text:
Q: C# .Net 5 System.Data Connection Pooling - Clarification for high level method that opens a connection First off, prior to asking this question I have been researching connection pooling for the better part of my morning. What I've found is that is turned on by default, handled by the application/system, and C#'s System.Data.X namespaces (where X is something like OLEDBConnection / SqlConnection ) handles it automatically.
But as I'm still new to the whole database access and pooling, I am looking for clarification since I wrote a class to handle connections at a higher level.
public abstract class AbstractDatabase<T> where T: where T : System.Data.Common.DbConnection
{
   // Take this class's connection string and return a new connection object
   public abstract T GetConnection();

   public abstract SqlKata.Compilers.Compiler { get; }

   // Compile the query and return a DataTable
   // This is actually pointing to a static method that uses the IDBConnection interface and logs any errors, but I copied the relavant code here
   public virtual DataTable GetDataTable(SqlKata.Query query)
   {
      using (var Conn = GetConnection())
      {
         if (Conn.State == ConnectionState.Closed) Conn.Open();
         using (var Cmd = Conn.CreateCommand())
         {
            Cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
            Cmd.Connection = Conn;
            Cmd.CommandText = Compiler.Compile(Query).ToString(); // the query is fully formed string here
            Cmd.Parameters.AddDummyParameter(); // I noticed that without any parameters, this didn't work, so this method adds a dummy, even if the string doesn't have any '?' characters
            using (var DR = Cmd.ExecuteReader())
            {
               DataTable DT = new DataTable();
               DT.Load(DR);
               return DT;
            }
         }
      }
   }
}

public class SomeDatabase : AbstractDatabase<OleDbConnection>
{
    // class implementation
}

here is my question:
If I were to somewhere else in my program do something like this:
DataTable Tbl1 = SomeDatabase.GetDataTable(Query1);
DataTable Tbl2 = SomeDatabase.GetDataTable(Query2);
....
DataTable Tbl10 = SomeDatabase.GetDataTable(Query10);

My understanding is that the method's Using ( var Conn = GetConnection()) statement will automatically issue a Conn.Close() and dispose of the Conn as the method exits. But connection pooling is automatically enabled, so it will actually reuse that connection almost immediately instead of closing it, correct?
With that level of abstraction, does it make sense to write it like this?
using ( var conn = SomeDatabase.GetConnection())
{
   DataTable Tbl1 = SomeDatabase.GetDataTable(Query1);
   ....
   DataTable Tbl10 = SomeDatabase.GetDataTable(Query10);
}

*

*Would this make any difference?

*Should the method be written to accept the connection that already open ?

*Should the class be written to use the same connection object itself, rather than calling GetConnection() every time ? ( for example, a get-only property that initializes the backing field on first request to it, then all subsequent requests actually receive the backing field's object)


How can I auto dimension a part that I have downloaded from grabcad?
I am still new to Solidworks and wondered if someone can advise me how to do dimensions on the picture attached?
It looks like the designer used surface sweep but I don't know how to dimension the main tubes for manufacturing.
Re: How can I auto dimension a part that I have downloaded from grabcad?
If they are swept, then you probably can't easily dimension them. Sorry, just the way life is. In the old days, such shapes would be dimensioned at certain points along the length, usually evenly spaced. In my line of work, plastic injection molded parts, we let the solid model drive the shape and just put in a few inspection dimensions. I cheat and do things like placing a very short horizontal line tangent to the curved edge near the highest point on the drawing, then adding a vertical dimension to it to show the height.
Overall, I'm not sure this will give you 'exactly' what you want. But it's something to look at in my opinion.
The person who did this in solidworks used images with the top, front/side and right planes. Then he drew the lines over the images and then surface swept them. I used construction lines and zoomed in very close and checked the length and height of the car and its according to scale. I wonder if I start from scratch and when I have the lines then use weldments/structural member to follow the paths if solidworks will then give me a BOM for the steel? I basicly need the radius of the 4 main pipes in the drawing. Problem is that there is 2 radius in the top pipes. Thanks for the help guys.


Embedded in H.R. 302 is a provision that essentially gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) free rein to shoot down civilian drones that they deem to be a "credible threat." Of course, this bill vaguely defines "credible threat" and allows the government to intercept photo, video, or any other data on the drone. This opens the door to sweeping new surveillance authority for the U.S. government, circumventing the Fourth Amendment. This section of the bill does not pass the constitutional test, and should be rejected by any member seeking to honor his or her oath to support and defend the Constitution.
H.R. 302 misses a key opportunity for reform by failing to include the modernization of the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. Modernization of the ATC was supposed to be included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2003, but failure to do so has resulted in more delays and higher costs for American consumers. Transferring control of ATC from the government to a non-profit corporation would have had profound effects on our economy. In Canada, a similar reform led to a 45 percent reduction in user fees. An FAA Reauthorization bill should not be passed without this key measure included.
Unfortunately, this bill follows a disturbing trend of introducing legislation that members could not possibly read, or understand. H.R. 302 is a gargantuan 1,200 pages in length, and was introduced this Saturday, only four days before the scheduled vote. Bills of this magnitude should be thoughtfully considered and debated by all members of the House. Sadly, leadership proves time and time again that they have no interest in pursuing a transparent process. H.R. 302 is just one glowing example of this trend.
FreedomWorks will count the vote for the FAA Reauthorization Act, H.R. 302, on our 2018 Congressional Scorecard. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.


text:
Q: Regex to convert some variables to js I need a regular expression for converting variables to js. They can be number or varchar. I want to replace them as seen on below.
myNumber number;      ---->    var myNumber = null;
x varchar2(10);       ---->    var x = null;
str varchar2(20);     ---->    var str = null;

Is it possible to do it with replace and regex?

A: You need this:
function convert(s) {
    return s.replace(/(\w+).*/g, 'var $1 = null;');
}

Usage:
convert('myNumber number'); // returns "var myNumber = null;"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Iraq's Looking Abroad to Revamp Its Oil Industry
Iraq is looking for international companies to demonstrate their interest in building a new export pipeline from the Kirkuk oilfields in the north of the country that will replace a severely damaged section of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline. The new project should extend to the Fish-Khabur border area with Turkey and Iraq's oil ministry set 24 January as the deadline for foreign firms to submit their letters of interest.
The 350-km pipeline which will have the capacity to transport more than one million barrels per day and will be run under an investment model known as "build-operate-transfer," oil ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said. The Iraqi government therefore also expects that the interested companies will build pumping stations and facilities for crude storage along with the pipeline. Mr. Jihad also said that the project costs must be paid by the companies who can later recover them after operating the project for an agreed period of time. There have been no exports from oilfields in Kirkuk since Iraqi government forces took control of them from the Kurds in November, in retaliation for a Kurdish referendum on independence which was widely criticized and opposed by Turkey, Iran and Western powers.
At the same time, Iraq has also finalized an initial deal with China's state-run Zhenhua Oil to develop the southern portion of the East Baghdad oilfield. Iraq needs the help of the Chinese company to boost output from East Baghdad oilfield to 40,000 barrels per day within five years as of the start of the development operations, Mr. Jihad commented in a statement. Iraqi oil officials have calculated that the East Baghdad field has around 8 billion barrels of crude reserves and has the potential to produce as much as 120,000 barrels of oil per day.
Tags : Asim Jihad, China, Fish-Khabur, Iraq, Kirkuk oilfields, Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, Turkey, Zhenhua Oil
Previous Thinking Globally: Morocco's OCP to Build a Fertilizer Plant in India
Next Expert Analysis: Electrifying the Developing World as EU's Development Goal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Texas adds to its Class of 2021 following graduate transfer Darion Dunn's flip
On Signing Day, Texas received an additional signature from McNeese State graduate transfer Darion Dunn.
Dunn announced on Wednesday morning that he was signing with the Longhorns. Dunn had previously been committed to North Carolina State.
A 6-1, 192-pound cornerback, Dunn earned a first-team nod on the All-Southland Conference team in 2019. For Dunn, that all-conference campaign consisted of five interceptions, 42 tackles and 11 pass breakups. During a loss to Oklahoma State that September, Dunn forced a fumble and broke up a deep pass that was intended for Cowboy standout Tylan Wallace.
Over his three seasons at McNeese State, Dunn intercepted seven passes. McNeese State did not play football this fall.
Dunn was also a member of McNeese State's track and field program. During the 2018 and 2019 indoor seasons, he was the Southland Conference's bronze medalist in the 60-meter hurdles. He won the same medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the conference's outdoor meet in 2018.
Under Tom Herman, Texas has not shied away from recruiting graduate transfers. Previously, the Longhorns found instant starters for their offensive line in Calvin Anderson (Rice) and Parker Braun (Georgia Tech). Tre Watson, a graduate transfer from Cal, led UT in rushing in 2018. Tarik Black (Michigan) and Brenden Schooler (Oregon) have combined for 21 catches this fall.
Dunn will provide Texas with depth at the cornerback position. Josh Thompson, who started nine times in 2020 as a redshirt junior, announced this week that he will return to Texas next season. Juniors D'Shawn Jamison and Jalen Green accounted for the other starts for UT's cornerbacks.


text:
Mathews said having the concert at 10 a.m. during one of the Union's regular chapel times gives the opportunity for students to attend. In addition, he expects students from local elementary and high schools as well as West Tennessee pastors.
Featured will be members from Dyersburg High School's choir. The students will perform a couple of pieces alone as well as accompany the Union University Singers on a couple of pieces.
"We just want to give them an opportunity to be a part of what's going on," Mathews said. "We're wanting to connect at that level."
With Union being a Christian university. Mathews said it is important to remember the true meaning of this season.
"It's a great opportunity for us to take our gifts in a wonderful season about giving and share it with everybody that can come. Our example of giving is in the perfect gift of Jesus," Mathews said. "Our desire to give to other people binds its source and its empowerment in the fact that we've had God give us the very best of all gifts."
"To not only celebrate that gift, but to have the opportunity to share gifts with other people and to do that with other believers in celebrating what has been given to us in Christ, it's just a great opportunity."
Reach Josh at (731) 425-9636. Follow him on Twitter: @JSWriterJosh
Annual Christmas Gift to the Community Concert
When: Dec. 2, 10 a.m.
Where: Union University


Something stopped Nita's hand as it ran along the bookshelf. She looked and found that one of the books had a loose thread at the top of its spine. It was one of those So You Want to Be a... books, a series on careers. So You Want to Be a Pilot, and a Scientist . . . a Writer. But his one said, So You Want to Be a Wizard.
I don't belive this, Nina thought. She shut the book and stood there holding it in her hand, confused, amazed, suspicious -- and delighted. If it was a joke, it was a great one. If it wasn't...?
In the spirit of Madeleine L'Engle's classic A Wrinkle in Time, this is a fascinating and powerfully involving story about two lonely kids who are inadvertently caught up in the never-ending battle between good and evil. The problems of everyday adolescent life and the mysteries of magic are perfectly blended, along with plenty of humor and suspense.


text:
Middle EastUnited Arab EmiratesAl AinAttractions
Al Ain Zoo
Top choice zoo in Al Ain
Al Ain's remarkable zoo is the region's largest and most acclaimed; its spacious enclosures, inhabited by indigenous and exotic species, are impressively authentic. Observe grazing Arabian oryx, big-horned Barbary sheep, rhinos, hippos, tigers and lions and more. Some were born at the zoo, which has a well-respected conservation and breeding programme. Highlights include giraffe feedings, a fascinating walk-through lemur experience and the world's largest human-made safari, a 217-hectare landscape housing more than 250 African and Arabian animals.
Al Ain Tour from Abu Dhabi
Al Ain with Emirati guide
Al Ain City Tour from Dubai
off Zayed Al Awwal & Nahyan Al Awwal Sts
Hours9am-8pm, longer in winter
Priceadult/child Dhs30/10
Other additions include the Sheikh Zayed Desert Learning Centre, a sustainably built multimedia exhibition housing five interactive galleries: Sheikh Zayed Tribute Hall, Abu Dhabi's Desert Over Time, Abu Dhabi's Living World, People of the Desert and Looking to the Future; a variety of cafes and restaurants and a Children's Discovery Garden, among others, with planned expansion projects including a gorilla sanctuary.
Al Ain City Sightseeing - Al Ain Museum & Forts & Camel Market & Mosques & More
25 days • AL AIN ABU DHABI to null


US Factory order tumbled in November, GM is looking to layoff 4000 employees to restructure, the car manufacture has been channel stuffing for years making it look like they were doing much better than they really were, now it is starting to show in the data and car sales are declining. Trump is disabling the globalist system one piece at a time, and while doing this preparing the world for new currency system. Trump is using the same players as when the system was brought online, they don't even know they are helping him. The governor and Lt. Governor are in trouble, tick tock it is all being exposed. [DS] sets their sights on Tulsi Gabbard, try to push the Russian card. Intel agencies are still working against Trump, but it is failing and Trump understands the game. The Old Guard is in trouble, the are exposed and the propaganda is not working anymore, the Washington Post pushed an advertisement during the Super Bowl to convince the world to trust the MSM, they are losing the narrative and Trump is winning.
The end of America's unchallenged global economic dominance has arrived sooner than expected, thanks to the very same Neocons who gave the world the Iraq, Syria and the dirty wars in Latin America. Just as the Vietnam War drove the United States off gold by 1971, its sponsorship and funding of violent regime change wars against Venezuela and Syria – and threatening other countries with sanctions if they do not join this crusade – is driving European and other nations to create their alternative financial institutions. Trump is not for globalism, he is a nationalist.
This break has been building for quite some time, and was bound to occur. Trump is using the same neocons and DS individuals to help him achieve a new economic system, they just don't know it .
The world of international diplomacy is being turned inside-out.
countries are proceeding to de-dollarize and replace what U.S. diplomacy calls "internationalism" (meaning U.S. nationalism imposed on the rest of the world) with their own national self-interest.
populist nationalism is today's road to election victory in Europe and other countries just as it was for Donald Trump in 2016.
Trump's agenda may really be to break up the American Empire, The CB and DS empire.
He is going for the Empire's most vital organs.
But then came Venezuela. Desperate to spend its gold reserves to provide imports for its economy devastated by U.S. sanctions – Venezuela directed the Bank of England to transfer some of its $11 billion in gold held in its vaults and those of other central banks in December 2018.
"The U.S. officials are trying to steer Venezuela's overseas assets to [Chicago Boy Juan] Guaido to help bolster his chances of effectively taking control of the government. The $1.2 billion of gold is a big chunk of the $8 billion in foreign reserves held by the Venezuelan central bank. So bolton and pompeo are now sending the gold back to Venezuela. Stopping the central banks from selling it.
Europe had created its own bypass payments system for use with Iran and other countries targeted by U.S. diplomats. Germany, France and even the U.S. poodle Britain joined to create INSTEX — Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges.
the IMF has been forced to admit that its basic guidelines were fictitious from the beginning. A central core has been to enforce payment of official inter-government debt by withholding IMF credit from countries under default. This rule was instituted at a time when most official inter-government debt was owed to the United States. But a few years ago Ukraine defaulted on $3 billion owed to Russia. The IMF said, in effect, that Ukraine and other countries did not have to pay Russia or any other country deemed to be acting too independently of the United States. The IMF has been extending credit to the bottomless it of Ukrainian corruption to encourage its anti-Russian policy rather than standing up for the principle that inter-government debts must be paid.
Trump has made moves on Venezuela, Iran and Europe , China, WTO, IMF, FED etc Trump is changing the CB system and breaking them down one piece at a time. The World is about To Change.
a claim from a woman, Vanessa Tyson, who said she was sexually assaulted by Fairfax at the DNC convention more than a decade ago.
In a statement, he said that WaPo had looked into the claims, and found "significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegation," and that the paper decided not to run the story for that reason.
But The Washington Post, at least in part, disagrees.
Interestingly, WaPo doesn't reference the Christine Blasey-Ford's allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in their rebuttal to Fairfax. The omission is striking given the specific details provided in Tyson's allegation such as a specific event, time and location, unlike Ford who couldn't remember what year the alleged assault occurred.
The Post let the accusations against Fairfax die in the darkness.
Compare and contrast the handling of the Fairfax story with Justice Kavanaugh.
It is now out it the open, the MSM has been exposed, now lets look at what the DS is trying to do with Northram.
Tulsi Gabbard lashed out at after NBC News was exposed trying to smear her as a Kremlin stooge. The network was called out over the weekend for relying on a Democrat-run firm that created fake Russian twitter bots to stage a "false flag" campaign against Republic Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama special election – New Knowledge.
ANOTHER huge caravan—this time over 12,000 migrants—will reach the US border this week.
President Trump is sending troops and focused on security.
We need a permanent fix. The Democrats must get serious about securing our southern border.
It appears that anonymous intelligence officials are executing an operation against the sitting commander in chief. It might not qualify as all-out mutiny, but it's also not all that far from one.
During the superbowl the washington post had an ad running that was trying to convince the world to trust the MSM, why would they do this, because they are in the process of losing the narrative, the people are waking up and they are trying to stop it. to late the process has started.


text:
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection
Davis, Jessica Bell, d. 1991
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
The Jessica B. Davis, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection consists of the constitution and history of the BSCP, programs, anniversary and commemorative booklets, speeches and writings by A. Philip Randolph, and news clippings by and about Randolph. There are also tributes to this union leader during his lifetime, and an address and press release for the 1942 planned March on Washington.
Jessica Bell Davis (?-1991) was the daughter of an official of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, James H. Bell and also the wife of the union official, Clarence E. Davis. She was a teacher in addition to a director and supervisor under A. Philip Randolph, for whom she worked for forty-five years.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) organized railway porters (traditionally an occupation for African Americans) to bargain with the Pullman Company, which held a virtual monopoly on the nation's sleeping car facilities. The BSCP was organized in 1925 in New York City. A. Philip Randolph, an editor and labor advocate, became its president in 1928. In the mid-1930's the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the New Deal's National Mediation Board recognized the BSCP.
The Jessica B. Davis, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters collection consists of the constitution and history of the BSCP, programs, anniversary and commemorative booklets, speeches and writings by A. Philip Randolph, and news clippings by and about Randolph. There are also tributes to this union leader during his lifetime, and an address and press release for the 1942 planned March on Washington.|||Additionally, there are yearbooks and other printed material from the A. Philip Randolph Campus High School at City College in New York City (1983-1989), and representing both the St. Catherine A. M. E. Zion Church in New Rochelle, New York and the Key Women of America are programs, newsletters and other printed material. Included are a few letters and an obituary for Davis.
Randolph, A. Philip (Asa Philip), 1889-1979
A. Philip Randolph Campus High School (New York, N.Y.)
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Key Women (New York, N.Y.)
Negro March on Washington Committee
St. Catherine A.M.E. Zion Church (New Rochelle, N.Y.)
African American churches -- New York (State) -- New Rochelle
African Americans -- Employment
Porters -- Labor unions -- United States
Railroads -- Labor unions -- United States
Working class -- United States


Do bees need cement mixers to build hives? Do beavers use cranes to construct dams? No, of course not Like many animals, they're building geniuses who don't need building site tools to create incredible work. Welcome to nature's very own, super-clever world of construction.
About Lonely Planet Kids: Come explore Let's start an adventure. Lonely Planet Kids excites and educates children about the amazing world around them. Combining astonishing facts, quirky humor and eye-catching imagery, we ignite their curiosity and encourage them to discover more about our planet. Every book draws on our huge team of global experts to help share our continual fascination with what makes the world such a diverse and magnificent place-inspiring children at home and in school.


text:
Copyright / JIPEL Blog 2020-2021 / Supreme Court / Technology / Uncategorized
The Intellectual Property Legacy of Justice Ginsburg
by Joseph Mineo, JD '22 · October 20, 2020
On Friday, September 25, 2020, the legal world lost the iconic Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Ginsburg had a long and prolific judicial tenure, with cases spanning a broad legal spectrum. However, she also developed a reputation for writing some of the most important copyright opinions in recent legal history.
Among Justice Ginsburg's landmark copyright opinions was Eldred v. Ashcroft, 537 U.S. 186 (2003), a case that confirmed Congress' constitutional authority to extend the protection period for copyrighted works from 50 years after the death of the creator to 70 years. The opinion showcased Justice Ginsburg's belief in granting broad rights to creators of copyrighted material, as well as granting expansive powers to Congress to legislate the boundaries of these rights. The only current member of the Supreme Court in dissent was Justice Breyer.
In 2014, Justice Ginsburg eliminated a barrier to recovery for copyright infringement plaintiffs by restricting the use of laches in an infringement case brought within the statute of limitations. This case, Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc., 572 U.S. 663 (2004), affirmed her commitment to the rights of content creators. Justice Breyer once again positioned himself in the dissent, this time joined by Chief Justice Roberts.
While Justice Ginsburg is famous for her poignant dissents, on intellectual property issues she found common ground with her more conservative peers. With Justices Sotomayor and Kagan joining the majority opinion in Petrella, Justice Breyer appears to be the only liberal-leaning member of the court to regularly side with defendants in copyright infringement cases.
While we reflect on the legacy of Justice Ginsburg in the field of intellectual property, the Supreme Court now has a vacancy. On October 7, 2020, the eight-Justice Court heard oral arguments for Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc., an appeal following Oracle America Inc. v. Google LLC, 886 F.3d 1179 (Fed. Cir. 2018), cert. granted. In this copyright infringement case, Oracle has alleged that Google copied a substantial portion of its code after refusing to license Oracle's program.
At issue was whether Google's use of numerous sections of Oracle's code constituted infringement, and whether that infringement was fair use. There is little disagreement that the use of Oracle's code was indeed infringement. Whether Google could successfully use a fair use defense was the more difficult issue to resolve. The Federal Circuit Court ruled in favor of Oracle, noting that "[t]here is nothing fair about taking a copyrighted work verbatim and using it for the same purpose and function as the original in a competing platform."
Were Justice Ginsburg still on the Court, she very likely would have written the majority opinion. Based on her pro-creator record, and the pro-creator leanings of the Court generally, the case would likely be resolved in favor of Oracle.
In her absence, we can look to the remaining justices. Justice Thomas joined Justice Ginsburg's majority pro-creator opinion in Eldred. Similarly, Justices Thomas, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Alito joined Justice Ginsburg's opinion in Petrella. Justice Breyer is a regular opponent of the Ginsburg approach to copyright cases, and Chief Justice Roberts joined his dissent in Petrella.
Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh have much shorter tenures on the Supreme Court. Justice Gorsuch, known for his textualist approach, does not have a notable history of intellectual property decisions. Justice Kavanaugh has a similarly sparse history of intellectual property opinions.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has been nominated by President Trump to replace Justice Ginsburg, and the confirmation process appears to be going forward at a staggeringly rapid pace. Even with this expedited timeline, Judge Barrett was not seated before the October 7 oral arguments for the Oracle case. Judge Barrett has spent only three years on the Seventh Circuit and has not heard any notable copyright cases in her tenure.
In the absence of Justice Ginsburg, Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. will probably still be resolved in favor of Oracle. Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Thomas, and Alito are very likely to be in the majority. While Justice Breyer is likely to dissent, only one of the three remaining Justices must join the majority for Oracle to prevail. Chief Justice Roberts' dissent in Petrella involved an equitable defense, not an issue of fair use. He is therefore not a reliable ally to Justice Breyer in the Oracle case.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's loss has been felt throughout the world. The intellectual property law community is no exception. Justice Ginsburg's fervent support for creators in the copyright field will be notably absent in future cases, beginning with Google LLC v. Oracle America Inc. However, this loss may not have shifted the Court's leanings on copyright issues. Should Judge Barrett be confirmed to the Court, one third of the Justices will have very little history of intellectual property opinions. After the Oracle case, we will have our first glimpse into the future of US intellectual property law.
Joseph Mineo, JD '22
Copyright Strikes as a Tool for Censorship, Bullying, Extortion
Fashion Copyright and the Muddle of the Useful Articles Doctrine
Next story Effects of an NBA Post-Season Strike on the CBA
Previous story Sorry, Bron. "Taco Tuesday" Not Yours to Trademark.


text:
USA Diving Releases Tentative 2021 Schedule for Regionals, Zones, Nationals
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
by Dan D'Addona — Swimming World Managing Editor
18 December 2020, 03:34pm
USA Diving announced the tentative schedule for the 2021 USA Diving Regional, Zone and National Championships. The championship events will begin with the various Regional Championships around the country the weekends of April 30 – May 2 and May 7–9, 2021. These events will lead into USA Diving Zone Championships which will take place the weekends of June 25 – 27 or July 1 – 4, 2021. The Junior Championship events will culminate with qualified divers competing at the Junior National Championships July 28 – August 3 followed by Junior Pan Ams and Junior World Championship Synchro Trials August 4, 2021 at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis Ind.
"We are excited to look towards getting back to competition in 2021," said President of USA Diving, Lee Michaud, "These events and their participants represent the future of USA Diving. A 2021 National Champion might very well be on the Olympic podium in Los Angeles 2028 or sooner. We look forward to coming back together with our community from around the country and will continue to put the safety and well-being of our membership above all else."
USA Diving Regional Championships Schedule As of December 18, 2020:
Region Location Date
1 Gordon Field House & Activities Center, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y. April 30 – May 2, 2021
2 TBD TBD
3 Coral Springs Aquatic Complex, Coral Springs, Fla. April 30-May 2, 2021
5 Jones Natatorium, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Mich. May 7-9, 2021
6 Fisher's High School, Fishers, Ind. April 30-May 2, 2021
9 United States Air Force Academy Natatorium, Colorado Springs, Colo. April 30-May 2, 2021
10 TBD TBD
11 Pete Ragus Aquatic Center, Lubbock, Tex. April 30-May 2, 2021
USA Diving Zone Championships Schedule as of December 18, 2020:
Zone Location Date
A Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, N.C. July 1-3, 2021
B Moose Moss Aquatic Center, Moultrie, Ga. June 25-27, 2021
C Forest Park Aquatic Center, Noblesville, IN: June 25 – 27
D Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center, Brown Deer, Wisc. July 1 – 3, 2021
E TBD TBD
F Marguerite Aquatic Center, Mission Viejo, Calif. July 2-4, 2021
Junior National Championships and Synchro Trials
Indiana University Natatorium, Indianapolis, Ind.: July 28 – August 3, 2021
Junior Pan Ams and Junior World Championship Synchro Trials August 4, 2021
• More diving news
Due to unforeseen circumstances, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of regions and zones are still in need of a host. If you are interested in hosting one of these events, please contact Aaron Kaylor: aaron.kaylor@usadiving.org.
— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with USA Diving. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.
Anonymous on Ariarne Titmus and Other Australians Skipping World Championships Would Hurt Swimming


Some people think that biofeedback is only about relaxing - however, that is not entirely true. I have used biofeedback with elite athletes to ensure that they are optimizing their mind and body function.
Biofeedback is not just about relaxing - it is about optimizing mind-body functioning.
A simple definition of biofeedback is that it is an evidenced based approach to enhance personal awareness and control over the body and the mind.
What this means is that you can be trained to improve your health by using the signals from your own body.
When you think about it we do this all the time. The last time that you stepped on some scales or measured your temperature by thermometer - both devices "feed back" information on your weight or temperature.
Armed with this information, you can take steps to improve your situation.
So it also is with biofeedback. Biofeedback therapy allows you to observe activity inside your body. It makes you more aware so that you can facilitate your own self-regulatory processes.
Different biofeedback machines allow you to "see" and "hear" different activity inside your body.
For example, the neurofeedback allows the practitioner to pick up brain waves and EMG biofeedback allows you to pick up tension in your muscles.
It can be a great way to illustrate the benefits of relaxation, especially to those who want objective data.
I remember a workshop that I gave on relaxation, in which one of the participants got quite frustrated that the relaxation technique wasn't working for him.
In fact, he couldn't remember a time when relaxation had ever worked for him.
So what I did was I connected him to an EMG biofeedback device which measured the tension in his frowning muscle.
I then repeated the instructions for the relaxation technique and monitored his muscle tenseness.
What the student found was that whenever he imagined a clear blue sky with seagulls riding the wind, the tension in this frowning muscle went down significantly on the device.
He didn't know why this relaxed him, but the important thing was that he had found something personally meaningful to him which had a calming effect on him. Just as importantly, the objective data that the feedback provided affirmed his feelings.
This type of therapy uses the advances in technology, psychology and physiology. As a training device it allowed him to gain greater control of his physiological processes.


text:
#ifndef __CONFIGS_SAMA5D3X_EK_INCLUDE_BOARD_396MHZ_H
#define __CONFIGS_SAMA5D3X_EK_INCLUDE_BOARD_396MHZ_H

/************************************************************************************
 * Included Files
 ************************************************************************************/

#include <nuttx/config.h>

/************************************************************************************
 * Definitions
 ************************************************************************************/

/* Clocking *************************************************************************/
/* After power-on reset, the SAMA5 device is running on a 12MHz internal RC.  These
 * definitions will configure operational clocking.
 *
 * This is the configuration provided in the Atmel example code.  This results in a
 * CPU clock of 396MHz:
 *
 *   MAINOSC:  Frequency = 12MHz (crystal)
 *   PLLA: PLL Divider = 1, Multiplier = 66 to generate PLLACK = 792MHz
 *   Master Clock (MCK): Source = PLLACK/2, Prescalar = 1, MDIV = 3 to generate
 *     MCK      =  132MHz
 *     CPU clock = 396MHz
 */

/* Main oscillator register settings.
 *
 *   The start up time should be should be:
 *   Start Up Time = 8 * MOSCXTST / SLCK = 56 Slow Clock Cycles.
 */

#define BOARD_CKGR_MOR_MOSCXTST    (62 << PMC_CKGR_MOR_MOSCXTST_SHIFT) /* Start-up Time */

/* PLLA configuration.
 *
 *   Divider = 1
 *   Multipler = 66
 */

#define BOARD_CKGR_PLLAR_COUNT     (63 << PMC_CKGR_PLLAR_COUNT_SHIFT)
#define BOARD_CKGR_PLLAR_OUT       (0)
#define BOARD_CKGR_PLLAR_MUL       (65 << PMC_CKGR_PLLAR_MUL_SHIFT)
#define BOARD_CKGR_PLLAR_DIV       PMC_CKGR_PLLAR_DIV_BYPASS

/* PMC master clock register settings.
 *
 *  Master/Processor Clock Source Selection = PLLA
 *  Master/Processor Clock Prescaler        = 1
 *  PLLA Divider                            = 2
 *  Master Clock Division (MDIV)            = 3
 *
 *  NOTE: Bit PLLADIV2 must always be set to 1 when MDIV is set to 3.
 *
 *  Prescaler input                         = 792MHz / 2 = 396MHz
 *  Prescaler output                        = 396MHz / 1 = 396MHz
 *  Processor Clock (PCK)                   = 396MHz
 *  Master clock (MCK)                      = 396MHz / 3 = 132MHz
 */

#define BOARD_PMC_MCKR_CSS         PMC_MCKR_CSS_PLLA
#define BOARD_PMC_MCKR_PRES        PMC_MCKR_PRES_DIV1
#define BOARD_PMC_MCKR_PLLADIV     PMC_MCKR_PLLADIV2
#define BOARD_PMC_MCKR_MDIV        PMC_MCKR_MDIV_PCKDIV3

/* Resulting frequencies */

#define BOARD_MAINOSC_FREQUENCY    (12000000)  /* MAINOSC: 12MHz crystal on-board */
#define BOARD_PLLA_FREQUENCY       (792000000) /* PLLACK:  66 * 12Mhz / 1 */
#define BOARD_PCK_FREQUENCY        (396000000) /* CPU:     PLLACK / 2 / 1  */
#define BOARD_MCK_FREQUENCY        (132000000) /* MCK:     PLLACK / 2 / 1 / 3 */

#ifdef CONFIG_SAMA5_EHCI
/* The USB Host High Speed requires a 480 MHz clock (UPLLCK) for the embedded
 * High-speed transceivers. UPLLCK is the output of the 480 MHz UTMI PLL
 * (UPLL).  The source clock of the UTMI PLL is the Main OSC output:  Either
 * the 12MHz internal RC oscillator on a an external 12MHz crystal.  The
 * Main OSC must be 12MHz because the UPLL has a built-in 40x multiplier.
 *
 * For High-speed operations, the user has to perform the following:
 *
 *   1) Enable UHP peripheral clock, bit (1 << AT91C_ID_UHPHS) in
 *      PMC_PCER register.
 *   2) Write CKGR_PLLCOUNT field in PMC_UCKR register.
 *   3) Enable UPLL, bit AT91C_CKGR_UPLLEN in PMC_UCKR register.
 *   4) Wait until UTMI_PLL is locked. LOCKU bit in PMC_SR register
 *   5) Enable BIAS, bit AT91C_CKGR_BIASEN in PMC_UCKR register.
 *   6) Select UPLLCK as Input clock of OHCI part, USBS bit in PMC_USB
 *      register.
 *   7) Program the OHCI clocks (UHP48M and UHP12M) with USBDIV field in
 *      PMC_USB register. USBDIV must be 9 (division by 10) if UPLLCK is
 *      selected.
 *   8) Enable OHCI clocks, UHP bit in PMC_SCER register.
 *
 * Steps 2 through 7 performed here.  1 and 8 are performed in the EHCI
 * driver is initialized.
 */

#  define BOARD_CKGR_UCKR_UPLLCOUNT  (15)  /* Maximum value */
#  define BOARD_CKGR_UCKR_BIASCOUNT  (15)  /* Maximum value */
#endif

/* HSMCI clocking
 *
 * Multimedia Card Interface clock (MCCK or MCI_CK) is Master Clock (MCK)
 * divided by (2*(CLKDIV) + CLOCKODD + 2).
 *
 *   MCI_SPEED = MCK / (2*CLKDIV + CLOCKODD + 2)
 *
 * Where CLKDIV has a range of 0-255.
 */

/* MCK = 132MHz, CLKDIV = 164, MCI_SPEED = 132MHz / (2*164 + 0 + 2) = 400 KHz */

#define HSMCI_INIT_CLKDIV          (164 << HSMCI_MR_CLKDIV_SHIFT)

/* MCK = 132MHz, CLKDIV = 2 w/CLOCKODD, MCI_SPEED = 132MHz /(2*2 + 1 + 2) = 18.9 MHz */

#define HSMCI_MMCXFR_CLKDIV        ((2 << HSMCI_MR_CLKDIV_SHIFT) | HSMCI_MR_CLKODD)

/* MCK = 132MHz, CLKDIV = 2, MCI_SPEED = 132MHz /(2*2 + 0 + 2) = 22 MHz */

#define HSMCI_SDXFR_CLKDIV         (2 << HSMCI_MR_CLKDIV_SHIFT)
#define HSMCI_SDWIDEXFR_CLKDIV     HSMCI_SDXFR_CLKDIV

/* FLASH wait states
 *
 * FWS Max frequency
 *     1.62V 1.8V
 * --- ----- ------
 *  0  24MHz 27MHz
 *  1  40MHz 47MHz
 *  2  72MHz 84MHz
 *  3  84MHz 96MHz
 */

#define BOARD_FWS                  3

/************************************************************************************
 * Public Data
 ************************************************************************************/

#ifndef __ASSEMBLY__

#undef EXTERN
#if defined(__cplusplus)
#define EXTERN extern "C"
extern "C" {
#else
#define EXTERN extern
#endif

/************************************************************************************
 * Public Function Prototypes
 ************************************************************************************/

#undef EXTERN
#if defined(__cplusplus)
}
#endif

#endif /* !__ASSEMBLY__ */
#endif  /* __CONFIGS_SAMA5D3X_EK_INCLUDE_BOARD_396MHZ_H */

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Episode 173 of the AFB Podcast is live at iTunes and is now available for direct download! Download and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes now!
This week, join John, Ben, Scott and Justin for a great new show with all of the latest news and reviews!
This week, our Toys of the Week are the DC Collectibles Batman Animated Creeper and Man-Bat Action Figures, and we have the next round of the amazing AFB Trivia Game, the AFB Challenge!
Also - we announce our new Redbubble Store, where you can buy awesome AFB Merch - visit now!
If you don't use iTunes, you can download Episode 173 here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the "Podcast" tab here - but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly!


text:
"This Ruling Is Huge": Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $572 Million for Fueling Opioid Epidemic
StoryAugust 27, 2019
Julia Lurie
senior reporter at Mother Jones.
Julia Lurie on Twitter
"Johnson and Johnson Was Just Found Liable for Fueling the Opioid Epidemic in a Historic Trial."
In a landmark ruling, an Oklahoma judge has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for contributing to the state's opioid crisis. It marks the first time a drug company has been held responsible for the opioid crisis, though it fell far short of the $17 billion judgment sought by the state. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 400,000 people died from an overdose involving opioids from 1999 to 2017, including from prescription and illicit opioids. Court documents say more than 6,000 people have died of painkiller overdoses in Oklahoma alone. The Oklahoma ruling sets the stage for the more than 40 states that are currently pursuing similar claims against drug makers and distributors. A massive federal lawsuit brought by almost 2,000 cities, counties and Native American tribes is scheduled to begin in October. We speak with Julia Lurie, senior reporter at Mother Jones, who has covered the opioid crisis for years.
StoryAug 22, 2022Walmart, CVS and Walgreens Must Pay $650M for Filling Prescriptions to Pill Mills in Opioid Crisis
AMY GOODMAN: In a landmark ruling, an Oklahoma judge has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for contributing to Oklahoma's opioid crisis. Oklahoma District Judge Thad Balkman announced the ruling Monday.
JUDGE THAD BALKMAN: The opioid crisis is an imminent danger and menace to Oklahomans. My judgment includes findings of fact and conclusions of law that the state met its burden that the defendants Janssen and Johnson & Johnson's misleading marketing and promotion of opioids created a nuisance as defined by 50 O.S. Section 1, including a finding that those actions compromised the health and safety of thousands of Oklahomans. Specifically, defendants caused an opioid crisis that is evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome in Oklahoma. This is a temporary public nuisance that can be abated. And the proper remedy for public nuisance is equitable abatement. As I just stated, the opioid crisis has ravaged the state of Oklahoma. It must be abated immediately. For this reason, I am entering an abatement plan that consists of costs totaling $572,102,028 to immediately remediate the nuisance.
AMY GOODMAN: Oklahoma Judge Thad Balkman, speaking Monday. Johnson & Johnson has vowed to appeal the ruling. This marks the first time a drug company has been held responsible for the opioid crisis, which has led to more than 400,000 overdose deaths since 1999. According to court documents, more than 6,000 people have died of painkiller overdoses in Oklahoma alone. The state of Oklahoma had sought a $17 billion judgment, but Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter still celebrated the ruling.
ATTORNEY GENERAL MIKE HUNTER: Today, Judge Balkman has affirmed our position that Johnson & Johnson, motivated by greed and avarice, is responsible for the opioid epidemic in our state. Johnson & Johnson will finally be held accountable for thousands of deaths and addiction caused by their activities. … There is no question in my mind that we had to bring this case, that it had to be tried, that these facts had to see sunlight. That's been accomplished here. And at the end of the day, you can't sit in a corporate suite somewhere for the last 20 years and oversupply the country. Ten times more of this drug was coming in, and then you had, concomitantly, 15 times more people dying from opioid overdoses. So, there's no question in my mind that these companies knew what was going on at the highest level. They just couldn't quit making money from it. And that's why they're responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: The Oklahoma ruling sets the stage for the more than 40 states that are currently pursuing similar claims against the pharmaceutical industry, lawsuits targeting drug makers and distributors. A massive federal lawsuit, brought by almost 2,000 cities, counties and Native American tribes, is scheduled to begin in October in Cleveland.
Well, for more, we go to San Francisco, California, where we're joined by Julia Lurie, a senior reporter at Mother Jones. Her new article, "Johnson and Johnson Was Just Found Liable for Fueling the Opioid Epidemic in a Historic Trial."
Julia Lurie, welcome to Democracy Now! You've been following this trial very closely. Talk about the significance of the ruling.
JULIA LURIE: So, this ruling is huge. This is the first time that a case like this has gone to trial. And, you know, honestly, we didn't really know what was going to happen. There is not really a precedent for this, for a pharmaceutical company being held liable for its role in this crisis. So, you know, you had all of this evidence that was being put out over the past several weeks, and still we didn't really know how the judge was going to come down. And so, the news yesterday, that the state was going to be receiving millions of dollars from Johnson & Johnson, was really impressive. And at the same time, you know, the state had requested a lot more money. So, it's definitely, I think, a mixed bag, but, overall, it definitely sets the tone for future cases like this, of which there will be many.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, it's not as if this was the only drug company that contributed to the opioid crisis. But two other companies, Purdue Pharma and Teva, had settled with Oklahoma before, at less than — well under half the amount that this judge has now found Johnson & Johnson liable for.
JULIA LURIE: Correct. So, Johnson & Johnson was basically making the gamble that the state could not find a single company, namely Johnson & Johnson, liable for the entirety of the opioid crisis, that their role was so minuscule that they would not be found responsible. And that strategy really ended up backfiring, because, as you said, they ended up paying far more than Purdue and Teva combined.
AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, Johnson & Johnson's attorney Sabrina Strong vowed to appeal the ruling.
SABRINA STRONG: We have sympathy for all who suffer from substance abuse, but Johnson & Johnson did not cause the opioid abuse crisis here in Oklahoma or anywhere in this country. We do not believe that the facts or the law supports the decision today. We have many strong grounds for appeal, and we intend to pursue those vigorously.
AMY GOODMAN: That's Johnson & Johnson's attorney Sabrina Strong vowing to appeal the ruling. Julia Lurie, one of the main arguments of Johnson & Johnson is "We didn't prescribe these drugs; doctors did."
JULIA LURIE: That's true, and at the same time, Johnson & Johnson played a big role in getting those doctors to prescribe these drugs. So, what we now know from the evidence that was laid out in this trial was that Johnson & Johnson was a pharmaceutical company that went about a massive and misleading and false advertising, effectively, marketing campaign, in which they had sales representatives target high-volume prescribers, so doctors that they knew would be amenable to prescribing more and more opioids, and encouraging those doctors to prescribe higher doses of opioids, and also trying to convince folks, doctors and patients alike, that these were safe and effective drugs, that they were — that addiction was not a problem, that it was perfectly fine to take them at high doses for long periods of time. You know, one of the things that came out over the course of this trial was that Johnson & Johnson representatives, sales representatives, made — I think it was 150,000 calls just across the state of Oklahoma, sales calls, to doctors, pushing them to prescribe these opioids. And so, you know, it's correct that ultimately the doctors are the ones that are prescribing these drugs; however, Johnson & Johnson played a huge role in influencing those doctors.
And another thing that we know that Johnson & Johnson did was support the pain patients, the advocacy groups, specifically, that were advocating on behalf of pain patients. You know, when a message is coming from a doctor or from a patient advocacy group, it seems much more trustworthy than a message coming from a pharmaceutical company. So we know that they really leveraged those messaging techniques. And as a result, the prescribing of opioids in Oklahoma, and really across the country, skyrocketed.
AMY GOODMAN: Oklahoma also argued that Johnson & Johnson targeted young children in its efforts to expand the opioid market. The state compared the company's recruiting tactics to those of the tobacco industry. Julia, tell us more.
JULIA LURIE: So, it seems like there was no population that was sort of off limits for Johnson & Johnson to basically push these opioids onto. And, you know, from a marketing perspective, it makes sense. If you can get more people hooked on these drugs, especially people from a younger age, then you'll have, you know, lifetime customers, as it were. However, as we know, these drugs are extraordinarily addictive, and there are all sorts of negative effects to prescribing these drugs. So, you know, we have all this marketing information now, that if you were just taking an economic perspective, you would say, "Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Target as many different populations as you can. Target people with cancer pain. Target people with noncancer pain. Target old people. Target young people." And in reality, that kind of targeting has really devastating consequences.
AMY GOODMAN: You wrote a piece not a little while ago called "Inside Johnson and Johnson's Quiet Domination of the Opioid Market." Explain how key Johnson & Johnson was and how this market and the epidemic developed simultaneously. How did they do it? There is so much that is not known about the way these companies operate, with their secret documents, that now come out in trial.
JULIA LURIE: Sure. So, the company's role was really multipronged. So, on the one hand, they had their own opioid products that they were selling and they were marketing, and they had a whole salesforce of folks who were going to doctors and encouraging doctors to prescribe those medications. But also — and this is something that I think that most people don't know about Johnson & Johnson — Johnson & Johnson had two subsidiaries that were responsible for manufacturing the majority of active ingredients in opioids that were marketed and sold in the United States, not just Johnson & Johnson opioids but all sorts of opioids.
So, the way that they did this was, back in the '90s they had developed this high-thebaine poppy. Thebaine is a type of opioid that's used in a lot of painkillers. And back in the '90s, they were able to connect with what is now Purdue Pharma to basically say, "Look, we have all these poppies. We have this active ingredient. We can help you to make this opioid painkiller, and we can supply as much of it as you want." And over the years, you know, Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries ended up providing pharmaceutical companies across the country with 60% of the active ingredients that are in painkillers.
So, you know, on the one hand, you have Johnson & Johnson with its own painkillers and with its own salesforce, but they also were quietly playing this really massive role in providing the entirety of the United States and its pharmaceutical companies with the active ingredients that ended up in painkillers in medicine cabinets all over the country.
AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask about Purdue Pharma's role in the opioid crisis. Again, they settled earlier and didn't go to trial in Oklahoma. Earlier today, the investigative news organization ProPublica published video testimony of Dr. Richard Sackler of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. This is a part of a deposition he gave in a 2015 lawsuit in Kentucky. The company waged a three-year legal battle to keep this video secret.
TYLER THOMPSON: Sitting here today, after all you've come to learn as a witness, do you believe Purdue's conduct in marketing and promoting OxyContin in Kentucky caused any of the prescription drug addiction problems now plaguing the commonwealth?
DR. RICHARD SACKLER: I don't believe so.
TYLER THOMPSON: Sitting here today, after all you've come to learn as a witness, do you believe that Purdue's conduct in Kentucky has led to an excessive or unnecessary amount of opioids being located throughout the commonwealth of Kentucky?
TYLER THOMPSON: Do you believe that any of Purdue's conduct has led to an increase in people being addicted in the commonwealth of Kentucky?
DR. RICHARD SACKLER: No.
AMY GOODMAN: That's Dr. Richard Sackler of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, again, part of a deposition he gave in a 2015 lawsuit in Kentucky. They did not want this video made public. Julia Lurie, as you listen to this for the first time, can you talk about the significance of his testimony in this affidavit?
JULIA LURIE: You know, on the one hand, it seems completely absurd that he would say that, and, on the other, that company has really stuck to those lines, that "we are not responsible for this addiction crisis" and "we're not responsible for this overdose crisis." So, in that way, it's very on brand.
And, you know, with this crisis, overall, it's complicated, because you have so many different companies that were playing a role in this, from Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies to the pharmaceutical distributors, who were responsible for taking pills from those pharmaceutical companies and distributing them to pharmacies across the country. And then you have the pharmacies, who were not responsible with making sure that these pills got into the right hands. And you have doctors who were overprescribing. There are so many places where the system failed. And Purdue has basically stuck to the line that, like, "Look, we just manufacture this one drug. How can we be responsible for this entire crisis that has subsequently unfolded?"
AMY GOODMAN: So, you now have the next series of lawsuits, and we're talking about thousands and thousands of lawsuits. One case that's going forward in Cleveland in October is actually 2,000 lawsuits brought together, brought by cities, counties and Native American tribes. Talk about the significance of this coming up and what this trial and verdict mean for the Cleveland trial.
JULIA LURIE: Sure. So, you know, over the past few years, municipalities, whether it's cities or counties or tribal lands, have been paying financially for the cost of this crisis. It is very, very expensive to put people in treatment, to have the emergency services that are necessary when someone overdoses, to have the drug courts that folks go to when they're dealing or using drugs. And so, for all of those things, they take a lot of money, and a lot of counties are really struggling with this. They don't have the financial means to deal with this, or it's cutting into budgets that they had for other things. So, over the years, a number of places have sued pharmaceutical companies for causing this crisis, and basically said, "Look, you are costing us all of this money. You're causing this widespread devastation. And you need to pay up. You need to be responsible for this."
So, all of those — or, a lot of those cases have been sort of rolled together into one big multidistrict litigation, that is going to trial in October. And this is going to be a huge case. It is — like you said, it is about 2,000 municipalities that are suing, and there are a ton of defendants — a lot of pharmaceutical companies, as well as distributors. And it's expected that a lot of evidence against a number of pharmaceutical companies and distributors will come out during this trial.
We don't know yet where things stand, if some places are going to — if some defendants are going to settle, if this is going to lead some companies into bankruptcy, if it's not going to be a big deal. We don't know. What we do know is that this trial that just happened in Oklahoma really sets the tone and sets a precedent for what this multidistrict litigation could be like. In Oklahoma, the lawyers for Oklahoma, the prosecutors, were basically saying that this was a public nuisance. They were basing their argument on the idea that the public nuisance that was created by Johnson & Johnson was so expensive that the company had to pay up. And that is a strategy that we didn't know if that was going to hold up in court or not. And now that we know that, at least in this one case, it did, it's expected that the lawyers for the defendants [sic] in the multidistrict litigation will also stick to that strategy.
AMY GOODMAN: And just to be clear, this was a nonjury case, right? This was a judge —
JULIA LURIE: Correct.
AMY GOODMAN: — made this decision. These pharmaceutical companies are, it seems, terrified of a jury of someone's peers, of a victim's peers.
JULIA LURIE: Correct. And the multidistrict litigation will be a jury. They will have a jury in that case.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Julia Lurie, I want to thank you so much for being with us, senior reporter at Mother Jones. We'll link to your new piece, "Johnson and Johnson Was Just Found Liable for Fueling the Opioid Epidemic in a Historic Trial."
When we come back, following the death of billionaire right-wing donor David Koch, we look at how he and his brother Charles transformed the U.S. economy and political system, from funding climate change deniers to fighting organized labor. We'll speak with the author of a new book, Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America. Stay with us.
"Kochland": How David Koch Helped Build an Empire to Shape U.S. Politics & Thwart Climate Action
NEXT"Kochland": How David Koch Helped Build an Empire to Shape U.S. Politics & Thwart Climate Action
StoryAug 22, 2022
Walmart, CVS and Walgreens Must Pay $650M for Filling Prescriptions to Pill Mills in Opioid Crisis


Pre-owned copy of Advanced Dungeon s & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. This game is in good condition, it does not include its original box or manual. The game cartridge has had its contacts fully cleaned and the game has been tested and is working, also the original battery was replaced with a new batter and a battery socket for easy replacement in the future. Cosmetically the sticker label shows some light wear, a gash on the top of the label and peeling at the bottom left corner. Great game to add to your retro gaming collection if you are a fan of the original Nintendo NES.


text:
-Top NewsUSA
Bolsonaro to be probed for January 8 riots in Brasilia
Currently, Brazilian authorities are investigating who gave Bolsonaro's extremist followers permission to invade the Supreme Court, Congress, and the presidential residence in an effort to void the results of the election in October.
As part of a larger campaign to hold the guilty accountable, a judge of the Brazilian Supreme Court approved an investigation on Friday to determine whether former president Jair Bolsonaro sparked the unrest in the nation's capital on January 8, The Washington Post reported.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted the request from the prosecutor general's office, which referenced a video Bolsonaro uploaded on Facebook two days after the disturbance. In the video, Bolsonaro claimed Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wasn't voted into office, but was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil's electoral authority, and now his supporters chant the same as they do not support Lula's narrow victory, reported The Washington Post.
Supporters of the former Brazil president broke into the country's Congressional building, Supreme Court and the Presidential palace on January 8. The breaches came about a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in a run-off election on October 30.
Videos on social media showed Bolsonaro supporters smashing windows and furniture in the National Congress and Supreme Court buildings on Sunday, reported Al Jazeera.
They climbed onto the roof of the Congress building, where Brazil's Senate and Chamber of Deputies conduct their legislative business, unfurling a banner that read 'intervention' and an apparent appeal to Brazil's military.
Security forces used tear gas in an effort to push back the demonstrators with local media estimating about 3,000 people were involved in the incident, reported Al Jazeera.
Brazil riots.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed deep concern over rioting and vandalism against state institutions in Brasilia while extending his full support to the Brazilian authorities.
"Deeply concerned about the news of rioting and vandalism against the State institutions in Brasilia. Democratic traditions must be respected by everyone. We extend our full support to the Brazilian authorities," tweeted PM Modi.
US President Joe Biden, too, condemned the 'assault on democracy' in Brazil.
Biden tweeted, "I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil. Brazil's democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined. I look forward to continuing to work with @LulaOficial."
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the "attack on Brazil's democratic institutions". He emphasised the importance of respecting democratic institutions as well as the will of the Brazilian people.
"I condemn the assault on Brazil's democratic institutions that took place today. The will of the Brazilian people and democratic institutions must be respected. I have full confidence that it will. Brazil is a great democratic country," Guterres tweeted. (ANI)
ALSO READ: Brazilian top officials face arrest over capital riots
Tagged: Brazil Jair Bolsonaro January 8 Riots Brasilia
Brazil's Lula fires 13 more from his security team
Brazilian top officials face arrest over capital riots
1,500 arrested in Brazil over capital riots
Brazil's Lula unveils cabinet picks
Argentina more than Messi, Brazil more than Neymar
Brazil crush South Korea 4-1 to storm into quarter-finals


text:
default_target: all

.PHONY : default_target

# Allow only one "make -f Makefile2" at a time, but pass parallelism.
.NOTPARALLEL:

#=============================================================================
# Special targets provided by cmake.

# Disable implicit rules so canonical targets will work.
.SUFFIXES:

# Remove some rules from gmake that .SUFFIXES does not remove.
SUFFIXES =

.SUFFIXES: .hpux_make_needs_suffix_list

# Suppress display of executed commands.
$(VERBOSE).SILENT:

# A target that is always out of date.
cmake_force:

.PHONY : cmake_force

#=============================================================================
# Set environment variables for the build.

# The shell in which to execute make rules.
SHELL = /bin/sh

# The CMake executable.
CMAKE_COMMAND = /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.7.2/bin/cmake

# The command to remove a file.
RM = /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.7.2/bin/cmake -E remove -f

# Escaping for special characters.
EQUALS = =

# The top-level source directory on which CMake was run.
CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR = /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov

# The top-level build directory on which CMake was run.
CMAKE_BINARY_DIR = /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build

#=============================================================================
# Targets provided globally by CMake.

# Special rule for the target rebuild_cache
rebuild_cache:
	@$(CMAKE_COMMAND) -E cmake_echo_color --switch=$(COLOR) --cyan "Running CMake to regenerate build system..."
	/usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.7.2/bin/cmake -H$(CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR) -B$(CMAKE_BINARY_DIR)
.PHONY : rebuild_cache

# Special rule for the target rebuild_cache
rebuild_cache/fast: rebuild_cache

.PHONY : rebuild_cache/fast

# Special rule for the target edit_cache
edit_cache:
	@$(CMAKE_COMMAND) -E cmake_echo_color --switch=$(COLOR) --cyan "Running CMake cache editor..."
	/usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.7.2/bin/ccmake -H$(CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR) -B$(CMAKE_BINARY_DIR)
.PHONY : edit_cache

# Special rule for the target edit_cache
edit_cache/fast: edit_cache

.PHONY : edit_cache/fast

# The main all target
all: cmake_check_build_system
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(CMAKE_COMMAND) -E cmake_progress_start /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build/CMakeFiles /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build/embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/progress.marks
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/all
	$(CMAKE_COMMAND) -E cmake_progress_start /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build/CMakeFiles 0
.PHONY : all

# The main clean target
clean:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/clean
.PHONY : clean

# The main clean target
clean/fast: clean

.PHONY : clean/fast

# Prepare targets for installation.
preinstall: all
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/preinstall
.PHONY : preinstall

# Prepare targets for installation.
preinstall/fast:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/preinstall
.PHONY : preinstall/fast

# clear depends
depend:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(CMAKE_COMMAND) -H$(CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR) -B$(CMAKE_BINARY_DIR) --check-build-system CMakeFiles/Makefile.cmake 1
.PHONY : depend

# Convenience name for target.
embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/rule:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/rule
.PHONY : embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/rule

# Convenience name for target.
mpga_phototaxis: embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/rule

.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis

# fast build rule for target.
mpga_phototaxis/fast:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build
.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis/fast

# Convenience name for target.
embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/rule:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f CMakeFiles/Makefile2 embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/rule
.PHONY : embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/rule

# Convenience name for target.
mpga_phototaxis_automoc: embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/rule

.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc

# fast build rule for target.
mpga_phototaxis_automoc/fast:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.dir/build
.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc/fast

main.o: main.cpp.o

.PHONY : main.o

# target to build an object file
main.cpp.o:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/main.cpp.o
.PHONY : main.cpp.o

main.i: main.cpp.i

.PHONY : main.i

# target to preprocess a source file
main.cpp.i:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/main.cpp.i
.PHONY : main.cpp.i

main.s: main.cpp.s

.PHONY : main.s

# target to generate assembly for a file
main.cpp.s:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/main.cpp.s
.PHONY : main.cpp.s

mpga_phototaxis_automoc.o: mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.o

.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.o

# target to build an object file
mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.o:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.o
.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.o

mpga_phototaxis_automoc.i: mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.i

.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.i

# target to preprocess a source file
mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.i:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.i
.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.i

mpga_phototaxis_automoc.s: mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.s

.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.s

# target to generate assembly for a file
mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.s:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(MAKE) -f embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/build.make embedding/mpga/CMakeFiles/mpga_phototaxis.dir/mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.s
.PHONY : mpga_phototaxis_automoc.cpp.s

# Help Target
help:
	@echo "The following are some of the valid targets for this Makefile:"
	@echo "... all (the default if no target is provided)"
	@echo "... clean"
	@echo "... depend"
	@echo "... rebuild_cache"
	@echo "... edit_cache"
	@echo "... mpga_phototaxis"
	@echo "... mpga_phototaxis_automoc"
	@echo "... main.o"
	@echo "... main.i"
	@echo "... main.s"
	@echo "... mpga_phototaxis_automoc.o"
	@echo "... mpga_phototaxis_automoc.i"
	@echo "... mpga_phototaxis_automoc.s"
.PHONY : help

#=============================================================================
# Special targets to cleanup operation of make.

# Special rule to run CMake to check the build system integrity.
# No rule that depends on this can have commands that come from listfiles
# because they might be regenerated.
cmake_check_build_system:
	cd /Users/JorgeAlfredo/argos3-markov/build && $(CMAKE_COMMAND) -H$(CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR) -B$(CMAKE_BINARY_DIR) --check-build-system CMakeFiles/Makefile.cmake 0
.PHONY : cmake_check_build_system


Vitamin B12 Spray: Energy is the currency of our lives—yet most of us feel constantly drained. Replenish your power with Botanika's B12 Spay, a unique blend of all natural ingredients, including vitamin B12, especially formulated to give you vigor, vitality and verve. With the same nano technology we use in our CBD Sprays, this vitamin spray is the perfect addition to your daily dose of CBD! Keep your Vitamin B12 spray at your desk for easy access to mitigate that afternoon workday slump.


Delicately seasoned meat cooked with in a classic masala sauce.
Lightly spiced meatballs cooked in a traditional masala sauce.
Diced meat prepared in curry sauce with fresh mushrooms and tomatoes.
Cooked with chopped tomatoes, capsicum, onions and herbs. Nepalese style!
A touch of yogurt, flavoured with eggs, onions and a sprinkle of saffron.
Minced lamb with garden peas seasoned in herbs, spices and whole condiments.
Diced meat cooked in a delicately flavoured classic curry with cashew nuts.
Peppered meat cooked in a tomato-based sauce with butter with a dash of fresh cream.
Tender lamb or chicken with spinach cooked with eastern herbs and condiments.
Lightly spiced and cooked with onion round-lets.
Prepared with cream, onions, tomatoes and flavoursome spices.
A traditional mild classic! Cooked with milk, cream and coconut powder.
Tender meat prepared in a hot, fiery sauce.
Cooked in a traditional spicy curry with fresh green chilies.
Succulent meat concocted with our sweet and sour sauce and lentils.
Basmati rice cooked together and flavoured with saffron and mild oriental spices. Served with a vegetable curry.


Students use creative tools in the Seesaw app or website to complete classroom activities like "Room on the Broom"
Think about the story and the characters in the book Room on the Broom. Tap the to move the emojis onto the broom in the correct order. Use to tell about the story as you move the emojis onto the broom. Some of the emojis may look different than in the story. Just choose the emoji that looks closest to each character. When you're done, tap to post to your journal.


text:
Conservatives Can Win By Embracing 'Selectionism'
Immigration doesn't have to spell demographic doom for Republicans.
By Reihan Salam
Genna Martin / San Francisco Chronicle / AP
The conservative intelligentsia is in the grip of a profound demographic pessimism—a sense that a diversifying America necessarily spells doom for the right, and that the movement's only hope is therefore to halt, or at least sharply reduce, immigrant inflows. Portents of demographic doom have long been a mainstay of conservative media, whether on the Fox News prime-time lineup or in highbrow journals of opinion, and embracing restrictionism has become a surefire way for ambitious Republicans to signal their edginess and resolve.
But a funny thing has happened on the road to conservative demographic doom. Since 2016, a rising number of first- and second-generation Americans have been gravitating to the political right, a trend that predates the current political travails of the Biden administration and that has grown particularly pronounced among voters of Latin American origin. Cosmopolitan liberals who have long imagined themselves the vanguard of a rising progressive majority are now confronting the possibility that they are an overrepresented rump, with political influence that stems more from their control over elite institutions than widespread popular support.
Given this emerging political realignment, immigration, and the incorporation of immigrants and their descendants into American civic life, is proving less an obstacle to conservative political ambitions than an opportunity to expand the conservative coalition. Rather than cower in fear at the progressive left's supposed efforts to use immigrant inflows to remake the U.S. electorate, as some on the restrictionist right would have it, why don't conservatives embrace an immigration strategy that can move America in a more conservative direction?
The term restrictionism conflates two distinct ideas: that our country should take in fewer immigrants, and that Americans, and Americans alone, have the right to choose whom to admit to the United States. If the former is polarizing, the latter commands broad public support, which helps explain why Americans have traditionally drawn a sharp distinction between legal and illegal immigration, perceiving the latter as a violation of the rules the country has established for selecting newcomers. Further, there is good reason to believe that what matters to GOP voters is not absolute reduction but control. The big question, in other words, is not "How many immigrants?" but "Who decides, and on what grounds?"
From the May 2021 issue: America never wanted the tired, poor, huddle masses
The key is to focus on what I call selectionism, or the unambiguous defense of the American people's right to choose whom to admit and whom to exclude, and to do so on the basis of promoting the national interest. By abandoning restrictionism for selectionism, ambitious Republicans could not only assuage the concerns of their base while promoting the interests of the country—they could also, potentially, chart a path out of the current immigration deadlock that would appeal to a broad, multiracial majority of Americans.
The politics of this moment represent a striking reversal. As recently as a decade ago, many of the Republican Party's rising stars were calling for a major increase in immigrant admissions. Today, in contrast, virtually all Republicans have united around the cause of immigration restriction. And though this is true for a number of reasons, perhaps the most salient is the aforementioned conviction that immigrants and their descendants are destined to become foot soldiers of the progressive left.
Anxieties over ethnic change are a familiar feature of U.S. politics, and calls for immigration restriction grounded in a belief in fixed ethnic identities and political allegiances have a certain realpolitik logic. Cosmopolitan liberals really have described immigrants and their descendants as part of a "coalition of the ascendant" that can foster progressive political dominance, and at least some of their opponents have taken this demographic triumphalism seriously. The trouble with this brand of ethnocultural determinism, however, is that it reflects a political era that is drawing to a close.
Until very recently, one could take this notion that immigrant origins are a reliable predictor of support for Democratic candidates for granted. Drawing on data from the 2016 presidential election, for example, the political scientist George Hawley found that established Americans—native-born Americans with native-born parents and grandparents—were significantly less supportive of Democratic candidates than first- and second-generation Americans, even after controlling for a wide range of individual-level attributes. And though one could argue that the unique circumstances surrounding Donald Trump's polarizing presidential campaign played a role in this outcome, as Hawley readily acknowledges, it nevertheless helped make the case for conservative demographic pessimism.
Yet today, the conservative movement finds itself on the cusp of what could be a prolonged period of political success. If non-college-educated voters continue to move rightward, as many observers on the left and right confidently expect, Republicans will soon have an even larger advantage in contests for the U.S. Senate and Electoral College, which Democrats will find exceedingly difficult to overcome. This possibility has engendered dread among progressive intellectuals, who fear the prospect of a more powerful GOP, and it has given rise to "popularist" calls for a new Democratic politics that is more responsive to working-class interests and sensibilities. But to take full advantage of this opportunity, the right would do well to embrace selectionism.
Consider that most Americans strongly prefer educated immigrants in high-status jobs over other immigrants, and this preference varies very little according to education, partisanship, labor-market position, and ethnocentrism, according to a study by the political scientists Jens Hainmueller and Daniel Hopkins. As a result, high-skill immigration has had a markedly different political impact than low-skill immigration.
In 2018, the economists Anna Maria Mayda and Giovanni Peri released an analysis of the impact of immigrant inflows on county-level election outcomes from 1990 to 2010. They found that an increase in the proportion of college-educated immigrants in a given county's population was associated with increased support for Democratic candidates, while an increase in the proportion of non-college-educated immigrants was associated with increased support for Republican candidates, a result that they hypothesized was tied to the perceived costs and benefits of immigrant inflows. That is, because higher-skilled newcomers were seen as generating positive spillovers for their communities, they boosted support for the more pro-immigration Democrats; a lower-skilled influx, in contrast, buoyed restrictionist Republicans.
From the October 2021 issue: Plan Z for immigration
In the years since 2010, however, the immigration landscape has changed. In the 2000s, it was not uncommon for Republicans to back the expansion of low-wage guest-worker programs to signal their pro-business bona fides, a stance that, as Mayda and Peri's work suggests, engendered a conservative backlash in rural regions. Outside of agriculture, however, GOP-aligned employers and donors have lost interest in spending their political capital on making it easier to recruit low-skill immigrant labor. The rise of offshoring has meant that large domestic employers have less economic interest in lobbying for low-skill immigration today than in earlier eras, when low-skill, low-wage manufacturing represented a larger share of the U.S. economy. We've seen this pattern in many of the world's market democracies. More and more, support for low-skill immigration is rooted in humanitarianism, not hard-nosed economic self-interest. The result is that the Republican elite has largely jettisoned its politically costly commitment to low-skill immigration, thus allowing for a pivot to a more politically appealing selectionist stance.
At the same time, as the Democratic Party's activists and donors have moved leftward, Democratic policy makers have come to reject the default expectation that new immigrants should be economically self-reliant, an expectation closely tied to selectionism. During the welfare-reform era, conservative Republicans and moderate Democrats worked together to pass limits on immigrant eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, non-emergency Medicaid, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, and a range of other programs, an approach dubbed "immigration yes, welfare no." This proved politically effective for immigration advocates, as there is evidence that U.S. voters are more concerned about immigrants collecting public benefits than they are about the prospect of immigrant wage competition.
More recently, however, progressives in the media and the nonprofit sector have come to place a heavy rhetorical emphasis on the moral and humanitarian dimension of immigration policy, suggesting that denying entry, and public benefits, to almost any would-be migrant would be unacceptably cruel. Democrats in state legislatures and in Congress have worked to expand access to public-benefit programs to immigrants, including unauthorized noncitizens. On the left, "immigration yes, welfare no" is giving way to "immigration yes, welfare yes," a stance that remains anathema to conservatives and moderates. The implication of this position is not only that U.S. citizens have no say in who is admitted to the country but also that American taxpayers must foot the bill for immigrants who can't support themselves. Given the unpopularity of this arrangement, restrictionism is becoming a more potent wedge issue for Republicans running against Democrats who find themselves constrained by elite progressive opinion.
But if restrictionism has greater appeal—at least to some voters—than the more self-flagellating forms of progressive humanitarianism, it is still not a position capable of building a durable national majority. Indeed, these two poles in the immigration debate feed off each other, locking the country in an unproductive, zero-sum dispute. Conservatives and some moderates, fearful that liberals wish to pursue a de facto open-borders policy, embrace restrictionist politicians as the least-bad option. Meanwhile, elite progressives, correctly judging that full-blown restrictionism alienates many voters, feel little pressure to moderate their rhetoric or take concerns over low-skilled and irregular migration seriously. The result is an immigration debate pitting the "woke" against the "MAGA," with the broad majority of Americans of all colors left out. For Republicans, selectionism offers a way to break this impasse—one that meets the concerns of their existing voters while broadening the party's appeal to the first- and second-generation voters already trending in its direction. The children and grandchildren of post-1965 immigrants would be especially drawn to a selectionist approach that welcomes productive newcomers while rejecting any compulsion to set immigration policy on the basis of the racialist fixations of cosmopolitan liberals.
Adam Serwer: The real border crisis
As for what a selectionist immigration agenda might entail, much depends on whether it should center on bloodless materialism or some robust vision for how newcomers might shape America's cultural and political character. In light of the changing global economic and demographic landscape, and challenges and opportunities as varied as renewed great-power competition and the rise of intelligent machines, there is a strong case for focusing on attracting superstar talent. As Caleb Watney of the Institute for Progress has observed, "the advantage to a country that attracts geniuses compounds over time, as clusters form around them—talent attracts more talent—which helps all the individuals and firms in such clusters become more productive than they would be in isolation." Post-Brexit Britain has moved sharply in this direction. Having asserted the sovereign right to control immigrant inflows, the British government is adopting a points-based immigration system and launching a new "high potential individual" visa aimed at graduates of the world's most prestigious research universities. And though populist critics warn that the government's selectionist approach is inviting an anti-immigration revolt, the survey evidence thus far suggests otherwise.
Progressive humanitarians and conservative restrictionists alike would no doubt denounce this frankly elitist approach to immigrant selection, but 78 percent of U.S. adults support encouraging high-skill immigration, including 63 percent of the minority of voters who favor reducing immigrant inflows overall. While evidence on the economic and fiscal impact of low-skill migrants on the native-born is contested, there is an overwhelming academic consensus on the economic benefits associated with high-skill inflows.
Nevertheless, I don't anticipate that a selectionism grounded in a narrowly utilitarian calculus will carry the day. If conservatives do eventually embrace a more creative and aggressive approach to immigrant admissions, as I believe they will, it won't be because of arguments about maximizing America's growth potential, important though they may be. I suspect it will be in response to more-contingent developments. The ongoing incorporation of anti-socialist Venezuelans into the conservative coalition, for example, might lead Republicans to look favorably on other South Americans seeking to flee the rising influence of Marxist political movements in their homeland. In a similar vein, the political awakening among Asian Americans opposed to racial preferences and alarmed by rising urban violence might cast Chinese émigrés fleeing their native country's intensifying authoritarianism in a more favorable light. Rank-and-file conservatives might also see wisdom in welcoming Ukrainian refugees, or in raiding the most-skilled scientists, workers, and entrepreneurs from Russia and other geopolitical adversaries. And though the demands of progressive humanitarianism don't resonate with the right, at least some religious conservatives can be counted on to champion the interests of Christian minorities facing persecution in Africa and elsewhere, a brand of selectionism grounded in cultural affinity.
It would be foolish to expect Republican politicians to suddenly start disavowing their restrictionist commitments. But as more and more first- and second-generation voters turn right, the shrewdest conservative political entrepreneurs will come to recognize that immigration can represent a demographic boon more than demographic doom.


I was reading some quotes and saw a quote by Emerson that I thought to reframe around teamwork and the choices we make. Again, I will anchor it to my Square Wheels model of how people and organizations really work and share it with the intention that maybe some new thinking will generate some new choices.
Our lives are filled with possibilities for doing things differently and impacting ourselves and others. But we can only make choices based on the alternatives that we have already considered. A key is to occasionally step back from the wagon and look at how things work and what might be done to make an improvement.
← Making the Workplace FUN!


Though Neill Blomkamp has moved on from his Alien 5 project, it would seem James Cameron is not quite ready to let it go! While on the red carpet of Alita: Battle Angel, IGN (via The Terminator Fans) had the chance to ask James Cameron (who produced Alita along with Predators' Robert Rodriguez) about the upcoming Terminator 6 and Blomkamp's Alien 5.
Sir Ridley Scott was actually attached to produce Alien 5 with Blomkamp, but Cameron had seen Blomkamp's script and described it as "gangbusters." Though far from any form of confirmation, it sounds like Cameron may be stepping up to bat for Blomkamp's Alien 5 after the project fell apart in 2017.
Thanks to our own Xenomorphine for the news. Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest Alien news! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien fans on our forums!
My big issue with Marshall is whenever he's given a big budget his films stop being good.
But Sean Pertwee is expensive, man - what's he to do!
Need to see that again. Wasn't completely satisfied by it when I saw it, but I enjoyed it overall and it had some very interesting ideas. Think it's one of those films that benefits from repeat viewings.
Would definitely be interested to see what Danny Boyle would do with it.
A neurotic xeno is the one thing we've been missing.
I'm still holding out for a Woody Allen Alien film.
With the Xenomorph inexplicably falling in love with the obligatroy self-insert character?
I think we should get John Favreau to remake the first one. He can have big chap hold jonesy up like Simba.
The only two people from that list who might be a good choice are Mangold and Boyle.
I want David Twohy (Pitch Black, Riddick) or Peter Hyams (Outland, 2010, The Relic).
Yeah, would love to see what he does with it.
Neil Marshall would be amazing.
Neil Marshall would be good for Aliens 2 I think. (If not NB who I agree the jury is out on... but if not for his concept, this conversation wouldn't be happening).
Agreed. He's a director I'd love to see make an Alien film.
I hope he directs an entry someday. Would love for James Cameron to get behind the camera one more time too.
I like both of these options but I'm very willing to give Neill Blomkamp a chance just for that concept art and Aliens 2 idea.
Yah, mostly I agree. Mostly.
I am not digging Ripley on the Alien costume.
Brat rat isn't going to be Directing anything, in this lifetime, maybe something on lifetime.
I think thats the one with Hugh Jackman.
And Gyllenhall, hence the confusion.
2049 had some nice juice, I reckon he'd turn it up to 11.
Yep, yet another awesome film. Denis is a freak of nature.
Does he have the juice?
Disregarding Sicario and arrival , BR 2049 was more than enough proof for me that he has what it takes . He is as close as we are going to get to old school Ridley Scott ever again . And the industry is fortunate to have a director of his style and abilities.
If we ever get to see another alien film in the spirit and quality of the original , it will be because he was involved.
Enemy has Gyllenhaal as well.
I actually enjoyed Enemy more than his other movies. Maybe I'm weird, but I thought Enemy was almost a perfect movie. Almost. Arrival kind of lost the logic at the end but was otherwise pretty good too. The direction was phenomenal either way.
That's the one with Jake Gyllenhaal, yeah? Fantastic film.
God no, I think Villeneuve is very overrated. The only great movie from him is Sicario.
Speaking of James Cameron...it would seem he is under fire.
I just hope it won't be something that will be used to prevent a good alien movie.The smallest of things these days can be blown up to untold proportions over nothing.
It sounds like having a great deal of dismay at not being able to do a poo.
You can be consternated about being constipated!
It's a word! "To consternate" is the infinitive, "consternating" is valid, and so is "consternated", which is just fun to say but might give the listener the impression you've got bowel problems.
"Consternation" is the most common form of the word in English, but all of its other variants are totally real.
Yeah I don't know how necessary it was. Verbosity has its place, in doses.
It is common in French. "Consternant". I hesitated to use it in English, but checking with Google it seems to be understandable, albeit not an usual part of English syntax (if I get things right).


The history of the city starts in the 8th C BC when Aeolian Greek colonies settled in the area. The city was founded on a hill overlooking the Caicos plain. During the reign of Eumenes II in the 2nd C BC, it became one of the cultural and intellectual centers of the day.
With the invention of pergamena (parchment) its library grew to rival in size, the great library of Alexandria. The famous Altar of Zeus was here.
ruins are separated into 3 parts, the Acropolis, Red Courtyard and Asclepion, which was the cure center of Pergamum.


text:
package cards;

import server.Game;
import server.Player;

import java.util.List;

public class SirBailey extends Knight {

    @Override
    public String name() {
        return "Sir Bailey";
    }

    @Override
    protected void addUniqueDescription(List<String> description) {
        description.add(0, "<+1_Card>");
        description.add(1, "<+1_Action>");
    }

    @Override
    protected void knightUniqueAction(Player player, Game game, List<Player> targets) {
        plusCards(player, game, 1);
        plusActions(player, game, 1);
    }

}


text:
Artists on Artists Lecture Series
Patty Chang on Louise Bourgeois
April 16, 2007, Dia Chelsea
Louise Bourgeois, installation view, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, New York. © The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Bill Jacobson Studio, New York
Born in 1972 in San Francisco, New York-based artist Patty Chang has had solo exhibitions at the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2005); the Baltic Art Center, Visby, Sweden (2001); and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2000).
A range of works by Louise Bourgeois are on view at Dia:Beacon.
Vera Lutter on Gerhard Richter
Agnes Martin: Homage to [a] Life: Paintings 1990-2004


text:
Mehdiabad (, also Romanized as Mehdīābād and Mahdīābād) is a village in Milajerd Rural District, Milajerd District, Komijan County, Markazi Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 172, in 40 families.

References

Populated places in Komijan County

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The cloud base (or the base of the cloud) is the lowest altitude of the visible portion of the cloud. The height of the cloud base can be measured using a ceilometer. This device reflects a beam of light off the cloud base and then calculates its distance using either triangulation or travel time. Alternatively, the cloud base can be estimated from surface measurements of air temperature and humidity. In well-defined air masses, many (or even most) clouds may have a similar cloud base because this variable is largely controlled by the thermodynamic properties of that air mass, which are relatively homogeneous on a large spatial scale. This is not the case for the cloud tops, which can vary widely from cloud to cloud, as the depth of the cloud is determined by the strength of local convection. Cloud base is an important meteorological variable for aviation safety, as it determines whether pilots may use Visual Flight Rules (VFR) or must follow Instrument Flight Rules for take-off or landing.


SkyBus is Auckland's best value airport transfer service operating within Auckland City from Auckland Airport - running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
makebardo was approached by SkyBus to re-design their brochure which is distributed in bulk on a daily basis. The main content of this brochure aims to provide customers with the necessary information to make their trips more comfortable. They asked for a simple, effective and impactful design which also retains and enforces their brand identity.
Our approach was to play on the cover with a bold symbol that would capture the attention of customers in just a few split seconds. The meaning of the graphic concept on the cover with two arrows coming and going, reflects (like a wink) the main service of SkyBus, being the efficient transfer of passengers from Auckland City to Auckland Airport and vice versa.
We kept the colour palette of the brand but we decided to use white as the predominant colour over the red, consistent with the use of colour on their buses. Finally, we created a new modern map and advertisements for their city lounge.


text:
class ArticlesController < ApplicationController
  def index
    @articles = @bibliome.articles.paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page => 10, :include => [:authors, :subjects], :total_entries => @bibliome.send("#{@period}_articles_count"))
  end

  def show
    @article = Article.find(params[:id])
  end
end