BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's trade surplus shrank more than expected in May, weighed down by nationwide truckers strikes that blocked key highways in Latin America's largest economy.
The results highlight how widespread protests against rising fuel prices that began on May 21 are affecting Brazil's economic recovery.
Exports averaged $1.063 billion a day in the first three weeks of the month, before the strikes kicked off, but that fell 36 percent to $678 million in the last two weeks of May. Meanwhile, average daily imports fell 26 percent to $516 million in the same time period.
"Business does not get done if there's no way to ship merchandise," Herlon Brandão, head of export statistics for Brazil's trade ministry, told reporters in a news conference.
Yet that impact was not big enough to drive policymakers to revise their forecast for 2018, which sees a trade surplus of around $50 billion, he added.
Losses were widespread, with exports of manufactured goods leading declines with a 46 percent drop. In comparison, semi-manufactured good exports fell 37 percent and basic material exports decreased 31 percent.
Exports of products such as oil and iron ore are typically moved by ships or railways, which shielded them against the effects of the truckers' strike, Brandão said.
Soybean and meat exports were sturdy, mostly due to stockpiles in ports, though they could still suffer in the short-term.


During the Golden State Warriors championship run in 2015, a small team and I were tasked with brainstorming some experiential marketing initiatives for the following season. These ideas were then categorized into two categories based on their digital or real-world currency.
The first set were digital products. These were meant to integrate with the existing Warriors app and leverage social media and "beacon messages" within Oracle Arena.
The second category of ideas were for in-arena experiences. These purposely also had digital components to further blur the line between the real-world and the one that happens within one of a fan's many screens.


This is a placeholder page for Rebecca Albert, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Rebecca Albert.
You are visiting the placeholder page for Rebecca Albert. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Rebecca Albert. We created this page automatically in hopes Rebecca Albert would find it. If you are not Rebecca Albert, but are an alumni of North Clayton High School, register on this site for free now.


But during seven months as president, many critics and legal scholars say, Mr. Trump has shown a flexible view on the issue, one that favors the police and his own allies over strict application of the rule of law, reported the New York Times.
"Federal law explicitly authorizes local law enforcement to communicate with federal officials about the immigration status of those they encounter. State law requires local law enforcement to follow up on reasonable suspicion of illegal presence when practical to do so."
In the end Arpaio symbolizes what President Trump is a firm believer in--illegal immigration. It is honestly not surprising that this occurred.
Right or wrong, there are always going to be pardons by presidents in history that people may not agree with.


text:
A digital health platform to manage COVID-19: decentralizing technology to empower rural and remote jurisdictions
Tarun Katapally1 Physician, Researcher *
*Associate Professor Tarun Katapally
1 Western University, London, ON, Canada
Katapally T. A digital health platform to manage COVID-19: decentralizing technology to empower rural and remote jurisdictions. Rural and Remote Health 2023; 23: 8097. https://doi.org/10.22605/RRH8097
Introduction: The variation of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks across rural and remote jurisdictions makes it imperative to invest in scalable digital health platforms to not only minimize the impact of subsequent COVID-19 outbreaks, but also to utilize such approaches to predict and prevent future communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Methods: The methodology of the digital health platform comprised: (1) Ethical Real-Time Surveillance to Monitor Risk: evidence-based artificial intelligence-driven individual and community risk assessment of COVID-19 by engaging citizens using their own smartphones; (2) Citizen Empowerment and Data Ownership: active engagement of citizens using smartphone application (app) features, while enabling data ownership; and (3) Privacy: development of algorithms that store sensitive data directly on mobile devices.
Results: The result is a community-engaged, innovative, and scalable digital health platform, with three key features: (1) Prevention: this feature is based on risky and healthy behaviours, and has the sophistication to continuously engage citizens; (2) Public Health Communication: based on their risk profile and behaviour, citizens receive specific public health communication that helps them make informed decisions; and (3) Precision Medicine: risk assessment and behaviour modification is individualized so that the frequency, type, and intensity of engagement is based on individual risk profile.
Discussion: This digital health platform enables the decentralization of digital technology to effect systems-level changes. With more than 6 billion smartphone subscriptions globally, digital health platforms enable direct engagement with large populations in near real-time to monitor, mitigate, and manage public health crises, particularly in rural communities that do not have equitable access to health services.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Took some friends on a tour of the Capital today. Still looks great with the Christmas decorations!
had a good meeting yesterday with the new (incoming) Director of ACHD, Bruce Wong. Bruce has great leadership experiences, business experience and military experience. He will bring a great new focus at ACHD and I look forward to working with him!
Had a great Christmas day with family an good friends... Now it's time to play with all the Christmas goodies like my new Flying Screaming Monkey!
By the way, the total eclipse of the moon will be between 0015 and 0115 MST this evening... if you happen to be up!
plowed a little snow this morning, had a phone conf. on social networking, got another appointment to get a spare key made for my truck (when did this become so hard?), made a Costco run and finished/mailed Christmas cards.. whew!
Is connecting all of his social media through a single source... Chumly looks like a great tool to simplify my life!


text:
Algorithms in Bioinformatics
International Workshop on Algorithms in Bioinformatics
WABI 2016: Algorithms in Bioinformatics pp 257-268 | Cite as
Compact Universal k-mer Hitting Sets
Yaron Orenstein
David Pellow
Guillaume Marçais
Ron Shamir
Carl Kingsford
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 9838)
We address the problem of finding a minimum-size set of k-mers that hits L-long sequences. The problem arises in the design of compact hash functions and other data structures for efficient handling of large sequencing datasets. We prove that the problem of hitting a given set of L-long sequences is NP-hard and give a heuristic solution that finds a compact universal k-mer set that hits any set of L-long sequences. The algorithm, called DOCKS (design of compact k-mer sets), works in two phases: (i) finding a minimum-size k-mer set that hits every infinite sequence; (ii) greedily adding k-mers such that together they hit all remaining L-long sequences. We show that DOCKS works well in practice and produces a set of k-mers that is much smaller than a random choice of k-mers. We present results for various values of k and sequence lengths L and by applying them to two bacterial genomes show that universal hitting k-mers improve on minimizers. The software and exemplary sets are freely available at acgt.cs.tau.ac.il/docks/.
Conjugacy Class Directed Acyclic Graph Infinite Sequence Bloom Filter Greedy Heuristic
R.S. was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation as part of the ISF-NSFC joint program 2015–2018. D.P. was supported in part by a Ph.D. fellowship from the Edmond J. Safra Center for Bioinformatics at Tel-Aviv University. This research is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Data-Driven Discovery Initiative through Grant GBMF4554 to C.K., by the US National Science Foundation (CCF-1256087, CCF-1319998) and by the US National Institutes of Health (R01HG007104). C.K. received support as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Part of this work was done while Y.O., R.S. and C.K. were visiting the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.
Grabowski, S., Raniszewski, M.: Sampling the suffix array with minimizers. In: Iliopoulos, C., Puglisi, S., Yilmaz, E. (eds.) SPIRE 2015. LNCS, vol. 9309, pp. 287–298. Springer, Heidelberg (2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
1.Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence LaboratoryMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyCambridgeUSA
2.Blavatnik School of Computer ScienceTel-Aviv UniversityTel-avivIsrael
3.School of Computer ScienceCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburghUSA
About this paper
Cite this paper as:
Orenstein Y., Pellow D., Marçais G., Shamir R., Kingsford C. (2016) Compact Universal k-mer Hitting Sets. In: Frith M., Storm Pedersen C. (eds) Algorithms in Bioinformatics. WABI 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9838. Springer, Cham
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43681-4_21
Publisher Name Springer, Cham
eBook Packages Computer Science
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Author: Brian Michael Bendis
4.5 Score: 4.5
(From 5 Ratings)
All she ever wanted was to be a super hero. But life had other plans for Jessica Jones. Now, the adventures of the would-be Avenger turned bitter super-powered private eye continue with two new cases. First, Jessica travels to upstate New York to investigate the disappearance of a teenage girl rumored to be a mutant in a prejudiced small town- but a murder mystery and a drunken, ill-advised fling complicate matters. Then, the hard-luck PI goes on a date withÖthe Astonishing Ant-Man? Collecting Alias (2001) #11-15.
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Curses are perks that affect Captain Flinthook in a negative way.
There are many ways one can attain curses; be it bad luck at the Gamblinger an exchange at the Devil's Lodge, a Doomed Sanctuary or even an encounter with the Executioner. Either way, no good can come from curses; or can there?
Curse of the lesser vigor! Gain more XP but slices off some of your Max HP! A pity! Lose 20% Max HP.
Curse of the pitiful pistol! Gain more XP but your Blasma pistol is weaker. Sad! Blasma Pistol does 15% less damage, rounded up.
This page was last edited on 11 May 2017, at 19:41.


text:
scjTIX.com
Relationships & Special Occasions
Sioux City, IA (51101)
Variably cloudy with scattered thunderstorms. Low 72F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
The Inn Hotel, set to open in May, will be a 1920s-30s inspired hotel near the Arnolds Park amusement park and the Roof Garden ballroom in Okoboji.
New Inn hotel, evoking 1920s glamour, to open in Okoboji this May
MASON DOCKTER mdockter@siouxcityjournal.com
Mason Dockter
Lifestyles Reporter
ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa -- Nearly a year after the demolition of The Inn at Okoboji -- a beloved West Lake Okoboji resort with roots dating back to 1896 -- a brand-new boutique hotel emulating the spirit of the old Inn is under construction just up the road.
Construction began last fall on the Inn Hotel on a parcel of land near the Arnolds Park amusement park.
The 38-room hotel, which will boast more than 26,000 square feet of space, heated outdoor pool, a Havana-style bar, an exercise space and a conference room with chandeliers, is expected to open in May.
The hotel will be independently owned and operated by West Okoboji residents Mercedes Steffes and her husband, Marc, whose general contracting firm is building the property.
The Steffes family has not previously owned a hotel, but Marc Steffes' contracting firm, Steffes Companies, had worked on the years-long "Restore the Park" campaign, which restored major parts of the Arnolds Park amusement park and rebuilt the historic Roof Garden ballroom. The new Roof Garden is set to open around June.
After the parcel near the park came up for sale, the Steffes saw an opportunity to build a hotel.
"We thought, 'Wow, with the new Roof Garden would most likely come the need for more lodging in that area,'" Mercedes Steffes said. "So, with the property being available right down in that area, we said, 'Let's go for it.' We just kind of jumped in."
Steffes said the Inn Hotel will be the only hotel with its level of amenities within easy walking distance of the summertime lakes attractions, including West Lake Okoboji.
The Inn Hotel and the Beach Club Lounge will have a 1920s-30s "Old Hollywood" motif, with two-tone marble checkerboard floors, brass fixtures, soft lighting and potted palms. The Steffes hope to make the hotel into something like hotels of that earlier era, when patrons -- even those who didn't actually rent a room -- commonly ate, drank, lounged and held meetings in hotel lobbies and restaurants.
"I feel like our unofficial motto has been, 'Experience the Golden Age,'" Steffes said, referring to "The Golden Age of the Lake" -- a time when entertaining at the Iowa Great Lakes had a certain style and cachet.
The Beach Club Lounge, which is open to the public, features a mixture of Art Deco and tropical motifs. They're aiming for a 1920s Havana vibe, when affluent Americans often vacationed in Cuba to escape Prohibition in the United States.
The original Inn at Okoboji opened in 1896 at 3301 Lakeshore Drive when J.A. Beck constructed a 24-room hotel on the picturesque blue waters of West Lake Okoboji. The hotel, which later expanded to 155 rooms, was demolished last year by developers who bought the property at auction in a $5.7 million deal. The nearly 400 feet of lakefront will be developed as single-family homes while 69 acres that was formerly used as a golf course and farmland will be turned into green space and a park with paved trails that the owners would maintain.
The Inn Hotel's architecture and some of its furnishings and fixtures are inspired by the historic resort. For a time, Steffes said she was concerned that longtime Lakes residents wouldn't like to see the old hotel's style copied -- but it turned out, most everyone has been supportive of what they've done.
"I don't think you can go wrong when you do something classic like that," she said.
Copyright 2019 The Sioux City Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Upgrades have fans, officials excited for future at Arnolds Park
ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa -- As folks shrieked in delight speeding down the old Fun House slide, others stepped inside the grounds at Historic Arnold…
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Capacity-building Workshop on National Lifelong Learning Policy Development Begins
News.BYIIE SOU.1116,2021
On November 8, 2021, a capacity-building workshop on 'Strengthening education systems from a lifelong learning perspective' kicked off. Co-organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and Shanghai Open University (SOU), the workshop brings together more than 50 stakeholders, comprising government representatives, policy-makers and representatives of lifelong learning institutions from Lao People's Democratic Republic, Mongolia, the Republic of Kazakhstan and Uganda, as well as a team of representatives of open universities in the People's Republic of China.This is our third workshop, but our first in an online setting. Although we are not together in person, we are together in our eagerness to take what the past two years have taught us and transform it into policy that strengthens education systems from a lifelong learning perspective.David Atchoarena, Director of UILThis is our first online workshop, due to the pandemic. With this online platform, we hope to gather the wisdom of global outstanding lifelong learning experts, exchange ideas, share experiences, create a blueprint for lifelong learning, and promote the implementation of SDG4.Mr JIA Wei , President of Shanghai Open UniversityDuring 50 years in UNESCO, we have cooperated on a series of initiatives and activities together, including our cooperation with UIL. In 2013, we co-organized the first International Conference on Learning Cities with UIL, where the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities was established.Mr QIN Changwei , Secretary General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCOOver the course of three weeks, from 8 to 26 November 2021, they will develop measures to promote lifelong learning, through education, at the national level.Participants will build a rationale for policy development by exploring and contextualizing overarching themes affecting education and lifelong learning, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, digitalization, and active and global citizenship. They will then select a series of key topics requiring policy prioritization. Possible topics include flexible learning pathways, learning cities, and lifelong learning through formal, non-formal and informal learning.Each team will draft a national policy, an implementation strategy or a targeted action plan for lifelong learning. They will develop concrete timelines for advancing the policy, strategy or action plan following the workshop to ensure timely follow-up. Teams will build on the political will in their countries to embrace lifelong learning, as demonstrated by video testimony from H.E. Phout Simmalavong, Minister of Education, Lao PDR.
JIA Wei Made a Keynote Speech at the 14th German-Chinese Applied Higher Education Symposium
On October 28th, 2021, the 14th German-Chinese Applied Higher Education Symposium online was co-held by Hefei University and Hochschule Osnabrück University Of Applied Sciences. JIA Wei, president of Shanghai Open University, made a keynote speech, named "Educational Openness and Cooperation in the Digital Era:The Development of the Chinese-German Online Open Learning Platform", introducing the context, development status, features and futures thinking of the CG-OOC. JIA Wei also warmly welcomed universities and enterprises attending the Symposium to actively participate in the construction of the CG-OOC, jointly promote the cultivation of international and applicable talents in China and Germany and deepen the cooperation in higher education online.The theme of the Symposium this year is "Future-oriented Sino-German Cooperation -Dual System Higher Education". Professor Christian Wulff, former President of Germany, attended and presided over the opening ceremony. WAN Gang, Vice Chairman of the CPPCC National Committee and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. There are more than 200 participants from 69 Chinese and German universities. Since 2008, the Symposium has been held alternately in China and Germany every year.
Shanghai Open University Continues to Be the Host Institution of the UNESCO UNITWIN Network in Distance and Open Learning (East Asia)
News.BYIIE SOU.318,2021
Recently, Shanghai Open University has formally requested the renewal of the Agreement between UNESCO and Network in Distance and Open Learning (East Asia) in January 1997, and UNESCO agrees to renew the Agreement for an additional period of four years to September 2024. Prof. YUAN Wen, President of Shanghai Open University is the Network Coordinator.In a formal reply, UNESCO fully affirmed the work done by Shanghai Open University as the host institution. "The thematic area covered by the network is of crucial significance for higher education and has been given renewed priority due to the crisis caused by the global pandemic. The expertise that this network can bring to other universities and education systems is of great value and should be capitalized on. The cooperation programme is going beyond the original East Asia focus with outreach to partner with universities in Africa and South Asia," they said.The UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme was established in 1992 and every four years, the university hosting a UNESCO Chair or assuring the coordination of a network party to a UNITWIN Cooperation Programme shall submit to UNESCO a report on the activities carried out by the Chair/network, their development prospects and the financial resources secured. In 1997, the UNESCO UNITWIN Network in Distance and Open Learning (East Asia) was approved by UNESCO and then established, Shanghai Open University is the host institution. The Network has a history of 24 years and is committed to building an exchange platform, promoting knowledge transmission, resource sharing and academic development in the field of ODL. Up to now, the Network has 20 member institutions, including The Open University UK and The Open University of China.
Joint Learning Program Launched by Chinese, German Universities
An open online learning platform jointly launched by Shanghai Open University and FernUniversität in Hagen in Germany started its pilot run on Friday.The project was approved at the Sino-German Dialogue Forum 2019 to create a communication portal between the two institutions, promote cooperation in online education and talent cultivation between the two countries, and support development of both Chinese and German enterprises.The platform, Chinese-German OOC, has pooled expertise and resources from 10 educational institutions and companies, including Shanghai International Studies University, Tongji University, Shanghai University for the Elderly, the Open University of China's Huaqiao College, Alibaba, Shanghai East Radio Station Classical Music Radio 947, World Urban Planning Education Network and COGNOS International. Over 30 courses in Chinese, German and English covering five domains, such as languages, commerce and cultures, are currently available on the platform for free.More courses will be developed by the platform partners and more institutions will join the platform."It will offer high-quality online educational resources and learning services for people in both countries, bridging the gap between higher education and talent demand by enterprises," said Yuan Wen, principal of Shanghai Open University."The move will accelerate cultural exchanges, business growth and online education development in both countries as well," she said.Ada Pellert, principal of FernUniversität in Hagen, said: "the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly accelerated the digitization of the higher education sector, in terms of administrative procedures, teaching and training. It also drives the internationalization of digital learning."Under such circumstances, Pellert highlighted the significant role of the cooperative platform to enhance multicultural teaching and learning experience for talent."We expect to deepen our cooperation and work together for the cause of online education and lifelong learning," she added.
The Press Conference and Theme Forum of The Blue Book on the Development of Basic Education Informatization in Shanghai in 2020 was Held in Shanghai Open University
On January 3rd ,2021, supported by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and National Center for Educational Technology, co-organized by Shanghai Society of Education, Shanghai Educational Technology Center and Shanghai Education Press, the press conference and theme forum of The Blue Book on the Development of Basic Education Informatization in Shanghai in 2020 was held in Shanghai Open University,The Blue Book, with the theme of Creating a New Home for Education of Ubiquitous Wisdom, focuses on the exploration and practice of educational informatization in Shanghai, focusing on updating educational concepts, building a new learner-centered education ecology, paying attention to the change of educational paradigm, expanding the application scenarios, leading the popularity of technology, and opening the prelude to the future.At the forum, YUAN Wen, President of Shanghai Open University, delivered a keynote speech entitled 'The Expectation of Future Education Determines the Future of Education'.
On December 4, 2020, "Online Education Development Forum in the Era of AI" was held in the Intelligent Learning Center of SOU. The forum was co-organized by the Engineering Technology Research Center of Open Distance Education of SOU, Shanghai Library and Shanghai Association for Artificial Intelligence Networking Systems of AI. The Survey Report on Post-epidemic Shanghai Online Learners' Portraits' was released at the forum.The report is a phased research result of a national level project, which is jointly released by the Engineering Technology Research Center of Open Distance Education of SOU, Shanghai Library and Shanghai Association for Artificial Intelligence Networking Systems of AI. The report shows that the learning needs and willingness of Shanghai adult online learners are stable in the post-epidemic period, and they pay attention to the improvement of personal value when making longer-term plans. Dr. Xiao Jun said, based on the portrait analysis of Shanghai adult online learners, the online and offline integrated learning mode in the post-epidemic period will promote the inclusive, fair and ubiquitous development of lifelong learning, artificial intelligence, together with teachers and students, will build a learning community to promote the quality and optional development of learner-centered lifelong learning, online learning, intelligent teaching, integrated with related industries will accelerate the development of smart learning environment.Through continuous tracking research on adult online learners in Shanghai, the research group compared the latest survey data with the data in 2018 and 2019 to create this portrait of online learners in post-epidemic period. The report has considerable reference value for the development of education, the improvement of teaching quality and the research on learning efficiency.
SOU holds the 60th anniversary event
The 60th anniversary event of Shanghai Open University (SOU) was held on October 21, 2020. Chen Qun, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, Chairman of the University Council, and Zhang Endi, the Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Political Consultative Conference attended the event. Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education sent a congratulatory letter.Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Open University of China (OUC), delivered a speech. He said, over the past six decades, driven by its commitment of "For All Learners, All for Learners", SOU has made great contributions to the increase of the education level of the labor force in Shanghai, as well as the improvement of the comprehensive quality of the citizens. SOU has played the key role in building a learning city. OUC, together with SOU, will actively adapt to the development trend of intelligent, lifelong and integrated education. According to the requirements of the Ministry of Education, OUC and SOU will build a main platform for lifelong education and online education, and a platform for flexible education and international cooperation.Lou Junjiang, secretary of the Party Committee of SOU, delivered a welcoming address. He said, in the future, SOU will keep in mind the urban development concept of "the city is built by the people and also serves the people", and will build a lifelong education system with more flexible methods, more abundant resources and more convenient ways of learning. Yuan Wen, president of SOU, delivered a speech. She said, SOU will provide more inclusive education services with a more open attitude in the new era, to enable more Shanghai citizens to pursue a better life. SOU will also strive to establish itself as a first-class open university in the world with Shanghai characteristics and China's identity.Shanghai Open University also held the opening ceremony of the Intelligent Learning Center and the unveiling ceremony of High School Affiliated to Shanghai Open University.
SOU and SJCDC sign MoU
The online MoU signing ceremony between Shanghai Open University (SOU) and St. Jude College Dasmarinas Cavite Inc. (SJCDC) was held on October 12, 2020. Zhang Jin, vice president of SOU and Evangeline A. Del Rosario, president and CEO of SJCDC delivered speeches on behalf of the University. SJCDC is located at Cavite, the Philippines, which offers education from preschool to graduate level. It also has a St. Jude General Hospital& Medical Center. The signing of the MoU is a good start for the cooperation between the two universities. It is hoped that the two sides will give play to their respective advantages, carry out the cooperation of substantive projects, strengthen the communication between teachers and students, and promote academic development, especially the cooperation in the field of home economics and other feature specialties, so as to promote the improvement of the international running level of the two universities.
The Delegation of California State University-Long Beach Visited Shanghai Open University
News.BYSOU.611,2019
The delegation of California State University-Long Beach (CSULB) came to visit Shanghai Open University (SOU) on June 11. Members of the delegation include professors from College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, College of Liberal Arts, College of Education, and College of Health and Human Services at California State Univeristy-Long Beach. ZHANG Jin, Vice President of SOU and other related faculties attended the meeting.ZHANG Jin introduced the development history and features of SOU, and proposed suggestions for further cooperation between SOU and CSULB. After that, the delegation visited the Digital Laboratory for Open Education to get a deeper understanding of SOU's degree education, the construction of community education resources, and the application of ICT in education. The delegation felt it's admirable that SOU fully applied modern information technology to teaching and practicing, and provided inclusive and flexible education for citizens.Later, the two sides had further discussion into the fields they were both interested in, including training programs for faculties, student exchange, the construction of department of Urban Public Safety Management, and possible ways of developing the cooperation.
Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) Deputy Director-General Yu Yunfeng and His Team Visits SOU
On the morning of July 5, Yu Yunfeng, Deputy Director-general and Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), came to SOU to study the progress of the construction of SOU's overseas Chinese language teaching center. Li Yongzhi, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, and Ge Jingyi, Deputy Director of the International Exchange Division of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, accompanied the delegation. The meeting was attended by President Yuan Wei, Vice President Zhang Wei, and the colleagues of the Institute of International Exchange.Vice President Zhang introduced the work of international cooperation and exchange, the progress of the development of overseas Chinese language teaching centers, and the partner enterprise. Deputy Director-General Yu Yunfeng appreciated SOU's efforts in promoting the construction of overseas Chinese language teaching centers and the promotion of Chinese language education, and expressed strong support for the new model of overseas online Chinese language center that is co-developed by the University and the enterprise, and expressed the hope that the Djibouti Overseas Chinese Language Teaching Center, which SOU has applied to open, should adapt to the local economic and social development in addition to providing Chinese language teaching. The functions of such a language center should include equipping professional and skilled workers with Chinese language capabilities and providing training to local Chinese teachers for their professional development.
2018 International Visiting Scholar Program Has Successfully Completed
On June 15th morning, 2018 International Visiting Scholar Program of UniTWIN Network in Distance & Open Learning and Shanghai Open University has been concluded successfully. Ms. Zhang Jin—-the vice president of SOU, and Mr. Robert Parua—-the Program Specialist for Education from UNESCO Beijing Office have attended the closing ceremony and delivered addresses. Dr. Weng Zhuhua, the executive dean of the Institute of International Exchanges of SOU chaired the closing ceremony.Ms. Zhang Jin has summarized the activities that the international visiting scholars have participated in, and also expressed the wishes of the future collaboration between SOU and the international visiting scholars' home institutions. Mr. Robert Parua has also given his affirmation and praise to the success of this program from the perspective of its influence on the development of education of UNESCO. They both awarded the certificates of the program to the international visiting scholars.During the passing two weeks, the 19 International Visiting Scholars from 18 countries has successfully completed the program. They have had an in-depth discussion with the Research and Development Department, the Teaching Affairs Department, the Institute of International Exchanges, Teacher's Resource Center, Course Resource Center, and Quality Assurance and Evaluation Center. They also have exchanged ideas and views with teachers from School of Public Administration, School of Economics and Management, School of Science and Engineering, as well as School of Humanity and Arts. They also paid an on-site visit to Yangpu Branch School, Qingpu Branch School, Fashion Design School and Xuhui Branch School of SOU. They have also shared best practices and presentations through four seminars, with the theme of the Application of ICT in ODL (Open & Distance Learning), Teachers' Professional Development & Team Teaching in ODL, Program Development & Course Development in ODL, Inclusive Education in Lifelong Learning Society, and Quality Assurance in ODL. Through both face-to-face and online interaction, they had full exchanges and communications with SOU teachers and students, the former SOU International Visiting Scholars, the member institutions of the Unitwin network in ODL.This is the 11th session of SOU International Visiting Scholar Program since 2013. Up to now, SOU has received 104 International Visiting Scholars from 44 different countries. It is the first time for the scholars from Australia, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Germany, Ghana, Maldives, Papua New Genuine and Singapore to participate in SOU International Visiting Scholar Program. Through this program, inter-university understanding and trust has been enhanced, and the opportunities of international exchanges in many aspects have also been explored.
Argentine Parliament Delegation Visits SOU
On the morning of March 30, Mrs. Carmen Polledo and Mrs. Paula Oliveto Lago, the members of the Argentine National Congress, visited SOU. President Yuan Wen received the guests.President Yuan introduced the development history and university profile of SOU. As a university without walls, Shanghai Open University takes advantage of its branch school system and learning platform and provides citizens with opportunities for higher education and lifelong learning. SOU has played an important role in supporting regional industry development, promoting higher education equity and enhancing the quality of urban population's lives. At the same time, as the host institute of the UNESCO UNITWIN Network, SOU actively promotes international cooperation in the field of open distance education and has achieved remarkable results.Carmen Polledo said that she felt the tremendous advantages of open distance education after the visit. Like China, education has always been the focus of the Argentine government. Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, has a number of open educational institutions. The municipal government is also exploring the establishment of a municipal university like Shanghai Open University. Both sides can explore resources cooperation in the field of culture, language, and academic disciplines on this basis, and expand this form of cooperation to other universities in Argentina.The meeting enhanced the mutual understanding between the higher education fields in Shanghai and Buenos Aires, and the two sides will carry out practical cooperation projects in order to enhance Sino-Argentine education exchanges and cooperation.Director of the Foreign Affairs Division of the Shanghai Municipal CPPCC Office, Mr. Wang Junwei, accompanied the delegation. Representatives from the Foreign Affairs Office, Development and Research Department, Institute of International Exchange of SOU participated in the meeting.
Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University Teacher and Student Delegation Visits SOU
News.BYSOU.1204,2017
Between November 20-24th, 17 teachers and students from the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University(STOU),Thailand, visited SOU for cultural exchange. This event was the first time that SOU and overseas UNITWIN Network member institutions to carry out cultural exchange activities between teachers and students.At the welcoming ceremony on November 21, President of the SOU Yuan Wen welcomed the delegation and introduced the "One Belt and One Road" programs of SOU. She hoped for exchanges and cooperation in more fields between SOU and STOU to achieve common progress; President of the STOU Panumas Kudgnaogarm gave an address afterwards, then they exchanged souvenirs on behalf of two universities.The Institute of International Exchange prepared various activities for visitors of the STOU, including Shanghai Culture lecture, Chinese language lecture, calligraphy class, historical and cultural search, city development tour and art performance. Through the activities, the delegation of STOU had better understanding about Chinese culture, society and education.At the closing ceremony, delegation of STOU and teachers and students of SOU brought wonderful art performances. Dr. Weng Zhuhua, the Executive Dean of IIE, then awarded certificates of completion to the teachers and students of STOU.The exchange and communication between SOU and STOU has enhanced the mutual understanding and trust, has further enhanced the cooperation field between SOU and STOU, and has fostered the friendship between the Chinese and Thai people.
SOU Holds 2017 Immersion Hub Short Term International Student Program
The fifth session of Immersion Hub Short Term International Student Program was officially started on the morning of June 12 at Shanghai Open University. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Vice President ZHANG Jin expressed a warm welcome to all international students, hoping that 25 students from 8 countries could learn from the two-week program and experience the Chinese culture by themselves.After visiting the Digital Lab of Open Learning at Shanghai Open University, the students had their first Chinese language class – Coding Chinese. SOU's foreign expert Zhao used a unique teaching method to help students to learn Chinese characters, verbs and sentences in a relatively short period of time.In the afternoon, students experienced a classical Chinese dance lesson instructed by Zhou Yuqi. Ms. Zhou is good at Chinese classical dance, she taught international student a few fundamental dance movement and proper postures in Chinese classical dance. In order to show students diverse styles of Chinese dance, Ms. Zhou also performed Xinjiang folk dance and taught international students a short piece of it. After the class, international students from Brazil and Russia also demonstrated the dance from their countries.The dance class was followed by team building activities organized by David James, the specially invited visiting scholar of SOU. The activities have made students to understand each other's cultural backgrounds, cultural identities, personal interests through ice-breaking games and small group Q and A. At the end of the event, the students said that they hoped to learn Chinese, to exercise their English skills, to build network and to understand the Chinese food and culture better through the two-week program. Anja, one participant from Belgium, said that "cultural integration is very important in international communication, and everyone with cultural identity should not confine themselves to the cultural circle in which they are located, but should be more tolerant, receptive and integrated into a multicultural culture. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to take the chance to communicate with students from different countries, which is also a rare and valuable opportunity offered to us by the Immersion Hub Program."The first Immersion Hub Short Term International Student Program was held in 2013. So far it has attracted 239 international students from 27 countries for the past four years. It features Chinese language and culture classes and activities, facilitates communication and exchanges among students from Open Universities around the world and conventional Universities.
Experts from the Open University of Hong Kong Host a Training Program for Our Faculty on Teaching & Quality Management
16-19 December 2014, Professor Ye Yaoqiang, Vice-President of the Open University of Hong Kong, Dr. Zeng Wanmei, Vice-Director of the Education Technology Publishing Department, Senior Instructional Design Director Dr. Cai Minghui and Ms. Lu Huihui from the Open University of Hong Kong hosted a training on teaching and quality management. The training was organized by the International Exchange Institute, the Teaching Affairs Management Office as well as the Education and Teaching Management Office. Teachers, Administrators, Heads of respective functional departments and branch schools attended the four-day training.During the training, experts introduced the teaching mode, teaching and administration resource arrangements, as well as program design and implementation of the Open University of Hong Kong. At the same time, they also made presentations on the topics of teaching resource management, learning materials design and teaching management, course and textbook, quality management and assurance of teaching faculty and teaching outcomes, etc. The attendees of this training program actively interacted with the experts, and they all agreed that the excellent practice and experience of the Open University of Hong Kong were worth learning.
SOU receives the 2014 UNESCO Seminar on Education for Rural Development
October 28, 32 delegates of UNESCO Seminar on Education for Rural Development visited SOU to enhance ties, 13 were from African Countries including Ethiopia and Cameroon, 4 were from Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Laos. The seminar was co-organized by Academy of International Business Officials, MOFCOM and UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education. The delegates were mainly officials and scholars from the education sector of Africa and developing countries.Professor Gu Xiaomin, the Vice President of SOU, introduced to the guests about SOU and its cooperation and exchanges on distance education with African open universities and international organizations in the past and expressed the hope of promoting the academic cooperation between SOU and universities of other countries. The delegates also learnt about the rural area education program of SOU and its development. After the meeting, the delegates paid visit to Digital Lab of Open Learning of SOU and Community Education I-digital Experience center, the digital educational resources environment with cloud computing technology, the open learning tests and analysis and its innovative mode left them deep impression.
Oversea Visiting Scholars Successfully Accomplished Research & Study at SOU
After receiving oversea visiting scholars from Brazil and Africa last year, nine oversea visiting scholars from South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Brazil and the Netherlands have carried out a two-week research and study from May 26th to June 6th this year.During the two weeks of research and studies, the visiting scholars have not only participated in meetings with related academic departments, administrative departments, as well as staff from branch schools and information technology center, so as to have a deep understanding of the education concept and specialty of Shanghai Open University, but also participated in 2014 International Conference on Ubiquitous Learning. In addition, the visiting scholars have also made presentations on the practice, experience and development trends of distance education in their own countries through panel discussions and symposia.
2014 Shanghai International Conference on Ubiquitous Learning and UNESCO UNITWIN Network Serial International Training Workshop Held in SOU
202 representatives from 20 countries including 41 overseas participants met at Shanghai Open University to share their views and expertise on the ubiquitous learning between May 30-31th. The two-day conference was co-organized by National Commission of The People's Republic of China for UNESCO and Shanghai Open University.Deputy Director of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission Yuan Wen and Secretary General of Chinese National Commission for UNESCO Du Yue presented and addressed at the conference's opening ceremony. During the conference, professor of Graduate School of Education of Harvard University Christopher Dede, professor for Advanced Learning Technologies of Open University of the Netherlands Marcus Specht, President of the Open University of China Yang Zhijian, professor of Institute of Education of Tsinghua University Cheng Jiangang and President of Shanghai Open University Jiang Hong delivered keynote speeches. The conference, themed "Ubiquitous Learning: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies" , had four parallel sessions on "Moocs and Ubiquitous Learning", "Big Data, Cloud Computing and Ubiquitous Learning", "Micro-Course and Mobile Learning" and "ODL Engineering Technology and Ubiquitous Learning". The conference theme firmly grasp the forefront of ODL issues and hot topics, including the ubiquitous mobile learning environment, achieving seamless learning technology theory and practice cases, big data, Moocs, etc.. 98 conference papers were received with 18 papers submitted by overseas participants and 80 were submitted by Chinese participants.The chairman of World Committee for Lifelong Learning Yves Attou gave a speech at the closing ceremony. President Jiang Hong concluded the conference with a brief speech.
SOU and UMFK hold first virtual meeting to map out future collaboration
Shanghai Open University (SOU) and University of Maine (Fort Kent) (UMFK) met for the first time via video conference between Shanghai and Fort Kent on May 29th to discuss issues in regard to collaborations between two universities. Professor Gu Xiaomin, Vice President of SOU, Dean and staff of Institute of International Exchange and School of Public Administration of SOU, Professor Wilson Hess, President of UMFK, Dr. Robert Dixon and Dr. Thomas Enerva from UMFK attended the virtual meeting.Vice President of SOU gave a brief introduction of SOU and School of Public Administration and proposed ways of possible collaboration in the future that would benefit both universities, which then received positive response from UMFK. President of UMFK added that SOU and UMFK could collaborate in such areas as program development, courses development, mutual academic credit transfer and recognition and teachers' training. Both side agreed to form an agreement of collaboration by the end of May.
Delegation of Xin Jin Shan Chinese School from Australia Visited SOU
April 15, under the leadership of Shanghai Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, the delegation of Australian Xin Jin Shan Chinese School, head by Mr. Sun Haoliang, visited Shanghai Open University to discuss cooperation with the Institute of International Exchange.During the meeting of discussing cooperation, Professor Liu Wenfu, dean of the Institute of International Exchange, introduced the progress and outcomes on teaching Chinese as a foreign language and web-resource development of SOU in four aspects. Mr. Sun Haoliang showed his intention in cooperation with SOU in the field of the re-development of resource pool and the development of Chinese culture courses. He also pointed out that Shanghai Open University has the unparallel advantages in terms of technology and resources, and he hoped to produce a serial of courses, DVDs and courseware on Chinese culture through cooperation in order to promote the development of both parties. In the afternoon, Xin Jin Shan delegation visited Shanghai Education Resource Centre.Xin Jin Shan Chinese School is located in Melbourne, Australia, and has many branch schools with a history of 20 years, which is a well-known Chinese School in Australia.
African experts and scholars on Distance Education came to our university for research and exchanges.
News.BYKen Yan.1115,2013
November 25, six African experts and scholars on Distance Education from South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria came to our university for research and exchanges. The exchange activity is not only a concrete implementation to the proposal of enhancing the communication and cooperation of education between Africa and China, since our president Mr. Jiang Hong has attended the UNESCO – China – Africa three party coordination meeting, but also part of the Visiting Scholars Project of Shanghai Open University.Our Vice President, Gu Xiaomin, attended the welcome ceremony, and made a speech. During her speech, she wished to enhance the mutual understanding of distance education between African countries and Shanghai Open University, as to lay a good foundation for jointly exploring a new mode of distance education, strengthening the monitoring and quality assurance, and promoting the inner-school cooperation on distance education between China and African countries. During the following two weeks of research and studies, meetings will be arranged between the six visiting scholars and related academic departments, administrative departments, as well as staff from branch schools and information technology center, in order to have a deep understanding of the education concept and specialty of Shanghai Open University. In addition, the visiting scholars will also make presentations on the practice, experience and development trends of distance education in their own countries through panel discussions and symposia.


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The Sensitive Topic of Power
Daughters Changing the Conversation About Succession
Power with an Apology: What Women Face in Hurdles and Team Building
Giving Voice to a Shared Struggle
Mentorship and Advisory Boards – Who is on Your List of Trusted Advisors?
Women in Family Business
Evolving Roles and Finding Your Identity in the Family Business
Defining the role of each family member within a family business is rarely a straightforward process. Identity evolves with time, and roles can be reverse-engineered and adapted based on the person's skills, interests and, sometimes, the needs of the business. Understanding one's own motives is a crucial first step towards defining every member's role and identity. In this episode of our WiFB Conversations, Amy Katz and Ramia Marielle El Agamy discuss the challenges and possible solutions to finding one's identity within the family business.
This episode of Conversations with Women in Family Business is co-produced with Amy Katz, founder of coaching-business Daughters in Charge.
Photo by Isaac Davis on Unsplash
R: Amy, today we're going to talk about finding, building and changing identity within and around the family business context. You've been working with a lot of women who are either active in their family businesses, own their family businesses or would like to find a role in their family businesses. Finding who you are within the family business is amongst one of the greatest challenges that most family members tell you about. Can you tell us a little more about how this challenge tends to manifest itself in people's daily lives in the family business?
A: Part of it begins with the idea that women taking on significant roles in the business is a relatively new concept that's still evolving. Their family and friends often did not expect them to make such a choice. It's disrupting the expectations others have had of them while also embracing the new expectations that they have of themselves.
Typically, when people are pursuing or still figuring out their careers, whether they're in their twenties, thirties or sometimes even later, identity is always a challenge. There are certain key choices we make in our lives that we either settle with and feel great about, or we don't and feel like it's time for a change. I think it's a healthy thing to be pursuing activities, relationships and connections to our work that will shape us and help us develop as a person.
Of course, when you are involved in a family business, this becomes a little bit more complicated. That's why, for many young women, it's so important to clearly define what they do, what their value is and what they contribute to the business. It's important for all of us to say, "This is what gives my life meaning while also giving me a way to contribute."
I'll give you an example. A friend of mine, who has a real estate business, has a daughter who has had two careers in public relations. She said to him, "I'm going to travel around Europe for a month, and then I'm coming back." While she was away, she wrote a proposal for how she wanted to work within his business. She did not include salary, but she did include her role and a couple of things she wanted to introduce into the business, such as social media and wellness breaks for employees.
She's coming into it in a very authoritative way, hoping that she'll be able to find a way for her to express her values while helping the business become a little more up-to-date. This young woman had the opportunity and talent to form her career before, and that has given her the confidence to be very clear about what she's looking for. She's actively looking for a way to deploy her talents but also to be a woman of influence.
R: This is a wonderful example of framing both the purpose and your impact. It describes the ideal case, but it doesn't usually unfold this way. Things happen unexpectedly, and many of us get called into the family businesses in cases of emergency. It's almost always inconvenient, and it's almost never the result of long reflection.
Most people think of a family business as being either a mom-and-pop store or as big as Lego, but most family businesses are in between. They're small- to medium-sized businesses with huge responsibilities that don't give us a lot of time to think about how we would ideally give people space within the organisation. It's still mostly survival-and growth-oriented thinking.
As a woman joining the family business, the value that you're going to be adding is not always clearly defined. We usually join the family business for emotional or family-driven reasons. The hardest scenario is when you join a family business from a need of the family rather than from a need of the business. That makes the identity-finding process most difficult.
Give yourself what I call "floating time". Do not define yourself inside the family business right away. Don't try to be someone important or try to change everything from the beginning. Go in and float. It is really a matter of understanding that seeing the business from the outside versus the inside are two totally different things. I don't care how many summers you've spent working with your parents. It is fundamentally different when you start working with the family business 100 per cent and see your family members in those situations all the time.
The floating period is very important. Nowadays, there's a huge obsession in saying that everything has to have meaning. But work life isn't really like that. There are a lot of things we have to do on a daily basis that have absolutely no meaning. Our impatience and need to attribute meaning to everything can stand in the way of a normal, natural evolution whereby we find our identity over a certain period of time.
Many small family businesses let their new employees go through all the departments of the business to see all the different facets. Try this approach if you can. You have to get a sense of how you react to each context. You might be able to discover what you can contribute only when you know all of these things.
A: Let me go back to something. Part two of the story is that, when this young woman gave her proposal, it was received with a fair amount of ambivalence and surprise. Identity is not something that we do by ourselves. We do it in the context of relationships, of a setting or of an industry. There are a lot of things that shape who we are and how we approach the world.
If you float long enough, eventually, you will drown. It's important to learn about various aspects of the business, but sometimes, younger women feel the need to master every skill from technology to whatever else is important to that particular business. If you don't grab onto something, it can diffuse the identity you are creating in the organisation itself. People will see you as a Jill of all trades and a master of none.
We all want to be definitive in what the people around us are doing. We want to understand, and we want to make sense of things. Someone whose role is diffused or nebulous can run the risk of being seen as either not able to commit to something or a spy.
R: The problem is that being a family business member is nebulous and diffused by definition. No matter how much we formalise our roles, even if we aren't written down as shareholders, we're always going to carry the name. It's a very ambiguous role to play. All of these things need to be done in moderation and within certain time limits. But having an identity within the family business context goes well beyond whether or not you're actually working in the family business.
The identity discussion that I have much more often is with the in-laws, who provide free expertise and contribute significantly to the mental and emotional well-being of family members. Their life is seriously impacted by how the family business is run, but they don't have any say or direct impact in changing anything. I encourage those passive family business members to try to find an identity in relation to the family business.
They could be an ambassador for the well-being of the business or an outside troubleshooter, giving feedback on things they've seen from an outside perspective. It's important that family businesses include passive family members in family business retreats. People who are not in the active business can convey the impressions and tacit information that they're getting while the business is being run.
Have you seen something similar?
A: I think structure helps. The extent to which anyone involved in the family understands and has the opportunity to negotiate what their role might be helps to create boundaries. These boundaries are vital in reigning in a shareholder who is constantly dominating a meeting. Some businesses have family councils, some have retreats, and some have vacation together. This becomes an opportunity to connect people and to share their ideas.
Another approach is setting up different kinds of conversations, depending on the size and scope of the business. They can set up conversations about career development for younger members or conversations for the children that they have and how they're going to manage that. Early in one's career, their identity is through work, but the meaning they're looking for in work may shift over time. As people get older, the role they have had for many years may shift. Maybe they want time to create their identity outside of work. I don't think our roles are fixed. I think it's ever evolving. Understanding where you are, the meaning work has for you, and what you're seeking is important.
You said the contributions that non-family members make can go unrecognised. Keep in mind that family members have all kinds of influence on what goes on at work. They can offer guidance and counsel, and that could be from many family members at different points. It's not only nebulous when you're creating your identity within the business, but it can also be a source of a lot of confusion.
Life stages can be marked out even if they happen at different times for different people. It's important to know what you're seeking because it's not always constant.
R: It comes down to being honest with yourself about the motives behind the identity that you're seeking to assert yourself within. Whether those motives are about gaining influence, power or the advancement of knowledge, being honest about your personal motives is extremely important in finding the identity that's right for you at that stage.
I've been in the family business for a long time, and my role has changed radically based on what my contribution has been at the time. It can be a reverse-engineered process. Rather than trying to decide who you want to be, you may have become much better at something, or you've discovered a new skill. While there are a lot of things that are predictable about business and data, the human factor remains. There's no telling at what stage of life light bulbs become lit in your mind. Suddenly, you'll find an interest that takes you in a totally different direction.
If you have the kind of family business that allows you to explore a potentially new identity or a new way to contribute to its success, you're golden. No matter how much conflict you have or how difficult the process feels, the fact that you're allowed to have that thought process means that you have a very solid basis to evolve and grow continuously. You grow as a person, and the level of impact that you can make on the business will become bigger. That's what we're all seeking to achieve through the identity that we strive for.
A: Not to end on a challenging note, but life does intervene. Parents get older, they require care, and they become part-time. The fluidity that family businesses can allow is a gift. It's something to appreciate and cherish because not everyone has that opportunity.
R: Be grateful for your family businesses. Find out who you are and why you're doing this every single day. Thank you so much, Amy, for another great episode. We'll be back next week with a new topic.
About Amy Katz and Daughters in Charge:
Amy Katz is an executive coach and social psychologist whose business, Daughters in Charge, focuses exclusively on supporting women in family businesses. She is the author of Daughters in Charge: Learning to Lead in Your Family's Business.
www.daughtersincharge.com
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Is the Moon's Core Made of Water?


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Finlay's Monster and Cobb's Speedboat
After speaking to Harry Finlay and reliving his famous encounter with the Loch Ness Monster in 1952, I thought I would do some follow up. These days, people can sit in the comfort of their armchairs and access many a resource online. In this case, that was not an option as not all newspaper year ranges are digitally online. In this case it was off to the local library to examine the microfilm rolls for the Inverness Courier and Northern Chronicle in August 1952.
As it turned out, there wasn't much to add to the story as the Inverness Courier from August 22nd 1952 gave a rather terse account below while the Northern Chronicle had nothing to say. My expectation was that the sighting by Dores school kids a few hours later may have appeared with further details, but alas, the clipping below does not add much to what was already known.
One thought that did pass my mind was whether the creature in question was actually entering the loch when it was seen by the Finlays. I say that because the entrance to the River Ness at Bona Narrows was less than a mile away and the creature gives the impression that it is making its way at speed from that point into the loch.
Of course, I cannot prove that but you will go on to read that John Cobb and his speedboat team were on the eve of arriving at the loch and the monster's spectacular appearance seemed almost portentous as John Cobb was to die in his speedboat accident on the 29th September, just over 5 weeks later.
Seasoned Loch Ness fans will know about the valiant but fatal attempt at the water speed record at Loch Ness by John Cobb. I have written about it before on this blog but it had not then twigged with me the proximity of the Finlay and Cobb events. Was the creature seen by Greta and Harry Finlay responsible for the death of John Cobb? The accepted explanation was that the Crusader had hit a wave caused by the support boat, the Maureen combined with a known weakness in the forward planing shoe of the boat (note the possible waves in the picture below).
The sequence of events is taken from this website:
When the morning of the 29th arrived conditions were far from perfect, slight ripples on the surface of the water .By almost 9.30 am conditions had worsened, then events took a turn for the better in that surface conditions had improved dramatically. At 11.25 am 'Crusader' was again put in the water at Temple Pier and the official observers boat 'Maureen' set off to land the timekeepers at the Drumnadrochit end of the Loch. The 'Maureen' had reported the timekeeper were ashore at 11.50 am. At 11.55 am 'Crusader's' engine was started and she catapulted out at an angle from Urquhart Bay. Cobb came round to his starting point and revved his engine up to full power. 'Crusader' rose in the water and the attempt was under way, the time was almost 12 noon.
With a slight burst of spray in front and a trail of white foam behind she skimmed over the course and reached the second marker. As 'Crusader' reached 200 mph eyewitness accounts say she was hardly touching the water when she came out of the measured mile. Then 'Crusader' started to decelerate to make the second run but hit a wave causing her to bounce twice, she recovered for a second but the next moment the horrified spectators saw the boat plunge in a whirl of spray and foam, flaked with flying wreckage. There was no audible explosion but the boat gave the appearance of bursting apart. Hopes for Cobb's safety was roused when the yellow light attached to his safety apparatus bobbed to the surface. The 'Maureen' made her way to the floating debris and lowered a small boat which reported Cobb had been found. The news brought an immediate call over the radio for a doctor and ambulance, but later it became clear Cobb was dead, probably killed instantly.
Another site states that Cobb was "furious" with the late arrival of the Maureen and any residual waves left behind but pressed on regardless. One presumes from this that he did not regard it as a serious concern but the main theory of how this ended in disaster remains. However, for me, the sighting of a twenty foot plus creature entering the loch some weeks before should have put the brakes on this project from the start.
Of course, John Cobb and his team did not believe this and the Inverness Courier piece on the Finlay sighting was not taking it seriously enough to advise a cancellation. Indeed, another clipping from the time had some people convinced a series of wakes observed during the Crusader trials were monster related, but they were assured these were again just support vehicles. Were people that undiscerning?
On examining the story again, I tried to visualise the sequence of events. The "Maureen" pulled in at the "Drumnadrochit end of the loch" which to me was likely by the Castle, not far from where the Crusader took off from Temple Pier. So, the Crusader took off and headed south one mile to the marker. It then decelerated to turn round and run the second mile back when the accident happened.
So, the question for me was why the Crusader did not hit the Maureen's wake when it was at its strongest closer to the Castle at the beginning of the run? Perhaps because the boat had not picked up speed? But a mile down the water it was dissipating and indeed, it has to be surmised that it was a reflection from the sides of the loch that was encountered, not the original wake. For me, that is a weak explanation as reflections from the loch are not as strong as some make out.
Of course, even if the boat wake theory is proven inadequate, that does not mean it was the Loch Ness Monster as a freak gust of wind could have been enough. Over sixty years on, no further water speed records have been attempted and long may that continue while a large creature continues to move beneath the surface of Loch Ness.
Posted by Glasgow Boy at 14:19 74 comments:


Mr. November also stated that leaders need to empower teachers to relinquish control of the learning process and help students take charge of their own learning.
On February 23, world-renowned education leader Alan November challenged a global audience to change their pedagogical approaches in his second webinar sponsored by itslearning . Titled "Change Management: Putting Pedagogy in the Driver's Seat," the one-hour webinar explored ways to create a culture in which students feel an increasing responsibility for managing their own learning and acquire the information and global communication skills required in the modern world.
November also stated that leaders need to empower teachers to relinquish control of the learning process and help students take charge of their own learning. He cited the example of the new teacher evaluation system that Texas is currently piloting, which includes assessing whether students own their learning.
● Setting measurable academic goals when introducing new tools in order to ensure concrete results.
Before November began the question-and-answer section of the webinar, Lisa Dubernard, itslearning's U.S. director of educational strategy, shared stories about districts around the country that are strategically abandoning some of their platforms and aligning others while putting pedagogy at the forefront. Among the examples she cited was the Dekalb County School System, which wanted students to participate in the development of the curriculum and so had them create and peer assess via the itslearning platform. Another example Dubernard shared was Forsyth City Schools, which uses the platform to allow students to interact on a global level.
The "Change Management: Putting Pedagogy in the Driver's Seat" webinar is available for viewing at no cost at http://www.itslearning.net/change-management-putting-pedagogy-in-the-drivers-seat.
Designed for teachers and how they want to teach, itslearning is a cloud-based learning platform used by millions of teachers, students, administration staff and parents around the world. It can be found at all levels of education, from primary schools to universities, helping teachers make education more inspiring and valuable for today's students. Established in 1999, itslearning is headquartered in Bergen, Norway, and has offices in multiple locations around the world. For more information, visit http://www.itslearning.net.


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Home / Baron Geisler / Liza Soberano / Baron Geisler Ipinagtanggol si Liza Soberano sa Mga Bashers
Baron Geisler Ipinagtanggol si Liza Soberano sa Mga Bashers
Liza Soberano's name is always on the showbiz news headlines. One of the most in-demand actresses of the generation now, Liza is also well-known for many roles she participated on movies and TV shows, and made more famous by their love-team LizQuen with real-life boyfriend Enrique Gil.
The actress was also known for being open and vocal on political and social issues on the internet, most especially when she tweeted and complained about her former internet service provider, Converge. Later on, her post on her Twitter account garnered many likes and retweets as well as posts on Facebook about the same issue went viral as well.
Liza also caught herself up on controversy when a Converge employee responded on the comments section and joked about threatening to have the actress raped on her house.The actress made it clear later on that the she won't let the rape threat go unpunished.
Many netizens were amazed on Liza's advocacies and guts to speak out her opinions to the public. That's why Liza is making rounds again after she left her opinions about the controversial movie "Tililing" starring Baron Geisler, Gina Pareño, Candy Pangilinan, and Donnalyn Bartolome, directed by Darryl Yap.
According to Liza's tweet, she was not fond of the idea of the movie poster seemingly making fun of people with mental illness or disabilities.
"Really hoping that this movie will spread awareness and enlighten us on the struggles of dealing with mental health. But the poster? It's a no for me. Mental health is NOT a joke. Stop the stigma." Liza wrote.
Netizens were quick to react and bash the actress for her criticisms towards the movie that's why one of the stars of the movie, Baron Geisler, stepped in and intervened with all the attacks directed towards Liza Soberano.
Baron Geisler wrote, "Please don't bash Liza. Please be kind. Sometimes we get overprotective with our advocacies. She did not mean to look down on our poster. I believe she meant well folks. Please be kind. Masakit ma-bash naranasan natin lahat yan one way or another."
Netizens applauded Baron for defending Liza Soberano and her advocacies towards raising mental health awareness.
Liza responded by thanking the veteran actor for fending off the bashers that misinterpreted her intentions in posting her criticism towards the upcoming film directed by Darryl Yap, known for his short-films and clips Vincentiments.
Baron Geisler Ipinagtanggol si Liza Soberano sa Mga Bashers Reviewed by Boom on 1:21 AM Rating: 5
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Ryval C660 Basketball Goal is our best selling basketball hoop.
Backboard Size 60" x 38" x 1/2"
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• Ryval Coach Series 60"x 38" backboards outperform box store brands and are popular with homes that have large driveways and moderate sized courts. 38 inches tall brings it closer to regulation dimension of 72 x 42, shaped more like a basketball backboard than a wide screen TV like many other brands at 36" in height.
• The C660 frame is constructed with 16 feet of powder coated 2"x2" and 2"x1" square tube steel to support the tempered glass backboard & flex rim.
• The C660 removable actuator crank handle is secured with a wired pin. Removing the handle would prevent unauthorized height adjustment for younger players during unsupervised play or if you leave for a vacation and want the goal to remain at a fixed height.


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I have an accommodation establishment with guests, may my staff come in during lockdown?
Home » Travel » I have an accommodation establishment with guests, may my staff come in during lockdown?
This FAQ relates to Alert Level 4. For more information about accommodation services under Alert Level 3, please click here.
According to the Disaster Management Act Regulations ("Lockdown Regulations") published on 25 March 2020, and amended on 2 April 2020, hotels, lodges, and guest houses are closed to the public, except to the extent that they are required to stay open to accommodate for remaining tourists that are confined to such establishments, and for persons from another metropolitan area, district or province permitted to travel to a funeral.
In addition, the Lockdown Regulations list accommodation used for persons rendering essential services, quarantine and isolation as an essential service.
On 2 April 2020, the Department of Tourism published Directions to provide guidance on the implementation of the provisions relating to accommodation establishments rendering an essential service. The Directive includes food services within accommodation in the definition of "accommodation".
The Direction states that all hotels, lodges and guest houses, game reserves and holiday resorts as stipulated in Annex D of the Lockdown Regulations, must adhere to the following:
Employers must ensure that all employees at such establishments are trained on the COVID-19 health protocols;
Employers must ensure that their employees have personal protective equipment (PPE);
Employers must provide all employees rendering essential services with accommodation onsite to enable them to remain in the establishment for the entire lockdown period
Western Cape Business to contact Lindy Cambouris (021 483 6527) to register on the database
An accommodation establishment confirmed or designated as a quarantine or isolation facility, is not permitted to render services to any other person besides the people quarantined, isolated or essential service employees therein.
If your establishment is providing services to airline crew members:
According to the Department of Tourism Directive published on 3 April 2020, only approved hotels which provide services related to the lockdown, other than quarantine or isolation, within airport precincts of O.R. Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town International Airport, will be allowed to host airline crew for
cargo flights bringing essential supplies, or
flights that are authorised for the evacuation of international tourists.
To find out more about requirements to operate as an essential service during the lockdown, click here.
Find more information here about the Permit to Perform an Essential Service that needs to be filled in.
PAYE and UIF Compliance
How this webinar will benefit your business Save time and money Inefficient tax processes and outdated procedures eat into your productivity and profits, and can even result in penalties which could easily have been avoided. Protect your employees Learn how to ensure...
How to do VAT returns and E-Filing
Need help doing your VAT returns and E-Filing? While most South African businesses want to remain compliant with tax laws and regulations, understanding exactly what is required of you, which supporting documents you might need, which rebates might apply to your...
Business Pivot: From exhibition stands to UVC light units
How have businesses pivoted during COVID-19 in South Africa? Established in 2011 out of a factory in Diep River, Cape Town, Cape Customs grew into a well-known exhibition company in the region. Working with multi-national corporates, architects to small businesses...
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Are there domestic or international flights during the lockdown? Yes, there are. For any travel-related information, please click here.
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Yes. For travel related information, please click here and here.
WHAT ARE THE RULES RELATED TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT UNDER ALERT LEVEL 3?
What are the rules related to public transport under Alert Level 3? Under the Adjusted Alert Level 3, bus and taxi services – may not carry more than 70 percent of the licensed capacity for long distance travel (200km or more);...
What is the protocol for a foreign traveller who is in South Africa at present?
If you are a traveller in South Africa at present, what is the protocol? For any travel related information, please click here.
AM I PERMITTED TO BE OUTSIDE MY HOUSE DURING CURFEW HOURS FOR WORK DURING ALERT LEVEL 1 IN South Africa?
Am I permitted to be outside my house during curfew hours for work during Alert Level 1 in South Africa? Yes, you are. According to the 15 December 2020 Level 1 Disaster Management Regulations, you may leave your residence between 11pm and...
22 March 2020. The State of Disaster directives, regulations, travel advisories, statements and other information quoted on this website are frequently updated and it is the responsibility of the reader to ensure that s/he additionally confirms the most up to date content on the Coronavirus website of National Government. This document does not constitute legal or medical advice.
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Lionfly Secrets is composed of five euphoric musicians with diverse background and a common goal; to make it as deep in to the music jungle as possible!
In 2015 Lionfly Secrets performed at the finals of Stream Your Dream by spinnup at Göta Källare, the finals of Svensktoppen nästa Kalmar Län, the finals of Emergenza Skåne (where we came in second place), Live at Heart Festival in Örebro and have also toured across Sweden as support for both English based artist´s Martha Paton and Hayley Harland.
In late 2016 Lionfly Secrets released their latest single Epiphany that got mentioned by "Kings of A&R" – Link press here. The band is also featured on many other blogs.
The band has brought an new exciting sound to the table, characterized by Erica Zandelins dark vocals, and the guys unique instrumentals. A hybrid of "indie/pop/rock", with heavy influences from folk, they make it sound like nothing else. If you want to hear something new, Lionfly Secrets is your band.
Lionfly Secrets webVisit the official Lionfly Secrets website.


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Q: Any good application for data usage monitor? I was wondering if there are any good applications to monitor how much data I use on my laptop in a month. My net connection has a restriction of how much data I can use after which the speed goes down considerably. I saw ntop, but I just wanted to ask if there are any other good options or suggestions regarding this.
Regards.

A: You can check NTM - Network Traffic Monitor

A: I was in a similar situation, but with slow speeds after a certain amount of data usage is reached (now I have a 16 GB 12 Mbit plan ☺) and I used vnstat (package vnstat). It's a command-line app that displays the bandwidth usage for today and previous days. as soon as it is installed, it will start monitoring the usage.
Usage: run vnstat to view the statistics, vnstat -d for viewing daily usage. Add -i wlan0 to the previous command if you are using a wireless network. See the manual page for it by running man vnstat for more information.

A: There is Datafox, an addon for Firefox.
This should monitor at least your bandwidth usage on the web, I don't know if it can monitor usage with other applications however.

A: vnStat - Light Weight Console-based Network Monitor
vnStat is a console-based network traffic monitor for Linux and BSD that keeps a log of network traffic for the selected interface(s). It uses the network interface statistics provided by the kernel as information source. This means that vnStat won't actually be sniffing any traffic and also ensures light use of system resources.
In this tutorial we'll review:

*

*Features

*Installation

*Configuration

*Start Systemd Service

*Usage (from command line)

*Conky Real Time Display example

Features

*

*quick and simple to install and get running

*gathered statistics persists through system reboots

*can monitor multiple interfaces at the same time

*several output options

*summary, hourly, daily, monthly, weekly, top 10 days

*optional png image output (using libgd)

*months can be configured to follow billing period

*light, minimal resource usage

*same low cpu usage regardless of traffic

*can be used without root permissions

*online color configuration editor

Installation
nvStat is in the official repositories so no need to link to a new ppa. To install create a Terminal instance using Ctrl+Alt+T and type at the prompt:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vnstat

After installation, keep your Terminal open for the following sections. There is no need to reboot.
Configuration
Pick a preferred network interface and edit the Interface variable in the  /etc/vnstat.conf accordingly. To the list all interfaces available to vnstat, use:
$ vnstat --iflist
Available interfaces: wlp60s0 lo enp59s0 (1000 Mbit)

To start monitoring a particular interface you must initialize a database first. Each interface needs its own database. The command to initialize one for the eth0 interface is:
sudo vnstat -u -i enp59s0

Start Systemd Service
After introducing the interface(s) and checking the config file. You can start the monitoring process via systemd:
sudo systemctl start vnstat.service

To make this service permanent use:
sudo systemctl enable vnstat.service

From now on vnstat will be gathering network usage in the background using such a small percentage of CPU it doesn't show up on conky's (system monitor's) top 9 list of processes (on my machine).
Usage (from Command Line)
Query the network traffic:
vnstat -q

Viewing live network traffic usage:
vnstat -l

To find more options, use:
vnstat --help

Monthly Totals
To see monthly totals, use:
$ vnstat -m

 enp59s0  /  monthly

       month        rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
    ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
      Oct '17      2.02 GiB |    1.57 GiB |    3.59 GiB |   11.25 kbit/s
      Nov '17     58.28 GiB |   24.58 GiB |   82.86 GiB |  268.17 kbit/s
      Dec '17    143.23 GiB |   13.64 GiB |  156.87 GiB |  491.31 kbit/s
      Jan '18    102.77 GiB |   30.21 GiB |  132.97 GiB |    1.04 Mbit/s
    ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
    estimated    257.06 GiB |   75.56 GiB |  332.62 GiB |

Conky Real Time Display example
Conky is a popular light-weight System Monitor used across many Linux distributions. You can show vnStat bandwidth totals in your conky display like this:

30 second .gif of Conky's relevant section
The Conky code to produce this display is:
${color orange}${voffset 2}${hr 1}
${color}Memory:${goto 148}${color green}$mem / $memmax $alignr${color green}${memperc /}%
${color}Linux:${goto 148}${color green}${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /} $alignr${color green}${fs_used_perc /}%
${color}NVMe Win 10:${goto 148}${if_mounted /mnt/c}${color green} ${fs_used /mnt/c} / ${fs_size /mnt/c} $alignr${color green}${fs_used_perc /mnt/c}%${else}${color yellow}/mnt/c${endif}
${color}${if_mounted /mnt/d}HGST_Win10:${goto 148}${color green} ${fs_used /mnt/d} / ${fs_size /mnt/d} $alignr${color green}${fs_used_perc /mnt/d}%${else}Cache RAM:${goto 148}${color green}${cached} ${color} Buffers: ${color green} ${buffers}${endif}
${color}${if_mounted /mnt/e}WSL+Linux:${goto 148}${color green}${fs_used /mnt/e} / ${fs_size /mnt/e} $alignr${color green}${fs_used_perc /mnt/e}%${else}Swap:${goto 148}${color green}${swap} / ${swapmax} $alignr${color green}${swapperc}%${endif}
${color orange}${voffset 2}${hr 1}
${color1}Network using vnStat "-i", "-w" and "-m"
${color}${goto 5}Today ${goto 100}Yesterday ${goto 225}Week ${goto 325}Month ${color green}
${execi 10 vnstat -i enp59s0 | grep "today" | awk '{print $8" "substr ($9, 1, 1)}'} ${goto 110}${execi 10 vnstat -i enp59s0 | grep "yesterday" | awk '{print $8" "substr ($9, 1, 1)}'} ${goto 220}${execi 10 vnstat -i enp59s0 -w | grep "current week" | awk '{print $9" "substr ($10, 1, 1)}'} ${goto 315}${execi 10 vnstat -i enp59s0 -m | grep "`date +"%b '%y"`" | awk '{print $9" "substr ($10, 1, 1)}'}
${color}Down: ${color green}${downspeed enp59s0}/s ${color}${goto 220}Up: ${color green}${upspeed enp59s0}/s
${downspeedgraph enp59s0 25,190 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph enp59s0 25,190 000000 00ff00}$color
Total: ${color green}${totaldown enp59s0} $color${alignr}Total: ${color green}${totalup enp59s0}
${color orange}${voffset 2}${hr 1}
${color}${goto 5}Dawn: ${color green}${execpi 300 cat /usr/local/bin/sunrise} ${goto 155}${color}Dusk: ${color green}${execpi 300 cat /usr/local/bin/sunset} ${alignr}${color}Level: ${color green}${execpi 10 cat /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness}
${color orange}${voffset 2}${hr 1}

To save desktop space, my narrow Conky window uses "G" instead of "GiB", "M" instead of "MiB", etc. If you have more screen real estate change substr ($10, 1, 1) to $10 and do the same for $9.
You may have to change enp59s0 to eth0, wlan0 or eth1, etc. depending on your network name reported by ifconfig.

A: I needed protocol granularity to see what was using data on my network, so I opted for ntop. It has a web interface, and worked out the box for me.

A: Sysstat is a professional command-line monitoring utility. Install it using following command:
apt-get install sysstat

Use sa1 to store system status for N seconds (It stores system statues in some binary files located at /var/log/sa):
sa1 1 N

At any time use sadf to view network usage in some standard formats:
sadf -d /var/log/sa/sa18 -s HH:MM:SS -e HH:MM:SS -- -n DEV

-s and -e specifies start time and end time. sa18 means day 18 of current month.

A: check the software at these site.You can track your data usage by using these applications.
software recommendation
software recommendation

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I have a Singer Prelude that until now, I've had no problems with. However, today I cannot get the presser foot to go down. The lever in the back works, but the foot won't budge. Help!
If that doesn't help, be sure that the presser foot is properly attached, check to see if the feed dogs are in the correct position, and (this happens a lot) the machine has been switched back to sewing mode after winding a bobbin.
In the end, though, you may need to take the machine to a repair tech (it's a fairly new model so yours might still be under warranty) - if the above doesn't work the only other reason for what you're experiencing is (probably, could be a couple of other things, too) that the spring-gear has failed.
This isn't a home fix. The repair tech has the knowledge and specialised tools needed to find and make this repair.