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"Much Ado About Nothing" By Shakespeare
Posted on August 14, 2018 August 14, 2018 by Imaan Siddiq
William Shakespeare has written words of eccentricity and has made characters that never cease to reach their full depth because they have unfathomable depth. He has changed literature and has mutated and metamorphosed the English Language and Literature into a very pure and raw form, a form that still conceives its boundless beauty. He was not only a playwright or a dramatist, he was an actor as well as a poet. His words have made endless souls cry, laugh, smile and feel melancholy at the same time just because he wrote and thought in a way that the world had not seen before. His words and plots have intertwined so many minds that even now, 6 centuries later, he still remains a legend of English Literature and he will as long as human existence taints the world with its color, his manuscripts and their unbounded effect shall continue to amaze countless minds and souls.
The moment he came into this world his fate was written like everyone else's but little did he know that his life was meant to bewilder people of all sorts for centuries later. He has outlived the life written on that indestructible piece of paper known as fate for now he lives in the hearts, minds, souls and bodies of those that remember his words and know their essence, he lives in the threads of time and passes through them when existence reads his works. Shakespeare has written works of commendable appreciation and has succeeded in astounding all sorts of audiences. In fact, he has seen the world with an eye that has never existed before, a sight that he knew how to use best. He is regardless, The Bard Of Avon.
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The Playwright, Plot and More Information
Much Ado About Nothing is a play written by none other than William Shakespeare. It is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies and its genre is romantic-comedy. The play itself is a great work of art like many other Shakespearean plays and before we get into the details let's talk about its well known playwright, William Shakespeare.
Most of this information is taken from the copy of Much Ado About Nothing that I have which has a detailed analysis side by side from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.. Folger Shakespeare Library is a privately funded research organization found in 1932 by Henry Clay and Emily Jordan Folger and this organization is "Dedicated to Shakespeare and the civilization of early Modern Europe". My copy is also edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. I am really grateful that this copy contains like a whole analysis and information about reading Shakespeare's language, his life, his theater, the publication of his plays, introduction to his text and of course side to side meanings and analysis of difficult words, references, proverbs, etc throughout the play. It even contains an essay on Much Ado About Nothing: A Modern Perspective by Gail Kern Paster. Briefly, they give you a lot of important information and research that actually helps you a lot so most of the information that I will be sharing will be from this original book.
William Shakespeare was a playwright, a poet and an actor. He was born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon and he died in April 1616. There aren't a lot of documents that state about his early life but he spent his professional life in London to support his professional career and later came back to Stratford as a wealthy landowner. His father, John Shakespeare was an alderman and bailiff of Stratford. In 1582, at the age of 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and their marriage was followed by the birth of their daughter Susanna in 1583 and the twins Judith and Hamnet in 1585 (as recorded).
Till the 1590's he had achieved prominence in London in his professional career that spanned about 20 years as a dramatist, an actor, a poet and a playwright. He wrote many plays, poems and especially his 154 sonnets that were published in 1609. In 1599, Shakespeare's company built a theater for themselves across the river in London and named it The Globe. Many of his plays were performed in court as well as for royalty including Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. His plays were performed in many towns, at the Inns of Court, at universities, etc. Unfortunately in 1613 during the performance of Henry VIII the Globe caught fire and burned to the ground. According to the epitaph carved under his burst in the Holy Trinity Church, he died in Stratford on 23 April 1616 and was buried on April 25. He is now also known as "The Bard of Avon".
"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
18 plays were published during the time span of Shakespeare's life and individually they came to be known as the quartos. Then 7 years after Shakespeare's death his collected plays were published in the form of one book known as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies which is now known as the First Folio.
Here's a list of some of Shakespeare's most well-known artworks including plays and poems:
A Midsummer's Night Dream
King Henry VI
Love's Labor's Lost
The Two Noble Kinsmen
Venus and Adonis (poem)
The Rape of Lucrece (poem)
Now back to the play Much Ado About Nothing which is a romantic comedy. The main plot or the synopsis of the play is basically that Count Claudio falls in love with Hero the daughter of Leonato who is the Governor of Messina. Count Claudio is in service to the Prince of Aragon, Don Pedro. Anyways Claudio and Hero decide to get married but the villain who is Don John, the brother of Don Pedro decides to stop the marriage by a vicious plan which is carried out by his follower, Borachio. On the other hand there is this hatred between Signor Benedick and Beatrice who is the niece of Leonato but eventually they end up falling in love due to a strategic plan devised by Don Pedro and they decide to marry one another. This was a very brief explanation of the whole play.
Here are the main characters in the play:
Leonato, The Governor of Messina
Hero, the daughter of Leonato
Beatrice, the niece of Leonato
Don Pedro, the Prince of Aragon
Count Claudio, a young lord from Florence
Signor Benedick, a gentleman from Padua
Don John, Don Pedro's brother
Borachio, Don John's follower
Conrade, Don John's follower
Dogberry, Master Constable in Messina
In fact, Much Ado About Nothing has also had many screen adaptations most famous of which was the 1993 film by Kenneth Branagh which I did watch and it is a great movie but not as good as the written play itself. There is also another film that was released in 2013 by Joss Whedon.
My Review and Experience Regarding The Play
The synopsis of the play was a little intricate and might even be confusing for some people who are not fans of Shakespeare's works but when time, effort and concentration is put in the play it can be understood and when it is understood the astounding realisation of its beauty is just absorbed in every brain cell. I mean the plot is so cautiously written that when every puzzle piece fits into place, the big alluring picture comes into the mind and for that one moment you can't help but wonder the intensity and the charm of the plot. It is pretty mind-blowing. It's like fireworks in your head every time you read a line, you apprehend the unfathomable depth, the exquisite vocabulary and of course the endless humour.
The one thing that actually flabbergasted me was the irony of the two main stories going on in the plot. Basically there are two love stories in the play, one of Count Claudio and Hero and the other is of Signor Benedick and Beatrice. You see the irony is between these two love stories. Count Claudio and Hero actually love each other from the depth of their hearts and souls but they end up with an impediment and a riot in their relationship however on the other hand, Benedick and Beatrice are sworn enemies who are always fighting against one another by their endless wit but they both end up falling in love with each other. You see, one couple is being distanced and the other is being drawn to one another. When you realize the irony, it actually blows you off with surprise.
Each character in the play is created with depth and each one of them is eccentric from the other in their own individual way. Nonetheless the characters go together with one another in a great flow and they ingrain such an aesthetic energy into your mind and soul. Especially I love the characters Benedick and Beatrice, the fact how far apart they seem to be from each other but how close they actually are in actuality. Their relationship is one that is legendary and humorous but still it's quite realistic how two souls are bound to one another by a similarity that was formerly their only difference, which is their endless wit. In fact these two are one of my favorite literature couples and Beatrice as an individual character has been added to my list of favorite literary characters.
Beatrice has such a variant character in Shakespeare's play that if we consider the time period during which it was written, this character just astounds you. Her character was very relatable for me because the moment I read her dialogues I knew that she was me in words. I mean this character has taken me to the depths of my own psychologies and my own perceptions that I can't thank her enough. Everything from her infinite wit to her brutally truthful words, everything astounds you that you reach a point where you can only accept her as one of the greatest characters in the literary world.
Another tenet that I appreciate about the book is that great depth and profundity is given to the villain, Don John and the art of his villainy that you can't help but fall in love with the villain in fact I also do like him. The veil of profound iniquity that lies upon him can't help but charm you in a way that you can't resist his artful words of wickedness. It is like his art of impropriety gives you your life force for his energy his irresistible.
The words themselves are sagacious and sage, full of wit for there is wit in the humour as well. The whole play is wisely written with words of sagacity, of relativity and of aestheticism. The vocabulary is profound and you will definitely have to carry a pocket dictionary with you at all times but you might also need a bigger dictionary or a bigger source for there are some words that might not be in a pocket dictionary because the vocabulary is pretty wide. Regardless it will improve your vocabulary like every book or written manuscript does.
The plot generally sounds and seems pretty serious but it is made humorous with the help of amazing character construction and development. For example characters like Dogberry and his assistant Verges, Benedick and Beatrice, they add humor to the play and its plot and makes the heaviness of it light to the touch of the readers' shoulders, mind and soul. At the same time the plot might also seem a little cliché to people but first of all, it is, second of all we can't forget that this was written in the end of the 16th Century and it is currently the 21st Century so it might seem cliché to us but the characters, the words and the unfathomable depth makes it an eccentric piece of art that needs to be experienced and cherished by everyone.
The play is not that long and it won't take you a lot of time to read it if your analytic powers are strong but nonetheless it will take you some time to read it because don't forget that it is a Shakespearean play so the stakes are pretty high. The plot is also quite thrilling and exciting and you can't seem to wonder after every act and scene, what is going to happen next and the excitement just adds to the humour and everything works so well together that after you're done you actually look forward to reading more of Shakespeare's artworks. Honestly for me, it was one of the best artworks that I've stumbled across in my journey of books.
My Favourite Lines From the Play
Here are a few lines from the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare that have stayed with me:
(P.S. All of these quotes/lines ARE from Much Ado About Nothing and they are written by William Shakespeare, I was just too lazy to write it besides every line.)
"I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me."
"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."
"He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man. He that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him."
"When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married."
"There was a star danced, and under that was I born."
"I wish my horse had the speed of your tongue."
"I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest."
"Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably."
"Benedick: What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
Beatrice: Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick?"
"LEONATO: Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
BEATRICE: Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred."
"For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion."
"LEONATO: Well, then, go you into hell?
BEATRICE: No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long."
"If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking. In the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me."
"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And you be blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey, nonny nonny.
Sigh no more ditties, sing no mo,
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
A song by Balthasar in Much Ado About Nothing written by William Shakespeare
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Q: store username and password in DB then use to access different service I am building a web service that will allow the user to login and then it will download all there timetable data from another site (Which I don't own). I want to only need them to enter there username and password once to login to my service then to use it again to login to the next. I need to store there downloaded data against there user details, but I know I have to hash the password for security reasons in the DB so how can I use this to login to the second service. I though of unhashing but that defeats the whole point of hashing in the first place.
The reason I want to do this is so that the timetabe can then be downloaded to an android app so it can be viewed when there is no data connection.
Any Ideas would be helpful.

A: if  those services gives you a "Token" after you login , you can store that in your database to access again to those services, so when the user logged on your webservice , before hash their information you can use it to login to the others services, and then store their "Token"
this approach only works if they give you something like a token after login, if they dont, i think you will need store the login information as it is , and at least encode on base64, that is not that secure but not that obvious
other idea is maybe create a separate database with only the login information and can be access only with their login (hashed) , but that means you need to create an user on your database and grant access only to that specific DB ,read-only
im sure there are more solutions, but hope that it can be helpful

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layout: post
title: "The Week in Robots"
date: 2017-04-29 08:15:00 +0000
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image: https://s3.amazonaws.com/hackedu/2017-04-29-robot.jpg
imagecredits: https://www.flickr.com/photos/weaseljem/2735540925
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Patrick M. Lind, Leaf Group
Salzburg (Photo: )
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Famous for its Baroque architecture, Salzburg, Austria, became immortalized in "The Sound of Music." Salzburg is more than just a setting of a classic film, however. It is also the birthplace of Mozart and a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its pristine historic Old Town. Guests from all over the world come to walk through winding streets and view the world-famous Hohensalzburg Castle that overlooks the entire city. Some of the best hotels in Salzburg offer a respite for guests looking sleep in elegance and style.
Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg
Located at the heart of historic Salzburg on Getreidegasse Road, the Hotel Goldener Hirsch offers elegant guest rooms and suites with flat-screen televisions, air-conditioning, Italian-tiled bathrooms and soundproof windows. The hotel's two restaurants serve traditional Austrian fare. A bar is on the property. Wireless Internet is available in all public areas of the hotel. Hotel Goldener Hirsch, Salzburg Getreidegasse 37 5020 Salzburg, Austria +43 662 80840 www.starwoodhotels.com
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Patrick M. Lind has been freelance writing since 2007 and has worked as an editor and journalist for ChicagoSporting.com. He received a Master of Arts in history from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and has traveled extensively throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Middle East.
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SA-SIG - Southern Africa Jewish Genealogy: Concession Stores, by Cecilia Muller.
This article was first published in the Supplement To The Jewish Herald for 14 September, 1976 - Rosh Hashanah 5737. It was written by Cecilia Muller ( née Colley) © 2001.
Ceci(lia) Colley writes on South Africa's early Jewish Immigrants.
They came from Russia, Poland, England, at the turn of the century, in crowded ships, enduring a journey lasting several weeks and fraught with danger, those early Jewish immigrants to South Africa.
What were the conditions like? one may ask, and how did they pass their time?
'Well, the conditions were bad. Most people traveled steerage. I remember my Mother telling me the food was adequate, but basic. And I remember her prejudice against condensed milk lasting to the end of her days at age 74 - as the result of rumours among the immigrants that it wasn't kosher! They were glad enough to use it for the babies, though. As for passing the time, the women were kept busy enough, cleaning. soothing, comforting while the men's gutteral voices could he heard calling their hand at Klaberjas and totting up the scores, 'Jasj', Menel, Shtog! as the precious dogeared and dirty cards were thrown on to boxes and upturned suitcases.
With considerably less than R50 in their pockets, they came, and found work. They worked as hawkers, locally known as the 'Smous', going about the country on foot, horseback or bicycle, with their suitcases of trinkets and neccessities, and with a horse and cart when they could afford this almost unheard-of luxury.
Others worked in the concession stores owned bv relatives or 'landsleit' and were taken on a 3-months' trial basis at a wage of R20 per month, and if satisfactory, received an increase of R2 per month. They worked from 7 or 8 in the morning till 6 at night, and on Friday, pay day, till much later.
The Concession Store trading stands were bought at public auction, and the shops were then erected, usually with a house adjoining. The store had to be 160 ft. x 100 ft. and situated not less than 600 ft. from the entrance to the Native Compound.
The basic requirements for the purchasers were that they had to be white persons over 21 years of age, and had to have a clean personal record, certified by a police clearance. There is a provision in the Trading on Mining Ground Regulation Act No. 13 of 1910 which dealt with the sale of trading stands. Shops could be bought and sold in the normal way. The Mining Commissioner had the right to grant extra sites if he thought fitting. After trading had begun, rental was on the basis of taxation, and a return had to be submitted every three months to the Mining Commissioner who sent a copy to the Receiver who then assessed the tax payable, which was based on 5% of the gross turnover. I obtained this information through the courtesy of the Acting Mining Commissioner, Mr Steyn, and from one of the few remaining original Concession Store owners.
The 'green' youngsters who came over between the ages of 15 and 19 learned to speak a Native language within three months - they had to! These men, whose mother tongue was Yiddish and Russian. also learned to speak very good English and a smattering of Afrikaans! Did they ever know what a splendid breed of men they were, these pioneers of a particular section of South Africa's people? When immigration was stopped in 1935. Natives were trained as shop assistants. The days of the immigrant boy shop assistants were over.
Leisure activities of those early days consisted mainly of discussions, a game of Klaberjas, and occasionally at weekends, a visit to Johannesburg traveling by train - even the express was slow! and a couple of hours spent at the 'bioscope', the old Orpheum or the Bijou. Anyone still remember them?
One of the early concessionaires bought his first motor car, a Hudson, about 1922. Another man bought his first car, a Studebaker, second-hand for R200. Driving tests - none! The day after purchasing the car one had to go to the municipality and get a licence and that was it. In later years, however, they all took a driving test. The owner of that Studebaker told me during our interview that he still has the licence in his possession. Was the sun hotter in those days that the wide had to affix blue adjustable curtains to all the windows?
Concession Stores were the shopping centres from before the First World War for the mining communities along the East and West Rand. It was referred to - not unkindly, as 'Jewstore' by the mining families. They consisted of several departments under one roof. There was the butchery and the 'Eating House', the Native miners could try boiled tripe, whole sheep's head and. cooked flank - the oily, flat odour pervaded the store at cooking times, when the meat was prepared in huge cauldrons by the black chef wearing an old sack for an apron! The customers brought their own tin or enamel plates and paid 5c, or 10c per portion. They sat at long, rough tables with benches alongside, noisy, laughing and at ease with their blankets hanging loosely over a shoulder, or discarded entirely from the heat.
The general store, smelling of soap, sacking, damp straw and sweat, served the Native mineworkers who used to come in their dozens, wearing their colourful blankets. Trousers and shirts were only for returning to their homes. They earned between 20 cents and 30 cents per shift and kept their money in a leather belt worn next to their body. The money was put into a slit pocket in the belt, the only bank for their precious golden sovereigns.
They bought snuff, tobacco, 'tickey sugar', soap - Blue soap and Sunlight, Erasmic and Vinolia, (where has Erasmic soap gone to with its quaint coloured pictures of a family on the wrapping?) and candies, and at home-going time, colourful blankets and gaudy tin trunks which were manufactured locally from paraffin tins and bound by iron strapping. I was told that the cotton blankets sold at 50 cents and the woollen ones at around R1 each. Most goods were bought from the 'Market Street Merchants' - a breed that has almost disappeared together with the Concession Stores.
At 'iKIismis' time, how I remember my father nick-named 'Mafuta Baas' (Fat boss) serving the Natives (not Africans or Bantu in those days) who came to buy a sheep. They paid for it with one golden sovereign and carried it away alive, bleating vigorously, draped round its new owner's shoulders, to be shared in a feast of food and drink with his friends - the owner richer by one sheepskin and several good meals! The Concession proprietor richer by several hundred golden sovereigns! - where are those sovereigns now?
The so-called 'White' store catered for the miners on the property and there they purchased good quality clothing materials and everything they needed for their homes and families. The store manager in those old and not-so-far-off days was a friend to the community. He was cajoled to supply the best meat cuts and first pick of the new season's clothes. He always had time to chat with the women when they came to buy; to commiserate with or to congratulate them; he knew every one of their children by name, and no child ever left the store without a handful of sweets.
As for the cuts of meat! why everyone had the best. Every Concession Store owner was also a sheep and cattle owner, and slaughtered his own supplies on the premises. Shortage of meat? Not in anyone's wildest dreams and the price within reach of all.
Most of the Concession proprietors knew each other well from Modder 'B', Modrea and Modderfontein to West Kleinfontein and Benoni, and the West Rand. The very names of all those railway sidings revive memories of train journeys to school in Benoni, and visions of the dusty veld in the dry season with the little mining villages where the White miners and officials lived, within walking distance of the mines where they worked. The Concession Store. was always some distance removed from the village.
The villages are still there, but the Concession Stores, for the most part, have given way to the supermarkets in the now tremendous towns of Boksburg, Benoni, Springs, Brakpan and many others, where they cater for the large communities in a way that the smaller stores, could do no longer.
Today? A very few of the early concession store proprietors are still alive and well and living in Johannesburg. Bless them! They were fine young men, and now are contented, fulfilled, with families firmly established in business or the professions. Some of the wealthy have been levelled by taxation or later business losses. Their grandchildren? Some of the younger generation lost to disinterest or drugs; some living with great aplomb. All of them with grass-roots in the early part of twentieth century South Africa.
And so life goes on - many changes, some progress, much trouble, and always like a hand of cards containing good ones and bad ones. We seldom win the game but we have a lively and interesting time playing it.


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This week was ho-hum for coupons. I spent $179.64 and saved $72.76, which is a 28.8% savings. I had $6 in coupons and there was a St. Patrick's Day Shop From Home promotion: $20 off your order of $150 or more.
Best deals: Free mustard (on sale for .99 and there was a .50 off coupon that doubled); a small Dawn detergent for .50; Marcal toilet paper for .33 a roll.
In short, dishwasher detergent is a much more complicated subject than I ever dreamed, and I'm going to back off for now because the sheer number of blog posts devoted to the subject made my head spin.
Last night, still giddy from the success of my Mexican rice, I tried homemade Rice-a-Roni using this recipe. Yum! So good and easy. My husband thought it was not salty enough, but to me that's just evidence of how his taste buds have been brainwashed by processed foods.
Finally, we also have been trying out organic milk and butter. The butter (Stonyfield) is so yellow and has so much more flavor that again (like the tomatoes from my garden), I'm suspicious of it. I feel like they did something to it, like it couldn't possibly be that good (and yellow) naturally.
Call it processed-food-engendered paranoia (PFEP).


Using firm-level data, we document two new facts regarding intrafirm trade and the activities of the foreign affiliates of U.S. multinational corporations. First, intrafirm trade is concentrated among a small number of large affiliates within large multinational corporations; the median affiliate ships nothing to the rest of the corporation. Second, we find that the input-output coefficient linking the parent's and affiliate's industries of operation—a characteristic commonly associated with production fragmentation— is not related to a corresponding intrafirm low of goods.


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International News	| May 15, 2018, 6:23 AM
Armed Mother of Two and Off Duty Cop Shoots Gunman on Mothers Day
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)-Brazil is notorious for a high violent crime rate which is why it was no surprise that 21-year-old Elivelton Neves Moreira tried to rob a group of mothers with their children during a Mother's Day event in Sao Paulo on Saturday.
The mothers were waiting at the gates of a private school where the event was supposed to take place. Moreira, armed with a gun, approached the group with ill intentions. He just robbed the unarmed school security guard of his wallet, and cell phone before shifting his attention to the mothers. One of the people standing near the group being robbed was Katia da Silva Sastre.
Sastre is a 42-year-old mother of a seven-year-old and a two-year-old daughter. She is also a 20-year police veteran who was attending the event with her oldest child. She was off-duty, but she felt the need to spring into action to protect the other mothers and their children.
Sastre was carrying a concealed handgun in her purse. She was able to pull her gun and fired three shots into Moreira's chest. She took cover behind a car, but the car drove away. Surveillance footage from the scene shows Sastre approaching Moreira's dropped .38 revolver and kicked it away all the while keeping her gun trained on Moreira.
Sastre was carrying a concealed handgun in her purse. She was able to pull her gun and fired three shots into Moreira's chest.
Moreira would succumb to his wounds in the hospital where he was pronounced dead by doctors.
"I didn't know if he was going to shoot the kids or the mothers or the security guard at the school door," Sastre told her co-workers. "I just thought about defending the moms, the children, my own life and my daughter's."
Sastre had a right to be worried about her safety. Sao Paulo has a high murder rate. In 2015 the murder rate was 53.05 for every 100,000 people. In many cases, these murders started out as a simple armed robbery and escalated quickly to a murder.
"These criminals lose control easily. Katia didn't know if he was going to react by shooting at the children, the moms or the head teacher who was at the school entrance," said a spokesman for the Sao Paulo police. "She just thought about defending the parents, the children, herself and her daughter."
Sao Paulo Governor Marcio Franca hailed Sastre as a hero and visited her at the police station where she works.
"I went earlier to the 4th BAEP in the east of Sao Paulo to honor a very special mother: Corporal Katia Sastre. Her courage and precision saved mothers and children, yesterday at the door of a school," Franca wrote on Twitter.
"She went to the party to celebrate the date, and a situation like this happened. She acted so precisely, so perfectly, that we decided to honor her," Franca told Folha de S.Paulo paper.
Sastre, like most heroes, doesn't view anything that she did as being heroic. She believes she was just in the right place at the right time and credited the training she received as a police officer for giving her the ability to stop the criminal before he could hurt anyone.
"I had to act quickly to end his aggression and prevent him from harming anyone. I reverted to the training I have received in the corporation," Sastre said to the paper. "It's gratifying to have been in the right place to have saved all our lives."
A good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun.
Firearms can be the great equalizer when a brave woman stares down the threat of an armed criminal in the streets.
It goes to show a good guy with a gun will stop a bad guy with a gun. Especially when that good guy is a mother protecting her children.
Freddie W. Pruitt 1936 – 20190
Freddie W. Pruitt 1936 – 2019


text:
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N4bn and another $7m in cash as well as physical assets in its various operations has been recovered by The Special Presidential Investigation Panel for Recovery of Public Property.
, disclosed this to (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.
According to NAN, Mr. Okoi Obono-Obla, SPIP Chairman, on Friday, in Abuja said the $7m was recovered from the previous management of the Nigeria Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank who had "illegally placed" it in Heritage Bank.
The naira component of the recoveries, according to him, include N533m and land valued at N1.5bn also from the former NEXIM management.
Obono-Obla said SPIP also recovered N24m allegedly misappropriated by some directors of the National Theatre, and two hectares of land worth N2bn belonging to the National Council for Arts and Culture.
Also recovered is part of the Agura Hotel belonging to the Nigerian Ports Authority, according to the chairman.
"The panel is investigating the failure of a contract awarded to a company to dredge Calabar Channel, after the company had received $12m," he said.
Obono-Obla said the panel also recovered 86 assorted vehicles valued at N500m from a director in the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
"Other assets recovered from him are six houses in highbrow areas of Abuja and a large farm, also in Abuja," he said.
The panel's commitment to its mandate, Obono-Obla advised public servants to desist from converting official property to personal use.


With the passing of the land-grant bill (The Morrill Act) by the U.S. Congress in 1862, the New Hampshire legislature responded quickly in 1866 with the approval of an enabling act. By 1868 the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts had been organized and was led by a chemist, Ezekial Dimond. Chemistry instruction, a strong component of the program from the outset, included the requirement of original research. The first bachelor's theses were written in 1893; master's theses appeared by 1906; and the first Ph.D.s in chemistry were granted in 1958. Originally located in Hanover on the Dartmouth College campus, the institution was moved to Durham in 1893 and became the University of New Hampshrie in 1923.


text:
Afghanistan mourns Kabul ambulance bomb
Kabul is still reeling from shock and mourning, a day after a suicide bomb attack killed more than 100 people and wounded at least 235.
Saturday's strike saw Taliban militants drive an ambulance laden with explosives into a crowded street in what was considered to be one of the most secure parts of the Afghan capital.
"Everyday there are fear of attacks here and living has become very dangerous for everyone. It's not safe to live in Afghanistan anymore," one man said.
That feeling of fear and despair was also mixed with anger. There was harsh criticism of the government on social media for failing to protect ordinary Afghans from the rising wave of Taliban and ISIL inspired attacks.
Saturday's blast was the worst to hit Kabul since a truck bomb near the German embassy in the city killed 150 people in May.
Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of providing support to the attackers while President Trump called for "decisive action" against those responsible, branding the bombing as "despicable".
At least 26 dead in suicide blast in Kabul
Car bomb kills civilians in Kabul
More blasts rock beleaguered Afghan capital
Afghanistan attack


Banning an email is not like banning an IP address and it is commonly used if you would like to disable the access to the user account owning that email. Other reasons for blocking an email account is if multiple spam registrations were created with the same email account and you would like to restrict their access.
Since you will be placing an email ban you will need to login into the Administration Control Panel of your Board. Once logged in please navigate to Users and Groups>User Security>Ban e-mails.
At the top of the page you will find useful information regarding the action you are about to take which is recommended to be read carefully before you proceed with applying the actual ban for the email account you have chosen.
On that page you will also notice a single section called "Ban one or more e-mail addresses" where the actual ban is placed.
Once you are ready with configuring the ban please use the Submit button at the bottom of that section in order for the ban to be placed.
That is all you will need in order to place a ban for a specific email account.


Kirksville's second Community Roots Festival on Saturday will be a significant expansion on the first, with twice the hours and three-times the budget.
The event will run for 12 hours on Saturday, with live music and entertainment throughout the day. The beer, wine and food vendors will be open from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m.; workshops, demos and non-food vendors will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. A kids' area will also be open until 4 p.m.
The festival is free to attend and will take place on Kirksville's downtown square at Harrison and Elson Streets.
Jessica Parks is the executive director of the nonprofit Take Root Cafe, which hosts the festival.
In the festival's second year, Parks said, it has been able to expand thanks to a greater number of volunteers and sponsors from the community.
Parks said the festival hopes to provide unique acts that Kirksville hasn't seen before. She said she is particularly excited about Burn Circus, a Columbia-based performance art group that utilizes fire and pyrotechnics in their act, which will close out the evening Saturday night.
While watching the performances, festival-goers can sample or buy "local produce, artisan crafts, and sustainable or handmade products." A local food tent will be sponsored by the Visit Kirksville tourism office, and local wines and crew beers provided by DuKum Inn will also be available.
Aside from vendor stands, visitors to the festival will be able to participate in yoga workshops throughout the day, including a kids' yoga class. There will also be lessons on how to make your own beer, a hot pepper-eating contest and demonstrations on sustainable living.
The sustainability workshops will be hosted by the White Rose Catholic Worker community, an off-the-grid sustainable living farm located in La Plata, and will cover topics from brewing cider to making a sun oven.
To learn more and view the full schedule of events and performers, visit the "2018 Community Roots Festival" Facebook page or takerootkirksville.org.


text:
Tech Garden tenant Density is first to use new hardware center
Employees of Density Inc. focus on their work in the new hardware center inside the Tech Garden in Syracuse. Density, a Tech Garden tenant, is the first to use the new center, which can accommodate light assembly activity. (ERIC REINHARDT / BJNN)
SYRACUSE — Tech Garden tenant Density Inc. is the first firm to use the facility's new hardware center, which can accommodate light assembly activity.
The firm builds an anonymous workplace-analytics product to count foot traffic in and out of businesses, CenterState CEO said in a news release. The firm was founded in Syracuse in 2014 and also has offices in San Francisco and New York City.
Each of Density's units has 800 subcomponents in it, Density founder and CEO Andrew Farah said in speaking with reporters at the hardware center's formal opening June 4. By managing its supply chain "in house," the company can manage volume, price, and supplying vendors and have all material shipped to Syracuse where the subcomponents are assembled and the units tested and packaged before the company ships the unit to the customer.
"Pretty much the final stage of all building of our product and shipment happens here in this facility," said Farah.
Density is built to count the number of visiting customers, measure the length of their visit, and provide customers with data about foot traffic to and from their business, as described on the Tech Garden website.
"And then we turn that data into how buildings get used for large corporate customers so they can understand how this building is underperforming, [and] this building is overperforming," said Farah.
Density has been Tech Garden client for eight years and is ready to expand.
As a result of the new hardware center and "growing demand from customers," the company relocated its manufacturing operations from a third party in Dallas, Texas to the Tech Garden, where it will conduct final assembly, calibration, and testing. Its products are then shipped to companies "all over the world."
In the coming year, Density plans to nearly double its Syracuse workforce as it expects to create as many as 15 jobs, including factory positions and supporting roles. That growth makes Density the Tech Garden's largest tenant. It currently has 45 employees companywide.
About the hardware center
Density has one full production line that's operational in the new 2,200-square-foot hardware center.
When fully utilized, the hardware center can support two lines capable of producing 30,000 units annually. The development of the hardware center will support companies in the expansion phase of their life cycle, offering small companies a significant opportunity to conduct product assembly "in a convenient and cost-effective location," CenterState CEO said.
Farah joined CenterState CEO, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon at the formal-opening event on June 4.
"We now have a road map at the Tech Garden. We can bring entrepreneurs in here all the way from the ideation stage. We bring through a stage called acceleration. We bring though a stage called incubation. The last stage on the road map is expansion, and that's what we're going to talk about today," Rick Clonan, VP of innovation and entrepreneurship at CenterState CEO, said in his remarks at the event.
The hardware center is for Tech Garden clients that are in the expansion stage, he added.
"[It] turns out that building it in Syracuse is cost-neutral with China. We decided that it would make zero sense to send our [intellectual property] overseas and instead keep it here in the U.S.," Farah said at the event. "I'm very proud that our company was founded here and I'm very proud to say that our product is physically manufactured here."


text:
<?php
/**
 * Spiral Framework, IDE Helper
 *
 * @author    Dmitry Mironov <dmitry.mironov@spiralscout.com>
 * @licence   MIT
 */

namespace TestApplication\Controllers;

use Spiral\Core\Controller;

/**
 * Class DefaultController
 *
 * @package TestApplication\Controllers
 */
class DefaultController extends Controller
{
    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function helloAction(): string
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Minority rights advocates slammed the city government's decision, accusing it of giving in to right-wing nationalists. Parade organizers remained defiant, insisting they will gather somewhere.
The governor of Istanbul banned a gay pride parade scheduled for Sunday, citing concerns about the "security of citizens and tourists" and "public order" after an ultra-nationalist group threatened the march with violence.
It will be the second year in a row that the city's LBGT march, previously described as the largest in the Muslim world, has been blocked by city officials.
Last week, the ultra-nationalist Alperen Hearths group threatened to prevent the parade if the authorities didn't stop it. In response to that threat officials canceled the march.
Parade organizers slammed the government's decision saying it was effectively legitimizing threats posed by hate groups, and called on the governor to reverse its decision.
The governor's emphasis on public safety and order distorted the image of a planned peaceful march, they said in an online statement headlined: "We are Marching, Get Used to It. We are Here, Not Going Away."
Organizers said they planned to gather in the city center Sunday despite the ban, insisting they had a right to a "peaceful gathering."
Amnesty International's Turkey expert Andrew Gardner said the government was using the "same tired, empty excuse" to ban a demonstration. Instead, he said, the government should offer security for the event so that it can go ahead.
Organizers said they may avoid Taksim Square, where widespread anti-government protests in 2013 were crushed by security forces. It has also been the site of periodic clashes between demonstrators and police in recent years.
Istanbul's gay pride parade has typically been a peaceful event, and the city has long been seen as a safe haven for members of the gay community across the Middle East.
In 2015, police broke up the parade with tear gas and a water cannon after organizers said they were refused permission because it coincided with the holy month of Ramadan.
Homosexuality isn't a crime in Turkey, unlike many other Muslim countries, but homophobia remains widespread. Critics accuse President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party of showing little interest in expanding minority rights and being intolerant of dissent.
Turkey has been under a state of emergency since a failed coup attempt last July. The measure gives Erdogan's government sweeping powers, including allowing local authorities to ban demonstrations.
This year's planned parade coincides with the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Istanbul's gay pride parades took place without incident for more than a decade - until police broke up the march in 2015. Turkey is comprised of an almost entirely Muslim population but is officially a secular state.
Organizers of a gay pride parade in Istanbul had said they would go ahead with a march despite a ban. But using tear gas and rubber bullets, police prevented large numbers of people from gathering together.
International rights groups criticized the case as emblematic of deteriorating press freedom in Turkey. Cumhuriyet is one of the newspapers critical of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


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This is one of those cases where a hosta has been known for a number of years under one name but evidence arises that it was named something else at an earlier date. That earlier name takes precedence when it comes to plant names.
From the Field Guide to Hostas by Mark Zilis (2014), this cultivar was "registered as the cultivar 'On Stage' in 1986 by Paul Aden...but 'Chōkō Nishiki' is now recognized as the correct name."
This slow growing sport of H. montana (Mount Fuji-type) was originated in Japan and registered by Mark Zilis of Illinois and The American Hosta Society in 2012. It is a large size plant about 22 inches high with a spread of around 48 inches. The leaves medium green with a yellow medial (center) variegation which has some streaks in it. They have thick substance and are moderately wavy, slightly corrugated and dull on top. Pale lavender, tubular flowers with lighter lavender margins bloom in July.
The foliage on this plant emerges golden yellow in the center but turns green by mid-summer. It emerges 2 or 3 weeks later in the spring than forms of H. montana that come from other areas of Japan. This may help them to avoid damage by late season frosts like other types from this species.
According to The Hostapedia by Mark Zilis (2009), "...one of the last cultivars to emerge in spring, making it less susceptible to frost in southern growing areas. It has been marketed in the U.S. under the name 'On Stage'."
The 2013 Registrations report of The American Hosta Society stated: "The 2012 report credited "Asami" as the originator of H. 'On Stage", with a note that 'On Stage' is the same hosta as 'Chōkō Nishiki'. Originator of 'Chōkō Nishiki' was possibly thought to be Mr. Hisatoyo Asami of Tokyo, a long-time member of The American Hosta Society. An inquiry to Mr. Hisatoyo Asami determined that though he purchased the hosta around 1980, he was not its discoverer or originator. Furthermore, Mr. Asami does not know who named it."
"H. 'Chōkō Nishiki' (2012) – This was registered with the following provenance and typographic error: Hisatoyo Asami (ON), Goetmba Nursery (I), M. Zilis, AHS (R). Further research has disclosed that the provenance should be: unknown (ON), Gotemba Nursery (I), M. Zilis, AHS (R)."


text:
Dream over for Fakenham's Lucy Francis-Litton
Published: 8:30 PM May 31, 2011
The dream is over for Fakenham's Lucy Francis-Litton after she failed to secure a place in the finals of Britain's Got Talent tonight.
Mrs Francis-Litton, 34, performed live before millions of people on the ITV1 show with the group Enchantment.
The 12-strong group of multi-skilled performers presented a choreographed show which incorporated skating, dancing, acrobatics, gymnastics, aerial circus and live opera singing, and she had the role of an aerialist.
Mrs Francis-Litton, who used to work in The Limes Hotel, Drifters fish and chip shop and News Kilp newspaper shop, all in Fakenham, came through three auditions with Enchantment to reach this week's live semi-finals.
Judge Simon Cowell said on the show: 'It was like watching The Magic Roundabout. I just don't get this at all.'
But it was a remarkable achievement for Mrs Francis-Litton to reach this stage of the competition.
The professional circus performer broke her neck in a horrific accident on a trampoline during rehearsals in 2002 and came through a traumatic operation where she was at risk of being paralysed from the neck down for the rest of her life.
Mrs Francis-Litton, who now lives in London but is regularly back in Fakenham visiting family, said last week: 'I find it surreal to be here doing this now, after what's happened to me. When I talk about it, it feels like I'm talking about someone else.'
Norfolk's singing sensation Ronan Parke secured a place in the final with a performance of Adele's Make You Feel My Love on Monday night.


text:
module web3Demo {

    export class HttpInterceptor {

        constructor() {
            return {
                request: (config: ng.IRequestConfig) => {
                    var url: String = config.url;
                    if (url.match(/\/web3-demo\/rest\/personservice\/person\?id=[0-9]+/)) {
                        console.debug("HttpInterceptor: intercepting " + config.method + " request to " + config.url);
                        config.url = "/mock" + url;
                        console.debug("HttpInterceptor: redirecting to", config.url);
                    }
                    return config;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    angular.module("web3Demo").factory("httpInterceptor", () => new HttpInterceptor())
        .config(["$httpProvider", ($httpProvider : ng.IHttpProvider) => {
            $httpProvider.interceptors.push("httpInterceptor");
        }]);
}


Civil society organisations welcomed significant outcomes of the Human Rights Council's 40th session, including the consensus adoption of a resolution on environmental human rights defenders, continued Council scrutiny over Sri Lanka, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Iran, as well as initiation of Council action on Nicaragua and several joint statements on Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and Cameroon.
Twelve leading human rights organisations* welcomed significant Council outcomes at the 40th session such as a strong consensus resolution recognising the critical role of environmental human rights defenders in protecting vital ecosystems, addressing climate change, attaining the sustainable development goals, and the continued and increased scrutiny by the Council over a range of situations of rights violations across the globe. The organisations also expressed their concerns over the Council's failure to hold the Philipines, Egypt, Libya and China accountable and urged States to take action at upcoming Council sessions.
We welcome the positive step the Council has taken in the direction to effectively protect environmental human rights defenders (EHRDs) from the grave reality they face every day. By adopting the resolution by consensus, the Council has collectively and explicitly recognised the vital role of EHRDs, including in attaining the SDGs sustainable development goals and ensuring that no-one is left behind, and called for their protection. We also welcome the call on States to provide a safe and empowering context for initiatives organised by young people and children to defend human rights relating to the environment. We, however, regret that the resolution does not squarely address the obligations of international financial institutions and investors.
While we welcome the extension of Council attention on Sri Lanka for another two years, a concrete, transparent, and time-bound action plan is urgently needed to implement its commitments under resolution 30/1 in collaboration with OHCHR. Given the lack of progress and political will to implement these commitments, in the absence of immediate progress, the Council should consider additional measures or mechanisms for ensuring victims' rights to truth, justice and reparations. Individual States need not wait to exercise universal jurisdiction.
We welcome the resolution on Myanmar and its strong focus on ending impunity and ensuring accountability, and we call for the swift operationalisation of the Independent Investigative Mechanism (IIM). We welcome steps taken to review the UN's involvement in Myanmar. We urge the UN Secretary-General to ensure that it is independent and transparent, and present the findings and recommendations at the Council's 43rd session.
We regret that States have yet again failed to initiate Council action on the Philippines amidst continued unlawful killings in the government's so-called war on drugs, and increased targeting of independent media, civil society organisations, and human rights defenders. We reiterate our call on the Council to take action to mandate an independent investigation to establish the facts of human rights violations including extrajudicial executions and attacks against media and civil society, address impunity, and take steps towards justice and reparations for the victims and their families, and hope action will be taken in this regard at the next Council session.
*Statement delivered by Salma El Hosseiny of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) on behalf of: Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), CIVICUS (World Alliance for Citizen Participation), DefendDefenders (East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project), Center for Reproductive Rights, Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), and ISHR.


text:
Reflections on the BSR Member Spotlight Series: A Conversation with BSR Vice President Laura Gitman
Laura Gitman, Chief Operating Officer, BSR
Follow @h@LauraGitman
Eva Dienel, Expert Contributor
#BSR Member,
Over the past several months, the BSR blog has featured a series of Q&As with leaders from BSR member companies who shared insights and stories about how they came to the roles they are in now, their company's sustainability priorities, and how their business works to achieve those goals.
As this series comes to a close, I spoke with BSR Vice President Laura Gitman, who oversees BSR's global membership strategy. Gitman began her career as a strategy consultant with Deloitte and moved on to work in various roles in sustainable development in Latin America because she wanted to have more of a direct impact on the world's challenges. She has spent the past 11 years in a variety of roles at BSR, and she also teaches in the Bard M.B.A. in Sustainability program so that she can "shape the next generation of leaders across different functions to think with a sustainability perspective."
Gitman discussed the insights she took away from this series and how these themes relate to her work as global head of BSR's membership. She also shared her thoughts on the biggest changes she has seen in more than a decade working in sustainable business.
Eva Dienel: Tell us about your role at BSR and your vision for BSR's global member network.
Laura Gitman: Membership is at the core of everything we do at BSR. We work with companies in a wide variety of different ways—from one-on-one consulting to collaborative initiatives to research and events—and membership is an important platform for sharing that work and expanding our impact as an organization.
When I think about the value of BSR membership—and what I really want companies to take away from their experience with BSR—I divide it into three categories.
The first is access to expertise: I want our members to use BSR as a resource to stay on top of emerging issues and trends and also to gain practical expertise on different topics, whether it's human rights, climate change, supply chain sustainability, or something else entirely. Our expertise also includes deep knowledge on particular industry approaches, coupled with a blend of global and regional perspectives. I want our member companies to benefit from our investment and expertise in all these areas.
The second area I like to emphasize is collaboration, which is a fundamental part of the BSR member experience. Having been in the field for more than a decade at an organization that is coming up on its 25-year anniversary, I can say that most of the really sticky sustainability challenges and opportunities will be solved through collaboration. As a membership organization, BSR has a unique role in fostering that change. Over the past three years, we've doubled the number of members who participate in our collaborative initiatives, and we now have more than half our membership participating in at least one collaboration.
These collaborative platforms cut across sectors and give companies the chance to share and learn from each other. The approach of the groups varies depending on the focus. It could be a group coming together to collaborate and learn, as it is with our Human Rights Working Group, or it could be a group collaborating to create a standard or establish a shared vision, like our Future of Internet Power initiative, which has set a bold goal to power the internet with 100 percent renewable power.
The final area of focus is about networking: For us, it's really important that companies learn from one another and that it's not just a bi-directional membership where companies only work with and learn from BSR. To facilitate networking, we have our annual BSR Conference, and we also hold dozens of smaller events around the world, as well as webinars to allow for virtual networking.
Dienel: In this series, I spoke with leaders from 11 of BSR's global member companies representing a diversity of regions and sectors. What were some of the insights you took away from this blog series in terms of how global companies are focusing on sustainability today?
Gitman: It was interesting for me to discover that despite the variety of sectors, geographies, and sustainability challenges and opportunities, there were some very common themes that came across in these interviews.
For me, four main themes came across:
Companies are making more ambitious, longer-term goals. Goals are bolder, bigger, and more forward-looking. From almost everyone, we heard about goals that are 10 or 15 years out. Salesforce wants to power all of its operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. At Hitachi, the goal is about continuous improvement. Stora Enso's Noel Morrin, who is one of the pioneers in sustainable business, captured the notion that is driving this focus on long-term thinking: "Sustainability is about intergenerational change."
Companies are integrating sustainability into their core business. One of the most striking examples of this came from Telenor, which embedded sustainability so deeply into its core operations that the company's corporate mission is to empower society. For some companies, integration is about getting more executives and the CEO on board, and for others it's about making sustainability business as usual for every employee. Marks & Spencer's Mike Barry talked about business integration "so that sustainability happens automatically when we build a new store or factory." At AXA, where CSR was once perceived as just a reporting function, it is now so well integrated that the company's annual corporate responsibility week engages 50,000 employees. Other companies are also integrating sustainability by including more external stakeholders into the decision-making process. Engie's Alexandre Brailowsky spoke about the company's goal to have 100 percent of its industrial activities covered by a professional mechanism of stakeholder engagement.
Companies are pursuing large-scale collaborations to partner for change. As I noted before, collaboration is an important facet of BSR member value, and it's exciting to hear that more companies value collaboration as well—whether it's collaboration with industry members, government, NGOs and civil society, or other stakeholders. Facebook, which is a member of BSR's Future of Internet Power Collaborative Initiative, is sharing data center designs that allow for more efficient computing. As Bill Weihl put it, this collaboration is about "getting together to figure out the obstacles that make it hard for companies and defining what we can do to tear down those obstacles." Another example is AT&T, which has established three very specific goals that all involve engaging with groups outside of the company's operations. As John Schulz put it, "In the past, our goals were mostly internal-oriented." Now, he says, "By starting with our network and employees, and engaging our supply chain, our customers, and our communities, we can achieve savings that are much bigger than by just focusing internally."
Companies are trying to understand how they can create value, not just reduce impacts. Companies are starting to look beyond what they can do to reduce impacts in their own operations to instead focus on how they can contribute to society in a positive way. This is leading to some exciting innovation. For instance, at SABIC, Gretchen Govoni talked about how the company is analyzing greenhouse gas data to identify the biggest opportunities for sustainability. In doing this, SABIC discovered that the company could use the carbon-dioxide emissions from one facility as feedstock for another, so they created the world's largest carbon-dioxide purification and utilization project. Companies are also integrating this focus on value creation into big goals: By 2025, Dow plans to deliver US$1 billion in value through projects that are good for business and good for ecosystems.
Dienel: How do these themes reflect what you are seeing in your work at BSR?
Gitman: These themes directly relate to what we're seeing in our work across BSR. The first, about setting more ambitious goals, hits so close to home that we've made it the theme for this year's BSR Conference: "Be Bold."
We have seen the other themes come into play as well. Working individually with companies, I have noticed that the level of sophistication has increased greatly in my decade at BSR. Today, we're working with almost every different business function, from strategy, to procurement, to human resources, to marketing, to operations, to product, and beyond. This speaks to the themes around integration into core business and also the opportunity companies see around creating business and societal value through sustainability.
Collaboration is another big thing we see in our work—there's a real need and also an opportunity to make more progress through collaboration. This is always what BSR has been about; it's what I like to call BSR's secret sauce. It's where we really drive systems change.
Dienel: You have been at BSR for 11 years and currently lead BSR's global membership strategy and services. How have you seen companies' approach to sustainability evolve over the years?
Gitman: I have seen it evolve in a few ways. When I started, there was a lot more of a focus on: Why is this important? How do I make the case? Now, we're past that. Questions today are really more about the how: How do we do this and really drive impactful change? How do we take a sharper eye to the fact that we have been doing a lot of things for 10 years and they haven't had the impact we have wanted? How can we be more innovative and really focus on progress we want to achieve?
The second shift I have seen is that the focus has moved from what companies are doing within their four walls to what they are doing outside their four walls, and whom they need to work with to get there—customers, competitors, governments, NGOs. Companies are taking a much broader approach.
The last big change is that there's now a greater focus on materiality. Companies used to take an "everything but the kitchen sink" approach. They felt they needed to respond to every single issue. Now there's a much greater understanding and also acceptance of the fact that companies can't do everything, and they really should focus on where they can have the most impact. Prioritizing is critical, and it has enabled companies to drive greater progress.
Dienel: What are you most excited about in your work with member companies?
Gitman: What I think is really exciting about BSR is that we provide a hands-on, personal approach to supporting member companies, and we also have a universal approach to the member experience, with touch points across regions, functions, industries, and issues. So even though BSR is just one organization, companies really get a lot from their relationship with us. At the same time, we gain a lot by working with such a diverse set of companies across so many issues, sectors, and geographies because we can share what we learn across our entire member network. And that creates a huge potential for progress.
Laura is a global expert on corporate sustainability, with two decades of experience in strategy consulting and has advised senior executives at global companies across a range of industry sectors and sustainability issues. Laura has also been a leader in BSR's organizational growth and impact. She launched BSR's financial services practice and New York office, and she is currently the Chief Operating Officer,… Read More
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How Do We Measure the Impact of Our Membership?
More than 250 companies in nearly 30 countries, spanning 10 industry sectors, representing more than US$2.6 trillion in revenue and more than 15 million employees: This is how we scale our impact at a global level.
Our Theory of Change: The Rationale Behind BSR's Open Membership Policy
We believe in working with business to truly create a more just and sustainable world. We can't do that if we only work with the small percentage of companies who are already 100 percent committed.
Top 10 Reasons to Be a BSR Member
Why is it that more than 250 of the world's largest and most influential companies have chosen to work with us to build a better world? These are the top 10 reasons that we hear from members the most.
BSR Member Spotlight: Alice Steenland, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer, AXA
We spoke with French insurance company AXA's chief corporate responsibility officer about how the company is applying its risk-analysis and trends-forecasting expertise to empower people to live better lives.
BSR Member Spotlight: Mai Oldgard, Senior Vice President, Head of Sustainability, Telenor Group
Telenor's Mai Oldgard spoke to us about the telecommunications company's approach to sustainability and how this has been applied in Myanmar and Pakistan, specifically.
BSR Member Spotlight: Yuri Itoh, Senior Manager, CSR, Hitachi, Ltd.
Hitachi, Ltd.'s sustainability lead spoke to BSR about human rights, integrating environmental and social issues into the core business, and why engaging with management is key to success.
BSR Member Spotlight: Noel Morrin, Executive Vice President for Sustainability, Stora Enso
We spoke with the executive vice president for sustainability at Stora Enso about the importance of "learning by doing" and the company's focus on ambitious, long-term goals.
BSR Member Spotlight: Gretchen Govoni, Corporate Sustainability Director, SABIC
SABIC's corporate sustainability director spoke to us about the company's investment in sustainable product development and other sustainability priorities for the year.
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Amanda is my cousin, but she feels like a sister to me. We grew up taking a couple of trips together but mostly going to Clemson games together. We love to cheer our tigers on together and just being in Clemson in general. Amanda and I have a lot in common and she is so creative. Every Christmas Amanda makes a gift for our family and I love seeing the different ideas she comes up with. Christmas is her favorite holiday, especially when she finds that one gift that people don't expect but love. We both went to Clemson. Amanda's final year was my first year, so she really took me under her wing and taught me how to take care of myself and how to handle the stress load of college classes. She graduated from Clemson with a Civil Engineering degree and moved to Atlanta for work. This past fall she took and passed the PE exam. Love you more.
Kerri and I met in Chemistry 101 at Clemson and we became fast friends. We both lived in Manning, she lived on the 7th floor and I was on the 3rd. As we made our way through freshman year, we talked about living together and looked at many apartments. Eventually we found the perfect apartment for us, Tiger Towne Village 310 Orange Court. Kerri and I lived there for two years before Kerri headed to PC. We had so much fun in 310. We cooked all sorts of chicken dishes and baked goods. We watched everything on TV together from dance moms to movies; every Thursday night was Grey's Anatomy night in the living room. My experiences at Clemson would not have been the same with out Kerri. Kerri got her bachelor's degree from Clemson University for Pre-Pharmacy. After three years at Clemson, Kerri went to Presbyterian College for Pharmacy school. She is currently completing her degree at PC.
Elizabeth and I first met at Clemson, where we lived on the same hall. We are both from Columbia, SC and knew some of the same people. Freshman year we would get together to binge watch Criminal Minds and Dog the Bounty Hunter. We spent many nights walking, talking, or going to Sardis or IHOP. I was even lucky enough to be there when she first met Thomas, her husband, and when they went on their first date. While our schedules are much busier now, we still find time to catch up. Elizabeth graduated from Clemson University with a bachelor's degree in Packaging Sciences and she and her husband Thomas live in Greenwood, SC.
From Lauren: I met Brynne through Ken and Tyler. She has this amazing personality, she lights up the room and just enjoys being with the people she loves. Brynne was always considered one of the guys because she could always keep up with and joke right along with them. I loved Brynne from the moment I met her, she has a big heart and she is very smart. Whenever Brynne is around, she is sure to keep people laughing and having a great time. I love getting to catch up with her whenever she is in SC.
From Ken: Brynne and I were neighbors at University Village. She lived in the duplex behind mine and would come over all the time to eat Tyler's candy and watch TV with us. She would help us prank her roommates which included saran wrapping their toilets, putting glitter on top of their ceiling fans, and hard-boiling their eggs. Brynne became a close confidant and friend for me over the years. She and her boyfriend Felipe recently made the move to Philadelphia, but both agree they want to get back to the south soon.
Olivia and I met when Kerri and I were first looking for a third roommate for 310 Orange Court. Olivia was going into her final semester at Clemson and needed a place to live. Coincidentally, Kerri and I were looking for a roommate. We met up in good ole Schilletter Dining Hall on chili night where they ran out of spoons. How does a dining hall run out of spoons? It was a big deal. After solving the spoon fiasco, we got to talking and laughing and immediately hit it off. Olivia has this huge personality which is so beautiful. She is always smiling and laughing, and will make sure you are too. Olivia, Kerri, and I would watch Dance Moms and laugh at how crazy everyone was. It was very sad when she graduated in December and left us with an empty room in 310 Orange Court. We have stayed close friends, even with her living in Ohio and she tries to make it down to at least one Clemson game a year. Olivia earned her bachelor's degree in Psychology from Clemson University and then went on to grad school in Ohio at Wright State University.
Meghan and I met through her boyfriend, Davis. Davis and I met in organic chemistry my sophomore year at Clemson. Meghan would come to Clemson to spend weekends with Davis and we would get together for games. Mine and Davis's last year at Clemson, Meghan moved to Clemson where I got to know her much better. Meghan is funny, sweet, caring, and smart. After Davis graduated from Clemson, Meghan and Davis moved to Ohio for Davis's job. Meghan has worked very hard to get where she is; she works as a vet-tech while going to school for business-marketing. She and Davis would like to get back down south somewhere once his contract is up.
Jess and I met indirectly through Ken. Jess was in Tiger Band while she was at Clemson, which is how she knows Ken and most of the guys. Jess generously offered up her one bedroom apartment to us for sleeping before football games. It was at that point that I really got to know Jess and we became close friends. She has a huge heart, is smart, outgoing, and athletic. Jess loves crossfit and rugby as well as watching football. After graduating from Clemson, she attended the Medical University of South Carolina and is currently a Doctor of Physical Therapy in Seneca, South Carolina.
Mary-Catherine is my cousin who has five older brothers. She is nine years old and tends to keep up with all those brothers while still loving girl colors and American Girl Dolls. The day she was born I swore she would be a flower girl in my wedding, and that time has come. I cannot wait to continue to watch her grow. She is a gorgeous young girl and I could not be happier to have her be my flower girl.
Lela is my second-cousin and currently an only child. She is five years old and loves her disney princesses, especially Queen Elsa. Lela is a happy, sweet, loving, and smart little girl. Her mother was the flower girl in my parents' wedding in 1989, so I definitely wanted to have Lela be the flower girl in my wedding. She is a beautiful little girl and I can't wait to watch her grow through the years.
I first met Zac in February of 1990. Zac was always into sports and tried to get me interested in them, but considering I have the hand-eye coordination of a blind cat, it was not effective. Our sibling rivalry was pretty typical growing up (the cops where only called once). Zac was influential in getting me interested in music and particularly marching band. Zac went to college at The New England Conservatory of Music, and is now the Bass Trombonist in the Naval Band in Washington, DC. I had the privilege of being the best man in his wedding to Noelle Drewes in 2009. They are currently happily married, living in Bowie, MD.
John and I have been lifelong friends. His family has a lake house a few doors down from where ours was at Conneaut Lake, PA. We would spend summers boating, sailing, and hanging out in the lake. John lives in Nashville, TN and is a student at MTSU.
Steve and I have been friends since first grade at Ingomar Elementary School, in Pittsburgh, PA. Our friendship grew as we continued through schools, and our families are longtime friends. Over the summers our families would spend time at the lake house in Conneaut Lake, PA. Steve and I were in marching band together in high school and got to go on some really cool trips. Steve went to Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA, and is now an elementary school teacher in the Washington DC, area. This year he is in the process of going through training to join the Air Force Reserve.
Chris and I met in Tiger Band at Clemson, and were both political science majors. We share similar interests in great dive BBQ spots, Jimmy Buffett, and boating. If only he wasn't a Baltimore Ravens fan! Chris went on to the University of Georgia Law School and is now practicing real estate law in Greenville, SC.
I met Tyler in Tiger Band and lived with him at University Village for two years. Tyler is constantly coming up with random stuff to do and you will never be bored around him. After graduating from Clemson with a degree in Graphic Communications, he moved to Tyler, Texas, where he bought his home and built a gun range. He has a completely orange and purple garage and has built the "UV 112A Bar" where he watches all of the Clemson games.
I met Tim through Cheese in Tiger Band. Tim, Tyler, and I, would hang out and binge watch Rescue Me or whatever NFL game we could find. We even went down to New Orleans one spring break to stay with his family and hit up the French Quarter. Between the two of us, we can make a mean gumbo. Tim got his Masters in Accounting at Clemson and is currently a CPA in Greenville, SC.
From Ken: Andrew is Lauren's younger brother and a good friend. He is quick-witted, sarcastic, funny, and definitely would be the person you would want on your trivia team for anything pop-culture related. He hopes to go to culinary school and has aspirations to open a bakery one day.
From Lauren: Andrew and I grew up like most brothers and sisters, constantly fighting and driving each other crazy, out of love of course. Andrew would give these little brother hugs where he would squeeze me as hard as he could just for fun, it was his way of showing his love. When Andrew was in High School, he got his growth spurt and quickly passed me landing at about 6 foot 5 inches; since then everyone thinks he is my older brother. Andrew always has my back and looks out for as much as possible and vice versa. Though he may drive me crazy, I wouldn't change anything about Andrew, I love him exactly the way he is, annoyance and all. A brother and sister's love may be strange but can never be broken.
From Ken: I met TJ through Lauren and her family. "Teej" was a quiet kid when he first came to Clemson but quickly developed into one of the group and is a lot of fun to hang out with. TJ is a hard worker and in addition to classes, he is working his way through school. TJ is a pre-veterinarian major at Clemson and plans going on to graduate school and becoming a veterinarian.
From Lauren: I have known TJ for basically his entire life. Our families were both a part of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Columbia, SC. TJ and I went to elementary school together and were in the Children's Choir. Together we sang in New Orleans, New York City, and Disney World. Over the years, I have watched TJ grow up from a soccer playing, smart, talented kid to the amazing man he is today. He joined the farmhouse fraternity and works part-time at a vet clinic while managing his class work for a pre-vet degree. TJ is graduating from Clemson in May 2016.
Mike and I met through mutual friends from Tiger Band. He loves it when I point out that he was never in school when I was. Mike lived in Winston-Salem when I moved to Greensboro after graduation, having gone to Wake Forest University for graduate school. He and I started getting together to watch Clemson games. Eventually, Mike purchased a house in Winston-Salem and offered to rent out a room to me. We have now been roommates for close to two years. Mike works in the Training Department at Truliant Federal Credit Union.
Michael "Cheese" Cheatham and I met in Tiger Band when we decided to spend our spring break in the tropical paradise that is Buffalo, NY, for the NCAA Basketball Tournament. We also share the same birthday, which made for a very entertaining 21st birthday party. Michael lives in Greenville, SC and is an engineer with GE.
I met Corry in Tiger Band, and he was also roommates with Chris, and unfortunately, is also a Ravens fan. Corry and his better half, Christy, are a ton of fun to hang out with and are great friends for both Lauren and me. Corry went to Dental School at the University of Maryland at Baltimore and he and Christy currently live in Ocean Pines, MD. However, they have plans to get back to the Carolinas in the near future.


text:
B.C. government quietly posts response to expert fracking report
Province avoids investigation of human health impacts of fracking, despite independent scientific review warning of unknown risks to air and water
June 28, 2019 5 min. read
A fracking well head connected to fracking pumps. B.C.'s northeast is going to see a fracking boom to support the LNG Canada natural gas export terminal. Photo: Shutterstock
The B.C. government has quietly released its response to an independent scientific panel's report on hydraulic fracturing as it ushers in a fracking boom to supply the LNG Canada project with unconventional gas.
Notably absent from the government's news release — posted on its website Thursday but strangely not sent out to media — is any commitment to investigate the human health impacts of fracking in the province's northeast.
The issue was flagged by Dawson Creek doctors as a potential cause for concern after they saw patients with symptoms they could not explain, including nosebleeds, respiratory illnesses and rare cancers, as well as a surprising number of glioblastomas, a malignant brain cancer.
The independent scientific review did not include an examination of the public health implications of fracking, in keeping with the government's quiet assurance to the industry lobby group Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers that the hot button issue would not be included in the panel's mandate.
Even so, the panel found that fracking entails numerous unknown risks to human health and the environment.
Panel members cautioned the severity of those risks is unknown due to a lack of data, noting they were not aware of any health-related studies being conducted in northeast B.C., which is already covered with thousands of fracking wells, including in the middle of communities and on farmland.
'Highly toxic compounds'
B.C. Green Party environment critic Sonia Furstenau pointed out that other jurisdictions around the world have identified human health impacts as a reason for banning fracking.
"We know that the mix of chemicals being used and being pumped into the ground include highly toxic compounds and we should absolutely be determining what any impacts are to human health," Furstenau told The Narwhal.
"There's no way these kinds of things should be proceeding without that information."
The government's decision to proceed with fracking and liquefied natural gas development is "deeply troubling," Furstenau said.
B.C. Green Party environment critic Sonia Furstenau.
The fracked gas will be shipped through TransCanada's new Coastal GasLink pipeline to Kitimat, where it will be cooled in massive compressors to minus 162 degrees Celsius, the point at which gas turns into liquid and becomes easier to transport in ocean tankers. LNG Canada will burn its own natural gas for the energy-intensive compression process, resulting in substantial greenhouse gas pollution.
The LNG Canada project will emit 3.45 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, according to the provincial government, which promised the cleanest LNG in the world even though claims of "clean LNG" have been thoroughly debunked.
The project's emissions will represent more than one-quarter of B.C.'s legislated targets for carbon pollution in 2050, set at about 13 megatonnes a year.
"This should alarm all British Columbians," Furstenau said, pointing out that climate change is already causing drought and forest fires across the province, including in the northeast.
On June 18, the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission ordered cutbacks to water diversions at northeast oil and gas operations due to drought. That follows a statement to the expert panel from a commission representative that the past 10 years in the northeast have been drier than usual, at a time that fracking operations are using substantial amounts of water.
"The government doesn't seem to want to address the fundamental problem at the centre of this," Furstenau said.
"They've not only approved but massively subsidized an LNG industry that will require a massive increase to fracking in northeast B.C. — and a massive increase to the amount of water that would go into those fracking operations."
"You cannot make sense of what the evidence and the data is showing and the response and decisions from government. It's like they are operating in entirely different universes."
Furstenau said the government "continues to try to justify a project that will increase emissions, as well as risk contaminating community drinking water, and endangering human health."
The expert scientific panel found that baseline data and the ongoing monitoring of surface water and groundwater quantity in the northeast was insufficient.
"In the view of the B.C. ministry of health expert who presented to the panel, current water quality sampling (i.e. the private wells study) is not being carried out to screen for potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing fluids and wastewater on drinking water," the panel concluded.
Close to 100 unauthorized dams used to impound water for fracking operations have been identified in B.C. All have been built on private lands within the Agricultural Land Reserve. This photo shows a dam near the Pine River in Farmington, B.C. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal
Expert panel flagged leaking fracking ponds as cause for concern
The panel also found a "profound absence of knowledge" about the presence and migration of fracking fluids — a proprietary mix of chemicals — below the ground.
Dissolved arsenic was found to be the main health-based constituent of concern, with about 30 per cent of samples exceeding the maximum allowable concentration guideline. The panel noted that higher arsenic levels could potentially occur in unfiltered groundwater.
The panel also categorized the potential for leaks from fracking containment ponds as "moderate to high," based on the fact that two of four decommissioned ponds were found to have leaked.
Following the panel's report, The Narwhal revealed that a large fracking pond nearly 400 kilometres north of Fort St. John is leaking. The pond is filled with 113,000 cubic metres of sludge and water that may be contaminating soil and groundwater through a leak in its outer lining, according to the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.
The pond was owned by Ranch Energy Corporation, a Calgary-based company that went into receivership last year leaving 700 gas wells in B.C. and a sea of debt. Ranch was one of three fracking companies operating in B.C. that went belly-up last year, with taxpayers ultimately on the hook for clean-up costs that far exceed an oil and gas commission fund.
About 60 per cent of the gas for the LNG facility will come from new fracking in B.C.'s northeast — a boreal region rich in biodiversity that is home to endangered woodland caribou and many other species vulnerable to extinction.
B.C. government says it will map aquifers and observe groundwater
In its uncirculated news release, the B.C. government says it will install new groundwater observation wells near Fort Nelson, complete mapping of 55 aquifers and install hydrometric monitoring systems to gather information about surface water in collaboration with First Nations.
The government also says it will implement an outreach and education initiative for affected landowners and fracking dam owners in the northeast and map zones "that are likely to experience greater ground motion from seismic events."
Furstenau noted the expert panel's report warned of serious regulatory infractions, water contamination and a lack of information, oversight and monitoring, all of which "make it nearly impossible to evaluate the current state of our water and air quality."
"It's too risky," she said.
The government news release said a working group has been established to address the panel's 97 recommendations.
Working group members include staff from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission, the ministry of energy, mines and petroleum resources, the ministry of environment and climate change strategy and the ministry of forests, lands, natural resource operations and rural development.
The working group will provide Energy Minister Michelle Mungall with an update by the end of this year.
Banner: A fracking well head connected to fracking pumps. B.C.'s northeast is going to see a fracking boom to support the LNG Canada natural gas export terminal. Photo: Shutterstock
We hear it time and time again:
"These are the stories that need to be told and you are some of the only ones telling them," John, a new member of The Narwhal, wrote in to say.
Investigating stories others aren't. Diving deep to find solutions to the climate crisis. Sending journalists to report from remote locations for days and sometimes weeks on end. These are the core tenets of what we do here at The Narwhal. It's also the kind of work that takes time and resources to pull off.
That might sound obvious, but it's far from reality in many shrinking and cash-strapped Canadian newsrooms. So what's The Narwhal's secret sauce? Thousands of members like John who support our non-profit, ad-free journalism by giving whatever they can afford each month (or year).
But here's the thing: just two per cent of The Narwhal's readers step up to keep our stories free for all to read. Will you join the two per cent and become a member of The Narwhal today?
Sarah Cox
Sarah Cox is an award-winning journalist and author based in Victoria, B.C. She has been covering energy and environmental politic...
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text:
package com.alibaba.druid.bvt.sql.oracle;

import junit.framework.TestCase;

import com.alibaba.druid.sql.dialect.oracle.parser.OracleLexer;
import com.alibaba.druid.sql.parser.Token;

public class OracleLexerTest extends TestCase {

    public void test_hint() throws Exception {
        String sql = "SELECT /*+FIRST_ROWS*/ * FROM T WHERE F1 = ? ORDER BY F2";
        OracleLexer lexer = new OracleLexer(sql);
        for (;;) {
            lexer.nextToken();
            Token tok = lexer.token();

            switch (tok) {
                case IDENTIFIER:
                    System.out.println(tok.name() + "\t\t" + lexer.stringVal());
                    break;
                case HINT:
                    System.out.println(tok.name() + "\t\t\t" + lexer.stringVal());
                    break;
                default:
                    System.out.println(tok.name() + "\t\t\t" + tok.name);
                    break;
            }

            if (tok == Token.EOF) {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}