Real Estate Appraisals in Chicago's Near North Side Neighborhood.
The Near North Side is the part of Chicago, Illinois just north of the downtown central business distict (the Loop).
The Gold Coast is a short strip of some of the city's priciest real estate along Lake Shore Drive. From the standpoint of social status, the streets here are among the finest addresses in Chicago. This is the second-wealthiest urban neighborhood in the United States, after the Upper East Side in New York City.
The housing includes vintage apartments, town houses and lavish mansions that remain, relics from a glitzier past. The "Gold Coast Historic District" was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 30, 1978. Included in this district is The James Charnley House designed by Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Goose Island is the only natural island located within the boundaries of the city of Chicago. Goose Island is located in the Chicago River. The island is separated from the mainland by the North Branch of the Chicago River on the west and the North Branch Canal on the east.
The Magnificent Mile is a stretch of North Michigan Avenue between the Chicago River and Oak Street. Although actually about three-quarters of a mile, the name has been chosen and is likely to stay. Along this street is a mixture of high-class stores, restaurants, office buildings and hotels. The area has a high concentration of the city's major media firms and advertising agencies, including the Chicago Tribune newspaper.
It is the home of Chicago's famous Water Tower landmark, Water Tower Place shopping center anchored by Marshall Field's and Lord and Taylor. North of the shopping center can be found the John Hancock Center, the art deco Palmolive Building and the Drake Hotel.
Streeterville is bounded by the Chicago River on the south, Michigan Avenue on the west, and Lake Michigan on the north and east. Some of Chicago's tallest skyscrapers, most expensive stores, most luxurious hotels, most elegant restaurants and most entertaining theaters are located here. The Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue is part of Streeterville, as is the number one tourist attraction in Chicago, Navy Pier. Streeterville is located east of the Chicago and Grand stations of the Red Line.
Citywide Services provides residential appraisal service in the Near North Side neighborhood. Our appraisers are state certified and have experience with single family homes, townhouses, condominiums as well as small residential income properties. For all your Chicago appraisal needs contact Citywide.


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Scientific Founders
Bacteriophage background
Phage therapy
info@biomx.com
BiomX develops phage cocktails (or combinations) that target and kill specific pathogenic bacteria. Our phage cocktails, which are optimized through algorithms and experimental validation (in-vitro and in-vivo), contain multiple natural and/or engineered phage. The phage are selected to have complementary functions such as wide target bacterial host range and the ability to avoid the development of bacterial resistance, among other characteristics.
A. Bacteriophage Background
Bacteriophage, or phage, are viruses that target bacteria and are considered inert to mammalian cells. Phage are natural predators of bacteria and are found wherever bacteria exist. Phage are specific to particular bacterial species or strains, targeting and killing them without disrupting other neighboring, potentially beneficial, bacteria.
Phages target and rapidly kill their bacterial hosts by amplifying inside these bacteria and consequently releasing new phage by bursting through the host cell membrane into the surrounding environment. These newly released phage infect and kill additional nearby bacterial cells in a reiterative process that leads to elimination of the target bacteria
B. Phage Therapy
The BOLT Platform and our Development Process
The BOLT platform ("BacteriOphage Lead to Treatment") is comprised of proprietary computational tools, automated screening, synthetic engineering capabilities and various validation assays aimed at developing natural or engineered phage cocktails that target a particular pathogenic bacteria. We apply the platform to develop phage cocktails directed through two development paths as outlined below.
Personalized Phage Treatment
Tailored to target strains of a specific patient within 6-8 weeks. Running such production suites in parallel for multiple patients allows to conduct a clinical Personalized proof of concept within 12-18 months from project initiation.
Bacterial isolation from target region
Source from our phage bank or identify new phage
Selection of optimal cocktail
Rapid, small scale in-house GMP
Tailored to target specific strain(s) of patient
Optimized Phage Therapy
Optimized for bacterial host range, resistance, other factors, to target a broad patient population as a go to market product. Usually requires 1-2 years to develop.
Validate pathogenicity – in-vitro/vivo models & analysis of patient cohorts
Use of high throughput methods to identify 10's-100's of target specific phage followed by in-silico/wet lab characterization
Use of proprietary methods to enhance phage characteristics (e.g. add payload) - applied in selective products
Algorithmic design and experimental validation of optimal phage combinations for wide host range, prevention of resistance, other
In-house GMP manufacturing and formulation (topical, oral, inhalation, IV)
Optimized for bacterial host range, resistance, other factors, to target a broad patient population
C. Biomarker Discovery
The bacteria present in our gut have shown promise as a predictive tool for the existence and staging of medical conditions such as IBD, liver disease, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Recent publications have also demonstrated the potential to predict response to specific therapeutics for IBD and immuno-oncology based on bacterial gut composition. Our first-of-its-kind XMarker platform uses a unique metagenomics-based approach to discover predictive microbial genomic signatures that can be further developed into biomarkers. The platform combines ultra-high-resolution DNA analysis, AI techniques and high-scale cloud computing resources to build classifiers of high sensitivity and specificity.
The XMarker platform is currently being applied under our collaboration with Janssen and Boehringer Ingelheim for the discovery of biomarkers in IBD.
Janssen Pharmaceuticals
We have entered into two collaborations with Boehringer Ingelheim ("BI").
We have entered into a discovery collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (see press release) utilizing our XMarker microbiome-based biomarker discovery platform to stratify responders and non-responders to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) therapeutics. XMarker applies a unique metagenomics-based approach to decipher full microbial genomic signatures that can be further developed into predictive biomarkers.
We have entered into two collaborations with Boehringer Ingelheim.
Our first collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim was announced in September 2020 (see press release) utilizes the BiomX XMarker microbiome-based biomarker discovery platform to potentially identify biomarkers associated with patient phenotypes in inflammatory bowel disease. The terms of the collaboration include an option for Boehringer Ingelheim to negotiate an exclusive right to biomarkers discovered utilizing the XMarker platform.
Our Second collaboration with BI announced in June 2022 (See press release) utilizes our XMarker platform to potentially identify biomarkers for a pathogenic bacterium thought to be associated with inflammatory bowel disease. Such biomarkers could help identify IBD patients that would benefit from potential therapies targeted at the microbiome.
The terms of the collaboration entitle us to research payments and also include an option for Boehringer Ingelheim to negotiate an exclusive right to biomarkers discovered under the collaboration.
Maruho
We have entered into an agreement granting Maruho Co. Ltd., a leading dermatology-focused pharmaceutical company in Japan, a right of first offer to license our atopic dermatitis product candidate, BX005, in Japan. Maruho also entered into a binding agreement for an equity investment in the company, intended primarily to support the Phase 1/2 study of BX005
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Bacteriophage
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HZT Records adds Singer/Songwriter Hillstaxx to their roster, album "Awaiting The Dew" release December 11
PORTLAND, Maine - PRDelivery -- Hillstaxx is an Americana singer-songwriter with a broad powerful vocal range. "She will make you feel what you are listening to", says Co-Writer & Producer Allen Foster. "We are excited for the world to hear her voice"
Her first single, "Angel" will drop on December 11th world-wide, everywhere you stream music. HZT's A & R Director, Paula Hersom says "Hillstaxx is a cross between Amy Winehouse & Emmy Lou Harris musically & stylistically." The 5 song Ep, "Awaiting The Dew" was recorded in Wimberley, Texas at Yellow Dog Studios. Produced & Co-Written by Allen Foster (CEO of Horizontal Trees Music/HZT Records), Recorded & Mixed by David Percefull of Yellow Dog Studios and Mastered by Adam Ayan of Gateway Mastering Portland, ME.
https://www.instagram.com/hillstaxxmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/hillstaxxmusic/
https://airplaydirect.com/music/hillstaxxawaitingthedew/
International radio promotion http://www.stephensindiepicks.com
Contact: Paula Hersom
E-mail: horizontaltreesmusic@gmail.com
Horizontal Trees Music
Source: Horizontal Trees Music
Filed Under: Event, Music, Entertainment, Multimedia


The plants that grow at the lowest level of a forest canopy have adapted to utilize the light that filters down through the tallest trees above them. These shade tolerant plants, seedlings, saplings, trees and herbs are collectively known as the forest's "understory." They have evolved to be creatively persistent, patient, and opportunistic. On my walks through the cathedral-like deciduous forests in Northeast Tennessee, I was often inspired by this humble network of determined species that hugged the ground.
The plants that grow at the lowest level of a forest canopy have adapted to utilize the light that filters down through the tallest trees above them. These shade tolerant plants, seedlings, saplings, trees and herbs are collectively known as the forest's "understory." They have evolved to be creatively persistent, patient, and opportunistic. On my walks through the cathedral-like deciduous forests in Northeast Tennessee, I was often inspired by this humble network of determined species that hugs the ground.


Many businesses hire a property manager to oversee building maintenance. This is a large job that encompasses so many different aspects which is why having an experienced commercial roofing contractor on hand can take a lot off of your plate.
Here at LB we will work with you, the property manager, to ensure your roofing asset has the longest life possible. With scheduled routine maintenance check ups we can catch small issues before they become costly headaches.
Why LB Commercial Roofing Company?
Untimely roof failure can lead to damaged assets, cash flow issues, and a weakened reputation. Additionally, property managers and building owners can easily lose rental revenue, have unusable space, or difficulty reselling with poor performing roofing systems. A roof is a huge investment. Let LB Commercial Roofing take the wheel to make sure you're getting the most out of your investment. We can guarantee to prolong the life of your roofing unit just by taking a few simple steps. Early detection is key in preventing issues down the road and spotting issues before they start can save you money. As a property manager you have a lot on your shoulders and we can be the company to help lighten that load.
Don't wait any longer – Give us a call today (214) 932-3455. We look forward to earning your business.


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home > business > technology
Boeing rolling out 787 Dreamliner this weekend
Published Jul 5, 2007, 12:00pm
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Fast Facts: Boeing 787
The Boeing board of directors approved offering the 7E7 Dreamliner airplane for sale in late 2003.
On April 26, 2004, Japan-based All Nippon Airways (ANA) launched the 7E7 Dreamliner program with an order for 50 airplanes--the largest launch order in Boeing commercial aviation history.
On Jan. 28, 2005, Boeing announced that it gave the 7E7 Dreamliner an official model designation number of 787. The airplane became known as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The model designation followed the company-announced orders from the People's Republic of China for 60 Dreamliners. Boeing incorporated the 8 at the time of the China order because in many Asian cultures, the number 8 represents good luck and prosperity.
ANA will take its first 787 delivery in May 2008, when the first Dreamliner will enter service. To build the super-efficient airplane, Boeing has partnered with more than 40 of the world's top-tier suppliers. An international team is developing the airplane, led by Boeing at its Everett, Wash., facility.
The 787 is a family of airplanes in the 200- to 300-seat class that will carry passengers on routes between 3,500 and 8,500 nautical miles (6,500 to 16,000 kilometers). The 787 will allow airlines to offer passengers more of what they want: affordable, comfortable, nonstop, point-to-point travel to more destinations around the world.
In addition to bringing big-jet ranges to mid-size airplanes, the 787 will fly at Mach 0.85, as fast as today's fastest commercial airplanes, while using much less fuel.
Using 20 percent less fuel per passenger than similarly sized airplanes, the 787 is designed for the environment with lower emissions and quieter takeoffs and landings. Inside the airplane, passengers will find cleaner air, bigger windows, more stowage space and improved lighting.
A few 787 'firsts'
Since the 787 program launch in April 2004, Boeing has sold more than 500 airplanes to customers from around the world--passing the 500-airplane order mark faster than any other airplane launch in the history of commercial aviation.
The 787 is the first commercial airplane to make the change from metal to composite structure. The majority of the 787's major structure is made out of composite material. The Dreamliner is the first commercial airplane to be built with a one-piece fuselage. Manufacturing a one-piece fuselage section eliminates 1,500 aluminum sheets and 40,000 to 50,000 fasteners.
For the first time in commercial jet history, the 787 family will offer a standard engine interface for the two types of engines to be offered on the airplane--the General Electric GEnx (GE Next Generation) or Rolls Royce's Trent 1000--allowing the 787 to be fitted with either manufacturer's engines at any point in time.
More than 3 million square feet of new facilities have been built around the world to support the Dreamliner--making it the largest current industrialization project in the world.
For more information on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, visit: www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/index.html and www.newairplane.com
787 Premiere
Watch the 787 rollout event live on 7/8/07
The rollout event for the 787 Dreamliner will be available for the world to view. In an unprecedented move, the event will be broadcast live via webcast in nine different languages at 3:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday, July 8 (7/8/07).
Live viewing:
1. Live webcast through the Internet Go to www.boeing.com and get connected to the live webcast.
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Bad Laws Can and Will Be Used Against You
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HG: As I said before, all of my work now is focused on "Liberal Arts and Sciences in the 21st Century." I focus on that highly current topic because I am aware of the situation that you describe and want to do something about it. It's very important that our leaders understand why broad education is essential, not only for work but also for citizenship; alas, too many of them contribute to the problem, rather than to the solution.
When we are interviewing students and parents in our study, and they say that the purpose of education is to get a job, we follow up with the question "And what happens when the job disappears?". Often they are shocked; they never thought of that possibility before. Of course, the whole reason for a broad education in history, philosophy, and the arts, as well as basic science, is to prepare you, as best we can in 2015, for the world, no matter what the jobs happen to be in 2020 or 2050 and no matter what is the state of the world.
HG: When I put forth the theory, I thought that the most important part was the identification of the specific intelligences and their relation to specific regions of the brain. And indeed, I think that is why the theory attracted a lot of attention. But today, I think it was more important simply to pluralize the word 'intelligence' and to help parents, teachers, and children themselves realize that you can be smart in more than one way, and that it's important to identify your strengths, and make use of them—for work, for play, for what you are passionate about, for how best to work with others. I don't know and I don't care whether my name and the phrase 'multiple intelligences' will still be on the radar screen, but I do hope that the ideas of 'several ways of being smart' will become part of common sense, common knowledge, and common wisdom.


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Raspberry Pi 2 Arrives: 6x Faster, An "Entry-Level PC" For $35
Natasha Lomas @riptari / 8 years
Grab your screwdrivers, makers! There's a new, more powerful Raspberry Pi in town… The just announced Pi 2, which goes on sale today, adds a quad-core chip and double the memory to support more intensive processing tasks.
The Pi Foundation also reckons this sequel takes the Pi microprocessor "firmly into the PC space", as they put it — in terms of power punch packed.
"With the Pi 1, there were people using it as a PC but you had to make allowances for the fact it was a $35 PC," says Pi creator, Eben Upton, in an interview with TechCrunch. "The big difference with the Pi 2 is it's a PC. It's not a PC which is pretty good considering it cost you $35. It's a PC that's pretty good."
"We think there's a real opportunity here… we've got a web browser, you can install LibreOffice on it, and then you've got a machine which is quite plausible as an entry-level PC," he adds.
To that end, Upton notes the Foundation will be adding software such as LibreOffice to the reference Raspbian install in the coming months. The hardware will also be able to handle running Microsoft's Windows 10 OS.
Who might want $35 entry level PCs? Schools might, for one, says Upton. "This plays into some of the educational stuff — it's just that much more useful as a general purpose computer," he adds.
Last year Google's philanthropic arm, Google Giving, stumped up $1 million to fund free Pi for 15,000 U.K. schoolkids, while various startups have taken the low cost microprocessor as their starting point to spark computing education businesses to help people learn coding or electronics tinkering, such as Kano with its DIY computer, or more recently Pimoroni's Flotilla electronics kits. So there's already plenty going on with Pi and pupils.
Zooming out from there, to take in the wider, "embedded, hobbyist, building a robot" community of Pi users — where Upton notes "Pi has been very strong" — well, those guys are clearly not going to have any trouble finding uses for the additional power that Pi 2 brings.
"There are obviously places where the extra processing comes in useful," says Upton. "Image processing is the obvious one. If you're trying to build a robot that has one of the Pi cameras on it to react to the environment, you're just that much better able to write those image processing algorithms on a big, fast quad-core ARM, rather than a medium performance, single core ARM."
[gallery ids="1113265,1113264,1113262,1113261,1113260,1113259"]
Pi 2: More power, same price
The Pi 2 — or the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, to give it its full name — retains the form factor as its predecessor Pi Model B+ board to ensure backwards compatibility with adds-ons, accessories, online tutorials and the like.
An "enormous amount of effort" went into this, says Upton. "People have been saying to us for a couple of years why aren't you making a faster Pi?" But the Foundation wanted a faster Pi that retained the same form factor — hence why they've taken two years time to get to Pi 2.
"If we'd been prepared to give up compatibility we could have had a faster Pi out quite a while ago but it wouldn't have been a Raspberry Pi. It would have been another computer with a Raspberry Pi logo on it," he adds. "We just didn't want to do that kind of 'brand extension' engineering. We wanted to do actual engineering."
The $35 price-tag also remains in place, thanks in part — says Upton — to the success of the original Pi enabling economies of scale to kick in via larger component orders. The P2, like the P1, will also be manufactured largely in the U.K., at Sony's facility in Wales. (A small amount of Pi is also produced in China.)
The Pi 2's core is a 900MHz Quad ARM Cortex-A7 processor, which Upton says should deliver a 6x performance bump on the current top of the line Pi (the aforementioned Model B+, which only arrived last summer — itself an upgrade on the original Model B, bringing more ports and a neater form factor).
"What we've been able to do with Pi 2 is go from a single ARM 11 Core, which is a fairly antique processor now, to a quad core ARM Cortex A7. Which is pretty much a modern top of the line processor, and gives us something like 6x the processing capability of Raspberry Pi 1," he notes.
On board memory on the Pi 2 has also doubled from 512MB to 1GB. Interfacing capabilities and the form factor are the same as the B+, as noted above.
"There are always things that people want," adds Upton. "A lot of the obvious things that people were asking for for Pi we think we solved back in July last year [with the Model B+] — more IO, more USB, a better form factor, lower power consumption. But there was a sort of residue of things we weren't able to resolve and that was largely to do with the silicon.
"So Pi 2 resolves, pretty much, all of the remaining issues that people had with Pi — and those are mostly around memory and processing capability."
Upton predicts "at least tens of thousands, possibly as many as 100 thousand" sales of Pi 2 on the first day. "I think we can deal with a spike. There might be a little bit of a queue," he adds.
Sales of the original Pi are running a little over 200,000 units per month now, according to Upton. That board won't be immediately discontinued — but rather will continued to be sold for as long as there is demand for it. So industrial users aren't going to be forced to upgrade to Pi 2.
"All of these products stay in the market until there's no more demand for them," he adds.
Total Pi sales at this point in the product's lifecycle is around 4.5 million, according to Upton. The first Pi — the original Model B — was launched three years ago, in February 2012.
Where is Pi doing best now? "North America is really getting very strong now," he tells TechCrunch. "Historically its been our biggest market but it's underperformed on a per capita basis… That's really picking up. China's really picking up — coming from a small base, China's growing really fast. People really seem to have taken to it."
Even more Pi…
Asked about the lower priced Model A+, which the Pi Foundation only refreshed last November, Upton said the Foundation like that $20 price-point, so does envisage it might to do a sequel in time — but not anytime soon.
"The A+ has been really successful. It's been much more successful that the original Model A Pi… so that $20 price-point, and the small form factor and the low power consumption actually are a really sweet combination, and I think it really grabbed people's attention. So we're going to leave the A+ anchoring the bottom end. That's going to be there for at least a year as our bottom end device, and then maybe sometime in 2016 we'll think about whether we can find a way to do something that's got the new quad-core processor… and maybe a little more RAM," says Upton.
"In practice it's not something we've got planned, it just something we've left room for," he adds.
Meanwhile the Pi touchpanel, which Upton showed off at Disrupt London in October, is still in the works. The components are sitting in a warehouse but the Foundation has prioritized getting Pi 2 out the door first so the touchpanel has inevitably been on the backburner. "I'm hoping we can squeeze it in this quarter, build and launch it," he adds.


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Ryan Riley: Why I started a cancer cookery school
Friday 6 March 2020, 2:54pm
Play Brightcove video
Point of View is an ITV News series where we invite people to share their life experiences and what they've learned from them.
Ryan Riley struggled in the months after his mother's death but launching the UK's first cancer cookery school felt like the best way to honour her memory.
Krista died from small cell cancer after "a very difficult and emotional" two years of treatment.
"My mother was the most bubbly sort of person, she loved to eat, she loved to cook although she could only really cook about five dishes really, really well," 26-year-old Ryan told ITV News.
"And I think that's why when she lost her sense of taste it became a real big part of her downfall."
According to Cancer Research, one in two people born after 1960 in the UK will be diagnosed with a form of cancer during their lifetime.
And around 28 per cent of cancer patients in the UK have chemotherapy, anti-cancer drugs, which can affect taste buds and cause small mouth ulcers.
The budding chef decided to launch free cooking classes up and down the UK to help cancer patients find the same joy in cooking he and his mother shared.
Even Krista's favourite chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall backed the young cook's idea, opening up the famous River Cottage kitchen for lessons.
One memorable visitor was a 75-year-old northerner who was reluctant to take part.
Ryan said: "He said 'I'm here because my wife has given up on cooking for me and she says this might help' and he'd had quite a lot of cancer for quite a long time and I think it'd really become depressing for him.
"We started the cookery class with pineapple tacos, it's really simple, it's about six or seven ingredients, five minutes and he just tasted it and he just started crying."
The success of the classes led Ryan to create the Life Kitchen cookbook alongside recipe developer Kimberley Duke and Centre for the Study of the Senses founder Professor Barry Smith.
Ryan added: "There is no guide to dealing with it, there's no guide to living with it, there's no guide to dealing with the after effects of it.
"But all you can do is, I think, try to spend the most time with people and fulfil and live your life, eat some good food, it always helps and just really be there for each other."
More from our Point of View series:
Edward Parnell: Why ghost stories bring me comfort after family tragedies
Angel Shepherd-Bascom: Why cancer shouldn't stop you loving your body
Agnes Frimston: Why I read a poem to a crying stranger
Imelda Fossu: How I became £100k in debt at 22
Johny Pitts: What it means to be Afropean
Fi Anderson: Why I sacrificed breastfeeding


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Karibu Safari
Khorixas Camp
Mobile Safari company
After more than 30 years and thousands of miles of experience, we are considered one of the leading safari companies in Namibia. Our staff is employed full time throughout the twelve months of the year, which has made each member of the staff part of our family.
Karibu Safaris supports Namibia
Living and working in Africa imparts people with a strong sense of social responsibility. The gap between those who have and those who do not is often vast. Karibu Safaris takes great pride and joy in undertaking small social intiatives to help uplift rurual communities.
Karibu Safaris is also a proud member of the Namibia Nature Foundation.
The primary aims of the NNF are to promote sustainable development, the conservation of biological diversity and natural ecosystems, and the wise and ethical use of natural resources for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future.
Tel +264 61 25 1661 | Email info@karibunamibia.com | Fax +264 61 25 4245 | Web www.karibunamibia.com
Last Updated on March 23, 2018 by Travel News Namibia
Travel News Namibia is a high-quality glossy Namibia travel and lifestyle magazine tasked with promoting Namibia to the world. With riveting stories, first-hand encounters and magnificent photographs showcasing tourism, travel, nature, adventure and conservation, TNN is the ultimate and most comprehensive guide to exploring Namibia. Travel News Namibia is published in five different editions per year. These include four English- language editions and one German. Travel News Namibia is for sale in Namibia and South Africa.
Local Travel Specials


Large Scale Heals Antique Teak Trolley.
This is a fabulous, large antique teak trolley by Heals around 1910. Complete with the makers label, Castles, Baltic Wharf, Westminster. London, they manufactured the teak garden / outdoor furniture for heals of London. In excellent, solid condition and the teak timber has gone a lovely, silver colour over time. The Heals antique trolley is on steerable wheels, perfect for drinks on the terrace in summer! Or equally useful in a free standing kitchen.


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NBA 2K20: Top 5 Dunkers in the game - LaVine, Carter, WIlliamson & More
NBA 2K20: Top 5 Dunkers in the game – LaVine, Carter, WIlliamson & More
We look at the best guys in 2K Sports' latest release to give you the guaranteed bucket.
by Julian Sims Oct 01, 2019 Oct 01, 2019
NBA 2K20 is here and fans around the world are getting the chance to hit the court ahead of the return of the NBA itself.
The modern NBA might be all about 3 pointers, but nothing flashes your dominance like driving to the rim and dunking on an opponent. It's also a far more sure way of scoring points for a new player who isn't yet in full command of the controls.
So who are the best players in NBA 2K20 when it comes to driving to the rim and dominating?
READ MORE: How to shoot the perfect 3 pointer
Checking in as the all-time top dunker in NBA 2K20 is none other than Vince Carter, with an impeccable dunk rating of 99.
It goes without saying that players shouldn't expect the 42-year-old guard to throw down athletic dunks, but if you're playing with the classic Raptors team, you'll have no issues posterizing your opponents with VC.
Zion Williamson (97)
New Orleans Pelicans' rookie Zion Williamson boasts a 97 dunk rating, which is top of the league as far as the 2019-20 rosters are concerned. This is one of the most controversial ratings, considering how Zion is about to start his rookie season in the NBA.
READ MORE: Most OP badges for your MyPlayer
Zach Lavine (96)
Williamson is followed by the two-time Dunk Contest champion Zach LaVine, who has been given a 96 dunk rating this year. LaVine's 46″ vertical is the highest in the league (equaling Michael Jordan's hops) and allows him to glide through the air with the maximum amount of hang time.
Donovan Mitchell (96)
Alongside Lavine with a slam dunk rating of 96 is Donovan Mitchell, who threw down a staggering 34 dunks in the 2018-19 season. The most memorable of his dunks this year was a two-footed poster dunk over the Lakers' big man JaVale McGee in January.
READ MORE: All available locker code for MyTeam
Aaron Gordon (95)
Coming in tied for the 4th best dunker in the NBA is the Orlando Magic's Aaron Gordon, with an impressive rating of 95. Magic fans anticipated Gordon making a 'big jump' in his career in 2018-19, but for a guy who knows a thing or two about vertical leaping, this past season was just a mere bunny-hop in his career.
Hamidou Diallo (95)
The reigning Slam Dunk champ Hamidou Diallo is most easily remembered for dunking over Shaq and hanging from the rim by his elbow at the 2018-19 Dunk Contest.
But, with the likes of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis and others on the sideline, would he make it into your top 5?
READ MORE: Beginner's guide to NBA 2K20
Next: NBA 2K20 MyLeague: Worst Teams to Start With »« Previous: NBA 2K20: Who are the best stealers in the game? – Smart, Paul, Leonard & more
NBA 2K20 ratings update: Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander get improved while Paul George decreases
NBA 2K20: Top five Orlando Magic players available to buy on MyTEAM – McGrady, Carter, Vucevic & more
NBA 2K20 All-Star Voting: Best Southwest Division team you can buy on MyTEAM – Harden, Westbrook, Doncic & more
NBA 2K20: MOTW 12 predictions (MyTEAM Moments of the Week 12) – Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, Kyle Kuzma


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How Tough Is Too Tough?
By David Hill
Some call history teacher Paul Pflueger brilliant. His critics say he's a bully.
Last February, on a cool Monday evening, Paul Pflueger drove from his home in Laguna Beach, a pleasant resort town in Southern California, to San Juan Capistrano, about 10 miles south on the Pacific Coast Highway, where his fate was in the hands of seven school board members.
A week earlier, Pflueger had been removed from his position at Capistrano Valley High School, in nearby Mission Viejo, where he had taught history for 16 years. He was, according to a letter from a district administrator, "guilty of unsatisfactory job performance in his instructional presentations and teaching techniques." School officials had compiled a list of 42 incidents demonstrating why Pflueger should be fired. Now, it was up to the board members to render a verdict.
Normally, such matters are considered behind closed doors, but Pflueger had chosen to have his fate decided in an open forum. His case was already well-publicized, thanks to reports by the news media, including The Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Times, and local television and radio stations. So it was no surprise when hundreds of Pflueger's supporters showed up for the meeting at the Capistrano district's headquarters. Some wore T-shirts: "Question Authority," "Save Pflueger," and "I Think, Therefore I Am Dangerous."
For the district, the case against the 55-year-old teacher was clear-cut. He had failed too many students. He had humiliated and embarrassed them in class. He had yelled at them. He had referred to women as "cookie makers." He had displayed a poster of the American flag upside down and had refused to require students to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. He had been "rude and belligerent" toward his principal. He had been "demeaning" toward other teachers. He lectured too much and refused to incorporate other teaching strategies. And so on.
Testimony at the board meeting by a few teachers, parents, and students bolstered those charges. Lacey Csuzdi, a former student, fought back tears as she called the teacher a "sick man" who had caused her so much "mental and physical torture" that she had sought medical treatment. On her first day in his American government class, Csuzdi said, Pflueger called his students "ignorant followers" for standing during the Pledge of Allegiance. If you disagreed with his opinion, she told the board members, "you'd be cut off in midsentence, told you were wrong and dumb, and given an F. ... This man should never teach a class again."
History teacher Ken Sayles, who described himself as a former friend of Pflueger's, told of the time a Hispanic student had come to his wife, a Spanish teacher at the high school, in tears because Pflueger had "challenged her to not just be another dumb Mexican." Former Capistrano Valley Assistant Principal Ross Velderrain suggested that was not an isolated event; "a significant number" of students had been "intimidated, humiliated, devastated, and offended" by Pflueger.
Pflueger's supporters, meanwhile, painted an altogether different portrait. Dozens of students, parents, and teachers described Pflueger as a brilliant, rigorous teacher who was tough but fair, provocative but inspiring. Some students said he was the best teacher they had ever had. Senior Jessica Krause called Pflueger "an incredible teacher" who had taught her "to question authority and to stand up for what I believe in." His classes were difficult, she conceded, but not impossible. "I earned an A," she said. "I use the word 'earn,' because Mr. Pflueger does not give grades. His students actually have to work and earn them. "
"He's one of the most influential teachers I've ever had," one boy said. "Mr. Pflueger is not a zero. He is a hero!"
Bob Janko, a math teacher at Capo Valley (as the school is known locally) whose daughter had taken a class from Pflueger in 1991, also praised the teacher. But, he added, "it seems like we're talking about two different people."
Indeed, it was hard to believe that the Paul Pflueger accused of "unsatisfactory job performance" was the same Paul Pflueger so praised and admired. Was he Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? Pflueger and his supporters argued that the teacher's methods, while unorthodox, worked: So what if he failed a high percentage of his students? He was simply setting high standards.
"The bill of particulars against Pflueger is strong," the Los Angeles Times remarked in an editorial after the board meeting, "but can any independent observer also overlook the testimony of inspired students and satisfied parents?" His case "raises the prospect that one observer's reform can be another's witch hunt," the newspaper said. "One pattern of abuse can be another's effort to end social promotions and invigorate a secondary school curriculum."
To the teacher's critics, however, all the talk about "high standards" and "passion" and "inspiration" was just a lot of smoke: Paul Pflueger's in-your-face style of teaching had harmed lots of students. Some youngsters fared well in his classes, they conceded, but too many didn't. "I think that he really believed that he was challenging his students to think," says Ken Sayles, "but he didn't see what kind of damage he was doing to so many of them."
Says Capistrano Superintendent James Fleming: "Paul Pflueger represents the worst that there is in the teaching profession. The more I looked into this, the worse it got." And so, in the end, there was really only one solution: Pflueger had to go.
Pflueger is a picture of passion and intensity.
Sitting at a small, glass-topped dining room table in his Laguna Beach house, where the divorced teacher lives with his 15-year-old son, Pflueger is a picture of passion and intensity. A tall, thin man with short gray hair, he gets visibly angry—his arms go flying, and his face turns red—when he talks about how his detractors drove him from the job he loved. He accuses Superintendent Fleming and Capo Valley Principal Dan Burch of caving in to the demands of a small group of teachers who couldn't deal with his abrasive personality. "I'm not a conspiracy theorist," he says, "but there sure seems to be a lot of evidence pointing in that direction."
As a teacher, Pflueger says, he tried to make his classes as interesting and provocative as possible to force kids to think for themselves, to open up their minds. "When you teach history," he says, "you have to make it relevant to the students' lives."
So Pflueger, who taught American government, U.S. history, and world history, infused his lessons with talk of controversial contemporary social issues like abortion and gay rights. He would play devil's advocate, using the Socratic method to spark debate. "I'd usually play the side that was least popular," he recalls, "and here in Orange County, that was usually the more liberal side." (His own political views, he admits, are left of center, but he insists he never imposed them on his students.)
Pflueger says he often used the Pledge of Allegiance to stir up a discussion on the meaning of patriotism. "What offended me was how kids would be standing up saying something and not even thinking a darn thing," he says. "So I'd ask the students, 'What did saying the pledge make you do? Why do you think that makes you more patriotic?' And most of them would say, 'We don't think about it. We've just been doing it since kindergarten.'" According to district policy, students must stand during the pledge, though they don't have to recite the words. "But I refused to force that brand of patriotism on any kid," Pflueger says. "If someone didn't want to stand, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it."
When one student objected, Pflueger says he told him, "'The pledge says, "liberty and justice for all." Yet you want to take the liberty away from these kids to not say the Pledge of Allegiance.' And that offended him. I wasn't being negative toward this kid. I was just trying to force him to think a little bit harder about what he believed."
Pflueger was considered one of the most demanding teachers at Capo Valley, which serves nearly 3,000 students. "My reputation was way beyond what the reality was," he says, "but I didn't mind that. When kids would come to my class, they were ready to do some work."
At the beginning of each semester, Pflueger would hand out a curriculum guide that spelled out his expectations. Students were required to take notes and to turn in homework assignments, which were graded. Tests were given frequently. Grades were based primarily on the results of a final comprehensive examination. "The final will be almost exclusively essay and short answer," Pflueger wrote in the guide. "Students are required to think, analyze, explain, and evaluate, not match or choose between true or false."
Some students quickly concluded that Pflueger's classes were simply too rigorous and transferred to another teacher. Says Pflueger, "One parent told me, 'I want my daughter to go to a good college, and she's not the greatest student, but she'll work hard, and I'd rather have her in another class.'"
According to Ken Sayles, students "would beg and plead" to transfer out of Pflueger's classes. "He'd have classes with just nine students, while other teachers had 30." Naturally, that caused friction between Pflueger and some of the other social science teachers. Plus, Sayles says, "Pflueger would ridicule other teachers in his classroom, in front of students. He'd ask a student which teacher they had had for another class, and then he'd say, 'Oh, I guess you didn't learn anything.'"
Pflueger admits that he rubbed some of his colleagues the wrong way. "But I'm not at school to win a popularity contest," he says. "I'm there to teach." He denies criticizing other teachers in his classes, though he concedes that he allowed students to make disparaging remarks. "It was something I could have controlled," he says, adding that he put a stop to it "two years before I got kicked out of school." It's clear, however, that Pflueger felt that some of his colleagues were mediocre teachers—an opinion he didn't try to hide. "There were some teachers that I argued shouldn't have been hired," he says. "A few of them shouldn't be teaching high school, or at least they need to elevate themselves to where they're putting more time and energy into it."
"Paul essentially destroyed our department. Meetings became incredibly uncomfortable because of the way he would humiliate other teachers. His behavior was anything but collegial."
Ken Sayles,
History teacher
In May 1997, Sayles and other social science teachers wrote a letter to Burch, who had just been named principal of Capo Valley, complaining about Pflueger. Do something about this man, they pleaded. "Paul essentially destroyed our department," Sayles says. "Meetings became incredibly uncomfortable because of the way he would humiliate other teachers. People stopped going to them. His behavior was anything but collegial."
That summer, according to Burch, many parents and students sent letters to the district raising concerns about Pflueger. The teacher contended that his critics in the department had mounted a letter-writing campaign, and he asked administrators to talk to other teachers, parents, and students to get a more balanced picture. As a result, the district hired a private investigator to look into the matter. Pflueger says he never saw the investigator's report until after last February's board meeting, when his lawyer obtained a copy from the district.
In the report, which runs more than 100 pages, Pflueger is both damned and praised. Most interesting, perhaps, were the contradictory views of two Capo Valley principals. Thomas Anthony, who led the school from 1986 to 1991, conceded that Pflueger's teaching style didn't work for everyone. Students who were "aggressive, outgoing, and willing to meet a challenge" did better than those who were more "introverted and shy."
Still, Anthony pointed out, students in Pflueger's Advanced Placement history class performed better on the AP exam than students who had other teachers. He noted that Pflueger had once been named "Teacher of the Year" by Capo Valley students. The former principal also believed that Pflueger's students "received a better education than those who were not assigned to any of his classes."
Anthony acknowledged that the teacher had "pushed the limits" many times with his colleagues and students, but argued that he had "never crossed the line and engaged in illegal conduct."
But Dan Burch was now running the school—Anthony had been promoted to associate superintendent—and he clearly saw Pflueger as a problem. The teacher, he told the investigator, had a "strained relationship with his colleagues" and was openly critical of them. During a meeting with a parent, he had become "angry and created a hostile situation," Burch said.
Burch contended that Pflueger conducted classes in a "loud and sarcastic tone of voice" that discouraged many students from participating. He noted that the teacher "lectured during his classes and did not follow a textbook." Moreover, Burch objected to Pflueger's policy of giving students an F for their final grade if they failed the final examination.
In February 1998, eight months after Sayles and the other social science teachers had aired their complaints to Burch, the principal put Pflueger on a "personal- improvement plan." He had observed some of Pflueger's classes and concluded that the teacher lectured too much, did not follow a textbook, and failed to use visual material that would be helpful to "kinesthetic" learners. "He very seldom used the board," Burch says. "And when he did, it was disorganized and didn't really help the visual learners."
Pflueger says that, in fact, he hardly ever lectured his students. "It was more of a Socratic method," he says. "I'd write on the board when it was necessary, but I didn't spend all my time writing things down just so students could copy them, because that's not how you teach them to take notes." Besides, he adds, "my walls were full of posters, political cartoons, things like that." Nonetheless, Pflueger agreed to try to use more visuals.
The teacher improved some, Burch says, but not enough. According to the charges eventually brought against him, Pflueger failed to incorporate chalkboards, maps, or other visuals aids into his class presentations. His world history and U.S. history classes fell behind the scheduled curriculum, it was noted, and "he did not focus on academic issues which were important to the subject matter."
School officials also claimed Pflueger had failed to curb his antagonistic style. The charges state that he "continued to single out students for mistakes" and to dominate class discussions. Furthermore, in a meeting with Burch and others to discuss his progress, he "was argumentative and rude, raising his voice, interrupting and not allowing others to complete their thoughts, and not answering questions directed to him."
On Sept. 29, 1998, Pflueger was sent an official "Notice of Unsatisfactory Performance and/or Unprofessional Conduct." That meant the teacher had 90 days to get his act together— or else. He responded by writing a seven-page rebuttal, in which he acknowledged that "there have been problems that my methods, personality, and temperament have caused." He admitted that his "direct method" of dealing with students "was offensive to some students." But, he wrote, "I considered this 'tough love,' and it was effective with many students."
At the end of the teacher's 90-day probation period, the ax fell. From the district's perspective, Pflueger had failed to change, despite being given ample opportunity. In a Jan. 29, 1999, letter from Associate Superintendent Tony Monetti, Pflueger was told to clean out his desk and go home. The allegations against him would be considered by the board of trustees at its regular meeting on Feb. 8.
I could see very easily how, under a different set of circumstances, I could have been Paul Pflueger's worst enemy," says Craig Hearne, whose daughter Lindsay is a senior at Capo Valley. "I could have been one of those parents calling for his job."
Hearne and his wife, Jeremy, and Lindsay are sitting in the family's well-appointed living room in Mission Viejo. Lindsay took Pflueger's world history class as a sophomore and liked it so much she enrolled in his U.S. history class the following year. At the board meeting last February, she wore a "Save Pflueger" T- shirt.
Her father describes himself as fundamentalist Christian. He's aware that some of Pflueger's harshest critics were Christian conservatives who didn't appreciate the teacher's delving into controversial social and religious issues in his classes. But Hearne believes the manner in which Pflueger dealt with those issues was taken out of context. His lessons were "misreported or mischaracterized" by some students. "Quite often, I was not in sympathy with some of the positions Paul took," Hearne says, "until I understood that he was really taking a devil's advocate position. "
As for Pflueger's class discussions of the Pledge of Allegiance, Hearne says, "Paul Pflueger is a teacher who challenges students, challenges people to think, challenges people's preconceived orthodoxies."
Hearne points out that some of the best teachers are also the most controversial. "Look at Jaime Escalante," he says. Indeed, the man lionized by the writer Jay Mathews in The Best Teacher in America rankled some of his colleagues at Garfield High School in Los Angeles with his "temper and distaste for compromise," as Mathews puts it. According to the book, Escalante, who is now retired from teaching, would pick fights with his students over their clothes, their tardiness, "or anything that might engage their anger, and then their interest."
To Lindsay, Pflueger had a passion for teaching and kids. "He ignited sparks and fire within his students. A lot of teachers don't do that." Asked if she ever witnessed him humiliating any of her classmates, she answers: "No. I never saw him call any students names. If kids forgot their homework— and there were kids that repeatedly did not do homework and did not speak up in classes—he wouldn't humiliate them, but he would question them why they weren't participating, why they weren't giving of themselves. He could be harsh, but not to the point of humiliation. He was never out to get anyone."
Once, when Lindsay came to class without having done her homework, Pflueger wanted to know why. "And I ran out of his class crying, not because he did something mean to me, but because I was having a bad day," she says. "He found me later and apologized and asked me if I was OK, and said if there was ever anything that was bothering me to let him know."
For Lindsay's father, the bottom line is this: "The students have been cheated, families have been cheated, and the community has been cheated," Hearne says, "because we have had something really outstanding taken away from us. And that's wrong."
"I think it's sad," his wife says. "He got a raw deal."
Late in the evening of Feb. 8, 1999, Pflueger— dressed for the occasion in a beige sports jacket, white dress shirt, and bronze tie—took the lectern at the board meeting to the enthusiastic applause of his supporters. At times angry and confrontational, but also rambling and unfocused, the teacher denied the allegations against him. He accused "a few teachers who don't like me" of encouraging students to complain to the principal and the superintendent.
Pflueger assured the board members that he had "made a lot of effort" to address some of the criticisms that had been aired in the past. But, at the same time, he blasted the district for dragging up old allegations, matters he believed had been resolved years before. "If I'm as bad as some people say I am," he bellowed, "then you people weren't doing your job!"
Pflueger's anger was understandable, but confronting the board members may have been unwise. "I'm not sure that Paul helped his cause when he spoke," says Bob Janko, one of Pflueger's supporters. "He came across as arrogant. He wouldn't concede that he had done anything wrong."
In the end, it was left to Pflueger's lawyer, Paul Crost, who had been hired by the California Teachers Association and its local affiliate, the Capistrano Unified Education Association, to make the case for his client. "He clearly is an exceptional teacher," Crost told the board. "I think there's got to be a place in public education for a man like Paul Pflueger. There are students who need Paul Pflueger—and there may be some students who don't need him, or who maybe can't tolerate him." Fire him, Crost added, and "we will embark on a very lengthy and costly process."
But the board members—most of them, anyway—were unmoved. In a 6-1 vote, they agreed to fire Pflueger, setting the stage, under California law, for a hearing in which a three-person panel would review evidence, hear testimony, and make a final decision. Indeed, one board member, Crystal Kochendorfer, said she was voting to terminate Pflueger "because I want all of this information out, under oath, and carefully examined in front of a mediator."
Later, Pflueger said he welcomed the opportunity to resolve the matter in court, no matter how much it might cost him.
Pflueger had plenty of support for such a crusade. Dana Parsons, a columnist for the Orange County edition of the Los Angeles Times, attended the board meeting and wrote about it two days later. "Something is out of whack in the Capistrano Unified School District," he concluded.
"What I heard," he wrote, "were students, parents, and Pflueger's colleagues describe a sometimes abrasive maverick teacher who might fly a little too solo but who cares deeply about his students." Parsons heard the detractors, too. "I didn't discount those remarks, but neither could I square them with this: How could a teacher that bad inspire the kind of loyalty Pflueger got Monday night?"
Within a few months, though, Pflueger had lost a key ally: the California Teachers Association. After the board meeting, he and Paul Crost began preparing for the evidentiary hearing, scheduled for last August. But in June, Crost wrote a letter to Pflueger warning that the case could end up costing more than $100,000. The CTA, a National Education Association affiliate, had authorized about $45,000 for the case, the lawyer wrote. Pflueger says Crost told him that he would have to raise from $50,000 to $100,000 for the matter to proceed.
The request seemed odd: Did the union really expect a teacher to come up with that kind of money? Nevertheless, Pflueger says, he asked some friends for help, and they wrote checks totaling $2,500, which he turned over to Crost. But the teacher insists that the CTA should have backed him all the way, no matter the cost. "That's why I joined a union," Pflueger says. "If a bureaucracy with deep pockets comes after me, I need some protection."
"It's like they expected him to sell his house," says Capo Valley history teacher Mike England, who has spoken out in defense of his colleague.
Union officials tell a different story. Priscilla Winslow, a staff attorney with the CTA, says each union member is guaranteed $16,000 for legal expenses in the event of a dismissal hearing. In Pflueger's case, the union's chief counsel authorized another $24,000. "We thought it was complex enough to warrant the extra money," she says. If Pflueger needed additional funding, she adds, he could have requested it. The union's advisory panel on legal services, composed of 10 to 15 teachers, would have considered the request.
But Pflueger never asked. He says his lawyer "wasn't very encouraging about doing that. He implied that it wouldn't happen."
Pflueger speculates that union officials abandoned him when they concluded the case was unwinnable. But whatever their motivation, it's clear that Pflueger's stormy relationship with local union leaders didn't endear him to either the state or local affiliate. Chris Kirkland, the executive director of the Capistrano Unified Education Association, had initially represented the teacher when he was first scrutinized by administrators, but Pflueger later asked the union to assign someone else to his case.
Kirkland contests Pflueger's claim that the union bailed out on him, claiming that union officials never indicated that they would cut off his funding. In addition to the amount authorized by the CTA, she noted, the local union pledged $2,500 outright and $2,500 more if Pflueger matched that amount.
Though Crost confirms that Pflueger passed along the checks from his friends, Kirkland says that as far as she knows, the teacher never raised a cent. "If he had raised just $500," she says, "that would have been something. But all he did was sit back and criticize the union."
In the end, Pflueger faced an expensive legal battle that he couldn't afford. In July, he agreed to settle with the district and take early retirement. The teacher, who is diabetic, concluded he couldn't risk losing his health insurance, which would continue under the district's settlement plan.
According to the terms of the deal, Pflueger will be on leave, at full salary and benefits, until June, when his retirement takes effect. "But that's not going to give me enough to live on," he says. "I want to be teaching high school again," Pflueger adds, "but I know that's going to be difficult, because now my reputation is that I make waves."
"He'll be teaching again somewhere," predicts Craig Hearne, "probably at a junior college. And I wouldn't be altogether surprised to see him resurface at a high school." Ken Sayles says, "He's probably better suited to teaching at a college because students aren't compelled to be there."
These days, Pflueger is busy catching up on work around his house. "I play golf occasionally, and I took a two- week fishing vacation in Montana,"he says. And he is working on a book about his ordeal. "But what I'm best at is working with kids."
He's still astonished by all the former students who came to his defense. "It was an amazing experience," he says, "because what I taught those students was coming to life—that what you think matters."
Meanwhile, at the school, the storm has cleared. "Everyone at Capo Valley is relieved now that it's over," says Sayles. Adds Principal Dan Burch: "I think the overwhelming sentiment is that he had the opportunity to make some changes, he didn't make them, and now he's gone."
But some teachers are still upset that Pflueger never got to present his side of the story to a panel of judges. "He didn't really get his day in court," says Mike England.
Ironically, Pflueger maintains that schools are too soft when it comes to incompetent teachers. More of them should be fired, he says, but they are "impossible to get rid of."
He doesn't say it, but you just know what he's thinking: This time, they got the wrong man.
Published in Print: January 19, 2000, as How Tough Is Too Tough?
"High Court Turns Down Mo. Teacher's Appeal Over Firing," March 17, 1999.
"Students Don't 'Work'--They Learn," Sept. 3, 1997.
"What Is 'Successful' Intelligence?," Nov. 13, 1996.
"The Practical Impractical," May 29, 1996.
"Inquiring Minds: Teacher to Teacher," April 17, 1996.
Listen to a Feb. 9, 1999, interview with Capistrano Valley High School Teacher Paul Pflueger, a day after the school board in South Orange County dismissed him. Includes interviews with Pflueger's former students. From Subversity, a progressive public affairs program on KUCI 88.9FM, Irvine, CA. (Requires the free Real Audio Player.)
In "Bad Apples," author Kate Cambor ruminates on teacher quality and the problem of how to handle "bad teachers," from the September-October 1999 issue of The American Prospect.
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Between Victory and Defeat - ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive
Between Victory and Defeat
by Mshari Al-Zaydi | Aug 17, 2006 | Opinion |
Writing after the resounding defeat of Arab armies in the six-day war with Israel in 1967, the celebrated Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, blamed "the generation of failure" for the territorial losses and put his faith in young Arabs.
Time has passed and a new generation has risen to prominence across the region. Born in 1960, Hassan Nasrallah grew up in Lebanon and became the leader of Hezbollah in 1992. Under his guidance, the Party of God outgrew its sectarian basis to ignite the "Sixth Arab-Israeli war", as Al Jazeera referred to the latest conflict, and to inspire two UN resolutions on Lebanon. Most recently, the Security Council issued resolution 1702, after more than 30 days of death and destruction, brought about by the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
The generation tasked with avenging the defeat might have grown up but has it really triumphed?
Let us leave Hezbollah alone for a moment and consider the children of 1967, such as Nasrallah or Osama bin Laden, who was born in 1957, or Khaled Meshaal or Ayman al Zawahiri. Also included in this group are Moqatada Sadr, born in 1973 and Mohammed Atta, the September 11 mastermind, born a year after the six-day war.
These men are now at the helm of the confrontation with "the enemy", each in their own way, either by bombing embassies in Africa and a commercial center in the USA, and attacking public transport systems in Madrid and London, as Al Qaeda did, or by hijacking the decision-making of an entire country and making it subservient to the administration of the wilayet-e-faqih, or attempting to export the Iranian revolution, as is the case with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Meanwhile, others continue to dream of an end to sectarianism and the day when political fundamentalism is no more.
Both fundamentalist conducts result in the same outcome, with varying degrees. Just as the militias of Moqtada al Sadr succeeded in reinforcing extremism and fighting off dissent in southern Iraq, so too did the Taliban before them in Afghanistan. Both Sunni and Shiaa fundamentalist camps include different levels of extremism. The backwardness of the Muslim Brotherhood's discourse in Jordan and Egypt is, of course, less than that of the Taliban or the Salafis in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. Similarly, Hezbollah's social discourse is less backward than that of Moqtada al Sadr in Iraq.
After the cessation of hostilities in Lebanon, the country supposedly entered into a new era, more difficult than the previous one. We ought to ask ourselves whether we are facing yet another defeat or a victory for Hezbollah or Nasrallah's party, or a victory for Lebanon and its people. Has Israel won the war or have the forces of development and enlightenment been defeated? Is a victory achieved when the media proclaims so? Away from the roar of the battle, Hezbollah has been celebrating victory; in his speeches, throughout the crisis, Nasrallah has reminded the public of his win and blamed the Israeli media for downplaying the country's defeat. It seems that, in this conflict, media representation is as important as events on the ground.
Israel has launched an inquiry into how its latest military campaign was conducted and will investigate what went wrong during the war. Politicians might be held accountable and lose their posts. Yet, across the border, Hezbollah members and supporters are celebrating victory and Arab journalists are cheering. Political accountability remains conspicuously absent while everyone in Lebanon speaks of postponing the settlement of scores. Will the central question of who rules Lebanon be asked? Is it Hezbollah or the government? What about the implementation of UN resolution 1701? What about the future of Hezbollah's weapons?
What will be made of the 1000 dead, the one million displaced and the widespread destruction? Are they considered victories as well?
Let us imagine, for the sake of the argument, that Hezbollah won and achieved an outright victory, which Israel and the rest of the world acknowledged. What then? Is a win measured by military gains and regaining one's honor?
Is this what Lebanon and the Arab world are in need of? If Hezbollah were to rule over Lebanon, in recognition of its achievement, and Bin Laden were to rule the rest of the Arab countries, in recognition of its great victory over the Crusaders, what then? What is this honor we are seeking? Which is more important: that we become strong and that our societies become politically, scientifically and economically advanced or that we export honor, weapons and martyrs, while others enjoy money, science, freedom and strength.
Mshari Al-Zaydi
Mshari Al-Zaydi is a Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements and Islamic fundamentalism, as well as on Saudi affairs. He is Asharq Al-Awsat's opinion page editor. Mr. Zaydi has worked for the local Saudi press, and has been a guest on numerous news and current affairs programs as an expert on Islamic extremism.


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Johnson City - Cleo LeBaron (Barnhart Boyles) passed away on November 4th at the age of 86. She was born on August 30th,1932 in Endicott, New York, the youngest child of Ransom and Blanche (Hill) Boyles. Cleo Graduated from Buffalo State College with a degree in elementary education and spent many years teaching hundreds of first graders how to read. She is survived by her children DeeAnn (Bill) Calhoun (Lansing NY), Barbara (Dan) Spencer (Colorado), Robert (Megan) Barnhart (Owego) and 14 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren, brother Fay Boyles, Sister-in-law Josie (Jerry) Tewksbury, sister-in-law Joyce (Jerry) Ellis and many nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her first husband Robert I. Barnhart and second husband Theodore P. LeBaron, brother George Boyles and Sister Jane Morgan. She was an active member and volunteer at Central Methodist Church. Calling hours will take place at Coleman Daniels (Endicott) on November 9th from 4:00 to 6:00 pm and a celebration of Cleo's life will be held at Central Methodist Church on November 10th at 3:00 pm. Memorial donations can be made to Meals on Wheels or Central Methodist Church. The family would like to thank the staff of the Sun unit at Hilltop for their outstanding compassion and care.


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Plans, Reports & Policies
HCV Apply Now for HCVHCV FAQsIncome LimitsPayment StandardsRental Search ResourcesSection 8 FormsUtility Allowance
Income Limits
2019 Income Limits Documentation System
FY 2019 Income Limits Summary
FY 2019 Income Limit Area: Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin FL (HUD Metro FMR Area)
Median Family Income $75,800
Very Low (50%) Income Limits
Persons in Family
1 person - $25,300
2 persons - $28,900
Extremely Low Income Limits*
Low (80%) Income Limits
Note: Okaloosa County is part of the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL HUD Metro FMR Area, so all information presented here applies to all of the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL HUD Metro FMR Area. HUD generally uses the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) area definitions in the calculation of income limit program parameters. However, to ensure that program parameters do not vary significantly due to area definition changes, HUD has used custom geographic definitions for the Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL HUD Metro FMR Area.
The Crestview-Fort Walton Beach-Destin, FL HUD Metro FMR Area contains the following areas: Okaloosa County, FL
*The FY 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act change the definition of extremely low-income to be the greater of 30/50ths (60 percent) of the Section 8 very low-income limit or the poverty guideline as established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), provided that this amount is not greater than the Section 8 50% very low-income limit. Consequently, the extremely low income limits may equal the very low (50%) income limits.
To view Explanations click here.
We are an Equal Housing Opportunity Provider. We provide housing without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, physical or mental handicap, familial status, national origin, or other protected class. To file a complaint of discrimination, write HUD Director, Office of Civil Rights, 451 7th Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20410 or call Customer Service at (202) 708-1112 (voice) or (202) 708-1455 (TTY). HUD is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
In accordance with federal law and United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex or familial status. To file a complaint of discrimination, write HUD Director, Office of Civil Rights, 451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410, or call (202) 708-1112 (voice) or (202) 708-1455 (TDD).
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To chef Marc Murphy, confident home cooking is more than a way to feed yourself and the people you love—it's a survival skill. His first rule? Never be intimidated in the kitchen.
To chef Marc Murphy, confident home cooking is more than a way to feed yourself and the people you love—it's a survival skill. His first rule? Never be intimidated in the kitchen. He's amused, for example, when people are afraid to mess up a nice cookbook. "Get it dirty," says Murphy, who wrote his latest, Season with Authority, with the home cook in mind. "I didn't want to make a cookbook that nobody cooks from. A friend's son started liking clams, so I sent her my recipe for Linguini Vongole. She made it and now it's his favorite dinner. I love that." Read on to adopt some of Murphy's important laws in your kitchen.
1. Take charge of your knife.


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Q: How to create a SQL query in vb.net with 'select ...from ..where id in (list)' syntax at the first glance my problem looks simple, still I can't tackle it.
I have to do some corrections to an ASP.NET program a document mangement system, with its backendcode written in vb.
The user in my specific case can choose several documents from a list, which can then be processed on a different webpage. So the ids of those documents are put into a sessionvariable and on the new page a query concerning only those ids is done. The implementation is quite horrid:
 For Each Doks As String In Session.Item("choosenDocuments")
   strSQL = "SELECT [...] FROM Dokument where DokumentID = " & Doks
   cmd = New SqlCommand(strSQL, conDatabase)
   dr = cmd.ExecuteReader
   dr.Read()
   [...]
   dr.Close()
 Next

I thought of using a parameterized statement, to create something like:
SELECT * FROM DOCUMENT WHERE DokumentID in (5,78,456)

But I fail to see, how to achive this programatically.
Is is what i came up with so far:
Private Sub display(ByVal argument As IEnumerable(Of Integer))
  Try
    Dim result As New DataTable()
      Using con As SqlConnection = getCon()
        Dim querystring As String = "select * from Dokuments where " &
            "GPDokumenteID in @id"
          Using command As New SqlCommand(querystring, con)
            command.Parameters.Add("@id", SqlDbType.Structured)
            command.Parameters("@id").Value = argument
            Using adapter As New SqlDataAdapter
              adapter.SelectCommand = command
              adapter.Fill(result)
            End Using
          End Using
       End Using
       For Each dr As DataRow In result.Rows
         Console.WriteLine(dr(0).ToString() & "  " & dr(1).ToString())
       Next
    Catch ex As Exception
        Console.WriteLine("BOOM: " & ex.Message)
    End Try
End Sub

This code fails at runtime, complaining that integer arrays cant be cast in IEnumerable.
I have found some sources like this or this but I still fail to construct a simple query example from that. Is my thinking to simple? Since there is such an elegant way to fill a SQL Query from a list I thought there would be a way to use this programatically.
Kind regards
Lorgarn

A: You could do it with a table-value parameter or by creating a temporary table, but concatenating SQL is easier:
    Dim querystring As String = "select * from Dokuments where " &
        "GPDokumenteID in ({0})"

    querystring = string.Format(querystring, String.Join(",",argument)

    Using command As New SqlCommand(querystring, con)
        Using adapter As New SqlDataAdapter
          adapter.SelectCommand = command
          adapter.Fill(result)
        End Using
    End Using

Note - this is safe from SQL injection since you're only using integers - if you were using strings (in which malicious SQL code could be injected) then I would recommend biting the bullet and using table-valued parameters.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Happy Birthday, Club Rainbow (Singapore)!
How to celebrate Club Rainbow's birthday?
How did Club Rainbow (Singapore) came about?
Set up in 1992, Club Rainbow (Singapore) [CRS] is a non-profit organisation with a mission to provide compassionate relevant services to the families of children who suffer from a range of major chronic and potentially life-threatening illnesses.
Children in Club Rainbow range from new-born to youths up to the age of 20. Many of them require frequent hospital visits for treatment, complicated therapy and long-term medication. Club Rainbow works closely with KK Women's & Children's Hospital (KKH), National University Hospital (NUH) and the neonatal unit of Singapore General Hospital (SGH). On the recommendation of doctors, the children are referred to Club Rainbow for critical follow-up support.
We offer a variety of free support services to our beneficiaries in each core aspect, some of which include home and hospital counselling, tuition services, social integration programmes, bursary awards and educational seminars.


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» College and University Rankings: Guide to study in the US
College and University Rankings: Guide to study in the US
oi-Vidhya
By Vidhya Shree
Updated: Thursday, May 5, 2016, 11:25 [IST]
The US houses over 4,400 institutions offering a range of diverse and exciting range of academic programmes and cultural settings. Applying to higher education programmes in the US can be an exciting process, but it can be equally challenging and overwhelming too.
Choosing the college or university to attend will be one of the biggest decisions you will have to make. For most of you, the reputation of an institution could be the most important factor while making a decision.
How important are university rankings?
A recent survey says that around 2/3rds of the students consider national rankings during their application process. Most of them also believed that the rankings help to determine the differences between colleges.
How are universities in the US ranked?
Rankings of institutions in higher education are done with combinations of factors. Rankings are given to college and universities and also to specific programmes and departments. The rankings are based on factors like measure of wealth, research excellence, influence, student choices, demographics, surveys and others.
There is no official rankings of universities done by the government of the United States. The rankings of the American universities are done by the newspaper, magazine and book publishers.
When choosing the best university for you, the rankings can be a helpful starting point, although they can be very subjective and should not be the only criteria.
There are around 4,400 universities in America that grant degrees, but the university rankings are given only to the highest quality US universities.
We have considered the following five ranking systems to help you choose the best college for 2014.
U.S. News and World Report's 'Best Colleges' list only contains colleges which are in the top 32% of universities in the USA
Times Higher Education World University Rankings
'America's Top Colleges' by Forbes, lists the best 15% of US universities
QS World University Rankings includes 145 US universities, which represent the top 3.3% of universities in America
Washington Monthly World University Rankings
Here is the list of rankings given by different ranking systems to the top 25 universities in the US for 2013-14:
U.S. News National University Rankings Forbes America's Top Colleges QS World University Rankings Times Higher Education World University Rankings Washington Monthly World University Rankings
1 Princeton University
California Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) California Institute of Technology (Caltech) University of California-San Diego (CA)
2 Harvard University
California Harvard University Harvard University University of California-Riverside (CA)
3 Yale University
New Jersey Stanford University Stanford University Texas A&M University-College Station (TX)
Connecticut Yale University Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Case Western Reserve University (OH)
5 Stanford University
Stanford, CA
New York University of Chicago Princeton University University of California-Berkeley (CA)
Pennsylvania California Institute of Technology (Caltech) University of California, Berkeley Stanford University (CA)
7 Duke University
New York Princeton University University of Chicago University of Texas-El Paso (TX)
Massachusetts University of Pennsylvania Yale University Harvard University (MA)
9 University of Pennsylvania
Columbia University University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Georgia Institute of Technology-Main (GA)
10 California Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Cornell University Columbia University University of California-Los Angeles (CA)
11 Dartmouth College
Pennsylvania Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University MA Institute of Technology (MA)
12 Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
Brown University Rhode Island University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (MI)
13 Northwestern University
Duke University Duke University University of Washington-Seattle (WA)
14 Brown University
Illinois University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
University of Michigan University of NC-Chapel Hill (NC)
15 Washington University in St. Louis
Duke University North Carolina
Northwestern University Cornell University University of Wisconsin-Madison (WI)
16 Vanderbilt University
New Hampshire University of Wisconsin-Madison Northwestern University University of Notre Dame (IN)
17 Rice University
Illinois University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Carnegie Mellon University Tennessee State University (TN)
18 University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN
California New York University (NYU)
University of Texas-Austin (TX)
19 Emory University
New York Brown University Georgia Institute of Technology University of IL-Urbana-Champaign (IL)
20 Georgetown University
Maine University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill University of Illinois Vanderbilt University (TN)
21 University of California-Berkeley
Washington and Lee University
Virginia University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign University of Wisconsin-Madison University of Pennsylvania (PA)
22 Carnegie Mellon University
California Carnegie Mellon University University of California University of CA-Santa Barbara (CA)
University of Notre Dame Indiana
University of Washington New York University University of California-Davis (CA)
24 University of Southern California
Massachusetts University of California, San Diego (UCSD) University of California University of Florida (FL)
25 University of Virginia
District of Columbia University of Texas at Austin Washington University in St Louis Indiana State University (IN)
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Digital transformation, as we've come to realise, means something different in every industry. In manufacturing, the term can be broad-reaching, encompassing everything from automation and robotics, to fully-fledged 'smart factories', all the way to the reinvention of the entire sector – captured in the 'Industry 4.0′ concept.
manufacturing execs, digitalisation presents numerous opportunities, to enrich their processes with new data insights, to pool their human and their artificial intelligence (AI) resources, and to evolve their classic value chains into more collaborative and digitised networks of specialists.
With the right mix of strategy, culture and technology, manufacturing organisations can shift from their outdated legacy processes, towards more flexible and digitalised platforms, enhancing their competitiveness and positioning themselves for an unpredictable future.
In the smart factory vision, almost every piece of equipment and tooling is fitted with sensors that are continually piping information into a nerve-centre – producing the insights that inform resource allocation, warn of potential machine downtime, and quickly reveal any bottlenecks in the factory's processes.
General Motors, for example, uses sensors to monitor humidity in the painting process, automatically shifting the work to another part of the plant if the levels breach a certain threshold. Another prime example is that of a gold mining house that boosted yield by 3.7% by understanding and reacting to fluctuations in oxygen levels during the leaching process.
Digitalisation collapses borders and time zones, compressing distance and bringing different parties closer to one another. With new collaboration tools, manufacturing execs can digitally connect designers, engineers, researchers and supply-chain partners, and integrate these new networks into the products being developed on the factory floor.
Suddenly, manufacturers can access a wider array of specialist resources from across the globe, creating platforms for enhanced collaboration, communication, and real-time decision-making.
The emergences of digital and 3D printing technologies are starting to change the way many production lines operate. With new advancements such as direct metal laser melting, for instance, it's possible to create stronger components at reduced cost, reduced waste, and greater efficiency.
But manufacturing technology isn't just about new ways of producing goods and materials. We're starting to see sensors and data being used in interesting, innovative ways, even in the context of 'traditional manufacturing'. For example, some aircraft manufacturers are using sensors on smart tools to help workers drill holes with perfect precision. Tools detect the exact torque required to tighten bolts correctly, for instance, among other tasks. All of this helps to elevate manufacturing excellence to new heights.
While we certainly can't predict the future direction of the manufacturing industry, one thing we can be sure of is that digital will play an essential role. By starting to adopt greater levels of digitisation in the factory, manufacturers position themselves to capitalise on emerging trends for the coming decade: the likes of rapid prototyping, crowdsourcing, augmented reality, increased robotics and artificial intelligence, and image-recognising cameras.
Traditional manufacturing business models are coming under increasing threat, and the pressure to digitise is intensifying. Today's leading manufacturers are taking bold steps to reshape their operations, remove the processes hindering transformation, and change their company cultures.
For these fast-moving manufacturers, able to access the technology and the skills that they need, digital is creating exciting new opportunities in the production and distribution of goods.