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County Related
Term Limits and the Poor Handling of a Conflict in Pierce County, WA
Term limits, the recession, a new kind of governmental district, and a drive to save and manage local parks have all contributed to a fascinating ethics situation in Pierce County, Washington, home of Tacoma. Just last year I stayed in Pierce County and visited some of these parks, so this story is a little more concrete to me than most I write about.
Three Conflict Case Studies
Here are three interesting conflict of interest case studies from Tuesday's news.
Conflicts That Make You Act Differently, and Imaginative Resolutions
According to an article in the Los Angeles Daily Breeze, a former Los Angeles airport attorney, who reviewed the paperwork submitted by four companies bidding on concessions at the airport, is married to an attorney who works for a law...
Should an Ethics Provision Limit an Official's Discretion to Withdraw?
An article in the Bismarck (ND) Tribune this weekend raised the issue of when a board or commission member may withdraw from a matter in which he feels he has a conflict, but where there is not a direct, pecuniary interest. It turns out that, back in 2007, the Burleigh County state's attorney had asked the attorney general for...
Grand Jury Lays Into Broward County (FL) School Board
You know you're doing a pretty poor job with government ethics when a grand jury recommends that you be all but abolished. This is the case with the Broward County School Board, according to a report published on Frday. It concludes, on p. 48:
Unfortunately based on the history of this Board as an institution, we have no confIdence in their ability to...
The Responsible Handling of an Ongoing Conflict Situation in New Castle County, Delaware
It's nice to be able to write about a difficult conflict situation that is handled responsibly. It's unusual to be able to write about a resolution where the local newspaper ends its editorial saying that the right thing has been done.
According to...
Transparency and Confidential Information Issues in Clackamas County, OR
Transparency, although not generally part of a local ethics code, is central to a local government's ethics environment. A lack of transparency is both a tell-tale sign that things are wrong, and an impediment to discussing ethics issues and enforcing ethics violations. Unfortunately, ethics codes do have confidential information provisions, making it appear to those who do not understand government ethics that it is more important to hide confidential information than to let the sunshine in...
Model Code: Section #100 Subsection #1- Conflict of Interest
Ex-South Gate treasurer convicted in bribery case
Why Government Ethics Programs Have Limited Subject Matter Jurisdiction
Ethical Dilemma
Mr. No - The White House Ethics Guru
Tallahassee, FL Passes Ethics Reform Referendum
Should a District Attorney Be Counsel to a Council?


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Q: Generate automatic Date Time on a table's Columns apart from Trigger and default Constraint in Sql Server There is a table. Which has many column along with CreatedDateTime and LastModifiedDateTime. Whenever record got inserted CreatedDateTime Column should be updated with transaction date time(Current date time). Same way LastModifiedDateTime also should be updated when the Insertion and Update happen on a particular record.
This should be happen automatically without influence of Trigger and Default constraint.
If any other inbuilt solution is available?

A: CDC and triggers do not go hand by hand. Either you manage your CreatedDateTime and LastModifiedDateTime in your application (by explicitly inserting and updating accordingly), or you don't use CDC and use a trigger to track data changes and set default or modified values.
I believe that the CDC table functionality already tracks values like the datetime of each operation. It would be redundant to track that info as an actual column on the tracked table, unless you actually need it on your application for some business logic (in which case it would be wise to manage it on your client app).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


President Ronald Reagan once said that character doesn't just "happen" at times of crisis, it's constructed bit by bit by seemingly insignificant decisions.
Our character is the compass on which we guide our decisions and our lives. When we have to make decisions, particularly those that involve morals, money, or the mission, we consult our "character compass." I call it, "checking your moral azimuth," your compass bearing in life for making decisions.
For a compass to function properly, it must have all its parts. So it is with our internal compass. Our internal compass is both informed by our values and experiences, and bounded by our conscience. We can also learn from others about how they process moral questions. During my time as a student at various military colleges and schools, I had the benefit of hearing a number of senior military and civilian leaders attribute their success in life to balance, or "completeness" as a person. To be a "complete" person, and have a complete compass…and that means balancing the three aspects of your life: mind, body, and spirit. Try to better yourself in each area, and keep all three in balance. Read a book, improve your fitness level, and practice the spiritual expression of your choice. Keep your compass assembled and in balance.
Of course a compass is of no value unless it points north. As Airmen, our "north" is our commitment to the Air Force Core Values: Integrity, Service, and Excellence. Living up to these lofty values requires a strong character…they demand a healthy person and a good moral compass. Airmen, even the most junior among us, are often responsible for lives and property in order to be ready and able to complete the missions assigned to us. We also have to have the strength of character to uphold our Service's values and effectively lead others. Integrity must be the hallmark of who we are…we cannot afford any breach in trust that undermines our teamwork. Service before Self is just as demanding as maintaining integrity…particularly now while we are at war. Our fellow warriors, Airmen and others, depend on us to put the good of the country and our units above ourselves. Excellence is not only the standard of what we seek to achieve, it is the expectation of those we serve. We all have the right to expect mission success and high personal standards from each other. This is more than technical excellence; it also means that we hold ourselves to high personal standards as well. If we're doing something that we wouldn't want posted on the squadron bulletin board, its not likely healthy behavior.
Although the language is likely different, the application of a healthy person coupled with a strong character with an informed conscience is not unique to the Air Force. Your "north" might be your personal, family, or organizational values. The point is less about which particular "north" where your compass points and more to have a "north" in the first place. Without some external orientation it's far too easy to allow ourselves to waver from our values; to rationalize any behavior or decision. In the words of the Talented Mr Ripley, "No one thinks they're a bad person." You might also define the facets of the human person differently than I did. Whether you define a person as Mind, Body, and Spirit or something else, it's important to maintain a balance in order to keep your "compass" assembled and healthy.
Finally, we have to be on a good azimuth (the right compass heading) when making decisions about our jobs or our lives. From making decisions on personal finances, to personal risk management, to the discipline to follow that same checklist for the umpteenth time, choosing the correct moral azimuth will ensure we make the right decision every time no matter what the particular circumstances. We also owe it to our teammates to take care of each other, to be a friend to one another, and to step up and lead when it's our turn. As warriors, our country depends on us to get the mission done, and as citizens and leaders the right azimuth ensures we get our personal mission done safely and effectively. That said, as much as we try to take care of each other, no one can make decisions for another person. Each person must have a well developed enough sense of personal responsibility to make good decisions for himself.
Whether its developing the next business opportunity or a making low-level bomb run, "checking your compass" is an accepted part of our habit pattern. Its just as important to check our moral azimuth–and that's a skill for success in life as well as mission.


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Will We Ever See Big Hero 6 In A Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie?
NEWS EXCLUSIVES MOVIES TV GAMING COMICS REVIEWS FEATURES
By Mike Bedard/May 18, 2020 6:43 pm EST
It was first announced Disney was going to buy Marvel on August 31, 2009, to the tune of $4.24 billion. It proved to be a worthwhile purchase as the Marvel Cinematic Universe would go on to become one of the most profitable franchises of all time. But Disney had complete access to most of Marvel's catalog — minus a few mutants, a fantastic family, and one wall-crawler — so fans were always curious if the House of Mouse would making anything Marvel-related outside of the MCU. That's why fans were excited, and perhaps a little confused, when it was announced in 2013 that Disney Animation Studios was going to create a feature-length film for the comic book title Big Hero 6.
Many fans hadn't heard of this particular superhero team before, but it wouldn't be long until Hiro, Baymax, and the rest of the team were household names. The movie was a box office success, and it won an Academy Award for Best Animated Film. And if that wasn't enough, the team would even get their own animated series on Disney XD. The team hasn't done too shabby for themselves, but there's still one question on every Marvel fan's mind. Will Big Hero 6 ever get their own genuine movie within the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Join us as we take a look at why the group might get their own MCU film ... and all the reasons why they might never ally with the Avengers.
Yes: Big Hero 6 has name recognition now
Avengers: Endgame became the highest-grossing film of all time after it was released in 2019. And these days, it's not surprising when you hear the latest Marvel film just broke $1 billion at the box office. Marvel is pretty much a money-printing machine at this point, and even when the studio debuts a new character like Black Panther or Captain Marvel, they go on to great success. So, can you imagine the kind of money a live-action movie based on a pre-established, already-beloved franchise could rake in?
In 2014, Big Hero 6 grossed over $650 million at the worldwide box office. That's not too shabby, even if it falls short of something like Frozen bringing in $1.2 billion. But that was a while ago. Now, Big Hero 6 has toys in every store and a successful cartoon series on Disney XD. It's safe to say interest in Big Hero 6 has never been higher, so if there was a time to bring them into the MCU, now would be it. And it would be a safe bet that a live-action movie would break that $1 billion barrier all Marvel movies strive for.
No: Big Hero 6 has never been labeled as 'Marvel'
Released in 2014, Big Hero 6 has more in common with offerings like Frozen and Zootopia than Avengers: Endgame. And that's clearly for a reason. It seems as though Disney is content with making Big Hero 6 a "Disney" movie rather than a "Marvel" movie. Yes, it's based on a Marvel comic, but Disney really seems interested in disassociating the franchise from its comic roots.
For starters, just look at some of the other superhero series that launched on Disney XD. They all have names like Marvel's Avengers: Secret Wars and Marvel's Spider-Man. But the series based on Big Hero 6 is just called Big Hero 6. On top of that, those other series have all kinds of heroes from the MCU pop up, even if they aren't regularly featured in the shows. Big Hero 6 exists in its own contained universe, and it's not like Iron Man has ever stopped by to say, "What's up?" There's a clear separation between Big Hero 6 and every other Marvel property.
You can also look at the video game Disney Infinity. Despite Hiro and Baymax first appearing in the Marvel comics, they're not playable characters in the Marvel Battlegrounds Play Set. The characters as most people know them seem to belong to Disney alone, and it could be unlikely that Disney would want to confuse people with two different iterations of the same heroes.
Yes: There are interesting stories in the comic books to pull from
Marvel never really capitalized on Big Hero 6 comic books, but there are still plenty of stories out there for future movies to pull from. One of the best arcs comes from 2008 in the series Brave New Heroes, and as it was written before the Disney purchase, this story is pretty different from the Big Hero 6 we know today. For example, Fred doesn't just wear a monster costume. He turns into a full-grown, Godzilla-esque creature known as Fredzilla. He's kind of scary looking, so while his original iteration might not have worked in a Disney animated film, it would feel right at home within the MCU.
Big Hero 6 has also teamed up with Spider-Man in the comics in the "Ends of the Earth" storyline. In this particular tale, Doctor Octopus has sent dangerous Octobots to Japan, so the team has to confront the supervillain's minions. Plus, in the process, they face off against their arch-enemy, Everwraith. There are a lot of opportunities for the right filmmaker to get super weird with a live-action Big Hero 6 movie, and there are plenty of chances to incorporate pre-existing characters in the MCU to have some fun as well.
No: A lot of changes would need to be made
The Big Hero 6 comic books were already pretty weird, and while Disney may have changed a few things for the 2014 movie, it's still a fairly odd film. If Marvel wanted to transpose these characters into the MCU, a lot more alterations would need to happen.
For example, the movie takes place in the fictional city of San Fransokyo (a portmanteau of San Francisco and Tokyo). It makes for a fun, unique location for that particular movie, but the problem is that the MCU pretty much takes place in our real world. Sure, every so often there's a made-up place like Wakanda, but San Francisco is already firmly established thanks to Ant-Man. And while a specific year is never given in the movie, it's clear that Big Hero 6 takes place in a futuristic landscape.
It's possible the MCU could do a live-action Big Hero 6 set in the far future, but it's tough to see how that would benefit any overarching stories. Bringing them into the present and changing the location would mean losing what makes these heroes so special, so it's easy to see why Marvel would pass them over for a live-action movie.
Yes: There was already a Big Hero 6 reference in the MCU
Is it possible that Big Hero 6 already exists within the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It's certainly possible if you consider a subtle Easter egg in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Before the climactic battle against the titular robotic villain, Tony Stark has to pick between a new A.I. system because he no longer has J.A.R.V.I.S. He ultimately picks F.R.I.D.A.Y., but you can see a couple of other names on the table, including one labeled "T.A.D.A.S.H.I."
This is noteworthy because Tadashi is the name of Hiro's older brother who, in the 2014 film, develops Baymax. Considering Big Hero 6 came out just one year before Age of Ultron, it seems like a sly Easter egg for eagle-eyed viewers. But it could serve as a launching point for bringing the heroes into the MCU. After all, Marvel technically introduced the nation of Wakanda in Iron Man 2, six years before Black Panther would debut in Captain America: Civil War. Marvel could just be playing the long game by introducing Big Hero 6 in a similar way.
No: They don't really have a place to fit in
Every hero in the MCU brings something new to the table. When a big, team-up film occurs, all the heroes have something to do. And looking at the team dynamic Big Hero 6 would bring, it's not clear where exactly they would fit in with the Avengers and company.
In particular, it's tough to see what the lead, Hiro, would bring to the MCU. He's a 14-year old kid who would probably be amazed to work alongside heroes like Black Panther and Ant-Man. It's pretty much exactly the dynamic Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, brought to the MCU. He's a kid who was practically star-struck when he helped Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War. Hiro and his pals would probably do the same thing, and it's unlikely Marvel would want to retread that kind of dynamic.
Of course, it's always possible Hiro would enter the picture after Spider-Man has grown up a bit, allowing Peter Parker to take on the role Tony Stark did for him. But there's no way that would happen any time soon.
Yes: A Stan Lee cameo could connect it to the MCU
Big Hero 6 ends with a delightful post-credits scene. As Fred goes through his family's belongings, his father, who both looks like and is voiced by Stan Lee, shows up and says they have a lot to talk about. Stan Lee cameos are always fun to see, and his presence in this movie makes it clear that this is, in fact, a Marvel movie. And Marvel movies are all interconnected in some way.
After all, there was a scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 where Stan Lee can be seen talking to a group of aliens known as the Watchers. He mentions a few of the cameos he's made over the years in the MCU, making it clear that Stan Lee always plays the same character when he pops up in Marvel movies. If this theory holds true, then that means Stan Lee's watcher informant also made a trip over to San Fransokyo.
Granted, Stan Lee also appeared in movies outside of the MCU like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. Perhaps Stan Lee's character has the ability to travel through the multiverse to go to other Marvel universes. It could be possible for the multiverse in the MCU to be tampered with, allowing Big Hero 6 to come through and enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe properly at some point.
No: Marvel has a lot on its plate already
If you're a Marvel fanatic, then you probably know about much of Marvel's plans going into the next few years. They've already announced the line-up for Phase 4, which will see heroes like Shang-Chi get onto the big screen. Other heroes like Thor and Doctor Strange will receive sequels. Plus, Marvel wants to reboot Blade, which doesn't yet have a release date. And sooner or later, the X-Men and Fantastic Four are going to enter the picture.
That's ... a lot of superhero movies. Not only do all these characters have to get their own films, but they'll inevitably need to team up for whatever the next great threat is to the universe now that Thanos is gone. It's unclear when exactly Marvel Studios would be able to get around to doing a live-action Big Hero 6 and whether they would work together as a team with the rest of the Avengers.
Yes: Big Hero 6 has connections to the X-Men
It's unclear if Marvel Studios has any desire whatsoever to make a Big Hero 6 live-action movie. But one thing is clear — the studio is definitely interested in bringing the X-Men into the MCU. It's only a matter of time until Wolverine, Professor X, and the rest of the mutant crew are back on the big screen but this time part of an interconnected universe. This could be a very good thing for Hiro and the rest of the heroes.
When Big Hero 6 first debuted in the '90s, Sunfire and Silver Samurai were part of the team. You might recognize those names as being affiliated with the X-Men. And this could be the natural way to introduce Big Hero 6 to the MCU. As futuristic heroes, they may not be a natural fit for this cinematic universe, but having connections to the X-Men could provide a natural way for a super smart kid who invents Baymax and a giant lizard creature to come into the MCU fold.
No: A fulfilling story is already being told
Word has been pretty quiet so far about a sequel to 2014's Big Hero 6. But that doesn't mean one didn't happen .. on TV, anyway. Big Hero 6: The Series debuted on Disney XD in 2017, and it picked up where the movie left off. In the show, Hiro is now a student at college with the rest of his friends, and in between classes, they find the time to save their city from evil.
Disney has already renewed the series for a season three, so there will be more adventures with the team in the near future. The higher-ups must've thought a series was a better way to continue these stories in lieu of another animated film. Sure, there's a lot the MCU could do with Big Hero 6, but the fact remains that they don't really need to do anything with the team at all. The movie and the TV show are there for fans of the series, and that could be enough.
What's the final verdict on Big Hero 6?
So after looking at all of the evidence, will Big Hero 6 eventually become a live-action film? Sadly, all signs point to "no" on this one. Easter eggs aside, it just doesn't seem like there's any place for Baymax and his hero friends to make the transition into the MCU to crack jokes with Thor and Star-Lord.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. We'll still get plenty of great films in the MCU in the form of Black Panther 2, Captain Marvel 2, and every other film that's set to be part of Phase 4 and 5. Plus, Big Hero 6 isn't hurting for any attention. They had a great film already, and their TV series on Disney XD is excellent. If you want to see this team in action, you have plenty of avenues to look toward, so it's easy to see why the MCU would pass over these heroes.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Can EKS container OS kernel have higher version than host (node) OS kernel? If an EKS node has Linux kernel version x.y, can a container running on the node have a higher version of linux say x.(y+1) or (x+1).z?

A:
Containers share the machine's OS system kernel and therefore do not
require an OS per application, driving higher server efficiencies and
reducing server and licensing costs

Asserted from What's container. Thus for your question, your container will have the same version as the host kernel. You can uname -srm on the host and exec the same command in the container to confirm.


All locks need to be replaced as soon as any keys are stolen or lost. Any damage to a lock due to a break in may result in the lock failing to work correctly and should be replaced as soon as possible, that's why our 24 Hr Lock Replacement Service is the one to call.
All types of lock are replaced from mortice locks to cylinder locks. We also hold a vast range of products from ERA, Squire, Yale, Abus, Legge and Dorma amongst many many more.
Nigel is on hand to help you secure your home or property night and day and he provides an industry leading guarantee on all lock and glazing services. So if you need a locksmith in Grantham, Sleaford, Melton Mowbray, Newark or Stamford areas, Nigel and the team at Belvoir Locks & Glass are here for you!
If you need Locksmith Services, expert locksmith advice or a 24/7 emergency locksmith, then Belvoir Locks & Glass are the locksmiths for you! Our team lead by Nigel Atherton have over 17 years experience working with both homeowners and local businesses to provide the best quality locksmith services across Lincolnshire.
If you need a Locksmith Service / expert 24/7 don't waste time, call Belvoir Locks & Glass today! We use only the best materials and offer the best prices on all locksmith services, that's why our team has built up a reputation across Lincolnshire as one of the most trusted providers of locksmith services.
If you need lock replacement, window repair or replacement or are locked out call Belvoir Locks & Glass on 07539 450552 today!


The Environmental Microbiology Laboratory is designed as a versatile platform supporting a broad range of tasks related to the study of microorganisms in the environment. The major tools of this facility are designed to be implemented as modules applicable to almost any sample type, with a current emphasis on deep aquifers and the continental subsurface, freshwater lake sediment, and desert springs. A major capability of the laboratory is the culture-free determination of microbial community structure in water, sediment, rock and air samples. A variety of molecular life-detection protocols are available, either directly through the laboratory or partially supported by allied facilities, such as the Nevada Genomics Center. Our major molecular tools (Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (T-TFLP), and clone library construction) utilize the small subunit of the ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rRNA/ 16S rRNA). In collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, our facility is working to apply high-density 16S rRNA microarrays (containing 500,000 probes capable of detecting 9,381 prokaryotic OTUs) for the exploration of microbial community structure in much greater detail than has previously been possible.
The laboratory also employs a variety of cultivation-and functional gene-based techniques for the enrichment and tracking of microorganisms which influence the fate and transport of environmental contaminants including polyacrylamide, nitrate, and possibly radionuclides and endocrine disruptors.
Available equipment includes a full spectrum of tools enabling the collection, processing, and storage of quality samples for the detection and cultivation of environmental microorganisms. These include: peristaltic pumps and pressure filtration assemblies for surface- and well-water sampling, as well as sediment core processing and porewater squeezing equipment. The laboratory maintains an RBD3000 automated flow cytometer (Trace Analytical) for the accurate determination of planktonic cell density, live vs dead analysis, and FISH flow cytometry. For the cultivation of aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms, a Coy type B anaerobic chamber, Tuttnauer autoclave, Harvey sterilizer, Hungate equipment, BBL Gas Pac system, several lab-line orbital shakers, and high- and low-temperature incubators are available. Molecular facilities include a Labconco Purifier Class II laminar flow hood, Thermo PXE thermocycler, a variety of Owl submarine electrophoresis chambers with EC-105 power supplies, a Fotodyne FOTO/Analyst Express gel documentation system, UV 2400 Stratalinker, Savant Speed Fuge, a selection of Isotemp waterbaths and Lab-line heating blocks, a BioSpec mini-beater 8, and several complete sets of Pipetman micropipettors. The lab also has an Eppendorf 5810R refrigerated centrifuge (with a selection of rotors), an Eppendorf 5415D microcentrifuge, Thermo chest-type ultradeep freezer, -20 and 4oC refrigeration, a Labconco glassware washer, Accumet pH meter, balances, and MilliQ water.


text:
Q: Cannot insert explicit value for identity column in table 'AdvUser' when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF The table sits on Azure SQL Database, and was created with
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[ADVUser]
(
    [Id]         INT IDENTITY(1,1),
    [UserId]     UNIQUEIDENTIFIER NOT NULL,
    [CRMTItemId] VARCHAR (50)     NOT NULL,

    PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC),
    FOREIGN KEY ([CRMTItemId]) REFERENCES [dbo].[CRMTItem] ([Id])
);

and I'm inserting with
using (var db = new Entities())
{
    try
    {
        db.ADVUsers.Add(new ADVUser()
        {
            CRMTItemId = "000001",
            UserId = new Guid("e1ef8e25-1624-46f0-9336-1674f1cffaeb")
        });

        db.SaveChanges();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        throw;
    }
}

Where CRMItem with id 000001 already exists.
I also tried
using (var db = new ADVWKSPEntities())
{
    var item = db.CRMTItems.First();

    try
    {
        item.ADVUsers.Add(new ADVUser()
        {
            UserId = new Guid("e1ef8e25-1624-46f0-9336-1674f1cffaeb")
        });

        db.SaveChanges();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        throw;
    }
}

What is going on?
Update
I am using database first method, and this is the model that was generated for ADVUser:
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------
// <auto-generated>
//     This code was generated from a template.
//
//     Manual changes to this file may cause unexpected behavior in your application.
//     Manual changes to this file will be overwritten if the code is regenerated.
// </auto-generated>
//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

namespace ADVWKSP.Models
{
    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;

    public partial class ADVUser
    {
        public int Id { get; set; }
        public System.Guid UserId { get; set; }
        public string CRMTItemId { get; set; }

        public virtual CRMTItem CRMTItem { get; set; }
    }
}


text:
Click to copyhttps://apnews.com/ab4070e8ab664aefa05b8af1891c873b
Arenado, Dahl, Tapia HRs lead Rockies over Brewers 11-6
By ANDREW WAGNERMay 3, 2019
Colorado Rockies' Ryan McMahon forces out Milwaukee Brewers' Ben Gamel at second base and throws on to first for a double play on Orlando Arcia during the eighth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, May 1, 2019, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Nolan Arenado is surging. A bunch of the Colorado Rockies were against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Arenado, David Dahl and Raimel Tapia homered to lead the Rockies over Freddy Peralta and the Brewers 11-6 Thursday for a four-game split.
Arenado had three hits, including his ninth home run this season. Dahl finished a triple short of the cycle for the Rockies, who outscored the Brewers 22-10 in the final two games of the series. Colorado tied season highs for runs and hits (14).
Arenado is batting .343 (23 for 67) with a 1.196 OPS in his last 16 games, raising his average to .297.
"I'm pretty fortunate to feel like I am right now," he said. "Early in the season I wasn't doing good at all. I was just happy I'm feeling better now, was able to drive the ball out, hit the ball hard."
Colorado has won 12 of 17 following a 3-12 start. The Rockies scored 46 runs in their first 16 games and 101 in their last 16.
"I think the guys understand the length of the season and eventually things were going to turn," manager Bud Black said. "The challenge is to keep the momentum, keep the everyday focus and intensity at a level where we're in every game. I think our talent will show up."
Jon Gray (3-3) allowed seven runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts. He became the first Rockies pitcher to win while allowing five runs since Chad Bettis against Texas last June 15.
Peralta (1-1) made his first appearance since April 15 following a stint on the injured list caused by a sore right shoulder. He fell behind 7-0 by the second inning and gave up nine runs — six earned — eight hits and three walks in four innings. His short outing put more pressure on a bullpen taxed by nine innings Wednesday after starter Chase Anderson was scratched because a callus ripped on his right middle finger.
"We used the bullpen a lot yesterday," Peralta said. "So I feel bad because I only went out there for four innings."
Ryan Braun homered for Milwaukee.
Mark Reynolds hit a three-run double in a four-run first that included Tapia's RBI single. Dahl hit an RBI single in the second and Arenado followed with a two-run homer for a 7-0 lead.
Milwaukee closed in the third when Lorenzo Cain hit an RBI double and scored on Mike Moustakas' single.
Milwaukee allowed three unearned runs as SS Orlando Arcia and 3B Travis Shaw made errors.
"We played a poor defensive game," manager Craig Counsell said.
Brewers: RHP Taylor Williams was recalled from Triple-A San Antonio. RHP Jacob Barnes and LHP Donnie Hart were optioned to the Missions
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rockies: Chris Rushin (back strain) and Jake McGee (sprained left knee) could start minor league injury rehabilitation assignments soon. Manager Bud Black said. Rushin will throw to hitters Saturday and McGee on Tuesday.
Rockies: RHP Tyler Anderson (0-2, 11.34 ERA), who starts Friday at Arizona, allowed a career-high three home runs against Atlanta in his previous outing but struck out nine.
Brewers: RHP Brandon Woodruff (3-1, 5.17 ERA) starts the opemer of the series against the New York Mets. Woodruff held the Mets to a run while striking out six over five innings in his last start.
For more AP baseball coverage: https://apnews.com/apf-Baseball and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports


Paul Farrer is one of the UK's most successful media composers. In a career spanning 25 years he has composed music for some of the biggest programmes on British Television. From Dancing On Ice, Gladiators, Fort Boyard, Ant and Dec's Push The Button to The Chase, The Jerry Springer Show, and The BBC's most successful international format of all time; The Weakest Link which was broadcast in 97 countries and over 12 years on British Television racked up 1693 episodes.
He has also composed additional music for shows like Top Gear, Blue Peter and The Krypton Factor. In 2012 he was commissioned to compose all the music to the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Variety Performance at The Royal Albert Hall in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen. 2014 will be the third time he has been asked to compose the orchestral music for this prestigious event.
He is the recipient of an Ampex Golden Reel Award for his work on ITV's The Gladiators and in 2003 was awarded the BMI Composer Award. He is a member of The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA). Paul Farrer is also the creator of the ITV gameshow 1000 Heartbeats.


Searching for some inspirational independence quotes and sayings i.e. quotes about self independence and freedom. If yes, now you don't need to search for them any more. As here I have compiled down some of the inspiring quotes and sayings on self independence. Just hope you will like the quote compilation and able to find some good words to define independence.
Every path but your own is the path of fate. Keep on your own track, then.
In yourself right now is all the place you've got.
My soul, be satisfied with flowers, with fruit, with weeds even; but gather them in the one garden you may call your own.
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong..
I don't have a 'side'—I'm responsible for what I say and nothing else.
For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.
I'll walk where my own nature would be leading. It vexes me to choose another guide.


text:
sisyphus apologizes, tantalus drinks
I am lying on a foldout couch bed in my sister's apartment in Santa Cruz, CA, having just driven from Los Angeles on the barren, post-apocalyptic surface of Mercury known as Interstate 5. The winds over the Grapevine (the tortuous path through the mountains that leads out of Southern California) had blasts of 70mph winds that asked, quite powerfully, if the car and I would like to be tossed 14,000 feet into the troposphere. I am feeling my age; there was a time when I would think nothing of 21-day jaunts across the country in a shitty car, and now my lower back wants revenge.
My family is all gathering here for Michelle and Jon's wedding on Saturday, one of those rare occasions when all of us, both my parents, everyone who grew up together in the 1970s and 80s is together again. It makes for the occasional odd dynamic, to be sure, but mostly we have the kind of rapport reserved for those who served on the same ship back in the War of 1812.
We have our mythologies, the so-called defining aspects of our character, that still haunt us like an old injury, even if it hasn't been true in decades. But what fun would it be if suddenly all of us were all completely self-actualized and utterly self-contented? BO-RING! Gimme old resentments and quick-fuse frustrations ANY DAY OF THE WEEK over pleasantries and demurring!
Do you have a mythology placed on you in your family, and what is it?
Originally published: April 28, 2010
faust seduced by palms
When I was in college, I helped throw some of the greatest parties of our day; I had no trouble meeting anyone I wanted, and was positively fearless in love and lust. This was probably a grand correction from my childhood and early adolescence of forced introspection and monkhood, but it didn't matter. I carried a sense of purpose, of survival, of fun and effortlessness all mixed together, even through my twenties, building a castle wall lined with arrow slits of sarcasm and disarming self-deprecation, depending on the situation. I was doing pretty well until I pulled my Volkswagen Fox up Beachwood Drive in 1997.
That began three years in LA that left me utterly confused on how the world functioned, where none of my survival mechanisms seemed to work, and contentment was replaced by calcified scales of deep cynicism. I was dipped in shit, and there was nothing I could do to cleanse myself of it.
Many of these people in LA had been some of my closest confidantes in a broad circle extending from North Carolina. I tried being gung ho; I was met with disdain. I tried being laissez-faire and cool; I was met with boredom. I tried removing myself from any potentially volatile situation, and was summarily forgotten about.
I couldn't maintain any old friendships, get any gigs, make any money or get arrested. When I would go to a gathering, I'd have out-of-body experiences, suddenly seeing myself as "that guy", whatever "that guy" was. It reached its apotheosis one night in late 1999, when the last of my old ego crumbled away.
I was at a party thrown by old friends who had become fairly successful, and through months of vague osmosis, I had gotten to know the names of the producers and agents that filled out their circle. A bunch of us – about 15 folks of varying genders – had ended up in this tiny room with no windows. A joint was being passed around, drinks were being filled, and there was the usual repartee of single people trying to be funny.
I joined in a few times, directing my comments at a guy named Peter, a successful producer I'd known from several readings over the preceding months. Everyone was getting a bit higher and a bit drunker, and I remember thinking I was finally having a little fun after a few years.
You never really knew what was going to be your ticket to the inside – a friend of mine ended up editing a huge movie because he happened to drive back from the desert with the right guy. Favors were passing left and right, little phone calls were placed for buddies, and scripts made their way to actors' nightstands on suggestions and nudges. I had to participate; to do anything else would be insane, and leave you back at the bus station with the schlubs.
On the way home from the party, I had this creeping realization: the big producer, the guy my age who I had been joking with in front of so many people all night… I… I don't think his name was Peter. In fact, I know it wasn't Peter.
And I replayed the night in my head, all the times I said something, and the looks from others, trying not to be embarrassed for me, and the producer himself, giving a gentle laugh as I called him the wrong name, someone else in the room quickly saying something else so that the uncomfort wouldn't linger… how did I not see it at the time? And I had even talked to his girlfriend, oh god, and none of the people I'd called friends ever pulled me aside…
And that's when I said "fuck it, I give, I'm folding." That was it. This place had an allergy to me. I was done. I didn't go to any more parties, no more dates, no more going anywhere for six months. At the end of six months, I moved to New York without telling anybody, and started my life over.
I can't believe, so many years later, with all I've managed to do, and coming back here and having a fair amount of success… I can't believe how much pain that one night 11 years ago still causes me. I cannot let it go. It represents something bigger. Maybe I need it for navigation, so that I never go back.
venus de milo grew an arm
A few random facts:
1. We went to our preschool's fundraising auction tonight, and our "donation" was a tasting of rare single-malts that I would give to the winning couple and four of their friends. I thought nobody would care. And then there was a bidding war and I think we raised over a thousand dollars for the school.
2. My sister is marrying one of my best friends in the world this weekend.
3. The new version of Scrabble allows proper nouns. I mean, come on. Why they just allow monosyllabic grunts, acronyms and fart noises while they're at it?
4. While at a restaurant tonight, I heard that California has more people in prison than any country in the world. Because I'm a little daft, I wondered how California could have more people in prison than the United States. Then I noticed a car. And then I noticed a pretty song on the speakers.
5. I got Lucy a little box of Playmobil ("hard guys") mermaids from the toy store, which she immediately loved. One of the hard guy mermaids is pulled along by a giant seahorse. Seahorses are primarily monogamous, and once the female develops an egg, she gives it to the male to fertilize and carry to term in his belly.
6. My brother Sean and sister-in-law Jordana are 7 months pregnant with a girl, and you can see her move around Jordi's belly from across the room, which is totally awesome.
7. In February, we were visited by a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker outside Lucy's window, which made me geekily happy:
Your random facts may be expressed below!
i've kicked the habit, shed my skin
Do you know those eras in your life that seem to be effortlessly happy? Obviously the overwhelming majority of them happen between our early teens and our late twenties, given the natural vicissitudes of Growing Repsonsibility®, and my favorite occurred as I was 19, in 1986.
To me, the music, styles, movies and anything associated with that stretch of time automatically conjures a reptilian pleasure response – and yes, I'm talking bizarre bits of culture like "Something About You" by Level 42, "Real Genius", the random songs on "Graceland", Mary Stuart Masterson in "Some Kind of Wonderful", and of course, the entire 2nd side of "The Queen is Dead" by the Smiths.
I was also drinking a lot of lime-flavored Crystal Light (yeah, yeah) and had peanut M&M's in our dorm-room fridge in Grimes. And a favorite shirt, a teal short-sleeve polo that was perfectly ragged in that looks-good-but-I-didn't-care-TOO-much sort of way. I have a visceral memory of that micro-era, and it has aged magnificently.
There is a 19-year-old kid having his Perfect Time right now, a group of albums, movies, YouTube videos, green skate shoes and iTunes mixes that will forever give him pleasure. He will think of 2010, and have a relaxing sense of contentment many years from now, when "Poker Face" comes on the oldies station and he tries to explain the zeitgeist to his own kid.
And then it struck me that these little eras are not created for us, we create them. Sure, there is the excitement of new girlfriends, boyfriends, school and life discovery that brings these things on, but is it possible to say to yourself: "okay, I have not been effortlessly happy in a long time. If this era can be someone else's Awesome Year, why can't I make it mine again as well?"
And then just decide, then and there, to imbue this time, right here, with the same general good feeling as the ones you used to have. "This period, this micro-epoch, this elongated season will be defined as fun, whether it has intrinsic perfectness or not," you may say. The world does not change for you; you change for it, and since your feelings are mostly illusions painted on the plexiglass surrounding you, why not play its game? Barring a chemical imbalance, how long can you fake a good year before it becomes a good year?
relaxen und watschen der blinkenlights
I've been researching a fair amount of new technology lately, so today's question – should you choose to answer it – is this: what recent (last 3-4 years) technology do you love, and what do you deplore?
The tech in question can be a device, a piece of software, a way of communicating, a website, or even a school of thinking. Enlighten or imdarken us, please!
episiotomy closure
In a math classroom, the teacher writes "1 + 2 = ?" on the chalkboard. She then asks the class of 25 kids what the answer is. She goes down the row, and one by one, each of the students says "three!" Until she gets to Student X, right in the middle of everybody.
"The answer is four," he says loudly. Everyone in class turns to look at him. The teacher, trying to make sure everybody is treated fairly, says, "Student X, are you sure? Look at the problem: one plus two equals…"
"Four," the student repeats, only this time it's louder. Even kids who were barely paying attention in the back row look up from their doodles. But the teacher is still trying to be nice and take him seriously, so she explains, "Okay, we start with one, then we add two more. That should make three, don't you think?"
He stands up, enraged. "I don't have to take your word for this shit!" he yells. "Who are YOU to tell me how many 'two' is?"
"I'm the teacher," she says, "and in mathematics, 'two' has always meant-"
"Shut your fucking pie hole, you elite cow! Don't talk down to me!"
"I'm not talking down to you, Student X," she says, trying to keep her cool, "I'm simply saying that the entire known world has adopted a number system that-"
"There you go again!" Student X screams, swiveling around to face the students behind him, "Can you believe this shit?"
Suddenly the boy behind him, Student Y, leaps to his feet. "I sure as hell can't!" he bellows, "Fuck the teacher and her so-called experts!" Student X gives him a high-five. "Amen, brother! One plus two equals WHATEVER THE FUCK WE SAY IT IS!"
The class starts to murmur to each other, little arguments start up, some of the people who answered "three" look worried. The teacher, perplexed, tries to move on.
"Okay," she says, "let's just keep going down the row, people." She points to the student behind Student Y. "How about you? What is one plus two?"
The student looks perplexed. "I mean, I don't know," he mumbles, "I'm just not sure who to believe anymore."
"Yeah," says the girl next to him, "There are so many conflicting sources! How are we supposed to make an educated guess?"
"There's no guessing!" the teacher exclaims, clearly frustrated, "There are two numbers. Known quantities. Add them together, and the result is not a guess, it's a fact!"
"Maybe in YOUR WORLD!" Student X quips. "In MINE, one plus two equals four!"
"We live in the same world!" the teacher yells. "Your arbitrary decision to be purposely obtuse only makes things miserable for everybody, and keeps your fellow students from learning anything!"
The bell rings, and all the students jump out of their seats. They all filter past the teacher, who is sitting on her desk, angrily staring into middle distance. The last student to leave, Student X, stops right in front of her.
"You're a sad fuck, you know that?" he says with a smirk, then leaves the room. The teacher simmers in silence for a few minutes, then wanders over to the window for some fresh air. She catches sight of Student X and Student Y, walking together across the playground to the street.
A black limousine pulls up, and a man gets out of the back seat. He hands a wad of cash to both students, who gleefully accept the money, and run off. The man watches them go, then looks up to the school windows, where he spots the teacher. He chuckles derisively, shakes his head, and gets back into the limousine. With sudden horror, she sees the number stitched into the back of his suit: 4.
it's all in yer heed, son
My brother Kent wrote to me on Sunday, bringing up the global warming debates that reached a boiling point on this blog in mid-2008. It's been a while since I approached the topic, since I gave up all pretense or hope around the subject two years ago – so for all I know, my conservative friends on here are now buying compact fluorescents and driving electric cars.
Silence doesn't quell rage, however, and the report on Koch Industries that Kent mentions below made me wish there was some sort of superhero that could bust into the Koch Bunker of Hatred® and beat the shit out of them. But since I'm a knee-jerk hot-headed fuckshirt and Kent's a Quaker, I'll let him do the talking today:
Kent here.
I want to revisit an argument that has long raged in the comment section of this blog: the debate between global warming 'alarmists' — like me, and the global warming skeptics, represented ably by longtime commenter Matt. I can summarize the argument thusly: My view is that Global Warming caused by human activity – the so-called "Anthropogenic Global Warming" or AGW – is real, that it is a real danger to the continued survival and quality of life, and that we should do whatever we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Matt's view is that even if there is a global warming trend, there isn't sufficient evidence that it is caused by human activity, or that the consequences of global warming will be as dire as is claimed by most climate scientists, liberals, et al (et Al Gore, as it were).
If you care to revisit the post, Matt cited links to articles supporting his side of the question. Then, the next day, I looked at the sources of the articles to which Matt linked. My conclusion after doing some Googling was that all the articles he cited had nothing to do with science, and everything to do with money being spent by polluting industries to raise doubts about AGW.
In my opinion (and the opinion of many others), these "raised doubts" are not peer-reviewed scientific critiques of the AGW literature, they're opinion pieces, paid for by polluters. Sure, that's free speech, but in the over-simplifying, sound-bite-spewing, attention deficit media world, it is harmful and dangerous. Media thrives on controversy, so they're all to willing to accept a false equivalency between on the one side, conservative think tanks, and on the other, actual climate science.
This wasn't an argument that was ever resolved. Matt is an AGW skeptic, and I'm a believer. I don't dredge this up to stir more controversy, but instead, I have a more despicable motive: to say "I told you so." And what I told you was that there was a deliberate effort by polluting industries to promote AGW skepticism. Furthermore I told you that often one skeptic "authority" would bolster their argument by citing other skeptic "authorities," when in fact they all were paid hacks. Comes now this interesting report from Greenpeace, on the funding by Koch Industries of the AGW Skeptic echo chamber:
Now of course, it's nothing that will convince Matt of anything, seeing as how Greenpeace is just another leftist organization that presumable benefits from climate change hysteria. But for anyone willing to look through the report, it's pretty clear that Exxon, Koch Industries, the Petroleum Institute, et al (but not et Al Gore!), they have spent millions of dollars to try and create an AGW controversy, not with actual climatological research, but with an echo chamber of think tanks, TV pundits, and generalized attacks on the scientific establishment's way of conducting research.
And just to show that Koch Industries AGW skepticism isn't a monomaniacal obsession, consider this Talking Points Memo article:
In which Koch denies funding the astro-turf Tea Party Movement, even while acknowledging that they fund Americans for Prosperity, who funded the Tax Day Tea Party rallies around the country. Together with Dick Armey's FreedomWorks (also a corporate-funded 'astroturf' organization), Americans for Prosperity has spent millions to inflame the passions of thousands of grammar-and-spelling-challenged "real americans."
Given enough Fair Trade coffee, I can rant endlessly on this topic, but I think I'll just point out another bubbling controversy of the moment, the concept of "Epistemic Closure." Andrew Sullivan's post is as good a place as any to start reading on this topic. But the crux of the discussion is this: conservatives in this country are willfully trapped inside an echo chamber of their own making: Conservative Blogs, Faux News, the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, et al (but not et Al…).
The right wing refuses to admit facts that contradict their beliefs, and an entire industry has grown up with propping up their beliefs and discrediting any so-called 'facts' inconsistent with said beliefs. Stephen Colbert's oft-repeated wisecrack that "Reality has a well-known Liberal bias," comes to mind — anything outside the self-reinforcing circle of authority is dismissed as tainted by the opposing ideology.
I'm sure one can come up with examples from loony fringe of the left wing which can be construed to represent the same sort of epistemic closure, but we must resist the siren call of false equivalency here. I'm all for skepticism, but not the skepticism of knee-jerk dismissal; we need to examine everyone's assertions in the light of the best information available, and be willing to change our minds when our beliefs run up against inconvenient facts. You are, as always, entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.
it's not a mullet if… oh never mind
Sean, Mom, me and Michelle, 22 years ago this week in 1988
Okay, fine, but where's the link to YOUR awesome family photo from a billion years ago?
insert guitar solo
Okay, I admit it. I'm hopelessly jetlagged and have to go to bed way before I usually write the blog, hence the shameful lameness of this week. I'll be back in action after the weekend, but in the meantime, if one of you early risers (jesus, the responses from yesterday made me feel like most of you are up on the East Coast before I go to bed) want to ask something interesting about… oh, say, the value of friendship, please do.
rapid eire movements
Today was a big occasion at the Blake-Wms household (more on that tomorrow), but I have a burning question that needs answering, because, goddamit, I need to know where I stand. I just gotta figure out where I am relative to other people. And so, might I ask… in all honesty, what time do you average going to bed each night, and how long do you sleep?


"If you look up the word "diligent" in the dictionary, you will probably find the name "Trish." She is not only diligent, but she has a zeal for the lost, a good grip on biblical principles, and a deep and worshipful love for the God who gave her life. If I want something done quickly and done properly, I give it to Trish. I am honored to know her, and I thank God for the day she became involved in this ministry."
"Every week on the radio with Trish is like opening up a Christmas present. You never know what you are going to get when she hits the streets. She is one of the boldest, most straight forward, refreshingly candid and yet clearly loving people I have ever heard witness to anyone. To get an idea, listen to petite Trish ask a linebacker from a college football team, "Are you fornicating?" Talk about courage! That is why every week is an adventure with Trish."
"Having known Trisha for many years, I can confidently say that she is the real deal when it comes to living for the glory of God. She loves the Lord and the lost with a contagious passion. Her life is a living testimony of what it means to be a faithful ambassador for Christ."
"We live in a culture of evangelistic cowardice, where the average Christian doesn't share the Gospel and often doesn't know the Gospel: Trish isn't the average Christian. With passion for Christ and genuine concern for others, Trish proclaims the whole counsel of God."
"Besides my wife, I don't know of another woman who encourages me to share my faith more than Trish."
"In the summer of 2007, I had the special privilege of meeting Trish. I can tell you that she is every bit as personable, kind and genuine in person as she seems on the radio. She has a deep and abiding love of Jesus; a love which is beautifully manifested as she puts feet to her faith out in the highways and the hedges. Trish is both a blessing and a challenge to me and to all who know her. I thank and praise God for her faithful witness."
"It is with great pleasure that I recommend my wife's website as a place where people can be infected with a passion to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. My wife continues to be an example to me of why we exist, to know God and make Him known."


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The Bridge at Dong Ha
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By John Grider Miller,
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By Nicholas Warr,
Recommended by William W. Stilwagen
From William's list on the Vietnam War from a Marone who served there.
It is rare when an actual participant of a battle can produce such a chilling and accurate narrative that keeps a reader's attention page after page. This was the Tet Offensive urban battle for the Citadel, a walled city containing a labyrinth of buildings and houses jammed around numerous narrow streets. This was city fighting at its worst. In the end, many thousands of the enemy lay dead.
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1 author picked Phase Line Green as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
What is this book about?
The bloody, month-long battle for the Citadel in Hue during 1968 pitted U.S. Marines against an entrenched, numerically superior North Vietnamese Army force. By official U.S. accounts it was a tactical and moral victory for the Marines and the United States. But a survivor's compulsion to square official accounts with his contrasting experience has produced an entirely different perspective of the battle, the most controversial to emerge from the Vietnam War in decades.
In some of the most frank, vivid prose to come out of the war, author Nicholas Warr describes with urgency and outrage the Marines' savage house-to-house fighting,…
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United States Marines
Marine Sniper
By Charles Henderson,
Recommended by Stephen Templin
From Stephen's list on black ops memoirs.
This isn't actually a memoir, but it reads like one. In the Vietnam War, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock hunts and is hunted. With him, the reader stalks a Viet Cong general, a sniper, and others through the jungles and mountains of Southeast Asia. The North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam put a bounty on Hathcock, calling him the "White Feather." It's difficult to imagine today's American snipers or black ops without the influence of this man. His story is legendary.
2 authors picked Marine Sniper as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The explosive true story of Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, a legendary Marine sniper in the Vietnam War.
There have been many Marines. There have been many marksmen. But there has only been one Sergeant Carlos Hathcock.
He stalked the Viet Cong behind enemy lines-on their own ground. And each time, he emerged from the jungle having done his duty. His record is one of the finest in military history, with ninety-three confirmed kills.
This is the story of a simple man who endured incredible dangers and hardships for his country and his Corps. These are the missions that have made Carlos…
We Walked Across Their Graves
By John Strunk,
The author has the gift of recall and detail that mesmerizes the reader as to the life of a young, high school dropout who finds himself in the most brutal fighting in the Que Son Valley. He leaves out no account to soften the blows for sensitive readers. He tells it as he experienced it. In the end, this devastating book leaves the reader on a high point... that there is salvation.
1 author picked We Walked Across Their Graves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The naive plans of our youth often escalate to a point beyond our understanding or control. This is the story of a young man that at every turn believed the resolution for every problem was just around the next bend in the road of life. Instead with every turn came only more problems and hopelessness until finally one man came into his life showing him that during his life he was walking on the graves of his predecessors and that final the grave was an empty tomb.
To Hear Silence
By Ronald W. Hoffman,
This is a memoir that does not read like a memoir. It brings to the reader the harsh reality of war and a personal perspective on how one perceives war, told without shame or bravado. The reader is brought full circle from the fighting and destruction in 1967-68 to standing on the same battlefields some 45 years later, in peace.
1 author picked To Hear Silence as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
To Hear Silence is the history of Charlie Battery, 1st Battalion, 13th Marines, from the time of its formation at Camp Horno, California, in July 1966, until the original members left Vietnam in early October 1967.Although partly written in narrative format, this book paints an accurate portrayal of the experiences of what really happened in 1966 and 1967 through its day-to-day, and often minute-to-minute, accounts of the members' time in Vietnam.This book is based on a diary kept by the author while in Vietnam, the actual declassified documents kept by the Marine Corps, and the memories of those who lived…
Ride the Thunder
By Richard Botkin,
Recommended by Nicholas Warr
From Nicholas' list on the Vietnam War from a Marine infantry officer who fought there.
Author Richard Botkin was a U. S. Marine Captain, who served during a time of peace, but who, like many Marines, became fascinated with Marine Corps history during the Vietnam War. This book is about the U. S. Marine officers who served as military advisors to the Vietnamese Marine Corps, and who helped the Vietnamese Marines defend their country during the so-called Easter Offensive of 1972. The North Vietnamese launched this unprecedented offensive with the intent of conquering our ally, the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) or South Vietnam as we came to know them. This was an all-out, go-for broke offensive during which the NVA launched over 1,000 Soviet tanks and massive artillery bombardments, backed by tens of thousands of NVA infantry soldiers. The intent of this offensive was "total victory." History and this book document the fact that this juggernaut was ultimately stopped cold by the ARVN and the…
1 author picked Ride the Thunder as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Everything Americans know about the end of the Vietnam War is wrong, contends Richard Botkin, former Marine infantry officer and author of the groundbreaking book Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph.
Now the inspiration for a major motion picture of the same name Ride the Thunder reveals the heroic, untold story of how Vietnamese Marines and their US advisers fought valiantly, turning the tide of an unpopular war and actually winning – while Americans 8,000 miles away were being fed only one version of the story.
Focusing on three Marine heroes – Colonel John W.…
The Magnificent Bastards
By Keith Nolan,
Recommended by Wendell Affield
From Wendell's list on the Vietnam war that explore waste and loss.
My river boat division (Mobile Riverine Force Division 112) patrolled the Cua Viet River just south of the DMZ between North and South Vietnam during the timeline of this book so I could very much relate to the events, though the Marines took much heavier casualties than our boats did. Keith Nolan does an excellent job documenting the battles—as I read, I relived the bomb and strafing runs done by the navy aircraft carrier F-4 Phantoms (which I also wrote about in my memoir) Nolan's very detailed account of the Marine battles on the north side of the river answered many decades-old questions for me. His use of dialogue and insights into the Marines keep the reader engrossed.
1 author picked The Magnificent Bastards as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
On April 29, 1968, the North Vietnamese Army is spotted less than four miles from the U.S. Marines' Dong Ha Combat Base. Intense fighting develops in nearby Dai Do as the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, known as "the Magnificent Bastards," struggles to eject NVA forces from this strategic position.
Yet the BLT 2/4Marines defy the brutal onslaught. Pressing forward, America's finest warriors rout the NVA from their fortress-hamlets–often in deadly hand-to-hand combat.At the end of two weeks of desperate, grinding battles, the Marines and the infantry battalion supporting them are torn to shreds. But against all odds, they beat back…
Dien Cai Dau
By Yusef Komunyakaa,
Recommended by Doug Bradley
From Doug's list on the Vietnam War that strike a different note.
"I think of language as our first music," notes the celebrated poet Yusef Komunyakaa. His collection of Vietnam poems, Dien Cai Dau (Vietnamese for crazy) fuses images, sounds, and sights from Vietnam into a fearful, lyrical symmetry. Born James Brown in rural Bogalusa, Louisiana, he served in Vietnam as a correspondent and editor of The Southern Cross, the newspaper of the Army's 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). "The Vietnamese knew what was happening in the American psyche when it came to race," claims Komunyakaa, "and sometimes they expertly played on it." The poem "Hanoi Hannah" in Dien Cai Dau is a perfect example of this: "Ray Charles!" His voice/ calls from waist-high grass/& we duck behind gray sandbags./ "Hello, Soul Brothers. Yeah,/Georgia's also on my mind…Here's Hannah again…"
"That gets your attention when you're out in the middle of nowhere," astutely observes Komunyakaa.
1 author picked Dien Cai Dau as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Poetry that precisely conjures images of the war in Vietnam by an award-winning author.
Enduring Vietnam
By James Wright,
Recommended by Ernest Hebert
From Ernest's list on creating empathy and self-knowledge in readers.
My book is a story about what often happens to some soldiers after a war, in today's lingo, PTSD. As one who is a veteran himself, I've always been conflicted about soldiering, war, the aftermath of war, and the American penchant for war. One book put it all into perspective for me, Enduring Vietnam by historian James Wright. Wright gives you the historical context that brought about the war; the politics that influenced the war; and the battles fought during the war. But he tells it all from the perspective of the soldiers who fought the war, from our fellow Americans and allies in South Vietnam, but also from the perspective of the enemy soldiers, the Vietcong and North Vietnamese.
1 author picked Enduring Vietnam as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The Vietnam War is largely recalled as a mistake, either in the decision to engage there or in the nature of the engagement. Orboth. Veterans of the war remain largely anonymous figures, accomplices in the mistake. Critically recounting the steps that led to the war, this book does not excuse the mistakes, but it brings those who served out of the shadows. Enduring Vietnam recounts the experiences of the young Americans who fought in Vietnam and of families who grieved those who did not return. By 1969 nearly half of the junior enlisted men who died in Vietnam were draftees.…
The Viet Cong
Girls Don't
By Inette Miller,
Recommended by Katya Cengel
From Katya's list on big topics that won't totally depress you.
As a female journalist who has lived and worked abroad, including in sometimes unsafe situations but excluding war, I was drawn to Miller's story about covering the Vietnam War. In 1970 young American women were not supposed to go to Vietnam. They were supposed to get married, and Miller did—to a member of the military whose job proves her ticket to Vietnam.
As one of the rare female reporters in Vietnam, Miller captured stories her male colleagues couldn't or wouldn't cover such as how young Vietnamese girls were often tricked into the sex trade. An outsider in the "old boys club" of news and war Miller is able to understand better than her male colleagues how the war is impacting the locals who have in some ways been made outsiders in their own country.
1 author picked Girls Don't as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
The year is 1970; the war in Vietnam is five years from over. The women's movement is newly resurgent, and feminists are summarily reviled as "libbers." Inette Miller is one year out of college-a reporter for a small-town newspaper. Her boyfriend gets drafted and is issued orders to Vietnam. Within their few remaining days together, Inette marries her US Army private, determined to accompany him to war.
There are obstacles. All wives of US military are prohibited in country. With the aid of her newspaper's editor, Miller finagles a one-month work visa and becomes a war reporter. Her newspaper cannot…
Armed with Abundance
By Meredith H. Lair,
How music became so readily available to Vietnam soldiers is emphasized in Armed with Abundance. Trying to remedy the tenuous morale among GIs, the U.S. military provided them with "creature comforts" in an effort to make war easier, and certainly more palatable. Lair finds that consumption and satiety, more so than privation and sacrifice, defined the experience of most soldiers' Vietnam deployments. She reveals that in 1969 and 1970, for example, soldiers purchased nearly 500,000 radios, 178,000 reel-to-reel tape decks, and 220,000 cassette recorders. Rock and roll was there to stay!
1 author picked Armed with Abundance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Popular representations of the Vietnam War tend to emphasize violence, deprivation, and trauma. By contrast, in Armed with Abundance, Meredith Lair focuses on the noncombat experiences of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, redrawing the landscape of the war so that swimming pools, ice cream, visits from celebrities, and other "comforts" share the frame with combat.
To address a tenuous morale situation, military authorities, Lair reveals, wielded abundance to insulate soldiers - and, by extension, the American public - from boredom and deprivation, making the project of war perhaps easier and certainly more palatable. The result was dozens of overbuilt bases in…
Show more recommendations for The Bridge at Dong Ha
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5 book lists we think you will like!
The best books about the Vietnam War from a Marine who served there
The best books about the Vietnam War that strike a different note
The best books by Vietnam veterans
The best books about the Vietnam War from different POVs
The best Vietnam war books that explore waste and loss
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Topics are things like World War 1, dinosaurs, grief, or jazz. We will add genres in 2022.


The Jordan Hydro 7 takes inspiration from the AJ 2, featuring the famous Air Jordan Wings logo for a fresh look. A Solarsoft foam footbed gives you a comfortable, soft ride. The breezy design seamlessly integrates comfort and style, making it the perfect summer staple.


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Kanye West Wanted His Album Banned
Some interesting, albeit not really surprising, news: According to Calvin Tomkins' profile of George Condo in this week's New Yorker, Kanye West wanted the cover art for My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy to get his album banned — because he wanted more publicity. From the feature:
"West came to Condo's studio, where for several hours they listened to tapes of his music, and over the next few days Condo made eight or nine paintings. Two of them were portraits of West, one in extreme closeup, with mismatched eyes and four sets of teeth. Another showed his head, crowned and decapitated, placed sideways on a white slab, impaled by a sword. There was also a painting of a dyspeptic ballerina in a black tutu, a painting of the crown and the sword by themselves in a grassy landscape, and a lurid scene of a naked black man on a bed, straddled by a naked white female creature with fearsome features, wings, no arms, and a long, spotted tail. West chose that one."
Condo's mid-career survey exhibition, which will feature more than eighty paintings and sculptures, opens at the New Museum on January 26th. Let us know if you think any of his Kanye-commissioned covers (which are pictured after the jump, with commentary from Condo) should make the cut.
"That's a good painting. She's a kind of fragment, between a sphinx, a phoenix, a haunting ghost, a harpy. And then Kanye is also in some sort of strange 1970s burned-out back room of a Chicago blues club having a beer — so far away from the real Kanye West that it's just a scream."
"It's sort of cubist, you know, this portrait with all these different dimensions to it. Like an African mask with almost a modern face. I wanted to get that feeling that he's almost a Miles Davis-like guy."
"His tragedy was a kind of exile that Kanye imposed upon himself. He was free from exile by having the cathartic moment in the image. He's alive in the painting, you know what I mean? In a strange way it's like, he opened his eyes."
"We were hanging around one night, and we were listening to that tune 'Runaway,' and somehow Kanye grabbed onto that idea of the ballerina. He just said, 'Hey man, I'd like to have a great ballerina painting.' I thought of a ballerina toasting. You know, 'let's toast to the scumbags.'"
"[Kanye and I] talked about paintings in the early baroque era depicting religious figures, and wanted to push that out into the open in today's world. It mirrors the 'paranoid' riff on one of the tracks."
All images and quotes via Vulture.


This is a great idea if you have no clue what to get someone... If they're sick, have a birthday coming up & so on. It's always nice to have something to sift through when you have some downtime...that doesn't include gossip & warped body images.
Well, I'm off to check on my veggie soup... That's just minutes away from being infused with some meat & garlic croutons.
"Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own." ~William Hazlitt.


This article provides an overview of configuring iSCSI targets and initiators on Linux, with specific reference to the information needed for the RHCE EX300 certification exam.
Configuration of iSCSI targets is not part of the exam, but you are going to need some to test the iSCSI intiator configuration.
Install the necessary package to support the creation of iSCSI targets.
Turn on the service and make sure it starts automatically after reboot.
I have a virtual machine called "rhce2.localdomain" with an additional virtual hard drive called "/dev/sdb". If you want to make permanent iSCSI targets, you need to add modify the "/etc/tgt/targets.conf" file. The following entry will create an iSCSI target for this disk device.
After amending the "/etc/tgt/targets.conf" file you need to restart the tgtd service.
The target will now be visible using the following command.
If you are using the Linux firewall you will need to make sure the TCP port 3260 is open on the server. Assuming you are using a firewall setup file, as described here, you can include the following addition to the INPUT chain.
# Open port for iSCSI.
This is the simplest way to create iSCSI targets. Some resources suggest you use the tgtadm command. The example below describes how that works, but it is quite long-winded in comparison to amending the "/etc/tgt/targets.conf" file and the targets are not permanent.
The man page for the tgtadm command includes examples of creating an iSCSI target. The example in the man page looks like this.
I have a virtual machine called "rhce2.localdomain" with an additional virtual hard drive called "/dev/sdb". First we must create and empty target.
Add a LUN to this target.
Allow the target to accept intitiators.
Show the iSCSI targets that are available.
This section is the only part of the article that is actually relevant for the RHCE EX300 certification exam.
Install the necessary software to support iSCSI initiators.
Turn on the service and make sure it starts automatically after a reboot.
Check for iSCSI targets on the server presenting them. I configured the target on a machine called "rhce2.localdomain".
The iSCSI device is now visible using the fdisk -l command.
Partition it and build a filesystem on it, as shown here and here. In this case I used the following commands.
Check the UUID of the new partition.
This UUID should be used for mounting the device, thus preventing problems if device names change. Create a new mount point.
Add the following entry into the "/etc/fstab" file.
The drive is now mounted and will be available on reboot.


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Grand Junction Uber driver escapes armed…
Grand Junction Uber driver escapes armed would-be kidnapper by jumping out of moving car
23-year-old suspect allegedly pulled a gun on his driver and attempted to kidnap her
By Robert Garrison | The Denver Channel
Adam Salaz
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — An Uber passenger was arrested Saturday after police said he pulled a gun on his driver and attempted to kidnap her before she was able to escape from the moving car.
It happened in Grand Junction late Friday night. The suspect, 23-year-old Adam Salaz, was located in Carlsbad, New Mexico Saturday, and arrested on a kidnapping and theft warrant out of Mesa County.
The female Uber driver picked up Salaz from an address in Fruita, a small town west of the city, and proceeded to head to the passenger's destination in downtown Grand Junction, police said.
At some point during the trip, Salaz allegedly pulled a gun on the driver and demanded the driver take him to the desert.
Jefferson County jury finds woman guilty in kidnapping, torture case
Parker mother plotted raid with QAnon to take back child, police say
Man kidnapped after robbery at El Paso County home
Serial rapist sentenced to 90 years in prison for attacking Littleton woman
Suspect in shooting of Adams County deputy 10 years ago is arrested
But the victim, driving a 2019 Toyota CHR, decided to jump out of the moving vehicle instead and make her escape, according to police.
Read the full story from our partner at thedenverchannel.com.
More in Crime & Courts
Denver officer accused of sexually assaulting woman he met on duty
Denver police officer Johnny Leon-Alvarez, 29, was arrested and is being held in connection with a sexual assault reported on Friday.
Aurora, Denver police investigate separate shootings overnight
Denver and Aurora police are investigating shootings Friday night and early Saturday morning that injured three people, the departments said.
Two immigrants, pastor, Army sergeant guilty of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud
Two immigrants, a pastor and an Army sergeant have been convicted of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud as part of an illegal immigration scheme, according to federal prosecutors.
Brighton man sentenced to 20 months for Social Security fraud, failing to file tax returns
A Brighton man has been sentenced to 20 months in federal prison for failure to file a tax return and for fraud relating to Social Security Disability payments.


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Nishant (1975)
Nishant 1975
Hindi Sep 06, 1975 (India)
Verdict: Cool Movie. Watchable.
Drama, Social, Crime, Offbeat
Shyam Benegal
Shyam Benegal , Freni M. Variava
3 (includes nominations)
Nishant is a 1975 Indian Bollywood drama, social, crime, offbeat film released on Sep 06, 1975. The film is directed by Shyam Benegal, produced by Shyam Benegal.
Vishwam (Naseeruddin Shah) is the youngest son of the powerful, and influential village Zamindar (Amrish Puri). The Zamindar will not hesitate to do anything for the welfare and protection of his family, which also includes bending the law to his own advantage. Vishwam is married to Rukmani (Smita Patil), and unlike his brothers, does not indulge in alcohol or women, nor does he have any bad habits. Then the village gets a new schoolmaster (Girish Karnad), who has a wife, Sushilla (Shabana Azmi). When Vishwam sees for the first time, he is unable to take his off of her, and unable to get her out of his mind. Sushilla does not reciprocate his attentions. Then one night, while the schoolmaster is returning home, he sees a vehicle pull up outside his house, and two men grab Sushilla and take her forcibly. Several people are present no one dares to raise a hand nor even a voice to stop this abduction. What will the schoolmaster do to get his wife back, knowling fully well that the Police patel (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) is one of the Zamindar's men.
A successor to "Ankur", the film gives a fictionalised account based on an incident which occured in a village of Andhra Pradesh. It tells of a village dominated by a wealthy and powerful zamindar family consisting of four brothers and how the newly arrived school master whose young wife had been kidnapped by them, builds up a campaign against the zamindar, culminating into an uprising, resulting in the destruction of the zamindar brothers. Check out this page for more updates on Nishant.
Girish Karnad
Smita Patil
Rukmani (Vishwam's ..
Amrish Puri
Eldest Zamindar
Vishwam (Zamindar's..
Shabana Azmi
Sushila (Schoolmast..
Anant Nag
Anjaiya (Zamindar's..
Reviews for Nishant
Nishant Movie Wiki
This page provides latest and updated information about Nishant (1975) movie which released on Sep 06, 1975. Nishant (1975) is directed by , produced by , starring .We have also provided 0 trailers and videos, 4 photos, 27 user reviews, and 0 critic reviews.Nishant (1975) has received 2.8 rating from user reviews.The overall rating of Nishant (1975) is 55 and movie is 2.8.Nishant (1975) has won 0.003 crore awards.You can review, like, dislike this movie and also can add to favorites. You can also find information on showtimes, CDs, DVDs, online rental, online free watching.
Nishant Keywords
Nishant, Drama, Social, Crime, Offbeat, Bollywood, 1975, Nishant movie reviews


Aostsoft All Document Converter Professional is an easy-to-use and professional document conversion tool. It can batch convert office Word, PowerPoint, Excel , PDF , Text, HTML and Images with high output quality and fast conversion speed.
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2015 from mike chickey on Vimeo.
Southern California activism, 2015 the year in review.
Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak: Likely Suspects for the 9/11 Attacks?
Video of Christopher Bollyn speaking in Gothenburg, Sweden courtesy of Brendon O'Connell May 25th, 2014.


2016 SHANGHAI MASTERS - FOUR FOR YOU!
The top two ranked players in the World will square off during tomorrow's Last 4 after securing Quarter-Final wins in the first of today's two sessions at the Grand Stage.
Stuart Bingham is making a very good defence of the prize money points he gained when winning this event two years ago. Despite possessing a poor personal head to head record with fellow Essex man Ali Carter, the 2015 World Champion bucked the trend with a comprehensive 5-1 victory.
In-form Carter has been a bit of thorn in Bingham's side recently after dethroning him at the Crucible in April and defeating him at the World Open in July (an event that Ali went on to claim). However, despite gifting Carter Frame 3 after going in-off on the final black, the current World Number 2 registered efforts of 58 and 91 in taking all the other frames on offer.
Bingham is looking to appear in successive finals having narrowly missed out in the decider of the SangSom World Six Red Championship in Thailand a couple of weeks ago. He has also yet to find an avenue into the lucrative Champion of Champions in November, with opportunities now running out.
Reigning World Champion and World Number 1 Mark Selby continues to reach the business end of competitions after he denied 2007 Runner-Up Ryan Day 5-3.
Day crafted a 98 break in the third frame, although Selby chalked up the two frames before, and the two frames after to stand on the brink at 4-1 up.
The Welshman harboured hopes of a comeback when reducing his arrears to just 3-4, but the favourite got over the line in the eighth. Not particularly pretty, Selby registered just a half century (52) in the opener.
Saturday will see Bingham and Selby meet for the first time in competitive action of any sort since the 2013 Champion of Champions Semi-Final which the former won 6-4.
Selby is seeking back to back major ranking successes for the first time in his career having lifted the Paul Hunter Classic Trophy last month.
Ding Junhui kept home hopes alight with a 5-3 win over Michael Holt.
China's Number 1 was never behind, but he was pegged back twice at 2-2 and 3-3. Ding compiled breaks of 53, 103 and 61 during the victory.
Holt was dogged, constructing contributions of 77, 50 and 64 in the frames he took, but ultimately couldn't quite follow up his elimination of Ronnie O'Sullivan yesterday.
Stephen Maguire, therefore, remains as the only qualifier left after he beat fellow non-seed Michael White 5-1.
The 35 year old Scot has been in stellar form throughout the event. Out of the five matches he has won so far in it, he has only dropped six frames, and he of course achieved perfection with a 147 maximum break during his Wildcard Round match on Tuesday.
It will be Maguire's second semi-final appearance in a major Chinese event within six months having reached the same stage of the China Open. His last major ranking title came over 3 and a half years ago at the 2013 Welsh Open.


MDOT will mill and resurface the road, a state trunkline, beginning Monday.
Get ready for some more-than-usual headaches while driving Ford Road beginning next week.
The Michigan Department of Transportation will begin resurfacing work along the state trunkline between Lotz in Canton Township and Wayne Road in Westland. The project will see 2.3 miles milled and resurfaced, as well as concrete patching, curb and gutter repair, sidewalk ramps upgrades to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, pedestrian signals improvement and more.
The $2.2 million project will begin Monday and will see several lanes close for work. Project manager Jeff Horne said one lane in each direction will remain open through the project, though more than one lane could stay open depending on how the contractor works.
"We're going to try our best to try and maintain more than one lane during rush hour," he said. "It depends on the efficiency of the contractor."
Work is expected to be complete sometime in late September.
Ford Road was last milled and resurfaced back in 2002, Horne said. Crews have done other work along the road, including crack treatment in 2007 and micro surface work in 2010. This year's work is not major reconstruction and is expected to last between 7-10 years, Horne said.
Not included in the work is the bridge over the railroad tracks. Horne said the bridge had major rehabilitation back in 2011 and had preventative maintenance performed in 2011.
"It's still in good shape, so we omitted it from the current project," he said.
In addition to the state working on Ford Road, the cities of Westland and Inkster are reconstructing Annapolis between Middlebelt and Inkster roads.
The work is currently in its second phase and is expected to wrap by the end of August. The second phase consists of the westbound lane being closed to do concrete removal and replacement. Westbound traffic is detoured to Van Born Road to the south or Carlysle Street to the north.


Okay, my latest module... i wanted to tie the gift to the current month.
So how do i make $current reflect the proper number for the current month?
There is also a module called gift for a date which allows something similar. You might check that out also.
If anyone can point me to the module Turok is talking about, please let me know!


From the election to Trump's inauguration, there has been a growing conflict between Donald Trump and the mainstream media. Trump supporters complain that media outlets such as CNN and the New York Times have been unfair in their attacks on the President and that they promote "fake news." Democrats and others from the left complain of Trump and his administration's immature reaction to the media's attack.
The truth is that both sides have a point. This conflict between Trump and the media is a two sided issue and anyone refusing to acknowledge this fact is contributing to the growing divide in the USA.
To deeply understand this issue, one must look to its roots. When exactly did Trump and the media's interests begin to collide?
At the beginning of the primaries, Trump was the talk of the election. A wildly famous billionaire TV star running for president is something that the media drooled over. Trump received more and more coverage as his charisma and supporters grew.
The media then found themselves in the shoes of Victor Frankenstein. They created a beast that went against everything they wanted. After this realization, they became determined to slay the monster that they created, just as Doctor Frankenstein.
This is where the media made a huge mistake. They sacrificed journalistic values for their own political motives. This meant writing and reporting false stories, using strictly negative rhetoric when speaking of Trump, and refusing to report the flaws in Trump's opposing candidate Hillary Clinton.
One of the worst examples of this poor journalism was when Buzzfeed reported a document that accused Trump of making deals with Russia during the campaign and mentioned graphic relations he supposedly had with prostitutes. This document was never confirmed to be true, but was picked up by CNN, a major network. The story was later proven to be false.
Another example was when Donna Brazile, a CNN employee, gave Hillary Clinton debate questions prior to the actual debate. This did not just cross the line, it also dropped a nuclear bomb on it. CNN made it clear that they were practically campaigning for a candidate in the name of news.
So rather than fairly criticizing Trump, who happens to be an easy target, the media became determined to stop him from being elected and later inaugurated. This of course made Trump, his administration, and his supporters very angry.
Donald Trump has every right to be infuriated with the media, but there is no excuse for how he has acted in response. Going on twitter rants about the "failing New York Times," abusing the term "FAKE NEWS," and declaring war on the media are only childish ways to rile up more divide in this country.
Instead of tweeting like a kid who is furious that Madden 17 on his Xbox is being 'fake,' President Trump should act like a mature leader. Maybe doing some research on how to treat others the way you want to be treated would help him out. Hate only stirs up more hate. We can only hope the President learns this lesson in the next four years.
The most recent instance of the President's blatant hatred towards the media was at his press conference on February 14th that lasted over an hour. This consisted of Trump addressing the Flynn resignation scandal by ripping the media for exposing the leak. According to the President, "The leaks are real, but the news is fake." If only we knew what that meant.
Obama had minor issues with Fox News because unlike the mainstream media, Fox fairly criticized his mistakes, but Obama tried to hide this conflict. His successor, Donald Trump, is not afraid to express his hatred which has helped him limit the mainstream media's influence, but also made him look like a child at times. He needs to find a balance on how to be critical of the mainstream media while acting mature and reasonable.
Some of the White House administration is having trouble with the media too. After a false report that a Martin Luther King Jr bust was removed, Sean Spicer brutally criticized the media on his first day as the Press Secretary without even answering a single question.
This is clearly a two sided issue. The media needs to go back to following journalistic ethics and President Trump must begin to act as a positive example to the public. There is no need to pick sides in this issue, rather, we must face the facts and hold everyone to the same standards.


Love for Music is getting ready for a new topeditie, the fifth already. Jan Leyers sums it up nicely: "for the Love of music is a concept that is at once so ingenious and simple that you wonder why no one ever before has thought of. You take 7 musicians and asks them: play a song from each of the peers, but do your own thing." And that they do that. The colourful company of 6 soloartiesten and a cabaret-duo warms up the votes for an unforgettable musical adventure.
Laura Tesoro, Ilse de lange, Stef Kamil Carlens, Bart Kaëll, Kommil Foo, Jan Leyers and Milow went this year to Seville to each other's repertoire to cover. The artists have their mark in the music world, earned it, both on the national and international levels. The most diverse of musical genres this season to the fore with a surprising mix of pop, cabaret, country, rock and schlager. The artists know each song to their hand and conjure up the covers more than once to get to the numbers they were able to cast.
Surprising covers and kippenvelmomenten are already insured. That Love for Music is really what brings about on a musical level, season after season, clearly. The previous edition is no exception. Conquer Me by Niels Destadsbader was rewarded with a Hit and Niels was also the great slokop on the MIA's. The hits of all artists stormed the charts, and until today is still played live on their concerts.
Also, the artists of this season are eager for musical fireworks. In the beautiful Hacienda de Orán dipping them for a week in a warm bath of music. The "keischone" Hacienda speaks to the imagination of the artists. The "wauws" are not count, and Bart feels right in a film: "here comes Zorro on his horse".
In the first episode, Bart Kaëll central. For the artists hits enough to choose from. Hits by everyone loudly to be sung. Are schlagergenre differs from that of his fellow-artists, and therefore Bart is very nervous for his day. "I hope that the soul of my songs is maintained, but in particular, I have me under control will be able to keep, stemtechnisch, but also emotionally." The nerves do Bart also some secrets to reveal. Such as, for example, how he and his artist name has come up.
Jan Leyers has the honour of being the evening time to kick. He takes "the other song about water" under the hands, The Marie-Louise. Bart can not fail to see the funny history of the song to tell. He knew of the original immediately that the hit was going to be and think the same of the version of Jan. That makes it a nostalgic westernversie of which Bart immediately to tears, moves.