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2022 ROTARY AUCTION!
Susan Laehn
President-Elect - Club Administration
Travis Dvorak
President Nominee - Service Projects
Jon Law
Steven Schwaller
Andy Harland
Ruth Freeman
Membership Chairperson
Chris Durlam
Immediate Past President - Auction Chairperson
Tori Riley
RI President Home
Rotary Global Rewards
24th annual Charity Dinner and Auction set for Nov. 18
Rotarians are happy to be able to offer both an online auction and a gala with a live auction.
http://www.32auctions.com/JeffersonRotary2022
100 Years of Service!
Rotary Club of Jefferson: Celebrating
100 Years of Service and Positive IMPACT!
Sunday, May 15, 2022,
Reception 5-7 pm
Jefferson Community Golf Course
Rotary Room
The program at 5:30 pm will feature inspiring messages from beneficiaries of the
Club's impact and support of their programs. Over $650,000 has been generated for the benefit of youth, education, community development, health and other projects throughout the county and the world. You won't want to miss these stories!
RSVP to email: jeffersoniarotary@gmail.com
In recognition of the Club's Centennial the following projects have been completed or are underway:
A District 6000 grant is enabling the Rotary Outdoor Classroom update. The project was started for the club's 75th with the planting of 75 trees and bushes. Additional trees are being added to the area adjacent to the Greene County Elementary School and naming plaques added. A pollinator garden is being added at the request of teachers who want to include this is topic in their curriculum.
$50,000 in proceeds from the Club's 23rd Annual Charity Auction (and previous) will fund the development of the Rotary Club of Jefferson's Dog Park adjacent to the new Greene County Animal Shelter under construction in Jefferson.
For nearly two dozen years, the Rotary Club of Jefferson has raised through its Auction hundreds of thousands of dollars for the benefit of countless projects and programs in the area along with the
sponsorship of generous college scholarships,
a High School Interact Club chartered in 1997
sending 2 Interact members to India to participate in a District-sponsored National Immunization Day and
sponsoring 4 Interact members to Xicotepec, Mexico to assist with the district project there, the first Interactors to participate,
along with RYLA sponsorships, and much more.
Hundreds of young people received a free admission to the Mahanay Memorial Carillon Tower in Jefferson including a "ride to the top!" This project was launched in the summer of 2021 as the club began its Centennial celebration. The tower was designed by District 6000 Past District Governor Dale Belknap in the early 1960s and was dedicated in 1966. Rising to a height of over 168 feet, the tower features a four octave carillon of 47 bells. A variety of music emanates from the carillon at regular intervals and also is played during special concerts by "Mahanay Maestros."
A special literacy project in with the Club will participate is being launched with a D6000 Literacy grant provided by Save the Children. Our project will at the Head Start program.
Jefferson Herald Article
2021 Rotary Club of Jefferson Charity Auction
Jefferson Rotarians are preparing for their 23rd annual Charity Auction, slated as a hybrid online/live event. Silent auction items will be available online like the 2020 auction. There will also be a live event including dinner, games, and live auction on November
In its 22 years, the Rotary Charity Auction has raised more than $600,000 for worthwhile causes in Greene County and, through the Rotary International Foundation, across the globe.
This year the Rotary Club is focusing on major projects and celebrations to mark its centennial, May 1, 2022. The first recipient of Centennial Major Project funds will be the dog park adjacent to the new Greene County Animal Shelter.
Stay tuned to this website, the silent auction website (below), as well as the Rotary Club of Jefferson's Facebook page for updates on available items and other news about the auction.
The silent auction is posted at www.32auctions.com/JeffersonRotary. Items that will be auctioned at the live event will also be featured on the website. Silent auction bidding will open Saturday, November 13 and will close during the live event on Friday, November 19, 2021.
Tickets to our live event on November 19 are also available at the website above.


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For the love of Nordic foodways
Published April 3, 2022 · Updated April 18, 2022
A conversation with Nordic food geek Patrice Johnson
Patrice Johnson explores traditional and contemporary Nordic food with an emphasis on sustainability.
CHRISTY OLSEN FIELD
Taste of Norway Editor
She is an author of two books, a culinary instructor, and a self-described Nordic food geek. (It's even her social media handle!) Johnson explores the ways in which modern immigrant experiences shape a culture's food traditions and food systems, and she shares her love of Nordic food through writing and classes.
I was lucky enough to talk with Patrice by phone to learn more about her work and geek out with a fellow Nordic food writer. Our wide-ranging conversation went for a full hour, and her vibrant enthusiasm for sharing Nordic food with others is infectious. Here are highlights from our conversation.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Christy Olsen Field: How did you get interested in Nordic food?
Patrice Johnson: I am from the Twin Cities. My mom didn't have any food traditions of her own, so she adopted by dad's Swedish tradition. Our Christmas dinner was full of Swedish dishes, and I thought that was the be all, end all.
Fast forward a few years, Marcus Samuelsson's restaurant Aquavit was coming to the Twin Cities. It was Swedish, high-end, posh. I thought, "This is Minnesota, where we eat meatballs. Why would anyone pay money to eat Swedish food?
But then I had the chance to go to Aquavit with a dear friend of mine a few months after it opened, so we decided to go all out and get the tasting menu. We didn't speak for the first five courses. It was an epiphany for us.
That meal changed everything: The way I eat, the way I feel about culture, the way I feel about Swedishness, my direction in life. It made me think about everything differently. As the New Nordic movement took off about a dozen years ago, it made me think about sustainability and food in new ways.
I decided to go down a new path to get my master's degree. I focused on Minnesota, Swedishness, and Swedish foodways. It allowed me to delve into the whole topic. I now write, teach, and develop recipes part time.
COF: With all you have done on Swedish-American foodways, have you been to Scandinavia to travel?
Patrice Johnson calls herself a "Nordic food geek."
PJ: I was given a scholarship from the American Swedish Institute to travel to Sweden and eat. My friend, with whom I went to Aquavit for that life-changing meal, came with me. We traveled and ate our way through the country.
One of my goals was to eat Swedish pizza: It's the story that tells about culture and immigration. Italian workers came to work in the factories in Sweden after World War II. As pizza became popular in the 1960s, more and more pizza shops opened. Banana curry on pizza is my favorite! But there are like 100 different types. It's so wonderful.
I have plans to go back, so I can visit Iceland, Norway, and Finland, too.
COF: You're a meatball historian. Can you tell me a bit about your research? Which Nordic country makes the best meatball?
PJ: I love meatballs. Every single culture has meatballs, flatbread, and dumplings. When I was working on my master's thesis, I researched 50 Swedish meatball recipes! I can tell you a lot about Swedish meatballs, but I love how much they tell us about the culture.
My favorite meatball is actually the Danish frikadelle. They are generally made of ground pork, egg, salt, and pepper. Instead of breadcrumbs, you use flour. Instead of shaping them into a round ball, you shape them into a football. And you baste them in butter in a pan to get this gorgeous caramelized exterior. I hadn't heard of them until I started hanging out with Danes. They are often served with caramelized potatoes and red cabbage.
COF: Can you tell me about your two books?
PJ: I have written two books, both published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. The first is Jul: Swedish American Christmas Traditions. This came out of my master's thesis, and it explores Swedish-American food traditions on the julbord.
My second book is Land of 10,000 Plates: Stories and Recipes from Minnesota. This book came out of my love of Minnesota and food rituals that connect us to our region. Both of these books are about the stories behind the recipes.
COF: One thing you are known for is your cooking classes. What do you teach?
PJ: I really like to take traditional Nordic recipes and give them an American spin. In February, I taught a couple of meatball classes with two lingonberry sides. I am teaching a fish-pie class soon. I've also taught classes about pickled herring, Flyvande Jakob, and my favorite to teach is Swedish pizza. I teach online classes with American Swedish Institute and Vesterheim, and occasionally in person.
COF: Any trend in Nordic cooking that you're excited about right now?
PJ: I have completely enjoyed the New Nordic wave of food. These cultures are finally getting their due. In the Twin Cities, we have a restaurant that is doing Japanese-Nordic fusion. There's actually a lot of crossover between these two cuisines: Use of colors, flavor, and balance. It's so exciting.
Another thing that's fun for me is the availability of Nordic programs through technology. There are several Swedish shows right now, and it's really exciting. My husband and I are watching "The Restaurant," which follows a family restaurant in Stockholm right after World War II.
To learn more about Patrice Johnson and find out when her next cooking class is, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @nordicfoodgeek.
Photos courtesy of Patrice Johnson
This article originally appeared in the April 1, 2022, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
Christy Olsen Field was the Taste of Norway Editor from 2019 to 2022. She worked on the editorial staff of The Norwegian American Weekly from 2008 to 2012. An enthusiastic home cook and baker, she lives north of Seattle with her husband and two young sons.
A mouthwatering taste of the North
by Daytona Strong · Published May 30, 2018 · Last modified December 31, 2020
The well-equipped home cook's story
by The Norwegian American · Published July 25, 2019 · Last modified December 31, 2020
Celebrate summer with Solskinnskake
by The Norwegian American · Published July 26, 2017 · Last modified January 28, 2021
Next Film review: In Order of Disappearance
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Miles Monday: James Mtume
by JAZZIZ Magazine
James Mtume is a percussionist who performed in Miles Davis' band from 1971 to 1975. He has appeared on 80 albums with a variety of other notable musicians—including Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Roberta Flack and Lonnie Liston Smith. His namesake group Mtume had several No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts.
Visit Mtume on Facebook and Twitter. Watch his TEDx presentation here.
Tags: James Mtume, Miles Davis, Vince Wilburn Jr.
JAZZIZ Magazine October 6, 2020
Song of the Day: Miles Davis, "Tutu"
Matt Micucci December 27, 2021
5 Record Store Day Releases You Need to Know: Black Friday 2021
Johnathan Blake, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus & More: The Week in Jazz
Matt Micucci September 13, 2021
James Mtume is a percussionist who performed in Miles Davis' band from 1971 to 1975. He has appeared on 80 albums with a variety of other notable musicians—including Duke Ellington, Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Roberta Flack and Lonnie Liston Smith. His namesake group Mtume had several No. 1 hits on the Billboard charts. https://youtu.be/kO9YtXjayxs Visit Mtume on Facebook and Twitter. Watch his TEDx presentation here.


This week we attended PKO Bank Polski's annual Capital Markets shindig in London. The conference was organised to aplomb, with interesting companies, generous hospitality and a relaxed vibe that served as the perfect backdrop for our team's strict "zero tie" dress code – if it's good enough for Goldman Sachs, it's good enough for us!
A massive thank you to PKO BP for including us, and to the fantastic people and companies we met, who opened their ears and their minds to our unusual but hopefully not uninteresting story.
After the first day of the conference had ended, everyone piled over to The National Gallery for fine art and even finer conversation. After dinner, historian Adam Zamoyski took to the stage to remind us of the hardships that Poland has faced throughout its long and difficult journey. He spoke eloquently for thirty minutes, without notes, the history of the place burnt into his brain.
Like many geopolitically important countries, Poland has spent much of its history having things – mostly terrible things – done to it. Finally this is changing, as the country recasts itself as a serious player across industries and an autonomous agent on the world stage. The companies we met at the conference are at the vanguard of this movement.
Poland is home to an eclectic mix of companies, some of which are well positioned to benefit from non-linear change. That change can be either positive or negative. And Poland is the perfect place to express our transformative investment philosophy.
We're not value investors, nor are we necessarily pure growth investors, we're change investors. That means we're only interested in companies that are exposed to transformation in the short to medium term. And we believe the structure of the Polish market makes it a great place to trade this theme. The economy is strong and stable, and the Zloty is one of the most stable EM currencies, effectively tracking the Euro thanks to Poland's close economic ties with the Eurozone.
There's a well established (and well run) stock exchange with decent liquidity and a burgeoning mix of financial products providing exposure to different sectors and asset classes. And now the popularist political backdrop has served up a fat dose of fiscal stimulus in 2019, equivalent (according to PKO's economists) to a rate cut of 250-300bps! It seems Christmas has come early – or late, depending on your market timing.
There is also a second Poland, which investors barely ever talk about. Rural areas represent 93.2% of Poland's total landmass and they are still inhabited by nearly 40% of the population (around 15 million people). This "country within a country" means the long term growth potential of Poland shouldn't be underestimated. What's really fascinating is that rural population share has been RISING since the early 2000s.
This is because of mass emigration, as a result of Poland's access to the EU, which has resulted in labour shortages and upward pressure on wages. This structural trend in concert with 2019's fiscal stimulus aimed at the consumer (particularly the rural consumer) means a thematic opportunity in quality domestic consumer-oriented companies. Dino Polska is one name which has performed sensationally since its IPO in 2017, partially on the back of these trends.
All of our core investment themes are at play in Poland and many of the companies we met at the conference stand to benefit from the transformative forces that we explore in our investment meetings and blog posts.
"Real AI" isn't about far-fetched utopian scenarios that may or may not materialise decades from now. We'll leave that to sci-fi writers and management consultants. Our approach to investing in AI is about practical, near-term applications that drive bottom line improvements to company performance. We've been keen followers of polish debt collection company Kruk for many years, noting how it's pioneered the use of big data to accurately value its portfolio and drive repayments. The company was unfairly dragged into the GetBack debacle and has recently struggled to apply its innovative "amicable" settlement model in new markets away from its central European stronghold, but it's well managed and crucially, well positioned to benefit from accelerating advances in machine learning. Positive revaluations in the most recent quarterly results were, according to CFO Michał Zasępa, partly due to the use of machine learning in its collection process. We're excited about this company.
"Finance 2.0" was also on display at the conference, with the entire spectrum on show. From old school banks that seemed reluctant to embrace digital business models to innovative companies like the Warsaw Stock Exchange, whose NewConnect trading facility now drives a multitude of new listings.
"Competition for time" – our third super theme – loomed large in our discussions with companies ranging from Central European Media to 11 Bit Studios. Gaming is big business in Poland and the country is fast emerging as a hub for a multitude of gaming companies aided and abetted by a supportive government offering a number of incentives to game developers. We await the release of 11 Bit's next game (enigmatically referred to as "Project 8"), both as investors and keen gamers!
Finally, we got the opportunity to observe how our fourth (and perhaps most pervasive) investment theme is playing out in Poland. "The Great Game" alludes to a new paradigm in international relations, with the US and China's dialectic ideological models creating hard choices and huge opportunities for the long tail of countries that rely upon the patriarchy of superpowers. Meeting with state-owned mining company JSW gave us the opportunity to consider how this super-theme might assert itself in Poland.
Poland has an ambivalent relationship with China. The US has been the country's most important strategic post-war ally and remains so, yet Poland must acknowledge the growing importance of China and the immense economic opportunities presented by its ambitious Belt and Road initiative. Poland risks getting caught in the middle and we believe there will come a time where it must choose, with huge implications for foreign policy and domestic economics. For the time being, Poland seems to be hedging its bets – the Łódźkie region's cooperation with Chengdu and Sichuan province being a prime example of its willingness to entertain the advances of China whilst maintaining the trans-Atlantic alliance. JSW's management team flagged the incredible changes occurring in the city of Łódź, which has been recast as a key logistics hub for the whole of central Europe, much to the delight of the Chinese, who are interested less in urban regeneration than facilitating cross-continental rail freight. If this narrative continues to unfold, Polish mining, logistics and infrastructure sectors stand to make big potential gains.
Next week we're visiting investors and entrepreneurs in Turkey, another geopolitical influencer and a country that's always mediated between East and West. If the conversations we have there are as productive as those enjoyed with our Polish friends this week, we will be very happy indeed.
We are trying to do something different with our business, so it's exciting to find kindred spirits who aren't afraid to open their minds and consider new ways of doing things. We certainly found that at PKO BP's conference, and we hope to find it in Turkey, too.


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Trending Troops: Military Influencers
HomeTrending Troops: Military Influencers
David Goggins, retired Navy SEAL and former U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Control Party member, is the most popular military influencer on Instagram.
Nearly 1 in 2 people believed military influencers play a key role in helping young people enlist.
The Space Force was the most-searched military branch in the United States.
More than 1 in 4 men reported listening to the Jocko Podcast.
Most Followed Vets and Branches
Follower Opinions
Keyword Searches
Painting Military Influence
Military's Online Influence
Methodology and Limitations
While we may not typically think of influencers and military vets going hand in hand, the combination of the two has actually proven to be extremely powerful, moving, and even cataclysmic for certain events. After all, an influencer is just a person with the ability to influence. And the selfless, patriotic, grueling story of a military vet can certainly carry that influence.
To quantify and qualify this growing trend of military influencers, we turned to quite a few sources. We started by ranking the most popular influencers strictly by social media following but then analyzed the perception of those accounts by talking to military families, those who had served, and those interested in potentially enlisting. We also looked into search volume data using SEMrush to look at the interest military influencers are driving to various U.S. military branches. If social media can influence everything from an election to what we eat, it can certainly influence our armed forces. Keep reading to find out how.
The first portion of our study looked strictly at the most-followed military influencers on Instagram. Their accounts were then color-coded by the specific branch of each influencer. Military influencer was defined as someone who had served or was active and promoted or showcased some part of military culture online.
David Goggins is "an American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, motivational speaker, and author. He is a retired United States Navy SEAL, and former U.S. Air Force Tactical Control Party member who served in the Iraq War" in the words of his eponymous website. We'd also like to add that his Instagram has over 3.7 million followers (and counting). His platform gives fans an opportunity to train alongside him, to find motivation, and even follow alongside his mental health journey. David Goggins' following essentially eclipsed that of any other military vet on Instagram, but there were certainly others with at least a couple million followers.
Take C.T. Fletcher, a man from humble beginnings with an abusive father, for whom the U.S army represented an escape and the chance to "finally break the chains that bound me!" He and his story have garnered over 2.1 million Instagram followers. After he returned home from the Army, he started weightlifting, which is ultimately the focus of both his Instagram and instructional YouTube videos. Overall, more than a third of influencers (36%) were in the Army, and 19% remained on active duty.
The study next branched open into the general public – how do they feel their life is impacted by following these military heroes? Their top responses, as well as the top response by political affiliation, are listed below.
More than a third – 36% – of people with internet in the U.S. were currently following one military vet or active duty member. For most, honoring their service was the top impact of having this influence in a newsfeed.
Almost exactly as important was raising awareness of social issues related to this group, like disability, suicide, and mental health. It is thought that more than 50% of military vets struggle with mental health issues, yet fewer than 50% receive any type of help for the matter.
The survey results found that what's important to more than 50% of the crowd was providing military feedback and perspective on current events.
SEMrush offers data for everything from search engine optimization to social media marketing, meaning we were able to use it to see which military branch is currently being searched the most online. The map below shows which U.S. states are currently showing the most online interest in each military branch.
The Space Force had more searches than any other military branch. This may be due to The Space Force's news prevalence recently, rather than a desire to join. This search also generates results related to the Netflix show Space Force. It had nearly a million more searches than any other military term.
The Air Force was also a highly popular search, particularly in the South. Northern states appeared to be more interested in the National Guard, while Coast Guard was highly searched among more coastal states. Perhaps these searches reflect those who are most interested in enlisting, though further specifics of these searches are unknown.
Podcasts offer influencers another way to connect with their readers beyond Instagram and Google Search results. They can speak for hours at length on a topic or connect with guests, while the lack of a visual can actually help make the audience focus more on the message. We gathered the top military podcasts and analyzed them by the following demographics.
As a reminder of what was noticeably absent from the top influencers list – "Women of the Military" was the No. 1 most popular military podcast in our study. This platform helps share the stories of women who have served and currently serve in the U.S. military. It was particularly popular among Republicans, Gen Xers, and other women.
Veteran Cafe offers a fun, lighthearted look into military life from the perspective of currently and formerly serving veterans of all genders. Exactly a quarter of all our respondents listened to this podcast, but it was particularly popular among millennial and Democrat respondents.
Most military vets felt military influencers were telling a truthful story or posted about things that felt relatable to them. Those who hadn't yet served but had considered enlisting also found military influencers to be motivational. Considering that the influencer realm isn't always perceived in a positive light, it's encouraging to see military vets holding themselves to a high standard online.
The military life can be a difficult one, but the positive side of it shows through social channels. Women in the military can share their stores audibly through their popular podcasts, while inspirational SEALs and veterans can motivate their followers in areas from physical fitness to mental health.
One area where it's still hard to search for military-related help, however, is legal scenarios. Often vets will need a lawyer on their side to help them fight for the benefits they deserve. If you or a loved one need experienced legal advice and help, head to Hill & Ponton. With countless years of experience in the field, we stand ready to help veterans inside and outside the courtroom.
For this study, we pulled the follower count of military influencers on Instagram in January 2021. We defined military influencers as internet personalities who had either served or were current active members of the United States military and promoted military culture. This may include, but isn't limited to, the following genres: patriotism, politics, health and fitness, veterans, and motivation and leadership.
We conducted a state-level analysis of the most searched for U.S. military branches using SEMrush's search volume tool. Using a bespoke polling platform, we surveyed 768 people who met one of the following criterion:
Have not served but interested in military culture and policy
Have immediate family members who've served
Have no military experience or interest
Current member of the U.S. military
Considering enlisting
The main limitations of this is study is that follower counts could have changed from the dates they were initially pulled due to a myriad of factors. What's more, the survey relies solely on self-report which is faced with a wide range of issues which like attribution, exaggeration, telescoping, and recency bias.
Feeling inspired by our nation's military influence online? You're welcome to share their stories and this data; just be sure your purposes are noncommercial and that you link back to this page.


A MOTHER and son have personally thanked the air ambulance medics which came to their aid after a car crash left them with life-changing injuries on Christmas Day. Elizabeth Dutschak and James Kavanagh Dutschak from Jesmond, were involved in a head-on collision on Sandy Lane in Gosforth last year. The pair were travelling home after visiting family when a drink driver careered over a roundabout and smashed into their car which rolled over, leaving James trapped. James, 19, said: "After being hit, we skidded and were thrown into the air.
A MOTHER and son have personally thanked the air ambulance medics which came to their aid after a car crash left them with life-changing injuries on Christmas Day.
Elizabeth Dutschak and James Kavanagh Dutschak from Jesmond, were involved in a head-on collision on Sandy Lane in Gosforth last year.
The pair were travelling home after visiting family when a drink driver careered over a roundabout and smashed into their car which rolled over, leaving James trapped.
An all-night rapid response vehicle staffed by Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) medics and funded by North East Ambulance Service went to their aid.
GNAAS doctor Dion Arbid and paramedic Stuart Thompson administered strong pain relief to James who had suffered multiple serious injuries including fractures to his spine, femur, ankle and foot.
Elizabeth had also suffered fractures to her spine and sternum among other internal injuries.
Now after months of recovery, the pair have met the medics which rushed to the scene, and visited the GNAAS airbase at Durham Tees Valley Airport to express their gratitude.
James, who will soon return to Newcastle University to study politics after having to defer his course for a year, said: "It's had a big impact on my life but we are both so grateful to the air ambulance team which were able to get to us. We just feel lucky that they were there when we needed them.
"We'll be forever thankful. Life is so precious and you just have to treasure it and those closest to you.
The family are now looking forward to this year's Christmas day, which is also James' birthday.


Animals Dancing present Montreal's RAMZi (Mood Hut, 12th Isle, Total Stasis) for a live happening of her mutant-tropical fifth world sound.
Conjuring dub, balearic, house, video game inspirations, RAMZi's sonic landscape has found a home on four tape LPs spread across labels like Los Discos Enfantasmes, Pygmy Animals, Rvng Intl & 1080p & last year's Pèze-Piton for Glasgow label 12th Isle + EPs for Vancouver's Mood Hut and Total Stasis labels.
Joining her will be fellow Canadian producer & DJ: D. Tiffany aka DJ Zozi + local hardware mystic, Kangaroo Skull (Live) + support form Animals Dancing's: Otologic & Andee Frost.


The waterbike rental at the Pavillion Bar is a part of the Kaffesalonen.
Pavillon Bar on the boat bridge at the small Lake Pebling in inner Copenhagen near Dronning Louises Bro the smal bridge from Copenhagen City to Nørrebro.
We only have the option of booking water bikes for very large groups.
– and on May 30, 2018 we got 5 new water bikes home.
The water bike rental in Pavillon Bar is open from 10.00 to about 20.30 ALL week days.
Swan water bike for 2 people cost: Dkk 100,00 for ½ hour.
Swan water bike for 2 people cost: Dkk 125,00 for 1 hour.
Large water bike for 5 adults cost: Dkk 150,00 for ½ hour.
Large water bike for 5 adults cost: Dkk 200,00 for 1 hour.
Large water bike for 6 adults cost: Dkk 200,00 for ½ hour.
Large water bike for 6 adults cost: Dkk 250,00 for 1 hour.
The water bike tickets are sold at the counter in Pavillon Bar or in the Kaffesalonen.


text:
Q: how to extract the machine code from the .text section of an ELF file? let me explain a little more.
I am coding an x86 disassembler that takes as input an assembled program with ELF format. I have been able to extract the header and the array of sections from the file and print several dates such like  the name of the section, its size, etc. I am trying to extract the data that is stored in each section and print it in order to know that i actually have it, once i get it i will move onto the parsing and decoding stage but i dont managed to do it.
This is the code for the function that i have done so far.
void read_sections(FILE* fp,Elf32_Ehdr* elfhead, Elf32_Shdr* elf_shdr){

    // stand the FP pointer upon the beggining of the section header
    // and copy into the buffer

    fseek(fp, elfhead->e_shoff,SEEK_SET);
    fread(elf_shdr,  sizeof(Elf32_Shdr), elfhead->e_shnum ,fp);

    // allocate the string table to cache the section names

    char* string_table;
    string_table = malloc( elf_shdr[elfhead->e_shstrndx].sh_size);

    fseek(fp,elf_shdr[elfhead->e_shstrndx].sh_offset,SEEK_SET);         // set the fp pointer upon the string table section
    fread(string_table,elf_shdr[elfhead->e_shstrndx].sh_size,1,fp);     // bring the table to memory

    printf("========================\n");
    printf("************************\n");
    printf("READING SECTIONS\n" );
    printf("************************\n");
    printf("========================\n");

    unsigned int* instructions = NULL;

    for ( int i=0 ; i < elfhead->e_shnum ; i++){

        instructions = malloc (elf_shdr[i].sh_size );

        printf(" section name : %s\n",string_table + elf_shdr[i].sh_name);
        printf(" section type : %d\n", elf_shdr[i].sh_type );
        printf(" section size : %d\n",elf_shdr[i].sh_size );

        // read data from section
        fseek(fp,elf_shdr[i].sh_offset,SEEK_SET);
        fread(instructions,elf_shdr[i].sh_size,1,fp);

        // find name
        printf(" Dissasembly of section %s\n",string_table + elf_shdr[i].sh_name );

        for (unsigned int i = 0 ; i < elf_shdr[i].sh_size; i++){

            printf("%d\n", instructions[i]);
        }

        printf("\n");
        free(instructions);
    }

    free(string_table);
}

How to extract the machine code from the .text section of an ELF file?
If anyone can help i will be very thankfull!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Home News crystal palace news eddie nketiah on the radar of patrick vieiras side
Crystal Palace News: Eddie Nketiah on the radar of Patrick Vieira's side
Crystal Palace are keen to sign Eddie Nketiah who is currently on the books of Arsenal, according to reports.
The 22-year-old's current contract at the Emirates stadium is set to expire in the summer.
The talented forward struck a hat-trick against Sunderland last month to help the Gunners win the EFL Cup quarter-final by 5-1.
Now he is likely to be involved for the semi-final clash with Liverpool on Thursday.
However, the 22-year-old wants more game time as he has made only three appearances in the Premier League this season.
As per The Sun, Crystal Palace are interested to secure his services in the current transfer window or in the summer.
However, they face competition for the Arsenal striker as Brighton are also said to be keen on him.
While Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen have also been credited with an interest in the English footballer.
The Eagles have provided some brilliant performances in the top-flight under Patrick Vieira. They are currently 11th in the league standings, having 23 points from 20 matches.
The Glaziers surprised everyone by claiming big victories over Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City earlier in the season.
They also picked up full points against Wolves and Everton but they have mostly been inconsistent this campaign.
Vieira is currently in the market for a new forward, with striker Jean-Philippe Mateta's loan deal unlikely to be made permanent.
Join 888sport and enter bonus code BOX45 to get £45 in Free Bets when you bet £10 on any football match.
Previous article Swindon Town vs Manchester City betting offer: Bet £10 Get £50 Bet Credits for FA Cup
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Q: Oracle SQL placement of a where statement in simple join query this query does not work -
select userprofile.username, userprofile.deskid , desk.deskname
from userprofile
where userprofile.username in ('user1', 'user2', "user3')
inner join desk on userprofile.deskid = desk.deskid

this query does  - is did not change anything, all i dis was change the order of the component parts of the query statement. It had to do with the position of the where clause
select userprofile.username, userprofile.deskid , desk.deskname
from userprofile
inner join desk on userprofile.deskid = desk.deskid
where userprofile.username in ('user1', 'user2', 'user3')

I am not really understanding why putting the where statement at the end of the query fixed the output.

A: There are some thing about SQL syntax that you do not understand.
A SELECT statement consists of a set of clauses, in a fixed order.  The most common clauses are:

*

*SELECT

*FROM

*WHERE

*GROUP BY

*HAVING

*ORDER BY
The order is fixed.  The WHERE clause (if present) always follows the FROM clause.  JOIN is an operator recognized in the FROM clause.  It is not a clause, which is why your first version does not work.
I have a rather strict indentation policy on any query that I write.  I always left align the clauses and generally put operators at the end of a line.  That is why I would write the query as:
select u.username, u.deskid, d.deskname
from userprofile u join
     desk d
     on u.deskid = d.deskid
where u.username in ('user1', 'user2', 'user3')

Note that I also use table aliases, which make the query easier to write and to read.


The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is committed to providing public access to environmental information. Our agency believes that keeping citizens informed enhances achievement of our goal of environmental protection.
The Department's continuing investment in information technology facilitates its mission of environmental stewardship. enSearch Online provides a comprehensive view of MDEQ's regulated community (agency interests) and their activities, by allowing the public access to information about permitting and compliance activities within the scope of MDEQ.
The information contained here is obtained from MDEQ's Electronic Environmental Site Information System (enSite) used by the Office of Pollution Control's Air Division, Environmental Permits Division, and Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Division, Waste Division, and the Office of Geology's Mining and Reclamation Division. The purpose of the system is to support permitting and compliance activities of the Department of Environmental Quality. Regulatory programs that are supported are the Surface Water National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program; the Air Title V Program, Construction and Operating Programs; the Solid and Hazardous Waste Programs; the Waste Tire Program; and Geology Surface Mining and Reclamation Division. The Underground Storage Tanks (UST) program is currently not supported. There are other regulatory programs within the Department of Environmental Quality that do not currently utilize this system, including programs managed by the Office of Land and Water, and the Surface Water Division's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program.
Search agency interests by name, city, county, SIC, and basin.
Commercial haulers certified by MDEQ.
View orders issued on or after January 1, 2011.
View the activities of the Air Division Asbestos Branch. Search by project name, city, county, activity, and date.
Find individuals and firms certified by the Air Division Asbestos Branch.
Find individuals and firms certified by the Air Division Lead-Based Paint Branch.
Check the status of environmental complaints submitted to MDEQ.
Inspections conducted by the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Division.
View Information and documents for upcoming Public Hearings.
Find active permits and coverages by number, type, agency interest name, city, county, SIC, and basin.
View individual permit applications received, permits issued, general permit NOIs received, and general permits issued. Filter by county and date.
View notices and draft permits for permits currently at public notice.
View copies of permits and water quality certifications issued by the Environmental Permits Division over the last year.
View copies of General Permit NOIs received by the Environmental Permits Divison over the last year. Items will appear in this list a minimum of 10 days, but fall off when the coverage is issued or NOI withdrawn.
View copies of General Permit Coverages issued by the Environmental Permits Division over the last year.
Check Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) baseline dates by county.
View notices and applications for Office of Geology permit applications currently at public notice.
Adobe Acrobat versions of Geology permits issued by the Department of Geology over the last 90 days.


The dismantling of Motor Rail 1320 has taken a major step forward with the main components being craned out of the frame. The frame is now elsewhere for shotblasting, and the engine is in a cradle for further work. The photo of the wheels serves to remind of a key reason for undertaking this project. We have received an offer for the old wheels from Gillette, as the flanges are sharper than any of their razors. This is not, by a long way, the only project happening at Apedale. For example, the large Pechot wagon featured large in these notes a while back, at a time when it was using up weld consumables at a formidable rate. After a bit of a hiatus, the wagon has now been finally assembled and finish painted. We are reminded that it dates from 1888, which makes it one of the oldest – if not THE oldest – vehicle on site.


text:
You are here: Home / Archives for Knut Rostad
Knut Rostad
The SEC is Failing to Serve Retail Investors
Advising in an intimate relationship of two differs markedly from offering incidental advice in a sales relationship of three. This is what the SEC needs to know to close the gap and create a standard retail investors would reasonably expect.
SEC Proposed Rule(s) on broker dealer and investment adviser Standards of conduct expected on April 18
The SEC will have an open meeting on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, to vote on and release a proposed rule on conduct standards for brokers and advisers. The Institute has submitted two comment letters and met with commissioners and staff. Here is a brief on what we expect and will look for regarding a standard for brokers and title reform.
A Path Forward for the CFP Board
The CFP Board set out in its proposed standards fiduciary duties for all advice. Its statements are clear and strong. This is an important step. But alone, it falls very short. Why?
2018 First Quarter Commentary
Recent regulatory and industry actions on fiduciary have come fast and furiously. Unfortunately, they are mostly bad news for investors. The exception: actions in the states. The takeaway: Investors are on their own to identify real fiduciary advisors, who are also on their own to stand apart from brokers. The Institute's Best Practices and the Campaign for Investors are more important than ever. Here's an update on these actions and what they mean.
It's time advisors and brokers go their separate ways
Judge Edith Jones argues for the logic and reasonableness in demarcation. Her ruling also argues for the central importance of reforming job titles, reinforcing a clear line between brokers and advisors.
Managing Conflicts and CFP Board's Revised Proposal on Professional Standards
The Board has a unique opportunity to set a true fiduciary standard, and seize the moment to benefit generations to come. In the attached letter to the SEC from the Institute, we provide further steps and protocols to manage and neutralize conflicts impact. We urge the Board to apply them.


SO as long as they just hang out in the basement or garage or whatever I'm completely fine with spiders. Hey, they make great listeners! And (as far as I know), with the exception of two easily identifiable species – the brown recluse, and the black widow – North American arachnids are pretty much harmless to humans, but an absolute scourge to other nuisance insects like flies and mosquitoes and whatnot. It can get kinda gross when they start laying eggs all over the place though. Still, awesome little critters – in moderation. Knowing something about them is essential to their appreciation though – the rap they get in popular culture, as well as people's perhaps innate fear of them, makes the majority of folks probably more likely to swat one than make a pet out of it, (though as a compromise you could always just catch it and toss it in the garden), which is where Christopher M. Buddle and Eleanor Spicer Rice's new book, Dr. Eleanor's Book of Common Spiders, comes in. Here Eleanor Spicer-Rice, renown science writer and entomologist by training (entomologists btw study insects, not arachnids), teams up with arachnologist Christopher Buddle to uncover the hidden . . .
The University of Chicago Press is pleased to announce that the 2018 Gordon J. Laing Prize has been awarded to sociologist Forrest Stuart for Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row. Stuart's book offers a fascinating look at the interactions between the criminal justice system and the low income residents of L. A.'s Skid Row. The result of years of fieldwork – not only with Skid Row residents, but with the police charged with managing them – Stuart's book reveals an alarming decrease in support for our poorest citizens, accompanied by an increase in spending on policing and prisons that only serves to exacerbate the problems endemic to the nation's most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Touching on some of his inspirations for the book as well as the historical role the University's Department of Sociology and the Press have played in developing and disseminating the unique style of ethnographic study at the heart of Stuart's work, the acceptance speech was hailed by Stuart's acquiring editor Doug Mitchell as "one of the best Laing Prize speeches in memory." And luckily enough, someone even managed to capture it in it's entirety on their iphone! Check it out below, or find out . . .
Lilliana Mason is assistant professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park and also the author of a new book that Vox co-founder Ezra Klein calls "one of the most important published this year." Her new book Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity takes a timely look at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines which has recently come to sharply divide the two major political parties. Dissecting the minutiae of group identification – how we come to associate ourselves with a group; how that group identity can can overrule our ability to make political choices in our best own interests; and how this works to undermine democracy – Mason ties political science to social psychology to provide an unprecedented view of the current political landscape in the U.S. On the April 30th edition of his podcast, Klein engages Mason in a fascinating discussion of her new book. As Klein writes for Vox: "If you want to understand the kind of identity politics that's driving America in 2018, you should listen in." Navigate to player.fm to stream or download the epidsode, "The age of 'mega-identity' politics" or follow this . . .


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text:
InfoQ Homepage Interviews Big Data's Role in Etsy's Product Development
Big Data's Role in Etsy's Product Development
Nellwyn Thomas is an analyst on the Data team at Etsy, where she works closely with product, marketing, and engineering to scout, build, instrument and improve Etsy's product portfolio. Before Etsy, she worked on analytics and product teams at two smaller NYC start-ups. She is a graduate of Harvard College, and holds a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Transcript Interactive Show All Hide all Full Page Transcript
1. My name is Harry Brumleve and we're here at QCon 2012, San Francisco, sitting with Nell Thomas, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
Yes, my name is Nell Thomas and I am a Data Analyst at Etsy, I'm part of a great group of engineers, analysts who help use data to make things better.
2. What drew you to the analyst path?
Sure. Thinking about data and thinking about behavior in terms of data was engrained in me pretty early on, I studied Psychology in college, and there I had the opportunity to work in labs and run experiments and run some of my own experiments and I think it just kind of became part of how I approached decision making. After college, I worked at a startup, it was a financial services firm, that used data to understand the performance of publicly traded stocks and that was an opportunity for me to learn both the skills of point data and data analysis, modeling but also communicating about data. The deliverables were words not numbers and so having to articulate the meaning of an analysis became an important part of my job. After that I went to a startup that was building a web product, I had the opportunity to learn about building a product and at Etsy I get to use data to help build products which is the best of both worlds, and it's really an awesome place to be.
3. Where does your data come from at Etsy?
We have two main data sources. The first is what we would call Transactional data, which is someone who makes a purchase or signs up for a member account and all that data is kind of regular relational databases; pretty straightforward. The second set of data, which is messier and bigger and a little bit more exciting is the behavior of someone on the site, so a visit who comes and clicks on the homepage, types some words into the search box, favorites an item maybe, all of that data we collect using an event logging system.
We store in Hadoop and processes there and requires a little bit more technical sophistication to extract that data. We are moving to a place where we're going to be using a data warehouse solution called Vertica to store some of both sets of data, which will allow people with SQL skills to extract an analyze both. In general we are trying to move to a place where data is more and more accessible so that you don't need programming skills in order to extract it. You will always need analytical skills to understand it but lowering the barrier in terms of getting to the data is important to us.
4. And so what typically do you end up using this data for?
There's all sorts of data I should also say obviously we have lots of operational metrics that we look at on a daily basis to understand how the site is doing. In terms of Product development, we are using it from every point of the process. Trying to identify a product we build, to understanding how we should build it, to iterate on it once it's built, even to decisions around maybe deprecating a product or killing it, we want to make sure that we understand the impact of that. We run a lot of experiments on the site as well and there obviously we are using data and statistical analysis to understand the effects of changes we are making and we really try to inject that decision making with data, both in the product organization and throughout the company, so from marketing, PR, senior management, or support.
5. If this data is highly available at Etsy, how does it affect day to day operations?
I think in general, and I said earlier, we have operational matrix that we look at day to day to just understand how the website is doing, but in terms of planning or optimization, we think about less in terms of the unit of the day that we do with the long term impact of changes. Real time analytics for us, I think my concern of that is that it leads to optimizing around short term changes or small term effects and we want really to be thinking about things in a longer time horizon than that. So on a day to day level we are running experiments, we are doing ad hoc analysis, product managers or marketing managers might be looking at data to help plan, but it may not be as much about responding to yesterday as it is about planning for a month or two or three months from now, a year from now.
6. You are really incorporating data into the structure of Etsy?
We are trying very much to do so. We have a data team that works on both the infrastructure, that allows us to collect accurate data and deliver it to the company, we also work on the relationships with the individual teams, so the analysts, each take a few teams to help be the liaison on that, interprets the data, provides additional analysis, helps translate it into actionable items, for example, I personally work with our seller tools team, our search team, I work a lot with our marketing team and the idea there is that people on those teams are empowered to get their own data and use it, but they also have a resource for people to understand it and use it.
7. Traditionally the world of developing products has been something of a combination between sales, marketing and business analysts, is this broken, do we need to fix it and is data better than user requirements for this type of effort?
At Etsy it's not sales marketing or business that I would say are driving product decision making and it's really the engineers, Proc managers and Proc designers that make up our product development team, it's very well named. So in terms of user requirements, I don't think it's about replacing user requirements with data, it's really about using data to inform those user requirements. And that, what generally is, it's kind of a set of data culture where everyone at the company is empowered to think about it, to think about data, use data and that we can demystify data and make it transparent. And in inspiring to do that, and this thing we're working on, I think we do a pretty good job out, we can always do better, we're trying to make sure that, decisions, both planning in the future and looking back at past decisions, we can do that with objective data.
8. The idea of being able to use data, to inform decisions, and it's also kind of how you determine whether a new feature or a test is successful. Do you foresee data maybe becoming a crutch for making decisions in the future at Etsy?
So anytime you make a decision, you want to have multiple inputs and data it's just one of those. It's a really strong one, a really good one in my mind. An example of experiments, that's a place where we can quantify the difference between two possibilities. Sometimes that's two different treatments of a design, we might have one that has a bigger button and one that has a smaller button and seeing how those things perform in an A|B test, it does allow us to have a better sense than we would have if we would launch that blindly. That said, when we evaluate overall which test we should run or how to interpret the results in some experiment, it has to be used as part of a larger understanding of the product. So a clutch could be a good thing or a bad thing, I like to think of it as something that rounds out the tool kit makes it a little bit stronger, a little bit more robust but it should not be the only thing that's being considered.
9. Analytics at Etsy are used to improve the experience for its customers and its sellers, how does this focus on analytics and data all through the day to day experience for a user?
Etsy is a marketplace made up of buyers and sellers and the sellers on Etsy who sell handmade goods, vintage goods or supplies, some of them are running their entire small businesses through the site and there we also want to inspire this idea of transparency and demystification, we have a seller facing analytics tool called "Shop Stats" where a seller can see, referral sources into their shop or what are their most popular listings are to be viewed or what keywords people were searching for when they found the shop and just as a company, Etsy tries to use data to make decisions , we want that for our sellers as well.
10. Not all software shops have the benefit of having a data culture within their organization, how can this be applicated or even started with an organization's new tool data culture?
I think thing is that data can sometimes seem scary or specialized, not accessible to everyone and I think the first part of a data culture is just fostering kind of a safe environment for evaluating things with numbers. I think I would start not with data itself but with questions around… questions you want to answer, so what are your key metrics for the product or the business , how do you want to change them , how could you evaluate the changes, what do you need to get to that evaluation, you can have all the data in the world but if you don't have those questions articulated and answers to them in your mind, you're going to probably be shooting the dark or overwhelmed by numbers without any sense of direction, so I think a lot of it starts with a way of thinking, a way of structuring how you are going to approach the data and the other part of a data culture I think it's an incredible important is the ability to look back on past decisions and evaluate them using data, so we've been talking a lot about using data forward thinking and in planning or iterating, optimizing but it's also about looking back at things you've decided on in the past and seeing how those changes you've made… those decisions you've made performed.
I think that's really about a kind of honesty, assessing how something did and use those numbers, speaking directly about them and not that numbers should be the only answer but that, again, you can speak honestly and transparently about the role of data in your decision making.
11. Where do you see product development driven by analytics heading?
So I think that you've really seen the idea of analytics and big data getting a lot of attraction recently and become a really popular touchstone. I think that will continue to be the case and I think that's a good thing. At Etsy and elsewhere, I do believe we'll start to see data become more distributed across the companies and not just in terms of the actual CSVs and tables and Excel files but in terms of the skill set. So I think there will always be a place for a specialized analyst team but having individual team members empowered to think about data and use data and the skills to do so, I think will be a possible direction of the future.
Harry: Nell thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy QCon.
Thank you for interviewing me.
Nell Thomas
Harry Brumleve


Now, the USCIS has started to deny H-1B petitions and I-140s for physical and occupational therapists who lack Masters degrees despite the fact that they possess both state licenses and health care certifications. Here we go again!
With our economy sinking from a recession into a possible depression, the first order of business for Congress and the Administration is to stimulate the economy.
Is there a chance that Comprehensive Immigration Reform will be enacted into law given the sinking economy? Although some people would like to use the economic downturn as an excuse to deport undocumented immigrants and even to compel companies to lay off workers on temporary visas, we see the situation differently. As a former INS prosecutor, it is very plain to me that mass deportations of millions of workers would be impossible to carry out and would do immense damage to our economy.
What if the government required the 10-12 million people without papers who live and work in the U.S. to pay Federal and State Income Taxes as a condition of being put on "a path to citizenship", wouldn't this help to pay for the economic stimulus package? Why should U.S. citizens and permanent residents have to shoulder this burden on their own? Comprehensive immigration reform bills all require that payment of income taxes is a prerequisite to applying for legalization.
They are the "Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009" (H.R.264) introduced in the House by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) and the "Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act of 2009" (S.9) introduced in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) along with a dozen co- sponsors.
Two Republican Congressmen introduced amendments to the economic stimulus bill in the House of Representatives which would require any company which receives government "bail-out" money to enroll in the controversial "E-Verify" program. The program requires employers to run potential employees names and social security numbers through the DHS and the Social Security Administration. The stimulus bill containing these amendments was approved by the House last week, but without a single Republican vote. Go figure!
The Senate is now considering the economic stimulus bill, and has rebuffed efforts to add an E-Verify requirement.
If the Senate passes a stimulus bill without the E-Verify requirement, the differences between the two bills will have to be resolved by a joint House-Senate Conference Committee in February.
P.S. – The unprecedented mandatory and retroactive requirement that all federal contractors enroll in the E-Verify program starting on January 15 was derailed when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a number of other business organizations challenged the requirement in Federal Court. The Bush administration then postponed the requirement until February 20, and the Obama Administration recently postponed the requirement a second time until May 21.
P.P.S. – The requirement that employers start using the new I-9 form on February 2 was also postponed until April 3.
What happens when a Senator or Representative feels strongly that a person should be permitted to stay in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons even though there is no legal remedy in their immigration case? The Member of Congress may, in the most compelling cases, introduce a private bill. If passed by Congress, and signed into law by the President, the person may become a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
What is the future of immigration reform in the new 111th Congress? No one knows for sure.
What we do know is that a number of important immigration programs are scheduled to expire on March 6, 2009. These include the popular Conrad 30 program for physicians, the EB- 5 Regional Center program for investors and the religious workers program.
Also, in the waning days of the 110th Congress in 2008, the House Immigration Subcommittee voted to approve legislation to ease the shortage of registered nurses and physical therapists in the U.S. as well as to recapture hundreds of thousands of immigrant visas lost due to governmental inefficiency. We trust that Representative Zoe Lofgren, the Chair of the House Immigration Subcommittee will again visit these bills so that the full House and Senate will have the opportunity to vote to approve these needed pieces of legislation early in 2009.
There is only one U.S. Consulate in Mexico where people can apply for immigrant visas (aka green cards). This Consulate is located in Ciudad Juarez (CDJ). The DHS in CDJ issues both I-601 and I-212 waivers. As you may guess, this huge volume of work places an incredible burden on the consular and immigration officers stationed in Juarez.
Recently, one of our attorneys attended a seminar given by the chiefs of the consulate describing the most up-to-date procedures for obtaining benefits in Juarez.
The DOS and the DHS are now in the same building; applicants do not have to go to a different building to submit their I-601 applications.
Fees – The government does NOT accept cash and strongly discourages applicants from bringing cash because of crime in the surrounding areas. Better to bring a money order, a cashier's check or a credit card.
They will be switching to an electronic application system. The form is DS-160 and will be filed on-line. Accuracy is critical. If the applicant makes even a simple mistake on the form (wrong gender, wrong date of birth, etc.), there is no way to correct the information when they appear for the interview. This means they will be forced to re-start the whole process (file a new DS form; pay the fee again, etc).
K-1 and K-3 visa applicants are treated like immigrants; they do not file the DS-160.
In the past, CDJ had a policy that a minor could not be subject to the "permanent bar." (This is the bar for 1 year of unlawful presence or deportation/removal followed by a subsequent illegal re-entry or attempted re-entry).
The regular 3/10 year bars for unlawful presence are, of course, not applicable to minors since the statute explicitly says that no time accrued in the U.S. while the applicant is under 18 years of age shall be considered unlawful presence.
Beware! The government will apply inadmissibility ground for a false claim to citizenship to minors. In other cases of misrepresentation, they will not find the applicant inadmissible if s/he was under 16 at the time of the misrepresentation.
NVC will be doing all the document review; so when the case is transferred to CDJ, it should be 100% complete and accurate (including the I-864).
Inquiries to the Consulate should be made on their web inquiry form.
There are presently 3 full time I-601 adjudicators, and 2 staff who are on detail. There is a backlog of 9,000 I-601 applications. They are discussing opening an office in Los Angeles where they will only work on those backlog cases.
The applicant has to make his I-601 appointment through the Call Center. He can call to make his I-601 appointment as soon as he knows when his IV interview will take place (He just has to make his I-601 appointment for a date after his IV interview).
When an applicant arrives for his or her appointment, a clerk will take the I-601 packet. It is given to an adjudicator who spends approximately 10-15 minutes reviewing it. The adjudicator does not speak with the applicant.
The applicant is then told to pay a fee of (80) pesos at a kiosk inside the facility. This fee pays for the DHL delivery of the preliminary I-601 decision. The next day, the applicant can go to the DHL office (which is close to the Consulate) and pick up the preliminary decision.
He will either be informed that the I-601 was granted, and given instructions on how to obtain the actual immigrant visa, or he will receive a letter telling him that he has 30 days to submit additional information to support his I-601 application.
If his case is not granted right away, he can supplement the I-601 at any time up to the day he receives a decision. New information can be mailed, or sent via e-mail to the USCIS. This is good for people who prepared an I-601 without an attorney. If they hire an attorney later on, the attorney can file the supplemental documents even if it has been more than 30 days since the case was referred to the backlog. They do not need to file a new I-601.
Between 50% and 60% of I-601 waivers are approved upon filing. There is no information on what percentages of referred cases are ultimately approved. The cases in the "backlog" are taking about 13 to 15 months to decide!!
They will consider expediting an I-601 for serious medical issues. This excludes mental/psychological conditions that have come about due to the separation. If you have a physical medical condition, or a pre-existing mental condition, you can request an expedited decision on your waiver via e-mail.
If your client has any arrests or convictions, you must fully document and disclose them even if the charges were never filed or were dropped. They have been asking for police reports and juvenile records too! Even issues that would not make someone inadmissible can be considered for discretion. They want this information up-front from the applicant.
If an I-601 is denied, the applicant may appeal the denial. While the appeal is pending, it is possible to request a new I-601 appointment. The applicant should first contact the call center. They are required to submit a new immigrant visa application, new fees, have a new medical, etc. Basically they have to repeat the whole IV process. However, there is no need to file a new I-130 visa petition. After the new IV interview, they can schedule a new I-601 appointment.
The applicant does not have to withdraw a pending I-601 appeal before submitting a new I-601.
The consulate will follow BIA case law, so citing cases from a Court of Appeals is a waste of time.
The less legalese the better; if you are going to include any, save it for the end of the letter.
Start off your letter with a summary of the case. It is helpful to have a bullet point list of the documents you are submitting.
Do not bother including country condition evidence since the adjudicators live in Mexico!
The government only adjudicates I-212 applications (Application for Permission to Reapply for Admission into the United States after Deportation or Removal) in conjunction with an I-601 waiver application. So if your client does not need an I-601 waiver, CDJ will not accept their I-212 applications. These applications must be filed in the U.S.
They adjudicate the I-601 first. Because the I-601 standard is higher, if the I-601 is granted, approval of your I-212 is pretty much a given.
Call (626) 584-9813 to reserve a seat.
On January 7, in Matter of Compean, 24 I&N Dec. 710 (A.G. 2009), outgoing Attorney General Mukasey, in a 34-page decision, ruled that since persons in removal proceedings have no constitutional right to an attorney, they have no constitutional right to effective legal representation. Since removal proceedings are civil rather than criminal, many constitutional protections given to suspected criminals are not available to persons charged with being removable.
His ruling overturns two precedent decisions of the Board of Immigration Appeals, Matter of Lozada, 19 I&N Dec. 637 (BIA 1988), and Matter of Assaad, 23 I&N Dec. 553 (BIA 2003). Both of these decisions held that when an attorney makes an "egregious" mistake in a removal proceeding which results in "prejudice" to his client, and the client timely files a motion to reconsider, he is entitled to a new hearing if it is likely that, but for the mistake, the result of the hearing would have been different.
Most attorneys felt that the Lozada standard was overly harsh. In addition to meeting the standards stated in the previous paragraph, it required that a complaint be filed against the former attorney with the State Bar. Immigration laws and procedures are complex and ever changing and many attorneys make mistakes which should not affect their ability to practice law. Attorney General Mukasey, however, feels that the Lozada standard was too lenient although he does not believe that a complaint must be filed against the attorney who made the error.
Although he does not believe that an alien is entitled to a new hearing under the Due Process clause of the 5th Amendment to the Constitution, he states that under the right circumstances, an Immigration Judge or the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) may wish to reopen the case and grant the person a new hearing where there are "extraordinary" circumstances. However, under Matter of Compean, the decision to grant a new hearing is strictly a matter of "discretion" and a "matter of administrative grace".
What is the practical effect of having the Compean standard replace the Lozada standard? Simply put, it's the difference between a monarchy and a democracy.
In 1996, a law was enacted which prohibits the Federal Courts from reviewing discretionary decisions of the BIA. Under Lozada, a person can petition to have a Federal Appeals Court review the decision of the BIA not to reopen a removal proceeding where the issue is ineffective assistance of counsel. Under Compean, the decision of the BIA is final and nonreviewable.
Effectively, General Mukasey's decision insulates such BIA decisions from judicial review.
Of course, it is likely that Matter of Compean and its two companion decisions, Matter of Bangaly and Matter of J-E-C, will be challenged in Federal Court.
Is there any possibility that the new Administration will overturn Matter of Compean?
Perhaps there is. President Obama is currently reviewing all 11th hour regulations and decisions made by the previous Administration.
Getting a green card is just a bunch of paperwork, right? If a reasonably intelligent person takes the time, studies how to prepare his case, questions attorneys who offer free consultations and participates in online discussion groups, he can prepare and submit immigration applications by himself and save a few thousand dollars in attorneys' fees, correct?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, consider this cautionary tale.
A few months ago, we were approached by a young Professor of Physics who we will call "Dr. Sharma" (not his real name).
Dr. Sharma had been employed by various universities in the U.S., always in H-1B status. He had published many papers in prominent professional journals and these papers had been cited thousands of times.
In 2005, without the aid of an attorney, Dr. Sharma had applied for a national interest waiver. Simultaneously, he and his wife submitted applications for adjustment of status. In 2006 the USCIS denied both the national interest waiver and the adjustment of status applications.
Undeterred, Dr. Sharma again applied again for a national interest waiver and for adjustment of status for himself and his wife. While the petition (form I-140) and the applications (forms I-485) were pending, the couple moved to Southern California. Dr. Sharma logged into the USCIS website in order to notify the government of the couple's change of address.
In 2007, USCIS denied the second national interest waiver and the two applications for adjustment of status and sent these denials to the Sharmas.
In 2008, Dr. Sharma and his wife moved to Texas where a university had submitted a change of status application from H-1B to O-1 (person of extraordinary ability) to the USCIS on his behalf in order to employ him as a Professor.
The university received a Request for Evidence (RFE) which stated that Dr. Sharma and his wife had been ordered removed from the U.S. by an Immigration Judge in Los Angeles in December 2007 and, therefore, USCIS could not approve his change of status application until he resolved the issue with the Judge.
An immigration attorney in Texas recommended that Dr. Sharma contact our office. He could not understand why he and his wife were ordered removed in 2007 since his H-1B status was valid until October 3, 2008. Furthermore, neither he nor his wife had ever received any notice of the removal proceedings.
We immediately reviewed the couple's files at the Immigration Court in Los Angeles to obtain more information about what had happened. Upon reviewing their files, it became clear that the USCIS had committed an error. The notices summoning Dr. Sharma and his wife to the Immigration Court were sent to the couple's former address which was listed on their first applications for adjustment of status.
Therefore, on September 18, 2008, we submitted a Motion to Reopen their cases and to rescind the orders of removal against them. Our Motion included documentation that Dr. Sharma and his wife did not receive notice of their removal proceedings in Immigration Court. Also, the Motion was accompanied by evidence that they were still in valid H-1B and H-4 status, and therefore, were not removable from the United States. On October 2, the Immigration Judge granted our Motion to Reopen, but did not terminate removal proceedings.
We researched the law and the issues in the case and appeared in Immigration Court on October 31 with Dr. Sharma and his wife. They had arrived from Texas the day before to attend this hearing with their new- born child. We submitted a Motion to Terminate the removal proceedings to the Immigration Judge informing her that they had been in H status until October 3, 2008 and that an application for a change of status had been submitted in a timely fashion and was still pending.
Our Motion to Terminate stated that the deportability of an alien on a "remained longer" charge cannot be sustained where the charge was brought prior to the expiration of the alien's authorized period of stay. See Matter of Siffre, 14 I. & N. Dec. 444 (BIA 1973).
Since Dr. Sharma was eagerly waiting to begin his employment in Texas, he and his wife hoped that the Judge would immediately grant their Motion to Terminate, and that the USCIS would expeditiously grant their applications to change their status.
As a former INS prosecutor (1976-82), I know that things do not always move swiftly in Immigration Court. As I had warned Dr. Sharma before the hearing, the Immigration Judge gave the government attorney until December 15, 2008 to respond to our Motion to Terminate. She then scheduled the next hearing to be held on January 21, 2009. Mr. M and his wife returned to Texas. If he was not granted permission to work within a few weeks, Dr. Sharma resolved to return to his home country or to accept one of the many offers of employment that he had received from universities in Canada. There was no possibility that he would remain unemployed until January or February of 2009. I remember thinking what a sad loss this would be for our country.
My associate Elif Keles called the government attorney to try to get him to agree with our Motion to Terminate. On November 19, he filed a response to our Motion to Terminate. He wrote that the Department of Homeland Security did not oppose terminating the removal proceedings against Dr. Sharma and his wife. We were elated!
Attorney Keles immediately began drafting a motion to ask the Immigration Judge to advance the January 2009 hearing date. Before we had the chance to submit our motion, on November 20, we received the Immigration Judge's written decision in which she ordered the proceedings against our clients terminated.
We immediately faxed the Judge's order to Dr. Sharma. The university in Texas submitted the Judge's order to the USCIS, and his change of status to O-1 was approved within a few days.
We are hoping that someday, Dr. Sharma will win the Nobel Prize in Physics. It would be fantastic to be mentioned in his acceptance speech in Stockholm!
For nearly six years (2002-08), the government maintained that the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) did not apply to children who had "aged-out" prior to the enactment of CSPA unless they had immigrant visa petitions or applications for permanent residence "pending" on August 6, 2002, the day that CSPA was signed into law.
The only trouble with the agency's position was that the law clearly says otherwise. In 2008, the USCIS finally accepted the fact that the law does not require a pending petition or application. The agency's new interpretation of the law renders it retroactive in many thousands of cases.
How can you benefit from the agency's new interpretation?
Consider an actual case of one of our clients who I will call Dario.
Dario entered the U.S. as an F-1 student in 2000. He was planning to attend medical school after he obtained his undergraduate degree.
Our law firm submitted an immigrant visa petition (I-140) for Dario's mother, a registered nurse, on December 31, 2001. At that time, the INS did not permit concurrent filing of I-140s and I-485s. The petition was approved near the end of March 2002. On April 1, 2002, Dario turned 21 years old and, therefore, he was no longer eligible to adjust his status together with his parents.
If the INS had allowed concurrent filing, we probably could have obtained permanent residence on his behalf before his 21st birthday. Now, he was out of luck. However, because of situations like Dario's, the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) was signed into law on August 6, 2002.
In plain English, this means that because Dario was "a derivative beneficiary" of an immigrant visa petition approved before CSPA, and no "final determination" had been made on an application for adjustment of status, Dario could submit an I-485 under the new law.
Our law firm prepared and submitted an I-485 on Dario's behalf on October 8, 2002. The INS accepted the I-485 and issued Dario an EAD (work permit). Later, the agency renewed Dario's work permit.
The INS decision was clearly erroneous since Section 8, paragraph 1 of CSPA (quoted above) does not require that a petition or application be "pending" on August 6, 2002. However, the agency took the position that despite the clear language of the law, paragraph 1 required that an application for permanent residence be pending on August 6, 2002. In a memo dated February 14, 2003, the INS maintained that there was a requirement that an application for permanent residence be pending on August 6, 2002 even where an immigrant visa petition had been approved prior to the enactment of CSPA.
Unfortunately, there is no provision in the law for one to appeal the erroneous denial of an I-485. Dario could have retained our law firm to challenge the denial in Federal Court, but he elected to continue with his studies, and not to challenge the erroneous INS decision.
Three years later, the Board of Immigration Appeals, in Matter of Avila-Perez, 24 I&N Dec. 78 (BIA 2007), ruled that there was no requirement that an I-485 be pending on August 6, 2002 if an immigrant visa petition had been approved before this date. Over a year later, the USCIS issued a memorandum (on April 30, 2008) reversing the "pending" requirement in the agency's 2003 memo, and allowing applicants whose I-485 had been improperly denied due INS' erroneous guidance in 2003 to submit motions to the agency to have their cases reopened and approved.
What does Dario's case mean to you and your children?
It means that if you would be considered to be a child under CSPA, and a visa petition of your behalf or on behalf of one of your parents was approved prior to August 6, 2002, you may be able to benefit from CSPA retroactively, and apply for a green card immediately!


This Friday the spotlight is on Gin Raw all the way from Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. We serve with grapefruit and lime topped off with Thomas Henry . Try it this weekend!
It's fair to say that not only does Killarney have the heritage and all of the wonderful tourist attractions on its doorstep, it also has plenty of festivals all year round for visitors to enjoy.
Hurray! It's the Weekend! Let's fly away together for  Gin Fridays with our American Gin Aviation served with Lemon Lime and Schweppes Tonic.
Wow - It's Gin Fridays once again! Today we have Bathtub Gin served with oranges, cloves and of course Fevertree tonic - come on along and sample for yourself at the weekend!


Tell us about this Jesus.
"some Greeks come to Phillip and say "Sir we would see Jesus!""
"Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus"
which is all too rerminiscent of what happens in churches!
It is often not starightforward for us either.
we often have ways and means for passing the buck on to someone else.
Why do we imagine that we have nothing to say?
that shows people what Jesus is like.
because we are only too well aware of how we let Christ down in this regard.
allowing Christ to be in us and work through us.
and it is important that what we say is Christian.
Can we show people Jesus by what we say?
such as .....what happens to us when we die?
or Why does God allow one person to suffer and not another?
Does what we say point to Jesus, and make sense?
when the challenge is to help people take the next step.
"Sir we would see Jesus"
Do you take steps to deepen your own faith? To reflect on perplexing questions?
it is about acceptance and sharing the burdens of others.
When people would see Jesus, they would look at how we conduct ourselves.
but it doesn't seem to penetrate the reality of our lives.
so often we want to distance ourselves from this reality.
rather than alive and passionate.
Ahh! there is that word which characterises this season.
We use it to refer to the suffering of Jesus.
That is what the Latin word means.
But popular usage links "passion" to the heights and depths of love.
that we all may be the ears, hands and hearts of Jesus.
I live in Adelaide South Australia. I am trying to retire! I have three adult daughters. And one son-in-law Denes who is better than the husband I would have chosen for one of my three most important ones. And now I have another son-in-law, Sam, who seems to make the daughter-in-chief pretty happy. I like it that they both have got it. Keep my daughters happy! Well then Did I say "three most important ones"? Because now they were supplanted by the most wonderful one who totally popped into our world in January 2015. She is now heading towards being a ballet dancer supreme Then her life-giving sister catapulted into January 2017. Sister and sister seem to be getting on well! And both enjoying being butterflies at ballet. I am a priest in the Anglican Church. The parish priest, indeed, of Adelaide's leading Anglo-Catholic parish, St Mary Magdalene's, Adelaide. I lean some what to the left...and that seems OK to me I long for a republic, for marriage equality; and for a more loving and tolerant society.


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Wherefore Art Thou, Family Farmer, under the New Administration?
Anna Berry
By Keith Weller, U.S. Department of Agriculture [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
August 7, 2017; NPR, "The Salt"
One of the many sectors facing turmoil and uncertainty under the Trump administration includes the people who feed your community—farmers. While the significant subsidies that Big Agriculture receives are roundly and rightly criticized, some farmers also say that they've received a raw deal since NAFTA was enacted in 1994, and the future of the country's economy is now up for grabs.
Negotiations on the North American Free Trade Agreement open next week in Washington, and in an increasingly interconnected world, the issues at stake are numerous and reflective of today's wider political landscape, as NPR aptly summarized in an article that's part of the Food & Environment Reporting Network:
From tomato growers in Florida to cattle ranchers in Montana, some farmers bruised by NAFTA think it has favored agribusiness over small-scale farms, lowered environmental standards and made it harder to compete against cheaper imports. Now that the White House is scheduled to revise the treaty in talks slated to start on August 16th, the question for many of these disgruntled farmers is whether President Trump will remember them at the negotiating table…
Free-trade proponents argue there are always winners and losers in globalization, but overall, gains outweigh losses. Farmers may see more competition, but consumers get lower food prices. That "everyone's better off" argument, though, rang hollow among Rust Belt workers left behind in globalization—and in rural areas, even as farm exports took off. Their discontent—fed by Donald Trump's promises to rip up NAFTA, calling it the "worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere"—helped land him in the White House.
But what do the numbers show? NPR explains:
Whether or not it was the primary culprit, NAFTA certainly hasn't altered the steady rise in farm concentration. Trade expanded the total size of the pie, as the Farm Bureau points out: U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico and Canada jumped from $8.9 billion in 1993 to over $38 billion today. Yet, critics point out, the largest farms control most of the slices, with 20 percent of farms operating 70 percent of U.S. farmland. Between 2013 and 2016, 42,000 farms ceased operations, according to USDA data.
One of the arguments for globalization is that a rising tide lifts all boats and that economic empowerment can alleviate poverty. How have America's trading partners fared? NPR points out that Mexico's poverty rate was still 53 percent as of 2014 and millions of Mexican farmers have lost their land. Ironically, Mexico also relies mainly on American corn to feed its citizens.
Nearly half of Mexico's food is imported from abroad, much of it from the United States. That includes corn, which is both a staple food and a religious symbol for the indigenous population—yet today, most of Mexico's corn comes from the U.S. Midwest. In 2016 alone, the U.S. shipped $2.6 billion worth of the stuff to its southern neighbor—its largest export market—mostly for livestock feed.
Like many of us currently at the whim of Trump's cabinet, farmers are asking for a place at the negotiating table. But, it seems unlikely Trump can keep all of his lofty campaign promises to everyone. Last month, U.S. farmers were reeling when the White House proposed cutting $38 billion in subsidies to farmers, including $28 billion in crop insurance. Thus, farmers are turning to Congress with their appeals, according to CNBC:
To be sure, the White House budget is generally considered a wish list. The farmers are hoping relief will come when Congress writes its own version of the budget. In addition, lawmakers must renegotiate the 2014 Farm Bill, which is set to expire in September 2018. That bill was particularly bruising to farmers, slicing $23 billion from the Department of Agriculture over 10 years. The Farm Bureau called Trump's proposed cuts a magnitude higher.
In the meantime, agriculture, argued the New York Times, is just another sector left in the lurch by President Trump's stalled trade agenda. "After beginning his presidency with a bang by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact in January, Mr. Trump has accomplished little else of significance when it comes to reorienting deals with other countries," reporter Alan Rappeport wrote. "Instead, his administration has been struggling to work through the complicated rules that dictate international commerce…All the while, they are learning that bold campaign promises are hard to keep when many voices advocate different plans."—Anna Berry
Anna Berry is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, and communications. She has covered international civil society, human rights, and the media, among other topics, for Nonprofit Quarterly since 2016.
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Home / News / Article
'Diamond & Silk' offer chance for bipartisan push back on social media censorship
via The Hill
Diamond and Silk are the biggest free-speech heroes to emerge from Facebook's congressional hearings this week. These two black women should be rallied behind as they put a compelling face on political censorship on social media.
Yet, black lawmakers and social justice leaders are holding their tongues. If these ladies were progressives, the ire over their mistreatment would be deafening. It's a shame that because they are conservatives — and ardent Trump supporters — all they get is silence from the black community.
At this week's hearing, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, "Why is Facebook censoring conservative bloggers such as Diamond & Silk? That is ludicrous. They hold conservative views. That isn't 'unsafe.'" Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Barton in their outrage.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) brought their plight to Zuckerberg's attention during Tuesday's Senate hearing as he questioned the Facebook head on the "pervasive pattern of political bias" against conservatives. Cruz only scratched the surface of documented cases.
Zuckerberg probably didn't expect to be peppered with questions about the two North Carolina sisters who boast a following of 1.3 million Facebook users. The duo came to fame as supporters of then-candidate Trump and have continued to come to his defense with viral videos and commentary. They recently revealed that Facebook deemed their content "unsafe for its community" and had blocked their content. (Zuckerberg later admitted the company made a mistake in their case.)
This was an opportunity for a unified response from Congress to push back on the weaponization of social media. Americans would have been in full support.
Nearly two out of three (61 percent) of Americans think social media websites should allow free speech without interference, according to a recent Rasmussen poll. Democrats are less likely than Republicans and unaffiliated Americans to support free speech on social media sites, but a majority (55 percent) of Democrats still approve of unregulated speech on such sites.
Only conservative members came to Diamond and Silk's defense and made political censorship an issue for Facebook to address. Yet, political thought isn't the only form of censorship that concerns civic leaders about social media platforms.
Although, they avoided Diamond and Silk's example altogether, Congressional Black Caucus members Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) and Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) questioned Zuckerberg about bias in the treatment of content generated by blacks.
Social justice leaders claim social media companies limit their speech by removing images, videos, and posts. A Medium post highlights some examples of black activists who have been banned for their free speech.
In 2016, a coalition of over 40 left-leaning groups called on Zuckerberg to "ensure that Facebook implements an anticensorship policy that honors and respects Black lives." In 2017, over 70 social justice groups wrote to Zuckerberg again calling out the "consistent and disproportionate censorship of Facebook users of color." They recommended changes "to protect the free speech and human rights of Facebook's most vulnerable users."
The Congressional Black Caucus missed an opportunity: Diamond and Silk sit at the intersection of two communities which both believe that they are working to make America better for everyone.
Conservatives and blacks both expect social media platforms like Facebook to be a place where they can share their ideas. These groups could be allies in seeking greater objectivity from social media websites by taking a principled position on freedom of speech.
The lesson for everyone is that Facebook is a private entity — not a true public square. The company can set and enforce its policies about the content shared on its platform at any time and in any way it chooses. Any user rights are determined by its terms and conditions, not the Constitution of the United States.
However, even if Facebook is free to discriminate against conservatives and political speakers like Diamond and Silk, if they want to be true to the principle that it is "a platform for all ideas," then the company would be wise to listen to these concerns. But there's no guarantee that Facebook will or can implement any changes that remove biases on their platforms, especially since Mr. Zuckerberg didn't seem to think there is much of a problem.
That is why we would benefit from greater competition in the social media space. Conservatives, blacks, or anyone else should be looking to take their content elsewhere. If there is enough interest and demand, new competitors will spring up to offer those looking to delete Facebook with a new place to go.
To ensure that competing social media platforms can emerge and thrive, Congress must be slow to adopt added regulations that could stifle competition or make it harder for startups to succeed.
If we want accountability from social media websites though, we should be principled about free speech and not allow politics to stand in the way.