text:
Letters from a voluntary exile: The Bellman's Map
30 August, 2011	by Nick Backstrom	No Comments
I have just spent the last two weekends exploring using the Bellman's Map. The Bellman's Map is from Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, where the Bellman, the captain of the group, presents them with a map that is "A perfect and absolute blank!" which his crew is delighted with, as it's one they can immediately understand. Except for the bit about immediate understanding, I felt like a member of the crew being presented with a blank map by Scott Williams at a workshop on Meisner Technique, presented by Melbourne Acting Academy.
Scott is a teacher and director, originally from California, and trained with Sanford Meisner himself. He has been directing since he was 17, and has perused many activities both on and backstage, but directing and teaching has been his major focus. Since 1996, he has been based in London where he established the Impulse Company where he is currently Artistic Director.
I knew almost nothing about the Meisner Technique. I bought Sanford Meisner's book On Acting some years ago, but stopped reading it when I thought I really needed to do some of the exercises described before I could understand it. A friend of mine tried to explain Meisner to me just before I commenced the workshop, and succeeded in making me think, "Oh god, I don't want to do that for four days." Turns out she didn't know what she was talking about. Didn't stop her talking though. But I digress.
Sandy Meisner
I don't want to go too much into describing the technique or the exercises as four days is barely a sniff of the sip of a glass from the barrel of what a potent brew I suspect it is; it did make my head spin, but I don't know how to make it. Also many of the ideas and language that I do have will sound familiar to those who have done actor training. But they only sound familiar, and are in fact very different. However, I am still getting my head around all that, and don't want to talk about it too soon.
But the biggest difference between Meisner and other techniques is what I started to think of as the Bellman's Map. The way I was trained, and the way I have worked, involves analysis of the script, breaking down the script into beats, finding actions and objectives, mapping your way through the script. Of course, all these decisions are fluid and subject to change depending on what happens on the floor or in the moment. In Meisner, you don't do any of this. When you get on the floor, your map is blank.
What you do have is the other actor. You approach the exercises, and later the scene, with all (or most) of your focus on the other actor, and you observe and respond to what they do. It sounds simple but is extremely powerful. In fact that was a word that came up often in discussion – simple, and pure. And the great thing I found, great for me, and which is one of the aims of the technique, is that it gets you out of your head, away from intellectualising the scene and the moment. All that is left is you and the other actor going from moment to moment. Watching the other actors was amazing. Doing it was a revelation.
The Stanislavskian term that is still central to this technique is the Given Circumstances. All the information from the script and the director, designer and the others, filter your responses. The last two exercises, where we took the previous exercises into text, were amazing. People were tapping into strong reactions and emotions with ease – and without setting out to do so. Scenes were alive on a first reading. They were still a long way from what an audience would eventually get to see but wow! what a starting point.
It's un-Australian if you can't think of a sporting analogy. For many years, the Australian Wallabies (rugby union for those of you going "Wha …?") were a disciplined and effective team. They followed game plans and moves and were winning. Other teams soon realized that the best way to beat them was to disrupt their patterns. And by this stage, many of the players, skilled and talented as they were, had lost the ability to play, as the saying goes, what was in front of them. They kept trying to re-establish or reconnect to the game plan or the move, rather than seize opportunities as they presented themselves, and our trophy cabinet got barer and barer. Now, having rediscovered that part of their game, the Wallabies are heading back to the top. They train, practise, prepare, do all the things talented and disciplined people do in their field of endeavour, and then take to the field and play what is in front of them. Meisner Technique is something like that.
Scott is a warm, generous and supportive teacher. The classes were fun, filled with laughter and joy, and great work was being done. Scott said more than once, as we discussed ideas and issues, "I'm not a philosopher, I'm just an acting teacher," which was a refreshing change from those acting teachers who want to be your guru.
… it was such a relief to find a technique that doesn't rely on dragging up dark and awful stories or even nice ones. All that stuff is there, but you don't need to dwell on it and project it onto other people. You just stay with your other actor, and they with you.
And it works. As an actor, and as an audience member, I was bowled over. I felt bits of my brain sit up and pay attention, ideas I'd had lying dormant revived, and something resparked. Scott said early on that he would be teaching us what we already know. Somehow, even while he gave us our blank maps and took to some sacred cows, he did exactly that. Another phrase he sometimes used after an exercise, when you could see the actors glowing from what they had been through, was, "Isn't that why you became an actor?" Yes, yes it is.
I'd like to thank Scott Williams and the Melbourne Acting Academy, and my fellow students, who were a lovely and generous bunch of people: Felicity, Melissa, Damien, Ellie, Dallas, Sophie, Alex, Jamie, and Claire. On the first day when we walked in, Scott said, "Are all Australians so beautiful or is it just you guys?" I replied, "You can come back." He sure can.
This post is part of a series by guest blogger Nick Backstrom, a Brisbane actor and writer who is now based in Melbourne.
Tags: Impulse Company, Nick Backstrom, Sandy Meisner, Scott Williams


Recently refurbished, Peer House boasts six floors with a modern and stylish office spanning each. Located just 100 meters from Chancery Lane it's in an ideal location for businesses seeking space in the heart of the capital.
Surrounded by shops, bars and trendy street food markets, within easy reach of the financial district and the West End, Peer House is in one of Lonon's most sought after areas.


New York City Football Club is entering perhaps the biggest back-to-back of their season, as they take on Toronto FC on the road this Sunday, and then host the Red Bulls in the latest installment of the Hudson River Derby on Sunday, August 6.
NYCFC is coming off a huge 2-1 win on Saturday against the Chicago Fire, overcoming that they had to play down a man for the final 80 minutes of the game. NYCFC (11-4-6, 37 points) is now just one point behind Chicago, who are in second place with 38 points (11-5-4).
Toronto, who earned a tie against NYCFC a week ago Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, is in first place with 40 points (11-7-3).
Tommy McNamara (center) and RJ Allen (third from right) at the adidas store. Photo by Jason Schott.
The Red Bulls came out of the international break with a vengeance, as they won 5-1 over San Jose at home a week ago Wednesday and 3-0 in Minnesota on Saturday. They are in the fifth playoff spot with 32 points and a record of 10-2-8.
NYCFC has faced the Red Bulls twice this season at Red Bull Arena. The first matchup on June 14 was a US Open Cup matchup, won by the Red Bulls 1-0. Ten days later, NYCFC was back in Jersey and they beat the Red Bulls 2-0 on goals by Jack Harrison and Ben Sweat.


Rundown is being worked on.
1:16 – PM edition tonight!
5:40 – Do you see an advantage in using decimal instead of fraction in metric or imperial?
6:50 – Where will TWW be in 5 years? Do you set woodworking goals for yourself?
12:07 – What do you do when you've invested a lot of time in a project but realize it's just not working out?
13:20 – Any recommendations for a plunge router?
15:10 – When is Marc going to do a challenge coin display case?
15:35 – What vises should I design into my bench?
17:39 – Do I need to pre raise the grain on all wood before finishing?
18:54 – Are there any disadvantages to skip planing then jointing?
20:28 – Am I crazy to use plywood in an outdoor project?
21:38 – Do you have an opinion on the Shaper Origin handheld CNC?
22:24 – Should I get a 36 or 52″ table on my Sawstop?
24:27 – Why are people paying you?
26:55 – Do you have any 360 video of the shop?
27:45 – Should I run a dehumidifier in my shop prior to finishing?
30:33 – Any handtools I could pick up in the UK?
32:15 – What was your most challenging project and would you do it again?
34:15 – How do you choose an edge profile for your projects?
Every time I see the background of one of your videos, Marc, I wonder why you use 18V cordless drills/impact drivers and not 12V ones. 18V cordless tools are so heavy!
I can't remember seeing any use of your drill in your videos where you'd need the added torque from the 18V.
I would love to see you work through a project that tests you and pushes you to experiment on the spot – I think watching a professional work through that process would be invaluable in teaching me (and hopefully others). Mostly it would be about learning how to critically assess a situation and come up with solutions whether they end up working out as planned or not.
That's actually happening right now in the Guild on the Dining Chair build.
Good to see, I am planning on purchasing that product in the future, there is a scarf ladder, roubo bench, sofa table, contemplation stools …. prior to that – I do like the online teaching you provide though as getting to classes in my area and the hours I work at my job make that difficult.


text:
The 4th of July came early as Metro Ice "exploded" for 21 runs, defeat Youngstown YellowJackets 21-6
Youngstown Yellowjackets 0 0 4 0 2 x x 6 6 4
Metro Ice 3 2 2 14 x x x 21 20 3
The 4th of July came early as Metro Ice "exploded" for 21 runs while dishing out 20 hits in defeating the YellowJackets 21-6 on Sunday.
Warren Metro Ice earned the victory despite allowing the YellowJackets to score four runs in the third inning. The YellowJacket's big inning was driven by a single by King, a single by Vitucci, a walk by Bardol, and a single by Yemma.
Warren Metro Ice scored 14 runs in the fourth inning. Warren Metro Ice scored on a single by Ryan Trimbur, two errors, a single by Derek Morrison, a single by Jake Evanoff, a single by Mark Herron, a single by Nick Capogreco, a single by Trimbur, a fielder's choice by Larry Goist, a single by Morrison, and a double by Jake Foster.
Nick Charnas earned the win for Warren Metro Ice. He threw four innings, giving up four runs, six hits, and striking out three. Fithian took the loss for the YellowJackets. He went two innings, surrendering five runs, eight hits, striking out one, and walking one.
Warren Metro Ice had 20 hits in the game. Herron, Morrison, Vito Petrillo, Trimbur, Goist, Jared Lee, Capogreco, and Foster each collected multiple hits for Warren Metro Ice. Petrillo, Morrison, and Herron each managed three hits to lead Warren Metro Ice. Warren Metro Ice stole six bases during the game as Petrillo and Herron each swiped two.
The YellowJackets collected eight hits. Vitucci and Yemma each collected multiple hits for YellowJackets.
Youngstown Yellowjackets
Joe Micco 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Vito Petrillo 3 3 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 1
DJ Morvay 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jared Lee 4 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
Jake Evanoff 2 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0
Ryan Trimbur 4 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 1 1 0 0
Jake Foster 3 2 2 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1
Nick Capogreco 2 3 2 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0
Derek Morrison 4 2 3 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0
Mark Herron 4 3 3 0 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0
AJ Armstrong 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Larry Goist 4 4 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0
Total 33 21 20 1 0 0 18 4 2 6 0 2
Nick Charnas 1 0 0 4 0 6 4 4 0 2 3 0
Total 1 0 0 5 0 8 6 4 0 2 3 0
← Schultz Throws Shutout as Metro Ice Defeats Marlins 5-0
Popadak 14 strikeouts, Hardy 3 RBI lead Marlins to 6-2 victory over NEO Whoppers →

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Xunit;

namespace System.Collections.Immutable.Tests
{
    internal static partial class TestExtensionsMethods
    {
        private static readonly double s_GoldenRatio = (1 + Math.Sqrt(5)) / 2;

        internal static void ValidateDefaultThisBehavior(Action a)
        {
            if (!PlatformDetection.IsNetNative) // ActiveIssue UapAot: TFS 428550, https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/issues/19016 - ImmutableArray's null-guard check (ThrowNullRefIfNotInitialized) can get optimized away by certain compilers.
            {
                Assert.Throws<NullReferenceException>(a);
            }
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The new face of high school wrestling?
Judo, BJJ, and Karate: Before the 1993 Awakening?
Found an MMA place... what do you think?
Why do all my threads keep getting erased?
Can You Be A Complete Fighter Without The Fists?
Whats your favorite PrideFC fighter?
Tito vs "Minotauro", Who wins?.
Why does this section exist?
Who thinks newton could take hughes in a rematch?


I am the Founder, CEO, & Broker of ELITE Realty Services. With over a decade of real estate, mortgage, and construction experience you are in good hands when you work with me and my team. Whether you are a first time home buyer, luxury home buyer, real estate investor, or a short sale client, my education and experience ensures that you are well taken care of during every step of the real estate process.
I was born, raised, and have lived in the South Bay area my entire life. My familiarity with the area ensures that you will be getting the most up to date information regarding neighborhoods, schools, and local market trends. My real estate office is conveniently located by the Santana Row area and I have earned the reputation of being a fierce negotiator, contract expert, and a dedicated broker within the real estate community.
I hold a Masters Degree in Marketing Communications, a Masters Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelors Degree in Advertising, and a Bachelors Degree in Sociology all from San Jose State University. I was pursuing a joint J.D/Ph.D degree at Stanford before I founded Elite Realty Services, one of the fastest growing and prestigious real estate brokerages in California. I speak Vietnamese fluently and conversational Spanish and German. I am passionate about real estate, embrace challenges, and feel blessed to help others and make every real estate transaction pleasant and memorable.
My company s supportive real estate staff and roster of over 200 Real Estate Agents, Mortgage Specialists, Designers & Architects, and Construction Professionals, ensures that you are receiving professional advice for all of your real estate and financing needs. It would be an honor and a privilege to serve you!
Elite treated us well when trying to sell our house. I'd use their services again and recommend them to others.


text:
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<!--
    Copyright 2011 Peter Kuterna

    Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
    you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
    You may obtain a copy of the License at

         http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
    WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    limitations under the License.
-->

<resources>

    <style name="ActionBar" parent="android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:background">@color/actionbar_overlay</item>
        <item name="android:icon">@drawable/actionbar_logo_icon</item>
        <item name="android:logo">@drawable/actionbar_logo_icon</item>
        <item name="android:displayOptions">useLogo|homeAsUp|showHome|showTitle</item>
        <item name="android:titleTextStyle">@style/ActionBarTitle</item>
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    <style name="ActionBarHome" parent="style/ActionBar">
        <item name="android:displayOptions"></item>
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Cost Analysis for Crushing and Screening – Part II - Lund University .Åbjörn Andersson & Co equipment became more popular. Åbjörn Andersson & . (Vertical Shaft Impact) crushers and screening equipment. In Svedala the.vertical crusher famous,vertical crusher famous,Crusher Spare/wear Parts - Premium Quality Stone Crusher Spare .slag crushing; we strive to provide complete crusher solutions and . known vendors. . parts for cone crushers, gyratory crushers, Jaw Crushers, Vertical Shaft.Sand Making Machine - CrusherIt is a famous manufacturer of crushing and screening . On September 9, 2006, V14000 Vertical Shaft Impact Crusher produced by Shanghai. passed.
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text:
Q: Keycloak refresh token verification locally I have a SSO Session Idle set to 2 min and SSO Session Max set to 3 min. After I immediately log in,   in my client's session list I can see my user's session is set active. However after 2 min of being inactive, which is my refresh token's expiration time, keycloak still holds my session in active sessions list.  I assume Keycloak checks verification of the token periodically and that is why my session is still being seen as active during this period. Is there a way to configure that time interval? Or is there any other reason why my session still shown as active?
I set everything to 1 just to make sure that my token is expired after 3 min and the session is not supposed to be in the list

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Most people of working age spend at least 35 hours a week at their jobs – Many people actually spend far more. Shouldn't something that we spend so many hours doing be at least agreeable, if not wildly fulfilling? Career Coaching can help make sure that it is.
• Discover the strengths that they offer.
• Understand the core values that a career must meet to be satisfying.
• Learn how the best jobs are really found.
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• Present one's qualifications verbally and in writing.
• Love the job they already have!
Contact us today to find out if Career Coaching may help you discover your new career, figure out how to land your dream job, or learn to excel at the career that you have.


text:
Preakness Wagering - Jackson Bend Well Positioned for Saturday
Preakness wagering excitement continues to build for the Run for the Black Eyed Susans with an outstanding lineup to evaluate with the Preakness odds.
Preakness wagering fans could find Jackson Bend to be one of the better values on the Preakness odds board as he has a great record and plenty of consistency.
Jackson Bend will enter the Preakness horse racing field with a career record of five wins and four places in ten races. He had a poor showing in the Kentucky Derby as he finished twelfth but his record prior to that makes him a horse that is plenty capable of making a strong comeback on Saturday.
Prior to the Kentucky Derby, Jackson Bend had built up a fine resume for the Preakness Stakes odds as he finished in second place in the April 3 Grade 1 Wood Memorial, which is one of the most important and prestigious Triple Crown prep races of the season. Eskendereya was the big winner of the Wood Memorial.
Prior to the Wood, Jackson Bend and Eskendereya crossed paths again in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth on February 20 as Jackson bend again finished second to the star crossed super star that was scratched as the Kentucky Derby chalk. The strong showing by Jackson Bend, however, is certain to impress all Preakness wagering fans and draw action his way.
In the Grade 3 Holy Bull on January 23 Jackson Bend added yet another impressive run for his Preakness Stakes betting credentials as he finished second. Before that Jackson Bend had won five consecutive races to firmly establish himself as one of the better and most consistent horses available.
Jackson Bend will enter the Preakness Stakes wagering run with total gross earnings of $230,000. He is trained by one of the best in the east coast with Nick Zito and Mike Smith will get the mount.
Anyone that is preparing to bet on Preakness Stakes action would always do well to consider a Zito trained horse. He is a Hall of Famer and has won all three Triple Crown races in his career including the 1996 Preakness with Louis Quatorze.
HORSE GAMBLING
Horse Betting Rules Horse Betting Types Horse Betting Limits Horse Betting Tracks
Kentucky Derby Preakness Stakes Belmont Stakes Breeders Cup Triple Crown


text:
North High Science Teacher Receives National Award for New Teachers
North High Science Teacher Ashley Remegi Wins National Award
Downers Grove North High School Science Teacher Ashley Remegi was one of 17 science teachers nationally to receive the Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award for New Teachers from the National Science Teachers Association. She was honored during the NSTA National Conference on Science Education last month in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to her recognition as an exceptional and innovative science educator, Remegi will receive funds to attend continuing opportunities for professional development.
"Ashley is an excellent teacher, and this national award is confirmation of that fact," says Janice Schwarze, principal of North High. "Students are engaged by her energetic teaching style, and we are all glad to have her part of the DGN staff."
"We are proud of Ashley's recognition from this prestigious and national organization," says Mike Heinz, science department chair at North High. "We are fortunate that our students can benefit from her teaching. In addition to this, Ashley's work as part of a collaborative team of teachers speaks volumes about how the community, as a whole, benefits from Ashley's teaching ability and leadership skills."
The annual NSTA Awards and Recognition Program was created to raise awareness and exposure of the outstanding work being done in the science education field. The Maitland P. Simmons Memorial Award for New Teachers provides selected K–12 teachers (up to 25) in their first five years of teaching with funds to attend the annual National Conference on Science Education. Award recipients are mentored, tracked, and provided with continuing opportunities for meaningful involvement with NSTA and its activities.
DGN Overview
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In collaboration with Al Tarbiyah Al Islamiyah Schools and 12-year-old student Sara, Alwaleed Philanthropies partnered with independent Saudi-based agency Bold to conduct a social experiment, which saw Sara embody the personality of "Badriyah".
Badriyah's online persona was created via Instagram as that of a geeky teenager and the profile received various bullying comments on Badriyah's appearance. This went on for months before Sara/Badriyah brought the online persona to life when to moved to Al Tarbiyah Al Islamiyah Schools for an on-ground version of the social experiment.
Sara revealed the true nature of the campaign receiving much positive feedback with audiences sharing their own stories of bullying. As an extension of the campaign, Alwaleed Philanthropies also created an app as a "safe zone" for kids to share their stories.


text:
Q: Python - How to Concatenate Strings in a Successive Way? could you tell me whether there is a more elegant solution to my code what I need?
My little program takes text input from up to seven entry fields (exact number can be
specified by the user). The input strings are then concatenated with interspersed fixed
text elements. A single output in the form of a string is generated.
The program works perfectly fine. Yet, my programming strikes me as very inelegant and non-pythonic. Could you help me to improve, to foster my learning?
Two points:
1) I like to sum up the string length of all seven text inputs. I plainly added them,
which is not elegant. How could I do it a better way?
string_length = len(str(E1.get())) + len(str(E2.get())) + len(str(E3.get())) +   len(str(E4.get())) + len(str(E5.get())) + len(str(E6.get())) + len(str(E7.get()))

2)
Depending on the number of entry field which can be specified by the user using a Tkinter Scale S, Entry fields(En) are enabled or disabled for taking input.
The Strings str(En.get()) derived from these Entry field are then concatenated with
the fixed string elements partM in between to give rise to the string m. (The whole string is flanked with partL and partR on each side also.) I have done this by query the variable of
the scale S (number of entry fields) via the get() method.
The program then decides how to proceed via if / elif?
The higher the scale is set the more text elements are added. Yet this is highly similar task which strikes me as there might be a more straight forward solution.
This creates long lines of code and is not very amenable for scaling up the program for taking more Entry fields. How could I do it better?
code excerpt:
if S.get() == 1:
    if string_length == 22*S.get():
        m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partR
        do_something()
    else:
        warning()

elif S.get() == 2:
    if string_length == 22*S.get():
        m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partM + str(E2.get()) + partR
        do_something()
    else:
        warning()

elif S.get() == 3:
    if string_length == 22*S.get():
        m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partM + str(E2.get()) + partM + str(E3.get()) + partR
        do_something()
    else:
        warning()

I am very new to Python. I am also new to programming. Yet I am proud I write a little code that works fine and does something useful for me and others.
I welcome any suggestions.

A: If your fields are E1 through E7 and each has a get method this should give you the total length of them:
fields = [E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7]
total_length = sum(len(str(f.get())) for f in fields)

If you just want the values collected, this suffices:
fields = [E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7]
values = [f.get() for f in fields]

A: i'll try answer the second part of the question since @g.d.d.c already has a very good answer to the first part.
To avoid code repeat you should look at common sections among your existing code.
if string_length == 22*S.get():
    ...
else:
    warning()

appears in all three cases. Therefore you can extract it to be:
if string_length != 22*S.get():
    warning()
else:
    if S.get() == 1:
        ...
    elif S.get() == 2:
        ...
    elif S.get() == 3:
        ...
    do_something()

if you foresee to support more cases, you can expand with a function map
functions = {1 : one,
                2 : two,
                3 : three
}

def one():
    m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partR

def two():
    m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partM + str(E2.get()) + partR

def three():
    m = partL + str(E1.get()) + partM + str(E2.get()) + partM + str(E3.get())

and you call with:
functions[S.get()]()

A: The if string_length == 22*S.get() check happens regardless of the value of S.get(), and if it fails, you always raise a warning. To simplify your code and reduce code duplication, you can move that check outside of the logic that switches based on the value of S.get():
if string_length != 22*S.get():
    warning()
else:
    if S.get() == 1:
        ...
    elif S.get() == 2:
        ...
    ...

If you make a list of fields instead of using 7 numbered variables, it's easy to use slicing and indexing to select the fields you want in a scalable way without needing separate clauses for every number. Also, the join method of strings allows you to join together a number of strings with a delimiter you specify:
if string_length != 22*S.get():
    warning()
else:
    middle = partM.join(str(field.get()) for field in fields[:S.get()])
    m = partL + middle + partR
    do_something()

Let's break down partM.join(str(field.get()) for field in fields[:S.get()]):
fields should be the list of fields you made instead of using 7 variables.
fields[:S.get()] is slicing notation. It makes a list of the first S.get() elements of fields. (If fields doesn't have enough elements, the slice returns a copy of the whole list.)
str(field.get()) for field in fields[:S.get()] is a generator expression. It creates an iterator that loops over fields[:S.get()] and calls the get() method of every field in the list. This results in an iterator over the strings from the first S.get() fields. (Generator expressions must always appear in parentheses. If a generator expression is the only argument to a function, the function call parentheses fill this role. Otherwise, you must stick parentheses around it.)
partM.join(str(field.get()) for field in fields[:S.get()]) takes all the strings from that iterator and sticks them together, separated by partM between each pair of strings.

A: Well a way to join strings in to use the .join(insert something here) method. This is basically the string equivalent of the function .append(Insert something here).


Go to entity related form, and then select any field.
Click on "Change Properties" option.
Select "Details" tab from the window, where you can find the Display Name and Name*.
Here, Name(*) parameter is the unique identifier for that particular field. We can reference to this field by using this Name property.
Click on "Edit" button to see the edit field window.


I have a weakness for lovely stationery and the designs from MaeMae Paperie don't disappoint! Operating just north of L.A., MaeMae specializes in custom stationery for weddings and events. It was extremely difficult to only choose a smattering of images from their website to share with you because they are all gorgeous and super creative!
These business card stamps are genius - you can use them to personalize all your business paper goods from cards to notepads to receipts. I'm seriously considering getting one for Halcyon Style.
Thanks to Joss & Main for putting MaeMae Paperie on my radar.


By the end of October 2018, an estimated 152,000 people will have obtained Canadian citizenship since the changes came into effect, an increase of 40%, compared to the 108,000 people who obtained citizenship in the same period the year before.... The largest of these is a group of over 2,300 Canadian expats in the �London Expat Canadian Meetup Group�, who meet up at least twice every month. They also hold various events throughout the year around the London. It�s a great way to meet and socialise with folks from back home.
Tax For Canadian Expats Recent developments have made taxation and investing for Canadian expatriates even more difficult. Canada Revenue Agency is upholding tighter parameters and rulings, and expatriate Canadians are expected to remain on the radar for quite some time.
Canadian Expat Groups & Canadian Expatriate Associations Canadian Expat Groups � Europe. Hungary � Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Hungary . The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hungary provides events and support for Canadian businesses and expats living and working in Budapest, Hungary.


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Date Released: 24 January 2023
SIPTU representatives have written today (Tuesday, 24th January) to the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, and the management of the HSE requesting an urgent meeting to discuss safe staffing levels in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
SIPTU Sector Organiser, John McCamley, said: "We welcome the publication of the Interim Report on the Independent Review of the Provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in the State by the Inspector of Mental Health Services and that the HSE has accepted its findings. This interim report indicates that there are issues regarding safe staffing within the service that need to be addressed.
"It notes that there is currently no benchmark in place for the safe staffing of child and adolescent mental health services. The report also noted that low staff morale and burnout are issues and that some staff are working above their contracted hours, for no additional compensation, in order to provide therapeutic interventions."
He added: "SIPTU representatives have recently raised concerns about staffing in CAMHS, particularly in the Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Organisation. It's clear that a focus now needs to be placed on establishing a safe staffing level for child and adolescent mental health services. In order to progress this issue we have written to the Minister of State and the HSE to seek an urgent meeting to discuss what must be done."


I have two kids (one of each) that just recently got some power wheels. One is a Toy Story 3 Tot Rod and the other is a 6v Jeep (not sure of the model). I'm always in for a little more speed and found this site. I have already got a 550 turn motor from my friend's rc car. Going to order a Gruber battery and start from there. I'm interested to see what can be done with these.
I suggest signing up on the new forum that we are moving to in a week. forum.modifiedpowerwheels.com its the same site just new software. Repost over there and you should get some feedback.


text:
Three Passenger Trains in Northern Québec (Guest Post)
The following is a guest post by Al in Vancouver... enjoy!
In June and July of 2017, I had the opportunity to ride three passenger trains in northern Québec. This guest post will focus on overall impressions and tips for railfans.
Sept-Îles - Schefferville
This passenger service is operated by Tshiuetin Rail Transportation, owned by three first Nations in the region. The head end crew and track between Sept-Îles and Emeril, Labrador are provided by the QNS and L Railway, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Iron Ore Company of Canada.
The train operates twice weekly. As tickets are non-refundable and the person at the phone number listed on the website told me the train is never full, I decided to buy my ticket at the station in Sept-Îles the morning of departure. I was surprised to learn they only accept cash (no credit or debit cards) at the station in Sept-Îles. There is no ATM at the station. After all passengers with tickets were boarded, I was allowed to buy my ticket and board. Photo ID is required at boarding. Seating is first come, first served.
I was surprised at the length of the train: Two locos (TSH 7205, 601), baggage generator TSH 1423, four baggage (TSH 1422, 1401, 1455, 1445), cafeteria TSH 1000, three older coaches (TSN 1002, 1004, 1005) and two newer coaches (TSH 13518 and 13517). I was directed to sit in an older coach with red seats (TSH 1004) which was also equipped with a projector and screen suspended between the luggage racks to show movies. I sat far enough away from the movie equipment so that it would not obscure my view out the window. A Québec tour group (tour conducted en français) occupied the first newer coach while the trailing coach was kept for employee use. I estimate 50 to 60% of the seats were occupied.
None of the windows on the train were clean; disappointing as this affected the view. Even if they were clean, I believe the age of the windows would still diminish the view. Fortunately a photographer with the tour group was given supervised access to open the vestibule windows, and I was able to use this for photos soon after we left Sept-Îles. The interior of the train was kept quite clean.
The first 100 miles north from Sept-Îles pass through beautiful scenery as the route climbs along the Moisie River. Sit on the left (west side) of the train for the best view. We had a few meets with QNSL iron ore and work trains. Speeds are generally between 30 to 40 mph.
It is interesting to watch the changes in scenery as the train climbs the Canadian Shield and gains latitude north through Labrador. While the track is in good condition south of Emeril, there are sections north of Emeril that are rough and slow.
We arrived Schefferville around 20:30. I did not have accommodation reserved but managed to arrange a clean, quiet and efficient room for $75 at a facility for workers named Bloc Orange. From what I saw of the conventional motels, it is easy to pay over $200. There is no road access to Schefferville, so things are expensive. Your mobile phone will not work for voice or data unless you get a local SIM card. Also note that WiFi gets very congested during the evenings due to high usage over limited bandwidth.
The road between the town of Schefferville and the train station is gravel. If you decide to walk like I did, there is a good chance someone will stop and offer you a ride! There is a taxi service in Schefferville, but there was a long wait once the train arrived. I was also told the taxi is not open in time for the morning southbound departure.
The southbound trip the following morning was on the same equipment, except that locomotives TSH 601 and 701 were leading. The station at Schefferville accepts credit and debit cards for tickets. Again, photo ID is required at boarding. There was no tour group southbound and both of the newer coaches were kept for employee use.
We arrived Sept-Îles around 22:00. The train was turned prior to the station stop. Apparently it is not unusual for the train to arrive hours late due to meets and slow orders.
There is a good thread about the train on trainorders.com and a CBC documentary on YouTube.
Full photo album on Flickr
Senneterre to Montreal
VIA Rail operates this train, as well as the Jonquière train described below, over CN tracks. Each train is operated with a single F40PH-2 loco, one 8600 series baggage car and one HEP2 coach. They operate three times a week. Seat selection is not pre-assigned.
Due to limitations in my schedule, I chose to do this trip one-way from Senneterre to Montreal. In retrospect, I would have done a return trip on this route, as the scenery is nice and because this train is always at the rear of the combined Senneterre and Jonquière train south of Hervey, providing access to a window facing out the rear of the train.
Note that not much is open in Senneterre before the train departs (even for the later Sunday departure), so bring food with you or buy it on board.
The scenery is interesting with lots of forest, lakes, rivers and some hills. As with the other routes, the northern portion of the route provides access to camps, cottages and settlements that do not have good road access.
We were two hours late arriving Hervey due to meets and slow orders. We pulled into Hervey station for passengers, then reversed out to allow the train from Jonquière to get into the Hervey station ahead of us. We then coupled to the rear of the train from Jonquière.
The route from Hervey to Montreal is similar to the route between Québec City and Montreal with lots of rich farmland and stretches with good track speed. There are some significant trestles on the Joliette subdivision (miles 50, 52, 58, 65 and 76), a tunnel at mile 51 and an interesting route through Shawinigan.
As we were still late approaching Montreal, the train stopped at Gare Sauvé for the crew to take a 20 minute rest break, allowing them to extend their operating day by 2 hours. As the Jonquière train has a later start than the Senneterre train, the Jonquière crew is fresher and this is why the trains wait for each other in Hervey and are coupled with the Jonquière train and crew leading. By the time we arrived Gare Centrale in downtown Montreal, we were two and a half hours late. Note this train does not use the Mont Royal tunnel, so it takes a while to route through the yard at Saint-Luc. Most shops at Gare Centrale close at 21:00; fortunately a nearby Provigo supermarket was open til midnight.
I noticed a brochure at Senneterre station describing (en français) an outing using the train from Senneterre to Press, with a re-enactment of the last spike ceremony at Press followed by brunch and return to Senneterre by bus. Remaining dates for 2017 are planned for August 6 and 20. Info is available by emailing cde@ville.senneterre.qc.ca or calling +1-819-737-2296 extension 221.
The local tourist bureau can suggest activities in the region. They can be contacted by emailing tourisme@ville.senneterre.qc.ca or phoning +1-888-437-2694 or +1-819-737-2694.
Montreal - Jonquière
This train is assembled with the baggage car trailing the coach, i.e., locomotive followed by coach followed by baggage. I was told this is to allow canoes to be loaded and unloaded using the rear door of the train from the baggage car.
I didn't see this door being used, but I can imagine a stop on a banked curve or conditions at the side requiring rear access. Note that this arrangement prevents passengers from seeing out the rear of the train.
Between Montreal and Hervey, the Senneterre train is coupled (elephant style) to the rear of the Jonquière train. For this portion of the route, please see my comments above.
Northeast of Hervey, the route follows the appropriately named Rivière-à-Pierre upstream. The best views are on the north side of the train. Many cyclists used the train, and at times the coach was around 90% full. This is a very scenic region with infrastructure for tourists. There was some freight traffic on the line with a few meets. Forest product companies seem to be the primary customers.
The descent into the Saguenay region provides some nice views (again, the best view are on the north side) of Lac Saint-Jean, which is huge!
The terminus station in Jonquière is conveniently located at a transit hub, providing cheap transit options throughout the region. I stayed overnight approximately 10km away in Chicoutimi and used transit both ways.
If you are a cyclist and not familiar with Québec's Route Verte and their 5000 km network of bike paths, check out this link. More info about taking bikes on VIA trains is on VIA's website.
Full image album on Flickr
I thoroughly enjoyed all of these trains. Although it is difficult to rank them, I have to say the trip to and from Schefferville provided the most memorable experience. This is due to the different scenery and the QNS&L railway but also because most people operating and using the train were from First Nations. I suggest that if you take this train, try to get to know some of them (the seats in the cafeteria car provide a good place to do this). The person who picked me up on the way to the station in Schefferville made a lasting impression as he shared his background and stories with me. The farther north you go, the more English is spoken, so language should not be a barrier. Note that if I did not have access to open vestibule windows, it would have diminished the experience. You might want to bring something to clean your window! And you should be prepared for mosquitos.
The Québec tour group I encountered on the train from Sept-Îles also offer tours using the Senneterre and Jonquière trains. While these appear to be conducted en français, the itineraries may offer some ideas.
I'd like to ride all of these trains in winter; perhaps April or May to allow for longer daylight, before leaves on trees along the line obscure the views.
I hope you get the chance to experience these trains!
Al is a railfan based in Vancouver. He has ridden the rails on six continents and is a guide with JapanYourWay.com offering custom tours to Japan (a great destination for railfans!) and beyond.
All guest posts
All Quebec-related posts
Posted by Steve Boyko at 7/29/2017 07:30:00 am 3 comments:
Labels: guest post, qnsl, quebec, via
Rainbow Railfanning 'Round Rivers
On June 19th I was in the Carberry-Brandon area of Manitoba and had a free evening. I had seen some photos from a location just east of Rivers (the namesake of the CN Rivers subdivision) and I wanted to check it out.
Little did I know how many rainbows I'd encounter around Rivers!
Warning! This is going to be a long post, and very picture heavy. Let's go.
In Rivers
From Brandon, I headed north on highway 10 past the old grain elevator at Forrest, under the CN main line, and then turned west on highway 25. This road parallels the CN line a few kilometres to the north and I saw a train go by as I was rolling west.
I arrived at Rivers and drove through town. I noted a locomotive parked by the former station (more on that later) and I continued to the west end of town.
I saw an approaching container train in the distance, so I set up to photograph and video it by the former Cargill grain elevator(s).
Soon, two of CN's finest, ET44ACs CN 3035 and 3048 rolled past the elevator.
CN 3035 and 3048 passing the Rivers grain elevator
It was nice to see the elevator's doors open, indicating that it is still in use. In fact, later on I saw a grain truck drive up to the elevator.
The skies were pretty interesting that night, as you'll see later.
Recording.... recording...
Here's the video of that train.
Once the train passed, I headed back into town. I stopped by the VIA station to check out CN 2438 idling away.
CN 2438 is one of CN's GE Dash 8-40CM (or C40-8M) units with the "Draper taper" behind the cab for greater crew visibility. Opinions are very mixed on whether the visibility is improved very much, and I don't think many crews like them.
Many of the 55 CN units that were built have the "CN North America" logo on them.
CN North America Logo
Grant's Cut
The location I wanted to shoot at is nicknamed "Grant's Cut". I don't know why.
To get there, you drive east from Rivers on highway 25, then hang a right on Road 120W - basically the first right after crossing the Little Saskatchewan River. Drive straight through the 4-way intersection and keep going and you will cross over the CN Rivers subdivision. This is Grant's Cut (Google Maps).
Looking north
Note the skies! It was really threatening to rain by this time, and the clouds were moving swiftly. I parked off the bridge - it's really just one lane - and stayed relatively close to my car just in case it started to rain.
This is the view to the west...
Looking west from the overpass at Grant's Cut
And this was the view to the east after a few minutes...
Double rainbow! What does it mean?
Rainbows were the theme of the night. The weather was very unsettled and there were some very dramatic clouds around. I was pretty concerned that I was going to be rained on - or hailed upon - but the nasty stuff passed by to the north. I did feel a few rain drops now and then. There was even some lightning in the distance.
So, nice broad curves to the east and west... and an overpass with no traffic. A lovely location! One other nice feature is that you can look straight down the track toward the east...
Mile 140.8
Wait... what's that in the distance? Red lights and a set of headlights?
I was really hoping the rainbow(s) would stick around for the train's arrival. How cool would that be?
I've had some luck with rainbows and trains in the past. I just barely included a rainbow with a CP SD40-2 back in August 2014 and with a CP GP38/GP9 pair in Winnipeg. Back in 2010 I was railfanning in the Calgary area and caught a sunset rainbow at Keith.
Alas, it didn't happen here. The rainbow was gone by 19:03 and the train didn't arrive until 19:06. So close!
The sun was very spotty indeed. Notice the train rolling through the rural crossing and the "sucker hole" of sunlight here.
Catching the sun
This is a highly cropped view with my 70-200mm lens. The train was still a long way away.
Here they are just about to take the curve... in the dark.
Back in the dark
A few seconds later, they've emerged into sunlight again and are taking the curve.
Taking the curve at Grant's Cut
CN 2151 and BCOL 4641 were the power on this train. The profusion of empty centerbeam flat cars means this is CN 347... a train I have photographed many times. It is very distinctive.
The weather was so strange that night. Here's a shot of them a few seconds later and it looks like a beautiful day!
Gorgeous evening!?
The train rolled on, endlessly, centerbeam after centerbeam after centerbeam. I counted from my video and I think there were 138 cars. I think these were all 73' cars so that's a 10,000' foot train.
I've heard CN 347 called a "sail train" because of the appearance of the empty cars, and also because they have a sail effect and create a lot of wind at ground level for trackside crews who have to inspect the train as it passes.
No CN crew has ever said anything nice about this train!
As I said, the light was very variable and part of the time the train was in relative darkness. Challenging for photography and video!
After that train passed, there was a lull for almost an hour.
Green = GOOD
I was thinking about whether I should hang around or hit the road, but eventually the signal lit and that told me a train was en route.
Or maybe I heard the engines before the signal lit.
I can't remember which came first, but either way... TRAIN.
I knew it was coming from the west, which is not great light for evening photography, but what can you do? Take pictures anyway, that's what!
Oil Train
CN 2957 East
CN 2957 East was an oil train. They had a single unit on the head end, a CN grain car as a buffer car, then a long black snake of oil tankers.
I think the above photo turned out pretty well for shooting somewhat toward the sun. It took a fair amount of processing in Lightroom but I like that side glint.
The going away shot shows the dark and foreboding clouds and some rain on the horizon... plus a little shadow selfie.
Going away
Of course, if you crop in far enough, it looks like a beautiful evening...
Dark clouds? What dark clouds?
Pictures can be deceiving.
There was a tail end unit, CN 3041, with another buffer car between the locomotive and the tank cars. You can see it in the video I compiled.
I hung around another 10 minutes or so but it was starting to get late (8:15 PM) and I wanted to check Rivers out one more time. The clouds were still pretty dramatic... and if you look closely, you'll see a wee little rainbow on the horizon just left of centre.
Not your normal clouds
Back to Rivers
Time for.. a crew change..
Apologies to the Little River Band
I drove back into and through Rivers. On the west side I saw there was a train pulling up to a stop... out of town.
They were stopping at a rural crossing and there was a CN vehicle there.
I suspect they were doing a crew change there to avoid blocking crossings within the town.
CN 2242 was the sole power on the head end of this long freight train. It had a lot of autoracks.
I was at the highway crossing on the edge of town.
I decided to do something a little different and shoot with my "long lens" (70-200mm) to get a telephoto look, then use my iPhone to take a quick wide angle snap as the train passed.
The problem with the telephoto / long shot was that there were a few shrubs (visible in the photo above) that prevented a nice full train shot, and then there was the crossing gate itself to get in the way. I'm not 100 percent happy with the shot below.
Making the best of a bad angle
It would have been a better composition had I stood closer to the tracks, but that's not safe and so I settled for this.
I prefer the iPhone shot I took a few seconds later.
The iPhone wins!
After that, I rushed over to the other end of town to shoot them passing the train station, with the grain elevator in the background.
Backlit in Rivers
Imagine this shot in the morning... golden sunrise light on the nose of the locomotive, elevator and station lit... that would be nice.
I had a notion to get them on the bridge just east of town.. before Grant's Cut. I knew I couldn't beat them there but maybe I could get a silhouette shot against the sunset. Worth a try!
Silhouette shot
Yep, pretty much what I wanted. Jeannette Graves has a similar shot on Flickr.
I drove back east along highway 25. Looking to the south I could see a container train slowly rolling west in the distance.
There was another rainbow. Of course.
Rainbows were definitely the theme of the night.
Did you know that "rainbow" comes from the Latin arcus pluvius, meaning "rainy arch"?
In school everyone learns ROYGBIV, the seven colours decreed by Sir Isaac Newton. I always knew it was VIBGYOR - not sure why - but I think Roy G. Biv is a lot easier to say.
Here there was no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow... just a container train. Nice enough for me.
The photo to right was with my telephoto, cropped in. Check out the wide angle photo below.
That's a big old cloud
I couldn't stop taking photos of the sky!
Taking a LEAP
Another rainbow...
On my way to Rivers, I had noticed a major north-south road, highway 270. As I was returning east I decided to drop down 270 to the tracks and see what I could see.
When I got there, I very quickly saw CN 2242 approaching from the west. I took a video of the train (see bottom of post) and then took a few photos of the area.
This is "Leap", a new control point / set of crossovers on the Rivers subdivision. It has all new shiny LED signals. This is part of a 9 mile stretch of double track between Knox and Levine.
There used to be a Manitoba Pool grain elevator here, at "Smart". It was demolished in 2002.
While admiring the signals, I was surprised by a westbound train.
I was so surprised, in fact, that I didn't have time to adjust my settings and shot a full two stops too dark!
Fortunately, I shoot RAW files so there is enough information in the file to recover a decent shot, despite underexposing the image so badly.
RAW FTW
Remember, kids, always shoot RAW. ;)
I liked the going away "glint" shot.
Glint FTW too
The train had CN 2953, 2969 and 5796 on the head end.
This post has been picture-heavy already, so I'm not going to post any photos of the cars, but I did want to mention that it had not one but two 2001 Census hopper cars (DCLX 7490 and DCLX 8096).
Photos by Last Light
It was getting pretty late by this point, so I went back up to highway 25 and then down highway 10 past Forrest. I couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos of the old Forrest grain elevator.
Forrest grain elevator at sunset
I combined three photos into one to get enough of a dynamic range for the above photo. A little "HDR trickery" if you will.
I was sure I was done taking photos by this time (9:36 PM), but as I passed the Brandon airport, the old T-Bird on display at the highway caught my eye.
Fine, just one more photo...
Then I was truly done for the night.
Here's my video combining the two trains at Grant's Cut with CN 2242 at Leap.
I hope you like it. I am trying a new video editing program, Hitfilm Express. So far I like it - and it's free!
It was a good night. I:
Explored two new locations (Grant's Cut, Leap)
Photographed five trains
Photographed two grain elevators
Saw a bunch 'o' rainbows
Got a bonus plane photo
Good times and good photo opportunities. Thanks for reading.
PS - hey, do me a favour and sign up for my mailing list! I'll send you a weekly summary of photos I post on social media (if you opt in to that) and occasionally I'll send you reminders of blog posts like these. That's it. Thanks!
PPS - check out George Dutka's White River Division blog! He posts a great mix of model and 1:1 scale trains.. always worth a read.
Labels: 2151, 2242, 2438, 2953, 2957, 3035, 347, cn, elevator, grain, rivers
Sixty Million to Churchill?
Omnitrax held a press briefing on Tuesday, July 18 to present the results of the study that they commissioned to assess the flood damage to the rail line from Gillam to Churchill, Manitoba. The costs are.. high.
AECOM Canada, the engineering company that did the study, estimates that the line could be fixed in 60 days starting on September 1, for a cost starting at $13 million that could climb to $60 million. EDIT: Link to study
The study says there are 13 bridges, 68 culverts and 31 washout areas that need to be repaired on the Hudson Bay Railway's Herchmer Subdivision's 183.7 railway miles (294 km) between Gillam and Churchill.
Omnitrax has stated that they don't have the money to fix it, and have called the line "a public utility" and they "believe there is a role for the public to play" in fixing the line.
Government Response
So far government response continues to be muted. The provincial government indicated it is looking to the federal government to lead. Meanwhile, the federal government indicates that Omnitrax has an obligation to repair the line.
Reports say that Omnitrax has received $20 million from the federal government over the past 5 years and Manitoba has contributed "millions". AECOM said that Omnitrax has spent $60 million on the line since 2009 to improve conditions, although this Financial Post article seems to call that figure into question.
A Deadline
Omnitrax stated that it has to have funding in place by August 1 to begin planning for the work to commence in September, and be completed within 60 days before it becomes too cold to work.
There's no doubt that Omnitrax can't afford to fix the line. They are privately held, so their financials aren't available, but the estimate I found says the company's gross income is around $90-100 million USD. $60 million would be a tremendous burden. I assume they have some insurance to cover losses like this but nobody outside Omnitrax seems to know much about that. Many people are insisting that Omnitrax is holding the town of Churchill hostage for public funds.
As I said at the end of my last update, I still think the best course of action is for Omnitrax to immediately proceed with the sale it already negotiated, and then the federal and provincial governments can step in to pay for the repairs. It's clear that the governments are loath to contribute money to a private company - understandably - so Omnitrax has to be removed from the situation.
I can't see why Omnitrax would want to hold on to the line, except perhaps to get the best price for it. I have no doubt they are universally hated in Churchill, especially when they boosted the price of gas by 30 percent briefly last night.
So sell it already and let's get on with fixing the rail line and restoring service.
Posted by Steve Boyko at 7/20/2017 10:32:00 pm No comments:
Labels: churchill, hudson bay railway, omnitrax
Railfanning and the Carman Fair
Rio Grande - really?
On Saturday July 15th our family traveled to Carman, Manitoba for the Carman County Fair. It was a lovely - if warm - day and we like going to these country fairs so the kids can ride on the midway rides without too much of a crowd.
The CEMR Carman Sub
We drove down on highway 3, paralleling the Central Manitoba Railway (CEMR) Carman subdivision for most of the trip. I noted cars at the Sanford grain elevator and some tank cars and a few ex Illinois Central ballast cars parked in Brunkild. At the Pioneer grain elevator outside Brunkild, there were some maintenance machines and an ex Amtrak ballast hopper working on the elevator tracks.
Carrying on down highway 3, the Sperling grain elevator was still gone (sigh) although there were tank cars stored in the village. The Homewood grain elevator is alive and well and the Carman warehouse had a lot of grain cars at it.
Stored potash cars and the fair
As we drove into Carman, I noted many potash cars stored in the town as well as a short CEMR train with two locomotives on it. I resolved to come back to that when we left.
The fair was great - the kids had fun and my wife and I found the temperature and crowds quite tolerable. We ate supper there and the food prices were quite reasonable.
I saw one place advertising a schnitzel sandwich so I had to have that. It was greasy but tasty!
As you can see from the lead photo in this post, I couldn't help railfanning the toy train.
After we visited the petting zoo - very popular with the kids - we had ice cream and then hit the road. I decided to head back through Elm Creek / highway 2 to cover a different route.
CCGX 5202
On our way out, I stopped to photograph the CEMR train. It was not positioned for photography so I had to shoot a bit against the sun. Here's a photo I processed with HDR to get as much detail as I could.
CCGX 5202 and CEMR 5396 in Carman
The far locomotive is CEMR 5396, an ex CP SD40-2 that I have photographed many times. The near one, though, is new to me.
CCGX 5202 is an SD38AC originally built in 1971 for the Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad as BLE 865. It was acquired by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad as DMIR 200 in early 1993 and retired in April 2008. It bounced around a couple of small companies and Cando Contracting acquired it in August 2015 (more info).
This loco has been painted in Cando's sharp "swoosh" scheme and looks quite nice. Note the "SD38AC" designation, the plaque "Rebuilt with pride by CEMR Winnipeg", and the Buzz Lightyear sticker.
That was nice to see. Hopefully I'll see it in better light soon.
On the way up highway 13 to Elm Creek, I stopped briefly to photograph the two lovely grain elevators in Barnsley. They looked very nice in the setting sun's light.
Barnsley Grain Elevators
Elm Creek Switching
As we approached Elm Creek, I could see the highway was blocked in the distance.. by grain cars! It turned out that the CPR was in town. I drove through town and found the head end at the wye.
Two of the new ECO units
The train had two of the rebuilt "ECO" units on it, CP 2238 and 2325. Again the sun was in the "wrong" spot so I did the best I could. I saw the conductor walking back to the locomotives, so I drove over the nearby crossing to avoid being trapped on the "wrong" side of the train.
The light was better on the other side..
CP in Elm Creek, Manitoba
If you squint you can see the Cargill unit about 2/3 of the way across the photo, near their grain elevator.
They started pulling, so I grabbed a photo I had been planning for a long time... the train by the giant fire hydrant.
CP 2238 and the giant fire hydrant in Elm Creek, MB
That hydrant is apparently the second largest in the world.
We headed home without waiting for the train, as it was getting late and I didn't want to push my luck with my family. We passed the lovely elevator in Culross - no cars - then Fannystelle - no cars - then Starbuck - cars - then back onto the Trans-Canada Highway and home.
This was essentially our route:
Elevators of the Carman Subdivision
A Grain Elevator Loop
The CP Carman Subdivision
Labels: 2238, 2325, 5202, cargill, cemr, cp, elevator, grain, potash
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CUPERTINO, California, and SAN RAMON, California — October 18, 2017: Apple® and GE today announced a partnership to deliver powerful industrial apps designed to bring predictive data and analytics from Predix, GE's industrial Internet of Things (IoT) platform, to iPhone® and iPad®. The two companies unveiled a new Predix software development kit (SDK) for iOS, which gives developers the tools to make their own powerful industrial IoT apps.
In collaboration with Apple, GE is also developing apps for both internal use and its customers, giving workers powerful tools to enhance their jobs and help operations run more efficiently. GE's Asset Performance Management (APM) Cases app, which is available in the App Store®, helps industrial businesses increase machine reliability and availability while reducing maintenance costs and managing operations risks. Customers including Exelon Corp. are already putting APM to work and seeing improved equipment uptime and overall productivity.
GE will standardize on iPhone and iPad for mobile devices and also promote Mac® as a choice for its global workforce of more than 330,000 employees. Apple will promote GE's Predix as the industrial IoT analytics platform of choice to its customers and developers.


It is a very good idea to save lives of animals who also deserve to live.
My motto in life is to help those who are in need.
My only message to everyone on going meatless is love all beings everyone deserves to live.Go meatless and save the lives of all animals.
My name is Sangay Tshomo saved at least 15 chicken(s) till date.


After a more than 30-year journey, Turkey has managed to put into force its data protection act, which was engaged with the Schengen-free regime conditions by European Union (EU).
Privacy is new to Turkey, where binding secondary laws regulating the telecommunication sector wasn 't enough to spread the privacy understanding to the other sectors.
It is important that data inventory, data flow life cycle and underlying logical and physical architectures are well defined. These can be implemented by clearly defining systems and applications, proper management of data classification and inventory, and overall management of the data life cycle.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforceable in the UK from May 2018, updating the way businesses must handle personal data, including what they hold on employees.
How is this going to affect HR professionals in the UK? HR magazine reports on the impacts, including how it's an update from previous legislation, why your firm may need a DPO (data protection officer) in your team, the penalties for non-compliance, how it will be applied after Brexit, and why employers should act now to prepare, versus waiting for the implementation in May 2018.


Lions Aren't Scared of Shots « Howard J. Bennett - Pediatrician and Author in Washington, D.C.
Molly is worried. It's time for her yearly checkup and she doesn't want to go. Molly likes Dr. Ryan, but she doesn't like shots! With the help of her imagination and her dog, Cinnamon, Molly finds her courageous inner lion right when she needs it the most.The book includes an endnote for parents that provides advice and tips for encouraging children to feel comfortable and brave during routine checkups, sick visits, shots, and other medical encounters.
The book was featured in the December 3, 2006 issue of Newsweek Magazine and a story about pain control on the Today Show.


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Ant Group founder Jack Ma to give up control in key restructuring
Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of China's Alibaba Group, speaks in front of a picture of SoftBank's human-like robot named 'pepper' during a news conference in Chiba, Japan, June 18, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo/File Photo
Ant Group said on Saturday its founder Jack Ma will no longer control the Chinese fintech giant, as the firm seeks to draw a line under a regulatory crackdown that was triggered soon after its mammoth stock market debut was scuppered two years ago.
Ant's $37 billion IPO, which would have been the world's largest, was cancelled at the last minute in 2020, leading to a forced restructuring of the financial technology behemoth and speculation the Chinese billionaire would have to cede control.
While some analysts have said a relinquishing of control could clear the way for the company to revive its IPO, the change, however, is likely to result in a further delay due to listing regulations.
China's domestic A-share market requires companies to wait three years after a change in control to list. The wait is two years on Shanghai's Nasdaq-style STAR market, and one year in Hong Kong.
Ma only owns a 10% stake in Ant, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (9988.HK), but has exercised control over the company through related entities, according to Ant's IPO prospectus filed with the exchanges in 2020.
Hangzhou Yunbo, an investment vehicle for Ma, had control over two other entities that own a combined 50.5% stake of Ant, the prospectus showed.
Ant said that Ma and nine of its other major shareholders had agreed to no longer act in concert when exercising their voting rights, and would only vote independently. It added that the shareholders' economic interests in Ant will not change as a result of the adjustments.
Ma previously possessed more than 50% of voting rights at Ant but the changes will mean that his share falls to 6.2%, according to Reuters calculations.
Ant also said it would add a fifth independent director to its board so that independent directors will comprise a majority of the company's board. It currently has eight board directors.
"As a result, there will no longer be a situation where a direct or indirect shareholder will have sole or joint control over Ant Group," it said in its statement.
Reuters reported in April 2021 that Ant was exploring options for Ma to divest his stake in Ant and give up control.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July last year, citing unnamed sources, that Ma could cede control by transferring some of his voting power to Ant officials including Chief Executive Officer Eric Jing.
Ant's market listing in Hong Kong and Shanghai was derailed days after Ma publicly criticised regulators in a speech in October 2020. Since then, his sprawling empire has been under regulatory scrutiny and going through a restructuring.
Ant operates China's ubiquitous mobile payment app Alipay, the world's largest, which has more than 1 billion users.
Once outspoken, Ma has kept an extremely low public profile in the past two years, as regulators reined in the country's technology giants and did away with a laissez-faire approach that drove breakneck growth.
"Jack Ma's departure from Ant Financial, a company he founded, shows the determination of the Chinese leadership to reduce the influence of large private investors," said Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research.
"This trend will continue the erosion of the most productive parts of the Chinese economy."
As Chinese regulators frown on monopolies and unfair competition, Ant and Alibaba have been untangling their operations from each other and independently seeking new business, Reuters reported last year.
Ant said on Saturday that its management would no longer serve in the Alibaba Partnership a body that can nominate the majority of the e-commerce giant's board, affirming a change that started mid-last year.
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5 ways to know if unretirement is right for you
We are an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. Our goal is to help you make smarter financial decisions by providing you with interactive tools and financial calculators, publishing original and objective content, by enabling you to conduct research and compare information for free - so that you can make financial decisions with confidence.
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3 min read Published December 14, 2022
Dori Zinn
Written by Dori ZinnArrow Right Contributing writer
Dori Zinn has been a personal finance journalist for more than a decade. Aside from her work for Bankrate, her bylines have appeared on CNET, Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Wirecutter, Quartz, Inc. and more. She loves helping people learn about money, specializing in topics like investing, real estate, borrowing money and financial literacy.
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James Royal
Edited by James RoyalArrow Right Senior investing and wealth management reporter
Bankrate senior reporter James F. Royal, Ph.D., covers investing and wealth management. His work has been cited by CNBC, the Washington Post, The New York Times and more.
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Our reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — how to save for retirement, understanding the types of accounts, how to choose investments and more — so you can feel confident when planning for your future.
Whether you were forced out of the workforce due to downsizing, a recession, or other reasons, you might've retired thinking you were done with work for good. But unretirement might change that, whether it's because you need the money, you miss the social engagement or some other reason entirely.
You don't have to stop working at some magical age. Even if you don't want to go back to what you were doing before retirement, you can find meaningful, paying work. Here's how to know if unretirement is right for you.
What is unretirement?
Unretirement is leaving retirement to return to work, for whatever reason. Some workers might have been forced to retire early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or a company downsizing might've made them believe they can't work anymore. But that's not always the case.
Unretirement means you don't have to stay retired. With the rising cost of what seems like everything, you might be forced back to work even if you were comfortable in retirement. And with more than 10 million open jobs right now, you can explore new ways to work even if you had previously thought you were done working for good.
5 ways to tell if unretiring is right for you
If you're thinking about unretiring, here are a few ways to tell it's time to make the move.
1. You need the money
Whether you've started cashing in on Social Security and your retirement accounts or not, if you don't have enough money to cover your basic needs, then unretirement may be a necessity.
Do an audit of your budget, expenses and income. If you don't think your current income will cover you for the long term, you may want to start putting feelers out for work again.
2. You don't qualify for retirement benefits
If you're too young to get Social Security and taking money out of your retirement accounts would trigger an early withdrawal penalty, you may need to work to cover your needs. Social Security doesn't kick in until age 62, and 401(k) withdrawals will trigger a 10 percent penalty if you make one before you're 59½ years old.
Without these extra cushions, you may need to work for a little while longer until benefits kick in.
3. You want to work
Unretirement isn't just for people who need it. It's also for people who want it. If you're bored, working might give you a sense of purpose and drive. Some workers might feel like they are too young to retire or don't have enough to do without some type of paying job. You can work because you like the idea of working and getting paid for it and nothing else — and that's OK.
4. You need the mental health boost
Many older Americans who don't work may not have found an outlet to devote extra time to. Staying at home and, for example, watching TV all day can take a toll on your mental health, and being out of the workforce may make you feel socially disengaged.
Working later in life can reduce dementia and boost emotional, cognitive, and mental health. While it's not required to work a paying job — volunteering may also fit your needs — some people might pair the desire to work with the mental health benefits.
5. You want to keep moving
Many of us use goals as driving forces for getting things done. The physical benefits of work can keep your weight manageable and boost activity levels. But for some people, the idea of having a place to go or tasks to accomplish is enough of a driver to stay moving. Working later in life could also lead to living longer for some workers, which is another motivation to unretire.
Retirement doesn't have to be forever, and it isn't for everyone. Whether you were forced into retirement or just haven't been able to find work in a while, you don't have to stay that way. You can head back into the workforce regardless of age. Try to find something that works for you, including your income needs, your skills, your lifestyle and long-term goals.
Read more from Dori
Senior investing and wealth management reporter
6 reasons to consider delaying your retirement
3 min read Nov 14, 2022
Evaluating an early retirement offer: What to consider before accepting one
8 min read Sep 08, 2022
5 things you must do if you hope to retire at age 62
4 min read Aug 12, 2022
5 biggest financial risks in retirement
3 min read Jun 10, 2022
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Want to know which party is playing defense a week before the election? Take a look at where the independent expenditure arm of the National Republican Congressional Committee is going on the air at the last moment in its bid to protect the G.O.P.'s 23-seat House majority: South Carolina's First District.
That would be the Charleston-area seat that is currently represented by Representative Mark Sanford and that has long been a bulwark of conservative strength. But Republicans are nervous that Katie Arrington, who defeated Mr. Sanford in the Republican primary after President Trump torpedoed him in the final hours, is proving to be a lackluster candidate. They don't want to take any chances against a Democrat, Joe Cunningham, who has out-raised her.
This district was not, to put it mildly, on anybody's list of battleground races. But it includes a substantial number of urban and suburban voters, the slice of the electorate that is proving problematic this year for Republicans.
After a week that included a wave of mail bombs sent to top Democrats, allegedly by a vocal Trump supporter, and a wrenching massacre at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Republicans remain undeterred in framing the midterms as a referendum on a Democratic "mob" opposing the president.
Some voters seem ready to amplify the message. At a campaign event on Monday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee for governor, a man with a bullhorn interrupted the proceedings repeatedly as Eric Holder, the former attorney general under Barack Obama, stepped to the microphone to talk up Mr. Gillum.
Democrats have occasionally struggled to calibrate their responses lately amid calls for "civility" in politics, attempting to portray Mr. Trump as uniquely toxic to the discourse while at the same time avoiding the perception that they are themselves escalating a partisan conflict.
But Mr. Holder, who is weighing a run for president in 2020, appears to have demonstrated the emerging party template for such encounters: Don't make an apology for its own sake, and don't give an inch.
Everyone is monitoring the polls closely now, like scoreboard watching in the final weeks of a baseball season. A couple of new ones favor Republicans in closely watched races, but not by much.
The Upshot has partnered with Siena College to poll dozens of the most competitive House and Senate races across the country.
• Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, leads Representative Beto O'Rourke, his Democratic opponent, by five percentage points, 51 to 46, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
The result is one of the more encouraging public polls for Mr. O'Rourke lately — the last Quinnipiac survey earlier this month had him trailing by nine points among likely voters. But it reinforces the consensus among top officials in both parties that the state remains a reach for Democrats this year, despite Mr. O'Rourke's prolific fund-raising and viral appeal to progressives.
• In New York, the outlook was more tenuous for Representative Chris Collins, the Republican indicted on a charge of insider trading over the summer. A new New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll of New York's 27th Congressional District showed Mr. Collins holding a narrow lead over the Democratic challenger Nate McMurray, 44 percent to 40 percent, within the survey's margin of error.
On paper, this Buffalo-area district — which voted more for President Trump than any other seat in New York in 2016 — shouldn't be competitive. But the indictment of Mr. Collins changed that dynamic, even as only 39 percent of respondents in the district said they would prefer that Democrats win control of the House.
Despite the tight race, Democrats have not invested as much money here as in other races, in part because strategists believe that even if Mr. McMurray were to win the seat, he would be unlikely to win re-election again in 2020.


Credit Card Fraud - Tylden Shaeffer, Attorney at Law, P.C.
Credit card fraud occurs when someone commits a theft when using a credit card; it also occurs when getting unauthorized cash from a bank account or to obtain goods or services without paying. It is typically committed by a person to whom the credit card did not belong but may also be committed by the card holder in certain circumstances.
Credit card fraud is estimated to cost the United States over one billion dollars each year. In Texas, it is often a very serious offense, requiring the skills and knowledge of a lawyer experienced in handling these types of cases. It is is often charged at the state level, but can also be charged in federal court. A typical credit card fraud conviction may result in prison time, fines and restitution. The Law Office of Tylden Shaeffer will help you with your case by looking at the facts of your and determining the optimal strategy for your defense.
If you or a loved one has been charged with credit card fraud in Texas, it would be in your best interests to contact San Antonio criminal defense attorney Tylden Shaeffer immediately. Attorney Shaeffer is knowledgeable in this area of law and will fight for your rights, thoroughly investigating your case to see if there are any motions that may be brought to have your charges dismissed completely.
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Bullhorn is making moves for staffing companies
Feb 18, 2019Ted Bauer0
Bullhorn®, the cloud computing company that helps staffing and recruiting organizations transform their business, has realized its vision to deliver a completely integrated front-to-back solution that combines time and expense, invoicing, gross margin calculation, and billing functionality with its market leading front office into a single cloud-based system. This middle office suite is the culmination of years of experience and development from several Bullhorn teams, including those who joined Bullhorn following its Peoplenet acquisition in November 2017.
As large buyers of labor adopt new workforce management practices, staffing firms are challenged to provide flexible billing and payment practices for clients and workers. Saddled with legacy middle office technology that is difficult to upgrade and manage, many firms are looking to transform their businesses through the use of connected middle office systems that are configurable, adaptable, and scalable – equipping them to be successful and competitive for years into the future. Building middle office capabilities seamlessly into the front office creates a single unified system; every transaction from the initial job order all the way through to the invoice occurs on a single, open, cloud-based platform supported by an enormous ecosystem of solution providers and developers.
With its front and middle office integration, Bullhorn becomes the single source of truth for everyone across an organization and allows staffing firms to innovate to drive efficiency, make better decisions, and create true competitive advantage. This, in turn, empowers these firms to succeed in a new world of work in which available skilled talent is scarce and elusive and large buyers of labor place increasingly complex and restrictive demands on their suppliers. To this end, Bullhorn's vision is to provide firms with the end-to-end infrastructure needed to transform their businesses.
Previously, enterprises had to choose different systems to get best-in-class performance for front and middle office capabilities. With Bullhorn's offering, staffing firms do not have to make any sacrifices when choosing an integrated system that marries front and middle office capabilities, as it includes best-in-class capabilities across the entire suite. Bullhorn's difference is in the combination of its staffing-specific DNA, its depth of R&D resources devoted to actualizing its middle office connected vision, and the fact that it provides, and always has provided, a true cloud-based and intrinsically scalable platform upon which this suite of middle office solutions is built.
With a best-in-class middle office solution that gives staffing agencies full front-to-back visibility from candidate and order intake all the way through invoicing, customers can now see margin information and profitability in real time to make informed decisions. This helps them to:
Save millions of dollars on margin-erosive operations and back-office costs through fully automated pay and bill processes, with crystal-clear data visibility between front, middle, and back office systems
Save significant time and money on contract compliance by automatically enforcing pay/bill terms configured at the client level
Provide a fully integrated candidate onboarding experience that automates the complexities of putting people to work at multiple companies
Differentiate their value to talent with a seamless candidate experience in which candidates can manage their profile, complete documents, record time, and see their pay stubs
Additionally, Bullhorn will, over time, leverage its cloud-based platform with more than 600 billion records to provide AI-based capabilities to enhance staff and organizational performance. For instance, staffing firms can leverage predictive intelligence to assess client billing health indicators – such as when client invoices will likely be paid – in real time, and therefore help them prioritize jobs. Additionally, recruiters can assess the likelihood of successfully filling a job based on the available talent pool, and more effectively put the right people to work quickly by leveraging search and match capabilities that take into account time approver-provided candidate scoring data.
Bullhorn's middle office suite will see its first customer deployments in Q2 2019.
"The excitement from customers around what we have built has been very energizing for the entire organization," said Ed Holmes, head of Bullhorn's Workforce and Revenue Cloud business unit, responsible for the development of the company's middle office suite. "It is clear we've built a solution that the market has desperately needed for a long time now, and we're excited for our customers to experience its benefits."
"We have chosen Bullhorn as our long-term partner and are excited that we are now going to be able to get a full front-to-back solution from one provider," said Layne Tharp, SVP of Finance at Signature Consultants. "A fully integrated workflow will certainly strengthen and enhance our partnership with Bullhorn. Front-to-back reporting, from leads to revenue and actual gross margin, is a game changer. The product looks great and the flexibility will allow us to remove manual processes while improving our business processes. A middle office built specifically for staffing is incredibly exciting for us."
Learn more about Middle Office.
Ted Bauer
Originally from New York City, Ted Bauer currently lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He's a writer and editor for RecruitingDaily who focuses on leadership, management, HR, recruiting, marketing, and the future of work. His popular blog, The Context of Things, has a simple premise — how to improve work. Ted has a Bachelors in Psychology from Georgetown and a Masters in Organizational Development from the University of Minnesota. In addition to various blogging and ghost-writing gigs, he's also worked for brands such as McKesson, PBS, ESPN, and more. You can follow Ted on Twitter @tedbauer2003, connect with him on LinkedIn, or reach him on email at [email protected]
acquisitions Bullhorn Recruiting Sourcing staffing agencies staffing agency trends Staffing Industry tech technology
Previous PostBefore You Get Started with Conversational Recruiting, Read This Next PostFireside Chat with William Tincup and Michelle Vargas, VP of HR at HireVue


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Q: Using merge to detect differences in Pandas DataFrame I am using merge to join two data frames together.  The 2 data frames are data from a database table over two different dates.  I need to work out what changed.  The number of rows will be different, but I just to join the newer data set to the older data set with an inner join, and see what changed.
At the moment, I am taking advantage of the _x and _y naming of the data frames, and the .columns data to let me compare the fields for differences after the merge.
There must be an easier way to do this.  I did try to use the new compare() method of 1.1.0, but it doesnt seem to like frames with a different shape (i.e. rows in my case), rendering it useless to me.
def get_changed_records(df_old, df_new, file_info):

    join_keys = file_info["compare_col"].split(",");
    old_file_name = file_info["old_file_name"]
    new_file_name = file_info["new_file_name"]

    print("Changed Records: JOIN DATA FRAMES ON COLUMNS: previous file ", old_file_name, " current_file_name ", " new file name ", new_file_name)

    columns = df_new.columns

    df_merged = df_new.merge(df_old, how='inner', on=join_keys, indicator=True)

    changed_records = []

    for idx, row in df_merged.iterrows():
        changes = []

        for col in columns:

            if col not in join_keys:
                after_col = col + '_x';
                before_col = col + '_y';
            else:
                after_col = col
                before_col = col

            after_val = row[after_col];
            before_val = row[before_col];

            changed = False

            if pd.isnull(before_val) or pd.isnull(after_val):

                if pd.isnull(before_val) == False and pd.isnull(after_val) == True:
                    changed = True;

                if pd.isnull(before_val) == True and pd.isnull(after_val) == False:
                    changed = True;

                if pd.isnull(before_val) == True and pd.isnull(after_val) == True:
                    changed = False;

            elif after_val != before_val:
                print("COLUMN_CHANGE: ", col, " before ", before_val, " after ", after_val);
                changed = True;

            if changed == True:
                print('-' * 50);
                print('-Adding changes to result...')

                changes.append(['COLUMN_CHANGE', col, before_val, after_val, row, join_keys]);
                print(changes);

        if len(changes) > 0:
            changed_records.append(changes);
            print("changed records ", len(changed_records));
            print(changed_records);

    return changed_records


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