Boat Ed, a leading provider of boating safety education courses in print and through boat-ed.com, is proud to sponsor the 55th annual National Association of State Boating Law Administrators conference. This year's conference will be held Oct. 16-19 in Bar Harbor, Maine.
The NASBLA conference provides continued education opportunities, annual business endeavors, workshops, and roundtable events for state recreational boating safety professionals.
The high-quality education standards created by NASBLA allow the more than 76 million American boaters to safely enjoy recreational boating. The annual conference brings together boating law administrators, professional educators, law enforcement officers and volunteers.
This year's conference will include a focus on leadership, children's programming, field sobriety testing, use of Remotely Operated Vehicles in underwater investigations, sonar, whitewater rafting, and other informational sessions and special guest speakers.


Margaretta Lammot Belin, wife of Henry Belin Jr., holds a special place in the history of the Waverly Community House. As the opening quote from historian Alfred Twining would suggest, Mrs. Belin was affectionately beloved by community members in the Abington area due to her generosity and kind spirit. Her philanthropic nature prompted her to establish the Waverly Community House, not only to memorialize her late husband, but to also bestow a gift to the community she cherished immeasurably. This gift continues to benefit the public today in a multitude of ways through camps, classes, events, and various other programs designed to engage local residents.
Margaretta Belin's spirit lives on through various establishments in the local area; she will especially remain significant at the Waverly Community House due to her enormous contribution of not only a memorial building, but a community vision that has continued to thrive for nearly a century.


text:
Catch! (The Spinoff does not advocate throwing beers, dark or otherwise)
Do not fear the dark side – drink it
Alice Neville | Deputy editor
Fill the void of those long, lonely winter nights with a dark beer – there's one out there for you, we promise.
There's no denying that these are dark times, friends – both symbolically and literally. Yes, the world has gone to hell in a handcart, but more pressingly, it's winter. It's cold. Even the usually tropical paradise of Ponsonby plummeted to 6°C the other morning.
My point being, now is not a time for bright and breezy pilsners, golden goses or sunny saisons. It is a time to stay home and hide in a corner with a dark beer – a beer that will make you feel like everything is going to be OK.
"Oh, but I don't like dark beers," I hear some of you whining. Rubbish. There are myriad styles available, many of which have little in common other than their deep, dark, delightfully depressing hue, so there's sure to be one worth a try.
You'll likely be familiar with stouts – the most famous of which is Guinness – and porters. These days, the difference between the two is negligible, but originally stouts were stronger versions of porters. Today, stouts tend to be darker and more roasty-tasting than their smoother porter siblings.
Within the stout and porter categories are multiple sub-categories, such as oatmeal stout, where oats are added during the brewing process to create a smooth, full-bodied beer. Panhead's Blacktop Oat Stout, which the Dietary Requirements crew enjoyed during the recording of our inaugural podcast, is a fine example of this style.
Another sub-category is the imperial stout, allegedly so named because back in the 18th century, English brewers exported this beer to the court of the Empress of Russia, Catherine II. What you need to know about imperial stouts is they are strong – usually with an ABV in excess of 9% – so go easy, you hear? The 8 Wired iStout is a classic Kiwi rendition.
Closely related to the imperial stout is the Baltic porter, basically the result of brewers in the Baltic regions trying their hand at recreating the imperial stout and using lager yeast instead of ale yeast. These days, they are generally less roasty-tasting than imperial stouts, but still strong AF. Garage Project and Sawmill do good Kiwi versions.
Milk stouts are brewed with lactose, a sugar derived from milk, which makes them a touch on the sweet side. Many brewers accentuate this by adding chocolate, coffee and the like, such as in Behemoth's Triple Chocolate Milk Stout (the tagline is "just like a chocolate milkshake only beery") and 8 Wired's Flat White Coffee Milk Stout. Or, if you're Garage Project, cornflakes – their Cereal Milk Stout tastes like the "sweet remnants of the breakfast bowl". Delicious.
Luke White, director of beer subscription service Beer Jerk, says for the uninitiated, these dessert-style beers can be a great introduction to the dark side. Kererū's Imperial Nibs Porter, made with cacao nibs, vanilla and coconut toasted over mānuka wood and bark, is another tasty (and dangerously drinkable for 8.5%) example.
There are many, many more variations on the porter and stout styles that don't fit neatly into the aforementioned sub-categories, but one of the aims of this story is to prove there are dark beers beyond them, so carry on we must.
Which brings me to schwarzbier, a German style of black lager that's a very approachable introduction to dark beers. "It's a perfect balance when you want something refreshing but also full of flavour and not too heavy," says White. He's particularly fond of Black Monk by Hawke's Bay brewery Zeelandt, and Night Caller from Colab Brewing.
The black IPA is another non-stouty style that's a personal favourite of mine. It may sound like an oxymoron — the P in IPA, of course, stands for pale – and boringly literal types have taken issue with the name, so in the States they're often known as American black ales or Cascadian dark ales (something to do with the Cascade Mountains in western North America, apparently).
But despite perhaps not technically making sense, it totally does – these beers combine the resiny, fruity flavours of the hop-forward IPAs we know and love with a base of malty roastiness and a deep, dark hue.
Basically they're hoppy, but they're black. Brilliant, right?
Despite their deliciousness, the apparent demise of the black IPA was reported by American magazine All About Beer last year and, perhaps tellingly, not too many New Zealand breweries have them in their core ranges. But Croucher makes Moonride, Lakeman the Badonkadonk and Wanaka-based B.Effect has the C-Bomb, and through Beer Jerk I was recently introduced to the Cascade Chaos, a very nice black IPA by a small Wellington brewery called JuiceHead. 8 Wired does the slightly funky brettanomyces-fermented Wireless black IPA, and I look forward to trying the newly released Mr. Wow!, a black Belgium IPA from Dunedin brewery New New New.
There's also the now-legendary-in-beer-circles Pot Kettle Black by Yeastie Boys, which, despite being called a South Pacific porter on its label, shares many characteristics with the black IPA. This hoppy number "balances the delectable dark malt flavours of a traditional porter with the fruity hop characteristics usually associated with modern craft pale ales", says White. "It's an excellent introduction to dark beers for anyone who's still a bit unsure. A gateway porter, if you will."
But before you charge on through that gateway to the dark side, here's a final tip. New Zealanders tend to like their beers icy cold, but try to resist the urge, particularly with dark beers. Aim for between 7°C and 12°C (your fridge is probably somewhere between 2°C and 5°C), or even warmer for stronger beers.
The Spinoff's Beverage content is brought to you by Fine Wine Delivery Co. They're completely and utterly devoted to good taste, whether it's wine, food, craft beer, whisky, rum… They firmly believe that eating and drinking well is an essential part of a life well lived, and that it's possible on almost any budget. You just have to know where to look… Their website is a great place to start, or if you're in Auckland, come into either of their purple SuperStores at 42 Lunn Ave, Mt Wellington, or 60 Constellation Drive, North Shore.
Ethnography of a Ranfurly Man, a story about man and beer
Madison Hamill
Sorry, winosaurs: your reign is crumbling
Jules van Costello
Beervana: a different kind of beer festival, viewed nine ways
Duncan Greive
Partner content- November 14, 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Brooksie At The Movies
Essays and Research
Australians In The Movies >
The Making of 'The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell' (1916)
The Mystery of 'Those Terrible Twins' (1925)
Yvonne Banvard - The Mack Sennett Girl Who Wasn't
Australians at the Movies >
The 1916 Film Diary
Rudolph Valentino: An Unlikely Australian Idol
Australia and 'The Birth of a Nation' (1915)
Miscellaneous Musings >
'Titanic' and Silent Film
Silent Film, Psychology And The Quest For 'Inner Space'
Seeing Double: Twins in SIlent Film
Festival and Film Reviews
Cinecon Classic Film Festival >
San Francisco Silent Film Festival >
Australia's Silent Film Festival >
Buster Keaton's 'The General' 90th Anniversary >
The General - Location Tour Part I
The General - Location Tour Part 2
Buster Keaton's 'The General'
90th Anniversary Location Tour - Part 1
On the weekend of 12-13 August 2016, I was lucky enough to visit Cottage Grove, Oregon for its celebration of the 90th anniversary of The General(1926), and to join the Cottage Grove Historical Society in a tour of the filming locations.
Cottage Grove is a lovely little town. Despite the proliferation of big-box stores and fast food restaurants on its outskirts, you can still get a good sense of what it was like when Buster rolled into town. The town's pride in their part in film history is palpable, and rightly so.
During filming, Buster and his major cast and crew stayed at the former Bartel's Hotel, now known as the Cottage Grove Hotel, which boasts not only a Buster's Cafe but a mural of the town's favourite comedian.
On Friday, the Cottage Grove Historical Society, in conjunction with theDamfinos, the International Buster Keaton Society, hosted a screening of Keaton rarities and oddities, the most interesting of which was the Educational short Grand Slam Opera (1936) and the most curious of which was Roaring Rails, a bizarre four-reel cutdown of The Genera lthat seems to have been prepared for the 16mm home rental market, with minimal regard for pacing, continuity, or comedy.
Saturday morning was spent listening to a number of interesting presentations. Larry Telles of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Niles, California spoke about the pioneering Australian-born thrill serial director, J.P. McGowan, and his leading stunt-lady, Helen Gibson. Cottage Grove resident Pat Patterson recounted his life as the son of a Fox publicist of the late silent era and later as a child actor who counted the likes of Shirley Temple amongst his friends. Buster's nephew, Harry 'Jingles Jr' Keaton, shared his photos and recollections of growing up in the Keaton household.
Armed with copies of John Bengston's invaluable book Silent Echoes, a busload of fans joined the Cottage Grove Historical Society's Lloyd Williams on a tour of filming locations, exhibitions and other sites relevant to Buster's stay in Cottage Grove.
To get an idea of the context for the photos I've posted, I recommend a visit to John Bengston's excellent website, which has a dedicated page on The General's locations.
It doesn't look like much today, but this is probably the most significant of all of The General's filming locations. The majority of the travelling train shots were filmed on a short stretch of double track that once existed here. What seemed to be a long journey across Southern lines and back again was actually the same stretch of track, seen over and over again. The Safeway now obscures Hansen Butte, the distinctive land formation that appears behind Buster in so many travelling shots.
This street posed as two locations in The General - firstly the town of Marietta, Georgia, and later that of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Both were created using standing sets that were torn down after filming.
The Cottage Grove Historical Society's Lloyd Williams stands between the one-time location of the two train tracks. The first, on which the camera train travelled in most cases, is marked by the old red train carriage in the background.
The second picture looks east down the other train track, which has since been turned into a bike path. The Union camp sequence - one of the few times in the movie where you do see both train tracks in use - was filmed in the park to the left of here. In the distance, you can see the Cottage Grove Hotel. Virtually all of the film was shot within walking distance of where Buster was staying.
The third picture shows westward-facing view of the former main rail line, with the position of the secondary spur shown by the red caboose on the far left. This view, or something like it, would have been seen by Buster dozens of times as the General progressed back and forth down the line.
Most Buster Keaton fans know that baseball was his favourite leisure activity. When he was in Cottage Grove, he frequently played here, at Kelly Field.
< BACK TO INTRODUCTION
The General Location Tour - Part 2 >


text:
Wendy McDonald
Wendy McDonald lives in Bay Saint Louis, graduated from Bay High School and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from USM and a PhD in Higher Education from the University of Texas. She taught college marketing and business classes and was Dean of Arts and Technology at a Houston community college. After Katrina she moved back and founded Habitat for Humanity Bay Waveland area. McDonald served on the Bay St. Louis city council from 2009-2017. She served as council president twice and was the council liaison to the engineers and architects for the municipal harbor.
List of Calendars to Check first of month and mid-month
The Shoofly Facebook Page. Look under events. We'll be co-hosting several events with some of our sponsors. Check to make sure they're all listed. Some, like Pass Books, gallery shows and occasional Bodega gigs will need to go on Upcoming.
Hancock Chamber: https://hancockcomscoc.weblinkconnect.com/events
Hancock Tourism: https://playonthebay.org/festivals-events/
Silver Slipper: Beach Bar and Stage Bar. They usually post entertainment around the end of one month for the upcoming one. Most of the time, we'll already have the photos of the bands in our calendar library, do a search first! https://silverslipper-ms.com/entertainment/
Hollywood Casino: https://www.hollywoodgulfcoast.com/entertainment
Seacoast Echo calendar: https://www.seacoastecho.com/calendar/ Not usually much there, but also check their home page. They'll run stories on stuff that no one contacts us about. Makes me crazy.
100 Men Hall Calendar: https://www.the100menhall.com/pages/calendar
Pass Books Upcoming Events: https://www.passbooksonline.com/upcoming-events
Hancock Library System: https://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/calendar.php?crd=hclscalendar& They're supposed to be submitting their own events to our calendar, but rarely do.
Facebook: go to "Events" and enter Bay St. Louis as the city of location (afterward, Waveland and Diamondhead too). Hit "This Week" first and then "Next Week."
Check RSVP calendar in their monthly newsletter when applicable. Also Friends of the Animal Shelter Newsletter, they rarely submit events.
Go to Jeremy Burke's Shoofly column and see what's up in Waveland.
Facebook pages / websites to check weekly or more
CASA of Hancock County https://www.facebook.com/CASAhancockcounty
The Sea Coast Echo
Hancock County Library System
Calendar Manager Weekly Checklist
Upcoming Events Updates: Sun., Monday or Tuesday (LATEST!)
Choose the most important five or six from the list you made on previous Thursday when working on Calendar and add them to Upcoming.
Remove or move past events.
Check calendar only to approve submitted events.
Save up any events you come across that belong on calendar for Thursday.
Calendar Updates: Wednesday or Thursday night (latest):
Check your list of links above for events to add
add submitted events
make list of events that will be added to Upcoming next week and beyond (keep a running list, you'll add five or six a week normally, take off five or six, Xmas is the exception, it gets crazy).
Add only EMERGENCY events we missed for the upcoming weekend to Upcoming page.
Delete any repeating events that are scheduled for holidays. Check to see if they've been moved.


Did you know that adults have special needs as learners? When we were kids, we went to school, and we sat through class every day, and our teachers taught everyone pretty much the same way. It didn't really matter if you were a visual learner, or an auditory learner, or a kinesthetic learner. The teacher pretty much did whatever she/he felt most comfortable doing. Times have changed, and teachers are more aware of learning styles now, and other issues that affect children's learning.
But the principles of adult learning are still pretty new to most people. If you're a speaker, and you're doing any kind of education or training with the groups you're speaking to, this applies to you.
Over the next week or so, I'll talk about a different principle each day. I'll be back later with today's post!


The following is a letter I sent to each county commissioner.
I am writing to express my disappointment (well actually my anger) at the increased hesitation over proceeding to establish a Leon County Children's Services Council. The only concern I truly understand is over making sure it passes, so as NOT to deprive the underserved children of Leon County of the support they need. In reality it is not only the children who need the services the CSC would provide. Our community at large will reap huge benefits when these children become adults.
The state of Florida uses 3rdgrade literacy rates to predict the number of prison cells that will be needed in the future. Texas uses 4thgrade literacy rates. A CSC that invests in a combination of early childhood education, literacy programs and mental health will impact the crime rate in Leon County. Further, the benefits will go far beyond reducing crime. Businesses will benefit from an increased population that can provide workers and customers. Our economic system will both save money (less folks put in prison) as well as be more productive.
There is a slew of evidence/research that covers many aspects of the benefits of the CSC. Perhaps most significant is the need to increase the self confidence and vocabulary levels of children by the time they are 3 years old. Brains are about 90% developed by the time a child is 3 years old. While development continues through adolescence, indeed until about 25 years old, the need to have positive programs for children 0 to 5 is obvious and will have the greatest impact on improving the adult population of the next generation. A University of Chicago research program from 2016 gives the details on many of the benefits from improved early childhood learning programs.
Enough about details. There are professionals in our community who are better able than me to inform you on the research done that addressing both needs and programmatic solutions. In truth, the opposition mostly has nothing to do with either details or concern it will not pass. Rather, the opposition to the CSC is fearful it WILL pass.
Are very shortsighted in their assessment of what will truly benefit the community in the long run verses the short run.
Are mostly concerned about giving up some money in increased taxes.
Are opposed to any government program that is perceived as adding to "big government."Some prefer to have it as part of the commission's budget/agenda.
As stated above, the research on the long term benefits is clear. Providing necessary services especially to children 0 to 5 will bring the benefits to our community as stated above.
The half mil increase translates to just an increase of $50 of tax per every $100 thousand of property ownership. A person with a half million dollar house will pay $250. This is affordable at every level especially when considering the long term improvements to the general community. In addition, we have just received a tax decrease on the federal government level, and if we are honest, we must admit Florida is one of the lowest taxing states in the country. Property owners can afford this with no problem.
This is not creating big government. This is a local decision that has to be renewed by voters. Further, having children's services be part of the commission's budget and decision making every year, puts them at the mercy of political lobbying as opposed to assessment by professionals who know how to address the needs and have a built in cash flow to do so. While I do not oppose programs for elderly or veterans, children's needs are the only ones that truly affect the future of the community. They should NOT be at the yearly disposal of a group of county politicians. The result might be the ending of programs that need a number of years to change the path of children, due to the pressure of folks lobbying for other needs or a budget difficulty. All of this is why the independence of a CSC is actually critical.
You will hear from all those who are opposing the CSC that they care about children. Here is the reality. If you truly care about children, your focus should be on how to best get this done, not to find excuses to not pursue a CSC. If you are concerned about the complexity of this fall's ballot, put it on the primary ballot or declare a path to have it voted on for sure ASAP after this fall's election.
I will be very blunt. If you do not find a way to create an independent council that provides needs for underserved children; which will in turn create numerous long term benefits for our community, then do NOT say you care about children. Your words will be as meaningless as people who offer "prayers and thoughts" as their only response to school shootings.


Eight-time Grammy award-winning crooner Usher is plotting his next move. He's decided to list his Spanish themed contemporary home situated just a block off Hollywood's Sunset Strip. This is approximately 1.5 miles from Justin Timberlake's Condo, previously featured. Notably, he acquired the property a less than two years ago for a tidy sum of $3.3 million. At present, the 4,261 square-foot home is listed for $4.2 million.
Known as one of the most successful pop stars with a net worth of more than $200 million, Justin Timberlake and his actress wife Jessica Biel has recently put their Soho penthouse on the market for $8 million. This beautiful 2,600-square foot penthouse in Soho, Los Angeles has been Justin Timberlake's home since 2010, when he picked it up for $6.56 million.


text:
Home > Contact Centre
"They are kind, nice and funny! I really like them." – Contact child feedback
In society, Many Families become separated, which leads to challenges regarding co – parenting and child contact. In 2019 we will have been providing child contact services for 24 years in Portsmouth.
We provide a safe and neutral environment in Portsmouth for children to see their non-resident family members. We are a child-focused neutral service, which puts the needs of the children first. Contact Centres can be useful as a facility for maintaining contact between the child and non–resident family member whilst a longer term solution is established.
The Child Contact Centre is a place where children living with one parent can meet the parent they do not live with in a safe comfortable environment. Research tells us that children have better outcomes when they have contact with their non-resident parent.
Contact Workers incorporate the role of contact support workers where requested and the aim is to encourage a deeper relationship between the child and the contact parent by aiding communication around the child's interests therefore reducing stress and conflict.
The Child Contact Centre is run by a team of trained staff and volunteers whose primary role is to help parents make sure their child's contact experience is positive.
The most important people in the Child Contact Centre are the children.
We are an Accredited member of the National Association of Child Contact Centres.
*Please note that we do not give verbal or written reports or feedback. Any child protection concerns will be referred to the Social Services in accordance with our Child Protection Policy.
Child Contact Service Annual Report
The Roberts Centre Child Contact Service continues to be an Enhanced Accredited Contact Centre with the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC). We provide safe contact in Portsmouth in order to introduce or re-introduce contact between children and their non-resident parents or other family members.
Every weekend we deliver supported contact to families in Portsmouth. There is a one-off referral fee for supported contact and then access to this service is free to families for as long as they need it. We provided 156 sessions of Supported contact during 2017/18 for 107 families.
Supervised Child contact provides closely supervised, individual family contact sessions. In 2017/18 we provided child contact to 48 families in our venue in Portsmouth.
Our Contact Centre offers a range of services including supervised, supported, preparation for direct and in-direct contact and handovers
"You have been brilliant. Always so polite and welcoming and are always thinking what is best for my child and she is very happy going to the centre."
"The staff at supported make you feel really welcome and are willing to help and provide you with anything you ask, and they make great tea."
"A big heartfelt thank you for making our supervised contact fun, enjoyable and special and for being non-judgmental through a very difficult time for me."
"Thank you so much for your support, it's taken 4 years but we've finally done it and moving on, thank you again."
For more Information Call: 02392 296919 and ask to talk to the Contact Team.


text:
CULT FILM CONFERENCE
FILM KONCERT by KHAVN
EXHIBITION GILLES VRANCKX
TRAS EL CRISTAL EN
TRAS EL CRISTAL
Klaus is a former Nazi doctor who conducted fatal experiments on young boys during the war. After escaping to Spain, he continued to perpetrate his atrocious crimes. But a failed suicide attempt left him paralysed and confined to an iron lung inside a mansion which he shares with his wife Griselda and their daughter. One day, a mysterious young man Angelo appears at their door to offer his services as a nurse.
Agustí Villaronga's astonishing directorial debut is a dark and disturbing descent into the horrors and parallels of fascism, forbidden sexual fantasy and sexual violence.
"It is unique – Tras el cristal obsessively charts a taboo considered by many to be just too offensive to serve as subject matter for a film. As if this were not enough, the story also examines the fetishistic allure of the Nazi period. The result is a perilous knot of desire and hate, explored with a dexterity which, in a couple of instances, skates to the edge of the pornographic – without losing sight of the dangers and responsibilities inherent in such extreme material. /…/ Tras el cristal deserves serious consideration as a film which explores a very difficult subject indeed, and succeeds in remaining within the bounds of responsible intelligence. Far from a cheap thrill for the sick and perverted, it surely joins Pasolini's Salò as a work of dark, troubling brilliance."
– Stephen Thrower, Eyeball
"In a Glass Cage explores the dialectic relationship between executioner and victim in an ambivalent tale of lust, death and transcendence. /…/ It is inspired by Georges Bataille's account of the historical child murderer Gilles de Rais, along with the writings of Marquis de Sade, blended with a totalitarian vision that links the film to Pier Paolo Pasolini's Fascism parable, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom."
– Marcus Stiglegger, 100 European Horror Films
"Agustí Villaronga is another resistance-based filmmaker. His In a Glass Cage is both a morbid fable about the corruption of innocence and an allegory about Nazi atrocities, as well as an exemplary exercise in transgression."
– Manuel Yáñez-Murillo, Film Comment
"A master filmmaker! A bizarre, haunting and violently disturbing film!"
– Judy Stone, The San Francisco Chronicle
"A nightmarish masterpiece! The most impressive directorial debut of the decade!"
– Elliot Stein, The Village Voice
13. 4. / 21:00 / SLOVENIAN CINEMATHEQUE
IN A GLASS CAGE
Spain, 1986, 35mm, 1.85, colour, 107', English subtitles
directed by Agustí Villaronga
written by Agustí Villaronga
cinematography Jaume Peracaula
editing Raúl Román
music Javier Navarrete
cast Günter Meisner, Marisa Paredes, David Sust, Gisèle Echevarría
produced by Teresa Enrich
silspok	2019-02-25T14:13:11+00:00
THE BALLAD OF THE TRUMPET AND THE CLOUD
HANDS OF STEEL
IL TUO VIZIO È UNA STANZA CHIUSA E SOLO IO NE HO LA CHIAVE EN
DER FAN EN
ILSA – HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS EN
WITCHFINDER GENERAL EN
LA DONNA SCIMMIA EN
FREAKS – EN
DRUŠTVO KURJA POLT
© Kurja polt 2014


text:
Hank, the CASA Volunteer
Hank greets everyone with a big, welcoming smile and sparkling blue eyes. His presence is comforting, and that is especially important because Hank is a CASA volunteer who speaks on behalf of children living in the foster care system.
Children living in foster care have experienced traumatizing abuse or neglect. A comforting, consistent, caring adult, like Hank with a bright smile and a big heart, is just what these children need at what could be the saddest time of their young lives.
When you listen to CASA Hank talk about the two girls, ages five and seven, and their nine-year-old brother who he advocates for, you hear how much he genuinely cares about their welfare.
You can hear the excitement in Hank's voice when he talks about the boy, who we will call Jack, and all the potential he sees in him. The first time Hank met Jack at his school, Hank says, "He met me with a big grin and immediately interacted with me. It was a very gratifying experience."
Hank and Jack formed their first connection over baseball, discussing the great Hank Aaron during one of his visits. On the next visit Hank says, "This little boy was so excited to tell me all about how Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's home run record." He is such an impressive and engaging little boy. "We can only hope the system we have can do right by him," said Hank.
Jack's two little sisters, who we will call Molly and Kristen, have also touched Hank's heart. They live in a different foster placement from their brother, as often happens when multiple siblings are removed from their home.
In spite of the trauma the younger Molly has experienced, "she is still a typical five-year-old, excited as she runs to show me her latest craft or coloring project," said Hank. However, Hank's eyes sadden a bit when he recounts a conversation with seven-year-old Kristen. "When I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to tell the judge, she answered, 'Tell the judge that I don't want to be a foster kid anymore, tell him I want to go home,'" Hank said.
While Hank stays focused on the children, the case still involves the adults as well, including foster, biological, and adoptive parents. The challenges facing many of the adults in the children's lives sometimes compound the trauma that the children have already experienced – their mom disappears for two months, then returns; their dad is not initially in the picture; the foster parents were not interested in adoption, and then later wanted to adopt. It is easy to see how the children's voices can get lost in the process. Even when Hank was certain that the children were finally going to realize their "forever adoptive home," the case took a different path as the children's father, now in a stable home and relationship, stepped in to bring his children home.
When Hank met them at their family court hearing, he could not help but notice a close and affectionate relationship between dad and son. You could see that "Jack was proud of his dad," said Hank.
For Hank, because regardless of each family circumstance, "As a CASA," Hank says, "even though I may be conflicted at times…I give the court my observations and let the judge take it from there. In this case, there is a dad who loves his kids and the kids want to go home."
Hank's role as a CASA has changed his view of the child welfare system. It has also been both a spiritual and analytical journey for him. After years as a member of a hospital board, "It was time for me to have more personal contact. I wanted to be a positive person (making a difference) on an individual level," Hank said.
CASA advocates bring so many skills and personality traits to their role. As Hank spoke about his case, it was easy to see how important every one of these traits are to be CASA. For Hank, he will continue to advocate for the best interest of Jack, Molly and Kristen…watching over them, hopeful that their journey will have a happy ending – that is what being a CASA is all about: making a difference, one child at a time.


text:
package net.sourceforge.pmd.symboltable;

import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;

import net.sourceforge.pmd.PMD;
import net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.java.ast.ASTMethodDeclaration;
import net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.java.symboltable.MethodScope;
import net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.java.symboltable.NameOccurrence;
import net.sourceforge.pmd.lang.java.symboltable.VariableNameDeclaration;

import org.junit.Test;

public class MethodScopeTest extends STBBaseTst {

    @Test
    public void testMethodParameterOccurrenceRecorded() {
        parseCode(TEST1);
        Map m = acu.findDescendantsOfType(ASTMethodDeclaration.class).get(0).getScope().getVariableDeclarations();
        VariableNameDeclaration vnd = (VariableNameDeclaration) m.keySet().iterator().next();
        assertEquals("bar", vnd.getImage());
        List occs = (List) m.get(vnd);
        NameOccurrence occ = (NameOccurrence) occs.get(0);
        assertEquals(3, occ.getLocation().getBeginLine());
    }

    @Test
    public void testMethodName() {
        parseCode(TEST1);
        ASTMethodDeclaration meth = acu.findDescendantsOfType(ASTMethodDeclaration.class).get(0);
        MethodScope ms = (MethodScope) meth.getScope();
        assertEquals(ms.getName(), "foo");
    }

    @Test
    public void testGenerics() {
        parseCode(TEST_GENERICS);
    }

    public static final String TEST1 =
            "public class Foo {" + PMD.EOL +
            " void foo(int bar) {" + PMD.EOL +
            "  bar = 2;" + PMD.EOL +
            " }" + PMD.EOL +
            "}";

    private static final String TEST_GENERICS =
        "public class Tree {" + PMD.EOL +
        "  private List<Object> subForest;" + PMD.EOL +
        "  public <B> Tree<B> fmap(final F<B> f) { return Tree.<B>foo(); }" + PMD.EOL +
        "  public List<Object> subForest() { return null; }" + PMD.EOL +
        "}" + PMD.EOL;

    public static junit.framework.Test suite() {
        return new junit.framework.JUnit4TestAdapter(MethodScopeTest.class);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We are a fast-growing, research-driven company building an artificial intelligence that helps online publishers overcome the challenges they face every day. Using novel machine learning techniques, we are revolutionising the publishing industry and have a track record of building things that others have ruled out as impossible. Leading names from around the world rely on our product every day, including Le Monde, Le Figaro, Radio France and The Guardian.


Relax and unwind in the Anita cap sleeve long nightie in a beautiful flower print with cap sleeves and pleated bodice trim and front opening buttons. Wonderful for wearing on those hot summer days and nights. Clementine designs are made for those relaxed moments at home.


Wes Ellis: Be yourself… as long as you keep it a secret.
Be yourself… as long as you keep it a secret.
Before I came home from school for Christmas break I was invited to a Christmas party. It was more like a Christmas shindig actually, very few people were going to be there. But it ended up getting cancelled.
It was my friend Ty and his wife Julie who were putting on the get-together. Ty is the Youth Pastor at our church up in L.A. and thought nothing of having a Christmas party with some friends where they could be themselves without students around. Every Youth Pastor needs time away from students if only to keep their sanity. He was very careful to keep his get-together as a personal thing—not to represent the church or a church function. On the flyers was printed something like "bring your own dessert and adult beverage." Being well aware that some of the people in the church might not approve of drinking, he kept it ambiguous and was very careful about who heard about the event, not that he should have had anything to worry about. There is nothing in the church faith-statement that condemns responsible drinking and there are plenty of people in the church who are totally fine with having a few drinks here and there.
Though Ty shouldn't have had anything to worry about, unfortunately someone else in the church disagreed. Ty got a call that very morning from a "higher-up" telling him that it was not ok to have a Christmas shindig with alcohol and that he needed to cancel the party. Thus it was cancelled.
What kind of message does this send out? It communicates that church is not a safe place for people to be themselves. It not a safe place to talk about drinking. Rather than teaching people moderation, we condemn it altogether. No wonder there are so many people who go to church on Sunday and have a drinking problem during the week. No wonder there are so many people who have double-lives within the church. Church has become a place that is only safe for perfect people (not that drinking makes someone imperfect). Church has sought to protect its safety so much that we avoid the danger of honesty. We do not talk about anything that might make people think less of us—which includes even the most trivial of tasks, such as getting together with some friends to have a drink or two—let alone our sins. And when we do finally talk about our sins, we make sure to use ambiguous language so as not to be so specific that people will actually know too much about us. What if church became a place where we had the freedom to be ourselves out in the open? If we really don't think that drinking is a sin (and I'm sure there are some who will say that it is) then why can't our Youth Pastors do it in their own time? Church will never be a genuine place until we are open and honest. And true growth comes only out of genuine experiences.
Very interesting post... I have some thoughts on this subject that would probably not go down easily with my denomination, so I'll keep them to myself for now.
Instead, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your break from the rigors of school and enjoy the gift of the Babe in the manger.
Well, since you asked about my thoughts on your post, I will tell you.
There are three camps in the church when it comes to this issue. The largest camp is made up of the folks who thing the floor will open and you will fall straight to hell if you imbibe. This is by far the largest camp.
The second camp is made up of those folks who feel that, not only is it OK to imbibe, it is a right to do so. This camp is sometime the most militant.
I am generally in the third camp. This camp generally finds no Biblical prohibition against drinking, yet they themselves do not imbibe. Nor do they take issue with those Christians who do.
For me, it comes down to this. Why would I do something that can be so divisive and be so easily misunderstood or misinterpreted by someone in the church?
The problem is how to hold that view without letting judgementalism and feelings of Holy superiority take over in my heart.
good thoughts! Thanks. I agree with you (though I can't say that I don't drink every once in a while). I think it's important that the first group doesn't dominate so much that people have to pretend in order to be accepted at church.
"There are three camps in the church when it comes to this issue. The largest camp is made up of the folks who thing the floor will open and you will fall straight to hell if you imbibe. This is by far the largest camp."
Maybe so in the Church in the US (or some3 Churches in the US?). But certainly not in the UK.
I would gess here the 2nd group is the clear majority but I have almost never seen anything approaching militancy about it. The nearest thing to militancy (although that vastly overstates it) would be a few Anglicans who believe Methodist Communion is illegal (and I confess I have never understood the use of the world legal and illegal in regard to worship/communion) as it does not use alcoholic wine (UK Methodist practice is to non-alcoholic communion wine, alcohol is not permitted on Methodist Church premises). Mind you the same Anglicans are likely to be unhappy with the status of the ordination of the Methodist Presbyter (and much of the time unhappy about their gender too) so wine is not the only issue here.
Anyway it should have been enough to say that I cannot imagine this happening in any mainstream denomination in the UK.


text:
Displaying items by tag: Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan Claims It Downed Armenian Helicopter in Self Defense
By Bakhtiyar Aslanov (12/10/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On November 12, 2014, the Press Service of the Ministry of Defense in Azerbaijan made the following statement regarding the shooting down of a helicopter over Nagorno-Karabakh: "the military aviation of the enemy side has been doing provocative flights and maneuvers during the latest military trainings, implemented by the Military Forces of the Republic of Armenia within the last 3 days in the front-line between Azerbaijan and Armenia. After continuous and intensified maneuvers over our positions and posts; two military helicopters tried to attack our positions in the airspace controlled by the military of Azerbaijan. Two MI-24 helicopters owned by the Military Forces of the Republic of Armenia again tried to attack our posts at 13:45 on November 12, 2014. As a response, Air Forces of Azerbaijan shot down one of those armed helicopter, 1,700 meters northeast of Kangarli village in Agdam. The remains of the helicopter fell 500 meters from the front-line." Armenian officials responded that the helicopter belongs to the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership, not Armenia.
The next day, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense made another statement, claiming that the Mi-24 combat helicopter belonged to the Erebuni military aerodrome close to Erevan. The dead crew members, mayor Sergey Sahakyan, senior lieutenant Sargis Nazaryan and lieutenant Azat Sahakyan are officers of the Armenian Air Force. Although denied by Armenia, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense listed the names and released detailed background information on the officers.
Emphasizing the presidents' meeting in Paris initiated by the French President Francois Hollande on October 27, 2014, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated on November 12 that Armenia embarked on large-scale military exercises in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and had continuously been violating the cease-fire along the line of contact. Hence, Azerbaijan's MFA claims that Armenia alone carries all responsibility for the re-escalation of the conflict. An MFA spokesperson stated that by shooting down a helicopter that violated Azerbaijan's internationally recognized airspace, Baku does not violate any liability of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan both reacted quickly to the incident. Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan immediately visited Nagorno-Karabakh and spoke in front of the soldiers on November 13. Although he used very special words targeted to the local audience, Sargsyan underlined that a re-escalation of the conflict into war will not happen. Ilham Aliyev also visited a military camp in Shamkir on November 15, and while seeming very confident and satisfied when congratulating the soldiers, he avoided using overtly inflammatory language.
In Basel, Switzerland, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov and French Secretary of State for European Affairs Harlem Désir, expressed their concerns over violations of the cease-fire in 2014 during a meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council. They emphasized that the violations of the cease-fire in July and August caused several causalities; enhanced the tension and deepened mutual distrust between the parties. On December 4, the aforementioned diplomats signed a joint statement, noting that "there is no military solution to the conflict. We call on both sides to restrain from using violence and work on the concrete peaceful solution of the conflict".
Hikmat Hajiyev, a spokesperson for Azerbaijan's MFA, commented on the statement that the military trainings of Armenian forces with huge numbers of personnel and military equipment and their provocative maneuvers along the line of contact after the meetings of the presidents in Sochi and Paris caused the downing of the helicopter. Regarding the call from the Minsk Group Co-Chairs to speed up negotiations for a peace agreement, Hajiyev reiterated Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov's statement on Baku's readiness to work on the Broader Peace Agreement supported by the co-chairs after the meeting in Paris.
Officials in Yerevan have claimed that their military forces were able to claim the bodies of the dead soldiers in the helicopter incident after shooting two Azerbaijani soldiers. According to the PanArmenian news agency, the three officers were buried at St. Sargis Church in Yerevan on November 24. However, Baku has denied this information and states that Azerbaijani soldiers protect the area where the remains of the helicopter are located.
Armenia and Azerbaijan cancelled an expected meeting of the two countries' Foreign Ministers in Basel after the incident. "We regret that the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia were unable to meet at OSCE … Dialogue is a necessary part of the peace process" the U.S. Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, James Warlick wrote on his Twitter page on December 8.
Published in Field Reports
Renewed Tensions Follow Armenian-Azerbaijani Talks in Paris
By Erik Davtyan (12/10/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On October 26-28, Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan paid a working visit to Paris at French President Francois Hollande's invitation. At the Paris Marine Palace, the Armenian and French presidents discussed a broad range of issues concerning on the Armenian-French agenda and contemporary regional and international challenges. Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process, Sargsyan stressed that Armenia has always supported a resolution of the conflict exclusively through peaceful negotiations and noted that he highly appreciates the OSCE Minks Group's efforts targeted at pushing the negotiation process forward and establishing lasting peace and stability in the region. The most important part of the working visit was Sargsyan's meeting with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. After the Sochi and Newport talks in August and September respectively, this was the third regular meeting organized at the level of heads of states.
On October 27, Sargsyan and Aliyev held talks with the participation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs (Igor Popov, James Warlick, and Pierre Andrieu) and the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Anjey Kasperchik, followed by a private conversation between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents. The participants attached great importance to continuing dialogue within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship and confidence-building efforts in order to make progress in peaceful negotiations, and stressed that no alternative existed to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. The parties arranged to proceed with high-level negotiations.
The high-level meeting attained various interpretations in Armenia. Armenia's minister of foreign affairs emphasized the official viewpoint on the Sargsyan-Aliyev talks. During a briefing with journalists Edward Nalbandian described the meeting as "useful, sincere and constructive." The foreign minister said that "there was an opportunity to touch upon a number of regional and international issues which showed that the approaches of Armenia and Azerbaijan on some issues can be close to each other," adding that the two states took "a small step toward bringing the positions of the two sides a little bit closer." The head of the Armenian National Congress party's committee on foreign relations, Vladimir Karapetyan, believes that the meeting itself was a positive step. The fact that the co-chairs display activity, he says, proves that the international community pays attention to the region and the conflict, and that Azerbaijan sees no alternative but the talks.
According to Davit Ishkhanyan, representing the "Armenian Revolutionary Federation" party, the deadlock in the negotiation process may have negative impact, therefore "each meeting should be regarded as a guarantee for the preservation of peace." Taking into account the fact that Sargsyan and Aliyev had tête-à-tête talks (unlike during the Sochi and Newport meetings), Ishkhanyan thinks the Paris meeting was progressive for the format of the negotiation process, rather than for its essence. The Armenian daily Zhoghovurd shared the view that the parties anticipated meeting in Paris in advance, since Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the U.S. Secretary of State had each initiated trilateral meetings with Sargsyan and Aliyev before, so this meeting was to be organized by France, the third member state of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship.
Presenting his opinion to Tert.am, politologist Ruben Mehrabyan believes that the Paris meeting was a good opportunity to reach midterm results in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict regulation process. The most important implication of these meetings, according to Mehrabyan, was the fact that they took place "outside the Russian platform." Another politologist, Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, does not have any expectations from the meeting as "the meetings between heads of the two states generally depend on the internal and external problems of other states." Clarifying his viewpoint, Melik-Shahnazaryan says the activation of high-level meetings is not stipulated by the regulation of the conflict, but by the interests of the states that organize those meetings.
The Nagorno-Karabakh issue remained one of the most debated themes in November due to the Mi-24 helicopter that Armenia claims belonged to the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities, which was shot down by the Azerbaijani armed forces during what Armenia alleges was a training flight on November 12. The downing of a helicopter was a unique incident that has not occurred since the cease-fire in 1994. The chair of the Standing Committee on Defense, National Security and Internal Affairs of Armenia's National Assembly, Koryun Nahapetyan, described the incident as "unprecedented" and the "rudest violation of the cease-fire." According to the head of the Social Democrat Hnchakyan Party's central office, Hakob Tigranyan, "the downing of the helicopter was nothing more than an invitation to war," hence "any negotiations with Aliyev are pointless after this crime."
In an interview to Armenianow.com, analyst Stepan Safaryan says the incident will have an extremely negative impact on the conflict regulation process and that its consequences may even be unprecedented. Safaryan underlined that "the results of the meetings between presidents are now nullified." Moreover, Sargis Asatryan, a specialist on Azerbaijani studies, believes that "the downing was a desperate step which may be directly connected to national, social and religious problems that exist in Azerbaijan." Armenia's Ombudsman Karen Andreasyan instead emphasized the humanitarian side of the incident. He says the regular violation of the cease-fire has disabled medical aid to the staff of the helicopter for nearly 8 days, which is "completely against the norms of international humanitarian law."
Azerbaijanis in Syria
By Mina Muradova (11/26/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Azerbaijani media have reported that a national wrestling champion was killed while fighting for the Islamic State (IS) militant group. News about Azerbaijani citizens – mostly young men – traveling to Syria to join militant groups are increasing. Observers believe that this trend underscores an emerging security threat to the secular Azerbaijan.
The wrestler, Rashad Bakhshaliyev, from the Ismailli district in northern Azerbaijan, appeared to lead a successful life before his sudden departure for Syria in August, taking his wife and child with him. He won various wresting competitions in Azerbaijan and before leaving for Syria worked as a freestyle wrestling coach in Ismailli's Olympic complex. In September, he called his mother, Mirvari Bakhshaliyeva, from Syria and told her that everything was fine, but one month later his wife announced his death in a telephone call from Syria.
Of Azerbaijan's population of over nine million, 93 percent identify as Muslims, the overwhelmingly majority of which is Shia (65-75 percent) while the remainder identify as Sunnis. No precise data exists for the number of Azerbaijanis who have been fighting in Syria. Local media claims the number of militants in Syria is between 200 and 400, with more than 100 killed in action.
In light of more frequent press coverage of Azerbaijani citizens allegedly participating in the Syrian conflict, security forces are now paying closer attention to this trend. On September 23, Azerbaijan's security forces arrested 26 residents for allegedly joining armed Islamic groups in Pakistan, Iraq and Syria and some were alleged members of Azeri Jamaaty, a jihad group in Syria made up of Azerbaijani nationals. In May, the leader of an Azerbaijani IS faction in Raqqa, Mohammad al-Azeri, gave a video address in which he stated that IS was on the "correct path of jihad" in Syria.
Azerbaijanis fighting in Syria primarily come from Baku, Sumqayit, and smaller towns in northern Azerbaijan. Specifically Sumqayit, just 35 kilometers north of Baku, is considered as the main source of fighters, following Salafism and advocating a return to Islam in its purest form. Salafism was catalyzed in Azerbaijan by missionaries from the North Caucasus in the 1990s, funded by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and mostly supported by Sunni Muslims.
Azerbaijan is considered attractive for recruiting due to the ease of travelling there by bus through Georgia and Turkey, and Azerbaijanis do not need visas to enter these countries. Some experts believe that the government's repressive attitude to religious communities, including the adoption of a law limiting religious freedoms and justifying police detentions and high fines may lead to an increase in religious extremism in Azerbaijan.
Another threat is expected from neighboring Russia. Azerbaijanis constitute the second largest nationality in Moscow, at 14 percent of the city's population of about 11 million. Economic decline due to Western sanctions is causing a reduction of migrants' income and makes some more receptive to radical religious movements.
On November 2, IS released a video titled "A Message from Brother Abu Muhammad Ar-Rusi" via social media and jihadi forums. The appearance of an ethnic Russian in an IS propaganda and recruitment video is aimed at Russian-speaking Muslims. Moscow has expressed concern that Russian-speaking militants in Syria could return to the Russian Federation and commit terror attacks. With regard to the threat posed by IS, Russia has focused attention on militants from the North Caucasus and on labor migrants from former Soviet republics. Last week, Russian authorities carried out a wave of arrests in Moscow of Azerbaijani men with alleged links to IS.
The UN Security Council has adopted two resolutions this year, intended to coordinate international efforts to fight terrorism. The August resolution imposed sanctions on persons with alleged links to IS and the al-Qaeda-linked group Al-Nusra Front. The second resolution ratified in September required UN member states to deny entry to anyone suspected of supporting or engaging in terrorist-related activities, making it a criminal offence to travel abroad to train for or fight for jihadist groups. A few days ago, Azerbaijan's government made corresponding amendments in its national legislation.
The EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove considered that between 20 and 30 percent of the over 3,000 Europeans who joined jihadist groups have now returned to their home countries. Some have resumed a normal life while some have become radicalized and dangerous, he warned. "The challenge is for each member state to assess each and every returnee, assess their dangerousness and provide the adequate response," de Kerchove said.
Russia Courts Azerbaijan for Caspian Collective Security System
Russia intends to create a "collective security" system on the Caspian Sea to step up its naval cooperation with Azerbaijan as Moscow seeks to limit the presence of foreign militaries on the Caspian Sea.
"We agreed on the principles of interaction … This is a real breakthrough," President Vladimir Putin said after the fourth Caspian summit in Astrakhan on September 29. According to Putin, the parties made progress in preparing the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea "due to the coordination of key principles of the Caspian littoral states' activity at sea." These principles were reflected in a political statement signed by leaders of the five littoral states. According to Putin, the political statement "will become a cornerstone of the convention" and while he admitted that not all problems were settled in full, "their number has become far fewer." The presidents managed to agree on clear formulations on the delimitation of water spaces, natural resources, and the regime of navigation and fisheries.
The Caspian Sea is a unique water area in terms of its ecology, which includes more than 500 kinds of sea plants and 854 kinds of fish species, including the Caspian sturgeon. The Sea contains an estimated 18 billion tons of hydrocarbon resources, with proven reserves of four billion tons.
The statement confirms the exclusive right of the littoral states' armed forces to conduct military activity in the Caspian Sea as one of the fundamental principles for ensuring security and stability. "Such a regime was historically established. We're not going to change it," Putin said, adding that the five littoral states intend to solve all problems of the Caspian region exclusively among themselves.
Baku welcomed the results of the summit and Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told journalists that the signed documents "fully meet" Azerbaijan's national interests and do not contradict national legislation. "The basic principles of the agreements – the creation of a stable balance of weapons, taking into account the interests of littoral countries while carrying out military exercises in the sea, complying with the measures of mutual trust and meet Azerbaijan's interests," Khalafov said.
Azerbaijan's compliance appears to be a primary objective of Russia's Caspian policy, as this Caucasian country has relied mostly on U.S. advice in building its navy. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited Baku on October 13, two weeks after the presidents of the five Caspian states agreed to prevent the military presence of non-littoral states in the Caspian Sea. Reporting on Shoigu's visit, RIA Novosti framed it as part of a concerted "Eastern foreign policy direction" to counter the effects of the Ukraine crisis: "For Russia the results of the [Caspian] summit were yet another remarkable success for the Eastern foreign policy direction that is taking place in the wake of a serious worsening of relations with the West as a result of the events around Ukraine. Earlier this year Moscow achieved a historic gas agreement with Beijing. It also managed to seriously advance the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which India and Pakistan will join next year."
Shoigu's visit is considered as the first active defense contact between the two nations after Azerbaijan and Russia failed to reach an agreement to extend the lease of the radar station in Gabala. "Now the period of disagreements seems to have been overcome with varying degrees of success, evidenced by intensive military and technical cooperation between the two countries," Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said referring to a source in the Russian defense ministry.
At present, the two countries are carrying out a program for developing cooperation in the military and military-technical fields for 2013-2016. 57 Azerbaijani servicemen are studying at the Russian Defense Ministry's schools. According to Shoigu, "Education and training of personnel is a very serious task due to the supplies of military hardware for the Azerbaijani army within the military-technical cooperation" while cooperation in the Caspian Sea between the Russian and Azerbaijani navies is "a very important aspect."
Shoigu's delegation included the Russian navy's top commander Viktor Chirkov, who met with President Ilham Aliyev and his counterpart, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov. At the meeting, Shoigu termed Azerbaijan a "strategic partner of Russia" and the two Defense Ministers signed a plan on cooperation for 2015. Shoigu said that "everything connected with the Caspian is important to Russia," and later confirmed that Russia's agreements with Azerbaijan include joint military maneuvers in the Caspian Sea to be carried out in 2015.
Shoigu said the documents establish cooperation on army-command training and maritime tactical exercises. He also discussed with his Azerbaijani counterpart the possibility of creating a collective security system for the Caspian states, which could as a "first step" include joint measures to prevent maritime and air incidents.
The U.S. State Department commented on the Caspian summit declaration that it does not intend to change its military cooperation with Baku. According to State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, "We have seen the joint statement issued by the Caspian Five that, among other things, calls for the non-presence of armed forces in the Caspian Sea not belonging to one of the Caspian Five countries … We maintain a strong security cooperation relationship with Azerbaijan, focusing on border security, counterterrorism, NATO interoperability, and its capacity to contribute peacekeepers to international missions. We do not anticipate the Caspian Five joint statement will change that."
OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs Engage Armenia and Azerbaijan
On September 16, Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received James Warlick, the U.S. co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group. The last meeting with co-chairs in Armenia took place on May 16, 2014 in the framework of a regional visit to the South Caucasus. Nalbandian and Warlick exchanged views on issues raised at the September 4 meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Newport, on the initiative of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. They also emphasized the importance of the upcoming Paris meeting between Presidents Sargsyan and Aliyev, due to take place in October on the initiative of French President François Hollande.
Presenting the aim of the visit at his press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, Warlick said it "aims at continuing the discussions which took place during the trilateral meeting in Wales between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry." Characterizing the Wales meeting as "fruitful and sincere," the U.S. co-chair stated that the actual negotiations should be held at some other level. Instead of organizing random meetings between the presidents or ministers of foreign affairs of Armenia and Azerbaijan, the parties should launch an official negotiating process which will surely be welcomed by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
Warlick's visit to Armenia was also remarkable for his exclusive interview to Yerkir Media TV on September 16. Presenting his viewpoint on the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, the U.S. co-chair said that "the voice of the de facto authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh should be heard and that is why the co-chairs travel there on a regular basis and meet with the de facto authorities." This was in fact a rare statement coming from a co-chair, because it emphasized the role of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities in the resolution process.
Commenting on the current activity of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, Kayts Minasyan, an analyst at the Center of Strategic Studies of France, underlined the fact that Warlick came to the South Caucasus without his French and Russian counterparts, a move stipulated by the tense relations between Russia and the West. During a press conference, the head of the "Modus Vivendi" center Ara Papian said that Warlick's statement on the upcoming regulation of the Karabakh negotiation process was merely "a diplomatic wish, rather than reality," because the parties are far from resolving the conflict. The vice-president of the Caucasus Institute, Sergey Minasyan, shared the view that the format of meetings between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan may yield some progress not in the negotiating process per se, but in "setting some mechanisms of influence along the line of contact." Likewise, Armenian MP Sukias Avetisyan stressed the importance of organizing regular meetings at the presidential level.
According to a public opinion poll organized by the Z-PR poll center, 64 percent of the population in Yerevan believes that the visit of the U.S.co-chair will only contribute to initiating new meetings at the presidential level, while 21 percent think the recent activation of the regulation process is a consequence of the increasing international tension. The remaining 15 percent believes that the U.S. is seeking to keep the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process very active, even causing unexpected developments.
The intense activity of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in September was also a consequence of recent negotiations between the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, which took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's 69th session in New York. The ministers had an extended meeting with Warlick and his Russian and French colleagues, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu, along with Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the personal representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office. After discussing the details of the upcoming meeting between Sargsyan and Aliyev, foreign ministers Nalbandian and Mammadyarov held talks in a tête-à-tête format, concerning predominantly the regulation process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Nalbandian-Mammadyarov talks, as the U.S. co-chair emphasized, "were conducted in a constructive atmosphere." Later, the co-chairs had a meeting with the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office (CiO), Didier Burkhalter, and discussed the latest developments in the peace process, hoping that the presidential meeting in Paris will be productive.


The health benefits of meditation and mindfulness receive a lot of well-deserved attention in our culture. These practices can help people with everyday suffering, as well as specific health concerns. The image associated with these practices is frequently a calm and peaceful meditator. So the question is, do we have to be calm and peaceful in order to be healthy?
Larry Dossey, M.D., a leader in the field of mind/body medicine, recently published an article on the role of chaos and disorder in health, and I found his approach refreshing and informative.
Dossey's article challenges the simplified notion that coherence is good and chaos is bad. In fact, both coherence and chaos coexist in our lives all the time. From a psychotherapeutic perspective, recognizing the truth of our experience — the good and the bad, the coherent and the chaotic, and everything in between — is one of the foundations of health.


An interview with Wes Mckinney about the path that led him from Pandas to Apache Arrow, and everything in between Python has become one of the dominant languages for data science and data analysis. Wes McKinney has been working for a decade to make tools that are easy and powerful, starting with the creation of Pandas, and eventually leading to his current work on Apache Arrow. In this episode he discusses his motivation for this work, what he sees as the current challenges to be overcome, and his hopes for the future of the industry.


"What can I do now? I know that it's the dark half of the year, and Wiccans tend to shy away from spellwork at this time. What do you suggest?" my friend, Jessica, asked.
"It's a great time for inner work," I replied.
With Samhain now passed, we can go into the vast landscape within. We can discover things about ourselves and how the world influences us.
Many of us, at this time, do mirror work. However, this is advanced self-work and should not be tried without a High Priestess or another elder to guide you.
On the other hand, you can do the following exercises to address your inner world.
Meditation invokes great power. It can bring us up or bring us down.
Meditation serves as a doorway into the vast expanse of the mind. As you explore your own mind, you discover both the light half and the Shadow-Self half.
Now, in this dark part of the year, we find it to be a good time to work on the Shadow-Self.
This following meditation really helped me when I needed it most.
May this meditation be helpful to you as you seek to shine light in the dark recesses of your mind. I offer this process, so you can enhance your self-esteem.
Breathe in and out deeply . . . Relax.
Breathe out the stress of the day.
Breathe in relaxation and peace.
You are still aware of the light that is in the room.
Now the light begins to fade.
As it fades you feel total comfort. You feel safe and secure in the darkness.
Now, a new form of light blossoms. It surrounds and wraps you in its loving energy. This light is the light of the Gods.
It is a light of love and compassion. Take it in.
As you take this light and understanding in, you can now see with the Gods' eyes.
You can now see yourself as they see you, pure, beautiful, whole. You are a masterpiece of their creation. You were made with love, and you are a manifestation of their love. You are love.
With this new understanding you are now ready to return to the physical world.
You know that even though you may leave the light at this time it is never truly gone.
It's a gentle transition as the light begins to fade around you.
Slowly at first. It gets darker and darker.
Then a familiar light returns, the light in the room where you started.
It gradually gets brighter and brighter.
You are back in the room. You have brought the calm and peace and happy feelings back with you.
Now, gently open your eyes.
I hope you find comfort with this meditation.
2. Make tinctures, balms, and potions from the herbs you collected earlier in the year.
This is a great indoor activity when the nights grow longer.
What is an infusion or potion? They're the result of soaking herbs in hot water to bring out their properties. Human beings have healed themselves through herbs since prehistoric times. I suggest the book, The New Healing Herbs: The Essential Guide to More Than 125 of Nature's Most Potent Herbal Remedies by Michael Castleman.
Warning: only use herbs that you are certain to be food grade. Talk to your doctor before using any herb. Why? Herbs by themselves can cause harmful effects. For example, chamomile can cause uterine contractions which may lead to miscarriage, so pregnant women are advised to avoid chamomile!
Furthermore, herbs can mix with each other or with medications in harmful ways. You need accurate information before you ingest any herbs. Find credible professionals who have expertise in alternative medicine because many western medicine doctors do not have great knowledge in this area.
The simplest example of an infusion, brew or potion is tea. We drink teas, but not all potions or brews are meant to be ingested.
Second warning: Never make a potion with poisonous plants!
After you have done some research and consulted a doctor and have chosen a safe herb, you can make a tea. Heat water to almost a boil and add selected herbs into a ceramic container, like a cup.
Pour the water over herbs and place a cover to steep the brew. The cover keeps most of the steam in and this helps keep the essential oils in your potion. Then let the portion steep for about 5 to 10 minutes. Strain the mixture. We have been talking about tea; however, you can use brews for other uses. For example, you can use brews to cleanse spaces by asperging areas or by washing the floors and other surfaces with it. You may anoint things like sachets, talismans and amulets. Herbs may be used for a ritual bath. Once again, be sure the plants are safe for whatever use.
You can also use the sun to make potions. Take a clear jar and fill it with water and your herb mixture. Next place it in direct sunlight for six hours or so and then use.
You can use potions . . .
to wash your floors or wipe furniture.
to augment your bath water for when you rest and soak.
Having a relaxing bath with a hot cup of tea on a cold winter night may be just what the Goddess ordered!
3. Concentrate on your bonds with friends and family.
The dark time serves well with opportunities for getting closer to friends, family, and the God and Goddess. Aim to strengthen your bonds with loved ones. Here is a recipe that will bring everyone together on a cold night.
Two packets of Knorr's Leek soup mix, made according to instructions, in a large pot on the stove so you can keep stirring it.
Next to it in a deep frying pan, put in olive oil on medium heat. Slice up two large cloves of garlic, one small bunch of green onions, and put them in the frying pan to cook for about 5-7 minutes, just to take the bite out of them.
Then (cut up meat beforehand in small rectangles) put in lamb meat in frying pan to cook with garlic and onions. Brown meat on all sides and just enough to cook through without being tough.
Put the lamb and onions into the soup, and have it on low to simmer. Cut up red potatoes into small rectangles, and add to soup.
Then just keep the whole thing on simmer until the potatoes are done. This can be refrigerated and reheated, and it gets better with age.
In summary, Wiccans generally focus on spellwork during the light half of the year.
Now, in this dark half of the year, take advantage of opportunities to do inner work. As you've seen, we've covered powerful processes that offer you chances to grow and deepen in your Wiccan practice.


text:
Q: How do i read this web logic log file - looking for response times 000.000.0.000 - foo_bar [11/May/2016:13:06:30 -0400] "POST /fooooooo/baaarrrrr HTTP/1.1" 200 10850669

This is weblogic HTTP log with no custom formatting and i'm having trouble figuring out what the 10850669 is and what the units are. I need to find response times...

A: As stdunbar mentioned, that's the common log format, which has bytes transferred rather than time taken.
If you want time taken, you can change to Extended log format in WL console
( xxx_domain > Summary of Servers > xxxxServer > Logging > HTTP )
click advanced, then change to Extended format.
Then you can put something like this in the extended logging format fields:
c-ip date time time-taken cs-method cs-uri sc-status bytes or whatever.
You probably need to restart the server afterwards.
More details here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
APDS, Capital Markets, US
Digitizing the 21st-Century Prison
This month, inmates in more than 100 American penal institutions will begin receiving federal financial aid for higher education for the first time in more than two decades.
That's good news for men and women in prison — 95 percent of whom will be released back into the community at some point. But bringing the benefits of a college degree to the greatest number of incarcerated people will require fundamentally changing how we deliver educational programming to prisoners.
A report released Monday by the Vera Institute of Justice details a host of obstacles faced by prisoners who want to earn college credits while incarcerated.
The Second Chance Pell Pilot Program launched last year by the Department of Education went live on July 1, with 67 institutions of higher learning participating. A total of 12,000 inmates in 27 states are expected to benefit from the experiment, which offers limited exemptions to a 1994 ban on needs-based Pell grants for inmates. After that ban — signed into law by President Bill Clinton — put a virtual halt on the delivery of higher education in prison, the number of college programs for inmates dropped from nearly 400 to the single digits within a few years.
Advocates have been calling for reinstating Pell grants for inmates ever since, citing the dramatic reduction in recidivism (43 percent, according to Vera) for ex-offenders who gain college credits while incarcerated.
Thanks to state-based initiatives and money from private foundations, the percentage of prisoners enrolled in postsecondary correctional education programs has rebounded in recent years.
Unfortunately, a lack of money is just one of the barriers keeping inmates from the classroom. Most educational programming in jails and prisons is delivered in a physical environment that is tightly orchestrated and logistically constrained. It often requires volunteers willing and able to travel to the facilities, and corrections officers to move inmates to and from class and stand guard during lessons. Classes tend to be small. As a result, thousands of inmates are relegated to waiting lists, sometimes for years, before earning a slot.
This has led to a stubborn imbalance in the availability of college programming behind bars. According to the Vera Institute, only 35 percent of state prisons report providing college courses — which are available to just 6 percent of the nation's prisoners. Only a handful of those students complete the coursework necessary for a bachelor's degree. In 2011, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) reported, just 13 states accounted for 86 percent of inmates enrolled in college programs.
That's particularly troubling considering the changing face of the U.S. job market. More than 60 percent of jobs will require at least some college education by 2018, according to projections from Georgetown University. That will only make it harder for ex-offenders who already struggle to find a job upon reentry.
Jeanne Bayer Contardo, author of the book Providing College to Prison Inmates, blames the programming bottleneck on the near absence of effective digital learning resources in correctional facilities.
"A large number of non-incarcerated students use internet-based distance education to access post-secondary education, [however] very few states have developed ways to provide inmates with such resources," she wrote.
As the rest of the world has catapulted into the digital age, correctional facilities remain mired in a technological backwater.
Since 2013, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has operated the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System (Trulincs) — a fee-based email and news service. But state facilities nearly universally deny digital connectivity to inmates. This leaves a vast platform of educational and programming resources off the table for millions of men and women behind bars.
Both the Vera Institute and the Institute for Higher Education Policy have called for the development and expansion of internet-based delivery of education as one way to improve ex-offender outcomes.
Entrepreneurs are also working to fill the gap.
"When you think about a typical prison in America, holding between 1,000, 2,000 people, mostly men — that represents a huge set of educational and job training and reentry needs and it's a very diverse set of needs," explains Chris Grewe, who has worked for many years developing innovative solutions for the delivery of education. "In the absence of technology there is no way to meet all those needs."
After touring a California prison in 2013 and seeing the inefficiency of its educational programming, Grewe founded the company American Prison Data Systems with the goal of bringing prison learning into the 21st century.
Grewe's platform relies on specially modified Galaxy S2 tablet PCs that are rugged enough to withstand the physical stresses of prison life. They come preinstalled with educational and vocational apps, but are customizable and can scale to suit individual inmate needs.
The tablets are connected to the outside world over Verizon's 4G LTE network, but they rely on a private network that never connects to the public internet. The system uses mobile device management software from a company called AirWatch to filter and monitor content, and prevent inmates from engaging in prohibited activity, such as connecting to social media.
A handful of startups, including JPay and Telemate are now marketing tablet technology to correctional facilities — but Grewe says in most cases the devices are used for infotainment and communications.
"We are for all intents and purposes the only educational player in the space," he says. "And most of the for-profit ventures in this space charge inmates to use their products. Our tablets are 100 percent funded by the facilities."
The APDS system is currently being used in 17 correctional facilities across the U.S., including the San Francisco and New York jail systems.
Grewe says a single, fully loaded APDS tablet costing $1,000 can save up to double that amount in the long run by, among other things, reducing the pressure on prison classrooms, and allowing facilities to deliver reading material and provide legal resources electronically.
Tablets have also been shown to reduce inmate violence by addressing isolation and idleness. Perhaps most importantly, the hands-on experience enables prisoners to develop technical skills many of us take for granted.
Technological proficiency is an issue that is often overlooked by a reentry community focused on providing post-incarceration basic necessities such as employment and housing. But with prisons largely cut off from the digital revolution, men and women regularly return to society who have never performed a Google search or made a phone call on a smartphone.
"We've excluded technology from our prisons for 35 years, but technical proficiency is now an essential job skill, a life skill," says Grewe. "This isn't an experiment anymore. Our mission is to change corrections for good."
A large number of non-incarcerated students use internet-based distance education to access post-secondary education, [however] very few states have developed ways to provide inmates with such resources.
Jeanne Bayer Contardo, author of the book Providing College to Prison Inmates
In U.S. Prisons, Tablets Open Window to the Outside World
New Rating Agency Ranks EM Banks By Financial Crime Risk
The views expressed here are those of the individual FinTech Collective LLC (together with its affiliates "FTC") personnel quoted and are not the views of FTC or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by FTC. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, FTC has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; FTC has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.
Any designations found herein have been made by a third party, and although FTC has no reason to believe that such designations, or the criteria for being considered for such designations, are inaccurate or misleading, FTC does not guarantee its accuracy, and such designations may be incomplete or condensed. No compensation was paid in exchange for any designations, endorsements, or testimonials found herein. The hyperlinks referred to herein are provided for your reference only.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. This content does not constitute an offering or form part of any offering or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe to or purchase any investment by FTC, nor shall it or the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with any contract therefore. Any such offer will be made only by means of definitive investment offering documents. The information included herein is subject to change without notice to any recipient. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by FTC, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by FTC (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for FTC to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://www.fintech.io/portfolio and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://www.fintech.io/disclosures for additional important information.
FinTech Collective
hello@fintech.io
Terms of Use & Privacy • Disclosures • Site Credit


Find Amazing Treasures at Our Gift Shop!
The focus on value at Dinosaur World even extends to our 7,000-square-foot gift shop where you'll find a wide variety of items ranging from real prehistoric artifacts (like dinosaur teeth and trilobites) to dinosaur toys of all shapes and sizes. We specialize in educational material for kids, including dinosaur books and movies (both fiction and non-fiction, including the BBC hit Walking with Dinosaurs) and games activities that help them learn about our prehistoric past. Adults will enjoy a wide selection of gorgeous geodes and jewelry made with artifacts and other natural materials.


text:
Episode #370: Justin Spitzer
by Sean L. McCarthy January 3, 2022
Justin Spitzer is a television writer and producer who worked as a writing assistant on Queer as Folk and Grounded for Life before breaking into the writers room on The Office, where he worked for seven seasons and received three Emmy nominations. Spitzer went on to create, executive produce and showrun his own beloved NBC sitcom, Superstore. In 2021, he signed a new four-year overall deal with Universal Television — his first big project under that deal is American Auto, which received a sneak preview on NBC and Peacock, and stars Ana Gasteyer as the new CEO of Payne Motors in Detroit, who just so happens to know nothing about cars. Spitzer spoke to me about his love for workplace comedies, his own career trajectory in Hollywood, and how having a wife who's also in the biz — Jenna Bans, the creator of NBC's Good Girls — helps them both keep on the right track.
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/thecomicscomic/Justin20Spitzer20LTF20Edited.mp3
TaggedJustin SpitzerLast Things Firstpodcasts
Episode #369: 2021 Comedy MVPs with Jason Zinoman
Andrew Sleighter on The Late Late Show with James Corden
Episode #240: 2018 Comedy MVPs with Jason Zinoman of The New York Times
Episode #36: IFC's Benders, Andrew Schulz and Mark Gessner
Episode #226: Maria Bamford


WE DON'T SIMPLY SELL RAID STORAGE AND SERVERS, WE PROVIDE SOLUTIONS. YOUR SUCCESS IS OUR PASSION AND OUR MISSION!
As the Navy's information warfare systems command, SPAWAR develops, delivers and sustains communications and information capabilities for warfighters, keeping them connected anytime, anywhere. Cheetah RAID Storage holds itself to these very same high standards for our warfighters delivering the most advanced products on the market today!
We have built our reputation on a record of quality, dependability and exceptional customer service. Due to our commitment to uncompromising performance, which supports federal, commercial, and non-profit organizations over a global client base.
Cheetah RAID Storage is proud to say it's a Sole-Source Provider to SPAWAR for over 10 years delivering mission-critical equipment on Land, Sea, Air and in harsh environments. With installations in 10 countries around the world supporting the departments of defense, the intelligence community and federal agencies to achieve highest performance and support the warfighter with real time speeds.
Cheetah RAID is doing its part making sure we deliver the most advanced equipment to all the men and women protecting our freedom.
Cheetah RAID Storage Atlanta, GA.


voestalpine sites draw on the power of water to cover their energy requirements, while voestalpine products themselves are used to generate power from water.
Hydropower holds the largest part in the renewable energy mix of wind, hydro-, and solar power. At voestalpine, too, hydropower generated in-house helps cover the Group's energy requirements.
Ybbs, Pöls, Vordernbergerbach, Thörlbach—all these rivers and streams in Austria drive hydropower plants from which voestalpine sites directly draw electricity for use in production: an example of environmentally-aware, regional production by a global company. The arrangement also includes feeding unused electricity into the grids of regional power suppliers.
From the Ybbs, via the turbine, to the rolling mill: voestalpine BÖHLER Profil GmbH operates rolling lines using the power of water.
Here on the River Ybbs three hydropower plants generate enough power to cover 58% of the company's annual electricity consumption. Thanks to excellent maintenance, some of the five installed turbines have been producing electricity for almost 100 years.
Installed capacity: over 2,500 kW.
The site at Zeltweg relies on the power of the River Pöls. On average, two turbines cover 87% of the company's own electricity requirements. The 12,000 MWh generated each year almost corresponds to the annual consumption of all the households in Zeltweg. At 3 km in length, the water inlet is one of Austria's longest pressure pipelines.
Installed capacity: around 2,500 kW.
In Donawitz the Mur and Vordernbergerbach rivers feed the cooling system at the Metal Engineering Division's metallurgical plant. The fluid energy of the water which is fed in and then pumped out is also used to generate electricity in turbines, with an installed capacity of around 3,000 kW.
Renewable energy is also used to power the facilities in Kapfenberg. The Winkl am Thörlbach hydropower plant at around 1,000 kW, together with a photovoltaic installation on the works premises, generates 1% of the electricity consumed at the plant. This low percentage is deceptive: the 3,500 MWh generated is sufficient to cover the annual power consumption of 1,000 households.
In Bruckbach, too, the Ybbs drives a turbine which helps cover demand at the site. However, it is not only used to generate electricity.
"Über Jahrzehnte hinweg wurde die Leistungsfähigkeit der eigenen Wasserkraftwerke durch Instandhaltungs- und Erneuerungsmaßnahmen gesichert und ausgebaut."
In Bruckbach the waters of the Ybbs are a driving force, not just for generating electricity. Instead, voestalpine BÖHLER Profil GmbH, whose portfolio includes precision sections for the aerospace industry, uses the power of the river to directly drive the hot rolling line. This is unique in European metal processing, as is the high proportion of manual work involved. At the same time, however, it is a reminder of how power was used at a time which heralded the beginning of a new industrial age, hundreds of years ago.
What do we offer hydropower?
voestalpine companies offer a broad portfolio of products of interest to hydropower plant manufacturers, with voestalpine materials and manufacturing expertise proving their worth in this tough market. The portfolios cover everything from turbine components to pressure pipes, and other highly resilient elements in a hydropower plant, including special welding consumables.
Whether modern or in use for decades, the Böhlerwerk site is well supplied by the Ybbs.