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Dedicated to representing health professionals.
Ohio Office:
470 Olde Worthington Rd., Ste. 200
Home / Attorneys / Laura A. Perkovic
Laura is a former health care fraud prosecutor who has extensive experience in health care law, specifically fraud and abuse laws. She actively practices in Ohio and Colorado.
As a former Deputy Attorney General for Idaho's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Special Assistant United States Attorney, Laura has represented the government in both criminal health care fraud prosecutions as well as civil cases under the False Claims Act. She has trained extensively with the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units in criminal and civil health care fraud. She has given presentations to national audiences on topics such as the use of statistical sampling in health care fraud cases, and Anti-Kickback law violations.
In addition to an in-depth understanding of health care fraud, Laura has represented physicians in matters before state licensing boards, before the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Civil rights for HIPAA privacy rule violations, and matters involving physician service contracting.
Laura has a hands-on clinical operations experience. As general counsel and member of a medical service organization, Laura revised front-office and back-office operations and trained physicians and their staff on regulatory compliance. A large portion of this business involved transitioning physician practices from paper charts to could-based EHR and practice management systems and assisting clients in earning maximum EHR meaningful use incentive dollars from CMS. Earlier in her career, she managed an outpatient clinic, during which time she performed every role from patient registration and pre-authorization to medical assisting, to billing, to hiring and firing, to janitorial services. Laura understands the fast pace, stress, surprises, and complexities of clinical operations.
Laura grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. She attended the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Acting. She worked with the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, and taught theater classes in the Cleveland area. She attended the University of Toledo College of Law, where she competed on the Moot Court Trial Advocacy Team, and earned the honor of highest grade in Prosecutor Clinic and Trial Practice.
In her spare time, Laura drives her two teenage competitive ski racer children up and down treacherous mountain roads to practice and compete in USSA races throughout the Mountain West. She is also a ceramic artist, creating both practical potteries on the wheel and wildlife sculptures.
Company Quotes – "Laura A. Perkovic has been an amazing member of our team and she does a great job representing us in Columbus Ohio as a Health Care Fraud Defense, and Medicare Fraud Defense Attorney, as well as a Nursing and Doctors Medical Professional License Defense Attorney."
Admitted to Practice
Idaho, 2012
Ohio, 2000
Colorado, 2010
Montana, 2009 (inactive)
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, 2017
Federal District Court for the District of Idaho, 2012
Federal District Court for the District of Montana, 2009
Federal District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, 2003
University of Toledo College of Law, J.D., 2000
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, B.F.A., 1996
American Health Lawyers Association
Idaho Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Laura A. Perkovic. A Primer in Representing Medical Professionals in Criminal Cases. The Champion, November 2017.
Humphreys, et. al., Health Care Fraud Investigations and Prosecutions in Idaho, The Advocate, January, 2016, at p. 37.
Medicaid Fraud, Presenter, Idaho Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and Idaho Society of Certified Public Accountants 2016 Fraud Conference, November 8, 2016, Boise, ID.
Concepts in Prosecutorial Ethics, Presenter, Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) U.S.A./Mexico Alliance Partnership Interdisciplinary Exchange for Prosecutors, Investigators and Forensic Experts, April 25, 2016, Boise, ID.
A Prosecutor's Discovery Obligations under the Constitution, the Idaho Criminal Rules, and the Idaho Rules of Professional Conduct, Presenter, Idaho Attorney General Winter CLE, December 18, 2015, Boise, ID.
Dealing with Represented Parties in Criminal Investigations, Presenter, Idaho Attorney General Winter CLE, December 18, 2015, Boise, ID.
Statistical Sampling as a Measure of Damages in Health Care Fraud Prosecutions- a Case Study, Co-Presenter, National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units Annual Training, October 8, 2015, New Orleans, LA.
Medicare & Medicaid Health Care Fraud Investigations & Prosecutions: The Players and their Authorities, Presenter, Idaho Hospital Association 82nd Annual Convention, October 5, 2015, Sun Valley, ID
Idaho Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Health Care Prosecutions in Idaho, Presenter, Boise State University Department of Health Sciences, November 2014, Boise, ID.
Idaho Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and Health Care Prosecutions in Idaho, Presenter, Idaho State Bar Health Law Section, November, 2014, Boise, ID.
Defending Healthcare Fraud: The Criminal, Civil and Administrative Consequences of the Anti-Kickback Statute, Moderator, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers CLE, May 31, 2012, Washington D.C.
HIPAA Compliance Training- the Rules and Factual Scenarios, Presenter/Trainer, Frontier Health Information Technology, LLC, 2010-2012, Missoula, MT.
Stark Laws (Physician Self-Referral)
Criminal Defense for Pain Clinics & Pain Management Doctors
"We Were Blessed When We Found You"
Related Case Results
Lab Accused of $2 million in Medicare and Medicaid Fraud Restores Billing Privileges
State Medical Board of Ohio's Changes to Standards and Procedures for the Operation of a Pain Management Clinic
Criminal Liability for Health Care Organizations in Ohio
Ohio Criminal Sentencing – Using Medicaid Fraud As Example
A (Very) Basic Overview of Health Care Fraud Sentencing in Federal Court
Possible Changes to Asset Forfeiture In Health Care Fraud Cases
Ten Things to Know About the Privacy of Substance Abuse Treatment Records
Alleged "Pill Mill" Doctor Charged with Drug Trafficking, Corruption & Conspiracy – Receives No Jail Time & Returns to Practice
Professional: Doctor Primary Issue: The Ohio Attorney General's Special Prosecution section charged an Ohio doctor with operating a pill mill. The […]


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Nyc Health
three.7By 2030, guarantee common access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and schooling, and the integration of reproductive health into nationwide methods and programmes. The National Healthcare Group is a leader in public healthcare in Singapore, recognised at house and abroad for the quality of its medical experience and services. Care is offered through an built-in community of six major care polyclinics, acute care and tertiary hospitals, national specialty centres and enterprise divisions. Together NHG bring a wealthy legacy of medical experience to their philosophy of built-in patient-centred care.
Sign up for a My Health Account, and get the most out of the web health companies you employ. Your account permits you to check in securely to online health providers, offering you straightforward access to your most essential information from anywhere. three.5Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol. Over forty per cent of all countries have fewer than 10 medical medical doctors per 10,000 people; over fifty five per cent of countries have fewer than 40 nursing and midwifery personnel per 10,000 individuals.
It's really necessary as a end result of folks out there are suffering from lung most cancers. But with function, pioneering policy, pace and public participation, we are ready to do that. Together, we will create an Aotearoa the place smokefree is not an aspirational aim however our reality. Making certain there's Māori management and decision-making throughout all ranges of the action plan. As a half of this focus area, we're standing up a taskforce to verify the action plan is on track to realize the smokefree aim for Māori. The Food & Drug Administration has permitted the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for individuals 5 years of age or older.
COVID-19 Read up-to-date information about COVID-19 for health professionals, aged care and community care providers, business, industry, local government and the Aboriginal sector. Department of Health & Human Services, psychological health refers to a person's emotional, social, and psychological well-being. Mental health is as important as physical health as a half of a full, lively lifestyle Health. Physical well-being includes pursuing a healthful life-style to decrease the chance of illness. Maintaining physical fitness, for example, can protect and develop the endurance of a person's respiration and coronary heart operate, muscular energy, flexibility, and physique composition.
In addition to health care interventions and a person's environment, a selection of different components are identified to affect the health status of people. These are known as the "determinants of health", which include the person's background, lifestyle, economic standing, social circumstances and spirituality; Studies have proven that prime ranges of stress can have an effect on human health. In youngsters, sleep is also vital for development and development. Ongoing sleep deprivation has been linked to an increased danger for some continual health problems. In addition, sleep deprivation has been shown to correlate with both elevated susceptibility to sickness and slower restoration instances from illness.
How to Purchase off-Market Property
Thoughts On Rudimentary Aspects Of Food & Cooking

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Jets yesterday signed 24-year-old Ricky Ray, the quarterback who led the Edmonton Eskimos to the 2003 Grey Cup championship, as a potential backup for Chad Pennington.
Also yesterday, guard Dave Szott's 14-year career ended when he announced his retirement. The overhaul of the Jets' defense began with the waiving of cornerback Aaron Beasley, with the ax next targeting linebackers Mo Lewis and Marvin Jones.
Ray, who played at Sacramento State, had been sought by a number of NFL teams after completing 348 of 515 passes for 4,640 yards with 35 touchdowns in 2003. He was active for one game with the 49ers in 2001.
He most likely will compete with second-year man Brooks Bollinger for the No. 2 job. Vinny Testaverde, 40, the backup the last two seasons, said Thursday he is considering retirement.
Beasley started all 31 games in the two seasons he spent with the Jets after being signed as a free agent two years ago from Jacksonville, with whom he spent his first two seasons. He would have been due more than $2.7 million in salary and bonuses next season.
Szott spent 14 seasons in the NFL, the last two with the Jets. Most of his career was spent in Kansas City and he was voted to the All-Pro team in 1997.


SALFORD have signed Jackson Hastings, initially for the rest of the season, in a bid to secure their Super League status.
The Red Devils have bolstered their injury-hit squad with the capture of the 22-year-old following his release by Manly.
Hastings has spent most of the season playing in the NRL's second-tier competition after a reported falling out with some senior Sea Eagles players.
Salford director of rugby Ian Blease says former owner Marwan Koukash helped finance the deal for Hastings, who is waiting for final visa clearance before linking with the club ahead of the Super 8s.
"A huge amount of hard work behind the scenes has gone into making this happen over the past few months and we are delighted to get it over the line," Blease said.
"Opportunities to sign players this talented do not come along too often and it speaks volumes that we have beaten off some serious competition for his signature.
"I'd like to thank the player's agent for all his help as well as Marwan Koukash who has honoured his pledge to support the club with the acquisition of a player.
Salford have lost seven of their past eight matches and could be confirmed in the bottom four if results go against them on Friday night, when they host Castleford.
Hastings, who has made 47 NRL appearances for Sydney Roosters and the Sea Eagles, is expected to play alongside Rob Lui in the halves for his new club.


How many numbers between 20 and 451 are divisible by 9?
The required numbers are 27, 36, 45……450.
Let it has n terms.
How many terms are there in 3,9,27,81........531441?
3, 9, 27, 81..............531441 form a G.P.
Subhash has 90 currency notes, some of which are Rs. 1000 denomination and rest of Rs. 500 denomination. The total amount is Rs 71,000. How many notes he has in denomination of Rs. 500?
If the average of four consecutive odd numbers is 12, find the smallest of these numbers?
If the sum of two numbers is 13 and the sum of their square is 85. Find the numbers?


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Change Behind: Change Ahead
Darragh Moriarty looks for answers to the past and the future of Ireland's wellbeing
Now that the Christmas break has ended and semester two has commenced, generic it's time to start learning, studying and worrying about your future, once more. Since you've gone and spent your couple of quid buying presents for people you don't really like or buying various unnecessary items on 'sale' that you didn't really need, you're back to being a broke student counting down the days until the grant is lodged. For us students who have invested our time, money and effort in choosing to attend college in the first place, our future certainly looks to be more uncertain than we had planned.
For the vast majority of us our future prospects in Ireland at the moment seem to be bleak. We owe so much mind-boggling amounts of money that my little Arts head gets hurt when I attempt to watch the Frontline or Primetime. We had it so good for so long that any change was always going to negatively affect the lives of all people. Not everyone reaped the benefits that Ireland's dramatic economic growth had to offer, but the majority did, the 'good times' as they're now referred to could never ever be sustained and now a lot of people have fallen from grace and are stuck with houses worth half of what they paid. Life in Ireland though, day-to-day life in general may not be as bad as it's made out to be according to some reports. An OECD study, released in 2011 found that the average Irish person when asked to rank their all-round 'life satisfaction' from 0 to 10, ranked themselves at 6.9, above the 6.7 average compared to other developed countries. Despite this, if you were to listen to any given phone-in show on any particular radio station some people of Ireland would have you believe that this government has pushed people into poverty with their austerity programme, 'people can't afford food' some might say. How can the average person rank their life at 6.9 out of 10 and then claim that they can't afford to eat? There may not be enough money to have steak every night but people could surely sacrifice their Sky or UPC every month if they really faced going hungry.
"This is a case of two steps forward, one step back. The government, as unpopular as they are, have made a difference. We're on target to become economically independent in the not too distant future so perhaps the future for us students does not look as desperate as it seems."
Indeed, all people, right across the country have been adversely affected by the policies of our government and yes the people at the bottom are always going to feel it that bit more, but Labour have abandoned their core voter base and allowed Fine Gael to safeguard the money of the people in the upper echelons of our class structure – that's a story for another article. Dear Enda on the other hand is off earning brownie points in the EU for being such a good little austerity imposer. He's lapping up the plaudits for overseeing a relatively smooth running austerity programme that has ticked along nicely without much meaningful or sustained opposition. He will continue to do so until Ireland ca
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n re-enter the markets and start borrowing again. Ireland's international creditability has been put back together piece by piece by this government, not to the liking of the people but to the liking of the people that we owe the ridiculous sums of money to.
The report also found that young people aged 15-24 in Ireland face difficulties with an unemployment rate of 28.7% compared with the OECD average of 16.7%. It doesn't take a genius to surmise that this statistic is correlated to the fact that this age group lived off the fruits of the 'Celtic Tiger' for a number of years and now they appear to be reluctant to get up and go get a job. This is because too many jobs are beneath our young people. I've personally known people who have not taken jobs because they're only minimum wage. More statistics show that the average person in Ireland works 1,664 hours a year (32 a week), less than most people in the OECD who work 1,749 (34 a week) hours on average. According to this statistic Irish people work less than our developed counterparts. Despite this however, the average person earns 24,156 US dollars a year, more than the OECD average of 22,387 US dollars a year. According to this particular report we work less and yet we earn more.
There's no doubt most people in Ireland were earning more than they deserved over the past ten to fifteen years. Of course this is not why we find ourselves where we are economically. Today, despite our recession we are still earning more than other developed countries. The report found that in overall comparison with other countries, Ireland has come a very long way in a short space of time. Compared to the actual poverty (such as a family of ten living in a two bedroom flat) that people had to live through in the 1980's, we are now a different country. 94% of people in Ireland claimed that they were satisfied with their living conditions, much higher than the OECD average of 87%, but perhaps more crucially, higher than Germany's 93%. When asked about their general health perhaps somewhat typical of the Irish disposition, 83% of people claimed they were in good health, compared with the OECD average of 70%. This is despite the fact that our obesity rate has soared to 23% compared to the OECD average of 17%.
What do these statistics mean and why are they being written about? This is to show that Irish people are doing well compared to what they're saying on the Adrian Kennedy show. In 1988 Ireland was ranked as the 15th best place to be born in the world. Since then the US, France, the UK, Germany, Italy and Japan who made up six of the top eight have all fallen behind Ireland. Ireland is now ranked as the 12th best country to be born in 2013, this is despite our apocalyptic economic situation. We're not doing as bad as we think. We came a long way in a very short space of time, what's gone on here over the past five years or so is that we did not know how to manage our new found wealth. All we can do is learn from this. This is a case of two steps forward, one step back. The government, as unpopular as they are, have made a difference. We're on target to become economically independent in the not too distant future so perhaps the future for us students does not look as desperate as it seems. Perhaps we won't have to get a one-way ticket to Canada or Australia.
#MeToo: Has Ireland Reached Its Tipping Point?
"It's mainly about equality and fairness"
Posted On : August 7, 2012
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Impossible to Replace
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One thought on "Change Behind: Change Ahead"
Pierce says:
"all people, right across the country have been adversely affected by the policies of our government…(who)…safeguard the money of the people in the upper echelons of our class structure"
WOW! Talk about such double-think in ONE sentence! I hope the writer can still afford their schizophrenia medication!


Getting the first job or dream job is very important for a student and in fact in everyone's life. But we are not aware of the success factor here. To overcome this phase of life, here are few things you need when applying for a job. Always gather the first job interview questions and make a note of all these below mentioned things to say when applying for a job.
Resume preparation might be just a simple task for you. But this is going to sell you in the huge market and tough completion. The recruiter has to get impressed with your skills and the words which you choose here. You can even ask the help of other person as they have a different perspective and might turn up the mistakes which you haven't found all these days.
The format of the resume and the things which are mentioned here might be the same. But make sure that you stand out from the other competitors with your cover letter. This is the best way to show case how you are eligible for the position you are applying. You can also mention how you are the best fit for the post and what you can contribute in this regard.
Even though you are a fashion freak and want others to notice you, make sure that you are dressing in a professional way as you do not know if the campus where you are going for the interview might have a strict dress code. So why do you want to miss a chance of scoring good impression or marks for your dignified look?
Never underestimate yourself. You have to be careful about preparing for the 2nd round seriously even though you have not did your job better in the first round. For sure, there might be fair chances of luck and preparation that helps you to clear the job interview.
Whether you got the job or not, make sure that you are writing a thank you note for the interviewer's time. You can even leave a personal note if you want to, so that you can get better points and this single and simple action might gain you more points.
Have a smiling face and greet everyone possible at the work place. It is because you never know that one fine day, you will be surprised when the person whom you have never exchanged smile even once might be your boss. Always keep in mind to have contact with other staff so that they might refer you to a better company and doing this enhances your network as well.
Don't wait for the right job or time. Just keep on applying to all the jobs which you are eligible for. Attending many interviews will help you to stay focused and as well prepared. With continuous preparation and determination, your dream job offer letter might be in your hand and you just have to get prepared for that.


We are pleased to offer our lemon law services to all California residents. If you do not live near our offices, your free case review can be conducted by telephone. Documents can be submitted for attorney review by email, fax, or regular mail. Most of our California Lemon Law cases are settled in which a physical meeting with our clients is not necessary.
In the event that a face-to-face meeting is required, we will travel to your local area at no cost to you. We maintain relationships with office support providers who furnish office space in cities closer to clients who are distant from our offices. Further, if it is necessary to file a lawsuit in your case, the matter will be filed and litigated in your local county court.
"I was blown away at how fast the settlement wrapped up. I was told about 8 months to a year for success, but Brian Wagner and his supporting team did a fantastic job, perhaps 6 months ahead of schedule. From my initial consultation with Erika, her assessment of my case, including the assigning of Mr. Wagner as counsel, the stress reducing assurance of paralegal Andy Kim, and the personable approach of Melanie, who eased my anxiety with her confidence and support in reception of my calls. Great job team!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"


WASHINGTON, DC-Former Vice President Joe Biden, notorious for his close-up hair sniffs, high waist grabs and uncomfortable embraces with women and children said he's sorry.
You see, things are changing in America. It's no longer acceptable for an old guy to get up close and invade somebody else's personal space in a creepy manner and Joe realizes this now.
He admits his generation, called "boomers" in a derogatory manner by most of his young socialist constituents, is a bit out of touch with today's social norms.
Biden promised, going forward, he will not reach in for a close hair-sniff when posing with young girls and that when he grabs women from behind, he won't give them a high-hip hold directly under their breasts.
President Donald Trump couldn't resist sharing a meme that circulated after Biden's apology video.
"Welcome back, Joe!" the President wrote.
"I see that you are on the job and presidential, as always," Biden replied.


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Home »The Night at the Crossroads (Inspector Maigret #6) (Paperback)
The Night at the Crossroads (Inspector Maigret #6) (Paperback)
By Georges Simenon, Linda Coverdale (Translated by)
We're sorry, this book is unavailable from our distributor.
This is book number 6 in the Inspector Maigret series.
#19: Maigret (Inspector Maigret #19) (Paperback): $11.55
A sensational tale of deceit and back-stabbing in an isolated community in which only Inspector Maigret can intervene
"She came forward, the outlines of her figure blurred in the half-light....'I gather you wish to talk to me, Inspector...but first of all please sit down...' Her accent was more pronounced than Carl's. Her voice sang, dropping on the last syllable of the longer words."
Maigret has been interrogating Carl Andersen for seventeen hours without a confession. He's either innocent or a very good liar. So why was the body of a diamond merchant found at his isolated mansion? Why is his sister always shut away in her room? And why does everyone at Three Widows Crossroads have something to hide?
Georges Simenon (1903–1989) was born in Liège, Belgium. Best known in Britain as the author of the Maigret books, his prolific output of more than four hundred novels and short stories have made him a household name in continental Europe.
Linda Coverdale is the awarding-winning translator of many French works and has been honored with the title of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contribution to French literature.
Minimum Grade Level: UP


The purpose of the CartASUR (Représentations Cartographiques de la qualité des Ambiances Sonores Urbaines: acceptabilité des Cartes) research project in which SOFT is a subcontractor is to develop a tool capable of creating sound maps representing the urban soundscape at different spatial scales of the city (such as major roads and neighborhoods) as well as different time scales (such as a time period within a year or the time of day). This tool can help policy makers to enrich noise levels with perceptual and geographic indicators. Hence, soundscapes in urban public space are enriched with sense of pleasure/discomfort perceived by its citizens. Noise level indicators are currently defined on a yearly and national scale and do not incorporate citizen perception. We hypothesise that noise level indicators can be constructed from perceived data (citizen-supplied data transmitted via their mobile phone), from acoustic data (measurements taken of the changing sound level over time), and from other georeferenced data (collected from local authorities). The aggregated data will allow policy makers to better take into account the effect of noise on the quality of life. Additionally, this tool can be used by citizens to govern their own city.


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Contemp. Music
Complete Ed.
Cleansed of earlier mistakes and assumptions. Antonín Dvořák's VIIIth Symphony
Symphonie No. 8 in g major. Edited by Jonathan Del Mar.
Publisher: Bärenreiter Praha. The complete performance material (BA 10418) and the Critical Commentary (BA 10418-40) are available.
Full score and Critical Commentary available on sale.
Previous editions of Antonín Dvořák's VIIIth Symphony have errors in many details. Jonathan Del Mar's new edition now offers a very high degree of reliability.
Dvořák's sunny, cheerful Eighth Symphony has long been notorious for being the most error-ridden in the entire orchestral repertoire, and this unfortunate situation was hardly ameliorated either by the 1955 Czech edition or by a more recent critical edition which bristles with misprints.
But the task of editing this glorious piece was not merely one of correcting all the obvious mistakes. Now that the manuscript graveur has come to light (it was discovered literally in a rubbish bin at Novello's in 1964), and we can see the words "Copy from my original" in Dvořák's own handwriting on the title page, it becomes evident that many readings, familiar from the first edition and accepted on trust by all subsequent ones, are mistakes by the copyists, and this has a more serious effect on the text of the work.
Most of these, predictably, concern small details. But sometimes even quite a small detail can greatly alter the effect of a passage, as in the two bars which introduce the B minor second theme of the first movement, where the rocking triplet/duplet figure in flute and clarinet gives way to subsiding slurred octaves in first violins followed by seconds. In the final bar (bar 76) this is echoed by the violas, and we have always heard this, too, slurred; this was merely an assumption by the engraver, made because the copyist had forgotten to notate the staccato Dvořák had marked. This now provides a delightfully piquant launch into the theme itself, with its similarly bouncing octave upbeat in flutes and clarinet.
But the most startling discovery occurs towards the end of the development section of the same movement. In a fortissimo E minor section (starting bar 207) violins give out an urgent, emphatic version of the previously tranquil flute theme, rising by a tone every two bars. The second of each pair of bars, with its choppy dotted rhythm, has always been heard with the same notes in the second half of the bar as in the first; and indeed this is how that motif has always been, ever since the flute first announced it in bar 19. Yet here Dvořák wrote something else and the familiar version was merely a lazy assumption by the copyist. Yet not only does what Dvořák wrote seen surprising, subverting the otherwise universal shape of the motif, but we know that Dvořák himself conducted the work twice using the published material.
It is known that composers, conducting their own music, are often more concerned with the overall effect and sweep of the piece than with small details, and it remains entirely possible that Dvorak did not notice, or was not unduly concerned about, the discrepancy in these notes that he was in fact hearing.
Jonathan Del Mar
(from [t]akte 1/2018)
<- Back to: Orchestra
"The pure joy". Frank Peter Zimmermann on Bohuslav Martinů's violin concertos
Not always just the "Danse macabre". The symphonic poems of Camille Saint-Saëns
Dvořák's most popular sacred work. A new edition of the Mass in D major op. 86
Gold, silver, purple. Matthias Pintscher completes his "Shirim" cycle
Mahler's spirits. Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini's "Spiriti" for orchestra
"magic-story pro piano". Bohuslav Martinů's 4th Piano Concerto
What is truth? Miroslav Srnka investigates a big question
The poet speaks. Charlotte Seither's orchestral work for Clara Schumann's 200th anniversary
Dieter Ammann's Piano Concerto now in Munich
Dissolution and apocalypse Beat Furrer's latest composition before its premiere in Hamburg
Funeral rites. Andrea Lorenzo Scartazzini encounters Gustav Mahler
A new take on the New World, Dvořák's IX. Symphony edited by Jonathan Del Mar
Bohemian music
Mozart's C Minor Mass in a new reconstruction. First performance with Kent Nagano
"mein gröstes werk". The new edition of Beethoven's "Missa solemnis"


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Trump is set for embarrassment or glory on North Korea -- but if Kim crosses him, all hell could break loose
Alex Lockie
Getty Images/Pool photo
President Donald Trump has put his personal legacy on the line by meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
If history is any indication, any perceived slight from Pyongyang could cause a meltdown.
Trump responds harshly to perceived betrayals, as he recently did with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
If North Korea doesn't keep its nuclear promises, it could evoke a very harsh reaction from Trump, who has repeatedly vouched for Kim.
President Donald Trump has put his personal legacy on the line in meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – and if history is any indication, any perceived slight from Pyongyang could cause a meltdown in the countries' relations.
Trump's move to meet with Kim has been hailed by world leaders as a great step toward peace, and Trump's stated goal in taking the meeting was to disarm North Korea.
Trump's White House maintains that moves to denuclearize will come in time, and early reports indicate Kim making good on his limited denuclearization promise to Trump. But North Korea has dropped out of similar talks time and time again.
Typically, Trump's reaction to betrayal is harsh.
"This is the Trump playbook for dealing with foreign leaders," a source close to Trump told the news website Axios' Jonathan Swan.
"Trump does to other foreign leaders what he wishes they would do for him. On the positive side, it's lavishing him with praise, rolling out the red carpet."
Not only did Trump meet Kim – he embraced him. Trump quickly took North Korea's side on bilateral military issues involving South Korea. Trump repeatedly praised Kim as "smart" and "talented" while whitewashing the most brutal regime on earth, making several apologies for North Korea's despicable human-rights record.
Trump lavishing praise on Kim could lead to reciprocation and improved relations. But there's a potentially dangerous alternative.
"On the flip side, Trump only respects force, only respects balls," the source said. "And so if he's going to go at somebody, he's going to go at them in the way that he would respect somebody else going at him. No holds barred."
A good recent example of Trump's hot-and-cold temper came the day before the Kim summit. Trump had praised Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and played up their friendship, but upon leaving the G7 summit he torched him.
But with North Korea, Trump has extended himself further than ever before.
Trump said point-blank that he took the meeting and embraced Kim because he personally thought Kim was being straight with him. Instead of any verification mechanisms, Trump repeatedly pointed to his personal interactions with Kim.
So if North Korea doesn't come through with its denuclearization pledges, if it makes extreme counterdemands of the US, if it is caught in a lie while claiming to denuclearize, Trump's vouching for Kim will come under especially heavy scrutiny.
Under pressure and publicly defied by Kim, Trump could return to the "fire and fury" that saw the world on the brink of nuclear war throughout 2017.
defense-us donald trump kim jong un news north korea politics


I don't mean to shoot myself in the foot, but this topic is just too important not to address. Besides, "going green" continues to be increasingly important in our society – and recycling is a cornerstone of green living. What's more green than online recycling? No trash!
Don't trash a great idea or discard one just because you wrote something similar. Some topics just deserve to be revisited – it's that simple. Save your sanity and save the world one blog post at a time – with recycled content.
Recycling content isn't so much about being lazy or not having the time to create a fully original post on a fully new and original topic (though that might be your inspiration – and that's fair). It's about revisiting important topics, updating information, and continuing the dialogue.
Perhaps you previously wrote a blog post about a timely topic – odds are that there are more recent developments on that topic; those developments are likely of interest to your audience. Or maybe the information or recommendation on a previous post has changed. Or you wrote a high-traffic post that has had tons of traffic and visitor comments.
There are plenty of reasons to recycle blog content… though you really aren't recycling the content; you're more giving it a facelift and recycling the initial intent. You aren't disposing or copying – you're turning the original into something new.
Recycling content is all about making something new out of something old and about extending the lifecycle of an existing piece. There are many ways to recycle content in ways that provide high value to your blog and its readers – here are just a few of my top content recycling tips.
Example: Gina wrote a 2-part graphic guide for bloggers just recently.
This is a great way to extend the life of an existing blog post that either had high value and high readership or that has had new developments.
When using this tactic, I recommend using the original title along with "Part Two." Doing so is not only beneficial for SEO purposes, but it also helps to catch your readers' eyes and draw their attention back to a topic they are already familiar with and interested in.
When doing a "part two" follow-up post, make sure that you include at least one link back to the original post. For transparency and relevancy purposes, it's best to do this in a clear, straightforward way.
For example, "For more information about ________, see the original post, here." This not only gives your readers a reference point, but continues to direct traffic and improve the value of original post.
Typically, when you develop a quote for use in print (be it virtual print or actual print), you put quite a bit of effort and time into developing the perfect wording that represents the perfect tone and conveys the intended just right. Extend the value of that quote (and the time you invested in developing it) by repurposing it into posts.
You might develop a full post around the quote, focusing on the larger issue at hand, or you might use the post to explore the quote in more depth; explain to your readers your position and where the origin of your opinion. Don't have a quote of your own to write on? Write on someone else's that has inspired you.
Most of the time, if you write a guest post the understanding is that you are writing 100 percent unique content for that blog – however, there is nothing wrong with updating that post and revisiting the themes on your own blog.
Explore an updated stance or select one topic from the original post and expand upon it to create a new post.
As a rule of thumb, it's considered "good etiquette" to link back to that original blog and the post – it helps the other blog's traffic and SEO.
Most blogs have some sort of sidebar or side column included in the layout – this column is the perfect spot to highlight previous, relevant content.
There are numerous ways to do this. You can consider featuring older posts that simply had high traffic for starters (now you know why I created 'Best of WHSR').
Alternately, perhaps you have older posts that are relevant to a current event – these are great contenders. If you write about a topic that includes recurring events, the Oscars for example, you could highlight your roundup from last year's event – it makes a great reference point and pre-party item for the current year.
The great thing about social media is that it makes everything current. Just because your content was written a few months ago doesn't mean that it isn't relevant – a good post is often still a good post.
Revitalize web traffic by promoting that content on social media. Rather than developing Tweets specifically promoting the post as "new," consider using one of the plugins, such as Tweet Old Posts (now known as Revive Social).
This app allows you to schedule tweets, including hashtags and links, to extend the life of your posts. Choose the time between tweets and select how many tweets are issued. Automating the promotions not only keeps your content alive – it saves you a ton of time.
One of the most valuable kind of posts is the good old round-up post. These round-ups are a great way to get additional eyes on particularly noteworthy content while also providing an easy topic for you. Visitors love them because they can quickly digest the information and can easily access the items that are of particular interest to them.
When doing a round-up post, make sure to – of course, link to the original post. Also, add a relevant image for each item and consider using the original titles. One of the most straightforward and easy to read ways to do round-up posts is to develop an introductory paragraph and then list each post in list format. Write a teaser paragraph or two alongside an image used in the actual post – pair it with the original post headline and you're good to go.
It's quick, it's interesting, and it provides value – win-win-win.
Update and re-post your old content to forum; or, quote yourself and post your old writing as reply in forum discussion.
Your blog posts don't have to stay in the (blog) house – let them out into the great wide open. Get involved in online forums and post your blogs – or relevant portions of them, at least, as part of your forum responses.
Consider updating one of your blogs and posting it to start your own forum thread.
It's all about extending the long tail and providing valuable input on the topic at hand. As long as your blog post content and/or quote are relevant, you're good to go. Just make sure that you revisit the forum after posting to stay engaged in the discussion and remain part of the conversation. Who knows – there may be an opportunity to share even more content.
As a rule of thumb, it's generally a good idea to post a link back to the original post on your blog. What you post in the forum likely acts as a teaser, so by linking back to your blog, you are able to give the reader a more full view – not to mention that you may secure additional readers as a result.
Recycle your blog content into something even more dynamic. Use a blog as an inspiration to create a video or relevant infographic.
You'll likely need to do a bit of work and research to get it to this point, but doing so provides an opportunity to paint a different picture of a topic that is already important to you. For example, this is what I did out from my web web hosting beginner guide.
Over to you: Tell us your blog recycling tips!
There are tons of ways to recycle old blog posts and content into something new, noteworthy, and relevant to your audience.
Focus on posts that important to you, timely, and that offer something new – remember, recycling is not the same as reusing.
Have you done any recycling job recently to your blog? Share your story to WHSR Facebook Page!


text:
UAB Researchers Create Culturally-Based Protocol For Palliative Care
Janae Pierre | July 21, 2020
Ronit Elk, PhD (Professor, Gerontology/Geriatrics/Palliative Care), 2019.
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have created the first culturally based protocol for patients facing end-of-life care. Ronit Elk is a professor in the Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care at UAB. She has spent her life living in different countries. Once she moved to the U.S., Elk said she noticed the lack of respect for cultural differences for the nation's sickest minority patients, particularly African Americans.
What was the most notable cultural difference?
For Black patients and their families going through end-of-life care, the concept of hope and miracles is key. Physicians are primarily trained as scientists to read the physical symptoms that are occurring. Black patients and families who believe that there is always hope and it's in God's hands, they understand yes, you're the physician, but you are not the decider. It is God that decides whether my loved one is going to live or die. And it's caused a lot of clashes with physicians and family members where physicians are often saying to patients' families, you're not really accepting that the person is going to die. There's no way they can live. And the family is saying it's in God's hands and a miracle can happen. And somehow that's a very difficult thing for many physicians to accept.
What are the consequences of treating everyone the same way in palliative care?
Here's the interesting thing, palliative care physicians and clinicians are probably the most compassionate human beings on this planet. They are taught that you go in and you do exactly what the patient wants. However, what isn't taught in America is that different people's culture impacts that. Whenever somebody has a loved one who is very ill, whenever somebody is dying, it is always viewed through their own cultural lens. And that part has never been taught. And so there's a simple lack of understanding.
Why were minority patients over-looked in models of end-of-life-care?
The model that was developed was based on the white middle-class model. This model is very wonderful if you're white, middle class and Christian. It is most inappropriate in many cases if you're not white or you're not middle class or if you're not Christian. So why it's so difficult to understand that different cultures may look at death, life, illness differently; I have no idea. I think maybe in America we're not taught enough to understand different cultures. But we're doing a lot of studies with people from other countries, three in Africa and some in other countries, because over there, people know "if a model is for white middle class people, that's not going to work for my people. I want to see what's really going to work for our community."
How do you get hospitals on board with this new protocol?
So the first thing we have to do is to prove that it's very effective. What we've shown is that it's feasible and it can be done. So we are simultaneously developing trainings so that we can train the physicians who won't push against it, but will rather embrace it and it will be accepted in hospitals.
Editor's Note: UAB holds WBHM's broadcast license, but our news and business departments operate independently.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.


Remind you when your bus stop is coming up if you are asleep!
Remind you when you get to the store to buy something!
Alert you when your child nears a dangerous area.
Awesome! Looks great, gonna try it out. Thanks.
i was using something similar but it ate my battery like i eat pringles. hope this one is less battery hungry.
Needs search option in map. Can't search address.
Currently, you can point a location on map, it will get current address for you.
why is "read your contacts" permission required ?
quick question: do you plan to add more languages?
Read contacts permission is used to pick up contact for SMS reminder item.
I will publish the translation file soon and will announce in this thread. Thank you.
Remind upcoming bus station when you are asleep while in bus!
Cool Ap. Tasker integration would be really good. Also it would be really good if bluetooth was integrated, like if my device finds a bluetooth pairing then do something.
thanks a lot, will give it a go!


One little policy does a lot. A renters policy covers all most all of your personal property in your apartment, and in some cases, out of your rental unit. The insurance extends to your home's contents and liability for damage to property of others or injury caused to someone by you or a family member. Your policy can be personalized to include greater levels of protection for important property, home office situations, liability for boat ownership.
Do you have questions about Renters Insurance?
Contact a Renters Insurance specialist at MKZ Insurance today to answer any of your Renters Insurance questions or for a free Renters Insurance review and quote.


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text:
package com.netflix.spinnaker.orca.config;

import java.net.InetAddress;
import java.net.NetworkInterface;
import java.net.URI;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Optional;
import java.util.Set;
import java.util.regex.Pattern;
import lombok.AllArgsConstructor;
import lombok.Data;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;
import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
import org.springframework.security.web.util.matcher.IpAddressMatcher;

public class UserConfiguredUrlRestrictions {
  @Data
  public static class Builder {
    private String allowedHostnamesRegex = ".*";
    private List<String> allowedSchemes = new ArrayList<>(Arrays.asList("http", "https"));
    private boolean rejectLocalhost = true;
    private boolean rejectLinkLocal = true;
    private HttpClientProperties httpClientProperties = new HttpClientProperties();
    private List<String> rejectedIps =
        new ArrayList<>(); // can contain IP addresses and/or IP ranges (CIDR block)

    public Builder withAllowedHostnamesRegex(String allowedHostnamesRegex) {
      setAllowedHostnamesRegex(allowedHostnamesRegex);
      return this;
    }

    public Builder withAllowedSchemes(List<String> allowedSchemes) {
      setAllowedSchemes(allowedSchemes);
      return this;
    }

    public Builder withRejectLocalhost(boolean rejectLocalhost) {
      setRejectLocalhost(rejectLocalhost);
      return this;
    }

    public Builder withRejectLinkLocal(boolean rejectLinkLocal) {
      setRejectLinkLocal(rejectLinkLocal);
      return this;
    }

    public Builder withRejectedIps(List<String> rejectedIpRanges) {
      setRejectedIps(rejectedIpRanges);
      return this;
    }

    public Builder withHttpClientProperties(HttpClientProperties httpClientProperties) {
      setHttpClientProperties(httpClientProperties);
      return this;
    }

    public UserConfiguredUrlRestrictions build() {
      return new UserConfiguredUrlRestrictions(
          Pattern.compile(allowedHostnamesRegex),
          allowedSchemes,
          rejectLocalhost,
          rejectLinkLocal,
          rejectedIps,
          httpClientProperties);
    }
  }

  private final Pattern allowedHostnames;
  private final Set<String> allowedSchemes;
  private final boolean rejectLocalhost;
  private final boolean rejectLinkLocal;
  private final Set<String> rejectedIps;
  private final HttpClientProperties clientProperties;

  public UserConfiguredUrlRestrictions(
      Pattern allowedHostnames,
      Collection<String> allowedSchemes,
      boolean rejectLocalhost,
      boolean rejectLinkLocal,
      Collection<String> rejectedIps,
      HttpClientProperties clientProperties) {
    this.allowedHostnames = allowedHostnames;
    this.allowedSchemes =
        allowedSchemes == null
            ? Collections.emptySet()
            : Collections.unmodifiableSet(new HashSet<>(allowedSchemes));
    this.rejectLocalhost = rejectLocalhost;
    this.rejectLinkLocal = rejectLinkLocal;
    this.rejectedIps =
        rejectedIps == null
            ? Collections.emptySet()
            : Collections.unmodifiableSet(new HashSet<>(rejectedIps));
    this.clientProperties = clientProperties;
  }

  public URI validateURI(String url) throws IllegalArgumentException {
    try {
      URI u = URI.create(url).normalize();
      if (!u.isAbsolute()) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("non absolute URI " + url);
      }
      if (!allowedSchemes.contains(u.getScheme().toLowerCase())) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("unsupported URI scheme " + url);
      }

      // fallback to `getAuthority()` in the event that the hostname contains an underscore and
      // `getHost()` returns null
      String host = u.getHost();
      if (host == null) {
        String authority = u.getAuthority();
        if (authority != null) {
          int portIndex = authority.indexOf(":");
          host = (portIndex > -1) ? authority.substring(0, portIndex) : authority;
        }
      }

      if (host == null) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unable to determine host for the url provided " + url);
      }

      if (StringUtils.isBlank(allowedHostnames.pattern())) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "Allowed Hostnames are not set, external HTTP requests are not enabled. Please configure 'user-configured-url-restrictions.allowedHostnamesRegex' in your orca config.");
      }

      if (!allowedHostnames.matcher(host).matches()) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            "Host not allowed " + host + ". Host much match " + allowedHostnames.toString() + ".");
      }

      if (rejectLocalhost || rejectLinkLocal) {
        InetAddress addr = InetAddress.getByName(host);
        if (rejectLocalhost) {
          if (addr.isLoopbackAddress()
              || Optional.ofNullable(NetworkInterface.getByInetAddress(addr)).isPresent()) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid address for " + host);
          }
        }
        if (rejectLinkLocal && addr.isLinkLocalAddress()) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("invalid address for " + host);
        }
      }

      for (String ip : rejectedIps) {
        IpAddressMatcher ipMatcher = new IpAddressMatcher(ip);

        if (ipMatcher.matches(host)) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("address " + host + " is within rejected IPs: " + ip);
        }
      }

      return u;
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException iae) {
      throw iae;
    } catch (Exception ex) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("URI not valid " + url, ex);
    }
  }

  public Pattern getAllowedHostnames() {
    return allowedHostnames;
  }

  public Set<String> getAllowedSchemes() {
    return allowedSchemes;
  }

  public boolean isRejectLocalhost() {
    return rejectLocalhost;
  }

  public boolean isRejectLinkLocal() {
    return rejectLinkLocal;
  }

  public HttpClientProperties getHttpClientProperties() {
    return clientProperties;
  }

  @Data
  @lombok.Builder
  @NoArgsConstructor
  @AllArgsConstructor
  public static class HttpClientProperties {
    @lombok.Builder.Default private boolean enableRetry = true;
    @lombok.Builder.Default private int maxRetryAttempts = 1;
    @lombok.Builder.Default private int retryInterval = 5000;
    @lombok.Builder.Default private int timeoutMillis = 30000;
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


ClickDimensions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Spanish Point Technologies Ltd.
ClickDimensions helps Microsoft Dynamics users worldwide bring together sales and marketing for bigger business wins. This marketing automation solution includes essential marketing tools like email marketing, campaign automation, web intelligence, surveys, web forms and landing pages, social marketing and more to help our customers attract more leads, close more sales and more effectively engage customers. Explore our full feature set below.
ClickDimensions enables marketers to create interactive automations based on prospects' or users' behaviors. Send targeted emails to prospects in order to drive sales or generate interest in your product, and notify sales when a customer or lead shows interest through their interactions with your marketing messages.
ClickDimensions' built-in email marketing capability provides an intuitive experience that allows users to create and send bulk HTML emails with all send, open, click, and bounce data reported at the mailing (aggregate) as well as individual recipient level.ClickDimensions' easy-to-use editors make creating an email simple for anyone.
Interact with your prospects and customers through web forms. With ClickDimensions, easily create web forms with our drag-and-drop designer, include the forms on your website or landing pages, and quickly collect valuable information about your leads and contacts.
Want to see which prospects and customers are attending your events? ClickDimensions integrates with GoToWebinar, WebEx, Cvent and Eventbrite to bring event registration and attendee information automatically into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Maximize the convenience of having ClickDimensions native inside Microsoft Dynamics CRM through integrated reporting. Link your emails, web visits, page views, and form captures directly to CRM campaign records. Gain insight into the success of your sales and marketing efforts with ClickDimensions data in Power BI.
ClickDimensions makes it easy to create surveys with our drag-and-drop survey designer. Surveys can be emailed to leads, contacts and accounts, and even linked to case records. All of the data the visitor submits is linked to their CRM record.
With ClickDimensions discover who is interested in your products and services through web tracking. You will see the actual web activity of anonymous and identified visitors on your website within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
With ClickDimensions, quickly and easily create dynamic landing pages without any HTML knowledge. Landing pages are automatically hosted in ClickDimensions, or you can embed the landing page into your existing site.


This CLS working paper examines socio-economic inequalities in cognitive test scores at age 16 for a nationally representative cohort of people born in Britain in 1970 (the 1970 British Cohort Study).
This CLS working paper describes a randomised experiment, conducted on the Innovation Panel of Understanding Society: the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) in 2011, which sought to evaluate whether the 'early bird' approach to reducing interviewer costs and increasing survey response could be successful in a UK context.
This CLS working paper investigates whether biases in teachers' assessments of pupils may contribute to creating and maintaining attainment gaps among primary school children in England. The paper uses data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
Keywords: National Child Development Study, 1958 cohort, Rutter, non-cognitive, visual test.
This CLS working paper uses data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) to compare statistical models based on policy assertions with models based on socialisation and motivation theories. By doing so, it identifies whether school sport and physical education policy is likely to act as an effective intervention, or whether it mostly benefits children who have already been socialised into active lifestyles by their parents.
This CLS working paper analyses the common trajectories of children from disadvantaged backgrounds which lead to adult social exclusion. Using data from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), it also provides an assessment of whether education is effective in breaking the vicious circle of disadvantage both across and within generations.
This CLS working paper analyses the extent to which people acquired qualifications in adulthood and whether they upgraded to higher levels of qualification than they previously held. It uses data from the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS).
This CLS working paper provides an account of a pilot study investigating the feasibility of collecting saliva samples for DNA extraction from mothers, fathers and children aged around 11 years old using field interviewers on the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS).
Key words: Saliva samples; bio-measures; DNA; interviewer training; Millennium Cohort Study; longitudinal.
This CLS working paper uses data from the Age 50 sweep of the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) to provide a preliminary cross-sectional analysis of the correlates of sleep problems among cohort members. The results demonstrate associations of poor sleep with gender, socio-economic circumstances, health status, health-related behaviour, and depression.
This CLS working paper uses data from MCS to explore the hypothesis that ability grouping in early primary school may help create the 'month of birth effect'.
Jane Elliott provides a preliminary descriptive analysis of a sub-sample of responses to an open-ended question which asked members of the 1958 birth cohort to imagine they were 60, and describe what their life would be like.
This CLS working paper uses data from MCS to examine the role of young children's career aspirations in the association between family poverty and children's emotional (internalising) and behavioural (externalising) problems.


The concept of the vertical I.D., which is used to signify that an individual is under the age of 21, is widely used across the United States today. Much like alcohol consumption, those with vertical I.D.'s may find it difficult to gain entry to dispensaries.
In Colorado for example, state law requires that dispensary customers be over the age of 21 to purchase cannabis. However, even if an individual is over the age 21 and possesses a vertical I.D. they may be refused entry. It is advised that potential customers call the dispensary ahead of their visit to confirm whether vertical I.D.'s are accepted.
Vertical ID's are only issued to those under 21 and may expire soon after they turn of age. Thus, not accepting vertical ID's is a store policy in place to protect them. To many, it is more important to turn away legitimate vertical ID's to avoid any potential underage, counterfeit, or expired ID's. The worst that can happen to someone getting turned away is having to go to a different shop, the dispensary on the other hand, can get shut down, sued, or end up paying a huge penalty (or jail).
Ultimately, the acceptance of vertical I.D.'s is up to the dispensary itself. Much like Colorado, Washington's Cannabis and Liquor board only requires that an individual be over the age of 21 and possess a valid form of I.D. with the bearer's date of birth, signature, and photo. In essence, the issue of vertical ID's as a valid form of identification is a gray area.
If the individual is over the age of 21 with an unexpired ID, they will most likely be able to purchase cannabis. Therefore, the sale of cannabis is not just limited to American citizens. International customers may also purchase cannabis as long as they possess an official passport showing they are the required legal age.


text:
Why the Story of Mass Effect is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told, and What it Has to Offer Genre Writers (Part 2: The Geth)
yakovmerkin / August 11, 2013
Ah, the Geth. This topic was probably the one I was most looking forward to writing about, primarily because this is a fairly specific aspect of the game, but in my view it's one of the best things about it, and adds so much to the great universe of Mass Effect. People often talk about sci-fi being a way to progress our way of thought, and see it as a good medium to bring forth new ideas and have meaningful discussions. While I don't think this is always the case (nor should it be) , it is nice sometimes, and this is a great example.
For some quick background on the Geth for the uninitiated: The Geth are a synthetic race (machines) that function for the most part as a collective, with each 'geth unit' being like a hardware platform storing hundreds or thousands of 'software' programs. Each program is separate, and the 'individual' Geth's decisions are decided by all of these programs colluding. As such there are different sizes and types of Geth. They were created by another species present in the game, the Quarians, several hundred years prior to the events of the games (and as a result they share a great deal in body structure, even more so because the Quarians have to wear suits that make them look almost robotic as well). The Geth were created to be workers and servants, and were made to be capable of sharing knowledge and learning so that they could become more efficient on their own. Eventually, however, they reached a point near actual intelligence and consciousness, and began questioning things and asking questions like, "Does this unit have a soul?" The Quarians, who had probably also had made movies like Terminator, felt threatened by this, and attempted to shut down all the Geth (though some did side with the Geth). The Geth fought back, understandably, and won the war, forcing the Quarians off their planet, but didn't pursue the Quarians into space. The Geth then remained quiet within what had been Quarian space until around the time of the first Mass Effect game.
That is where Bioware starts the tale of the Geth for us, and demonstrates just how good their writing can be. In the first game, the Geth are your primary enemies, working for the rogue Spectre Saren. They're shown as cold, emotionless machines that have no care for other life, and you kill quite a few during the game. This is in line with how synthetic races are used in other sci-fi, filling a similar role to the Borg, Cylons, or Terminators (no the droid army in Star Wars does not count. They were not intelligent in any way, and quiet boring actually.) In Mass Effect 2 there is a new main enemy, the Collectors, and so the Geth go somewhere in the back of your mind, not forgotten, but not the focus. Then, while Shepard and the crew are exploring a derelict Reaper [Reapers are the primary antagonists of the Series, and also a synthetic species] you become of a Geth following you and confront it. It addresses you by name, and expresses surprise that you are alive. It also has a hole in its body that has been patched with a piece of the armor you were wearing when you died in the beginning of the game (I'm not going to explain that plot thread here). Said Geth helps you complete your mission of the derelict Reaper, but is damaged during the fight and you bring it aboard your ship and store it in the AI core, so your ship's artificial intelligence, EDI, can keep an eye on it.
Then you have a choice. You can sell the disable Geth to the Cerberus organization, your current employer, or you can risk reactivating it. I ma aware that a number of players did in fact sell the Geth, but I can't understand why they would do that. You just miss out on so much. So when you reactivate it, it not only isn't hostile to you but it expresses a desire to help you in your mission. This is extremely unexpected when playing the game for the first time, and it only gets more interesting from there. (It is also the first time you hear a Geth talk in an understandable language.) From the following conversations, you learn so much about the Geth that forces you to see them in a completely different light. First, Shepard asks the Geth its name, which prompts an interesting conversation, as the Geth don't generally have names. It just refers to itself as Geth, and refers to itself as 'we', as it is made up of thousands of Geth programs in its mobile platform. Eventually it accepts the name Legion, which EDI suggested. More interesting is when you question Legion as to why it used your armor to repair itself. It becomes uncharacteristically evasive, its explanation being, 'There was a hole,' and ultimately can only respond with 'no data available'. This gave me some pause, as it did for many players. The Geth have been established as a synthetic, emotionless race, and yet here we have one unable to give a logical answer, suggesting an irrational, almost emotional decision by an intelligent being that was sent to find Shepard.
Throughout the rest of the game, you get to interact more with Legion. You get much more information of what the Geth feel toward the Quarians, who they still refer to as 'creators', and you learn more about what transpired during the war between the Geth and Quarians. You learn that the Geth were simply defending themselves, and that to this day they bear no animosity toward their creators–they are incapable of emotion, after all. His interactions with your Quarian squadmate, Tali, and EDI also further make him feel like another person, and his insights into the Geth collective mind does not make them seem at all like the evil robots we've become used to in fiction.
This is further clarified in Legion's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, where he asks you for help in eliminating what he terms 'heretic Geth', the ones you fought in the previous game, who serve the Reapers, which they call the 'Old Machines'. In this you learn that the Geth are more like us than previously thought; despite their collective mind, they do not always act in complete unison. In this mission you end up with the choice to either rewrite these Geth or destroy them. And this choice is left to you even if you ask Legion: He informs you that the individual programs that make him up are practically evenly split, and he cannot make the choice.
The last major point of Legion's story in Mass Effect 2, apart from his participation in the game's final mission, is a confrontation with Tali near the end. She catches Legion scanning her equipment and attempting to send information back to the Geth. When you question Legion, it says that he has to warn his kind about the threat the creators pose (they have been planning to attack the Geth and retake their homeworld. More on this when we reach Mass Effect 3. ultimately you can side with one or the other, which will negatively impact future events, or negotiate a compromise, after which the two people agree to get along, and a mutual respect begins to form.
The culmination of the Geth's story takes place in Mass Effect 3. When you first see the Quarians and the Geth in this game, the Quarians have begun their planned invasion, even in the face of the greater Reaper threat. When you and Tali are assisting the Quarians, you discover something shocking: Legion is being held captive, used as a transmitter for a Reaper signal. He tells you that the majority of Geth elected to turn to the Reapers for help when it became clear they could not beat the Quarians and feared for their survival. They made a poor choice out of desperation, just like we organics have been known to do.
Freeing Legion hampers the Geth significantly, because they no longer have access to the Reaper enhancements, and the Quarians begin to win. When you talk to Legion back on your ship, you learn even more: That with these Reaper enhancements, their thoughts processes became much more advanced, and nearly organic. The Geth wish to keep these upgrades, as it will allow them to fully advance to their true potential. Interestingly, Legion also tells Shepard that after the events of Mass Effect 2, it returned to the Geth to warn them of the Reaper threat, and the consensus agreed about the threat, and had prepared to fight the Reapers. Only the ill-advised Quarian attack forced them to ask the Reapers for help. As you complete future missions, you learn more about what's been going on, and they free more Geth from Reaper control. Ultimately, they find the original source of the Reaper signal: an actual Reaper, on the planet. The Reaper is destroyed, and the Quarians try to take advantage and attack the now disabled Geth fleet. At the same time, Legion announces that he intends to give the Reaper code back to his people, who will remain free but will make them truly alive, but they would also win the space battle and the Quarians would die. Here Shepard has to make a choice: choose one over the other, or try and broker a cease-fire; letting Legion continue while ordering the Quarians to cease attacking. (Note: Should you choose to side with the Quarians, Legion may attack you, stating that Shepard does not have to right to choose the fate of its people.) But when you do make the cease-fire, Legion discovers that copying the code is not enough–it will have to directly deliver it by dispersing itself among the Geth, which will result in its death, essentially.
But in these final moments, Legion refers to itself as 'I', not we, and later we see all of the Geth now do so as well. The actual scene is one of the most heart-wrenching of the game, and describing it with text can't do it justice. Legion sacrifices itself for its people, and Tali confirms what the Geth have known for some time: The Geth do have a soul, and they are truly alive. The Geth then become staunch supporters of Shepard's war effort ,and fight alongside the Quarians and everybody else against the Reapers. Furthermore, they welcome the Quarians back to their homeworld ,and offer to work together to rebuild.
So there is the story of the Geth. I hope you can see why I find it so amazing. Bioware takes a general convention and completely turns it on its head while not making said new spin on the convention the only thing the Geth have going for them. Over the course of the three games the Geth go from your standard evil robots to as much a living species as any other. They make mistakes, but they are not in any way evil, and by the end they truly become alive.
This is just a great example of how anything can be used in an inventive, original way. It was one of the things about Mass Effect that led to it being my favorite sci-fi setting of all time, and one of my biggest inspirations as a writer. But once again, it has so much more of an impact when you play the game, and even more so if you closely follow the relationship between Legion and Tali. Two people who were naturally opposed, and by then end they trust each other and Tali essentially admits that her people were wrong all those years ago when they tried to say the Geth were not alive. She even remarks on how crazy it is that she is mourning a Geth.
I hope I wasn't too repetitive with this, and that I did a good job illustrating how beautiful a story this is, both in and outside the game. All props to BioWare for their incredible writing team; they really hit it out of the park with this. And seriously, if you haven't and have no intention of playing the games at least go watch that last scene on Youtube. Just search for Geth Quarian peace or something like that. If you don't feel anything, then…I don't know what's wrong with you. Moments like that are why Mass Effect is amazing,
I hope you enjoyed, and I hope I've broadened your perspective regarding Mass Effect, and maybe even gotten some more people to play these amazing games. So until next time, keep writing, remember that Mass Effect is amazing, and remember that any convention or cliche can be used, so long as you alter it enough to make it uniquely your own. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to re-watch some cutscenes from the game.
August 11, 2013 in Uncategorized. Tags: BioWare, games as inspiration, Geth, good writing, Legion, mass effect, sci fi, video games, writing, writing advice
Why the Story of Mass Effect is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told, and What it Has to Offer Genre Writers (Part 1)
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2 thoughts on "Why the Story of Mass Effect is One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told, and What it Has to Offer Genre Writers (Part 2: The Geth)"
xmenxpert says:
The geth in ME2 were really cool. The geth in ME3 were Data. The writers took this unique spin on artificial life, and then turned it into yet another Pinocchio story, with the geth wanting to be just like normal people.
I've heard this complaint before, and while I can see why you might see it that way I personally don't. In Mass Effect 2 the only geth we really interacted with was Legion (since we don't ever communicate with the heretic geth). I didn't see any drastic change between the geths' goals from ME2 to ME3. In both games their goal as a species was to advance, to become more advanced. Legion mentioned in ME2 the 'dyson sphere' they were building to try and reach a higher level of intelligence where all geth minds could be housed in one piece of infrastructure. Their becoming true individuals in Mass Effect 3 didn't change that goal (at least it was never stated that it was the case). The geth still did not feel emotions as organics did, and each unit referring itself as an individual doesn't necessarily mean that they abandoned their ability to share information. Their problem of individual get being isolated from the group and unable to share information is not solved by their being true AI now.
Legion stated in ME2 that the 'journey' of the geth toward their ultimate goal was as important as their goal. The fact that they were flexible regarding that path is what to me indicates that they were truly living. The geth didn't want to be human, it's just that the direction in which they needed to advance would make them more 'humanlike'. I still find it to be a unique spin on the idea of artificial life, and I believe that if we had been able to interact more with the geth post Rannoch, we would have seen that in the game. (There is also the point to consider that the geth might have changed their minds re direction of advance after seeing what the Reaper code upgrades could do for them. It made them much more effective, and given they were about to enter a war against a foe as powerful as the Reapers, it only made sense to hold onto whatever advantages they could, and that becoming more individualistic was a pragmatic choice.)