text:
Hypocrisy in Paree: Iran--Yes, Iran--Welcomed With Open Arms as One of 152 Nations Taking Part in the Hot Air Summit
I haven't been able to ascertain for sure whether or not Syria will be taking part in the Paris climate confab. However, there is one nation, a state supporter of Syria, terrorism, and of changing the climate of Israel by frying it via a nuke, and that uses its immense, carbon-emitting oil reserves to fund much of its rotten, terror-supporting efforts, that will be taking part.
President Hollande welcomes Iran's vice-president Iran
Ebtekar to COP21 opening day sesssion in Le Bourget, Paris
Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters
One cannot help but see this embrace of these odious totalitarian theocrats as a sign of the Obama desire for a thaw that will pave the way to "normalizing" (ha!) relations with the Grandiose Ayatollah (his favorite slogan: "Death to America!") is well underway, Iran's plans to wipe out a fellow UN member notwithstanding and, indeed, seeming to be irrelevant for the 151 leaders taking part in the summit. (There are actually 152 leaders participating, but I didn't number Israel's Netanyahu with the other world leaders, including Obama and Justin Trudeau, who are more than willing to put Iran's evil, genocidal intentions on the back burner for the sake of intra-summit amity.)
Seasonal Song for the Silly Paris Climate Change Summit
Oh, the terror outside is frightful
But our summit's so delightful.
And here's what we want to defeat:
It's the heat, it's the heat, it's the heat.
Oh, the body count's up with ISIS
But we're on a diff'rent crisis.
It's carbon we hope to deplete.
'Cuz of heat, 'cuz of heat, 'cuz of heat.
When we finally all agree
That rich nations must spend all their dough
The results will be plain to see:
Downward Earth's hot temps will go!
See, the problem is existential,
And our task is monumental.
And green is our colour, my sweet,
For the heat, for the heat, for the heat.
Words on the base: "She is waiting." Who, pray tell,
is "she"? And what is "she" "waiting" for?
Where In the World Is Paris Terror Suspect Salah Abdeslam?
To quote CNN, "French intelligence services are operating under the theory that Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam has escaped to [where else but?] Syria."
If he can change his appearance, get the right forged documents, quickly acquire a family, and effectively deploy taqiyyah when being vetted by infidel officials, he could be in line to come to Canada. ;)
Islam Sans Jihad? C'est Impossible!
Authorities in France are calling on Muslims to ix-nay the ihad-jay in favour of a more "enlightened Islam."
On minor hitch, though: how do you amend/edit/bowdlerize problematic aspects of the faith (jihad verses in the Koran; Islamic law extrapolated from the Koran and other sacred sources; some actions of Islam's founder, all of which Muslims are required to emulate) when, according to Islamic dogma, everything, including the problematic stuff, is said to be sheer perfection?
In brief: how do mere lowly mortals go about reforming that which emanates from Allah?
Hasn't that been the stumbling block all along in effecting an Islamic Reformation?
And let's not forget the many decades of bloodshed and division associated with the Christian Reformation--more bloodshed and division probably being the last thing Muslims (as well as infidels) need.
An "enlightened Islam"?
All I can say is bonne chance with that one, mes amis.
Update: I concur with this assessment:
The truth is that Islam has already had its own reformation of sorts, in the sense of a stripping of cultural accretions and a process of supposed "purification". And it didn't produce a tolerant, pluralistic, multifaith utopia, a Scandinavia-on-the-Euphrates. Instead, it produced … the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Exactly. Whenever Islam "reforms," it does so by harkening back to what is held out as being a better, "purer" time--the era of Islam's founder and the four "rightly-guided" caliphs who succeeded him. Even though, as we know, that period was marked by violence, assassination and internecine squabbling; indeed, it gave rise to the eternal--and eternally violent--Shia v. Sunni split.
Update: Re the impossibility of "reforming" sharia, Andrew McCarthy writes (my bolds):
Sharia rejects the touchstone of American democracy: the belief that the people have a right to govern themselves and chart their own destiny. In sharia governance, the people are subjects not citizens, and they are powerless to question, much less to change, Allah's law. Sharia systematically discriminates against women and non-Muslims. It is brutal in its treatment of apostates and homosexuals. It denies freedom of conscience, free expression, property rights, economic liberty, and due process of law. It licenses wars of aggression against infidels for the purpose of establishing sharia as the law of the land.
Study--Dogs Ease Anxiety in Children
To which I'd add: in grown ups too, I think (except, that is, when they're pulling off such doggy shenanigans as, say, shredding an entire newspaper into confetti-sized bits and/or swiping whatever food you happen to have left on the kitchen counter, anxiety-inducing things my pooch has been known to do).
Ban Ki-Moon's Ingenious (Or Is It Disingenuous?) Paris Stratagem
When the savagery of ISIS and its fellow caliphatists is running amuck, what's the best way to persuade the world that climate change is the most pressing problem du jour?
Isn't it obvious?
You make the counter-intuitive not to mention gobsmacking claim that terrorism is caused by climate change.
Not by the jihad imperative embedded in Islam's core religious teachings.
Not by the desire--call it Totalitarianism 2.0--to want to create a global caliphate to lord it over the planet.
By environmental changes about which we likely can do next to nothing, even though, in our errant arrogance, we think we can do plenty.
Who does Ban Ki-Moon think he is, anyway?
Bernie "Curb Your Enthusiasm" Sanders?
Update: While terrorism has nothing to do with climate change, clamping down on climate change protesters has a lot to do with recent terrorism.
Syrian "Refugees": A La Esau, Will They Be Kissers or Biters?
Yesterday's sermon in synagogue had to do with Jacob and Esau; how, years after having his birthright stolen, Esau wanted to see his brother again. Jacob, however, was extremely reluctant, fearing that such an encounter would result in a death--his, at the hands of his vengeful brother. Finally, however, the meeting could not be put off any longer, and the two brothers had their reunion Shockingly, Esau greeted Jacob with tears and a kiss.
Or did he? You see, in the Torah scroll, for some mysterious reason, there are several dots above Esau's name in the line recounting the reunion. For some rabbis for whom Esau is and remains pure evil, those aren't dots, they're teeth, and they represent the fact that that alleged kiss was actually a bite (with the dots standing in for/representing Esau's teeth).
We were assured, though, that that's a rather extreme interpretation, and that the lesson the Torah wishes to impart is that we should get over our fears and let the blighters kiss us. And by blighters (my word, not the sermonizer's), of course, he means Syrians, who are even now streaming to our shores, fully vetted by the UN and other deft scrutinizers, we are told.
Mark Steyn has a witty riposte for that claim:
When the US government says they'll do a two-year vetting process of Mohammed bin Mohammed al-Mohammed, it just means his application sits gathering dust for two years -- and then when it's his Mohammed bin Mohammed al-Mohammed's turn to get in, they just stamp it. There's no way to vet these Syrian refugees. It's not like you can check the Aleppo DMV or anything.
Oh, come now, Mark. It would be churlish, "Islamophobic," and, yes, unwelcoming of us (as Jacob was unwelcoming of Esau, who didn't bite him) to bar them entry.
Don't believe me? Let's hear what a Jewish leader over in Europe has to say:
Oskar Deutsch, head of Vienna's Jewish community, told reporters on Monday that he is concerned that the overwhelming rush of asylum seekers into Austria would result in a rise in anti-Semitism, European media reported. Deutsch argued that many of the Muslim migrants have been raised on a "diet of anti-Semitism." He also believes Austria has already "more or less" reached its capacity for new arrivals.
Deutsch also believes that some asylum seekers in Austria are only "so-called refugees," meaning they are not fleeing war and persecution but are merely looking to improve their economic situation.
Meanwhile, the Central Council of Jews in Germany has also warned of growing anti-Semitism, brought in by migrants from Islamic countries where the Jewish religion and Jews are maligned regularly. They called for a limit to be imposed on migrants entering Germany. Council president Josef Schuster told Die Welt: "Sooner or later we won't have a choice but to set an upper limit." He added, "Many of the refugees are fleeing the terror of the Islamic State and want to live in peace and freedom, but at the same time they come from cultures were hatred of Jews and intolerance are an integral part" of life.
I understand the impulse to want to swoop in and rescue the suffering; I really do. However, I'm not given to the sort of moral preening which refuses to consider the Jew-hate we shall be importing (in the name of "tikkun olam" and because of "None is too many"), and how it is likely to bite, not kiss, us where it hurts the most.
That's a lesson that the Jews of Europe, and in particular of France, know all too well, and it's the reason why more and more of them are leaving the continent and making their way to Israel (where, in recent days, Arabs have been "kissing" Jews by stabbing them with daggers).
Update: Ezra's sermon makes more sense to me:
Update: Found the following montage of photos and words on the Religion of Peace site. It pretty much says it all, I think:
Twenty victims of the Islamic attacks in Paris, which claimed
the lives of 130 innocents - most of whom were young.
Each of the killers was - ultimately - a product of Islamic
immigration. Each was in a position to kill because
of the trust and kindness of Europeans - and the naive
belief that Islam is neither different nor dangerous.
Hollywood Hero
A new movie about Dalton Trumbo
Reveals that the man was no dumbo.
And there's no caterwaulin'
Re how he loved Stalin,
Just the same old hard left mumbo-jumbo.
Obama Compares Syrian Refugees With--Wait for It--The Plymouth Rock Pilgrims
The only way to explain the ridiculous comparison: either there was way too much tryptophan in yesterday's White House Thanksgiving turkey, or else he's availing himself of some unnamed psychotropic drug.
Former London Mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone: Still Usefully Idiotic After All These Years
He says the London transit 7/7 jihadis "gave their lives" to "protest" the infidels' invasion of Iraq.
Assad Is an Abominable Butcher But At Least He's Fighting ISIS, Right?
Wrong. According to this WSJ article, he isn't fighting ISIS as much as he is helping to keep it flush by buying its oil.
"Instead of Bombing Raqqah, France Should be Bombing Molenbeek"
That's how bad it is there, especially with the town's Jew-hating mayor, a nasty piece of work, indeed.
Pope Thinks "Education and Jobs" Can Counter the Siren Call of Jihad/the Caliphate
How clueless. Or, in the words of that great sage/social philosopher Cher Horowitz: As if!
White Male Privilege On Display at Toronto Zoo
Why/how Belgium has become a breeding ground for terrorism.
A Message to Those Participating in That Jewish-Muslim Friendship Circle at Holy Blossom Temple Tonight
Further to this post from yesterday, I wish all the Jewish interfaith squishes could get it through their heads that, "moderate" Muslim protestations to the contrary, Islam is not a religion of peace, and Israel will likely always come between Jews and Muslims, even most of the "moderate" ones. Here's someone who really "gets it," and who lays it all out:
The Islam of today is the Islam of Muhammed who wreaked horror throughout Arabia and destroyed the remaining Jewish tribes of the region. Islam is death, destruction, and brutal subjugation. ISIS is the same as Fatah, Hezbollah, and Hamas; they are simply more effective in their barbarism. Mohammed would be proud of ISIS, since they are replicating his conquests.
The Chief Rabbi of England, may he live and be well, is a man of books. Let him start his Islamic education by reading a proper uncensored translation of the Koran before he reflects on Islam's teachings. The problem is that if he insists on participating in interfaith discussions with supposed moderate Muslims, he will remain incapable of discerning truth. Many of these polite moderates oppose violence in Europe, but readily support violence against Jews in what they call "Palestine." Let him delve into the many bloody hadiths, which speak of rocks and trees imploring Muslims to kill Jews. Let him read scholarly works on Islam, from Islamic theologians themselves, to critical scholarly works not authored by John Esposito and Karen Armstrong, two infamous apologists for Islam.
Posted by scaramouche at 10:19 AM 2 comments: Links to this post
Clarion Identifies 80--Count 'Em, 80--Radical Mosques in the U.S.
Here's the map:
It seems to get really bunchy in the northeast sector.
Someone should do the same sort of thing for Canada.
"Hell of a 'Pinpoint Strike'" in Afghanistan
Human error, technical failures, led to Doctors Without Borders strike, general says
Anything you care to add to that, Mr. Kerry?
Imagine There's No Jihad. It's Easy If You Try (and If You're Karen Mock)
Ever wonder how "progressive" Jews who are so intent on "building bridges" with Muslims are able to put aside the divisive matter of that thorn in Islam's solar plexus, that rebuke to the religion's fundamental teachings? I refer, of course, to that pesky Jewish state, the one that has so many Muslims up in arms (and these days, in knives). Karen Mock, who helped organize a Jewish-Muslim love-in at a local Reform synagogue, explains how ignoring Israel for the sake of "bridge building" is done (my bolds):
Mock emphasized that while anti-Muslim feelings in the Jewish community sometimes occur in response to events in the Middle East, the conflict in Israel is "political, not religious," and that for Jewish-Muslim dialogue programs to be effective, it's important to put aside political issues initially, until people have developed a relationship.
In other words, you have to tell yourself and others a massive fib--that the ongoing jihad against the Jews of Israel is "political, not religious."
Actually, Ms. M., it is both political and religious--like Islam itself, which does not separate the two.
But something tells me that that problematic fact won't come up during tomorrow night's hug-fest.
"It's Time To Bring Back the Canadian Jewish Congress"
Sorry, kids, that ship has sailed--and sunk.
In reality, we need a revived CJC (which, by the end of its life, had become little more than a "progressive" SJW racket) like we need (some suggested phrases)...:
a hole in the head;
a bad batch of gefilte fish;
25,000 Syrian "refugees" landing in Canada by February;
another one of those UN global climate change conferences (so that world leaders can prioritize the weather even as the jihad consumes the planet).
I'm sure you can come up with a few of your own.
Paris Attacks Fail to Deter Stupid EUnuchs From Boosting Funds For Hamas-Abetting UNRWA
You would think that what with all its current agita with ISIS (terrorism in Paris, Brussels still in lockdown), the EUnuchs would think to connect the dots between their enemies and Israel's.
Wishful thinking:
Yesterday the European Commission announced an additional €10 million in support to UNRWA to keep schools open and to maintain core services for Palestinian refugees..
According to the press release, this contribution, which comes in addition to the €10 million granted in October, brings the 2015 EU support for UNRWA's General Fund up to €102 million.
Additional support to the Palestinian Authority totalling €1.525 million has also been provided by Austria (€1.5 million) and Portugal (€25,000) through the PEGASE mechanism. This facility allows Member States, in partnership with the EU, to provide assistance in a coherent and cost-effective manner directly to the Palestinian Authority.
The High Representative Federica Mogherini said:
"UNRWA is doing invaluable work with the Palestinian children whose experience has been marked too often by war, violence, displacement and insecurity. Thanks to UNRWA, their right to go to school and build a better future for themselves and the region can be guaranteed. The EU will continue to stand by UNRWA as it provides Palestine refugees not only with critical quality services, but also with stability and hope for the future in very difficult circumstances".
Isn't it odd/funny how we're so keen to bring Syrian "refugees" to the West--and so intent on keeping Palestinian "refugees" exactly where they are?
As for the ISIS-beleaguered EU continuing to "stand by UNRWA"--what a bunch of hypocrites!
"Over 23,000 Syrian Refugee Applicants Have Been Referred To Us By the UNHCR; Only About 2,000 Have Been Admitted"
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh (which looks like it should--but doesn't--rhyme with "meh") Johnson explains the rigorous screening process refugees are subjected to, one that's been "enhanced" for fleeing Syrians. Re the above-quoted statement, I'm curious about the following:
have only 2,000 been admitted because the rest failed their screening?
have only 2,000 been admitted because the process is so slow, with the remaining 23,000 yet to be screened?
if it turns out that, out of this pool of 25,000, only 2,000 passed muster, isn't that something that should concern us?
how many of the rejected 23,000 (if they have indeed been rejected) can we expect to show up here in Toronto?
So many questions; so little clarity from "progressive" leaders on both sides of the 42nd parallel.
'Dr.' Roger L. Simon: "Islam Needs an Intervention"
Agreed. It needs a jihadectomy, stat.
Syrian Refugees To Go From "Camps" In Middle East to "Camps" In Canada?
It sure sounds like it:
As many as 900 refugees a day are expected to arrive from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. The vast majority of them will arrive in Toronto and Montreal.
Sources say most of the newcomers will initially be housed in military bases, which have been preparing for their arrival. Other kinds of housing will also be used, including hotels and abandoned hospitals.
But sources also say the government will stay away from calling any of these temporary housing locations "camps" — perhaps to stay away from the notion that refugee camps are typically large-scale and temporary, often using tents.
Refugees will not be housed in tents in Canada.
Nah. I think they're staying away from calling them "camps" because the word has such negative connotations.
Update: Here's a Palestinian "refugee camp," which, as you can see, is a permanent large-scale settlement sans tents.
"Bloodlands" Author Timothy Synder's New Book on the Holocaust Takes Climate Change Alarmism to the Extreme
So I have now made my way through Black Earth, Yale history professor Timothy Synder's revisionist take on the Holocaust and its grim warning for our time. And all I can say is: it took 318 pages to reach the warning, and I can't say it was worth the effort.
In brief, the book's thesis is that Adolf Hitler earmarked the Jews for elimination because their religiously-based morality was a huge impediment to his nutty "survival-of-the-fittest/man-is-but-another-animal line of thinking. Further, contends Snyder, it was far easier to kill Jews in places whose state authorities had already given way to the Nazis, or broken down in chaos, or both, than in places where some civic authority was maintained (as it was in, say, Denmark). In the countires such as Poland and the Ukraine (the "bloodlands" so named in this book as well as in Snyder's previous work by that name), it was far easier to exterminate Jews because there was nothing to stop the locals from getting in on the Jew-killing action, which many did with wild abandon (although not necessarily, insists Snyder, for reasons of "anti-Semitism").
But is this true? Reviewing the book in the Wall Street Journal, Edward J. Rothstein, for one, remains dubious:
But I am not entirely convinced by his conclusion that state power is the crux. It clearly matters what kind of state is coming into power and what kind of state is losing it. Germany, after all, demonstrated that state power can be harnessed for organizing mass murder. Today, ISIS has proved that a well-run organization with a system of law can institutionalize atrocity. There is also a hint of circularity in Mr. Snyder's formula: If state power is the creator of social order, then of course the lack of state power would mean the end of social order. The destruction of authority results in a lack of authority. But the wartime massacres didn't take place solely because there was no state structure; they happened because the lack of authority accompanied fervent anti-Semitic convictions. Anti-Semitism should not just be thought of as a form of racism or prejudice. It is a deeply held belief, religious in its power, through which the world's events are interpreted. Expressions of furious hatred are not merely choreographed passions staged for new masters.
Clearly, Mr. Rothstein has read David Nirenberg's Anti-Judaism, the revisionist work which demonstrated how deeply held Western ideas, religious in their power, understood the world via the use of "Judaism." Not that that the way they unpacked the world had anything to do with real Jews or their real religion. But by using "Judaism" as a negative via the claim that it was, for example, too worldly, too legalistic, too sneaky, too concerned with wealth and greed--they could set it up as the straw man against which they compared all the wonderful concepts they believed in--selflessness, spirituality and caring less about this world than about the one to come when the body dies and the soul finds it's place in the Afterlife.
But getting back to Snyder. One of his key contentions, and it's the one that sets the stage for his final chapter, the one where he issues his dire warning re the possibility of another Holocaust, is his idea that Hitler was really big on "ecology." Of course, that's Snyder's word, for in no part of Hitler's writings does he so much as mention the word. For Snyder, though, "ecology" is the key that explains why Hitler was so intent on acquiring "Lebensraum." He needed large fertile fields outside Germany so that he could feed his populace, because a well-fed people were a happy people, one likely to remain loyal to their Fuhrer. Snyder also floats the astonishing claim that Hitler was jealous of America's Lebensraum, (as he saw it, the vastness of the continental U.S. and its "Manifest Destiny") and that this jealously loomed large in his decisions. This is the paragraph--a muddle of the half-baked and the unbaked--in the book's conclusion where Snyder attempts to wrap it all up in one tidy package:
Just as Hitler's worldview conflated science and politics, his program confused biology with desire. The concept of Lebensraum unified need with want, murder with convenience. It implied a plan to restore the planet by mass murder and a promise of a better life for German families. Since 1945, one of the two senses of Lebensraum has spread across most of the world; a living-room, the dream of household comfort in consumer society. The other sense of Lebensraum is habitat, the realm that must be controlled for physical survival, inhabited perhaps temporarily by people characterized as not fully human. In uniting these two passions in one word, Hitler conflated lifestyle with life. For the vision of a well-stocked cupboard people should endorse the bloody struggle for other people's land. One standard of living is confused with living, a rich society can make war upon those who are poorer in the name of survival.
And here comes the line that had me scratching my head every time I read it--which I did many times: For me it marks the point where historical revisionism devolves into sheer nonsense. You'd better steel yourself, because it's a doozy. "Tens of millions of people died in Hitler's war," says Snyder, "not so that Germans could live, but so that Germans could pursue the American dream in a globalized world."
In other words, Snyder sees it as more of a Horatio Alger that a Heinrich Himmler sort of aspiration.
Kind of nutty, no?
But wait--it gets even kookier. For the entire point of Snyder's 300+ page revisionism is to yoke the Holocaust to--I kid you not--global climate change. Because just as Hitler's ideas about "ecology" ultimately led to failed states which facilitated the mass murder of Jews, so too in our time the failed states and their "ecology," or rather, the desertification of places like Libya, Iraq and Syria, a situation exacerbated by "climate change," could very well result in Arabs and others blaming it all on Israel, and taking steps to wipe it out.
To which I'd respond: don't worry, Professor Snyder. The Arabs' desire to pull a Hitler on Israel goes way back--and has nothing to do with "climate change" or the lack thereof. Its provenance is the Koran and other Islamic holy texts and teachings, ones that may have even served to inspire Hitler, who admitted to being a big fan of Muslims, and was certainly on the best of terms with the Jew-despising Grand Mufti.
Nor would I worry, as Snyder does, that Israel's "right-wing" American religious friends, who are apt to be climate change "deniers," cannot be trusted due to their ulterior motive of wanting to convert Jews to Christianity prior to Jesus's return. Oddly enough, I'm more worried about the UN, an organization in thrall to its largest voting bloc, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and how it continues to demonize and marginalize the world's one and only Jewish state. This despite the ongoing threat to both Muslims and infidels of ISIS and its Hitlerian caliphate dreams.
Then, too, there's Iran, a deranged Shia theocracy which has been given the green-light to proceed with its nuke-building efforts, ones which may yet enable it to wipe out iniquitous Zion via one well-aimed A-bomb.
None of which has anything to do with climate change. But I suppose if you're a leftist academic for whom global warming is the most crucial issue of our time, one which you think poses an existential threat to humankind, positing that it could be the impetus for another Shoah is a novel and highly effective way to get people, especially those likely to be bowled over by your critical acclaim and academic credentials, to buy in to the allegedly imminent climate catastrophe.
One final thought: were there an annual prize for most original global warming hysteria (and why the heck isn't there one?), Snyder's climate-change-could-cause-another-Holocaust tome would win this year's award, hands down.
"I Don't Want to Debate. I Want to Talk About My Pain"
A line that could serve as the motto of the thin-skinned, safe-space-seeking campus snowflakes. (See what comes of marinating kids in "self-esteem" and giving 'em prizes for merely showing up?)
Update: Claudia Rosett, tongue implanted in cheek, comments on how Foggy Bottom's "travel advisory" might impact the 'flakes:
On the lighter side, for the sake of the State Department I hope no one allows this travel warning to reach the university campuses of the United States. Trigger warning: State's advice is on a collision course with those "safe spaces" that are now the prime mission of the academy. There's a "conversation" in the making here that could rival the final moments of HAL the computer, in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Hell Of a Double Standard on Display in D.C.
Israel is held to a different standard--again:
Remember when Secretary of State John Kerry sarcastically grumbled, "Hell of a 'pinpoint' attack," after one Israeli strike in Gaza? We don't hear Kerry calling the French bombing of those Raqqa medical clinics a "hell of a 'pinpoint' attack." We don't hear National Security Adviser Susan Rice demanding that Hollande apologize for describing Islamic killers as "barbarians." We don't hear President Barack Obama calling for "both sides" to "exercise restraint" as he always does when Israel responds to Arab terrorists.
On the contrary, Obama administration officials are boasting that the US provided "military intelligence" that assisted the French in their bombing of Raqqa. This, a cynic might say, makes the Obama administration complicit in the bombing of a medical clinic, a museum and a soccer stadium.
Israel has always understood the nature of this conflict. Now, it seems, France does, too.
I'm not so sure about that last bit. I bet Hollande, too, thinks that the key to quieting tensions in the Middle East is for there to be a Palestine.
Obama Advises the Media To Indulge In Obama-esque Magical Thinking
Ignore the problem, he says, and it's like it doesn't exist at all.
Paris Muslims Tell Ezra Levant Who's "Really" Behind ISIS and Those Recent Attacks
I'll give you a hint. It ain't the Mormons (or, for that matter, the Muslims).
"Clock Boy" Ahmed Mohamed Wants $15 Million, Written Apologies
That's a lot of jizya, kid.
"Risk" Expert on CBC Radio: Our Fear Re "Terrorism" Is Way Overblown
He's personally crunched the numbers, so he should know.
Update: America the vulnerable
Belgium Youths Hot for Jihad? Blame It on "Rambo"
How ridiculous! Why blame it on Rambo? Why not blame it on, say, the Terminator? Or on Bruce Willis's character in those Die Hard movies?
Or--here's a wacky notion--why not blame it on the enduring appeal of the jihad/the ability to participate in establishing the primacy of the global caliphate?
The "True Teachings" of Islam
A letter in the National Post beseeches us infidels to learn 'em (the "true teachings," that is):
Staining Islam
Re: Europe Goes On The Offensive, Nov. 20.With at least 130 civilians killed, and countless injured, the world has witnessed one of the most gruesome attacks in recent history. Time and time again, we are seeing these barbaric attacks across the world. Growing up as a Canadian Muslim, it deeply saddens me that these brutes continue to stain the name of Islam, and use it as an excuse to wage war and raise havoc. We need to educate ourselves about the true teachings of Islam, so that the peaceful Muslims do not fall victim to prejudice and violence. If not, then more accounts of mosques being burnt — like the one in Peterborough, Ont. — and the random attacks on Muslims will continue to rise and divide our country. I pray for the peace and stability by anyone affected by this tragedy, and for the day when religion is no longer the scapegoat for extremist actions.
Imran Mohammad, Toronto.
Re those "true teachings," here's what a famous Islamic scholar, Abu l-Ala-Mawdudi (1903-1981), as quoted by Bat Ye'or in her invaluable book Islam and Dhimmitude, has to say about them:
Mawdudi explains the ideological foundation of this [Islamic] state by the doctrine of tawhid, the unity of Allah and of the koranic revelation. This unity places on Muslims the religious obligation to accomplish the Divine will on earth. The will of Allah revealed to Muhammad in the Koran and the sunna was intented for mankind. As sole keeper of the True Revelation, the Islamic community is distinguished from other peoples by two characteristics: the election (Koran, 3:106) and the perfection attached to the laws of Allah, implemented in the shari'a:
The shari'ah stipulates the law of God and provides guidance for the regulation of life in the best interests of man.
These two characterics--the umma's election and perfection, linked to the koranic revelation and the shari'a--that is, Allah's will--is considered legitimate and usurped, because only Islamic--that is, Allah's--law must prevail. This concept bestows legitimacy of authority and power at an international level exclusively on the umma. It confirms the supremacy of its authority over all other peoples by its divine election. The same principle legitimizes jihad.
That being so, it isn't that religion is, as the NatPo letter-writer puts it, "the scapegoat for extremist actions." It's that the dogma of this particular religion is the source, motivation and prime impetus for these actions. An since they are entirely in keeping with the mainstream doctrine of tawhid, it is misleading as well as inaccurate to characterize such actions as "extremist."
So who needs to learn more about Islam's true teachings? I would venture to say it's the letter-writer, that's who.
Victor D. Hanson Tackles Some Overused Words Devoid of Meaning
To be clear, the "D" does not stand for "diversity," one of the Orwellian words he examines:
"Diversity" The noun was rebranded in the 1980s, and does not mean what it by nature should -- "a range" or "multiplicity." No one furthers the goals of "diversity" by ensuring plenty of conservatives, liberals, radicals and reactionaries on campus, or welcoming lots of Christian fundamentalists as well as atheists and Muslims. The word instead is a euphemism for non-white, non-male, non-heterosexual, non-Christian, and non-liberal. It is a relative and entirely political noun. The University of Missouri football team can both be 52% African-American and proof of diversity, even if African-Americans make up less than 12% of the population -- in a way that all white and elderly Democratic primary candidates are honorifically diverse by virtue of their homogeneous left-wing politics.
Three other observations: First, racial and ethnic diversity, without assimilation and integration into one culture, and when identity becomes essential rather than incidental to a nation (i.e. a salad bowl society rather than the melting pot), leads to Armageddon, whether in Austria-Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, or Iraq.
Second, the word gained careerist currency because of the bankruptcy of the idea of affirmative action, after it became impossible to explain and thus defend racial set-asides. Who can define the proper DNA that makes one deserving of admissions and employment reparations: 1/4 African-American, but not Punjabi or Egyptian? Hmong, but not Japanese? Oaxacan, but not Castilian? Muslim, but not Mormon? An indigent Appalachian, but not Eric Holder's son? As a result, universities had to lump everybody deemed non-white together as they pleased and called the catch-all result "diversity" -- regardless of class, income, status or history. If one wishes someone non-white to be hired on the physics faculty, then a South Korean immigrant green-card-holding PhD counts as diversity, in a way that his son would not qualify for traditional affirmative-action status as an 18-year-old applicant to UC Berkeley. Diversity lowered the affirmative-action bar and the natural consequence of vagueness were the fantasies of Elizabeth Warren, Rachel Dolezal, Shaun King, and Ward Churchill -- all professed to be diverse, but all without proper certifications of affirmative-action status.
Third, no one outside the campus much believes in the inherent advantage of diversity/diverse, as least as opposed to united: The Diverse States of America? Diverse Airlines? The Diversity Way? Diverse Technologies? The Diverse Auto Workers?
I wouldn't go giving the diversity mongers any ideas there,Victor. Speaking of which/whom, our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a huge "progressive," is devoted to "diversity." He made a lot of noise, for example, about the fact that, it being the year 2015, his cabinet would be 50-50--half men and half chicks (of course, he didn't use the "c" word, which is my cheeky anachronism).
Now, that's "diverse."
Then again, if he fully bought in to the concept, he would have made sure to include, say, more trans people and more folks who are mentally challenged (where, for example, is someone to represent the all-important and long underrepresented schizophrenia demographic?), among many, many other identity groups.
"France Matters. Russia Matters. Mali Matters. Syria Matters...The Whole World Matters. Peace Is Possible"
Jared Leto, whose band has performed at the Bataclan, forgot to mention one entity that matters, and it's a biggie: the jihad.
The jihad matters. And if we don't send it packing, the only "peace" that will be possible is the peace that will prevail once the jihad succeeds and the world submits to the caliphate.
Celine Dion warbles in memory of those murdered in Paris by jihadis.
(Not that anyone at the AMA tribute uttered the "j" word in any form.)
Update: Personally, I prefer Edith Piaf's rendition:
"Belgium Officials Distraught That Muslim Terrorists Have Moved Beyond Targeting Jews"
Yeah, it really sucks when you go out of your way to ingratiate yourself with local Muslims by trashing "the Zionists" and all you get for your efforts is jihadis forcing you to place your country's largest city in lockdown for days on end.
I know--maybe if Belgians redouble their Zionhass, the terrorists will go back to targeting the Jews exclusively (you know, like the Nazis did) and leave "regular" Belgians alone.
Posted by scaramouche at 6:00 PM 2 comments: Links to this post
Pope Francis Says Christmas Is "A Charade" This Year Because the World Is At War
Quite the Debbie Downer/Grinch, isn't he? Surely in this dark time Catholics are looking for something more uplifting and inspirational from the head of their church.
"The Justin Project"
Those silly Manilla girls going gaga over our "hottie" prime minister reminds me of the silly girls who go gaga over that other Canadian Justin, the one who's a hot mess, and who sings (sort of). Toronto Star opiner states the obvious when he writes that Trudeau's reception back in Ottawa is unlikely to be nearly as warm as the cold reality that he actually has to govern sets in.
That got me to thinking: why not have a reality show about a Prince and the Pauper sort of switcheroo? They could call it "The Justin Project," a fish-out-of-water experiment whereby the "hottie" singer trades places with the "hottie" p.m. and we see who sinks and who swims.
Could the Biebs be any worse a prime minister than Trudeau? I doubt it. Then again, I'm not sure if Trudeau could hold up his end, since it's unclear if he can even hold a tune. (Heaven knows, his acting is awful.)
Then again, there's always Auto-tune, so Justin's pitchiness needn't be a deal breaker.
American Anthrolopgists Opt for BDS
No doubt about it--Marxism warps the brain (my bolds):
DENVER, Nov. 20 — In a historic vote Friday night, the American Anthropological Association at its annual business meeting resoundingly approved a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions by a vote of 1040-136. The resolution will now be forwarded to the full membership for a final vote by electronic ballot in the coming months.
The resolution enjoins the Association not to enter into any formal collaborations with Israeli academic institutions. Individual Israeli scholars may continue to participate in AAA conferences and publications. Moreover, individual AAA members will remain free to determine for themselves whether and how to apply the boycott in their own professional practice.
As heirs to a long tradition of scholarship on colonialism, anthropologists affirm, through this resolution, that the core problem is Israel's maintenance of a settler colonial regime based on Jewish supremacy and Palestinian dispossession. By supporting the boycott, anthropologists are taking a stand for justice through action in solidarity with Palestinians. ...
Wrong, stupid scholars. The core problem is that Israel's very existence is a rebuke to Islamic doctrine, one which Arabs and other Muslims are unable and unwilling to countenance. Were the issue really one of "supremacy" and "dispossession," you "justice"-mongers would be concerned about all the Muslim nations of world where democracy and minority rights are in extremely short supply and all the Jews dispossessed from Arab lands. But since those items aren't even on your GPS, your concern must be a function of something else--like, say, your Marxist ideology.
University of Toronto "Safe Spaces"
They're not the sort you're thinking of, though.
Today's Dueling Limericks
This one's in the NatPo:
Mr. Trump took a moment to muse,
Then said, "Yes, I reckon I'd use
A form of a scheme
The Nazi regime
Preferred in regard to the Jews."
This one is mine:
The Donald a Hitler manqué?
A genocide soon on the way?
That's very chimerical
And awf'ly hysterical
And all I can say is, "Oy vey!"
Demonize much, NatPo limerick-writer?
Re Our Bad (And Their Badat)
While I in no way condone the actions of yobs who do mean things to local Muslims, I think the subsequent freak out that's being hyped in the media, especially by the CBC, is far more concerning. From the way some folks go on and on about a handful of incidents, you would think that Canada had suddenly morphed into a facsimile of Nazi Germany. (Which should be particularly risible to any Jew who has attended a Toronto Al Quds Day Seethe-a-palooza and experienced a frisson of deja vu when speaker after speaker spews the ugliest sort of Zionhass and angry shouts of "Allahu Akbar!"--shades of "Heil Hitler!"--fill the air.)
Here, for example, is the Ceeb, ginning things up like crazy:
Since the Islamic extremist group ISIS took credit for last week's deadly Paris attacks, there has been a visible uptick in reported hate crimes targeting Muslims and others in Ontario.
"I feel like we're being judged for something we had nothing to do with," Shara Fathima told CBC News during a march in Toronto on Friday, where hundreds gathered to call for peace after a string of reportedly anti-Muslim attacks in and around the city.
Even children are on edge, with students at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto in Scarborough telling CBC News they feel frightened and helpless in the face of these attacks.
"You really realize it could happen to anyone of us," Sara Ahmad, 17, said.
The Ceeb's online piece features a photo of Imam Yusuf Badat reassuring a roomful of moppets at the Islamic Foundation of Toronto school in Scarborough.
Probably unbeknownst to most of the Ceeb's audience is the fact that Badat's ISF mosque had printed matter calling for jihad on offer when it participated in "Doors Open Toronto" last year. (You can read about it, and other Badattery, here.)
Which, when you think about it, makes him the perfect man to tackle the subjects of fear and hate.
D.C. Holocaust Museum Draws Parallel Between Fleeing Syrians and Nazi-Era Jewry
Give me a freaking break! (my bolds):
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is urging politicians and private citizens to avoid condemning Syrian refugees as a group.
The museum says in a statement issued Thursday that Americans "should not turn our backs on the thousands of legitimate refugees." The statement compared their plight to that of Jews who were unable to flee Nazism.
Several Republican presidential contenders have called on the United States to stop accepting refugees after last week's attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants. The House passed legislation Thursday that would essentially ban Syrian and Iraqi refugees from the U.S. President Barack Obama opposes the bill.
The statement from the museum notes that many refugees are fleeing the Islamic State and says "security concerns must be fully addressed" before they enter the U.S. ...
Given its mandate, I can understand why the museum would feel compelled to make all the right noises vis-à-vis this current tide of refugees. That does not change the fact, however, that in ethos and mindset, especially when it comes to how they view Israel and Jewry, Syrians as a group are a lot closer to the Nazis than they are to Americans.
Or have the museum's powers-that-be forgotten that it was not that long ago that the Jews of Syria had to be rescued because the antipathy of Syrians as a group made it impossible for Jews to continue living there?
Update: Why Syria Is Not the Holocaust
ISIS's Al-Bagdhadi Sings Porter
The humour, such as it is, is very dark and highly inappropriate, I know. But when the world seems like it's spinning out of control, I feel the need to write song parodies. You could say it's a compulsion. Or maybe it's therapeutic. Either way, here goes:
I get no kick from champagne.
Allah, it's true, said, "There's no booze for you."
I'll tell you want gives me a thrill:
It's knowing that I'm gonna kill.
I'd like to blow up that plane.
It has a load of kafirs who'll explode.
We'll show 'em our jihadi will
To 'splode and to blow up and kill.
I like to kill every time infidels
Kneel there helpless and hopeless before us.
I like to kill because it's Allah's will
And "Allah' Akbar!" is this song's chorus.
I get no kick from the West
Our great caliphate I can state is the best.
And, no, I am not mentally ill.
I just gotta rage, seethe and kill.
"Political Correctness Be Damned. Sometimes You Just Have to Call It What It Is, Islamic Terrorism"
Hear, hear--and how refreshing to hear the truth stated so matter-of-factly (instead of disguising the truth via the customary evasions, equivocations, euphemisms and mental gymnastics; Hillary Clinton provides an excellent example of how it's done).
Hollande's Words Come Back to Haunt Him
Image Odysseus
Welcome to the "New Normal"
ISIS is in the U.S. and you'd better get used to it, says FBI Director James Comey.
That said, as underscored by the ever-duplicitous wannabe-POTUS Hillary Clinton, ISIS types are "radical jihadists" and unconnected in any way to genuine Islam, so that's a relief, no?
Not Exactly a Shockeroo
The Iran deal's verification system is not working
Opportunism Knocks as Hillary Turns Hawkish
Would that be the same Hillary who would sooner see her "friend" Chris Stevens blown away by jihadists than balk at the then-prevalent narrative that Obama had Al Qaeda on the run?
The same Hillary who, while acknowledging the truth about the terrorist attack to her daughter, went on to lie and blame it all on some lame YouTube video?
That Hillary has suddenly grown a pair and is now determined to send ISIS packing?
What a sick--and sickening--joke!
Today's Limerick
Terry Glavin says, "Pretty please,
Let's let in those 'refugees'."
But since we can't vet 'em
Then how can we let 'em
Come in? ("Real change" gives me the heaves.)
Latest "Prog" Meme: Steve Jobs's Dad Was a "Syrian Migrant"
As if ISIS was around when Job's birth dad (who adopted him out to the Jobses) arrived from Syria in the early 1950s.
Hypocrisy in Paree: Iran--Yes, Iran--Welcomed With...
Seasonal Song for the Silly Paris Climate Change S...
Where In the World Is Paris Terror Suspect Salah A...
Ban Ki-Moon's Ingenious (Or Is It Disingenuous?) P...
Syrian "Refugees": A La Esau, Will They Be Kissers...
Obama Compares Syrian Refugees With--Wait for It--...
Former London Mayor "Red" Ken Livingstone: Still U...
Assad Is an Abominable Butcher But At Least He's F...
"Instead of Bombing Raqqah, France Should be Bombi...
Pope Thinks "Education and Jobs" Can Counter the S...
A Message to Those Participating in That Jewish-Mu...
Clarion Identifies 80--Count 'Em, 80--Radical Mosq...
Imagine There's No Jihad. It's Easy If You Try (an...
"It's Time To Bring Back the Canadian Jewish Congr...
Paris Attacks Fail to Deter Stupid EUnuchs From Bo...
"Over 23,000 Syrian Refugee Applicants Have Been R...
'Dr.' Roger L. Simon: "Islam Needs an Intervention...
Syrian Refugees To Go From "Camps" In Middle East ...
"Bloodlands" Author Timothy Synder's New Book on t...
"I Don't Want to Debate. I Want to Talk About My P...
Obama Advises the Media To Indulge In Obama-esque ...
Paris Muslims Tell Ezra Levant Who's "Really" Behi...
"Clock Boy" Ahmed Mohamed Wants $15 Million, Writt...
"Risk" Expert on CBC Radio: Our Fear Re "Terrorism...
Victor D. Hanson Tackles Some Overused Words Devoi...
"France Matters. Russia Matters. Mali Matters. Sy...
"Belgium Officials Distraught That Muslim Terroris...
Pope Francis Says Christmas Is "A Charade" This Ye...
D.C. Holocaust Museum Draws Parallel Between Fleei...
"Political Correctness Be Damned. Sometimes You Ju...
Latest "Prog" Meme: Steve Jobs's Dad Was a "Syrian...
Abdullah Gül's "Fanciful" P.R. on Behalf of the RO...
In Wake of Paris Attacks on Infidels, "Virtuous," ...
This Just In--John Lennon's "Imagine" Ain't Playin...
It's All Fun and Games Untill a Wacky, Gimmicky Ji...
Stephane Dion (Justin Trudeau's Foreign Minister) ...
Enough, Already, With That Jihad-Ignoring, Infidel...
Two Things That Will Never Happen
Premier Kathleen Wynne's Reassurances Re "Syrian" ...
John Oliver's Vapid Blast of Croquem-B.S.
"Not The Real Change Canadians Expected"
Michael Coren on "Lone Wolfs" and "The Mentally Il...
Zafar B. Is Really P.O.'d That the Jihad Against I...
What a Travesty!: Melanie Phillips on the Doc "The...
Malcolm Turnbull's "Inclusion" Delusion
The Sexual Perversity and Hypocrisy of ISIS
The Awful Truth That "Moderate" Muslims Refuse to ...
How Many Canadians Will Have to Die Because of Jus...
Stupid Local Zion-Loathers Du Jour
Dumbest Socialist Gasbag Du Jour
Dumbest Headline Du Jour
Right on Schedule, It's Time to "Fear the Backlash...
Boo-Frikkin'-Hoo
The Truth About Islam That You'll Never Hear From ...
Mosque Boy/Blooming Idiot Justin Trudeau Post-Pari...
C'est Le Jihad, Stupide!
"This Is For Syria"
Some Old Familiar Islamist Faces as This Year's "R...
For the Love of God, Go Home, Tony!
Farzana Hassan On Fleeing Syrians: Our Security Co...
The EU's Boycott of Israeli Goods Eerily Reminisce...
Palestinians Flown In To Advise Ferguson "Proteste...
Tony Blair's Dangerous, Delusional Diplomacy
Iran's Rouhani Orders the U.S. to Grovel to the Ma...
Pricked By Zionhass
Latest Global Push to End War in Syria Said To Be ...
File This One Under "Sucking Up to Muslims"--Big T...
"Coexist" Insanity: It's a Shul...It's a Mosque......
Stephane Dion's Mideast Record "Mixed"? No Way!
"You Shouldn't Have to Pay Somebody to Resettle to...
Catholic Aid Groups: The Middle East Will Be Chris...
Of Poppies and "Peacekeeping": Remembrance Day 201...
"Disgruntled" UC Merced Slasher Faisal Muhammad Ha...
Give Us Your Tiredest, Your Poorest, Your Most Wre...
Anthony Furey Advises Us to "Take the High Road" W...
"Justice Involved Youth"
The Balfour Declaration 'Splained (Distorted, Actu...
Sharia Rules In CA as School Bans Kids From Drawin...
No Jihad/Islam to See Here, Folks. Best Move Along...


Classroom management is perhaps one of the trickier aspects to navigate as a newer teacher. It can quite literally make or break an effective lesson. Now, I don't claim to be an expert in classroom management. In fact it has been one part of my pedagogy that I've had to actively work on. I have gotten better at it though, which is the important part and for those who have finished their first year of teaching do take comfort that it does get better!
Don't take things personally. This was a hard piece of advice to accept and is still something I have to work on (I have gotten better on this though, I promise!). You literally do not have much control, if at all, of what happens to your students. You also don't know the full picture of exactly what is going on with each and every one of your students. So when a student reacts negatively to a command or task, take a step back, breathe and reassess the situation. Maybe this student didn't have breakfast or adequate sleep the night prior and is extra cranky right now. Maybe this student is homeless or shifting from foster home to foster home. Point blank, when kids react negatively to mundane tasks, nine times out of ten they're not necessarily reacting this way because they hate you but from something much deeper and away from your point of view that you may or may not be privy to.
Teach to your passion. This may seem like a no-brainer. Like of course, I'd teach to my passion or I wouldn't be teaching it! Of course this may not always be the case when we're mandated to teach certain curriculum or a concept in a certain way by admin. However, depending on the situation at your school, when there is room for creativity – use it! If you are not thrilled by the content you are teaching, then I can assure you your students aren't either. For instance, in my school, we're required to teach students how to write literary essays every year which is arguably one of the harder units to teach because the texts read are not necessarily the most engaging for my students. On top of trying to make them write full-on essays about said texts. So to navigate this, I incorporate more group projects and videos to engage the kids and make it more fun for me in the process.
Be consistent. Again, this was another toughie for me but is super important to maintain. As you develop your practice and teaching style, you will learn hard rules that need to stay and those that just need to go. For example, a hard rule in my classroom is one mic – only one person should be speaking at a time or else chaos can ensue and I abide by this rule. One rule that I just had to let go was students raising their hands for trivial matters like sharpening pencils, drinking water from the class water fountain or collecting notebooks upon arrival into class. This rule took too much time away from me teaching or conferencing with students that even I had to quickly disband it in favor of more standard class procedures. I would much rather uphold one mic which ensures all voices were heard than to constantly approve students obtaining the materials they need for class in clearly marked sections of the room. I can stand being consistent with more important rules for my own pedagogy than what I deem to be lesser rules.
Build relationships with your students. This is probably the most important basic rule of classroom management to exist. Relationships are key! I am not saying you need to be friends with your students but there should be a level of mutual respect and that only happens through meaningful relationships. Take an interest in something your kids love like music or sports or even trashy TV shows. It gives you something to bond with them over and they will be a lot less likely to act up in your class. Especially for those tougher to manage kids, you want them on your side and fast as those are often the ringleaders for class chaos.
This list isn't a definitive end-all/be-all but it definitely helps in changing the mood within the classroom. As teachers and educators, it is of utmost importance to consider this in designing effective classrooms. These are just some of my tidbits. Educators, what are some of yours? Post your comments in the section below!
You've got great advice here! I struggle with #1 taking things personally. Especially with crazy 8th graders!
It is hard! Though at the same time, why stress about it when even the student is just going about their day with you long forgotten in their mind? When you think about it that way, it puts a lot into perspective. Again, this is all a work in progress also for me but over time you find it's not worth it and you'll feel so much happier!
This is great! I like your perspective on classroom management!
Thank you! It's still a work in progress for me but something I feel I am getting better in.


text:
Q:  was not expected I just generated a class using the xsd.exe (See previous question) and then I tried to use it to deserialize my XML file.
My XML files start like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type='text/xsl' href='STIG_unclass.xsl'?>
<Benchmark xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:cpe="http://cpe.mitre.org/language/2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:dsig="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" id="Windows_2003" xml:lang="en" xsi:schemaLocation="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.1 http://nvd.nist.gov/schema/xccdf-1.1.4.xsd http://cpe.mitre.org/dictionary/2.0 http://cpe.mitre.org/files/cpe-dictionary_2.1.xsd" xmlns="http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.1">

and the generated class from xsd.exe starts off like this:
    /// <remarks/>
[System.CodeDom.Compiler.GeneratedCodeAttribute("xsd", "2.0.50727.3038")]
[System.SerializableAttribute()]
[System.Diagnostics.DebuggerStepThroughAttribute()]
[System.ComponentModel.DesignerCategoryAttribute("code")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlTypeAttribute(AnonymousType = true, Namespace = "http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.1")]
[System.Xml.Serialization.XmlRootAttribute(Namespace = "http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.1", IsNullable = false)]
public partial class Benchmark

but when I try and deserialize my XML file, using the following code:
var groups = new List<Benchmark>();
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(List<Benchmark>));
using (TextReader textReader = new StreamReader(open.FileName))
    groups = (List<Benchmark>)serializer.Deserialize(textReader);  // ERROR HERE

SetGroups(groups);

I get an error message that says "There is an error in XML document (3, 2)." with an inner exception that says: "http://checklists.nist.gov/xccdf/1.1'> was not expected."
What am I doing wrong?

A: Dang, I figured it out...
I was serializing the object as List<Benchmark> instead of Benchmark.... Changed that and everything was fixed!

A: I recognize this is a long-closed thread, but I also ran into this problem when using xsd.exe for the first time and had a different solution. It turns out that you MUST include the namespace in an xmlns, or you will receive an error of
<config xmlns=''> was not expected.

My XML file looked like this
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<MyClass>
    ...

After changing it to
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<MyClass xmlns="http://tempuri.org/MyClass.xsd>

Everything deserialized beautifully.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
The Jason Chronicles
Articles > General >
Leaving a Lasting Impact
Ever since watching Kevin Starr who is the director of the Mulago Foundation, and his explanation on how not to save the world (see the video below). It has really changed my perception on how I view these miracle technologies that promise to help improve the lives of people in the poorest countries.
There are a lot of great ideas but are just not practical for the people, culture, or environment that they're targeted at. They're either too expensive, too complex or don't meet all the needs of the group that they're meant to help.
The Mulago Foundation believes all projects need to answer four questions: Is it needed? Does it work? Will it get to those who need it? Will they use it correctly when they get it? Too many bad ideas are using up limited available resources.
Designing for the Other 90%
If we want to change the lives of people in the poorest countries and leave a lasting impact to improve their lives. We need to find technologies that actually fix a major problem, that are inexpensive to produce, and easy to maintain. This involves designing products for the other 90% of the world population that doesn't live in a affluent economy.
If they don't fix a major problem then there is no market for it. If its too expensive, the billions of people that live on a dollar or two per day can't afford it. If there are no resources to maintain a technology, then as soon it breaks it can become useless (unless its inexpensive to replace).
Ideally you want to create a product that creates a support industry (manufacturing, sales and repair) for the people who use it. This way you're creating jobs, changing lives, and creating the ability to maintain that product that people buy.
The cell phone is a good example of a technology that is used all over the world and changes lives. In the U.S. we treat these devices as being disposable, and many people get rid of their old phones after a few years or after their contract runs out and buy a new one. In other parts of the world there whole industries that repair and maintain phones that we would throw away.
Paul Polak - PopTech 2007
Video Description: From his extensive experiences working with the poor of the developing world, Paul Polak has learned a lot about effective market-based approaches to alleviating poverty. He argues that in order to be successful, solutions must be simple, inexpensive, easy to reproduce, and most important, respond to the expressed needs of the people they are meant to benefit.
Sheila Kennedy - PopTech 2007
Video Description: Most of us wouldn't see anything remarkable about a cell phone battery, a dishwasher switch and the light from a crosswalk signal. But Sheila Kennedy reveals how the combination of these common items can create something groundbreaking: portable, durable, reliable lighting for the third world.
Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement
Video Description: In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works.
Here is another video of Bunker Roy from PopTech in 2005, it contains a lot of similar information, but there are some more stories and information not contained in the other video.
Adam Grosser and his sustainable fridge
Video Description: Adam Grosser talks about a project to build a refrigerator that works without electricity -- to bring the vital tool to villages and clinics worldwide. Tweaking some old technology, he's come up with a system that works.
Solar Cooker
Video Description: Cook foods using sun light, and you don't pay electricity, parafine, or firewood, and making it all a lot cheaper. That's the promise of the solar cookers implemented by a South African company called Sunfire. They have been doing that for the last five years, and Sunfire is starting an NGO to distribute thousands of dishes across the African continent. All it needs is good old sunshine.
Neil Gershenfeld: The beckoning promise of personal fabrication
Video Description: MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab -- a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It's a simple idea with powerful results.
Open-sourcing the blueprints of civilization: Marcin Jakubowski
Video Description: Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that's only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000). More information at http://opensourceecology.org/.
R.A. Mashelkar: Breakthrough designs for ultra-low-cost products
Video Description: Engineer RA Mashelkar shares three stories of ultra-low-cost design from India that use bottom-up rethinking, and some clever engineering, to bring expensive products (cars, prosthetics) into the realm of the possible for everyone.
Anil Gupta: India's hidden hotbeds of invention
Video Description: Anil Gupta is on the hunt for the developing world's unsung inventors -- indigenous entrepreneurs whose ingenuity, hidden by poverty, could change many people's lives. He shows how the Honey Bee network helps them build the connections they need -- and gain the recognition they deserve.
INKtalks: Mansukhbhai Prajapati: Making earth look cool
Video Description: Mansukhbhai R Prajapati was born in Nichimandal village in Gujarat in a family of potters and terracotta craftsmen. Being the eldest among four siblings, he became the helmsman of his family and its craft legacy. Despite financial constraints, Mansukhbhai's parents managed to educate him till high school. He has developed an entire range of earthen products for daily use in the kitchen. These products include water filters, refrigerators, hot plates, a cooker and other such items of daily use.
Product: Mitticool a water filter/refrigerator, that doesn't require any type of power or electricity
Arvind Gupta: Toys from trash for learning
Video Description: Arvind Gupta shares simple yet stunning plans for turning trash into seriously entertaining, well-designed toys that kids can build themselves. Listen for innovative ideas for kids to make their own toys while learning basic principles of science and design.
Elora Hardy: Building a sustainable (bamboo) future
Video Description: Elora Hardy had it all as a designer working for Donna Karan in New York, with her prints walking the world's runways. She left it all to return to Bali and build a sustainable construction company. Hardy builds visually stunning homes out of bamboo, fantasy abodes that look derived from Hollywood movie sets. In this striking talk, Hardy explains the versatility and durability of bamboo, and convinces us all to become advocates of bamboo as the choice building material for construction in the tropics.
Copyright 2011-2018 by Jason Savitt
Disclaimer: All information listed on this website is strictly for educational purposes only.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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SONNY'S CarWash College
Contact: Bob FoxPhone: 954-720-4100
CWC East: 5605 Hiatus Rd., Tamarac FL 33321
National Carwash Solutions
Contact: Caitlin HigginsPhone: 515-986-3700
1500 SE 37th St., Grimes IA 50111
Flagstop Car Wash acquired by RVA Wash Holdings Inc.
RICHMOND, Va. — The wash's eight locations have been acquired by a management team.
RICHMOND, Va. — Flagstop Car Wash's eight locations in central Virginia have been acquired by RVA Wash Holdings Inc. as of Jan. 1, 2017, according to a press release.
Bob Schrum founded Flagstop Car Wash in 1981 as a carwash, gas station and convenience store, the release stated.
In the 1990s, the release continued, Flagstop started its growth streak under the management of Jamie Nester.
With Schrum's land development background and Nester's operations and technical drive, the release added, Flagstop has grown to eight locations, including five express exterior washes, three full service washes, one quick lube and 20 self service bays.
"We are thankful to Bob Schrum for resisting the temptation to sell to one of the large acquisition groups. When I started working for Flagstop in 1994 as a carwash attendant, Bob had always talked to me about his desire to leave the company to the folks that help make him successful. I am excited to see his dream realized and start the next phase of Flagstop's growth," said Jamie Nester, Flagstop's new president and CEO.
Schrum stated, "As I enter into my retirement years, I couldn't be happier to leave my company in the very capable hands of Jamie Nester, Craig Marable, Derek Haynes and Lauren Denny. These great leaders have over 50 years of combined service with Flagstop and are ready to take Flagstop Car Wash into the future."
Craig Marable, Flagstop's chief operating officer, stated that Flagstop is planning four to six new locations throughout central Virginia in the next five years through new construction or acquisition, the release noted.
In this article:expansion


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Greystone: MBC inks $30 million construction loan to kick off Jersey City redevelopment
Manhattan Building Co. is set to begin construction on an 80-unit apartment building at 40 Center St. in Jersey City, as depicted in this rendering. — Courtesy: Greystone
A developer has landed a $30 million construction loan for an 80-unit apartment building in Jersey City, according to a debt placement team with Greystone.
The borrower, affiliates of Manhattan Building Co., secured the financing through White Oak Real Estate Capital in connection with the project at 40 Center St. The six-story development will mark the first phase of what's known as the Bates Street Redevelopment Area, a nine-acre tract at the edge of downtown Jersey City, for which MBC serves as the master developer.
Greystone's Drew Fletcher, Matthew Hirsch and Bryan Grover arranged the transaction.
"MBC is a leading owner, developer and builder of apartments in Jersey City," said Fletcher, president of Greystone Capital Advisors. "We are pleased to have started our relationship with them on this transaction and are happy to have brought together MBC and White Oak on an excellent execution."
Greystone announced the deal Monday, noting that 40 Center St. will also include 80 parking spaces and around 3,200 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Plans call for larger-than-average unit sizes and amenities such as a fitness center with sauna and a rooftop lounge with sweeping views of Jersey City and Manhattan, as MBC looks to appeal to young professional renters.
The project is less than two miles from the developer's prior residential projects, Soho Lofts and Cast Iron Lofts, as well as a planned four-tower, 1 million-square-foot effort known as Hudson House.
"Greystone Capital Advisors did a fantastic job advising us through this process, and we are very fortunate to have launched a relationship with White Oak," said John Palumbo, vice president of real estate development at MBC, which is based in the city.
Construction inside the Bates Street Redevelopment Area is more than 15 years in the making, with a redevelopment plan that was adopted by the city in 2006.
"We are excited to support MBC on this high-quality project in the growing Jersey City multifamily market," said Eric Tanjeloff, managing principal of White Oak Real Estate Capital. "Greystone was instrumental in driving the transaction closing and we are thankful for the rigor and thoughtfulness they demonstrated throughout the process."
With new community on the rise, Weiss has his eye on another large Jersey City redevelopment
Tags Bates Street Redevelopment Area greystone Greystone Capital Advisors jersey city manhattan building co. White Oak Real Estate Capital
JLL: Ironstate refinances Hoboken apartment tower for $36 million
Fast-growing Jersey City tech firm shows need, potential for post-pandemic office space


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Latest Headlines Regional
Wine Country Wildfires Leave Region's Wineries Reeling
October 17, 2017 October 18, 2017 MATTHEW RENDA
alcohol, Napa County, Sonoma County, wildfires
NAPA, Calif. (CN) – "This is like our Super Bowl," Roscoe said while eating a leisurely lunch at the Oxbow Market in downtown Napa this week. Normally, this is the time of year when people like him who earn their living in the wine business are frantically busy, catering to the scores of tourists who pour into California's Wine Country in September and October.
California's wine industry is worth $58 billion dollars, dominating the U.S. market. Most of the industry is centered in Sonoma and Napa counties, where more than 400 wineries dot the hilly landscape and picturesque vineyards carpet the valley floors.
These pastoral scenes became a raging inferno last week as a series of wildfires ripped through the region, burning more than 120,000 acres in Wine Country alone and razing some of the world's most iconic wineries.
VinRoc Winery, on Atlas Peak, was completely destroyed, as the Atlas Fire razed everything but the wine cave.
Nearby Sill Family Vineyards also burned to the ground, though most of its vines emerged from the fire unscathed. Owner Igor Sill told the Napa Valley Register, "We will build as soon as we are able to return."
Signorello Vineyard Estates, with its patio boasting expansive views of Napa's vine-covered hills, is mostly gone, as is Helena View Johnston Vineyards in Calistoga. Hagafen Cellars, the first kosher winery in the Napa region, lost an acre of its vineyards. And White Rock Vineyards suffered severe damage to the winery, though most of its vineyards remain intact.
"They make such elegant wines," said Roscoe, who didn't want to provide his last name because he did not have permission to talk on behalf the winery he works for – which was spared by the fire.
The damage is far worse in Sonoma. Ahh Winery in Glen Ellen lost its building and water system, though its owner said two years of inventory is safe. The Ancient Oak Cellars in the Russian River Valley lost its buildings but also believes its wine and vineyards are safe.
"I'm very sad to report that our house, two big beautiful redwood barns, gorgeous tasting counter, etc, etc are gone," the winery wrote Tuesday on Facebook.
The Tubbs Fire completely destroyed the Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, though the owners said its estate vineyards had survived and a tasting room remains open at its Kenwood property.
"It is too early to estimate the economic impact of the fires on the Napa Valley wine industry," said Patty McGaughy, a spokeswoman for the area's trade association Napa Valley Vintners.
About 20 association members sustained some degree of damage due to the fires, the group said.
"Complicating matters is the fact that it is harvest season in Napa Valley," McGaughy said. "However, we estimate that 90 percent of the grapes were picked before the fires started on Oct. 8."
Many winemakers expressed gratitude that the fire, while devastating, came after most of the grapes have been picked.
"Given how late it is in the season, the concern of smoke taint on the grapes currently on the vine is low," said Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers Association. "This assessment would be much different had the fires occurred in late July or early August."
Thin-skinned grapes like pinot noir are susceptible to smoke taint, which can ruin the delicate fruit and severely impinge the economic output of vintners who grow the temperamental varietal. Pinot noir is usually harvested in September through early October.
Chardonnay is also a late varietal, with harvesting going on even as wildfires raged.
"Some chardonnay, likely the last to be picked in Sonoma County this year, was harvested this morning in the Russian River Valley and I am pleased to report the grapes were of excellent quality and were able to get to a winery in Napa Valley," Kruse said last Monday.
Most of the grapes remaining on the vine into October are cabernet sauvignon, perhaps the most famous and prevalent variety in the Napa and Sonoma region.
While some winemakers expressed concern about the possibility of smoke taint, cabernet sauvignon is a thick-skinned and hardy varietal, and may prove resilient to layers of smoke.
If not, ruined grapes can always be used for vinegar.
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Gambia Bird is close to completing the first phase of its route roll-out, chief executive Thomas Wazinski tells Flightglobal, though the delay in launching Lagos flights has resulted in lower-than-expected average load factors on intra-African routes. While the fleet is unlikely to expand beyond two Airbus A319s in the near-term, he says neighbouring states have already approached the airline about possible alliances.
West Africa's newest flag carrier launched services on 22 October, initially connecting the Gambian capital Banjul with Dakar, Freetown, Conakry, Accra and Monrovia. Intercontinental services to London Gatwick and Barcelona followed shortly after, but flights to Lagos have been postponed for unspecified political reasons.
"We intended to have Lagos right from the beginning, but we've been fighting for more than six months to get the traffic rights," Wazinski says, noting that the Banjul Accord Group assures the necessary bilateral agreements. "Hopefully by the end of the year we will have the route. Lagos is one of our top destinations in the west African sub-region...and especially for Accra and Monrovia there is strong demand to connect these with Lagos."
Gambia Bird took delivery of its second wet-leased A319 from majority stakeholder Germania in late November. Following an initial focus on charter flying, the second unit will gradually be introduced to scheduled operations. By mid-January, the third phase of the route-network will see new services to Bamako, Ouagadougou, Abidjan and Douala - though the latter is again contingent on access to Lagos.
Wazinski says passenger load factors on intra-African routes are improving daily, with the current average of 30-35% expected to reach 50% by the start of the third phase. On intercontinental services, the twice weekly London flight and once weekly Barcelona link are already averaging "better-than-expected" load factors of 65-70%.
Responding to customer feedback, the airline will reconfigure its dual-cabin fleet prior to the launch of summer services on 1 April 2013, removing one row and extending economy seat pitches to 31 inches. This will bring down the number of economy seats from 126 to 120, while leaving the premium cabin unchanged with 12 seats configured in a 34-inch seat pitch. The work will take place during the first C-checks for the 2011-vintage aircraft, to be carried out by Germania Technik Brandenburg in Berlin.
The cabin reconfiguration underscores how Gambia Bird is "definitely not" adopting the low-cost carrier model, separating its product from the likes of pan-African carrier Fastjet and Kenya Airways' upcoming Jambo Jet subsidiary. Wazinski is mindful of the changing competitive landscape, but he insists: "Competition is good for the business. We are aware of Fastjet, but we do not fear them. We have to offer a better product. We have to be punctual and reliable."
Whereas Fastjet has four air operator's certificates across east and west Africa - targeting a gradual scaling up of its point-to-point model - Gambia Bird is instead developing Banjul as a regional hub, focusing on multi-sector routes linking neighbouring countries in a chain.
"For the time being we are concentrating on fifth-freedom rights [flying between two foreign countries as part of a connecting service]. But we have already been approached by other west African countries in order to advise and consult about establishing something similar. Based on the initial talks, maybe there will be a chance to build up an alliance. But right now we are focussing on our hub in Banjul, and fifth-freedom rights operating out of other countries."
While regional alliances remain a distant prospect, the airline will consider leasing one of Germania's upcoming pair of A321s - due to arrive in April and May next year - if sufficient European demand materialises. "Of course flying with an A319 from west Africa to European destinations is quite a challenge," Wazinski says. "But fleet variety in the beginning doesn't make sense. If the business is going well, then we will have an A321 in our fleet as well."
Insisting that future expansion will occur on a level playing field, he notes that Gambia Bird does not benefit from a fuel subsidy and is subject to standard passenger taxes. However, the flag carrier does enjoy tax exemptions for "most of the things we import" - ranging from catering to spare parts.
Another advantage stems from the airline's ties to Germania, which owns a 90% stake in the flag carrier and has permanently based two engineers at its line station in Banjul. Highlighting the benefit of Gambia Bird's 12-month rolling wet leases with Germania, Wazinski says: "We have rights based on the fact that we are operating behind Germania Express - which is a fully certified EASA operator - so there are no restrictions flying to any location in Europe."
EASA certification is particularly useful for the charter market, he adds, explaining: "We have had enquiries from the east coast of Africa for flying to Europe...The charm is that Gambia Bird has no restrictions flying into the EU, whereas for other African carriers this might be a problem." The flag carrier has also received "a lot of" charter enquiries from west and central Africa for South African flights, while governmental requests have come in from several states, including Cameroon.
West Africa's urgent need for improved connectivity doubtless bodes well for Gambia Bird, but Wazinski stresses that the carrier must first consolidate its existing network. To this end he returns to the airline's main bugbear, warning that any expansion "depends on how quickly we can get traffic rights into Nigeria".
Further down the road, the chief executive says Gambia Bird will consider any number of partnership models. "As a young operator, it's too early to say that we are negotiating with major players," he admits. "But behind the scenes there are already initial talks, and if there is a chance to interline and codeshare with other partners, then we will. Of course we would like to distribute passengers from international carriers flying into the hubs in west Africa."


From John Gittelsohn: Investors should put about 40 percent of their portfolios in non-U.S. stocks and bonds to diversify their holdings, according to top executives at Vanguard Group, the fund giant that manages $4.9 trillion.
From Zacks: The popularity of ETF investing is now sky-high and it took around only 20 years for this to happen. Though the pace of rollout slackened a bit in 2016 as we saw close to 240 launches compared with approximately 300 seen in 2015, the issuances gathered steam again in 2017.
From David Fabian: 2017 will easily go down as one of the sturdiest on record for exchange-traded funds. Not only were a multitude of new and exciting funds launched, but fresh heights were achieved in global fund flows to these diversified investment vehicles.


A very elegant, and truly perennial foxglove, with glossy green, narrow-leaved foliage. The upright flower stalks often grow in curvy lines, and are lined with many creamy flowers. The flowers are smaller than those of many other foxgloves, but their simple elegance makes up for lack of size. Only when you get up close do you notice they are very hairy inside.
colin nolan Oct 28, 2008 these are very good images of digitalis lutea,keep up the good work.
Toni Hyne May 11, 2010 These don't look like my Lutea whose flowers are a warmer more primrose yellow.
It could be that there are different varieties. Mine look similar to several other online photos of the species, although I do see some yellower pictures as well.
David Dunlap May 02, 2011 Planted several D. lutea last fall, expecting fairly vigorous growth this Spring. So far, plants seem stuck in the 3" range. Is this normal? 5-foot D. ferruginea have grown lustily in the same site.
This time of year, my digitalis (all species) are still working on filling out their basal clumps, and have not yet started to reach upward. However, I'd say three inches is a bit short at this stage - maybe your plants need another year to settle in.


Sizzle and steak – Eyereturn's technology stack.
Two years ago I wrote a blog post describing the technology stack that powers Eyereturn's digital marketing platform. The pace of change is relentless, and an update is overdue. Eyereturn is a technology company focused on the digital advertising space; we provide technology-based solutions for advertisers. Eyereturn has an Engineering team of over 35 – each of whom are highly skilled and diversely capable at software engineering, DevOps, IT, and data science for massively scalable, real time systems. We produce enterprise class software, all of which is built according to the latest architecture patterns, utilizing horizontally scalable and open technologies such as Hadoop, Java, and distributed systems.
Our most recent advances include the deprecation of Docker Swarm, and in its place the rolling out of robust, identical, and easily managed application environments orchestrated with Nomad, Consul, and Fabio. On the campaign management front we've completed integrations with The Trade Desk, AppNexus, Ad Words, Facebook and Twitter to provide comprehensive cross platform campaign control and consolidated reporting. Our ad server raised the bar on media transparency by classifying every impression, click and conversion event according to clearly stated rules – providing detailed reports on Invalid traffic.
Read on below to discover the stack utilized to enable these advances and our platform in general.
Our business is founded upon data, and our stack is underpinned by multiple Cloudera Hadoop CDH5 clusters – including development clusters, a processing cluster and redundant production Hbase clusters. We utilize many of the core and related Hadoop libraries including Hbase, Oozie, Flume and Spark. We accumulate data from billions of events each day – ad impressions, audience adjustments, programmatic media buying opportunities, site visits, ad interactions, ad clicks, audits – for viewability and evaluation of Invalid Traffic – and a variety of other services. This doesn't include the 10 billion events per day that our programmatic buying platform subscribes to – evaluating each one in real time to assess the potential value to our customers, and submit a bid into auctions when algorithms discover gold in the stream of inventory flying by, all of which happens within 5ms. Our bidder architecture provides each of our customer's campaigns complete visibility into every single buying opportunity, ensuring no bidding blind-spots for any tactics. Our real time fraud prevention and Invalid Traffic classification systems continuously identify and block suspicious patterns, which results in blocking over 15% of all the auctions we subscribe to.
Adhering to Agile project management and disciplined sprint cycles for most of our project teams, our goal is continuous integration and continuous delivery capabilities across all product development teams. Our DevOps team orchestrate development, UAT and production environments using Nomad, Consul, and Fabio. We've achieved Continuous Integration, and are moving rapidly towards Continuous Delivery. Development teams utilize Gitlab for source code management and code reviews. Master branches are built in Jenkins and deployed to Nomad-orchestrated development, UAT, and production environments. Our data science and IT teams adopt a different project management approach, finding it more appropriate to follow a Kanban paradigm. The entire company relies on Jira for project organization, and Confluence for documentation.
We employ a hybrid approach to our production environments, balancing owned and operated hardware hosted in enterprise class carrier hotels, with Cloud application hosting on Google's Cloud Platform (GCP). Our co-located hardware is maintained by our IT and Operations team – across 4 North American data centres – located in New York, California, and Ontario. The GCP service provides elastic scalability and a global footprint for ad servers and application hosting. All of our production systems – hardware, network, and application – are instrumented with Grafana and Graphite, and rely on statsd as a dump aggregator of the data. Applications and servers are monitored and teams are alerted in the event of any issues through the use of Zabbix, Pagerduty, and Icinga. Nginx is employed as a front end proxy for all of our application servers enhancing concurrency, load balancing, and network efficiency. We utilize Lua scripts with Nginx for conditional logic processing of static resources, thereby offloading processing overhead from applications.
Our data science and engineering team exists in the world of big data pipelines, inquisitive analysis, statistics, algorithms, machine learning models, and the production of research & tools that result in bidding algorithms, fraud detection, and operational efficiencies. Working closely with the business and all technical teams, the data science team is the icing on the cake. Tools like the Scala language, Spark SQL, Data Frames, PySpark, and Jupyter, used in conjunction with HDFS and parallel cluster processing allow for real time data exploration and model development.
The challenges and opportunities in the ad tech business space exist now more than ever. To overcome the challenges and achieve the opportunities requires smarts and technology – used in harmony and with efficiency. Transformations in the ad tech space are driven by fraud, ad blocking, privacy concerns, walled gardens, and motivations of transparency and standards. As committed, ethical and transparent participants in this industry, we're acting to advance the online advertising space from a wild frontier to a professional standards-based industry – with lots of room for innovation. The US digital ad market is forecast to grow 16% over the next year.
In a world of walled gardens, Eyereturn has the products and services for advertisers to retain control, deliver performance and achieve transparency. With the ship and crew to navigate the seas, Eyereturn is staying the course.


Detection of gravitational waves from BH-BH coalescences.
After a brief introduction about gravitational waves, binary systems and data analysis, I will focus on the significance of the first BH-BH coalescence detections made by LIGO.
I will use data from these detections to discuss which informations that can be extracted in general from the study of a GW signal produced during a coalescence, with an eye at what can be expected in future observation runs.


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ARMIDE - Trademark Information
Trademark by ARMSTRONG TOOLS, INC.
The ARMIDE trademark was assigned a Serial Number #72009074 – by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Trademark Serial Number is a unique ID to identify the ARMIDE mark in USPTO. The ARMIDE mark is filed in the category of Machinery. The legal correspondent for ARMIDE trademark is LLOYD G. FARR, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, 100 North Tryon Street, 42nd Floor, IP Department, Charlottte, NORTH CAROLINA UNITED STATES 28202 . The current status of the ARMIDE filing is The registration has been renewed..
Based on ARMSTRONG TOOLS, INC., the ARMIDE trademark is used in the following business: SOLID CARBIDE TIPS FOR CUTTING TOOLS AND CARBIDE TIPPED CUTTING TOOLS.
The registration has been renewed.
ARMSTRONG TOOLS, INC.
1209 ORANGE STREET, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE UNITED STATES 19801
LLOYD G. FARR
Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, 100 North Tryon Street, 42nd Floor, IP Department, Charlottte, NORTH CAROLINA UNITED STATES 28202
Class 007 - Machinery
Class 007 - SOLID CARBIDE TIPS FOR CUTTING TOOLS AND CARBIDE TIPPED CUTTING TOOLS


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Young boy is dying.
Barbara spurns him, then dies too.
He's the rose, she, thorn.
The Wikipedia entry for this old song contains a priceless reference to the 1690 broadside edition, which titles the song as "Barbara Allen's cruelty: or, the young-man's tragedy. With Barbara Allen's lamentation for her unkindness to her lover, and her self". And that's the essence right there: Barbara Allen spurns the love of a man, or a boy, as there are many versions of the song out there since its first known reference by Samuel Pepys (again, according to Wikipedia) in 1666. The guy dies of heartbreak, whereupon Barbara regrets her decision to deny a man life through her lack of love. At this late juncture, she falls in love with him, and of course, she dies too. From his grave comes a rose, her's the briar, and through their intertwining they at last discover fidelity and love. Too late, if you ask me.
Here's a Dylan performance from some time between 1988 and 1991.
And here's the version that Dylan recorded in 1962 at the Gaslight Cafe in 1962, which was where this song was commercially released a few years ago.
Labels: 1962, Barbara Allen, Live at the Gaslight Cafe
Music of Bob Dylan June 18, 2018 at 12:25 AM
Hello there Robert, Thank you for posting this analysis of a song from Bob Dylan's Music Box http://thebobdylanproject.com/Song/id/53/Barbara-Allen Come and join us inside and listen to every song composed, recorded or performed by Bob Dylan, plus all the great covers streaming on YouTube, Spotify, Deezer and SoundCloud plus so much more... including this link.
Clean-Cut Kid
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open ...
The Christmas Blues
Caribbean Wind
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
Call Letter Blues
Brownsville Girl
Broke Down Engine
Bring Me a Little Water
Bound to Lose, Bound to Win
Bonnie Ship the Diamond
Bob Dylan's New Orleans Rag
Blackjack Davey
The Bells of Rhymney
Be Careful of Stones That You Throw
The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Ballad of Hollis Brown
Ballad for a Friend
Back Door Blues
Baby Won't You Be My Baby
Baby, Stop Crying
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Baby I'm in the Mood for You
Baby Ain't That Fine
The Auld Triangle (By the Banks of the Royal Canal...
All You Have to Do Is Dream
All Over You
All-American Boy
Ain't Gonna Grieve


The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) is celebrating National Bison Day at the Detroit Zoo on Saturday, November 3, with zookeeper talks and fun learning activities.
Zookeeper talks are scheduled for 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the bison habitat, home to 11-year old male, Takoda, and 11-year old female, Teetonka. Guests will have the opportunity to learn how much food a bison eats in a day and how their diet changes with the seasons, as well as investigate tactile elements including fur and footprints. Information will also be shared about the history of bison as a conservation success story.
In the 19th century, North American settlers killed more than 50 million bison, and the herds were reduced to only a few hundred. The only remaining bison were living in a zoo and formed the basis for a new and protected population. Today, their numbers have rebounded to about 500,000 in the wild.
The bison (Bison bison) is North America's heaviest land animal, weighing between 900 and 2,100 pounds and reaching up to 6 feet tall. The bovine mammal has a shaggy, dark-brown coat and a large head and forequarters. Both males and females have short, curved horns they use for fighting for status and defense. Even with their hefty bodies, bison are able to run at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour and are strong swimmers.
The National Bison Legacy Act, signed into law in May 2016, officially declared the North American bison the U.S. national mammal.


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Home Current News Mahanay Tower open extended hours for Festival weekend
Mahanay Tower open extended hours for Festival weekend
The Mahanay Bell Tower will be open extended hours during the Bell Tower Festival weekend on June 11 – 12. On Friday, the Tower opens at 10 a.m. and will stay open until 8 p.m. for those who are attending the Opening Ceremonies and festivities in the downtown to take a tour. On Saturday, the Tower will open early at 9 a.m. and stay open until 7 p.m. On Sunday, the Mahanay Tower will be open the regular daily hours of 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Rick Morain will play the carillon during the Opening Ceremonies on Friday evening at 6 p.m.
Admission for youth 18 and under is FREE courtesy this year of the Rotary Club of Jefferson. Adults are $3.
The Mahanay Bell Tower was named the 2021 Attraction of the Year by the Iowa Tourism Dept. with visitors coming from across the state and beyond. The bells play the Westminster Chimes at each quarter hour and two songs are played after the hour from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. daily. Visitors also enjoy the elevator ride to the air-conditioned Paul Nally Observation Deck for the view of the community and countryside. There are five rooftop art installments with the newest one added this spring by artist ARCY. Jefferson Telecom sponsored this installation. Also on the Bell Tower Plaza are four sculptures to view with public voting on their favorite in the Bell Tower's lobby area.
The staff of the Mahanay Bell Tower want all visitors to feel comfortable at this time so may limit the number of people in the lobby area and also in the observation deck, but everyone will get a chance to visit this iconic structure in Jefferson during the Bell Tower Festival.


Duck - you may want to do yourself and the board a favor and cool it on the picks for a bit. YIKES!
The Drake game likely will not crack 100.
I liked then Duke play and locked in early at 160 but both these teams look anemic. Tough beat.
I locked in at 165. Small play though as the value seems reduced.
I tailed this man a few weeks back and learned my lesson at that time. He's just not very good, imo.
LC got lucky at the beginning of the season but he gets too cute. The picks today were comical.
9-4 YTD3-0 YTD BIG playsSMALL PLAY TODAY. but tomorrow's play... Will be LARGe!! Let's eat.
I hate to be that guy but this is one of the worst plays that anyone's has posted. Due diligence has this thing at 140 at the highest. Hope no one tailed for too much cake.
You have some decent plays but this one was a poor choice from the beginning. Would love to hear your reasoning behind it. Woof.
I am one of those who believes that football will he dead in 10 years. Watching college football this year has been unreal. Outside of maybe 6-7 team, the others are all mediocre at best and the level of completion has gone way down. Players look bored and we have teams like Houston, South Florida, Fresno State, UCF etc. in the top 25 when these teams would not even be in the top half of a real conference. Watching this NC St. game tonight has yet again confirmed the lower level of completion currently active in CFB. All very disappointing.
Barnett is awful - kid is so soft and weak. Beta, no leaderships and a team that is absolutely trash.
due to LC's recent cold streak I purchased the half point and got it to +5.5. I will take the win - thanks LC. Would lions to get one of these with some room to spare.
Yes - I am big mad.
I hardly bet the NBA and I never watch a game and now I remember why.
Fortunately live betting was locked at BM and I never got it in.