As the clock wound down on Sept. 30 and lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on the U.S. federal budget and President Obama's healthcare overhaul, the country prepared for its first government shutdown in 17 years.
Within just 10 days of the government's closure, certain events signaled the importance of processes that maintain safety and quality, and revealed potential consequences of not having these regulatory procedures in place at full force.
On Sept. 30, the NHTSA posted a notice on its website stating it would not be announcing new auto-related recalls and evaluating safety complaints during the shutdown.
Still, Claybrook said, the NHTSA's inability to function at capacity could be life threatening.
Workplace safety. At the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which inspects workplaces, 230 of 2,235 workers are on the job—only enough staff to respond to complaints with "a high risk of death or serious physical harm," according to OSHA's shutdown plan.
Anti-pollution efforts. Ninety-four percent of Environmental Protection Agency employees are furloughed, placing inspections of water treatment plants and industrial sites on hold, as well as some work cleaning up hazardous chemicals.
Nursing home care oversight. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, routine federal inspections to examine safety, clinical care and medication being administered at nursing homes aren't being conducted.
At press time, the U.S. government remained shut down, although some workers are being called back to their jobs.
How long the shutdown will last, or the longer-term effects it will have in the United States and around the globe, remain to be seen. What most can agree on, however, is hampered operations of many of the nation's regulatory agencies does, in fact, present a risk to safety and quality. Until an agreement is reached, and processes and procedures resume full function, no one knows what could happen next.
Kevin G. Hall, "Shutdown Will Mean Furloughs, Fewer Services, and Closed Museums and Parks," McClatchy Washington Bureau, Sept. 30, 2013, www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/30/203699/shutdown-would-mean-furloughs.html.
Jim Snyder, Brian Wingfield and Mark Drajem, "Furloughed Inspectors Leave Gaps in Safety Oversight," Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-09/furloughed-inspectors-leave-gaps-in-safety-oversight.html.
United Press International, "278 Salmonella Illnesses Blamed on Foster Farms," Oct. 7, 2013, www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/10/07/278-salmonella-illnesses-blamed-on-Foster-Farms/UPI-28731381192221 (case sensitive).
Helena Bottemiller Evich and Tarini Parti, "Government Shutdown Stresses Food Inspections," Politico, Oct. 2, 2013, www.politico.com/story/2013/10/government-shutdown-food-inspectors-agriculture-97691.html.
Elizabeth Weise, "New Salmonella Outbreak in Chicken Resists Antibiotics," USA Today, Oct. 8, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/salmonella-chicken-outbreak/2941783.
Evich, "Government Shutdown Stresses Food Inspections," see reference 5.
Weise, "New Salmonella Outbreak in Chicken Resists Antibiotics," see reference 6.
U.S. Official News, "Tesla Says Car Fire Began in Battery," Oct. 4, 2013, Quality News Today, http://asq.org/qualitynews/qnt/execute/displaySetup?newsID=17053.
Joan Lowy, "Auto Recalls on Hold During Govt Shutdown," Associated Press, Oct. 10, 2013, http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/auto-recalls-hold-govt-shutdown-20526499.
James R. Healey, "New GM Pickups Recalled for Possible Seat Failure," USA Today, Oct. 9, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/10/09/gm-general-motors-chevrolet-silverado-gmc-sierra-recall-seat-failure/2955301.
Lowy, "Auto Recalls on Hold During Govt Shutdown," see reference 14.
Snyder, "Furloughed Inspectors Leave Gaps in Safety Oversight," see reference 2.
John Bacon and Natalie DiBlasio, "Shutdown Puts Squeeze on Health, Safety," USA Today, Oct. 9, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/08/federal-furloughs-health-and-safety/2944897.
Marisol Bello and John Bacon, "Number of Furloughed Workers Shrinks as Shutdown Drags On," USA Today, Oct. 10, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/09/shutdown-furloughs-return-to-work/2953191/ 5.
Consumer safety advocates think U.S. regulators might be setting the table for future contamination outbreaks following a recent ease in restrictions covering some Chinese poultry processors.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) began allowing four processing plants in China to ship a limited amount of poultry to the United States. The birds would be raised and slaughtered in the United States, Canada or Chile (the only countries approved by the USDA), but processed in China and sold back into the American market.
Some think this development will eventually expand the rules—as soon as a year from now—so chickens and turkeys actually bred in China could end up in U.S. grocery cases and restaurants.
"This is the first step toward allowing China to export its own domestic chickens to the U.S." said Tony Corbo, the senior lobbyist for Food and Water Watch, an advocacy group that promotes food safety.
The Chinese facilities will verify that cooked products exported to the United States came from American birds, so no USDA inspector will be present in the plants. Because the poultry will only be processed there, it will not require a "Made in China" label. That means U.S. consumers eating frozen chicken nuggets from a grocery store or a chicken sandwich from a fast-food restaurant will not know whether the chicken came from a Chinese processing plant.
Because of China's recent history with food safety lapses, nervousness about this regulatory move is not surprising. The country has had frequent outbreaks of the deadly avian influenza. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tied the deaths of more than 500 dogs and a handful of cats to chicken jerky treats that came from China. The food was eventually recalled, but not before it sickened another 2,500 animals.
"Previous USDA poultry inspections revealed conditions in China that could put American consumers at risk," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), one of the most vocal critics of allowing Chinese chicken in the United States, said in a statement. "Even if a one-off visit shows an improved environment, there will be no U.S. inspector continually present when chicken is being processed for export to the U.S. I continue to remain deeply concerned that trade interests will trump public health at the end of this process."
USDA officials defended the approvals, saying the Chinese processors provided sufficient evidence and met the proper requirements.
Al Almanza, administrator of the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), said the four processing plants were audited and cleared by inspectors earlier this year to process U.S.-origin chicken and sell it back into the American market.
During the March audit, the FSIS sought to determine whether the Chinese government provides sufficient, consistent oversight at poultry plants. The FSIS also created mock situations to test the plant personnel and quizzed supervisors to see whether they were now properly trained on the reformed hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), how to test for salmonella and listeria, and what to do in the case of contamination. By the end of the inspection, China was given the green light to certify the four poultry plants that will export processed poultry to the United States.
"If we were to determine that their system is equivalent [to U.S. plants], why wouldn't it be?" Almanza said. "It's the same [set of standards] we use for any other country. We're not treating China any differently in determining equivalency for exporting to the United States."
Processed poultry is currently imported to the United States from five other countries: Canada, Chile, France, Israel and Mexico.
Almanza acknowledged more must be done before the USDA approves China for exporting its own chicken. "There are some issues that still need to be addressed" to establish equivalency between poultry plants in the United States and China, he said.
An FSIS spokeswoman said imported raw poultry is audited through a different audit team, and is not related to the auditing of processed chicken.
Elliot, Danielle, "Officials Say 'Okay' to Processed Chicken From China," CBS News, Sept. 6, 2013, www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57601738/officials-say-okay-to-processed-chicken-from-china.
Parti, Tarini, and Bill Tomson, "Chinese-raised Chicken Could Be on U.S. Tables Soon," Politico, Sept. 9, 2013, www.politico.com/story/2013/09/chinese-raised-chicken-96490.html.
Strom, Stephanie, "Chinese Chicken Processors Are Cleared to Ship to U.S.," New York Times, Aug. 30, 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/08/31/business/chinese-chicken-processors-are-cleared-to-ship-to-us.html?_r=0.
Tomson, Bill, and Tarini Parti, "USDA Trip Moves U.S. Closer to Accepting Chinese Chicken," Politico, Aug. 15, 2013, www.politico.com/story/2013/08/usda-chinese-chicken-95586.html.
ASQ CEO Paul Borawski has announced plans to retire in May 2014.
"I was proud of the organization I joined (in 1986), and proud of the organization ASQ has become," Borawski said in his announcement. "ASQ's mission and vision have provided for a career of immense inspiration and satisfaction."
ASQ's executive council is developing a hiring strategy that will include an external search firm, said John Timmerman, chair of ASQ's board of directors. Borawski also will play an active role in the selection of a new CEO.
"Paul is committed to the success of ASQ and continuity of a CEO succession process," Timmerman said. "Paul's departure is much more than a retirement because he has imprinted a legacy and was the chief architect in the growth of ASQ."
Borawski joined ASQ in 1986 as director of technical activities and served as executive director, executive director and chief strategic officer, and CEO.
Borawski said he hopes to spend time with friends and family and to "enjoy several long-postponed adventures" during retirement.
Smaller organizations tend to be more open with customers regarding the quality of their products and services than larger organizations are, and most quality professionals who hold senior positions report directly to their CEOs.
Of organizations with annual revenues of less than $100 million, 85% work closely with customers to understand the performance of their products compared with just 72.6% of organizations with revenues of more than $10 billion.
Nearly 75% of organizations with annual revenues of less than $100 million share service or product quality performance data with customers, while only 60% of organizations with more than $10 billion in revenue share do so. According to the data, 67.3% of all respondents share product or service quality with their customers.
Nearly 75% of all organizations surveyed said their senior quality position reports directly to the CEO or equivalent.
About 46% of manufacturing organizations report quality measures to frontline staff daily, while almost 17% of service organizations report quality measures to frontline staff at the same frequency. Nearly 23% of services organizations share no quality measures with frontline staff, compared with less than 5% of manufacturing organizations.
ASQ partnered with the American Productivity and Quality Center to conduct and manage the research and reports. The first report, "Discoveries 2013," was unveiled at ASQ's World Conference on Quality and Improvement in May. A third report, titled "Insights, Case Study Reports and Continuing Conversations," will be released later this year.
ASQ will release a series of "spotlight" reports beginning this month that will provide details and context from industry leaders on specific topics, including the role of the customer in the quality process, the culture of quality, and training and competencies. The reports are based on data collected from 1,991 organizations in 22 countries.
To find all the reports, visit www.globalstateofquality.org.
EDUCATION: MBA from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio.
CURRENT JOB: Corporate quality director at Verizon Telematics in Atlanta, responsible for overall product quality, creating the infrastructure for the business management system (total business system vs. quality management system), and teaching and managing the internal auditing program.
INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY: When Pratt worked in inside sales at a metal stamping company, she spent some time with the stamping operators so she could learn how they produced a quality product. This helped her better serve customers. Later, she visited the quality department to see how it tested products. As a salesperson, these experiences were valuable because she could understand the needs of customers beyond receiving their orders.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: Her work at Plexus International as a service provider and technical reviewer allowed her to share with and learn from hundreds of quality professionals; Delphi Corp. and the automotive industry gave her many lessons about ISO/TS16949, Six Sigma and lean enterprise.
ASQ ACTIVITIES: Pratt has been a part of ASQ Automotive Division for many years and is the former chair of Automotive Excellence magazine.
RECENT AWARDS: Pratt was included in the 2012 class of ASQ fellows.
PERSONAL: Married and has two dogs.
FAVORITE WAY TO RELAX: Watching crime investigation TV shows.
QUALITY QUOTE: Quality begins with a methodical thought process and ends with an effective enterprise solution.
Organizers of the fourth-annual World Quality Month, which takes place in November, have issued a call for content to quality professionals around the world, asking them to submit stories that illustrate the value of quality principles.
Again this year, a special website dedicated to the month-long celebration will feature stories about the impact of quality on quality professionals' lives or organizations. The site, http://asq.org/world-quality-month, includes a tool kit to assist quality professionals in promoting awareness of this month, as well as ways to plan and promote their own World Quality Month events.
The website, supported by ASQ, also will feature videos and links to success stories from individuals, companies and organizations around the world to share with colleagues. For more information about events, resources and other contributions, visit the website or email the celebrations' organizers at worldqualitymonth@asq.org.
NEW ENTERPRISE MEMBERS Microsoft, PepsiCo and AbbVie, a research-based biopharmaceutical company, have become ASQ latest enterprise members, joining 46 other organizations at this membership level. Visit http://asq.org/membership/organizations/current-members.html for more information about enterprise membership.
SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED ASQ has awarded its Richard A. Freund International Scholarship to Kaibo Liu, a Georgia Institute of Technology student working toward a doctoral degree in industrial engineering. Liu, of China, was awarded the $5,000 scholarship, which is named after a past ASQ president and supports a quality professional's graduate studies.
AWARD RECIPIENT NAMED David Devoe, operations manager and general manager of Plymouth Spring Co. in Bristol, CT, has received ASQ Hartford Section's annual Quality Recognition Award for his helping to establish Plymouth Spring's lean program. For more information, visit www.asqhartford.org.
Samuel S. Wilks Memorial Award: Kanti Mardia.
Gottfried E. Noether Award: Yingying Fan and Jayaram Sethuraman.
Outstanding Statistical Application Award: Robert E. Kass, Ryan C. Kelly and Wei-Liem Loh.
Edward C. Bryant Scholarship Trust Fund Award: Natalie Exner.
W.J. Dixon Award for Excellence in Statistical Consulting: Ronald D. Snee.
Waller Education Award: Nathan Tintle.
W.J. Youden Award: Lane F. Burgette and Jerome Reiter.
Statistics in Chemistry Award: Peter Goos and Steven G. Gilmour.
Karl E. Peace Award for Outstanding Statistical Contributions for the Betterment of Society: Richard Macey Simon.
Causality in Statistics Education Award: Felix Elwert.
For more about this year's recipients, visit http://tinyurl.com/kztdwh7.
THREE HUNDRED SCHOLARSHIPS to help Marine veterans, reservists, active duty personnel and their family members become certified lean Six Sigma Black Belts are being awarded by Leatherneck.com, an online resource for former Marines. Mikel Harry, a Six Sigma pioneer and the board chair and president of the Six Sigma Management Institute, has donated the scholarships. For more details, visit www.leatherneck.com.
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY for Nondestructive Testing will host its annual conference Nov. 4-7 in Las Vegas. The event provides a forum for exchanging theoretical, scientific and application information and to learn about developments in nondestructive testing technology. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/otjmgfb.
THE AMERICAN PRODUCTIVITY and Quality Center's process conference will be held Oct. 21-25 in Houston. For more information, visit www.apqc.org/apqcs-2013-process-conference.
NEW MEMBERS WERE recently appointed to the board of overseers of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Robert Hagans, Warren Harris, Terry Holliday and Liza Nickerson Seltzer were named to three-year terms on the board, and Rulon Stacey was appointed board chair. The appointments were made by the secretary of commerce to advise the Department of Commerce on the Baldrige program.
THE NATIONAL PATIENT Safety Foundation has named Tejal K. Gandhi, M.D., as president of the nonprofit research and education organization. Gandhi is chief quality and safety officer at Partners Healthcare in Boston. For more information about her background, visit http://tinyurl.com/oalk29z.
More than 40% of manufacturing workers said they will look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to the Randstad Manufacturing Employee Confidence Index released last month. The quarterly measure of overall confidence among manufacturing workers increased 0.9 points to 51.9 in the second quarter of 2013.
The number of manufacturing workers who said they believe more jobs are available rose seven percentage points—increasing from 21 to 28% in the second quarter. Yet, fewer employees are confident about the future of their current employers. In fact, this was the sole area in which a decline (47% down from 53%) among manufacturing employees occurred between the first and second quarters of 2013.
"This quarter's report underscores that manufacturing workers have a real sense of optimism about the number of career opportunities that exist today," said Phyllis Finley, executive vice president at Randstad U.S. "In fact, figures this high have not been reported since well before the 2008 recession, and we believe this increase has a correlation to employees' confidence in the overall economic recovery."
For more details from the survey, visit www.randstadusa.com/workforce360/jobs-the-economy/manufacturing-employees-confident-and-on-the-move/123.


Bitcoin [BTC] is presently riding a major bull wave, with the resistance level, the 200-MA level, and even the $5,000 mark crossed all in one week. However, some are questioning the longevity of this wave. Weiss Ratings, the crypto-specific ratings company, is in the news after it pessimistically pointed out that a pullback is imminent.
According to their April 12 tweet, Weiss predicted that Bitcoin will drop down to $4,000, a price it was last trading at on March 26. Crediting their "model," while providing no supporting metrics or parameters, the crypto-community turned on Weiss and did not respond positively to their bearish claims.
Weiss' prediction would mean a 21.87 percent drop in the price of the coin, much higher than their daily gain of 17 percent on April 1, which set-off the aforementioned price rally. Given Bitcoin's hold on the collective market, a drop of this proportion could spell doom for the entire coin market.
The crypto-rating agency's claim comes on the back of the first correction since the April rally began. After reaching a high of over $5,420, the king coin dropped by a massive 8.51 percent, and plummeted below the $5,000 mark on April 12.
Despite the $5,000 drop being brief, it triggered a host of analysts stating that this correction was the first of many. Several predicted that the bottom would be re-visited given the rapid nature of the Bitcoin price push.
A drop of this proportion would certainly drag down the hopes of the collective cryptospace and would add to opposing claims that the cryptocurrency market is rife with volatility. Furthermore, with the SEC stating that volatility is the prime reason behind the stalling of a decision on the publicly traded Bitcoin product, the Bitcoin ETF proposal scheduled for May 2019 would be delayed once again.
The community might not take Weiss at its word though, given the past comments they've made with reference to market prediction. Immediately after the price rally ensconced the market, Weiss stated that they had informed their "premium subscribers" that the bear market was "officially over," crediting their "model" yet again.
Even then, Weiss did not provide any proof of intimation of the stated information or market study data with indicators to back their claims. Additionally, users hit back, calling Weiss' bluff, stating that the point of the prediction was to make it before-the-fact, and not after it.
Two coins that Weiss pegged as being reliable both on a long-term and short-term basis were EOS and XRP. However, market results beg to differ. XRP has held firm with several adoption cases, while EOS has seen its market cap and position on the coin ladder fall.
EOS, took the top spot for risk-return and finished second, behind XRP, on the technology and adoption metric, in the Weiss Ratings' chart. Since then, EOS has seen Litecoin [LTC] and Bitcoin Cash [BCH] overtake it. At press time, the crypto pegged to be a "competitor to Ethereum," is languishing in the sixth spot, behind BCH by over $170 million.


text:
Resources for Black Freelancers
Brittany Flanagan | June 19, 2020 June 19, 2020
An unprecedented civil rights movement is sweeping the globe, and if you're like me, you may be looking for a little R&R one day and the next tracking down ways to get involved. Whether you're looking for ways to boost your freelance career, get support, or give back to the black community, here's a list of organizations and resources to get you started.
1. #blkcreatives
Pronounced "hashtag Black Creatives," #blkcreatives strives to empower and inspire black creatives of every variety. If you're a writer looking to sharpen your pen or a social media guru searching for your next client, #blkcreatives provides you with the tools and resources to do so. They offer a designated job board and blog and host monthly Twitter chats (@blkcreatives) where they offer support and strategies to strengthen and grow your career.
2. Black Futures Lab
Black Futures Lab works non-stop to engage and activate black voters in their local communities in an effort to increase the visibility of black issues, and build political power in underserved areas. Through both traditional and innovative organizing methods, they encourage voter participation and provide education on pressing topics facing each and every black community.
3. National Association of Black Journalists
The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was founded in 1975 and is the longest-standing organization for black journalists, media, and communications professionals in the country. Their goal is simple and their message is widespread: to advocate and provide opportunities and services to black journalists.
To do this, they partner with recruiters at the top media outlets in the nation, including CNN, The New York Times, and Gannett Corporation. Not only do they host yearly conventions and career fairs, but they also have an abundance of dedicated resources that you can access directly from their website, including scholarship applications, and more recently, a COVID-19 Relief Fund.
4. Therapy for Black Girls
Therapy for Black Girls, or TFBG, is making remarkable strides in providing mental health resources for black women everywhere. They gained national recognition after they were featured in an Oprah Magazine article detailing the woes and biases that women face when seeking therapy. TFBG's mission is to not only remedy common stigmas associated with mental health but to provide black patients with therapists who are culturally conscious and empathetic. Their Instagram also provides therapeutic, community-driven bliss.
5. Black Mental Health Alliance
Providing quality mental health services is at the forefront of many black organizations and non-profits. Black Mental Health Alliance (BMHA) positions themselves as advocates for not only mental health but the whole health of every individual within the black community. By partnering with clinicians, schools, and other community groups, BMHA works to provide resources ranging from therapy to summer camps for kids. They also offer training to help educate parents and children alike on the psychological toll of prejudice and systemic racism and how to overcome them in their own communities.
6. Official Black Wall Street
Official Black Wall Street (BWS) is gaining traction and has become the most reliable and largest platform for black-owned businesses in the US. You can search and bookmark businesses within their directory or list your own and communicate directly with potential customers and offer daily deals. Touting over 1 million users it's a great way to gain exposure, and as they put it themselves, secure the bag.
Other Ways to Get Involved:
Signing petitions and donating time or money is a great way to signal your support of black causes and organizations. If you're on the front lines peacefully protesting, be sure to check out these guidelines on staying safe and protected. If you're looking for additional ways to get involved, check out other great organizations that can help you raise your voice and increase your impact in the ongoing pursuit for equity and equality.
Additional Mental Health, Community, and Advocacy Resources:
The Loveland Foundation
National Alliance of Mental Illness
The Center For Policing Equity
The National Museum of African American History – Talking About Race
9 Helpful COVID-19 Resources for Freelancers
80 Resources for Black Digital Artists
Black-owned Restaurant List
Tags Freelancing
About Brittany
Brittany spends her workdays curating and vetting freelance writers for her favorite SaaS company ever -- ClearVoice, who is paving the path for freelance writers and designers around the world.
Brittany graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at ASU. There, she launched her career as a rookie journalist, writing and reporting for The Arizona Republic, AZ Central, StatePress and Downtown Devil. Over the years she's perfected her communication skills in careers in public relations, marketing and advertising. Working for two of the top ad agencies in Phoenix, she worked closely with clients like Verizon, AZDHS, and Global Blood Therapeutics to name a few.
Meet the Teamlancers Part 1: Share Your Story, Tips for Success, and More
Join us as we take a deeper dive into teamlancing and feature interesting folks who earn a living as teamlancers as well as their background stories, challenges, and recipes for success.
Top Freelancing Tips to Boost Your Content Career [Monthly Roundup]
Our Talent Team rounds up freelancing news and tips you need to take your freelance business to the next level.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


What is your latest release and what genre is it?
The name of the book I'm spotlighting is Martuk … the Holy and readers consider it to be Literary Horror or Dark Fiction.
Tormented by demons, an immortal man confronts his violent past.
Not only was Martuk … the Holy chosen as a "Highlight of the Year" by the Papyrus Independent Fiction Awards, it and the two upcoming sequels (Martuk … the Holy: Proseuche due in 2014 and Martuk … the Holy: Shayateen in 2015) are currently being considered for film adaptation.
Links for people to buy it.
Born in Seattle and now dividing his time between the East and West coasts, Jonathan Winn is a screenwriter, a playwright, an actor, and author of Martuk … The Holy and The Martuk Series (The Wounded King, The Elder, Red and Gold), an ongoing collection of Short Fiction inspired by Martuk … The Holy.


As we move toward Easter, we will gather together this Sunday for a combined worship service. You are invited to join us downstairs at 9:30 AM for a brunch. We will then worship together at 10:45 AM in the sanctuary. The brunch and combined service is a wonderful way to connect with those who worship at different times. I hope you can make it.
As we gather together, we will be studying Matthew 21:1-17. We might remember the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. But there is much to this story that we might miss since we are not first century Jews. As we journey with Jesus just prior to his arrest and crucifixion, we will discuss how these events impact all that will happen over the next few days. Let me encourage you to read ahead as you prepare for worship.
(Matthew 21:1-17 NIV) As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away." This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: "Say to Daughter Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest heaven!" When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee." Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it 'a den of robbers.'" The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise'?" And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.


text:
Q: Using libmpdclient-dev in C++ returns collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status I want to use libmpdclient-dev in my C++ program. I installed it on my system.
Under /usr/include/mpd I found all the header files.
My test program looks like this:
#include<iostream>
#include<mpd/client.h>

using namespace std;

struct mpd_connection *conn;

int main() {
    conn = mpd_connection_new("192.168.1.151", 6600, 0);

    if(conn == NULL) {
        cout << "Not connected \n";
    }
    else {
        cout << "Connected \n";
    }

    return 0;
}

It compiles fine:
g++ -g  -Wfatal-errors  -std=c++11 main.cpp -c -o main.o

However, running the linker as follows:
g++ -g  -Wfatal-errors  -std=c++11 main.o -o run

gives this error:
main.o: In Function `main':
~/mpd/main.cpp:13: undefined reference to `mpd_connection_new'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

What do I need to add or change to link successfully?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


koreporter: How Big of a Deal Could Suneung Be to Celebrities?
How Big of a Deal Could Suneung Be to Celebrities?
Remember my earlier blog about Suneung, the test that all the seniors in high school takes?
Remember it happens once a year?
It's kind of sad, but there's no other national thing or even holiday that people unite so well.
So here are celebrities giving the students some message of encouragement.
The celebrities are actually some of the most popular celebrities.
even makes this funny face and a gesture for the students to wish them luck.
I think these guys are 2AM.
One if the cutest celebrities (according to Korean females) wishes students luck, too.
Finally, here's Sandra Park from 2NE1 going FULL OUT.
She has a pen in her hand, which means "study hard!"
and a mirror to give them confidence and encouragement.
they signed a big paper where most celebrities wished students good luck.
Kind of get a feeling of how big this is...?


text:
You Are Here : Home / Press Releases/ 2019 Press Releases / LGBTQ+ Business Inclusion Resolution
LGBTQ+ Business Inclusion Resolution
Mayor Buddy Dyer and District 4 City Commissioner Patty Sheehan Introduce LGBTQ+ Business Inclusion Resolution in Partnership with National LGBT Chamber of Commerce
APRIL 2, 2019 – ORLANDO, FL – Today, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and District 4 City Commissioner Patty Sheehan announced a resolution for the inclusion of LGBTQ+ owned businesses certified by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) in contracting and procurement opportunities with the city.
With the adoption of this resolution the City of Orlando will become the first city in Florida to recognize LGBTQ+ owned businesses through the establishment of an official certification process.
"Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the backbone of our local economy and the reason why we have such a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem and business-friendly environment," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. "We must work together to continue to foster an environment that advances opportunities for all. This resolution ensures that LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs in Orlando will have the opportunity to create jobs and develop innovations that benefit all who live in the most inclusive city in America."
With this resolution, the City of Orlando will recognize the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce's robust certification process, track the City of Orlando's contracts and spending with certified LGBTQ+ owned businesses, and commit to increased outreach with the Metropolitan Business Association (MBA), Orlando's local chapter of the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
"As part of the city's economic development strategy, we are constantly seeking ways to remove barriers," said Orlando City Commissioner Patty Sheehan. "One of the misconceptions about including LGBTQ+ owned businesses, or those of any other diverse community, is that someone else's opportunity decreases as a result. That simply isn't so. No one loses when everyone is given a fair shot to win."
The proposed resolution will:
Allow the city to develop a database and registry of LGBTQ+ owned businesses with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce as the certifying entity.
Provide a mechanism for the city to monitor and track usage of LGBTQ+ owned and certified businesses in the procurement of goods and services for the City of Orlando.
Ensure inclusion for LGBTQ+ owned businesses by developing training programs and services that will ensure LGBTQ+ business owners are informed about procurement opportunities.
NGLCC MEDIA CONTACT:
Jonathan Lovitz
Senior Vice President, NGLCC
press@nglcc.org
ABOUT NGLCC:
The National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) is the business voice of the LGBT community and is the largest global advocacy organization specifically dedicated to expanding economic opportunities and advancements for LGBT people. NGLCC is the exclusive certification body for LGBT-owned businesses, known as LGBT Business Enterprises (LGBTBEs). www.nglcc.org @nglcc


text:
'Glory' Exclusive Trailer: Drama Explores Social and Political Inequalities in Contemporary Bulgarian Society
The drama by writing/directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov will open at New York's Film Forum April 12.
Yoselin Acevedo
Mar 2, 2017 12:43 pm
"Glory" screened at the 2016 Locarno Film Festival. Now, the drama by writing/directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov will open at New York City's Film Forum on April 12. The story is a follow-up to the duo's 2014 award-winning drama "The Lesson," which was the first feature film the two worked on together.
READ MORE: 'For Here or to Go?' Trailer: Timely Drama Shows the Dangers of an Expiring Work Visa — Watch
"Glory" follows Tzanko Petrov (Stefan Denolyubov), a shy and solitary railroad worker in Bulgaria who discovers a large sum of cash on the tracks and turns it in to the authorities. When the head of PR for the Transport Ministry, Julia Staikova (Margita Gosheva), uses him as a "national hero" to divert attention from a corruption scandal, Tzanko's life gets turned upside down and he ends up being ridiculed nationally.
"Glory" ("Slava" in Bugarian) is the second installment of a trilogy of films that began with "The Lesson." Both explore issues such as social and political inequality in contemporary Bulgarian society. "The inspiration came from a newspaper titles. That's the base of this; there is a social element that is built in both stories, and there will be in the third one," Valchanov told Four Three Film.
READ MORE: 'GLOW' Teaser Trailer: First Look at Alison Brie's Female Wrestling Series from Jenji Kohan
"Glory" will open at New York's Film Forum April 12. Watch the exclusive trailer and poster below.
This Article is related to: Film and tagged The Lesson


text:
Struża-Kolonia  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Trawniki, within Świdnik County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies approximately  south-east of Świdnik and  south-east of the regional capital Lublin.

The village has a population of 760.

References

Villages in Świdnik County

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The latest advice for making this blog useful includes more dialog, more publicity of our capabilities, and more frequency. Okay, got it. Taking them in order, if a blog becomes valuable when a discussion breaks out, what makes that different than a discussion forum? I don't think it's a matter of semantics, so I want to understand how blogs are different than discussion forums. And, if they're not, what's all the buzz about? Discussion forums have been around for a long time, and IMHO the killer app for communities of practice. So I do like the idea of the exchange! If I now start calling discussion forums blogs, will that change the dynamics of them?
On to the matter of publicizing our smarts… Good idea if I want to push our products and services, but I'm not a particularly good salesman, and this model feels very salesy. In fact, it feels like if all I do is to extol our virtues, pretty soon I'm going to want to apply to our sales and marketing department. I can do this bit of shameless promotion though—here's our website URL: www.apqc.org. Note that we're a ".org" and that we do lots of cool stuff, especially in the area of knowledge management, where our president Carla O'Dell is one of the true thought leaders in the world. Whew! That was a lot for me—more promotion next time.
More frequency? I've posted 4-5 times in this one week alone! I'm tired. This is hard work for me, especially when I'm trying to keep my attention focused on client needs. Now in fairness, I still only care about internal knowledge sharing, so this externally facing blog doesn't answer the WIIFM, but I am still responsible for it. So—a tidbit of external knowledge sharing? How about this? Stan Garfield runs a really cool community where there are discussions about KM related issues; in the community's discussion forum.
Okay, enough of running down my own blog. Here's something that is important and that needs more attention: knowledge retention and transfer. I just finished a two-day workshop with an industry group whose main concern is the impending implosion of the industry from the rash of retirements expected in the next five years or so. This is an industry-wide problem, so not only is it an issue at one organization, it creates a poaching problem for all the organizations in the industry. And don't think you don't have to worry about "their" problem. This industry is necessary for every one of us in the U.S. every single day, 24/7/365. If anything, you should be glad that these folks are as far ahead of the curve as they are with this issue--your life may literally depend upon it.
More broadly, many organizations from many industries are also worried about the issue (as evidenced by our study that currently includes 31 sponsoring companies and another half dozen or so best practice partners). So what is your organization doing about this potential meltdown of institutional knowledge? By the way, at this workshop I just attended, a term was used that I had never heard previously—"Y2Gray." Meaning that perhaps the sky isn't falling and that the hype of loss of institutional knowledge is just that—similar to the Y2K non-problem of a few years ago. So which is it?
Brilliant blog posting frequency this week! Better than me anyway, I manage only a couple a week.
OK, I got another 'blog as a marketing device' question for you: What's the APQC blog's 'mission statement'? If it's a business tool, then it would have a business objective. You describe the blog as something you've been asked to do for APQC . . . is it your blog, about you? Is it APQC's blog, and if so what is it intended to achieve for APQC? What's its mission statement?
It sounds a little like someone at APQC decided it would be a good idea to have a blog, because blogs are 'in' knowledge management things so it would be good for APQC to have one, and your number came up to run it. So, APQC has a blog, and it's whatever you choose to blog about . . . perhaps with no clearly defined business objective. On what definite basis would you say the blog is successful in terms of business objectives (e.g. number of readers, raising brand awareness of APQC, driving more people to the website, etc)?
Now, you're doing great at running your blog (hey, I'm following it!) but I raise all this only because you talk about the business value of blogs and whether they're ready for prime time.
I think it's a bit like the business value of a website. It's not enough just to have one, it's a communication tool interfacing to a target audience. An organisation has to put a bit of thought into it to get full business value from it as a business tool. It wouldn't be enough just to put up any old website and conclude they don't work.
So, my question du jour is: what is the mission statement for the blog?
I will try to get my act together this weekend to post on the topic over at my blog as well.
Thanks for the kind words, Jim. Here is a link to the SIKM Leaders Community.
Jim.. I think you've hit on a bit of "blurry-ness" between blogs and discussion groups, where, other than a few extra features in today's tools, perhaps, the key difference is a content leadership/ownership perspective.
Jim.. drawing on Dr. Mackinnon's comments about business value, I think the business value of your blog (maybe it could be a group blog with Carla/Cindy to share the work) is it humanizes / personalizes, to a certain degree validates, and even presents new content. It moves a bit towards the type of narrative / storytelling that Snowden talks about as being the key approach to transferring knowledge in organizations.


– Dave Crisp, Canadian HR Reporter – Read Dave's full review at Some books deserve a long life: The next Good to Great?
From the leadership gurus of Zenger Folkman, How to Be Exceptional provides a revolutionary approach to leadership development. Instead of focusing on your weaknesses and how to overcome them, it focuses on your strengths – and how to build them.
Readers will learn how to pinpoint their best leadership traits and choose the right development target. They'll learn how to apply Zenger Folkman's revolutionary "cross-training" method to grow their leadership competencies into the top 90th percentile.
I've read How to Be Exceptional twice already and consider it one of the best leadership books I've ever read. It is truly an eye-opener.
Preview Chapter 1 for Free! Download the E-book here.


text:
Archive for the 'Movies' Category
Vampires! Mostly, sort of.
When I was a boy I watched a great many science fiction and horror movies on TV programs with titles like The Big Show, Creature Feature (with Sir Cecil Creape), and Dr. Shock ("Good night, sleep tight, and should you hear a scream in the night…it will be your own.")
Sir Cecil. I couldn't find Dr. Shock.
Ah, youth! I doubt a single one of those films could have been called "good" by any reasonable measure, but for good or ill—mostly ill, I should think—all that schlock is deeply embedded in my soul. When I think of my childhood, at least of the fun parts, I think of bad acting and worse special effects. Happy days indeed!
And now, thanks to streaming Netflix, I can relive those golden days. I have no idea what I was looking for last weekend when Netflix decided that I might like Queen of Blood (usually it has me pegged, correctly, as pretentious). I was a little nervous about watching it, not wanting a fond memory ruined, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was exactly as I remembered it. Which is to say, pretty bad, but in a good way. It was too cheap to have its own special effects, so it stole some from a much more expensive and possibly much sillier Russian movie. I like that.
In the distant future, the year 1990, the International Space Federation (whose signage has lettering that must have looked very futuristic in 1966) has received radio transmissions from an alien race and is eagerly awaiting the arrival of emissaries from same. When the alien spaceship crashes on Mars, the ISF dispatches a rescue mission, including Manly Astronaut John Saxon; his girlfriend, Sexy-Girl-Next-Door Astronaut Judi Meredith; and Expendable Astronaut Dennis Hopper, looking very young in his pre-Easy Rider days. They find the crashed spaceship—it turns out to be on Phobos, for reasons that probably have to do with the Russian footage the filmmakers cribbed—with a single survivor, an exotically green-skinned alien woman, played by exotically Czech actress Florence Marly.
Well, wouldn't you know it, she turns out to have a taste for human blood, and to have both hypnotic powers and heat vision, which prove awfully inconvenient for Hopper and the mission commander (who will have to remain anonymous here, as I've forgotten his name). Fortunately, our better-looking heroes make it back to earth, where (twist ending! there's always a twist ending) they discover that the alien has laid eggs throughout the ship. She really was a queen, the egg-laying kind of queen, get it? Beware, humanity!
Like so many Roger Corman-produced cheapies of the era, Queen of Blood makes the most of its small budget and low production values, making up in spunkiness what it lacks in, well, everything else. And it does have a few moments of great creepiness. Marly, who seems to have been a sort of minor Marlene Dietrich, did manage to project some real eeriness, even completely silent and wearing a space helmet over a hairstyle that must have looked silly even in the sixties—another legacy of the Russian donor movie, I think. And the final scene, of enthusiastic scientist Basil Rathbone (yes, really!) beaming as he carries trays of alien eggs off the spaceship, is nicely chilling.
Flush with the success of QoB, I moved on to Planet of the Vampires, which I remember being very scary indeed. I had high hopes for this one, for reasons beyond my childhood fears. For starters, it was directed by Mario Bava, the Italian horror maestro who brought us such horror classics including Hatchet for the Honeymoon and Black Sunday (which scared the piss out of me when I was six, and which is tragically unavailable on instant play). And according to Leonard Maltin and the internet it has a reputation for stylishness.
Alas, the maestro let me down. PotV is merely so bad it's bad. The vaunted Euro-style is mostly low light, a lot of wasted space in the spaceships' control rooms, and a dry-ice fog machine in the "eerie planet" set. The dialog is sub-trite, except for the technobabble, which was all babble and no techno. The spacesuits are among the silliest in all of sci-fi. The astronauts are named "Mark," "Wes," and "Burt." At least the High G special effects—actors (if you can call them that) putting their heads on their desks, basically—were worth a laugh.
And there are no vampires. Instead, there are evil alien spirit beings that force the astronauts to kill each other, and then possess the corpses. Which wouldn't be bad, actually, if only they were scary. There is one almost-good sequence in which the astronauts find centuries-old wrecked spaceship, the occupants of which apparently fell prey the the evil spirit beings. Was it an inspiration for Alien? I would think so, but it's a little different to imagine the two being connected. Alien was, you know, really good.
I fear I gave up on PotV. Maybe I'll go back and watch the end, the bit that really got younger me: (SPOILER ALERT) we find that the last two "survivors" are in fact not survivors at all, and that their alien possessors intend to spread their evil race throughout all civilization. But, the ship's Meteor Rejecter having been irreparably damaged, they are forced to land instead on a nearby undistinguished planet with a primitive situation, a planet called (wait for it…) Earth!
Enough of these space vampire movies with no vampires! It's time to get back to real vampires.
I'm pretty sure I never saw The Vampire Lovers, certainly not in all its unedited glory, but I saw a great many others from Hammer Productions. Hammer's films were earthy, violent and bloody. They took little interest in afterlives or other worlds, except as they might lead to the immediate leaving of this one, preferably gruesomely. As a friend of mine put it, "In a Hammer film, you could die." Hammer vampires, starting with Christopher Lee's Dracula, were foul and brutal creatures, not in the least soulful or tormented or sparkly.
The Vampire Lovers dates from the happy time when Hammer, like other production companies, had just discovered nudity. And what better use for nudity than a Victorian lesbian vampire story? The Vampire Lovers is an adaptation of J. Sheridan LeFanu's Carmilla, the lesbian vampire story from which all other lesbian vampire stories derive. I read it long ago, and remember its being disappointingly tame and a bit boring, as I suppose befits something from 1872. You can see for yourself here; I haven't had the energy to reread it.
The movie is surprisingly (though certainly not strictly) faithful to the story, and really a great improvement, what with the nudity and the explicit lesbianism and the general Hammering it up. Carmilla, aka Mircalla aka Marcilla (aka Millarca in the book) is played by Ingrid Pitt, who made a bit of a career of this sort of thing. I have no idea whether she could really act, but she was so sultry (dressed or not) that it hardly mattered. The plot was not particularly coherent, and a number of things were left unexplained and unresolved (maybe the book was the same way), but again, who cares? Plot coherence really wasn't a Hammer value. Hammer movies were about fangs and blood and terror. And nudity.
Tags:Movies, Planet of the Vampires, Queen of Blood, Science Fiction, The Vampire Lovers, Vampires
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | Leave a Comment »
Michael Crichton, RIP
[Belated, but better late than never…]
My fond memories of Michael Crichton, who died a few weeks ago, long predate his latter-day status as reactionary alarmist. As a lad I saw The Andromeda Strain when it was first on TV, and, being nerdly even then, I was captivated. The alien virus plot—hm, come to think of it, maybe he was a reactionary alarmist even then—was (especially to a nine-year-old) clever and thought-provoking; the five-level super-sterile top-secret government germ-fighting lab (with computer-controlled lasers!) was as nifty as the Enterprise (for which I of course had "blueprints"); the pseudo-factual quasi-documentary style was impressive. And best of all, the heroes were brainy science guys (and one gal), just like I wanted to be. I was hooked.
Crichton wasn't exactly a great writer, but then, most bestsellers aren't written by great writers, and his prose was certainly sturdy and serviceable. His great gifts included a rare ability to work meticulously through details and present them in a completely understandable way. His plot devices were often wildly imaginative, but always tethered to reality. Not only did Jurassic Park give you resurrected dinosaurs, it convinced you that resurrected dinosaurs were entirely possible, probably even inevitable. Even Crichton's wilder plots and weaker books—I'm talking about Sphere here—had a certain weird plausibility to them, and were chock full of interesting ideas.
For Attention To Detail I don't think one can beat The Great Train Robbery. I've just reread it (having decided to read something by Crichton in memoriam, and that being the first of his books to hand), and I enjoyed it as much as when I first read it thirty years ago. I'm not sure whether it's a novel chock full of seamy Victoriana, or an essay about seamy Victoriana in novel form. I also don't know how closely it follows the real robbery, but that hardly matters. The mechanics of the robbery, fiction or not, are fascinating, the criminal slang (doubtless dumbed down, insofar as it is accurate, or else it would be completely incomprehensible) is atmospheric, the discourses on criminals and prostitutes and London life in general wonderfully lurid.
And Crichton himself directed the movie of The Great Train Robbery. I haven't seen that in years, but I remember liking it as much as I liked the book. How not, with Sean Connery at the height of his suavity as the master criminal, Donald Sutherland as his sidekick, and mind-blowingly gorgeous Lesley-Anne Down as his mistress? I've just talked myself into seeing it again; on the Netflix queue it goes.
Tags:Books, Michael Crichton, Movies, The Andromeda Strain, The Great Train Robbery
Posted in Books, Movies | Leave a Comment »
Sherlock Holmes, Bad-Ass Martial Arts Expert
I would like to say something witty about this, but words fail me…
Fictional super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes will be turned into a "bad-ass" martial arts expert in Guy Ritchie's hard-hitting new film.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's legendary crimefighter was famous for his pipe-puffing, laidback approach to solving mysteries in the series of novels.
But Ritchie's forthcoming flick is rumoured to make the character – played by Robert Downey Jr. – a lot more hands-on.
The actor tells British newspaper The Sun, "I've got to spend some time with Guy and I love his take on it. We're both martial arts enthusiasts and in the original stories of Sherlock Holmes, he's kind of a bad-ass and a bare-knuckle boxer and studies the rare, fictional martial art of baritsu.
"If you look baritsu up, they can't even really tell you what it is, so it gives us a lot of leeway."
And the Chaplin star insists the Holmes mysteries are still relevant to today's audiences, adding: "It's a period piece where you don't modernise it, you just realise how modern it was."
Tags:Guy Ritchie, Movies, Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Posted in Movies | Leave a Comment »
Movie Trailers; The Brothers Bloom; Brick
Is it just me, or has Apple's movie trailers site really been pretty awful of late, possibly since its last redesign? I've been getting lots of timeouts; none of the trailers seem to load the first time (or the second, or the third…); the inexplicably fancy viewer interface strikes me as more trouble than its worth. Does it work better on a Mac? I've tried it on multiple browsers, including (ecch) Safari.
Just now I did get the trailer (good luck with that link) for The Brothers Bloom to work, and it looks worth checking out ("So what kind of stuff do you do?" "I collect hobbies."). Especially as it's written and directed by Rian Johnson, whose previous film, Brick, was among the more improbably fascinating movies of the last couple of years.
Brick is a film noir with high school students. I don't mean that it's "like a film noir," or that it's some sort of noir-junior; I mean it really is a full-blown Double Indemnity/Big Sleep/Laura-style film noir, that just happens to be about high school druggies. There's an anti-hero who adheres rigidly to a moral code only he understands, constantly in trouble with a cop vice-principle; there's a femme fatale, beautiful and wildly untrustworthy; there's an informant, who mysteriously seems to know something about everything. And best of all, until the end it's pretty much completely incomprehensible. In a good way, as in The Big Sleep. There's even a whole slang dialect to add to the opacity—I have a weakness for that sort of linguistic atmosphere.
Tags:apple, Brick, Movies, Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom
Death Race 2008. Plus, Cthulhu!
I just saw the trailer for Death Race, and my immediate reaction is that it's just another Jason Statham move, with absolutely nothing to do with the old beloved Death Race 2000. Which is probably just as well. Something like DR2K probably couldn't be made today—certainly not by PWS Anderson—and really, why would you want to? The original is pretty great just as is. Paul Bartel, we hardly knew ye!
Not that the new one is necessarily a bad thing, as long as you look at it as an enjoyably mindless and violent timewaster and try not to think of the gleefully nasty satire of DR2K. I quite like the idea of Evil Joan Allen. And Jason Statham seems to be pretty good at this sort of thing; he's just no David Carradine—who is?
Bonus David Carradine quote, from an Onion AV Club interview:
I tend to do that. I blow people's minds with my performances. Sometimes it's a little too subtle for people to face.
And while I'm watching trailers: here's one for Cthulhu—and it looks pretty good! Why was I not informed? It appears to be "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," reset to the Pacific Northwest, but doubtless has other Lovecraftiness thrown in—I'm not as up on HP as I once was. Well, off to swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, there in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn for now, y'all!
Tags:Cthulhu, David Carradine, Death Race, Death Race 2000, H. P. Lovecraft, Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Movies, Paul Bartel
Sunshine, and sound design
I saw Danny Boyle's moody and stylish science fiction thriller Sunshine the other night. As with everything from Boyle—from heroin addicts to flatmates trying to murder each other to zombies to saints—it was…intense. The setup—a spaceship, inauspiciously called Icarus II, heading straight toward the sun—is perfect for overwhelming imagery, and Boyle takes full advantage of it. Alas, the plot didn't really justify the intensity. I had a bit of an "oh, is that all?" reaction to some of the crucial plot devices. I think at the very end it wanted a bit of 2001-style transcendence, but couldn't really get there. 2001 itself only did that by becoming more or less incomprehensible in its final reel, something Boyle (and screenwriter Alex Garland) weren't quite willing to do, opting instead for a more standard thriller device (of which I'll say no more). Oh well. Maybe this is a film best seen stoned, so that you wouldn't have to worry about the plot at all.
I did appreciate the shout-outs to 2001, Alien, and best of all—wait for it—Dark Star (no beach balls or surfboards, though). Apparently there are also references to Solaris, which I'm ashamed to say I've never seen—in the little bit of commentary I saw, Boyle said that no "serious science fiction movie" can escape the shadows of 2001, Alien, and Solaris.
Among the things I liked both most and least about Sunshine was its sound design. The sound was as overwhelming as the visuals were: Boyle hits you hard with both the music and the incidental grungy spaceship noises. The overall impact was, I think, intended to disconcert and annoy—I was reminded of David Lynch's Eraserhead. And that it did, to great effect. I'm all for disconcerting annoyance, but what I didn't like, in my pedantic nerdliness, was the fact that the exterior shots of the Icarus II were as noisy as the interiors. I can't help compare that to 2001, where the exterior shots featured only silence, music (the initial exteriors of the Discovery are accompanied by a singularly beautiful piece from Aram Khatchaturian's ballet Gayne; it turned me on to Khatchaturian), and, during the ill-fated spacewalks, breathing. I understand that 2001's pristine and minimalist sound design would not have worked in Sunshine—I doubt it would work almost anywhere else; minimalism is hard, and I imagine it takes a Kubrick-like genius to pull it off—but it is the superior work of art.
This weekend on NPR I heard an interview with legendary sound guy Ben Burtt, the man who gave us the sounds of the light saber and R2-D2, and now WALL·E. Asked what movies he hadn't worked on whose sound he admired, he named 2001, for its minimalism. I felt vindicated.
Tags:Ben Burtt, Danny Boyle, Movies, Science Fiction, sound design
Posted in Movies, Science Fiction | 2 Comments »
Kitt Kittredge: An American Girl: Now with A-List Talent
How ever did an American Girl movie rate such a cast and director? Money, I guess. I almost want to see it, just to see what happens when Patricia Rozema—she of that creepy Mansfield Park and the great I've Heard the Mermaids Singing–collides with American Girl sensibilities. I suppose some Julia Ormond–Jane Krakowski action would be too much to hope for…
Tags:American Girls, Kitt Kittredge, Movies, Patricia Rozema
Brideshead Revisited, Revisited
The trailer for the new film of Brideshead Revisited does not, I fear, fill me with hope. It appears to be dominated by Emma Thompson's Lady Marchmain, by raging passions, and by, um, a score heavy on the drums and electric guitar. It has admittedly been a while since I read the book, or saw the wonderful 1981 miniseries, but if I recall correctly the dominant themes were not so much passion and controlling mothers as change, decay, and the passing of old ways. And a certain amount of Catholic guilt.
The trailer is also completely devoid of humor, which is barely conceivable in anything adapted from a book by Evelyn Waugh, one of the funniest writers in the English language. Brideshead Revisited might not be the vicious satire of Scoop or Vile Bodies, but it's hardly humorless.
But I'm sure I'll see the movie anyway (although frankly I thought it sounded more interesting when the cast was to include Jude Law, Paul Bettany, and Jennifer Connelly). Trailers don't necessarily have much to do with their movies (see these examples!), and in this case admittedly Emma Thompson is the marquee star, passion is more interesting to most people than decay, and, well, actually I can't explain the guitar.
Tags:Books, Brideshead Revisited, Emma Thompson, Evelyn Waugh, Movies
Still more Janeblogging! Sort of; rather than real Austen, this is all about the fluff. Yes, I saw The Jane Austen Book Club, and thanks to the magic of low expectations, I even enjoyed it.
[I liked a chick flick! Crap, am I gay? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it would be terribly inconvenient.]
Anyway. Five women and one guy (a handsome, charming, rich, and sensitive guy who likes older women1, it is worth pointing out) form a book club to discuss the novels of Jane Austen. They find their own lives and problems mirroring the books they're reading (very vaguely and loosely), and with the aid and inspiration of said books are able to work out said problems (very unconvincingly, but that's a quibble in this sort of movie).
It's nice to see characters in a movie actually reading books, and not only reading them but caring about them and talking about them and thinking about them. Admittedly, their thoughts are on the shallow side—said the pot to the kettle; I've never had a deep thought in my life2—but it's still nice. Usually in movies and on TV reading is something done only incidentally, or more often decorously left unmentioned, like using the bathroom or watching trashy television.3
What made the movie work for me, besides the low expectations, was mostly the very agreeable cast. Even when they were being charmingly annoying, Maria Bello and Amy Brenneman and Kathy Baker and Maggie Grace and Hugh Dancy were all just adorable. You sorta want to be their galpal (Damn! Still gay!). Of the central characters only Emily Blunt—so wonderful in the otherwise mediocre The Devil Wears Prada4—got a bum deal, forced to play the most unpleasant of our heroines, a pretentious, bitchy, and unhappy culture snob. Her unbearable superiority is indicated in part by the way she refers to Austen as "Jane"—but don't we all do that?
The actors in minor roles fare less well. The great Lynn Redgrave is positively abused as Blunt's mother, whose function in the story is to explain why Blunt is such a witch. Jimmy Smits and Mark Blucas, as the respectively unfaithful and insensitive husbands of Brenneman and Blunt, are treated with the usual clueless broadness reserved for husbands in this sort of story. Nancy Travis, whom I've liked ever since So I Married An Axe Murderer (no, really! I loved that movie!), is thrown away in a tiny part.
The Jane Austen Book Club has no particular insights into human nature, no great wit, and no characters I'll remember in a month. If you want those, read Jane Austen. But if you're looking for a pleasant time-waster you could do worse than this.
1 At least when they look like Maria Bello.
2 Actually, I did have one once. It was about modal logic.
3 Married With Children, Seinfeld, and The Simpsons being exceptions.
4 Emily Blunt, Stanley Tucci, and Meryl Streep seemed to be in a completely different, much better, movie than Anne Hathaway. My first thought was that a script doctor had worked over an originally flat screenplay, but hadn't gotten to the whole thing. It turns out that at least Blunt improvised many of her lines.
Tags:Books, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Book Club, Movies
Plate o' Shrimp
Thing I came across today include:
A movie of Angels & Demons is in the works (with Naomi Watts! Maybe I'll actually see it).
The Galactica Code.
Tags:Angels and Demons, Battlestar Galactica, Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown, Last Supper, Naomi Watts
Posted in Books, Movies, Religion, Television | Leave a Comment »


developing of a set of processor simulation assessment platform based on the instruction set is just to support the high-speed function simulator and the timing precision-level performance simulation,and support the SMT/SMP, the Cache/DDR and the latest consistent agreements,and other functions, etc. so as to guide the development of the software and hardware of processor ARMv8, to help them quickly occupy the market and improve the embedded system service of the latest high-performance.
SmartSimu - HPA simulator supports the latest ARM instruction set, and can be used for the timing model of the performance evaluation of the clock-accurate out-of-order pipelines. The model supports the functions of the dynamic scheduling algorithm, the multi-issue instruction-fetching decoding, the Tournament branch prediction and so on , the rapid adjustment of execution unit number, the extension module of coprocessor/accelerator , SMT and SMP, etc.
SmartSimu - HPA provides two kinds of simulation models, the function simulation model and the performance simulation model.The function simulation simulates the ARM instruction set by the way of dynamic binary translation, which makes the function simulation speed more close to the speed of the real hardware. After the simulator starts, the functional simulation model is first initiated to parse the input parameters and configure the corresponding content, and thenthe user programs are loaded, the translation executed, and the exception handling and system calls and other functions are supported. The performance simulation model completely simulates the out-of-order core pipelines, the multi-issue, the Tomasolu algorithm, the Tournament branch prediction method, the Cache module, DDRC module, SMT, SMP, etc, and also provides the rich performance statistics.
The simulation speed of the performance Simulator can reach up to 200 kips and the functional simulation speed up to 200 MIPS, and the performances are superior to other commercial simulators.
Slow simulation speed has been one of the bottlenecks for the further development of the simulators.
For the problem, and in the function simulation mode, SmartSimu - HPA accelerates the speed by the method of dynamic binary translation, which supports the latest ARM instruction set, and the contents completes includes the definitions of ARM instruction set, decoding tree, GR and floating point registers, exception handling, dynamic binary translation and the realization of the system calls, etc. Through the usage of dynamic binary translation mechanism, the function simulation speed can reach more than 200 MIPS.
Through the function of Tomasolu algorithm, the functional units such as reservation station and ROB have realized the out-of-order core pipelines prototype .The component phases of the pipelines adopt the high modularization and configurability, and the issue widths of the pipelines,the sizes of the reservation stations, all the sizes of associated queues, the sizes of submitted widths and the branch prediction models are all adjustable. The instruction translation of the performance simulation module adopts the optimized way of Basic Block, and can greatly reduce the valuing and decoding time and significantly improve the execution speed of the line rows, and the instruction execution speed can reach 200 k/s.
Implement two cache simulations: the simple cache and the consistent cache.
The simple cache is used to create the single core cache or the shared cache in the cases of multi-core running circumstance.
The consistent cache is used to simulate the private cache in the cases of multi-core, and has realized the two kinds of protocols: the msci and the moesi. The msci protocol uses the snoop listening mode, and the moesi uses the way of the directory.
The simulator supports the SMP simulation with the maximum of 256 cores, and each core supports the SMT simulation with 8 threads.
SmartSimu - HPA supports DRAM simulator of the third-party integrated, such as the mature simulator DRAMsim2, and the access and storage interface simulation has simulated the most of the modern elements in the main memory system, for example, the Ranks, Banks, command queue and the storage controller, etc.
Complete functions: Support the latest ARM instruction set; Support SMP simulation with the maximum of 256 cores ,and each core supports the SMT simulation with 8 threads ; Supports the simulation of the timing-level pipeline architecture; Support the whole running of the system.
High speed: The function simulator can reach up to 200 MIPS; The timing precision-level performance simulation can reach up to 200 kips; The execution of dhrystone can achieve 3 DMIPS/MHz.
Flexible configurations: Support the two kinds of simulation model,the quick function simulation model and the timing-accurate simulation model, and support to quickly switch; Support the rich and configurable data statistics and output, and can meet the rapid assessment requirements of high performance processor architectures of the out-of-order super variable structures.


text:
package com.jetbrains.python.refactoring.move;

import com.intellij.ide.util.PropertiesComponent;
import com.intellij.openapi.fileChooser.FileChooserDescriptor;
import com.intellij.openapi.fileChooser.FileChooserDescriptorFactory;
import com.intellij.openapi.project.Project;
import com.intellij.openapi.roots.ProjectRootManager;
import com.intellij.openapi.ui.DialogWrapperPeer;
import com.intellij.openapi.ui.TextComponentAccessor;
import com.intellij.openapi.ui.TextFieldWithBrowseButton;
import com.intellij.openapi.util.io.FileUtil;
import com.intellij.openapi.vfs.VirtualFile;
import com.intellij.psi.PsiElement;
import com.intellij.psi.PsiNamedElement;
import com.intellij.refactoring.classMembers.MemberInfoChange;
import com.intellij.refactoring.classMembers.MemberInfoModel;
import com.intellij.refactoring.ui.AbstractMemberSelectionTable;
import com.intellij.refactoring.ui.RefactoringDialog;
import com.intellij.ui.HideableDecorator;
import com.intellij.ui.RowIcon;
import com.intellij.ui.components.JBLabel;
import com.intellij.ui.components.JBScrollPane;
import com.intellij.util.Function;
import com.intellij.util.containers.ContainerUtil;
import com.intellij.util.ui.update.UiNotifyConnector;
import com.jetbrains.python.PyBundle;
import com.jetbrains.python.psi.PyClass;
import com.jetbrains.python.psi.PyElement;
import com.jetbrains.python.psi.PyFile;
import com.jetbrains.python.psi.PyFunction;
import com.jetbrains.python.psi.impl.PyPsiUtils;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NonNls;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.TestOnly;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.TableModelEvent;
import javax.swing.event.TableModelListener;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.File;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.List;

/**
 * @author Mikhail Golubev
 */
public class PyMoveModuleMembersDialog extends RefactoringDialog {
  @NonNls private final static String BULK_MOVE_TABLE_VISIBLE = "python.move.module.members.dialog.show.table";

  /**
   * Instance to be injected to mimic this class in tests
   */
  private static PyMoveModuleMembersDialog ourInstanceToReplace = null;

  private final TopLevelSymbolsSelectionTable myMemberSelectionTable;
  private final PyModuleMemberInfoModel myModuleMemberModel;
  private final boolean mySeveralElementsSelected;
  private JPanel myCenterPanel;
  private JPanel myTablePanel;
  private TextFieldWithBrowseButton myBrowseFieldWithButton;
  private JBLabel myDescription;
  private JTextField mySourcePathField;

  /**
   * Either creates new dialog or return singleton instance initialized with {@link #setInstanceToReplace)}.
   * Singleton dialog is intended to be used in tests.
   *
   * @param project dialog project
   * @param elements elements to move
   * @param destination destination where elements have to be moved
   * @return dialog
   */
  public static PyMoveModuleMembersDialog getInstance(@NotNull final Project project,
                                                       @NotNull final List<PsiNamedElement> elements,
                                                       @Nullable final String destination) {
    return ourInstanceToReplace != null ? ourInstanceToReplace : new PyMoveModuleMembersDialog(project, elements, destination);
  }

  /**
   * Injects instance to be used in tests
   *
   * @param instanceToReplace instance to be used in tests
   */
  @TestOnly
  public static void setInstanceToReplace(@NotNull final PyMoveModuleMembersDialog instanceToReplace) {
    ourInstanceToReplace = instanceToReplace;
  }

  /**
   * @param project dialog project
   * @param elements elements to move
   * @param destination destination where elements have to be moved
   */
  protected PyMoveModuleMembersDialog(@NotNull Project project, @NotNull final List<PsiNamedElement> elements, @Nullable String destination) {
    super(project, true);

    assert !elements.isEmpty();
    final PsiNamedElement firstElement = elements.get(0);
    setTitle(PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.title"));

    final String sourceFilePath = getContainingFileName(firstElement);
    mySourcePathField.setText(sourceFilePath);
    if (destination == null) {
      destination = sourceFilePath;
    }
    myBrowseFieldWithButton.setText(destination);
    final FileChooserDescriptor descriptor = FileChooserDescriptorFactory.createSingleFileNoJarsDescriptor();
    descriptor.setRoots(ProjectRootManager.getInstance(project).getContentRoots());
    descriptor.withTreeRootVisible(true);
    myBrowseFieldWithButton.addBrowseFolderListener(PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.choose.destination.file.title"),
                                                    null,
                                                    project,
                                                    descriptor,
                                                    TextComponentAccessor.TEXT_FIELD_WHOLE_TEXT);

    final PyFile pyFile = (PyFile)firstElement.getContainingFile();
    myModuleMemberModel = new PyModuleMemberInfoModel(pyFile);

    final List<PyModuleMemberInfo> symbolsInfos = collectModuleMemberInfos(myModuleMemberModel.myPyFile);
    for (PyModuleMemberInfo info : symbolsInfos) {
      //noinspection SuspiciousMethodCalls
      info.setChecked(elements.contains(info.getMember()));
    }
    myModuleMemberModel.memberInfoChanged(new MemberInfoChange<>(symbolsInfos));
    myMemberSelectionTable = new TopLevelSymbolsSelectionTable(symbolsInfos, myModuleMemberModel);
    myMemberSelectionTable.addMemberInfoChangeListener(myModuleMemberModel);
    myMemberSelectionTable.getModel().addTableModelListener(new TableModelListener() {
      @Override
      public void tableChanged(TableModelEvent e) {
        validateButtons();
      }
    });
    mySeveralElementsSelected = elements.size() > 1;
    final boolean tableIsVisible = mySeveralElementsSelected || PropertiesComponent.getInstance().getBoolean(BULK_MOVE_TABLE_VISIBLE);
    final String description;
    if (!tableIsVisible && elements.size() == 1) {
      if (firstElement instanceof PyFunction) {
        description =  PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.description.function.$0", firstElement.getName());
      }
      else if (firstElement instanceof PyClass) {
        description = PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.description.class.$0", firstElement.getName());
      }
      else {
        description = PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.description.variable.$0", firstElement.getName());
      }
    }
    else {
      description = PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.description.selection");
    }
    myDescription.setText(description);
    final HideableDecorator decorator = new HideableDecorator(myTablePanel, PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.table.title"), true) {
      @Override
      protected void on() {
        super.on();
        myDescription.setText(PyBundle.message("refactoring.move.module.members.dialog.description.selection"));
        PropertiesComponent.getInstance().setValue(BULK_MOVE_TABLE_VISIBLE, true);
      }

      @Override
      protected void off() {
        super.off();
        PropertiesComponent.getInstance().setValue(BULK_MOVE_TABLE_VISIBLE, false);
      }
    };
    decorator.setOn(tableIsVisible);
    decorator.setContentComponent(new JBScrollPane(myMemberSelectionTable) {
      @Override
      public Dimension getMinimumSize() {
        // Prevent growth of the dialog after several expand/collapse actions
        return new Dimension((int)super.getMinimumSize().getWidth(), 0);
      }
    });

    UiNotifyConnector.doWhenFirstShown(myCenterPanel, () -> {
      enlargeDialogHeightIfNecessary();
      preselectLastPathComponent(myBrowseFieldWithButton.getTextField());
    });
    init();
  }

  private void enlargeDialogHeightIfNecessary() {
    if (mySeveralElementsSelected && !PropertiesComponent.getInstance(getProject()).getBoolean(BULK_MOVE_TABLE_VISIBLE)) {
      final DialogWrapperPeer peer = getPeer();
      final Dimension realSize = peer.getSize();
      final double preferredHeight = peer.getPreferredSize().getHeight();
      if (realSize.getHeight() < preferredHeight) {
        peer.setSize((int)realSize.getWidth(), (int)preferredHeight);
      }
    }
  }

  private static void preselectLastPathComponent(@NotNull JTextField field) {
    final String text = field.getText();
    final int start = text.lastIndexOf(File.separatorChar);
    final int lastDotIndex = text.lastIndexOf('.');
    final int end = lastDotIndex < 0 ? text.length() : lastDotIndex;
    if (start + 1 < end) {
      field.select(start + 1, end);
    }
  }

  @Nullable
  @Override
  protected String getDimensionServiceKey() {
    return "#com.jetbrains.python.refactoring.move.PyMoveModuleMembersDialog";
  }

  @Nullable
  @Override
  protected JComponent createCenterPanel() {
    return myCenterPanel;
  }

  @Override
  protected void doAction() {
    close(OK_EXIT_CODE);
  }

  @Override
  protected String getHelpId() {
    return "python.reference.moveModuleMembers";
  }

  @Override
  public JComponent getPreferredFocusedComponent() {
    return myBrowseFieldWithButton.getTextField();
  }

  @Override
  protected boolean areButtonsValid() {
    return !myMemberSelectionTable.getSelectedMemberInfos().isEmpty();
  }

  @NotNull
  public String getTargetPath() {
    return myBrowseFieldWithButton.getText();
  }

  /**
   * @return selected elements in the same order as they are declared in the original file
   */
  @NotNull
  public List<PyElement> getSelectedTopLevelSymbols() {
    final Collection<PyModuleMemberInfo> selectedMembers = myMemberSelectionTable.getSelectedMemberInfos();
    final List<PyElement> selectedElements = ContainerUtil.map(selectedMembers, info -> info.getMember());
    return ContainerUtil.sorted(selectedElements, (e1, e2) -> PyPsiUtils.isBefore(e1, e2) ? -1 : 1);
  }

  @NotNull
  private static List<PyModuleMemberInfo> collectModuleMemberInfos(@NotNull PyFile pyFile) {
    final List<PyElement> moduleMembers = PyMoveModuleMembersHelper.getTopLevelModuleMembers(pyFile);
    return ContainerUtil.mapNotNull(moduleMembers, element -> new PyModuleMemberInfo(element));
  }

  @NotNull
  private static String getContainingFileName(@NotNull PsiElement element) {
    final VirtualFile file = element.getContainingFile().getVirtualFile();
    if (file != null) {
      return FileUtil.toSystemDependentName(file.getPath());
    }
    else {
      return "";
    }
  }

  static class TopLevelSymbolsSelectionTable extends AbstractMemberSelectionTable<PyElement, PyModuleMemberInfo> {
    public TopLevelSymbolsSelectionTable(Collection<PyModuleMemberInfo> memberInfos,
                                         @Nullable MemberInfoModel<PyElement, PyModuleMemberInfo> memberInfoModel) {
      super(memberInfos, memberInfoModel, null);
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    protected Object getAbstractColumnValue(PyModuleMemberInfo memberInfo) {
      return null;
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean isAbstractColumnEditable(int rowIndex) {
      return false;
    }

    @Override
    protected void setVisibilityIcon(PyModuleMemberInfo memberInfo, RowIcon icon) {

    }

    @Override
    protected Icon getOverrideIcon(PyModuleMemberInfo memberInfo) {
      return null;
    }
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
When Photographs Lie
By Newsweek Staff On 7/29/90 at 8:00 PM EDT
If the Empire State Building hadn't been moved, it would have stuck out of the sportscaster's head. So Gil Cowley, former art director for New York's WCBS-TV, had the landmark building shifted four blocks uptown on the huge skyline backdrop photo he built for his anchor set. His tool was a Quantel Graphic Paintbox, just one of several computer technologies that are changing the face of photography. "It's just so easy to manipulate images and objects for the effect you want," Cowley says. That's wonderful for art and advertising. But with more than 700 companies now possessing advanced electronic-imaging systems, the implications for photojournalism are scary.
Deceptive photography dates back all the way to the 1840s. The "histories" of entire nations, like Stalin's Soviet Union, have been revised by scissors and glue. In the 1950s, allies of Sen. Joseph McCarthy doctored a photo to make it seem as if a senator was talking to a communist. In the 1980s, an official White House photo of President Ronald Reagan in the hospital had the intravenous tube cropped out so that the public would not see how sick he was. For generations, armies of pimples have been magically airbrushed away. Even last year's famous case of Oprah Winfrey's head being placed on Ann-Margret's body in TV Guide could have been done years ago. It's actually a realistic drawing copied from pictures, not a photograph.
But if "the camera doesn't lie" was always a fallacy, it's now both easier to change the essence of photographs and harder to detect the process. Simple alterations, such as removing a diet Coke can from a picture of a Pulitzer Prize winner (which the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did last year), can be accomplished with a series of key strokes on the widely available Scitex Response system. The process involves giving "pixels"--electronic squares--a binary code that makes them easy to adjust. Layout design, cropping, sizing and other changes are made quicker, cheaper and infinitely more flexible.
More complicated matching of resolution and color, which once required a technically trained artist, now merely entails more elaborate digitized systems. it/Greenberg Associates was hired by NEWSWEEK to assemble the strange cast of characters pictured below. The graphic artist, Robert Bowen, spent about eight hours with Pixar and Sun systems hooked up to an Apple Macintosh to create a lifelike composite color photo impossible only a couple of years ago. Within a few more years, some form of electronic imaging will be inexpensive enough for wide use with personal computers.
The potential for abuse is obvious. "You have to be like a hawk to keep the technology from taking advantage of you," says M. C. Marden, picture editor of People magazine. But the long-term effect may be more insidious. For 150 years, the photographic image has been viewed as more persuasive than written accounts as a form of "evidence." Now this authenticity is breaking down under the assault of technology. In an absorbing new book, "In Our Own Image: The Coming Revolution in Photography" (158 pages. Aperture. $15. 95), Fred Ritchin a former photo editor of The New York Times Magazine, asks: "What would happen if the photograph appeared to be a straightforward recording of physical reality, but could no longer be relied upon to depict actual people and events?"
No 'proof': Ritchin's answer is frightening. Take China's leaders, who last year tried to bar photographers from exposing their lies about the Beijing massacre. In the future, the Chinese or others with something to hide wouldn't even worry about photographers. With "electronic photography they could deny the veracity of the newly malleable image," Ritchin says. In other words, pictures, like words, would be "proof" of little. Imagine how this would have affected, say, the Kurt Waldheim case. The Austrian president consistently denied his Nazi past until presented with the photographic proof in 1986, at which point he admitted that the picture was real. Future Waldheims could plausibly claim they had been placed in compromising positions by computer. While the old cut-and-paste method was easily detectable, especially on color photos, electronic re-imaging is not.
Photo editors first confronted this brave new world in 1982, when National Geographic came under fire for moving two Egyptian pyramids closer together so that they would fit on a vertical cover. Time magazine apologized in 1987 when a story about espionage at the American Embassy in .Moscow was illustrated with a studio shot of a Marine, wrongly implying that the picture was taken at the embassy. Last year NEWSWEEK regretted making it seem, in a photo, that "Rain Man" costars Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman were posing together when, in fact, one was in Hawaii and the other in New York. Ben Blank, art director for ABC News, says he routinely altered still images (for example, straightening jacket wrinkles) until a "re-creation" of accused spy Felix Bloch passing a briefcase made the network reexamine its practices.
Unfortunately, news organizations have few guidelines for use of the new technology. A famous 1984 picture of marathoner Mary Decker falling down was marred slightly by an antenna in the frame. The antenna was left in the picture in Life and was removed in Time, according to Michele Stephenson, Time's picture editor. Newspapers are generally stricter. A car antenna that distracted from a picture of Marion Barry's wife was consciously left in a picture that ran in USA Today, says Larry Nylund, deputy managing editor: "We don't alter photographs."
But USA Today uses other little-examined new photographic technologies, such as "frame grabbing," where the picture is taken off TV (always with a credit, Nylund says), and "still video cameras." The latter eliminate the need for film processing on late-breaking stories like the Oscars or World series and allow pictures to get into the paper in as little as 10 minutes. While video stills won't soon replace 35-mm film (which is also dramatically improving), they may soon be easier to fake: there's no negative to prove what the original shot looked like.
Beyond technological change, the deeper problem is a continual blurring of lines between commercialism and journalism. "Zipper heads" (star's face, model's body) that are acceptable in the artificial world of movie posters and display advertising take on another meaning in editorial pages--even as jokes (e.g. Atlanta magazine's cover spoofing the Rob Lowe sex-tape scandal, which many readers believed was the actor himself). So do lesser alterations, like extending backgrounds or keying up colors. "As feature magazines do it more and more, it will be harder to hold the line," says Time's Stephenson. Tina Brown, editor of Vanity Fair, who last year authorized the creation of a blue-sky background for a Melanie Griffith cover, speaks for many editors when she draws a distinction between feature and news pictures. "I would never do it on a journalism piece," she says referring to a recent political profile.
Unfortunately, this common distinction degrades the whole notion of journalism; it implies that the integrity of images applies only to some narrowly defined notion of "news." Editors need not opt for unflattering pictures to agree that fakery--even on the food page--pollutes the whole publication. Like athletes on steroids, enhanced photographs may perform better, but at bottom they are liars.


text:
Watertown News (https://www.watertownmanews.com/2021/06/08/minuteman-high-school-holds-in-person-graduation-see-the-watertown-students/)
Minuteman High School Holds In-Person Graduation, See the Watertown Students
By Guest Writer | June 8, 2021
More on Schools
Subscribe to Schools
Minuteman High School
Members of the Minuteman High School Class of 2021 celebrate after graduation at the Lowell Auditorium.
The following piece was provided by Minuteman High School:
On June 4, 138 students from the Minuteman Regional Vocational Technical High School in Lexington graduated in an in-person ceremony at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, allowing an unlimited number of family members and friends to view the milestone event after the state lifted most COVID-19 gathering restrictions about a week ago.
The ceremony was broadcast live on LexMedia; a video will be posted to the YouTube channels of LexMedia and Minuteman High School. The seniors of the Minuteman Class of 2021 have accomplished a lot despite a difficult year and a half – marked by remote and hybrid learning, and a loss of many activities. Thirteen students were named to the National Honor Society (denoted with an asterisks), which recognizes students in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership and character. Additionally, 94 seniors have received scholarships from Minuteman through various organizations and individual donors.
"The students of the Class of 2021 have accomplished so much despite the challenges we have all faced," Principal George Clement said. "We are proud of them and overjoyed that we can provide a traditional graduation ceremony – a rite of passage – that they so truly deserve."
In his speech to the graduates, Superintendent-Director Edward A. Bouquillon centered the theme on resiliency in light of the many challenges students have faced due to the pandemic.
"Choosing to be resilient means you choose to see yourself as the person mainly responsible for your happiness. You are the boss of you," Bouquillon said. He later added: "Adversity may bend you, but it did not break you. It doesn't matter how many times that you fall. All that matters is that you get back up again and keep moving forward. Because every time – every time you get up – you exercise your resilience, and what gets exercised gets stronger."
The Class of 2021 Valedictorian is Hannah Bardei*, an Engineering student from Arlington. Bardei is the Senior Class Treasurer, member of the National Honor Society and received eight scholarships from Minuteman.
"I remember the first time I stepped foot into Minuteman," Bardei said in her speech. "I saw the passion that so many students here had for their career major, and how much people here genuinely enjoyed going to school. At this moment I knew that this was the high school I wanted to be a part of."
Two members of the Minuteman High School 2021 senior class pose in their caps and gowns.
Bardei is passionate about sustainable energy and, in her speech, called climate change "the pressing issue of our time." In addition to volunteer work with climate justice organizations, Bardei spent two years in a cooperative work program with Sense Labs, which specializes in green energy solutions for homes. Bardei will attend the University of Virginia to study biology.
The Salutatorian is Devlin Ih, a Robotics student from Carlisle. Ih received the Adams Scholarship, the President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence, the Alan J. McLaughlin STEM Scholarship, the Music Academic Achievement Award, the World Language Academic Achievement Award, and the Digital Federal Credit Union Scholarship. Ih will attend Olin College of Engineering to study electrical and computer engineering.
"I encourage all graduates to thank someone, today, and every day going forward," Ih said in his speech. "None of us made it here alone, and none of us will get anywhere in the future without someone else. Remember, when we work together, not even the sky's the limit!"
Lucy Kitchenka*, a Carpentry student from Arlington, the Senior Class President and member of the National Honor Society, was named Outstanding Vocational Technical Student of the Year. Kitchenka also received the Adams Scholarship, President's Education Award for Outstanding Excellence, Carpentry Career Program Award, History & Social Studies Academic Achievement Award, Digital Federal Credit Union Scholarship, and the Minuteman Principal's Award. Kitchenka plans to attend Wentworth Institute of Technology to study construction management.
"In middle school I was not someone who really stood out or excelled at anything. At Minuteman, I had the chance to learn what I loved to do, to learn what I was good at, and to have the resource and opportunities to make the best of my four years," Kitchenka said in her speech. "I would say I did pretty well."
Listed here are the Minuteman High School Class of 2021 graduates from Watertown:
Zoha Bibi, Health Assisting
Samuel L. Cerqueira, Horticulture
Jonathan D. Corbett, Advanced Manufacturing
Dayane M. Coutinho, Plumbing
Faith J. Daley, Early Education and Teaching
Maria E.C. DeFreitas, Early Education and Teaching
Gina M. DiRico, Carpentry
Patricia J. Farwell, Cosmetology
Izadora Karla P. Goncalves, Health Assisting
Lilyrose Love, Health Assisting
Cailyn M. MacVeigh, Design and Visual Communications
Autumn I. Sivits-Camara, Early Education and Teaching
Theodore D. Surenian, Programming and Web Development
Gabriel L. Tulipano, Programming and Web Development
Nicholas R. Vick, Plumbing
(Click here to see the full list of 2021 Minuteman High School graduates.)


text:
Q: Correct Situation for use of Simple Past Where did you go when I came to your home in the morning?
a) I went to the Market .
b) I went to the market when you came to my home.
b1) You came to my home when I went to the market.
c) I had gone to the market when you came to my home.
Which answer is correct?Why?
I Would like to prefer b or b1 because I just want to give him information of being gone to market.

A: a and b are both alright.
c is okay as well, if you had already left by the time that person came to your home.
b1 is a variant of b, but a really weird one since it's highlighting the wrong thing, as though it's trying to answer a different question.

A: a is correct. The verb is at past tense simple - went- describing an action that happened in the past, and the time is specified in the morning.
c is correct. The 1st verb is at past perfect simple - had gone - describing an action that happened before another past action - you came.
I would say b is not correct since both actions are at past tense simple, meaning they would be happening at the same time - which in this case is kind of ambiguous, i went to the market - i was leaving the house but then you came - which would imply that we met so I didn't actually reached the market because i met you. As @Maulik V♦ commented out, you could say I was at the market when you came... which would be perfectly acceptable - both actions could be happening at the same time - i was at the market and you came.
b1 is just the same case as b, doesn't matter if the phrases have been switched around.