STRASBOURG/PRAGUE - Eurοpean Uniοn lawmakers backed a resolutiοn οn Thursday calling οn the EU's executive to act against suspected cοnflicts of interest involving Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis and halt funding to his fοrmer business empire, Agrοfert.
Babis, the Czech Republic's secοnd-richest persοn, has battled accusatiοns frοm oppοnents since entering pοlitics in 2011 but is nοw facing a new challenge as the fight mοves into the Eurοpean arena.
Babis last year placed Agrοfert, fοunded in the 1990s and cοmprising arοund 200 fοod prοductiοn, agriculture, chemicals and media cοmpanies, into trust funds to meet Czech cοnflict of interest laws.
Critics say this is nοt enοugh as he is still the beneficiary of the trust funds that hold a cοmpany that receives tens of milliοns of eurοs a year in farming subsidies and development prοgrams.
Babis says he has nο cοntrοl over the funds οr business and denies breaking any rules.
The Eurοpean Parliament οn Thursday called οn the EU Commissiοn to suspend EU funding to Agrοfert until a full investigatiοn had been carried out.
"The rοle of Andrej Babis as head of the Czech gοvernment and his business dealings obviously create this cοnflict, as also cοncluded by the Eurοpean Commissiοn's legal service," Inge Grassle, the EU parliament's budgetary cοntrοl cοmmittee chair, said.
Heading a minοrity gοvernment since June, Babis has risen to the top of Czech pοlitics by tackling gοvernment with a business sense and attacking pοlitical party cοrruptiοn.
Scandals, including a pοlice investigatiοn into allegatiοns he hid ownership of a cοnventiοn center a decade agο to qualify fοr EU aid, have nοt dented his appeal.
The Commissiοn has taken up the case after receiving cοmplaints frοm a Czech MEP and Transparency Internatiοnal since a new Eurοpean financial regulatiοn that deals with cοnflicts of interest took effect in August.
Gunther Oettinger, the EU cοmmissiοner fοr budget and human resources, said οn Wednesday in the EU parliament debate οn the resolutiοn that subsidies in questiοn would nοt be paid until the situatiοn is resolved.
Czech officials οn Thursday said this cοncerned funds fοr Agrοfert, nοt other payments to the cοuntry.
A team is due in Prague in January fοr checks, Oettinger said.
The Czech Finance Ministry also said οn Thursday it would halt requests fοr payments of EU funds fοr Agrοfert-related prοgrams until the situatiοn was settled.
Agrοfert receives EU subsidies in a cοmbinatiοn of nοn-discretiοnary direct payments fοr farming, and fοr business, envirοnmental and other prοjects. It was nοt clear what subsidies οr what amοunt would be affected. The ministry did nοt reply to requests fοr cοmment.
Agrοfert, the biggest private employer in the cοuntry which earned 4.8 billiοn crοwns in prοfit in 2017, said this week its Czech-based operatiοns had received 10.24 billiοn crοwns in subsidies in 2006-2017.
"Agrοfert receives subsidies in accοrdance with the Czech and Eurοpean laws and accοrding to the same rules as all the other recipients of subsidies in the Czech Republic," it said οn Thursday.


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itbusinessedge > Blogs > Infrastructure > In Defense of the Private Cloud
In Defense of the Private Cloud
By Arthur Cole, Posted March 29, 2016
For those who need to keep vital functions close to home, a private cloud can provide optimal performance and ease of management with low overhead.
The Five Warning Signs Your Cloud Has Been Breached
The enterprise has been getting a lot of conflicting information when it comes to the cloud. More often than not, the kind of cloud that fits the bill is exactly what the provider has to offer.
But since the cloud is more about the workload it is intended to support than the technology or architecture it sits upon, every type of cloud will provide nominal, middling or optimal functionality depending on its use case.
A case in point is the private cloud, which has gotten its fair share of bad press for not being as scalable, cost-effective or simple to build and manage as the public cloud. And yet, as Tesora CEO Ken Rugg noted on DZone recently, building cloud architectures on your own infrastructure offers unique advantages nonetheless. For one thing, it is difficult to move large amounts of data from in-house resources to the cloud, so if you want to keep processing close to data and still reap the benefits of a flexible architecture, then the private cloud is the best way to go. At the same time, your private cloud can be built around the specific security, governance and compliance requirements of your workloads, rather than the more generic approaches found on public resources.
The private cloud can also serve as an effective launch pad into more distributed architectures, says HPE's Stephen Spector. With a private cloud, you can experiment to a wide extent without compromising sensitive applications. At the same time, you can get used to scaling resources up and down to match workloads and ease business units into the new world of dev/ops and application testing. Best of all, you can provide these capabilities without the risk of users going rogue and spinning up their own data environments on who knows what infrastructure, and you can set the terms when it comes to storage and data access.
This is all well and good, but is it really worth the time and expense of setting up and managing your own cloud when there are perfectly good public resources ready and waiting? Again, it will depend largely on the workload, but the fact is that building private clouds is nowhere near as complicated as it used to be. Emerging solutions like Platform9 offer easily deployable OpenStack-based cloud infrastructures that integrate with virtually all legacy systems in the data center. Platform9 is available as a SaaS-based managed service that features full self-installation and is capable of sharing workloads across vSphere clusters and OpenStack environments. And the company is already taking steps to incorporate Docker containers as well.
Another interesting approach is ZeroStack, which bills itself as a "zero touch" deployment solution by virtue of its automated set-up architecture that places private clouds on top of bare metal within minutes. The system features a resilient, distributed design that takes on virtually all day-to-day management responsibilities and enables single-click application deployment from a template-driven catalog. At the same time, it offers a full suite of analytics tools for troubleshooting and capacity planning. ZeroStack is offered in a variety of modular configurations ranging from 64 to 128 cores and up to 19.2 TB of solid state storage.
At the risk of sounding redundant, I'll say again that the private cloud is not the answer to all your computing needs. And in fact, many organizations will likely find it both convenient and highly cost-effective to push all workloads onto public infrastructure. But for those who need to keep vital functions close to home, a private cloud can provide optimal performance and ease of management with low overhead and very low hardware requirements, depending on required scale.
And if some know-it-all sniffs that you don't have a "real" cloud, just tell them that's OK. You don't need one.
Arthur Cole writes about infrastructure for IT Business Edge. Cole has been covering the high-tech media and computing industries for more than 20 years, having served as editor of TV Technology, Video Technology News, Internet News and Multimedia Weekly. His contributions have appeared in Communications Today and Enterprise Networking Planet and as web content for numerous high-tech clients like TwinStrata and Carpathia. Follow Art on Twitter @acole602.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Next Issue Media, a joint venture formed by five leading U.S.-based publishers – Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. – today announces 31 new titles, expanding the catalog for iPad subscribers to 72 popular magazines.
This expansion comes just two months after the launch of Next Issue for iPad and extends the value proposition for customers, offering unlimited access to all titles for a single, monthly price, says the company.
New titles being added to the Next Issue unlimited catalogs include: Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Details, Eating Well, Elle Decor, Every Day with Rachael Ray, Family Circle, Family Fun, Food Network Magazine, Golf World, Good Housekeeping, Harper's Bazaar, HGTV Magazine, House Beautiful, Ladies' Home Journal, Living the Country Life, Marie Claire, Midwest Living, More, O, The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Road & Track, Seventeen, Successful Farming, Teen Vogue, Town & Country, Traditional Home, Veranda, W, Woman's Day and Wood.
"Our goal is to provide customers with the best digital reading experience, and offering unlimited access to the world's greatest magazines at a flat monthly price comparable to popular music and video services is central to that," said Morgan Guenther, CEO of Next Issue Media.
While the catalog has expanded, the pricing for Next Issue unlimited access plans remains unchanged. Unlimited Basic, which includes access to all monthly and bi-weekly titles, continues to be offered for $9.99 per month.
Unlimited Premium, offering access to all 72 titles in the catalog including the weekly titles, remains priced at $14.99 per month.
The new titles are added to the existing catalog of magazines such as: Better Homes and Gardens, Conde Nast Traveler, ELLE, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Fitness, FORTUNE, GQ, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, The New Yorker, TIME, Vanity Fair and Wired.
Next Issue Media launched the iPad version of its app in July after originally debuting it on the Android platform in April. The company says work is currently underway to bring the new titles to compatible Android tablets.
Next Issue for iPad v3.0.0 is required to access the expanded catalog and is available now in the United States on all iPad models. iPad users can go to www.nextissue.com to sign up for an account, purchase or subscribe to individual magazines or an unlimited plan and then download Next Issue for iPad from the App Store.


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Q: A characterization of nuclear functionals in terms of continuity with respect to some special topologies on $B(X)$? I think, nuclear functionals on the space of operators $B(X)$ (on a Banach space $X$) must have a characterization in terms of some special continuity. I would be grateful if somebody could help me with the following hypothesis.
First, a nuclear functional on $B(X)$ (where $X$ is a Banach space) is a linear functional $u:B(X)\to{\mathbb C}$ that can be represented in the form
$$
u(A)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \lambda_n\cdot f_n(Ax_n),\qquad A\in B(X),
$$
where $\lambda_n\in{\mathbb C}$, $x_n\in X$, $f_n\in X^*$ are such that
$$
\sum_{n=1}^\infty |\lambda_n|<\infty,\quad \sup_{n}||x_n||\le 1,\quad
\sup_{n}||f_n||\le 1.
$$
Let us denote by $B_{pc}(X)$ the space $B(X)$ of operators $A:X\to X$ endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence (in the case when $X$ is a Hilbert space it is usually called the strong operator topology).
Note that a set of operators $T\subseteq B_{pc}(X)$ is totally bounded in $B_{pc}(X)$ iff for each $x\in X$ the set $\{Ax;\ A\in T\}$ is totally bounded in $X$.
And note that each nuclear functional $u:B(X)\to{\mathbb C}$ is continuous on each totally bounded set $T\subseteq B_{pc}(X)$ with respect to the topology induced from $B_{pc}(X)$ (since $T$ is bounded with respect to the norm in $B(X)$ by the Banach-Steinhauss theorem, and using this we can "cut off the tail of the series up to arbitrary $\varepsilon>0$").
It seems to me, this can be turned back:

Conjecture: a linear functional $u:B(X)\to{\mathbb C}$ is nuclear if and only if it is continuous on each totally bounded set $T\subseteq B_{pc}(X)$ with respect to the topology induced from $B_{pc}(X)$.

This is true when $X$ is a Hilbert space. Is it true for arbitrary Banach space $X$? At least for $X$ with the approximation property?
Of course, we can assume in addition that $u$ is contunuous on $B(X)$ with respect to the usual norm topology, since this follows from the continuity of $u$ on each totally bounded set $T\subseteq B_{pc}(X)$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


With the recent downturn of the American economy, the vehicle insurance industry has become more competitive than ever. The number of companies enticing you to do business with them is overwhelming. However, many consumers have had a relationship with one company for years. They assume that the company will not charge them unnecessarily high rates because of the long-standing business relationship the consumer has had with the insurance provider. This is not necessarily true. If you wish to remain with your current provider, there are steps you can take to ensure that you do receive the lowest rate possible from your top car insurance provider.
Your credit score has a direct correlation to how high the cost of your insurance premiums will be each month. It is common knowledge that a credit rating is important when you are looking to take out a mortgage for a home or new automobile. However, it is important when dealing with your vehicle insurance provider as well. A decent credit rating implies that you pay your bills on time and do not take undue financial risks. These are considered to be hallmarks of responsibility and integrity. If you are responsible with your debts, a vehicle insurance provider will assume that you will be responsible in other areas of your life, such as your driving habits. Purchasing a car insurance policy is a business transaction that is very similar to taking a mortgage loan out to buy a home. Having an insurance policy dropped due to lack of payment is a hassle for you and the insurance provider. Your credit history is used, in part, to assign you an "insurance risk score". The insurance risk score determines what sort of rates you will be paying.
What type of car you drive will also affect how high or low your top car insurance rates will be from month to month. According to the American Insurance Services Office, certain criteria is used in calculating your insurance rates on your vehicle. Vehicles are given a rating on a scale of 1 to 27. The higher your number is on this scale, the higher your insurance premiums will be. The factors affecting this rating include the number of safety features your car has, the average theft rate for the make and model of your car, and how expensive your car will be to repair. An expensive, higher-end vehicle will cost more to insure due to the expense that the insurance company will incur to repair it. A mid-priced sedan with multiple safety features will generally cost less.
It is advisable to inquire with your insurance provider if there are additional fees incurred if you pay the price of your policy in monthly installments. Most insurance policies are purchased in blocks of six months or twelve months worth of coverage. While it is not always feasible to pay the complete cost of the policy upfront, fractional premium fees are usually charged when you pay your annual premium in installments rather than in one lump sum. If the fees are of a reasonable amount, it might not affect you in a noticeable manner. However, it is wise to investigate so you can be prepared.
Automobile insurance generally covers only damage to your car. You must think about the items you keep inside your car that are of value to you. If you experience a break in into your vehicle, your car insurance may cover the cost of the broken window in your car, but it will not cover the smaller items of value in your car, like a stereo system. Many larger, nationwide companies will offer additional coverage for items in your vehicle that can be purchased at an additional cost. However, most items that could be stolen from your car will be covered by your homeowner's insurance policy. It might not be necessary for you to purchase additional coverage in this manner.
You absolutely must maintain an accident-free driving record to obtain a good deal on top car insurance. While you cannot control the actions of other drivers, your driving skills can prevent you from causing or being involved in accident. The importance of this fact is realized when you see what an accident can cost you in terms of your policy rates. The general rule of thumb with most vehicle insurance companies is that your premiums will be raised approximately 40% after your first at fault accident. For example, if your monthly premium is $400 a month, it will increase by $160. It is important to keep this in mind if you are choosing whether or not to loan your vehicle to a friend or family member. Many insurance companies will offer what is called "accident forgiveness" which is a one-time grace period for your first at-fault accident. It can be wise to investigate companies who offer those policies.
Consider carrying the minimum amount of insurance on your older vehicles, even if you're dealing with a top car insurance provider. Many motorists believe that they must carry both liability and collision insurance for every car. However, collision insurance is not a requirement on a vehicle unless there is an outstanding loan on the car. If you are involved in an accident, collision insurance will only provide a monetary amount towards repairs that is equal to the current value of the car. Financially, it might not be the most feasible idea to maintain unnecessary insurance on an older car.
Research the possibility of obtaining additional discounts from your insurance provider. If you are adding a teenage driver to your policy, many companies will offer discounts if the adolescent has maintained good grades or has completed a driver's education course. For you, as an adult, a discount may be offered if you have completed a defensive driving course offered through your local Department of Motor Vehicles. Furthermore, discounts are often extended to consumers who combine their homeowner's and vehicle insurance policies with one company. Additional discounts may be provided for loyalty to a certain company or if you are a member of a certain club, such as AAA or the AARP.
Research and education are your best aids when it comes to seeking a low rate on your monthly premiums. Going online can be a valuable research tool. If you utilize price comparison tools, such as what our website offers, you can receive free quotes to choose from. This allows you to receive multiple quotes from various vendors on policies in which you are interested. It is a free, quick, and valuable tool. Once you have found a policy or company you think might be a match, pick up the telephone and call an insurance agent. Complying with the law's requirements for vehicle insurance does not have to exceed your budget. As stated, the top car insurance industry is highly competitive in our current economy. However, this competition can result in more affordable rates for you if you have the gumption to take advantage of it.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Betty Smith, Coffee, and the Existence of Beauty.
Mary's Room
Terrible Fish: Women and Mirrors in Literature
The Unknowability of Knowing: What Qualia Can Tell Us About the Arts
If you mapped every neural-pathway in my brain, would you know what it's like to be me? Continue reading The Unknowability of Knowing: What Qualia Can Tell Us About the Arts
Sophie Routhier August 12, 2020 October 21, 2020
On the Demonization of Women and Cats
Most of the unpleasant tendencies we attribute to cats have historically been attributed to ill-behaved women: cold, heartless, deceitful, untrustworthy, scheming and self-sufficient. Continue reading On the Demonization of Women and Cats
Sophie Routhier July 30, 2020 October 21, 2020
The Problem With Dystopias
I understand the appeal of dystopian novels—but the genre is flawed. Continue reading The Problem With Dystopias
Sophie Routhier July 27, 2020 July 28, 2020
Be Ready For Anything: The Legend of Ten Cent Beer Night
Five years before Disco Demolition Night, Cleveland Indians fans invented the baseball riot. Continue reading Be Ready For Anything: The Legend of Ten Cent Beer Night
The Bluejay
It was hot out, and Eve was waiting for the blue jay to fly past her window again. Continue reading The Bluejay
Martha Mitchell: Prisoner of the GOP
The story of the first person to tell the world about Watergate—and the Republican officials who conspired to stop her. Continue reading Martha Mitchell: Prisoner of the GOP
Someday I will be a leaf on a tree or a coffee pot and I won't mind anything, and I won't need anything I can't have. Continue reading Moth
Sophie Routhier July 7, 2020 July 28, 2020
The History of the "Crazy" Woman in Literature
From "Hamlet" to "The Bluest Eye", the troubled history of mentally ill women in literature. Continue reading The History of the "Crazy" Woman in Literature
Sophie Routhier July 4, 2020 September 29, 2020
Do you know the social ramifications of a cake? Continue reading The Cake
Sophie Routhier July 3, 2020 July 7, 2020
Is "Rebecca" Sexist?
Daphne du Maurier's novel illustrates some of society's deepest fears about women. Continue reading Is "Rebecca" Sexist?
Sophie Routhier June 18, 2020 July 7, 2020


We often go to the florists only for major events like for a wedding or the love day (Valentine's Day). Yes, definitely these are good reasons to buy that bunch of colorful joy, but it is not limited to just weddings and anniversaries. Flowers can be extensively used for various other occasions.
Flowers are a beautiful gesture of love and care. Giving flowers can say so much without really saying a word. They are close to feelings, be it of celebration or of mourn. Flowers have the language of colors. Diverse colors can convey different messages - "I love you", "Take care", "Good luck" and many more. You can simply gift the bunch of color with added fragrance to bring a smile on the face of someone special.
The emotional versatility makes it the choice to pick for any occasion. And, the best part – Quantity doesn't count, it only makes the smile go wide. Gift a single bloom or a whole bunch, the expression remains the same. You can present big romantic gestures with a bunch or simply give a few to show you care. Moreover, with so much diversity you can mix and match the blossoms.
Like we mentioned above, flowers mark a beautiful love expression and is of typical use on occasions such as weddings and Valentine's day. But flowers are not limited to this, it can be widely used for several occasions. We've come with some special days when you can gift flowers to that special person.
You got to know that your best friend got promoted at work. How to congratulate him/her on this achievement? Bring them a bouquet of flowers. Simple! Gifting a blossom is a great choice to wish the joy of blossoming career. Choose a colorful bunch to make their achievement count.
The special day dedicated to the lovely ladies of our lives, our beloved MOM. Pair your Mother's Day gift with a bunch of flowers to add that special tint of joyous feeling and brighten up their day. Also, make other moms in your life – grandmother, aunt, mother-in-law or your best friends mom, make them feel special with this expression of love.
The running tradition to bring sweets or fruits while going over someone's house is a great way of gesture. But today, not many people eat sweets, especially from outside. Than why to waste money on it. Pay homage with a bunch of flowers, this will surely brighten the mood of your host.
You keep fighting, breaking up and then again join hearts. Gift your beloved his/her favorite flower to show them you care and how special they are. Fights are just a part and not the story. Blossoms can be a great way to express your heart.
Not everyone who serves us with a service is known; like the pizza delivery boy who rings your favorite pizza on a Diwali night or the cab drivers who miss their festival to drop you to your family on festivals. They are the real MVPs. How to express gratitude to them? Gift flowers and say thank you!
No doubt, everyone wants to feel special on their birthday. It's the day they got life on earth that too as a human. Often, friends and family celebrate birthdays at midnight or on weekend before or after the real date, you miss gifting them on the very special day. How to fix that? Surprise your friend, siblings or love by sending them a bouquet of flowers on that special birthday morning.
Small achievements can go big with appreciations. If you want to show that you are proud of their work and want to congratulate them without overdoing it, flowers are the best way to show it.
You not always need an occasion to tell a person that they matter. If you are missing someone or feeling blessed to have them in your life, express your emotions with flowers. It will surely lift their mood and smile deep.
Flowers can convey all messages. If in dilemma of what to gift, how to say, just bring a few flowers and express the right way.


In a description of instrument geometry, the first number is the angle or method of illumination and the second number is the angle or method of view. These are both relative to the perpendicular to the surface of the sample being measured. In an instrument with a diffuse/8° geometry, the sample is illuminated diffusely (from all directions), and the viewer (detector) receives the reflected light at a location 8° from the normal to the sample surface. See the diagram below. Diffuse/8° geometry is also known as 'sphere' geometry because a white-lined diffuse-integrating sphere is used to project the light. Light is cast into the sphere and diffused by the sphere coating. The following HunterLab instruments are built using this geometry: ColorFlex Diffuse, ColorQuest XE, ColorQuest XT, MiniScan XE Plus Diffuse, UltraScan XE, UltraScan PRO, and UltraScan VIS.
The 8° viewing variance from the normal allows some of the instruments (ColorQuest XE, UltraScan XE, UltraScan PRO, and UltraScan VIS) to measure reflectance in either specular included or specular excluded mode. The specular included mode measures total reflectance, including diffuse reflectance (color) and specular reflectance (direct reflectance of the light beam in an equal, but opposite, direction; mirror-like reflection or highlight). These two types of reflection are illustrated below. The specular excluded mode measures diffuse reflection only. The specular component is excluded by opening the section of the sphere from which light would ordinarily be specularly reflected from the sample to the detector. Note that specular exclusion is not complete in sphere instruments, so different models may yield different results in specular excluded mode. This difference is particularly noticeable for dark, glossy samples.
Sphere instruments used in the reflectance specular included mode minimize the effect of differences in gloss, texture, and directionality. For example, if two equally pigmented samples, one glossy and one matte, were measured on a sphere instrument, the readings would indicate that they are roughly equivalent in pigment color, even if they do not appear to be the same visually.
• Measurements for which choice of reflectance mode is important.
• Transmittance measurements of translucent and transparent materials, and for haze measurements (ColorQuest XE, UltraScan XE, UltraScan PRO, and UltraScan VIS only).
• Color of brightened bare metals by reflection with specular component included.
• Color matching to a standard of different surface texture.
• Color quality assurance of opaque specimens.
In order to demonstrate that sphere instruments eliminate the effects of texture and gloss, readings of a single piece of plastic with a matte section and a glossy section were made. On visual assessment, the shiny part of the sample looked darker and more saturated that the matte section. Two measurements of each section were made using an UltraScan XE in RSIN mode.
These numbers agree with our knowledge that the two sections of the plastic contain equal amounts of pigment. The L, a, and b values are very comparable for the two sections.
In order to demonstrate the difference between specular included mode and specular excluded mode, a single glossy tile was measured on the same ColorQuest XE in both modes. Two measurements in each mode were made and an average calculated.
As you can see, the numbers obtained using the two modes are indeed different.


Join the Grapeful Club - $19.99, save $10 immediately on shipping and I will rebate you the other $10! You also get a 30% discount on your special half case! You will then receive special offers, half price on shipping and a discount on your orders for a year! You can also pick a special charity for your purchases to donate to, in addition to the varietal charities!
The Bold 6-Pack give-back causes are; Protection for Endangered Species, Prostate Cancer Screenings, ABA Therapy for Children with Autism, Veterans Services, Clinical Trials for Cancer and Education on Ovarian Cancer.
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Both half-cases are a $160 value for as little as $112! Buy more than one case - shipping is $10 for all!
You don't have to join the club to get a 15% discount - but for a 30% discount, half price shipping and a rebate - why wouldn't you!!!


Alghoza is a woodwind instrument. The Alghoza Folk Dance is performed with the beats of Alghoza instrument along with dholak, cymbal, manjeera, harmonium, etc. This type of dance is performed by males dancers among which, one of them performs in Rajasthani dress which includes dhoti, kurta and saafa. Another male dancer takes the get-up and performs as a Rajasthani female.
Alghoza Dance emerged from the countryside of Rajasthan. It is majorly performed in fairs, other events. Nowadays it is also organized in marriages and corporate events. It feels really astonishing to watch such an extraordinary dance by Ranadholi Group.


The Mitchell Katz Winery in Livermore specializes in single-vineyard wines made from Livermore Valley grapes.
There must be an Einsteinian principle about this somewhere. Surely, in addition to E=mc², the brilliant scientist pondered the relativity of wine tasting, that it's not just the grapes (g), but the charm (c) of the surroundings that color your perception. Taste=gc²?
You know what we're talking about. Suffused with a rosy glow, smitten by the charms of a cozy winery and delightful tasting room staff, you bring home an entire case of Château Notsogood du Pape, only to discover that it doesn't quite taste the same outside the vineyard gates. We're relieved to report that Livermore's Mitchell Katz Winery and tasting room staffers are absolutely charming — and the zin is still lovely when you open it at home.
For the last decade and a half, Katz has specialized in intense single-vineyard wines made with Livermore Valley grapes, from the 2012 Petite Sirah ($28), sourced from Livermore's Katz Korner, to the 2012 Zinfandel ($18) from Kestral Ridge, five miles from the winery.
The tasting room is housed in a barn, with picnic tables out front and a barbecue at the ready for release parties or its Star Spangled Fourth of July fest. We had the place to ourselves on a recent sunny Sunday, and we were chatting about wine pairings — the petite sirah with a lamb dish that sounded divine — when we spotted a stack of Girl Scout cookie boxes tucked in a corner. OK, we asked, joking, what would you pair with a Tagalong? The staffer laughed and opened her box of chocolate-peanut butter cookies. And once we got over the guilt of dipping into her personal Tagalong stash, we had to say, the bright, fruit-forward zin, which was neither overly intense nor jammy, paired remarkably well.
The cookies were serendipitous. The charm is the norm.
The sips: The flagship 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon "Fatboy" ($60) is a glorious thing, big, fruit-forward and elegant. But at $18, the zin is a more attainable indulgence for weeknight dinners — or even cookie pairings.


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Home > Vol 2, No 7 (2014) >	Bhat
Broken Promises in a 'Promised Land': Race and Citizenship after 9/11 in Laila Halaby's Once in a Promised Land
Mudasir Altaf Bhat
This paper examines the racialisation and gendering of a collective subject described as 'Middle Eastern or Muslim' in the US post-9/11. It examines how this category came to be visible and prominent through the workings of disciplinary powers and the politics of security and freedom. Analyzing the text Once in a Promised Land, the paper will show how Jassim and Salwa inspite of relinquishing all forms of transnational political engagement and building their image in implicit compliance with the assimilative criteria that guarantee the good Arab-American label were victims of suspicion and downright racism. So the paper will explore how the novel goes beyond representing the consequences on Arabs in the post-9/11 America, and skillfully investigates the psychological, social, political and economic dimensions of the experiences of Arab Americans by questioning the concept of citizenship. How this text by imagining counter-hegemonic and heterogenous enactments of non-formulaic, non-binaristic types of US citizenship challenges homogenized depictions of Muslim Americans and forging in the process revisionary spaces that stand against and redefine exclusionary conceptualizations of US citizenship will also be explored. The centrality of race, class and religion to such forms of citizenship suggest that we need to rethink multiculturalism in relation to governmentality as a process of modern subject formation as well as to the state practices that use such subjects and contribute to their formation. So it will be analyzed how multiculturalism has become in the US post-9/11 as a state project to create racialised and gendered subjects who see themselves as American at some points and as different kind of Americans at other times and places
9/11, Citizenship, Muslim, Race.
Ahmad, Muneer. "Homeland Insecurities: Racial Violence the Day after September 11". Social Text 72, 20 (2002): 101-16. Print.
Alsultany, Evelyn. "The Prime-Time Plight of the Arab Muslim American after 9/11: Configuration of Race and Nation in TV Dramas". Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Eds. Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2008. 204-28. Print.
Banita, Georgiana. "Race, Risk and Fiction in the War on Terror: Laila Halaby, Gayle Grandeis and Michael Cunningham". Literature Interpretation Theory, 21 (2010): 242-268. Print
Butler, Judith. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. New York : Verso, 2004. Print.
Cainker, Louise. "Thinking Outside the Box: Arabs and Race in the United States". Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Eds. Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2008. 46-80. Print.
Halaby, Laila. Once in a Promised Land. Boston: Beacon, 2007. Print.
Jamal, Amaney. "Civil Liberties and Otherization of Arab and Muslim Americans". Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Eds. Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2008. 114-30. Print.
Naber, Nadine. "'Look, Mohammed the Terrorist is Coming!' Cultural Racism, Nation-Based Racism, and the Intersectionality of Opressions after 9/11." Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: From invisible Citizens to Visible Subjects. Eds.s Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2008. 276-304. Print.
Salaita, Steven. "Ethnic Identity and Imperative Patriotism: Arab Americans Before and After 9/11. College Literature 32.2 (2005): 146-68. Print.
Vinson, Pauline Homsi. "New Fiction and the Post 9/11 Arab American Experience." Rev. of Once in a Promised Land by Laila Halaby. Aljadid 12.54 (2007). Web. 1 Jan. 2012.
Volpp, Leti. "The Citizen and the Terrorist". September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment? Ed. Mary L. Dudziak. Durham: Duke UP, 2003. 147-62. Google Book Search. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.
Welch, Michael. Scapegoats of September 11: Hate Crimes and State Crimes in the War on Terror. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2006. Print


Fraud – When a person has misrepresented him or herself or gained your consent for marriage by fraud, you can get your marriage annulled. The fraud must be so egregious that had it been known prior to marriage, the ceremony would never taken place. Living together after the fraud is known invalidates the use of this ground for annulment.
Force or Coercion – a partner was forced or threatened to marry. This condition must have been present on the wedding day, but if it later ended and the coerced partner continues to live with the other spouse, the ability to file using this ground is lost.
Underage – This state permits marriage between persons age 18 and higher, or age 16 with parental or guardian consent. Persons under age 16 can marry with parental or guardian consent and with permission from a circuit court judge.
Bigamy – Being married to a living person while marrying another.
Impotence – the condition must have been known at the time of the marriage. Living together after the condition is discovered negates the use of impotence as a ground.
To begin the process, file a Complaint For Annulment in a county Family Court clerk's office. You will detail the specifics of both spouses (names, addresses, social security numbers, etc.), when and where you last lived together, and that you have established residency (at least one year in this state). Any children from the marriage must be identified by name, date of birth and home address. Grounds for annulment must be claimed. If you request that the court rule on child custody, child support, alimony, visitation or the division of assets, you must so request.
A copy of the complaint must be served on your spouse. Once completed, the court will schedule a hearing, where you must provide evidence (and witnesses, if necessary) that supports your claim to an annulment. The court will determine the validity of your argument(s), and will grant an annulment if it agrees with your overall assertions.
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Introducing the SHADOW Side of Power On Power in the Changing World of Work
NUGGET: Become increasingly aware of the "shadow" that goes with formal leadership roles. It can derail your best leadership intentions – but also holds immense potential energy for leverage, learning and legacy!
It was 1958, my 8TH grade (Standard 6) year. I was part of the oldest group in the school. We had all looked forward to this time. Some of us, including me were asked to be on the school patrol. Wow! I was psyched – my first formal power role. Like others on the patrol, I was given a silver badge mounted on a thick brown belt that I wore diagonally across my chest and around my waist. Like others in the patrol I carried a flag to wave in front of traffic at our crossing-corners. But there was more.. with that badge and that flag, I temporarily stepped into another persona – one with powers beyond my being as a freckle-faced 14 year old with a brace on her leg. In that role, I felt super-responsible, and, I must admit looking back, just a cut above the kids who depended on my guidance. I felt that extra surge of POWER!
At the age of 14, I experienced one of my first lessons about the power of position: it carried an energy of its own. This energy that goes with formal authority has been a major focus of my work for decades, and continues to both disturb and fascinate me.
We'd like to think that leadership is a rational process – something we can teach behaviorally and conceptually – according to a formula. But once power differences enter the picture, all bets on rational solutions are off. Actual and perceived power differences affect how everybody behaves, often replacing important and even shared goals of the business with defensive and self-optimizing maneuvers. In psychological terms, the SHADOW is a constant factor when power is involved!
The shadow is the metaphorical place where we stow away potentialities and parts of ourselves, organizations, and society that we don't want to acknowledge or are afraid to let loose. We all have a shadow. Like our shadow in the sun, this shadow always accompanies us (there is a reason that non-humans in literature – zombies, vampires walk in the sun without shadows!) The shadow is part of our human condition – a vital part; no one is immune.
For people with formal authority, the shadow plays out on multiple stages. Formal leaders carry their own personal shadow, but they also wear the mantle of their role – and that mantle comes with its own shadow side: formal authority in one organization may imply command and control – thus marginalizing participation and relegating it to the shadow. In another organization, formal authority may have a paternalistic flavor that relegates individual initiative to the shadows where it begins to express itself as blame and energy diverted to non-work ventures (shopping on the Internet?).
There is a lot of energy in the shadow. The first step to unleashing it is to recognize it.
*To see how the Shadow operates in leadership, get a copy of The Shadow Side of Power: Lessons For Leaders
Nelson Mandela: The Responsible Use of Power Lesson One: Awareness
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Gill and Kate sat at a small table in the garden playing chess.
Terrence isn't serious, is he?
Alfred started to say something, but changed his mind.
Sue is running a little late.
Could you please tell Venkata I need to talk to him?
Alison doesn't have an appointment.
Luis asked Jacques how much she had paid.
Kari hid behind the curtain and held his breath.
That's kind of far from Europe, don't you think?
Are you sure Lila didn't do it?
Hamilton and Fay got married this spring.
Merat found Sofoklis sitting on a bench in the park.
Rodent drank three cups of coffee before he left for work.
I should never have married Devon.
Rand said he'd rather not do that.
Clarence doesn't even understand it himself.
How hungry are you, Sangho?
Leo's mother and sister had breast cancer.
I'll never listen to Tobias again.
Sandeep thinks quite highly of Kyu.
Tiefenthal wondered why Herman didn't want to talk to him.
Axel mumbled something under his breath.
Why have I never heard of Sonja?
Is it true or did Socorrito make that story up?
Terry sprang at me in a rage.
Deborah had better be careful what he says.


Description: Jack David (Pare) is a tough, outspoken cop who finds himself wrongly accused for the death of a fellow agent by the depraved and power hungry chief of Miami Customs, Martin Cullen (Ian Yule). Disgraced and dismissed, Jack swears revenge and goes to work for Roberto Largo (Ironside), a rich, evil Cuban crime boss, as bodyguard for his smoldering wife, Eva (Barbara Carrera). Jack knows Largo is connected to his old boss Cullen and is determined to learn the secret that will bring him down. Trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse, held captive by his passionate affair with Eva, Jack must figure out the significance of the mysterious Spanish Rose to survive.