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Abu-l-Fadl al-Abbàs al-Mustaín bi-L·lah ——, més conegut simplement pel seu làqab com a al-Mustaín (vers 1391-1430), fou califa abbàssida del Caire (1406-1412), sota la tutela dels mamelucs d'Egipte, i soldà d'Egipte (1412). Era fill d'al-Mutawàkkil I i de la concubina turca Bay Khatun.

Al-Mustaín bi-llah va succeir com a califa el seu pare al-Mutawàkkil I després del tercer regnat d'aquest el 22 de gener de 1406 sota la tutela del sultà Fàraj.

El 1412 el sultà Fàraj, acompanyat del califa, va marxar a Síria per combatre els amirs revoltats, especialment Xaykh al-Muhammudí, el governador d'Alep primer el seu aliat i que després es va posar al capdavant de la revolta, i Nàwruz al-Hafidhí, governador de Trípoli del Líban. El sultà va arribar a Gaza per passar-hi uns dies i en l'aturada una part de les seves tropes es van passar a l'enemic. Fàraj fou derrotat pels rebels a la batalla de Ladjdjun (25 d'abril de 1412) i va fugir a Damasc on es va preparar per un llarg setge. El califa al-Mustaín fou fet presoner i pressionat pels rebels per declarar la deposició de Fàraj; Shaykh, Nawruz i Baktamur Djillik (un mameluc que s'havia passat als rebels a l'inici de la campanya) es disputaven el sultanat, i sota consell del secretari reial Fat·h-ad-Din Fat·h-Al·lah, es va convindre en que calia nomenar un sultà ràpidament, i el jove fill de Fàraj, Fat·h-Al·lah, que també havia caigut presoner, va aconsellar nomenar sultà al califa i així li van oferir el títol de sultà a aquest.

El 7 de maig de 1412 va acceptar per força amb la condició de conservar el títol de califa en cas de ser deposat com a sultà. Fàraj es va rendir a Damasc i fou capturat i condemnat a mort per una comissió de juristes amb el mateix al-Mustaín al capdavant, sent executat a Damasc el 28 de maig i llavors fou proclamat al-Mustaín com a sultà. Els caps rebels es van repartir el país: Nawruz es va quedar amb Síria, i els altres dos co-governarien, amb al-Mustaín de titular nominal, a Egipte. Shaykh i Baktamur van anar al Caire amb al-Mustaín com a sultà i califa i aquest es va instal·lar a la ciutadella la residència dels sultans (12 de juliol) demostrant que es prenia seriosament el càrrec (doncs no es va pas instal·lar al palau dels califes sinó a la ciutadella dels sultans).

Shaykh al-Mahammudi (investit el 19 de juliol com a gran amir amb plens poders) va agafar el títol de Nizam al-Mulk i va fer tot el possible per fer impopular al sultà-califa, que de fet fou un presoner polític. Baktamur Djillik fou assassinat el 15 de setembre, i finalment al cap de menys de set mesos el sultà-califa va ser deposat (6 de novembre) i Shaykh va agafar el títol de sultà com a al-Muàyyad Abu an-Nàssir Xaykh. Al-Mustaín fou retornat al palau dels califes i en una data que probablement fou el 9 de març del 1414, fou deposat i substituït pel seu germà petit Abu al-Fath Dàwud al-Mútadid II.

Fou desterrat a Alexandria el 29 de gener de 1417 i allí va morir de pesta el febrer/març del 1430 amb menys de 40 anys.

Califes abbàssides del Caire
Soldans mamelucs
Persones del Caire
Morts a Alexandria
Polítics egipcis
Polítics asiàtics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Cleethorpes becomes 'eerie ghost town' as people stay at home amid coronavirus crisis
Boris Johnson said people throughout the country should start working from home where possible and avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other social venues
Paige FreshwaterDigital Content Writer
Assistant general manager at Tale of Two, Rob Angove-Walton (Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)
Cleethorpes is becoming a "ghost town" as people lock themselves away in their homes.
Usually busy restaurants have already seen a sharp fall in visitors following the Prime Minister's advice on Monday.
Boris Johnson urged people to "stop non-essential contact" and "non-essential travel" as the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the UK.
He said people throughout the country should start working from home where possible and avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other social venues.
But just 24 hours later, businesses are already feeling the impact.
Last night, assistant general manager at resort bar and restaurant Tale of Two, Rob Angove-Walton said: "It's like the scene from a movie – a ghost town. Cleethorpes is usually quiet around about now but this is eerie.
"There is almost no traffic passing by and the usually full car park is almost empty. There are cars usually queuing up to get into it.
"We have had cancellations already for Sunday – Mother's Day – because people do not want to come out of their homes. We have also had a cancellation for a party of 50.
"We're still open. We're just checking our books day-by-day for cancellations. We're open noon to 10pm daily and noon to 12am on Friday and Saturday."
In response to immediate concerns from those in the industry, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced an extension to the business rates holiday to all businesses in the hospitality sector and increased cash grants to small businesses in the UK.
He said at the Number 10 press conference last night: "I also announced last week that we would be providing £3,000 cash grants to 700,000 of our smallest businesses.
"In light of the new circumstances and to support of their cash flow, today I can increase those cash grants to £10,000.
"On top of the unlimited lending capacity that I have already announced, this is a package of direct support to businesses through tax cuts and grants in this financial year worth more than £20bn.
"And that comes on top of the existing, multi-billion pound package I set out at budget, which included reimbursing small and medium sized companies for the cost of statutory sick pay."
(Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)1 of 7

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Size of this preview: 369 × 479 pixels. Other resolutions: 185 × 240 pixels | 370 × 480 pixels | 462 × 600 pixels | 592 × 768 pixels.
A list of events in 1988 related to Star Wars. January 28 – Pierce Brown is born.


Will Sony's Dual Shock 3 Matter?
Posted on October 18, 2007, William Will Sony's Dual Shock 3 Matter?
The Sony PS3 is still behind the curve when it comes to many aspects of the next generation console battle. Many gamers are highly interested in the Dual Shock 3 controllers, but will it really matter? My vote is "no". At this point, what we need is better games and more affordable console prices if the PS3 wants to become a real contender. The new Dual Shock 3 retains most of the qualities of Sixasis, with only a few noticeable changes. When holding one of the new Dual Shock 3 controllers, I noticed it was considerably heavier than older models, which could be a good thing for some gamers. The analog sticks are slightly more sensitive, but not noticeable in my opinion. Fortunately the DS3 is backwards compatible with older games and patches will be available making it usable for PS1, PS2 and PS3 games. The controller will be hitting shelves early in 2008 and will probably sell well. Although it's an interesting controller and a nice add to the peripheral options for the Sony PS3, it's simply not the kind of changes I am really looking for. When more exclusive titles start rolling out and console prices drop, then I believe the PS3 will finally be a legitimate force in gaming.


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Clark petitions Buhari, demands comprehensive probe of invasion of his house
in Featured, News
Former Federal Commissioner of Information, Chief Edwin Clark, has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari, over the invasion of his Abuja home.
Clark, in the petition signed by his lawyer, Dr. Kayode Ajulo of Kayode Ajulo Castle of Law in Abuja, demanded for a comprehensive probe of the action of the policemen, three of whom were dismissed from service on Thursday.
The policemen were dismissed on the orders of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, while the fate of the fourth officer will be determined by the Police Service Commission.
The petition, to which the attention of the National Security Adviser, Major General Mohammed Babagana Monguno, was drawn, had it copied to the President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior, Chairman of the Police Service Commission and President of the Nigerian Bar Association.
6th September, 2018
His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR
President, Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Aso Villa, Three Arms Zone,
FOA: Major-General Mohammed Babagana Monguno (Rtd)
PETITION AND A CALL FOR A COMPREHENSIVE PROBE OVER THE UNWARRANTED RAID OF THE RESIDENCE OF CHIEF EDWIN KIAGBODO CLARK, OFR, CON.
The above subject matter refers.
1. We are Counsel to Chief (Dr.) Senator Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, OFR, CON hereinafter referred to as "our Client" and it is on his resolute instruction that we make the following representation.
2. Our Client is a foremost Nigerian Lawyer, Politician, Nationalist and Elder Statesman at a graceful age of 92 and he has pointedly played major roles in restoring and promoting peace and order in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger-Delta Region. He has served the Nigeria Federation in several capacities, which include, Chairman of the Board of Government Agencies, Commissioners of Education and Finance in the Old Mid-Western Region, at the Federal level he served the Country meritoriously as the Federal Commissioner (Minister) of Information, under General Yakubu Gowon led administration which paraded the likes of these distinguished; Late General Muritala Mohammed (Communication), General Olusegun Obasanjo (Works), Alhaji Shehu Shagari (Finance). He was also elected as a Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he also lead South-South delegation at several National Conferences and other deliberations for the unity and development of Nigeria. A recipient of two national honour, Officer of Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). Our client today is the renowned National leader of the South-South Region of Nigeria.
FACTUAL MATRIX
3. Our Client did brief us that at about 12:30pm on Tuesday, the 4th day of September, 2018, officers and men of the IGP Tactical Squad (a unit under the direct command of the Inspector General of Police) alongside pressmen invaded and ransacked his Asokoro residence on the pretext that they were in search of arms and ammunitions. However, despite the siege and search, they found nothing incriminating on our Client.
4. Having so searched in vain, the Inspector General of Police in the face of the impudent search conducted on the property of our Client, has publicly denied any knowledge of the said search and has immediately ordered the arrest of the four (4) junior officers who were responsible for the search and tendered a public apology to our Client.
5. Taking into the consideration the circumstances of the invasion and uncivilized search conducted on his property, and the attendant embarrassment caused to our client and what he stands for, it is imperative to hold the view that there are serious questions which ought to be determined forthwith and without mincing words.
6. It will be rather unfortunate for junior officers and men of the IGP Tactical squad who were at best acting on the orders of their superiors to fall prey in this regard.
7. It beats our Client's imagination that despite the fact that our Client has the compliments of the Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Services protecting him, his property, and overseeing his daily activities, such level of conspiracy could be perpetuated against him. He wonders what exactly warranted such unfounded suspicion on his person to the extent that a search warrant could be procured against him on the demeaning allegation that he is involved in gun running.
8. Our client further briefed us and we confirmed that at the point where officers and men of the IGP Tactical Squad were to commence their search having introduced themselves, stating that they were acting under the instructions of the Inspector General of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police Yusuf Kolo as their commander. Ambassador Boladei Igali (Former SSG Bayelsa State and former Permanent Secretary Ministry of Power) who was with our client at venue of the search put a call through to Assistant Inspector General of Police (Federal Intelligence) Umoru Usman Shehu who spoke with the leader of the search party and gave authority to go ahead with the search.
9. It is therefore baffling and unfortunate that the top echelon of the Nigeria Police Force will publicly and brazenly deny the knowledge of the search conducted on such an eminent personality as our Client, in spite of the evidence of clear contacts made with them before the search commenced.
10. However, in the face of all the denials and apologies, our Client believes that there was an extreme level of conspiracy involved in this case which ought to be duly probed and investigated.
ISSUES FOR INTERROGATION
11. Having critically considered the issues at hand we have respectfully raised the following salient questions for determination;
a. What was the ground for the reasonable suspicion which warranted the procurement of a search warrant on the residence of our client?
b. Knowing fully well that the Nigeria Police Force has its rank and file, could it be said that the 4 arrested officers of the IGP Tactical Squad, being a unit under the Inspector General of Police, acted on their own volition without any authority of a superior officer?
c. Who is the senior officer that authorized the procurement of the search warrant, knowing fully well the perquisite and procedure of procuring such warrant?
d. Will it not be right to say that the act of the conspirators is calculated to intimidate, harass, embarrass and humiliate the person of our client and ultimately cause unrest and commotion in the Niger-Delta Region?
e. Could it be inferred that there is a deliberate mischief calculated to embarrass the government of the day by provoking disturbances in the Niger-Delta Region, which has experience relative peace in the recent time?
12. The above are salient questions which ought to be thoroughly explained, in detail, for the sake of posterity and our National integrity which ought to be preserved.
13. It is public knowledge that our client has been a frontline advocate against taking up of arms by the youths of the Niger-Delta and he has been responsible for brokering peace between the Niger-Delta and several administrations in Nigeria, in leading the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), our client has join other stakeholders to put a halt to youth restiveness and wanton destruction of oil pipelines in the region and ultimately restore peace, thereby increasing production of Nigeria's sustenance in oil production and encouraging foreign participation, however the invasion of his Asokoro-Abuja residence has since fanned wrong embers, caused uproar and pandemonium in the Niger-Delta of which our clients and others have been assiduously working to curtail.
14. Our client appreciates unreserved double apologies by the Nigerian Police; the first which was conveyed by the delegation of the IGP lead by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Habila Joshak (Operations), Assistant Inspector General of Police, David Ogbodo (Legal), Commissioner of Police Abu Sani (IGP Monitoring Unit) and Commissioner of Police of FCT and the second which was publicly tendered on behalf of the Nigerian Police Force by the Force PRO Deputy Commissioner of Police, Jimoh Moshood.
15. While our client accept the apologies, it is his sole demand that this case be comprehensively probed and thoroughly investigated to fish out all the conspirators who masterminded the invasion of his residence without due cause.
16. While we await your prompt reaction to this petition, we assure you of our highest profession regards.
For Kayode Ajulo & Co. Castle of Law.
Dr. Olukayode Ajulo
1. The President of the Senate, National Assembly, Abuja.
2. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, National Assembly, Abuja.
3. The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Justice, Abuja.
4. Minister of Interior, Federal Ministry of Interior, Abuja.
5. Hon. Chairman, Police Service Commission, Federal Secretariat, Abuja.
6. The President, Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja.
Tags: Babagana MongunoEdwin ClarkIbrahim IdrisKayode AjuloMuhammadu BuhariPolice Service CommissionYakubu Gowon


So exciting! Because we like working with seasonal ingredients at NeL, and not everything tastes as good in summer as it does in winter, we will introduce a new menu at the end of March.
The chefs spent hours and hours of hard work thinking up the new delicious dishes. We love tickling those taste buds! So come enjoy our new concoctions from the end of March. With a lot of organic, local, and healthy ingredients. But of course, until that time, you can enjoy our current menu, with wonderful dishes such a the homemade vegetarian lasagna and of course the famous NeL burger.


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Modcloth's own employees showcase swimwear
Published in m-Tail on 11-02-2015
American fashion etailer Modcloth has attracted a lot of attention with its newest swimwear ad campaign, where founder Susan Koger and several employees showcase the collection themselves.
No Photoshop, all natural
"Why pay professional models when your own company has plenty of women to organize a photoshoot with" is the motto, as Modcloth had no problem finding willing employees to showcase its newest collection of bikinis and bathing suits.
Even Sugan Gregg Koger, who founded the retro label with her husband Eric Kroger in 2002, is part of the ad campaign. No Photoshop has been applied to the images, a staple of the company since its "No photoshop pledge" in August 2014.
Trying to find its second wind
Ever since its launch in 2002, Modcloth has seen tremendous growth and was even called the fastest-growing American private retailer in 2010. It closed in on a 100 million dollar turnover in 2013, but disappointing results meant it had to let go 120 of its 500 employees in 2014. Ever since, the company has been looking for its second wind.
Co-founder and CEO Eric Kroger took a step back on 19 January 2015 and passed the baton to Matthew Kaness, who had been Urban Outfitters's Chief Strategy Officer up until then.
m-Tail
Microsoft builds competitor for Amazon Go
Microsoft is working on its own technology that should render checkouts in stores obsolete. The American company says it wants to be an ally for the retail sector, mostly in its struggle against Amazon Go.
LVMH invests millions in fashion search engine Lyst
French luxury group LVMH, led by Bernard Arnault, will invest millions of dollars in Lyst once again. The luxury fashion search engine wants to expand its global expansion this way.
Amazon bans customers who return too much
Amazon is putting a stop to customers that return too many items or that "misbehave" according to the retailer: whoever crosses the line, will be banned. Dozens of customers have taken to social media to complain about this unilateral account removal.


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post-secondary customers
Online Staffing
HR Media
Consumer Software
B2B Publishing and Information
Consumer Publishing
Exhibitions, Conferences, Events
Pharma Information
Pharma Business Services
Misc Finance
K-12 Media and Tech
Higher-Ed Media and Tech
Higher-Ed Institutions
Professional Training Technology
K-20 Services
K-12 Institutions
announced 1/21/2019 via PR Newswire
TransForce, Inc., will acquire The CDL School, Inc.
synopsis: TransForce, Inc. the nation's leading recruiting and employment solutions provider specializing in quality commercial truck drivers completed its' 8th acquisition since 2016 with the purchase of The CDL School. The CDL School, headquartered in Miami, Florida, is nationally recognized as the premier, full-service commercial truck driving school.
buyer: TransForce, Inc. (TSX:TFI:$3,090.08)
TransForce is the leading workforce solutions provider to the transportation industry. The company specializes in providing high-quality commercial truck drivers to the transportation industry, including trucking companies, third party logistics companies and private fleets. "
target: The CDL School, Inc.
The CDL Schools is a full-service Truck Driving School. Founded in 1963, and based in Miami, Florida, The CDL Schools specializes in providing training for individuals to obtain their commercial driver's license.
MBH Corporation plc, acquired International School of Beauty Therapy
synopsis: MBH Corporation, a UK diversified investment holding company, acquired International School of Beauty Therapy, UK's private beauty school that offers nationally and internationally recognized qualifications preparing students for the workplace at home or abroad.
buyer: MBH Corporation plc (DB:M8H:$63.90)
MBH Corporation plc is a UK diversified investment holding company. They acquire small to medium enterprises across multiple geographies and sectors that are well established, profitable, debt free and looking to scale. "
target: International School of Beauty Therapy
The International School of Beauty Therapy is UK's private beauty school. They offer nationally and internationally recognized qualifications preparing students for the workplace at home or abroad.
CUnet LLC, will acquire Sparkroom Corp.
synopsis: CUnet, a subsidiary of Nelnet Inc., announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Sparkroom, a leading provider of enrollment marketing automation and lead performance management solutions.
buyer parent: Nelnet, Inc.
buyer: CUnet LLC
CUnet is the premier provider of online performance media and interactive marketing services driving qualified student inquiries and enrollments for the higher education industry. "
target: Sparkroom Corp.
Sparkroom's Lead Deliver, Lead IQ, and Lead Market Analytics deliver a hosted business intelligence platform to give direct response marketers the tools and expertise needed to measure, manage, and optimize their lead acquisition spending across every direct response channel.
announced 4/7/2021 via BNC Analysis
The GO2 People, will acquire Skill Hire Australia Pty Ltd
synopsis: GO2 People, a provider of vertically integrated recruitment and building services throughout Australia and New Zealand, announced an agreement to acquire Western Australia-based Employment Services provider, Skill Hire Australia. Skill Hire delivers a full suite of blue-collar employment services via its registered training organisation.
buyer: The GO2 People (ASX:GO2:$20.05)
The GO2 People is a leading provider of vertically integrated recruitment and building services across the construction, resources and industrial sectors throughout Australia and New Zealand. They provide tailored staffing solutions to national and multinational blue chip organisations. "
target: Skill Hire Australia Pty Ltd
Skill Hire Australia is a Western Australia-based Employment Services provider. Skill Hire delivers a full suite of blue-collar employment services via its registered training organisation and its apprenticeship & traineeship recruitment and labour hire divisions.
closed 2/4/2015 via PR Web
eLearning Innovation, LLC, acquired aelearn
synopsis: eLearning Innovation, LLC, a provider of instructional design services is pleased to announce the acquisition of their long-term partner, Advanced E-learning Solutions (aelearn). aelearn provides customized E-Learning solutions for a variety of organizations (small businesses, higher- and continuing-education, non-profits, and the corporate world).
buyer: eLearning Innovation, LLC
eLearning Innovation, LLC, provides instructional design services to higher ed, K-12, corporate, government, and non-profit organizations. Specializing in experiential learning, eLearning Innovation creates active learning environments that inspire and educate. "
target: aelearn
Advanced E-Learning Solutions, Inc. (aelearn), a minority-owned business, is a premier E-Learning solutions provider. The aelearn team provides customized E-Learning solutions for a variety of organizations (small businesses, higher- and continuing-education, non-profits, and the corporate world).
CrossKnowledge, acquired Digital SK
synopsis: CrossKnowledge announced its purchase of Digital SK, the leading Brazilian e-learning provider. This acquisition further consolidates CrossKnowledge's position as a world-class distance training provider.
buyer: CrossKnowledge
Founded in 2000, CrossKnowledge is the European leader in remote development of leadership and managerial skills, using new technologies. "
target: Digital SK
Digital SK was founded in 2004 and quickly took up a dominant position on the Brazilian e-learning market with an extensive range of training content and innovative technological solutions designed for large public and private organizations as well as the education sector.
Pearson plc, acquired iOKI Sp. k
synopsis: Pearson plc, one of the world's premier media and education companies, acquired of all the rights and obligations of limited partners in iOKI Sp. k., a Poland-based supplier of e-learning solutions.
buyer: Pearson plc (LSE:PSON:$4,824.36)
Pearson is the world's leading learning company. Through its books, newspapers and online products and services, Pearson helps people of all ages to live and learn. "
target: iOKI Sp. k
IOKI's portfolio encompasses a broad range of services; which include: designing and preparation of e-learning platforms, creation of e-learning courses, delivery of educational materials, such as e-workbooks, for different education sectors and subjects.
closed 11/1/2021 via GlobeNewswire
Eezy Oyj, acquired Valmennuskeskus
synopsis: Eezy Plc, a Finnish staffing services company, has acquired KK Valmennuskeskus Oy. Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, Valmennuskeskus offers nationwide workforce training, coaching, guidance, and rehabilitation services under public administration to more than 8,000 people each year.
buyer: Eezy Oyj (HLSE:EEZY:$209.87)
Eezy is the most versatile staffing services company in Finland, helping jobseekers and job providers find each other. Flexible forms of work, responsible employment service, and organisational development lie at the core of all Eezy's operations. "
target: Valmennuskeskus
Valmennuskeskus is a Finnish company that offers nationwide workforce training, coaching, guidance, and rehabilitation services under public administration to more than 8,000 people each year and employs more than 100 recruitment specialists, career coaches, and instructors.
Fazyanie Binti Fadzi and Russaliza Binti Yaakop, purchased SMR Voctech SDN BHD from SMR Group
synopsis: Malaysian SMRT Holdings Berhad announces that it has sold SMR Voctech Sdn Bhd to Fazyanie Binti Fadzil and Russaliza Binti Yaakop. SMR Voctech provides education at pre-university, matriculation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels and other programs connected with education.
buyer: Fazyanie Binti Fadzi and Russaliza Binti Yaakop
Fazyanie Binti Fadzi and Russaliza Binti Yaakop are entrepreneurs in Malaysia. Russaliza Binti Yaakop has prior investment history in the education industry. "
seller: SMR Group (KLSE:SMRT:$29.36)
SMR Voctech, based in Malaysia, provides education at pre-university, matriculation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels and other programs connected with education.
Pearson plc, acquired TQ Ltd.
synopsis: Pearson, the world's leading learning company, announced the acquisition of TQ Holdings Ltd. ("TQ"), a private company based in Derbyshire, England. TQ provides vocational and technical education and training services to governments, institutions and corporations around the world.
Pearson is an international education and media company with world-leading businesses in education, business information and consumer publishing. "
target: TQ Ltd.
TQ Inc. is a provider of education and training services to the UK Ministry of Defence, other public sector organisations and private companies. TQ works with partners to develop education and training solutions for governments, institutions and corporate clients worldwide.
American Association for the Advancement of Science, acquired Peer Review Evaluation (PRE)
synopsis: The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), publisher of the Science family of journals, announced the acquisition of "Peer Review Evaluation" (PRE), a web-based service that promotes public trust in science by making the review of original research more transparent and verifiable.
buyer: American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science as well as Science Translational Medicine, Science Signaling, and a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances. "
target: Peer Review Evaluation (PRE)
Peer Review Evaluation (PRE) is a web-based service that promotes public trust in science by making the review of original research more transparent and verifiable.
Blackboard Inc. will be merged with Anthology Inc.,
synopsis: Blackboard, a leading global EdTech software and solutions company, will merge with Anthology, a leading provider of proven higher education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle. The combination will create the most comprehensive and modern EdTech ecosystem available on a global scale.
buyer parent: Veritas Capital
buyer: Anthology Inc.
Anthology a leading provider of proven higher education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle. Its solutions create operational efficiencies, provide intelligence for staff and administrators, and empower institutional leaders to support and guide students on a path to success. "
target parent: Providence Equity Partners Inc.
target: Blackboard Inc. (BBBB:$447.32)
Blackboard is a leading EdTech company, serving higher education, K-12, business and government clients around the world. Blackboard connects a deep understanding of education with the power of technology to continuously push the boundaries of learning.
Cambian Group, purchased further education colleges from Mencap
synopsis: The Cambian Group, one of the UK's leading providers of specialist care and education, acquired Mencap's further education colleges – Lufton College, Pengwern College and Dilston College. The three colleges provide specialised environments that support young people with learning disabilities and complex health and behavioural needs.
buyer: Cambian Group (CMBN:$252.02)
Cambian Group is one of the largest providers of specialist behavioural health services for children and adults in the UK. They provide services for over 2,400 individuals in 249 services. They work with over 140 public authorities and employ more than 6,000 people. "
seller: Mencap
Mencap's Lufton College, Pengwern College and Dilston College are all specialty colleges that provide specialised environments that support young people with learning disabilities, autism, profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) and complex health and behavioural needs.
Providence Equity Partners, acquired Blackboard Inc.
synopsis: Blackboard Inc. announced the completion of its acquisition by an investor group led by affiliates of Providence Equity Partners. Blackboard is a global leader in enterprise technology and innovative solutions that improve the experience of millions of students and learners around the world every day.
buyer: Providence Equity Partners
Providence Equity Partners is the leading global private equity firm specializing in equity investments in media, communications, information services and education companies around the world. "
Blackboard's solutions allow thousands of higher education, K-12, professional, corporate, and government organizations to extend teaching and learning online, facilitate campus commerce and security, and communicate more effectively with their communities.
$1,585 [$1,712]
Learning Technologies Group, acquired Blackboard Open LMS
synopsis: Learning Technologies Group plc, a market-leader in the workplace digital learning and talent management market, has acquired Blackboard's Open LMS platform. Blackboard Open LMS provides a strong, open source foundation for competency-based blended, online and professional learning to drive institutional and organizational effectiveness.
buyer: Learning Technologies Group (AIM:LTG:$180.10)
Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG) is a market-leader in the fast-growing workplace digital learning and talent management market. LTG offers large organizations a new approach to learning and talent in a business world driven by digital transformation. "
target: Blackboard Open LMS
Blackboard Open LMS™ provides a strong, open source foundation for competency-based blended, online and professional learning to drive institutional and organizational effectiveness.
Dimensions Training Solutions, acquired learndirect
synopsis: Dimensions Training Solutions (DTS), a leading training provider, has acquired the learndirect Group, UK's largest integrated training provider. learndirect helps people get skills needed for their careers and help organizations train their workforce.
buyer parent: Stonebridge Colleges
buyer: Dimensions Training Solutions
Based in the UK, Dimensions Training solutions is an organization that helps develop skills for apprenticeships, obtain a degree for Higher Education enrollment, and train workforce. They have a variety of courses for different fields. "
target parent: Lloyds Banking Group
target: learndirect
learndirect is the UK's largest integrated training provider. They've changed the lives of many people, helping them get the skills they need for work and to progress in their careers. They've also supported organizations to improve the skills of their workforce.
Springer Nature, acquired iversity
synopsis: Springer Nature, a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, has acquired iversity, an online learning platform that provides high-quality academic and professional development courses. iversity offers individuals and corporate clients MOOCs and online professional development courses from a wide range of topics.
buyer parent: Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH
buyer: Springer Nature
Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. "
target: iversity
iversity partners with academic institutions and knowledge-based companies to offer academic and professional development courses online. Individuals as well as corporate clients and their employees can choose between MOOCs and online professional development courses from a wide range of topics.
GP Strategies Corporation, acquired Emantras
synopsis: Global performance improvement solutions provider GP Strategies Corporation announced that it has completed the acquisition Emantras, an innovative digital education company that provides engaging learning experiences and effective knowledge delivery through award-winning digital and mobile solutions.
buyer: GP Strategies Corporation (NYSE:GPX:$459.38)
GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of training, eLearning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. They improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services. "
target: Emantras
Emantras, is an innovative digital education company that provides engaging learning experiences, through digital and mobile solutions. Emantras serves the learning ecosystem by supporting enterprises, trainers and educational institutions in executing and delivering digital training solutions.
Anoto Group AB, will acquire Livescribe, Inc.
synopsis: Anoto Group AB announced an agreement to acquire Livescribe Inc. Based in Oakland, California and founded in 2007, Livescribe's smartpens allow students, business people, journalists, and anyone who values pen and paper note-taking to capture, access, and share everything they write, draw, and hear.
buyer: Anoto Group AB (OM:ANOT:$22.67)
Anoto Group, through its subsidiaries, develops and licenses a technology for digital pen and paper, which enables the transmission of handwritten text and illustrations into digital format. Their solutions are based on Anoto digital pen and paper technology to capture, transmit, and store data. "
target: Livescribe, Inc.
Livescribe is the global leader in the design and manufacturing of smartpens, enabling customers to capture, search and share handwritten notes on the digital devices they use every day. Livescribe makes the only smartpens on the market that synchronize handwritten notes with recorded audio.
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, will acquire Absorb Software
See 12061 Comparable Transactions
synopsis: Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe will acquire Absorb Software, recognized globally as one of the fastest growing, industry-leading providers of cloud-based learning and performance management software to businesses, higher education, government, and non-profit agencies around the world.
buyer: Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
Founded in 1979, WCAS is a leading U.S. private equity firm focused on two target industries: technology and healthcare. WCAS has deep experience in acquiring founder-led businesses and corporate carve-outs. The firm has raised and managed funds totaling over $27 billion of committed capital. "
target parent: Silversmith Capital Partners
target: Absorb Software
Absorb Software is a learning technology company based in Canada. Absorb offers both Absorb Infuse, a Learning Experience Platform, and Absorb LMS, a Learning Management System for businesses, higher education, government, and non-profit agencies.
Ticker: LSE:BMY
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc is an independent publisher with offices in London, New York, New Delhi and Sydney. Bloomsbury has built a reputation for publishing works of excellence and originality. Bloomsbury has a valuable portfolio of content and rights based intellectual property assets.
Ticker: JP:3834
ASAHI Net, Inc.
ASAHI Net, Inc. is a major Internet service provider based in Japan and is operated by ASAHI Net, Inc., a public company founded on April 2, 1990. ASAHI Net, Inc. has been listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange since December 2007.
Ticker: LSE:OBOR
Starcrest Education The Belt & Road Limited
Starcrest Education The Belt & Road Limited is an international developer and operator of education services in Europe. The newly formed entity has been established to seek relevant acquisitions in the international education sector.
Ticker: ASX:ICT
iCollege Ltd.
iCollege is a training organization that provides specialist education to students from all over the world. They help workers stay relevant in an ever-changing employment environment. The online education provider creates more engaging training experiences for people looking to get ahead.
Ticker: SEHK:6169
China YuHua Education Corporation Limited
China YuHua Education Corporation Limited has been operating private schools in Henan province of China for over 15 years and is one of the leading private school operators in central China in terms of student enrollment.
Sportsfield Co., Ltd.
Sportsfield is a Japanese provider of recruitment support services for the sports industry. Sportsfield plans and operates Sponavi, the largest sports-focused job-hunting event for university graduates. The company also provides recruitment consulting services.
Ticker: NSEI:CAREERP
Career Point Ltd.
Career Point Limited is a leading Indian education company with strong brand equity of providing quality education since 1993. With a strong foundation of academic excellence, Career Point caters to the needs of a student throughout the life cycle of a student (K.G. to PhD.)
Ticker: NYSE:SPGI
S&P Global is a leading provider of transparent and independent ratings, benchmarks, analytics and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. The Company's divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts.
Ticker: LAUR
Laureate International Universities
Laureate Education, Inc. is the largest international network of degree granting higher education institutions, primarily focused in Latin America, with more than 850,000 students enrolled at over 25 institutions with more than 150 campuses.
Ticker: COCO
Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
Corinthian offers post-secondary education through its Everest, Heald College and WyoTech campuses, as well as online. Program areas include healthcare, business, criminal justice, transportation technology and maintenance, construction trades and information technology.
Ticker: ATGE
DeVry Education Group
The purpose of DeVry Education Group is to empower its students to achieve their educational and career goals. DeVry Group is a global provider of educational services, with institutions that offer a wide array of programs in healthcare, business, technology, accounting, finance and law.
Ticker: LOPE
Grand Canyon Education, Inc.
Grand Canyon Education (GCE) is a publicly traded shared services partner dedicated to serving colleges and universities. GCE supports partner institutions' students through operational functions that achieve organizational growth and student success. GCE is a pioneer of the hybrid campus model.
Ticker: ASX:NVT
Navitas Limited
Navitas is a leading global education provider that offers an extensive range of educational services through three major divisions to students and professionals including university programs, creative media education, professional education, English language training and settlement services.
Ticker: BOVESPA:CSED3
Cruzeiro do Sul Educacional S.A.
Committed to education since 1965, Cruzeiro do Sul Educacional has consolidated itself as the fourth largest teaching group in Brazil. Cruzeiro do Sul Educacional offers quality academic-professional training through 14 higher education institutions with recognized local brands.
Ticker: BOVESPA:ANIM3
Anima Educacao
Anima Educacao is one of Brazil's largest private higher education organizations, both in terms of revenue and the number of enrolled students. It has 79,000 students enrolled in classroom courses at 18 campuses located in the states of Minas Gerais and São Paulo.
f79c0f22-d136-418a-bf9d-f20af6e72319


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Quaid-e-Azam guaranteed minorities' rights: CM Sindh
F.P. Report
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, while addressing a Christmas Cake Cutting Ceremony, here at the CM House, on Monday said that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah addressing the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, had clearly guaranteed the freedom of minorities.
The CM quoting the father of the nation said, "You are free to go to your temples, You are free to go to your mosques or to any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste, or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the State."
He said that this was the "manifesto of the Pakistan Peoples Party".
The programme was attended by the provincial ministers, advisors, special assistants, MPAs, and PPP office bearers of the minorities wing of the Karachi division, and of all the districts of the province, clergy, including Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Bishop Kaleem John, people from Pentecostal Church and notables.
The CM said that the last few years had been difficult for many of us, with the ongoing challenges and uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic. "But through it all, we have remained strong and resilient, and have continued to find ways to come together and support one another," he said and added to move forward into the new year by holding onto the hope that the new year would make the world a better place for all.
Murad Shah said that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari always upheld the rights of minorities. "If any incident happens with any member of the minority community, he starts questioning me and directs me to redress the matter and report him," he disclosed. Mr. Shah said that PPP was the only party in the country that took all the religious communities together. "Our one MNA and two MPAs are directly elected in the general elections and there is no such example of any other political party in the country."
The CM said that six of his cabinet members were from minorities. "The PPP has never discriminated against any person on the basis of religion, caste, and creed but provides them with equal rights and opportunities," he said.
The CM extended his heartfelt Christmas greetings to the Christian Community. "May this festive season bring you joy, happiness, and all the blessings you deserve," he concluded. Minister for Minorities Gianchand Israni and MPA Lal Chand Ukrani, Cardinal Joseph Coutts, and PPP MPA Naveed Anthony also spoke on the occasion.
Minorities Minister Gianchand said that he was from the Hindu minority, but his party had given him the ministry with the portfolio of Minorities Affairs task to redress the grievances of the minorities on a priority basis. He disclosed that he has been elected MPA directly on the PPP ticket which was a great honour for him.
The CM along with his cabinet members, and Christian community guests cut the Christmas cake. (APP)
Anti-Islam campaign and social media
Pakistan take opening-day honours via Babar 161*, Sarfaraz 86
Muqam for national unity against terrorism
KPBC condemns suicide attack
PHC grants bail to alleged smuggler
Governor expresses grief over loss of lives in blast
FM Bilawal: Pakistan intends to intensify cooperation...
Azam Nazeer Tarar hints at 'extending'...
Amir equals Afridi's record in BPL
Ronaldo will play again in Europe -Al Nassr boss
West Indies academy players recur selection in West Indies C'ship squads
'No grouping witnessed in Pakistan cricket team' claims Afridi


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After 35 years in the district, head cross country coach Mark Chipman retires
Chipman has coached four sports during his tenure, most notably cross country
By Joe McClain
Head cross country coach Mark Chipman decides to retire after leading the cross country team to statewide success and teaching in the district for 35 years.
After spending countless hours on fall weekends and every day after school, head cross country coach Mark Chipman is moving on to a new chapter in his life: retirement.
Chipman has coached in the district since 1982, including football, basketball, track and field and most recently, cross country. During his tenure as head cross country coach at Mill Valley, beginning in 2000, the girls team placed third in both 2013 and 2016 and the boys team placed third in 2013 and second in 2016. He coached Academic All-State runners nine times — 2016 graduated seniors Amber Akin and Derek Meeks both earned the honor twice — won 17 Kaw Valley League championships and took 22 teams to state.
Chipman said he first became interested in cross country after running in both high school and college. After college, he taught in western Kansas shortly before moving to eastern Kansas for the opportunity and because "there's probably a little more social life available."
Both Chipman and his wife have taught in the district, but his wife retired three years ago from teaching elementary school. Originally, they planned to retire at the same time, but according to Chipman right now felt like the right time.
"It was a tough choice," Chipman said. "We both just thought this was the time to do it. This just gives us a chance to do some things on Saturdays and on fall weekdays and weekends. We're going to travel quite a bit. But it was just time."
But Chipman did coach for 35 years, mostly due to the fact that he loved watching the kids that he coached mature and grow up before his very eyes.
"I just enjoyed it so much being able to make a difference in their lives and see them succeed," Chipman said. "To see them graduate from high school and see them go on to college and go on to be successful in their lives [was special]."
One of those kids that he coached and watched succeed was Jay Matlack, who graduated in 2004 Matlack holds the school 5k record and also later coached in 2013. Something that stuck with Matlack was Chipman's demeanor.
"He was always the calm in the storm for me," Matlack said via email. "When the race got crazy and I thought I might crash, it was always his calming words and presence that made me realize all is OK and keep putting that foot in front of the other. I also am not sure I ever remember [Chipman] saying something that wasn't positive. He didn't stress about yesterday's workout or race but only what can be done about the next one."
I just enjoyed it so much being able to make a difference in their lives and see them succeed. To see them graduate from high school and see them go on to college and go on to be successful in their lives [was special]."
— Head cross country coach Mark Chipman
Senior Adam Gillette, who has ran for Chipman his entire high school career, also was impacted by Chipman's coaching. According to Gillette, Chipman taught him lessons that are applicable to life outside of running.
"He impacted me personally by helping me realize that cross country is something greater than just running and it will help me throughout my life," Gillette said. "The lessons that the sport has taught me and Coach Chipman has taught me about perseverance and believing in yourself [meant so much]."
Matlack agrees with this sentiment, as both him and his family members use Chipman's teachings incorporated in their everyday life.
"'Put your head down and go' [is] a quote my family and I still say on a regular basis," Matlack said. "It taught me to put nerves, uncertainty, doubt, fear aside and just do the work; everything else will fall where it should. He impacted me in high school and continues to in my daily life through lessons he taught."
That connection with his runners was Chipman's goal during his days as a head coach, ever since he started coaching at De Soto with a team of six runners. Now, the cross country team has expanded to almost 70 runners. Even when the sport he coached wasn't the most popular for athletes, he still enjoyed the connection with his team.
"I started coaching cross country when maybe running wasn't the thing to do," Chipman said. "But I think the other kids in the school saw the success we had, the fun we had and the camaraderie we developed with the pasta dinners idea. That contributed to the growth."
Gillette believes that Chipman best represented the school through his coaching style and what he modeled himself.
"He just added the positivity and the sportsmanship and standing for Mill Valley and representing our school in a positive way," Gillette said. "He was very respected by his peers and other coaches and he really brought a good name to Mill Valley cross country."
Now that Chipman is moving on, Matlack will always remember how much Chipman's coaching affected his life and will continue to leave an imprint on the school and the program.
"This team will continue to have wonderful leadership due to the foundation he built, as they continue to build a renowned program," Matlack said. "Every success will be tied to Coach Chipman in one way or another. Chipman is and will forever be one of the most influential and instrumental people in my life, I thank him for his leadership, mentorship and friendship."
P.E.: A look at the school's physical education classes throughout the week
Thespian Festival offered a variety of new acting skills for students to learn and improve
Students surveyed about Marvel preferences
Students and teachers show their aesthetic through Instagram
Culinary Essentials class participates in "Sidesgiving"
Mill Valley welcomes exchange students from Spain and Mexico
Students take pride in their unusual cars
National Novel Writing Month gives writers of all ages a way to express their creativity
Sophomore and junior students discuss Gluten-free Awareness Month


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Freight in the spotlight at RailTech 2017
Rail freight takes centre stage on today's final day of RailTech Europe 2017 in The Netherlands. A dedicated Rail Freight Day sees a host of workshops open to stakeholders keen to learn new techniques and share examples of best practice.
One of Europe's premier events promoting rail technology, the three-day conference and exhibition in the city of Utrecht has featured many presentations relevant to the freight arena. The Rail Cargo Innovation award meanwhile was presented to Move Intermodal as part of RailTech Europe's annual ceremony marking excellence in the rail sector.
Rail Freight Day is designed to be an opportunity for stakeholders across the freight to meet, exchange ideas and hear about industry innovations. Nine workshops are scheduled to take place, several of which will be in English and the rest in Dutch.
The English ones are: Innovations in the rail freight industry 2017, by Dutch rail infrastructure manager ProRail and the harbours of Rotterdam and Amsterdam; Research into the role of rail freight in Belgium as part of the intermodal freight chain (Frank Troch, University of Antwerp; Smart Rail – supply chain-oriented rail freight services (Joris Tenhagen, Seacon Logistics); The potential of trams for urban freight distribution (Katrien de Langhe, University of Antwerp)
RailTech Europe 2017 is organised by ProMedia Europoint with the Dutch Railways (NS), Dutch Infrastructure manager (ProRail) and rail associations Holland Rail Industry, Railforum and The Royal Dutch Transport Federation (KNV).
The conference themes have been the European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS); Digitalisation in Railways; and today's final sessions, Maintenance of Rail Infraststructure. RailTech Europe 2017 is hosted by the Dutch rail infrastructure manager ProRail, and organised in cooperation with ProMedia Publishing, the International Union of Railways (UIC) and Dutch Railways (NS).
Speakers have included Ulrich Roth of Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) who focused on ETCS Level Two in Swiitzerland, in particular the Gotthard Tunnel; Anna Nicodemi of Swedish transport manager Trafikverket, who looked at RFID, and Tiberiu Buzas of Railwatch, who shared some of their work into the digitalisation of rail freight wagons.
Reports of days one and two are now available on the Railtech Europe website.
Tags: ERTMS, European Railway Traffic Management System, intermodal freight chain, International Union of Railways, KNV, NS, ProMedia Europoint, ProRail, rail freight, RailTech Europe 2017, Royal Dutch Transport Federation, UIC
Author: Simon Weedy
Simon is a journalist for RailFreight.com - a dedicated online platform for all the news about the rail freight sector
Physical internet, the 'logistic innovation of the century'
Venlo and the growth of smart logistics
Eight free, real-time rail platforms that you may want to bookmark


A sharp rebound in crude oil as well as some warm words from ECB President Mario Draghi turned out to be the perfect ingredients to prompt a sharp snapback in equity markets yesterday after Wednesday's rout, and this rebound has spilled over into the Asia session with crude oil recovering above the $30 level. The big question now is whether this marks a medium term base, or just a minor relief rally before another leg lower. Given yesterday's rebound and the subsequent positive session in Asia there now remains the very real possibility that we could well finish the week in positive territory, and if that happens it would be a remarkable turnaround after Wednesday's carnage.. While the ECB left interest rates unchanged, Mario Draghi, the President of the central bank made it quite plain that given the recent drops on oil prices that the policy response in March will potentially have to change, replacing "whatever it takes" with "no limits" to the potential for further action within the banks mandate, prompting all manner of channelling of the 1993 hit No Limit by 2 Unlimited on social media. Of course there is a risk that in being so dovish he could well be setting himself up for the similar sort of disappointment that characterised the December decision, given that the opposition to further cuts in the deposit rate and further stimulus are hardly likely to have dissipated by then. What is not in doubt is that the latest inflation projections are likely to show that inflation will take longer to return to target when they are published in March, but will they be enough to sway the doubters on the council to fall in line and back further action, if it is felt it is necessary. The fact that the euro failed to follow through on its initial sell-off lower after the comments would appear to suggest that markets have their doubts as well, as to whether Draghi can stand and deliver. Mr Draghi said it himself when he said that the low oil price would support consumption and investment, which begs the question as to why further stimulus is even necessary given that, according to the central bankers playbook, that low energy prices are transitory, and Europe as a net energy importer is likely to feel the economic benefit. In any event market attention is likely to remain on the ECB President later this morning when he gives a speech from Davos, at the World Economic Forum. On the data front we will be getting the latest January manufacturing and services flash PMI's from France and Germany. The German numbers are expected to remain fairly solid at 53 and 55.5, while the data from France is likely to remain weak. Services due to the continued fallout from the November terrorist attacks at 50.2, while the manufacturing number is expected to come in at 51.3. In the UK we complete a fairly busy, as well as a positive data week with the December retail sales numbers which are expected to round off a pretty solid year for UK consumers. While we saw decent number in November of 1.7%, expectations for December are much lower with a decline of 0.3% expected due to the wet weather and flooding impacting sales volumes. All in all, Bank of England Mark Carney's comments aside, the data from the UK economy this week has been largely positive, and the beleaguered pound was given a bit of a boost yesterday by MPC member Martin Weale when he suggested that recent inflationary pressures could easily be offset by the recent weakness in the pound. This would appear to suggest that the bar for him to vote for a rate rise may not be that high. Today s public sector borrowing numbers for December are expected to show that government borrowing dropped to £10bn from £13.6bn in November. EURUSD – despite a brief dip below 1.0800 yesterday the euro quickly recovered its poise. The key resistance remains just below 1.1000 where we have the 100 and 200 day MA's. This remains the key obstacle to further gains towards 1.1200. The key support remains down near the 1.0600 level where we have trend line support from the all-time lows posted in October 2000 at 0.8220. GBPUSD – we may have seen an intermediate base at 1.4125. We now need to see a break back through 1.4230 to argue to stop the rot and stabilise for a rebound towards 1.4500. A move below 1.4125 argues for a test of the 1.4000 area. EURGBP – finding some resistance just above the 0.7750 area, which suggests we could see a pull back towards the 0.7500 area. While above 0.7500 the risk remains for a return to the 200 week MA at the 0.7900 level. USDJPY – we finally got the move to 116.00, which has prompted a rebound. While 118.25 continues to act as a top the risk remains for further losses towards 115.50, a key support area from December 2014. CMC Markets is an execution only service provider. The material (whether or not it states any opinions) is for general information purposes only, and does not take into account your personal circumstances or objectives. Nothing in this material is (or should be considered to be) financial, investment or other advice on which reliance should be placed. No opinion given in the material constitutes a recommendation by CMC Markets or the author that any particular investment, security, transaction or investment strategy is suitable for any specific person.


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Gary Capozziello, Violin
Award-winning violinist Gary Capozziello enjoys a varied musical life as both highly versatile performer and dedicated teacher. A frequent soloist with orchestra, recent concerto appearances have included concerts with the New Haven Civic Orchestra, American Chamber Orchestra, Hartt Symphony Orchestra, Hartt Wind Ensemble, Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra, the Manchester Symphony and the Torrington Symphony. In addition to concerto competitions, he has won a range of awards includin...
Saturday, December 10, 2016: 3/4 Trio Concert @ Impromptu! Concert Series
Russian Chamber Music
Gary Capozziello Live: Solo and ...
Gary Capozziello
Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Piano N/A
Composer: Maurice Ravel
Artists: Becky Lu (Piano); Gary Capozziello (Violin)
III - Sonata for Violin and Piano N/A N/A
II - Sonata for Violin and Piano N/A N/A
Debussy: Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor
Composer: Claude Debussy
Artists: Anastasia Seifetdinova (Piano); Gary Capozziello (Violin)
Recording Date: Tue 15 Oct 2013
I - Allegro vivo (4:56) N/A
Beethoven: Sonata for Violin and Piano no 6 in A major, Op. 30 no 1
Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven
Recording Date: Tue 8 Oct 2013
I - Allegro (8:07) N/A
Janacek: Sonata for Violin and Piano N/A
Composer: Leos Janacek
Venue: The Hartt School: Berkman Recital Hall (Hartford)
Recording Date: Fri 2 Mar 2012
I - Con moto (4:53) N/A
II - Ballade: Con moto (5:04) N/A
III - Allegretto (2:28) N/A
IV - Adagio (4:37) N/A
Official Website - Gary Capozziello
http://garycapozziello.com
http://www.hamdensymphony.org/cu...
Ravel's famous gypsy inspired work will be performed by Gary Capozziello with the Hamde...
International American Classical Musi...
http://iacmw.com
IACMW performs and teaches in China!
Twitter - Gary Capozziello
https://twitter.com/Garyanthony80
Twitch - Gary Capozziello
http://twitch.tv/garycapozziello
Performance 2020 Page - Gary Capozziello
http://harttweb.hartford.edu/stu...
Linkedin - Gary Capozziello
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/...
Facebook - Gary Capozziello
http://www.facebook.com/garycapo...


text:
Home Commercial Orlandina Basket enters esports with Pro2Be Esports partnership
Orlandina Basket enters esports with Pro2Be Esports partnership
Adam Fitch
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Italian basketball team Orlandina Basket has entered the esports industry through a partnership with player development company Pro2Be Esports.
Pro2Be Esports helps to develop players' lives from "mental coaching to communication management" and will manage Orlandina Basket's esports division – including the marketing and promotion of the brand.
Giuseppe Lanfranchi, Head of Marketing for Orlandina Basket discussed the venture: "Orlandina Basket has a strategic vision of its clear future. The decision to land in the export market reflects the innovative spirit and dynamism of our company, which wants to expand its fan base and seize all the emerging business opportunities in the sport industry, including the esports."
Orlandina Basket's first step in esports was to sign the team formerly known as QM Nation. The roster – which will be known as Orlandina Esports – will represent the basketball club in both online and offline competitions both locally and internationally.
Roberto Forzano, Co-founder of Pro2Be Esports added: "We are pleased to have signed this important partnership with Orlandina Basket, and being the first in Italy to create an initiative of this kind is therefore a source of pride for us. We also thank the company for the trust shown. Getting to the top of the NBA2K title gives that extra strength to the initiative, but it will be just as important to feed this project day by day."
NBA 2K rose to new heights in term of prominence in esports with the launch of the NBA 2K League. In August, four expansion teams joined the competition ahead of its second season – upping the competition from 17 teams to 21. Its inaugural season kicked off in May of this year to a modest start, debuting with 5,000-6,000 concurrent viewers.
Esports Insider says: It's unclear just how valuable it is entering NBA 2K if you can't compete in the official league, but it's good to see an international club dabble in the industry. It's not a very adventurous venture as Orlandina Basket is staying within its wheelhouse with basketball, but it's no different to football clubs entering FIFA – a very common occurrence in 2018.
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By J.D. Ramey
Renowned history and politics expert Douglas Brinkley talks conservationism at UCSC.
If you ever find yourself feeling cocky about all your achievements and accolades, contemplate Douglas Brinkley's life for a while. Among the Rice University history professor's accomplishments: He's CBS News' history commentator; he was selected as Rosa Parks' official biographer; he's Jack Kerouac's authorized biographer; he's the literary executor for Hunter S. Thompson; he's written several articles for Rolling Stone, including profiles on Ken Kesey, Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut as well as a cover story on Bob Dylan; he's a contributing editor to Vanity Fair; his books include 1992's Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize-winning "Driven Patriot," 1999's "The Unfinished Presidency" (believed by many to be largely responsible for Jimmy Carter's winning of the Nobel Peace prize) and 2006's Robert F. Kennedy Book Award winner "The Great Deluge"; he's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; he was invited to the White House twice to discuss history with the president … and the list goes on.
On Saturday, January 29, Brinkley presents his lecture "Change: Mobilizing the Historical Narrative" at UCSC.
Here's what attendees can expect from his visit:
Good Times: Tell me about the talk you'll be giving here in Santa Cruz.
Douglas Brinkley: Well, I'm going to be talking about my Wilderness Cycle. I'm writing the whole history of the U.S. conservation movement, and the newest installment is called "The Quiet World: Saving Alaska's Wilderness Kingdom, 1879-1960." The book begins with John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, leaving San Francisco by steamer, headed up to Alaska's Inside Passage in 1879. Of course, he always wrote a lot about Yosemite, where you're watching how glacial processes work, but in Alaska, Muir got to see the real glaciers. And he went by canoe and hiking all over what is today Glacier Bay National Park area and would do what they called wilderness journalism. He went back and became the first eco-tourist for Alaska, 'cause he came back to the Bay Area and said, "Go to Alaska. Everybody must go. This is God's wilderness kingdom." And my book covers [everything] from Muir to the saving of ANWR, the Arctic Refuge, in 1960 by Dwight Eisenhower: this crusade of environmentalists, and how they worked nonstop to try to preserve the natural integrity of the Alaskan landscapes against the extraction industries. In Alaska, it's always been about people rushing in to extract from the land: first the gold rushes, then silver, and copper was big, and coal, and now, of course, it's oil. And usually mercantile interests, big development interests, hold sway in the United States, but the sheer magnitude and beauty of Alaska inspired a lot of the artists to dedicate their lives to protecting the wilderness there.
GT: Can you explain what you mean by "mobilizing the historical narrative"?
DB: Well, all I'm trying to do is keep moving the narrative forward, because I'm trying to do a multiple-volume history of conservation. We live our lives chronologically, so you can't really understand what occurs in any era if you don't know what happened before. Nobody's done a kind of narrative of all of these [people whom] I consider heroes of wilderness preservation in America. Just as we always in history remember great sports figures, movie stars or presidents, we also need to start honoring these early conservation environmentalists who made America so special—particularly where Santa Cruz is located, because it's these land trusts and nonprofits like the Sierra Club that have kept up the vigilance of saving all those great spots in California for posterity.
GT: You're known for your political and historical writing, but you've also done pieces on people in the arts like Kurt Vonnegut, Ken Kesey and Bob Dylan. Do you feel this is an extension of your historical and political work?
DB: Well, what's so exciting for me about "The Quiet World" is that I'm bringing both sides of myself together: I'm able to do profiles in the book of Gary Snider, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Rachel Carson, yet I'm also doing U.S. government political history with Secretary of Interior Harold Ickes or Secretary of Interior Fred Seaton, or dealing with FDR as president or Eisenhower in the White House. So I'm morphing all of it together, which I think gives the reader a clearer idea of how all these places got saved, because it's the art community and the spirits from John Muir forward—it's really been the ones who have been the drumbeat of almost a religious rhapsody about protecting species in the wild.
Douglas Brinkley speaks at 7 p.m. Saturday, January 29 at Humanities Lecture Hall, UCSC (1156 High St., Santa Cruz). For more information, go to whatsnextlectures.com.
J.d. Ramey
The Big OM
Roky's Road
Crepe Expectations
Budding Artist
Whole Lotta Blues
Once a Junkie…


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AU politics
The transparency projectNine Entertainment
Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case delayed as Fairfax lawyers seek to introduce new evidence
Commonwealth again raises national security concerns – prompting judge to express frustration
The Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial has been delayed again after Fairfax lawyers sought to outline new evidence. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Christopher Knaus
@knausc
Tue 26 May 2020 22.40 EDT
Last modified on Tue 26 May 2020 22.44 EDT
The federal government has again stymied the public airing of evidence in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial, creating further delays and prompting a federal court judge to express frustration.
Roberts-Smith, a special forces veteran, is suing Fairfax, now Nine Entertainment, in the federal court for a series of articles he alleges defamed him by suggesting he committed war crimes while serving in Afghanistan.
The attorney general, Christian Porter, previously intervened in the case, invoking national security laws to keep aspects of the case secret. The move sparked concern among Australian transparency campaigners and journalists.
On Wednesday lawyers for Fairfax sought to amend their defence and introduce outlines of new evidence to the court. But the commonwealth quickly raised national security concerns.
Secrecy in Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case alarms transparency campaigners
Peter Melican, of the Australian government solicitor's office, asked that no reference to the new evidence be made in open court until the government had a chance to review it.
"I am informed the attorney – or the commonwealth, perhaps more accurately – has concerns that some of that material does include national security information," Melican said.
"The commonwealth respectfully requests that there be no reference to the content of those outlines of evidence until it has had an opportunity to review that material and make an application to the extent that it needs to."
That prompted Justice Anthony Besanko to express frustration.
"I don't know why this wasn't attended to [earlier]," he said. "Bearing in mind the intervention of the commonwealth in these proceedings, why it wouldn't have been perfectly obvious to the parties and the commonwealth that there was a need to scrutinise all of the material that might possibly come before the court or be referred to before the court?"
Melican said the commonwealth had previously asked lawyers representing Fairfax and Roberts-Smith to notify it if they intended to introduce evidence that may raise national security concerns.
That notice had only received by the commonwealth on Wednesday morning, he said.
He asked that the evidence be suppressed for five days until the commonwealth had a chance to review it. Besanko rejected that proposal.
But the court did adjourn for five days to give the commonwealth a chance to review the evidence and make any arguments it wished to about the national security implications.
Bruce McClintock SC, representing Roberts-Smith, said the commonwealth had had access to the material for months. It had been given ample time to raise national security concerns, McClintock said.
"Every five days we lose means that my client is further away from having this matter heard, and it's fundamentally important to him," he said.
The case will return to the federal court on Tuesday.
This month the court ruled that the trial would need to be held in person, rather than via weblink, due to the sensitive nature of the evidence. That led the judge to vacate the original trial date of 15 June.
"In my opinion, an in-person trial is necessary for two independent reasons," Besanko said at the time. "The first reason is that such a trial is necessary to deal with the issues relating to, or arising from, the disclosure of national security information.
"The second reason is that this is a trial where the credibility or reliability of the key witnesses may well be crucial in circumstances where the alleged imputations arising from the matters complained of are, as I have said, very serious indeed."
The transparency project
Australian media
Australian security and counter-terrorism
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Mirrors show our faces, self-portraits reveal our souls. AS Byatt on how artists have exploited this most intimate of artforms
AS Byatt
Fri 14 Oct 2005 19.05 EDT First published on Fri 14 Oct 2005 19.05 EDT
Unflinching: Juncture by Jenny Saville. © Jenny Saville, courtesy Gagosian Gallery
On buses and trains I always think about the inexhaustible variety of human genes. We see types, and occasionally twins, but never doubles. All faces are unique, and this is exhilarating, despite the increasingly plastic similarity of TV stars and actors. The images we make of ourselves appear to have the same variety. My grandson at nursery school sent me a tea-towel printed with the self-portraits of his class, made at the stage when they saw themselves as huge heads on stick-like legs. There were smiley mouths and scowls and letter-box stares. There were hands like garden forks and hair like bushes and hair like neat stubble. Impossible not to ask oneself if the portraits could be matched to the artists. Does the movement of the hand reveal the body and the soul?
The National Portrait Gallery's powerful exhibition of 60 self-portraits - from Van Eyck to Jenny Savile, from Velázquez to Gerhard Richter - arouses the primitive wonder at the endlessness of possible representations of humans, all the more because it is restricted to self-portraits painted in oils. It is hard to imagine how we construed our own faces before there were mirrors. Narcissus gazing into the liquid meniscus cannot really have met the eye of his phantom. Balzac describes a fairground hoax where punters are promised a vision of what God himself cannot see - and find their own resemblance in a huge looking glass. Sylvia Plath's Mirror sees the glass as "silver and exact", but also as a terrible version of Narcissus's pool. A woman looks in: "In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman / Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish." Simone Weil pointed out that a beautiful woman may well assume that the mirror image is herself. An ugly woman never does.
The mirror brought with it the possibility of studying the precise structures and fine proportions of our unique bodies. And of our souls? The exhibition, and the accompanying catalogue essays, raise the question of the intentions of the artists, making images of themselves. Are self-portraits intimate examinations of identity? Are they "self-expression"? Are they, in both senses, "self-regarding"? Iris Murdoch believed that Rembrandt's self-portraits were a philosophic attempt on "the truth". In her essay, Ludmilla Jordanova points out that portraits were at least as much an advertisement, a presentation of the artist to the viewer (or patron) as he/she wished to be seen. Salvator Rosa's brooding intensity, Velázquez's aristocratic, self-assured presence, are examples of this, if not only of this. Joanna Woodall considers various contexts in which painters represented themselves - from an analogy with the Virgin as the mirror of Christ, to the use of the allegorical figure Pittura - and as she says, Artemisia Gentileschi, painting herself in 1638-39, had the idea that if Pittura can be represented as a woman, a specific woman can be represented as Pittura.
The portrait is powerful - the sleeve is rolled up on the strong and beautiful arm raised towards an invisible canvas. But it is the presence of the painter-subject-object that impresses, the energy of the body, the confidence of the intent. There are 17 self-portraits by women in this exhibition, and they differ greatly - but they all have a calm self-confidence of looking, from Sofonisba Anguissola (at the easel, painting the Virgin and Child in 1556) to smiling Judith Leyster painting a bawdy musician in 1630, from the grey-haired Anna Dorothea Therbusch-Lisiewska, painted in 1776 wearing a huge monocle, to Paula Modersohn-Becker, Suzanne Valadon (blowsy, sleazy, self-satisfied, brightly coloured, lounging and smoking), to Frida Kahlo, painted like an icon on to a mirror surrounded by flowers, or Charley Toorop, shadow-sculpted and intense against bare winter branches.
Looking at all these faces, one becomes aware of the significance of properties like hats - caps chosen to connect the portraitist with the tradition of Titian, Elisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun's Self-Portrait in a straw hat done as a tribute to Rubens's Le Chapeau de Paille with the palette on her arm, carrying the primary colours of the poppies and cornflowers on her head. A painter in the act of painting is different from a painter carrying a palette as a symbol. Then there are carefully chosen symbolic objects - Van Dyke represented himself with a monstrous sunflower. The surprising Hans Thoma - in a portrait painted in 1875 - looks out at us benignly as though we were the mirror, with a laurel-wreathed skull peering intrusively over his shoulder, and a knowing naked cherub hovering above him and tweaking his hair. A late golden Bonnard shows the artist cramped and shadowy in a bathroom, behind reflected bottles, looking down behind his glasses just beyond his cupped or clenched hands. A blatant and blanched narcissus sprouts, apparently from above the model's breast, in Christian Schad's super- clear symbolic double portrait.
One of the most intriguing images in the exhibition is the self-portrait by Johannes Gumpp (1646), which is three sober portraits in one - the mirror on the left, with its serious face looking forward, the full-length black-cloaked figure of the painter at work, seen from the back, and the painted image, peering obliquely back. The catalogue points out that the painted portrait presents not what the artist sees in the mirror, but what the external viewer sees. What excites me (as a writer) is the shadowy dark space of Gumpp's back view, which is the only portrait in the exhibition with which I feel any identity, though very many are painted so that I am in the position of the artist-subject when I look at them. My sense of my "self" is in the dark, looking out, making metaphors. There is a very large, maybe infinite black space, and two eyeholes in the skull that at the moment, for a time, take in the light. I forget who it was who said his face was other people's business - it was they who had to look at it. I "see" people, real and imagined, in my head but they are never, as the self-portraits are, what George Eliot in Middlemarch called "ideas wrought back to the directness of sense, like the solidity of objects".
The mirror forced us to contemplate our bodies and their difficult relation to our souls and selves. A further huge metaphysical shift came with the introduction of the photograph, which is the record of a lit reflection on sensitive film or paper. We now see our whole worlds, including ourselves, in serial instant composed snapped moments, past as soon as present. The photograph was thought to have destroyed the portrait and the self- portrait. The camera is both eye and mirror. But it hasn't happened that way - the peculiarly slippery and worked surface of oil paint, made glossily flat, or bearing the traces of the artist's brush responding to his/her gaze, contains time and contemplation and intention as a photograph mostly cannot. Artists in this exhibition have used the revelations of the physical world made by photography. Edward Hopper's self-portrait bears an ironic relation to snapshots or journalism, a banal identification with hidden depth. Andy Warhol uses the repetitive nature of the image in the age of photographic reproduction to repeat his face like cheap photo-booth prints. Richard Hamilton photographs himself from four angles, re-photographed on to sheets of glass and scrawled on by expressive coloured brush strokes, red, blue and yellow. The infinitely subtle Richter paints from photographs. His portrait here looks like a photograph out of focus, or seen "through a glass darkly" as the catalogue says. He is showing us how we have learned to see the world since the camera.
Other painters have resorted to the expressive use of brush strokes, like Van Gogh radiating colour from his eye sockets, like Leon Kossoff making clay-like fragments and worm- like strokes over both body and surrounding landscape, or Francis Bacon slewing mouth, nose and eyes into an impossible grimace with distorting sweeps, or Georg Baselitz constructing a nude image of himself upside down with paint applied with his fingers. Or Sidney Nolan, making a war mask of himself on hessian canvas with Ripolin, his brushes brandished like weapons, in 1943.
The NPG's decision to restrict the works to oil paintings is bold and rewarding. There are self-representations, like Antony Gormley's body eaten out of loaves of bread, which are concrete metaphors, or there are, as Anthony Bond points out, the self-exhibitions of performance artists - Yves Klein's leap from a second-storey window, Leap into the Void. There are those who test and attack and display their actual bodies in real time, or film their internal processes. But there is mystery enough in the relations between eye and flesh and clothes and glass - both transparent and reflective - as seen here.
Flesh is erotic, and flesh is mortal, and both are recorded. Bond refers to a self-portrait by Anguissola (1550) in which she depicts herself being painted by her master, Bernardino Campi, "His hand with the maulstick (a rod used to steady the brush hand of the painter) rests gently on her breast where in all modesty it should never have been." The women painters almost all paint their bodies as assured in their attractiveness and autonomy. Many of the men paint themselves in relation to bodies of the other sex. Lovis Corinth (1903) stares aggressively over the shoulder of a naked model, her back to us, who is clasped against his clothed body. Christian Schad is not painting. He is staring at the viewer, and is clothed in a strange veil-like transparent shirt, sitting in front of the haunches of his whitely naked model, who is sharp-faced, with a long ugly scar in her cheek, and a jaunty black bow on her wrist.
Flesh becomes more mysterious, more overpowering, and even more important with the retreat of the certainty of soul and the promise of immortality. One of the greatest painters of the flesh is Stanley Spencer, represented here by his terrible and remorseless portrait of himself and his second wife - they appear also, in all the real flabbiness and stringiness of middle-aged flesh in the extraordinary "leg-of-mutton" portrait that juxtaposes a perfectly rendered joint of dead meat with the living bodies, another riddling solid metaphor. It is true that Spencer believed in the resurrection of the body - he painted humans, clothed and unclothed, scrambling out of graves at the Last Trump. Lucian Freud - here represented by a reflection of his face in a hand-mirror caught in the transparency of a sash window, a reflection on the nature of the mirror as much as of the man - has said that his paintings of people are the presence of those people for him, the paint is in some sense the flesh. And there is a direct line from Spencer's recording angel, through Freud's meticulous building of painted flesh, to Savile's Juncture, a monstrous, carefully built nude, seen from the back, crammed, it appears, against the limits of a glass box, or a mirror (one form of juncture), cut off just below the juncture of the buttocks, and squashed at nose and lips and breast against the edge of the confining frame. Savile is unflinching, and we flinch. The exhibition is a revelation of the variety of what it is to be human.
· Self-Portrait: Renaissance to Contemporary opens at the National Portrait Gallery, London WC2, on Thursday. Details: 020-7306 0055.
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Cucullia platinea is een vlinder uit de familie van de uilen (Noctuidae). De wetenschappelijke naam van de soort is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1987 door Ronkay & Ronkay.

platinea