling the balance between these two is now further complicated by this finding which suggests that savannas in Africa, South America and Australia behave in their own distinctive ways.
Steve Higgins says this has been a fun project, but has had its challenges… "we used data provided by other researchers. While this gave us an amazing data set, the process of ensuring that the data - collected by different people for different purposes - was suitable for our study was time consuming and challenging. But we learnt a lot from one another and the results vindicate all the effort "
This work demonstrates clearly that each savanna responds differently to the four key factors of fire, temperature, soils and moisture availability so essentially each case is a Special Case… but if every case is a special case, how can any useful models be developed?
"We are in the process of developing new models that reflect the role of evolutionary history in shaping why for example Australian and African savannas behave so differently despite some apparent similarities. Perhaps an analogy can be made here with weather predictions – the better a climate model can describe the current conditions the further into the future it can forecast – we believe that the better we can describe how evolutionary history got us to our current situation, the better we will be able to forecast future vegetation."
The article appeared in the Science journal at the end of January, and the research was supported by funding from the Australian Research council and the Royal Society of New Zealand
Virginia Toy - dunite collection
An ophiolite belt - a stretch of mantle rock from below the Earth's crust - stretches from Balclutha to Nelson. It's exposed from Balclutha to Gore, intersects the Alpine Fault through the Cascade River valley, and then on up to Nelson north of Lake St Arnaud. The outcrop from there through to Dun Mountain is probably the best place in the world to source dunite - mantle rock that's been pushed up to the earth's surface by tectonic movement. Dunite is the second most dense rock on the earth's surface – you find this out when you lift a piece!
The rock and surrounding dirt are so full of iron that few things will grow - the bald Red Hills are clearly visible from the air. Most of the dunite around the world that's exposed at the surface has interacted with seawater and atmosphere to become serpentine but at the Red Hills there's 125 km2 that's NOT metamorphosed into serpentine, an excellent tool to research the tectonic processes involved in the creation of mantle rock. The area has been the focus of international research for some time.
Dr Virginia Toy in Geology is a part of that research. "One focus for this research is that it's reaction with CO2 that changes dunite into serpentine. So researchers want to see whether it's possible to use that mechanism to sequester CO2 permanently. Researchers are also fascinated by the contribution this rock type may have made to the beginning of life on earth. Springs coming through this kind of rock are basic (as opposed to acid), and it's thought that proto-life forms consumed the hydrogen ions in the water."
So how does an American researcher obtain dunite for work in their research Lab? Sometimes the researchers travel to Nelson to collect it, and sometimes they phone a friend….
"So Wen-Lu Zhong in the US wants some dunite to experiment on – she wants to use compression and deformation machines to explore the processes that create this kind of rock. She asked me, and I asked some Texan researchers who were going in to the Red Hills over summer. They helicoptered out a big chunk, and delivered it to an ex-Geology staff member in Nelson. Then someone knew someone else was travelling through with a small station wagon, so they brought it to Otago. We'll drill cores (diameter of a 20c piece) and send those to Wen-Lu".
Having travelled from below the earth's crust, some very small pieces of the mantle will travel an even longer distance.
Tina Summerfield – cyanobacteria
There are unknown numbers of different cyanobacteria – in the soil, in fresh water and in the sea. Simple organisms that capture sunlight for their energy supply via photosynthesis: the perfect "lab rat" of the plant biochemistry lab.
As well as harvesting energy for themselves, cyanobacteria produce hydrogen and small amounts of ethanol and in these energy-conscious times these ubiquitous energy factories are of particular interest to us. Tina Summerfield of the Botany department has been working on cyanobacteria and their photosynthesis processes for some time, investigating which strains of cyanobacteria are the highest producers of hydrogen.
"There's a balancing act between oxygen production through photosynthesis and the production of hydrogen. Oxygen inhibits the enzyme that generates hydrogen, but both are products of photosynthesis. So there's a tipping point where more oxygen is produced, cutting off the production of hydrogen. This varies from one strain to another. "
While working on this Tina found something extraordinary: one strain had a different response, producing alternative forms of key proteins in photosynthesis.
"These alternative proteins are increased under low oxygen conditions, we will investigate how they alter photosynthetic performance and whether this alters the ability of the cyanobacterium to produce hydrogen. These changes may enable the hydrogen production to continue for longer."
The other puzzle is the enzyme itself, hydrogenase, which produces hydrogen but also consumes it. Summerfield is exploring what triggers this switch as well.
"There are so many different kinds of cyanobacteria, and they do different things – some produce hydrogen, some fix nitrogen; there's so much metabolic potential in the different varieties. The ones that live in hot springs would be very interesting to explore…"
At present Summerfield is working on one of the more commonly used "lab rat" strains, but investigating others around NZ is a part of future work.
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text:
The Creation of Anne Boleyn
A New Look at England's Most Notorious Queen
By: Susan Bordo
Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
Length: 12 hrs
4.3 out of 5 stars 4.3 (25 ratings)
Part biography, part cultural history, The Creation of Anne Boleyn is a fascinating reconstruction of Anne's life and an illuminating look at her afterlife in the popular imagination. Why is Anne so compelling? Why has she inspired such extreme reactions? What did she really look like? Was she the flaxen-haired martyr of Romantic paintings or the raven-haired seductress of twenty-first-century portrayals? (Answer: Neither.) And perhaps the most provocative questions concern Anne's death more than her life. How could Henry order the execution of a once beloved wife? Drawing on scholarship and critical analysis, Bordo probes the complexities of one of history's most infamous relationships.
Bordo also shows how generations of polemicists, biographers, novelists, and filmmakers imagined and re-imagined Anne: Whore, martyr, cautionary tale, proto "mean girl," feminist icon, and everything in between. In this lively audiobook, Bordo steps off the well-trodden paths of Tudoriana to expertly tease out the human being behind the competing mythologies.
©2013 Susan Bordo (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Categories: Biographies & Memoirs
Historical Royalty Women Great Britain Gender Studies
The Falcon at the Portal
The Deeds of the Disturber
He Shall Thunder in the Sky
What listeners say about The Creation of Anne Boleyn
Geraldine Charles
Refreshing!
Loved this, as I always enjoy Susan Bordo's work. She is one of the few academics whose writing engages me right from the start, and keeps me glued to the page - or headset, in this case.
I was taught during a Catholic upbringing that Anne Boleyn was a six-fingered whore and scheming monster, who single-handedly forced Henry VIII to abandon the Church. Even as a teenager I thought that was a bit much, but never took the trouble to find out for myself who this fascinating woman had really been. No-one has made it clearer that we actually have very little real information to go on!
I love Susan Bordo's clarity and the way she helps me learn how better to approach a topic - history, and historical fiction are two of my favourites; I doubt that I will look at either in exactly the same way again.
Barbara Rosenblat's narration was excellent.
Teresa Cooper
Always good to have a different view.
I've read several books about Anne Boleyn by different authors and this is one of the better. It does jump about a bit , but always to make a point clear. The narration was very good and didn't try for funny voices, and also had good pace all round. Would I recommend it? I all ready have.
A new Insight on a thoroughly investigated Anne
loved it, took a little while to warm up at first. but afterwards it was thoroughly compelling. I have yet to read an historical book that compares and contrast so much other historians, pieces of pop fiction and tv. I would recommend this read to those who wants to hear something else about Anne Boleyn, other than the 'wanton vixen'
1 person found this helpful
Great book but a couple of audio editing snafus
Great book! A couple of small sections of text repeat though which is a shame
Fraken
surprising and excellent
Particularly enjoyed the look at cultural impact of different narratives of Anne Boleyn. I haven't seen much of the referenced material, and was unaware of many of the myths debunked in the first place, but Susan Bordo's excellent storytelling meant this didn't matter. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in history, feminism, sociology, and media. Narrator also did a fantastic job!
Anna Tejland Johansen
Fantastic and interesting!
Very interesting historical exploration of how the image Anne Boleyn was shaped and reshaped through the years.
Roswatheist
Most Enjoyable Biography--Win!
Long before I saw The Tudors I loved Elizabeth I and Anne Boleyn. I would childishly stomp my feet at the back covers of Philippa Gregory's novels because I was looking for good, realistic, Tudor fiction.
Susan Bordo did a marvelous job portraying Anne as accurately as she could, acknowledging the lack of impartial historical documents (of course no such thing exists, much less for such a decisive lady). She was fair to other accounts of Anne, fiction and non, screen and print, to a fault. Ms. Rosenblat was a fantastic narrator, giving the biography the right twist of sarcasm and wit at their obvious parts.
Overall, this was quite an enjoyable listen.
Our Anne, Ourselves
Not a biography of Anne Boleyn, this is a analysis of what each generation and writer, creates out of the historical character Anne Boleyn. She's a woman re-made in every era's imagination to serve the teller, from Chapuys's contemporary slandering of "the whore," to today's feminist icon, or slutty vixen—take your pick.
When Anne's head came off, her words and images, and even friendships were erased, so every image we get of Anne says more about the person writing about her than it does about the subject.
Susan Bordo gives you all the angles, all the trashy viper-pit details of royal life, and still separates the facts from speculation. Her chatty, dry, deadly wit make this audiobook addictive.
Barbera Rosenblat brought so much sensibility and sharp-tongued knowing humor to the reading. She's a perfect match.
Red Emma
Any additional comments?
I stumbled on this as I had just listened to another book narrated by Barbara Rosenblat (and loved her voice) and I am also interested in Anne Boleyn as a historical figure. I was surprised to realize that this really is about the "creation" of Anne Boleyn, specifically as she is portrayed in literature, plays and movies. I have never watched the Showtime series "The Tudors" which was referenced a lot and so I didn't have a good vantage point at times to truly understand what the author was speaking about. It was illuminating to hear the evolution of Anne which has been taking place since the early 1800's and to see that there is still a roaring debate even up to this day about who Anne was "really". Anyone who has watched movies or read historical fiction about Anne will no doubt enjoy this book.
Hatchue
Not so much a biography...
Is there anything you would change about this book?
More historical information and even speculation about Anne herself, less talking about the shortcomings of other people's books. This came off as more of a lengthy college essay than a book.
What was most disappointing about Susan Bordo's story?
I was expecting more of a biography about the life of Anne Boleyn, but only about a quarter of the text was actually about Anne. Most of it ended up being a critique of other author's works on the same topics (both factual history and novels) and how they portrayed Anne. She also reviewed websites and mentioned Facebook pages. She went on to talk about Anne's influence on feminism. Quite a bit of the book was about feminist views and how people might have viewed Anne in modern times, speculated on how she might have been a leader in the feminist movement, etc.
Have you listened to any of Barbara Rosenblat's other performances before? How does this one compare?
This is the first time I've listened to anything narrated by Barbara Rosenblat, but she did a stellar job. She had a lot of enthusiasm and her narration style is actually what kept me listening.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Best Boleyn Book!!!
Would you consider the audio edition of The Creation of Anne Boleyn to be better than the print version?
YES! Barbara Rosenblat added so much to the text. She read it with the wit and sarcasm the book is intended to be read with. I admit (and I don't do so lightly), I could have never have matched Rosenblat's mastery and enthusiasm in my own mind. Rosenblat's style is fun and simply delicious!
What other book might you compare The Creation of Anne Boleyn to and why?
Hmmm, I can't think of any. This book had so much going on. It's written in that contemporary way that women (especially feminist) are writing today (like in "American's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines" by Gail Collins to give an idea and that too is another great read). You know, it's sorta like talking with your girlfriends. That is one of the most charming things about this book. When you read this, it's as if Bordo is poring you a glass of wine saying "now, about that sixth finger..." She goes into the TV series, films and books on Henry and Anne and shakes out a lot of the BS. She does this in a scholarly academic way that allows the reader to trust her with her piles of research, references and historical documentation.
I haven't. I did look her up on Audible but nothing else she has done looks compelling to me. I will just keep re-reading this one, ha!
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
You know, I really did. Bordo asks one question I never thought of before and that is simply why. Why in the hell did he do it. I mean he was a known cheat, (having already had at least one son out of wedlock by this point) so why would he kill her. Granted her allegations (all false of course) that she had slept with George and countless others is gripping but still, why didn't he just send her to a nunnery or lock her in the tower. The horror of it really gets you like being bitten--he chopped off her head. One day he was making love to her, and another legally ordering her beheading. It hits you as you pour over this text. She writes on why Henry might have done it in great detail...so I won't spoil it here on what she suggests!
Scott&Sherrie
Too much of the same info.
Would you try another book from Susan Bordo and/or Barbara Rosenblat?
I do not recommend this book. More of a critique of everything that has ever been written or produced on Ann Boleyn. Interesting at first but then it got very redundant. More facts and assumptions of why and what others have written that may or may not be true including made for TV movies etc. Who cares about that stuff? Not me.
Everything! I wanted a story not a critique of other authors.
What three words best describe Barbara Rosenblat's performance?
performance was good!
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Creation of Anne Boleyn?
The last ten chapters. Come on, what were you thinking?
Don't waste your time or money!!!
Very engrossing
Where does The Creation of Anne Boleyn rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
This is a very well written and researched novel. It presents a more balanced perspective of Anne Boleyn as well as how her legacy has been shaped by the culture not only of her time but of those that came after.
Barbara Kindle Customer
Anne Boleyn as seen through the years
Susan Bardo compares the view of Anne Boleyn by courtiers who lived when she lived to older biographies including those in the eighteen hundreds, and more modern views of her, including historical fiction by Margaret George, P. Gregory, and Alison Weir. Bardo even includes the mini-series the Tudors. I don't think as it could be concluded that she was being particularly critical of these authors. They are fiction, regardless of the academic credentials of the author.
She is harder on writers of popular history, (like this one) who repeat rumors that cannot be substantiated by anything concrete. Even the famous letters King Henry sent her, were not found in England but in the vatican.
The book is interesting. Barbara Rosenblat is great as always.
Distracting Narration
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Only if I knew they were already interested in the Tudors.
Who was your favorite character and why?
This is a non-fiction title, so not applicable.
How could the performance have been better?
The narrator's performance was distracting because she injected every word with an over-abundance of emotion; emotions I don't necessarily think the author felt. I found it very hard to focus on what she was actually saying because I was so annoyed by her over-acting.
If it were a documentary, I would definitely watch it on TV!
I had previously listened to this narrator read another non-fiction book and enjoyed her performance. However, on this one her flamboyant reading of the text was so annoying that I couldn't wait for it to be done. Her talents might be more appropriate for a fictional story.
Same old information
This book wasn't for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
Someone who knows very little about Anne Boleyn or the times in which she lived


text:
Лукаш Зейдлер (пол. Łukasz Zejdler, нар. 22 березня 1992, Ратибор, Польща) — польський футболіст, півзахисник футбольної команди «Краковія».

14 березня 2011-го провів свій перший виступ у Першій чеській футбольній лізі у складі «ФК Банік».

Посилання

 Профіль гравця на іменці footballtransfer.com.ua

Польські футболісти
Футбольні легіонери в Чехії
Польські футбольні легіонери
Футболісти «Баніка» (Острава)
Футболісти «Краковії»
Уродженці Ратибора
Футболісти ГКС (Ястшембе)

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I love how the tucics/tops are so versatile to wear over jeans or leggings. With all this crazy weather we've been having in the South, it's been warm enough to wear them. You can wear them as a dress with booties or over a pair of jeans. I've been wearing them over my maternity jeans lately and plan to wear them as a dress post baby.
I love these joggers and leggings. The colors are SO fun plus they are so comfy. I just want to live in them every single day. One of my favorites from these is the Lilac joggers. Every mama needs these in her life.
I've had a sneaker obsession lately. A few of my other favorites have been linked through my instagram if you follow along there.
A girl can never have too many accessories! These are just a few favs.


Earlier this year the Western Australian Supreme Court grappled with such a contest in circumstances that almost seel to defy logic. Carr -v- Larussa was a contest between the holder of letters of administration and an intending executor. The complication duplicates because the parties were also siblings and potential beneficiaries of the estate.
The contest arose because the deceased died seemingly intestate and the daughter was granted letters of administration of the estate. However, a few months later the deceased's former solicitors discovered a facsimile copy of an unexecuted will, which appointed the daughter and son as joint executors. The deceased's son applied for termination of the administration by his sister and sought for the will to be solemnised by the Court.
These proceedings were no the main dispute but an application by the daughter to determine her entitlement to defend the claim of the brother, because of the obvious conflict of interest. While not stated, the sub-text is that the daughter proposed to administer the $7 million estate differently than the way her brother proposed to administer it jointly with her.
Perhaps because of the questionable validity of the unsigned will; and certainly because of the need for proper administration, the Court found that it was proper for the daughter to defend the challenge to her administration. Not surprisingly, the costs of the proceedings were ordered to be paid out of the estate.
In Chick v Grosfeld the family accountant had been appointed as the executor of a substantial estate. There was a significant amount of in-fighting between the adult beneficiaries and the accountant had been called on to answer questions and issues raised by each of them.
The accountant, despite his appointment as executor, charged the estate on an hourly basis at his usual professional rate for each of these instances and amassed $85,000 worth of invoices in just under five months and promptly effected transfers from the estate's bank account to his practice bank account to pay them.
The dispute centred on his ability to charge the estate including for what services and at what rate, because he was clearly in a position of conflict as executor when it came to determining his rate as an accountant for the estate.
An abundance of caution is always required in such circumstances and the NSW Supreme Court decided to remove the accountant and replace him with a Government Trustee Service to avoid any future contests, which themselves deplete the estate.
The constant struggle to balance between the entitlements of beneficiaries, the claims of executors and the importance of proper administration and execution of estates continues to prove difficult for the law to control. Over-administration and disputes about it can serve the administrative and prudential goals of the law, but all too often that is at the expense of the beneficiaries and can result in an outcome that was not contemplated by the deceased.


When it comes to work, we all have a toolbox. A few friends of mine have recently asked me what tools I wield to carry out the work I do. This question inspired me to write this post so I could not only share it with them, but with anyone else who might find value in it. Here is an outline of the various digital tools In my toolbox for getting work done efficiently and effectively.
Gmail & Google Contacts: Gmail is my email tool of choice. In the past, I have used Outlook, Eudora, and Thunderbird. After using these native computer applications, my experience with gmail.com has been the most productive and easy to use. The website interface is easily accessible and it syncs with my Google contacts. Both my email and my contacts sync with my phone. For those of you who use Gmail, a few of my favorite labs features I use are auto-advance, canned responses, & the unread message icon. Gmail's recent function of categorizing emails into primary, social, promotions, updates and forums, is awesome for my workflow. It helps to sift emails so I can focus on what is important. For years, I struggled with keeping my inbox empty, but now I have become diligent in responding and emptying it daily.
Assistant.to: Scheduling meetings can be a hassle and take up time. This tool makes scheduling emails in Gmail a cinch. Once installed, Gmail adds a button to my new message window. When I want to schedule a time to meet, I hit the Assistant.to button. It accesses my Google calendar and I can select multiple times to meet. It then provides the recipient with a list of options. All they have to do is click the option they want and an email event invite is automatically sent to both parties.
Lastpass: This tool has been a lifesaver for me and others I have recommended it to. Lastpass manages all my usernames and passwords. It also auto-logs me in to websites. I love how I can forget my passwords, since this tool remembers for me. Also, when I am at a different computer I can use my Lastpass remotely so I can login to my accounts from anywhere. Save time and start using this tool.
Google Drive: Google Drive has a large amount of functionality. I primarily use it to store files, create spreadsheets and word docs. On occasion, I will use the Google drawing and Google forms functions. For collaboration, it works great as documents and files can be shared with others.
Evernote: With over 1,000 notes in my evernote account, everything from personal to professional ideas and thoughts have been stored. My first note dates August 9th 2010 so this tool is one I've used for almost 5 years. It has a lot of bells and whistles, but at the end of the day it is a great tool for journaling and writing.
File Syncing Tools - Dropbox / Box : Currently I use Dropbox and Box.com. Dropbox is more popular, but they both sync files on my computer into the cloud. This acts as a great backup and allows for easy file sharing. Users of the account can also share folders with each other allowing for an easy virtual file server.
CloudConvert: This tool converts just about any file to any other file. I have used many online conversion tools and this, by far, is the best. It works well, looks excellent and integrates with a variety of other tools. If I need to convert anything, I use CloudConvert.
Canva: Canva is one of my favorite tools for the work I do and this website. It allows me to create awesome graphics for clients and myself. With great templates and resources, it makes graphic design a cinch.
Image Repositories - Unsplash, Gratisography, Life Of Pix, PicJimbo: A new trend is free high quality image repositories. Excellent photographers are allowing people to use their images for personal and professional use at no cost. This increases my website and design quality, and decreases our costs.
Joomla: This website, as well as most of the websites clients hire me to build, use the content management system Joomla. Joomla has come along way since it started and the latest version and initiatives seems to have launched this great platform past the popular Wordpress. For me, it is more intuitive and friendly for how I prefer to work.
Hostgator (Affiliate Link): Since shortly after we moved to Atlanta 10 years ago, I became a reseller for Hostgator. My experience was great from the beginning. Over the past few years, their support has declined somewhat, but they seem to be working on shoring up this aspect of their company. They introduced me to cpanel, which I love for managing websites easily.
Google Chrome, Developer Console & Colorzilla: Google chrome is my preferred browser. It seems to be the fastest of the browsers, which is what matters most to me. With the Joomla web work I do, the developer console is handy in reviewing the code. I also use the extension colorzilla to match colors I find online.
Timecamp: As a freelancer, I invoice by the hour, (Click here to learn about the batch billing system I use) so this cool tool allows me to log my time. It also tracks my computer activity so I can see what specifically I was working on for a client.
irunurun: irunurun is the tool which helped me to keep up my life. I find up to 7 actions I need to finish on a weekly basis to achieve my goals. When I finish the action, I mark it. I am also able to share my account with other irunurun users which creates a level of accountability. To learn more read my last post about irunurun or my full irunurun story on their blog.
Toodledo: This great todo list/task manager seems to have the most functionality of all the todo lists I have explored. Both one time and recurring tasks can be created. I can tag them, rank them, date them, add notes, and much more. Besides actions, I can manage notes, create outlines, lists and develop habits. My only wish is they would modernize the user interface, since it is aesthetically boring.
Shoeboxed: Several years ago, the IRS audited us for our 2008 company taxes. What a mess this became, but Shoeboxed saved me hundreds of hours of time. We had boxes of unorganized receipts and I sent them using their envelope system. They scanned them and organized the receipts into a database. Once they were all scanned, I was able to run reports on the data and this allowed me to more easily resolve the IRS audit. After the audit, I continued to send them receipts and they now live in an on-line digital database.
Stripe & Paypal: Most people know about Paypal. Having an account just makes life easier for moving money around. It integrates with many online websites and is a great to have available. Besides Paypal, I use Stripe. Stripe is an easy merchant service account for accepting credit cards. Out of the many systems I have used, it is by far my favorite. I love how easy it was to set up and how great the user experience is.
Feedly & Pocket: I love to discover and consume content. Feedly is my tool to aggregate RSS feeds into one place. Blogs & news feeds all show up in my account. I use this tool to filter down the hundreds of daily content items to what I want to consume by saving it later to Pocket. Once it moves to Pocket, I will then read or watch the content. I market the great content for sharing on social media using my Buffer account.
Buffer: The content I intend to share on social media is added to my Buffer account. Buffer is a great tool for sharing content and aligns with how I want to share it. I add content into my Buffer hopper and then it distributes it at a pace I decide. Currently, Buffer shares two items per day on my Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter accounts.
Agency Analytics: With so many places to track marketing activity, Agency Analytics is the tool to bring them all together. Agency Analytics aggregates website, search, and social analytics into one place. I offer a reporting service, using this tool, for clients where they can receive these aggregated reports of their marketing activities.
Feedburner: Feedburner helps organize and track this website's RSS feed. The tool seems dated, but still does the job.
Writing Tools - Hemmingway Editor/ Language Tool / After The Deadline: When I write content for clients or myself, I'll run the content through these three tools. It helps me find issues with content and write for the desired reading level.
Mailchimp: Mailchimp is my favorite email marketing tool. It is more of a do-it-yourself tool, but this works well for me since clients are hiring me to create and manage their email marketing campaigns. One way I use this tool for myself is by setting up a weekly email campaign, which grabs all the blogs I wrote for the week, and sends them out to my list of email recipients. Mailchimp has a great interface and their reporting is awesome.
Podcasts: There are many podcasts I listen to and currently I use the Iphone Podcast app to do so. It seems to be buggy and troublesome at times, but is easy to use and connect with podcasts I like. Another podcast tool I am looking at using is Stitcher. They have an online and mobile interface which apple seems to be lacking now.
Automation Tools - IFTTT / Zapier: These two tools make it easy to automate recurring tasks, potentially saving us all a ton of time. I have not tapped into this as much as I would like to, but after getting my feet wet, I want to learn how to get the most of this. For example, one task I automate is, every time I add a photo to Instagram, it is automatically added to Twitter.


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SEC Approves MSRB's First Dedicated Rule for Municipal Advisors
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Kenneth A. Gross Ki P. Hong Matthew Bobys Melissa L. Miles Charles M. Ricciardelli Tyler Rosen Shayla K. Parker
On October 23, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) Proposed Rule G-44, the MSRB's first dedicated rule for municipal advisors, with conforming changes to Rules G-8 and G-9 (required records and preservation period, respectively) (the Final Rule). We previously described this rulemaking in our mailings dated March 3, 2014 and August 1, 2014. A summary of the more notable provisions of the Final Rule is below.
Effective Dates: The effective date of all provisions in the Final Rule other than Rule G-44(d), the annual written certification requirement (described below), is April 23, 2015. The effective date of Rule G-44(d) is April 23, 2016.
The text of the Final Rule may be viewed here.
Notable Provisions of Rule G-44
A municipal advisor's supervisory system must include, at a minimum, the following elements:
Written supervisory procedures that are designed to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Such procedures should take into account, among other things, the size and structure of the advisor and the scope and nature of its municipal advisory activities. The procedures must be updated as necessary and communicated to all relevant associated persons.
Designation of one or more municipal advisor principals to be responsible for the supervision required by the Final Rule.
The supplemental guidance provides that designated supervisory principals must have the authority to carry out the supervision and also have sufficient knowledge, experience and training to understand and effectively discharge their responsibilities. The supplemental guidance further provides that even if a person is not designated as a supervisory principal, whether he or she has responsibility for supervision under this rule depends on whether, under the facts and circumstances of a particular case, the person has the requisite degree of responsibility, ability or authority to affect the conduct of the employee whose behavior is at issue.
Implementation of processes to establish, maintain, review, test and modify written compliance policies and supervisory procedures. Review of such policies and procedures must be done at least annually and potentially more frequently depending on the advisor's circumstances.
Designation of one individual to serve as the municipal advisor's chief compliance officer with the necessary competencies to fulfill such role as the primary advisor with respect to the municipal advisor's overall compliance scheme and the policies and procedures the municipal advisor adopts to comply with applicable rules.
In addition, G-44 includes the following notable provisions:
Annual written certification: A municipal advisor's chief executive officer or equivalent must certify annually in writing that the municipal advisor has in place processes to establish, maintain, review, test and modify written compliance policies and written supervisory procedures reasonably designed to achieve compliance with applicable rules. This does not apply to municipal advisors that are subject to a substantially similar certification requirement of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority with respect to all applicable rules. As noted above, the effective date of this provision is April 23, 2016.
Effect on Business Line Responsibility: The supplemental guidance provides that the person signing the certification is certifying only as to having processes in place to establish, maintain, review, test and modify the municipal advisor's written compliance and supervisory policies and procedures, and the execution of this certification and any consultation rendered in connection with such certification does not by itself establish business line responsibility.
Exemption for federally registered banks: To the extent it engages in municipal advisory activities in the exercise of fiduciary powers pursuant to 12 C.F.R. 9.2(g) or substantially similar powers, a municipal advisor that is a bank or separately identifiable department or division of a bank is exempt from Rule G-44 and certain books and records requirements in Rule G-8 if it certifies in writing annually that it is, with respect to such activities, subject to federal supervisory and compliance obligations and books and records requirements that are substantially equivalent to the supervisory and compliance obligations of this rule and the books and records requirements of Rule G-8(h)(iii).
This memorandum is provided by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and its affiliates for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended and should not be construed as legal advice. This memorandum is considered advertising under applicable state laws.
Political Law


text:
Q: How do I batch-convert files from an input list using ImageMagick 'convert'? I'd like to use ImageMagick's convert command to convert a batch files from GIF to PNG format.
I'm using Ubuntu 22.04.  I have a file gif-list containing the names of files in GIF format, one per line and with the .gif extension.  From the command line, I'd like to read in this file and apply convert to non-destructively produce a new PNG-format file with .png extension for each input.
How do I do this?  From searching, I've found answers to individual bits of the problem, but I can't put all the bits together on my own or find the exact question.

A: Like this:
#!/bin/bash

while read file; do
    convert "$file" "${file%.gif}.png"
done < gif-list

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