text:
import { Component } from 'react';
import { connect } from 'react-redux';
import Vibrant from 'node-vibrant';
import forIn from 'lodash/forIn';

import withOptions from 'hoc/withOptions';

import awaitElement from 'utils/awaitElement';
import { actions, selectors } from 'modules/options';

const colorDebug = (swatches, src) => {
  let str = '';
  let colors = [];

  forIn(swatches, (swatch, key) => {
    if (swatch) {
      str += `%c${key} `;
      colors.push(`color: ${swatch.getHex()}; font-weight: 700; font-family: Helvetica;`);
    }
  });

  console.log('%c   ', `font-size: 80px; background: url(${src}) no-repeat; background-size: 90px 90px;`);
  console.log(str, ...colors);
};

const mapStateToProps = state => ({
  alternateAccent: selectors.alternateAccent(state),
});

@withOptions
@connect(mapStateToProps, { updateAlternateAccent: actions.updateAlternateAccent })
class Core extends Component {
  // Use Vibrant to generate a palette from image src
  getImageAccent = async src => {
    const swatches = await Vibrant.from(src).getPalette();

    // colorDebug(swatches, src);

    if (!swatches) {
      return null;
    } else if (swatches.Vibrant) {
      return swatches.Vibrant.getHex();
    } else if (swatches.LightVibrant) {
      return swatches.LightVibrant.getHex();
    } else if (swatches.Muted) {
      return swatches.Muted.getHex();
    } else if (swatches.DarkVibrant) {
      return swatches.DarkVibrant.getHex();
    }

    return null;
  };

  // Watch img src, use cached accent or regenerate if new image
  observe = async () => {
    this.albumArt = await awaitElement('img#playerBarArt');

    if (this.src !== this.albumArt.src) {
      this.src = this.albumArt.src;
      this.accent = await this.getImageAccent(this.albumArt.src);
      this.props.updateAlternateAccent(this.accent);
    } else if (this.accent) {
      if (this.accent === this.props.alternateAccent) return;
      this.props.updateAlternateAccent(this.accent);
    }
  };

  // Setup observer for the song info section of player
  enable = async () => {
    if (this.songInfoObserver) return;

    this.songInfo = await awaitElement('#playerSongInfo');
    this.songInfoObserver = new MutationObserver(this.observe);
    this.songInfoObserver.observe(this.songInfo, { childList: true, subtree: true });
    this.observe();
  };

  // Kill observer, set accent to null
  disable = () => {
    if (this.songInfoObserver) this.songInfoObserver.disconnect();

    this.props.updateAlternateAccent(null);
    this.songInfoObserver = null;
  };

  // Only update when option changes
  shouldComponentUpdate({ options: nextOptions }) {
    const { options } = this.props;
    return options.albumAccents !== nextOptions.albumAccents;
  }

  // Invoke Enable/Disable on options change
  componentWillReceiveProps({ options: nextOptions }) {
    const { options } = this.props;

    // Prevent unnecessary action on disable
    if (options.albumAccents === nextOptions.albumAccents) return;

    if (!nextOptions.albumAccents) {
      this.disable();
    } else {
      this.enable();
    }
  }

  render() {
    return null;
  }
}

export default Core;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Who Is Karen McDougal, the Ex-Playboy Model Claiming She Had an Affair with Trump?
The 1998 Playmate of the Year is suing so she can go public with details of the affair.
By Rose Minutaglio
The details of another alleged sexual affair involving President Trump could soon become public. On Tuesday, former Playboy model Karen McDougal filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the National Enquirer, insisting it release her from a 2016 legal agreement that paid her $150,000 to keep quiet on an alleged months-long affair with Donald Trump a decade ago.
McDougal, 46, filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. She alleges that Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, was secretly involved in her negotiations with American Media Inc., or AMI, and that she was ultimately misled about the deal she made with the company. The White House has denied the affair ever took place.
Here's everything we know about the former Playboy bunny taking on AMI.
Karen McDougal in 1998.
She was Playmate of the Year.
McDougal grew up in a small Michigan town and taught pre-Kindergarten in Detroit before her time as a Playmate. In December 1997 she became Playmate of the Month. She was also Playmate of the Year in 1998.
She reportedly struck up a consensual relationship with Trump in 2006.
According to a Wall Street Journal article released in November 2016, McDougal told several friends that her relationship with Trump began in 2006 and lasted for about 10 months, into 2007. In an eight-page handwritten document provided to The New Yorker last month, McDougal writes that Trump asked for her phone number after the pair met at the Playboy mansion. They talked frequently on the phone and started dating.
At that point, Trump had been married to Melania for two years.
According to The New Yorker, Trump flew McDougal to events all over the country, and hid that he paid for her travels by reimbursing her after she booked and paid for flights and hotels. She was his guest at the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship, at the Edgewood Resort, on Lake Tahoe in 2006. The two had sex there, she alleges.
A friend of McDougal's told The Wall Street Journal that Trump's limousine picked them up from her Beverly Hills Home and took them to the Miss Universe pageant as his guest in 2006. They sat in the front row.
McDougal attends the 7th Annual Playboy Golf Scramble championship finals at Lost Canyons Golf Club on March 30, 2007 in Simi Valley, California.
She met Trump's family.
According to The New Yorker, McDougal claims Trump introduced her to members of his family and showed her his residences at Trump Tower and in New Jersey. In January 2007, she sat at the family's table at a launch party for his now-defunct Trump Vodka.
She was the victim of a "catch and kill" scheme.
Only days prior to the presidential election, The Wall Street Journal published its storyclaiming that AMI paid $150,000 to McDougal, but did not run her story as part of a maneuver called "catch and kill." The contract, according to the publication, did not require the Enquirer to run the story, but did stipulate McDougal stay quiet about the affair.
AMI has previously acknowledged that Trump is a close friend of its chief executive, David Pecker. But the company insists Trump has never influenced coverage at the company.
Stormy Daniels on March 9, 2018.
She's not alone.
Stephanie Clifford or "Stormy Daniels" is an adult-film star who was paid $130,000 by the president's lawyer, Michael Cohen, to keep quiet about an alleged affair. Both Clifford and McDougal argue that their contracts are invalid and are attempting to bypass clauses in their agreements requiring them to "resolve disputes in secretive arbitration proceedings rather than in open court," according to The New York Times.
AMI reportedly warned McDougal of "considerable monetary damages."
According to McDougal's lawsuit, which can be viewed in full, here, courtesy of The New York Times, she alleges that after The New Yorker published its bombshell report about the extramarital affair, AMI warned that "any further disclosures would breach Karen's contract" and "cause considerable monetary damages."
"The lawsuit filed today aims to restore her right to her own voice," McDougal's new lawyer Peter K. Stris told The New York Times. "We intend to invalidate the so-called contract that American Media Inc. imposed on Karen so she can move forward with the private life she deserves."
Rose Minutaglio Staff Writer Rose is a Staff Writer at ELLE.com covering culture, news, and women's issues.
Trump's Legal Team Previewed Impeachment Defense
Nat'l Archives Blurred Anti-Trump Protest Signs
The President Is Talked About Like a Baby
It's Not the Affair, It's the Coverup
Who Had a Better Week: Damn Daniel or Damn Donald?
Trump-Cohen Tape Sounds Like a Mob Movie
Biggest Takeaways From Stormy Daniels' Interview
A Model Who Really Loves the Outdoors
'National Enquirer' Paid to Bury Trump's Affair

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"After less than 2 inches of rain in the past six months, and planting time approaching, some inundation would bring exultation for farmers in West Texas.
"But that's the 'nature' of agriculture."
And so, I offer another DROUGHT toon here for Russell in Lamesa, Wickenburg Patsy & Lia in tinder dry Oklahoma. Seems to me that these guys are experiencing the long-heralded Global Warming in a very nasty manifestation.
BTW: Have you guys tried the old trick of washing your cars? HA!
P.S. On 2nd thought, I'm gonna send one more DROUGHT toon today [do I hear two more???] which will follow shortly.


If you think a statewide commission should be able to authorize the establishment of charter schools anywhere in the state – including your school district, you should love SB 573, which is due to be heard on the floor of the House this week. Since most of us prefer local control of our schools, I thought I should share the alert I received from CCOSA yesterday.
SB 573 by Senator Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) and Rep. Lee Denney (R-Cushing) creates a statewide Public Charter School Commission and grants the Commission authority to authorize and oversee theestablishment of charter schools in any school district in the state. This bill circumvents the authority of the locally elected board from exercising local control of the education of the children in your community. This bill is eligible for a House floor vote once it is placed on the agenda which could be anytime. Title is on the bill.
Please contact your Representative immediately and ask them to vote NO on SB 573!
This is probably part of the reason why Superintendent Barresi asked for a 300 percent increase to the Charter School Incentive fund in her budget request last fall. She has publicly stated on multiple occasions that she is embarrassed we have so few charters. She has not commented, that I know of, on the fact that as a whole, their test scores are less impressive than the state as a whole.
I also haven't heard anything from any of our state leaders about the fact that opening the door to national for-profit charter school corporations (such as Carpe Diem) will send our tax dollars out of state. Nor have I heard them discuss the problematic track record of such schools, in terms of both accounting and accountability.
Even the candidate for state superintendent with the most charter school experience opposes this expansion. She issued a statement to that effect yesterday (which I can only seem to find on her Facebook page).
I do not believe the purpose of this bill is to help Oklahoma children. I fear its purpose is to expand a national agenda to privatize schools for profit. Our children should not be used as profit centers. Inspiring and motivating children to their highest potential cannot be accomplished with a factory model of education.
Therein lies the rub. The charter school movement, going back to the 1990s in Minnesota and Arizona, sought to bring innovation to instruction by casting off the markers of assembly-line education. Where new ideas were effective, they were cloned – less effectively. The problem is that you can't mass produce quality. You can hope to replicate average, but excellence springs from the qualities in a person, school, or community that make them unique.
Today's charter school movement – the corporate education reform movement altogether, in fact – seeks to standardize all things.
We want schools that are accountable to local stakeholders, not out-of-state shareholders. We want schools that are a reflection of our communities. And we want teachers that know and care about our children. That's why we should all call our legislators and oppose this bill.
A year ago, when this blog was still flying mostly under the radar, I posted the A-F grades of the state's charter schools. This year, in the wake of Superintendent Barresi saying that she's "embarrassed" we don't have more charters and that she'll "be damned" if we're going to lose another generation of kids, It's worth examining them again. Rather than listing grades for each, however, I'll just show you the trends.
Overall, charter schools had a lower percentage of schools with an A or B and a higher percentage of schools with a D or F. With the small sample size (26 schools), it's really not that different, statistically.
I've seen some commentary over the weekend about Harding Charter Prep (of which Barresi was one of the founders) getting a 107 on their report card for an A+ grade. They take pride in the fact that they will take anybody who applies. All that matters is a winning a lottery for admission. While that may be true, details about their student population say a lot about who applies.
The truth is that HCP does not serve a comparable student population to that of OKCPS as a whole. These data show the benefit of having highly engaged parents. As I did in my post last night, I have listed factors here that impact student achievement. Not having classes in which 1 in 8 students is on an IEP makes a difference. Not having to deal with a lot of absenteeism or students changing schools makes a difference. Having half the poverty level as the whole district makes a difference.
On the other hand, since Harding's population is chosen at random, let's get the word out to a wider swath of students. Apply. Attend. Thrive!


Michael J. Fox is known worldwide for his many memorable film and TV roles: Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, Mike Flaherty on the ABC sitcom Spin City, Alex P. Keaton in the series Family Ties, and Lewis Canning in the CBS hit drama The Good Wife. But one part Fox never willingly signed on for was that of Parkinson's disease patient. Fox was diagnosed at age 30 after developing a twitch in his finger.
Fox is now 57, and his disease has progressed to the point that his entire left side experiences tremors and stiffness, and he usually wakes up shaking uncontrollably.
And he's far from alone. Parkinson's is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, affecting an estimated 1 million Americans and upward of 10 million individuals worldwide. Fox has used his celebrity to fight for a cure, and since 2000, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research has funded more than $750 million in research to speed new treatments.
Machine learning and advanced analytics have played a role in one significant project the foundation sponsored starting in 2011: the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI). This project collected a wide set of data from patients and applied machine learning to accelerate diagnosis of the disease – and the results will ultimately lead to the development of better treatments.
From preventing life-threatening illnesses to protecting endangered species to rebuilding after natural disasters, organizations across the globe are harnessing data to make a difference. Read this ebook to find out how they're helping solve some of the world's most challenging issues.
Parkinson's disease progressively destroys a patient's ability to control movements and causes problems like depression and anxiety. Early diagnosis is critical to providing patients with treatments that can manage and delay disease progression.
Unfortunately, there's no definitive test that can diagnose the disease in its early stages. While doctors can evaluate Parkinson's disease based on motor symptoms – such as shaking, rigidity, slowness of movement and postural instability – these symptoms appear late in the disease. It can take five to 20 years from the onset of the disease for motor symptoms to appear.
And starting treatment at the advanced stage is of little benefit to Parkinson's patients. What scientists need for early diagnosis are validated biomarkers – measurable substances in the patient's blood, urine, cells, DNA or other body parts – that they can use to definitively diagnose the disease when it first appears and track its progression over time.
The PPMI project was designed to help scientists establish biomarkers most likely to predict Parkinson's disease progression and to predict the progression of Parkinson's disease at multiple points in time.
At each visit, physicians looked at all known symptoms, running an inclusive set of clinical and behavioral assessments. Tests included taking brain neuroimaging scans and collecting specimens such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), DNA, RNA, plasma, serum, urine and cell lines. The results of all these tests were combined into a score that indicated the severity of the disease in the patient.
McGuirk and two other data scientists (Wei Xiao and Saba Emrani, both formerly of SAS) used the PPMI project data and applied multitask machine learning to develop a model that can forecast progression of the disease for new Parkinson's patients.
The SAS model predicted disease progression by forecasting test scores using the measurements from the initial, baseline evaluation and the subsequent visits all in one model. The model also helped determine which known biomarkers were most important – and discovered new ones.
The model McGuirk's team developed proved better able to predict disease progression across each of the 11 patient visits over the 4.5 year study period than conventional approaches. "With accurate predictions, physicians will be able to start treatment earlier, when it can have a greater impact," says McGuirk.
In addition, the team was able to validate some already established biomarkers and discover new ones that are best able to differentiate between healthy individuals and those with the disease.
For example, McGuirk's team found that higher total cholesterol indicated a lower risk of Parkinson's disease, while a combination of RNA markers, plasma, brain imaging, CSF measurements and various nonmotor assessments were important for predicting Parkinson's disease progression.
With these newly discovered biomarkers, it's possible that Parkinson's disease researchers could expedite the development of effective treatments – and possibly even a cure for longtime sufferers like Michael J. Fox. "That's the goal," says McGuirk.
The role for big data in health care's triple aimIndustry consultant Carolina Wallenius explains the future of health care and the role of analytics.


I included the wrong dependency in python-gmusicapi-git. It has been resolved.
you are missing a dependency. I needed to install "python-mutagen" before clay could be run.
As you might know I'm also the maintainer of the python-gmusicapi-git package. I decided to stick with a non-git for the dependency, but make the git version provide that. To the best of my knowledge that's the standard practice for arch packages. I don't think there is a non-git version of gmusicapi for python, but when it arrives it's a drop in replacement, requiring no changes from this side.
If you just install the git version it should satisfy the dependency as it is today.
Is there a reason you think I should change? I'm very open to suggestions.
python-gmusicapi is not available in aur or in the repos. I think you should either create that package or change the dependency to the -git package. Thanks!


Wondering which is the best tent type for your next event?
One of the most frequently asked questions we get in the tent business is "what is the difference between a pole tent and a frame tent." Making the decision on whether purchasing a pole tent or frame tent for your business is very important. On this blog, you can find useful information to help you decide which tent suits you best.
The difference is found in their names. Pole tents are supported by large poles in the center of the shelter that help support the tent top, creating then the swoop-effect like. Due to the poles presence, you might find some limitations on how you can set-up your tables, chairs, dance floor, etc. On the other hand, frame tents are supported by a frame of aluminum poles. This structure eliminates the need for poles in the center of the fabric, resulting in large open space for you can better organize your layout.
You may notice then that having poles in the center of the tent restrict your design. When thinking about your table placement and dance floor or stage placement, you have to keep in mind the space that poles take-up. This consideration can sometimes make the event layout process more difficult for people. While frame tents lack obstructing poles giving you no restrictions in regards to space inside the tent.
Stay tuned to our blog for more useful information on and accessories.


text:
FaithWorld
April 3, 2012 / 10:15 PM / in 7 years
An egg by any other name
Lisi Niesner
Egg. Or as it's known in other languages: Ei, яйцо, jajiko, muna, uovo, ägg, yumurta, oeuf, αβγό, tojás, vajce, بيضة, aeg, jaje, ovo, yai, 雞蛋, telur, huevo
It's the hard-shelled reproductive body produced by a bird and especially by the common domestic chicken, which is the definition that first comes to our sense. Obviously an egg is much more than the daily of decision how we like to have our breakfast: scrambled, fried or poached. Tea enthusiasts use a tea egg and we call someone naughty a bad egg. We walk on egg shells when we act cautiously as well as using eggs for certain sayings: no two eggs are exactly alike, for example.
Even scientists, theologians and philosophers have spent quite a lot of time thinking, discussing and literally quarreling about the egg. The question of how life began has always bothered mankind; we come up with approaches and theories to answer one question in particular: which came first, the chicken or the egg?
The egg plays a special role in every culture around the globe. It is the beginning and the end, life and death, birth and mortality. In many cultures, eggs were and still are symbols of cure, fertility, hope and sacrifice. They are also given on the way to the afterlife in some faiths.
In Chinese mythology, earth (yin) and heaven (yang) are formed from the world-egg Panku and ancient Egyptians represented the sun god Re as an egg. The Greek mythology of creation describes that Eros, who set the world in motion, arose from the silver world-egg. In Hinduism, Brahma and Shiva were born from the cosmic egg and Christians believe that the egg symbolizes hope and resurrection. Just to mention a few examples of how the symbolic character of the egg survived over centuries in different and widely separated civilizations.
Austrian sculptor, artist and retired university professor Wander Bertoni, aged 87, finally made his idea come true: he created his own egg museum. The numerous eggs he has collected from all corners of the globe over the last 70 years, often purchased at flea markets or received as gifts from his students, have found a home in a "glass nest" building with two levels embedded in the sculptor park on Bertoni's property in a little town called Winden am See in the Austrian province of Burgenland.
From a variety of materials manufactured and originating in different cultures, eras and styles, around 4,000 eggs are displayed with one thing in common: their unique shape.
The egg is a good example of design theory: "If you squeeze a ball, which has an absolute geometric form, a deformation occurs into the shape of an egg. From an absolute repose has been created movement and expression, the first sign of life of the abstract world of forms and geometry." – Wander Bertoni
In addition to exhibits of wood, ceramics, stone and glass eggs in many different sizes and colors, ornate chicken and goose eggs are lined up. Finely painted icon images from the Russian Orthodox-Church can be found next to beaded eggs from Romania; Venetian motifs beside the Chinese, cultic phallus symbols next to fossilized dinosaur eggs, sacral portrayals are juxtaposed beside plain kitsch.
I watched Mister Bertoni talk about his favorite egg sculptures, the Lingam stone eggs from India, a phallus symbol of the Hindu godhood. After all these years of careful collecting and cataloging Wander Bertoni still looks at the showcases, which I assume he already did at least a thousand times. His passion has not lessened. His enthusiasm is as it was on the first day. It seems that he can still discover something fascinating or never seen in every single egg. It was something unexpectedly odd but it suited him so well. Rough sculptor hands gently holding a fragile egg; it could not be more opposite.
And yes, I confess that I had fun sitting in Bertoni's huge egg sculpture.


text:
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Peter Ustinov Dead at 82
Ustinov was always one of my favorite actors. He had the wit of Robert Morley and the range of Peter Sellers. As a comic actor there were few in his league and even fewer who surpassed him. He is perhaps best known nowadays (if he is known at all) for his three runs at playing Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie's eccentric Belgian detective with the outrageous moustaches, the prickly pride, and "the little grey cells" that invariably solved the crime. I love Ustinov's Poirot, but he had almost nothing to do with Christie's Poirot. Christie's was, well, Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express, if you want to see him in the flesh. Finney didn't want to repeat the role for the sequels (one of the great losses of film history, detective film history, anyway), so they got Peter, who couldn't help but pour charm and heart into a character that was supposed to be all mind. Finney's performance will forever be the one true film Poirot and a singular achievement, but it's Ustinov's Poirot I want to see again and again.
Peter had a knack for finding the humanity in every character he played, even his Nero in Quo Vadis. A mad tyrant in the script, in Ustinov's hands he becomes more than a monster. He becomes a recognizable human being, spoiled and ignorant, frightened and selfish, using arrogance and bluster to cover over his nagging fear that something is very, very wrong with him. It's a marvelous performance, one of the few times an actor has penetrated far enough into the mind of a monster to find the core of the child he once was. I should add that he managed that little feat with almost zero help from the script, which was a fairly standard Roman epic. For non-actors: it is one thing for an actor to bring a great script to life, worthy and a joy to watch; but it is quite another for an actor to bring life and depth to a poorly-written script that has neither. That is a true test of talent, and it was a test Peter never failed in his life.
But more important than being a great actor, Peter was a good man. He understood that life outside theater and film was real life, not the other way around, and he devoted himself to activities and organizations that tried to make that life a little better for people who weren't as lucky or–as he would have said–"blessed" as he was. He worked tirelessly for UNESCO and UNICEF, was always available for charity events and fundraisers, and boosted any number of NGO profiles with credibility and renown.
He was a good writer, too, but his stuff has never played well here, I'm not sure why. Maybe it isn't "big" enough. His humor is droll rather than arch, subtle rather than broad and brassy, character-driven rather than joke-driven. In fact it's virtually impossible to find a single line in one of his comedies–even lines that had audiences screaming with laughter–that is funny all by itself, the kind of gag Woody Allen's writing is full of. Peter's funniest lines require that you understand the person who's saying them well enough to know why they're being said; out of context, they usually don't make any sense.
Peter will be greatly missed, at least by me and by everyone who actually knew him. He lived, as they say, a long and valuable life, and seems to have got everything right – a very difficult trick to pull off. I am by nature a "black Scot" – moody, pessimistic and cynical. I see the dark glow of human greed and rage stalking us in the shadows wherever we go, making a planet that could be Paradise into a parking lot, the culmination of our own childish fears, short-sightedness, and ignorance. To a man like me, a man like Peter was an invaluable reminder that it doesn't have to be that way, that goodness, mercy and grace are still possible, still desirable, still powerful even when spoken quietly and with a wry humor. It's going to be harder for me to feel that now that he's gone.
Do yourself a favor and rent a couple of his movies in his honor. I would recommend Death on the Nile, Topkapi, Hot Millions, Billy Budd (which he also wrote and directed), Romanov and Juliet, Barefoot in Athens, and/or A Storm in Summer. Any one of them will enrich your life in ways that you don't expect, and which of us couldn't use a little of that?
I'll leave you with a couple of random Ustinov quotes:
"Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them."
"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit."
"Her virtue was that she said what she thought, her vice that what she thought didn't amount to much."
"It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously."
"If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done."
Requiescat in Pace, Peter.
This entry was posted in Film, Obits. Bookmark the permalink.


PSRX Volkswagen Sweden's Johan Kristoffersson stormed to victory at Trois-Rivieres, round seven of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy in the World RX of Canada.
The World RX Drivers' Championship leader was the comeback king in the first visit of the season to North America, fighting back from two difficult qualifiers on Saturday to take maximum points by being top in the Intermediate Classification, winning semi-final one and the final in his Volkswagen Polo R.
Team Peugeot Total's Timmy Hansen joined Kristoffersson on the front row of the grid for the final and finished second, in front of team mate Sebastien Loeb in a double-podium for the French team. Kristoffersson's PSRX team mate Petter Solberg started on the third row of the grid for the final next to Loeb and finished the race fourth in front of EKS Audi Sport's Mattias Ekstrom. Team STARD driver Janis Baumanis made his first final of the season and secured the Monster Energy Supercharge Award for having the fastest reaction time at the start of the final in his Ford Fiesta Supercar.
GRX Taneco's Niclas Gronholm finished fourth in semi-final one ahead of Olsbergs MSE's Kevin Eriksson and GRX's Timur Timerzyanov. EKS' Andreas Bakkerud took the lead of semi-final two at the start from the second row but damaged the left-rear suspension on his Audi S1 and finished the race fourth as Team Peugeot Total's Kevin Hansen and Olsbergs MSE's Robin Larsson retired. GC Kompetition's Jerome Grosset-Janin and Guerlain Chicherit had a challenging weekend and finished 13thand 15th respectively. Sebastien Loeb Racing's Gregoire Demoustier was 14th.
The third round of the Americas Rallycross Championship (ARX) joined World RX at Trois-Rivieres and was won by Volkswagen Andretti Rallycross' Scott Speed. Tanner Foust finished second, Loenbro Hoonigan's Ken Block was third and Subaru Rally Team USA's Patrik Sandell was fourth.
Sweden's Oliver Eriksson won the fifth round of the 2018 RX2 International Series presented by Cooper Tires from Belgium's Guillaume De Ridder and America's Cole Keatts. America's Conner Martell challenged for victory in the final but crashed out while trying to overtake Eriksson for the lead.
In ARX2, the single-make support category to Americas Rallycross, Martell won both rounds in a double-header weekend to extend his points lead. Christian Brooks and Travis PeCoy completed the podium in round two on Saturday. The top two repeated their results in round three on Sunday as Alex Keyes made the podium.


Without sales, no business can survive. The management of the sales function is vital to the success of any business organization. This program teaches the role of the sales manager in recruiting, organizing, training, compensating and managing the sales force.
It covers the knowledge needed in building an effective sales organization and controlling, motivating and evaluating the sales force.
Topics covered include basic study skills, interpersonal relationships, communication skills, how to evaluate and predict human behavior, business ethics, public relations and marketing survey techniques, the fundamentals of good salesmanship, management by statistics, financial planning, and how to write sales plans.
A faculty-supervised Final Practical Application requires the student to summarize the knowledge and skills learned by applying them to sales management situations in a business organization.
business owners, executives or professionals who want to become more effective in managing the sales functions of their companies or professional practices.


This is Part 1 in the series, Automation.
For a couple of months, I've been using Zapier to cross-post content from my blog to my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I only use the free tier, thinking I'd never reach the 100 monthly task limit given that at most I publish a few articles a week.
So far, so good. That is until I decided it was time to reorganise my blog and introduce clean, date-based URLs.
The way the Zapier zaps I use work, is to read my RSS feed and create link posts when a new item is introduced. Common sense dictates that it should read the date field. Only if the date field changes should it kick of the cross-link.
Unfortunately, bots are dumb and instead Zapier interpreted the change to the URL field as a worthy excuse to fire off a barrage of Tweets and Facebook posts. Since I have over a hundred articles on my site, within a minute of rebuilding the site, I exhausted my monthly task quota.
My quota's due to reset in three weeks.
Now, I can live without automatically cross-posting for a few weeks. I can substitute it temporarily for a simple Workflow on my iPhone. The problem is I have another Zap who's job it is to catch specially formatted emails I send to my Gmail account and turn them into draft blog posts in Dropbox. It's become an important part of my publishing process. That's now dead too.
So, I'm left with a couple of remedies. I can wait three weeks and stew on my failings. I can cough up $20USD per month to Zapier to upgrade my quota and unlock more features (sorry, not happening). I can switch to IFTTT, which is free but somewhat limited.
Or, I can make my own bot.
Wait, what? Didn't I promise earlier this year not to reinvent wheels?
Yes, I did, but in my own defence that was before I really upped my blogging output. The spirit of the post was to concentrate more on writing than on software development or getting hung up on process.
For the most part, automation has allowed me to do just that and it's one of the reasons I've been able to write more, especially on my blog. I simply write and my minions, a mix of scripts and bots, take care of the boring crap.
At the moment though, the system has effectively broken. Not only has Zapier clipped my wings, but my build machine, a 2011 Mac mini, is on its last legs.
I can't afford for my production system to be wonky. It's reliant on third-party services and an ailing computer that can't be trusted to do what I want when I want. Something needs to change.
So, a DIY production bot; a little minion to consolidate these disparate tasks and services that I can shove in a reliable server. Such a bot, would give me much more control over my production process and perform tasks that these service cannot do, or charge a premium for the privilege.
My needs are relatively few at this point and I'd start with replicating the Zaps I use now. My plan is to use Python, which is very well suited to creating bots that interact with web service APIs.
Python has a wealth of third-party modules and all these web services are well supported. Hacking together a basic bot will take me half a day at most to get something up an running.
The knotty problem is working out where it would run. I can either use a physical server, or a virtual one up on DigitalOcean.
Digital Ocean is an attractive option because it's cheap, reliable and I already use it. My only concern is that last time I ran the Dropbox client on a $5 droplet it kept running out of memory and crashing. Maybe I can jus use the API instead of the full client.
Physical hardware hosted inside my home LAN will give me more resources (RAM, CPU, storage) but will be at the mercy of my dodgy ADSL connection. There's also the problem of what hardware I use. If I'm using a box 24/7 not only does it have to be reliable, it also has to be cheap to run.
My first thought is a Raspberry Pi 2, which I have lying around after it killed the last SD card I gave it. It's certainly cheap to run but I'm not confident of using it in production unless I move the file-system off the SD card. The Raspberry Pi, being an ARM-based computer, also doesn't suppor the Dropbox Linux client, meaning I'd be relying on the API.
Another possibility is buying either an Intel Nuc, or perhaps an Intel Compute Stick. They are quite energy efficient, run Linux and being Intel x86-based they can also run the Dropbox client without issue.
Anyway, it's given me food for thought. There's a few more ideas (pretty vague at the moment) that I'm toying with. I'll park this for the time being; I'll spend this weekend writing instead.


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Who is Justin Rhodes? Wiki, Biography, Age, Facebook Live, COVID-19, Arrested, Investigation Report
Trending News, USA On 03/23/2020
Justin Rhodes Wiki – Biography
Justin Rhodes was charged with felony perpetrating hoax in a public building and disorderly conduct, Albemarle police said.
North Carolina police say a man has been arrested and charged with filming a Facebook Live video at a Walmart in which he lied about having the coronavirus.
Rhodes shot the video at the Walmart in Albemarle Wednesday, WRAL-TV reported. He was arrested Friday.
"Definitely tested positive for coronavirus," Rhodes is seen saying in the video aired by the station. "Definitely was asked to self-quarantine for 14 to 21 days."
Justin Rhodes Age
Justin Rhodes is 31 years old.
Facebook Live COVID-19
A man has been charged with perpetrating a hoax after he walked around a North Carolina Walmart conducting a Facebook Live saying he tested positive for COVID-19.
Albemarle police said it happened March 18.
According to authorities, Justin Rhodes, 31, was conducting a Facebook Live video inside of the Walmart stating he tested positive for coronavirus.
Who is Vladislav V. Drozdek? Wiki, Biography, Age, Charges Over Stolen Masks Testing Kits, Arrested, Investigation Report
Detectives with the Albemarle Police Department arrested Rhodes and charged him with felony perpetrating a hoax in a public building and disorderly conduct.
Investigation Report
"My throats a little scratchy, but other than that I'm not coughing."
He continued to talk and as you can imagine was freaking out a lot of people, the station reported.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Albermarle police said they had verified with Stanly County health officials that no one in the county had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Rhodes received a $10,000 bond. He has a March 30 court date.
Who is Lachy Crossley? Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Jaimi Kenny's Boyfriend, Cause of Death, Suicide, Instagram
Who is Marcellis Stinnette? Wiki, Biography, Age, Family, Cause of Death, Suspect, Investigation Report
Anne Tyler's career as a writer spans fifty years and twenty novels including Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist and 2015's A Spool of Blue Thread. She has won numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critic Circle Award.


The 2017 Dakar Rally was the 38th edition of the event and the ninth successive year that the event was held in South America. The event started in Asunción, Paraguay on January 2, then ran through Argentina and Bolivia, before returning to Buenos Aires on January 14 after 12 stages of competition. This year saw the introduction of the new UTV category.The 39th edition of the Dakar Rally began Monday in Paraguay—the 29th country to be featured in the famed off-road rally.
The stage consisted of 282 miles with a 24-mile special, and took riders from Asuncion to Resistencia. The short special, which featured slippery terrain and a tropical climate, was initially won by Yamaha WR450F pilot Xavier de Soultrait.But the Frenchman, who is supported by factory Yamaha, was later penalized a minute for speeding during the link stage, which dropped him down to 10th. This gave Sherco TVS Rally Factory's Juan Pedrero of Portugal the overall stage-one win at 2017 Dakar.


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Bauinvestitionen stellen die Bruttoanlageinvestitionen in bauliche Anlagen für Neubauten, Umbauten oder Erweiterungsbauten und für werterhöhende Reparaturen dar. Sie stellen eine wichtige Größe zur Beurteilung der Bauwirtschaft dar.

Die Bauinvestitionen werden regelmäßig durch das Statistische Bundesamt ermittelt. Zuletzt betrugen sie im Jahr 2013 (real) 220,7 Mrd. € und lagen damit nur um 0,1 % über dem Vorjahresniveau.
Dennoch repräsentieren die Bauinvestitionen auch 2013 eine Hochkonjunktur im Bau-Sektor, die seit dem Investitionsanstieg um 7,8 % (im Vergleich zum Vorjahr) seit 2011 herrscht. Dies verdeutlichen kürzlich veröffentlichte Zahlen zu Bauinvestitionen für das 1. Quartal 2014, die im Vergleich zum Vorjahreszeitraum um 3,4 % angestiegen sind.
In Deutschland betrug damit 2013 der Anteil der Bauinvestitionen am Bruttoinlandsprodukt 8,9 %.

Im Vergleich zu den Ausgaben in Deutschland entwickelten sich die Bauinvestitionen der EU-27 stark rückläufig: 2013 (zu Preisen und Wechselkursen von 2005) betrugen diese 1.102,0 Mrd. € und damit etwa 3,2 % weniger als im Vorjahr (2012: 1.137,4 Mrd. €).

Einzelnachweise

Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnung
Bauwirtschaft
Rechnungswesen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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