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Terrifically Terrible Cinema: "Over the Top" (1987)
"The world meets nobody halfway. When you want something, you gotta take it."
~~Lincoln Hawk
First things first: Let's go ahead and agree that this movie scribble is going to file "Over the Top," a lesser-known Sly Stallone gem from the late 1980s, in the supremely overstuffed folder titled "Splendidly Bad Epic '80s Flicks" (because if the '80s produced a movie that was not epic in scope and soundtrack, I did not see it). For a movie about the National Arm Wrestling Championships in Sin City that also manages to include oodles of dad-like advice, big burly-man semis and a man who chugs Valvoline belongs nowhere if it does not belong in that manila folder.
With its screenplay co-written by Stallone, "Over the Top" (heed the title; it's damn fine nutshelling) has but one thing to offer its highly specific audience of Sly fans and connoisseurs of Terrifically Terrible Cinema: a marvelous and total lack of sophistication. For Demolition Man, "subtlety" is nothing less than a deplorable dirty word — always has been, save for a "First Blood" here and a "Rocky Balboa" there — and it shows. Not one single element of "Over the Top," from the smallest father/son moment to The Really Big, Really Intense Showdown, is understated. (Remember about the title? I told you it was important.) Metaphors are painted with big, messy glops and slops; the sweeping montages showcase "Eye of the Tiger"-styled music so loud it drowns out the (ha! as if!) dialogue; the dying mom has a bad case of Sick People Teeth and Too Much Gray Eyeshadow; Robert Loggia acts like his very life hinges on line overdelivery.
There's bad, alright, but this? This is the kind of movie that's so bad you have to watch the whole thing.
But more on this plot, so awful it seems overripe for a remake by Trey Parker and Matt Stone: Long-haul trucker Lincoln Hawk (Stallone) discovers his ill wife Christina (Susan Blakely) is rapidly approaching her expiration date and she wants him to have a relationship with Michael (David Mendenhall), the son he left behind. Christina's underhanded father Jason Cutler (Loggia), who long ago branded Hawk a — gasp! — "loser," has done his part to keep father and son separated. But soon enough Cutler learns three important lessons: 1) Hawk drives a semi big enough to obliterate fancy porcelain fountains, so don't piss him off; 2) If you see Hawk's hat turned backward, he's already pissed off, so run away; and 3) National arm wrestling competitions are petri dishes that breed entire populations warm, fuzzy dad-and-son moments.
Herein lies the pure trashy fun of "Over the Top": It's exactly the movie you expect it to be, only moreso. Everything is loud and bright and dumb and epic and so overdone as to be hysterically funny. Hawk's arm wrestling competitors alone are priceless, from Grizzly the Valvoline-swigger (Bruce Way) — who learns the only appropriate follow-up to Valvoline is Alka-Seltzer — to the philosopher Bull Hurley (Rick Zumwalt), a man of simple tastes who lives by an easy-to-remember credo: "I drive truck, break arms, and arm wrestle. It's what I love to do, it's what I do best." Hawk himself is something of a soothsayer, a deliverer of gloriously unsubtle advice (refer to the opening quote), and there are moments when Stallone appears to have slipped into a communicative coma while playing him. Mendenhall and Loggia take the opposite approach, injecting so much passion into their Big Speeches that they threaten to become touching. But they do not, and thank Valvoline for that; it would ruin this movie!
So, no, "Over the Top" is not great work of art, or even a paint-by-numbers ripped from Highlights. But it is the finest movie ever made about arm wrestling, and sometimes, well, that's enough.
Filed under: TTC: Terrifically Terrible Cinema | Tagged: Menahem Golan, Over the Top, Robert Loggia, Susan Blakely, Sylvester Stallone |	14 Comments »


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Blank Label Comics Appreciation Week: Schlock Mercenary
By mrmyth on September 28, 2007
I owe a debt of gratitude to Howard Tayler for helping me remember the proper way to spell the word "mercenary."
It is, perhaps, a shameful thing – this is not that difficult a word, and I am someone with a degree in writing, who takes at least some small amount of pride in my writing capabilities… and yet, inevitably, when I attempt to describe an individual who sells their combat skills to the highest bidder, it takes all my focus to avoid speaking of a mercanary – which is clearly something else entirely, some sort of dreaded aquatic monstrosity that is half bird, half fish.
I'm not sure how this problem developed. I know, even as I type the letters, that it is not the proper spelling. But my fingers inevitably follow their own twisted desires, and mercanaries flows out onto the page as naturally as can be. Oh, I make sure to correct it, each time – and after many discussions of Schlock Mercenary, I've finally started to train myself to use the proper spelling.
But interestingly enough, that discussion of Schlock Mercenary hasn't been on here.
I've mentioned it in passing once or twice, and that is all. This is peculiar, for it is one of the earliest webcomics I read, and one I can always recall enjoying. I talk about it with my friends, certainly – many of them are science geeks, unlike myself, and able to especially appreciate the scientific mojo brought to the strip. This is also the only comic – web or otherwise – that has actually inspired an RPG character of mine. (Though one that, sadly, never saw the light of day.)
That clearly means the strip speaks to me on some level. That the ideas within it – the characters, the stories, the setting -have wormed their way into my mind and taken root.
And yet, I've never seen fit to actually discuss the comic.
I blame the consistency of the strip. It isn't really a webcomic, after all – it is an inevitable facet of life. Every day, the sun will rise. Every day, there will be a new Schlock Mercenary. I suppose this comparison is horribly flawed, given that people can and will discuss the relative merit of a particularly breathtaking sunrise – but my point is that the strip functions on a level where it never calls attention to itself, but simply maintains a constant harmonious level of quality.
But, I suppose, you may not read the strip, so allow me to try and give a description of it, and explain why I have said the things I have said. (Save for the mercanary problem. I'm not going to try and figure out from what horrible depths my brain procured that strange difficulty.)
Schlock Mercenary is a strip set in the 31st century. It takes place in a science-fiction setting, if that wasn't apparent from the time frame. It revolves around a band of mercenaries who, in return for appropriate sums of money, will render their usual services, such as "excessive amounts of violence," or for a higher price, "just the right amount of violence." It features a lovable cast of flawed characters, many are whom are aliens, and others that are simply scientists. It updates every day of the week. It always updates. Most strips are a standard 4-panel length, sundays are full pages. It has clean, pleasant art in full color. The website has a search feature for the archives, a handy storyline guide, regularly updated news blog, a variety of other useful information, and a short, somewhat outdated description of a sparse handful of the main characters, though not a full cast guide for the many, many diverse members of the crew.
The strip is somewhat hard to pin down in mood – it is light-hearted, generally fond of visual punchlines, and is largely driven by narrative and plot. Being a daily strip that has been running for over seven years, it has accumulated massive, sprawling archives. It has managed to progress the story through a sizable number of events, and does a remarkably successful job of incorporating significant events while still, on some level, maintaining the status quo – or at least the general dynamic of the strip.
And, in many ways, that is probably its greatest strength, and greatest weakness. Schlock Mercenary has established such a degree of consistency, it rarely defies expectations – I know it will be good, and it is, but never in a way that really calls attention to it. Even when it goes through big events, that is just part of the show.
It also has the downside that it takes place in a setting where just about anything is possible. Characters can be recovered from death, time can be turned back, mistakes can be undone. It doesn't happen often, and there are plenty of permanent, long-lasting changes that take place – but it also means that any given death isn't always taken at face value.
The most recent storyline seems like it should be a big one – it features the death (of which our erstwhile heroes are sadly not involved in) of one of the largest antagonists of the series. The only one, in many ways – most villains have been massive corporations, governments, or similar faceless entities, while this guy has been something of a singular archenemy.
But… death isn't always the end, and there are any number of ways he could come back. So it produces an interesting storyline and results in a variety of unintended consequences for the strip to follow, but it never has the shock value that a different comic in a similar situation would undeniably have.
This isn't a bad thing – but it means it is much easier for the strip to stay off the radar.
On the other hand, the consistency can be a good thing – with it having been running for so long, and gone through so much, it feels as though the strip has been in its current state forever. But… this isn't true. When the strip began, the art could easily have been produced by a child using MSPaint. It was readable, all things considered, but it is almost impossible to describe the different levels of quality in what it was and what it became.
It changed, of course, because that tends to be a result from producing art every single day for years on end. Oh, it requires the will to improve and the aptitude to do so, which Taylor clearly had – but it is largely due to all that practice, all that practical learning.
And now, it seems amazing to look back on those strips and see the difference. I'm curious as to how his most recent book will turn out, as it is a collection of the earliest strips. (A collection he initially avoided, as a matter of fact, and instead focused on later storylines whose quality could speak for itself.)
Nonetheless, the strip stands out as an example of how far determination and persistence can get you. Even beyond that, for all the humble beginnings of the comic, it is an icon of how to do a webcomic professionally. Reliable updates, slowly refined skills, accessible website (even if it needs a better cast page.) Howard Tayler is no longer the only man known for using a buffer, but I'd say he is the poster child for doing so. He's shown what you can produce when you take producing the comic seriously.
Schlock Mercenary is a good comic. In this review, I haven't actually touched on the characters, or the story, or the setting – I'll instead leave them to speak for themselves. Suffice to say they are good characters the fill a variety of roles, and have their fair share of stereotypes and original concepts, and that the strip does a remarkable job of focusing on this small and merry band even as it gives the reader a grand sense of the wider universe.
The strip is filled with a sense of exploration and discovery – both for the characters and for us – and that's a damn fine thing for a comic to be about.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Webmaster May 13, 2022 2 min read
Currency Symbol, National Animal, National Anthem, National Aquatic Animal, National Bird, National Calendar, National Flag, National Flower, National Fruit. National River, National Song, National Tree, State Emblem, States/UT Symbols
A national flag is a flag that represents and symbolizes a country. The national flag is flown by the government of a country, but can usually also be flown by citizens of the country. A national flag is designed with specific meanings for its colours and symbols. The colours of the national flag may be worn by the people of a nation to show their patriotism, or related paraphernalia that show the symbols or colours of the flag may be used for those purposes.
The National Flag(तिरंगा , Tricolor) is a horizontal tricolour of deep saffron (kesaria) at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom in equal proportion. The ratio of width of the flag to its length is two to three. In the center of the white band is a navy-blue wheel which represents the chakra. The design of a national flag may be altered after the occurrence of important historical events. The burning or destruction of a national flag is a greatly symbolic act.
The top saffron colour, indicates the strength and courage of the country. The white middle band indicates peace and truth with Dharma Chakra. The green shows the fertility, growth and auspiciousness of the land.
Its design is that of the wheel which appears on the abacus of the Sarnath Lion Capital of Ashoka. Its diameter approximates to the width of the white band and it has 24 spokes. The design of the National Flag was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of India on 22 July 1947
Design and construction details
According to the Flag code of India, the Indian flag has a ratio of two by three (where the length of the flag is 1.5 times that of the width). All three stripes of the flag (saffron, white and green) are to be equal in width and length. The size of the Ashoka Chakra is not specified in the Flag code, but it has twenty-four spokes that are evenly spaced. In section 4.3.1 of "IS1: Manufacturing standards for the Indian Flag", there is a chart that details the size of the Ashoka Chakra on the nine specific sizes of the national flag. In both the Flag code and IS1, they call for the Ashoka Chakra to be printed or painted on both sides of the flag in navy blue. Below is the list of specified shades for all colours used on the national flag, with the exception of Navy Blue, from "IS1: Manufacturing standards for the Indian Flag" as defined in the 1931 CIE Colour Specifications with illuminant C. The navy blue colour can be found in the standard IS:1803-1973.
Note that the values given in the table correspond to CIE 1931 color space. Approximate RGB values for use may be taken to be: India saffron #FF9933, white #FFFFFF, India green #138808, navy blue #000080.[6] Pantone values closest to this are 130 U, White, 2258 C and 2735 C.
Tags: Currency Symbol National Animal National Anthem National Aquatic Animal National Bird National Calendar National Flag National Flower National Fruit. National River National Song National Tree State Emblem States/UT Symbols
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Next: National Anthem
चक्रवर्ती राजगोपालाचारी
लोक नायक जयप्रकाश नारायण
गुलज़ारीलाल नन्दा


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All posts tagged: Creation
Remains of an ancient snake with legs found in Argentina supporting the Genesis account
Snakes, today, are best known for their ability to slither around on the ground, but paleontologists working in Argentina discovered the fossilized remains of a snake that once walked on legs in the Rio Negro province. Like most fossils it's rare to find the full animal and in this case they only dug up the head. But it is well known that snakes once started off with legs and this particular fossil was named "najash rionegrina" a purposeful spin off of the Hebrew word for snake "nachash." Of course, in the Biblical account of Adam and Eve's fall into sin, it was the snake that played the pivotal role in first tempting Eve. In the account, God not only judged Adam and Eve, the Lord also judged the snake: 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,Cursed are you more than all cattle,And more than every beast of the field;On your belly you will go,And dust you will eatAll the days of your life; Genesis 3:14 NASV Since God condemned the …
Apologetics / Bible / Creation / Main / z153
Human Evolution and Ugly Racism
Morphogenesis: This scientific word describes a straight path. Until recently, the science of human evolution was dominated by the philosophy of Morphogenesis, 'a linear path to a predetermined end,' the idea that evolution was predictable and consistent, and that it changed living things from simple and primitive to sophisticated and more desirable. The most evolved life form was always the best, and the least evolved was undesirable and deserved extinction. So, newer is better. Fossils showed us the remains of organisms that went extinct, like the dinosaurs, and we were told that they died out because they were less fit. Extinction happens when something better comes along. Morphogenesis can look backward, to trace the trail of species that evolved and went extinct, up until now. It can tell us how we got here, and it can also look into the future, to show us how to guide the evolution of life to better, more desirable forms. Forward looking morphogenesis is scary, and it mostly ended with World War II. Did you know that Hitler was …
Apologetics / Creation / Main / z158
Evolutionists sometimes discuss the function of the appendix. What is the purpose of that small thing in our body, and why did it evolve? A similar topic is; why do we have religion, the worship of God? Religion is like a spiritual appendix, we can't explain why it evolved, but it seems to be in everyone. Recently, a writer for the BBC commented on the development, or evolution of religion, among humans. RELATED: Do humans have a religion instinct? If we start with the belief that the universe started from energy, with a "Big Bang" explosion, and then life emerged through some natural accident, the most advanced species today is a large ape, us. If you believe, you will see. We can picture apes in a tree with a sense that something in the world is bigger than them. After millions of years of evolution, that vague sense of something could become a god that we worship. If people are the result of evolution, so is God. In the article, this evolution of religious thought …
Did Scientists Just Discover the Creation?
Recently, some scientists have been describing the origins of life on the Earth with language that is almost biblical. This is the strange case of secular scientists discovering something the Bible described thousands of years ago. If there is one thing that separates science from religion, it's the story of creation, or the origins of life on Earth. Charles Darwin published his theory of The Origin of the Species in November of 1859. Since then, secular science has removed God from our origins. Before that time, most people believed that God, or some divine force that created life. Darwin is commonly called a "naturalist" but really he first apprenticed as a medical Doctor, and then trained as a minister for the Church of England. The young naturalist was a theologian, and I believe his theory of evolution (Origin of the Species) described a universe without God. Removing God was very important for the theologian; the God scientist. Here is an accelerated summary of billions of years of natural history according to Darwin and his followers: …
Gone Bananas
Published by Andy Becker
I'm only sixty percent bananas! Woohoo! And my family said I was one hundred percent bonkers! Actually I am a bit more than sixty percent but I'll take it. Especially since I am more bananas than chicken. I guess a crazy person who isn't chicken is pretty scary so I better explain this one. A friend of mine ordered one of those DNA tests to find out about her roots and what wonderful diseases to which she can look forward when she gets old. Apparently she will be a healthy old broad. Then I remembered some old science that claimed we had something like ninety six percent similar DNA to a chimpanzee. Of course the evolutionists thought this was great since it proved we came from apes which came from some other animal etc until you got to pond scum. So the bottom line is we are all evolved pond scum. Except I don't want to be pond scum! I looked at the similarities between DNA of humans and other things like chimps and bananas. …
Apologetics / Creation / Main / z142 / z159
Transformed!
I remember as a boy living in Shellbrook, a small Saskatchewan town, walking down the main street when a butterfly fluttered in front of me. Almost instantly it was set upon by a sparrow. What followed was an aero-acrobatic display. Though the sparrow was clearly faster, the butterfly was incredibly elusive. It swooped up and down to avoid captures. Sharp turns left, then right. Darting in every direction as the bird repeatedly dove in to catch it. And the sparrow was always a second too late, biting at air as the butterfly made another erratic move with a brain barely as large as a dot on an "i." Then just as suddenly as it started, it was over. The bird broke off its unsuccessful chase and landed at the top of the one-story building I was walking by. I could see its beak open, as it breathed heavily trying to catch its breath. The butterfly continued its flight as if nothing had happened. It was such an acrobatic display because the butterfly has two sets …
Apologetics / Bible / Creation / Main / Teaching / z112
Oops, that wasn't supposed to happen: genetic study unravels evolutionary theory
A study produced by two geneticists Mark Stoeckle from New York's Rockefeller University and David Thaler from Switzerland's University of Baler concluded that 90% of animals came into existence at the same time as humans and relatively recently. This conclusion seriously challenges the theory of evolution that requires millions of years for animals to slowly evolve, with man being the climax of the evolutionary cycle. In their study published in the Human Evolution journal, the two geneticists examined the "DNA barcodes" of 100,000 species of animals stored in GenBank, a genetic data base operated by the American government. Based on this study, the two concluded that animals appeared at the same time as humans about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. Though there may be some dispute on the dating, their study nevertheless confirms the Biblical account that says humans and animals were created at the same time on the fifth day. In an interview with Christian Headlines, Ken Ham founder of the creationist organization Answers in Genesis suggested the age numbers were inflated by evolutionary …
Another great split?
Scientists are reporting on the formation of a massive crack in Africa that may result in the continent splitting in half. They don't believe it will happen in our lifetime, but expect it could happen at some point in the far future. According to an article in the Daily Mail, the lithosphere made up of the earth's outer crust and upper mantle has tectonic plates floating underneath. Post Doctoral researcher Lucia Perez Diaz, who works with the Fault Dynamics Research Group, says these plates can rupture creating a rift that results in a separate tectonic plate that would essentially create a new continent. They believe that such a rift is starting to occur in south-western Kenya. The crack is now 3,000 kms long and extends from the Gulf of Aden in the North to Zimbabwe in the South. This crack even resulted in the collapse of a stretch of the Nairobi-Narok highway. Diaz described the large crack's appearance as "sudden." If this crack continues to move southward, it would essentially spit the African tectonic plate …
Bodies by Design
Published by BSass
In Psalm 95:6 David opens his heart and declares "Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord God our Maker, for He is our God…" David had the revelation that we were created, intricately crafted by the masters hand. Three thousand years have now past and scientists are continually amazed at the complexity in the design of our bodies. When you consider our brain consists of approximately 12 billion cells, with 120 trillion interconnections allowing us to see and do amazing things. And when you also consider the human eye with its 10 million photoreceptor cells in the retina that are so complex, it would take a Cray supercomputer a minimum of 100 years to simulate what takes place in the eye several times per second. Not to mention the 20 feet of blood vessels intricately woven into every square inch of skin and the 72 feet of nerve fiber in each square inch of our hands. The list of masterful design goes on and on. The blueprints that map …
Apologetics / Creation / Main / z95
Hindus, Muslims, and Human Evolution
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Human Evolution in 2017
"It takes just as much faith to be an atheist as it does to be a religious believer. I don't point to the Bible to prove this, but rather to the universe." — Mick Mooney, Why I'd Still Believe In God Did you know, our picture of the world changed in the year 2017, in a big way? I am writing this in early 2018, and some science writers are looking back in shock and awe. For example, when I was a boy, public schools and libraries and publications like "Scientific American" and "National Geographic" gave one orthodox picture of humans who are apes that climbed down from trees and walked on the planes of Africa, and evolved into us. This was science, and there was no other way, and for sure there was no God. I was a Christian who went to church every Sunday, and I also studied and worked in a large university. My first degree was in Anthropology, the driver of human evolution ideas. I learned to keep my head down …
Blinded by a theory?
It has been a problem that has haunted evolutionists for years — how did ribonucleic acid (RNA) evolve? According to the RNA Society, "Ribonucleic acid, or RNA is one of the three major biological macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life (along with DNA and proteins)." It is a required cog for producing enzymes. However, there was a major evolutionary problem. Since RNA requires its own enzymes to replicate, it was impossible for RNA to evolve without enzymes. It was the old what came first — the chicken or the egg. Since the enzyme could only be created by RNA and it could only replicate with the enzyme, both had to spontaneously appear at exactly the same time for it to evolve. It sounds more like creation than evolution. But in 2016 Nobel Prize laureate Jack Szostak, a genetics professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote a paper stating he had discovered how RNA replicated without the required enzyme paving the way for its evolution. It was a ground-breaking announcement that fell in …
The Eve Gene
Have you ever wished that you could travel back through time? Most of us, if not all of us, have daydreamed about just such a thing. Growing up with movies like "Time Tunnel" and "Back to the Future" have fueled our imaginations. Today using genetic science we can get a glimpse of our past by stepping back in time, not through a mystic portal or modified sports car but through our DNA. There is so much information available through our genetic material, that it should yield a tremendous amount of knowledge about the past. Each one of our cells contains millions and often billions of bits of genetic information. This incredible storehouse of information is now being revealed by what is called "gene sequencing techniques." It is possible that from this information, we may one day even be able to obtain a good estimate of the date of the Creation. A study of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutation rates is of interest in this respect. A 1997 article in Nature Genetics 15(4):363-367 stated. "Mitochondrial DNA is …
Stop monkeying around
Every time you turn on the television, whether it's a feature film, a kid's program or a documentary, there is often a reference to evolution in the form of "back when we were monkeys…" So for all of you who still believe that you are the product of King Kong rather than children of the King of Kings, here is some hard data for you. Evolutionary regression 1) Common ancestor (evolutionary adam): This creature is believed to have been a forest dwelling creature from which both man and ape descend: No traces of any such creature have ever been found! 2) Gigantopithicus: This creature was discovered to be nothing more than an extinct ground ape, Richard Leaky famed anthropologist and evolutionist has removed it from the chart leading to man (Time magazine Nov 7, 1977). 3) Ramapithicus: Discovered in India in 1930, it was described as an advanced primate. It was reconstructed from a 2″ long piece of jawbone, and all physical charactaristics were artistically detailed and published widely. But his height, posture, length of …
CERN scientist admits universe should not exist
A physicist with CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, recently admitted in an interview with Newsweek that the universe is defying the laws of physics. CERN physicist Christian Smorra said, "The universe should not exactly exist." With an annual budget of $1.24 billion, CERN, located in Switzerland, has a particle accelerator deep underground. They use this 17-mile long circular accelerator to have particles traveling at nearly the speed of light collide. They have also been trying to find an imbalance between matter and antimatter. Since the matter and antimatter annihilate each other on contact, such an imbalance would be necessary for the universe to exist. According to the Big Bang Theory the universe originally existed in pure energy the size of a thimble (literally the size of a thimble), this exploded in a "one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second" to create all the matter that makes up the universe today. However, if there was an equal amount of matter and antimatter, the universe should have self annihilated back into …
Australia warns of a nasty flu season
If reports coming out of Australia are correct, this year's flu season in the Northern Hemisphere could be particularly nasty. Of course, Australia is just finishing off its winter when the flu bug becomes the most prominent, and we in the north are just entering our winter season. A report on an Australian news site says this year was particularly bad with a record-setting 172,247 reported cases of the flu. Australia's immunization Coalition (IC) states this is 156% higher than the number reported last year at the same time. IC suspects that this year's estimate is undoubtedly low because the health system is under such stress they are behind in their reporting. It is uncertain what the final count will be. Doctors are also describing the flu as a "super strain" meaning it is more potent than what they had seen in the past. The elderly and very young are particularly vulnerable. So far doctors have recorded 288 deaths due to the flu, but again this is probably low. They advise people to get the …
So who designed the first pocket — man, the sea otter or God?
So who invented human pockets? The English word "pocket" comes from an old French word "poque" that is literally translated bag. In the 16th and 17th century, people did not have pockets in their clothing, instead men and women had bags that they attached to the outside of their clothing or hung on a piece of rope around their waist. Inside they would put items such as money, jewellery and handkerchiefs. However, as these outside pockets increasingly became a target for thieves, by the 17th century, people started cutting slits in their pants and even dresses and inserting these "poques" inside the slits. They flattened them to remove its purse like bulge and began sewing them on the cloth to help keep them in place. This became the first pocket as we know it. By the 18th century clothing was being manufactured with pockets including pants, jackets, vests and shirts. They even had pockets for specific purposes. They designed pockets to hold tickets and others to hold the "pocket-watch." Pockets were designed and created for …
Cracks in the evolutionary foundation
In the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul makes a very audacious statement. He says in the end people will be without excuse about their belief in God because of creation. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Romans 1:20 NASV) It is interesting because I have run into Christians who are having doubts about their faith because of the theory of evolution. At times, it has caused them to question the Bible and God However, aside from the massive gaps in the fossil record that don't show the gradual evolution of life, science has never explained how living, breathing and consuming life first sprang from non organic material. These gaps are a huge problem. In an article published in Evolution, the late Oklahoma University paleontologist David B. Kitts wrote there are "some nasty difficulties for evolutionists, the most notorious of which is the presence of 'gaps' in the …
Riots in Charlottesville … and Darwinian Evolution?
We know about the demonstration in Charlottesville Virginia. Groups described as Right Wing gathered and demonstrated for their beliefs. The trigger was a threat to remove monuments to leaders of the Confederacy in the American Civil War, more than a century and a half ago. That war was fought with muskets and sabres and horses, and the good guys won. The demonstrations were ugly, with symbols and language that related to Hitler and the Nazis, and the Klu Klux Klan. Counter demonstrators gathered, including some dangerous violent people. It all ended when allegedly a car driven by a man with a history of mental illness rammed into a crowd of counter demonstrators, killing a woman and injuring 19 others. Two police officers also died when their helicopter crashed as they monitored the demonstrations. It was a terrible day. To understand what was happening, some researchers brought up Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Really. A survey was sent to members of the alt-right supporters asking for their opinions about human evolution. Related: Psychologists surveyed hundreds of alt-right …
Apologetics / Creation / Main / Opinion / z74
The Creation of Evolution
Have you heard about the new Darwin? Jeremy England is a professor at MIT with a theory "dissipation-driven adaptation" about the origins of life. The theory focusses on physics instead of biology, the usual scientific approach to evolution. My best summary is that life is inevitable because of the physical structure of the universe. "random groups of molecules can self-organize to more efficiently absorb and dissipate heat from the environment." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_England Life had to happen because of the design and structure of the universe. That's a complicated way to say that life was created. The god of creation, in this case, is the physical universe, the thing that made life. By extension, something intelligent made the structure of the universe so that it inevitably produced life, but that is just me talking. The 'new Darwin' Jeremy England identifies as Orthodox Jewish and apparently studies the Torah, what Christians call the Old Testament. Did you know that the original Darwin was a religious man? He is described as a naturalist, but that profession didn't exist in …
Grand Canyon censored, for Christians?
Dr. Andrew Snelling has a Ph.D in geology from the University of Sydney, a world-renowned institution. He has written a number of articles and reports published in peer-reviewed science journals and has years of experience in geological research. Yet, in 2013 when he wanted to take a few fist-sized geological samples from the Grand Canyon for research and scientific study, he was refused. For decades officials with the Grand Canyon National Park have allowed scientists to take material from the Park for study. The Park had even given Snelling permission to gather samples in the past. So, why did Park officials refuse Snelling this time? The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit, legal organization dedicated to defending religious liberties, alleges Park officials denied permission because Snelling is a Christian. Snelling also works for Answers in Genesis, a Christian organization providing scientific evidence of creation. He does not accept the narrative that the Grand Canyon was created over 450 million years ago. According to ADF, Dr Snelling was seeking "to gather samples at folds inside the …
Darwin and the Scottish Cows
Charles Darwin developed his theory of evolution for the origin of the species when he sailed around the world on a ship named the Beagle. On that voyage, in 1834, he explored the eroded valley of the Santa Cruz River in Argentina and he commented on the lapse of ages and the gradual erosion that produced the valley. We now know that a GLOF (Glacier Lake Outburst Flood) occurred when an icy glacier blocked the river near the mountains and dammed up a huge reservoir. When the water burst through the ice, the GLOF eroded the valley quickly, probably in days. When I was a boy, I travelled with my family in Washington State, and I noticed that the dry interior had hundreds of eroded water channels, all dry, and I saw probably the biggest water fall in the world, Dry Falls, four times the size of Niagara, in a deep eroded valley. I knew then that something very big had happened. In the 1920s, a Geologist named J. Harlen Bretz named that region in …
Evolving Evolutionists?
Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, a respected anthropologist from the University of Pittsburgh, still believes in evolution, but his views on Darwinism have evolved over the years, due to a lack of evidence in the fossil record. In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Schwartz no longer believes in "gradualism." According to the theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin, species evolved gradually over millions of years through minute incremental changes. Schwartz argues that if these minute changes actually took place, evolutionists would find thousands examples of these species at different stages in their evolutionary development. Instead the fossil record is starkly quiet with huge gaps in the fossil record. Darwin claimed that the absence of these missing links was simply a matter of bad luck. Schwartz disagrees – based on the evidence – the lack of transitional fossils says the transitions never existed in the first place. Schwartz adds that some organs, such as the eye, are so complicated that the sheer number of changes required for its evolution "defies logic." He also takes a …
Scientists who dissent on evolution
We are inundated constantly with messages on evolutionary theory. We see it referenced in movies, documentaries, newspapers, magazines, websites and even TV ads. Though flooded almost daily with this belief, many are unaware there is a growing list of scientists who openly question the very tenants of Darwin's theory of evolution. This is happening because the evidence does not support the theory — one of the basic theorems of science. In fact, a website (www.dissentfromdarwin.org) was set up a few years ago specifically for scientists having second thoughts about Darwin's theory of evolution. In order to join this prestigious list, one must have a doctorate in one of the sciences such as chemistry, physics or biology or be a medical doctor. The signers must willingly subscribe to this basic belief: "We are skeptical of claims of the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." This list — updated quarterly — is managed by the Discovery Institute and as …
It's no fluke!
Several years ago, my son and I were watching a TV program about the complex life cycle of the small liver fluke. The design behind its life cycle leaves your head shaking and begs the question how on earth did this evolve. Of course, it didn't. It's simply another sign of God's creation. The small liver fluke is a parasite common to North America, Europe and Asia. Where do we begin?. The zombie ant Perhaps one of the most unusual influences of this microscopic parasite is its effect on ants. The ants eat the cercaria of the fluke which is essentially the fluke in its adolescent stage. Well, they don't really want to eat it, however the temptation is so great. But we will get to that in a moment. Once ingested one or two cercaria — call them the pilot and co-pilot — make their way from the ant's stomach to its brain. Once there, they burrow into the ant's brain and take control. At this point, the ant enters into what can only be described as a zombie-like …
Why animals became carnivores: Vampire finches
In my earlier post, I wrote on Dr. Joel Berger's study that showed a prey's natural fear of predators is not instinctive but rather a learned behaviour. If there are no carnivores around, the animals had little fear of predators compared to those existing in areas with many natural enemies. The prophet Isaiah spoke of a day when the lion would lie with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6-9). The lamb would have no fear of the lion because it eats vegetation. Since Isaiah saw this as part of the new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65: 17, 25), many have concluded that at creation, animals were not created as carnivores. It was also a learned behaviour. So what happened to change the natural order of life as God intended it? The Apostle Paul explains it this way: "For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope
That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
For we know that …
Apologetics / Bible / Creation / Main / z35
Study reveals the nature of animals as God created them
A report released by Dr. Joel Berger of the Wildlife Conversation Society says the fear of predators is not a natural instinct in animals. It is a learned behavior. This revelation is a bit of a shock for many evolutionists who believe the fear of predators is a naturally evolving instinct that enabled species to survive. Berger came to this conclusion after studying the relationship between prey and predator in 19 ecosystems in Russia, Greenland, Canada and the US. He focused specifically on elk, moose, bison and caribou and their natural predators wolves, tigers and bears. He compared systems where predators existed with those where they didn't. He noticed that prey-animals only feared predators, if they regularly encountered them. Once the predators were removed, prey animals lost a fear of their natural enemies. In his study, Berger played sound recordings of predators around test animals that had no predators in their area and compared their reactions to similar species that regularly encountered predators in their surroundings. Berger said "elk in the mountains of Siberia — who …
Apologetics / Bible / Creation / Main / News / News / Studies / z42
World-renown physicist Michio Kaku acknowledges the existence of God
Atheists enjoy mocking Christians accusing them of having a fairy-tale belief in Creation – that somehow there is a God who created heaven and earth. So what happens when a renown scientist, with a Doctorate in Physics, says he believes that there is an intelligent being who created the universe? Not only that, he came to this conclusion after his study of science. Meet world-renown American physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, 69. Born to Japanese parents, for 25 years he has held the Henry Semat Chair and professor of theoretical physics at City College of New York. His journey started as a student at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California. Kaku showed up at his school's National Science Fair with a particle accelerator, an atom smasher, that he made in his parent's garage. Though most were astounded by what he had created, Kaku looked upon it as a bit of a failure, as he had hoped to create a "a beam of gamma rays powerful enough to create antimatter." But despite his invention's shortcomings, Physicist …
Apologetics / Creation / Main / News / z26
Gene study: Life just got way more complicated
One of the massive problems facing evolutionists is how did non organic material suddenly come to life — living, growing, moving, breathing, consuming and most importantly reproducing. There is no explainable way it could happen and according to an article entitled "Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome" published in Science Magazine, the issue is much worse than previously thought. Over two decades, a group that would involve 20 scientists took one of the simplest bacteria, M. mycoides, and began to strip away unnecessary genes to discover what was the least number needed for it to continue to exist. Unnecessary does not mean these genes are unuseful. If I was to strip my car down to the very basics needed to function, there are probably dozens of things I could remove that are not necessary, but nevertheless beneficial, such as the rear view mirror and front window. With 900 genes, M. mycoides is one of the simpler forms of bacteria. In comparison, the E. coli bacterium has over 4,000 genes. They had sorted out what they …
Does science make a case for God?
On Christmas day in 2014, an article appeared in the Wallstreet Journal (WSJ) entitled "Science increasingly makes the case for God." Written by Christian apologist and author Eric Metaxas, the article caused a firestorm on the internet. It received an incredible 550,000 Facebook shares. This along with nearly 9,500 comments made it one of WSJ's most read articles in its prestigious history. In the article, Metaxas starts off writing how science has been desperately looking for life on other planets. He cited an article written in 1966 by Time Magazine entitled "Is God dead?". In it, astronomer Carl Sagan suggested in the vastness of the universe there were a septillion number of planets (1 plus 24 zeros) capable of life. Sagan believed all that was needed was a decent sun with a planet the right distance away and presto life will spontaneously appear. A number of government and private organizations popped up to track down these aliens. They organized into a group called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. But Metaxas points out it has been …
Tests confirm it's dinosaur blood!
After running tests, scientists from North Carolina State University (NCSU) have confirmed that non-fossilized organic material found in a dinosaur bone thought to be nearly 80 million years old are in fact blood vessels from that dinosaur and not another form of contaminate. The discovery of the soft material was made by a researcher from the University of Texas studying the demineralized bone of a 30-foot Hydrosaur found in Montana. Using high-resolution mass spectroscopy, the researcher noticed the soft tissue. Initially, it was believed the bone was contaminated in the lab. The university announced its findings in a news release and as well an article published in the November 23 edition of Journal of Proteome Research. This finding has caused serious problems for evolutionists because it is evidence these bones are not millions of years old as previously thought. How could there still be soft tissue in bones thought to be nearly a hundred million years old? Despite reports of organic material being found in fossilized bones around the world (here and here), many evolutionists …
Where did all the water come from?
For years, scientists have struggled to explain waters existence on earth. Their best theory is that it was alien — that comets laden with ice hit the earth filling our oceans. However, there is a new theory gaining ground that confirms the Biblical account. Geologists last year found a diamond that suggested deep beneath the earth's surface there are massive oceans of water. This is exactly what the Bible says. We are told in Genesis 1, that when God formed the earth he created waters above and below (Genesis 1:7). In fact, the water below was a major source of the water used to fill the earth during Noah's flood when the fountains of the deep exploded gushing water to the earth's surface. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. (Genesis 7:11 NASV) In 2014, scientists from the University of Alberta were …
Apologetics / Bible / Creation / Main / News
New species of dinosaur discovered — Barbersaurus
We often hear news of paleontologists discovering the fossilized remains of a new, yet unheard of, dinosaur. According to their reports, it will typically be tens of millions of years old. Unfortunately, it has been ingrained into our minds that if it's a fossil it must be millions of years old. That's because most people don't realize fossilization can take place in just a few years. We know this because of the discovery of a new dinosaur species — Barbersaurus. Discovered in Australia, it is a bit odd-looking — actually it looks like a heavy hula hoop. It was smaller than your typical dinosaur, weighing only 165 pounds or 75 kg. It is difficult to nail down its age, but a best guess is somewhere between 45 and 95 years old. It was discovered by a young Australian girl, 11-year-old Amy Lewis. Her parents, Col and Jo Lewis, owned a trailer park near Australia's Eighty Mile Beach located on the Northwest coast of Australia. This fossilized object was none other than a roll of barbwire …
Did Sherlock Holmes see a dinosaur?
Well maybe it wasn't exactly Sherlock who saw the dinosaur, but his creator — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — said he did. According to his autobiography, in 1909 Doyle and his wife were on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean when they spotted a creature swimming in the sea. Doyle said it was "about four feet long, with a thin neck and tail and four-marked side slippers." Doyle was convinced he and his wife had spotted an Ichthyosaurus. Of course, Doyle penned several books, but one has intrigued children for years — The Lost World. In it, Doyle writes about a group of explorers who came across a secluded South American plateau (called a Tepuy) where dinosaurs and humans co-existed. He wrote this book in 1911, two years after the sighting. It seems likely that the spotting of a living dinosaur sparked Doyle's imagination. If there was one, there could be others. One fear that grips evolutionists is the discovery of a modern-day dinosaur. They have repeatedly stated that dinosaurs, who supposedly died off about …
Apologetics / Creation / Main
Blood found inside a T-Rex bone from Alberta, Canada
[by Dean Smith] An article in an English newspaper, The Guardian, is reporting scientists have found blood inside a T-Rex bone fragment. What is particularly interesting is that these tiny scraps of bone from the Dinosaur Park formation in Alberta, Canada were in poor condition. They had been kicking around for about 100 years, and few months ago the fossils were sent to the Museum of Natural History in London, England. (Photo: Zetgem/Foter/CC BY-NC) A scientist decided to take a closer look at these fossil fragments from different dinosaurs using a high-powered electron microscope. He had actually been studying human cells and decided to take a look at the dinosaur bones as well.
Apologetics / Creation


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Future brightens for Boulder County's defunct ClimateSmart Loan Program
Hope of reviving Boulder County's residential ClimateSmart Loan Program -- which has been defunct for more than a year -- has been recently renewed thanks to a ruling by a federal judge in California and the introduction of U.S. legislation that's supported by both parties.
Boulder County is also nearing completion of a replacement loan program that could move forward regardless of the outcome at the federal level.
Voters approved the ClimateSmart Loan Program in 2008, allowing homeowners to borrow money from the county to pay for a wide range of energy-efficient upgrades and renewable energy systems. Borrowers were able to pay back the loans through a 15-year assessment on their properties.
During the first two rounds of residential loans, the county issued about $13 million in loans to homeowners, which provided a boon to the local economy, according to green building contractors. But just as the county was preparing to close a third round of loans last year, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- quasi-federal agencies that buy secondary mortgages -- announced that they would no longer buy mortgages with attached Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, loans, such as ClimateSmart.
The ruling was confusing to governments across the country that had set up PACE loans because other federal agencies, especially the U.S. Department of Energy, had encouraged the creation of such programs. Last summer, the state of California, Sonoma and Placer counties, the city of Palm Desert and the Sierra Club joined together to sue the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Late last month, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the FHFA should have solicited public comment before deciding that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not buy mortgages with clean energy assessments on the secondary market. And though Wilken did not suspend the FHFA's rule, she did order the agency to open up the rule for public comment now in accordance with the federal Administrative Procedures Act.
This is good news for PACE programs, according to Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor, because the programs have typically enjoyed tremendous support and provided economic benefits in the communities where they've been set up.
"I think it's going to be very hard for the FHFA to come to a similar conclusion if they have to follow an open, public process that includes the ability to present an actual analysis," he said.
At the same time, a bill known as the PACE Assessment Protection Act of 2011 -- which would require the FHFA to accept mortgages with PACE assessments -- has been introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by two Republicans and a Democrat. Co-sponsorship of the bill has grown to more than 20 representatives from both sides of the aisle, including Jared Polis, D-Boulder.
"Our bill facilitates participation by homeowners in states with PACE programs, which will promote conservation, energy savings and job creation," said Rep. Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., one of the bill's primary sponsors.
But Boulder County is not waiting for resolution of either of the processes unfolding at the federal level. Since the county had to suspend its ClimateSmart program last summer, staffers have been working to create an alternative loan program that could meet the same goals.
"It's been quite complicated to come up with an alternative program, but we are still moving forward on that and we believe that we have come up with a model that will work," Toor said.
Essentially, the county would like to use some of the money it has been awarded by the Department of Energy for energy-efficiency programs to finance the loans, though the DOE has not yet given final approval.
"We need to gather some additional information before we're able to move forward, but we're hopeful that in a few months we'll be able to launch a new financing program," Toor said.
But even if the program materializes, it's only a temporary fix, since the money for the loans would come form a fixed pool. By comparison, a PACE program allows a county to sell more bonds to finance the program as demand grows.
"The beauty of PACE financing -- because you have the ability to go out on the bond market to get the financing -- is it's limited only by the demand," he said.
Tags: clean energy, ClimateSmart, colorado, FHFA, loan, PACE


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SICREMI
About SICREMI
Over-qualification of tertiary-educated migrants from the Americas
Although emigration of migrants from the Americas is commonly associated in the public mind with lesser-skilled migration, a not inconsiderable number of tertiary educated migrants have also migrated to OECD countries. Generally such migrants are more likely to use formal channels of migration and are also in a better position to finance their move to another country. However, recent evidence suggests that many highly educated labor migrants, at least in European countries, were recruited from within the country of destination (OECD 2014), which contradicts the standard recruitment-from-abroad model underlying much immigration regulation. Some of these may be irregular migrants, but some may have arrived as tourists or on visits to family and friends and been exposed to or sought interesting job opportunities after entry. Likewise, many highly educated migrants arrive as family or humanitarian migrants or as international students and eventually make their way into high-skilled jobs. Indeed, evidence from the same OECD study suggests that more high-skilled jobs are filled by family and humanitarian migrants and international students than by labor migrants.
Still, not all tertiary-educated[1] migrants are hired into high-skilled jobs. Some may take on employment which is normally carried out by persons of a lower educational level or for which the formal educational entry requirements are lower than their own level of education (see Box 3). Such persons are said to be "overqualified" for the jobs for which they have been hired, although in practice there may be legitimate reasons for this. The proverbial example is that of a migrant with a PhD who works as a taxi driver. Such situations may occur if the migrant has only an elementary knowledge of the host-country language, enough to get by in an occupation requiring limited language proficiency, but not enough to be able to work at his/her level of education, to draft documents, do talks or presentations, negotiate with clients, etc.
However, language proficiency is not the only issue underlying over-qualification. Some workers with high credentials may prefer working in jobs which are less taxing; others may lower their expectations in the face of a difficult labor market or of financial need. It is important to note that over-qualification is also not restricted to immigrants. A significant proportion of even native-born tertiary-educated workers in all countries are overqualified for the jobs which they are doing (OECD 2014). In addition, the over-qualifications rates of immigrants, although always higher for immigrants, are highly correlated across occupations to those of non-immigrants. Indeed the differences in over-qualification rates across occupations are larger than those between immigrants and non-immigrants within occupations.[2]
Under-qualification also exists, that is, persons holding jobs for which they do not appear to have the normal required qualifications. This can occur, for example, if a person entered an occupation at a time when the entry-level qualifications were lower and acquired the skills required today through learning on the job or through experience. However, we will not be addressing under-qualification in this section, which will be focusing strictly on overqualified tertiary-educated immigrants. In addition, the emphasis will be on those employed. Although unemployment among tertiary-educated persons could be said to be the ultimate in over-qualification, our interest here is more on the situation of job-holders than on persons unemployed, a group which includes the lesser educated, who would then also be deemed overqualified if our definition were based on this status as well.
Box 3. Classifying the skill level of jobs
In order to be able to determine if a person is overqualified for a particular job, the skill level of the job must be known. How is this determined?
The statistics presented in this section are based on labor force surveys and the classification of occupations in such surveys is generally derived from a description of the occupation provided by the survey respondent and its subsequent categorization into a formal occupational classification system.
As it happens, the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) includes a skill dimension, related to the entry-level educational level required for a job (ILO 2012). Now this may vary by country to a certain unknown extent; it is assumed here that the extent of this variation is small and that the statistics are reasonably comparable across countries.
The European Union Labor Force Survey on which the statistics for European countries are based collects occupational data using the ISCO classification, so that the job skill level for statistics from the European Union come directly from the skill level defined in ISCO. The high-skill level corresponds to jobs whose normal entry-level qualification is a tertiary degree (groups 1, 2 and 3 in the 1-digit ISCO classification).
The United States American Community Survey, however, applies a national classification system (the SOC, Standard Occupational Classification), which does not include a skill dimension per se. However, it does include a number of groups, whose occupations are held largely by persons with tertiary degrees. These are management, business and financial occupations (66% with tertiary), on the one hand, and professional and related occupations (79% with tertiary), on the other. Two other occupations groups have significant numbers of tertiary-educated jobholders, namely, sales and related occupations (35% with tertiary), and office and administrative support occupations (31% with tertiary), but without further information, it is difficult to know whether certain occupations in these large groups may or may not be high-skilled occupations.
Because of the differences in the occupational classifications in the data sources used for European Union and United States statistics, the indicators shown in Table 12 cannot be considered fully comparable. Readers are cautioned against drawing conclusions comparing directly outcomes in European countries and in the United States. Comparing results relative to the native-born in each region is more appropriate.
Even in this case, however, statistics for the native-born in European countries may be somewhat misleading. The reason is that they cover the native-born in all European countries, whereas over 40% of employed tertiary-educated immigrants live in Spain (Table 12). This is almost 4 times Spain's share of the employed tertiary-educated native-born. In other words, the labor market to which many tertiary-educated immigrants from the Americas are exposed is more similar to that of Spain than to that of Europe as a whole, where the over-qualification rates of tertiary-educated graduates tend to be much lower.
Table 12. Tertiary-educated employed persons from the Americas and over-qualification rates in Spain and other European OECD countries, 2011-2013
Tertiary-educated employed Overqualification rate
Destination country/region Native-born Immigrants from the Americas Native-born Immigrants from the Americas
Percent of total in country/region Percent of employed tertiary
Spain 11.06107573844 40.499666614252 33.299857788325 53.306275627349
Other European OECD countries 88.93892426156 59.500333385748 18.092393195602 24.336888343753
All countries 100 100 19.774502372099 36.069393613801
In 2011-2013 there were close to 870 thousand tertiary-educated persons from the Americas employed in European OECD countries (Table 13), but close to three times this number in the United States (2 633 000). Mexico represented almost a quarter of the latter and Canada about an eighth. There were more tertiary-educated employed in the European Union than in the United States only among immigrants from the Southern Cone (52%). In all other regions and indeed most countries, the tertiary-educated employed in the United States are much more numerous.
Table 13. Over-qualification among employed tertiary-educated immigrants from the Americas in the European Union and the United States, 2011-2013
Origin country Number of employed tertiary-educated immigrants (average 2011-2013) Employed tertiary-educated immigrants as a percentage of all employed immigrants (average 2011-2013) Change in number of employed tertiary educated immigrants from 2007-2009 to 2011-2013 Overqualification rate of employed tertiary-educated immigrants (2011-2013)
In European Union In United States In European Union In United States In European Union In United States In European Union In United States
Canada 66200 303500 59 63 28 2 16 23
United States 167500 na 74 na 31 na 14 na
Canada and the United States 233700 303500 69 na 30 na 15 na
Antigua and Barbuda nr 5500 nr 38 nr nr nr nr
Bahamas nr 9200 nr 46 nr 5 nr nr
Barbados nr 12800 nr 39 nr 2 nr 39
Cuba 34200 190300 48 34 8 2 49 48
Dominica nr 6700 nr 35 nr 3 nr nr
Dominican Republic 9700 128500 13 24 -21 23 60 59
Grenada nr 7600 nr 37 nr 12 nr nr
Guyana nr 55400 nr 35 nr 4 nr 39
Haiti nr 101400 nr 29 nr 4 nr 48
Jamaica 23200 161700 35 37 40 12 20 38
Saint Kitts and Nevis nr nr nr nr nr nr nr nr
Saint Lucia nr nr nr nr nr nr nr nr
Saint Vincent and Grenadines nr nr nr nr nr nr nr nr
Trinidad and Tobago nr 57800 nr 40 nr 15 nr 39
Suriname 26700 na 26 na 13 na 20 na
Caribbean 118700 747100 30 32 14 9 33 46
Belize nr 10700 nr 39 nr 8 nr nr
Costa Rica nr 18000 nr 35 nr 11 nr 43
El Salvador nr 86700 nr 10 nr 5 nr 62
Guatemala nr 60600 nr 10 nr 12 nr 61
Honduras nr 40300 nr 12 nr 4 nr 64
Mexico 28500 639100 76 9 11 9 27 55
Nicaragua nr 45100 nr 28 nr 4 nr 53
Panama nr 37600 nr 45 nr 5 nr 42
Central America 47200 938000 43 10 10 9 36 55
Bolivia 31100 22000 20 41 28 10 79 50
Colombia 73600 181200 27 42 22 19 46 46
Ecuador 36100 67200 10 24 -35 9 79 53
Peru 57900 109100 26 39 27 8 58 54
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) 65000 77900 52 61 63 20 32 40
Andean Region 263700 457400 23 39 17 14 54 48
Argentina 88700 50400 43 47 -9 1 33 29
Brazil 68000 97500 28 42 33 11 36 41
Chile 28100 27400 33 48 -13 8 43 36
Paraguay 9300 nr 18 nr 44 nr 88 nr
Uruguay 12000 7600 25 24 -22 -7 61 nr
Southern Cone 206100 186900 32 43 1 7 40 37
All above countries 869400 2632900 33 19 15 9 36 46
Excluding Canada and the United States 635700 2329400 28 18 10 10 44 49
Other foreign-born 5692700 6695400 34 58 31 11 33 32
Native-born 57083600 49551400 32 42 11 6 20 35
Native-born in Spain 6314100 na 42.262847834247 na 1.7497459437141 na 33.299857788325 na
Overall the tertiary-educated employed from the Americas represented 33% of all employed immigrants from the Americas in European countries and 19% in the United States. However, this reflects largely the overwhelming predominance of lesser-educated immigrants from Mexico as well as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in the United States. In most other countries, the proportion of the tertiary-educated employed among the employed is higher in the United States. This is observed despite the fact that permanent labor migration, which tends to be highly skilled in the United States, constitutes only about 7% (14% if one includes family members) of all permanent migration in that country, where the international migration regime tends to be more family-oriented, compared to European countries. However, much migration from the Americas to Europe has gone to southern European countries, which have had few of the restrictions on lesser-skilled labor migration found among their northern neighbors.
Despite the more rapid recovery of the United States, it is in the European Union that the increase in tertiary-educated employed has been the largest over the 2011-2013 period compared to 2001-2009 (15% vs. 9%). However, this larger increase is entirely due to a 30% rise in employed tertiary-educated immigrants from Canada and the United States in European Union countries. If one excludes these two countries from consideration, the increases are similar in both regions (about 10%).
By contrast the increase in the tertiary-educated employed from the rest of the world in the European Union from 2007-2009 to 2011-2013 is, at 31%, almost three times that from Latin America and the Caribbean. Expatriation among the tertiary-educated from the Americas has no doubt suffered from the greater importance of Southern Europe among destination countries and the continuing weakness of labor markets in these countries. In the United States the number of highly educated migrants from the Americas has progressed more strongly than the number from the rest of the world (9% vs. 6%).
Over-qualification rates among tertiary-educated immigrants from the Americas in 2011-2013 averaged 36% in European Union countries and 46% in the United States, compared to 20% and 35%, respectively, among employed native-born tertiary-educated persons in these regions. This would suggest larger relative over-qualification in European countries than in the United States. One might expect to observe this in weaker labor markets where tertiary-educated persons may lower their expectations if they are unable to find jobs commensurate with their qualifications and accept, if only for a while, jobs which are lower paid and require lower skill levels than they possess.
In addition, many highly-educated labor migrants to Europe arrived without prior jobs and empirical results have shown that immigrants hired under these conditions do tend to have higher over-qualification rates than persons hired from abroad, who may well condition their departure on finding a job that corresponds to their educational level (OECD 2014). Immigrants who are on site and have already defrayed the costs of migrating from their countries of origin may not always be able to afford the luxury of waiting until they can find a job that matches their skill endowments.
If one removes immigrants from Canada and the United States from the calculation of over-qualification rates, the difference in rates for immigrants from the Americas compared to the native-born becomes even larger than that mentioned above. The over-qualification rates recorded then, for immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, are 44% for the European Union and 49% for the United States. If one now adjusts the over-qualification rate of the native-born in the European Union to take into account the fact that a high proportion of immigrants from the Americas are working in Spain, then the native-born over-qualification rate rises to about 24%, which is still significantly lower than that of immigrants from the Americas.
In short, over-qualification rates of immigrants from countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are some 15 to 20 points higher than for native-born persons. Language proficiency is not necessarily at issue here, because the over-qualification rate in Spain is even higher at 53% than for the European Union as a whole (36%). Why might this be this so?
Migration to Southern Europe over the past decade has in general been biased towards lesser-skilled jobs. One reason for this has to do with the strong progression of educational attainment in these countries. Indeed the difference between the educational attainment of the retiring labor force cohorts and the newly entering ones in southern Europe have been exceedingly large (OECD 2014), indeed the highest by far among EU countries. On the other hand, the skill level of jobs in the economy has not progressed as strongly as the educational attainment of the youth population in these countries.
One consequence has been high levels of over-qualification among young native-born workers, on the one hand, and, on the other, a strong demand for workers to take on the lesser skilled jobs which many of the less numerous and highly educated native-born youth have been less willing to accept. Workers from Latin America were quick to take advantage of the opportunities which developed, undoubtedly with the expectation that their labor market situation would improve over time. However, the implosion of the Spanish economy in 2008 in the wake of the bubble in the construction sector and the subsequent budget crisis have mortgaged the possibility of rapid progress for the tertiary-educated. Nowhere is this more evident than in the high unemployment rates in general and the high over-qualification rates among the tertiary-educated. As we have seen, some are now returning but many have settled for good. Only a vastly improved labor market will be able to improve their prospects. Although the signs of this are present, they are still relatively tentative, so that a significant improvement in the short-term seems unlikely.
[1] The term « tertiary » here refers not only to university education, but also to high-level technical or professional education, which can be of lesser duration than a university degree, but is considered to be university-level education.
[2] Unpublished results.
Competitiveness, Innovation and Technology
Trade and Economic Development
Corporate Social Responsability (CSR)
© Copyright 2014 OAS


Markets likely to open slightly higher. Support for Nifty is at 11640 and resistance at 11720. Bank Nifty has support at 29880 and resistance at 30200.
Hi Ajit, for now its a hold. dont add more of it yet. is facing strong resistance at 29-30 levels.
Hi Irshu, can test 311.
Hello CB, I'm holding tcs 2100 CE, shall I continue to hold till expiry or exit?
Hello CB, Request to put your views on GDL.
Hi Arnav, yes, its a hold. does look strong.
Hi Cb.. Please suggest target for Alankit. After a long time it moves little bit. Bought it at 33. Should I exit cost to cost or can hold for some profit.
Hi sonu, yes, its a hold. can test 38-39 in coming days.
Good afternoon CB sir, should I enter GDL @ 145 levels today?
Strides shasun still looking strong ?
So any chance to go 1-2% tomorrow?
Hi Prathmesh, yes, can add few here.


In an ideal world, the team should have a 5 year track record or, as a minimum, 3 years: for example in fast developing markets or high-demand strategies (eg. Emerging Markets, Multi-Asset Absolute Return, or Small Cap, a three year performance record may suffice.
In addition to Total Returns, the team ideally needs to demonstrate a higher Active Share Count, combined with strong risk-adjusted returns and low volatility over the period.Godliman uses a variety of data sources to identify top decile and top quartile strategies.
Once a high performing strategy has been identified, the Investment Process will dictate whether there is a distinct 'lift-out' team behind the strategy. In many firms, the investment process has been 'industrialised' in the sense that each specific function of the investment process has been segmented into narrow silos of deep expertise. Overall fund performance in these firms is the result of many contributing areas of the investment platform typically including: alpha generation, beta replication, risk management, implementation, dealing and product management.
Within the Institutional market there are a small number of teams that operate as distinct, coherent units, even within Institutional managers. In the Retail market, it remains common to find teams managed relatively autonomously within a 'multi-boutique' structure. The key criterion with regard to Investment Process is that the team should be able to replicate the process, in its entirety, within the new company.
Godliman maintains an ongoing qualitative research effort to assess the drivers of Investment Process and Performance within high performing teams.
A Team Lift-out can be defined as when two or more people move from one company to another at the same time. The key factor to determine how large the team move should be is determined by the specific investment process: it is critical to ensure that all the key investment professionals responsible for the generation of investment performance move as a coherent unit.
Godliman engages with every team member participating in a Lift-out to ensure that all team members feel equally motivated and incentivised to move.
The likelihood of relationships and assets following is often contingent on the fund structures for the underlying assets under management; the number of clients; and the distribution channels (i.e. Institutional, Retail or Wholesale) through which the assets were raised. Asset portability is always an unknown.
Godliman works closely with Teams to help them realistically to assess the portability of their assets. Godliman has invested considerable resources in identifying top performing teams, and maintains an ongoing dialogue with them, allowing us to engage with top talent proactively and systematically.
If you would like to discuss your team requirements, please contact Rupert Reed or Stuart Chilvers for more information.


These look really wild and awesome on my alien sims! Love the bright colors that are included as options, as I have never been very happy with the blushes that Maxis gave us for aliens. This option is a lot more fun. Thank you!


text:
FairWay to provide a workplace conflict management service
Nationwide conflict management and dispute resolution specialist, FairWay Resolution Limited has announced that it has launched a workplace conflict management service.
In 2014 FairWay released the findings of research into the extent of conflict in New Zealand workplaces that found within a 12 month period almost one quarter (24%) of employees had experienced at least one disagreement or argument at work that distracted or prevented them from doing their job.
The results suggest that loss of productivity due to workplace conflict is significant – particularly given that a third of those disagreements lasted for longer than one month.
Chief Executive, Greg Pollock says the research underlines the need to recognise that workplace conflict exists and that if not managed effectively it can substantially erode productivity - whether through increased absenteeism, staff turnover, failure to meet targets, lost business efficiency or damaged business relationships.
"FairWay's new service will focus on four key areas: workplace investigations, conflict coaching, training and dispute resolution".
Pollock says FairWay's uniqueness in this market comes from our know-how in delivering client-focused, professional, consistent conflict management and dispute resolution services – on a significant scale.
"FairWay is excited to be providing this service that will help businesses learn from, prevent, manage and resolve conflict."
FairWay is a professional services company that specialises in conflict management helping prevent conflict, through to resolving conflict using alternative dispute resolution techniques. FairWay currently handles around 12,000 disputes per year, which are spread across work for Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Telecommunications Dispute Resolution scheme (TDR), the Financial Dispute Resolution Scheme (FDRS) and Family Dispute Resolution (FDR).
For further comment:
Bill Boyd, Senior Communications Adviser
Download the press release.


text:
NASCAR Cup Series Comes to Wisconsin
Road America gets date in revamped 2021 NASCAR schedule, it marks the first event in stock car racing's top series to be held in Wisconsin in the modern era.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Circuit of the Americas will also host road course events, in all six such races will be held, up from two races traditionally held as recently as the late 2010s. The spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be NASCAR's first dirt track race since 1970.
Nashville Superspeedway has also been added to the schedule, with Darlington and Atlanta awarded second dates. Kentucky Speedway (opened in 2000) and Chicagoland Speedway (opened 2001) are both off the 2021 schedule, the first venues dropped since 1995.
NASCAR 2021 schedule release


text:
Q: JavaFX: Returns NullPointerException when opening a new pane I'm working on a project that will have a stage with two screens. One for a cart and the other for a checkout. The idea is that a single stage will hold a pane to load the FXML files for each screen of these screens. The stage itself opens fine but the issue comes from trying to open ether of the individual panes. I'm building the code on the singleton approach since only one of these stages should be open at any given time.
Below is the code for the OrderStageController
package Controllers;

import javafx.fxml.FXML;
import javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.layout.Pane;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import java.io.IOException;

public class OrderStageController {
    static OrderStageController instance = null;
    public Stage cartStage=new Stage();
    Parent root;
    @FXML Pane paneOrder;

    public static OrderStageController getInstance(){ return instance; }

    public void initialize() throws IOException {
        instance=this;
        openCartPane();
    }

    public void openCartStage() throws Exception{
        root= FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("/FXML_Files/OrderStage.fxml"));
        Scene scene=new Scene(root,655,555);
        scene.getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("/FXML_Files/test.css").toExternalForm());
        scene.getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("/FXML_Files/login.css").toExternalForm());
        cartStage.setTitle("Placeholder");
        cartStage.setScene(scene);
        cartStage.show();
    }

    public void openCartPane() throws IOException {
        Pane paneCart=FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("/FXML_Files/MyCartScreen.fxml"));
        paneOrder.getChildren().clear();
        paneOrder.getChildren().add(paneCart);
    }

    public void openCheckoutPane() throws IOException {
        Pane paneCheckout=FXMLLoader.load(getClass().getResource("/FXML_Files/CheckoutScreen.FXML"));
        paneOrder.getChildren().clear();
        paneOrder.getChildren().add(paneCheckout);
    }
}

This is a currently empty controller for the CartController. I haven't added anything yet since I can't even get it to open. I'm including it just in case there's something wrong with it.
package Controllers;

public class MyCartController {
    // Classes
    OrderStageController orderStageController=OrderStageController.getInstance();
}

The FXML files are fine. Everything is where it's supposed to be and they run fine on their own.
The issue arises when I attempt to open the stage and the initializer method tries to run the "openCartPane" method. I receive a NullPointerException stating that the orderPane is a null value.
The stack trace a I get is this
Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1787)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$ControllerMethodEventHandler.handle(FXMLLoader.java:1670)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:86)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:234)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:49)
    at javafx.base/javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.graphics/javafx.scene.Node.fireEvent(Node.java:8885)
    at javafx.controls/javafx.scene.control.Button.fire(Button.java:203)
    at javafx.controls/com.sun.javafx.scene.control.behavior.ButtonBehavior.mouseReleased(ButtonBehavior.java:206)
    at javafx.controls/com.sun.javafx.scene.control.inputmap.InputMap.handle(InputMap.java:274)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler$NormalEventHandlerRecord.handleBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:247)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventHandler.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventHandler.java:80)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:234)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventHandlerManager.dispatchBubblingEvent(EventHandlerManager.java:191)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.CompositeEventDispatcher.dispatchBubblingEvent(CompositeEventDispatcher.java:59)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:58)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.BasicEventDispatcher.dispatchEvent(BasicEventDispatcher.java:56)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventDispatchChainImpl.dispatchEvent(EventDispatchChainImpl.java:114)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEventImpl(EventUtil.java:74)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.event.EventUtil.fireEvent(EventUtil.java:54)
    at javafx.base/javafx.event.Event.fireEvent(Event.java:198)
    at javafx.graphics/javafx.scene.Scene$MouseHandler.process(Scene.java:3890)
    at javafx.graphics/javafx.scene.Scene.processMouseEvent(Scene.java:1885)
    at javafx.graphics/javafx.scene.Scene$ScenePeerListener.mouseEvent(Scene.java:2618)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:409)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler$MouseEventNotification.run(GlassViewEventHandler.java:299)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.java:391)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.lambda$handleMouseEvent$2(GlassViewEventHandler.java:447)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumToolkit.runWithoutRenderLock(QuantumToolkit.java:412)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.GlassViewEventHandler.handleMouseEvent(GlassViewEventHandler.java:446)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.glass.ui.View.handleMouseEvent(View.java:556)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.glass.ui.View.notifyMouse(View.java:942)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication._runLoop(Native Method)
    at javafx.graphics/com.sun.glass.ui.win.WinApplication.lambda$runLoop$3(WinApplication.java:174)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832)
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
    at com.sun.javafx.reflect.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:76)
    at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor2.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.reflect.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:273)
    at javafx.fxml/com.sun.javafx.fxml.MethodHelper.invoke(MethodHelper.java:83)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader$MethodHandler.invoke(FXMLLoader.java:1784)
    ... 46 more
Caused by: javafx.fxml.LoadException:
/C:/Users/Joshua/JAVA/Fall20_FoodOrdering/out/production/SeniorProject/FXML_Files/OrderStage.fxml

    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.constructLoadException(FXMLLoader.java:2625)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:2595)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:2466)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3237)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3194)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3163)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3136)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:3113)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.load(FXMLLoader.java:3106)
    at Controllers.OrderStageController.openCartStage(OrderStageController.java:25)
    at Controllers.MainStageController.openCartPane(MainStageController.java:46)
    ... 57 more
Caused by: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
    at com.sun.javafx.reflect.Trampoline.invoke(MethodUtil.java:76)
    at jdk.internal.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor2.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
    at javafx.base/com.sun.javafx.reflect.MethodUtil.invoke(MethodUtil.java:273)
    at javafx.fxml/com.sun.javafx.fxml.MethodHelper.invoke(MethodHelper.java:83)
    at javafx.fxml/javafx.fxml.FXMLLoader.loadImpl(FXMLLoader.java:2591)
    ... 66 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
    at Controllers.OrderStageController.openCartPane(OrderStageController.java:36)
    at Controllers.OrderStageController.initialize(OrderStageController.java:21)
    ... 77 more

The error seems to be specifically happening because of the line paneOrder.getChildren().clear(); in the openCartPane() method. I've been running tests on it for a while now and I can't find the cause on my own.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
ADDITON
I've done some more digging in the debugger and found these variable values at the moment of the crash.

They haven't shed much light on the issue for me but maybe it'll be helpful to someone.

A: Thanks to the help of @Lyes. The issue turned out to be a renamed variable in the controller's FXML file. Git and my obliviousness were the culprits.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
In Massachusetts, When Judge Misses Diagnosis, Worker's Claim Must Be Reconsidered
An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who hears and decides a claim for workers' compensation benefits must consider a detailed technical record before rendering a decision. Sometimes a crucial piece of information is overlooked or ignored in the course of the judge's decision-making process. When this happens, and the claim for benefits is denied, the claimant's attorney brings the omission to the court's attention through the review process.
In a case decided on appeal in May 2014, the Reviewing Board found that the ALJ's findings omitted a significant diagnosis made by an examining physician. The omission was significant enough that the Reviewing Board at Board Nos. 019900-92 and 064092-92 sent the case back to the ALJ for a new hearing and decision.
At the time of the two injuries for which the employee first submitted a claim, in 1992, he was working as a Cable and Conduit Installer. He slipped and fell while working inside a manhole, injuring his left leg, hip, and low back. Following that injury, he was out of work for approximately six weeks and was paid workers' compensation benefits.
The employee then returned to limited duty for two weeks and then full duty. A short time later, he felt a twinge in his back and stabbing pain between his shoulder blades and neck when he was pulling a wet plank from a manhole. He was off for a few days on full benefits and then returned to work.
He was promoted several years later to Construction Inspector and worked as an Inspector up until filing the current claim in 2010. His claim was denied at conference. He appealed and a hearing was held.
The ALJ observed that the 20 years of evidence was extensive, varied, sometimes vague, and sometimes contradictory.
The ALJ denied the employee's claim, finding no dispositive medical evidence that the employee's chronic pain and degenerative disc disease were causally related to the injuries in 1992, which the judge described as "thigh and back contusions, hamstring pull, and lumbar strain."
On appeal to the Reviewing Board, the employee claimed that the ALJ made five erroneous findings. The Reviewing Board disagreed about all but the fifth.
The employee's fifth claim of erroneous findings concerned the records of Dr. William Shea. The ALJ had found in his decision that there was no record or report from Dr. Shea indicating the employee was suffering from left hip sciatica after the first 1992 injury.
The employee, via his attorney, brought to the Reviewing Board's attention a billing slip dated just after the first 1992 injury, signed by Dr. Shea, stating the date of the injury and that the employee's diagnosis was "sciatica L hip."
The ALJ had based his decision denying the employee's claim on a foundation that his work-related injury consisted of a "left thigh/back contusion and acute hamstring pull" and that the diagnosis of left sciatica was not associated with that injury.
Since this mistake was the basis for other findings and rulings regarding causation and disability, the Reviewing Board sent the matter back to the ALJ for further findings of fact and rulings of law.
The employee's claim was maintained and saved from peremptory denial, all because of a billing slip discovered and brought to the attention of the Reviewing Board.
For more information about the workers' compensation process, contact a Boston workers' compensation attorney from Pulgini & Norton to schedule a free consultation to find out more about what our lawyers can accomplish for you. Contact us with a brief description of your situation or reach us by phone at our Downtown Boston, Hyde Park, or Braintree, Massachusetts office locations.
Pain Management and Workers' Compensation, Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog, April 23, 2014
The Top Five Most Expensive Workers' Compensation Claims, Massachusetts Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog, March 26, 2014