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Social Change Initiative
Resources for Change
Mary Meg McCarthy
SCI Mentor
Mary Meg has over 20 years built and led a human rights organisation providing direct legal services to immigrants and refugees while advancing systemic reform.
A human rights advocate advancing human rights protections, May Meg's work has been influenced by time spent working in Chile where she learned the importance of integrating systemic reform to individual advocacy.
She has witnessed human rights abuses and individuals being denied their fundamental rights, and has learned how to navigate dangerous and complicated reality where people are subjected to human rights violations and economic exploitation.
Mary Meg is committed to protecting the rights of each individual especially those with no voice or whose rights are openly violated by US government anti-immigrant policies.
Based in Chicago, USA
Human Rights & Equality
© Social Change Initiative 2023


The Wild Cats of Piran focuses on Europe's most magical cats in a battle for their nine lives! In an engaging and witty, very short novel that brings alive its setting—a charming and historically redolent small, seaside city on the ravishing coast of the Adriatic Sea in Slovenia—the wild cats encounter the ghosts of Piran … and the wicked General Rat! Join the beautiful Queen Felicia, faithful warrior Dragan, and the feral feline family for nine tales of adventure and enchantment. Each chapter is accompanied by a full-page stunning color illustration by Italian artist Moreno Christe.
Scott Alexander Young is a busy working actor, as well as a TV scriptwriter, author, artist and travel writer. In the last 15 years or so, Scott has written scifi and comedy for people like SyFy UK - and been an Editor of Time Out magazine on three continents. He was also the madman behind Max's Midnight Movies, a 26 x 30 minute TV series about cult cinema produced by Sony Pictures Television. Funny yet educational, 'MMM' breathed new life into the midnight movies genre.
From his studio in Trento, northern Italy, the Swiss/Italian artist Moreno Chistè has produced thousands of lively and colorful illustrations for companies such as Disney, Warner Bros., and Mattel. His work ranges from comics to advertising artwork, storyboards, merchandising, and entire collections of greeting cards for the major European card companies.


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Home/Pop Culture
Keeping Mr. Rogers' Cardigans Looking Camera-Ready Was No Easy Task
Focus Features / Focus Features
When people think of Fred Rogers, the long-time star of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, they usually picture him in one of his cardigan sweaters, which came in a variety of primary colors and spoke to the warm and fuzzy nature of his presence. Tom Hanks will shortly be seen in such a sweater, playing Rogers in November 22's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
In a new article for Smithsonian, Cristina Rouvalis reveals a surprisingly rich backstory for the fleet of sweaters used on the show. They were initially sewn by Rogers's mother, Nancy, before she died in 1981. For the next decade, Rogers continued to wear her contributions until it became apparent they wouldn't endure many more tapings of the show. Replacements were sought, but art director Kathy Borland quickly discovered that the search was not unlike trying to replace Superman's cape. A Fred Rogers sweater needed a zipper with a smooth operation so it wouldn't snag on camera. It also needed to be vibrant.
Nothing fit the bill until Borland saw a United States Postal Service employee walking down the street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—where the show taped—and took note of his cardigan. Borland phoned postal supply distributors and was able to secure a fresh inventory of sweaters (which she bought white, and then dyed) that kept Rogers looking like himself through the show's final episode in 2001.
That wasn't Rogers's only connection to USPS. In 2018, the agency dedicated a Forever stamp in his honor, with a print run of 15 million.
For more on why Borland had to perform fabric surgery on the collars and why Rogers had to reconsider his wardrobe after meeting Koko the gorilla, head over to Smithsonian. And if you want to see one of Rogers's original sweaters made by his mother, you can check in with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Rogers donated one of them to the institution in 1984.
[h/t Smithsonian]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Josef Ritter von Rawiez Warszewicz (1812-1866) fue un botánico, biólogo y recolector de plantas y animales lituano-polaco.

Biografía
Josef von Rawiez Warszewicz nació en una empobrecida familia polaca de la baja nobleza, se crio en Wilno (Lituania) y trabajó como jardinero en el jardín botánico de la universidad de esa localidad. Durante su estancia en la universidad se unió al Levantamiento de Noviembre, rápida y brutalmente suprimido, tras lo cual salió a Alemania con los restos del ejército polaco. Durante los años 1840-1844 trabajó como jardinero ayudante en el Jardín Botánico de Berlín, lugar donde se conserva su herbario.

En 1844, por recomendación de Alexander von Humboldt fue enviado a Messrs Van Houtte, un horticultor de Gante, para unirse a la colonia belga en Guatemala donde pronto se establecería de forma independiente como recolector y suministrador mayorista de plantas para los horticultores y jardines botánicos europeos.

Warszewicz estaba especialmente interesado en las orquídeas, de las que importó ingentes cantidades, muchas de las cuales fueron descritas y publicadas por H.G. Reichenbach en Bonplandia. Así se guardan 230 registros IPNI casi todos de esa familia y todos con Rchb.. Viajó y recolecto plantas intensivamente por toda Centroamérica, descubriendo abundantes especies en Guatemala, Costa Rica y Panamá, donde escaló los más de 4.000 metros del volcán Chiriqui.

Las secuelas de la fiebre amarilla le obligan a regresar en dos ocasiones a Europa. Durante su segundo regreso a Cracovia, en 1854, el Dr. Czerwiakowski le da el cargo de supervisor de los Jardines Botánicos, cargo que conservaría hasta su muerte, a los 54 años.

Honores

Eponimia
 Género
 Warszewiczella Cogn.
 Especies, entre ellas

Referencias

Bibliografía
 Yearsley, G. 2004. Josef Ritter von Rawiez Warszewicz (1812–1866). Orchid Rev. 112: 155–159, 171

Referencias

Enlaces externos

Botánicos de Polonia del siglo XIX
Exploradores de Polonia
Horticultores de Polonia
Orquideólogos de Lituania
Orquideólogos de Polonia
Lituanos del siglo XIX

Nacidos en Vilna
Fallecidos en Cracovia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Fall Fest 2017 was wonderful! It featured Norwegian dance and music of the unique hardingfele (traditional Hardanger fiddle) as well as regular fiddle and guitar.
Festivities began with a special concert Thursday evening !
The Thursday evening concert, November 9, featured Loretta Kelley and Vidar Skrede, highly regarded specialists of the unique Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. This was a rare opportunity to enjoy Scandinavian folk music played by these tradition bearers.
Concert venue: First United Methodist Church, 203 S 200 E, SLC 84111. See guest musician bios and venue maps below.
Hallingspringar! This wonderful folk dance from Hallingdal, a mountain valley in southern Norway, west of Oslo, was the focus of 2017's Fall Fest. The Friday evening session Introduction to Hallingspringar was taught at a level accessible to all, including beginners. Subsequent sessions built on this introduction. Instruction on other, mainly Norwegian folk dances was interspersed throughout the weekend sessions. These include Finnskogspols, from the border region with Sweden northeast of Oslo. More than 50 people enjoyed this fabulous group of highly regarded instructors and musicians!
- This historic and beautiful church sanctuary and organ have recently been restored!
- metered street parking available on 200 East and 200 South.
Dance on the new floors, installed Spring of 2017!
Full package, $120: Concert, Workshops, Scandinavian Dinner.
A la carte pricing available, see preregistration form.
Dance instruction by Roo Lester and Larry Harding.
Guest musicians Loretta and Vidar will share music instruction and dance accompaniment.
*Music instruction will include sessions for hardingfele and regular (flat) fiddle. See note above for details.
- 3:00–4:30 pm: Afternoon Dance and Music Sessions. Dances are to be determined but will NOT include Hallingspringar.
- 7:30–9:30 pm: Evening Dance Session, Introduction to Hallingspringar. Beginners welcome, $15.
6:30–8:00 pm: Swedish Store, various goodies including chocolate, candy, crackers, lingonberry and other jams and cheeses.
7:00 pm: Grand March and Dance Party with music by Loretta Kelley, Vidar Skrede, and our own Scandi Band. Free admission.
Write SaltLakeScandDance@gmail.com with any questions.
Loretta Kelley is the foremost American performer on the hardingfele (the traditional Hardanger fiddle), an intricately decorated fiddle native to Norway with sympathetic strings, a nearly flat bridge, and a 300-year unbroken aural tradition. Loretta specializes in slått music, dance tunes rooted in the 18th century with sometimes unique asymmetrical rhythms, modal scales with "floating" intervals, and haunting tonalities.
Roo Lester is a nationally acclaimed dance instructor known for her clear teaching style and skill with beginners and experts alike. Roo is a recognized authority on and foremost exponent of Scandinavian Dance.
Roo and Larry were here in 2014. Click here for more information (near bottom of that webpage).
Vidar Skrede, from Haugesund, Norway is a freelance Nordic folk musician on guitar, harding fiddle, fiddle and Greek bouzouki. He has a background in the traditional music from Rogaland (South West of Norway), and has a master degree in Nordic folk music at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm.
Archives: workshop registration forms. We are sorry if you missed the weekend! Come back next fall!


Longer working days and more hectic schedules mean fewer of us are sitting down to eat breakfast. Increasingly, we are reaching for convenient cereal bars, which seem to offer the same nutritional advantages as traditional breakfast cereal. However, new research published today by the Food Commission showed that 18 cereal bars tested were either high in fats or sugars, or indeed both.
The products which performed most poorly were a Coco Pops bar (at 41% calories from sugar it beat pure milk chocolate), a Tracker banana breakfast bar (43% calories from fat) and a Rice Krispies bar (29% of the calories from saturated fats).
While sugar eaten in a bowl of cereal tends to be washed away by milk, when eaten in a sticky cereal bar it encourages tooth decay, says the report. Of the 18 bars tested, all had higher levels of sugar than dieticians recommend for a healthy breakfast such as bowl of cereal with semi-skimmed milk.
Perhaps the problem is partly one of marketing positioning. The cereal bars are sold alongside traditional breakfast cereals, but as Food Commission Director Tim Lobstein commented, they are more akin to confectionery.


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With Missy Cross
The Mindful Actor Workshops
"The Mindful Actor workshop was continuously eye-opening for me. Each week I was lead to deepen my relationship with my body as a creative playground and a powerful, transformative companion. I have new found fun and freedom when it comes to character development, ownership and design. I have never felt so deeply a part of text and dialogue as I do now. I am a different, better and more deeply equipped actor because of this class. More please :) -Sha-nnon Hart / Actor, Meditation Teacher
""What an amazing way to approach the subtleties in acting technique. Missy's energy work with the Chakra system opened up layer upon layer of life beneath the words on the page.
I feel like I now have a secret that no other actors have. It goes much deeper than basic emotional and relaxation techniques which of course are necessary, but opening up each individual Chakra welcomes a new pocket of character. Since I've taken the class I have consciously invited certain Chakras into daily situations when I need them. It's such a relief to remember that all your power is always with you - root to crown, whether calling upon all of them for balance or one specific for a certain situation, they are always with you. Thank you for your perfect work Missy!!!!!" - Laci Mailey / Actor (Chesapeake Shores), Producer
"Missy's classes were such a gift for me - I enjoyed them immensely. Missy has a remarkable knack for creating a safe space in which people can explore, grow and learn. She has an amazing ability to inspire people to dig deep within themselves and to take risks. Missy is warm and kind and uses an experiential teaching model (the opposite of some acting teachers, who simply talk at you for hours without having you ever practice anything, and who then use yelling techniques in an attempt to get you to go deeper). Missy is an utterly skilled and versatile actor and a phenomenal coach. I can't recommend her enough. I've witnessed so much transformation in myself and my fellow students (and heard so many positive accounts from other students as well). If you're already an actor, Missy's approach will take you to the next level and leave you with many new tools for your toolbox. Or, if like me, you don't consider yourself an actor you just enjoy exploring the work, there is so much for you in her classes too. This is work that will benefit your life, not just your acting." - Anne-Marie Doucet / Stage Manager
"I became interested in the Mindful Actor Workshop when I was feeling stagnant and looking to try something new. I am not an actor but am involved in performing arts and wanted to feel more confident in sharing my voice. I did not know anything about the Chakra system and how being unbalanced can deeply affect everyday life.
During the course of the class I felt myself being challenged in ways I had never known. I learned how to listen to my body. You really have to be honest with yourself to get the full benefit, and it is so exciting and revealing at the same time! I appreciate the safe environment Missy has created, she really allows you to get outside of yourself and at the same time be and do exactly as you feel. Missy is so open-minded and supportive, and it's fun! I highly recommend this class to anyone interested in self-exploration. No matter what stage of life you are in, everyone will get something positive from this experience." -Krista Lehman / Singer
"Missy Cross has put together a workshop that integrates creativity-energy-imagination & voice through a series of exercises and techniques that bring out every part of you. She shows you that when you really listen to yourself and connect to your body & mind, you are capable of becoming any character possible. She has proved to me and she will prove to you that you don't have to act, it's already inside of you…
The mindful actor workshop helped me regain confidence and not only created a positive shift in my acting but in my every day life.
Missy is definitely someone to look up to, her talent and teaching will give you a thirst for creativity and positivity. I feel deeply humbled to have met a teacher and friend so kind & passionate about her work and I can't wait to keep learning everything that she has to share." -Gabrielle O'Neill-Montgrain / Actor
Testimonials for Missy and The Mindful Actor Workshop:
When I first took The Mindful Actor's Workshop, I experienced a melding of my voice, my body and the text in a way I never knew was possible. Following Missy's instruction and steps, I learned how experience shapes a character's physicality and perspective. By using these tools, defining a character and tapping into the universality of story became easy for me. It allowed me to get out of my head and into the being of the character. I have now taken Level 1 of the course twice because each time I learn something new and I deepen my understanding of the process. I'm excited to start Level 2 of the MAW. - Veenu Sandhu / Actor (Lost In Space, Arrow)
"Chakra work is so incredibly useful to the actor because it is a universal tool that reminds us that we are all human beings shaped by our diverse environments. This kind of physical training has allowed me to grow more conscious of my own blocks in my work. Missy creates a non-judgmental space where I felt free to explore even the most extreme and explosive sides of myself. Thank you Missy!" - Cristina Sanchez / Actor
"I always felt like Missy was giving us invaluable secrets to acting after each Mindful Actor class. Not only does the material open up an entirely new system of character analysis, but it gives you the knowledge you need, in order to take care of and to heal yourself as an artist. I wish it was longer than 4 weeks!" - Paige Gibbs / Actor
"I've done subtext work in my acting before, but not like this! Thank you Missy Cross for opening up a whole new way of building a character and growth as an actor, as well as awareness as a human being. So grateful for you and your creations!" -Julia Christina Ray / Actor, director
"Missy Cross is incredible. She is one of the most genuine and inspiring people I've ever met. She will change your life and propel you into creative bliss!" -Michael Barry Anderson/ Actor, Singer, Musician, Voice
"Having directed, produced and acted in theatre in Canada for almost 30 years, I can say, without reservation that Missy Cross is one hell of a director. Within a minute or so of our first meeting, I realized how much I could learn from her… and learn I did!
Through the most nurturing, most respectful of processes, she worked with us to build our characters from the ground up. It was as much a master class in acting as it was a rehearsal process for a particular play, but the end result was magical.
I count my experience with Missy Cross as one of the most profound and delightful of my theatre career." -Greg Bishop /Actor, Director, Producer
"Missy is an exceptional, innovative coach that has helped me time and time again bring my auditions off the page, into a world where I can live truthfully. Her gentle spirit puts actors at ease while her depth and grasp of storytelling and what it takes to develop well rounded characters makes scenes come to life! She uses a wide array of techniques and exercises that focuses on the acting first, and the polish second. I highly recommend her to all my actor friends looking for a fresh approach at their audition prep." -Brittany Willacy / Actor (Chesapeake Shores), Singer, Songwriter, Head of the Heard
"The opportunity to work with Missy was an absolute joy. I've developed a deep trust in myself since, as her own implicit trust in my process has given me the freedom in my work to get messy and discover. She gave me the tools for my craft that not only enriched my characters, but nourished that nameless thing that makes us artists." -Anna Horabin / Actor, Musician
"I took the Mindful Actor Workshop with Missy because I wanted to feel more confident in speaking up and I was curious how the Chakras are related to this.
I've never acted before, but it didn't matter! Missy facilitated an environment that felt supportive and creative, allowing me to safely explore my range in voice and emotions. With absolute kindness and love, Missy knows when to encourage and when to gently push you to explore deeper.
In every class, I learned something new about myself and my abilities. And by the end I discovered that I, too, am an actor! We all can be :)
For anyone who is wishing to deepen their understanding of their bodies, to feel more confident in speaking, to find and listen to your inner voice, to practice trusting your wisdom and intuition - I would highly recommend this class. " -Andrea Freeman
"I'm a very busy Executive of a technology startup in Vancouver. My profession is really mind intensive, constantly thinking and it is very difficult to turn my mind off to stop the "noise" at the end of my work day.
My wife/business partner surprised me by gifting me with "The Mindful Actor" workshop, developed and presented by Missy Cross. Missy is a wonderful lady that truly is a loving and genuine caring person. It was a very unique and rewarding experience to learn with others about the importance of breathing, meditation, dancing, yoga, stretching and learning how to relax.
Missy's studio environment is comfortable and she made it a safe space to express our full range of emotions in a non-judgemental way while exploring the bodies Chakras (energy points) and utilizing the techniques taught by Missy. This is an extremely beneficial experience that I would recommend to any busy professional that wants to balance mind and body.
Thank-you Missy for developing such a powerful and very practical workshop! I look forward to attending new workshops in the new year." -Rick Sparks
© 2015 by Missy Cross. THE MINDFUL ACTOR WORKSHOP DISCLAIMER


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Uzbekistan suspends natural gas exports
Uzbekistan's leadership says the republic is almost completely halting natural gas exports and instead increasing fuel imports amid a surge in domestic demand at the start of winter. Deputy Energy Minister Sherzod Khodjaev said on November 16 that daily gas exports had fallen from 10 million cubic meters to 1 million cubic meters. Imports, on the contrary, increased by 20 percent. The official did not specify where Uzbekistan gets the additional "saving" gas from.
The current situation is rather strange for a major energy exporter, which itself suddenly found itself in the role of a raw material shortage. It is noteworthy that in 2022, large importers and entire regions that depend on supplies from outside are experiencing a crisis in the energy sector. But Uzbekistan was the first to create a precedent when it is the supplier and producer of gas that urgently stops shipments to foreign customers in order to help its own energy system.
The Ministry of Energy of the Republic previously predicted that gas exports in 2022 would reach 3,3 billion cubic meters, with most of it destined for China and other Central Asian countries.
In 2021, Uzbekistan produced 53,6 billion cubic meters of gas. Officials hope that by 2030 this figure will increase to 66,1 billion cubic meters. However, even such an increase in production is not able to meet the steady growth in aggregate demand from households and industry, as well as the provision of supplies outside the state.
This year is proving to be especially challenging. Gas production for the first three quarters decreased by 1,6 percent, to 38,9 billion cubic meters, compared to the same period in 2021. Officials see a shortage of up to 20 million cubic meters of gas per day.
Offline passing by
passing by (passing by) 18 November 2022 08: 43
Industry in Uzbekistan is developing...


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Small Precautions
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto
The detainees formerly known as POWs
One the fascinating things about the Wall Street Journal is how the news pages routinely provide fact-based refutations for the faith-based claptrap propounded in the op-ed pages. You wonder how readers deal with the cognitive dissonance.
For a recent conspicuous example of the cognitive dissonance, consider the disparate treatment of Bush regime's use of torture in the GWOT. For over a year the op-ed pages have consistently downplayed the political, legal, and moral significance of the U.S.'s use of torture as a tactic in the war on terror, enthusiastically quoting various rightwing American politicos who have questioned whether sexual humiliation, for example, constitutes torture.
But now the news section reports that one David Cohen (a rhetoric and classics professor at Berkeley, who just so happens also to have taught me Homer back when I was a college freshman) has been unearthing documents related to earlier cases from the 1940s, when the U.S. tried numerous Japanese prison guards for torture. The article is magnificent:
In the annals of law, the case of Masatomo Kikuchi is all but forgotten.
The former Japanese prison guard was tried by the Allies after World War II for war crimes. In 1947, a U.S. military commission, citing the Geneva Conventions and customary international law, convicted him of compelling prisoners of war to practice saluting and other military exercises for as long as 30 minutes when they were tired. His sentence: 12 years of hard labor....
The rulings from the years immediately after World War II lay out the most complete picture available of the way the U.S. viewed treatment of prisoners of war back then, when modern international humanitarian law was laid down. The question is, do these cases apply today?
Critics of the Bush administration's policy on terror-related prisoners argue they do. "These are the foundational cases," the first to apply international law to questions of prisoner treatment during armed conflict, says David Cohen, a 56-year-old professor of classics and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, who also teaches classes on war crimes. He has spent the last 10 years collecting the documents from archives and government offices, adding millions of pages to existing records and unearthing the case of Mr. Kikuchi.
The records make it clear that after World War II, U.S. military prosecutors and judges set out to establish a precedent barring any prisoner mistreatment, by aggressively pursuing and punishing even comparatively small offenses.
"These things of minor importance are the very things which caused the Allied prisoners of the Japanese so great discomfort," prosecutor Robert Neptune told a military commission in October 1948. Army judges agreed. One wrote, "Extreme brutality or serious injury to the victim is not a necessary element" for guilt....
The archives also make clear that some of the practices employed by the U.S. today resemble those that U.S. military commissions condemned when Americans were on the receiving end. The U.S. considered as war crimes such tactics as solitary confinement, sleep and sensory deprivation, manipulation of meal schedules, forcing men to answer questions while naked or restrained in painful "stress positions," and failing to register prisoners with the International Red Cross. Today, all have been approved or practiced at Guantanamo and other U.S. facilities.
The records, many of them from tribunals held at Yokohama, Japan, between 1946 and 1949, show that many defendants, like Mr. Kikuchi, received long sentences for lesser infractions, in keeping with the U.S.'s aggressive approach to prosecutions. Some of the justifications now offered both by low-level American soldiers and top officials echo those raised, with little success, by Japanese defendants called to account before American courts.
U.S. tribunals dismissed defense arguments that Japanese practices were necessary for disciplinary or interrogation reasons, that American prisoners were treated no worse than Japanese soldiers, that Japan hadn't ratified the Geneva Conventions and wasn't therefore bound by them and that, in any event, many American prisoners had forfeited POW status by bombing cities or committing acts of sabotage.
The Bush regime says that none of these cases matter, because the detainees aren't actually POWs. Rather, they're "unlawful enemy combatants," so that these cases don't form a relevant precedent. The Bushies of course don't hesitate to proclaim that this is a war at every possible turn; but the people we're fighting and capturing someone aren't warriors.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this more or less the same legal argument Prince made when he claimed that he should no longer bound by contracts he had signed because, technically, he was no longer "Prince" but was now that weird androgenous sign, e.g. "the artist formerly known as Prince." Using the same rhetorical flouriosh, one might describe the poor sods in Gitmo as "the detainees formerly known as POWs."
The legal argument didn't work too well for Prince. We'll see if it works better for the Bush regime.
Posted by Nils at 4/08/2005 10:54:00 AM
Stage vs. Reality in the GWOT
The fruit of the GWOT: global terrorism increases
"Yosemite Sam" Bolton
No Child Left Behind
Bush's legacy
More elevatoring pitching
"The smell of napalm in the morning" Dept.
Fisking Friedman
Ranking the Senate
The Arafat of Midland, Texas
It's personal...
Smoking gun on DeLay
Bush vindicated in Iraq?
Rove on the free press
The epistemology of Iraq
It's the sleaze, stupid
Ringing endorsement for Bolton
"'It reminded me of 'Lethal Weapon."
The "temporary" suspension of civil liberties in a...
Toward a Democratic majority
Of moral clarity and flip-floppery
Repealing the twentieth century
DeLay, Red Statesman
WSJ op-ed page lobbying for Hillary
Tighter...
Rudolph even more of a whackjob than previously un...
Noose tightening on DeLay
The Republican agenda: replacing progressive with ...
Estate Tax v. Insurance
What the Democrats should do right now
Noble lies and the vulgar masses
"Even a Broken Clock..." Dept.
Blowing cover
Cole on Sharon
Without DeLay
The desperation of the neocons
Super-black names
DeLay on the Offensive
Pope Futures
Misleading the American people
Bush's not apologizing, but actions speak louder t...
False dichotomy alert: Institution-building v. fos...
Friedman travels the four corners of the earth but...
"You Can't Make This Up" Dept.
Senate going 'nuclear' by end of month
JPII: rock on
Berger pleads guilty
More on Korematsu
Hero or victim?
The Captain Queeg of contemporary conservatism


Domestic stock markets started Thursday's session on a weak note, tracking cautious trade in Asian peers amid concerns about the US-China trade war. The Sensex fell as much as 140 points in early trade to hit 35,893, while the Nifty touched 10,749, down 43 points from the previous close. The markets were dragged lower by selling witnessed in energy and IT stocks. Analysts awaited macroeconomic data due later in the day for cues.
At 9:45 am, the Sensex traded down 54 points at 35,979, while the Nifty was at 10,771, down 22 points from the previous close. Top laggards on the 50-scrip benchmark index at the time included GAIL India, Indian Oil, Bharti Infratel, Coal India, Bharti Airtel , trading between 1.5 per cent and 2 per cent lower.
Shares in other Asian markets started in a cautious mood as investors hoped for progress in the latest China-US tariff talks while bracing for China trade data that are expected to show further falls in both exports and imports.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was all but flat, having just touched peaks last seen in early October. Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.3 per cent to its highest for the year so far as a weakening yen boosted export stocks. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent.
There was some hope another US government shutdown would be averted as President Donald Trump edged toward backing a deal in Congress on funding for a border barrier.
The government is due to release wholesale inflation data – based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) – later in the day. Official data earlier this week showed consumer inflation – measured by CPI or Consumer Price Index – eased further to the lowest level recorded since June 2017.


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Topic Infrastructure
SubTopic Grid computing
Cloud computing infrastructure
Exadata and Exalogic
Grid computing
Oracle on Linux
Oracle hardware decisions
Reasons to consider blockchain implementation
Photo story: 7 blockchain benefits
Best practices and rewards for blockchain developers
Blockchain as a service will spur CIOs to test waters
Implementation roadblocks: Security, data privacy, regulations
Forrester analyst: Press pause on blockchain implementation -- for now
Congress questions blockchain security, cybercrime
Experts shine a light on blockchain security issues
U.S. representative to fintech community: Educate Congress
Experts discuss privacy and digital identity on MIT panel
Where, how blockchain could be put into practice
Blockchain panel members discuss supply chain use cases
Fixing land title issues in Honduras
Legal field: Blockchain could virtually eliminate uncertainty in transactions
Lottery.com eyeing blockchain to expand business model
Financial services reaps blockchain benefits
IoT applications: Blockchain and smart machines
How blockchain could improve recruitment and other HR concerns
Key terms to know
multisig (multisignature)
peer-to-peer (P2P)
BACKGROUND IMAGE: stock.adobe.com
This content is part of the Essential Guide: Blockchain tutorial for CIOs
Contributor(s): Lindsay Moore
A distributed database is a database that consists of two or more files located in different sites either on the same network or on entirely different networks. Portions of the database are stored in multiple physical locations and processing is distributed among multiple database nodes.
A centralized distributed database management system (DDBMS) integrates data logically so it can be managed as if it were all stored in the same location. The DDBMS synchronizes all the data periodically and ensures that data updates and deletes performed at one location will be automatically reflected in the data stored elsewhere.
By contrast, a centralized database consists of a single database file located at one site using a single network.
Features of distributed databases
When in a collection, distributed databases are logically interrelated with each other, and they often represent a single logical database. With distributed databases, data is physically stored across multiple sites and independently managed. The processors on each site are connected by a network, and they don't have any multiprocessing configuration.
5 ways centralized databases differ from distributed databases
A common misconception is that a distributed database is a loosely connected file system. In reality, it's much more complicated than that. Distributed databases incorporate transaction processing, but are not synonymous with transaction processing systems.
In general, distributed databases include the following features:
Location independent
Distributed query processing
Distributed transaction management
Hardware independent
Operating system independent
Network independent
Transaction transparency
DBMS independent
Distributed database architecture
Distributed databases can be homogenous or heterogeneous.
In a homogenous distributed database system, all the physical locations have the same underlying hardware and run the same operating systems and database applications. Homogenous distributed database systems appear to the user as a single system, and they can be much easier to design and manage. For a distributed database system to be homogenous, the data structures at each location must be either identical or compatible. The database application used at each location must also be either identical or compatible.
Features of a distributed database
In a heterogeneous distributed database, the hardware, operating systems or database applications may be different at each location. Different sites may use different schemas and software, although a difference in schema can make query and transaction processing difficult.
Different nodes may have different hardware, software and data structure, or they may be in locations that are not compatible. Users at one location may be able to read data at another location but not upload or alter it. Heterogeneous distributed databases are often difficult to use, making them economically infeasible for many businesses.
Advantages of distributed databases
There are many advantages to using distributed databases.
Distributed databases are capable of modular development, meaning that systems can be expanded by adding new computers and local data to the new site and connecting them to the distributed system without interruption.
When failures occur in centralized databases, the system comes to a complete stop. When a component fails in distributed database systems, however, the system will continue to function at reduced performance until the error is fixed.
Admins can achieve lower communication costs for distributed database systems if the data is located close to where it is used the most. This is not possible in centralized systems.
Types of distributed databases
Replicated data is used to create instances of data in different parts of the database. By using replicated data, distributed databases can access identical data locally, thus avoiding traffic. Replicated data can be divided into two categories: read-only and writable data.
Read-only versions of replicated data allow revisions only to the first instance; subsequent enterprise data replications are then adjusted. Writable data can be altered, but the first instance is immediately changed.
Database replication ensures the data in distributed databases remains up to date
Horizontally fragmented data involves the use of primary keys that refer to one record in the database. Horizontal fragmentation is usually reserved for situations in which business locations only need to access the database pertaining to their specific branch.
Vertically fragmented data involves using copies of primary keys that are available within each section of the database and are accessible to each branch. Vertically fragmented data is utilized when the branch of a business and the central location interact with the same accounts in different ways.
Reorganized data is data that has been adjusted or altered for decision support databases. Reorganized data is typically used when two different systems are handling transactions and decision support. Decision support systems can be difficult to maintain and online transaction processing requires reconfiguration when many requests are being made.
Separate schema data partitions the database and the software used to access it in order to fit different departments and situations. There is usually an overlap between different databases within separate schema data.
Examples of distributed databases
Though there are many distributed databases to choose from, some examples of distributed databases include Apache Ignite, Apache Cassandra, Apache HBase, Couchbase Server, Amazon SimpleDB, Clusterpoint, and FoundationDB.
Apache Ignite specializes in storing and computing large volumes of data across clusters of nodes. In 2014, Ignite was open sourced by GridGain Systems and later accepted into the Apache Incubator program. Apache Ignite's database uses RAM as the default storage and processing tier.
Apache Cassandra offers support for clusters that span multiple locations, and it features its own query language, Cassandra Query Language (CQL). Additionally, Cassandra's replication strategies are configurable.
Apache HBase runs on top of the Hadoop Distributed File System and provides a fault-tolerant way to store large quantities of sparse data. It also features compression, in-memory operation and Bloom filters on a per-column basis. HBase is not intended as a replacement for SQL database, although Apache Phoenix provides a SQL layer for HBase.
Couchbase Server is a NoSQL software package that is ideal for interactive applications that serve multiple concurrent users by creating, storing, retrieving, aggregating, manipulating and presenting data. To support these many application needs, Couchbase Server provides scalable key value and JSON document access.
Amazon SimpleDB is used as a web service with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon S3. Amazon SimpleDB enables developers to request and store data with minimal database management and administrative responsibility.
Clusterpoint removes the complexity, scalability issues and performance limitations of relational database architectures. Data is managed in XLM or JSON format using open APIs. Because Clusterpoint is a schema-free document database, it removes the scalability problems and performance issues that most relational database architectures face.
FoundationDB is a multimodel database designed around a core database that exposes an ordered key valued store with each transaction. These transactions support ACID properties and are capable of reading and writing keys that are stored on any machine within the cluster. Additional features appear in layers around this core.
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Margaret Rouse - 8 Jun 2016 11:43 AM
Sgautam - 24 Feb 2017 1:46 AM
Thanks for providing this valuable information. It helps a lot regarding studies.


Posts: 4 - The ballot for the 2017 Cape Coral Municipal Election is filling up and candidate forums and meet-and-greets have begun.
Posts: 0 - Lee County TRIM (Truth in Millage) notice of proposed 2015 real estate property taxes are out.
Posts: 2 - Ok, now's your chance, pro or con, let's hear your thoughts regarding the UEP.
Posts: 0 - With the utility expansion project wrapping up in Southwest 6/7, what has been your experience?
Posts: 1 - With the News-Press seemingly dying this is another place for people to comment. Schools take the most of the tax dollar. It is time to keep them in check.
Posts: 1 - Let's see if we can get our forums back here at the Breeze.
is deile acting like a "sore loser" since the election?
Posts: 1 - Its starting to be a humorous ordeal, with the whinning letters,the former candidate/councilman has been spinning.he doesn't get it that we don't care.
What do you think of the General Election results?
Posts: 0 - The voters have spoken. What do you think the election results mean for the city of Cape Coral?
Posts: 0 - In the current climate of salary cuts within city government it has gone without fanfare that there are those in upper management positions who have actually just been blessed with a raise in pay.


text:
Gustavo Miguel Ángel Antoun (born November 11, 1957) is a retired Argentine footballer who played for clubs from Argentina and Chile.

External links

1957 births
Living people
Argentine footballers
Argentine expatriate footballers
Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers
Arsenal de Sarandí footballers
Racing de Córdoba footballers
Instituto footballers
San Luis de Quillota footballers
Expatriate footballers in Chile
Association football goalkeepers
People from Chubut Province


I've only been on the fringes of fandom for the last few years, so I haven't really kept up with what's going on with OTW, but the one thing I found myself thinking as everything imploded recently was that you could not pay me enough to be on the Board, let alone get me to do it for free. I didn't really have concise words for that gut feeling, but you've summed it up quite nicely with "fandom's idealisation-devaluation cycle." Either the praise is overflowing or the criticism is devastating, but there doesn't seem to be any middle ground, and public sentiment can turn on a dime, which (to me, at least) is a terrifying prospect.
Yeah, being on Board is a very tough thing, and has been for a long time. Average workload was at least 30 hours a week when I was doing it, and if you had a week's holiday, catching up was very hard, on top of a full-time day job. And it's emotionally draining. I made some great friends during my time with the OTW, but being in a leadership role there is not something I'd do again without significant change in the structure.
An average workload of that number of hours for a voluntary Board role rings giant alarm bells for me suggesting something needs to be amended in the structure of the org!
My - admittedly limited - current understanding is that the Board functions are an operational Board as well as having a strategic/advisory role?
Sounds like there;s be a pressing need to get some professional outside help to revisit the structure and separate out advisory from operational perhaps keeping the elected reps for the strategic/advisory Board and having the operational function more like committees?
Or could the operational work be delegated down to committees - which may mean resourcing up the committees so they can handle the workload!
But yeah - expecting people to handle 30+ hours a week is just not sustainable and now I see why so many people burn out so very fast regardless of what else may be going on!
Yes, the operational stuff is what makes it so big a job. A lot of that could now be delegated to committees gradually, but there was a long time when that wasn't possible because many of the committees were in a mess. One of the current board members mentioned the average is now nearer 10 hours a week, with 30+ on busy weeks, so it sounds like it is slowly improving.
There was a proposal for an advisory board back in 2011, revised and nearly approved in 2012 - I would love to see that dusted off and implemented. That would give a good place for the emerita board, founders and people like Orlando Jones and Cory Doctorow to network and advocate on behalf of the Org. Doing that alongside delegating more of the operational work to committees should get the board workload a bit closer to manageable. But several committees would then need another review, as some of those committee chair roles are also 30+ hours a week, though a lot better than they used to be.
Very interesting. I'd love to read your post on the AO3 servers as well, or anything else you have to say about the OTW board/finances.
+1 to this, I'd really like to read your insights into the servers/performance issues.
Hi! Good to hear from you again.
I've written 5 posts on the server set-up, a couple of them very long, and am waiting for them to go through approval by AD&T, Systems, Legal and Comms before they go live via the OTW website.
That sounds great, I'm very interested to read them when they come out!
+2! I'd love to hear anything you have to say about the Org, I'm desperate for information on the inside workings and if things are getting any better.
The minutes of 18th Oct have just gone up, and include authorisation for a new SSL certificate, which should have been covered by pre-authorised Systems budget, and MJ checking with Legal about opening a second bank account which is a good thing.
Point 2 of closed session on 25th Oct is interesting - Elections Chair previously contacted candidates as a group, and Elections Chair in the past has been a board member sometimes. So it would depend on what the proposed message was about, which we're not told. All water under the bridge now anyway, but useful to have clear precedent for the future.
Point 3 of that set of minutes is encouraging - hope we get to see it soon.
I wish some of those Closed discussions could have been had in Open session.
31st Oct again has several promising finance things, but point 7 looks dodgy. Did Andrea abstain? I know this has been done for other staffers before, but it needs a clear explanation when there's a conflict of interest like that.
Closed session of 22nd November is interesting - it used to be the first meeting after new members took office. Did all previous boards misunderstand the byelaws, or did this board misunderstand them? Having a new board member as Chair was generally avoided, but having someone new as Secretary was often useful.
29th November mentions the draft budget again, so at least they're still talking about it, but we still haven't seen anything. Interesting about the overlap having been removed last year - I hadn't spotted that, and I think it's a bad idea. Overlap is helpful for a smooth transition.
And they've stopped listing date of next meeting in the minutes, so we don't know when the next one is.
I can't remember if I saw that or not, but I think I may have. It's a lot of money! Way more than an individual could manage to come up with alone if they were going to do the archive as a personal project. Knowing those numbers is really interesting.
Oct 18: The new checking account is a really good thing, though I confess I don't understand what happens if we go over 250,000 in the same bank?
Points 1 & 3 about CCAP complaints and outside council seem ominous when viewed in hindsight.
October 25: decided not to do so on the grounds that it is unprecedented and might therefore be construed as an attempt to influence the election outcome.
Uh, yeah, that would not be appropriate action! What on earth would the outside council be talking to them about??
It's good to see that the budget looks to be almost done.
Point seven is interesting:: Voted to make M.J. MacRae an ex officio member of the Development & Membership committee as part of her duties as Treasurer. This position will end when her service as Treasurer concludes.
I wonder if the new board will allow the old board members to stay on with the Org in their non-board positions. I don't think they should be allowed to keep any positions at all. What do you think?
I wish all of it were in Open so we could have a better idea of what goes on. I know they can't discuss HR type things in the open, but basically all the new candidates said they shouldn't be handling staffer complaints and approvals anyway (it looks like that's half of what they do!), and that makes sense to me. Even if just the other Chairs could sit in on Closed meetings I think that would be better than no one seeing what they discuss/do. I realize that's a sad state of affairs to not trust people to do the job right, but that's where I am (and I think a lot of others) and perhaps we could have avoided this position if there had been more communication/oversight.
Oct 31: Good point - I don't trust that she abstained.
I'm glad they're looking into international donations - people outside the US deserve to get a vote, too.
Nov 22: WOW WOW WOW How can they be president/vice pres/treasurer/secretary if they aren't on the board anymore?!? The minutes say nothing about them resigning, did all the voting happen before or after they resigned?? Can Matty and LO undo those appointments? I don't even know what to say about that.
Your points about the Chair and Secretary are good ones, but I think this board is simply not making good choices.
Nov 29. Ok, they all resigned positions, I'm relieved. I guess all the voting happened before resigning - or someone told them in no uncertain terms that they couldn't continue on.
I agree about the overlap, it would seem to be extremely beneficial.
Yeah, I don't understand how a month ago we were basically ready to publish, but we still don't have it. But that should mean Matty and LO can get a budget out fairly quickly, which is very good.
Well, there is some suspect stuff, but mostly it seems to be business as usual. But with vague minutes it's hard to get a real sense of anything going awry until it's already gone awry. I don't understand why they purge the Open meeting transcripts - maybe Matty and LO will stop doing that. I wonder if "regular" non-profits publish their detailed meeting minutes?
If we go over that amount in one bank and the bank then folds, the money is not insured and we lose it. Under that amount, it's insured by the government. Banks folding are rare, but it's easy to fix and avoid.
I think letting the old board members stay on in some positions could be okay, depending on what those positions were. Particularly where transition is needed, losing someone too hastily with no handover can cause a lot of problems. A volunteer with a known history of ethical mistakes can be managed, with care. A gap in knowledge where a volunteer has left the org altogether is sometimes harder to fill. There are positions where the org could retain their knowledge while ensuring they don't have inappropriate decision-making power.
It's also worth bearing in mind that although they made some horrific mistakes recently, and so have others in the past, most ex-board members aren't evil people, just misguided, and so can learn in the future. The current and past board culture has caused a lot of otherwise good people to lose perspective and do horrible things, and I think it's good if we can help those people to recover and learn rather than abandoning them.
Purging Open transcripts used to be for space, though Legal are also keen on not having old stuff hanging around forever. They should be able to be kept a little longer. Closed is more of an issue and unlikely to change.
I've seen and signed up for svmadelyn's group a couple of months back, but haven't heard anything since. Has it actually started?
That's a good explanation on the bank thing, thanks!
"A volunteer with a known history of ethical mistakes can be managed, with care.... The current and past board culture has caused a lot of otherwise good people to lose perspective and do horrible things, and I think it's good if we can help those people to recover and learn rather than abandoning them."
That's probably a very fair, professional reaction, the exact opposite of my reaction, and probably the same for many others! I think it would be reasonable to try it, at least on a probationary timeline. I don't think we the public have heard if they're still working in their other roles?
I'm glad you signed up. I haven't heard anything either, sadly. I was hoping it was all going on behind the scenes and we just hadn't heard about it yet! There isn't anything I can see on her Tumblr or LJ about postponing it or anything.... I hope it gets made and doesn't get forgotten about.
I'm sorry about the delayed reply, December and January were super busy!
Lists of volunteers aren't public. Lists of staff (unpaid, but on committees) aren't totally public, but all volunteers can see them at http://wiki.transformativeworks.org/mediawiki/Staff_Roster. None of the 6 people who were on the Board in 2015 appear there any more, in any role. So if they're still doing anything, it's with relatively minimal power and publicity.
I've looked at some of the new minutes, and it's looking promising, yeah. It's still not perfect - a lot of the work they're doing is discussing with committees via email or in those committees' rooms, which means it doesn't show in the minutes. But it's a lot better, and they're more approachable.
I think the number of guests has probably increased now that people have more hope of being listened to and having information in Open rather than Closed Session, but I suspect there were also a fair few meetings where guest names weren't recorded. The transcript of Open Session has always been visible to all volunteers.
Thanks for that link on Tumblr - I hadn't seen all the further discussion on it.
Let me know how the podcast goes - I tend to have trouble listening to them, but would be interested to see a transcript or summary write-up.
No worries on the delay - I know how things get. And it's a good reminder for me to write a fresh post.
"None of the 6 people who were on the Board in 2015 appear there any more, in any role. So if they're still doing anything, it's with relatively minimal power and publicity."
Ahh, interesting. I wonder what went down there, though we'll probably never know.
"But it's a lot better, and they're more approachable."
I agree, and that makes me happy.
I didn't know the transcripts were available to all volunteers, that's interesting.
I'm glad you enjoyed the tumblr post!
I asked and the podcast said they have no plans to transcribe it (they typically don't). They put out a tweet asking if anyone else would be interested in transcribing it, I don't know if anyone is. I'll let you know if one does pop up. It was an interesting conversation.
Thanks for this - makes for interesting reading.
The 990's seem to be up there now - the 2014 one certainly is.
Financially I think there are a couple of routes to addressing people's concerns.
a) Make the finance/account stuff easily findable on the OTW website. Don't expect people to know to look in the annual report - maybe have an easily locatable tab e.g. How we spend your money/donations? With a clear and short narrative story about where the money goes.
c) Scanning the accounts for 2013/14 there's nothing in them that makes me clutch my pearls and think about some of the more serious allegations I've seen bandied around. Sure the travel increased in 2014 but I understand there was a 3 day planning/face to face meeting and for a worldwide org getting people together face to face is going to cost a bit!
d) A simple narrative explaining some of those expenses could help reassure the more concerned elements of the membership - plus a willingness to be open and accountable about how money is being spent and some footnotes to explain what some items are. I mean I can guess what Systems Expenses are - but having a note to explain in a bit more detail what's covered would be good.
a) the lack of an annual budget and a 3-5 year financial plan (which should be reviewed annually when the budget planning is done). This is something I think is worth bringing in outside paid for help to get in place ASAP. I can't see any reason why both the budget and the financial plan shouldn't be available for members to see - it's not like these are trade secrets - there's no competitor waiting to steal the info and if publishing that reassure the membership then why not?
b) Where's the external validation of the accounts? Who audits them? If they're not audited, why not? Again - it's another worthwhile route to reassuring members that there's nothing shady going on. Memberships and donations are critical to the sustainability of the OTW and it seems short-sighted to me not to take every possible step to make sure members feel that their money is being responsibly dealt with and invested/spent.
c) Is it true there's no internal finance/audit committee - if not why not? I'm unsure of why there seems to have been a decision to do away with it and make the Treasurer (and Board?) responsible? Would having a proper finance/audit committee relieve some pressure on the board so they can focus on strategy but still have oversight of spending? Are there sensible policies in place for committees to spend to threshold (dependent on committee chair approval),with expenses above a certain amount needing finance/audit committee sign off and significant expenses needing both finance/audit committee sign off and Board sign off? (Sorry if all these answers are obvious somewhere on the website but it seems really weird to me not to have an internal finance/audit committee - because those are a particular and very specific set of skills that some people excel at and which a Board should not get bogged down trying to do)!
e) I really think Sanders idea of publishing a quarterly P&L account or even an summary P&L quarterly account is excellent and again would do wonders for reassuring members.
This is just a quick set of thoughts but happy to go away over the weekend and take a more considered look!
Excellent, looks like 2008 is still missing but someone's put the other 990s up.
Reading 2014 990, interestingly, the code contractor in 2014 was less than 2k. I'm glad they're now putting more cash into code. And the servers are evaluated at over 100k, though they've just done purchase price without depreciation, which looks odd.
I'm sure the board will want that advice on explaining the financials once they take office.
There's no reason not to publish a budget as soon as it's agreed and approved. People understandably hesitated to publish a draft that some people still disagreed with, but that should be quick to solve.
They weren't audited in the first few years because we were too small and it wasn't worth the cost. Auditing should have started several years ago, and needs to be done as soon as the board can organise it.
There used to be an internal finance committee. It got disbanded, mainly because the chair struggled to delegate so no-one was doing anything, and no other protests had worked. I think it should be set up again as soon as possible. As you say, it would relieve the board of the details, and one or two board members could sit on it, and report to the rest of the board.
Edited: There used to be policies in place for committees to spend up to a certain limit, Treasurer to approve small amounts, and larger amounts need Board as well as Treasurer. The exact figures are on the internal wiki which all volunteers (of which I am currently not one) have access to. Apparently that policy is no longer followed.
Definitely getting the cash out of paypal and into the back account should be very quick and easy, and is much safer. Where it goes next is complex but much less urgent.
I know there have been vicious fights over "But in my country, you could put it in an account with ___% interest!" and OTW not being able to have non-US bank accounts for all kinds of reasons. Money is both confusing and contentious!
Yeah, there are lots of options in different countries and for individuals that aren't open to the Org, which is frustrating.
Would you recommend a paid staff Accountant who could deal with the normal checking with more continuity than a Treasurer?
Paid staff is more complex than paid contractor, so I'd recommend starting with a contractor for specific jobs rather than a full-time employee, until we've got things set up better.
OTW Treasurers have actually had pretty good continuity for an OTW role - 3 in 8 years until this recent mess. That's better than any other role in the Org apart from Journal editor, I think. And two of them were pretty well qualified for the job, one with a day job as a CPA.
I think the normal checking is less of an issue, it's more having someone on call to review and to advise on the complex stuff. So get an auditor first, to do the annual audit before the annual report, and then an accountant to help advise, while building up a group of internal people who can help review things - the key thing is having three or four people double-checking different aspects, and a board who review the right stuff. Replacing a single point of failure volunteer Treasurer with a single point of failure paid Accountant is not actually that much of an improvement.
So I think it will eventually be a good idea, as the org grows, but the way you've worded it wouldn't be my first priority.


Giumarra announces the addition of organics to its 2018 Vidalia® onion crop.
Giumarra's wholesale operation announces a new organic vegetable offering.
The Giumarra Companies is pleased to announce its sublicense agreement with Homegrown Organic Farms to grow and distribute organic DulceVida stone fruit.


text:
package org.jbehave.example.spring.security.util;

import java.util.Date;

public abstract class DateUtils {

    public static long getElapsedDays(Date earlyDate, Date laterDate) {
        long durationMillis = laterDate.getTime() - earlyDate.getTime();
        return durationMillis / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Mavericks Finder spins when opening folders Since upgrading to Mavericks, Finder sometimes hangs when I select a folder and am waiting for its contents to populate the window. This happens primarily in Open dialog boxes:

It'll spin for about 15-30 seconds before showing the items in that folder. I can "Go to folder" and it'll usually show the contents immediately in that case. Why does it spin, and is there a way to make it faster? (It should be instant. I don't go to folders with thousands or even hundreds of items.)
Clarifications: These are just regular, local folders, usually in my home directory... not Remote Disc or network shares or anything fancy. It's an early 2013 Retina MBP, so it has a solid-state drive.

A: I don't understand all the specific technical details, but this is apparently caused by ISPs that perform NXDOMAIN interception. Following that forum post, try running this in Terminal:
ping Backups.backupdb

If you don't get the following response:
ping: cannot resolve Backups.backupdb: Unknown host

...then your ISP is performing NXDOMAIN interception, which is causing the delay.
The procedure to disable the interception depends on your particular ISP. For instance, if you're using OpenDNS (which does interception by default), you can disable it in your account settings.

I was having this exact same problem on my machine, and I was using OpenDNS (but without an account, so I couldn't change the setting). I simply switched back to my ISP's (AT&T) default DNS – which apparently doesn't do interception, since I got the "correct" ping response above – and the problem immediately went away.
(I take no credit personally for this solution; I'm merely reporting it here for everyone else's benefit. It seems to be a very common issue with Mavericks).

A: Note: though answer has now completely changed, this is just a late edit. I hope someone will benefit from this anyway.
Found a workaround which actually works, finally, from OSXDaily. To summarize, disabling network share automounting does the trick (at least for my few macs I've got Mavericks installed).
To disable network share automounting, open up Terminal.app and type in the following commands.
macbook:~$ sudo sh -c "cp /etc/auto_master /etc/auto_master.OLD && perl -i -pe 's/(^\/net)/#\$1/' /etc/auto_master && automount -vc"

What this does (for those less knowledge with command line, Bourne Shell and such) is that it first makes a backup copy of file /etc/auto_master, then edits one line of it and finally signals automounter to re-read /etc/auto_master.
After this you will have to manually mount your network shares. More information in original OSXDaily article.

A: Your snapshot shows that the asynchronous progress indicator (throbber) is the portion of the sidebar to draw:

*

*Connected servers

*Bonjour discoverable services

*Back to My Mac

You should be able to focus on the networking and isolate whether this is truly the action that is delaying your work or just an innocent bystander being the next thing to be drawn when the system is otherwise paused and delayed.
To troubleshoot this I would do the following:

*

*Run sysdiagnose from terminal if I can reproduce the issue and see if I could catch a process using CPU or otherwise behaving different than an sysdiagnose when the system is otherwise idle. Skip this step if you don't like looking at system logs and going into terminal. This step may be valuable if you want to report this as a bug - the system shouldn't hang in my opinion to paint network services and should unblock the operation and show network devices later should that be slow.

*Turn off all three items above in Finder preferences for the Sidebar.

*Sign out of Back to my Mac

*Disconnect from the network

Since there are several items this could be - hopefully you can narrow things down or comment if I missed a step or more information on the problem comes to light. Also, be sure you don't have any tools like Little Snitch or Network Link Conditioner as they would clearly exacerbate the rendering of the network sharing portion of the sidebar if misconfigured.

A: Is it on every drive you have? Because if it is the same bahviour on different hardware? (Behavioural difference between a USB thumb drive and internal disk)
Is the "ls" command equally slow in terminal or instant? (try terminal and cd and drag an example folder into terminal and hit enter. Then type "ls" to see how long it takes to list the folders contents.)

*

*This could also be due to HFS+ corruption (run disk utility "verify disk" (not the permissions) and see if your (I guess your start up volume is affected) has issues. As it probably will, boot from recovery (hold down cmd+R on boot) and try to repair the disk with disk utility from there.

*Last but not least have you tried setting up a new user account and trying to reproduce it in a new user account?

Sorry for the many questions but I'm not (hopefully yet) allowed to comment on questions.

A: Just seen this post on Tuaw.com how-to-fixing-the-filestatsagent-bug by
Erica Sadun
Quote from tuaw.com post:

At times, your system may seem to be spinning its wheels. A peek into
  Activity Monitor (found in the Utilities subfolder of your
  Applications folder) can offer clues as to what's going on....
..As I discovered, some Mavericks users may find a FileStatsAgent
  process has been eating away at their CPU. If this happens to you,
  it's generally due to a corrupt file.

They then go on to explain about using the open files and ports option in Activity Monitor on the process to see which files may be causing the problem.
This may or may not be your problem..

A: There are a number of Apple Support Communities discussions regarding this, and a number of possible fixes given. To summarise in case one works for you:

*

*Disable Finder App Nap
This seems to fix it for almost everyone on ASC who had Finder working fine in 10.8 but now is 'broken' in 10.9.
sudo defaults write com.apple.Finder NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES

…then log out and back in with 'Reopen windows when logging back in' disabled.

*Clear Finder Caches
Empty ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.finder and restart Finder.
rm -r ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.finder/ && killall -HUP Finder

*Reset Finder Preferences
Related to above — delete both preference files used by Finder:
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple/sidebarlists.plist

*Reindex Spotlight
sudo mdutil -E /

*Change the 'Show Scroll Bars' setting
It seems that it can be fixed by changing the scroll bar setting in System Preferences → General from When Scrolling to Always.

*Repair Permissions
Try repairing permissions in Disk Utility.

A: I've been having the same problem for a few weeks, trying every suggestion listed here and other forums but without success.... until tonight!
TL;DR: Run these 2 commands then reboot.
mv ${TMPDIR}/com.apple.IconServices{,-bad}
mv ${TMPDIR}/../C/com.apple.IconServices{,-bad}

Long Version:
The problem did not happen when I tried a newly created user account so it pointed to something with my profile.  I removed all the Preferences and Caches from my Library folder but the problem remained.
After examining the system logs, I noticed the following 2 errors would often appear when viewing a folder in the Finder.
12/16/14 12:24:29.908 AM com.apple.IconServicesAgent[244]: main Failed to composit image for binding VariantBinding [0x2af] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x3bf] - extension: mov, UTI: com.apple.quicktime-movie, fileType: ????.
12/16/14 12:24:29.908 AM quicklookd[8215]: Warning: Cache image returned by the server has size range covering all valid image sizes. Binding: VariantBinding [0xa03] flags: 0x8 binding: FileInfoBinding [0x903] - extension: mov, UTI: com.apple.quicktime-movie, fileType: ???? request size:16 scale: 1

These are related to creating/loading icons for different file types.  The Finder is hanging while attempting to draw the icons for the file listing so it made sense that it would lag if there were problems with the cache.
Since the IconServicesAgent isn't an application the user interacts with, the cache/prefs are not saved in the typical ~/Library/ folder but in a special hidden location used for OS-level apps and daemons.  Every user has a Cache and Temp folder in this location at /var/folders/.  We just need to locate and rename the IconServicesAgent's files.
When a user account is created, the system generates a folder here for the user but named with 32 seemingly random characters.  Since they are random, I can't give you an exact path but the TMPDIR environment variable can.  (If you want to know, run the command echo $TMPDIR to get the path to your own Temp folder.  It will be something like /var/folders/jc/vzc51tfn2jzbzqkr9j3g38gm0000gn/T/ but we don't really need it.  The commands below will just use the variable directly)
Now rename the com.apple.IconServices folder in the T [temp] directory with this command.
mv ${TMPDIR}/com.apple.IconServices{,-bad}

Next we need to do the same in the Cache directory, which is in the same parent directory as the T directory.  This command will do what you need.
mv ${TMPDIR}/../C/com.apple.IconServices{,-bad}

So now reboot your Mac and after you log back in, the Finder should be quick again.

A: I sometimes have a similar problem: Finder is completely unresponsive, i.e., all Finder windows are frozen, and they all show the spinning beach ball.
In that case, for me the only thing that helped was to open Activity Monitor, and kill Finder (i.e., relaunch) it a number of times. Sometimes, I had to relaunch it up to 5 times.
(So far I haven't been able to pinpoint the culprit. I did not have any network disks mounted.)

A: This happened to me in Yosemite. Some folders had their contents displayed just fine, others got the spin wheel. All folders in question were local folders, and their contents displayed fine with ls in the terminal.
What my problem seemed to be related to was having a network share connected prior to closing the lid on my laptop, then opening my laptop and connecting to a different network where that share was not available. The share was still shown in the left panel of the Finder window, but was not showing any contents. In the terminal mount still showed the share as mounted. With both Finder and the terminal open, I typed umount /Volumes/USBSTORAGE in the terminal. As soon as I did that, the Finder window became responsive and immediately listed the contents of the local directory that was selected.
It seems there's some code in Finder that gets blocked when dealing with remote storage that also blocks some local file operations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
An album is defined by Recorded Music New Zealand (RMNZ) as being a type of music release comprising at least five songs or a total playing time of over 25 minutes. Currently, Platinum certifications denote the shipment of 15,000 copies. When RMNZ (then known as the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand) introduced certifications in 1978, to reach Platinum status an album had to ship 20,000 copies. This was reduced to its current level in 1992.

The best-selling albums in New Zealand, as judged by certifications, are ABBA's greatest hits album, The Best of ABBA (1975) and Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (1985); both have been certified 24-times Platinum. ABBA's album ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits (1992) is also one of New Zealand's best-selling albums. Pink Floyd and Ed Sheeran are the only other artists with two entries on the list. Hayley Westenra is the only artist of New Zealand origin with an album on this list.

Best-selling albums

Notes

References

New Zealand


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Hart et Papineau (Minutes du patrimoine)
Apprenez-en davantage sur l'évolution de la démocratie au Canada.
Les élèves pourront approfondir leurs connaissances sur les problèmes qu'ont pu et que peuvent encore rencontrer les différentes communautés ethniques et culturelles du Canada.
Les élèves seront invités à analyser la Minute Hart et Papineau sous différents angles.
Ils seront amenés à comprendre l'évolution de la démocratie au Canada.
Les élèves seront invités à se pencher sur le sort qu'on connu les différentes...
Jennie Trout
This lesson is based on viewing the Jennie Trout Heritage Minute. It explores Trout's courage and determination to enter the male dominated field of medicine in the 1870s. She became the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
Students will use the example of Jennie Trout to learn about and question gender-role stereotypes in her time and in the present. Students will examine the experiences of Jennie Trout and Emily Stowe within the larger context of the history...
Using the Minutes to Think Critically
The Heritage Minutes illustrate the possibilities of story-telling. This critical thinking exercise will help guide you through the deconstruction of four Heritage Minutes: Peacemaker, Vikings, John Cabot, and Jacques Cartier. The activities can be easily adapted to any of the Heritage Minutes you want to use in your classroom.
An invaluable skill for any student is the ability to critically examine available historical evidence and develop an awareness of its possibilities, as...
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Orphans," that tells the story of the Québec families who adopted Irish orphans in the 1850's.
Students will learn more about the experiences and histories of immigrants in Canada by interviewing people in the community and classmates. They will also discuss ways to make immigrants feel welcome in their new homes.
Students will research the history of various immigrant groups in Canada, and discuss the relationship between...
Joseph Casavant
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Joseph Casavant." From the first organ that he built in 1840, Joseph Casavant established himself – and his Company, Casavant Frères – as one of the leading pipe organ builders in Canada.
Students will study the kinds of music that are important to different generations, cultures, and religious groups. They will also consider the role and history of various handmade crafts.
Using the "Casavant" Minute as the starting point,...
Hart & Papineau
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Hart & Papineau." Under the tenure of Louis-Joseph Papineau, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada passed a bill in 1832 that ultimately guaranteed full rights to people practicing the Jewish faith. It was the first of the British colonies to do so.
After discussing and making sense of the events that take place in the "Hart and Papineau" Minute, students will watch additional related Heritage Minutes to develop their...
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Vikings." Five hundred years before Columbus set foot on the islands of the Caribbean, Norse settlers were living in what is now a part of Canada. Proof of this Viking settlement was discovered in 1961.
Students will hone their critical thinking skills by discussing how the Vikings and the First Nations are portrayed in the "Viking" Heritage Minute. Students will do further research about the Norse to increase their depth...
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Underground Railroad." Between 1840 and 1860, thousands of American slaves fled to Canada using the organized secret network of people and safe houses called the "Underground Railroad."
After careful examination of the "Underground Railroad" Heritage Minute, students will examine the broader theme of refugees. They will discuss Canada's role in providing refuge, and research the history and experiences of refugees from...
This lesson is based on viewing the Peacemaker Heritage Minute. Centuries ago, the five Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Nations created the Iroquois Confederacy that bound these nations together in peace and unity. The origins of this Confederacy are explained in the legend of the Tree of Great Peace.
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This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Basketball." Canadian teacher, Dr. James Naismith, invented Basketball over 100 years ago when he hung a peach basket on a gym wall.
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This lesson is based on viewing the Bluenose Heritage Minute, which portrays the champion Bluenose schooner racing against an American ship in the 1938 race.
Students will discuss the significance of the Bluenose as a recognizable Canadian symbol, and they will research the history of the Atlantic cod fishery.
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This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Emily Murphy," which recounts how Murphy challenged the laws and secured the rights of women as persons throughout the Commonwealth.
Students will consider the contributions that individuals can make to society, and generate a list of people who should be recognized for their contributions. After learning that, historically, women were not recognized for their contributions, students will write biographies for women they...
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Students will research changes in sports to understand historical change, and they will research and write biographies of their favourite sports stars.
Students will write sports stories; think critically about the idolization of sports stars; and analyze the...
Inukshuk
This lesson is based on viewing the Inukshuk Heritage Minute, which depicts an RCMP officer watching a group of Inuit build an Inukshuk in the year 1931.
Students will learn about the "traditional" Inuit way of life and cultural expression.
These activities are intended to give students an appreciation and understanding of the Inuit culture and "traditional" way of life, as well as an understanding of how new technologies might alter Inuit culture.
1. Looking at the...
This lesson is based on viewing the Heritage Minute, "Winnie," which recounts the true story of the Canadian soldier's bear that became the inspiration for writer A.A. Milne.
Students will discuss the cultural importance of meaningful symbols by looking at how animals are personified and anthropomorphized in literature and popular culture.
Secondary students can often learn a great deal about common literary themes and devices through exploring childrens' stories. These...
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Last month, we have released an update of Spot – our mobile app for finding an available workspace. We are very proud to share the key improvements.
We improved the home screen design with building selection that shows you how quiet or how lively it is. Next to that, some details on the building are shown, amongst which how many neighbourhoods and workspaces are available.
We added different ways to find an available workspace. Spot still defaults to recommend you zones based on how many workspaces are available now and in the next few hours, but you can also browse by floor or view the current occupancy for each neighbourhood.
Besides showing how many workspaces are available right now and in the next hours, Spot also shows an hourly graph with the occupancy trend. This way, you can make a better-informed decision on where and when to work. The trends graph uses real-time occupancy data together with algorithmic predictions based on historical occupancy. Bonus: Spot also shows when a neighbourhood or floor is more busy or quiet than usual!
We've also optimised the login and install experience on iOS and Android. Besides these improvements, Spot contains all of the features you already know, such as the ability to hide specific neighbourhoods, floors or towers, so you only get recommendations for neighbourhoods that you prefer to work at.


Our theme this Advent season is God's light, specifically revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world" and in Him, the apostle John declares, was life and that life was the light of man. The Psalms reveal and proclaim God's light through His gracious presence with His people, as they looked forward to Christ's coming into the world at Advent. Thus as we study the Psalms this Advent season, we are focusing on how God's light reflects the hope, peace, joy, love, and ultimately the victory we have in Christ, who comes to fulfill the promises of the Psalms; and as the Light of the world He shines the light of salvation into our hearts.
This morning, on the third Sunday of Advent, our focus is on the light of joy. Our text today is Psalm 126; and like last week's Psalm, Psalm 85, the word light is not found in the passage but the joy that God's light reflects and provides for His people is. The light of God's presence with us, specifically revealed in the coming of Christ, provides us with the light of joy. Psalm 126 celebrates this light of joy in a song of joy that God gives to His people. So please follow along as I read Psalm 126: When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.
You may have noticed in your Bible that this Psalm is labeled a "song of ascents." It's one of the 15 Psalms designated this way, starting with Psalm 120 and going through Psalm 134. This series of Psalms refer to songs of worship used by pilgrims making their ascent or journey up to the temple in Jerusalem, reflecting and expressing their love for God and their experiences of His grace, goodness and faithfulness in their lives. Psalm 126 begins with an expression of dream-like gratitude for God delivering His people from captivity and bringing them a joy that is almost unbelievable or inexpressible; and it continues by praying that this joy be renewed and continued in their lives.
We all want joy, don't we? The joy that the Psalmist sings about is not designed to be temporary; it's not to be confused with happiness or someone's temperament or personality. No, this is the joy of the Lord that is grounded in God's presence with us, and our experience of His grace in our lives. It's a song about being freed from the captivity of sin and the consequences of sin that leads to sorrow and frustration and unhappiness in one's life. This is a place where God's people often found themselves in the Old Testament. You might be there, or have been there too, because of choices or circumstances that blind you to this joy of the Lord, or hide it from you sight. The darkness of sin gets in the way of our joy. This Psalm is about you seeing the light of God's joy once again; and staying in this light as you live the Christian life.
So the first main point to consider is this: We praise God for our song of joy. This is what we see in the first three verses of the Psalm. Our song of joy is a song that God gives to us. It's not a song that you make up on your own or get from your own efforts, but it's one that God gives us to sing. The Psalmist calls us to remember how God has given you joy in the past.
He says, "When the Lord brought back the captives from Zion" – when God rescued us and saved us from our enemies, due to our sin – "we were like those who dreamed. And our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of joy." God's people are reflecting upon and re-living the joy of their redemption. When life gets hard or difficult we must remember the work of God's gracious salvation in our lives and we rejoice in Him. Has anything ever happened in your life when you said to yourself: "I don't believe this; it's like a dream." It doesn't seem real because you didn't expect it. This is the wonder of our salvation, and it's when we remember the unexpected and undeserving nature of God's grace in freeing us from the captivity of our sin that we too will sing with joy.
What a beautiful picture of this song of joy that we have been given in Christ. In the New Testament Peter refers to this joy of being ransomed and redeemed by Christ as "joy inexpressible and glorious" because we are receiving the goal of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls. And so like the Psalmist, our song of joy comes from remembering our salvation and looking forward to the goal of our faith, which is Christ. And so it's from this redemptive perspective that we are able to see that this light of joy is what produces a song of joy in our hearts. And then third, this testimony to our song of joy bears witness to those around us. The end of verse 2 and then verse 3 proclaim this great truth about the joy of God's redemptive work: "Then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." One significant thing about true Christian joy is that it's contagious. People see it in our attitudes and actions, as did the nations surrounding Israel.
The nations saw what God did for Israel, and it wasn't what they deserved, and so they marveled at God's grace, and at the way God's people responded to it in joy. How we respond to the work of God in our lives testifies to unbelievers around us regarding our faith, thus we want to sing our song of joy in all situations, not just when life is good, but when we face difficult trials and circumstances as well. This then leads to a second main point, which we see in verse 4: we pray for God to restore our joy. "Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the streams in the Negev." The first section of the Psalm calls us to remember how God has given us joy in the past, but what about now in the present? Living in the joy of the Lord requires more than just a nostalgic look back at how great it was when God saved us; we need the light of this great truth to restore our song of joy in the present. Negev is a dry desert land that needs water to bring things back to life. The imagery that the Psalmist paints is one of a pilgrim or a person who needs to trust God to refresh and revive their joy in the present.
It's a prayer that will shake us out of complacency, as well as our fears and anxieties, when we are not living in the joy of our salvation. We have a song of joy but sometimes we are not singing it. We need to reclaim our song of joy through prayer, thus first confess our need for joy in the badlands of life. Badlands are those times in our lives when we feel like we are in the wilderness or in a spiritual desert due to trials or tribulations, and we need God to renew our joy. This is what the prayer of the Psalmist is about, and like the Psalmist, we offer it to God on the basis of what God has already given to us: our song of joy. It's a new song, in the sense we need it refreshed in our current circumstances, but it's based upon an old truth of God's redemption; and so we pray for God to restore this joy to us in our present situation.
This is reminiscent of what Isaiah says about the joy of the redeemed at the coming of Christ in Isaiah 35: "The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. It will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. Say to those with fearful hearts: 'Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will come with vengeance and retribution and save you.' Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert." We see the imagery of renewal and refreshment for God's people when the light of God's redemption shines upon them. This promise of our song of joy being restored is ours in Christ, because we know this second point: the streams of joy are provided by the living water of God's grace.
This is what the Psalmist is praying for in verse 4; and it will be answered on the basis of God's grace, thus like the Psalmist we look to God to restore our joy; and as Christians the streams of joy are provided to us in Christ, who described our joy, in John chapter 7, as streams of living water that well up inside us because of the Holy Spirit. The trials and tribulations of the Christian life, which at times seem like the desert of Negev, are designed to develop us and to enhance our joy. And so we read in verses 5 & 6: "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him." Thus we see a third point: the maturity of joy is what brings spiritual growth in our lives. The light of God's grace and goodness is at work within us.
This imagery of a farmer going forth to sow and eventually returning with a harvest is teaching us the principle of hardship and sorrow leading to great joy and spiritual growth.
Both the Old and New Testaments teach us this truth about God using trials to mature us and to grow our joy in Him. It's been said that you can trust God with your tears, for as Spurgeon said: "God is too good to be unkind and He is to wise to be mistaken. And when you cannot trace His hand, you must trust His heart." So when we walk through times of trials and sorrows we remember what God has done for us in the past and trust that He will do it again. This imagery gives us a third and final point to see from the Psalm: we persevere in God's promise of joy. As we pray for God to restore our joy and seek to grow in His joy, we must continue to commit ourselves to God's promise of joy for our future as His people.
God does not give up on us, even when we so often forget the benefits of His grace; and He hears our prayers even when we get stuck in the desert storms of life. God calls us to persevere in the hope that Psalms like this one bring to us in times of trouble. They shed the light of God's steadfast promises to deliver us from our troubles, and teach us to persevere and continue to trust in God's promises so as to sing our song of joy. In these last two verses we learn first the patience necessary in order to harvest joy. The imagery of sowing or planting teaches us the importance of waiting; and in this case patiently waiting upon God to act in times of tears and sorrow. We don't give up, but we persevere in God's promises to us. There is a time for sorrow and a time for joy; and our patience is a result of God's promises to us.
The joy of Advent is God's answer to the perseverance of His Old Testament saints; and for us too as Christians, the coming of Christ to be the light of the world continues to be our basis for receiving the joy of the Lord as well. The second point to see is the work required in order to harvest joy.
Like the Psalmist we know that the harvest of joy is coming, thus we continue to wait patiently but also work diligently in serving God and doing the things He has called us to do. For we see third, the return received from harvesting joy. God promises a return or a spiritual profit when we persevere in the promises of joy. The Psalmist will reap the sheaves or the blessings of joy by his perseverance in the promises of God. The great harvest to come was in the first Advent of Christ, in which Jesus gives His people a new song of joy that comes through faith in Him and in His finished work of salvation for us. This new song of joy is based on the same light of God's redemption and deliverance from sin that moved the Psalmist to sing it; and that continues to move us to sing for joy as we await Christ's final Advent.
The light of God's presence with us today through Christ our Savior reminds us of our joy and the experiences of joy we can have and will have in this present life as Christians. But one day we will keep on singing our song of joy with no interruptions, not only with a joy inexpressible and glorious, but with a joy unending, because we will see the light of God's presence face to face in Christ our Savior.