text:
Apple's iPad - The AnandTech Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Brian Klug & Vivek Gowri on April 7, 2010 9:39 PM EST
108 Comments | Add A Comment
Will it Part the Seas? It's a Tablet Running a Touch OS Pricing: Heard Ya Got Robbed It Was Meant For You A Testament to UI Efficiency, Distinctively Apple Stop and Smell the Roses Computing Spending Money Where it Counts: The Display The Keyboard & Ergonomics iPad Autocorrection: Withholding the Answer WiFi and Web Browsing, the Killer App Mail, Calendar & Contacts Apps User Interface: The Next Generation The App Store, The Robbing Continues Video Playback: Almost Perfect & A Giant iPod Rushed, the iPad Case & iTunes The Silicon - Meet the A4 The iPad and its Performance Honest Apple: Battery Life USB/Accessory Charging & A Super Head Unit? Nope Reading Rainbow Gaming on the iPad Final Words
Confidence is built upon credibility, something Apple really earned thanks to the first iPod. Apple gained the mainstream credibility to introduce a product, say it's going to be the best thing ever, and have customers give it the benefit of the doubt.
Credibility is a finite good however. Promise the world and deliver beans instead too many times and you'll find yourself back to square one. Luckily for Apple, that hasn't happened yet.
The iPod gave Apple credibility, but Mac OS X, Mac hardware and eventually the iPhone all made deposits in that bank. That's not to say that Apple devices are flawless, but the company has won the confidence of a huge part of the market.
The road to the iPad announcement was riddled with rumors and unsubstantiated claims of what the Apple tablet would do. It was to be the replacement for everything from cable TV to netbooks. Hype is a difficult thing to control, but in the case of the iPad, the market's expectations were beyond unrealistic.
The hopeful child in all of us wanted to believe. We wanted to believe that Apple would introduce something truly revolutionary, something that would let us do anything we ever wanted to do. We just didn't know what that was, but we believed that there was a slight chance Apple might make it happen.
What followed on January 27, 2010, the day of the iPad announcement, was a collection of excitement, disappointment and confusion.
I do have to place some (a lot?) of the blame on Apple. By saying nothing, confirming nothing (short of threatening law suits) Apple let the hype get carried away. And I'm not totally convinced that Apple itself wasn't behind some of the leaks in order to generate free marketing for this device. The worst? Jobs calling the iPad magical. If the device was shipping today with no ergonomics issues, no slowdowns, no crashes and with a full list of heavy hitter apps (real ones, not just ones that showed us what the iPad could do in the future), then I'd call it magical. You can't call something magical if it just promises magic at some point in the future. Well, you can, but then you'll anger a lot of people who oppose to such liberal use of language.
You have to hand it to Apple PR though. Through careful planning and seeding of review units, it managed to end up in all of the right hands a few days prior to its launch.
It had been on every single late night talk show in the span of a couple days. It even made it to the grammys earlier this year. Folks looking to catch a break would kill for the sort of free publicity apples iPad has received. It has celebrity status without even adopting any orphans.
And like a celebrity, the iPad is very polarizing.
The iPad, even moreso than the iPhone, is not the end all, be all universal device for everyone. In fact, unlike the iPhone, it doesn't replace any existing device in your life. It's an addition. There are things it does beautifully, things it does ok, and things it just plain can't do. Today, I'll try to take you through all of that as best I can.
It's a Tablet Running a Touch OS Will it Part the Seas? It's a Tablet Running a Touch OS Pricing: Heard Ya Got Robbed It Was Meant For You A Testament to UI Efficiency, Distinctively Apple Stop and Smell the Roses Computing Spending Money Where it Counts: The Display The Keyboard & Ergonomics iPad Autocorrection: Withholding the Answer WiFi and Web Browsing, the Killer App Mail, Calendar & Contacts Apps User Interface: The Next Generation The App Store, The Robbing Continues Video Playback: Almost Perfect & A Giant iPod Rushed, the iPad Case & iTunes The Silicon - Meet the A4 The iPad and its Performance Honest Apple: Battery Life USB/Accessory Charging & A Super Head Unit? Nope Reading Rainbow Gaming on the iPad Final Words
softdrinkviking - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
it occurs to me that i would want a way to protect the screen from getting scratched, and that would mean a
cover or case that would take the place of the clamshell design of a netbook/notebook.
why would i want to pay a price premium for a device with slower performance which only achieves acceptable functionality with the addition of expensive peripherals?
even after all the peripherals, i still lose the ability to effortlessly prop-up a netbook on my lap and type an email, or set a netbook up on a table in a coffee shop.
nothing about the tablet form factor is convenient for on-the-go usage for me.
the only situation where i can possibly imagine this being a preferable form factor is for wall mount usage or some other kind of "always left out in the open" type of use, like a universal remote control, or a mini home television viewer in the kitchen.
but it seems too expensive for those uses to me.
there must be a better alternative.
MacTheSpoon - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
Thanks for the great review. I was shocked you'd typed 40% of it with the iPad.
Would you mind doing a comparison between the iPad keyboard and a physical keyboard? Since there is no utility to measure WPM for the iPad, maybe you could time how long it takes to type the same passage on both--something with some semicolons, quotation marks, and/or em dashes would be ideal, as I'm curious how the virtual keyboard stands up when the user must switch between layouts.
Brian Klug - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
You know, this was something I was dying to address a few times. I'm hoping that the iTextspeed application developers update their code soon to be iPad compatible, because that's something I want to test for sure.
I've gotten to the point where I can touch type in landscape pretty easy, but I can also type pretty fast on the iPhone (around 80 WPM using their application). If and when it's updated, we might do something and include the update.
If it helps any, this was also composed pretty quickly from an iPad. ;)
Brian Klug
solipsism - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
1) How did you get a 720p video on the iPhone for the video test when the allowable maximum "up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second" video?
2) From my testing, the iPad uses about 20MB more than the 3GS on startup. Most, if not all, of this is for the GPU. I've also noticed that native apps are also using more RAM. While the 3GS has enough to support standard multitasking the iPad does not. Even switching pages in Safari on the iPad would have to be reloaded while the 3GS does not. This will even more of an issue with the 3G version of the iPad. This gives me doubts about multitasking unles iPhone OS v4.0 is much more efficient (making 3.2.2 a stand in, which looks to be the case) and Apple has a more intuitive quasi-multitasking concept to unveil today.
I can't speak about the RAM usage - are you using iStat or similar?
However 720P H.264 video is certainly supported, which is what we used. I tested all the different profiles in handbrake, all of them work if you keep the video at or under 1280x720:
"H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format"
That's straight from http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/
I think you're getting confused with the MPEG4 limitation which is indeed 640x480. ;)
-Brian Klug
Ph00 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
sorry to be ot but is that a black mouth cur dog?
Griswold - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
I'll wait for iPad v2 with reliably working wifi, no overheating, working PDF export, at least a backside camera for snapshots and maybe short flicks and perhaps multitasking. Ill stop here because any more missing features would seem greedy - apple needs a reason to sell you the 2012 iPad...
As for atom based ipad - are you nuts? Nobody wants that garbage. Gimme a dual core cortex A9 instead.
Mike1111 - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
You mean the 2011 iPad, right? Because there's no way Apple isn't gonna do a yearly refresh cycle like they do with all their iPhone OS based products.
My mistake. You meant even iPad v2 in 2011 won't be feature complete because Apple needs some features for the 2012 iPad v3.
Hm, how do I delete a post?
Lemonjellow - Thursday, April 8, 2010 - link
"Sure, but so could a TV that made me pancakes. Neither is ready yet or guaranteed."
Can you confirm or deny that someone is working on said TV project? :- D


text:
Citizenship pledge — to an Australian republic
By Glenn Davies | 14 March 2014, 11:30am | comments |
On the twentieth anniversary of the Australian Citizenship Pledge, on 31 January 2014, the Australian Republican Movement released a poll showing seven out of 10 Australians support pledging allegiance to Australia and its people rather than to the Queen. History editor Dr Glenn Davies reports.
CITIZENSHIP is for all Australians.
It is a commitment of loyalty to Australia and its people and their shared democratic beliefs, laws and rights.
It is a bond uniting our culturally diverse society.
On 26 January this year, almost 18,000 people became Australian citizens — a record number.
The final stage in the process of becoming an Australian citizen is making the Australian Citizenship Pledge. It usually happens at a ceremony when new Australian citizens make a public pledge of their commitment to Australia. All new citizens have the choice of making the pledge with or without the words 'under God'.
From this time forward, under God
I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people,
Whose democratic beliefs I share,
whose rights and liberties I respect, and
whose laws I uphold and obey.
Australia's three most recent Labor prime ministers ‒ Paul Keating, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard ‒ all used similar words and swore allegiance to Australia and its people when they were sworn in. However, Tony Abbott, an avowed monarchist, reverted to the previous pledge to the Queen, as had John Howard.
In late November and early December 2013, market research companies UMR and Essential Media surveyed 1,000 voters, who were told of the different pledges by Australia's prime ministers and asked:
"Which do you prefer?"
The survey found 70% supported the pledge to Australia and its people, with only 19.5% agreeing with Prime Minister Tony Abbott's pledge to the Queen. (10.5% were unsure.)
ARM chair Professor Geoff Gallop
Professor Geoff Gallop AC, chair of the Australian Republican Movement, stated:
"The poll – and other recent UMR and Essential Media surveys which found a consistent 32% support for monarchy – confirms monarchists represent a minority and that the celebrity treatment of monarchy has failed to translate into support for the retention of the monarchy in Australia.
"The Australian people are ahead of current political leaders on this issue and this poll shows Australians are ready to pledge allegiance to an Australian republic."
On 26 January 1949, the legal concept of Australian citizenship was created with the enactment of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948, which was replaced by the Australian Citizenship Act 2007. Bolstering of Australia's citizenship program in the 1990's occurred first with the Australian Citizenship Amendment Act 1993, which incorporated a preamble into the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 to recognize that citizenship is a common bond of rights and responsibilities for all Australians, and replaced the oath of allegiance with a Pledge of Commitment.
On 31 January 1994, a different pledge was introduced at Australian citizenship ceremonies that replaced the mandatory pledge of loyalty to the Queen.
On the 20th anniversary of the Australian Citizenship Pledge, Professor Gallop reflected:
"The monarchy is clearly no longer an institution that can unite Australians. It's broken. The monarchy sits above our system of democratic government but cannot represent us, our identity or our values as a nation."
In 2013, the Australian Republican Movement relaunched with a listening campaign across the country, asking people:
"What does it mean to be Australian?"
ARM chair Professor Gallop has elaborated on this, saying:
"The Australia we share is free, fair, multicultural – and only a republic can truly unite us around those values."
As the year progressed, the ARM saw membership grow by 30 per cent, income double due to pledges, donations and other fundraising efforts, as well as a 300 per cent increase in online support, with republic clubs established at universities across Australia showing renewed interest from young people.
The ARM is asking Australians through its website and social media to sign up to the citizenship pledge and support a republic. It seems Australians want to pledge for Australia and not the Queen.
Only a republic can truly unite the people of Australia.
Read also: 'Australia's last brick of nationhood' by managing editor David Donovan. Find our more about the Australian Republican Movement here.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


She's a busy girl, but between hocking condoms and getting burned by M.I.A., pop chanteuse du jour Lady Gaga has found the time to reveal a number of juicy details about her forthcoming remix album, which will simply be titled The Remix.
The 17-track album will hit shelves on May 10 in the UK and will feature an eclectic mix of artists reinterpreting songs from Gaga's The Fame Monster LP. The Remix will feature Pet Shop Boys, Passion Pit and, in a move that's unexpected but not totally unbelievable, Marilyn Manson.
The album also features song reworkings by Stuart Price, Monarchy and Alphabeat, the latter of whom recently supported Gaga on her Monster Ball UK jaunt.


text:
O Rio Baciu é um rio da Romênia afluente do rio Văsălatu, localizado no distrito de Argeş.

Rios da Roménia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Splitting the big Array into small parts with conditions I need to split below array into three arrays:
The result of tc_excel variable
[(1000000, ['FA'], 'bev.xml'),
 (1001001, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1003000, ['FA'], 'phev.xml'),
 (1003001, ['TC', 'CT01', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1003002, ['TC', 'CT01', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1004000, ['FA'], 'tesla.xml'),
 (1004001, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1004002, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False)]

*

*One array should be all the Testcases with xml that have "bev" in the name of file

*the array two should have phev in the name of xml file

*the rest should be all other cases

All splitted array should have a minimumt one ['FA'] Number one from these,(
['1000000,'1003000,'1004000]
def testcasefilter(tc_input, tc_max, config_reiter, excel_pfad):
    if abs(tc_max) < 2:
        return []

    if not os.path.isfile(excel_pfad):
        return []

    tc_excel = get_fnt_testcases(excel_pfad, config_reiter)
    intervalls, kats, notkats = decode_tc_selection(tc_input)
    print tc_excel

    tc_excel_ok = []
    tc_codierung_ok = []

    for id_, katlist, cod in tc_excel:
        for kat in katlist:
            if kat in kats:
                tc_excel_ok.append(id_)
                if cod:
                    tc_codierung_ok.append(id_)
                break
            elif notkats and kat not in notkats:
                tc_excel_ok.append(id_)
                if cod:
                    tc_codierung_ok.append(id_)
                break
        else:
            if notkats and not katlist:
                tc_excel_ok.append(id_)
                if cod:
                    tc_codierung_ok.append(id_)
            elif check_tc_spec(id_, intervalls):
                tc_excel_ok.append(id_)
                if cod:
                    tc_codierung_ok.append(id_)

    temp_out = []
    cod = None
    temp = []
    if tc_max < 0:
        tc_max = len(tc_excel_ok) / abs(tc_max) + 2  # +1 Extra-Kodiertestcase +1 Rundung
        if tc_max < 2:
            return []

    for tc in tc_excel_ok:
        if len(temp) < tc_max:
            temp.append(tc)
            if tc in tc_codierung_ok:
                cod = tc
        else:
            temp_out.append(temp)
            temp = [tc]
            if tc in tc_codierung_ok:
                cod = tc
            elif cod is not None:
                temp = [cod, tc]
    temp_out.append(temp)

    output = []
    for elem in temp_out:
        o = ""
        for e in elem:
            o += str(e) + ";"
        output.append(o[:-1])
    return output

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print testcasefilter("*", 3, "Konfiguration", r"C:\Data\DSPLIT.xlsx")

The result output should be like becasuse we have one pev one phev and the third xml is not bev or not phev
['1000000;1001001','1003000;1003001;1003002','1004000;1004001;1004002']

A: Here is the solution:
test = [(1000000, ['FA'], 'bev.xml'),
 (1001001, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1003000, ['FA'], 'phev.xml'),
 (1003001, ['TC', 'CT01', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1003002, ['TC', 'CT01', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1004000, ['FA'], 'tesla.xml'),
 (1004001, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False),
 (1004002, ['TC', 'CT03', 'CT04'], False)]

bev = [1003000]
notbev = [1000000,100400]
arrayall = [1000000,1001001,1003000,1003001,1003002,1004000,1004001,1004002]
arr_part_bev = []
arr_part_not_bev = []
isbev = False
for i in arrayall:
  if i in bev:
    arr_part_bev.append(i)
    isbev = True
  elif i in notbev:
    arr_part_not_bev.append(i)
    isbev = False
  else:
    if isbev:
      arr_part_bev.append(i)
    else :
      arr_part_not_bev.append(i)

print (arr_part_bev)
print (arr_part_not_bev)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
2018-11-30: Archives Unleashed: Vancouver Datathon Trip Report
By Nauman Siddique - November 30, 2018
The Archives Unleashed Datathon #Vancouver was a two day event from November 1 to November 2, 2018 hosted by the Archives Unleashed team in collaboration with Simon Fraser University Librar y and Key , SFU's big data initiative. This was second in a series of Archives Unleashed datathons to be funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation . This is the first time for me, Mohammed Nauman Siddique of the Web Science and Digital Libraries research group ( WS-DL ) at Old Dominion University to travel to the datathon at Vancouver. Day 1 An appropriately rainy Vancouver mornings to set up #hackarchives SFU. Badges ready, WiFi waiting, coffee's on... pic.twitter.com/Vf2L1IDjfS — Ian Milligan (@ianmilligan1) November 1, 2018 The event kicked off with Ian Milligan welcoming all the participants at the Archives Unleashed Datathon #Vancouver. It was followed by welcome speech from Gwen Bird , University Librarian at SFU and Peter Chow-White , Director and
2018-11-30: The Illusion of Multitasking Boosts Performance
By Jian Wu - November 30, 2018
Today, I read the article on psychologicalscience.org. The title is " The Illusion of Multitasking Boosts Performance ". At first, I thought it argues for single-task at once, but after reading it, I found that it is not. It actually supports multi-tasking, but in the sense that the worker "believes" the work he is working on is a combination of multi-tasks. The original paper published in Psychological Science has a title " The Illusion of Multitasking and Its Positive Effect on Performance ". In my opinion, the original article's title is accurate, but the press release reveals part of the story and actually distorted the original meaning of the article. The reader actually got an illusion that multi-tasking is producing a negative effect. Jian Wu
2018-11-15: LANL Internship Report
Los Alamos National Laboratory On May 27 I landed in sunny Sante Fe, New Mexico to start my 6 month internship at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team under the guidance of Herbert Van de Sompel and WSDL alumnus Martin Klein . Work Accomplished A majority of my time was used to work on the Scholarly Orphans project, which is a joint project between LANL and ODU, sponsored by the Andrew Mellon Foundation . This project explores from an institution perspective how it can discover, capture, and archive scholarly artifacts that an institution's researcher deposits in various productivity portals. After months of working on the project, Martin Klein showcased the Scholarly Orphans pipeline at TPDL 2018 . Scholarly Orphans pipeline diagram A Web-Centric Pipeline for Archiving Scholarly Artifacts from Martin Klein My main task for this pipeline was to create and manage two components: the artifact tracker
2018-11-12: Google Scholar May Need To Look Into Its Citation Rate
Google Scholar has long been regarded as a digital library containing the most complete collection of scholarly papers and patterns. For a digital library, completeness is very important because otherwise, you cannot guarantee the citation rate of a paper, or equivalently the in-link of a node in the citation graph. That is probably why Google Scholar is still more widely used and trusted than any other digital libraries with fancy functions. Today, I found two very interesting aspects of Google Scholar, one is clever and one is silly. The clever side is that Google Scholar distinguishes papers, preprints, and slides and count citations of them separately. If you search "DeepLab: Semantic Image Segmentation with Deep Convolutional Nets, Atrous Convolution, and Fully Connected CRFs", you may see the same view as I attached. Note that there are three results. The first is a paper on IEEE. The second actually contains a list of completely different authors. These people
2018-11-11: More than 7000 retracted abstracts from IEEE. Can we find them from IA?
One publisher, more than 7000 retractions Science magazine: More than 7000 abstracts are quietly retracted from the IEEE database. Most of these abstracts are from IEEE conferences that took place between 2009 and 2011. The plot below clearly shows when the retraction happened. The reason was weird: " After careful and considered review of the content of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE's Publication Principles. " Similar things happened in Nature subsidiary journal ( link ) and other journals ( link ). The question is can we find them from internet archive? Can they still be legally posted on a digital library like CiteSeerX? If they do, they can provide a very unique training dataset to be used for fraud and/or plagiarism detection, assuming that the reason under the hood is one of them. Jian Wu
2018-11-10: Scientific news and reports should cite original papers
I highly encourage all scientific news or reports cite corresponding articles. ScienceAlert usually does a good job on this. This piece of scientific news from ScienceAlert discovers two Rogue planets. Most planets we discovered rotate around a star. A Rogue planet does not rotate around a star, but the center of the Galaxy. Because planets do not emit light, Rogue planets are extremely hard to detect. This piece of news cites a recently published paper on arXiv . Although anybody can publish papers on arXiv. Papers published by reputable organizations should be reliable. A reliable citation is beneficial for all parties. It makes the scientific news more trustable. It gives credits to the original authors. It could also connect readers to a place to explore other interesting science. Jian Wu
2018-11-09: Grok Pattern
Grok is a way to match a text line against a regular expression, map specific parts of the line into dedicated fields, and perform actions based on this mapping. Grok patterns are (usually long) regular expressions that are widely used in log parsing. With tons of search engine logs, how to effectively parse them, extract useful metadata for analytics, training, and prediction has become a key problem in mining text big data. In this article, Ran Ramati gives a beginner's guide to Grok Pattern used in Logstash, one of the powerful tools in the Elastic Stack (the other two are Kibana and Elastic Search). https://logz.io/blog/logstash-grok/ The StreamSets webpage gives a list of Grok pattern examples: https://streamsets.com/documentation/datacollector/3.4.3/help/datacollector/UserGuide/Apx-GrokPatterns/GrokPatterns_title.html The recent paper by Huawei research lab in China summarizes and compare a number of log parsing tools: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.03509 I am k
2018-11-08: Decentralized Web Summit: Shaping the Next Web
By Sawood Alam - November 08, 2018
In my wallet I have a few ₹500 Indian currency notes that say, "I PROMISE TO PAY THE BEARER THE SUM OF FIVE HUNDRED RUPEES" followed by the signature of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India . However, this promise was broken two years ago from today, since then these bills in my pocket are nothing more than rectangular pieces of printed paper. So, I decided to utilize my origami skills and turn them into butterflies. On November 8, 2016, at 8:00 PM (Indian Standard Time), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the demonetization (effective in four hours after midnight) of the two biggest currency notes (₹1,000 and ₹500) in circulation at that time. Together these two notes represented about 86% of the total cash economy of India at that time. More than 65% of the Indian population still lives in rural and remote areas where availability of electricity, the Internet, and other utilities is not reliable yet. Hence, cash is a very common means of business
2018-11-30: Archives Unleashed: Vancouver Datathon...
2018-11-30: The Illusion of Multitasking Boosts Pe...
2018-11-12: Google Scholar May Need To Look Into I...
2018-11-11: More than 7000 retracted abstracts fro...
2018-11-10: Scientific news and reports should cit...
2018-11-08: Decentralized Web Summit: Shaping the ...


text:
Overlooked Film Festival, Take 8
Roger Ebert March 20, 2006
"Somebodies"producers Pam (from left) and Nate Kohn, star Kaira Whitehead and director, writer and star Hadjii (shown in January) will be onhand at the Over-looked fest.
Some films are born overlooked. Others have it thrust upon them. Among this year's festival entries, "Ripley's Game" has never had a theatrical release in the United States, and "Duane Hopwood" had a release so spotty it seemed designed to hide the film. Yet these are the kinds of films a movie critic views with joy: Films that are a meeting of craft and art. Being able to share them is an incalculable pleasure; everybody should have their own Overlooked Film Festival in the glorious Virginia Theater, all the year around. You have no idea how much fun it is.
John Malkovich, who will join us onstage after "Ripley's Game," along with Russell Smith, the film's executive producer. Malkovich has given many great performances in his career, but as Tom Ripley he has found a role he might have been born for. Remarkable, how much he shows about the character and how little he reveals. David Schwimmer is of course a famous television star, but although I knew he worked on the stage I had no idea what power he has as an actor until I saw "Duane Hopwood." Matt Mulhern, the writer and director of "Duane Hopwood," will join us onstage.
Overlookers who have attended some of the previous seven festivals know my claim that I can define any movie as overlooked. "My Fair Lady" may be the most famous musical of all time, but have you ever met Marni Nixon, who sings the Eliza Doolittle role? And have you ever seen it in glorious 70mm? Miss Nixon will join us on the stage, joined by the film's restorers, Jim Katz and Robert Harris. And handling the precious print in the projection booth are James Bond and Steve Kraus of Chicago, nationally-recognized leaders in the field.
How can Amy Adams be overlooked, when she was an Oscar nominee this year? Because her movie "Junebug" has grossed less than $3 million at the box office, according to the Internet Movie Database. Yes, it's on DVD, but this lovely and magical film must be seen with an audience. It's a communal experience, a human comedy of wonderful perception, and to have to see it at home alone strikes me as very sad. The film's director, Phil Morrison, will join us onstage, along with Michael Barker, whose Sony Classics released it. Amy Adams has said she will come unless the shooting schedule of her current film prevents her. And we are particularly proud to have the great Scott Wilson, who plays Army's father-in-law, back at the festival for the third time!
Lodge Kerrigan is a hero of mine, an independent filmmaker whose work is brave, uncompromising, and looks very deeply into the human heart. He has made three films, all extraordinary: "Clean, Shaven" (1994), "Claire Dolan" (1998) and "Keane" (2004). All three would honor our screen; I chose "Claire Dolan" because it stars the great actress Katrin Cartlidge ("Breaking the Waves," "Topsy-Turvy"), who died too young in September 2002. Lodge Kerrigan will join us onstage.
Two of our movies fall into my favorite category, "overlooked for now." That means they may not be overlooked for long -- at least, once they get theatrical distribution.
Prof. Nate Kohn, director of the Overlooked since its inception, will be center stage after the screening of "Somebodies," the movie he and his wife, Pam, produced after reading an extraordinary screenplay by a young film student named Hadjii, who also directs and stars. All three will be onstage, along with co-star Kaira Whitehead. The film was an official entry at Sundance this year; the odds against that are 100-to-one, and as I saw it at Park City I shared a real sense of discovery.
Also overlooked, for now, is "Man Push Cart," another of my Sundance discoveries. Made by Ramin Bahrani on a budget you couldn't rent a push cart for, it stars Ahmad Razvi as a former Pakistani rock star, now selling coffee and bagels from a Manhattan push cart. Movies can look more closely at people we see every day, but don't really see at all. Bahrani and Razvi will join us on stage to talk of a production where when Razvi wasn't acting, he was a crew member.
Another of our Overlooked films, "Bad Santa," has grossed well over $100 million at the world box office, and is selling like hotcakes on DVD. Why is it overlooked? Terry Zwigoff, its director, told me why. He is the director of the musical documentary "Louie Bluie," shown in our 2004 tribute to the musical and artistic genius Howard Armstrong. A few months ago, I joined Terry in recording a commentary track for the DVD of his documentary "Crumb." The Overlooked came up, and he said, "I've got one for you: 'Really, Really Bad Santa'." I said I thought that was the DVD Director's Cut. "No," he said, "that was 'Badder Santa.' That was merely the unrated version. This is the real Director's Cut." Since Zwigoff's star, Billy Bob Thornton, told me at Cannes that as a deliberate acting decision he was drunk during the entire shoot, the audience may want to wear seat belts. Zwigoff and his editor, Robert Hofffman, will be onstage.
David Mamet is so famous as a playwright that it's not always remembered that he is one of our best American directors. I feel an instinctive sympathy with his films, with their particular attention to details of behavior and dialogue. I can think of half a dozen that would grace our festival. "Spartan" is one of them, but I can't claim credit for its inclusion. Michael Barker, a frequent festival guest, suggested it. Barker, as I have mentioned, is co-president of Sony Pictures Classics. What is remarkable is that "Spartan" was not produced by Sony Classics. He just happens to love it. We hope to be joined onstage by one or two of the actors from the movie.
We always close the festival with a musical, and what a wonderful discovery we have this time. I went to see "U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha" as part of the celebration of the South African film renaissance at Cannes 2005. In "U-Carmen" I saw a version of Bizet's opera made particular and moving in an altogether new setting, and I was deeply moved by the leading role as sung by the South African diva Pauline Malefane. She sings it in Xhosa. You know what? Every time I've heard it, it's been in a foreign language.
For me, a personal highlight of the festival every year is the silent film, with the Alloy Orchestra of Cambridge, Mass., in the pit of the Virginia. These three remarkable musicians have single-handedly helped to inspire a revival of silent films all over the country; their restored prints and inspired scores bring the genre to life and remind us that the original magic of the movies did not have spoken dialog, but didn't miss it, working with the magic of sound and light. Their film this year is "The Eagle," starring Rudolph Valentino, who was one of the most famous stars in the world; this may actually not be the first time "The Eagle" has played the Virginia!
And now a story. In the early 1990s, I hosted a movie forum on CompuServe. One of the regulars was a kid from England named Francis Boyce. He grew up to become Frank Cottrell Boyce, perhaps the most respected of the younger generation of British screenwriters. His credits include "Butterfly Kiss," "Hilary and Jackie," "The Claim" and "24 Hour Party People." This year he wrote a family film, and it will be our free family matinee. "Millions" was directed by Danny Boyle (whose "Trainspotting" wouldn't lead you to expect a PG rating!). It's the story of two brothers who come into possession of the loot from a train robbery. One of them sees saints, not imaginary saints but real ones, who advise him on how to spend it. Frank claims that in an indirect way the screenplay was inspired by an interview I did with Martin Scorsese, who talked about his own amazement while reading the lives of the saints. Boyce could not be with us this year because of a family gathering, but has taken a rain check for 2007 -- when the film we choose will not be the family matinee.
The Overlooked is possible only because of the tireless generosity of our sponsors and the tireless work of our volunteers, for whom thanks seems hardly adequate. The festival is a production of the College of Communications of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, whose dean, Ron Yates, has been generous in his support and encouragement. Associate Dean Nancy Casey is the executive producer. Festival director Prof. Nate Kohn and I, both Urbana natives, exchange countless opinions as we choose the programming; his counsel is invaluable. Mary Susan Britt, cheerful in the face of the most daunting complications, is the assistant director; Nickie Dalton makes it all happen as the festival manager; Dr. Norman Denzin coordinates the academic panels; Robert Baird is our invaluable webmaster at ebertfest.com; Leone Advertising designed the new look of the site; Prof. Andrea Press is a friend and advisor; Carlton Bruett is responsible for the posters and the look of the festival; and Allison Firor is our invaluable coordinator. Among many local friends, many from my early years here, none gives warmer or more cheerful hospitality than the irreplaceable Betsy Hendrick.
Jameel Jones and Anthony Howell deserve warm credit for the Virginia Theater operation itself, which they coordinate and supervise with warm hospitality. Thanks to the Champaign Park District for its support of the Overlooked and the festival area. Jim Emerson, editor of rogerebert.com, will be attendance again and providing expertise on and off-stage. And Dusty Cohl, who founded the Toronto Film Festival, joins with his wife Joan as our Accomplices-in-Chief; sometimes they seem to be running a family reunion. The Daily Illini, my other alma mater, produces this splendid program. And a special thanks to my beloved Chaz, whose title of "special advisor" represents a universe of wisdom and encouragement.
Schedules, film descriptions and ticket information are online at www.ebertfest.com or at the Virginia Theatre box office in Champaign.


text:
ISKCON Kirtan Artists in Top 20 Conscious Albums of the Year
By: Madhava Smullen for ISKCON News on Jan. 8, 2016
The Hanumen - Leaps and Bounds
Four kirtan albums by ISKCON chanters, most of them second-generation devotees, made the Top 20 Conscious Music Albums of 2015 list on the international station Soul Traveller Radio this January.
The list, voted for by listeners worldwide, included new age, electronica, and reggae artists, as well as renowned artists from the broader kirtan community such as Dave Stringer, Krishna Das, MC Yogi, and Deva Premal.
The Hanumen (from left to right) - Gaura Vani, Purusartha Das, John De Kadt, Benjy Wertheimer
Which makes it all the more impressive that ISKCON devotee artists filled the top three spaces, with Madi Das and The Hanumen coming in just behind Jahnavi Harrison in the coveted number one spot. Ananda Monet followed at number sixteen.
During his Soul Traveller Radio Show on January 2nd, host Shayne Locke brought in Madi Das as his co-host and played cuts from all top 20 albums, mentioning that there was a particularly strong showing from the kirtan community.
Jahnavi Harrison - Like A River to the Sea
"This is not a competition, but more of a conscious music celebration," he reminded listeners.
The first ISKCON devotee offering in the list at number sixteen, Ananda Monet's "Inevitable Time" is not actually a traditional kirtan record, but a grand film-score style album that tells the story of the devotional epic Mahabharat through musical vignettes. Ananda, a Russian-born gurukuli now based in the UK, grew up singing the Sanskrit lyrics from the Bhagavad-gita and Puranas, and brings a lot of emotion to her powerful vocals.
The cover of Inevitable Time
At number three, Madi's Bhakti Without Borders made international news recently for garnering a 2016 Grammy nomination, and features duets with 12 Vaishnavi chanters singing traditional bhajans to infectiously catchy melodies. But to Madi, the album's most important aspect is that 100% of its profits go towards helping underprivileged girls in Lord Krishna's hometown of Vrindavana, India.
"It was a huge honor to be on the list, though if I could choose, I would have put myself 4th and Ananda Monet's album – which is incredible – 3rd," says Madi. "But being surpassed by friends I grew up with, whose talent and experience, and devotion is deeper, was the perfect way to place in the competition."
Ananda Monet
The number two spot belongs to the Hanumen, a sort of kirtan supergroup that includes not only Madi's second-generation friend Gaura Vani and Srila Prabhupada disciple Purusartha Das, but also features Benjy Wertheimer of world music group Shantala, and American poet John DeKadt.
Soul Traveller called their second album, Leaps and Bounds, "Inspiring," "Insightful," and "Illuminating," and said that it "blends call-and-response chanting, mystic poetry, and world music into a magical brew of sacred love songs." The record features tracks such as "Invocation (Chaitanya Mantra)," "Bhaja Govindam," and "I Am Yours / Hare Krishna."
Madi Das - Bhakti Without Borders
Meanwhile, at number one was Jahnavi Harrison's "Like A River to the Sea," produced by Gaura Vani's record label Mantralogy. The daughter of UK-based Prabhupada disciple Kripamoya Das, Jahnavi is the youngest chanter of all the ISKCON artists on the list, and Like A River… is her first album.
But her genuine, heartfelt devotion clearly won over Soul Traveller's editors, who noticed something special and raved, "Pure, prayerful melodies emanate from Krishna devotee Jahnavi Harrison's lips on every track of Like A River To The Sea. There's no doubt about it:This woman is singing to God."
Jahnavi Harrison
Jahnavi, for her part, said she was "very honored" to hear the news. "Thank you so much to all of you who voted!" she said. "May we always work together harmoniously to spread music that uplifts the consciousness of the world."
[ ananda-monet ] [ gaurangi ] [ grammy ] [ jahnavi ] [ kirtana ] [ madi ] [ music ] [ youth ]
First ISKCON Pandharpur Youth Festival A Grand Success
INDIA: CII seeks revision in National Youth Policy
Is Madhava the Voice of a New Generation?
Kirtana is 'In'
Chanting Concludes Interfaith Response to 9/11
Jagjit Singh Launches New Album at ISKCON Juhu
As Kindred Spirits Bring Pop-Flavored Kirtan to the Masses
24-hour Kirtana Festival Rocks New Vrindavana
Book Review: The Yoga of Kirtan
Addressing Concerns About the New Kirtan Book
Childrens' Chanting Party Enlivens Mayapur Residents
The Kirtan Book -- Part Two?
Chanting Lifts Ludhiana Inmates' Spirits
Second Generation's Prayer to be Globally Synchronized
World Holy Name Week
Washington D.C. Chants for Change
'Japathon' Spreads Across the USA
Chanting-4-Change In the Nation's Capital: A Full Report
Taiwan: 'The Magic of Sound' Tour Well Attended
Yoga Enthusiasts Hear the Call of Kirtan
Kirtans, Questions, and Mixed Emotions
Ekendra Dasa: 100% Certified Philosobilly
Lord Caitanya and the Renaissance of Devotion (Part 2)
Hindus Ask for 'Kirtan' Grammy


text:
System console
The system console, computer console, root console, operator's console, or simply console is the text entry and display device for system administration messages, particularly those from the BIOS or boot loader, the kernel, from the init system and from the system logger. It is a physical device consisting of a keyboard and a screen, and traditionally is a text terminal, but may also be a graphical terminal. System consoles are generalized to computer terminals, which are abstracted respectively by virtual consoles and terminal emulators. Today communication with system consoles is generally done abstractly, via the standard streams (stdin, stdout, and stderr), but there may be system-specific interfaces, for example those used by the system kernel.
Prior to the development of alphanumeric CRT system consoles, some computers such as the IBM 1620 had console typewriters and front panels while the very first programmable computer, the Manchester Baby, used a combination of electromechanical switches and a CRT to provide console functionsґthe CRT displaying memory contents in binary by mirroring the machine's Williams-Kilburn tube CRT-based RAM.
On traditional minicomputers, the console was a serial console, an RS-232 serial link to a terminal such as a DEC VT100. This terminal was usually kept in a secured room since it could be used for certain privileged functions such as halting the system or selecting which media to boot from. Large midrange systems, e.g. those from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, still use serial consoles. In larger installations, the console ports are attached to multiplexers or network-connected multiport serial servers that let an operator connect a terminal to any of the attached servers. Today, serial consoles are often used for accessing headless systems, usually with a terminal emulator running on a laptop. Also, routers, enterprise network switches and other telecommunication equipment have RS-232 serial console ports.
On PCs and workstations, the computer's attached keyboard and monitor have the equivalent function. Since the monitor cable carries video signals, it cannot be extended very far. Often, installations with many servers therefore use keyboard/video multiplexers (KVM switches) and possibly video amplifiers to centralize console access. In recent years, KVM/IP devices have become available that allow a remote computer to view the video output and send keyboard input via any TCP/IP network and therefore the Internet.
Some PC BIOSes, especially in servers, also support serial consoles, giving access to the BIOS through a serial port so that the simpler and cheaper serial console infrastructure can be used. Even where BIOS support is lacking, some operating systems, e.g. FreeBSD and Linux, can be configured for serial console operation either during bootup, or after startup.
It is usually possible to log in from the console. Depending on configuration, the operating system may treat a login session from the console as being more trustworthy than a login session from other sources.


text:
// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information.

using System.Reflection;
using Xunit;

namespace System.Linq.Expressions.Tests
{
    public class BindTests
    {
        private class PropertyAndFields
        {
#pragma warning disable 649 // Assigned through expressions.
            public string StringProperty { get; set; }
            public string StringField;
            public readonly string ReadonlyStringField;
            public string ReadonlyStringProperty => "";
            public static string StaticStringProperty { get; set; }
            public static string StaticStringField;
            public static string StaticReadonlyStringProperty => "";
            public readonly static string StaticReadonlyStringField = "";
            public const string ConstantString = "Constant";
#pragma warning restore 649
        }

        private class Unreadable<T>
        {
            public T WriteOnly
            {
                set { }
            }
        }

        [Fact]
        public void NullPropertyAccessor()
        {
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentNullException>("propertyAccessor", () => Expression.Bind(default(MethodInfo), Expression.Constant(0)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void NullMember()
        {
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentNullException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(default(MemberInfo), Expression.Constant(0)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void NullExpression()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty))[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentNullException>("expression", () => Expression.Bind(member, null));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentNullException>("expression", () => Expression.Bind(property, null));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void ReadOnlyMember()
        {
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(typeof(string).GetProperty(nameof(string.Length)), Expression.Constant(0)));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(typeof(string).GetMember(nameof(string.Length))[0], Expression.Constant(0)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void WriteOnlyExpression()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty))[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty));
            Expression expression = Expression.Property(Expression.Constant(new Unreadable<string>()), typeof(Unreadable<string>), nameof(Unreadable<string>.WriteOnly));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("expression", () => Expression.Bind(member, expression));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("expression", () => Expression.Bind(property, expression));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void MethodForMember()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(object.ToString))[0];
            MethodInfo method = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMethod(nameof(object.ToString));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("")));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("propertyAccessor", () => Expression.Bind(method, Expression.Constant("")));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void ExpressionTypeNotAssignable()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty))[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(null, () => Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant(0)));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(null, () => Expression.Bind(property, Expression.Constant(0)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void OpenGenericTypesMember()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(Unreadable<>).GetMember("WriteOnly")[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(Unreadable<>).GetProperty("WriteOnly");
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(null, () => Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant(0)));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>(null, () => Expression.Bind(property, Expression.Constant(0)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void MustBeMemberOfType()
        {
            var newExp = Expression.New(typeof(UriBuilder));
            var bind = Expression.Bind(
                typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StringProperty)),
                Expression.Constant("value")
                );
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("bindings[0]", () => Expression.MemberInit(newExp, bind));
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void MemberAssignmentFromMember(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            PropertyAndFields result = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(
                        typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember("StringProperty")[0],
                        Expression.Constant("Hello Property")
                        ),
                    Expression.Bind(
                        typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember("StringField")[0],
                        Expression.Constant("Hello Field")
                        )
                )
            ).Compile(useInterpreter)();

            Assert.Equal("Hello Property", result.StringProperty);
            Assert.Equal("Hello Field", result.StringField);
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void MemberAssignmentFromMethodInfo(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            PropertyAndFields result = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(
                        typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty("StringProperty"),
                        Expression.Constant("Hello Property")
                        )
                )
            ).Compile(useInterpreter)();

            Assert.Equal("Hello Property", result.StringProperty);
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void ConstantField(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.ConstantString))[0];
            var attemptAssignToConstant = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant(""))
                    )
                );

            Assert.Throws<NotSupportedException>(() => attemptAssignToConstant.Compile(useInterpreter));
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void ReadonlyField(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.ReadonlyStringField))[0];
            var assignToReadonly = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("ABC"))
                    )
                );
            var func = assignToReadonly.Compile(useInterpreter);
            Assert.Equal("ABC", func().ReadonlyStringField);
        }

        [Fact]
        public void ReadonlyProperty()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.ReadonlyStringProperty))[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.ReadonlyStringProperty));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("")));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(property, Expression.Constant("")));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void StaticReadonlyProperty()
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StaticReadonlyStringProperty))[0];
            PropertyInfo property = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StaticReadonlyStringProperty));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("")));
            Assert.Throws<ArgumentException>("member", () => Expression.Bind(property, Expression.Constant("")));
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void StaticField(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StaticStringField))[0];
            var assignToReadonly = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("ABC"))
                    )
                );
            var func = assignToReadonly.Compile(useInterpreter);
            PropertyAndFields.StaticStringField = "123";
            func();
            Assert.Equal("ABC", PropertyAndFields.StaticStringField);
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void StaticReadonlyField(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StaticReadonlyStringField))[0];
            var assignToReadonly = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("ABC" + useInterpreter))
                    )
                );
            var func = assignToReadonly.Compile(useInterpreter);
            func();
            Assert.Equal("ABC" + useInterpreter, PropertyAndFields.StaticReadonlyStringField);
        }

        [Theory, ClassData(typeof(CompilationTypes))]
        public void StaticProperty(bool useInterpreter)
        {
            MemberInfo member = typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetMember(nameof(PropertyAndFields.StaticStringProperty))[0];
            var assignToStaticProperty = Expression.Lambda<Func<PropertyAndFields>>(
                Expression.MemberInit(
                    Expression.New(typeof(PropertyAndFields)),
                    Expression.Bind(member, Expression.Constant("ABC"))
                    )
                );
            Assert.Throws<InvalidProgramException>(() => assignToStaticProperty.Compile(useInterpreter));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void UpdateDifferentReturnsDifferent()
        {
            var bind = Expression.Bind(typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty("StringProperty"), Expression.Constant("Hello Property"));
            Assert.NotSame(bind, Expression.Default(typeof(string)));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void UpdateSameReturnsSame()
        {
            var bind = Expression.Bind(typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty("StringProperty"), Expression.Constant("Hello Property"));
            Assert.Same(bind, bind.Update(bind.Expression));
        }

        [Fact]
        public void MemberBindingTypeAssignment()
        {
            var bind = Expression.Bind(typeof(PropertyAndFields).GetProperty("StringProperty"), Expression.Constant("Hello Property"));
            Assert.Equal(MemberBindingType.Assignment, bind.BindingType);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Technology for People shows the way to an exciting future where healthcare technology is designed by humans, for humans, to create positive change that can transform healthcare organizations and society.
Digital breakthroughs are enabling healthcare enterprises to improve labor productivity, clinical outcomes and human experiences. This unprecedented era of technology innovation is allowing clinicians and service workers to broadly apply their knowledge, freeing up more face time to spend delivering a human touch. And, as technology affords greater opportunities for self-management, it's empowering people to consume healthcare on their own terms. It is no longer about what technology can do for people, it's what people can do with technology.
These trends demonstrate the fact that while technology is all around us, we are at the center. When we adapt technology to the people that use it in healthcare—health insurers, providers and consumers—we will define the future of healthcare.
Every year, the Technology Vision team partners with Accenture Research to pinpoint the emerging IT developments that will have the greatest impact on companies, government agencies and other organizations in the next three to five years. These trends have significant impact across industries, and are actionable for businesses today.
The research process begins with gathering input from the Technology Vision External Advisory Board, a group comprising more than two dozen experienced individuals from the public and private sectors, academia, venture capital and entrepreneurial companies. In addition, the Technology Vision team conducts interviews with technology luminaries and industry experts, as well as nearly 100 Accenture business leaders from across the organization.
For the third year, we conducted a global survey of more than 5,400 business and IT executives in 31 countries to understand their perspectives on the impact of technology in business, and to identify their technology strategy and priority investments for the next few years. The survey was fielded from November 2016 through January 2017.
Accenture is in no way promoting or intending to market any one particular solution or product or otherwise offer or market a medical device or clinical solution. Each company uses its own operations to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.


text:
Call for Better Care, Episode Fifteen
Here in episode fifteen, we discuss the pandemic, Indigenous communities, and inequality in countries like Mexico. This follows on episode fourteen when we discussed discuss how traditional medicine is a solid approach to providing better quality and access to health care for Indigenous and rural communities, especially during the ongoing pandemic in Mexico and across the Global South.
HIDALGO & PSYDEH & MEXICO
The pandemic has deepened existing inequalities and divisions between social groups. In many places, Indigenous populations are among the most marginalized and precarious. COVID-19 in Mexico highlights the inequalities between different population groups, which manifests itself in the reality that Indigenous communities lack effective access to disease prevention and disease care. Difficult access to culturally relevant means of communication also makes Indigenous populations vulnerable to diseases, and particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, as historically, indigenous peoples have shown little resistance to respiratory diseases.
The side effects of living in poverty can cause one to be at a disadvantage in maintaining good health, and this is a serious problem during the pandemic.
One death every hour from Covid-19 in Hidalgo
The state of Hidalgo, Mexico registered 24 deaths in one day, on Monday, December 28th, due to Covid-19, meaning one person died every hour, according to the daily technical report issued by the Secretariat of Health of Hidalgo (SSH). It was detailed in this report that the accumulated number of deaths in the state increased to 3,259 individuals.
PSYDEH currently works with Indigenous populations in Hidalgo, specifically to the inhabitants of the Otomí-Tepehua Region, hence we focus in this piece on Hidalgo. However, PSYDEH strongly believes that Indigenous communities throughout the republic deserve the support that is needed to survive the pandemic. The Indigenous people and communities of Mexico are in a situation of serious vulnerability in the face of the pandemic. Infections are moving from urban centers to more isolated cities and towns that are gateways to rural indigenous regions. Mexican authorities still have time to design a joint response based on a differential and culturally relevant approach, with the participation of communities and civil society organizations. Because of this, the following recommendations are issued:
Accelerate the process of setting up medical care units in rural areas to prevent saturation
Increase the number of tests applied in rural and Indigenous areas to detect possible invisible outbreaks early and to ensure that the results do not take more than a week
To the National Institute of Indigenous people; advise and support traditional authorities in the implementation of infection prevention measures in their communities
As the pandemic continues, and we prepare for future public health outbreaks, there needs to be a focus on addressing health inequalities that are so prevalent in Mexico. The republic's Indigenous communities need support.
December 2016 Field Report for Global Donors to PSYDEH "Fruits of Change" Campaign
PSYDEH cosecha grandes victorias en el mayor evento de relaciones públicas de su historia
"Continúa el trabajo del proyecto "Fruits of Change"


text:
By Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Collectibles: Fairest Fowl
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Sheila Gibson Stoodley's Most Recent Stories
An 'Immaculate' 1967 Lamborghini Will Lead Artcurial's September Auction
This 1929 Mercedes-Benz Could Fetch Up to $9 Million at Auction This Week
Will Online Auctions Mean the Demise of Christie's or Sotheby's?
No one likes a nuisance.As proof, consider Canada geese. Their behavior is so bad it has even affected demand for original plates (prints made from engravings) of John James Audubon's depiction of them. "Plate number 201, Canada Goose, used to be one of the top prints," says Marc Fagan, director of consignments at Neal Auction Company in New Orleans, which sells Audubon prints among other items. "But now, [the bird] is such a pest on golf courses and corporate campuses that people don't want [the print] anymore." Canada Goose once commanded $40,000 to $55,000, but for the last 10 years, Fagan says, the plate has been selling for $25,000 to $35,000.
The goose plate fares better when it is part of a complete edition of The Birds of America. Each of the three most expensive printed books ever auctioned is an original, folio-size edition of Audubon's masterwork, which the ornithologist-artist completed in 1838. The most expensive folio sold for $11.5 million in 2010 at Sotheby's; another sold for $8.8 million in 2000 at Christie's, and a third garnered a bid of $7.9 million in 2012 at Christie's. Rarity accounts in part for these prices: It is estimated that fewer than 200 were printed. Only about 130 complete folios survive, and maybe a dozen remain in private hands.
Acquiring one of the 435 individual plates from an original folio can be considerably easier than gaining possession of a complete example of The Birds of America. The plates, made from engravings based on Audubon's paintings of the birds, sell for six-figure sums on the high end and less than $1,000 on the low end.
Audubon, whose goal was to catalog every bird species in North America, sold the plates by subscription, delivering five images to his customers every one to two months beginning in 1827. (Thus the original folios were printed unbound.) The quintet of images usually consisted of one large bird, one medium-size species, and three small ones.
Audubon depicted the birds at life size, on paper measuring 39.5 inches tall by 28.5 inches wide. The life-size portrayals leave the smaller, less spectacular birds at a disadvantage compared to the larger birds, whose images benefit in the market as well as on the page. "It's a very large sheet of paper with a very small bird in the middle of it," says Tom McLaughlin, director of the Donald A. Heald gallery in Manhattan, which operates the website AudubonGalleries.com. "They don't carry across the room in the way the white heron or the spotted or Canada grouse does."
The most sought-after plate is American Flamingo. The subject is so tall and lanky that Audubon had to depict the creature bowing in order to fit it on the paper. The flamingo plate has sold for as much as $197,900. "It's a charming thing," says Fagan. "It's awkward looking, but it's a natural pose."
The flamingo has toppled the previous favorite, Great American Cock Male, Wild Turkey, which was the first plate in Audubon's series. But it is more a matter of the world warming up to the flamingo rather than going cold on the turkey. Demand has remained high for the turkey plate: At a Neal auction in 2010, an example sold for $131,450.
Less popular plates feature bird-on-bird violence and its aftermath, and one depicts its subject—the American pipit—perched on a pile of dung. Original examples of that plate sell for less than $1,000. "Some of these I won't even take," Fagan says. "Number 208, Esquimaux Curlew, shows the bird looking at its dead mate on the ground. It's pretty sad."
Christie's, 212.636.2000, www.christies.com; Donald A. Heald, 212.668.1410, www.donaldheald.com, www.audubongalleries.com; Neal Auction Company, 504.899.5329, www.nealauction.com; Sotheby's, 212.606.7000, www.sothebys.com
Christie's Auction
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The charming little town of Wimberley has been on the news lately because of the dangerous and deadly flood that occured on the Blanco River during Memorial Day Weekend. We heard the town's swimming hole, the Blue Hole, which sits on Cypress Creek was spared from the damage that left so many of the huge cypress trees uprooted along the Blanco River's path, and the allure of a cool dip in it's waters were enough to persuade us to plan a visit.
Although the best advice I can give you is to just leave your cares and enjoy the clear, cold spring water, I did make a list of My Mommy Tips for making the most of your visit!
The Swimming Area is part of the Blue Hole Regional Park, which has walking trails, volleyball court, picnic table and grills and is FREE to the public. There is only an admission to the Blue Hole, itself.
The Swimming Area is open daily from 10am – 6pm. Reservations are required, and does sell out, so make your plans early!
Coolers are allowed with no additional charge. No glass or alcohol.
Swim at your own risk. There are no lifeguards, and the water is deep.
Small pop-up or beach umbrella for shade.
Life jackets for younger or weak swimmers.
water shoes. Not mandatory but not a bad idea, either.
mask and snorkle or goggles to see in the clear water!
The walkways and grounds at the Blue Hole are nice and well-kept. Staff is great about watching what is going on and keeping everything very family friendly.
There is a large open area for setting out blankets and chairs, and you can bring a small shade or umbrella. There are not picnic tables in the swim area.
The water is cold and clear! It's also deep, and I most wished I had brought something to float or hold onto while keeping cool in it! You can bring tubes or pool noodles, just keep track of them so they don't get away and float down the creek!
The big cypress trees that line the creek keep the creek nice and shaded. It's tempting to forget the sunscreen. But don't.
There are two "rope swings" at the Blue Hole, although they are both made of chain hanging from the beautiful cypress tress that line the Blue Hole. One of the swings is perfect for smaller kids, and my youngest stayed busy on it! There is also a nice ladder to climb back up.
The other swing hangs just a little bit higher and is harder for younger kids to reach. Most of the kids using it would set it swinging, then run out, jump and try to grab it! It was really fun just to watch them try! We were able to bring in the rope and swing my youngest out so he could experience it.
The water is very clear, and with the help of goggles you can look around the bottom of the cypress tree which is growing on a big rock underwater.
We had a great time and stayed until the park was getting ready to close!
Wimberley is also home to Jacob's Well, a very popular swimming hole. It's so popular that reservations are required to swim there! For more information click HERE to visit their website.
Picturesque Downtown Wimberley is home to many cute shops. Keep an eye open for the Wimberley Strong flags that line downtown, a reference to the healing and rebuilding from May's flood. Market Days are the first Saturday of the month, March through December.
While in Wimberley, we stayed with my aunt and uncle, so I can't really give you a first hand recommendation for lodging, unless she'll let you stay with her, and she put out and great breakfast! Just kidding, but I've heard great things about 7A Ranch.


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Our focus is primarily on investments in key urban locations throughout the United States with an emphasis on retail and mixed-use properties.
Maguire Capital Group seeks out early-stage investments focusing on product and retail.


text:
About This Lawyer
Meg Hobbins
4922 Fairmont Ave, Suite 200
Contact This Lawyer
Grossman Young & Hammond
Meg Hobbins is a Partner focusing on complex U.S. immigration matters and Interpol defense. Meg has fifteen years of experience in U.S. immigration and international human rights law and has represented clients seeking permanent residence, the full spectrum of humanitarian immigration benefits, and relief from removal proceedings.
Meg has extensive expertise with the most challenging consular visa applications, including all categories of inadmissibility waivers. She represents clients at every stage in the family-based immigration process, from initial marriage-based petitions to conditional residency and naturalization.
Meg began working with asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2000 and has been honored to represent clients fleeing persecution from all corners of the globe. Her keen knowledge of international human rights law has allowed her to successfully challenge multiple Red Notices based on false criminal charges, vindicating her clients and allowing them to live without fear of unjust apprehension.
Meg speaks English, French, and Spanish.
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Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu claimed a Russian air strike hit a meeting of ISIS leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Syria last month. The information is being verified.
Today (Friday), Russia's Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu claimed that Russian Air Force pilots may have succeeded in eliminating ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
According to Shoygu, the Russians attacked a meeting of ISIS leaders in the terrorist organization's capital of Raqqa, Syria, last month. They are attempting to verify the information.
This is not the first time the al-Baghdadi's death has been reported. In January, he was reported to be seriously injured. In June 2016, it was reported that he was eliminated in a US-led airstrike.


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Early Goal Propels Nixa to District Title
Just like in the district semifinals, Republic allowed an early goal on a corner kick in the district championship game Thursday night. Unlike the district semifinals, the Lady Tigers weren't able to recover. Nixa rode the momentum of that first goal to a 3-0 shutout win at Republic Thursday, capturing a district championship and ending the Lady Tigers' season.
Republic coach Kevin Hauck says the early goal by Nixa played a big role in the outcome of the game.
"I think that was pretty big going forward. I felt pretty good going into [the game], and really, up to that point, we had a lot of pressure on … their side of the field," Hauck says. "That was kind of a downer coming out of the gates there."
Republic's best scoring opportunity of the first half came a few minutes later when Emma Pearce briefly had a 1-on-1 with Nixa keeper Riley McClintock, but McClintock charged at Pearce to force a quick shot, and the ball rolled wide left.
In Tuesday's semifinal, Republic had overcome a 1-0 halftime deficit to beat Branson, but Nixa made sure that didn't happen by continuing to control possession with a patient attack in the second half. The Lady Eagles went on top 2-0 in the 50th minute, then scored again to put the game away in the 61st minute.
Republic ends its season 14-7. The Lady Tigers allowed just 22 goals all season, shattering the old school record of 30 goals allowed in a season. Goalkeeper Tara Campbell and the defense ended the year with 11 shutouts.
Despite the disappointing ending to 2018, Hauck says he saw positive signs for the program throughout the year.
"We had a really good win against Northwest, out of St. Louis. But losing 2-1 to Ozark and losing to Nixa in overtime (in the regular season) — being right there with those schools and not being able to finish them off — but we've never been competitive with those schools coming up to this point," Hauck says. "So for us to be competitive with them this season, I think, was a huge step forward. Going into next year, we know we can compete with them."
The team will return nine starters next year, in addition to several more role players from this year's team. "We did a great job of competing with the youth that we had this year against some really good schools," he says. "I think the future's looking really bright for us."


You don't want to find out after the fact that a previous leak caused water damage in your kitchen. You will also want to know that the pipes are in good shape so that there won't be any water worries in the near future. Have a look under and around the sink, dishwasher, and fridge to see if you notice any water staining, dripping, or any sign of warping due to water leakage.
You will likely spend a lot of time using your kitchen appliances. The cost of replacing appliances can really add up, so you'll want to be sure that they are going to meet your needs. When you're walking through a home that you're excited about, it's easy to get caught up in things like the architecture, number of bedrooms, and square footage. However, it's highly advisable to give the kitchen appliances a thorough look over.
If you have the opportunity to turn the appliances on to test their function, then it's a great idea to do so. If not, ask the seller (or have your realtor ask the seller) whether or not there are any problems with the appliances and if they have any warranties and manuals to go along with them. Take note of any potential issues and factor that into your final decision about making an offer.
Older homes have often had a facelift or two over the years. Styles change and different owners have varying design tastes. That said, not all updates are done well. Just because something looks shiny and new doesn't necessarily mean that it's sturdy and resilient. Sometimes homeowners cut into support walls to create a more open space, but end up doing damage to the home's overall integrity. Other times people give a room a cosmetic makeover to hide damage that has occurred in the home such as a kitchen fire or a water leak.
As stated on UncleBobs.com, "Kitchen cabinets are the most expensive amenity of the kitchen." Replacing them can cost a lot of money, so it's best to know what you're getting into ahead of time. If the cabinets look newer, be sure to ask who did the work so that you know who to contact in case you need a section repaired or replaced. If the cupboards are older but look to be solid, then it may be a good idea to look into the cost of refinishing or re-facing them.
Putting your own stamp on an older kitchen can be a lot of fun, but it can also reveal hidden costs, especially if you overlook problems in the first place. Have a close look at anything in the kitchen that appears unusual. If it seems at all suspicious or if you're just not sure, be sure to ask. If you feel like you're still not getting all the information you need, either walk away or call in a professional to properly check it out.


Mondomarine has launched its latest model, a 49.2 metre all-aluminium superyacht with a bright red hull, which has been named Ipanema.
Styled inside and out by Milan-based design studio Hot Lab, the new arrival sports a flowing exterior profile and hydrodynamic and technical design by Mondomarine.
Mondomarine added that her steeply raked stern "generates a forward visual thrust for the superstructure", while the full-height windows that run along most of the length of the main deck "allow a constant dialogue with the exterior".
The interiors feature classical styling cues that draw on Italian, English and French traditions, with columns, pilasters, carved lintels, friezes and bas-reliefs.
On board there are more than a dozen different types of marble, as well as onyx, mahogany and briar, which are used to create 37 different design motifs.
The tri-deck layout includes a spacious sundeck, as well as accommodation for 12 split across an owners cabin and four guest cabins. Key features include a fold-down beach area and a transom tender garage.
Power comes from a pair of 2,185hp MTU 16V2000 M84 engines for a fast cruising speed of 17 knots. When trimmed back to 12 knots, Ipanema will have a maximum cruising range of 3,500 nautical miles. Her new owner is due to take delivery at the end of July.
Upcoming projects under construction at Mondomarine's Savona yard include the 60.22 metre M60S and the recently sold M54.


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Women sue over forced cavity searches for visitors to Rikers Island
Cory Doctorow 7:38 am Tue Jan 10, 2017
Procedure at New York's Rikers Island prison is for visitors to be subjected to a pat-down search, but women who visit their loved ones are suing the New York Department of Corrections because guards there subject them to illegal, violent, humiliating strip and cavity searches, sometimes holding them down while forcibly penetrating them with their fingers.
Visitors are routinely forced to show their vulvas to guards and remove their tampons to "prove they are menstruating" and one woman had a guard forcefully shove her tampon so far into her body that she couldn't remove it.
The New York Department of Corrections has previously settled multiple lawsuits for improper strip-searches of arrestees, paying $50M in one case and $33M in another. The lawyers representing the Rikers visitors say that the humiliating searches they are subjected to are so consistent and routine that they represent a kind of shadow-policy that guards must be trained in, in violation of official DoC policy.
At least 27 women are suing the DOC over Rikers searches and searches at other New York jails and prisons.
Some women say they were searched in front of their children while visiting the children's fathers. A frequent outcome of these searches is for women to stop visiting altogether.
On August 20, 2016, Onoria Veras traveled to Rikers to visit her fiancé. When she arrived at the Visit Control Building, according to her notice of claim, officers brought her to the bathroom to be searched. Veras said she tried to refuse and asked to leave but was threated with arrest and confiscation of identification. An unidentified officer then "pulled down Claimant's pants and put her hand in-between Claimant's legs and into her buttocks," Veras's notice of claims states. "Claimant was asked what was in her underwear and she told C.O. DOE it was a panty liner. C.O. DOE then moved the panties aside and put her hand over Claimant's vagina." Afterward, Veras said, she was so upset that "she went straight to the bus to return home, foregoing her visit."
Figman has trouble attributing the invasive searches to bad apples among correction officers. "It's obviously going on in a systematic way because I have multiple claims against individual correctional officers and the way that the women describe the search conducted has a lot of similarities," he explained. "It's almost like the correctional officers are being trained to do something that is way outside of department protocol."
According to Matthew Brinckerhoff, an attorney who represented the class members in two previous strip-search class-actions against the DOC, "It is unquestionable in my mind that it would be unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment to have a policy of strip-searching people who are visiting."
While the Supreme Court determined in 2012 that people arrested for minor infractions could be legally strip-searched under the Constitution, reasonable suspicion to strip-search a visitor would require specific, individualized evidence. Brinckerhoff laid out a theoretical scenario in which subjecting a visitor to an invasive search might be legal: "Perhaps if you had confiscated a letter where the visitor had said, 'I will be smuggling in a gun, or something that could be used as a weapon, or drugs of some sort, and I will be inserting them into my body.'" Even then, he said, the search would have to be conducted by a medical professional. "A corrections officer can't just take it upon him or herself to manually probe someone with their hands. That would never be appropriate, under any circumstance."
Women Visiting New York City Jails Describe a Pattern of Invasive, Humiliating Strip Searches
[Raven Rakia/The Intercept]
(Image: Min Liu)
carceral state
Rhode Island man who faked death to avoid rape charge is found in Scotland
Nicholas Rossi, wanted over a sexual assault in Orem, Utah, in 2008 and an Ohio assault in 2018, died in 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as might be learned at the memorial website EverLoved.com under his then-alias. This effort to escape the law was not enough; Rossi was living off-grid in Scotland but ended up hospitalized… READ THE REST
Former leader of neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division jailed for 7 years
Kaleb Cole, 25, was convicted of threatening journalists and Jewish activists and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment, reports NBC News. The former leader of the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division, Cole and his group mailed threatening posters to their targets and, in one case, glued one to the window of their home. "Today the community and those… READ THE REST
Oklahoma death row inmates pursue execution by firing squad
Donald Grant and Gilbert Postelle, both on death row in Oklahoma, are seeking court approval of execution by firing squad instead of three-drug lethal injection. Their attorneys are hoping for their imminent executions to be delayed until a trial can determine whether lethal injection is unconstitutional. If that's the ruling, lethal injection is permitted as… READ THE REST


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Why Nord Stream Sabotage is A Crime Against Humanity
in World — by Bharat Dogra — 05/12/2022
The four ruptures in the Nord Stream Pipelines in the Baltic Sea on September 26-27 constitute an act of sabotage that has led to the biggest-ever single point leak of methane. Let us first examine the various aspects relating to this issue on which already there is widespread agreement.
Firstly, it is already widely agreed that this is the single largest one-point release of methane into the atmosphere and extremely harmful in the context of climate change. Methane is a very potent greenhouse gas (GHG) which is about 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide over a period of 20 years. Various estimates say that the Nord Stream sabotage is likely to lead to 100,000 to 500,000 tonnes of methane emissions. The closest comparison is with the Aliso Canyon accidental leak in California in 2015-16 which involved leak of about 97,000 tonnes of methane, but it was spaced over a much longer period of about four months and so less catastrophic. It was accidental, and so while being highly unfortunate, was less of a human folly than an act of sabotage.
The Danish Energy Agency has stated that in the worst case scenario methane equivalent to a third of Denmark's entire GHG emissions in a year (2020) could leak from the Nord Stream pipelines.
Iannis Binietoglou, of Danish Clean Air Task Force has stated, "It dwarfs the previous known leaks."
Marcia Mcnutt, President of US National Academy of Sciences has stated, "From what I have seen this is an unprecedented loss to the atmosphere of fossil methane in a very short time from a concentrated source."
Manfredi Caltagirone, head of UNEP's International Methane Emission Observatory said, "This is really bad…most likely the largest emission event ever recorded."
Prof. Rob Jackson of environmental studies at Stanford University, USA, has stated, "This will probably be the largest leak ever, in terms of its rate."
Secondly, there was clearly big harm caused to fish and marine life in the Baltic Sea and the life close to sea, from the huge explosions, the release of highly inflammable methane immediately and longer term exposure to benzene, a known carcinogenic, and various trace chemicals present in natural gas.
Similarly human health in nearby areas has been harmed. A methane plume could be seen in several parts of Europe for some days.
Fourthly, it is clear that this was an act of deliberate sabotage. This is commonly agreed by Russia, USA and various other countries, confirmed also by investigation of Swedish security agency. There were huge detonations, causing four big ruptures at considerable distances, making such a big impact that seismologists said the Baltic Sea rattled. This was an act of sabotage planned to cause such huge damage that would be difficult to repair, regardless of the high environmental and other costs.
Fifthly, it is agreed that overall the harm caused is very acute. The biggest harm is the environmental harm. Apart from the details provided above of the extent of this harm, it should be noted that the leak triggered by sabotage is much worse than the routine leaks which can also be absorbed by water to much greater extent. However in the case of the more violent and very high velocity leak caused by sabotage and detonations the environmental harm is much higher. While the environmental and marine life harm is more serious the economic loss also cannot be ignored. The Russian energy company Gazprom and European partners had spent billions of dollars to build the pipelines for transporting natural gas from Russia to Germany and various other European countries. Even though because of recent sanctions and related factors, pipelines were not in use at the time of leak but this use could return at any time in future and hence the economic value of the pipelines remained—for Russia of course but also for Germany and several other parts of Europe as a source of reliable and cheaper natural gas from a relatively nearer source. Certainly this economic loss also cannot be ignored. This sabotage can harm the economy of Germany and some other European countries in significant ways, apart from the even more obvious loss caused to Russia.
Sixthly, keeping in view the grave harm caused by this act of sabotage, it is clear that this act of sabotage is a very serious offence and a crime against humanity. Prof. Rob Jackson of Stanford has stated, "Whoever ordered this should be prosecuted for war crimes and go to jail."
Seventhly, it is commonly agreed that this sudden unprecedented (in recent times) act of sabotage has to be understood in the context of the new factors unleashed in international relations including big-power rivalries during year 2022 by the Ukraine conflict. Without this background of Ukraine conflict, such a highly damaging and unprecedented act of sabotage cannot be imagined.
The seven points mentioned above are those on which widespread agreement has been reached. Now we come to the point of controversy–who is responsible for this act of sabotage?
Fatih Birol, head of Inter-Energy Agency has stated that it was "very obvious" who was behind it but he has not named this very obvious culprit. Swedish security agencies have made their investigation but not revealed who was found to be the culprit by them.
An unbiased investigation involving all affected countries has not been initiated yet. In its absence we can inquire regarding who stood to benefit from this in the context of existing circumstances.
Due to US sanctions and pressures the supply of natural gas from Russia to Europe was not taking place to any significant extent using Nord Stream route at the time of leaks but clearly the possibility remained, particularly as there was increasing demand from people of Germany and other parts of Europe to utilize this route for supply of cheaper natural gas, and this demand was getting stronger as the winter approached. The option was largely to get much more expensive gas from the USA. The USA gas and oil suppliers were going to benefit in a big way from the Nord Stream pipelines remaining non-operational, but the demand for making them operational was increasing among people of Europe.
So on the one hand the USA government could ensure high earnings for its politically powerful gas and oil lobby by keeping Nord Stream non-operational and on the other hand it could destroy the possibility of Nord Stream pipelines becoming operational again in the near future by inflicting very heavy damage on them. This would also achieve the political objective of destroying the biggest project which was bringing Germany (and some other parts of Europe) closer to Russia all the time by strengthening their mutually beneficial economic relationship. This political objective may have been as important as, if not even more important than, the economic objective. The USA had been unhappy for quite some time regarding this growing relationship, the prospects of this increasing further and the role of Nord Stream in this. Hence it is clear that the USA, in the narrow perception of some of its important and aggressive policy makers, could derive important economic as well as political advantage from any big damage caused to Nord Stream pipelines. On the contrary Russia had nothing to gain from destroying its own pipelines built at the cost of billions of dollars, with the cooperation of other European partners, with the hope of increasing its earnings from gas exports.
What is more, President Biden had openly declared that if Russia invades Ukraine then Nord Stream pipelines will not be able to supply Russian gas to Europe. What is more, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was itself provoked to a substantial extent by several provocative actions taken by the USA, or at the behest of the USA by the Ukraine authorities. This does not mean that the Russian invasion, which has led to loss of too many invaluable lives on both sides (as well as massive environmental and economic harm), was entirely unavoidable, but that it was to a large extent forced on Russia by unethical, unjustified actions of the USA and close allies during the period 2014-2022 (or the Ukrainian authorities acting under the pressures exerted by the USA).
Hence while nothing can be said with total or hundred per cent certainty, the overwhelming likelihood is that the USA authorities had a lead role in either perpetrating the Nord Stream sabotage, or in instigating or asking others to get the job done.
It will be extremely useful if an international panel of entirely unbiased experts can be set up to investigate this matter further on the basis of all available evidence and present a comprehensive as well as completely unbiased report on this important issue.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children and A Day in 2071.
Nord Stream Leaks A Shock Therapy, Claims Economist And A Former Pentagon Advisor
Sabotage of Nord Stream Pipe Lines: A new phase of hybrid war
Who Sabotaged Nord Stream Gas Pipelines?
Tags: Nord Stream Gas Leak
Author: Bharat Dogra


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